Foster Family of Four

The Difference a Year Makes

2010-06-18T12:54:00.000-07:00

The first day of school...

The last day of school!

The Birthday Boy

2010-06-15T11:30:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can't believe my baby boy is already a year old! It literally seems like just yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital wondering what in the world we were going to do with a little boy. What an amazing year it has been getting to know our little "buddy" and seeing his big personality emerge. He is constantly making us laugh and can easily light up a room with huge smile!

Things we love about YOU, Easton Boy:

-your passion for food and the way you eat with gusto! :) (usually double fisted)

-the way you grunt between each bite of food

-your precious laugh and the way to you LOVE to be tickled

-the way you adore your big sister (most of the time)

-your attachment to your little giraffe lovey and the way you will search and search til you find the tag to rub between your fingers

-that you absolutely insist on going barefoot...doesn't matter what kind of shoes or socks we put on you, they're off in a matter of seconds!

-your toothless grin! we thought surely by your first birthday you would have some teeth, but I think I'm going to miss your little toothless grin once you actually do get some teeth!

We love you so much Easton and are so grateful that the Lord chose to bless our family with you!!

For Easton's first birthday party we decided to go with a Farm theme. My SUPER talented friend, Jordan, did the invitations and they turned out just perfect!

The kids road on the tractor, played in the "duck pond" and jumped in the bouncer. And other than Brice getting a little wild in the bouncer, falling into the fence and getting a huge chunk of wood stuck in his finger (which later required surgery to remove) I'd say the party was a hit! :)

The yummy cake from KP Creations!

Emma Kate decided she didn't feel like standing by us for the picture.... :)

With LaLa, Pop and Mamie

Boppy and Chebe

Such a BIG boy!

Colin was confused...our tractor doesn't go nearly as fast as his does!

The sweet Booth family

Sweet Cambrie...who's mommy REALLY needs to get a blog or a facebook or something! :)

Molly sporting her adorable headband!

Lauren and Emily (I think Autumn was off riding the 4-wheeler!)

"Mom, can't you just let me jump?"

He knows he's about to eat since he's in his chair! :)

I think he liked it!!

The boy LOVES balls!!

And finally, my favorite picture of the day! To say that Colin and Easton had fun in the "duck pond" would be an understatement! Colin definitely came out of his shell in the water and Easton was eating it up!!

Abilene

2010-05-07T15:16:00.000-07:00

**Disclaimer - if we're facebook friends you've probably already seen most of these updates and pictures! :)

Brice had to do some work in Abilene last week, so the kids and I decided to tag along and make a mini vacation out of it. We headed down Wednesday afternoon and didn't come home until Sunday morning! I was a little apprehensive about staying in a hotel with a 2 1/2 year old and an almost 1 year old (which, btw how is that even possible!?), but really it turned out great and we had such a fun time!!

We did lots of swimming, shopping, sightseeing and making creative use of all of our time! Unfortunately our trip ended with our first visit to the ER. Unlike most people who like to sleep in at hotels, our little buddy, Easton thought the early morning was the best time to party. Haha, so Brice, being the nice husband that he is, offered to take Easton out of the hotel room so that Emma Kate and I could sleep in. They went down to the lobby to get some coffee and in the process of putting the sleeve on a cup of coffee it accidentally got knocked over and spilled all over Easton's foot causing a 2nd degree burn! It was so incredibly sad to see him in such pain, but they fixed him up with a shot of demerol and a nice bandage and we were on our way out of town. :)

So although our trip didn't end all that well, overall it was such a fun visit and I definitely think we'll be tagging along again next time!

Ready for the first (of many!) swim of the season

Look how big he is!

This picture cracks me up! She is always trying to carry him around...even though he's almost as big as she is!

Sliding at the mall

Craft night in the hotel bathroom...haha, our kids go to be really early so I decided to get crafty and work on some projects while they were snoozing!

Feeding the giraffes

Macy and sweet Bliss met us at the zoo...they didn't know what to think of eachother at first, but eventually they decided they liked eachother! (and we just might have done some bribing to get this picture) :)

Showing off for the Thunderbirds at the Air Force Base

Getting ready to go see some airplanes at the air show! She loved looking at the planes, but did NOT like it when they were actually flying, it was really loud and just about scared her to death. I wish I had a picture of her with the little earplugs in!

Picnic in the hotel room...we did this quite often. They loved it and it was easy clean up!!

Kisses for brother while having a snow cone!

Pretty sure he loved it!

Poor buddy's foot after the trip to the ER.

Finally sleeping soundly in his bed at home!

February in Pictures

2010-04-21T12:16:00.000-07:00

Look at that face! Easton seemed to really turn the corner in February. He started sitting up really well, learned to crawl and even started pulling up on things this month. With all these developments came lots of smiles, giggles and for the most part a much happier baby! He even started sleeping better too. We were so grateful for these changes!

Our little Valentine! The month of February brought about some changes for Miss Emma Kate too...we said GOODBYE to diapers and HELLO to big girl panties! She still wears pullups at night, but panties all day. We are still having a few issues with accidents at random times throughout the day but it's usually just when she's busy playing or when she waits until it's too late. We were so proud of our big girl!

She LOVES her brother!

And he's constantly trying to get away from her! Bless his heart, he will have some major paying back to do when he gets a little bigger!

A butterfly and a frog :)

The weather this winter didn't allow for much playtime outside so the first somewhat pretty day we had we headed to the park (along with just about everyone else in town it seemed like!) for a picnic and some sunshine.

Emma Kate and her sweet friends Colin and Katie Lynn! I taught Kindergarten with C and KL's moms at Cooper North. First came KL, two weeks later C, and then two weeks after that came EK! It was so much fun seeing how much they've changed since the last time we all go together.

AND they've all added a sibling since! It was a little late for Colin's sis Cambrie so she didn't make the picture...maybe next time. Isn't hilarious that not ONE of them are looking at the camera. I snapped a ton of pictures and this was the best one I got!

Such good little mommies. :)

Sharing a hotdog with her good friend Keadryn! These two are quite the pair...they have pretty similar personalities so there's never a dull moment when they're together. Keadryn and her sis Selah come up in conversation just about everyday!

I've Got A LOT...

2010-04-18T10:23:00.001-07:00

of catching up to do!! I'm not really sure why I took such a long break from blogging. For some reason the task just seemed too daunting, but I'm back none the less (thanks to a little encouragement from Georgia!) The Lord is really working in our lives and growing us and stretching us in ways we never imagined. And EK and E are changing like crazy as well! I'm going to try and catch up just a little at a time so it's not so overwhelming, so bear with me...and hold me accountable to it! :)

January:

The year started off with lots of family time. We were able to see my uncle that lives in Georgia and his wife and little girl, Gracie. Emma Kate was pretty much smitten...she didn't quite know what to think at first but she quickly warmed up and wanted to do everything Gracie was doing. They were like 2 peas in a pod! :)

We also got to visit Brice's cousin Robin, her husband Chris and their sweet new baby (who's not so new anymore!) Fletcher. He was absolutely precious and made Easton look huge!! How quickly it is to forget the time when their so tiny!

A few weeks later Brice's other cousin Ashley came to town with her crew - Austin (3), Clayton

(2), and Audrey (6 mo.) it was quite the zoo, but EK and E loved playing with their "cousins"!

Easton's face cracks me up in this picture!

And with the new age of 2 we've also gotten to experience a newfound level of meltdowns. Proof that my child isn't always so adorable:

Haha, this just happened to be at my first attempt of taking BOTH kids to the doctor by myself! Unfortunately we were quite regulars at the dr's office during the month of January (and February and March for that matter), but I assure you, after this day I made it a point to schedule the appointments when I didn't have to go alone! :)

Partaaay!

2009-12-20T12:48:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-12-04T11:39:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-04T10:50:00.001-08:00

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!

2009-12-02T12:38:00.001-08:00

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!

The Pumpkin and Milestones

2009-10-30T12:05:00.001-07:00

We finally got around to decorating Emma Kate's pumpkin this morning (since Halloween is tomorrow and all!). We opted for mess free decorating this year, but I think she still had lots of fun!!

Cheese! (In her FAVORITE pj's...we seriously can't get her out of them some days - thanks Ashley!)

Helping mom out

So proud of her creation!!

Just a fun picture of my precious babies!

Now for the milestones - Emma Kate's hair is FINALLY long enough to clip a bow into, and it's just about the cutest thing! However, she has become so accustomed to wearing a headband that she immediately insists that I place the bow back on the headband! Haha. Silly girl. Also, as you can see in the picture below, in the last couple of months she has gotten a mouth full of teeth!

This week has also been full of milestones for Mr. Easton as well. He has really started moving around...several times I have found him completely off the blanket or activity mat he is playing on. And this morning he rolled over from his tummy to his back for the first time! Also, he sat up (if you call it that, it was actually more like a tripod) long enough for me to snap a picture. The second picture is of EK sitting up for the first time...she's about 2 weeks older than Easton in this picture. I forgot how chunky she was!

Update

2009-10-26T11:26:00.001-07:00

First of all, thank you so much for all the advice and encouraging words regarding Easton. It's so encouraging to hear what others have done in similar situations and to know that I'm not the only one going through sleepless nights!! I ended up taking him to the doctor last Monday because I was convinced that with all the crying there must be something wrong (like an ear infection or something) but everything checked out ok, so Dr. Gray decided to increase his reflux medication in hopes that that is what was causing him so much discomfort. This definitely hasn't been a "cure all" but he does seem to be less fussy the last few days. And a huge praise, he's been taking a bottle much better the last couple of days as well! I have been putting the activity mat up on my bed (away from big sister!) and laying him on it while feeding him and he's actually taken several whole bottles, yay! I'm still holding my breath, because I know we're not completely over the hump yet, but we're definitely making strides. Oh yeah, and I ended up going back to the Born Free bottles (same ones EK took)...so strange how my children are so picky when it comes to the bottle! :)

It's been forever since I've actually updated on what's going on with us, so I decided to do so in pictures. Brice's new job has kept us all really busy (really just Brice, but it seems like we're busier now too!), but we've been able to do some really fun things in the last couple of months and Brice is really enjoying the spontaneity that each day holds!

We have a monkey on our hands!

And a little mommy!

He's stylin'! (and wondering why I'm constantly taking his picture! :))

Remembering on September 11th.

Freezing at the Corn Maize!

Cute little pumpkins!!

Best buddies!

The mini maize! (she loved it!)

At the Pumpkin Patch

"What is this stuff, mommy?"

"You mean I really get to take one home?!"

"Hmm...which one do I like?"

"I spotted it!!"

It was a little "hebby" so she had to get a wagon...

(stay tuned for pictures of what she turned her punkin into!)

Getting ready for bed...

A BIG squeeze before mommy and daddy left!

Help, please...

2009-10-18T11:08:00.000-07:00

We have been trying to teach Emma Kate to say "help, please" instead of having a melt down/throwing a fit when she can't do something, but lately it seems as if I am the one that needs to be reminded of this lesson. Recently there have been several times where I just want to sit down and throw a major fit, and to be honest I have been feeling extremely inadequate these days. I want so badly for my blog to be uplifting and a fun way to look back at all the exciting milestones in Emma Kate and Easton's life, but right now I just feel a little bogged down with the struggles of parenting.

