Colorado bound!

I guess we are starting a tradition of going to see Mark's family in Colorado at the beginning of December since we did it once again this year! This was Emma's first plane ride and she did amazing!!! She actually slept most of the time! However, we learned that the pressure changes apparently makes Emma have very large dirty diapers!...like blowout style! Let me just say, that when your child has a blowout on the plane, there are a number of things that occur! First of all, you are in a small confined area and there is no way to roll a window down to let the smell air out any! Secondly, when the plane is completely full and the poop is up to her neck, down to her ankles, and everywhere else, WHERE IN THE WORLD do you change that diaper! There is NOWHERE! So needless to say, we wrapped a burp cloth around her to try to muffle the smell for the other passengers and tried to ignore the incident although she laughed at us because we were obviously in panic mode! Nevertheless, we made it there and home and she did amazing! Colorado was great as always and their was lots of snow everywhere! It is always nice to go there bc their isn't much to do in Fleming so we get to relax and be lazy not feel guilty for it! We did get to go to Zac's musical program at school and it was fun! Pops got to carry Emma around and MeMe and Pops definitely showed her off to all at school!

2009 Copeland family pictures

Here are the pictures we took for 2009! Tiffany Padilla did them and she did an amazing job considering it was freezing cold that day AND Emma was not cooperative AT ALL!!! But I still love them and will cherish them forever!

Emma's Baby shower!

I was blessed with 2 baby showers...one from my amazing co-workers and one from my best of family and friends! I never did post pictures from either...I don't have any right now from the work shower but I do have some from my other. Mark's cousin's wife, Sarah, one of my best of friends, threw this shower for me and my wonderful friends helped host it with her. Sarah and her mom came all the way from Dallas and spent so much time and money to do this for me and I could never repay them! She is as close as a sister and I will love her always for so many reasons. My friend Lori volunteered to have it in her home and I know how inconvenient that can be at times and I am grateful for friends like her! All my hostesses were great friends who I hold so close and who are always there for me...in the good and the bad times! And to all who were able to come! It meant the world for you to think of us during our special time of preparing for our sweet Emma Grace to come into this world! Thanks again to all!!! Love you ALL!

Visits from MeMe & Pops

I am SOOO behind on my blog and so while Emma's down for the night and Mark is working, I'm going to try to catch up some! I am going to be posting some old pictures but just bare with me and I'll get current! Hope all is well!

Here's the beginning of the late posts! After Thanksgiving, Mark's family got to come stay with us for a while and we always enjoy them being here so much! Emma had grown so much since they had last seen her before this trip which was when she was born for Pops and when we was a few weeks old for MeMe! Uncle Tyler and Uncle Zac got to come too and Emma Grace sure does love her uncles! Here is some pics of our time with all of them!

So much to be thankful for!

Time for me to sit down and get some blogging done since it has been awhile since I've posted! We celebrated Thanksgiving day (Emma's 1st) in Clovis with my mom and dad this year. We went over Wednesday night and went to church with my parents and Grandma held Emma thru church and sang the songs to her, which she of course LOVED! Her favorite song right now that Grandma sings to her is Home Of The Soul....very possibly the OLDEST church song ever...lol...BUT she loves when Grandma sings it to her. She either stares at her and concentrates or she goes right to sleep. We woke up Thanksgiving morning and Mark and Emma played all morning while Mom and I cooked dinner. Nana and Jack came over to eat with us and Nana held and loved on Emma the whole time she was there except when we ate. Emma loves her Nana and thinks she's a pretty funny old gal. Thanksgiving dinner was great and Emma even got to lick a finger dipped in whip cream! She wasn't sure about that taste! Mark had to leave right after lunch and head back here to Lubbock to be at work at 6PM. I hated to see him go to work but this is the life we signed up for and I'm so grateful he has a serving heart that desires to help people when needed. He loves his job and that makes me a happy wife. Friday morning, Dad went in and got Emma out of bed so I could sleep in a little while and apparently he took her in to lay her on the bed with my mom and Grandpa and Emma were talking and she belly laughed for the first time. I wished I could have heard it but Grandpa was a very proud man that day!!

