He is risen! No matter how much I enjoy spending time with family, my true joy comes from the peace and comfort of knowing that I am a child of the King. It comes from knowing that my future is secure, and today as Christians, we celebrate what Jesus has done for us by overcoming the grave. I am so thankful for that empty tomb! Happy Easter!
And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him.
We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again.
Death no longer has any power over him.
When he died, he died once to break the power of sin.
But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God
So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.
Last weekend, the children at our church performed a few songs that they had been working on for weeks. Kate's class sang along to "He's Got The Whole World In His Hands". They had their final rehearsal the Wednesday before and Kate did SO good. She did all the motions, sang along with the words that she knew, and I was really impressed.
And then Sunday came along, and I was sure that since she did SO well at rehearsal, she would probably zone out during the real performance. I was right. She was all over the stage. She started off in the front, then decided she wanted to see what was going on in the back, and then changed her mind and shoved some of the other kids out of the way to get back to the front. And then, she spotted her Papa sitting on the front row.
She held out her arms and yelled "Hold you!" and when he didn't come get her, she lept off of the stage. That's right, my kid "fell" off of the stage. She has no fear. It never crossed her mind that somebody wouldn't catch her. Luckily, we were prepared for something like that happening with the little kids so we had adults stationed around the stage. Kate's teacher caught her just in time. Of course I got it all on video. Here she is pre-fall.
And here's the video that I will be holding over her head one day.
I feel like these days, every time I sit down to write a blog post, I'm writing about what sicknesses we've been dealing with. We have NEVER had this much sickness since Kevin and I have been married, and lately it seems like it is one thing after another. First Kate had an ear infection, then it didn't go away and turned into a double ear infection. Then, she had a bad reaction to augmentin and we had to get her medication switched. Next, Kevin and I both had stomach virus. And now, I have a sinus infection and an ear infection. Oh and this is all within the last 3 weeks. Seriously. We need to catch a break around here.
This weekend, I was on Kate-duty all alone while Kevin was in bed with the virus. We try not to let Kate watch much TV (if any), and the main reason is because she learns the characters and begs to watch them. Some days, you just do what you have to do. So Saturday, we watched a lot of "Chuggy" (Chuggington) and "Ein-tine" (Little Einsteins) and spent half the day in our pajamas.
We also did a little bit of this...
I never realized how happy these little Popsicle sticks would make her, but they do. She makes a MESS but has so much fun. We store them in a little box, and I love how she will hold the box high, dump every last stick out, and then say "Oh no!" in a tone that suggests that something is WRONG. Nevermind the fact that she was the one that made the mess. Some of the best $2 ever spent.
Oh the things she says! I can only imagine that as her vocabulary grows, and as she learns to string more and more words together, I'll have some hilarious conversations to remember. :) Here are just a few of the most recent things that have made us laugh.
Kate to Kevin: "Tank-u Daddy-Kevi" (Thank you, Daddy Kevin)
Kate calling Kevin "Kevy" is just funny. Kevin got it on video the other day. Quality isn't the best, but you can definitely tell what she is saying:
As we were driving to small group, Kate kept asking for a chip. We were ignoring here and carrying on with our conversation until we heard "Daddy. Daddy. Daddy-Daddy-Daddy-DADDY."
Kevin says, "Yes, Kate?"
Kate's response: "Chip!"
One day I was sitting on the floor, painting my toenails a nice spring-y color, when barefoot Kate walks over to me. She puts her foot right on top of mine, points to it, and says "Do it!". Needless to say, I painted her toenails.
We were out running errands one day and decided to just go grab lunch. As we were putting Kate into the car, we started throwing around restaurant ideas. This was how the conversation went...
Kevin to Kate: "Do you want pizza?"
Kate: "Peet-za!"
Kevin: "Or, do you want a burger?"
Kate: "Bugger"
Kevin: "How about BBQ?"
Kate: "SAUCE! Dip!"
Can you tell what she dips her chicken into? If she won't eat something, we just put BBQ sauce on her plate and she will dip away.
We went to Lowe's one day to grab something for the house, and while I was finding what we needed, Kevin let Kate "ride" the lawn mowers that were inside. As we left, we had to walk right past the lawn mowers again. Kate started pointing to them, signing "more" and saying MORE. I guess mower and more do sound pretty similar. Even more so with a southern accent. :)
As we were walking into her room I asked "Kate, whose room is this?"
Her reply: "Self"
She's gotten in the habit of saying "self" instead of "me" or "mine" because she tells us so often that she wants to do something by herself. I have to admit, I'd much rather her her say "self" than "miiiinnnneeee".
