First Outing

Besides the trip home from the hospital, we did not venture out of the house for five days.  Kate had her first check-up on Tuesday, so the four of us were excited to do something different.  Audrey had told Kate all about "Docker Barb," so Kate was excited to see her at the clinic.  We survived a trip to the doctor, a pizza lunch, and a trip to Wal-Mart as a family of four.  Kate slept almost the entire time, which is one perk of traveling around with a newborn!  Here are a couple pictures of our beautiful girls all dressed up for their outing.

Diaper Cage

Lately Audrey has been busy making "cages" in our house.  It started a couple weekends ago, when she moved all her little chairs and the laundry basket around the couch.  Jeremy was on the couch, so she said, "I put Dad in a cage."  Since then, she has made many different cages out of shoes, books, and other chairs.  On Tuesday, she even made a diaper cage.  I went into the cage with her and read a book.  I guess this is the fun we create when it's too cold to play outside!

Baby Kate

Baby Kate came home on Thursday, and we were both so excited to be out of the hospital!  She is doing very well and seems to have made a better adjustment to a day/night schedule.  Her big sister is helping as much as she can but runs in the other direction if any crying is involved. "Too loud!" is what we usually hear from Audrey! :)  Here are some of the pictures from our hospital stay and one from home.

I took a picture wearing this same shirt and Mila on the ledge when we went in to deliver Audrey! :)

Audrey's first sighting of Kate included a stunned expression on her face.

The second visit went much better!

Welcome, Kate!

On Monday, December 16th, at 11:48 a.m., we welcomed Kate Evelyn Paulsen into our little family!  She weighed 9 lbs., 3 oz. and was 21 inches long.  Besides being awake most of her first two nights, Kate is doing very well.  We are planning on being home tomorrow!  If you would like to see the pictures that were taken of Kate in the hospital, please visit this website:

http://www.mom365.com/babyphotography.aspx  .

Then you have to enter in some of Kate's information.  Hopefully it works for you to see our beautiful baby!  Otherwise, I will post pictures very soon.

Change is Coming...

This week will be filled with big changes for Audrey and our little family of three.  We enjoyed a quiet weekend together, filled with lots of playing, coloring, reading, and preparations.  We are excited for all that is to come, especially to see if it's going to be a little brother or sister for Audrey who is joining our family!  We will update the blog as soon as we can.

Decorating the Tree

We set up our tree last weekend, and we couldn't have done it without Audrey's help! :)  She was with us throughout the entire process, even though she would occasionally get distracted and leave.  She has enjoyed admiring the ornaments and has been much better than her furry sisters at leaving things alone.  Audrey and I have declared, though, that this is the last year to have an artificial tree in our living room.  Next year, our little family of four will pick out the perfect real tree!

Sometimes even a sock can be very distracting when you're trying to decorate a tree!

Baking

This weekend Audrey and I had to make cookies for a holiday celebration that was going on here in town.  Audrey put on her new owl apron and had a great time helping me put the ingredients into the bowl.  The best part of the whole baking experience for Audrey was "having" to taste test the chocolate chips and M & Ms before we put them into the bowl.  Audrey just wanted to make sure nothing was stale!

Even though she looks perplexed, we really did have fun baking together!

Big Girl

Audrey transitioned last week to her "big girl" bed in her new room.  Besides a few tearful moments when she was first alone in the room, Audrey has done an amazing job!  She has still been sleeping great through the night, and she doesn't get out of bed on her own in the morning.  She just calls for me to come and get her out.  We haven't reminded her yet that she can get out because we don't really want her wandering through the house!  When we had a fog delay one morning this week, she even slept in until 8:00.  What a weight off our shoulders to have that big move done!

Since I probably won't make it to a Christmas celebration this year, I made Audrey wear her Christmas dress for an early celebration with the Ihde side.  I just wanted to see how adorable she would look! :)