That Baby Kate sure is a sloppy kisser!

My morning snuggle mate

And with that declaration, we say, happy 7 months Kate! She sure does have an adoring fan club - we can all sit around being entertained by her for quite a while. We have enjoyed watching her discover the Christmas season - the lights, the gift wrap under the tree, sneaking treats, etc. She brings out the best in her sisters - Lindsay's responsible and nurturing spirit and Caroline's softer and more gentler side. (Though we still think Kate occasionally gets a look of trepidation as Caroline comes close...) She is quite a welcome distraction for Steve when he comes home from a busy and stressful day at work, which seems to be every day lately, poor guy!

Kate is a tiny bundle of joy. What started as a big rollie-pollie multi-chinned 9 lb 9 oz baby is now a petite little peanut - barely 14 lbs. She has small hands and feet and in fact she is skimming the 10% percentile for weight. We really can't go anywhere without getting comments yes, on all the hair, but lately, it is the big blue eyes. And they are dreamy.

She does not have a full repertoire of tricks yet - I am sure they are coming. Though the sloppy kisses I mentioned in the post title are for real - big open mouthed laughing giggling slobbering kisses are Kate's favorite. But we will take the 11 hour overnight sleep stretches! She can almost sit up; she gets a little tippy still and falls over. I am not sure how much her corrective braces are slowing her down. She rolls some but doesn't roll across the room or anything. (Good thing because the girls are still getting used to not leaving their junk out where little curious hands will grab at their things and stick them in her mouth.) She has recently found Mommy's earrings and Daddy's glasses. Nothing is safe, I tell ya!

This little one is a great eater - I don't think I have given her anything yet that she has not liked. Applesauce, Pears, Bananas, of course. Squash, Sweet Potato, Avocado, you betcha! Oh, and she has a sweet tooth too - the girl loves ice cream and cheesecake. (Shhhh....don't tell Dr. Wallace.) She reaches out for whatever we are drinking and wants a sip (that runs down her front) but she is trying.

Kate is truly the baby going along for the ride in our busy hectic schedule. Off to errands, gymnastics, big kiddos school, whatever, she takes it in reasonable stride. It is funny that with first and even second children the world revolves around the baby's schedule. Now, if Kate misses a nap, we pray for flexibility and she does OK! She loves a good ride in our sling - we recently when to an ASU game and plopped her in the sling and she was content as could be and I was hands free. Seriously, I think a baby sling is the most amazing baby gear item - those native ancient cultures had a good idea going - keep baby close, comfy, mom can be hands free when needed. I have even done some cooking with Kate in the sling - I just shift her around to my back when chopping things like onions or whatever. I call her my little buddy and my little girlfriend.

More of the happy morning girl. I love when I have a day like a Saturday or Sunday to just snuggle in bed for a little while after nursing Katers. (Yes -we call her Katers.) Week days it is tough to do that with kiddos to get to school and lunches to make and all...

Last night at our ward Christmas Party. Baby Kate was little miss popular! Her shirt reads "I'm on the nice list...trust me!" I picked this up at Old Navy last year right after Christmas. I am glad I remembered where it was in time for the Christmas season! My friend has a 7 week old baby and he was at the party. He is bigger than Kate. I am not kidding. He is almost 15 lbs.

We love this face she makes - all the more better when covered in orange squash. And the sippy cup? We think the sippy cups are bigger than her head!

At the ASU game last week. We LOVE our sling.

Waking up the babes - you gotta love a baby stretching and waking up. So cute.

Rolling on the floor with her sister Caroline. We think Kate looks a lot like Caroline now, though not so much as Caroline as a baby.

Given' Thanks, Haulin' Out the Holly, Fun Stuff, your typical marathon post.

We have a little tradition - it's called "Let's give the baby her first lemon wedge and see what happens." Wednesday night before Thanksgiving, we went to dinner to one of our favorite Mexican places since we had a great coupon and I didn't feel like cooking (or more likely, Steve didn't feel like eating what I was willing to cook that night, probably pancakes or something so I was happy to oblige.) While we were out, we decided to give Katers her first lemon wedge. (Consequently, we think Caroline got her first lemon wedge at the same restaurant!)

I think the photos speak for themselves.

For Thanksgiving, we were invited to join with Debbie's family at her sister Janet's house. Janet, who has the awesome pool mentioned in this post. There was a rumor that they may heat the hot tub up but the weather was not cooperating, being a rainy day and all. But, it was a lovely day nonetheless. Any rainy day here is savored. Anyway, I was asked to bring homemade rolls and I was happy to do so. For our family, I am usually the baker and spend Wednesday and Thursday morning baking upwards of 9 pies and a double batch of rolls. This year I got off easy because Judy and Janet made blackberry pies with berries from the family cabin property and it was delicious! I was not great about getting pictures but here are a couple...

