Decorating for Christmas

We put up our Christmas decorations the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We played our Christmas music and drank hot chocolate while we decorated our tree. We had a good time, especially Kate. She loved unwrapping all of the ornaments and hanging them on the tree. She had a nice little cluster in the front near the bottom, you can see it in the picture of her by the tree. We let Kate put on the star and as soon as she put it on she immediately started singing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star". It was quite adorable, not so Christmas-like, but cute just the same because it came out of nowhere.

Turkey Day

Again, this post is a little late, but I want to keep track for myself if nothing else. We spent Thanksgiving at my parents house. We figured we wouldn't travel anywhere since I was so close to my due date. Our meal was delicious! Everyone was there except my brother Joseph and his family. We had a good time with family and Kate had fun playing with her cousins. Her favorite part of the meal was definately the chocolate pie. If I had to choose, I would probably choose that as my favorite part too. Yum!

I had my dad take this family picture of us. It may be our last picture together as a family of three!

Kate's New Room

I meant to post this a while ago. I've been getting a little behind. We moved Kate out of her room and into our spare room a couple of months ago so we could start getting her room ready for her baby brother. We got Kate a new big girl bed. We debated whether or not to just put her in a toddler bed, but finally decided on a twin. She is so into snuggling and getting cozy, I just didn't think the toddler bed looked comfy enough. Also, I figured I'd have to spend some time in there getting her adjusted, and I figured a twin bed would be easier for me to snuggle up in too! So, here she is in her new bed. She really does love it! When we first got it I thought is was way too tall and I was afraid she wouldn't be able to get out of bed, but she has learned how to get out without any problems. She "slides" down as she calls it. She does need the help of her nightstand to get into the bed, which I think is kind of funny, but I guess she'll grow into it! Impressively she has never fallen out of the bed. At first she stayed in her bed pretty well, and then she decided she didn't want to which drove us crazy! She is back to staying in her bed for the most part which I am so thankful for.

Halloween Fun

We had a really fun time on Halloween this year. Kate was a fairy. She LOVED her costume! She would have worn it every day since we bought it if I would have let her. She thought it was her beautiful dress. Everytime she put it on she would say, "I love my dress". I was excited for her to actually get to wear the entire costume on Halloween, I knew she would have fun, and she did. We had quite the busy day. In the morning I took Kate to a little Halloween carnival. She has been going to a toddler gym class once a week and last week they met on Halloween with some of the other classes as a big group. They had a Halloween carnival all set up in one of the gyms. It was really fun. She had a great time running around doing the different activities. They had a bounce house, a huge slide, tons of games, crafts, and lots of treats and prizes! She thought it was great. She even went into the bounce house which I was a little surprised about because of how many people were in there. She did fall while she was in there which put an end to her fun, but it was fun for her while it lasted.

After the carnival we headed over to Sean's old work (he started a new job on Oct. 27th) to visit uncle Michael and do a little trick or treating in their office. Kate had a great time getting all of the treats. Every time she got a treat she would say, "should we go get more treats?". After spending some time there we headed home for a much needed nap. Unfortunately by the time we got home she was so wired that she didn't want to sleep. After trying to get her to sleep for what seemed like an hour, I finally got her to go to sleep (I was determined to have her well rested for Halloween fun). When she woke up we had some visitors, my brother Joseph, Ellen, and Halle. A short while later Tina, Jared, Jonathon, and Ashley dropped by, just from the hospital. We hung out for a while and then got ready to go trick or treating. Just as we stepped outside to begin trick or treating around our neighborhood it began to rain. It wasn't too much, and it was still pretty warm, so off we went. Kate had a great time. At most of the houses she would say, "Trick or Treating", instead of Trick or Treat. It was pretty funny. By the end I think I got her to say just "Trick or Treat" a few times at least. After going around our neighborhood we headed up to Grandma and Grandpa's and then dropped by a couple of my aunt's houses to go trick or treating. We had a good time and by the end Kate had eaten more candy than I could ever imagine a 2 year old wanting.

Carving Pumpkins

We carved our pumpkins the night before Halloween. We didn't have much time before bed since we had spent some time at the hospital visiting my sister. We carved Kate's pumpkin first so we could get her in bed. Kate had a great time carving her pumpkin. She loved helping Sean get all the guts out and decide what face to make. After we got it all carved we let her put a candle in it and we set it on the porch. She thought that was very cool. Every time we left the house after that she would ask about her pumpkin.

My New Niece

My sister Tina had her baby last Thursday. She was really hoping she wouldn't have her on Halloween, so the day before is a little better I think. They named her Ashley. She is very cute! We went to the hospital to see them after Sean got off work. I was really wanting to see how Kate would react to her, since her life is about to be forever changed by this baby brother of hers that is soon to arrive. She loved the little baby and wanted to hold her and get up and sit with Tina. While Kate was holding the baby she started crying and Kate immediately whispered "stop crying", and then started saying, "shh, shh, shh" so softly and then, "it's okay, it's okay". It was quite adorable to watch. I'm a little surprised she didn't try to give her back when she started crying. She knew just what to do. A little mommy in the making. I was very proud, as you can imagine! :-) Let's hope she adores our baby as much!

Hogle Zoo

Kate and I went up to the Hogle Zoo last Wednesday with Tina and Jonathon. We had a good time. Kate and Jonathon loved looking at all of the animals. Kate even stayed in her stroller for the first little while which meant I didn't have to chase her the whole time. Then she wanted to push her baby in the stroller and after running into a few people, I had to convince her that was not the best idea. Eventually she got back in for a while. She loved riding the train. I had her sitting on my lap at first but she wanted to sit in the seat by herself. I was very surprised when she wanted to ride the merry-go-round. Jonathon wanted to ride it and at first I thought she would just want to watch him, then she decided she wanted to ride it. I was still skeptical because she is so afraid of these types of things, but I put her on there and held onto her. She did really well, didn't even cry! She didn't even freak out when her animal started moving up and down. I was very impressed. If you notice she is riding the ostrich, that is because it is pink. Her favorite color is pink. Lately everything has to be pink, it's so funny.

Hee Haw

We went to Hee Haw the Saturday before Halloween. It's a little pumpkin patch and farm right down the road from our house. We had a lot of fun. Kate thought it was pretty cool. They have lots of activities for kids, a huge slide, animals to look at and pet, a tractor ride, a wagon ride, hay jump, maze, and a pumpkin patch. Kate loved the slide, she went down a few times with Sean. She also liked the animals. She is always so afraid to get too close to animals, she never wants to ride the pony (there was one, but of course she wouldn't ride it), so I was surprised when she wanted to go into the petting area and pet the piggy. She didn't end up petting a pig, it ran away before she could get close enough, but she did pet a goat with Sean by her side. After the one touch she was done and wanted to get out, but at least she tried, that's an improvement. She thought the wagon ride was really cool because there were people dressed up in costumes that threw candy as we went by. It was the beginning of her Halloween treats and she thought it was the greatest, she loves treats! We went to the pumpkin patch and picked out two pumpkins. She picked out this tiny little white pumpkin thing that may have actually been some kind of gourd, I don't really know though. We had fun though. The weather was great, it was a great way to spend the day!