The Joy of Swinging

On Friday I went on a walk with my new mom's walking group at a nearby park in Hillsboro. It was a beautiful sunny day, temps even got up to 60 degrees, which was a nice burst of warmth for what has been an extra chilly winter. At the park, I noticed these swings and thought I would put Emersyn in them and see what she thought.....

SHE LOVED IT!!!! Look at my little fearless girl, holding on like a big girl!! I didn't even put her hands on the handles, she just grabbed them!!

She was giggling and having a good old time. I took about a thousand pictures but the camera was on a weird setting with a slow shutter speed and it took me forever to figure out how to fix it. I captured a couple cute moments though.

Emersyn and Samantha, swinging buddies.

My favorite picture. Ever. I love the sheer joy on her face. It makes me want to take her to the park every minute of the day just to see this sweet face. This weekend was cold and rainy and icky. Sunshine, come back soon!!!

We had a fun weekend, my brother David and his girlfriend Jenny came over for dinner on Saturday. We had meatloaf, per his request, which I had never made before. It was delicious! I used my mom's recipe and then spiced it up a little with my own touches. Emersyn is starting to react to different people differently. David went and got her up when we heard her waking up from her nap and she wasn't as happy to see him as we might have hoped. She is a little vulnerable after naps, likes to be with Mommy or Daddy. I am sure she is fine when we aren't there but when we are, she prefers us. This makes Mommy secretly happy, ha ha. I love to be needed. :)

Last night we went to Red Robin with a big group of friends and Emersyn ate solid foods in a HIGH CHAIR for the first time in public!!! I forgot my camera, what a naughty mommy. We will have to capture her high chair adorable-ness again sometime this week. She ate her cereal and baby food like a champ and all our friends thought she was too cute. After she ate, she went to sleep and let Mommy and Daddy eat dinner in peace, thank you EMERS!!!

I am feeding Emersyn solid food now three times a week. It is puzzling though, her intake has increased, but her outake has decreased, if you know what I mean. :) I will be keeping an eye on this, make sure she isn't having any problems with....outake. She hasn't every had any problems with this issue before. :)

Next week Emersyn gets her 6 month appt., although she will be almost 7 months at that point! Also, Grammy and Grandpa are coming to town, we are sooooooo excited!!!!!

Delicious!

Slowly but surely we are expanding Emersyn's diet with baby food. I have every intention of making her food, however, this organic brand only consists of organic produce and water as the ingredients. Pretty darn close to homemade! Emersyn has had applesauce, all natural of course, and now sweet potatos. She got SUPER excited about the sweet potatos. She was lunging for the bowl and as I brought the bowl closer to feed her, she grabbed it and was sucking on the side of it, like she was trying to drink it. Brett and I were dying laughing. So cute. Last night I got a box of baby food in this brand with sweet potatos, a apple pear mixture and a turkey veggie mix. We are giving her new foods and sticking to them for four days, making sure that no allergies are popping up. I had extreme food allergies accompanied with eczema as a baby and I am hoping that Emersyn does not take after me in this regard. She does have eczema but it is managed with intense moisturizing and sometimes a topical steroid cream.

Adding baby food to the mix sure changes things. I have to plan ahead now, allowing time for her to eat. She has always been a quick nurser, thank the LORD. I have friends whose baby's nursed for 15+ minutes on each side and that would make me crazy. Emersyn eats both sides in about 10 minutes. On the days when Emers is with her Nana, I have to pack food for her in addition to bottles. It is all very grown up and exciting. It will be fun when she is eating "real food" with us someday.

Now that Emersyn is sitting up, I am so excited to take her someplace and have her sit in a high chair!!!!!! We have a gift card to Olive Garden, we may just need to use that for this reason!

Tonight we are getting together with our neighbors/friends. We have been hanging out with them for almost two years now, it is crazy. They just invited us over for dinner one day and we hit it off! We share a love for delicious food and "The Office", therefore most Thursday nights are dinner and "Office" nights with our two families. We take turns alternating between bringing dessert and dinner. Tonight we are bringing dinner. Salmon, rice pilaf and spinach salad, delicious! Sherrie is a great cook too, I can't wait to see what she has in store for dessert.

The weather is supposed to be nice tomorrow. I am excited! We are going to have a coffee date with Miss Mindy and then we are joining our walking group for a late afternoon walk at a nearby park. The sun gets in Emers eyes though, I feel so bad. She does have her snazzy sunglasses but I am thinking that a hat or sun bonnet of some sort is in her future. Yay for girly accessories!! :)

Family Fun

Yesterday we took Emersyn down to Albany to visit some of her Great Grandparents. We met for lunch at Carino's, a new Italian place in Albany that I discovered while visiting one of my best friends in Boise, ID. I am obsessed with a wedge salad that they have there, it is amazing. I was bummed to see that the price for it DOUBLED however! Darn economy! :) Anyways, we had lunch with the Great-Grandparents, as well as one of Emersyn's Great Aunts and Uncles. It was fun time. Afterwards, we went over to the Great Grandparent Jensen's house where Emersyn showed off her latest skill, SITTING UP!!!!! She can do it almost completely on her own. I am so proud of my little munchkin. It is time to put away the coffee table in our living room so that she has more room to play and move around.