Thanksgiving morning artists

Chillin' with one of the dogs at Janet's house. Steve likes dogs. Good thing he likes me more because I don't like dogs and we won't ever be getting one.

You all know this scene...played out at homes across the nation - post early afternoon dinner coma. Steve and my Dad.

A couple of drowned rats anxiously waiting some pie. They had been playing outside in the rain of course!

Friday night we were able to attend the ASU vs. UCLA football game. We had a fantastic time! My friend's husband is the head trainer for the football team (He's the guy who is the first to rush on the field for injuries) and she told me that any time we wanted tickets he could most likely get get them for us so this was the first time we took her up on it. Sure, it was a 7:30 game which meant getting home at about 11pm but its not like it was a school night or anything. It was a pretty good game if you are an ASU fan - I had never seen a 100 yard interception return for a touchdown, at least, not that I ever knew I saw!

It's amazing how quickly a free game turns into:
$10 Parking
$7 two pom poms hair ponies
$6 cotton candy
$7 two Italian Ice's
$4 one nacho
(I chose not to get the fancy $5 caramel apple but I really wanted it.)

Everyone at the game. Kate was great - she just hung out in the sling and snuggled and then fell asleep. The big girls enjoyed themselves too - as long as daddy kept them filled with stadium snacks, they were having a great time!

Clockwise from top left - 1. the girl's favorite part of the night: riding the courtesy cart from the ticket gate at the bottom of the hill to the stadium. Sun Devil stadium is built into a mountain side and has a steep walk-up. 2. Watching the game with Daddy with their fancy new Sun Devil pom pom hair ponies. 3. Eating some of that pricey cotton candy. 4. Daddy shelling out the cash.

The girls have several decorations for their own room. I passed along our first nativity set to Lindsay several years back when I got my first larger set. I have since bought the girls each a small set and plan to do so every once in a while. We also started a tradition of buying them a snow globe each year (just started last year) but I have already purchased one for them this year so that makes it a tradition, right? They have a 4 ft pre-lit tree (with colorful lights - they chose it, not me...I would have chosen clear of course.) They have all their own ornaments they have received as gifts or trinket ornaments from parties, Santa jingle bells, etc. Turns out this tree is great leverage for bedtime behavior. It gets taken out of their room if we hear a peep (or a crash against a wall which is usually more likely). Since going up, it has happened once. They got it back and (so far) went to bed perfectly.

The girls in the process of decorating. They cleared a toy shelf for their nativities and snow globe.

This is, of course, the official decorating for Christmas weekend. A few highlights...and a lowlight.

A prayer answered.

About 4 or 5 years ago, I convinced Steve that we needed to buy a pre-lit fake tree. This goes against everything I believe in because where I was raised, outside of Portland, OR, was the heart of Christmas Tree Farm Land, that magical place where all the lots that sell fresh trees have banners that say "Fresh Cut Oregon Christmas Trees" get those trees. It really pained me to buy a fake tree but it was $100+ well spent. I don't remember how much it cost but I know it has paid for itself in what we had been paying for a dead fresh tree every year.

Now, we say a prayer to the Pre-lit Artificial Christmas Tree Gods that the tree lights work each year after spending 11 months baking in our garage.

Babes enjoyed sitting in her saucer watching the tree spring to life.

Obviously, we forgot to pray for the outside lights. This is the current state of our exterior lights.

We finally get to the outside lights late Saturday afternoon. We have a good set-up with plugging the lights into the coach lights by the garage so they are on a switch and timer. It works great...when the whole strand lights up! I think we forgot that last year some of the strings were on the fritz and only lit part way. (Note to self - if they aren't working, just chuck 'em - Christmas lights can't be repaired and sitting in the attic all summer certainly won't do them any favors.) It was starting to get dark so we had to abandon the lights until I bought some new ones. They are in a Wal-Mart bag as we speak. Hopefully, we get them up Saturday.

Few. I wonder how many calories are burned creating a Marathon blog post? Probably none. Lucky me.

It's the start of the Christmas season

Monday, being December 1st, begins the countdown to Christmas! The kids are beside themselves with excitement and have been toting around their "Santa notes" with wishes galore. Caroline is learning to write and it is so sweet to watch her form her words on the paper - she can ask how to spell a word and for the most part knows all the letters now which is great for her - she has finally caught the writing/reading letters bug. Lindsay is so funny - she started writing her list quite tiny because she remembers last year running out of room on her paper. Now, she doesn't have enough wishes to fill her paper. This makes me nervous because she has things on her list like a cell phone, heelies, iPod, Crystal Chandelier, camera, etc. Any one of those items could break Santa's bank so we will see what happens!

