Baby Kate is now about 2 1/2 weeks old and we cannot get enough of her! She is such a sweet and fun addition to our family - it is amazing how much more love you have in your heart as you grow closer and closer to a new little baby.
Here are my top reasons why I love having a newborn at home: (this post is long, so, be warned!)
*Petting her soft hair - yes, our babies our born with more hair than most 1 year olds have - and it is so soft! It kinda starts to get greasy from all the love though! :)
*Newborns are easy! Eat, poop, sleep, repeat! I have a lot of friends who stress out with newborns and cannot wait for them to be more like 4 month old or older. This is easy for me. Luckily, my babies have not had newborn complications so that is definitely a blessing and I recognize that!
*Snuggling on your chest - there is nothing more relaxing than dozing off with a sleeping baby who has already fallen asleep on your chest.
*The scrunched up old man face - you know, that face they make when they are coming out of sleep or getting ready to eat - it is not super attractive but is so dang cute at the same time!
*Folding baby laundry - Laundry in general is pure drudgery, but, there is something different when you do a load of baby laundry, the small onsies, the cute sleepers, the cozy nightgowns.
*Kisses...often, when I have gone to give Kate a kiss, she "latches" on to my lip like it is something else! Kind of a strange sensation but sweet nonetheless!
*Soft skin. My favorite spot of soft skin on baby Kate? Under her chin and her neck. It is the softest, doughiest spot on her and I love it.
*Her breath. The sweet smell of milk on her breath (as long as she has not spit up!).
*No matter how big our babies start out, they are still teeny tiny little wonders. Little fingers, tiny toes, button nose...all with a little squish on their arms and legs!
*Watching my big girls love their new baby sister. Sure, I keep getting annoyed when they decide she needs a pacifier or needs to be burped or moved to a new location while dead asleep but I am so proud of how they are learning to care for and enjoy their baby sister!
*Being reminded again and again why I love my husband as he makes dinner or changes a diaper or helps introduce Kate to her first bottle or looks lovingly into her eyes. Seeing how much he has grown as a father since the first time I left him alone with Lindsay (that was tough!) to the first time I left him alone with Kate and the big girls. No big deal - happy to do it - and enjoying every minute of it. Knowing that I can count on him to help with late night feedings, getting me pain medication, checking my incision, and making sure I try harder to take it easy.
How am I doing? Well, I am OK. Actually, this weekend I am taking it very easy because I think I may have over done it this past week. With preschool and 1st grade programs and one last time volunteering with Art Masterpiece and doing errands and go to dance class and gymnastics, I think my body has told me to slow down. I started feeling icky and decided to spend all day Saturday and Sunday really laying low. I have spent most of the time in my bed cuddling my baby and watching a lot of HGTV and Food Network! I have lost an additional 11 lbs since my check-up 1 week after Kate was born so that leaves me with 14 lbs to go to my pre-preggo weight. Not bad considering I gained about 45 lbs! I can see every bone and vein in my ankles and feet again - that took a while longer than I remember with the other ones. I thought that one side of my surgery incision was having problems but I think it is healing well after all. I just need to slow down on the driving and getting in and out of the car so much.
Anyway, here are several pictures from the last couple of weeks. I have been slow to update our blog so sorry if you kept checking for more baby updates...here is the family in action!
Kate and her Daddy...all our girls look like Steve's "Mini Me" when they are born! (I wonder what a boy would look like in our family...our baby girls have all looked just like this!)
Caroline could not be happier to finally have a baby sister of her own!
Mother's Day - We had a great dinner prepared by Shelly, Steve and Andy. Steak...yum!!! I love family dinners - Molly, Andy and their kids were all over and we had such a great time! Steve and the girls picked out a couple of sweet gifts - the girls got me a fun new blue t-shirt, a white summer skirt, and a pair of flip-flops. They also gave me a "gift certificate" to get a new charm for my necklace with Kate's name on it. Normally Steve and the girls make me breakfast in bed but they moved it to the next Sunday because the girls spent the night at Molly's house with Shelly so they weren't home for breakfast!
