Katherine's 4th Birthday Party

Saturday was a big day in our house, it was Katherine's 4th Birthday party. We set up water balloons, water guns, a slide-n-slide, a sprinkler ball, and kiddy pool. We had 12 kids all together.


The morning was spent getting the house ready and getting the backyard set up. When the first kids got there, they wanted to play inside with Katherine's toys, we had to shoo them out to go play. Once they got out there, they had a blast. One even told me it was the best birthday party they have ever been to!
They were all running around the backyard, in and out of the pool, down the slip-n-slide, water gun fights. It was exhausting to watch!
Luckily our backyard in the early morning and afternoon has nice shade, so the kids didn't get too hot.

For lunch we ordered PIZZA, YUM! We had enough leftover, we actually had it for dinner the next two nights :). After pizza, we sang Happy Birthday and had Katherine's pink and purple Scooby Doo cake and ice-cream. Then is was present time! Katherine got a lot of cool gifts that she played with all weekend long. She had a very fun party with her friends. When each kid they left they got a goody bag and got to take a water gun home with them, they were all very excited about that.



Colin crashed once everyone left, Katherine just kept going and going and going. NO NAP for her, she partied from 6am to 9pm. I kept thinking she was going to fall asleep, but they she would break out a new toy and play with that. She was just sooo excited all day long!Sunday was a nice lazy day around the house, Saturday was so filled with excitement, so it was nice to veg out! Katherine's butterflies started hatching, we are up to 6 now. She loves to talk with them, she was showing them how to flap their wings to fly, naming them. We are going to set them free this week, not sure how she is going to take that, but we have explained to her the whole time, that we keep them for a little while, then they have to go be butterflies outside, and they will come visit us :)
This Wednesday is Katherine's real birthday, I am taking the day off with her to take her either to the beach or aquarium depending on the weather.

Through the years

With Katherine turning 4 next week, I thought I would post some pictures of her from the first two years (I started this blog when Katherine was 2). It was hard just to pick a few since I have like a thousand pictures of her, and no NOT an exaggeration!

It has been so amazing to watch our beautiful baby grow up to be a smart, loving, caring, sweet, sassy, gorgeous girl. We love her with all of our heart! No matter how old she gets, she will always be our little baby girl!

Father's Day & start of Katherine's Birthday Bash!

We had a very celebratory weekend. Friday, Katherine got to skip school and go see Toy Story 3 and got to lunch with my mom and Lara. Then she got to go swimming and eat at her favorite restaurant, Golden Coral (she likes variety!).

Saturday we went over to Russell's house for part Father's Day celebration, part Katherine's birthday. My parents were planning to be out of town traveling on Katherine's birthday (that's up in the air now). We brought over lasagna that Katherine helped Matt make. We had a nice dinner and Russell had set up a splash area for the kids in the back yard with a slip-n-slide and a water spray ball. They of course had a lot of fun, everybody enjoyed the slip-n-slide, even PaPa Wayne!
Katherine got her first big girl bike, clothes (which I was excited about), and caterpillars! For months now, Katherine has seen this commercial about having your own caterpillars and watch them grow into butterflies, and she has bugged me about having them, so Russell got them for her birthday. So we have I think 10 new members of our family. This will be a fun project! Katherine really picked up well on riding her bike and surprisingly is doing well on steering all by herself! Sunday we got up and tried the new donut shop by our house for Father's Day. Katherine gave Matt the card and presents she made for him at school. Then we headed over to Matt's parents house for Father's Day. The kids got to go swimming in the pool and have water gun fights, we had a nice lunch, then back home to take a NAP! This week will be a little busy getting everything ready for Katherine's Birthday party this Saturday. She is SUPER excited. We are having a water play day, with slip-n-slides, water guns, water balloons, and sprinklers. I can't believe she is turning 4! She is such a big girl now!

