Swimming and Backyard Fun

See that dimple high on her cheek. That is exactly the same as mine, but those eyes are 100% Jakes. Man she is just fabulous.
Sometimes my favorite pictures are the silly ones.

Kate and I have been hanging out just the two of us a lot lately. Poor Jake has been working every minute with everything he has going right now. Of course I have been taking pictures of every thing. Here she is swimming in her little pool and playing with Cola. Don't you wish they made cute swim suits in wetsuit style for adults too?

Just New Pictures

Some cute pictures of Kate lately as requested by grandparents and great grandparents alike.Kate has discovered how to stick her fingers through the gate and the dog will lick them. Yes that is puppers again, on an adventure with Kate in the yard. I have mentioned puppers before, now Kate puts her to bed, tries to feed her snacks and bottles and goes all the way upstairs just to get her if she has been forgotten. I think it is so cute.
Playing with Dad.
I can't keep Kate out of the curtains. Look at that smile even though she has a cold.

100th Post

I was about to post a few recipes since it has been a while since I have done that, but then I realized it would be my 100th post. So instead I am going to write about what I think of that. I feel like in the 18 months of so I have had this blog I have posted a lot more than this. I believe that makes an average of 5.5 posts a month, well actually now that I calculate that seems like a lot. I notice my subject cloud at 100 posts. The "Kate" word is pretty big, that is fine. The "skiing", "vacation", "rafting" words are all very small- that is pathetic. Because you can bet that when I did these things I posted about it, which means I haven't done the things I enjoy much this past year. Ahhh the ways life changes when you have a toddler. I look back at old posts and notice that I always have at least one error in spelling in each post. A friend once told me that it was rude to not proof read your emails, and I am sure this applies to blogs. I don't mean to be rude, and it is not that I am lazy.... well okay it is. It is that I am lazy, well not lazy but it just isn't deemed that important to me. If you are offended by my poor writing you are not obligated to read. I notice how the posts have changes as well. At first I always posted happy things, the cutest pictures etc. Now I feel like more often than not- like this one my posts have a negative tone. Hey If I am going to be negative somewhere it might as well be to the nowhere of the analog universe. I guess I am just more comfortable being myself now that the blog and I have gotten to know each other. I reflect and wonder if this blog has taken too much of my time. If I took five minutes each time I posted and I have posted 100 times that would be eight hours or so. Not even calculating the endless amount of time I spend looking at other peoples blogs. What I could have done with that time, we will never know. Perhaps the basement would be finished by now, perhaps my 13 month old could have been taught her colors, perhaps my dog wouldn't be so overweight because we never take her on any runs. Only an alter blogless universe will know. So what am I saying. That this 100 turning point post, won't be. You can expect more of the same from me. 5.5 somewhat negative, error full post a month about mostly Kate and the things I am mad about. Happy 100th.

Working in the Yard, ..... I mean Working It!

Kate and I have been working in the yard lately. Well I work, Kate just eats rocks, dirt, and bark.

on a horse with no name

Amy and I took the girls to the petting zoo today in Lehi. I thought Kate would freak out more since she has the superhuman ability to spot anything resembling animal with in a one mile radius. She did enjoy herself, but perhaps her powers were being thwarted by all the clothes mom made her wear to protect her from the sun. Enjoy the pictures.


Little pig, little pig let me in!
Kate just loves riding her very own pony...If only that were a cowgirl hat not just a cute sun hat.

The Friendliest horse in town.
Kate can't wait to get her hands on the picnic lunch Mom packed in her lil' lunch box.
So worn out. Also check out the new big girl seat, just what Kate wanted to get with her portion of the tax stimulus check!

Hitting the Jackpot.

Jake and I won the Lottery- or so it may look from this picture. Really we were just taking a picture in front of this car, and then I realized that you could also see this gorgeous home in the back. This weekend we had the opportunity to attend the amazing wedding of my cousin Nicole and Kacey. This is her parents home and a car that was borrowed for them to make their getaway in. We did hit the jackpot though in all the family and friends we were able to see and visit with while in St. George.
Kate enjoyed the warm St. George weather, walking around and playing in the grass, and also chewing on her hand all day. Personally i don't know how people live in that heat.
A picture of the beautiful couple. Congratulations to them.
A family picture in the aaamazing yard. They had the reception at their home, but you would have thought you were at Thanksgiving Point of something. It was incredible.
Kate with Jase, her 1st 2nd cousin, Son of the wonderful Ryan and Meagan.
It was so fun to see all my relatives, uncles and aunts from all over, grandparents,and to meet my cousins Ryan and Kyle's little children for the first time..
A picture with Aubrey, Tyler and Kaylee Horner.
Aubrey's brother was the groom marring my cousin, but funny enough they are both great friends from high school. It was fun to see and spend the day with them too.

