A light dusting

 Our kiddos love snow! We woke up to this slight dusting and I am not kidding, they all went outside to try sledding and play in it. It was fairly hilarious to watch from the window.

Lucy (and Kate) starts school

Lucy started Kindergarten!  She was so excited and it was a tough wait for those 3 extra days to go by so she could start too. She is so ready! No hesitations for this mini-scholar.

 Posing by our neighbors tree at the bus stop - we were just a little late to get the pics by the reddish front door.

 They are all ready for school

Champion bus rider already

I had a PTA meeting right away that morning so after she got on the bus I drove to the school. I peeked in and she was settled and doing great from the get go.

Kate also got to start school today. She goes to an in home daycare/preschool. She is lovin' it.

 Home from a great day!

 How should we celebrate?  Ice Cream!

I love these goofballs. We are so excited to see them grow and learn and go through these early stages of life.

Kate is 2

Our baby is 2.  Happy Birthday Kaitlyn! She is our petite girl coming in at 24lbs 14oz and 31.3in both those stats put her between the 25-30th percentile. Her head is in the 75% so like her brother and sister she has a big ol' brain in there :-)  Kate is very fun, she is extremely talkative and enjoys playing and laughing and just being part of everything that is going on.  She loves dressing up in shoes of all kinds that are too big for her and she and Lucy dress up in dancing leotards or other dress up outfits quite often.  She still sleeps with binky (the same 2 from the hospital at her birth) and she has figured out how to get them out of her crib by throwing a blanket in and dragging it forward to pull the binky out, we are trying very hard to make binky only for bedtime but she is a stinker and manages to 'steal' it at other times.
She totally understood her birthday this year, she loved singing the song to herself and opening presents. Lots of smiles and laughter from her. She was at the YMCA on her birthday and the class sang happy birthday to her, after they were done she immediately looked around and said "cake, cake." Haha, she is my daughter.  She has started watching a bit of Sesame Street on the TV but doesn't always last too long, she likes to be active.  She gets to do her own gymnastics class now, after watching big sister and getting jealous she really enjoys going to the gym knowing it is her turn.  She will say "my 'nastics," she is great at following directions in her class and trying out the new skills.  She still loves her snuggle time and I love that every morning she just comes into bed with me for awhile before we have to get up and start our day.

Perfect capture of our girl, sneaking her binky, wearing sisters tap shoes, playing on the stairs with her whale spout ponytail.

More presents

She likes art and I will often find her leaning way over her page looking close up to what she is doing with little scribbles.

Dessert time - her favorite!

This pic is from a week or so later but since it is still opening presents from her b-day I added it here.

 

I have finally got videos working on the blog but they can only be 15 seconds or less so I have to cut them all short, that is why all the videos are randomly cut off!

Kate is 8 months

We celebrated Kate turning 8 months while in North Carolina.  She traveled extremely well but of course didn't sleep all that well on a cramped airplane or in a hot room with everyone else.  She has started eating more textured food and self feeding at this stage.  She isn't always sure she likes it but does pretty well.  She still loves her pouches of food that she sucks down too.  She is getting closer to crawling and can definitely scooch and roll herself a little bit around the room to get where she wants to go but for the most part stays pretty stationary.  She has one tooth sticking up and we are waiting for the others to join.  Blowing motor boats and spitting/drooling and saying "ahhhhhhh" are her favorite vocalizations.  She isn't signing yet but pretty good at answering us when we ask her if she wants more or all done she will wave her arms around when you say the one she wants.  She continues to laugh at her siblings antics and give good snuggles.  

trying scrambled eggs for the first time

 

She is a water baby like her older sister.  She loves to spend time in the water and the lake was pretty darn perfect.

Swim Lessons

I signed us all up for swim lessons trying to get ready for the summer and get us back into water form.  It was twice a week for four weeks and we had a good time.  Kate loved her first foray into swimming and did great floating and getting her head in.  Lucy continued to love being in the water and is floating well and working on actually swimming.  Jaydon is improving all the time but water is not his favorite activity, his dad is incapable of floating and Jaydon is a bit like his Dad in this aspect.  I enjoy swimming with the kids and really do look forward to them all being swimmers who are confident in the water!

Thanks to Gram for coming and watching a couple times and taking some pictures so we could remember our adventures.