The Roush Family

Time flies... when you aren't getting much sleep

2012-01-30T17:02:00.000-08:00

No, really, this kid still doesn't sleep. Naps, sort of. Nighttime, still up once and usually twice. Oh well!

In just a few short weeks our little miss will be ONE! Aside from the not sleeping, she is an absolute joy-- our little clown who laughs at everything and does everything she can to make us laugh as well. Yesterday, she took a step. Today, she took three. She has seven teeth, loves drinking water from a sippy straw cup, eats corn like it's going out of style, and is fascinated with her big sister's singing Snow White doll. Suddenly, she has figured out to communicate her every need- major words consist of: go, up, this, more, done, and got.

In love with her sweetness, her giggles, her dimples, and her chubby legs. Can't wait to see what amazing things she will do in the next year!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-03T11:32:00.001-08:00

Christmas Magic

2011-12-31T11:30:00.000-08:00

We had a wondeful time celebrating Christmas! Not only was Christmas Day fantastic, we also did a lot of NEW things leading up to Christmas that I think will have to be traditions from this point on. This was definitely a year where seeing Christmas through the eyes of my kids was so magical.

First, Katelyn has become very in to writing and drawing. We wrote a letter to Santa and then delivered it at the Macy's Santa Mail drop box. So very cool! Between her clutching her little letter all the way to the mall and then seeing her eyes light up when we saw the big red mailbox, Mommy was almost in tears.

Nana came to visit and took Katelyn ice skating for her first time. Katelyn had seen the ice skaters at the Spectrum, and was under the impression that skating was like walking-- totally natural. She was a bit disappointed to find out that ice skating requires practice, but Nana did manage to get her around the rink twice before Katelyn was ready to call it a day.

We continued one of our regular traditions this year-- decorating cupcakes for Jesus' birthday with the Seager family. Katelyn and Chase have been having their Happy Birthday Jesus party since they were 19 months old, and it is so fun to see them continuing to share and look forward to this tradition. Little Brynn also did some decorating this year too!

In the days leading up to Christmas, it was so fun to overhear Katelyn explaining what Christmas was all about to Sophia-- Santa, who lives in the North Pole, brings presents to kids but only if they are good. He has reindeer, and comes down the chimney. You have to sleep in your own bed for Santa to come. Oh, and it's Jesus' birthday too. Jesus was born in a stable, under a star.

Finally, Christmas morning!

For being just 10 months old, and heavily medicated due to a cold and ear infection, Sophia figured out pretty quick that this was a special and exciting morning. Exploring all the toys that Santa left was great fun, and we were all grateful that she seemed to be much healthier on this morning as well-- she was back to her happy and giggly self.

Standing by herself is a new trick that Sophia had been working on for a few days. Today (just less than a week after this photo) she is standing for long periods of time and shaking things while maintaining her balance. It won't be long before she is walking!!

After celebrating at our house in the morning, the Goodwin family came over (Nana, Grampa and Uncle Keith) for more present-opening. We then packed it up to hang out with the rest of Kristen's family in Coto de Caza for a few hours. It was fun for Katelyn to have older "cousins" to play with.
After visiting with Kristen's family, we headed over to Grammie and Poppa's house where we spent the rest of the evening with Auntie Lee, Uncle Jared, cousin Jackson, and Grammie and Poppa.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

2011-12-19T20:15:00.000-08:00

Yes, two posts in one month! It's amazing, mark it on your calendars people.

At the beginning of the month, Katelyn had her Christmas performance at preschool. So fun to see all these cuties singing at the top of their lungs.

Sophia wasn't too sure to make of the total chaos of a dozen preschoolers running around. Cousin Jackson thought it was awesome though, and he showed off his new walking skills for us!!

It's been cold lately in South Orange County. We've had rain almost every weekend, and even got snow (sort of) during a recent thunderstorm. Katelyn loves the cold weather, mostly because she's inherited Kristen's love of cozy jackets and winter accessories.

Riding the reindeer carousel at South Coast Plaza is becoming a holiday tradition! The line to see Santa was way too long though, so we went to visit him at our local mall instead.

This past weekend was the annual Cassingham Family Holiday Tea. More pictures to come, especially since this was Katelyn's first time going (but she's not in any of the pictures below). We had a hard time getting the littlest tea drinkers to cooperate for photos at the same time!

Someone please stop time!!

2011-12-07T13:48:00.000-08:00

Seriously, I can't keep track of what day it is, get my "to-do" list done (or even find the time to make one for that matter), or anything else.

I can't believe this year is almost over, Sophia is already 9 (almost 10) months old, and Christmas is just days away!! Aaaahh!

So, another flashback post... Thanksgiving.

Katelyn had a very fun celebration in her preschool class-- the Thanksgiving Feast. Both years now, she has said "Mom, I just love the feast! It's my favorite!" I agree; Thanksgiving is definitely my favorite holiday as far as the traditions involved. Great food, time with family and friends, no stress of shopping, and it's all about being thankful. Love it.

Her class made some adorable t-shirts and necklaces, and sang a song to all the parents. We then spent Thanksgiving Day in San Diego... I've yet to download those pictures from the camera (again, where is the time going?!). However, it was a fun time as always. Mom/Nana made a great dinner with all my favorites and even Sophia ate the food- turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie. We made a long weekend out of it so that Katelyn could have a girls day with Nana at the zoo, and then our family went to Sea World. Sophia actually noticed the whales this time and did some serious clapping.

Speaking of my cutie pie baby, she is getting big far too fast. While I wish she would be big enough to be sleeping all night without me having to go in and feed her back to sleep, I do so love her baby cuddliness. At her 9 month appointment, she was just over 19lb.

As of today, she has five teeth and has eaten the following "big kid" foods: turkey, chicken (deli-style), corn, peas, rice, pasta, mandarin oranges, cheerios, bananas, and blueberries. She still loves her avocado and pureed squash, and is finally liking her baby food oatmeal. Also, she is quite the talker. She can say: hi, bye, mama, daddy, Katey ("tay-tee"), ba-ba (for when she wants to nurse or have a bottle), up, baby, more ("mo"), and done ("duh"). We've also heard nana, grampa, and go on a few occasions. She loves baby dolls and tries to brush her hair and the doll's hair, can usually point out her own eyes, ears and teeth when asked. Her favorite toy is a little Ty brand Monkey who she calls "ha ha" (as in, a monkey says "ooo-ooo ah-ah").

Hopefully I'll get some more updates on here BEFORE Christmas, but you never know... until then, Happy Holidays!

The October Wrap-Up

2011-11-13T20:35:00.001-08:00

Needless to say, it's been a VERY busy month. With work back in full swing, preschool for Katelyn, and just the daily chaos of life, every time I sit down to update the blog I get distracted or have to run off to tend to one of the kids (one is currently napping, the other is being entertained by The Backyardigans and McDonalds for lunch).

So, here's what we've been up to since our last post... Katelyn went to Tanaka Farms Pumpkin Patch with her Preschool class. She had a great time!

We had some beautiful (and very warm) October weather, perfect for playing outside. Would you believe we actually went to the pool just a few days before Halloween?!

Sophia turned 8 months old on October 15th. She has two teeth, loves to clap and laugh, crawls, pulls to a stand, pulls her sister's hair, loves the buttery white rice from Baja Fish Tacos, and is just the silliest and most smiley thing ever. Love her!

Of course, we went trick-or-treating! No candy for Sophia (a black cat), but Katelyn (a "pink" witch... sort of) got a nice little stash. We only did one long cul-de-sac and then called it a night.

So glad Grammie and Poppa got to come along for the fun! It was a nice cool night for trick-or-treating! Sophia didn't quite know what to make of her first Halloween.

Wedding Weekend in Livermore, CA

2011-10-18T17:48:00.000-07:00

We spent a lovely weekend in Livermore, CA celebrating the marriage of Carrie (Kristen's old college roomie) and Matt Scheitrum! Bonus: Katelyn got to be the flower girl!

The girls had a good time at the rehearsal. Sweet Sophia was on her best behavior, despite the LONG car ride getting there, and Katey did pretty well too considering she didn't take a nap.

Katelyn found her "true love" - the ring bearer Timmy. Since the wedding, she has actually talked about "one day when I grow up and Timmy grows up..." Uh oh!

Lovely Carrie! It was so awesome to see her so happy and glowing on her wedding day! The wedding reception was SO much fun and we were so excited for Katelyn to be a part of her special day.

The youngsters, cutting a rug on the dance floor. These two were inseperable for the early part of the evening... but then it was time for high chairs, coloring and naps.

Katelyn in Pre-K and Kristen turns 31

2011-09-19T19:54:00.000-07:00

We're back in the grind! Summer is officially over and school is in full swing. Katelyn started Pre-Kinder at Grace Christian Preschool this year. School pictures soon to come! She loves her new teacher, Mrs. Engle, and is making friends quickly with her new classmates.

Little Miss Sophia is 7 months old now! She crawls, can sit up by herself, loves the outlets, and keeps trying to climb the stairs. Sweet girl is the just the giggliest thing ever, and adores her big sister who is constantly making faces and noises at her. Baby food groups have all been covered-- she seems to like avocado, squash and the Gerber-brand green beans the best.

Happy 31st birthday to me! We went to Sea World to celebrate. Katelyn loved seeing the animals (she's an animal lover for sure-- you would not believe the stuffed animal collection!), and Sophia loved the birds, the wind, and the metal benches. I don't think she really noticed any of the whales, even when Katelyn was trying to point out the beluga to her!

I'd like to point out the K and S are making the EXACT same face in this picture- haha!

Holding on to Summer

2011-09-10T15:24:00.000-07:00

We took a fun trip to San Luis Obispo over Labor Day weekend with Nana and Grampa-- refuse to let go of summer until it's officially gone!

The weather was beautiful, and we got to do all our favorite Central Coast things. We went wine tasting (Melville in Buellton and Talley in SLO):

We went to Avila Beach. Katelyn got to play in the waves (her first time actually jumping in to the ocean with crashing waves, brrr...), we ate lunch at the Hula Hut, and did a little shopping. Fun times and so different from when Chad lived there!

We took a quick drive through campus to see all the new construction, and contemplated re-enrolling as students. We miss it there, but I think we'll just have to wait until Katelyn is a student there in 2025...

Little miss is officially 6 months old (closing in on 7 months) and is up to all sorts of tricks-- sitting up, crawling, eating lots of baby veggies, saying "mama" and "dada", learning how to wave... she's keeping us very busy! She did okay on our long drive and slept pretty well in the hotel. We love her sweet face!

August Updates

2011-08-21T15:51:00.000-07:00

I can't believe summer is almost over!! It's gone by way too fast-- back to work for Kristen in another two and half weeks, and back to preschool for Katelyn in about three weeks.

Sweet Sophia girl is 6months old now, weighing in at about 18 lb (just shy of it) and showing off two bottom teeth. Today she also started to army crawl a little!

We had a fun though short visit with Auntie Karissa. Her little nieces sure do adore her!

Katelyn also attended a week-long camp at her preschool, full of water play days and ending with a trip to Tanaka Farms to pick a watermelon. She had a blast playing with her best school friend, Camilla.

Little Swimmer

2011-08-07T11:55:00.001-07:00

We finally have a swimmer on our hands!

Almost 4 weeks in to swimming lessons (after about 7 hours of instruction) our Katelyn is perfecting her backfloat and, after a long bout of resisting putting her face in the water, is finally swimming!

So fun to see her finally swimming; once she figured out how to get her face in the water and open her eyes, everything just clicked and she was off! She can go pretty far on one breath, and is learning to roll on to her back to float when she gets tired. We can't wait to see what she learns in the next 3 weeks of lessons.

35th Anniversary Celebration

2011-07-31T21:47:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we were able to celebrate Nana and Grampa's 35th Anniversary at The Teahouse on Los Rios. How nice of them to buy us lunch for their anniversary... I think we had it a little backwards, but it was a fun time!

Katelyn actually sat at the table (most of the time) and had apple juice in her tea cup.

It's so fun to see Uncle Keith with the girls-- he sure is getting old to now have TWO nieces. In another week or so, Keith will be heading back for his second year of law school at Columbia.

And of course Grampa never fails to get Katelyn nice and whipped up for us! Good thing she's such a little thing so Grampa can still toss her up in the air.

Endless Summer

2011-07-24T16:59:00.000-07:00

I can't believe July is almost over! Life with two little girls has been keeping us busier than ever this summer, and we haven't even taken a vacation! Between Katelyn's activities and her endless energy and the in-and-outs of taking care of Sophia, things are busy busy busy but it has been so fun seeing these two cuties grow together as sisters.

We started the summer off with a week of gymnastics camp. Unfortunately, I did not get to take any photos. She loved bouncing around for three hours straight! Now, Katelyn has been taking swimming lessons at Aliso Viejo Aquatics four times a week. After a two-week session, she can float on her back! She starts her next session this week, so we'll see what she learns to do next.

Our littlest miss turned 5 months old. I can't believe it! She is just the sweetest most easy-going baby and such a little smiley thing; I hope it lasts.

I have been far too lazy to take them to the park by myself- chasing Katey while keeping Sophia's fair skin out of the sun and dripping sweat myself does not sound like a fun time to me, but I guess I'm being selfish. Sophia did finally have her first park-swing experience (supervised by sister of course) on a recent Friday evening. She liked it... sort of.

