Thanks Mrs. Tracy & Barbra!

Last night my Huntsville mom (Mrs. Tracy) and her daughter Barbra came over to visit and bring lots of gifts to Emma! They've been traveling alot over the past couple of weeks so we haven't seen them in a long time. They brought Emma an awesome Elmo shirt that you can see in the pictures, Elmo/Zoe panties, candy, a bigger than Emma ballerina doll, cute little animal light things, a puppy purse, and I can't even remember what else...oh yeah, a gorgeous baby blue Ralph Lauren Polo Dress with bloomers! It was Christmas for Emma! She had so much fun playing with all of her goodies last night and we are so thankful for Mrs. Tracy and Barbra. Since we don't have any family here, their family has always been there for us since the day we moved here almost 5 years ago! Now enjoy the pics!

About to eat dinner in her Elmo shirt!


Mrs. Tracy has 2 dogs, Max & Trixie. Trixie is the newest addition and they take her everywhere with them. Look how cute & tiny she is!


Emma wanted to give Trixie some love and at one point gave her kisses on the mouth. I tried to capture it on camera but missed it.


And lastly, Emma being silly!


Thanks so much girls for coming by last night and showering Emma with presents! She talked about you all night and is ready for another visit!

In other news, tomorrow is my last official day at work (sheds tear) and of course, Emma's last day of daycare (jumps around!). I'm sad to leave my amazing coworkers/friends at work but I'm looking forward to having my Emma back full time, tantrums and all! This way we will get in lots of bonding time before her little brother or sister arrives this fall/winter. I plan on taking cupcakes to Em's school tomorrow afternoon and taking some pictures of her and her friends. I know she will miss them but she also hates for her mommy to leave in the mornings so I think she will adjust just fine. So lots of happy thoughts as I end my journey as a working mom for the next few years and love on my babies!

"Here I Not, Here I Come!"

A couple of weeks ago we taught Emma how to play hide and go seek. It is officially her favorite game. She could play for hours and be happy! So on Friday night we played for quite awhile and when it was Emma's turn to count she would say "Here I not, here I come!" and it was so cute. She had heard me say "ready or not, here I come" and got her words mixed up.

She's also a master hider. She will sit so still and be so quiet it's hard to find her. While I was counting George would hide Emma and I thought she would be scared hiding in the dark by herself but she never was. At one point she was in our dark closet hiding behind my jeans under a shelf. I had walked in and didn't see her and then couldn't find her in our bedroom. George said she was in our room somewhere so I finally found her in the closet and she was just sitting there so still! It just cracks me up to see how excited she gets when we play. I'm looking forward to another game tonight!

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Yesterday was absolutely beautiful and we enjoyed having our windows open all day at the house. I'm gearing up for my last day of work this Thursday and looking forward to lots of playtime with Miss Emma. Only 4 more days!

Mommy, I have 2 babies!

That's what Emma told me yesterday when we were using the heart dopplar. She loves to jump in the bed with us while we listen to the baby heartbeat and afterward she wanted to find the baby in her belly. Next thing I know she says "mommy I have 2 babies in my belly!" and was so excited about it! It was mega cute. She would concentrate so hard trying to find the heartbeat and then she found her heartbeat so we said it was both her babies. I love it!

In other news, I had been feeling little things here and there in my belly the past couple of days but you know in the beginning it's so hard to tell if it's the baby or gas or whatever. Well last night I thought I felt kicks 2 times but just wasn't sure. Then today at work I definitely felt it once and every once in a while I will feel a little flutter! I can't wait for it to be all the time b/c that was my favorite time while pregnant with Emma. Hopefully in the next week or two they will become more pronounced. So exciting!

