Happy 1/2 birthday Emmarie!

Well it's been over a month since my last post, no surprise that I haven't been able to keep up! May was a very busy month around here. Here is an update and somewhat recent pic of everyone. Early May was spent planning our annual gymnastics banquet. It was a lot of work, but it went off without a hitch. (minus the point at which I started crying talking about our wonderful Coach Colleen who passed away last fall. I then proceeded to announce to all that I was emotional since I was still "breastfeeding," it was a "tmi" moment for sure. I turned red for days afterward just thinking about it). Our gymnastics family really wanted to have a fundraiser for the Vanzee family, and we decided the banquet would be a perfect way to raise money and honor them at the same time. With tons of help from wonderful parent volunteers and my fellow coaches, the event was a definite success!

Eli's last day of pre-school was today. We will miss Miss Darla! Eli absolutely loves her and she has been such a wonderful first teacher. He will continue at the Life Connection Church for mother's day out once a week this summer and then he'll go 2 days a week starting in the fall.

We made our first trip to the zoo this spring last week. I ended up buying a membership because they were having a special. Eli had a blast! P-pa came with us which was a huge help. Here's Eli with a rhino:)

Here we are taking cover from one of the many spring storms we have here in Oklahoma! We had no power for several hours, but it was fun family bonding time!

Eli had an unfortunate run-in with the tree in our front yard. Poor guy, his lip was swollen and he had some cuts below his nose. He's famous for turning around and running before watching where he's going.

Eli had his 3rd dentist appointment a few weeks ago. He does awesome with the dentist. Dr. Fox and Dr. B told us that Eli needs to stop sucking his thumb:) We're working on it!

Mother's Day was spent visiting Jason's family at the farm. Everyone had a great time. The kids got to play with their cousin Landon and hang out with Grandma Shafer, Grandpa Frank and Grandpa Mashburn. Jason was helping the Wards prepare for their big move to the farm! They are building a house there, and actually they just closed on their house in Arlington today and are beginning an exciting new chapter in their lives.

We went to our first Driller's game in the new ballpark in early May. It was a lot of fun!

I took some garden pics of Emmarie on one random spring day!

Emmarie is doing very well. She had her 6 month checkup in early May and had a cardiologist appointment earlier this week. She is growing great and on track developmentally. Interestingly, I looked back at Eli's 6 month visit and here are their stats side by side:) They are exactly the same in height and head, but Eli was 3 lbs heavier! What a chunk he was:)

Weight

Eli: 18 lbs 0 oz- (55%)

Em: 15 lbs 0 oz- (30%)

Height

Eli: 26 1/2 inches (75%)

Em: 26 1/2 inches (75%)

Head:

Eli: 17 1/2 (60%)

Em: 17 1/2 (60%)

Emmarie's cardiologist was very pleased with her most recent Echo and EKG. Her VSD is very tiny and a non-issue now. Her aortic arch is no longer "twisty" as it was before and is more of a nice candy cane shape as it should be. Her ASD is still considered moderate to large. They will continue to monitor it every 6 months until such time as a determination is made on surgery. If the hole shows signs of closing on its own and the right atrium is not becoming enlarged due to the excess blood flow, then they will opt to continue to wait and give it a chance to close. If it is not showing signs of closing and the atrium is showing signs of enlargement or if she experiences any other problems then they will opt to close it surgically. It's basically still wait and see at this point. Overall she is thriving and is an incredibly happy baby. She's able to use her hands very well and her fine motor skills are on track for her age. She's starting to eat solids and can grab and eat puffs on her own. She's sitting up, rolling all around, and starting to scoot a little bit. Her physical therapist says she is getting much stronger in her shoulders and we are working on getting on all fours with her belly up to train for crawling. She babbles constantly and loves to laugh. She absolutely loves Eli and laughs at him constantly!

Eli's starting to adjust to being a big brother and his behavior has improved. We're looking forward to a fun summer. He's continuing with swim lessons and is going to try a gymnastics class, we'll see how that goes! He's also going to do a soccer camp. I've decided we'll try sports in small doses until we know he can handle it. After the tball fiasco I've learned my lesson! If he likes the soccer camp, maybe we'll sign him up for a team in the fall (or spring, whenever soccer season is).

I've been off of work this week which has been nice. We start our new summer schedule on June 1st. I asked for a change in our traditional summer workout schedule so that I could have at least 2 mornings to do activities with my own kids. So, I will be working Monday/Wednesday 2-6 and Tuesday/Thursday/Friday 9-1. I'm really excited about the change. I'm also working on completing my real estate license prep course. Yes that's right, I am going to be getting my license. Jason's "side job" is turing in to a full time job, and we decided it would be easier if one of us was licensed to avoid using an outside agent. Since I'm the better studier/test taker type, we decided it was best if I do it. Finding the time to read and take these chapter quizzes is proving to be a challenge, but I actually like it. I'm a nerd like that. I always did love school, and I want to go back someday to get some kind of graduate degree. Anyway, between that class, two kids, a husband, a house, and my job, I'm constantly feeling slightly crazy! I joined a gym to try and get back into shape, but so far I've been pretty unsuccessful at actually going. My goal was to go every morning at around 5:30 after I feed Emmarie (who by the way just isn't the best sleeper!). That's just not happening though. If I can make myself do it for a week I know I'll get in the groove and it will really make me feel better, but it's just taking that first step that's hard. As we say in gymnastics, "the first one's the worst one!" I just need to force myself to do it. It's not as if those couple extra hours of sleep from 5:30-7something are really doing me much good anyway. I just end up being more tired after waking up the second time. Hopefully by the next time I post I will have made the plunge. Everyone have a wonderful holiday weekend! Happy Memorial Day!