Saturday, June 6, 2009

Quick Pool Adventures

Last week I got out Kaitlynn's little pool from Grandma and Grandpa Hardie. The water was still pretty cold so she didn't really care to be in it for long. In fact, I had time to take these 3 pictures very quickly and then she spent the rest of the time trying to escape to walk up the deck steps! You would think she would like to wander around the yard freely but all she wants to do is climb up the steps.
And...there she goes!I also wanted to share some pictures of our new fence and decorations from my parents on top of our kitchen cabinets. The kitchen pictures didn't turn out too great but you get the idea! We absolutely LOVE having our fence. It was the best investment we've ever made. Tucker is such a better dog now that he can run freely and it's just nice feeling like it's our own space to hang out in.
He has a new job which is to chase the squirrels away from the bird feeder. He's getting really good at it!
Here's a view of the deck. We have been hanging out just about every evening. It's just so quiet and relaxing. I hope when we move someday we can find another house with woods behind us.
Here's the kitchen...sorry they're really dark!

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Iowa Visit

We went up to Iowa this weekend because I had the week off before summer school starts and Matt was off Wednesday-Friday. We took advantage of free grandparent babysitters and celebrated our 5 year anniversary Wednesday night. My parent's kept Kaitlynn over night and we had a great time relaxing and having some time to just the 2 of us. We stayed the other 2 nights with Matt's parents so Miss K got plenty of attention!
Helping Mommy open some early birthday gifts. Fun stuff for the top of our kitchen cabinets!
I think the plate stand works better on my face!
Trying out Mommy's rocking chair. She also loved to get up and down in Daddy's old rocking chair at Grammy and Granpa Sewing's house.
This is her new look when she isn't happy with something. It's not exactly the cutest face in the world! I'm pretty sure the pouty lip is going to get more sympathy then this!
Us girls have been stuck at home all weekend without a vehicle so as you can tell, we've had a lot of time to play! She was being really silly yesterday and was cracking herself up playing with a box. I got some cute videos, too!
She's really been into looking at books lately.
We still don't have much hair on top and pretty much nothing on the sides but there is now enough to do a couple of tiny pigtails in the back! They didn't last long but it was sure cute!
Check out my new tooth on the bottom left. Due to major fussing the last few days and those swollen gums I think there are probably some more teeth ready to pop through...hopefully soon!
This is a Kaitlynn trademark. She'll walk up to anyone, lay her head on your leg and say "hi" or "oohh" She sure knows how to melt your heart!



Tuesday was her last day at Kathy's house. We were so blessed to have such a wonderful person to care for Kaitlynn every day. We're going to miss her so much but are looking forward to her new adventures at Jennifer's house. She'll start there on Monday.
This is Braeden. His mom, Jennifer is going to be watching Kaitlynn for this next school year and summer school. There are also 2 other kids from Kathy's who are going there, too. I'm happy that Kaitlynn will already know the kids and loves playing with them!
Thanks for sharing in Kaitlynn's first year, Kathy. You'll always be a part of her life!

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Mother's Day

Kaitlynn and I had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend! We drove up to Iowa Friday evening and came back on Sunday afternoon. Matt had to work so he stayed here. We hadn't been back since Christmas so our weekend was filled with driving around to see all of our family. We'll be back several times this summer so it won't be so long next time!

