January 2016

We made our first visit to the National Western Stock Show this year.  We always say we're going to check it out, but we never seem to make it.  It was a lot more commercial than Dad remembered from when he was a kid.  It seemed more like it was just people trying to sell stuff rather than an opportunity to see animals.  They did have one little area with a petting zoo and a place to do pony rides.  Emily was really excited about the pony rides, so we decided to check that out.  Unfortunately, there was a really long line and then really unfortunately, Emily decided she didn't actually want to ride the pony when it got to be her turn.  Oh well.  By that time, we had to move on, so we didn't get to check out the petting zoo.  We also got tickets for the rodeo, which was pretty cool.  Kara enjoyed watching the cowboys try to lasso the cows, but Emily lost interest quickly and mostly wandered around with an adult in tow.  Maybe we'll go check it out again in a couple of years.

Right around the beginning of the year, Kara got her first loose tooth, one of her bottom front teeth.  Dad and Mom both offered to pull the tooth as it kept getting looser and looser, but Kara was concerned about it hurting.  One night (1/22), Kara decided it was loose enough and pulled it by herself.  She was so proud of herself.  Watch the video below.

Other than that, it was a fairly quiet month.

Emily quote:
1/7: "You look like fantastic, Daddy."  Emily to Dad when he put on a nice shirt and tie for a job interview.

Link to pictures

Kara's Blue Belt Test

Kara tested for her Blue Belt on January 9th. It feels like she just finished testing for her green!

The most exciting part of every belt test is breaking the board. Kara broke her board on her 6th attempt, but she had several solid kicks before finally breaking it.

It was a great success!


Here are some more videos of the test. Kind of interesting to watch.

Snow Day - No School!

Kara had her first snow day on December 15th.  It wasn't really that big of a snow storm (we ended up getting maybe 6-8 inches of snow), but the rate at which it was falling and the wind made for very dangerous driving conditions, which Dad experienced first hand on his drive into work.  Kara didn't do anything too exciting on her day off.  She and Emily played out in the snow and were greeted at the door with hot chocolate.  They also watched a movie and enjoyed watching the snow fall from the warmth of the house.

Dad sported a righteous goatee and mustache for a couple of weeks at the beginning of the month. Emily enjoyed Dad's "whiskers", but the general consensus was that Dad should never grow facial hair again.  I guess it's not a great look for everyone.

Kara is enjoying more and more advanced games and puzzles.  One day, she and Mom got out Scrabble and played a game.  Kara didn't follow the rules exactly, but she did spell real words and actually beat Mom in points.  She's also learned checkers, Uno (which is her favorite game), dominoes, and Dino Math Tracks.  In addition, Kara has been working on some pretty complicated puzzles lately.  She recently completed a 200-piece puzzle all by herself.  She tried a 300-piece puzzle but got a little frustrated after a while (there was a large black area with very few features to help figure out where the pieces went).

We converted Emily's bed to a toddler bed the first weekend of December.  We were a little concerned that it would mess up her sleep, and we'd hear her wandering around her room all night long.  So far, however, she hasn't figured out that she can get out of the bed when Mom and Dad aren't there, so we haven't heard her after bedtime.  In general, Emily is a very happy, sweet little girl; however, she is definitely into the terrible twos.  She is very quick to cry and scream at Mom and Dad if they don't do what she wants to do exactly when she wants it done.  Hopefully it's just a phase...

Link to pictures
 

Christmas 2015

Christmas was a lot of fun this year.  We got the season kicked off right by attending the Christmas party that was put on by Grandma and Grandpa's neighborhood.  They had cookies, dancing, horse-drawn sleigh rides, and even Santa and Mrs. Claus.  Kara definitely was playing along with the Santa thing this year.  She sat on Santa's lap at the party (Emily watched from a safe distance), but she made sure Mom and Dad were aware of the gifts she was asking for from Santa.

 Kara has learned most of the Christmas carols and had a great time this year belting them out.  Dad earned himself some serious cool points when he helped Kara finish the Batman parody version of Jingle Bells that Kara learned at school ("Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg...").  What do they teach kids at school these days?

Mimi and Papa were not able to travel out here this year, so we Skyped with them on Christmas Eve and opened their presents then.  Kara exploded with happiness when she opened her Lego Scooby-Doo Mansion, and Emily spent most of the day playing with her new doll furniture.  We also Skyped with them again and Uncle Trey on Christmas day.

It was a pretty small crowd at the house for Christmas day.  Grandma and Grandpa S. and Aunt Amy showed up early in the day.  We were able to get the girls corralled to eat some breakfast before they (mostly Kara) just had to open some presents or they would burst!  Kara ran through her gifts, but Emily still wanted to play with each gift after opening it.  It took her quite a while to get all her gifts open.  Later in the day, Laura and Jared, friends from Dad's work, stopped by for dinner.

Kara's favorite gifts this year were probably a tie between a remote controlled car and her Scooby Doo Spooky Castle (860 pieces) Lego set.  Kara had fun for days after Christmas putting together her Lego's and racing her car around the house.

Emily really enjoyed her baby cradle and changing table.  She thought it was really fun to rock her baby and put her down to sleep (Emily is a nurturer).  She also got a cool Mickey Mouse train lego set that she enjoyed.  Some fairy wings and a glow stick wand from Aunt Amy were super big hits too!

Link to pictures

Visit to Mimi and Papa's and other November Happenings

For Thanksgiving this year, we headed down to Alabama to spend the holiday with Mom's family: Mimi, Papa, GiGi, and Uncle Trey.  We also got to meet Uncle Trey's new girlfriend, Jacie.  It was a whirlwind visit.  We flew down on Sunday and flew out on Friday.  In between, we went out to a hibachi restaurant to celebrate Kara's birthday, visited the Montgomery Zoo, visited Great Grandpa H. (who recently moved to a retirement home in Montgomery), and enjoyed some excellent home-cooking from Mimi.  We were able to meet up with the McDonough family, while they we in town to visit their family.

We kept things pretty low key for November other than Kara's birthday and our visit to Alabama.  We got a decent snowstorm in the middle of the month, which the girls enjoyed playing in.

As soon as we got home (and got mostly unpacked), Kara had us take out all the Christmas decorations.  Kara had a great time putting up the tree and all the ornaments.  Emily had fun setting stuff up, but was much more interested in playing with some of the decorations.

Recent quotes:
11/15: "I like Kara. Her my best friend." -Emily

11/15: "I love spending time with you, Dad." -Emily

Kara to Mom: "Do you know who the real Santa is? Because I do, and I'm looking at her and him (gesturing towards Dad)"

Link to November happenings pictures

Link to Shorter visit pictures