Girls Night Out, Retirement Party, and Dress Like Daddy Day

Friday night I met up for a Girls Night Out with some girlfriends from high school. It had been a long time since we all have been around each other, though sad that one person could not make it, hopefully next time she will be able to. We had some drinks(which they thought I didn't have enough - OKAY I AM A LIGHT WEIGHT) and fun catching up on old times, the present, and everything in between. It's great that I even though we have not hung out in awhile, the conversations pick up as if no time had passed. We will defiantly do it again soon and not let as much time pass.
Saturday we had my mom's retirement Luau pool party and cookout. We went over to my parents, swam in the pool for a few hours. Katherine has gotten really good at swimming, thank you mom and Uncle Russell for teaching her. She wanted to play with the older girls (about 7 or 8yrs old) at the pool, she swam over an introduced herself and asked if they wanted to play, and they just ignored her and swam off. I understand being 8 not wanting to play with a 4 year old, I just hate that Katherine is so friendly and some kids just won't even look or talk to her. She is a sensitive kid and gets her feelings hurt.. "Why don't they like me". That breaks my heart. Anyways, we had fun swimming, Colin had fun "jumping" into the pool (stepping off the ledge into your arms) and walking around throwing things into the pool. We had a nice fajita dinner with pico de gallo, beans, and Russell and Lara brought yummy cupcakes. My parents are going on their travels in a week. They will be gone most of the summer retuning sometime in August. We all are going to miss them VERY much! I am not sure what Katherine is going to do without Sunshine (that's what she calls my mom) and Colin will go through PaPa Wayne withdrawals.
Sunday was a lazy day, we hung around the house, I cleaned out toys (we have way too many and with Katherine's birthday we will be getting even more), and Colin got his first big boy haircut! He was fine the first half, then it turned into a scream fest! Sunday night we had movie night. Katherine first picked out Tinker bell, but Matt convinced her that Finding Nemo would be better, I think Matt is Tinkerbelled out! We had popcorn and ice cream. This morning at school was Dress Like Daddy Day - in honor of Father's Day this Sunday. Colin was easy, I dressed him in Khaki shorts (Matt's staple ) and a polo (another one of daddy' s staple clothing items). Katherine was a bit harder. We put her into her A&M shirt, because Daddy is an Aggie, and her chef's hat since Matt manages a restaurant. The flash made Colin's hair and eyebrows look really dark for some reason.
Oh and we have a FULL TIME WALKER, and as you can tell in the video ALWAYS wants to go OUT!

Graduation Party, 14 months, and Almost 4!

Friday evening we had sprinkler time, what a fun way to enjoy an evening at home!




Saturday our nephew graduated from high school. We had a lot of fun at the graduation party. Katherine kept herself busy between the playground, seeing the horse, riding the golf cart, and playing with the other kids. Colin was so well behaved and had fun just walking around and playing. I didn't get any pictures at the party, too busy chasing around my kids this time! Sunday was a quite day at home, everyone was tired!

Last week Colin turned 14 months old!
Milestones for this month:
- Walking most of the time, still crawls or wants to be carried, but now gets up and walks where he needs to go
- New words - Go, Go Out, and Give
- Can give you a high - five
- Drinking more and more by sippy cup
- Has 9 teeth at last count
- Weight almost 20 pounds
- Eating more and more table foods and snacks
- Is becoming a rough and tuff boy. Likes to tackle Katherine and steam roll her. Of course she LOVES it!

My serious face

Katherine will be 4 at the end of this month. I can't believe it! Where has the time gone?? She is such a smart, creative, loving, beautiful little girl.
I remember all of her baby millstones as it they were just yesterday, her first time crawling (7 months), pulling herself up (9 months), walking (11 months), running (11 1/2 months). Everyday she amazes me with her wit, charm, and creativity. Right now we are working on writing her name, not tracing it, and writing the alphabet. Sometime in the next month, she will move into the 4 year old room at school, which is a preschool curriculum. Most of the things they want Katherine to do for the 4 yr old room, she can do, except write her own name without tracing it. It will just take a little practice, which she really isn't too interested in, but we have to try and try again!

Katherine at 14 months!

Memorial Day, Wedding Anniversary, and Summer Fun

We had a very nice, relaxing weekend. Saturday we spent the day at my parent's pool, it was a nice hot day for the pool. We grilled hot dogs & sausage, and had a picnic outdoors.
Sunday morning we started off with a trip to the donut shop, who knew it would be so much fun! The kids loved going and picking out their donuts. Then off to the park before it got too hot. There was a group of kids there, Katherine wanted them to play with her so bad, but they weren't very friendly (sometimes she is OVERLY friendly, I think she scares off shy kids). So she had to settle for us! :)

Sunday afternoon Matt's parents came over and watched the kids so that Matt and I could go out and celebrate our wedding anniversary - 7 years on Monday! We went and saw Iron Man 2 - very entertaining and went to our favorite local pizza joint, for some drinks and good pizza! Time has really flown by - 7 years already! It has been a great 7 years, we have 2 wonderful kids, a nice place to call home, great jobs that allow us to spend time together (it wasn't always that way), we have seen some hard times - but it has made us stronger as a couple and a family, we have had many many of laughs, and I can honestly say I love him more now than I did 7 years ago.

Monday, I took Katherine to my parents pool for a little while, Colin was taking a nap. Then after lunch, we set up the slide n slide.. The kids had a blast! It was Colin first time on it.

We got to catch up on movies this weekend, we rented Crazy Heart (which I LOVED) and Valentine's Day (which was very cute). Colin is walking more and more each day. I think this weekend he walked about 50% of the time, he will still crawl if he wants to get somewhere fast! But he is getting better about standing up, walking, and when he falls, standing up again and walking some more.

Katherine wanted to ride her bike, but she didn't have any clothes on (we just got done with slip n slide), so she ran upstairs to put on an outfit, this is what she came up with as her riding attire:

She has a great sense of humor!