Rineys Down Home

First haircut!

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Riney) — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 00:29:00 +0000

Emily got her first haircut on Thursday!

Her mullet was getting a little out of control and it was time. It would get caught in the snaps of her shirts and in the velcro of her bibs. This is a before picture:

Although I enjoyed being able to put her hair in pigtails and ponytails this looks so cute!

My hairdresser, Lauren, was awesome and Emily did great (thanks the the distraction of the iPhone!) And Blaine was there being the photographer ;)

No one cried either! It's a little sad that she's growing up so fast but it's fun too.

And don't worry we still have enough hair for those cute bows! Haha!

Poor baby was soooo very sleepy (I picked her up from school early and she usually falls asleep on the way home). She was also recovering from a bout of pink eye this week. :( All is well now though and she's ready for summer with her new short do!

11 months!

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Riney) — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 23:59:00 +0000

Once again, I'm tardy at posting. You'll see why in these pictures!

Emily turned 11 months old last week. Stop. Time. Now. PLEASE!! I spend most of the day picking up after hurricane Emily since she is into everything. She's walking while pushing her little walker toy, the rocking chair, step stool, basically anything thats not too heavy for her. She's into every cabinet or drawer that she can open and is quite good at emptying them.

She found her way into the guest room one day and I didn't know it until I heard the piano that she and her daddy sometimes play! The door is now shut to that room!

I thought this was such a sweet picture. She loves to have a snack and basically begs everytime i'm in the kitchen. She eats ALL the time!

We had our first boo boo with blood at Blaine's parents house (she hit her lip on the end table) then while we were in Henderson at my mom's office earlier this month she got her first big shiner. You may not be able to see it but it bruised up pretty good. She lost her balance while holding on to a table and just bumped her head. She does that a lot but seems to recover quickly. This was the first to leave a mark!

And alas, the Wolfpack's dream of wining a national championship were shot in the first round of the NCAA tournament. But that'll never stop us for cheering for them! Emily wore something Wolfpack for the first two games of the ACC tournament but not for the Miami game. With 40 seconds to go in the game I put her NC State diaper cover on her but it didn't help. Hey, its only weird if it doesn't work, right?!? She also wasn't wearing anything NC State until the last minute of the NCAA tournament game, but hey, don't blame the baby!

One of her most favorite things to do is pull out all of the bibs that I keep behind her highchair. She also loves to play hide and seek with us after dinner around the chair. It's the perfect height for her to stand and walk around.

And this is our normal morning routine...Emily destroying the bathroom by taking everything out of the cabinet under the sink...just watch how it progresses!

We have actually had some spring like weather in the past month so Emily and I have been able to get outside and play a little. She really likes pulling the grass and handing it to me. But not before sampling some herself :)

Our big eater got to try spaghetti the other night and LOVED it. She loves everything though. Seriously she eats everything and hasn't turned anything down. She'll eat just as much as me sometimes I think. We just give her a little of whatever we're having usually and it's so very simple. We're very grateful that she's not a picky eater and has really taken to food.

We've been traveling a lot for CAbi show's and while we've been away the ever handy Blaine has been tackling some remodeling/redecorating at our house! I'll post some pictures of that soon too, it's really coming along great! Big thank you to Terry and Nancy for helping out too!

Well, we have the worlds shortest napper (meaning she doesn't take long naps!) so I've got to go get the sleeping beauty.

Discovery Place Kids!

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Riney) — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 20:35:00 +0000

We took a little field trip today to Rockingham to check out the new Discovery Place Kids! We met my friend Marsha, and her girls: Anna, Stella and Greta. It was really a neat place and we had fun! I liked watching the big girls do the big kid stuff but there was also an area for infants where Emily and Greta could play. I'm sure they'll really love it when they can walk and run! There was also a water table with chairs for the little ones which was really neat. Emily thought she was in her high chair and kept trying to eat the water though! We'll definitely be going back!

10 months old!

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Riney) — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 19:53:00 +0000

Yesterday Emily turned 10 months old! She's such a busy little bee I could hardly get her to sit still for a picture...(warning: LOTS of pictures and videos on this one)

She's VERY mobile and its a matter of days probably before she's walking for real. YIKES! She pulls up on EVERYTHING and has taken a few steps pushing her rocking chair or walking toy just this week. We now have a baby gate at the bottom of the stairs because this is one of her favorite exercises!

She's saying "mama" finally! yay! and of course "dada" "nana" and "baba" although we don't know what those last two really mean! She'll babble all day going through her alphabet and it's so sweet to hear, especially from the back seat of the car.

She loves to pull up into the refrigerator or freezer and can open the pantry door where she proceeds to pull out everything on the bottom shelf. I just let her explore...She's opening drawers too and pulling everything out but she can't figure out how to NOT mash her fingers. Climbing into the dishwasher is also something she likes to do. I only let her do it when I'm unloading though...dirty dishes are gross! She also loves to pull out the laundry from the basket and mess up what I've already folded. We do a lot of picking up after Hurricane Emily, that's for sure.

We love to make her laugh because she has the cutest little giggle. It really is my favorite thing to do.

She loves to play peek-a-boo! This is an older video but still funny! Oh and she'll shred a tissue, napkin or magazine in no time!