Katelyn of course did some climbing. See, this is why I don't want to take them by myself-- I can't catch her if I'm holding a baby!

We also started rice cereal with Sophia a week after her 5 month birthday:

She did a really good job with it, didn't make a mess or spit it out. On the second night, she wanted nothing to do with it and tried to hide from the spoon. Oh well!

Chad is adjusting to his pink-hued life, surrounded by girls... and I think he likes it. Twice now, Katelyn has told him that he is her "prince" and that she's going to marry him because she loves him. So funny.

4th of July Fun

2011-07-05T10:44:00.000-07:00

My cutie pie baby is 4 1/2 months old! She's only the cutest thing around...

Oh, and happy 4th of July! We had a great time celebrating with Grammie and Poppa Roush-- bbqing hot dogs and burgers, watching some soccer, playing with our crazy kiddos, watching some fireworks, and eating strawberry shortcake!

Child Dedication

2011-06-23T10:22:00.000-07:00

"I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord." 1 Samuel 1:27-28

Year 1 of Preschool is Done!

2011-06-16T19:35:00.000-07:00

I just can't believe it! What an amazing and FAST school year! We feel so blessed to have seen Katey grow with such a wonderful teacher. She made some new friends (best school buddy Camilla)...

had an adorable class, most of whom will be staying together as 4 year-olds next year...

and the sweetest teacher ever, Mrs. Frohardt...

A great year! Now I just hope I can keep her occupied this summer.

I love these girls...

2011-06-02T12:38:00.000-07:00

These two just crack me. I'm not gonna lie, some days are pretty crazy and seem like they will never end, but on the whole, it's been a great adventure having two little girls.

Katelyn is growing in to her big sister role, and now that Sophia interacts more I think it's easier for her to realize that "sister is not a toy." She loves trying to entertain her little sister and is eager to play dress up with her.

Sophia is now rolling on to her tummy like a pro and likes to suck her pointer finger. She laughs at EVERYTHING. I'm pretty sure she's teething (ugh- sleepless nights!), and she absolutely adores her big sister. Everything Katelyn does just fascinates her!

Sophia is 3 months!

2011-05-22T12:46:00.001-07:00

Our sweet smiley girl is such a little joy! She still loves playing on her tummy (most of the time) and is constantly rolling on to her side-- it gets her pretty frustrated that she just can't get all the way over yet. It won't be long until she's rolling all over the house!

Sophia smiles and laughs at everyone and everything, and especially loves her lion, butterfly and flower toys that have smiley faces on them. Her hair is still looking reddish, but we can't figure out her eyes. One day they look blue, other days hazel. One day Grammie and Auntie Lee swore they were green. Who knows!

Happy 4th Birthday to my Katey Bug

2011-05-02T17:18:00.000-07:00

Our sweet and sassy Katelyn Marie turned 4 on May 1st! We have had such a fun time celebrating in so many ways.

On the Thursday before her birthday, she had her preschool celebration. She got to wear a special birthday crown and lead the "Peter Panda" song during chapel time as well as have "Happy Birthday" sung to her. We were so glad that Nana, Grammie and Poppa could join us to celebrate!

On Saturday, the day before her birthday, we had a little party at our nearby park. It was a beautiful Spring day for playing at the park with friends and cousins, decorating princess crowns, breaking open a pinata, and eating cupcakes.

My sweet Katey bug, where has the time gone? It seems like just yesterday we brought you home and stared at amazement at your dark hair and eyes, your chubby little cheeks. Your sweet smile just lights up our lives and you are such a joy (unless you haven't had a nap). We love the sparkle in your big brown eyes, your silly jokes and your hysterical laugh when you are overly tired. Your kindness and empathy with your friends is something we could never teach you-- we love that God made you this way!

Your memory amazes me sweet girl. You love to sing and watch movies (especially ones with songs). Your favorite movie right now is Tangled. You love playing with Barbies, Captain Hook & Mr. Smee, Legos, and your little stuffed animals, all of which have names and many of which have found their way in to our bed. You talk in your sleep. You love animals of all kinds and even bugs, but not "ones that sting." Your favorite color is pink. You love chocolate candies, and water is your favorite drink though you've recently discovered Orange Peach Mango juice. You love ice cream- mint chip and oreo are your favorites. You are extra tiny because running is your favorite thing to do-- at the park, at the beach, or just in the house, you run everywhere. You collect rocks, pick flowers, and keep "treasures" (beads and sparkly things). You love helping us cook-- blueberry and banana pancakes, fried eggs, or just PB&J. "Birdy nuggets" (McNuggets) and "Dino Roast" (Arby's roast beef) are your favorite fast foods. You make friends quickly and easily. You still take naps and suck your thumb.

So much to say about you my silly girl, but most importantly WE LOVE YOU.

Easter 2011

2011-04-25T11:44:00.001-07:00

What a fantastic Easter! Following our church's egg hunt on Good Friday, our complex had one on Saturday that Katelyn participated in:

Our Sophia was excited to celebrate her first Easter, but these ears didn't quite stay on her little head:

The Easter Bunny didn't disappoint us! He was very generous and brought chocolate and coffee for us, a little outfut and Snuggy Bunny for Sophia, and chocolate, the movie Tangled, a book, socks, and some cuddly bunnies for Katelyn:

After an egg hunt in which Katey found all 24 eggs, we got dressed for Easter at the Bren. Katey had fun in her class, and Sophia slept in our arms during the service.

After church, we took naps and then packed it up to go to Grammie and Poppa Roush's house for dinner with Auntie Lee, Uncle Jared and Cousin Jackson. It was a great evening with family, and we are enjoying a day of rest today to recuperate from our exciting past few days!

More Springtime Fun!

2011-04-22T21:58:00.000-07:00

The weeks are just flying by! I can't believe my maternity leave is almost over and I have to go back to work in another week. It's been busy busy busy with two kiddos, but so much fun. Here's what we've been up to in the last few weeks...

We went to Chase Seager's 4th birthday party last weekend. Katey LOVES Chase, and he is rightfully a little frightened of her (she's a little, um, extroverted). So fun seeing these cuties grow up together.

It was tons of fun, and we FINALLY have a picture of all four of us together.

We're also in full Easter mode! Today we went to our church's annual Eggstravaganza. It was PACKED, but Katey still managed to snag a few eggs during the egg race.

The cousins also got to hang out together during Eggstravaganza, which basically consists of the babies sleeping while Katey watches over them. She will be so excited when she can finally PLAY with them and not just poke them.

Our sweet Sophia is two months old now. She loves being on her tummy and is starting to get quite frustrated that she can't chase her sister around. Her little smiles (and the beginnings of giggles!) just melt my heart.

A Little Taste of Summer

2011-04-01T21:18:00.000-07:00

Happy April 1st! We are doing well here in SUNNY Orange County, and having a great time watching our littlest girl grow. She is 6 weeks old now! She's starting to smile at us and recognizable things (her mobiles in the swing and crib, Mommy, Daddy and sister). Spring has finally brought us some amazing weather! The last few days have been beautiful, and we've been taking advantage of them by getting outside and enjoying where we live. We sure were getting tired of the rain! Dana Point Harbor is one of our favorite family excursions. We get in a good walk, and Katelyn gets to play at "the beach" for awhile. Sophia slept through this first beach trip, but we're looking forward to when she's older so that she and her big sister and jump in the waves and run on the sand together. Of course, no trip to Dana Point would be complete without some ice cream! By this time, Sophia was awake and ready to go home and eat-- no ice cream for her!

Family Fun in March

2011-03-16T09:09:00.000-07:00

The best thing about having a new baby is getting to visit with family members, especially ones we don't get to see that often.

Auntie Karissa came to visit- so fun to see her hold her newest neice, and Katelyn had a blast playing at the park with her. In fact, Katey decided that Auntie Karissa is "the best girl ever."

Nana took us all to tea at our favorite tea place, The Teahouse on Los Rios, something that our girls will definitely be doing more of as they get older.

Aunt Charlene came to visit for a few hours, bestowing gifts upon both Katey and Sophia. Love that she lives so close; we definitely need to visit with her more!

Grammie and Poppa are now grandparents to THREE little ones, and they couldn't be more excited. We are so glad to give them more babies to play with!

Love my nephew Jackson. This boy is going to be stuck playing dress up with the girls forever!

Auntie Cara finally got a chance to break away from her busy travel schedule and visit with us. Katelyn looks a lot like Cara in her childhood photos, and I wonder if Sophia will too. Sophia's hair is definitely borrowing from the red tones on both sides of the family.

Uncle Keith was also in town this week. We got to go to the San Diego Zoo with him, and Katey loved running around with her Uncle (who is not only pretty funny, but also "pretty cool" she says).

The Roush Sisters Challenge

2011-03-06T19:55:00.001-08:00

Katelyn and Sophia are loving playing together! Of course Katelyn likes to point out that things are "hers" but she's been good at sharing. The Rainforest Jungle mat has been a big hit with both of them.

My little cuties are proving themselves to be as different as can be, but there are some definite physical similarities. Can you tell the Roush sisters apart as newborns?

Post your answers in the "comments" section, and on Friday I'll post the answers!

#1A:

#1B:

#2A:

#2B:

#3A: #3B:

#4A:#4B:

Sweet Sophia Rae

2011-02-19T19:27:00.000-08:00

I have been working on this post for awhile, and of course every time I sit down to upload photos one of my little girls needs something!

Valentine's Day came and passed (the day we were hoping she'd arrive), but we had scheduled an induction for the next day so we knew our new baby would be with us soon.

<--- Here I am the day before our new little girl arrived.

I was induced around 9am on February 15th, and Miss Sophia Rae arrived at 12:55pm, so it was a quick labor and delivery and I was glad to have only had to push for 10 minutes-- she was ready to come out and play with us!

Sophia weighed in at a whopping 9lb 1 oz, measuring 19 1/2 inches long. Everyone was surprised at her size, including the nurses and especially me-- she certainly seemed smaller than Katelyn, who weighed 8lb 4oz, while I was carrying her around in my tummy!

Our little family is adjusting pretty well- Chad is now surrounded by all things pink, and Katelyn is an awesome big sister. She is very attentive and gentle, and a great helper with getting diapers and the "binky" for her little sister.

I sure do love being able to hold my "big girl" again- crazy how they suddenly seem so grown up once there is a baby in the house! We are so blessed to have Katelyn and that she has embraced her big sister-ness so quickly (at least for now...)

Little Sophia is doing great at home. Her hair seems to be getting lighter by the day, so we may have a little blondie on our hands, and her eyes are still a dark blue. We've seen a lot of sleepy smiles, she apparently snores, and is quite the cuddle bug. She's nursing well, though she does try to fight me a little during her nighttime feedings, and is actually a pretty good sleeper so far. For the past few nights, she's only been up twice at night to eat and has gone 5 hours between feedings, which has allowed us 4-hour chunks of sleep. I sure hope it lasts!

Baby Shower for Sophia and Waiting for her Arrival...

2011-02-12T09:20:00.001-08:00

I was blessed to have a wonderful Baby Sprinkle for little Sophia in early January, hostessed by Leanne, Karissa, Megan and Cara. It was held at Olive Garden (my big pregnancy craving has been spaghetti with meat sauce) and attended by a few close friends and family. It was a beautiful day topped off with red velvet cupcakes!

Little Miss Katelyn has been hard at work this week making Valentine's cards for her friends at preschool. It has been so nice being home with her during Maternity Leave-- hopefully it will make the transition to being a big sister a bit easier since she's had some quality Mommy-time leading in the craziness that is about to ensue!

Of course, she still thinks she's going to be the only Princess in the house. She LOVES this crown that she got as part of a Valentine's card from her Nana:

And lastly, the glamorous 9 months pregnant photo. Geez! This baby seems to be much more out front than Katey, but I am still measuring a whopping 42 inches around the waist (same as with Katey). Luckily, I was able keep my weight 6 pounds lower this time around. She should be arriving here in the next 4 days and I am SO looking forward to having a wiggly baby to hold rather than to feel in my tummy!

Flashback to Christmas

2011-02-12T09:15:00.001-08:00

Wow, this only took FOREVER. Here are a few photos from Christmas when we went down to San Diego to celebrate with Kristen's family:

Our little family. Katey sure loved her Polar Bear "Pandy" (which she later renamed "Poley").

The Goodwin Family, sans Karissa who couldn't make it down from San Francisco.

The Cassingham Family line-- Grandpa in the middle with his kids, grandkids and great-grandkids!

Christmas 2010

2011-01-05T10:19:00.001-08:00

Happy 2011! We hope you had a great Christmas and New Years-- we certainly did!

Christmas morning, we had to wake Katelyn up to go see what Santa brought. Silly girl was ready to sleep away the whole morning!

It's so cute to see kids this age appreciate the gifts they get-- Katelyn was so excited about every little thing.

Grammie and Poppa also came over in the morning to share in the Christmas fun.

Katey made this adorable gift at preschool for me and Chad:

After spending the morning relaxing and watching Katelyn playing with her new toys, like her cash register, we packed up the car and headed down to San Diego to spend the rest of the weekend with the Goodwin family.

Goodwin family Christmas pictures to come later when I am able to get them, including ones from our big Christmas evening gathering with the extended family.

