Kate: 7 Months (and Halloween)

Oh...sorry...that's not Kate. That's James dressed in Kate's clothes.

James got into one of Kate's drawers one morning and came out sporting this outfit. (Okay...maybe I helped him button the shirt...it was rather funny...I just had too.) So a long-sleeved, pant outfit for a 6-9 month old turns into a 3/4 sleeve/mid-drift, capri outfit for a 2 1/2 year old. (Maybe the outfit was 9-12...I'll have to check)

Ah, yes...here's Kate at 7 months old.

She's a rather cute little tiger.

James has been really into super cheesy smiles lately. I love it.

Our little Elmo ready for the trunk-or-treat.

He was so excited to tell people "trick-or-treat" and to say "thank you" after getting a treat. We rehearsed it in the car on the way over. However, when presented with lots of kids and unknown adults holding buckets of candy, he seemed to forget his training. He either waited for us to lead him up to get the candy and give a quiet "thank you" or he'd swiftly and quietly nab a piece and walk away head down as if he were invisible.

Jordan carved a lovely jack-o-lantern this year. We, however, failed to get a picture of the finished product. James thought the carving was fun, but did not want to touch the innards of the pumpkin. He did enjoy running around with and throwing the pumpkin top.

He had his own little pumpkin that he did NOT want to be tampered with.

He also enjoyed trying to get the lid to fit just right. A fun little 3-D Halloween puzzle.

Kate: 6 Months (and a little of the rest of us too)

Our Sweet Katerbug (as she is affectionately called in our home) at 6 months:

Height: 25.5 inches (around 30th percentile)
Weight: 14.4 lbs. (15th percentile)
Cuteness: 100th percentile :)

We absolutely adore this little girl. She is such a happy, sweet baby. James loves to play with her. He is getting somewhat weary of her intrusion into "his" stuff now that she's mobile. He used to happily give her anything to play with, but now he is often found confiscating items that rightfully belong to him even if he hadn't been playing with them himself. He does enjoy giving Kate "her" toys and books. His stuff is just...well...his stuff. So we've been talking a lot about sharing. They're a lot of fun. They love and adore each other. I love it!

The following pictures are more like 6 1/2 months...
Here she is in action. Sitting up, playing, getting into everything.
She started *officially* crawling the first week of October. She's getting fast.

And here is James...on his "cow."
He's a cowboy of course.
And cowboys obviously ride cows.
Really, try to convince him otherwise.

We took a family trip to Blanco Canyon just 45 minutes from here 2 weeks ago. It was a beautiful day to be outdoors. James loved running around outside. Kate enjoyed crawling around on grass. It was her first experience with grass. And this grass was really nice. It's hard to find nice grass here (it's usually scratchy and patchy). This grass was so nice it didn't even have fire ants (this is quite rare). We were all very pleased. :)

We stopped at an apple orchard in Idalou on our way back to Lubbock. It was great. It cost nothing to enter. While inside you can pick and eat as many apples as you like. There were many different varieties. James really enjoyed picking his own apples, eating what he could, and then tossing them away only to get another one. You can also pick apples to take home at a fair price. It was a fun stop. James was exhausted after our adventurous day. He actually fell asleep in the car while I was having a conversation with him. It was rather impressive.

I'm not sure why James looks so very concerned in this picture.

A couple weeks before that we took a short trip just out of town to visit Ransom Canyon. This is the place that gives me a little feel of the beauties of Utah while we're here in Lubbock. There's a little community nestled around a little lake in a canyon with lots and lots of trees. I love it!

The sun was not cooperating with us.
I suppose we could have turned the kids around, but then you couldn't see the beautiful community and landscape in the background...oh wait...the camera is pointed at the ground...whoops!

There's a little of the lake.
This is a rather sad attempt at a family picture.
I promise James and Kate are in there somewhere...

There's a bit of Ransom Canyon for you.
It's much better in person. It's my little haven away from Utah.

Sleepytime Update

Thank you to everyone who offered advice on sleeping children in the same room!!! I am happy to say that the transition went well. The first night took 2 hours for them to fall asleep, the second night took 1 hour, the third night took 30 minutes, and the 4th night took 15 minutes. Not so bad! James often wakes up when I come in to feed Kate at night, but he just stands up in his crib and looks at me. I keep my back to him. We are both silent. When I come back in from feeding Kate he is almost always asleep again. Yes, I do leave the room to feed Kate. I don't want to push my luck. I have not tried napping them together. Kate naps in our room while James naps in the kid room.


Sometimes James goes to bed first and sometimes Kate goes to bed first depending on the night. (Their bedtime is at the same time, but one will typically get laid down first--Jordan gets James down for the night while I take care of Kate). At first I tried to nurse Kate in the kids' room while James was trying to go to sleep...bad idea. He just wanted to chit-chat. It was way too tempting for him. So now I nurse Kate in our room and then bring her into the kids' room to lay her down. I usually walk in to a little boy happily playing. So, I help him lay back down and replace his blanket and then they go to sleep. When Kate goes to bed first, Jordan and James read, pray, and sing a song in the living room. Then James is prepped on being so very quiet and sneaky, so that Kate can't even hear them enter the room. He's laid down and they go to sleep. Sometimes they play for a time, sometimes Kate fusses for a time, but usually they go right to sleep.