Here are some pics from our fun time!

Emersyn and Great Aunt Babe

Nana, Great Grandma Stanton & Emers

Great Grandpa Jensen playing!

Emersyn was so relaxed on Great Grandpa, so cute to watch!

Her hair was looking especially red in these pics. In person, it looks more strawberry blonde. I am so loving the bow, it is going to be a more daily accessory for Miss Emersyn!!

Showing off her head tilting skills!

"Look, I am sitting up!"

Pooped at the end of a long afternoon.

Look how long she is getting, wow.

Here are some other cute pics from last week.....

Molly protecting Emersyn. She always goes and sits wherever Emers is, too cute.

Reaching for the camera. :)

Meeting Brandy again, a little dog that we dog-sit a couple times a year. Emersyn loves watching our pets walk around, I think she is going to be an animal lover. :)

Emersyn is teething again. She is showing the same symptoms that she did when her two bottom teeth came in, including using ME as a teething toy when I am feeding her (ouch). Here is Emers chewing on her tylenol bottle. Because of the texture of the dropper, I think she thinks it is binky because she was sucking on it with no hands and we were cracking up. Hee hee.

Emersyn Update

Emersyn has picked up some new talents as of late…..

*She learned to spit/gurgle and thinks it’s hilarious. I was upstairs the other day and I could hear her and Daddy spitting and gurgling and having a good old time. When they came upstairs, Emersyn’s entire front of her shirt was soaked, as well as Brett’s shoulder where she was snuggling. She likes to spit and talk too so if she is really happy she will kind of spit/gurgle and "talk". It is really cute actually. I know she thinks she is so sassy because she can make spit bubbles now.

*Emersyn has learned how to tilt her head from side to side. It is really funny. If you look at her and then tilt your head, she will look back at you, kind of get a concentrated look and then tilt her head the same way. She likes to show off this skill. Last week at Sunday night church we were sitting around tables discussing questions and Emersyn was sitting on my lap, tilting her head from side to side to side. Everyone was cracking up. Too cute.

*As already posted below, Tuesday night Emersyn had her first sippy cup experience! (Breastmilk) We got her some soft tipped cups because we thought they might be easier for her to figure out. I warmed it up and then dangled it in front of her to get her excited and sure enough, it worked. She grabbed it from me and knew right what to do with it. She was having trouble holding it up so we laid her down and she drank the whole thing by herself. It was kind of strange, I was reading on a chair and Brett was reading in the living room and Emers was eating on the couch next to him. She was pretty much self sufficient! Crazy. I don’t see her eat often unless she is eating from me. Daddy and Nana give her bottles and have begun to observe her holding it herself for short periods of time. I don’t love pumping since I have to do it at work so often so I rarely pump at home and let her drink a bottle. Plus, my dr. told me that Emersyn can get much more milk then a pump can. Milk is a hot commodity around my house since I am back at work.


*Emers has been rolling from her back to her tummy a lot on her play mat which is relatively new for her. It is easier for her to do then to roll on her back. Her little arms seem to get in the way when she tries to roll from her tummy to her back.


*We are very close to sitting up on our own. I am really hoping that she will be sitting up on her own by Easter so she can get some cute sitting up pictures in her Easter dress. If she isn't there yet, that is okay, no pressure on my little lady to grow up too quickly!

*Emersyn is giggling a lot more now. Last night she was so tired and Brett was putting her in her jammies. He always plays peek-a-boo with her when he changes her diaper, he puts the new clean diaper on her face and yanks it off really quick and says “BOO!”. Last night when he was playing with her she was laughing hysterically. So fun and cute. She really is a happy girl.


We just love our girl more and more everyday. To know the love of a parent and child really puts into perspective how much God loves and cares for us. Last night we were playing with Emersyn in our bed and Brett and I laid on his pillow together and put Emers in the middle of our tummy's. Emersyn looked at each of us back and forth and was so excited, like she couldn't figure out how to look at both of us at the same time. It was really sweet and I love her little smiles and giggles.


I have really been savoring my days off with Emers. I don't turn on the tv as much and limit my time on the computer to when she is sleeping. I have been reading to her more, playing with her, going on walks, and just enjoying her in general. I feel like her newborn stage went by so fast, I know that the rest of her life will be like that and I want to take it all in each day.


