7 weeks!

although i have so many other updates that have yet to be added to this blog.... this one could not wait. yesterday i received confirmation from the dr. that i am in fact 7 weeks pregnant! kaetlyn will have a new brother or sister on 1 june 2009. below is the ultrasound pics. the picture above is kaetlyn riding back to austin after a weekend with the perkins by herself! craig and i took a long weekend vacation to playa del carmen, mexico. we had a great time. and since we've been home (an entire week) kaetlyn has been sleeping in HER bed in HER room! times are surely changing at the mendelperk household. ;P

pictures of all missing events and our mexico vacation are forthcoming!

time passes quickly

a ton has happened since i last posted in july... so much to add here, and boy has kaetlyn grown!! i can't add it all right now, but am making a list so that i can come back and add everything sequentially:

trip to houston for aidan's birthday
galveston weekend with the mendelsons
dad visits
trip to rhode island for visit with tiffany
gustav evacuee and megan visit to austin
craig's birthday - happy doo doo daddy
kaetlyn graduated from the 1 year old to the 2 year old class
kaetlyn's birthday - happy doo doo kaetlyn
ACL music festival

And a TON of playtime with friends in between. :) will take some time, but i will get this updated with pics, stories, etc.

stay tuned!

"dum"

so, we read before bedtime. on of the books we're recently started reading is, "Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb" or as kaetlyn calls it "Dum." :) so very cute. if you don't know the book, she calls it this because the monkeys drum on the drum - dum ditty dum ditty dum dum dum....

4th of july was fun. barbara, randy, rachel and alyx came to visit and we went to milburn park to watch the firworks. kaetlyn had a great time! she ran around, i showed her how to roll down the hill we were sitting on, and she adopted a chihuahua from the blanket next to us. the fireworks didn't start until 9:30, so by the time they began, she was exhausted and fell asleep within the first 10 minutes!

today i shot some pics of kaetlyn on the way to school. i am so extremely blessed and lucky! i was feeling grateful of my view in the rear view on the way to work each morning! cute stuff...

padre island

padre was lots of fun!! good friends, good food, good beach, good pool! it was nice to get away, although much to short. too many great pics to narrow down to only a few. :)

pudding is yummy!

summertime!

we have been really busy this month! i have had 3 trips for work: Oregon, Groves, TX, and an overnight Leadership Management seminar in Austin. craig has been busy acclimating to his new job. he is really enjoying it and starting to do very well. in the midst of all of this, we went to LA for my brother's 30th birthday, mom came to visit, and we have had various other outtings and events with friends. on father's day, we went to cori, trey, and remi's house and swam and bbq'ed and had a lovely afternoon. yesterday, we visited with jake dunham (an old friend of craig who moved to indiana). craig's work also had a grand opening and invited family members to visit their new facility. it is a very nice office and all of his co-workers were very friendly and we had an enjoyable time. earlier in the month, one of my employees had a little dinner party, and below are some great shots of kaetlyn. she thoroughly enjoyed herself! she is becoming quite the little person.... she LOVES nemo.... (momo). she is talking very well and it seems like she says new things on an almost daily basis. she also is able to piece some words together! 'where'd it go?' 'let's go!' 'hi chuck' are several examples. we switched her to a new school on june 10th. it is absolutely wonderful! by the 3rd day, she did not cry when i dropped her off. on the 4th day, she was waving bye-bye before i could finish signing her out! on thursday when i picked her up i asked her, 'did you have a fun day?' and she said, 'fun day.' craig was worried about the transition, and it has gone better than we could have hoped! next weekend we are going to port aransas to the beach, so i hope to get some good pics of kaetlyn and remi playing.

here are the pics from belen's empenada party:

memorial day weekend

boy did we enjoy the long weekend! it was mainly comprised of housework & yardwork, but also included some lounging around and relaxation. at the VERY last minute we decided to have a BBQ on memorial day and we actually had a reasonable showing! it was fun. kaetlyn had a blast! it was very obvious that she was enjoying having friends over to play, and she is quite the little entertainer (show-off). she was pretty darn cute and entertaining to watch. and all the cute little boys... maybe that's what it was! craig and others remarked that the tone of our BBQ's have certainly changed with all the munchkins running around, but it is a refreshing change!

water baby!

on mother's day we got a little inflatable pool for kaetlyn.... boy does she LOVE water! i couldn't get her swimsuit on fast enough.... she was in with her clothes on before i knew it! the pics are pretty darn cute. here are a couple:

i finally got her into a swim diaper on her, but decided at that point that a bathing suit was useless.

last week was my job's annual user conference. this year it was in san antonio, tx, so i was gone from monday - friday. this was the longest i have been away from my girl, and i was very sad. (i even actually cried when i dropped her off at school that monday morning) she's brining out the softie in me, what can i say!?!? megan, nicole, craig, and kaetlyn had an interesting week together, i'll just leave it at that. boy is it nice to be home!!

yesterday kaetlyn and i met tina and samantha at the neigborhood pool. kaetlyn is fearless in the water... she was so excited to be swimming. she was squealing and dancing and wanting to go far away from me... she got her ears wet at least 5 times, but did not care at all! time to invest in ear plugs and an innertube swimsuit!

foof foof!!

