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Monday, October 31, 2011

Boo!


How was your Halloween? I know a lot of family and friends at home had an usual Halloween - many without power due to a crazy October snowstorm - but I hope everyone was still able to enjoy the day and most importantly, keep warm!

Our Halloween was laid back. Since E. J. had to work late tonight, we had Kathryn do her trick-or-treating last night. We figured while we could take advantage of Kathryn not really understand the meaning of Halloween, celebrating yesterday made it easier for all of us. Naturally, we took some pictures before we headed out.
Of course, she was a cat again this year - her absolute favorite animal
Silly girl
The many faces of a kitty
Determined
First stop: Grandma's house
She grabbed at least 10 - smart girl
We drove over to 3 family member's houses so Kathryn could fill her bucket to the brim. She was a happy girl, even if she didn't really know what was going on.
Winding down with a fresh bottle on a makeshift seat of paper towels - whatever works
********
Kathryn didn't dress us only once. Oh no, she dressed up last week too when we headed to our local Halloween Carnival. Apparently this was the event of the year. I think the entire town was there - it was crazy crowded with kids of all ages and loads of parents.

Kathryn was a superstar and was all about playing the games and winning goodies. It was super sweet to watch her participate in the activities. It's hard to believe that just a year ago she couldn't even crawl!
Bowling
Bean bag toss
And of course, you can't live in the country and not have a cowboy boot bean bag game
or pulling lollipops out of a bale of hay
Ring toss
But what really put the event over the top was the next image:
Go ahead, take a guess
When I saw the above image in person, I was confused, especially when we were walking away I heard lots of banging noises.

Since the volunteer fire department was there blocking off the street, I asked E. J. if this car was there as some sort of drunk driving demonstration for the older kids (which I thought was a logical guess since the local school where we attended the carnival has grades K-12 in the same building).

E. J. laughed and said "nope, that's actually one of the games where you can use your tickets. You just beat the van with a bat...they have this every year".

Because nothing says Halloween Carnival like paying to beat up a car. And once again I'm reminded of us living in small town Texas.

Besides being totally taken-a-back by the van beating, the Carnival was actually really great and completely exceeded my expectations, especially after seeing how much fun K had with all theactivities.

When I picked her up today after work, she was happy as a clam playing in a big pile of rocks.
It's the simple things
And before it was bedtime, she insisted on helping her dad with the outdoor chores before bath time.
What a look
Wishing you sweet dreams and a Happy Halloween!

Monday, October 24, 2011

Hay is for Horses

This weekend had one of those bummer Saturdays when you have to spend $500 on your 2002 Honda Civic for new tires, an oil change, and to fix the alignment. Eh, it has to be done if my good ole' car is going to last us a few more years. But seriously, being an adult is so over-rated.

Sunday, though, Sunday was good. Kathryn is now in that: I'm-willing-to-help-with-anything-you-want-me-to-do phase. Naturally, just like her mommy and daddy, she's quite proud of all the help she provides.

K and I took an early morning walk to the in-laws horse barn to visit E. J. while was doing his every-other-Sunday feeding duties.
On a mission
She immediately went into helping mode by picking up scraps of hay laying on the barn floor....
...and giving the horses a tasty treat
Must. Help. Dad.
I'm always in awe of how confidently she stands in front of the horses
Later in the afternoon, we went outside again and K went back into helper mode. This time, she wanted to feed the chickens and without any direction she did it all herself, including knowing which food to give them!
This girl is no joke! At one point, one of the chickens starting flapping its wings by her, which scared me, yet, make K laugh hysterically.
My little country gal.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Folds

Kathryn was never a particularly chunky baby or infant and still remains to be a pretty lean toddler. However, she has these little folds on her legs that I can't get enough of.

With time speeding by so quickly, I needed to capture the most squeezable part on her legs that you just want to eat up.

Please excuse the dirty exterior of our windows since we practically live in the dust bowl with the lack of rain lately.
These little legs seem to be always active. Whether she's dancing, running, climbing, or simply walking around exploring outside, they're treating her well and bring a smile to my face.
The face of a toddler who decided she didn't need a nap today
What a beautiful little hot mess
I'm getting a sense that she had enough with me taking these leg pictures
Love.

Monday, October 17, 2011

A Case Of The Monday's

Today has been just one of "those days". Seemingly one thing after another. I won't bore you with the details, just the main ones :).

6:45 a.m. - I went to my car to put my bag and other stuff in there for the work day. When I opened my door, the main cabin light didn't go on. I also tried to unlock the doors. Again, nothing.

Looking back, I wasn't really phased by these two electronics not working. (perhaps it's because it was 6:45 a.m.)

