Emmabelle is 8 Months

Emmabelle has reached the 8 month mark. Time is flying so fast. I feel like I don't even have time to enjoy all she is accomplishing and learning. My baby just isn't a baby anymore. She has very quickly reach pre-toddlerhood. I guess that is what you would call it. She is now around 17lbs or so. We have only weighed her on our scale at home. I have been a slacker at taking her to the doctor. All I know is that she is quickly catching up to her sister who is around the 20lb mark.

She loves pulling up on the laundry basket. This is what she first started to pull up on. When it isn't full enough to pull up on I just let her play in it and she loves it just as much.

She has accomplished quite a bit. She now has 7 teeth, four on top and three on bottom. She is a full on crawler and she pulls up on anything that she can and is also walking along furniture. She is even starting to attempt to let go. She thinks she is so big. I know that she really just wants to chase after her big sister.

She is also good at pulling up on the recliner. Her favorite thing to do here is to blow on the leather and make funny noises. She will also do this on your arm if she gets the chance, you just can't mind a little drool.

She loves being outside. I usually keep her in one of her bouncers, but she also loves to play in the dirt, and loves to eat it. She really likes going for rides in the wagon. She would spend all day outside if she could.

She love's anything that has to do with Avery. Avery can make Emmabelle laugh at the drop of a hat. Sometimes Avery just has to look at Emmabelle and she will just start busting up laughing. Avery is really good about it all until Emmabelle pulls her hair, or tackles her attempting to pull herself up on her. Avery isn't quite strong enough to hold Emmabelle's weight.

If Emmabelle is doing it, Avery is doing it. Avery loves her sister so much and just wants to be with her all the time. I think it is so sweet. Sometimes I think it is mostly because she wants the attention, but either way she loves playing with Emmabelle and helping take care of her. She is a great big sister.

She gets so excited when it is bath time. She likes to splash and blow bubbles in the water. We have cups in there for them to play with and she fills it with water and blows bubbles in the cup. It is really cute.

We are starting to learn about her temper. She is developing that really well also. She will get so mad, she either lays on her back and screams and throws her legs around, or she will lay on her tummy put her face in her hands whine and kick her feet. I have to admit I think it is so cute. We will see how long that lasts though.

She has such a sweet spirit. She can always melt my heart. She has this cheesy little grin that I adore. She is so full of life and I can't imagine our home with out her. I have been very blessed with two wonderful children. Although my patience is tried I feel so blessed for what I have.

I did a little photo shoot with the girls and realized I never posted the pictures. It was really fun to do, I just wish I was better at it. I would really like to get a better camera and learn photography. Maybe someday. Here are a couple picture of Avery. These are her two year pictures.

The best Husband in the World.

Dave has been such a good husband and father lately I just wanted to let him know how much I love and appreciate all that he does for us, not that he isn't always good, but he has had to pick up quite a bit of slack lately. Tuesday night I wasn't feeling the greatest and I thought it was just due to the chili rellenos that we had for dinner. Unfortunately I woke up Wednesday morning with the flu. My stomach was cramping and I was spending a lot of time in the bathroom. Needless to say I was in no condition to take care of two children. (I really think mom's shouldn't be capable of getting sick.) So the wonderful husband that he is took over. He did all of his work, plus take care of the kids all day. He got them breakfast, dressed them, and tended to them for the day. Avery got to watch a lot of TV which she just loved. I hate to admit that we watch way to much TV, but we are slowly working on it. He took them to run his errands, and since it was Wednesday night he even took them to scouts, and from what I hear it wasn't the best night at scouts. One of the best things about it is that he did it all without complaining once. He was so wonderful about it all.

Avery's new do.

I posted about Avery's new haircut earlier, but I just wanted to post a cuter picture of it all done up. We just think she is so cute with her new hair and she really likes it to. She even lets me curl it on Sunday's.

Night time madness.

So I really meant to get on the computer yesterday and be all excited about the nights sleep that we had. For some reason this house isn't seeing many good nights of sleep. Emmabelle still wakes up around 4 or so for a bottle on most nights, and Avery's sleeping habit has just gotten worse. She was such a good sleeper from about 8:30 to between 6:00 and 7:00. Now for some reason she tends to wake up and come into our room, sometimes mulitple times a night. But the night before last it was a miracle. Avery was in bed by 8:45 and Emmabelle around 9:15, she had a late nap and what do you know they both slept all night. Emmabelle woke up around 7:15 and Avery slept clear til 8:00. Dave and I were exstatic. On nights like these I try to remember exactly what I did before bed so I can do it again hopeing for the same result.

