Life with Kat has been one of the most enjoyable times of our life. Every time a new baby comes into your home things get turned upside down and some adjusting must occur, but there is also the joy of having such a special spirit so newly come from our Heavenly Father's presence.
August 18, 2011 1 Day Old
Kathleen has probably been our fussiest baby so far. That is not to say that she is a bad baby, she just requires a little bit more time and patience. She takes quite a bit of work to get to sleep but once she is asleep, she usually will give you a good nap. One of her biggest challenges is a gassy belly. She doesn't have colic, she just really doesn't like gas in her belly. She gets quite angry and will let you hear about it. With all of those complaints out of the way, I should probably also tell you what a joy and good baby she really is.
August 20, 2011 3 days old
Kathleen is well loved by all of her siblings and she accepts it graciously. (Meaning, she puts up with the abuse that comes from having older siblings that want to over-love a baby.) They each like taking turns holding her and giving her a Binky. We have been discussing the importance of a bubble for Kat and we are making some progress, but mostly Kat just has to let us know when she is being smothered by squawking. Once back in the arms of Mommy or Daddy she will calm right down and be ready to play some more.
August 20, 2011 3 days old
Kat has very expressive eyes, more specifically eyebrows. She will raise them when she finds something interesting and her eyes get all big. My favorite is when she is playing with you and knows she is being cute she will raise one eyebrow as if to say, don't you just love me! Kat has had good control of her head for quite some time, but when she gets really excited and those eyebrows get going her head will start bobbing as well as if to show that she is in agreement with her eyes that what she is witnessing is truly amazing.
August 21, 2011 4 days old
Kat loves to be snuggled by her mommy and daddy. She is a bit of a Mama's girl, but not to the extent that Levi was. It took a little bit of warming up to, but Daddy is surging strong now that she can play a little more. (Daddy makes the funnest faces.) Mommy was really excited this time around with a newborn because Daddy doesn't go to work in the middle of the night. I thought that I would finally have some help sometimes when baby wouldn't sleep, but Kat quickly squashed those ideas. She will scream at Daddy for half an hour and be incredibly worked up but when she hears Mama's voice she will calm right down. We have learned that only Mama will do in the middle of the night, although Daddy is a great bedtime pal and usually puts her to bed.
August 23, 2011 1 week old
Kat started out really pretty small and took a while to really start putting on any significant weight (very different from her siblings.) She has really started making a comeback in the weight area and is adding a little bit of a layer of chunk to her, although she would not be considered a fat baby.
August 30, 2011
She does have a remarkable double chin though. It seems that she packs away her fat in her face. Uncle Jason thought it was so funny/cute looking that he started calling her Edgar (like Men in Black with the bug "wearing the Edgar suit") because she looks like her skin is hanging off her bones.
September 24, 2011 1 month old
As I mentioned earlier, Kathleen has no problem letting you know when she is unhappy. Sometimes it is hard to really take her seriously. She has a very dainty, girly cry. She also gets these pathetic faces that make you feel so sad for her but at the same time you just want to kiss those little cheeks until she crys some more.
October 2011 6 weeks old
Kat hated her car seat for about the first 6 weeks of her life. Most newborns I have known would fall fast asleep once you strapped them in and put them in the car. Not my baby! She could be dead asleep and if you wanted a sure fire way to wake her up just strap her in and try to go for a drive. Her first trip to Pocatello was a little rough and ended up with her out of her car seat for about the last hour of the drive. This also posed a big problem for us since her sister goes to charter school clear across town and has to be driven and picked up. It takes us anywhere between half an hour and 1 hour depending on if we are just dropping Ellen off or picking her up. This was not a very enjoyable period of time for any of us in the car. Luckily after about 6 weeks Kat decided that being in the car seat wasn't complete torture. It still isn't her favorite place to be, but she will tolerate it. At about that time she also was able to start focusing on things more so we put some toys on the handle of her seat. I am certain that these friends have helped her to accept the seat a little more.
October 2011 About 2 months old
She also really likes her friends on the bouncer. When she is talking with these friends, and yes she talks to them, is when you can see those eyebrows of hers really going to work.
October 7, 2011 About 6 weeks old
October 23, 2011 2 months old
One of Kat's favorite people has to be her big sissy Ellen. Ellen is such a good big sister to her and loves to help out by holding her and playing with her. While Kat would still prefer to be held by Mom or Dad she has also learned that Ellen can help her out too. Ella does a good job of bouncing her and calming her down and has been a huge help to Mama. Kat likes to play with Ella and tell her stories, especially while we are eating. Kat will sit in her Bumbo on the table next to Ellen and Ellen will tell her all about her meal while she is eating it. Kat finds this very entertaining. Ellen is about jumping out of her skin for when Kat can join her in her bedroom, and we are not too far away from that happening.
