Growing, growing, growing

Emma had her 9 month checkup a week ago and she's a growing girl!

First of all, I cannot believe she is 9 months old already! Time is going by so fast! She's so funny now and so much fun to be around with her little personality and craziness. She isn't crawling yet but I don't think it will be long. She can sit up really good by herself and is starting to pull up on things...she may just skip crawling altogether! She has four teeth but is working on five AND six as we speak! She's grabbing at table food but still loves her baby food; not so much interested in her bottles anymore. But don't get me wrong! When she's hungry, she will snatch that bottle straight out of your hand! She's a whopping 13 lbs 14 oz (yeah, chunker, I know ;) and is 25 inches long. The doctor said her height has started to level out a little but no reason to be concerned. She'll be lucky if she reaches 5 ft tall, according to my parents lol. 

She's also jabbering like she's your best friend all the time! She's going to be one of those kids that always gets told to be quiet or sit down. She is constantly moving or squirming, which I'm hoping is just a baby thing. Her temper has returned as well...great. She throws the most hilarious fits when she doesn't get her way and we've already had to start popping those chunky thighs. They seem to "work" somewhat because she'll stop immediately and just look up with those big brown eyes as if to say "mama, why'd you do that?!" We've already figured out that maybe spanking won't be as hard for us as we thought because of our little stinker. She's strong willed and independent, but I wouldn't have it any other way. She's also one of the happiest and most content baby and for that, I'm truly blessed. 

She's working on sleeping a full 12 hours now so I'm constantly asking myself if I really want to go back to waking up every 3 hours for another one...although, in time, we will have another one , Lord willing.

We have some good news on Ray as well! The mass he had in his chest turned out not to be a tumor after all. They suspect it may have been an assortment of tissue and coagulated blood from his lung surgery. But tests did show that the cancer is in his blood stream so he has started chemo. So far, so good! We pray that this drug takes hold and helps him as much as possible so we can have him here with us for many more years to come! He even preached his first sermon yesterday! We hated to miss it :( but, Lord willing, it won't be the last one he makes so we can hear him.

We are continuing to settle into my parents old house and making it home a little at a time. I've always loved that house but the stairs are becoming the bane of my existence! At least it's a little exercise but you can bet my next house will be single level all the way!

Hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful weather!

God bless!