School continues to be a great place for her to play and learn and I enjoy the break. Although we can't seem to figure out naps around school days but that's OK, summer will be here soon. These are the valentine treats she took for her teachers and classmates.

Speaking of treats, this girl is quite the eater! She's nursing great still and loves most everything she's tried. Lately she's been having chicken and we usually let her try whatever we're having. She's doing great with feeding herself. She's drinking water out of her sippy cup too but really loves this Camelbak water bottle i got her. It says its for ages 3+ and Blaine doesn't even know how to drink out of it! I love mine and she always wants a sip when I'm drinking it so she has her own now. Except she pulls it out of her mouth before she swallows so her shirt ends up soaking wet!

I've been doing a lot of consignment sale shopping and my mom was able to meet us for one sale. Here's Emily driving her car!

We've gone to the park and played on the swings too and she LOVES it. I want one in the backyard but we have such nice parks here that we should really just go to them.

Blaine is staying busy at work and we go a visit sometimes. Its nice too that he can come home for lunch and play for a little while with us. We love that part of our day! I'm starting to have some CAbi shows and stay busy with that during nap times and in the evenings. When my samples arrived we snapped this picture of Emily (on the far right) and I sent it to my rep at CAbi and they featured it in the weekly newsletter last week! I was so excited! Blaine is always such a good help with everything, especially schlepping my CAbi samples and I really appreciate all that he does.

Finally, this was the funniest video... I took it while we were shopping at Hobby Lobby one day...the end is the best (I think she thought she got caught!) We've laughed and laughed at this video!

Our baby is growing up...and its so fun to be a part of her life. We love our baby Emily to the moon and back!

Snow day!

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Riney) — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 16:01:00 +0000

We had a typical NC winter this past weekend! Friday it was 65 degrees and Saturday it snowed! Actual real (BIG) flakes fell all day long. It was too wet at first but then it started to stick to the grass and huge flakes were falling. It really was pretty. It snowed like that for most of the day then turned a little more wet and stopped sticking as the day went on. But it was still on the grass and roofs of houses and was pretty. We took Emily out for a quick walk in it since it was her first snow.

Happy Valentine's Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Riney) — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 14:21:00 +0000

Love, Love, Love this little baby girl!
And her sweet daddy of course!

9 month update

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Riney) — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 18:45:00 +0000

Emily is 9 months old...her last month in the single digits! She's getting so big. She had her well baby dr's visit on last Monday and she weighs 18lbs 2oz which shes been hovering around for a while now. She's 26.5 inches long! We're all still a little sick right now with colds too.

What have we been up to? Crawling, pulling up to standing, talking, sleep training (more on that in another post), climbing up the stairs, and teething mostly! Emily loves to climb in the refrigerator since its a good height to pull up on. She's really good at crawling on all fours. She used to sometimes let her right leg stay straight while she's on her left knee, it's pretty funny to watch! She always wants to get in your lap if you're on the floor with her and treats you like a jungle gym! She loves standing up! Poor thing is also cut 4 top teeth at once too. One of the eye teeth have popped through and one front tooth, but you can see the others making their way down. Teething sucks! We've been freezing wet washcloths for her to suck on and they seem to help. So does Tylenol at bedtime. She's got a little runny nose and a pretty yucky cough too. She constantly has a paci or her fingers in her mouth but I try and keep it out so she'll talk more. I love listening to her babble. She's saying "dada" "ah da" "nananana", and sometimes "lalalala", all very cute. No "mama" yet though (sigh). She likes to open close her hand in a wave movement when saying "dada" and if you make that same movement she'll say it. So funny!

Since I was in San Diego at the CAbi Scoop, Blaine was on his own a couple of weekends ago! They did great! My mom and his mom helped out and everyone survived. I loved getting pictures and updates but I really missed being away that long. It was hard, but I managed to reconnect with my CAbi sisters and we had a wonderful time. And did I mention that while it was freezing and snowing here that it was 75 and sunny with no humidity in beautiful Southern California?!? We should move there! The fashion show to see the new Spring collection was fabulous and the clothes are to die for, my favorite so far! Let me know if you want to hear more about what I'm doing with CAbi!!

Emily is doing great at school and has so much fun everyday. I enjoy the break too. I spend a lot of my time now keeping her from pulling the lamp off the table, eating grass, climbing up the stairs to the bonus room, and going behind the toilets! It's fun to see her mobile though, and most of it happened over night it seems!

New Year, New Things

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Riney) — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 01:14:00 +0000

Well Christmas was a blast! We all got very spoiled of course. After spending a few days in Henderson with my parents we came back to Pinehurst to be with Blaine's fam. I won't bore you with the details but here are some pictures.

Blaine got a shotgun from my family and has really enjoyed learning to shoot it and spend time outdoors. My two favorite gifts that Emily received were a sweet NC State dress sewn by Blaine's mom and "Twas the Night Before Christmas" book from Hallmark that has my dad's voice recorded reading it. Both are so very special!

the upload picture feature is NOT working, sorry...I'll try and post again later!

Another unexpected gift was from our friend Emily Bost at church who gave our Emily her signet ring. What a treasured gift! Emily B said that she wanted it to go to another Emily and no one in her family had one. Such a thoughtful and sweet thing!

