Chocolate Chip Pizza

We went out to eat tonight to one of our favorite pizza places- Bertolo's. we love their food but the BEST part is the chocolate chip pizza. After we finished eating real food, we all got a piece of the yummy dessert pizza. Kate loved it and check out how she ate it...

 

 

Yep, she picked off all of the chocolate chips first and then ate the rest. She figured out pretty quickly what the best part is! :)

 

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Insta-Life Again

Well I am waiting to get my camera adapter so I can upload pics onto my new computer. In the meantime I thought I would share some of my most recent Instagram pics...

Have I mentioned how much I love our new Christmas book tradition? I know I have, but again, I love it! We are all enjoying it. Kate has figured out much she likes opening presents though. A few nights ago she opened one book, looked at 2 pages and then went and tried to get another book to open. She was not happy when I limited her to one. :)

 

 

On Sunday Kate woke up earlier than normal. I went ahead and fed her breakfast but put her back in her crib while we showered and got ready for church. When I went to get her back up for church, this is how I found her...

 

She was sleeping so well that I felt bad having to wake her up. I love the crossed feet. So sweet.

I pulled her crib away from the wall a little farther than normal when I changed the sheets on her bed last week. I felt like I hit the paci lottery. Now I know where they all went!

 

 

Kate's Nana now has a seat on her bike just for Kate, so we needed to find a helmet for her. We went to Target to look for one. Apparently they only make them in a few sizes. I first pulled out the one that said it was for ages 1+. Too small. The next size up was for ages 3+. It fit! Kate was not amused by her big head.

 

 

Her Mothers Day Out program had fall pictures a few weeks back. I love how they turned out! These are her first "school" pictures.

 

 

And last but not least, these pictures were from tonight. Kate LOVES the outside. She and I were in the living room this afternoon. All she had on was a onesie and socks. Yes, you can call me lazy because I just didn't put her pants back on after changing a diaper. Anyway she went in the kitchen and got one shoe and her jacket. She brought them to me and tried to put them on herself. After a little help by me, she got the shoe and jacket on and then went to the door and whined to go outside. The whole no-pants-one-shoe thing didn't seem to bother her.

 

 

I promise a real blog post (with real camera pics) soon! Happy Tuesday, y'all!

 

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Happy Thanksgiving and More Randomness

Well, Happy Thanksgiving! I realize that I am a bit late on this but I have had an unintentional blog break. My laptop decided to die on me last week. It was on its 9th life but it was still a sad day. My laptop was about 5 years old. One year ago we thought it had died but a man in our church was able to "save" it. However he had to put on a Linux operating system which meant no more Windows. It was great for just getting on the Internet, but I am used to Microsoft everything so I was basically lost. Anyway, last week it stopped connecting to the Internet so I knew it was time for something new. I couldn't decide between a new cheap laptop or going for the iPad. I've been wanting an iPad for quite a while, but that was back when my laptop was functional. I decided to take a poll of my Facebook friends to see if I should get a new laptop or go for the ipad. Overwhelmingly, my friends told me to get a new laptop. Despite all of this, I found myself in line at Target on Black Friday waiting to get an iPad. I am an idiot.

But after a 3 hour wait, I now have my iPad and I love it. :) I guess I should also add that Kevin does have a laptop so if I ever NEED to use it, I can. We will see how this works out for now though.

So I said all of that just to say, Happy Thanksgiving a few days late. We had lots of fun with family, and just enjoyed this laid-back kind of holiday. We are so thankful for the many ways God has blessed us. It's easy to overlook even the simple ways that we have all been blessed, but I hope this holiday has helped us all to open our eyes and be thankful to our Creator every single day of the year.

On a totally different note, I saw these on Pinterest (where else?) and knew I had to make them. When I was growing up, we celebrated Thanksgiving in Charleston every year. One of my Grandmothers friends always made these cute turkeys. I remember all of us kids would camp out where these were sitting for the entire afternoon. Of course the adults put them on a table that was high enough for these to be just out of reach. Typical. Regardless, when I saw them on Pinterest I knew I had to try to make them. They turned out okay for my first attempt!

And the last random thing for this post is about a new (to us) Christmas tradition that we have started. Another Pinterest idea, of course. I have mentioned that Kate LOVES books and I am not exaggerating. So, I saw this idea to wrap a Christmas book for each day of December and have your child(ren) open up a "new" book each night. Last year Kate was too little to know what was going on but I hit up some after-Christmas sales and picked up about 7-8 books. I mentioned it to my mom and she went into our attic and pulled out all of the old Christmas books from my childhood. She even went ahead and wrapped them for me! Last night we let Kate open her first book and I LOVED it. It was Just A Snowy Day by Mercer Mayer. S much fun reading Kate a book that I remember being read when I was growing up. What a fun new tradition.

