12 Months Old

Well, after a wonderful birthday weekend celebration, we topped it of on Monday, January 17th her actual birthday with a visit to the pediatrician for her 1 year Well Baby Check Up!  Dr. K was extremely pleased with how wonderful she is doing and how far she has come since being home.  Here are our stats and what Emma Claire is doing these days:

• Weight: 15 lbs 5 ounches <5% percentile
•  Length: 28 1/4 inches 30% percentile
• Head Circumference: 16 3/4 <5% percentile
• Wearing size 2 or 3 diapers and 12 month clothes
• Moving to whole milk; now we mix 1/2 formula and 1/2 whole milk.  She loves some milk!!!!
• Eat a fruit + oatmeal in the morning; 1 1/2 cubes of vegetable for lunch and dinner + a bottle...this girl loves to eat and will eat anything we put in front of her
• Eating Avocados, Apples, Pear, Peaches, Eggplant, Zucchini, Carrots, Peas, Green Beans, Sweet Potatoes, Regular Potatoes, Blueberries, Bananas, Yellow and Butternut Squash, Shredded Cheese and pretty much anything else she can gnash with her gums as we still have NO TEETH!!!
• Moving and ALMOST crawling on all fours.  EC will backwards crawl and get stuck everywhere and any day I'm sure she will be taking off forwards...say a prayer for us when it happens!
• Will stand up holding onto something and even by herself for a few seconds when she wants to, of course!
• Moved to her 'big' girl carseat and loves it is an understatement
• Really watches what is going on around here and noticing more if mommy and daddy are not in the room
• Loves to laugh and really making more sounds.  EC really really tries to mimic the sounds we make and is doing a good job.  I would be shocked if she was not a talker!

That is pretty much the high level things of what is going on with Emma Claire at 12 months.  She just continues to grow up so much and is changing in looks.  She is so grown up looking and losing her baby look.  She is a joy to be around and is so happy and that makes us so thankful.  It is sometimes hard to believe just a year ago, how tiny and small she was but Dr. R hit the nail on the head telling us how feisty she was and how she has never stopped.  Well, I better get busy doing my chores before heading back to work this afternoon.  I just got back from a business trip and today I'm trying to get work caught up which has bee a good kind of insane!

Thanks to everyone who continues to follow us and lifts us in prayer, we cannot wait to see what this year holds for our sweet and precious baby girl! 

Happy 'Birth'Day Emma Claire

Wow, I cannot believe we just celebrated Emma Claire's First Birthday yesterday.  We have had a wonderful year full of so many joys with the highlight of the birth of our sweet baby girl.  We have had ups and downs, but we are so thankful for everything God has done for us.  After our 100 day stay at Big B in the NICU, we brought home a wonderful, joyful, sweet and most importantly HEALTHY baby girl!  God has blessed us this year tremendously and we are so thankful and give HIM all of the Honor, Glory and PRAISE!  We are also thankful for all of y'all who are and continue to be prayer warriors for us, our friends, old and new and family.  We have made some incredible friends this year and we are  so blessed.  We have found strengthened relationships with our existing circle of friends too and we are forever grateful to each and everyone of of y'all.  

We celebrated EC's birthday on Saturday with a small party of our close family and friends.  I took a couple of pictures and a huge thanks to my mother in law for getting most of these pics.  We had a wonderful time and really enjoyed being surrounded by those who love us and have been there for us.  

Not sure what to think of icing in her mouth!  She was so funny!

 Mommy, Daddy and Emma Claire

 EC loving the icing now

 

 These are the cupcakes I made with icing and snowman sugar cookies.  If you cannot tell by now, we had a winter/snowman themed party

 The party favors!  Melting snowman s'mores!  Thanks Alyson/Heather for the cute idea, they were definitely a hit among the party goers!

 Displaying the items from Emma Claire's stay in the NICU.  I could not believe how tiny her things were and they were big on her!  How far we have come!!!

 Emma Claire's primary nurses on days and nights.  These wonderful ladies took the best care of our sweet girl.  I cannot tell them how thankful I am for them.  They took care of her of when we could not be there.  There was so many other staff members, nurses, RT and doctors and we are equally as thankful for, but these three were at the front lines with Emma Claire always give us hope and loved celebrating each day of her life with us.  Let me just tell you, we ate, played and laughed our way through our NICU stay.  Thanks Barbie, Stacy and Jess!

 Jake and Emma Claire on Sunday.  We went out to eat for Jake's birthday on Sunday.  It's so neat to meet EC is born so close to both of her uncles birthday's.  My brothers is the 12th and Jake's is the 16th.

  To top off the wonderful weekend celebration, on Monday (EC's actual birthday) we meet Christin, Calee, Cohen, Barbie and Houston for a wonderful lunch at Red Robin.  It was a wonderful way to again celebrate!

Again, thanks for everyone who has impacted us this year and in our lives.  We are so thankful for each one of y'all.  We cannot wait to share our adventures this year and please continue to keep us in y'all's prayers. 
We love each and every one of y'all!!!

Hello

I could not really think of a more creative title today.  All I can say is I'm glad Monday for work is over, it has been a day!

Since I have not blogged since last year...HA, we just spent ringing in the New Year lazing around the house.  Matt and I were both off on Friday, New Year's Eve, we went to an early dinner at Chili's and then back home to just relax and enjoy our time off. 

The rest of the weekend we pretty much did nothing and I loved it.  We don't get these types of weekends very often, so when we can just do nothing, we take full advantage of it.  

It was nice to finally get back into the swing of things at work last week and actually work a full week.  Emma Claire had a repeat follow up hearing screen on Friday and passed with flying colors.  So proud of our little girl.  We go back in 6 months again for another one.  

That is pretty much what we have been up to in the start of our New Year.  I am working on getting everything together for Emma Claire's First Birthday Party which will be Saturday...more pictures and fun things to come! 

Praying for Baby B

I know I have not posted in a week, GASP, but I have some posts coming up.  Right now I would like all of our readers and prayer warriors to keep the F Family in your prayers and thoughts today.  Please pray for Bennett as he is undergoing surgery as I type this for a G-Tube and Nissen.  You can read more about this on their family blog Another Ordinary Miracle. 

Here is a picture of sweet baby B.  I know they would covet our prayers and thoughts today. 

I know I keep going back to this verse, but it just speaks volumes to me

Ephesians 3:20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work with...in us