And since Christmas, Emily has been growing and changing like crazy! She's getting from her tummy to her bottom, crawling in all fours, pulling up in your lap (or anywhere really), saying "dada" and "ah dada", and opening and closing her hand like a wave. It is SO fun to watch all of this transpire! We have had to lower her crib mattress once already and within a week need to do it again b/c she's pulling up to stand! She's so active and squirmy, I sort of miss my immobile baby. Here's what I caught her doing before we lowered the mattress...

Merry Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Riney) — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 23:11:00 +0000

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas this year!

We've been so very blessed and I want to share a little something that has been on my mind...

As I sit and rock sweet Emily to sleep I usually sing "Jesus Loves Me" but since its Christmas I've been singing "Silent Night" and "Away in a Manger". Mostly I hum out loud b/c I'm sure I'm getting the verses mixed up in my head. Anyway, the words and story in those songs have really touched me more this year than ever. A baby changes EVERYTHING, but more significantly, the birth of Jesus changed our world. I feel a little more connected to Mary now that I have a baby than I ever have. Makes sense, right, that maternal instinct. I just can't help but wonder a few things about that night in Bethlehem so very long ago.

First of all, how did she do it, without drugs that is?!?! All the mamas out there that did it get props in my book b/c I chickened out. More importantly, Mary gave birth to our SAVIOR! What an important job she had.

Second, can you imagine holding that tiny babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and thinking "you're going to save us one day"!?!? What an awesome responsibility. I hope and pray that Emily has a wonderful life and grows up to do great things, and I know that Blaine and I are committed to raising her in a loving Christian home. We have a lot of responsibility but nothing compared to Mary and Joseph.

Lastly, how wonderful it must have been to celebrate the birth of Jesus for those shepherds and wise men right there when it happened! We were so overwhelmed with joy when Emily arrived that if I had been there knowing I was seeing Jesus, my heart might have exploded! The miracle of life is awe inspiring in itself, but the birth of our Savior is something to celebrate BIG TIME. I'm talking heavens rejoicing and angels signing celebrating! He is going to save us y'all!

The story of the birth of Jesus is just so special b/c without him we would be nothing. But along with his birth we have to remember his death and the reason for it. Right after Emily was born I remember having this realization that God sacrificed his one and only son to die for our sins. I mean, I knew and believed this most of my life and I understood that it was a tremendous sacrifice but not until I had a child myself did I fully appreciate his love for us. He sent his SON to die for YOU and ME. Wow. I cannot imagine the heartbreak he must have felt doing that, but I am so grateful. So very grateful. I know that as a human I could not have done that. The love a parent has for a child is crazy but God loves us crazy plus infinity.

So this Christmas celebrate the birth of Jesus and thank God for sending him to save you. For without Jesus we would be nothing.

Merry Christmas y'all!

8 months old!

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Riney) — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 22:52:00 +0000

Today Emily is 8 months old!

Time is flying by! We're doing more and more solid foods, still breastfeeding, and learning to crawl! I am pretty sure her two top teeth are trying to come in too (cue the song, "all I want for Christmas are my two front teeth"! haha!). Still not sleeping great, but doing better.

Just this week she's really getting good at the army crawl and she sort of scoots on her butt. She's very good at reaching for stuff and inching her way closer to something she wants. And this morning she figured out that she could get from sitting to on her tummy so she can crawl which means we're about a week away from trouble I'm afraid. It's really exciting to see her do new things, but man, I'm going to miss these days where she'll stay put so I can get things done!

We put her long hair in pigtails, can you see them?!?

We went to Henderson this past weekend for my Grandaddy's 80th birthday celebration, my mom's birthday (we won't say which one) and to celebrate Christmas with the Moss side of the family.
It was a fun filled busy weekend.

Emily and her Great Grandaddy

opening presents from Great Grandaddy and Clareese!
She got some really fun new toys!--THANK YOU!!

My dad got a new puppy a couple of weeks ago so we all got to meet Beau. He's such a cute lab and quite bright. Matt, my new brother-in-law, says we're going to play the game at Christmas where we have to guess if the toy is for Beau or for Emily! He seemed to like this duck they got him best but he did grab her baby dolls a few times!

And she of course rode the lawn mower! She did this for the first time at my sister's wedding but I didn't get a picture. She looks like she was having a fun time!

I'd like to note too (for memory book purposes) that 12/12/2012 was this past week and that its the last time something like this will happen for another 88 years! The significance being that while we probably won't be around to see 01/01/2101, Emily could very well be! How cool is that?!?!

We love our sweet Emily to pieces, happy 8 month birthday!

Christmas Play

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Riney) — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 21:30:00 +0000

Emily's school had their Christmas program Tuesday night. It was the cutest thing. Especially since they let the baby class participate.

Precious.

She was hanging out in her stroller beside her BFF Clare Miller, I swear those two are always together!
She even got to sit on Santa's lap and she did great! She was a little curious as to who was under that beard but she definitely wasn't scared.

It's the Holiday Season!

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Riney) — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 21:27:00 +0000

Thanksgiving has come and gone...and Christmas is creeping near! What a fun and busy time. We are so blessed.

