We've been busy getting the house ready for a newborn! I've been in full-force nesting mode, and have deep cleaned every drawer, cupboard and shelf in the house. My oven and fridge are shinier than ever and things are in order. It feels good. :)
We've set up the crib and bassinet and are loving the tangible reminders that we are having a BABY!!! (Squeal!) I have imagined saying that thousands - millions - of times, and am beyond excited that the time is almost here and he could be born any day! To see pictures of the baby's space, check out our adoption blog here.
Yesterday I taught my last piano lesson for the year. Until 2012, I get a much-needed break to simply enjoy my family. Today was a happy day! Katelee and I had a wonderful day together, spending much of it out in the warm sunshine (63 gorgeous degrees!) and enjoying a more flexible schedule than usual with no school or piano lessons.
It's been an emotional 6 weeks. Having now experienced both ways, I can report that it is a FACT that an adopting parent goes through all the same emotions as a pregnant parent - maybe even a bit more! I have had some intense feelings over the past several weeks, and in some ways this has been one of the most tortuous things I have ever been through. On the other hand, it has also been one of the most marvelous things I have ever been through. Today has been a day of wonderful conversations (including a great talk with A. (the birthmom) and her mother this morning) and a day of freedom and sunshine, I am happy to report that the emotion of the day is pure JOY and GRATITUDE.
I am looking forward to Thanksgiving tomorrow, and I wish you all a joyful and thankful Thanksgiving Day!
Katelee is growing up so fast, TOO fast!, and the signs of it are everywhere.
This weekend I admit to shedding a few sentimental tears over a couple of big milestones.
On Friday, she told me she had a loose tooth. Her first! She was so excited and told EVERYONE we came into contact with that day all about it. :)
Saturday she asked Gerald to take the training wheels off her bike. 3 minutes later she came in to tell me she could ride a bike. Literally! 3 minutes! She was obviously ready!
Sunday on our way to church Katelee was eating an apple - and that loose tooth came right out! I couldn't resist a little photo shoot today of her new smile - she looks so adorable with that little gap in her teeth! :)
That missing tooth, that freckle nose, those twinkly eyes . . . I've never seen anything so beautiful!
I love this age so much. I ask Katelee everyday if she can just stay 5 forever. :) Maybe I don't really want her to stop growing up forever, but I DO wish she would slow down a bit . . .
"Mom! Daddy loves you, you love me, I love baby Blake, baby Blake loves Little Moo Moo (her stuffed cow), and Little Moo Moo loves Daddy! It's one big CIRCLE OF LOVE!"
Over the past couple of months, I've been bottling fruit. I love this time of year, and I honestly love bottling food. This year, I did more than I ever have in such a short time period, but it was so rewarding, and even fun because I got to spend time with my friend Sarah, who is my new canning buddy! Also, my sis-in-law Bonnie and I did some applesauce together. Here is the stash that is now on my pantry shelves:
28 quarts of peaches
12 pints of strawberry jam (plus 7 more that didn't set up. Boo!)
6 pints of peach jam (Thanks to Sarah's help!)
14 quarts of pears
25 quarts applesauce
I also have a bushel of apples in my fridge that I intended to turn into bottled apple pie filling, but with the baby coming and so much else on my mind, I think my bottling efforts are over for this year. So now my family is on a strict 'eat-at-least-2-apples-a-day' diet; hopefully we can eat those apples up before they go bad. :)
A week or so ago Katelee and I went on a date. :) I had coupons for free meals at Fazoli's, and Gerald had a late class. It's always more fun when you call an outing a 'date' or a 'party,' so I told her I was taking her out for a special mommy-daughter date and told her to run in her room and get ready.
She came back looking absolutely stunning, as she had put on almost every piece of play jewelry that she owns as well as a crown. This girl really knows how to accessorize! I kissed her and told her she looked beautiful, and we had a great night out.
We had the BEST Halloween this year! It was awesome!