Unfortunately last night was a disaster. Dave had a really busy day and we didn't get to see him at all really, just in passing. He started school and is taking a day class and a night class that happen to be on the same day. Then he also has mutual on Wednesday nights and so I usually let Avery stay up until he gets home which is usually not later than 9:00. She just hates the days that she doesn't get to play with her Dad. Not last night he was a little later and by the time he got home Avery was way beyond tired and that makes for a bad night. I didn't want to put her to bed though because she would have thrown a huge fit and woken up Emmabelle. I know who is the parent right. So needless to say neither of our children slept last night and I ended up on the couch. It was a very short lived celebration, but I am happy for the little blessing of sleep the night before. I have been trying really hard lately to see the positive. I tend to dwell on the negative and I am a little tired of that. It is hard to do, but I am going to prevail. Anyways there is my little spill on sleep habits in the Hartman household.

Ringing in the New Year

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a good New Year's. I don't know why people need a new year to start changing things in their lives, but for some reason we are creatures of habit and that is how it goes. So once again as the new year has approached I have tried really hard to look at my life and make goals that I can hopefully live up to. I tend to bite off to much at once, but this year I am hopeing to focus on a little at a time and break it up by month. I will focus on one or two things each month and hopefully by months end I will have made progress. One of my goals is to do better at journal keeping. I have made good progress with my blog, (for some reason it is easier on to do on the computer) but sometimes I don't feel I give enough detail. So for those of you that read my blog please bare with me. The reason I want more detail is because I will eventually compile the blog into a book. I already put last years into a book and it will make such a wonderful keepsake. I will try not to bore you though.

Now to recap the past week. New Year's Eve was a pretty eventful day for us. I ended up getting Avery's hair cut. This time I really cut it though, I didn't just trim it. It took Dave a while to warm up to it though, but I just love it. She looks so cute. Dave says she looks older. We have gotten quite a few comments from people saying how cute she looks. I haven't gotten a good picture yet, but you can hopefully see it from these pictures. I will try to take a better picture soon.

Here is a good back view.

Also we spent the day getting ready for Dave's parents to arrive. This meant cleaning house and going grocery shopping. Dave's parents were suppose to arrive early evening, but unfortunately they had some delays due to snow and didn't get here until around 8:00. Avery was so excited for them to come. We were suppose to go to dinner with them, but since they weren't going to be here until late Dave and I jumped on the opportunity and went out on a date. My Mom and Dad were passing through town on their way back home from the valley to spend New Year's with us so they were going to watch the kids. Unfortunately my Grandpa called saying my Grandma wasn't doing so well so Mom and Dad went home to help with her. My brother Clint was nice enough to watch Avery, so Dave, Emmabelle, and I could go to dinner. I had planned on staying up to ring in the new year, but I guess I am getting old. 10:00 hit and I was done for. Dave and his mom ended up staying up talking, but I just couldn't make it.

New Year's day was spent just enjoying the company of Clay and Mary. We had a leisure morning. We were able to open presents from Clay and Mary.

Emmabelle working on her present.

Avery showing off her new purse and dolly.

This is probably the best front view of Avery's hair.

Emmabelle looking at her new book and clothes.

We also went and drove around town looking at land. Jan. 1 is also Mary's birthday so we decided that we would go to Chalos for lunch, unfortunately they are closed on New Year's. That evening the boys went shooting and the girls just hung out. When Dave and Clay got home we had a nice steak dinner for Mary's birthday with some good cake and ice cream to go with it. Clay and Mary had to continue on their way on Friday, but we really enjoyed getting to spend time with them. Avery just loves her grandparents to death and can't wait until she gets to see them again. She loves talking to them on the phone, and without fail asks them to come to her house. Emmabelle even did surprisingly well and let both Clay and Mary hold her without too much fuss.

Emmabelle cuddling with her Papa Clay. I thought it was so cute.

Saturday Dave was able to spend a good deal of time working on his garden. He is so excited to be able to grow a garden. He got all of his rail road ties in place and it looks really good. We are going to have a huge garden. We are planning on eating what we can and then canning the rest to help with our year supply. I was able to start working on my sister-in-laws baby shower that I am throwing for her, and I also worked on the house a little.

Sunday started bright and early. We have now moved to the 9:00 time slot so we no longer get to sleep in. We were on time though which was an accomplishment. This year I am going to try to start singing in the choir. We will have to see. They practice right after church, but Dave has meetings, and it is right in the middle of lunchtime and naps. We'll see how it goes.