so, i just had to tell this cute story - kaetlyn is at the stage where animals are called by the sounds they make, not the actual name of the animal. with that being said, here's the story:

as most everyone knows, kaetlyn still sleeps with us.. 19 months and running... a few nights ago, she had fallen asleep, and craig and i were watching tv. out of nowhere, in her sleep, she said, 'foof foof.' :) craig looked and me and asked, 'did she just say woof woof?!' i said, 'yep!' it was just the cutest thing... dreaming of the dee-oh-gies!!!

wonder what else goes on inside that little brain of hers!!

no pics :(

the past two weekends have been full of visit time with family. we did not succeed in pulling the camera out... for shame!

first, dad and megan came to visit. we didn't do anything too exciting, but kaetlyn enjoyed her poppy and aunt megan. dad was really visiting megan for dad's day at baylor, but they came down when that was over. dad and i took kaetlyn to the neighborhood playground and took a long walk. we also went to the cedar park episcopal church and out to eat on sunday prior to their departure.

last weekend, we met randy, barbara, and alyx at mud buddy's in halletsville for a weekend of 4-wheelering. we ate too much, got really dirty, sat around and visited, and had a good ol' time. kaetlyn just absolutely adores barbara! they were attached for the majority of our trip. it was very cute to see her so enthusiastic about hanging out with someone other than mom or dad. she likes riding the 4 wheeler too. barbara and i both took her for little 'putt-putts' around the parking lot. most of the time she was quiet, just taking it all in, but every once in a while she would look up and smile really big or say, "whee whee!" also, alyx and i collected firewood and built the bonfire all by ourselves with no male intervention or assistance. very impressive, if i do say so myself.

this coming weekend is mother's day. i've already treated myselft to a manicure & pedicure, and besides that, am not sure what's in store. megan and her friend nicole will be in austin beginning saturday to help craig with kaetlyn while i'm out of town for the entire work week! my company's annual user's conference is in san antonio this year, and i am expected to be there from monday - friday. it's always a lot of fun, but i am not too thrilled about being away from my girl for so long! i know she'll be in good hands though.

strawberry pickin'

so, this past weekend kaetlyn, jan, and i went to the strawberry picking farm in marble falls. the weather was perfect and we had a lovely day. i am not sure if it is actually called 'the strawberry picking farm," but that's what i call it. in other months they have other items available for picking. they also have some goats and miniature donkeys for the children to look at. the website is http://sweetberryfarm.com/. kaetlyn LOVES strawberrys. they have been a major portion of her breakfast for almost a year. when she realized what we were doing, she just plopped down in the middle of the rows and started eating berries, stem and all!

by the end of the day she was a complete mess! strawberry juice everywhere. jan and i speculated that if a person could get sick from eating strawberries, it would be kaetlyn. she is just so much fun... great sense of humor and a well natured spirit.

just a few more pictures of the past few weeks... we spent the night at the perkins' house when we returned from the cruise. we enjoyed the afternoon and dinner time with randy, barbara, rachel, and alyx.

craig and i are working hard at work and also at home as we are starting to get geared up for summer. boy do i love spring time, and warm weather, the sun staying up until 9 pm, outdoor activities, etc. this summer should hold some new and exciting events for little miss kaetlyn. she starts a new child care place in june, and i am excited for her. i'm sure we will have more family fun times to share!

i'll try to be better at posting more regularly... i guess we'll see. ;P i have now successfully succeeded in catching up to current. HOORAY for me. until next time....

cruise time!!!!!!!

the first week of april, we went on a family reunion cruise with the mendelson family. i must admit that an 18 month old and a cruise boat are not the ideal combination, but we still had a fun time and enjoyed hanging out with the family. i've got a ton of pictures from the cruise, but tried to include the best of the best in this blog.



the boat left galveston at 4 pm. they were a little behind schedule, so we went to eat and waited around. kaetlyn was not feeling great, and actually fell asleep on my shoulder while standing in line while we were waiting to board! pretty uncharacteristic of her, but not the only time on this trip she completely sacked out!

the first day was at sea. the weather was nice, but kaetlyn had a pretty bad cold. acclimation to the boat's movements took me a while. we spent some time by the pool, napping, and wandering around.

.

on tuesday, dad babysat for kaetlyn so craig and i could take an offshore excursion to chichen itza. the ruins were incredible. we could have spent a lot more time exploring! dad also had a nice day with kaetlyn. they went into the town of progresso and wandered around, had a nice nap, and played on the boat until we returned. it was also very nice for craig and i to have an opportunity to spend a little time together without kaetlyn, but we did miss her!

the next day we spent with the entire family at the beach, had a nice lunch in cozumel, and then did some shopping. kaetlyn LOVED the water, but hated the sand! she was extremely distraught when she got sand on her hands and feet. she also was so worn out from the exitement that she fell asleep in the van on the way to lunch, slept through lunch, and did not wake up until about 10 minutes into shopping!!

admitedly, 2 hour formal dinners are not easy with an 18 month old, nor is chasing said 18 month old away from edges and railings extremely relaxing. at sea days were a challenge, but the weather was great. the last day of the cruise, the reed mendelson family found the kiddie pool and enjoyed and afternoon in the sun.

and just a couple more fun shots of kaetlyn... cameras and casinos, oh boy!!!!

ps. do you know how difficult it is to get three small children to look at the camera, sit still, and smile all at once?!?!?!?! :)