Busy Fall!

(Quite) A few photos from the last 3 or 4 months to catch up!

We visited California over Labor Day weekend and Kate made friends with a little boy at the beach who was jumping off a sculpture onto the sand. It was a pretty tall jump, and I caught her mid-air. She's a crazy one! :)

We went with my parents to the Utah State Fair...by far the best part is the kids farm area where kids can complete several farming activites and trade in their collection of goodies for a treat at the end - Kate loved it!
This photo made me laugh...at a trip to the Discovery Gateway children's museum, Kate dressed up as a cow. She looks like she's going to beat me up for taking the picture!
Back to California in October...unfortunately for my grandmother's memorial service. She passed away one day after her 89th birthday. She lived a long, wonderful, happy life and will be missed by all of us. We love you, grandma!

The cousins had fun at the beach, as usual...just hangin' around! :)
We were able to get (almost) all the cousins together for a visit...it was great to see Spencer & Parker.
Our sweet Grandpa after the memorial service...we love you too, Grandpa!
We also visited Colorado in October just before Halloween. We made ghost cake pops
and carved pumpkins! These girls have so much fun together...can't wait to see them again for the holidays.
We got a new kitten! Kate chose him from the litter and named him Frisco. He was 7 weeks old when we got him, and we've had fun having him around!
Kate chose to be a ghost for Halloween this year! I found this cute ghost costume idea online and my sweet sister helped me make it. Turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself. :)
We tried Disney on Ice...
And had a chilly trip to the zoo...check out the cutest turtle ever!
Kate's 4th birthday came on December 1. WOW! Four seems so old. :) She got to go to preschool that day and came home with this fun paper birthday crown.
She chose to go to the new Museum of Natural History to see the dinosaur bones to celebrate her special day. Then we went to Temple Square to see the pretty lights, followed by Macaroni & Cheese at Olive Garden. It was a great day!

We celebrated her birthday on Sunday with our family, and William made her another incredible cake...this year it was Rapunzel's tower! So cute...and Kate loved it.
Katers the blue-nosed reindeer...we love you so much and can't believe we were chosen to be your parents. You're such a special girl...Happy 4th birthday!

Summer!

As usual, the summer has gone too fast! Here are a few things that we've been up to...

On the 4th of July we walked in my parents' neighborhood parade. Kate helped decorate her tricycle with plenty of "stripes and bright stars flags."

Kate's cousins came to visit in July...we had lots of fun with them, swimming and playing outside and camping! Here's a photo of the girls at our campground.

Our favorite thing to do this summer was going to the water park! We don't have a photo of it, but Kate Loved the wave pool, the big tube slides, holding her breath under water, etc...She's a little fish!

In mid-August, Kate started pre-school! She's in a class of other kids who are 3, turning 4, and she loves her teacher, Ms. Shayla. I was really nervous about her going (for a number of reasons...), but she's been 4 times so far and really seems to be doing well. She's a big girl!

So excited!!

We took our annual trip to Lagoon where we had 4 adults sitting around watching one little one ride rides to her heart's content. :)

Our only vacation this summer was to Chicago to meet William's family. It's such a fun city! We really enjoy taking the public transportation and walking where we need to go. The waterfront is beautiful, the skyline is awesome, and we got to go to Wrigley Field for a Cubs game on William's birthday!

We haven't seen Kate's cousin Connor since he was 1 month old...now he's 8 months, and so cute! We were pleased to see that Kate treated him so well and actually enjoyed his company. :)

We spent a lot of time at various museums...at least they all have fun hands-on activities for kids. This was at the museum of science and industry...probably our favorite.

And the Cubs game...we deliberately covered up the final score against the Cardinals...we were at the only game the Cubs lost during their 4 game series...

They have these cool self-serve racks where you can rent bikes for a length of time and return them in another location. Don't worry, we didn't really rent them and carry Kate in the basket...

Chicago!

We celebrated William's birthday when we got home...Kate helped me make chocolate cupcakes...

Happy Birthday, Will! And please do notice his hair...it's a bit out of control after the water park. :) All in all, it's been a fun summer!

Springtime Fun

Here are a few photos of what we've been up to this Spring:

Kate took a dance class! She actually didn't love it as much as we thought she would...she'd get really bored and have a hard time following all the instructions -- it was much more fun to run around and play! We never actually finished a class all the way because she kept reaching her warning limit...But she sure looked cute! :)
In early May we had some family photos taken so we could update our adoption profile...plus it's been a while since we had any taken! This was one of our favorites...but we actually got quite a few good shots! After rescheduling 3 times due to weather, we finally got a gorgeous afternoon.
Kate and I took a trip to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point...I had never seen the gardens, let alone the thousands of gorgeous tulips! It was beautiful! On our way in to the festival, we ran into my friend Brooke and her family, and they were kind enough to let us tag along with them. It was a fun day...I think we'll go again next year!
And then, after a year-long delay, U2 was finally here! We had general admission tickets and I was a little bit worried about where we'd end up...but we managed to get in to the inner circle between the stage and the catwalk. It was awesome!! The Fray was the opening act and we really enjoyed their performance...but the U2 concert was fantastic. We were so close! They had these bridges that would rotate around from the stage...here's a photo of Bono crossing over:
It's hard to believe how long they've been around...but their concerts still rock and their music is still great and they always promote such a great message of peace and love...it's fun to be a part of it all! Here's a cool shot of The Edge and Adam jamming together:
Kate always wants to fly a kite, so on Memorial Day we tried out our new bird Kite. After Will and I tried a few times unsuccessfully to get it in the air, Kate took a turn and got it right up there! She was really excited.
Kate had her first real dentist appointment in June and did so great! She wasn't nervous, let the hygienist and the dentist do their work, and had a perfectly healthy mouth. I'm pretty sure that she's getting too big now...she can slow down a bit. :)
We went to Hogle Zoo to check out the new dinosaur exhibit...very cool, by the way! Kate was more interested in the dinosaurs (and the playground) than she was in the animals this time. We had fun...and hope to do lots more fun stuff this summer!

CA & Cousins

In March we were able to travel to California to visit family, and also to meet up with Kate's cousins from Colorado! We had a fun time, despite all the rain, and really enjoyed our visit. The first 2 days it rained constantly, and the little girls got bored inside...so we went out on the back patio to blow bubbles! Don't you just love Kate's outfit?

The third day we got some sunshine! We headed to the beach to play paddle tennis and dig in the sand. It was perfect!
Although the water was very cold, Kate still managed to get herself completely soaked...running away from waves is just too much fun. :)
The next day we tried Knott's Berry farm...the kids had fun at Camp Snoopy and rode all the rides. We didn't get very many 'grown-up' rides in before the rain came...we thought we'd wait it out, but after a while we were soaked! It was still a fun day!
Kate and her cousins really enjoyed the rides...this one went up high, then did little freefalls...Kate was laughing so hard - definitely one her favorites.
On our way home we stayed a night in Las Vegas...the girls were awed by all the lights and the water show at the Bellagio. We were awed by the Bellagio buffet...
Back in Utah, Kate's cousins were able to stay and play for another week! So we had fun hanging out every day and did all sorts of activities...Grandpa took us all to the zoo!
Swimming was a favorite...and this photo in the locker room afterward turned out really cute!
The girls had a great time in the big jetted bubble bath and made some nice Santa Claus beards!
We had such a wonderful time visiting with everyone...we miss you already!

Happy Holidays!

As usual, the month of December flew by! We had a lot of fun celebrating the holidays, beginning with Kate's 3rd birthday on December 1st! It's amazing to think that 3 years have passed since she joined our family - she's growing into such a loving, intelligent, happy little girl!

Who doesn't love a bunch of balloons?

Daddy decorated her birthday cakes to look like the characters from Team UmiZoomi, Kate's favorite cartoon. So here we have our Geo cake & our Milli cake...Kate was thrilled with them! Good work, Will! (I can't seem to get this photo rotated...sorry to crane your necks...)

Happy Birthday Beautiful Kate!

We tried ice skating as a family one Saturday...Kate did pretty well for her first time! They have these little "walkers" to help kids balance, and as long as we were holding on too, she did fine. It was cute to see the tiny ice skates on her feet!

What December would be complete without a trip to see Christmas lights? Unfortunately Kate wasn't feeling great the evening we went, so she just chilled in the stroller. But she did take this photo of us...she loves taking pictures, and as you can see, she does a pretty good job!

Kate loves to draw & paint, but always manages to get her pen, markers, paints, etc. taken away because she also loves to color on herself. :) Here we have a black watercolor paint moustache:

And purple dry erase marker war paint!

We traveled to Missouri for Christmas this year, leaving SLC on the morning of the 24th. Santa was extra smart this year and knew to leave her presents a day early so she could open them before we left for the airport. She seemed to have fun...we still had to point out the presents under the tree...she walked right by them. :) And any time anyone asked her what she got for Christmas, her answer was candy in her stocking...must have been her favorite part!

We were extra excited to visit Missouri this time because William's sister delivered her first baby...on Kate's birthday! So Connor Patrick was only 3 weeks old when we met him - he's Kate's first cousin on Will's side of the family. Kate did fairly well - only getting jealous that Mommy was holding him a few times...

Here's a better view of him...isn't he a cutie?

We celebrated New Year's at 11pm Missouri time and Kate was wired! She loved the blow horns and tiaras, but looked at all of us adults like we were crazy. :) Of course she didn't settle down easily after the celebration, so although we tried to put her to bed, she ended up joining us for the actual New Year at midnight too...oh well! Once a year, right?

We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and that the new year is off to a great start!