THREE (a LONG post)

We've been celebrating the number three in the Lott household lately, so here it is: the post dedicated to the third addition to our family and the third birthday of our baby girl! We'll go with the birthday first, so you'll have to wait just a little longer for those newborn pictures! :)

It's so hard to believe our tiny, sweet little baby girl just turned THREE. Three is so far precious and wonderful, but every day I'm reminded it is officially NOT baby anymore! Kate is oh-so-independent, talking like a teenager, and 100% girly-girl. I'll have to dedicate another post (soon!) on everything she and her brothers are doing lately, but for now we'll get on to the birthday...

I think Kate had 3 birthday "parties" this year! We kicked off the celebrating in St. George the week before her birthday as the pre-party to Gramp's 50th birthday surprise party! Her birthday fell on a Sunday and since that's a busy day for Daddy, we celebrated as a family the Saturday before. Uncle Ryan, Nana, and Papa got to join us for this one! Then the following Thursday we headed to Lexington to celebrate with Mema, Gaga, Aunt Margaret, and Uncle Frank. That's a lot of celebrating for a little girl! We are blessed to have such loving family in our lives to care so much about our children!

Saturday morning, Daddy took Graham outside so Mommy could get ready for the party and when Kate came out to play, they had made her a huge birthday sign on the sidewalk!

Kate LOVES princesses and ballerinas right now and I found these little dollar crowns, so we let her wear one for her party hat. A little lop-sided, but she thought it was great! I just LOVE that happy face!!

Listening to us sing "Happy Birthday" to her! She is truly an angel! :)

Had to include this sweet little cupcake face!

This one's for Aunt Whitney. She looks too grown up, though!!

This was on Sunday, on Kate's actual birthday. These two truly love each other!

Uncle Ryan, Nana, and Papa with ALL the children!

Family of FIVE!

Pooped (with her new Cinderella Barbie) after a long day of fun! I remember when that sleeping face was just sooo tiny! Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!

