Party!!

Today, Sunday, we were are my parents house for a birthday party celebrating my Grandfather's 85th birthday, my Father's 59th birthday and my brother-in-law Doug's 29th birthday. The whole family was there so it was a blast, a ton of food and some good jokes!

My Mother bought Katie these new crayons by Crayola called Tadoodles that are designed for 12 month olds to be able to hold them, the picture below is of her giving them a try. She really liked throwing them and watching them spin around, but not so great at using them to color. She will learn.

The other pictures are of my sister Liz holding Katie, Liz with her dog Beamer, my cousin Kim holding Katie, my Dad with Katie and my Grandfather blowing out the candles on his cake.

Enjoy!!

More Party Pictures...

Pictures from Grandma's

I just thought these were cute, they are from outside at Nat's Grandmothers house on Saturday night. I know that Katie is crying in the bottom picture, but I like the picture, she only cried for a second and it was over her sippy cup.

Picking Pumpkins

We took Katie to pick pumkins on Saturday morning, well not really picking pumpkins but looking at pumpkins that had already been picked. She had fun and I can't wait to go back in a few weeks for our carving pumpkin, these were just for decoration. They were just her size!

Miracles

It has been a rough day or two around here learning how to rationalize the death of a 34 year old friend who has a 10 month old baby at home, but I have come to the realization that some things are best left to the contemplation of those with the time to devote to it. I do however have a new appreciation for the saying "When God closes one door he opens another" because the same day that God called Donna home Karen's brother Scott and his wife Gina were blessed by the birth of their daughter Elise Reid.

Little everyday miracles, that's what life is about. Sometimes I think we take them for granted and they are all around us, you just need to know how to look for them and where. Just having a day with my daughter, any day, every day, is priceless. She is my miracle, my heart and my breath; I can't imagine losing one moment with her.

That is how I will honor the memory of my friend, by trying as hard as I can to appreciate every second I have with her and Nat. To cherish the good, the bad and even the moments that you just wish would never have happened. The miracles only slip by if you let them and as of today I am going to be more active than ever in trying to catch them in the palm of my hand.




Just another Friday

Rest In Peace

After a very, very long 6 year battle with breast cancer my friend Donna has passed away. You might have seen pictures of her daugher Gabrielle on my post, we were pregnant at the same time and our daughters are about 2 weeks apart in age. We met in Fort Worth when we were both waitressing at On The Border, in fact that is where she met her future husband John too. She was waitressing while going to school full-time to be an elementary school teacher, which she later became and loved every minute of it. She was a kind, funny and passionate person and she fought her cancer with every ounce of her being.

I'll miss her emails, her jokes but most of all I'll just miss her.

Playin' Ball

Happy Birthday Dad, I mean Grandpa!

Katie and Her Winter Finery

Today was my father's birthday and instead of making fun of him getting old, just kidding Dad, we made fun of Katie just being Katie. My Mother got Katie the hat and mitten set, seen above, at Target and at first we just put the hat on to see if she would mind wearing a hat. My sister Sarah, impressed that Kate wasn't fighting the hat, decided to put the gloves on and see what would happen. Maybe it isn't as funny as we all thought, but we couldn't stop laughing at the fact that she just kept on playing like the mittens didn't bother her, so I decided to tape a 30 second video of it. Remember that she had the gloves on already for about 2 minutes....

Random Pictures

I really don't have much to say other than we are having a great weekend. I just thought I would add some pictures to the blog for fun. This first picture is Katie showing off her top two teeth, so I thought I would add it. She is really starting to chew food with her teeth now, she used to suck it to death which resulted in much more choking, so we are big fans of the chompers. The only problem is that she has figured out how to grind her teeth and I swear there is no more grating noise in the world than grinding teeth. UUUggghhh...
Another new trick Katie has figured out is how to put a wiffle golf ball in her mouth. Not much to say about that other than we aren't sure if we are raising a little girl or a puppy. We'll get back to you on that one....

Just thought this was cute, but then again I even think the bad pictures are the best. You be the judge.

Play Date!

Today we had a little play group over for lunch and man do I love these days, Katie goes down for her nap like a rock! There were 8 of us here today Michelle, Mandy, Heather and I all graduated from high school together and we each had one child here (Mandy has two boys but her Chase is in school.) Baby Chase of course was the big hit, as he should be, and thankfully Katie let me have some good snuggle time with him.
It's funny how kids will naturally migrate to each other; Mark is 4, Makenzie is 2 and Katie is almost 1 yet somehow they find a way to play together and have a blast. Makenzie found some flash cards and Mark, who can read (yes he is 4!!), was reading them to the girls and then passing them around. Katie was basically chewing on the cards and watching but that still counts as participating, right? Kate hangs close to Makenzie when she's here so wherever one is the other is about two steps behind, it's nice and easy to keep track of them! I think everybody had a fun day, Katie was asleep about 5 minutes after Mandy and Mark left so I know she played her little heart out. I just enjoy seeing all of my friends as Mom's, kids are more fun to talk about than dumb TV shows and for sure a lot more amusing!

Our First Video

Katie can use a spoon, well kind of?!