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Long Hair

Kate was born with a head full of hair.  Everybody kept telling us that it was going to fall out, but it never did.  She's always had lots of hair and I've had so much fun putting bows in her hair.

It just hit me this weekend how long her hair had gotten.  I remember BARELY being able tuck the sides of her hair behind her ear, and now it looks like this...

It doesn't just go behind her ear, but it wraps all the way around her ears.

It is crazy how much her hair has grown in 15 months.  When I saw how long her hair was this weekend, I decided to try out the pig tails.  I've put her hair in little pig tails on the top half but hadn't been able to pull it all up.  

And it fit!  I think it's adorable but it almost makes me a little sad!  How has her hair grown THIS much?  

Another Football Weekend

This past weekend, we continued the away game tradition by going to the UGA/Auburn game in Auburn, Alabama.  We bought the tickets before the game time was announced and since Auburn is only about 4.5 hours from where we live, we decided to make it a 1 day trip.  Well, the game ended up being at 7pm.  Since we had to be back for church on Sunday, we still had to do it all in one day.  It was definitely a long day.

We left around noon and got there in time to walk around campus and eat dinner before the game started.  I have to say that this was my favorite campus and stadium that we've gone to (besides Clemson).  It really reminded me a lot of Clemson.  Kristi and I would walk around and point out buildings that looked like buildings on Clemson's campus. 

As we were walking around, we saw the Alabama game tuned in on lots of the tailgating TV's.  We couldn't believe the score at first!  After we went into the stadium, Kevin kept up with it on his portable XM radio.  About 10 minutes after the game was over, the Auburn fans started yelling louder than they had at any point in the game, even louder than when their team ran into the stadium.  We realized that they had just posted the Alabama score on the screen.  The Auburn fans were more excited for an Alabama loss than they were concerned over their own game. :)  Oh the joys of rivalries!

We left mid-way through the 3rd quarter since the game wasn't close, and ended up getting home about 2:30am. Definitely a long day, but a fun one.  Kevin asked me afterward if I would ever go back to Auburn, and I told him that of all the stadiums that we've been to, that's the one that I would love to go back to.  Although, I also told him that next year we would be going to either a Clemson away game OR a Georgia away game, but not both.  September-December just seems like it is the busiest time of the entire year, and my weekends are so valuable.  We don't have a free weekend until after the first of the year!  I'm sure everybody else is just as busy, right??

Happy 15 Month Birthday

I definitely missed Kate's 14 month "birthday", but I still want to do monthly updates on a somewhat consistent basis. After reading back on her 13 month post, I can't believe how many new things she is doing in just the past 2 months.  So, here is Kate's 15 month update.

Words:
Kate is finally starting to try to talk.  If you ask her to, she'll try to repeat just about anything (if she is in the mood).  Along with her standard "Mama" she is now saying the following words:
Dada
Go - except she doesn't just say it once. It's more like "go, go, go, go, go, go", especially when she's watching football.
Truck
Nana
Papa
Ball
Apple
Night-Night
Wow
Dog & Woof- I think she thinks these are the same thing.  If you ask her what a dog says, she'll say woof (which comes out like oof).  If she sees a dog, she'll say woof.  Woof is her new favorite word.  Apparently at her MDO program, she was following the kids around and panting at them and saying "woof".  Her teachers asked us if we had dogs. :)

She doesn't use these words all the time, but is pretty good at saying them if you ask her to repeat them.

Mobility:
Kate is now RUNNING when she can, instead of walking.  This girl is on the GO.
She loves steps, or curbs, and will constantly go up and down.  Apparently we have done a good job of catching her when she stumbles, because she has no fear when coming down  steps.  She tries to step down like she is a big girl.

Foods:
I'm not sure if Kate has a "favorite" food right now.  She has always been a good eater, and I guess that is still the case.  She hasn't been a picky eater in the past, but she has definitely gotten a lot pickier.

However she does "prefer" some things over others.  If she's eating one thing and see something else that she wants, she'll put her hand in her mouth and pull out whatever it is she's eating so she can get the other thing.

Growing:
Kate probably fits in 18 month clothes best, but I pretty much buy all 24 month or 2T to get some extra "wear" out of them.
She wears a size 5 diaper.
And a size 5 or 6 shoe!
She has 12 teeth that are all the way in (4 top, 4 bottom, plus 4 molars) and her canine teeth have just started popping through.

