10 Months Old!!

Yep, that's right.. I can't believe it either. As of yesterday Katelyn is TEN months old! It still seems at times like I just had her yesterday. Each day I'm learning something new and each day I learn to be more patient and loving. She makes me such a better person, wife, and MOM. My future children are lucky because Katelyn has taught me a lot about being a good mother!

She is doing so much now and getting so big and independent. Honestly, I don't remember very well the times when she couldn't move. I think now... what would I do when she just sat there? Not being able to roll or anything? It's just a COMPLETELY new adventure having to go around and watch her every move. I love it though. I hear a lot of people saying they want their baby to take their time to learn to walk, but when she started crawling and now that she is walking I fell in love with this stage of her life. It is so fun to see her explore. To call her over to me. To have her help me with different things like the dishes (well she doesn't really help she just loves standing there holding on to the rack and laugh and keeping me company, which I love :) ).

Seriously, walking is such a fun thing. Taking her outside is so fun for me. We were outside playing soccer the other day. I would kick it and she would scurry to try and pick the ball up.. she still doesn't have the kicking part down, but she loves to carry the ball and set it down. There are just so many things we can have fun with now that she can walk.

Here are some things about Katelyn now that she is 10 months old:

-Walks everywhere. I don't think I've seen her crawl very far at all since she learned to walk.

-Eats some table foods, bread, sliced banana's, potatoes, chicken, etc.

-STILL NO TEETH! That doesn't really bother me though. She's always happy and I've heard some horrible teething stories.. so I'd hate to see those little teeth bothering her!

-She knows how to say HI, she just won't say it that often.

-She claps! It's so cute, she'll just walk around clapping sometimes. Or when she does something really good she'll start clapping when I say yay. The other day I was talking to someone and I said, "Oh yay! Good for you." and she started clapping, haha it was so cute.

-She goes to bed and naps SO easy. One day she just didn't need a bottle, didn't need anything really, I just walked to her room and she was basically asleep by the time I got there. Ever since then I don't think I've had her put up a fight with napping or bedtime. She knows when it's time and everything works out perfect.

Well, there's so much she does I know I can't think of everything. She is just so sweet and we love her so much. I feel like the year has gone by too fast. In 2 months she will be a year old. I can't believe it.

Well, Happy Halloween everyone! Hope you enjoyed your weekend :)

Katelyn 10 Months

Storybook Forest

Last night we went to this really fun Halloween event for kids. It was at a lake nearby and they set up a trail through the trees. The trail was lit up with orange lights and along the trail they had different scenes and characters from storybooks. They had the three little pigs, the little old lady who lived in a shoe, the.. ok now my mind has gone blank and I can't remember all of them. It was really fun though!! Adults were free, kids were charged. Even though Katelyn wasn't going to eat the candy we still collected it and had her go up to each person and grab one. It was cute. She didn't want to let go of each piece she got and got mad every time we took it away, but soon after she was getting another one so that made her happy.

Here are a few pics from the night. We went with some friends, their little boy is the cute little fireman! Then we were also there with another couple and their ADORABLE little twins. I wish I would have got a picture with them because their outfits were so cute, little giraffe and a zebra!

Before it all began:

 We dressed Katelyn up as a BYU cheerleader! We already had the outfit and I thought, why not since I don't want to go out and buy another expensive little kids costume.

 Surprisingly she loved the little pom pom. I was a little hesitant making it thinking she'd destroy it and eat it all up, but she didn't eat it once! And when I gave it to her as soon as I told her to shake it she did. It was so cute!

 She is ready for a FUN night!

 The gang.. minus the other parents and little twins :)

 She was SO happy

 The little pig who made his house out of hay!

 The other two little pigs

 Hansel and Gretel the witches' home made out of candy.. (that's the right story right?)

 Daddy and Katelyn and the big black cat

 Oh boy, you woulda thought we gave her some of that sugar, but she was just happy to see everything!

 The after party.... we enjoyed ice cream after and I took Katelyn's pigtails out and her hair looked so funny

We have another fun little event for kids coming up this Friday. It's similar except they decorate our zoo! So that should be fun, and  there may be a future blog post about that too. :)

I really, really enjoyed dressing Katelyn up and taking her to this little activity. It was a lot of fun to watch her be so happy. It's amazing how many fun, new, and exciting things you get to do as parents. I wouldn't trade it for anything. I'm glad she is able to do these things now and be happy about it. I sure do love her!!

I Hate Goodbyes.. :(

Well, my mom and little brother left this morning. Their trip was short and sweet. Unfortunately I didn't get very many pics from their trip out here (why does that always seem to happen, you forget to take pictures when the exciting things happen?) My little brother's camera died too while he was here so I don't think he got very many either! I can tell you we had a good time though. I really enjoyed them being here. And although it was just a few short days with them, I already don't know what to do with myself. With Nick gone at school and just me and Katelyn in the house again it's really quiet.