So....I have decided to say "help, please" and see if any of you have any advice to help us out. It seems as if Easton has quite the strong will and is now refusing to take a bottle altogether. Emma Kate went through this so when Easton started resisting the bottle I thought no big deal - I'll just do what I did with Emma Kate, be patient and try as many different bottles as possible until he finds one he likes. Well, we have now tried: born free, avent, breast flow, adiri, nuby, and nuk all with no avail! It's not that I am ready to quit nursing, but we're going out of town in November for 4 days and for my mom's sanity I'm pretty sure she would appreciate if he was taking a bottle by then! :) The other major thing we have been struggling with lately is sleep. I know that we were so fortunate with Emma Kate that she was sleeping through the night by about 8 week, but I thought surely by 4 1/2 months Easton would be. But unfortunately it seems to be getting worse every night. He's gone from waking up once maybe twice to eat to waking up every 30-45 minutes with maybe a 2 hour stretch somewhere in there. We stopped using the Nap Nanny and tried just laying him flat in his crib which worked for a little while, but then after a few days he was back to waking up all the time. And we used to be able to use the swing as a last resort, but that hasn't even been working here lately. :( We have been toying with the idea of doing the cry it out method, but we still swaddle and I'm not sure if that would work since he would probably work himself out of the swaddle if we let him cry. And my other concern with this is that EK is an extremely light sleeper so I'm afraid then we would just have two babies awake in the middle of the night!

Ok, enough of my ranting...but honestly any suggestions are welcome! :)

And I guess I will leave you on a happy note. I took this video the other night during bath time. I can't help but think my baby girl is SO smart! :)

3 Months

2009-09-07T08:15:00.001-07:00

Easton turned three months last Friday. He is getting such a personality and we just love him to death! Here is a little of what he's up to at 3 months:

-Loves the bumbo chair

-Smiles all the time and has started cooing a lot too!

-Thinks his sister is pretty funny (as long as she's not squishing him!)

-Gets up once or twice a night to eat

-Is still addicted to his Nap Nanny - it's the only way he will sleep at night!

-Takes a GREAT nap in the afternoon (in the swing, of course! :) )

-Is wearing size 2 diapers and 6-9 month clothes

-At his 2 month check-up he weighed 13.8 lbs.

-Starting to try to roll over from his back to his tummy

Here are a few more pictures from the last few weeks:

Hanging out in the PINK bumbo...poor guy!

Two of a kind...

Testing out sister's new nap mat...I think he approves!

First Day of School Pictures

2009-09-07T07:53:00.001-07:00

The first two weeks at our new school went off without a hitch, although getting there by 7:30 each morning might take a while to get used to! Emma Kate and Easton have both done great and they love their new teachers, and I love being able to see them anytime throughout the day! Here are a few pictures from our first day:

After school Emma Kate got to go to Dairy Queen for a "treat"....I think she liked it!! :)

And when we got home this is what Easton did for about 4 hours, I think he was pooped!

Pictures, Potty and Preschool

2009-08-21T12:42:00.000-07:00

Pictures:

Playing in Will's jumper

She LOVES Will!!

My handsome hubby taking a stroll around the lake in Ruidoso

Playing with Dad at the Science Spectrum

Her favorite toy there...it's SO loud and brother hates it!!

Go TECH!

My big boy - so smiley these days!

Riding her zebra...

And now getting bucked off!

Potty:

I know this might not be too exciting for everyone else, but Emma Kate went tee-tee in the potty for the first time last Thursday!! We really aren't pushing it right now, basically just letting her try to go before she gets in the bath, but we were SO proud of her! She has gone a couple other time since...I'm pretty sure her favorite part is the treat (an M&M) she gets afterward. She spends lots of time in the bathroom yelling "TREAT", but then she doesn't want me to take her diaper off once I get in there! Haha, I know it will come with time and everyone says it's so much easier once they are ready so in the mean time I guess we will have to go to Sam's to get more diapers! :)

Preschool:

School starts next week and we are so excited! We will be going to a new preschool this fall; while I usually don't like change I think this change will be really good for our family. We have had inservice this week so Emma Kate has already been up there a few days and had a chance to meet her teacher and make some new friends as well. I will be working with babies 4-9 months this year. I know I will miss being able to actually teach, but at the same time I'm really looking forward to much less prep-work and I'm really excited about the other teachers that in the baby room with me! And an even bigger bonus - Easton will be moved up to our room in just a couple of months. Hopefully it will be a really fun year!!

Easton was especially happy this morning, so I got out the video camera. I couldn't resist sharing, but PLEASE ignore my extremely annoying voice. I'm sure there's a way to edit out the sound, but I don't have time to mess with it right now! :)

2 Months

2009-08-10T10:32:00.001-07:00

I was actually planning on writing this post last week on Easton's 2 month birthday while we were in Ruidoso, but I couldn't figure out how to do it on Brice's iPhone (any suggestions?) so I'm just now getting around to it! I think every mom says "I can't believe my baby is already ___ months old" but it's just so true...and I think it goes by even faster with the 2nd. Here's a little of what's going on in our little man's life at 2 months:

He is an extremely cuddly baby and LOVES to be held, his favorite place to be is snuggled up in your arms with his paci. (just the opposite of his big sister at this age...she didn't like to be rocked at all, anytime she was fussy all she wanted was the swing!)
Although he prefers to be held, he is starting to be a lot more content in the bouncer, swing or the activity mat.
His tummy issues are starting to subside as well, praise the Lord! He started going to the bathroom on his own a couple of weeks ago and now he goes every day or at least every other day. This is such a relief to us...I never thought I would be so consumed with poo! haha :)
He started really smiling about a week and a half ago. And let me just tell you, one big smile will make up for lots of fussiness!! Every time he smiles it just melts my heart! He has also started cooing and it is so sweet.
We go to the doctor this afternoon so I don't know exactly how much he weighs, but I'm guessing a lot....he is SO chunky!! He is already outgrowing 3 month clothing, and he could probably wear size 2 diapers, but we have a whole box of 1-2's that we're trying to get rid of first.

Also, thanks for all the advice with Emma Kate. We have started letting her go to sleep with her babies and stuffed animals and this seems to be helping. I think our next step will be to put the little things on the door knobs, hopefully it won't come to that because I know this will really make her upset!

I just love her to death and she brings so much joy to our lives. It truly breaks my heart to see her so resistant to authority and have to be disciplined so much throughout the day. I know that much of it is just her age right now (and I definitely know it could be much worse). God is revealing so many things to me through Emma Kate. As a parent I just want what is best for my children, and even though disciplining them is extremely hard, I know it's what is best. Jeremiah 32:41 says "I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul." It's so comforting to know that God rejoices in doing good for his children, even though at times it means we have to endure discipline. Hebrews 12:11 also says, "For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." It is my prayer that this discipline yields a peaceful fruit of righteousness in Emma Kate (and myself), and also that next time I am going through discipline that I will rejoice in knowing that God is merely trying to bring about a change in my life!

Random Questions

2009-08-03T11:08:00.001-07:00

How is it possible that my baby is 2 months old tomorrow?? (more to come on that later)
I had to call the dr's office this morning to get Easton's 2 month well check changed since we are going to be out of town, and they told me that our dr is booked until October. What?! Is this normal?? We will now have to see the nurse practitioner, which I don't mind because we really like her, but I just thought this was really strange.
How in the world do you get a 20 month old to stay in bed at nap time and bedtime?? Emma Kate has been in her big girl bed for about 4 months now. We had a hard time for about the first 2 weeks getting her to stay in bed, but after that she was perfect! She might talk and play on her bed for a while, but she would never get down. Well, starting about 3 weeks ago she has decided that she IS NOT going to bed without a fight. It started just at night, but now it's both nap time and bedtime. It seems to consistently take her at least an hour or more to go to sleep, and one day last week she missed her nap entirely. We have tried just about everything - putting her to bed later, timeout, spanking, rocking, ignoring....those of you who have been through this, what worked??
I'm contemplating having a garage sale - is it really worth all the work? I'm usually too lazy and just take all of our unwanted "junk" to Good Will, but I'm thinking we could at least make a little money instead of just giving it away. Anybody want to do it together??

OK, I think that's all random questions on my mind right now. Here are a few pictures from the last week:

Colin and Camron came over to play...Emma Kate was great until we put Camron in her swing and she had a major melt down!! I guess we will have to work on sharing. :)

Yes, that is a pool floatie that Emma Kate likes to wear as a hat! She has to get accessorized before sitting on the potty!

Look at that cute little hiney in big girl panties!

We went to the park on Saturday, we usually just play on the little playground, but since Dad was with us she got to play on the big playground and she even went down the big slide by herself!

A Little Shower

2009-07-28T06:10:00.000-07:00

Our friends the Carrasco's came over last night for a long over due dinner. We had a great time catching up with them and watching the kids all play together outside (not to mention Easton got some good snuggle time and attention!). It was a little overcast all day yesterday but we never got anything more than a few sprinkles so I figured we were good to eat outside. After dinner the clouds were getting pretty dark, but Mike assured us that he didn't think it was going to pour or anything...ha! Just about the time we got the kids all set up with their desserts it started pouring down rain! They were all under the umbrella on Emma Kate's table so we thought we would just let them stay out there until it passed. Well, as soon as it started thundering really loud Emma Kate decided she had had enough. So they all ran through the rain and continued their picnic inside!

And of course I couldn't do a post without a picture of my sweet chunky boy! This picture is from last week....look at those chubby cheeks and that buddha belly! He continues to be such a sweet cuddly baby. His favorite place to be is in someone's arms, but he is getting better at being content in the bouncer or the swing. And his tummy issues don't seem to be bothering him quite as much. I can't believe he will be 8 weeks old on Thursday! Summers always seem to fly by, but this summer has especially gone by fast!

We're still here! :)

2009-07-10T06:51:00.000-07:00

Adjusting to life with 2 kids has been a little harder than I had first thought it was going to be - hence the lack of blogging. We were a little naive in thinking it was going to be smooth sailing like the first 2 weeks, but boy were we wrong! Poor little Easton has some major tummy issues and is just really uncomfortable. We went to see Dr. Gray yesterday and he diagnosed him with acid reflux and put him on Zantac, and also gave us some other suggestions to help with his tummy so hopefully we are on the road to relief. He hasn't gone to the bathroom on his own in over 3 weeks. Also I think he might be a little colicky. He cries just about every night from 5:30 until he goes to bed at about 9:30. It's just so hard to see your baby in so much pain and not be able to do anything about it! But even though it's been hard I wouldn't trade it for anything - we have fallen so in love with our little guy and can't imagine life without him!!

Over the last few weeks I have also realized how blessed we are to have such wonderful families. My mom has been a life-saver for me!! She comes over almost everyday to see us and keep us company. We haven't been able to get out much since Easton has been so fussy, so Emma Kate is always so thrilled to see someone other than mommy all day long (and so am I)!! And speaking of Emma Kate - she is just too funny these days. She has figured out how to open and close the doors at our house and she thinks that is just the neatest thing. The only downside is that her internal alarm clock is now set to about 6 or 6:30 and instead of just staying in her room to play, she gets out of her room, goes to Brice's side of the bed, gets right in his face and just starts laughing! I have to say though, I would much rather wake up to a giggling 19 month old than the alarm clock! :)

I guess that's enough rambling for now - here are a ton of pictures from the last several weeks:

Checking on "brudder"....such a good big sister! (he looks SO small in this picture!! keep scrolling and I'm sure you will agree too. he was 3 weeks here.)

Sweet baby! (4 weeks)

His favorite way to sleep! I know they really aren't supposed to sleep on their tummies, but he loves it and I feel a little more comfortable letting him since we have the Angelcare monitor.

For the 4th we decided we needed a change of scenery, so we headed north to Lazbuddie to spend the weekend with Brice's parents. We were also able to introduce Easton to all of his great-grandparents, but I was a bad mom and didn't take any pictures!!

I made my traditional Flag cake, but this year it's even more impressive since it was done with one hand (and a little help from Brice)! :)

Looking for rabbits with Chebe

Getting ready to go to the parade in Muleshoe

Family Pic

Waiting for the parade to start

She wasn't sure what to think....

