Baby B Week 17

Party Time Excellent!

Another year gone by and another national holiday celebrated! Katy had a great birthday. It was on Thursday this year.

She has an account at America First Credit Union, they mailed her a post card wishing her a happy birthday and giving her a free kids meal from Chick-fil-a. We told her we could go there for her birthday. So that is what we did. We opened presents earlier of course. She was so happy it was her birthday. She kept saying things all day like "I love you mom" or "this is the best birthday ever!!!" She knows how to make you feel good!

A few months leading up to her birthday we kept asking her what she wanted to ask for. She would name things but then add that she wanted them for Christmas. We had to remind her several times that she gets presents for her birthday too!

She really wanted a friend party, but I am going to try to hold off until she is 5. I may have to do one next year, we'll see. We opted for a little family party with grandparents and such instead. I told her we could have a rainbow party. She was excited about that idea.

Katy helped me make a wedding cake...I mean a birthday cake! Ha, this thing was huge! She just kept saying, that is a humongous cake mom! I had her help me frost the layers. We put chocolate frosting in the middle. I didn't notice but we didn't get them all on quite straight and the cake was a little crooked. *Note to self, make sure they are straight next time. I think that will make it much easier to frost the outside!* I couldn't find a cake stand I liked that wasn't a fortune so I opted to make this one out of a Michaels 40% coupon candle holder and a DI dollar plate. The plate was already blue so I only spray painted the bottom. Technically you can't actually place food on it if you spray paint the surface. I worked out nice I can still use the plate with no problems.

It was pretty delicious! We were all laughing when we cut the cake we had to cut the slices in half so everyone only had 3 layers...otherwise we'd not have been able to finish the piece!

No national holiday celebration would be complete without decorations. Katy is still a bit leery when it comes to balloons (I'm trying folks!), but she was ok with these ones for the most part. I was blowing them up the night before her birthday. I had to make Chuck go into the basement he was having a break down trying to eat all of them. Colt was at work with Steve, but I can imagine he would not have been that annoying!

Katy thought it was cool when she woke up, she said the Birthday Monsters (a Sandra Boynton book) had come to decorate! It was pretty cute...even thought it took me a gaul darn hour to put them all up :) I figured I could share the credit with the monsters, seeing that they did a fabulous job!

More colors!

Her new "cheese face" is so funny to me. I tell you what I have never told her to say cheese, but for some reason kids pick up on that stuff. She is hilarious!

She thought blowing out her candles was pretty awesome. She almost got them all by herself!

One happy birthday girl. Thank you so much for mom, Katie, Roger, Joanne, RaNae and Ken for coming over to celebrate with us! We had a blast with you!

Happy Birthday Katy, you are wonderful!

Katy Remix 3rd Edition

I can't believe I'm actually posting on how my sweet newborn baby bundle has turned into one sassy 3 year old!

Little Miss 3 Year Old! I just LOVE her crazy hair. I opted not to fight about doing it and just go with it! Let's be honest I still don't know how to do girls hair still and Katy has the most beautiful hair around!

I guess they don't pop out as 3 year olds (thank goodness, I don't think any amount of my "old lady strength" could pop out a 3 year old), and changing from a 2 year old to a 3 year old doesn't happen over night. Everyone said that Katy's 2nd year would fall into the "terrible two's" category, and we've had our moments of drama...but I think the transition was pretty smooth. (Let me reiterate the point of "we've had our moments of drama", because we have!)

I've learned a few things as the owner of a 3 year old:

• I've learned that potty training is not all it's cracked up to be, and that no amount of coaxing or bribing or talking about it will help you get there any faster. They will do it when they are ready. Katy is more stubborn than I give her credit for!
• I've learned that I am still totally a pushover when it comes to disciplining, and that her "going to sleep problem" was probably partially caused by me hoping into her bed to lay with her at her cute little requests! Thank goodness Steve is around here!
• I've learned that Katy is a SPONGE when it comes to information. She always asks me to clarify when I use a word she doesn't know the meaning of. The other day she asked me what ".com" means, what?!? Ha, can't wait to see what she comes up with this next year!
• I've learned that even though Katy totally knows how to push my buttons, I love her more than imaginable! I'm going to soak up these years, who knows what her teenage years will bring (ahhh!)! In the words of Olivia's mom..."Katy you really wear me out, but I love you anyway!"
• I've learned that Katy is going to be the best sister in the world. She is always talking about how she is going to share everything with the new baby (mind you, she is an only child and doesn't know the meaning of share!). She tells me that she is going to make the new baby so happy, but that she is not going to help change the poopy diapers! Oh man!
• I've learned that Katy is just how I always imagined my kids would be....AWESOME! :)

Katy we love you more than words, and can't wait to see what this next year brings. Happy National Holiday!

