Somebody's One!

This little miss had a birthday last week!

We had a little luncheon on her actual birthday with some friends from town to celebrate. We played "Pass the Cow" (basically "Hot Potato" but with a cow, because Kate likes cows, or at least the sound they make) and read The Birthday Box by Leslie Patricelli. We ate pigs-in-blankets, clementines, cheese cubes, and popcorn (the former two because they're small and the latter two because they are some of Kate's very favorite foods) and, of course, had cupcakes. Yum!

Then over the weekend, we had a little joint party with some family for Kate and her cousin who was turning two. I made Kate a block cake like I did for Maggie's first birthday. Kate liked it. We read The Birthday Box again. It is about a baby boy who gets a stuffed animal for a present, but thinks the real gift is the box the animal came in. I have decided we need to write a book about Kate called The Birthday Bag, because I think she had as much fun with her gift bags as she did with her gifts. She must get it from her sister, who was known to tote a small gift bag as her pocket-book for several months before it finally broke one day in Walmart.


We feel so lucky to have our sweet little Kate in our lives. Her ready, crinkly-nosed smile makes every day better. She has such a fun and fun-loving personality, she is always making me laugh. I love the little way she has of reaching for you to pick her up, giving a good hard snuggle, cuddling up for a moment and then turning herself around so she can see the world or be on her way. She has made a lot of friends this way. I love how active, independent and adventurous she is, except when she won't sit in her high chair, eat what I am offering her or lay down to go to sleep. She just loves to be moving and exploring and playing :). She toddles so fast on her little bowed legs. I love her easy-going nature, especially in her interchanges with her older sister :). I love watching her learn new things and grow and change. She is getting so smart. She gets excited every time we mention an animal she knows and will start making their sound. She is extremely observant and knows what lots of everyday objects are for and will pick up on what Maggie, Mike and I are doing. She is getting very good with her utensils, scribbling, combing her hair, and brushing her teeth. And she is already starting to take over Maggie's job of helping me with the laundry. Recently, she noticed Maggie was taking laundry from a pile and putting it in the washer for me, so she picked up some and brought it to the washer too.

Kate favorite foods are lasagna, popcorn, goldfish, and rice. She loves baths. She used to go crawling towards the bathroom at full-speed whenever she heard us start the water in the tub, no matter where she was in the house. One time she did it when I was starting the washer, because she got mixed up. :) She loves hugging babies, real and fake. For her birthday, we gave her her own baby doll and doll stroller, so that she and Maggie could use theirs together (Maggie wasn't too keen on sharing her baby or stroller, but she is enjoying borrowing Kate's now). Another thing Kate loves to do is sing. It started because Maggie loves to sing like Princess Ariel, "Ah-ah-aaah, ah-ah-aaah..." Kate would join in with her own "ah." Now she joins in with her "aaah" whenever she hears a song she likes and even "sings" on command. She is also quite the phone talker and loves to get ahold of the phone, press buttons, and babble.

Kate is just such a sweet girl and I'm so lucky to be her mom. Where is the time going? (Probably into laundry and cooking and cleaning and diaper changes and spoon-feeding and nursing...along with a whole lot of fun.)

I just love my Kate.

Fall Festivities

Well, as autumn quickly draws to a close and we jump into the Christmas season, I feel a need to unload some pictures of our fall. We had a fun one filled with lots of walks, picnics at the park, and playtime. We saw our newest niece, Ivy, blessed and another one, Emma, baptized. We spent a lovely Conference weekend at the girls' grandparents. And we did plenty of autumntime activities. Besides the pumpkin-carving and half-marathon mentioned in previous posts, we had fun making cupcakes and sugar cookies (basically we like to eat Halloween sprinkles any way we can), visiting a corn maze with the youth in our ward (both Mike and I are in the Young Men's/Women's right now...yes, we are just that cool) and meeting our cousins at a nearby farmstead. I also made a brave trip to the pumpkin patch alone with the girls, which was fun, until we had to leave and Maggie got sad in the middle of all the pumpkins and wanted to be carried back to the car and I was already toting Kate. (She had this splinter in her finger from the hayride, which was actually easy to get out once I understood what was bothering her. She likes to reminisce, "I hurt my finger on the hayride. But I feel better now.")

We celebrated Halloween at the library and at a church party. Maggie was a Chiefs' cheerleader and Kate was a fairy. We dressed up for our library party as well as for one at the church. We had a lot of excitement and anticipation built up about Maggie finally using her cheerleader outfit as we got it from Maggie's uncle and cousin when we first moved here. (Thanks Shawn and Emma!)

Mike and I finally had our awesomely fun bike date--we saw Paola's historical mission site and got hot chocolate. I had been looking forward to a bike date for about five-and-a-half months, give or take a day, so I'm glad it did not disappoint. Other items I felt worthy of photo-documentation this fall were my first attempt at soft pretzels (they were fairly easy and SO good...just like at the mall, but way cheaper) and my semi-annual hair straightening (it took a long time).

And last, but definitely not least, we celebrated Thanksgiving with my in-laws. It was so good to see Kevin and Jenn, who came up from Wichita, and Tina and Jason, who came in from Ohio. But the stars this holiday were Mike's brother Scot and his fiancée Tara, whom we were all excited to meet, as they flew in from Utah for the occasion. She was as sweet and beautiful as we expected and little girls could not get enough of her. She rarely had a free lap. Highlights of the holiday included the delicious feast (of course), two-on-two football--Tara and Scot had a good streak going (Mike and I got beat pretty badly and they went on to beat Kevin and Jenn...I guess we need to make time for some serious practice :) ), lots of dancing (yes, Greg and Steve again, see previous posts), playdough, stickers, and playtime with the kids, and a visit to Independence to see some beautiful bronze sculptures of Christ at the church visitors' center and give Tara a taste of church history in the area. And, of course, we had to have a bridal shower for the bride-to-be. We gave Tara some Pampered Chef odds-and-ends (we wrapped pictures and had the real goods shipped out, so she did not have to try to get them on the plane) and a recipe binder (already stocked with some Gotfredson family favorites). I made Tara a ruffled apron, so she could feel fancy when she is homemaking. I threatened to make her pose for a picture in her new apron, but in the end did not make her. I figured we had already put her on the spot enough. So you do not get a picture of that.

Without further ado, here are some pictures:

Picnic, Park Time, General Conference Bingo and a look at the Kansas City LDS temple site

Corn Maze, Farmstead, and Pumpkin Patch (the infamous hayride)

Cookie-making, Bike-riding, Soft Pretzels, and Straight Hair

Halloween!! (Maggie had a twin at the library)

Thanksgiving: Tara with the kids, playdough, Maggie and Abigail walking into the sunset, cousins in a covered wagon at the visitors' center, the happy couple holding Kate, and our bridal shower