J&E's Story

{December 23, 2011} Christmas cookies with Grandma

2012-02-12T17:37:00.004-06:00

Katelyn loves helping in the kitchen, especially with cookies/cupcakes/muffins. Grandma told her that she would wait on making Christmas sugar cookies so Katelyn could help her. Grandma didn't really have a choice after she mentioned it to Katelyn because Katelyn wouldn't stop talking about it. Katelyn was going to hold her to it!

Katelyn sporting her new Christmas present! The most awesome apron ever!!! She looked sooo darn cute in it too I just couldn't stand it!!

With Katelyn helping make sugar cookies, you end up rolling out the dough much more often.

She hasn't quite figured out the trick to get the most out of the dough. I guess that'll come with time haha. What 2 year old has that figured out?!

Checking the finished product!
She's the cutest little baker in the area!!
I just love this little baker!

{December 17, 2011} Moving Day!

2012-02-12T10:52:00.008-06:00

Well the day has finally arrived!! We are loading ALL of our stuff into 2 trailers and heading back to the good ol' midwest! We had great help on our move out and couldn't have done it without all our friends and family there to break their back for us. Katelyn had 2 of her best friends come to play - all 3 girls kept each other busy and occupied. At the end of the day they were all exhausted!

Just to clarify - the Army WILL hire a moving company to come to your house, pack your goods and move them to the next location. However, the Army will also pay YOU to move yourself. They pay you as if you are self employed. So when you do a full move they will pay us 75% of what they would pay a moving company and then we'll get to put it on taxes the next year and recoup even more of that 25% they took initially. BUT, aside from the money, one of the main reasons we move ourselves other than we have the means to do it is......nothing gets broken and if it does, well then it was our fault. We have too many friends who have nightmare horror stories about their moves and we don't have to worry about that. I've never had to file a claim with transportation and from the sounds of the process - I'm one lucky girl!!

Lots and Lots and Lots of boxes!

Grammie did lots of traffic directing with 3 little girls and a car!

Katelyn and Esmee out for a drive!

The Whites and us! I sure miss them :(

7 Months at this point

{31 Weeks, 5 day}

The trailer is getting full!! And we still have SO much stuff left!

Even Katelyn helped load!

Helping Daddy figure out how to put the plugs back in the washer.

A little pooped! She almost fell asleep on Pops' lap.

ONE clean, empty house!!!!!

Ready to pull out - Missouri here we come!

We left Hinesville, GA at 11 AM (EST) and arrived at Jack's parents house in MO at 1:15 AM (CST) It was a LONG drive but so much better than stopping at a hotel somewhere and trying to get the suitcases out and what not! Katelyn was THE.BEST.TRAVELER.EVER!!! I could not have asked for a better 2 year old especially to have one that had to be stuck in a carseat for 15+ hours!!! She's a Johannes after all! :) This will be the first of many moves for her. She was pretty eager to help this move, but I can imagine that eagerness will fade fast the older she gets.

{December 16, 2011} Hookin' Up

2012-02-11T16:51:00.002-06:00

Jack hooked Katelyn's wagon onto her trike and boy was it a hit! She thought she was some cool stuff riding her bike around pulling her babies in the wagon. Now she wants it "hooked up" every time she rides her bike.

She doesn't quite understand that she has to turn wider so she would "Jack knife" it a lot and get frustrated.

And yes - this is GA in mid December and Katelyn is wearing capris with no socks.

Geez she's growing up!!

{December 11, 2011} Katelyn's new ride

2012-02-11T16:23:00.002-06:00

Katelyn enjoyed riding on the hand truck during the move. One way to keep her busy and out of my hair!!

{December 10, 2011} Go Army!

2012-02-11T16:17:00.004-06:00

Katelyn cheered hard for Army during the Army/Navy game but she didn't quite cheer hard enough. Guess there is always next year! That's what we always say!!

{December 10, 2011} Christmas in GA

2012-02-11T12:47:00.007-06:00

We celebrated Christmas amongst ourselves before we left GA so it was several weeks before Christmas, but Katelyn isn't quite big enough yet to fully understand everything yet so it worked in our favor. Santa came to GA and also to KS and MO. Who says Santa can't make multiple trips throughout the month of December and January?! haha

Picking out cookies to put out for Santa

Ready for Santa to fill our tree with presents
(it wouldn't take but a few to have that poor little guy loaded full!)

Just waking up the next morning

He ate ALL the cookies!!!!

She thought we needed to immediately refill the plate for Santa!

He brought a new basketball goal!

And a marble game as she calls it

New Berenstain Bear books!! (Mommy's Favorite!)

And a little people nativity scene

She loved hauling Baby Jesus around in the wagon pulled by the donkey.
Silly girl!

Coloring a beautiful masterpiece on her easel!

All these new toys just to be packed up a week later and hauled to Missouri. At least they kept her busy for a little while when we were packing!

{December 9, 2011} Katelyn and Emmalyn

2012-01-30T13:30:00.003-06:00

One of the last times Katelyn and Emmalyn got to horse around before we moved :(

{December 7, 2011} Daddy's Change of Command

2012-01-30T13:12:00.003-06:00

Wow! How do I start this off? This has been a LONG almost 2 years of long days and late nights for Jack and plenty of FRG business and drama to keep me beyond busy. We were so excited when this day finally came. We'd been counting down for quite some time (Jack probably longer than me). I was beyond ready to have my husband back and Katelyn to have her Daddy back! It also meant that we were that much closer to moving back to the midwest and SOOO much closer to family!!

Our long awaited day finally arrived!! It was a chilly day but to make matters worse - it decided to start raining so we moved the ceremony into the motor pool building. It worked out fine but it was noisy and confined. Oh well - the ceremony still went on and CPT Young assumed responsibility of HHC 2-3 BSTB! That was all that mattered!

Katelyn before the ceremony! Even she is excited!

HHC in formation before the change of command (not the entire 250 man company though)

Change of Command Ceremony
(Jack is on the left and the Battalion Commander is on the right)

The tradition is to give the outgoing wife a bouquet of a dozen red opened roses and the incoming commanders wife a dozen of closed yellow roses.

Jack got Katelyn a rose of her own! After all, it is tough being the Commander's daughter haha

That night as we sat watching tv, Jack and I both looked at each other in disbelief. Did it really happen?!? Was the FRG no longer my responsibility? Was Jack no longer in Command?!! And the answer to all those questions - YES!!! This meant, no more late night phone calls about soldiers getting thrown in jail for any number of reasons and no more emails/calls from spouses regarding their soldier. How freeing this all felt! When Jack brought his cell phone into the bedroom that night, I had to remind him that he could leave it out in the kitchen. No one was going to call and wake us up in the middle of the night!

Jack - you did a great job in command and I was so proud to be your partner in crime throughout those past 2 years. There were some tough times but all in all it turned out well! I know many soldiers felt very lucky to have you as their commander and were sad to see you leave! You left a lasting impact on many young soldiers! I love you !

{December 5, 2011} Hinesville Christmas Celebration

2012-01-30T13:03:00.004-06:00

Hinesville (our small town) had a Christmas celebration in downtown and Santa and his sleigh came for a visit. I told Katelyn that she was going to see Santa again and she was STOKED!! She was also excited to see his reindeer. She sat in his sleigh first and saw his reindeer and then sat on his lap. The first thing she said when she hopped on his lap was - "I sat in your sleigh!!!!" It was so cute and I was so tickled this year that she was so happy to see and sit on Santa's lap. No tears whatsoever!! WooHoo!!

Next year will be very exciting with 2 on Santa's lap!

{December 4, 2011} Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

2012-01-21T21:33:00.003-06:00

We decided that decorating for Christmas was going to be too much because we would be moving before Christmas and I didn't want to put the tree up and decorate the house for 2 weeks. Katelyn was really into Christmas - Santa, the tree, and baby Jesus - so we decided we needed to do something as far as the tree was concerned. We were planning on celebrating Christmas a couple weeks early before we left GA BUT where were we going to put the presents that Santa brought?! Jack had the great idea we would go out behind our house in the woods and find a "Charlie Brown" tree so we at least had something. I thought it was a great idea!! And of course Katelyn was all on board for going to find a tree.

On the hunt for the "perfect" Christmas tree!

We FOUND it!!

This was as much decorating as the poor little guy got.
The little thing could hardly hold the 100 string of lights that we put on it so we decided against any ornaments! Katelyn was pretty proud of her tree!

My 2 favorite people with our little little tree!!
Merry Christmas y'all!!

