Rebuilt and Dancing

The Nursery

2012-01-27T15:19:00.003-05:00

I just realized I never posted the pictures of the nursery....whoops!

Katelyn's old room went through a transformation. Fortunately, I didn't have to repaint. I just took off her heart/polka dot decal boarder and got some jungle animals.

We had just ordered a glider/ottoman and then I found this one at a consignment store for half the price (and it was in perfect condition so we returned the one we ordered.) Yeah!! I was able to buy several more of the things we needed with the money we saved. You can't really tell from the pictures but it's blue and has white polka dots on it...so cute!

The crib's all ready...now we just need a baby to put in it!

Katelyn is SILLY!

2012-01-27T15:12:00.003-05:00

I LOVE it when Katelyn puts on her Richard Simmons terry cloth headband and exercises. She's hillarious! (Especially when she puts on the fuzzy white sparkle slippers to match.)

You've got to move it, move it.

She really is such a fun girl. She's constantly cracking us up!

And the hair gets a little wild. This is our evening entertainment... We'd be so bored with out her. I'm glad she'll be around to entertain her brother. :)

Big Sister Class

2012-01-22T21:57:00.002-05:00

The hospital where we are delivering has a Big Brother/Sister class. So of course we needed to take Katelyn and check it out.

She was very excited to go to her Big Sister class...because she is VERY excited about becoming a big sister and can't wait for her brother to arrive.

The kids were told to bring a doll or a stuffed animal, so of course Puppy Pup Pup had to come with us. Katelyn even drew a picture of him and her.

The kids got to make their new brother/sister a gift for when they come home. Here she is working on her frame.

Here's the completed project with a picture of her and her brother that she drew. It's got a magnet on the back so we hung it on the fridge.

Then we all got to take a walk over to the maternity floor and see a new baby in the nursery and one of the rooms like the one mommy would be staying in.

Here's a picture of the instructor showing the kids how to hold a baby.

The class was so cute and Katelyn has a certificate to prove that she is officially ready for big sisterhood. :) She'll be the best big sister ever!

Latest project

2012-01-17T17:11:00.002-05:00

This old bookcase that my brother gave me years ago has been sitting in the garage with junk on it since, well, years ago. In an effort to get ourselves organized before the baby comes, we wanted to move a corner full of Katelyn's stacked toys, puzzles, art stuff kind of clutter and move it into the front room and get it situated.

So instead of buying a new piece of furniture to do that I decided to reuse this old piece. So I sanded, painted and sealed it this weekend. (Yes, I wore a mask.)

I already had the paint that I love (and got for free by the way) so it cost about $60 for all of the baskets and the polyurethane to seal it. It turned out cute and now I can get all of the kid clutter organized this week before we add baby stuff clutter. (And we have one less thing in our garage!) Pretty good for nine months pregnant. (Although, as I was painting the bottom shelves I was thinking this would have been a good project for a couple of months ago.)

She's out of this world!

2012-01-16T22:00:00.005-05:00

Katelyn is just a cool kid. That's really all there is to it. I know, I'm biased.

She got these dry erase sheets that cling to the sliding glass door and she can draw on them. So today she drew the solar system. She came up with the idea on her own and everything you see she drew by herself. I didn't touch it. She made the sun, the sky, stars, planets (the orange one with the lines is Saturn with its rings. She drew the earth (which is on the far right with the green land drawn in!) and a crescent moon. The girl loves science! It's her coolest picture ever. I'm not going to let her erase it. I think I've got to frame this one. She tells us she's not a princess, she's an explorer girl. That's the truth!

One month to go....

2012-01-13T00:44:00.003-05:00

In some ways I can't believe the baby will be here in the next month or so. And on the other hand, I feel like I've been pregnant FOREVER!

We've made it 36 weeks. One more week and I'm considered full term. Mom gets here on February 3rd so we keep saying the baby can come on the 4th. The way I'm feeling, the baby can just come any day now! I know I'm a big whiner...but I'm tired. My hips hurt. I'm not sleeping well. I pee ALL the time. (I was up five times last night...so much for sleeping!)

But....we've made it nine months. My pregnancy has been very text book. No problems. I'm healthy. The baby's healthy. I am so, so thankful. I just can't wait to meet him!!! I don't think I'm the only one. Michael's super excited and Katelyn asks when her brother's going to get here every other day.

Four more weeks...more or less. (Let's go for the less...)

Best winter ever!

2012-01-08T20:42:00.003-05:00

I'm from Southern California. So for me, a good winter involves mild temperatures and no snow. That's what we've been getting here in Kentucky. We didn't get any snow in December and we've only had a few really cold days in January with just a light dusting of snow one day. It was 50 degrees and sunny yesterday!

Sassy pants has only had to wear a hat and gloves a handful of times! Whoo hoo.

The baby is due in less than five weeks and I'm slowing down. Katelyn has been very sweet and has just gone with the flow. Thank goodness for her Legos! Michael thought we were funny yesterday because we were both eating 1/2 a peanutbutter sandwich and some yogurt together.

Katelyn has turned into an amazing reader. It's just all come together for her over the past few months and she can pick up a book and read it cover to cover with little help from us. She's even reading us some of her bedtime stories now. So yesterday her High Five magazine came in the mail so she sat right down with me to read. I love it!!

And yet, she still is a BUNDLE of energy. Here's a little monkey jumping on the bed. After church today, we grabbed some lunch and then went to the park so she could play for an hour. It's supposed to be really cold by next weekend so we thought we'd take advantage of a day in the mid-forties to play outside for a while.

And some stories before bed. We tucked her in and the last thing she said was, "Goodnight Baby Aladdin." (That's what she's named her brother.) Hmmm....I don't think that will be the name this kid ends up with. Hope she doesn't mind.

Christmas, part 2.

2011-12-30T23:48:00.002-05:00

My brother and sister-in-law were in Ft. Wayne last weekend with her family for Christmas so we got together with them tonight for Christmas...part 2. Katelyn was pretty pumped that there were more presents to open!

Thanks Grammy and Papa for all of the great gifts!!! We are spoiled for sure.

Santa put gifts in Mike and Niki's stockings on Christmas and we've just been waiting for them to get here to open them up. Katelyn's been asking for days where her rings were and I had no idea. So Mike gets to the bottom of his stocking and finds a pile of plastic rings and some shells that Katelyn had shoved down there for safe keeping. Hillarious!!! We always call her our little squirell because she's always tucking her treasures away in little hiding spots. She was very excited to have her rings back. :)

Aunt Niki and her fuzzy socks.

Santa got me a sign to stick in the car window...but for now, I just put it here. :)

We are officially done with Christmas at our house. This weekend the decorations are coming down!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-29T20:57:00.004-05:00

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!! We had a quiet but lovely Christmas here in Kentucky. Katelyn is 4 1/2 so she was lots of fun. We had dinner on Christmas eve with our good friends and then both of our families went to church together and to look at Christmas lights at a local estate that does it up with the lights and decorations.

We came home and Katleyn got in her Christmas jammies and set out cookies and milk for Santa. Chocolate milk actually because she was sure he'd like that more. She took her bag of glitter and oats out to the front lawn to sprinkle for the reindeer so they would have food and be able to find their way.

She got to open day 24 of the advent calendar and put baby Jesus in the manger.

Michael read her the Christmas story.

We each opened one present.

Here's Michael and his mini before tucking the little bug in so Santa could come.

You would think that Michael got the pink tub of Legos for Christmas by looking at the twinkle in his eye. But no, they are Katelyn's and he has to share. I've already broken up several arguments between the two of them over who gets to use which pieces to build what. The big kid and the little kid. They have played with the Legos together every night since Christmas.

Since we were the only ones here we had to set the timer to take a little family Christmas picture. :)

This is the belly in week 34...I'm not quite sure where six more weeks of baby growth are going to go. The little guy is getting big! We had an ultrasound and doctor's appointment on Tuesday and all is well. He's just under 6 pounds and although they can't give us length measurements, based on this femur length they have him in the 90th percentile for length at this point. They're thinking he'll be 8-8.5 pounds. We'll see if the predictions are right! He is head down though so he's getting ready to enter the world. Mom gets here on February 3rd...so any time after that works for me!

We're wishing everyone a very Happy New Year! Our family is pretty excited about what 2012 has in store for us!!!!

Deck the Halls

2011-12-29T20:41:00.004-05:00

Okay...so I'm behind on getting the Christmas pictures on the blog...what else is new? Below are pictures of the house all decorated for Christmas!

I set up the whole village!

My bigger nativity set is on top of our entertainment center...I forgot to take a picture.

The Christmas tree in the dome used to be in my grandma's house. It was my favorite thing there and this year it was passed on to me. It's made of little beads and tiny ornaments. It's beautiful and I love it!!

We hung up everyone's stocking even though it was just Michael, Katelyn and I. We were all together in spirit.

Although, when I set up ALL of my decorations I thought mom and dad were coming and I was excited they would be here to help me put them all away....hmmm. It looks like I'm on my own. Poor Michael's honey-do list keeps getting longer. :)

Christmas partying

2011-12-17T16:52:00.004-05:00

Michael's company had a Christmas party today for children of their employees. So Katelyn got to go and see where daddy works. She thought that was pretty cool. I did too for that matter.

Katelyn made a few calls...

Gave some instructions on what tasks need to be done....

and sent a few emails. Michael better watch out or he'll be out of a job pretty soon.

Then we moved on to the party. Katelyn made a beautiful Christmas necklace.

Katelyn even sat on Santa's lap!!! Yeah. (Santa was giving out presents so she was willing to be brave.)

She posed in front of the tree.

But really she just wanted to dance around and be silly. Ahhh....the life of a four year old!!! Two weeks ago Michael's company had a really nice employee party for the grown ups at the convention center in Frankfort...dinner, dancing, presents. And now this party for the kids. They've done a great job doing something special for employees and their families. I'm thankful that Michael's working for a good company!

Katelyn's new room

2011-12-13T16:07:00.003-05:00

Katelyn's new big girl room is just about done. It's pinktastic!

I got the wall decals for $8 and they match her bedding perfectly. What an easy way to fill a wall!

We have a cute yellow desk that's going in this corner but it's in the garage and still needs to be cleaned up/refinished and I need to find a chair for it. That project can wait a bit.

I need to get the valance up over the window, but overall the room is just about done. Katelyn is liking it all decorated and now I just need to get going on the nursery!

Weekend in review

2011-12-11T21:50:00.004-05:00

Ho ho ho! Yesterday we took Katelyn to a "Cookies with Santa" event at our church.

Santa and Mrs. Claus read stories to the kids.

Of course, Katelyn didn't want to get too close so she stayed with Michael on the fringe. :)

She made a beautiful wreath with colored maccaroni. It is being displayed proudly in our dining room.

We couldn't get Katelyn to sit with Santa and the Mrs. and take a picture for anything...but she was more than happy to partake in the cookie eating part of the event.

She made an ornament and we put her name on it.

