Remembering the everyday blessings...

Life

2011-04-13T08:26:00.002-05:00

Well it has been forever and a day since I have been on here and of course a lot has changed, that's life right?! We had our baby girl Ellie on June 29th. She was the exact measurements that kate was, 6 pounds 14 ounces and 21 inches long. She is now 10 months old and crawling around this house like crazy! She is so much fun and really a very happy baby!

Kate adores being a big sister and they are already starting to play together. Kate started preschool this year and loves it. She goes twice a week but if it were up to her she would go everyday. She also started playing t-ball this spring, her team is the Gators and they are all so cute!

Ronnie and I have been keeping ourselves busy with volunteering at church. I am running VBS this year and writing the curriculum for sunday school, I love it but it sure does keep you busy! Ronnie went down to volunteer at a rehab place called u-turn that our church supports, he came home tired but he thought it was a neat place for people to get their life back on track.

This summer Ronnie's mom and brother are joining us here in the lone star state. We are all so excited to have them closer to us!! This summer will be packed with fun and a very busy schedule but we are enjoying being a family of four! Just wanted to post a quick summary of what is going on with us so hopefully I will keep this more updated. I was dragging my feet because I didn't want to write one long post so I decided to just do the quick one and then try to keep up with the blog from here on out. We will see how often I update but hopefully it will be at least once a week!

Ellie's Room and Pregnancy Update

2010-06-20T23:42:00.002-05:00

So Ellie's room is pretty much done! I love how it turned out! I still need to add curtains and a diaper stacker but my mom is going to make those and she gets in to town on Wednesday so hopefully that will be up soon. Most of the stuff in her room is hand made or I got a thrift stores and re-painted, I love a good deal! I got the idea for her nursery from the canopy I saw in Pottery Barn Kids and kind of made that the center of the room and worked around it. It was a splurge but I am so glad we did it. I have two weeks left till my due date and I can't believe how fast time is going. I go to the doctor again on Thursday to see how I am progressing, last week I was 1 1/2 cm so we will see if I have gotten any further. I sure hope so, it is soo hot outside and I really can't wait to have her! I can't wait to post photos of our new little girl, until then below are more pictures of her room!

Update and Easter Pics

2010-04-14T22:37:00.002-05:00

I know it is May and I am just now updating with Easter pictures but at least I am updating!

We have had a busy couple of months around here getting ready for this new little one to arrive. We started on the nursery, still not done but when it is I will update with the pics of it. We finally choose a name for her Ellie Noelle Read. That only took forever, but I love it and I love using her name when I talk about her. I can't wait for her to be here, only 7 more weeks until her due date! Yay! It is already getting hot here in Texas and I am not looking forward to being prego with this heat so hopefully she will come just a little early!

We had ours friends the Morris' out for a week to visit and we had fun hanging out enjoying the company. I love watching our girls play, they are so adorable! Kate misses her friends and asks for them about once a week. They really did get a long together great for being together for a full week. I enjoyed having Aimee out, made me wish we lived closer but I was happy that she could come for a visit!

Kate is growing up so fast! I signed her up for pre-school and she is sooo excited to go. She asked if she got to go on a school bus and I told her that would be for when she was older, she was kinda disappointed but then we got to do a walk through at the school and Kate loved it! The little girls bathroom is all decorating in Princess decor and Kate came home and wanted me to do her bathroom that way! She is making Ronnie and I laugh daily with her little insight into life. I love it! She is very excited for Ellie to be here although if you ask her she will tell you she can't wait to be a big sister but she doesn't like the name Ellie cause it sounds like a boy. :) Silly girl! Kate also loves singing lately, she can't go five minutes without a song coming out of her. Most of them are made up and go along with what she is playing with at the time, it is pretty funny to listen to her go around the house singing while I am cleaning.

So that has pretty much been life lately, getting ready for baby #2 and having fun with Kate at this age. Here are just a few pictures that we took during Easter.

Easter 2010

27 Weeks!

2010-04-03T11:52:00.001-05:00

Only one more week until my third trimester!

Spring

2010-03-21T23:30:00.001-05:00

Just wanted to update ya'll on what has been going on here. Well it had started of beautiful here in March! We have been enjoying going outside to play and trips to the park. Only this weekend we got over four inches of snow! So crazy and not what I wanted with the weather finally getting normal! The weather says it will go back to normal tomorrow so I hope that is true!

Everything is going great with this pregnancy so far, I am getting the horrible heartburn that I had with Kate but I knew that would come. We decided on Ellie Noelle Read as her name, I am so glad we finally made the decision. It took us forever! She is busy kicking and moving around and Kate loves to talk to her all the time. I love seeing how Kate is reacting to this pregnancy, she is super excited for her sister to be here! I am totally nesting and have been for awhile, anything that I can organize or clean I am doing. I can't wait to start working on Ellie's room, it will be a garden theme and I can't wait to see it actually done! We are doing kate's room as well so she gets a new big girl room, fun times!

Kate is growing like crazy! She actually fits in 3T clothes! Well for length anyways, not do much in the waist. But this is the first time since she was born that she actually fits in the clothes that go with her age. Her vocabulary is increasing like crazy as well, sometimes it is hard for us to remember that she is a toddler not a little adult with how she has conversations with us!

Ronnie and I are keeping busy with church stuff and work but we are doing great. Ronnie just had his 31st birthday but if you ask him it was his 28th, ha! So that is pretty much it. I have some pictures to post from the snow and our recent trip to Six Flags Over Texas as soon as I can get some time I will put them on here!

SNOW!!

2010-02-11T13:32:00.002-06:00

Ok I know it has been forever since I have posted on here. So much has been going on that I have pretty much forgotten about this little blog. So to get everyone caught up, we are expecting our second little girl in July, I am still working part time, Kate is three and acting like such a little girl not my baby anymore and today we are having quite the snow day! Kate was so excited when we went to go out and play in it. She couldn't make up her mind, she wanted to make a snowman, make snow angels and have a snowball fight all at the same time. I think we have gotten about two inches so far and it is so pretty so I thought I would share some of the pictures with you. I promise I will try and do better about keeping up with the blog and keeping everyone up to date with life and the new little one. We don't have a name yet so I will let you know when we decided what this little girl will be named :)

Snow Day

Arrrggg!

2009-10-24T13:43:00.004-05:00

Kate got to go to her first costume birthday party a couple of weeks ago. The theme was peter pan and to come dressed as your favorite character. I asked Kate what she wanted to be from Peter Pan and she told me the crocodile! Well I couldn't find a crocodile so I asked if there was something else she wanted to be and she said a pirate. I would of thought she would want to be tinkerbell or something girly but nope. We went to the store and bought her costume and then got face make-up to make her look like a dirty pirate. I think she looks so cute! Here she is all dressed up and ready to go, she kept saying Arrgg Matey all day long.

Friends

2009-09-24T22:40:00.004-05:00

This past week I had some wonderful friends come out for a visit, it was so nice to get to hang out again. The last time we all got together was last December so it was well over due! Nicole, Aimee and her two girls came out for 6 days and I got to show them this little town of Paris, Texas. Kate is 6 weeks younger than Aimee's oldest girl and they played so well together! Kate doesn't get along with other kids for long periods of time right now (we are working on it but not quite there) but these two played for a good two days before needing to just have some alone time. Great for 3 year olds! They were too cute playing together and I can't wait for them to hang out again. I had such a fun time with them all and miss them already! Here are just a few pictures Nicole took while out here. I didn't really take any pictures, I wasn't really thinking about that much just really enjoying the time I had with them here.

More Pictures...

