Goodbye Dear Friend

We had to say goodbye to some of our dear friends we met through breastfeeding group back when the kids were tiny babies. Tori's daddy has been working in St. Louis for months and their house finally sold here in KC. While we are so sad to see them go, we're happy they can all be together in St. Louis. We'll miss you Brandi and Tori and we know we'll see you soon!
Here are some shots at our last play group with them.

Tori is the adorable blonde in the hot pink shirt to the left of Emry. We love her curls and bright blue eyes!

From left to right: Allison due Sept. 16th, Lara due Sept. 20th, and me due Oct. 31st. Emry is about a month younger than their children and it seems we will be continuing the same pattern. It's fun that we know each other during our second pregnancies.

New Friend

Our neighbor watches her granddaughter every Tuesday. Maya is about a year older than Emry and we thought we'd get the girls together. Even though they didn't interact together, Emry loved being over at Elaine's. New atmosphere, new toys, and a new friend! We hope to get together on a regular basis now that we're available more.

Good Morning Sunshine

What a cute face early in the morning!

A New Adventure

I've been so preoccupied that I haven't had the chance to blog about my new professional adventure! Let me share some background before I go into new details. After Emry was born I naturally developed a strong desire to be able to spend more time with her. It broke my heart knowing that someone else was able to spend 9 hours a day/ 5 days a week with her and I was left with weekends and about 2 1/2 hours in the evenings. Unfortunately, it isn't in our budget to have me quit work completely. A good friend of mine began teaching with the Lawrence Virtual School out of Lawrence, KS, last fall. Over the past year, she mentioned several times how much she enjoyed the job. It wasn't until this past June rolled around that I started asking her more questions about the job. After hearing all the wonderful aspects of the position and the flexibilty it offers students and staff members, I decided to go for it. By the end of July, I was convinced nothing was going to come of it and I took that as a sign from God that it wasn't meant to be for our family. To my surprise, I received a call on August 1st to come in for an interview the following day (Aug. 2nd), and was offered the position August 5th. My former employer was very gracious and let me out of my contract with no issues. It was a bittersweet decision because Shoal Creek was all I've ever known since graduating college but I couldn't pass up this opportunity.

My new job title is K-2 Education Specialist. Basically, I am a liason for families who homeschool with the K12 program which is an online curriculum offered to our students who are homeschooled across the state of Kansas. I work with general ed students who are in kindergarten-second grade. Besides answering any questions my families have, I work with each student several times a month in my virtual classroom. We practice various skills and I check their progress in each content area. The beauty is that I am able to work from home except for one monthly onsite staff meeting in Lawrence.

Right now, Emry is going to daycare one day a week, which means she's with me 6 days! This is the opportunity I've been searching for because I am able to stay connected with the world of education AND spend more time with Emry and soon-to-be new baby. I'm learning a lot and staying SUPER busy and despite stressful moments, I know this is the best thing for our family. I feel so blessed that God has led me down this path. Quality time spent with our children is priceless!

Our Big Girl

We finally organized Emry's big girl room with a few finishing touches remaining. The experts recommend having your toddler move to their big bed/room at least two months before the new baby is born so they have plenty of time to transition and become acclimated to their new surroundings. Last Saturday (8/20) Emry slept in her big bed for the first time during her nap. She was a rockstar! Not a peep out of her until she woke up two hours later. Since she did so well, we decided to see how she did overnight...and again, rockstar. Slept from 7:30pm-7:00am. She's done well ever since. A few nights she woke up crying but went back to sleep quickly after we told her it's night-night time. We're so lucky that she's transitioned so well. The only thing we hope she'll start doing soon is to scoot off the end of her bed when she wakes up in the morning or after nap and play with her toys until we get her. Here are some pics of daddy and Emry reading her bible before her first full night in her new bed. Adorable!

"Winging!"

Emry absolutely LOVES swinging...she would do it all day if we let her. :)

Money, money, MONEY...

One of her new favorite activities.

Precious Babe

We got to see baby peanut in 3-D Monday morning, Aug. 8th! I had a packed appointment that included a glucose test, a 3-D sono, and the usual checkup with the doc. We thought it would be fun to have Emry be part of the sono but were prepared that she might not last too long so Steve and I drove separately. Baby was set on smashing it's face against my uterus so the sonographer couldn't get the best shots. AND, Emry lasted all but 3 minutes before becoming restless and cranky so Steve wasn't able to enjoy the experience like I was. Emry and he left the session early. Thankfully, the sonographer offered us a redo session since baby wasn't cooperating. During the session, they guessed baby weighs 2 lbs 15 oz, and it's heart rate was 137. The sonographer also said it already has hair! At the end of the entire appointment, the doc said mommy and baby are doing great!

I went back today for my redo session and baby was a teensy bit more cooperative and showed off for us at the end. It switched between putting it's fingers and toes in its mouth. So precious! Here are some shots from today. It's crazy to think we'll meet this angel in 11 weeks or less!