Today, I have so much to be grateful for. I am so thankful for Mark and our marriage. People say that marriage can be hard and maybe we just aren't old enough yet, but it seems pretty darn blissful most of the time. Do we disagree sometimes? Yes. Do we irritate each other sometimes? Sure. But we always seem to smile when we look at each other and can't help but just love on each other! God has been so good to us and we are thankful to Him for leading us to each other.

We are amazingly thankful for our sweet Emma Grace. She has blessed our lives over and over. We were not planning on getting pregnant when we did and we both were in shock and in panic after finding out but we wouldn't take it back now for anything. She lights our world up and makes each day so much happier! When we get off work, we love to come home and see her smile when she sees us. We love to love on her, spoil her, teach her, watch her grow, help her thru hard times, and we thank God for giving her to us to raise in Him.

We are thankful for our families. They are there for us thru good and bad. They pray for us, encourage us, support us, and love us. Mark and I were both blessed to be raised in Christian homes with our mom and dad together and we lived in peace. We understand and know that not everyone gets that luxury and we are thankful for getting that! Our lives are enriched in so many ways because of them.

And lastly, we are thankful for our dear friends. All of our friends who we have known so long we cherish. They have been thru so much with us and loved us in the middle of it all. We have made so many memories to laugh at and think back on. Those will be treasured forever. To our friends who we are becoming so close to. They will be lifelong friends and our hearts are overjoyed at the memories we are making right this minute. God knew what He was doing when he led us all to the same place, at the same time, going thru the same life experiences together.

I am just so blessed in SO many ways and I will try to think of those things not just today, but everyday!

Smiling sweetie!

Like I always say, "Emma loves her daddy!". This is her smiling this morning at her daddy when he was kissing her feet! I could just squeeze her!

3 months & growing fast!

Emma will be 3 months old tomorrow and I can hardly believe it! She is changing so much and nearly every day there is something new. She has started laughing and wants to chuckle but can't quite figure that out yet. She watchs Bella play around her and turns her head to our voices now.
She LOVES the morning time and when we go into her room and look over in her crib she gets a really big grin. She doesn't stop smiling all morning until her first nap. When we get her out of her crib, we bring her in to our bed and play with her for a while. She talks to us and smiles the whole time. It is now our favorite part of the day as well, even though we are not morning people. Emma still loves bathtime as long as the water is really warm. She loves her pallet in the floor so she can kick her legs and arms which she does constantly! Just in the last week she has started grabbing on to her blankets and clothes to put them in her mouth and if she can't grab that, she'll just stick her fist in her mouth! If she could ever find that thumb, she'd go to town on it! Our biggest change and greatest news is that we went and saw the GI specialist, Dr. Higgins, who I was greatly impressed with. He little intently to our story of Emma's bad reflux, the vomitting, the screaming, and the fact that she only eats 1 to 3 ounces every 3-4 hours because she acts like it hurts to eat. He told us to add 1 tablespoon of cereal to every 2 ounces of formula, double her medicine, and he added one more medicine. So, we came home and started with the next feeding adding the cereal. At first, she was not one bit interested in that weird texture "stuff" we were trying to feed her. We spent an hour figuring out the perfect "cutting of the nipples" to get the right flow for her. After another hour of her figuring out that the milk was different, she finally took to it and now LOVES it. She eats 4-5 ounces every 4 hours now! Needless to say, we may have a chunk on our hands here pretty soon!

Mark and I are staying busy with work and everything else. He is working really hard to sell his bike and I am staying busy at work with lots going on. The holidays are approaching and so the hustle and bustle begins. We have family pictures on Thursday afternoon and then I have our bi-annual Hospice Memorial Service to attend and speak at that evening. Between Mark's schedule, my work, my on-call, church, and our families, we are finding it hard to have days to just do NOTHING! Wonder if they will ever come? Nevertheless, we are incredibly blessed and life is good!

I will post more pictures soon! I'll take some tomorrow maybe!