Merry Christmas Eve!

2010-12-24T20:51:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas Eve! Just a few snapshots of what we've been up to over the past few weeks since I'm sure I won't get around to updating this until after New Years.

It's been cold and rainy here, so we've had to bundle up to go out. Here is Katey when we went to pick out our Christmas tree:

The baby bump is growing! Just about 33 weeks along now, and can't wait to be done being huge!

We also continued our Christmas tradition with the Seager Family, having the kids decorate goodies to wish Jesus a Happy Birthday! Once again, Katey just wanted to eat the toppings and frosting (wonder where she gets that from? haha), while Chase is a decorating pro.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas, and we'll be back with more updates after the New Year!

Let's Dress Up for Christmas!

2010-12-06T10:48:00.000-08:00

This past weekend was Katelyn's Christmas performance, "Let's Dress Up for Christmas," at preschool. The kiddos sang a bunch of songs, all of which we've heard her singing at home. She was so excited for this day, and to have so many family members come to watch her was really fun for her.

It was also impressive that these little kids were able to stay on the stage and perform so many numbers-- I think they sang eight songs, and there was no noticeable drama onstage.

She was a total pro and didn't even pay attention to us, so we thought maybe she didn't see where we were. However, when we asked her afterwards, she said she saw Poppa waving and saw me with the video camera-- she was just in superstar mode!

After the performance, all the families were invited back to the classroom for a "Happy Birthday Jesus" party.

Our Last Trip to Disneyland...

2010-11-17T11:31:00.000-08:00

With our season passes expiring this month and little Sophia's arrival less than 3 months away, we decided to take our final trip Disneyland this week, at least for awhile.

We were able to hit up a few rides in the unusually warm November weather (6+ months pregnant + high 80's weather + Chad&Katey with colds = not the best time ever). However, it was great to go one last time with the holiday decorations and to see the Christmas Parade.

Once we get settled with our newest little one and adjust our finances, we'll see if Disney passes can be worked back in to the budget.

Either way, we sure will miss getting to go see Mickey all the time!

Fall Fun in Oak Glen

2010-11-09T09:11:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, we took a family trip up to Oak Glen in Yucaipa. I have been going here with my parents since I was little, and this was Katelyn's second trip to "the apple farm" -- she had pretty clear memories of her first trip to Oak Glen last year, so she was really excited.

The weather was totally beautiful, clear and cool, and it wasn't very crowded, so we got to do a lot of fun stuff such as taste lots of apples, play in the leaves, climb on logs and trees, and visit the petting zoo area.

Apparently those Iowa farmer genetics are showing up in Katelyn, because she LOVES feeding the animals and even got to be a "judge" in a baby pig race.

I think she's ready to help feed the baby when she comes in February, don't you?

Halloween 2010

2010-11-05T08:56:00.001-07:00

We had a great Halloween! Katey was Tinkerbell (surprising, I know) and Chad once again made her costume (dyed the leotard and tutu, sewed a skirt of fake leaves, made a ribbon belt, rigged giant poof balls to the ends of her green Converse so she'd have official Tinkerbell shoes). He's so clever. We'll see if he figures out how to make time to make TWO girl costumes for next year:

We got a late start to our evening plans since Katey decided to go for a marathon 3-hour nap, so we ended up going trick-or-treating first and then to our church's Fall Fest afterwards.

Here's Katey going up to a "spooky house":

Trick-or-treating was pretty fun. We went over to Laguna Audubon since we had been impressed with their Christmas Lights, and their Halloween decorations were just as impressive. Katey was surprisingly brave, going in to some of the decked out "haunted houses."

After about 40 minutes of trick-or-treating, Katey was ready to go to Fall Fest. Since we got such a late start to the night, we were only there for about 20 minutes, but we definitely maximized our fun:

Finally, it was time to head home and check out Katey's stash. We counted out all her candies and sorted them by type so she could see what she had and which ones she liked or didn't like. She, of course, wanted to eat as much of it as possible that night, but since then has been pretty good about regulating herself.

October Review

2010-10-28T12:16:00.000-07:00

A lot of exciting things have happened this October!

First, we found out that we are having another girl. This is a picture of our upcoming arrival, Sophia, from our 24-week ultrasound.

Just like Katey was, Sophia is a very active little baby. I am getting kicked quite a bit, and am counting down the days (just about 100, but less than 50 work days due to all the holidays!). We can't wait to meet little Sophia in mid-February. Katey already has lots of big plans for her and her little sister.

This month, Katelyn also went on her first field trip. Her preschool class went to Tanaka Farms Pumpkin Patch in Irvine, and Chad and Nana got to go with her to document all the fun:

As you can see, Katelyn not only got to pick a pumpkin, she also picked vegetables (carrots, green beans, onions and radishes) and got to pet and apparently kiss some goats.

She is absolutely loving being in preschool, and we are so thankful! It's amazing to see her growing up and becoming more mature. Katey has been singing us all sorts of songs, and her favorite parts of the day are chapel, where they get to sing and read a bible story, and Tuesday's Motor class, which involves lots of jumping, rolling and balancing activities.
Halloween is coming up this weekend, and Katey is SO excited. She thinks all she is going to get is Kit-Kat and Candy Corn (her two favorites), and thinks pumpkins and pumpkin patches are the coolest things ever. We currently have 6 pumpkins (3 small, 3 big) and I think there may be some serious tears when the pumpkin patches all close up after Halloween.

We'll have more pictures to post in a week or so from our church's annual event, Fall Fest, and trick-or-treating, so check back soon!

Meet Katey's 1st Cousin!

2010-10-08T12:07:00.000-07:00

We are so excited that Katey now has a cousin to play with, and that Chad and I are now an aunt and uncle!

Jackson Paul Kennison was born to Chad's sister, Leanne, on Monday, October 4th. Welcome to the world little man!

Katey hasn't had a chance to meet him yet, but we are hoping to get her over to see him sometime next week once Leanne and Jared have gotten the little guy settled at home.

Katelyn goes to Preschool!

2010-09-16T17:09:00.001-07:00

Our baby girl is now a Pre-Schooler! Where has the time gone?

We had a great Sunday spent at Open House checking out Katey's preschool, Grace Christian, and meeting Katey's teacher, Mrs. Frohardt.

Then, on Thursday, Katey officially started school. Chad and I had a fun time making an assortment of school bags for her, and she was looking forward to finally getting to go play on the playground at preschool.

Chad got the tough job of doing the 1st day drop off, and he says that while she was initially a little timid, she opened up once getting to the playdough table and started talking to the boy next to her. No tears (for Katey), and she was excited and exhausted when I picked her up later that afternoon. She reported that her favorite part was, shocker, the "playground park" and that they got to sing a song and see puppets.

Hoping to get a video of the first day up on here soon, so check back in a few days for that and any other preschool updates!

Summer's End...

2010-08-31T13:04:00.000-07:00

Our summer may have started off slow, but we are determined to end it with a bang! Here's what we've been up to over the past few weeks...

We celebrated cousin Jaime's wedding aboard the Electra in Newport Beach. Katey was the night's entertainment with her crazy dancing:

The next weekend, we celebrated the impending arrival of Leanne's baby boy at her baby shower:

Katey had a fun time playing with Lonnie and getting a big bag of candy at the end of the shower:

We've been taking advantage of our Disneyland passes (we've been four or five times this month!). One of Katey's new favorite rides is the teacups:

The pool is where you can find us most afternoons. Katey is still working on her savage tan:

We made a trip to Nordstrom's to get some shoes for preschool. Katey thought these were pretty awesome (and really, check out the tan-- it's nothing short of miraculous that she is actually related to my fair-skinned self):

Most recently, we took a trip to the Aquarium of the Pacific. Katey loves all things related to the ocean and sea animals, so this was a really fun trip for her. She loved feeding the lorikeets, petting a bat ray, seeing the sharks, checking out the seals, and of course seeing all the fish in the exhibits. She even got a stuffed shark ("Don't Worry" is his name) from Grammie and Poppa during our visit:

August at Last!

2010-08-04T13:35:00.000-07:00

Look, my little upside-down peanut turned in to a real baby-shaped person! Baby is now 6x bigger than our last post and is doing great:

Now, if I would just be over the "morning" sickness which, in my case, is only at night! I thought I was on the upswing a few days ago, but have since returned to feeling just plain yucky in the evenings.

However, since I've been feeling better during the days, Katey has finally been able to have some summertime excitement. We've been going to the pool a few days a week and she has a serious tan going on (I'm really jealous, and hoping this next baby will get the same skin as Katey):
She has been to the park a few times now that I can stand being in the sun and chasing her around a little, and loved going for a LONG time with Chad a few weekends ago:

And, yes, we have finally used those Disneyland annual passes this summer! We took a family trip one evening-- nice cool weather and I basically ate my way through the evening to keep my stomach settled-- and then I took her myself in the morning on a weekday. We are usually pretty good about not buying anything substantial on our trips, but I just couldn't resist this adorable hat she tried on:

Admit it, you can't resist it either!

Summertime Snapshots

2010-07-21T09:02:00.001-07:00

We are just a month in to Summer Break! We haven't done too much besides the occasional pool trip, but here are a few shots of a little bit of our summer...

This latest addition has pretty much dictated our days as Kristen has not been feeling well. We're all hoping that, in another week or so, Kristen will be feeling much better so that we can start having more substantial adventures (The beach? Disneyland? We miss them all!). The newest baby Roush is due right around Valentine's Day:
Early in the summer, Katey had a movie date to see Toy Story 3 with our neighbor ("my best friend") Abby:
We have had many trips to Kristen's favorite yogurt place, Cherry on Top, to indulge Kristen's altered appetite in these early weeks of pregnancy. This place is great because they offer a lot of fresh fruit toppings and natural tart yogurts. Katey has been a trooper, and is more than happy to eat vanilla and chocolate yogurt topped with M&Ms and marshmallows every day:

We've also had a few, short family adventures on Saturdays-- it's so much easier to do things when Chad is home to give Kristen naptime breaks and to chase Katey around. With the hot weather we had last week, we decided to head to the coast to cool off. We rode the free summertime trolly in to Laguna Beach, and another weekend we decided to have a picnic in Dana Point. Here's Katey posing as we wait for our sandwiches from Tutor&Spunky's before heading to the park for our picnic:

More Graduation Pictures

2010-06-28T21:29:00.000-07:00

Arriving in San Luis Obispo, after eating a little Firestone's:

It's a beautiful day for a graduation!

Congratulations Keith! So fun to have so much family together to celebrate:

Keith makes the College of Liberal Arts look good:

Taking a little stroll with Katey:

Wine tasting in the Edna Valley:

Congratulations Keith!

2010-06-15T13:11:00.000-07:00

Congrats to my little brother on his graduation from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo! Little smarty even got the Outstanding Senior award for his college and got to shake hands with President Baker up on the stage.

More pictures and stories from the fun weekend to follow in a week or so.

A Very Memorable Memorial Day Weekend

2010-06-03T11:30:00.000-07:00

We started off the three-day weekend like this--

A pedicure for Katey (first ever, she was totally excited):

We then took a little trip to the park, Katey wearing her new "favorite outfit" romper, though she calls it a jumper because she thinks it makes her jump better:

However, we ended the weekend like this:

In the emergency room after Katey decided to jump off the top of the 8 ft. ladder on the play structure at our nearby park. She landed on her tailbone, and we weren't sure how much of her tears and shaking was fear and pain, or an indication of something fractured or broken. We are praising God that her X-Rays came back totally fine, but I am hoping that this will be our first and last trip to the ER!

Potty Training-- Mission Complete

2010-05-28T10:40:00.000-07:00

Katey is officially potty trained!

We started working on it during Spring Break, and she took to it really quickly. Doing #2, however, was more of a challenge since she tends to take awhile and was asking to put on a diaper. However, last week she went #2 on the potty with Grammie and Poppa, and yesterday she asked to at our house. Yay!

Now, for a total change in topic-- Sea World. We took a weekend long San Diego trip and of course had to go see Katey's "best friends."

Katey was also EXACTLY tall enough to go on the big kid jumpy thing in Bay of Play. She had a blast even though she was, by far, the smallest kid in there, and wanted to go on it again and again.

Katey's Fairy Party

2010-05-05T09:53:00.000-07:00

After talking to Katey for months about birthday parties, she finally settled on having a Fairy Party for her 3rd Birthday (we started with a Pirate Party, moved to a Mermaid Party, and then she finally realized that, being Tinkerbell, a Fairy Party would be most appropriate).

We were lucky enough to get a beautiful day-- sunny, though pretty windy-- and were blessed to celebrate with lots of family and friends.

Katey and our neighbor Abby going down the slide together. All the little girls got fairy wings to complete the fairy theme:
Katey and "cousin" Sage (my cousin Jackie's daughter). It was fun to see them run around together:
Katey and Abby again-- they are the most adorable little girls together and it has been great having Abby and her family as neighbors. You should see the way they run to each other and hug. I hope we'll get to see them grow up as friends:
My attempt at fairy-themed cupcakes. Very little fairy decoration stuff out there aside from Tinkerbell (and I was hoping to avoid Tinkerbell-overload), so I improvised and glued butterflies to toothpicks and attempted to make it look like they were flying. Either way, I think they were delicious and I've eaten way too many of the leftovers...
Getting ready to blow out the candle before the wind snuffed it out first:
Taking a ride with Sage in the new wagon from Nana and Grampa:

Family Photos in San Juan Capistrano

2010-04-18T16:38:00.002-07:00

At the end of March, we had the opportunity to get some photos taken on Los Rios Street in San Juan Capistrano. Love them, and love this photographer!

