Road Trip to Indiana

Kory took off Thu and Fri (YES!! You heard me right!!) and we headed down to Indiana for the weekend. We really wanted Emily to meet her great grandparents that live down there.

Here is Miss Em on our way to Indiana. Isn't she so cute???



We have a ritual of playing UNO with grandma and grandpa. Here Em is learning how to play. BAH-LOO!!!



We had to also take Em up in Kevin's tractor. Uh oh...I think she really likes it!!!




Here is she is also visiting great grandma Marion. We had a great time!!



Here is great grandpa and great grandma Miiller. Thanks for letting us come visit.


We got to see Uncle John, Aunt Cheryl, and Aunt Lola also. We went out to eat and Emily was such a good little girl. We did have to give her a suppository yesterday because the darn girl refused to poop! Don't know what we are going to do with her!!!

We fed her at 1200 today and then left Indiana around 1. She didn't wake up the ENTIRE car ride home!! We got home at 4:30 and she was still snoozing. Now that's a daddy's girl!

Pray for them...

Please keep my sister Cori and her family in your prayers. She is 30 weeks pregnant and the little peanut has decided she might want to come early. She went in for an ultrasound yesterday and they found out she is 2 cm dialated and 80% effaced. So they have her hooked up to monitors. They gave her some shots to stop the contractions for now. She will be on bed rest until they can decide what to do next. So say some prayers that Cori can stay put and so can Baby Stampf #2!!

We love you guys! Hang in there.

Emily's 4 month pictures

Here is the link to Em's 4 month pictures: http://photos.walmart.com/share/p=622271209305030601/l=11293857/g=3242809/cobrandOid=1011/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB
There are a lot of them! We were very busy with her first Easter and her baptism.
Enjoy!

Emily's 4 Month Check-up

We had Em's 4 month Dr visit last night. She had to get some more shots, but she did okay. I think mommy takes it harder than Em does :) ha ha

I just wanted to post a quick update with her measurements.
Height is 24" (45%)
Weight is 12 lbs 6oz (26%)
Head Circumference is 41 cm (55%)--even with her odd shaped head, she's still right around average

We did talk about starting her on solids and Dr. Zenner suggested we wait a bit. Especially because she doesn't seem to be eating much as it is with formula. He said you will start to notice her being more hungry and that is when you should introduce it. So my plan right now is to wait 2 weeks and see how she is doing and maybe start it then. It doesn't hurt to wait. It says to start them between 4 and 6 months and since she is doing fine with just formula, there is no sense in rushing it.

I will get her 4 month pictures posted hopefully by the weekend. I have a lot of them with Easter and her baptism and everything else going on.

Being a Mom

I got this poem from my mother-in-law and I thought I would post it. It is so true!!

Before I was a Mom
I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby.
I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom
I had never been puked on.
Pooped on.
Chewed on.
Peed on.
I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts.
I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom
I never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests.
Or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom
I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to put him down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn't stop the hurt.
I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom
I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body.
I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby.
I didn't know that bond between a mother and her child.
I didn't know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mom
I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.
I had never known the warmth, the joy, the love, the heartache,the wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom.
I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much, before I was a Mom.

Photo Blog

We had Emily's baptism this past week on Saturday, April 19th at St. Albert the Great church in Sun Prairie. Her godparents are my sister Casey and our nephew Nathan. It was a great time!! We lucked out and had beautiful weather all weekend.
Here are some pictures from the last week or so:

Here is Miss Em in a pretty pink headband. Don't tell Daddy!! He hates those things!




Here is Emily in her baptism gown. My mom made her gown from my wedding dress. It was absolutely beautiful. Thank you so much mom!!!



Proud parents!!



Here we are walking in to the baptism mass.



Cousins!! Mikaiya and Emily. So cute!



Here is my new favorite pic of Em. Do you think she can fit anymore fingers in her mouth?



The girls at the zoo. We had a great time! Thanks Uncle Jeff for taking us 5 girls!!!



Thanks to everyone who came this weekend. We had a great time and really appreciated everyone being there. Hope you all had a safe trip home.

Emily's Head Dr. Appt

I wanted to update everyone on Emily's Dr appt. She went to see a head specialist because her head is very deformed and it just seems to be getting worse. Thankfully my Dr referred us to this wonderful lady in Madison. We went in yesterday and she couldn't stop saying how cute Em was, and of course Em was giving her lots and lots of smiles. She took a lot of pictures and watched Emily on her tummy and her back. She told us that Emily has what is known as Positional Plagiocephaly. It basically means that her head is deformed. What this Dr says is that Emily has a neck muscle that is not working correctly. She assumes this actually started in utero and that it's nothing we did wrong. Which of course made us feel so much better. So because this neck muscle isn't working correctly, it's causing her head to grow very uneven on the one side. Now she even has two small dents in the top front of her head where the plates are running out of room to grow. Her head is getting wider, but not longer. This could cause some major developmental problems for her, so we obviously need to get it fixed. She said the best time to fix the condition is between 4 and 6 months of age. Em is 3 months and 3 weeks now. So what she suggested is we take a month to really work on her neck muscle and see if it changes. If it doesn't change by the time we go back on May 15th, then we need to get her fitted for a helmet. I have attached a picture below that shows what the helmets look like. So we are freaking out...just a little. But we know we have to do what is best for Em. She would have to wear it for about 8 weeks and get it checked every week for fittings.



