Cutest. Thing. Ever.

Kate in pigtails. Why didn't I think of this sooner?

Spray Park

Today we went to a local spray park with Sean, Kristen, Gemma, and Marek. At first Kate was really unsure about the water, but as soon as she watched cousin Gemma having fun she perked up and decided to have a little bit of fun herself. She really enjoyed watching all the big kids go crazy. Her new thing is that she likes to dance whenever she gets excited, and so she was totally rocking out while watching all the other kids. She had a great time, but was really tired afterwards.

This is when she discovered that the spray park was fun

Playing with cousin Gemma

The back of her bathing suit was just too cute not to take a picture

Dancing

I love her serious face

So tired

Weekend at the Bay

Well, I am super behind on blogging, as always. But, I am going to try to be better at keeping up! So about two weeks ago Kate, Carolyn (Grandma), and I went to the bay area to visit Brett instead of having him come to visit us. We really had a blast. We drove up Friday and picked up Brett at his office in San Francisco. From there we went to Ghirardelli Square and had icecream sundaes. They were delicious! Kate thought so, too. Even though we tried to keep them from her, her little hands are quick and she managed to swipe a bite. Then we went and walked around fisherman's wharf for a while before having dinner at Boudin's (yes, that's right, we had dessert before dinner). We had a view of the bay while we dined and it was fabulous! Kate even made friends with the people at the next table.

On Saturday we got up and drove to Los Altos for a work BBQ with Ernst & Young. It was good to meet some of the other interns and employees; I really felt like our family would fit in if Brett ends up working there full time. After the BBQ we drove to Pescadero. We went to a little shop that sold this amazing garlic artichoke bread. That's what we had for lunch. And dinner. Then we took Kate for her first trip to the beach! It was a little pebble beach, and it was very cloudy so it wasn't your typical "beach" experience, but Kate was just all smiles the whole time. Of course, when is she not all smiles?

After the beach we left Kate with Grandma to babysit and Brett and I saw the last Harry Potter movie. It was a perfect weekend. Unfortunately, it ended with Kate getting a little fever, but she recovered quickly and is back to being her happy self.

10 Months Old

About 2 weeks ago Kate turned 10 months old. I can't believe my little baby is almost 1! Kate has been very busy this last month. Here is a little bit of what she has been up to:

She can get from lying down to sitting up! She figured this out just a few days after she turned 9 months old, and is now a pro at it.

She can pull up to a standing position on the furniture! She has only done it a time or two, but she is becoming increasingly interested in trying to figure out how to stand up by herself. She will often try to stand up by herself in the middle of the floor, but she doesn't get very far. Climbing is her new obsession. She especially loves to climb on me (of course).

She loooooves solid food. Really, she can't get enough of it. She started eating three meals a day and sometimes she eats a lot. Favorite foods right now are frozen bluberries, frozen peas, yogurt, cheerios, bananas and zucchini. She loved a zucchini and goat cheese quiche I made the other night. She will still eat purees once in a while, but will generally cry until I give her something she can pick up by herself.

She can drink from a straw! Since she has been eating so much food, she has been having some issues with constipation. So another favorite treat she gets is carrot juice. She makes a huge mess, but really enjoys it.

She loves her cousin Gemma. Gemma is 2, and Kate loves to ride in the car with Gemma, play with Gemma, take baths with Gemma, talk to Gemma, and so on. It's so cute. One of their favorite activities is splashing at each other in the bath. They also like to imitate each other's sounds. Unfortunately this means that sometimes they scream at each other. Fortunately they are still pretty cute.

She is getting better at crawling. She can crawl for a while if she wants to, but typically she will just crawl for a few steps and then start army crawling. She is becoming quite destructive, and keeps me on my toes.

Some fun activities this month included lunch with her G.G. (great-grandma) and going on the boat for the second time. She also enjoys the weekends, when she gets to spend time with her Daddy. Brett gets home late Friday nights, so Kate gets excited when I get her up Saturday morning and bring her into our room; she gets a big smile on her face when she realizes Brett is there. So far she is really having a blast in California.