{December 4, 2011} Children's Message

2012-01-21T21:16:00.003-06:00

Katelyn was really starting to get comfortable with our church in GA. She would go up to the Children's Message by herself and even ask to go to play in the nursery! Sounds good to me!! Of course, it would be time for us to move. Hopefully we can find another church as great as our church home we had in GA! I definitely miss it!!

{December 1, 2011} BN Christmas Party

2012-01-21T20:42:00.003-06:00

Our Battalion (2-3 BSTB) had a "Holiday" Party on December 1 at Holbrook Pond Recreation Center on post. It was catered by Shane's Rib Shack - deliciousness! Katelyn had fun running around, playing on the playground and jumping in the bounce house.

She was pretty excited to see Santa for the 2nd time and had been talking about him since I told her that afternoon we were going to see him at the "Party." However, when she actually saw him and realized he didn't look like the Santa she saw in the Mall she was a bit skeptical of him. Reluctantly, she sat on his lap but she was not very talkative. I guess I would be skeptical of a Santa with a Kevlar helmet on too!!

There was a silent auction to raise money for the FRG. The only people that got nominated were the BN Commander and the BN S3. Unfortunately no one knew prior to the party that this was going to be going on so most people didn't have much extra cash on them so the Battalion Commander only brought in $8 and the BN S3 only raised $1! Pretty sad but still funny none the less! Katelyn seemed pretty confused during this whole thing as to what was going on!

I'm not sure that there are many other places that you can have an outdoor Christmas party on December 1, but the weather was perfect!

Christmas Pictures 2011

2012-01-20T20:17:00.004-06:00

We went to JCP to have Katelyn's Christmas pictures taken and she was very cooperative and was really hamming it up for quite a few. Finally!! Last year's photos were pretty much a disaster!!

{November 27, 2011} Preparing for Winter

2012-01-20T19:57:00.007-06:00

Don't ya love this get up!?
I guess she was getting ready for the winter weather while still trying to stay cool in GA!
Crazy girl!

Catch Up

2012-01-20T15:33:00.002-06:00

We've had a crazy, busy past couple of months between Thanksgiving, moving out of GA, Christmas and moving into our new house in MO. I know most of this is old news but I'm going to update the blog with everything that has happened since then because I use the blog as a reminder of events/happenings especially since I don't foresee me getting caught up on my scrapbooking for quite a while. I'll definitely need the blog to remind myself what in the heck happened in December of 2010!! So here goes.....Stay tuned over the next few days/week if you want to see what's been happening in our life as we moved everything half way across the country!!

Christmas Cookies

2011-11-27T20:22:00.004-06:00

Our Thanksgiving was pretty low key. In fact, we didn't even have turkey. It was just the 3 of us, so we decided to just smoke a chicken. We didn't really want to be eating turkey until we moved out of here! I can't wait for next Thanksgiving when we can spend it with more family again!

Yesterday, Katelyn and I made some sugar cookies - well we cut out sugar cookies. Jack bought some colored cookie dough from a fundraiser for a soldier at work. Boy, making cookies with a 2 year old is a lot of work!! If only I had counted how many times she said "I do it!" or "I do it allll by myself!" Within the first 2 minutes we had flour everywhere and all over her face and shirt. Oh well, I suppose the clean up was worth it because she sure seemed to have fun. It was very hard for her to be patient while the cookies were baking though and I'm not sure how many times we had to re roll the cookie dough back out because, well, she didn't really quite understand how to get the most out of the dough. ha! What should I expect, she's only 2?!?!

Whiskers

2011-11-27T20:20:00.003-06:00

Katelyn likes feeling Daddy's face when his "itchies" are getting a little long. Of course, this doesn't get to happen very often. Maybe over leave while we move?!?!

Family Pictures at the Beach

2011-11-23T09:08:00.005-06:00

A few weeks ago we took some family pictures at the beach. It was not the most ideal day but we made the best of it. It was pretty windy (but when isn't it at the beach) and chilly. We took a few family "posed" pictures right off the bat and then Katelyn saw a bucket with a shovel and it was all over with at that point. All she wanted to do was play in the sand with the bucket. No more family posed pictures after that. They turned out well but I definitely learned my lesson - don't show Katelyn anything fun until all the posed pictures are over!

Thanksgiving Feast

2011-11-17T14:37:00.004-06:00

Katelyn had her Thanksgiving Feast today at school and the parents were invited to come eat lunch with them. Jack was too busy at work to get away so I went by myself. Katelyn was very excited to have me eat with her. On her way to school this morning we heard a turkey gobble on the radio. I told her today was her "Turkey Day" at school and that turkey's say gobble gobble. So when she got to school, at the breakfast table she told her teacher she was going to eat gobble gobble for lunch with Mommy. Hilarious!

She LOVED the stuffing and had a second helping of it!

Gobble Gobble!!

{Watch Mommy Grow} 6 Months

2011-11-17T14:28:00.003-06:00

6 Months!?! 3rd trimester!?! Wow!! This little guy is going to be here before we know it!! February is right around the corner; 3 more months and we'll be a family of 4! How our life is going to change - but I can't wait!

(November 15, 2011 - 26 weeks - 6 Months)

I went for my 26 week appt this past week. Baby boy is doing well! His heartbeat was in the 140s and my bump is measuring right on track. I still have a sinking feeling he's going to be a big baby - at least bigger than Katelyn was. I am hoping for no more than an 8 pounder!!

This little guy is on the go all.the.time!! My stomach is continuously bouncing, especially if I put any pressure on it. I guess he's telling me I'm invading his space! I have been telling Jack that I thought he was head up because there was just too much kicking down below and much more than I ever remembered with Katelyn. Well, my suspicion was proved to be right. The doctor took a quick peek and sure enough. His head is up! UGH!! I know I know - there is still plenty of time for him to turn around but Katelyn was always head down so I never worried too much. I just continue to pray he turns around because I really do not want to have a c-section.

Pretty much my only complaint - HEARTBURN! No matter what time of day; sitting or laying. I'm so ready for it to be over with.

Until next month......

Katelyn's 2.5!

2011-11-17T14:03:00.004-06:00

I really can't believe our baby girl is already 2.5 years old! Before long we'll be planning her 3rd birthday! Where oh where has the time gone to?! Jack and I are thoroughly enjoying this stage that Katelyn is in! She is just so much fun and it's always a surprise what she is going to come up with or say. We sit here in the evenings and look at each other and say "Where did she get that from?!"

She is very much into her baby dolls right now and talks to them as if she is the Mommy. She wants them to have a diaper and socks on. It makes it difficult because the diapers are size 4 (Katelyn's pull ups or night diapers) and the socks fit Katelyn's feet, but she doesn't seem to care! Baby will go with her on longer road trips and she'll talk to her and tell her to "Hold on Baby!," "Do you see that Baby?", "It's ok baby, I'll be right back." Baby AND Dolly still get to go on wagon rides and she pushes them around in HER stroller outside. I just love watching her be such a Mommy to these dolls. I really am excited to see how she reacts with a real baby - her brother! I'm afraid we'll have to keep a close eye on her because she might just want to be a little TOO much help!

She continues to not be the best eater. We still have our days where she'll eat well and then other days not so well. She does eat better at "school" than she does for me at home; but she is getting a little braver and is beginning to attempt to try a few more things. I mean - that's all we ask is to just give things a try!!

She is still a good sleeper but we haven't taken her out of her crib. I know I know! We haven't really been in a big hurry - she hasn't tried to climb out and there another sibling hasn't needed the crib yet. BUT - that is all about to change. When we get to Missouri, she will get her "Big girl" room and bed. We talk about it all the time and most of the time she is fine with giving her current bed to her baby brother. We'll see how the sleeping goes then. There just might be a post or 2 on the lack of sleep she is letting Mommy have! Boy I hope not!

She also continues to do amazing on the potty front! She stays dry all the time when she's awake and tells us when she needs to go, even when we are in the car. A trip into Savannah now requires a potty stop - BUT that's ok! I'd rather stop than have to clean out a wet carseat!! She still isn't potty trained during naps or at night, but I'm ok with that. She goes all by herself at school without any help from her teachers and insists that she can do it "Allllll by myself." She isn't so independent at home because they have potty's close to the ground at school. I'm fine with helping her; it's much easier, faster and cheaper than changing diapers!! Boy, my Baby has sure grown up! She's such a big girl now!!

Katelyn still goes to "School" 3 mornings a week and that will probably increase as the move gets closer so I can get more and more things done and more boxes packed. She LOVES going and is starting to bring home lots of pictures and activities that they have done. I'm just amazed at how much she has learned and she is only going to hourly care! She can sing her ABC's, Twinkle Twinkle, Old MacDonald (her current favorite) and several country songs on the radio. When one of her favorite songs comes on the radio she'll say "Ohhh that's a gooooood one" and then "Daddy - crank it up!" And she knows most of the words to these songs! She truly amazes me!!