OK. So here it is! The story of the arrival of Hollis Michael Lott on July 13, 2010!! The delivery story actually starts about mid-June when we were at the beach with Kevin's side of the family and I started having random contractions. We came home, Kevin headed to camp with the youth group, and my parents came to stay with us for the week. I had a doctor's appointment during that time and found out I was 2 centimeters dilated and 25% effaced! This was new for me (I'd never been more than 1 centimeter dilated when I was induced.), so we didn't know how quickly Hollis was going to make his arrival. Mom and I stressed all week that I was going to have this baby before Kevin made it home from NC, so we rushed around getting everything PERFECT for Hollis's arrival! I kept having more and more contractions and each night they'd get closer and closer together and more regular. One night they started at about 20 minutes apart and got down to about 10 minutes apart over about 6 hours! I almost had Kevin come home, then they just stopped. Soon I realized that was just gonna be the pattern. Kevin did make it home, my parents made it back to Hilton Head, and we started WAITING. It wasn't that I was late, it was just so many "close calls" and regular contractions that every second felt like the second I'd go into labor. (Plus, my perfectly "baby-ready" house was less and less "baby-ready" with every passing day and that frustrated me!) At my next doctor's appointment I was 3 centimeters and still 25% effaced. We decided to schedule to be induced on Thursday, July 15 if I didn't go into labor before then. (My due date was the 16th, but Kevin had a big youth event coming up and I was afraid he'd miss out on Hollis's first few days if I went a week overdue.) A couple days after that appointment, I had regular contracts ranging from 5-20 minutes apart for 12 hours. I called my parents to tell them that this might be it. By the time they got packed, the contractions had stopped completely! Ugh!!! Then Monday morning before my appointment on Tuesday, I called my Mom to see if she wanted to come down to keep Kate and Graham and be here for the scheduled induction on Thursday. Come to find out, she was already packing her bags with the same idea in mind! So she came up Monday night, we got the house clean again, some people from church brought us a wonderful dinner, and we had a fun time hanging out! Mom kept the children on Tuesday so Kevin could drive me to my appointment. When we got there I was 5 centimeters!!! Dr. Risinger said, "Wanna have a baby tonight?!" YESSSS!! Absolutely! It was so fun to have Kevin with me at that moment to share that excitement! We talked about it and decided I had time to go home, get my bags, and come back to the hospital. Some precious friends from church, Miss Elaine and Willy T, were willing to come keep Kate and Graham at the drop of a hat, so we got home, got everything settled and made it back to the hospital at around 5:30. By then I could feel the contractions every 5-6 minutes and they were starting to really hurt. We checked in and got into a room immediately. All of our family made it in by 6:30ish, which was HUGE. We were so afraid they'd miss everything because the doctor said they'd just break my water when I got there, but it was 7:00 or 7:30 by the time we saw the doctor. I was getting pretty uncomfortable, but the contractions were getting closer together, then farther apart, then closer together again...I guess it was around 8/8:30 when I got my epidural. (This was the only thing I was unimpressed with about this hospital - it took the doctor 2 tries to get it in and he had to "wiggle" it around for what seemed like FOREVER to get it in the right place - and I had to ask the nurse to help hold my shoulders since they told Kevin to sit down!) Anyway, by the time they finally checked, I was only 6 centimeters and I hadn't dropped very much, so they didn't want to break my water yet. I let them convince me to have some pitocin about 9:30, maybe 10:30 - my timeline was so fuzzy that whole night. I was concerned about family that had to drive home after Hollis was born, so I took the pitocin. I kinda wish I hadn't b/c I in no way wanted that whole experience to be over! Hollis Michael Lott arrived at 11:23 p.m. on Tuesday, July 13!!! You never think your heart can melt like that THREE times, but oh how it does! Hollis immediately captured everyone's heart! He was (and still is) such a little butterball in comparison to Kate and Graham! He was 8 pounds, 0.7 ounces and 20 inches long! He definitely weighed the most of the 3 and was the shortest of the 3! We all immediately noticed his hands - they are so big - long fingers like Kate and Graham, but I was convinced that at birth he could probably palm a basketball! :) Of course, the next hours FLEW by. It was hard getting used to the way they do things at a different hospital. They wanted me to be able to walk on my own to the restroom before they moved me to my recovery room, so at 1:00 a.m. I'm trying to get up and walk to the restroom. My epidural was REALLY good, and I just couldn't feel my legs yet. I was SO tired and the nurses just kept coming back to get me to try again. Finally when I almost got sick all over the place, they let Kevin help me get up. The other different thing is that this hospital didn't give Hollis his bath and all right there in the delivery room. They had to take him back to the nursery. Kevin was allowed to go and videotape, but it was sad for me to have him whisked away for so long and to miss that whole part. Everything took them SO long that night. We didn't get to our recovery room until 4:30 a.m. and Hollis didn't get there 'til about an hour after that. I was one impatient, tired Mommy. I just wanted my baby!! We decided after that just to keep Hollis in the room with us during the night. He wasn't at all interested in nursing, so we all got sleep! :) We had to leave the hospital on Thursday, which just seemed TOO short since he was born so late in the day on Tuesday, but we were ready to see Kate and Graham! They had come up to visit us at the hospital on Wednesday and their reactions to Hollis were...varied. Graham loved him right away, but was too intrigued by the hospital room to pay him a lot of attention. Kate was really shy around him at first, but gradually fell in love with his TINY TOES! She kept wanting to hold him and unwrap his swaddle to see his little toes and his "belly cord." Then she'd be done. Then she'd want to hold him again! Graham kept wanting to "point out" his eyes. We had tons of fun introducing them to their littlest brother! It's so hard to believe we're a family of FIVE!! Praise the Lord for a house FULL of beautiful, healthy little ones!

Meeting my little Ollie Bear!

Daddy couldn't be more proud!

Kate and Gray meet Hollis!

On the way home...

Thank you, Lord, for this sweet little baby! We are truly blessed!

Getting Behind AGAIN....

I'm getting behind again in our posting, so here's a quick run-down of the last month:

We started off the beginning of June coming back from a great trip to Gulf Shores, AL with my Dad's family. We missed Uncle Ryan and Wiley, but it was so fun getting to watch Kate and Graham play with their cousin Miller! Kate and Graham LOVED playing in the sand during the day and in the surf in the evenings. We were so thankful to be there before the oil came in a ruined such beautiful beaches! Thanks again Caseys for a wonderful trip!