And, drumroll please....Katelyn got to sleep in her new big girl room. (She moved to the bigger room next to her old room.) I got it painted this lovely pink color this week. I'll post pictures of the room in the next couple of days. I've still got some decorating to do.

She loved her new room and went right to sleep. I, on the other hand, am the one who cried like a baby. I can't believe how big she's getting. Sigh.

It was chilly today but we decided we all needed some fresh air. So we threw on hats and gloves and headed to the park for a while and then went to the library so all of us could load up on some new reading material.

On a sad note, my grandma passed away last night. She was almost 94 and lived a very full life and I am glad she's with Jesus now....but it's sad that she's gone. My grandparents lived next door to us for most of our lives growing up and I have more wonderful memories than I can count. I'm thankful for that today...

Family pics

2011-11-30T15:14:00.003-05:00

Michael's niece was in town visiting us the weekend before Thanksgiving and she was nice enough to take some family pictures of us. We actually got a nice sunny, fairly warm day out so we jumped on it. Here are just a few....

Cutie patootie!

I love this man! He's so good to Katelyn and I and I just can't wait to add another little one to our family.

Me and my favorite girl. She's full of so much joy!

And the baby boy on the way (this was taken as I started week 29).

Hello third trimester

2011-11-16T11:18:00.002-05:00

I can't believe I'm in my third trimester already. All I know is the second one was a whole lot more enjoyable than the first.

This was right after we found out I was pregnant...maybe at about 5-6 weeks. See how happy I was? (I didn't know of the 10 weeks of morning sickness that was about to start!)

And here's the ever growing belly in my 28th week. I can't believe I only have another few months. I have so much left to do!! The baby's super active and kicking away. Katelyn was able to feel her brother move the other day and her eyes got as big as saucers. It was really sweet. She's so excited for him to get here. (Michael and I are too!)

A house of sick people

2011-11-15T19:36:00.003-05:00

Well, unfortunately I just don't have much to report. All of us have been sick so there's just not much going on over here. I've had a cough for a month. Michael's had a cough, and some other allergy-type stuff going on. Katelyn had been good until a few days ago but now she has the cough and stuffy/runny nose. Bummer all around. We just can't seem to all get healthy at the same time.

Here's Katelyn and her FAVORITE stuffed animal, Puppy Pup Pup. He's always with her these days. In the background you can see the lego castle she built. She loves her legos and plays with them everyday!

We've been going through closets and getting rid of stuff we don't need. We figured out we had more luggage than we could ever use, so this suitcase is on it's way out. Of course Katelyn had to check it out first. Where should we send her?

Next week we head up to Michigan for Thanksgiving. Please pray we all get healthy soon!

Cooking and Gardening

2011-11-05T15:09:00.004-04:00

Two of my favorite things...cooking and gardening. Here are a couple of the yummy meals we've had recently.

This is grilled pork, applesauce I had made and canned, kale "chips" (kale with olive oil and salt on it and then baked until crispy) and a roasted sweet potato, potato and butternut squash medley. The butternut squash was from our garden.

Michael and I both love Thai and Indian food so I combined both one night. I made chicken pad thai (which Katelyn loved also) and curried sweet potato filled samosas that I baked instead of fried. Yummy!!

The butternut squash just started growing in our garden. We had tilled our compost pile into the soil in the spring and this was came up. I've harvested 20 squash from about three separate plants. I've got them put up and we'll use them all winter to roast and I'll bake, puree and freeze some to use later in soups and breads. This was a fun surprise this year and one we're loving!

Before the frost hit I harvested all the tomatoes that I could. They are currently laid out all over the counter. I got a big batch of ripe tomatoes before this one and I canned 12 pints of diced tomatoes. We canned and used LOTS of tomatoes this year and they all came from the 50 cent half dead plants I bought at Lowes on clearance. We got a whole lot out of the $4 we spent on tomato plants! What a blessing!!!!

More tomatoes!!! (Really they're everywhere around here.)

Today it was in the mid sixties. A beautiful day for sure. We got some rain earlier this week and so the soil was soft. Before it gets really cold out we decided to have a productive day in the yard getting ready for winter. We pulled everything out of the gardens, raked all the leaves into the compost pile, weeded out old planters on the porch and threw the dirt into the raised bed (and finally threw out all of our old porch containers...new ones to come in the spring), put up the patio furniture, hosed down the patio and put the hose in the garage. We need to mow one more time and rake in the front yard but other than that, the yardwork is done until spring!!! (Good thing because this pregnant mama is about done being able to do all this stuff!) Katelyn was very helpful though. She collected tomatoes that had fallen and she found a worm that kept her busy for a VERY long time. :) She said...."Oh, I love bugs." She was FILTHY by the end of yardwork day.

A productive fall day for sure. I feel so much better!! There is much to do inside now before the baby gets here....Let the nesting continue!

Swim little fishy

2011-11-02T20:17:00.005-04:00

Katelyn went to her first swim lesson last night.

She loves being in the water and I know that she will eventually be a great swimmer. She's always in the water with floaties on and she was a little aprehensive about going in without them, but she did great!

There are only three little ones in her class so it's perfect. She'll go twice a week for four weeks and then I think we'll probably have her do the next session next month also.

Happy as can be. I'm liking this more than soccer already. :)

And this picture is hilarious! Michael and his mini. Love it!!!!

Happy Halloween!!

2011-10-31T22:00:00.004-04:00

It's a bird. It's a plane. It's SUPER KATELYN!

Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.

Katelyn wanted nothing to do with being a princess for Halloween but she sure was excited about being a super hero! I think she made a super cute super girl. As she was running down the street trick or treating she yelled, "I love Halloween!"

Catching up

2011-10-31T16:31:00.005-04:00

I know, I know....so I'm going to work on catching up on the last couple of months. Katelyn was always a good helper in the garden. Of course she wanted to be watered like a plant. So I was happy to help!
It made her so happy...how could I resist?

Of course the days of playing in the water are over for this year. Sigh.

Katelyn the soccer player. So I think my expectations of Katelyn's soccer season and the reality of her playing soccer were two different things. She looked cute in the uniform, which I expected.

And all the girls and her coaches were awesome. Which I hoped for. (Here's the coach having the girls point in the direction they are headed. )

But Katelyn didn't actually ever participate much in game play. As you will note in the picture above, all of the girls are chasing after the ball. Katelyn could be found off to the side watching, picking grass, playing in the net or walking along the center field lines. She did alright during practices but when it was time for the game there was just a bit too much chaos for her. So we're not too sad to see soccer practices and games come to an end.

But Katelyn loved riding her bike and she's gotten very good at it.

And she likes to pretend she's a rock star.

And sometimes she'll let us get her all dressed up in a pretty dress but she's quick to say that she's not a princess, she's an explorer girl.

We have to get ready for trick or treating now so I will post more later!!! Consider yourselves kind of caught up. :)

First soccer practice

2011-08-26T10:14:00.003-04:00

Katelyn's first soccer practice was on Tuesday evening. We were all excited. She's been talking about playing soccer for a year and this was the first season that she was old enough to play. She was asking to wear her cleats and shin guards around the house all day. We got all ready and Michael was going go straight to the field from work....
Five minutes before we got to the field this was what I turned around and saw in the backseat. So I let her sleep for 10 more minutes because we were early and I prayed that she wasn't super cranky when I woke her up.

But she woke up ready to go. Her coaches are awesome and so encouraging of all of the kids and all of the girls are so cute out there.

They played a passing game to learn each other's names.

Here's our girl. For the first 45 minutes of practice she was really focused and practiced hard.

And for the last 15 minutes we watched as she began to crash. She slept really good on Tuesday night. So tired.... We can't wait to experience this first soccer season with her!

Time to can

2011-08-22T21:06:00.004-04:00

Since the kitchen was being overtaken by a beautiful harvest of tomatoes (not shown here is the colander full of cherry tomatoes that we eat with everything), I decided that it was time to do some canning.

I needed my counter back, so this became...

11 quarts of spaghetti sauce! It turned out really good. I even used the immersion blender to get the perfect consistency...(see mom, I told you I needed it for Christmas...I use it and everything.) I don't think we'll be buying pasta sauce any time soon. Of course I did this middle of last week and I already have half a counter of tomatoes again. I think this week's canning project is going to be tomato jam. I found a cool recipe and it's supposed to be good with crackers or on grilled meat...I think I'll try it and let y'all know.

The little engineer goes to school

2011-08-18T16:34:00.004-04:00

Time for a new school year! On Wednesday, Katelyn started her second year of preschool. She's in the big four year old class now! She was really excited to get there!
All she's really worried about is that she has her lunch with her.

The following pictures will show you our little engineer at work. She gravitates toward all the gadgets and gizmos that you have to assemble.

She and Michael played with tinker toys last week for a whole evening. They built a very elaborate monorail and then Katelyn played with that for two days.

Michael has taught Katelyn how to measure things with his tape measure. She can tell you how many inches something is.

Here she is...very proud of herself. :)

2011-08-10T21:10:00.003-04:00

As Katelyn and I were heading to the Big Park on Saturday she sang the "Rainbow Song" for me.

Katelyn is showing off her climbing skills at the park.

Here she is riding a motorcycle...or is it a horse...or both?

Later that day Katelyn and Melissa were busy picking tomatoes.

Fun at the Horse Park

2011-08-06T19:14:00.007-04:00

There was an event going on out at the Horse Park today and it's the one day a year that admission is free for everyone. I read about it in the paper this morning and nauseous or not, I'm tired of being in the house. So we had a couple of hours of family fun.

Katelyn loved seeing all of the horses.
She loved riding on daddy's shoulders.

And she took her first pony ride!!!

She loved it!!

Here are us girls in front of the Secretariat statue.

We got to ride on a tractor pulled hayride and a golf cart shuttle. Katelyn of course loved them both. It was a fun time for all..and now we're all wiped out.

And by the way...three blog posts in one day means that no one can get on my case again for a while!

To the park!

2011-08-06T14:40:00.005-04:00

Michael was super sweet and took Katelyn to the park and out to lunch today so that I could just lay low. She was all excited to tell me of their adventures when she came home.

I haven't been a very active mommy lately, so I know that Katelyn was really excited to get to go play!

Sometimes I look at pictures of this child and just can't believe how big she's getting. Just look at her!

On the swings.

Playing, playing.

Mission accomplished. Look at this sweaty child.

Sometimes you just need some water.

I really am so blessed!

The garden

2011-08-06T14:18:00.006-04:00

Well our garden is flourishing and it is certainly not because of anything I've done. We've had so many big storms followed by hot humid days and the tomatoes in particular are loving it!! Unfortunately, I've been feeling so yucky that vegetables of any kind don't really sound very good to me but...we've got em.

At least Michael and Katelyn are loving the tomatoes.

Thanks to the compost that we tilled in with our soil we have some surprise guests in the garden this year. A couple of butternut squash seedlings grew and grew and now they've taken over half the garden...but I did nothing and we've got a great crop of butternut squash growing.

