better late than never...

Okay, so I know I am slightly ridiculous when it comes to posting pictures. I just always have too many to chose from and can never decide, so I really apologize, but here goes.

So our Christmas present from my parents this year was a trip to Disneyland with the whole family. I have been wanting to go ever since we got married. I have always loved Disneyland but Paul hadn't been since he was like 8 and didn't remember a thing. We left a couple of days before Thanksgiving and went and stayed and Tammy's new house in Mesquite. We then left to California and were in Disneyland on Thanksgiving Day and the day after. It was so much fun! The lines weren't bad and it was such nice weather, even though it got a little chilly at nights. I couldn't go on all the big rides, but we had so much fun taking Kate on everything. Here are a ton a pics in no particular order.... Oh ya, and of course Kate had to get sick right when we got to Tammy's house, so she looks a little dozy in a lot of the pictures. She was still such a good girl though.

All 17 of us on Thanksgiving Day

thanks mom and dad!

It was all decorated for Christmas, it was quite magical.

(me, with my baby sisters, Heather and Amanda)

We stayed at the Castle Inn. Kate really liked this chair, actually she was probably just really excited to be out of the car.

Before we left Tammy's house we exchanged all of our Christmas gifts. Tammy won't be here for Christmas so we decided it would be more fun to do it when we were all together rather than shipping stuff to each other. Kate got a new book and pj's from aunt tam.



Trying to pull the sword out....We took this same pic probably about 15 years ago, so we had to redo it.

Do we look any different? All I can say is holy bangs...


Kate with cute cousin, Hazel.


All bundled up, riding the train around at night.

Playing around in Toon Town


Our cute little fam on Main Street


Waiting for the Pixar parade to start at California Adventure. It was amazing, Kate loved it!


Eating ice cream on main street

Kate looks like she is really enjoying herself, don't you think?

in a happy daze...

Kate loved seeing the disney characters, she always tried to squeeze their nose.

traditional disneyland pic

My prince charming (wow, I am cheesy)


The Bug's Life 3D movie... I love Kate in her glasses.


sweet little girl was so tired at the end of each night..


watching the Christmas parade, again Kate really enjoyed the parades. We are not usually parade people, but it was so fun to see her get so excited.

On our last day in California, we went down to Huntington Beach to let the kids see the ocean, go shopping and have some lunch at Ruby's on the Pier.

Kate was definately a Ruby's fan. She loved watching the surfers as we walked down the pier.

She was a little unsure of the sand at first, but she ended burying herself in it.

the end... wow, that was a lot of work.

update...

So here is a little update, just so you know that we are still alive. We went to Disneyland for Thanksgiving with my whole family (17 of us). I still haven't had time to get all of those pics posted, so here are a few others to hold you over.

They had free pictures with Santa at Thanksgiving Point on Monday, so Kate and I went with Mindy and her kids. The picture is pretty bad quality, but oh well. I was shocked that Kate was scared of Santa. They also had reindeer there that you could feed and pet. Kate really liked them even though she doesn't look overly happy here. She is starting to slim down a lot, but I am so happy that she still has those cheeks!





I had my first doctor appt. a few weeks ago, and when Kate heard the baby's heartbeat, she started boppin her head to the beat. She is very into dancing lately. We also got an ultrasound a few days later and when she saw the baby moving on the screen, she totally starting laughing, it was very cute. We are getting so anxious to find out what we are having!

birthday party pics....finally!

So maybe the reason why I took so long to post these pictures is that I had 173 to choose from. I kept trying to narrow down, but this is as far as I could go. So, I realize there are way to many, but she is just way too cute to cut any more out.

On her birthday morning, we decided to start a tradition and kidnap her and take her out to breakfast. You know, how we use to do in junior high, and make your friends go to school in their pajamas. So anyway, the three of us went to Magleby's Fresh for breakfast and she had some yummy french toast.

I tried to get everything done the day before so I wasn't stressing out the day of the party. It was at 7 so I was scared that if Kate didn't take her afternoon nap, she would be too tired. But she was a perfect angel all day. She took both of her naps and was in a great mood for the party. With all of my family, Paul's family, and a few friends we had about 50 people, but it was so much fun. This little girl gets plenty of love.

Eating dinner. We had 5 different yummy homemade soups and homemade bread and breadsticks.

Playing games with the kids.

Lots of friends and family.

Kate with grandma and grandpa.

Kate had so much fun opening all of her presents. She got so much fun stuff, we won't need to get her anything for Christmas...

She loves the little people barn we gave her.

reading her card...

So I wanted to make her a tutu a little while ago, but I wanted it to have a purpose. So I decided when we stripped her down to eat her cake, rather than just being in her diaper, she would get to wear her tutu.



Here is a darling cake. I am quite proud of it, but I can't take all of the credit, Mindy and Amanda helped.


Blowing out her candle...


I was pretty shocked that she didn't dig into her cake. She didn't really know what to do with it. She pulled out the doll, but wouldn't touch the cake. I gave her some and she liked it, but she wouldn't get it herself.

Everyone else got cupcakes. I went a little overboard, because I didn't want to run out so I made like 80 cupcakes, and yes I had quite a few left over.

We attempted putting her in her chair to eat it, but she still wasn't very interested.

After the party with our tiny girl, she was so worn out from her day of fun!

Here's a little clip of her and her cake.

She got lots of bath toys for her birthday. This pic makes me laugh, she is so modest.

Kate loves to reorganize our dvd's, multiple times a day. On the day after her birthday, we went to the Dr. for her 1 year check up. She weighs 20 lb 12 oz. and is 29 3/4 inches. She is now in the 50th percentile for weight and 75th for height. It looks likes she is finally started to slim down. (I am already missing her knee rolls)

So that's it! Now on to the next project, getting packed for our our big Disneyland trip next week.....

Oh ya, here is her invitation I made. So I can't figure out what is wrong with it, but every time I try to upload it, the words look all blurry, so I give up. You get the idea. If you click to enlarge, it doesn't look like this, very weird.

birthday girl...

Well, Kate turned 1 on Monday and we had such a good day. I haven't had time to post all of her birthday party pictures yet, but hopefully I will get to it in the next couple of days. So here are a few other pics for now.

Here she is going for a ride in her new big girl car seat from my parents. She loves to get to face forward. I love this smile, but her sock is falling off and it's about to kill me.

Kate in her new shirt that I made for her. Cute, huh?

We are all quite excited about the big news......

kate's favorite song....

So this is definitely not to show off my singing skills, so please try to ignore me. Kate just loves when we sing this song, she gets so excited and claps her hands in the right spot. It is so much fun to see her learning so much. I can't believe she is going to be 1 on Monday!

Trick or treat...

Halloween is so much more fun with Kate around. We have had some great costumes in the past, but we didn't dress up this year and let her have all the glory. She looked so stinking cute as little red riding hood!

I love these pics of her knocking on grandma's door, then crawling in.


Trying to get a good picture of Little Red Riding Hood was a little difficult. She loves to ignore the camera.

Again, ignoring me and trying to eat dirt of the back of the pumpkin.

Kate with her cousins. Garret was making very funny faces in every one, this was definitely the best.

Trick or treating with momma and papa.

She really liked this huge pumpkin at our neighbor's house.

After trick or treating, and dinner at my parents, we went to see Paul's fam. Kate sat on the deck playing in the candy bowl for like 45 minutes, while we all watched and laughed. She loved taking the candy out and putting it all back in, over and over again. So cute!