My Two Favorite Sounds

Kate Laughter


Baby #2 Heartbeat

Welcome to the Kate Theater

This week brought some firsts for Kate. One first was great and the other not so great. The great first was her first dip in the pool. As with all of Kate's other firsts so far she took this one in stride. As you will see in the video it's hard to tell what she really thought about it . She definitely didn't freak out and scream but she wasn't happy go lucky splashing either.I think she was just trying to take it all in. She seemed pretty content if not a little confused. Imagine what it must look like to a baby. The only water she's really been in has been her little blue tub and now she is in this enormous "tub" and her Daddy is holding her in his arms. The other first was a real bummer. Her first cold! It's amazing to me how hard I took it. You have this perfectly healthy baby for nearly six months and then suddenly her nose is running and she sounds congested. It just doesn't seem right. She never ran a fever and it didn't disrupt her sleeping or eating at all. Except for the runny nose and the congestion you would have never known. And lo and behold wouldn't you know a couple of days later I came down with a cold. A mother/daughter cold, how sweet! :( I carried around two kleenexes, hers and little hers. I don't think this is what Laura Ashley was thinking of when she started making matching mother daughter dresses. I told Jared at one point this week that I felt like maybe we were passing the cold back and forth and he told me,"Well when you're holding her try not to kiss her." I looked at him like he was crazy! I said, "That's like telling me not to breathe! I mean have you seen those cheeks? They were made for kissing!" I will leave you with some videos and pictures. One video is of Kate eating her rice cereal. We tried to capture her little sounds and her eagerness.The second is of her swimming experience. The third is a video of her in her little bouncy chair. #2, as we've taken to calling the baby is doing just great.I will be 13weeks tomorrow. Jared and I rented a fetal heart monitor so we have already heard the heartbeat. Coupled with Kate's cackle laughter these are two of the best sounds in my life right now. I will try to get the sound on here so that you all can hear it. Enjoy the Kate theater!

Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2

In the past 2 weeks I have had 3 friends that are closer than sisters deal with heartbreaking situations in their lives. For possibly the first time in my life my words have gone beyond, "I am so sorry this is happening to you." to actually feeling like my heart is being ripped out. I mean that in no dramatic way. Friday was an especially cruel day for one of my dearest friends. And when I got home the tears flowed freely for her and her family. It got me thinking about the verse above. But what does this look like in our lives? What does it mean to truly share each other's burden? One beautiful idea came to mind and ever since I read this concept I have not been able to shake it from my mind. The concept came from the author of the blog "Bring the Rain." When her infant nephew passed away suddenly due to SIDS she asked her readers to pray for her brother and sister in law. But then she asked us to go one step further. She asked us to pray that God would take some of the burden away from them so that we could shoulder it for them for just a little while. What an amazing concept. I have never thought about that before. The fact that we could ask for a portion of someone's burden so that maybe their mind could be at peace for a moment or even minutes. Or maybe they could get a peaceful night of sleep. The beautiful thing is, I know that God can make this happen. When Jared's Dad died I wanted to take his sadness away. I wanted to bear his whole burden. Now I know that not only is this impossible but it is just not natural.He needed to feel all of those feelings. Just as my 3 friends need to feel everything they are feeling. God won't let us have all of it as we sometimes wish we could but I believe that we are allowed to have part of it for a period of time. So the next time you are grieving for someone close to you I challenge you to go beyond the limits of "I'm sorry." and go deeper. Ask God to bear some of the burden with them.

Our Growing Girl

****Warning: The following post is a Mom post. I call it a baby book post. It is filled with details about Kate and her life. There are pictures at the bottom so if you want to skip to the pictures we won't be offended.:) ****
Our Girl Kate is five months old and there has been a lot going on in our baby world. Kate is a very happy, quiet and content little girl. She likes to give hugs already. When you pick her up she will wrap her arms around your neck in a tight squeeze. She has a very strange way of eating but we think it is beyond cute. She will wrap both of her arms around the top of the bottle. It is a funny sight to see. Maybe she thinks someone will take it from her? She laughs and smiles, but not gratuitously. She LOVES her Daddy. He can always bring about a laugh or smile. Sometimes I call him over just so I can hear her laugh.The other day I was sitting next to Jared on the couch holding her and he was watching TV. She would stare at him until he would look over. When he would, well you've never seen a bigger grin on a baby! When she laughs she squeals. LOVE that sound! I think it's the best sound in the whole world. She thinks it hilarious when you scare her. I will fake like I'm sleeping and wake up suddenly. She thinks it is so funny. I love watching her through one partially closed eye when I am fake sleeping. The look of anticipation on her face is priceless. She is a good sleeper and usually goes to bed around 8:30 or 9 and gets up between 6:30 and 7. She is an excellent napper and will sometimes take whopper naps close to 3 hours! She hasn't rolled over to either side lately but she will make it to her side. It seems like her little chubby leg is what is holding her back. If she could just swing that leg over she would be home free. She prefers to scoot on her back. When we lay her on her back she will put her feet underneath her and scoot back. We really have to watch as she can go back really far in one scoot. She loves her rice cereal now. We had a few yucky faces at first but now she devours it. She makes this sounds like a hum. It almost as if she is saying, "MMMMMmmmmm mmmmmmm Mom this stuff is awesome. Load up that spoon!" Jared and I were laughing last night because I was feeding her and she was almost putting her face in the bowl between bites! She couldn't get enough of it. It used to be that Kate could fall alseep in her car seat or on shoulders but now it seems that when naptime or bed time calls only her crib will do. She wakes up in the morning and just talks to herself until we come get her. It is very sweet to hear her cooing and talking over the baby monitor. Usually she has scooted herself into the corner of the crib. When she sees us for the first time she breaks into a huge grin as if to say , "They you are! Good Morning!" She loves to be sung to and has a special Kate song that Jared created for her. "I love Kate yes I do! I love Kate like a pickle in my shoe!" She loves this song and will look up from wherever she is to find us. She can sit by herself for a few brief seconds but we really have to watch her as she can throw herself back really quick. She likes the book The Hungry Caterpillar. And she loves this bear my Dad gave her. She loves to give it hugs.She loves to take walks in the jogging stroller. She sits back and will usually fall alseep before we get home. Her eyes are still very bright blue and her hair is a lot lighter (although I hate to admit there is a lot less of it but we are confident it will grow back soon!) . That's all the Kate news for now. Stay tuned for breaking news!

