2 Month Checkup

Today Ashley had her 2 month checkup! I cannot believe that she is already 2 months old, I just don't know where the time goes! It is so hard with the second one, I feel so bad that she doesn't get our undivided attention at this age like Emily did! But she seems to be right on track according to the doctor as well as Emily's recorded events :) so that makes me feel better! Here are some updates:

~ 12 lbs., 5 oz. (75th percentile)
~ 23 in. (75th percentile)
~ Has started "cooing"
~ Can roll over onto her side. Usually it's the right side, apparently that's her favorite!
~ Sleeps from 8:30ish pm until 4:30ish am, then takes a bottle and sleeps for another 3 hours - I am SO thankful :)
~ We are trying to get her on a 3 hour schedule during the day and it's going pretty good so far!
~ Wears size 1 diapers and 0-3 month clothes
~ Smiles A LOT :)
~ Loves to lay on her changing table and wiggle
~ Has started to hold on to our clothes or burpcloths when she gets them
~ She got 3 shots and 1 oral vaccine! She cried so hard, it made me so sad :( Here are her first bandaids!

Wiggly Girl!

She started the night in the positioner, swaddled, on her back and with her head to the left...this is how I found her the next morning! She is a wiggler!

Going For A Walk

Emily and Ashley both love going for a walk! With the wonderful weather we have been having it has been so nice at night! Emily had been playing dress-up the other day and asked if she could wear her dress-up clothes on the walk! I can't believe she left the house like this :)

Pretty Smiles!

Ashley has just been smiling so much lately! She has also started "cooing" and "talking" to us! It is so cute! She LOVES to lay on her changing table and just wiggle and talk! There is something magic about that place because Emily did the same thing! Here are a few pics of our smiley girl!

I don't know why this is on sideways!

A Good Big Sister!

The other night while I was fixing supper, Emily decided to entertain Ashley! She LOVES to "read" and will read to anyone who will listen! Right now, Ashley's a pretty captive audience :)

Meeting Hadley!

After swim lessons on Friday, we headed to Dallas to meet Hadley and see Aunt Vicky and Uncle Jeremy. We were super excited to get all of the girls together for the first time! After an 8 hour and 45 minute drive...yes, you read the correctly...we were there! At one point we went 20 miles in ONE HOUR! Gotta love construction! The girls were wonderful though! Seriously they did not start crying until about 30 minutes out! By then we were all ready to cry :)

Mimi and Bub were already down there so as soon as we walked in, the cameras started flashing :) It was so fun to see the girls together! I am so excited that the cousins will be so close in age! I know they will grow up as great friends!

Vicky and Jeremy fixed a wonderful steak dinner on Friday night! It was delicious! On Saturday Mimi and Bub watched the grandkids while we went shopping! Then Saturday afternoon Emily and I got to go with Aunt Vicky and Hadley on their first shopping trip and stroller ride outside the house :) That was way exciting :) Hadley was wonderful, she slept the whole time :) We spent about 2 hours in the Carter's store there and got LOTS of CUTE outfits thanks to Mimi and Bub!

It was a very quick trip! We left right around Noon on Sunday and made it back in about 7 1/2 hours which was much better timing! We had so much fun and thank Aunt Vicky and Uncle Jeremy for having us!

It was hard to get a good picture of all 3 of them :) At least 2 of them look good!

Only 2 weeks apart!
Emily and Uncle Jeremy baking chocolate chip pancakes...yum!

I can't believe our girls are 2 weeks apart!

It was hard to get a good picture of 6 of us....half of whom were 3 and under :)

Swim Lessons

This week Emily is taking swim lessons! Since I A) had a c-section 7 weeks ago and B) was SO not ready to put on a swimsuit having had a baby 7 weeks ago . . . Charles took off 1/2 days everyday this week to go with her! He had a big meeting on Tuesday, so Mimi came up and went with us. She is having so much fun and I think Charles is too (I know Mimi did :)!

I just knew that doing them in July we would have no worries with the weather, but we were almost rained out Monday and now there are storm chances for tomorrow and Friday! So, I decided to take pictures today while it was nice and sunny. Ashley and I have been going and watching! Next summer we'll have 2 swimmers!

Dollar City

Last Saturday we took Emily to Silver Dollar City for the day. We went last summer and she was 2 inches too short for almost everything! I said we weren't going back until she was 36", apparently the magic ride number! So she is finally 36 1/2" :)

We made the mistake of telling her about a week in advance that we were going! Every morning she would wake up and ask me if it was tomorrow, her way of figuring out what we were doing that day! She would then ask if it was Saturday and i'd have to say no, then we'd go through what days were left. Anyway, finally Saturday came and when I went to get her out of bed she said "I have had a good rest so I am ready for Party, no Fun, no Dollar City (she has to go through all the "cities" that she knows :)!

When we finally got there she had a wonderful time! She was tall enough to ride all of the kiddie rides and a few of the big kid rides! She even rode the Fire in the Hole a REAL roller coaster! I can't believe my Baby Girl is old enough to ride a roller coaster! We stayed there for 8 hours! I really didn't think we'd last that long, especially without her having a nap that day! But, as Charles said all she had to do was sit in her stroller and go from ride to ride, we did all the walking and pushing :) She even got to see the Veggie Tales show! She was a little sad that she forgot to ask Bob and Larry why they had feet (the characters she got her picture made with had feet, but in the TV show and the Branson show they don't have feet because they are vegetables...is she smart or what?!?!)

