Christmas Cookies...

Here are some pictures of Katy and me making Christmas cookies. She helped with every step of the process including pouring, mixing, rolling out the dough and cutting out the cookies. At the end I let her lick a beater. I turned around for a second to put the cookies in the oven and I hear her say, "I want to dip it". I look over my shoulder and she had finished licking her beater and was trying to dip it in the bowl to get more dough to eat; just like her daddy! Don't worry, I made sure everything stayed sanitary!

Alexis Marie Hickman

Alexis is now two weeks old and I have yet to post any pictures! She arrived on November 24th at 12:27pm and weighed 7 pounds 2 ounces. They gave me the pitocin at 9:30, I felt my first contraction at 10:30 and she was born before 12:30. Everything went really well except for the fact that I had a resident administer my epidural. I felt like I was on an episode of ER and this was the first epidural the guy had ever given. By the time he came to my room it was 11:30 and I was having contractions right on top of each other. He kept poking me with the dang needle over and over again and probably put the epidural in at least 5 times! Finally he called the Attending in and he did it correctly in 2 minutes; however, by then I was fully dilated and ready to push! I was so mad, because there wasn't enough time for the medicine to start working and I was not ready for a natural birth! The good part is that it was really fast and it's a lot easier to push when you're bottom half isn't numb!

She's only 16 days old, but so far Alexis is such a sweet, good natured baby. When she was first born she looked exactly like Kaitlyn did, but with brown hair and brown eyes. Every day she looks a little different and gets a little bigger. Kaitlyn is such a great big sister and loves to hold Lexie and play with her. Anyway, we are so blessed to have this little angel as a part of our family. She has such a sweet spirit and we love her so much. Enjoy the pictures!

Who Knew?

Who Knew you could walk around being 4 centimeters dilated and 90% effaced and not be in labor yet? I sure didn't! I feel like she might just fall out if I walk around too much! I mean, most people already have an epidural by now. Monday can't come quick enough!

Katy's thoughts...

Kids say the funniest things sometimes and I always forget to share some of Katy's best moments. Yesterday, I was trying to wipe Katy's nose and she says "no, mamma. Those are my boogers!"


We were having our nightly story time and Katy was pointing out characters that looked like Daddy in her books (mostly any males with glasses). We start reading Chicken Little and Jared asks "Where's Daddy" (thinking she would point to chicken little since he's wearing glasses). Instead she points to the pig and says "there he is". Maybe you had to be there, but I was laughing so hard I almost went into labor. I had tears coming down my face and Katy was saying in her most sincere voice "it's okay mamma".

Trick or...barf?

Kaitlyn was so excited for Halloween this year. Jared and I got her primed for the occasion by taking her to the pumpkin patch, a Halloween event at the zoo and her daycare even had a big Halloween party as well. I dressed her up as little red riding hood and she looked so adorable. She even practiced saying "trick or treat" all week. We took her to the ward trunk or treat since it seemed a little safer than taking her door to door. Jared and I brought her around to several cars together and while she was holding hands with one of her friends I was turned around doing something else and I suddenly heard several people gasp. I turned around and saw that some kid had thrown up all over the ground in front of someone's trunk or treat set up. In my head I'm thinking "ew gross, someone's kid threw up" not realizing that "someone's kid" was my kid! To make a long story short we cleaned her up, got her in the car, started driving home and she threw up 3 more times in the car (thank goodness for leather interior)! She was sick for about 2 hours and completely fine the next day. Needless to say I went out and bought a new car seat as soon as possible. Moral of the story: never spend more than $10 on a Halloween costume and always attend school parties so you can monitor what your child eats. Happy Halloween!

The Pumpkin Patch...

Well today we visited this cute pumpkin patch in Cypress that my Mom and I went to last year when she was visiting. It's actually a Christmas tree farm, but they do pumpkins as well. It's really cute though because they have a train, a hay ride and a bunch of other fun things for the family to do. I wanted to take some cute pictures of Kaitlyn, but she would not pose for a single picture! Don't you hate that? Then, when they finally settle down and do something really cute you don't have your camera out. Regardless, we took a ton of pictures and Katy had a lot of fun climbing on top of the pumpkins, rolling around the huge ones and stacking as many as she could. It was funny because she knows how to say pumpkin and she knows what a pumpkin is, but she kept calling them "apples". She kept saying "I wanna get an apple" or "I wanna hold my apple". No matter how many times we corrected her she kept calling it an apple. To end the day we took a little train ride around the Christmas tree farm.

