An Illinois Autumn...

There's nothing like it in my opinion:-) We were back for a visit a couple of weeks ago (I'm finally getting pics posted!) and were blessed with several days of sunny, crisp, colorful Fall days! Of course, there were a few of those nasty, cold, rainy days too...but they beautiful ones more than made up for it~

We were able to spend some time with our families and a few friends (although there never seems to be enough time to see everyone we'd like to or have enough time to catch up with the ones we do get to see!!) It was kind of a whirlwind...and still is somewhat of a blur.

Traveling with 2 kiddos on an airplane across the country was new territory for us! All in all, it went fairly well...besides the meltdown, "throw myself on the ground tantrum for an unknown reason" in the 4 foot wide jetway while everyone else is walking past us to board the plane. It happened at the end of a very long and busy week with very little sleep so it was kind of understandable. Looks like we'll have to make sure Justin gets plenty of rest next time:-)

Here are some pics of some of the highlights (the ones that I got pictures of anyway! So bummed that I didn't have my camera on me for some other special moments...ugh. Doesn't seem like a big deal in the moment, but then I kick myself later!):

Celebrating Grandma K's Birthday

Learning Great Granny's "Leaf Song":-)

4 generations of handsome Kauffman men!

Walking @ the Farm with Uncle Bob (walking stick in hand!)

Meeting Uncle TJ for the first time!

Soph's first combine ride!

Chillin' in a combine tire with Max (after the runaway bunny chase:-)

Dressing up with Aunt Maddie.

All the Ely grandchildren minus Ezra and York:-(

Family Pic at the Johnson Wedding (right before some crazy style Greek dancing! So much fun!)

Sophia and fellow flower girl, Elise, or "Miss Elise" as Soph calls her:-)

Thought this pic nicely summed up our time since we've been back in Cali!

Until next time....

A couple of quick ones...

Sophia recently started dance class...Ballet, tap, jazz and tumbling. As you can imagine, she absolutely LOVES it! Here's her getting ready to head out the door for class with her little "dance bag" in hand. No one ever told me when I became a mom of a daughter how completely precious it would be to see my munchkin in ballet and tap shoes...tear~

Ezra also recently started laughing. I love going through these stages again! Precious.

 

BTW...please ignore me sounding like a complete dork in the background trying to get my kid to laugh...I mean,  a parent will do ANYTHING to get a smile out of an infant, right?!?!

That's the haps here...luv, J, K, S & E

Happy Birthday Princess!

Ya, this post is a little late. Sophia's 3rd Birthday was on Tuesday ...unfortunatley I went to the Dr. on Wednesday and found out I had strep throat (ugh!) so I've been pretty much out of commission this week (as in my newborn son needed a bath since Wednesday and just got one today kind of "out of commission"!) 

Anyway, the sweet girl celebrated her special day over the course of several days...in true "milking your birthday as long as you can" fashion! 

On Saturday we went to play at Chuck E. Cheese with a few friends for a couple of hours....pretty sure that's where I picked up my bug...yuck! But she had fun dancing with Chuck E. Cheese. BTW...that place seemed so much bigger and more impressive when I was 6 years old...the one we went to this year only had 1 moving giant fur covered robot! What ever happened to the enormous dog, chicken, monster, and bear that played instruments, sang songs and scared the kids?? Sophia had a blast anyway:-)  

She's slightly intrigued by the giant dancing mouse:-) 

Don't worry Ez, you'll get in on some skee-ball next year!

Promised a cake pic to some people...here's how it turned out! 

I can't believe we have a 3-year-old! I'm going to miss this year of having a 2 year old in a lot of ways. We've had such a neat year with her. We're so blessed to be mommy and daddy to this precious little one. Watching her learn and grow everyday is one of the most amazing experiences that God has given us. Can't wait to see what the next year has in store! 

A few days ago, all four of us were playing in her room while she was bouncing on her bed. Out of nowhere, she stops and says, "I'm growing up so fast!" followed by, "Does that make you sad, mommy?".  After laughing at her saying that (and sniffling inside because it's true!) I realized that I need to stop sounding so sad when I tell her how fast she's growing up. Too cute. 

