Kate @ 11 months

Baby Kate is a whirlwind of joy. She turned 11 months old on July 3rd!

She loves to babble and will stick her tongue out quickly like a lizard making "labul-labul-labul" sounds over and over again.

Sometimes when she is babbling or talking to herself in her crib, she will randomly have fits of giggles. Apparently she finds herself very entertaining :) I love coming around the corner to find her reading to herself.

Kate is very interested in faces and loves to explore mouths. She will touch noses and try to pull on our teeth. Maybe she will be a dentist someday??

She is starting to reach out for us to hold her and pick her up (from her crib, from the floor, when she wants to change being held from one person to another). I absolutely love those little hands reaching for me! There is nothing better.

Kate started swim lessons in June with our friend Bay.

 The first lessons were a little more challenging as mommy practiced lifting Kate and setting her face down in the water gently so that she could learn how to hold her breath. Kate was such a trooper, but didn't like the cold! She much prefers the spa where we warm up after our lessons. It feels just like the bath!

Kate is a quiet observer and loves to figure out how things work. She is very repetitive and will watch where the sounds of things come from and look up at the spring of her bouncer to see how she is able to go up and down.

I love it when she discovers something new, or crawls over to the piano and plays under the piano bench, touching the underneath side of it or playing with the pedals and then looks at us for approval and smiles :) She seems to like to know that we're happy with her.
 

She is a tiny girl - already very petite. She eats great and LOVES food! But she must burn all the energy when she is crawling, because she is almost a year old and still only in size 2 shoes :) She is growing great and always seems happy, but is definitely on the smaller side for length and weight. We love our little girl!

 

Kate still sleeps through the night, going to bed at 8:30pm and waking up around 7am. Even while teething she has been an absolute doll! Our only complaint is the excessive drool ;)

Kate can pull herself up to a standing position when she is holding on to a chair or coffee table. She doesn't seem to have an interest in walking yet, but she LOVES to stand and has great balance!

Kate and Margo are best buddies. Margo will bring her toys over and Kate will pull on them or drag the rope side to side across the floor while Margo gently pulls on it. They are great at keeping each other entertained! Kate will LEAN over the edge of her high chair or peer over the side of the couch to see Margo. My favorite recent experience was when Kate got herself onto her tummy and reached her little hand over the edge of the couch cushion so that she could stretch her little fingers out to touch Margo. It is so cute!

Kate will smile and kick her legs when she is excited and sees someone or something she recognizes. She is starting to recognize voices too and will shriek with excitement when she hears a grandparent's voice, even if they haven't yet come into view.

 
She loves to play peek-a-boo and thinks it is GREAT when we say HI to her over and over again! She is learning how to wave and loves to shake her little hand at people.

Kate definitely likes to express her opinion and throws herself back if she is unhappy or not getting her way. It works out ok when she is strapped in her high chair or sitting on our laps, but I know one of these days she will throw herself back and get a surprise when there's nothing but carpet to catch her!

She is also getting into the stage of biting and pinching. I know she doesn't do it to be mean. She will grab for things (like our arms) and pinch as she opens and closes her fingers to feel. She has 6 teeth and seems to have a few more coming soon, so she loves to chew on anything that comes her way. Which includes our fingers or arms if they cross her path when she rolls around on our laps. We are gently teaching her "no" and will set her on the ground when she is being uncooperative, only resuming our meal time or activity once she has calmed down.

Kate makes us laugh every day! We love to hear her wake up from a nap and tap her pacifier against the crib or talk and giggle at her animals before we go in to see her.

She also scrunches her nose when she is smiling at us or REALLY likes something - like peaches!

Kate is not a thumb sucker, but she does LOVE her pacifier. She will pick it up and put it in her own mouth if she wakes up a little early in the morning and puts herself right back to sleep.

Her funniest noises are her growling  (we don't know where she got it from... maybe the dogs??), her gurgling and her Darth Vader breathing. She only does this occasionally. I think it's because she knows it makes us laugh :)

Fourth of July was great fun!

 
We spent time with friends and Aunt Beth was in town, so she and her bestie, Sarah, came with us to watch fireworks :)

 
Kate had earplugs in and didn't mind the fireworks at all. She stared in awe at them with her mouth partially open and even reached her outstretched hand to try and touch them a few times. We enjoy seeing her discover new parts of the world!

Only 2 weeks to go 'til our little girl turns 1!

June - The Month Of...

Quilting!

This was an especially fun one for me and a project that I looked forward to for a long time. I have ALWAYS wanted to make a quilt, but I have been so intimidated.

The best part was that of all the fabrics we carry at Beverly's, there was a collection that I was particularly excited about and had my eyes on for years, so when it got pulled last month for an upcoming sale, I knew I was going to have to make something fabulous with it.

We decided it was best suited for a Family Home Evening blanket.

The idea to make an FHE blanket came from a talk in sacrament meeting a couple months back. A new family in our ward was speaking, and the mom had all these adorable and awesome family ideas, so I wrote them all down! One of my favorites was making an FHE blanket, so that on your weekly family night, the kids all sit on the special blanket, which gathers everyone together and makes it into a little game. Plus, how cool is that to have a special handmade blanket JUST for family night?? Sold.

First, Jon and I browsed Pinterest together to find quilts that we liked the looks of. I wanted to make sure our quilt was something we both loved to look at and work on.

Then I searched for Easy/Beginner Quilt Patterns. I especially loved this lady's links. I had more hope for the project to turn out well when she said:

"Your first quilt should be a project that you'll finish with ease -- something that will make you say "bring on the next quilt." All of these quilt patterns are a good choice for beginning quilters, but I write all patterns with detailed instructions, so be sure to browse the website for more -- you might be surprised how many quilt patterns look difficult, but are actually quite easy"

Bring it on, quilting!