Toddler beds and potty training...

Well, Kaitlyn sure has turned out to be one independent little diva! She yearns to do everything mommy and daddy do without any assistance. Climbing the stairs to our condo, climbing into the car, buckling her carseat, eating at the dinner table (without the highchair), picking out her clothes and so many other things!

The last couple of weeks we've tackled two new "big girl" things; the toddler bed and potty training. A friend of mine offered to let us borrow her daughter's old toddler bed since she wasn't using it. I sent Jared over to pick it up and the second he brought it home Kaitlyn was hooked. She took a nap in it that day (within 30 minutes of putting the thing together) and absolutely loves sleeping in her big girl bed. I was worried that she would constantly be getting in and out of bed, but she hasn't done that at all...yet. Even in the morning when she wakes up she doesn't climb out of bed she just yells "Papa, come here right now"! Jared is pretty slow in the morning so she repeats this several times and finally ends with "Papa, come here right now, I mean it"! It's pretty darn hilarious!

Sometime in August Kaitlyn transitioned to the toddler class (aka "the big girl class") at daycare. This is a bigger class that includes children from 2-3 years old and they really encourage potty training. They have mini toddler toilets in the class and all the kids wear pull ups. Katy loves wearing her "big girl diapers" and sometimes insists on wearing big girl panties over the diapers. Her teacher was wondering why she needed to wear a pull up and panties, but sometimes you let your child do whatever makes her stop screaming in the morning! Having Katy be around the other kids at school who are using the potty has been great. She sees them doing it and wants to do it too. She goes potty in the potty several times a day now and has gone poop once (it's funny how excited you get to see your child poop in a toilet)! Now, everytime she goes I'm thinking "Wow, I'm so glad I don't have to clean that up".

How about November 24th?

I had a doctor's appointment last week and told my doctor I was a little concerned with scheduling my mom's visit to help out with Katy when the baby is born and with Jared having finals the week after my due date. All she said was, "how do you feel about induction" and that was it! As of right now I'm scheduled to pop this little girl out on Monday, November 24th. This works out perfectly because Jared has that week off from school because of Thanksgiving, I'll get out of the hospital the day before Thanksgiving and my mom will be in town so she can make me one of her fabulous pies! Not to mention I will have just had a baby so I won't be expected to cook a single thing! The induction date is 10 days before my due date, however, I went into labor 15 days early with Kaitlyn so who knows, the baby could come before the 24th.

For those of you who keep harrassing us, Jared and I think we've decided on the name Alexis. It's not 100% set in stone, but it's the only name we both really like and can actually see being our daughter. I can't believe I'll be holding her exactly two months from today!

Getting through Hurricane Ike...

So as many of you know we had a pretty big hurricane here in Houston a little over a week ago (on my birthday to be exact)! We decided to pack up and go to Dallas for the weekend, because we didn't want to risk it especially with Kaitlyn and me being pregnant. My biggest concern was that I didn't want to be without power. I think it's literally torture to live in Houston without air conditioning because not only is it extremely hot, but it's extremely humid too. Anyway, we rode out the storm in Dallas and tried to turn it into a mini vacation. We went to the zoo, we went swimming, did some shopping and ate out a lot! The only thing hindering the fun was wondering how our condo and our car were holding up against the storm. On Saturday night we talked to a neighbor on the phone and found out that our complex was one of the very few that never lost power. This was all the incentive I needed to go home. I'm such a worry wart and the whole time we were in Dallas I just worried about everything happening in Houston. We drove home on Sunday morning and were lucky to find our car in one piece and minor leaks in our roof over the bathroom (the HOA will fix this). The scary part was that most of the town did not have power which meant grocery stores and gas stations were not open. The Kroger down the street from us finally opened on Monday, but every single parking spot was full, there were no shopping carts available and shelves were bare. If you wanted to get gas you had to wait in a mile long line because there were only a handful of gas stations open. These conditions lasted until about Thursday of last week. The hurricane was 9 days ago and there are still so many people without power and a lot of damages all over town. In fact, almost all schools are still closed. Jared and I feel so blessed and so spoiled that we got through everything so well. Our biggest inconvenience is that we still don't have cable or internet.

