The Wilkinson's

2009-12-22T22:27:00.001-06:00

2009-12-22T22:15:00.001-06:00

we have wii

2009-12-07T19:25:00.005-06:00

We got a wii system as an early christmas present and I love it! It's really fun, and the kids actually can play it too. I was a little shocked to see that Sarah could do it, but to see Philip playing! That was very entertaining :) In this video they're boxing and unbelievably, they won! (beginner level of course!)

You never know what she's going to say!

2009-11-24T13:46:00.004-06:00

Lately Sarah has said a few really sweet or funny things that I just have to share. Philip is a whole different animal from Sarah. He's wild and always moving. I was trying to put Philip's shoes on and he kept moving his legs making it a bit difficult for me. =) I kept saying, " Stop it Philip, stop it!" and Sarah responded by saying, " Mommy, he can't help it. Boys CAN"T stop!" I couldn't decide if I was just completely confused or entertained. I have no idea where she got that idea, but it cracked me up.

Then later that day Sarah noticed the sunset through the window in her bedroom. Philip and I were in the room with her and after she got a good look at the sunset she turned to Philip and said, "Come with me," as she held out her hand for Philip to hold. She took Philip to the front door to look out at the sunset where he could see it better. I stood back and just watched them for a moment. After a second, Sarah put her hand on Philip's back and said in the sweetest softest voice (pointing at the sky), " God made those colors Philip." She continued talking to him about how God made the sunset and sky and all the colors in it. It was one of the sweetest things I had ever seen, watching my daughter teach her little brother about God. It was precious!

Today, when nap time was coming to an end, I could hear Sarah and Philip talking in their room, so I went to go get them. As I'm approaching their room I found Sarah roaming the living room. She was surprised to see me and jumped anticipating that she will be in trouble. I said to her, " What are you doing?"

With a very serious face, she replied with,

" In my life and my heart, I don't know where I was going. In my life and my heart (eyebrows raised), you scared me! In my life and my HEART, I didn't do anything wrong."

I had to turn my face the other way so she couldn't see me laugh.

Later she told me about nap time and how she heard Philip wake up so she went over to his bed (which is in a closet) and said to him, " My name is Sarah Lane Wilkinson and you need pops because you're not being quiet!" All I could do is laugh. She's constantly saying things that crack me up or melt my heart. :)

Hannah is here!

2009-11-10T14:25:00.006-06:00

Hannah is 5 days old today! She was born on November 5th at 2:42 weighing 7 lbs and 15 oz. The transition has been pretty good so far. When we came home from the hospital Philip was taking a nap. When he woke up he reacted much stronger than I had expected. He was definitely feeling a threatened by her even though they had already met her in the hospitial. Fortunately that passsed very quickly and he loves her dearly now. Whenever someone comes over, he is eager to point her out and show her off to our guests. He loves to get quick peeks at her and touch her, but then he's on his way to go play. Sarah has been about as perfect of a big sister as I can imagine. She is taking in Hannah like she's a little piece of Heaven! She wants to be by her side, holding her and kissing her all the time. She'll even pull up a little chair and sit next to her as she swings in the baby swing. It's so precious. :)

Robbie went back to work this afternoon for the first time, so I am on my own with all 3 kids for the first time. I managed to feed Hannah and get all 3 of them down for naps, and have even effectively dealt with a couple of fits ( the kid's... not mine! ) So far so good! We'll see how things go in the next few days though! :)

More pictures to come. :)

Sarah's big announcement

2009-10-19T20:10:00.001-05:00

Sarah had a big announcement for us tonight at dinner. She says the funniest things sometimes! :)

Long time.... I know

2009-10-12T11:52:00.007-05:00

I haven't updated this in a while I know. Not too much has been going on. I mean alot of stuff, but not much activity you could say. Robbie tore his ACL, had surgery and is recovering. He's doing really well. It's been about 7 weeks since his surgery now. His Physical therapist says he's doing great and they've been cutting his therapy back some because he's progressing so quickly. The kids seem to be growing up so fast which is good since we're really close to meeting our 3rd, Hannah, but I want it to slow down at the same time. Sometimes Philip seems so much like a baby to me still, I can't believe he's going to be a big brother soon! Sarah is really growing up. She's very excited to meet her little sister. Yesterday we cleaned out the car really good and put Sarah and Philip's carseats in the 3rd row to make room for Hannah's carseat which we went ahead and installed as well. It's a full car! Sarah and Philip like their new spots in the car though so that's good!

The other day Sarah had to stay home form Mother's day out b/c she had a little fever, so we had a "girls day in" and we washed and folded a bunch of clothes for Hannah and put them away. Then we took some time playing with her teddy like it was a baby. We had some special time just us.

Philip is really growing up. As you can see in some of these pictures, he's our little climber. He will climb over, under, through anything! It's hard to keep him out of danger, but I think he likes it like that! :) He's all boy for sure, but he loves to play dress up with Sarah. Shoes, hats, and even crowns as you can see are fun for him to try to put on and play with. Sarah constantly talks about marrying Philip, or going to the ball with Philip (like in Cinderella). He has no clue what's going on but enjoys going along with it for the most part.

We'll now we're waiting for Hannah. Just a couple more weeks. Here's some more pics of her room and us waiting for her!

July pictures

2009-08-11T14:34:00.003-05:00

Here's are some pictures from all through July. I can't believe how big these kids are getting!

Haircut pics

2009-08-11T13:45:00.003-05:00

Here are some pictures from the day Philip got his first haircut. As you can see he cried the entire time, but luckily he sat still and let the job get done! :) It was hard to watch at first but then you realize he's going to be OK and and you can actually kind of enjoy it knowing you'll look back and remember how sweet the moment is :)

After the hair cut we went to play at a sprinkler park. Needless to say he was quite tuckered out and feel asleep on the way home for lunch!

Philip's first birthday

2009-08-04T14:47:00.006-05:00

I know it was actually a month ago that Philip turned a year old, but nonetheless, here's some pics. We had a really good time just hanging out with family and watching Philip dig into some cake for the first time. Sarah was quite involved, helping Philip blow out the candles and telling him what to do with the cake.

Philip's gift, a fire truck. He has come to really love this toy and especially loves to stand up on the seat and put his hands up in the air as if to say, " Look! no hands!" :) He's the greatest!

Since then Philip has gotten his first haircut. He cried the entire time, but it wasn't as bad as you might think. The barber is the same one that Robbie goes to and he was able to handle Philip very well. Philip looks so much more like Robbie now with the hair cut! It was a sad day because he looked SO much older with his haircut and his little curls gone :( The pictures are on Robbie's iphone, so I'll post them soon.

Sarah's first bible verse

2009-06-21T20:51:00.002-05:00

Sarah and I have been working on memorizing her first Bible verse, Ephesians 6:1. Today was the first time that she said it out loud on her own. We were not prompting her or even talking about it when she starting saying it so we were really surprised. I didn't think she had down all the way yet! Now she says it over and over:)

Sarah's handwriting and morning message

2009-06-16T22:49:00.003-05:00

We have started doing some pre-school lessons at home lately and Sarah has really enjoyed it. She loves to learn and so each morning we sit down and write a morning message. I use it as an outlet to let her identify letters, numbers, individual words, and punctuation. Soon I'll be using it to teach site words. We also talk about the date and the weather as we write it. She really loves it. Today we started handwriting also. She loves to "write" but it's all scribbles of course (which is fine for her age) but I think she could really start taking off if she is taught how to write the letters she is coming to know so well.

She traced the letter several times, but the last one on the far right she wrote completely on her own. I was very proud of her! :)

Here's a Sarah sitting in her chair during morning message.

This is what our morning message looks like when were done. Her favorite part is when she gets to get up and circle things in the message.

It's a girl!!!

2009-06-12T11:43:00.003-05:00

It's official... we're having a girl! We're very excited of course. I had a feeling that it was a girl which was strange b/c I hadn't ever had a feeling before so i was a little anxious to see if I was right. Sarah is looking forward to having a sister and I think Philip would be too if he understood. :) Her name is Hannah Ruth. :) So much to look forward too!!!! :)

Philip's walking and Robbie's riding roller coasters!

