11 Months Old

This is my last monthly post documenting Katie’s first year. On the next update my baby will be one and I'll be writing about her first birthday. That makes me sad. These last few months have flown by quicker than any of the previous. She is changing so quickly.

This past month Katie has started to crawl and that means she gets around.

That also means she can get herself into trouble. Katie recently discovered the dishwasher.

And a cupboard I left open

Then last week while I was vacuuming she ventured up four steps before I saw her - really, I'm shocked that we are already at this stage.

Katie had also started to pull herself up on things. Usually it's me she is using as a climbing toy. The first time she stood herself up was by using the shredder in the office.

Once she's up though she has zero balance so we really need to keep an eye on her.

With all her new mobility it is becoming difficult to keep her entertained in one spot. One afternoon I had to get some things done in the office so I set the diaper bag in front of Katie and set her loose. I knew she'd pull everything out, but I didn't know she was cleaver enough to open a Ziploc baggie and proceed to munch on a bagel (um, just a small choking hazard). Thank goodness Jason was paying attention.

Katie is also cutting more teeth, but is going a little against the norm and is getting a top side tooth before her two front teeth.

Not the best picture, but you get the idea

Katie is liking her binkie a little more these days and although we try to keep it to sleeping (and of course church) it does seem like we are seeing more and more of them these days.

Katie takes two 2-3 hour naps everyday and usually doesn’t want to bother with any of the rocking to sleep business – she’d rather we just lay her down. Right after I lay her down she usually rolls onto her right side with her blankie and goes right to sleep. Thankfully, she will still take a nap away from home which has been a blessing these past few crazy weeks.

Who wouldn’t want to walk into a room and see this happy little face beaming up at them?

This girl brings so much JOY into our family.

Packing Up

Can you guess what we are working on this weekend?

I think we’ll take this one with us for sure!

Moving Update: Our closing date has been moved out a few days, but we’ll still be moving on March 25^th and 26^th – just in case anyone feels inclined to lend a hand

Nothin' better than Chick-fil-A

This was my first time tasting Chick-fil-A in Washington and it tastes just as great here as it does everywhere else, even after a long special delivery by my mom from way up north (Bellingham).

House Update

It’s been a while since I’ve done an update on the new house. Truth be told I’ve been avoiding it. If I thought building a home was a roller coaster ride before these past few weeks I was severely mistaken.

The details are incredibly complicated (and very frustrating), but in short – once the kitchen island was complete we realized there wasn’t enough space between the bar and the family room. Correcting it entails new cabinets, new granite, weaving in new hardwood, moving lighting, etc... I felt the responsibility for this was the builders and of course they felt slightly otherwise. I fought against Goliath, then Goliath’s Daddy, then Goliaths Granddaddy (actually, Goliaths Granddaddy (a.k.a. the President of the company) wouldn’t talk to me personally, but I tried – more than once). I was unarmed and without even a stone to sling at them – just words and what I perceived as logically reasoning. I should have been intimidated, I should have cowered in their presence, but I learned I’m stronger than I thought possible.

In the end we reached a compromise – we will get the island how we want, but we will need to contribute a portion of the cost (small in comparison to what they will pay, but not the ideal outcome I was working toward). I am incredibly relieved that we have found a resolution to this issue and glad that we can get back to being excited about this move and the home we will soon call our own.

Here’s our kitchen in it’s current state of remodeling:

Today was our inspection. We hadn’t been up to the house in nearly three weeks so it was neat to see some of the final touches in place. During my recent battle with Goliath I addressed a few other concerns I had. One was the frustration we’ve experienced with the master bathroom – specifically that the company fabricating the countertops couldn’t locate a slab of marble long enough for the countertop. To avoid a seam I selected another countertop and hoped it would work in the space. Well, that countertop looked like this…

Which was incredibly different from the sample and not at all what I was going for. Thankfully, Goliath himself agreed that it was unacceptable (shocking) so he offered to let us go back to the original marble and they would make the seam as seamless as possible. I agreed that a seam was better than what was put in.

Today when I walked into the bathroom I was shocked to find that somehow, somewhere they found a single slab of the marble I love – it is beautiful and 100% seamless.

Anyhow, the inspection went really well – it’s a new home and the builder does have a fabulous reputation (we’ll leave Goliath out of this). We can’t wait to move in, but of course the drama can’t quite end yet, we learned today that the changes to the island are causing some delays so we may have to push out our closing date another week or so. Not the best news, but if it means everything gets done right then it’s OK with us.

