Being crafty...

I have several things I really need to post about. This is a start...I should have done it two months ago, but just got pictures uploaded.
So about two months ago, I thought I should make a book for Kaitlyn for Christmas. I pictured a book that is "quiet" but kept her busy. It could even be a book for church. Now I have a book that I actually wrote and is in the publishing process, but its nothing like this. This is my crafty/touch and feel book for just Kaitlyn! :) I have never really sewn anything, so everything except the binding of the book was put together by felt glue. These are pictures before I bound it together. Its definitely not perfect and I think if I made another I could probably do better, but I was excited for her to see this one!!

cover:
dress the girl page (with velcro)
Above: tie the shoe...of course she can't do that yet, but she can play with the shoe strings. She loves shoes!
Below: I wanted to do something that zips, so the first pic shows the ladybug without spots and the second pic shows the spots that were inside the ladybug!

I think the peek-a-boo page is her favorite. I am thinking of making a book with peek-a-boos on each page.
The shape one is fun for her because she is really getting into shapes and beginning to identify them. I wish I had put a triangle on there instead of a rectangle. oh well. The pink shapes are in the pocket and you match them to the white shapes already glued on.
The snowman page has a pouch for all the pieces.
The flower page is neat for her to touch. It also smells good because I sprayed perfume on the flowers!
The purse is just because she loves purses and that has a snap on it with fun stuff inside for her to pull in and out.

It was fun to make!! She's played with it a few times. I try to have her sit with me when she plays and looks at it, because pieces will be all over the place. I already have to re-glue on some pieces, but that was expected. its hers, she can do what she wants with it.

Below was another "crafty" thing. We paint these snowmen on shirts in my classroom. This year I made one for my sweet girl. Hers was special though, it got a bow and little rhinestones as the snow around the snowman. She liked us being twins. :) She kept saying "snowman Kaitlyn, snowman Mommy!"

big girl!

It wasn't easy going back to work today after 5 days straight with Kaitlyn. It was nice to have Bill home for 5 days straight too. Friday, Bill shopped a bit, and then we put up our Christmas tree, and took Kaitlyn to see the lights in MWC. Kaitlyn LOVED them. I think they wore her out though because before we were all the way through it, Kaitlyn said "All done." ha. It was pretty crowded and we had to go about 2 mph, so she was ready to go.
She is cracking us up with some of the things she says/does. She knows how to say "bless you" when someone sneezes and she waits for you to say thank you and if you don't, she finally says "thank you". Then if she sneezes and we say "bless you" she says thank you. She's got some good manners! :) She says "I love you" a lot. And when we go places she always says "bye bye Jacey!" (our dog) except it always sounds more like a question "bye bye Jacey?" She also likes to wonder to her play room by herself and sit in her chair and just read books to herself. We will peak around the corner of the door at her and she will just be talking to herself..."cat...meow! monkey...oooh oooh, fish, look lion roar!" very miss independent! too independent at times! She doesn't like to hold our hands. :( she loves shoes too! she likes to put them on all BY HERSELF! and she can do it too! but she likes to put them on without socks. She loves our Christmas tree and is doing really well not touching it...thank goodness! every now and then she will say "touch..." and start to sneak over there. the other day Bill said "hot!" and she ran from it.
here are some pics and a video that will hopefully work:

The dance queen...and other fun things about Kaitlyn

I LOVE 15 months! Every month I keep saying its my favorite month, but she is sooo much fun right now! Here are some of the fun things she does/says...

-She's VERY shy in public. She is super active and full of personality at home, but someone else comes around and she hides behind my legs and squeezes on! At church she holds on tight. Its nice because she is keeping from getting germs from everyone who wants to touch her..ha. But then no one in public believes me how much she knows and can do because she just stares at them.

-she knows over 100 words! yes, I wrote them down. haha. I can teach her to say ANYTHING after saying it a few times...but the 100 words are the ones she says on a regular basis. its AMAZING to watch her learn things and understand what we say and do. I can say "do you wanna go play in your room?" and she will take off running to her play room. or "do you wanna go play outside?" and she runs to the back door. or "are you hungry?" she says "EAT EAT EAT!!" She can tell me all the sounds that animals makes and point out and say all animals in books. its funny to hear her say "moo" when we ask her what a cow says. Its kinda an angry "moooo" sound. And instead of "woof" for a dog, she pants like a dog. she also likes to tell us where our ears, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, belly button and toes are.