2009-06-09T09:03:00.005-05:00

We're home now and it's really nice to be home. I feel like I'm doing better than I was 7 weeks ago. I hope to be home for nearly 2 weeks and then go get a little rest in Little Rock. We will just be playing it by ear I guess.

Philip started taking steps when he was about 10 1/2 months, but by the time he was 11 months we started to really get it. He's gotten really good at standing up on his own too! He's actually walking a lot better now, it's just taking me so long to update this blog. I don't even remember the last time he was crawling!

We'll the kids and i have been staying with my parents some so my mom can help me with the kids and let me get rest. I am starting to feel better than I was about 6 weeks ago, so that's encouraging. On the weeks that the kids and I are gone we video chat with Robbie at the end of the day. He has figured out how to do all these fun things on it for Sarah. In this picture he's riding a roller coaster. It so funny to see and Sarah loves it!

Baby update

2009-05-13T16:29:00.003-05:00

Baby and I are doing well. Some of you may have heard that it has been physically demanding on me so far. I experienced some heart palpatations and shortness of breath along with pretty severe fatigue. We have been to some doctors and all tests have come back good, so nothing is wrong, it just looks like it's going to be a difficult pregnancy. I can't go for very long in the day without having to sit or lay down and rest. My heart starts pounding pretty easily and I also get out of breath. Very normal everyday activites can get to me. Fortunately, I have great parents who have opened their home to me and I will be staying here on and off through the pregnancy to take some of the responsability and stress off of me. My OB Dr. thought that was a really good idea as she is telling me to take it very easy and "pamper" myself. I can't complain on those orders :) While I am home I'll be needing some help, but I don't think I will be spending more than a week at a time at home. It will be difficult having the kids away from home and especially from daddy, but atleast we know all is well and the baby is doing great! :)

Kitchen cabinets continued

2009-04-19T12:36:00.011-05:00

Well, with this first trimester almost behind me, my energy level is starting to pick up which is heavenly! I'm not 100% yet, but a whole lot closer than I have been. With this new found semi-energy, I decided to get after our kitchen cabinets again, which I haven't touched recently. I let it sit with several doors done a little different from each other trying to decide how I wanted it to look. Now that I think I have that settled I got to it today for a whole 15 minutes! Woo hoo! Big achievement I know, but sadly it really is for me :) Sarah was very interested and kept asking me what I was doing, so I said "I'm antiquing. " She repeated me saying, " I am ticking!" and she grabbed some paper and went at it with me ! She's my little designer!

Baby ultrasound!

2009-04-19T12:29:00.002-05:00

I had our first ultrasound on April 15th and it went really well. The baby was kicking around so much it took a while to be able to get some measurements! I was amazed at everything I could see. This picture doesn't do it justice. It was moving so much it was hard to capture the arms and legs, but you could see it all. It was so great. :) The official due date is November 4th, just about what I was expecting it to be. We're very excited!

Jesus loves me...and then some

2009-04-07T16:20:00.007-05:00

Sarah has recently learned all the words to Jesus loves me, and since she loves to sing, she sings it all the time. It just sounds so sweet coming from her tiny voice.

This is a picture of one of Sarah's dolls. It's magnetic so all her clothes stick on. This is how Sarah like's to dress her, with every outfit she owns!

Philip has such a great smile, how can I not take pictures of it all the time!

I finally joined facebook

2009-04-07T16:11:00.003-05:00

I honestly don't know why I took so long, but I have done it now. I can't figure it out really. I'm not sure what to do with it which may sound really silly to some of you, but I'll work on it. Any advice is welcomed!

We're having a baby!

2009-03-26T22:05:00.002-05:00

Robbie and I found out last week that we're pregnant again! We weren't trying but the Lord has has own timing and we are very excited about it. No solid due date yet. I'll have an ultrasound April 15th to determine one. The ticker on the side should be about right though. Sarah will have just turned 3 and Philip will be 15 or 16 months old. Wow! :)

Philip's pulling up!

2009-03-11T13:53:00.006-05:00

This is most likely an understatement. He is literally everywhere he can go. I actually saw him pull up on the kitchen chair with only his arms, no legs. I have realized that he is incredibly strong.

Sarah ofcourse is always wanting to be sure she's isn't left out, so she joined in on the scene. :)

Right before I took this picture, she saw me taking a picture of Philip and said, " Take a picture of me! Take one of me! "

The other night Grandaddy came over with mom mom and I got a great picture of him with the kids. :)

cute pics

2009-03-03T12:37:00.003-06:00

I took some pics yesterday just to keep up with how fast they grow. I can't believe how fast it goes.

This is how Sarah smiles whenever she is asked to. It's adorable I think. The classic 2 yr. old smile. :)

I can't believe sometimes how much Philip is growing up. I think he only gets cuter and cuter too. Can you blame me!

kitchen cabinets

2009-02-25T13:04:00.004-06:00

I'm kinda crafty and like to try to do things myself sometimes. I don't know where I got the idea, maybe HGTV or something, but I tried distressing the kitchen cabinets with sandpaper. I like the way it's turning out.

What have we been up to?

2009-02-24T08:10:00.007-06:00

Well, not much. Sarah started the flu and of course it spread around the family, but to all different degrees. Sarah had it the worst. We are still in the midst of it and I'm taking a little time to do this while Philip naps and Sarah lays on the couch watching Clifford.

Before the flu hit though we realized that Philip is getting really close to pulling up. He is crawling around everywhere. Yesterday he nearly made all the way across the house by himself! We decided that since he may start pulling up anytime, that we needed to go ahead and lower the crib mattress. Sometimes Philip tries to pull up in his crib to play with Sarah when I first lay them down in the afternoon for naps. He eventually goes to sleep and no harm done, so it's really cute. The other day, I heard Sarah walking down the hall right after I laid her down for a nap, so I went out to see what was going on.

"Sarah what are you doing up?"

"I put it in his mouth." replied Sarah.

"You put what in his mouth?"

" His paci fell on the floor so i put it back in his mouth."

So cute! She got out of bed and got his paci for him, and then wanted to come tell me what she did.

Not quite pulling up, Oh but wanting to so badly!

They love each other so much. It seems like Philip wants to follow Sarah everywhere. He adores hers.

Precious Sarah. So sweet. She loves her books :)

Philip's newest discovery

These have been Sarah's favorite thing to play with lately. She loves to dress up in her cinderella high heels and walk around the house. She would wear them all the time if I let her!

Shelly and Jared's blog

2009-02-19T12:05:00.003-06:00

Several people have asked me what happened to my sister's blog. They changed it over to wordpress. Her link on the side is correct now. :)

http://hoytsathome.wordpress.com/

There are some really cute pics of the twins!

Spaghetti Philip

2009-02-10T12:48:00.002-06:00

Philip ate real food for the first time. Up to this point he has had peas, carrots, green beans, sweet potatoes... but last night I made our spaghetti dinner into some baby food for him to try. He had never really had much texture before so he made some really funny faces, but he likes it. You can hear Sarah in the background and after a while she wants to be in the video. She still likes to be the center of attention! :)

Taebo Sarah

2009-02-09T17:47:00.004-06:00

Sarah loves to dance, and sometimes after body and soul we come home and she likes to do some of the moves with me. I thought it might be fun to do some taebo with her while Philip was sleeping this afternoon. We moved the coffee table out of the way and had a blast. She practically a pro now! She loved it. :)

I love body and soul

2009-02-09T14:27:00.004-06:00

I have wanted to try body and soul for about a year and half now, but for some reason am just now doing it. I really love it. The work out is great and it's a lot of fun. I am having more fun working out than I have in a long time. And one of the best parts are the classes that the kids go to. The teacher and caretakers are great, very personal. Sarah loves going to her class. They have what they call "wee worship" that I have gotten a glimpse of when I come to pick her up. Since she LOVES to sing, this is her favorite part. I'll be doing this year round now that I have started, so wanted to get the word out to anyone who may not know about it.. Check out the website www.bodyandsoul.org b/c they have classes all over the country.