Friday I went to a "Meetup" group in Hillsboro that I found for new mom's that want to walk. There were about 10 moms and babies that met up at the Hillsboro library and we walked the trails around the area, 3 miles total. It was fun to walk and chat and it went by really fast. I hope to be able to do that more often, walking is so good for you. It was a beautiful, chilly sunny day on Friday and now as I look outside my office window, it is snowing and the ground is white! This weather is WEIRD.


Yesterday, Brett's mom and I went to pick out fabric for Emersyn's Easter dress. Nana is going to make it but I designed it.

These are the two fabrics we are using. It isn't a very traditional Easter dress look but I found the striped fabric above and thought it looked like a sweet little whimsical Easter egg. Emers is going to look cute and the dress is going to be ADORABLE!! I can't wait!!! Emerysn looks so pretty in blues and greens too. She has a LOT of pink so I decided to try another color palate. The fabric store had SUCH fun fabrics, I wish I was crafty and could sew!! Maybe someday....

I will try to post some updated pics later this week!

Happy Monday!!

P.S. I am trying to win a blog makeover at this fabulous lady's website!! You too can win a makeover, check her out!

Sippin' Away!

On Tuesday night, Emersyn drank a whole feeding out of her sippy cup. I gave it to her and she knew right what to do with it! We kept taking pictures of her. I think she was kind of annoyed, as seen in the second picture above. She was like, "big deal". Hee hee.

Babies Don't Keep

I came across this poem on another blog and it put tears in my eyes....as a major multi-tasker, there are times when I have to consciously make myself sit down and spend quality time with my daughter, even though it is my favorite thing to do. This poem inspired me to do that more often. Enjoy.

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,

Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,

Hang out the washing, make up the bed,

Sew on a button and butter the bread.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?

She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,

Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.

Dishes are waiting and bills are past due

Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo

The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew

And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo

But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo Look!

Aren't his eyes the most wonderful hue?

Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow

But children grow up as I've learned to my sorrow.

So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!

I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

6 Months Old!

On Saturday, my sweet baby girl turned 6 months old, can you believe it?? We had a fun weekend of family and celebration!

Friday night we had Brett's family over for dinner. The plan was to have dinner and then Brett and I were going to go to a movie. However, the movie we wanted to see was no longer playing and there wasn't anything else really worth going to. I was so bummed but it was fun to get to hang out with Brett's family instead.

Emersyn and her cousins.

Auntie Brianna

Saturday morning, my brother David and his girlfriend Jenny came over for brunch. It was fun, I made cinnamon pull-aparts (delicious!!!), scrambled eggs and hashbrowns, and a madarin orange/banana salad. We had fun hanging out and David and Jenny got some good quality time in with Miss Emersyn.

Saturday night we went to Target to get Emersyn a sippy cup for her "half birthday". She has really been interested in glasses and such lately so we decided that maybe she is ready to try something on her own. We got the kind of sippy cup that has handles on both sides though so she can easily grip it. We tested it out at the store and she seemed to know what to do with it, stick it in her mouth like she does everything else! :) At Target, Emersyn was in the cart, staring lovingly at her daddy as he pushed her. She was really smiley so Brett started playing peek a boo over the cart, saying "HI!!!". Emersyn was giggling up a storm. We just melted inside, hearing her giggle is like the most precious sound ever. She has been giggling when we tickle her, but not really a whole lot of giggling from being entertained. Anyways, I made Brett stop pushing the cart and keep playing with her so I could get a video on my cell phone. It was ADORABLE! I bet we looked like goons at Target, me with my cell phone, Brett playing peek a boo...hee hee. You would never guess we are first time parents! :) After we went to Target, we wanted to go somewhere to officially celebrate her 6 months. We thought about Coldstone but it was really cold outside so ice cream didn't sound all that great. We thought about getting dessert at a resteraunt but it was getting late and we didn't want to take too long. So......we decided to go to Krispy Kreme (don't judge me) which was just down the street from Target. We had a donut and cup of coffee and enjoyed some sweet moments, reflecting on our 6 months of parental bliss. It was really fun and relaxing and CHEAP!

Emersyn is getting really close to being able to sit up on her own!!

Sunday morning we went to church and Emersyn wore a bow in her hair for the first time. It was hanging by a thread but it stayed on for the most part. She wore a DARLING Hannah Andersson outfit that my mom got her over Christmas break, along with som fabulous tights that matched. She got a lot of compliments at church and was pretty smiley. When we got home, I did my usual Sunday afternoon photo shoot with her. I love getting pictures of her all dolled up.

Are those not the CUTEST tights you have ever seen?!?!

I can't believe that this little baby ....

.....has turned into this little baby....

I.am.so.blessed.

Happy Monday everyone!!