Our little Kathleen Michelle has become one of the brightest lights in our lives. She makes all of our hearts happy and we are so glad that she chose us to be her family. We love you little one!
September was a month filled with getting into a routine and mostly trying to adjust to life with 4 kids. Anyone with a newborn can tell you that there is serious adjustment just having one in the house, no matter what number of child they are. We were able to do a couple of fun things during the month.
First we were able to take a trip back to Pocatello. We still had a few things in storage there plus it was a great weekend to head back with plenty of family fun to be had. Landon's sister Renee was in a play, "The Taffetas," that Landon and I were able to go to with Kat. Renee was fabulous and we enjoyed getting to have a date.
There also were three birthday parties to attend. On Saturday Renee had a joint party for Braiden and Maggie. We played at the park and the kids had a blast playing limbo and Don't Eat Pete. Then, on Sunday, it was Adasyn's turn.
Landon was able to get this cute picture of Adasyn and her cake made by her mama. (Way to go Audra!)
While at the party Carson really wanted to hold Kat. This weekend was the first time he had gotten to meet her and he was so excited to hold her.
She was a little bit of a stinker to him but he was so patient with her and didn't seem to mind her crying. What a sweet boy he is!
Landon also did his first hunting trip of the year during September. He got an antelope tag in Wyoming and made a flying trip there to fill it. He left on a Friday night and drove 5 hours into his draw zone. He spent the night, got up the next day and filled the tag in the morning.
He was very proud of this kill. It was the first time he got something on a hunt.
He drove back on Saturday and showed off the antelope to all the neighborhood kids. They were all really excited and grossed out at the same time. He butchered the thing in our garage that night and we now have the meat sitting in our freezer waiting to be made into jerky.
This fun event happened in the end of August as well, but I felt that it deserved it's own post.
In order to get our house ready to put a fence up we decided that it would be best to rent a tractor and grade the yard to make it more level and even more importantly, to get out as many big rocks as we could.
Right at the end of the day while Landon was trying to hurry and finish before it got dark he started moving dirt from the empty lot behind us to fill in on the side of the house where we need to build it up to make it level. As he was doing so he got the tractor a little high-centered. He was just at the right angle that he wasn't able to get traction on the back wheels to move the tractor. Our neighbors were all outside watching their kids jump on our trampoline, so Jared, the friendly neighbor went over to help Landon.
Jared tried standing on the back of the tractor to see if they could get some traction, but it didn't work. Finally Jared suggested to Landon to go ahead and pull the tractor on down to his yard and not worry about backing it up. Landon told him he didn't want to dig up his yard, but Jared said it was fine. So, Landon began to pull forward onto the neighbor's lawn. As he did so he felt the tractor start to tip. Very slowly it tipped over and luckily Landon and Jared were able to both jump out of the way before it landed on its side in Bybee's yard.
We were worried about the tractor digging up Bybee's lawn, but instead we dumped hydraulic fuel and gasoline all over their lawn.
Jared and Landon stood like this looking at the tractor trying to decide how to remedy the situation for at least 20 minutes as I, Adrienne (Jared's wife), and Kayleen (our other neighbor lady) sat in the camp chairs behind them a little afraid to say anything. We did mention a few suggestions, but the men were not really in to hearing them at this point. So, instead Kayleen snapped some pictures so that we could later look at the incident and laugh. (As we are doing now.) It was finally decided that help would need to be called in and Jared went to work finding someone in our ward that would know the best way to pull up the tractor and who might have the biggest truck to do so. (This had been suggested by the ladies 20 minutes earlier, but as I said, the men were not as responsive in the beginning.) Luckily they were able to come to our rescue immediately and hooked their truck up and yanked the tractor back upright and onto our drive-way. Again we got lucky in that we didn't break anything on the tractor. It started right up with the only problem being it was now low on hydraulic fuel.
Chalk it up to another embarrassing moment of the Ladwig summer where our fantastic and wonderful neighbors had to come to our aid. And hey, something really funny for us to chuckle about now.
I just got to looking at Landon and my phones and found a bunch of fun pictures that I felt needed to be documented. So, the next few posts are going to be a bit random, but it is just capturing the rest of our summer.
One morning as I was busy with Kat and had already sent Ellen off to school I found my boys playing happily. They were all dressed up in their pirate garb while still being in their pjs. They are shouting "Argh!!" at me as I took this picture. Levi after church one day. Isn't he sweet?!
