Happy Birthday!!!

Kate's first birthday was a success! She had a great time being the center of attention! The party didn't start till she normally would be in bed, but Kate was great for the whole thing! I'm still sad my baby isn't a baby anymore, but I'm the only one! Kate loves her independence.
Her birthday outfit from my grandma. She looked super cute. She loved playing with all the kids at the start of the party. I was impressed, she didn't cry at all! Not even when the balloons popped.

She wasn't sure what to think about this candle. She tried to grab it at one point. Her cousin had to blow it out for her.She started by just licking the icing off her fingers. Then she got brave and tore into it!

"I wonder how much cupcake fits in my mouth at once....let's see!"

"Ummm I could get used to this"

Smiling pretty!

She kept trying to share with anyone who walked by.

Polishing off cupcake number 2! She devoured number one so fast we decided to see if she wanted another, and she quickly consumed it.


We then had to take her to the bathtub to get the cupcake out of her hair, arms, legs and nose. Then we came back to open presents; hence the wet hair and pj's.

I just love this picture cause she looks so mad. But she was happy playing with the baby! Maybe I had just taken the tissue paper away or something.

Slowly getting the hang of the wrapping paper.
"I wonder what this could be..."

Family Picture!
My sad attempt to make the cupcakes look like the 'Rainbow Fish'. Just pretend I did a good job.

My banner I made for the occasion

The Grinch has stolen Kate's Heart

My dear friend sent Kate the Grinch who stole christmas book and stuffed animal. She is obsessed with him! It is so cute... she takes him around the house with her while she is playing and gives him hugs and kisses.

Merry Christmas!

4 teeth!

So Kate's 4th tooth broke through today! Not only is it the 4th, it is the first on top! (now that explains the terribly grumpy girl I've had on my hands lately!) Sorry, no picture yet....its incredibly hard to get her to sit still for a normal picture-- let alone a toothy grin.

In other news, I'm mourning the fact that my baby turns 1 this Friday. She won't technically be my baby anymore....and I'm not sure I'm ok with that. That means she will be a big girl soon. And that means I will have to get the courage to have another baby someday far far away.... I really don't know how I feel about having more than one kid. Ok I need to stop being all sad....kids grow up. That's what they do. Even when we aren't sure we want them to.

But be anxiously waiting for pictures from Kate's birthday!!!!

Thanksgiving and PRODUCTIVITY

This Thanksgiving was great! Jon was fortunate to have Friday off as well, so we had a nice long weekend. We had Thanksgiving dinner with the Beaumont Walters and then had enough leftovers to have them again Saturday evening while watching the BYU game. Thursday night/technically Friday morning Jon and I did our first ever Black Friday shopping trip...not sure we will do it again. But it was a fun experience (Jon would not call if fun....). Then the real Friday morning we went to Hobby Lobby to get a Christmas tree! Finally since we have a house we have room for a decent sized tree. We put up all our Christmas decor. I just love it! Then Saturday morning Jon and Kevin organized the garage and built shelves. They also removed the floor and put down new flooring for our shed. Overall it was a productive weekend! Then Sunday I had to give a talk at church, thankfully that's over! Here is the photo evidence:

Our tree! I just love our ornaments! And we only decorated the top portion to help keep Kate less interested...so far so good. Not the same story with the garland though...

Our garlands with ornaments and our wreath...it doesn't fit on the outside of the door because of the storm door....so this will have to do!

Jon's shelves all along one side of the garage. Now we can store anything we want out there and still park 2 cars!

Jon's new work space in the garage and place to store all his tools

Bring on December. We have something going on every weekend for December....the month is going to FLY by! This weekend I have girls camp, then next weekend is Kate's birthday and our niece's birthday party and ward Christmas party and Brother in law's birthday party, then the weekend after that Kate and I fly to Ohio! Anyone have any suggestions of things to entertain a 1 year old on a 4 hour plane ride?? I'm a little scared to death about the flight! She won't sit in one place at church, let alone a plane ride!

PS- Kate learned how to give kisses today! It is the sweetest! Be ready mom...I'll have her ready to shower you with kisses!

Uddercovers

I'm done nursing Kate. Logically, that means that I needed to buy a nursing cover yesterday. (just go with me! I'm still trying to justify my purchase!) My excuses: baby #2 will need to nurse (eventually...we are NOT expecting another now); The cover was purple and I'm a sucker for purple stuff; the company is called uddercovers...and as my mom will testify, I felt like a human cow the entire time I nursed! So the name is really what got me. I thought, I NEED an uddercover! But my final excuse was the biggest, if you go to the website and type in thanksgiving as the promo code you get the thing for free! I just paid 9.95 for shipping. (I might go buy another for baby shower gift!)

