Three Months

By: Shelsy

I can't even believe it's been three months already. The time is flying by. I blinked and suddenly he wasn't a newborn anymore. He is quite a happy baby. He smiles all the time. He rarely gets upset, and when he does, it's usually because he's sleepy. This child loves to sleep. He gets upset if he wakes up and still wants to be sleeping. He fights hard to fall asleep. He is very different from his sister in this way. Amber, even as a newborn, used to fight hard to stay awake.

Welcome baby Evan!

The second addition to our little family arrived early Sunday morning. Little Evan was born at 1:20am Sunday morning, and was 9 pounds even. Shelsy did great and everyone is doing great.

Quick update

By: Ryan

Watching the fountain

Hey all, sorry for the lack of posts lately. Between the new job, prepping for the new baby, and our other blogging efforts, we have neglected to update this site. We will be returning to our regularly scheduled posting-of-updates soon, but for now I wanted to share a quick update on what's been happening.

Amber Has An Announcement:

A few details:

• We just found out, and I'm already 14 weeks. Yay for getting through the first trimester without even knowing it.
• I'm due April 24th, Easter day.
• If you ask Amber what's in my belly, she says, "baby." 

Most Photogenic Babies Results!

By: Ryan

(click to enlarge)

I'm sure you remember the Most Photogenic Babies photography contest we wrote about a little while back. Well, the results are in and so are the photos. The photo to the left is the one we picked to enter in the contest. Crazy adorable, in my opinion. :-)

Anyway, the contest was broken down into several age groups and categories, with two winners per category, and then one overall Most Photogenic Baby winner. Unfortunately, Amber didn't win Most Photogenic Baby (though she deserved it). But she did come home with two trophies!

Amber won runner up in judges' choice for her category (the smaller trophy), and she won first place for voters' choice in her category (the bigger trophy). That voters' choice award is determined by the amount of money raised in the baby's name...which means all of your donations paid off! A huge thanks to everyone that donated. We passed our $100 goal, meaning we got copies of all the professional photos, and we won Amber a nice trophy for contributing the most money among babies in her category.

(click to enlarge)

(click to enlarge)

So thanks, everyone! Amber is now a decorated baby photographic star. I foresee lots and lots of modeling competitions in her future.

For a look at Amber and all the other category winners, check out the official Photogenic Baby site. Scroll down for pictures of the trophy awarding. :-)

Catching Up

By: Shelsy

Well, Amber's 8 months old now. Unbelievable. She is growing right up and her little personality is starting to come out. She's also more aware of what's going on around her, which means she's wanting to play more, she wants more attention, and she especially wants mommy. It's been increasingly difficult to find time to get online--which is why I completely missed her 7 month update. :-) She gained almost a pound this month. She's up to 19 pounds, 12 ounces. Here's a picture of her at 7 months for a comparison.

It's Been Half a Year!

By: Shelsy

Wait, what? Seriously, how is that possible? I can not believe how fast that went! Look how big she is. :-) She has had quite a month. As you can see, she has pretty much mastered sitting up.

5 1/2 Month Update

By: Shelsy

I'm a little behind on this month's update, but I'll let you know everything new that's happening up until now. First of all, she's getting huge. She weighed 17 pounds 8 ounces when we weighed her on the 2nd, but was still only 26 inches. She's just now starting to grow out of her 3-6 month clothes. She still fits in most of them, but a couple have been sent to the "retired" box, so I'm sure more will follow soon.

Amber sitting up by herself

view video in full quality here.

This is adorable little Amber, attempting to sit up all by herself. When aided by a pillow, she does pretty darn well. :-)

In other news, she is also now able to reach out and grab things fairly easily:

Her new favorite facial expression is the Sucked-In-Bottom-Lip:

And lastly, this is officially my new favorite picture of Amber:

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Three Months!

By: Shelsy

That's right, three whole months have gone by already. So super crazy. It's amazing because I look at her now and I'm really starting to see a little person, not just a baby. She's settling into a routine during the day. She doesn't do things at the same time every day, but she usually seems to follow the same pattern, which helps. She still sleeps wonderfully, but she's started falling asleep earlier in the evening than before. It's great because then Ryan and I can enjoy a few hours together each night. But on the flip side, she now wakes up for her first feeding at around 3:30am instead of 5:30. I'm not a huge fan of that, but I imagine she'll start stretching that out before too long.

This has also been a big month for her developmentally. First of all, she's grown a lot. She's now 15 pounds, 14 ounces and 24 1/2 inches long. She can lift her head up from her stomach. I just laid her down one day and she held her head about an inch off the floor for 30 seconds or so. But she's only done it once since then. I've suspected that she's been able to lift her head for awhile now, but just doesn't want to.

