Everett Matthew is two months old - 12.10.2017

Everett Matthew is two months and it's Blake's birthday! Yesterday was Everett's first snowfall too, though he did not play in the snow this time.

Everett started smiling this month and he's pretty close to laughing. We think Emery got him to laugh a little yesterday. Thankfully, there are increasing times when he's sweet, interactive, smiley, and calm. However, there are still wildly opposite times when he's very upset. We're still facing some rather challenging feeding times. It's tough to say the least.

Everett loves his sister. He started playing on the activity mat on the floor, where he often gets buried in toys and/or decorated with teething ring bracelets and anklets.

Everett sleeps relatively well, thankfully sleeping for longer stretches in the evening and overnight.

Two months:
10lbs 10oz
22.6 inches

Clearly, Emery was helping with the photo shoot, piling toys on Everett.

These two!

Christmas 2017

Oh wow, what a year!

Our year began with our tenth wedding anniversary in January. Emery spent the day with Gramma and Grandpa, and Blake and I went to a long lunch and a walk together.

At the end of January, we decided not to renew the lease (ending Mar 31) at our townhome where we'd lived for over 4 years. We wanted more space and more specifically, a school for Emery that was closer to my office.

What we didn't know when we declined the lease renewal was that about five days later, we'd find out we were expecting! We were completely shocked to find out that after years of hoping and praying and failing to conceive, we were expecting a little miracle in October. At the end of May, we found out we were having a boy!

In March, we found a larger townhome close to my office in the neighborhood we preferred, and we moved. Also in March, our beloved daycare provider, Mrs. Diana, and her husband sold their home and made plans to move to Kentucky to live near their grandchildren. We found a school not far from our new home where Emery joined a junior kindergarten class. The downside was that they were doing the pre-K curriculum she'd already done a year previously - they were still learning letters and letter sounds, while Emery was already blending sounds and reading books. But she met new friends, several of whom also go to her elementary school now.

In May, Blake oversaw a graduation reception for 1,000 people (students and parents). He and Emery also convinced me to go canoeing on Pohick Bay one afternoon.

Ocean City, MD

Emery loves flags!

We headed to the beach over the fourth of July weekend and despite the crowds, we enjoyed our time in the sun and sand. We also visited beautiful Assateague Island, known for its native horses.

Assateague Island

In August, Emery started kindergarten at the public school in our neighborhood. She is well ahead of her classmates in reading level. The teacher told us they want kindergarteners to be at a minimum of a level 4 at the end of the year and in the fall, she's already at a level 14. For example, while reading with Blake, she easily reads words like, "scrumptious" and "enthusiastic" at our nightly story time, yet her class' sight words are as simple as "I, a, is, on, can." Thankfully, she and one other girl from class are pulled out for extra reading time.

On October 10th, our sweet Everett Matthew arrived! We're over the moon for this adorable little guy. He looks a lot like Emery and we're totally surprised that his hair is even a little red too - perhaps not as red as Emery's - but definitely strawberry blond/brown. How in the world!? His eyes are much darker and though they're still that newborn dark blue/gray, we think they may end up brown. Emery's were always light blue and stayed that way.


Everett is a fiery, demanding little guy. We've had our challenges with feeding and reflux and lots and lots of crying. We're hoping to continue to figure him out and help him as best we can. When he isn't crying, he's a sweet little guy who likes to stare into your eyes, smile and coo, and keep track of his sister. He loves her, and her presence - which is often very very close and smothering - makes him happy (most of the time!). She checks on him constantly, and even if he's drifting off to sleep with his eyes partially open, when she sees open eyes, she declares "he's awake!" which she thinks means she can play with him. It's hard to convince a five year old that partially open eyes aren't an invitation to play. But (most of the time) I have to figure that waking him up is not the end of the world (though some days it feels like it!), and her heart is in the right place. We look forward to watching them together as they both get bigger.

We are adjusting to our new family of four. We're amazed at how much has changed since last year - so much that we couldn't have imagined.

We're looking forward to 2018, hoping for some open doors for our family. We hope with anticipation and hopefully a little patience as we wait.

Thank you for your friendship, love, and prayers. We're grateful for our friends and family.

"Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him... he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised." Romans 4:18-21

May we have such faith!

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Here are some more snapshots from this year:

Emery's fifth birthday

Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus

 Of course, this witty family couldn't go a year without some memorable Facebook posts:

Everett Matthew is one month old - 11.10.2017

Our little guy is one month old! It's hard to remember Emery at this age, but it feels like Everett is more demanding than Emery was. Maybe forgetting that sort of thing is the beauty of parenthood.

He likes to be held, doesn't like to be put down, and has very strong opinions about things like the timeliness of meals and the coldness of your hands. He likes to go on walks, likes his big sister, and definitely has more hair than Emery!

