And Baby Kate Makes Five

Kaitlin Brynn arrived last Friday at 11:57 am, weighing in at 6 lb 4 oz. Here's our week in pictures.

Family of Five

Grans & Grandaddy

Kate & Grammy

Sunning with BopBop

Brother love- Austin loves Baby Kate! He often sits down, holds his hands out and says, "I want to hold her."

Big Sister

Bili lights

Uncle Russ came to visit!

First Bath

Catching Up- Once Again

I’ve recently been gently scolded by a few family members that for not updating the blog. I apologize. So here we go:

This one is a picture I found after I updated the blog last time of Austin "helping" Granddaddy repair a leaky faucet. I just love how he's right there in the middle of things- so into it!

Okay, on to our update. We had a great Christmas at home with just the 4 of us:

Then we went to Texas to celebrate with our families.

Because of some generous babysitting services from Grans & Granddaddy, Wes and I were able to watch the Baylor Bears win a bowl game (after also winning the Heisman, for those of you who are counting).

We celebrated New Year’s with explosives. Is there any other way?

After all this time in the car with 2 toddlers, we decided we hadn’t had enough, so we went to Dallas for a baby shower for our niece & got to spend the night with my aunt, uncle & cousin.

And now we’re home for the long haul, trying to prepare as much as we can for life with 3 kids!

4 Years Old!

Happy Birthday, Addison! Our girl is 4 years old. We had a great weekend celebrating her little life. We were so thankful for the houseful of helping hands we had as we turned our house into the North Pole for a “Santa’s Workshop” party. An especially big thanks to BopBop for spending HOURS tying strings on snowflakes!

Addison discovered Grans's necklace before the party, and did not want to take it off.

The kids came downstairs and wasted no time digging in to the cookie decorating setup!

Although both of our children were terrified of Santa, he did make an appearance.

This cute little guy walked in the door, grabbed Addison’s hand and jumped right into the festivities. He also kept giving her kisses! We’re going to have to keep an eye on him!

The kids also enjoyed some great snuggles and lovin' from all 4 of their grandparents and enjoyed having everyone around for a few days.

And although we have no pictures of it, we, of course, celebrated the exciting Heisman win of RG3! The kids were clapping and cheering, even though they didn't really know why. Then Austin breaks out with a "Yay, Sic 'em Bears!" Maybe he did know after all.

It's hard to believe it's already been 4 years since this little bundle joined our lives. For some reason this year I did a lot more reflecting and remembering our experience, thinking about what we were going through this time 4 years ago. I have to say, 4 years ago I may have been pleasantly surprised at what life looks like now. However, I'm really glad I'm on this end of things!

HOLIDAYS!

We had a great Thanksgiving in Texas. We enjoyed cooking, constructing, playing outside and riding the golf cart & 4-wheeler. The kids had a blast hanging out with their cousins, too.

This weekend we decorated our house for Christmas. We’ve looked so forward to starting traditions with our kids and carrying on the traditions that we remember fondly from our own childhoods. This is the first year the kids actually participated a little in the decorating, and it was a lot of fun. I know they still don’t get it all, but you’ve gotta start somewhere, right?

Believe it or not, I actually caught the kids like this this morning completely unscripted. I love that this picture marks where we are in life- 2 kids here, but 5 stockings behind them (and a random cup in the middle of the floor??).