She has figured out how to peddle her tricycle and would probably live outside if we let her! It really is too bad that the nights are so short. By the time she gets up from her nap in the afternoon there really isn't much time left before it gets dark and the weather here has been gorgeous. I know we need to take advantage of the warmer/fallish weather because there probably won't be much outside play for a while after we get to Missouri (But that's ok with me! I'm ready for cooler weather!)

She went to the Dr for a wellness appt and to get her flu shot. The Dr said she was PERFECT and on the smaller, petite side. (of course, we already knew this :) )

Stats (2 1/2 years):
Weight: 25.2# (11th%)
Height: 35 inches (29th%)

We LOVE you soooo much Katelyn and can't wait to watch you continue to grown and develop!!

Sticker Anyone??

2011-11-09T20:53:00.003-06:00

Katelyn and Daddy "Sleeping" on the living room floor.

Her new "cheese" face tonight!
She was being such a goofball!

Packing for the Big Move

2011-11-04T15:33:00.002-05:00

I told Katelyn that we needed to start packing for our big move. She got very excited!! (She talks daily about moving to Missouri and says that we are moving that day - such a goofball!) She started bringing me bags from her playroom and started filling them with random toys that she wanted to take. Then she got her shopping cart and shoved them all in it. She would push it around the living room, through the kitchen and back to her playroom all while seeing other things that she needed to take and trying to find room in her cart for them. Ohh and don't let me forget to mention she did the pushing while carrying her baby in her carrier on the other arm. I was laughing so hard - she looked like a homeless person with all their possessions in their shopping cart! I love this little girl to pieces and her imagination right now seemed unbelievable!

(When she woke up from her nap she was kind of cranky, so I told her I needed her help with packing up some of her books. Suddenly the crankiness was gone! She is all excited to pack boxes and is A LOT of help - maybe too much. But no complaints here. In a move or 2 she'll be complaining about moving and packing so I'll take it. I was only trying to pack books away that she doesn't read right now or has grown out of and she was wanting to put them ALL in the box. I can only imagine what we will find in random boxes. I guess it doesn't matter, as long as it all makes it to the next place!

She was so proud of this box and decided it needed to be decorated with princess stickers!
There isn't any question where this box belongs!

And just because this is such a cute picture!
(Can she get any cuter?!?! Ok - maybe I'm a little biased!!)

Halloween

2011-11-04T15:24:00.005-05:00

It was a much chillier Halloween this year than the past 2 years have been. We went over to a friend's house and trick or treated in her neighborhood. Katelyn had fun and was all about the candy!

(Halloween outfit that she wore to school)

Katelyn and Emmalyn - the 2 cutest Southern Belles!

Trick or Treat!

Fire Truck

2011-10-30T21:42:00.003-05:00

On Friday, Katelyn's school was honoring Breast Cancer Month and when I arrived to pick her up there was a pink fire truck parked in front! The truck looked like a fully functional fire truck that they had painted pink. There were signatures all over the truck. I'm not sure if the signatures were survivors or just all the places it had been. Only the teachers and personnel were around it - no kids. When Katelyn and I came out of school to go to the car, the fireman stopped her and asked her if she wanted to get on the truck and have her picture taken because she happened to have a pink shirt on. Of course she said YES!! So she took a seat and they gave her a little fire hat to wear too! She got her picture taken and got to keep her hat! She was pretty excited!

Fire fighter Katelyn!

Battalion Trunk or Treat

2011-10-30T21:33:00.003-05:00

Thursday night our Battalion had a Trunk or Treat. Katelyn was very excited to put her costume on and put candy in her pumpkin! She was so excited and couldn't wait for it to get started. Of course, she wanted to eat (or taste) everything in the pumpkin before we got home. She still talks about candy all the time. (She isn't a bit candy fan, but wants to open try stuff. Why can't dinner be the same way?!?!)

Katelyn and Esmee
(Katelyn is a Southern Belle - she wasn't a big fan of the hat and the wind kept blowing it off her head)

Trick or Treat!

Trick or Treat Daddy!
"Put some candy in MY pumpkin!"

Taste testing!

Holding down the fort!

{Wordless Wednesday} Almost

2011-10-26T20:00:00.001-05:00

(We went to a birthday party last weekend and a friend took this picture of Katelyn.
She just sent it to me today and I LOVE it! Look at those eyes!
Side note: She has her own photography business - perhaps that's why it's so good!)

Glow Sticks

2011-10-26T19:58:00.001-05:00

Katelyn thoroughly enjoyed her "Special" bath tonight!

Pumpkin Carving

2011-10-26T15:08:00.004-05:00

Pumpkin Carving 2011:

Katelyn was very excited to pick out her pumkins at the store and all she could talk about that night was "cutting out pumpkins face". She didn't understand the other jobs associated with pumpkin carving.

Katelyn was drawing a face on "her" pumpkin while daddy was getting the big pumpkin ready.

"Ummmmm......you want me to do WHAT?!?!
No one ever told me that you had to do that when you cut out his eyes."

"No thanks Dad! You can handle this part!"

Katelyn had to get her play doh knife to "help" out.

Such a goof!

No more Pull Ups!

2011-10-18T15:15:00.000-05:00

I can say we are THERE!! Katelyn has been to school several days and kept her panties dry the whole time. She is doing so good about telling us when she has to go potty and even starting to do it all on her own. I'm so proud of her!!!!

What an accomplishment!!

It's so nice to have a break from diapers for a few months :)

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-18T14:00:00.000-05:00

{October 8, 2011}

We went to Poppell Farm's Pumpkin Patch in Odum, GA this year again. It's really the only pumpkin patch in our area, but Katelyn had a blast again. Since she was bigger this year, she was able to enjoy it a bit more.

{Lots of pictures again; I was too lazy to make collages for all of them}

Spider slide (Supposed to be spider legs)

Petting Farm

Riding the cow train - this was the first thing she wanted to do when we got there and kept asking about it.

Standing on top of the world!

WEEEEEE!!!!

She was in love with this "Kiddie Maze." She kept running through it over and over again.
It wasn't challenging but I guess she just liked running down the path.

Daddy chasing her!

Practicing her roping skills!

Bouncing on the horses!

Ooops, the horse bucked her off!

Picking out a pumpkin at the pumpkin patch

This is THE one!

She wanted to get in the tractor sooooo bad!

{Watch Mommy Grow} 5 Months

2011-10-18T13:55:00.003-05:00

October 16, 2011 - 5 Months

{22 Weeks}

I feel like I suddenly just "Popped" out. I'm definitely feeling pregnant!

I had a Dr. appt this morning. Baby Boy is measuring right on track, heart beat in the 150s, and blood pressure great! The doctor said the ultrasound pictures looked great and nothing showed on the sequential screening (screening for genetic disorders). He's starting to kick like crazy now, but not quite hard enough to feel on the outside.

I have a feeling that February will be here soon! Holidays, Move and then BABY!!!

Beautiful day at the park

2011-10-18T12:01:00.001-05:00

{October 6, 2011}

Just another day at the park!

Katelyn is in love with swinging right now!
She wants to go higher and higher and squeals with delight the higher she goes!

(Just lots of park pictures :) )

Baking with Momma

2011-10-18T10:33:00.001-05:00

{October 6, 2011}

After Katelyn made muffins at school, she has been asking for muffins repeatedly. I'm always hesitant because she's not a sweet fan, so I'm doubtful that she'll even eat them. And I definitely don't need any extra sweets sitting around!

I finally gave in and let her help make some muffins. She thinks she can do it all by herself, even crack the eggs! HA!

Waiting for them to bake!
(Don't mind the lack of pants;
when we're at home, it's easier for her to go potty if she doesn't have to mess with the pants too!)

Yummmmm.......But of course, she didn't "want" the whole thing. Figures!
But they were sure delicious!!

Time for some BLUE!!

2011-10-17T18:09:00.002-05:00

We had our 20 week ultrasound on October 4. Baby was CRAZY active and the tech had a hard time getting her necessary measurements. Baby was NOT happy about her poking and prodding and hid behind my belly button several times. I was beginning to worry that we may not be able to find out if baby was going to be a boy or a girl. Of course the tech said that 98% of the time they are able to find out when they are doing their measurements and if they aren't able to see, then they probably aren't able to get their proper measurements and another ultrasound would be ordered.