-when she walks in a room and sees you, she says "HI" really loud. its precious.

-instead of saying "no" she says "uh-uh" and shakes her head.

-she got her first pair of "BIG GIRL" shoes. they have Dora on them and they light up as she steps. she loves them!

-she's starting to say "mommy" and "daddy" instead of momma, dadda. its really cute! i don't know where she learned it. it kinda sounds a little british "mommeee" "dattee"

-when you ask her to play peek-a-boo, she quickly covers her eyes for a long time and then uncovers them and laughs.

-she's VERY girly and loves jewelry. everything in the shape of a circle can be turned into a bracelet and she will walk around with her hand in the air to keep it on. she loves to go through my jewelry box.

-she also loves watching me put on make-up. I let her play with my blush brush sometimes and she will put it on her cheeks and then on mine.

-she still loves flowers and will pick them all in our backyard.

-also very girly--she will point at a bug that is outside, on tv, or in a book and say "EWWWWWW!!!". the other day she found a dead beetle in our house and picked it up and carried it to me and said "EEEWWW!!!"

-she loves Dora the Explorer and will say "D-D-D-D-Dora!" when she sees her Dora doll. If you have watched the show, you will know that in the song it says "D-D-D-D-Dora!"

-we can sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and she will light up and put her hands in the air and dance and turn in circle saying "up above the....lalalalalalala....like a diama...lalalalala..then louder "UP ABOVE THE....LALALALAL"

-Everything can be turned into a phone for her--the remote, her plastic food, shoes, dog bone...ha! She has play phones too. she picked it up the other day and said "hello? uh-huh...uh-uh....bye-bye" it was too cute!

-she loves books...still. :) in the book "Goodnight Moon" she points out the fire on each page and says "HOT!" and pulls away and then blows on it.

-she kisses all things that she likes...her baby dolls, pictures in books, Jacey, other pictures. she will go back in forth kissing me and Bill if she's in a good mood.

-she helps me with putting away clean silverware (except the knives) she likes to hand me the silverware and she says "TANK YOU!" WElll...the other day...she pulled out a cookie sheet from the dishwasher, she walked over to the oven and pulled out the drawer underneath (where cookie sheets belong in our house) and put it in and shut the drawer. It was hilarious! I didn't show her what to do or anything...she just was on her own mission! ha. she must be watching me. then she went back and decided she could play with the cookie sheets and carried them all over the house.

-I can ask her if I can change her diaper and she will lay down the middle of the living room and kick her legs up. ha! I wonder if she does that at the home day care. I have seen 2 year olds there that have done that before. she must be watching them.

My lil smartie

This video was taken on Labor Day...Kaitlyn LOVES books and loves to tell you everything in books! Towards the end of the video she blows kisses and says "I love you" all on her own. usually she says it after we say it, but we were excited that she said it all on her own and caught it on video!

Summer days drifting away...

I have had a WONDERFUL summer. I am so sad to see it come to end so soon. Here are some of the highlights of the summer...
Our great friends, Laura and Steven got married in the beginning of June. I was so thrilled to get to be the maid of honor!! Our whole family was in the wedding--Bill was a groomsman and Kaitlyn was pulled in a wagon! Here is Kaitlyn below looking beautiful...
here is me with the beautiful bride and the other bridesmaids. Such a great day!
Kaitlyn turned 1 at the end of June. She had a fun birthday party! I cleaned out one of our spare bedrooms and turned it into Kaitlyn's playroom. This will also be her future bedroom. She loves having a big playroom!
Fourth of July was a lot of fun at my mom and Tony's house. We got to swim and eat BBQ with family and in the evening we watched fireworks with family and friends in the neighborhood. Its the best firework show ever...and even better we got to watch them with family and friends! Kaitlyn even stayed up to watch the fireworks. She loved them!
My 10 year reunion was also this summer...this picture looks terrible because I couldn't figure out how to make it any bigger either... Kaitlyn's gotten to have a lot of fun this summer...we have had play dates with friends at the zoo, gone to story times at the library, went to the splash pad a few times (and still are going with a friend this next week!), played at the play area in Sooner mall, gone swimming, ran through sprinkler, and had several lunch dates with her dadda! Below are a few pics of fun outings...Friday Bill was off work and we decided to drive to Seminole to the Children's museum and had a blast there with Kaitlyn! We knew she would be too young for most of the things there and probably won't remember it, but she sure smiled and laughed a lot! We think she had a blast!! She thinks she's a big kid...

