All About Baby Kate

Kate will turn 14 months this week. She is such a precious little girl with the sweetest little smile. She has a smile for everybody! She is very active and has a strong personality. She is really starting to explore everything. She loves taking books off of bookshelves, opening cabinets and drawers and taking everything out of them, unfolding clothes, toilets with the lid up, helping load the dishwasher, getting into the dog cage with Amos, playing with the phone, breakfast, lunch, dinner, baths, going for walks, Baby Einstein videos, The Wheels on the Bus song, and Luke's toys.

Some of her dislikes include the word NO, carrots, big brothers who won't share their toys, and being still. When she gets frustrated she spits. The face she makes when she spits is cute....the spitting not so much! She has a very high pitched scream she uses as defense when Luke is pestering her or we are trying to get something from her she is not supposed to have. It is a very effective attention getter.

Kate has become quite a talker in the past few weeks. We can't understand most of what she says, but I am sure it is all very important. Some understandable words are Mama, Dada, bye bye, uh oh, tickle tickle, and thank you. I am including thank you because she has said it about 5 times now. It is funny how vocal and loud she has become. I guess you have to be loud to be heard around here!

Kate has still not started walking. She can stand for long periods of time, but she has only taken a few accidental steps. She just needs a little confidence because the strength and balance are there. I am sure she will take off before we are ready. I am anxious for her to start walking, so she can go outside and play with Rachel and Luke. She likes to be outside with them, but she does not really like to crawl in the grass.

Kate has recently cut four molars. That makes a total of 12 teeth! With the molars came a nasty runny nose and bad diapers. Her nose has been running for at least the past two weeks. She started running a fever on Sunday. I took her to the doctor yesterday. She has an ear infection in her right ear. The doctor said the runny nose probably caused the infection. This is her first ear infection. I was a little disappointed because we made it 14 months without one. Rachel has been plagued with ear infections her whole life, so we don't want to go down that road again. Luke has never had an ear infection.

I am attaching some recent pictures of Kate doing some of her favorite things. Hope you enjoy!



Here she is unloading her favorite drawer:

She squatted down and crawled away after I snapped this one:

I have a picture of Rachel looking out the back door wearing this same outfit when she was about the same age as Kate:

It had been a long day:

Happy 30th Birthday Aunt Cara!!!!!!

We hope you have a great 30th birthday Aunt Cara!!! We love you even if you are old!!!!

Love,

Rachel, Luke, and Baby Kate

(Chris and Alanna too)

The Secret About the Bath Tub

Every since we moved into the house I have been debating whether to tell the kids the secret about the bath tub in our room. It is a jacuzzi tub. Luke wanted to take a bath in our room this morning. It is much deeper than the tub in the hall bath. I agreed he could take one. Well the temptation was just too great. I told him to push the button on the tub (I know I will regret this decision many times over). When he did he got quite a surprise. The jets came on and really livened up the bath water. Kate was watching from outside the tub and even she thought she was missing out! I could not get her undressed fast enough as far as she was concerned. They had a ball turning on and off the jets. Each time they came on they both would giggle and so would I!




Notice how much darker Kate's skin is than Luke. She is going to be our Coppertone Girl!

Here is a video clip of the kids in action.

The Box

I have to tell you two stories, so you understand the funny part of the second story.

Story #1

Chris ordered a new toy when we decided to move. He ordered a new plasma TV! It arrived on Tuesday morning. Chris was working Tuesday, so he could not get it set up until Wednesday. The TV arrived in a very large box, and Luke claimed it as his as soon as he saw it. He thought all day Tuesday about how many different ways he could use his new box. Well, Chris opened his new toy Wednesday morning when he came in. The first piece of paper he pulled out of the box read "Be sure to save this box in case you should need to return this television for any reason." Chris had to explain to a disappointed little boy that he could not play in the box. This did not stop Luke from asking to play with the box and even hiding inside of it several times during the day. Chris had to get onto him over and over again about staying away from the box.

Story #2

That same evening Rachel and Luke decided it would be fun to build a house out of all the boxes we had used to move. They drug all the empty boxes back into the house to build their house. In the middle of this project I reminded Rachel that she had some homework to do, so she stopped to do her homework. This made Luke mad. He kept hollering at her to come play. He came into the kitchen and told her with clenched fists he was really mad at her. Chris was laughing at him and told him to go kick one of Rachel's boxes. Luke then said, "How about I kick another box? How about I kick YOUR box?!?!"

