Auntie Angela's New Camera

Our brand new Auntie Angela got this nice new camera for Uncle Josh's birthday and brought it to Ryan's church softball game tonight. She got some cute picture of the kids, so I wanted to post them and share them with everyone. Angela is interested in pursuing photography, so we're going to have fun with this!! Her and I were talking tonight about taking all 3 grandkids (Emma, Collin and Analise) to the park once Collin can fully sit by himself to get some cute pictures of them together. The last ones we got taken were when Collin was 2 weeks....he's changed a lot since then!!




This little guy CONSTANTLY has his fingers in his mouth!!! I don't remember Emma doing this as much as he does. I keep thinking we'll feel a tooth really soon, but still nothing. He's super cute when he does it though!!! I'm loving this stage with him! It would just be nice if he would take a pacifier!

Great-Grandma Boger was getting Collin's nose with his feet. He hasn't started pulling them up to his face yet, but I'm sure once he does, he'll be chewing on those toes as much as his fingers!!! He just figured out that the feet are there over the weekend, so it won't be long until he really discovers what he can do with them!!

Collin is such a sweet, smiley baby. When he smiles, he often times will tilt his head to the side and give a cute, shy little smile! I love this picture....especially the drool running down his cheek!!

Great-Grandma found Collin's tickle spots (he has a lot of them) and got him really giggling!! There's nothing sweeter than a baby's giggle!

Emma loves to put things under her shirt and pretend that it's her baby! I guess she still has a fresh memory from when Collin was in my tummy! She was playing with an extra softball at the game and this is what she did with it!

This picture cracks me up!! Maybe just because I saw what she was doing! After she got that ball under her shirt, she started shaking it all around! Too funny!!! It actually stayed in there for quite a few shakes before falling out!

Emma was singing "My God Is So Big" with her Great-Grandma (or Big Grandma, as she calls her). She LOVES to sing songs!!!

This was another part of ths song. She was doing "so strong and so mighty!!" Thank you Aunt Angela for these sweet pictures!!!

Update on Emma

I can't finish posting today without an update on the cutest little girl in the world!! Although, she won't let me call her a "little" girl anymore!! She always informs me that she's "not a little girl, I'm a BIG girl!" The last 5 months have been a bit of a struggle for us. I think 3 years old can be challenging enough on it's own, but add in a new baby and it's even worse!!! I've loved watching the sweet little girl that Emma has turned into since she turned 3, but there's also been a little preview to the teenager we're going to experience down the road! We've been working a lot on first time obedience and, for the most part, she's doing very well with it. I really can't complain....especially when I see other kids and how they talk to their parents and behave so disrespectfully. I'm so thankful for the 2 times we've been able to take the Growing Kids God's Way class and how it's transformed our parenting!! We have a very compassionate little girl who cares very much about the people around her. I've learned that she's very much like me in a lot of ways, so we sometimes clash a little bit. We're working on that together, but I'm trying to work on it more as a mom. She's only learning these attitudes from me, I know. We're doing a lot of praying about this.....but anyway, on to more positive things!!!

In May, Emma finished up her first year of dance class at Body Language Dance Company. I was very impressed with how the class went and how wonderful her teacher was. She grew so much over that 9 months and it was neat to see how much she learned!! She has somehow come across some natural dancing ability (I think this is from Aunt Jody), so she picked up on everything really easily. Her favorite show around the end of dance class was "Dancing With the Stars." She'd watch it after dance class and try to do all the things that they did. She actually did it surprisingly well!! She loved learning tap and ballet, but informed me that she would really like to do jazz.....we'll see about that! On May 1st she had her recital and pretty much did the whole dance (with a few of her own moves added in). I was pleased with how well she did considering that she was the youngest in her class of 3-5 year olds. Her favorite part of the recital was getting flowers from all of her family afterward! She was SO upset when they died!! We're taking the next year off of dance to do preschool. Once she's in pre-k or Kindergarten she can start dance again if she wants. She's very much looking forward to soccer and t-ball though, so we might switch to those down the road. We'll have to be careful with her because she's going to be our child who wants to be in EVERY extracurricular activity if we don't keep it under control. I look forward to watching her do them though! She tells me all the time how she's going to play soccer and we're going to come and cheer for her! She's too cute!

