Tim, Kristen, Megan, & Emily

LET IT SNOW!!

2012-02-14T20:01:00.000-08:00

After having a very mild warm winter, we have had 2 recent snowfalls in the last week. Not a ton of snow, but enough to go out and play in! Megan was super excited to see the snow! Here are a few pictures of our fun memories we made.....
Emily's first time out in the snow!! She enjoyed being outside and just cried when I took her in. Megan could not wait to go and play in the snow. She has been waiting and waiting for it to snow!
Megan making a snow angel. Notice the snow is not deep at all, but she didn't care one bit!

Megan making a snowball to throw at her daddy!

Tim and his little snowman he built on his truck. Of course, gotta have hot chocolate to warm up with when you come inside!
This is our second snowfall. We had more snow this time around. I helped Megan build a snowman. I wish Tim was awake to help her build a bigger and better one. It was a fun time for Megan and I to play in the snow, while Nana watched Emily (who would have loved to been outside as well).
I was helping her learn how to roll snowballs...not sure why she is sitting down here, but her smile says it all. She loves snow!

Happy 1st Birthday!!

2012-02-02T18:35:00.001-08:00

From my newborn baby
TO MY....
Big Girl 1 Year Old

Emily Grace turned one January 5th. I can't believe how fast her first year went. Unfortunately, she woke up with a 102 degree fever on her birthday so that was sad for all of us. We decided not to celebrate her birthday with cupcakes until later when she was feeling well. (Everyone but me (Kristen) got sick over the next couple of days.) She opened up some gifts on her birthday, but we ended up celebrating with my parents and sister a couple days after her birthday eating cupcakes and doing a couple more gifts. Here a few pictures!

Cuddles with Daddy right after waking up with a fever. Poor little girl. Opening up her birthday gifts with Megan.
So many new toys after Christmas and her birthday being so close together!

Happy 1st Birthday!! She dove right into her cupcake and loved it!
Pretty much finished off birthday cupcake. YUMMY!

Just a little update: She is 18 pounds 2 ounces (10%) and 29 1/2 inches tall (50%).She just started taking a few steps here and there although she usually sticks to crawling or walking on her knees. (She is so funny to watch walk on her knees!). She doesn't say a lot of words, but does say, dada, mama, hi, dog, and bath. She LOVES her baths (Obviously as it was one of her first words!) She loves playing with babies and enjoys the outdoors. She is my sweet little cuddler who is very special to our family. So thankful to the Lord for giving us our precious Emily Grace!

December 2011

2012-01-02T20:13:00.000-08:00

Well, I have to get caught up one way or another...I can't skip December b/c so many important/fun things happened. so here is a hopefully quick update!

Dec. 5th-It was my 30th birthday....I was not too excited about turning 30, but it turned out to be a fun day! I took the girls to story hour at the library that morning (always fun for all of us as I get to talk to other moms, and Megan gets to see her friends!!). Then a wonderful friend invited another friend and I over who shared the same birthdays for lunch. It was very thoughtful of her to do this, and I very much enjoyed the food and fellowship! Tim had put in a roast when he got home from work and so we were able to have roast beef and potatoes for supper with my parents and sister. It was a great b/c I got to spend it with people I love! (I thought we took one picture on my birthday, but I can't find it??)

Dec. 5th -This day was also Emily 11th month birthday...just can't believe that she was getting so close to a year. Here are a few highlights for her in the last month....
-First trip to Florida as well as on an airplane. She got to meet her aunts, uncles, and cousins for the first time!
-She started signing please and more (finally!!)
-She started blowing kisses as well. Well, she doesn't blow them, just kisses her hand and smiles!
-She learned how to do touchdown with her hands! Uncle Dave taught her that one!
-She went on her first carousel ride with her Aunt Talitha (She was fine standing in line, but when she got on the ride, she saw me and cried the whole ride.)

Dec. 24-25th- Merry Christmas!! We actually did our Christmas festivities on Christmas Eve as Tim had to work on Christmas night. We had mom, dad, and Karen over for pizza. Then Megan and I read through our advent calendar story. (This was such a special time for Megan and I as we did an advent calendar for the first time this year. I will try to get the video of it up so all can see!). We said Luke 2 and sang some Christmas carols, and then opened presents. The girls have enjoyed playing with their gifts so much this last week. On Christmas Day, we had a church breakfast and then a church service. Grandpa and Grandma Varner came to share this day with us! A great Christmas dinner by my mom (although Tim went right to bed after church as he had to work so he missed this). We love celebrating our Saviour's birth. "And you shall call His name Jesus for He shall save His people from their sins." Just a few pictures....