Now.....maybe since I have a cute cover I will actually look like that the next time I nurse. (HAHAH I crack myself up! When have I EVER spent that much time on my hair, other than maybe prom!)

If you want one for yourself go to uddercovers.com and like i said the promo code is thanksgiving!

11 months!

Holy Cow! Where did the time go?! My BABY is almost 1! AH! In a way I'm excited cause it is fun to watch her grow, but then again it makes me sad to realize she isn't going to be a baby much longer! Some of the new things she likes to do are: eat lollipops! After Halloween she found an unopened lollipop and stuck it in her mouth the correct way. So I thought as a reward for being a lollipop natural she needed to actually experience one. So we went straight to the bathtub! She has now had 2, and really enjoyed it! The pictures are in order-- first then second lollipop experience! She is too funny with it.She really thinks she is funny. She will shake her head 'no' to ANYTHING you say to her or ask her, then give you this grin that you just have to laugh at. She also loves to taunt Chance. She will hold her snack over the high chair and call for him, wait for him to almost take it from her hand and snatch it away and eat it. Poor dog. lol. Its pretty funny to watch though!

Her hair is getting longer and longer. It is so fun to play with. She has started to shake her head when I put it in a pony tail--- which makes for a frusterated mom, but if it isn't pulled back she cant see. Getting dressed is also usually a wrestling match....she doesn't like to be confined at all. Im getting afraid of our flight home for christmas!

Miss Kate still only has 2 teeth, but looks like she will be getting more very shortly. She still isnt walking on her own, but could if she wasn't afraid.

And in an update from the previous post, I still cant get her to drink formula from a sippy cup, but she will use a bottle and drink a little....but not as much as she should. Ive been giving her more cheese and such to help make sure she gets what she needs. I guess I will just have to fight the no bottle battle later. At least she is getting SOME formula.

This one's for all the moms!

I need help! I am offically done nursing (not by choice, because my body suddenly decided it was done). I'm having a REALLY hard time getting Kate to drink formula or milk! She will take a sip of either and just spit it back out. This has been going on all week. I'm really starting to get worried....the girl needs to drink something other than juice! I know it is a little early to start her on whole milk, but I decided it was worth a try if she would drink it, but alas...no luck. I have found that she will drink a little bit more if i put the milk in a bottle....but I'm trying to avoid getting her hooked on a bottle since soon she should be just using sippy cups. So what I'm wondering, am I being too ambitious trying to switch her food and her cup at the same time? She has only had like 3 bottles in her life anyway...so even switching to a bottle is an adjustment for her. I feel like such a crappy mom.... she cries and tries to get me to nurse her but she can't understand that I physically can't do it anymore. I would LOVE to still be able to just feed her and we would both be happier....but mother nature had other ideas. So....does anyone have ANY pointers or tips that worked for them? my next thing I will try is putting chocolate in her milk when she wakes up. (if she is really related to me that might do the trick!) All day she has only had like 2oz of formula/milk. Man this is stressing me out! So please please please give me any tips you can think of! I'll try just about anything at this point!
If only kids were like dogs....they won't starve themselves! (not to mention that my dog will literally eat anything you throw at him!)

HALLOWEEN!!

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I think it is in part because it falls so close to my birthday, and partly because of the tapes my mom let me listen to as a kid with all the cool halloween songs on them. I still sing "h-a-double l-o-w-double e-n spells Halloween!!!!!!" every time I type the word! I think I've always loved halloween!

Anyway, for our costumes this year I decided we all needed to be pumpkins. I was a pumpkin for my first Halloween, and Jon (Thinks) he was too! So I took that as a sign from the Halloween spirits (hehe) that Kate HAD to be a pumpkin too! And because I'm cheap I decided to make them all! I spent $15 bucks on all 3 costumes! For the ward Trunk or Treat party we stuffed ourselves to look extra round. It was the funniest on Kate! She kinda hated it! But that didnt stop her from getting around the party:

Checking out the row of chairs. I dont know why they were so tempting, but she loved them!

This is how she was crawling. Oh I just laughed the whole time!

Here she is wearing Uncle Scott's hunting hat. She was cracking up, till Brooke came and took the hat! Then she cried. lol. I love the expression on her face here, almost like shes saying "don't even think about it!" to Brooke!

