Kate {11 months}

It's time for another Kate update!  

Another month has gone by and she is 11 months old.  

She will be one next month - cRaZy!

This little one is growing like a weed.

She is a whopping 23 lbs, 1 oz 

Here is what she's been up to:

-  She is pulling herself up on everything now!

-  She likes to stand all by herself!  She is getting better at balancing and will be walking before we know it. 

-  She can make her first animal sound!  If you ask her what a duck says, she answers with this cute little "quack" - it really is cute.

-  She has six teeth!  The newest additions are the ones just to the right and left of her two upper front teeth.  And I can feel where her molars are coming in.  My kids get their molars early, but if they're teething, might as well get as many in as we can, right?

She is such a fun and sweet girl.  I still can't believe she is almost one!  We love our Katers!

What we've been up to

It seems like I never have time to blog anymore!  

Or maybe it's just that I haven't made it my priority . . .

We've been busy playing outside {when it's not snowing, like yesterday, and when we're not all sick so we have a movie day, like today.  Seriously.  Movie after movie.  All. Day. Long.  Emmy was in heaven.  Last night was another story.}, going on walks, playing with friends.

But now the guilt has gotten to me, so I thought I would post some pictures of what we've been up to.

We've been enjoying daddy being home!  He's always studying when he's in school, so to have him home with us has been great!  Too bad he has to work, or we'd have even more fun.

The girls love their daddy!

Aw, precious!

{Above and below - swimming at Aunt Lindsey's house}

{Above and below - having bike races with daddy}

Enjoying the lilacs while they are in bloom:

Playing on the grass {Kate does not like the feel of grass on her skin!}:

And, of course, playing with bubbles!

{The Easter Bunny was so smart to bring the girls this automatic bubble machine}

Now, if we can all get to feeling better around here, we will have more to post about than cleaning up puke at 12:30 am . . .

Lucky

"Mother's are endowed with a love that is unlike any other love on the face of the earth."

- Marjorie Pay Hinckley

Because of these two:

and this little one:

I get to celebrate Mother's Day!  

Thank you to my two little angels.   

You keep me on my toes.

You test my patience . . . everyday.

You bring me a joy and fill me with a love that I never knew possible.

Thank you for letting me be a mother.  Your mother.

I always knew I wanted to be a mother.  

It is hard.  It is really hard.  But I wouldn't have it any other way.  I get to raise these beautiful daughters of our Heavenly Father.  It makes me feel special.

And to my own mother, Happy Mother's Day!  

She is such a pillar to me.  I depend on her so much.  She is such a strong, beautiful woman who I look up to!  Thank you for being such a wonderful example of what a woman and mother should be.

Zippity-Doo-Dah!

Emmy's end of the year recital for her singing and dancing class was last weekend and it was so. cute.

She's not the best at following directions, so when they practiced their song in class, she was watching herself do a booty-shake in the mirror, or running around, not paying attention.  

So imagine my surprise when she was actually doing the dance!  (Not all the moves, mind you, but enough the it made me a proud mamma!)  She did such a great job!

The song was to "Zippity-Doo-Dah" and was simply adorable.

Emmy's friend, Max, was singing right into the microphone the whole time.  After the show, my dad asked me, "So did Max have a solo?"  No, no planned solo.  He just liked hearing his voice in the mic, like any kid.  Emmy and one of the other girls in the group even tried to sneak to the microphone to get a turn but Max saw and quickly ran over to claim his mic!  Seriously, so funny.  I love watching little kids perform because there is always going to be something that will make everyone laugh.

Emmy didn't even have to look at the teacher to remember the "step - touch - step - touch" part in the middle of the song.  She just stared at her little feet and step - touch-ed away!

{Shelby, Shady, Emmy and Max}

I tried to get a group photo after the show . . . not the easiest thing to do with three and four-year-olds.  Emmy had a cookie in her mouth in three out of the five pics I took - and this was the best one of all the kids.  What can you do?  Take the cookie away for the picture, that's what you can do!  Too late for that now . . .

And Kate enjoyed the performance, too!

*Emmy takes dance/singing from Jessica at Platinum Performing Arts Center*

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Our ward had a Talent Show last week.  A couple of friends and I thought it would be cute to get our girls together to sing some songs.  The girls sang "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree" and "If You're Happy and You Know it".  They were so cute!

The MC was holding the mic out for the girls and Emmy just reached out and grabbed it.  Classic.

The funny thing about Emmy is that she won't give a talk, scripture or anything in Primary.  But put her on stage in front of the entire ward and apparently she'll grab the microphone and sing away!  She's my little performer.

{Megan, Emmy and Skye - 

I know the pics are blurry.  My dad took them w/ my camera and thought the flash would automatically go up when he was taking a pic}

BTW - there is an awesome giveaway going on over at Natalie's Sentiments!  Check it out HERE.

Kate {10 months}

Wowza!  This little one is already 10 months old!

She weighs 22 lbs 2 oz! 

{No wonder my back is hurting all the time!}

I didn't record how much Emmy weighed at 10 months, but at 9 months Emmy was 18.5 lbs - so Kate is definitely bigger than Emmy was.  I already knew this since Kate is wearing clothes that Emmy wore when she was around 15 months old!

Here is what she's been up to:

- She's crawling!  She has been so close for two months and she finally got brave enough to do it.  She's not a little tornado or anything (so opposite from her sister!) but if she wants to get somewhere, she just crawls this cute, little crawl.
 

- She is starting to pull herself up.  At least she tries a lot.  She has only been successful once :)  I went into her room to get her up from a nap and there she was, standing there.

- She has been teething for the past two weeks and the dang teeth won't break through!  Her poor mouth.  And her poor nose - it has been running non-stop for the past two weeks.  We have to watch out for snot-rockets!

