Happy Birthday Katelyn

Well, you know the age old story, the first sibling gets everything and with each subsequent child it lessens. Well that couldn't be more true for our little Katelyn. She is such a doll so it makes me feel that she is slighted a little bit for us being such slackers for the following reasons:

1. Kelsey's blessing - she had 51 people here to celebrate with her. Not so much for Katelyn, however we do have hundreds more photos from her blessing than from Kelsey's.

2. Kelsey's first birthday was a hugh bash. More family and friends than we could've imagined showed up for the fun. Katelyn, well, what can I say? Her birthday was on a Friday this year and need I say anything more? We were both tired and run down that neither of us wanted to do anything. She was lucky enough to open a present on her birthday at all. So we waited to celebrate it on Sunday. We still did not have a party but she got more presents and got to attack a piece of her birthday cake.

And lastly,

3. Kelsey had photos everywhere. Up until recently, you'd think she was our ONLY, or at least our FAVORITE child. However, I am working to change that.

But fortunately for us, she doesn't seem to hold a grudge, at least not yet, so we just need a little improvement!! We are very fortunate to have 2 beautiful, healthy little girls. We are so glad they are a part of our family. And here's some pictures from her "little" party.

It didn't take her long to get the hang of it.


I think it helped seeing Kelsey open her presents a couple months ago for her birthday.


She was so excited about this first present she didn't care what came after this. Notice the little attempt at a pony tail!! Can you believe she held still long enough to put one in?


Present number 2

What could it be?

We put it in front of her and she immediately put her hand in the frosting. I thought she'd go for the candle but shes's clearly my kinda girl!!

I'm not quite sure what to do with this

This could definitely be a good thing. I could get used to this!!

Utter indulgence.

I just love this face.

I know my hands are messy but it was sure worth it!!

A year in pictures

It's hard to believe that it's been a year already. It's been fun, but I'm so glad I am not back there. Newborns are fun, but I like them to be a little older and able to do things a little bit more. Of course it might help if my girls were a little more cuddly. But anyway here's a recap of her first year. We also had a photo shoot that I will be sharing with everyone. And there's a long story, fiasco really, to go along with it that I'll be posting as well.

September 2006: Getting ready to go home.

October 2006: Her first time in the pool, and only 1 month old. No wonder she's such a fish now!!

November 2006: Thanksgiving with cousin Danielle, only 2 weeks younger.

December 2006: I know we should have sent this out in our Christmas card, but we didn't take it till Christmas Eve. Such a cute bunch of girls!!

January 2007: Discovered climbing and rolling on the boppy.

February 2007: The first time she really noticed her pony from Christmas.

March 2007: She's not too sure of the carousel horses, but she did like them before they started moving.

April 2007: Her little angelic smile.

May 2007: She just loves her Princess Minnie...

June 2007: ... and the remotes

July 2007: Aunt Brianne's wedding

August 2007: Nothing like playing with the fly swatter. I think she was more pleased she stole it from her sister.

September 2007: She's still not sure about the whole grass situation. But don't worry the face is for that and not the dogs. She loves them to pieces!!

Too much swimming?

Is there such a thing as too much swimming? Well until yesterday I didn't think so either. However, Katelyn will probably disagree, but only temporarily. We had a thunder storm roll through here a few days ago and it cooled everything down, for a little while anyway. But one day later, we were back in the hundreds, well above normal. So we've been in the pool everyday in the afternoon and Katelyn has just discovered how much fun the pool really can be. Unfortunately it came with a price. After cleaning up from the pool yesterday I found one of the towels to be covered in blood. After checking everyone over, none could be found; until Katelyn woke up from her nap. I went in to get her and her crib, wall and bed were covered in blood as well. I started to look closer and found that she had little blisters on her middle toes of both feet that had popped due to walking on the bottom of the pool for 3 days. She was very traumatized with the bandaids wrapping around not one, but 2 toes to stop the bleeding. I never knew toes could bleed that much, but alas everything is better today. She just now has to wear shoes everywhere which is difficult because she hates them and begins removing them as fast as they get put on. It's tough to be 11 months. But here's some pictures from their latest adventures.

Katelyn loves using this little ring we bought for Kelsey last summer. The only problem is that it's not approved for children under 3. We've had power struggles in the pool lately with her because she thinks she can walk and doesn't want to be held any longer. However the approved floatation device that is hers, she hates. It's too big around that she can't get anywhere and just screams the whole time she's in the pool. So we came to this conclusion. Dave added some more air to the tube and it keeps her afloat. She can now walk all over the step and off it as well without drinking too much water. And the best part about it is that she thinks she's swimming with her sister. Little Miss Daredevil herself!!

Isn't she cute? She's become quite our little fish and can swim from the big step over to the spa. Slow, but she gets there by herself. She no longer wants us to even follow her and tells us to get away anytime we try to sneak up on her.

