Happy Halloween!

When we found out that we were having a girl, my little sister told me that she had to be a ladybug for Halloween. Katie has always liked ladybugs, so a ladybug Emory was! She looked SO cute in her costume I hated to take it off her. We were able to go Trick-or-Treating to a few houses close to us and for the first time since we have been married, we actually had trick-or-treaters!! I am always afraid that I am going to run out of candy. This year we had just enough left over for Chase and I to enjoy. I hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween this year!!

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Because I Promised

These are the pictures that coincide with "the longest week of my life" minus pictures from work!

Emory is the only baby that Frank will hold willingly! And she loves him!

She was fascinated by the "Go Blazers!" stickers.

Ready to cheer on the Blazers!

I love Payton's face here and how Emory is looking at him like "what are you doing?!"

"Would you like to play with this mom?"

Emory and Blue playing on the floor while we ate dinner.

"Hey! I know you!"

Chase's new motorcycle.

"What, you let him buy a motorcycle!?"

This is what Chase did the next weekend while Emory and I were in Birmingham.

Papa put Emory in with all the stuffed animals. It was too cute not to take a picture!

A week in review...the longest week of my life!

I must say this has been one of the longest weeks of my life, yet it went by quickly....it could be because I haven't stopped moving since last Friday. So...

Friday...we left Nashville to drive to Birmingham for UAB homecoming. We didn't get to Birmingham until 1030 Friday. Emory of course didn't sleep well because we were not at home so neither did mommy (sleep deprived night #1).

Saturday...Homecoming game! Which UAB actually won!! Yea! It was nice to see the Blazers pull out a win. We started the tailgating at one, the game started at three and ended around 6, I think. After eating a quick dinner, where my mom insisted that Chase make his guacamole for her, I must say it is excellent...I never liked it until he made it and now I love it...anyway, we drove to Jacksonville, AL. One of Chase's childhood friends father passed away so we had to go for all the arrangements. We had to stopped twice on the short one hour drive, once to feed Emory and the other to change one of the stinkiest diapers EVER...we had to roll down the windows to air out the car!! Solids are NO fun!! We arrived around 9:30pm.

Sunday...Emory did not sleep well again Saturday night because, again, we were in a new place (sleep deprived night #2). We got up early and went to church in Jacksonville. After lunch Chase and his brother went and rode Forrest's motorcycles and then...Chase bought a motorcycle! Yes, you read that right. He bought a motorcycle. I know what you are thinking, but if you had to live with this man that had had a bike all his life up until we got married and then his wife wouldn't let him, you would have let him buy one too!!! I was tired of him asking for one and on pretty days, every motorcycle that we passed, he would say "I want a motorcycle." See it was annoying! The thing is, I trust him completely on the bike, it's the other drivers that I don't trust! So LOOK TWICE people, because the man on the bike could be Chase now!!! The rest of the day we spent with his family.

Monday...Emory didn't sleep well AGAIN (sleep deprived night #3)! we drove to Cumming, GA. (about two hours from Jacksonville, AL, outside Atlanta) We spent the early afternoon at the Salzsieders house. The visitation was from 3-4pm and the service was from 4-5pm GA time. After the service, we drove to Dahlonega, GA ( about 30 minutes form Cumming) to have a party. Dean wanted us to celebrate his life and that is what we did. The family hired a Beatles cover band called The Return. They were excellent. They even played the part, they looked like them and even spoke in British accents! Dean loved the Beatles and music in general. We could only stay for about three songs before we had to head back to Nashville. A 4.5 hour drive! The thing is, it would be a 2 maybe 3 hour drive but the first two hours of the drive wind through the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. It was two hours of 90 degree turns every 30 feet up hill! Miserable!! I kept telling myself, "what goes up must come down." I thought it was never going to end! We arrived home at 11pm. I got Emory in the bed, we fixed bottles and prepared for work the next day and finally were in the bed at midnight.

Tuesday-Thursday...I worked three days in a row. It was the first time I had done that since I was 5 months pregnant. Mainly because I don't like going that long without seeing Emory but also because I am exhausted after two shifts in a row. Emory started to get a cold so she didn't sleep well at all Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday night (sleep deprived nights #4, 5, and 6). I vaguely remember the last three days at work. I was awake and alert enough to do my job of course, but not much else. I had great patients and parents ( that is key) so it helped a lot!

