Five Months Old!

I am very behind in my blogging! Here are Emerie's cute five month pictures even thought she just turned six months. I'll add her six month pictures later.
We call Emerie, Emmie, Emmie Boo, Goofy-Loof and Cutie Pie. She is such a sweet baby and she makes me laugh all the time. She pulls the funniest faces and makes the funniest noises. She does a really cute scream that sounds kind of like a lamb instead of crying. She is usually very happy and Madison is the only one that can make her laugh really really hard, and I guess cry really hard too:) Emerie has a deep muffled laugh and it sounds like she is trying really hard not to just let it out! She still kicks like crazy in the bath tub and I don't think she has ever cried in the tub except when she was in with Madison and got water poured on her face:( She wakes up really happy, smiles and kicks her legs like crazy when we come in. She is working on sitting up all by herself, still a little bit wobbly. She can roll over but were not anywhere close to scooting. She loves to be social and when her daddy comes home she can't stop staring at his face (finally someone else to look at besides mom)! I love kissing her chubby little cheeks and she loves to snuggle which also meant she didn't like being put down in her bed. Her lip would quiver as soon as we walked into her room. Lately she's been going to bed great however. She's not sleeping through the night yet but hey, who wouldn't want to get up two or three times a night with this cutie;) I always say to myself, it's a good thing you are so cute as a walk into her room half asleep. We love you Emmie and we are so grateful to have you as part of our family!

Little Singer

These last two weeks Madison has just exploded with singing. She always liked to listen to music and she loved it when we sang to her but she would rarely just start singing the songs on her own. I have been amazed at how much they can remember at this age! Last week she started singing "I am Like a Star Shinning Brightly" and I had never sung that song with her. It's fun to watch her learn so many new things. The songs she is singing in the first video are "I am Like a Start Shinning Brightly", the ABC song, and the Turtle Song. The second video is Twinkle Twinkle, and the third video is Zip-a-de-do-dah. The last video is of Emerie being cute. She is such a sweet funny baby!
Madison sounds like she is speaking a foreign language whenever she reads "mommy and daddy" books. This must be what she sometimes hears when we talk:) Any big book with lots of words she thinks is the scriptures and so as she is reading you can hear the phrase "be nice to people". Often when we read the scriptures together I summarize it by saying the scriptures teach us to be nice to people. She definitely caught on to that phrase. The room was kind of dark so the picture isn't the greatest but what she is saying is pretty funny.

Cute Sisters!

The girls were being so cute in their matching outfits from grandma! Here is a little video of them that was interrupted by Emmie's spit up, yucky:)

Apple Picking!

Last week we went apple picking. It was a lot of fun and not as stressful as I thought it would be with two little ones! Madison loved picking the apples off the trees and baby Emerie was a little angel. We had a lot of fun on the hayride and Madison loved eating the apples we picked on the ride. I had never given Madison an entire apple to chow down on. Usually with even just a slice of apple she would end up spitting it out either because of the taste or texture??? I was very surprise when she ate the entire apple almost to the core. So grown up!

Shoe Tragedy

This last week Madison's heart was broken when her Snow White shoes snapped in half. She loved wearing these shoes and we often had to keep her from wearing them to the park, to church and other places where they would be hard to get around in. She walked surprisingly well in them and could even run in these little plastic heels. I am so glad she didn't hurt her foot when they broke as you can see from the sharp edges.
Madison loves shoes! Ever since she could walk she would go into her closet and ask me to put on her different shoes. She was very particular about what shoes she wanted to wear. She likes to go into our closets, pull out our shoes and clomp around the house in them. It's fun to watch!

End of Summer

Madison loved swimming in her monkey pool! We bought it in the middle of July so it was like 75% off and by the time we were able to blow it up and find a good time to use it the summer was pretty much over. Hopefully we will get more use out of it next summer:)

Serious Football Fans!

One thing we have discovered living out here in Ohio is that there are some die hard football fans in the Midwest. You haven't experienced intense football until you have seen a game out here. A few weeks ago we got a flyer on our door offering daycare for the football game! I guess that was just unheard of when I lived in Utah. Daycare for a football game! It advertised two hours before the game, during the game, and two hours after. The cost was $60 per child or $100 for two. If you add that in with the cost of game tickets out here, you are paying a pretty penny for a game. I guess I am not that serious about sports! I do love the tailgating and parties that go along with football season but I think I would rather turn the game on fourth quarter:) Jake is still helping me to learn more about football so I can appreciate the game. I am still waiting for that power point presentation he started making for me when we were dating!

This last Saturday you could hear what was going on in the game even if you didn't have it on because the neighborhood roared with each good play the buckeyes made. We had organized a pre-game breakfast potluck with our street so we could get to know our neighbors. We had a great turnout and ate some yummy food! Jake made sure to deck Emerie out in pre-game football gear. He was so excited to put these little tattoos on the girls cheeks. Madison refused to have one on her cheek and cried when he put one on my check. She is very territorial when it comes to her mommy:) Oh, and for future reference, don't put these stickers on babies cheeks, I warned Jake that Emerie's skin was too sensitive and he probably shouldn't put in on...too late. She still has a little red mark and hopefully it will go away in the next few days. Sometimes mommies know more than Dr's;)

Madison Loves Water!

