Our Angel Girl

Once again my pictures came up in reverse order! Anyway, Kara was an angel at church for this year's Christmas cantata. I hear she was quite entertaining, but I was backstage helping out and so I missed the most entertaining parts!

For Christmas this year, she had a pretty specific list, she wanted a Puppy with goggles that swims, and a "niego" (Diego) toy. Unfortunately, Santa delivered both these gifts to Grandma and Papa's, so every gift she opened at home she asked before opening "this my niego toy?" She did seem to enjoy her Kid Tough camera though, and I will have to upload pics from it soon since she has been taking so many. Most of them appear to be half faces and dog bottoms, but she certainly had a good time!

At any rate, we had a wonderful Christmas, and hope everyone else did as well!

December Checkin

I realized this morning it has been a long time since I've written anything here. Since my last post, we have been a pretty busy family! Blaine and I went with Les and Sabrina and some others to watch the Cheifs play the Bucs. It was a very exciting game, even if my poor Chiefs lost. Blaine was a happy camper though! Then the week after that, Shelli, Tammy, Michelle and I went to the New Kids on the Block concert in KC. Shelli and I didn't get home until after 4 in the morning but we had SUCH AN AWESOME TIME!!!

Also since I last posted, Blaine's Granny fell and broke her shoulder. She is currently doing therapy/recovery at the nursing home. I miss having her at home!

So Christmas is coming. I've pretty much finished my shopping, just need to get a few things found to give Blaine, since he has already purchased his own "big" gift (or so he says). Kara and I got the tree up, after a minor disaster involving the base. The base broke just as I finished putting the dratted thing together and had the lights on it! Thank goodness Mom bought multiple trees when she bought this one, I was able to just pop it out of the broken one and into the one from the spare. So Kara posed for a few pics lately:
Here she is playing a horn tree ornament. She really got into the decorating this year, so most of the ornaments are on the lower branches.

Since she is being the "forman" at the farm with Granny being gone, her daddy bought her some coverall options to keep her warm in the truck. Every morning Daddy asks what they are going to do that day, and Kara says "feed cows" I think the cows are WAY better fed right now than they've ever been!

And finally, Grandma Laurie found Kara the perfect shirt. Grandma is always saying that Kara is proof that the mother's curse works, and now I can dress her to advertise that fact. Mom also found Landen one just like it, so I will have to get a few of the two of them together!

Happy Halloween!

Trick Or Treat! Kara was a bee this Halloween. And she has perfected the saying of Trick or Treat, except when she was too shy to say it! We had a party afterwards at Grandma/Papa's, and had a wonderful time!

Kara the Bee and Landen the Lion

Kara Landen and Grandma

Bee costume with the wings

Kara before last weekend's community Halloween party, she got over her sickies just in time to go and enjoy it!

Kara Bee

Pumpkin Painter

As a project for church this year, Kara got to paint pumpkins to send to church members who are now in the nursing home. She had so much fun doing that, that we had to paint our pumpkins instead of carving them this year. In fact, she enjoyed the painting part so much that she even decided we needed to paint a couple of the watermelons that Uncle Josh gave her! So here are the 'fruits' of her labor!

Pair of painted watermelons

The painted pumpkin family. She did have a little help from Mom and Dad

Kara and Daddy painting. Notice Kara has a painted tummy, which she actually DID NOT do to herself. Her Daddy did it and she was MAD at him!

Kara painting a pumpkin for the nursing home folks

The Greatest Show on Earth

We took Kara to see the Ringling Bros circus a couple weekends ago. They had been as close as Kansas City in September, but I was working the nights the show was on, since they had it during the week. So when I found out they were also going to be in Tulsa I snapped up some tickets to take her. It was also Blaine's first "big" circus, so it was a unique experience for the both of them. I was somewhat scared that Kara might be afraid of the clowns and the big crowd, but she really seemed to love it! We got there early enough to participate in the pre-show, where we were able to go down onto the floor and meet with performers. Kara even got to watch an elephant paint! I think the elephants and tigers were her absolute favorite part of the show. She was telling everyone about them and the noises they make. I've signed up for e-mail alerts from the circus now, so the next time they come somewhere close we can make a big trip of it. I would love for my nephews to get the chance to see the Greatest Show on Earth too!

