My sister is getting married!!!!

Everybody I just wanted to tell you that my sister is getting married in only 2 weeks!!!!! Yes, two weeks from today she will walk down the aisle and get married to Dustin and become Mrs. Herrs. They are very cute together and I pray that they love marriage as much as I do!
**If you think that marriage is a wonderful experience that you wouldn't change it at all, then post a comment that she can read to encourage her as she makes this life long commitment. I am so proud of her and I love you little sister to pieces!!
See ya soon pie, we love you !
Gi-for all of us
PS these were our family photos taken this past Christmas, we don't normally pose against stone walls :) ...

This is wonderful!! Praise the Lord for giving us alittle wisdom!

Hi all,

I wanted to write about this wonderful "Gripe Water", it really is a great thing to have on hand for babies or adults. It is a "natural water" that is given to calm babies helping them digest things better. About two weeks ago I started to notice that Katie, during feeding was so fussy. She would come off while nursing, throw her head back, scrunch up her pretty face-cry, then go back to nursing with a vengeance that was so strong! Justin and I talked to a few people and with some council decided that she may be starting to have colic. We looked online and there was a bunch of recommendations for this as a natural help to babies with colic. I started to give her this a few times a day and she didn't/doesn't seem to mind taking it, which is a blessing. It has ginger, fennel and sodium are to help her digest and process things through her little tummy. And chamomile is also an ingredient which works to calm her. I would recommend this to anyone that wants help with a fussy baby. I bought this from Whole Foods, though you can also purchase this online. It was about $10 and will last about 6 weeks. *If you were to research this online you will also notice that this is used frequently in Europe and over there it is common to have in the medicine closet!

The most interesting thing about her fussiness is that we don't think it is really colic that she has. I am still giving her a dose of "Gripe Water" to help her process things...it is completely natural, so I am not worried about it hurting her...we found out that what is really going on is that she has a dairy allergy! It is just wrecking her tummy when I eat dairy and then pass it through nursing. So therefore I have stopped eating all dairy. And if you know me, I love dairy! But as for now to help out our little one, no dairy for me. I have been off dairy for about 10 days now and she is almost back to her cute little self. She doesn't throw herself around in pain, is almost sleeping without waking herself because of tummy contractions, and she is still smiling through it all. We love her smile!

Caught this...Ahhh...

I was watching some T.V. waiting to feed before I went to bed....and I looked over to see this. Daddy and Katie Grace sacked out! You can't see it on this picture, but when Katie is really sleeping she also sleeps with her mouth open like her daddy. :)
I love you both!
PS Isn't it great when a baby is sleeping with you like this?

Family Photo!

Gi and I wanted to share our first family picture. We took some photos this morning out in front of our house after church as many of you have asked to see all of us together. It is a warm day here in Raleigh, so we took them early to beat the heat.

Love,
Us

One Month Old!

Just a few pics of the little one from last Friday. What a big girl she is.

Watch Katie Grow Timeline!

We posted a timeline for little Katie at the bottom of the blog, so if you would like to keep up with how old she is, simply scroll to the bottom and take a look.

A Big Day Out!

Yesterday, (Sat. 23rd) we all went out to the State Farmer's Market. This was Katie's second big outing (the first was a visit to Homewood Nursery-we wanted to get some plants for Gi/mommy), and she had a great time. In fact, Gi and I were sharing a smoothie together last night and discussing that we thought that it was her best day so far-which is a lot of fun! We traveled to Whole Foods for lunch, stopped to see Ms. Anna, and then made our way home for a relaxing evening. She has really grown a lot over the past couple of weeks and is already 1 month old. We are enjoying our time together and still learning a great deal...both she and us. We were told once, that when you come to Christ you die your first death to self, when you get married you die your second, and when you have children you die a third death...each subsequent one is more difficult as it necessitates greater selflessness, but each one is also a greater blessing.

p.s.-Gi also wanted me to include a note of thanks to Leah for the great sling, as it came in very handy during our walk around the market.

My First Bath!