(My kids and Molly's kids with Aunt Shelly.) Can we say enough about how much we love our Aunt Shelly? Shelly is my mom's sister and we could not ask for a better Aunt or Great Aunt! She plays with the kids, (and while I was down for the count, cooks, cleans, etc.) and is just so much fun to be around.
Kate's first dinner out. We went to TGI Friday's the night before Aunt Shelly left. I enjoyed having a decent appetite (and room enough to eat) a bacon cheeseburger - I had been craving that the end of my pregnancy but eating anything became such a chore so I finally got to indulge. And it was good! Shelly and the girls enjoyed a rousing game of "I Spy" which is a lot of fun to play at Friday's with all the fun pop culture decor.
The girls have so much fun playing with and reading to their sister. Often, though, they are disappointed that she sleeps so much! These are the times I find her being burped or moved or having pacifiers shoved in and out of her mouth while she is asleep. They might just love her to death! We are working hard to enforce "no touching/moving/burping" rules while she is asleep. I often have to put Kate in my room until the girls have finished the job de jour - picking up the family room, their bedroom, etc. They get so easily distracted by her!
Lindsay wanted me to bring her sister to her school for a "show and tell." Lindsay walked her around the classroom and all the kiddos wanted to touch her (of course I reminded them that they are disgusting first graders crawling with germies!) so she walked down each aisle so they could all get a good look. Her teacher has said that Lindsay cannot stop talking about her new sister. In fact, the day she was born, Lindsay was at school and her teacher kept giving her 1/2 hour updates on the time so she could know when her sister was being born! (Since our surgery got bumped a little bit, they were probably off by about an hour.)
My belated Mother's day breakfast! Yum!!! Our traditional special breakfast is French Toast, bananas, strawberries, and orange juice. I got my breakfast in bed and then everyone brought a tray into my room and we all had breakfast in bed together!
First bottle. I am lucky. I have a very easy time breast feeding and I do not take that for granted. But, I also know the freedom of having a baby be able to take a bottle too! So, at about 2 weeks, I have started each of my kids getting one bottle a day. I am able to pump very easily so we already have a good stash of milk going in the freezer. Lindsay did get a little bored feeding her - I think baby dolls eat faster than real babies. So, Steve finished it up.
First real bath with big sisters. (I think they are getting too old to have naked bath pictures on a blog!) But they got to learn about how she can't sit up and slips around and easily can go under the water (she didn't...I was just teaching them with my hands on Kate at all times.) They were all in my big bath tub with our infant tub set inside of it with them. Nothing like a clean yummy baby after a bath! Her cord fell off earlier this week and the girls were so anxious to take a bath with her. I ended up holding it up as a privilege if they got their chores done without getting in trouble along the way. Well, it wasn't until Saturday that the girls cleaned their room without fighting or making Mommy upset with their "work stoppages" and whining and crying. So, Kate settled for a few more wash cloth "sponge baths" until Sunday morning when all the girlies took a bath together.
Well, we look forward to a Memorial Day BBQ with Molly's family at our house, the last couple days of school for Lindsay, the start of Summer Movie Fun, and lots of company coming into town for Kate's blessing this coming Sunday. We are so excited to have Grandma Nadene and Grandma Shirley and Grandpa Bill coming for this special occasion!
On a sad note, we are sending our thoughts and prayers to Steve's oldest brother Scott who on Saturday was in a serious bike accident and is in the hospital having his leg put back together with pins and plates. He wrecked at the bottom of a hill trying to avoid an on-coming car and he was not being able to slow himself down and as he turned to avoid a car, his left leg took the brunt of a crash and he has two compound fractures in his lower left leg. He will be in the hospital for a couple of days and then expects to be in crutches for at least 12 weeks. This is so sad - he is the athlete of the family who runs and cycles daily and eats so healthy - we could all take a cue from his quest for a healthy lifestyle! We will be going to Asheville, NC for the 4th of July with the extended Simpson family and Scott is the master planner of hikes and outdoor adventures so I am sure that will be hard on him to miss out - that is just not his way to sit back and not be a part of it. We love you Scott and wish you all the best for a speedy recovery!!