We went to church on Sunday and our building still doesn't have power, but they wanted to hold sacrament meeting anyway. As we were walking up I said to Jared, "if it's too miserable inside we'll just leave after they pass the sacrament". Right as the words left my mouth I regretted them. I thought about all the pioneers and saints who have attended church meetings in much worse conditions. I only had to be there for one hour and then got to return to my air conditioned condo! Besides, half the people in the meeting had to go back to their homes which still didn't have power! Needless to say I was feeling a little selfish and definitely learned a lesson that day. I'm just so grateful that our family is safe, because in the end that's all that really matters.

Fun with the Cotters...

Since I'm playing catch up on my blog I thought I'd post some pictures from Leah Cotter's wedding. For anyone who doesn't know, Gabe Cotter was one of Jared's best friends growing up and still lives in Kansas. However, most of Gabe's family has since moved down here to Katy, Texas. A couple of weeks ago Gabe's sister, Leah, got married in the Houston temple and we got to see most of his family that night at her reception. We had a ton of fun hanging out with them and I know Jared felt right at home being around the Cotter clan. I had fun chatting with Sara and holding her new baby boy. Kaitlyn and Noah hit it off right away and are officially betrothed! They followed each other around all night, danced together and even shared a good night kiss! If it was any other little boy, Jared might have stepped in. Anyway, enjoy the pics and the video of Katy and Noah dancing!

Twilight Addiction...

So, I haven't posted anything in a really long time and I'd like to think it's because I'm too busy getting ready for this baby...but it's not. The last month I've been totally addicted to Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series and have used every ounce of my time reading these books. I had a friend recommend them over a year ago and I told her they sounded lame and I didn't want to read anything with vampires in it! Anyway, I kept hearing people talk about the books and not just LDS people either, so I thought I'd give them a try. They totally sucked me in! I read all four books in two weeks (which for a working mom is record time)! The only thing that kept me from being sad when I finished the series was knowing that the motion picture was coming out in November! I know, pretty pathetic. Anyway, if you're up for some light reading you should give them a try.

Baby Hickman

Jared and I finally went in last week to get an ultrasound of baby Hickman and yes she is still a girl! Sorry to brake the Hickman family tradition of having a girl and then a boy, but girls seem to be the prominent sex in the Saxton family. During the ultrasound she wouldn't stop moving and even seemed to be doing everything the ultrasound tech didn't want her to do. Meanwhile I'm thinking "Oh, great! Another defiant, independent little girl". I keep asking the Lord to please let this one be a quiet, sweet, soft spoken child. We'll see! Anyway, for anyone who can't tell, the picture to the left is of the baby's profile. You should be able to see her forehead, nose, lips and so forth.

Meanwhile, my stomach has finally decided to pop out over the last couple of weeks and you can definitely tell I'm pregnant now. I was getting looks from people who seemed to be thinking, "is she pregnant or did she just gain a few pounds"! Last week a stranger finally asked "so when are you due"? I was thrilled because that means I do look pregnant and not just chubby! Anyway, I'll try to have Jared take a picture of me soon so that anyone who cares can see how big I am.

Happy Birthday Kaitlyn!

It's hard to believe that my sweet little girl is already 2 years old! I didn't know what to expect when Kaitlyn made me a mommy, but it has been such an amazing experience. When she was first born I think I cried everyday for the first month, and not out of joy! Although Katy was a "needy" baby, who didn't take a nap until she was 5 months old, I fell in love with my little angel. This little angel has grown into an energetic, independent little girl. Her laugh is so contagious and full of life it's unbelievable. Lately she's really become a daddy's girl and cannot get enough of him chasing her around the house, giving her piggy back rides and spinning her around until she's too dizzy to walk. Katy has really turned out to be an affectionate little girl, always giving out kisses, hugs and pats on the back. She still doesn't quite understand that she has a baby sister on the way, but we know she will be a wonderful big sister. Jared and I feel so lucky to be able to raise this beautiful spirit.