2009-09-02T17:28:00.005-05:00

So this post is a little bit of everything. I am posting a few pictures that I have wanted to post but never found the time this summer and some pictures from a little mini vacation we just got back from. It was so nice to get away for a little bit with just Ronnie and Kate. We went up to an area called Broken Bow, OK. It is only an hour away so not to long of a drive, we rented a beautiful cabin and relaxed and looked around the old town. In the old part of town there wasn't much to see so the next day we rented a boat and went out on the lake. I think I want a boat now! In my dreams! On the way home we decided to go the long way into Arkansas and took a scenic drive through the "mountains" there. The highest elevation was 2000 feet or something so compared to what we are used to they were pretty small. It was still so pretty to go up there and look out and see all of the green trees, it kind of reminded me of Washington. Next big event on the calendar is my dear friends Aimee and her girls and Nicole are coming for a visit. I haven't seen them in almost a year! I couldn't believe that when I started thinking about it. It will be so nice to see them again and visit and have the girls play together! Hope you enjoy the pics! I would say I will post more regularly but well life seems to not be slowing down any so my posts will probably stay pretty sporadic, sorry! I have to remember to get all of the summer pictures off of Ronnie's camera and post those soon!

Random with Broken Bow

My Little Cowgirl

2009-07-24T10:03:00.002-05:00

Awhile back Kate started saying the word yeehaw every time she sat down on one of her toys that moved. We thought it was cute and laughed but she recently came up to Ronnie and said that she needed a horse and a cowboy hat so that she could ride it. It struck me then that we are definitely raising a little Texan! So for Kate's Christmas wish list there is a pony and cowboy hat on it :) I guess where we live that could actually become a reality but there is no way that I will be out there cleaning up horse poop! Kate may grow up ok with that but I still have enough of the city left in me that that will never happen!

May Flowers

2009-07-19T23:10:00.002-05:00

I know the weekend is almost over but I told you I would post some pictures this weekend so here you go, even if there is only a half hour left of the weekend!

In May Linda came to visit us for two weeks and we had so much fun! She flew into Austin so we drove down there to pick her up and even though it was a long drive it was really pretty. We got to show her around Paris since this was her first time here and show here the little town we live in.

We ended up driving down to Dallas and went to the zoo there and also went to see the cattle drive in Fort Worth. I think that was our 5th time seeing that since we have moved here. Every time we are down there we head over there usually because we have someone new visiting. Kate loved the zoo and we can't wait to go back again. There was a baby born about twenty minutes before we came to it's cage so we got to see the mother licking her new baby and the baby stand for the first time, it was pretty neat!

After our long drive to Dallas we decided to do another drive to Arkansas. Not the same day though. Linda and Ronnie have some dear family friends in Hot Springs so we took a day to drive out to their place to hang out. Hot Springs is beautiful and I totally want to go back to explore it more. We had a blast hanging out with friends!

When Linda flew home it was out of Austin as well so we decided to make a mini-vacation out if and stayed down there for a few days. It is a really fun city and I am so glad that we went down there. We went to the Capital and the Texas History Museum and so many other cool older buildings. Kate loved the pools at the hotels we stayed at. The last day there we went to an arboretum of sorts and then headed home, which was still a five hour drive away. There was a lot of driving involved while Linda was here but that is pretty usual for us now that we live here. It's funny how we think a two hour drive is like 5 minutes now and Kate is totally cool with being in the car that long now. We really had a great time with Linda while she was out and can't wait to do it again! Since moving here we have gotten to see so much of Texas, next on the list is San Antonio for Sea World, I have heard it is pretty awesome there. So here are some pictures of all of the fun we had while Linda was out.

May

Blog?

2009-06-19T16:18:00.004-05:00

Wow! I can't believe that I haven't posted since April! How lame am I?! We have been so busy here I haven't had much time on my computer lately. I really need to start blogging from my phone! Let's see what have we been up to?? Well, Linda came out for a visit in May and then there was VBS that I ran at our church here in June. It was so amazing and I have a ton of pictures to post of both of those events and I promise I will do that this weekend! I just got back from youth camp yesterday and it was one of the most amazing experiences in my life! I was so blessed by all of the girls in my cabin and their heart for the Lord. I got to pray with one to except the Lord and two of the girls got baptized. AMAZING! Oh yeah there was also our first 4th of July here in Texas and it was pretty cool! I have pictures of that to share as well. I just wanted to get a quick post up while I had a few minutes to let you know that I haven't completely forgotten about the blog just been busy. Working has kept me pretty busy too but we have been having a great summer, although it has been super hot. It was 106 while I was at camp and I thought I was going to die. Ok not really, just being dramatic but I definitely can't wait for it to cool off again! It gets pretty old staying indoors because of the heat. So for the most part we have been keeping busy with Church activities and we are pretty much adjusted to living here. I can't believe it has been a year! I will get more posts and pictures up through the weekend!

Easter

2009-04-24T20:39:00.003-05:00

I am finally getting Easter pictures up here. We played it pretty low key here this year. We went to church and then came home and grilled steaks and had Kate do an indoor Easter egg hunt because it was raining outside. It was very relaxing and enjoyable to just hang out as a family. Here are a few pictures from the day and some of Kate dying Easter eggs.

Easter 2009

Children's Museum

2009-04-09T08:35:00.000-05:00

We took Kate to the Dallas Children's Museum last weekend. I loved that place and so did Kate! I can't wait to take Kate again. They had a fun little area that was a farm and you got to plant seeds (which was really small balls you dropped in holes) and ride tractors and pick fruits and veggies. They also had an ocean room that kate loved to play in. The cool part about that room is they provided water resistant aprons so your kids didn't get super wet. It was was such a fun place that Kate and I could of spent all day at. I just wish it was closer. Here are some pictures of our time there.

Dallas Children's Museum

Alligators Everywhere!

2009-04-08T13:30:00.003-05:00

While my family was here we went to an Alligator Farm. It was one of the creepiest and yet coolest things I have ever done. They had a whole petting zoo as well that we were able to walk around and feed the animals. Kate fed a deer and was laughing every time it liked her hand. At the very end they brought out a baby alligator and let people hold it and pet it. Kate actually went up to the alligator and tried to hold, my dad had to help her because it was pretty strong, but she wasn't scared of it at all! I wouldn't get close to the thing! So here are some pictures of our fun day.

Alligator Farm

Hi Ho Hi Ho It's off to work I go!

2009-03-27T10:09:00.002-05:00

So a couple of weeks ago I started working full time! It makes life a little crazy but the cool thing is I get to bring Kate to work with me and still see her all day. She loves getting to go to work with me and Ronnie, oh yeah I work for Pacific columns. Kate has been doing so good at work too, I set her up in the morning with stuff to play with and she plays until lunch time then she goes down for a four hour nap after lunch which is really cool because that is my super busy time at work. She didn't even take those kind of naps at home! When she wakes up she gets a special snack and usually follows me around the last hour or so. So blogging will be kind of taking a back seat while I am working and trying to take care of Kate and the house chores still. I have a bunch of pictures to update on here and as soon as I get a second to do it I will post them.

My family is visiting us right now which is super fun and we have been doing so much stuff. We visited an alligator farm, which was super freaky, but it also had a bunch of exotic animals that you could feed and pet. Kate loved it! We also went to Dallas and visited the JFK Museum and downtown Fort Worth and saw the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame. I didn't know that existed but it was pretty cool. This weekend I think we will be going up to Oklahoma to see a national park there. We will see though the weather might not be the greatest! So we have been pretty busy here but having a lot of fun and learning new schedules. I promise to update with pictures soon!

Happy Birthday!

2009-03-14T14:49:00.003-05:00

Today is Ronnie's 30th Birthday! We are celebrating kind of low key here today. My parents are coming to town on Friday and we are going to head down to Dallas for a day to celebrate and have fun exploring more stuff. I did make a special cake for him today.

When he saw it he thought it was pretty cool. It was actually pretty easy to make too. My hands are a deep shade of purple and I don't know how long it will take for them to go back to normal from the black food coloring but it was worth it. I love how it turned out! So Ronnie is playing video games, making salsa and we are going to have shredded beef burritos and cake for dinner. Perfect way to celebrate :)

Gardening

2009-03-10T13:04:00.002-05:00

I have started making my garden and will hopefully have it planted this next weekend before all of the rain starts coming in, I just have to put some more soil in it. I really hope I can grow my own yummy tomatoes and green beans and watermelon, yumm!