While this was a while ago...as we do bathe her regularly, we thought that we would memorialize the trama. You would think that we were commiting some attrocious act, but no, we were just giving her a quick bath. It was so much fun and I'm glad that we have a couple of memories of it. I have put three pictures in, (kind of like, pre, mid, and post tribulational pics), and I know they tell the story better than I can. Oh by the way, she has now moved on the regular baths and she loves them :). She is doing so well, kind of a rough day today, but she is growing so so quickly. We love her very much.

Love, US

To Our dad's

Happy Fathers Day to Our Dad's! We love you all very much... :) We can't wait to see you soon!
Love, us

Happy First Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day!
I wanted to capture daddy and his little girl for their first fathers day. :) Don't they make the cutest pair?? Katie sure loves her daddy...
My favorite picture is the second one where she is looking up at him with those big blue eyes, don't you agree? Even though you probably can't tell she does have all her little fingers wrapped around his one finger. Ahh...precious!

Justin is doing a wonderful job at being a daddy! He gets up with us at night, holds and kisses us when he comes home from work, gives us calls during the day to check up on us, and also prays daily for wisdom on how to be a daddy and husband. We both love him so so much!

Happy Father's Day daddy!
Love, Katie

A Few More Pictures

Hey Everyone,
Just a few more pictures of the little misses. We have included a variety of pics from the past two weeks, as we are trying to get our "blog time" caught up with real time. Today we started filling out her baby book which was quite interesting. It asked us to fill in all the pertinent biographical information, along with other more random things like, news headlines, powerful world leaders, how much is a tank of gas (why is that a benchmark worth noting in a child's baby book?), among others. It asked us for qualities that resemble mommy (we put:hair, eyes, face shape, finger length and toe length, personality, and gas :)) and things that resemble dad (we put: sweating, eyelashes, toe control, and sleeping with her mouth wide open). The rest for now remains unique to her and will be discerned later. Anyway, hope you enjoy the memories we're making together.

Love, 3

Just a few more and we're caught up

I wanted to post a picture with Gi so that all can see that she is well and still just as pretty as she can be. I also included a size referent by using our niece's cabbage patch kid (I can't believe they're in again).? Lastly, is her swing that she enjoys on occassions.

Enjoy, 3

Happy Birthday COUSIN!!

Camiryn, our now 6 year old niece as a birthday today! Happy Birthday Camiryn!
She came down with Nana (Justin's mom) to help us take care of Katie last week. She was a huge help, holding, playing and helping me take care of Katie during the day.
Katie wanted us to tell you--Thank you for being such a great cousin, and I hope your pirate birthday party was awesome! Maybe we can look at all your pictures when we see you in a few weeks! :) Love, Katie, Justin and Gi

My First Sunday at Church

This past Sunday was Katie's first Sunday in church. She had a wonderful time and was the center of attention. She looked very cute thanks to the outfit that her aunt Robin and Uncle Hunter got her (thank you!). It is Gi and my prayer that she will love God and love the church as well.
Love, 3

I'm all smiles

What a cute little girl. Gi and I are so amazed at how active she is and her frequent smiles. She brings so much joy to our everyday. She is growing so so quickly and it seems like yesterday that she was just born. Today is her 3 week b-day and the weeks have flown by. She is doing well, though she has a little battle with her tummy...but we feel like that is getting better! She is doing all the things that babies should do, including filling (and I mean filling) her diapers. We love her very much and wanted to share her smile with you, we hope it brightens your day as it did ours.

Love, 3

Hi World...we're new here!

Dearest friends and family,
We are so excited to join the world of blogging for the first time. Gi and I (and Katie) are excited to be able to share more of our lives with each of you. We have decided to open a private blog for security reasons, but if you know of others that would like to be invited (especially family), please feel free to let us know...we're still gathering the list. We look forward to your frequent visits, and we look forward to frequently posting...that is if life permits. Please enjoy our site as we build it, and enjoy all the wonderful pictures of Katie, as we know that's why many of you have come :).
With love from all 3-jgk

Our little Flower Petal-Katie Grace