Talking About Talent

I know that I have said this before, but I will now have to say it again, and again, and again... my friend Sarah of Sarah Belle Photography is an AMAZING photographer.

And of course, whenever I make such heavily weighted statements as the one above, I must back the statement up with physical proof. What would be more proof than the wonderful pictures she took of Kate, these are only a few (by a few I mean a ton) of the wonderful shots she was able to capture that day.

I would very highly recommend Sarah Belle Photography to any of my family, friends, or basically anyone out there. You can contact her through her blog or contact me and I can put you in touch with her.

From these pictures you would never know that Kate was at her crabbiest on this day, and the shots are still perfect!

Thank you Sarah for capturing so much of what we love in our little pumpkin Kate!

Uh oh, we may have a Star Trek fan on our hands. : )

Again, Thank you Sarah you did such a wonderful and amazing job!

Sleeping Babies

"Always let a sleeping baby lie."

When Kate was first born this is something I did not do, mostly because I just couldn't help myself. I did have some rationale behind picking Kate up and cuddling her when she was sleeping. I figured since she was such a good sleeper, and slept all the time, a couple minutes of extra cuddle time here or there wouldn't hurt too much.

If she is reading this, my friend Heidi is laughing. When she found out I pick Kate up when sleeping she is the one who spoke this quote above to me while shaking her head. : )

Now that Kate is a year old, we couldn't have been luckier parents with her ability to sleep so peacefully throughout the night. But now I worry if we are about to change all of that.

At one year there is an abundance of things that "they" tell you to do or to stop doing. Some of these things that we have done, or are in the process of doing are:

• switching from bottle to cup (this was not a hard transition for Kate, especially now that she can drink from a straw)


• switching from formula to milk (this change did take Kate a couple of days to get used to, she wasn't too wild about whole milk at first, but now can't seem to get enough of the stuff)


• switching from pureed food to all solids (this happened on its own, with Kate being more interested in solids than mush, do you blame her?)

That leaves us with our final major change...taking away the pacifier.

I know that these are suggestions and do not need to be done at one year, but should be done in the way that best suits your individual child. Knowing me though, I figure...why not try?

Kate usually only has her pacifier when she is sleeping or on long car rides, other than that she rarely ever has it in her mouth (unless she finds it while playing and plops it in there).

Last night, John put her to bed without the pacifier for the first time...and she went right to sleep. I know that this may not be the end of this battle, but it sure strengthens our decision that she probably doesn't need it to fall asleep any more.

I guess we'll see!

Guess Who?

Which toddler (woah does that look weird) has grown to the height of 30 3/4 inches and is weighing in at 22 1/2 pounds?

That would be our little pumpkin Kate!

We all went together to her 1 year doctor's appointment yesterday, which was not as traumatic for us as it was for her.

All was well until she had to have her finger pricked, and it wasn't the pricking of the finger that got her all upset...it was the fact that we had to hold her hand (she hates this) and the fact that afterwards she had a bandaid on her finger (now we know she hates this). Each time she re-realized that the bandaid was still on her finger, she tried to get it off, but when she couldn't...then the Oscar-worthy tears and hysterics would come back. The funniest part about it though is that they would last for only about 2-3 seconds, and be over....can you say faker? : )

Here's a picture of her in her new hat (from Darby the crazy golden retriever) on her birthday last Sunday.

Photo Shoot

An old friend from high school is an amazing photographer in Chicago...and she has just decided to give away a free photo shoot.

If you go out to her website Brisham Photography, and leave a comment, you could win!

Don't forget to let her know on her comment that you were referred by me, and maybe then Kate could win!

Good luck!

Dancing Baby

Kate has been practicing her dance moves for her aunt Kristen's wedding, this is from a couple of months ago, but be prepared to be amazed at her mad skills!

Kate Dancing

Kate's First 4th of July

Kate's first 4th of July weekend was filled with tons of fun, family, and friends! She was lucky enough to spend most of her time in the water on both Saturday and Sunday, and she loved it!

She had some bbq in Blaine on Sunday

More Grandma!

She got to sit in her very own chair.

She got to scream and yell, just for fun!


After too much screaming and yelling, she got dunked...just kidding!

She swam and splashed in a regular diaper.

She went for a horse back ride (Darby back ride).

She got snuggled by her Dad when her lips started turning blue and her toes started getting wrinkly from all the water time.

She spent some quality time in the pool with her best bud Darby.

She learned how much fun it is to pull up on the side of the pool...with no casualties believe it or not.

Big Cheese

Kate loves cheese, well she did before she realized how much she loved fruit...all fruit.

How did we find out that she likes fruit way more than she likes cheese (not that she doesn't like it)?

When I filled up her tray last night for dinner, I put on the tray some chicken (she always only picks at meat), provolone cheese, raspberries, kiwi, and red grapes.

In her normal order she at the raspberries, then the red grapes, and then the kiwi. Finally she started on the cheese, with each tiny piece that she put in her mouth she followed with the same reaction...a couple of good chews (aka gums) on the cheese, then mouth open, tongue flailing, cheese back out onto the tray.

But, when we give her cheese first, she gobbles it all up. What a silly girl!

She has also started making some pretty cheesy faces once the camera comes out, hope you think they are as funny as we do!

Memorial Day Weekend: Monday

On Monday of Memorial Day weekend we packed up five of the seven mammals that live in our house (we left the cats at home) and headed over to John's brother and sister in law's house to hang out for the day.

Here is Kate, after her nap, boy was that a tough one trying to get her to go down when she could still hear all of us outside!

This is Cole, Kate's cousin, and Kate. I'm not sure why she is so upset, but you can tell how excited he was to hold her, what a good cousin!

Kate...so big!

Cole and Alex, being cheeseballs!


We jumped on the trampoline, here is Alex showing me his tricks...doesn't he look like a dolphin in this picture?

And here is Cole's trick, looks pretty cool doesn't it?!?

Alex wanted me to take a picture of him on the stairs.

John, waving the flag. He might be just a tad too big for this playset, what do you think?

We swung on the swings, well they did, I don't think I would fit.

Cole and Alex even showed us how they love to swing on their tire swing...

Again, John might be just a tad too big for this one too! : )

Cole and Alex love animals, especially our beagles Nora and Puller. We still can't figure out how Nora was able to still long enough for this picture!

They even brought out the slip and slide. Though Kate didn't slip or slide, she played in the water at the end when the boys were done. That was enough for her, she loves water just as much as they do!

Another great day, full of fun with family (though you didn't see most of them in these pictures). I had a blast playing with Cole and Alex, and I probably burned a million calories, those boys just don't stop moving.

Can't wait for the next time!