School Time

2009-03-07T13:06:00.000-06:00

I started kind of doing "preschool" with Kate. Everyday we learn about a letter, number, color and shape and then have a subject that we learn about too. Last week was all about birds and we made birds nests and played games with Easter eggs and had so much fun. Every night she brings Ronnie into the office to show him everything that she made. The first letter we learned about was B since we were learning about birds and the color blue. I printed out a big B and asked Kate if she knew what letter it was, she told me "that is a B mom" with so much attitude! I was shocked that she knew letter and shocked that she already has the attitude of a teenager. I am in so much trouble the older she gets!

Spring is in the air!

2009-03-06T13:05:00.000-06:00

Spring is officially here and we found these beautiful daffodils growing in our backyard. I took Kate outside to explore all of the plants and flowers starting to grow and she had so much fun. I love how she found stuff that I wouldn't of seen at all! We have plum trees here and they are starting to bloom and I can't wait to eat them. Yay for spring and warmer weather!

Redecorating!

2009-03-05T11:03:00.001-06:00

Since my last post we have been busy here getting ready for a full house. Ronnie's brother Mike and his friend Daniel are here working with Ronnie in the warehouse for the next month or so and my family comes for a week at the end of the month. So much fun! Since we were going to have a full house we decided to move Kate's room since it has the only guest bathroom and make that the office/playroom and then move Kate into the room that was the office. I also decided that I wanted to paint a wall in our room which was yellow and red. Two nice colors just not the look that I like and not on the same wall, kind of weird. So I painted the wall gray and I had actually found these really cool shutters at an antique store that was closing down this past summer. I scored them for only 20 bucks! I painted those red and put them behind our rod iron bed the finishing look is below. I completely forgot to take before pictures so all you see is the semi finished product. I still want to get black velvet ribbon and hang small oval frames with black and white pictures from each shutter with the ribbon but until then I love it! I feel like the first time since we have been married I finally have a bedroom that I love.

Kate helped with the painting and I got this cute picture of her :)

Craft Week

2009-02-06T12:17:00.006-06:00

This past week I have been busy making stuff :) I am no Martha Stewart at all, not even close but I do like to try and make cute stuff.

So I made this little sewing book to hold all of those buttons that come on your clothes when you buy them, I always loose them so when I saw this idea I had to try it. I love it! The idea is from Martha of course.

Next I made this busy book for Kate so she could learn how to button her clothes. The hearts have little slits on them to unbutton and button them back onto the book. I got the idea here.

Third I made this heart felt scarf but I am going to use it as a garland for the fireplace for Valentines day.

And last I made these for the table for Valentines Day.

We Have Ice!

2009-01-28T10:59:00.002-06:00

This morning we woke up to the ground covered in ice, it's so bad that Ronnie chose to stay home and work from here rather than go out and drive on the roads. I went out and took some pictures but it had already started melting some so it is kind of hard to see. I just wanted to share with you the freezing weather we have had!

Frozen

I Was Tagged!

2009-01-26T19:09:00.004-06:00

I was tagged by Adrienne

Here are the rules:

1. Go to the 4th picture folder on your computer.
2. Post the 4th picture in that folder.
3. Explain the picture.
4. Tag 4 more people.

This is a picture of me as a little girl and so embarrassing! Can you tell I liked to pose for the camera as a little girl?!

I tag:
Aimee
Michelle
Melissa
Brittany

Overwhelming Joy

2009-01-18T16:29:00.003-06:00

I know I haven't posted in awhile but nothing much has been going on around here. I did recently start going to the Women's Bible Study at our Church and it has been so fantastic! We are going thru the Bible in a year and I am so excited to make 2009 a year that is filled with learning more about God. I also started serving in the youth and I was surprised at how much I liked it. I have always just done kids ministry because that is where I am most comfortable and I really felt like it was time for a change. The youth group here has such an amazing heart for the Lord and I can't wait to see what God does in their lives this year. I am so happy that the Lord brought us to this Church, we have learned so much already. So my days here are slowly getting filled up with Church activites which is a nice change, I loved the time period moving out here that I was able to stay home and spend my days playing with Kate with nothing else going on but I am so excited for this next chapter in my life! Kate is growing up so fast and we are enjoying playing with her and laughing at the funny things she says. We tried potty training last week but I felt so bad because it was so cold here every time she sat down on the potty she would start shaking, so we will postpone that one until it is a little warmer. I love that you can already see the difference of us living here. When I ask Kate if she wants to go bye she says "yes to see cows and stars":)

It all about the Knuckles...

2009-01-05T22:03:00.004-06:00

Today I was sitting on the couch and Kate came up to me and said she needed to give me a BIG hug, so I hugged her. Then she told me she needed a kiss, so I kissed her. Then she told me she needed to rub noses, so we rubbed noses. Then the last thing she asked for was to have some knuckles (knuckles = making a fist and pounding your fists together), I cracked up laughing and gave my daughter knuckles. The things she asks for amazes me and makes me laugh daily! I hope she always asks for the things above...including the knuckles :)

Christmas Unwrapped

2008-12-29T09:25:00.003-06:00

Christmas was so fun for us this year. Kate loved opening her presents. That is until she opened so many she just wanted to sit down and play with them instead of opening more. She actually told me no more presents! Kate got so much this Christmas it was crazy, under our tree was packed with gifts so hopefully it will keep her busy until her birthday next year, one of the downsides of having a birthday and Christmas so close together is the new toys have to last that long in between period. Ronnie got a new model train and he can't wait to have it under the tree next year. I got an IPhone!! I was so excited I thought there was no way Ronnie would actually get it for me but he did! I have been having so much fun with it. After presents in the morning I made Christmas dinner which was super yummy and a lot easier than Thanksgiving because we did a ham instead of turkey. I think we are done with eating ham and turkey for awhile though! We took Kate out to see Christmas lights on houses too and after every house she would ask for more. Now we just can't wait to ring in the New Year! Here are some pictures of Christmas morning.

Christmas Morning

Merry Christmas!!

2008-12-25T06:37:00.000-06:00

We hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

Just Rambles about life

2008-12-23T14:00:00.003-06:00

I can't believe how busy life got when we got back from California, it has pretty much been non-stop! Not that we have left the house everyday but it seems like life is just speeding by with the everyday things like laundry and dishes keeping me busy. Today we had a small Christmas lunch at Ronnie's work for all of the guys that help Ronnie out when a container comes, it was so nice to finally meet all of them. I also went and got my hair done for Christmas and was a little nervous because I had to bring Kate with me and she did so amazing!! She sat and colored almost the entire time and had fun talking to all of the other hairstylists. Kate has been getting more and more excited for Christmas the closer it gets, my mom got her an advent calendar that she gets to open and have a piece of candy everyday. She is kind of bummed that she only gets one more day of candy but then she got all excited and started talking about getting the presents under the tree :) Have I mentioned that this age is so much fun! I love it. We are going to take take to her first movie on Friday and I can't wait to see her face when she sees the big screen. I am sure she will love it. I know there is nothing of real big interest in this post just wanted to update you and let you know that we are still alive and just getting ready for Christmas :) Oh and Kate has learned a new saying that I am not to happy about but it is my fault, whenever Ronnie is loosing at video games she tells him "dang it daddy" it's really nice, NOT! I really have to start paying attention to what I am saying!

A whole lot in one post

2008-12-15T14:17:00.004-06:00

I know it has been awhile since I last posted, we made it back from California and things have been so busy around here trying to get ready for Christmas I haven't had the time to post. So here is pretty much one post for everything that we have been up too.

We had so much fun in California although it was the busiest I have ever been trying to see everyone in such a short amount of time. I can't believe that I didn't take my camera out once while we were there so I only have pictures that my friend Aimee took while we were there. You can click on the picture below to see them all. Her daughters Abby and Hannah are just so adorable and Kate was so excited to see Abby, it was really cute!

Kate and Abby

Since we have been home I decided to make my own Christmas cards this year instead of having them done. Since I have the cricut now it was really fun to make them, here are a few that I made. I tried to make them all a little different. I love how they turned out.

