And In Case You Were Afraid Hope has Lost her Love for Ooh Ooh...

She hasn't.

In Case You Were Wondering if Hope has Lost her Love of Dressing Up...

She hasn't!

Just Randomness

Today was just crazy. Noah was feeling crummy, Hope was almost late to school. The bug man came. While he was here he tried to convince me that having rolly pollys in your house is ok... um no. Please get rid of them. Isn't that your job? The handyman came as well. Out of about 7 things we asked him to fix, he fixed one. Ha. We also ate at Chili's in honor and memory of sweet Collin Marsh. Chili's donates their profits to St. Jude's for pediatric cancer research one night a year. Tonight was that night. We made Collin a Chili Pepper with his name on it, and prayed for his Mommy and Daddy.

And, I am learning a life lesson. I learned that there really are evil people in this world that we encounter every day. I really am very naive, I realize, but I just cannot believe that people can be such liars and cheats. Ugh. I am thankful that the ones who have truly done me wrong have been few and far between. I can think of two. Okay, three. And I am not even counting the dudes who stole my purse at Walmart, or the druggie that broke in and stole my change jar. No, it's when the ones that you knew and trusted wrong you that it really hurts. Right now, my heart just hurts. The other part of this lesson is to never accept someones oral agreement. Make them write it down. Because, well, they can lie and cheat.

I love being a Methodist for several reasons, but one of the reasons is I don't want to listen to any "the devil's gonna getcha" or other scare tactics. I don't think scaring people to Jesus is what we as Christians are called to do. So, that being said, I don't give the devil too much thought. But today, evilness has just been on my mind a lot. So, tomorrow, I am turning my thoughts back around to my God, who is a God of Love.

Wow, deep thoughts by Jill. Betcha didn't think you would find that here. :)

Here's what you came for:

Emmy sure can rock some leg warmers! Can't wait to hear what Ora says about this! :)

 And, one more picture from the day Hope and Noah switched places:

Is it just me, or does Hope look just like her Uncle Ross here?! I have never thought that before today! Crazy. And before I forget, when John came home from work that day, Noah hugged him and said, "I'm a pretty princess, Daddy!" Priceless.

Answered Prayers

Emmy Love does not have Cystic Fibrosis. Praise God! And her metabolic tests have come back normal as well. All super, absolutely fantasic news! I can breathe again. I didn't for several days after we heard the words Cystic Fibrosis. I have never in my life heard two scarier words.

So, what is going on with my baby girl? I wish I knew! For now, we are going to try yet another medication (making the total 4!) and hope the new combo settles her tummy enough for her to gain weight steadily. We are going to closely monitor her weight from now on as well. If she is still having problems, we will do some more testing in a few months.

Breathe.

Knock knock. Who's there?

Banana!

Emmy Love 2 Months

Emmy Love is 2 Months Old! And, oh, how we adore her.

Here are some highlights at 2 Months:

• weighs 9 pounds
• 22 1/2 inches long
• still very much a sleepy, snugly newborn
• eats 4-5 ounces every 3-4 hours
• sleeps well at night, usually only getting up once
• loves to be held
• loves to ride in the Moby wrap or Baby Bjorn
• tolerates the car 1000 times better than her siblings (as babies and currently)
• Nights in own room = 0 (still in the bassinet in our room.)
• likes a paci
• does not like being changed
• does not like loud noises (like screaming siblings)
• has tried 6 different formulas. Currently on Nutramigen. Not working.
• has started to enjoy baths after the initial shock
• is beginning to become known around here as "The Bug", "E. Love", "Sissy Baby", or "Emmy-Emmy CoCo Pop"
• has a sixth sense that allows her to know exactly when Mommy sits down to eat. This allows her to scream until someone holds her so she does not miss one minute of any quality time
• loves a good swaddle, just like brother and sister. Another baby burrito.
• got 4 vaccinations today, including rota virus. Noah was with me and for some reason, i thought it would be a great idea to get his flu shot while we were there. For future reference, it is never a good idea to have 2 kids getting shots at the same time.
• still in newborn clothes
• we recently graduated to size one diapers, but she could totally still wear newborns sized. 
• is super excited about her Halloween costume...any guesses? Here's a hint... Noah is a monkey...
• needs to work on her head control a bit.
• likes fans and mobiles
• takes zant@c and probiotics daily
• loves the swing. Yay!
• smiley smiley
• has started to coo
• loves her mommy a lot
• mommy loves her a lot

At her two month check up today, we found out that she hasn't gained any weight for the last 12 days. This is causing a little bit of concern and she is having several tests run in the next few days. Emmy has not done well on any formula, not even Nutramigen which is supposed to be the fix all, golden ticket formula. I am sure it is nothing and that she will be just fine, but we would appreciate some prayers for The Bug this week. I know they are just trying to rule things out, but some scary words have been thrown around and as much as they say don't panic... well, that just makes me panic.

