The Dress

This is Kate's first birthday dress:

I ordered it off of etsy. And, obviously, it will say Kate... not Olivia. :)

Kate is turning ONE!!

We can hardly believe it, but in less than one month, Kate will be ONE!

Be looking for these in the mail... we would love to see you there.

Fall Fun

Fall is our favorite season. Walk into my house this time of year, and you can tell. I love all things about it... the colors, cooler weather, pumpkins, leaves.

When Mark was working at the church, he had Fridays off and that was his day with Kate. When he started his own business, he kept Friday as his day off. It may not be that way for too much longer, but I love knowing that she is with him on Fridays.

Last Friday, he took her to the park and shot some fall pictures of her. She apparently loves leaves.

You can catch a glimpse of all the silly faces we see in a day from these pictures.

Willowbrooke

Our home church group volunteers at a local nursing home, Willowbrooke, one Sunday each month. We have been doing this for three months now, and we always look forward to going.

We normally take a craft or something to do. One time we played Bingo with them, which brought everyone out of their rooms. A lot quicker than our, "Would you like to make a sachet?" proposal the month before.

No matter what we do or take with us, Kate is really all we need. The people there are so content just to smile at her, watch her play, hold her, and call her Katie and Katelynn over and over. I cut 'em a little slack, though, seeing as how they are like, you know... really old.

This guy doesn't call her Kate, Katie, or Katelynn... he calls her "buddy" and "he".

Even when there is a bow in her hair :)

I told one of the ladies there last time that we will be there the first Sunday of each month (a lot of them don't remember that we have ever been there before), so she will get to watch Kate grow up month after month. This made her day.

So many of them say, "It's been so long since I've held a baby." We are more than happy to use our daughter as a light in their lives. All the while, Kate is glad to do it. She crawls all over their floor, pulls up on their walkers, sits on their tables, plays with all of their stuff, and gives them all hugs and kisses when we leave. Followed by a nice scrub down in the tub when we get home... that's a lot of grime in two hours!

I have to show this guy one more time... he redefines the term "high waters". You gotta love him, though!

Gmail Disaster

I am such a loser... here's the story. So, I created a gmail account in order to sign up for Blogger to create our blog. I entered ten e-mail addresses of people that I automatically wanted an e-mail to be sent to when we update our blog, and then I thought I was done. Never to check my g-mail account account, because I use hotmail.

So, today I was talking to my mom and she says, "Oh, I loved your letters. Did you get my reply? And what's jenn2182@gmail?" All of a sudden it dawned on me that when you get the updates, it is from my gmail account. For some brainiac idea, I thought it would just be from my hotmail. So, whenever you reply, it goes into my gmail account that I have NEVER checked. I signed onto gmail and had like 45 messages from all of you that I never knew about.

If you sent me an e-mail A LONG TIME AGO... I'm sorry. I replied to a couple today. Michelle, you probably thought I was so rude never replying to your e-mails. Oh, and thanks everyone for all the sweet comments about Kate. We are pretty crazy about her, too.

Whew, o.k... I'm glad I got that all off my chest.

You can always comment right on here instead of sending a reply e-mail. Those get sent to my hotmail and show up on our blog. All you have to do is look at the end of a post, and click on the word "comments". Then, you just leave your comment and select your identity (which most of you would probably click the Name/URL button unless you have a blogger account). Just write your name and click "Publish your comment".

Then, people will know that I actually have readers... ha ha! I will say, though, that I was thrilled to read all those e-mails and see that you actually like to read our blog. I really just do it for us as a way to remember happenings and such, but it's nice to know that everyone is enjoying it, too.

Sorry, again, for the late responses to e-mails!!

Eleven Months

Dear Kate,

You are feisty. Yes, that is a good word for you. You love to yell, crawl really fast, tear through things, and you do it all with a smile on your face. Unless of course, I take something away from you (like my cell phone for the millionth time). And then… look out. You have thrown quite the tantrums this past month, arching your back or throwing yourself down on the floor in a mess of tears. I hate to think what these will be like when you are two.

I take all of this in stride, because like I have said before, you are SO MUCH FUN! You make us laugh all the time. I wish I could fully explain this yelling thing you so. It’s hilarious. Sometimes one yell will go on for ten seconds or so, and your face when you do it…oh, I can’t even write the words to imitate it. I need to post a video SOON, because this is something we will want to remember! I think it is all an attempt to keep all the attention on you! We love it!

You make the silliest faces, your newest one being this cute little scrunchy smile. My heart melts when you do this. I first saw it at four in the morning the other day. I was getting over being really sick and Daddy didn’t want to sleep in bed with me for fear of getting sick himself. So, after laying awake for hours unable to sleep, I crept into your room to get you and bring you into bed with me. You know, just for the company. The minute you hit our bed, you popped up and were ready to party! That little scrunchy smile was the first face you made, like you were so glad to see me. You and I played for a good hour, and then we settled back into sleep.

