Partaaay!

Emma Kate's "Lollipop" party was so much fun! Other than feeling a little under the weather, I think Emma Kate and her friends had a blast! Here are a few pictures from her big day:

I ordered her invitations from Etsy...I think they turned out so cute!

Lollipops courtesy of my sweet friend Allison! Thank you!!! :)

About 2 seconds after taking this picture, Emma Kate reached down and helped herself to some icing! haha, the girl loves sweets!

Our little family with Lala, Pop and Nette (or Nayette as EK would say...she has the biggest Texas accent!!)

Boppy and Chebe

She loves her Aunt Mamy!!

She was trying SO hard to blow out her candles, but she never could muster up enough air to blow them out!

Enjoying some cake!

Sweet Autumn waited so patiently all evening to take a turn in the car...I think she enjoyed it!!

Opening gifts with all of her friends! The girl is not lacking in the toy department, in fact I was informed last week that our house looks like a toy store! :)

Best buddies riding the bouncy horse!

Half Birthday!

I love that Easton and Emma Kate are able to share their major milestones on the same day of each month. As we have been celebrating Emma Kate's special day today I have to stop and think what a special day this is for Easton as well! I just can't believe he's already six month old. The last six months have flown by, and yet at the same time it feels as if Easton has been a part of our family forever. I really can't imagine our lives without him in it, and although there have been many difficult days I feel so blessed that God chose me to be his mommy. I trust that God has been growing us in our faith through those difficult times and that we love Jesus more because Easton is a part of our family!

Happy HALF Birthday Easton Brice!

Here's what Easton is up to at 6 months:

-has the sweetest, most precious smile in the whole world...I don't think I'll ever get tired of seeing that toothless grin!

-rolling all over the place now

-loves to kick his feet, we seriously can't keep socks on the boy!

-his favorite toy is "Sophie"

-eats every 3 hours during the day

-we are planning on starting solids next week (we tried cereal a few weeks ago, but he really didn't like it, so we decided to put it off for a few more weeks!)

-weighed 17 lbs. 9 oz. at the dr. a couple of weeks ago

-loves to bounce in his jumper

-thinks his sister is pretty funny (as long as she's not tackling him! :))

-will smile and coo at just about anyone!

-and finally, I'm SOOOO HAPPY to report that his sleeping is MUCH better. Thanks to lots of encouragement from Denae, I decided to finally take away the swaddle and just let him cry it out. Monday was extremely hard - he cried for about an hour and a half in the morning and about 2 hours straight that afternoon, but has slept most of the night since. He has been going to bed about 7:30 and then I get up to feed him around 4:30 or 5 and then he goes right back to sleep until 7:30 or 8. I know this isn't technically all through the night, but it's SO much better than getting up every single hour, now if he wakes up in the middle of the night he cries for a few minutes and just puts himself right back to sleep! (let's hope I didn't just jinx myself! :))

**be sure to check out the post below on my big 2 year old!

2

Two years ago today was one of the most exciting days of my life. I had waited for what seemed like an eternity to hold our precious baby and the day couldn't have been more perfect. I had no idea how much joy a baby could bring to our family, and I'm so grateful for the way God chose to bless us. The past two years hold so many, many precious memories of watching Emma Kate grow and develop, and I look forward to watching her continue to change. So today instead of being sad that my "baby" isn't really a baby anymore, I'm going to rejoice with eager anticipation of what the Lord is going to do with her precious life!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Emma Kate, Mommy and Daddy love you SO MUCH!

And just to document a little, here's what EK is up to at 2 Years:

-she's a chatter box, and recently loves to talk on the phone

-is still a really good eater, right now she loves chicken nuggets (she can eat a 6 piece kid's meal at Chic-Fil-A!), broccoli, yogurt, waffles (until recently since there's been a shortage at the grocery store), cereal with milk, and of course any kind of candy!

-her favorite tv show is Little Einsteins, she watches it every morning while eating breakfast (although Disney Fairies is quickly rising in rank with her!)

-she can put on her own shoes

-it's been a long process, but she's doing really well with potty training - hopefully we will be completely finished in the next month or so!

-she loves her brother so much, anytime he's fussing or crying she will say, "It's alright buddy, you're ok Eason boy!"

