Greetings from Tahoe!

Yesterday afternoon Will, Kate and I headed up to Tahoe for a long weekend. We had a beautiful and calm drive to the mountains. Kate slept the whole way up while Will and I had a wonderful time chatting without being interrupted by a baby. It is always such a treat going to our family cabin. The scenery is gorgeous and the company is even better. So far our first day has been nice and relaxing. Below are some pictures from our first 24 hours.

For dinner last night we headed to our favorite pizza place and enjoyed a wonderful and yummy feast while Kate patiently waited in her highchair. Once we got back to the cabin Kate enjoyed her carrot and pea dinner.
This morning we headed to Starbucks to get out the cabin before the predicted snow storm hit. Kate fell asleep on our way there so Will picked up our coffee while I waited in the car. We enjoyed our coffee at the cabin right as Kate decided to wake up from her short nap. Kate was loving the coffee sleeve.

Kate and Will were killing time by reading some car magazines. Shortly after this picture was taken the magazine was in her mouth. :-)

Happy daddy and daughter!

After we read magazines we headed downstairs to play some Wii. I bought Will the "Price is Right" Wii game for his birthday. Kate couldn't take her eyes off the screen. She was surrounded by her toys but all she wanted to do was watch the game.

I love cuddling with Kate! She is too cute!

Will was really getting into the Wii game. He was spinning the big wheel when I took this picture. I think he landed on 20 cents and didn't make it to the showcase.

Snow was falling all day long. What a pretty sight!

We are now waiting for our bible study to join us at the cabin. We have 3 more families coming to join us so we are killing time before they show up. I am updating this blog while Will and Kate go crazy with the Johnny Jump Up. Hopefully more cabin pictures will follow in a few days. :-)

Happy 7 Months!

Kate is 7 months old today! She gets cuter and cuter everyday. We have been blessed with such an amazing daughter who loves to laugh, squeal (very loudly) and act goofy. She has her difficult moments , but for the most part she is very easy and so much fun to be around. Our future kids have a very hard act to follow. ;-)


Kate is doing a great job of sitting up on her own. If she gets too excited or lazy she still falls backwards so we usually sit behind her for safety precautions. It is fun to set tons of toys around her and watch her play and explore. Currently her favorite toys are my camera, the TV remote, and magazines. I guess baby toys aren't nearly as exciting as items she really shouldn't be putting in her mouth.

Kate is getting better and better at getting in her crawling position. I still think it will be a while before she actually moves forward since she has a lot of weight to move around, but at least she is starting to figure it out.

We have teeth!

Kate has two front teeth! For the past few weeks we have noticed that Kate's gums were getting swollen. We were hoping her teeth would break through soon and on Tuesday she was acting so fussy that we knew they would come at any point. On Wednesday I felt some pointy hardness to her gums and saw her two front bottom teeth poking through. Kate seems to be in a lot less pain and much happier now. I tried to take several pictures of her teeth, but this was the best I could come up with. Below are a few more pictures from this week. I was playing peek-a-boo with Kate the other day. She hasn't quite figured out the game...she was acting unamused by my attempts to make her giggle by yelling "peek-a-boo" when I removed the blanket from her head.

On Monday my parents came over to do a 3-mile walk with Kate and me. Kate made it through 70% of the walk in the stroller and then I had to strap her to me in the baby carrier for the remainder of the walk. Once we were home, Kate had a fun time playing with Papa. She was acting so goofy in his lap by flapping her arms and squealing.

Another new thing this week is that Kate is starting to figure out the basics of crawling. She can get up on her hands and knees and rock back and forth. She can't move forward yet, but she is starting to scoot herself backwards a bit. The other night she was moving backwards and got stuck on her play mat. We had to help her get unstuck. It was very cute! :-)

Home cooked meal

Now that Kate is eating solid foods, I have been enjoying making her food purees for her. I have nothing against store-bought baby food, but I prefer giving her something that I made fresh. So far I have made her carrots, peas, butternut squash, pears, sweet potato/broccoli, and tomato/potato/cheese. Yesterday I made Kate some more butternut squash. Last time I made her some squash it took me about 45 minutes just to figure out how to peel the darn thing. I finally figured out that all it requires is a good, sharp knife. This time around it took me half as long to prepare the entire thing. The squash was steamed for about 15 minutes and then pureed in my food processor. Once it was the right consistency I divided it up in ice trays and put it in the freezer.
Everyday I can pull out an individual serving of food from the freezer, thaw it out and serve it to Kate. So far her favorite foods are carrots or pear and oatmeal with cinnamon.

I hope that after all the hard work of making Kate's food she will enjoy what she is eating. Last night she wasn't too thrilled with the squash and sweet potatoes I was feeding her. I think we will blame her teething. ;-)

"I would like to make you an offer you can't refuse."Yesterday I also gave Kate some finger food to try. She figured out how to feed herself the baby veggie cheeto I gave her. She first picked it up like a cigar but then she quickly realized that it would be easier if she gripped it differently.

Family Night In

Last night we spent Valentine's at home as a family. I cooked Will a special dinner called Love Birds Chicken and then we watched the Olympics. Kate especially enjoyed watching the pair figure skating competition.

Even though it was Valentine's we still had to keep up with the household chores so Kate helped us out with the laundry.