Happy Birthday Carly!

Carly celebrated her seventh birthday on Friday. In our family food is an important part of any celebration and Carly's birthday was filled with some of her favorites. Justin went to work late that morning so he could make her a special pancake breakfast before school.

Carly’s been waiting for several days to open up her present from Grandma Kesler. She could tell that the package included a pack of icebreakers and also guessed there was some type of clothing as well. Also included were hair accessories that were immediately put to use.

For lunch Carly requested that we eat with her in her classroom. So Katie, Jason, and I picked up some McDonalds and were waiting in her classroom when she came in from recess. Abigail was also able to join us since she has recess during Carly's lunch.

For dinner we headed to Red Robin with her free birthday coupon in hand. I could tell she was excited for the servers to sing her, but you'd never guess that from her look of complete indifference while they serenaded our table. Carly has always been such a shy girl.

Carly has known for several weeks that she wanted to watch “Despicable Me” as a family for her special birthday activity. We borrowed the DVD from Justin's mom at least a month ago and have eagerly been waiting for the big night. Carly got to pick out several treats to munch on during the movie (Oreos, Milk Duds, licorice, whoppers, and popcorn). We limited how much the kids ate to avoid a repeat of Abigail’s birthday movie night two years ago when Carly ate so much junk food that she puked.

Carly loaded up this plate for her and I to share

The movie was cute and the kids had lots of fun. Snuggling up on the couch with my kids and hearing them crack up over a show is so fun for me as a mom.

Early the next morning we were awakened when we heard Abigail throwing up in her bathroom. Of course we immediately associated it with the candy bingeing from the night before. As it turned out, Abigail was sick all day Saturday so I think it was just an unlucky 12-hour bug.

Carly's cousin Hannah has a birthday on Monday so we decided to celebrate both birthdays on Sunday with Justin’s family.

The birthday girls

Things have been pretty crazy around here lately so decorating a big birthday cake would have been difficult for me to pull off this week. Justin suggested that a four layer dessert would taste even better and Carly jumped on board with the idea, making my life much easier (and it WAS delicious).

Grandma and Grandpa Fletcher gave Carly some fun crafts, a new hat, hair accessories, and new outfit. Carly also loved the small turtle pillow pet from her cousins.

As I look back at pictures of Carly from last year I’m surprised how much she has changed. She looks so much older since her baby teeth have been replaced with her big permanent teeth. Carly can't resist playing with a wiggly tooth. Last Tuesday she got hit in the mouth with a beach ball and immediately afterward noticed a loose tooth. Less than 10 minutes later it was out.

Carly is Katie's second mom. She is always the first one willing to help take care of Katie and often makes comments about how irresistible Katie is and wanting to kiss her cheeks and hug her tight.

Watching the snow fall with Katie

As sweet as Carly is she's also full of spunk and spice. She adds a little drama to our family and seems to enjoy testing her little brother’s patience.

By the end of 2010 she'd really lost interest in reading. Justin gave her a challenge to read everyday in January and she did really well sticking with it. Carly has even started taking AR tests at school. I love to see her wrapped up in a good book.

Carly’s favorite color is blue. She likes taking showers and blow drying her own hair, but she doesn't like her hair parted on the side. She loves to climb trees, dance with her little brother, and spend time with her big sister. Carly is still very artistic and enjoys doing crafts and writing stories. Her favorite activity these days is rollerblading. Carly loves to help in the kitchen, and wear the cute apron she made in kindergarten.

We sure adore this girl and feel very blessed to have her in our crazy family.

Happy Birthday Carly Ann!

Snow

All week we've been hearing about a big snowstorm heading our way. Wednesday brought with it a few flurries followed by brilliant sunshine - repeated over and over.

Katie enjoyed watching the big snowflakes

We woke up Thursday morning to about 6 inches of fresh powder. School was delayed two hours which was just enough time for the kids to play outside and enjoy a little sledding at the neighborhood park.

Abigail is always the most cooperative subject

Thankfully Carly still likes getting her picture taken

Easily influenced by his oldest sister

Justin worked from home and spent a little while outside starting snowball fights with the kids.

Poor Katie had to watch all the fun from inside.

Blessed

As much as I enjoy doing tax returns, I’ve got the best job ever!

