Seussical Birthday

I can now see why parents get party planners for their children's birthday parties. I had a lot of fun planning Katelyn's first birthday party and learned a lot for the next one. One lesson I can't seem to make stick is not to procrastinate; however, the party was a ton of fun.

The invitation:

My mom had written a poem for a baby shower that my sister threw, so we took that poem and adjusted it to fit. I am so glad my mom can write rhyming poetry because I am not so good at it.

The Decor:

This is the adult/baby table.

My Aunt Livi has quite the collection of Seuss stuffed animals. They came in handy.

This is where you can totally tell how lame I am. We haven't decorated our tree yet, but it worked for the party decor! I knew I was waiting for something.

The Attire:

My cousin, Brianne and I made her the tutu skirt. I cut and she tied.

"Hats off to the Birthday Girl"

Next time I try an iron on, I think I will measure where it hits the baby. There was a little too much room on top.

The Guests:

Here's where all the cousins sat. It was the One Fish Two Fish table. They had fish plates and a fish bowl in the middle of the table. Israel made his yummy lasagna, which Katelyn got to try for the first time. Yum!

The Presents:

The Cake:

This was my first real attempt at cake decorating. It's so not perfect, and I ran out of time, patience, and hand muscles towards the top, but I was okay with the end result.

Katelyn clapped when everyone sang and we blew the candle out.

Here's a progression of the cake experience. I only made the cutest ones big.

She was one messy girl!

The favors:

I did different bags for different age groups.

The Family:

Israel was such a big help at getting everything ready.

There's No Place Like Home

"There's no place like home" besides the pumpkin patch and a trunk or treat for Halloween. Here are some late pictures of our Halloween festivities:

Cade and Carmen came with us.

What the Houston heat does to green make-up.

Helping Daddy pass out the candy.

I could post about 50 more pictures of the pumpkin patch, but I think you got the idea.

Once again, it's been a long time since I updated. I originally planned on blogging once a week, but I'm not even making it once a month. I have to admit it's not a lack of time on the computer; the digital scrapbooking usually wins over the blogging. I thought I would merge the two and post my pages. I can't figure out how to paste in Blogger, so I'm just going to give a quick summary and those of you who are really interested you can get your magnifying glass out. I do have some pictures I haven't scrapbooked yet. Here it goes!

Every Monday we attempt to go to Lapsit at the library--we make it about every other week. They read stories and sing songs and then have playgroup. Katelyn absolutely loves singing and jumps up and down through most of the songs. She's getting more into the toys and the other babies every time we go.

Katelyn loves pulling out books from the bookcases. So did I as a baby and you can see a picture of me doing the same thing on the right side of the page. Cade, her three old cousin, actually removed all the books from the bottom shelf in the study, so she wouldn't ruin them.

Credits: LissaEDesignz-Picnic in the Park, Sarah DuVall--Picnic in the Park, Just So Scrappy--Backyard BBQ

We went to a Houston Symphony show at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion.

Credits: Just So Scrappy--Classsic Beauty and Strollin' Through the Park

We invited ten adults and ten kids over for BYU's opening game. It was a madhouse, but a lot of fun. BYU actually won this game. Other weekends have not been so much fun. Come on Cougs!

Credits: Just So Scrappy-Are You Ready for Some Football?

Credits: Shabby Princess--In the Groove Album (I didn't design this page; it was a quick page--just drop your pictures.)

My mom and dad are officially living in Switzerland. My dad went over earlier in the summer, but my mom didn't leave until Labor Day. My brother, Matt went into Army Basic Training right around the same time. We had the Wallaces over for dessert to wish them well.

Katelyn is pulling up on everything. She loves to walk along the furniture and can even stand for a tiny bit by herself. She cracks me up when she walks holding onto our hands. She either does this running walk or walks like a T-rex. She also has big girl jammies--2 piece jammies. She's outgrown most of her one piece/footsie jammies. I just can't get over how grown up she looks. In fact I can't even buy jammies in the baby, baby section anymore. I have to go to the 12 month-2T section. Her Aunt Falicia bought her these jammies though. Cutest thing ever. We just adore her.

We've seen a lot of Cade lately. He comes over and plays while his mom is working since Matt is in basic training. Most of the time Katelyn and he play very well together. In fact, Katelyn grins when Cade comes over and makes a ka ka sound, which I have interpreted to mean Cade.

I had a repair man here one afternoon. I guess that was entertaining enough for Cade--he fell asleep in the window sill. The other picture just captures Cade. He put the Jumpin' Grasshoppers in a pine tree in the "Cabin" decorated room.