I'm glad my mom and little brother were able to come and I can't wait to see more family during the holidays! :)

Here are a few pics I got from my phone with them here:

 At the Zoo. Isaac comparing the width of his arms to the span of a female bald eagle's wings.

 Comparing his hand to a grizzly bear paw.

 At the store. Katelyn didn't want to be sitting, she just wanted to be out helping push the cart.

Last night here. We went to the park and were just having fun. :) It was really dark, but it was only 7:30 p.m.

Well, that's all for now!

What if I told you...

I was going to make our blog private?

For those private bloggers, how do you feel about it? Is it a hassle? Is it hard to get everyone emailed an invite?

I just hate not knowing who is looking at/stalking my blog. I'm also kind of hesitant putting pictures of Katelyn up because random people can just look at my blog.

So.. most likely this will occur. I know a lot of people read it that DON'T have a blog, so what do they do? Do they need a google account or can they sign in with another account? A lot of people read it who I DON'T EVEN know they read it.. doesn't mean I don't want you to :) just let me know you are reading it!

Please give all your input! I'd really like to know how it is having a private blog and how to make it easy for people who aren't very familiar with blogger to be able to log in to read and leave comments.

Thanks!

Time is Not Going to Stop.. or Rewind.

I put away my favorite little bunny pants of Katelyn's yesterday. Why? Because she is too big for them now. I was so sad putting away more clothes of hers. This is the second time I've had to go through, empty and restock her drawers. Surprisingly I don't cry, but I do get very emotional. Especially since yesterday while we were in there she would bring her book up to me and put it in my face like she wanted me to read it to her and she would get on my lap. I thought "How are you already this old? Where has time gone?"

This morning I also was trying to show Katelyn some pictures of herself on Nick's laptop and I stumbled across this video:

This is a video of her the first day she was born in the hospital. I realized yesterday that Katelyn is not ever going to get younger, she won't ever be my little newborn again, she won't EVER be this age again, and that I should be doing everything I can to make the most of it. I sure hope I am. I take a million pictures of her. We could do better on the video recording, but most importantly am I spending the most time with her I can rather than doing other things like Facebook, browsing the internet, or watching tv? That is something I want to always remember because time is still moving. Each day she gets older. I hope you all take the time to be with and appreciate the time you have with the ones you love!

Although I do feel this way sometimes, I AM so excited for her to be getting older and I sure do love watching her grow and learn and do new things, but it is always sad knowing she's not going to be your little baby forever. She is so cute at every stage it makes me want to see her grow and what she'll be doing next.

You Ready For This?

Ok, so the title is mainly for my little brother because on his blog he titled his last post "Ready?" so I'm copying him and asking him the same QUESTION! ha

My Mom and little brother get to come visit us this week!! I am very excited. You don't know how much I miss having family around. Nick and Katelyn definitely do keep me satisfied in Oklahoma, but I'm sure many of you know how it is not to live anywhere near your family. :( sad.

I'm so excited that they can come see Katelyn. Come see my home. Come stay in my home. That I can cook for them, clean for them, show them around Oklahoma, etc, etc. My whole family has only been here once so I've been waiting for someone to come back!

I'm also glad that they are coming NOW because I feel like they don't get to see Katelyn as much as they should. Most of my family probably won't see her until she is just about to turn ONE year old and to think about that seems crazy and sad at the same time. So I'm thrilled they can spend time with her and see her more before she gets older. :)

My little brother is absolutely one of my best friends (I have many). We are nine years apart and I feel like I grew up raising him. I talk about him to people A LOT and I'm sure they can always tell how much I just love him! He is such a funny, outgoing (when he gets to know you), energetic, loving, little guy and I can't wait to see him.

I can't wait to see my mom either. I love talking to my mom. And being able to talk to her in person is better than any old skype session or over the phone conversation. So I'm very excited for that! I love her advice and help she gives while we are together. I especially love all the diaper changes she offers to do also! Ha just kidding. Actually I'm not, I really do love it.

I really wish my whole family were coming out. I miss my brothers, my one and only sister, my Dad, but soon enough I will see them. :)

Can't wait to see you bubba! (Me and Isaac at Alpine Valley.. I think?)

Another exciting thing is that Nick's parents are coming out shortly after my mom and little brother leave! I'm sure Nicholas would express how much this means to him and how very excited he is (we both are), but unfortunately he doesn't blog all that much ;) We are very excited for them to come and also welcome them into our home! Again.. they've only been here once too! We love having family in town, so we are excited for this month to SLOWLY go by and enjoy our time together!

Can't wait to see everyone!