Our other surprise guest was a cantalope plant and we've got a couple of nice melons coming in. Yeah!

Katelyn helped me pick a bowl full of cherry tomatoes today. She loves these things. She says, "They explode in your mouth."

She's such a good helper.

I bought these tomato plants that were on death row at Lowes for 50 cents a plant. I got 4 of them and 2 basil plants for $3, picked off the dead leaves and planted them. I paid $2 for a 4 pack of the cherry tomato plants (3 survived). So for $5 and the surprise guests from the compost we have a good garden going on back there. :) I think I need to be feeling better in the next few days so I can can some tomatoes. I don't think we'll be able to eat all of these this week. And there are lots more coming in! Most of these were off one plant. Good grief.

And the cherry tomatoes are delicious! Just ask Katelyn.

Chinese camp

2011-07-29T14:56:00.004-04:00

Katelyn had the opportunity to go to Chinese camp this week. It was such a blessing for both of us really. (I stayed with her each day so I got to learn and experience it too...and meet some other adoptive parents.) There were about 25 children who had all been adopted from China (and a few siblings of those children who are obviously not Chinese). The couple that ran the camp had spent three years in China learning english and had adopted a little girl themselves. It was fun to see Katelyn interact with all of the other kids.

Here's a picture of a very beautiful group of children!!!

The younger kids are learning their colors in Chinese.

Katelyn always loves snack time!!!

More colors.

There was also a very sweet Chinese lady named Ting Ting who was helping. The girls with her were learning to count to 10 in Chinese.

The kids learned songs, words and Chinese games. They played together and did crafts. They learned how to pick up mini marshmellows with chop sticks. They saw where on the map of China they were from. They learned about some different parts of China and animals from China. We ended the week with a meal at a local Chinese restaurant. The best part is that this group is figuring out ways we can continue meeting on a regular basis!

What a fun week!!!

A day at the lake

2011-07-21T20:51:00.004-04:00

On Saturday we spent the day at the lake with the boat FINALLY in the water! Yeah!!!

Katelyn was very excited to go on the boat and head to the beach!

Here is my brother. I'm not sure I really want to claim him in this outfit, but regardless...he is mine. :)

Cutie patootie husband enjoying a day where he is not at work. Yeah for relaxing.

Mom and Niki (sis-in-law) on their noodles. Oh we love our noodles.

Katelyn running in...ready to go swimming.

She loves to swim...not so sure about the face in the water yet though.

Our crazy family and the goose/duck family. :)

Katelyn enjoying herself.

We really, really missed dad! Katelyn was very concerned about who would drive the boat. And now mom has headed back to Arizona to be with my grandparents. This was not really the summer we had all planned...but we're making due with what's been dealt.

I slept 10 hours last night and took a nap for an hour this afternoon and I am absolutely exhausted...exhaustion like I have never known before. I am really ready for the second trimester. No nausea and some energy sounds like heaven. I'm 11 weeks tomorrow so hopefully all of that is right around the corner! Baby Kramer is the size of a lime. :)

A crack in the axle

2011-07-13T20:18:00.002-04:00

We know that most little girls want to push their babies around in their stroller, but Katelyn is a girl that has a need to tinker, dissect and figure out how things work. So tonight our little mechanic was telling us that her stroller had a crack in the axle and she needed to fix it. Of course the fix was wrapping plastic beads around it. :)

Funny, funny, funny!

2011-07-04T21:40:00.002-04:00

Papa (and all), here's a bonus video of Katelyn. Enjoy!

Katelyn's dance

2011-07-04T21:29:00.001-04:00

Our new camera takes good little videos and we think we've figured out how to post them to the blog...so for your viewing pleasure we have Katelyn's made up dance from earlier this morning. She called it the "Twisty Tree Binocular Dance"

Enjoy!!!

Just hanging out

2011-06-30T21:04:00.002-04:00

We've just been hanging out around here. So here are some pictures of day to day fun...

Katelyn was watching Elmo exercise on a DVD and she decided that she needed a headband so that she could exercise too. It was SO funny!! She's showing you her muscles.

Katelyn and Grammy doing some play dough. This child loves the play dough.

A typical Katelyn scowl. This child is sassy!

We were getting ready to go to the park this afternoon and Katelyn was just too cute not to take a picture.

Playing at the park. She always wants her sunglasses on when it's hot out. (What she really means is that it's bright out.)

Grammy came over today and is going to spend the night. She took Katelyn over to play at the mall for a while so I could get some rest. Praise God Grammy's here! Papa...we miss you and can't wait for you to get here too!!! Katelyn wants to knock you down.

I'm pregnant!!!

2011-06-28T20:46:00.004-04:00

Well, I never thought I'd be writing this post, but lo and behold....I'm pregnant. I'm in my eighth week. We're due on February 10th. We had our first prenatal visit yesterday and the baby is half an inch big with a heart rate of 159. The doctor said everything looks great and is exactly where it should be at this point. We feel so much better after hearing all of that and now we're just excited! I've been super tired and nauseous so the excitement has been toned down by the physical lack of energy, but just wait until I feel better....

Here's the first picture of the wee one (who is the size of a raspberry this week). One little raspberry sure is doing a number on my body.

We told Katelyn last night that she is going to be a big sister. She has requested a little brother. We'll see about that....

Happy Birthday Katelyn!

2011-06-17T21:29:00.004-04:00

It's hard to believe really, but Katelyn turned four today! Where have the last three years gone? This has been a big year for her. She started preschool. She has learned so much - letters, their sounds, how to write her name, starting to write letters and words, counting so high, talking so well, doing things for herself, getting a big girl bed. Holy cow. What a year!!

Katelyn, of course, knew exactly what she wanted. Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and sprinkles on top. She LOVES sprinkles and wants them on everything.

The night before preparations: Grammy and Papa got Katelyn her first big girl bike. Michael was the sweetie pie that got to assemble it.

Katelyn gearing up for the party.

Getting excited. When is everyone going to get here?? Anticipation for birthday festivities is rough when you're four.

Katelyn has been wanting Twinkle Toes shoes REALLY bad. So I found them on sale and tucked them away for the birthday. They light up when you walk, run, stomp. So Katelyn instantly put them on her feet and was running through the house watching them light up! SO FUNNY! Who knew shoes could be so fun?

Testing out the new bike. Of course I had to get a basket for the front because where else would she put her treasures? She is a GREAT bike rider already!! She really loves her new bike and I know she'll get a ton of use out of this baby.

And of course Michael is trying to show her how to stop the thing. :) I can't believe how big she is. It feels like she was taking her first steps yesterday and all of a sudden she's learning how to ride a big girl bike. Geesh.

Make a wish Katelyn. And Katelyn says, "I wish for a puppy." Yep, not gonna happen. Maybe she'll forget...

Yum, yum, yum.

What we do not have a picture of is the total meltdown that happened right before bed. It was a big, big day for the girl and she was so tired. She went to bed and fell instantly asleep. Not a peep.

Happy birthday sweet girl. Happy birthday to you!!!

A day in Maysville

2011-06-16T20:40:00.003-04:00

On Saturday the weather was rainy in the morning up at the lake so we decided to take a little trip up the road to Maysville in the afternoon to hang out. We took Grammy out to lunch for a late Mother's Day treat and Katelyn was of course happy to go to a restaurant.

This child could eat her weight in french fries if you let her.

Katelyn and Grammy are best pals. They are the only people I know who could out talk each other. :)

Here's Katelyn in front of the mural that's down by the river.

Michael and Katelyn took a little walk out on the dock.

Here I am with all the hand prints.

We didn't play on the lake but we still had a fun day together and we kept Grammy out of trouble for a whole afternoon which is no small task.

For Papa

2011-06-08T20:25:00.003-04:00

Papa wanted Katelyn to email him a hug and a kiss. So even better we took pictures of her sending a hug and a kiss just for Papa.

So Papa, here's a big hug....

And a big flying kiss!!!

We love and miss you!!!!

A big imagination

2011-06-07T08:52:00.005-04:00

Katelyn loves to create things. She spelled her name with her blocks.

On Saturday we went to Michael's company picnic. They did a great job...food, music, lots of stuff for the kids. It was nice to meet some of the people he works with. It was super hot though so the inflatables and the playground surfaces were really too hot for Katelyn to play on.

She did get cotton candy (that she traded in for a brownie because she didn't really like the cotton candy). That's my girl. Go for the chocolate.

There was even a little petting zoo and Katelyn definitely liked that.

An hour after we got home from the picnic Grammy got here! And Katelyn was very excited about that.

There were nose kisses....

Katelyn and Grammy played a game where they had to keep switching chairs. Katelyn made it up. Grammy was a good sport. It made Katelyn giggle and giggle.

More hugs and kisses. I think Grammy missed Katelyn. :)

As soon as Katelyn hears the garage door open and knows Michael is home at the end of the day she runs and hides and he knows that he has to go and find her. Then they play while I finish dinner. Last night they put their blankets on like capes. Katelyn put her headlight on and Michael had her flashlight. They were super heros. If that doesn't make you smile I'm not sure what will. They were whooshing through the house. I'm not sure who enjoyed it more.

Today Katelyn built a great fort in the front room. She says it's a cave. This has kept her busy for an hour so it's fine by me.

Katelyn has a VERY big imagination!!! I love it!

A yummy day

2011-06-02T22:58:00.004-04:00

I love Thursdays because Katelyn and I get to hang out all day. We don't have any agenda necessarily except to have a girl day. Katelyn says, "No boys allowed."

I had a coupon for a free pizza so Katelyn and I went out for lunch. $1.69 for my drink is not a bad lunch total. :) Katelyn loves cheese pizza. When I ask if she wants anything else on it she simply says, "No thanks mom. Just cheese and sauce." She always knows exactly what she wants, I'll give her that.

This afternoon Katelyn played outside for a bit.

The thing in her hand is a magnifying glass. She was running around looking for ants. She loves ants. When she finds one she picks it up and lets it crawl on her arm. Ewww...

I was finishing up dinner and looked outside and Katelyn and Michael were dancing together in the backyard. He always hums a waltz when he dances with her and sometimes I'll catch her during the day humming the same tune while she plays. So, so sweet.

Normally Katelyn could care less about dolls and her stroller. But today she marched the whole setup outside and tore around the backyard like an off road vehicle. Hillarious. I wonder if she's too young to do the mowing?

This was our dinner. Michael and I went out the other night to a great local restaurant and had a grilled zucchini "burger" So tonight we recreated the burger ourselves. The slices of zucchini were marinated in some sundried tomato vinegrette and then grilled. I sauted onions, mushrooms and bell peppers and put them on there with some sliced tomatoes and a piece of mozarella cheese on top and threw it in the oven for a few minutes to melt the cheese. Then we put lettuce and wasabi mayo on it. SO GOOD! The broccoli is from our garden and we just steamed it. Delicious dinner!