I could not help but laugh! Does somebody need an attitude adjustment or what?

Attention Target Guests....

We have enjoyed a pretty relaxing Labor Day. Our neighbor came and introduced herself to us this morning. She has three boys whose ages are 4, 2, and 2 months. She said the block is full of little boys, but there are no girls. Rachel and Kate are the only girls on the block. Rachel said, "I guess I will have lots of boyfriends." We were excited to meet her. She seems real nice.

Chris had a few projects he was planning to get done today. First on the list was getting the ice maker hooked up, so with some assistance from his cousin Jeremy, we now have ice. He also got the cable, DVD player, wireless internet, and phone organized in the TV stand.

After lunch we were sitting around watching TV and decided to go to Target to get a few things. I wanted to get a new shower curtain rod, and Chris need a longer phone cord. While we were there we quickly got distracted by other things like movies, toys, and bathroom accessories. While Rachel and I were looking at the towels I hear, "Attention Target guests would Alanna come to the service desk." I immediately started toward the front of the store. Then I hear, "Attention Target guests would Chris come to the service desk." Luckily Chris beat me to the service desk. He found Luke and an audience of concerned shoppers and workers. He just laughed and said, "I thought he was with his mother!" I was so embarrassed, we had lost our son and were not even concerned because each of us thought he was with the other. Apparently Luke was quite distraught. They offered him a sucker and tissue for his nose. His reply was "I can't have suckers." Now you know he was upset if he turned down a sucker! After I had calmed him down he wanted me to go ask them for the sucker they offered him. We returned home with everybody accounted for!

Rachel's First Day of Second Grade

School started today for Rachel! She was really ready to go back. She was a little nervous about going to a new school. She was worried about everything being different than it was at her old school. I tried to explain to her school was school no matter where you went. They would have lunch, recess, library, music, and PE. Even with my reassurance she did not believe me.

We got up early this morning and got everybody ready to walk Rachel to school. No more sleeping until 9am for us! Chris and I really like being on the school schedule, everybody goes to bed early! Dropping Rachel off for second grade was a lot easier than dropping her off for Kindergarten! The house was sure quiet today with Rachel not here to fight with Luke. Luke, Kate, and I played and waited for the Culligan man this morning and went grocery shopping after lunch. At 3pm we walked over to pick Rachel up. It sure was hot! Rachel met us with a smile. She talked all the way home about the differences and similarities between Greathouse and Fannin schools. She said the chicken sandwich tasted the same as the one at her old school, and they have chocolate milk too. She had a great day and really likes her teacher. She said there are lots of girls in her class, so we hope she makes new friends fast. We are praying for a great second grade year!

It is Official We Have Moved

We have spent this past week moving. We signed the papers on our new house on Monday and have been working hard ever since. We have moved countless boxes and toys. We hired movers to move the big stuff, which was a tremendous help! Our new house is now full of boxes and things just waiting to be put up. I really have my work cut out for me! I pretty much have my kitchen in order, and now I am working on the kids bedrooms. Chris and I have both commented that the house was prettier before we moved our stuff in, but we are excited to be in our new home!

It was hard saying goodbye to our old house. When we moved there it was just Chris, me, and Dixie. We moved there from a one bedroom apartment that was smaller than the garage. We were so proud of our first home. It took us half a day to move all our stuff in, and the house was practically empty except for our bed and living room furniture. We managed to fill it up in the nine years we lived there! We brought our three babies home to that house and acquired another dog. It is sad to think that Luke and Kate will not remember that house. It was hard to go back and clean it up after all our stuff was out of it. It just did not feel right without all our things. As I was cleaning the ledge of our big picture window in the den, I thought about all the empty baby bottles we sat down there. It was a weird thing to think about, but it is just one of the memories I have. There are a couple of things I will not miss about that house like the big trees in the front yard that I could not get grass to grow under and the green bathtub in the master bathroom that had been painted white and the paint started chipping off so the green showed through. That being said it was a good house and I will miss it!

School starts on Monday. Rachel will go to a new school. The only person she knows there will be her cousin Mason. We went and met the teacher on Thursday. I really think we got a good one. She has taught for 23 years. Rachel liked her too. Luke started soccer is past week, and Rachel will start cheerleading this next week. Looks like we will have a busy fall schedule.