Emory - 7 Months

Sweet little Emory is 7 MONTHS OLD! (I wrote this two weeks ago...I'm just now getting the pictures up...whoops!)

"Can you believe I'm 7 months old guys???"

• I haven't weighed or measured her, but she is in size 3 diapers.  Most clothes are 6-9 months, but she can wear some 9-12 month stuff.
• She is nursing 4 times a day...in the morning around 7:30, then around 11:30, after nap around 4:00 or 4:30, and then again before bed at 8:30.  She is having solids for breakfast (cereal and fruit), lunch (veggie and fruit), and supper (meat, veggies, and cereal).  
• Dr. Hoffman said she could start eating puffs, melts, and cheerios at 7 months, so we let her start trying those (a few days earlier than 7 months...ha!) and she LOVES it.  She sits at the high chair and loves trying to feed herself.  
• About a week before she turned 7 months she kind of dropped that last catnap.  She normally always goes right to sleep, and she just laid there for probably fifteen minutes making little noises, and then cried for awhile and we just decided, forget it.  She did okay without her last little nap and we haven't looked back since.  We just let her sleep a little longer in the mornings, and pushed back her morning and afternoon naps to about 10 and 2 and it's gone great.  It is really nice being able to do stuff in the evenings and not have to think about her needing another little nap.
• Sleep - She takes a morning nap at about 9:45 or 10 and I usually wake her up after an hour or an hour and a half.  I think she'd sleep forever at this nap, but I know the days she gets a long morning nap, she only naps about an hour and a half in the afternoons.  The days we are out and about and she just gets a 45 minute car nap, she naps two and a half+ hours in the afternoon.  Since Brynn still takes a good afternoon nap too, I'd much rather them both nap a long time together.  I usually put her down for an afternoon nap between 1:30 and 2.  And then I nurse at 8:30 and she's in bed before 9.  She usually wakes up around 7:30 and if she's not up by about 7:45 in the morning, then I get her up.  
• She falls asleep nursing EVERY night.  Then after she nurses she will just lay there next to me and snuggle and I just watch her sleeping.  That is SUCH a special little time and I know that is what I'm going to miss probably more than anything as she gets bigger. (Insert ugly cry...HA!)
• Super content and happy - in the words of my Dad "I think you could have 10 more babies (clearly that's not ever going to happen! HA!) and none of them would be as happy and content as she is!"  That about sums up her little personality.  She smiles and laughs a lot and is just the best little baby!
• When I go out with both girls to the grocery or to a store, I almost always put her in the carrier.  She LOVES it (and of course it makes my life a lot easier)!
• She is really becoming a little jabber-box.  She babbles "dadada" a lot.  
• She sits SO WELL by herself now and loves to pick things up and grab at them.  She is army crawling and scooting herself around wherever she wants to go.

I just can't say enough what a sweet, precious little baby she is!  Oh Emory...you are such a JOY to everyone and we love you more than you will ever know!

And here is Brynn at 7 months...doesn't she look so much older?  I think part of it is that I didn't put a headband in and her hair is "down"??

Nashville Half-Marathon Weekend

We just had such a fun weekend!  We spent the weekend in Nashville so my sister and I could run in the St. Jude Country Music Half-Marathon!

After Emory was born, I knew I wanted to get back into running a little bit, so I decided to sign up for the half-marathon and my sister agreed to do it with me.  I knew that signing up for a big race would make me train and run at least three days a week.  After "training" (I'm using that word pretty loosely because I didn't follow the training as closely as I wished, but I still did okay) for the last 12 weeks, it was finally time to head to Nashville!

We headed over on Thursday afternoon during the girls naps.  We went out to dinner and shopped a little bit and headed back to our hotel.  (My parents went too, and so they stayed with Lindsey and Curt since L/C only have a one bedroom apartment, and we figured it would be a little too crowded with me, Ryan, and both girls).  

Friday we got up and all headed to the Expo so Lindsey and I could get our race packets.  We had a lot of fun looking around at all the vendors, and Brynn LOVED it! 

One of Brynn's classmates has cancer and has been going to St. Jude for treatment.  Since they are a big sponsor of the race, we were able to fill out a poster for him and I got to get this tag to run with.

Emory was having a blast too...there was so much to look at!

We walked to a Panera in downtown Nashville and enjoyed lunch and the BEAUTIFUL weather.  Then Ryan took the girls back to the hotel to nap, and my sister and my parents and I all headed to the Nashville Flea Market.  I ended up getting the girls matching lace rompers for some upcoming pictures.  

I can't get this picture to flip over, but here was our race shirt.  It was really cute!

For dinner we all headed back to downtown Nashville to eat at one of my favorite restaurants...Old Spaghetti Factory.  We got to eat with two of my VERY BEST FRIENDS from college!!!  Jaclyn lives in Clarksville and Alicia had flown in for the weekend to visit her, and so we all got to meet up for dinner.  My parents, Ryan, and my sister are all really close to these girls too, and it was great for everyone to catch up over dinner.  LOVE YOU GIRLS!