- I've been letting her watch the My First Signs DVD from Baby Einstein and she is learning some signs!  The other day I was saying "daddy" to her and she brought her hand up to her face and totally did the sign!  I was so proud :)  She tries to do the "ball" sign, too, but she doesn't quite have it yet.  Does she do the "mommy" sign?  Of course not!

- She LOVES her bottle and she LOVES to eat!  She is eating a lot of finger foods now and her favorites are strawberries, bananas, those little dried yogurt bites and Cheerios.
 

{Emmy and Kate have twin Dora chairs, thanks to Ella!  She gave us her old one}

Like I always say, she is SO MUCH FUN to have around!  We LOVE our little, laid-back Kate!

Easter 2010

We had a great Easter this year!  

We taught Emmy about the Resurrection and now she tells me all the time that Jesus died on the cross but He came alive again!

The Easter festivities started on Saturday when we went to my sister's house for a BBQ and Easter egg hunt.  The kids had a blast looking for the eggs we hid all around the yard.  Thanks to Lindsey and Ella who stuffed all the eggs!

{The girls wanted to dress-up for the Easter egg hunt}

{Hunting for eggs}

{Look at all those eggs!}

As if the candy wasn't enough sugar for the kids, after the Easter egg hunt they decorated cookies and cupcakes.  Yum yum!

{Ellie and Emmy, still dressed up, of course}

On Saturday night, we left a plate of carrots and a note for the Easter Bunny telling him thank you. Emmy wanted to draw on the note so she drew a funny little "smiley" face.  I say "smiley" in quotes because the mouth isn't really smiling.

{The artist hard at work}

{See the "smiley" face?  It's right under (or above) "Love, Emmy" - two big eyes and a squiggly mouth}

On Easter morning, we woke up to find that the Easter Bunny had visited our house!  He left treats, toys and a book for the girls and he left eggs filled with candy all over the house.  Emmy had fun collecting the eggs for her basket.  I forgot to take pictures of that Easter egg hunt - I think I had the video camera.

{Emmy loves all things princess, so she, of course, got a princess Easter basket}

The kids decorated Easter eggs after conference.  Gotta decorate Easter eggs!  Emmy loves that she can do a lot of these things with just a little help these days.  Last year I basically decorated the eggs for her.  She's getting so big!

 {Emmy's fake smile :) }

{Working hard to decorate those eggs}

{So colorful!}

It was wonderful having Easter fall on General Conference Sunday.  I thought it was such a special way to spend the day, listening to our Prophet and Apostles.  We didn't get pics of the girls in their Easter dresses because it was SO windy outside, but we will be having a photo shoot soon.  

Hope you all had wonderful Easters, too!

Waiting for her Prince . . .

Getting Healthy

Since I had Kate 9 1/2 months ago, I've really been wanting to get back in shape.  And not just so I can be "skinny".  It's not about that.  I want to be healthy.  I want my family to be healthy.  I love working out and I feel good when I eat right.  I've lost all of my baby weight plus five more pounds.  Hopefully I'll be losing 10 more!

Here are some helpful websites I've found to help me in my quest for being healthy!

-  My sister-in-law, Mary, just became a Certified Personal Trainer - Go Mary!  She just started a blog that will help you optimize your fitness goals.  She updates it weekly and has all kinds of fitness tips.  Her website is called Personal Fitness Trainer.

-  My friend, Dearie (really Deirdra, but I call her Dearie), is a Registered Dietitian.  She has a blog that has all kinds of wonderful health facts about food.  She updates it daily and I love reading her tips!  Her website is called The Daily Weigh.

-  I've recently found a website called My Fitness Pal.  It helps me track calories.  I have a fitness goal and it tells me how many calories I should eat per day in order to reach that goal.  I just enter everything I've eaten that day and it tells me how many calories I've had.  Easy!  And I love that it calculates everything for me.  And I do enter everything.  If I have a handful of PB M&M's, it gets entered.  I want to be honest!

-  This one is awesome - you guys are going to love me for this!  Have you ever wondered how many calories/fat grams your homemade recipes have?  I found a free recipe calculator!   You enter the ingredients, how many servings the recipe makes, and voila!  It calculates the nutrition info for you.  It is the best!  Knowing the nutrition info helps me only eat one homemade cookie, instead of eating 4 or 5 cookies worth of dough, then two or three cookies when they are done (you think I'm joking???).  The calculator is at Sparks Recipes.

For those of you who want to be healthier, I hope these websites will help!  I just registered for my 2nd 5K today!  And I'm already planning my 3rd and 4th . . . Who would've thought I'd ever be a runner?  Not me!

Randomness . . .

{Cute pic of my Kate}

I will be posting Easter pictures soon, but I wanted to post some random pictures first.

Alex and Mary, Jake's brother and his wife, came down Easter weekend to visit.  It was great to see them and of course Emmy and Ellie had a blast playing together.  The Phantom mask got pulled out and the girls had a fun time playing "Phantom".

{Emmy was the Phantom and Ellie was Christine}

Since the Phantom mask was out, Ella, my niece (my sister's daughter - yes, a lot of "E" names!) put it on Kate:

{Baby Phantom!}

The Saturday before Easter, we went to my sister's house for a BBQ.  The kids swam and had an Easter egg hunt.  Alex and Mary came, too.  So fun!

 {Emmy and Ellie playing dolls in Ella's dollhouse after swimming - no time for putting on clothes, Emmy had serious doll business to take care of!}

And since Emmy is in preschool in the mornings, I get to spend some one-on-one time with Kate!  She was playing with toys and I had to take some pics.  She LOVES it when I sing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" to her.  I was singing it when I took this picture.  I knew it would get me a big smile!

{Sweet baby girl!}