It was a little loud

Sunday Jenny stopped by before heading back to San Angelo. She did a little shopping and Emma Kate thought she needed to try on some of her new purchases!!

Our little chunky monkey!! At the dr's office yesterday he weighed in at 11 lbs!! (5 weeks) He's sporting his "I'm the Baby Brother" shirt...thanks Aunt Sharon!

Playing outside with Dad

Giving Sydney kisses!

I just love those 2!!

Since it was SO hot yesterday we decided to head over to my mom's friend's house to go swimming in a "big" pool! Round 2 in the big pool was much better than round 1 back in May!

Getting ready to get in!

Is she cute or what?!

She loves her LaLa!!

So fun!

I think Easton enjoyed the pool too!

2 Weeks

2009-06-20T10:33:00.001-07:00

It's hard to believe it, but Easton has already hit the 2 week milestone!! We visited Dr. Gray on Thursday and my suspicions that he was growing were confirmed....he weighed in at a whopping 8 lbs. 7 oz.!! That means he had gained 1 lb. and 2 oz. in just 2 weeks. I guess that's what happens when you're eating every 2 to 3 hours. :) He is continuing to do great and we are absolutely loving watching him grow and watching how he and Emma Kate interact. Most nights he still gets up every 3 hours, but a couple of nights this week he spoiled me and slept 4-5 hours! I'm hoping to see this more and more often as he gets older!

Here are few more pictures of some of his firsts this week:

His first night to sleep in his own bed

First time going to church

First bath (he wasn't too sure he liked it!)

His first visit out to LaLa and Pop's (he slept the whole time!)

And this isn't really a "first" I just thought this picture was adorable...he is really starting to focus more and more and he love to look in the mirror when I'm changing his diaper.

We're Home

2009-06-09T11:41:00.000-07:00

Ok, bear with me, I normally upload all my pictures to Flickr so that I can move them around and put them in order, but both babies are about to wake up so I'm kind of in a hurry!! These are all out of order, but none the less, here are pictures! :)

Whoa, I can't believe how small our car looks now!

Our first outing as a family of 4 - to the Dr's office for a weight and color check

Saying bye to Aunt Teppy!

Checking out the pool on Saturday after we came home from the hospital

Hanging out in her very own chair

Heading home

"Yay we're outta here!"

All snug in the swaddle

And now we're WIDE awake!

Family picture

She loves her baby brother!!

He's not sure what to think yet!

Brooke and Tania

Will and EK looking for birds

Aww...too cute!

Chris and Denae

April

Checking out her "Big Sister" present (and check out her adorable "Big Sister" dress!!! Unfortunately I didn't really get any good pictures of her in it - my friend Angie made it and was TOO CUTE!)

Meeting Easton for the first time

Brice's family

My family, minus Aunt Maddie who was at home with Emma Kate during the delivery

First family picture - minus big sister

Contractions are oh so fun! :)

Heading to the hospital - so long big belly!

Well, actually we have been home for several days, but I'm just now getting around to updating the blog. Hmm...can't imagine why?! HA! We came home from the hospital Saturday morning and have been going non-stop since. Emma Kate is adjusting really well, but she is definitely testing her limits. She absolutely loves Easton and can't seem to get enough of him. She calls him "BayBay" in a really deep voice, we can't figure out why she says it so funny - before he was born she would say "Baby" in a really sweet little voice, but not now! And she asks for him from the time she wakes up until it's time to go to bed. And of course we say "be gentle" about a gazillion times a day! But that's to be expected I guess. :) And Easton is adjusting really well too. He is such a sweet little baby and knock on wood is doing really well on a schedule. I'm trying to take advantage of this time where he's so sleepy because I know he will probably "wake up" soon!

Easton's labor and delivery ended up being just about as smooth as Emma Kate's - praise the Lord! We got to the hospital around 6:45 in the morning, got started on pitocin and had my water broke around 8:30, experienced 2 hours of true contractions while waiting on the anesthesiologist (which I hope to never experience again - next time I'm not letting them start the pitocin til the anesthesiologist is in the room!! :)), 10:30 got an epidural, 11:15 was ready to push and Easton was born at 11:47! Other than my legs staying numb til 6:00 that night there really weren't any complications.

Thanks to everyone who came by to see our newest addition while we were in the hospital. We feel so blessed to be surrounded by such great friends and family. Easton is so lucky to have so many people that love him already!!

And check out Denae's website - she's done it again! We had Easton's newborn pics taken yesterday and they are GREAT!!

Introducing Easton Brice Foster!

2009-06-06T09:09:00.000-07:00

Little Easton arrived on June 4th at 11:47am. He weighs 7 lbs 5 oz and is 20 inches long! And, he is just perfect! The entire Foster family is doing great (though EK hasn't quite figured out that the "baby" is going to be around for a while!) and expected to be home sometime Saturday.

Here are some pictures for the time being....many more to come!

18 Months!

2009-06-04T07:44:00.000-07:00

Happy Half Birthday Sweet Baby Girl!! I can’t believe that today, on the day that we are welcoming our second child into the world, that our baby girl is turning a year and half! That seriously doesn’t seem possible. I feel like I expect so much out of her, and I often have to remind myself that she’s still just a baby herself. She has been such a joy in our lives and I’m so grateful that the Lord chose us and gave us the privilege of raising her.

I haven’t given an update of what she’s up to these days in a really long time, so I thought I would do so now. (who knows when I will get around to it again!)

She is a major chatterbox and can repeat just about anything you say! Some of her favorite things to say are: milk, juice, chair, wapple (waffle), grapes, car, babeee, school, cheese (which she now says anytime she sees the camera!) mama, dada, Sydney, Lana. And she can name lots of animals, but here lately instead of calling them by their name she makes their sound instead…too cute!
She still loves to carry small bags around – she will often put on a hat, put a bag on her shoulder and walk around saying “Bye, Bye!!”
She loves to play under the sink and in the drawers in the bathroom while I’m getting ready. She will take everything out of the cabinets, line up all the bottles, and then put them all back in the cabinet. And she’s very attentive, she will try to copy exactly what I’m doing while I’m getting ready. One day she found the eyelash curler and put it right up to her eye!! I had no idea she even knew what to do with it! And I have an old hair straightener that I let her play with and she likes to pretend she straightening her hair.
She is still doing great in her big bed and has even spoiled us the last several days by sleeping in until 8!! I guess she knows she needs to catch up on sleep now too! :)
She L.O.V.E.S. Finding Nemo – the second we get in the car she points to the tv and says “Bobo??” (not really sure why she calls him Bobo!) And she will watch it over and over again, in fact we have to really distract her with other toys and singing and stuff or she would watch it the entire time we’re in the car. And she started watching Charlotte’s Webb last week too and she really seemed to like it as well. It’s the one with Dakota Fanning and real animals – it’s really such a cute movie!
She is still really attached to her pacifier – which she has strangely named “MiMi”. We really can’t figure out how she came up with that name, but anytime she gets really tired or upset she walks around saying “MiMi, MiMi, MiMi”. And she will only go to sleep if she has one in her mouth and at least one in her hand!! Crazy girl, I’m definitely wishing I hadn’t started her back on that back in February!!

Like I said, she truly is such a source of joy in our lives. We look forward to watching her continue to grow and we pray daily for her salvation - that God would turn her heart towards Him and give her the faith to love and trust and obey Him...that He would be her Treasure!

Weekend Wedding and Easton's Nursery!

2009-05-20T11:03:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Brice's cousin, Cody, got married in Dallas. Dr. Burkholder didn't want me driving this late in the pregnancy, so Emma Kate and I hopped on a plane and met Brice and his parents there for all the festivities. Being big huge and pregnant with a very active 17 month old in an extremely tiny seat made for a very interesting flight, but we survived! I was just so thankful that the flight is only an hour long!! The rehearsal dinner was at a yummy restaurant called Cantina Laredo. Cody loves converse tennis shoes so that was the theme for the whole weekend. The center pieces on the tables at the rehearsal dinner were converse shoes with flower arrangements inside, there were tiny little converse key chains at each place setting, the grooms cake was a giant converse tennis shoe, all the groomsmen wore converse shoes with their tuxes, the flower girls wore pink converse shoes with their dresses, and the bride's maids even changed into pink converse shoes for the reception! It was really cute! And with Cody being an ex Tech quarterback it was quite a star-studded event. Jeremy Camp was a groomsman, and he and his wife sang several songs before and during the wedding! They are such a sweet family and really down to earth...if you didn't know who he was you would never guess that he's a famous musician. Their girls were 2 of the flower girls, and they are just as cute as can be!! Of course I was horrible about taking pictures so the only pictures I have are of Miss Priss. She wasn't feeling well all weekend (we found out Monday at the Dr. that she has a sinus infection that she's had for the last several weeks...poor baby!!) so she wasn't exactly on her best behavior, and because of this we weren't able to stay at the reception for very long. She did however manage to steal the show on the dance floor with another little girl. She kicked her shoes off and shook her booty like there was no tomorrow. At one point she started just running around in circles screaming which was when her daddy said it was time to leave! :)

Getting ready to leave for the airport

She found the perfect play spot...under the sink!

Swimming with daddy at the hotel

We saw this face A LOT that weekend!!

And we finally hung the new E in Easton's room last night so I took some pictures of the nursery today. It's still not completely finished, but chances are I won't get around to finishing it until after he's born so I thought I would go ahead and post some pictures of what we have so far. :)

The new E...I just LOVE the way it turned out!! (SO much better than the first one!)

From the door

The bed

Dresser/changing table

Bookshelf

The chair and the cute little safari animals (which I also got from etsy)

Easton's new diaper bag and changing pad

Hopefully he will be here in just a couple of weeks! I went to the dr. yesterday and am already dilated to a 1 and 50% effaced, and Dr. Burkholder said we would schedule the induction at my appointment next Tuesday. I am hoping for the 4th or the 5th...at our sonogram 2 weeks ago he was already 6 lbs. I'm still feeling really good and am so blessed to have such easy pregnancies, but it is getting kind of difficult to carry Emma Kate with this huge belly sticking out and my energy is decreasing rapidly! I just keep praying that I would truly be able to savor these last couple of weeks with just Emma Kate. I know her poor little world is going to turn upside down once he's here and I'm starting to get really anxious about being able to give her and Easton both the attention they need.

Oh, and one more piece of exciting news I almost forgot about.....BRICE PASSED THE CFP!!!!! Thank you all so much for praying for him. It is only by the grace of God that he was able to pass and we are giving Him all the glory because of it!!

Picture Update

2009-04-30T18:00:00.001-07:00

Well, I am SO happy to report that Emma Kate is sleeping in her big girl bed like a champ!! The first couple of days were a little tough, I had to rock her completely to sleep before laying her down, but now I can just lay her down wide awake and she goes to sleep on her own. We are so proud of her!!! And knock on wood she hasn't gotten out of her bed in the middle of the night either. There have been a few mornings that she has quietly woken up and just started playing too. I am so relieved that we have made this transition with ease. I'm not really sure why I was so anxious about it, but I had some major anxiety...I guess I just know how precious these last few weeks of sleep are! :)

Her first time in the bed

She definitely thought it was playtime

Ahh...finally asleep!

And last weekend Emma Kate's Boppy and Chebe (Brice's parents) came to town and hooked her up for the summer. They got her a climber/slide and a pink Cozy Coupe. She LOVES to play outside so both of these are right up her alley. The first night we put the car together we literally had to drag her out of it when it was bedtime! So far she can only go backwards, but she's pretty ingenious and will get in the car, push herself backwards til she can't go anymore, get out of the car, push it to wherever she wants to go and then get back in the car! Haha, too funny! And she has had her afternoon snack while sitting in the car everyday this week! We have really been enjoying the last few days of really warm weather and not much wind...now if only it would get warm and stay warm!

