8 months!

Little miss Emerson is 8 months old! She's getting more and more personality every day and is STILL just the happiest baby ever!

 One of our favorite things she does is smile so big her nose scrunches up. It's seriously the cutest.

 We have been bringing out some more "adventurous" toys for her lately including the walker (mostly because it makes noise) and the doorway jumper.

 While Emerson is not crawling - not really even attempting to crawl - she is definitely mobile. She rolls all over the place and we are getting to the point where we're deciding if the need for baby gates exists already.

 She's also trying more and more new foods. She loves cereal, yogurt melts, puffs, sweet potato, squash, and any other orange veggie. Green veggies haven't gone over as well just yet but we're working on it! We're also doing some baby-led weaning with her and she'll feed herself some bites of soft veggies and bananas.

 We continue to find ourselves saying "she's really the best baby ever" several times each day it seems.  And she is!  I mean, look at that grin! It's the best!

Days

With Reegan being in half day kindergarten and Gavin in Preschool two mornings a week, our days are becoming full quicker and I have found that I need to be more intentional with time. It used to be that some mornings would drag on and I couldn't wait until lunch time and nap time. Not anymore, instead I find myself being shocked that its already 11:00 and just about time to pick up one or both kid from school. The afternoons fly by and many of my well intended behaviors/activities/chores are pushed off for another day. I feel like I am always saying it, but we are settling into our new normal...for now

These two are becoming best buds. Gavin has picked up the role of big brother and loves being my helper. He has taken on the job of reading to Emerson and shows her this color book everyday, sometimes shirtless!

I love wearing my babies and I think that Em likes it too.

I got to have a special one-on-one with this boy at his preschool fall festival. We ate hot dogs, hammered nails into a pumpkin and played other silly games. I love giving this guy special attention, because he deserves it all!

Lunch date with my babies (Photo by Reegan).

Trying to convince this guy to write his letters has been difficult. Reegan has always loved school and always asked me if she could practice, but this one, not so much. He loves to learn at school, but apparently thinks home is not for learning, only playing.

Sweet little Emerson has started eating food. She loves avocado and sweet potato in sticks that she can feed herself. She also loves puffs and yogurt melts. Right now she can pick them up in her hand but can't figure out how to get them to her mouth.We're working on it.

Painting pumpkins

Fall has been so nice, so we are trying to soak it in while we can.

Emerson is growing and learning every day.

I think she just figured out that we have dogs. We're now very interested and reaching out to touch them.

Emerson is such a happy baby. I can't believe how lucky we got with her.

Halloween

We started our Halloween festivities on Friday with a parade and party at Reegan's school. 

 Reegan and her besties, Mona

 Gavin was in preschool, so it was just us 4 for the party.

 Halloween! These three!!! Love them.

 Reegan loves to cheer and dance, so this costume was perfect for her!

Gavin is completely obsessed with Spider-man. We toyed with other costume ideas, but ultimately this was it! (apparently this is Gavin's interpretation with Spider-mans pose)

 We had a cul-de-sac potluck and here are the kids ready for the dash to get candy! Spider-man refused to take a nap even after the many attempts by his parents, he refused to take this picture and the first melt-down occurred. Emerson was already changed into her pajamas and was taking her evening nap at this time as well.

Reegan and Jason had a great time trick-or-treating, Gavin only made it 3 houses before we headed home and he helped me pass our candy to the kids. We finished the night with our dear friends the Keeley's coming over to watch the Royals game! Melt-downs and all it was a great halloween!

Emerson - 7months

Emerson is now closer to 8 months than she is 7 months. This baby is growing so fast and the days are flying by. What a joy this girl is, we love her more and more every day that passes.

 Emerson sits so steadily and can sit for a long time and play with her toys. I think this is her favorite thing to do. She spreads all the toys out around her and loves when her brother and sister sit down next to her and play/read with her. She also loves to play in her exersaucer while I am in the kitchen.

 Emerson rolls all over the place and reaches as far as she can. She pushes up on her arms but has not figured out that she can pull those legs underneath her. I think we have a long time to go before she starts crawling and I am OK with that. Immobile for as long as possible is what I hope for!

 We started baby led weaning around 6 1/2 months. I wasn't going well (Emerson refused to feed herself), so we have given her baby food, cereal, carrots, sweet potato, squash and peas. We are still doing some baby led weaning and it is going great. Emerson has started to realize she loves food and is more interested in feeding herself some! I love baby led weaning, makes meal time so much easier!

I think this girl is currently teething as she has her fingers in her mouth all the time. Only the 2 bottom teeth right now, but soon there should be a few additional popping through. This is only the second time we have put her up on her feet. She balances ok, but I am in no rush to keep showing her that she can do this all on her own. Stay little baby!

Hay

My mom has been wanting to take pictures of the kids on hay bails for years now. The timing finally worked out and the day was perfect. 

 Emerson was asleep for most of it, but we woke her up at the end

summer ends

We're wrapping up summer with family time and outdoor time before the temps turn cold. To start, here are some wonderful pictures of our cute little baby!

Last Saturday we ended up having the most wonderful day ever. It started with the Old Settlers day parade. The kids loved it and it totally reminded me of my childhood. I remember going to different parades and running for the candy, watching my kids do the exact same thing was so fun!

Saturday night we were given tickets to the circus. We left the baby behind and took the big kids. They had the best time and talked about it for days after.

 Such a silly boy.