If You Give a Katie New Clothes

This morning I cleaned out Katie's dresser and traded out the small stuff for all her bigger clothes. (Mostly hand-me-downs, but only from people with good taste. I mean, for the '90's, at least.) And of course, it inspired me. Here's a story. (Note: the pictures are not all from today. They're just adorable.)

If You Give a Katie New Clothes

By Brittany

Illustrated by Katie

If you give a Katie new clothes, she's going to want to try them all on.

When she tries on her new clothes, she's going to want some shoes to try on with them.

And putting on shoes will remind her of how much she loves playing outside, so she'll need some gear so she won't get sunburned.

After putting on her gear, she'll want to get her dollies ready to go outside, too.

Then the baby carrier will remind her of her favorite bike trailer, and she'll want to go for a bike ride.

Of course, going outside for bikes, she will see the trampoline, and it will remind her how much she loves to bounce.

After all that bouncing, she'll notice that her hands and feet are all messy, and she will demand that she gets a tubby.

 After her tubby, she'll need to get dressed, and will notice the pile of new clothes on the floor.

And of course she'll need to try them all on.

The End.

Life is Flashin' Before Our Eyes!

No, we're not dying. Well, if you like to think philosophically. But not for another 60 years at least.

I'm just talking about how awfully fast time is passing right now. I haven't blogged in a long time not because I haven't had anything to say, but because I've been so busy! I know what you're thinking: I'm a stay-at-home mom of one kid, I should really just be able to blog every day, right? WRONG. But don't ask me why. Because I really don't know. Logically, I should. I just can't.

Anyhow, lots has been going on around here. For example, Mike submitted his medical school application this morning. Most of you know that we've been down this road before. Mike has already applied to medical school and not gotten in. But, with a lot of faith and prayer and fasting, we've decided to apply again. This year, though, we've applied to a lot more schools--24 to be exact--and three DO schools. We're tossing the net wide. Pray for us.

In other news, Katie has turned into a fully-functioning person. I'm serious. She tells jokes, sings songs, plays pretend with her stuffed animals, and sasses me when I ask her to do things. I'm afraid for when she's actually two years old.

For example, yesterday she was playing with her stuffed Minnie Mouse, and she grabbed its head and had it say, "Walk? Walk?" to which she shook her finger and replied, "nope, nope, nope!"

On another occasion, when she was trying to get in the way and making a mess when we had already told her no, I shooed her into the family room so we could clean up the kitchen and she looked at me and said, "booger, nope! Booger, nope!" I'm not sure if she was calling me a booger or insisting that she is NOT one. Either way, I need to watch my language. She's more of a parrot than a kid sometimes.

Whups. I hear a little voice upstairs saying, "Mama! Mama! Out!"

I'll probably do another picture post next time to make up for being such a lame blogger.

Happy Mother's Day!, also a Photo Recap (Courtesy of my new camera)

You were all beginning to despair of me ever putting pictures up again, weren't you? Well, I am doing it now. The fact is, I've been running around panting like an over-excited puppy, clicking at everything and everyone.

Okay, not really. But pretty close.

Here is a summary (in pictures) of what I've been doing ever since I got my new camera. Enjoy.

 

My little baby sister going to prom! Aaah! Dress courtesy of St. Vincent de Paul thriftstore + my mom, Hair courtesy of Me.

This is the back of her hair. Not bad, if I do say so myself.  

Sarah and her date. And you can see more of the dress my mom fixed up.

Katie has recently discovered that she really enjoys the trampoline. Part of me is terrified, and part of me is very happy that she is not a super-wimp like her mama. 

Remember when I told you about her towel game? The one where she liked to throw a towel over her head and then giggle hysterically and run around the room blindly? Well, it's only gotten more exciting. I call her my little ghosty.

Recognize those jammies, anybody? Mom? Gram?  

This picture is important. Very. Want to know why? It is proof that Katie is capable of going down the stairs by herself. She scoots on her bum singing "wee!" the entire time. Am I surprised? Not in the least.

Ahah! The big girl car seat! She was just too uncomfortable in her baby car seat. Her little legs were all scrunched up and she was not having fun anymore. But want to hear a secret? She's not 20 pounds yet. She's super tall, but still a little skinny twig baby.

This is Parker. Well, kind of. He's in the middle of that somewhere. His position on his rugby team was "hooker." Baha! Um, I mean, did I say that out loud? (He prefers to just call himself the "hook.") 

I know what you're thinking. Brittany posting a picture of herself? What? Well, I am. Because I've lost almost 12 pounds since January and I got a haircut last weekend. The haircut is what is being displayed. (And it's a one-time thing. Don't expect to see me all over the place here. 'Cause it ain't gonna happen.)