Daddy's little girl.

It was a wonderful Valentine's Day! I love you so much Will and Kate! xoxoxoxo

Kate's Valentine Weekend

On Friday Kate received her very first Valentine's Day card in the mail from her Great Grandpa and Grandma Elliott. She enjoyed reading their Valentine message munching on the card. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

"Do you like my hearts?"

Kate loves being tossed up in the air by her daddy. So much fun!!!

On Saturday my parents watched Kate for us so Will and I could have an early Valentine's date. We went to our favorite Thai food place and had a wonderful lunch. Kate was very excited to go over to Gramma and Papa's house on Saturday. The anticipation was almost too much to handle. :-)

Kate loves her Papa!

Natural born musician

Kate has discovered our piano! Every time we walk by the piano she reaches for it and gets excited to bang on the keys. I think she will take after her daddy and become an amazing piano player.

Jumping Baby = Happy Baby

Kate Happenings

Kate fell asleep when we went for a walk after dinner. This was the second time she has ever fallen asleep in her stroller! I had to take a picture of her in her cute and cozy polar bear outfit.
Kate has discovered that tags are way more exciting than toys. She loves to crumble and chomp on any tag she can grab.

Kate is getting really good at sitting up on her own for longer periods of time. We still like to surround her with support since she does topple over occasionally but I think her independence will be here soon!

Will and I both agree that Kate is the happiest baby we have ever seen. This video is proof... :-)

Univited Guests

Around 10:30 last night our indoor cat started to cry at our sliding glass door in our bedroom. Usually when she cries it means that there is something outside our door that is frightening her. Well, as it turns out, raccoons are back in our neighborhood. We turned on our backyard light to find a raccoon staring down our cat through the glass. The raccoon started to back away when the light came on so we calmed our cat down and when back to sleep. About 45 minutes later she started to cry again...this time the raccoon brought 2 of his friends. We tried to shoo them away and went back to bed only to be woken by our cat another time to find another raccoon at our door. We were furious with our cat and the raccoons so we did our best to block the sliding glass door so they couldn't interact anymore. Finally by midnight we were all able to get some peaceful rest!

Sleepy Girl

Kate did not get her afternoon nap yesterday so while we were getting ready to go out for dinner Kate tried to take a quick little nap on my shoulder.

One-hour Postal Swim

Today my sister and niece came over to watch Kate while I went to swim practice. It was a special day at practice since our swim team is entered in a nation-wide One-hour Postal Swim challenge to get as many swimmers as possible to swim as many yards as possible in one hour. Last year our team logged over 1.4 million yards and won the competition. The challenge goes for the entire month of January so I was cutting it close to participate. Well, I swam for an entire hour without stopping and logged 4,240 yards (about 170 laps). It was very exhausting, but Kate greatly enjoyed her time with her auntie and cousin. Will had the day off from work so he helped count laps for me. What a sweetie!


One of Kate's new favorite activities is to suck on my sweatshirt strings. Mmm...yum!

6-month Checkup Stats

Today was Kate's 6-month checkup. She weighed in at 19lbs 10oz which puts her in the 95th percentile and measured 26" long which is slightly above average. Aside from getting weighed and measured she also received her first round of the H1N1 and seasonal flu vaccinations. She was a true champion even though she screamed pretty loud when she was pricked with the needles. Once we got home, Kate enjoyed her first taste of butternut squash that I had pureed this morning. She finished her first and second servings! Below are a few pictures from this afternoon.

Our new addtion...

A new addition to the family arrived today in an enclosed trailer from Vermont. After waiting 6 weeks, we are now the proud owners of a 1951 Volkswagen convertible. Now many of you might be wondering why Will would get another VW when he already has 2, but this new Volkswagen will actually be taking the place of his 1956 convertible. Will is replacing his 1956 with this 1951 because, in the Volkswagen world, the 1951 is a much rarer find a very desirable to own. The previous owners of the car drove all the way from Burlington, Vermont to personally drop off the car. They even braved a crazy sand storm in New Mexico to get it here.

It doesn't look like much yet, but the car is actually in really great shape for being so old. Hopefully in 10 years this rusty car will be a beautiful show piece. The car will eventually be a two-tone color of dark brown and tan...very vintage!

Here is a picture of the proud father. Two thumbs up!

And, of course, I had to add a picture of Kate. She was excited to see the convertible too. :-)

Happy 6 months!

Kate turns 6 months today! We can't believe how fast the time has flown by and how much Kate has changed and developed in such a short amount of time. We are currently enjoying helping Kate explore solid foods. So far she has tried rice cereal, carrots, and banana. She seems to like the carrots if it is mixed in with the cereal but she wasn't too excited about the banana. I hope to expand her food options next week...I'll let you know how it goes. Below is a picture of Kate after enjoying her dinner of carrots.

Kate is starting to develop an addicting habit of looking at Volkswagen websites just like her daddy. "Oooo, split windows!" :-)
I can't get enough of her adorable smile!

Notice the muscular biceps...or maybe that is chub.

Kate's new favorite activity is to reach for the bird that is attached to her Jumperoo. Sometimes she enjoys just jumping to touch it and other times she grabs a hold of it and tries to jam it in her mouth.

Kate will hopefully someday enjoy playing the piano like her daddy since she sure enjoys listening to him play.