Life on Lofty Lane: January 2013

Thursday, January 24, 2013

2013 Hopes and Goals :)

I have been meaning to write just a quick little post on what I hope 2013 brings and what we are planning to do individually and as a family.

Personally there are a few things for me, some of which are standard goals every year to be honest! But not all!

Emily's goals-

Lose weight/exercise more - I have actually been doing a detox, which has been successful. I lost 7-8 pounds, but I have been cheating more here lately. But this is ok, I am going to continue on with the goal. This means healthier eating and a lot more exercise. I am going to be running again and I am really excited to start that up!

Go to church more- I guess this is more of a family goal...We have not been good about this yet, but we are going to work on it. :)

Work on the family history book- I started this massive project early in Cam's pregnancy or around that time and gave up because I wasn't feeling well, then I was busy with other stuff and the rest is history. So I am going to start that up again because it is a very important project to me.

Cook at home more/try new recipes- This sort of goes along with the lose weight goal, but recently I have found that a lot of recipes look fun, healthy, and are within my cooking skill set! :) I also hope to feed Cameron (& Emerson) more of what we eat rather than feed them different meals than what we eat. I think this will be a process. It is not my forte.

So these things are on top of me being the best mom, wife, daughter, friend, etc that I can be, which is something I really do try very hard to do and be. I will continue to blog about the things we have going on in our lives for us to remember and for family and friends to know what we have going on.

Frank's goals-

Lose weight/exercise more- Ok, so I had a small part in this, but seriously, this is one of Frank's goals that he WANTS to do. :)
Keep up with yard maintenance- Frank enjoys pruning and weeding, no joke. So he is going to stay on top of the landscaping so it looks good year round. :)
Teach Emerson how to play golf/take the kids to the course- Frank is excited to start teaching and showing Emerson the golf fundamentals. She may be young, but I think she already has the idea!

Emerson's goals-

Be a sweet big sister
Be potty trained
Learn to play golf

Ha ha, no, I am not really setting goals for my 2 1/2 year old, but I thought this would be funny. But since I did list some I guess I will list a couple for Cam as well.

Cameron's goals-

Learn to walk
Start sleeping longer in the mornings, like until 8 or so :)
Say "Momma" for real and say it first :) (I am still not counting that he is saying it even though he says a "mamamamamama" sound.)

While we can't predict or know what will come our way in 2013, we know we have the most amazing support system with both of our families and some truly compassionate and loving friends. We just received some very difficult and challenging news with Frank's family. We will be leaning on our family and friends for support to get through this time. And we hope and pray that 2013 will bring healing and health to his family and that all of our loved ones will be in good health.

Some of my friends have some wonderful and exciting things in their lives to look forward to this year and I am so happy and glad for them. I am thankful to be in their lives to share in their joy! We are also so very excited to go to Hawaii this summer with my family. The kids will be staying behind and will be missed, but we are looking forward to the special time together in paradise!

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Our growing 2 1/2 year old!

It is hard to believe that Emerson is 2 1/2 and that in just under 6 months she will be 3! She brings so much joy to our lives every day with her sweet little grin, her giggles and laughter, her beautiful and cheerful eyes, and the silly (& smart!) things she will say. She is growing into the sweetest big sister and just last week hugged Cameron, gave him a kiss and told him she loved him. It made me so happy to see and hear that since I think for a while she was hoping we would get rid of the little guy. :) Now she thinks he is fun and asks me if he can play with the blocks with her. She shares the blocks with Cameron for the most part and I absolutely love seeing them play together. She has gotten so independent at times and is definitely possessive with things she believes are hers. She will tell us "It's mine! I had it first!", which I have no idea where that came from because we don't say that to each other. Maybe she came up with that? Here lately we have gotten a kick out of her telling us that she said "Please" when she wants something. Usually it will be something like she will ask for gummies after dinner, which I don't ever do, but the girl knows what she wants. So she will say "Gummies please?" and I will tell her "No sweetie, you don't need gummies right now" and she'll say "But I said please!! Pah-lease! Mommy please!" How do I explain to her that yes, she said the magic word, but that she doesn't always get what she asks?! :) Another thing that will crack me up are the glares she will shoot my way when she is frustrated with me... ohhh man, she has some good ones. And bless her heart, she is doing her best to make sure I understand she is irritated, but I think it is so cute and funny. So I try not to laugh or grin where she can see it, but I really do find this funny.

I am not sure if she is having nightmares or if she is getting scared, but she has been waking up in the middle of the night almost once per week. I will wake up and hear her screaming and crying and fun up to her room to see what is wrong. Usually I'll change her diaper and hug her for a minute before telling her to go "night night". One night she asked if she could sleep with us and I caved and said ok. So she slept between us and I think she had a great time. She was tickled to be able to do that. So the next night she wanted to do it again, but I didn't let her... so far so good because she hasn't asked again. But she does like to lay down and snuggle on the couch sometimes with me now to watch tv. She has claimed this one blanket and won't let us use it. Sometimes she will lay down on the floor to watch tv and Frank has gotten down there with her.