Playing with Dad in the box!

What a BIG girl!

WEEE!

Snack time...

Pushing the car

Oh SO fun!!

And I've taken a few pictures of Easton's room all put together, but I ordered this from etsy and we hung it up last weekend and I hate it! I was really bummed, because I thought I was going to love it. It just looks really cheep and not at all what I was picturing. So, I think I'm going to order this. What do you think?? Once I have everything all put together I will post pictures of his room!

The BIG Switch

2009-04-24T12:06:00.001-07:00

Well, the "big switch" as I like to call it (transitioning EK to her big girl bed) is taking place as we speak. Her furniture was delivered this morning and I'm happy to report that she is, at the moment, sleeping soundly. YAY! It took her about fifteen minutes to realize that she could actually get out of this bed and then it was downhill from there. I think she thinks her new bed is more like a trampoline than a bed...all she wanted to do was hold on to the rails and jump! I ended up having to rock her to sleep and then lay her down, but I guess it still counts! We will see how tonight goes!

In Easton news, I got his bed all put together this morning as well, and I LOVE the way it's turning out!! We still have a few things to add, but for the most part his room is done. I think I have been in major nesting phase...I just can't wait to get everything all put together and ready to go. And more than likely we will induce 6 weeks from today! Doesn't seem possible. :)

I will try to take some pictures this afternoon of both rooms and post them later!

Have a great weekend!

Easter

2009-04-17T11:48:00.000-07:00

We had such a great Easter Sunday just hanging out with family. It was a great day of reflecting on the fact that our Savior is alive and what amazing gift we have in salvation. Our pastor Dusty preached "The Worst and Best Easter Message Ever". If you have a minute definitely check it out!

We were a little tired after just getting back from vacation, but that didn't stop Emma Kate from thoroughly enjoying her first Easter egg hunt! We went out to my parent's house after church and she spotted the eggs in the backyard as soon as we got there. My dad made the mistake of taking her out there just to look around before we ate lunch...needless to say she didn't eat much lunch that day! She was way too worried about going back outside to get more eggs! And we started a new tradition this year (I hope it's a new tradition at least!! :)) My dad hid money eggs for the "grown ups" and I got $50!! My poor sister who is a college student only got $9...she has some really embarrassing pictures on facebook, I'm just grateful that none were taken with my camera! Let's just say I was a little excited about finding so much money!!

Already reaching for the door!

She loves her Aunt Maddie!!

Checking out her loot!

And of course she's more interested in the bag than anything else!

Aunt Maddie got her some new reef flip flops, she didn't know what to think at first...

Then she started dancing around!

She didn't know what to think about us running around crazy!

Shamu, Shopping & Shows

2009-04-15T10:55:00.001-07:00

Last week we headed to San Antonio with our good friends the Hutson's. I was a little leery of traveling that far with Emma Kate, seeing as how our last several trips with her haven't been all that smooth, but she did GREAT! Overall it was such a fun trip and I'm already dying to go back!

We left early Wednesday morning and with only 2 trips back to the house to get stuff I had forgotten we were on our way. We stopped in Coleman for some good 'ol Dairy Queen and let the kids run around. They were so funny...you would have thought they had been in the car for 5 days straight. Emma Kate was of course her loud self and said hi and bye to everyone who dined there that day! And she quickly became fascinated with Will's climbing skills. :) We got to our hotel around 4, unpacked and then headed down to the Riverwalk to check things out. It was so great staying right on the river! First of all, it's just beautiful down there, definitely nothing like it here in the flatlands, and it was so nice to be able to just walk out our hotel and be right there where everything was going on.

Will really liked Emma Kate's baby!

Ahh...sleeping babies!

Thursday we woke up early and were off for a fun-filled day at Sea World. I have been to Sea World several times, but being able to see the fascination and excitement in your child's eyes as they experience things for the first time made this visit by far the best! We made it around to all the shows we wanted to see, the boys got to ride some rides, and we even splashed around in the little kiddy waterpark before the day was over. Emma Kate LOVED Shamu! She stood up in my lap the entire show and just danced and clapped the whole time, and when Shamu would go under the water she would hold her hands out and say "Go?" in the sweetest little voice!

She wanted OUT of the stroller!

Waiting for the dolphins to come by

She loved looking at all the fish!

And then we made the mistake of letting her down! :)

Jimmie Johnson's #1 fans! HA!

Shamu!

Whoa!

Will loved running around at the Sesame Street Show

Emma Kate slept right through it!

She LOVED the water!!

Friday Will and Emma Kate had a play day with their dad's and Denae and I went to San Marcos for a full day of shopping at the outlets! We got some great bargains, and my sister Stephanie drove over to see us as well which was an added bonus!! It was really good to quickly catch up since I hadn't seen her since Christmas, unfortunately we were kind of in a hurry because we had lots of stores left AND after all our husbands has been flying solo all day! :) While we were shopping the guys took the kids to see the Alamo and to the Children's Museum, fed them lunch and even put them down for long afternoon naps! I was highly impressed, but they both agreed that they didn't want to become stay-at-home-dads anytime soon! Since they were nice enough to let us go shopping they went to see movies (right up Brice's alley!) 2 out of the 3 nights after the kids had gone to bed...I would say it was an even trade! :)

The Alamo

I was so impressed that the guys actually posed them for pictures!

She loves her daddy!!

Saturday morning Denae took some really great maternity pictures for me down on the Riverwalk. We attempted some family pictures at the Alamo, but it was starting to rain and really chilly so we decided it was time to pack up and head home. Before leaving town however, we had to stop at ONE more mall - La Cantera. It was such a neat mall and I wished could have spent the whole day there!! On our way home we stopped in Fredricksburg where my sweet sister waited for almost 2 hours just to see Miss Emma Kate. She said it was worth it, but I have to say she has more patience than I do! Overall it was such a great first of many (I hope) family vacations!!

Be sure to check out Denae's blog for her review of the trip, and of course pictures that are TONS better than mine!

Picnic and a Praise!

2009-04-03T11:59:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday at school Emma Kate had her Parent Picnic. Brice took an early lunch and met us at school for the festivities. She was so cute sitting on the picnic blanket eating her lunch! I was really surprised that she was actually sitting down eating considering she wasn't restrained, but about half way through lunch she realized she had the freedom to get up and walk around and it was pretty much down hill from there. She did lots of entertaining...and eating off other's plates (or trying to at least!). I just love getting to see her interact with the other kids in her class!!

And on Wednesday I had to go in for the 3 hour glucose tolerance test. I took the one hour test last Wednesday and failed miserably. :( I had to take the 3 hour test with Emma Kate, but then I was only borderline on the one hour test. After a VERY long and boring morning I called and found out that everything came back normal, PRAISE GOD! :)

Happy Spring!

2009-03-19T11:52:00.000-07:00

I know it's not technically Spring until tomorrow, but these pictures just screamed "Spring" to me and I thought I would share! We got this headband at Target quite a while back and Emma Kate just loves to play with it. She usually doesn't leave it on for very long, but she was playing for a really long time this morning with it on, so I decided to put her tutu on as well! She was dancing and running all over the living room just cracking up at herself!!

(doesn't she look SO big in these pictures?!)

Another fun thing about Spring and the warm weather is all of Emma Kate's cute new Spring clothes! She wore this adorable outfit for the first time yesterday so I had to get a picture. I have decided however, that standing in the chair isn't the best idea. Right after the last picture was taken she did a nose dive right over the side...luckily I caught her by her ankle and tears were spared!

And these last pictures were taken last weekend at lunch. Emma Kate has a new found obsession with lemons! Anytime we go out to eat she goes crazy until we give her the lemon from our water. I didn't think she would really like them, but she will eat all the way down to the rhine and then beg for more!

I'm Back!

2009-03-14T18:11:00.000-07:00

I have been on a bit of a blogging hiatus, but I'm back! I felt like the Lord was calling me to fast from TV and the Internet this week, so that is what I did. At times it was really hard, but I was able to really focus on prayer, and being a wife and mother without any distractions, so over all it was great.

And seeing as how my last several posts haven't been much an update, I thought I would update on the happenings in the Foster family. :) The last several weekends we have been able to hang out and catch up with lots of great friends that we don't get to see very often. First of all, we had a little get together with my old teaching friends at Brooke and Wade's new house (which is beautiful I might add!!). It was so great catching up and it was also really fun to watch the kids all playing together. Emma Kate was a little out numbered with the boys, but she was a trooper and even stayed awake until 10:30 (which is WAY past her 6:30 bedtime!). It had been way too long since we got together, and the only thing missing was Tom, Monica, and Katie Lynn...maybe next time y'all can make a trip from the Big-D! :)

(she really thought those boys were too funny!)

Oh yeah, I took my yummy black bean dip, that I take pretty much everywhere, to our get together. Everyone is always asking of the recipe so I thought I would just put it on here:

2 cans black beans (rinsed)

2 cans shoe peg corn

1 small red onion finely chopped

2 tomatoes diced

2 avocados diced

2 jalapenos finely chopped

salt and pepper to taste

lime juice

It is so easy to make, and it's always a huge hit!

The next weekend, Emma Kate and I decided to head south to good old San Angelo for a girl's weekend. We stayed with Jenny, one of my best friends from college, and Macy, one of my old roommate's and her little girl, Bliss, were in town also! It was so great catching up with them, and getting to meet Miss Bliss, who is adorable!! We had such a fun time, and the girls played really well together. I wish I could say that Emma Kate was a trooper for this outing too, but she isn't much for traveling. She decided that since it was a "girl's weekend" that that really meant it was party time from 12-4 AM, and then she was of course exhausted the next day! I have decided she just does so much better in familiar surroundings and when she sticks to her schedule. Saturday of that weekend was our annual Phi Lamb Alumni Luncheon. This was the first year I had been able to get back since the first one. It was great getting to meet all the new girls and seeing a few old faces. Unfortunately there wasn't a huge turn out, but maybe with better communication next year more people will be able to come (especially all you girls that still live in SA!!! :)).

Other than that we have just been hanging out. We enjoyed a week of nice Spring weather and are really ready for it get here and stay! I couldn't believe how cold it got this week...and wintery mix, only in West Texas can it go from 70 one day to wintery mix the next! Oh well, I guess it's to be expected since we had such a mild winter.

In Easton news, everything has pretty much been smooth sailing once again. (Praise the Lord!) He's definitely a mover and a shaker like his sister was, but I'm not complaining, I absolutely love feeling him move around. Actually I think it was one of the things that I missed most about being pregnant after having Emma Kate, so I'm really trying to enjoy every bit of it this time around. I just looked at my little ticker thing and I can't believe in 94 days or less we will be a family of FOUR! I have my last sonogram in a week and a half so I will definitely post more pictures then of our growing boy.

I guess that's about all the updates for now...Happy Spring Break!!

The Bachelor

2009-02-18T11:37:00.000-08:00

Two posts in one day...impressive, I know! Even more impressive is that neither one of them have anything to do with Emma Kate! :)

I totally know that I should be doing something productive right now since EK is napping, but instead I'm glued to the computer! It's no secret, I'm a huge fan of The Bachelor...silly I know, but I've been watching since I was in college! Anyway, I have heard lots of speculation about this season and what's going to make the ending to this season so full of drama. I'm a nerd and went to check out the message boards on ABC.com when I found this website. I know a lot of you fellow bloggers really like the show too, so go check it out and let me know what YOU think!! Right now it all seems pretty believable to me, but then again I know that this guy could just be making it all up...I guess we will all find out in 2 weeks anyway!

