Mother's Day Out

Last week Emily started Mother's Day out. She goes twice a week for a few hours. She calls it "cool" when I tell her she's going to school. I was nervous about leaving her in a new place with people she didn't know. She hasn't been away from me unless she's with family. She loves other kids and she gets so excited to have a place to go and play. She doesn't even act like she misses me and she doesn't want to leave the toys when I come and pick her up. It's been really good for her because she's a social butterfly! It's a little hard for me to leave her but I do enjoy having time for myself.

She wasn't happy about taking pictures so early!

Em with her lunch box and blankie

"Let's go mom!"

Emily @ 18 months

Emily just had her 18 month well baby check-up. So far, she's doing really well and she's very healthy! She is a big girl for her age. She is 35.5 in. tall which puts her in the 99th percentile for height and she weighs 32 lbs. which puts her in the 99th percentile for weight. She is definitely her daddy's daughter!! She is a happy and easy going (when you're not telling her no) toddler. She has recently started sleeping in a big girl bed and it wasn't a hard transition at all. She has also shown an interest in the potty so I guess I'm going to start potty training her! I'm not ready but she sure seems to be! We have been really blessed with how easy Emily makes things for us. She throws the occasional temper tantrums when she wants something but we really can't say she's difficult at all.

Schlitterbahn Trip with Anna & Callie

Emily finally got to check out Schlitterbahn! We went with Anna and Callie. We couldn't take Cade because he had stitches from surgery still. :( The girls had a great time. Emily didn't like the tube ride we went on. She gave me a pouty face the entire ride but never cried. When I asked her if she liked it, she told me "NO!". They liked the slides and the wave pool the best. It was a fun day but lots of work carrying Emily through the park!!

Callie's towel must have gotten heavy!

Double Trouble

Wildlife Ranch

Robyn and I wanted to do something fun with Bryson and Emily so we took them to the wildlife Ranch. It's like an African safari that you drive through to see animals. I call it the air-conditioned zoo! It was about 100 degrees that day so I was thankful to look at the animals from the car. The kids had a blast and Emily fed the animals and the road lots of food! You have to drive 5 mph along the path so they didn't have to stay in their car seats and I think they thought that was the best part.

Emily was pretty aggressive with her steering so I had to make sure I was on the brake!

Bryson had such a tight grip on the steering wheel that his whole body would fall over when I turned the wheel!

Enjoying the sun

Emily loves to play outside. It's not as fun for me this time of year because it's way too hot to enjoy being pregnant outside!! Em got to go on her first boat ride with Anna's kids. My dad's friend Paul took us all out on his boat and the kids had a blast! They didn't even mind keeping their life jackets on!

Grandpa loves his grandkids :)

double trouble

The kids love to play in the wagon at mom and dad's house. My brother's son Bryson has been in town so they thought they needed to take Bryson with them. As you can tell from the pics, they all had a great time!

And the baby is....

I had an ultrasound today to check on the baby and find out what we're having. I found out we're having another girl!! :) I was very excited and Michael was too. Everyone seemed to think he was rooting for a boy but he really didn't care and couldn't be happier getting another daughter. I was really hoping for another girl so that Emily has a sister she can grow up with. It's been 6 months since we lost Rachel and some days are still very hard so we really needed this news to have something to look forward to. I think that Emily will be a great big sister. She loves to be around kids, even strangers! She seems really lonely when it's just her and I like to think that's because she knows she's not suppose to be an only child. She likes to feed her dolls and push them in the doll stroller. She and her cousin Callie both like to be little mamas so this baby will be well taken care of! I just hope she doesn't mind sharing her mommy since it's just going to be me for the first 6 months of the baby's life.

I'm not sure what this view is but hopefully she looks less like a monkey in person!

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