BUT - when she got down to the legs she froze the screen and my heart about fell out - She clicked on something and started typing. Before she could finish typing, I said " Oh My Goodness, is that what I think it is!?!?!"

It sure was ----

And for all of the measurements she took of baby boy's legs, he was sure to show us that he was all boy. There is no question now - there won't be any surprises in the delivery room!

We are so ecstatic and thrilled! I just couldn't believe my eyes; I think I was in heaven the rest of the day. Daddy had a pretty big smile on his face as well! The tech said baby was measuring right on schedule - for now at least. I'm again concerned that he'll be a big boy. He seemed to have big feet and long legs already. Hmmmm.....I wonder where he might be getting that from?!? So I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for no bigger than a 9# baby - 8# sounds big enough, but if we have to compromise between an 11 pounder and a 7 pounder, I'll take 8 anyday!

And for those that think shopping for a boy isn't as much fun - I found that to be very wrong!! There are lots of cute little guy stuff out there!!

{Watch Mommy Grow} 4 Months

2011-10-17T18:03:00.003-05:00

4 Months - September 22, 2011
(20 weeks - halfway there!)

What's a photo shoot without Katelyn sneaking into the picture?!
And YES, there is lots of pink in this picture!

"Be careful Babies, Hold on!"

2011-10-17T17:50:00.003-05:00

Jack's parents made the dreaded trip from MO to GA the weekend after the wedding to take back the Monte and 4 Wheeler. Katelyn was in heaven seeing grandparents for 2 weekends in a row. Hopefully she'll get really spoiled by being able to see them often in MO!

Jack brought our trailer over to the house and we unloaded all the empty boxes out of it and into the garage so we could start the packing process. Katelyn was enjoying pulling her babies around in her wagon and taking them into and out of the trailer. As she went down the driveway and up onto the trailer ramp she would always say "Be careful babies, Hold on!" It was pretty darn cute!

Katelyn making sure they have it all under control!

Using her wagon to haul a load into the garage.

The new truck hooked up to the trailer.
The trailer is so long I couldn't get back far enough to get it all in the shot!

One of her trips in and out of the trailer.

And of course the weather didn't want to cooperate!
But what's a rain storm without Katelyn out playing in it!?!

She got some air!

And here are all the boxes....empty, but hopefully not for long. About 2 months and we'll be midwest bound! Hallelujah!

Missouri and a wedding

2011-10-12T14:18:00.006-05:00

Wow - how can it be that it was over a month ago the last time I blogged?!!? Guess it's time again to play catch up!

We took a quick trip too MO for a wedding. It was great to see family, but man that drive was looonnng. It just seems like it's never going to end. I'm so thankful that we only have to make that drive one more time and that time will be when we are moving!! Katelyn was of course a great traveler, but everyone's back and butts were sore by the end!

Katelyn hadn't seen her cousin Sadie since Christmas!
They had lots of catching up to do!

Everyone decided that Jack's new job should be wedding planning.
He steamed the 100+ year old dress, because no one else would touch it, Worked on yard work, etc.
He was the Jack of all trades...hahah!! Good one huh?!

(18 weeks here)

Our pretty pretty princess!

And there were lots of hugs given over the weekend!

Grammie got the girls princess dresses.
They were a big hit!

Grammie and her 2 princesses!

It rained during the Wedding reception on Saturday evening and then again on Sunday morning during the brunch. Katelyn just couldn't take it anymore and needed to be out in it!

And we couldn't leave without a little swimming, although the water was a bit too cold for Katelyn.

Guess she needs some more meat on her bones!

A great weekend and we can't wait to be able to spend more time there once the drive is only 3.5 hours!! Not too much longer!!

What's happening in GA?!

2011-09-12T08:47:00.003-05:00

I'm going to try my best to post weekly on what is happening here in GA. We don't often get tons of pictures of everyday stuff.

Last Monday I had another routine doctor appointment. I was 16 weeks and the doctor said things looked good. The baby's heartbeat was 150. The exam room we were in had a portable ultrasound machine so the doctor put it on baby. Baby was "standing" up! (feet down, head up). Baby better get this position worked out before d-day comes! Jack was able to go to this appointment - this was the first appointment he's been able to go to so it was exciting that he got to see the baby briefly. Last week the baby seemed to be punching me in the ribs, this week not so much. It is fun to be able to start feeling baby a little more. On more exciting news......We will get to find out if baby is a boy or girl on October 4!! (If baby cooperates!)

Most probably know but if not - we are moving to Fort Leonard Wood, MO in December! We are sooo excited to be so close to family. Katelyn will finally be able to see her grandparents regularly and the new baby will begin his/her new life with lots of family around!! December can not come fast enough! I had been house hunting on the internet and came across what seemed to be THE P.E.R.F.E.C.T. house! I talked to the owners on the phone and for whatever reason they seemed to fall in love with me and told me that they would hold the house for us. Jack's parents were able to head to FLW a few days later and check it out and it was everything we thought and more! This house is about 12 minutes from post, has 5 bedrooms, 3 bath, den, formal dining room, eat in kitchen, 2 car garage, walk out basement, HUGE family room in basement, wet bar (small), storage room, outdoor storage on the back of the house, lots of closets and is 3400 square feet!!!!! I have a feeling we aren't going to want to move out of this house!! Oh and in case you didn't know, we're just renting. No more buying for us until we are settled permanently! So, since we have plenty of rooms, we will have LOTS of room for visitors ;) And I'll even get a craft/sewing room and the kids will have a play room. Glorious!

Thursday Katelyn woke up and mid morning I noticed that she seemed a little tired looking. I felt her and she was burning up! She had a 103.3 degree fever! So I started the medicine right away and it seemed to come down. But as soon as the medicine was starting to wear off, the fever came right back. I kept her up on medicine all day and the fever never really seemed to break 102! During the day it was as high as 105! Then in the evening, it continued to climb. At about 6:00, we decided to throw her in the tub and see if we could get it to come down a bit with a cool bath. Poor thing - she hated every second of it! We ended up giving her a sponge bath and got the fever to come down a few degrees. Before we put her in the tub, her fever had climbed to as high as 106.7-107!!!! We were starting to really freak out now! It came down a bit again and then I checked her about 10:30 and it was back up to 107! We really didn't want to head to the ER for them to tell us that we were doing everything possible and send us back home at 11. She really didn't have any other symptoms besides the high fever. Thankfully after another dose of motrin at around midnight it finally broke and we were saved a trip to the ER. She battled a lower grade fever on Friday and was kind of crabby on Saturday and Sunday. She must have picked up a bug at school but BOY was that a scary situation! I don't think I've ever been so worried or scared with her before!

Some more exciting news - Katelyn is pretty much completely potty trained!! She hasn't had an accident in, well I can't even remember now! I know there will be one here or there, but so far she is doing amazing. I still haven't completely put all trust in her, she still wears a pull up to school and if we are going to be away from the house for a while. Although, if it's just a short trip, she does well. Of course, we are no where near ready to work on night time training yet, but I'm just thrilled with our progress this far. Something FINALLY clicked! Praise the Lord!

Well - here's week 1 . Let's see how long I can keep this up!!

Labor Day Weekend - Columbia, SC

2011-09-06T13:55:00.009-05:00

Over the long weekend, we went visited some friends that are stationed at Ft. Gordon, GA (about 2.5 hours from here). They have 2 girls (4 and 2) so it's always fun for Katelyn. And they have MORE than enough toys for everyone!! Katelyn was very excited to see Makara and Kinley and is still talking about them. We spent Friday night at their house and then headed to Columbia, SC on Saturday morning. It's only an hour drive from their house.

Saturday we went to the Riverbanks Zoo and Sunday we hit up the Edventure Children's Museum before heading home. Everyone had a great weekend as we always do with them, but we were ready to be back home in our own beds!

Katelyn was infatuated with the giraffes and kept asking to go back and see them the entire time we were at the zoo! When we got to the giraffe exhibit, they were all out of food, so the girls couldn't feed them. :(

A baby giraffe getting a bottle from the zookeeper

Makara, Kinley and Katelyn sitting on the gorilla

Awww!!!

front view! Look at all the cute little girls!

She loved the aquariums and looking for Nemo

At Edventure Children's Museum
The firetruck was her favorite and it took many attempts to pry her away from it to move on to other things. And then she kept asking to go back!

Driving a "bug"

And she even slid down the pole!

The butterfly garden.
She was pretty excited finding all the butterflies.

Maybe she'll get a little brother so he can have a peddle tractor! haha

Driving the right color of tractor!

