Thanksgiving pictures

Kate having a good time with her Dad Dad
Mom Mom and Dad Dad
Emie eating her turkey leg
Bree eating her turkey leg
Kate hanging out in the morning with her cousins: Cole, Emie, and Bree
Zack enjoying feeding Kate
Mommy, too!
We took a day trip to Fredricksburg so Papa and Nettie could see Kate. Papa loved looking at Kate's hands.
I love this picture of Papa and Kate. She looks so happy!
Lauren, Lindsey and Me
I love this picture of Kate and me.

We had a great time in Abilene over Thanksgiving. It was a special first Thanksgiving with Kate.

6 months old

Kate turned 6 months old yesterday! It has gone by so fast. It is just amazing to see how much she has changed and grown. I am going to post pictures and thoughts from Thanksgiving later, but today I want to celebrate Kate. I am posting one picture of Kate from yesterday. I have been reading on how to make homemade baby food. I decided to try making some zucchini for her first food other than cereals. She loved it!
Here are some things that I love about Kate:

• Her great big smile lights up a room and brings such joy to your day.
• How she reaches out to toys and people. She loves to touch faces. It is very sweet.
• Watching her sleep. When you see a baby sleep it gives you such a perspective on life. I think that this is what it is all about. Zack and I love to pray over her when she sleeps.
• Praying with her. Obviously, since she can't talk Zack and I will pray as if it is her thoughts. I love to think about what she might be praying to God about if she could.
  
• Seeing her play in her ExerSaucer. She wants to put all of the toys in her mouth, and tries so hard to get them in there.
• Her little noises. She has been talking a lot more lately.
  
• Watching her reach out to Dixie. She loves to pet her and Dixie just lets her. I think that they are going to be friends some day.
• Her kicking legs. She kicks her legs all of the time. She will be laying on a blanket with toys just happily kicking her legs.
• She has the cutest cheeks. You just want to grab at them all day!
• I love her long, skinny legs.
  
• I love watching her learn and observe new things.
  
• It is so sweet to get her in the morning. She wakes up happy. When you walk into her room and say her name she smiles a great big smile.
• I love to watch her interact with cousins and other babies. She seems to enjoy being around other kids.
• Her sweet nature. I hope that she keeps that. She seems to have a sensitive spirit.

I could go on and on, but those are some of the things that we love most.

Weekend Pictures

This past weekend we had our Thanksgiving celebration with the Tate family. I also got to see some of my best friends, Chris, Merry, and Annie Clark. Papa holding the girls. I also love this picture of my Dad playing with Kate. She loved it!


Kate's cousins, Ian and Aubrey. Ian was patting both of their backs. So cute!
More cousins! The Thompson children: Jaydan, Kale, and Will
Another cousin! Aubrey, Isabelle, and Kate.

Nana holding the girls. Doesn't Kate look like she is up to something?

All the sisters: Me, Kamara, Lori, Keari, and Sheri
Annie and Kate
Merry and Kate

Halloween and teeth pictures

Look at Kate's two bottom teeth!

The Newberry's
Allison, Jake and Mallory
We did not go together. Zack and I were suppose to be kids from The Polar Express and Kate is obviously a ladybug.
Small group kids

Kate and Aubrey in their Halloween bags. Trick or Treat!
Erika and Brent holding the girls. Kate was very tired at this point.
Happy Halloween!

Kate News

Well, last night Kate finally did it! She slept through the night! I don't know if it is going to be a new pattern or not, but it was so great. She went from 7:00 pm-5:00 am. I know some of you think that is pretty early to get up, but that is nothing compared to getting up in the middle of the night a couple of times. I would just love it if she continues to do that!
Also, I forgot to post about our doctor's appt. last week. Many people have commented on how long and lean Kate is. Well, her stats prove that to be true. She weighs about 13.5 pounds and she is 26 inches long. She was considered 25 percent for her head, 25 percent for her weight, and 75 percent for her length. As many of you know Kate is very active. We call her "Kicking Kate" because she loves to kick her legs and move around. I think it is just a matter of time before she crawls. I think this is why she is so lean, because she is so active. We think that she will be a soccer player or swimmer some day.
Another new thing is Kate's teeth. I have known that she has been teething for awhile. Well, last week we finally saw the teeth cutting through. So now you can see the top of her bottom teeth. It is pretty crazy. I will try to see if I can post a picture of it later this week along with Halloween pictures.

Pumpkin Pictures

Here are some pictures of Kate I took around our pumpkins. We never did make it to a pumpkin patch. Take notice of her onesie, it says " I love my Mummy" and it glows in the dark. So cute!

She is here!

