The Pumpkin Patch

Here are a couple of pictures from the Pumkin Patch last week - adorable!!! She did really well for these too - it was so hot, but she was a good sport - even for a few wardrobe changes!

I have a blog?

I know, you probably thought I forgot. I won't spend a lot of time on words because I have too many cute pictures to share with you. Emma's 7 1/2 months old and is doing wonderfully. She's rolling all over the place and is sooo close to crawling. No teeth yet, but I'm not complaining! Here are some pictures taken by Uncle Carlton a couple of weeks ago. She was a great subject. Hope everyone is doing well. We're going to be a ladybug for halloween, so I'll try to get some new pictures up soon!

I'm a Big Girl Now!

First, let me apologize for the fact that it's been two months since I last posted - I'm a lazy blogger! Between working, night meetings, having dial-up at home, and a fun little baby to play with in my spare time, I have neglected my blog. As many of you already know from the pictures I sent, Emma is now eating cereal and boy does she love it! She's waking up every once in a while during the night, but I don't know if this is due to her new food, teething, or because she's more hungry. Overall, she still sleeps through the night and is a complete joy. It is hard to believe she is almost six months old. She has been sitting up since 4 1/2 months, but has still yet to roll over. She comes so close, but just hasn't seen anywhere she wants to go bad enough to try and get there. Her biggest motivation is usually to get to one of the cats to grab a handful of fur! She has also begun to push up on her arms a bit, but still doesn't like tummy time enough to give it more than a couple of minutes of effort. She's also chewing on everything in sight, so we expect some teeth some time in the next month or two. We're having lots of fun with her. Cody and have talked about how proud we are every time someone tells us how beautiful she is, or what a good baby she is - but ultimately we're just glad she is happy and in good health.

Our most recent visitors were Gail, Cal and Granny. We were so glad they could finally meet Emma face to face, and had a wonderful visit. I'm so excited to finally get to see almost everyone else in our Charlotte family at our 'reunion' at the end of September.

It's hard to believe it's almost fall already. I was driving to work this morning and there's a little old drug store downtown near my office and they had put up a hay bail and some scarecrows out front - I couldn't believe it! We've still barely had a chance to get out on the river. Could the summer already be gone?!? I guess we're blessed to have been able to go out at all. We've taken Emma out three times - two of which it rained and the last time the boat broke down. But Cody fixed the problem with the boat so we plan to go out this Saturday, weather permitting. In case you're wondering, no, we don't have a boat. Cody's friend Thomas won a little 14' Jon boat at his company picnic and already has a boat, so he's letting us borrow it for a while. Emma seems to like being out on the river, and she loves having Sunny in the boat with us where she can pet her without Sunny running off.

Well, who knows when I'll have to time to post again, but I'll try to get some more pictures up soon. Take care everyone!

Emma Update - 4 Months

In my Bumbo at the river

Emma & Gavin - Memorial Day weekend

Emma after Church last Sunday - looking ready for a nap!

In the 'ExerSaucer' for the first time - she had this look on her face for about five minutes!

Well, it's been an exciting third month with Emma. She has continued to make things pretty easy on us. She sleeps all night and is growing like a weed! We just went today for her 4 month checkup and she's staying on pace to outgrown both me and her Daddy! I'm back at work now, which is a challenge, but I've been lucky enough to be able to work from home two days a week. Emma and her Grandmama have been getting along swimmingly - she's been a huge help and made the transition very easy for me. It's still so hard to know that my child is in someone else's care more of the time than mine, even though it is my mother. Hopefully one day that won't be the case, and I can stay home with her more, at least part time if nothing else. We went to the river for the weekend on Memorial Day and had a great time. We had lots of fun with several of our friends who came down with their kids. We're hoping to maybe do something similar on the 4th of July, and then it's off to the beach for our usual time with Vernon, Carol and Katie!

Me and my Daddy

Here are some pictures of me and my Daddy. We like hanging out together and taking naps. We dressed alike for the Final Four game, and it worked (thanks for the shirt Kristen!) - the Gators won! And the last picture is me in my new bathing suit from Aunt Gail that I wore to the beach, even though we didn't get out in the sun. Look how good I can stand up with Daddy's help!