Because we tilled our compost pile in with our garden soil we now have some mystery plants growing out in the bed. I'm pretty sure this is butternut squash (We ate a lot of it this fall/winter) but we will see. It's growing really well so I just left it.

The cabbage is beautiful right now.

It's been so hot this week that we are having to hurry and harvest the broccoli because it is starting to bolt (go to seed and flower which will make it inedible.)

I really love having a garden. This is a very yummy time of year!!!

School party!

2011-06-02T08:54:00.003-04:00

Katelyn's preschool had an end of the year party yesterday. A luau! The kids all had lots of fun. I can't believe she's already finished her first year of preschool. Geesh.

Here's the little hula girl.

Katelyn with her best friend. Silly girls.

She likes to eat and play so the party was a hit.

Here's her little class waiting oh so patiently for lunch to start.

Katelyn's teacher mad "grass" skirts for everyone. Katelyn did the hula dance for us at home last night. Yep, it was cute.

A beautiful spring day

2011-05-29T21:20:00.004-04:00

Yesterday was a beautiful day and Saturdays are Family Day...so we headed over to McConnell Springs. This is a great area close to our house where Lexington was first settled. Katelyn, being the explorer that she is, was happy to wander down the path and point out EVERYTHING that caught her eye. It took an hour to walk a mile. :)

She likes her cool sunglasses. She says she HAS to wear them because it's hot out.

Posing...

Here we are in front of one of the springs.

Katelyn up on a Shaker wall.

Michael and Katelyn hanging out on the bridge.

We followed up our little hiking adventure with lunch and a trip to the library. After going home to rest we brought dinner over to my brother and sister-in-law's new house and spent some time at their great new place. Congratulations Mike and Niki!!

I made peanutbutter, banana, chocolate chip pancakes this morning. Michael and Katelyn's favorite breakfast. And while the pancakes were cooking Katelyn read a library book. Katelyn said, "I love the local library." That's our girl~!

Last day...

2011-05-21T21:23:00.005-04:00

Yesterday was our last day of vacation before we started to head home. The weather was perfect. We spent several hours at the beach in the morning and then some time at the pool in the afternoon. Katelyn has adapted to beach life quite nicely don't you think?

Of course if there's water to stomp in she's stomping.

Chasing a seagull.

Dolphins came by while we were on the beach. They were right off shore. It was AWESOME to be able to see them up close. I got in the water like this guy did and they were maybe 30 feet away. That was a great treat for our last day!

Some older kids helped Katelyn get a minnow in her bucket. She was so excited that she had her own fish.

We really enjoyed The Village of Baytowne Wharf in Sandestin earlier in the week so we decided to go back for our last night.

We even let Katelyn ride the $4 carousel.

Katelyn and Michael hanging out.

And the sunset did not disappoint us.

This morning was a bit tragic as we packed up to head home. We had a perfect vacation...we'll definitely go back to the Destin area again.

We're staying in Birmingham tonight and will head back to Lexington tomorrow. Now that we're on the road we're all ready to get home.

Adios beach. We will miss you!

An evening at the harbor

2011-05-19T22:26:00.004-04:00

After an afternoon of this....

We went here and ate very yummy Thai food....(which Katelyn said was the best dinner ever)

And then we went down here to wander around...

We were just in time to catch a beautiful sunset.

Katelyn wanted to climb on board every boat in the harbor. There was a place where you could rent pontoon boats and she said, "Hey, that's just like papa's boat."

It was great just to take a walk and smell all of the smells and see all of the sights of the harbor.

On our way back to the condo we stopped at The Donut Hole. It's a cafe and bakery that's open all night. Little did we know that we dressed Katelyn appropriately for the evening because when she saw the cupcakes she knew exactly what her treat would be.

Michael and I had a cup of coffee and a piece of key lime pie because really, you can't come all the way to Florida and not eat a piece of key lime pie.

I know, I know...total gluttony...the whole trip. We'll eat salad next week...but for now we have one more day at the beach!

Time in the water

2011-05-19T17:25:00.005-04:00

The last two days have been GORGEOUS...and since the ocean looks like this....

...0ur routine for the last two days has been to wake up whenever, sit on the balcony in our jammies drinking coffee and eating breakfast, pack up our stuff and head to the beach, rest, play and swim at the beach until lunch...

...because this is not a crystal clear pool...it's the ocean!

Katelyn was entertained with this bucket and straw for 30 minutes today.

I really don't think Michael is going to go back to work so we might all be living in a cardboard box on this very beach fairly soon...

Then we head back to the condo and make ourselves some lunch. (Remember the 2 pounds of boiled shrimp? And the leftover pizza from the best little italian place ever?)

And today we made the same salad because it was SO good and had some fresh bread and brie cheese with it. Yep, we're good at vacationing!

And Katelyn had leftover chicken and french fries from the greek place we went to last night.

And then after lunch we head to the pool. Katelyn is doing great in the water. She gets her floaties on and she's off...

Our biggest decisions of the day are how long do we nap...

And where do we go for dinner.

Tonight we're going to have some Thai food and then we're going for a walk down by the harbor with a nice stop for some key lime pie before the night is over. :) Have I mentioned that I love vacation?

More beachy fun

2011-05-17T23:49:00.003-04:00

We went to the seafood market this morning and bought a couple of pounds of fresh shrimp. Then we had lunch at a little italian place and we had THE BEST pizza I've ever eaten. It was SO good! And then we came back and went to the beach. It was windy this afternoon and I thought it was chilly but Katelyn was not affected and just wanted to play, play, play...

This evening before dinner we took a walk and collected shells. This activity kept Katelyn engaged for over an hour. Yeah.

Katelyn drew a picture of herself in the sand. Super cute!

I think it looks just like her.

We had our own shrimp boil tonight after Katelyn went to bed.

Ummm...2 pounds of shrimp was a little overzealous for the two of us. But we put a dent in it and we're going to have a salad with some shrimp on it tomorrow night for dinner. I got some fresh bread and brie to go with it. Yum, yum!

The Village of Baytowne Wharf

2011-05-17T09:44:00.004-04:00

Last night after everyone had a nap we decided to go out to Sandestin which is a gated community but you can get in to go to The Village of Baytowne Wharf. There are restaurants, shops and activities.

Here's Katelyn and I on our balcony before we left.

Here's Michael and Katelyn at the fountain when you first come in.

Us being tourists...

We had a big, late lunch so we fed Katelyn leftover spaghetti from our first night here before we left for the village and Michael and I decided that we'd just eat sandwiches and salad back at the condo later....so we had dessert first....gelato at Sweeties of course!

Katelyn was very happy with her rainbow sherbet. Yum, yum, yum!

Me and my honey looking out at the marina at sunset. It was gorgeous out there.

Here's what the village looks like at night. We really loved it out here. We're going to go back again before we leave. There was even a playground area for Katelyn. It's really fun...lights, live music, people wandering around. The perfect place to go for the evening. We're going to eat at one of the restaurants in the next couple of days sometime.

Here's Katelyn and I at the fountain before we left.

Today we're going to a local fish market to get some fresh shrimp and we're going to have our own shrimp boil at the condo tonight. There's a cool italian place we're going to go to for lunch and the agenda for the afternoon...the beach of course!

A trip to Gulfarium

2011-05-16T17:30:00.004-04:00

It was in the low 70s today (supposed to be the coolest day of the week), so we decided that we would go to Gulfarium today instead of going down to the beach. Gulfarium is like a small (very small) Sea World. Katelyn was all ready to see some "sea animals."

We watched a dolphin show. Katelyn loved it when the dolphins jumped.

Silly, silly.

I could not believe that Katelyn let this bird eat out of her hand and then let the man put the bird on her shoulder. Good job kiddo!

All of the animals at Gulfarium and I think Katelyn liked the stingrays the best. Watching them held her attention for a long time.

After the Gulfarium we went and had a late lunch at The Crab Trap. We each had a cup of gumbo and then Michael had stuffed flounder (stuffed with the crab cake filling) and I had grilled shrimp which had this awesome marinade on it. We shared these two things and they were both awesome. Last night we went out and had seafood but everything was fried and we really weren't loving that. And the night we got here we had seafood...I had a grilled mahi mahi sandwich and Michael had a pound of boiled shrimp (which is boiled in this awesome cajun spice to give it a kick) with boiled potatoes and corn on the cob (the shrimp was only $11...awesome!). So we've covered gumbo, boiled, fried and grilled shrimp, mahi mahi, crab cakes and flounder...and it's only Monday! The seafood is EXCELLENT down here so we're in heaven. There's a shrimp pot in the condo so we're going to do our own shrimp boil in the next night or two. Tonight we're headed down to The Village at Baytowne Wharf in Sandestin, just east of here to wander around....Michael and Katelyn are napping now. Katelyn got up at 6:30 this morning and Michael was very sweet and got up with her to let me sleep in. I love that guy!

A day at the beach

2011-05-16T17:07:00.004-04:00

Yesterday we pretty much spent the whole day at the beach. Please look below to see why....I'm positive that this is a little slice of heaven here on earth!

As part of our condo rental we get two beach chairs and an umbrella set up for us down on the beach everyday. Yep...it's fabulous!

Katelyn loves everything about the beach. She is so content to play in the sand and water we literally don't have to do anything else all week to make her happy.

Here is why this vacation is really perfect...I could be anywhere just as long as I'm there with these two. We're having lots of fun together.

They have two great pools but the ocean is actually warmer than the pools (they must not be heated). So we got all ready to go in the pool and this is as far as we got...so we walked 20 feet farther and went back out on the beach instead.

Katelyn loves a bucket and a shovel. It actually is really nice to have the umbrella. We spent a couple hours in the morning on the beach and then went back up to the condo and had lunch and then went back down to the beach for a couple of hours and Katelyn liked this shady little spot under the umbrella in the afternoon. And yes mom, we are all wearing sunblock.

We went out to dinner and then came back and took a walk on the beach. It was beautiful out. We even got a great family picture out of the deal!

Absolutely gorgeous. White powdery sand...warm, clear water...perfect weather.

We are actually on Miramar Beach which is just a bit east of Destin. It's less crowded and our condo complex has it's own beach for guests only. It's been really nice not to have to share the beach with tons of people. This is the perfect time of year to be down here...not too hot and kids are still in school so not too many people yet.

Katelyn being Katelyn.

And of course after our walk we needed a little treat and there's a frozen yogurt place a block from the condo...

Florida!

2011-05-15T09:52:00.002-04:00

We were very excited to see the "Welcome to Florida" sign yesterday! Katelyn slept through the moment.

Here's the view coming over the Midbay Bridge over the Choctawatchee Bay going into Destin. Almost there....

This is the view from our condo...yep, we're suffering this week.

They are currently setting up umbrellas and chairs down on the beach for guests to use. :)

Breakfast this morning.

Ahhh.....

We're on our way!