So we will continue to do her exercises and hope her head gets better. If not, she will still be just as adorable with a helmet on :)

Here is the website with more information if you are interested. These are the people who would be making her helmet for us: http://www.cranialtech.com/
Thanks for all your thoughts everyone.

Little Drummer Girl

Here is Em with her daddy. He's starting her off early!!

Stupid Mom!!

Okay, so I know I am not the smartest person on the planet, but I did one of the most stupid things the other day. So Aunt Kacey and I went shopping for Miss Emily. Her 0 - 3 month clothes is getting too small, so we were going to buy her some 3 - 6 month clothes. Grandma Bonnie was also going to buy her a few things that I picked out.
So....we go to Kohl's and start loading up the cart with 3 month clothes. I am so excited to have all this cute new clothes. So this weekend, I finally get to taking the tags off and washing the clothes. I go to change out her clothes that is in her closet with her new clothes and come to find out...3 month MEANS 0 - 3 month!! OH NO!! So I bought all her new clothes in the WRONG size!! Geesh I am a moron. I feel really bad about it. So she's going to wear the stuff at least a few times. Then I'll be back to the store buying some 3 - 6 month clothes...the tags will say 6 Month--not 3 Month! How the heck was I supposed to know? I'm sure you're thinking I should have tried it on her...but do you really "try" clothes on a baby? I don't know about that one.
Okay-I just needed to tell everyone so they don't make the same stupid mistake I did.

My Overalls

I am so cute in my overalls. These were my cousin's overalls and I love them! Thanks Aunt Kalli for letting me borrow them. Even though they are 'boy' overalls, I still look adorable!!!

Emily's First Road Trip

Emily, Kory and I headed up to Minnesota this weekend to visit Scott, Ali and Morgan. I went to college with Ali and shortly after graduating Winona they moved to Virginia Beach. I visited often, but was VERY happy when they decided to move back to MN in November. It's been such a cruddy winter that we haven't had a chance to get together. So Kory took Friday off (YAY!) and we drove up to MN. We had so much fun visiting with them. We used to get together and drink ourselves into oblivion and then sleep in.....we found out this weekend that having children has made us old...very old :) We still had a great time. I think Kory has a new girlfriend, Morgan!! She's so cute. Thanks for having us Scott & Ali. We love you guys!!

Oh! One more thing..our little diarrhea prone angel now is constipated!! Em hasn't pooped since Thursday afternoon...it's now Sunday evening. We started putting Karo syrup in her bottles yesterday with no such luck. She seems to be moving some things around in her tummy, so hopefully she'll have a very large bowel movement sometime tonight!! Wish us luck :)

Here are some pictures from this weekend:

Ali and her mini-me, Morgan


Ali & Me



Kory and his two favorite girls!!

“Anyone can give up, it’s the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that’s true strength.”

Thank you Great Grandma Marion

Thank you for my boppy great grandma marion. I love it. I know I am supposed to be doing tummy time, but I really like to just take naps on it!!

Emily's 1st Easter

Emily had a very nice first easter. She got to wear her adorable easter dress twice!! On Saturday, we went to Bonnie & Tom's and had dinner at Kory's favorite prime rib restaurant--Buckhorn in Edgerton, WI. Then on Sunday we went to IL to see my family. It was a full car, the trailblazer had Otis in the way back; Teresa, Casey and Em in the middle; and Mike & Kory in the front. It was a fun trip.

Here are some pics to share:

Pretty girl:

Arms are flying!!!

Enough pictures mommy!!!!

Otis and Em sharing the boppy.

Pictures of Emily

I have moved all of Emily's pictures to http://www.walmart.com/. I had been hearing how webshots was not very user friendly. So there are now albums for each month.


I also have the new month 3 photos uploaded. There are a lot of them, so enjoy!!

Birth: http://photos.walmart.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=24861013/a=3242809/t_=3242809

Month 1: http://photos.walmart.com/share/p=440221206187886684/l=11175674/g=3242809/cobrandOid=1011/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB



Month 2:
http://photos.walmart.com/share/p=104221206187833286/l=11175673/g=3242809/cobrandOid=1011/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB



Month 3: http://photos.walmart.com/share/p=322211206150069812/l=11173767/g=3242809/cobrandOid=1011/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

We Survived the First Week

Well Emily and I survived the first week back to work. I should say that I survived...I knew Emily would be fine! ha ha Unfortunately, due to the bad weather today, Em is staying with Grandma Bonnie for the night. Thanks Grandma!!! I am missing her to pieces, having been away from her for the last two work days, but thought maybe I'd get started on her scrapbook. That way at least I am doing something fun!


