TWO YEARS
Kate loves freeway on ramps. Jon says she can feel the increasing G forces as we accelerate. She always goes "wee! wee! weeeeeee!" as we drive the curves onto the freeway. Makes me laugh every time :)
Watching Kate helps me refocus. She says hi to everyone. She's not afraid of the world.
Kate is very into Horsies, Birdies, Butterflies, and Flowers.
Kate continues to be a little parrot and says more words every day. Some of them are still hard to understand:
"gesshu, Jon" = Thank you, ... [insert name here] or when she is trying to hand us something
"shammych" = sandwich
"daboo" = Strawberry
"lo-ba" = granola bar
"uppal-down" = I want to get up (on a couch or chair) and sit down
"hol-git" = I want to hold it
"more open door??" = anything that she wants to have opened, be it doors, lids to tupperware containers, or toothpaste caps
"gup" = Grape
(pictured below, Kate on her 2nd birthday outside the church holding a bag of grapes from her nursery snack.)
Kate and her 7 year old cousin AnnMarie are great buds. Every time AnnMarie comes over, Kate will yell "Amet! Amet! Amet!" They scream and giggle and run all over the place together! Kate will take AnnMarie's hand immediately and lead her off on adventures. They both love to draw with sidewalk chalk under the trampoline in the backyard and color with crayons on scrap paper inside.
I love hearing Margo's little collar jingling and paws running across the floor followed by Kate's tiny toddler feet chasing closely behind while she's babbling or yelling, "Margo! Margo! Margo!" Every day she wants to pet Margo and give her "more hug." :)
When I nurse Edwin in the morning, Jon will get Kate up, change her diaper, and always holds her up in the hallway to stick her head around our bedroom door and say hi to me. This happened a couple Saturdays ago, and I said, "good morning!" to which she promptly pursed her lips and went, "mmmmm!" Totally ready for mommy kisses! :) my favorite.
On the first Saturday of August we celebrated Kate with a picnic party at the park.
I blew up pearly white balloons with gold ribbon:
Our friend Tess came over to hang out during party prep. Kate was spoiled with a new summer outfit!
I curled Kate's hair and was able to take a few "pretty" shots before we headed to the park.
I was so happy with how her dress turned out!
I made up the pattern and found this lovely cotton print with gilded gold hexagons at Beverly's. Jon picked out the buttons for the back :)
Our friend Jess made her adorable gold moccs:
pretty girl, so grown up!!
Even all dolled up Kate wanted to put away her sidewalk chalk.
At the party, Kate went down the slide by herself for the very first time! (Usually she insists that I have her on my lap.)
Kate loves freeway on ramps. Jon says she can feel the increasing G forces as we accelerate. She always goes "wee! wee! weeeeeee!" as we drive the curves onto the freeway. Makes me laugh every time :)
Watching Kate helps me refocus. She says hi to everyone. She's not afraid of the world.
Kate is very into Horsies, Birdies, Butterflies, and Flowers.
Kate continues to be a little parrot and says more words every day. Some of them are still hard to understand:
"gesshu, Jon" = Thank you, ... [insert name here] or when she is trying to hand us something
"shammych" = sandwich
"daboo" = Strawberry
"lo-ba" = granola bar
"uppal-down" = I want to get up (on a couch or chair) and sit down
"hol-git" = I want to hold it
"more open door??" = anything that she wants to have opened, be it doors, lids to tupperware containers, or toothpaste caps
"gup" = Grape
(pictured below, Kate on her 2nd birthday outside the church holding a bag of grapes from her nursery snack.)
Kate and her 7 year old cousin AnnMarie are great buds. Every time AnnMarie comes over, Kate will yell "Amet! Amet! Amet!" They scream and giggle and run all over the place together! Kate will take AnnMarie's hand immediately and lead her off on adventures. They both love to draw with sidewalk chalk under the trampoline in the backyard and color with crayons on scrap paper inside.
I love hearing Margo's little collar jingling and paws running across the floor followed by Kate's tiny toddler feet chasing closely behind while she's babbling or yelling, "Margo! Margo! Margo!" Every day she wants to pet Margo and give her "more hug." :)
When I nurse Edwin in the morning, Jon will get Kate up, change her diaper, and always holds her up in the hallway to stick her head around our bedroom door and say hi to me. This happened a couple Saturdays ago, and I said, "good morning!" to which she promptly pursed her lips and went, "mmmmm!" Totally ready for mommy kisses! :) my favorite.
On the first Saturday of August we celebrated Kate with a picnic party at the park.
I blew up pearly white balloons with gold ribbon:
Our friend Tess came over to hang out during party prep. Kate was spoiled with a new summer outfit!
I curled Kate's hair and was able to take a few "pretty" shots before we headed to the park.
I was so happy with how her dress turned out!
I made up the pattern and found this lovely cotton print with gilded gold hexagons at Beverly's. Jon picked out the buttons for the back :)
Our friend Jess made her adorable gold moccs:
pretty girl, so grown up!!
Even all dolled up Kate wanted to put away her sidewalk chalk.
At the party, Kate went down the slide by herself for the very first time! (Usually she insists that I have her on my lap.)
