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12.19.2008

this is for cass

cassi tagged me... which means i get to answer some questions that i'm sure you guys are dying to know...

8 tv shows i watch:
1. The Office
2. Kath and Kim
3. ER (off and on... but i'm watching this final season pretty regularly)
4. Any of the Rock of Love franchise
5. Intervention
6. Dog the Bounty Hunter
7. Ugly Betty
8. Super Why

8 things that happened to me today (let's do this week):
1. got my vitals checked 
2. found a pair of black boots
3. got a free route 44 at sonic
4. was told my baby was so cute (a few times- not that i'm bragging or anything)
5. only spent 13 dollars to fill up my car (it wasn't quite empty)
6. saw snow/freezing rain and 80 degree weather (in the same place, not at the same time)
7. made my first crock-pot meal
8. started a new book - Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

8 things i look forward to:
1. kai being able to tell me what's wrong when she's unhappy
2. the end of teething
3. taking Painting I
4. selling more stuff on etsy
5. bunco at the first of each month
6. getting back into my pre-pregnancy jeans
7. a sonic diet coke
8. my birthday

8 things i wish for:
1. contentment
2. money to not be such a stressor
3. all my friends to live close by
4. more understanding 
5. to be able to see more of the world's cultures first hand
6. my phone to be fixed
7. a wii fit
8. a good camera

people i tag:
1. Annie A
2. Vanessa
3. Melissa
4. Jen Sperl
5. Abby (or James - or both)
6. Rachel
7. Bonnie
8. Carolyn

(but my feelings won't be hurt if you don't participate... except you, Annie.)

ok... bye for now... four christmases coming soon!

12.09.2008

tis the season for sweaters, crafting and a growing baby






so sorry it's been a while! well, i guess technically it's only been a couple of weeks... but boy has a lot happened!

first off, we had our 9 month check up... here are the little one's stats:

height: 27 3/4 in - 50th percentile
weight: 20 lbs 8 oz - 75th percentile
head: not sure, but 25th percentile

so kai's growing has definitely slowed down - but doctor said she looked good and that she wasn't worried about anything because now that she's a mover (and she doesn't sit still unless she's asleep) she's using more energy... also her tiny hands and feet most likely indicate that she'll be petite (no idea where that comes from!)

we had baby's first thanksgiving... and didn't get any pics (can you believe it?) somebody send me some if you have some. kai got to eat pretty much everything... and liked it all. in fact, if it's on mommy or daddy's (or any grown-up really) plate, it's awesome.

along with her first thanksgiving came her first solo steps... aunt deanne and cousin leslie were the lucky people to witness along with mommy (although it was really just from one piece of furniture to another)... but low and behold each day she took a few more. tyna and jimmy, visiting from arizone, got to see a few more on friday, and then some girlfriends got to see a few more on monday... and by the end of last week, she was walking across the room! now she's become a pro at pushing/pulling her little walking toy around - we thought we were going to have to keep it put away until christmas... but she thinks she's so big!

here's some video to enjoy:





in other news, we attended rob and kari's sweater party - 



kai got her picture taken with senor santa:


and i've been crafting... 



i've actually made my first sale on etsy.com - check out my page by clicking on the banner on the right side of the blog.

abby inspired me to make our own stockings... pics of those next time.

the artistic stuff started with me painting kai's first triptych:



and we've decorated the house:



whew! i'm worn out... so let me leave you with a picture of the cutest baby ever:


11.20.2008

3/4 of a year!




well, i must say these last 9 months have flown by compared to the 9 months before... maybe it had something to do with the big ole baby in my belly!

things are good in the land of kai... not much to report... she's still cruising and letting go every once in a while... she can drink out of a straw... and has learned the art of clapping. it really is a joy to see her learning and growing and changing... and to think her birthday (and mine - don't forget!) is just around the corner is a tad bit crazy! 

she still loves the fish tank...

(look at the older posts to see her at 3 months enjoying the view from her bumbo)

eating cheerios... and feeding lucy a snack as well 



yes those are zebra print parachute pants (thanks DD!)

i forgot to mention the fine art of climbing! she put herself on top of her favorite cardboard box for this one!


we went to the zoo last week (half price wednesdays!)

napping with noli on the way



checking out the chimps

mommy and kai and an old man gorilla

pig... but noli's more interesting over there

riding the train with our bff's

just can't stay awake

to see this beautiful, sad lion

also, last week, we went to a memorial service for one of shawn's former coworkers so we stopped by to visit grandma candy's grave

the weekend brought cousin AJ's 5th birthday party... cosmic bowling!

kai also got to see cousin brian... a rare treat... 

check out that score... i don't know if you can read it or not, but the 99 goes with Suzy and the 36 with Shawn... not that i'm boasting or anything....


that's all for now! happy thanksgiving! 