The weather here has been so different since we got back, it has been freezing!! Today we actually had an ice storm and I took some pictures so you can see all of the ice we have around here. It just amazes me that I live somewhere where it gets this cold!

Ice Storm

That pretty much sums up the last couple of weeks, we can't wait for Christmas to see Kate open gifts, she already has some wrapped under the tree and she asks to please open them everyday and we have to keep telling her on Christmas morning she can. She is already so excited for Christmas, I love it! We miss all of you in California already and can't wait to see you again!

Thanksgiving with a little Christmas mixed in...

2008-11-28T21:32:00.004-06:00

I hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving! We had a wonderful day full of great food and just enjoying the day. I actually made the whole meal, the turkey with all of the fixings. It was my first time and I didn't burn the Turkey. :) After the meal and everything was cleaned up I couldn't help but get some Christmas decorations out to start putting up. I love Christmas time so much! Today we finished putting up the decorations and decorated the Christmas tree. Kate was so excited to see the tree when she woke up from her nap. She had a great time putting ornaments on it, although they were all on the same branch. :) Kate even got her own 4 foot tree in her room this year. She keeps taking ornaments off of the tree in the Living room to add to hers, I love how excited she is for Christmas and I can't wait to see her face on Christmas morning when she gets to open the presents. So here are just a few pictures of the last couple of days of holiday fun around our house. I won't be posting for a little bit as we are headed back to California to visit family and friends!! I can't wait to see all of you! I will post pictures when I get back.

Thanksgiving

More Birthday Presents

2008-11-22T17:06:00.004-06:00

Kate got a package in the mail yesterday from her Grandpa and Grandma Danielson for her birthday. The present was so cute! My mom made Kate her own apron along with with some tea towels and an oven mitt so she can help cook. She also found a darling cookbook full of princess recipes for Kate to make and bought a tiara to go along with it. Kate was so excited to open it and she wouldn't let me see the cookbook to see what recipes were in it and wouldn't take of the apron for awhile either. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!!

Favorite Part of My House

2008-11-20T11:39:00.005-06:00

I recently found the blog An Iowa Mom from the Bloggy Carnivals and I love to read it! She is super funny and I love the stories about her family. So this week she is asking questions for her readers and today's was "What room in the house or part of the house is your favorite?" Well since I just moved to a completely new state and we are renting it was kind of hard to pick a room that is my favorite because the house isn't exactly the way I would want it and I don't really want to put the time into the house to make it that way since we hopefully won't be living here that long. So I choose a favorite part of the the room and that is the fireplace mantel. I have pictures and a few decor items on it. The smaller pictures are of my Great Grandmother and the bigger are pictures of the city of Paris. The mantel to me kind of has a past and future theme, at least in my dreams! :) I would love one day to go to Paris and eat the food and stroll down the busy streets. Doesn't that sound like so much fun? I know that I just moved to a city call Paris the only problem is that it is in Texas and not France. And the Eiffel tower here has a cowboy hat on it, not to romantic! Anyways here is the the picture of my mantel.

Pretty Ballerina

2008-11-14T15:30:00.002-06:00

Ronnie got the cutest picture of Kate from Halloween that I just got off of his camera and had to share it with you. She definitely knows how to pose for the camera :)

Two Years Old

2008-11-10T04:20:00.001-06:00

Kate is two today and I really can't believe how fast that has happened! We celebrated her birthday on Saturday, she started the day off by waking up to the living room full of balloons (thanks chelle for that idea) and then had chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. After her nap we took her to Burger King for lunch and then we were off to the park to play. When she looked like she was about to fall asleep on the swings we headed home for presents and cake! We actually had Linda on the computer watching Kate unwrap the presents, it was pretty funny to have the only guest at the the "party" on the computer. :) It was such a fun day and I loved how Kate totally got that it was her birthday. She ripped into her presents and got so excited about each one, every time she opened a present she would forget about the others there because she just wanted to play with the new toys. Kate has really grown up so much, I can carry on a conversation with her and we talk and play all day, it really is the best to be her mom. :) Her favorite thing to do right now is go to Church and I pray that will always be a passion of hers, she comes out of there wanting to sing, it is so cute! I can't wait to see what this year holds for her, she is definitely not my baby anymore but I do love this age!

Kate's Two Years Old

5 Mintues for Mom

2008-11-06T08:29:00.002-06:00

5 Minutes for Mom will be giving away prizes November 6th through the 28th for their Christmas Giveaway. Go check them out and you might win something.

New Doormat

2008-11-04T10:29:00.003-06:00

I saw this doormat and almost died laughing. What do you think should I get it for the front of the house?

Happy Halloween

2008-10-31T17:15:00.002-05:00

Hope you all have a wonderful night!
P.S. I didn't tell her to do that with her hands she just did :)

Cooking her breakfast

2008-10-31T11:13:00.006-05:00

This morning I gave Kate some cereal for breakfast and she decided to take it to her room. I followed and watch as she put it in this...

It is her oven for her dollhouse, apparently she thought it wasn't cooked enough :) She also thought her dolls would enjoy a nice cereal bath.

Carving Pumpkins and The Pumpkin Festival

2008-10-30T21:44:00.002-05:00

This last weekend our town had a pumpkin festival that we took Kate to. She had so much fun, she went on her first Pony ride and decorated cookies. There were so many cool booths of the towns shops to look at and there were really cute places to take pictures of the kids. I have to say I love living in a small town! There is actually a lot of activities to do as a family. On Sunday we took Kate to the local produce stand to pick out a pumpkin and we carved a kitten face into it. She thought the inside of the pumpkin was cool but wasn't so into the actual carving of it, so Ronnie and I did the carving. After that we made caramel apples and took some over to our neighbors and had a great night having dinner with them and hanging out. It was the perfect weekend. There are a ton of pictures that we took so enjoy!

Pumpkin Festival

Kate, Ian and Grandma Brophy

2008-10-28T08:18:00.002-05:00

My sister just posted pictures from when Kate and I were up there last month. We took Kate and Ian to have their pictures done together with my grandma. I thought you might want to check them out. Click on the link below to see all of the pictures

The Whittakers Blog

Time with Mike

2008-10-21T10:06:00.000-05:00

A couple weeks ago we had Ronnie's brother Mike here and we spent time just hanging out and enjoying family around. We went to Dallas for a day of tourism. It started off with going to the Man Mall (Bass Pro Shop) where the guys went to look at guns, bows, knives, golfing equip etc...Kate and I were just along for the ride on that one. Then we went for a tour of the Dallas Cowboys Stadium and all I can say is Wow, and that was the stadium that is being retired after this season! There is a hole in the roof that I found out is so that "God can watch his favorite team play" oh brother :) and we actually got to go out on the field and play with some footballs for 15 minutes. I thought it was amazing that they let us go out on the field and mess around, so cool! After that we went to the grassy knoll and saw where JFK was shot, there are actually two x's in the road, the first is for the shot in the back and the second is for the fatal shot to the head. I didn't remember that one from history class. It was neat to be so close to so much history. From there we headed to the Texas State Fair. This was the third fair that Kate and I have been to this year and by far the best! I ate a fried chocolate truffle that was to die for! Ronnie had fried jelly belly's which were ok. There was a ton more food that we wanted to try but our tummies could only handle so much and there is always next year to try the fried coke and fried smore's :) Kate got to go on the carousel again and then it was time to head home. When Mike left to go home Kate stood at the window and cried "No Mike" it totally broke my heart but I told her that we would see him soon and after a while she calmed down and was her usual self. I think it will take some time getting used to family visiting and not having them around the corner.

Stadium, JFK, State Fair

Her First Bike

2008-10-21T06:24:00.001-05:00

Kate got an early Birthday present from Grandma Read that Uncle Mike brought with him when he came to visit. Her very first Bike! It is so cute how she tries to ride it but she is still a little small to reach the peddles! She was so cute to watch opening the gift and we had Linda on web cam so she got to see Kate too. I think this birthday will be a lot of fun because she totally gets what a present is now.

New Bike

Chocolate Cake!

