Sledding

On Sunday we packed up the car (and the dogs) to take a road trip to Michigan to see family for Christmas. After about a 15 hour drive, our first (long) stop was my parent's house. We packed all our snow gear so that hopefully we could take Kaitlyn for her first sledding adventure. We got some fresh snow Monday night, and that made the perfect sledding hill for a toddler. At first, Kaitlyn wasn't too sure about the whole sledding thing. After a few times down the driveway she had a blast! The dogs also really enjoyed sledding too! We also pulled her in the sled around the block, she really enjoyed her "winter stroll."

Here's a few videos from her first sledding experience:

Merry Christmas, early!!

We have been having Christmas all week long at our house! Since we will be traveling to Michigan in a few days, there are some gifts that we wanted Kaitlyn to open early (as some presents won't be able to make the trip north because they are too big). It's been a lot of fun watching her open gifts, and play with her new (age appropriate) toys.

My new outfit from Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Wood :)
It's toasty warm :) Thank you so much!

All of Kaitlyn's grandparents went in on getting her a wagon. Since we couldn't fit the box in our car (and all our travel things) we let her open it early. She LOVES it!!!! The past few days it's been pretty chilly outside, so we've kept the wagon in the house. Kaitlyn has her baby and Minnie strapped in for the ride and she'll pull (or push) the wagon around herself. She really likes it when the puppies go for a ride with her. I think the dogs kind of like the little ride. :) We had a beautiful day out today, so Mike took Kaitlyn around the block a few times in her wagon. She really enjoyed herself! She actually stayed in the wagon (didn't want to get out and push) the whole time, and they were out about 45 minutes! What a great gift!!! Thank you, Grandmas and Grandpas for the awesome wagon!

(notice her baby and Minnie are both strapped in! hehehe)

Riding in the living room with the puppies...



Presents from Grandma and Grandpa Landis

I love to read and color with Mommy and Daddy!
Thank you so much for the Princess books and coloring books (that's much better than a blank sheet of paper)




Nativity from Mommy and Daddy, we can't tell if she likes it yet ;)

Box Car

Kaitlyn and I made a car out of a big box today. She really enjoyed taping and coloring her box car. Even the dogs got to have a ride. I took a few pictures while we were making the car, and I'm glad I got a few. After the first ride, Kaitlyn crashed her car into the door (she was pushing her babies in the box) and totaled the front of her car. Good thing it's made of cardboard. We had lots of fun today!

this is from a few days ago...
she dumped all her toys out (look to the right) to sit in the basket.

this happy face came while we were watching a video of cousin Luke

Kaitlyn has to pick the right color for her car

color, color, color. She had a blast getting to color the "box car"

nice set of wheels you got there :)

Busy body

Kaitlyn sure knows how to keep busy during the Christmas season! She really has been a joy to watch :) She loves stickers, and one night she wanted to share all her stickers with Daddy. Daddy didn't see her loading up his sock with decorations.


Kaitlyn found my Mickey Mouse hands. She LOVES them. Here she is putting on the gloves...

... and saying "pat-a-cake, bakers man"...

... "mark it with a B"... Opa taught her Pat-a-cake, and she keeps finding new ways to say it.

Chef Kaitlyn is cooking for her dolls, using the doll's kitchen. Tasting it to be sure it's just right!

Time to feed her baby!

Kaitlyn likes to say "eeeeeeee" for pictures, works just as good as cheese :)

This picture looks like Kaitlyn is waiting for dinner, but really... she just finished it.

This video is a little dark, but I just love hearing Kaitlyn play!



Daddy was bouncing Kaitlyn on his knee, and then stopped...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ok, I definitely need to get better with blogging again. This once a month thing has got to be sad for all the grandmas and grandpas!
Today is Thanksgiving! We have so much to be thankful for! I am thankful for a healthy child, thankful for a wonderful husband (even if he watched the Lions instead of helping in the kitchen- haha), thankful for our beautiful home, having a job (both Mike and I), and of course thankful for our Savior. God has showered us with many blessings this year, and we look forward to see what He has in store for us in the future.