I Made Something

I guess when I'm proud of something I post about it. I love to sew I just never have good projects or time it seems like. However I've been wanting to make these chair covers for SUCH a long time because now that we have a little kiddo that can walk, grab, make things dirty I figured off-white chair covers (the original color) probably aren't the best idea. ;) So.. I changed them up and gave them a little twist.

 Original chair cover

     New chair cover

And I actually really like them. I still have a few more to do. I like to take it one day, I mean one week, at a time. They take some work to put together!

 I think the red table runner and the new black and white colors all tie together really nice. Hopefully I can finish the 4 other covers I need to do!

If you guys are looking to spice up your house a little bit, chair covers, pillow covers, anything small like that can give a new look to a room and it just takes a little work! Try it out. :)

"Fall Six Times.. and Stand Up Seven."

"Why Do We Fall? So We Can Pick Ourselves Back Up Again."

I have heard these two quotes just recently in the last couple of days. The first one from my little brother and the second one from my older sister. Man I've just got great examples all around me don't I? I love hearing these quotes and they make me feel stronger. But that's not the reason why I'm quoting them. I'm quoting them because of this little girl:

Katelyn is definitely not afraid of a challenge. Ever since she was very little I could tell she was a mover. She did not want to stay in one place at a time. So she has taken on each challenge: rolling, crawling, standing up on things, and now.. that first step, and she has conquered all of them. She is walking!

I feel like those quotes describe her exactly. She might fall, she might get a little hurt, but that just means she's going to pick herself back up again. It's so funny to see her cruising along the couch and then just suddenly let go and take off across the living room walking. 

She has fallen down. And she has fallen hard. 

Sad, I know :(

But, she wasn't afraid to try again and pick herself back up. And now she has become so good at walking.

I guess I better tell the story of that big, sad, ouchie up there. I took her to the park and we were walking on the sidewalk to the park. She was holding my finger and doing so well. I guess she thought she was a little MORE than ready to walk on her own and literally threw my hand away and started running. Soon after of course she fell right on her knees before I could grab her. :( She cried for a little, but when I picked her up she wanted to keep on walking. I didn't let her, of course, and our park time was cut to NO park time so we could go home and wash up that ugly old scratch. 

She was so cute when I was washing it. She didn't make a peep, but you know how when we clean up little kids scratches and they make a fist or clench their teeth and make like a deep inhale gasp? It kind of sounded like when I ran the water over her knee she made this little inhale gasp like oooouuussh.

Anyways, she is doing a really good job at walking. Especially at home. She walks all over the place. When we are in public I still won't let her walk, and when we are at other people's homes I think she gets a little scared and still doesn't do too well. She has a long ways to go before I completely let her walk on her own, but she definitely has got it down around our house.

Here are a few pics I took of her today walking:

KITE Park! 9 Month Pics! A question...

Ok, so I was going to put this on the last post but decided I'd just make a new one so it didn't get so long... and I was about done with uploading pictures after that last post!

First.. We went to this really fun park the other day with two of my other friends Mirjam and Laci.  It was a park that had ALL sand (instead of those nasty wood chips that hurt our poor babies toes) and it had a lot of other fun stuff. Katelyn LOVED it! She had never been in sand before so I was kind of hesitant not knowing how she'd react. She did great though... considering she didn't put the sand in her mouth and she only stuck a shovel in her mouth a couple of times! Here are some pictures:

 "Mom, my shovel! I love it." She wanted to keep this thing with her the WHOLE TIME

 She was so dirty, haha. We had a nice bath afterward :)

 Going down the slide..

 No! She got the shovel in her mouth first.. eew.

 And.. down she went.

 BLAKE! Love this little guy.

 wow, this is fun.

 Little Nayvi!

 FUN!

 Katelyn wanted to crawl on the bridge.. She was holding Blake up

 All the kids playing in the sand

 9 months old!

 She would NOT lay her head on that grass. Haha, it's a little prickly, but she just wouldn't lie down.

 Katelyn & Momma

 Trying to let go of her hand to stand for a pic.. she wouldn't, she knows when it's coming

 The lighting from pictures outside, just look SO much better than pictures inside

 Being silly.. "I'm so big!"

Attacking me. Anytime I get on the ground (inside the house or outside) she always crawls all over me, kisses me, slobbers on me, pulls my hair... basically just attacks me.

I love this little girl. And I can't believe how fast she is growing. She makes every day special and I always have a reason of why my day was good, because of her. 

One last question.. I have SOO many pictures. I take one of Katelyn every day.. with out fail. I'm almost positive, but what do I do with all of them?? I have a baby book for her. Which I'll put some in. I was thinking of making collages of a ton of pictures then printing them as pages and just making a big photo book of her. I just don't know what to do. What do you do with all of your pictures? I hate just having them, and them sitting saved on my computer.