Here are some pictures from St. Patty's Day at Aunt CeCe's and Uncle Mike's:

Here I am eating my hands. I LOVE to eat my fists. All day long!!! Yummy!



Oh shoot! You caught me eating my hands again....



Here I am sitting all by myself. I am so darn tiny!!


Yes...can I help you?




Oh! You want a smile...here you go!!!

The Last Day

Well..today is my last full day with Miss Emily before I go back to work. We've spent the day in our jammies, snuggling on the couch. Let's all hope the transition goes well. Wish us luck!!

March for Babies

Hello.

I am participating in March for Babies on May 3rd in Madison because I believe in the March of Dimes mission to save babies. Please support my fundraising efforts by sponsoring me in March for Babies today.

Contributing to my march online is fast, easy and secure. You can donate directly from my personal webpage with a credit/debit card or PayPal. If you prefer, I can also accept cash or check. Just click the appropriate box on my webpage.

The money we raise helps save premature and sick babies. Premature birth is the #1 cause of newborn death and the biggest threat to babies’ health today, and through March for Babies, the March of Dimes is funding important research to find out why premature birth happens and what can be done to prevent it.

I’ve joined with millions of compassionate people across the country who support March for Babies each year. Won’t you please help me in this worthy cause? Visit my webpage and sponsor me in the march that saves babies!

With your support, there’s hope.
Please donate to support my walk. Miss Emily will also be walking with me. Here is the webpage where you can donate: http://www.marchforbabies.org/tmarion

Thank you!!!

Visiting Madi and Maya

This morning I went to visit my friends Madi and Maya. Madi is 4 and Maya is 2. I had so much fun. Thanks for having us Shell!!

I am so confused....

Am I a Bears Fan:


Or a Packers Fan:


Only time will tell Miss Emily!!!

Thank you!

We wanted to thank Aunt Kacey and Uncle Tony for the awesome canvas they painted for above Em's crib. It is so pretty and she looks at it all the time. I think she likes all the blocks of color. It matches her room beautifully!!


I also was surprised when I got home today and got a box from Aunt Kristen. Thank you so much for the piggy bank for Emily. It's georgous!! I can't wait for her to put the first coins in it!!! You are the best.


Thank you everyone for loving Emily so much. It means more than you know. Kory and I are so happy that she has so many people who care about her.

Wow!

So I have been doing more tummy time with Emily. Today I put her on her boppy pillow and put her mirror in front of her. She can now push her legs so her head hits her mirror! ha ha She is a genius!! She must really like herself, because she keeps wanting to get closer and closer! Just thought you would all like that story.

We are heading to Grandma Bonnie's work tomorrow morning (Curves), so Emily can meet all Grandma's lady friends! It should be fun to be oohed and awed at!!! Then we are heading down to Grammy and Grampa Walker's in IL for our last trip before I head back to work. I go back on Thurs. the 20th! I can't believe my leave is over already. I am anxious to get back into a routine and I know Emily will love going to Chris's house for daycare.

Oh! One last big milestone. Em has officially grown out of her newborn diapers and now wears size 1 YAY!! It's too funny all those people who told me not to bother buying any newborn diapers cuz they'd only wear them for a day or two....ha ha! She wore them for 2 1/2 months!!!

Talk to you all soon! Thanks for checking in to see how the little peanut is doing.

My Busy Week

I am so excited that I got to meet my Aunt Kristen, Aunt Kalli, and my Cousin Reese a few weeks ago.




Here I am with my Aunt Kalli:






Here I am with my Aunt Kristen:








Here I am with my Cousin Reese:


Look at my goofy Aunts all dressed alike! They are so cute!!



I am the star of the show!!! We are at Grandpa Randy's having fun hanging out.



Here I am also with my Aunt Liz. She loves to hold me!!










Here is my cousin Reese playing with me. He is such a good "big brother cousin"!!





Just thought this was a fun picture of Uncle Tony and Reese. Tony found this icicle hanging off the house at Grandma Bonnie's.




Hope you enjoyed all the pics. I am getting bigger and bigger all the time. Mommy goes back to work in a week and a half. I am excited to go daycare!!! I have also been a bit sick lately with the stomach flu or something of the sorts. Lots of icky diarrhea. I am now taking lactose free formula hoping to feel better soon.

The Many Faces of Emily

Thought these pics of Em were adorable. She was taking a break while drinking her milk.
Enjoy!!






Can she get any cuter????

Emily and Uncle Mark

Uncle Mark came to visit last week all the way from Portland. Here are some cute pics!

Spending Spree

Having a new baby has thrown us into the world of bigger vehicles. I know...I always said I wouldn't drive an SUV, but I have decided it is so much easier when trying to travel with Emily. Gosh kids have a lot of stuff!!!

Kory also needed a new truck since Em's carseat barely fit in his truck.

So I am now driving a 2006 Chevy Trailblazer:

Kory got a 2006 Chevy Silverado:

Do you like? We do!!!!