Happy Birthday!

Wow...our sweet little Kate is TWO years old! Happy Birthday, Baby! She is at such a fun age right now...she loves to SING! Some of her favorite songs include Twinkle, Twinkle, Jingle Bells, Take Me Out to the Ball Game, and The Star Spangled Banner. :) She's so funny...she makes everyone laugh. In church, I've had to take her out of the meeting for laughing too loud! She gives the best hugs and kisses...we love her so much and can't imagine our lives without her!

In November we traveled to Missouri to visit William's family for Thanksgiving...Kate completed her 8th round-trip flight just 3 days before her 2nd birthday (now we have to start buying her a ticket!!). We had a really nice time visiting with family, eating good food, celebrating Thanksgiving and also Christmas & birthdays...Kate had a great time and, naturally, was the center of attention for the entire week. She loved it, and I know Will's family loved having her there (and maybe us, too). :)
We hope everyone is having a happy holiday season!

Halloween!

Kate dressed as a Tulip Fairy this year for Halloween - fairies sure seemed to be a popular theme this year! She looked adorable, though, and won the prize for the best girl's costume at our church Halloween party!

We went trick-or-treating at Grandma, Grandpa & Daddy's offices and she got plenty of candy...she even took a bunch out of her own basket and put it in her cousins' baskets. :) Halloween night she dressed in costume and got so excited to open the door for trick-or-treaters!

One funny side note...Kate is completely frightened of jack-o-lanterns, even the pictures of them my parents had hanging in their front windows! Poor thing...they make her cry every time. And she continues to tell stories about how 'punkins scare me' and 'dark' or 'crying.' It's so sad, but we can't help but laugh!

Fall-Fall-Fall

We've been having a nice autumn. :) In September we went to Lagoon with Kate - she could ride many of the kids rides this time, so she had a lot of fun!

We went to the zoo to see the new baby elephant - she is so cute!! It's a good time for babies there - baby giraffe, baby snow leopard & 3 baby tigers.

I celebrated my birthday with a nice date night (Lugano is my new favorite restaurant!). We went to Snowbird for Oktoberfest and gorgeous mountain scenery.

We also took one last summer trip...we had a fun weekend playing at Quail Creek in St. George.

In October we've gone to the Scarecrow Festival at Thanksgiving Point - the kids all had so much fun! They rode ponies and went on a wagon ride, jumped in the bouncy houses and played all the games. Poor Kate thinks she's bigger than she is and always manages to get hurt trying to do something all by herself...she's definitely showing her independence these days!

My mom then treated me and my sister to a fun girls weekend in Park City - Thanks Mom! And that brings us up to date. :) Sorry for such a boring 'catch-up' post!

Cali

We had a fun vacation to California in August...Kate is old enough now to LOVE the beach! She wasn't afraid of the waves at all and she had lots of fun in the sand.

We also tried Disneyland!! We went on William's birthday, so he was free, and Kate's still free...so we thought, why not? We were there all day, Kate rode on 10 rides and was only just a little spooked with the first drop on Pirates. She loved It's A Small World and, of course, the carousel.

Kate attended her 3rd major league baseball game - Cubs vs. Dodgers (William actually planned the trip based on the fact that Cubs would be in LA over his birthday!). We had a really good time.

At the end of August we had our first family camping trip! We camped with my family at Tanners Flat...Kate and her cousins had a blast playing in the dirt, getting too close to the fire, and drinking hot chocolate. We're planning to make it an annual tradition!

Summer!

It's been a while since we last wrote! We've been having a great summer so far...

The first exciting thing was that my last day of work was May 29! Kate & I have been having fun playing together and adjusting to life as a full time mom.

Kate turned 18 months old on June 1...she's getting so big so fast! She had her first haircut, including bangs! She is so smart and verbal and humorous...we are so blessed to be her parents!

In mid-June, William surprised me with our 7-year anniversary gift...a trip to Maui! It was awesome -- he had the entire thing planned including child care and packing my suitcase. I didn't discover our destination until we were at the airport in Los Angeles! We had a great, relaxing, exciting trip...but we missed Kate terribly!

Otherwise, we've just been enjoying the summer weather with trips to the park, pool, zoo, baseball and soccer games, BBQs, picnics, etc...we've all been having a good time!

Ketta's Wedding!

We flew to Missouri for Aunt Ketta's wedding on May 9...we had such a fun time!  It was a very busy trip with all the wedding festivities and we enjoyed being there and participating!  We were all a part of the wedding...William was a Groomsman, Kate was the miniature bride!, and I was the miniature bride & groom escort. :)  The mini groom was Ketta's new nephew, Luke...I'll have to post a few more photos later when we get them.  But doesn't Kate look adorable?  We practiced walking down the aisle at the rehearsal dinner and she did great...then at 2pm on Saturday, after no nap in the morning, she was supposed to walk down the aisle for real...and kind of had a meltdown. :)  So I carried her down the aisle while holding Luke's hand.  Oh well!
Then another fun story...the other morning I went in to get Kate from her crib and found her standing in her laundry basket!  She had flipped over the edge of the crib into the basket, turned herself around and stood up!  She wasn't crying or anything!  Needless to say, we lowered her crib that afternoon. :)

One final fun piece of news...this is my last week at work!  I gave my notice and am so excited to stay home full time with Kate starting the 1st of June (Kate's 18 month birthday, by the way!)!!  It was a tough decision and we weighed all the benefits...but it all boiled down to Kate being the most important thing!!  

Happy Easter!

Here are a few photos of Kate in her pretty Easter dress!  She wasn't terribly interested in finding the eggs and putting them in her basket, but she sure liked to shake them once she found them!  Thanks to Grandma & Grandpa G. for organizing the hunt, and Grandma & Grandpa M. for the dress!

Beautiful Baby

I took a few photos of Kate the other day and thought she looked awfully cute. :)  She amazes us everyday with things she says and does.  She's walking everywhere now and has 6 whole teeth!  She's our little sweetie!

  

She's Growing Up!

Kate had a big month...her first teeth and her first steps!! Two big milestones, all within a few days of each other. It's been a couple of weeks now, and her top tooth is almost completely in. She's also walking quite a bit - she tries it on her own, anyway, without us holding our arms out for her. She's getting so big!
Here are a couple of cute photos of her from this last month...the first is her having fun playing in the water at the children's museum (obviously before her teeth came!). And the second is the result of a fun and messy macaroni and cheese lunch at Grandma's house.

California

January was a long month, as usual...but we did have one fun event!  We flew to Los Angeles with Jamie's family (12 of us from Salt Lake!) to celebrate her grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary.  We had a nice time visiting and enjoying the mild CA weather.  We celebrated with Sunday brunch al fresco at the Cheesecake Factory right on Marina del Rey...aah, the life. :)  

We also got to play at the park, play paddle tennis and even play in the sand.  It was a good trip! 

Merry Christmas!

As usual, December was a busy month that passed way too quickly. We did manage to go see the Christmas lights at Temple Square...Kate was all bundled up and seemed to enjoy it!
This year we traveled to Missouri for the Christmas and New Year holidays.  Kate warmed up right away and was the continual center of attention (big surprise!).  She took upon herself the role of entertainer and was happy to go through all of her 'faces' and laugh at herself regularly. :)  We all had a nice time and maybe ate a few too many cookies...

Here's a photo of Kate in her pretty Christmas dress and one of her opening gifts.  We hope you all had a happy holiday season too!