Now collecting for their therapy jars!

This was all Hope's doing. I find it hilarious. I am sure Noah will be less than thrilled at these pictures later in life! I so remember my childhood friend Lee Ann and I dressing our little brothers up like girls! They turned out okay, right?

These two...

You guys know I love my babies. All 3 of them. A whole whole lot. That being said, the combination of these two has been very trying lately. They fuss and fight all. the. time. Noah wants everything Hope has, and Hope wants Noah to want everything she has, so she flaunts whatever she has in front of him in a very not nice way. It is ongoing, and it is making me crazy. Separation is the only way we are finding peace at the moment. Noah waits all day for his sister to come home, and as soon as she gets home, the torment begins. I feel like I am getting on to them all the time. Because I am. On Saturdays, John and I have been giving each other a break to just enjoy some time with Emmy, because, frankly, it's hard to with these two screaming at each other 24/7. So, one of us gets up and goes to the gym on Saturday mornings and takes the big ones to the playroom at the gym for a bit. Today was my morning to stay home. Aahhh. So nice. And they have a great time playing as well, it's a really neat set up for them. And when they came home and gave hugs, I told them I missed them, and to quote my mother, "But it was the nicest kind of miss."

I absolutely know that this is all completely normal. That this too shall pass. That they are just normal sibling squabbles. I fought with my brothers for the first 20 years of my life. Maybe more. My mom used to call Vince and I "Aggravate and Agitate." And I really do love my brothers. I just didn't ever realize how annoying our fighting was to my mom for all those years! Sorry mom! I will never fight with them again.

They are both wonderfully amazing children. Truly. And when they are separate, that is easy to see. I took Noah on a Mommy and Noah date to McD's the other day and we had the best time. He obeyed, used manners, and was just so happy. This afternoon, Hope and I ran around town together, and she was perfect. We had a great time together. Then, as soon as we got home, the fighting started right back. The oddest thing is that they want to be together. I just don't get it! So, to sum it up, they both need individual attention right now, but also want everyone to be together.

Happy Thursday

From The Bug.

Noah, give me that paci

Yes, Noah still has a paci. Yes, we had him completely off of it several months ago. Then, he started having night terrors and we gave it back. And really, I am glad we did, because with all that he has been through the last two months, he has needed some comfort. The paci is definitely his comfort item. Hope has always had Ooh Ooh the monkey, but Noah is just not that attached to anything. He has special things in his bed, but can sleep without them too. Now that he seems to be a bit more accepting of his new situation here with baby sister, in a new house, away from most of the people he loves, and with mommy 24/7 vs his time with his beloved Mesha, we are trying to contain paci to the bed. When he woke up this morning, he left it in his bed, just like I asked. After we dropped Hope off at school, he snuck right back up there and got it. I laughed out loud when he did this when I asked him to give it to me!

7 Weeks

Here is our beautiful daughter at 7 weeks old. So sweet.

Only, it's not our daughter who is currently 7 weeks old! This is big sister Hope on her baptism day. I am just in shock how much she and Emmy look alike!

Now, if you were on Team (she looks like) Noah (I was!) here are a couple of him at 7 weeks...

And, because you asked so nicely, here are pictures of Emmy Love at 7 weeks...

Which team are you on? Are you still confused? Emmy looks a little confused as well...

Let's take one more look:

Emmy:

Hope:

And, as an added bonus, here is a picture of one super adorable baby sneeze!

Fashion Statement

Emmy is pretty happy about the new socks Mimi made for her. It's never too early to make a fashion statement!

(Thank you, Palmer, for your inspiration!)

Emmy's Newborn Photoshoot with Kristin Hollensworth

I realized I never linked Emmy's newborn pictures here on the blog! Kristin Hollensworth did an amazing job! Click Here to see pictures of 11 day old Emmy Love.

Noah vs. Sharpie

The only morning person in this family

Picture Perfect

Our life is not always picture perfect around here. Actually, life looks a lot like this around here.

But, man, I wouldn't trade it for anything.

