A time to swing

Norah enjoyed her first time in the swing with her big sister today!

Fun weekend

Kylah's birthday celebration continues...we had a little get together at the park on Saturday with some of her little friends. The weather was beautiful (except a little windy!).
Kylah asked for a pink and purple cake with flowers, so that is what I did! :)

The birthday girl and her beloved balloons.

Kylah and her little friends all made t-shirts to take home. It was fun, and Kylah and Joey have been wearing theirs all weekend!

Gramma got to be here! It was great because she pretty much took care of Norah the whole time!

Sweet, sweet face.

We have been seeing more of this little one sucking two or three fingers. I really would rather her not be a finger-sucker (we're having a hard time getting her big sister to stop sucking her fingers!)

Kylah looking so sweet. She is sweet, but she is also pretty sassy! :)

All of the kids love to gather around while presents are being opened.

Like I said, it was windy, so Kylah had to blow out candles while they were being lighted.

Me and my girls.

Gramma and mommy with the birthday girl.

Kylah keeps telling us it's still her birthday. And, in a way she's right, because Grandpa and Nana will be coming this weekend for some more birthday celebration!
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Gramma got lots of cuddle time while she was here.

I am going to love looking at all of these pictures of Joey holding Norah as she just keeps getting bigger and bigger!

Papa sent Joey and Kylah stocking caps. They love them, and have been wearing them all weekend. Thanks Papa!

Summer seems to have finally arrived...maybe. We brought out the slip 'n slide on Sunday. The kids were loving it.

This open-mouthed smile is my favorite of Joey's!

The nice weather continued today. We went on an "adventure." A nice walking trail. I make a fun list of things the kids have to find while we're out there. We saw a lot of people and a lot of dogs. :)
This could be my new favorite picture of Joey and Kylah!

Walking ahead of us.

After our adventure we stopped at the new Splash Park.

Norah is always along for the ride. Such is the life of the third child! :)

My mom had Norah laughing pretty good today. I caught some of it on video...

Funny Kylah

Kylah is a funny little girl. This happened a while ago, but I wanted to write it down so I didn't forget that she said it.

Kylah and Joey were riding in the car on the way to school with Joe. When Joe turns a corner fast, he will say to the kids, "hold on to your biscuits!" This particular time when he said that, Kylah replied, "Hold on to your sausage biscuits!" Now she says it anytime he tells them to hold on to their biscuits. Love it! :)

Happy 3rd Birthday Kylah!

Our sweet Kylah is 3 today. I have no clue when she got so old, but here she is, turning 3!

We had a fun-filled day. We went to the early service at church this morning. Then we came home to eat quickly, and then take some short naps. Then we went to a minor-league baseball game. It was really fun. It was family day, so they had a lot of fun activities for the kids. I forgot my camera, so I'll have to get some pictures from Meredith.

The kids were so tired on the way home, but they knew we were still going to have cake and presents for Kylah, so they tried to keep their eyes open. :)

I made a jello cake with blueberries for Kylah. She was excited to have all of us singing to us.

I love this picture of her cheeks puffed out, blowing out her candles. Joey was a little disappointed at first that I wouldn't let him blow out Kylah's candles, but he was a good sport, and let Kylah do them all by herself. (Plus, he was going to get to eat cake, so he couldn't be too sad!)

Kylah was excited to get a new Strawberry Shortcake video from Uncle Andy, Aunt Kelly, Michael and Luca!

Here she is opening her present from us...a dollhouse!

Kylah let Joey play with it too, and they had quite a fun time with the mommy, daddy and baby in their house!

Here's a few videos of our little celebration.

I took this picture the other day, and I could not believe how old Kylah looked in these pictures. I think she looks like a little athlete too! :)

Happy Birthday, Kylah Sue! We love you!!

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In other news...I pulled out the exersaucer for Norah the other day. I have to stuff a blanket in there with her, and she doesn't last a super long time, but it's something fun for her to do!

Norah had a lot of helpers to help her play with the toys. Kylah was pretty sad that I wouldn't let her get in the exersaucer. She kept saying, "but I am too little."

Sweet baby girl.

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In other, other news...Joe has been doing laundry all weekend. (without me asking him to) He just finished up another few loads, folded and put them away while I am blogging. I asked him if I can hire him to do this all the time. :) Thanks, babe!!

Sickies

I have gotten to spend some extra time with my kiddos recently. Joey has had strep throat a few times this spring, so he was unable to go to school. When that happens, he gets to come spend the day at my office or Joe's office. He loves it!!

