catching up before christmas

front yard sledding in an early december snowstorm

tebow mania at the fuquay house

decorating the christmas tree

playing with brother's toys all the time

boompa and moompa came to visit

pulling up on everything!

denver zoo lights tour - brrrrr! 

showing off her new standing up skills

kate also turned 11months but has been under the weather and we haven't taken our official pictures yet.  we promise not to miss a month though - check back soon!

so thankful for thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  We had a great turkey day weekend with the Fuquays in town. We ate tons of good food and enjoyed leftovers for three days, watched more football than one would think possible, played a little mexican train, took walks to the park, and just enjoyed having family in town. 

Brooks & Richard prepping the turkey

Kate's first thanksgiving!  they even make turkey and vegetable baby food.

so much fun getting out all the china and crystal for a beautiful feast

Brooks made this turkey hat at church last week.  we all took a silly picture in the hat.  not too flattering, but funny!

The Kathryns

kate looks cuter in the turkey hat - hilarious!

10 months

kate is just as surprised as we are that she is already 10 months old!  it's been another great month, very busy and full of exciting things for the kids and our family. 

At 10 months...



• kate is crawling - mostly army crawling on her forearms, but even gets up on all fours and moves a bit. 
• another big tooth entered the picture (5 total) and we started brushing kate's teeth - really kate just started eating her toothbrush, but it counts!  teeth have been a much rougher road for baby kate than i remember with brooks.  poor baby seems so sad and has trouble sleeping when they are coming in.
• we took a trip to florida for aunt kathleen's wedding at the beach.  kate was the honorary "flower girl," and i carried her down the aisle with me.  brooks was a super ring bearer and walked down all by himself. 
• Kate is eating everything in sight - richard calls her a hamster because she has a special affinity for paper products and wood chips.  we are constantly pulling things out of her mouth and i'm going to have to start keeping a cleaner house!
• as kate's hair gets longer we have started putting more bows on her head - she is just getting prettier all the time (not biased we know).
• kate's first halloween - she was a monkey and stayed warm and cuddly in her costume. 

Brooks continues to be a cute big brother and seems older everyday.  his vocabulary is increasing all the time and he is so much easier to understand.  he also seems to be coming out of his shell more - dancing to music, saying hi to strangers, and being the center of attention at kathleen's wedding.  He is constantly singing his songs he learns at school and puts on quite a show for everyone when he performs.  he loves playing with zoo animal figures, tennis rackets (sometimes as guitars), dump trucks and loaders, and anything airplanes. 

On the parent front, it has also been an eventful month.  Richard wrapped up all of his interviews and has a  job lined up following fellowship next summer.  After a long search and much deliberation, weighing all the factors and prayer, we have decided to take a job with a great practice in dallas starting next september.  it is going to be a great professional fit and we are looking forward to being closer to some of our family.  the decision is of course bittersweet as we love being in colorado and the friends (new and old) we have here.  everyone in colorado thinks we must be crazy to think of leaving (we might be) but we are already looking forward to many future ski trips back. 

happy thanksgiving everyone - we are so thankful for our sweet kiddos and each other this year.

getaway

Last week we took a trip to florida for Aunt Kathleen's wedding in Palm Beach and added on a few days in Fort Lauderdale with just our family.  The kids loved seeing Boompa & Moompa, swimming in the pool, and being a part of all of the wedding festivities. 

Brooks was such a cute ring bearer.  He proudly wore his tuxedo and commented that he looked "handsome."  There will hopefully be some more pictures of the whole tux and kate too but I was a little too busy to take any!  B-man was also the hit of the reception dancing and running around the dancefloor chasing all of the colored lights from the DJ.  we almost didn't recognize him because his usual shy personality was totally gone!

In Fort Lauderdale, we stayed right on the beach and took the town trolley bus for a tour.  The kids were such good travellers and adapted well to sleeping in different places and missing some of their quality naptime. 

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Congraulations to Aunt Kathleen & Uncle Steven on a great wedding weekend! 

We are so happy for you!

welcome winter

with our second snowstorm in a week, this one dropping 9 inches at our house, i'd say winter is officially here.  darn!

but it sure makes for a lot of fun when the sun comes out again. brooks and i built two quick snowmen today while kate was napping.  so cute!

trick or treat

such a fun halloween weekend here in denver!  we had beautiful weather and a great time with family and friends.  with nana and papa in town we hit the pumpkin patch for a few extra pumpkins on saturday morning, went to a pumpkin carving party at our neighbors house saturday night and had xander, elliott and families over for dinner and trick or treating on monday. 

our little monkey - kate was so cute and warm in her costume.

finally a family shot - too bad the kids never look at the camera.  isn't brooks the cutest giraffe you've ever seen?!?

trick or treating with friends - kolby, elliott & xander.

happy halloween everyone!

9 months

hey guys, 9 months here!  wow!

i think i realized this week that kate is not a little baby anymore.  she is still my baby but getting bigger everyday.  she still has her chub but the numbers tell a different story. 

• 18lbs, 4 oz - 39% weight
• 27 1/2 inches - 49% height
• 90% head size - almost off the charts the first time - they had to measure twice!

other milestones this month

• not totally crawling but scooching around on her belly and getting up on all fours
• holding her own bottle
• almost moved exclusively to soy formula - we aren't totally sure about a milk allergy but there seems to be some intolerance.
• playing with her tongue all the time
• mom still thinks she should take two naps but often kate says differently.  she is a fan of the 20-30 minute naptime, i prefer 2-3 hours!  so far kate is winning.
• a two day random fever with no other symptoms ????
• really likes eating paper - oops!
• loves playing with brooks's trains when he will let him.

 

this little cutie is totally awesome.  she has a lot of personality and a strong will.  she will always let you know when she is not happy with a situation - sleeping, changing her diaper, eating peas...  she is happiest eating mum mums, chewing on "little people", hanging with the lady at the gym nursery, riding in the shopping cart like a big girl, having her neck and belly kissed, eating fruit, and having her choice of 20 toys to play with. 

brooks is doing great too (most of the time) - he loves his class at "school" and is singing ABCs, Old MacDonald, and Wheels on the Bus any chance he gets.  he is using the potty all the time (often multiple times an hour!) and has a new love of skittles.  he is also every bit of two and a half with bad attitude to go with it during most days.  he says he keeps his good attitude in his pocket, but we have to remind him to get it out!  he still loves reading, especially the Mr. Magee books and anything about airplanes, and wants to ride his bike everyday.  the sweetest thing about brooks these days is how he talks to his sister and tells her "goodnight baby kate, i love you."  i want that on tape forever!