E.G. turns 10 months!

Emilia Grace is turning 10 months old! I seriously can't even believe it! Here are some quick things about our girl!!!

-She can say: dada, mama, ruda (rueger), yiyi (lily), Bat (bath), and boob.
-Still nursing like a champ and proud of it!
- A terrible sleeper and we have tried EVERYTHING! Name the method and we have given it a solid go. She is just an insomniac like her mama and thinks that 1 am means she has gotten enough sleep and it's play time!
- She is a speed demon on her knees! She is crawling all over the place and will be there one minute and gone the next! Have to keep a really close eye on that girl!
-She has 4 teeth ( her left front tooth is almost entirely done coming in) and an adorable smile!
-She has bitten me while nursing a few times now. Always accidental (of course) but super painful either way. I really try to discourage that kind of thing and it happens very rarely.
- She pulls herself up on everything and anything!
- She is standing up in her crib and it has had to be lowered a few times already.
- She loves to hold hands and walk around the house, and she is getting really fast and really good at it. She will be walking way before I am ready.
-She loves the dogs and they make her laugh every single day! Every morning we say good morning to the dogs and she immediately has a huge smile for them and says their names!

-She knows a few baby sign language signs, and is starting to use "all done" after she is finished eating dinner!
- She likes to be in the kitchen right under my feet! I bake and cook a lot and she likes to have her measuring cups and be right between my feet. It isn't easy to maneuver around, but pretty adorable.
- She is learning to open up cupboards and her favorite is the pot and pan cupboard. Luckily all of the other cupboards are already baby proofed (or dog proofed I should say!)

I love this little girl more and more every single day. I love her so much that her adorable face literally makes my heart ache! I always hoped that we would get luckily enough to be parents and now we have this perfect, sassy, funny, little girl. Life is pretty darn good.

And also... I can't believe that she is only 2 months away from being 1 years old.

* I was just thinking about her birth and remembered a little something:

I was attached to fetal monitors the entire time I was there, because I was having trouble with my blood pressure and they wanted to keep a close eye on her as well as me. When I was having contractions and even before then, I wanted to walk around to help things progress. Half way down the hall, the nurses would come chasing after me saying the baby had moved and was off of the monitor. They said that was usual and made me lay down and get her back on the monitor. She didn't like that and started squirming a whole bunch. Over and over they would have to come re find the baby's heartbeat, and I just remember one of my nurses saying "Well isn't she stubborn!"

If she only knew.

Emilia's first Christmas!

We just celebrated Emilia's very first Christmas! Christmas 2012 we spent in Idaho (like usual) and I was 28 weeks pregnant with our baby child!

This year we went to a different place instead of the usual McCall! We went and stayed at a condo in Coeur d'Alene. The condo was on the other side of the lake from town and up on the mountain! It was definitely a little out of the way and totally gorgeous!

We left home at about 5 morning so that Em would sleep in chunks of the 7 hour drive, and she did really well This is us at about 4 am and she was so exhausted!

About half way into our drive the sun finally started to come up!

 

The drive was pretty easy and we got to Coeur d'Alene before we knew it. The hard part was this: it was Christmas Eve and all we wanted was a stinking Christmas tree! We looked through out the entire friggin town and only one place had a tree! It was disgustingly over priced and 9 feet long! We drove in my car and there was no way that we could take a 9 foot tree! So after 4 hours of looking ( also the baby and I getting VERY cranky!) we settled on a fake tree! It was my very first fake tree... of my entire life. But at that point I was willing to draw a tree on a piece of paper and call it good!

 

Em was so helpful in putting up the tree! She just climbed right under and tried to help her daddy!

 

 

I mean look at those cheeks!!

 

We finally got it all up and it actually looked pretty good! The week before we went on our trip I had spent some time putting together home made ornaments. We had a few E's, some little feet, and a few h's and m's! It was a lot of fun but not something I want to make a habit out of!