It all started on Friday night, actually, when we did some of our family traditions. We invited Kassandra to join us, as she is practically part of the family. :) We made caramel apples to enjoy, listened to Halloween music, and carved our pumpkin. Katelee drew a design for the pumpkin in advance. Here is the pumpkin face she wanted.
Ready to get to work!
Cutting the pumpkin open.
EW! Pumpkin guts!
Cleaning the pumpkin out.
Yummy!
What's in there?Enjoying caramel apples. (While Gerald works hard on carving.) :)
The finished product!
We think the pumpkin resembles David from the book No, David.
After pumpkin carving, we drove to watch thjs light show, and the girls really got a kick out of it!
Fun night!
Saturday evening was our church "trunk-or-treat" and chili cook-off. Katelee got to wear her costume officially for the first time, and she looked adorable! Our little pink crayon!
On Halloween, we started the morning with homemade jack-o-lantern pancakes. Yum!
Katelee got to wear her costume to school in the morning. At school, we had a rockin' Halloween Party! As room mom, I was in charge of organizing the party, and I think it was a HUGE success! Gerald came a long and was a huge help, too!
We played:
bat balloon bop - keep the flying bat balloons in the air!
Halloween BINGO!
Pumpkin Bucket Coin Toss, Pin the Wart on the Witch, and Wrap your Friend up like a Mummy The kids had a costume parade throughout the school!
And we made these cute stuffed pumpkins using the left over toilet paper from the mummy-wrap game. (The toilet paper was the stuffing.)
Following the craft, it was time for FOOD! I should have taken a picture of the food table - it was quite the spread and the kiddos thoroughly enjoyed it! Obviously, I've never been a room mom before or even attended a classroom party, but I think this one was a blast! The timing all worked out great and it was just a ton of fun!
Katelee and her teacher, Mrs. Nugent After school, Katelee got to go to dance class in her costume. She was the cutest dancing crayon I've ever seen. :) The weather was absolutely gorgeous, so we walked home. Well, Katelee scootered home, actually, and she looked really cute scootering along all dressed up as a crayon. We got lots of smiles. :)
In the evening, we invited some of our friends over to have dinner with us and go trick-or-treating together. Lots of friends showed up! We took this picture before everyone came, and then forgot to take another one. :( But at least here are some of our friends that came for dinner.
This is the first year that Katelee REALLY went trick-or-treating for more than a block or two. She's getting older, and I think it helped that we were with a whole mob of friends! But we went trick-0r-treating for almost 2 hours, and she really got a ton of loot! We came home and organized it by color just to see what she had got:
WHOA!
Good thing almost all of it gets donated to the piano lesson candy bucket. Katelee doesn't mind. :)
Holidays are so much fun, and this Halloween was no exception! What a perfectly happy Halloween!
"Are you going or leaving?!?" She was trying to ask if I was coming or going, I think . . . LOL!
Pulling her eyebrows up in the middle, "Do I look EVIL?"
Gerald woke up one morning complaining of a sore back. "Dad, you need to get a Sleep Number bed," was Katelee's response. We cracked up! Too much TV, perhaps?
I told her I was going to french braid her hair. When the braid was done, she asked, "How does my Mexican braid look??"
We were admiring a beautiful moon on the evening of Gerald's birthday. Katelee said, "I think Jesus put that moon in the sky for daddy's birthday." Aunt Bonnie's birthday was two days later. Katelee saw a cloud that was shaped like a "princess crown" in the sky and said, "I think Jesus put that crown cloud in the sky for Bonnie's birthday."
"Do you know Heavenly Father's phone number?"
How did Heavenly Father create our bodies without spilling all the blood?
While driving past the big glass windows at a local restaurant, "MOM! My vision is SO GOOD that I can see through that wall!"
"I was scared that the cow was going to moo at me. Or poo on me."
"Can you remember all those things that are in my brains?"
"I have 100 pounds of heart in my tummy for daddy. Mom, you only have four pounds."
"I want more tickling and kiss-l-ing!"