Kara at the circus.



A painting elephant

Kara watching the preshow from Daddy's shoulders

Kara and Daddy Walking to the BOK center. Notice Pig had to come with us to the circus

Kara at home, getting ready to load up in the truck for our circus trip. Pig got to come along with us this trip, what a lucky critter!

For some reason today my pictures posted backwards to the blog, but I guess you can figure out that the last was the first taken, right?

Sick Kiddo

Kara's been sick the past week, so I haven't taken the time to upload pics from our circus trip. She's doing a little better today, so maybe sometime this week I'll have the time!

You What?!?!

Yesterday before I went off to bed I had Kara all dressed and ready for her day. I had drifted off to sleep when I woke with a start to her bare bottom over the top of my head. And she says to me "Momma, I pee on your face!" What a crazy kid! (and NO she didn't really do it!)

The Great Elephant Caper

One of Kara's birthday gifts this year was an elephant toy that came with 2 Barbie kids. Kara has been facinated by playing with this elephant, as it uses batteries/magnets to pick up the kids and put them on it's back. Saturday morning as I was settling in to bed after a long night at work, Kara brought her elephant in with her to talk to me. She handed 'hant to me and as I looked him over I noticed that little miss had used red crayon to color in his ears.

I asked her "Kara, why did you draw on elephant's ears?"

She replied "Momma, him's ears dirwty, I cwean them with a crown"

I'm sure glad she hasn't tried to clean her own ears this way!

Our Pumpkin

We had a volunteer pumpkin plant come up this year from the remains of one of last year's Jack O' Lanterns. It grew well next to Granny's house. It only ever put on one little pumpkin that stayed, but Kara was pretty excited about it.

This past weekend we needed to pick our pumpkin so it would be out of the way while the new shingles were put on the house. So Kara and Daddy cut our baby pumpkin off the vine. Mommy just took pictures! Kara is convinced that her pumpkin will make a good pie, but I don't know about that!

Here's my happy little girl with her pumpkin. This is my favorite picture of the day!

The Bowling Party

We had Kara's party at the bowling alley on Saturday. Grandma Laurie made the cake and worked very, very hard on it. She was just putting the finishing touches on the writing when Kara told her "I wanted Wall-E" But I think Dora turned out just great, and the cake tasted wonderful!!

Kara's big present for the day was her very own bowling ball with Barbie on it. She has enjoyed bowling thus far with a "house ball" she calls 'orange' So now she is outfitted with her own stuff. I fully expect her to get really good at this bowling stuff so she can earn college scholarships. She does have time though!





Her first attempt at throwing the Barbie ball didn't turn out so well though, she tossed it right in the gutter!

















Cousin Kenny was into giving the high-5's. Here he is with his daddy. As they were getting ready to leave that day Kenny told me "I bowl, I bowl!" So Kara and I helped him throw thbe Barbie ball.










Kara and the Cake Grandma. I didn't get any photos with Kara actually looking at the camera here, since there was so much bowling going on!




All in all it was a really fun day! Kara seems to really have enjoyed celebrating her birthday this year!

Walk Chalk

Kara loves her sidewalk chalk. She begs to go outside and play 'walk chalk' practically every day. One day I traced her outline on the sidewalk, so then she decided that she needed to do the same to Mommy and Daddy. She has us lay on the sidewalk, then draws marks under both feet, both hands, and head (by pulling up on the persons head by the hair). She is quite the artist!

A Happy Birthday

Kara's birthday went wonderfully! She was such a happy girl all day long. I came home yesterday morning with balloons for her, and she just grinned!