Kaitlyn had a great birthday and loves all of her many presents. It's so cute how she really gives the time and attention to each present. When it was time to open presents, she would open one and then want to play with it right away. After fifteen minutes of playing with a gift we had to convince her to move on to the next present. For her birthday we decided to do some of Katy's favorite things. We went "swimmin" at the pool and Kaitlyn learned to jump off the edge into mommy's arms for the first time. Then we went to Incredible Pizza, which for those of you from California, it's just like John's Incredible Pizza. Anyone not familiar with Incredible Pizza, I would describe it as Chuckie Cheese times ten, minus the big rat! Anyway, Katy had a blast and we just enjoyed watching her have so much fun! Happy birthday munchkin!

Over the hill to Nana's house . . .

I'm not sure I want to do this, but Amanda has insisted that I (Jared) write about the trip Katy and I took to Utah this month. I tried to talk Katy into doing it . . . she just ignored me. I thought Katy was onto something with the whole "ignoring" thing, so I tried it on Amanda. Now I can only hear out of my right ear, but Amanda made sure my hands still work, so here's goes my first official blog (don't worry, I'll make sure to use plenty of exclamation marks and colored words)!

That's right, I took Katy to UT for a whole week by myself! Never mind the fact Nana and Aunt Alicia were there to make sure I didn't let my firstborn run wild in the streets, and Amanda made sure to pack all of Katy's perfectly coordinated outfits, and Aunt Alicia did Katy's hair every day, and I was supervised by two other responsible adults at all times. We actually had a wonderful time and Katy was a perfect angel the entire trip (well, as perfect as you can expect from an "almost" 2 year old).

Thanks to the trip Amanda and Katy just took to California, Katy was ready for some more Grandma and Grandpa time. We always seemed to sit next to "grandpas" on the plane rides to and from SLC, and as soon as Katy learned that our traveling partner was a grandpa she warmed right up and played with them for the duration of the flight. Actually, during our stop in Albuquerque, we were getting some food and she noticed a nice, white haired gentleman in the line in front of us. Katy immediately yelled out, "Grampa!" We got quite a few smiles from that comment!

As you can see from the pictures, we went swimming at Nana's pool almost every day, played with Syd and Kade (Katy thinks his name is Buddy, since that's what everyone calls him), jumped on the trampoline, went to Build-a-Bear, played with Sydnie's new puppy, had roaring contests (see the video), and had parties for cousin Sydnie and Katy's birthdays. It was great seeing Katy become attached to my family. She really fell in love with everyone, which I believe was equally reciprocated. Thanks Mom and Dad, Don and Alicia for making it such a wonderful time. It really makes us want to live closer to family. Who knows, maybe some day.
We love you all!

Trip to California...a little late...

So I know Katy and I went to California over a month ago, but I forgot to bring my camera with me so I was waiting for Nicole to email me some of her pictures. It just so happens that she moved into her new house around the same time and hadn't had time to hook up her printer until recently (thanks Nicole).

Kaitlyn had a blast during our trip and I actually got to see some of my friends! I think this is the first time Katy really opened up to everyone and showed off her animated personality. The first name she remembered was "gamma" which eventually became "gramma". Kaitlyn is still talking about Gramma and loves to look at pictures of her on the computer. Every time she sees the computer she says "gramma, gramma, gramma". Katy had so much fun with everyone and Evan was so nice to share his toys and his mommy with her too. We have a picture of her cousin Jolene on the fridge and every couple of days or so Katy will point to the fridge and say "Jolene" which means she wants to carry the picture around with her. It's actually very sweet. Thank you everyone for such a great trip!

And the verdict is...

Yeah, it's a girl! I had my checkup last week and when they did the ultrasound they couldn't tell at first what the sex was, because the umbilical cord was between the legs! After a few shakes the cord came out and there was nothing between the legs. The doctor went on to say that if it is a boy, it's the shyest boy she's ever seen! I kind of had a feeling it was a girl; my family doesn't make very many boys! Anyway, as I come from a family of all girls I am very excited to have two little girls of my own. The best part is that I get to dress them in cute matching outfits! Jared's already using the fact that he is now seriously outnumbered to his advantage and is expecting some major spoiling!

Baby News!