9 Months Old in California

So a few weeks ago Kate and I flew to California, and Brett drove out the next day with Deacon and our things. We came because Brett is doing a summer internship with Ernst & Young in San Fransisco. Brett is staying in the bay area with his aunt, while Kate and are staying with his mom in El Dorado Hills, and anxiously awaiting the weekends when he comes back to be with us. Kate did really well on the flights, sleeping through most of them. I say flights because, yes, there were two (we had to transfer). However, by the end of the last flight she was clearly done with the whole experience, and by the time we got into the car to drive from the airport to El Dorado Hills she completely lost it. Overall though, it went about as well as I had hoped.

Since we have been in California Kate turned 9 months old! I can't believe she is so big. She is growing up in so many ways. She just recently got her first two teeth in (her bottom front teeth), and teething didn't seem to be too bad for her. Though she has been mobile for a while, she finally figured out how to army crawl forward, and will crawl on her hands and knees for a few steps if she's very motivated. She can stand up while holding onto furniture, but thinks the funnest part about this is letting go and falling backwards to have me catch her. She also tries to pull up on furniture, and can get onto her knees but not her feet. She can say "Mama" very clearly, as well as "Mom," but still doesn't quite know what they mean. She also seems like she has been trying to say "ball" (she loves balls). She loves to pick up little crumbs and specks from off the floor. She loves to eat, and is quickly mastering the art of finger foods. Favorite finger foods include cheerios, frozen peas, and more recently cheese. She is becoming less shy, and will now let other people in the family hold her, but is sometimes quite the drama queen about it if I am in the room. But I know she likes other people because if I'm not there she is happy as can be, and she is constantly flirting with other people when I am holding her. Everywhere we go people tell me what a happy girl she is, and they are right. She really just has a happy personality, and I am so in love with her.

9 Months!

Getting her California style on

Playing with cousin Marek

Enjoying time with her Daddy after being away from him all week

With Daddy at the Oakland Temple

At Brett & Victoria Candland's wedding reception

We will be in California until about mid-august, and are looking forward to having lots of fun adventures with family and friends!

Utah Fun

Wow. I have been terrible at keeping up with Kate's blog this past month! In my defense, June has been very hectic. We had a lot to do to get ready to come to California. But before I even talk about California, I want to share some pictures from the time we spent in Utah this summer. Kate is just getting big way too fast, so I am going to attempt to catch up by posting pictures of all her adorable moments. All of the pictures were taken when she was about 8 months old.



She still has crazy hair. No surprise.



Still loves to take a bath

Reading a book. This is rare - she generally prefers to eat them.

Baby in a box!

Her first time with the snack trap cup. She was very focused on it, and to my surprise mastered getting the cheerios out in about 30 seconds.

Playing with mom

An unlikely toy

Enjoying her sunscreen before a walk

After an olive oil shampoo. I am still battling cradle cap from time to time.

This girl has the best hair-dos

Even though Kate is a great sleeper, she still has a sleepless night every once in a while.

Just being a happy girl

Utah Festival of Books

Today we went to the Utah Festival of Books at BYU. It was really fun! We walked around campus exploring all the different activities and vendors. There were several different characters roaming around, so we got our picture taken with Darth Vader. We went to a little animal show. Kate walked away with a couple of new (free!) books. I got ice cream from the creamery. Kate was jealous and let me know how mad she was the entire time I was eating it. As the final event we got to see David Archuleta (not sing, just talk about his book). This only lasted a few minutes because Kate was tuckered out and so we headed home. I'm always complaining that there aren't any fun things to do around here, so I really enjoyed today. I don't think Kate enjoyed it quite as much as I did, but she is still really shy when we take her out.

Kate could tell he was on the dark side

Taking a break to rest in the shade

David Archuleta

 

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