Laurie's Life

Emily had her first day of Mother's Day Out. She had a super good day! She looks very very sleepy in this picture. When you click on the picture, notice the gobs of lotion on her hand and arm. When I give E lotion or soap, she always says, "want big Mama." That means a lot. Sarah Kate is 10 weeks old. When Emily was 10 weeks, my wonderful friend, Kim, came and took lots of pictures of her in this dress, on this changing table, with this blanket. Kim is an excellent photographer. Kim, I needed you today for these. I tried to capture the same look. The pictures Kim took were so good that I had some of them framed and they are hanging in our hall. I just love my girls so much and I am so thankful for them.

Here is Sarah Kate after she got her 2 month shots. The day was better then I expected. I pre-medicated her before we went to the Dr. This made a big difference. Her little legs were very tender and red, but she was a trooper. We visited MS and South Arkansas this past weekend and week. We had a great time with family! Here is Emily and her cousin Jackson. They had so much fun running. Emily and Kay-K after Emily woke up. BIG NEWS FOR LITTLE E: She used the potty 3 times at my parents house! We are all so proud! Sarah Kate sleeping in her favorite place: a swing. I know this is a bad habit, but she loves it My parents bought this rain forest swing for her while we were at their house.

Baby Sarah Kate was two months old yesterday. And...on her two month birthday, she slept 8 hours last night! I feel so good today! I have not said anything about this lately, but Emily has still been having LOTS of trouble staying in her bed. I started using a gate about 3 weeks ago and THAT was the answer. She has not gotten up one time this week in the afternoon or at night. This is a huge praise for us. If you looked on Kelly's Korner, you saw Emily visiting the wedding dress store. She had the time of her life. She has not stopped talking about it. I think we have gotten through the bed time troubles, now we must conquer potty training and getting rid of her pacifer, known as "cissy."

I put my girls in matching dresses today. I wanted their picture made together, but it is hard getting Emily to hold her sister for more than 3 seconds. Emily asks to hold her all the time, but then as soon as she gets her she will say, "Mama hold her!" I am thrilled to say that Sarah Kate had her best day ever yesterday. This was the first night that she did not have a 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. crying spell. Yeah! I really think she is going to turn out to be a good baby. She is 7 weeks old now. Time flies when you are having fun! Sarah Kate looks so much like Emily did at this age.

I found Sarah Kate cheering for the Razorbacks the other day!

We are so blessed to have a wonderful church nursery. Emily has had a favorite nursery worker since she was 3 or 4 months old. Her name is Sammy. She is the only one who has been able to calm Emily when she cries. Sammy spoils Emily and has always called her "my girl." She gave Emily and SK these outfits recently. I have waited for the day they could wear them. Just had to share this picture!

I love this little dress that Sarah Kate is wearing today. One of my best friends, Beth, sent this to me many months ago after we found out we were having a girl. Beth is always so sweet to send me little gifts. Beth is a great friend and prayer warrior. Steve even commented how cute this dress was-I think he was just glad to see some blue! Emily is so in love with her baby sister! She tells everyone that she has a baby sister. Emily just beams when she is around her. Sarah Kate likes her too. She started smiling last week and she loves to smile at Emily. Friends from church gave us this WONDERFUL book case. Emily's Pop hung it up for her. When Emily saw it she said, OH NO, MY BOOKS!" I think she thought her books had been pinned to the wall. Sarah Kate at 5 weeks.

Our church and neighborhood have been so good to us! Steve's parents left on Thursday morning after helping me out for about a week. I was so thankful to have them here. I knew I could make it with two babies, but God has not made the load too heavy. Thursday afternoon my precious friend, June, called and wanted to know if Emily would like to come play with her little girl. This was a blessing because I needed to write some thank you notes. Then on Friday afternoon another friend invited Emily over to swim and play. Again, I was able to get some much needed things done. I have another friend who is taking Emily to VBS with her and her son. See what I mean? God sends people to help us out! I love this dress that I got at a shower. But, IT IS SO TIGHT ON HER! Bless her heart! Sometimes looking good can be very uncomfortable. Here is a must have for a newborn- "Swaddle Me" blanket. A neighbor gave me this one last week to borrow. I LOVE it! Steve calls it ...

One of my best and lifelong friends, Kelly, came to see me this week. We had a great visit and I loved introducing Sarah Kate to her. Kelly is so good with babies. Here is Emily doing her ballet. She loves to sing and dance. Today Sarah Kate got dressed up for a little outing to a friends house. I love her tiny shoes. I have a picture very similar to this one that was made when Emily was the same age. Emily was skinny, Sarah Kate is a "filled out" baby. We have been so blessed to have our Sunday School and our neighborhood do meals for us. They have been soooooooooooooo good! Steve and I are going to have another baby just so we can get the nice meals. It has been so nice not to have to worry about cooking.

