Birthdays

For Ben's Birthday last year, we did something small. We called all of his family that was in town to see if they wanted to have lunch at the park with us and whoever could come was there. (Afterward, Ben said, We should have called my family and seen if they wanted to come too, totally skipped both our brains on that one.) We picked up some hamburgers from the Habit and ate at the park over by Kaiser. Kevin, Caleb, Heather, Jackson, Eden, Jonah, Josh and Mary were there along with me and Katelynn. Mary brought an Ice Cream Cake. We ate and played. It was a nice little party.


Then on Friday we had Matthew's Second Birthday party at our house. There was pizza, cake and presents. We watched Toy Story 3 since Matthew can't get enough of that movie.
Katelynn LOVED the cake. I put it on the table and she reached her little hands up there and swiped some icing. I gave her a small little sliver of cake and she looked like I gave her the whole thing. She was a chocolate greasy mess by the time she had finished her piece. Which she went straight into the bathtub from the high chair.

A Memory to Keep

Last night as we were putting Katelynn to bed I was laying in her bed with her and Ben gave her goodnight kisses. Ben had his phone in his hand and since she loves to listen to music on it she wanted to do that then but it was time for bed. So, as Ben left she was whimpering a little and turned to me grabbed my shirt and pulled me toward her. She wrapped her hand around my neck and started patting my shoulder saying, "Oh, Baby."
I laughed a little and comforted her patting her back and saying "My poor, baby." Like I do when she is sad.
It is just amazing how she picks up on everything that we do. Good, bad or Ugly.

Christmas 2010

Christmas came and went so fast. I had been picking up stuff for people for Christmas since July and it seemed like it would never come. It did though and now it is all put away. I must say though I am glad to have my house back I felt like I was being closed in with Christmas.

Christmas Eve we went over to Kevin and Beth's to have Dinner and such with Ben's family. For each couple this year I made a temple block where it has their Sealing Date and a picture of the temple that they were sealed in. I got the idea from here. I did make them 5x7's as I thought that 4x6 was a little small, and the piece of wood I got from Lowe's was 6 inches wide so it made it easy to cut. Ben cut and sanded the pieces for me one day. I am not to sure about handling a saw my self.

Katelynn received some books and a stroller/changing table setup from Grandma and Grandpa M.




Kevin put it together and the miles started ticking on the stroller odometer. I hope this one will last longer than our first one she broke.

This is my favorite picture from the night. I have no idea where Katelynn picked this up. I never tell her to say cheese for the camera, but she started to do it. Brynne had just given her a kiss and I told her to give Katelynn another so I could get a picture. Katelynn saw my camera and said cheese and this was what I got. We LOVE it. She may not when she is older. Braces are in her future.


Santa came and left his goodies for Katelynn and yes I had to get her hair done first so that she could see what was going on. At first all she noticed was my gift from Ben and then she saw the Cozy Coupe. She got in it and spent the rest of the morning in it. Opening her presents and saying Beep-Beep (All motorized vehicles are Beep-Beeps).





We then went to my parents for Christmas Breakfast. That was very yummy. Then the mass chaos ensued. I had bad settings on my camera to start so I didn't get any good pictures but, Katelynn got more than she knows what to do with. The surprising favorite of the day was a little white stuffed dog. She has pulled that dog in the stroller more that her baby doll. She was pretty much in chaos mode after the presents at grandma's and so we left at about 11 for some quite time at home.



Katelynn and I made some peanut butter cookies after her nap. We ended the day with having Kevin and Beth come over while we had a telephone Christmas conference with all of Ben's family organized by Ammy.


It was a wonderful Christmas of family and fun and I am grateful for all that has been done for our family this year.

Max, Jesse, and Damien's Birthday Party

Yesterday we celebrated Max and Jesse's 5th Birthday and Damien's 12th Birthday. This was the first time that we did all three on one day. I think that it was nice to do it that way so that Damien didn't get so mixed up in the Christmas/Birthday mess.
So, my mom decided that she wanted to try out Skype this week after hearing people from church talking about it. She had Becca in Idaho sign-up and they had a 45 minute conversation. After hearing about that I had the idea of inviting Becca to the Birthday party. So, after trying and failing a few times we finally got both end of the video working and Becca, Owen, Lily, and Taylor got to "be" at the party.
We sang Happy Birthday three times, opened presents, and ate cake.







Damien took one look at one unlabeled present and said he knew what it was. He was hoping for a Star Wars book of some kind but ended up with a Diary of a Whimpy Kid book that he liked even better.


Jesse made some great faces when he was opening presents and I know that this isn't in focus but you still get the idea that he was excited. They probably have 100 Hot Wheels but they still get stoked about new ones.



Now the only things they have to look forward to over the next couple weekends is Disneyland and Christmas. So jealous of them going to Disney, again, without me! Hopefully in a couple years Katelynn will be ready for Disney.