I want to be in the circus

In the last week Katelyn has announced that she wants to play the violin and she wants to be in the circus....so I'm just going to warn you...these pictures are fabulously CUTE and this might just be my favorite blog post ever. If you are looking for the essence of Katelyn, this post is it.

If you are still wondering what to get Katelyn for Christmas, may I suggest a laundry basket, a bucket, a bowl, a container of some sort that she can just dump everything out of, flip over and stand on. That's what she wants. I promise. She steals my laundry basket every time and the red tub is her living room toy box...so guess where all the toys end up every single day when she does this...yep...ALL OVER THE FLOOR....

Here she is doing her "trick".

"Taa Daa...I added the bowl." She comes up with this all on her own. Her imagination is HUGE!

Here she is getting ready to perform for us.
I just want to say...when I thought about having a beautiful little girl I thought there would be dolls and princesses and things that were frilly. I never thought I would hear the phrase, "Mama, can I juggle my bugs?" I kid you not...this is what I was asked last night from the girl standing on top of the laundry basket.
And what was my response?
"Sure baby, go ahead."
(I mean really, don't you want to know what it looks like when a three year old juggles bugs?)

Here she is with the two chameleons....getting ready to juggle.

And juggling meant throwing them up in the air and giggling hysterically. Michael and I were laughing so hard. I really thought I might pee my pants.

How can one little girl bring so much joy?
And really, I love it that she likes bugs and dirt and being outside. She needs to touch things and see how things work. She loves a flashlight, a tape measure and a magnifying glass. A budding scientist for sure. Michael's in heaven. For Christmas Katelyn is getting matchbox cars, play tools, legos and an art easle. Not your typical little girl...but we really, really love Katelyn's spirit and curiousity. Now we just need to nurture it.....

Hooray for a productive Saturday!

Today was a full day for us...but really productive. I conquered the pile of laundry that almost ate us. We all went and did some Christmas shopping and Michael got some things he needed at Lowes. Katelyn took a solid nap this afternoon. I organized the spice rack and spice shelf in the cabinet. I know this sounds silly....but I cook a lot. And we have A LOT of spices. I got them all orgainzed and cleaned off the kitchen counter....another monumental task...the kitchen clutter was going to eat us if the laundry didn't. Michael fixed the running toilet and the shower door that wouldn't close. I went upstairs and the tank of the toilet was completely dismantled. I gave my sweet engineer of a husband a kiss and left him to fix and reassemble our potty. :) (I've learned to just walk away...It always looks scary but he somehow always gets it back together and working perfectly.) I love my husband.

Michael went and got a haircut and came back with surprise flowers. (Please note...he helped with Christmas shopping, fixed everything in the bathroom and brought me flowers...and chocolate....JUST BECAUSE. Monday he's taking my car to get new tires on it and the oil changed. All I have to do is take his car and come home at the end of the day to mine that's been all fixed. If I'm dreaming, PLEASE DO NOT WAKE ME UP!!!)

Katelyn ate an egg and toast for breakfast, a turkey and cheese sandwich and craisins for lunch, apple slices for a snack, and chicken, brown rice and steamed broccoli for dinner....so of course she got a little ice cream with M&Ms in it for dessert. :)

She was pretty happy about her treat.

We had a super Saturday...we're getting ready to leave on Wednesday and spend Thanksgiving with Michael's family! We have so much to be thankful for....our first Thanksgiving as a family!

A little bookworm...

Katelyn really loves to read. She will sit and look through books on her own. And...she really loves her red bowl...as a stool. She stands on it to reach things on the kitchen counter and she sits on it when she's doing most things in the living room. But tonight was a first. She made herself a little reading stack and looked through a whole pile of books.

She was just as content as can be...

happy just to do her own thing.

And I'm not quite sure why...but I thought this was hillarious.

Katelyn provides all our entertainment.

Who needs cable when you have a three year old?

The little student

Katelyn is a wonderful student. She is a huge sponge. She just soaks up everything....and she's one smart little cookie. We love the public library. Every week we get new books and movies and Katleyn LOVES to be read to.

Katelyn has really started coloring and writing more. She has a dot to dot book and she's really good at counting and going from number to number.

