Snow day, finally

Kevin has been so patient, he has wanted to play in the snow so badly. Finally, today, we have enough snow to enjoy. We were lucky to inherit skis from our neighbors, he had to fear!

After skiing in our yard for a while, we went to the big sledding hill in our neighborhood. Nate was so happy that this year Kevin is big enough to climb back up the hill all by himself. Brian surprised all of us with his sledding skills too!

All set!

Lastest pics in the playroom

Nate took these on Sunday morning:

Katie is so proud to be on the move! I can't wait until the Christmas tree is out of our family room, she is really drawn to it.

Preschool party

Thursday was Kev's last day of preschool for a few weeks. The kids celebrated with a big happy birthday Jesus party and ate birthday cake and sang songs. Nate worked from home that morning so I was able to take Kevin to the party alone. We had fun at the art stations, sing-along, eating birthday cake and wishing all our friends Merry Christmas.

The kids sang the parents several songs, I caught a little bit of "Jingle Bells":

Happy girl, 7 months old

Enjoying some bananas and oatmeal earlier today:

Christmas Program

This afternoon was the kids Christmas program at our church. Neither Nate or I was sure if Kevin would actually sing once he got in front of the group of parents to perform. I helped out at the rehearsal on Saturday and Kevin definitely would not sing! Well, today he surprised me by singing the words to "Away in a Manger", "Go Tell it on the Mountain", and "Come on Ring Those Bells".

Baptism

Last night Katie and Isabel were baptized. The girls looked beautiful and behaved really well. Here are a few photos of their special day. Isabel is wearing Nicole's baptism gown and Katie is wearing a new gown that was made for her by Grandmom Carol.

She is crawling...

I was not prepared for this! Ages 7 to 8 months was my favorite age with Kevin, the age where he would finally sit up on a blanket and play with toys. The age where he would just smile but NOT move. Well, Katie is on the go!

Playing together?

We are spending a quiet afternoon at home, resting up for the excitement of Katie's baptism this weekend.

Katie 6 months + checkup

Her stats from the doctor today (nearly 7 months):


18 pounds (73 percentile)
27.8 inches (93 percentile)

Katie was proud to show off her new ability to sit-up! She is rocking on her hands and knees, close to crawling too. The doctor mentioned that girls crawl earlier than boys, so we should start baby proofing the house again! I sure hope she stays in one spot until after Christmas, but I think she is very determined to get to her brother's toys.

She survived another round of shots, she is now taking a long nap.

Jumper!

How did we not have one of these before now? Friends gave us their jumper for Katie to use, she loves it!







My sleepy teddybear needs to move to her big-girl carseat soon, she is getting too tall for the bucket:

Not to early to think about Santa

To those who might need to give Santa some ideas for Kevin and Katie:

Kevin would love some new books, puzzles, 4T clothes, games (Don't Break the Ice, Candyland), anything Toy Story3, play dough kits. He is also currently obsessed with super heros (Spiderman, Star Wars, Iron Man, Superman).

Katie wishes she knew how to tell Santa how much she would appreciate size 12 month clothes (for winter) or new board books.

Merry, Merry everyone!

Sitting up...

Well, sort of... She tips pretty easily.










Kevin wants me to share that he had very good behavior yesterday morning while waiting for Nate and I at the eye doctor. As a reward he got to chew gum. He was beyond excited!

6 months old today

How is it possible she is 6 months old already? Katie is such a happy baby, we are so blessed to enjoy her everyday.

What's new with her...
-Katie loves to roll all over the floor. I predict she will crawl much earlier than Kevin did (10 months). If she eyes a toy she wants, she will roll across the room for it. I've now tried my best to remove lots of Kevin's tiny matchbox toys from the floor.

-She is a terrific eater. So far she has tried carrots, yellow squash, sweet potato and butternut squash. She usually has four 8oz bottles during the day and two servings of veggies. Fruits to come next week, yum.

