Kate Isabella

She's finally here! Our little bundle of joy FINALLY made it to us! Kate Isabella was born June 26th and was 8 lbs 7 oz and 19.5 inches long.

Here's the birth story . . . On Friday morning around 10:30, I started feeling really mild contractions. They got close together pretty fast. Jake came home for lunch around 12:30 and they were already 4 minutes apart. I took a shower, got my things together and we were off to the hospital by 2:30. By that time, the contractions were about 2 minutes apart. We got checked in and the nurse checked me - I was dilated to a 3.5 and 90% effaced. The doctor told her to break my water to get things moving along. As soon as he broke my water, I got my epidural. Things were smooth sailing from there! I pushed for about 10 minutes and little Kate was here at 6:24 pm. She is such a little angel. She came with nice, kissable chubby cheeks and is such a good baby!

I forgot what it was like to have a newborn - the sleep deprivation fighting the complete happiness over this adorable, sweet little person that just melts your heart! We love her so much already!

Here are some highlights of little Kate's birth day:

Right after coming out of mommy's belly

She's a nice sized girl!

Mom, dad and baby (Emmy came to see us just after this pic was taken)

Proud mama

Proud daddy

Emmy wasn't too sure about what to think of mom in a hospital bed holding a new baby

This is the next day at the hospital. Emmy was watching us change the baby and started warming up to her.

I really love that sweet little face!

I love this pic! My two sweet girls :)

Happy Father's Day!!!

I love this pic. From the big smile on Jake's face, you can see how much joy he gets out of being a dad!

Happy Father's Day to a wonderful husband and father! Jake is so involved in Emmy's life, she just adores her daddy. He is such a great dad, seriously the best. He doesn't hesitate to change diapers, do dishes, vacuum, dust, clean the kitchen floor, this man does it all. I just want to thank him for all the help he has given me throughout this pregnancy. I love you so much, honey!!! Thanks for all you do!!!

Here are some recent pics of daddy and daughter:

Flying a kite

Fishing

And of course I have to give a shout out to my own dad. He is seriously the best. If you don't know him, believe me, you wish you did! He never fails to make me smile and make me laugh. He is a genuinely great person. When I was dating, the guys I brought home had to compete with this guy - I had to marry someone that was just as good as my dad (lucky for me, I married someone just as great!). He was a great example growing up of the way a man should respect and treat his wife. When I met Jake, I knew he had many of the great qualities my dad had. Thanks, dad, for helping me pick such a great husband, even if you didn't know that's what you were doing! You have been a wonderful dad! I love you!

My dad and Emmy. She adores him just as much, if not more, than I do :)

Emmy

I feel like it's been a long time since I've done an update on Emmy. She is two and a half years old - time has flown by! It seems like yesterday that she was just learning how to walk. She is such a sweet girl. I've said it before and I'll say it again, she makes being a mom so much fun! It's definitely a challenge some days, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Here is what she's been up to lately:

* She hides something behind her back, runs up to us and says "Look at my got!" Translation: "Look what I have!"

* She LOVES singing. Her favorite lately is Phantom of the Opera. Even the parts that Christine sings that are so high, she sings it all! We've had fun getting it on camera and it's so funny listening to her little voice. She even sings it on key!

* Since she loves Phantom, she has a little dress-up dress that she calls her "Christine dress." It's one of those white, fluffy slip dresses. I think she thinks it looks like one of the dresses Christine wears in the movie. She has to wear it every day. Sometimes I have to hide it so she won't wear it out in public . . .

* She found a binky clip that was hers when she was a baby. She calls it her binky and holds it in her mouth. When it falls out she starts crying like a baby. Not the funnest noise in the world. I think she's acting like a baby because of my sister's baby (which she gave birth to a little over a week ago - he's so cute!!!)

* She absolutely loves being outside. She has a bike that she likes to ride but her feet won't reach the petals so she just uses her feet to push her along. My dad bought buy her a bike that she could actually petal, but she won't use the petals! She still uses her feet on the ground! She just needs more practice . . .

* A couple of days ago, she got one of her bowls, put it under her shirt and told me it was her baby. Of course I had to get pics!



She is such a fun and energetic little girl! And she will be a great big sister, I can't wait to see how she is with the baby (I'm only a little nervous that the baby will be harmed :) ).

My little blue box

Almost every girl dreams of getting a "little blue box" from none other than Tiffany & Co. Well, yesterday I got my very first little blue box! It is a belated birthday present from my mom. Thanks, mom!

I took pictures as I opened the box. Now you can all participate in the excitement!

The beautiful blue box! Makes you feel special just looking at it, right?

My excitement was continuing to grow . . .

And there it is! The classic sterling silver Return to Tiffany oval tag necklace.

And of course I had to get a picture with it on . . .

5K

Jake ran his first 5K today! They had a raffle for two free entries at his work and he won one of them. He wasn't too excited about it, but I think he caught the running bug. He did great! He came in 3rd place in his age division! Emmy and I waited at the finish line for him and we were so proud! Emmy was so excited to see her daddy running toward us. And not only did Jake get a medal, he also won a $25 gift card to WalMart in a raffle! Yes! I guess it was Jake's lucky day :) He thinks he wants to run some more 5K's, and with some training (that's right, he didn't really train, just ran a couple of miles for a couple of days) he might come in first in his age division next time. I told him I'd run it with him next year. That gives me a whole year to prepare :)

Here are some highlights:

We brought Emmy's camera so she could take pictures of daddy. She's taking pic's of some other runners here while we wait for daddy to come.