I'm back

2009-02-05T10:18:00.003-06:00

We got a new computer and I absolutely love it. We went for a mac this time, and it is very cool. :)
We have been quite busy. A big ice storm kept us home for a good week, but luckily we never lost our power but for a couple hours. We did however have people staying with us, but it was very nice. Sarah, Philip, Robbie and I all slept in one room, so that was interesting :) but not too bad either. It was really nice having family and friends hang out here for days. It was some nice bonding time that i will remember forever.Sarah became an expert on disney princess movies. With 4 children in the house and 4 dogs also among other people, we relied on movies to keep us clost to sanity! Sarah talks about Beauty and the beast, Cinderella and the little mermaid all the time (even though we never saw the little mermaid!) Philip is doing awesome. It is so fun having two kids, even though some days are crazy. Philip is wanting to crawl so bad. He moves around A LOT, he just never gets anywhere. haha. Here are some pics of him sleeping. He always makes me smile.

I guess Philip wanted the room a little darker!

There's his precious face :)

Sarah and Robbie were building a tower together one night. i was very impressed at how high it got, especially considering that Sarah was placing all the blocks on.

Robbie caught it picture at just the right moment as it fell. :(

Ahh!

These kids are silly sleepers

2009-01-06T08:53:00.000-06:00

Yesterday both of my kids did the funniest things as they slept. Yesterday morning Sarah woke up and was still really tired. I took her to go sit on the potty, and then a few minutes later I found her asleep back in her bed, only she had been so tired she didn't even bother getting all the way back on the bed. I had all the lights on, everyone in the house was up and around, and she had about half of her body (waist down) hanging off the foot of her bed and she was clearly "out." I couldn't believe it. I picked her up and put her up on her bed properly and she went right back to sleep again and slept for about another hour. It was nearly 9:00 by the time she was up!
That same morning I put Philip down for a nap. A lot of the time, he loves to pull his arm into the body of his clothes and out of the sleeve while he is sleeping. It looks so funny when I get him up from his naps. But yesterday he somehow did this with his leg! I didn't realize this when I first picked him up. But when I sat down on the couch to feed him I noticed he had both legs in one of the legs of his PJ's! The other side was empty. It was crazy. All I could think was how funny my kids were. :)

Sorry no pics

2008-12-29T11:46:00.000-06:00

Our computer is literally as full as it can get, and until we get another hardrive or computer (which will be soon) I won't be able to post any pics.
However all is well on our side and we had a great Christmas. My sister is home with her babies and their new blog site is
www.hoytsathome.blogspot.com

Hopefully I will be back soon. :)

William and Jonas are here

2008-12-08T20:04:00.000-06:00

I went up to KC with the kids and my parents, and Robbie joined us on the weekend. The twins were born at 34 weeks, and considering their age, they are doing great. William was born first at 5 lbs 2 oz, and Jonas followed at 4 lbs 9 oz.They will stay in the NICU for a few weeks to polish up their skills on eating and breathing, and they should be little studs by then!
Shelly has been getting through her recovery as well, which has had some complications. Having carried twins her body has been through a lot of stress, but she is going to be fine.
It was so hard to come back home. I want to stay there and be with the babies and help my sister, but I know she is going to be a great mom, and luckily my mom is going to be able to be with her for a while. Here are a few pictures of each of the babies.

WILLIAM

JONAS

Sarah and Philip have been able to enjoy each other more and more as he gets older (which can come in handy while your waiting at a hospital.) :) Shelly was in the nursery with the babies while I got this video. Right before I started filming, Sarah was barking at Philip, like she was pretending to be a dog, and he loved it. It made hime laugh, so I tried to get her to keep doing it, but that never seems to work. Still you can see the smile on Philip's face and how he enjoys Sarah's attention.

Philip and Sarah have really become good friends.

Here's Philip waiting for me to give him dinner :)

Here's Nana and Sarah coloring together as we waited for our dinner .

We're in!

2008-12-03T10:05:00.000-06:00

We have been in the new house for about 2 weeks now. Life has been really busy, but I have a few pictures to post. I'm trying to get this posted really quickly because it looks like my sister might be having her twins today! I 'm trying to get ready to jump in the car quickly in hopes I will be there for the first few moments of William and Jonas' life!

Here's Sarah trying to help me put the Christamas tree together. Notice that all her branches are hanging straight down :)

My beautiful girl!

Philip has loved grasping for things and he rolls over like crazy. I can look away for just a second, and when I look back he can be somwhere completely different. Today I actually couldn't find him for just a second b/c he had almost rolled under the coffee table!

She has the cutest smiles!

The day we moved in, there was nowhere for Sarah to take a nap, so by 5:00 she crashed on the couch. This never happens, so I couldn't help but take a picture.

We're moving

2008-11-14T19:36:00.000-06:00

TOMORROW! I can't believe the time is here. We still will have a few things to do once we're in. We haven't put in the baseboards yet, and there are a few vanity lights to put in, but otherwise it's all done! There are also some things we would like to do in the future, but that's all in due time. Very exciting!

bouncy baby

2008-11-14T18:43:00.000-06:00

I put Philip in the johnny jump up the other day for the 1st time thinking he might like sitting in it. He took off like he was born knowing what to do in it! I didn't expect him to start jumping in it right away. I thought he was too young, but he proved me wrong. He absolutely LOVES it. He will sit in it for an hour easy and jump on and off the whole time. It's great b/c with us getting ready to move (tomorrow!!!) I have been packing and cleaning like crazy. This johnny jump up is very convenient. It's funny too b/c I can hear it all over the house :) If there was only something to occupy Sarah so easily for so long while keeping her in one place and out of all these boxes around the house!

I know the picture is a little blurry, but I love how happy he looks. Can you tell he's having a blast.

Here he is taking a quick break from jumping to look at Sarah . I'm sure she was doing something very entertaining at the time!

By the time I got this video he was starting to get a little tired, but it's still cute to watch. :)

we've got floors!

2008-11-01T16:09:00.000-05:00

...or some of them atleast. :) A lot of the floors have been installed, but we still have to do the laundry room, foyer, and bathrooms. The carpet will be installed on Wednesday.It's very exciting. It's starting to really feel like it will be our home!

Here' the view when you walk in the front door

and to your right is the hallway to the bedrooms

go across the living room and to your left is the kitchen. There are still a lot of tools and saws out.

Turn around and you see back into the living room

and across the living room towards the hall.

trip to Nana and Papa's

2008-10-31T09:58:00.000-05:00

This was our first trip to see Nana and Papa since Philip has been born. I took the kids while Robbie stayed behind to keep working on the house. I had a friend, Cara Williams getting married and it was the first chance Philip had to meet his great grandmother on my side of the family (my mom's mom). We had a great time. Sarah and Philip were right at home as I was of course.

Here's Sarah and Philip's great grandma. She was so happy to finally get to meet him. She never seems so happy as she does when she's with a baby. Her maternal instincts kick in and she just feels right at home. She's a natural! We love you grandma!

Here's Shelly right before the wedding. She was one of the bridesmaids. Isn't she one of the cutest pregos you've ever seen! For those of you who may not know, Jared and Shelly are having twin boys! Thery are expected to come sometime in December.

Here's Sarah holding Aunt Shelly's bouquet at the wedding! She absolutely LOVES Shelly. She gets very excited to see her and follows her around all the time. :)

The night after the wedding we came home and Nana popped some pocorn and made Sarah her own little bag of it.Sarah had so much fun eating her popcorn out of her little brown bag! We also let her stay up to 10:00 that night. An extra special treat!

I love this picture of my dad and Sarah together. My dad (papa to Sarah) had just made a fire in the fire place and they were sitting together watching. I am sure Sarah has seen a fire in a fireplace before, but she was probably to young to be very curious about it. She really liked it this time :)

Side profile of Shelly pregnant with the twins!

Once we drove back home, my mom, sister, the kids and I all ate at Panera. Sarah had an especially good time!

new light

2008-10-22T14:58:00.000-05:00

This is the new light we ordered for our foyer! Very exciting. Hopefully we will be getting it in today and we will be putting it up.

