Final days home...

I enjoyed my final days of my maternity leave. I was really trying to balance getting a lot of things done with enjoying sweet moments with Kate and Addie.  I really wanted to be "fully present" during my maternity leave, but especially the final days.  Addie was at daycare most days, but it was nice throughout my maternity leave to pick her up early or leave her home so we can enjoy some time together.  Kelly and I took the girls to "Lion King 3D" that last week.  Yes, Kate came along and slept most of the time.  I never did anything like that when Addie was a baby, but second time around one realizes how easy an infant can be compared to a busy preschooler.  Oh, the things you do with the second one. :)  There was great weather most of my final week home so we enjoyed a trip to the park as a family and making s'mores again.  Kelly and I took the girls to the zoo one day.  Enjoy the pics!

The zoo was setting us for their big Halloween trick-or-treating event so Addie was very excited about all the characters.


Pretending to be a flamingo...

Kate slept the whole time. :) 

Posing in front of the big jack-o-lantern

One of Addie's favorite people...

We took the sit-n-stand stroller with us.  I had only used it on walks around the neighborhood so it was my first time using it out and about.  Kelly and I could NOT figure out how to collapse it to put it back in the car.  I'm not kidding we were both sweating and getting very nervous about how we were going to get home without leaving it behind.  We were working on it for a good 15 minutes, trying to get a hold of Jeremy and looking for anyone to help us.  A mom parked next to us literally came over with one simple suggestion and it collapsed in seconds.  We felt so dumb and looked ridiculously!  I wish it were on camera.  When we got home Jeremy (who we all know is way too smart and handy for his own good sometimes) said it took him a while to figure it out.  We felt redeemed, but it was still pretty funny.

Picture catch-up

I'm trying to catch up on the blog with pictures of Kate over the past couple of months. Most of these were taken when Kate was about 6-8 weeks old in early/mid September and now she is almost 3 months old!  Yikes!  Where has the time gone? 

Such a peanut..about 6 weeks old here

 One of her first smiles on camera...

Such a happy girl... (And notice the sticker that Addie gave her. Ha!)

Cooing at dad...

A lot of people say she looks more like Jeremy.  I can see it in this picture.  I do need to upload a picture of Addie at the same age.  There is one that looks sooo much like Kate is crazy!

Kate looks so different than this now...

 So sleepy...

 Ha!  Had to have one of her crying...

Sweet sisters...

I feel really behind on blogging and well, behind in life in general right now with me going back to work.  It's exhausting!  Like I said I will get use to it and we will find a new rhythm.  I have so much to update on, but I had to put up this post.  I love looking back on the blog over the past years and I know the blog is something I will always cherish along with our girls when they are older.

Here's pictures I took in September of the sisters.  If you couldn't tell already Addie adores her sister...a little too much sometimes, but it is better than the alternative. Enjoy!

Sweet sisters...

Two months old

I can't believe Kate turned two months old last week!  At her check-up she weighed 10 lbs and was 22 inches.  She is still smaller than her sister was at this age.  In early September I took Kate into the doctor because she was really congested.  The doctor said to just give her some benadryl and to suction her nose among other things.  I saw her normal doctor at her 2 month check-up and he thought she sounded pretty bad.  Made me feel like "Mom of the Year" even though I had taken her a week or so before.  He tested her for RSV, but thankfully it was negative.  He put her on an antibiotic.  Unfortunately she started a fever that evening.  Poor thing!  The thing about this all is that Kate still was really mild-mannered.  I would be taking her temperature and she would just be smiling at me.  I think she is finally doing better except for her acid reflux.  It still really bothers her, especially in the evening.  Her "witching" hour is right around 8:00, but I think some of it is attributed to her acid reflux.  She really only cries when she is tired or when her acid reflux is acting up.

Once Kate got healthy she was sleeping through the night!  Hooray!  We put her in bed around 9:30 and she'll sleep until about 7:00.  I have been blessed with another great sleeper...crossing fingers!