Everett likes to study my face while I feed him and when you hold him chest to chest, he cranes his neck up off your chest to look you in the face, holding his head up very well. His favorite position in the Moby wrap is with his head tipped backward, hanging out of the wrap - which makes carrying him a bit more challenging!

We're working on helping give Everett good, calm sleep -- and most of the time, this means a lot of extra snuggling! 

Two weeks:
21 inches - 8lbs 11oz

One month:
22.3 inches - 9lbs 14oz

We're so grateful - what a miracle this little guy is!

Emery is five and a half - 08.27.2017

Emery Annabelle is five and a half! And just in time to start Kindergarten!

In April, our beloved daycare provider whom Emery had been with for nearly 3 years, Mrs. Diana, and her husband moved to Kentucky to live near their children and grandchildren. We miss them terribly, but we know they're very happy being so close to their family! So Emery started at a local preschool, Springfield Academy, with a full class of 20 "junior kindergarteners" and two teachers. They were working on the same curriculum Emery had been working on - only they were a full year behind her. Emery had been working on the K-5 curriculum with Mrs. Diana - so this was a little frustrating for our girl. In June, Emery graduated with her class from junior kindergarten and they all moved up to the kindergarten class for the summer - a new set of teachers, more kids, field trips, trips to the pool, and some fun projects. Therefore, if you asked Emery if she was excited to start kindergarten (at public school in the fall) she insisted she was already in kindergarten - sometimes hoping she'd move up to first grade in the fall!

Some things about this school were tough for Emery (2 hour nap time when she never actually slept, but couldn't do anything else but lay in the dark - not fun) and a very large, noisy, busy class. But some things were good too - she met a lot of great friends, and four of them are with her at her new elementary school. And some were tough for mommy (field trips and trips to the pool without me, which made for very nervous days twice a week!). I joined the class on one trip to a Smithsonian and planned to join on another day, but Emery was sick that day. But Emery and mommy survived the summer. We're all ready for a new class with new opportunities, fun activities, and specials like art, music, PE, and strategies lab - all chances to challenge our bright little one.

Also in April, Emery found out she's going to be a big sister! She's been super excited about it from the start. And although she was hoping for a sister, when we found out we're having a boy, she really was on board! Every day leaving her school, she insisted we stop and peek in the baby room and wave to the babies. At the store or at church, she loves seeing babies, waving to them, and talking to them. And she's already tested lots of the gear we've gotten for the baby - her dolls have enjoyed the bumbo, baby swing, and some of the clothes! We think she'll be a super big sister! The baby is due in October.

And again in April (April was a big month for our family!), we moved a few miles closer to our jobs so Emery would be placed at a public school much easier to access from my job. We like our new neighborhood - one set of neighbors has a little one also starting kindergarten, another set brought us baked goods to say welcome, and the woman next door knitted a blanket for the baby! Wow. Plus "Aunt" Cindy teaches at the school we can see from our window, so we're happy to let her keep snacks in our fridge! Haha.

Emery enjoys reading and reads very well. This weekend, we got some library books and she's already read several of them, telling us what happens in the story before we've had a chance to read them to her. The last time we went to the library, we got several thin chapter books and only read two or three to her at bedtime before they were due back to the library. So Saturday morning when she woke up much earlier than the rest of us, she read another of them, telling us all about the story when we woke up. After reading some Nancy Clancy books this summer, Emery has decided she wants to be a detective when she grows up. I think Nancy's hot pink trench coat had at least a little to do with it!

That's not to say she knows every single word in a book like that, but she can skip past words she doesn't know and still get the idea of the story. Her teacher asked us to fill in a "get to know you" sheet about Emery, asking about things she's good at and things she need to work on (glows and grows). I wrote about her "glowing" reading, and then wrote that she needs to "grow" in her handwriting/fine motor skills/drawing/coloring. She may know the letters and numbers, she occasionally writes some backwards (which is normal for her age) and she still has trouble with spacing and consistently writing letters in upper/lower case and also drawing and coloring.

Emery likes building Lego sets and disassembling them and rebuilding them - over and over. She's getting better at pulling those little teeny pieces apart on her own (amen!).

She likes to play outside and run with Blake. We occasionally take walks after dinner. We signed her up for a swim class starting in September at the local rec center. She took a swim class at the pool this summer with her summer camp, so we're hoping this will build on that.

It's been a year of changes for our family. We're happy to start this new school year. We love our sweet girl who is blossoming into a lovely young girl!

Her sign says:

Emery's First Day of Kindergarten

I Love Reading & Building Lego Sets

I want to be a Detective when I grow up

My Teacher is Ms. Leith

Kings Park Elementary School

I started school on August 28, 2017