As you can see from the pictures Madison loves water! Anytime we are driving by water she says I want to touch the water. We went to this really fun park with an awesome playground area and they also have this fun water area. The cows udder squirts water and they have lots of little spouts all over the place that kids can turn on. There is also a big fort area with built in water guns. Jake had fun squirting Madison and mommy with the squirt guns. I didn't think it was fair for just us to get wet so I told all the little kids at the other stations to get the big man wet! Jake was just to fast, maybe next time.
It wasn't even that warm outside since it was almost dusk but Madison was laughing, running around, and having a great time playing in the water. Luckily I had an extra change of clothes for her for the ride home.

Nothing like a box!

There's nothing like a good old box for some great playtime. Madison had a lot of fun playing in her makeshift playhouse with her friends. A good thing about moving, you have a lot of boxes!

Emmie, the Alligators are coming...

For a little over a month now, as we are driving in the car, Madison's eyes get really big and she uses her "scary" voice to tell Emmie that the Alligators are coming to see her. Sometimes she just says the Alligators are coming and when I ask her who they are coming to see she says Emmie. Should I be worried? Madison really does love her sister and her time outs for being mean to Emmie are getting fewer and father in between (depending on the week).
Oh and, it was amazing Madison sat on this alligator statue. The first time she saw the alligators at the zoo she wanted to climb the fence to go see them. I told her that if she climbed the fence they would come over and bite her. I didn't want her to be terrified of alligators but she needed to know they aren't for petting. When she saw the statue of the alligator at the aquarium she wouldn't go near it. Makes sense! It took a few visits for her to be reassured it wasn't real.

Family Camping Trip

A few weeks ago we went camping at Hocking Hills with some friends. It was our first experience camping with kids and in Ohio. We went once when I was pregnant with Madison but we have never attempted it with the two and it actually went really well! I imagined I would be up all night with sad little girls but they slept great! Madison slept in the pack and play and we spread some blankets out next to me where Emerie slept. Madison loved looked at the stars at night and watching the campfire glow. She also spent a lot of time digging in the dirt and playing with all the kids. The other day she asked if we could go camping again. Of course!
The next morning Jake cooked some pancakes with his make shift cardboard spatula and then we went hiking at some nearby caves. It was a really cool place. It actually feels like you are in the mountains even though it's Ohio:)

Peanut Allergy Confirmed

Poor little Madison is officially allergic to peanuts. This post is meant to inform family and any friends that may watch Madison so they know what to avoid and how to handle any situation if she accidentally eats anything that may cause a reaction.

She has had about four incidents where she reacted after eating something with peanut butter that led to us getting her in to see an allergist. We think the first time she had a severe reaction was back in Feb. after a party with some friends at our house when I let her eat some scotchoroos. She woke up not to long after going to bed and was struggling to breath. Jake, who is usually the calm one actually called 911 because of how scary the situation was. Madison started to calm down not too long after the firetruck arrived and she seemed to be fine the next day. We thought she had just woke up with croup, looking back it was probably the peanut butter but we hadn't made any connections then. The second reaction was at church after I had let her eat the crusts of my peanut butter sandwich. We were sitting down at the meeting and noticed she had hives all over her face and hands. The only thing we could link it to was the p.b. After the second incident she had a blood test and it came out negative. We thought we were in the clear and so while traveling home from our D.C. trip I let her have a little pretzel that had p.b in the middle. She immediately started crying and developed the hives again. So we decided to avoid peanuts until we could get it figured out. She had one more accidental situation which caused her to cry and scream for little while and by the time I got to her it looked like she had been scratching her throat, her face was a bit swollen and she had developed a few hives. Last week we were finally able to get her in to see an allergist (they book six months in advance, luckily Jake was able to use his doctor power to get us in early) and they were able to confirm that she has a peanut and almond allergy.
The allergist said that there is a 20% chance she could grow out of it, so cross your fingers, but in the meantime we are to avoid all peanuts and tree nuts. The more she is exposed to peanut products the more likely it is her reactions will continue to intensify. This is because her immune system will continue to build up more antibodies causing a more severe reaction. We will always carry the EpiPen with us for an emergency. The allergist said there is no way to know if she eats (blank) amount... she will have (blank) type of reaction.

For those interested here is a list of foods that we need to avoid. Some are obvious however there are some things you don't quite think of.
Artificial nuts, Beer nuts, peanut oil or Aarchis oil, ground nuts, mixed nuts, Goobers, Mandelonas, Monkey nuts, Flavored nuts, peanut butter, peanut flour.
These foods may contain peanut protein: African, Chinese, Indonesian, Mexican, Thai, and Vietnamese dishes, Baked goods, some chocolate candy, chili and sauces, egg rolls, enchilada sauce, almond flavoring, marzipan, nougat, pesto, sunflower seeds, all tree nuts since often they are manufactured on the same equipment, Bakeries and ice cream parlors because of cross contamination.

I have been reading labels more carefully and find that it is pretty common for food to be manufactured on equipment that processes peanuts. We have still made visits to the ice cream shop, we just ask the server to wash the scooper with hot water and soap before scooping Madison's ice cream and I don't imagine us never letting her eat another donut again:) She was fine at Wixey:) We will just be careful and hope she will outgrow it. We will test her about once a year to see how things are going. About 1% of the population has a peanut allergy and there continues to be research done on the causes. They may even develop a vaccine sometime in the future. Here is a great document for family and friends about peanut allergies http://www-tc.pbskids.org/arthur/parentsteachers/lesson/health/pdf/Binky_Peanut_Allergy_QA.pdf . Also here is a website with information http://www.foodallergy.org/

We love to dance!

Jake downloaded a new i-tunes song from the Oceans soundtrack and thought he would let the girls test it out! Check out their moves!