I'm 2 years old!

Happy 2nd Birthday Kaitlynn Nicole!
This is a typical picture for us these days. Either Kaitlynn looks cute and we don't or we do and she's not looking!
Yes there was snow...LOTS of snow!! Last year we played outside after the party. Maybe next year!
Grandma and Papa Hardie gave Kaitlynn my old table and chairs which they repainted. She's going to have just as much fun as Ryan and I had with it over the years!She LOVES her new table!
Yummy food and decorations
She had to take off every single little piece of paper and tape from her presents!
She had lots of helpers!
The cute springy cake that should have had snowflakes instead!
Notice how neatly she cleaned all of the frosting off...she's definitely my girl!!

Here are some of the party guests!
Emma and JoanneAlex and NicholasSaying good-bye to the guests!

Now that Kaitlynn has started talking in more phrases and sentences it's so much fun to see what she's learning and how much she picks up from watching people do things! We've even started to have some entertaining conversations. With her little personality I'm sure these are the first of MANY to come!

Yesterday were out running errands and she said "Mommy pray" I asked her if she wanted to say a prayer and she said "yeah". So, I turned off the music and as she had her hands folded over her eyes I said a prayer. Then she said "Amen...I pray Mommy" I said "Do you want to pray, too?" She said "Yeah" and folded her hands over her eyes again and sat there for a couple of seconds. It was such a precious moment!

She is also obsessed with birds right now and we see LOTS of them on the way to her babysitters house every morning. The entire 12 min. drive I here "Where birds go mama? Where birds go mama? Bye bye birds. Where birds go mama?..." You get the idea! I try to change up my responses to where the birds are going to make it a little more entertaining for me!!

Yesterday I was taking pictures of the diaper cakes I had made (see pictures below) and Kaitlynn was doing puzzles in her high chair. She kept saying "Me cheese, mommy" So I took her picture, too!

Here are some pictures of her time with Daddy the last couple of weeks. He still keeps her one day a week when his schedule allows it. Apparently there is lots of cute snuggly sleeping time...and moments that look like this!
Here they are sleeping a couple of night ago. I thought it was hilarious that both of their mouths are open the same amount!
When we got the call that Annie and Jake were on the way to the hospital to deliver baby Abby, we put Kaitlynn's "I'm gonna be a big cousin" shirt. We had made it last summer and Annie held her up to announce to the family that she was pregnant. Last summer this shirt hung down past Kaitlynn's knees!
Look how big she's getting!
I kept bending down to take the picture and every time I would do that she would bend down, too! She of course thought it was hilarious!

Here's our new kitchen table...we LOVE it! We also discovered yesterday that crayons do wash off of it. Always good information to know!

These are a few diaper cakes I made this weekend for shower gifts and one that a staff member at my school "ordered" from me. I think they turned out pretty good!

Our New Niece

We are thrilled to announce that we are Aunt Meghan, Uncle Matt and Cousin Kaitlynn! Abigail (Abby) Elaine was born this morning. She weighed 7.1 lbs (exactly the same as Kaitlynn!) and was 19.5 inches long. Annie and Jake are doing great. I'm sure we'll have TONS more pictures to share as the week goes on! I'm going out to see them during my spring break and I can't wait!Welcome to the world Abby!

I thought it would be interesting to compare Kaitlynn's newborn pictures to Abigail's and I have to say...they look a LOT alike!
Here's Kaitlynn

Now back to Abby...
Kaitlynn let Abby borrow her Iowa hat. I don't think we ever got a picture of Kaitlynn wearing it. Now I wish we did because it's so darn cute!
How sweet is this??

Snow/Super Bowl/Valentine's Day

Okay, so I know I'm WAY overdue on updating the blog. What can I say? Life is busy! We are "patiently" waiting on news of our new niece who will hopefully be born soon! Annie's been having contractions the last 2 days but they keep starting and stopping. We're so excited to be an aunt and uncle and I can't wait to see what she looks like. If she looks anything like Annie then the baby and Kaitlynn will probably look a lot alike. Considering the fact that Kaitlynn looks more like she could be Annie's child than mine!!

We continue to be amazed at Kaitlynn and all the new things she's learning every day. She's starting to have many pretend conversations with her dolls and toys. Lots of things have been going to time-out lately! Every day when I take her to the babysitter we drive over train tracks. She usually just says "choo choo" but this morning she said "Choo Choo, Choo Choo Thomas" (Thomas the Train) "Thomas, Where's Thomas? I don't know?"

She is certainly a little dare devil which just about gives me multiple heart attacks daily! She will climb on EVERYTHING and is not afraid of falling or getting hurt. We've also decided that she should wear a helmet because she probably hits her head at least 10 times a day. Thankfully she is a tough little cookie and hardly ever cries when she's hurt.

Jo, Jarred, Emma, Olivia, and Michael, Jennifer, Nicholas and Alex all came over to watch the Super Bowl with us. We ate, dug through Kaitlynn's clothes for Olivia to borrow and played with the kids while the boys watched the game.
Kate and Olivia even got to take their first bath together!
A "mooch" for Iya (Olivia)
My parent's came to KC 2 weekends ago so Matt and I went out to Cheesecake Factory for our annual Valentine's date. It was delicious and we had such a good time getting out for a bit!
Just being cute before church
This was a snow storm after Christmas. It was really cold but they had a fun time running around in the snow for a while.
Daddy taught her how to make a snow angel
We went up to my grandparent's house this past weekend since we didn't get to see any of them at Christmas. We had a great time and are so excited for Mark and Diane's house which is almost finished!
Opening her Valentine presents. She kept yelling "presents, presents" We didn't get to see this excitement at Christmas because she was so sick so it was fun to watch her. Her birthday should be a fun time!
Enjoying a tasty sucker with Daddy
Checking out the snow. Our drive home that afternoon wasn't too much fun on the drifting country highways.
She loved to rock Great Grandma
Happy Valentine's Day!


When we were unpacking from our trip somehow Kaitlynn ended up in one of our bags. Matt carried her around for quite a while and she just sat there having a great time. It was probably much funnier in person but we got a good laugh out of it!
Too funny!
The other night I asked Tucker if he was hungry and Kaitlynn went to the cupboard completely by herself, got out his food container and put what was left in his bowl. She's growing up so fast!
Tonight when I got home I handed her my sweater and asked her to take it to Mommy and Daddy's room. I heard another door close so I went in to check it out and couldn't believe what I saw. She had taken it not only into our room, but into our closet, put it in the laundry basket, closed the closet door and was headed back out to the kitchen!