Calling All Princesses!

So, here is a preview of Emrey's "princess dress", the dress she will be wearing to Aunt Sarah's wedding this New Years! It arrived this past week, and she was so thrilled when she opened the box, and wanted to put it on immediately! She says that she and mom will be princesses and dad will be the prince! All week, she has requested to put it on to show anyone who comes over.

One of Emrey's favorite activites these days is painting. She is always asking to paint...and it's not always the best time, but when we can, we try to get them out! Here she is pretty focused on whatever it was she was painting at the time.

And Eli....continues to get into trouble, every time I turn around, it seems! He is a love though and so cuddly and happy! He is definitely on the move and pulling up on everything! He is trying to walk, with anything he can hold onto and make move...sometimes with great success and other times not so much! But he is tough!

And of course, everything still goes in the mouth!

Emrey scored this penguin at a yard sale we went to one saturday. The man insisted she take it home for free! So...we gave it a good bath in the washer and she has been pretty attached to it since, wanting to take it everywhere she goes...

Here he is pulling up...

And, "helping" with the dishes....

And trying really hard to get into this cabinet!

It is getting cooler here...but still hot in the middle of the day...so we stripped him down..., obviously Eli is doing fine, weight wise!

Here he is on a secret mission at the playground!

Above and below are Emrey's first attempts at taking a picture with the camera...with a little help from mom holding it while she attempted to push the button!

Five Years!

It's hard to believe we celebrated our Five year anniversary this past weekend! We decided to drive out to San Antonio and take Ben and Kath up on an offer to watch our kids! Ellis and I did an overnight and got to go swimming in Hamilton Pond, a natural spring fed swimming hole near Austin! We also did some wine tasting at a few vineyards in the Hill Country and stayed at a great B & B, Alexandra's House, in Wimberly. Not only did we get to sleep in, but we were served breakfast (for a change), the most delicious lemon, ricotta pancakes! After our night away, we got to hang out with the Hollo's for the afternoon, swimming and eating great food, that Kath so graciously made! We hit the road at bedtime, so all the little ones could sleep on the way home (which makes for much smoother car rides). I feel so incredibly blessed with all God has given us and the amazing relationship Ellis and I have...although we're still learning and trying to figure out this marriage thing! Hopefully we'll have many more anniversaries to celebrate!

Hamilton Pool

The porch of the B & B

Oh...it wouldn't be a King family blog post with out a kid....Eli is now standing up in his crib!!

And I just love this photo of Eli...he was very curious about these weights when we had them out last week! It's hard to believe, but someday I'm sure he'll lift much more than his mom's measly little 15 pound weights!

Eli 9 months

It's hard to believe that Eli is three months away from being a year! He is such a sweet boy and so easy going. He has his 9 month check up this week and got yet another vaccine, but was very brave! I am WAY overdue for an update as to how he's doing. Overall, he's doing great! Some of the things he loves these days are playing at this fun musical table (which you see below). He really loves to dance and jive to the beat and bends his knees and little legs. It's so cute to watch and he gets this big grin on his face! He does have some stiff competition for this table, as Emrey likes to dance to the songs (especially "here she comes" aka, "she'll be coming round the mountain"). Sometimes, Emrey gets frustrated as his grabbing at the table often interrupts the song she's dancing to, what a primadonna!

Emrey has rediscovered this toy all over again. When she first received this as a one year birthday present she also loved it, but didn't know any of the songs or her ABC's, or other random things it plays. Now she does...and she was so excited when we pulled it down from the attic last week!


(apologies for the poor pictures, my camera is being fixed and the I-phone is a sorry stand in)



So, back to Eli...He also loves to chase after Emrey, wherever she goes in the house. He has gotten up on his knees a few times, but prefers to crawl on his stomach, like a little snake. I'm always amazed at how fast he is! He especially gravitates toward all the dirty places in the house, like the bathroom floor, and the living room, where I swear he looks for dust bunnies to eat!

He is struggling to go to sleep quickly since he can sit himself up in his crib. This (above) is how I usually find him these days when I go in to get him. Often times he will play for a while with his stuffed animals in his crib before giving in and laying his head down to sleep!

Still doing cloth diapers....it is tiring...but feels so worth it and we are definitely saving money. Luckily we have had a VERY dry summer, so I've been able to do a lot of drying outside, which saves even more on energy!

Eli's getting his first two teeth, on the bottom. I've been watching these two little white patches slowly surfacing...poor guy, I know it can't feel good.

Breastfeeding has been interesting. We're still going...but Eli is SUPER distracted when I try to feed him during the day. We're down to four feedings, but the two mid-day one's are challenging, as he's often trying to climb off my lap when he gets distracted, then wants to climb back for more....So, I'm pumping and giving those ones to him in a cup, and also supplementing with a little bit of formula and Kefir drink, which he also LOVES!

Eli does not like, diaper changes, getting his face/hands washed after meals, being dried after the bath...

And Ms. Emrey...started "school" or MDO, at a nearby Methodist church, this week and is having a blast! I brought her to visit her new teachers last week and stopped at the grocery store quickly on the way home. I have a hard time saying no to fun, beautiful treats like this one...So, we brought it home with us.

