Snow!

We had snow one day last week for about 3 hours. Then it melted and it hasn't returned yet, BUT we were so excited we bundled up and ran outside to enjoy it.

Kevin, Morgan , and Ruca had a snowball fight while I took pictures and Natalie was napping. After we were nice and cold we came inside and warmed up with so hot chocolate. It was a pretty fun day.

Morgan's 4th Birthday

I  knew that I wanted to throw a party this year for Morgan's birthday because of how much attention would be going towards the baby. She told me that she wanted a "Little Einsteins" theme and so I started looking up different ideas. I knew I wanted to make it as easy on myself as possible so I invited a few little girls from church to our house so it would be pretty contained.As far as decorations went, I cut music notes from black poster board and printed of pictures of the characters from the computer. I was pretty happy because when she saw everything she looked so excited.

I set up little "missions" in three different rooms. One room they had to find Leo's baton and big jet who stole it. Another room they had to find Big Ben's clock and the monkey who took that. In the last room I had a picture of Mona Lisa and I told the girls that she needed a hair bow so they searched for the cut out of the hair bow and stuck it on the picture. They seemed to really enjoy that. We tried to play musical squares, but two of the girls were feeling shy and not participating and they youngest seemed to think that she needed to always land on her original square so when the music stopped she tried to push whoever was on it off. The other moms and I just laughed. It was pretty funny.

We kept it simple. Kevin went and picked up some pizza and we ate cupcakes and ice cream. Morgan picked out Lemon frosting which turned out to be a big hit.

I think she really enjoyed her special party. It was nice to put some focus back on her. I can't believe she is four years old. Time has really flown by so fast!

Picture time

Before Natalie was born I could NOT get Morgan to sit still and take a picture. If I even suggested it she would turn her face. Now that Natalie is here and Morgan sees me taking pictures of her, she is more willing to participate. That is a win in my book.

She even wanted to dress up complete with tap shoes and have a mini photo shoot with just her.

She is growing up so fast.

Baby blessing/Ariel

Kevin's parents decided that they were gonna make the trip out to come to Natalie's blessing at church. We got to enjoy a week with them and Linda really helped keep Morgan entertained.

The day of the blessing my family met us at our church. After the 1st hour was over everyone came over to our house to lunch. Thanks to Linda who basically put everything together. She is pretty awesome like that. I am pretty bummed though because I didn't get ANY pictures of our whole group. I had left my camera at home and when we got to my house everyone had changed into comfy clothes in the time it took me to feed the baby. So I only have this one picture.

While Kerry and Linda were here, Linda wanted to give Morgan an early birthday present since they won't be here for her birthday. I mentioned that Morgan had really wanted to see "The Little Mermaid" so she got her the dvd AND a little dress and tea set. Morgan LOVED it! Not only have I seen the movie probably 20 times in the short time we have had it, but Morgan wore that dress everyday for like 3 weeks. I had to put it up high in her closet so she wouldn't change in to it every morning when she woke up.

She loves all things Ariel now. It is so funny to see what this girl gets interested in.

The week went by really fast and before we knew it it was time to say good-bye to grandma and grandpa. Hopefully, we will see them again in April :).

Halloween 2013

Morgan loves to cuddle on the couch and watch different shows. With Kevin she has stared watching some superhero cartoons and fell in love with the idea of being Wonder Woman this year. She looked really cute in her costume and requested to wear red lipstick.  Who am I to argue?

I love Halloween, but since I had a brand new baby, Kevin took Morgan to our church's trunk or treat without me. Morgan seemed to have a lot of fun. In fact, she got to trick or treat a couple of more times this year. One time at the mall after grandma and grandpa Shaw came to town and once at the botanical gardens with me :)

I look forward to next year and seeing what costumes we come up with.

She's Heeerrrreee

On October 18th we welcomed our second daughter. After only seven hours of labor she arrived at 12:05 am. I obviously won't go into any details, but I was able to have her without an epidural which made me pretty happy and made a HUGE difference in my recovery..
 

It took us two days, but we finally agreed upon the name Natalie Jane.

I had NO idea how Morgan was going to react to having a baby sister. When she came to the hospital she looked at her for a few minutes and then was ready to move on to something else. I am happy though because now that we have had Natalie for 6 weeks now. Morgan loves to help by getting diapers or anything I need. She hasn't acted too jealous which is awesome considering how much I have to hold take care of Natalie.

It is so true how each baby is different. We had it pretty easy with Morgan. She was a very calm baby. Natalie cries quite a bit, but I believe it is due to colic. We are learning what works to calm her down and I think we are getting used to  having a baby around again. She is a super sweet baby and we are so happy that she has joined our family.

Baby Shower

It has been almost four years since I had a baby in the house and although I had quite a few of the necessities there were still some baby items I needed. So..my dear friend Susan offered to throw me a very small baby shower. My other friend Suzie helped put it all together and get the word out.

I'm not gonna lie this pregnancy was a lot harder for me. Not just physically, but emotionally. Yes, I was stressed about money and Kevin's job situation, but it was more than that. For some reason before any of that drama I was feeling a little depressed. This baby shower was a nice way for me to focus on the positive stuff and get excited for baby girl to arrive.

My Niece and SIL

Here I am with Susan and Suzie.

It was a very low key party. Susan prepared Yummy food and had all of the guests draw a number. Whatever number they got they wrote a b'day card for the baby for that age. I had never heard of that before, but I thought it was a really great idea.

I have been so blessed to be surrounded by such warm and loving friends. I don't know what I would do without them.