Happy Birthday Jason

Today is a very special day! It's Jason's 29th birthday. Unfortunately he has to work and go to the dentist, but luckily in our home you get a whole "Birthday Week." So for the entire week Jason gets to pick what we watch on TV, eat his favorite meals... he gets whatever he wants! This has been quite an exciting year so here is a recap of some events during the past year of Jason's life.

For Halloween last year Ty and Dana came over then we went to a pumpkin patch, came home and carved pumpkins. Unfortunately we didn't realize how fast pumpkins rot so Jason's amazingly carved pumpkin didn't quite make it to Halloween. (don't you like how he even dressed for the occasion)!

As soon as Jason found out I was pregnant he was very adamant that he wanted to build the crib. I had my reservations and even tried to talk him out of it. I was definitely wrong on this occasion. After many hours of hard work Jason built the most beautiful and perfect crib for our daughter. It shouldn't have surprised me, Jason is seriously super guy and can do anything!

The birth of Emily "Katherine" Shehane. I'm going to go ahead and say this was the most life changing event for Jason in the past year or ever for that matter. He is such a wonderful Dad and supportive husband. He has gone beyond his duties as a Dad and was even understanding during my hormonal/If I don't sleep I'm going to die days. I would like to also point out that I never changed one diaper in the hospital! Jason was incredible from the second she was born.

I can't find our Father's Day pictures so here's one from Mother's Day

Jason taking Kate on her first hike

Jason spent a week in Korea for work and they had a little free time for sightseeing. This was his first time going there since his mission. It only took 10 years but he was finally able to use his Korean! They were all impressed with how well he spoke Korean. I am going to MAKE Jason do a blog on this trip so stay tuned for more Korean pictures.

Daddy's Girl! I took this picture last night. There aren't even words to describe what this picture means to me. I have a very good relationship with my Dad and when I found out I was pregnant (I knew it was a girl) I hoped that Jason and her would have a close relationship. Every night they have Daddy/Daughter time when Jason feeds her her solids and then gives her a bath and gets her ready for bed. We both read to her and say a prayer before laying her down but until I come up that is their time to spend together. He is such a loving Dad. Kate is very blessed to have Jason as her Dad.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JASON - I LOVE YOU

Katherine

Katherine is all over the place! She is now standing up on everything. The first day she realized this new ability I think she ended up hurting herself about 10 times. Her balance was lacking and instead of falling nicely on her bottom, she'd face plant or fall straight back. She has the hang of it now and is only hurting herself about 5 times a day :) Her favorite place to stand is on the window. She loves watching Jason do yardwork.

She looks so tiny standing up, it just doesn't look right

The most adorable picture ever

We also had a fun and busy week with visitors. Jason's parents, Laura, Andy, Drew, Brady, Jenny, Susan, Johnson stayed over and SAM,Steve, Rachel, Matthew, and Sarah visited. We had the best time (Jason had been looking forward to it all week!) Family is the most important thing in our life and we always have a good time hanging out together. Jason's mom and I went shopping during the week and she pureed some pears from their own Pear Tree for Kate. Jenny and my Mom were so kind to babysit Saturday while we did a church activity and ate at Cheesecake Factory.

Laura and Brady

PawPaw working and MeeMaw

Cousins: Brady and Katherine - Kate's trying to help Brady balance :)

Cousins playing. Kate looks so much bigger because she's about 7 weeks older.

We're already looking forward to everyone visiting again!!!

A Special Day

Jason's parents, Laura, Andy, Jason, and I went to the temple on Saturday to do work for MeeMaws family. We were each given a family member to do their annointing, enowment, and sealings. This was my first time doing annointing and sealing in proxy. I was really excited because when I went through the temple the annointing was my favorite part. It was so incredible to receive those blessings. It was the one time during a crazy day that I was able to sit and actually pay attention and soak in what was being said. Being able to do it again didn't dissapoint. Seeing MeeMaw become sealed to her parents was a very emotional moment for me. (I actually cried)!  This again proves how much Heavenly Father loves us and has restored His church on Earth today. I can't wait to go to the temple with Katherine and our other kids someday and look forward to the day they can experience this with their spouse.

Who Knew

Katherine has had a busy month. She is growing super fast! It's funny because when she was born I thought she was perfect, then at 3 months I decided she would never be cuter, then when she was sitting I decided this was the best age because she could entertain herself and looked so cute sitting by herself. When she started babbling all the time I knew there was no way she could get any sweeter. Well now at 7 months she is CRAWLING and talking even more and it's official this is the best age! I love that as Kate grows she becomes more and more amazing! I know Jason likes this stage a lot better. When she was a newborn he thought she was way too helpless and decided it was very hard to keep a newborn from getting hurt. He's less worried now but still has random heart attacks on occasions, like when Kate holds her breath during a bath (which she likes to do) or when she makes a funny face while eating (which she also likes to do).

