Nothing important...

Not too much has been going on lately...so here are just a few random pics.

Say cheese!

hanging out with Daddy

Kate really wants Daddy's guitar

In response to my friend's post on her blog...the cost of silence...Kate took out each kleenex one by one then tore them apart. But it kept her busy and content for a while so, of course, I let her do it!

Kate's first steps

Weekend fun

Kate had lots of fun playing with her cousin Leslee, Aunt Sharon and Carl this weekend when they came to visit us!




We went to Hoss's steakhouse and Kate really loved her first bite of steak! No, not really but it sure looks like she would have loved it!


"I WANT MY FOOD NOW!"


Kate got this new toy drum from church today. She thought it was so much fun!

Kate with her Great-Grandmother. She sure loves going to visit her!

This is after Kate and I got back from a short walk in the cold snowy weather. She's not looking too thrilled about it.

Video gallery

Some random videos I've taken of Kate lately...

Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania

I haven't had the Internet for a week so prepare yourself...We have moved, once again! We are now living in Slippery Rock where Dustin is starting at Slippery Rock University. We found a nice 2 bedroom apartment close to campus. It looks like a townhouse with 3 stories including the garage. Kate seems to like it here, too. She's been really happy and playful and is still consistently sleeping through the night. I never knew how much sleep I was missing out on for the past 8 months! It's like Heaven! For those of you not familiar...Slippery Rock is an extremely small town made up of the following things: a university, giant eagle(grocery store) sheetz, mcdonald's, and 2 more gas stations. That's about it. It's about 1 hour north of Pittsburgh so it's colder and snows more up here. It's a cute, quaint town I suppose. And not having anywhere to go to spend money should help our finances. But the lack of businesses is also hurting our finances since I was planning on getting a job in the evenings to support us! Good luck with that!! Anyways...everything is going great. We are all settled in and the place feels like home.



The faces of Kate...




outside our apartment with Aunt Melissa


helping us unpack(she's inside the suitcase)


This is Kate climbing up the stairs today...something I didn't think I was going to have to worry about for a little while. I took a video of it(don't worry, Dustin was standing right behind her) but it was too dark. She ended up going up 4 steps. Time to get a gate!

Kate is growing like crazy! She just gets bigger every day. The most exciting part lately is that she is now officially sleeping through the night. And when I say through the night...I mean through the night! She goes to bed at 8:30 and wakes up at 8:30 without interruption. It is just wonderful! She is quickly walking along all the furniture and moves from one piece of furniture to another. She loves to stand up and not hold on, too! She's starting to get careless,though. She is over confident and just goes without stopping...often hitting her head. She doesn't seem to mind though. She just gets back up and tries again. Now (right now even while I'm blogging) she is opening cupboards and drawers to see what's in them. We are getting ready to move to Slippery Rock so Dustin can finish school. We're moving in this week. I don't know what I'll do until we get the internet...NO blogging!!!


Look at those cheeks!


Kate giving Pappy Jack hugs!

Christmas

We had a great first Christmas with Kate! She loved opening presents and loved playing with everything even more. She was very content to just sit and watch what was going on around her most of the time. Notice her stocking in the first picture- Grandma made that for her!!



Kate helping us bake cookies on Christmas Eve.

This one's for you, Erica!

My best friend Erica got me thinking about all the great times we had together in Utah. We were pregnant neighbors and friends... due 3 weeks apart. Well we were friends first, then became neighbors, then pregnant neighbors! We went through everything together while we were pregnant...she was due first so she would experience it first then tell me all about what I had to look foward to! It was so fun to live next door to each other for those first few weeks we had our babies. But, sadly (excitedly for them) they graduated and moved when Kate was just a few weeks old. We miss them lots! Now that we live in Pennsylvania we are just 6 hours away from eachother. Hopefully we'll keep in touch and be friends for a long time! I miss you Erica!

Brooklyn, 3 weeks old; Kate, 6 hours old and 7-8 months old










Dustin made us this cake when we found out we were pregnant! (notice the pink frosting?!? He must have known something we didn't!)

5-6 months pregnant

Brooklyn, 5 weeks old; Kate, 2 weeks old

Goettmans and Jones' May 2007

Erica & Jen, Baby Brooklyn & Baby Kate

Reminicing...

So I've been thinking a lot lately about how big Kate is getting and how fast time goes. I can't believe she's already big enough to be crawling around the house and standing up on furniture. Not to mention throwing little tantrums when I lay her down when she doesn't want to be laying down or pick her up when she doesn't want to be picked up. But also the laughs and giggles she shares with you while you're playing with her. I was looking at some pictures from when she was first born and thought I'd share some. Some of my friends shared their birth story on their blogs so here is my long story short... I went into labor on my due date-just barely...it was midnight and just turned April 25th. I layed awake all night and finally went to the hospital at 6:30 AM. They kept me for a labor check but they sent me home because I didn't dialate anymore in the hour I was there. (with a shot of morphine to help with the pain) I finally went back to the hospital at 3:30 that afternoon. (So that was that pain they were talking about when they said you should come to the hospital!) I couldn't walk or talk I was in so much pain! Here is where the long story is cut short- Kate was born at 5:30 AM the next morning, April 26th, after 29 hours of labor and 30 minutes of pushing. What a long 29 hours! She was the most beautiful thing we'd ever seen! She weighed 6 lbs 11 oz and was 19 inches long. I'm not good with sharing my feelings on the blog...but all you moms out there know exactly what I was feeling when I saw her, held her, kissed her, and soothed her. She is such a blessing in our lives. I love her so much!! Here are lots of pics as I stroll down memory lane...

Kate is standing!

Kate keeps letting go of things when she stands up and I've been trying to get a picture. Tonight my dad watched Kate while I went out to dinner (actually Chuck E. Cheese's!!) with my brother and sister-in-law and he got a picture! She loves to stand up, crawl and get into EVERYTHING! I love to watch her explore. My favorite thing is to watch her dig in her toy box (an old diaper box) and pick out just the right toy to play with. I can see her thinking and deciding which one to pick! Here she is standing up like a big girl!

Christmas tree time!

Kate and I went with my family to pick out their Christmas tree. It was her first time in the snow! She had a great time!