Christmas Extravaganza

Merry Christmas!!

We started our Christmas extravaganza at Dean's dad's house. Kate really took a liking to sitting on Grandpa Butters' lap and helping him open his presents. She received this ball popper that she loves. It's fun to watch her develop new skills with the new toys she received. She has learned to put the balls back in the hole they pop out of, and even put other items in there as well that Mom has to fish out!


Next stop was my parents house. The whole family was in town and we had a fun and relaxing day together. Kate really started to enjoy the boxes and wrapping paper. She had fun playing with Grandpa Kohl with her new blocks and Noah's Ark playset. She also got a shopping cart that she is getting more and more skilled at walking behind. In case you missed it in the picture, my sister got her an enormous stuffed dog that she loves to throw herself onto. It actually has come in quite handy as a safety net as she is getting to be a bit of a dare devil these days.




Last stop was at Dean's mom's house. Kate was not short on attention from her 4 cousins. She played so hard that one morning before nap time she actually laid her head down on the carpet in the living room and didn't get up. She was exhausted. She got lots of nice toys and clothes, but one stand out gift was a reading chair. I think the child is supposed to sit in the chair and play with the toys on the attached table. Kate likes to be unconventional and stands on the chair and does tricks. There are lots of one legged-one handed moves that were giving Grandma Laffin a heart attack. It was quite a winter wonderland up north. They received lots of snow so we took Kate out on her first sledding experience. She had a blast and even tasted the snow!

Mischief maker

I think these pictures say it well enough:

Kate's teeth

So far I haven't been able to get a picture of Kate's teeth because she really wont show them to anyone...except for our babysitter Lauren. She snapped this picture on her cellphone. Note the following:

• Kate's two lower teeth
• drop of drool hanging from her chin
• eye watering
• Kate climbing up Lauren's leg...you can see her jeans in the lower left hand corner

I think she may be getting more teeth on the top, but she wont let me look. I'll have to ask Lauren...

Good job Lauren!

New Couches

Our new couches are here! I was really having doubts after we bought them and were waiting for them to be delivered, but they actually fit really well and are really cool. I'll admit...it is a lot of couch in one room, but it is fabulous to both be able to stretch out on the couch at the same time. The bonus is that when the coffee table is removed (which it will be most of the time) it creates a little play area for Kate! They are very deep and sit higher than our last couches. In fact, if I sit all the way back my feet don't even touch the floor! I'm looking forward to having a group of people over because there should be plenty of seating for everyone!

Thankgiving

Although I am a little behind schedule with getting these pictures up, here are a few highlights of Thanksgiving.

Kate got some quality time with Deans mom. She enjoyed being rocked by Grandma, even thought she always is a little wiggly!

She got LOTS of attention from all her cousins. Here she is getting some quiet time with Ashley.

Grandpa Laffin and Uncle Corey spend much of the weekend deer hunting. Kate really wanted to go along, but if you know Kate and how loud she is, I don't think that would have worked out too well! But she looks so good in blaze orange!

My new trick!

Kate has now begun standing in her crib. This was cute at first until she wanted to practice her new skill instead of sleeping! Now I can't sneak in and check on her anymore!

What I can do...

Kate will use her puppy to demonstrate what she can do...







I can sit by myself.















I can pull myself up on my toy box to get my toys.















I can pull myself to standing to get the ones that are hard to reach.

















I can pull my toys out and crawl around with them.














I push myself back up to sitting.




















I can stand and play.

Driving lessons.

Driving lessons with Daddy.

New smile.

Kate has decided it is time for change. Her old smile (left hand picture) was getting to be the same old same old. So she decided to update it for the scrunched-up face smile (right hand picture). I personally like the change.

New furniture!

Dean and I have owned our couch and love seat for about 5 years. We really like the set, except for the fabric which shows stains very easily and doesn't clean up well.

Well, this fall I made the bad (or good) decision to kill a mosquito on the arm of our couch which happened to be full of blood. Gross...I know.

We had bought a stain protection warranty so I immediately called the number and filed a claim. Long story short...the stain didn't come out and the fabric was ruined. They no longer carry this fabric so we got a credit to go pick out new furniture!! This has been both a blessing and a curse. It's great to be getting brand new couches. However, we liked these couches and they don't have them anymore. So we decided to go with something totally different. But, since we are currently renting, we really don't know what size of room these will eventually end up in. While looking around we really liked a large brown micro-fiber sectional. It is so comfortable and offers so much seating...something we were always lacking. However it is HUGE! It will fit in our current living room but may look a little oversized. The three pieces can be split apart so we may end up leaving one piece off and storing it until we move. We figure in the next place we live it can either go in the living room if it is big enough or can go in a basement. It is supposed to come in sometime mid to late November so I will update you on how it goes!

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!!

Kate has her first tooth! This development was discovered Saturday morning when Kate pulled my finger in her mouth and I felt the razor sharp edge of a lower tooth poking through her gums. I would normally include a picture of this exciting news but this tooth has only briefly been seen by me. Kate is really not willing to show it off yet! She hasn't really seemed uncomfortable. I noticed she was chewing on things more than usual this last week so I had suspicions this was coming.

Eva comes to visit

Leslie, my first Trinity College roommate, and I have been getting our babies together once a month or so, trading off who gets to take the 2 hour drive with their baby. It's fun to see how the girls compare since they were born 4 days apart. Eva has surpassed Kate in her physical abilities by crawling on all fours and walking behind a push toy. Kate has Eva beat in the vocal department by saying da-da and ma-ma quite regularly and with some insistence. Since seeing Eva, However Kate is crawling on all fours much more and pushing herself up to sitting. She is also pulling herself onto/into things like her toy box or the bottom shelf of a cabinet. Tonight before bed she pulled herself up to standing in her crib and got so excited she let go and fell down. Both are still about the same size and seem to give their mother's the same challenges at the same time which results in many phone conversations between Leslie and I!

(L)-Eva and Kate (R)-"Sharing" a toy.

(L)-"Sharing" another toy. (R)-Kate trying to steal the shot.

Halloween

Kate experienced her first Halloween and was a real trooper through the whole process. After getting home from WI (see last post) we quickly changed her into her costume and headed out. She wasn't thrilled getting her face transformed into a puppy, but when Dean held her up to see her reflection in the mirror she started giggling. We stopped by Aunt Julie and Uncle Nathan's house, two houses of families we know from church, and ended at Grandma and Grandpa Kohl's house. She was thrilled with her costume squealing and giggling the whole time while wearing it. It was really funny to watch her crawl around in her puppy costume because she really looked like a little doggy!

The puppy with her "handler".

Aunt Julie and Uncle Nathan gave Kate a cute pair of Halloween socks for her treat bag and whipped up a batch of Halloween punch for us.

Grandma and Grandpa gave Kate a little Halloween bear with candy corn and Grandma made us a delicious Halloween dinner.

Needless to say it was a busy last few days and now we are going to lay low for a few days and get back on track with naps and our regular routine.