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!