Emma's other recent BIG event was being the flowergirl in her Uncle Josh's wedding! She did AWESOME!!! I've never been to a wedding with a 3 year old flowergirl and seen them to EXACTLY what they were supposed to! I may be a little bias, but she was the best flowergirl I've ever seen! She walked slowly down the aisle, dropped her flowers evenly, and stood with the bridesmaids to watch her new Aunt Angela walk down the aisle!! What a good girl!! We were so proud of her!!! I'll have to post some pictures of these things in a new post because I'm still learning how to do them!!

I suppose I should end this post before it gets too long. There are just so many things to write about this sweet little girl! It's been good for me to sit down and think of all the wonderful things about her. I've been struggling with her lately, and this was probably just what I needed to do. I'm very proud of this wonderful and beautiful little girl and it's good to remind myself of all the great things she does that outweigh the times her sinful nature overtakes her! She's developing a love for the Lord and it's neat to hear her talk about how much she loves going to church and how she wants to invite her friends. She's beginning to grasp the fact that Jesus died on the cross for her sins too. We're praying for the day when she can fully understand the gift of salvation that He gave her on that cross. You can bet there will be a big post on that day!!!

First Post

Since so many of our friends have blogs that we love to follow, I thought we should start one of our own to share updates on our ever-changing family. Not too much excitement going on here....we keep busy just living day to day. I'm holding a very tired little Collin as I type this, so I suppose I should start by updating on how he's doing.

Collin will be 5 months old on Monday!! I can't believe how fast he's growing! It seems like the time with him has gone so much faster than it did with Emma! He's a very sweet and cuddly little guy. I've often heard that boys are more cuddly than girls, but had never experienced it myself....so true! It always seemed as though Emma was pushing me away, but it's basically the exact opposite with Collin. He's definitely a "momma's boy" and a little homebody. I could pretty much take Emma wherever without it bothering her. She's always been so social that she LOVED getting out in public to see all of the people. Collin would just prefer to be home all the time and I think he'd be very happy if we never left the house at all. Overnight trips with him are SO much fun!!! It's been quite an adjustment to deal with such a difference for me this way. I like to get out and be around people, but I'm learning that I have a much happier baby if we stay home a little more often.

When I found out I was expecting Collin, one of my first thoughts was, "I hope this baby doesn't crawl and walk as early as Emma did." (She was crawling at 6 months, walking at 8 months.) I still don't know how that will all play out for him, but I'm a little nervous for what the future holds for us. He's already rolled over earlier than Emma did (a week before 4 months) and and about a week ago he started to be able to sit alone (sort of) for 30 seconds to a minute at a timeat 4 months instead of Emma's 5 months. Hopefully these are things he will be content to do for a while without wanting to pursue anything else. He's been very aware of things that Emma does, though, and watches her very intently, so we'll see. His big cousin, Analise, is crawling all over the place and pulling up to stand by things now, so we're trying to keep him from watching her. He'd prefer to keep his distance from Analise though....she's a little much for him right now! She loves to pull up and stand by his car seat....then she SCREAMS at him in excitement! She just loves him! I can't say the feeling is completely mutual quite yet! When she does this, his eyes get really big and soon after the freaked out screaming begins!!! It's kind of funny to watch. It will be neat to see them grow up together and be good friends (if Analise isn't too busy trying to keep up with Emma)! Collin's also working on some bottom teeth too and chewing on his fingers and our fingers like crazy! He's a picky little guy and will only chew on cloth (like blankets) and skin.....not any teethers or pacifiers. I don't remember Emma doing this so much....maybe he'll get teeth earlier than her. We'll have to see. He's been such a joyful addition to our family and we couldn't have asked for a better baby!!! He's the sweetest little guy I've ever met!