At night we will change for bed and talk about the day. Most of the time Frank and I tag team and she loves having us both talk to her before she goes to sleep. We sing some songs, are starting to say a nighttime prayer (we hadn't been doing that), sing the ABCs, etc and then she will give me kisses on my left cheek, then my right, then my left again, then right again, and on and we are both giggling because she just cracks me up. So I will stop her and say ok, it is time to go night night. So we tell her we love her and lay her in bed and she will usually say she loves us and says "Goodnight mommy", and "Goodnight daddy" in her sweetest little voice and I hate to walk out of her room because it makes me want to hug her close some more.

She loves planes and helicopters. Frank got a toy flying helicopter for Christmas and she likes watching him fly it around. One day we need to go out to the airport and watch planes take off and land. She also loves trains and asks about them all the time. And of course, she loves the golf course... it has been pretty cold, but we were able to go the other day so she could use her new golf clubs and she had a blast. I know it is going to be fun for Frank to teach her (and baby brother) how to play... and she looked so darn cute. I, of course, think she is a natural. :) She also had fun pretending to drive the golf cart since Frank let her sit in his lap when we went out to get their clubs in the car. That is one of my favorite things about the golf course, too... I haven't met a person who doesn't have fun driving a golf cart. :)

Her best friend is still Violet, but I think Cameron is getting in place to claim that title before too long. But right now Violet still gets special attention being pushes around in the shopping cart or stroller, she gets pretend diaper changes, and is fed lots of pretend food by Emerson. She has a great imagination and is always having pretend telephone conversations, making pretend food in her kitchen set, and pretty much anywhere we go!

Food is still limited for us as far as options, but lately she has tried a few news things like cucumbers! I was surprised she liked it, but she had several slices.

Two words I don't like, but that are going to used more soon are potty training. Emerson really did not like it when we tried this before, but we are going to give it another go soon. I know she is smart enough and that is actually part of the challenge. She knows what it is and what you do, but she is stubborn. So we will see if we can get her to like the idea of wearing cute underwear soon and using the "big girl" potty.

Emerson sweetie, when you read all these posts about our family and you read these updates I hope you can tell just how special you are to us and to everyone you know. We love you so very much!!

Here are some pictures of Emerson's other half milestones and more. :)

@ 6 months- 2 years ago!

@ 18 months - last year!

Emerson snuggling with Dad on the floor.

Emerson with Daddy in the golf cart

Our 2 1/2 year old cutie!

Daddy showing her how to hold the club.

Practicing her swing!

Saturday, January 5, 2013

8 months!

Well, it happened again... another month flew by!! :) Cameron is getting closer and closer to being 1 year old... yowsers!!

Here are the highlights with what happened and Cam's routine. December was such a fun and busy month!! Little man has continued to grow so fast it seems!

Cam was still drinking 4 bottles with 8 ounces in each. (We just dropped bottle, but this happened after 8 months. :))
He is eating more during lunch and dinner. Now he has 2 bigger jars or 2 pouches each time.
We introduced the sippy cup with water, but were not too good about being consistent.
He may have only two arms, but at times it is like he is an octopus grabbing everything in front of him. Two adults can find it a challenge to keep things out of his reach while eating. :)
Cam started doing what we call the "Breast Stroke" crawl. He will extend his arms out and will drag his body as if his legs don'e work. :) He has gotten really efficient with it and can go pretty fast. He is now actually crawling a tiny bit. He gets his knees under him, crawls out a little and then says forget it, I can breast stroke faster. I am pretty sure that is his thought process... it makes sense to me. :) We will have to see what happens over the rest of this month.
Cam was taking 3 naps (9:30, 1:30, and 5:30) but we just changed that as well to move him to 2 naps (10 and 3).
We get him in bed around 8:30 still and he is waking up around 7 or so. Sometime he keeps his paci and sometimes he spits it out.
He is wearing size 3 diapers for the day, but we also bought size 4 nighttime diapers to help with his overflow situation! He was peeing so much that he would leak fairly often. The nighttime diapers are super helpful.
He has EIGHT teeth! The last two came in pretty early in the month. So now his teeth have all had time to really come in and they are huge looking! He is still in pain pretty often it seems so I am not sure if more are coming through soon or what.
Lately he has gotten so vocal and will really "talk" to us. We are enjoying that!
Emerson has started to play with Cameron more and he absolutely loves it. He adores her and his face lights up when she looks at him. It is so sweet. :)
Cameron is getting too big for lots of his clothes, especially some of the 6-12 month size clothes. He fits best into 12 month clothes now it seems... or 12-18 month size.
We moved Cam to a normal carseat this month. He was just too big to be lugging around in the baby carseat!
I weighed him using our scale and he weighs around 22 pounds. This is pretty much what Emerson weighed at 1 year. :)

Here are some videos of our little goober... he is just so funny. :) He makes funny noises and breathing sounds! And when he is trying to crawl he gets a little frustrated sometimes. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8MF5TPUXKg

This video is from Christmas... he is doing his breaststroke crawl. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvkPbR6vECk

Here are some pictures as well!

