Christmas

Christmas morning, Kate shows her new ballet Barbie with a cheesy grin...Kate's cheesy grin, not, the Barbie's cheesy grin.

Ryan pausing briefly from his bowl of cereal, Kevin, Brendan and Murphy.














Brendan and Kate check out the new wheels. Brendans' a good big brother.





A still-sleepy Kate with Barbie and new bath foam in hand.




The biggest hit of the morning was the pretend/plastic makeup, blowdryer and fingernail polish set. I never wear fingernail polish, and yet Kate seemed to know exactly what to do with it, including blowing air on the nails when she was done!
Sometimes she will put some makeup in her little purse, grab her plastic keys (that really make the 'chirp-chirp' sound), and say,"Let go!" :)

Kate's School Christmas Program

Here is Kate at preschool, all dressed up for her Christmas program. She saw me waiting with the other parents, and came running.

The program was complete with "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" and "Away In The Manger", real Jingle Bells with red or green velvet handles, and lots of squirmy kids waving and saying Hi Mommy! or Hi Grandma! All the parents had smiles on their faces.








In her class there are 3 & 4 year olds. The funniest thing during these "performances" is to watch what the kids are doing. Sometimes I'm laughing so hard, I can hardly hold the camera still.





Here we have Kate eating her dress as Mary and Joseph lay baby Jesus in the manger.

Can You Say Tiger?

Kate and I were waiting outside the portable classroom for her speech and language therapist to arrive, so I decided to use the few minutes to work on her latest goal...the 't' sound.







Kate, can you say tiger? T...T...t-i-g-e-r?
Kate replies puh, puh
No, tiger...Tuh...Tuh...tiger.
She tries again...thu...thu.........lion.

I started laughing, and hugged her. "Oh you smart little cookie!"
She may have trouble making certain sounds, but there is a smart kid inside there!! Way to think outside the box, Kate! :)







I laughed to myself all the way out to my car, and immediately called Kevin (and maybe a few other people) to tell him about how cute and funny Kate was!

Kate's Adventure in Hair Cutting

So the boys are up in their room playing a game, I and was sewing a Christmas present downstairs. Kate came down in one of her costumes (she loves to dress up). "Hi Kate. You playing dress up?" "Uh huh." Then she turns her head a certain way and I realize her hair is not up in a pony tail, but not there! "Kate, where's your...what happened to....where's your hair?! Did you cut your hair?!" Kate cheerfully nods yes, but is beginning to realize her bold new look may not be well received. "Show me where your hair is!" (I think I'm in denial at this point, hoping maybe it isn't really cut off, that maybe it's all an illusion) But as I walk up the stairs and see a lock of silky black hair on the step, reality is setting in. Then I see the carpet on the hallway, and I'm afraid to look in the bathroom...AAAHhhhh! Oh my gosh, oh my gosh. (Okay, I'm not going to hyperventilate...) I went and got the boys from their room, and we all had the same look on our faces...mouth hanging open, trying to decide how to react. I was torn between cracking up, (because it really was very funny), and wanting to cry. Brendan hugged me, and Colton was trying hard not to laugh. At this point, Kate had jumped onto Ryan's bed and pulled the comforter over her head. (I picked up the hair, smoothed it out and put it in a ziplock bag to put in her babybook.)





The haircutting episode took place Sunday night, and Kate had speech first thing Monday morning. So we set up an 11:00 hair appt., and off she went to speech with crooked hair. Her speech therapist said she was her third kid this year that had come in with a do-it-yourself haircut.




Well, we headed down to the cutest little kid's hair salon in La Jolla (that my sister-in-law used when her daughter gave herself a haircut!)

They asked Kate if she wanted to sit on the motorcycle or in the jeep to get her haircut...Kate picked the jeep. Every chair had a flatscreen tv monitor in front of it. Ours had on the cartoon of the Backyardigans. Kate was in heaven.




In less than 10 minutes, the one remaining long piece was trimmed off, it was evened out, and the too-short pieces were well camoflauged. Before we left the salon, 2 different people complimented Kate on her cute haircut!






Kate seems oblivious to her hair length. The short hair is growing on me, and it seems to suit her.

While still at the hair salon, the stylist said they get about one child a week that has cut their own hair. "We don't usually get such an extreme example though. She was very thorough on her hair! Usually the kids are older before they decide to give themselves a whole "new look".

That's my Kate!

Holidays Kids

One day I pick up Ryan from school and he's an Indian...



and the next day he's a Pilgrim!




Smile with your Santa hat on, Kate!

The day we got out all the Christmas decorations, Dad got Mexican food for dinner. Kate is quite the ethnic food eater. She's very open to different foods. (That is brother Brendan's broken arm in the background!)