Its been awesome to see how much she's grown over the summer. At the beginning of the summer, Kaitlyn could walk, but was still pretty wobbly when walking. Now she is running and can keep from falling. She also didn't have any top teeth at the beginning of summer, now she has 4!! She went from drinking formula in bottles and eating pureed food to drinking whole milk in sippy cups and eating the same food that we eat. I was glad to help her with this because she didn't want to chew anything and it would all come up..suddenly one day she decided it was pretty good stuff!
She's also become very girly. Probably because she sees how I react to things. She loves watching me put on makeup and loves when I take my blush brush and tickle her face with it. She loves jewelry and will put it on me and say "pretty!" She loves flowers and picks all the dandelions that grow in our backyard each day. When she sees bugs or crumbs on the floor she says "EEeeeew!" and points to it.
Now she can repeat just about anything we say. I can say, "Kaitlyn I love you." and she'll smile and say "I love you!" here is a video of her...




She also is really good at giving kisses. Oh and she's getting very attached to me and Bill and cries when we leave to go somewhere. so its gonna be extra hard on both me and her when I go back to work. :( I am sure I will cry too.



And here is a video of Kaitlyn helping me with the dishes. We are starting her early on doing chores...ha!




Here is a cute video of Kaitlyn and our dog Jacey playing together...they sure love each other...

Recent photo shoot...

Here are Kaitlyn's 1 year pics. We got some family pics too. We have used several different photographers since Kaitlyn was born and we love them all but its nice to have a variety of different styles. My friend Stephanie did these photos. We had fun taking these in bricktown. She is the same photographer that took pics of Kaitlyn when she was 3 months old as well.

These are just a FEW of my many favorites!

She's 1!

Kaitlyn is 1!! I can't believe it! She had a really great birthday! Thursday was her actual BIRTHDAY and Bill took off work. We went out to eat for breakfast and then headed over to the Splash Pad in Choctaw for the first time. Kaitlyn LOVED it!! We came home and played with her, ate lunch, gave her a nap and then went to my mom's pool for a little while. Bill's sister, Erin made Kaitlyn's cute little outfit! She made her shirts and tutus. She also made the tutu for her highchair and the banner that is later in this post.
Saturday was Kaitlyn's birthday party. She was a little overwhelmed at first, but never cried. She became very happy and we opened presents first. She liked the cards, paper, and tags on clothes quite a bit! :) We would open up a present and she would want to play with it or read the book she opened, but had so many presents, we had to move on or it would take all day!
Here is the awesome rocking horse Kaitlyn got from her Grammy, Poppy, and Aunt Erin.
Here is Kaitlyn's cousin, Haylee! :)


The cake!! She wasn't so sure about it at first. She started taking pieces and threw them on the floor for our dog, Jacey.

The awesome zebra rocking chair my mom and Tony got her....
Kaitlyn's boyfriend, Liam. She really likes being around Liam. He blew her kisses and she pointed at him and showed him around the kitchen.



The awesome cake! Becca made this cake and the cupcakes and it was all beautiful! She worked so hard on making this cake. It all tasted delicious too!
I made the little cupcake toppers and decorations.
Kaitlyn's happy with all her toys and other gifts!



And below is a short video that we didn't know was on the video mode. Its only 3 seconds, but its cute! Hope you had a great 1st birthday baby girl! Looking forward to many more birthday parties to celebrate you!