-Bathtime is lots of fun. Caution- you will get wet! We start with both kids in the tub, Katie is in her seat, but she loves to splash her brother. It's about the only thing she can do so far to be a pesky little sister.

-Katie is close to sitting up, I am sure she will get the hang of it soon.

-She has her 2 bottom front teeth already.

I am excited to say that we are hosting a co-baptism for Katie and her cousin Isabel in December. It will be a very special day for all.

This is not Katie's most fancy picture, but captures our life on busy days. Here she is at 6 months, she just finished lunch while we were waiting in line at preschool pickup:

Last ride of the season, winter will be here before we know it! Yuck!

The 2 Kate's

Both baby Katie's had fun watching their big brothers play at our playgroup yesterday.

More Halloween fun

Carving our pumpkin last night, a messy job.


Kevin has a "dress up" bin of old costumes, he shared the fireman hat with Katie


On our way to a Halloween party this morning:








Spiderman is currently taking a nap, resting up for tonight's trick-or-treating with Daddy. Katie and I will stay home and pass our candy.

Halloween party, part one

Kevin had his first of four Halloween parties on Sunday. Here he is with his buddy Luke - dueling superheros flexing their muscles!

Class pet

This week we were responsible for watching Kevin's class pet, Darcy the yellow duck. Thank goodness it's only a stuffed duck, not a real one!

Trick or Treating at Living History Farms:

Fall leaves!

A tradition in our back yard:



Can't really tell if Katie is enjoying herself:

First tooth & veggies

Katie has her first tooth pushing through!

She has been doing great with rice cereal, we gave her some veggies last night. Sweet potatoes, yum... looks like she liked it!

She's a little too small for the highchair, but too big to feed in the bouncy seat. It's effort to make sure she doesn't tip over in the highchair.

Fall Festivities Overload

We were BUSY this weekend. Yesterday we headed downtown to the farmers market. The weather was cool and crisp, it was a perfect fall day. We bought pumpkins, bread, veggies, and flowers. I love going there to shop, it was even more fun that Kevin chose baby pumpkins (gourds) for him and Katie. We shared some cider and yummy dutch letters.


Today we took a ride to Center Grove Orchard.

We got lost in a giant corn maze:





Enjoyed a hayride:





Found an old-fashioned tractor:





Showing off his blue tractor, first time getting face painted:











Difficult to see Kevin here, but good shot of our tall girl Katie:





Finally asleep! Success, we wore them out!






We came home with lots of apples and cider :)

Family day at preschool

A.K.A. bring Daddy to preschool day:




Kevin was really proud to bring his Dad to school last week! We all met for lunch afterwards.


Just another picture of superdad. Katie looks mad here, maybe she wants some ice cream too!

Katie - 4 month stats

Or more like 4 months and 23 days:

16 pounds
26 inches

Yummy cereal

Inspired by her cousin Justin, we gave Katie rice cereal this weekend. She looks grumpy in this picture, I think she was frustrated by camera flash that was interrupting her lunch.



When we tried it several weeks ago, she spit it all out. This time she ate the entire bowl :) Full tummy = sleepy baby!

Weekend visitors

WOW - we had a busy weekend filled with family. On Thursday and Friday I babysat my cousin's baby boy, Justin. Justin is 3 months older than Katie. He can sit up and eat baby food, it reminds me of all the fun milestones that are soon to come for Katie.

Thursday night Grandmom & Grandpop arrived from Chicago. They were a big help with the 3 kids, especially at bedtime. The weather was gorgeous on Friday, so we tried to spend most of the day outside.

Justin was really happy after his nap in the stroller:


Part of Katie's new fall wardrobe. Thanks Grandmom!


The excitement yesterday was the delivery of our new appliances. Yeah - we have a new stove, frig and microwave. I am thrilled now that everything is installed and I have plans to cook a lot more than I have been lately. Here is Kevin checking out "his drawer" of the frig.

It was very rainy yesterday, but Kevin really wanted to play outside. I dressed him in his swim goggles, rain coat and boots. He sure loves to jump in puddles!