Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Last night we carved our pumpkins as a family. Kate was very interested in what we were doing but she refused to touch any of the pumpkin "guts". I guess she is very much a girly girl.
Kate loved using the pumpkin knife to "help" me carve. She basically just stabbed it repeatedly but she had a great time doing it.

The final product! Will carved the ghosts and did an amazing job with all the small detail. I carved the skull/crossbones and Kate's pumpkin. Kate's pumpkin is supposed to look like her with 4 big teeth up top, 2.5 teeth below and a bow in her hair.

Tonight we head to our friends house for dinner and trick-or-treating. I will post pictures of Kate all dressed up as soon as possible!

Friends

Yesterday we had the joy of watching some of Kate's friends. In the morning, Hazel came over for several hours. We went on an "adventure" to the park, Jamba Juice and the petting zoo. Kate had so much fun playing with Hazel!
" Mmmm, smoothies!"

We decided to take a small trip to Petco while we were enjoying our smoothies to look at the birds, mice and fish. The girls loved watching the mice run on their wheels.

After smoothies we headed to Impossible Acres to go to the petting zoo. There were several school classes looking at the animals so we waited for our turn in the pumpkin patch. Hazel spent her time trying to find the perfect pumpkins for her and Kate.

This was Kate's 4th time to the petting zoo this month. She especially loved petting the baby goats and piglets.

Hazel really liked looking at the chicks. She asked me to hold all the black ones so she could pet them.

In the evening we had the pleasure of watching Zoey. Kate loved showing Zoey all of her toys, especially this musical table.

The two adorable girls! Tea time!

Zoey liked petting our cat, Annie. Kate was showing Zoey how to pet Annie gently. We are truly blessed to have such wonderful friends with adorable daughters so close by. It is always so much fun spending time with them all!

Kate's Words

Picture of Kate holding Gramma's purse. It was just a bit too big.
Kate has been getting really good at communicating with us and using several new words. Her favorite is "bye" as loud as she can possibly say it with a southern accent. She also loves saying "ca-cur" and she will continually repeat it until I get her a cracker. Other words she likes to say are "ya" (yes), "dug" (dog), "ba ba" (baby), "ba" (balloon or ball), "bu" (bus), "ka" (cat), "duc" (duck), "papa", "da ma" (gramma). She also has gotten really good at whimpering "ma ma, ma ma" whenever she really wants me. She really surprised Will and I the other day when she signed "please." We have never really taught her sign language...we have maybe used it a handful of times but she now knows to rub her belly when I ask her to say "please." She is a very brilliant child! :-)

Tahoe: Day 2

Saturday was a very wet day in Tahoe so we stayed inside most of the day. After Kate's nap we took a drive into town for some Starbucks and window shopping. Here is a picture of Kate dancing to the Starbucks music with a straw in hand. We bought Kate a little pumpkin at the local grocery store. She was thrilled, needless to say.

In the evening Kate tried on Will's sweatshirt...it was a bit too big.

Now it is Sunday and we are headed home. It was a wonderful 4 days at the cabin! We are certainly spoiled!

Tahoe: Day 1

Thursday night we headed up to Tahoe for a long weekend at the family cabin, just Will, Kate and me. Here are pictures from Friday:

Kate was enjoying playing with her spoons and drinking her milk while sitting on the counter Friday morning.
All bundled up for a morning walk. The temperature was about 35 degrees...very chilly!

Kate looks like such a toddler in this picture...so grown up!In the afternoon we headed to the visitors center for a little stroll and sightseeing. The fall colors were gorgeous!

It was salmon spawning season at the creek. There were thousands of fish in the water. The smell was pretty awful since once the salmon lay their eggs they die. There were so many nasty dead fish floating around, but it was really cool to watch all of the live ones trying to swim upstream.

Kate enjoyed looking at the fish...dead or alive.

We headed to the lake after we saw the fish. Kate loved picking up all the rocks. Kate was handing Will all of her rocks so he could skip them in the lake.

In the evening we went to our favorite pizza place. They have an old chopped up VW beetle sitting outside the front of the restaurant. Will and Kate had to take a picture with the VW!

Kate and Dedushka

On Sunday we had the pleasure of Will's Dad stopping by for a visit. He and Kate had a fun time playing tag, reading books and just being goofy. Kate loves her Dedushka! Kate was sharing her Cheerios with Dedushka. Yummy!

One of Kate's favorite activities is rearranging her spoons in the dishwasher. She gets so excited when I open up the dishwasher. She fishes out her spoons, gathers them all up and then puts them back in. She can spend hours doing this over and over again. She usually gets a little upset when we have to put the spoons back and close up the dishwasher.

Kate and Dedushka playing Tag

The other day we went out for some frozen yogurt. There was a guy playing his guitar and singing while we ate. Kate just had to get up and dance to the music. She is certainly our little dancer!

Volkswagen Cruise to St. Helena

Yesterday Will and I had the opportunity to take a wonderful cruise in his 1952 VW Beetle to St. Helena for some yummy burgers. We took the back roads by Lake Berryessa and enjoyed the winding roads and beautiful scenery. My Mom watched Kate for us while we went on our little 4 hour excursion.
We stopped in St. Helena at Taylor's Refresher (now known as Gott's) for some amazing burgers, shakes and onion rings. It is our favorite burger joint in California...it is certainly worth the drive!

The weather was perfect for the drive and the rolling vineyards made for a gorgeous drive!

Tractor and Truck Museum

On Wednesday we took a tour of the Tractor and Truck Museum in Woodland with our friends Case and Abby. It is a very cool museum with a lot of neat old tractors and trucks to see. Kate found a little push-pedal John Deer tractor. She couldn't reach the pedals so I had to help her out a bit. I think it must have weighed at least 40lbs...it was a very heavy-duty toy! The two girls: Abby and Kate Kate loved looking at the horses. They weren't real but she didn't seem to notice. We found a little carousel that Kate insisted she play on. "See ya later, Mommy!" "Daddy, I think I like this vintage license plate best."

Friend Abby's First Birthday

On Sunday, Kate's friend, Abby, turned one. We celebrated with a ladybug party filled with lots of presents and cake. Here is a picture of the adorable party girl.
Kate enjoyed checking out all of Abby's new gifts.

Kate had fun riding the little scooter. Time for cake!

Abby loved eating her cake. She was a little hesitant at first but she did a great job getting nice and messy. "Did I eat it all?"

This morning Kate decided to try on my shoes. They are just a bit big for her right now but I do think she is doomed to have big feet. Will wears a size 13 and I wear a size 12. Her feet will become great flippers for swimming. :-)

I asked her to show me her teeth and this is the picture I got.

This morning we also had the excitement of watching both the recycle and trash truck come by our house. The second Kate heard them on our street she rushed to the door to go outside. She waved at both drives and they seemed to get quite a kick out of her too. This might become our Monday morning tradition.