Easter 2010

2010-04-05T16:34:00.000-07:00

We started our Easter celebrations on Good Friday with the annual Eggstravaganza egg hunt that our church sponsors. This was Katey's second time participating, and she had a great time collecting eggs, going in the bouncehouse, getting a balloon, and eating donuts!

Saturday night, after Chad helped our church get set up for Easter at the Bren, we decorated eggs. Katey thought coloring the eggs was really fun, but was not as in to putting them in the dye.

Can you tell which eggs are Chad's deluxe creations?:

In the morning, we did a little egg hunt in the house. Katey got lots of fun stuff in her Easter basket from the Easter bunny. Really glad he didn't overdo it with the candy since she has quite the sweet tooth.

Of course, we had to let her have at least one of the few pieces in her basket-- it just wouldn't be Easter without a chocolate breakfast!

Then we got dressed for church. Katey wore a dress that I had received from my baby shower. Auntie Lee had given me a clothesline of clothing in all different sizes, and this was the biggest outfit. When did my baby get so big?

We had a great afternoon celebrating Christ with our church and Chad's parents at the Bren Center in Irvine. We then spent the rest of the day in Pasadena with Auntie Cara and Uncle Frank, where Katey was once again spoiled with gifts and got to play with little Trixie.

The next morning, we spent most of the day like this:

Welcome Spring!

2010-03-20T16:19:00.000-07:00

Blessed with beautiful Spring weather! Katey made a bouquet at Grammie's house this week:

We also got to have some fun playtime with our buddy Chase at our nearby fountain:

Hope your beginning of Spring is going as great as ours!

Winter 2010 Wrap-Up

2010-03-07T16:56:00.000-08:00

With Spring looming ahead of us, here's a look back at our last few weeks of Winter:

Katey the gangsta is still sporting her Christmas jammies. I sometimes wonder if she will ever break the 30 pound mark-- this child is just tiny and skinny! Even with occasional breakfasts of jelly beans, she just will not pack on the pounds!

Katey got to go visit Daddy at work. She is adding her own touches to a tree and vine planting layout plan. Summers Murphy was stoked to have her working for free. If only they knew that she doesn't know how to color within the lines...

She also got to come visit Mommy at work one day. Checking her email and eating an apple was the only teacher-ish thing she got to do.

Cupcake decorating! One evening we decided to make cupcakes for Daddy to take to work. Katey got to stir (and lick the spoon) and put on the sprinkles. She did a good job avoiding the temptation to lick the frosting off them... finally, though, she just couldn't resist dipping her finger in to one.

Katey's little friend Abby (neighbor of ours) turned 3 and had a circus-themed party. It was great fun, and Katey tells us Abby is "my best friend" and "I only love Abby."

We've had lots of rainy days, so we finally broke down and got some rain boots so Katey could jump in the puddles. It is now her favorite thing to do.

Profile of a Big Girl

2010-02-17T14:41:00.000-08:00

I have no idea when my little baby started looking like a big girl, though she tells us she's "not a big girl, I'm a little girl" (this is her excuse for needing to stay in her diaper). Suddenly, this child is full of attitude and sassy personality.

The things this child comes up with are both hysterical (i.e.: "I'm not a girl anymore. I'm a boy-- an ANGRY boy"... because only boys get angry I guess) and profound ("that's not an N Mom, it's a triangle"... guess my English teacher genetics have not carried over).

In between bouts of cold and rainy weather, we have been blessed with unusually warm days and have taken full advantage of them by going to the park and for walks in the stroller. Today, for example, it's warm and sunny and feels like summer yet we're supposed to get rain on Saturday.

It's funny to me that, even though she looks and acts like a "big girl" she still has some silly baby habits-- like using the baby swing instead of the big one:

She still loves knocking over everything that Chad builds for her:

And, lately, she has a strange facination with taking all the pillows off the couch to step on them or hide in them. One day it's a fort, another day they are "stepping stones" and, most recently, they are obstacles for her (but she's really a beluga whale she tells us) to jump over-- this is complete with a nose dive and no hands, in true whale fashion.

I Love My Valentines...

2010-02-11T10:58:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day to my loves! 10th Valentine's Day with each other:

3rd Valentine's Day with our little monkey:

Things To Do on a Rainy Day

2010-01-28T14:03:00.000-08:00

While we are currently experiencing a beautiful day of sunshine, last week here in Southern Orange County was pretty cold and wet. It's my favorite kind of weather during the winter, but having a hyper 2 1/2 year old definitely had me changing my mind.

Here are a few things we did to keep entertained at home:

We tried to grow some dinosaurs. It took two days for them to actually "grow seven times their size" so it didn't quite work out as well as we had hoped. However, Katey had a good time "checking on them" throughout the day.

Katey loves Tinkerbell. We found these at Target for $9.99 the weekend before it started raining, and they were worth every penny. They kept her entertained for hours, and she loves carrying them around in a little pail for adventures. Chad says they are "life sized." I'll give you a minute to process the joke...

Finally, we got tired of making tents out of blankets. We just don't have enough furniture to make very exciting tents. So, we discovered this tent at Target during our "prepare for the rain" run. Again, worth every penny. We are contemplating making Katey sleep in it so that we can finally get her out of her bed... plus, we can't figure out how it "folds up for easy storage."

When we finally had some sunshine, Katey and I discovered this outside:

Seriously, Katey and I thought someone had set the tree on fire or dropped a cigarette. How wacky is this?

Roush Family takes Disneyland

2010-01-14T15:38:00.000-08:00

We recently celebrated a huge milestone with Chad's parents-- accomplishing their goal of going to Disneyland and being able to walk the whole park with no soreness! They are doing a great job getting fit and healthy, and we are so proud of them!

Getting ready to go on "It's a Small World"

Meeting Mickey in Toontown

Getting ready to watch the Pixar Play Parade at California Adventure

Posing in front of the Mickey Fun Wheel

Riding the carousel

Jesus is the Gift

2010-01-07T13:30:00.000-08:00

We had a little Happy Birthday Jesus party on our patio (just me and Katey since she had a cold and couldn't do the big shindig with Chase Seager):

Obviously Katey had already, um, indulged in her cupcake before the camera was ready. Nice work on the cupcake making Megan! Katey was a big fan.

Christmas 2009

2010-01-06T12:41:00.000-08:00

What a great Christmas and Winter Break! It was a relaxing holiday season for all of us, filled with fun, family and lots of adventures. However, in order to make this post of a reasonable length, let's just focus on Christmas Day (pictures from other adventures to come later).

Christmas Eve was pretty exciting as we geared up for Santa to visit-- Katey was all smiles (picture above), but surprisingly went to sleep pretty easily.

Christmas morning didn't disappoint Katey-- she was so excited when she came downstairs that she stopped and rolled on the floor. Apparently, she is part dog.

Santa brought a new play table for outside, play-doh with some tools, a train whistle, a Nemo playset and...

a kitchen! She has been whipping up some tasty treats for us; her specialty is chicken. She even got a grocery cart from Nana and Grampa to do some "shopping" with, and likes to put her baby doll, Patty, in the cart to go on shopping trips in the house. It is pretty hyesterical to see her mimic our cooking (using her oven mitt, and stirring/tossing things in her skillet).

Grammie, Poppa and Auntie Lee came over Christmas morning to celebrate with us:

They, of course, brought even more presents-- two little dollhouses, some clothes, an easel with chalk, markers, and paint, a little stamper set, books, stickers, and much much more!

Then the Goodwin family, along with Karissa's boyfriend Bryan, came over to celebrate:

After even more gift-unwrapping (please notice the giant pile behind Katey-- it's not even 1/4 of what we had piled up in our house), we packed up the car and headed over to Coto de Caza for the big celebration with Kristen's extended family. It was great to see everyone, and so funny to see all of us cousins with our little kids since we all have fond memories of being the kids and playing together on Christmas.

Best of all was getting to see both Keith and Karissa, since it seems like one of us is always busy or away somewhere. In fact, Nana pointed out that it was the first time that we have all been together in 2009. Yikes! I think we'll have to work on that for 2010...

What a day! We were exhausted, but had made plans to head down to SeaWorld to spend time with Karissa and "Uncle" Bryan the next day, so we were up bright and (sort of) early to head down to San Diego.

It was a great time seeing Shamu, the dolphins, and the polar bear, but best of all we got to stop in to say "thank you" to Santa.

We certainly do have a lot to be thankful for, and we feel God's blessings every day that we have together as a family. It is to Him that we owe all our happiness, and we pray that we will have much more time to spend with our loved ones in the coming year!

We can hardly stand the wait...

2009-12-17T09:49:00.000-08:00

Bring on Christmas! We are more than ready here in the Roush household, and are hoping that Santa has an easy time getting Katey's presents in the house (know what I mean?).

Kristen has gone to the annual Cassingham Family tea with the greatest looking women around:

We did the Walk through Bethlehem at church, even registering with the census and seeing a camel:

And Katey tells us that it's Christmas "not yet, in two minutes."

She has been an expert with telling us when the tree needs more water, and is a good little helper by holding the flashlight:

And we saw the most INSANE house ever over in San Juan Capistrano:

We are having a blast talking to Katey about Santa, watching all the holiday cartoons on tv, playing with her Playschool nativity set and talking about Jesus' birth, and making way too many cookies. It's so fun to see Christmas through a child's eyes!

Counting down to Christmas

2009-12-06T19:13:00.000-08:00

Katey is ready for Christmas! She didn't quite get the concept of Thanksgiving, but did have a lot of fun at SeaWorld with Nana and Grampa:

I think if she could get anything for Christmas, she would want a real life Shamu. She loves him and everything else related to sea life. We now have in our toy collection two dolphins, two penquins, four orcas, a sea lion, an otter, and a jellyfish, as well as a full collection of Nemo bath toys.

We just got our Christmas tree this weekend, and Katey is a big fan. She tells the tree that she loves it, and has told us that it's her "favorite tree" (everything is a favorite something lately). However, we are having trouble convincing her that ornaments are not toys, and that they stay on the tree.

As we count down to Christmas, we are especially looking forward to visiting Santa one more time and having a birthday party for Jesus at the Seager's house. So, until we have more photos to post, have a Happy Holiday!

We are the Riot Squad...

2009-11-21T11:04:00.001-08:00

Well, not really, but we did sit with them recently at an LA Galaxy game. Chad and I are at-home Galaxy Fans, but did recently get to two games over at the Home Depot Center. The first game was pretty low key, and we sat in a "normal" section (much better view, actually):

It was a great game, and LA Galaxy won which moved them in to the Western Conference Finals. Thanks to Leanne, we scored some free tickets to the final versus Houston Dynamo! Only hitch-- we had to sit with The Riot Squad, who has quite the reputation.

So, Chad and I did our online research, prepared our Galaxy-wear, and arrived 30 minutes before gametime to hold on to our seats (apparently, the Riot Squad never really stays in their assigned seats,). We prepared ourselves for a very crazy night... we didn't realize how crazy CRAZY could be...

Here we are, approximately 8:15 at the beginning of the game, watching the players come out of the tunnel. "Ah," we say to ourselves, "it sure is nutty that we've already been standing for 20 minutes already because this Riot Squad section stands and cheers the whole game... but we can last 90 minutes in the freezing cold."

18 minutes into the game, a blackout! All lights on the field go out. Sweet. Our section starts singing "Some one is fired... some one is fired!" The crazy kids around us refill their beers, Chad and I duck and dodge as people switch seats around us. Almost 20 minutes later, the game resumes and we are back on our feet. Oh, and if we don't sing or clap along to all the INSANE songs the Riot Squad sings, people look at us funny.

Last time I heard so many swear words was... okay, I've never heard as many.

Halftime, and the game is tied. "Wow" we say to each other, "this is the longest game EVER." Little did we know! The game resumes, and 6 minutes in to the second half there is ANOTHER blackout lasting almost 20 minutes. We begin to suspect the referee, whose lame calls against the Galaxy players is a clear indication that he is indeed a Texan native, may have something to do with this.

The game resumes, the beer continues to flow around us (including all over our feet and camera bag). At almost 11pm, the game ends in a 0-0 tie. But wait, this is a final! We prepare for another blackout as we begin the 30 minutes of overtime-- still standing, still cheering, still freezing.

Luckily, we score two goals in overtime and win the Western Conference! But, being in the Riot Squad, it's, like, against the rules or something if we leave before the players leave the field:

So, we stay and watch the trophy being awarded and get to experience the best part of being in this section-- the players all come over to us. That loud cheering you can hear on the video is JUST from our section. Pretty cool.

All in all, a great game and a good time! But no, I don't think we'll ever sit with The Riot Squad again...

Halloween Highlights

2009-11-09T18:18:00.000-08:00

We are still in the process of getting all our Halloween photos together. We, of course, used our film SLR camera (I know, right... who uses FILM these days?) so we're waiting to finish the roll.