So, I still don't have a great picture of all 3 of the babies just yet! I had high hopes for a Sunday evening photo shoot. Emmy was not on board. This is the best I got.

If you had asked me before hand which child I thought would be the most likely to throw a fit during pictures, Emmy would have been last on the list. But the big ones were pretty good. Especially Hope who withstood several screaming baby pictures. Probably because Hope has been waiting to get her picture made with baby sister in these dresses since we got them several months ago! We will definitely attempt again soon.

As usual, Noah was non stop on the move, but I did get a couple of him looking and smiling. Score!

Emmy's Room

Emmy's room is finally coming together. She still needs a dresser, and we need to hang the pictures, but yay! She has a room! My mom brought me this amazing monkey painting when she came to visit! It's a Brittany Skarda Lord original! Thank you so much, Brittany and mom! It is so perfect! I love all the details from the bedding she added, like the polka dots and the flower and branch! So fun!


And this was my "nesting project" that my mom took on for me! I found this mirror for $10 and had big plans for painting it, but life was just a tad too crazy! Mimi did a much better job than I could have, plus it is more special since Mimi did as well. Thanks Meems!


Love it, love it. I will post some final pictures when it is finished!

My Kindergarten Girl

I could not be more proud of this girl! We have completely turned her world upside down these last few weeks, and she has adjusted so so well. And she was so ready to start Kindergarten! She did have a few nervous moments in the days before, but when she woke up Monday morning, she said, "I was nervous last night, but now I'm just excited!"

Mimi found her the perfect back to school outfit. While Mommy found her the perfect backpack lunchbox combo. You know, before she starts to want to pick them out herself!

Our goal when John started his crazy traveling job when Hope was two was that I wanted him to be done traveling before she started kindergarten. Funny how things happen! He's here to see her every morning and night now!

Mimi stayed with us for 10 nights! She was here to see Hope off for her first day, and stayed with the babies so John and I could both take in the moment of our oldest starting school. I took Mimi to the airport after I took Hope to school. Thanks for everything, Mimi!

Our little Wolverine!

Walking down the ramp to the Kindergarten pod. Yes, I was that crazy mom with the camera.
Finding her name on her class frog pond.
Her new teacher, Miss B! Love her. Really, I could not pick a better fit for Hope this year.
She went right to work at her table. She gave me the, "ok, go now" look, so I kissed her and drug her daddy out of there.

She had a great first day! She ended up with blisters on her hands from the monkey bars, but that hasn't stopped her from still playing on them every day! And she now has two more blisters to show for it. She has read both books that she was sent home with completely on her own with out any help. There are not many girls in her class, and three of them have said she can't be their friend because she doesn't have "Twinkle Toe" shoes like they do. Man, it starts early, doesn't it? She has seemed okay with that and hasn't asked for the shoes. Truthfully, if she asked for them, I would buy them for her, but not before we had a little talk about not buying them just to be friends with the twinkle toe group.

We are all trying to adjust to the new routine. Hope and her daddy still read Junie B. every night, but story time has been moved up quite a bit. Which the daddy struggles with. He and Hope have been living it up this summer with nightly battles of Wii Speed Slice and bowling, movies, dessert and Junie B. I think they are both looking forward to this weekend when the Mommy doesn't say she has to be in bed by 8:00!

Little Bitty Zitty Baby

My baby has some bad bad baby acne right now. It is all over her face, and it covers her whole head. And really, you can't 100% convince me that it's not related to her formula. It seems to have popped up right as we gave in and switched her to soy milk. She also has had thrush for 3 weeks now and a yucky diaper rash. Boo. I took her into the pediatrician. We saw Dr. K who is the pediatrician we have been wanting to see. He was so perfect. He held her and fed her a bottle while we talked. Seriously? Loooove him. He sent us on our way with some different meds to clear up everything. I haven't seen much improvement just yet, which also feeds into my reaction to formula theory. We were told to keep her on the soy until every thing cleared up, and then try a lactose free milk based formula (that they gave us a case of free samples of! Looove.) to see how her tummy reacts to that. Here's hoping that the acne, thrush and diaper rash clear up soon, or her Mommy is going to break the rules and switch to the lactose free before...

I took these pictures on Tuesday. It is worse today. Her right cheek is just solid red. I don't know what to do!

Play room

This is the little play area upstairs in our new house. It is still a work in progress. John has since mounted the projector in here for the kids to watch movies. They are constantly playing in (and destroying) this room.