One

I'm not quite sure where the last year went but my baby is now 1. Fastest year of my life!!! Emerson continues to be such a blessing to us and is easily the best baby. She is so sweet and patient, gives the best smiles and we are completely smitten with her! 

Some Emerson info:

-18 pounds 14 ounces- 15%ile

-29 inches tall- 55%ile

-Head is 17  inches around- 21 %ile

-Not walking, but crawls really fast, pulls up on furniture, cruises with her walker toys and doesn't    seem to show much interest in walking because she can get everywhere she needs to go

-loves the stairs and is great at going up them

-give us kisses, high-fives, waves, claps and tells us all done with sign languange

-loves remotes, cell phones, and the big kids toys and gets mad when we take them away

-likes to play on her own. Favorites include emptying drawers, removing book marks from books we are currently reading, pulling magnets off the fridge, and whatever else she can get her hands on

-naps morning for 45min or so and afternoon for 45min-1.5 hours. 

-loves sneaking into her brother and sisters room and playing with their toys

-nursing 5 times a day still

-loves to eat but is particular about what she eat. Loves fruit, cheese, lunch meat, pasta, yogurt melts the best. Tolerates veggies, yogurt, and anything new. Struggles with meat. 

-says mama, oh no, hi and has said dada once but wont repeat it. 

-Gets so excited to see us when we come home and when the kids wake up in the morning. Big smiles, squeals and kisses! 

March 8- we went to celebrate with Mexican food. and finished with a cupcake at our house. She refused the cupcake. See the frosting on her face? That was from me trying to coax her to eat some. It didn't work.

 March 12 we had a small party for her with just family.

 Our "theme" was pink and gold

 This tutu and onsie were home-made. I'm pretty proud of myself.

 Emerson's smash cake

 Not going to play along with me.

 I broke it in half and I think she was just teasing me here...

 And she didn't take a bite of this one either. Maybe thats why she is so little. Such a stinker.

We had a great time celebrating this little one. Emerson, this year with you has been a blast, we love you and look forward to seeing what and who you become in the future!!!!

Our life in pictures:

Baby was wiped out after a long day of playing.

 Mid afternoon caffeine fix led to cake pops for the kids.

 One warm Sat afternoon my dad joined the kids and I at the zoo.

 He had never been before so the kids loves showing him around.

 Ginger is an old lady now and only tolerates us when she decides she wants to.

 Reegan took over nap duties for the baby. I think the only reason she asks for this job is so she can lay and watch tv. Which also happens to be one of the reasons why I love nap duty too!

A random Thursday off of school for Reegan led to a playdate with many of the kids in her Kindergarten class at the local gymnastics studio. Gavin's favorite part was the jumping off the end of the balance beam.

 He has taken the role of big brother very seriously. They love each other so much!

 Enjoying a firepit and smores with the neighbors.

 Reegan picked out a puzzle at the store for her and Jason to work on together. 300 pieces!!!

 Emerson's new favorite activity is pulling open this drawer of her toys and throwing them all on the floor one by one. A couple of times throughout the day one of us will put the toys back in the drawer just for her to throw them out again.

 Reegan got a haircut this last weekend.  The before...

And the after... she looks so grown up to me. She had this fine baby hair in the front that wouldn't stay in a pony tail so my hope is this will keep her hair out of her eyes for the summer when swimming and getting sweaty.

Emerson just had a birthday and Spring break is next week so we are looking forward to lots of excited things!!!

Reegan is 6

Reegan is 6... I can't believe it. This last year has a been a huge year of growth for this girl. Kindergarten has been amazing for her. She now reads and writes and loves math and tests. She looks forward to going to school every day and loves to come home and tell me what she's learned. She loves gym and library class. Also likes computer class because she gets to play games on pbs.org. Her teacher tells me that she is a leader in the class and everyone likes her. She also sits by a special needs kid and takes the initiative to help him with his work and is very patient with him. 

I told her I wanted to take some pictures now that she is 6 and she posed herself in these photos. If she wasn't so shy around strangers I would think modeling is in her future!

 We had her checkup yesterday and she is just shy of 50 pounds (74%ile) and just shy of 4 feet tall (83%ile). WOW, she is growing like crazy.

Reegan likes to sleep in a little bit in the morning and I have to wake her up for school just about every day. I wake her once and she asks for a couple of minutes to lay in bed. She lays there and wakes up a bit and 5 min later when I come back she is ready to get up and dressed. She likes to pick out her own clothes and has her favorite outfits. If she could wear dresses or skirts to school every day she would.  To bad its winter and that requires pants. She is also particular about her hair. She wants it how she wants it. She also doesn't have much of an appetite in the morning. I think she would be fine if I sent her to school with no breakfast, but I just can't do that. So, I make her eat at least a little something in the morning.

 After school she seems genuinely excited to see her brother and sister and want to play. She is often overly excited and therefore doesn't listen to instructions. I think she is mentally tired which makes me happy we did half day and not full day. We do lunch time, play a little, read (our daily homework is to read for a minimum of 20 minutes) and then do rest time. Reegan never takes a nap anymore (even when she really needs it) and instead spends some quiet time in her room. Most days she either does crafts or puzzles. She always asks to watch Netflix on the iPad and sometimes I give in and let her have it. Somedays she goes downstairs with me and we bake or play games.

Reegan is a good eater and likes healthy food.  Or food that she thinks is healthy. Chicken nuggets is healthy to her because it's meat. She loves veggies, salad, cucumbers, peppers, etc. Also does great with fruit. She loves salty snacks, chips, pretzels, popcorn and doesn't enjoy sweets as often. Ice cream or cake she picks vanilla over chocolate every time.

Reegan love arts and crafts, has found a love for cooking (thanks Masterchef Junior), working on school stuff, reading, playing barbies, and being outdoors. She is a perfectionist and doesn't enjoy new things. If something doesn't come natural to her she doesn't want to do it.

Reegan is one amazing girl! She is smart, kind, beautiful and wise beyond her years. We can no longer spell things we don't want her to hear because she has called us out on p-a-r-k, i-c-e c-r-e-a-m, etc. She is very sensitive and cries if we raise our voice or if she sees something sad on tv. She says and does things almost every day that surprises me. She is growing up and I can honestly say that I am enjoying it all!

She has lost 3 teeth and the top 2 are loose currently. Can ride a bike with no training wheels and learned how to roller skate in gym class. Loves watching dancing with the stars and cooking shows. Tells me she is going to be an artist like Nana when she grows up. Still loves to cuddle, but only on her timing. Takes baths but its a matter of time before she starts showering instead. has an incredible imagination. Loves to read, we are currently working through the magic treehouse books and when we stop at the chapter breaks she says she just want to keep reading, I see a book worm in our future! She is a great big sister, loves to hold Emerson while she sleeps and taking care of her. Gavin is her best friend but they are starting to butt heads more and more, however when they are getting along it is so great.

We love you Reegan! Happy 6th Birthday!!!