Kate's cake table was set up with fancy bundts and a handmade banner :)
Chocolate w/sweet vanilla glaze, and chocolate w/chocolate ganache!
Our evening was full of lots of great friends and close family:
Me and Caroline with baby Wynn:
Mommy and daddy with the birthday girl!!
Miss Olivia Harper:
Baby Liam (just 6 weeks older than Wynn)
Liam with parents Tadd and Kelly:
The DePaolas! Kate's boyfriend Emmett, with parents Neil and Caroline:
Jake and Dani!
It was a 106 degree day, so I wanted to get her into her swimsuit and playing water games as soon as possible. Everyone trickled in and ate their own picnic dinners at their leisure so we tried to get to the cake cutting as soon as possible.
Kate was so mesmerized when everyone started singing happy birthday to her!
It made me so happy as a mom to feel the friendship that we have extending to our children.
Kate's first time blowing out candles all by herself!
Best moment ever.
From there Kate was dressed down in her swimsuit and went to town with her own slice of cake!
Judith was so wonderful in helping me plan and prepare for Kate's birthday. I love this picture of her with the kids!
She even prepped some games which we didn't get to because this happened instead:
Jon instigated a full on water fight and the 150 water balloons he filled for the party were gone within minutes. I also picked up a few water shooters from the dollar store, and those were a huge hit! Kate watched from the pavilion and had a great time laughing with everyone:
I didn't get too many pictures of the water fight because I was worried about the camera getting wet. Seriously, if you were anywhere near the line of fire it was all out war! Autumn Weber was pretty cute getting drenched :)
Jon was in a "take no prisoners" kind of mood, which made for a lot of fun (some wet birthday cake!) and resulted in a conspiracy for buckets of water being dumped on him in the end.
As the sun set we tried to get pictures with everyone, but we missed a few families :( Sorry guys!
Us with Jake and Brenda... for once Jon is the only one smiling normally:
Jon and Spanky:
I was so glad that my family could be there to celebrate with us. I love this picture of Gram with baby Wynn!
Me with Andrew (friends since 2nd grade)
Back at home we opened presents. Kate was totally spoiled! Especially considering I kept telling people not to feel obligated to bring her gifts :) She loved tearing off the wrapping paper and pulling out tissue paper from bags and handing it all to Jon.
She got a lovely book from Nona :)
and some Hot Wheels from Emmett!
From clothes, to puzzles, to play-doh, to toys, to jammies, and The Lego Movie (ha!) we felt very blessed to have such great friends surround us and set Kate up for a wonderful start on year 3 of her life in Idaho.
Chocolate w/sweet vanilla glaze, and chocolate w/chocolate ganache!
Our evening was full of lots of great friends and close family:
Me and Caroline with baby Wynn:
Mommy and daddy with the birthday girl!!
Miss Olivia Harper:
Me with Sarah Isbell!
Baby Liam (just 6 weeks older than Wynn)
Liam with parents Tadd and Kelly:
The DePaolas! Kate's boyfriend Emmett, with parents Neil and Caroline:
Jake and Dani!
It was a 106 degree day, so I wanted to get her into her swimsuit and playing water games as soon as possible. Everyone trickled in and ate their own picnic dinners at their leisure so we tried to get to the cake cutting as soon as possible.
Kate was so mesmerized when everyone started singing happy birthday to her!
It made me so happy as a mom to feel the friendship that we have extending to our children.
Kate's first time blowing out candles all by herself!
Best moment ever.
From there Kate was dressed down in her swimsuit and went to town with her own slice of cake!
Judith was so wonderful in helping me plan and prepare for Kate's birthday. I love this picture of her with the kids!
She even prepped some games which we didn't get to because this happened instead:
Jon instigated a full on water fight and the 150 water balloons he filled for the party were gone within minutes. I also picked up a few water shooters from the dollar store, and those were a huge hit! Kate watched from the pavilion and had a great time laughing with everyone:
I didn't get too many pictures of the water fight because I was worried about the camera getting wet. Seriously, if you were anywhere near the line of fire it was all out war! Autumn Weber was pretty cute getting drenched :)
Jon was in a "take no prisoners" kind of mood, which made for a lot of fun (some wet birthday cake!) and resulted in a conspiracy for buckets of water being dumped on him in the end.
As the sun set we tried to get pictures with everyone, but we missed a few families :( Sorry guys!
Us with Jake and Brenda... for once Jon is the only one smiling normally:
Jon and Spanky:
Gram, Aunt Michelle, Grandpa, me, baby Wynn, Jon and the birthday girl!
I was so glad that my family could be there to celebrate with us. I love this picture of Gram with baby Wynn!
Me with Andrew (friends since 2nd grade)
Back at home we opened presents. Kate was totally spoiled! Especially considering I kept telling people not to feel obligated to bring her gifts :) She loved tearing off the wrapping paper and pulling out tissue paper from bags and handing it all to Jon.
She got a lovely book from Nona :)
and some Hot Wheels from Emmett!
From clothes, to puzzles, to play-doh, to toys, to jammies, and The Lego Movie (ha!) we felt very blessed to have such great friends surround us and set Kate up for a wonderful start on year 3 of her life in Idaho.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATE!
