The Cress Family

Monday, November 4, 2013

Whoops!

It has been WAY too long since I last updated! We moved, then didn't have internet, then updating seemed like a daunting task so I was putting it off... I'll try to do some short posts over the next little while to catch up more but here's a very brief update:

Mid July we bought a house and moved in. It was a CRAZY week. We moved on the 11th and my brother's wedding reception was on the 13th. At my parents house. Where we just moved from. And all sorts of family was coming into town for it.

The street view

Backyard view from the sliding door

More of the backyard

The kitchen

The living room/dining room

The living room from another angle (ignore the scantily clad Little Man...we were attempting potty training, which didn't work)

We are loving having our own place! Overall, there wasn't a ton of work that NEEDED to be done, but there are always projects of stuff we'd like to change. We've been slowly working on getting the most important ones done. We are almost done hanging pictures lol. And then comes the inevitable re-evaluation of where things are to see if we can make them make more sense. But we're getting settled in and we LOVE our new ward.

Jeremy is loving his job at Gesa. He switched branches and now only works 5 minutes from where we live, which is really nice. He's been coming home to eat lunch with us lately, which has been a lot of fun. (And it saves me the trouble of having to make him a lunch to take to work lol).

I started watching a couple of boys in September. Pax is 4 and Emmett (baby Emmett, lol) is a month younger than Addy. They keep me on my toes! It has been really nice to be able to supplement our income a bit and I love that it's only 2-3 days a week so I still have free days where I can run errands or do doctor appointments or whatever.

Emmett started seeing a speech therapist. Well, actually, he sees a speech therapist once a week at the hospital outpatient therapy place and then every other week someone from the school district comes to work with him. Since starting therapy, his speech has been improving, especially over the past month. He's now willing to attempt more words and is, I think, understanding that verbal communication is a good thing and will help him get what he wants faster than having me guess what he wants.

Both kids got sick a few weeks ago. Emmett got croup. He was super miserable. I felt so bad for him! I don't think Addy got croup, thank goodness, but she was pretty stuffy and had a bit of a cough too. Thankfully, both kids are doing much better!

Emmett moved up to a toddler bed, which has really thrown night time out of whack. He kept coming out of his room since he didn't have a crib keeping him in, so we switched the handle around so we could lock him in until he went to sleep. He had finally settled down just before he got sick, and now we're having to create habits all over again. Hopefully he'll get back in the swing of things soon. These middle of the night wakings are killing me! Way to flash back to newborn stage....there are definitely things I DON'T miss about that! ;)

Addy has started getting around. It's not quite crawling yet...I call it "inch worming" because she'll get up on her hands and knees, lunge forward on her belly, and repeat the process to get where she wants. It's super cute. I don't think true crawling is too far away...I guess nothing is safe again!

The kids were both tigers for Halloween. I lucked out and was able to find them both tiger costumes at two different places (Emmett's a yard sale and Addy's at a thrift shop). Yay for not paying full price! =D

I seriously had the hardest time trying to get them both still for a picture! This is one of the FEW clear ones. I love the cheesy smile on Emmett's face. And notice his cherished package of m&m's haha

Well, I think that's about it for BIG updates. Like I said, hopefully I'll be able to find time soon to get on and do more specific updates and such. If not, I'll at least try to update better from here on out. =) I'll leave you with a few more cute pictures of the kids.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Goings on

Well, we've been busy in the past few months. Adjusting to life with 2 kids and having time to blog took a while. Here's a recap:

Jeremy was laid off 5 days before Adelynn was born. We knew it was coming and it actually worked out really well since she came 3 weeks early. Then he worked for my aunt and uncle's cropdusting business for a few weeks while he looked for a job. He had been putting in applications for jobs and rarely getting interviews; well, he had 2 interviews in a week for jobs at 2 different places. And one of the places had him come in THAT DAY for a second interview, the next day for a third interview, and the day after that to do background check stuff. Things actually ended up in such a way that he was offered both jobs. I guess when it rains, it pours! ;)

So at the beginning of May, Jeremy started working at Gesa Credit Union as a member service representative. Basically, he opens/closes accounts, helps members with car and small personal loans, helps with home equity lines of credit, etc. It's a good thing he learned Spanish on his mission, because he's speaking it all day every day! He really enjoys his job and is glad that his Spanish is coming back quickly!

