Wow - it's been a while!

Stefanie Devries - you're amazing.  You captured family moments that we will look back on in 50 years with fondness.  Hats off to you - these are the best family pics to date!  Everyone in the Brainerd Lakes Area - visit http://www.mudandmagnolia.com/ to see how talented Stef is.  She's great! 

 We had our family session back in October out at Kavanaugh's Resort (http://www.kavanaughs.com/) and the weather was a bit chilly, but it was a beautiful fall day. 

 As fun as these pictures look - it was a stressful morning.  Lily threw up all over me, I didn't have a change of clothes.  Thank goodness you can't smell these pictures - because I smelled like spit up.  I was paranoid that Izzy was going to spill something on her outfit...didn't happen though! 

 Lily was such a trooper out in the cold.  This little furball hat we had on her was quite warm, but her little cheeky's got cold. 

 This was taken of Lily this past Saturday.  She is the 'smiliest' kid I've ever met.  We used to have to stand on our head with Izzy to get her to smile when she was a baby.  She's a smiley kid now though.

Speaking of the smiley kid...she finally has enough hair to put in pig-tails!  And maaaan does my heart melt with those little pigtails and that big huge grin of hers.  She is SO excited for Christmas, she can hardly stand it.  I tell her it's Jesus's birthday and she says, 'my birthday Mommy'. 

 The kids are growing like weeds, healthy as can be (with occasional sniffles).  It's Christmas time already, time needs to slow down so we can enjoy all of these awesome moments with our kids.  I'm soaking it up as much as my heart can possibly take, but it's tough when time wooshes by as fast as it does!

Introducing Lily Marie Kavanaugh

Meet Lily.  Born on July 22nd, at 8:13pm, weighing in at 6lbs, 10oz, 20.5 inches in length.  After the rollercoaster ride of a pregnancy (being put on strict bedrest at 30 weeks, then moderate bedrest for the remainder of the pregnancy) her arrival was fast and furious...so very opposite of her big sister.  I started labor at 6:30pm and she arrived an hour and a half later (half of that time we were stuck in traffic getting to the hospital!)  We have had a wonderful first month with the transition for Izzy becoming big sister, and having a newborn in the house again. 

Stephanie Devries did an amazing job on these photographs (http://www.mudandmagnolia.com/) She's an up and coming photographer in the Brainerd Lakes area.  Her work speaks for itself, she's an amazing artist!  It helps that we have cute kiddos too...I'm not bias, look for yourself, they're angels!

 Izzy is all about Lily - she always wants to hold her and touch her and gets inches from her face and says "Hi Lily, Hi Lily Hi Lily!"  It's pretty cute.  The day of our photo session with Steph, Izzy was giving Lily kisses.

 Such a genuine smile from our peanutbutter!

 Steph was able to get Lily to fall asleep at the end of the photo session and get such peaceful pics.

 Kisses to little sissy Lily!

 Isn't Dave so lucky to be surrounded by all of us ladies?! 

 I had an idea to have Izzy dressed in these overalls and then to have her sitting with her legs strait out and Lily draped over her legs, naked and sleeping while Izzy kisses her back...it didn't quite work out.  In fact, we didn't even come close to getting the pic, BUT, that's what you get with a 2 year old kid full of energy and a newborn. :)  These are still adorable pics!  Izzy's munchin on some goldfish in this pic.

 Such a beautiful little girl!

 And we've been blessed with another beautiful girl.  More pictures and memories to come on the blog.  We've had a busy month!



Accessorize!

Izzy stays busy with all sorts of accessories in the bathroom when I'm getting ready in the morning.  We were heading out to a friends pool on Monday and she was as busy as could be with headbands and clips.

The big news on Baby K #2 is that I'll be induced next Thursday, July 28th (my due date and sister-in-law's birthday - Happy Birthday Meghan!) if I don't go into labor before then.  We have Mama Margaret (Nana) coming down to visit this weekend and she'll stay with Izzy if baby K #2 decides to grace us with it's presense. :)  Love to all! 

A few happy faces

Izzy and I went to visit Dave at work and have lunch with him and his work buddies last week.  Izzy LOVED wearing the visitor badge and attempting to run off to explore Best Buy Campus!  They're two peas in a pod aren't they?  She's a spitting image of her Daddy.

 This is one of my most favorite recent pictures of little Miss Isabella.  She's such a happy kid eating her toast and milk.  (Her breakfast before her real breakfast at Mary's...yep, she eats 2 breakfasts).

Baby K has decided to wait it out until closer to the July 28th due date to grace us with his/her presence.  Every single day I wake up and say 'today's the day'...though I should probably stop doing that because I get my hopes up every single day and it's exhausting.  We'll post pics once baby comes!

A great 4th!

We had a nice 4th of July weekend, very low key, patiently waiting for baby to come.  We had people on call in case I went into labor, however Baby-K-2 just wasn't ready.  We bought a fun pool for Izzy and she helped her Dad blow it up.

 It was the ultimate kitty pool, with a cover and everything. 

We went to the Eagan Parade on the morning of the 4th.  Izzy waived, pointed, and clapped for the floats going by, we had a great time!  WOW was it hot out!

 Here is the peanutbutter doing a wheelie on her bike, she makes 'bike noises' when she does it.

 Izzy likes to do what we do, so I gave her a little bucket and cloth when I was cleaning the floors this weekend.  She had fun following right behind me as I wiped down the floors. :)  I kept calling her Cinderella.