9 Months!!!

OK, I know I say this probably every month, but I REALLY can't believe Katelyn is NINE months old! I just think back to when I was pregnant and I had friends or people in the ward who had babies that were this age and older and I always thought, "oh they are a big baby..or they're old now." And now.. my tiny little baby is that old!

She went in for her 9 month check up (sounded so crazy to me.) Luckily she only had to get ONE shot!! Yay. I was glad too because Nick couldn't come this time. Which by the way, he has been pretty busy with school and I'm very proud of all his hard work! And we don't have to go back until Katelyn is a YEAR old! How crazy is that to think about? Katelyn was ALL over the place at the doctor's office. She would crawl over to the doctor and start climbing up her leg. She would push the doctors little chair around the room (because it had wheels) and she would walk around my chair. OH and this is the funniest. When we got there we went and waited in the little waiting room and she just started laughing and cruising around and she crawled way fast up to the glass door and put both hands on it and started slapping it laughing. Everyone looked over from outside and was laughing. I grabbed her though because I'm sure they don't like kids pounding on the glass door... She was just too quick and I had to fill out a form for her. Here are her stats for this visit:

9 Months:

Weight: 16 lbs. 11 oz.

Height: 27 in.

Head: Can't remember, but is it really that important?

I was actually talking to a friend about why they measure the head? I don't know, but all I know is that it was big compared to her little body. 

Katelyn can do SO many things now it seems like. It's amazing how much these little people can learn in such a little time.

She understands a lot of words, but of course can't say all of them.

She knows:

-bottle

-water (she loves her sippy)

-momma (she can say this)

-dadda (she is so close to saying this! i've heard it a few times)

-bath (anytime i say "Katelyn bath!?" she gets so happy and crawls to the bathtub!)

-yuck (i say for anything I don't want going in her mouth instead of NO and majority the time she'll stop look over and pull it out of her mouth)

-ouch (i say for anything I don't want her touching.. also instead of NO we hate saying no too much)

-melts (these are those little yogurt melts.. as soon as I say "Katelyn want some melts?" She gets the BIGGEST grin on her face and does this little squeal)

-binky

-"HI" and "BYE" (she was waving a ton then it stopped, seems to happen with a lot of things she does, but she'll do it randomly.. i think we just overdid it when she finally could haha.)

Some accomplishments are:

She has taken TWO steps with out holding on to anything!
She can stand for like 30 seconds with out support
She walks with us all the time now just holding one hand, and she loves it, and has a great balance when doing it

Anyways, that's a lot I can't think of everything she does. I swear she learns something new every day.

We love taking walks to the park together. She LOVES being outside. She loves the fridge. I mean she LOVES the fridge. Just the sound of the door opening she'll hurry to try and climb up in the fridge.

 First time camping

 She can WEAR a ponytail! :) And she loves ipods and phones, she knows how to swipe the apps to a new page on the ipod.. obviously she is sneaky and gets it a lot.

 She likes standing on the scale in our bathroom.

 I think you weigh a little more than that baby girl.

 playing with the colors on my camera

 She sat on the drum once and kept trying to pull the handle up but couldn't get it up because she was on top of it. She got it eventually!

 I think this picture is so funny. She does this with these little stacking toys and eats them, but covers her face. The top has a hole so she can still breath though.. ;)

 One day she just lied down on the kitchen floor... and stayed there.. for like 5 minutes. I think she was just pondering and the coolness of the tile felt good :)

 She LOVES pushing her little car everywhere. Sometimes she gets stuck.. and just doesn't know what to do.. so she keeps pushing!

 Here she is.. loving the fridge!

 Haha, this is when she was waving HI like crazy so I tried getting a picture of it.. and she stopped MIDway between crawling to wave to me and keep going on. hahah

 Loves going for walks

 Her crazy hair after a windy day at the park

 She got into the pantry and found my potatoes once.. she loved playing with them

 Daddy likes to make her a tom boy.. he put his soccer headband on her

 She gets so scared of the vacuum.. i kind of love it because that's like the only time she'll hug and cuddle with me! she's just so busy all the time to want to do that!

 cutie.. hugging on tight to momma

 I let her know it was ok...

 She LOVES my phone and she'll just hug it tight like this.. it's so cute.

 Her new favorite thing: pushing all our kitchen chairs away from the table.

 And she loves the dishwasher too! I can't keep her away from it. So I let her help me.

She loves when dad comes home and she hears the door open.

The best thing Katelyn does now by far is... She give us kisses! :) I love it. We'll say "Katelyn give us kisses" And she turns to you, opens her mouth, puts it to your cheek then closes her mouth and turns away. haha She's adorable.