meet Marie :-)

In case you haven't heard, we're thrilled to announce that Katherine has a little sister!

We had an "announcement" party at Uncle Tom's on Sunday, complete with cake balls to announce our little girl. One cake ball was dyed pink in the middle-- we forgot to snap pictures before Aunt Mary ate it, but it was fun to celebrate with family.

We've decided on the name Marie, although her middle name is still undecided. Now that we've seen some good photos of Marie, she seems ready to announce herself a bit more too. She's been kicking for a couple weeks now where only Mommy could feel her, but lately her kicks have been big enough that Daddy can sometimes feel them too!!

It was also a lot of fun to see all the progress Uncle Tom has made on his house!! It's almost ready for the market as you can see in these pictures:

We're very proud of Uncle Tom, and we're of course very excited about our baby girl (although to be fair, we'd be thrilled with a baby boy too... or even both)!! ;-)

guess who!

Mommy and Daddy got to see our little Baby on the ultrasound yesterday! The ultrasound tech said that Baby looks great and is right on track for a November 22nd birth.

The ultrasound tech also said that baby was very stubborn! He/she sat up breech (which isn't a birthing concern, but apparently makes it very difficult to get a good look on the ultrasound) and had his/her legs crossed for most of the appointment, making it especially difficult to get a gender shot.

BUT-- the tech was able to get a "good estimate," and called in a more experienced tech for a second opinion. They both agreed that Baby is a................................

we won't give it to you that easy!! ;-) We're having a "reveal" party tomorrow at Uncle Tom's, and we'll post it on the blog after that. Until then, happy guessing!!

We love Daddy!

Even though we're a bit past Father's Day (Katherine and Baby have been a bit too exhausted to post lately) ;-), we thought we'd share some of our favorite things about Daddy!

• Daddy's kisses are a little bit scratchy from his beard, so they always tickle Katherine and make her giggle
• Daddy loves to carry Katherine up high on his shoulders, so she feels like she's the Queen of the World
• Daddy takes AMAZING care of Katherine, and she's lucky to spend so much quality time with her dad
• When Daddy burps it makes the whole house shake (please note that even though Katherine thinks this is funny, it is NOT one of Mommy's favorite features about Daddy) ;-)
• Daddy runs to the store to get ANY food that Baby is craving (so far this includes limitless Chinese, tater tots at 10pm, and more Sour Patch Kids than Mommy cares to confess)
• Mommy loves to get up early with Katherine in the mornings. Whenever Katherine hears Daddy coming down the stairs, she gets a huge smile and yells "Daaa-dee! Daa-deeee!!"
• Daddy has the best snuggles, and is always ready with a hug
• Daddy comes to every prenatal checkup to hear Baby's heart beat, and we'll get to see Baby at our ultrasound on Friday!
• Daddy prays for an blesses his children every night (and many times a day) and is a wonderful leader and example of love in our home :-)

We all love so many things about Daddy, and we're so thankful for all he does for us! Happy (belated) Father's Day to Daddy, as well as to Opa, Grandpop, Uncle Dave, Uncle Dante (who's also Katherine's Godfather), and all dads! 

Katherine's First Haircut!!

We promise to a Father's Day post later today (we need to celebrate how wonderful Daddy is!), but Mommy wanted to post Katherine's first haircut story, as I was far too tired to last night. :-)

Katherine's hair has been getting quite long now for a couple of months, to the point that it's really quite wild and out of control:

Additionally, Katherine has become quite the master at removing any hair restraints-- bows, ponytail holders... in about 2 seconds. Her favorite time to take her hair tie out is in the middle of a meal, so she manages to get goopy, sticky food in her hair while she takes it all out. To top it all off, her hair was hanging into her eyes, so she couldn't see anything, and she'd never let you move it to the side.

To say the least, Mommy (and Daddy and pretty much everyone who takes care of Katherine) had enough.

