February

This month we made Valentines cards with Grant, Meghan, and Ainsley. They had fun. For awhile. You know, I'm not sure my own attention span ever passed that age...

Kate has always liked swimming. We went swimming at the indoor pool at the gym and a water aerobics class was going on. The instructor got on her handset and said she was the youngest ever in her class. :)

What a sweetie!!!

Splashing

Here comes the shark!

Kate likes swimming in her bathtub as well. I just like molding her hair with shampoo when she lets me.

Wild and crazy hair!!!

Kate's birthday was this month and we had a ball celebrating it. Lots of people from both families came to have dinner and cake with us. Kate loved her gifts. She got new toys and books, clothes and videos. I think most of all she liked the attention of all her family. At least until the pink elephant came in the door. She test-rode the elephant at Pottery Barns Kids when we were playing at Trolley Square. It was so funny to see her reaction. She started yelling in excitement. I've never seen anything like it. She was great with her cake - which took awhile to make, a safari in frosting - everyone sang and at the moment they finished, she blew out her candles. We all looked at each other in surprise, no one has ever taught her that...

Opening gifts

The pink elephant

Blowing bubbles

Blowing out candles

January

It always seems the month after Christmas is somewhat dull. This year held up to that norm well. We just sort of made it through the days and tried to get back to normalcy. Honestly I HATE taking down the Christmas tree, not because of the mess or work but because the house seems so empty without those extra twinkly lights and i am so light dependant. On that note I wasn't super thrilled about the news that we will be moving to the gloomiest city in the US, syracuse NY at the end of the summer for Jon to go to PA school. It's for the best though. i'll just have to buy a few extra lamps and lots of plants. maybe a greenhouse. :)

Pictures for this month are scarce, I was photoed out over Christmas I guess. Kate and I made Valentines cookies. She loves mixing and decorating them.

ma petite artiste

what a sweetie!

december

So. december. What a busy month. Family parties, Christmas events, fun in the snow, visits to the light displays. So here we go.

Zoo Lights

Hogle Zoo has an event called Zoo Lights. It's a pretty cool show of lights. All the lights are set up as animals. I personally liked the tiger... It was rather bitterly cold but Kate had a blast. We took a turn on the carousel, of course, and Kate rode a zebra this time. There were so many cute little displays. Well worth the trip!

Tiger

Riding the carousel Freezing!
Grandma and Kate enjoying the lights


Fun in the Snow
Though she seemed reticent at first to put on the snowpants and everything, she was pretty happy to be outside playing in the snow. She is so cute!

snowpants
building a snowman
throwing snow!

man, she is so cute.

strolling...

Visiting Santa

Kate was pretty good at saying "Santa", excited to see his picture, etc. but when it came to seeing him in person it was a different story... She was terrified of the old man. Not that I blame her really. He would be pretty scary to me if I were that little. So I had to sit next to Santa with her, and even that was pushing it...

Dinner at the Macaroni Grill

We had dinner at the Macaroni Grill with Nick, LaRisse, Grandpa and Grandma after visiting Santa. We had a great table right by the fireplace, and the food was wonderful.

Nick and LaRisse

Grandpa and Grandma

Posing

I wanted to take a picture of Kate with her reindeer antlers by the tree for a potential Christmas card (it never happened as you will all guess since no one got a card...). I got some pretty funny shots. My favorite is of Maggie, the cat, though.

Ho Ho

my little reindeer

Maggie. What a patient cat.

Christmas Eve

Nathan, Kim, and the kids came up to celebrate Christmas Eve with us. It was fun watching them open their gifts. Kate always has a blast with her cousins, especially when they are so excited. Kate got a cool new tea set from her cousins.

Grant being a lion?

Aunt Karen gave mom and dad a lamp like the one in the "Christmas Story" movie. It had a leg with fish-net tights and everything.Kate playing with her new tea setOne pooped-out Grant.

Christmas Morning

We opened gifts quickly at home Christmas morning before heading off to visit Grandma Vise and John. Kate got a little train from Grandpa and Grandma that she had tons of fun with. It was fun to watch her with her gifts. She seemed sort of dazed at the big pile for her. It was sort of hard to get her to open multiple presents because she just wanted to play with the ones she'd already opened.

Kate's new train

Kate with her cousin HudsonKate laying on her Aunt Melissa's pregnant belly

New Year's Eve

Nathan's family came up for New Year's Eve. They had a great time playing with Kate's new train. Meghan got a little worn-out pushing Ainsley and Kate around.