Milking Bess!
She squeezed enough to get the "water" to come out

Grocery shopping

checking out!

This boy was over 2 stories tall and on the back side you can climb inside him and "explore" his organs. Katelyn liked the slide the best. The slide is actually the digestive tract. She got "spit" out many times because she thought the slide was pretty fun!

Even Daddy can paint

2011-08-29T12:11:00.003-05:00

Finger nails!!!! :)

Of course Katelyn wanted her nails painted right in the middle of me making dinner last night. So Daddy had to do his first manicure and pedicure! She was a little leery at first but she decided that he was the only one that was going to do it for her at the time so she gave in. He did pretty well for his first time!

Good job Daddy!!! I'm sure it'll be the first on many more "girlie" things he'll be forced to do!

Children's Museum

2011-08-28T20:28:00.008-05:00

Hurricane Irene decided to be so kind as to leave us alone and head up north. We didn't even get so much as a drop of rain! It was windy but that was about it and for that I'm very thankful. I feel so sorry for those folks that are washing away up north. So.....we decided to head Hilton Head, South Carolina on Saturday to the children's museum. It wasn't as big as I thought it might be, but Katelyn seemed to have fun regardless!

Taking Daddy for a trip in her airplane!

And that'll be $3.49 please!

Baker Katelyn

Katelyn the Builder

Playing with the trains!

She really needs a brother so he can have all these "boy" toys that she really enjoys playing with haha!

Playing in the magic sand

Playing on the boat - Captain Katelyn

Being a mermaid

New favorite activity

2011-08-28T20:19:00.002-05:00

PAINTING!!!

As you can see she's not the best at not mixing the colors, but for as long as it keeps her occupied....I don't care!! I tried at first to show her and quickly gave up. New watercolors are a cheap fix!! So for now Katelyn, keep on painting as long as your little heart desires!

How to eat breakfast

2011-08-28T20:14:00.002-05:00

In style!

{Watch Mommy Grow} 2 and 3 Months

2011-08-23T13:36:00.003-05:00

There hasn't been too much going on around here, hence the lack of posts lately. Just hot as usual and now we're preparing for Hurricane Irene. Every track shows a slightly different track, but for the most part, it looks like the worst should miss us. I'm sure we'll have plenty of rain and maybe a little wind, but hopefully not anything more than that. We're praying she "Hooks" east!
It wouldn't hurt my feelings to move outta this joint without going through a hurricane!
Time will tell!

On a different note - lil peanut's been cooking and starting to pop out more and more every day. I'm ready for the "fat or pregnant" stage to pass! I have my next appt right after Labor Day and Jack should be able to go with me so he'll be able to hear the heartbeat for the first time!

I've been feeling decent; not as great as I felt with Katelyn though. Boy?!?! Who knows, time will tell! And those that were bummed we did not find out the sex with Katelyn, will be happy to know we are going to find out what Lil Peanut is! Hopefully that appt will be in about 5-6 weeks! Then we'll know if Katelyn's prediction of Baby sister is correct! hah!

2 Months - July 16, 2011

3 Months - August 16, 2011

Sneak Peek at Lil Peanut

2011-08-08T21:23:00.003-05:00

Today, I got a sneak peek at our lil Peanut! Unfortunately, Jack is in the field again so he wasn't able to see but hopefully he'll be able to attend more appointments now that this field exercise is almost up.

Lil Peanut was VERY cooperative today. The tech was trying to get a specific measurement and said that it could take 10 minutes or it could take 30 minutes and still not get one. The minute she started the ultrasound Peanut was laying in the perfect position. The tech was so happy. She said that everything looked great and the measurement she was looking for was great. If the measurement was too large - it indicated Down's Syndrome. Of course, there is not 100% guarantee from an ultrasound but she was very optimistic that baby was doing great.
(This is just a routine screening that you can opt to do.)

After the tech got the measurements she needed, she took some other measurements and showed me more of Lil Peanut! We were able to see that Lil Peanut has 2 arms, 2 legs (still connected), 2 hands (fingers still in web like shape), brain forming, stomach, 2 eye sockets, 2 ear buds, and collar bones beginning to form. She also said that the cord looked great. All such reassuring things to hear! And baby is measuring right on track! Hopefully this continues...I'd prefer to not have a 11 pounder like it's Daddy!! :)

It was so cool to get to see baby this early and then again at 20 weeks! With Katelyn, I only got 1 ultrasound the entire pregnancy and that was at 20 weeks. So this was super cool!

Katelyn has enjoyed these pictures and carried them around quite a bit this afternoon. She'll look at them and say "Baby Sister" and then put the pictures on the entertainment center. (She always calls it baby sister even if we call it brother or sister.) I think she's starting to understand it a bit more - She'll say "Baby in tummy." I'm sure it'll make a little more sense when I start to show even more. Hopefully the enthusiasm continues; I think she'll be a great big sister!!

Playing in the rain - again

2011-08-06T20:26:00.004-05:00

I know there's already a post about Katelyn playing in the rain,

but she was so cute today splashing around that I have to do another post!

I know the grandparents will enjoy it!

Notice she can see - her hair isn't in her eyes anymore! I finally took her for another haircut today and she wanted to sit all by herself in the chair like a big girl...and she DID! She sat so still and listened to what the lady wanted her to do. I was so proud of her! Guess she's not a little girl anymore :*(

Bubble Bath

2011-08-06T20:19:00.002-05:00

This girl loves her bath, especially if there are bubbles in it!

Boo Boo

2011-08-06T20:14:00.003-05:00

Last week Katelyn's school called one morning and said that she'd had an accident at school. My heart always drops when they call and I'm just praying that she has all her teeth in her mouth and no broken bones. They said she was doing fine now, but was outside playing ball and fell face first onto the sidewalk and scratch her forehead up. It probably was a good thing it happened at school because she let them put an ice pack on it and I doubt that would have happened at home! School said she didn't cry too much and was a little trooper!

I swear, I need to buy this girl a helmet to wear to school. About a month ago, she busted open her lip when she fell on the playground!

Luckily it healed really fast but she liked telling her story over and over again and she always wanted to be sure that I knew she had a boo boo on her forehead. Guess she was proud of it!

Big Sister

2011-07-27T20:31:00.002-05:00

Katelyn's ready to reveal her secret........

I'm going to be a:

No, You aren't seeing things.
Her shirt says "Big Sister!"
We're so excited to announce that we'll be welcoming Baby J #2 into the world in mid February!

I had my first appointment today and the doctor found the heartbeat right away and
it was beating strong at 170 bpm.

We'll all very excited for this next little one to join our family....now come on February.
It seems like an eternity!!!

Getting Dressed

2011-07-25T20:29:00.004-05:00

I found something that will keep Katelyn occupied for about 20 minutes --

letting her put her own jammies on!
She wouldn't let me help, so it took a while!
She was jumping all over the living room trying to get those suckers on.
She was cracking me up!
I sure love this goofball!

Oops! Not quite!

"I did it! I did it!!"

Splash Park

2011-07-25T13:30:00.003-05:00

We went to the Splash Park on post last week to try to cool down a bit.

Katelyn was cool - not Mom!
She had fun "swimming!"

(Click on the picture to see it larger)

And just because I thought this face was hilarious!

Not sure why she was crawling, guess she was trying to sneak up on it!
Of course she got squirted in the face E.V.E.R.Y single time, but she kept going back for more!
She's such a goof ball!
Always making us laugh!

Hope y'all are staying cool! hah!
When is Fall going to be here....better yet, a nice snow sounds good right about now!

Playing in the rain

2011-07-25T13:24:00.002-05:00

One of Katelyn's favorite things to do is play in the rain so when I saw these cute boots on the clearance rack, I couldn't pass them up!
We'd been dry for so long and then starting getting little storms every afternoon.
We finally got one that didn't have thunder and lightning so she could go out and play!
She was like a little kid in a candy store!

Video Games

2011-07-25T13:18:00.002-05:00

Katelyn woke up from her nap to find Daddy playing a video game.
She thought she needed to jump right in, so Daddy got her all set up!

(She wasn't playing, but was still having a blast because she thought she was!)

Fourth of July Part 2

2011-07-25T12:48:00.004-05:00

On the 4th of July, Ft. Stewart had a big celebration during the day and a concert that night. Fantasia and the Zac Brown Band came!!! The activities during the day were great! Although it was hot out, everything was free! Tons of restaurants from Hinesville set up and there was free food everywhere - any kind you might like! We met Emmalyn and her parents there and the girls enjoyed the petting zoo and getting their faces painted.

