PhotobucketPhotobucketPhotobucket

Friday, December 31, 2010

A day in iPhone pictures

Last post of the year!

Yesterday was a rough day for poor little Buggles and me (mainly her, though). The night before our sweet girl started getting that darn cough again and was all sorts of congested (she's never completely recovered from this cold from November). She woke up with a lovely casing of snot all over her face, so it was definitely necessary to get her back to the doctor.

I was able to get her in for a 10:30 a.m. appointment. We stopped at the grocery store before the doctor. I still find it hard to believe that I can park in these spots now. I've never parked in one before, so naturally, I had to document it :).
Waiting in the doctor's office...and a huge emphasis on the waiting...and waiting...
Poor thing even looks sick :(
Clearly pissed at the wait.
From the moment we signed in and until we left it was exactly 2 hours and 50 min. MISERABLE! Thankfully, Kathryn took it fairly well. She even took to flirting with an older man in the waiting room (a ten month old boy). She was "talking", waiving, and smiling up a storm at him!

Next stop: Target to pick up some medicine to help clear up this nasty cold. The car ride immediately put her to sleep.
She's pissed here again after a screaming kid in Target woke her up from her nap.
An hour later...her prescription was finally filled.

I was pooped at this point. So, consuming two of my favorite things was absolutely necessary. My favorite candy "bar", York Peppermint Patty and my staple drink from Starbucks, non-fat extra hot peppermint mocha misto.
Happy to be home! (Check out those 2 bottom teeth!)
After eating a banana laced with antibiotics and taking a nice warm bath, it was time for some dessert, a frozen peach.
YAY! Dad's home!
Since she started her antibiotic late in the day, we had to wake her up around 11 to take the last dose of the day. Here she is checking out the torture devise to extract boogies from her nose. Although she's not the biggest fan of it and turns into a serious wiggle worm, this thing is great!
Fingers crossed our Bug feels better soon. Her little cough breaks our hearts!

Wishing you happy and healthy New Year!


Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Baby Food

Kathryn is in full-force when it comes to eating real food now. She still has about 4-5 bottles a day, but is also eating a "real meal" twice a day. We started out with some plain-old rice cereal at 6 months. At around 6.5 months I mixed a tiny bit of real food in, and at 7 months she was eating straight food.

As an early Christmas present to myself, I got this beauty: a KitchenAid food processor. My mom highly recommended this one and I'm so glad I ended up going with the KitchenAid. (Plus it matches my KitchenAid mixer - another kitchen appliance I now can't live without!)

I love this thing for lots of reasons, but here are a few:
* It's great for my own cooking/baking
* I feel better knowing that Kathryn is getting only the fruits and veggies that I feed her with no worries of any preservatives
* It's super easy to use
* Clean-up is a breeze

Foods Kathryn has tried and loved so far...
* Acorn squash
* Carrots
* Peas
* Sweet potatoes
* Beets
* Bananas (she eats an entire one during a meal)

Food Kathryn is not a fan of...
* Avocado's (I was hoping this one would be a hit since they are filled with all sorts of good nutrients, but it was a fail. We'll try them again in the future in hopes her tastes change)

She also still enjoys sucking on frozen fruit (rhubarb and peaches) in the contraption I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, here.

She tried beets this weekend and really enjoyed them, however they make her look either like: a) The Joker from Batman or b) like she went out to the yard and killed something with her bare hands and ate it:). Scary!

Day-After-Christmas

Kathryn had quite a few festive outfits and there wasn't enough time on Christmas day to have her wear each one. So, the day after Christmas we dressed K up as one of Santa's reindeer, and boy did she look adorable!
I failed to mention in my last post that E. J. and I made Christmas dinner for his mom and step-dad on Christmas day. It was the first time we ever hosted such a big meal and it was a ton of work! He was in charge of the turkey and homemade cranberry sauce and I made all the sides. I cooked for 4 hours straight and was up late the night before making a raspberry torte.

Everything turned out tasty but we were bums the next day and recovered by laying around most of the day in between doing loads and loads of dishes.

Breaking the wishbone with dad from yesterday's turkey!

Monday, December 27, 2010

Christmas recap

We hope you and your family enjoyed a wonderful Christmas!

We had a great and special Christmas as it was Kathryn's first Christmas and our first Christmas as a family of three. The only (major) downer: I can't be in two places at once and was definitely missing my family in New England!

On Christmas Eve we traveled about a mile down the road to a family member's house where we normally spend Christmas Eve. So before we headed out, we took some pictures together with Kathryn in her Christmas Eve dress!
Our Christmas tree!
Earlier in the day, I prepared some treats to give out to everyone at the Christmas Eve party. Kathryn enjoyed watching the rain while I baked.
Homemade chocolate peanut butter cups! Yum!
Candied pecans
Practicing high-five's with dad before bed :)
Dreaming of Santa
(K peed through her "Santa's little Helper" pj's on Christmas morning,
so she did a quick costume change in time to open gifts)
Time for another costumer change! Sucking on some frozen rhubarb :).
Opening more gifts from Grandma and Grandpa
Luckily it was chilly enough for us to enjoy a fire for two days in a row. Texas weather is so unpredictable and luckily it "felt" like Christmas!
Wishing you and your family a happy and healthy new year!

