A Very Random Blog at 11 p.m.

I am mourning the end of this long holiday weekend. It was such a great four days. So, I am finding anything to do to avoid the inevitable fact that tomorrow starts a new week. It's late, and I should be in bed. Five thirty will be coming too soon.

I thought I would post a few pictures from this weekend. Keep in mind they are from my iphone, so the quality isn't the best. I don't know how to take good pictures on that thing.

First, here's Kate at the mall on Black Friday... can you even believe we ventured in there? And, can you even believe I let her run all around in the germ filled kid's play place??? She needed it, though... badly. Even getting pushed around in a stroller, fed snacks, and given toys to play with can get old sometimes.

On Saturday, I took a bunch of stuff to the consignment store because I never did get around to having a garage sale this summer and I am tired of junk sitting in our basement. While there, I happened upon this:

I had been wanting a cute pink wreath for the outside of Kate's door. I found this for $1.99 and couldn't resist. I also found her some Old Navy moccasins for $1.99, too!! (Mom, I posted the picture for you, because I knew my explanation of it stunk.)

O.K... moving right along (I warned you this blog was going to be random). Tonight, I had MOUNDS, and I do mean mounds, of laundry to fold and put away. Kate saw this as a jungle gym the minute I dropped the baskets off in the living room. She grunted, pulled, kicked, and whined until her little body made it up to the top.

I know this picture is blurry, but look how happy she was that she made it up there!

Oh, and please don't make fun of my "School is Cool" sweatshirt you see there in the corner. I teach first grade, remember?

And I NEVER wear it anywhere else :)

Maybe blogger will cut that half of the picture off!

Have a great first week of December, everyone!!

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

Yesterday was spent putting fall decorations away and pulling out our TEN boxes of Christmas decorations. Normally, we put on Christmas music and take our time unwrapping each item, putting much thought into just where to place it. It's quite the process.

Let me tell you... it was WAY different this year. First of all, football was on the t.v. No Christmas music. Mark was too into it for me to turn it off. No big deal.

Oh, and then there's that one year old little girl you may have heard of. You know, the one that likes to get into everything? Mark would bring a box up from the basement, I would quickly unwrap everything, and send it back down. Kate, as usual, got into everything. She especially liked all the glass stuff. Go figure. She wouldn't take a second glance at all of the plush snowmen. No, it was all the breakables. At one point, I looked over and she was trying to fit all the pieces of the nativity set into a coffee mug. When she figured out that they wouldn't fit, she decided to try to stack all the coffee mugs. Oh, and she has just learned how to throw stuff away. We will say, "Go throw this in the trash" and she walks to the kitchen trash can and throws it away. Yeah, that's where a lot of our Christmas decorations ended up. Same thing this morning... she took candles off of the coffee table centerpiece and threw them away. Yesterday, I found her sippy cup in there.

The best was when we opened one of the nativity sets. She found baby Jesus right away, held him close to her, and patted him like she does her baby dolls. Like she knew him and loved him. Baby girl, I pray you grow to know Jesus and love Him like crazy. Then, she stuck him in her mouth.

First Birthday Video

Here's a short video from Kate's party.

Kate's First Birthday

Our little girl is one... and has been for over a week. Mark started a new job this week, so our schedule has changed a little bit. Needless to say, it was a crazy week. We are just now getting pictures of her party posted. It was such a great day filled with family and friends that just love Kate. She had a lot of fun at her party and she kept going strong the whole day. No meltdowns!

The Friday night before her party, we spent the night at my parent's house to get everything ready. We cooked, decorated, and prepared. It was a very late night. This was me the next morning:

I had just rolled out of bed, but seriously, WHAT is up with my hair???

Then, I made Kate some pumpkin bread for her birthday breakfast. She LOVES that! She ate breakfast in her "over the top" decorated high chair.

We spent the rest of the morning getting everything set up and enjoying our little girl (who, by the way, only napped for an hour that morning... that's unheard of, but she still made it through the day). The table was set, decorations were up, and we were ready to party!

Everyone arrived and mingled for awhile. Later, we opened gifts... she got so many wonderful things! The majority of our pictures were from the gift opening, so bear with me, as I post an insane amount of them.

And yes, I have cut and colored my hair since that day. My hair was a disaster!!

This was one of those musical cards, and she LOVED it! Her face lit up every time she opened it. Thanks, Maddie!




And apparently, my face lit up each time, too.



























Kate and her friend, Brianna

Some of our friends enduring... I mean, enjoying... the gift opening. There's a good shot of the ribbon topiaries I made, though. Oh, and Megan's pregnant belly there on the left.

Then, it was on to cupcakes and ice cream.



Kate had her own little smash cake. It was a white cake (I wasn't brave enough to do chocolate!) that said "Kate is 1!" She LOVED everyone singing Happy Birthday to her.














We were trying to teach her to blow... that went nowhere!





She hates anything on her head... can you tell by the look on her face?



My dad can't stand it when she gets dirty. See him pushing up her sleeves?
Seriously, he probably would've wiped her hands and face each time she dug in if we let him!





Then, Uncle Brad came along and showed her how to get the job done.











Kisses, anyone?


Yuck!! Into the sink she went...





After the party was over, we realized we didn't take a family picture, so we put Kate's dress on again and snapped a few. That's kinda how the day went... I forgot to videotape us singing Happy Birthday to her, so about 5 minutes into the cake eating, I made everyone do it again!







We brought home one tuckered out baby girl.






She slept in our bed that night as a treat (for all of us). Ignore our mismatched bedding... we just got a California King mattress, but had no sheets or anything, so we are using the ones my parents gave us until we can decide on a color scheme. And, we have no headboard yet. And, our walls are still white. And, there's always a basket of clean laundry on the floor in our room. Shall I continue?

The next day was spent putting gifts away, washing new clothes, cleaning out Kate's closet and enjoying our one year old!









Kate is WAY into books, so that night before bed, she must've looked through every new book she got for her birthday.







Thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate our little Kate's first birthday.

Thank you cards are coming, I promise. Right after I get that headboard and paint the walls in our bedroom. Just kidding, they'll be in the mail this week! :)