Book Recommendation

2009-02-18T09:09:00.000-08:00

When we joined Redeemer they gave us the book Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper. I started reading it the other day and would highly recommend it. It definitely isn't a quick read (for me anyway :)) but it has been really thought provoking and encouraging to me in my walk.

"God created us to live with a single passion: to joyfully display his supreme excellence in all the spheres of life. The wasted life is the life without passion. God calls us to pray and think and dream and plan and work not to be made much of, but to make much of Him in every part of our lives."

Also, I have been listening to a few of Piper's sermons which are great as well. Right now I'm listening to a sermon titled "What Is the Recession For?" At the moment it doesn't really feel like our family has been substantially affected by the recession, but I know that there are those that truly have. In any case, there are some really great truths to be learned during these tough economic times. This sermon has been really challenging to me and made me think about where my values lie.

So...what are you reading right now??

<3

2009-02-14T09:34:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Gone...

2009-02-09T14:17:00.001-08:00

Are the days of Emma Kate being our "2 Tooth Wonder"...she FINALLY got a top tooth and has another one on the way! I have loved seeing that little 2 tooth grin, and in fact it will be kind of strange seeing her with teeth on the top now. I guess it's about time though, considering she's 14 months old!

I don't have any pictures of the milestone yet, hopefully soon though. Evidently it's pretty painful because she won't let me get anywhere near it and she's been pretty fussy! Maybe now that it actually broke through she will be in a better mood. :)

And in other teeth news, I woke up Saturday morning with the worst pain on my whole left side of my face. I just knew I had a cavity, so I called this morning to make an appointment with the dentist and lo and behold it's just lingering effects from this horrible sinus infection I've had. YUCK!!

Randomness

2009-02-04T08:00:00.000-08:00

I feel like there really hasn't been anything "blog-worthy" going on in our lives lately, hence the lack of posts. January seemed like the longest month ever, and I'm really glad that it's now February. February is one month closer to Spring! There's just something about winter that seems a little depressing to me. I love it when it actually feels like winter, with snow on the ground, but cold and windy weather is just yucky! Also, it seems as if we have been sick at our house for months. We've all been through the stomach bug, sinus infections, ear infections, upper respiratory infections....you name it, we've had it! Actually we have really been very fortunate that Emma Kate hasn't ever had RSV. I know there are lots of really sick babies out there, and we should really count our blessings that she hasn't had anything too major. But I will be glad when we can go longer than just a few weeks without being on an antibiotic!

Speaking of my baby, she turns 14 months old today! Can you believe it? I sure can't. It really seems like just yesterday I was posting about her 2 month birthday, and how exciting it was that she was finally holding a rattle on her own. Now she is all over the place, talking up a storm and pretty much keeping us entertained all day long! She loves playing with the big kids at school. Everyday when I go to pick her up she's always down in the play area where the big kids are just jabbering up a storm and pointing at them. I would love to know what she's telling them! Also, her hair is finally starting to come in, but it's all in the back....I have a feeling we are going to have a mullet before long!

In our other baby news, I'm now 21 weeks, over half way there! It's hard to believe that in less than 4 months we will be a family of four. I'm so excited about that!! I know that it will definitely be challenging, but so rewarding at the same time. So far everything has been great with this pregnancy too. I'm finally starting to feel Easton move a lot, which is so fun. And I'm definitely starting to show!

We have contemplated for a really long time about whether or not to buy another crib, or just move Emma Kate to a big girl bed. And I think we have decided to just go ahead and move her to a big bed! Kind of scary, I know. She still seems so little to me, but I just think it would be a waste of money to have 2 cribs. We went last weekend to look at furniture and fell in love with a set at Haverty's. However, we realized that if we bought that for her, she would have the most expensive furniture in the house! So now we are thinking about using the twin bed that I used when I was a little girl and then just looking for a dresser we can re-finish at a garage sale. Also, I have been searching and searching for big girl bedding for her, and I can't seem to find anything I really like! Any suggestions?? There are a few sets that I like at Pottery Barn, but nothing I'm just in love with. :(

For Easton's room we are going to paint the walls chocolate brown and we are having bedding made out of these fabrics:

Hopefully it will turn out cute! What I have pictured is really cute anyway! :)

Well, I guess that's enough rambling for now. I wish I had some cute pictures of Emma Kate to post, but she is just so hard to take pictures of these days...the girl will NOT sit still! :) So I'll leave you with a few pictures from this time last year!

I forgot about these pictures! She loves to carry around bags these days so one day I got out a bunch of little purses for her to play with, she just loved it!!

But here's an example of what we usually get...you have to be REALLY fast to snap the picture before she's off!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Brice sits for the CFP the end of March and could really use your prayers. It's getting into crunch study time for him and he doesn't really have a whole lot of motivation. He has a new position at work that deals a lot less with Financial Planning and more with Commercial Lending, so please pray that he would be motivated and persevere through the next several week! Also, pray for wisdom as he takes the actual test...I know he definitely doesn't want to have to take it twice! :)

Happy Wednesday!

Videos

2009-01-16T13:34:00.000-08:00

**Update - OK, I think got the video thing figured out...they should be working now. :)

For Christmas Brice and I got a Flip video camera. We have had so much fun recording all the funny things that Emma Kate does, and I finally got around to uploading some of them so I thought I would share.

Emma Kate's new obsession at our house these days is my panties...strange I know!! She can easily open the drawer where I keep them and she likes to carry them around like blankets. We seriously have to keep the door to our bedroom closed now, otherwise there would panties all over our house! Here she is hamming it up and even putting them on her head...she thinks she's hilarious!

One afternoon I went to get her from her nap and I realized she had spit up a little on her shirt, so I took her shirt off and for some reason it was like I had just set her free! She had so much fun "jumping" on her bed, that is until she fell and bumped her head!

It's a....

2009-01-14T17:25:00.000-08:00

BOY!!!

We have known for several weeks that we were more than likely having a boy, but I hated saying anything on my blog considering what happened last time. But we found out today that we are FOR SURE having a boy! We are so thrilled to be entering the "blue" world, and I'm sure our bank account will appreciate the fact that boys can't wear bows! :)

Introducing Easton Brice Foster:

(not the greatest profile picture...he was moving all over the place!)

And I'm sure he will die someday when he realizes I posted this on the Internet, but here's the "money shot"!

The picture says it all...

2009-01-04T12:25:00.000-08:00

"I have a secret...I'm going to be a BIG SISTER!"

Coming this June, Baby Foster #2!!

5 Years!

2009-01-03T18:13:00.000-08:00

Brice and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary today, and I can honestly say the past 5 years have been the best years of my life! God has been so faithful to us and blessed us beyond measure. I can't imagine spending my life, or raising a family with anyone other than Brice.

To celebrate we stayed the night at the Embassy Suites and went to dinner and to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (highly recommend!!). Then today we cleaned out the attic, our storage unit, and Emma Kate's closet...not too exciting, but very productive!! To finish off the evening, Brice went and got my favorite, Birthday Cake Remix from Coldstone, YUMMY!

Happy 5th Anniversary Brice, I love you!!

Mom Story, and Lesson Learned!

2008-12-21T19:13:00.000-08:00

I have learned several lessons in the last year about being a mom, but today I added a new one. Let me just preface the whole situation for you first though. Emma Kate has been pretty sick the last couple of days. She had her one year check up and shots last Wednesday (5 to be exact...NOT fun!), and we also found out that she has an ear infection, so the dr. put her on an antibiotic. Anyway, she seemed to be fine Wednesday evening and Thursday at school, but that night she woke up in the middle of the night with a 103.2 fever. Poor baby! We were completely freaked out, but the nurse assured us that she would be fine and that it was probably just from the shots. She continued to run fever Friday and Friday night, and finally started feeling better Saturday. I'm not sure if it's the antibiotics or the fever, but something has really messed with her poor little tummy and she's had several accidents (if you know what I mean) the last several days.

Fast forward to this morning at church. We got her all dressed in her adorable Christmas dress and headed out for church. We had already decided that since she had been kind of sickly that we wouldn't send her to the nursery and expose all the other children, but instead I would just walk around with her if she got fussy. So, when she had had about all she could stand we headed out and were enjoying a nice game of "how many Nilla Wafers can I fit in my mouth at one time" when I saw THE face. No big deal, right? I'll just quickly take her to the bathroom and change her diaper. I grab the diaper bag and it hits me - I forgot to pack diapers when I was quickly packing the bag that morning! Still not too panicked because I realize that luckily the car keys are in the diaper bag, we will just go sit in the car and wait for church to end. So we run out to the car and then I remember that I've learned this lesson before and remembered to put a few extra diapers in the console of the car. Perfect! I decided that it would be much easier to change her diaper inside in the bathroom, where surely there's a changing table, than in the freezing cold car, so we grab the diaper and a blanket (her coat was still in church with Brice) bundle her up, and run back in. That's when I realize something wet on the front of my sweater and all down my sleeve, I thought surely not, maybe it's just warm and not actually wet! We finally make it to the bathroom only to find NO changing table! Are you serious?! So I find a nice little bench away from everything and unwrap her, and you guessed it....yellow ALL over the blanket!! That's when I realize that the "warm" I felt on the way in wasn't just warm, it actually was wet(luckily my sweater was red, so you couldn't actually see it, but I still knew it was there!)! I was totally grossed out, but I composed myself, got Emma Kate changed and cleaned up. Luckily church didn't last much longer and I made a conscious effort not to touch anyone on the way out! Brice was a little confused why I wouldn't let him hold her on the way to the car, but he was very grateful that his nice sports coat was spared once I told him the story!

Lesson learned - always double check the diaper bag!! I think next time Emma Kate is sick we will just send Brice to church without us. :)

And of course here's a picture of her this morning BEFORE church in her cute little dress....that's going to the cleaners tomorrow! :)

Party Pics!

2008-12-19T14:07:00.000-08:00

We had such a great time at Emma Kate's party a couple of weeks ago. Thank you to everyone who made it such a special day! I think EK definitely enjoyed being the center of attention!!

Fun Times!

2008-12-05T08:00:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was such a fun, yet completely emotional day! I caught myself tearing up several times throughout the day at the thought of Emma Kate being a whole year old. This past year has gone by so quickly that I can only imagine how fast it will go from here on out.

I definitely think Emma Kate enjoyed being the center of attention! She woke up and got to open a few gifts from Brice and I and she thought getting to play with Dad before breakfast was the greatest thing. She just giggled and giggled all morning.

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Another fun thing about Emma Kate turning one is that we finally got to turn her car seat around to face forward! (I was especially excited about this :)) She didn't really know what to think about it at first, but about half way to school she started kicking her legs and talking up a storm. I think she likes being able to see!

Then yesterday afternoon at school Brice brought some cupcake cookies and we had a little party at school. The cookies had a ton of icing on them so I wasn't really sure how she would do, but devoured it!! It was so funny, she scooped up that icing and just started cramming it in her mouth. :) We finally had to take the cookie away, she would have eaten the whole thing if we would have let her!

Her big party is tomorrow afternoon...here's a sneak peak, can you guess what the theme is going to be??

On a completely different side note, today also marks one year since my Gan Gan passed away. Emma Kate's birthday will always be a bittersweet reminder of her passing. I really can't believe she's been gone from this earth for a whole year. We have missed her terribly over the past year, but we rejoice knowing that she worshipping in the presence of God as we speak!

Happy Birthday Emma Kate!!

2008-12-04T06:12:00.001-08:00

I can't believe that this day is already here....my baby girl is no longer a baby, she's now a toddler! She will always be my baby though. :) The past year has been the best year of my life and I honestly can't imagine our lives without Emma Kate. She has brought so much joy to our family. I pray that God uses her life in a bold way and I can't wait to see what He has in store for her!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET BABY GIRL, MOMMY AND DADDY LOVE YOU!!

