Welcoming Baby Katelyn into the family

Last week when we got the news of Aunt KK's induction, Caroline and I packed our bags and headed to Texas with Pop and Mimi.  On our way, we dropped Will off with Pappaw and said a little prayer in hopes that Pappaw wouldn't rub off on him too much since Mamaw Kat has been putting in some late hours at work.  Okay, that is a joke...I am very grateful that Pappaw agreed to keep Will so that our trip would be a little less adventurous, and I knew that Will would have a blast hanging out with his grandfather.

We left during the Mississippi monsoon, so it took us quite a while to get to Texas.  Finally, despite a wrong turn, we made it to the hotel at about 3:15 AM.  Pop, who was anxious the entire trip, got up early despite not having much sleep and headed to the hospital.  According to Mimi, Pop gets a little antsy when his babies have babies.  When we woke up, I called KK to check on her only to discover that they had already broken her water.  Not wanting to miss anything, I hopped up and informed Mimi and Caroline that we better get to the hospital before we miss everything.

 

Well, as it turns out, Aunt KK takes after her big sister in that it took her a while to finally birth her little girl.  It would have been nice to know this ahead of time so we could have slept a little later, but I don't have much room to talk considering I was a permanent resident of L&D when Caroline was born.  Anyway, Caroline was a champ as we waited all day in the waiting room.  She was just so excited and could hardly wait to hold her baby cousin.

Finally, Uncle Stephen came out and showed us some pictures on his camera of the new member of our family. 

 The pictures just didn't cut it, so we quickly made our way back to see Aunt KK and Katelyn.  Unfortunately, the hospital staff wasn't as efficient as we would have hoped for, so we weren't able to hold Katelyn before heading back to the hotel for some much needed sleep...I say this with a smirk because we all knew the one who really needed the rest wouldn't be getting any...sorry, KK, welcome to motherhood!

As you can imagine, Caroline was extremely disappointed she didn't get to hold Katelyn before heading off to bed, but I promised her she would be the first to hold her when we got to the hospital bright and early the next day. I kept my promise and you can see just how excited Caroline was to be a big cousin.  Unfortunately, since Caroline was such a baby hog, I didn't get to hold my niece that much. 

To help celebrate Katelyn's birth, Nana and Caroline found some bubble gum cigars in the gift shop.  Here's a picture of the silly new family and their favorite niece.

Caroline also picked out a little pig to give Katelyn, which is perfect considering for some unknown reason, pigs are Caroline's favorite animal.

Of couse we had to take many pictures to capture this blessed event, but I'll just share a few...

Welcome to the family Katelyn Elizabeth Kirkland, and congratulations to the new Mom and Dad.  Aunt KK, you did a great job bringing this little bundle into the world and Uncle Stephen we are proud that you didn't faint during the whole experience.  We love you guys more than words can express and can't wait to see you again soon!