Anyway, we had a great day! No major meltdowns or arguments between anyone :) Emily even wore big girl panties all day with no accidents! I thought for sure she'd be asleep in 3 minutes on the way home! But no, she talked all the way home about our next visit to Dollar City :)

Ready for the day!

Her face says it all!

Yes, my Baby Girl rode this...twice!!!
If you look close you can see Emily and Charles!

Such a big girl!

Riding the ladybugs

Posing with Veggietales!

Riding the elephants

6 1/2 Weeks

I can't believe that Ashley is alread 6 1/2 weeks old! I thought it went by fast when Emily was a baby, but I think it's going by even faster this time! She is such a good baby, I can't believe we have been blessed twice with babies who are good eaters, sleepers and just so cute :) Since I didn't blog about her at 1 month, here are some updates at 6 1/2 weeks:

* Wears size 1 diapers (never wore Newborn :)
* Drink 3-4 ounces ever 3 hours (usually at 7, 10, 1, 4, 7), she will usually drink 5-6 ounces at her 4:00 bottle, I guess she gets extra hungry at that time!
* Sleeps between 5-7 hours at night. She's not on a tight schedule yet, but we're working on it!
* Smiled at me for the first time on Friday, July 10th
* Likes to lay in her crib and watch her mobile
* Is starting to outgrow Newborn size clothing. The 0-3 month is still a little big, but the Newborn is getting tight!
* Is starting to "follow" sound. If we talk to her in her left ear and then move to her right she will look around to try to find us.

She is just wonderful! We Love her and Emily both more than we could have imagined! Excuse the redeye on the pictures below, I thought I had my camera set to fix that, but apparently not!

Pigtails & Ponytails

After 3 years, I can FINALLY put Emily's hair into a ponytail or pigtails! I can't believe it! She wears it this way every day because I am so excited that I can actually do it! I hope Ashley's hair grows a lot faster than Emily's! It has taken FOREVER!

I don't remember if this was the first time she wore the, but it was the first picture of her in pigtails!

1st Ponytail from the back!
1st Ponytail from the front!

The Promenade

Last week was my first full week with the girls by myself! Between Charles, Gigi and Mimi, I have been very blessed with lots of help! So, of course, we had to stay busy :) On Tuesday we decided to venture out for our first outing! We met Tarah at the Promenade to let the kids play and have lunch! Of course the free playground was too hot for them to play on so they had to ride the rides that took money :) They had a lot of fun and we survived our first outing!

On Wednesday I had my 6 week doctor's appointment so Charles met us at the dr. office and sat in the car while Ashley and Emily watched The Little Mermaid :) On Thursday we had a playday with Tracey and Lily and on Friday we stayed home! I would say we are getting back into the swing of things!

This one's for you Bub :)

I wish Emily was looking at the camera!

This was a new one for her to ride!

Happy 4th of July!

This year we had a nice, relaxing, uneventful 4th of July! Charles was off work for 4 1/2 days which was wonderful! We started our day off with brunch at the Cracker Barrel. Emily LOVES to get pancakes there so she can get the little bottle of syrup :) Then, we went to the grocery store to get our supper! This turned into an eventful trip. As soon as we pulled in the parking lot, Emily decides she needs to go...ahem...to the bathroom and Ashley starts crying because it's time for her bottle! Charles was just going to run in real fast by himself, however, he ended up taking Emily in with him so she could go to the bathroom and I sat in the car and fed Ashley! We didn't plan that one very well!

After that we came home and let Emily nap. Fortunately after her nap the weather cleared up and the sun came out. So, we got her pool out and set up the blue tent....for some reason she wanted to set the tent up! We then spent the rest of the afternoon playing outside, grilling out, making homemade ice cream and EATING :) It took a LONG time for it to get dark enough to do fireworks, but when it finally did we headed out front to do our fireworks. Emily was all excited about them until we get out there and start doing them, then she decided to get scared! At one point, I had both girls in my lap in one of those outdoor folding chairs! I was also afraid that the loud noises were going to hurt Ashley's ears, so we ended up going up in the garage! At that point, Emily remembered she has a little pink folding chair and once we got that out, she sat down on the sidewalk all by herself and watched the fireworks....it's the litte things! She also liked to hold the Sprinklers (aka Sparklers) all by herself this year! She is just getting so big!

Needless to say she was NOT ready to come in and go to bed when it was time. Once we finally got her inside she told me: "Since there are still fireworks outside, I can't handle going to sleep!" Five minutes after she laid down...she was asleep :) It was a great 4th!

Rocking at Cracker Barrel

Cute face :)

Ashley's 4th :)

Swimming

Swimming some more!

How we spent the afternoon....Ashley in the bouncy seat, Emily in the pool and Charles and I in the chairs :)

She even woke up for some of it!

Emily showing off her fireworks and holding her Cinderella one...she was so excited about that one!

Holding her "sprinkler"!

Ready for fireworks!