Good Helper

No I am not a slave driver making my one year old learn to sweep the floor. As you can imagine she loves to help. Here she is "helping" me sweep. I guess I didn't do a good enough job- hey she would know she is always finding stuff on the floor.

Sweeping the floor has left little Kate so tired. So she climbs up into the chair with her sippy cup in hand.... Now she is ready to rest. Cleaning does wear you out I agree.

More of Kate

Kate has so many different faces, here is just another.

Something to Smile About

It was a very long day. Our fridge is dead. It actually died about a month ago, magically resurrected itself, but is now again dead. I spent the whole day driving around Utah, Wasatch and Summit Counties with a screaming child trying to purchase a fridge, but only found over price refrigerators being sold by seedy and somewhat never helpful individuals. I came home with no fridge, one screaming and covered in Reece's Pnut Butter Cup (because that is all that would make her stop screaming) child. I am exhausted and frustrated. Thankfully the UPS man didn't let me down and I found this waiting on my door when I arrived home.
The blurb book I have been making of Kate's first year. These blurb books are so great. They are so easy to make and super cheap. This one for Kate is 8" x 10" and with 80 pages around 200 pictures plus text on each page and was 31 bucks. The picture quality is not the best.... of course I am really picky when it comes to prints, but it is good enough for the cheapest and easiest scrapbook ever. Check out their website, you'll be sure to want one. I also made one of our wedding and loved it as well. It was a mini book, 7" by 7" or something and really cute. Here is their web site www.blurb.com.

So go and make a blurb book. You can make it about anything, it doesnt have to be a scrapbook. You can slurp you blog, or you can write a children's story. I want to do this with Kate's stuffed animals, have them go on an adventure in the backyard or something and take pictures. Surely it will arrive at your doorstep when your day could just not get any worse. With this advice you will surely owe me..... perhaps a refridgerator... or at least a tip on where I can get one.

Design Mom is a great blog for anyone mother of not who likes cute things and great finds. You should check it out if you never have, particularly today because she has four giveaways of some great stuff. Dresses, necklaces, baskets, and stationary. Usually around 700 people enter to win her contests and I am yet to win one....shocking I know, but you should try anyway. I mean who doesn't want great stuff for free! So Click Here and scroll down to find all four giveaways.

Extreme Makeover- Thursday Night Edition

Last night Jake and I ventured to our local Home Depot as we are bound to do each weekend. We needed some more sheetrock for the basement and a few other things. We were looking for some neutral color to paint the basement hallway in the mess up discounted paint when I came across a five gallon bucket of Behr Paint for $20 in this beach side blue. I had considered turing the bedroom into a beach house paradise in the past and when I saw this deal apparently it was too good to pass by. This weekend I had many projects of my list, none which were painting the bedroom so I started painting around 10:00 pm last night. Of course painting is not the time consuming part it was the prep work that took forever. Whomever resided in our home before loved tacks and tacking things into the walls- I had forgotten that our headboard was hiding about 50 pin holes that needed to putty. Anyways I spent most of Thursday night and into Friday morning working away. Then was able to finish it up today. What do you think huh? It is a little blue- but thats what you get when you are paying $4 a gallon vs. the normal $31. It will work. Also featured in the picture below is the platform bed Jake and I built when we were bored out of our minds and living with my parents for two months between homes before we had Kate. The handcrafted furniture and now all this work on the walls make it so there is finally one room in our house that feels like ours to me.
Moral of the story #1- Home Depot has a great discount on mess up paint if you are not too particular. Moral of the story #2- Staying up all night to work on an unexpected project so that you have the day to work on what you had planned only leaves you uber exhausted .

So Kate is completely obsessed with the Officer Gus Heartworm Protection Commercial. If the TV is on, and this commercial comes on- which it seems like it comes on every commercial break, Kate will stop what she is doing to go and watch. She is just mesmerized by it. It is like she becomes a zombie. I'm not so sure what it is that appeals to her about it. It is a dog dressed like a police officer talking about heartworm- but it has stolen her heart. You can see the commercial at www.officergus.com