Do Not Get Excited-No Pictures

I have been unusually dreadful at keeping up with this blog of late. I have also been unusually dreadful at taking pictures of Kate, or anything else. I took not one single picture at Thanksgiving and maybe one or two dreadful ones on Christmas. Yes, I know I'll regret that.

I am determined to take some updated pictures of my girl soon and I'll do a big update on her. She is growing and changing at a shocking rate! I no longer have a baby, but a curious toddler. At 14 months she is already fond of asking, "What's that?", only it comes out, "Whasss daa?" It's too fun. That's just a preview...I'll be back soon!

Messy

Most of Kate's time at home is spent like this these days:

It's lots for me to clean up each day (multiple times each day actually!) but I love watching her discover and have fun!

Little Update

I know I need to post the pictures from Kate's 1st birthday party! They are on Mom's camera though and I need to get it from her. I will post them soon! For now, here are a few pictures of our BK since she has turned one.

She has learned lots of new things the past few weeks. The biggest of which is taking 8-10 steps at a time! She is also standing for little periods and I know she will be walking everywhere in no time. She has started pointing at everything which I find SO cute! She points at food she wants, at pictures in books, at objects she is interested in etc. She has learned to throw a ball and will play "catch" with you. She can put food in her mouth using a fork if I have put food on it for her.

She is still very interested in opening and closing doors, drawers, and cabinets and removing whatever is inside them! And books are still a huge delight! She also gives huge hugs to any stuffed animal she touches.

We are sure she has said the words baby, doggie, kitty, light, touchdown (her daddy's work, and we have witnesses), yay, yum, and probably bye bye and hi. She is using "mama" for me all the time now which of course just does me in with the cuteness! Ha:) And she is recognizing more and more of what we say to her too. And of course, she is doing lots of baby babbling.

One of our favorite things about Kate, though, is her love of music! We have (or had, I lost it this week) the new Sovereign Grace kids worship album. Kate absolutely fell in love with it to the point that she would cry in between tracks or if we turned it off! She claps, dances, waves her hands and smiles instantly to any music she hears, but especially that CD. We need to get a new copy ASAP!

BK loves to drink out of grown up cups and mugs. Sometimes, when I've finished my morning coffee, I let her hold the mug. On this particular morning she was "drinking" the coffee with gusto!

At one point she put the mug down and said, "Dum!" very happily ("dum" means "yum":)

She absolutely loves lights and fans and the cords that hang from them. David has to stand on the coffee table to let her touch them and Kate just thinks it's so fun!

Last week our friends, Chris and Kath, stayed with us for a couple of days while they were in between houses. Their little dog, Turk, became fast friends with Kate! She LOVES him and he was so gentle and forebearing with her! They both thought it would be fun to chew on GloryMagicFace at the same time. I thought it was so funny!

We also had a visit from Will, Meg, and Laurel this past weekend! It was a spontaneous trip that we weren't expecting and it was so much fun! Mom, Meg, and I took 2 long trips to Target and the little girls did so well!

Haha, taking after her daddy on the drums! Pardon the lack of clothes, she was getting ready to put jammies on!

One Year of Our Girl

Tomorrow our Baby Kate turns one! I wanted to come up with something eloquent or poetic to say, but the thing that keeps coming to mind is this: All my life I yearned to be a mom. I had high expectations. Our Kate has exceeded every one of them. She is a delight and gift that is truly better then I imagined. I can't wait for another year with her!

Here is a picture from each month of her life thus far!

Maryland Good Times

This is the longest picture post ever! I should have broken it up into a couple different posts, but I thought of that too late:) I had an absolutely wonderful time in Maryland getting to see so many family members, and old friends, and places that were special to me as a child. It was rather emotional for me!

Kate did so beautifully on the trip. I was so proud of her! She was cheerful and content with hardly any naps for 4 days straight! She is very easy to travel with which I am grateful for.

Here we all are (minus Jon who was on the phone with Laura:) at the ORIGINAL Ledo's Pizza for lunch on Sunday.

Playing with the menu. I ordered Kate a grilled cheese, thinking she'd love it. Cheese is one of her favorite foods. She wouldn't eat it at all, but loved the french fries!

We got to spend Sunday afternoon/evening with our beloved Murphy Clan! They fixed us dinner, and let Kate nap in the kid's crib, they made us laugh, and gave us a place to crash. It was a really sweet day! Below is a picture of Kate and JJ (Josh Murphy Jr.) It was kinda funny to see them together because Josh and I have known each other our whole lives, and now we have kids!

The picture below is terrible, but it shows what a fun time we were having! Wait, everyone looks bored....Oh well, they weren't, right?

On Monday we went into D.C. for the day. It was SO fun! I absolutely love D.C. It feels magical to me:) We rode the subway in from Gaithersburg. That ended up being a lot longer then driving would have been , but that's ok.

The Models:)

Kate did not feel like looking at museum displays quietly, so she and I cruised around the lobby the whole time:) I didn't mind at all. I was happy for everyone else to get to see stuff and I just enjoyed my girl.

It was CHILLY

Only nap she got all day, poor girl.

I LOVE these two pictures. I never thought I would have such a cute baby!

On Tuesday, before we headed home, we went down to Tante (Mom's sister) and Onkle's farm in southern MD. It was a gorgeous day and I was filled with memories of the hours I spent there growing up! I LOVE the farm so much.

Tante had never seen Kate before!

Well, that's the end of out time. I am so grateful to the Lord for providing that trip and for making it so smooth and full of blessing! I will treasure the whole time up there!