2011-05-13T23:13:00.003-04:00

We got to our hotel in Franklin (Nashville), TN safe and sound. Katelyn fell asleep in the car 14 minutes after we left the house. We let her sleep for a little over an hour and then we stopped at a McDonald's and bribed her with french fries to wake her up. We were afraid that she'd never go to sleep tonight if she slept much longer. Once it got dark she watched a dvd and put on her headlamp and read books. It was just about the cutest thing I've ever seen. She is such a good traveler that a road trip is never anything but fun...

Katelyn hasn't stayed in a hotel in 2 1/2 years. Anytime we've gone anywhere we've stayed with friends or family. We told her it was a big sleepover. She was so excited...and of course the first thing she wanted to do when we got here is jump on her bed. :)

...and play in the bed.

Katelyn took this picture of us. Pretty good right??

After a while she wanted to get her pajamas on and go to bed. She laid there for a while and finally passed out. I love this girl!

We've got another 7 1/2 hours to go tomorrow...but so far so good.

Florida here we come!

New camera

2011-05-12T15:00:00.000-04:00

I'm liking the new camera. We've gone from 4 megapixels on the old camera to 12 on the new one. It's amazing how far digital cameras have come in the last three years. We found a great deal on a little Canon Powershot. Fabulous! So Katelyn's having a play date this afternoon with two of her friends and our AC is still not fixed so it's a sweaty good time over here. (It's actually not too bad downstairs today.)
Here's the princess all dressed up. :)
Katelyn spends the warm months hot, sweaty and dirty.

Oh the whistle...I've hidden it. :) Don't tell her. She'll forget about it for another two weeks.

What's not to love about this face????

We leave for Destin, FL tomorrow....so I'll post the next pictures from the beach! We're super excited for a family beach vacation. The weather's supposed to be perfect down there this week. Yippie!

Katelyn's hard life

2011-05-04T21:46:00.003-04:00

I know, I know...Katelyn has it rough. We got an ice cream cone at McDonald's the other day on the way home from school. (The girl needs a treat on a Friday after school!) She was mad at me because I ate mine in the car on the way home and didn't save it so we could eat it together on the porch. I didn't know what the rules were. I have repented.

She got over it quickly enough and started chomping. The girl loves ice cream!

This is why we eat ice cream on the porch and not in the house. It's been a good day when she's filthy!

Katelyn loves Michael. The other day she decided to decorate him. He was so fancy by the time she was finished. (Aren't I a lovely wife for posting this picture?)

I got a yummy pineapple last week and so the "kids" (big and little), got to have some on the back porch this weekend. It was gorgeous on Saturday so we soaked up as much outside time as possible. Good thing too because all we've had since then is rain and cold weather....

Katelyn wanted to read Michael's book the other day so she sat at the table like a big girl and said, "Once upon a time......"

Katelyn likes to tell Michael and I a story at night before she goes to bed. Tonight it was about a beautiful girl named Kate who was in the "neighborwoods" with a friendly dragon and they went to grammy's house for cookies. :)

The essence of Katelyn...

2011-04-28T21:47:00.006-04:00

Katelyn cracks me up...all the time. This kid is hillarious. Her imagination is HUGE. In one of her Easter baskets she got this cool headlamp. A flashlight wrapped around her head. She LOVES this thing. Every explorer needs a headlamp! And she keeps saying she wants a guinea pig. I have no idea where this comes from but it's not happening...but here's Mr. Squiggles her new zhu zhu pet. It rolls on the ground and makes little hamster noises. I thought we had solved the guinea pig issue with this little battery powered wonder but the other day Katelyn looked at me and said, "Mommy, I want a guinea pig. A REAL one." So I guess we haven't fooled her.
Katelyn has created a cave out of her easel. She played under there for an hour the other day while I made dinner. She hauled all kinds of stuff over there. It was quite an impressive set-up. Please remember...Katelyn is the queen of using things for everything but their intended purpose. :)

Katelyn made cornbread muffins to go with dinner tonight. She loves to help cook!

We discovered tonight that Katelyn loves corn on the cob. YUM YUM!!

I just gave her half an ear but then she wanted the other half. She ate a whole ear of corn, mashed potatoes, a chicken thigh and a cornbread muffin. I'm not sure where she puts it all.

I took Katelyn to get her hair cut today. My mom trimmed it for her right before Michael and I got married last year, but other than that and me trimming her bangs she's never had her haircut. It was down to her waist and getting scraggly so off we went. She intently watched everything the hairdresser was doing but she was really good about it. We took about four inches off and it's still pretty long. It's so cute!

And then we went and got a frozen yogurt. Katelyn got blueberry yogurt with sprinkles on it. She knew exactly what she wanted.

She said, "Mommy, I love getting ice cream with you." Yeah, my heart's pretty happy.

Michael and I decided last month that I would resign at work and become a stay at home mom. Last Wednesday was my last day and this week has been awesome. I have the best hours of the day with Katelyn now instead of the last hour and a half when she's whiney and tired. We've gone to Explorium and the library...out to lunch and for frozen yogurt. We've grocery shopped when there aren't a million people in the store. I took her for a haircut. We've played in the yard and gotten things done at home. We've had dinner ready when Michael comes home and we all sit down and eat around six. Things are a lot less hectic for all of us and Katelyn has been sleeping better at night and is getting to go and do things with me during the day. We're really, really blessed.

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T22:16:00.004-04:00

Happy Easter! He is risen!!!
I know I have lots of catching up to do with the pictures...but thought I'd give you a sneak peak. Here is Katelyn on Easter morning. So cute! (And blogger is not letting me center this text..so I know this doesn't look pretty.)

We went up to Michigan...more on that later. Katelyn was awesome all weekend and we had a great time! Doesn't she look so grown up??? Good grief...I think she's grown a foot since last year!

Say cheese!

WELCOME BACK SPRING!!!

2011-03-19T21:15:00.007-04:00

Oh spring...welcome back! We have missed you so!! We spent today preparing for you... In your honor, most favored season, we hung clothes on the line and spent all day outside in the dirt. So long winter. You have overstayed your welcome and now we must say goodbye!

What a glorious day!!! We went to the library. We went out to lunch. We went to Lowes. I love going to Lowes. Oh the possibilities. Then we came home and got to work. The first thing Michael did was put the clothesline back up...and I promptly put clothes on it. I LOVE MY CLOTHESLINE. Our sheets smell so good. I can't wait to go to bed.

We mixed all of our compost into our garden spaces. What a rich pile of goodness our decayed fruits, vegetables and yard waste turned out to be. All I have to say is save your money buying some fancy composter. Just throw it all in a pile in the corner of the yard and turn it occasionally with a shovel. Perfect. There were so many worms in our compost. Our garden is going to be very, very happy this year!

Katelyn was in HEAVEN today. All of the dirt and worms. She searched for worms all day. We found the biggest worm I've ever seen! Here's Katelyn with a wheelbarrow of our compost. She said, "I love decay." That's our girl!!

Katelyn just kept moving from patch of dirt to patch of dirt. She's going to be sad when things are actually planted there and she's not allowed to play in it.

Is this not a picture of complete contentment?? She was happy as can be. We were outside for hours today and Katelyn loved it. You should have seen the bath tub tonight after Katelyn got out of it.

Romping through the dirt. It took this child 30 seconds to fall asleep tonight. :)

And then of course she was hungry and needed a snack. She ate like a horse today. She had a snack right after she ate her whole plate of dinner. If you ask her what her favorite things to do are she'll tell you, "Eat and play." What a life!

We were super productive today and our soil is ready for some planting. We got broccoli and cabbage plants to get the back corner started and I'll plant lettuce and maybe some spinach seeds back there too.

My tulips and hyacinths started coming up along the side fence so I was clearing out dead leaves and grass that was all around them and I got motivated to cut out a whole little flower bed. I'm going to plant some annuals after the spring flowers are done and edge it all with some kind of rock or stone.

The spring flowers are coming up. It won't be long now.

I resigned from my job this week! With Michael's new position we are able to have me home with Katelyn now. I'm SO excited to have more time with her...more time to do the things around the house that never seem to get done. More time to garden and can. More time to invest in my family. I'm more excited about this spring and summer than I've ever been. God has been so faithful to provide all that we need and I am counting my blessings a whole lot these days.

Silly dance

2011-03-18T21:08:00.002-04:00

I made up a silly song with words that aren't really words and moved Katelyn's arms around really fast. She thought it was hillarious! She kept saying, "Again, again, faster, faster." She is full of silliness.

She just danced and giggled.

We got a pizza tonight and we all played and read books.

I know the day will come when Katelyn will not think I'm as hillarious as she does now. That will be a sad day...

...but for now we'll just dance and sing "Hooka macka shacka wacka fa la la."

Out and about

2011-03-17T22:19:00.002-04:00

One evening while we were out taking a walk, we discovered that wedged in between our subdivision and the next subdivision up the road there's a house with a couple of horses out back. We named this horse Buddy and Katelyn loves to go visit him and feed him grass. Since it was beautiful out today we decided to let her ride her tricycle around the block and go up and visit Buddy.

He walked right up to the fence as soon as we got there and Katelyn was happy for sure!

Of course we have to conquer the rock! That's my sassy girl.

When we got home she was wiped out so a few books and then off to bed.

We're working on counting to 100. She's getting pretty good. Smarty pants.

Happy Birthday To Me!

2011-03-14T00:59:00.003-04:00

Today's my birthday...and I had a great day! Michael and Katelyn made a strawberry dream cake for me yesterday and today they worked on frosting it. (so cute!) Michael made homemade frosting and everything. The cake turned out really awesome. Everyone loved it! Not only was it delicious but seriously, how sweet are these two to bake me a cake. Michael discovered just how fun it is to bake with Katelyn. :) The first strawberry she was going to put on went right into her mouth. Hee hee.

...so then she got a little more direction.

I'm so blessed!

...and then she lost interest altogether and just started licking the spatula.

It was beautiful again today. This is a perfect Katelyn shot. In the dirt with her skirt, tights and rain boots on. I told her that her boots were on the wrong feet but she just told me she liked them that way as she ran out the door. :)

Of course Katelyn helped me blow out the candles.

We had a cookout with friends and family and look at all my beautiful flowers. I LOVE THEM!!!!

Thank you all for making this such a great birthday. I feel really loved!!! I have a feeling this is going to be a GREAT year!!

Could it be...spring?

2011-03-12T20:15:00.004-05:00

It was a beautiful day today. I was super thankful because last weekend was cold and rainy and we even had snow on Wednesday! But today the sun was shining and it was sixty degrees out. So we headed right out to the park. Katelyn was SO EXCITED to run, play and climb all over everything! She kept darting from one thing to another. She couldn't decide where to start.

Oh happy day!

This park in Georgetown just up the road from our house (10-12 miles) is one of our favorite places to play.

Katelyn made a friend at the park and these two were two little peas in a pod. She played so well with this little girl. They had a great big time and loved exploring together.

Of course they found the little creek.

They were flying like birds and chasing the geese. It was really fun to watch them.

The little girl's mom said they were at the park all the time...hopefully we'll run into them again.