We spent Thanksgiving at Blaine's parents' house. My parents came and so did our friends Chandler and Kelley Adams and their kiddos. It was really fun!

My dad taught Emily to open the drawers in her room and now when I put her down she wants to get them open. So fun to watch her be so curious.

She had fun trying on his hat too. I'm pretty sure there is a picture of me as a little one just like this too...I'll have to find it at my parents'.

We've thought about doing other Christmas things like parades and tree lighting but that just doesn't fit into an infant's sleeping and eating schedule so we've not really done anything. Maybe we can ride around and look at Christmas lights one night. Emily has been dressing up in her Christmas cutest though.

Blaine and I have had a chance to sneak out to a couple of parties thanks to the grandparent babysitters. Sleeping for Emily hasn't been great so she was a bit of a challenge for them but we all survived and maybe someday we'll get some sleep. I swear once she turned 6 months old its like she woke up all of a sudden. *sigh* I guess with the runny nose and teething its to be expected.

I'm not nearly as ready as I should be for Christmas. I actually thought I had an extra weekend but just found out I was wrong. Ugh. Guess we'll go shopping between naps and feedings :)

7 months old!

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Riney) — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 22:10:00 +0000

Today Emily is 7 months old! What a cutie pie, right?!?!

Let's catch up a little...

She's obviously sitting up on her own. She can scoot backwards on her tummy but can't go forward yet, however she still rolls to where she needs to go and will even turn around and come back to you, backwards of course. She's getting up on her knees and rocking like she's ready to take off and crawl. Blaine said that she got from her hands and knees back to sitting one night this week when he was getting her ready for her bath. I didn't see it so I'm not sure. ;) She likes to turn her play mat over and play under it now too.

And speaking of rolling...yup, she rolled off the bed this weekend. :( She's fine though, don't worry! I still haven't recovered so we won't talk anymore about it.

She's majorly teething (and not sleeping well), there's even a little tiny tip of a tooth poking through on the bottom!

She's been eating more solids! She's had carrots, green beans, puffs, cheerios, peas, prunes, bananas and sweet potatoes. She really likes the things she can feed herself the best. She just started letting me feed her something with a spoon. She HATES rice cereal and oatmeal. Actually gags on them. Very dramatic. We're still nursing just as much as before though and its going great. She's using her sippy cup for water like a big girl. One sippy cup gave her pretty bad gas though. So much that they had to call me from school b/c she had gotten really upset when her tummy hurt so bad. So we put that one away for now. She does great at restaurants too now sitting in highchairs!

We've been to another NC State football game...this time kickoff was a little earlier and she did great. The best idea Blaine had was for us to ride a rickshaw from our parking lot to the stadium instead of walking the whole way which was so fun!

It was a beautiful fall day but our seats were in the shade and it was FREEZING. Emily was wrapped up nicely but we were a little cold.

My sister's wedding was this past month too...It was beautiful and fun! But I have to say that Emily was such a trooper and we could not have gotten through the weekend without Blaine's amazing help. He was on duty except for feedings and he was awesome, thank you isn't enough. Here's a sneak peek picture of us changing Emily out of her dress and getting ready for bed. I think Daddy was getting worn out! I'll post more when i get some more pictures.

Emily is such a joy to our lives. We have the best time loving on her and watching her everyday. We laugh so much and are so blessed to be her parents. Everyone here is a little under the weather and we spent the day yesterday snuggling in bed and taking care of one another. I love my little family to pieces.

She has two of these toys by Vtech and loves playing with the lights on them

She likes to grab books off of her side table and "read" them

she LOVES this jumperoo and has finally started to really jump high in it

she likes to roll under the couch and play hide and seek with us

I think that's it...XOXO

Halloween Fun!

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Riney) — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 19:02:00 +0000

Better late than never, right?

Emily had a really fun Halloween! She dressed up at a chicken (or maybe it was a duck, we're not sure).

Her class at school dressed up and they were all SO cute!

Here's Emily with her friend, Clare Miller.

Later that day we went to Blaine's office for the girls to see Emily in her costume.

She was such a trooper all day and didn't even mind being in that funny hat! She didn't fit in the carseat with it on so we kept having to change in and out of it too. Even Aunt Kelli liked wearing the hat!

We tried to go "trick-or-treating" at the neighbors houses but no one was home :( It was only 5 o'clock! We did get a funny look from one of the teenagers down the street though.

So we loaded up in the car again and went to "trunk-or-treat" at church. Emily met up with her friend, Greta Apke, and her dad Mike there.

She had fun stealing candy from Grandma and Aunt Kelli while they were passing it out to the other trick or treaters!

This was the funniest picture taken all day! Wonder what they were thinking?? (probably: your mom too, huh?)

Emily is 6 months old!

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Riney) — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 02:33:00 +0000

Emily had her half birthday on Saturday! The past 6 months have flown by (but ya'll already knew that)! We've been so busy I haven't had time to post. My CAbi business has also been keeping me pretty busy when Emily is at school and in the evenings after she's in bed.

We had her 6 months doctor's appointment today and she weighs 17lbs 12oz and is 25 1/2 inches long...growing so much! She's teething pretty bad and has to have her hands, a toy or a paci in her mouth at.all.times! She also had shots today, poor baby.