Here he is trying on my white coat and stethoscope (both Joey and Kylah have known what a stethoscope was at an early age...I love it!)

He makes a pretty cute doctor!

Then it was Kylah's turn. She got strep earlier this week. So, she got to come stay at my office for the day. She did so well. She just stayed in my office and watched movies, read books and played with toys for the entire day. She never left my office when she wasn't supposed to, and she was really quiet. I was very proud of her!

I am so blessed that I have a job that I can let my kids come hang out with me for the day when I need to. My nurses help me a ton, and luckily my kids know to stay in my office and to be quiet while I am in another room seeing patients. I even had Norah here for a day when my babysitter had mono! (I did have some extra help with her between the receptionists and my nurses...)

Let's hope all the sicknesses stay away for a while now!

Pedicure

We had a fun girls' night last night...pedicures, yummy dinner, and then a fun movie. I didn't get home until midnight (and then Norah got up at 3...and 4:30...and 5:30...), so I was pretty tired this morning! It was worth it, though!
Somehow we forgot to take a picture of all of us girls that went, but Meredith did take this picture of me and Norah getting a pedicure! :)

Growing up

What a difference a few months make!

It's amazing how much she's grown in that amount of time!

According to our regular scale, Norah weighs between 12-13 pounds. She is wearing size 3-6 month clothes (she's way too long for any 0-3 month anymore!) and is wearing a size 1 diaper. I'm sure she would fit into a size 2, but she doesn't leak out of size 1 yet, and I'm all about stretching the sizes out as long as possible to save money! (Case in point...we still put a size 4 on Kylah most of the time, even though she is 35 pounds! Why would I want to make Kylah, who is almost three, comfortable in her diaper?! I want her going in the potty!!!)

It is hard to believe that this little one is going to be three in a week! She grew up way too fast on me!

You'll hear Kylah tell you in this video all the things she's going to do when she's three. Oh, I hope it's true!!


She's pretty cute in the bath...


I love her giggle...

A full weekend

Warning: This post contains a lot of pictures...OK, I know most of my posts contain a lot of pictures, but this one has even more! :)

We headed to Little Rock this past weekend to celebrate Jeff's and James' (Joe's brothers) graduation from Bible college. We took a little break from watching movies to take a nap on the way there. This was my view of Joey. :)

Kylah thought it was so funny that Joey was sleeping like that!

And my view of Norah. :)

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Waiting for the graduation to begin. Isn't this the sweetest picture of Kylah and Grammy?!

Grammy is seriously one of the coolest great grandmas ever. She lets Joey play with all her fun stuff, including her magnifying glass. Her cane is another favorite of Joey and Kylah's---they call it her candy cane!

These two love their Uncle Jeff.

And their Uncle James.

No no, you may not grow up that fast yet! I know I'm going to blink and then he will be wearing a cap and gown for real!

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We spent the night at the house of some good friends of Joe's Aunt Kris. They are always so hospitable and fun!
We spent Saturday morning just hanging around their house and eating breakfast. (Not sure if you read this, Lisa, but thanks again for cooking breakfast for 2 hours!) :)

Norah was ready to go out!

A wink and a smile...

And of course we had to get photos of the two "twin" cousins, Naomi and Norah! :)

I love Naomi's different faces in these pictures. It's as if Norah's having a little dialogue with Naomi. It goes a little like this...

"Naomi, if you would just look at that big black thing and smile, they'll stop pointing it at us!"

"See, Naomi, this is how you give the camera a little smile. No, put your hands down!"

"Come on, you have to be used to that flash. Your mommy has a big black camera too! Now they're going to be taking our picture for 10 more minutes!!"

"Well, I'm not giving any more smiles, but at least I'll look at the camera. Good job for looking at the camera too, Naomi!"

Those two little ones are just too cute!!

Kylah wanted in on the action. She was so excited that we let her hold both Naomi and Norah at the same time. This is her "cheese" face. :)

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We had a great time with Joe's family. We headed home late Saturday night to be able to be home on Sunday morning for Norah to get dedicated at church.

Here we are waiting to go across the stage. Joey and Kylah were excited to be included.

Dave and Mere came to support us. Thanks guys!! Here is our whole family after the dedication. Yes, Norah is really sleeping. :)

Then she woke up so we took a few more cute pictures of the sweet girl.

We love you, Norah, and thank God for giving you to us!

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Today we had a sneak peak of summer, and we got to play in the sprinklers for the first time! Norah was inside napping; I was sitting in the sun; and Joey and Kylah got to have fun running through the yard. Great day!