This weekend Robbie and Andrew will hopefully be putting in the floors while I'm out of town with the kids. If so, another friend Jason will possibly be helping out . The house is really coming along! We should be moving in soon:)

so cute!

2008-10-21T14:34:00.000-05:00

Philip has been trying to suck on his thumb for a while now, and today I went in to his room to get him up from a nap and found him sucking on it in his sleep! It was so cute I had to get a couple pictures.

(Yes, this is a pink crib sheet. Philip is proving his skills on dirtying laundry and he has gotten all 3 of his crib sheets dirty before I have gotten to cleaning and drying just 1 of them! So he is sleeping on one of Sarah's old crib sheets. :))

If any of you are wondering, yes, he is sleeping on his tummy. He can roll over now, and I was finding him on his tummy anyway when I would come in and check on him, so I figure it's safe to lay him down on his tummy now :)

house update

2008-10-18T20:37:00.000-05:00

We still have a bit of work to do, but here are some pictures of the kitchen from start to now. Almost done!

This is the hall bathroom. We have put in new fixtures in the bath and will have it re-enameled. We will also be painting the vanity under the countertop white.

Hopefully we will finish painting and start putting the floors in by next weekend! We'll see! Somehow these things always ending up taking longer than you plan :)

What we've been up to

2008-10-17T22:50:00.000-05:00

We've been up to a lot lately, between the kids and fixing up the house. Progress on the house is starting to really pick up. For a while there was a lot of detailed work, where it was hard to see the results of all the time spent working, but now everything is really starting to come together. It's mostly Robbie working over there with a friend of his, Andrew. Without Andrew most of what we are doing wouldn't be possible b/c between Robbie and I, we don't know a whole lot about fixing up a house ourselves. So, needless to say, we are VERY thankful for him and his wonderful wife Ann who is letting him help out so much. It's really exciting to see a house change so much and know that you are doing it. I really enjoy the nights I get to go over and work on the house. I like doing projects that are really hands on, plus it's my time to get away all by myself :). We are ready for it to be done though and hopefully we will be moving in in a couple weeks (keep your fingers crossed!) Here's some pics of the work done to the master bath so far. We'll be putting in a pedestal sink and new toilet with the bead board. Once the new floors and paint go in, it will be a completely different bathroom from what we started with! The rest of the house is really coming along too. I'll have some more pics in a couple days.

Other than that,I have been at the park with the kids some. With the weather becoming cooler ever so slightly, it's nice to be outside. Sarah and Philip both love going to the park. We spread out a blanket next to the playground and Sarah plays while Philip lays out kicking and talking.

coughs and sniffles

2008-09-29T15:06:00.000-05:00

We have been sick around here for the last couple of weeks. Sarah started it out with a cold and about a week later I caught it and it nearly turned into bronchitis. Then Philip started coughing and getting a runny nose. Now, after several trips to the doctor and a prescription later, we are all starting to feel better. We decided to go to the park and play outside since it was so nice cool this morning.

This is the park across the street from our new house, which we're still working on. I am so excited about living across the street from a park. We play here a lot.

Here is Sarah climbling up to the slide.

Here's Philip hanging out on a blanket in the grass.

While we were home sick, I painted Sarah's nails. She loved it. She has wanted me to do it for a long time and I finally gave in. It was really cute!

Our big boy

2008-09-15T14:09:00.000-05:00

Philip is growing up so fast. Part of the reason I feel that way though is that he is big for his age. He looks so much older to me than he really is, not to mention that he's in the 98th percentile in his weight. He's pretty stong too, so he loves to sit up. He loves it when I put him in this bumbo seat. When he gets really excitied in it he throws his head back with a really big smile. I think he feels like he's making an accomplishment or something. He's awesome. :)

The new house

2008-09-14T21:06:00.001-05:00

For those of you who don't know yet, Robbie and I bought a house and are remodeling it before we move in. Nothing really fancy or expensive, but Robbie is taking on a few big projects throughout the house. From scraping off the popcorn ceiling, installing recessed lighting through the house, painting the kitchen cabinets, new countertop, replacing bath tubs and replacing a bath vanity for a pedistal sink, painting the entire inside, including a fireplace, and installing new floors, to smaller jobs like replacing ceiling fans, Robbie def. has some work cut out for him. Luckily he has some great friends who come by to help and show him how to do all this work. It's really fun though to be able to do all this work, you feel like you are really making the house your own. I constantly find myself hunting to get the best deal on something for the house. Places like craigslist and overstock.com have become very familiar to me! Here are some pics of the house as we work on it!

Here's Robbie working on the ceilings...

...and here it is all over the floor! Luckily we are removing all the flooring!

Here is a picture of the cabinet and countertop we will be removing. This peninsula that comes out of the wall just cuts through the middle of the kitchen, so...

...we took it out!

Yikes! Kinda scary!

This is what it will look like.

It really opens up the space in the kitchen!

Here's a glimpse of the first of the recessed lights. I love it.

There is still much more work ahead. I'll post more pictures as we go!

an update

2008-09-02T11:20:00.000-05:00

The ever increasing mohawk

It seems that Philip's mohawk is becoming more and more evident as time goes by. People even make comments about it when we're out. I love it!

Spaghetti girl
Sarah's favorite food is spaghetti and meatalls. Whenever we eat it I have her eat it without any clothes because even in her best attempt to get all the food in her mouth, it still ends up in her hair, on her face, belly, legs and all. :)

Best Friends

Sarah has been asking to hold Philip more and more. She really feels special when she is holding him all by herself!

Philip is smiling!

Philip has been smiling so much lately and I was so happy to get a clip of it.

Buddies

2008-08-25T14:29:00.000-05:00

Sarah and Philip are interacting more and more these days. Here's a few snapshopts of it.

Sleeping Buddies
The other day, I got Philip up from his nap and laid him down in the living room to change his diaper. Sarah decided to lay down next to him and pretend she was sleeping with him. It was so cute, :)

Play Buddies
Sarah loves to push Philip in the swing. I have actually caught her climbing up onto the swing while he's in it! This day she was pushing the swing and then stopping it to do different things, like put a blanket on him, or hold his hands and talk to him. It's so fun to watch. At one point he began smiling at her and kept smiling for quite some time. I think he was really ennoying the attention she was giving him!

In this video, you'll actually hear her tell Philip not to"pee-pee." After Philip was born we had a lot of accidents for a while with Sarah since she hadn't been potty trained for very long, and I now find her saying things to Philip or Teddy that we had said to her. It's kinda funny.:)

Happy Birthday Sarah!

2008-08-18T13:28:00.000-05:00

Sarah had her 2nd birthday on Friday, August 15th. I can't believe she's already 2 years old, yet at the same time I feel like she has been 2 for a while now. We had a fun weekend going to Chuck E. Cheese, and having fun with presents although we also realized that getting out to places like restaurants and the mall is VERY different with two kids than it is with just one. Robbie an I were completely wiped out by Sunday night! Nana and Papa got a play kitchen for her and Robbie stayed up Thursday night to put it together so she would find it when she woke up on her birthday. She's very imaginative, so I was confident that she would enjoy it and she has had fun playing with it. She also went to Toys R Us with Mimi and got a tricycle and a pretend telephone, both of which she loves.

Sarah is pretty creative, so she does all kinds of things here, and having the table with the kitchen makes it even more fun.

It's amazing how much Sarah talks these days, so she absolutely loves this phone. It's sparkly, fuzzy, the buttons make noise, and it gives her a reason to keep talking. How could she not love it.

This trike is great because it has a handle for Robbie or I to push and steer with while she's learnig to pedal, and then comes off later when she's more independent.

She also got from grandad and mom mom a dress up doll and a playdough kit where you can mold it into these characters called the Backyardigans. I have a video of Sarah and Robbie playing together with the playdough, but you can't hear them very well unfortunately. Basically Sarah is calling these little creatures Philp! I guess it's because they are small, but it's halarious. At one point (not on the video) the head came off and she looked at Robbie and said in a very concerned voice, " Uh Oh! I broke Philip!" Robbie and I just burst out laughing. Later Robbie asked Sarah if she wanted to put this Playdough version of Philip in the cannon (part of the toy, it's a pirate ship.) Sarah looked kinda worried and said "No!." Then she took the little paydough philip and cradled it in her hand like a baby and said," shhhh. It's OK Philip. It's OK." How cute is that!