She's also learned a lot about her hands this month. She bats at things sometimes, and I gave her a rattle to hold and she grasped it and held on tight for about 10 minutes while she shook it around!

She also discovered her hands. She was sitting in the swing (which she adores, by the way. She loves to stare at the hinge where the motor is. I don't know why it's so fascinating, but she pretty much stares at and talks to it the entire time she's sitting there) and Ryan looked over and she was staring at her fist with this look of deep concentration on her face. It was so cute! I managed to get a picture:

It's only a matter of time before she starts putting it all together and realizes that her hands are attached and she can use them to grab things. 

We also celebrated Ryan's first Father's Day this month! 

Another new thing she does is smile when we go to get her after she wakes up. She gets the biggest grin on her face--I love it! And sometimes when I'm singing to her to sleep, she'll stop mid-cry and smile at me. That's my favorite! 

We took her to the pool this past Sunday. This was the first time we actually put her in the water. I don't really know if she liked it, but she didn't seem to mind, either. We took a bunch of pictures and they were all so good, I couldn't pick a favorite, so here they are:

And here are some more of my favorite pictures from this month:






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Some Cute Pictures

By: Shelsy

Look at that little cutie pie! She hasn't quite "discovered" her hands yet, but she recently started holding them together like this. She looks like such a little lady. :-)

There isn't really anything new to report, except that she's getting bigger by the day it seems. We haven't weighed her since she turned two months old, but I'm pretty sure she's officially outgrown her bassinet by now, which has a limit of 15 pounds. Now I guess we'll have to figure out a way to get the playpen in our room so she can sleep there. 

Also, we were at Gymboree today and I saw these sunglasses, which we did not buy, but were so cute. I love this picture--it makes me laugh every single time I see it! :-)

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Family Visit and Two Month Birthday!

By: Shelsy

Well, I'm combining two posts because I haven't gotten around to updating in awhile, plus our Internet has been down for the last three days, so that didn't help much. But my parents, Mindy, and Carter all came down for a visit a couple of weeks ago, which was awesome. This was the first time my family has been able to see Amber, so I was really excited for them to come. We had a great time! We did some shopping, hung out around the apartment, and went to SeaWorld. It was fun seeing Carter again too--he wasn't even crawling yet the last time I saw him, and he started walking by himself the first day he got here! (We think he might have been a little jealous that his mommy and grandparents were paying attention to another baby!) Here are some pictures from their visit:



And, our little baby turned two months old on Tuesday! I seriously can't believe it. She's already gotten so big. She weighed in at 14 pounds 2 ounces and she's now 23 3/4 inches long. She's almost too big for her bassinet. This month she morphed out of being a newborn. She's smiling a lot more, and making all kinds of cooing and cute baby noises. She's very alert and loves looking around and watching us. We also started a bedtime routine with her every night, which we've all really enjoyed. She's sleeping beautifully at night, and is generally just a joy to be around. She's seriously awesome and we can't get enough of her! :-) Here are some of my favorite pictures from this past month:




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One Month!

By: Shelsy

Yesterday little Amber turned one month old! I can't believe it's been that long already. I would have thought that after a month I would have a better handle on things, but...not so much. :-) I have definitely gained confidence in certain areas, but she is continuing to surprise us.

In her first month she started sleeping through the night (5-6 hours straight). She has pretty much been able to hold her head up since birth, and now she has a lot more control over it, though she's still a little wobbly. She's cried real tears, which we weren't expecting so soon--we didn't like it! She also had her first real smile a few days ago, but she hasn't really done it again since. And she's starting to be awake and alert more often, which has been fun. So we're looking forward to see what she has in store for us this month!

She's overall a very cooperative baby. We've been able to take her to all kinds of different places, and she does great. She went to see her first movie the other night, and she hardly made a peep, even though she was awake the whole time! She was the happiest when she was sitting so she could watch the screen. :-) We also wanted to take her to the pool for the first time yesterday, but apparently they don't make those waterproof diapers small enough. So we still went and I got in while she sat on the side of the pool with daddy. It turned out the water was probably a little too cold for her still, anyway, but we did stick her feet in, which was fun. Here's a video from the pool and some of my favorite pictures from this first month:








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Amber following the camera

By: Ryan

Hey folks, just wanted to share a quick video with you. Look for a longer post about Amber's 1-month birthday later today. For now, enjoy the video. :-)



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Easter Baby

By: Shelsy

This was Amber's first Easter! Two weeks ago I was thinking we might "miss" Easter this year because I didn't know when she would be arriving. I was expecting her to be at least a little bit late--maybe even not coming until after Easter. But by the time Good Friday rolled around our little one was definitely up for her first trip to church. She did great, too! At the Good Friday service she was awake the whole time and just looked around at everything. I think the loud music might have been a little much for her, but she didn't cry or fuss. She was just starting to get hungry toward the end, so we just went right home afterwards and she was fine.