After we played at the park we went to Chick fil A, grabbed lunch and took it out to Mike and Niki's (brother and sis-in-law's) house they just closed on this week to check it out. It's a great house in a great neighborhood. We're really excited for them!

Katelyn decided last week that she was done napping in the afternoon. The child went from 2 1/2 -3 hour naps every afternoon to nothing. Cold turkey. No warning. We're all grieving the loss of the nap. But she is going to bed really easily at night and sleeping for 11 hours solid! Tonight she was begging to go to bed...she was asleep by 7:45. :)

First day of work

2011-03-07T08:25:00.003-05:00

Michael is starting his new job today so I made him take a "first day of work" picture. He was pretty sweet last night and this morning. He had all of the nervous energy of a kid going to school for the first time. Maybe we can take a picture like this every year to see how much taller he gets. :)

But seriously...we're really excited about his new job. It seems like it's going to be a great fit for him and it's pretty amazing that he got the first job he applied for and the whole process took about a month. What a blessing!!

Child of the earth

2011-03-04T21:33:00.005-05:00

My favorite times with Katelyn have been times outside. Katelyn is without a doubt a child of the earth. She lights up when we go outside. She is always excited for an outdoors adventure.

This girl doesn't care if it's raining or snowing...sunny, windy, cold, warm...doesn't matter. Just let her do something outside. So obviously as the weather is starting to turn slowly to spring Katelyn is embracing it.

She's checking out the garden and wants to know when we can get to work. I have really good garden helpers around here!!

I love that Katelyn isn't afraid to get dirty. She wants to roll in the grass and throw it all over herself....

She's already asking when we'll have tomatoes in the garden. Poor kid has quite a wait for those!

Katelyn's job is bringing the compost bowl from the kitchen to the compost pile. She does a good job and is always happy to help.

She's a pretty sassy girl. She knows her mind for sure. Of course that has to be tempered at times but I really do love her personality. She's got spunk!

And here she is rolling on the ground again! (No we haven't had snow recently...I just found the picture and it cracks me up.)

She's turned into a great little bike rider.

Aunt Shirley sent easter egg sidewalk chalk and Katelyn loves it. (Thank you!!)

Such a fun girl. I'm so excited for all of the new outside memories we have to make this year!!
The anticipation of spring is glorious!

Katelyn loves rainbows, strawberry ice cream with sprinkles, cupcakes, hearts and dirt. :)

I love this girl!!! And it's really big love.

February in a nutshell

2011-03-01T21:35:00.004-05:00

I just need to sum up February. It started out just fine. Then for two weeks our house was full of illness. And then the month ended fabulously!!

The beginning of February left us to our own antics because it was so cold. So one fun night started out with a Michael and Katelyn tinker toy creation.

Then Katelyn got crazy.

And the living room became a scene from Where the Wild Things Are. She decided it would be fun to run in circles dancing around the tinker toys while Michael and I whistled John Philips Sousa marching band music. Let me remind you...yes, we really are this cool.

Katelyn was thoroughly entertained for quite a while.

I love this girl.

Another milestone this month was a big girl bed. I know...she's three and a half. But she loved her crib. She NEVER tried to climb out of the thing so we weren't in any hurry for the big girl bed. But we finally decided that it was time for the switch. The funny thing is she still calls for us in the morning. She won't get out of the bed until we come in and get her. She's a girl who lives within her boundaries. :)

And this is what her room looks like with the new addition. See how I found a quilt that matched so I didn't have to do any other redecorating? Smart, right!!!

And then the illness came. On the same night Katelyn got the flu (fever, runny nose, coughing...miserable) and Michael got the stomach flu. Michael was down for three days and Katelyn was on the couch for a whole week. It was so sad...and her cough was just lousy. Katelyn has never had more than just the sniffles. In the last two years she's gone to the doctor for her two year old and three year old well visits....that's it. So it was hard to see this super active, healthy kid curled up on the couch for days. She lost three pounds that week (and she only weighed 37 to start off!) But she's better now and eating us out of house and home so I think all is well.

Katelyn has been starting to write letters. She was doing A, E, F, L, T. Then all of a sudden a few days ago she was at the table with her markers while Michael and I were cleaning up after dinner and she said, "Mommy, look. I wrote my name." I was expecting her to have written a few letters...but no, she really did write her name. All by herself. I'm going to frame it. :)

We went out to Red Robin the other night because I really wanted a hamburger. (Please note...I never say this. We eat red meat about once a month maybe.) Katelyn got a balloon. She held on to that thing all night and then was devastated the next morning when it was on the floor because the hellium had leaked out. She kept asking why it wouldn't fly and could I make it fly over and over.

For dinner tonight we made White Chicken Chili, cornbread and a salad. So yummy!!

And to wrap up February with a bang and kick March off with much celebration, Michael got a job as a project manager for a German company in Frankfort (20 miles from our house) that manufactures plastics for the automotive industry. (Background....Michael speaks fluent German, worked for 10 years as an automotive engineer and has been doing engineering consulting for a company that manufactures plastics for the last six months). Yep, it's that perfect. He starts on Monday.

So we had a bumpy patch but we are healthy and ready for spring to get here. We're starting to plan the garden. The seed catalogs are on hand.

Just a day....

2011-01-27T21:54:00.004-05:00

Yep it was pretty much just a day. Normal routine. Katelyn stacked some things (she loves stacking, sorting and moving things from one container to the other....fascinating really.)

She balanced her fruit square on the top of ther stack. She thought she was pretty tricky.

(If I could figure out how to keep her bangs from parting down the middle that would be great...any suggestions? No matter how much I wet her hair down in the morning and comb it all into place it always parts right back down the middle.)

Today it was cold out. Bitter cold. I had a chill all day that I just couldn't shake. My hands and feet where frigid. We went out for Mexican food tonight and when we got home and got Katelyn to bed I mad a cup of tea. The stove top was so warm I just needed to get my hands and feet toasty. It worked. I told Michael that he would have to go with me to the emergency room if I burned the bottom of my foot on the stove...I'm sure they'd throw me in the looney bin. :)

Just another day in Lexington.

MORE winter fun

2011-01-26T20:38:00.004-05:00

Michael had some great pictures that we downloaded off of his phone. He picked Katelyn up and let he play in the snow when they got home the other day. Katelyn LOVES to play in the snow. The first thing she does is throws herself down to make a snow angel. I love this picture. It's classic Katelyn.

These pictures are awesome. Watch the progression of footprints. It reminds me of a Family Circus cartoon.

Here's the sidwalk....

Here's the yard...

The snow was no longer fresh by the time she was done. Michael said she took a great nap after this adventure.

We went to Chuck E. Cheese to play on Saturday because we needed Katelyn to burn off some energy and then we stopped at Dairy Queen for Blizzards. Katelyn's favorite is vanilla ice cream with M&Ms in it.

Katelyn's got a pink bean bag in her room and she really loves her big girl reading corner.

Katelyn being silly at dinner. She ate everything. Broccoli is her favorite. There's never any left. After dinner Katelyn and I did some serious coloring in the BIG Kai-Lan coloring book.

I figured I owed everyone some more pictures after such a delay. :)

If one more person tells me to update the blog....

2011-01-25T22:13:00.005-05:00

Seriously...I'm going to start charging each of my family members for times they view the blog. I'd be rich! I should get a bonus check for all of the griping I've heard because the blog hasn't been updated in three weeks. It's winter....we haven't gone outside in two months. Our photo opportunities are limited. But here are the highlights of trying to do our best to have some fun while trudging through January....

Since you are all such big fans...you're in luck...you can follow her music career. She's quite the rock star. She'll need her faithful following in order to make it big.

Legos. We've played a lot of legos over the last few weeks. And by we, I mean Michael and Katelyn. I don't have the Lego gene...but those two would be happy to build stuff all day.

This was an exciting moment. They used all of the Legos in the tub and built it all up on the car. Katelyn thought that was fun. I think it's very Dr. Seuss-ish.

I was getting dressed for work one morning and when I came downstairs Katelyn was watching cartoons and she looked like this. I asked what she was doing and she said matter-of-factly, "Michael brought me the paper."

Aunt Shirley...this one's for you. Here she is playing with her Disney Princess paper dolls that you got her for Christmas. She really likes them!

Katelyn helped me make rice crispy treats and we brought them to church to share with our friends for snack. Any time I'm doing anything in the kitchen that involves measuring ingredients or mixing Katelyn is right there with me wanting to help. I'm learning to be patient in a whole new way. :)

Katelyn is learning how to use scissors. She loves to snip snip. She won't cut in a straight line she just wants to make little cuts all along the edges of the paper. And she wants to DO IT HERSELF. I let her have the coupons after I was done with them....You can never start them too early on couponning!

This was really funny. She was all dressed up in her church dress and she put this whistle around her head. She wore it like that all evening. She thought she was funny. Telling jokes and being silly is really important to Katelyn these days.

This is what our living room has looked like all month. A big old pile of stuff with Katelyn in the middle. Yep...I'm ready for the playing outside to start back up again.

And really...does it get any sweeter than this? I love, love, love these two...and they make the cold alright.

I'll try to be better at posting...but I do work you know!

More goofing around

2011-01-03T21:09:00.004-05:00

Saturday was a glorious day. Katelyn slept until 8:45 and then we were all in our jammies until noon. Now that's the way to ring in the new year!

I made pumpkin waffles...which were oh so very tasty and we watched the Rose Parade. Katelyn played helicopter with Michael...which is one of her favorite activities. The take off...the turbulance...the bombings...the landing. There is much belly laughing to be heard. The more Katelyn is thrown around the louder the laughter. :)

Seriously, don't you love this???

For dinner I made kielbasa and homemade sauerkraut with some potatoes and onions thrown in. It was a super yummy winter dish and I got in touch with my Polish self. :)

Katelyn likes to play school. Mommy gets to be the teacher and Michael's the lunch lady. I think that's funny.

Here's our star student. We gave her an A+ for the day.

Then we made up a Blues Clues adventure about a letter that came in the mailbox from grammy and papa that said "We love you Katelyn" and made her guess what it was all about as we drew pictures. This is our evening entertainment around here. Please note that Papa has a golf club in his hand and that's how Katelyn was able to guess who the letter was from.

A three day weekend and today was back to work...a whole five day work week this week. How will we do it?

But we booked a condo in Destin, FL for mid-May when Michael finishes school. Only 4 1/2 more months to go and then a whole week on the beach. That's what's going to get me through winter.

Family day

2010-12-31T21:37:00.002-05:00

We took advantage of the fact that I was off work today and planned a FABULOUS family day!!!

We went to Dollar Tree and Katelyn picked out three new puzzles and a jump rope. Such joy...and all for $4.

Then we went to Explorium because they were doing New Year's activities. Katelyn ran from exhibit to exhibit like her pants were on fire.

They were making new year hats in the art room. Her's says "Katelyn" in glitter. Yep, she's fancy.