Our jumping bean, also known as Kaitlyn, has 3 new teeth coming in, and one just about to cut her gums (all her "fang" teeth). She is such a mommy's helper! Today I put up our Christmas decorations, and she wanted to help me put the ornaments on the tree. She would take the ornament hold it up to the tree and let go (not realizing that they needed to have a hook to stay). It's so sweet to watch her, especially when she's in her own little world.


We recently got a few cute videos of Kaitlyn that we have to share. She is quite a ball of energy! It's hard for her to sit still for a while. She will watch a few minutes of a movie (her favorites include Elmo and The Little Mermaid), and then she'll move on to something else.




here's my little helper!

End of November already????

Where has the time gone?!?!?! We've had a busy month... Mike's semester is winding down, I've been training a lot of servers at work (bulk up for the holidays), and Kaitlyn is learning new words and actions every day.

Unfortunately, Kaitlyn has learned how to take off her diaper and make a mess in her crib. So we've got training pants and have really been talking to her about the potty. I think she thinks that her potty is a toy. Potty training is a work in progress... part of me thinks she's ready, but another part of me thinks she's not.

Kaitlyn really watches us, and it's funny the things she picks up. She says "pray" before we eat, and she will put her hands together and bow her head. It's really sweet. She likes to take my make up brushes and brush them all over her face, she loves to color and can draw circles and faces pretty well. She knows names of some people that she sees often, and she recognizes Grandma's voice (I usually have her on speaker when I talk to her). Kaitlyn also knows quite a few Disney character names including Mickey Mouse, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, and Ariel. Here's a picture of Kaitlyn with her Mickey and Minnie she got from Grandma Van. The hat and book also came from her too :) Thanks Grandma!

Kaitlyn likes to take off her socks and put on Daddy's

I tried on Kaitlyn's winter gear that I got last year (80% off) to see if it fits, and it does! Kaitlyn kept wanting to buckle the snow pants, and zip the coat the rest of the night. I cannot wait to take her sledding this year when we go to Michigan...

Kaitlyn looked like Santa in this mornings bath. Daddy put bubbles on his face, and Kaitlyn thought it looked funny, so she would put the bubbles on her face and would laugh hysterically (I guess she thought she looked funny like Daddy).

When Kaitlyn cannot get the door open, she knocks to see if someone will open it for her. Daddy had just left for work, and I think she must have forgotten he was gone. She was looking for him.

Halloween 2009

On Friday, Oct 30, we went to our playdate in costume. All the kids dressed in costume, and we did a Halloween craft and frosted a cookie (Kaitlyn didn't frost hers, she just ate it). It was so much fun to dress up a day early! Thanks Maud for opening your home and having fun crafts for the kids!

All the kids :)

Kaitlyn and Logan (they are two months apart)

On Saturday, we met some friends downtown Edmond for trick or treating. It was a beautiful day (very sunny) for trick or treating! Kaitlyn loved wearing her costume.

waiting in line for candy

Mom, do we have to wait in LINE for candy?

in between downtown and neighborhood trick or treating, we took off the costume so Kaitlyn could have some dinner. Her black nose got rubbed off a little. She kind of made a mustache under her nose. After dinner we got her costume back on, her nose fixed, and we were off for some candy! We took the stroller with us because we thought she might get tired of walking, but we only used to hold her candy! (her bucket got a hole in it)

Daddy's pushing Kaitlyn to the first house

Kaitlyn is looking at her empty bucket

At the first house, Kaitlyn saw a dog behind the lady handing out candy. She was more interested in petting the dog! After going to a few houses, Kaitlyn was knocking on the doors waiting for candy. She was darling to watch!