Dec. 27-30th- Grandpa and Grandma's 60 wedding anniversary. What a special time for us to be able to get together and share this special time with such special people! My grandparents are truly an example of what a biblical marriage should look like and examples to all of us in their following of Christ. It was so fun to see my aunts, uncles, cousins and their kids who I haven't seen for so long. The Lord was so good in helping my Grandpa have some good days during this time. We made many good memories. And again, just a few pictures...

Dec. 31st...New Years Eve...Goodbye 2011. I think back on this year and the thought that comes to my mind is God is faithful. I am so undeserving of his faithful love and forgiveness as I am so unfaithful to him and struggle keeping Him first in my life. But God has remained faithful to our family. He has been so good through all of our ups and downs. Praying the Lord gives us another wonderful year in 2012 to love and serve Him. Happy New Year!!

Emily-10 months

2011-12-02T18:59:00.001-08:00

Now that Emily is 3 days away from 11 months, I better get this posted!!

Emily enjoyed walking in her walker, but would run into walls, etc and get frustrated...
Emily is watching her first parade.
Emily LOVES her big sister (Although sometimes, she get very frustrated by Megan's tough love to her!) Here they are watching a movie while Megan holds her.

Emily and Megan enjoying reading books together.

Emily got to go to her first Pumpkin Patch! Of course, she won't remember it, but we have some fun pictures of it!

Emily was able to enjoy the big slide at the Pumpkin Patch. She loved it!
Emily with her mama and sister!
Emily picking out her first pumpkin. We got a small one for her!

Emily spends a lot of time in her stroller as we do different activities with Megan (such as the Pumpkin Patch, etc.). She normally does well and doesn't complain!

Other things that she has done in this month (that I can remember!):

-She says dada all the time. She loves her dada, and when he gets home from work in the mornings, she gets a huge smile, laughs and wants him to hold her!

-She gives kisses. One of the cutest things is when I ask for a kiss, she will lean over to kiss me and then lean over to kiss Tim, then laugh and then do it all over again!

- She said bath for the first time this month...sounded like ba. She loves her baths!!!

Megan's 3rd Birthday!!

2011-11-15T15:59:00.000-08:00

Can't believe we celebrated Megan's 3rd birthday a couple of weeks ago (So far behind on this blog, but still want to post so that I will have memories here!). It such a special day for us as we really used the whole day just trying to enjoy her. Here is a rundown of her day!

This is taken at 8:57 am...the time she was born 3 years ago! She is sitting on a tinker toy bucket and being silly. She spent the night at her Nana's house the night before her birthday so that was very special!

Megan got to eat a donut for breakfast on her birthday!!

Megan making her cupcakes with Dad!
Megan helping put the sprinkles on the cupcakes!
Tim made a cool fort for Megan. She loves making forts!

Megan enjoying playing with her baby.
Auntie KK came over in the afternoon to spend some special time with Megan. Megan loved opening her gift which was a play dough set!

Auntie KK took the girls outside so I could get some stuff done. Of course the girls loved that!

Auntie KK playing with Megan with her new play dough.
I came into Megan's room to check on her while I was cleaning and found her coloring so sweetly with her wonderful headband! I love it when she plays so nicely on her own!
Enjoying Megan's birthday meal together! We had homemade mac & cheese (Thanks to my mom!) and meatloaf (which Tim actually made!).

Megan enjoyed playing downstairs with her friends after dinner. She loves it when friends come over to play!
Opening gifts is a fun time for everyone!
Such a special birthday for Megan as her best friend Katy got to come!! Here Katy is watching carefully to see what Megan's gift is...
The littlest two enjoying each other's company!
Megan had lots of help opening gifts! She did not mind!!! This one was a harder one to open...
Megan's friends who she was able to celebrate with!

Megan blowing out her #3 candle!

The little kids' table. They were enjoying their cupcakes (especially the frosting!)
Megan loving her cupcake!

We had a very fun day on her birthday and are so thankful for our 3 year old! We pray that the Lord will save her at a young age and that she would love Him with all her heart, soul, and mind.

Emily-9 months

2011-10-12T12:10:00.000-07:00

Emily is now 9 moths old. I can't believe she is 3/4 of the way to one year old. These months sure do fly by! Here are some pictures and updates of her from the last month!

Emily wanting to help Tim drive!

Emily loves getting pushed on the swing by her sister. She just laughs!