With Steve's Parents, Bill and Shirley
With my Dad and Debbie
The Ashton's, Simpson's, McGuire's and Grandma Stone
I have really enjoyed sharing so many special new baby moments with Molly! 
I adore this picture of Grandma and Kate. We are all so blessed to have such a wonderful Grandma! 
Caroline ended her first year of preschool with a darling program - she practiced her line over and over (still needed some help) but she was so cute! We will miss Mrs. Packer greatly - she is probably moving and so we will not be making the move with her...it will be too far away. Afterwards, Daddy and I took her out to lunch to her usual choice - to Chick-fil-A!
So, Caroline will begin the "Kindersteps" pre-k program our shcool district offers for 4th qtr birthdays that are not old enough for Kindergarten but turn 5 before the end of the year. She was so excited to tour the classroom and when she realized she would get to bring her Tinkerbell backpack, she was sold!
After school, we surprised Lindsay yet again by having our swim bag all packed up and we went to the gym to swim. We have a great time at that pool - the kids love the zero-depth play area and the water-park style slides as well. Kate didn't get in the water yet but sure was quite the bathing beauty!
Baby Kate is now about 2 1/2 weeks old and we cannot get enough of her! She is such a sweet and fun addition to our family - it is amazing how much more love you have in your heart as you grow closer and closer to a new little baby.
Kate and her Daddy...all our girls look like Steve's "Mini Me" when they are born! (I wonder what a boy would look like in our family...our baby girls have all looked just like this!)
Caroline could not be happier to finally have a baby sister of her own!
Mother's Day - We had a great dinner prepared by Shelly, Steve and Andy. Steak...yum!!! I love family dinners - Molly, Andy and their kids were all over and we had such a great time! Steve and the girls picked out a couple of sweet gifts - the girls got me a fun new blue t-shirt, a white summer skirt, and a pair of flip-flops. They also gave me a "gift certificate" to get a new charm for my necklace with Kate's name on it. Normally Steve and the girls make me breakfast in bed but they moved it to the next Sunday because the girls spent the night at Molly's house with Shelly so they weren't home for breakfast!
(My kids and Molly's kids with Aunt Shelly.) Can we say enough about how much we love our Aunt Shelly? Shelly is my mom's sister and we could not ask for a better Aunt or Great Aunt! She plays with the kids, (and while I was down for the count, cooks, cleans, etc.) and is just so much fun to be around.
Kate's first dinner out. We went to TGI Friday's the night before Aunt Shelly left. I enjoyed having a decent appetite (and room enough to eat) a bacon cheeseburger - I had been craving that the end of my pregnancy but eating anything became such a chore so I finally got to indulge. And it was good! Shelly and the girls enjoyed a rousing game of "I Spy" which is a lot of fun to play at Friday's with all the fun pop culture decor.
The girls have so much fun playing with and reading to their sister. Often, though, they are disappointed that she sleeps so much! These are the times I find her being burped or moved or having pacifiers shoved in and out of her mouth while she is asleep. They might just love her to death! We are working hard to enforce "no touching/moving/burping" rules while she is asleep. I often have to put Kate in my room until the girls have finished the job de jour - picking up the family room, their bedroom, etc. They get so easily distracted by her!
