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.