I didn't get many pictures yet, but here are a few pictures from the last few days.

Here's Sarah sitting next to her new kitchen eating breakfast (literally). She loves to eat here when I let her. Look at that smile!

This is "do a dot" art that she got from Nana and Papa after Philip was born. She's really good at getting the marker in the lines, but she likes to do her own thing with it too! :)

Whenever Philip is awake, she is almost always right by his side, or even in his face. She really loves him. I know I say that alot, but I wouldn't say it unless she really did.

Here's my beautiful boy! I try to put him on his tummy each day while he's awake, and this time he just fell asleep right here on the floor. :)

5 week photoshoot

2008-08-14T08:07:00.000-05:00

My good friend lindsey came over and took some great pictures of Philip and the family to get some pictures for a birth announcement. I love seeing these pictures of us as a family of 4. It's so exciting. Even though some days can be very tiring and trying on my patience and stamina, I have more moments where I am overwhelmed with joy and the reward of knowing these children. And luckily I have my husband with me to do it all! He's such a great dad. By the way and has been a tremendous help. :) Here's the pictures Linds got of us all.

the mohawk kid

2008-08-12T12:53:00.000-05:00

I have been trying out new nicknames for Philip. I call Sarah "sarah bara" and so the other day without even thinking about it I called Philip "philly billy." I can't possible call him that, it's way to redneck for me! Sometimes we call him Popeye because he often opens only one eye. However lately mohawk kid is seeming to become the most appropriate nickname as you can see in the following picture.

He is slowly losing all his hair on the sides of his head while it grows even thinker right down the middle. It's pretty fun to play with!

Here are a few more pictures of the little guy.

can't get it off my mind!

2008-08-04T11:15:00.000-05:00

It's official. I am now journaling on magna doodles! I have been thinking this nonstop these last weeks. I love it. :)

Tired anyone?

2008-08-04T11:03:00.001-05:00

I guess Robbie and I aren't the only ones around here that are tired from a new baby in the house!

Sarah and Philip have been sharing a room now for nearly a week. Sarah has adjusted to it very well. She hasn't woken up or been bothered by the middle of the night feedings, and she really loves having Philip in the room with her. However as you can see in the picture above, it must be having some effect on her! :)

I snapped a couple of quick pictures of the kids during nap time the other day. I love having them share a room. I feel that they will grow up a little closer because of it. Even if it's only for a couple years. :)

Big Sister

2008-07-27T11:11:00.000-05:00

Sarah is becoming more involved as a big sister everyday. She is constantly asking to hold Philip, and she loves to play with him. Life is always going going going these days, but it is surely worth it all. These kids are a blast.Sorry about the background noise when you watch the video. Robbie loves to keep up with the Tour de France every year so it's on TV while I was filming the video clip.

Update on our new family!

2008-07-20T08:50:00.000-05:00

Well, It has been really nice the last couple of weeks. Much easier the second time around. I feel like Robbie and I are both more relaxed, and we feel like we know what we are doing more than we did with Sarah. :) Philip is also a much more laid back baby. Sarah has loved Philip too. She has had some melt down moments in an attempt to steal some attention, but overall, she is doing great. The longer he is here the more she comes to really love him. She is very gentle with him and loves to take care of him. We are loving life as a family of 4!

Look how little he is in his bassinet! Babies are so fun. :)

Here is big sister Sarah trying to comfort Philip. She loves to hold him and whenever he cries she puts her finger up to her mouth and says,
" shhhhhhhh." It may not look like it in this picture, but he actually does like her quite a lot. :)

He's here!

2008-07-06T13:41:00.000-05:00

Philip Alan Wilkinson is here and our world is so much better because of it.He was born on July 2nd at 3:22pm, weighing 8lbs and 13 oz., and measuring 20 in. Robbie and I couldn't have asked for anything to have gone any better than it did, and Sarah is doing great with him. She loves to be a part of things with him and the longer we are home the more interested she becomes with him. She is impressing us with how well she is adapting to the new home environment. Philip is awesome. I am curious to see how things will change as time goes on and he becomes more awake, but so far things have been very easy. I may not be updating much over the next few weeks, but I'll post pictures and video clips whenever I can. Here are a few pictures from the hospital and when we first came home. :)

Ready for Philip!

2008-06-11T14:02:00.000-05:00

Well we are ready for baby Philip to come. I am not actually due until July, but my doctor says I should deliver in June which is what I have thought all along. I feel like he could be just around the corner, but I guess we will have to wait and see!

We have everything ready for him and Sarah and I practice wrapping teddy up in baby blankets and putting diapers on him. She has a real maternal side to her, she's very nurturing. She loves to take teddy around and carry him very gently in her arms like a baby. Then she'll lay him down very slowly and carefully and say that he has gone "night night." I can't wait to see her as a big sister. I know she'll be great.

Here's is a real cute video of her saying baby Philip. She just started saying it so I am super excited!

trip to Little Rock

2008-06-11T13:33:00.000-05:00

Sarah and I went to Little Rock for a week and Robbie joined us over the weekend. I had a very best friend of mine get married, and I knew it would be my last chance to go before Philip is born. The wedding went great. I was a Bridesmaid, Sarah was a flower girl, and Robbie was a groomsman. Sarah was absolutely adorable. I don't have any pictures from the wedding yet, but I'll post them when I do. She walked down the isle with her teddy for a little extra security. It was so cute!

Once all the wedding events were done, we stayed in town and relaxed with my family for a few days. Sarah loves to go the golf course and ride around in the cart while daddy, papa, and her uncles play golf. Her aunt Shelly and I got some cute pictures of her.

Sarah and Aunt Shelly

"MMM yummy drink!"

We also moved Sarah to a big bed at Nana and Papa's house for the first time so there would be one less adjustment next time we come back with Philip! She looks very comfy to me! :)

New swimmer!

2008-05-19T19:01:00.000-05:00

Sarah played in the pool today for the first time. Last year she was just a little too young, and thought the water was too cold, but she loves it this year. It was so hot today so it was perfect being able to splash around in the cool water!

"Hi !"

Trying to get out...

And now getting back in!

"Ahhhh! This is the life!"

Care Bears

2008-05-09T17:25:00.000-05:00

Sarah has started talking so much lately. It seems like whatever she hears us say she tries to say herself. We have gotten a new potty seat for Sarah so that she can go in the big potty now. It's this great little seat that I have never seen before. You can fold it up and take it with you when you go out to make the big potty more convenient for Sarah in public places. Anyways, there are Care Bears on the seat and the whole time she sits on it she says "Care Bears" over and over. She sounds so cute when she says it I wanted to get a clip of it. I just love the way she says it! :)

Silly Sarah

2008-05-07T17:40:00.000-05:00

Sometimes Sarah just gets in these really silly and playful moods. I wanted to catch a glimpse of it for you. :)

potty training and etc...

2008-05-05T08:24:00.001-05:00

I know I posted a few months ago saying that I was beginning to potty train Sarah. Well that didn't last for very long. We approached it casually for a couple weeks, but then I had abdominal surgery and didn't try to continue due to the recovery process. Now I am feeling great and last week we began to potty train Sarah again. We stayed home for about 3 days and sat on the potty a lot. I am absolutely shocked at how quickly she picked it up. Within 3 days she was at the point of having 1 to no wet accidents in a day, and staying completely dry in her naps. She can tell me when she has to go and when she doesn't. Sarah continues to amaze me everyday with how smart she is!

We have been having a lot of fun with her. Yesterday we played outside while Robbie was putting together a sandbox in thebottom of the swing set. I forgot to get some pictures of her playing in it, but she absolutely loves it! I think we will end up spending a lot of time outside in the sandbox this summer! I did get some really cute pictures of her though later while she was eating watermelon outside. She LOVES watermelon. If you look closely in some of these pictures you will see that she eats the watermelon clean down to the rind!

