5 months old

Sweet Emery Rose turned 5 months old on January 5th!  

Emery is getting more active each day.  She does well sitting up, but we still keep a boppy pillow behind her in the event she will fall back.  She loves playing with her toys and is always entertained by her big brother and sister.  They love her and ALWAYS greet her after she wakes in the morning and after her naps.  They currently call her 'femo,' 'demo,' and 'emmy.'  Emery loves playing with her feet while laying on her back and she is really starting to enjoy her exersaucer.   Her favorite place to be is in our arms though and prefers to be held all.day.long.  

Emery is getting herself on a pretty good schedule.  She takes 2 naps a day.  Usually a 45 to 1.5 hour nap in the morning and a longer nap in the afternoon.  We occasionally have to rock her back to sleep during her long nap in the afternoon.  I know we probably shouldn't, but I live for that long nap!!  She is typically in bed by 7:00 or 7:30 at night.  We usually have to stick her pacifier back in during the night a few times (but she actually does great at putting the pacifier in her mouth by herself….just can't always find 1 of the 6 in her bed).  She usually sleeps with a pacifier in her mouth, and 1 or 2 in each hand.  We keep 6 in there, so she is sure to always have one!  She isn't as consistent for wake time though.  The other night I nursed her at 4:30 in the morning….she went back to sleep... and I had to wake her up to leave at 8:30.   There are mornings that I nurse her at 5 and she goes back to sleep and we also have mornings where I don't feed her until 7:00.  Emery is really becoming a great sleeper!!

Emery is eating about 25 ounces each day of milk.  She isn't eating solids as well, but seems to enjoy prunes.  We continue to try different solids in the hope that she'll transition quicker to the spoon.  She does pretty well drinking water out of the sippy for her age.

Emery continues to experience stranger anxiety with everyone and is happy just to stay with Scott and I.  She's a sweet little girl and we love having her with us!!

And here is her photo shoot….

Happy 5 months sweet girl!!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year (a few weeks late)!  My parents and the Roberts came over to celebrate New Year's with us, as well as our final Christmas with the Brauchler side.  New Year's eve was spent celebrating with the kids hours before the ball dropped and playing games.  We did a count down for the kids early in the evening….they loved it and we had to do it multiple times!  Emery had her first actual vomiting experience from eating too much food.  She was loving her carrots and oatmeal that night….unfortunately, we gave her too much!  She recovered quickly and was fine the rest of the weekend!

Hanging out with her cousin….twins!!

 Friday morning, the guys took Kensley, Elli & Connor skiing at Snow Trails.  The kids loved it and did great!  And once Scott took Connor down the big hill, he was hooked and spent the rest of his time on it.

 The rest of us traveled up later in the day.  We watched them briefly ski and then all went to the 'Red Hotel Slide.'  We had planned on celebrating Christmas with the Brauchler side this day; however, my Grandpa ended up in the hospital with what we thought was the flu.

We spent the rest of the day swimming at the pool.  They have a family hot tub that feels like bath water, so I decided to take Emery swimming in it!  Of course we had to have a mini photoshoot before going to the pool since this was her first time in a swim suit!

Everyone in the hot tub!!

2014 was a great year for us!  We welcomed Emery, moved into a new house, and Scott switched territories for work!  We're looking forward to 2015 and watching the kids grow and learn!

Christmas 2014

We celebrated our Christmas this year on Christmas Eve.  The night before, the kids sprinkled food on the ground outside for the reindeer….

 (not sure about this picture….Connor found this mask and insisted on crawling around on the ground before heading outside to sprinkle food)

 made sure the chimney was clear for Santa….

 Wrote Santa a 'thank you' note

 (these noses were their idea…..they wore them all week long)

And read 'The Night Before Christmas.'

We thought they for sure wouldn't sleep at all, but ended up not having too much trouble.  Scott did have to go upstairs and tell Connor that he saw on the news that Santa was almost in our area and he wouldn't come unless he went to sleep.  He was out within 5 minutes!

 In the morning….Elli woke up first, went downstairs, ran back up to her room and told all her stuffed animals "He came!!  He came!!"  She grabbed her new glasses out of her stocking and came into the room to get me up!

 We read out of the Bible before opening presents

 Emery's first Christmas in her new chair!!

 Getting ready to open her first gift!

 She needed some help from big sis.

 Ha….apparently she wasn't too excited about her 2014 barbie!

 Both kids got Wizard of Oz costumes

 He asked Santa for this toothless dragon!

 Elli got her Elsa doll that she asked Santa for multiple times!

 After opening presents, I made brunch, we watched movies, took naps, played with toys, packed up to go to Indiana and ate a big dinner.  We made a last minute decision to leave that night around 8:30 to go to Indiana so Emery would sleep the whole way home.  We got to Indiana late that night and had a rough night of sleep with Connor and Emery.

Scott and the older 2 kids went over to his parents for a bit on Christmas morning then came back over to my parent's house to celebrate with the Zurchers.

Emery's first Christmas….

We opened gifts with the Zurchers and ate brunch and dinner with them.

 Later that evening, the adults opened gifts at my parents while the kids were in bed sleeping.  The kids opened their gifts on Friday morning….

 Excited about his new fishing gear

 Emery and I spent the better part of the day on Friday at the Doctor….really….the whole thing took roughly 3 hours.  She was diagnosed with thrush again….I'm just glad we were able to see someone!  After dinner, we headed over to Lindvalls.

We opened gifts at the their house on Saturday morning, had a big lunch, and played with toys.  We also went to see a movie later in the day….Emery's first movie, 'Big Hero 6.'

 Emery with her new hat and afghan that Nana L. made her!

 We went to church on Sunday morning and then spent the day celebrating Christmas with the extended Lindvall family before we went back home to Ohio!

Elli with her boys!!

We had a great Christmas!!  Sleeping was rough….Connor had a horrible cough and spent much of each night coughing and then grinding his teeth.  It was awful!  Scott and I spent much of the night trying to keep Emery asleep, so she wouldn't wake the other kids!  Needless to say, our beds felt amazing once we got home!!  Despite the lack of sleep, each Christmas gets more fun as the kids get older!  Elli was so sad once it was over (and maybe because we took down all the decorations the day after we got home).  We couldn't have asked for a better Christmas!