This post is in reverse order. I didn't feel like switching all of the pictures around this time!
Happy Mother's Day with Mommy, Kaitlynn, Grammy and Great Grandma Wiese at the pancake breakfast at St. Pat's Church.
Giving Asha "high fives" She's getting really good at them and even tries to give them to strangers while we're shopping!
Don't worry, she gets NO attention!
The Wiese clan took up 3 tables and we weren't even all there!
Trying to escape with Aunt Janice
Being a mother is the best thing I've ever been blessed with. I never thought you could love someone so much. She is just so amazing!
Check out all that hair! It's actually really cute with a little bow in it, but she will NOT keep them in anymore. Every time she yanks it out hair comes with it. The other day 11 hairs came out with the bow. This is a big problem because we need EVERY single hair that is growing up there!
Saturday evening we went over to Grammy and Grandpa's to play for a while.
This was her first time in Grammy's new swing. Although, she wasn't so sure about it. We're thinking about putting one up under our deck but I think she needs some more practice before she will really enjoy it!
Grandpa Ken had a knee replacement surgery a couple of weeks ago. He was very excited to see Miss Kaitlynn.
This was also her first encounter with a cat. She stared at Toby for a very long time. Eventually she started pulling his hair out and handing it to me. The poor little guy just laid there and let her do it!
Saturday morning we went over to the farm to visit my side of the family. Spencer came back from Iowa State for the weekend. I love this picture!
Mark and Diane are building a new house and we are so excited for them! We spent most of the afternoon looking through paint colors, blind samples, counter tops, etc. and even got to help them pick out some combinations. I can't wait to see it all put together! Kaitlynn even helped pick out some light fixtures.
Aunt Diane gave her a cute new little skirt and shirt for this summer. I think she was more impressed with the gift bag she chose to wear as a hat with the help of Great Grandma Clouse.
"How big is Kaitlynn?" When asked this question she puts her hands on her ears instead of up in the air. We'll keep practicing!
This is my new favorite! Doing patty cake with her Great Grandad Clouse. So cute!
Sleeping on the way up to Iowa with her burp rag on her head.
Last Thursday was her first day with her car seat turned around to face forward. As you can see, she was pretty proud of herself!

We are also so excited for Jo, Jarred, and Emma Lee and the arrival of Olivia Lillian Lee! She was born last week and is beautiful! We got to go up to the hospital to visit them.
Emma is such a good big sister.
Giving Olivia a "mooch" I'm sure it is the first of many to come!
So sweet!
This was last week right before bed time. I usually fold the laundry on the guest bed and then put it away. Although, I'm going to have to be much quicker about the putting away part. My sweet little pumpkin loves to pull all the clean and folded clothes onto the floor and then throw them around and even sometimes dresses herself in them. This night she ended up with another set of pj's around her neck!

The most exciting news of the week is that we got our new fence put up! It is a 4 ft. picket fence and it was probably the best money we have ever spent. Tucker is loving being able to just be free and run around. I can't tell you how excited I am to not have to untangle him in the rain, mud, snow, dark, heat, etc. Even though we can still see all of our neighbors (including the ones who think we live in the country with a campfire complete with tree stump seats, 2 boats, archery seat things in the trees, trampoline and even 3 live ducks with a little swimming pool...I couldn't joke about this!) it still seems like our own little space.

We have a lot more landscaping to do this summer, but it will be fun to have some new projects to work on together.

Monday, April 27, 2009

We're Walking!

Last week Kaitlynn's Grammy and Great Aunt Julie came to stay for a few days while our babysitter was out of town. They did lots of shopping and Kaitlynn had a wonderful time playing with them! On Saturday we went to the Legend's to go shopping. We met up with Dana, Dan and Courtney and the girls ran around together for a while. We didn't get a lot of shopping done but they had a good time!
I love this picture!
Grandma and Grandpa Hardie got her this outfit for Christmas. It's still a little bit, but super cute! Those pants will eventually be capri's like they're supposed to be!
I didn't any picture of her and Courtney walking around but I did get one of her with Jean. It was SO windy that day!
Walking around in her new pink tennis shoes.
I love my Grammy!
The other night she was playing in the living room while Matt and I ate dinner. When I realized it had been quiet for a while I went to check on her. She had somehow gotten herself inside her tunnel which was wedged between the fireplace and the plant. She was working really hard trying to figure out how to get out of it, but once she saw us then she started crying. Of course I had to take time to grab the camera before I helped her out! Isn't that what any good mom would do?!?
Checking out the neighbors in her piggy pj's!

The last week our two Kaitlynn has really taken off with her walking. She still hasn't quite figured out how to stand up and walk without first pulling herself up on something but we're shocked at how steady she is getting with it already! She is also talking like crazy. Well...at least a couple of new words. We also noticed yesterday that she's already started to copy what we're saying. If she said the words out of context you would probably have no idea what she's saying but when she says it right after we do you can defnitely make out that is what she's attempting to say.

Some of her favorite words are:
mama
dada
Tucker
dog
woh (we hear this a lot!)
no no
no
down
wa er (water)
mik (milk)
done
Sarah (Aunt Sarah was pretty proud of this!)
oof (woof)
mo (more)
Oh wow

Here are some videos from the past couple of weeks. Enjoy!