Mostly I just need to catch ya'll up on some pictures. But I'll throw in a little commentary just for fun.
Let's start from a month ago...

My parents came for a visit and I decorated our front door just in time to get the Halloween festivities started.

Blaine and I took Emily to visit the Sandhills Community College Horticultural garden one beautiful Sunday afternoon. I had never been there and I've lived here for 10 years now. We'll definitely go back when more things are blooming b/c I can tell it's going to be beautiful.

We celebrated my birthday at lunch with Blaine's mom, dad and sister. Emily was squealing LOUDLY b/c she was so excited to be sitting with Grandma and trying to drink from her glass! I know that everyone in the restaurant was glad when we left.

This was supposed to show off her Kansas Jayhawks outfit from her Aunt Kelli but this shot is much funnier! She has a ball rolling on the floor and has gotten VERY good at it. She's starting to try and get up on her knees a little but can push herself all the way onto her hands at least. I think seeing all the other babies at her preschool has really helped with her liking tummy time.

This is one evening before dinner on she and Blaine's "nature walk". They survey the yard to make sure everything is growing like its supposed to and she gets to touch the pine needles and has even picked me a rose. Such a sweetie!

We've been able to go visit my parents quite a bit lately. Mostly b/c my sister has been coming home to work on details of her upcoming (3 weeks away!) wedding. This trip was for her dress fitting and bridal portraits I think. I was able to find this jumperoo to keep at my parents' house for Emily and she loves it. See how she has a towel under her feet? Not anymore, she can touch the floor now! She loves to bounce too from the look on her face!

She's just hanging out with her ~~twin~~ PaPa here and chewing on her Sophie the Giraffe. Unfortunately Sophie doesn't squeak anymore. I had to boil it b/c she had a little bout with thrush and I was trying to kill the bacteria. She's all better for now but that stuff can be hard to get rid of so we have some medicine on hand just in case.

Emily's GiGi was showing off her pretty Stella and Dot necklace while we were waiting for Allyson's dress fitting at the bridal salon. She's so curious now and reaching out for everything.

Emily went to visit her daddy at work one day to shop for some new insurance. He was able to save her TONS, you should call him and have him save you some too! hahaha!
Sorry for the blurry picture, I was trying to snap it before she fell out of her seat.

Aunt Kelli helped her type out her application on the typewriter! They had fun exploring the office that day!

We took Emily to pick out a pumpkin one beautiful Saturday. It wasn't a real pumpkin patch but just some road side stand. She didn't care either way.

See how curious she is...this isn't the first time I've caught her trying to roll onto the bottom shelf of a bookcase!

So cute in her monogrammed overalls from her Grandaddy and Clareese!

And this is miss priss sitting pretty in her tutu and t-shirt looking precious. She's sitting up pretty good but still needs a little help. She's fell and banged her head a couple of times on the hardwood floor or a toy but she bounces back quickly (we've learned the art of distraction).

This isn't a very good picture but I wanted to share it. Emily is not really one to snuggle. But sometimes when she falls asleep nursing and I put her on my shoulder to burp I can't help but leave her there for a little while just to savor the feeling. Its my favorite part about nursing and being her mommy. I love her so very much and how could you not love this sweet face?!?

We're so proud of Emily and how much she is growing and developing. Its such a blessing to watch her and to get to love on her and hear her laugh everyday. I just want to freeze time...

Busy, busy, busy...

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Riney) — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 14:47:00 +0000

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Classic excuse of being busy. Not really sure where the days go but they fly by. Especially the 3 hours Emily is at school! We've celebrated my birthday, been to Henderson and Raleigh for wedding stuff and had my parents in town in the past few weeks. Next week is Emily's 6 month birthday so I'll do another post then, I promise. This one is coming from the blogger app on my phone so I'm not even sure how it will end up but here are some pictures to hold you over until I have a chance to write more.
Emily loves paper, she of course wants to eat it but she's putting EVERYTHING in her mouth.
She is still rolling EVERYWHERE too. You can see her trying to escape her play mat. We've actually expanded her play area in the living room but I know it won't be long before she has free reign over the house.
I thought it would be fun to push her around in her empty diaper box one Saturday morning...she thought so too but couldn't really take a break from chewing on her fingers to let y'all know!
We also broke out her high chair in anticipation of starting her to solids soon. I wanted to wait until at least 6 months and when she was sitting up on her own. She's showing signs too of being ready and seems to like the high chair just fine.
This is just a teaser, maybe I'll find more time this weekend to blog! Ha!

We love this sweet little baby to pieces!

5 months old!

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Riney) — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 18:21:00 +0000

Ok, so this post is about 4 days late...sorry, we've been busy!

Where did the months go!?! Five months have passed ALREADY!?! Wow! Blaine and I were just talking how the days go slow but the weeks and months fly by.

Emily started preschool and has been doing pretty good. She was upset a couple of days when I picked her up but I think she just gets SO tired while she's there. She doesn't really get a nap except for on their walk and all that playing just wears her out. Everyday we get a "poop scoop" with details of what time she ate, when they changed her diaper, how long she napped, and what activities she enjoyed.

She's really been rolling over like crazy in the last week. Every since school she's not minded being on her tummy either. Now she just rolls front to back and back to front like it's no big deal. She would roll all the way down the hallway if you let her. I know our days of her not being mobile are numbered...

