A couple of Emily things....

Emily LOVES her baby sister. She loves her too much sometimes. She likes to get right in her face and say, HI KINLEY!!!! Everything she does is RIGHT IN HER FACE. I say, Emily you need to give her space almost as often as I breathe.

The other night it went down like this:

Me: Emily, honey, you really need to give her some space

E: I can't I LOVE HER!

She's also becoming a bit more of a snuggle bug. She is not one to offer hugs to anyone. She often holds her hands straight to her side even when asked to hug a grandparent. She's just not very affectionate. Never has been. Even as a baby she would cry if we held her, she wanted to be on her own. Anyway, before going to bed, her new thing is to ask if she can snuggle us. Let me think, uh, YES! I just thought it was so incredibly sweet the other night when she "snuggled me." She was in bed and pulled my head, neck, shoulders down next to her. She started to scratch my back and hummed a tune. She played with my hair a bit and then told me it was time for bed. Love her.

FOURTH OF JULY!!!

We spent the entire Fourth of July in our community this year. For the past two 4th of July's we have been out of town and we have missed the events our community puts on, but we made up for it this year!

We headed out early in the morning for the Pancake breakfast and to cheer on our neighbor's son in the 1K. It was SO precious to watch the kids run and the families/friends cheer them on. After the race we sat down and waited for the parade. It didn't entail too much, but it had a firetruck, police cars, kids on bikes etc...Emily loved the parade because they kept throwing candy out to the kids. Oh dear...

We came home for lunch and naps and then headed back out for the evening games and fireworks. The fireworks were amazing for just community fireworks. They lasted at least 15 minutes and they really didn't hold back. Very entertaining. We were sitting in a perfect spot to watch them all too. So fun!

It was SUCH A GREAT DAY!

P.S. There aren't any pictures of Brian because I pretty much had Kinley strapped to me throughout the day and didn't have access to the camera, so I had to keep asking him to take pictures of different moments...

My girls

Seriously, my girls are so precious to me. They can get me to smile at the end of a very long day. They can make my heart feel more love than I have ever known. They complete me in ways that I never knew I needed. I say this at the end of the LONGEST week.

Emily has had croup this week and we are certainly paying the price. Two nights out of the week she was up every 30 minutes either coughing or crying/whining for us to come into her room. Kinley, who is 5 months old, is not sleeping through the night yet and her amount of "wakes" have been more frequent this week. I'm thinking it might have something to do with the amount of times Emily is waking. Kinley is also outgrowing the swaddling stage though. The blankets we have used no longer contain her and we figure it's a good time to break her of that habit then to switch to a new kind of blanket and prolong the inevitable.

Brian and I are functioning on fumes. We are exhausted. Kinley is still in a bassinet in our room. She's not on a good sleep pattern yet to move her into Emily's room. We're desperate for change. We are holding out every bit of hope that Kinley starts to sleep better for several reasons.

Precious girls....PLEASE SLEEP!

Jump Up Weekend

When I was pregnant with Kinley, Brian and I made the difficult decision to leave the church that I had attended for twenty years. It's the church that I grew up in. It's the church that I married my husband in, dedicated my daughter in. I had the opportunity of leading worship and singing in vocal teams. I had the joy of serving with my mom, dad, sister, brother n law and husband. Brian and I both felt a tugging to cultivate more relationships in our community. We love to serve, but it was getting taxing to drive 45 minutes each way (leaving at 6:45 am) every Sunday. We knew our kids would attend church regularly, which inevitably friendships would develop and we didn't want to have to tell them no to many of the activities just because of distance.

We have been attending a church much closer to our home now since November. From the very first weekend there, Emily was bringing home little lesson crafts. I think her first craft was something that said, "We thank God for our eyes" and she was able to put stickers on it. Since then, she has done all kinds of crafts all with some sort of biblical message. This past weekend was "jump up weekend." That means that she moved into the next class. I was nervous because she doesn't do well in new environments, but she did just fine. In fact, when we picked her up I noticed she was wearing a sticker that said, "I said my bible verse today." They gave us the picture she drew on. On the picture was a black and white photo of the coat of many colors and she had pasted on some color blocks. The scripture underneath it was from Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and brave because God is with you."

I didn't think anything about the sticker claiming she said the scripture. I just figured she was coached all the way through it. Fast forward to tonight (Tuesday) when I was cleaning up after dinner and I heard Emily saying, "Be strong and bruv" It took me a second to realize what she was saying. I watched her and saw that she was doing hand movements. Sure enough, I said the scripture to her and she got the biggest smile on her face so I knew I was saying what she was saying. She showed me the hand gestures and has said the verse now several times.

For a little over an hour each week, my daughter is getting to play with kids that are learning about Jesus together and that absolutely warms my heart!

Swimmin'

Emily has actually been in the pool several times, but she has NEVER been a fan of it. In fact, she HATED taking baths until she was six months old. Lexi had a pool party for her birthday and it took Emily a good five minutes or so to stop screaming about putting her feet in the water. After ten minutes in the pool she was comfortable. We decided she desperately needed swim lessons, especially since we'll be vacationing in some very warm climates this summer. She's in a 4-week course and we'll see how she does, but if it's anything like her first session, it might be the perfect fit. Here's Emily in one of her exercises with the instructor.

P.S. Sorry for Kinley's slight cry in the background. She was in my arms fighting a nap. She fell asleep about one minute after I put the camera away. Go figure...

Rollin'

Kinley rolled over for the first time on Friday, June 4th. We got a video of her rolling on Saturday and you can see the struggle, but now, she's a rolling maniac. I love hearing Emily talk to her sister in this video...

quick update

I have not been good about taking pictures lately. I feel like life is in turbo speed. I have no idea how the day gets away from me as fast as it does. I guess it's just what is to be expected with working full-time and raising two kids.

It's a bummer that I don't have pictures to recall all the moments that happen throughout the day, but I also love actually being a part of the moment instead of looking through a lens. We had a great day today at Disneyland. We got there when the park opened and stayed for nine hours! Emily said hello to Mickey, rode some rides and played in the water play area. I think the highlight of my day was watching her play in the water area. She started out so timid and shy, but then all of a sudden she was jumping through the shooting water. She was squealing in delight. I realize reading about it doesn't sound like much, but to me it shows progression and it reminds just how much she changes every day.

I'm pretty sure Kinley is either going through a growth spurt or teething. She was doing really well with her sleep and her attitude, but all of a sudden she started the irritability streak again. She's waking a couple times a night again and is always chomping on her fingers in her mouth. However, when she's in a good mood....she's in a GOOD mood. She'll smile at you until you can't help but feel like everything in life is perfect.