Emma's 2nd Chest X-Ray

Emma did her repeat chest x-ray and I just talked to the nurse. Apparently her x-ray looks exactly the same as it did last Thursday. :( So since Dr. Dudley's mom passed away she has been out of the office most of the week and won't be back until Monday. For now we are going to wait until Monday and see what she wants to do. We are going to finish up both antibiotics and then just continue her nebulizer and continue "beating" her. Just kidding, we do back compressions, not actually beating her. :) I also mentioned that Emma has completely stopped coughing since we started the Bactrum and no fever since last week so that's good. However they had thought she would cough more when all the mucous broke up in her lungs so that's confusing. So for now we'll do our not so favorite nebulizer and see what the game plan is on Monday. She better get healthy for our trip...maybe I should talk to her about it tonight. :)

Going to Orlando!

Yes, you read that right! My last day in the office is officially next Thursday and on Friday Emma and I will make the long drive to Orlando to vacation with my aunt, uncle, cousin, and granny Scott. When Kelsey said yesterday I could just pack my bags and go they probably didn't realize I would really go but I've been so excited it's like Christmas! :) The timing couldn't be better b/c George has a really busy week at work that week so he won't even miss us. The only problem is Emma and I will have to drive back approximately 11 hours all by ourself but hopefully it won't be too bad. I'm actually more worried about myself over Emma b/c I've never driven that far alone! We can do it though!

So thanks to my Uncle John and Aunt Starlena for letting me kind of invite myself and my 2.5 year old on their relaxing vacation. We promise to hopefully not drive you crazy and no tantrums will be thrown! :) Emma is going to have a blast and maybe we'll get to venture over to the Magic Kingdom/Universal Studios for the day. Yay for trips!!!

Now lets just keep her healthy over this next week so we can go. Emma, now is really NOT the time to get sick my little princess!

Awesome Weekend & Update!

Our awesome cousins, Monya and Melica, drove down from TN with Aunt Marsha and spent the weekend with us. The girls are so great and wonderful to be around. I can't say enough wonderful things about them both. Emma LOVES them to death and was very sad to see them leave. We had a very low key weekend and spent time playing at the house and attending a birthday party down the street. Thanks for coming down Aunt Marsha and girls!!! We miss you already!

Emma getting ready to go to big Emma's 4th birthday party!


Trying to get a good picture with all 3 girls. Someone would always have their eyes closed in each pic!


And tonight George took a picture of my 16 wk preggo belly. I feel huge! I also had my 16 wk appt today with Dr. Cimino and in the last 4 wks I've only gained 2 lbs. Everything looked good and I go back in 3 wks (August 3rd) for my big anatomy ultrasound!!! So stinking excited!


Also, Emma is doing much better! The 2 antibiotics seem to be working well and on Thursday we will do another chest x-ray to double check her lungs.

Now for the big big news...I put my 2 wk notice in at work today. Since Emma has been so sick we all feel it is best to pull her out of daycare and do our best to keep her healthy. It was a very emotional day for me at work but they have been SO incredibly understanding and fully agree with my decision. So Emma and I both gave our 2 wk notice and I'm very excited to spend my days with her again. So lots of big changes in our family but it's all going to be alright. :)

Update on Emma

This morning she had her sinus and chest x-ray and did very well with Daddy. She had to stand on a stool all by herself while they did it and daddy said she wanted him to hold her but hecouldn't and she stood there like a big girl! That made mommy happy since I wasn't there. Then I met them both at Dr. Dudley's office for the results. Apparently Miss Emma has an Atelectic lung or something along those lines. Her lung is not inflating all the way so that's why she's been coughing so much for a month! Dr. Dudley also thinks thats why she keeps spiking fevers. So now she is on Augmentin for the ear infection and Bactrium (sp?) for the lung issue. She will take both medicines for 10 days and they also drew blood out of her poor little arm. It was very sad and quite pitiful but she is so strong and such a trooper. Three nurses came in the room to help b/c noone wanted to poke her precious little skin. The finally decided to take the blood out of her arm and she did so well. Yes, she did cry and it broke my heart but what do you do? I would gladly give them my blood but they didn't want it. :( The dr is checking her immunoglobulins & IgA to see if she has a low immune system and I can't remember if they were checking anything else. They did recheck her white blood count and it was elevated but she didn't tell me the exact number. When they checked it 2ish weeks ago it was also elevated. So we should get the results in the morning and Dr. Dudley said she really doesn't think the test will come back bad but she just wants to rule everything out. Emma obviously has a hard time recovering from sickness and she started this last sickness a whole month ago. But on the bright side her sinus x-ray did look clear so that's a positive! Oh and they gave her a cup of M&m's for being such a big girl during the blood draw! :)

I'll will update with the results as soon as I know something.