On her actual birthday, I had this plan to fill her room with balloons so that when she woke up in the morning, she would find them and start her birthday off right! After blowing up about 30 balloons (mind you I have strep throat at this point and don't know it!) and herding them into her room in the dark at 11:00pm, I crash into bed. Justin and I are awakened at 3:00am by a half asleep, confused munchkin asking us, "what is this?", "who did this?", "why are there balloons in my room?"....sooooo confused. Once she woke up completely and realized what had happened, there was no getting her back to sleep. I mean, you're 3. There are 30 balloons in your room. How can you sleep?? So we let her come in our room to try to settle down. Ya right! She finally fell back asleep at 5:30am. My "balloon surprise" plan MAJORLY backfired! :-) On the brightside, they have bought mommy some serious play time in the last few days!  

And oh, how our little Ez-man is growing! He's started smiling a couple weeks ago which is about enough to make me melt every time.....

We are having fun...

The past two weeks have flown by! We've been having some special times with our new little man. Moments that I spent worrying when Sophia was newbie are now moments that I can be more relaxed and cherish a bit more with Ezra. I'm glad I have a higher comfort level this time because Little Ez already has "an opinion" and isn't afraid to voice it! :-) It's amazing how I can already see how different he and Sophia are. In some ways he's an easier baby and in other ways more of a challenge. We're still "getting to know each other"...but he's a special little guy. 

We've been blessed to have continued family help as The Wilson Family left, then Mom and Dad Kauffman came in for the "next shift". I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to do this 2 kid thing by myself when our helpers leave..YIKES!! 

Here are some pics from the past several days. 

She's diggin this Big Sister Gig!

Life is good.....

All 4 of the Grandparents with the kiddos! 

Sophia became a Big Sis AND got to meet Mary Poppins and Burt in the same week...it's a BIG DEAL!!

Goin in to the office...

Ezra James

We are so excited to announce that Ezra James joined our family on Sunday, June 28th at 5:37am. He's a chunk at 8lbs 10oz and 21 inches long. He's been eating great and was already back to his birth weight on Tuesday morning! We came home from the hospital on Tuesday afternoon and are adjusting to life with a newborn and a 2-year-old. We've been blessed to have Katie's mom and sister here from Illinois which has helped Sophia adjust really well since she's getting ridiculously spoiled:-) She's LOVING being a big sis and is very in tune with Ezra's every need...bringing him toys, burp cloths, pacifiers etc...sometimes her timing and approach is a little off...for example: trying to give him a pacifier at naptime or toys while he's eating. Or the time that mommy told her that little brother was crying because he was hungry and needed to eat and she brought him carrots out of the refrigerator...but the point is, she cares:-) ...too cute!

In (and out) of the Big Girl Bed

We've had some interesting nights for the past several weeks with Sophia in her new Big Girl Bed. Of course she was SUPER excited to make the transition (which mommy had been procrastinating...the amount of control I had when she was in a crib was glorious:-). But it was definitely time when she would knock from the inside of her door after climbing out of her crib to come out of her room! Soooo...the adventure began.

Since that time, we've found her in various places in her room which we kind of expected. But it's still surprising to go in and check on her and never know where you'll find her. The first night it was in front of her dresser...still sound asleep. Here are a couple of some of the other positions and places that have made us laugh:-) ...and yes, the pillows are in laying in front of her bed to "break" the fall....


























...she's actually under the bed in this one. I know she must have been asleep when she rolled under there because she's scared to crawl under when she's awake. Justin carefully removed her trying to not wake her up so she wouldn't wig out.


Baby Boy Kauffman (yes, still unnamed) will be at 38 weeks on Friday....here is a belly pic. I feel like every belly pic is always impromptu...so I never feel like it's a very good pic. Just focus on the belly, okay!
...we're almost there! Woohoo!!!

The growing belly

Okay, so I was finally presentable enough this last weekend that I had Justin take some belly shots. It's funny how many pictures I take of Soph, but I myself am never "camera ready":-) So here we are, at 29 weeks! Feeling great besides the usual sense of "hugeness" that begins around this time. Also here's one of the rest of my adorable family...

































We have had a busy couple of weeks leading up to Easter....it's nice this week to kinda slow down a bit...especially for this prego! But here are some pics of what we've been up to.




From the Easter party we had with some friends



















































The Easter Bunny cake made in the tradition of my Grandma Ely (with black jelly beans under the tail, get it?!?!:-)





















Our friend Celia's Princess birthday party











































New Scooter!!!

































Helping Mom with our spring patio garden





















That's what's goin' on here!