Then we went out to eat. Katelyn was happy as can be because she got her OWN sandwich, bag of chips and lemonade. (Usually she just gets part of whatever we're eating.) But today was family day and Katelyn's a big girl.

After lunch we went to the library...the big one downtown. We go to our local branch all the time but she'd never been to the main branch. In honor of our big, fun day Katelyn got her very own library card and got to check out her own books. Who knew this would all happen so fast. I swear it was yesterday when she came home.

Katelyn took a big nap when we got home and since the weather was beautiful today and we haven't seen a day with no snow on the ground in literally a month, we took advantage and got the yard cleaned up...leaves all raked into the compost...old plants pulled up from the garden....patio furniture and clothesline in the garage (I know we should have done this a month ago, but winter pounced on us and we weren't ready for it to stick around.)

Today was lovely!

Tomorrow we're going to get up...sit around in our jammies...eat pumpkin waffles and watch the Rose Parade.

Happy New Year everyone! Happy New Year....

I love my life

2010-12-27T20:00:00.002-05:00

It's two days after Christmas.

I stopped on the way home and got buy one get one free pizzas at Little Caesar's pizza (I know, I know...but seriously, how can you beat $5 for two pizzas on a cold night after 6pm, on the way home from work, after the craziness of Christmas and lots of cooking?) We ate pizza and salad. We played a lovely game of Candy Land and now Michael and Katelyn are playing with her new Legos.

This little girl who is so active and busy all the time is so intent and focused...happily building little doggies, a horse, a little house.

She got the girly Legos. :)

My heart is so full and content I could just burst.

My life is not perfect, but it's awfully close.

This was the best Christmas ever.

And tonight I'm nestled in with my little family just as happy as can be....even though it's winter.

Merry Christmas!!!

2010-12-26T21:02:00.009-05:00

Merry Christmas everyone!!! I pray your Christmas has been as joyful and fun as ours has been. Grammy and Papa have been here for almost two weeks and we have loved every minute of their visit. We're sad to see them go, but so thankful they were able to come. The first day they got here was my dad's birthday. I made his favorite cake...pumpkin carrot. Yum yum. Katelyn of course had to help him blow out his candles.

Then he needed help opening his presents and Katelyn needed some practice to gear up for Christmas. She was very helpful indeed.

Katelyn sang in church the weekend before Christmas. She did great on the first song and then got mad that I wouldn't let her hold the microphone for the second song so she sat right down and wouldn't sing. Such the diva!

We all went to Southern Lights out at the horse park with our friends and Katelyn got to visit with Santa.

It was freezing but we all had fun doing something Christmassy together.

Katelyn of course loved it all. Especially the candy cane she got from Santa's elves.

We had our family Christmas dinner on Christmas eve. I made winter squash soup, pork loin stuffed with artichoke mushroom stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans,
and a mandarin/cranberry relish. Yummy! For dessert I made my grandma's apple pie and we had ice cream with it of course.

And here everyone is happily eating the pie!

We opened some of our presents on Christmas eve. Katelyn was really into it this year and we had so much fun with her. Look how long her hair has gotten!!

She got pop beads from Uncle Mike and Aunt Mimi and she loves them. Really she keeps sorting and carrying them around. Maybe some day she'll actually use them for their intended purpose.

I got Katelyn a "Mommy and Me Cookbook". I can't wait to do some more cooking with her! She helped me make grandma's apple pie. She now understands that the secret to a good pie is a great crust. Important that she understands that early. :)

Katelyn loves Michael. They are pretty cute together. Two little engineers. This picture makes my heart VERY happy. Who knew what this year would bring!

Here is the best picture ever...dad shoveling the driveway on Christmas morning. It was a white Christmas and we'll hear about him leaving 80 degree Arizona for two weeks of cold and snow and how he had to shovel it for the rest of our lives. Sigh.

Katelyn was super excited on Christmas morning and when we were all done opening presents she looked under the tree and asked, "Where did all the presents go?"

Nail polish in the stocking...yes we all have glittery finger nails now.

Grammy and papa read Katelyn stories tonight for the last time this visit. We had so much fun together. We ate great food and laughed a lot. We really enjoyed our time together and now I wish we could just jump ahead to warm weather and time at the lake!!!

December activities

2010-12-13T21:50:00.005-05:00

Well, since we're buried under snow and the high all last week never topped 25 degrees...we've been finding more inside activities to keep us occupied. Snowmen are great and all, but it's REALLY cold out there.

My wonderfully amazing husband has turned out to be quite the handyman. When he starts tearing things apart I hardly flinch anymore. I'm actually really confident in his abilities. :) Our sink had a pretty bad leak and we decided to get a whole new faucet...since the builders put in the very cheapest one possible and six years was just too long for it to function properly.

So here's the sink without a faucet....

And here's the new faucet with a handy sprayer. I love it. But Michael did figure out (after we ran the dishwasher once) that there is some air thing that needs to happen and so he drilled another hole in the sink to put another part in. He drilled a hole in the stainless steal...and I wasn't really even worried about having to replace the whole sink (well maybe the thought crossed my mind once.)

It's working perfectly. Good job honey!

Katelyn is loving her Tinker Toys (and yes, I never fixed the pig tails after her nap). Michael helped her build a monorail. She loved it.

I'm loving how content she is to play with these things!

We finally finished decorating the Christmas tree. Katelyn was so excited she just couldn't stand still. Every time I'd tell her to say cheese she would bounce.

She loved putting ornaments on the tree and everyday her favorite thing to do is come downstairs and flick on the light switch so that the tree will light up.

Grammy and papa will be here in two days!!! We are SUPER, SUPER excited to see them. Katelyn's got a list of things she wants to do with them....

family movie night with popcorn

Explorium

the mall (she just wants them to take her for a hamburger and french fries)

Tinker Toys

art

having a birthday party for papa (she really just wants the cake)

Ohhh the possibilites are endless.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

2010-12-04T21:20:00.003-05:00

Dear Grammy and Papa,

Mommy let me open one of my presents from you early beacause when we woke up this morning there was lots and lots of snow. I was REALLY excited to go outside but I didn't have any snow boots...so mommy got me one of your presents and there were these really cool pink boots in the bag. I love them and they did just the trick. So sorry you didn't get to see me open them, but here's what I look like in them. They're really warm and my feet stayed dry. Mommy liked that part.

The first thing I did when I got outside was to lay down and make a snow angel. I did a great job. Do you like my new boots?

Michael and I worked on rolling a snow ball around the yard until it got really big for our snow girl.

Here's our snow girl all finished. Isn't she tall. We worked really hard. Michael kept trying to hit mommy and I with snow balls...but we got him back.

Mommy says she doesn't like getting cold, but I think she likes playing with me in the snow.

When I got all wet and cold she made me go in and take a warm bath. Then I got to go to my friend Maggie's 4th birthday party at Explorium. It was really fun. They have a new room with a huge train set up. Will you take me to Explorium when you get here? Are you coming soon? I have a lot of books I need to read to you and new toys for us to play with. I don't always like talking on the phone, but I have lots of things that I'll talk to you about when you get here.

I love you and miss you. Thanks for my early present.

Love, Katelyn

And more snow....

2010-12-02T21:04:00.004-05:00

It snowed again today. Little miss sassy pants just HAD to go outside to play in it. Here she is catching snow flakes on her tongue.

...and making a snowball...

...and throwing a snowball at Michael....

....and building a snowman...that she named Michael. :)

Oh...and a couple more pictures from our trip up north. Here's Katelyn in bed with Aunt Ingrid's dog Jessie. She loved Jessie.

And the best picture from our trip....On the interstate up in Michigan. It was moving day for this guy...and his load really cracked us up.

More snow is coming.... Katelyn is far more excited about this than I am.

The first snow

2010-12-01T21:15:00.003-05:00

We got our first little snow this morning...and boy was it cold out today. I think winter has arrived. Katelyn was super excited.

We went out to get in the car this morning to head to school and Katelyn started running around the front yard asking if she could make snow balls and snow angels.

I have a feeling that this winter is going to be fun.

Katelyn was finally coralled and went to school...where she made glitter snow flakes with Ms. Jean.

A budding engineer

2010-12-01T21:04:00.002-05:00

Katelyn got Tinker Toys for Christmas from one of Michael's sisters this past weekend. She LOVES them. It is the perfect toy for her. She was so excited to work on putting the pieces together. She was looking at the pictures and trying to make some of the structures. I'm pretty positive her engineering abilities have already surpassed mine. Thank God for Michael....(He's in heaven by the way...This girl doesn't want princesses, she wants Tinker Toys!)

She made a tunnel for her ambulance with flags at the starting and finish lines.

"Look guys, I made it go through my tunnel."

Now how does this thing work???

Oh, I get it now.

I had a meeting at work tonight so Michael and Katelyn had some extra time together. I hear there were Tinker Toys and bugs and a great big mess.

(But it was all cleaned up by the time I got home.)

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-12-01T20:45:00.004-05:00

What a great year to celebrate Thanksgiving! We have so much to be thankful for. Michael, Katelyn and I went up to Michigan to celebrate with Michael's family and we had a great time with everyone up there. Here's the table all set and ready for us to enjoy the feast!

Here's Michael and his mom at his parent's house.

Mom and Dad Kramer! I love my new family. They have been so wonderful to Katelyn and I and have welcomed us to the family. We feel like we fit right in and now Katelyn has an Oma and Opa that spoil her ROTTEN!

Michael and his sister Ingrid. (Who let us take over her house and even gave us her room!)

It was 25 degrees the day after Thanksgiving! SO COLD. So we took Katelyn and Michael's niece, Elisabeth to Chuck E Cheese. :)

Seriously....how cute is this child?

Katelyn loved playing with Michael's niece Emily and her boyfriend John. Sweet college students who rolled around the floor with her and threw her up in the air. She was in heaven.

While we were up in Michigan we also celebrated an early Christmas while we were all together. Katelyn didn't get a single gift....yeah, right. She loves her new Dora guitar.

Here's Michael and his dad. Can you tell that they're related? :)

We had a trip full of family and friends. It was so good to catch up and be together. It was the perfect first Thanksgiving for us. I can't wait for many, many more.

I want to be in the circus

2010-11-21T22:00:00.009-05:00

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!

2010-11-20T19:14:00.004-05:00

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...

2010-11-18T19:43:00.003-05:00

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

2010-11-15T21:29:00.005-05:00

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

2010-11-07T21:20:00.005-05:00

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

2010-11-07T00:05:00.002-04:00

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

2010-11-02T08:27:00.003-04:00

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!!

Mini me

2010-10-19T21:29:00.003-04:00

I know, I've turned into one of those mothers who dresses her child like herself. This is Katelyn, aka "Mini Me" and I before church on Sunday. Aren't we cute? :)

I love this little girl more and more everyday. She is SO funny. She cracks us up.

