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!

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