More to come later, but for now we have to head off to school!

We have a walker!

2008-12-01T18:24:00.000-08:00

Emma Kate started walking last week right before Thanksgiving and I finally got it on video! Isn't she the cutest thing? She also just started waving, here she is waving at Sydney and Lana...man, this girl makes me smile. :)

Thankfulness

2008-11-27T05:06:00.000-08:00

Here are just a few things that I'm especially thankful for this Thanksgiving Day:

My Salvation - God's grace is so amazing and we are so undeserving of it. I'm thankful for the righteousness that was imputed upon us through the cross and Christ's willingness to satisfy God's wrath on our behalf.

Brice - I'm so thankful for a Godly husband who would do anything for his family. Brice is such a wonderful father to Emma Kate, husband to me, and leader of our family.

Emma Kate - Being Emma Kate's mom has been the best "job" I've ever had. Although there are hard days, I wouldn't trade it for anything. Emma Kate is such a fun, sweet baby....almost big girl. This year I'm so thankful that I get to hold the title Mommy!

My Family - I know everyone thinks there own family is the best, and I'm no different. Last night I was like a small child on Christmas Eve. I couldn't sleep at all because I was so giddy with excitement about spending today with all my family! Both of my sisters are in town and all three sets of grandparents will be there with us. Also, I have the greatest in-laws...they would do anything for us! I am so thankful for the family that God blessed me with.

Our Church - I'm so thankful for the passion that the leaders of our church have for following Christ. The gospel is preached each and every week. One of our church's family traits is simplicity - it's not about big fancy buildings or flashy ministries, it's about sharing the gospel with the lost...I love that!

There are so many other things that I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving Day, but these are just a few that have been on my heart that I thought I would put down in writing. Hope you all have a wonderful day!!

Pictures...hopefully

2008-11-23T13:46:00.000-08:00

Well, my second attempt to fix my pictures failed also! :( I had SO many pictures to post that I thought I would take a short cut and just copy and paste from Flickr...but as you can see it didn't work. So I have decided for any of you still interested I will just post the link to our Flicker account HERE. Enjoy! :)

Boston Part 3

2008-11-16T11:04:00.000-08:00

Ugh, I really hate blogger right now....for some reason it doesn't like me! :) My pictures were working just fine on Sunday when I posted them and then for some reason on Monday they didn't work anymore, I kept hoping they would start working again, but I finally decided I was going to have to take the time and sit down and fix it! So hopefully it's working now!!

Whew, I didn't know if I was ever going to get around to posting part three of our trip to Boston, but without further ado here it is! :) (I hope I can still remember everything we did!)

Sunday morning Brice headed off for more of the FPA convention and Emma Kate decided to do a little shopping. Considering the really cold weather we decided we needed to find some Boston gear for the big game that night. I had the bright idea for Emma Kate and I to walk all the way to Fenway Park by ourselves to check out the shops around there, unfortunately I made a wrong turn somewhere and we got a little lost, after that excursion I decided that maybe we should just stick to the malls! :) We ended up finding some Boston gear and when Brice got back from the conference we were ready to make our way back to Fenway park for the game!

Luckily no wrong turns were made this time and we found it no problem. The stadium was nothing like what I was expecting. It’s really vintage and nothing like The Ballpark in Arlington. But it was so neat!! It was almost like going back in time to watch a baseball game. And let me tell you, I’ve never seen such crazy fans! There were definitely tons of tried and true Red Sox fans. We decided to just go along with what everyone else was doing so we didn’t stick out like a sore thumb! Haha, although I’m pretty sure people thought we were the crazy ones for taking a baby to the game. Bless her heart it was SO cold out that night!! We definitely weren’t prepared for that. But we had lots of fun looking around, taking pictures, enjoying the game (even though they lost..boo!), and of course EATING! :) After about 5 innings Emma Kate decided she had all she could take so we decided to head back to the hotel. And we got smart on the way home, we decided to take a bicycle taxi back and it was so much fun! I wish I would have gotten my camera out, but I was too busy trying to stay warm!

Monday morning Brice headed back for the last day of the conference and Emma Kate and I did what we do best...more shopping. :) I bet we walked a good 5 miles everyday we were there! That evening we headed back out on the town for dinner. I have always heard rave reviews about the Melting Pot, so we decided to try it out. And I’m sad to say, we were so disappointed! I didn’t like the food at all, for some reason it just tasted bland, and Emma Kate was not very well behaved at the restaurant so I’m sure that didn’t help either. We decided that if we ever go back we will just go back for the dessert, which was SO yummy!

Tuesday was our last full day before heading home so we cram packed our agenda for the day. We started off at the amazing 3 story Apple store, where we picked out our fabulous new computer!! (I’m still getting adjusted to it, but it is SO much fun!) And then we headed back to the Boston Commons to go on the Freedom Trail. It’s basically a walking tour throughout the city, you just follow a painted red line on the ground and you can go at your own pace and stop and read about all the different places. However, Emma Kate had other plans. The first day of sight seeing Emma Kate did great in the stroller and even napped on our way to the museum, so we naively thought she would do the same this day. Well, you can probably see where I’m going with this...I guess she had spent a little too much time in the stroller and she decided she was NOT happy about it. I’m sure people were thinking we had just stolen a baby or something because she was screaming bloody murder. We tried everything to calm her down, Brice eventually just carried her and I pushed the empty stroller. About a mile into our walk back to the hotel she finally stopped screaming and fell asleep, praise God! :) So we all went back to the hotel and took a nice long nap.

Luckily when she woke up she was in a much better mood, but we didn’t think we should try our luck with the stroller again. We decided we had seen enough of the city and should try out the subway. Man, what a lifesaver it was. :) We took the subway to the Aquarium and it only took about 10 minutes to get there! Considering our rough morning I was just hoping we would last half an hour there, but she LOVED it!! She did so great, she really loved looking at the penguins and all the fish. I was so glad we decided to venture out again, we had contemplated just staying in the hotel and packing up but I’m so glad we didn’t miss out on the aquarium.

That evening we had one last place we wanted to see before leaving...Cheers! We took the subway to Fannieul Hall and shopped around a little bit before going to Cheers for dinner. It wasn’t at all what I thought it was going to be, it was so much small than I pictured! But the food was good and we had a great last evening in the big city! (and wouldn’t you know, my camera died right before we got to Cheers!!)

Wednesday morning we got up bright and early, gathered our stuff and headed for the airport. Luckily Emma Kate did much better on the plane rides home...I guess she was just pooped from the busy week! And we were all so happy to back to the dry, windy, treeless, dirty city we call home! :)

11 Months

2008-11-04T13:32:00.001-08:00

Wow, I really can't believe my little baby is already only a month away from not being a baby anymore! This year has definitely been the fastest and most amazing year of my life. Although Emma Kate has managed to work up quite the attitude and has definitely developed a mind of her own, each day of watching her grow is pure joy!

I haven't done an update on what she's into, I mean, what she's up to :) lately so here goes:

-She loves to stand at the back door and say "Da, Da, Da, Da". In fact everything right now is "D, D, D, D, D". There for a while it she was figuring out a new sound each week, but I think she's stuck on "D" right now!

-She is SO close to walking...I'm pretty sure our lives are about to be turned upside down too because she loves to explore! She will walk all over the house on her little walker, she cruises along the couch and chair, and will even stand on her own for a few seconds at a time - once she realizes she's doing it on her own she usually sits right down though.

-She is starting to eat more and more table foods. She usually does really good the first time she tries it, but then after the second or third time she's ready to try something else. She's loves sliced turkey, potatoes and cheerios, and somedays she will eat cheese, ritz crackers, and teddy grahams. And she will basically eat anything off of our plates!

-She is fascinated with doors and drawers of any kind. She will sit there and open and close a door for hours! And she's particularly fond of cabinet doors because they are just her size. And yes, we have had many smashed fingers in our house lately, but that doesn't seem to stop her!

-She still loves being outside, and since the weather has been so nice recently we have been taking advantage of it. Anytime she gets fussy we just head out to her swing on the back porch or load up in her new BOB stoller (which by the way, is AMAZING!!!) and head out for a walk/jog.

-She recently decided she's a big girl, and that big girls only need one nap a day. For the longest time the girl loved to sleep and would usually take at least 2 good naps a day. Not now. For the last week we have wrestled with her every morning to take a nap...she won, we don't even attempt it now. :)

-She has graduated to 4's diapers, and that's the cutest saggy bottom I've ever seen walking around!

Ok, that's all I can think of right now. I promise the completion of our trip to Boston is coming!! I have been sick since last Thursday, and now EK seems to have come down with it. Hopefully once I'm not napping when she does I will have more time to blog! :)

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T12:07:00.000-07:00

From our adorable little peacock!

Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-20T08:46:00.000-07:00

Friday night we headed out to the Corn Maize with the Hutson's to check out the pumpkin patch...unfortunately there wasn't much of a pumpkin patch, but we at least got some really cute pictures of Will and Emma Kate!

Boston Part 2

2008-10-13T13:17:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning we woke up and decided to venture out and see what Boston had to offer. We opted to walk instead of taking the rental car and were so glad we did. In honor of Miss Priss's 10 month birthday we thought we would take her to the Boston Children's Museum. Along the way we came across a beautiful park called the Boston Commons, which just happens to be the oldest park in the US (according to Brice anyway, I think he said he read that somewhere). The scenery was just breathtaking! There were tons of people out jogging and walking their dogs, and the weather was just perfect, cool but not cold. Emma Kate fell asleep on the way to the museum, so we had to wake her up once we go there. At first she wasn't too sure what to think about everything, but eventually she warmed up to it and had a good time. The museum was so cool, and would have really been perfect had she been a little older. Guess we will just have to go back! :)

After the children's museum we headed to The Cheesecake Factory for a yummy lunch and then back to the hotel for a nice long nap. While Emma Kate and I were napping Brice headed off for his conference (the whole reason we were on the trip in the first place!). :)

That evening we ventured across the street to the Prudential Center to walk around and eat dinner. Everyone told us that the one place we had to eat at was Legal Seafood. And although we had to wait over an hour and a half we were so glad to took their advice. It was excellent!! I even tried raw oysters for the first time and actually enjoyed them! Brice said they didn't taste anything like the ones he's had here in Lubbock, so I think I'll save my oyster eating for when we're on the coast. :)

Again, I haven't quite figured out how to move these pictures around (anyone with a Mac have any suggestions??), so bear with me, they are really out of order!

Crawling through a tunnel at the museum...she thought she was so big!

Brice outside the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

Policemen on horseback!

Brice enjoying his yummy lobster at Legal Seafood!

The fam...EK was quite the entertainment for everyone around us!

Checking out Arthur's tent at the museum

Arthur's classroom

She thought we were crazy and couldn't figure out what in the world we were trying to do!

Playing with a truck

Getting a haircut..haha!

The Swan Pond in Boston Commons

Just outside the museum

Boston Children's Museum

The walked pooped her out!

Arthur's neighborhood

Boston Library

A beautiful church

The park

George Washington

Ahhh, isn't it beautiful!!

Up next...Red Sox v. Angels game!!

Boston Part 1

2008-10-11T08:54:00.001-07:00

Brice had a Financial Planning conference in Boston last week, so Emma Kate and I decided to pack our bags and tag along with him, and I'm so glad we did. We had such a great time!! I am going to have to break this down into several parts however because we took over 300 pictures...I promise I won't post them all! :)

Friday: We left early Friday morning to fly to Dallas, and after the first flight I was about ready to hop on a plane and head back home. Emma Kate was not too fond of her first flying experience. It was time for a nap, but there was way too much going on and not near enough space for her to move around. Luckily that flight was only 45 minutes though and she was much happier once we landed and got off the plane. We had a 2 hour layover in Dallas. At first I was dreading it, but it worked out perfectly and we were able to feed her, eat some lunch, let her play a little and by the time we got on the 2nd flight to Boston she was wiped out and slept for about an hour and a half! (Praise God!) After her long nap she read books, talked to the people sitting behind us and even watched a little Veggie Tales.