Later that night we went in and ate dinner and had a bath. After bath time, Sarah always wants to run around the house in nothing but her hooded towel. I think she looks so cute in these pictures!

Baby shower!

2008-05-01T10:50:00.000-05:00

I have some great friends who had a baby shower for me and Philip this last Sunday afternon. It was great to see everyone and collect all the much needed diapers and other baby items!

I love seeing the name Philip Alan on the cake! Wasn't it cute!

Yummy! Food seems to be one of my best friends these days! :)

This is my good friend Alaina who hosted the shower. She is due with her second child the day after me!

He is me with my sister Shelly and Alaina.

Cute video clips

2008-05-01T10:47:00.001-05:00

We all went to the park together the other day and I just love to watch Sarah and Robbie together. Sarah is has been running for a while now, but I still love to watch it everytime!

This video was taken a while ago.These days you can see much bigger movements. The whole shape of my belly changes if you watch at just the right moment. But this video is still fun to watch. I love that you can see little Philip kick the remote while I am relaxing on the couch!

We're back!

2008-04-30T12:01:00.000-05:00

I am so sorry we have been away for so long. With the abdominal surgery I have been recovering from on top of the pregnancy and all sorts of other stuff keeping us busy, I admit I have been out of the blogging loop for way to long. I don't have tons of pictures since we have had so much going on lately but we do have some. Here's are some clips and pictures to catch you up on the Wilkinson life from the past two months.

You know you're the dad of a toddler when...You find yourself passed out by 6:30 on a Saturday night, in the middle of the living room floor with a musical tea set next to your head!

I love my beautiful girl so much :)

Here is Sarah in some new PJ's reading her new book about being a big sister. She really seems to be interested in it although I know she can't possibly imagine what all life with a new brother will bring.

She slept in her crib for a couple nights while my mom stayed with me after the surgery. She didn't mind at all and she just looked so peaceful sleeping I had to sneack a picture. She loves to keep all her "friends" as close as she can!

Sorry so long!

2008-04-03T08:20:00.000-05:00

I know it has been a long time! Sorry:( Recently after the last post I found out I had a cyst that needed to be removed and so I have been laying low for the last 6 weeks while I recover. During that time my camera software was accidentally removed, so I need to reinstall it before I can put any pictures up. I promise I will be back soon.

As for some good news, we have a name for out little boy on the way! We will name him
Philip Alan Wilkinson. We have been starting to get everything ready for him and we can't wait for him to get here!

I'll post some pictures soon. Sarah is doing great and talking so much. Robbie and I are still the only ones who can really understand everything she says :) but she is definitely picking up a lot of words!

Chuck E. Cheese

2008-02-13T15:14:00.000-06:00

Robbie has been so excited to take Sarah to Chuck E. Cheese for the first time. She is still a little young, but she definitely had a blast. She loved the stage up front with all the music, and she actually ate 3 pieces of pizza all by herself! I honestly don't know how she did that!

They had a little toddler land play area that was perfect for her to play on. There was a little slide which has recently become one of her favorite things.

The carousel was a lot of fun even though it was almost too big for her . She would wave to the other kids the whole time she was on it. So cute!

HEALTHY baby boy!

2008-02-13T15:06:00.000-06:00

We just found out today that we are going to have a perfectly healthy baby boy. There was no dialation in the brain, so no fluid building up on the brain either. These ultrasound machines today are just so high tech that it's easy to start worrying about the possibilty of something that turns out to be nothing at all!

Here is a picture of our precious boy. It is a profile of his head and chest. His head is on the left side and his chest is on the right side. He's positioned so that it looks like he is looking upwards. You can see the profile of his face including his nose and mouth. The black spot in his chest is his heart!

In this picture, he is positioned the same, except that his arm is up in the air and his hand is near his eyes, almost as if he is rubbing his eyes! :)

great website

2008-02-07T22:31:00.001-06:00

I found this great website that has 3-D ultrasound picture slide shows. It is so neat to watch because you can really see the baby. You can even pick out music on the bottom to listen to while you watch the slide shows. I loved it of course. Check it out cause it is really cool.

http://www.layyous.com/ultasound/3d_ultrasound_scan_photos_slide.htm

It's a boy!

2008-02-06T13:08:00.000-06:00

We had a ultrasound today and found out that we are having a boy! It didn't take long at all actually to find out. Almost as soon as we could see the baby, we knew it was a boy! It was very exciting. Of course we didn't care what it was going to be, we both would have been very happy either way. Actually, if I had to have picked I don't know if I could have, I really didn't know what I wanted it to be. But as soon as we realized we were having a boy, Robbie and I were both very excited.
Along with this news Robbie and I want to mention that they saw something on the ultrasound that gave reason for a little concern, but not much at this point. We have another ultrasound scheduled for next week with a radiologist to get a good look at the baby. It seems that there may be a place in the brain where some fluid is collecting, but we don't know if that is the case or not yet. On the ultrasound it looks like a black spot, which is supposed to be there, one on each side of the brain, but on one side this spot is wider. The doctors have reassured us that most likely this is just a normal variance with no threat to the baby. Hopefully in a week from now, we will be able to know for sure and have a peace about it through the rest of the pregnancy. If you remember, please pray for us and more importantly for this little boy, that we will have peace while we wait, and that this baby will be protected by God's mighty hand.
Anyways, Robbie and I are of course a little nervous, but overall we feel everything is probably just fine. The doctor said that there are no other signs that this baby was experiencing any health problems, and the heartbeat was nice and strong .
We are very excited to know it's a boy and we have a peace that everything is fine. God really is so good!

snow day

2008-01-31T12:44:00.000-06:00

I am so excited that it snowed here. I have been waiting all winter! I love the snow and I was so happy to be able to go outside with Sarah. It has snowed here several times since she was born but it seems we we're always out of town when it happened. So this morning we took advatage of our time and went outside while it was snowing. Sarah liked walking around in it, but I never got her to touch it with her hands. She was a little cautious with it.

Sarah wanted to get in her swing even with all the wet snow. Maybe later Sarah.

My little reader

2008-01-22T19:45:00.000-06:00

Sarah has always loved books, and now that she is talking (or babbling) so much, she is starting to "read" the books on her own. The teacher in me is very proud to see this of course. Plus it's just adorable.

Sarah the artist

2008-01-22T19:31:00.000-06:00

I love doing art work with Sarah. It's just so neat seeing how she experiences it. We tried fingerpainting for the first time and we all had a great time.

Here's Sarah putting on her smock.

You can't see it very well but her blue painting is on white paper on top of a decorative table cover.

She really took her time getting into it. I think that at first she wasn't really aware that she was supposed to be getting her hands dirty, so I did my own fingerpainting next to her. Once she realized that getting her hands messy was part of it she really got into it!

Another Christmas present

2008-01-08T20:33:00.000-06:00

We have been wanting to get a table for Sarah for a few months now and this table from Ikea really is the best deal out there. We ordered it before Christmas knowing it would get here late, but that's fine because she got so much for Christmas anyways. Well, she absolutely loves her new table. She wants to eat at it all the time and play in it all the time. She also loves to take the chairs and push them across the kitchen floor. She is actually pretty methodical about it.

Here she is eating pancakes for breakfast at her new table.

In this video you'll see Sarah scooting the chairs across the floor. She will seriously do this for quite a while. I don't know why, but this keeps her very entertained!

Potty training adventures!

2008-01-03T21:19:00.000-06:00

We started potty training Sarah this week and so far so good. I'm really motivated to get her potty trained before the baby comes, and we have been playing around with it before now. But now that my first trimester is behind me and Sarah is approaching 17 months and showing some signs for readiness we're giving it a go for the real potty training. She has already used the potty 3 times in the last 3 days. Now don't misunderstand this, she is definitely going to the bathroom in her training pants more often than in the potty, but we are still very excited. Sarah is too. Whenever she goes tinkle in the potty, Robbie and I get very excited and clap and shout, and so, naturally Sarah does too. She loves getting to use toilet paper and flush the toilet. Robbie has taught her to wave bye-bye everytime she flushes. It's hilarious.
OK, really funny story. The first time Sarah tinkled in the potty, we of course got real excited, did our little celebration and then gave her toilet paper to wipe with. Once she was done with it, we told her to drop it down into the potty. You could see in her eyes she wasn't quite sure what to do, or she just didn't want to let it go. So we told her again to put the toilet paper in the toilet, and she immediately lifted her hand up real quick and put it in her mouth! Robbie and I were stunned, and the we just burst out laughing and quickly got the toilet paper and showed her what to do with it. Luckily, the paper was pretty dry when she stuck it in her mouth. I think we will remember that forever. Now she's got the whole thing down, and I doubt she will ever do it again. Let's hope!