For those of you who haven't heard, or noticed my expanding waist line, I'm expecting! Jared and I are thrilled and can't wait to welcome baby #2. I'm about 16 weeks along and might be able to find out if it's a girl or a boy at my next doctor's appointment on the 27th. We'll be excited either way; however everyone seems to think it's a girl already. I really don't know what I would do with a boy! Kaitlyn hasn't really grasped the idea that mommy has a baby in her tummy. Everytime we try to tell her, she pulls up my shirt and then tries to pull my pants down! I think she thinks I'm hiding a baby doll under there somewhere. I'm sure once I'm showing more she'll start understanding a little better. My due date is December 4th, so who knows I could have a Thanksgiving baby. Kaitlyn was two weeks early and Thanksgiving is exactly one week before my due date, so it's very possible. It could also come on Dad's birthday (Nov. 27th), Kendra's birthday (Nov. 22nd) or several other family member's birthdays around that time. Sorry guys, you might have to share your birthdays!

Galveston: the ugliest beach in America!

Last Weekend we had a four day weekend and decided to take a trip to Galveston, which for anyone who doesn't know Texas well, is the closest beach to Houston (about 45 minutes away). People who knew we were used to the beaches in Southern California had warned us that the beaches in the Gulf of Mexico are not quite as nice as the ones in California (thanks mom). Knowing this beforehand we decided to go to a resort in Galveston called Moody Gardens and just drive by the beach. Before I move on to the fun stuff we did, I do want to take a moment to say how much I now appreciate Orange County and the gorgeous scenic beaches they provide. Galveston had brown water and nasty dirty beaches covered in seaweed. The water was very rough and choppy so I wouldn't want my kids playing in it anyway. Oh how I miss Laguna beach!

Anyway, I digress. We ended up having a wonderful afternoon at Moody Gardens. This place had a man-made beautiful lagoon with white sand and beach umbrellas for everyone. It also had a splash town for kids, an aquarium, a man-made indoor rain forest, an Imax theater, a 4D movie, a titanic exhibit and much much more. Needless to say Katy was exhausted by the end of the day. Hope you enjoy some of the pics!

Kaitlyn swears like a sailor...

The following story is rated PG-13 due to language content. I have edited some words, but feel I should warn certain individuals (i.e. Grandma and Nana).

Lately, especially as Kaitlyn is approaching two years old (July 26th), she is beginning to imitate what others say. Sometimes Katy's pronunciation of a word is not all together accurate and she will say different words when she means something else. I have two examples that I would like to share that neither Jared nor myself are proud of, but we do find slightly hilarious after the fact.

Several weeks ago we were at a steak house eating dinner (mind you neither of us ordered steak, because unfortunately it was not my birthday or our anniversary). Anyway, Jared ordered a strawberry lemonade and Kaitlyn was fiercely eyeing it. She would reach her hands out across the table and whine until we gave her some. We would then ask her "do you want a sip"? This was a mistake, because apparently her pronunciation of "sip" is "sh*t". She didn't just say "sh*t" she shouted "sh*t" over and over again! We decided to finish dinner quickly as we were getting weird looks from nearby tables.

The second story I would like to share takes place in the car. For some reason every time we were in the car Kaitlyn would say the word "f***" over and over again. Jared and I were horrified when we heard this, because this is a horrible vulgar word and we never use it even when experiencing road rage in the car. Anyway, after telling Katy "no" every time she said this word in the car we started to think that maybe a kid at daycare had taught her this word (if your child attends daycare it's easy to blame any bad habits on the school). So the next day I asked her teachers if there were any children that use bad words in the class and proceeded to tell them that Katy would always say this bad word in the car. One of her teachers started laughing, because apparently there is a child in the class who cannot pronounce her "T's" and when they play with the cars and trucks she calls a truck "a f***". They have been working with this child to correct this word, however, Katy seemed to have picked it up. So the reason she was always saying "f***" in the car is because she would see a truck and wanted to tell us. Who would have thought!

Hope you got a laugh out of this. We have since correctly taught Katy how to say both "sip" and "truck"!