Hello!!!

Little man with his stocking!

He is slouching, but here is our sweet 8 month old! :)

Emerson wanted to be in a picture, too. :)

Our Very Merriest Christmas!

Christmas was even more special this year than ever before for our family. We couldn't be more blessed than to have two amazing kids and the most loving families to gather with to celebrate the season. It all happened so quickly it seems because as I look around my house now there are no longer Christmas decorations, gifts under the tree, or stockings on the mantle. Once Christmas has actually passed I am usually pretty quick to get things cleaned up and back in place, but I am most definitely sad that Christmas came and was gone so quickly! It is the happiest time of year and I always look forward to the special time with family.

A couple of weeks before Christmas, Emerson and I were able to spend time with Ashley and Nora decorating gingerbread houses. It was our first time to do this and I was excited to see what Emerson would do. As it turned out, she was more interested in eating the candy, but we had fun in the process. :) It was harder than I thought to decorate and my house almost came apart several times! You can see our skills in the pics below. I really enjoyed seeing Ashley and Nora and I love them both very much!!

Ashley and Nora

Emerson watching carefully where I was putting the candy she wanted!

Ashley and Nora's cute design!

Our house... Ha ha...

The weekend before Christmas we drove to Austin for the Paul family Christmas at the ranch in Dripping Springs and had a great time with Frank's cousins and his Aunt and Uncle. It is crazy because when Frank and I were dating and I first met his cousins and their children they were all so young and now they have all grown so much. It makes me feel so old! One of his 2nd cousins said "Yes Ma'am" to me when answering a question and I had to correct him and let him know I am only 30! Please quit that "ma'am" business before I cry I told him! :) While we were there Santa came to visit and surprised all the kids! It was so fun to see their faces. Emerson was still weary, but she did end up giving Santa a hug before he had to head out to another party. That is pretty significant progress!

Glenn and Sarah

Us :)

Frank and Dorthy

Our family with Santa!

The next morning we headed to my parents house to spend Christmas with them. It was wonderful to be home for Christmas and we had lots of fun activities planned. My family has a lot of traditions that I always enjoy... we decorate Christmas cookies, drink Apple cider, watch movies, we read "The Night Before Christmas" on ChristmasEve, look at Christmas lights, and more. I enjoy the traditions so much and know I want our family to have traditions like that, too.

On Christmas Eve we went to the church service at the Methodist Church in Duncanville. We enjoyed singing the Christmas Hymns and the reading of the scripture. But being honest, that preacher was not giving his best sermon... I think it is likely he may have offended some people actually, but it was still a nice service all in all. Emerson was absolutely beautiful in her green dress and Cameron looked adorable in his sweater and corduroy pants. We took some family pics and after getting ready for bed my Dad read an abbreviated version of "The Night Before Christmas" for the kids before we got them in bed. Later we all went to bed and around 3am my brother and sister-in-law were awakened by police and firetruck lights outside the house. My parent's neighbor's house was on fire!! My mom woke Frank and I because we were both knocked out and didn't hear a thing. There were at least 5 fire trucks, several police cars, and other vehicles. Fortunately they had it under control. The neighbor wasn't even home because he was visiting his father in Chicago. Such a crazy and terrible thing to happen and we felt awful for him. We all went back to bed and before we knew it the kids were both awake... it was bright and early!! We held off for a little bit so everyone could sleep longer, but couldn't wait too long because Emerson wanted to see what happened in the living room since Santa had visited! Eventually everyone was up and we were able to enjoy watching Emerson's face light up as she opened her toys and gifts. Cameron had a great time, too. He was having fun reaching for everything and watching all the commotion. Later that day we were all so excited when it started snowing! Frank and I actually took a carload of gifts to Plano, and while we were driving the snow was coming down so thick for Texas. It was beautiful to see and I was hoping it would stick so Emerson could play. Sure enough it did and she had so much fun playing. I didn't have a thick coat for her so I had layers on layers on layers to keep her as warm as possible. I could hardly stand how cold it was, but she did not even notice.... she just wanted to play!

Christmas was just so wonderful... we all enjoyed ourselves very much! Here are more pictures from all the fun!