One moon bounce + a one year old = party!!

Yesterday Kate turned 11 months old. My, how time flies. We've been talking about having a small party in our backyard with just some cake and ice cream; however, since the initial talks Chris has made some other plans. He's borrowed a moon bounce (aka a blow-up castle type thing to bounce on) for the big one-year bash. He's sure excited. So if any of you are into bouncing - or have kiddos who are - come on over next month! Hopefully we can avoid any broken bones or bloody noses!

Milestones for Kate

So, the other day I put Kate down for a nap because she was sooooo tired and crabby. Well, she laid there quietly for about 15 minutes and then started screaming. Yup, screaming...not crying. It was so weird! So, I went in to check on her and she had thrown her blanket (the one she can't sleep without) over the side of her crib and was screaming because she wanted it back. So, I handed her the blanket, laid her back down, turned on a musical teddy bear and left. Same thing happened. About 15 minutes later she started screaming again. This time she had thrown both the blanket and the bear over the side of her crib. So, my daughter is officially turning into a toddler. She is throwing things out of her crib. Fabulous. (actually, she hasn't done it since then, so let's hope it was just a fluke).

Also, the last time we were in the doctor's office the nurse handed me a sheet that had some milestones Kate should have reached by 9 months and some she would probably reach by the time she's a year old. One of the things on the list was "refusing diaper changes." At that time I thought "Well, she's advanced because she already does that." Yeah, what did I know??? She is soooo hard to control when we're changing her now. It's crazy! At least at 9 months we could hand her a toy and she'd stay entertained for the 20 seconds it takes to whip one diaper off and put another on but now, we hand her a toy and she throws it on the floor and then rolls over trying to go after the toy. Just imagine what changing a poopy diaper is like! Last night she got her leg in the poop like 3 times, smeared her brand new pj's in the mess all while smearing the happy mess all over the changing pad. Ugh! I keep telling myself it's totally normal behavior because she's learning her independence...right???? Is it too early to potty-train? :)

The first signs of toddlerhood aren't all that bad though. Some of them are pretty darn cute. Last week Kate started waving! Yeah!! We've only been practicing for about 4 months now. Every morning we watch Chris get in his car/motorcycle and drive away and we try to wave and one day she actually waved to him all on her own!!! I was so excited. She now waves at everything. When we're in the store she waves at all the other shoppers. When she sees a car drive by, she waves. When she knows someone is leaving, she waves. However, when we actually want her to wave so we can brag to someone about her new talent, she just smiles and acts like she doesn't know what we're talking about.

One last thing about the Kate-mister. Last night I heard Chris driving up in his Harley (it's loud enough to hear about a block or two away). :) Kate and I were in the kitchen and I said "Kate, Daddy's home!" So she crawled over to the door and sat there staring at it until he came in!! I know she can understand us but man, I was impressed!!

Getting caught in the rain and more

So, since it's been so stinking long since I've posted, I have no clue where to start! I've "dug" through my pictures of the last month and picked out a few highlights that I'll share with ya.

It's been super hot here lately so when we have a nice evening, we take advantage of it. Chris and I decided to go for a short walk around our neighborhood one evening. We could tell that it was going to rain but we thought we could squeeze a short walk in before it started. We hadn't gotten halfway around our block when it started DOWN POURING!!! We were DRENCHED! By the time we got home, we had a river flowing down our driveway. It was nuts! We had a blast though. We sat in the back of our Jeep and just watched it pour down. It was so refreshing. Someday Kate will enjoy it a little more. :) I can't wait to take her puddle jumping!! Oklahoma gets the BEST puddles!
I also decided to make my first quilt for my friend Emily who just had her baby, Isabel. While I was tying it on the quilting frame, Kate found the yarn. You can imagine how much fun she had and what a mess she made! It took almost an hour to get the yarn all untangled by the time she was done with it.
Here's the finished product. It turned out super cute! I almost didn't want to give it away! I'll have to post a picture of cute little Isa when I manage to get one. She's soooo cute & tiny!!

We also bought a bird bath for our little family of birds. They love it! We have a little bird house that they nested in last year and this year. We've already had two rounds of babies this summer and I think we're on round three right now. Well, we were on round three before we left on vacation, but I haven't really seen them around since we got back. Did I mention that we just got back from Montana? Probably not...I'll tell you about that later.
I also planted Jalapenos. I know, I know. You're probably thinking "Why on earth did you plant jalapenos? You hate jalapenos!" I do hate jalapenos. However, Chris loves them and my friend Emily gave them to me. So I planted them! I'm excited to have a little garden of my own regardless of what's in it. When I was planting them I found the HUGEST spider that I killed on the side of the house. If you look close enough you can probably see the guts on the bottom right of the bricks (just in case you're into gore and stuff). :) Anyway, when I killed it, literally hundreds (probably thousands) :) of baby spiders took off running all over the place. YUCK!!! I had the creeps for like two hours after I was done. I think I may have even showered to make sure I was spider-free.
Kate had her first Jello experience! She was soooo sticky and red! It was fun to watch her. I don't even know if she actually ate any. She just squished it around in her fingers and hair and ears and diaper and anywhere else she could reach. You should have seen her bath water when she was all washed up! It was so red that I had to drain the tub and re-fill it to make sure she wasn't still sticky. By the way, doesn't this picture remind you a little of ET? :)
As I mentioned before, we just got back from Montana. Chris' grandparents have a cabin up there and so the whole family went to celebrate Grandma Carson's birthday. My mom and Kim (my sister) were able to come as well. It was sooooo nice!! The weather was such a refreshing change from the hot humidity of Oklahoma. It rained a few times while we were there. We had to wear sweaters, wrap up in blankets, turn on the fireplace and have hot chocolate. It was awesome!!! So, so refreshing! I was super lazy though and didn't really take any pictures. I'll have to get them from family so I can post some.

One last highlight....maybe even the best one so far! :) :) Breaking Dawn finally came out!!!! Yipeee!! I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED it!! I totally neglected my husband and daughter while I read it. Thanks Chris and Kate for being so patient!!!!

So, all in all we are having the best summer ever! I'll try to keep the posts coming a little better!