Mommy and two of her elves :)




Bigfoot found a cozy spot with one of the Santa hats!

Thanksgiving At Kate's School

They have a Thanksgiving "feast" at Kate's preschool, and the parents are were welcome. The "menu" consisted of oreos, dinosaur chicken nuggets, baby carrots with ranch dip, and Cheetos.
The plates and napkins did have a Thanksgiving motif, however, and there was a basket of fake fruit, so, ya know, there was that.

Kate didn't care about the funny menu, though. She was just enjoying herself and kept getting "seconds" on the carrots and ranch dip. You wouldn't have been able to pay the boys to eat carrots when they were three (or probably even now)...with or without the dip. I'm so glad she's still a good eater.

Thanksgiving Day, a week later, was a wonderful, family-filled (rainy) day, and Kate was in her element, happy as can be. Lots of kids and people who love her, we all watched 'A Christmas Story', and of course, there was lots of food and Sparkling Apple Cider! What's not to love?
Happy Thanksgiving!

Halloween Was Fun!

(I know this is a bit out of order - I'm backtracking a bit to catch up! :)
Our Halloween tradition begins with carving pumpkins in the backyard. We usually get the pumpkins at a pumpkin patch, making a morning of it,then pick up a couple (for whoever didn't go with us) at the grocery store. Then Mom and the kids start scooping out the goop, drawing faces, and carving them.
The older boys usually carve some gruesome face on theirs, but some of the best and funniest pumpkins are the most simple...ie. check out Ryan's pumpkin. I couldn't look at it without smiling. He drew the face and helped clean it out, Mom carved it.














Everyone loves to draw the faces and carve, but for some reason no one likes to help clean up! My goal - if it could possibly come into contact with pumpkin goop,line it with paper, and make cleanup as user-friendly as possible!


Kate's a sucker for holidays. She definitely gets the whole "festivities, food, excitement" thing.





Just me and my big brother Batman.
(Ryan's shirt says 'Do I really have to explain myself?)





Batman Colton, Princess Kate, and Ryan Kenobi headed over to Aunt Mimi's house a couple hours later for pizza and trick-or-treating. They live a block from my parents house, so the kids go trick-or-treating in the same neighborhood that Kevin and I did as kids. A lot of the same people answer the doors, too, which makes it fun.

Kate picked out her own outfit! She loves the whole 'princess' thing, and she knew what she wanted!

It's Pumpkin Time!

Kate and Ryan in a sea of pumpkins!

It's mid-October...must be time to go to the pumpkin patch!




Kate, Ryan and cousin Theodore. Ryan and Theodore are only 8 days apart in age. He is also one of 4 boys! His easy-going personality gets along well with Kate (and Ryan).








Unlike last year when it was quite chilly, this year we went during a heat wave with the Santa Ana winds blowing. This October has just been one Santa Ana after another. I'm ready for some cool fall weather.


I didn't tell Kate to sit down...she just walks over to the bales of hay, sat down, folded her hands and smiled up at me. :) It was funny because usually when taking her picture, it's all I can do to get her to look at me/the camera.


Mommy and pretty Kate.




Even though it was going to be warm, I put Kate in pants because last year she cried from the hay scratching her legs. It was so bright, Ryan kept borrowing my sunglasses!





3 year old Kate with a silly smile.


Buddies, Colton and Kate, ready for school. Kate doesn't really take a backpack, she just likes to wear it.





Is it just me, or is this picture a glimpse into Kate's teenage years?


It makes me smile to see her wearing her Dora backpack that is so big it goes past her rear end! She doesn't care though. She packs it with all different things...her stuffed cat, a coloring book, her tea set, or food. Once I couldn't find the bag of lunch meat, and found it 2 days later with some string cheese and a yogurt in her backpack. She must've been planning a picnic.

Kate Dressed For The Morning

Kate on a preschool morning.

Two mornings a week Kate has preschool, and Mom cleans house (yay), and two mornings a week she has speech, and Mom goes to the boys' school (5min. away) and works in their classrooms for an hour. One morning a week we're free agents until we pick Ryan up at lunch time.

It was such a hot week in early October, it felt like summer all over again. Actually, it was hotter than summer had been, so I was trying to keep her hair off of her neck. For some reason this picture looks cool outside, but you could tell in the morning, it was going to be a blazing hot day (and it was!)

This is the first time I've braided Kate's hair, and she smiled and signed 'pretty' in the mirror. Then we turned on the TV to the new, very cute cartoon 'Ni Hao Kailin' about a little Chinese girl and Kailin has her hair the exact same way. Kate did notice her hair!

My sister-in-law laughs that I iron Kate's clothes. I know, I laugh back, I don't even iron my own clothes unless I absolutely have to, but with her clothes, it never seems to be a burden.