The Cutest Things

Kate loves to carry around my scriptures. She calls them "kippers".
She also loves to read and asks for books ALL the time.

She loves looking at herself in the mirror and making faces

Sometimes Kate will come up with the most random things! Like last week when she opened a pocket on the sleeve of Jon's jacket and said, “Candy, where’s you is?”

She is starting to learn more about emotions, and refers to herself in third person.

 
Last week after whining about not being allowed to hold my phone, she said, "Oh no, my Kate is sad.”

Kate definitely has favorite foods and insists on eating them often. Most mornings she requests "waffle eggs" for breakfast, and even though we don't buy Goldfish anymore she still insists on having "fishy crackers" as snacks. Last week Kate asked for a yogurt, and when Jon explained that we don't get yogurt anymore she insisted, "...I Kate eat-a the yogurt in the mouth."
Looks like we might have a Coco situation on our hands soon...

Katherine will regularly dart around the house to the giggles and delighted shrieks of baby Wynn!
She is also still getting naked as much as possible.

We've had lots of snow lately and Kate really likes going outside to "hold the snow"

Snow in my hair walking from class:

It's been so fun to explore the world with Kate!

Kate selfie:

Edwin is a little cheesy ham.

 
He loves to smile and babble at us, especially at Kate. He arches his back to see where she is at all times.

 
He is very curious about the world and always interested in what we're up to.

Wynn has this adorable habit of sucking in his top lip so that his bottom lip protrudes WAY out in the biggest cheesy pout you've ever seen. It's one of my absolute favorite things that he does!

When you tickle right under his collar bone, he lights up into a thousand adorable giggles. He loves bath time

 
and especially being wrapped in a towel afterward. It always makes him laugh!

Edwin is still a really cute sleeper, even though teething has been rough on him.

He has found that chewing on Margo's bone helps a lot...

The best part of his laugh now is seeing his fantastic new bottom teeth which just started poking through the gums last week. No pictures yet of the elusive pearly whites!

We are so grateful for these little people in our lives. They are definitely the cutest things!

Saturday of Christmas Decorating

The last weekend in November is also officially the start of Christmas. We spent the morning baking banana muffins, sharing a pomegranate, and listening to Christmas music as we decorated the apartment.

Margo even wanted to be part of the fun. I mean, c'mon. There was food involved.

 

 

 

Kate always closes her eyes when she tries new food. I think it makes her more brave.

Of course she plays it cool with miss toddler attitude and slides off the couch gracefully.

Edwin was perfectly content to crawl around the living room with his toys.

With the nativity up, tree lit, and small festive touches around the apartment, it's made our cozy space come alive!

 

I am thankful for Saturdays and that we can spend (at least some of them) at home together.

A Different Person

Spurred by recent events, I felt a need to write this.

I am not the same person that I used to be. In fact, I almost see my past as a totally different lifetime. How far distant? Not all that much. I might look the same, but truly I feel that I am almost unrecognizable from who I was before.

Since moving out to Idaho I have felt my priorities completely change. Why am I doing so well in school (currently carrying a 3.99 GPA while having two kids?) because my focus has changed.

I am not perfect. Actually I am not doing anything half as well as I would like. But Jon and I discussed on the way home from church yesterday how we define our own success--thanks to a great Sunday school lesson--and we are closer now than we ever have been before.

Sometimes I think about sliding back into old habits. Giving up. Not caring. Why am I working so hard? Why did I move away from all my friends and family? Why am I trying to make friends here and learn names and bother with studying when it means sacrificing so much else (and sometimes including pleasures that I once thought were SO important?)

Well, I think it's because I've truly had a change of heart, and I only see things getting better. From here the world looks just like it should be. And even though I may have had that same thought at various times in the past, I can see now that my logic was flawed.

There is nowhere else I would rather be. It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with physical location. As I told my dear sweet cousin on the phone this morning, I never expected such obvious and wonderful change to happen so fast. Most of it has been inside.

I have never felt such a true turning of my heart to the way I should truly be facing, and that is toward Christ. I wouldn't attribute it all to this school. Although I love attending BYU-I, I know that the experiences I'm having here would not affect me the way that they have unless I had been prepared for it to do so. Many years ago I would NOT have enjoyed a CES campus. Now, my life will be forever changed because of it.

Thank you to everyone who has loved and supported us in this transition, and to everyone who still calls and texts and shares with us their lives and calls us their friends :) We love you.