Iz and I like to goof around with my phone.  She was playing with her kitchen and decided to come cuddle by me.  Here's a quick video. 

Great Weekend with Friends

We had a great time with Mike and Sarah this weekend.  Mike and Dave went golfing on Saturday morning and since the sun wasn't shining, Sarah, Izzy, and I decided to venture out and stumbled upon the gay pride festival in Loring Park.  I've helped friends with boothes there in years past and it's a lot of fun.  We strolled along, the rain came down, but we ate mini donuts and homemade ice cream anyway.  Thanks for visiting Sarah and Mike!



A Good Father's Day & Update on the 2nd Baby K

We had a good weekend and a fun Father's Day yesterday.  Izzy helped Dad open his presents from us and even wanted to try them on.

 Dave's dream of opening an Irish pub became real in t-shirt form. :)

We hope all Dad's out there had a great day yesterday!

An update on the second Baby K, I'm at 35 weeks this week and safely making it through each day.  my strict bedrest was lifted to 'moderate' bedrest a week and a half ago so I've been able to drive to Dr.'s appointments etc., (thankfully!).  The goal for us is to make it to 36 weeks and it's becoming more of a reality every day!  Izzy's getting excited to have a baby in the house, we've been talking about it a lot.  We have the baby's room all done and are FAR more prepared this time around than we were with Izzy - but it's becoming the waiting game this time around, and everyone knows what AWESOME patience I have!  (Izzy's inherited that from me, ewww!)  More updates to come when baby arrives, til then, enjoy the summer!  It's FINALLY here!

Easter, Gardening, Dogs, and Birthdays!

I'm starting at Easter and moving my way to the present...back in April we colored Easter eggs and had a blast with it!  As you can see here, Izzy's very proud of her eggs.

 This was one of two baskets Izzy received from the Easter Bunny...I think the bunny couldn't decide what to give her and decided to do two baskets cuz he couldn't find a basket big enough to hold everything in one. :)  This basket had gardening and plant stuff in it!

 This basket had candy and other fun trinkets in it!

The audience approved of the Easter bunny's decision on the two baskets and all of the goodies.

One nice day this spring...I'll rephrase that, the only nice day this spring, Izzy threw on a pair of my   gardening gloves and helped Dave pull weeds in our back yard (there were a LOT of them).  She was SOOO busy hunting for worms and showing them to us when she found them, it was incredibly cute.  She loves being outside so much and we think she may have a bit of a green thumb!

 I just love this picture, her sitting on a little mound of dirt, wondering what to do next.

 Izzy's been a big fan of dogs since she learned to say the word.  This is our neighbor dog, 'Caesar', they're buds.  She shares her gold fish with him, and he shares his slobbery kisses with her.

 Now for the big 2 year old Birthday update - Izzy had a daycare Birthday party with her buddies this past Friday.  I love this picture because seeing the look on her face just reads that she's so wrapped up in what's going on and loving every second of it.  All of the kids had a great time and liked the party favor bags - where they got 'puppet kits' and other fun treats!

 Here's our big girl...2 years old already.  Her and I made her crown the night before her party and we got the same cupcakes from 'Cupcake' (http://www.cup-cake.com/) in Minneapolis that we had

for her 1st birthday.

 The morning of Izzy's Birthday, Dave made a household favorite - banana pancakes - for breakfast.  Izzy couldn't give out enough hugs and 'lovies' we call them to us, it was just too adorable.

 More lovies and face smushing went to Nana (Mama Margaret) who stayed with us the weekend of Izzy's Birthday.

 And for the big reveal - we bought Izzy a Kidcraft kitchen for her Birthday.  She was elated....flabergasted...at a loss for words...all she could do was look at us and smile.  It was the best reaction EVER!

 And boy was this girl busy the second she got her hands on her new kitchen.  She was cooking up a storm, getting us all something to eat and drink, I've never seen her move so fast!

 I had to top it off with a personalized apron and chef's hat in her signature 'hot pink' color.  She loved it - and is particularily fond of hats, so I knew this would go over well.

Fishlips while getting cheffy in the kitchen.  :)

She got gardening gloves for her birthday that were just her size!

 Nana and Ali played in Izzy's new kitchen with her after all of the presents were opened.  Ali got her a toaster and a bunch of food for her kitchen, it was perfect!

 Izzy had a great birthday with fun visitors all weekend and some really cool toys.  I feel like when she blew out her candles on Sunday, the 5th, that she all of a sudden became a big girl.  She no longer asks to bring her blanket (ba-ba) to daycare, she takes off her shoes, gives me a smooch and a big hug at daycare and says 'bu-bye Mama' when I drop her off at daycare.  And she sleeps in her big girl bed like an angel (never escaping, going to bed so nicely).  She's such a big girl already, where did the past few years go?

Swimming, Gymnastics, and a few other pics

Cheeeeeese!  Izzy in her new gymnastics leotard.

 Izzy and Daddy cuddling on the couch when she was sick a few weeks back.

 Izzy LOVES to run and hide - she laughs so hard when we find her!

 It's reading time Mommy, shhhhh.

 Izzy swimming at Kavanaugh's this past weekend.  She's a little fish!

Shoes are definitely her thing.  Dad's or mine, doesn't matter. 

 Izzy before her first gymnastics class - she loves watching the big kids practice.

Our twirling girl showing off her new leotard (she wouldn't even let me get the tags off before she ran away).