Little Dipper

Kaitlyn is really good at dipping chicken nuggets (or anything really) in her ketchup. She sees us dipping, and she wants to do everything we do. I was dipping my cookie in milk, and Kaitlyn wanted to do it too. To prevent her whole hand going in my milk, I got a little paper cup with a little bit of milk in there. She was happy to be able to dip her cookie, check out how good she is! :)

ABCs

Kaitlyn is learning her ABCs. She will say the first 4 letters, and make up the rest, it's cute :) We keep saying the alphabet to help her learn. She does the same with counting. She knows all the numbers 1-10, but only knows 1-5 in the right order. It is really neat to see her remembering sequences.

Mama's Birthday weekend

This past weekend my parents came for a short visit to celebrate my birthday. Kaitlyn remembers Mamaw and Papaw, and greeted them with open arms and kisses.


On my birthday, the boys made breakfast for all of us, and we went to the science museum in OKC.

Good morning, sunshine! :)

Outside the science museum

The boys are trying to build an arch out of square blocks

Tada!

Kaitlyn's an astronaut

Climbing to the top of the 3 story slide :) I don't know about Kaitlyn... but I was a little dizzy once we got to the bottom.
Mike shows me his amazing paper airplane. 2nd grade was a loooooong time ago for him, I'm surprised he remembered how to make one! :) He made a really awesome flyer! :)


Kaitlyn didn't want to watch the balls circulate on the table, she just wanted to drop them in the hole.

Showing off her tumbling skills at the Gymnastics Hall of Fame

Forward roll, with a little help from mama

Balance beam, piece of cake

On the ride home, Kaitlyn wanted to look cool with her shades on

We had a lot of fun at the science museum in the morning. We came home to have lunch and open presents. Kaitlyn really enjoyed my presents, and she got to wear them before I did. I got these shoes with birthday money from Mike's parents (Thanks Mom and Dad!). There is a video of her playing with them too (at the end of the blog).

Say Cheese!

Kaitlyn likes to play with my hat, but she can't see when it's on forward...
so it usually goes on backward

Mike and I got to enjoy a dinner out, and Grandma and Grandpa stayed home with Kaitlyn. We had a really nice time at The Melting Pot. The food there is delicious, and of course we saved room for dessert! That's the BEST part!!!!
Sunday, after church, we had birthday cake. I had 26 candles on the cake... one candle would have been plenty... but I blew them all out in one breath! I guess we'll see if I can do that 26 years from now... HA!

Mike was a little disappointed with his tiny piece of cake... his scoop of ice cream was much larger. Don't worry, the cake lover got a 2nd (and larger) piece.
While my parents were here, we did a little decorating to make our house feel much more homey. We've done a lot of painting since we've moved in, and still have one more room we want to do soon. This picture is Kaitlyn's (and guest) bathroom. It used to be maroon, and now it's very cheery with yellow walls, and bright colored towels. You can't see it, but there are purple rugs at each sink and around the toilet. I picked up a new shelf for towels over the toilet- it's really nice because it doubles as a shelf and a towel bar.

My mom had drapes that she wasn't using anymore. She brought them with her on the plane, and boy do they look nice (and i haven't even painted yet)! We got a heavier pole to put the drapes on, we also raised the window treatments up about 8 inches so they would cover the whole window. This is the last room we want to paint. The navy blue and sport ball border is a little young for a guest room.
We now have things on our walls! yay! These are things that we had in our previous place, but they weren't hung together before. What a difference it makes to have things on the walls!
The metal plates was a birthday present from my mom and Kevin. It really adds a little something to such a bare area. Thank you for helping "spruce" up the place :)

I had a GREAT birthday weekend. Thank you to everyone that sent a card :) I really felt special and loved (even being this far away). Now I hope you enjoy the videos I got of Kaitlyn this weekend. She is just a sweet baby, and I love watching her play :)

Mama's shoes


Kaitlyn plays with her babies