So yesterday right when Katherine woke up from her nap, Mommy got her a big cup of warm chocolate milk and some cookies to help her sit still. Daddy brought a bunch of distracting toys down, and Mommy began cutting her hair:

It started off okay-- a little bit stressful, but not too bad. Then came Katherine's bangs. Mommy cut her bangs, and then ran out of the room screaming because Katherine looked so different. After 5 minutes of screaming in the bedroom, Mommy came down to finish the job (quick confession from Mommy-- after I finished cutting Katherine's hair I cried for half an hour because I was sure I ruined all of Katherine's baby pictures for forever).


Luckily after Mommy calmed down she realized Katherine's hair hadn't turned out nearly as awfully as she originally thought, and we're all relieved to have her hair out of her beautiful eyes:

Even though Mommy is already laughing about Katherine's first hair cut, there is NO way she's cutting Katherine's hair again for at least another year (that job will probably go to Grambie)! ;-)

We should also mention that Katherine did a great job with the haircut, and with all the special treats, certainly seems happy to repeat the adventure any time!

"night night!"

Somewhat surprisingly, one of Katherine's favorite times of day is bedtime. When she's tired, if you ask her, "Katherine, do  you want to go night night?" She'll snuggle her head up onto you and say, "yeaaaaah... nigh nigh!"

She then goes through her routine in a very particular order... bath time (which she now insist we not skip-- even when Mommy and Daddy are too exhausted to clean her), milk, prayers, and kisses. On a good night, after about 100 kisses each, Mommy and Daddy tuck Katherine in with George and Blankie, and she happily snuggles up and goes to sleep.

Katherine, however, recently discovered that if she asks for kisses, Mommy and Daddy almost certainly won't leave the room or put her down. Sometimes she'll pull out crocodile tears and smack her lips asking for more kisses for almost ten minutes before Mommy and Daddy give up and (heartbroken) leave her to fall asleep on her own.

Luckily, tonight (and most nights) are pretty smooth, and leave us with a happy, peaceful toddler:

Mommy and Daddy can't help but sneak in every night and gaze at her lovingly. We also now leave her toys from "the Toy Fairy" on her changing table (which is connected to her crib) for her to play with when she wakes up. :-)

Happy Birthday Grambie!!

Happy Birthday Grambie!! We certainly hope today was joyful and relaxing for you!

Grambie can probably use a bit of relaxing after spoiling Katherine all weekend... Grambie and Grandpop  gave Katherine an extra special weekend while Mommy and Daddy took a getaway to a Bed and Breakfast in Grove City.

Mommy and Daddy spent the weekend shopping at Grove City Outlets, eating at some cute local restaurants, sleeping, and playing disc golf at Moraine State Park.

<--Mommy pretending to play disc golf



Daddy doing a great job playing disc golf--->

Katherine spent the weekend playing, snuggling, and being just the right amount of spoiled by Grambie and Grandpop. :-)

Katherine sure know she's blessed to have such a special Grambie, and we're all incredibly thankful for the love and support she shares with us. Happy Birthday-- we love you!!

Our "BIG" Texas Trip

We know we've been missing out on blogging lately, but here's a Texas sized post from our Texas trip to satisfy your blogger cravings. ;-)

Recently Julie's job blessed us with a kinda sorta vacation. Mommy was able to visit baby stores in the great nation of Texas, so Daddy and Katherine decided to tag a long and visit Oma and Opa! Hooray! We had a very productive and fun trip! Some of the highlights were creating a winter wonderland and floating space shuttles, what??

We certainly couldn't go to Texas without having some steak...

This is us all helping to make snowmen signs for Aunt Mary Beth and Casey's big day (they're getting married on December 1st)!

Aren't they cute??

This certainly was a sight to see... At least if it isn't going into space, it is going for a fancy boat ride! We happened to be driving by the shuttle whenever it was being transported to one of its new museum homes.

Katherine especially liked being spoiled by Opa! Of all the toys in the souvenir shop, Katherine went straight for her very own purse. 

She loved seeing all of the fish at the aquarium too!

She had kind of mixed feelings about the water fountain, but we certainly enjoyed being cooled off

The Texas Gals :-)

We went to the park at Kemah as well and as per usual, the slide was quite the hit!

Mommy and Daddy were especially thankful for some great babysitting from Oma and Opa. We got to enjoy several dinners together and sleep in almost every day! It was a fantastic trip, and it was certainly hard to leave.