Weekend Update

Hope everyone's having a great weekend! Here are some pics of Kate.  She's in constant action these days.  She only slows down when she's asleep.  In just a few weeks, we will be celebrating her first birthday.  I can't believe it.  My parents and Fred's mom are all coming from Florida.  We are having a small party at the park near our house.  I bought some decorations today.  Should be fun!

Great smile! Kate loves playing with Fred.  He wrestles with her, throws her up in the air, you name it.  She can't get enough of it.  

As her hair grows, she's getting these little curls.  They are very sweet.  I think she gets the curls from Fred.   

We try to hide the toilet paper when Kate's around, but you can see what happens when we forget :)

Inspecting our closet

I guess Alli's learning to read.  We found this book in her crate with her.  I wonder who put it there :)

Mardi Gras Update

Hi all! We've had a relaxing few days here as Kate and I have both been out of school for Mardi Gras.  We skipped the parades, but thoroughly enjoyed being together and outside in the beautiful weather.  Kate was coughing terribly through the night on Sunday, so I took her to the doctor on Monday.  She has Croup.  Apparently it's a virus which attacks the throat and constricts the airways (my loose interpretation).  Anyhoo, a mild steroid was in order and she seems to be doing a lot better.  Here she is "waiting patiently" for the doctor to come in.  She decided to explore the cabinets in the examination room.  They are really smart to leave those empty :)

We've come to learn that when Kate's in another room and things get quiet, we need to check on her.  Sunday afternoon, we were thinking she was pretty quiet in the living room.  This is where we found her, in Alli's crate.  We were wondering how long this would take.  

A few minutes later....

Just two girls, catching up on their gossip :)

Weekend Fun

The weather is beautiful in Baton Rouge this weekend and we are enjoying a lot of time outside. 

I don't think I've ever been in the front yard before.  What can I get into?

Hmm...those look like tasty rocks.

Alli, I love you too!

Has anyone seen Alli?

At the beginning of our trip to the zoo.  Daddy's checking everything out.  

Showing me the elephants.  

Daddy, those elephants are pretty, but have you seen these leaves?

I yelled so loud, these birds talked back to me.

I didn't really want to stay in the stroller.  I wanted to walk around.  

The end of our trip to the zoo.  I was worn out!

Friday Fun Pics - Mardi Gras Edition

Mardi Gras festivities are in full effect throughout Louisiana.  Before we moved here, we thought the celebrations were just in New Orleans, but we have many parades even in Baton Rouge.  There are several this weekend.  We were going to take Kate, but most are in the evening, after her bed time.  We will probably go next year.  I get Monday and Tuesday of next week off, so I will get some time at home with Kate - Yay!  Tomorrow, they are having a Mardi Gras parade at her school.  I have class during the parade, so I can't make it but they assure me they will take pictures.  I hope to be able to share some!  We are also planning to take Kate to the zoo here in Baton Rouge on Saturday, so I'll try to post some pics from that outing next week.  

Now, without further ado, throw me some Friday Fun Pics Mister! Laissez les bons temps rouler! (Let the good times roll!) 

Bath time is one of my favorite times!

I also love rearranging anything, including Daddy's shoes.  

I love my pretty blue hair bow.

I love my new tennis shoes.  I can walk so well in them!

How do I love you?

I hope my dear friend Lacy will forgive me for stealing this from her blog, but these lyrics are just too sweet. I had to share. This is a from a book called How Do I Love You by children's book author PK Hallinan.

How do I love you? Let me count the ways.
I love you on your best and very worst of days.
I love to see you laughing and dancing in the rain.
And even when you lose your shoes, I love you just the same.
I love to hear you singing. I love to see you smile.
I love the way you take each day in your own unhurried style.
I'm happy when you're happy. I'm sorry when you're sad.
And even though it may not show, I love you when you're mad.
How do I love you? Well, now, let me see....
I love the way you act so brave when you fall and hurt your knee.
I love to watch you sleeping, tucked away in pleasant dreams.
I love to hear you whisper all your giant plans and schemes.
I love the way you wear your pants with the front part in the back,
and the way you walk around sometimes with your head inside a sack.
I love to see you deep in thought. I love to watch you play.
And though I'm sure you'll never know, I love you more each day.
How do I love you? It's impossible to say. For if I had a million days,
and time enough for all the praise, I couldn't tell you all the ways...
I love you.

Four Little Lambes

Please say a prayer for this sweet couple in our church - Nick and Kami Lambe. Nick's dad, Ron, is a minister at Istrouma with Fred. Their quadruplets were born last week, at 29 weeks. The babies (1 girl, 3 boys) were all about 2 and 1/2 pounds at birth and they are all still in the NICU, but doing pretty well. If you want to follow their story, read here.

Sloan Olivia Lambe
Rocco Dean Lambe
Madden Jax Lambe
Jagger Cole Lambe

Who needs a stroller?

We were outside grilling out last night and Fred took Kate for a little ride in the wheelbarrow around the yard.  I think she liked it, but she was definitely ready to get out at the end.  

Daddy, can you get me out of here? 

This was Kate's shirt she wore to school for Valentine's Day last Friday.  It says "Daddy's Little Lovebug." Fred calls Kate "bug" so when I saw this shirt at Old Navy, I couldn't pass it up.  You can see how clean the shirt stayed at school.  