Merry Christmas

2008-01-03T20:57:00.000-06:00

I love Christmas. It is my favorite time of year. We went to stay with my parents for a few days and sadly Sarah got sick the night we got there. She had a fever and head congestion the whole time, so she didn't sleep well either. But all was well and we still had a great time. We have some great pictures too.

Here's Sarah with her grampa! This was a little early in the mornig in case you couldn't tell by the sleepy eyes :)

Our beautiful little girl!

Sarah got this "alphabet pal" from Nanna and Grampa and she loves it. She can pull it around the house while it sings to her and all the feet have a different letter on them.

My Mom and Dad got tennis rackets but Sarah decided that there was a much more fun way to use it. She thought it was so funny to press her face up on it!

Sarah got a little moses basket too. It's made for her to carry her baby or teddy in and she loves it. Sarah is really into pretend play and she is very imaginitive. She loves laying the teddy into bed and covering him up like a baby and then giving lots of kisses. She'll be a great big sister!

But of course, it was only so long before she wanted to get in it herself!

Playing Peek-a-boo with gift boxes. Why don't we just give her this for Christmas?

baby pictures

2007-12-12T13:41:00.000-06:00

I am so excited that I already have some more ultrasound pictures. My doctor wanted to make sure we knew how far along I was so we got another ultrasound today. By the way I just want to say that I love my doctor, Britte Smith. She is great. Anyways it was so exciting to see the baby this early. It's little legs and arms were kicking and punching everywhere. Since I am not showing yet, it hasn't quite hit me that there is a real life inside my body. It's crazy! And with Sarah here, she takes up so much of our attention, it's just easy to not give a lot of thought to this new baby on the way. But today, when I saw the baby moving and kicking and then the heartbeat, it was just amazing. It is nothing short of a miracle. My due date is about July 7th so start the countdown. I can't wait to meet this child!

The head is the circle on the right side, with the body being the longer circle next to it on the left and the arms out to the side. This baby was moving around the whole time which is most obvious in the last picture.

In this picture you can see an arm on the bottom. You can see the joint in the arm and then the hand is next to the head.

In this picture you can see the hands and feet. They're the little circles out to the side. You'll probably see some extra pieces in there too, those are joints or parts of the arms and legs. I think the baby was moving around alot when we took this picture. :)

3+1=4

2007-12-11T19:52:00.000-06:00

We're having another baby! So our family of 3 is soon to become a family of 4. It seems crazy to me that we will have 2 kids soon. I don't feel that I am nearly old enough, but Robbie and I are very excited. :) I know I haven't posted in a while, but this first trimester has been a little rough and left me quite sick. Hopefully it will be over soon. There is a ticker on top of the page to count down till the new baby is here, so you can keep up with how far along we are. So excited! I have one ultrasound picture already, but the baby is so small, there isn't much to see. Once I have another one I post it for you all. Until then, here are some pictures of Sarah from the last 6 weeks

Dinner with friends
We went to dinner with some friends David and Tesha. They have a little boy Jonah who is just 6 days younger than Sarah. We went to the square in Fayetteville where they light up the whole area this time of year. Sarah and Jonah had a blast running around with all the lights.

We tried to get a cute picture here but it was hard to get both kids looking at the camera. Who can blame them with all the pretty lights to look at!

Stickers!

Robbie's mom (Mimi) brought stickers over one day and it didn't take Sarah long at all to catch on. She became a pro real quick at picking off the stickers and putting them all over herself. She LOVES stickers now!

Teddy

I just love pictures of Sarah while she sleeps. She still loves to sleep with her teddy.

Happy Halloween

2007-10-31T21:22:00.000-05:00

Sarah and I had a real fun day. Robbie is out of town for business so it was just the two of us. First we had lunch with a bunch of other kids and their moms. All the kids came in their costumes. We were able to get a couple of cute pictures but it wasn't long before they got impatient.

For some reason I am still not sure of, Sarah got real mad and wanted no more pictures to be taken. It wasn't until after I saw the picture that it was so funny though! This picture just cracks me up. I just know she was saying, " NO MORE PICTURES!"

Later we went to visit Robbie's Mema and Grandad. When we got there we saw Sarah's cousin Landon. They were so caught up looking out the glass door that the only way I could get a picture of them was to go outside and get a picture through the glass. They are so cute though!

We ended the day with some friends at the Promenade in Rogers drinking Starbucks.
Well, not Sarah. :)

rocking horse

2007-10-29T10:24:00.000-05:00

Robbie's mom has kept this rocking horse from when Robbie was a little boy and she just gave it to us the other day. I thought she might be too short to get on it, but she is actually the perfect height for it. She loves to climb on it and rock or sometimes just sit on it. If you watch in this video, you will see her throw her head back as she gets real silly. She is great entertainment!

Baby art

2007-10-04T23:53:00.000-05:00

I have tried a few times to get Sarah to draw with crayons but she ahas always been more interested in eating them then scribbling with them. I saw these new crayon holders in a magazine and got them for her and she loves them. They have really big handles and so she can hold it well. The crayons are washable too so if she goes off the paper... no big deal. There are faces on each crayon and she kisses each one after she uses it. It's so cute! Anyways, I just loves kid's art. I'm so proud of her!

Razorback girl

2007-10-04T22:26:00.001-05:00

Robbie and I are not the biggest Razorback fans. We like watching the game on TV maybe. We don't not like them, we're just no die hard fans. Tailgating on the other hand can be a lot of fun and somefriends of ours are starting a buisiness with it on game days. We went to hang out there with some of our friends and got Sarah all dressed up for it. Watching her was probably our favorite part of the whole day.

Swinging baby

2007-10-04T22:04:00.000-05:00

Robbie is the big playmate in our house. I mean, Sarah and I have lots of fun playtime together but Robbie is the one who gets really creative and Sarah knows it. Whenever Robbie comes home she gets real excited. He always comes up with something I would never think of like this. He put Sarah in the bag that we brought our library books home in. I can't even believe that she fit in it, or that Robbie actually put her in it. But it was really funny and Sarah loved it.

lollipop

2007-09-21T13:19:00.000-05:00

Sarah got her first lollipop last weekend. A friend of our gave it to her and of course once I took the wrapper off, she knew EXACTLY what to do that thing. It went straight into her mouth and it didn't come out till it was gone! She slobbered about half of it onto her dress. She loved that thing. :)

Little rider

2007-09-21T13:09:00.000-05:00

When Robbie gets home from work, he loves to play with Sarah. It's funny how as soon as she sees him she starts to run away so he can chase her. To her, Daddy is a big fun playmate. The other day he put her feet up on this little rider and the two of them just started having so much fun.

peekaboo

2007-09-06T12:37:00.000-05:00

This was fun. Sarah is crazy! If you watch you'll notice she starts to get a little dizzy and disoriented! I love her.

extra stuff

2007-09-05T16:27:00.001-05:00

I just think this is so funny. Sarah loves to play with my sunglasses and she usually has a really hard time actually getting them onto her face, but I suppose she actually did it this time. She was totally relaxed and just hanging out with these on her face. :)

I just like this picture. She just likes this ball! She plays with it all the time:)

Sarah got a new chair for her birthday. She loves it! I wish they made chairs that fit adults like this. Robbie and I have always thought that babies and kids have the coolest stuff!

