We're Back (with the help of a little additional technology)!

After a very long period of time spent away from blogging, I am back! 

To get everyone up to speed I will let you know some of the things we have been up to over the last half year.

Kate is groing like crazy and has turned into an amazing mimick (in a good way).  Most of the time she will try her best to repeat what we say to her and has begun to even sing parts of songs on the radio.  I guess this means we will have to be extra careful of what we say around her now!  She loves to ride her new bike to the park.  She can not get enough of books, blocks, dolls, stuffed animals, pretty ponies, coloring, sesame street and Dora.

She's a handful but we are having a blast!

John and I are both doing great.  We are gearing up for wedding season (five this year) and are super excited for are friends that are beginning to grow their families.

We went to breakfast this morning with my mom, my sister and her husband, so yummy!

We also just got smart phones, which leaves me no excuse not to start blogging again!

I hope that everyone is having as much fun in their busy lives as we are, and it is great to be back!

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.