We Miss You, Mimi!

My mom (aka Mimi) left Sunday night after Em's blessing and we are missing her terribly. On Monday morning, Kylie woke up bright and early and the first thing she said to me was, "Mimi???" I had to tell her Mimi went on the "up up" (aka airplane) to Mimi's house. Her reply was, "Ohhhhh, uh huh..."

We all loved having Mimi here with us. She was such a big help, entertaining Kylie while I was tending to Emily, cooking us spectacular meals, being a great shopping buddy, and as always, being great company. Before Mimi left we made sure to do a little Mimi/grandbaby photo shoot. It's kind of turned into a tradition I guess... Here are just a couple of the cute pictures we got:

We miss you, Mimi! Come back soon!

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Emily's Blessing Day

On Sunday, July 18th, 2010, Emily Grace was blessed in church in front of her family and friends. Daddy did such a wonderful job; it was such a beautiful blessing. I wish I could have written it all down to remember forever. It is such an amazing experience being able to listen to the blessings of the gospel being promised to your little girl and to have her know that she has a family that will love her and be with her forever. I am such a proud mommy and wife and I feel so blessed.

We were able to bless Miss Emily before Mimi had to return home to New Hampshire and we are so glad she was able to be there.

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Wild Wilderness Safari

In a little town called Gentry there is a little hill-billy zoo with all sorts of random animals. We decided that Kylie would love seeing all of the animals so we made the 20 minute trip and ended up having a great time. The Wild Wilderness Safari has all sorts of animals in their baby animal zoo, petting zoo, and drive-thru safari. We saw monkeys, tigers, zebras, camels, emus (those ones really freaked out Kylie until we started playing a peek-a-boo type game every time we drove by one. Now she calls them "Boo!"), deer, ostriches, kangaroos, a giraffe, hippos, hogs, a rhino and even buffa-cows! It was super hot that day (like heat index was above 100 degrees!) so thank goodness for the AC in our car.

Kylie loved all the monkeys!

Emily slept through just about all of the safari, waking up only once to eat. 

As Mike put it, "Good thing you were free, kid" :)

She especially loved the "baby ahh ahhs."

She wasn't as excited about the baby tigers as we thought she would be. Daddy had to convince her they were kittys before she would go anywhere near them.

Daddy feeding the monkey some stale bread that he found on the ground...

Mimi and Ky

The Kirby family on their first big outing as a family of four!

Going through the drive through safari. It was lots of fun and Kylie's reactions to the animals were priceless!

Some of our animal friends...

Checking out the giraffe. 

You can tell by Kylie's sweaty head just how hot it was, and we had only been out of the car for about 20 minutes...

 

Trying to get one last picture with Mimi before heading home... Kylie wasn't cooperating...

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"Draw Chalk"

The summer evenings here are just perfect for going out a doodling all over our driveway. Kylie loves chalk! Just about every time we play out front Kylie asks if she can "draw chalk." Her drawings usually consist of three short lines before she moves to the next color. This time she had Mimi to draw along side her, it was pretty fun to watch and what precious memories she was making with her grand-mimi. I hope they are close friends forever!

Daddy eventually got in on the action too and showed off his mad elmo-drawing skills.

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Kylie and Mimi

Mimi and Kylie have been having SOOO much fun together! This is just an example of their fun...

Having Mimi here has definitely made the transition easier for everyone, including Ky.

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Sisters

These two just completely melt our hearts!

Kylie is so infatuated with her baby sister, "Emie G." She loves to help with Emie in any way she can. If Emily  sneezes Kylie runs as fast as she can to find a tissue, if she is crying Kylie runs to find anything to help baby be happy (i.e. sippy cup, rattle, pacifier, a hat). Kylie loves to give her air hugs and kisses and soft "pat pat pats" on her little back and she gets so excited when Emily opens her eyes and stares at her. Ky is loving being a big sister and is so happy to be mommy's big helper too.

They are going to be the best of friends!

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Happy One Week Birthday, Emily!

It's already been one whole week!?!

We've been so busy with our new little lovely and we've been enjoying every minute of it! Don't worry, I've still been taking tons of pictures of my girls. I have to catch up on forth of July pictures, a photo shoot with Ky and Emie and Emily's own newborn pictures. They're all coming soon... I promise!

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Happy 4th of July!

Having a baby just couple days before the fourth meant that we really had no plans for the holiday. We didn't want to take Emie out to see fireworks and it would just be too far past Kylie's bedtime anyway. Instead, we bought a few fountain fireworks and had a little show on our front driveway. Fireworks are completely legal here in AR so we had some pretty impressive shows put on by our neighbors as well. Kylie loved the "boom booms" and the fireworks that looked birthday hats. (When Daddy and Kylie came back from buying a couple fountains, they pulled into the driveway and Kylie had one on her head saying, "Happy Me!" Then she took turns putting the unlit fireworks on everyone's heads... nice...)

The fourth was also the first time Kylie really got to have a turn holding Emily. (She had a bit of a cold when we were in the hospital so she wasn't able to get too too close before then.) Kylie loves holding her baby. She says "Hol', me?" It's adorable.

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Emily- Day 4...

I just wanted to put in a little update about Miss Em. She went to the doctor yesterday for her 4 day check-up where they measured and weighed her and checked for jaundice. She was down to 6lbs 10 oz (so tiny) but the doctor said in the first few days babies usually lose about 10% of their body weight so she was right on track. Her jaundice levels were very low so it was nothing to worry about either. She is doing so great and is so healthy and we feel so blessed.

Her days are still mostly spent doing this:

Isn't she gorgeous? This is one of my favorite parts of having a newborn. I love it when she cuddles up on my chest and we are heartbeat to heartbeat. I just love my little Emmie girl and I love these special moments we share.

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