Ahh yes, that beautiful scar on her forehead..was a playing wound she recieved just as we were about to head out to dinner with friends last week. Luckily, our friend is an oral surgeon resident, so he was able to let us know that it did not need stiches! It did bleed pretty bad, but it's healing up well! Emrey was a champ and was running around again, a few minutes after it happened!

Emrey goes to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 - 2. Below is a picture of her schedule that I took to show dad. I was told that during circle time each of the kids will take a turn holding up a card with their name on it and practice spelling each of the letters, so that very soon, Emrey will be able to spell and recognize her name! She already knows there is an "E" starting her name and anytime we're out driving and she sees and "E", she yells "look mom, there's an E for Emrey"! I'm curious to know what they discuss in "science"?? And, how they get them to nap? Because so far every day I've picked her up, she's out cold!

Although Emrey's napping is sporadic at home these days, when she does fall asleep, she's usually out cold! Below are some really sweet pictures of what usually happens when Ellis goes in to put Emrey to sleep...but usually Ellis is on the floor and Emrey is actually using her
pillow :) I thought this was really sweet!

We're trying no pull-up for the first time tonight with Emrey! She's been waking up dry for a long time now...we'll see!

August

Eli and Henry

We babysat for my friend Sarah, so she and her husband could celebrate her birthday! Eli and Henrey had fun together, but Emrey and Emma, had a blast!

And, as usual...things got carried away...

Eli is loving finger foods and has not passed up anything I've placed in front of him....yet.

Emrey loves reading to Eli...although he's usually more interested in trying to eat the book, rather than look at it!

Eli is definitely on the move. Just this week, (his 9 month birthday) he actually made it up this step for the first time! He's been working on it for a couple weeks now! He is fast! Yesterday, I got him set up in Emrey's room with some toys and came back a few minutes later and he was nowhere to be found? I looked under the bed...not there, in the closet, not there...he had made his way into the bathroom and was trying to pull himself up on the tub!

Speaking of the tub...Eli LOVES it, even if he's usually tired by the time I get him in there and even though it means getting lots of water dumped over his head by his big sister

"up and down"...what you see, is usually the first thing Emrey asks
Ellis to do when he comes home from work! He usually asks her "okay, how many times do you want to go "up and down"? And she usually says, "how bout two, cause I'm two"! But, when we ask her how many gummy treats she wants, she says "how bout three, because I'm going to be three"! She's learning....

The "cousins", as Emrey likes to call them, came for a weekend back in July. Aunt Kath and I went out to do some dress shopping for the wedding and we came home to this set up in the living room! Ellis was being creative, babysitting 4 kids in 100 degree weather!

Em, Eli, Luke and Drew

So, we found out that all the older kids go back to school this week...that is after I got everyone ready to head over to the neighborhood pool and it was CLOSED! So...after some minor meltdowns, by Emrey and myself, we came home and busted out the baby pool for the first time this summer ! We're definitely going to have to get creative for the next month or so, until it starts cooling off!


The highlight of Emrey's last two weeks has definitely been her rides with Rowan and Ms. Lindsay. Lindsay has so sweetly called twice now and offered to take Emrey on what she calls a "chariot ride". She takes them to the park and Emrey has such a blast! It has also been REALLY nice for me to get some housework done and generally get organized for the day (get dressed, brush my teeth :)

Emrey starts school (MDO) next week and she is really excited! I'm excited for her and I think she'll enjoy it even more this year! And...I'm so happy for her, because Rowan will be in her class again.

Eli's sleepng!

Well, it's official, 8 months after being born, Eli is finally sleeping through the night! After our trip to NH (where he started waking up twice a night ugh!) we came home and I decided we would let him cry it out a bit. At first he still woke up at 12 and we let him cry, so he stopped that pretty quickly, but he continued to wake up looking for milk at 4:30 and I obliged, since he usually goes down between seven and eight, that's a pretty good stretch! But, the last week or so, he's been sleeping all the way until six and even seven some mornings! I wake up a bit confused, wondering if something is wrong, go check on him and then gladly head back to bed for any little bit of sleep I can get!

On another subject, he is starting to eat little finger foods, like cheese and pees and anything he can get in his mouth! He tried yogurt for the first time this week and....LOVED it!

Now Emrey....that is another story! She is sporadic with her naps! Most days she looks completely eghsausted and even says "mom, I'm not tired" at some point between one and two pm. I usually make her go into her bedroom and not sleep, but "rest" as she likes to say, "mom, I don't have to go to sleep like Eli right?"....So, I tell her I just want her to stay in bed and rest. Fifty percent of the time, she's out like a light, within ten minutes...the other days, she fights it like crazy and can stay in her bed, singing, talking, playing with her stuffed animals for up to two hours! When we reach four pm, that's my cutoff. If she falls asleep at that point, the rest of the night is shot and she'll be up until midnight! So...when she doesn't sleep, it makes for a very long afternoon, because she is usually REALLY tired and whiny and emotional.... kind of like her mom when she doesn't get her sleep! But on the positive side, it's early to bed, usually by 7pm! So, I can get to sleep early too, or do things like post on the blogg!