Here comes Jake! Emmy seriously got SO excited when she saw him!

He was happy to see us routing for him at the finish line :)

Daddy and proud Emmy, still holding her camera :)

Jake holding his medal

Our little fam :) That belly of mine is getting big! See post below for an updated belly pic

Baby Bump - {34 Weeks}

She's growing! 34 weeks and counting down!

A little of this, A little of that

We got to go fishing with Papa again a week or two ago and this time Lindsey and her family joined us! I even got a pic of Emmy kissing the fish this time!

They caught a lot of Blue Gills that day. The water was FREEZING but we all braved it and got in (all except for Papa).

Aaah, how lovely to kiss a slimy fish :)

Lindsey and I were asked to sing at the Days of Camelot fair at the Washington County Fair Grounds. How nice that we are both very pregnant! I had my dad get some pics because I think it's funny for two prego ladies to be up on stage singing. But, the music stand was in front of Lindsey's belly in most of the pics, so you only get to see MY big belly! How cruel, dad, how cruel . . . :)

Here you see the music stand blocking Lindsey's belly

We hired some back-up dancers :) Ella's head is cut off here, but I thought it was a cute pic because they are both jumping and their feet are off the ground.

More girls got brave enough to come up on stage and dance while we sang. It was really cute and funny! Oh, and you can see Lindsey's belly here. Finally a pic of both of us singing with our protruding bellies!

Fishing with Daddy and Papa

Papa got Emmy a Barbie fishing pole a little while ago. We finally got around to going fishing! Emmy got to use her pretty fishing pole, and she had so much fun! That is until she dropped her pole into the lake. We watched as it sunk to the bottom, tears filling Emmy's eyes. She was so sad! Luckily, Ella's Princess fishing pole was in the boat, so Emmy got to resume her fishing, which involved dangling the fishing line in the water :)

Here are the highlights:

Papa helping Emmy become a pro fisher-woman!

Papa has taught all the grandkids to kiss the fish before throwing it back in the water. Emmy did it, but the camera wasn't fast enough to take the pic so I missed it!

Daddy keeping up the tradition of kissing the fish :)

Daddy and Papa caught lots of fish, and Emmy was such a great helper!

Daddy reeling in a big one

A Little Vegas Getaway

We decided to go on a little family getaway since Jake is out of school for the summer. Plus, we wanted to take a mini-vacation before the baby comes and before I get too big :) So we headed down to Vegas for a few days for some fun in the sun!

We got to stay at the Venetian. We got the room for only $95/night on Hotwire! We were so excited! Otherwise, we'd probably never stay there, too pricey for us. It was one of the nicest hotels we've stayed in! The room was huge (I posted pics at the end of this post) and they had a great pool area - three pools. Emmy definitely approved of that! She is our little amphibian - she absolutely LOVES the water. The room also had electronic blinds/curtains. With the push of a button they would open or close - awesome!

We swam, slept, ate, saw the free outdoor Treasure Island show, Sirens (we told Emmy the girls forgot to put their clothes on - it was definitely a Vegas show!) shopped and took a gondola ride. We had a blast! It was the relaxing trip that we were looking for.

Here are some highlights from our trip:

I was trying to take a pic of all three of us and someone nicely offered to take a pic of us in front of the Venetian.

Watching the show at Treasure Island. Emmy loved it because of the big pirate ships and the pirates!

The Phantom of the Opera is showing at the Venetian. Emmy loved all of the posters and commercials/ads for the show. They had the music playing all the time around and inside the hotel. While we were waiting for our gondola ride, we could hear the music playing. Emmy put her had to her ear (see pic above) and said, "Can you hear it?! It's the Phantom!" She kept doing it after that, it was so funny. And she still does it! We've been watching the Phantom (good thing Papa gave us the movie a little while ago) since we came home. This girl loves anything with music!

Jake enjoying the gondola ride

Emmy and I enjoying the gondola ride. We even got serenaded by the gondolier!

Our room! This was our bed and then there was a sunken living room w/ a sectional sofa that also had a pull-out bed, so Emmy didn't have to squish in the bed w/ us.

The sunken living room. There were three flat-screens in our room! One in the bathroom, one in front of our bed and one in the living room.

Sunken living room from another view

Grand view of the room! I didn't get a pic of the bathroom, but it was big and really nice, too!

Let's go fly a kite!

Jake helping Emmy get the kite up. Isn't Cedar City beautiful?

A couple of weeks ago we let Emmy pick out her very own kite. She picked a Barbie kite and she loves flying it! We've only been out to fly it a couple of times, but she loves holding the string and running around with the kite.

Emmy is getting to be such a "big girl," wanting to do things all by herself. I'm glad she's getting more and more independent, since the baby is coming, but I just can't believe she's already two and a half! She has made being a mommy so wonderful (and challenging!). I never knew I could feel this fulfilled in life. Of course, life isn't perfect (who has the "perfect" two year old? Want to swap for a day???). She's been testing her limits with me, getting away with as much as she can, but life sure is fun!

Here are some highlights of our latest kite-flying extravaganza:

She didn't want any help holding the string!

What a cute girl!

Running to keep the kite flying high in the air