Thursday Thirteen

13 things I'm going to love about our NEW HOUSE!

1. It's more than twice the size of our house now.

2. We'll be very close to downtown.

3. We'll have a great backyard for the kiddos.

4. There are 4 (or 5) bedrooms, so we can have another baby and still have a guestroom!

5. We have a little view of the water from the front porch.

6. I'll have a brand new kitchen with granite countertops (I've always wanted granite!).

7. The cats' litterbox will be in the garage--there's a cat door leading out to the garage!

8. We'll have a GARAGE!

9. I get to decorate!!!!!!

10. Emma Claire's room has the coolest little room off of it (bigger than a closet, smaller than a bedroom) that we're going to make into a little playhouse for her. She's going to love it when she is older!

11. It has so much character...we just love older homes with character.

12. Built in cabinets and shelves galore!

13. It's a house we can grow in and live in for a long time!! :)

Big and small

Gibson is 2 months younger than Emma Claire and at over 22 lb, a whopping SIX POUNDS heavier---the kid is a moose! :) Christie and I couldn't stop laughing the other day when we had a photo shoot to compare their size difference...

A few updates...

What's been going on in our house lately...

1. Grayson has officially been sleeping in his BIG BOY BED consistently for 3 weeks now! His crib has been moved out of his room and he's been doing a great job at sleeping in the bed. Every morning when he wakes up, he says, "Yay, Grayson! Big boy bed!!!". So cute!!!!

2. Emma Claire's "little cold" turned into RSV and an ear infection, so she is a snotty, wheezing, coughing MESS. Poor baby can't breathe, can't sleep, and just feels yucky. It's been one of those weeks where Ben and I are just completely drained from lack of sleep and wishing we could do more to make her feel better. Pray that she feels better soon!

3. EXCITING NEWS.....we have a contract on our house!!! We put it on the market last January and took it off of the market three weeks ago after 11 months of it not selling. A couple of weeks ago we had our friend Christie's younger brother Graham and his wife Elizabeth over for dinner and the next day they surprised us by calling and saying that they were interested in buying our house! One thing led to another, and as of Thursday, the contract is signed!! It's funny how things work out sometimes---we spent 11 months keeping the house clean at all times, evacuating at the last minute for endless amounts of showings, even having an open house when Emma Claire was a week old....and all it took was for us to take it OFF the market. Go figure! :) We are thrilled for Graham and Elizabeth and know that they will love living here as much as we have. NOW we are waiting to hear back from the people whose house we made an offer on yesterday....stay tuned for updates!

7 months old!

I know I keep saying this, but I can't believe how quickly time is going by! Emma Claire is 7 months old today and it feels like she was my tiny little newborn LAST WEEK. I'm trying my best to savor every second with her because I know that this baby-ness won't last long. She actually put her head on my shoulder today and my heart just melted---she hasn't done that in ages!

Miss Priss had to go to the doctor today because she was running a fever and has been pulling at her ears, but thankfully she had a clean bill of health and just has a little cold. She is still a peanut, weighing in at 16 lb 3 oz. She has two teeth, is a pro at sitting up, and is getting better at tolerating being on her tummy. I don't predict Emma Claire crawling anytime soon, but that's fine with me! She has lost a lot of her hair but what remains is still brown---definitely nothing like Grayson at this age. By this point Grayson had lost all of his hair and it had started to come back in blonde. I am so curious to see if she'll stay a brunette or if she'll be tow-headed like her big brother....only time will tell! I'm still nursing (although she's getting 1 or 2 bottles of formula every day) and I have to say that I'm very proud of myself for keeping it up for this long---ever since I was in the hospital in September I've had issues with my supply so I feel blessed that I've been able to continue this far. :)

Here are some "birthday" pictures I took of our little angel today!!

Wordless Wednesday

Giving up on crying it out...

For the past 3 or so weeks, we've been "sleep training" Emma Claire by doing something called "cry it out", where basically you let the baby cry herself to sleep and after a few days of doing this she (hopefully) will sleep through the night. I never could do CIO with Grayson, and subsequently, he didn't sleep through the night consistently until he was 18 months old (and I was 5 months pregnant with Emma Claire). It was an exhausting 18 months but we managed to survive. Emma Claire started off as a good sleeper but because of some bumps in the road, has been waking several times a night for the past few months. After talking with several friends who had success with the cry it out method, Ben and I decided to give it a go. Bad news---when you have a baby who is as hard-headed and stubborn as Emma Claire (wonder who she gets that from?!), crying it out just doesn't work. The first night we did it she cried for SIX (yes, six) hours and I finally went and got her and let her sleep with us the rest of the night. After that, we decided to go slowly---let her cry for 10 minutes before getting her, then 15, then 20, and so on. That also has not worked. She's now up to crying for 2 hours every night, and it makes me physically ill to think that I'm not supposed to go in and get her when she's crying like that. :( Ben and I finally decided (in the middle of the night last night, after 2 hours of crying) that crying it out just isn't going to work for our sweet girl. I'd rather get up and feed her 4 times during the night than listen to her scream for half the night---we all would get more sleep that way, anyways.