Exactly a week later, Kevin headed off for his first youth trip of the summer and the children and I packed up and headed up to Raleigh. Kevin and the youth kids had a great, but exhausting, time at World Changers: Nashville and we had a blast catching up with friends from Wake Forest. We were able to spend a whole week with the Varners and it was so fun seeing Kate and Savannah get to play together again! They even had their first slumber party - we let them sleep together in Savi's room, and for the most part they did pretty well! We definitely missed a couple naptimes, but it was worth it to see them have fun together! One of the highlights of the trip was having a playdate at Rolesville Park! It was especially fun to see Stephanie and Eden after a whole year! It's hard to believe how much children grow and change and it just makes me miss everyone all the more! To top it all off, these sweet friends decided to turn the playdate into a surprise baby shower for us! We had cupcakes (which Graham REALLY enjoyed) and they gave me a Moby wrap! Thanks again, girls! It's hard to believe next time we travel up to Wake Forest we'll have THREE children! Wow. 

After that trip, we spent a week at home and decided to join the community pool here in Camden.  The children and I made a trip to the pool four days that week. They have a great kiddie pool area that's about 1 1/2 feet deep and fenced off by itself. It was amazing how they were a little unsure of themselves the first day, but by the end of an hour they were splashing around, floating on their tummies, kicking their feet, belly flopping the water....it's so much fun to see them learn to enjoy something new! 

Friday we got everything ready to head down to Edisto Beach for Kevin's family vacation. Just as I was loading the car up about an hour before we needed to leave, I thought it would be a good idea to miss the step and fall down three steps to land flat on my side in the garage. It definitely hurt, but mostly I was worried about the baby. Thankfully after a little reading and feeling the baby move around a good bit, Kevin and I were convinced that the baby was OK and we got on the road. So other than a couple days of being sore and keeping track of the baby's movement, everything was OK! When we got to the beach we were SO excited to get to see Dustin propose to his girlfriend, Gracie on the beach right in front of the beach house! They've set their wedding date for December 4 and we couldn't be more thrilled for Gracie to officially become "Aunt Gracie!" We truly had such a great time at the beach with all of Kevin's family PLUS some great extended family! Kate and Graham got to play with Paxton and Reece and we just loved watching them enjoy the sand and the waves. Kate and Graham were both so much more relaxed in the water than before and even took a couple trips out on Philip's kayak! We saw dolphins and baby sharks, too! I think the highlight, especially for Kate, was getting pulled down the beach in Paxton's wagon - thanks again, Uncle Pace! It was such a fun week that, of course, went by way too fast!

This time we only got to be home for a weekend before Kevin headed off on youth trip #2: Crossroads Camp. He left Monday morning and my parents came to stay with us here in Camden. Monday we were so blessed to get to meet up with the Hoffmans, a dear family from my church growing up! We met them and the Keesey/Headley clan at the park and played for a little while - it was so great to catch up! We spent the rest of the week tackling painting and cleaning projects here at the house. On Wednesday Aunt Chelle came to pick up Kate and Graham so they could spend a few days in St. George while we worked. We were able to get most of 2 of our big projects done, get the whole house clean, get all the baby stuff clean and in place, do lots of shopping for the baby, AND squeeze in a trip to Mema's for dinner - and boy are we exhausted now! Thanks again, Mom and Dad AND the Lotts for all your help! Now we just need a baby! :) 

At my doctor's appointment on Tuesday, I was dilated 2 centimeters and 25% effaced. I've been having several Braxton Hicks contractions every day, so hopefully this baby will come sooner rather than later. The doctor told me that if I make it to my appointment next Tuesday, I could choose to pick a day to be induced. Since my due date isn't until the 16th, I doubt I would schedule an induction before then because I'd really like to experience going into labor on my own. We'll see - so far this is more progress than I've made at this point in either of my other 2 pregnancies - so maybe!!! :) 

OK...So now Kevin is home from camp, Kate and Graham are home from St. George and we are just waiting for our precious little one to arrive! Will update again soon!

Too Cute to Miss

OK, so my children were SUCH boogers when we went out to dinner last night and they must've known they were headed for a behavior crack-down, because they've more than made up for it today! I just had to go ahead a blog so I wouldn't forget! 