Our Weekend

Another fun weekend is coming to an end here in the Burt household. Saturday we went over to Nat's parents house for lunch and some play time with Grandma and Grandpa. (Katie loved the parmesan rice Grandma had!) That night was our neighborhood block party which was great, we got to meet our new neighbors and eat some good food. We also got to test the range of our baby monitor which we found out reaches down to the cul-de-sac where they were having the party, nice!
This morning, Sunday, started off great until Katie face planted on the coffee table while trying to grab a tennis ball. Below is the result, a nice fat lip. (If you click on the picture you can see it a little better.) Of course she was bleeding, which was traumatic, but overall it wasn't too bad; Katie resumed normal playing within the hour and took a 2.5 hour nap shortly there after. She's a fighter.

In random news my friend Amy started a blog, the Mishler family blog link is on the side of my page. Amy's daughter Lauren is 6 weeks older than Katie and cute as a button, so check it out! Ok have a good week everybody!!!!

York Fair

Today Katie and I went to the York Fair with my friend Mandy and her son Mark. It was a great fair day, about 75 degrees outside, sunny and on top of the great weather it was free admission between noon and 2 pm, woo-hoo. We got there right at noon and made a bee-line straight for the livestock. First we saw some black Angus, sheep and even a few alpaca; when we noticed that neither kid seemed too interested in the "big" animals we decided to look for the petting area.

Smart move.

For the hefty sum of $1 Katie got to pet goats and piglets and even got to watch Mark hold a kitten and a guinea pig. While Mark was holding the guinea pig I took Katie over to see the ducklings and man did she love that; she got so excited that she was screaming, yes screaming, at them. One of the ducklings jumped into the water dish and began to swim around and at that point Katie got so excited that she starting jumping up and down in my arms. Just to leave I had to unhinge Kate's grip from the pen that held the ducks, peeling on finger at a time; thank goodness she didn't cry when we left.

After the ducklings we went to see the chickens, roosters and other various birds. They just didn't hold a candle to the baby ducks so we decided to grab some lunch and then Mark played a few games, below is when he caught a shark with a fishing pole and won a blow up shark. He named it Mark the shark. We decided to head home soon after the fishing expidition and finding some cotton candy and a caramel apple for Mark's big brother Chase who had to miss the fair because he is now a 1st grader!

It was a really fun day and Katie loved all of the animals; it is somewhat surprising since the only animal she has any real world experience with , our cat Scout, runs away from her everytime she gets within 5 feet. Oh well, she's never does things the way I think she will, and that's just fine with me.

Cheezy....

Ok so that first picture is about as cheesy as you can get, but she is showing off her new tooth so I thought I would add it.(upper left, that makes three!) This new form of smile appeared about two weeks ago and it's so dorky that when you see it in person you just have to laugh. Luckily for us she still flashes her regular smile too so we aren't stuck in permanent chuckle mode, but it is funny. In other Katie news she is finally getting a hold of this whole sleeping thing; yes it took 10 months but I still say she's a genius. Kate goes to bed around 6:30 pm and gets up around 6:30 am, no waking at all! She is still working on taking naps without crying herself to sleep, usually about 10 minutes of wailing until she realizes that she is very tired and then passes out, but her naps are always over an hour and she takes two a day. We are moving in the right direction here people, next up walking and talking; that's the easy part, right??
Here is another picture of Chase, Heather's little guy. Isn't he the cutest!! It's so rare for my friends to have baby boys that I almost think the coloring is off in the picture when I see blue clothing.

Ok Gina it's your turn now!!!

Chase Darren Gerber

Welcome to the world Chase, I'm so excited that you are right across the street; we get to watch you grow up. Congratulations Heather and Brandon, he's a good looking little man and at 16 we are putting up a fence!

Lazy Dayz....

Katie has no really exciting new news to pass along. She is still working on her upper left tooth and trying to stand on her own, not holding on to anything. Her new favorite foods are the "Pasta Pickups" by Gerber, they are little ravioli filled with chicken and carrots or beef and tomato, and she LOVES them. The only problem they pose are the mess factor and today we didn't quite have the bib on correctly and this is why she is basically naked in the pictures. Oh well, at least she likes to eat!

Family Reunion

It was another great DiAngelo family reunion at Rudy State Park. The weather couldn't have been any better, 81 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. Of course it could have been snowing like crazy and we still would have gone, I don't know why I didn't take a picture of the food?! I had fried chicken, BBQ, pasta salad, macaroni, some veggies, Nat had some pulled pork, plus there were meatballs, sausages, tortillini soup, chicken corn soup and more stuff that I can't remember. Oh and then there were the desserts.

I LOVE BEING MARRIED TO AN ITALIAN!!!

Grandma Burt, Nat's Mom (you have to explain that when at reunions, someone yells Grandma and 20 people turn their heads), took Katie down to the swings after Nat and I ate too much and got lazy. I could hear Katie laughing her face off so I went down to check and holy cow did she love to swing. Now I have to find a park with toddler swings closer to home, she loved it that much!

I hope everyone has a great Labor Day, sleep in if you can!!!

First Trim...

My Mother came over Saturday to trim Katie's hair, I didn't think she needed it but Mom and Nat both were in agreement, it was time. It was only a few snips, she did have some random long hairs around the front of the face, and before we knew it she had no crazy hairs poking her in the eyes. Lovely.