Callie is here! She is just as precious as Hannah was at birth. JT looked great and was handling it like a champ the second time around. Kate looked so big compared to Callie even though they are only four and a half months apart. It is crazy how fast they grow and change. Kate continues to amaze me. It just reminds me to enjoy each day with her. Callie and Kate will be future friends!

Rice Cereal

Last week we started Kate on rice cereal and she loves it! She can't get enough of it. It was pretty funny the first time we fed her. You have to make it really runny, so it went all over her. I had heard that this will make babies sleep longer at night. However, I have yet to see that happen. Kate still goes about 6 hours, then three to four more after a feeding. We are still working on it. The problem is that Kate likes to go down for the night at 7:00 pm, so that means I am still having to get up at 1:00 and 4:00 am. I guess one day I will get a full night of sleep again. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the picture and footage.

The Best Smile

Daddy captured this great picture of Kate with her smile that just warms your heart!

Picture time!

A couple of weeks ago Kamara and I got pictures done at Portrait Inovations. Overall, we were pretty pleased. I think we overwhelmed our photographer a little bit. I am sure it is not the easiest job to take pictures of a 3 month old baby and 4 month old baby together. Kamara overheard another photographer saying to our photographer when it was done, " You did it, it is finally over, " or something to that affect. It is frustrating that I could not get Kate to do the great big smile that I always see. We got a couple of good smile pictures, but not the smile that lights up her whole face. You can make the judgement on whether or not you think our girls look alike or not. We get mixed comments. Many people think our girls look like their daddies, but I do think they have some characteristics of us. Here are some of the favorites!

Cry it out

Can I just say that crying it out is no fun at all! I remember watching "The SuperNanny" and wondering why in the world the Moms were crying while their child is crying and refusing to go to sleep. I realize that Kate is a baby and not a child, but I do have a sympathy for those parents that I did not have before. It is painful to hear your child cry without doing anything about it. I have to keep telling myself that it is in Kate's best interest that I do this. I know what is best for her. There is also this amazing since of accomplishment and peace that comes over you when you walk into her room and see that she is finally sound asleep.
Kate is now four months old and I felt that it was time to try to get her on a schedule. We have been doing a night routine for some time now, but now that she is more active in the day, I am trying to get her to sleep earlier at night. We have been working on it for about a week now. She is getting better, but it is still really hard to have her cry out. It is nice to have a spouse work with you on this, because for some reason it is harder on the mom than the dad.
It makes me think of the way God feels about us. Sometimes he has to allow us to "cry it out" because he knows what is best for us even though at the time we may not think so. His love is greater than even my love for Kate. That is pretty hard for me to imagine.
I will try to post some recent pictures some time this week.

New Kids On The Block Confession

Yes, it is true. My sister and I were borderline obsessed with the New Kids on the Block in our middle school years. It all started with a concert that a friend invited us to in 6th grade. We knew who they were, but didn't care too much about them. That is until we saw Joe Mcintyre or Joey. We saw the obsessed fans with their shirts etc. and thought it was very silly. Then we became one of them! We would look through the Pop magazines for posters and hang them up of Joe, we got the shirt, you name it! Our older sisters made so much fun of us, but we were committed to the boys. We watched the videos and even the cartoon. It just makes me laugh now to think about it. We did bond with a friend in the youth group who was also a dedicated fan. We would talk about the New Kids all of the time. Our obsessions only lasted two years, but it was intense. I say all of this because their recent comeback has brought back lots of memories. I will admit that I taped the Today Show the other day because they were going to be performing. It just cracked me up because I thought they would sing different songs, but instead they sang "Step by Step, ooohh baby gonna get to your girl." I was singing along in my head. They said that their comeback is more for grown women like me to relive the memories of being fans. Then you see all of these fans screaming and singing along who are around my age. However, I guess I am not much better singing along at home. Here is their original video of "Step by Step." So I hope all you fans enjoy taking a blast from the past.

Fun Pictures

You can tell that we have been neglecting poor Dixie a little bit. She got groomed yesterday and they had to cut her hair really short due to lots of tangles. We just have not gotten to brush her as much. I don't think she is very happy with it. Below you see how long her hair was beforehand. She is much cuter with her hair longer, but it will be lower maintenance for awhile.
Dixie wearing one of Kate's hats
Kate reading with her Daddy. I think she is going to be a reader!
Kate hanging out on her Boppy. Look at how big she is getting!


Look at that smile!

Getting warm after bath time
This is Kate with Aubrey and one of our childhood friends, Lani's baby who is one day older then Kate. Her name is Brooklyn. I like how their arms are all interlocked.
I love this picture of Kate sleeping. She always sticks her bottom up in the air. It is precious!