and the name is....

I just realized that I mentioned our baby boy's name in my last post. Silly me. We had intended to make a formal announcement. Well, better late than never!
Let me give a little background. Two years ago, a doctor told us that we could never have another baby. We prayed and believed that somehow God would bless us. It seemed impossible, but, as most of you know, He did just that and we're expecting our son in December. God heard our prayer, and so our little man's name will be Samuel Russell Burton, or "Am," as Kate affectionately calls him.

the next big thing

I wish I had a video of this, but a picture will have to do. Kate absolutely cracks me up. A few months ago, she started putting on performances. She sings for a few seconds, pauses to wait for the applause she knows she's going to get, and then joins in the clapping. Occasionally, she'll treat us to the first line of the Happy Birthday song, but those are rare.

Other funny things my girl's been up to:

• "Mommy, whatcha doin' there?"
• she kisses and hugs my belly and calls her baby brother, Samuel, "Am"
• goes "bump bump" down our stairs, saying "bump bump" all the way down
• claps when she sees her daddy's school ("daddy cool")
• makes a cape out of blankie and her towels (she's gone from being wrapped up like our little baby to a superhero after bath time)
• she asks Stephen to sing every night (if you know Stephen, you know why this is funny)
• she can climb all the way to the top of the McDonald's slide and come all the way down...on her own!
• she helps me around the house every day...cooking, laundry, dusting. Although, she's not much help at all when it comes to vacuuming.
• she's sleeping in a big girl bed!!!! Which, incidentally, she fell out of the other night. I found her the next morning with her toes sticking out from the bottom of the bed. She had slept all night on the floor underneath her bed. How pitiful is that!

ELMO!!!

As most of you know, Kate is a HUGE Elmo fan (although Cinderella, "Raya," has recently given Elmo a little competition). So we couldn't resist taking her to Atlanta's Children Museum last weekend when Elmo and friends were visiting. She loved it; Stephen and I endured it. The museum was interesting enough, but it is absolutely exhausting keeping up with Kate. She might look like a sweet little tike (and she is), but she's got LOTS of energy. Here are a few pics of her favorite exhibits.

mommy and me

So it's been a while since posting a picture of myself, and a few of my girls are nagging me to post some belly pics. I know this doesn't quite cut it, but it's all I've got for now. Don't worry, ladies, I promise to post some really unattractive pictures of my ever-growing belly soon. The sooner, the better. I'm quickly leaving the pregnant-and-cute phase and entering the pregnant-and-look-like-a-blow-fish phase.

playing "dress up"

Kate loves borrowing Mommy's shirts (a.k.a. "dresses") and prancing around the house in them. On this particular day, she decided to jazz things up a bit with some fancy schmancy jewelry. She loves accessorizing!

Although she usually opts for my clothes, she occassionally stumbles across a cool find of her own. Like this purple tabogan with the poof on top. Funny girl.

what a strange, strange child...

Peek-a-Boo? Nope. This is how Kate prefers to take naps whilst traveling. She's an odd bird, but, love her heart, she didn't have much hope. She's ours, afterall.