"Scripture Power! Keeps me safe from THIN!" Nothing we say can convince her that 'thin' isn't the proper word here.
While serving a German chocolate cake, "I don't want the German, just the chocolate."
In a really sarcastic voice, after Gerald asking if she needed to go to the bathroom, "Dad! I'm NOT two!"
As we were leaving Deseret Book, "Mom, I really like that statue of Jesus and Mr. God."
Me: Katelee, did you just BITE me? Katelee: No, mom! I was just chewing on you!!
To the kid at the playground who climbed to the top of the jungle-gym, "Hey! You are the angel Moroni!"
While saying a dinner-time prayer when the missionaries were eating with us, "...and please bless the...umm...the...the teachernaries."
"I can feel Jesus in my heart. Mom, I think Jesus is hungry."
Trying to make a deal with me: "Mom, if you put my doll's dress on, then you can give me a fruit snack!"
While sobbing about her new splint, "MOM! I REALLY miss my wrist!"
"I want to go to the temple and marry a prince. A prince named Ronald. But NOT Ronald McDonald. Just Ronald."
"Mom, I have to wear my sunglasses when it's dark so I won't be scared of the dark."
"Do you want to play? You be the princesses and I'll be the glass slippers!"
"These are my shoes. Their names are 'glass' and 'slipper.'"
"When I grow up I want to be ketchup."
"Frogs jump like this. Frogs jump on the knee pads. The knee pads float on the water and the frogs jump on them!"
"I want to watch Shampoo." This means 'Enchanted.' Even though we have told her several times that the movie is called 'Enchanted,' she still gets confused and calls it Shampoo. =)
"I'm not hyper! I'm a CHICKEN NUGGET!"
"Dad, don't poop in your underwear!"
Why I Blog
"To you women of today, who are old or young, may I suggest to you that you write, that you keep journals, that you express your thoughts on paper. Writing is a great discipline. It is a tremendous educational effort. It will assist you in various ways, and you will bless the lives of many--now and in the years to come, as you put on paper some of your experiences and some of your musings." --President Gordon B. Hinckley
Ready to get to work!
Cutting the pumpkin open.
EW! Pumpkin guts!
Cleaning the pumpkin out.
Yummy!
What's in there?
Enjoying caramel apples. (While Gerald works hard on carving.) :)
The finished product!
After pumpkin carving, we drove to watch thjs light show, and the girls really got a kick out of it!
On Halloween, we started the morning with homemade jack-o-lantern pancakes. Yum!
Katelee got to wear her costume to school in the morning. At school, we had a rockin' Halloween Party! As room mom, I was in charge of organizing the party, and I think it was a HUGE success! Gerald came a long and was a huge help, too!
Halloween BINGO!
Pumpkin Bucket Coin Toss,
The kids had a costume parade throughout the school!
And we made these cute stuffed pumpkins using the left over toilet paper from the mummy-wrap game. (The toilet paper was the stuffing.)
Following the craft, it was time for FOOD! I should have taken a picture of the food table - it was quite the spread and the kiddos thoroughly enjoyed it! Obviously, I've never been a room mom before or even attended a classroom party, but I think this one was a blast! The timing all worked out great and it was just a ton of fun!
After school, Katelee got to go to dance class in her costume. She was the cutest dancing crayon I've ever seen. :) The weather was absolutely gorgeous, so we walked home. Well, Katelee scootered home, actually, and she looked really cute scootering along all dressed up as a crayon. We got lots of smiles. :)
In the evening, we invited some of our friends over to have dinner with us and go trick-or-treating together. Lots of friends showed up! We took this picture before everyone came, and then forgot to take another one. :( But at least here are some of our friends that came for dinner.
This is the first year that Katelee REALLY went trick-or-treating for more than a block or two. She's getting older, and I think it helped that we were with a whole mob of friends! But we went trick-0r-treating for almost 2 hours, and she really got a ton of loot! We came home and organized it by color just to see what she had got:
WHOA!