We have a video monitor and anyone who knows me has heard me talk about how incredible it is. Everyone should have one (thank you Uncle Howard and Aunt Pam). When Katherine was a teeny tiny baby we would turn on the monitor and she would be staring right back at us even though it was pitch black in her room. It freaked us out until we realized there was a green light at the end of the camera. Since then she has continued to stare at us through the camera. Well now that she can pull herself up she has made it her goal to get that camera. It takes her awhile to fall asleep because she will spend a good 30 minutes trying to get the camera. On her really determined days she'll spend this much time before she falls asleep and then again when she wakes. It's a little sad that we're going to move the camera and all her hard work will soon be for nothing!

Nice comfy bed or a jail cell?

If you look at the top left side of the crib you can see the infamous camera

She loves sleeping naked, probably because it's so hot! Not sure if you can tell but she has a bandaid on each leg from getting 2 shots that day :(

At her 6 months check-up the Dr. told me to give Katherine water. I went out, bought a sippy cup, filled it with water, and gave it to her. It took her a few days but then she got the hang of it and could drink it by herself. She looks like such a big girl!

Again she's naked. I should probably put some clothes on her :)

Just A Little Late

I finally got around to getting Katherine's 6 months pictures, so they're actually more like 6.5 months pictures. When we got there I told the lady Katherine doesn't like to sit still but the lady insisted on trying to put her on a chair. The first time Kate about dove off the chair, she hasn't quite grasped the concept of gravity yet. The second time she refused to sit and kept trying to stand up and topple off the chair, so needless to say all the pictures were taken with her safely on the floor!

This was my old baby dress that my Mom saved

This also was one of my old dresses

Jason thinks she looks like a little doll here

This is so Kate!

Our precious baby girl

Such a happy baby

My Dad came with me and didn't realize he was going to have his picture taken too :)

Yum...Real Food (sort of)

Katherine is now allowed to eat solids! She's been eating rice cereal for about a month and loved it. We never had any trouble with her since she tries to eat anything we put near her mouth. She loved sucking on peppers from our garden but we had to quit that when she tried to eat it whole. The first "solid" we gave her was squash. She was very insulted that we were trying to put something so nasty in her mouth (baby food really is disgusting). But after 2 tries she was eating it like it was no big deal.

I used to always make fun of the moms who would only feed their baby organic food or would use homemade baby food. Somewhere along the way I've turned into one of those moms. It started when I saw a box of organic whole grain rice cereal that just seemed so appealing, then I realized how easy it would be to puree some vegetables.... I blame my sister for telling me about all the chemicals in our food :) Of course I still eat the worst junk food imaginable but Katherine is going to be a very healthy eater. Jason likes to point out that I'm going to have to start eating vegetables if I'm going to make her. I plan on waiting until she's aware of her surroundings; no point in forcing myself now when she doesn't even know what's going on! Eventually I know Kate will be eating fruit roll-ups and McDonalds so for now I'll live in my dream world of all healthy non GE food

It tastes much better on my thumb

I love my carrots

What? You're taking my food away from me????

I don't think so

MOUNTAIN TRIP

My parents friends have a vacation home in Cashiers, NC so Ty, Dana, Jason, Katherine and I spent the weekend there. We turned it into a mini vacation. I absolutely love NC and if we ever have to leave GA (which hopefully won't happen) I would like to live there. The 4 of us used to do weekend trips all the time and this was our first one since Katherine was born.

The first waterfall we went to had an amazing view but we couldn't get very close to the waterfall. I had a backpack that was loaded up with everything imaginable. Katherine makes hiking a little more complicated. For such a tiny little things she sure needs a lot! Though she does make everything more fun!
She loves being outside and being carried around. She's such a happy baby (especially when she's had her naps)! She is just too adorable!!!

Katherine's first real hike! Jason did a very good job of hiking with her and protecting her from any bees. I wouldn't even consider carrying her since I'm so clumsy and did slip a couple of times and would have completely fallen if Ty hadn't been helping Dana and me. Kate is going to be a very adventures child if we keep this up!

We found instructions to a hidden waterfall. They literally told us to drive down some random road with no street sign, find a bend in the road, and then listen for a waterfall. I have no idea how we managed to find this place. The directions said there wasn't a trail and they were right. We decided we were going to blaze our own trail, with a baby! Aren't we just the best parents :)

Our only group picture! We tried to get one at the other waterfall but whenever you ask a stranger to take a picture they always seem to be incompetent. We used the timer here and I still can't believe we're all in the picture.

Jason got in the freezing cold water that Kate wanted nothing to do with. I love this picture of Ty and Dana

At the end of the hike Kate was worn out and ended up falling asleep like this while we were hiking back. She is such a sweet baby!

We had a lot of fun in the mountains and it was definitely worth going!

Kate also had her 6 mont birthday so I thought I would add these because this is her favorite thing to do now that she's a pro at sitting up. I think she gets cuter, sweeter, funnier.... everyday!