Looking on at the animals in the petting zoo

Katelyn was pretty excited about her puppy balloon.
She placed with it for quite a while before it eventually came untied
but she still called it a puppy even though it looked more like a snake!

The girls with their pups!

When we headed over to the face painting tent, I was a little nervous!
I didn't think she'd sit still or even allow them to paint on her face.
Man was I wrong!
She sat sooo still for what seemed like FOREVER!
I thought this lady was NEVER going to finish!

At her first concert!
She was a great sport and lasted for the end of Fantasia and all but 15 minutes of the ZBB.
The fireworks were after the concert, so we headed back to the car a few minutes early and found a great parking spot and enjoyed the 30 minute firework show post put on!
I thought it was going to go on all night!
Katelyn enjoyed the "Booms" again!
She still asks to go see fireworks and Booms every once and a while!

I hope y'all had a great 4th!

Fourth of July Day 1

2011-07-22T10:20:00.002-05:00

We had a great Fourth of July weekend! Plenty of family time! We went to some friends house on Saturday and spent the evening with them. Enjoyed some yummy dinner, the kids did a few fireworks and then watched the city's firework display. Katelyn did well, love the "Booms" and stayed up real late that night!

Of course the girls loved throwing the poppers down or stepping on them.

Sparkler time!!
Emmalyn did one sparkler and then would not go near them.
Katelyn on the other hand LOVED them!
She wasn't scared of them at all, and I was very surprised by that!
Guess she's getting to be quite the little dare devil!

Katelyn liked the bigger ones too....maybe too much!

The girls being goofballs! Or at least Emmalyn being a goofball in this picture!

Tractors

2011-07-22T10:15:00.002-05:00

Katelyn is pretty interested in tractors right now. Whenever we pass any construction equipment she says over and over again...tractor, tractor, tractor. We don't have any "real" tractors around here so for now she'll just call the construction equipment "tractors". And whenever we go to any store that has riding lawn mowers, she thinks she needs to sit on them ALL and drive them. This sure reminds me of my brother when he was younger! Every store, every fair, everywhere there were tractors...he had to climb into E.V.E.R.Y one of them! To me, they were all the same, but not to him! I'm sure Jack was probably a "tractor" boy too, so she gets it honestly! Hopefully one of these days when we make it back to the midwest where there are tractors everywhere, she can get a ride on one. She'll be in heaven!

Art Show

2011-07-22T10:11:00.002-05:00

Once again....I'm WAY behind in blogging. So in an attempt to remember all that's been going on, I'm going to try to get caught up. Hope you're ready for the ride!

Katelyn participated in her first Art Show at "school." I thought it was pretty cute! I just love picking her up and getting having her give me her art work that she did at school that day. I cherish them all......It will be hard to part with them, but what I can't collect every piece she does until she's in middle school! Guess I'll just cherish these for now and try to save my favorites!

Seaworld and Disney World

2011-07-03T14:57:00.013-05:00

***Warning - The following is a VERY long post. :)
To see some of the pictures better, click on them to enlarge! ***

A few weeks ago Jack had some leave time, so we decided we'd head down to FL and visit Sea World and Disney World. Both places have some awesome deals for Military so we took advantage of them! We are only 4 hours from Orlando, and have always said we would go before we left here, but wanted to wait until Katelyn was a bit older. I had never been to Disney World and Jack had been when he was 10. Katelyn loves Disney Junior and knows all the characters. We have been talking about seeing Mickey and his gang for weeks so she was pretty pumped to go to "Mickey's House."

We just arrived at Sea World.
Katelyn was telling us which way to go!

Sea World had a Sesame Street show that we left extra early in the morning so we could make it on time.

Katelyn zoomed in to Sesame Street!

Dolphin show at Sea World.
Katelyn was very excited to see the Dolphins and talked about it the entire way there.

Katelyn's favorite ride - the carousel!

Katelyn and I rode a little boat ride at Sea World.
I learned my lesson from this ride - make sure I watch the ride before getting on it!
This one was a bit more than I thought but Katelyn was a trooper!

Katelyn was the most excited though to "go swimming."
I think we could have just gotten a hotel room and swam the entire time
and she would have been a content little girl!
We have been to the splash parks several times this summer, but have not been in a pool this year.
She was kind of skeptical at first, but before long she was quite the little fishy and even called herself a fishy.

We spent our first day at Disney World at Animal Kingdom.
The safari ride was awesome and we rode on these cool looking "Safari" vehicles!

Tree of Life at The Animal Kingdom.
Lots and Lots of concrete!

The first character Katelyn got to meet was Goofy!
He was decked out as woodlands Goofy since we were at the Animal Kingdom.
She was kind of skeptical at first, but she was smiling by the end.

Waiting in line to see more characters.

It was HOT!

Katelyn's first set of ears!

She had a "My 1st Visit" button,
but she wasn't real good about not pulling it off her shirt so she didn't wear it much.

Jack and Katelyn in front of the big ball at Epcot.
Whenever we went to Epcot, Katelyn would say "Big Ball" over and over and over!

Magic Kingdom

Once again, Katelyn loving the carousel!
This was our most rode ride haha.

Katelyn and Jack on the Dumbo Ride.
Katelyn was on the inside and wasn't really big enough to peek over so just got pictures of Jack waving!

Meeting Pooh and Tigger after she rode Pooh's Honeypot ride.

Katelyn and her very first Minnie doll, waiting in line to see Mickey and Minnie!

Sleeping Beauty

Belle

Cinderella

Cinderella planted a big wet one on Katelyn's cheek!

Parade at Magic Kingdom

Katelyn was quite a trooper this day.
We were able to come back to Magic Kingdom for the fireworks.
She stayed up until 11:00 that night and was in an unbelievably good mood.
She LOVED the fireworks and would go BOOM every time they went off!
Whenever you say the word fireworks, she'll say BOOM!

We ate at the Coral Reef Restaurant at Epcot and went on the Nemo Ride.
Katelyn was pretty excited about this ride and talked about Nemo a lot afterwards.

We stayed at Caribbean Beach Resort on Disney and the main pool had a big pirates ship that had slides, water sprays and all kinds of stuff.
Katelyn thoroughly enjoyed the slides and wasn't afraid to go down the slides that the bigger kids were going on.
I was holding her back not letting her, but got tired of her asking so let her go.
There was no stopping her after!

Fishy Katelyn!

This isn't the slide she was begging to go down.
This was the kiddie slide and apparently not thrilling enough!

The last night we were at Disney we went back to Epcot and saw more characters.
We waited in one line and got to see all 5 of these characters!
She LOVED it!
She walked up to each of them on her own and hugged them all and then got her picture taken.
It was so cute!
Then as she walked away from each character she would wave and say "Bye Mickey (or their name)"
This made my trip!!
I was one happy Momma seeing her so excited to see all the characters!

We went to Downtown Disney one afternoon and evening.
Katelyn fell asleep on the bus ride and slept in her stroller for 2 hours until I woke her up.
So, she missed the best Disney toy store.
You could fill a box up with Mr. Potato Head parts and it was a set price.
So the more you could stuff in your box, the more you got!
Jack and I did a pretty good job of filling our box full.
She thought it was pretty cool to play with when we showed her after her bath that night!

At Hollywood Studios

Meeting Handy Manny!
Too bad his tools didn't come too!

The Play House Disney Show
Katelyn enjoyed this and danced around with all the other kids.
Mickey and his pals, Handy Manny and his tools, The Little Einsteins, and Jake and the Neverland Pirates were there!

Katelyn and Jack wearing their 3D goggles waiting in line for the Toy Story ride!

One tuckered out little girl!

We all had a blast! It was definitely hot but was fun to get away and also to see Katelyn have a good time! She probably was a tad too young to thoroughly enjoy it all, but we couldn't pass up this opportunity! Next time she'll be able to ride the big rides with Daddy!

Jekyll Island

2011-06-15T20:00:00.007-05:00

Last weekend we went to Jekyll Island, GA with some friends. We hadn't been to the beach as a family since Katelyn was 3 months old and she hated every second of it then. Not this time! She LOVES water and swimming. She even had more fun with her best buddy Emmalyn.

I'll let the zillion pictures below tell the rest of the story!
(Disclaimer: There were so many cute pictures, I had a difficult time deciding so there are tons posted!
Some of the pictures are rather tiny, so if you'd like to see them larger, just click on the picture.)

Katelyn was asking for her friend Emmalyn the whole way there and apparently Emmalyn cried for Katelyn the whole way too! They were both very happy to get out of the car and see each other!

We got to the beach about 11:30 and the tide was pretty much non existent so the beach was pretty muddy. Of course, that was the first thing the girls found when they got there!

