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.

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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?!?!?!?! :)

march

march was very busy. on march 12, kaetlyn got tubes in her ears and her adnoids removed at the same time. while we were at the hospital waiting for her surgery, craig checked his email and we learned that my grandmother david passed away. kaetlyn and i left the next day and travelled to cleveland. we were there from thursday until monday, march 17th. we had a nice time visiting with family despite the sadness surrounding the reason for the reunion. i did not bring my camera though.... oops! i guess it wasn't exactly the right environment for snapping a bunch of photos. kaetlyn was a cutie though. the family enjoyed her tremendously.... she also had her first experience with snow! jay showed her how to make snowballs and i did a pretty decent (although not perfect) job of keeping her away from all of grandma's breakable antiques and knick knacks....

because we were travelling on my birthday, # 32 was pretty much a non-event. the perkins family was supposed to come visit for a birthday celebration, but cancelled. we'll have to make sure to celebrate doubly next year.

the next weekend was easter, and mom and megan came to visit. we had a nice time visiting, let kaetlyn find some easter eggs in the front yard, and then went to eat with the fontenot family. jan cooked a great meal and we enjoyed the weekend. craig put some eggs in some tricky spots, but kaetlyn figured them out!! fun stuff.

the weekend after easter we went on the mendelson family reunion cruise to mexico! that will be covered in the next posting. :)

february 2008

the month of january and february were just a time of getting settled and into our routine. craig started working and kaetlyn started stepping stone child care. i have been exceedingly busy with work. it continues to go quite well, but there is definitely not a shortage of stuff to keep me occupied!

we did take kaetlyn to the austin zoo. it is a local rescue zoo and is very small, but fun nonetheless. she LOVES the petting zoo and feeding all the animals.

we also enjoyed some naked baby dancing to baby einstein... blackmail material i know, but WAY too cute to omit.

christmas in april

we spent almost 1 week in lake charles and then travelled to houston to spend about the same amount of time with the perkins. kaetlyn thoroughly enjoys her mendelson cousins. she and dyllan and great buddies and he is soooo sweet with her. at the perkins, we had the priveledge of spending new years with craig's grandmother - katherine and his aunt kathy. and as always, kaetlyn played with aidan and alyx enjoyed both of her baby cousins as well. it seemed that aidan was not very thrilled with sharing his turf (including grandma's house) with kaetlyn and she was picked on a lot... but she just rolled with it and for the most part was not disturbed by his jealousy.
unfortunately we were so wrapped up with family time, that we were not as good at taking pictures as we should have been. theresa's blog surely has some, and i will have to see if mom, taryn, kathy, barbara, rachel have pictures from the christmas and new years holidays....

it's April!!

i have been so horrible about updating... time is just flying by... and the longer i wait, the more arduous a task this update becomes... i can procrastinate no longer. i know that i would make this much easier if i updated and added our goings on with much more frequency. i will aspire to do so, as i believe this will be a great resource to kaetlyn as she grows up and it is important to me to keep this accurate so she will know about her life. i also know how much all of you attentive readers (lol) love to see pics and watch the little one grow up from afar.

and now i have SO many pictures... i daresay too many to include in 1 blog posting, so i think i will attempt to go by month, but not quite yet.

kaetlyn is now 18 months old. her vocabulary is becoming more extensive on a daily basis. from christmas to march, no, uh-oh, and stuck were the prevailing themes around our house, and i learned from her that every scenario and situation in life can be described by these words. craig went back to work in february and she has been attending a child care place since then. as a result of this, she had repititous ear infections, which finally ended with tubes inserted and adnoids removed in march. this immediately improved her balance and her speach has picked up significantly.

the kiddo has a great sense of humor and keeps craig and i smiling. she is sometimes prone to temper tantrums which involved banging head onto hard wood floor, but these typically only occur when she's hungry or tired. and she is such a sweetie. she gives the greatest hugs and puckers her lips up very cutely for kisses. she is pretty laid back and usually just goes with the flow.

i think this summary is good for now. next blog will cover christmas... :)