You have cut teeth flawlessly, sometimes getting a little runny nose. You have six teeth now, four on the top and two on the bottom. Your two bottoms came in first, followed by two fangs on the top (this was quite the sight!), and then your two top middle ones. You can actually chew food now, and baby food is a thing of the past. You are on to bigger and better things and we pretty much just feed you whatever we eat. You are a big fan of graham crackers (well, crackers of any sort, actually), Cheerios, and Goldfish. You love your sippy cup, and use it at all meals, and for formula twice a day. You still have a bottle in the morning and at night, which we are slowly phasing out. On that note, we are finishing up our last can of formula, and moving on to real milk. This is NOT something I will miss. It will be much cheaper and easier!! And, you know, I’m all about that!

You are still such a good little sleeper. You sleep for about ten or eleven hours each night and still take two naps, about two hours each. I’m sure you will switch to one nap soon, but I will let you tells us when. You wake up in the best moods, eager to greet us with a big grin and a grunt.

You have started taking your first steps!! The most you have taken at one time is six, but you are getting braver and braver every day. Our world is about to change, yet again! I am sure in true Kate fashion you will move to running and climbing within days of mastering the walking. No rest for the weary around here, I tell ya!

You love your Daddy fiercely, and I think prefer him to me. You wake up calling his name, and you cry when he enters a room and doesn’t pick you up. You went through a phase where you cried when he dropped you off at Miss Marilyn’s. She told me that you would even crawl to the door after you left. Daddy melted when I told him that. Now, Miss Marilyn takes you to the window and you wave bye- bye to him as he goes.

Oh, and that reminds me of all the tricks you can do (tricks… like a dog! JUST KIDDING!), one of which is bye-bye. You wave with both hands at the same time, and it’s more just opening and closing your hand, but cute nonetheless. We taught you how to sign “more” and you caught on in a day. Now, you use it while you are eating and it is adorable. You know how to brush your hair and will do it on command, whether or not you have a brush in your hand. You are working on pointing to your eyes and nose. It’s a gamble on that one… sometimes you get it and sometimes you point to the top of your head or your ear. You know how to “talk on the phone” when we say “Hello”. You play pat-a-cake and peek-a-boo. You love to be upside down and your new favorite trick is having mommy help you do a flip. You think that is the best and if you were able to say “again”, I’m sure you would. As soon as we are done, you are crawling up my legs to do it again. You make this “mean face” to everyone! The girls call it your haters look and that’s a pretty good description.

I can’t believe you will be a year old in a month. I thought I was really sad about it, but you have just gotten to be so much more fun with each passing month, that it is hard to mourn the passing time right now. Each month brings new challenges and obstacles, but more joy than we can hold in our hearts. You are the greatest blessing we have ever received. You make our everydays so much brighter. How can I do anything but look forward to the future we have as a family? I love you, Kate Rileigh. Thanks for being my girl.

Love you to the moon and back,
Mama

______________________________________

Dear Kate,

As I write this you are taking your first steps towards walking. Mustering all the courage you can, you let go of our hands and toddle forward. Each step is a breakthrough as your little legs develop confidence. I am excited to see your development, but there is a basic understanding that you will never be this again.

Next month is your first birthday. Yes, that's right, next month. Not that long ago you were incapable of holding your head up. And now your favorite position is upside down. Bottles become sippy cups, spoons become fists to shovel in spaghetti, and patty cake is the game to play.

Your life is a succession of moments, passing us by day by day. In this moment you learned to crawl, and that one was "da da da da", and this one is walking, and that one is kindergarten, and this one is your first boyfriend. Kate, you fill up each and every moment and make my moments richer than I could have imagined.

Love,

Daddy

"Don't blink. Just like that you're six years old and you take a nap and you wake up and you're twenty-five and your high school sweetheart becomes your wife. Don't blink. You just might miss your babies growing like mine did, turning into moms and dads next thing you know your "better half" of fifty years is there in bed and you're praying God takes you instead. Trust me friend a hundred years goes faster than you think. So don't blink"

Sick

It's been a long time since I have been that sick. Today is the first day I have felt remotely "o.k." since Tuesday. I have been ignoring missed calls and to-do lists because I could hardly move, let alone have a voice to talk on the phone. It was B-A-D.

Kate spent the night with my parents last night so Mark and I could take it easy and sleep (he was getting sick, too) and it made all the difference. Now, we are just waiting for her to wake up from her nap, so we can go get her. I feel like I haven't seen her in days.

My house has been Lysol-ed, sheets are being washed in hot water, loads of gross tissues have been thrown away, and things are looking up! If you are one of the missed calls I have ignored, forgive me...