Post # 1

I know that we live far away from almost all of our family & friends, so I thought this would be a great way for us to keep a record of our family & to share it with everyone!!!

As of today, April 1, 2009 Katelyn is just 15 days shy of being two-and-a-half years old and Grace is 9 weeks and 2 day old!

Each day with them both has proven to be quite the adventure -mostly wonderful, but occasionally too wild for my liking!

Katelyn is a wonderful big sister -especially for being just 27 months older than her baby sister. Katelyn loves to talk to Gracie, hold her hands, tell her fun things and always tells me when Gracie's crying or if she is awake. Katie loves to kiss Grace and to snuggle with her. I cannot wait until Gracie's a bit older and I won't have to worry about Katelyn smothering her or handling her to aggressively. Katelyn just doesn't understand yet that babies are not baby dolls and things like covering their heads with a blanket or laying on them to snuggle are a bad idea. But bit-by-bit she is getting better, more aware, more protective -all the while Grace is getting bigger and closer to the day she can "hold her own!" when the silly sister monster attacks. :)

What to say about Grace? Well she's 2 months old -not much to say, yet so much. I am just smitten with her from her long toes to her peach-fuzz head of light brown hair! She has a great smile -that she loves to share a lot- and a wonderfully infectious laugh. She is an easy baby. She has been sleeping through the night or incredibly long pretty much since birth. She is a good eater and very social. She is cooing now and just loves to talk to everyone. I love to say something short/sweet to her and let her coo back and then say something more. When she's very alert and in the right mood she can go on and on for minutes. When I think of how fun it is to watch Katelyn blossom in her language development I get very excited for the adventure we have in store with Grace. I honestly don't remember Katelyn being so talkative at such a young age.

Besides being a great big sister Katelyn is simply amazing. She has the best imagination I have ever had the pleasure of witnessing! She loves to make up amazing stories and the conversations she has with her dolls and stuffed animals never cease to amuse me. Katelyn loves chocolate milk (it's really nearly an addiction for her!) and she loves cheese -but not just any kind, it has to be a high quality kind. The other day there was a good sale on Lunchables. I thought she'd love it -making little cracker sandwiches and such, but she didn't like the cheese. She told me clearly, "I don't like this cheese. It's yucky!" I tasted a slice -very "Kraft Singles" like in taste - so she is becoming a cheese snob! :) It's quite cute and I truly don't blame her.

Katelyn loves playing with her "Princess Dolls" (little Disney Princess dolls with rubbery dresses that she takes off and then cannot yet get back on herself). She poses them and sets up tea party scenes and makes them talk about fun(ny) things. She knows that Mommy & Daddy photograph weddings so she talks about weddings and getting married a lot. And lately she's been having the Princesses talking about it and this past weekend she had Cinderella ask the Beast if he would like to get married. Her aunt Melissa (whom she calls, "Aunt-a-Issa") was with us to watch the girls while we shot a wedding at Harris Ranch (about a 100 miles North/West-ish of us). Melissa teased her about the trouble she was stirring with Cinderella and Belle.

Katelyn LOVES watching movies. She is a total Pixar fanatic. She often comes up to me and with puppy-dog eyes asks to watch a specific movie. Usually it goes something like this, "I wanna watch a movie. Can I watch the one with the Boody and Buzz? I Wanna watch Toy Story. And the girl." Translation: She wants to watch Toy Story 2 (the second one has a girl character, "Jessie" that she likes -oh and Woody is pronounced "Boody"). I love to watch Finding Nemo with her (it's my favorite one and I often cry when I see it with her -so sweet and touching).

Katelyn likes to do art projects (we just decorated 2-D foam eggs with stickers and boy! did she ever have a blast!!!). As my dad put it, "Bright colorful little things that are sticky! She's in heaven!" Katelyn loves to draw happy faces and for her age does well with them. I'll need to take a picture of one and post it on here.
Katelyn loves to sing songs and make up songs. She has a new toy that is a water play station that she just loves. It will be what she'll be playing with all summer long! Now is still too cold to play with it most days, but she seriously would be willing to freeze to death outside just to splash in the water and play with all the fun water activities it has.

But the most special thing I am proud to share about Katelyn is that she is very compassionate. She really cares for others and wants to love on you when you are sad or hurt. She gives great big hugs and loves to tell others she loves them. Often she says, "I love you really much." Or, "I love you all the days." It warms my heart like nothing else has and it helps to know she is already such a sweet and loving child. And being told by others how impressed they are with her caring nature is a compliment I receive with great joy. I love that she's beautiful and smart and creative (I forgot to mention she's a jr. photographer!) but to know she has a kind heart is something that outweighs all the rest! It gives me great hope that she will blossom into a young woman after God's own heart -my biggest hope & prayer for both my girls.

Well, I will go for now. I am very excited about this blog. I hope it will be a great way for all of you to stay connected with us and for me to be much better at recording all the joys (and well, not so fun stages) our family will have.