Saturday morning Lindsey and I were up bright and early for the race.  I wasn't really nervous like I usually am for one of these races.  I think it was because I didn't have a specific time I HAD to run, and wasn't trying to be really competitive.  I knew I wanted to RUN the whole thing, but other than that I just wanted to enjoy it.    

I think there were about 24,000 people in the race!  WHOA!  We got off to a good start and had a great time!  I mean, as much fun as you can have running 13 miles.  =)  There are bands every mile or so, lots of water stations, and we had the best cheering section!  Our family got to see us twice (my sister actually ran with her cell phone so we could tell them where we were and we could try to find them cheering), and of course the whole route is covered with people cheering!

Here are some pictures Ryan took during the race.  

Here we come...this was around mile 4.

Then they hopped back in the car and drove to another spot to watch...we saw them about mile 4 and again at mile 8.

Then they drove to the finish, and we had about 5 more miles to run.  Those were some LONG miles!  HA!  And then...WE MADE IT!  FINALLY FINISHED!  Clearly, I was tired!

We met up with everyone after the race...YAY!

Brynn was wearing a shirt she got out of my suitcase...who knows???

On the way back to Lindsey and Curt's apartment, we turned around and saw this.  Lindsey and I were DYING!

Yes, Brynn had opened up a pack of gum, taken the gum out and stuck it between her toes, and was saying "I'm a MONSTER!  MONSTER TOES!"  Never a dull moment with that girl!

We all headed back to Lindsey and Curt's apartment and just had sandwiches for lunch.  Then Ryan and my Dad and the girls drove back to Cape, and my mom and I stayed in Nashville.  As part of the race registration, you get to go to a concert that Saturday night, and we were going to have a "girls night" and go to dinner and to the concert!  (But of course before that, we RELAXED AND TOOK A WELL-EARNED NAP!)

We all watch the show "Nashville" on TV and the headliners for the concert were the cast of NASHVILLE!  We got to see Deacon, Scarlett, Gunnar, Will, and Zoe!!!  They sang a bunch of the hit songs from the show, as well as other famous country songs.  It was really good!

We got up on Sunday morning and drove home and were back by the time Ryan and the girls got out of church.  We all had such a great weekend in Nashville and I'm so glad my sister agreed to my crazy idea of doing this race!  Now I just need to go pop a couple more Tylenol for the soreness...HA!

Some more Easter fun....(Saturday morning)

These pictures are from the day before Easter.  This post is out of order because I was attempting to put all my iPhone pictures on my computer...I THINK these are less blurry?  

Saturday morning, my sister and I ran 10 miles...our last long run as part of our training for our half-marathon.  After our run, Ryan brought the girls over to my moms and we had a big brunch and an Easter egg hunt!  SO FUN!

Emory sits in the high chair and eats her puffs and melts so good...she could sit there for quite awhile if we just keep adding some to the tray.  (I'd be lying if I didn't say that's so nice...helps us sit at the table and not really rush eating as much!  WOOHOO!)

While we were finishing eating, Brynn was busy passing out Easter baskets to everyone.

My mom hid some smaller eggs for Brynn, and then some bigger eggs for the "big kids."  HA!  I seriously LOVE doing this...we have so much fun racing around the yard.  And there was some serious cash at stake...Lindsey and Curt had gotten a speeding ticket on their way to my parents house for Easter.  So my mom added $20's to three of the eggs...there were already a few $5's and $10's!  So not only was the title of "best egg hunter" at stake...but some serious moolah too!  And for the record....I needed to defend my title.  I think I've won the last couple of years, not that I'm bragging or anything.  HA!

We watched Brynn do some of her eggs and cheered her on, and then she kept hunting while we started.

Toward the end we knew there were 20 eggs hidden but when we were all yelling out how many we had, we knew there was one left.  And we couldn't find it ANYWHERE!  So the hunt continued for another ten minutes until yours truly found it!  WOOHOO!  And YEP...kept my title intact!  Super-star egg hunter over here!  Linz came in second, followed by Ryan and then Curt.  (Curt thinks he's a little too cool for egg hunts, to which my sister was screaming "CURT...WE NEED THE $20'S....START RUNNING AROUND!"  And Curt yells back "I am not running around your parents backyard like a dork!"  HA!  It was hilarious!)

Then it was time to all sit around and open the eggs and find out what was inside!

Funniest part of the egg hunt was that I happened to find 7 eggs...and of those 7 eggs I found ALL THREE OF THE $20'S!  HA!  I was a nice sister and gave Lindsey one to put toward the speeding ticket.  The others went with me to Target for a little spring shopping...HA!

My mom puts scriptures in with the eggs.  Curt told us he was focusing on that part more than the money!  HA!   Way to go Curt...

And of course in the middle of all of that, Brynn needed to check Emory's diaper.  "NOPE, not poopy mommy!"  Gee thanks Brynn...I'm sure Emory appreciates you checking for her!  HA!

And I can't remember if I posted these pictures or not.  These next couple are from my grandparents house on Easter Sunday.

Hope everyone had a GREAT Easter!