Apple Harvest Parade

The dance studio, Rhythm 'n Motion, where Samantha takes lessons, was in the parade in downtown Martinsburg on Saturday. They did a great job, and it was very cool to be able to watch all of them dance (especially Samantha) in the parade! Kara enjoyed watching the parade, except for the really loud horns that honked right in front of us!

Sleeping through the night!

We just have to brag on our Kara...she has slept through the last four nights in a row without waking up until at least 6am! She actually slept until 7 am this morning! We're so proud of our little girl for this accomplishment! Tim and Kathy are actually enjoying the full nights of restful sleep. :-)

**Had to add this update...Kara slept till 7:30 am this morning! (10/19/07)**

Spending Time With Family

After church we visited with Kathy's family for the afternoon. It was the first time, Nana, Kathy's mom, had all five of her grandchildren in her home at the same time--since #5 was born less than a month ago! The first picture is of the whole family together--what a great picture! The second one is of Sean, Kara's cousin, holding her. Then one of Papa, Kathy's dad, holding Kara. The next photo is of all five grandchildren--Samantha (12), Aidan (5), Sean (2 1/2), Kara (3 months), and Hunter (3 1/2 weeks)! The last photo is a sweet one of Samantha holding Kara. We had a good time today!

Kara is 3 months old!!

The past three months has really flown by! Our little Kara has changed and grown so much over the past three months. She smiles in response to our smiles and coos and "talks" to us when we talk to her. She can hold her head up at 90 degrees very well, and is starting to grasp at things. Kara can also hold onto things that we place in her hands. We are really looking forward to watching her grow and learn more over the next few months!

Lang for Trustee

Kara's Uncle Mike is running for political office in his home State, and has recruited her to campaign for him in her own special way. Isn't she the cutest supporter?

Growing Girl!

Kathy took Kara to see Dr. Joe yesterday evening. It appeared that Kara was getting eczema on her arms, and she was spitting up curdled formula a lot over the last several days. Dr. Joe prescribed a cream for the eczema and suggested bathing Kara in a non-soap cleaner, like Cetaphil. Dr. Joe put Kara back on the Zantac because the curdled formula is another symptom of acid reflux. The most exciting thing about the visit to the doctor was when Kara got weighed...she now weighs 10 pounds 1 ounce!! We are so thrilled that Kara has passed the 10 lb mark! The funny thing is our nephew, Hunter, who is just 3 weeks old, weighs 9 pounds and 14 ounces. He is going to pass Kara in size in no time, and she's 10 weeks older than he is! It's just fine though, because we love our petite, little Kara!!

Chill 'n Grill

We had a good time today at War Memorial Park at the Chill 'n Grill. We were able to spend time with good friends and see other people we hadn't seen for awhile. Rhythm 'n Motion dance studio performed and they were great! We also enjoyed seeing Flip Over Gymnastics and a couple of bands perform. Kara slept again for most of everything--it must be the outdoor air! Once Kara woke up she had a good time going down the slide with daddy and sitting on the bouncy space shuttle. :-) It was another really warm day in October!

Kara's new toys

We went to Toys 'R Us today and used the gift card our co-workers gave us for Kara. We purchased the Rainforest Jumperoo (a stationary jumper) and a Boppy. Kara has enjoyed both today! The jumper has three heights, so she will have a lot of fun with it for quite awhile. Right now the boppy is comfortable for her to lay on, but it's also great for tummy time. Plus, it will help keep her safe when she is ready to practice sitting up on her own.

A Good Night's Sleep

Last night Kara was very alert and wide-awake at 10 pm. We were wondering if she would ever settle down to take a bottle so we could put her in her crib for the night. Tim fed her a bottle at 10:15 and she fell asleep eating by 10:30 pm. We were completely thrilled when Kara slept through the night! She didn't wake up until 6:50 am this morning! What a monumental milestone! We praised her all morning long, and hope it's not just a one-night kind of occurrence. :-) Maybe our 12 week old (as of yesterday) is ready to sleep through the night, every night?! The pictures of Kara were taken around 10 pm last night when she was very happy!

Pumpkin Patch!