-she knows Brice and I's names, for some reason it really cracks me up to hear her call me Kristin!

Coloring with Daddy on her new table this morning!

My BIG girl!

Catch Up!

Wow, I can't believe it's been over a month since my last post. There is so much to catch up on that I'm not even really sure where to begin...warning, this is going to be a long one!

Halloween:

Emma Kate and Easton went as a princess and a frog prince this year for Halloween, and they were quite the pair! She loved being the center of attention and liked it even better once she realized she got "treats" everywhere we went...the girl LOVES candy!

Las Vegas:

I decided to surprise Brice for his 30th birthday with a trip (it's not until December 7th, but since December is so crazy we went a little early). I gave him three different options of where we could be going but told him that he wouldn't know where until we showed up at the airport. Well, anyone that knows me, knows that I'm NOT very good at keeping secrets. I was dying to tell him where we were going! A couple of weeks before the trip I ended up spilling the beans, but I was still able to surprise him with a few other fun things during the trip. :)

We stayed at the Trump International and it was absolutely beautiful. It was originally built to be condos, so it didn't have a casino in it, but we didn't really care because we really don't gamble anyway. Each room had it's own kitchen, sitting area and a gigantic bathroom! The only downfall of the hotel was that it was on the far north end of the strip and it was quite a walk to get anywhere, but other than that it was perfect, besides we needed to do a little walking with all that we ate while we were there!

The first day we were there I surprised Brice and took him to Bobby Flay's restaurant Mesa Grill. Brice loves watching Bobby Flay on the Food Network and his burger definitely didn't disappoint! (And his coconut layer cake didn't either!! :)) Afterwards we walked down to New York, New York and road the roller coaster. I had ridden it before when my sister got married in Vegas 6 years ago, but wow, I didn't remember it being so scary! I think I'm getting old because I screamed the entire time! And later that afternoon we went to the movies. Yes, we went to the movies in Vegas, haha! Anyone that knows my husband well won't be all that surprised. We went to see 2012, the movie wasn't all that great but several scenes take place in Vegas, so that was kind of neat!

The next day we got up and went downtown. Everyone told us that if we were going to gamble, that we needed to go downtown to do it because they had $5 blackjack tables. Well, after losing about $50 I convinced Brice that shopping at the outlet mall would be much more productive! :) I was so surprised he actually agreed! After shopping we went to eat a late lunch at Margaritaville, which was such a fun atmosphere. And then we headed over to the Mirage for the Beatles show Love. This was our first experience seeing a show in Vegas so we had no idea what to expect. The show was really good but we decided that whoever created it must have been tripped out on drugs because it was kind of "out there"! However, the music was great!

Saturday we did more sightseeing and of course eating! We watched the water show at the Bellagio, the Volcano at the Mirage and the Sirens of TI at Treasure Island. And by Sunday we were SOOO ready to be home and love on our babies! We had a great time just hanging out by ourselves and REALLY appreciate my parents for taking such good care of Emma Kate and Easton while we were gone (I don't think they got too spoiled!)

Thanksgiving:

We were with Brice's side of the family for Thanksgiving this year so we packed up and headed to the big city (aka Lazbuddie) on Wednesday evening and then Thursday we drove to Hereford to spend the day with Brice's grandparents, aunt and uncle and cousins. It was so much fun meeting Slade and Lindsey's precious new baby Knox, it definitely made me realize how BIG my baby is! And, I was a bad mom that day and didn't take a single picture of Easton's first Thanksgiving. :(

Funny story - Emma Kate was in entertaining mode in Hereford and pretty much kept us laughing all day. During lunch someone asked her, "So Emma Kate, what do you do?" and without skipping a beat she looked up and said "Time out!" Haha, and yes, she had spent quite a bit of time in time out that morning! :)

Christmas Decorating:

Friday we started decorating the house for Christmas and it was so much fun seeing Emma Kate's eyes light up as she saw the tree for the first time! She LOVES the lights and is constantly asking to go outside to see them. Also, we put up a tree in her room for the first time this year and she just thinks that is too cool, in fact every night before bed she has to tell her tree "night, night"...too cute!