Emily's first little bruise/mark on her eye.
Emily is now pulling herself up to stand. She loves being able to do this!
Mommy and Emily enjoying some time together!

She absolutely LOVES her baths. When we go in to get the water running, she immediately gets so excited!
Emily sporting Tim's hat.

Emily's first time at the Kansas State Fair with her mom, dad, Megan, Papa, and Nana

-Emily said bye, bye for the first time this last month. She was talking to Tim and the phone and when Tim say bye, bye, she said it right back to him!

-One last thing that Emily does which is just adorable is that when Megan wakes up in the morning or from her nap and calls for me, Emily always looks toward the direction of her room, makes a little noise, and just smiles and starts crawling to see her! She is excited to go and see her sister!

The BIG 3-0

2011-09-29T20:11:00.000-07:00

Tim turned 30 yesterday!! When I asked him how he felt to be turning 30, he told me that he liked being in his 20's:( Unfortunately, he had a very busy day yesterday as he worked all day and then we had Awana at night. The girls and I were able to meet him at Old Chicago for lunch where he and his co-workers celebrated his birthday. That was fun to do as we normally never see him for lunch. We ended the day celebrating with a birthday cake after Awana at my parents' house! We were thankful that Grandpa and Grandma Riffel were able to join us for that.

A family picture....Megan and I made the cake together! Megan of course loved helping. It was an easy box cake so a great one for her to help with. She helped me frost by dipping her fingers in the frosting and licking them! Tim picked a great frosting out in her eyes!Yes, you do see a heart balloon behind! Megan had it in her head that she wanted to get a birthday card with a heart on it. We couldn't find one at Dollar General so we got one with balloons. Then we spotted balloons, and of course, she had to pick out the heart balloon! At least Tim knows Megan loves her!

Tim lighting his many candles!

So thankful for grandparents to celebrate with us! My wonderful parents (wish Tim's parents could have joined us too!)
Of course, Megan has to help blow out his candles!

Emily enjoyed eating her puffs since she did not get cake and ice cream! Megan ate the chocolate frosting off the top of the cake, asked for ice cream, and when finished with that said she was done!! She was a little messy, but she thoroughly enjoyed so much sugar!

Tim, I want you to know that you are LOVED so much by the girls and me! I thank the Lord for you leading and loving us. You work so hard every day providing for us and allowing me to stay home with the girls (I REALLY appreciate that!! I know there are days that I complain about how my day has been, but I would never change staying home with them!) You come home after a long day at work and help with supper, play with the girls, go grocery shopping with me, play games, etc. The list could go on and on with your selflessness you show to us. You are my best friend and I look forward to celebrating many more birthday with you (since we aren't able to just stay in our 20's!) I love you!

Emily- 8 months

2011-09-19T19:28:00.001-07:00

Emily is now 8 months. Unfortunately, I did not take very many pictures this last month of the girls:( I need to do a better job getting my camera out!

-The biggest thing Emily started doing right at 8 months was crawling! She was really fast army crawling all over, but she figured out crawling and enjoys that now.

-She loves being pushed in this car I found at a garage sale. This was a great investment as I am getting so much use out of it. I push her in her little car while Megan rides her tricycle! Both girls love going up and down our quiet little street.

-Emily is still a really bad spitter upper:( It is so disgusting. I sometimes call her "Nasty" which my mom thinks is awful, but I still love her of course! I am hoping that she will stop this characteristic of her soon!

-It seems like she is working on teething and that she is being bothered by it, but still no teeth:( I am ready for a couple to pop through (as I am sure she is too!) As you can tell by the picture, she has had some rough days and just wants to be held or at least in the same room as me.

-Emily is still our sweet smiling baby! She is growing up so quickly, and we are enjoying going through these different stages just as much the second time around!

Megan

2011-08-27T19:51:00.000-07:00

Megan is almost 2 years and 10 months...can't believe she will be 3 in a couple of months. Of course, she is excited for her birthday, and well, I am both excited and sad! I have not done a post on her for a while. (I am just so bad at keeping up...I am going to try to do better so I have memories for these younger years!)

Megan loves dressing herself, and well, as you can tell, sometimes her selections don't always go quite together...enjoy these next pictures!
Megan enjoys having some kind of shoes on her feet as well a scarf around her neck and a head band on her head! She is enjoying a little dancing here! She keeps us laughing!

Megan sporting a different kind of outfit with her sunglasses and a sombrero!