Then on Easter Sunday we headed to church again (on time, even!) and got to introduce her to some of our friends. She slept through most of the service. She has been so cooperative with all of the places we've taken her so far. She's definitely a very happy baby! Here are some pictures of her from the weekend.

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One Week Old!

By: Shelsy

Today our baby girl will be one week old. I can't believe how fast that went! But at the same time it almost feels like she's always been here. She is adjusting to life in the outside world rather nicely, I think. And Ryan and I are adjusting to her. She's so sweet that it's been a joy so far--even the late nights! She's nice and healthy and pretty much the cutest thing I've ever seen. :-) Here are some pictures from her first week!

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Video: Amber getting into her PJs

Here's a quick video from last night. This is Amber getting into her PJs...and sneezing a few times in the process. :-) Enjoy!

Little baby Amber!

By: Ryan

As most of you have already heard, I'm sure, little Amber was born at 5:20pm on Thursday, April 2. She was 9 pounds, 4 ounces and 22 inches long. She is doing very well and is perfectly healthy. Shelsy is also doing wel, though still a bit tired.

We are really enjoying having Amber as a part of our life. She can be hard to figure out at times, but that comes with the territory. :-) We love getting to know her and can't wait to see how she changes over the coming weeks, months, and years.

More pictures and videos will be coming, don't worry. At the moment, she's usually either sleeping, nursing, or screaming, but when she's alert and calm, we'll take advantage of it and snap some more pictures.

You'll definitely be hearing more about her, so stick around. The fun is just starting. :-)

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One Month Left!

By: Shelsy

My due date is exactly one month from today! My little countdown clock says 30 days. That's so crazy. Ryan and I are a mix of super excited, frustrated that we have to wait, and trying to hurry up and get some things finished up before she arrives. Well, I'm mostly the one with the to-do list--Ryan is just ready to meet her NOW. :-)

I've been feeling great--everyone keeps asking me that question. I've been blessed to have a very easy pregnancy all along, and any discomfort has been pretty minor. Let's hope labor goes the same way!

Some of the women from my church threw me a baby shower this past Saturday, which was very kind of them. My friend Cristina hosted and planned everything. I had a great time and got even more adorable things! It still feels like we haven't been here very long and we're still just getting to know people (even though it's been almost a year!) so it was kind of amazing to me that people even came, haha. There were even people there who I hadn't even met before. I even got things from people who I still haven't met!

So I had a good time and now we have pretty much everything we need, except for just a few things. The baby's room is almost ready, we just need to organize it a little, and decorate. I can't believe it's almost time to meet her!

Here are some pictures from the shower taken by my friend Debi:

Showing off my cloth diapering skills (heh). Juanita and I had to work together each using only one hand. We put this beauty together in only 32 seconds.

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Baby Shower

By: Shelsy

Well, it's been a couple of weeks now, but here's a quick update about the baby shower my family threw for me up in PA. It was tons of fun--I had a wonderful time. So thank you to everyone who helped plan it and to everyone else who came!

We got so much great stuff for Amber--mostly clothes, which were so cute. I went through them all yesterday and we are pretty much completely set for her first 6 months. I don't think I'll even need to wash her outfits, she has so many! We also have some pretty crafty and talented people in the family, so here are some pictures of some of the homemade gifts she was given:

The quilt my mom made for her.

Baby girl blanket Ryan's nana made...

...and a little knitted sweater, also from nana.

Ryan's mom made her pretty much a whole wardrobe of coordinating dresses, hats, diaper covers, etc. These are just a few of the things she made.

Quilt and pillow from Ryan's Aunt Kathy.

So as you can see, she's quite spoiled already. I could go on and on with all of the cute things we were given. I wish I could show all of them, but here are just a couple more of my favorites, from her two aunts:

It's a little hard to tell, but this is a little bikini Shanna got for her to wear at the pool.

A frilly little dress from Mindy, surprisingly her only one so far.

In other news, everything is going well. We're definitely getting close now--just a little more than a month until my due date! We're working on a bunch of random projects around the house, trying to finish things up before she arrives. We're steadily getting the baby's room put together, so that should be ready pretty soon. We're so excited--especially Ryan, I don't think he can stand to wait another month! 

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