Away We Go

Kate and I are off to Chicago for a week of wedding planning. Brian is going to join us on Friday for Katie and Ben's engagement party. My blog posts may or may not be updated. Here is some video of our little girl to tide you over. Kate is changing by leaps and bounds and has added many new words to her repertoire. The cutest of which is more. She walks around holding her bowl and saying,"Mo, mo" (especially for ice cream.) She is very communicative and very cute as you will see below.

CLICK HERE for Video of Kate at 13 Months!

Kate Meets a Special Friend

Last week was a busy one for Kate, Brian, and I. Monday was a very special day as a local restaurant who has characters for a kid's dinner night brought in Mickey Mouse. As soon as Mickey arrived Kate could not keep her eyes off of him. She was a little leery at first but certainly warmed up to him as you can see in the video below. She is such a friendly and brave little girl. She has recently gotten the Miss America wave down and at church or out to eat she walks around smiling and waves at everyone until they wave back. Also last week under the umbrella of MOPS we started a new class at St. Peter for pre-preschoolers. It will be every other Friday and it was a real success. We sang songs, read stories, played with the equipment, used the parachute, and blew bubbles. I was pretty nervous as to how it would go, but the 15 kids and parents that attended seemed to have a good time. On Saturday we attended the Deteroit Sympony Orchestra for their Tiny Tots concert (video on that later) and had some people over Saturday night. Our little girl was a little tuckered out on Sunday from her week of fun.

CLICK HERE for Video of Kate Meeting Mickey!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Our little girl would like to wish everyone a very happy Valentines Day!

Brian and I have never made too big a deal out of Valentine's Day. I think it originally started because our dating anniversary was January 30th (10 years ago). Considering we had just celebrated a big event, we decided to simply go out for dessert and it has since become a tradition. One of my best Valentine's Day memories actually involves my Dad. Every year on cupid's day he would come home with a heart shaped box of Fannie Mae chocolates for my Mom, my sister, and myself. It was so exciting to get the beautiful box, and I for some reason loved the surprise of what the chocolate would be filled with. It was such a nice treat and is a great memory. Thanks Dad! Happy Valentine's Day!

Kate's First Year Video

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I was able to make a montage of pictures and video from Kate's first year. I was having trouble sharing it via the web, but I finally found a site that could host it. We prepared the video for Kate's first birthday party, and it was so fun to create and see how much our little girl has changed over the year. Enjoy!

Wednesdays Gymboree

Our Winter weeks have been very fun-filled. I mentioned to Brian it has been the best winter I can remember (though one of the coldest), and I know a lot of that has to do with all the joyful things I get to do with Kate. I'm going to do a couple of blogs coming up to give you a slice of what life is like for us Michiganders. Thursdays is our Library day, but we also have a great activity for Wednesdays with Mommy and Saturdays with Daddy, Gymboree. Gammy and Pop Pop gave Kate a Gymboree membership for a Christmas gift and boy do all three of us enjoy it! Kate gets excited as we walk into the door, and really recognizes the structure of the class. She loves to explore, climb, sing, and even bosses some of the other kids around as to what toys they can and cannot play with. We have met some great friends at Gymboree as well, Abby Gorney being one of them. It is truly a gift that keeps on giving.

Kate's 1 Year Photos

Last week we took Kate to get her 1 year pictures done. After a few recommendations, we used a new place called Portrait Innovations. I was thrilled with them! They were very attentive, helpful, and creative in getting smiles. The best part is they didn't make me feel like the crazy, overbearing Mom I know I can sometimes be. Not to mention we got a lot of great pictures at a great price. Carrie, Brian especially thanks you for all the money we saved! :)

A Night Out

Before we had kids Brian and I didn't fully understand the anticipation of a date night. We obviously enjoyed a night out together, but let's face it- before kids every night is date night. Well, last Friday we had the date night of all date nights. (We even called in my Mom from Chicago to babysit.) Honestly, we looked forward to this like it was Senior Year Homecoming, and it more than lived up to our anticipation. We were invited to Jason Gottschalk's Suprise 40th Birthday Party. The Gottschalks are friends from church and it was awesome to spend a night with them and their family and friends. The night included a wonderful dinner, a comedian/mind reader, Vegas tables, good drinks, and even late night coney dogs. Although Brian smoked me in blackjack, being together and spending the night with a great group of people really made for a memorable evening. Here are a few pictures from the awesome party . . .

Dressed to Party

Our fellow partiers Gretchen and Chris Carlin

Francesca and Rob Keller

Sarah and the Man of Honor!