From my experience, it seems that you do just need to bite the bullet and put them in together. They adjust to each other. And they love to be together. Some nights I think it helps them go to sleep. James usually tries to be a big helper and be quiet when we bring Kate in. So, I think it helps him to get in a sleep mode rather than a play-in-my-crib-with-my-bunny-until-I-crash mode.

Again, thanks for the advice!

Toddler Talk

Mommy: James, what do you do on the potty?

James: I close my eyes and breathe in its fat, red smell; I wish that I could eat it now and never, never tell.


This is one funny boy! His comment was a direct quote from the book "First Tomato Soup" by Rosemary Wells (the "fat, red smell" he refers to is referring to a tomato in the book). He has had a knack for memorizing books verbatim since before he was 18 months old, but I'm pretty sure this is the first time he's used a book quote to answer a question from me. I have no idea why he chose this moment to do it, but it definitely gave me a good laugh. I love this little boy.

Kate: 5 Months

She's starting to drool. Teething or just baby? I hope just baby. I'm fine with late teething.

This is the other skirt Amanda made for Kate. She made it from one of her old shirts. We love having a part of her with us. :) I love how the layers curled up at the edges after I washed it. So cute!

This little girl has been trying to figure out crawling for a couple weeks now. Seriously?! She's growing up too fast. She mostly gets up on all fours and hops her legs forward. It's pretty amusing.

Love this face!

Yep. We have another finger sucker. James sucks his thumb. We tried to get Kate to take a pacifier, but failed. She prefers her fingers.

Currently, Kate is working on crawling and sitting up. She loves to be tossed into the air (moderate heights of course). She loves all people. I don't have to worry about handing her to someone she's never met before, she loves everyone. Funny though, she typically won't look at you while you hold her. If you're holding her, she looks everywhere, but at your face. As soon as you put her down, she will lock onto you as if to say, please pick me up. But, then she promptly ignores you in favor of the greener grass elsewhere. I think she must just like the vantage point she's given to view the world when she's being held. She must not want to miss out on anything. She is a very happy little girl. She absolutely adores James and her daddy. She always lights up when Jordan comes into view. She has also become quite a talker. I love her stories. :)

I forgot to mention that we learned she has a milk allergy when she turned 4 months. So, we (she and I) have been off milk. I do so love milk, but I'm learning how to survive and cook without it. (We're kind of used to this though since Jordan is sensitive to milk as well, but the difference is that I have to be completely restricted!) If anyone has any non-dairy recipes that you fancy, please pass them on. The doctor tells me that there is a good chance she will be milk allergy free by the time she's a toddler. Here's hopin'!

Here's a picture with James. I'll post an all around update soon. James is sure growing up. He's such a good helper. He loves Kate. He always wants to sit on this chair with Kate when he wakes up in the morning and from his nap. He likes to cuddle her and give her loves.

And yes...I cut my hair. I also got new glasses, but they will have to be revealed at a later time. (I stepped on my old glasses while in Utah; I needed a new prescription and new glasses anyway though).

Our Trip to Utah

Here are a couple of our adventures in Utah during our two-week trip:

On this trip we drove through Durango, CO. It was a much more scenic route. It began to rain as we arrived in Durango. The sun was setting. It was beautiful. I took a picture with our not-so-fancy camera as we drove and the resulting blurred image looks pretty neat to me.

Here are my grandparents (my mom's parents). Pretty cute couple, huh! My grandpa is quite a character. Hilarious!

It's always quite the game to get my grandpa to give a real smile.

I finally got it!
Kate enjoyed her first baseball game while we were in Utah.
We went to a Bee's game with family.

The highlight of the game for me was walking out of the stadium and seeing a Chick-fil-A cow. So AWESOME!! :) I have a soft spot for Chick-fil-A and I love their ad campaign. I have many memories from my childhood that include sitting in a train in a mall in Ogden (I think?) eating Chick-fil-A (chicken nuggets with BBQ sauce) with my parents. I loved the chicken and I loved the train and I also loved the company. Good memories. Still love that chicken. I also still love my parents. :) However, I haven't seen the train in years.

We also visited Jordan's grandma in Delta, UT.
The new babies, Kate and Lily, met their great grandma for the first time.

(I will send you a copy of these Cindy).

Lily is obviously happy to meet her great grandma. It looks like she's ready for a big hug.

Great grandma singing a song for Lily about Lily.

We went to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point with the cousins.
James LOVES his cousins. When we first got to Jordan's parents' home, we only saw James at mealtimes and bedtime. All other time was reserved for the cousins. He loved it!

James' first pony ride. So fun!

Normally, parents walk beside toddlers as they ride, but James wanted to do it by himself. He did great.

I didn't really take many pictures in Utah. I need to get better at that! For shame. I'll be better the next time we visit.