Our two little fish. Such cute girls

Officially old...

Well, some of you know that I was elected to be the one to take my sister up to college because my parents are on a cruise (a surprise for my dad because he never takes time off work). We went up to Utah State last weekend and had a great time, for me reminiscing and for Micaela getting newly acquainted. Although I never did make it to Utah State, it was very much the same, with the big exception of wireless internet and cell phones. Not to date myself even more, but my roommates had one computer between all of us to share and we had to pay for internet use, it was not free. And she's going up with a cell phone. I never got to take my phone to school. The dorm doesn't even come with a phone. There's a phone jack, but nothing attached to it. So imagine the shock I experienced when after checking in to her room that the girls we met in her dorm all had laptops with internet access. After moving her in she got her internet hooked up and has access anywhere on campus.

So, it was great time had by all laughing because I never considered myself to be old until now. It was all very sad and eye opening. Sorry no pics to tell the tale.

Goin' to the chapel and I'm gonna get married...

With everything going on last week with the family and wedding I just have a quick minute to tell a cute story. Kelsey was playing dress up in her Ariel wedding dress and looked up the pictures of the temple we have on the wall. And this conversation followed:

Kelsey: "I'm getting married at the temple on Sunday where mom and dad got married."

Me: "Mom and dad got married on Saturday because the temple is closed on Sunday."

K: "Well, Saturday then."

M: "Who are you going to marry?"

K: "I don't know yet, I'll tell you when I get there."

She just says the funniest things.

Isn't she the most beautiful bride-to-be you've ever seen. And her most recent addition to this story is that she will be wearing this dress when she gets married. I sure hope it still fits!! :)

Look what we did

Well, getting our house ready for the wedding has been ongoing for about a month, but this is the best part. After cleaning the windows inside and out on Saturday, we were looking for some activity to bring us back inside out of the heat and we found it. We've talked about removing the border since we moved in and finally 3 years later, it's gone. I think just because in our last house taking off some old wallpaper left a sour taste in our months for the stuff we just put if off. But this was pleasantly surprising at how easy it was to remove. For Christmas a year and a half ago, my wonderful husband gave me a gift certificate to Home Depot so I could finally paint one wall red. Well, he said one wall, I heard one room. Needless to say, he told me if I wanted to paint the kitchen, I'd have to do the taping. So I just started taping and got a little carried away. I taped off all three walls of the kitchen and compromised with starting with 2 and then we'd see. In my defense the amount of paint on the wall does not equal the amount of one blank wall so since we had the cabinets, I painted 2. We decided not to do the wall with the window on it because there just wasn't a clean line to end at, other than the corner. And I gave in and thought it looked better without doing all three walls. Anyway, long story short I absolutely love it and finally have my red wall. And we had it done Saturday night, with 2 coats of primer and 1 coat of paint.
Now it's only a matter of what to do next!

Anyone need a nap

Apparently she still needs a nap! She missed it today and just wasn't tired when she normally lays down. So while I was on the phone making prep work with my sister for college, she fell asleep at the dinner table. And just couldn't resist.

A rough day at the doctor

After a rough day at the doctor for what we thought would be a routine visit for her 3 year, turned out to be a long, little scary trip. To just fill you in briefly, since February, Kelsey has run little fevers off and on, no other symptoms, but of course when she would go in, it would be down. They haven't been too high to really worry about, but just concerned. When she went in February the doctor said to watch for a rash, but nothing happened it just went away. Then it came back again when she started swimming and had swimmer's ear so she was put on ammoxicillin. Then she had one just after returning from Panguitch. It was up over 102 and would not come down with cold showers, Motrin or Tylenol. With prayers and blessings, it went down but then right back up. So this time, it was only 5 weeks between visits, they gave her something a little stronger than the ammoxicillin. Well, then 5 weeks later, the day before her 3 year check up, it was back. Her doctor was not in so we just waited till the next day, when of course it was gone, again. I told her about it anyway so she got to pee in a cup (yeah, for potty-training) and had to get blood drawn. Oh, yuck. To my utter enjoyment, no shots!! But I would've taken the shots over blood being taken. They took 4 viles and as you can tell, it completely wiped her out. But she was such a good little trooper through it all that she got suckers and even a Cinderella sticker when it was all over. Katelyn was quite worried for her sister during this whole ordeal as well. However, we got the results yesterday and nothing out the ordinary came back to worry about. So we just have to keep an eye on her and as soon as it gets up at all above normal they want her back in. But I had to be a mean mom and hold her down while the other two nurses took the blood. Oh well, just another day in the life of being mom.

Hey mom, look what I can do?
And apparentely Katelyn is having the time of her life!!

