our one year old

Happy 1st birthday to our sweet little kate!  This year has gone by so fast I can't even tell you.  To say that kate is one almost sounds like I am making it up.  We did a little cupcake for her last night not knowing what time daddy would get home tonight.  Kate is a little under the weather (a trend for 1st birthdays at our house) but rallied for some pink icing.  She was dainty with the cupcake for a while and then dove in pretty well.  Brooks liked singing happy birthday to his sister and is already looking forward to his birthday next week.

At 1 year...
you only want to feed yourself - no more spoons for you - you push away all the baby food and want to use the fork yourself to get the avacado, bananas, pasta, EVERYTHING!

you are cruising around on the furniture and almost pushing your walking toy.  you let go of a chair today for just a second.  the head bump stage is totally here and you have bruises on your forehead and cheek to show for this weekends falls.

you have had a rough month of sleeping but hopefully we are coming out of it now.  we think you had your first night terrors on many occassions (sad!) and might be following in daddy's footsteps of being a crazy sleeper (sleeptalking/walking).   somedays you will take two naps but if the morning one is good, the afternoon isn't and the opposite too.  you are a funny girl!

you love your sippy cups and decided at christmas that you were done with the bottle.  miss independent for sure.   we call you the "saucy nugget" and your "spirited" personality might give us a run for our money.

you love your stand up music table, your frog lovie, the little people farm, touch and feel books, "flap books," remote controls, brooks's trains and legos, trying to climb on stools, and pulling up on toilets.

you don't love having your diaper changed (at all!), when we take anything away from you, bumping your forehead on the ground, being taken in and out of the carseat to run errands, sitting still for a book, and when daddy puts you down.

you are totally into your daddy.
and we are all totally into you. 

we will get some stats next week at the doctor... stay tuned!

Brooks and I had a good time this weekend at the National Western Stock Show and rodeo. We didn't get any photos from the stockyards, but getting up close and personal with some very big, very primped up steers was awesome. Then we went to the rodeo which had "crazy horses" and "fast fast horses." The highlight was probably when one of the broncs went to the ground, rolled on his side, and then jumped up and resumed bucking, and the cowboy stayed on the entire time. These dudes are tough.

Less tough are Kate and I - germs continue their winning season at the Fuquay house this winter.

happy new year

we spent a fun weekend in austin, texas over new year's.  the trip was for jay & vanessa's awesome wedding but we also enjoyed sunny days touring austin, a visit to the capital, good mexican food and lots of college football.

brooks touring the capital - he really enjoyed the cannons outside - maybe we have a historian on our hands!

watching the games with daddy.  the deacs didn't pull out a win but we had fun watching game after game.  brooks kept asking when tebow was going to play - still not quite clear on that!

finally a wedding with no kids!  we loved these shades that the couple gave everyone - they made us better dancers for sure!

happy birthday jesus

merry christmas at the fuquay house.  brooks woke up and was thrilled that santa had come to our house and ate his cookies and carrotts.  what a wonderful thing to watch! 

santa came via atlanta to bring brooks a brand new strider bike like his buddy xander has.  what a thrill!  we haven't been able to get him off of it for 3 days.  it's too snowy and icy to ride it outside, but there are ruts in our hardwoods from riding around the house!

santa didn't forget our sweet kate and brought her a new walker that she loves.  she isn't pushing it around on her own yet, but we know it's coming soon.

we loved having nana and papa in town to celebrate christmas.  we opened presents all morning with lots of breaks for yummy treats and finished the day with a big turkey dinner and all the trimmings. 

we had a wonderful christmas and hope that all you reading did too. we are so blessed by our family and friends and thank you all for making our christmas special with your gifts, cards, calls and thoughts.

christmas eve

a wonderful christmas eve celebration with early family church service, driving to see christmas lights and a wonderful yummy dinner after the kids went to bed. 

kate wore her beautiful christmas dress from richard's aunt dorothy.  what a special gift - kate looked like a little present.

couldn't get big brother to pose for too many pictures so this is the best we have of the two.  at what age do they start sitting still together!?!

getting ready for church with nana

about to go to bed - brooks left out 4 cookies for santa, carrotts for rudolph and dancer (he said) and soy milk in case santa liked the same milk as brooks.  this was so cute and the first year brooks got into the santa thing.  gotta soak it in before the years fly by.

11 months

a little behind and unorganized but here are our 11 month pictures.  we have a had a few germ bugs take over our house in the last couple of weeks, and brooks, kate and mommy just keep passing them around.   

at 11 months we want to remember:

• kate seems like so much more of a big girl now.  she is so spirited and sometimes a little high maintenence! that red hair is starting to show a little more somedays
• she weighs almost 20 pounds but still prefers all the baby food jars to anything she has to eat herself.  (other than puffs which she would eat all day if we let her)
• she has 6 full teeth and two more breaking through
• she is pulling up on furniture but not really cruising yet.  her crawling is getting faster and faster. 
• she likes playing with the little people and zoo animals and picking up any crumbs off the floor.  kate also likes books all of a sudden and points at the ones she wants.
• she does not like having her diaper changed or having any toy taken away from her. she also screams when we try to wipe her nose - poor baby has had a runny nose for a week now.
• she has started playing at a stand up table with music and lights and seems to like the loud noises.  she also dances when she hears music.

at almost 3 brooks is a total big boy.  we have had a few tastes of what the 3 year old attitude might be, but on most days he is still a sweet guy.  we are definitely entering the time when i need to have a notepad with me all the time to write down the hilarious and sweet things he says.  lately he has enjoyed his christmas parties at school, sledding in the front yard and with friends, "camping" in the basement with daddy, and having a "sleepover" with mom when daddy was out of town.  (that was more fun for him as mommy got kicked repeatedly in the head throughout the night!)

I didn't know that a stationary car could slide down a driveway and into the street.