So, for now, here are our highlights from the evening:

Earlier in the day, we went to the Seager's for some fun on the bouncy house-- pictures will be posted soon. After that, we hit up our church's Fall Fest. Good times, and we were glad to get there early before the crowds showed up. Katey rode a bumper car, the train, and had a hot dog. She then decided she wanted chow mein for dinner-- what 2-year old CAUCASIAN child asks for CHOW MEIN for dinner? Mine.

After dinner, it was time for trick-or-treating! Katey was a professional trick-or-treater, and this is a pretty good shot of her costume. She's Bug Girl obviously! Chad made her costume, but the wings didn't make it to trick-or-treating. Here the inspiration below, and yes she picked this costume herself.

So all in all it was a great night. Katey would have trick-or-treated all night if we had let her. We stuck to one street, about 12 houses.
I must admit though, as a first-time trick-or-treating experience from a parent perspective... isn't the whole process just WEIRD? I mean, we're knocking on doors asking for candy... it's just strange. What makes asking for candy from strangers one night a year okay, but other nights it's just creepy and rude? Odd. It's even more odd that I never got this impression when giving candy out to kids.

Finally, here's Katey with her Halloween stash. She'd never had a sucker before, and she was VERY in to them. Gosh, what a mess! I didn't realize suckers are really not that kid-friendly. But, I think it's pretty clear that her favorite Halloween candy is something my brother would be proud of-- Candy Corn! She's been asking for it every morning; apparently she thinks it's a normal everyday food now, and since it has the word corn in it then it's perfectly acceptable to have it as a meal.

Oak Glen

2009-10-29T14:17:00.000-07:00

This past week we went on a fun family adventure to Oak Glen, CA. As a child, this was a tradition in Kristen's family for many years, so it was exciting to get everyone together to take Katey and to take photos in the traditional tree.

Katey loved going to "the apple farm" (we didn't really go to the apple farm, but that's the best we could explain what Oak Glen was all about) and getting to eat her own apple from the Goodwin Family's favorite apple stand, Law's.

We then went to the Petting Zoo where she got to pet piglets, goats, and sheep.

Visiting the shops was also lots of fun, and of course Katey scored some fun treats from her grandparents.

Collecting acorns was also a fun adventure for Katey. Little did we know that one of the acorns housed a little worm, so the day after Oak Glen Chad had to give our new-found pet worm a new home...

Some of our Fall Fun

2009-10-24T13:58:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the things we have been up to lately:

Blocks are all the rage around here. Katey likes to knock over what we build, and then build her own things. She's been impressing us by making symmetrical creations and her own towers (Daddy build this one).

Arts and crafts are also all the rage around here. Katey has been a big fan of making things for people (Grammie and Poppa, Great-Grandma Shirley, Mommy, etc.) and telling people that she makes them something to "make you happy."

We took a little evening trip to Disneyland together to check out the Halloween stuff. Katey had a fun time posing with the pumpkins at Woody's Round-Up in Disneyland (they even have a petting zoo!).

Katey is also getting really excited to dress up for Halloween. She wants to be Bug Girl (a superhero with bug powers-- it's from The Backyardigans), but Auntie Leanne got this cute little outfit for her so we are wondering if she'll be changing her mind soon.

Sometimes, you just need to play with people your own age...

2009-10-06T20:49:00.001-07:00

Even if that means skipping work. I mean, Peter Pan and Dumbo are fun and all, but we needed a "big kid" ride fix...

The new Space Mountain (limited time only!) is super-- I think I actually had tears from screaming.

A Month of Catching Up

2009-09-29T18:04:00.000-07:00

Well, despite being so busy there is unfortunately not much to post today. However, here's my best attempt at a quick summary of the past month:

Kristen turned 29 on September 17th. We had a celebration with her family, and then a nice brunch with the Roush family after church. Can you tell which birthday card was from Katey?

Katey continues to love her little buddies, and really loves bringing things along on our errands. This time, her baby "Patty" had to go in her carrier in order to travel in the car:

The cheesiest smile ever is also in full force. Here is Katey wishing you a Happy Fall with her fabulous poster... And no I am not that clever as to have made this at our house. This was courtesy of Megan Seager-- my middle school teacher brain does not work at this level quite yet; I am thankful for elementary school teacher friends. :-)

We are still alive, I promise...

2009-09-23T11:28:00.000-07:00

It was a busy end to summer, and with September came Kristen going back to work AND (yay!) Chad also going back to work as of this week. We are hoping it will last, even though we are crazy busy!

The big girl bed has been working out pretty well. Katey is taking great naps in it, and bedtime has also been going better than expected. She is still falling asleep in our bed to begin with and, when she's asleep, we move her in to her own bed. Of course, with both of us working, many nights we have all fallen asleep so quickly that we discover all three of us still in our bed in the morning. Ooops! :-)

I will try to post some new updated pictures this weekend, maybe even a video if I have the time. Happy Fall!

She's a big girl (sort of)

2009-08-29T16:12:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we said good-bye to the baby crib and got Katey a big girl bed.

She has loved taking her naps in it this week, and we are continuing to try to get her to sleep in it at night-- sleeping on her own at night has been a struggle since she was 5 months old, so we're hoping this will help us out and we can get her out of our bed soon.

"Yay" for the new bed!

Our other big update about Katey this week is that she has taken to naming her stuffed animals. At the beginning of the summer she became a big fan of taking her baby for walks in the stroller, and named the baby "Patty." Last week, she received a plush moose from Aunt Cara and Uncle Frank, and decided his name was "Cowboy." No idea why, but that is his name! Then, after getting the new bed, we put a stuffed monkey next to the pillow and she started calling him "Choo." Today, she decided that the plush bear that we also keep on the new bed is "Chomp." Quite the imagination!

We Call it Love

2009-08-21T16:46:00.000-07:00

Chad and I celebrated our 5th Wedding Anniversary at the beginning of the month. While there were many things we WANTED to do for our anniversary (head back to Mexico to relive our honeymoon, stay at some cute little local hotel, etc.) we decided it would be best to just hang out, play it cheap, and take advantage of some of our free babysitters.

So, we headed down to San Diego for a weekend with Nana, Grampa and Uncle Keith. Chad picked up a little surprise for me on the way:

Our wedding cakes! Same flavors as our wedding, French Bavarian and Chocolate Macadamia, and decorated the same. Very delicious; we were eating cake for a week straight and decided to goof around by "cutting the cake" together.

Once we had Katey settled in, Chad and I had a chance to get out for a bit-- dinner at Bread Bites and our second viewing of Harry Potter (this time in IMAX), but before we left for the evening, I had this great idea....

The wedding dress has been living in my parents' closet for the past 5 years. I do not know what prompted me to take it out, especially since I was pretty sure it wouldn't fit and then I'd be totally bummed out, but... it fit! Sure, the zipper was a little tight but the point is that it zipped up and I could even breathe in it. :-)

Seriously, all women should get to wear their dress whenever they want after their wedding. I don't understand why I couldn't wear this out for the night! People do it in Vegas all the time...

We decided to keep our Wedding Weekend reenactment going by heading to Sea World the next day, just like we did the day after our wedding. It was good times, despite the fact that I was a bit difficult to deal with in the morning due to my lack of Starbucks. Nothing a little churro couldn't cure! Katey was much more excited about Sea World this time than our previous visit. She is now in love with Shamu and we even got a mini Shamu to bring home to play with-- it goes everywhere with us, in the car, to the park, to the pool, in the bathtub, and many nights it "sleeps" next to our bed.

The following day Chad and I went wine tasting in Temecula with my dad. While this was not a wedding weekend tradition, wine tasting is the new Goodwin Family tradition. We had a great time checking out the Temecula Wine Country.

Our last day in San Diego, we went down to the San Diego Hilton Mission Bay to show Katey the place we got married...

Katey liked climbing around the gazebo and pretending to be a flower girl, but her favorite thing, as always, was RUNNING...

Up and down the beach, this kid just never gets tired! We bribed her to get back in the car, and then wrapped up our San Diego weekend with a visit to Grampa's office in downtown San Diego. Katey liked seeing her Grampa all dressed up, but most enjoyed getting to color with markers in the supply room. Playing with all the toys on and in his desk was fun too, but next time Grampa needs to stock up on his candy supply!

I think she has a promising career in sitting at a big desk. What do you think?

2009-08-14T12:06:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the highlights from our trip to Disneyland with "Grampa" and "Nana" Goodwin. It was a nice last hurrah for Grampa before ending his sabbatical and heading back to work (believe me, I can sympathize!).

Katey loved going on the rides with them, and we even saw Heidi Klum... no I didn't take her picture. She was eating with her kids. But it was cool to see her and a special treat for Grampa. Haha.

Then, seeing as we are addicted to our season passes, we made an evening trip a few days later. We didn't bring the camera (I think the 400 Disneyland photos we've taken this summer are enough, don't you?), but did finally get to meet Tinkerbell!

If Katey knew how to say "Big fan Tinkerbell! Love your show!" I'm sure she would have. In fact, she seemed a little starstruck-- very little talking from our usual chatterbox while seeing Tinkerbell, but she was really in to "petting" her and just hugging her. Wow.

Mickey Monday

2009-07-28T09:19:00.000-07:00

We took a quick morning trip to Disneyland with our friend Megan Seager and her son Chase. Good times with a good friend (she is the reason Chad and I met, and started going to Compass Bible Church, so we sort of owe her a lot)!

Here are the highlights of our Mickey Monday adventure:

The kids riding the King Arthur Carousel

In front of "It's a Small World" - love the new updates they've done! If you haven't been on it for awhile, check it out!

Chad and Katey at the end of our "It's a Small World" boat ride

Climbing the Tarzan Treehouse

Waiting to go see the birds in "The Tiki Room"

In California Adventure, meeting Stitch

We'll be taking another trip to Disneyland later this week with my parents, so be sure to check back next week for a fresh onslaught of photos!

Time, how it does fly

2009-07-15T15:06:00.001-07:00

10 years. That's how long it's (almost) been since Chad and I met at Cal Poly. Craziness!

We were fortunate enough to visit San Luis Obispo this past weekend in order to celebrate my dad's birthday. Gotta love those all-expense paid trips courtesy of the parents.

Once again, Katey was a trooper on the car ride. We have quite the little traveler on our hands! I think we may have to try her out on an airplane one day soon...

We had a great time exploring our old college haunts and seeing all the new and fantastic changes that are coming to SLO. Of course, having a kid in tow put a whole new perspective on things. However, we did find that we do indeed miss the SLO life!

This trip also gave us a chance to meet up with some of our friends who are still living on the Central Coast. And yes, we have had the "let's move back to SLO" talk MANY times both before and after this trip...

We met up for lunch with Noah and Ryan Taylor and Paul Foutz at The Cliffs, and Katey had a lot fun meeting Ryan and running around during lunch (though we wish she had done less running and more sitting-- I think two long weekends of trips is beginning to wear on her).

Along with doing some sight-seeing in our old college town, we hit up some of the local wineries to celebrate my dad's birthday. Not sure if you know this, but my dad (and, apparently, now my brother) is quite the wino.

Our first stop was at Tolosa Winery. This might be our new favorite SLO winery, and I think Chad and I will probably switch over to this place for our wine club.

The tasting room is also really cool-- there is a big window looks over their production area, and there is a "smelling station" where you can sniff out the different aromas in wines.

Tolosa was so good that... I didn't take very many photos and the ones that I did take came our rather blurry.

Next stop was Talley Vineyards and I made more of an effort to take photos to capture our day.

We had a great time tasting at Talley; here the boys are posing out front. This trip brought back memories of Keith's 21st birthday.

It was fun to goof around together (thanks to Mom for watching Katey back at the hotel), and to watch Dad try to stump the people working in the tasting room. As we made our purchases, I really thought we could figure out a way to get this bottle to the car but, alas, it was just too much.

And, though the wine was great, Keith and I found the chocolates to be just as tasty...

Later that weekend, we also visited Laetitia Winery in Arroyo Grande. The sparkling wines were great, but the actual wine was not quite as good. Mom came along on this trip and volunteered to chase after Katey for us, so we did have a lot more photo opportunities.

Chad and I near the vineyards

The grandparents with the crazy little granddaughter

My dad REALLY loves vineyards... and Katey REALLY loves to run

All in all, it was a great trip and we are really trying to figure out how and when we can get back to SLO soon. We took a brief trip to Cal Poly SLO to see the campus, but Katey was close to naptime and not at all interested in doing anything but running around; hence, no pictures to speak of.

One of the best things about this trip was that Katey got to play with Uncle Keith. He is LOTS of fun apparently, and she has asked about him a lot since we got back.

In fact, he may even be her new best friend. They some quality pool time in, and he was pretty willing to be silly with her. Do I hear some summertime babysitting in the works? :-)

4th of July Fun

2009-07-10T09:35:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that this was our little Katey a year ago! She'd only been walking for a month, and still had her little boy haircut. How time flies!

This year for 4th of July, we decided to stay home to enjoy some local festivities. We started off our morning at the Lake Forest 4th of July Parade to support our church, Compass Bible, and their float. Chad and I had a lot of fun stuffing bags a few nights before so that the people in the parade could pass out some cool information to people watching the parade.

We never made it all the way to the "official" parade route, but opted instead to hang out by a park so that Katey would have somewhere to run around if she got bored. Turned out to be a great idea, especially since there was a good amount of shade.

