Our New Arrival!!!

Well, I think I have a pretty good excuse for not posting anything for a while. We had a baby!! Emily Lauren Stewart arrived fashionably late on July 31st, weighing in at 8 lbs. 8oz. Here's our latest family pic. I never would've imagined...four girls!!! I realize this post only takes us through Labor Day...but I figured I should start somewhere.

My Mom was able to come out the day before Emily was born and stay for...that's right...an entire month!!! It was a dream come true for me and at the end we both said, "That just wasn't long enough!"

Admiring their new baby sister at the hospital.

Baby Emily at home

The girls had so much fun having my mom here for so long. Here, Kailey and Mom had fun with the ribbons that surrounded the diaper cake from Jared's coworkers.

My mother is amazing! She helped me (though she did all the hard parts) sew Emily's blessing dress in just two days. I was so happy to find the perfect material for it.

Another project we did together was arranging these frames on the stair landing. Jared wanted to give me a collage of each girl for Christmas, but he knew I would want to pick out the frames. So, Mom and I made some fun trips to Hobby Lobby and ended up with the perfect arrangement. I'll act surprised at Christmas. :)

In the middle of the frame arrangement is this embroidery. I love it because it has a great message, but also because my mother, and both of my grandmothers embroidered part of it. I also worked on it, so it is a special connection between us all. My mom designed it years ago when she made them as gifts for her family.  I love how mine turned out, and I love that almost every time we walk downstairs Kailey says, "Look! Our family is ETERNAL!!"

A view of the garden from one of the bedrooms upstairs. The watermelons went a little crazy and started taking over the pathways. We've had a good harvest this year though....sugar snap peas, tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, watermelons, herbs, squash...and we grew corn, but the squirrels got it all before we did.

Emily was my first summer baby, so I had to learn quickly how to make the temperature just right for her. The best option we found was turning on the ceiling fan in the bedroom, but sometimes the air brushing up against her face startled her. So, we shielded her face with Ashley's parasol. Ahh, this is the life.

My sister Christy came into town for the blessing weekend, which of course meant F-U-N. Here we are having a tea party with the tea set Aunt Linda sent us. Thanks, Aunt Linda!! This is definitely the right house for such a cute tea set.

And with Christy in the house, the quality of hair styles increased dramatically...even on Kailey.

And it just wouldn't be right if we didn't have a pedicure/manicure party. Oh so fun!

Jared gave Emily a beautiful blessing and I am so glad that he is a worthy Priesthood holder. What a blessing that is in our lives.

We enjoyed a nice family lunch/dinner after church before saying good-bye to Dad and Christy.

I love Kailey's face on this one.

This little baby fits right in.

Mom with all of her grandkids! :)  Thank you, Mom, for such a wonderful visit. What a blessing you are to me!

 

 

 

 

Vacation!!!

 We finished up homeschool the third week of May and left on a 3-week vacation to California...woo-hoo!!!

 With family moving away from the area, we decided to visit many of the attractions in the area starting with...Sea World!!

 The shows were amazing!! We also loved all of the hands-on experiences throughout the park.

 The next day was spent at the Science Center. FUN!

  

 And we couldn't be in California without a trip to the beach!

Mom and Dad were kind enough to watch Kailey so that we could take the two older girls to Disneyland. It was so fun to run around with the two older girls and not have to worry about strollers, diapers, melt-downs or any of those things. Thanks to Mom's friend who is a Disney fanatic, we were given a personalized itinerary and never had to wait more than 15 minutes for anything (well, except 20 min. for Jungle Cruise). We saw lots of princesses, characters, and enjoyed a number of shows. The girls especially loved seeing so many of the princesses, driving the cars, and getting their own driver's licenses.

 

 

 Back at Mom and Dad's house we had fun spending time around the house and in the backyard, as well as helping them pack up to move. Good-bye, California!!!

 Aunt Christy had fun trying different hairdo's on Bethany's hair. Beautiful!

  The men spent a morning taking apart furniture...definitely a fun manly man thing to do.

  And who says you need toys? I'm convinced one of the best toys ever made is a cardboard box. Kailey had so much fun finding different uses for the boxes while we packed.

Jared returned home about ten days earlier than we did. He worked hard to surprise me for my birthday by finishing off the gravel pathways all the way to the half-way point in the garden. Below is a picture of what it looked like before I left and then what it looked like when I returned. Jared is the best!!!

 A few days after we returned home, Jared took a Guys Getaway trip with his dad to Washington D.C. They had so much fun seeing the sites and even got an awesome personal tour from Arkansas representative Steve Womack.

It's been a fun six weeks!