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!