2008-10-10T19:22:00.003-05:00

I just tried this Chocolate Cake that you can make in 5 minutes and it was pretty good! As soon as I saw it on Dizzy Dee I knew I had to try it, chocolate and cake in only 5 minutes, who wouldn't want to try it. So I had to share with you so you can have a little piece of goodness too! I melted marshmallow and frosted the cake with that, just a little extra goodness! You can add whipped cream or really anything to it that you like! Just make sure the cup you use can go in the microwave or it will break :)

Air Show, Mowing and The Fair

2008-10-03T21:58:00.007-05:00

We have had a fun week here, it started off with the Paris Air Show, which was actually really cool. We got there just in time to see one of the bigger planes take off and we got to stand next to it while they started the plane and started to go towards the runway. We have never been so close to any of the planes while taking off at any other air show we have been too. They had a lot of planes to look at and some really neat model planes that Ronnie wants! Then Ronnie had a really great time mowing the lawn for the first time since we have been married. :) We never had a backyard or front yard that had to be taken care of by us and the lawn was super long so it needed it desperately! Ronnie used two full tanks of gas getting the lawn mowed, I think he will need to do it more often in the future! The week ended with us going to the Fair. It totally reminded me of those country movies where you see the fair with all of the rednecks! We did have a lot of fun and Kate asked to go on the carousel so we took her on it and she had a blast, she actually got to go on it twice. The only bummer for us was the food wasn't very good for a fair but we will be going to the State Fair in Dallas next week so we are pretty sure the food will be like normal fair food there. This next week we have Ronnie's brother Mike coming and his friend Daniel so we will be having fun hanging out with family! We took a few pictures of the adventures over the past week so here you go.

Air Show, Mowing and The Fair

Total Time Killer

2008-10-03T11:01:00.004-05:00

I saw this color test and I tried to do it, you have to arrange all of the colors in order. The best score is zero and I got a twenty, I blame the smog free light that I now live in, I am just not used to seeing pure color :) Just kidding! Anyways just thought it was a fun little test to do if you have some time to kill, the test link is below.

Hue Test

Today is Fun

2008-09-30T09:34:00.003-05:00

I am always looking for fun things to do with Kate. I actually just bought a book that has 365 things to do with toddlers. Kate and I have already done some of the fun things in the book and we can't wait to try more. So I was super excited to find this blog all about things to do to with your kids. The blog is Today is Fun and the best part is at the bottom of each post they have what age is best for the activity. I really can't wait to do the stuff on the blog with Kate and I thought you might want to check it out!

Got Style?

2008-09-19T23:42:00.003-05:00

When we got back from vacation and I was unpacking the next day, Kate found one of her swimsuits that has the floaters in it. I don't really know what the swimsuits are called and she actually didn't wear it on vacation at all because the water was so cold she wouldn't go in. Anyways, she saw the swimsuit and asked me to put it on her, over her pajamas. I was laughing so hard I had to take a picture. She was so proud of her outfit and would scream when I tried to change her. What do you think, is it going to be a new fashion trend :)

Seattle Vacation

2008-09-18T12:28:00.003-05:00

Kate and I went to Washington for two weeks to go on a family vacation with my family. We had a lot of fun and just relaxed. Kate was a crack up with my brothers, she totally wanted to be one of the boys. I got to see my nephew Ian who I haven't seen since he was born and he is so adorable. I miss him so much already. I wish I could say the same for Kate but she didn't like him to much. Every time I held him Kate would come running into the room and say "No Baby Down now" Poor Ian loved to watch Kate and wanted to play with her but she wouldn't have any of it. She did love my brother in-laws boat. Every morning she would wake up and ask to go on the boat. We stayed in a house on Lake Chelan and it was so pretty! There were apple orchards and vineyards everywhere. My sister and her husband went to a farm and pick their own vegetables for a dollar a pound and all of them grown organically! I wished I didn't have to fly home so I could of brought some of the fruits and vegetable home. We were happy to come home and see Ronnie, we missed him a lot! I got quite the surprised when I did come home. Ronnie cleaned the entire house and did the laundry, I might have to leave more often :) Here are some pictures from the two weeks.

All in a Day

2008-08-29T21:37:00.004-05:00

So this week has shown me a little bit more of this place that I call home. I went to meet Ronnie at the warehouse for lunch and on the way there I saw this huge pillar of smoke going up in the air from the road in front of me. I had to slow down of course to see what was going on and there were firemen sitting on their truck watching this HUGE pile of wood burn. I have never been to a town that loves to burn stuff like Paris does. I actually saw in the news that there is a burn ban right now due to the hot and dry weather which would explain the firemen being there for this pile.

Anyways, we got to the highway that leads to the warehouse and up ahead I see a truck stop in the middle of the road on the other side of the two lane highway, the guy gets out of his truck and stands in the middle of my lane. I couldn't believe that I was watching this guy stand in the middle of the busy highway! Turns out when I got closer and had to pull over to the shoulder that it was the sheriff and he was stopping traffic for a funeral procession that was up ahead. If you interrupt a procession here it will give you a big fat ticket! By the time we got to Ronnie's work it took us almost an hour which is normally a 20 minute drive.

We decided to go to a Mexican restaurant we had yet to try and as we sit down Kate gets sick all over the table and a little on Ronnie. Did I have a change of clothes with me for her? Of course not! So into the bathroom we went and I washed her down as best as I could until we we could get back home but poor Ronnie had to work in his shorts the rest of the day!

Will she be a Pianist?

2008-08-26T21:29:00.004-05:00

I totally forgot to blog about this picture Linda took of Kate while watching her when we lived in Cali. How funny is it that it looks like Kate knows how to play the piano! Don't you just love the fact that she had to put on her jewelry to play it.

Bailey's Bed or is it Kate's?

2008-08-24T21:17:00.004-05:00

If my house is quiet and Kate isn't in bed asleep it is usually because Kate is playing in the dog's bed. She loves to go in there to play and lay down with Bailey. Bailey can't get away from her even in her own bed. No wonder Bailey likes to play outside so much!

Poor Little Bird

2008-08-22T09:56:00.001-05:00

Ronnie was driving home from work in his new car and just enjoying the ride when he saw a bird fly across the highway. It didn't quite make it however, Ronnie heard a thump and pulled over to find this.

Poor little bird didn't make it to the other end!

Bailey and Cows

2008-08-21T09:42:00.000-05:00

So you might be wondering what Bailey and Cows have in common, well they both used the restroom on Ronnie! Well sort of. The other day Ronnie woke up and went to let Bailey out to go potty and of course he got a nice surprise when he stepped in pee from Bailey that she couldn't hold. He was so thrilled to have that nice wake up call! His day wasn't complete though, he got stuck behind this while driving to work a little while later.

Yes, that is a trailer full of cows! Sorry for the blurry picture, you can't really focus while driving. Anyways, Ronnie was stuck driving behind this trailer and he was already a little upset about being late from cleaning up after Bailey. He realized it was sprinkling but he couldn't figure out where the sprinkles were coming from since it wasn't that cloudy. So what do you think it was? If you guessed cow pee, you are correct! The cows in front of Ronnie were letting loose and it was raining pee all over Ronnie's car. Poor guy! Just had to share with you the fun adventures of country living!

Candy on the Go

2008-08-20T09:58:00.005-05:00

A couple of weeks ago we made the drive to the big city. The one that has the Target and Old Navy that is about an hour and half away! While there we were going to all of the stores, because who know when we would be back and I had to go to all of them, right? Anyways, I knew Kate was going to get a little cranky with getting in and out of the car and not really being able to run around. So we stopped at the store the Cracker Barrel, which is a restuarant too, and got kate one of the stick pieces of candy. You know the ones that look like peppermint sticks but come in all different flavors. I thought this would be a great "little" treat for her to keep her busy while we shopped at Sam's Club. Little did I know that the cotton candy piece I picked out for her would do this:

This is in the middle of eating it and it did get much worse. I found sticky blue candy everywhere! I can't believe a stick of candy that barely had blue on it would make this mess. Of course I forgot the wipes in the car and Kate was over it before she finished it so she gave me the rest of the stick to hold, so fun! Plus she hates to be dirty right now so she wanted to be cleaned up right away. I was extremely happy to find the restroom and I have learned to never give my toddler this again while we don't have a bath close by!