 

 



She helped Hy open her very first presents (some were hers and some were not!) and loved tearing into everything!

 

 

Our little family before opening presents on Christmas morning

 

Me and our little sweetheart before opening presents and getting ready for the day! Super morning hair!

We were right on the lake and every night we had the most gorgeous sunsets! (sunrises I'm sure as well, but there was no way I was seeing any of those!)

 

 

Crazy mama and baby hair!

For the first few days, it was just the three of us and we had a blast exploring the town and just spending loads of time in the condo together. Emilia loved getting to spend all of that time with her daddy!

When we weren't driving into town or keeping the baby entertained (or feeding our faces like pigs) we built a gingerbread house! Before we left for our Christmas vacation, Hy had the great idea to make a gingerbread house instead of doing a puzzle like we usually do. When the idea started, Hy suggested using graham crackers and wafers. There was no way that the pastry chef in me was ever going to let that happen. So he made me a pattern and I made and baked all of the parts! We assembled the entire thing in the condo and it took FOREVER to decorate but we had a blast!

The day after Christmas my parents finally arrived and we opened each other's presents! We were spoiled and Em was SUPER spoiled!

Look at her baby feet! It wasn't too long ago that they were even tinier!

Hy and I were able to convince mom and dad to take Em for a few hours so that we could sneak away for a date! *It took zero convincing.

First we went out to eat at this great little Japanese place and stuffed our faces with super fresh sushi

It was sooo good.

After shopping around at all of the adorable little shops in town, my parents met us with our sweet girl and we did some more shopping!

 
We went out to eat as a family and Em loves eating at restaurants. So many things to look at and so many people to stare at.

A picture with my date after a fun filled day of being out!

After we got home that night, we decided to let the baby have at the gingerbread house! It was totally like a giant baby destroying a village. It was hilarious and adorable! She was growling and getting so excited!

She got soo messy and had a blast! We took this picture of a little candy cane chunk stuck to her thigh! I wanted to gobble her right up!

We had the best time ever and the views were so gorgeous!

This is my very favorite trip away every year and I can't wait until we go away some place else next year! Who knows what the year has in store for us, but I am excited to find out and hope that whatever changes are coming are for the very best!

Happy New Year!!

It's 2014!

Normally I am so ready to get a near year going and under our belt. But I can honestly say with out a question in my head that 2013 was the BEST year of my life so far.

We spent the first few months of 2013 getting ready for our bundle of joy and just enjoying being super pregnant! I loved it!

I finished up my last day at The Dessert Tray in February and said goodbye to my very favorite women on the planet (and Mark!)! I loved working there even while 9 months pregnant!

March 19th, we welcomed our baby girl into the world! She was born at 5:02 am and we have been obsessed ever since!

 

She was born at 39 weeks and 3 days and weighed 7 pounds 4 oz. She was entirely perfect and gorgeous! We are both so smitten and can't get enough of her little self! 

Most of our year consisted of taking a million pictures of Em, flying with Em for the first time (and 2nd, 3rd, and 4th) , going home several times, and having so many snuggles!

In October, grandpa Max passed away. That basically sucked. He was amazing and I still think about him every day. I get reminders of him all of the time. In Costco, while cooking dinner, while playing the piano, while snuggling our baby.

His funeral was beautiful and heart wrenching and funny. We still miss him.

 

All gorgeous pictures are credited to JLD Photography.

 

That was definitely the hardest part of 2013. But from hard things came many beautiful things. Just like grandpa would have wanted. How funny.

 

We celebrated Emilia's first Christmas in Idaho with our family, but that will be a whole other post!

 

2013 was really just the best year I can ever remember. There were definitely some challenging moments: colic,  more than a few sleepless nights, and missing family. But there were so many amazing moments this year! I know that every year is just going to get more and more amazing with my little family by my side!

 

 

 

I hope that everyone had an amazing Christmas and New Year and that your 2014 is just as amazing!