We are also in the process of buying a house! If all goes well, we should be moving in sometime the first week of July! It's a cute little house with a fenced back yard for the kids to play in and some great shade trees.

Monday, June 10, 2013

3 Months!

Addy is now 3 months old. It is hard to believe she's been with our family for 3 months already. It feels like she's been here forever and yet like she's still brand new. It's crazy!

One of the things I've been glad we purchased this time around was a Rock n Play. That has seriously been amazing; it's smaller and more portable than a traditional bassinet, and since it's inclined, we can put her in it and let her use it as a chair (before she was able to sit up in her Bumbo.) It's one of my favorite baby gear items. ;)

This past month:

Addy has started sitting in her Bumbo and she LOVES it!
Addy can definitely tell who mom, dad, and brother are, and she looks at us with such love...it just melts my heart completely.
she loves to sit in her Bumbo and watch her big brother play
she will follow you with her eyes
she will put weight on her feet to stand up for a minute or so
she moves her arms and legs a lot!
she is sleeping through the night! =D I am so excited about this one!
she loves to smile and interact with you
she will bat at toys in her play gym (sometimes) but would rather sit up in her Bumbo usually
sometimes we can't tell if she's whining or just cooing loudly
she is our rootin', tootin' little girl!
she grabbed a rattle for the first time on her own
she will have long conversations with you

My sweet sleepy girl

Outside in the shade

This is her pouty face

In the Bumbo

Wearing the dress my great grandma made me

I sure love this sweet little girl!

2 Months

Her 2 month stats:

Height: 21.5 inches (23%)
Weight: 11 lbs, 13.5 oz (78%)
Head Circumference: 38.3 cm

Addy did really well with her shots. She was crying afterwards, but I started nursing her as soon as the nurse left the room, and she immediately calmed down afterwards and was fine the rest of the day. I could tell her legs were a little sore, but she really wasn't much different than any other day, thankfully. However, while I was trying to comfort her during her shots, I glimpsed 2 little white spots on her gums....could she be teething already?!?

Some highlights:

she is starting to like baths now; I think she finds them relaxing
she was blessed in church on April 14th.
we caught her smile on camera for the first time!
she and I went on her first overnight trip to Time Out For Women. She did fine all day and then was AWFUL when we were trying to get to sleep. Thank heaven my mom was a trooper (we were sharing a room).
she laughed for the first time in her sleep
she does great in the moby when she, Emmett, and I go to the store. That's the only way I have enough room in the cart to actually get a decent amount of groceries.
she gained 3/4 of a pound (12 oz) a week for 4 weeks! (between office visits) She is getting so chunky!
she chews on her fist a lot
she refuses to take a pacifier
she has good head control
she loves going outside and looking around

Her blessing was a really special day. She wore the dress that I was blessed in, a bracelet that I made her, and we used blankets made by her Great Grandma Cress and my Great Grandma. I wanted to do a headband, but it was a little much, so we didn't. Daddy, Grandpa Schull, Great Uncle Tom, Bishop Elison, and Brother Kim Mahaffey were part of the circle.

A close up on her blessing day

A family shot =)

Us girls (this showcases her/my dress)

Pretty girl =)

Look at that head control during tummy time!

Addy is One Month!

Wow, it has been adjustment to have 2 kids. I am so grateful we are still staying with my family; there is usually someone to help Emmett out when I'm stuck nursing Addy, etc. And my mom has been a LIFESAVER and taken Addy for part of the night a few times so I could get some much-needed sleep. One of the benefits with bottlefeeding Emmett was that Jeremy could occasionally take over a feeding so I could get a longer stretch of sleep. Getting so little sleep has definitely been taking a toll on me; I really don't do well without a decent amount of sleep. It makes it harder for me to cope with smaller things without a breakdown. But oh well. Kids are definitely worth the lack of sleep!

