Announcing Ba-Boss

The swaddle!!
Check those lips!
Smitten Momma!
Peaceful sweetness!

We welcomed sweet Ross Franklin Cazzell into the world this morning at 5:42am. "Peanut" arrived at 7 lbs. 14 oz. 21 inches long and yes, it's a BOY! This boy thing is sort of alien to me, but I'm way excited about getting to know him better over the next few weeks. For now, I wanted to show you a few pics of the beautiful fam, trooper mom, and sweet sweet face of the little person we have longed to know and hold over the last 9 months! Thank you God for this amazing miracle! Kate is also excited about Ba-Boss ("Baby Ross").

Fridge Climber

This was so hilarious...this incident truly proves that Kate is indeed my daughter. I heard the commotion as she started scaling the refrigerator. When I walked into the kitchen and asked her what she was doing, all she said was "EAT! EAT!" So funny! A total lack of personality if you can imagine.:) ha

Swimming Lessons

So my friend Mandy agreed to give Kate swim lessons this summer...so fun. Last week was her first one! For the first time in her life, Kate has become a shy, uncooperative, non-excited to swim participant. I have no idea what's gotten into her. Now, she's had two and neither have been very productive--next time I'm planning to don a suit and join them in hopes of a more successful experience.:) The bottom pic is after her first one--seems she had an allergic reaction to Mandy's sunscreen--YIKES! Luckily it came and went very quickly so my worrying was put to rest.

Flower Girl

Steph and Tom plan to have Kate be their flower girl next May in the wedding--we got to try on our first dress last week and Kate is definitely proving to us just how girly she can be! Here's to hoping for little or no drama during the ceremony!

Fourth of July

We actually ended up having some friends over for dinner with their kids, and watching the fireworks in Bella Vista from the back of Jared's truck with them. The best part about a trip to Bella Vista (for any reason really) is the required Dairy Queen blizzard stop.:) But this is especially necessary in July in Arkansas. So Kelsey, Jesse, Amanda, Caleb, Jared, all the kids, and I had a great time getting icecream and watching the fireworks. Kate was mesmerized the moment they started and never jumped or acted frightened at all--even when they did the "sonic boom" ones. We had a great time until the rain started pouring anyway!

Spoken too soon...

OK so I guess I should have said it a long time ago--after I posted the fact that the giraffe and sheep would use the potty before Kate would, I was sooooooooooo proven wrong this morning...KATE USED THE POTTY FOR THE FIRST TIME TODAY!!!! YEA! Stickers are a great bribe. Hopefully this is the beginning of the end of diapers! YIPEE!

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

So as I was cleaning today I kind of lost track of the Kate-apotamus. I don't worry too much these days because if it was really dangerous it would have already happened at least once and now it would be "toddler-proof". But I had to laugh out loud when I walked back to Kate's bathroom and found her "brushing" her teeth, and helping her stuffed animals use her potty chair. I'm afraid the giraffe and sheep have a much better chance of using that potty before Kate...:(.