This is a picture of our hotel...it really should go down at the bottom, but I can't figure out how to move it!

All packed and ready to go...can you imagine seeing us trying to lug all this stuff through the airport!? I'm sure we were quite the sight!

One more picture before leaving the house

Lunch break at the airport..."hmm, what should I order?"

Enjoying a little Veggie Tales on the plane

Flying into Boston was so amazing. The trees were gorgeous, there were lighthouses everywhere, adorable little beach houses...I knew right off the bat I was going to love it there. Once we got off the plane we picked up our rental car (which by the way, was the biggest waste of money. We only used it twice because we ended up walking everywhere!), and headed to the hotel to unpack and settle in. We stayed at the Colonnade and I highly recommend it. It was so nice and in a great location! After unpacking we decided to venture out and meet some people from Tech at Cheers. At this time we didn't realize how close everything was and decided to drive...bad idea! First of all it was Friday night and there were people everywhere! Second of all, we rented a car with GPS. It was a "girl" so we appropriately named her Simone (from the movie about the computer graphic girl), anyway Simone worked out perfectly getting us to the hotel, but once we got down town we decided that she was retarded! Ugh, it was so frustrating, because we were downtown with all the buildings we didn't get very good satellite reception and every 5 minutes she would say "recalculating". I thought Brice and I were both going to throw it out the window! Needless to say, after driving around for 2 hours we never ended up finding Cheers, and just decided to head back to the hotel and order room service. A frustrating end to a long day!

Before heading out for our "joy ride" HA!

Luckily Saturday was MUCH better...part 2 coming soon!

My Husband's Favorite Things

2008-10-09T18:20:00.000-07:00

I have been tagged to blog about Brice's favorite things...so here they are!

1. Being a husband and father (most of the time!)

2. Movies, movies, and more movies. If you've ever seen our DVD collection you know what I mean! Brice loves watching movies at home or at the theater, and will gladly go to the movies by himself if there's something he really wants to see.

3. College football - especially Tech.

4. Food...the boy can eat!

5. NASCAR

6. Fox News - and anything related to politics.

7. Playing with Sydney and Lana (the dogs).

8. Laying on the beach, relaxing, reading a book, and soaking up the sun.

OK, ok so I totally made the last one up, but wouldn't that be GREAT! :) Stay tuned for an update on our trip to Boston, as well as pictures once we get our new computer set up!

Now I tag: Shaunna, Laura, Candace and Ashley N.

Weekend in Review

2008-09-28T13:55:00.001-07:00

Friday evening Brice and I were able to enjoy a "double the fun" date night! My mom graciously offered to watch Emma Kate, so we took her up on her offer and hit the town. haha. We got to see not one, but two movies! Now, pre-parenthood this wouldn't be all that out of the ordinary, however, since becoming parents Tinseltown hasn't been on the received quite as much of our money as it used to. First we saw Eagle Eye, the new movie with Shia LaBouf, which was great! Honestly, I wasn't all that excited about seeing this movie but thought I would go along with it since Brice really wanted to see, and I'm so glad I did! It was full of action and a little far fetched, but highly entertaining. Next we enjoyed a yummy dinner at Abuelo's (my favorite restaurant), and then ended the evening with our second movie, Nights in Rodanthe. Brice definitely wasn't all that excited about seeing this movie, but I had been begging him ever since I saw the previews to take me to see it. I was SO disappointed! I had myself all hyped for a great love story and unfortunately it just wasn't all that great. No where near as good as the Notebook. But we enjoyed our date night none the less.

Saturday morning we got up bright and early and participated in the American Diabetes Association walk at Mackenzie Park. There was a huge turn out and it was a beautiful morning, we really couldn't have asked for better weather. But it definitely made me realize how much work I have to do in order to get back in shape, and I was pretty thankful I wasn't pushing a stroller as we were heading up the last hill! After the walk we came back home and watched 88 Minutes, with Al Pacino, another action movie that I actually liked. Later that afternoon Emma Kate came home, we played for a minute then I went and got my hair done. I have been going to a new hair "lady" (it sounds so weird calling her that since she's the little sister of one of my friends from high school) named Kacy. I just love her! She is so sweet and fun to talk to, and she does a really good job. She and her mom own a salon called Panache, if you're looking for a new hair stylist, I highly recommend her! Anyway, after getting my hair done I came home and played with EK some more and then cooked a lasagna. I always thought home-made lasagnas were too difficult, but they really aren't. It was fairly easy to make and way better than the frozen ones we used to get! Emma Kate even enjoyed some for lunch today - her first real table food.

This morning we headed back to a new church called Redeemer. We have been "homeless", church home that is, for a few months now. This was our second week to visit here and we both really like it! The worship is amazing, the message is really challenging, and to top it off Emma Kate has done really well in the nursery both weeks. As we have been looking for a new church home our prayer has been that God would lead us to a place where we would grow in grace and knowledge, and it seems like we have maybe found just that. We are looking forward to meeting more people and visiting a "Redeemer Group". Here are the lyrics to one of the songs we sang this morning...so powerful!

May the mind of Christ, our Savior,

Live in us from day to day,

By His love and power controlling

All we do and all we say.

May You dwell richly

In us

May the Word of God live mighty

In our hearts from hour to hour,

So that all may see us triumph

Only through His grace and power.

May the peace of God our Father

Rule our lives in everything,

That we may be calm to comfort

All the sick and sorrowing.

May the love of Jesus fill us

As the waters fill the seas;

Him exalting, self abasing,

This is all our victory.

May His beauty rest upon us,

As we seek the lost to win,

May they forget us as the channel,

Seeing ever only Him.

**ugh, I have no idea why blogger is messing up the spacing. I realize this is kind of hard to read!

And this afternoon we have just been hanging out watching football. Go Cowboys! Overall it's been a great weekend. Nothing too exciting, but extremely nice to hang out as a couple and as a family! What did you do this weekend??

Blogworld....

2008-09-26T08:35:00.000-07:00

We have a tooth!! Finally!! I didn't think that first tooth would ever make it out, but it finally has. I was pretty shocked yesterday morning when I reached in Emma Kate's mouth and actually felt something sharp. Here's to hoping the other teeth aren't quite as painful! :)

(and I've been trying to get a picture of it, but she hasn't been cooperating...I will be sure and post it when I do, I know you are all DYING to see it, haha!)

Firsts

2008-09-15T18:49:00.000-07:00

I wish I was posting pictures of our first day of school, or Emma Kate's first time to try out her big girl car seat (oh goodness that picture was too cute!), but unfortunately the aforementioned computer problems recently got worse and our computer finally died....taking with it ALL of our pictures and files that we had yet to move to our external hard drive!!! :( But that is a post/rant for another day!

Instead I get to share with you a couple of Emma Kate's other firsts she had today.

1. Formula - yes, she has finally tried formula, and much to my surprise she loved it. I have been thinking about trying it out soon anyway because I'm almost out of frozen milk which I send with her on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and since she seemed extra hungry today I thought we would go ahead and try it out. She downed 4 ounces in no time and acted as if it was nothing new! I was really hoping to make it to a year and be able to skip formula all together, but I guess a couple of bottles a week won't be too bad.

2. Dog Food - that's right, folks! I'm sure every child at some point tries it and today was Emma Kate's day. I was in the office working on some stuff for school tomorrow and she was in the living room playing, or so I thought. All the sudden I realized she was being awfully quiet and decided I needed to go check on her. I came out of the office and didn't see her so I figured she was at the back door watching the dogs (her favorite place to play these days)...nope I walked around the couch just in time to see her put a handful of dog food in her mouth!! And I think she really liked it because both her cheeks were full!! YUCK! Needless to say I immediately started freaking out and called my mom to see if we needed to call poison control. She assured me that if the food didn't harm the dogs then it wouldn't hurt her, nice!

So there you have it, not quite as exciting as pictures, but you can check out Denae's blog for some 9 month pictures we just got around to taking today. :)

Tricks

2008-09-01T19:12:00.000-07:00

The last couple of weeks have been so much fun. Emma Kate seems to be learning a new "trick" every single day! Here is what she has been up to:

About 2 weeks ago she started feeding herself puffs, and has since started eating cheerios as well (which she loves!).

She has started bobbing her head like she's dancing, and she will mimic you if you do it first!

She has started clapping her hands, and she thinks it's the funniest thing. I'm not sure what the title of the song is, but we are constantly singing "Clap your hands, all ye people...sing for joy unto the Lord". This is her cue to start clapping...so cute!

Last Friday she started crawling for the first time. She would barely crawl from one end of the blanket to the other, and only for a cheerio. I thought about making a sign that said "Will crawl for food" and taking her picture, but she woke up from her nap today and decided she was a big girl now and has been crawling all over the place all afternoon!

In addition to crawling she has also figured out how to sit up on her own as well...I think it's definitely time to baby proof!

We are just so proud of our big girl, but it's so funny the range of emotions all these changes bring on! I found myself in tears earlier today because I just can't believe my baby girl is old enough to be crawling. The last nine months have gone by so quickly. God is so faithful and I'm so grateful for each day I get to spend being Emma Kate's mommy!

And of course what would a post be without a picture?! We went to the Tech game on Saturday and decided to test the waters and bring Emma Kate along to see how she would do. She was so quiet and still for about the first 20 minutes just sitting in my lap wide eyed taking it all in. Once she got comfortable she decided to let loose and ham it up for everyone around us...she definitely stole the show! She was clapping and waving and smiling at anyone who looked her way!

One Question....

2008-08-26T18:01:00.000-07:00

How in the world am I supposed to change a diaper like this?!

(she will probably kill me someday for posting this, but I couldn't resist! :))

New Favorites!

2008-08-18T20:07:00.000-07:00

Denae took Emma Kate's 8 month pictures last week at the Garden and Arts Center, and I have to say I think they are my new favorites! Emma Kate was sick this day (beginning of allergies turned ear infection...poor baby!) but she was such a trooper.

8 Months, College Station, Graduation and Camping...Oh MY!

2008-08-11T08:51:00.000-07:00

As you can tell by the title, we have had quite a lot going on around here! This is actually going to be 4 posts crammed into one...so bear with me! :)

8 Months:

Once again another monthly marker has rolled by and I just can't believe it. 8 months sounds so old, and really close to a year. She is changing every day and her personality is really coming out. Each stage just gets more and more fun! Here is what she's up to these days:

-She rolls and scoots everywhere and she is getting really fast! She can roll clear across the room (and the bed - which is a sad story I'd like to forget about!) in no time.

-She is still getting up on all fours, but has yet to crawl...we think it's coming any day now.

-Her favorite thing to do is walk around the room holding your fingers. I'm hoping she figures out the crawling thing before the walking!

-She STILL doesn't have any teeth. We have seriously been saying for the last two months that they were coming any day now, but they are still not here! A couple of weeks ago we thought we felt one, but the next day it was gone. All I can say is thank goodness for Tylenol and teething tablets!

-We have said farewell to a few "baby" items around the house, the swing, the bouncer, the baby bath, and the play mat. (it was a sad day to see her beloved swing go!)

-She finally started napping in her crib a few weeks ago and although she doesn't sleep near as long she is doing really well at going right to sleep on her own!

-She makes all kinds of funny noises and faces now. We are constantly laughing at her. My favorites are her new squeal and how she kind of pants when she gets really excited!