Maybe I'm a dork, or just overly enthusiastic, but I started collecting for Kate's Easter basket WEEKS and WEEKS ago. Last year, she was so young, it was really hard to think of things to put in her basket so I just filled it with a stuffed animal, bath toys, and a kid's iPhone case. Actually, she didn't even have a real Easter basket last year.
I didn't have a problem figuring out what to put in her basket this year. :) Her basket, along with all of these goodies, have been sitting in our living room since they were purchased and she has not gotten into them yet. They are in our formal living room, which we use as an office, and we don't let her have free-reign of that room so I just don't think she has noticed any of it yet.
Luckily her basket is not too big, or I would have had to put a few extra things in there. I pretty much filled it to the brim, as it is. And all for under $20. So what did I put in her basket? Well, see the list below.
Kate's Easter Basket- 2013
1. Crayola Sidewalk Chalk- $3 from Target
2. Mr. Bubble Foam Soap (it floats!)- $5 from Target
3. Bubbles- $1 from the Target Dollar Spot
4. Crayola Bath Drops to color bath water- $4 from Target
5. Spring Play-Doh- $2 from the Target Dollar Spot
6. Easter-Themed Cookie Cutters (to use with Play-Doh)- $1 from the Target Dollar Spot
7. Cotton Candy- $1 from the Target Dollar Spot... because what Easter basket is any fun without something sweet!
I definitely didn't go overboard, but wanted to get some fun things that could be used for an extended period of time (like the chalk and play-doh), instead of played with once and the forgotten about. Besides, Easter baskets are fun (for parents and kids), but that's not what Easter is all about. In a line from a book that Kate got for Easter LAST year...
"...the eggs are fun and the Easter bunny is okay, but Easter's not
about that stuff. It's about God's son."
Today is my sister's 26th birthday! She is in a wedding tomorrow and has a rehearsal to attend today, so we met up with her and some friends last night for a celebratory pizza birthday dinner.
Sorry, Kristi, that you don't get a longer post than this. Your birthday just happened to fall on a day when everybody in our entire household is sick. I'll do better next year! We do hope that you have a FANTASTIC 26th birthday though!
We didn't have any set plans for this weekend, and that turned out to be a really good thing. About 2 weeks ago, Kate got her very first ear infection. She finished her first antibiotic last Sunday and by Monday she was already coughing and snotty again. We thought she was getting yet another cold, but by Friday her cough was just too deep and constant. Kevin took her back to the doctor, only to find out that she now has a double ear infection.
I have to say, she is a trooper. We had no clue that she had an ear infection, much less a double ear infection. She never pulled on her ears, or whined or complained. Her only real symptom was the terrible cough. She's now on Augmentin and it has got to be the worst medication ever. Getting Kate to take this medicine is a twice-a-day challenge for both Kevin and myself. It is driving us CRAZY.
We laid low this weekend, and on Sunday I decided to keep her home from church. She seems okay for the most part, but her cough is pretty bad and I wouldn't want to send her into the nursery like that. And she's too big to go into the service with us.
The weather was perfect this afternoon so we ventured outside for a little bit so Kate could play with "the boys". She really loves Max and Cooper and can say both of their names now.
She picked a couple of Daffodils and was convinced that Cooper needed to eat them.
And that's pretty much how we spent our St. Patty's day weekend. We are quite the adventurous family, huh?
Sometimes things will come out of Kate's mouth and Kevin and I both look at each other and laugh. I'm sure this will get more and more common as she really starts to string words together. One thing that makes me laugh is the way she says "hello". She has said "hey" for quite a while now, but recently she has started playing with her toy phone and saying "hello". She sounds like Elmer Fudd. Seriously. You know, like on Looney Tunes.
I was never a fan of cartoons, but my grandparents had a really big stuffed Elmer Fudd at their house. I didn't watch any of the other Looney Tune characters, but I certainly knew who Elmer Fudd was and Kate sometimes sounds like him. Especially when she says the word "hello"!
I tried to get a video of her saying "hello" but it doesn't quite capture the way she really says it. It comes out more like "he-woah". Then she got more interested in saying her own name, and telling me how old she is.
Do your kids say funny things, or pronounce words funny? I sure am going to miss this stage.