Megan has some kind of imagination...sleeping under the rug in the living room using it as her blanket??!!

Megan absolutely loves playing with this Little People farm and animals. She has a tractor with it and loves her little people school bus as well! These are her favorites!!

Megan loves swimming at her Nana's house! She "swims" everywhere in the pool with these floaties on. A couple times, she has tried without the floaties and has found out she goes right under the water! She is very comfortable in the water...,maybe a little too comfortable!

She loves wearing this hat. In fact it is a little too small, but she still crams it on there. I need to go and buy her a hat that fits since she loves wearing it so much.

Katy is her BEST friend. She always wants to play with her. In fact, she has recently starting having her as an imaginary friend that she plays with at the house. She has a chair for her to eat in and feeds her lunch. We even took Katy to Lowes the other day...she just can't get enough play time with her best friend!

She enjoys playing with play dough. She is very creative in what she makes!!!

She loves playing games. She enjoys Wheels on the Bus, Old McDonald had a Farm, Don't Spill the Beans, Hi Ho Cherry-o, Candy Land, and Hungry Hippos. This has been a fun transition for me as I have always enjoyed games as well!

Our biggest battle right now with her is settling down to go to sleep. She used to be a great sleeper and go right to sleep. (I thought this was an area that we had "in the bag". I guess I will never think that again!) In the last couple of months, this has been our biggest challenge with her. She went through a really bad phase of just getting out of her bed and walking to us (something she never did, just happened out of the blue). Long story short, we are still trying to figure out how to get this situation worked out...we have tried a lot of things, but well, not much progress it seems.We love our little Meggers...what joy she is to us!

Emily- 7 months!

2011-08-20T14:52:00.000-07:00

Emily is now 7 months. (I am behind on posts, but I want to catch up a little because I am so bad at documenting things if I don't put them on here!) I weighed her at 7 1/2 months, and she was 16 pounds. Here is what happened between her 6th and 7th month.....

Of course, she is still as cute as ever!!!

She started sitting up just a couple days after turning 6 months.

She started eating baby food (We got started with her later than Megan b/c things were just busier, and we did not get around to it sooner!) She ate squash, sweet potato, and greenbeans. She started out very slow with eating as we could not get her to open her mouth. I think it was almost 2 weeks b/f she finally started opening her mouth quickly. I thought she would never get it!
She loves playing with Megan's toys. This has been a good "opportunity" for Megan to work on sharing! She gets everywhere by rolling over!!!

Emily and Megan took their first bath together. Megan wanted to help me bathe Emily so I decided to put her in with her. They did very well together!!

Emily started her cheesy smile during this time as well. She started doing this as she was playing with Chelsea!! (This is not the best picture of it, but it was the best I could get!)

She started saying mama and knows who I am!! So special!!!!!

Sweet Sisters

2011-07-12T12:24:00.000-07:00

I just can't take enough pictures of Megan and Emily together! They love each other so much and are fun to watch together! Megan enjoys loving on her sister (sometimes too rough though!), and Emily loves the attention she gets from her. Here are some of the pictures of the 2 girls together! Enjoy!

I really hope they grow up to be best friends!

Happy 6 Months

2011-07-12T11:31:00.001-07:00

I can't believe Emily is already 6 months (as of July 5th). She had her 6 month checkup and was 15 pounds (25%) and 26 1/4 inches (75%).

She is rolling both ways all over the floor. (I now need to vacuum more often as well as make sure small objects are not on the floor.) She is into everything now including her sister's toys. This makes for a fun "encouraging" pep talk with Megan to share her toys and be kind!

She is not yet sitting up (getting close though!). She does open and close her hand like she is waving which is cute (Of course, she does not understand the hi and bye part yet....). .

She went swimming for the first time this last month. Someone from Tim's work gave us this swimsuit...so cute!

She just started saying mama a few days after she turned 6 months (July 9). This made me so happy!

She is often the enjoyment of Megan's play! Megan loves putting stickers on her!

She experienced her first 4th of July! She looked so cute in her Patriotic outfits that were given to us by my oldest sister. She is the 4th girl to wear these outfits!

We finally started her on rice cereal right at 6 months. We have been meaning to start before this, but just never got around to it. (the life with a 2nd child....things just sometimes get put aside...). She also has not slept as well the last couple of weeks and has been waking up b/t 6"30-7 instead of the 7:30. Her afternoon naps have been off a little too. I am hoping this is b/c of teething???

We just love Emily Grace and are so thankful for her! We are enjoying her as she seems to be changing so much!