11.05.2008

a chessire cat, a monumental election day and falafel



For Halloween this year, we threw around some ideas... Popeye, Olive Oil and Sweet Pea.... Fred, Wilma and Pebbles... but finally settled on Alice, the Mad Hatter and the Chessire Cat. Grandma J/Amba/who knows what we'll actually call her made Kai's tail and ears (thanks!) and Shawn put together his ensemble with one trip to the thrift store (complete with size 8 women's pants - i'm just a tad bitter)... I spent all week looking for mine and still people were like, and you are...??? Guesses included Ma and Pa Kettle (what?!) and someone Irish - thanks to Shawn's green hat I suppose. Anywhoo...we had a great night. We stopped by my parents house to show off the costumes and my grandparents and then headed to some friends' house where they were having a block party. Kai was so good! She enjoyed watching the older kids hit the pinata and ride their big wheels round and round. When the older kids went trick or treating, we got the bounce house all to ourselves and Kai's godfather, Rob, took her for a ride in a wagon!

enjoy some pics!

the whole gang:


Kai with grandma j:


Kai and daddy:


Shawn enjoying his own private tea party


Riding around with The Godfather:


So tired!


Mommy and Kai:



Saturday night we went down to Shawn's dad's for the annual halloween party... we didn't get any pics, unfortunately, but a good time was had by all!

Tuesday brought election day as we all know! My friend Katie (that I've known since 1st grade!) was in town helping her dad out, so we stopped by her post and kept her company for a couple of hours. It was also her birthday so we took her a special treat! What dedication to spend your entire day at the polls! Don won... so it was worth it! Go Don!

Kai and Katie:


Future pollster??? (she stood up all by herself for this one!)

And finally, tonight we went to dinner with our friends, the Andersons. If you've been reading my blog since the beginning, you know that Kai is a week younger than their sweet pea, Noli. I can't believe how much they've changed in this nine months! It's so fun watching them start to interact with each other!

Besties forever - if only we could look at the camera at the same time!

And... this picture pretty much sums up why i love Annie so much.


Obamadios (totally stolen from someone much more funny than I) for now!

10.30.2008

California and the Great Pumpkin

No... that's not the next installment of Charlie Brown... it's what we've been up to lately! Sorry it's taken a while to post... after we got back from california i caught a nasty cold and i've been running around the plex trying to put together my halloween costume... pictures will be up next week of that... right now, sit back, grab a cup of joe and enjoy the stories and slideshows- which have to be separate posts, thank you blogger(grrr)!

*disclaimer* the following is a play-by-play of our trip to california... you won't hurt my feelings if you decide to skip the wordage and view the slideshow... but you're gonna miss out! (not really... humor me)

10.18.08 - We wake up and finish packing (of course it wasn't even started until the night before... do you people know me?) and head over to my mom's house to drop off the dog... we head up to Lewisville to drop off my car that's making funny noises and then head to the airport. Everything with check in goes smoothly... including the new baggage fee that United implemented AFTER we booked our ticket... until we get to security. Shawn's backpack needs to be searched... hmmm... it's the toothpaste that's the culprit. The odd security man says, "do you have someone waiting on the other side of security that I can hand this to?" And we're like, "no, it's ok, just throw it away." and he's like, "Are you sure, because it would be no trouble to just hand it through?" and we're like, "No, really, it's no big deal, we'll just buy some more." and he's like, "Are you sure?" and we're like, "Yes!"

Whew... so glad that's over. Onto McDonald's for brunch and to the gate to wait. We find a fancy, hi-tech tv stand that shawn helped design at one of this many jobs from the past 3 years... and sit for a bit... until shawn goes upstairs and finds the sky-link train. Woohoo... something to do for a while! We're hoping it doesn't take more than 45 minutes to make the circuit... turns out... only 15. So if you need to kill some time, there ya go.

11:45 PM - Board our first plane together as a family! It's tiny! Only 17 rows... and the center aisle dead ends at the lavatory. Little claustrophobic but not too bad because there are only two seats on each side... so we didn't have to fight over any armrests. Kai does really well... even gets a few compliments on not crying. Way to go Kai!

1:30 PM - Arrive in the land of sunshine... get our rental... head to In-N-Out... so yummy and right by LAX so we got to watch lots of planes landing as we enjoyed our burgers.

4:00 PM - Meet friends Michelle and Laura at Santa Monica Pier... we had a great time catching up, looking at pictures and enjoying the cool California evening. Michelle has a baby girl that's 4 months older than Kai. I'm so excited for them to grow up together!

11:00 PM - After a LONG drive to our hotel in Anaheim with a couple of pit-stops along the way... check-in and crash! By the way, we stayed at Hotel Peppertree... and it was a diamond in the rough! Check them out if you're visiting the area any time soon!

10.19.08 - Wake up in California! Decide to go ahead and visit the only Sonic in So Cal for my caffeine and head up to Hollywood. Shawn can't help but notice how dirty LA is and how many homeless people there are. I am like, if you were homeless wouldn't you want to live here?

Hollywood BLVD was touristy and crowded but we got a few good pics and even got to see the Tinkerbell Premiere from across the street. We left in quite a hurry because I had left my wallet in the car (but hadn't remembered doing so - does the pregnancy fog ever go away?).