Nothing, NOTHING, is better than being at home with my kiddos!

Katie asleep in my arms - taken on my cell phone just moments ago

House Update

We made two trips up to the house this week (Friday and Saturday). Friday was to meet with the superintendent to discuss an issue with the placement of the light fixtures in the master bath. The master bathroom has been one concern after another – some due to regretting some of the selections we made and other issues that were completely out of our control. The most difficult part of building this home is realizing it won’t be perfect. We stink at making decisions and I’m the Queen of Returns – neither which mix well with putting together an entire home. Thankfully, the awesome, wonderful things far outweigh the things I wish we would’ve done differently.

Changes this week include:

The fireplace being completed, carpet installed, and trim painted

The kitchen backsplash installed (still needs grout though) and most of the appliances are in place

Justin is double checking the measurements of the space for our fridge so we can purchase one this weekend

The countertops in the downstairs bath and master bath were installed

Here Jason is having fun playing with the drawers in the downstairs bathroom. This was the marble that was supposed to be installed in the master bath as well but they couldn’t find a slab long enough (sniff, sniff - I really like it)

The kids bathroom just needs a mirror and it’s ready for use (oh, and a little cleanup would be nice too)

The landscaping is complete and they were painting the fence yesterday afternoon.

Unfortunately, the homeowners association dictates the color of the fence and it’s a dull grayish color. This is the last picture of our fence looking a-natural.

Miss Piggy

Thanks to two older sisters that enjoy a good laugh – this little cutie…

keeps doing this…

House Update

Another busy week! Wait, it’s only Wednesday morning; we haven’t even reached mid-week yet. Good news is that after almost 3 months on the market we are finally starting to see some people out looking at houses. In fact we’ve had 4 showings in the last week and a half. Hopefully we will find our buyer soon.

Last Thursday I was heading up north to attend the temple with other women from our stake and thought I’d stop by the house beforehand. I roped a good friend into coming along with me – this was my first time having someone with me besides Justin so that made it even more fun to show someone around.

Justin and I had just been up there 5 days before (only 4 working days) but at the pace these workers are moving we knew there would be lots of changes.

First the landscaping in the front yard was done:

I met our painter while we were there and he said since all the millwork was in ahead of schedule he would be painting right away (likely already done by now). The living room and dining room prepped and ready to be painted:

The granite was installed in the kitchen and it looks fabulous. The stonework on the fireplace was also just about complete.

We went out back to check out the fence and noticed they had brought in dirt and laid some of the sod.

When I turned around to check out our “free” sidewalk I noticed we had a few visitors.

Three deer were wandering around the park across the street. We’ve seen deer on several occasions so I’m thinking they will be about as common as cats roaming around our current neighborhood.

10 Months Old

Few notables this past month:

I finally stopped swaddling Katie at night. I'm pretty sure we broke some kind of record.

Katie's second bottom tooth has emerged.

Katie has found her voice and enjoys squealing and growling.

Jason had Katie cracking up when I was taking her monthly picture today

Katie likes to play with the TV remote, try to open the cupboards and drawers in my bathroom, and get under my desk and play with cords.

Katie sleeps clear through the night - 12+ hours. I know this sounds crazy, but part of me misses getting up with her. Even stranger is that I have a harder time getting up in the morning now than when I wasn't getting a solid nights rest.

These two have bounded more this past month than in Katie’s whole short life. She's totally cool hanging out with him and he's comfortable enough now that I’ve regained some freedom of my own.

Katie also digs this little man

Katie is managing to get around in an army tuck n' drag sort of way. Here's are two video clips to illustrate:

Sadly, it won't be long before she figures out how to crawl (or heaven forbid, walk.)

And just a cute picture from my phone of Katie performing the yoga move “downward facing dog”

Happy Valentines Day!

The girls have been so excited for their Valentines Day parties at school today that they were up early – 6:30am early. That meant Miss Katie was also up earlier than usual. The day was even more anticipated because Grandma Fletcher bought each of the girls a special Valentines outfit to wear.

I need to try to a better picture of the girls after they get home from school. By this time Katie was already ready for a nap and wasn’t very cooperative. Letting her chomp on Abigail’s treat for her teacher only kept her still for a moment.

We had plenty of time for a special Valentines breakfast.

The kids were excited to open up Grandma Kesler’s Valentine – and were thrilled to find a $5 bill for each of them.

Happy Valentines Day!