The Family Tree

Listing off the family, including pets...

Happy Birthday!

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

I put Riley to bed most every night, and our routine is to rock for a few minutes, while I sing to her, then she goes to bed. So tonight, we give daddy his kisses, wave night night to Millie, and I head upstairs and sit in the rocker. I got one verse into Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and she points, and wants in her bed. So I tuck her in, and she looks up and sings TTLS to me, as serious as she can! Melts my heart! Chris and I are enjoying the silence of the night in the living room, and she is still singing to herself.

It's the little things like these moments that make me proud to be a mom and wife!

Katherine's Nursery

Now that we've introduced Katherine, here is her nursery. Our two "guest" rooms upstairs are full-on girlie! Riley's room is all pink, so I went with a purple theme for Katherine.

This is the door hanger Joy painted for us. She is very talented, and it is much appreciated.

It was my idea for the purple stripes, so we had a weekend in June where we tackled the project, and I must say, I love it! We successfully transitioned Riley out of her crib right after July 4th, and she loves her "big girl bed". Katherine now has the crib and chest of drawers ready, along with one of two closets dedicated to her.

The new bedding for the guest bed, and changing table.
The recliner in the corner is a gift from Chris's grandparents. Our old one is showing it's age, and Riley now prefers to rock before bedtime in this chair, before we go to her room to put her down.
This is the long dormer we have in both rooms, and Katherine's dormer is a storage space for all things baby gear. Swing, bouncy chair, exersaucer, jumper, and a spare chair at the end!

I'm thrilled with how the room came together, and now we are just waiting on her arrival!

It's Party Time!

This weekend, we had a small birthday party with our neighbors to help celebrate Riley turning two next weekend. We are very fortunate to have such great neighbors, as I'm sure I've mentioned multiple times throughout the blog. We had a simple hot dog lunch, with some cupcakes and ice cream. Perfect for a hot Saturday lunch!

Here are some of our friends.

The birthday girl.
She was debating on blowing out the candles. She will blow on her food that is "hot", but wasn't sure what to do with candles!
Riley's friend Evelyn came to help celebrate.

Bobbi needs to make cupcakes for Tom more often, because from this face, it's been a while since he's indulged!

Thanks for coming to celebrate with us. Next weekend we are traveling to Columbus to have a family celebration.

Introducing Katherine Grace

With all the pictures lately of Riley, I can't forget to post about baby Katherine who is on her way, due September 24.

The dates and her age are a little hard to read, but this was our first picture we have of her. It was taken on Feb. 5, 2010, and she's a whopping 7 weeks old. Unfortunately, this was during all my sick visits to the ER and doctors offices, but this was our verification that she was still with us.


March 22, 2010, 13 weeks, 3 days along in the incubating process. She's waving both hands above her head, and she's showing off her beautiful spine. She's also got two cute feet she's stretching out.

May 10, 2010, 20 weeks, 3 days. IT'S A GIRL! And Chris's first response was "well, we've now got 2 weddings to pay for!" We are thrilled to have 2 little girls!

May 26, 2010, 22 weeks, 5 days. Katherine is following in her sister's footsteps in uncooperative ultrasounds. We had to return 2 weeks after the above pictures were taken so they could get a good look at her heart, since she wasn't interested in rolling over during our prior visit.

As of this post, I'm 32 weeks, 3 days along. Katherine is proving to be much more active than Riley was, which I didn't think was possible. She's loves morning power yoga, followed by an intense kickboxing routine, and repeats. She spends her spare time mastering the art of punching while hiccuping and is determined to break my bottom two ribs with a swift kick, karate style.

We have about 8 more weeks until we "think" we get to meet her. Nursery pictures coming soon!!!