Fun with Bubbles

2008-08-19T20:47:00.003-05:00

This week my mom came to visit and we had a lot of fun. Kate loved having someone new to play with besides me! I loved having someone I know come and see us and visit for awhile. It was a nice change from the moving and cleaning that we have been doing lately to just relaxing and spending time with family. The picture of Kate above is when her and my mom were cleaning up the patio furniture and Kate decided to clean herself as well. She realized after she did it though that we would have to wash her off and freaked out a little bit. She kept telling my mom "No, No" but we got her through the clean up and continued having fun outdoors. The weather turned out to be super nice, the hottest it got was the lower 90's so we had a great time exploring and spending time outside this week. It was so much better than being stuck in the house from the heat! Unfortunately my mom took the pictures of our time out with her camera and I completely forgot to get them from her before she left so I will post them as soon as she sends them to me :)

Weekend in Dallas

2008-08-10T18:20:00.003-05:00

This weekend we headed down to Dallas to hang out with our friend Christina and get away for my birthday. We had so much fun! The weekend started with Ronnie bringing me flowers and a new cartridge for my cricut, so cute! Then we made the drive to Grapevine to meet Christina and had a lunch at an amazing Barbecue place at the Forth Worth Stockyards! When we were done eating lunch an old steam engine train came into the station which is in the middle of all of the shops and Kate started screaming to see the train. It was so cute! After the train we got to see a Cattle Drive. It was so fun to watch Kate's face as the cows were coming down the street with the cowboys, she thoroughly enjoyed it. We stayed at the Gaylord Resort where Christina works and let me tell you, that place is AMAZING! It is like a theme park inside the hotel, they have the whole place decked out in Texas. There is the San Antonio River walk and The Alamo and then The Hills. We took plenty of pictures but they don't really do it justice, if you are ever in the Dallas area I would totally tell you to stay there. Kate thought the place was amazing too and just ran around everywhere. We had a great time! Enjoy the pictures.

Dallas

Afternoon Tea

2008-08-02T22:12:00.002-05:00

The other day Kate went to play in her room and I heard her talking away so I went to check it out. I found her at her little princes table having her own little Tea Party. It was so cute, she had put on her jewelery and was talking away while drinking from her tea cups.

Bloggy Giveaway Winner

2008-08-01T18:51:00.002-05:00

It was so fun going through all of the blogs that commented on here. There sure are a lot of people out there that love Target. Onto the winner of the $20 Target Gift Card.

The winner is:

Comment 364: Jenny Mayer

Congrats Jenny, I sent you an e-mail to get all of your information.

Thanks again to everyone that participated.

Bloggy Giveaway Carnival Is Here!

2008-07-27T22:24:00.004-05:00

I am super excited that it is time for the Bloggy Giveaway Carnival again. Last quarter was the first time I participated in it and I got over 500 comments on here. I had no idea Target would be such a hot giveaway. So this year I am giving away, drum roll please....

A $20 Target Gift Card!

I know same thing as last year, some might say that is totally boring, but I can spend hours walking around a target and I never get out of there under fifty bucks so I thought if any of you are like me then this could help put a little dent in your shopping.

My giveaway is open to all US residents, whether you have a blog or not, the cost of shipping is covered. To enter just leave a comment (if you don't have a blog be sure to leave an e-mail address so I can contact you) on this post by Friday August 1st. I'll use a random number generator to pick a winner that evening. Good Luck!

Make sure you go and check out all of the other great giveaways at Bloggy Giveaways.

New Look, New Town to Explore

2008-07-27T08:53:00.003-05:00

My friend Aimee changed her blog look and I absolutely loved and had to do the same, so what do you think? Well along with a new look we got to see some of our new town last night. This is what we went to last night:

It was the Rodeo Dance. Sorry for the blurry picture, it was dark and we took my small camera that doesn't take great pictures. I really feel like I live in a small town after last night. There was dancing and a local country band and food and a raffle. I found out about it when Kate and I went into town to go to a old soda fountain shop. We ran into a parade of horses on the way. When I asked what the parade was for they said it was the welcoming of the rodeo. So it should be a fun week, we are going to see us a real rodeo that is actually in our town. Yippee!

Ronnie Got a New Car

2008-07-26T16:39:00.001-05:00

So Ronnie broke down and bought and new car, well new to him. His Bronco although he loves it just wasn't going to cut it driving to work with gas prices so he bought a Toyota Matrix. I have always know Ronnie to drive trucks or big cars so it is kind of funny to see him driving this car although the second I saw it I knew that it fit him. He loves his car plus we can drive for vacations or long trips and not worry about the mileage on my car. The only thing is it is a stick, Ronnie wanted that, and I can't drive stick so if we take it somewhere Ronnie will be doing all of the driving.

The New Addition

2008-07-18T18:31:00.000-05:00

Well we went a little crazy today and got ourselves a dog. Really she is mine and Kate's dog. She is a yellow lab mix and was left on a ladies driveway. So sad but in the end good because we got her! I grew up with Labs in my house and I think she will fit in perfectly with us. She does love outdoors and every time we bring her inside she begs to go back out. I guess I would too if there was a lot to explore out there. We are still tossing around names for her but as soon as I have one picked out I will let you know!

Pictures, Pictures and More Pictures

2008-07-17T15:27:00.000-05:00

We finally have Internet at our house which means I can finally upload all of the pictures we have taken over the past couple of weeks and share them all with you. The pictures start all the way back at the 4Th of July, which really feels like yesterday, and go all the way through our drive out here to Texas and then of course pictures of the inside of the house.

We love it here. It is definitely a change of pace. Our neighbor across the road owns 500 acres so all you see out my front door are trees and then a large field with a huge lake. It is so pretty in the morning. The past couple of mornings I have gone out and sat on the porch and let Kate play outside before it gets to hot. By the way, this humid thing here is something I will definitely have to get used to, it is hot in a whole new way! The place on the left is for sale so it is empty and the place on the right is owned by an older couple. So needless to say it is quite around here. Kate has adjusted really well so far, she is still sleeping through the night and we actually have to wake her up from her naps, she has been taking three hour naps and then we have to wake her up, much more than that and she won't sleep through the night. She loves her room, although today she made me laugh, she wanted a book in her room and the light wasn't on so when I told her to go get it she told me "no, light on now". She is talking so much, I can't believe what a chatter box she is, some of it doesn't make sense but most does. Ronnie asked me if she ever stopped talking, he has a lot to learn about girls :) Well I will let you all get to the pictures and stop talking, sorry for the long post. Oh yeah the coolest part of this house it when we got here we found out that there is a small one bedroom, one bath apartment across the back porch, so if you are in Texas or want to come to Texas you have a place to stay! Warning there is close to 100 pictures in the album!

New Home

We Made It!

2008-07-12T22:01:00.000-05:00

We are finally in Paris! We got to see our house that we will be living in for the first time and we love it! The best part, I can paint and pretty much do whatever I want to it! Let the fun begin. :) We are pretty tired from being on the road for four days and waking up at 2am to start driving, but Kate did so well on the trip, it was amazing! One day we drove for thirteen hours and Kate only started getting tired of the car in the last hour. We took a lot of pictures and hopefully I will be able to post them tomorrow while we have some downtime, our stuff doesn't get in until Monday. I just wanted to let y'all know that we were here, safe and sound. I am off to bed, talk to you later!

Stop taking my Picture!

2008-07-02T14:33:00.000-05:00

We have been so busy around here I haven't had much time to post anything lately. I do have a ton of pictures to share from our trip to Universal Studios that we took with Ronnie's family from back east and of course pictures of Kate but they will have to wait until I can find some time to upload them and then post them. It probably won't be until we are moved in to the new place. We are really excited for this journey and we can't believe how fast it is going. So you probably won't see to many posts from us for a little bit as we are trying to get settled in a whole new state. Please keep us in prayer as we are driving out there and that everything goes smoothly with Kate traveling this distance. We will be leaving on Monday the 7th and hopefully getting there on Thursday the 10th! I can't wait to tell you about all of the new stuff that we will be doing and learning. Until then, hope you all are enjoying the summer!