These are my oriental lilies. They grow in my kitchen. I have four (well, kind of) potted plants, and they are  very good at making me happy and relaxed. My lilies decided to bloom just this week, and besides being absolutely gorgeous, they also smell really lovely and are filling the house with their lovely perfume. 

This is Emma. You probably know that, but I'm freaked out by it. She's a big kid. Like, seriously. My baby sister is all grown-up looking and stylish.

This is my beautiful mother. She is amazing. She is kind, patient, long-suffering, clever, funny, beautiful, smart, talented, creative, loving, devoted, sensitive, and the best mom anybody could ever hope for. When she sees this list, she's going to laugh and call me a silly girl, then proceed to say that those words describe her children, not her. I'm here to say that even if we do get to claim one or two of those adjectives, how could we have gotten them if she hadn't shown us her example? Mom, you're the best. Don't think you're anything else. Happy Mother's Day.

Below are the photos we used to make Mother's Day cards for Katie's grandmas. I DARE you not to ooh and aah at how incredibly ridiculously adorable she is. (Also, the white things in her mouth are marshmallows. The photo shoot would not have happened without bribery.)

Happy Mother's Day!

The Terrible News is No Longer Terrible (Sequel to previous post)

'member last week when I wrote that awful post about how awful my life was? Well, let me tell you something.

I was having a horrible few days without my camera. Katie decided to do everything cute and start posing fun all the time, and actually saying "cheese" when prompted (as opposed to the rest of the time we tell her to say "cheese" and she glares and says "NO!"). It was feeling sad and desperate.

Way-ell, I think Mike was starting to notice how sad and depressed I was without my camera. I love to take pictures (on occasion I'm actually rather good) and one of my great ambitions is to become a real photographer. So I tend to just click and click and click. We have hundreds, nay, THOUSANDS of pictures of Katie. (And a couple of them actually aren't blurry!)

So Saturday comes around, and I'd briefly talked to my sister Emma about using her camera for a while (they have like 6 at their house so she could probably share with Sarah or my dad if needed). However, before I have a chance to go get her camera, Mike comes up with a devious plan and sets it into motion! It turns out, he had a secret stash--quite literally in his sock drawer. Go figure?

He comes up and is like, "what if we replaced your camera?" And I'm like, "well, I guess I looked at some options. Costco and Best Buy have some $100 point-and-shoots that I could deal with." And he's like, "No way, woman. I'm talking better!"

Turns out, he researched some options also, and found this:
It's the Nikon Coolpix L120! And he found it at Costco for less than $200! Yay!

I know what you're thinking. That's not a real camera. And you're right. It's not. The kind of camera I'm hoping for someday is the kind that's up in the thousands, comes with different lenses, and should only be bought by real photographers who know how to use it (unlike me just yet). It's the kind of camera that will only come when Mike's a doctor and is like, "I stayed late and did one extra brain surgery today, so who wants to go to Europe? Also, Brittany, I got you this professional-grade camera."

Yeah, it's gonna be a few years before that happens. But right now, I have something better than a typical point-and-shoot that I can use to improve my skills--something I didn't think I would have for years! Woohoo!

Excuse me. I need to go play with my camera now. Bye!

I have terribly bad news.

My fellow Americans (and also that one international reader I have--I don't remember your name but you're from the UK and you commented once and I will never forget you): a very sad day is upon us.

My camera is broken. (Weep! Seriously.)

As much as I know you all get very frustrated at me for writing all the time without pictures, the fact is that I was just too lazy to get up and get my portable hard drive (where I store all the pictures because our laptops are both senior citizens in technology world). I really did have plenty of pictures available. Katie has been the most well-documented child in the history of digital photography.

But now we face a very real crisis: NOT having pictures of every single cute thing Katie does in her entire life! Okay, okay, I know what you're thinking. I don't actually just follow her around every single day clicking pictures of everything she does. But she is an adorable baby. Add to that the fact that I have very real photographic aspirations and you get rather good pictures of every new thing Katie does!

Besides, my mom makes comments sometimes about not believing that I'm the mommy, and that I'm supposed to be her little girl, and it makes me all sad. I don't think I can handle thinking about Katie growing up and not wanting to sit on my lap and read stories with me all the time. It causes real, physical pain in my chest area.

So . . . I'm going to document everything I can while she's still little and cute and she likes me.

But I can't.

In other news, I have officially lost ten pounds on my weight loss thermometer OF SCIENCE! I'm all super buff and stuff like that. I can actually wear dresses that didn't use to be flattering and now are sometimes and not feel entirely uncomfortable. More importantly, though, I feel all healthy. I work out every day and (mostly) limit my treat intake, and it's actually making a difference! I was actually going to take a picture of the thermometer to prove it to you . . . but I can't.