Emma's first two months

Anniversary Beach Trip - Seven Weeks

Most Recent Pics - Eight Weeks

Older Pics

4 Weeks

4 Weeks

Easter - 5 Weeks

Napping with Miss Buddy - 7 Weeks

Emma Lee Banner

I know, I know it took me long enough right?!? This is our beautiful baby girl, Miss Emma Lee Banner, born February 27th at 6:42 AM. And since you're probably wondering, we are calling her Emma, not EmmaLee - there's been a great deal of confusion about that - she'll probably want to kick us for it later. But anyway, isn't she just great? This was one of the first pictures taken of her in the hospital. She was eight pounds even, and 20.5 inches long. "A long drink of water" her daddy likes to call her. We just went to the doctor last week for her two month checkup and she now weighs just over twelve pounds and is 24 inches long (the 95th percentile!).
Everyone always asks us if we're getting any sleep, but she's been a complete angel from the very beginning! She typically sleeps all night and only wakes up once early in the morning around four. But over the last week, she's started sleeping until about 6:30 - can you believe it? She eats well, and overall has a pretty laid back disposition, with the exception of some fussy time in the evening. She smiles and coos at you now which is fun. And she holds her head up pretty well. Other than that, nothing too eventful to speak of yet. I'm trying to enjoy every minute of our time together since I have to back to work the 21st of this month, so I won't write much more for now, but I'll do another post with some newer pictures and that will probably be it for awhile until I'm back at work. For those of you that don't already know, we've only got dial up at home, so it's too slow to take the time to post pictures (I'm using Mom's at the moment). So take care everyone, and I'll update again in a few weeks!

We're Finally Home!!!

Well we've finally moved into our new home! I haven't had much time to take any final pictures, but I have a few of the carpet and cabinets in some of the rooms that I can post until I get some new ones up. We made the transition this past weekend with much help from our family, and we spent our first night in the house on Monday night. The only family members who have yet to join us are our fish and Flash (the turtle). They're still hanging out at Grandmama and Grandpa's house, probably until Sunday afternoon. The baby shower at the church is this Saturday, and we've got lots of Charlotte family coming in as we speak to be with us. So we're hurriedly trying to put a few finishing touches on the house so it will be ready for company. Here are a few other interesting things of note with us recently: this week is my third anniversary working at the County (although it feels like longer), and this week Cody accepted a new/old job, working back with the Witts at G&K Nursery in Ellisville - I told him that maybe the third time's the charm! He worked there in high school, and then went back for three years or so before taking his current job with Chestnut Hill. What seemed like a very stressful situation in the beginning turned out to be a true blessing from God. He's provided for us over and over again in ways that never cease to amaze me. We were looking around for jobs because his current one wasn't working out, thinking all along he would probably have to take a pay cut. But now we've ended up with something where he'll be making more money than he is currently, and we'll be saving money on gas because he's only about five miles from work! I'm excited because that means he'll be able to come home for lunch and spend time with me and the baby while we're home. And he won't have to keep working every Saturday so we'll have our weekends back together. God is good, huh? There's just no denying it around our house these days.

Update

Well I've been waiting and waiting because I have lots of pictures to post, but we are presently without internet connection (due to the fact that we are also without home) and so they're all still just sitting on my camera or computer waiting to be retrieved.......so I thought I should at least give everyone an update on where we are with things. So much has happened since the last post. Everyone always talks about home building as being a 'hurry up and wait' process, but we've been blessed to have everything roll along smoothly since day one. We (by we I mean my Grandpa) finished up all the painting except for a few touch ups, we've got the cabinets finishing up today (I hope), our power is on, the AC is up and running, and all we're lacking is a final inspection and Certificate of Occupancy, which we're hoping for tomorrow. I can't believe we're finally here.

They sold the property where we've been living, so we (and all our pets) had to move out of there this past weekend and are currently staying with my parents (God bless 'em!). So hopefully we can start moving in furniture and actually be sleeping there by the time the weekend is over.

As for Baby Banner, everything is still going along smoothly. We finished up our childbirth classes last week and we've just got a short newborn care class and a breastfeeding class and we'll be fully educated (yeah right!). We're 33 weeks along and still feeling great. God has been good to us to keep me in such good health and spirits because I don't know if I could've done all of this while pregnant otherwise! We've got a baby shower coming up at church next weekend and most of the ladies in my NC family are coming down to visit - I can't wait to see all of you! So it won't be long before we can settle in, relax, and wait for baby. It'll be here before we know it!