Santa!

Kallon and Kate visited with Santa Claus at our ward Christmas party. Kallon was hilarious, he was a little hesitant at first to climb onto Santa's lap but as soon as he did he started naming all sorts of things he wanted, counting them off on his fingers. Kallon asked for a Spiderman bike, Spider man helmet, and a Batman shirt. He has been into Spider man for a while but I have no idea where the Batman thing came from and asking for a shirt of all things. He is so funny.



When it was Kate's turn she was fine with it at first then realized a large man in a red suit was holding her and she got very nervous and started to cry. I love the picture though......classic!

Happy Birthday Kate!

Kate turned one year old on Saturday! I can't believe my sweet little girl is already one. Where does the time go? It does not seem like it was a year ago that she was born.Cory put together a video of Kate's first year, it was so good it made me cry. I will post it soon. Sometimes I wish my babies would stay small and sweet longer before they turn into toddlers.
Kate started crawling on Thanksgiving day and is now pulling herself up on everything she can. When we lay her in bed she immediately gets up and will stand at the crib railing forever and just babble. We had a quiet little family birthday party at home for Kater. She had rainbow chip cupcakes with vanilla frosting. At first she wasn't too sure what to do about the cupcake but as soon as she tasted it she was in heaven. She dipped her index finger in the frosting and licked a few times until she finally leaned over and put her entire face into the cupcake. That's my girl! Kate loved it, it was all over her face and her in her hair.
We gave Kate a vtech ball that rolls around and plays music. I don't know who likes it more Kate or Kallon. Kate loved it tonight though she would follow it around the room just laughing. I think it was a hit! Happy Birthday baby girl!!!

Katers

Kate is just growing so unbelievable fast. I swear this year has just flown by. I look back and think where has all the time gone? Kate will be a year old in only ONE month, can you believe it? I sure can't. She has exploded developmentally just in the last few weeks. On October 13 she waved bye bye for the first time and now doesn't stop. She waves when you say hi, hello, and bye bye. She has really grown to love patty cake and thinks she is pretty cool when she joins in with you clapping her chubby little hands. She now says dada, dad, mama, mom, hi, hey, and the most cute one of all nanon which is "Kallon." How precious is that??? LOVE IT! I thought Kate would never crawl she was just so content on rolling around. She can get anywhere she wants just rolling on the ground. Yesterday morning she started army crawling, when I looked up she was heading straight for the food Kallon had dropped on the floor. A girl after my own heart, loves her food. Kallon and Kate had a blast playing fetch the sibling. Kallon would drive a few feet away from Kate on his bus and Kate would army crawl as fast as she could to get to him before he took off again. When she would get to him they would both start laughing so hard. It was so funny to watch. Then last night Cory was sitting on the couch and Kate was playing on the floor next to him. The next thing he knew Kate grabbed a hold of his shorts and pulled herself up standing next to the couch! Holy cow! All of this within a few weeks time. Maybe she'll be walking by next weekend. It is so much fun the watch them grow and hit these milestones. I especially love that Kallon and Kate love each other so much and have such a good time together.

Sewing: Take Two

I did it.....kind of. I sewed my first piece of clothing, a dress for Kater. It only took me two and a half months from start to finish and a lot of help from my mother-in-law. It looks pretty cute if you are standing at a distance:) If you look to closely you can definitely tell its beginner sewing work but oh well I am pretty excited about it. Sewing straight lines is still hard and who would have thought reading a pattern was so darn difficult? It might be a while before I start another project, hopefully my skills will improve:)

Fall Fun

Finally!!! A genuine smile

So much has happened the past few months and I have been avoiding blogging about all the fun we've been having. We had a fun Halloween this year. The weekend before Halloween we went with friends to a pumpkin patch in Hondo. There was a corn maze, hayrides, barrel rides, a corn cannon, and fun toys for the kids to play on. Kallon loved it. I loved it too, it reminded me of fall at home. I didn't think that living in such a big city and in hot, humid Texas that we would have the opportunity to go out and find a corn maze on a chilly night. It was so fun. For family home evening we carved our pumpkin and Kallon had nothing to do with the insides. He was so funny we tried everything to get him to stick his hand in the pumpkin but he would scrunch up his face and tell us it was gross. Friday afternoon our friends Jaqline and Tyson came over and helped my make Kallon's robot costume. Thank you so much you guys, I know if I would have done it on my own it would have looked pretty pathetic. Kallon really loved his costume. For about an month I would ask him what he wanted to be for Halloween and everytime he would say that he wanted to be a robot. I think he has been playing way to much Nintendo..oops. Oh and he would also add that he wanted a shoot gun. Friday night was our wards trunk or treat. We had a good time there talking with friends and watching Kallon play games. On Halloween we went to Sea World and let the kids see the animals while the adults rode some fun holla coasters, as Kallon likes to call them. We had a very Happy Halloween.