Crawling in the water being "cats!"
They were Meowing as they were crawling too.
Silly girls!

Building "Towers"

Good thing Amy brought watermelon for a snack.
The girls shoveled all of it into their mouth.
I'm not sure what they ate more of...watermelon or Sand!

Jumping down the beach

Finally the tide came in and Katelyn thought the "Big Waves" were cool.

She'll probably hate me for this later, (But it's so funny!!) but she is so skinny that she couldn't keep the bottoms of her swim suit up. At first it was just a bit, but they got loaded down with sand and I was worried that the next time she would run up the beach they would be around her ankles. Good thing I brought another suit, so we just changed out the bottoms for non matching bottoms, but at least they stayed up!

Katelyn and Daddy went for a swim out in the ocean....way far out!

Emmalyn got buried in the sand and Katelyn got buried......part way!

And like I said, she just LOVES the waves! And wanted to always be out there!

It was a great day had by all and something we will be doing again!

Katelyn's 2 year pictures

2011-06-06T15:42:00.004-05:00

We got Katelyn's 2 year pictures taken in May; I'm just late posting like usual!
So....here are the best ones!

We didn't have a 2 year check up for Katelyn - she doesn't need anymore shots until she's 4!! (except the flu shot of course!) So here are her at home stats:

24 pounds (10-25th percentile)
33.5" tall (25-50th percentile)

And P.S. - Don't worry Grandparents and Family, pictures should be arriving to you soon! :)

Where we've been spending a lot of time

2011-05-25T12:45:00.004-05:00

Friday night Katelyn got the idea that going potty on the big girl potty was great! Jack was gone this weekend so Katelyn and I spent a lot of time in the bathroom and me asking her if she needed to use the potty OVER and OVER and OVER again! She has been doing really well and has even gone #2 on the potty! We are no where near "there" but we have definitely come a long way since Friday night! I'm so happy that she has decided she is ready to start this process!

Mommy and Daddy are SOOO proud of you and hope you keep up the good work!

First Hair Cut!

2011-05-25T12:13:00.003-05:00

We have been saying that Katelyn needed a hair cut for a couple weeks now, but have just been avoiding it because I was afraid of what it would. Her hair was hanging down in her eyes and she was constantly rubbing her eyes to get the hair out of them. I wanted to get her 2 year pictures taken so we decided it needed to be done!

Well - Katelyn proved me wrong!
She was FANTASTIC and now she can see!!
What did Mommy know!?!

First pet

2011-05-25T12:04:00.004-05:00

Katelyn got her first pet for her birthday!
Uncle Matt got her a beta fish - she calls him "fishy."
He has been quite the active guy! He lives on our counter and every time we go into the kitchen he thinks he's going to get fed. I guess he thinks he must have been starved before he got to our house. We feed him 2 times a day and Katelyn enjoys watching him eat. She'll climb up on the bar stool and just watch "fishy."

She better enjoy this "pet" because that is as much of a pet as she is going to get for a LONG time! No dog or cat for her next birthday!

Katelyn's 2nd 2nd Birthday Party!

2011-05-24T20:32:00.005-05:00

Since Papa and Grandma W and Uncle Matt weren't here for Katelyn's 1st party, we had a 2nd 2nd birthday party! haha They came to visit for a week and we had a lot of fun and of course that week FLEW by! We didn't have to do too much; Katelyn was pretty much all the entertainment we needed! Unfortunately Jack got stuck working most of the weekend and late some of the nights and the weather was on the cooler side (no complaints here!) so we weren't able to go to the beach, but we did go to the Tree House on post, park, played outside in the beautiful weather, took Katelyn to get her first haircut and a trip to Savannah to The Lady and Sons Restaurant! Most importantly, it was just fun to be together. We hadn't seen them since Christmas! TOO LONG!

Baking brownies with Grandma

Singing "Happy Birthday".
She made some funny faces this time again.

Present time AGAIN!
She loves this little foldable lawn chair! It's just her size!
She is also becoming quite a puzzle lover and has almost mastered the jigsaw puzzles she got!

Chilling with Uncle!

We ate at Paula Deen's restaurant - The Lady and Sons

Jack and Uncle giving the car a "tune up"

And look how dirty she was after playing outside!
She was DEFINITELY in need of a good scrubbing!

What a great week!
Who wants to come visit next!?!

Katelyn's 2nd Birthday

2011-05-09T20:16:00.009-05:00

Katelyn turned 2 on Friday and I am still in shock that my baby girl is 2!! These last 2 years have been the best years of our life and I can't imagine our life without our little bundle of joy.

All week long Katelyn was been talking about her "Party Day." Whenever she would wake up from a nap or in the morning she would say to me "K K Party Day?" and then we'd count how many days were left. It was hilarious! So on Thursday night Grammie and Pops got here and the fun began! We hung a banner over the fireplace and when she woke up on Friday morning she ran out to the living room and pointed at it and yelled "PARTY DAY!" We celebrated Katelyn's birthday a little on Friday. She got presents from Mommy and Daddy and also the camaro from Grammie and Pops. She was pretty excited to open the car and started saying "Boyer's Car! Boyer's Car" (Clint Bowyer's Car - Jack brought home a matchbox Clint Bowyer car from the nascar race and that's what she calls sports cars now.) She doesn't quite have long enough legs, but a block added to the top of the pedal helped a lot! Now if she could just figure out to turn the steering wheel at the same time as pushing the pedal! Lots for a 2 year old to remember!

On Saturday we had her birthday party - Dora themed of course! Some friends came over, we grilled out, sang Happy Birthday, ate cupcakes and cookies, pulled the strings on a Dora pinata, and swam in the backyard. It was a good day and I think all the girls had a great time! I know Katelyn had a blast with her friends and loved all the attention - especially when we sang Happy Birthday (She didn't want to get off the stool and wanted us to sing again and again! Goofy girl!)

Banner I made for the "Party Day!"

"Boyer's Car!"

Her first driving lesson from Daddy!

She made it move and was pretty stoked!

Another driving lesson from Pops

Opening up presents from Mommy and Daddy

The couch was a HUGE hit!

I made a Dora blanket for her and as soon as she opened it,
she plopped down on her couch and covered up!

A Radio Flyer Inchworm that I redeemed my Pampers points for so it was free but probably really cost us $1000 in diapers!

Making "Ghetti" with her new pot and pans set that she got from Aunt Marlene, Uncle Mark, Dallas, and Ty.

The neighbors came over to see Katelyn's new ride.
Jasmine was her first passenger!

The cupcakes for her Party Day!

Dora themed cookies - Dora, Backpack and Star!

Wearing her "I'm 2" shirt and dancing to her favorite song "Wildflowers" again and again.

The drawstring backpack each of the girls got for the gift bag.

And I even embroidered their name on it!

Emmalyn and Katelyn eating lunch

The spread!

The girls playing in the play room!
Toys were everywhere; I thought we might have to dig one of the girls out! haha

Singing "Happy Birthday" to Katelyn.
She was making some funny faces during the song .

And then she didn't want us to stop singing!

Pinata time!
No more hitting of the pinata - now you just pull the strings...all 8 of them!
Kind of a joke, but oh well!

Present time!
She is one spoiled little girl!

And then it was pool time!
I made the mistake of saying we would go swimming next (before she opened her presents) and she could have cared less about the gifts or opening them.
She just wanted to go outside!

She got "colored" bubbles from her cousin Sadie.

They were a huge mess!
The next time we do them, we'll strip off her clothes and do it in the backyard.
They were cool though, because the bubbles really were green, but every time she popped on, her face got splattered!
Live and Learn!

Crusin' in the car - after we put the block on the pedal!

Her "Party Day" isn't over yet, because at the end of the week Papa, Grandma and Uncle Matt are coming to visit! It's been since Christmas since we've seen them so we're excited! We'll do a little "Party Day" with them since they couldn't be here for the other party. Let the fun continue!!

Katelyn is such a lucky girl to have so many people that love and care for her. She was definitely remembered on her birthday!

Easter

2011-04-24T20:49:00.005-05:00

Today was a great day! A wonderful reason to celebrate!! We went to Church an hour earlier today to participate in Easter Breakfast on the porch. Then after church we went to the White's house for Easter dinner. And when we got home, we found the Easter Bunny had made a visit to our house ;)!

Our Cinderella!
She said several times "K K Pretty" after I told her she was so pretty in her fancy dress.
Thanks to Sadie for letting Katelyn wear your pretty dress!