The other kids are here periodically too. One Monday night, Falicia had to work, so we had Family Home Evening. We made chocolate covered marshmallows coated in graham cracker crumbs and had a lesson on the Good Samaritan. I had made picture cards for my Sunbeam lesson, so it was a great way to try them out. Yes, my new calling is Sunbeams teacher. I have five little kiddos and they are so cute and well behaved!

Katelyn went to her 9 month check-up. A few days later, she was back in the doctor's office with a stomach bug.

Credits: Plum Dumpling Designs--bandb quick page from her Black and Blue kit. Once again, just added the picture and journaling.

I guess I have a thing for jammies lately. Happy early Halloween!

Credits: Scrapping Sisters-Boo kit

My cousin Brianne and I took the kids to Meyer Park for a leaf hunt. It was so cute to watch them gather the leaves. They really got into it.

Credits: LR Autumn Blessings; DJFS--Autumn Blessings; SNP--Autumn Blessings; SM_K--So Blessed

We celebrated Cade's third birthday.

Credits: Paper Planes Designs--Birthday Fun

I maybe should have broken this up into smaller posts, but if you made it through, way to go!

Summer Happenings

Other than my post about Mike's Air Force Graduation, we haven't updated the blog for the last two months. Here's our attempt at a quick update...Those of you who know me, brevity is not my strength!

We can't believe how big Katelyn is getting. In a matter of days, I'll be at her nine month check-up. My favorite thing to ask her is "What did you do with our baby?" We feel that she is such a big girl, very grown up. Her latest accomplishments and discoveries are eating finger food, army crawling (gone are my days of setting her in one spot and expecting her to stay there), crawling over legs, and pulling up.

She knows she's number one in our book. This pointer finger action is very common as she explores everything with it from the fuzzes on the floor to her touch and feel books.

Her daddy still adores her. She has lunch on her face in this picture.

We celebrated my twenty-ninth birthday. Yikes! I feel like I need to live this year up and work on becoming the woman I thought I would be by the time I was 30. I have a long way to go. Israel was so sweet! I woke up to find this on the kitchen table. He had ordered a Cricut cartridge and made chocolate chip cookies. He made the letter shapes by hand, very impressive! His chocolate chip cookies are divine!

He took a picture of them before he baked them in case they didn't look like letters after baking.

I don't look so cute in the morning. I also need posture lessons. I love that my husband listens to me explain which scrapbooking products I love and have on my wishlist. This conversation was months ago. He pays attention, remembers, and is extremely thoughtful. Thanks hun!

Newsflash, we moved! We moved into my parent's house while they are in Switzerland for the next 3-5 years. My brother and his daughter came up to help us. We couldn't have done it without their help and the help of Elder Quorums on both sides of the move.

Katelyn slept during the whole loading experience and woke up right before it was time to drive away.

So much of my July and August was organizing, packing, unpacking, situating, cleaning, etc. Here's a picture of our hallway before the move.

Here's a picture of our hallway during the move. Besides the U-haul with our "big" stuff, I took loads down in my car or the Suburban for two weeks before the actual move. The hallway was the holding place for boxes and stuff that was ready to go.

Katelyn has crazy hair when she wakes up! I couldn't resist the "Bedhead" picture.

This adorable outfit came with a matching hat. The outfit is almost too small, so I had to get a picture. I think she just went through a growth spurt. Notice the boxes in the background.

Besides moving all our stuff, we spent a lot of time at Grammy's house helping her get ready for her air, boat, and long-term storage shipments.

Katelyn loves sitting in the big kid high chairs when we go out to eat.

Israel and I have been spoiled this summer. We've had quite a few date nights. We went to the Houston Symphony at the Miller Outdoor Theater and went to Carrabas (the location of our first date) and Cold Stone for our anniversary. My favorite was going to Wicked with my mom and dad. I absolutely enjoyed it! I was amazed with how the story intertwined with the Wizard of Oz. The music was fantastic! I Want to Be Popular and Defying Gravity are among my favorite.

I had my last activity as activity committee chair. Enter sigh of relief. We held a Pioneer Day Extravaganza. Once again I couldn't have done it without Israel's help or my mom's (She watched Katelyn).

There was homemade ice cream, pie eating contest, potato sack races, relay races, horseshoes, and just a lot of good old fashioned fun. A storm blew in an hour into the activity, so we raced to get everything inside before the torrential rain started.

Katelyn loves meeting new friends. On July 10, we went to a pool party for Israel's work.