After the parade, we had a nice lunch at California Pizza Kitchen and then it was naptime for Katey. It was a VERY hot day on the 4th, so after naptime we hit up our local pool. Katey was very excited for the new pool noodles that Chad picked up during her nap...

and of course she LOVES being in the water. No swimming lessons for her yet (maybe next year), but she definitely has no fear of putting her face in the water and jumping in.

This weekend we head off to San Luis Obispo to celebrate Grampa Goodwin's birthday. Look for some new pictures of our fun next week!

Summer Vacation - June Lake

2009-06-29T16:42:00.000-07:00

We started our summer with a trip up to June Lake (about 20 minutes north of Mammoth) in order to celebrate the marriage of Paul Foutz and Shannon Capponcelli.

After much debate over whether we should bring Katey (it's a 5 1/2 hour car ride, if we don't stop), we finally decided to make a full-fledged 4-day vacation of it and packed up pretty much everything in the house to make the long trek up to the mountains.

Katey was a very good girl and kept pretty well entertained with some new books, the laminated map (aka "Treasure Map"), a Starbucks Spill Stick, and other toys. The trip to McDonalds in Lone Pine also helped, although she didn't want Chicken Tenders, she wanted Golden Eagle Tenders (thanks to a picture of a Golden Eagle across the street from the McDonalds).

After about 6 hours on the road and passing through delightful little places like The Land of the Winkies, the Crystal Geyser factory (no geyers in sight, just so you know), Adelanto, and the place where they sell Beef Jerky (about 30 advertisements for it, so I'm sure it was amazing), we finally arrived in June Lake.

Our cabin at the June Lake Pines was pretty decent, complete with a kitchen and DVD player (though no clocks... odd). It might have been better than I imagined; I am a fully confessed hotel snob. Not the camping, outdoors, bug-loving, lake-swimming type. Sorry.

Also, a friendly neighbor told us that next to our cabin is "where the bear comes down at night." GREAT. Not just that bears occassionally pass through, but THE bear which is apparently exclusive to this set of cabins likes to chill by our cabin. Fantastic. I was already having visions of waking up in the middle of the night to see a giant bear clawing at the windows.

The view from the porch of our cabin was pretty awesome. I was very surprised (me and my Southern California self) to see snow still on the mountains!

Katey did really well in the "special house" during our three-night stay. Luckily we did have two rooms... so Chad could have his own room and sleep in a twin bed. While Chad attended the bachelor party in Mammoth and went golfing the next morning, Katey and I kept entertained with movies, playing with "Ace" the property manager's dog, and walking around the small downtown area.

At the rehearsal dinner, Katey was... well, she was the center of attention! I really do apologize to everyone for her being so darn adorable in her dress (special thanks Nana and Luan's). Her God-given cuteness just can't be helped!

The morning of the wedding we ventured in to Mammoth as a family so that Katey could get her wiggles out at a park. The park Chad found for us was AMAZING. Tons of play equipment, giant rocks for Katey to climb, and a river for her to throw small rocks in. Unfortunately it did not result in the pre-wedding nap we were hoping for, but it was fun nonetheless.

The GIANT slide was, well, giant. This equipment was labled 12 years +, so OF COURSE Katey wanted to climb it multiple times. Good thing Mommy and Daddy are used to chasing after her!

Katey did fall asleep in the car for the 20 minute drive back to the cabin, but woke up once we got back. Finally, it was time to head off to the wedding. After getting in the car, we realized Chad's watch was 10 minutes off (remember, no clocks in the cabin not even on the DVD player). Luckily, we made it with plenty of time. Katey, who had not yet taken her nap, was in no mood to sit in the sun and watch the ceremony, so she and I kept busy walking around looking for squirrels.

The wedding at The Double Eagle was beautiful, Paul and Shannon looked so happy and we finally got Katey to nap in her stroller just before dinner came out. She got in a good hour and half, which meant we got to eat at a normal pace and actually talk to people! It was amazing. After Katey woke up and ate her dinner, we doused ourselves with bug spray and hit the dance floor...

Paul's mom put together goody bags for all the kids attending the wedding. A great idea! The books kept Katey entertained at the table, and she refused to take this crown off all night. As a side note, the beautiful pink bow on the front of Katey's dress came off (thread came unstitched). So sad. She looked pretty cute anyway and, again, was pretty much the center of attention. Her sweet moves on the dance floor probably helped that.

The next morning, we headed home. Never did get to see a bear, or any wildlife aside from squirrels, moths, ants and mosquitos, so I guess I may have to "rough it" again sometime! Katey was equally well-behaved on the drive home, and Chad was a great pilot.

Bye Bye Class of 2013

2009-06-22T12:36:00.000-07:00

Summer at last! Even though this year was INSANE, on the both the faculty-administration side of things, and interacting with our class of 8th graders, it was a very memorable school year. Also, I'm really going to miss my buddy Danielle-- darn budget cuts! But I'm holding out hope that, by some miracle, she'll be back with us soon. Enjoy the highlights from the school year!

Our SQUAD community students, preparing for a (victorious) Field Day match against THE CREW.

La Paz faculty taking the time to smell the roses (while wearing El Toro Track t-shirts).... hmmm...

One of our students showing Danielle some love and support the last week of school.

Me and Danielle riding the carousel at Knott's Berry Farm.

Showing Snoopy some La Paz love!

Happy Birthday to our Daddy Monkey

2009-05-24T19:56:00.001-07:00

Happy 32nd Birthday to Chad! With all the birthdays in the family this month, it's no wonder that Katey's new favorite activity to set up her tea set for a "birthday party" and then sing to us.

We celebrated Chad's day with a trip to Disneyland. Not only did we hit up our traditional favorites (Dumbo, King Arthur's Carousel, Pirates and the Churro stand), we also tried out some new rides over at California Adventure-- King Triton's Carousel (this one has sea creatures instead of horses) and Mickey's Fun Wheel-- as well as visited the goats at the petting zoo area over in Frontierland.

Happy Birthday Chad!

Happy Birthday to our Little Monkey

2009-05-12T11:58:00.001-07:00

Katelyn is Two!

We had originally planned to celebrate her day on Saturday, the day after, with a little party at the park with family and few of her little buddies, but Katey woke up with a fever on Saturday morning. Rather than push headlong in to a day of excitement and risk a. her having a total meltdown, or b. getting everyone sick if she indeed had the beginnings of some illness, we decided to cancel the party and just have our families over for dinner.

That ended up being a great idea because Katey was generally out of it all day, taking two naps and being very clingy and cuddly (no worries though, the next day the fever was gone a new molar had broken through-- just one more tooth to go and we're done with teeth!).

Katey enjoyed spending time with everyone, opening presents, singing "Happy Birthday" and eating ice cream. We didn't get any pictures with our camera, but here is the day after her birthday party on her new present from Grammie and Poppa:

The latest addition to our family...

2009-05-12T11:50:00.001-07:00

Is Kristen's new car! We are so excited for it. Katelyn is already asking to go in "Mommy new car? Red one?"

Now we just have to sell the Lexus. If you know anyone interested in a used car in great shape, let us know!

Spring Break, Part 2

2009-04-19T13:34:00.001-07:00

Finally, here are the rest of our Spring Break photos!

After a relaxing few days with just Katey and Kristen at home and going to the park, we wrapped up the week going to Compass Bible Church's Eggstravaganza on Friday. So much fun; if you missed it this year then you definitely need to come check it out next year!

Katey, who has never done an Easter Egg hunt, was pretty legit. I think she ended up with 9 eggs in her basket. She totally understood the concept of grabbing them and putting them in her basket, and quickly figured out that they open and have goodies inside. We also checked out the bounce house, ran around on the grass (running is Katelyn's #1 requested thing to do every day -- "outside running? Running day?"), and had some tasty donuts and fruit. Thanks to the Roush family for coming along with us!

God answered the prayers of many and not only held off the rain for the Eggstravaganza event but also brought a lot of people to the event even with the stormy-looking weather. It was such a great day!

It wasn't until we were on the road to San Diego later that afternoon that we encountered any showers. We did get a little drizzle off and on Saturday, but by Easter it was beautiful outside!

Playing "toss the balloon" Grampa

Giving Kodi a dog biscuit-- they were buddies

Bundled up to play outside

Doing some jumping - are you impressed with the action shot?

Giving some kisses to Daddy during our walk outside

At the park with Daddy

Another fun activity was playing with Auntie KayKay. We sure do miss having her so far away in San Francisco, and it was so great to hang out with her. She and Katey even had some girl time upstairs. Here, Karissa thought it would be fun to make Katey be our baby (you know, remind herself that she is NOT ready for the craziness that is children!).

Finally, it was Easter morning! We woke up to a beautiful morning and Katey was very excited that the Easter bunny had hid some Easter Eggs at Nana's house. She was a pro at finding them, so the Easter bunny is going to have to work a lot harder at hiding them next year!

Goodwin tradition with Easter is that, OF COURSE, you get to eat chocolate in the morning. So Katey had no problem diving right in to all her treats. Luckily, the Easter Bunny brought multiple baskets so she also had some inedible goodies to choose from.

We wrapped up the morning with brunch at El Torito. This was probably the quickest brunch I think the Goodwin Family has ever had; Katey likes to work off her calories immediately following eating, so we spent much of the time playing outside.

P.S. This dress is 6-12 months size. Where did this girl get her tiny-ness from?!

Spring Break, Part 1

2009-04-08T08:36:00.000-07:00

We decided to brave the potential crowds and head to Disneyland during the first day of Kristen's Spring Break. Luckily, it wasn't too crowded after all and the heat wasn't too bad either. Katey was VERY excited to ride her favorite ride, Dumbo!

We thought we were going to have issues since she was asking to go on Green Dumbo while in line. Luckily, Purple Dumbo was just as good and the last minute change didn't cause any fits.

After going on our customary rides (Dumbo, the carousel, and Tiki Room), we decided to add a few to our regular routine. Katey seemed to like The Jungle Cruise ("Jungle Boat") and also really liked Pirates of the Carribean ("Pirate Boat"). I was very surprised she wasn't frightened, and she liked pointing out all the animals to us, yelling "HI Pirates!", and shouting "echo!" in the all the tunnels. By the end of the ride she actually wanted to sit on the bench by herself. We are working on learning the "Yo Ho a Pirates Life for Me" song for our next trip; so far she has only figured out "Yo yo yo yo, a me."

Katey was a trooper in the lines; I think the longest wait we had was for Dumbo (about 20 minutes). We have taught her that she needs to be patient, and that if she has a hard time being patient she should pray to God and ask for Him to help her be patient. It's really cute-- now all we say to her is "You need to be patient" and she folds her little hands and says "Dear God." I wonder if people look at us like we are crazy-- oh well!

While getting lunch at our usual place in California Adventure, the nicest lady cleaned off our table for us and got Mickey-shaped sourdough bread for Katey for free! Katey was really exited, and I'm not sure we are ever going to get her permission to eat it... though I think it might magically turn itself in to garlic bread to go with our Chicken Parmesan for dinner tonight.

We wrapped up our visit with a run through Bug's Land to play in the water park area. Katey got SOAKED-- the kid loves to get wet and had no problem with other kids accidentally splashing her.

It's so fun now that she understand the concept of going to Disneyland, though of course she has asked every day since, "Mickey day?" I have a feeling we will be there a lot this summer!

Funny conversations with Katey

2009-04-08T08:27:00.000-07:00

(After a drive-thru at In-N-Out, sitting back at home eating. Katey has her beans, cheese, grapes, and of course some french fries)
Katey: What that? (pointing at Chad's shake)
Chad: A milkshake. Do you want some?
Katey: Okay! (takes a sip) More mik-shake?
Chad: Okay.
Katey: (takes another sip and looks perplexed) Daddy, nothin in there. Jus' ice cream!

(Sitting in her highchair having lunch. Takes a drink from her straw-sippy cup and it makes a chirping noise as she drinks)
Katey: Uh-oh Mommy!
Kristen: What's wrong?
Katey: A ribbit in my water!

(Breakfast time, Katelyn is pretty much done eating)
Kristen: Looks like you are all done eating. Are you done?
Katey: No.
Kristen: Okay, can I get you something more?
Katey: Mmm.... M and Ms?
Kristen: Nope, not for breakfast.
Katey: Ice Cream?
Kristen: Nope.
Katey: Cake?
Kristen: Not for breakfast.
Katey: Okay. All done.

Our San Diego Zoo-venture

2009-03-15T22:10:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Nana for being our trip navigator and photographer!

Katelyn's first trip to the World Famous San Diego Zoo was fantastic! Besides being really well-behaved and actually interested in the animals, Katelyn also finally figured out the difference between lions and tigers. With any luck, we'll get back to the Zoo again this summer to hit up the exhibits we ran out of time for, specifically the lions and bears. We had a great time seeing all the animals and Katelyn can't stop talking about elephants, tigers and hippos.

It's the simple things in life

2009-03-11T17:26:00.000-07:00

During a recent trip to Party City, following a long evening of running errands, we broke down and got Katey the $8.99 Pablo balloon as a reward for being so well-behaved and patient. Who knew something so simple could provide so much endless entertainment for the whole family?