The four of us went to the Ridgefield Farm pumpkin patch and found some nice pumpkins to decorate our front porch! We will also carve a couple of them closer to Halloween. We had a good time, but it was HOT and humid. It just didn't feel like October 5th is supposed to feel! Unfortunately, Kara was asleep during most of the trip, and wasn't happy about being woken up for pictures. She'll probably enjoy it more next year. Tomorrow is the Chill 'n Grill at War Memorial Park in downtown Martinsburg. There will be dance studios, gymnastics groups, bands, etc...performing at the pavillion. There will also be good food vendors and inflatables. We're looking forward to having fun and spending time with good friends! I'm sure we'll take some pictures while there that we'll post later for everyone to enjoy.

Snuggle, Snuggle

Kara fell asleep on Tim's chest this evening. Doesn't Kara look adorable snuggling with daddy?! We're going to the pumpkin patch tomorrow, and we'll have lots of pictures to share of all the fun things we did!

More pictures from Saturday

Enjoy these additional pictures!

Visiting w/ Kathy's family

Today we drove to Virginia to see Kathy's sister, Krista, who just gave birth to our new nephew, Hunter! Hunter was born on September 18th and is a real cutie at 11 days old! He's also almost as big as Kara, who is 11 weeks old! After visiting Krista (new mom), Charlie (new dad) and Hunter the main attraction...we headed off to have dinner with and visit Kathy's parents and her nephews Aidan (5 yrs old) and Sean (2 1/2 yrs old)! It was a fun-filled day and we took lots of pictures!

She's a sweetie!

Kara is a sweetie, just like the little blanket says that she's laying on in the pictures. The blanket was given to Kara by our little friend, Kailan, who is 5 years old and fighting leukemia like a champ! Kailan used the very same blanket when she was a baby, but wanted Kara to be able to snuggle with it now. If you squeeze the corner of the blanket, it even plays music! Kailan was very generous to give her very own baby blankets (she gave us another one with a cute bunny on it) to Kara--thank you Kailan!

Beautiful Artwork!

Kara's birth-grandmother, Micara, is a wonderful artist, and one of her canvases is a gourd! She made the beautiful gourd for Kara that was posted on the blog back in early July. We thought Micara was so talented that we purchased three additional gourds from her before we left Oklahoma. Kathy asked Micara to carve two sunflower designs for the kitchen, and a leaf design for the family room. We just received the finished gourds in the mail over the weekend and wanted to post them on the blog because they are just so amazing! If you are interested in purchasing your own gourd(s), the contact information for Micara is: Hidden Canvas Artworx, Micara Coats, mcoats@sstelco.com. Micara can carve pretty much any design you would like into a gourd, and you can even request a specific shape of gourd. As you can see from the pictures, one of our sunflower gourds is a bowl, and the leaf gourd is open as well, so it can hold whatever we want to place in it. The pictures don't portray all the beautiful details, but when you come to visit us, you can check them out in person. Thanks Micara for making the gourds so beautiful--they are wonderful additions to our home!

All clean!

We just gave Kara a bath and she's all clean~and smells so sweet and good! We had a very nice weekend in Rhode Island. Kara was an angel on the airplane--for the trip up and back! Susan's wedding was beautiful, and we're so happy that we were able to be there for the celebration. Everyone loved meeting Kara, and we weren't lacking for people that wanted to hold her and snuggle with her. We also found out that Kara is a party girl! She stayed awake for all but 45 minutes of the reception! Tim swears that she was moving her arms to the beat of the music several times.... Kathy never saw it, but will take his word for it. :-)

Pretty gift

Kara received a pretty quilt that was made for her by Tim's Aunt Peggy. Kara was in a very happy mood this morning, so we decided to take a picture of her on her quilt. Kathy got her to smile several times, but couldn't snap the picture fast enough to catch the smiles!

All is well...

Kara is having a really good 2nd week with Laura, the babysitter. We're so happy to have someone that takes such good care of our sweet girl! On Friday morning, the four of us will be flying to Rhode Island for Susan's wedding--one of Kathy's best friends from college. This is Kara's 2nd time to ride on an airplane, and she's not even three months old! Kara was wonderful on the flight home from Oklahoma, so we're hoping for the same on the short (thankfully) flight to RI. Please pray for our safety and that Kara doesn't have any problems with her ears, etc.... We're really looking forward to seeing Susan, Dave (the groom), Sharon (twin sister) and Jim (Sharon's boyfriend)--as well as all of Sue & Sharon's family!

Kara's a big girl!

We got some pictures of Kara laying like a big girl on Daddy's pillow in our bed. What a cutie with a beautiful smile!