Some highlights of her first month are:

she had her first bath at home. She did NOT like it.
she went to church for the first time at 3 weeks old. She was very popular
she is starting to smile! I sure love her sweet little smiles!
she coos a lot
she makes a lot of noises when she sleeps
One day she was really twitchy while being held. We added another blanket over her and she stopped twitching. I guess she was just cold
she weighs 8 lbs 5 oz -- she has finally surpassed birth weight! (it only took her 3 whole weeks....)
she got to meet her Great Great Grandma Lehrbas
she makes the "Zoolander" face like Emmett did
she grunts if she's trying to sleep and we wake her up to change her diaper or something.

I feel a little bit bad that I don't have as much written down about her first few months as I did with Emmett because I didn't sit down and write up where she was at developmentally at the end of every month, but at least I wrote a few things down as I thought of them!

In her church outfit after her first time to church!

Sunday, June 9, 2013

2 Years!!

Wow, how has it already been 2 years since this little guy was born? I can't believe how fast the time has just flown by!

This month we got Emmett on track to start speech therapy through Kadlec as well as the Early Intervention program through the school district. He still doesn't talk much (although he will babble a little more than he used to) and we figured it'd be best to start addressing the issue sooner rather than later. So he has his first appointment with a speech therapist at Kadlec on the 18th and will meet with someone for Early Intervention in July.

Emmett is SUCH a good big brother. You can tell that he loves Adelynn and she loves him. I frequently will find him going hanging over her and giving her kisses or trying to read her books (there was one we got from the library that had things to feel and he would grab her hand and help her feel them...it was so dang cute.) He even seems to understand--and not really mind--when I can't hold him/stay with him/whatever because I have to feed "Baby Addy." I seriously couldn't have dreamed that he would react this well to her! It makes me feel so lucky to be his mom.

Sure, he has times where I want to tie him up (we are entering the terrible two's, after all), but he sure is a sweetheart. And sometimes I wonder if part of the reason he has such big meltdowns is because he can't communicate what he wants. (Other times, I know he's just throwing a fit because I won't give him what he wants.)

Other happenings this month:

He knows his letters! I was reading a book with him and happened to ask where an "O" was, and he pointed right to it! He pointed to every letter as I asked and got it on the 1st or 2nd try every time!
He went to help Addy fold her arms for prayer one night (and usually will check to make sure her arms are folded for prayer lol)
He helped his stuffed bear to do the actions for "Popcorn Popping"
He helps his stuffed bear fold his arms for prayer
He has started to kick balls
He loves to play with Addy's headbands and hair flowers.
He enjoys taking a book to bed with him for naptime. I think it helps him wind down and get ready to sleep and also gives him something to do when he first wakes up.
He loves the show Curious George. My mom found some Curious George canvas prints at a garage sale and bought them for him, and he loves to bring them to me to show me.
He likes to lay under Addy's play gym. The other day they were both laying underneath it and having a great time.
He learned to splash in puddles and LOVES to do it. (He is going to love it when we get him the other part of his birthday gift--a little wading pool for the backyard)
He understands the concept of opening presents. (Or at least of tearing off the paper to find fun things inside.)
He loves oatmeal, cheerios, bread, water with a little Mio in it, hot dogs, bratwursts, enchilada casserole
He loves to color; both on paper with crayons and on the sidewalk with chalk

Cuddling with Bear

He had me put all these flowers in his hair.

He wanted both these hats on lol

He climbed in Addy's car seat at the restaurant and had a blast! He was enjoying the attention and so was hamming it up lol

I love this picture of the two of them!

He was sharing his toys with Addy. Such a sweetie!

His Elmo birthday cake. Made my mom, decorated by dad

Sitting in his high chair waiting for cake

Opening the Curious George canvas prints.

With his balloon dog he got at the family day at Grandpa's work. He sure liked that dog...he would lick the dog's tongue haha. Silly boy

23 months

Well, Emmett got tubes put in. Poor little guy. He was not happy about having to put the robe on (and he refused to put the socks on.) I sure was glad that we brought his blanket, Monkey, and Bear for him. I was a little frustrated because the nurses told me they'd come get me before he woke up so I'd be there...and then when they brought me back he was already awake. =( And the poor little guy started crying when he saw me. But surgery went well and his hearing is much better since the fluid was drained. Now hopefully he starts talking more soon!

This month he: