a great year.

WOW! Is 2012 really coming to a close, already? What a wonderful year it has been for this little family.  I will do my best to keep it short and fill you in on the good and the better of the best year yet!

As you all well know we welcomed our precious angel Emma Grace Lindley on February 1st! If you didn't read how God totally blessed us with her please read our blog from last year at HERE! Emma weighed 6lbs 14oz and was THE MOST BEAUTIFUL baby we've ever seen.  She has been so sweet from the beginning and has willingly handed out smiles to anyone that asks (or doesn't).  Emma has hit every milestone either on time or early and we couldn't be more proud of her beautiful spirit.  Here's a few of her current favorites:

Favorite food: Cheerios and most everything else

Favorite drink: Milk

Favorite mode of transportation: crawling at FULL speed

Favorite words: Dada, Mama, NANANANANA, dah (dog)

Back to our 2012... The spring was filled with keeping Emma happy and healthy! She has been such a wonderfully easy baby, but even easy has been the best and hardest thing Jeff and I have ever done. 

We welcomed Emma's precious cousin Avery Elizabeth, Rob and Jordan Lindley's daughter.  She and Emma are 5 weeks apart! That was a fun, first state crossing trip (with only a few hiccups!). 

Emma and Avery have seen eachother many times throughout the summer as we went to the lakehouse many times and the river in July for a family reunion (where she saw cousins George and Henry too!).  The summer was also fun because all of Emma's Van Horn uncles were in town and since I was working for my dad as a landman (was and current) she got to see them all a whole lot!

Summer and Fall seemed to have just FLOWN by... lots of memories made and pictures to prove them!

Jeff is still working at Love's Corporate office and is really enjoying it! I am so thankful and blessed beyond words that he works so hard so I can stay home with our sweet girl.  He plays basketball during his freetime and is always keeping himself busy with lots of other fun hobbies.  Jeff also recently signed up and started training for the OKC Marathon in April! Like I said, I do landwork for my dad's company and OFFICIALLY became OFFICIAL with my good friend Katee and my mom, Jana, with photography. We have recently ventured into taking on new clients and pursuing a true passion of photography (we JUST started our facebook page so more pics will be added when I have time!).  It has been a fun 6 years of doing weddings, babies, families, seniors and much more - both together and independently but we are excited to be doing it together full time! 

This year has been FANTASTIC to say the least... we are blessed beyond words and are so honored to have become parents to such a wonderful little girl.  Hopefully I'll get better at posting to show you all the new things she does.  BUT since pictures are what I do better... I'll leave you with a few below!

Thanks for reading- hope it was informative.  We love you all and are so thankful to call you each family and friends.  Merry Christmas and may GOD be first in your 2013!

 The mind of man plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps. Proverbs 16:9

 

WE ARE SO BLESSED AND CAN'T WAIT FOR 2013!!

fall party

Spring has sprung, summer has sizzled, and fall is in full swing- time is really flying isn't it? I would like to think that I am kind of getting used to my new title of mommy.  I have to admit, it is one of my new favorites.  Jeff likes to joke that I wear way too many hats: wife, mommy, landman, photographer...etc etc.  I am really enjoying life - don't get me wrong, there are moments that I want to pull my hair out but aren't those moments the ones that help you realize how great the good moments are? 

One really fun recent moment was that of Emma's first annual fall party! All of us new moms seem to get so excited about these little babies dressing up as funny creatures, or at least I was that mom.  Only to realize my daughter prefers to fall asleep by 7:30pm... which eliminates much trick-or-treating if you ask me.  So.... after hearing that one of my cousins has a party for mommies and kids I decided to start the same tradition for my kiddos! I was so excited to have a few friends and their babies over and I have to admit I had a lot of fun both preparing and entertaining.  Here are a few pics of the occasion I fondly called: Emma's Fall Party.

I was pleased with how the table turned out! I found the candy corn poms at Hobby Lobby on sale and my mom brought the flowers which totally completed the look.

 I "might" have spent some time on Pinterest before the party... all budget friendly & had a lot of fun! 

Since all the babies were young we had a "scene" set up in the front yard that the babies and moms got their pictures taken in front of... their "party favor" was a fall frame to fill!

 This is Emma with the fall backdrop! 

Another project used to decorate with... that's Emma's hand print and fists as the pumpkin! LOVE!

And this was the whole crew with their babes... 

Until next fall!

nutshell.

