Christmas 2013

Christmas was a ton of fun this year. I have a feeling Christmas is going to get a little more fun every year as the girls get older!

Kara learned the words to many a Christmas carol, including: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, Joy to the World, and Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.  It's all very cute.  Kara really got into the Christmas spirit this year. Multiple times she exclaimed, "It's exactly what I've always wanted!" after opening a gift. In particular she seems to really enjoy her sleeping bag (she crammed all her stuffed animals in there and dragged it around for the next several days), her camera (it took her about 5 minutes to figure out it had video games), and a large book of Garfield comics she looks through every day.

Emily also enjoyed her gifts. She really likes to cruise around with her new walker. For the most part, however, she likes to play with Kara's toys!

The weekend before Christmas was also very exciting. Kara and Emily went to meet Santa. This was the first year Kara sat still long enough to tell Santa exactly what she wanted (Despicable Me). Emily did great as well. She sat there for about 30 seconds (long enough to get a decent picture) before deciding Santa was a little scary. Also that weekend, Kara went to her first movie at a theater. She and Mommy went to go see Frozen. Kara seemed to really enjoy it and is excited to go see another movie! If that wasn't enough, Kara and Dad went to the rock gym to try out rock climbing. Kara did great! She climbed up and down the wall for almost an hour until she figured out that it was a lot of fun to "fall" and let the auto-belay rope lower her back down. We'll have to try that again sometime.

Link to pictures

Mobile Baby, Part II

Here are some pictures of our baby-on-the-move.  Emily will still sit and play when the mood strikes (or when Kara is entertaining her with shenanigans), but for the most part she's in motion.  She's gotten quite steady on her feet and good at "cruising", but still needs a spot when climbing the stairs.  Actually, she hasn't fallen, but she makes Mommy nervous!  Emily is very good at bending down and getting up, crawling then sitting, and spinning around on her tush (very cute).  She can actually squat without holding on to something, but can't fully stand unassisted.

We're very proud of our little sweetheart!  Kara is also enjoying Emily more as she's getting older.  Emily enjoys playing with Kara's toys, and she thinks her older sister is HILARIOUS.

In the past few weeks, Emily has started giving kisses. Lovely, sloppy, sweet baby kisses. :)  Mommy and Daddy aren't sure how they got such a sweet baby, but we sure are enjoying her!

Link to pictures

Kara's 4th Birthday

Kara had her first real birthday party this year.  It was at Mountain Kids Gym, where the kids got to run around and play on obstacle courses, rope swings, trampolines, and a foam pit for two hours.  It was a hit!  The kids had a great time, and there was minimal work for Mommy and Daddy.  Win, win!

We also had family over on her actual birthday (during the week) with cake and her favorite foods - pizza and soy beans!

At Kara's 4-year check-up, the doctor referred to her as a "perfect specimen."  She weighed in at 35 pounds (50th percentile) and measured up at 39 3/4" (50th percentile).  She also has better than 20/20 vision.  We'll see how long that lasts with her genes!  We're keeping our fingers crossed. :)

It's hard to believe it's been 4 years since Kara joined us.  We can hardly remember life without her!

Link to pictures

 

The Passing of GG

Sadly, GG K. passed away on the morning of Thursday, November 14th, 2013. She was just about 2 weeks short of her 81st birthday (or, as she would say, she was going to be 49 with 32 years of experience). She had checked into the hospital the previous Friday complaining of chest pains. The doctors did some tests and determined that she had some pretty significant blockages in her arteries. They put in two stents on Saturday, but couldn't get a stent in the artery with the most blockage (she had a 99% blockage of her left subclavian). Grandma decided that she wanted to put in the last stent in the hopes that it would alleviate some of the chronic pain she had been experiencing. The procedure, however, was not successful. The doctors found that the plaque in her arteries was too hard and they were unable to place the stent. Grandma never really recovered from the second procedure. She was disoriented and confused when Daddy went to visit her Wednesday afternoon. She's in a better place now.

Fortunately, Daddy had been able to take both girls down to visit GG recently. She loved the girls. The last thing GG said to Daddy was, "Take care of those girls." I certainly intend to.

Link to GG blog posts

Link to pictures of GG.

Fall 2013 Professional Pictures

During November, we met up with Esther from BlueThistlePhotography to get some pictures of our family as the girls get older. It's getting trickier to get 4 people to all be looking in the same direction and smiling at the same time, particularly when you have a hyper 4-year old and a slightly grumpy 9-month old.  In the end, though, we got some pretty good pictures of the family.  Enjoy!

Link to pictures