Tonight the girls wanted to do a Star Wars play for us. We said it could be our FHE lesson if they incorporated Gospel principles into the lesson. That shouldn't be hard since it is a well known fact that Yoda was modeled after Spencer W. Kimball and The Force in Star Wars is modeled after the Priesthood! Hahaha!! Anyway, I wondered what they would come up with. Lindsay's lesson: "Star Wars is like the Gospel because Star Wars has the Force and The Force helps you to live. The Gospel is like Star Wars because the Gospel helps you to live. Now, welcome to our play."
We had Lindsay, a Jedi Knight with a purple light saber and Padme with her blue life saver. Earlier that day we had made light sabers with heavy duty fabric roll tubes, construction paper, and silver wrapping paper. They loved them though I think "real light sabers" are going to make their way to their Wish Lists. The Jedi Knight wore tall boots, a pink tunic shirt and belt, and mommy's robe which she shed with dramatic flair before her battle. Padme is a queen and wears lovely layers that resemble a Japanese Kimono. Our Padme wore (from the undermost layer out) shorts, T-shirt, her new silver dress, sweater, mommy's dress, and silver shoes. We enjoyed our battle show immensely - Caroline kept telling Lindsay to go easy on her but Caroline was whacking away with that life saver of hers!

A Jedi Knight and Padme (Queen Amidala)

The Scenery...stars and ships flying through space

The audience. We gave them rave reviews, of course.

We then broke out the new snowman mugs and had hot cocoa and vanilla ice cream as our treat.


Finally, we got to begin the first night our our advent tradition. We have wrapped story books under the tree and the girls take turns choosing a book to open and we read the story together. We also have our Christmas binder with a scripture, song, and story for each of the 24 days before Christmas. Baby Kate discovered the Christmas tree lights and gifts below - she was facinated and we were equally facinated and entertained watching her!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Because my kids need clothes like they need a hole in the head...

Just wanted to let my peeps know that right now Crazy 8, Gymboree's lower priced, trendier cousin (Think Old Navy to GAP) is having an extra30% off sale right now - it ends Friday at 3pm Eastern time. So, I was able to pick up these little numbers for school. (Next year I will have TWO kiddos to keep in tip top uniform shape.)Navy Blue Polo for $3.49 - can't have enough of these. Got a couple of white too. Wish they had red...Wide leg capri jean $6.99 (Got this in a couple of sizes - thanks Molly for the tip - these are SOOO stinkin' cute on Bryn!) Sure, Danika, it is not as cheap as you can get some boy uniform - accecptable items but the (cute) girl stuff is harder to find.

Even got the big girls their Easter dress for this coming spring for $11.89! (You're welcome, Steve.) These will coordinate quite nicely with a pink classic smocked dress Grandma Shirley has already given to Kate that should fit around Easter time.

Plus a few other equally well-priced goodies that may find their way under the Christmas tree. Coincidentally, I got all 3 girls their Christmas dress for this year from Crazy 8 during a similar winter clearance sale. So far, I have been extremely happy with everything I have purchased from Crazy 8, Molly as well. She LOVES their boy clothes for Hayden.

Celebrate and Remember...

I used this one last year but it is seriously one of the best pictures of my mom...ever.

...my mom. Today, she would have been 53 years young. We lost her entirely too soon in April of 2005. Lindsay was 3 1/2. She is now 7 and will be baptized in less than 10 months. Caroline was only 16 months old. Now she will be 5 in three weeks and is an adoring big sister to Kate who never knew the snuggle of her Grandma Sue. A woman who wanted nothing more than to be a Grandma, the best grandma, to the world's first perfect grandchildren. (Her words, not mine, because I KNOW they are not perfect! LOL!) For a beautiful tribute written by my sister Molly, read HERE. For last year's tribute to my mom, click HERE.

Oh, how I miss my mom.