Friday...Emory slept until 8am!!! She went to sleep at 9pm Thursday night and woke up at 8am! Wonderful sleep! However, from the second I got up we were going. I had to finish packing because we were leaving at 9am when Chase got off from work to drive to Birmingham. Well, first we drove to Jacksonville to pick up his bike and trailer it back to Birmingham and later to Nashville. We arrived in Birmingham at 3:20, unloaded the bike, fed Emory, and then I drove Chase to meet a friend to drive down to the beach for the weekend. Patrick's bachelor party is this weekend in Destin, FL. Tonight Chase is driving to the beach and I went to a UAB volleyball match to watch Jordan play! They won 3-2 against Southern Miss! Go Lady Blazers! So you can see how this has been a VERY long week, but I must say it FLEW by. I am going to have a nice relaxing weekend in Birmingham with my parents and then when Chase gets back in town on Sunday we will drive home to Nashville.

I will post pictures when we get back home. Chase has the camera in Florida with him.

Our Little Pumpkin

The last one is my favorite and the new background on my computer. She has become quite the ham in front of the camera!!

Dinner time with Daddy

Daddy is a messy feeder!! And obviously not fast enough with the spoon either!

This is what happens....

when Cheryl and Tara are around!!! Who knew she had enough hair to hold 10 bows?!

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Happy Baby...

Isn't she the cutest thing you've ever seen?!

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6 Months

Has it really been 6 months?! In some aspects it seems that Emory has been with us forever. You know the attitude of, "what did I do before I had a baby?," as my mom says, "anything you wanted!" True. However, I also feel like we just had her! When I say she's 6 months it doesn't seem like she is that old but when I think about it, I think, "she's half a year old!!" Holy crap she is going to be a year old before I know it!! I was talking to my friend Libby the other day about her son who just turned a year old. She was saying how she was ready for it to be the end of the month so that she could go back to the "month" age and say he was 13 months, not a WHOLE year! Wow time flies.

We have had a wonderful month. Ok so our new things:

-STATS: 15 pounds 5 ounces (50 percentile) 26 inches (50 percentile)
-our feet have found our mouth (this one is a little gross to me but whatever)
-our new favorite toy is the jumpster (thank you Linda) it is the ONLY thing that occupies her for longer then 15 minutes, which means mommy has time to cook dinner!
-we can blubber our lips
-we have cut two teeth
-we are working on saying ma-ma, ga-ga, ba-ba. we tend to say those a lot. I am working on getting her to say da-da, but it's a no go so far, poor chase!
-we have become a HUGE momma's girl and I believe we are starting to get a little separation anxiety, not good
-we have started back on rice cereal but this time we are mixing in fruits and she LOVES it. she has also tried sweet potatoes as her first veggie
-we can sit up like a champ, not on her own of course but she is much more stable now


So 6 months is also one of those dreaded doctors visits. But only because of shots. However, today was not horrible, at least not as horrible as the others. Thanks to a wonderful pharmaceutical company, three of her shots have now been combined into one! Thank goodness, so instead of 4 shots today we only had to get two, so much better. She only cried for about 10 seconds once she was back in my arms. Poor thing though, she nursed and then fell asleep before we were even back in the car and is still asleep, we are going on 3 hours now. Usually I would never let her sleep this long but I don't dare wake her up after immunizations! Chase was able to come today for emotional support, for me and for Emory! I still don't know what kind of baby I am going to get after nap time, last time she was a happy baby, but the time before she was not so happy!!

These first 6 months have been amazing and unforgettable. We can't wait for more to come!

Daddy's Little Girl

We have teeth!!

Two of them!!! She hasn't been fussy or run a fever or anything and we have TWO teeth!! Besides not sleeping well Sunday night, she has been a VERY pleasant baby! Our baby is growing up so fast. Today I was watching her sitting on the floor playing, just in awe of how much she's grown. Yesterday, if she was sitting on the floor and leaned forward to grab a toy, she would get stuck and I would have to go help her sit back up. Not today!! She would lean to get a toy, grab it, and sit back up on her own to play with it! Where have the last 5 1/2 months gone?! This is such a fun age but I can't help but feel like she's growing up too fast. I was almost in tears today while watching her play on her mat. Tears of sadness because she won't be a baby soon and tears of joy to see her develop new skills and learn new things about herself and her abilities. God has truly blessed us with an amazing, healthy, happy baby and I thank Him daily.

Fall is in the Air

She's growing up right before my eyes! I can't believe it!! Our friends Cheryl and Tara gave Emory the shirt in the pictures and she looked so cute in her jeans that I had to take a few pictures. Plus they wanted to see her in the shirt!! The weather has been amazing here and we have really enjoyed playing in the backyard. She loves the brightly colored leaves and the wind! She's such an outdoor baby!! Definitely her daddy's girl! Belle and Harley were not too sure about Emory being in their backyard. At least Belle was brave enough to come sit by her...maybe not now that Emory grabbed her head! Emory has really started to notice the dogs and laughs every time they come around her now. Hopefully they will start to get use to each other. I think the dogs have resigned to the fact that Emory is here to stay but now that she actually wants to play with them, they may prefer to stay outside more!!