She's growing up

Katelyn had her 9 month well check and everything looked good, she's just on the petite side of the scale now. She has 3 younger cousins, 2 weeks, 3 months and 4 months younger and they are all bigger than her. So, more than likely she will unfortunately not be facing forward at a year when Kelsey was. But I like it because she's not quite too heavy that I can't still carry her. And she loves that too!! She knows she's not allowed to have the remote, but I had to snap it before I took it away!!
She's such a poser for the camera. How quickly she's learned from Kelsey!!
She won't let go and walk on her own yet, but she cruises all over the house with this!! This is the first night she actually took off on her own!!
It's hard to see, but there is a little white tooth on the bottom gum. It's all the way in and now the other bottom one is coming in. And so teething begins. It seems we just got through with Kelsey getting all her teeth in, just to do it all over again!!

Our little Cinderella

The only difference between the two is that Kelsey actually enjoys mopping. Whenever I'm done vacuuming, she immediately comes asking, "Can I mop, mommy?" What's great is that I don't even need to help with this one!! Oh, and this is what she wore the first day of school, since it was so hectic that morning because Katelyn had a doctor appointment that same morning so it was a little crazy getting out of the house on time. But we were successful and she picked the outfit out all by herself.

The biggest fish story

Well, it's been a little while but last month we ventured up to Pine Valley for a little fishing excursion. A great time was had by all. And it's always better when you actually catch fish. We had some bites and a few escapees before we could actually get one out of the water. They put up a good fight but this one was just not getting away.
However, after reeling the first catch of the day in, we were not quick enough with the camera to get her smiling. She was all about getting it up on land until we put it on the stringer and the fish "flipped" at her while holding it!! It took a lot of persuasion for her to take hold of it again, but by the end of the trip she had no fear.
We even got a little smile from Katelyn in the whole thing.

I am 10 months going on 16...

Both girls have loved driving the car while I unload groceries from the car. I was never able to snap any of Kelsey when she was little and driving, but this was just too cute to pass up!! You better hold on, it's gonna be a wild ride. Kind of like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at Disneyland

Bumps and Bruises

Well, it's not the first and it definitely won't be the last that we see but Katelyn has a visible bruise on her forehead. Unfortunately she's crawling and standing and trying to walk all the time so I'm not really sure how or when it happened. Bad mom for not watching her kids, right?! It was bound to happen sometime. :) Dave and I are convinced she will have horns to match his. If you ever look closely at Dave's forehead he has two permanent bumps from multiple hits to the head. I guess that's what happens when you have 7 siblings, 5 boys in a row!!

Guns and scriptures

Ok, so this may be a little sacreligious, but it's too funny not to post. Some of you have already heard this so sorry for the repeat.

So last Sunday Dave took Kelsey to church (because she was begging to go to nursery) while I stayed home with Katelyn. When she came home without any pictures or crafts, I started the 20 questions on how her class was. She didn't have much to say other than, "Mom and Katelyn didn't come." Alas that ended the conversation and we moved on. Later that night Kelsey wanted to say the blessing and since she doesn't want help anymore, we've been trying to get her to say other things and not get in a routine. And this is what followed:

Heavenly Father,

Thank you for church. Thank you for Jesus. Thank you for the food. Thank you for our family. Thank you for guns and scriptures. Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Side note: with that said, it's kind of hard not to laugh during and after the prayer. We both looked at each other and said, "Did she just say guns and scriptures?" immediately followed by peels of laughter by everyone.

Need I say that her dad is very proud?!

Some fun photos

And while Kelsey's in the pool this is how Katelyn keeps busy. The last day of this session and she's finally ready to venture off on her own. She played the whole 20 minutes without even glancing over at me. Such an improvement for being a "mama's girl". Maybe that's why she wanted to stay inside forever.
This Weebles playset is her favorite.
We have two crazy and very silly girls. Kelsey was so excited to have her sister up on top with her and Katelyn was just glad to be included...finally. She thinks she's so big.
Her depth perception just isn't there yet, but she was pretty sure she didn't like the idea of falling out.

Our little fish

Kelsey started her first block of swimming lessons last week and here are the results after 8 lessons.
Complete and utter relaxation
This is the life


Of course it does help when she has a crush on her teacher!! :) Too cute

Who's who?

K, so the other day Dave and I were discussing how cute and chunky Katelyn was getting and then last night sitting at dinner, I realized the outfit Katelyn was one of Kelsey's. So I had to snap a few shots. Keep in mind the girls are the same ages in the pictures and it's official, Kelsey is Dave's personality in my body and well, Katelyn is my personality in Dave's body. Sorry Kelsey, your little sister will most likely be bigger than you.

Kelsey at 6 1/2 months
Katelyn at 7 months

Disneyland Photos

I know, I know, many of you have been eagerly awaiting these pictures, so my apologies for such a delay. But, better late than never. Now, it's only a few, because most are on Dave's computer but it's better than nothing.

Kelsey and Sleeping Beauty
Katelyn and Sleeping Beauty
Just hanging out

Kelsey with Peter Pan, but she really wanted to know where Tinkerbell was.