Portrait of a Young Boy Crawling

Jon left for work and Edwin was sitting on a blanket in front of me laughing and babbling. He just wanted to talk to me, and I was busy playing on my phone. When I looked up to babble back he smiled his huge gummy grin and I realized that right now I am his whole world! How long will that last? So I went and grabbed my camera.

I didn't do anything for the next half hour except take pictures of the kids. I got down on their level and just watched. It started with Edwin crawling all around the room, looking at the bookshelves, scrunching up the blankets, and following me around. He would turn and scoot like an inch worm to face wherever I was. He has so much concentration to army crawl to where he wants to be. I love his serious face! Most of his excited smiley faces were too fast to catch, but I'll remember them :) When Kate woke up she was so excited to show me her snow hat and Winnie the Pooh. I just let her play and talk to Edwin. It's so much more fun to observe than to coach. This is a glimpse of our snowy afternoon.

Saying Sorry

There is no one in particular that I'm writing this post to.

I just had some thoughts that the ability to say "I'm sorry" is probably one of the biggest gifts we have in life.

I've never really considered the effects that apologizing has on ourselves and others, but the awesome principle of having the opportunity to right a wrong, to feel like you can erase a past mistake, or simply to help another feel like you sympathize with them is really cool.

In essence it's really what the atonement is all about; being able to correct our actions and become aligned with the will of God.

What if we were thrown down on this earth without any potential to correct mistakes? God tells us we have rules for playing here on Earth, but if we act out of line we are thrown in a penalty box with no way out... and that's it. Game over.

I think it's pretty fair to say that we'd all lose.

But then God gives us a referee; a mediator. Christ is there to see our intent, to vouch for us, to give us time outs, but then allow us back into the game when our repentance is complete. That's the kind of game I'd most like to play. In the end, everyone has the same potential to win.

Kate has been really good about saying, "I'm sorry," recently. She will bump into anyone or anything and say sorry. She'll even apologize if someone ELSE bumps into, or accidentally hurts, another. Even if she didn't do it! One of the biggest ways that Kate apologizes is by combining her words with hugs:

Kate & Autumn back in California

I really wish I had more pictures of her giving hugs, because she does it all the time.

Hugging Edwin on his first day home from the hospital

Her favorite activity lately is to lay blankets on top of Edwin and then hug him (most of the time smashing him into the floor.) He just laughs and laughs! Margo is a classic example of receiving Kate's hugging apologies. Kate really loves to hold Margo and hug her super tight... the dog does not laugh.

Even today, Jon accidentally kicked Margo in the face (he was putting his shoes on for work and Margo is just so small she sometimes gets in the way) but as Jon held Margo and said he was sorry, Kate immediately jumped down from the couch and wanted to pet Margo too, saying, "Sorry Margo! Sorry Margo! Sorry Margo punch in the face!"

There are a lot of people that I've wanted to say "I'm sorry" to over the years for various reasons. I wish it was as simple as crushing them with a hug into the floor. Some have been more intense reasons than others. But part of being able to thoroughly apologize is the opportunity afforded by the other person. Will they listen? Answer the door? Read the text? Add you as a friend again on Facebook? Maybe it sounds silly. But sometimes all I want is for others to see that I've changed. I've learned and grown, and I'm not the same jerkface that I was 10 years ago. Or even last year for that matter.

With some friendships it might be too late. I don't really expect things to ever go back to "the way they were", but I do like to see a courteous evolution. Maybe in some cases it means that you both realize that you can't go on being friends at all. But at least you recognize that you're going a better direction in your life now, and you can both be happy with that progression yourselves and for one another.

Maybe there isn't a perfect method. But I like to think that being better--in whatever way--is an eternal goal :)

I'll leave you with these words from Jon Katz:

"I think if I've learned anything about friendship, it's to hang in, stay connected, fight for them, and let them fight for you. Don't walk away, don't be distracted, don't be too busy or tired, don't take them for granted. Friends are part of the glue that holds life and faith together."

Forgiveness. And Friendship. That's what I want my life to marinade in.

Katherine's Toddlerhood

Kate is an adventurous and curious 2 year old in every way.

She likes to figure out how things work, and she can hardly constrain herself from touching everything in sight. (This has been quite frustrating with THINGS everywhere while we unpack from moving.)  Kate just thinks it is great fun to toss stacks of business cards on the floor, throw clean laundry all over her room, and rearrange our shoes by the front door.

