Splishin' & Splashin'

One thing we almost never have to fight Kate on is bath time.  She loves it. Absolutely loves it. She likes it with bubbles, or without bubbles, with toys or without toys... it really doesn't matter as long as she is wet.  I'm just thankful she likes to get clean.

I finally remembered to grab my camera tonight so I can remember how much she loves her baths (or to take some future embarrassing photos).

Thank You God for Going Outside

Like I've said too many times before, Kate is most definitely an outside girl.  So much so that when we had some good weather recently and finally got to spend the afternoon outdoors, it was the very first thing that Kate thanked God for in her bedtime prayers.  Typically at night (when I get to put her to bed), we'll read a book and then turn off the lights to rock and pray.  I'll pray first and then say "Kate, do you want to tell God thank you for anything today?"  On this day, she immediately said "Yes!  God, thank you for playing outside!"  Like I said, outside girl for sure!

Can't wait til the weather warms up a bit and we can spend lots more time outside.  I know one little girl that is going to love it!

The Best Toys

I know we've all heard about how kids love boxes more than toys themselves, but it's so funny when you really see it in action...

We upgraded Kate to a bigger girl car seat in Kevin's truck and because we have the Target card, we could buy it from them cheaper online AND get free shipping.  So that's just what we did.  The seat was delivered this week and Kate was SO excited about it.  She kept saying "I'm Maverick!".  Maverick is her cousin and he's just a few years older than Kate.  I'm guessing her new car seat looks a lot like his.

Anyway, while I was in the process of figuring out how this new seat worked, Kate kept herself busy with the box- for like an hour!  Seriously.  Nothing holds her attention for that long, but this box sure did.

She especially loved for us to close her up in the box all the way.  See that little flashlight at the bottom of the picture above?  She would take that in there with her and just sit for a few minutes with her Lion King figurines.  As long as she's not drawing on the wall, destroying her room, or cutting her hair. we count it as a win when she's entertaining herself.  Score one for the parents.

I think she enjoyed this car seat box.  She better have.  It's the last car seat she's gonna get.

Another Adoption Update

So- I'll be quick because I am really busy at the moment, and here is why...

Right before Thanksgiving, I got a phone call from our adoption worker saying that she was ready to start our home study.  She wanted to know when would be a good day to do our home study visit, so of course I asked "When is the first available date?"

Her response: "How about tomorrow."

So right before Thanksgiving we had our home study visit, and we also found out that it would be the ONLY visit/interview that we had to do since this was our second adoption. Great news!

We had our visit and then didn't hear much more other than "We will work on it and will let you know when you're approved." We knew there were a few other couples in front of us so it wasn't going to be immediate.

Well, earlier this week we found out that our home study was about to be approved.  We are supposed to be "officially waiting" by the end of this week!

So what does all that mean?  Basically, I need to get moving! I haven't quite finished our profile book but I'm working on it.  I've organized all of my pictures and have uploaded them to Shutterfly.  We've written our "Dear Birthmother" letter and I've created about 8-10 pages of our book so far.  I need to finish it up and send it off to Bethany Christian Services for approval and then we are all set.  Oh, and we need to write a pretty big check.  That's always fun.

We're making progress.  Finally!  Keep us in your prayers.  Thanks!

Roller Skating!

This weekend, Kate attended her very first roller skating birthday party!  One of her friends from church (Sarah) was turning 5 and was having a skating party, so of course we had to be there!  Kate loves Sarah, but also LOVES Sarah's little brother, Connor.  They are only a few months apart and Connor is definitely Kate's boyfriend... although Connor has his sights set on a little girl at his daycare. :) We won't tell Kate.

Anyway... back to the party...

Like I said, this was Kate's very first time attempting to roller skate.  It was love at first roll.  She got the kind of skates that just clip on over her tennis shoes, and she did SO well.  I was seriously impressed. I mean she is 2. I figured she would be falling all over the place.  Not the case.  We started off walking around with her and holding her hands.

But before long, little Miss Independent took off on her own and wanted NO help.  She did great.

I have a feeling we are going to be spending some more time at the skating rink in the future.  When I asked Kate if she was having fun, her response was:

"I need more roller skating RIGHT NOW!"