-She loves watching other kids play...and she gets really excited when she sees kids on her Baby Einstein movies or on Signing Time.

-She has started to really examine everything and she is constantly touching things with just her pointer finger. (like in the picture below)

-She has started trying to clap her hands, but right now it's looking more like a giant wave!

College Station:

2 weekends ago my mom, my sister Maddie, Emma Kate and I loaded up the car and headed south to College Station to visit my older sister Stephanie and her husband Aaron. Stephanie celebrated her last birthday in the twenties on the 1st, so we thought we would go down and help her celebrate. It was a quick trip, but we had a great time hanging out "just the girls" most of the time! I say it was a quick trip, actually the time we spent in CS was quick , but the time it took to get there and back was definitely not what I would describe as quick. College Station is really far!! Nine hours in a car seat is pretty much torture, and I'm pretty sure our days in the little car seat are numbered. Emma Kate was such a trooper though and survived her first long road trip!

She was not too happy about me putting her in her bag, but she looked so cute I couldn't resist taking a picture!

All packed and ready to go!

Enjoying some pie at one of our many stops!

The girls at Paddock Lane (Stephanie and Aaron's bar)

Yes, we had a baby...at a bar! (at least it wasn't actually open)

Pooped out in her car seat.

EK and Aunt Teppy our last morning there.

Graduation:

Brice graduated this past Saturday from Tech with a Masters in Personal Financial Planning and we are SO proud of him!! He has worked so hard over the last 2 years working during the day day, going to school in the evening, and keeping up with all the other organizations he is involved in. The past couple of weeks were really tough as he was trying to finish up his final project, a 75 page complete financial plan, and we're glad to say he's finally DONE! In November he will sit for the CFP (which he could really use your prayers for!) to officially complete the program. Way to go Brice!!

Brice's graduation announcements, aren't they cute?! (thanks Denae!)

Trying to entertain Miss Priss!

The happy family! (and one tired baby!)

Isn't Brice's cake cool?? It's a Wall Street Journal!

Camping:

Saturday after a nice graduation lunch at Las Brisas we packed up again and headed to Roaring Springs to camp with some of my good friends from school. This was the first time we had been with all the kids (10 including EK!!) and it was so much fun!! We went swimming, riding around on 4-wheelers and golf carts (EK's favorite...she squealed the whole time), and cooked out. I have decided that camping is the greatest family get away. The kids loved it and the adults did too! We stayed in a camper with our friends Brooke and Wade and their 15 month old, Kyler. We set up Emma Kate and Kyler's pack and plays right next to each other and it was too cute, however getting them to go to sleep wasn't too cute! :) She did decide to catch up on her sleep once we got home though. She went to bed at 5:30 last night and didn't wake up until 7:30 this morning...I guess camping really wore her out!!

And I'm so sad to say, but this is the only picture I took while we were camping!! The guys and babies on the Ranger at Frog City (a pond that had 100's of frogs, they looked like little rocks but when you drove down in there they all started hopping away, it was crazy!) I'm really disappointed I didn't get a picture of Mandy and I getting stuck in the mud and then nearly tipping the 4-wheeler over...maybe next time! :)

Today Emma Kate and I have been hanging out in our jammies all day watching the Olympics...aren't they fantastic!?! Really, I just can't get enough. I usually try not to watch too much tv during the day, but I'm pretty sure we will be glued to the tv for the next 2 weeks!

7 Month Pictures

2008-07-30T09:05:00.000-07:00

I just love that little smirk!

"Mom get me away from that silly girl!"

Home on the Range

2008-07-27T05:59:00.000-07:00

Brice went out of town this weekend for a bank trip (I guess you could call it that...it's really just a bunch of grown men playing down at PK!), so Emma Kate and I decided to enjoy a nice long weekend at the Bar M (aka my parents' new place)! We have had so much fun just hanging out and doing nothing. Emma Kate loves her LaLa and Pop so much!

Looking at the horses

Emma Kate has her very own pony, Coco

Bathtime is so much fun!

Watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

Playing on LaLa's bed....you have to wear overalls when you're in the country!

Hope you're enjoying your weekend too!

PSA

2008-07-23T17:41:00.000-07:00

I know you were all dying for and update on EK, however, I have a public service announcement to make first: Never, I repeat, NEVER buy a Dell laptop!! We have only had our "hunk of junk" (as I like to call it) for a little over a year and a half and we have had SO many problems with it. I should have known we were in for trouble when after having owned it for less than 6 months the motherboard somehow mysteriously "crashed". Luckily it was under warranty, and although it took them forever, Dell "fixed" the problem...or so we thought. Currently the wireless Internet isn't working, the battery (that it came with) "cannot be detected", it takes like 5 minutes for what you typed to show up on the screen, and it turns itself off after about 2 minutes and has to reboot to come back on! And unfortunately the warranty has expired and now Dell won't even talk to you about the problem without charging you $69.95.

OK, rant over...lesson learned!

(maybe when I have more patience I will update with 7 month pictures) :)

7 Months and a Fun-filled 4th!

2008-07-09T14:04:00.000-07:00

Emma Kate turned 7 months on the 4th...wow, I can't believe my baby is already 7 months old! We started out the day with the exciting 4th on Broadway parade. It was quite the parade let me tell ya. Actually I'm sad to say the only float I really even remember was this random float with a giant Winnie the Pooh on top! I guess Will and Emma Kate were just more entertaining! :)

Awww...too cute!

Will chillin' in his shades

Lovin' their paci's!

After the parade we decided to fight crowds and walk down to the street fair. I'm pretty sure everyone in Lubbock with a dog or a stroller was there also....I'm still trying to decide if a Church on the Rock corn dog is worth the hassle! For now I will say, YES, because they are delicious! But if there is ever more than one child in the picture I might just have to wait for fair time to get my corn dog fix.

The parade wore her out!

She decided if we were eating she needed to too!

After loading up on junk food we came home and all enjoyed a nice long nap! There's nothing better than a good afternoon nap. And I'm proud to say that Emma Kate enjoyed her nap in her bed instead of the swing where she usually insists on napping! Later on that evening we loaded back up and went out to the country club with some of Brice's co-workers for the "4th on the Range" celebration. It was quite the set up!! They had a live band, tons of huge jumpers for the kids, and a big buffet all set up on the driving range. And after the sun went down they had their own fireworks show too. It was definitely an up close and personal fireworks show...there were several times that big pieces of burned cardboard from the fireworks landed on us. Emma Kate was such a trooper, she fell asleep right before the fireworks started and woke up just before the big finale. I was afraid she might be scared of the loud noise but it didn't faze her a bit...she just stared wide-eyed as the fireworks went off. I wish I had of gotten a picture of her watching, it was too cute!!

Saturday morning we got up and drove to Lazbuddie to enjoy a nice weekend with Brice's parents and grandparents. Emma Kate got spoiled as usual and we did too!

With MeMe and PaPaw...her PaPaw just can't get enough of her!!

Playing on the floor with Chebie...she loved grabbing his hair, and she's the ONLY person he lets touch his hair!

Hanging out in her new Radio Flyer

Dad tried to set up a patriotic photo shoot, but unfortunately she was in the shade

Her first taste of watermelon...she didn't know what to think!

One more ride in the wagon before heading home

With Chebie and Bop/Grandma

Oh and I almost forgot to mention, I tried out several recipes from The Pioneer Woman for a pre-4th get together Thursday night and they turned out GREAT!! I was especially proud of my red, white and blue cake!

And finally here's an update on our big 7 month old:

at her 6 month check up 2 weeks ago she weighed 17 lbs (50th percentile) and was still 27 inches (50th percentile)...we teased her and said she was growing out instead of up! :)
she sits up great on her own now, and would actually rather be sitting up playing with toys than laying down
she is doing great with solids, and she now eats sweet potatoes, green beans, squash, carrots, peaches, apple sauce, and bananas
for the most part she is still sleeping really well at night. she usually goes to bed around 7 and wakes up at 7
she is starting to reach for people...and oh my goodness that is the sweetest thing ever when she reaches for you!
she can push up on all fours, but I think it will still be a while before she's crawling!
she still doesn't have any teeth, but we keep thinking they are going to pop through any day now! she drools like crazy and chews on anything she can get her hands on
she has now found the bows!! anytime we put a bow on her she reaches up and yanks it right off!
she starting to get a little fuzz on her head, but she'll probably be 2 before she has enough hair to clip a bow into! :)
she just started trying to sit up while she's in her car seat or bouncer seat, it's like she realizes that she can't see everything and she doesn't like it at all!

Happy 4th of July!!

2008-07-04T11:30:00.001-07:00

If this doesn't make you smile, I don't know what will....I can almost hear her laughing when I look at this picture! Hope you're all enjoying the holiday weekend! :)

Inspiration

2008-06-26T15:17:00.000-07:00

Since I'm no longer working full time, I have really been trying to cook more often. One of the reasons I really don't like cooking is because I hate getting dirty and making a mess of things. So, I decided that I needed an apron. Thanks to the wonderful world of Etsy (which by the way is fabulous!!) I found an adorable apron that actually inspires me to cook more...it's just so darn cute I can't wait to put it on! :)

Check out Momomadeit for lots of other cute patterns! Another reason I really don't like cooking is because I feel like I always cook the same things. If you have any good, EASY recipes that you enjoy, feel free to send them my way! (I'm sure Brice would appreciate it) :)

Also, I have been trying to find a cute shopping cart/high chair cover for Emma Kate. I have narrowed it down to 2...what do you think?? (I'm trying to kind of go gender neutral just in case we ever have a boy in the future we can re-use it.)

Father's Day Pictures

2008-06-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago we took some pictures to surprise Brice for Father's Day. These also dubbed as 6 Month pictures as well as a good excuse to get Emma Kate and Will together in their matching outfits!

Here are a few of my favorites:

I think they had had enough!!

Ahh....but paci's make it all better!

I <3 Summer!

2008-06-19T11:59:00.000-07:00

Summer has always been my favorite time of year, and this summer is proving to be no different! We have had such a great summer so far. Our days have been filled with swimming lessons, Vacation Bible School, walks in the park, cooking, cleaning (which I actually really enjoy!) and just hanging out. And this past wekeend Emma Kate got to stay the night with her LaLa and Pop for 2 nights while Brice and I enjoyed a fun river trip. It was so hard leaving her, but it definitely made coming home really exciting. :)

Emma Kate hasn't been herself this week, so I took her to the doctor yesterday and unfortunately she has her first ear infection. We have been so fortunate that she hasn't ever really been sick up this this point. It is so hard not being able to comfort her when I know she's in pain, but hopefuly we're on the road to recovery now that we have some antibiotics. We're praying that her ear would heal quickly and that she's back to her happy self soon!

In other news I found out last week that I will be teaching the 4 year olds class at Sugar and Spice Preschool in the fall. I'm so excited about the opportunity...it's only 2 days a week plus I will get to work just down the hall from Emma Kate's class!

And of couse here are a few pictures of our fun in the sun!

On her last day of school with Ms. Jane

Sitting up like a big girl!

Getting ready to go the pool for the first time!

This picture cracks me up...it's like she's saying what in the world is going on!!

Lounging by the pool

LaLa and Pop always make me look so silly!

Reading with Grandma

Emma Kate loves this book, it's one of those touch and feel books. If you look closely you can see that she's on the page with a kitten, it's hilarious anytime Brice reads this book to her when he gets to this page he will go on and on about how gross cats are and how she needs to stay away from them!

All ready to go to swimming lessons!

Hanging out with her friend Hudson

Reaching for a toy!!

With Daddy on the last day of swimming lessons

Brice and I at the Gristmill...oh that place is so yummy!!