Reading is one of Kate's favorite past times. She rarely has the attention to sit through a whole complete story, but she loves to grab a book, climb on the couch and say, "Mommy sit!? Daddy sit!?" and have us "more read-a-book" (all one word) with her. Right now her rotating favorites are Fox in Socks, Curious George (the monkey book) and The Giving Tree. She will sit on the couch for quite a while saying, "Box, Knox, Fox, Socks, who come? goo come! Beedoos beedoos, Baddle baddle baddle." No matter what book it is. Jon and I both have at least half of Fox in Socks memorized. We read it 5+ times daily.

Kate is starting to recognize emotions in stories. While reading Curious George the other day, one of the pictures depicted George getting sprayed by a skunk and running away with his eyes closed. Kate immediately pointed to George and said, "Oh, monkey sad!"

My goal now that we're settling in is to create more projects for Kate to get involved with. Up until now I have not really taken advantage of her creativity. Somehow toddlerhood snuck up on me! I'm sure that having Edwin, moving 2 states over, and preparing for school at a 4 year University has something to do with it. Kate has therefore combined her need for creativity to my studying and loves to leave me surprises:

I follow Alisa Burke here on her blog and she has a toddler herself. Although Alisa has a style very different from my own, I find her really inspiring. And she even lives in Oregon! How cool is that? :) She recently did a post on her top 5 favorite activities to do with a toddler and regularly comments on how much Lucy has enriched her life and helps her see the world differently. I wish I was to the point where I could let go this much and incorporate Kate into whatever we're doing! I've found that a lot of what Jon and I do is not super kid-friendly (woodburning, for example.) But I do try to have Kate sit on my lap while I sew and she likes to help me put the pins back in my pincushion.

Katherine loves to wear necklaces and have me put lipgloss on her. She also is very fond of play glasses and knows where the nail polish is in the bathroom. She's always picking out colors and asking me to paint her toes :)

She wears everyone's shoes and loves to go on walks with Margo. She HAS to hold the leash. Our favorite place to visit is the community garden at our apartment complex.

Kate puts together great little sentences. It's so fun to have her talk to me! She always asks to "sit counter??" when I'm cooking or baking, and she really likes to stir with me. She knows "very hot", "really yucky", and "very cold." She is also a much more cooperative eater now that she has all her teeth. She will try pretty much anything, even fritata with mushrooms, or pastrami sandwiches. Her favorite foods are waffles, eggs, "keppich" (ketchup), "pashaw" (pasta), "yogurt", "cheese" (string cheese), and "applesaw" (applesauce).

Kate really enjoys helping around the house. The more I give her to do, the happier she is.

She does not like to sit idle (although she is great at reading to herself and playing independently). If there are things happening, she wants to be involved. I like to have her transfer clothes from the washer to the dryer with me. Today when I stacked all the cloth diaper prefolds to be put away, she picked up the whole stack and carried them into her room to put in the drawer without even being asked!

Lately I've noticed that I sing a lot around the house - while doing laundry, making dinner, changing diapers, etc... Kate is not a fan. Almost immediately into my humming or "la-la-la"ing she says, "No mommy!! No mommy!! No mommy!!" over and over again until I stop.

 Although she doesn't really care for MY voice, she does like to sing on her own :) It's been fun to hear her make up songs about me baking cookies or muffins. I love watching the way the kids interact with and understand their own world.

One of my favorite things that Kate does is that whenever we're out with Margo and the mail lady comes, Kate will insist on sitting at the curb to watch the "big truck". She just enjoys the simple things! I mean, when was the last time that we had a great day just watching the post be sorted?

Kate also loves nature which includes collecting leaves, sticks, and rocks. There is a field outside of our building where we take Margo to potty, and there are rocks strewn about. One day Kate picked up the HUGEST rock she could and carried it back to me, informing me that the "Rock is sleeping" and then shushed it softly. :)

One of Kate's recent obsessions has been getting naked. She will take off all her clothes (including her diaper) whenever possible. Most of the time this involves some dancing. It's been hilarious and frustrating because there's no consistent reason for it! She just loves to run free.

Kate is really turning into the sweetest little girl. She apologizes on her own when she bumps into people or animals (even inanimate objects like lamps!) and we can see her starting to empathize and understand when others are hurt. Today at the end of nursery a little boy started crying, and while he was being comforted by one of the nursery leaders, Kate went right over and gave him a big hug! She always wants to help and comfort others. I'm so thankful for her in our family and glad that Edwin has her for a big sister forever.