Let's see how this past year went down:

November 2010. Popping balloons on her birthday.

December 2010. Getting her first hair cut with aunt Katie.

January 2011. Making suckers with aunt Britney. What a funny smile!

February 2011. Taking our Valentines Day pictures.

March 2011. Learning how to ride a bike.

April 2011. Taking pictures in the daffodils.

May 2011. Playing in the ocean for the first time. She LOVED the beach!

Photo taken by Tara Whitney

June 2011. Playing in the pool with Brynn up at Snowbird.

July 2011. Getting her face painted by Jenny at the Beardshall family reunion. So serious.

August 2011. Playing up in Park City.

September 2011. Gettin' dirty in Moab.

October 2011. Gettin' crafty with mom for Halloween.

November 2011. Livin' it up as only a party girl can!

Here's to working on your 4th year!

Check out our last remixes here and here.

Baby B Week 16

I realize that I am about a week behind, but here is week 16 anyway!

Baby B Week 15

Baby B.

For all intensive purposes we are going to go ahead and go with the 15 weeks per the first ultra sound. I was originally due on the 23rd of April (which would put me at about 16 and a half weeks) but with the first US it put me at May 4th as my due date. Seriously? Don't tell a pregnant woman that she is going to have to wait longer to meet her baby! We have our next US the first week in December...and although I am excited to see what we are having, I'm more excited to see if they change me due date again (come on April 23rd)!

Week 15

This week I finally am feeling that I am getting "back to normal" somewhat. I have been so super sick with this baby. Throwing up has been welcomed because it actually makes me feel better for an hour or so. Steve has been such a GREAT sport. I feel like I've been much more ornery this go around (Katy must have been an angel baby because I felt great the whole time with her). Steve keeps telling me he would feel the same way if he was so sick all the time! He's also been super helpful about keeping up with the house because I have been lacking in that department as well! It's not all day now just for a few hours here or there! Because it's Katy's birthday in a week I though it would be fun to take my picture with her this week. She will be 3 years old! Not too shabby for the self timer!

Also, although I have no pictures to prove it, I am showing much sooner this go around. I can't button my pants. I am holding out for H&M on Friday to open, hoping that they may have some of there maternity clothes in the store (please bless they do!). I'll get some pants then!

Until next week!

4 x 12//October 2011

October 2011.

I feel like fall is finally in the air. October has been filled with some pretty great things. We got to tell people we are having another baby, hang out with dad at work, go to Chuckie Cheeses to celebrate being fully potty trained, we went to Gardner Village, Wheeler Farm, get a new iPhone, do some fun Halloween/Fall projects, take some naps, carve a pumpkin, scoop some goo, go trick or treating with aunt Katy, and I have been trying to gear up for the holidays and Christmas (I'm crazy I know)! Like always we tried to make the most of things.

We are able to finally make it up to Silver Lake....we've been meaning to do that for a while. Since this weather has been totally crazy (and unusually warm) I wasn't thinking we'd need much more than a light jacket. Oops, there was a breeze so we made our stroll quick! We brought blankie along for added comfort! The colors were beautiful, but I was expecting more red, mostly it was yellows.

Katy sure has been making us laugh. She has taken a liking to calling me mother. She also is really into characters. She always tells me every day that we can be whatever character we want. She picks something else to be every day. Very random indeed. One day we are piggies, the next day we are ice cream cones....no idea where she comes up with this stuff! Oh and we have to address her as baby piggy (or whatever we are being that day), while she calls us mommy piggy or daddy piggy. She also whipped out the character stretches this month. I almost looks yoga moves...it is hilarious!

She is excited for the baby to say the least. Everything is centered around babies and how cute they all are. I tell her, when we brush her teeth, that we need to get rid of all the sugar bugs. She tells me that they are so cute and small and that they are happy when they get to go live in her toothbrush! We were out at the store the other day and she was putting her mouth on the shopping cart. I told her ewww! Don't do that there are germs on there. She asked again (for the millionth time what germs are), I told her that they are mean little guys we can't see that will make us sick. She proceeded to tell me that they are all cute little baby germs and how she loved them all! What? Where does she come up with this stuff? Makes me smile.

We head up to the lake after church on our way to the Beardshall's for Sunday dinner. We had stake conference so we took advantage of getting out early.

Katy was SO tired by the time we got up there, she was so snuggly!

But she is sure getting heavy! I had to make Steve carry her most of the time. She told us she was too tired to walk. Man we spoil her!