Katey's new words and phrases this week (many due to her rediscovered love of The Little Einsteins) are "amazing," "what's that noise?", "what are you doing?", "I'll hold it", "are you okay?", "seat belts buckled!", "good idea!", "nice work", "good job", "what's the matter?", " I cannot BELIEVE it!", "what's your name?", "gimme my book back!", and "naughty naughty Daddy!". And, finally, she knows her name is Katelyn ("Kate - in!") and not Baby... we were starting to get worried.

Some things never change...

2009-03-03T22:31:00.001-08:00

Specifically, my husband. Our little romantic date to the Teahouse on Los Rios unfolded like this...

Kristen: "Oh look Chad, take a picture of me with these silly figurines on this guy's lawn. I can't believe these things never get stolen!"

Chad: "Okay" (takes picture). "It's cute. Now take one of me!"

Mmm hmmm, glad to see the man I'm married to is still the one I fell in love with 9 years ago-- hasn't changed a bit!

Hoping March is Lucky

2009-03-03T21:54:00.000-08:00

Wow, for being the shortest month February sure seemed to drag on forever!! We battled colds, the flu, work stress, and general toddler crankiness and attitude all month, and are hoping that March will be a better month for us.

Here are some of the photos from our final week of February-- the color photos are the day before she came down with the flu, and the black and white ones are during the pretty quick (thank you God!) "recovery" stage:

Playing with Chase Seager at the park

Looking a little sneaky while picking up trash

All bundled up to go riding outside

Sick little angel

Latest updates: Katelyn has started praying for people and things all on her own ("God <insert random baby gibberish> a Backyardigans a Austin. Amen" is the latest), and we've also had extensive lists of people that include Nana, Grampa, Grammie, Poppa, Keith, Daddy and Mommy. Too cute. "Oh Boy!" is a new catch phrase, as well as "naughty naughty!" Also, when we ask her who is in Italy, she says "Keep!" (Keith).

We are also getting to do some more experiments with hairstyles; they never stay in the whole day, but she does get excited for her bows and likes looking in the mirror and telling Daddy she is pretty.

Valentine's Weekend in San Diego

2009-02-16T12:59:00.000-08:00

Greetings everyone! I think we are all finally healthy after our weekend in San Diego. It was pretty cold for Southern California, but luckily we only had rain in the evening on Friday.

We had lots of fun hanging out with Nana and Grampa. Katey loved chasing the kitties around the house, going up and down the stairs, playing with the dollhouse, running around in their front yard, and going to the park. She showed off a lot of her new words, and can even say "Gampa" now (before, he was just Papa like Chad's dad). We also had a romantic Valentine's group-dinner at Chevy's.

Riding the fire engine at Park Village Park

On the swings with Grampa

Saying "hello" to Nana

Our Valentine's Day photo (p.s. I got my hair chopped, so enjoy the long hair in this photo!)

A little love for Nana

Now, during this trip, I got to go through some old photos my mom has been scanning in order to preserve them. These are my favorite little gems, and if you are on Facebook then you have already seen them. However, I think they are so cute they need to be shared with EVERYONE.

Mom and Dad, cute as can be, at my Aunt Charlene's wedding (before Mom and Dad were married)

Thanksgiving with the Cassingham Family
Uncle Vaughn, Grandpa holding Jeni, Dad, Mom holding Jaime, Grandma, Uncle Dennis, Aunt Vonnie, Uncle Wuck, Aunt Charlene

Me and Dad!

The cousins at Sea World
Jodi, Jeni, Jackie, Jaime and Me
I am Katey's age in this photo (give or take about 3 weeks)

Me with my Uncle Hal and Dad- this is just before my 2nd birthday

With the cousins
Me, Jodi, Jackie, Jaime, and Jeni

Pretty funny, huh? And, as a last minute post, we graduated Katey to the big bathtub a few weeks ago. Since having the flu and being doused in the middle of the night, she refused to go in to her inflatable tub we kept in the shower. So now she's a big girl!!

Mini Post

2009-02-11T20:00:00.001-08:00

This will be the shortest blog post I think I've ever done, so mark it down in history.

We are all sick with colds right now, and it has been raining for the past week and half (all but two days, but it's still pretty cold and runny noses don't make for the most attractive thing) so no new pictures to post; maybe after the weekend since we are heading to San Diego.

Katey has, however, been saying all sorts of random stuff - things are suddenly "oh, cute" (and they usually really are), "oooohhh MAN!" is also a new phrase, as well as "wait a minute," "cuddle on the couch?" "I'll help you" and singing the alphabet (she has about half of it correct). Oh, and she's also counting things. She can get to five before she forgets what comes next, and then she starts over.

And, for the most exciting thing, today Chad picked her up and she said "love you Daddy" totally spontaneously.

All in all, she's pretty fun (during the day anyway, I'm not even getting in to the INSANE nights we've had) but we are all exhausted from being sick.

Look for more exciting posts next week - I promise to bombard with pictures. :-)

Longest Week of Our Lives

2009-02-01T19:29:00.000-08:00

...and it just keeps getting longer folks.

Tuesday night/Wednesday (the 20th) Katey came down with the flu. We had an early morning of sickness (puke in her crib at 3, then in our bed at 6, then again around 7:30 and twice in the middle of the afternoon), but luckily by about 1pm she was done. However, she was still cranky and sick for another three days. Poor little baby.

Then, just as we thought she was 100% recovered and her appetite and energy was returning, the next Tuesday (the 27th) she developed a nasty 102 degree fever which lasted three days. I have never known this kid to be so insanely cranky, clingy and whiney. Chad was finally able to get her in the doctor on Friday when the fever was on it's downswing, and it appears that there is nothing actually wrong with her. No cold, ear infection, sore throat... nothing.

However, she is still really really crabby. We are thinking it must be the last four teeth... in fact, we are praying that is what it is because we might just go insane soon.

That said, we've been trying to keep her as busy as possible so that we don't have to deal with all the cranky meltdowns at home-- keeping her distracted seems to be the best medicine. So, here's what we've been up to this weekend since she's been healthy:

Playing in a bouncehouse for the first time at Lonnie's 2nd Birthday Party.

Checking out the sheep and goat at Lonnie's party. There was a pony ride too, but Katey got over it when she realized she would have to wait for a turn.

Then we decided that SuperBowl Sunday would be a perfect day for Disneyland-- everyone would be home watching the game! We were wrong; it was pretty packed. I have never seen such long lines to get in to the Disneyland gates. We had a fun time on Dumbo, and of course the carousel.

Katey, with her new found love of tea parties, spied the Tea Cup a mile away and had a meltdown when we took her out. But she sure was cute while she was in it!

Katelyn is in love with the Tinkerbell Movie, so we got in the 45 minute line to see her. We even let her walk (which was actually more of a run) to get in line and she had a fun time looking for all the little fairy statues. Of course she fell asleep about 15 minutes from seeing her, so here's what we got:

Even Tinkerbell tried to wake Katey up, but it didn't work. And can I just point out the wrinkles under my eyes thanks to the exhaustion of the last week and half? The ridiculous cuteness of Tinkerbell doesn't help either... where do they find these adorable girls?!

Disney Days

2009-01-18T13:38:00.000-08:00

For those of you who we don't talk to frequently, you should be aware that Katey is very in to her "moo-dee"s (movies). I know, I know -- TV is bad. However, have you seen how skinny and active this kid is? She chooses grapes over french fries, eats half a Nilla Wafer and then decides she's done, runs everywhere, and only weighs 23 pounds! Her junk food is Goldfish crackers and the occasional handful of M&Ms. I figure if she'll sit still for 30 minutes to watch a show, I'll take the break to get some things done around the house.

Katey LOVES anything with Mickey in it, tries to bounce like Tigger, and her latest favorite movies, which she'll sit and watch every minute of, are Tinkerbell, Wall-E, and Bug's Life. After the first viewing, the kid has the whole thing memorized and has an active dialogue with the characters throughout the movie. She tells Tinkerbell to fly, yells for "EEE-AAAA!" (Eve, whom Wall-E calls Eva, for those of you who haven't seen it), shouts "oh no!" during various action scenes, and helps the ants escape from the grasshoppers by running around the house shrieking "oh no! Run!"

So, we were excited to get back to Disneyland to see how new and exciting it would be for her now that she knows so many of the characters. It's been awhile since we last ventured there (we even missed the holiday decorations this year), but we finally made good use of our annual passes and went to play with Mickey last weekend. Here are some of the highlights:

Here we are visiting Wall-E in California Adventure. I think Katelyn expected him to start moving and talking, which is why she looks a little apprehensive in this picture. She was very in to him later, but there were other kids in the way of taking a quality photo.

This is my favorite Mickey outfit; every time I see the Mickey dolls that look like this I have to remind myself that I am 28 and I DO NOT need a stuffed Mickey. But, you know, I'm sure we'll have one within the year because Katey really likes "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" from Fantasia and that will be my excuse.

Honestly, she was SOOO excited to see him, smiling and waving and yelling "Mickey! Oh! Mickey!" while were in line, but as soon as we got close for the photo she yelled "Bye Bye!" and was ready to be done with him.

We then ventured over to the Bug's Life area in California Adventure. Next time we'll have to bring a change of clothes so that she can better enjoy the fun water features. We were actually pretty surprised that she didn't get drenched since she has no fear of getting sprayed in the face (see our post from last summer when we went to Ladera Ranch).

In the picture where she's standing next to a fence, she is actually calling to a big statue of one of the characters from Bug's Life (the spider)-- "bug! bug? BUG?!" This was before she had actually ever seen Bug's Life, so we knew it would be a big hit once we bought it (which was yesterday, and we've already watched it twice).

Dumbo is the all-time favorite, and she actually said "Dumbo" before we told her! Normally she would just get excited and point, but this time she said, clear as a bell "Dumbo!" We went on this twice since we met up with Mike and Bryanna Farina later that evening and we were running out of kid-friendly options for rides.

And finally, during naptime...

Chad really likes Mickey too, and apparently I was a bad wife and didn't take any photos of him during our trip except for this one. Sorry honey. But can I please ask, who actually buys these things?! Can you believe this Mickey costs $100? Uh oh, I think I just jinxed myself on this one... I am having visions of Katey wanting this big guy in a few years. Shoot.

Fun in 2009

2009-01-12T18:59:00.000-08:00

Our 2009 is off to a fun start. We enjoyed our last few days playing with Katey before we had to go back to work. Here are a few more of our favorites from the holiday:

The jammies say "I'm Not Tired," which is totally fitting for Katey.

Having some tea. She is now an expert at pouring, and is now saying "tea pot" and "tea cup." She also knows that there is a "pincess" on the tea pot.

And here we have the princess pose.

The kid loves her sidewalk chalk! This is on one of the rainy days right after Christmas.

Splashing on the basketball court was a big highlight of this trip. Katey is also now saying "backa-ball" when she wants to play with her basketball hoop at home.

This may have also been the trip when she learned what an "echo" is-- we are now a big fan of saying "ECHO!" in tunnels, tubes, and in the living room. I guess if you yell loud enough, it does echo...

Here she is taking a walk and cuddling with Daddy on the day it finally warmed up during the break. Katey has become very good about holding hands when we go places now.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2009-01-01T14:18:00.001-08:00

Happy 2009! We have been busy busy busy since Christmas, so prepare yourself for a post full of pictures from our adventures with the Roush Family in Laguna Niguel and the Goodwin Family in San Diego. Not only did Katey have a lot of fun seeing family, she also learned a ridiculous amount of new words.

Christmas morning was a blast; Katey was really excited for her presents from Santa, who is known around these parts simply as "ho ho ho." Her favorite was the Radio Flyer Inchworm, which she initially thought was a turtle.

She's still a little too small for it, but does like to climb on it so that Daddy can push her around. After eating lots of "En Em" 's (M&Ms) over the last few days, maybe she'll have packed on a little more weight so she can bounce around on it.

We had Poppa and Grammie over for breakfast-- banana-blueberry pancakes ("cake-cakes"), fried egg sandwiches ("eggies"), and fruit salad-- and to help celebrate Katey's first Christmas with presents from Santa. Apparently, Santa also left a new basketball hoop in the Roush's car, and we're pretty sure it's for Katey even though Chad thinks it might actually be for him.

We took a little trip to the nearby Tot Lot to get Katey's wiggles out, and then let her nap while we attempted to make room for the onslaught of Katey gifts that we knew were headed our way.

After naptime, we spent the rest of our day at the Roush's with Grammie, Poppa, Auntie Lee, Aunt Cara and Uncle Frank.

Katey got to get all dressed up in one of her new Christmas dresses, and was very in to being a girly girl with her cute new shoes that have "buckle" on them.

Needless to say, there were five million toys, many of which make noise and already came with batteries (thanks guys).

Between the new table and chairs, Backyardigans Circus set, the Wonder Pets fly boat, Thomas the Train pull toy, farm animals, doctor set, Aquadoodle, books, Sesame Street bath toys, balls, Playschool dance-tv-thing, and everything else Santa had brought the night before, Chad started panicking that we may have to convert the garage in to a playroom.

I'm pretty sure I saw him sketching some layouts on napkins. But isn't he cute when he's panicked?

The favorite toy for the evening was her tea set. Katey now likes to serve us "TEA!?" every 20 minutes or so. It's important that we actually be sitting near her while she pours it ("bloop bloop bloop"), stirs it, and then slurps it with us. It's always "mmmm, good" and sometimes "hot hot." She is also a big fan of her magnetic numbers and letters, although every number is "eight" and every letter is "A."