Her first present to open was her ring from Mommy and Daddy. She hollered A RING! And the best part for me was that it fit perfectly!






Yesterday afternoon I took Kara over to the park to take pictures. I've taken her there every year on her birthday with the camera. Sadly, the baby swing broke during a wind storm this year, so we had to use the big girl swing instead.

For her birthday dinner, Kara wanted to have a "crab lunch" at Red Lobster. We ended up being a party of 12, which was a lot of fun for everyone, but Kara's favorite part is always looking at the 'crabs'.

Kara begged to pet a lobster this time, and when they pulled him out of the tank, she really did touch him!

To end the day we went to Miranda's for cake and presents. Uncle Matt baked a cake just for Kara, and you could tell that she was so happy that he had!

3 years ago...

I was just thinking that three years ago today I was already in the hospital being induced to have Kara. A lot of the things that happened then are a blur, but mostly good memories. I remember being very, very tired since I didn't sleep well what with the hospital bed and all the monitors.

I can't believe my baby is already 3. It doesn't seem possible! She has gone from a tiny, tiny baby to a girl. She doesn't even look like a toddler to me anymore. :( She does still act like a toddler though, and if the last few days of fit-throwing are any indication 3, for us, is going to be worse than the so called "terrible-2's"

Tomorrow I'm taking the night off work to stay with my baby girl and celebrate. We will be going out to eat a "crab lunch" for supper. I can't hardly wait! Then the big party is on Saturday. This fullfills Kara's requirement to have 2 birthdays this year.

*SIGH*

Just practicing.

Patti just let me know I can upload photos directly instead of uploading through Photobucket. I didn't know this before, so THANKS Patti!

I missed out on some good photo opportunities this weekend because I didn't have my camera with me. Kara and Matt did a lot of playing outside with sticks. I think she has Uncle Matt totally trained.

And I missed a couple really sweet moments with Landen. Those kids just hug and kiss (and occasionally bite!) each other.

More pictures from this weekend

This weekend was pretty well filled with good opportunities for pictures of Kara and Kenny together. Here are a few more

Kara and Kenny riding the tractor with Uncle Les



And my favorite from this weekend, Kara and Kenny on the back of Blaine's truck

Read a book

Kara is becoming quite the little reader. She pretty well forces people to read to her anymore. Over the weekend I got a good picture of her and Baby Landen being read to by Grandma.

I love it!

Candy, Candy, Candy

Another part of the festivities this weekend was the "big" parade. It's an election year, so everyone running for office was passing out candy. Kara was pretty good at the candy collection.



She even crawled around on the ground for it.



And afterwards her loot covered the bottom of her wagon. And she and Kenny went to town on the suckers.

It's Good to be King

Baby Kenny was down this past weekend for the Walnut Labor Day Celebration. As part of this annual event they have a baby contest. So Kenny was entered and he WON! So now we have two contest winners in the family, since Kara won her age division way back when she was young enough to be in it (ah, the poor aging beauty queen!)

So Congrats to Kenny, and I'm sure it's good to be the King!


Kenny and Dad during the contest!

The winner! Kenny is presented with his trophy:



I did have to laugh that Kenny's first impulse was to taste the trophy, just like Kara did back on her day.

I bowl..

Kara came to the bowling alley last night just as Mommy and Daddy were finishing up their league for the night. She loves to try and bowl. "I bowl with orange" What she really likes is a pink ball that they have, but it is way too heavy for her to lift on her own. So orange it is. After everyone was done, our teammate Nathan bowled with Kara for a little while. I was shocked when she actually managed to hit some pins! So glad that I had the camera with me last night to get a picture or two of our little bowling girl.

PLAY!!!

Grandma and Pa-pa got a really good deal on some Little Tykes play equipment. They set it up yesterday and Kara got to see it for the very first time. She really seemed to love crawling around and going down the slides. I can't wait for Landen to get big enough to join in and play too!



I love how this shot of Kara and Grandma turned out!