This morning I unpacked 2 boxes of books that we'd had in our garage forever and when I was finished I let Kate and Graham play with the boxes. So they decided to turn them into drums. After a few minutes, Kate got tired of drumming and stood back to watch Graham play. They were just laughing and giggling at each other (which was cute enough) until Graham drummed a few times and stopped to look at Kate, at which point she ran over to him and patted his little belly (they were both just in their underwear) and said "Good job, Gray!" in this sweet, sweet little mommy voice! He just thought that was the best and so for the next 5 minutes, Graham would drum on the box, then stop and Kate would run over to say things like: "I'm so excited!"and "I love you, Buddy!" She'd get down right near his face to say it and pat his belly or give him a kiss or rub his head. 

Just a few minutes ago I was putting sheets on Graham's bed before nap. He'd been fussy and was ready to sleep, so when I finished he crawled right up to the pillow and lay down. Kate wanted to play on his bed, but I told her that Graham was ready for his nap, so then she walked across the room to get his special "night-night" (blanket), crawled into his bed, and just so gently covered him up. Once she got the blanket just right, she leaned over and kissed his forehead. So I handed her his paci, which she put in his mouth, then she crawled off the bed and left the room. I was standing in the doorway just watching and when she got to me, she looked up and said "Graham's so cute." Graham fussed for just half a second as I shut the door and when I was tucking Kate in for her nap, she was just SO concerned that he woke up, like he was her personal little baby. (He didn't, by the way, he just rolled right over and went to sleep.)

Moments like these are the reasons we decided to have that second child after all, right? I can't think of many things that melt my heart more than when my two little ones love each other so much! 

And while we're still on the topic of cute things children say, the other morning as we were getting ready to leave the beach, I told Kate to put her shoes on. At first she didn't want to, so I said "You need to put your shoes on now, but you can take them off when you get in the car." So then she said "I love you, Mommy..." and I just immediately jumped in and said "I love you, too, Kate, but you have to put your shoes on." So she looked up at me and tried again, same thing: "I love you, Mommy..." and I said " Sweetheart, I love you, too, but you really have to put your shoes on." So then she stopped putting her shoe on, took a deep breath, and tried one more time. The almost-frustrated deep breath convinced me to stay quiet just to see if she had anything else to say. So finally, she gets out (in the sweetest, softest little voice): "I love you, Mommy, but I don't want to take my shoes off in the car." She absolutely knows how to melt my heart. 

I really, really love my children.

Big Boy Bed

Last night we put our little baby boy in his big boy bed for the first time!! We got everything in his room ready the night before, and I don't think I've EVER been so emotional as a parent! When I went to peek in on him before I went to bed that last night in his crib, I was immediately an emotional basketcase. I had to go get the video camera and just stood there bawling over the camera and over his crib. Then I said to Kevin, "I think I need to hold him." So we got him up and I rocked him for a while, just sobbing. It was one of those moments where you think: "What if this is the last time I get to do this?" Goodness, children grow up too fast. 

Anyway, so we actually put him in the big boy bed when we came home from church last night. Kate REALLY wanted to sleep in Graham's bed with him, so the bedtime hour was a little more stressful than usual, and by the time we were putting Gray in bed it was almost 9:00. Kevin put him in the bed first, but he immediately started crying and hopped right up. When I got in there, I rocked him for a minute or two and then tried to lay him down again, but he just started screaming like he was terrified. It COMPLETELY broke my heart so I just picked him right back up. We tried that a couple more times and he was just beyond upset. So finally I laid down with him in the bed and he curled up right next to me without so much as a peep. I stayed there for about 30 minutes and he only popped his head up once, looked around, and then lay right back down when I told him to. When I got up he started crying again right away, but I went ahead out of the room and by the time I had walked across the house to check the monitor he was already quiet again. He was peeping over the bed rail at first, but then not even a minute later, he lay down and went right to sleep! He slept all night and woke up around 6:15 (waaay earlier than usual). I just stayed in bed and watched the monitor for a while. For the first 15 minutes, he just rolled around talking to himself in the bed, then he sat up and looked around for a few minutes, and THEN he realized he could climb out of the bed. The expression on his face when he first stood up was priceless! He looked like he wanted to say "What exactly is going on here?" He kinda just stood there for a little while, then crawled back into bed and lay down for a few minutes...and that's how the next hour went. I just watched him crawl in and out of the bed. At one point he even laid down for 10-15 minutes and I thought he MIGHT go back to sleep, but no luck. He was really good, though, just checking things out! 

