Where to begin?

I am so incredibly behind on blogging, I get overwhelmed even thinking about how to catch up on everything that has happened in the past 9 months.  Life has been good.. just busy I guess!

I'll start with Emalyn:  She has been a dreamy little baby. As she is moving on from the "baby" phase, I am reminded just how "low maintenance" she's been. Now that she is wanting to explore and get into everything, I'm having to watch her every move!  At about a few months old, she found her thumb. For some strange reason, we tried to discourage it at first, but I think it gets some of the credit for her great sleeping habits. Either she finds it during the night and soothes herself, or she just doesn't wake up. Either way, it's been much easier than with Henry. He often needed help finding his paci during the night, then later, he was up a lot with ear infections at night; so 12 hours of solid sleep has been much appreciated this go round.

Now, at 9 months, she has 3, going on 6, teeth. She's had two on the bottom for a while, but there are 4 up top that are slowing starting to pop through. She can get anywhere she wants to go with her fast army crawl, and if she really wants to, she can pull up to standing, though her legs are very wobbly.
In my unbiased opinion, I think she is the sweetest girl in the world. She is always so excited to see Chad or I in the morning or waking from a nap, and is at the stage of just giving away that full faced smile any chance she can get. She's always making friends when we are out and about.
Her mobility and curiosity have led her to a place of driving her brother a little nuts. When I once would have said he does great with her and I can totally trust them in a room together, that is no more! Now that she is into taking his stuff, he can be very aggressive at "protecting her" and keeping all toys away from her. At the same time, he still can be very sweet with her and I do love seeing them together.



Henry at 3: Well, I've heard people say that 3 can be worse than 2. Hmm.. I will say that there have been a few very bad moments.. but also many, many, very cute moments. It's so fun seeing him learn and grow and develop his little personality. I keep thinking I'm going to write down all the funny little things that he says, but of course, I don't. He has a bit of a speech impediment that makes everything he says like 10 times cuter, I think. That coupled with the expressions on his face just keep us laughing.

He LOVES to help. He likes to help me do just about anything around the house, from vacuuming, to cooking, laundry, etc. His most favorite, though, is to be out in the shop "helping" daddy. He loves all things dad. They enjoy playing basketball, building robots, hitting golf balls, throwing the football... pretty much anything. It's very sweet. We pray daily for wisdom as we navigate this road of parenting. What a blessing and privilege to be the parents to these two sweet kiddos. We are learning so much!

Potty training for Henry may be the death of me, but I'm sure one day it will all be just a distant memory. I know Chad would prefer I leave the details out, so I will. I've been told many times that one day, he'll be ready and there's no sense beating my head against the wall before then. I keep thinking we should be there by now though!! 

We had a great time at his birthday party. Lots of little boys, dirt, cake.. what more could you ask for? 

Let's see. To cover a few more things really quickly:

Christmas- We get to celebrate Christ's birth in Pensacola and Gainesville each year, always a fun time with family. 

The Overman Grandkids

Gainesville Christmas

Yes, we missed the West Coast Conrads,
there may have been a few tears

In April we made our first family trip to SeaWorld and had a blast

the kids did great, Emalyn finally passed our for a short nap,
she doesn't like to miss out on anything!