September Celebrations

Taylor turned 12 in September.  Bruce and I had been working to move Taylor's room to the front guest bedroom and transition her old room into the new nursery.  She now has a "pre-teen/teen" room and has retired most of her toys and stuffed animals.  Her new "theme" in life right now is zebra print and peace signs.  We redid her room without her knowledge for her birthday present.  I "wrapped" the door to that room and put a big bow on the door along with little bows on some of the new additions in the room.

She had another skating party with a good turn out including her "boyfriend" Sam pictured below.   Going along with the theme of things I constructed this birthday cake for her.  

 

Bruce and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary on September 22nd.  We actually went to dinner and a movie.  We went to see "The American" with George Clooney.  You'd think with him in the movie it would be decent.  I'm pretty sure without saying a word, Bruce and I asked each other -- are you into this movie?  You think it's about to get better?  Should we get up and sneak into another movie?  If we weren't 2 of 5 people in the movie at the time, that might have been a great idea.  Needless to say, we wouldn't recommend that movie to anyone and we wondered if we could get refund it was so bad.  At least we had good company and we were able to actually eat a meal with out wrestling a baby in a high chair.  That was our first time out without Kaitlyn since the august after she was born, which if I could have gotten out of, I would have. (the outing in August; not our anniversary)

I really don't like leaving her anywhere and with the impending arrival of this new baby girl, I have had much anxiety about leaving her while I'm in the hospital.

The end of September we decided to go to Millsap's Homecoming game and Taylor and I made her a mum.  I thought it'd be a fun little project for the two of us and her going to an all girl's school, who knows if she'll get a traditional homecoming.

 

My dad's birthday is also in September and we all went to Edelweiss to celebrate.   Bruce's Grandmother's is a day after dad's, however she'd been sick and in the hospital this year so Bruce had stopped by over there a couple of times.



I found some bedding for the new baby.  Haven't gotten a crib yet since I figure she'll be sleeping in the bassinet for some time anyway.  However, when we do, I like the white furniture this time.  I really like Kaitlyn's furniture - how it's solid wood and converts as she grows and I'd like to find the same or similar in white.

 

Kaitlyn can say and identify "da da" and "momma", "daddy", "pa" "ga", "Taylor", "HOT!", "nana", "birts" aka birds, "kitty cat", "banana", "ball", "bite", "sit", "hi", "bye", "wuff wuff" for dog and every now and then we'lll catch her say "thank you", "ba" for bottle, "gone gone" while showing her hands and "no no no".  We've even caught her saying "Olivia" when she's watching the cartoon.  She loves the songs.

Her most favorite word is "outside!"  She LOVES the outdoors.

Speaking of things she loves...CAT FOOD has become a great sneaky treat for her.  There's something about that stuff she is addicted to I think!  I follow her into the bathroom where the cat's food is and she'll have a piece in her mouth and two handfuls within a sec!  She knows she'd better hurry!

Kaitlyn is never still! Always on the go.   Curious little girl and I love her so much!

Summer's End

Well I feel like I've missed a whole season of blogging.  End of summer to the begining of fall.  Bruce and Mitch finished up coaching Taylor and Tori's basketball team in Grand Prairie.  Below is a picture of Taylor shooting a free throw.

As soon as basketball ended, school started.  A busy time for everyone in our family.  Bruce worked a lot of overtime making sure all the campus cafeterias had what they needed for the start of school.  My department was busy getting the campuses squared away for student enrollment.  And Taylor was busy taking inventory of new school supplies and coming to terms with her All Girls' School uniforms.  It's amazing all the things that go into beginning a new school year! 

Here's Taylor's 1st Day of School picture for the 6th Grade!!

 

Kaitlyn is more and more mobile and discovering new things.  Her little personality is really developing!  

 

 We also had a new addition to the family in August!  Stacey and Ryan had a beautiful baby boy who decided to debut a little earlier than expected!  Little Carter Thomas just couldn't wait any longer to get here to meet everyone!

 

We met Pa and Ga for dinner in Weatherford on Sunday afternoon.  Kaitlyn and Pa entertained with straw tricks before dinner.  She's learned to say Pa and I'm pretty sure he's tickled pink about that!