Leaving a Legacy

I posted a few new pics of Kate at the end of this post.  You'll notice that my Sunday posts are usually related to what's on my heart spiritually.  This is such an important part of our life and I want to share it with those of you who check in to see how we are doing.  

In the last week of our series at church, we talked about leaving a legacy behind.  I remember when I first started at LSU, my boss who I admire very much asked me what I wanted my legacy to be.  I remember being kind of shaken by that question at the time.  I didn't have an answer.  I'd just finished graduate school and while my new job was really important to me, I knew that I didn't want my job to be my legacy.  I love this song by Nichole Nordeman (my favorite artist).  She talks about leaving a legacy that matters.  Here are some of my favorite lines, followed by the video.  

"Did I choose to love?  Did I point to you enough to make a mark on things?  I want to leave an offering.  Child of mercy and grace who blessed your name unapologetically.  Leave that kind of legacy."  

"Not well-traveled, not well-read.  Not well to-do or well-bred.  I just want to hear instead 'well done, good and faithful worker.'" 

Kate continues her quest to break into Alli's crate. 

She hasn't played with this in a while, but just seemed to notice it again yesterday.

11 months today!

As we celebrate Valetine's Day, we are celebrating Kate's 11-month birthday. Can't believe she'll be 1 soon! We had Parents' Nite Out at church last night so Fred and I had an early night out for Valentine's. It was a lot of fun!

Friday Fun Pics - Valentine's Edition

Happy Friday! This post is in honor of my two Valentine's.  They are so special to me.  I love them with all of my heart.  I remember when Fred and I first met and he told me he could never date a girl like me because he didn't date "high maintenance" girls.  Little did he know just how high maintenance I would be :) I hope to show Kate a picture of true love every day in our home.  I am so blessed to share my life with these two (and Alli).  

Have shoes, will travel

Kate's new shoes - a little scuffed up from school.

Come on Alli, you can't be that tired from running.  Let's play! 

Entertaining mom while she gets ready for work. 

Relaxing and watching a little Baby Einstein.

Who says you can't wear a bow and play with a trash can?  Thanks Aunt Amanda!

Daddy was helping me practice my walking.

Cuddling with Daddy. 

This looks like a fun new thing to play with!

Dinner with the Girls

I have been so blessed in the last few years to be a part of a Girls' Bible Study that meets every other week. We are made up of girls (I wonder how old I'll be when I stop referring to myself as a girl?) from all different denominations and churches. We are linked by our good friend Delaney who introduced us all. She was in town last night from Birmingham (that's where she lives now) and most of us got together for dinner. We had a great time!

Learning Humbly

We are continuing the series on Sundays about only having one month to live. If you're interested in watching this sermons, click here. This week, we talked about Learning Humbly. That's a hard thing to do across the board. I am trying to learn humbly how to be the parent I want to be. A friend at church gave me the advice that the best way to teach your children about forgiveness is to ask for their forgiveness when you do something wrong. I haven't had to ask Kate for forgiveness yet, but I am sure the day is coming :)

We got Kate some new shoes this weekend. Kids' shoes are expensive! I know some of you are laughing at me now :) They are pretty cute and she's walking even more now that she has her big-girl shoes.

Friday Fun Pics

Happy Friday! As promised, here are some Friday fun pics of Kate throughout the week.  One of my jobs this weekend is addressing her first birthday invitations.  I can't believe I am already doing that.  We are also going to buy her some better walking shoes this weekend.  

Playing with kitchen utensils is a favorite past time.  

We are getting this look more and more.  Usually when we tell her not to touch something :)

Hanging out with Alli.

I don't think anyone knows I am down here.  

Learning to walk

Well, the theme of this week is learning to walk.  Despite teeth coming in, a lingering ear-infection and improper shoes (we are going to fix that this weekend), Kate seems more and more determined each day to walk.  Who can blame her?  She's got places to go and walking is the fastest way to get there.  My friend Ashley Beth is a great photographer.  She took some pictures of Kate last October.  A few of them are posted on her blog if you'd like to see them - http://ab-photography.blogspot.com.  You have to scroll down a little way.  She's been telling me about how much better my pictures will turn out if I don't use a flash.  She's right! These were taken without a flash.  Hope everyone's having a great week!

 

I think I can get to that other chair.

I was right! Watch me go! 

Love Completely

Our pastor is doing a sermon series right now about living your life as if you only had one month to live.  This week he talked about the importance of loving completely.  In relationships, we are so selfish and so busy it is hard for us to really focus on loving those most important to us.  When I think about only having one month to live, my priorities get a lot clearer.  I want to spend time with Jesus, my savior and redeemer, in hopes that I might become more like him.  I want to laugh with Fred, hold his hand and talk about nothing with him for hours.  I want to rock Kate to sleep and keep rocking her.  I want to spend time with my family and friends.  Everything else just pales in comparison.  This was a great weekend for that.  Kate was sporting her Gator football uniform for Super Bowl weekend.   When I picked her up from school on Friday, they told me she's been taking steps on her own there.  Sure enough, she can take a few steps on her own.  She's getting closer to walking every day.  My baby is growing up so fast!! 

Sure, I'm excited about the Super Bowl.  Is Tim Tebow playing?

I got Kate this little backpack as an early birthday present.  She has a matching lunch box.  I know, I am ridiculous.  I can't help myself :)