She's got such a fun personality too. Sometimes even laughing spontaneously without any prompting. Especially when I am pushing her in a shopping cart, she thinks that is so funny!

Her brother monkey seems to really get her tickled too! She's still exclusively breast fed and i'm really not interested in starting her on solids or even rice cereal until at least 6 months old. But we'll see, i'm still doing research on that.

Last weekend we went out on a limb and took her to the NC State football game. Well we knew it probably wasn't a good idea going into it since kick-off was 6pm and her bedtime is 7pm but we thought we'd try anyway. My dad met us there too which was fun.

She was great walking into the game and for a little while when we got in but then she got a little upset. It was time for her to eat so we went to the first aid center and they had an area where we could nurse. She's a bit of a distracted eater usually but I was able to feed her a little before she got too curious about where she was. So we went back to sit down and by then it was close to 7 and she was tired. There was just too much going on and she wouldn't sleep. I took her up to the concourse and got her settled down but she still wouldn't close her eyes. So I thought we'd go sit back down but she wasn't having it. Instead of fighting it the rest of the half we just decided to go. She did great walking (being carried by my dad) back out to the car but screamed once we got her in her carseat and started heading home. FINALLY she settled down and went to sleep. Hearing that cry is quite exhausting and I hate seeing her at that point. I think we'll try again, just not at a game during her bedtime. I don't think the noise was really the problem, just bedtime.

We were at my parents' last week for a night for me to do a CAbi show and Grandaddy and Clareese came to visit! So fun...wait until you see what they bought her...(pictures coming soon)!

Beach!!

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Riney) — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 20:48:00 +0000

Last weekend we spent time at Oak Island with Blaine's mom, dad and sister (and Baxter, Kelli's dog).

We had a great time hanging out on the beach and playing with Emily. She did wonderful out on the beach. We set up a tent, there was a nice breeze, and she even napped and nursed out on the beach! In fact she was sitting in my lap and fell asleep sitting up! Something in that salty air just makes you relax. If she doesn't start napping better I guess we'll just have to move to the beach! haha!

We also went to dinner with some friends while there and enjoyed seeing them as well. Its so much work to take a little one to the beach (or anywhere for that matter) with all the paraphernalia that you have to carry. We managed though. She didn't go down that first night to sleep very easily, I guess she was too excited about being there. Blaine and I both had to lay down with her on our bed for her to fall asleep (2 hours later) then move her to the pack & play.

Here are some more pictures from our time together at the beach...

1st day of "preschool"

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Riney) — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 13:52:00 +0000

Today is Emily's first day at Sonshine Learning Center. I dropped her off this morning and she was so curious about the other kids and flirting with the teachers that she didn't even notice I was leaving. So at least she wasn't crying. Of course I did though. :( My sweet friend Shirley (whose 3rd baby) is in Emily's class was there to give me a hug and called to make sure I was ok. I did better than I thought I would at least. I cried getting her dressed b/c she looked so sweet in her new smocked dress (with a school house and busses!) so I thought this can't be good! Its weird not having her with me, I feel like something is missing for sure. The teachers really seem very sweet. We visited with them yesterday and I really like them. I'm sure she'll love it and will do great.

Fall is upon us...

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Riney) — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 22:39:00 +0000

What a great summer we've had! I've throughly enjoyed my time with Emily and being home with her. I mean, what a cutie pie!

But, it's off to pre-school next week for her though. Its actually a "mom's morning out" type deal at a local baptist church call Sonshine Learning Center. They have a baby class (only 6 babies with 2 adults) and I've had lots of friends with their kids there that love it so we decided to sign up. She'll go Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 8:30am-11:30am. I know she's really young for "school" but it'll be good for us (I hope, *sniff*). I'll have a chance to go get my hair did, run errands, doctor appointments, stuff like that so that when we get our afternoons together we'll be able to spend quality time with each other. I'm ~~scared~~ excited for this next little step for our baby girl.
Of course she has a first day of school outfit that I'll post next week but I had to take a picture of this sweet post card we got in the mail yesterday after our walk from her teachers. It says: Emily, we are looking forward to a great year at Sonshine! Looking forward to seeing you on Tuesday, September 4. Laurie and Suzy. I of course got a little teary over it but it made me feel so much better about our decision. I just can't believe its already September!

Along with fall comes football season too! Emily is all ready with her NC State gear and we're looking forward to cheering them on tonight! Go Wolfpack!!

She's working on her wolfpack hand signal :) She has found that her hands are connected to her brain though and looks at them intently as she moves them. Its so cute to watch. I can't wait for her to find her feet!
Here she is too with her Brother Monkey. She's almost bigger than him! She likes to hug him and laugh at him when i'm making the bed in the mornings. I'm still not sleeping with him by the way!

XOXO

4 months old!

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Riney) — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 20:53:00 +0000

Emily is 4 months old today!!

She's getting so big...we had her 4 month check-up today (yes, shots too) and she weighs 15lbs 10oz and is 24.5 inches long! That puts her in the 75th percentile for weight and 50th for height. She still cried when she got her shots but at least I was a little more brave. We knew she was somewhere between 14-15lbs but 10 more ounces, wow! Guess I shouldn't stress out about her maybe not wanting to nurse for one session! She's sleeping pretty good at night but not taking long naps but the Dr. said that was fine. Overall she got a good report-yay!