Last Play Date

2008-06-25T10:03:00.000-05:00

Last week Kate had her last play date with Jeremiah. So sad :( Michelle put together a really cute slideshow of all the pictures of them playing together since they were born. Click on the link below to check it out.

The Crecelius Family Blog

Having Fun in the Sun

2008-06-25T09:45:00.000-05:00

Yesterday Kate and I went to the Beach Club with Aimee, Abby, Adrienne and Renee. It was the perfect day! We had so much fun and Kate actually played in the sand and in the water. There are a ton of pictures if you want to check them out you can click on the links below. I know one thing for sure. We are going to miss playing with friends at the beach.

Renee Autell

The Morris Family

Girls Just Want to Have Fun

2008-06-24T09:19:00.000-05:00

Kate's friend Abby came over to play last week and the girls are so stinkin cute together. Aimee took some really cute pictures of them and I had to share.

Here is the album of all of the pics from that day (only 15)

Playing

The Graduate

2008-06-24T09:08:00.000-05:00

Not the movie, it's my Dad. My Dad graduated this weekend with his Master's in Business Administration. Doesn't he look all spiffy in his rob with his master's sash! I am so proud of him, he has worked so hard and juggled so many things to make this happen. He also graduated with honors which he didn't even know he was going to do until he was actually excepting his diploma. I am so bummed we missed seeing him graduate but I got to see the pictures. Congratulations Dad on your MBA! We are so proud of you.

The First Sentence

2008-06-22T15:37:00.000-05:00

Kate said her first sentence this morning and Ronnie and I were so shocked. I was doing her hair for church and when I was done she stood up and said "Let's go to Church"! It sounded much cuter than I can type because you can't hear her baby talk with it, but I thought it was cute that was her first sentence! I will try and get her to say it on camera, so far no luck but maybe next Sunday when she knows that is were we are going.

Happy Father's Day

2008-06-15T10:34:00.000-05:00

Hope everyone has a wonderful Father's Day today! Kate is so blessed to have a Dad like Ronnie, he cares for her every need (including changing a dirty diaper) and plays with her all the time. He is so much fun to watch with Kate, they play like two little kids instead of one adult and one kid :) Happy Father's Day Ronnie, we love you!

Our New Home

2008-06-14T15:19:00.000-05:00

So this is our new home in Texas! I am so excited, I can't wait to get out there and actually see it. The house is on 5 acres, it has a three car garage, a workshop, a pond, a gazebo and the entire property if fenced! The house itself has three bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a breakfast room, den, formal living room, formal dining room. The master bedroom has his and her closets (I am so happy about that), jazucci tub, his and her sinks and a seperate shower. The home is like a dream come true for us! I will be so fun to have Kate grow up there and have all of that room to play. The funny thing is that this house was pretty much off the market when we first saw it but then the guy who wanted it got transfered out of state and we actually got it! God has definitely blessed our family with this house. Can you tell I am excited :)

Brushing Her Teeth

2008-06-11T19:18:00.001-05:00

So we have started getting Kate on a routine of brushing her teeth before bed since she now has so many teeth. Last night I wasn't home and she went to Ronnie and told him "teeph" (teeth in Kate) which he was happy she did because he forgot about it. So she sits in the bathroom now and brushes her teeth like a big girl. She is so not a baby anymore. Ronnie took these pictures of her brushing her teeth and showed me when I got home. I couldn't believe it was Kate, to me she looked so much older in the pictures it was crazy. So here are the pictures of my big girl, does she look older to you?

Brushing Her Teeth

Having Fun Outdoors

2008-06-08T17:53:00.000-05:00

The weather today is perfect so I gave Kate a cup of water and paintbrush and took her outside and just let her "paint" her heart out. It was great, I had no clean up, except for a wet Kate. Best of all she was outside having a great time and Ronnie and I got to sit and watch her and just relax. It was so nice! I loved watching Kate explore with what she could paint. I showed her how to make circles with the paintbrush and she actually made a circle too. I love this stage that she is in!

Letters to God from Kids

2008-06-08T00:01:00.001-05:00

I saw these today and I couldn't resist showing them to you all. Enjoy!

Just Chillin

2008-05-31T16:21:00.000-05:00

A few nights ago Kate decided that she didn't want to wear her pants anymore so she took them off. This has been something that she loves to do lately if her pants are even a little lose on her. So she took her pants off and brought her cup of juice over to the stairs and decided that would be a great place to just hang out. Ronnie got this picture of her totally just chillin on the stairs, she is so happy not to have any pants on.

Best Friends

2008-05-29T18:56:00.000-05:00

Yesterday Kate's best friend Abby came over. I was amazed at how well they played together all afternoon. Kate was actually playing with her at times and it was so fun to watch. They were being so darn cute together. Part of my heart breaks watching them play together now because I know that they will be friends from afar and won't be able to just call each other up to hang out or go the mall as I had imagined they would. It made me realize that Kate will really have whole new life out there in Texas and we will be starting new together. We will just have to make as many playdates as possible with her friends until we leave. Here are pictures of a wonderful afternoon of friends.

Playing with Abby

Late Mother's Day Post

2008-05-28T22:29:00.000-05:00

We were in Texas on Mother's Day so I didn't get to post what my wonderful husband and daughter got me. They got me this...

It is a Nintendo DS! I love it. It isn't a typical gift that most Mother's would ask for but I wanted one really bad. I pretty much play it all the time, well really when Kate is sleeping. If I have it out with her up she wants to play it with me. Just had to share my great, fun, and kinda geeky Mother's Day gift :)

Vince Mira

2008-05-27T19:08:00.000-05:00

This boy is amazing. He is only 15 years old and can definitely sing! I was so shocked I had to share.

Tornado in Southern California

2008-05-22T19:35:00.000-05:00

picture by Don Green

The weather today has been so nuts! There has been hail, so much so that it looked like snow on the ground. To read more about that and see picture you can go to my friend Aimee's blog, just click on her name and it will take you there. We have also had thunder and lighting at my house all afternoon. Kate hasn't been to worried about the noise. That is a good thing :) So I turned on the TV and I saw this picture. There was an actual tornado in Perris, CA. There is a Tornado warning in effect for Riverside County until 6 tonight. I guess this is just getting us used to the weather we will have in Texas, I just didn't expect to have this here.

It all started with a kiss

2008-05-22T09:22:00.000-05:00

I can't believe we are celebrating four years of marriage, time has gone by so fast. This year has been a really fun year for us, having Kate around has been such a blessing and it is so great to be parents together. Ronnie is such an amazing Dad and Husband, I am blessed beyond words to have him in my life and to take on new challenges like Texas with him. This next year will bring so many new things and I am sure it will be hard at times but we are truly excited to see what God has in store for us this year. It has been so cool to watch God work through Ronnie and to prepare him for this new chapter in our lives. I love you baby thank you for four wonderful years and the many more to come!

Sleep

2008-05-19T12:20:00.000-05:00

Kate is so good with bedtime and nap time, she absolutely loves sleep! We had company over last night and it was getting late for Kate, 7:20pm which is twenty minutes late for Kate's bedtime, so she comes up to me and rest her head in my lap. I asked her if she wanted bedtime and she shook her head yes. This is not uncommon for Kate. Whenever I say nap time or bedtime she rushes for the stairs and I put her to bed and she is asleep within 5 minutes, she has always been a good sleeper even as an infant. I just have to say this is the biggest blessing for me that she is this way when it comes to bed, I just pray the next one is the exact same way!