Lindsay wanted me to bring her sister to her school for a "show and tell." Lindsay walked her around the classroom and all the kiddos wanted to touch her (of course I reminded them that they are disgusting first graders crawling with germies!) so she walked down each aisle so they could all get a good look. Her teacher has said that Lindsay cannot stop talking about her new sister. In fact, the day she was born, Lindsay was at school and her teacher kept giving her 1/2 hour updates on the time so she could know when her sister was being born! (Since our surgery got bumped a little bit, they were probably off by about an hour.)
My belated Mother's day breakfast! Yum!!! Our traditional special breakfast is French Toast, bananas, strawberries, and orange juice. I got my breakfast in bed and then everyone brought a tray into my room and we all had breakfast in bed together!
First bottle. I am lucky. I have a very easy time breast feeding and I do not take that for granted. But, I also know the freedom of having a baby be able to take a bottle too! So, at about 2 weeks, I have started each of my kids getting one bottle a day. I am able to pump very easily so we already have a good stash of milk going in the freezer. Lindsay did get a little bored feeding her - I think baby dolls eat faster than real babies. So, Steve finished it up.
First real bath with big sisters. (I think they are getting too old to have naked bath pictures on a blog!) But they got to learn about how she can't sit up and slips around and easily can go under the water (she didn't...I was just teaching them with my hands on Kate at all times.) They were all in my big bath tub with our infant tub set inside of it with them. Nothing like a clean yummy baby after a bath! Her cord fell off earlier this week and the girls were so anxious to take a bath with her. I ended up holding it up as a privilege if they got their chores done without getting in trouble along the way. Well, it wasn't until Saturday that the girls cleaned their room without fighting or making Mommy upset with their "work stoppages" and whining and crying. So, Kate settled for a few more wash cloth "sponge baths" until Sunday morning when all the girlies took a bath together.
So, as we were prepping for the surgery, I was chatting with the docs and I was for sure betting this was our biggest baby yet. Every nurse, aide, anesthesiologist, etc. who looked at me and said "Wow - you are ALL baby!" As Dr. Beck was getting to her, he said "Well, she is definitely working on some chin rolls!" Then, when she was at the warming table with the nurses, one of them held her up and said "I am guessing 9 9." They then put her on the scale and everyone laughed "She IS 9 9!!!!" That is when I said "Holy Hannah. She really was big!" Apparently I had a lot of fluid and a very large placenta as well - the nurse made it a point to tell several people about how much fluid I had. Yes, I was THAT big for a reason!
Mommy and baby...I am seeing that she is like Lindsay as a newborn.
Happy Family...
Wednesday morning. I made it a point to try to get my first decent stretch of sleep in about 6 weeks by making sure she would spend about 6 hours in the nursery overnight. I slept about 4, tossed and turned for a little while more and finally slept a bit more. It truly was the best sleep I have had in a while.
Just a cute Rolie Polie!!!
Aunt Shelly has been great. She always says that newborns make her nervous and so her principle job here is to take care of the big girls - that is more her speed. But she said this one doesn't make her anxious - probably because she is the size of a toddler!
More admirers! Both girls have such a nurturing instinct for this little sister of theirs!
When they came to the hospital on Tuesday, both girls got a little "big sister gift bag" with a "Big sister" t-shirt, some shorts, and a little bath gift set. I made the shirts - a little iron on transfer that I designed. It turned out really cute!
Ahhh....Dr. Beck! He is the most amazing doctor - he is Chief of Staff of the hospital and is extremely well regarded among the staff here. But, he is a man of FEW words. His appointments are never running late because he doesn't chit chat - all about the basic business of women's health. But yesterday while visiting before my surgery, we found out he is a huge fan of LOST - just like us! WOW - we talked for almost 5 whole minutes about LOST! When he left to go the surgery suite ahead of us, my nurse said "That was the most I have ever heard him talk ever, and I mean even if you string cumulative conversations together!" He really is fantastic and I enjoyed my surgery with him - we were talking and laughing the whole time.
Tuesday night...all of the AZ cousins...
Side by side...we kinda noticed that our baby is bigger than the Ashton's baby Zac...and he is now 3 weeks old!!!