Well, it's fairly obvious that the gift of journaling or blogging isn't mine.  Part of me wishes it was... in fact, I bought a journal to write to my sweet Emma - and I have one very well written page.  So, instead of feeling guilty I am going to rejoice in that my sweet girl is a healthy, happy, ALMOST 7 month old that knows I love her more each day!!! Oh my goodness. I'll use this post to give you the last 6 months in a NUTSHELL.

First, I will tell you that my pregnancy was such a joy- not only was I so honored and blessed that I was given the opportunity to carry my sweet baby... but I had an "easy" pregnancy until the two weeks before Miss Emma made her debut! To elaborate... I had made it to the point that I was seeing my dr. weekly, and sweet Jeff had come to EVERY appointment, but on this particular day he had a meeting so my mom filled in.  She and I were joking and watching YouTube videos in the lobby (trying to explain that I was feeling totally fine!) needless to say my Blood Pressure (BP) was out the roof!!!! My doctor came in calmly and literally said, "well we will probably have a baby, today." WHHHAAATTTT?!?! They did some tests and I didn't have preeclampsia, yet... but was definitely testing the waters so I was restricted to bed rest. Mind you, this was nearly 5 weeks from Emma's "due date".  Any of you that have ever been on bed rest know that IT IS HARD!!! There are moments now that I wonder "how was that HARD?" But 10 days of people having to wait on you hand and foot, drinking about a billion oz of water, and taking my BP multiple times per day was not the most fun experience.  I maintained a pretty normal BP for 10 days and never had protein in my urine (so I was never diagnosed with preeclampsia) but since I only have one kidney and my BP was getting a little higher with each day, my Dr. thought it best to induce me 2 1/2 weeks early.  We were so excited to finally meet our precious gem! As some of you know, we had decided that her name would be Emma Rain Lindley unless she was born on the day that my MeMe "Grace" went to be with Jesus (Feb 1) - she was due Feb 19th....I was induced the night of January 31st and on February 1st at 8:35pm (yes it was a 13+ hr labor) I delivered 6lb 14oz precious perfect Emma Grace Lindley!!! 

file://localhost/Users/jeffjlindley/Pictures/iPhoto%20Library/Masters/2012/08/28/20120828-213415/141.jpg

Since then life has been in full swing! The first few weeks were amazing and the HARDEST weeks we've ever experienced.  I now understand why sleep deprivation is used as a torture tool in the military.  Thankfully Emma has been a great eater and after I was allowed to let her go longer than 3 hours between feedings we have done much better in the sleep department! Since Emma was born in the middle of flu season and since I had the ability to shield her from any sickness... we didn't go in public together (i.e. target) for 8 weeks!!! Let me just say, we learned how to do all that you could do from the car WELL (drive thrus, house looking, dry cleaners, car washing... yep!).  The only time she has been sick thus far was at 7 weeks and she got a cold from me (I felt soooo bad!!). 

Now to tell you about the most amazing little person in Jeff and my life, Emma.  She is the most smiley happy little girl! We have been able to get her to grin from ear to ear since she was about 5 weeks old... pure JOY! She has been a fantastic eater and has started solids fairly recently (has loved everything we've given her!).  She loves her chandelier in her room and is quite fond of baby einstein.   She started legitimately rolling over at about 3 months from her tummy to her back then quit for a while until she figured out how to roll from her back to her tummy! AND she sleeps on her tummy now that she knows how... face in mattress, it is quite funny! She likes to be held but would rather go to sleep on her own in her crib (no complaints!). Although Emma was born with a head full of dark hair - that fell out into the design of a natural mohawk at about 4.5 months- and since has been growing in full force!! Her favorite toys... well she likes most anything she can fit in her mouth, really.  She has two knots on her bottom gum waiting to break through for a while... hoping that happens soon! Most recently we have become somewhat mobile!! Army crawling with the occasional crawl on all fours- watch out world! Yesterday she figured out how to sit herself up! Emma said "MAMA" first (about a month ago) and has been saying "NANA" with an occasional "DADA" today.... although she doesn't know what she is saying yet, we melt every SINGLE time.  It's a rare day that you see Emma without a bow! Her Gamma and Poppy (Jeff's Parents) and her YaYa and Pappy (My parents) are her biggest fans and she seems them all quite often! 

Okay enough of the mommy bragging stuff (although she is pretty great!) ... This is my Emma in a six month nutshell! 

Life is beautiful- To God be the GLORY!