***

Well, here we are. 11pm on June 30th. The last day of the month.

Our quilt pretty much looks like this:

On June 13th we had a pretty good run of cutting out strips and measuring... then Jon turned into a quilt ninja.

At least we did a lot of good prep work! I'm glad that we can keep working on it over this Summer. June turned out to be a lot more crazy than anticipated.

So, for the month of quilting - FAIL. But that doesn't mean that the project has died. We will follow up when we come back around to it :) Looks like we just needed a little more motivation on this one.

NOT a Father's Day

This morning Katherine decided she was going to make waffles.

She opened up our cookbook and said, "Here mom, use this measuring cup!"

She helped me put all the ingredients in the bowl, and talked to me the whole time while waving her measuring cup around.

Then she said, "Look, mom. I think we need to appreciate dad and all he does. Cuz we love him a ton. Right??"

 "He deserves a special breakfast! But NOT for Father's Day, because he said he doesn't want anything."

I said, "You're right!" and we cooked him bacon and hash browns too.

Katherine helped me color a "NOT a Father's Day card" earlier this week, so that Jon would know how much we love him on the day before Father's Day and ALL days of the year.

When I got home from work, Jon's "NOT a Father's Day present" had arrived! Katherine helped me pick it out. I told Jon he could open it today because it was NOT for Father's Day. He can wear it on Sundays and at his new teaching job (since he wears a dress shirt and tie everyday now). We wanted Jon to remember us and how much we appreciate him every time he sees it!

He is such a good dad and loves to make Katherine giggle. She lights up and smiles when he looks at her across the room. He works so hard to do good things for our family and brings the priesthood to our home, which we are so blessed by! We like to appreciate him every day of the year, of course, but this is the first year that he is officially a dad, so Kate really wanted to do something for him.We think it turned out pretty fun!

We love you, Jon! Happy NOT Father's Day :)

Bath Time

June Delights

June has never been my favorite month, or one that I really gave a second thought to - but THIS June so far has been full of a lot of things I love!

It's already Summer here in Loomis and we've been enjoying friend's pools and barbecues to beat the heat. The strawberry stands are open, and we're on evening walks more often while the air is still warm. My favorite!

Kate has been moving and crawling more than ever. She even gets up on all fours instead of just army crawling! It is so much fun to watch :)

Jon and I FINALLY got to see the theatrical Les Miserables in Sacramento!

dolled up for the theatre

Jon's parents got us tickets for Christmas, so we've had the receipt posted on the fridge for months. We were excited last week when we realized it was finally here!

Seeing Les Mis on stage was wonderful. The music was breathtaking and the humor was so captivating. I love seeing a story unfold on stage. There is something so fun about a play that you just don't feel in a movie. Jon and I are huge fans of live music and entertainment always, so it was right up our alley. PLUS we looked amazing ;) That's our kind of date night!

Last week I read The Great Gatsby. I know what you're thinking - you just NOW read The Great Gatsby?? Well, it was one of the few books from high school that I just didn't care about at the time. I didn't really give it the chance it deserved. Jon has a really awesome old copy of it, so I pulled it off the shelf and read it in a week. It was totally not what I expected and was beautifully written. Some of my new favorite quotes are definitely in that book. I will admit that the movie encouraged me to finally buckle down and read it. I definitely hate seeing a movie/book adaptation before reading the original. Hopefully I'll go out with my friend Bay in a couple weeks to see Baz Luhrman's version. I've heard mixed reviews, so we'll see!

Most especially awesome in this month of June... Jon was offered a teaching job!!

He will be teaching composition 1 and 2 (basically first level writing courses) at an accredited tech college in Natomas (Sacramento). I am so happy for and proud of him! He's been so discouraged looking for work, but he has never given up. This is such a great starting point for him to finally gain college level teaching experience. I know he is going to learn a lot, and we're super grateful to his awesome friend, Tess and her recommendation!

So far, this June is turning out alright :)

Turtles in a Hole

For the month of May we made candy!

In post 1, Jon showed you how our turtles failed...

In our second attempt, we actually had our candy thermometer! So things worked out much better :)

Ingredients looking all measured and delicious:

mmmmm, swirly caramel:

Pecans, on the chopping block, all ready to go!

Bubbling deliciousness:

Once the caramel was mixed together and vanilla added, we dolloped spoonfuls of the sugary stuff onto a cookie sheet to cool. Some even had bacon added.

The caramels were hand rolled into soft balls and then dipped by the spoonful into smooth melted chocolate:

Rolled around for even coating...

and then placed on wax paper for hardening in the freezer:

At this point we took a break to go to church. I had made Kate a new dress, which she wore in adorable baby style :)

 

Success! It's the second (and I think best) dress I have made for her yet.

 

Buttons up in the back:

After church, it was time to make the doughnuts...

My handsome pastry maker:

 

Our friend Tim stopped by, and just in time!

The doughnut batter was wrapped around the chilled turtles

and then dropped into hot oil

after being fried and then rolled in powdered sugar, it was time for the official taste test of approval!

 

Success!

Turtles in a Hole

(created by Jon & Steph - inspired by a Roald Dahl book)

We also took a plate of them to our friends, the Barnetts.
They took big bites without us even telling them what was inside. What good sports :)

 

Woah! Delicious.

I really should have taken some pictures of people smiling after they ate our candy experiment. Everything was eaten, so I guess we can call this one a win :)