Emily Raylynn is 8 months old!

Well, she's actually about 8 1/2 months old. I'm a bit behind. But what's new?? Anyway, our sweet baby girl is now 2/3 of a year old!

At 8 months Em is weighing in around 21 pounds. She's been moved out of her infant car seat and into her convertible car seat. Most of her clothes are size 12-18 months. She's eating all sorts of table foods, I think her favorite may be grilled cheese. She loves to wave at everything. And while she isn't really saying anything, she constantly talks. Oh, and she loves to smile and laugh, and squeal!

Layla quickly figured out where to lie down while Emily eats. 

She's also gotten pretty good at using her sippy cup. 

And, big news: I discovered Em's first tooth poking through her bottom gum! I tried and tried and tried to get a picture of it, but alas, she was not having it. But believe me, it's there! She's growing up a bit too fast. 

Emily had a wonderful first Christmas! We went back to Virginia to spend it with family. I'll do a big Christmas post with a bunch of photos, but most of those are on our NEW CAMERA my parents got us, and I have to load them on my computer. So, the Christmas post is forth-coming. Until then, here are a few more pictures! 

Hope y'all had a merry Christmas! 

Getting the Christmas Tree!

Sorry, way behind. Again! About a week and a half ago, we went to the Christmas Tree Farm to get Emily's first real tree and to visit with Santa. Em helped pick out a beaut of a tree. This 6-foot Fraser Fir!

It was freaking freezing outside, so Em was less than amused. 

But we obviously took the obligatory "stand-proudly-with-your-tree" pictures. 

Then, while her daddy tied down the tree to the roof of the car, Em and I went inside the little Christmas shop. This is pretty much the most adorable little shop. They sell a lot of Christmas ornaments and other things I don't need, plus hot chocolate and cookies! Em and I sat by the fire while we waited for Daddy to finish up. It was a nice place to get warm, and Emily could keep an eye on that "Santa" fellow before she went and sat with him.

She actually did really well, again!

A week ago Sunday we had a photographer come to the house and take a few holiday photos for us. Here are some of our favorites...

 Actually got everyone looking at the camera at the same time!

 Reading the Polar Express

 She had a blast playing with the ornaments.

Sunday night it started to snow, so Monday, I took Em outside in the snow for the first time! We've had snow a few other times, but not a lot and I had not taken Emily out before.

Despite looking thoroughly confused, she actually enjoyed it! Mostly she enjoyed watching her Layla play with her frisbee in the snow!

We got even more snow this weekend. Good thing I invested in this awesome snow suit for her...

 

Emily will be 8 months tomorrow!! So, I'll be updating for that later this week!

7 months and Emily's first Thanksgiving!!!

So I'm incredibly behind on blog posts. Oops. It's that time of the semester again where I get absolutely swamped in school with my own work and grading the undergrads' work. So here's a catch-up post!!

Playing with her sock monkey Santa!

Emily is now 7 months (7 1/2 really) old!! She's weighing about 20 pounds 8 ounces. Not sure on her height, by I'm guessing around 28 inches. Many of her 12 month clothes are getting too short. She's been starting to wear some 18 month clothes!

She really loves playing with her Layla. I anticipate Emily will first crawl in an attempt to get to her puppy. Speaking of crawling, she's not quite yet, however she has moved backward a bit at yoga class, so I feel like it's coming. 

She also loves bouncing in her Jumperoo and chewing on everything, as well as waving at everyone and everything! Finally, at 7 months she has tried a lot of table food! She loves scrambled eggs, mashed potatoes, and pasta! She also enjoyed trying turkey on Thanksgiving, and some Lebanese food at a friend's house for brunch! My girl can eat!

Eating penne Alfredo! And some puffs...

Speaking of food, Em LOVED all the food she got to eat on Thanksgiving!!

Chowing down on Nanny's mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese!

The day after Thanksgiving, Em went to see Santa with her cousin. She actually did really well. Wasn't thrilled with the whole thing, but didn't freak out!

On our trip to Virginia for Thanksgving, Emily also got to meet her BFF, 2-month old Stella Grace! They were adorable together! 

Then, we headed up to Northern Virginia for a wedding that weekend. Emily loved walking around the resort and seeing all the Christmas trees!

She also liked sitting in this big red chair!

We have officially switched gears to Christmas and will be going to get our tree this weekend! I'm very excited for to take Em to the farm and pick out her first tree!!! 

Emily's all ready for Christmas with her new Santa hat!!!

We'll be getting our holiday family portraits taken this weekend which I'm really excited for. We attempted our own portrait with the self-timer, but it's incredibly hard to get a dog and a baby to look at basically nothing, as no one is holding the camera, at the same time when the timer goes off. 

This was the best we got:

Layla and Em looking at each other...

Anyway, a couple more pictures to dump!

A little light reading. 

Starting to use a sippy cup!!

Sleeping on Daddy in the Chicago airport. 

Thanksgiving morning. 

Loved playing with her Poppa's truck!