Laurie's Life

Today is my best friends Birthday! She is Kelly, of "Kelly's Corner" blog. She will get her best present ever in a couple of weeks when Harper is born. I am so looking forward to us hanging out with our girls. Kelly knows me and makes me laugh like no other friends. I love you! Kelly and I lived together for 7 years after college. She is like my sister, for sure. I would post a picture, but Steve changed something on the computer and I don't know how to find them anymore. We are having lunch today and Emily and I are so excited. We love being around Kelly. Kelly, I hope your day is WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!

I kept SK's little friend, Wells, today for a little while. We loved having him here. SKwas so excited to have a friend over to play. She screamed with excitement. I think it was a little much and a little loud for Wells. Look at his expression. Notice SK kept her hand on him most of the time. Both their Daddies went to Mississippi State. Come back to visit us any day Wells!

I fed SK some carrots on Sat night. She was not too excited, but I think she also might have been too full to want them. She had just eaten some rice cereal. Thanks to our wonderful neighbors, Santa and Mrs. Claus came to our neighborhood. Emily told Santa that she wanted a Tinker Bell toy. Emily had a wonderful evening!

I told Emily that I wanted to take her and SK's picture since they were dressed alike. Emily went and got this "Nerd" flavored lip gloss and insisted Sarah Kate have some too. Sarah Kate was loving every minute of Emily putting the "lipstick" on her, as Emily calls it. I am sure it probably says..."not recommended for children under three" somewhere on the package. I didn't figure it could hurt them. Ready for the picture! These little shirts were a Christmas gift from my cousin. Emily was thinking she was looking good...... and I have to say, she was! Emily was yelling that Sarah Kate was getting her. Merry Christmas!

Sarah Kate slept all through the night! Went to bed at 8:30 and we did not hear from her till 6:40. Tuesday night I just let her cry when she wanted to be fed. I did not pick her up, but I would pat her and give her back her pacifier. She cried for two hours straight. It made me so sad, but I think it is the key to get her to sleep. Thank you Lord for answering this prayer!

I have not posted in a while and I was just hoping I would be able to report that Sarah Kate is sleeping through the night. NOPE! But....I am very encouraged with her sleeping lately. I tried a combination of just giving her water, rocking her back to sleep and crying for 5 to 15 minute intervals. She has slept 6 hours for 2 nights in the last last couple of weeks. When we went to my folks for Thanksgiving, she woke up every hour the first night. I was so tired. On our travels to South Arkansas, we stopped at my school: Ouachita Baptist University! I love that place! I told Emily that this was mama's school and she said at least 10 times, "I want to go to Mama's school!" I hope she is still saying that 15 years from now! My parents recently returned from Hawaii and they brought Emily this lei. She was proud. Mama, me and Sarah Kate on Thanksgiving night. Emily having fun with cousin Kendall. Sarah Kate in her Christmas dress from my cousin, Denise.

Sarah Kate was 5 months old on Friday. Time is going by too fast! Just before bath time. Our church asked us if we could decorate for Christmas early this year so the church could film it for some videos during December services. I decorated our dining room and then they decided not to do the filming this year and wait till next Christmas. So, my dining room is ready for guests. I enjoyed getting everything ready! This weekend was my best friend's baby shower. It was all really nice and I had a wonderful time seeing all the cute things. These cookies are the cutest in the world! Me and Kelly. Kelly and her sweet mom, Judy. Elizabeth, John Michael, Judy (Scott's Mom) and Mary Avery.

This little baby girl is almost 5 months old. Time flies! She is STILL waking up EVERY three hours through the night to eat. She needs to sleep and I need to sleep!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have done the basics of Baby Wise and it didn't work. I know it is just a bad habit for her to wake and eat, but it makes me too sad to just close the door and let her cry. Do you have any suggestion on how to make her sleep longer? Here is E watching Curious George. Last night, I gave her a BIG ole bowl of rice cereal thinking this was the key to sleep. NOPE. She LOVED it! She would grab my hand as it got to her mouth. This is Steve when he returned from his hunting trip with Scott. I don't think Disney World would have made him any happier. He had the time of his life.

We ended our trick or treating by going to Kelly and Scott's house. Emily LOVED this little dog!!! She called it "sweetie." We ate some wonderful cake and I looked at Harper's darling room. Here the girls are just before going out into the neighborhood. Emily did not know what to think about this night. My baby bunny.

Emily wanted to make more pictures in Sarah Kate's crib. It does make for a safe place for Emily to hold her baby sister. I don't think these realistic pictures are serving the purpose that I thought they would. Typically, Steve is the one that reads the Bible to Emily at night. Last night Steve was not feeling well and so I was the bedtime parent. I began reading this story about God breathing life into Adam and Emily exclaims, "WOOK MAMA, that girl got a big booger coming out!" Wook, it a BIG BOOGER!" I tried to explain the picture without laughing. I don't think she heard a word of the story.

Here are pictures of Emily's Bibles for anyone who may be interested. They both have beautiful, very realistic pictures in them and ask a simple little question at the end of each story. Emily was very proud to pose with the Bibles and she was very impressed with her tongue being out in the first one. She said, "I funny Mama!"

Tonight, me and my girls had a fun evening with my beautiful friend, Kim. Emily has always taken a special liking to Kim. We had Mexican food and then went to Pet Smart and then to Lifeway to buy Emily a new Bible. Being at Pet Smart was sooooo fun...like a mini zoo! I wanted to find a Bible with life-like pictures in it. I just don't like the cartoon looking Bible pictures. We have a wonderful Bible that we have read through at least four times and I wanted her to have a new one with more stories and beautiful pictures. I also bought myself a Joni Erikson Tada book on Christians suffering. Hillary: These pictures are for YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We left on Friday to go to Steve's cousin's wedding in Dallas. We had a great weekend and were also able to see some of my family in Dallas. This is my Dad's brother, Jerry and Aunt KK and Jason. Emily and Aunt KK did some art together. This is Steve and I before the rehearsal dinner. On the 16th Steve and I celebrated four wonderful years of marriage. I waited a LONG time to get married, but Steve was worth the wait. We have so much fun being together. This Justin and Cissy. Cissy and Justin really entertained Emily! (Steve's brother and his wife) The girls before the wedding. Our family picture before leaving for the wedding. I don't have any wedding pictures because we left our camera in the car and it was valet parking and we could not get to it.