California & Disneyland!

We had a really nice vacation to California! We went with Kate's cousins & grandparents and had a fun time all together. We drove, and the kids did surprisingly well...but I think we'll try to fly in the future. :) We got to spend time with my dad's family, playing at the beach & park. We played paddle tennis at the beach (hooray!) and, although the ocean was freezing, Kate couldn't get enough of the water! Here's a cute photo of her digging in the sand:

We spent a lot of time at my grandparents' house in the hills, and they have several lizards running around -- all 3 little girls took quite a liking to them! We'd catch them with a noose so the girls could hold on to them with a leash. Here's Kate with her new little friend:

But the highlight of the trip was our time at Disneyland and California Adventure! My parents treated us all to a second day at the parks, as well as hotels & meals at the park -- Thank you so much, Mom & Dad! Kate & her cousins had a really great time together on the rides and meeting the characters:

And, at the end of the day, with her new Minnie Mouse souvenir doll, after the 'beautiful' fireworks (Kate's word), Kate fell asleep in her stroller - so sweet!

Super Singer

Kate LOVES to sing! She has a really good memory for the words and the tunes...she always surprises us with a new song that we didn't know she knew. :)

We filmed her singing a couple of her favorites last night - first, I am a Child of God:

Next, The Star Spangled Banner:

We think it's pretty great singing - especially for a 26-month-old!! By the way, William would like to point out that the national anthem video is on youtube...he's curious to see how many hits it gets!

December!

We had a wonderful, merry Christmas! It's such a fun time of year. We enjoyed viewing the lights at Temple Square and attended the Zoo Lights display for the first time...thank goodness for yummy hot chocolate to keep us warm!

Our Christmas day was wonderful - Kate had such a fun time opening her own presents and leaving milk & cookies for Santa. We spent the morning at home and the afternoon & evening with Jamie's family...we were all very well taken care of and received some wonderful gifts.

William had the opportunity to stay home from work the last two weeks of the year...it's the first time ever we have all been home together for so long! We all enjoyed the time and spent the days doing fun winter activities...like sledding! Here is Kate all decked out in her snow gear...she loved her first time sledding!! Well, until her glove came off and her hand got cold...then she was ready to go. But she certainly wasn't afraid to ride down the big hills!

We hope everyone had a nice holiday season and that you were able to spend time with those you love. Here's one more photo of our little sweetie...we love her so much!

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!