The next afternoon we left for Christmas Part 2 in San Diego. Katey was happy to see her Nana and Grampa, as well as Auntie KayKay and Uncle Kee. She had fun checking out the decorations in the neighborhood and riding in the old Radio Flyer wagon; we even tethered Kodi to it to see if he was ready to be a sled dog; he wasn't.

We held off on opening presents until the following morning, and Chad and I debated running out to rent a mini U-Haul just in case. Luckily, it was not quite the insanity we thought it might be.

By this time, Katey had perfected the "ooooh!" and "wow!" required for opening presents.

One of her big presents from Nana and Grampa was a baby doll, complete with stroller, bassinet, carrier, etc.

Um, Katey is not a big fan. Actually, let me correct that-- she is HUGE fan of the stroller and bassinet. She thinks it's for her; she sits in the stroller ("baby!") and tries to climb in the bassinet ("nighty night! boat?"). This may be her way of telling us that she is in no way interested in having another sibling any time soon; luckily, we are 100% on board with that plan.

Later that night Nana made us a delicious Christmas dinner. Again, Katey loved dressing up in yet another Christmas outfit. I think I will have to start putting her in dresses more often.

So now, here we are back at home with all our fun stuff! Some of it we are keeping tucked away to surprise her with again later; would it be bad if we wrapped it? Maybe the Easter Bunny will bring some of the gifts back.

As a closing note, Katey let us do her hair... for 2 minutes. Isn't it cute?

Merry Christmas Eve!

2008-12-24T19:25:00.000-08:00

Chad and I are looking forward to our first Christmas with "Santa" visiting us to bring Katey toys tonight. We sure hope he doesn't forget anything, or wake Katey up from her sleep...

This morning we celebrated the real meaning of the season, Jesus Christ's birthday, by decorating Happy Birthday cupcakes with our friends Megan and Chase Seager.

Katey was not so in to the decorating, preferring to eat the M&Ms and dance, but Chase has a definite career as a cake decorator. Thanks for the fun time Seagers!

Doing some tasting

Chase, the professional sprinkler

Keith's 21st Birthday - San Luis Obispo Style

2008-12-18T18:41:00.000-08:00

On December 6th and 7th we celebrated Keith's birthday with him up in San Luis Obispo along with Karissa and Tim. It was fun being back in SLO town (we haven't been back since I was 3 months pregnant with Katey), and Keith introduced us to some fun places that Chad and I had never been to. We highly recommend Mama's Meatball!

Hitting up Apple Farm for dessert was a must. Keith was pretty hardcore about waiting until midnight for his first drink (half a beer he choked down at 12:01am), and we felt the need to flaunt it.

We even made him nice little birthday cards, courtesy of the Apple Farm kids supplies. Our waiter, also Keith, must have thought we were insane.

After midnight and Keith's attempt at drinking a beer, we went downtown to show Keith the nightlife. It was an odd crowd downtown that night, so it really didn't do too much to show Keith that the bars are fun. We did get him to try some drinks though (even though the bartender almost scared him off with a double shot of whiskey, which he took like a man). Basically, we made the most of it.

The next morning we carbo'd up at Louisa's Place (a local breakfast joint that Chad and I had, amazingly, never tried when living in SLO), and then hit up the wineries. Keith is now ready to try the wines in Italy when he leaves to study abroad in a few short weeks.

Happy 21st Birthday Little Brother!

Thanksgiving Fun

2008-11-30T21:39:00.000-08:00

We can't believe that tomorrow is already December! This month has been such an adventure. Katey's vocabulary has really expanded and she's speaking in brief sentences now; it's seems like she's learning a few new words every day. With the rain this past week she learned "rain," "raining," "ewwww," "play," "skip," and "yippee."

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun, though much crazier than last year now that Katey runs everywhere and has something to say about everything. We had some rain in the morning while we enjoyed our "eggies," but luckily it cleared up before we left for our drive to the Corsetti's house in Pasadena.

Once at the Corsetti's, Katey had a fun time stomping around the house, rolling on Auntie Cara's rug, jumping on their bed, running around the backyard, playing piano, stealing appetizers, and chasing the chihuahua Pepe (whom she called "Pepper"). She has also, apparently, figured out what to do when the camera is pointing at her; she now smiles and says "say cheese," though it sounds more like "ay geez!"

Unfortunately, she had no desire to eat dinner with everyone, which made dinner a little chaotic for us, but did finally settle down to eat some beans, string cheese, turkey, and grapes. Katey was also very good with using her please and thank-yous ("mees!" and "gank oo"), which made us very happy.

However, she was more than happy to dip in to some Grasshopper Pie dessert with everyone. Katey is a big fan of "ah ceem" as you can probably tell from the smears of ice cream on her face.

We went to San Diego for our post-Thanksgiving weekend. Katey loved playing in Nana and Grampa's house, especially going up and down the stairs to find the kitties. During this trip she rediscovered her love of cheerios and raspberries; thanks to Grampa, she ate half a carton when we got home today.

We wrapped up our San Diego trip with a visit to the neighborhood park. Katey thought it was pretty cool, but would have much rather played in the doggie obstacle course that some people had set up. Oh well!

This week we are thankful for...

2008-11-17T17:35:00.001-08:00

People at the park who let us use their toys (Katey is quite the stealthy thief):

Hair cuts, and that Katey was a good girl during her hair cut (sorry the photo is blurry; it took us forever to even figure out how to get her to stay still):

and what time can do in the span of year; this time last year Kristen thought she was going to lose her job, and now....

Fun with Auntie Kay

2008-11-09T21:21:00.000-08:00

This weekend Auntie KayKay (Karissa) came down from San Francisco to play with us! Katey loved waking her Auntie up at 6:45 Saturday morning and showing her all her Backyardigans.

Kristen and Karissa were able to get a few hours of girl time in at The Teahouse on Los Rios and shopping at Le Target while Katey napped, and then we all went to play at the park. Katey also got a Minnie Mouse from Karissa's friend Sheila, who drove down from San Francisco with her. Can't wait to see you again KayKay!

Roush Family Halloween

2008-11-01T22:22:00.000-07:00

Hope your Halloween was a great one! This was Katey's first year being dressed up, so we couldn't resist having a family theme. We tried to get back to Kristen's family's roots and went for a farm theme-- Grandpa GG, Chad's hat is a shout out to you!

We spent our evening at Fall Fest, a Halloween event put together by our church, Compass Bible. It was a big hit in the community (everything was free, including food from In-N-Out and Taco Bell), and therefore very crowded.

We were lucky enough to have Nana, Grammie and Poppa join us for the fun and be our paparazzi for the night. A special thanks to Nana for braiding my hair and getting these pictures to us so quickly!

Chad made Katey's costume all by himself (real men can sew!), and luckily she was willing to keep the hood on most of the night. She even did some moo-ing for us. If you look closely, you'll also see that Katey has some awesome new shoes that match Kristen's.

While we were not too eager to stand in some of the long lines and risk Katey suddenly deciding she didn't want to ride a pony, go in the bounce house, etc., she did had a fun time riding the "choo choooo" and dancing. In fact, Fall Fest was such a blast that Katey fell asleep on our 3-minute drive to get dinner afterwards.

Thanks to the Halloween fun, Katey has learned some new words (though many are still her own special blend of English and baby-Chinese)-- she knows and can sort of say pumpkin, skeletons are "skee" (scary), ghosts say "boo!" and for M&Ms ("mams") we always want "mo!" Thanks to discovering the deliciousness of "mams" this morning, we are also in full effect with please-- "meeeeees!"

In Memory of the '65 Chevy

2008-10-23T22:28:00.000-07:00

It's official folks-- Chad has sold his 1965 Chevy Malibu SS. It is going to be shipped overseas soon, and will have a new home in Germany. Never thought I'd say this, but I kinda miss it and the garage seems so sad and empty. So, here is a tribute to "the red car":

Welcome Fall

2008-10-11T12:50:00.000-07:00

Wow, time is going by so fast! I can't believe we are just a few short weeks from Halloween, and we haven't even pulled out any of our fall decorations yet.

We are loving the cooler fall weather that we've had the past two days; Katey even got to wear fuzzy footed jammies last night. Things have been hectic as always with work and chasing after Katey, as well as trying to fit in time to see see our family and friends and, of course, our quick trips to Disneyland.

Katelyn appears to have had a little growth spurt this past week-- she is suddenly looking very tall and fits in her 18month pants and shirts (for the most part). The kid also has huge feet and is wearing a size 6 now.

With 16 of her teeth now in, and only the 2-year old molars left to come in, she is eating all sorts of food that we used to be worried about. She loves pretzel crisps just like her Daddy, which we break in to pieces for her, as well as apple slices and, recently, eating carrot sticks (I cook them first for about 5 minutes in boiling water to help soften them a little, but they still retain their crunch, and then keep them in the fridge-- she refuses to eat them warm). She is also preferring to eat her banana straight from the peel now, and wants to hold it herself. She is becoming better at using a fork and spoon, and is doing really well eating off a plate.

Some of her new fun tricks include going down the slide backwards by herself, trying to jump, shoveling sand in to her bucket at the park, putting her shoes on by herself, saying "rar" like a lion, saying "gah" for "got it," and letting us know when she wants to eat by saying "eeee?" and pointing at the kitchen or her highchair.

It's been a crazy week!

2008-10-06T22:56:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy week-- Kristen worked through a yucky cold, then Katey caught it and had a few rough nights with a fever and sniffles; Kristen had some late nights at work (including Back to School Night) so Chad worked overtime taking care of Katey AND working some crazy hours at Summers Murphy & Partners, and then Kristen was gone for the weekend at a Women's Retreat with our church. Needless to say, Chad was SuperDad (and SuperHusband) this past week by juggling work and taking care of Katey on his own. He even got some laundry done! I know ladies, you are jealous of my husband, and I don't blame you.

I'm hoping to do a more detailed post this weekend with more photos, but while you wait here's a little snapshot from our quick 3-hour jaunt to Disneyland on Sunday when I got home from Retreat.

Birthday for Kristen, and sending love to Nana

2008-09-24T23:38:00.000-07:00

This past week Kristen celebrated her 28th birthday! Here are some of the highlights from our dinner at El Torito Grill with the family, and our brunch at The Teahouse on Los Rios:

We'd also like to send out some special love to "Nana." Kristen's mom had surgery today to remove a cancerous growth from her kidney, which ultimately resulted in half her kidney being removed. The surgery went well and was successful in removing all of the cancerous growth. Katey is going to miss her Nana while she takes the next 6 weeks to recover! Love you Nana!

Back to School

2008-09-13T22:10:00.000-07:00

It's been almost a month since our last post (sorry to you faithful blog readers), and we've been really busy gearing up for Kristen to go back to work. We wrapped up our summer with a few quick trips to Disneyland. Here are the highlights:

Loving Mickey Mouse

Riding the carousel

Dumbo is a favorite!

Kristen is enjoying being back at work (for the most part); the students seem pretty decent so far, and it's been fun being back with the crazy La Paz teaching staff.

Chad has also been working some late hours lately, so Katelyn has been hanging out at Grammie & Poppa's house a lot, and also having playtime with Nana twice a week. It's been tougher for her to adjust to us leaving this year, but she has had lots of fun adventures at the park, loves playing Grammie's piano, and likes chasing birds. She is also big-time in to kissing people and toys lately, so it's been fun for the grandparents to get kisses from her.

Needless to say, weekends are much more precious now! We love having breakfast in our pajamas together, watching The Backyardigans, and having Katey bring us all her toys so she can tell us about them.

Wedding Weekend in San Diego

2008-08-19T21:24:00.001-07:00

This weekend we went to San Diego so we could attend the wedding of Amy Vickerman, Kristen's college roomie for 3 years in San Luis Obispo, and Nicholas Pastorino!

It was held at the Admiral Kidd Club in Point Loma on Monday, August 18th. It was a beautiful day expertly planned by Amy herself, and we were in tears on more than one occasion (especially during her Dance for a Cowboy with her grandfather).

This was probably the most fun we have had at a wedding in a long time, from sipping wine on a balcony overlooking San Diego Bay, toasting our "homies in lockup" (the goldfish) at our table, doing the electric slide to Britney Spears' "Gimme More," Carrie and Andy taking over the dance floor (brief tidbit below):

the entire dance floor singing along to Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'":

seeing an amazing full moon come up over downtown San Diego, and watching Amy and Nick set off across the moonlit water on a boat after the wedding. It was amazing-- congratulations Amy and Nick, we love you!

Fun in the Rain

2008-08-15T13:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday (Thursday) we had a little afternoon downpour that we hoped would help cool off the muggy day; as you can see, it dried almost as soon as it hit the ground!

This is the first time that it has rained where Katey was actually aware of it coming from the sky; she was still so young during the winter rains that she didn't seem to realize that it was anything unusual.

She thought the rain was pretty cool and kept pointing up, but before long the sounds of Finding Nemo pulled her back in to the house (hence the fish toy in her hand).

It didn't last long, but when Katey went back outside a little while later (after the shower), she seemed kind of confused about where all the water had gone.

"Uh, Mom, I don't get it. It's splashing me!"