Good Night, Baby Girl

I can hardly believe this picture was taken a year ago.  It was the first time I held Kaylee and I loved that she held my finger.  Now it's almost 10 o'clock at night and tomorrow is my baby girl's birthday.  I swear the time passes more quickly with the second child.  Now that I'm busy chasing two babies around I find that suddenly Kaylee is just doing some of the things we would have been working on with Austin for weeks before he mastered.  Things like crawling, standing, rolling a ball... she just amazes me every day with the things she does.

I love my Kaylee.  She is so sweet.  She gives snuggles which are often accompanied with a sweet little sigh that I just adore. She loves to play with her brother, and he loves to play with  her.  One of their new favorite things to do together is for her to sit on his Elmo car and he pushes her through the house.  She does a good job of staying on, and they both love it.

I remember coming home from the hospital with Kaylee and Joseph had to go to work the next day.  I was terrified.  I felt so inadequate and overwhelmed with caring for Austin (who really was still a baby himself at only18 months) and caring for this tiny, completely dependent little person.  Kaylee was so easy from the beginning though.  She was a good sleeper and by 8 weeks old she was sleeping 8 hours at night.

I think one of the things I love most about Kaylee is that she looks like me. I love that people tell me we look alike.  I think she is the most beautiful little girl, so it's a complement to me that people think she resembles me.

Oh, Kaylee.  There are so many, many things going through my head tonight.  Daddy put you to bed tonight and I kind of missed that chance to hold you before you fell asleep to tell you how wonderful you are and how amazing the last year has been.  I guess I'll just have to tell you tomorrow.  Good night, baby girl.  I love you with all of my heart.  I can't wait to see your sweet smile in the morning.  I love your dimples, your giggles, and everything else about you.  I love your sweetness and the curls in your hair.  It's amazing to me that you will be a big girl tomorrow, but you'll always be my baby.

If you've got to be something...

At church on Sunday an elderly brother in our ward was talking to me while I was holding Kaylee. He asked if he could see her, so I turned her toward him. He then said, "Well, if you've got to be something, you might as well be beautiful." I loved it. It was such a cute way of saying she was pretty. So, speaking of her beauty, I came across some pictures I never posted of her 3 month shoot back in February. 

Snuggling Pooh

This one just makes me smile. I love that tiny mouth.

Hello bright eyes.

This was Kaylee's blessing dress. She's so pretty in pink.

I just fell in love with the heart shaped buttons on the back of the dress.

Precious baby, oh how I love you!

Happy Easter!

We meant to do this little photo shoot on Easter, but things just weren't working out and Kaylee had this awful rash, so we decided to wait.  After trying for almost a month we finally got together for our Easter photo shoot. The kids loved playing with the eggs, but Austin was a little bummed that there were no treats in the eggs this time. This is Kaylee, Austin, and their sweet cousin Lyla.

Austin Loves...

Austin got "letters" for his birthday.  Yesterday he wanted to play with them.  I thought we'd leave a cute little message for Daddy to discover on the side of the fridge, so I wrote "Austin loves Daddy.  Then I said, who else do you love?  He said Gramps.  So we added Gramps's name.  Then I asked who else Austin loves and he said, " Grandma Wilde?" (It really sounded like it was a question.)  So we added her name.  I then asked about Mommy, Kaylee, Grandpa Wilde, & Grandma Lisa; and of course he said yes to them all. I think it is so sweet that Austin wanted to say "I love you" to more than just his Daddy.

I'm Two!

If you ask Austin how old he is, he will respond in the cutest little happy voice, "I'm two!" as he tries to figure out how to hold only two fingers up at once on one hand. It's adorable. It's amazing that our little boy is already two. Can two years have already passed since the day he was born? It doesn't seem possible, and yet, it's hard to remember life without him. My cousin once told me that with motherhood "The days are long, but the years are short." I couldn't agree more.

Austin's birthday was actually yesterday, but we wanted to have time to have a little party for him so we waited to celebrate until today. Grandma Lisa came out from CA, and my sister and her family came out too. We had a special birthday lunch together of what we think is Austin's favorite food - baked potato soup - which we served in bread bowls, with veggies on the side and juice to drink. Austin loves juice, we don't have it often so when we do it is a special treat for him.

Here he is enjoying his birthday meal. :)

He then opened presents. He got many wonderful gifts and was almost too excited with each to even want to think about opening the next. His favorite gift was probably his Trike. He loves it! He just can't quite reach the pedals yet.

I made an Elmo cake for Austin. Three dimensional with cakepops for the eyes and nose so it is all edible. The cake was a doctored up chocolate cake mix with a coconut-cream cheese frosting. Cute and yummy!

Make a wish!

Hello, Elmo!

Austin loves birthday cake! Daddy bought raspberry sherbert to have with it. It was delicious!

Of course Kaylee & Lyla were hanging out together. They matched without even trying. Cute, I know. :)

So much to share...

Here are some videos from the past several months.

About a month ago Austin came home from Nursery and surprised us with a new song. It has become his favorite song to sing. This may even be the first time that he has ever willingly performed for the camera.




We have a family of piano players!





A collection from our Kitchen, to DC, back to our living room. It is a little bit long, but well worth the time.

Road Trippin' and Fun Stuff

For Thanksgiving we braved the 10 hour + road trip and headed up to Utah to celebrate with Joseph's brother Spencer, his wife Ashley, and their son Calvin. Calvin is 6 weeks older than Kaylee so Austin got to be the big kid for the week.

Here's a picture of the cousin's hanging out. Still small enough to share a blanket. :)

We discovered on this trip that Austin loves to play the piano.
This was his favorite spot all week.

Back in November we took a trip to a park nearby. Austin loves to play in the sprinklers. Who can blame him? Fortunately we live in Phoenix, so it's good weather for that almost all year round.

This is Austin's favorite place to be in the kitchen. In front of the sink with the water running, filling measuring cups, spoons, and whatever else he can find. We're hoping he'll still like rinsing dishes when he's old enough to do this when they are dirty.

Our Little Kaylee

Kaylee's first moments of life.

Holding Mommy's hand.

Snuggling with Daddy.

Well, here we are, a little over 4 months after our last post. Yes, we are still alive. Yes, we do still have plans to blog. Yes, we did have a baby girl in October and yes, she is the most precious thing. Kaylee Laura came into the world on October 5th at 5:41pm. After 7 weeks of bedrest, slow dilating and much contracting, I went to the doctor for my weekly checkup. There we discovered that I was 7 cm dilated and the doctor figured if she didn't send me to the hospital right away we would probably end up having the baby in the car on the way to the hospital since I still was not having consistent contractions. My doctor actually told me to act like I was in pain so they would believe that I was in labor. Joseph kept telling me to stop smiling so they would believe me too, that women in labor probably don't look happy, but I couldn't help but laugh at the whole situation. Delivery was fairly easy and Kaylee has been a joy to have in our lives. She is a great sleeper and is now full of smiles too. Austin loves her to pieces and would probably carry her all around the house if we would let him. He likes to try to roll with her, lay on her, sit with her in her swing, share his toys, and loves to give her hugs and kisses. Of course, as parents we sometimes have to interfere and remind him to be gentle, but he is so sweet to her and is already such a great big brother.

Meeting Austin.

Hanging out in the stroller at the hospital.

The whole family.

All bundled up and ready to go home.

Sleeping at the hospital.

Austin likes sharing everything with his sister. He even gives her a chance to talk on the phone.

Austin taking care of his baby Mickey.

Sleeping with Daddy.

Sleeping little angel. Look at those cute cheeks!