Hopefully we'll have successful nap times today and HOPEFULLY no more of that crying - I just can't bear it!! And, yes, hopefully he'll start sleeping 'til 8:00 again once he gets used to things! :) Graham is 16 months old now, and it's so hard for me to believe that when we put Kate in the bed at 15 months, we actually thought she was "all grown up." How clueless we are as parents sometimes! Graham is definitely still a little baby, and I'm SO thankful for that! We'll keep treasuring all the snuggles while he's willingly giving them out and enjoy these last couple months before he's no longer my littlest baby!!!

So Far in May

Lately we've just been sitting here collecting so many adorable pictures and great blog ideas, and just when I think I've solved our computer problem, it just messes up again! It's waaay beyond frustrating at this point, so here comes another photoless update....

We've officially started our busy summer here in Camden and although we are so exhausted, everyone is having a blast and the kids have been sleeping really great! :) We kicked off the month of May with a visit to Charleston for Kevin's family reunion - it was so much fun to be outside on a beautiful Saturday enjoying family, lots of great food, fun new family reunion t-shirts, and most of all: paddleboats! Graham didn't LOVE it because the lifejacket he had to wear was completely uncomfortable, but even he got over it when we started chasing turtles around the pond. They loved that the turtles came close enough to the boat that they could almost touch them!

The next weekend, Kate and Graham got to stay the whole weekend with Nana and Papa here at home while Kevin and I went to Charleston to celebrate our 6th Wedding Anniversary!! It's so hard to believe how time flies. Kevin planned a great weekend for us, but kept most of it a surprise until we got there (I knew we were headed to Charleston, but I was so surprised at the details)! He booked us a package at the Mills House Hotel, complete with gift cards for dinners at some wonderful restaurants! We spent most of our time just walking around the city, but we also got to eat some amazing seafood dinners at AW Shucks and Blossom, made a late-night visit to Kaminsky's, shopped King Street and the Market, went for a swim in the pool at the hotel, and managed to grab an order of Tommy Texas Cheese Fries on our way out of town! It was truly such an awesome weekend! 

Last weekend Kevin  and Willy T fixed the AC in his car, while Kate and Graham and I attempted a swim with Miss Elaine at their pool on Friday. (Thanks, Thompsons!) Saturday we got to go see Josh and Elizabeth get married! It was such a beautiful wedding and so much fun getting to see all the Keesey/Bryant family again for the first time in years! Sunday we had a huge church picnic and the kids were SO good, it was truly such an enjoyable time for everyone! 

Meanwhile during all this fun, we're staining/painting a new kitchen table, having a built-in cabinet system installed, trying to grow a small vegtable garden in the backyard, and tonight is the big night for Graham to try out his new big boy bed!! Kate and I have started working on her alphabet during Gray's morning nap. We're making an ABC Book, one letter each day. So far we're on the letter D. She isn't necessarily able to label the letters on her own, but she's getting pretty good at pointing them out if you give her a couple choices. Graham is such a copy cat lately...a couple funny ones happened the other day when I had given both of the kids some junk mail to play with. Kate asked me to help her lick the envelope closed. Graham immediately went to get his envelope and gave it to me to hold up so he could lick it. It was so funny! Earlier that morning, Kate was dancing around in her tutu and Graham went to get a tutu then held it up for me to put it on him. I refused the first couple times when Kate said "Gray wants a tutu on," but about the 3rd time when Graham said "please," I gave in. By the time Kevin walked in the room, Graham was wearing a purple tutu and purple high heel dress shoes. I spared him the later embarrassment of taking a picture, but I just HAD to include it in the post! :)

I can think of a million more stories to share, but this post is long enough already....hopefully we'll have some pictures to add in soon!

Just to keep up

OK, so of course as soon as I resolve to start blogging more, our computer crashes! This blog is from Kevin's work computer, so it won't have any pictures, but I figured keeping up was better than nothing.