And yes, she's definitely a lefty.

She has a dry erase alphabet board and she works on tracing the letters just like she does at preschool. She's super intense and focused when she's working on it.

We've started cooking together. So far she has helped make cookies, cornbread and brownies. She especially liked making brownies for when Uncle Mike and Aunt Mimi came over...because she got to lick the spatula. :)

SLURP....

And already she's learning to be a little lady...all dressed up in mommy's high heels.

Yep...I love her.

Until the next Katelyn fix....

A homey fall day

Today was lovely...sunny and crisp...but not too cold. Definitely a fall day.

Yesterday I cooked down the last of a rotiserre chicken from last week and made creamy chicken and wild rice soup and stuck it in the fridge. Before we left for church this morning I started the bread maker. So we came home for lunch and opened the door to the smell of fresh honey wheat bread. We heated up the soup...YUM!!!

After lunch, Katelyn went down for a nap. I put some nice music on. Michael was reading. I had a cooking marathon. I made applesauce in the crock pot. I had pizza dough going in the bread maker so I could made the pizza for tomorrow night's dinner and stick it in the fridge. I had three pie pumpkins that needed to be roasted and the pumpkin pureed and put in the freezer (by the way for $4 or $5 in fresh pumpkins I got the equivalent of 6 cans of pureed pumpkin.) I'm ready to make a very yummy pie.

Then for tonight's dinner I made meatloaf (I used a new recipe which ended up being great.), roasted potato, sweet potato and delicata squash and peas. Dinner was the perfect fall meal.

The applesauce was SO good....and really easy in the crock pot. We bought 1/2 a bushel of apples for $8 while we were in Michigan and the drawers of the fridge have been full of them...it was time to do something with a pile of them.


Katelyn loved the applesauce. Surprise, surprise.

And if that wasn't enough cooking for one day, Katelyn and I made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies together. :)


I was a good weekend in the kitchen. We are ready for the new week!

This week's randomness

I know this is hard to see...but this is what the backyard and garden look like...seemingly dead, right?

...but no, this is what I harvested out of the garden on November 2nd!!! Peppers, eggplant and tomatoes. CRAZY. The garden is the gift that keeps on giving. It's been so dry here and I stopped watering a month ago...but still the little garden keeps on ticking. We had frost on the windshield this morning so I'm guessing we're done now...but who knows? We had fajitas tonight with red, yellow and green bell peppers in it from the garden!

Katelyn regularly talks about Grammy and Papa. She made me draw them the other day. I think this picture looks remarkably like my dad. Katelyn thought it was funny. :)

With my new job I definitely have less time with Katelyn during the week. So today we had girl time. We went out to lunch, to the library and to the grocery store. Tonight Katelyn got to watch one of her movies from the library and do art. She really loves to color and paint. Her coloring skills are improving. She's really working at staying somewhat within the lines. It's good that she's embracing this indoor hobby. It's going to be a long winter.

Halloween 2010

Halloween was particularly fun this year. Katelyn was REALLY into it and super good at it. She painted her little pumpkins she got at the pumpkin patch when she went on a field trip with her class.

She was very serious about using all her colors and she even made her own colors. She knows that red and blue make purple, blue and yellow make green and red and yellow make orange...

Katelyn was positive that she wanted to be a butterfly this year. She's been flying around the house for weeks. So this is NOT a fairy costume...it's a butterfly.

In the picture below I'm sure Katelyn is telling us what to do. She's really good at that too. She knows what she wants, when she wants it, and how she wants it...and she communicates all of that very clearly. We're sure she's a CEO in the making. She's also a good delegater... "You go here...You go do this..." :)

I found her some Levis at Good Will for $1.50. Love used clothing! Doesn't she look so grown up?? Sigh.

Katelyn was a great Trick or Treater. She had no fear. She rang the door bell, stepped aside, waited for the door to open and then invited herself in to stick her head in the candy bowl and pick out the candy she wanted. Everyone always said...you can take two. We reminded her over and over to take what she was given and be thankful. She did use good manners and always said thank you. Three years old is the PERFECT trick or treating age. It was really fun!

Happy Halloween!!