Quilt

Over the past two years I had been keeping some of Haley's old baby clothes because I knew they would always be hers and wanted to remember them. I wondered what kind of a keepsake I could do so that Haley could have these clothes.

Then I thought of the idea of a quilt. I don't even know how to work my sewing machine, so there was no way I was going to make it. SO I asked a friend of our who had made a quilt for Emily if she could make a baby clothes quilt. I am so happy she said yes!

Now I can look at Haley's quilt and remember her in all her cute little baby clothes forever.

2010 In A Nutshell

2010 has been a pretty good year for us. Here are a few highlights from the past 12 months:

~Emily Grace joined our family.

~Haley started walking. Although it seems like she's been doing it forever, it's only been since the beginning of the year.

~Zach found out he was getting promoted! He'll sew on his new rank early summer of 2011.

~We took the Amtrack from Miami to Washington DC for our first family vacation.

~Zach and I celebrated 3 years of marriage.

~Despite being so far away, we got to see lots of family.

We have lots to look forward to in the coming year, so here's hoping 2011 will be a great one!!

5 Months

Another month has come and gone and Emily is now 5 months! I just have no idea where the time is going. In another month, she'll be halfway to a year!! I absolutely cannot believe it.

Emily has been pretty busy the past few weeks. She is really enjoying rice cereal and oatmeal. We'll be starting solids next week, so I am anxious to see how that goes.

Emily rolled over from back to front yesterday. She's always wanting to sit up too. When I feed her in the high chair or she's sitting in her car seat, she'll lean forward to try to sit up. So I know that big milestone is very close!

She has been sleeping pretty well. She normally has her last feeding at 8:30 and can sleep until about 4. I love how peaceful she looks when she sleeps.
Emily has been enjoying the jumper quite a bit more.

I love how when she sits in it, she always has one foot on the floor and one foot off.
Hard to believe how fast my baby is growing up.

Christmas- Part II

Not all of our Christmas packages made it in from the mainland in time for Christmas, so this afternoon we celebrated again.

Haley enjoyed opening presents today just as much as she did on Christmas.

Haley was a good big sister and unwrapped all of Emily's presents.

Christmas the second time around was just as much fun as the first time. Now unfortunately, the holiday really is over.

Christmas

It seems like Christmas came and went all too fast. We had a very low key and quiet day. Santa came in the middle of the night and dropped off lots of goodies for the girls.

Haley was just excited to open presents. Poor Emily. She spent a majority of Christmas morning in the jumper. Next year will be a little more exciting for her.

Haley's favorite gift was a cupcake necklace. Well, I think it was really the cupcake that the necklace came in. She walked around pretending to eat it all day. It was so cute.
Haley was such a helper with cookies, that I let her help me make the potatoes for dinner. Emily enjoyed watching.

And this is how we ended the day.

Cookies!

This week we have two cookie exchanges to go to. So that means LOTS of cookies! Good thing I found a happy helper in Haley.

We were making buried cherry cookies, so Haley got to help me make a thumbprint to put the cherry in. Luckily, her thumb was the perfect size!

The cookies turned out great and I couldn't have done it without my little helper!

Santa

This past weekend we went to the botanical gardens Christmas celebration. I was pretty excited because Santa was going to be there and this was going to be the first time for both girls to meet the jolly old man.

We have been talking up Santa to Haley so she would know what to expect. She's even gotten an e-mail from him! Any ways, their first meeting wasn't the best. We decided to let Emily go first and Haley could see just how much fun it was. Emily did great, but Haley was not having it.

Even though she didn't actually sit on Santa's lap, he was still kind enough to give Haley her very first candy cane, which she loved!

As we were walking through the botanical gardens, we got to listen to Christmas music Key West style- on the steel drums.

It was a really fun setup that they had for the kids. There were puppet shows and craft stations. Haley enjoyed coloring her Christmas tree.

Emily wasn't all that interested in coloring.

But I did manage to sneak in a picture with her, which was nice because it rarely happens.

We had a fun morning getting to see Santa and do some more Christmasy thngs. Now we just wait for the big day!

Christmas Lights Choo Choo

Last night we bundled up and braved the cool temperatures (62 degrees) and crazy winds (24mph) to get into the holiday spirit by going on the Conch Train Christmas Lights tour.

One of the neat things about the train is that they decorated all the cars with lights.

The tour was about an hour, which was perfect for all the kiddos. We got to sing Christmas carols as we went around town. It was lots of fun to see all the lights. There were quite a few Santas with sunglasses, an octopus on a boat, and a few palm trees. Haley really enjoyed the Mickey Mouse Santa.

One nice thing about being in Key West during the holidays is that we were able to get on an open air "train" and go see all the Christmas lights. Don't think we would have gotten that experience in too many places!

4 1/2 Months

I'm about two weeks too late for Emily's four month update, but better late than never!

We just had her four month check up yesterday and Emily is up to 13lbs and 24.25in long. She's right in the middle of the growth charts, which is just fine. The only part about the check ups that I'm not a fan of is the shots. I just hate it. I know it's necessary, but it doesn't make me like it any better. Emily was a real trooper. She didn't cry at all for her first shot, but she made up for it on the last two.

Now that she's four months, we have started to introduce rice cereal. It was a little slow going at first, but Emily is doing great and loving it!


Emily is almost always smiling. She has such a sweet smile.

We've given up on the swing and have moved on to the jumper. Emily's legs are really strong and she is always pushing on them when you hold her. She's not too sure about the jumper, but I think she'll like it. She is *this* close to rolling over from back to front. Emily is trying really hard and I know she'll do it any day now.

It does make me a little nervous that Emily loves sleeping on her tummy so much. I find myself going to check on her every few minutes just to make sure she's ok.

We are so lucky to have such a sweet little girl and I can hardly believe how fast the past few months have gone by. Before we know it, she'll be all grown up!