Breakfast on the porch before church

Second Easter egg hunt of the season.
Neither of the girls were too into it....
Emmalyn only wanted the eggs that had candy in them and if they were empty,
she would throw them back down.
And Katelyn didn't want the eggs that were laying open.
Lose Lose for both girls.
Oh well!

Since the hunt wasn't a big hit, they turned the sprinklers on.
Now that was a hit!
I can't say I ever remember being able to run in the sprinklers on Easter....oh wait - I lived in Kansas!

Katelyn would make this face every time the water caught her like it was the first time each time!
Crazy girl!

The Easter Bunny had a very Dora themed Easter basket this year.
Katelyn loved it and was sad when the presents were all opened.
She's going to LOVE her birthday.....in 2 weeks :(

The Easter bunny brought Dora water colors.
She couldn't quite remember that you had to put the paint brush from the water,
to the paint, to the paint book.
She kept wanting to go from the cup to the paint and back to the cup again.
Needless to say, the water was very colorful! ha!
Soon she'll get it figured out!

I hope y'all had a great Easter!
It was wonderful to be able to spend Easter as a family and I'm looking forward to more holidays in the years to come!

Wheels Day

2011-04-22T20:42:00.005-05:00

April is the Month of the Military Child and the Child Development Centers have lots of activities planned throughout the month. Today was "Wheels" Day at school. Katelyn didn't go to school today because Jack is off, but it was open to post so we went anyways. There were different pieces of military equipment, ambulance, police car, firetruck and several tractors. She was a little too small to be excited about the vehicles, but they had a train and some bounce houses that were a hit! She was excited about the train and kept saying "Choo Choo" while we were waiting in line, but the conductor tried to talk to her and she freaked out. So when we got on the train she wasn't too happy, but as soon as it started moving she was saying "weee." We had to ride the train 2 times. The bounce houses were nice because they were for the smaller kids AND one of them was Dora! There was also a Sesame Street one, but it was old and smelled like mildew! Needless to say, she didn't want to leave!

These red things are called "Bye Bye Buggy's" and the younger aged classes have several of these that they load all the kids in to take them out and about. I just think they are the coolest thing!

Sleeping with her girls

2011-04-21T22:54:00.004-05:00

I check on Katelyn every night before I go to bed.

There is just something about a sleeping baby!
I just love it!
She just looks so peaceful and adorable!

This is how I found her the other night!
Such a little Mommy to her dolls! ha!

Happy Party Day Daddy

2011-04-21T22:42:00.003-05:00

Last Thursday Jack had a big birthday. I won't say just how old....but the second number was a zero! Katelyn and I had a little something up our sleeve. I was planning on getting his key to the office and decorating it up on Wednesday night so when he got there on Thursday morning it'd be waiting, but he spoiled that plan when he didn't get home until after 8 on Wednesday night. So, we just got some balloons, a cake and took it up to work in the morning to make sure everyone knew that it was his big day! I kept talking about it with Katelyn and she kept saying "Happy Party Day Daddy! Happy Party Day Daddy!" And if you asked her who's birthday it was she would say "Daddy, Party Day." She was excited and poor Jack didn't even get to open his presents. The minute I sat them on the table, she ripped right into them. Her birthday should be a lot of fun!

Katelyn's giving Jack the balloons she picked out for him.
You can't really see it, but there is an Elmo balloon in there!
That's the first one she saw when we walked into the store and wouldn't stop saying Elmo, so I figured what the heck!

Happy 30th Birthday Old Man!!
We love you!!
(Oops! Did I just say the number!)
I can give him a hard time about being old since he's older than me!

Sorry the pictures aren't the best; I should have brought my good camera instead. Oh well!

Hippity Hoppity Easter's on it's way!

2011-04-21T22:22:00.005-05:00

This past weekend, Jack's parents were in town so we had a little Easter Egg hunt and Katelyn dyed some eggs. She did quite well with the coloring of the eggs and only got a small spot on her clothes (and by the way - it came out! Can you believe it?!?). She did however like to put her hands in the dyem so she had some colorful hands and a nice pink streak going down her arm. Oh well, it came off after a few days. I only had 7 eggs ready to go and that was plenty. After about 5 she was more interested in stirring the dye. I guess we kept a pretty close eye on things because only 1 egg turned out brown. We must have grabbed them before she could put them in every single cup. There's always next year and by then I'm sure it'll be even more of "I do! I do!"

"Not like this Mommy?"

See what I'm talking about!

So pretty! (Except for the ugly duckling!)

The whole time she was out "hunting" eggs, she kept saying "More eggs! More eggs! More eggs!"

The Easter Bunny brought a basket with some goodies too!

The E.B brought some Dora and Elmo bandaids!
Although she won't keep them on her "owie" long enough to do anything!

Decorating the cupcakes the EB brought too.
These are Melissa and Doug wooden cupcakes and you can draw on the "icing" so she has had fun decorating and "baking" them in her oven.

Bubble time with Pops!

Whew! You made it through! Congrats :)
Sorry it was a long one!

A chef in PJs!

2011-04-21T22:18:00.002-05:00

Our lil chef in her PJs!
Wonder what this meal is going to taste like if she cooks like this?!

Big shoes to fill

2011-04-21T22:05:00.004-05:00

Katelyn's pretty infatuated with Daddy right now and I couldn't be happier! She needs to know where he is at all times when he is home and gets VERY excited when she hears the garage door open. She knows he's HOME! He's been working some very late nights, so sometimes she doesn't see him much before I have to wind her down (Because he gets her all hyped up when he gets home) and put her to bed. Here's a little idea of what she does when she hears the garage door open. Usually she runs out and grabs his leg and then carries his lunch pail in for him....she wasn't on her A game the night I finally got the video out! Oh well, it's still adorable none the less!

Dance Dance Katelyn

2011-04-21T21:35:00.004-05:00

Katelyn LOVES to dance! Her favorites are "Undo" by Carrie Underwood and "Wildflower" by Jane Deere Girls- she really gets down! Good thing for On Demand! She is starting to dance and clap more in the car; not sure why she isn't trying to bust a move in the car, maybe she is just too restrained!

The funniest thing about her dancing though...she has to have her purse most of the time. So the music will start and then she'll start saying "purse! Purse! Purse!" (But in Katelyn talk) and run off to find it. Then she'll dance a little with it and hand it to me. Such a goof ball!

Jack's Change of Command

2011-04-04T16:14:00.005-05:00

On March 15, Jack took command of HHC 2-3 BSTB. He commanded E/1-30 IN for about 10 months, but the company was merged with another engineering company in January and Jack got to be the lucky one (sarcasm) to be the new HHC commander. HHC is just a different kind of group than a "normal" company. For starters, there are about 220+ soldiers in the company! That's a lot of folks to keep track of! I'm very thankful that this command is during a non deployment time, because I thought keeping up with about 50 spouses was bad, I can't even begin to imagine the work involved in a company this size. So anyways, the fun begins. Let's just say, he's been at work more during the last 2 weeks than home, although it seems to be quieting down a bit. On his first day, he didn't get home until 9:30!

Jack taking the guidon for the new company

Jack with the BN Commander and outgoing HHC Commander

Jack with the new company (or about 50 of them!)

Reception

Time to cut the cake
(Do you see Katelyn in the background just having a blast?!)

She was the entertainment at the reception
and was the best little girl that we could have asked for that day!

Wearing Daddy's hat!

Congratulations Jack! We're so proud of you!
We love you!

A little sewing project

2011-04-04T16:12:00.002-05:00

I got a sewing machine about a month ago and have had fun experimenting and making fun things. I made a dress for Katelyn first and after some altering because my model is a stick - I think it turned out pretty well (especially for the first project since ohhhh probably middle school home ec!)

My model was real cooperative so this is the best shot I could get!
I can't wait to make more fun dresses/outfits for her!
I'm in love with my sewing machine!

Monkey Joes

2011-04-04T16:01:00.004-05:00

Katelyn and I went to a birthday party over the St. Patty's Day weekend. Jack was in Bristol, TN for the Nascar race with some buddies so he wasn't able to go with us. (Hopefully he can do a post about his weekend!) The birthday party was at Monkey Joes - an indoor place with inflatables. I wasn't sure how Katelyn would do - the last time she'd played in the inflatables, she was the only one in the joint and she wasn't so happy to be bouncing, just going down the slides. I was also able to get in with her last time since there wasn't anyone there. This time - it was PACKED since it was on a Saturday!

But - she LOVED it! I didn't think she'd be able to get up to the slides since you have to climb ladders and such, but she disappeared one time and then next thing I knew she was coming down the slide all by herself! Little stinker! Needless to say, she didn't want to leave and we had tears on the way out!

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