The Sunday before I had Kat we decided to get out of the house and go for a little drive/nature walk. We drove up to the Oquirrh Mountain Overlook (at least mid-way) and then took a little trail that shot off from the road. We only walked about a mile, but we didn't want to push the kids too hard, and who are we kidding, me. (It was only 3 days before I gave birth.) We found this tree up on the side of the mountain and Landon wanted to get a picture of the kids sitting on it. It was pretty high and they were all a little nervous, but it turned out cute.
Landon took this video one night only a couple of days before I had Kat. I was reluctant to put it on here, but it is pretty funny, even if it makes me a little uncomfortable to show my big ol' fat belly. He calls it "Jiggle Like a Bowl Full of Jelly."
When Morgan came to visit right after Kat was born he was really interested in her. He loved her from the moment he saw her. This was the first time he got to hold her.
Another one from when Morgan visited us while his dad was in Florida. You have to love the naked bath pictures with the cousins. Trevor, Morgan & Levi.
On Labor Day Landon's Aunt & Family came over to help us in our yard. Along with them came Landon's cousin Roseanne who was gracious enough to agree to take newborn pictures of Kat for us. So here are a few, okay a plethora, of my favorite ones. My baby is sweet!
Yes, that is a birth mark on her behind. It is slowly fading, but I like that it showed in this picture. It is just oh, so, my baby's butt.
I love the smile in this one. Look at those dimples!!!! She actually pooped her pants right after this, but it gave us a really cute smile. And the blanket that Aunt Lindsay made her looked perfect in these pictures. Thanks Aunt Lindsay!!!
I felt I needed to add this picture in because this is really how Kat felt about the whole thing. She looks peaceful in many of the pictures, but really, she didn't really enjoy her first photo shoot and let us know about it. She's still cute when she cries!
I think this is a very sweet picture. Also funny to mention, she peed all over me right after this was taken.
While everyone else worked on the fence and Roseanne and I played with the baby, our kids were happily playing together on the trampoline. I love Trevor's face in this one.
Second cousin Ada, Second cousin Sammy, Trevor and Ellen
We were lucky enough to have most of our family travel to Tooele for Kat's blessing. In fact, everyone but Steven and Lindsay and Mickey and Morgan were able to make it. Amazingly we were able to fit us all into our house, and actually rather comfortably.
Standing in on Kat's blessing circle was: Daddy (who blessed her), Bishop Bird, Grandpa Kunz, Grandpa Ladwig, Uncle Bud, Uncle Joe, Uncle Jason, Uncle Eric, and Uncle Steve.
Landon blessed her that she would grow as she should and be healthy; that she would desire to learn out of good books and see how that knowledge could be incorporated into the gospel; a desire to be baptized, married in the temple, and become a mother in Zion; that she would feel the love of those around her on both sides of the veil.
After the blessing we all gathered at our house for lunch and to celebrate Uncle Jason's birthday. It was a wonderful party with a lot of laughter and love. The adults sat and talked and ate good food and the cousins played together, a lot. We are so grateful to everyone for making the trip to share in this wonderful day with us.
Uncle Bud, Aunt CharEl, and Tyler Uncle Joe & Riley
Papa Kunz & Grandma Kitty with Eve
Landon & Levi
Will, Ella, & Jaycee
Sammy (What you can't see in this picture is that Sammy is completely nude on the bottom. He came down the stairs this way and surprised us all.)
Papa Ladwig, Grandma Ladwig, Uncle Jason
Aunt Annie & Aunt Gretchen
Aunt Audra, Uncle Eric, & Aunt Renee
Papa Kunz & Eve
Brenen, Eli, & Trevor
The three generation picture of Kathleen's. Kitty, Katie, Kat, and Uncle Jason as "Tiger." The male version of the name.
Kunz Family Picture
The Four Kunz Granddaughters
Jaycee & Eve, Ellen & Kat
Jaycee and Papa Kunz (with my Mobe wrap on his head)
Kat was really not happy about getting her picture taken. Trying to get the perfect Blessing Day picture didn't really work out, but we got some pretty funny pictures of her crying and being really angry at me for not helping her go to sleep.
The Ladwig Family was started on May 7, 2004. We live in Tooele, UT and are busy raising our four beautiful children, Ellen, Trevor, Levi and Kathleen.
August 21, 2011 4 days old
September 24, 2011 1 month old
October 2011 6 weeks old
October 2011 About 2 months old
October 7, 2011 About 6 weeks old
October 23, 2011 2 months old
October 2011 7 weeks old
One morning as I was busy with Kat and had already sent Ellen off to school I found my boys playing happily. They were all dressed up in their pirate garb while still being in their pjs. They are shouting "Argh!!" at me as I took this picture.
I think this is a very sweet picture. Also funny to mention, she peed all over me right after this was taken.
