Texas Trip- Part One

Starting with the most important event of the trip....NO, not mine and Pete's trip to Cancun! Katie's Birthday of course! (Cancun comes in second for importance.....trips with your husband are an essential part of marriage!)

On July 19th my baby girl, Katherine Brooke, turned 2! I love this age! She is so much fun!

The early morning inducement appointment for Katie started with a trip to Walmart for batteries....not sure what the batteries were for....the video camera, maybe? I was five days passed my due date and already having contractions. Katie's birth was by far the easiest....so easy that I felt a little guilty. Shouldn't I wait a little longer to get that epidural? Nah, I did that with Alli and Tori.....who needs pain! So after about 6 1/2 hours of "laboring" (I say "laboring" because, is it really laboring when you don't feel any of the real contractions?) Katie was born at 12:56.....I really wanted it to be 12:57 because Alli was born at 7:47am and Tori was born at 10:17am. But the nurse said she couldn't fudge on the the birth time...
Katie came out screaming, really screaming! They gave her to me right away and when I spoke to her, she immediately stopped crying and looked at me with those big blue eyes. It was the best feeling in the world!
Today, Katie loves to play with her sisters. She will follow them around and just do whatever they want her to- most of the time. Every once in awhile, her stubborn two-year old ways come out and she wont do anything they want her to. She loves to watch the movie E.T. We watched it for the first time while in San Antonio. She sat there with her eyes wide and mouth open for almost the whole movie! It was really funny! Any time E.T. was not on the screen, she would ask, "Where E.T. go?" She loves to play outside and will swing and slide all day long if I let her. She has a bit of a mean streak. She hits and pinches. Sometimes she will tense up and then bite whatever is closest to her- a table, chair, the grocery cart, her sisters, and most of the time she will bite herself. But, for the most part, she is a sweet angel. And so stinkin' cute that I can't help myself from kissing and hugging her. She also is a silly little girl. She loves to be silly and make us laugh.
So silly!

And her are some pics from her party.

It is GOOD to be Home

What a great time we had in Texas!

I can't say enough about how AWESOME my family is! I love to be around my family! They are so great! We had a blast just hanging out for the last 4 weeks!!

During the last four weeks Alli learned to swim and her fear of water is almost gone, she lost another tooth, and she spent the night with her "best friend in the whole world" Paige. Tori kicked her way across the pool while holding on to a kick board without an ounce of hesitation, she added even more My Little Ponies to her collection, and she amazed everyone with just how smart she is. Katie turned two years old and she became obsessed with E.T........she LOVES the movie E.T. and asks to watch it at least a hundred times a day. Katie also had her first ER visit. Her elbow was pulled out of place while my mom and I were trying to lift her off of Tori. This is something that is quite common. It is called a Nurse Maid's Elbow. I have had two friends go through the same experience with their toddler. Luckily, my mom lives just minutes away from the hospital. And the ER visit was shorter than most of my visits with the pediatrician.

We were on the go meeting up with friends and family just about every day. I was so happy to be able to see all of my family and a lot of my friends while I was there. I am already planning my trip for next summer. As always, staying with my mom was great. She is the best grandma and we are just blessed to have her in our lives. She spoiled the girls rotten for the last two months and now Pete and I are left to do the de-spoiling!

Pete arrived in Texas on the 17th of July. Two days later we celebrated Katie's 2nd birthday. And then the next day, Pete and I were off to celebrate 10 years (a little early) of wedded bliss!!! We spent four nights in Cancun at The Ritz-Carlton. It was great!

I'll post pictures of our Texas trip soon. In the mean time, I have about five suitcases to unpack! On top of the unpacking, I have to relearn how to cook and clean and do laundry!

I am looking forward to catching up with everyone. I was so busy or just on the go all the time that I did not even have time to check in on blogs!

Pictures soon...And it really is so good to be home!