Memorial Day Weekend

Okay so it has been a little while since I have posted anything to our blog, I know I know I need to make it a daily thing. Well we had a great Memorial Day Weekend. First we went to see Daniel's grandma that lives in Heber Springs on Saturday and Emory did really well on the drive down. She only fussed for a couple of times. We spent a couple of hours down there and Emory got to see her great-granny George and see her cousins Colby and Damitra and their daughter Madalyn, who by the way loved to see Baby Emory (as she calls her). When she first walked up to see Emory she just looked up at me and said she is so sweet. I thought that I was going to cry, it was the sweetest thing I had heard. Then throughout the day, Madalyn sang for Emory and Emory just loved to hear her sing. Sunday afternoon we went to Branson to walk around Branson Landing and found a couple of Cardinals shirts for Emory and found a Bass Pro Shops shirt for her too. Monday, we had the Keys' family cookout. It was also Daniel's cousins, Keaton's, birthday. We had a really good time. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

These next few pictures of Emory with her burp clothes hanging around her shoulders make me think about Lienes from Charlie Brown comicstrip. She just looks so cute with her hand over the burp clothes!!!!

"What ma? Can't I have my burp clothes as my security blanket?"

Madalyn just loved to get in the floor and play along with Emory. She just got a big kick out it. She would just sit there and look Emory over and just talk to her and sing to her. Emory loved all of the attention she was getting from Madalyn.

Sunday after Church, I decided that I was going to take a couple pictures of Emory in her blue dress with her new shoes that her great-granny George bought for her over the weekend and I got one of her laying on the couch and then I decided that I was going to see if she would sit up long enough for me to get a picture of her sitting up by herself. And I sat her up and sure enough, she sat up long enough for me to get to great pictures of her and then she started leaning to the side. I thought she looked so cute with her blue dress and those new shoes.

"Daddy I need your help. Will you please lend me your finger for support?"

6 months old!!!!!!!

Emory was 6 months old on Monday May 7th. I just can't get over how time flies by. It just seems like yesterday she was born. Well..... now she is just smiling and talking all of the time and just growing like a weed. Wednesday we had our 6 month check-up and we now weigh 9lbs and 6ozs and we are 19 3/4 inches long. Dr. Shrum was really please with Emory's progress. As most of you now, Emory was born with a genetic disorder and with her syndrome she has had some medicial problems and she is not quite doing the things she needs to be doing developmental for a 6 month old. But Dr. Shrum said that they last time he had seen her, which was in March, he said that she was doing things like a 2-3 week old, and now she was made a big improvement and is doing things like a 3 -4 month old. I was so pleased when he said that she was making some progress. She is getting better head control and hopefully we will be able to work with her on sitting up before too long.

We have had some pretty busy last couple of days. Wednesday after our visit with the doc, we went to visit Uncle Jason at Bergman School. We saw a couple of the teachers out there and Emory just had the best time visiting with her Uncle J ( which by the way she loves her new hat Uncle J). Then Thursday we were just hanging out at the house and the Audiologist from Mtn. Home called and said that Emory's new ear molds where in if we wanted to come and get them. I was like, yeah now we can finally get those hearing aides back in and start the whole process over again with getting her used to them. Emory has just been a chatter box here lately. Just about an hour ago I heard her in the living room just chatting away, I am sure she was telling her Daddy all about her day with Granny. Then I went to see if she had gone to sleep and sure enough, she had talked herself out. She is so sweet. I just love her more and more everyday.

Here are some more pictures of the Emory on her 6 month birthday ( as Daddy called it) and then some pictures of her in her new hat that Nana and I found when we went to Branson this evening to Carter's. We had so much fun. We looked at all of the boy stuff to get ideas for my sister's little bundle of joy, so when he gets here he will have plenty of clothes to wear like Emory, we have a ton of clothes that she will, hopefully, grow into if not I will just hang on to them for some body who might need them. Well enjoy the pictures!!!!

"Mom....... I feel like a movie star with all of the picture taking!!!!!!"

"Just look at the cute little hat my Mommy and Nana picked out for me, isn't it soooo cute!!!!"