Kate at batting practice. She really gives those hanging toys a run for their money!


Her feet touch the floor now (well her toes at least). She can press the buttons to make the music and lights go!



Kate and Hudson at 5 Months. I love seeing pictures of these 2 together. I just think about this time last year and how much their 2 Mommies loved these 2 sweet babies growing inside of them already.

Big Sister

Mystery Solved

Well today was the big day for Baby #2. I had my first Dr's visit. Jared and I walked into the office with an enormous amount of deja vu. Hadn't we just done this? The mystery about becoming pregnant so soon after you have a baby is that you're not quite sure about the dates of anything. With Kate I could tell you exact dates of everything. I knew when I was 3 weeks pregnant. With Baby #2 I was totally in the dark. I could be right at the beginning or a little bit down the road. It turns out I am 10 weeks pregnant which puts the baby's due date at February 2nd. About 1 week before Kate's first Birthday! To me that is amazing! As we sat there in the room waiting for the image of our second baby to come on the screen I was overwhelmed with emotion. This baby is 2 weeks older than our first sonogram picture of Kate and the difference is amazing. We saw the baby's arms and legs waving around. I was in awe. How are we this blessed? I just thank God for his wonderful plan for our family.I love to see that wonderful flicker of the heart. Such a miracle, that tiny little heart already hard at work. Everything looks good so far. Blessings abound! Thank you God!

Kate's First Fourth

Kate's First Fourth of July started and ended with a bang. We started the day like any normal morning. Kate and I got to spend some good quality girl time while Daddy played some very early morning golf with some buddies. We laughed, we talked and Kate discovered a new found interest in her swing. When Daddy got home we got ready to head out for the day to go eat some lunch with Nana and the cousins and shop a little at the mall and eventually make it to see fireworks. She got dressed in her Fourth of July outfit and out we went. This is where the first bang happened. Traffic was slow due to a motorcycle vs. car accident on 820 right by our church. When we got to the scene the motorcycle was being towed away. Nothing to rubberneck at. The car in front of us was going pretty slow and the car in back of us must have been looking at the motorcycle still because he accelerated right into us and hit us which caused us to hit the car in front of us. Both impacts were really jarring. Kate was sleeping soundly in her car seat so the impact woke her up and scared her. The only good thing about having an accident next to an accident was that there are already policemen and firemen working the scene. Before I knew it a fireman was there to see if we were alright.He said that he thought Kate would be alright since it was a low speed/low impact crash. Are you kidding me? Nothing feels low speed or low impact when your 5 month old baby is involved! Kate was wailing, but after I took her out of her car seat she stopped. We were all ok and she was just scared. She calmed down and we could see that everything was fine with her. I will say the panic that swept across me was like none I had ever experienced before. That was the first time in her whole life that she had been in any physical danger and it scared me to the point of shaking. I held her really close which thankfully is what we BOTH needed at the moment. After we exchanged information with the 2 drivers we were on our way. The driver in back of us admitted to the cop on the scene that he had caused the whole thing.It dawned on me that it could have been so much worse. We could have been in the first accident. God is good. The rest of the day involved some fun mall shopping and seeing a great fireworks display. Enjoy the day in pictures!


Happy Birthday America!


Ready for the day! Oh what a day!


Our cute little Patriotic girl


Showing off her Red Raider pride with her Texas Tech bloomers


I love this picture of Caden because it captures his personality perfectly


Toby taking a slide


Her first slide experience with cousin Caden. She said it would have been fabulous if her foot hadn't rolled up under her!


It didn't seem so bad after a hug from Daddy


Kate says she is open to all fashion trends


Caden found this stylish hat which his Dad just LOVED!


This picture is so Kate right now. She will be looking right at us but when that camera comes up she immediately looks away. Frustrating for her camera maniac Mommy!


At this point Kate was hungry, she thought the band was too loud, and she really wanted the fireworks to start


Toby loved the fireworks to! Love that smile!


I love this picture of us. Captures what we are feeling right now. True happiness and love!


Looking so cute in her Fourth of July outfit. We lost the denim dress due to comfort.


Uncle Jared and Caden enjoying the fireworks


So many sparkly lights! So many colors!


Kate loved the fireworks. She sat in her Nana's lap with rapt attention. As a Mom I will say that I don't remember the fireworks being so loud!

Adventures in Rice Cereal and 2 Grown Men on a Waterslide

These 2 inital reaction pictures are hilarious......a look of pure disgust!




I think the taste was alright, I think it's the texture she was objecting to.


I can do this Mom!!!!


Kate's favorite toy of the moment. She loves to cuddle this bear and wrap her arms around it...oh and put it in her mouth!


Don't take it personally Kate, Hudson really wanted to be in the picture with you he was just hungry!


Kate's still trying to get the hang of sitting up. She seems to always end up planted in the couch cushions!


Here's Hudson sporting what all the babies should be wearing this summer.


Kate loves our friend Landon. Every time we have Care Group she finds her way into his arms!


Our friends Landon and Candy had set up a waterslide for a party for their 10 year old daughter. Jared and Derek thought they would try it out. This got real funny, real quick!