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Santa

What a day! Kathryn and I left the house at 8:30 this morning and didn't get home until 5 after doing a bunch of errands, last minute Christmas shopping, and we ended with grocery shopping. For such a long day, Kathryn was a champ. Seriously, this girl didn't even make a peep (except when she wanted to "talk" or "sing" along to Christmas songs in the car).

I just can't get over how good she is, especially since she only slept about 30 minutes combined the entire day as we jumped from place to place (12 stops all together). Needless to say, every fiber of my body is exhausted from carting around a K and taking care of stuff.

One of our stops was the mall to pick up a few things and take a picture with a the jolly man himself. To be honest, a few weeks ago I didn't really consider getting Kathryn's picture taken with Santa since she's so young and it doesn't mean anything to her right now.

As weeks went by and I saw other moms posting pictures of their babies with Santa. I completely feel into the peer pressure because there was no way I was going to deprive my baby of her first picture with Santa!

As I brought Kathryn up to Santa, it really hit me. I got so excited that she was going to have her picture taken!

She was so great! Kathryn checked out Santa for a minute and then looked at the photographer and gave a little smile. The photographer even commented that she was the easiest baby he's had so far :). I'm really glad we ended up getting her picture taken!

Sunday, December 19, 2010

D-O-N-E!

It's official, you must now call me, Master. Just kidding, but not really ;).

On Friday I FINALLY graduated! About a month-and-a-half ago I passed my 6-hour comprehensive exam, passed my internship presentation and portfolio, and all my classes were complete. Woo hoo!

There were a little over 3,500 students who graduated this December (not all at once, it was split up into 3 different ceremonies so you don't have to sit there for 10 hours).

I'm excited for a few reasons:
  • I can now have "M.S." on my business cards and my e-mail signature after my name (silly, but still fun)
  • I can hang my new degree in my office next to my bachelor's
  • NO MORE HOMEWORK OR STUDYING!!!!!!!!! (that's most definitely my favorite reason because I can have my life back!)
  • I'm proud of myself for finishing and accomplishing this degree. My degree program is not designed for someone working full-time, which is one of the reasons it took me a while to finish, along with getting married and starting a family. As the only person who worked in the program, it feels extra good to have finished
  • I'm hoping some new opportunities at work will open up in the (near) future
Least favorite reason:
  • My student loans have started. Fun.
I got official notice at 10 p.m. the night before that I had "cleared" my degree audit, meaning all the requirements in my degree were met, but I didn't really believe it until I arrived at the ceremony and immediately hunted down a program to make sure that 1) I showed up to the correct ceremony and 2) that my name was actually in the program. Phew, everything worked out!
(6th name from the top!)
Unfortunately, I don't have as many pictures as I had hoped. It was the first time I actually went to the Gymboree store (not the outlet) and paid full-price for an adorable polka-dot jumper. Fail.

I made a classic new-mom mistake and didn't pack and equally-as-cute-outfit. In my defense, Kathryn has a good reputation of not wrecking outfits. The "plan" was to take pictures after graduation. (Note to self: "plans" don't usually work out with infants)

During the ceremony I looked up to the top level of the basketball arena and noticed Kathryn wearing an all-pink outfit. WHAT?!?! I immediately texted E.J. and he informed me that she had a leak like no other. Of course!
Pre-Old Faithful Geyser
So when I met up with them after graduation K was sporting pink sweatpants. I know I know, it's not the end of the world, but I was excited to take pictures of us in her little jumper. On top of it, it was a mad rush to get out of the arena as thousands upon thousands of people tried to exit at the same time. Plus it was a chilly, gloomy day so E.J. put Kathryn in the car and we got a picture together.

We might end up going to A&M one day and taking some pictures in my regalia.

My view of graduation!
From E. J.'s view :)
The proof!
Gross picture of myself. The mortar board and heels make me taller than E. J. (as you can tell, I'm not a fan of that). Oh well!
Out to dinner!
We have "long day" written all over our faces. A great day though!
Fun surprise! The beautiful roses from my parents.
Backtracking a bit: My advisor has a tradition of taking each graduate out to dinner at what is probably the nicest restaurant in town, Christopher's. YUM! It was delish! We went out to eat about a month ago, but I didn't want to share the pictures until I officially knew that I was done.

One of the smartest, kindest, and most helpful, (the list could go on and on) woman I know, Dr. Gastel. (Her full name is Barbara Jean Gastel...I was meant to work with her!)
Yummy dessert! Chocolate Nutella cake!
Biggest relief ever to now be able to say that I'm done!