Kate is so observant when she is awake.  She loves just taking in the world.  And she definitely follows Addie everywhere with her eyes/head.  I have to get her on video "talking" to us.  I forgot how much I loved those baby sounds.  Too cute. And speaking of cute baby noises, Kate makes the funniest noises when she sleeps.  She practically squeals sometimes when she is dead asleep.  It's pretty funny.

I have lots to update on, but wanted to get this up.  I started back at work on Monday and I am definitely very tired.  I know I will get used to it.  We're heading to my aunt and uncle's lakehouse in WV this weekend and I am ready to relax!   Here are pictures of Kate at exactly two months old.  She is so sweet!  We love her so much!

Fall evenings

We've been spending a few of our nice fall evenings with...

S'MORES by the fire pit!  Yummy!  We did it two nights in a row and one night Leigh and Chad joined us for an impromptu get-together.  The following night after returning home late in the evening Addie said, "Mommy, I have a great idea, let's do s'mores!"  I think she was thinking it would be a nightly occasion. I think she takes after her mom with having a sweet tooth! 

Kate even joined us! :)

Addie's first s'more.  Of course she loved it!

 Addie got a hang of roasting her own marshmallow the second night.  

Labor Day weekend and funny stories

We usually go to the lake for Labor Day weekend.  At last minute we weren't able to make it work out.  Although we missed the lake we enjoyed spending time around family and friends over the weekend and getting things done around the house.  On Sunday we went over to Heather and Peter's house and on Monday we had David, Carrie and the boys over because Jeremy cooked some meat on the smoker.

We ended up going to Evansville on Saturday for a quick visit to spend time with Jeremy's sister and her family.  They have a pool in the backyard so we spent a lot of time swimming.  We don't get to their house much so it was nice to spend the day with them there.

 Addie is pretty confident in the pool.  We are going to get her swim lessons this year.  I think she will be swimming without any floatation devices in no time.

Jeremy, Kameryn and Addie in the pool

This girl is a ham sometimes!

Kameryn holding Kate.  Kami loves babies and is always so good with Addie.

Addie and Kameryn have something in common...they love ribs!  So funny!

I didn't get any pictures of the rest of the family.  Alex made us Chocolate Chip Cookies before we left to go home.   They were yummy!  I think she takes after her mom!

Funny story--Addie learned about Justin Beiber during our trip there.  Kameryn has a Justin doll and Addie kept playing with it.  She kept calling it "Justin Beaver".  At the end of the day Kameryn let her have a couple of pages from her magazine with him on it.  On the way home Addie was kissing the magazine pages.  Jeremy and I were NOT impressed!  She probably saw Kameryn do it or something because she didn't really know what she was doing.  We still did NOT enjoy seeing our little girl do this!  Oh, what we have to look forward to!

And another one, so I document it...Addie is going to be a flower girl next May for my cousin Bill's wedding.  Bill and his fiancee Lauren were visiting a few weeks ago.  On the way home that night, it was WAY past Addie's bedtime, we were explaining that Bill and Lauren were getting married and she was going to be in the wedding.  She then says, "I want to be married."  And we both said, "If you want to be married when you are older you can."  She then breaks down and wails, "I want to be married now, daddy!  Now!  I want to be married!..." Kids can say some funny stuff!

Old friends!

A couple of weeks ago I took Addie and Kate to Lexington for the day.  One of my closest friends, Laura, just moved into a new house.  Robyn was still in town from L.A. and Liz was in town from Connecticut.  The four of grew up together and were very close friends in high school.  Now we all have kiddos so it was fun to all get together.  We hung out at the house, went to the neighborhood pool and ate dinner.  There wasn't too much time for catch up with 5 kids around, but it was fun nonetheless. 

I think Lola was getting a little jealous when Robyn was holding Kate

The photos with kids crack me up!  The order above is Emma, Lola, Dane, Addie and Kate.