Emily was two and a half last week . This picture shows her artistic skill of a girl with a bow. I am pretty impressed! I taught elementary art for twelve years before staying at home with Emily. I started loving art when I was about three. I loved to draw the characters on Sesame Street. Happy 4th of July! Sarah Kate is wearing her new red, white and blue sleeper. Steve's brother and his wife are here this weekend visiting us. We have had a good time. Emily is getting very spoiled by Uncle Justin and Aunt Cissy! Last night Sarah Kate had her first official outing. We ate at Chili's and she did good until my last bite and she woke up screaming. The Lord has answered our prayers. My best friend, Kelly, is having a BABY! We have prayed for them for many months. When I was pregnant, I would usually wake up around 2:00 a.m. and stay awake till 5:oo am. I would always use some of that time to pray that Kelly would get pregnant. This is such a blessing. Kelly and Scot...

Sunday afternoon one of my best friends, Hillary came over. Hillary has a little flower tattoo on her toe. Emily was really interested in the tattoo. After Hillary had been gone several hours, Emily began talking about the flower tattoo and that she wanted one. I told E that maybe we could find her a tattoo sometime and that seemed to satisfy her. A few minutes later Emily did her little "I be right back." She came back a few minutes later proudly wearing her own flower tattoo on her toe. She was so proud and insisted that I get one too. I think she did pretty good, notice the stem. Sarah Kate is doing good. She is hungry ALL the time. She weighed 8 lbs 1 oz, so she is a big girl. We are sure enjoying her. Emily is crazy about her. She is a wonderful big sister.

While making the Sarah Kate birth slide show, we reviewed all of our pictures taken this year. We realized very quickly how thankful we are that Jesus has allowed us to enjoy so many blessings in such a short time.

Sarah Kate Slide Show

I am going to let Steve post some pictures and write some things. We just got home from the hospital and I AM SO tired! Emily is a proud big sister. She is loving being helpful. I am off to take a little snooze.................

I went to the Dr yesterday. My body is ready! The baby just does not want to come. We are all soooooooooooo anxious to meet her. I keep thinking, "this is the day!', but go to bed disappointed. Yesterday I went to a baby store and saw a shirt that said, "OH LORD, PLEASE DELIVER ME!" I wanted to buy it, but I figured it would be a waste of money at this point. I will be induced Monday morning at 6:00 if she does not come by then. Blog friends- please pray that Sarah Kate will come SOON and all will go well with her birth and health. Thanks!

All the parents are here and we are just waiting for the first labor pain. I feel fine. Earlier in the week I was having really intense Braxton Hicks but now, not a thing seems to be happening. I worked in the nursery at church this morning and NO baby was happy with me. I know it was not comfortable to rest upon a basketball that kicked. Poor children! Well..... just wanted to give the latest.

My due date is June 10th and that is just around the corner. Let me just say that I am puffed! I took off my wedding ring yesterday because I thought I may lose circulation in my finger. My feet look awful! I have two pairs of shoes I can wear. I am having lots of Braxton Hicks and they serve as a reminder of the pain I am going to have any day now. A couple of weeks ago I saw a Braums commercial for their Brownie Fudge Sundae. The commercial got me! I had Steve take me to Braums the next day. It is SOOOOO very very good. You must go and partake of this wonderful treat! When you see me or my picture you may question whether I have water weight or just too much Braums. I think it is both. But, the ice cream is good for my heart burn. (I like to tell myself that).

Last Sunday, after church ,we went out to eat and I spotted a poster and some "free" tickets for a circus this weekend. We talked the circus up to Emily all week. But, I think I was more excited about it than she was. We invited some friends to go with us and we were all happy to be taking our children to their first circus. We when got to the circus grounds, we counted 5 cars on the parking lot , that should have been our first clue. We saw no big top tent , only 4 or 5 trailers and a bus that said circus. As we walked to the little arena, we all spotted the sign at the same time: $15 per adult. We looked at each other and said,"You have got to be kidding!" We did see some pony rides going on with the 3 children who were there . Steve asked a man if we could just pay for a pony ride and leave. We felt really sorry for the circus people, but we were NOT going to pay $ 30 for a little "circus" that could have been set up in our liv...

I have a best friend during pregnancy and it is a little chalky disc called a TUMS! I SUFFER from heartburn during pregnancy and it is just miserable. I don't like the name heartburn because I would describe it more as "throatburn." I have two sensations in my throat at all times: 1. The first is a feeling of acid bubbling in my esophagus. I tell Steve all the time that if I pass in the night it is because my esophagus just melted from the acid. We can hear the acid popping in my throat. 2. After I take a Tums or Pepcid or drink a little milk, I feel as if I have a huge lump of biscuit dough stuck in my throat. I keep Tums by my bed at night and usually take about 6 through the night. Yesterday when Emily came in at 6:00 and stood about 2 inches from my face as I kept my eyes closed, she said, "Mama take you medicine." I opened my eyes and saw she was holding the last Tums I had left on the bedside table. I really didn't feel the need to take the T...

I am very thankful that my parents have been here for almost a week. They left this morning. I enjoyed them being here and they were so helpful with Emily. She is a handful! I loved having my mother here for Mother's Day. It has been nice to get ready in the morning and have people here to watch Emily. I usually just rush and pray she does not burn the house down or something worse. My mother helped with laundry and did many other things to help. I am grateful!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here is Emily giving Kristen the cat some treats. Emily would feed her the whole bag if I let her. Emily loves Sisten, as she calls her, but Kristen DOES NOT like her. Actually, Kristen does not like anyone but me. Emily on Mother's Day.