Family Photo Shoot

I told you about Claire Ramage last month when she took Hannah's newborn pictures for us and did an amazing job!  Well, she's done it again!  She offered to take some family pictures for us and I could not have been more excited.  She really is so talented!  Thank you, Claire, for capturing this precious stage of life for us!  

Tummy Time

I decided to take a few pictures the other day while Hannah was having tummy time, and so of course I had to put up a quick post about it too!:) 

Bert picked her up for a second and then laid her back down.  When he laid her back down he propped her  up on her arms.  She decided she'd just roll right on over. Since I already had my camera out I was able to catch her mid-roll!!  

Hannah, Daddy says this roll doesn't count as your first because he had propped your arms underneath you...you couldn't help but roll over.  I guess we won't officially count this as your first time rolling over, but know we were proud proud proud of you!:)  

Emily wanted in on the fun. Hannah's wanting to know why Emily's making this tummy time stuff look so easy!  

Okay, Hannah officially threw in the towel. She was d-o-n-e!:) 

Great job, Hannah!  You're going to catch up with your sister in tummy-time-skills in no time!:)  

Hannah - 2 months

Hannah had her 2 month check up last week.  She weighed 13 lbs 8.5 oz and was in the 95th percentile.  She is 23 inches long and is in the 75th percentile for her height.  Here are some fun facts about my sweet Hannah...

-She loves bath time.
-She is paying so much attention to Emily these days.
-She insists on being held form about 8-11 at night.
-She's sleeping between 7 and 8 hours in a row at night.
-She loves her playmat.
-She has the most beautiful eyes!
-She's starting to coo and make noises.
-She's a great eater (we're very thankful for this after all the eating difficulties we had with Em)!
-She doesn't mind tummy time and will stay there for a little while before fussing or falling asleep.
-She sleeps in a pack-n-play in our room.  We're planning to move Emily out of the crib soon so that Hannah can move in.:)  She sleeps best with a sound machine (rain) and swaddled.
- Her tear duct on her right eye seems to have cleared up the day after her hospital stay.  I'm very thankful!!
-She's not a big fan of the bottle.  The past two Monday's (the one day I work) she has refused to take her bottle all morning.  By lunch time Bert is able to get her to take it, but she's giving him a run for his money on those days.

We love you Hannah Beth!  Your sweet smiles literally make my day!:)  

Emily - 2 years

Emily had her 2 year check-up last week.  She had a great check-up.  She weighs 25 lbs 10 oz and she's in the 35th percentile for her weight.  She is 34 inches long and is in the 55th percentile for her height.  Here are a few fun facts about Emily these days....

-She calls her sister "Hannah (long pause) Banana" or just "Banana"

-She replaces all of her "L's" with "W's" - Ex. Awison, Wock (Lock), Wight (Light),

-Emily's such a great big sister!  A few days ago we were going to the store and I was picking up their diaper bag and my purse.  I had already put Hannah in her car seat and she was sitting across the room from the door.  Emily usually makes a bee line for the door when she thinks were going outside, but this time she stood right beside Hannah's car seat and kept saying "Get Hannah!  Mama, get Hannah!"  Ha!  My sweet girl thought I was going to leave her sister.

-Emily's got such a great imagination.  She "talks" on the phone ALL the time, and she says "I go store" and starts heading for the door about once an hour.  In the picture below she had pulled out an empty bin that was under her bed and told me she was in a boat!  She literally played in her "boat" all day!

-She can say a lot of the alphabet by herself.  She's got A-L down and then she gets a little mixed up with M-P...she usually jumps back in with Q and can finish it with out any problem!  She can recognize several letters.

-Her favorite foods literally change every day.  Right now she loves anything red....spaghetti, lasagna, vegetable soup.  She also likes grapes, mushrooms, cantaloupe, pineapple and cherries...LOVES cherries!

-When you ask her what her last name is she'll say "Stephanie Watts."  Ha!  Two thoughts....1.)  I'm impressed she can say my name.  2.)  I have no idea why she thinks it's her last name.:)

-She sleeps about 11-12 hours at night and takes a 1 1/2 to 2 hour nap in the afternoon.  She's still in her crib.  We tried the "big girl bed" about 3 months ago, but decided she wasn't ready.  She was scared to death and it broke our hearts.  We'll try again soon and hopefully she'll be ready for it this time.