Kallon and Cannon












All bundled up



















Kallon kept his arms up the entire ride.















He's not too sure about that pumpkin
wouldn't want to get your hands dirty.


Kallon and his shoot gun







































My lame attempt at dressing up
complete with a goggle sunburn haha

Silly Kallon

Kallon: Mom, we don't have a backyard we have a patio.
Me: Yep, we have a patio.
Kallon: Well mom, lets go to the store and buy a backyard.

So funny, if only it were that easy:)

Just what I needed

I read this on a friends blog and it hit close to home. I am often guilty of being tired, stressed out and sometimes very crabby when I think about how tough being a mommy is. There are some days when I think I would like to be using my degree and working or to just have time for myself to relax and maybe read a book for longer than five or ten minutes at a time. I love my children so much and I am so grateful that I have been given the opportunity to have them in our home, but some days are just hard. I am also so thankful for a loving, supportive husband and I think a lot of the time I take him for granted. After I read this I realized that I need to be more grateful and count my many, many blessings Heavenly Father has given me because I AM so very blessed. Enjoy.

How do you think of your children? On any given day, would you say your children are a blessing or a burden? Here is a challenge to you…How are you?”…“How is the baby?”…“How are your kids?”… We all hear these questions every day. Do you know a mom who always answers something like this: “Well, I haven’t killed my 2-year-old yet, so I guess that’s good.” Or, “I’m just exhausted,” or, “Things are absolutely crazy – I am so stressed out!”

Maybe that frazzled, haggard, bewildered mommy is someone you know. Maybe it’s you. I know I’ve been there. Here is my question to you today… are we bearing our blessings as burdens? Those babies that we dreamt of and prayed for, that we had so much fun choosing names for, that we counted the days to meet… are they burdens to us now? Those homes that we were ecstatic to move into… are they burdens now? That husband that we couldn’t live without, that we picked out the wedding dress for, that we cried and ached and waited by the phone for… is he a burden now? That job you needed, you wanted and prayed for, that provides food and clothing for your family… is it a burden now?Sometimes it seems to me like a mantle we as moms must carry. We must be tired, we must be stressed out; we must be harried and frazzled, we must be lucky just to make it through the day. Are we bearing our blessings as burdens? Are we tired? Absolutely.

As moms, we know about the 2 a.m. feedings, the nightmares, the wet beds, the midnight curfews. Do things get a little stressful between PTA meetings, dance class, the T-ball game, and dinner on the table at 6? Sure they do. Are husbands always a joy when they get home from work? No way. Is scrubbing the potty, doing the laundry, and cleaning the high chair tray the greatest thrill we’ve ever known? Of course not.

So how do we look past the burdens and see the blessings of our families and our homes? Do you know any women who would give anything to have a baby to nurse at 2 a.m.? Anyone who would love to have those clothes we are sick of washing, or that house we just can’t keep clean. Do you know any women whose husbands aren’t coming home?

I challenge you to joy, to smile, to persevere. I challenge you to bear your burdens as blessings and watch as they multiply. And the next time someone asks you how you are, throw off that identity of stressed out, frazzled mommy, find your smile and answer, “I am blessed!”

And all I can add to that is, "Amen!"

Thank you Amber for sharing this.

Sewing

I am not what you would call "crafty" I actually am quite terrible at anything creative. Most of the time I will start a project get sick of it after about an hour but hurry and finish it anyway just so I can say I did it. The end product is ugly and looks as though a preschooler was attempting it. This week though I tackled my first project and it actually looks pretty darn good if I do say so myself. Here is what brought on my first sewing idea. The past few weeks Kate has been getting her arms and legs stuck in between the slats on the crib. I just don't mean she gets her limbs out, she gets stuck! Her thighs are so chubby they actually get wedged in and you have to wiggle her back and forth to slowly work her out. Then once we do get her out she is so upset and screams and lets you know she is not happy with you for ripping her legs off. I have never bought a bumper because of the SIDS warnings and because of the price but I decided that Kate needed one. I now am an owner of a sewing machine thanks to my mom who sent down her old one. So I decided to test it out for the first time.Yesterday I loaded up the kids and we braved the store and bought some cute fabric that matches her sheet and stuffing (is that what it's even called?). After putting the kids down for naps I got everything in order and started on my first ever sewing project and made a bumper for the crib. I think it turned out pretty well. Now there are some of you thinking a bumper? big deal you sew straight lines. Sewing a straight line is a feat for me, the bumper only looks good if you don't look too closely, but it's done. I started getting bored towards the end so the ties are really sloppy but oh well Kate will probably rip them off anyway. Instead of buying one at the store for around thirty dollars I made my own for under ten!!! I am feeling very domestic but we will see how long that lasts:)