*I miss the Grandma she was and the Grandma she would have been. When she passed away she had 3 grandchildren. Number 9 is coming early next year.
*I miss the fact that she never got to experience my girls' soccer games in the blazing sun. She only knew soccer in Oregon where a game wasn't a game unless it was pouring down rain.
*I miss not being able to call her and ask how much salad I REALLY need to buy when the pack at Costco says 1 lb. serves 3.5 people (yeah right) but I need salad for 60 and the budget is limited.
*I miss having her around to do Tuesdays with Molly with us. She would have loved it and hosted our projects (and subsequent messes.)
*I am sad that my mom never got to know the world of blogging. You see, my mom was the information queen. She knew everything, remembered everything, was everyone's "go-to gal" for all sorts of knowledge and she probably would have been writing several blogs to spread her news.
*I miss phone calls telling me Fry's has a manager's special and all chicken breast packs are marked down to $1.39/lb. for one day only
*I think my mom would have been Twilight obsessed and would have been so proud of her niece, Kaili, who is an agent representing the actor who plays Sam.
*I know she totally would have been into Facebook because everyone was her friend. And, she would have kept up with everyone in her friends list too.

I could go on and on about how much I miss my mom but really, I am grateful for all the things I learned from my mom and people often comment that I am truly her daughter. I guess a lot of people would be scared to cook 60-70 chicken breasts for a church dinner. Not me. My mom taught me how to cook for the masses. I have the gift of gab, good or bad. I can strike up a conversation with anyone, anywhere, and it as if we are old friends. Ask Steve. It makes him nuts how I can chat it up with perfect strangers. My mom never really withheld junk food or treats. I try to follow in my mom's footsteps that way. Kate has had her fair share of ice cream and french fries and cheesecake! (Hey - my kids ask for apples and veggies so allowing some junk in their lives isn't all bad.) Some of my most frequent memories are of my mom on the phone and before cordless phones, we had the longest telephone cords you have ever seen. We had to climb under and over them all the time because my mom took the phone everywhere. Now, I don't like answering my home phone too much but always have my cell on me so call or txt me anytime. My mom was always volunteering or involved in some sort of community organization for something and my sisters and I have all followed suit. Whether church or PTO or dance or team mom or whatever, we are all giving somewhere else, usually letting something else go at home to do so. My mom was not a perfect housekeeper and I have seemed to inherit that quality. Sure, it makes me nuts when I am behind but if it means I was spending time with my kids doing something other than cleaning (or just plain old getting behind) it is OK and life goes on.

Anyway, today Caroline and I were going through a scrapbook looking for pictures of my mom. They are few and far between. Note to all moms out there - step out from behind the camera and get some pictures with YOU in it so your kids know what you looked like at their soccer games or hanging out in the summer or whatever. I do not have enough photos of my mom. But, here are a few: (Thank you Creative Memories for teaching my mom to crop all the photos really weird shapes and put stickers over the pictures when she made my scrapbooks but I am so grateful to have them and not a box full of memories stuck in a closet.)

My mom, dad, and me 3 months old 1976. Note the hair...see where my girls get it from?

My first Christmas 1976 My aunt brought me this dress from Austria and all the girls in our family have worn it at some time or another.

A trip to Lagoon and a spin on the carousel 1977 Loving the knee socks

Halloween - 1978 - I wore the dress from an oversize Raggedy Ann doll my mom's best friend made.

1984 - the year I was baptized. My mom always made birthdays a very special day.

At a Merry Miss Mommy-Daughter activity with some sort of international theme.

At a Young Women's Mother-Daughter activity on Temple Marriage. All the moms brought their wedding gowns (this is not my mom's by the way) and they were displayed around the room. My mom was so embarrassed by her 1970's very trendy for the time wedding gown with the empire waistline, embroidered daisy motif...I think it would actually be retro chic today.

Family Portrait at our Stone Family Reunion in Park Ciry, UT 1992

My high school graduation day, 1994. (With Molly and Meghan and our friends Adrienne and Kristin.)

Earning my Young Womanhood Recognition Award - my mom was the Personal Progress advisor for years and felt strongly about the girls earning their award and that it was just as important as the boys earning an Eagle Scout. My mom earned hers as well.

My wedding day, August 15, 1997. Oh, did my mom love planning a wedding.

Our last family portrait December 2001. With Lindsay, Grandchild #1. Number nine comes in just 3 months to Meghan's family.

Lindsay's dance recital, December 2004. Mom was well into her cancer treatments, had lost her hair, had gained back weight (that she had recently lost) being on so many drugs, was paralyzed on her right side, and couldn't hardly speak. Traveling places was hard for her and she was embarrassed by her appearance but there was nothing that would keep her from being at Lindsay's special day.

I hope that I can be the kind of mom to make my mom proud and continue her legacy.
We love you.

Weather Report

Current: 57°F
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UV Index: 1 Low
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Humidity: 40%
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Forecast High: 79°F

Hats, scarves, gloves, and hot cocoa. A perfect way to spend a Sunday morning before church!