4 teeth!

Kay now has four teeth! She has her two bottom front teeth, a molar poked through while we were in Nebraska (a little out of order!), and last night we noticed that her top front tooth has just started poking through. She has been chewing on everything! We caught her trying to eat the coffee table last night. I hope they come through soon so she gets a little bit of a break. She is not a huge fan of brushing her teeth. It is getting a little better the more we practice. Although her teeth are coming in, her hair continues to be pretty sparse!

5 States in 13 months....

Our little girl is turning into a great travel companion. She has been to North Carolina, South Carolina, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Washington in her life so far.

We just returned from South Dakota and Nebraska for a family reunion. Kay had so much fun meeting all of her extended family members. She really loved snuggling with my cousin Jesse. We passed her from person to person and she just studied everyone. There were a little over 50 family members there.



Kay was such a trooper. We had to leave our house at 4 am to get to the airport. We picked her up out of bed and she just smiled so big. I think she knew something fun was about to happen. She took several naps and entertained herself by opening and closing the window, waving at every person, and playing with anything within reach. We did not land at home until 1 am. Everyone was tired, but Kay did great!


When we arrived in South Dakota we went straight to Mt. Rushmore. We then took a scenic drive to Custer. Kay had a sleep over the first night with her grandma and great grandma so Craig and I could get some sleep. While they babysat we went on a huge slide. We rode a ski lift up and then slid down.


On the way to Ft. Robinson, NE we stopped to take a picture of "nothing". Craig stood on top of the car to get the best view. Two cars passed us (one of which happened to be our family members). Later, these family members were telling a story about how some guy was standing on top of the car taking a picture. They were trying to figure out what he was taking a picture of because there was "nothing" there! Everyone thought it was so funny that of the two cars that passed us one happened to be them! As you can see by the picture, our family reunion was in the middle of nowhere!


There were not many choices for restaurants in Ft. Robinson. We ended up eating two nights in a row at this great restaurant 12 miles away on a dirt road. There is no menu and they cook one item each night. They have been collecting old buildings and fixing them up on the grounds. It was so neat to see old salons, school houses, jail cells etc.


We took a hay ride to breakfast one morning. Kay loved watching them make pancakes.


We stayed in a small cabin at Ft. Robinson, NE. The grounds were nice and green.

We had a celebration dinner for my great aunt/uncle to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. My grandma and her three of her siblings were able to be together (very special!) We put Kay to bed in her stroller and tucked her in the corner so she could get some sleep and we could enjoy the party.

Mom, look what I can do!

Welcome to our world these days...
We don't need many toys; Kay is turning everything into one. Here are some examples:

I have a stress fracture in my foot and Kay thinks the boot I have to wear is great. She undoes the velcro all the time.


Last night I caught her pulling the tissues out of the box...EVERY...SINGLE...ONE...

We got that mess under control and went upstairs for bath. When I turned around she was pulling the toilet paper off the roll.


This morning I turned around and she was splash, splash, splashing... in the TOILET bowl! YUCK! It feels like over night I am going to have to start watching her every second!

I put things away, she takes them out. I put things away, she takes them out. I put things away, she takes them out....I think you get the point....

Skype with Nana and Pops...

We Skyped with Nana and Pops this past weekend. It has been awhile since we last Skyped with anyone. It was really fun to watch Kay this time. She would see Nana clap and would copy her. Her attention span is only about 2 seconds long. Kay was so interested in the screen for those precious two seconds! We put the camera down on the ground and it was very entertaining to all for Kay to crawl up to it, pick it up, and give a very close up of her smiling face.

These days Kay is crawling up stairs (She thinks this is a fun game as soon as I turn my back), pulling up on everything, and starting to cruise while pulled up! I feel so proud of her because this is what the therapist has been working with her on. She is still talking up a storm. I am pretty sure she has "dada" down now when she sees Craig. I am still working on "mama." It melts my heart that Kay will now follow us from room to room. As soon as she sees we aren't coming back, she hurries up to catch up! We call changing her diaper "herding cats" because she is so wiggly and rolls all over the place.

More pictures soon!

Kay's 1st Sleepover...(without us!)

Craig and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary on July 9th. To celebrate we dropped Kay off at Grandma's house and went out to a nice dinner. I woke up at 6:15 am because my body is so used to waking up early with Kay. I kept thinking to myself, please go back to sleep, please go back to sleep. Next thing I know it is 7:45! At 8:15 I called mom and was so excited to say..."I'm still in bed!" I think the relaxing morning was the best gift of all!

We did a test drive of a sleep over at Grandma's the weekend before to make sure Kay (and us) were able to handle it. Everyone survived and had a great time! Kay really enjoyed Grandma's specialty- egg pancakes. Although Grandma claims, "what happens at Grandma's stays at Grandma's" when we picked Kay up she smelled of sweet syrup. Busted! We know she enjoyed a sweet treat for breakfast.

It was really fun for Craig and I to think about the past five years. Our lives have changed so much. We feel so blessed and can't wait to see what the future holds for our family!

One Year Check-up.

At Kay's one year check up she weighed in at 17 lbs 11 oz (5%), 29.25 inches long (55%) and head circumference of 44.5 cm (30%). She had a great check up and is now on whole milk. She waves and says 'bye bye'. She says "oh" for "uh oh" and "boom" anytime something falls over. She says "dada", but I don't think she knows that is Craig yet. We are still working on "mama"! She eats just about anything although it changes day to day what she likes. She even eats really spicy food!

We enjoyed a quiet 4th of July with our back door neighbors. We smoked a turkey and had banana pudding (as you can see, Kay really enjoyed it!)


Kay has gotten really active. She really enjoys playing outside. She even caught a rolly polly! She studied it for a several minutes before finally catching it. She loves to help me "organize" whatever might be on the floor, in a bag, or within reach. In the picture below she is helping me organize my nice stack of diapers I had to take to daycare.

Happy Birthday Kay and Charlie!

Charlie had his two year birthday on July 1 and Kay had her one year birthday on June 18. We celebrated them both in the weekends between. You can watch a video of them both eating their cake on Marcia and Scott's blog. Charlie did not want to touch it and Kay dug right in and picked up the entire piece. The aftermath was almost as funny as the cake smashing. Craig had to hose off the chairs and the cousins went straight to the tub!

We also played with all the toys and Craig was nice enough to sit in the baby pool with Charlie and Kay.