I've learned that there are all different kinds of parenting styles, and what works for some people might not necessarily work for others. There is no one right way or wrong way---just different ways of raising children. I guess I fall more into the category of "attachment parenting" than anything else--I'm a breastfeeding, baby wearing mother whose baby slept next to my bed for almost 6 months and I'm a total wimp when my baby cries. Nothing wrong with that--I don't think I'm any better than a mother who doesn't do those things. In fact, I'm insanely jealous of everybody whose baby starts sleeping after two days of crying it out!! Emma Claire might not sleep through the night until she's 3---who knows---but in the meantime I'll continue to be the best mommy I can be in the ways that work best for our family.

Okay, I'm off to take a NAP before these chilluns of mine wake up from theirs!!! :)

A work in progress...

Looking into EC's nursery

Gorgeous crib skirt

This dress was mine when I was a baby :)

Matching pillow

I haven't been happy with Emma Claire's nursery ever since I started working on it before she was born. I never could find anything that I was in love with so I ended up getting some Pottery Barn bedding that was pretty but still didn't feel right. Then...a couple of weeks ago I was on one of my favorite blogs, Sippycups are for Chardonnay, and found the COOLEST website called Javis Davis. It's a custom baby/kid's bedding site where you choose from the most gorgeous fabric selections and you design your own nursery. I ordered a crib skirt in Watermelon Floral and it came in less than a week (wow!). It's PERFECT and is totally the look I was going for but never could find. I also got a pillow to match, and because it was used in their design gallery, I got it for 50% off---so if you order any accessories from them be sure to ask if there are any that have a discount. I found some pink and white gingham crib sheets on Pottery Barn Kids that match perfectly, so I'm waiting on those to arrive.


Just ordered (and will hopefully complete the look I'm going for so I can stop spending money!)...daybed skirt in lime dot trimmed in pink gingham:

More pictures to come when the daybed skirt comes in!

Harold's Country Club

I crack up every time I look at this picture!!!! :)

Andrew and Lauren singing
We hired a tour bus to take us to and from Harold's...

I went with a group of our friends to Harold's Country Club in Yemassee on Friday to celebrate our friend Andrew's birthday. Harold's is one-of-a-kind---it's way out in the country and is a combination of a gas station, bar, pool hall, restaurant, and karaoke bar. Our group stood out like sore thumbs (I could say something to clarify that here but one of my new year's resolutions is to be nicer!) but we had a blast. Ben had a stomach ache so we cancelled the babysitter at the last minute and he stayed home with the kiddos...and he missed out on a good time. Andrew, who is also a priest at our church, and his wife Lauren kept us entertained with a fabulous rendition of "Love Shack" and Kat's hubby Ashley was nice enough to take Ben's place for a slow dance with me. :) I'm already looking forward to our next trip to Harold's!!

Currently loving...

The Summer Handheld Video Monitor

Seriously. I love this thing. We already had three baby monitors (don't ask) but of course, I HAD to have this after we visited our friends Jeni and Ryan in November and used the one they had. It's awesome---we have the camera mounted on the wall by Emma Claire's crib and can see and hear everything she does from the little handheld receiver. She's not the greatest sleeper and we've been trying "cry it out" (I hate it and it's NOT working, for those of you who encouraged us to try it!) to get her to sleep better, and it's been nice to be able to watch and make sure she's okay when I really want to go in and check on her. Speaking of crying it out, if anybody has any advice on how to get this child to sleep through the night I'd love to hear it---we'll do anything!

I totally think the monitor will be a great way to spy on the kiddos when they're a little older, too! HA!!! :)

Life's a beach

Meg and I took Grayson, Emma Claire, and Nate to the beach for awhile yesterday morning and the boys had a great time running all over the place. It's hard to get a good picture of Grayson when he never stops moving, though! :) Emma Claire has pinkeye so she wasn't looking her best but she enjoyed watching the boys and being held by our friend Mike's mom Linda, who walked over to see us while we were there. It's so nice to be able to play at the beach in January!! :)

Baby, it's cold outside!

We spent the weekend in the upstate with Ben's family and it was COLD one afternoon! We weren't prepared (I think Grayson has worn a winter hat maybe 5 times in his life) so he borrowed one from his Papa--he looked too cute!!

6 months old!

Emma Claire turned 6 months old on December 21st---how time flies!!! She weighed in at 15 lb 6 oz and 25 1/2 inches long...50th percentile for weight and height but for some reason she just looks very petite. She must get that from me!! HA!! At 5'10, "petite" is a word that has never been used to describe me. :) She's now sitting up and just got her first tooth on Friday. Her hair is falling out like crazy and we can't wait to see if it comes back in the same color or if she will end up being blonde like Grayson. Emma Claire is a happy, easygoing baby who absolutely adores her big brother. She watches everything he does and cracks up whenever he talks to her. She goes to physical therapy for her torticollis twice a week and is quickly improving with her neck strength. I don't know what I would do without my precious baby girl and I am so thankful that God blessed us with her sweetness. :)

My little beauty

I am constantly amazed at what a genuinely happy baby Emma Claire is. All I have to do is look at her and her little face lights up. Talk about warming my heart!!! :)