My Girls

Lately, we have been trying to find a normal routine here at our house. It's hard trying to find what "normal" is after you have a baby.

Luckily, Emmy has accepted the baby and loves her! She woke up the other morning and the baby was gone (my mom had taken her to her house next door). Emmy was so distraught, she started crying and wanted to find baby sister! It was nice to see that Emmy is used to having the baby around, and that she likes having the baby around (even though sometimes she tells me, "don't hold baby sister, mom!).

Here are some random pics . . .

{Lunch Time}

Emmy was "feeding" the baby

Kate wasn't a fan . . .


{Funny Faces}

This was one of Kate's first real smiles. {She started smiling at 4 weeks old} It's not the best picture in the world, but at least we caught the smile!

Don't know what was happening here . . . but I like it!


{Outdoor Fun}

Kate hung out on a blanket in the shade . . .

. . . while Emmy splashed around in her new pool! We let her pick her own, and {surprise, surprise} she picked the fairy pool.

I must say, it's fun having two girls!!!

Happy {Late} Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Jake! Ok, so his birthday was on Sunday - I'm a couple of days late on the birthday post, but better late than never, right?

I have to say that I have one of the best husbands ever. I know I've said this lots of times, but he is so helpful and selfless, much more selfless than I am. He would sacrifice just about anything for his family. He is such a great dad and is so involved in his girl's lives. How many dads do the dishes and give baths after a long day at work? And then, on top of that, gets up with the baby in the middle of the night to give his wife a break?

Doh! His eyes are closed, but that's ok, he's still hot :)

In case I haven't told you enough, I feel so lucky to have you for a husband! I know not all husbands are willing to do what you do for the girls and I, and I just want you to know how much I appreciate all you do. Really. What would I do without you? I'm so spoiled :)


I love you and want to wish you a happy birthday, even if it is a couple days late!

P.S. I've done a ton of posts today, so scroll down if you want to see more :)

Kate & Dawson

My sister and I were pregnant together and now we have babies who are exactly three weeks apart. It's fun having babies that are so close in age! Plus, they already like each other. Look how cute the pic above is - Dawson has his hand on Kate's leg :)

And the other kids just love the babies! I came into the room to find the kids all huddled around the babies. They were actually the ones who layed the babies right next to each other :) And look how cute, Kate is just staring at Dylan in this pic!

Twins!

When I found out I was having another little girl, I thought of how fun it would be to dress the two alike occasionally. So here is the first matching outfit for the girls - jammies! So fun :)

And here they are having their first sleepover! Ok, not really, but Emmy loves Kate to lay down next to her on her pillow at bedtime. It makes her happy :)

Firsts

Kate got her first "real" bath last week! At first she wasn't too sure about it (see pic above), but she decided she liked the nice, warm water for a while (see pic below) before she decided she was right the first time and didn't really like it :)

Got milk?

The other night, Emmy wanted some cereal. So I poured the cereal, opened the fridge and realized that we were out of milk. But we did have juice . . . I got a flashback to my childhood. I was allergic to milk when I was a kid, so I always put juice on my cereal (orange, apple, you name it). So I thought, if I ate juice on my cereal, Emmy can, too! I poured the apple juice on, gave it to Emmy and she ate it up!

Don't "Got Milk?" That's ok, bring on the juice!

Cousins!

My sis-in-law, Sonya, saved me last week by coming down to Cedar City, picking Emmy up, and heading down to St. George overnight. It gave me time for some much needed rest and bonding time with Kate. Thanks Sony! I love you!

After St. George, Sony brought her kids, Emmy and my sister, Lindsey's, kids back to Cedar City to spend some time w/ Grammy and Papa. Lindsey ended up joining us after she got a little break from her kids. We decided it was time to get some pics of all the grandkids, including the two brand-new ones. It's hard getting five kids and two babies to all cooperate at the same time!

This pic is so sweet! Emmy and Grey had a blast playing together

The five older grandkids (on top from left - Maddy, Dylan and Ella. On bottom - Grey and Emmy)

All seven grandkids! Maddy is holding Kate (who was hungry and not happy when this pic was taken - what can you do?) and Dylan is holding Dawson :)

Randomness . . .

This is going to be a really random post about things I've wanted to blog about. I thought I'd just put them all into one post :)

A few days before Kate was born, Emmy and I were shopping. I found this white, plastic mask. Since she loves The Phantom of the Opera, I thought it would be fun for her to paint it and decorate it. She had a ton of fun painting it and she really liked wearing it at first . . .

Here she is in her "Christine dress" wearing the mask - she couldn't stop looking at it in the mirror, it was so funny!

I finally got her to stop looking at the mirror for a minute . . .

Then, Emmy realized that she's Christine and Christine doesn't wear the mask, the Phantom does. She's really into make believe lately, and daddy is the Phantom or the Prince. So she really likes daddy to wear the Phantom mask (which Jake absolutely loves . . . so much so that he hides the mask so Emmy doesn't see it and make him wear it).

Our friends, Mike, Jessica and Max, were over the other night. Emmy was wearing another one of her "Christine dresses" and Max decided he wanted to wear a dress, too. He kept getting this weird look on his face like maybe he shouldn't be wearing a dress, but it didn't stop him from wearing it! It was so funny! And, of course, Jake in the Phantom mask that he loves oh so much :)

Ever since we brought the baby home, Emmy likes to pretend she's a baby. So I gave her a binky all her own and so she uses it when she's pretending she's a baby . . .

She kept trying to steal the baby's binky, so it worked better to let her have her own

Just look at those chubby cheeks! I love kissing and kissing them!

The three girls!

I love it when Kate is awake . . . during the day, that is. It's hard to be enthusiastic about her being awake when it's the middle of the night and I just want to sleep!

Isn't she just beautiful?

Emmy absolutely LOVES her little sister. She's always concerned about where "baby sister" is and she always wants her to be awake. She loves touching her cheeks face and head and loves giving her kisses. I just have to keep reminding her to be soft with baby Kate.

I walked into the baby's bedroom the other day to find the girls like this on a blanket on the floor. It was so sweet! I had put Kate there for just a minute and Emmy just layed down next to her and started giggling.

Happy 4th!

We had a nice and relaxing 4th of July weekend this year. Since we knew we'd be having the baby around the 4th, we didn't really make any big plans.

We started out the day by walking up to the parade on Main Street. Emmy, of course, loved it. She was really good at running into the street to pick up candy!

Then we came back home and took advantage of the nice, warm weather. We got Emmy into her swimsuit and she swam in her little pool and played outside for a while.

And what is the 4th without a little BBQ? We went to my parent's house and had a yummy BBQ complete with hamburgers, potato salad, brownies and homemade ice cream. Yum yum!

When everyone was tuckered out, we took naps (which are very necessary for me these days - Kate is set on being up all night eating and sleeping all day. I am just wondering when her sleeping schedule will flip-flop so that mommy can get some sleep!).

And, of course, what is the 4th without fireworks? We bought our own and Emmy absolutely loved watching them. After those were done, we watched the city fireworks.

Overall, we had a great 4th of July weekend! Here are some highlights:

Emmy in her patriotic dress playing with sparklers

Kate in her patriotic clothes :)

Oh, the fun of fireworks!

Emmy on dad's shoulders watching the big fireworks. We were up on a hill and the fireworks looked so small and far away!