Hiking at Raven's Run

2010-10-16T16:15:00.004-04:00

It is a gorgeous day today. The weather's in the high sixties...clear blue skies. I started working this week (and I'm loving my new job)....but I've had much less time with Michael and Katelyn and I was ready for some quality family fun time. So off we went to Raven's Run. It's a nature sanctuary here in Fayette County with ten miles of trails.

Katelyn loves a hiking adventure and she did a great job.

Oh I love this girl. She and I came hiking out here at this time last year. It's even more fun now...especially because Michael is with us.

Michael's so good with Katelyn...very patient and protective. She was happy to walk right along beside him. He didn't mind either. :)

We hiked out to an overlook of the Kentucky River. It was BEAUTIFUL!

On the hike back in Katelyn started to wind down. We brought the Ergo carrier with us just in case this happened. Michael carried her on his back. He said it was comfortable. I love this carrier. Katelyn weighs about 33 pounds and I used this carrier with her 2 1/2 years ago and she can still fit in it! Awesome purchase.

While we were hiking out she fell asleep in the carrier. So cute. What a perfect day to be outside!

The menu's a must

2010-10-06T22:41:00.004-04:00

I'm starting a new job on Monday.

The timing, the schedule...everything has fallen into place perfectly.

I'm going to be the Assistant Director of Central Baptist Church Childcare Center.

I'm very excited that I will get to continue working with children and encouraging the teachers that invest in them everyday. I think this is a great position for me that will combine both administrative functions and hands on time in the classrooms.

I'll be working from 10am-6pm which is a great schedule for us. It allows me to get Katelyn where she needs to be each day before I head to work.

I've known that I got the job for a while and was really blessed to be able to start this next Monday instead of a few weeks ago. We were able to go up to Michigan and I've been able to have the last six weeks just to first, find a job, and second to simply be at home with Michael and Katelyn which has been a blessing to me.

So on that note...since I won't be getting off work until 6pm each evening, having a plan for dinner will be super important if we are going to eat something healthy at home each night.

So I've planned the menu for the rest of this week and next:

Wednesday- Rotiserre chicken from Sam's Club (love these for $5), mashed potatoes & peas

Thursday- King Ranch Chicken Casserole & salad (using leftover chicken from Weds.)

Friday and Saturday - at the lake

Sunday - Salmon patty burgers, spaghetti squash and steamed broccoli

Monday- Chicken & wild rice soup (broth and chicken from the last of the rotiserre...I told you that $5 was worth it), fresh bread and salad (I'll make the soup and salad on Sunday and prep the bread maker in the morning)

Tuesday - Shepherd's pie & salad (cook the vegetables and ground beef Sunday or Monday night)

Wednesday - Grilled pork chops and pasta with vegetables

Thursday - Leftovers or "Breakfast for Dinner"

That will get us to the weekend and we're not sure what we're doing next weekend, so I'll do some cooking and planning for the next week with what we have on hand.

I feel better when I have a plan. I really, really hate the "So, what are we having for dinner?" phone call on the way home from work at the end of a long day...

A trip to the orchard

2010-10-05T16:45:00.005-04:00

Katelyn, Grammy, Papa and I headed off to Evan's Orchard today. It is BEAUTIFUL out...the perfect fall day. Katelyn was really excited for such a fun adventure. I've decided that Evan's is my favorite place in the area to go for this type of fall activity. They have a great play area, a huge pumpkin patch and their food is really reasonably priced.

Here's Katelyn's cutest little fall photo! Boy do I love this kid!!!

I told her if she'd stand here so I could take her picture we could go in the playground. Yeah, I'm not above bribery. There, I said it.

Oh Grammy and Papa, how we love you so...
Everyone got on Katelyn's bus. Of course she's the driver.

The slide is huge....so tall...you go so fast. I went on it once with Katelyn and then she did it a zillion times by herself. She laughed and laughed...arms waving in the air. NO FEAR AT ALL. Our little thrill seeker.

What a happy girl. Have I mentioned how much this child loves to play outside? She loves being outside like no one I've ever known. I'm embracing fall because winter with a three year old...this three year old in particular...is going to be fun. (insert sarcasm)

Chosing which way to go in the corn maze was very fun for Katelyn. It was like an episode of Dora the Explorer with her playing Dora. "Which path should we take?"

And when we were all done running, playing and exploring, Grammy and Papa had to head back to the lake but Katelyn and I sat and enjoyed a great big lemonade and a fresh apple cider doughnut. We decided that we'd wait to pick our pumpkin out until Michael could come with us. Katelyn thought that was a good idea because it means she gets to come back.

On the way home she fell asleep in the car.

A successful afternoon for sure.

Yummy recipe update

2010-10-05T16:12:00.004-04:00

Michael, Katelyn and I went to Michigan for a long weekend so this recipe is actually one we did a couple of weeks ago but it was really good. It's chicken with peanut curry yogurt sauce and naan bread. Here's the link for the curry: www.allrecipes.com/recipe/chicken-with-peanut-curry-yogurt-sauce/detail.aspx

It was really easy to make.

Then last week I was trying to clean everything out of the fridge before we left. We had lots of tomatoes from the garden and I had spinach and mushrooms to use. We had brought some bread home from the lake the weekend before and we had lots of apples from a friend's apple tree. So we had crustless spinach and mushroom quiche (I added the mushrooms because I needed to use them and I used fresh spinach. I put tomato slices on the top for the last ten minutes of baking and we thought the tomatoes made the recipe perfect.) and then I made bruschetta (I had pesto in the freezer.) It was a great dinner! And I used up veggies, cheese, bread and eggs before we left!

www.allrecipes.com/recipe/crustless-spinach-quiche/detail.aspx

I'm starting a new job next week! (More on that later.) So the menu planning will be more important than ever if we are going to eat healthy and at home...(I won't be getting off work until 6pm) So I'm working on the menu for the rest of this week and all of next week so I can get the shopping and prepping done early.

Counting my blessings

2010-09-21T14:17:00.004-04:00

My grandma always said, "Count your blessings." Not a day goes by that I don't heed that advice. Counting my blessings is as simple as opening my eyes each day and looking around me and I'm determined not to take the blessings right in front of me for granted.

My parents have come back to Kentucky for the month and so the lake house was a hub of activity this weekend. Michael, Katelyn and I plus my brother and sister-in-law and their two dogs all descended upon the folks for some time to play! We had so much fun!!!

And this little girl loves being at the lake...but more than that she just loves her family. (Isn't she getting so tall??)

I was so sad this picture turned out blurry...but just look at this happy pair. Katelyn loves hanging out with Papa. They're buddies.

...and I'm pretty sure that Papa likes hanging out with Katelyn too (you think?).

Grammy and Katelyn did puzzles and makeup. Katelyn frequently starts her sentences with "Grammy you wanna _____ with me?" Grammy always says yes. Katelyn loves her grammy!

Oh and these two....these two I love with all of me...and thinking about life a year ago and life now. Sigh...my life is rich and full and these two are the blessings I count multiple times every single day. And seeing them snuggling on the couch...I paused to count that as one very big blessing. :)

Who knew I'd end up being a big old home body?

Oh....and here's the menu for the week:

Monday - steak, baked potatoes, salad

Tuesday - chicken with peanut, curry yogurt sauce, rice, peas, homemade bread

Wednesday - winter squash soup, salad, homemade bread

Thursday - zesty chicken meatloaf, mashed sweet potatoes, green beans

Yum Yum!

An afternoon treat

2010-09-16T15:53:00.005-04:00

When I'm stressed out and overwhelmed, I cook. When I feel creative, I cook. When I'm sad, I cook. When I am full to the brim with joy, I cook. I cut out recipes from the paper. I love a new cookbook (although I have no right to ever buy a cookbook again...the cookbook cupboard is full.) I love cooking magazines and I dog ear the pages that have enticing recipes I want to try. I have multiple folders full of recipes I've riped out of magazines. When I'm wasting time online I'm looking at new recipes. I love to check out cookbooks at the library. Making things from scratch is not work, it's pure enjoyment. I love to feed family and friends. I love the smells that linger in the kitchen after something's been baking. Are you catching my drift? I spend a lot of time in the kitchen...and I don't mind that one bit.

It's a rainy day. I've had a bit of a cold for the last few days....I think I'm getting better. Katelyn's taking a nap and Michael's working on a big paper for one of his classes. And I had crystalized ginger that I wasn't quite sure what to do with....so I found this recipe:

www.allrecipes.com/recipe/spice-cookies-with-crystallized-ginger/detail.aspx

These cookies are SO good and the house smells AMAZING! They are somewhere in between a snickerdoodle and a gingersnap. Warm out of the over with a glass of milk = a slice of heaven.

I didn't have dark corn syrup so I used a 1/4 brown sugar and a whole egg instead of just the egg white and I didn't have ground cloves so I used a tsp. of allspice instead. I think rolling them in granulated sugar is enough so I didn't use powdered sugar at the end.

I'm pretty sure I got wife points for bringing warm cookies and a glass of milk upstairs to the busy paper writer. :)

Kick the ball Katelyn!

2010-09-13T21:08:00.004-04:00

I have been waiting for today for the last two years. The day when Katelyn is old enough to be part of a team, a class, a group. Well the day finally came. Pee Wee Sports at our favorite YMCA. 3-5 year olds. An introduction to kickball, soccer, t-ball and basketball. Learn some basics. Follow directions. Get some exercise. Play with some other kids. I have been talking this day up to Katelyn for weeks now. I was really pumped.

Yep, it was a total bust (at least for day one.)

Katelyn woke up from her nap in a foul mood and it just went down hill. She did not want to play, kick, follow directions or run the bases. She certainly didn't want to do any of it without me standing right next to her. Sigh. (See picture below.)

Coach Trevor is awesome with the kids. All four of them. :) They were working on kickball fundamentals today. Here they are getting in a line.

And everyone runs to first base together and puts their foot on it.

Then they all run the bases one by one. "Come on Katelyn, run!" (What you do not see is what happened two seconds after she left second base and laid down in the middle of the floor refusing to move...obstinate child.)

And really, this is what it looks like when you get the 3-5 year olds together. So funny!

For the record, after dinner tonight Katelyn and I went in the backyard. She kicked the ball to me and then ran to each of the bases, calling them by name. She heard every word Coach Trevor said...she just refused to participate. There's always Wednesday.....

Okay, is everyone happy? I posted Katelyn news and pictures...now onto this week's menu.

Yesterday I made granola bars. Instead of buying two boxes of snack food for lunches, I decided to make them. Much healthier and I had all of the ingredients on hand so I saved at least $5. They're really good and everyone loves them.....

Here's the menu:

Monday- BBQ chicken in the crock pot, baked potatoes and peas

Tuesday - pork chops with mushrooms over egg noodles and salad

Wednesday - Grammy and Papa get here!!! Lasagne with sauce made with tomatoes and basil from our garden, fresh bread and salad

Thursday - Chicken asiago sausage with peppers over linguini & salad

Friday and Saturday at the lake!!!!

Yum, yum, yum! Most of what we're having this week is stuff I already have on hand so my grocery list is just a handful of items. Awesome!