6:50 a.m. Kathryn and I get into the car while E. J. finished feeding the horses. I start the car and again, nothing. All signs pointing to my car battery is simply, dead.

Back tracking to yesterday.

E. J. decided it was time to get the baby mustang horse, "Oh No", out of our pasture and brought to his mom's horse barn.

This is much easier said than done. After impressively lassoing the horse on the first try, Oh No, the 600 lb "baby" tried to run away. E. J. forgot to wear gloves which resulted in some serious rope burn. Ouch!

A few minutes later, he tried to put a halter on her and she wasn't into that either. She got up on her hind legs and kicked E. J. as she ran off. The poor guy; sore, a bit bloody, and tired from wrestling a stubborn horse, but he finally got her into the horse trailer so she could eat some de-wormer medication before integrating with the other horses.
Success!
So with the combination of my car troubles, which thankfully it seems it's just my battery,
and E. J. getting needing some time to recover (especially since he never takes a sick day) we took it as sign that we should just stay home. On Sunday he even said he should take the day off because he was feeling pretty bad, but then decided against it so he didn't have to use any of his time. If only we had known the night before that we would definitely stay home, we would have slept in!

I did some cleaning to make myself feel somewhat productive. Kathryn insisted on helping and appears to have some great form when it comes to swiffering!
We all did some relaxing and even napped. We needed it!
It was nice to spend an unexpected day together.
But, it's been a long day. My bed is calling me to get ready for a new and hopefully a better tomorrow.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

This and That

There have been a few things I've been meaning to document as Kathryn grows and changes, so I figure I better do it now before it leaves my very short mommy-memory.

1) A mere day after Kathryn turned 15 months old (August 5, 2011), E. J. got a text message from his mom while at work, which read exactly like this:

B is
O0
Thigh ml

As it turns out, Kathryn sent that text to E. J.! She got a hold of her grandma's phone and without her knowing, sent her first text. 15 months and sending texts - pretty impressive! I'm sure "Thigh" was auto corrected to spell out a real word, or we can just pretend that she already knows how to spell and she was spending him a top secret message.

2) Kathryn has one of her molars (on the top, right-side of her mouth)! I noticed it last week and it's pretty much all the way through her gums. She's pretty amazing because we had no idea if it was bothering her or not. She's such a trooper!

3) I've mentioned how much she loves this show on PBS Kids called Super Why. At the end of each show they celebrate solving the problem with the same song which is prompted by saying "Hip Hip Hooray!"

Kathryn could be in another room of the house and if she hears the "Hip Hip Hooray!" song come on, she'll quickly make her way to the living room so she can join in the celebration and do a dance.

Before she grows out of it, I recorded it tonight...and then kept recording for a few more minutes, which basically documents the busy life of Kathryn.

**Notice our recent bout of bad luck...our tv broke and we were told it's unrepairable. Luckily, E. J.'s mom let us use her old tv, so we're rocking the box tv in our house, for now!

Sunday, October 9, 2011

A Simple Weekend

This weekend was a simple one. Other than E. J. working a ton we didn't have much going on, which is always ideal to me.

Kathryn kept me company for a few hours while E. J. worked until the wee hours of Saturday morning. She was rocking her kitty grandpa-like pajamas. Adorable.
After spending time at home Saturday morning, Kathryn and I headed into town to run some errands. While I was throwing all the just-in-case items into the diaper bag, I turned around to find Kathryn applying chapstick that she found in my purse. Such a little girly-girl :).
We lucked out and found the Halloween costume we had seen at other stores, but they had already sold out. Phew! There were so many "scary" displays that I thought surely K would be afraid of them. It was just the opposite, she was fascinated with everything. However, the only thing that did scare her was when we walked over the mask section and she saw a Sarah Palin mask. I just had to laugh at that.
When we got home and finished unloading groceries, we spent the rest of the afternoon playing outside until E. J. got home from work. She's my little outdoorsy girl!
Sunday brought the most wonderful gift. RAIN! We are still in the midst of the worst drought on record, so the few hours of rain that we got was welcomed with open arms.

Since the ground is so dry, puddles immediately formed and made it look like it's been raining for days.
View from our front door
View from our backdoor
Kathryn's newest thing is getting into her own little nook, one of which is the windowsill. Not exactly the safest spot, but she enjoyed watching the rain.
We did some Sunday afternoon cleaning and organizing. While I was putting away clothes, K was dressing herself up in her rain boots and her Easter purse.
She even randomly started sweeping. She was so determined to get it right!
Although she was probably thinking, "somebody needs to get this done around here".
Another weekend down, another start to a new week.