Eating with a Fork

2008-05-18T14:15:00.000-05:00

Kate has learned how to eat with a fork. I am so proud of her, she is growing up so fast. When we were all eating dinner the other night Ronnie and I looked over at Kate and watched as she took her hot dogs out of her bowl set them down on her tray and then stabbed them with the fork to eat them. She didn't do that with the mac & cheese though, that she ate with the fork right out of the bowl. Silly girl. It is so fun to watch them learn something new! Here is a video of her using her new skill.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

18 Months

2008-05-17T20:51:00.000-05:00

I am a little late posting on this but we have been a little busy here. Kate had her 18 month check up this past week and the Doctor said she looked good. We do have one very tiny girl. She is only 31 inches tall which is in the 30 percentile for her age and for her weight she is only 21 pounds which is in the 9 percentile for her age. So the Doctor told me to give her Chocolate and Strawberry milk to help fatten her up, since taking her off the bottle Kate has refused to drink milk out of a cup. Needless to say Kate now loves to drink milk, although she does prefer the chocolate over the strawberry. Just like her Mom :)

Video of Thunderstorm

2008-05-15T00:46:00.000-05:00

Here is the video of the Thunderstorm we got to see while we were in Paris, Texas. You will only see lighting in the video, if I uploaded the whole thing it would of been thirty minutes versus two minutes. I thought the lighting was the coolest part. Who wants to look at rain in a video anyway. Enjoy!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Details of Paris

2008-05-13T18:33:00.000-05:00

We are back from looking around Paris, Texas to see the area that we will be moving too. It definitely is different from Cali! Some of the weird things that are allowed there or that we saw were people riding in the back of pick-up trucks, people driving motorcycles without helmets, starbucks was the local hang out for bikers, dead armadillos on the road, the Chili's was run by high school kids oh and they still have non-smoking and smoking in most of the places there, there was a gas station that had a sign that read "Redneck Owned". I know that isn't way crazy stuff it is just really different from were I grew up! There is a beautiful huge lake 20 minutes away from town. We drove so much there, we actually went all the way to Arkansas and Okalahoma just to check it out. The actual town of Paris is really old but they do have some awesome antique stores with an old soda fountain, which is really fun! Here are some pictures of our time in town.

Paris

Surviving our First Thunderstorm

2008-05-10T20:09:00.000-05:00

So we have only been visiting Paris for 1 day and we have already experienced a Thunderstorm! It was so pretty yet a little scary. Ronnie got it all on camera and I will upload the video when we get back. I can't believe how fast the weather changed! All was good and then we heard some thunder and the next thing we know it is raining sideways with a whole lot of lighting and a whole lot of thunder. This is something that I will definitely have to get used to!

We are moving to PARIS!

2008-05-09T00:11:00.000-05:00

Ok so not Paris, France more like this Paris:

We are actually moving to Paris, Texas! Kind of crazy but really cool! Ronnie was given an amazing opportunity to open a warehouse for his work out there and we were all for it. We are actually going out there this weekend to see the town and get a feel for where we will be living. The crazy part is that we are moving out there at the end of June. Talk about fast! We are really excited to actually be moving out there. I will post pictures of the town when we get back and I am sure you will be reading all about our crazy adventures out there as I will keep you all in the loop of the small town Texas life, in case you want to move out there too ;)

Free Rice

2008-04-30T12:23:00.000-05:00

I saw this website and I thought it was pretty cool. You can go on the website and for every word that you get the definition correct you donate rice to the United Nations World Food Program and it doesn't cost a cent. I am addicted to just going on there to see if I know the definition of the word and at the same time I am feeding someone somewhere. Pretty cool! Click on the link below if you want to check it out.

Free Rice

Kate's First Baseball Game

2008-04-30T11:40:00.000-05:00

Last night we took Kate to her first Baseball game. It was the Angels verses the A's, and she loved it, when she was awake. Kate actually slept through four innings, I was shocked she could sleep through all that noise but she was really tired it was way past her bedtime. I think her favorite thing was the waterfall that they have at the Angels stadium. Some friends of ours have season tickets and they knew Ronnie's favorite team is the A's so they gave us tickets to go to one of their games. Ronnie went in his A's shirt and I of course dressed Kate in her Angels outfit, Ronnie wasn't to happy about that one. So you might be wondering where the pictures are of Kate all cute in her little baseball outfit, well I broke our camera and it is getting fixed so you probably won't see any pictures on here for a while. Opps! I was bummed that I didn't get any pictures but there is always next time. Oh yeah the Angels won 2 to 0! Kate didn't like the fireworks that went off when they won :(

The winner is...

2008-04-25T21:56:00.000-05:00

First I can't believe how many people entered this giveaway, over 500 people! I had a blast going thru all of the new blogs! Thanks everyone for entering. Now on to the winner:

Comment # 316 Tamara

I will be in contact with you via e-mail! Congratulations!

Bloggy Giveaway Carnival Time!

2008-04-20T22:39:00.000-05:00

Last year I found this amazing carnival and it was so much fun to go and look at new blogs so I decided this year I would participate with a giveaway of my own. I am giving away a $10 dollar gift card to Target! I know that isn't very creative but I love Target so I figured who wouldn't love to win that!

*CONTEST IS CLOSED*

My giveaway is open to all US residents, whether you have a blog or not, the cost of shipping is covered. To enter just leave a comment (if you don't have a blog be sure to leave an e-mail address so I can contact you) on this post by Friday April 25th. I'll use a random number generator to pick a winner that evening. Good Luck!

Make sure you go and check out all of the other great giveaways at Bloggy Giveaways

Growing Up

2008-04-20T19:08:00.000-05:00

Today at church Kate was absolutely cracking me up, everywhere we went she was the little greeter. She had the biggest smile on her face and would wave and say HI to everyone! When we were leaving her classroom she waved to one of her friends and actually said "Bye Carson" me and the other mom were shocked that she just said goodbye like it was no big deal. Her teacher told me she was talking a lot in class and then I started thinking, this is my kid growing up, she will grow up with these kids in her classroom and they will be her friends that we go to lunch with and have over when she is sitting in church begging us to let her friends come over after church. I just can't believe how fast this is happening, I feel like I just put her in the Nursery and now she is waving and saying goodbye to her friends as we leave. I am really excited that she is forming these friendships but at the same time I really miss my baby. Being a mom really is emotional!

Homemade

2008-04-19T21:43:00.000-05:00

I made a half apron today with my sewing machine that I got over a year ago! I was going to take a sewing class this morning but the teacher got sick and it was of course cancelled so I went and looked at fabric. I saw this fun summer fabric and decided why not try it. I did this even without a pattern, I am so excited to have actually done something that I had to share. You won't see a close up of the apron because I still have A LOT to work on with my sewing skills but I hope I get the hang of it soon and then maybe I can make a cute sundress or something else.

Finger Paints

2008-04-18T19:36:00.000-05:00

A few weekends ago I went out and bought Kate some finger paints with a little kid smock. So cute! We set her up with her paints and paper and she played with the paint forever, it was so much fun and now we have pictures to put in her baby book or her first painting. Here are a few pictures of her fun time!

Bee Movie

2008-04-18T01:13:00.001-05:00

This is how Kate watched the Bee Movie today she was glued to the Movie! I couldn't believe how she sat and watched this movie, it was kind of funny. She was laughing at the funny parts and totally serious about watching it until it was over and then started clapping. Kate must really love Bees oh and how do you like the box she decided to watch the movie in :) Weird Kid!

Cactus Cuties

2008-04-12T22:41:00.000-05:00

I saw this video today and was blown away with these girls singing The National Anthem! The youngest girl is 8 and the oldest is only 11! They will definitely be going somewhere big with these voices.

Kickin' It with Jesus

2008-04-07T13:01:00.000-05:00

Today we were running errands and listening to worship music in the car and I heard Kate singing, which she loves to do. I looked back at her and not only was she singing but she had her eyes closed and was raising her hands, I was shocked (in a good way) that she knew this way to worship God. It of course brought tears to my eyes because she is growing into the Godly little girl that we have prayed she would become.

My Sister's Blog

2008-04-06T16:02:00.000-05:00

I am so excited! My Sister has finally made a blog so I can keep up to date with what is going on with my little nephew. He is one stinkin' cute kid! I know most people who look at my blog know my sister too so I just wanted to let you know the blog address if you wanted it.

Opps, Sorry here is the correct link :)

The Whittaker's