-She is repeating everything we say....everything!  Recently she's said "Oh my gosh....that's craaaazy!" and "Dang it."  My fault...I know...TERRIBLE!!  I had dropped something and accidentally said "dang it"....Emily didn't miss a beat before she repeated it.  I didn't realize I needed to clean up my language, but everything is put in a different light when you have a 2 year old copying everything you say and do.  It's good for me!!

-Emily is beginning to want to dress herself.  In the picture below she was giving it her best effort. I had to snap a picture before I helped her.:)

-Shes loves it when we read her stories from her "Big Picture Story Bible."  She brings it to us all the time.

-Her nicknames are Emmy, Emmy Lou, Emma Lou, Em, and Emmy Jean. She loves repeating these -- "Emma Wou!"

-When you ask her who made her she'll say "God made me!!"  It just about melts my heart.  So thankful to God for making my sweet girl and entrusting her to us.

We love you, Emily!

Playmat

We don't own a playmat.  My sister, Katherine, started telling me how much Jacob LOVED his playmat when I was just a few months pregnant with Hannah.  She used to say that I really had to get one or borrow theirs.  I always told her that we really don't have room for a playmat in our apartment.  I even went so far as to say Emily didn't have one and made it just fine, Hannah will too.:)  Kate mentioned it a couple more times after Hannah was born, saying we could borrow theirs if we wanted to.  Every time I basically told her "thanks, but no thanks:)."  

Last week Katherine and Brett were coming over and she decided to just bring the playmat on over to let Hannah try it out.  She's not scared of me....ha!:)  I was fine with letting Hannah try it out, but I still didn't think we'd keep it because I just didn't think we have room.  

Well, here is a picture of what Hannah thinks about the playmat....

Oh my goodness....she LOVES it!!  She can literally be crying and if I lay her down on this thing she calms right down.  It is amazing!  I would certainly call this our "go-to" thing right now!  So, Hannah and Katherine win....we're making room for the beloved playmat!  

Kate, thanks for being persistent because you certainly made my little girl happy, and thanks for letting us borrow it.  Hannah, thank your Aunt Katherine!:)  

My Birthday

We celebrated my birthday on Sunday afternoon after church.  An ice cream cake from Dairy Queen is my favorite kind of cake and has been for years and years.  I get excited about it weeks before my birthday.:)  

I was thankful to have Bert, Emily, Hannah, Alison, Stephen, Mama, Daddy, Stanley, Katherine, Brett, and Jacob all there!  I just love it when we all get together.  

This group certainly made me feel very loved and I'm so thankful for the 29 years the Lord has blessed me with!!:)  

Easter Dinner

My cousin, Kristi, lives in Durham with her husband Jay.  Her parents and siblings (Aunt Kathy, Uncle Jimmy, Mike, Allison, and David) were coming up to visit on Easter weekend, so since Mama, Daddy and Stanley had come up for the weekend too, we decided we needed to all get together for an early Easter dinner on Saturday night. 

Here is Aunt Kathy holding Hannah for the first time.:) 

 

Aunt Kathy and Uncle Jimmy gave Emily a "Baby Stella" doll when Hannah was born.  They thought it would be fun for her to have her own baby to take care of.  Emily loves Baby Stella (Ste-wa)!!  

For Emily's birthday they got her another outfit and backpack so that she could carry baby Stella!

Showing off her new backpack.  You can see Stella's head just behind Emily's.:)  Thanks, Aunt Kathy, Emily loves it! 

Allison and Hannah hanging out!!

Katherine was trying to feed Jacob, but Emily wanted to help.  I think she was doing more distracting than helping, but Jacob certainly didn't mind.:) 

Mimi with her three babies!  She looks like she could just burst from happiness in this picture.:) 

Since we all got together on our birthday weekend they sang to me and Em.:)  I'm holding Emily's hands back because I certainly don't trust her with fire. 

I have no idea what Kate, Daddy and Hannah are looking at, but I just loved that Hannah was looking at the same thing that they were.  She's getting some much more alert these days! 

Aunt Kathy thought it would be fun to have a modified Easter egg hunt.  She put quarters, candy, or a dollar bill in the eggs, then she dumped all the eggs out on the floor and told us how many eggs we could pick up each round.  We're a slightly competitive group so it got a little rough at times, but we had so much fun! 

 

It was great to all be together, but we definitely missed the Thrashers (my mom's sister, her husband and their children)!  Hopefully next time all 21 of us will be able to come!