Her newest favorite thing to do is squeal and squeal LOUDLY. She literally takes a big breath and gears up for it. She laughs so cute too and thinks that anything you say with inflection in your voice is funny, I just love to hear it. She's discovered herself in mirrors too which is funny. I'm not sure if she realizes its her but she'll laugh at herself laughing sometimes. I've caught her a few times looking at this mirror on her playmat and cooing to herself, precious!

She also likes to chew on her burp cloth and gets it on top of her head and doesn't know how to get it off so she kicks her legs like crazy which is really funny to me. I of course get the cloth off her face for her.

She chews on her hands fervently but I don't think she's teething (Dr. says yes, but I think it's too early). She'll get both hands in there sometimes and will also suck on her thumb while the paci is in her mouth. She sometimes tries to get her fingers in her mouth while she's nursing too!

She's definitely more aware of her surroundings now. She'll really startle when someone clears their throat. Not sure why but she just does. She plays on her play mat (Blaine calls it her game) with more toys and will reach for them and grab them and pull them off. This is when she squeals the most!

I want to just freeze time and soak up all the little things that she does as much as I can. Watching her grow not just in size but developmentally too is just SO cool!

Blaine set up our tailgate tent in the back yard over the weekend so we could hang out while he was working in the yard. Here we are hanging out with our shades on (she really doesn't like them on though). She even took her afternoon nap out in the shade. I must add that we also had her hooked up with a fan and an Off! clip-on fan to keep the bugs away. She's quite the diva!

After church on Sunday we spent some time at Blaine's parents house. Here's what we were doing with her hair...she was already having a bad hair day :) Her hair is getting lighter and lighter and so very long. I can put it in a little pony tail on top and I'm pretty sure our next hairstyle will be pigtails!

What a sweet little baby...we love her so VERY much.

The hardest thing...

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Riney) — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 02:34:00 +0000

The hardest thing about being a parent (of a newborn/infant) has to be the "not knowing". Its so hard to know if what you're doing is the right thing for them! I realize that it probably just gets harder but man, this is tough. My dear friend Amy says that the celebration at their 1st birthday isn't for the kid but to congratulate the parents for keeping the kid alive for a year! ha! I feel like I'm constantly obsessing over Emily's schedule/feeding/sleeping but I just want to do the right thing for her.

Isn't this the sweetest thing you've ever seen...
She's helping hold the book!

The one thing I know that I'm for sure doing right is breastfeeding. Its the hardest and easiest thing I'm doing at the same time. Easy b/c there are no bottles to make and wash but hard b/c I'm the one thats always feeding her. (I have to say that she does get at least 1 bottle of breast milk on most days but more often than not she's nursing all day). I love it though, I don't even mind the getting up in the middle of the night (which we're still doing most of the time but its only once so I really don't mind) and we're on a good 3 hour schedule for the most part so it isn't ALL day exactly. I know its the best thing for her and its helping me shed those pounds I put on during pregnancy. I am constantly looking to message boards, friends, and books for helpful tips and advice. I plan to continue to breastfeed until she's at least 6 months old and if all is going well, on through the first year. I recently came across this blog post that was just the sweetest and encouraging thing about breastfeeding. I urge all mommies to read it; you'll shed a tear just like I did I'm sure. I've been blessed to be able to give the gift of breast milk to Emily. I prayed about it while I was pregnant and continue to pray that we will be able to make it through this first year.

So this week was a little challenging...she had become increasingly fussy during/after a feeding and I was getting worried that her reflux was out of control but then she began to seem to want to refuse to nurse at certain feedings. I was a ~~hysterical~~ mess about it... researching nursing strikes, eliminating dairy, calling the doctor and lactation consultant, doing what ever I could (obsessing) to figure it out. Well I still don't know what was wrong but she's eager to nurse again and I couldn't be happier. She had even slept through the night one night and I was anxious for her to wake up just so we could nurse since she was better when she was sleepy. I mean who hopes their baby wakes up in the middle of the night?!?! I'm glad I had the patience to stick with it as well as the time to work with her during the day.

we were trying out a new hairstyle!

Thanks for reading my long story :) The pictures aren't really relevant at telling it, I just thought they were cute and needed to add some flair to the post. Plus I wanted to document the whole story of our little family.

What we've been up to...

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Riney) — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 02:13:00 +0000

It's been quite a while since I last posted something so here's to catching up...

Of course we've been watching the Summer Olympics (the men's swim team? God Bless America!-hahaha!) Emily actually turns her head toward the TV now and likes to watch so we have to face her away from it and make sure we're playing with her at the same time or wait until after she goes to bed. One Friday night Blaine had her laughing pretty good. Her squeals are so fun to hear right now and I just want to soak up these precious times with her.

We had another play date with our friends from church. Here the girls are all together (Emily is the youngest by a week but she's a bully and pushing them all over!)