Here is to a great November!

Happy Halloween

Halloween never disappoints for sure. It's my favorite! Katy really did have a good time this year, aside from all the scary stuff! That is another story for sure. Let's just say I'm glad in a way it's all over too!

We opted to carve pumpkins on Friday night. We met Spencer and Jenny for dinner on Friday night. We had to get our pumpkins before we got there, yup we didn't get around to that until then! Katy had fun riding in the wheel barrow and picking out our pumpkins. She did a great job!

At first she thought the "goo" was gross but after a minute she realized it was fun! She had fun "scooping" with mom. Steve doesn't do goo. I'm happy to scoop all the goo to get our pumpkins carved! I made a silly face, Katy made Minnie Mouse and Steve did a Mac Apple!

Katy had a hard time deciding what she wanted to be this year. For months she wanted to be Aerial so we drove down to the Disney Store. The Aerial costume was SO stink in cute, but she was sure that she needed a costume with a tail. I searched and searched until we found this beaut. She was all for it and we were set for Halloween...until she informed me that she was not going to be Aerial! What?!?

She would change her mind every day and tell me things like...I'm going to be a monster, a farmer, an ice cream cone, a doctor, Minnie Mouse. I'm sure there were others but that is all I can remember for now. For our ward trunk or treat she opted to be Minnie Mouse (a costume we had, because that is what she was last year), so I was ok with that.

She surprised me when she decided to actually be Aerial on Halloween. She looked good and seemed to be pretty impressed with her red hair. Katie hooked us up and gave us some spray color the last time I got my hair cut. I wasn't sure if it would look good because it wasn't fire engine red, but it actually looked really good!

I know Steve is a scrooge about dressing up, and that usually doesn't discourage me from dressing up. But I was not feeling so great this year and opted to be lame and not really even get ready at all! We had Katie over for trick or treating and pizza. We had a great time!

We left a bucket of candy on our door step and all went trick or treating together. There was no game to keep Steve glued to the TV this year, so he joined us!

Our little neighborhood is perfect. It's basically one big loop. We hit up the outside, stopped and ate dinner, and went back and got the inner side of the loop. Katy got a TON of candy. We were even lucky enough to get a king sized candy bar! I helped with that one!

I saw this on pinterest but I but glow sticks and put them in jars of water. They were glowing ok and then Katie found that if you shook them up they really glowed good. But when I opened the door a few minutes later they were pretty much dead. So it was good for a bit of fun....but kind of more work that it was worth!

october outings

We were lucky enough to get out and see some of the sights this October. One night, when we were board, we drove to Gardner Village and got a watermelon sucker. Man I love those things! When we got there Katy reminded us that she didn't like witches. So we avoided them and were on our way.

Britney called me and wanted to come up and get together. When we pulled up to Gardner Village again Katy said, "I don't like this place". But despite her hesitating we had a good time. No pictures by witches of course!

She did like the ducks though.

We also ventured to the pumpkin patch with Robyn and Hayden. Although I totally didn't pick out a pumpkin that day. Guess I forgot. Katy and Hayden thought the mini corn maze was fun. I think the maze aspect was defeated when they were just going every which way!

Hayden and Katy also liked the tractors they had there.

It was a hot day. I've been super surprised at how nice the weather has been for October. We have been very lucky in that regard...to have a nice fall.

Yup, some pretty fun times to be had around here!

what to do

October was filled with some fun holiday crafts. I seriously LOVE Halloween...everything to do with it. Katy likes Halloween but none of the scary stuff (which is my favorite). We've had a rough month in regards to going to bed because she is scared of something different every night. Scary pumpkin faces, witches, bats. These are just a few of the things we've been dealing with.

I used to work with a friend that, no joke, had a fun Halloween activity planned every day in October. And although I would have loved to do that...who am I kidding, I was not that organized about the whole thing. We tried to do the 13 days of Halloween. We had a pretty good run, but I don't think we actually did an "activity" every single day.

We did have a great time with some of our crafts.

Case and point, the painted pumpkin.

Katy wanted JJ bear to help out.

She also requested a ghost and a bat...which I gladly helped with. This pumpkin pretty much was a hot mess of colors when we were all done!

We also opted to make some sugar cookies. I guess we are a family that is ok with cooking in our underwear. Katy was a great helper!

Wow the cookies I made were HUGE. Hey that is all the cookie cutters I had. Katy didn't mind though. There was more room to fit all that frosting and sprinkles on! I just missed her bending over and taking a big mouthful of frosting off the top. Don't you love the face..."what, I like frosting!" I think she get's that from her mother :)