***Congratulations to Travis and Alicia. We are anxiously awaiting the arrivial of baby Dixon in December!!!! We are so excited for the two of you. You will make GREAT parents!!! We love you guys!!!!

We're Back!!!!!

Since our last post, we have been extremely busy. Since then we have had a family gathering, a death of a friend (Sgt. William "Billy" Bushnell), two trips to LR and the funeral for Billy. We had such a good time at the family gathering. The Keys' family has starting have a birthday party each month that we have a birthday in it. Well this last month happened to be Daniel's cousin Josh's birthday and his wife Nicole's birthday and it also happened to be a housewarming partying for them since they finally have got their house done. I am so jealous of their house. It is so nice. They are so excited to be in their new house. Their old house was extremely small for them and they need some more room. Emory got a little fussy while we were there but she took a small nap and we were good to go from there.

Emory was so good when other people held her, she just smiled and smiled and smiled. This is one of my all time favorite pictures of her and Spencer (her cousin). He is just looking at her and she is just looking at him and they were trying to figure each other out. Spencer and Emory are being held by Nicole's mom, Mary.

Then Tuesday we went to Little Rock to get our hearing aides. Daniel and I were so excited and we were going to be really upset if they didn't have "hers" in. We had received a letter back in March when they discovered that she had moderate hearing loss in both ears and that she would need hearing aides. They reassured us since that they found it early enough a long that she should not have any problems but they just don't know. So when we got there for our first appointment with Dr. Key (ENT doctor) his nurse looked in her ears and couldn't see anything because of too much stuff in her ears. So she moved us to another room to clean out her ears. Let me tell you how much fun that was. We had to strip her down, because she gets so hot, and then they swaddled her in a sheet. Emory did really good being swaddled, usually at home she will work her arms out but she didn't hardly wiggle. Until they start to clean out her ears with a suction thing. She started screaming her head. I have not seen her get so red in a very long time. All I wanted to do was just push the nurse and the resident out of the way and just pick up Emory and hold her and let her know that everything was okay. When I did get to finally hold after them cleaning out her ears, she was doing a little bit of that snubbing stuff, I thought that that was a little cute. Then we finally got to where we met with Dr. Jan who put in Emory's hearing aides and just went over the general taking care of them type stuff. When we finally got both hearing aides in and turned them on, let me just tell you how excited Dan and I were. We spoke to Emory in a normal tone voice and it took about three tries of us saying her name and then..... she finally smiled!!!! Dan and I just looked at each other and we were so excited. Dr. Jan said that it would be normal for a while since she was still so small that her ear molds (the piece that fits down in her ear) would fit one day and then not the next because she has grown out of them. Well Wednesday when I dropped her off at Granny's we had the hearing aides in and by the time I got up there for lunch, she had taken the left one out and said that it would not stop whistling. Well I checked it and put it back in her ear and it was not a snug fit anymore. Well anyways we go today to the ENT doctors in Mtn. Home for them to get some new ear molds made.

Also last night, Emory finally got her paci in her mouth by herself!!! I couldn't believe it. I noticed her with it right beside her mouth and she was licking it and trying to figure out a way to get it in her mouth. Well I snapped a few pictures of her yawning and smiling so then I just went and fixed her a bottle. Then Daniel came in from the grocery store and I walked in to the living room to start feeding her. I put the bottle down besided the couch and walked over to her pack n play and noticed that she had her paci in her mouth. I just go so very excited and told Dan about it and he tried to tell me that he had put it in her mouth but he didn't. So I missed it. I wanted a picture of her doing that really badly but maybe next. Enjoy the pictures that I do have from last night.

When you have a chance, check out www.ethanpowell.com, this little boy is one day from being a month younger than Emory and he is fighting a battle with Leukemia. I happened to see this website from my friend Nikki, themcinyrezoo, from one of her links to a friend and I was looking at her blog and noctied her entry about this little boy. If you are not a believer in God, you will be when you read the updates from the parents on this page. It is awesome to see how prayer works and now that God has a plan ( Daniel and I now that too). Thanks!!!