Darn that camera! It's getting in the way of everything!

Anybody have a spare camera I can borrow until I figure out my photo-taking situation in a more permanent manner?

April? Really? Are you serious?

I know, I know, I promised by Monday. Well, I almost kept my promise, right? It's only Wednesday! This is like record-breaking almost-honesty! Wow, I'm just so impressed with myself right now.

It seems this month has snuck up on me. I realized the other day how different my life is than last year. See, I used to count time in semesters. You know how the family is the basic unit of society? Well, to a student, a semester is the basic unit of time. Forget months, years, days, whatever. First day of class to finals week is what really matters.

I am no longer a student. I know, I need to add some kind of metaphor to my blog title to make it make sense now that I've graduated and am a (sort of) real adult. But the thing that has shaken me up the most was when I learned, last week, that my kid sister, Hannah, was coming home for the break between her semesters. WHAT?!??!!?

Yeah, the semester's over. And I didn't write anything worth grading. Time is FLYING by. And as a result, I haven't paid any attention to how long it has been since I gave you guys a good, solid picture post. Well, here it is. A few pix of March and potentially February. Plus one or two from this last conference weekend. I hope you can one day find it in your hearts to forgive me for waiting until Wednesday when I promised Monday.

We'll start from the beginning, shall we?

Valentine's Day balloons make the perfect volumizer for your hair.

Aaaaaaand, here's March. So that's where you hide the goods, eh?

I realized I didn't have any good pictures of her reading her stories, when that's what she spends 75% of every day doing. I love this one.

And here's conference weekend. Grandma won her over by giving her her most favorite food in the world: noodles. (Also known as "dittley dittley.")

Presenting: the world's smallest farmhand! Only 18 pounds!

Feeding grain to the chickens was only moderately frightening--after all, some of them are bigger than she is.

Did I do okay? You may notice that neither of her parents are ever in any pictures. This is because a) I'm usually behind the camera because Mike doesn't think of silly things like pictures and posterity and whatever, and b) I know that I am not comfortable with my picture being taken (despite the fact that I colored off my tenth pound lost this weekend! YAY!) Mike I cannot account for. He's just never doing things as cute as Katie. If he remembered to smile I might take his picture. Seriously.

To sum up: we've had a crazy couple of months, which have seemed to fly by. Is it really April? For real? That's nuts. Conference was delightful, though. Mike's and my favorite quote: "Heavenly Father did not put us on this earth to fail, but to succeed gloriously." Elder Richard G. Scott. In fact, I designed a wall quote to hang in my kitchen. What's your favorite?

Well hello good-looking! How've you been?

Hello, blog followers. It's been a while. I think you have begun to miss me, yes? I've missed you.

I'm here to give you an update on our lives. I don't have my thing full of pictures available, but there are certainly lots of things to say. Let's see if I can get them all out before Mike comes downstairs and says "why are you blogging? I'm going to go pick up a pizza!" and kidnaps my baby.

First--here's the latest sample of my writing: Get the hunt on - Boise Egg Hunts 2012

It's not my masterpiece. Heck, it isn't even clever. But I'm learning how to stick some interesting/quirky/not boring sentences in with my informative writing. I'm finally starting to get the hang of this. I was getting really annoyed at having to write boring stuff, but then I realized that I can't tell people I'm a freelance writer if I don't actually do any writing. Huh.

Secondly, it's spring. Which means that Katie and I are expanding our boundaries. We don't just go to the mailbox anymore. Today, we went to the park! And there were swings! And children! And teenagers playing basketball! And lots of puppies! It was so exciting we almost had to take a nap. But it was after her regular nap so we didn't.

Yesterday, we went to the zoo with my mom and her troupe of circus performers. (Just kidding. They were Katie's uncles. But I bet we could make tons of money off of selling tickets to see them.) Katie and the monkeys hit it off immediately, but the most interesting encounter of the day was when we walked past the lions. At first, there was a big wall so Katie couldn't see anything. But then we walked around to where there were a couple layers of fence and Katie thought it was awesome. Unfortunately, so did the lionesses. One who had been lounging on a rock looking really bored came over to the fence when she saw Katie and started pacing in front of her, staring her down. When we went further up the path she followed Katie there, too. As a mother, I can tell you I was getting a little freaked out. I know I've teased Katie about wanting to eat her, but I think that big 'ole lioness was thinking slightly more serious thoughts. *Shudder*

Well, I can't think of anything else really to say. Mostly because I don't have a lot of pictures lined up to show you. Tell you what--I'll get out my hard drive tomorrow and put up a bunch of pictures of the last month and tell you all about them. Next Monday at the latest. Deal?

Oh good. I'm so glad you guys are so forgiving and patient.