Holiday fun

Kara spent Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa S.'s house.  Grandma and Grandpa had all their Christmas decorations out. Kara particularly enjoyed playing with Grandma's Hallmark singing snowman. We showed Kara how to push the button and make them sing. She couldn't get enough of it!

Kara had her one-year check-up with her doctor the week after her birthday. Our girl is very long and lean. Basically, Kara is always on the move - walking around and climbing on everything.

Grandpa H. had a meeting in Colorado Springs last week and was able come visit us for a day.  He had a good time hanging out with Kara and enjoyed playing with her in the park. After dinner, we tried to hang out downtown to see the Parade of Lights.  Unfortunately, the parade didn't start when they were supposed to (at 6:00), and we had to leave without seeing them to get Kara home in time for bedtime.

Tonight, we went to "Dessert and a Story with Santa" at the Louisville Rec Center. Um, we're going to put that in the category of "It seemed like a good idea at the time." They had some temporary tattoos, cookies, and hot chocolate. We tried to get a tattoo on Kara's cheek, but that didn't work out too well. Kara did nibble on a couple of cookies. She also sat pretty still for Santa while he read "The Night Before Christmas". She was even fairly patient while we waited in line to sit on Santa's lap; however, the actual visit with Santa did not go well. Kara sat there for about two seconds before tears started rolling down her cheeks and she started crying. We'll have to try that again next year...

Link to pictures

Kara is 1!

Happy First Birthday, Kara! It is amazing that Kara joined our lives just one year ago. She's such a large part of our lives, we cannot possibly imagine a our world without Kara.

Kara woke up on her birthday around 7:00 (which is pretty normal for her these days), but instead of Mommy greeting her with a Good Morning song, Mommy sang Happy Birthday to her. Kara thought that was quite odd, and gave her Mom the dirtiest look she has. Once we got Kara dressed, we went out to breakfast at The Huckleberry in downtown Louisville. It was delicious! Kara got the Mickey Mouse pancake, though we're pretty sure Mommy and Daddy ate more of the pancakes than Kara!

After breakfast, the day was pretty uneventful until 3:00 when the guests arrived for the party. Grandma and Grandpa S., Great Grandma K. (or GG K. as she likes to be called), and Aunt Amy came for the party. Grandma and Grandpa H. and Great Grandma B. (or GiGi B. as she likes to be called) called in through Skype, so they could enjoy the party as well. We sang happy birthday for Kara (and got another dirty look) and then let her go on her own little cake. Surprisingly, she didn't really enjoy the cake too much. Everyone else, however, enjoyed the cake enough for her. Kara got lots of fun toys and much appreciated clothes for her birthday!

Uncle Trey wasn't able to be there for the party, but did call us on Skype the next day. It was great to see him, and he was surprised how much Kara had grown since the last time he saw her.

In other news, Kara just finished her first session of swim classes. Kara had a lot of fun at every class. She didn't actually learn how to swim, but she did learn how to blow bubbles (she likes to practice now during her baths). She slept very well on swim nights, which made Mommy and Daddy happy. :) Kara is getting pretty good at communicating these days. She's recently picked up the sign for "sleep" and likes to walk into the kitchen and sign "eat" (Mommy will usually give her a little cracker when she does that). Kara is completely off formula and now just drinks whole milk and water. She still gets one bottle just before bed, though that probably won't last much longer. It's amazing watching her grow. Like Mommy said the other day, she's not a baby anymore, she's turning into a little girl. I agree.

Link to November pictures


Link to birthday pictures

Happy Halloween!

Today was Kara's first Halloween.  She dressed up as a monkey (a very cute monkey, if we do say so ourselves).  We tried to do a little Trick-or-Treating, but the lady at the first house we went to was dressed as a witch.  Kara wasn't a big fan of the scary witch and broke down into tears.  And thus ended our first Halloween adventure.  Hopefully next year will be a bit better...

Kara's walking very well these days.  She can pretty much walk anywhere she wants to go.  She can even bend down and pick things up and keep on walking.  She also figured out another sign.  She can now sign "more" in addition to "milk", "eat", and "dog".  She's also started clapping and waving more.  She's still not talking much, but we're hoping that'll come soon.  Happy Halloween!

Link to pictures


And here are some of Daddy's pictures from his trip to Denmark:

One of the guys that went to Denmark with Daddy took some pictures too, which you can see here. As a note, Daddy didn't take these pictures or post them, so he's not responsible for the content. :)

Welcome home, Daddy!

Daddy's been gone for most of the month on a business trip to Denmark.  I had a good time and got some good pictures (which I'll share in the next blog post), but I think everyone's a little happier with Daddy home.

Kara's getting to be quite a handful.  She likes to get into everything.  She particularly likes to climb into her toy bin and then throw out all her toys.  Kara's also becoming more mobile.  She's becoming a very confident walker (see the videos) and toddles all around our townhouse.  Kara is a very strong girl.  Mommy swears she was doing chin-ups the other day.

Kara's starting to communicate a bit more.  If you ask Kara where her ears are, she'll grab her ears.  If you ask he where Mickey is, she'll grab her Mickey doll (she also knows a couple of her other dolls).  She's still not really talking much, but she's working on it.

Fall is here ... kind of

When we moved to Colorado, we were expecting crisp September weather and were prepared for snow.  However, what we've had are record highs (it's topped 90 degrees a couple of times since we've been here).  The weather has started to cool off the last couple of days, which has been nice.  We made it out to a pumpkin patch this last Saturday.  Kara seemed more interested in eating the dirt and leaves than the pumpkins, but we were able to pick an excellent pumpkin for carving.

Uncle Trey sent some pictures from his adventures in South Africa (see below Kara's pictures).  It sounds like he's having a great time and getting to observe a ton of African wildlife.

Link to pictures of Kara



Here are some pictures from Uncle Trey.