the best medicine...

Laughter, of course!!! EmJ laughed... and I'm not kidding, people... truly LAUGHED about a week ago. This was no chuckle, my friends, this was a full-blown belly laugh! And what provoked this hysteria from our little one, you ask? Well, let me tell you...

It was bath time, one of EmJ's favorite times, and we were all just having fun. Jeff (or should I say Daddy?) decided to get out the rubber duckies we have. Someone had given us a ducky family, if you will, with 2 small ducks and 1 big pirate duck. I don't remember who (sorry!), but we love them! Anyway, Jeff gets the ducks out and takes a small one and squeezes it to get some water in it. He squirts the water out on EmJ and then "the duck" quacks at her. Super bath time fun... she gets a huge grin and then... out it comes! A LAUGH!!! Jeff and I look at each other (and high five!) and he does it again. We sit on the edge of our seats, hoping, hoping, hoping she does it again... and she DOES! She smiled and then laughed! Real belly laughter coming from our fabulous little girl! This went on for probably 5 minutes. Jeff and I were laughing along with her (how could we not?!) and I honestly had tears rolling down my face from laughing so hard. I told Jeff to just keep making her laugh while I went to get the video camera. I ran as fast as I could down the stairs and back up with the camera. She laughed a little once it was on, but of course wouldn't allow the hilarious belly-laugh to be heard on camera! We were glad to get a little of it on tape, but it doesn't do the laughter justice.

And of course, here we are over a week later and has she laughed that hard again? Of course not. I think she enjoys watching us make complete fools of ourselves doing any and everything we can think of to make her laugh. Oh, she'll amuse us once in a while and giggle a little, but no, no no... none of that cracking up! I'm sure she'll do it again soon... we are funny, I promise! :o)

she's 2 months old now!

EmJ is a growing machine!!! She's 2 (and a half, to be technical) months old now and is seriously packin' on the pounds! We adore her cute little rolls... and sometimes I wonder why it's not cute when I have rolls, but it's adorable that she does! Ha!

She smiles all the time... and it's obvious that she is a happy baby. She is so great for us (most of the time!) She is doing really well through the night now. She wakes up usually once because she's gotten herself out of her swaddle (the burrito baby blanket), but all I have to do is re-swaddle and rock her a little and she's out again. Her last feeding at night is around 8:30pm and she doesn't eat again until about 5am. After that she falls asleep again until 7-7:30am. Although she wakes up in the middle, I sure am enjoying getting more sleep!! She is a joy... the other night (or early morning, rather) I was feeding her and usually at 5am she's still half asleep. Well... she was wide awake and talking and smiling and I just couldn't help but grin right back at her - look how cute she is!!!

EmJ is not only smiling now, but talking like crazy too! She coos, oohs, squeaks, goos, gurgles, and all kinds of fun baby stuff. She loves to have conversations with anyone who will talk to her... And some super big news... SHE ROLLED OVER!!!! From her tummy to her back, she's done it! We thought it might be a fluke, but nope, she's a rollin-over machine! She definitely has a mind of her own, however, because she'll roll over once to show off, but if I put her back on her tummy, she won't do it again. She's 2 months old and already quite stubborn. Pray for us! :o)


EmJ loves her mama and daddy... and recognizes both our faces and our voices. It's pretty adorable in the morning when I go in to get her and she sees my face or hears my voice and immediately breaks out in an ear-to-ear grin. The other morning she was awake when Jeff left and she was talking to him! He says it sure makes it a lot harder to leave for work when she's being so darn cute in the morning! EmJ loves people and sure enjoys being talked to. Her cousins (Janae, Jonah, McKenna, and Cadence) absolutely love her. Janae loves to hold and cuddle with her and Jonah can't seem to give her enough kisses! She has a variety of nicknames we've discovered, including Pete (short for Stinky Pete or Squeaky Pete), goober, turkey face, pretty girl, pipsqueak, snicklefritz, baby girl, sweet baby... you get the idea!

Bath time has become one of EmJ's most favorite times! I think it's because she didn't get a real bath for a long while because her cord took forever to fall off! Anyway... she smiles through her bath and doesn't even cry when it's time for lotion!

What can I say? We're some proud parents... and I think we have reason to be! EmJ is so wonderful and we are beyond blessed to have her in our lives. People try to tell you what it's like to have kids, but you just don't understand until they are born. It's already hard to remember what life was like before EmJ, and we like it that way! She is already a gorgeous little girl and we are excited to see what else God has in store for our family!

from the beginning...

Well... I've decided to create a blogspot for our fabulous family... mostly about EmJ of course! We've discovered that once you have kids you become chopped liver and all anyone wants to see and hear about is the baby! But, that's more than okay with us cause she is fantastic!!!

Let's get to it...

It all began on Wednesday, May 24th, 2006. Well, that's when I started early labor. I won't bore you with the whole crazy story, but we went to the hospital Thursday morning and they sent us home. We went back to the hospital around 3pm on Thursday and were allowed to stay! It was a crazy day there so I didn't get a room until around 7:30pm. EmJ made her grand entrance into this world at 12:50am on Friday, May 26th.

Emma Jane Miller - or as we all know her, EmJ, arrived weighing 5 pounds, 14 ounces and was 19 inches long.

Here is our first family picture taken right before we left the hospital... we were sure happy to be going home (and by we, I mean Maren!)

This is our sweet baby girl... 2 days old!

Here she is sleeping around 2 weeks old. We love this position!

This is EmJ starting to fill out a little... about 3-4 weeks old.

Here she is - our big 1 month old! She was starting to smile for real! It was so fabulous when she got to this age!

I think that catches you all up to her at one month... more to come because as I write this she's already over 2 months!!!