I decided to throw a Halloween party at my house! I loved it so much I think this will be an annual thing! I wish my house was bigger so I could have invited more people. Here is the pinata I made for the kids. It took 2 attempts, but voila!

The next few pics are of the kitchen with the food set up. Jon was worried we wouldn't have enough food, but we had tons of leftovers!

Thanks to everyone who helped with the food! It was good. I even labeled all the items with 'spooky' names.

The kids got to take turns hitting the pinata. It help up for almost all of them! I think we only missed 2 little kids. I was proud of my little pumpkin pinata!

The kids getting the candy.

I really hope everyone else had as much fun as we did, but like I said, I plan to do it again because it was so fun! I even hit a store for their clearance priced Halloween stuff today!

24....

Today I turn 24. Holy smokes I'm getting up there! As one of my dear friends put it, I'm no longer in my early 20's! Wow. BUT on the plus side today has been wonderful! Sunday my family in TX had a dinner party for me, which was awesome. Then yesterday my sweet friend Nikki took me on a movie date and we had a blast! THEH today at my YW presidency meeting I got a sweet card and fall leaves from WV! My YW president brought me back a bunch of leaves from her trip to the Greenbrier and a candle she decorated with leaves. Oh....it smells like fall in the bag! I teared up just opening it! I love love love fall! AND she brought me some chocolates from the Greenbrier too! AND we went to lunch as a presidency. Talk about being spoiled. But its not over yet....the day is semi- young! Tonight at 6 Jon made dinner reservations for us! I know-- RESERVATIONS?!?! We have never gone somewhere you need a reservation! I don't know what to wear! I am one lucky lady! I will post again sometime later and give ya pictures or something from our exciting evening out!

2nd tooth!

I was so excited about the BYU game pictures that I forgot to mention that on Friday the 15th Kate got her 2nd tooth! Here is the best picture I've been able to get of her tooth....she doesn't hold still long enough for me to get anything better! Next I am blogging this picture because it bring me lots of joy(I was debating if I should....it could be considered inappropriate)! Today when I was getting dressed Kate found a new toy! OH it was funny! She grabbed a box of tampons and got one open and was chewing on it! Too funny! She seriously cried when I took it away.

BYU Football

Friday we left Beaumont and headed to Ft Worth to see Jon's sister Melissa, and to attend the BYU /TCU football game. Jon's brother Scott and their family came too (and had the idea to attend the game! thanks!). It was really a fun time! The trip was too short (Fri evening to Sat evening), but we loved seeing Jon's family and sharing the experiences with family. Kate couldn't have been better ALL weekend! In the car she was great, no crying, no problems. At Melissa's house she was in love with the dogs and slept flawlessly. Before the game we went bowling, and Kate was perfect at the bowling alley. At lunch she was great! At the game she didn't cry a single time! The marching band marched right past us playing, and Kate just watched them. During the first quarter she had fun watching all the people and smiling when they cheered. She fell asleep during the 2nd quarter and slept for half time.....but then woke up and was happy the rest of the game! THEN the almost 6 hour drive home she was perfect! Really this kid is spoiling us! The weekend couldn't have gone more smoothly! Thanks again Melissa for letting us stay with you! Now the photo evidence:

Kate's first time bowling. She just cheered-- they don't have baby size balls.

In front of the BYU truck. A first game for all of us!

The cutest BYU fan in the stands!

Happy girl!

Crashed out in the 2nd quarter. The team did really poorly....but we had fun anyway!

10 Months!

How cool is it that today 10/10/10, Kate is 10 months old?! I think it is TOO cool!

Here are a few quick pictures I snapped after church before Kate's nap. She was tired and not too helpful, so I'll work with what I got! Kate hasn't changed too much since I last updated....still just one tooth, getting really good at crawling and standing (still no walking unless you hold her hands), she waves hi (when she wants to), gives high 5's, and thinks she is talking but not speaking english! She is just so cute and sweet! Yesterday she got to spend the ENTIRE day with Daddy....I was more nervous than Jon, and everything went great.

Did I mention I cut my hair for the first time since RIGHT after Kate was born?! I have side bangs again and some body! I really like it!

Photo Shoot

While my parents were here I decided to make them be our photographers. This morning we went around the house and snapped some very non-professional shots. With the exception of me I think a few of them turned out pretty good! I need your help though-- I have 4 picture frames to go above the fire place. What 4 shots should I blow up and use??? Please vote for me! For your convience I will number the pictures!

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Please remember to vote! I need all the help I can get!