Milk

In previous posts I have talked about Emree's stubbornness with taking a bottle. To this day she is still refusing to drink ANYTHING from a bottle. I think I have tried 7 or 8 different styles and she still has no interest. I have even tried the beginner sippy cups and no luck! It is a little frustrating for me. I am not trying to get her to stop nursing. She has done great and if she wants to continue to nurse then that is fine with me. But there are days where she doesn't eat as much and in order for me to feel relief I have to pump. This creates the bottle problem...you can only store breast milk in the freezer for six months (unless you have a deep freezer, which we do not). After that point you are suppose to get rid of it....this makes me upset! Silly, I know. I don't mind dumping out extra formula (something that costs money) but the breast milk...it's like gold. Please tell me I am not the only one that feels like this??

As I have been cleaning and reorganizing the freezer, I came across some of the milk Emree refuses to drink from the bottle. I have had to dump out so much! I had a hard time parting with the frozen milk this last time and took pictures so one day I can explain to Emree what a stinker she was!

I think with this batch we ended up dumping out 32oz. That doesn't include all the stuff we have had to dump out before.

I love you dearly baby girl, but I just don't get it, it is the same stuff you drink on a regular basis, why not from a bottle??

Our Little Minion

For those of you who have seen Despicable Me you will understand this post a lot better. About a month or so ago Manti began talking to us like a baby, or so we thought. He wouldn't just ask for milk or a snack. I would have to tell him "Manti, use your words please, I cannot understand you." Then one day we turned on one of their favorite movies, Despicable Me. As soon as the minion's came on and started talking Troy and I looked at each other and said, "That's where he got it from!" Now that we know why he does it, we just laugh every time he does it. To better explain what I am talking about, I will let Manti show you...

ABC's and Counting

Sebastien is like a little sponge these days. He is soaking up everything that goes on around him. He has known the alphabet song for a while but is finally getting over being camera shy. I have a lot of cute videos of him singing songs and it makes me smile every time I watch them. Manti has even come to love singing to the camera and then watching himself afterwards. I wanted to share a couple of videos of the boys singing and just being silly.

Honestly, who could ever get bored with these two around??

Our Sweet Children

I love our kids to pieces. They are too funny and keep me laughing on a daily basis. I feel so blessed to have them and love being able to spend every day with them. They are always saying funny things and I try to keep track but of course things happen and I forget. I did happen to write a few things down from this week and thought they were too good not to share.

I asked Manti if he was poopy and he said no. Shortly after that Sebastien walks over, pats Manti's bum and says, "Yes, he's poopy, I can feel it."

"Mom, Manti's feelings are hurt!"

"Why? What happened?"

"Because he's poopy."

When he hears the music on base playing he says "hold your heart"

"I got-for the han-i-tizer" (Can you figure that one out?)

"Is this a fris-berry?"

"Yes it is, good job buddy. Can you put it in the bucket?"

"No, I need to fris-berry it!"

She isn't saying much. She is just too darn cute to not put a picture up. She is making her way all around the house and I am afraid it won't be too long before she is crawling and making things around here even crazier!

5 months

Five months and come and gone for Emree and it makes me sad that it is going so fast. She is such a sweet little girl and I am so thankful that our family has been blessed to have her. I have not been good about updating what she has been doing, partly because she wasn't doing much other then the usual eat, sleep and poop. Now that she is getting bigger she is doing so much more so I think it is time to share all the things she was doing at five months. Here we go....


*she weighed in at 12 pounds 12 ounces
*was 24 inches (I think)
*figured out that once she rolled over she could keep going. Nothing is safe on the floor anymore! *she loves to giggle and it is so cute
*discovered her feet and likes to eat her toes
*thinks it is fun to roll over when having her diaper changed
*REFUSES to take a bottle
*has had banana's, squash and rice cereal
*HATES rice cereal (I have to trick her into eating it!)
*says "da, da, da"
*loves to have Sebastien sings to her
*sits in the bumbo chair but only for a few minutes before she is trying to kick herself out
*loves to stand up and look around
*loves bath time and splashes like crazy
*likes standing up at the bath tub while the boys take their bath
*loves to baby talk
*sleeps 8-10 hours but occasionally wakes up anywhere from 3-5am for a quick feeding then
falls right back to sleep.
*rocking in the chair with her daddy
*will grab toys out of your hand and even reach for your food
*she really is the sweetest little girl!

Sitting in her high chair for the first time. She ate banana's and loved every bite.
She is really focusing on that food!

She even showed off her cute smile while eating. Probably because she was so excited to try something new.

She still loves her thumb.

I can never get enough of her little smiles!

I love when babies start pushing up like this. I think it is the cutest pose. Too bad the stinker would not smile!

4 down 16 to go

I am so far behind in posting that I am now going to play catch up....

Back in NOVEMBER, (I know I am so late), Troy reached the end of his first enlistment with the Air Force. The thought of separating with the military and moving back to Arizona seemed so great. With so many of our friends moving away the past year, I was loving the idea of being close to family and friends again. However, Troy and I were both in agreement that this is where we are suppose to be right now. I love being able to stay home with the kids and separating from the Air Force would not give us that option. To make a long story short, it didn't take much to decide the best thing for our family was for him to reenlist.
It was a great experience because one of our friends, a long time family friend of Troy's, was able to swear him in. It meant so much more this time around. It was great knowing we had the support of a good friend and the time he took to do this for us.

The swearing in...
...The happy family (and friend).

(Sorry for the poor quality of the picture, a good part of the reason Santa brought me a new camera.)

We have got another six years of military life ahead and we look forward to what those six years will bring to our family. We continue to meet new, fun people all the time and I know we will have long lasting friendships with a lot of the people we have come to know and love. You all know who you are! ;)

HUNTING

This past fall, Troy earned the title of "Big Game Hunter"! Many weekends were spent out in the mountains hunting antelope, deer and elk. Thanks to a couple of good friends, Troy had a great first hunting season. He was able to bring home all three animals and stock up the freezer. He vows to NEVER hunt antelope again because they stink so bad but I know he would love to go for deer and elk again. The antelope provided some very tasty jerky. The deer gave us steaks, roasts, ground deer, loins and stew meat. The elk gave us 30 pounds of ground meat and seven roasts. We are very excited for the meat in the freezer and thankful that Troy made it through without fainting, throwing up and no injuries in the process.

Digging out from one of the many time's they got stuck.

Troy shot his Elk, 50 yards from the truck. He took one shot and it stopped but was afraid it might run over the hill so he took a second and dropped it instantly.

Troy's Elk (bull-calf)

Troy's Deer, not the worlds biggest but we are grateful he shot this one because it was the only Deer they happen to see, his friends were happy because it was 30 yards away from the truck when he shot it, when it died it ran to only 15 yards away from the truck. Lucky boys didn't have to carry it very far.

Troy's first hunting shot was this beauty, 276 yards one shot one kill. His Antelope was in the valley right where the sun was starting to shine.

Taking a break to fish.

Troy's Antelope