Emily took her first boat ride 2 weekends ago. We keep our boat at Lake Tillery and haven't had a chance to see it or get out on it this summer so we got a wild hair and braved it a couple of Saturday's ago. We went during the afternoon when she naps the best and she slept most of the way there and while we were out on the lake. She was great, it was just the 3 of us and we had fun. Here are some pictures...

I was determined to keep her cool and bug free while we took the cover off the boat

We're still working on sleeping through the night consistently and napping for longer periods during the day. From the looks of this picture though you'd think she had no problem sleeping :)

This past weekend we went to Henderson to do lots of stuff. My sister and her fiance, Matt, were home too. Allyson pretty much just laughs at Emily and it's very entertainig to watch. We loved being home and hanging out with the whole Wilder clan.

One of the most exciting things that happened over the weekend was Emily rolling over!
You would have thought she won an Olympic medal! She still struggles with that one arm and has to get a "running" start before she actually makes it over. I had captured several attempts before almost missing the actual roll. She doesn't like being on her tummy though so gets upset once she's over. That night was very frustrating for her b/c she kept trying to roll over but woke up mad b/c she couldn't get there or was pinned against the side of the pack-n-play where she was sleeping. :( We'll keep practicing our tummy time and perfecting her roll. She'll be on the go in no time!

Another first (for Emily and myself) was going to my uncle Sam's "tractor" pull on Saturday night. I say "tractor" b/c they are actually modified lawn mowers. I don't totally understand the concept but it didn't matter, we were entertained. I was nervous that it would be to loud for Emily so I brought along her headphones that we bought for her to use in our airplane. They aren't noise canceling but they worked really well b/c she slept through most of it! We left early so I don't know if Sam won but it was sure entertaining! (esp Sam's t-shirt that said "Grasscar" and Matt's overwhelming excitement as we drove up and he jumped out of the car before I could get it in park!)

Everyday with Emily is fun, tiring yes, but I just love playing with her and watching her grow. We're so very blessed that this precious little one is a part of our lives. Its still weird to check on her before bed and see her sleeping (so peacefully) and know that we're responsible for this little life and that she's all ours. God is good! XOXO

Play Date!

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Riney) — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 14:42:00 +0000

Emily hosted her first play date last Thursday! Our friends from church, Laura and her twin girls, Annika and Brooklyn and Marsha and her daughter, Greta came for a fun visit. The twins and Greta were born (on the same day!) a week before Emily. It was so nice to have friends going through the same things at the same time when we were all pregnant. Its even nicer to have the girls going through the same feeding/sleeping/growing things at the same time. This is Marsha's 3rd girl and Laura has another daughter too so I consider them old pro's since this is my rookie year. The most helpful thing has been texting with Marsha in the middle of the night checking in on the girls as we were up nursing. She's basically the only friend I have with a newborn that's nursing too. I really appreciate all of the advice and tips that my seasoned mommy friends have thrown my way and how they don't hesitate to help me out when i have a question. And I realized that you shouldn't compare babies to each other but I'm always interested to see how everyone is doing and maybe trying out some of their methods.

So although 3 month old babies don't exactly "play" with each other, the mommies had fun talking and sharing. I didn't get a picture of them all together but snapped these of Emily before they arrived!

We're headed to Marsha and Greta's house this afternoon again so maybe I will remember to get a pictures of the girls together!

3 months old today!

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Riney) — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 01:04:00 +0000

I simply cannot believe that our sweet baby Emily is 3 months old! (i know its cliche...but...) She's really growing up too fast, seriously. She's changed so much in the past month too. She's now sucking on her fingers/thumb and laughing more. One day something is funny but probably not again the next! Her feedings are getting a little more organized as well. I guess we're on some sort of schedule, sort of.

Here are a few more pictures of what a big girl she is. She's sitting up a little in her bumbo seat (and reading!).

I was in the bathroom the other day and she was hanging out on our bed and this is how I found her when I popped my head back in the room:

She had scooted out of her lounger by kicking and actually fell asleep like this!

Last weekend I had to spend a couple of days in Los Angeles and it was the hardest thing I've ever done. I went to see the Fall 2012 line from CAbi, a home based clothing company that I'm an independent sales consultant for at what we call "the SCOOP". Since I took the previous spring season off to have Emily it was required that I attend this one. I only needed to be there Friday afternoon and Saturday (I know, a long way to travel for such a short time). So after much stressing and worrying I flew out Friday morning and returned on the red eye Saturday night so that I was only gone for the time necessary. It didn't matter that I wouldn't get any sleep, I was used to it, right? While it was nice to get away, I missed my baby girl terribly. I was afraid she wouldn't know who I was when I got back, wouldn't take a bottle while I was gone or want to nurse when I got back. Blaine did a fantastic job taking care of her while I was away and everything turned out just fine. I took my pump and continued to pump the same 2.5-3 hours that she would be feeding so that my milk supply wouldn't be affected while I was gone. It was ~~really~~ awkward at times (I had to ask someone if I could borrow their plug so I could pump in the airport!) She was happy to see me (at least I think she was) and I was even more happy to see her. She nursed just fine and even took a 3 hour nap with me on Sunday! And apparently Blaine wore her out b/c she's been pretty much sleeping through the night ever since I got back!

We love our baby girl and its been such a blessing to see her getting bigger and changing everyday! Happy 3 month birthday Emily!!!

XOXO