Another Round of Augmentin

We took Emma back to the ENT today b/c she just can't seem to get better and it has been about a month now. George and I have been rather stressed with her sickness and juggling our work schedules. So turns out Emma has an ear infection. About 3 wks when we took her to the pedi she did have fluid in her ears but it wasn't quite an infection. So we waited about 1.5 wks and then they started the 10 day Augmentin. Apparently that fluid never cleared up so now it is slightly infected. So now onto another 1o day dose of Augmentin! Also, her cough has been really bad and she is still spiking fevers in the middle of the night so in the morning she is having a chest x-ray and a sinus x-ray to see if there is a problem. This all takes place at 7:30am and then off to Dr. Dudley's at 9am to go over the results. Dr. Castillo (ENT) will also read the x-rays and call us and Dr. Dudley. We talked about a few options today but basically we have to see what the x-rays say before we can know exactly what's wrong. Since I'm pregnant I can't be in the room with her so George is taking her. Emma does NOT do well with x-rays or CT scans at all so it's going to be a challenge for daddy. We thought it would be best that I'm not there at all otherwise she would want mommy and make things worse. Hopefully I will have a good update tomorrow evening!

Want A Sparkler?

On Sunday night when we picked up Braxton from Chad and Jessica's house, Chad gave Emma some "flowers" (they were actually sparklers!) So that night George decided to let Emma try them out and she loved them! She was so careful and we were both beside her at all times (don't worry she was fine). They only did 4 or 5 and that was enough for her and mommy. Mommy is a little scared of sparklers. :)

We Miss You Monya and Melica!

I know I haven't blogged in about 5 years but we've been busy and I've been lazy. We kept Emma out of school all last week so she could recover from her cold and Judy stayed the week with us so we could do that without missing more work. It's hard being a working momma! So that's my excuse. :)

On Friday afternoon we took off to Nashville to stay with our awesome cousins Monya and Melica. They are growing up so fast and turning into beautiful young ladies. They are also the most well behaved girls ever! Monya is officially 13 but she is the sweetest teenager and Melica is now 11. Soon they will be off to college! Just kidding Aunt Marsha!

Emma had a blast playing with the girls and since we had to cancel Emma's bday party this year (due to tonsillectomy) Aunt Marsha had an Elmo cake for her and she opened presents! The chocolate Elmo cake was so yummy! Emma did a great job opening her presents too. She's much more into it these days than at Christmas...I can only imagine the fun she will have this Christmas. Anywho, we had a wonderful 4th with my family and even got to see Granny Dunham and Uncle Arnold. Thanks for having us Aunt Marsha and Uncle Jim! As usual, we had the best time!!! We are looking forward to your visit this weekend!

My girls! Emma was patiently waiting to stick her finger into the cake!


Success!!! She kept asking to stick her finger in it.


Getting excited about her new books!!!


Talented Monya has painted Emma a few canvases for her room and we love them. For her birthday she painted her an Abby Cadabby picture from Sesame Street b/c Emma loves her! Isn't this awesome??


And precious Melica is amazing at crocheting! For Christmas she made Emma a scarf and for her birthday she made this bunny. I LOVE it!!! I have some very gifted cousins! Oh and she got a cute little purse too. I love handmade gifts so much. It means a lot that they took the time to create these gifts.


We were very sad to leave but we shall see them again this weekend as they travel to Huntsville. Thanks girls so much for all of the fun and laughter. We always love visiting you and wished you lived closer!!!