Ben and Caroline's Blog

Ben and I arrived in Vegas yesterday for a long weekend. Emily is staying at my parents house and having a great time. No shortage of attention for her over there! I have been missing Emily but spending a weekend at the Wynn with Ben is pretty fantastic. We gambled and had a great dinner last night and then spent the morning laying around the pool. We have been walking around all the different hotels and casinos this afternoon and took this pic at the Venetian. We are headed to the Garth Brooks show this evening and just bought tickets to a Matt Branauger (he's on the Chelsea Lately Show) comedy show for tomorrow night at the Palms. We took this pic using the FaceTime camera on Ben's new iPhone. I really like that feature. Ben swears he ordered the new iPhone for me too but "it just hasn't arrived yet." :)

We've had a busy July so far. We started off with a trip to my family's farm in Northeast Texas. Emily had a lot of fun on the farm running around freely, spending time with all my family and going for rides on my dad's new Kawasaki mule. She was also very interested in the tractors and running towards the edge of the farm deck. We definitely cannot take our eyes off of our little girl. She is always up to something! On our way back from the farm we stopped in Lufkin to visit our friends the Robertsons. We got to see their new house and Emily got to play with her friend Reid. Emily also started going to a gymnastics class at Byron's gym. The class is for 1-3 yr olds so Emily is usually the youngest in the class but she loves it! She is particularly obsessed with the big trampoline. Most of the class consists of obstacle courses filled with climbing up and down mats, through tunnels and across balance beams. She likes that part but it is all just an obstacle in the way of the big trampoline that she gets to jump on at the end of class. Emily clearly has no fear or hesitation when it comes to new activities where she can run and jump freely! Grandma came to see one of Emily's classes and got some pictures for us. The gym is very large and its hard to get pictures from the viewing area, but Grandma did a good job of getting as many as she could. Emily is never without an audience! We have also spent a lot of time this summer in pools, on splash pads or running through sprinklers. Last week I took her to get ice cream for the first time. I got a kids cup for us to share because I wasn't sure how much she would eat. Next time I will get my own cup. She wanted every last bit of that ice cream and even tipped back the cup for the melted part at the end! Here are some pics of all of our activities.

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I took Emily to chick-fil-a for lunch today. She got a 4 piece nuggets, side of fruit and a juice box for $2.15. Not bad! One of the employees carried my food to the table for me and brought out a high chair for us. So appreciated! Emily has never had a juice box before so it took her a bit to figure out what it was. It was her first time to have applejuice too. She was pretty excited about it at first but then pushed it aside once I showed her the side of real fruit. They also had an employee dressed up in a cow costume and Emily thought that was very amusing. Overall it was a great lunch. If we ever need to eat lunch out together again this is definitely where I will take her!

The neighborhood pool is closed on Mondays so I decided to take Emily to the splash pad and park instead. I was a little worried that it would be too hot but once we got wet on the splash pad the park didn't feel too bad.

Emily got her clothes dirty playing outside before her nap. So I quickly changed her into this onesie before putting her down. It has been a long time since I've seen her in a onesie. She looked so cute that I decided I needed to get a picture. I turned on her music toy in hopes of a smile, and then when I got out the camera she started dancing!

It has been way too long since I have posted new pictures and an update on Emily. If you haven't heard already we are expecting Baby Lesem #2 on December 27th! We had a genetic ultrasound screening last week and the baby looks great and is very healthy. I have been feeling great and I've found the pregnancy to be pretty easy so far except for feeling a little more tired than usual. So, I have spent more of my free time these past few months resting than working on blog posts. The new baby is already cramping Emily's style:) But now that I have entered the second trimester I'm hoping to have a little more energy for picture taking and blog entries. Quick update on Emily...she is starting to talk! So far we have dada, mama, no no, more, ball, baby, bye bye, hot, up and boat. Grandpa taught her "boat" this weekend while we were at the lake house. And Mimi has been working with Emily to say "up" when she wants my mom to hold her and Emily finally said it this weekend. We had a great time at the lake this weekend. We took Emily on her first boat ride on Saturday. It didn't go quite as well as we hoped but I blame the life jacket that she has to wear. As you can see it isn't the most comfortable fit. And clearly all the layers of sun protection we had on her didn't help the situation. I know that she will soon love the lake but we aren't there just yet. We headed back to Houston this morning and then went over to my parents' house to celebrate father's day and also my Dad's birthday. Overall it was a weekend filled with lots of good company and good food and Emily got to spend lots of time with her Dad, both her grandfathers and her great grandfather. Happy Father's Day to you all!

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Emily likes swimming, but I think she likes this even better!

We went to the museum with Mandi and Avery today. We had so much fun! The girls played for quite a while in the Tot Spot and then we went outside and played with the water displays before having lunch at the cafe. The Children's Museum has done a great job creating a fun and safe place for little tykes to explore. Here are a few pics from our trip.

Ben and I had a party last Saturday night. Emily stayed at her friend Addison's house. They had a great time together and we moved Emily to our house late that night without any problems. The girls are looking forward to another sleep over soon at our house while James and Johanna have their night out!

The new Kendall Branch Library has an entire floor just for children. It is a huge improvement from the old library!

Emily got this cool new toy for her birthday from Grandma and Grandpa. It was a hit at the birthday party and Emily is still loving it. Also, Mella is very excited about her very large outdoor water bowl!

One of my dearest friends, Anita Palac, arranged for a cake to be delivered to our house yesterday for Emily's Birthday. It was both beautiful and delicious. Thank you so much Anita! Love and miss you:)

Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday dear Emily, Happy birthday to you!!!

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Emily's favorite thing to do lately is take care of her baby doll that she got from Uncle Don and Aunt Sheryl. She carries it around everywhere. I put all her toys up every night and each morning Emily reaches for her doll and purse first. She slings the purse over her shoulder with ease now. We got her the play kitchen for her birthday. It came in about 500 pieces and it took Ben about 6 hours to put together. Thank you Ben! Emily is very glad she can finally cook for her baby.