Right now Kate and Graham are having a blast being outside as much as possible! We've been working in the yard, planting our first (and very experimental) garden, playing on the swingset the kids got for Christmas, and pulling out the kiddie pools whenever the weather is warm enough. My kids LOVE the water. At least the bath and the kiddie pool, we'll see if Kate will be more up for the big pool this summer. Graham has NO fear whatsoever. It's hilarious to see him dive right in, get a mouthful of water and come up laughing. We have to be careful not to let him see us setting up the kiddie pools until we're ready for him to get in because he'll throw a fit until we cave. :)

As far as "milestones," Graham is trying to say lots of new words. He can say most any "b" word: ball, bubble, book, baby....as well as "pa-pa" for "paci," and mama and dada. The funniest words he says are "poo-poo" (which he says in a really deep voice) and today he said "pee-pee" after I asked Kate if she needed to go pee-pee in the potty. Today he also said "cookie" for the first time. It actually came out perfectly, and it said it really low, too - it was so cute! He still MOSTLY just points and says "aah" when he wants something, and still uses a few signs: please, all done, and up (sometimes "more"). He is still hanging on to his paci, which we try to only let him have in the crib. We've been getting him to throw it in the crib when he wakes up in the mornings, but then FIRST thing when we let him down from the highchair after breakfast, he crawls in his room, reaches into his crib, and pulls his blanket out through the rungs because he's learned that most of the time, his paci will come out with it! :) If that doesn't work, he'll point to his crib and kinda fuss until KATE will go in there, fish his paci out, and give it to him. He's got street smarts for sure! He's walking everywhere now and copying EVERYTHING Kate does. If she's holding a baby, he goes to get one; if she sits on the couch, he gets up there; if she has on shoes, he wants shoes....it's crazy how early that starts. They catch on to each others "games" and crack each other up all the time now and it's one of my favorite things. Like the other morning at breakfast, Kate blew on her food and it made a silly noise...2 seconds later Gray had figured it out and they were doing it back and forth just laughing hysterically!

Kate is changing SO much, too. It's really hard to put into words the new things she's doing, it's just like in general she is a child now and not a baby. She talks NONstop, wants to help Mommy do EVERYTHING, and loves to do arts/crafts. She still loves to read, play with her baby dolls, dress-up in tutus, and watch Sesame Street. Cute things she says lately are "What's that hear sound?", "Sorry, Mommy, I not mean to." (we have NO idea where she got this from, we haven't even really taught her "sorry," maybe it's something one of us says and we don't realize it), "Kate wants to pink." (meaning paint) When she prays at night she's been copying our prayers a little and it goes something like this: "Thank you for Daddy, Mommy, Kate, Graham, and NEW little baby ("new" is always said in a cute little high-pitch voice). Help 'em grow." She always amazes us with her singing. She picks up songs IMMEDIATELY and has learned songs lately like "Father Abraham," "Joshua and the Battle of Jericho," "Skinna-merinky-dinky-dink" (however you spell that), and "Oh How I Love Jesus" (our favorite). We're also amazed by how she ALWAYS knows what Graham wants. Sometimes we'll be baffled at why he's fussing and she'll say "Gray wants his juice." Sure enough - she's right! Never fails! Kev and I both love this so much!

OK, it's getting late. I know there are so many more things I could say about the cute/sweet/funny things they do, but I'll have to save it for another day. I seriously LOVE these kids. I can't believe we get to have another one and see what kind of dynamic he adds to our family. Counting down the THIRD trimester now! He'll be here soon!

A YEAR Later...

It's officially been a YEAR since I've blogged about our family. I decided that, even though there's NO way I'll be able to quickly catch up, I've got to start blogging again now or it'll never happen. So, here are a couple pictures Kevin took of Kate and Graham a couple weekends ago on a visit up to Wake Forest...Kate is now 2 1/2, Graham is 14 months, and I am 24 weeks along with our second sweet little baby boy! It's impossible to believe how time flies and how much more each day Kevin and I can love these precious little ones! Being a parent is truly THE most amazing blessing in this world and I'm excited to catch everyone up on all the ways we have grown and changed over the past year!