I'm taking that as a "Yes".  :) 

Conversations with Kate

Kate is extremely verbal and knows so many more words than we probably even realize.  It's still fun to  hear her mispronounce words, and call things by the wrong names.  Here are some of our favorites:

• Boo-Boo-Daid (Bandaid)
• Eph-a-lent (Elephant)
• Bubba-band (Rubber Band)
• Acorns (for Carrots)
• Crosty the Mo-man (Frosty the Snowman)
• Ta-wah-wah (Tiara)

Kate and I were playing with one of her toys- a stackable set of bowls (the kind where each bowl is consecutively smaller).  I was trying to explain to her the concept of BIG and small.  I'd pick out two bowls and ask her which was the bigger one.  She got it right about 50% of the time, so I know it was pretty much just guesses on her part.  So, to try to explain it to her a little differently, I picked up two bowls (one big and one small) and said "Kate, if we were going to fill these up with ice cream, you would want the BIG bowl. Which bowl would you want?"  She immediately picked up the big bowl, stood up, said "This one! Let's go!", and walked over to the freezer.  Mom fail on that one. :)

After a 4+ hour car ride that Kate did AWESOME on, I was telling her how proud I was of her and that she did a great job of riding in the car for so long.  Her response?  "Thanks.  Good driving, Mommy!"  Ha! Gotta love the sweetness of a 2 year old.

My mom, Kristi, Kate and I were at a McDonalds drive-through for breakfast one morning. I was driving, so I got to be in charge of ordering.  My mom told me she wanted a Bacon, Egg and Cheese McMuffin, Kristi wanted the biscuit, I said I was definitely getting hash browns, etc.  From the back seat, I hear Kate pipe in with her order.... "I want ice cream!"

We've been teaching Kate the books of the Bible.  This is what she sounds like right now
"Matthew...Mark...Luke...Papa Johns!"

Kate HATES wearing socks. Seriously hates them.  She asks all the time to wear her "flops", and can't stand that I tell her no because it is only 40 degrees outside.  Lately, when I've told her that it's time to put her socks and shoes on she responds with "No. No socks. Just toenails." 

One evening Kate got in trouble from Kevin.  He scolded her and then took her to change her diaper.  When she got back I asked her if she had gotten in trouble.  She said "yeah...." so I asked her what she had done.  She was either embarrassed or ashamed of what she had done so her response to me was "Something bad."

Kevin got her up from her nap one day and I heard them walking down the hallway toward the living room.  All of a sudden, I saw Kate put her hands on either side of Kevin's face and she yelled out "I need coffee!"  The funny thing is, we don't let her HAVE coffee (and we don't even have a coffee maker at our house)!

2013 in Review

2013 started off a little rough when all of us spent a good part of the first 6 months of the year sick.  I will be happy if we don't ever have any more episodes of the flu, stomach viruses, sinus infections or ear infections.  Our immune systems should be awesome after this year!

Although it may have started off on a not-healthy foot, it ended up being a pretty great year.  Besides Kevin turning 40 and us starting the adoption process again, we didn't have any major happenings.  We might not look back at 2013 as one of the biggest years of our lives, but, regardless, it was a good one.  We spent lots of time with family and friends, experienced the fun (and sometimes frustration) of a 2 year old, and overall, just enjoyed the blessings of living in the moment.

Here is a look back at some of the highlights of 2013...

January:

• Kate got her first haircut.
• We installed (much needed) shelving in our pantry.
• Kate got the flu.
• I talked about not being ready for baby #2 (yet).

February:

• Kate turned 18 months old!
• We inherited a hand-me-down play jeep, which is much loved.
• We travelled to watch Kate's birth mom play basketball in the high school state championship game.
• We celebrated Valentines Day.
• We met my parents, Kristi and Davis for lunch after church on Sunday.
• Kate got sick (again) and saw her first snow.

March:

• We celebrated St Patrick's day (while still sick) and Easter.
• Kate made her singing debut at church.  She had rehearsals on a Wednesday night and then fell off of the stage during the actual performance on Sunday morning!
• We took a walk to visit the horses near our house.
• Second visit to the eye doctor- things are looking good! 