Family Fun

Our last few weeks have been busy ones. My dad, sister, and brother came down for a visit at the end of July. We had so much fun going to Schlitterbahn, Sea World, downtown, going swimming and eating yummy food. I am so glad they were able to come and see where we live and show them that it's not so bad:) The day after they left Cory had an interview in Galveston so we loaded up the car and drove the 4 hours. While Cory was at his interview Kallon, Kate, and I went to a dinosaur exhibit and played on the beach. Kallon loved it, when it was time to go I had to literally drag him out of the water. Kate was also loving being outside. That same day Cory's mom and sister flew into San Antonio for a visit. We played tennis, went shopping, ate more yummy food and just hung out. My favorite thing we did while they were here was the night all the girls left the kids with Cory and Cory's brother to babysit. While they sat home babysitting me, Cory's mom, sister, and sis-in-law drove up to Austin and saw Wicked! It was so good, I wish I could go again. It was definitely worth the drive and it was nice just to be able to dress up and get out of the house without children for a change. I need to do it more often. I love having visitors and it's so nice that they want to come see us. You guys are welcome anytime!








Mom, here is the video of Kate. You can see how much she has grown. I tried to rotate it but I can't figure it out. Enjoy!

A Trip to the Zoo

On Monday we went to the San Antonio Zoo for the first time. Other than the blistering heat we had a fun time, thanks for inviting us Jennie. Kallon's favorite part of the whole thing was the train ride around the park that I had to pay extra for-of course. He loves trains and was so excited to actually ride one. Half way through the train ride Kallon looked up at Jennie and said "this is so cool Jennie." It was pretty funny, he could hardly contain himself. I think his favorite animals were the hippos, tiger, and the very large snake. He had fun running from animal to animal and I had "fun" keeping track of him. Kate was a trooper too, she just hung out in the stroller and was her cute self. Here are some pictures of our zoo adventure.


See Kallon's excitement

Sweet baby Katers
Kallon the butterfly
Hippo
Kallon, Bentli, and Tatum


*Please excuse the grainy photos. Something is wrong with my camera and I don't know how to fix it. Maybe its time for a new one, please Cory:)

It's been a while.......

I have not posted in almost two months! Where does the time go? A lot has happened in the two months where do I begin? May was pretty uneventful, we played, we swam, hung around the house. In June we had the opportunity to go home to Idaho for two weeks. It was a really fun trip minus the twenty-eight hour drive there and back! I have no idea what we were thinking driving that with two small kids. Both Kallon and Kate had their moments but overall they both did really well. That is not a drive that I want to do again anytime soon...blah! While we were home we celebrated Kallon's birthday, my baby boy turned three! I cannot believe that he is three, it makes me feel so old. I keep thinking there is no way that I am old enough to have a three year old and a seven month old baby. The closer I get to thirty the more depressed I become, only four more years YIKES!!! Anyway we had a fun little birthday party with the families at my parents house. I made Kallon a construction cake which I think he liked, I know he enjoyed eating it. He got some really fun presents from his grandparents and auntie Katy and cousin Stratton. We did a lot of hanging out, playing tennis, golfing(yes, I attempted but it was not pretty), visiting friends, and some boating. It was so fun to see everyone, I miss you all already. Also while we were home Cory received a phone call one morning from the Texas application service telling him that he will be considered a resident now!!! Wahoo! Cory didn't start working here in Texas until mid October so we thought he wouldn't be considered a resident until then but now we don't have to deal with all that. Things are really starting to fall into place and I am starting to see the blessings we have received since moving to Texas. I am glad we decided to listen to the promptings even though we really didn't want to move here. Now it's really starting to grow on us, all except the heat that is. Kate is now seven months and is as big as ever! At her six month appt she weighed in at 19lbs. She. is. HUGE. Her top front teeth are just about to break through, when they do she will have four teeth. She is growing like crazy. Kate is finally rolling over all the time but she can't sit up yet, too many fat rolls. She is cute though. I love my chunky baby. Oh and I have to post this because I don't want to forget it. This was Kallon's prayer last night. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day, thank you for Daniel on his mission, thank you for my parents and baby Kate, please bless my dad to turn his applications in before work and bless him to go to medical school, help me to sleep tight, name of Jesus Christ Amen. It was so precious, I love him too, most days:) It just goes to show how much they really are listening.
Kallon sleeping on the boat
My sister Becky and Stratton
Kate driving haha
Kate sleeping on the boat with grandma Spicer
All the kiddies fell asleep boating
Kallon and Stratton in the tub "shaving" with grandpa Green
Opening birthday presents, Stratton wanted in on the fun.

Construction cake

Thank you to our families for the fun vacation home, we love you!