Kate's 2nd Birthday!

Kate's birthday was pretty low key this year. We had a family party together with dinner and cupcakes. I put up a few decorations with owls on them which she absolutely LOVED. She wanted to hug the invitations when we picked them up from Staples and proceeded to carry and hug them until we sent them to family. We had a blast celebrating her and are super grateful that she is ours!

My dear sweet Kate,

How I love you, little lady. You bring so much love into our home and we are so grateful for you. Your favorite toys right now are dolls, stuffed animals and the duplo legos. You absolutely love your blanket and want to take it everywhere, along with a stuffed animal or two. You still suck your thumb when you are tired or sad. You absolutely love to snuggle, especially after nap time, right before nap time or bed time, and anytime we are sitting on the couch together. This makes a momma pretty happy :) You love to read books together and point out what's happening in them. You love babies and always want to help them, bring them toys or snacks, and play with them. You love to dress yourself. You love to do most things by yourself. I love that you are independent, but sometimes you won't let me help with the necessary things (like buckling your car seat buckles or buttoning your pants). We are learning together and I love that. You LOVE clothes. You love to take them off, put on new outfits, try on shoes and everything in between. You are very patient when I do your hair. I'm grateful for that. Most the time you play in the sink while I do it, so that probably helps. You love all your family. You will often ask about them (even your cousins that you don't get to see very often!). You give the absolute best hugs. You put your arms around my neck and squeeze so hard and wiggle. Sometimes when we check on you at night before we go to bed, you have taken your pajamas off. So, we will put them back on and every time we cover you back up, you turn over on your belly and wiggle your bum back and forth. We think it's the most adorable thing. You are so fun to talk to and love to chat things up. You can count for 1-12ish, but usually skip a number or so. You are great with 1-6, but will often skip right to 9 :) Pink was the first color you learned and you now know blue. We are working on the others :) Your favorite foods right now are edamame, cheese and yogurt, but you are a fan of almost every food. We love that you love so many different kinds of food - even salad. You LOVE when you can dip, so anything with ranch dip, ketchup or BBQ sauce is always at the top of your favorites list :)

Thank you for making our lives such a blast. We are still learning your personality and your needs and are slowly figuring out how we can communicate best. Sometimes it's a struggle to figure out how you learn best and how to best train you up unto the Lord, but at the end of the day, my eyes well with tears of gratitude that you are ours. Thanks for bringing so much happiness and love into our lives and for teaching us new things every day.

We sure love you,

Mom and Dad

Halloween 2015

Halloween was pretty awesome this year. Jack and Kate could not have been more excited to wear their costumes and have worn them almost every day since (it's January, by the way).

Letting Jack pick out his costume was quite an ordeal. We sat at the computer for long periods of time multiple days in a row before he finally settled on Iron Man. But not the normal Ironman (despite my subtle suggestions that people might recognize it better), but the red white and blue Ironman that looks suspiciously like Captain America when he isn't wearing the mask. He's a funny kid. But at least he decided :)

Kate told me she wanted to be a dinosaur out of no where, but only after I had gotten her Wonder Woman costume. But, let's be honest, the two of them as superheroes is pretty much the cutest. And she was extremely happy to be wearing any costume at all, so I'd say it was a win.

We had a fun night pumpkin carving and making waffles with friends the week of Halloween. Luckily, Jack is impressed with any type of pumpkin carving (let's just say that is not one of my talents). Our ward did a fun Halloween Trunk-or-Treat the week of Halloween as well. Kate said this exact phrase to everyone "trick-or-treat! thank you! open it?" She was an "eat it as you get it" kind of trick-or-treater. And of course, Jack was over the moon about getting "SOO MUCH!" candy.

We also headed to the local library for their annual Halloween party. The kids got to do halloween crafts (mummys with duct tape, q-tip skeletons, etc.) and trick-or-treat around the library. They were mostly just excited to be wearing their costumes in public.

Lastly, we went over to my sister's house to do the actual trick-or-treating. We made mummy hot dogs for dinner at her place and then headed out in full get up. The kids had a blast, although Kate stopped about half way through to ride and enjoy her candy. Luckily, it wasn't too cold or rainy. I love seeing all the sweet elderly couples and families who give out candy each year. They are always so kind and generous to our littles and I'm grateful all over again for all the wonderful people in this world that we never hear about in the news. But that's a rant for another day ;) Close to 8pm we went to a house that had the game playing on a TV they had set up on their front porch. Jack looked at us and said, "I think I'm ready to go home and watch the game now." You could bet that made a Dad proud :)

Halloween was absolutely fabulous and sugar-filled. Just like it's supposed to be.

Waffles and Pumpkin Carving with the Bylunds, Miles, Woodburys, Browns and Willius!

Iron Man and Wonder Woman off to save the world. He asked me to add that black cape to his costume for good measure.

This girl dumped out an entire bag of fritos and started stuffing her face at the ward Trunk-or-Treat

Library party!

My favorite band of superheroes :)