This picture...what a funny story. There are a lot of unknowns when you are 6 and your mommy is having a baby. I decided to answer questions as they came as simply as possible, no more, no less. A couple weeks ago Lindsay asked how exactly it was that babies came out that wasn't the C-section way mommy does. She knew there was another way but didn't "get it." So I went online and found some great illustrations of profile pregnant cut-away illustrations to show all the "parts" and what comes out of where. Caroline wandered by to see what we were looking at and decided it was boring so she took off. Well, in the picture above, as we were getting ready to plant flowers I came outside and Lindsay had a notebook and was explaining something to Caroline. Turns out Lindsay had re-created some of the illustrations to explain to Caroline how babies come out of their mommy's tummy! It was quite cute.
Both girls have been learning about butterflies and raised caterpillars to butterflies in both their schools. They really wanted more flowers for our yard to attract butterflies so what is a 37 week pregnant mom to do? Take them to Lowe's and pick some flowers to plant in pots. It was a hot day and we probably got in way over our heads for the energy Mommy had to devote to it but the girls had fun.
Here is the finished product. (I wish I could say they still looked this good.) Most are now gone. I apparently sat in a small ant hill assembling dripper lines to automatically water the flowers for nothin'. We have dripper lines all over our yard and this is how I do my front pots and they are fantastic. Well, we never went back to check to make sure they were getting enough water. Turns out earlier in the line there was some leaks that were watering nothing and not enough water was getting to the pots. Sad. But a few may last. Summer flowers are hard to do here.
April 24th was "Take you Kiddo to Work Day" and this was an exciting year because Caroline was old enough to go to work with Daddy. They only go for a half day and then they get to go home. I will usually come out to work and we will all go to lunch. I think the intent is for children to learn about different careers, see the work environment, that sort of thing. They don't actually learn about Daddy's work...the company plans crafts, activities, and special treats (like a slushie machine in the kitchen area).
We usually go out to lunch with Daddy but this time we decided to eat in the Cafe at his office building. By the time we were done, with them each choosing a meal (that was huge...we could have all shared) and getting ice cream and Popsicles treats, Steve said "Man - this was about 30 bucks!!" Oh well - out to lunch anywhere else would have been the same unless they went fast food and guess who was not up to that? Mom.
One tradition they brought back was making an "ID badge" for the kiddos. They got their photo taken and put in a card holder on a retractable clip like the employees all have.
Big day for Lindsay! Maddy told me Ellie was getting her ears pierced for her 6th birthday and said we should come with and do Lindsay's - "They will always have that bond together, it will be fun, our families have a tradition of getting our ears pierced together - you can't break the tradition!" I thought about it for a while. We had decided our girls could get their ears pierced when they were 8 years old. But, that is also when they will get baptized so I wanted to make sure she looked forward to turning 8 for the right reasons so Steve and I talked and said for their 7th birthday. Well, Maddy wore me down and I surprised Lindsay while Caroline was at a birthday party and took her to the kiddo salon we love to meet up with Ellie.
She said that she said a little prayer to help her not to be scared. That didn't stop the tears...
or the aftershock....
But then the girls both had suckers and "I did it" stickers and certificates so I think they survived.
And a trip for ice cream afterwards definitely helps!!!
Not to leave Caroline out, here she is in action when we picked her up from the birthday party. (Party was for her friend London - in the blue with a pony tail in front of Caroline.)
The little girls were so cute playing water games and running and giggling and having a great time cooling off. Pretty much if it involves running around, Caroline is game!!!
This past Saturday Aunt Shelly started her migration from Molly's house to our house - she came to help us both out - fulfilling the roll our mom would have of course played as we both were having babies. We love her and are so grateful for her sharing her time with our family. This is our super cool backyard pool. But, the water was cold and soothing and the kids splashed us plenty. Man, I look bad! Mongo Huge!