April:

• Kevin went to the Master's. 
• My mom, Kristi and I took Kate to the Children's Museum. 
• We spent lots of time outdoors. 
• Christopher, Collins, Miranda and David stopped by our house for a visit. 
• We spent lots of time outdoors, and went fishing at the lake. 

May:

• Went to Lake Keowee to celebrate my cousin Mark's graduation from Clemson. 
• Watched Kevin play in lots of softball games. 
• Made a couple more trips to the lake. 
• Kate had her last day of Mother's Day Out. 
• We attended Kate's birthmother's high school graduation. 
• She also had her very first (unsuccessful) trip to the dentist. 
• I celebrated my 2nd Mother's day. 
• We traveled to Charleston to visit my grandmother, Mitzi. 
• We took Kate to her first minor league baseball game.

June:

• Spent a LOT of time outside- playing with our water table, writing on the driveway with chalk, playing on the swing set, and just running around.
• We watched a lot of golf- and tried to imitate Phil Mickelson.
• Spent time together with family. 
• The three of us went to Chicago for a work trip, that we extended for a couple of days and turned into a family vacation. During the trip, we got to do a lot of "firsts" for Kate (and some for me too):
• First flight
• First subway trips
• First visit to Giordano's (yummm!)
• First major league baseball games- Tried to watch the Cubs play at Wrigley Field but it got rain delayed and we didn't wait that one out. Then we went to Milwaukee and watched the Braves play. 
• Went up in Willis Tower... and stepped out onto the glass observation deck (scary!)

July:

• Celebrated the 4th of July. 
• We laid 4 pallets of sod in our yard in places where we had trouble getting grass to grow, and in an area that used to be a mulch bed. 
• Kristi and Davis got engaged!!
• My work rented out the zoo for the night, so we spent the evening at the zoo! 
• The same night, a huge storm came through (while I was at the zoo with Kate) and knocked down 4 huge trees in our yard, destroying most of our sod work and making a total mess of our yard. We were without power for multiple days. Thank goodness for good friends who came and helped us clear the trees. 
• We spent a lot more time outside. Can you tell Kate is an outside girl? 
• I ordered bedding for Kate's big girl room.

August

• Kate turned 2 and we celebrated with a big party at our house.
• Kevin turned 40!
• Clemson and Georgia played for the first time since Kevin and I have been married... and my Tigers won!
• Kate started taking ballet.  
• Kevin and I celebrated 6 years of marriage. 

September

• Mothers Day Out started back. This will be her last year in MDO! Next year is preschool.
• We attended my 10 year high school reunion. 
• We mailed off our application to Bethany Christian Services to start the process on our 2nd adoption!
• I traveled to Knoxville, TN to attend a Lifeway conference. Loved it!

October:

• We went to Athens with Kristi and Davis to watch Georgia play Missouri. 
• Visited my home town... and went to the park.
• Kate got her first note sent home from school. 
• We celebrated Halloween (as a zebra) over multiple days: first, by attending Boo in the Zoo and then trick-or-treating with friends a few days later. 
• I finally got to put out my fall decorations. I love fall!

November:

• Watched Clemson play Georgia Tech at Clemson. 
• Spent Thanksgiving with family in my hometown.
• Visited a Christmas tree farm to pick out the perfect tree for my parents. 
• Went to Charleston with my mom and Kristi.  
• Went shopping with Gigi!
• Updated everyone on our adoption progress.

December:

• We decorated our Christmas tree. 
• Made lots of salt dough ornaments, and cinnamon ornaments. 
• Visited Hollywild. 
• Read Christmas books every night. 
• Played with our Little People nativity set. 
• Celebrated the birth of our Lord and Savior. 
• Spent Christmas Eve and day at our home for the very first time. We loved hosting my family and waking up in our own beds... and seeing Christmas through Kate's eyes. 
• Celebrated my 29th birthday. 
• Rang in the New Year together! (Yes, all of us. The fireworks that started hours before the New Year woke her up and scared her, so she was with us as we watched the ball drop.)

As I said before, 2013 was a fantastic year.  Can't wait to see all that 2014 has in store!