PS- Apparently Google Reader (and Google Friends Connect) is going away in July. So if you follow my blog through Google, and want to continue following it, you'll need to use another type of reader. One option is Bloglovin' . To use Bloglovin', you'll need to create an account. Please note that you do not have to have a blog to create an account- you just have to read blogs! Once your account is created, you can link it to your Google account and it will pull in all of the blogs that you already read.
I've been lucky to visit lots of different places in my lifetime so far. We are not, however, world travelers. We live in the southeast, and have lots of beaches within a day's drive of us, so we have been on numerous beach vacations- Charleston, Myrtle Beach, Fripp Island, the Outer Banks, etc. We like to ski so we have done that plenty of times and have even been skiing out west once or twice. The most "exotic" vacation we have ever taken was probably our trip to Hawaii, on our honeymoon.
Although that trip was pretty great, I wouldn't say it was my favorite vacation. My FAVORITE vacation was just last year, to Savannah, Georgia.
We only live a little over 4 hours away from Savannah, so it's not like it was some far-off destination for us. However, it was the first vacation that we took as a family of three, and it came at a time when I really needed a vacation! As any tax accountant would probably tell you, any vacation taken right after the April 15th deadline is a great vacation!
We ate dinner at Uncle Bubbas, and Kate enjoyed her own special meal.
Somebody got in the pool for the very first time. And, no, I'm not talking about Kevin.
We explored the city, and even took a trolley tour.
But the best part was just spending time with each other and enjoying our family of 3. Our Savannah vacation was quick (just 3 days, 2 of which were travel days). I'm sure most people wouldn't even think it was anything special, but to me it was. Some vacations are just ones you will remember for forever, and this was one of mine.
What was YOUR favorite vacation? Are there any places that we just HAVE to visit?
Kate is a people-person. She has never met a stranger and you would never mistake her for being shy. She might not hold her arms out to everybody, but she has never cried because a "stranger" is holding her.... except for that phase when she didn't like men with beards. So, when we found out that even the "littlest" children in our church were taking part in the children's Easter music, we were pretty interested to see how Kate would reacted.
They haven't sung on stage on Sunday morning yet, but this past Sunday all of the kids had a rehearsal to practice being on the stage. It took place right after church on Sunday morning for just a few minutes, so there were still lots of adults hanging around. It was a good test to see which kids are shy and which aren't. For reference, I was always one of the shy kids. Kevin says he was too.
The smallest children are only on the stage for one song: He's Got The Whole World In His Hands. Kate knows all the motions and practices them in the car. She loves music. She's 19 months though, so I didn't expect her to do the motions or sing when they actually performed, and of course she didn't. She wanted to watch all of the big kids.
She was NOT shy though and when they were finished, her teacher (Brandee) asked if she was ready to get down. Kate's reply?
"No. No, no."
Oh, no. She did not want to get off of the stage. She wanted to stay up there with the big kids and be in the spotlight. Brandee's response to that was "A star is born!". Ha! We have got our work cut out for us.
Stay tuned to see how she does in the REAL performance in a few more weeks.
Sunday afternoon, the weather was SO nice that we decided to go for a walk. We have a nice neighborhood that is really close to us, so we usually walk up and down a few of those streets and then head home. As we started walking, we decided to go a little farther than normal and take Kate to see the horses.
We drive past this horse farm every single day. And every time Kate sees the fence she yells "hooo-ses. NEIGH!" Even if they are not out where she can see them, she knows they are there. So we knew she would enjoy actually stopping to see them.
When we got there, we saw that the horses were in another fenced in area that was a little farther away and they had already been covered up for the night. Kate didn't mind too much. She kept saying "hooo-ses, NEIGH!" and just watched them for forever.
I just love this picture...
And this one too...
I highly doubt that this will be the last time we walk to see the horses. Although, I'm not so sure I will be pushing 30lb Kate uphill in her stroller to see the horses when it is 95 degrees in the middle of summer. She better enjoy the horses while she can!
Kate is a pretty dramatic little girl, and she has lots of "faces" that she likes to share. It's gotten pretty funny. Most of these we haven't taught her, with the exception of the "sad face". She's just started imitating what she sees and hears. So many faces for such a little girl.
There's her sad face...
Her surprised face...
Her faces when she is being silly...
The face she makes when she is fake-laughing...
Oh, and I can't get enough of this sweet face...
Speaking of imitating, tonight she started calling Kevin by his first name instead of Daddy. It comes out "Kevy" but still. So perceptive! Guess she heard everybody else calling him that and thought "why not?". We didn't know whether to laugh at her or scold her. We laughed and then told her "No, that's DADDY." Then she called him Daddy Kevy. We are in trouble.
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