We stopped at Pinks Hot Dog stand, but the line was an hour long and it was hot... so we decided to continue to Venice.

12ish - Arrive at Venice! Ah sweet Venice! Walked around, took Kai to the water - well not the water, water... took some pics of her tasty the sand... ate pizza... laughed with the crazies... fun times had by all. My favorite was a guy sitting on top of a trash can with a cardboard sign that said "Why lie? I need weed."

3ish - Arrive back at hotel after a drive down the coast and rest!

7 - Dinner with Chrissy at Claim Jumper! I ordered a piece of cake to go and ate it every other day we were there. Yummy!

10.20.08 - DISNEYLAND! Shawn's favorite day... and mine too! We were so fortunate to be able to meet up with Beth and her family. She was a roomate in college and has two boys and a little girl on the way! She was so kind to sit with Kai while we road some of the bigger rides like Splash Mountain and Space Mountain. Also, Shawn had been the lucky recipient of some Dream Fastpasses that basically allow you to cut in front of at least half of the line!

We also met up with my friend Jill and her family. It was great because I hadn't gotten to meet her daughter either! They had been at Disney all weekend and were pooped so we had a low key dinner (well as low key as a dinner with 6 adults and 4 kids under the age of 4 can be).

The park was only open till 8 and we felt pretty rushed and will definitley have to go back (no arguments here)... but the last thing we did was visit toon town and went pretty quickly through mickey's house to his "movie barn." Turns out he was still back there doing pics... so we got some great pics with mickey - Kai was not scared at all! she kept petting his face... it was fun.

After we left Disneyland, we walked to the Lego Store and took some fun photos... Shawn is a huge lego fan... and we would have gone to Legoland on Tuesday, but we were pretty exhausted!

10.21.08 - A pretty low key day... we drove up to check out how much Biola had changed since i graduated almost 8 years ago! got pedicures... so cheap compared to dallas! and went to huntington beach to meet up with leland for fish tacos at wahoo's. there was a street fair going on (on a tuesday night, so awesome) so we walked around for a bit and of course watched the surfers for a while.

10.22.08 - Took a drive up through Beverly Hills and Brentwood on the way to the airport... no luck with the celebrity sightings!

It was a great trip... you all know i love me some cali!


Tonight we went to the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch and got some great pictures as well. It was beautiful weather and i can't wait to go at Christmas time to see the trees!

All is well in the land of Kai... her two bottom teeth are sticking out of her cute little gums and she is a pro-crawler now. She loves to pull up on anything and everything... has let go and held her balance a few times... and even stood up in the high-chair TWICE at area restaurants... crazy girl! We love her!

Kai and the Great Pumpkin

California Slideshow


10.06.2008

exciting stuff people... exciting stuff!

first of all... our wedding was picked to be in the "real weddings" section of the next issue of D Weddings! We are honored and excited and so thankful to our awesome photographer, Julie Robles and her husband Alberto for taking such wonderful pictures and for submitting our wedding. It will be on newstands Dec. 26th! Here's a sneak peak... i had to scan in pages from our awesome album since i can't find my cd with the images on it...







in the world of kai... trouble, trouble trouble! not really... but she has become a pro at crawling and pretty much starting pulling up the day after she started crawling... her favorite thing to do is crawl over to the couch where lucy is lying, stand up and stick out her tongue for some licking action... gross! of course i stop it, they both look at me like, what? and try again. I can't blame Lucy... kai's the sweetest thing in the house! here's some video to enjoy!





other recent news included celebrating rob's 35th b-day... dinner time is fussy time and kai only wants to be in mama's arms... as indicated by this awesome photo:



and we managed to all be looking in the same direction for a split second to get a family pic:



with sunday morning comes the hard-to-ignore tug on my heart to go to church... so i packed up kai and headed to first irving where she got to hang out with ms. amy in the nursery... here she is swinging and most likely eyeing another child's toy thinking, if only i could get out of this thing... his toy looks better!



after church we headed to my brother's house to celebrate my sister-in-law's birthday... kai was the star of the show of course... but she was more interested in playing with the guitar as indicated in the pics below... she's actually standing up and holding on to the guitar in this one:



and wanting to eat the strings while pop plays some johnny cash:



she also got some good floor time with aunt rita... well, she was trying to get at her camera for some tasty metal-munching:



kai's new favorite toy... yes, that's a plastic jar with some chocolate covered raisins inside... it's the simple things people.



playing with her exersaucer from the other side! what a big girl... and she even stood up on her own for this one!



i thought this was funny because lucy gets so jealous! tonight she just came over and sat in shawn's lap! silly lucy!



and last, but not least... eating time. kai is eating all kinds of fruits and veggies... sweet potato, squash, green beans, pears, avocados, pumpkin... and her bottom two teeth have broken through and are emerging more and more each day... i can't wait to get that toothy grin on camera... in the meantime, enjoy this video of her silliness during dinner recently!



we'll be celebrating kai's 8 month birthday in sunny CA! so our next post will have lots of pics from disney and the beach! adios for now!