Sometimes I am absolutely amazed at what she can fit into her mouth!

baby princess

2007-09-05T15:38:00.000-05:00

We're trying so very hard to not spoil our little girl, but grandparents make that nearly impossible :) This little girl has so many clothes and now she has a princess outfit as well. It's so cute. My mom gave it to her for her birthday and it's just absolutely adorable.
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Be imitators...

2007-08-13T13:34:00.000-05:00

I read this verse this morning and it struck me."Be imitators of God, therefore as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." Eph 5:1 First of all the "be imitators of Christ" but then as I read on I began to think of Sarah when it says, "as dearly loved children." I don't know if this is exactly what it means, but Sarah is definitely a well loved child, and she imitates us all the time. She doesn't exactly have the whole sacrificial loving thing down yet :), but she does follow our example all the time. She watches Robbie and I so closely and imitates many of the things we do. It's how she learns. Hugs, kisses, blowing raspberries (she learned that from Robbie!),throwing a ball, turning the page in a book, and so much more. And, the older she gets, the more we can see bits and pieces of our character in her. Because she is always watching and imitating us she becomes more like us. When I thought about it, it just made so much sense and a great visual for what I am supposed to do with my heavenly Father. It's cool how having kids can give you a great perspective on something so simple.

This is Sarah with her great grandad. She just loves him!

I love this picture of Robbie playing with Sarah in the corner. He such a great playmate!

Self feeder

2007-08-13T13:17:00.000-05:00

Sarah has been able to feed herself with her fingers for a while now, but Robbie introduced her to something new and now she wants to do it all the time. Robbie is great at coming home and being the fun guy. He teaches Sarah all kinds of things and the other night he started showing her how to use the spoon herself. He gets such a kick out of it. She is far from mastering this skill, in fact, I don't even really let her do it often, but daddy is much more lenient so she does it more with him. It is really cute. You will see that she uses it like it's a lollipop. She dips it in her yogurt and then sucks on the spoon. Sometimes she'll scoop a little with it too. It's really cute.

pretend play

2007-08-02T15:07:00.000-05:00

Sarah has lately been playing with some play food. It's a set I used when teaching kindergarten, but she has loved it. She takes this little cup and spoon and pretends to eat out of it. She also takes this bowl of fake peas and pretends to pick one up and put it in her mouth. Then she looks up at you with a real big smile. It's so cute!In this video you can see the cup in one hand and the spoon in the other. She has also gotten to be real good at walking. She walks everywhere now, never crawls. She's growing up so fast!

starting to walk

2007-07-30T16:03:00.000-05:00

I know it's been a really long time since I have updated this, and we we have been out of town, but I also have been a little lazy. :) Well, lot's has happened. Sarah is 11 mo and walking. It's so funny though, they way her little legs move. She's the greatest.Here is Sarah at the beach house. She is walking a whole lot more now, but here is a cute little video of her.

Beach trip

2007-07-30T15:51:00.000-05:00

We went to Emerald Isle,North Carolina with my family for a vacation this month to a house right on the beach. It was great. My family went there a few times when we lived in Connecticut so it was great to go back with the whole family. This beach has HUGE waves and they are great to play in. We bring buggy boards to try to ride them but it's also a blast to try to swim over them or under them. So I guess they can't be too huge, but they really are pretty big, and definitely strong. It took 18 hours to get there, so that was a little rough, but not horrible. We played lots of baby einstein videos. You can replay this slide show or click on it and it will take you to the album.

My little helper

2007-06-28T13:52:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone, it's been so crazy around here lately. It feels like we are always doing something, including Sarah. She has taken her first steps and it's SO exciting! She has worked her way up to 4 consequtive steps now. It still requires a lot of effort on her behalf, so she doesn't do it unless truly motivated, which happens at least once a day, sometimes twice. She also waves bye-bye and hello which is so cute. She points at everything while she talks in her own little language, and she claps her hands all the time now too.
She has been helping me around the house a lot lately too. :) She helps me unload the dishwasher, fold the laundry, and cook dinner! ( She actually just tries to pull herself INTO the dishwasher while I'm unloading it, throws the clean clothes off the couch and onto the floor while I'm folding them, and insists that I hold her while I cook! ) I love it!

Here Sarah is helping me clean out her high chair!
She loves to pull out the bibs and spoons I keep underneath. She'll pull it all out on the floor and then look up at me with this cute face that says, " Uh Oh! Am I in trouble?"

Some friends of ours, John and Alaina, have a little girl that is 4 days older than Sarah and we love getting them together to play. They came over and ate dinner. The girls got pretty dirty so we decided to give them a bath together.

Here they're just kinda staring at each other like," Why is someone else in the bathtub with me? What's going on?" After a few minutes though they got the idea and started having a blast together.

Josie is a serious baby as you can see in this picture. I think she is just always trying to figure out everything around her.

I just love this picture of Sarah and her beautiful Aunt Shelly.

strawberries

2007-06-15T15:29:00.000-05:00

We went to Branson with my family over Memorial Day Weekend and had a great time. My mom watched Sarah while I took a nap one afternoon and when I woke up i found them sitting on the couch together while Sarah was eating her first strawberry. She loved it. I guess she had been eating on it for about 45 minutes by the time I saw her because it was EVERYWHERE!

Catching up

2007-05-24T20:59:00.000-05:00

Sorry, I know it's been a while since I have updated the blog. Life's been busy. Sarah is growing up so fast. It seems like every morning I wake up she's doing something new or doing it better than yesterday. She is crawling now, and pulling up on everything. She has even started walking aroung the coffee table or up and down the bathtub. The funniest one is she pulls up on a barstool in the kitchen and tries to shake it. Little by little she pushes it out and then takes a few steps. If she is motivated enough, she will push it all the way across the kitchen. Once she even let go completley for just a second and stood all by herself. Of course along with this new found independence has also come quite a few bumps and bruises. Just about everyday her knees get real red and rashy looking from crawling, and a red mark in some shape or size finds it way onto her forhead. Luckily she forgets about it quickly! :-)

funny sleeper

2007-05-24T20:50:00.000-05:00

Sarah has been sleeping in the funniest postions lately. Now that she pulls up on everything, she gets up in her crib when I put her down for a nap. She'll play for about 10 minutes and then finally just lean down till her head hits the mattress and fall asleep. She looks so uncomfortable, but I don't think she is. She'll sleep in these positions for 45 minutes before she repositions herself! :-)

Splish Splash!

2007-05-24T20:47:00.000-05:00

Robbie's Aunt and Uncle had a party on their patio a few days ago for their daughter who just graduated high school. They have a pool in their back yard and Sarah just loved splashing in the water!

Walking or crawling?

2007-05-04T10:05:00.000-05:00

Sarah isn't actually anywhere near walking really, but it's as if she can't decide which one to work towards more. She's been up oner her knees and rocking for several weeks now, but she has started pulling up as well. It seems to make much more since to her to get on her feet and stand up then to try to crawl. And she just loves it when we hold her and let her "walk" around the house.

Here are some cute pictures of us playing around the house.

I love swinging!

2007-04-26T23:44:00.000-05:00

We went over to Mimi's (Robbie's mom) house the other night. She has this swing hanging in the back yard that Sarah just loved. I think she would have stayed there all night if we let her!

teddy

2007-04-26T23:35:00.000-05:00

Sarah has made a new friend. She has a little teddy bear, perfect size for her, and she loves to bring it with her everywhere. She will literally keep it with her all day long if I don't take it away. The other day she persisted to hold her bear while she ate in her high chair. That was not a good idea. Poor teddy ended up with sweet potato all over his head! We wont be doing that anymore. She will play with him, talk to him, and of course, she sleeps with him. I think it's quite cute actually.

Driving lesson's

2007-04-11T09:39:00.000-05:00

We went to Little Rock this last weekend to see my family. We had a great time. Sarah usually sleeps for most of the three hours to drive home but not this weekend. For some reason she stayed up almost the whole time. After a couple hours she started to get a little cranky so we pulled over and brought her up front to play a little. The first thing she did was grab the steering wheel. She of course then tried to eat it as well, but when she held on to it it really looked like she was trying to drive. Of course she couldn't pretend forever but I think she enjoyed this little glimpse into her far way future! Haha. :-)