Katy puts mamma and pappa to bed

It's so funny to have Kaitlyn in daycare, because when she comes home it is very evident what she learns during the day or how they interact with her. As some of you may know Katy has always been a light sleeper and because of that we have black out curtains in her bedroom and we turn on a sound machine while she sleeps (the machine creates white noise). Anyway, at daycare Kaitlyn is known as the troublemaker during nap time, because she doesn't like to sleep under their conditions. All of the 18 month - 2 year old kids have mats and a blanket and sleep in the same room together with the overhead light off; however it is not dark by any means. Plus people will talk in the hallways so it is not very quite either. Nap time at daycare is usually two hours long and the teachers are lucky if they get Katy to sleep for 45 minutes. Also, if you're not sleeping you are required to stay on your mat and be quiet while the other kids sleep. Anyway, over the last couple of months Katy has really enjoyed pretending to put Mommy and Daddy down for nap time and it really is kind of funny because you get a good idea of what they are doing at school. She'll take my hand and pull me to the ground and force me to lay on my stomach. She then puts the blanket on top of me and starts patting my back (rather forcefully). If I start to talk she says "quiet mamma, quiet mamma" or "SSSHHHH" as she puts one finger to my mouth. Then, if I lift my head up at all she pushes it back down to the ground. This probably isn't exactly how they treat her at daycare, but I think it's pretty funny. Anyway, here is a video that Jared took on our camera the other week of Katy enacting this. I didn't know he was taping us, so please don't mind the fact that Katy's pants are falling down!

Katy loves foot rubs!

One night a couple of weeks ago Katy was extremely tired and throwing a tantrum. She threw herself down on the floor and refused to get up, so Jared got down on the floor with her and started rubbing her feet. It turns out she loves it! Her body went all limp, her eyes started drooping and just when Jared finished she adamantly held up her other foot so that he could finish the job! Now every night Kaitlyn is requesting her nightly foot rub. What a drama queen!

Sunday, March 30, 2008

We Love Subway!!!

There are a couple of funny things that happened this week that I wanted to tell ya'll about. Earlier this week I picked Katy up from daycare and headed over to Subway because Jared wasn't going to be home for dinner and I was too tired to cook. I usually get a 6 inch sub, which is enough for me with a few bites to spare for Katy. However, they were having this $5 foot long sale and I thought that maybe Jared would enjoy a sandwich when he got home later that night. So I brought the foot long home and gave Katy her dinner, but she just kept wanting more and more of my sandwich. Pretty soon she had eaten half of my six inch, so I unwrapped the sandwich that was supposed to be for Jared, and she ate half of that as well! Before I knew it our little (or not so little) 20 month old girl had eaten an entire six inch subway sandwich! She would have eaten more too, but I decided enough was enough and I didn't want her to have a tummy ache. Needless to say, Jared did not get a sandwich that night!


Katy Pees the bed!

You might be thinking, how does a little girl pee the bed when she wears diapers? Well last night was a warm night so we decided to let Katy wear her nightgown, which she hasn't worn in a long time. We put her to bed and Jared went and checked on her before he went to bed and everything was fine. However, sometime after Jared checked on her and before I went to get her in the morning, Katy decided to take off her diaper and pee all over the bed and all over herself! She thought it was pretty funny when I went to get her out of the crib this morning. I think it was her way of guaranteeing she would get two baths today!

Saturday, March 22nd...

Kaitlyn had a blast today at her very first Easter egg hunt. We got up bright and early and headed over to Rice where they had two separate egg hunts (one for the little kids and one for the big kids). Jared actually practiced hiding the eggs and having Katy find them the day before. Our goal was for her to get three eggs, but she actually managed to find seven with a little help from papa. Katy had so much fun and it was such a delight to see her so happy! I wish everyday was Easter.



Let's go SWIMMING!

After the egg hunt we decided to finish the day off right and go swimming. Kaitlyn just got a new swim suit and it was nice and warm outside. Unfortunately the water was not so warm! That didn't stop Katy though. She was ecstatic to see the pool and would have ran right in if not for Jared. Daddy was a good sport despite the cold water and played with Katy on the steps of the pool for quite awhile. At one point she jumped off the step and went underwater. I don't know if she was more surprised by the cold water or by the fact that Jared didn't catch her! After chasing Katy in the pool she learned a new phrase,

"I genna git chu" translation "I'm going to get you".

We hope you all have a great Easter weekend!