Other Development:
I'm sure her Nana is working with her too, but I've been trying to get her to learn body parts.  So far she can point to her nose, eyes, mouth, ears, teeth, hair, fingers, toes and belly button.  She is especially interested in her belly button, and if you ask where it is she immediately pulls up her shirt and then proceeds to try to pull up YOUR shirt to find your belly button.

Happy 15 month birthday, Kate!

November- Adoption Awareness Month

Prior to adopting, I was adoption ignorant. I just didn't know a whole lot about adoption.  One of my best friends growing up had a little brother who was adopted.  I remember her telling us about him, but I was still a kid at the time myself so I didn't really know or understand what all was involved.  That was about the extent of my adoption knowledge. So yeah, I really had no idea about adoption.

I still don't know a lot of stuff about adoption, but I definitely know a lot more than I did 2 years ago.  One thing I had no clue about was that there was an adoption awareness month.  I mean I should have figured, since there is a month for just about every cause imaginable, but I digress.  NOVEMBER is adoption awareness month.

This video was made by Lifesong for Orphans for Adoption Sunday, which was this past Sunday (November 4th).  I missed out on sharing it before Sunday, but it is still a great video.  Check it out...

 

So what can you do to help?  As Christians, we're all called to defend the orphans, and we can do that in a TON of different ways.  Not every couple is called to adopt a child like we were, but each person IS called to care for orphans in some way. How does God want to use you?

Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.
James 1:27

Father to the fatherless, defender of widows — this is God, whose dwelling is holy. God places the lonely in families.
Psalm 68:5-6

One easy way is to pray for the families that are waiting to adopt RIGHT NOW.  There are tons of families out there who are waiting, and you probably even know of some families first-hand.  Click here to see the list of waiting families with the adoption agency that Kevin and I used (Bethany Christian Services).  Feel free to sort it by state, and pray for them.  Pray for strength and patience during the wait, pray for their future child, and that child's birth parents.

Help spread the word that November is adoption awareness month.  I'm so glad we got a "little" bit more aware about adoption. :)

Fripp Trip

This past weekend, we took a mini-vacation and headed to the beach.  We had great weather, but didn't end up going to the beach at all since it's October, not June.  We bummed around the house, ate lots of food, did a little shopping, and had a lot of fun.

We got ice cream cones, which I'm sure was the highlight of the trip for Kate...

We went shopping at an outdoor mall/outlet area.  They had some rides for the kids so we stuck Kate on a play speedboat.  I figured she would cry when it stopped (since she has in the past), but she didn't. Let me just say that $0.75 does not get you very much of a "ride".  I felt like we got ripped off. 

Kate was a trooper for the shopping.  She just kicked back and enjoyed the ride- literally.

As we were packing up to go home, Kate grabbed an apple to play with.  At least I thought she was playing with it, until I turned around and saw that the apple had little baby teeth marks all over it and about 1/3 of it was GONE.  I knew she liked apples, I guess I didn't realize just how much. 

I've said it once, and I'll say it again, my iPhone saved our sanity on the car rides.  The Itsy Bitsy Spider app by Duck Duck Moose is the best! 

Time & Sleeping

We have been blessed with a good little sleeper.  And believe me, we REALLY appreciate it.  On weekdays, Kate gets up around 7:30 (because she has to) and on the weekends, she consistently sleeps to 8 or 9. Her mommy and daddy love that they get to sleep in until 8 or 9 too.   :)

But just this past Saturday/Sunday came the dreaded Daylight Savings Time.  Ughh. I'm SO not a fan.  Not only will there now be hardly any daylight left when we get off of work, but I'm betting money that Kate will be getting up an hour earlier than what's "normal". 

Fellow mommies, any tips on getting your kids adjusted to the time change? Do you just put your baby down to sleep an hour "earlier" than normal and deal with the waking up an hour earlier part?  How do you deal with "falling back" an hour?

Kate Takes the Wheel

Yes, I'm a few days overdue for a blog update, but it's for a VERY good reason.  Kevin's brother and sister-in-law (Ken and Angela) were at the beach this week for vacation and invited us to join them.  So we headed down on Thursday and spent a long weekend at Fripp Island.  So much fun!  I'll update later with some more pictures, but here were a few cute ones of Kate "playing" in the car while we were loading some things up.  Don't worry, the car wasn't on and we were right there with her.  I just think the progression of pictures is cute.  

First, just sitting in the driver's seat.  Very content.

Playing with the steering wheel...

Noticing all of the knobs and buttons...

Really "driving" now...