happy birthday baby kate!

Today my baby is 1. What the what?! I asked Nate last night if he could believe Kate was already a year old and he said, "Yes," very sleepily and matter-of-factly. But I can't believe it. It feels like she's always been part of the family, and yet I can remember bringing her home from the hospital like it was yesterday. Strange how that works. Here are some things about Kate:

She is awesome.

She loves to run and be chased.

She has the widest, most beautiful smile.

She signs please, more, all done, and waves hi and bye.

She loves to clap and dance.

She loves to pull clothes over her head so she looks pretty.

She always has pretty beads around her neck.

She has the prettiest big blue eyes in the family. (Also, the only blue eyes in the family.)

She doesn't say much, but she does say "mama" when she wants me, which is often.

She has eight teeth and almost a full head of hair.

She likes to take a bath, but she does not like getting ready for bed afterward.

She loves her brother, but she also plays very well on her own.

She knows where her hands and ears are. I haven't asked her about other parts.

She loves her dad and wants to go to him as soon as he gets home.

She is starting to mimic sounds in a hilarious way.

She gives snuggles and kisses on demand.

She has lost some of her stranger danger-ness. She now loves her granny, aunts, and cousins.

She loves frozen peas and green beans from the garden. Those are probably her favorites.

She also loves noodles, spaghetti sauce, bread of any kind, bananas, pomegranates, grapes, yogurt, and potato soup.

She wants a bite of whatever you are eating, and if you don't give it to her she will be displeased.

She is a joy.

Kate on her original birthday.

Kate one year later with her Granny, wearing a dress that her Granny made for her.

Kate in her new pajamas (which are probably the cutest things I have ever seen in my life).

the past few weeks

These pictures are all kind of random until you get to Thanksgiving. I haven't taken a lot over the last 3 weeks or so, sorry.

This is Colin taking Mickey Mouse down the elevator. The elevator is the space between the crib and the dresser, or occasionally the space behind the door.

Cheese!

Kate's hair was super crazy one day. I spent like 10 minutes trying to get a good picture of it, but she kept running away and turning her head.

Nate took the car in to get the interior fixed a few weeks ago so the kids and I had to drop him off at work like 3 times. To make it more fun for us I stopped and bought Krispy Kreme doughnuts one morning. Colin came home and got right to making some doughnuts in his Doughnut Hat.

Awww. Hugs.

Everyone loves to brush their teeth! Also, Kate, you're doing it wrong.

The kids thought it would be fun to take turns looking up every time I tried to take a picture. Grrr.

Kate giving some love to my old bear from when I was a baby. His name is Bubba.

Colin was jealous that I was taking pictures of his sister so he told me to take some of him. These are the faces he made.

Colin's imagination cracks me up. He filled the back of his truck up with clothes and told me that he needed to put gas in before he could drive the truck. The clothes slowly fell out and then he would have to fill up the tank again.

Kate is a climber. She can get up in the play chairs and turn herself around. She is so proud of herself when she does that. She recently discovered that the chairs are also nice for looking out the window.

For Thanksgiving we went to my brother Grant's house this year. We ate later in the afternoon so my kids could take a nap, but they didn't cooperate so well with that. I was in charge of desserts, and thanks to my friend Marie, I didn't have to work very hard. It was awesome.

Kelli is very good at making things look nice. The tables were beautiful.

Kate was the happiest when she was on Nate's shoulders.

Yes, this is my brother Grant. Not my uncle, my brother. He's wearing a sweater he got in Afghanistan, his Marine glasses, and he shaved his head just for the occasion. It's okay, you can say "yikes." Goodness knows I did. He says he is going to do this every year.

Kate didn't take much of a nap that day, so she was pretty sleepy. And cranky. And her eyes were crazy and red.

Everyone who was there to eat: Grant, Kelli, Mom, Colin, Nate, Kate, Heather, Seth, Kenny, and Teresa. Kenny and Teresa are the strays. Their parents live in Kentucky, so we were kind enough to take them in.

We played some games. I beat Grant at Smarty Pants and did a superior dance in celebration. We also played Bang, but I lost so I don't want to talk about it.

Heather likes to read and not be fun. Just kidding, Heather.

cookie monster on snl

I would love to see this really happen!

i should probably update my blog

but I won't. Not tonight anyway.

christmas cards!

Huzzah!

family pictures, etc

On Tuesday I made a brief attempt to take some pictures of myself and the kids using the timer on the camera. Not too shabby?

Now that the yard is fenced in, I'll let Colin go outside and play in the dirt while I make dinner. He has a great time and I can see him out the window and keep him out of most mischief. Win win. And then there was Thursday. Colin found some muddy water and played in it. Here is the end result.

He had pulled a weed (which is fine), dunked it in the muddy water (still okay), and then shook it furiously, soaking every square inch of himself in the process. It really wasn't that bad. He just didn't want to take a bath when I made him come inside.

On Friday I took the kids to the mall to look for some clothes for Nate. The Provo Towne Center finally has a little kid play area, and Colin and Kate loved it. They were so excited to find something to climb on where I didn't tell them no! There was a super chubby little girl with a big bow sitting on the floor, and Kate kept walking over to her to touch the bow. She eventually pulled it out.

Friday evening Nate and I walked the kids down to the church to play in the field of leaves. I had taken Colin on Wednesday after our Book Club, and he loved throwing the leaves in the air. Actually, he laughed so hard he threw up and we had to go home. Friday's outing was a little more sedate (since I didn't want to clean up more puke), but it was still fun.

Colin was shouting, "Dad! Come down here! Get out of that tree!"

Kate preferred to snack on the leaves.

Saturday morning we got up and drove to Provo to take some family pictures. Caleb was kind enough to be our photographer (even though he didn't have his own fancy camera to use and had to make due with ours). The kids were mildly cooperative and we got some cute ones out of the ninety-something that Caleb took. Colin fell down and smacked his face on the road as soon as we got there, so he has a huge lip and scraped chin in every picture. Poor guy! Here's a preview of our family pictures. These are the only ones I've edited so far because they are the ones that don't need heads swapped out and what-have-you.

Awww. I love my kids.

Can you believe Kate's beautiful eyes?!

Colin had had enough by this point.

And Kate had had enough by this point.

Thanks again, Caleb! You did such a great job!

Nate and I dropped the kids off after pictures and headed to the BYU game. My mom got some free tickets from her friend Doug, so we had an afternoon out. The seats were up pretty high, but they had an awesome view of the field. (Unfortunately, these seats didn't come with free food. Boo. I'm getting too spoiled for my own good.)

Here's an awesome view of Nate's happy face.

A kick-off. Not a bad shot for our dinky camera.

If you look closely you can see number 10 scoring a touchdown.

Nate and I left at halftime, since the Cougars were up 38-0. The final score was 55-7 since UNLV scored in the last minute of the game. We used our extra time to eat lunch and stop by a furniture store that is going out of business. Nate has nothing to add.