Top 10 Reasons Daddy is the Bomb!

1. Have you heard the silly noises he makes to entertain K?
2. Seen his calf muscles? - WooHoo!
3. He does dishes.
4. He loves his family.
5. He works hard.
6. Daddy and daughter bike rides.
7. Who else would eat broccoli cornmeal upside down cake for dinner, say "it's not bad," and eat it again leftover?!
8. Stays fit and healthy.
9. For a squeamish guy, he changes a lot of bad diapers.
10. He's Ton of Fun!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!
Katie and Mommy love you!

Best birthday tradition ever - Cake for breakfast! I got the idea from my former coworker, Linda R. Thanks, L. 33 chocolate chips for the birthday boy! Jon chose red velvet with cream cheese frosting.



Katie placed her 1/4 of a cupcake on top of her yogurt cup and ate it like an ice cream cone. What a clever lass!

K's First Marathon - A Halloween Preview

It's just a costume. She didn't really run a marathon, yet I swelled with pride when I pinned her bib number on! K wore her costume to music class today. There was a puppy, fairy, pirate, and this Gabba Gabba guy. I'll post official real deal Halloween pictures after the weekend. Promise.

Cat's Pajamas

K is modeling her new cat pjs. So cute.



These pictures were taken this past weekend.

That's my retainer case by K's hand. I could probably use this photo as evidence to convict K in the disappearance of my retainer.

Family Reunion - Western Style!

Here are a few pictures from our family reunion with Jon's branch of the family. It was also Founder's Day - a celebration of the town's heritage that Jon's Uncle Charlie helped to plan. The weekend was kicked off with a cattle drive. How many head of cattle does it take to be consider a drive?



Cousins, Uncles, Aunts, Oh My!
Jay, Uncle D., Aunt A., Cindy, and Aunt Nino.



These two were born for the stage. We had a coffee and donut breakfast at a little theater. Someone mentioned it was the venue for Jenna Bush's wedding rehearsal dinner. How cool is that? I sewed the skirt Katie is wearing. That explains the many seams and asymmetry.



Aunt Nino and S. getting ready for the parade.



Katie riding in style.



K LOVES horses!



Sweet! We had a bench in our hotel room just for the stuffies to sit!



Linda played the guitar for the girls. Katie and L. are letting their lights shine.



Blowing bubbles with Aunt Bev and Granddad.

Itty Bitty Treat Bag

I sewed this itty bitty trick or treat bag for Lil K using this tutorial. The tutorial says you can make the bag faster than you can make dinner! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! I am obviously a better cook than seamstress.

When Katie gets bigger she will realize this treat bag is really a trick to downsize her candy portion.

For now she likes that she can carry paci around in it.

Abbey stayed at my parents while we were out of town. Now when Abbey goes out for a potty break, Katie suffers tremendous separation anxiety.

Pumpkin Carving

Park and dinner (an awesome dinner of pot roast, carrots, mashed potatoes, salad, the best green beans. and brown sugar cake - sorry no pictures or leftovers) preceded the carving. At the park, Grandma and Granddad tried to teach Katie to pump her legs back and forth to make the swing go. She didn't quite understand how to do it as you can see in the pic.



Katie's monkey dress. She wore this even though she had bad dreams the other night after I told her big girls had to give their pacis to the baby monkeys at the zoo. The night I told the story she awoke crying "monkey - paci - monkey". So we are going to try another route, at a later date, to reduce paci dependancy.



While dinner cooked, K and Granddad kept on eye on the Dodger game - keeping in touch with their Cali roots.



Our pumpkin Picasso -



Katie didn't mind the gooey pumpkin guts on her hands. She pulled the seeds out for us.



We had a friendly girls versus boys pumpkin competition. Lauren is working on the girls' pumpkin. When she drew the mouth with all those teeth, I am not sure she knew we were going to make her carve it out. You can see Ryan working on the competition's pumpkin in the background.



Boys' pumpkin on left - Girls' on right
Katie selected the winner. I guess she didn't realize which team she was on! She chose the boys' scary faced pumpkin!



A family of pumpkin carvers!

Pumpkin Patch

Katie repeated "punkin" the whole drive to the pumpkin patch. Click here to see Katie have some candy corn.



Feeding the goats or "sheep" as Katie referred to them. Click here to watch the video of the goat interaction!



She touched the sheep! The last petting zoo we visited she was scared to touch the animals.



The fam! It is the squatting in this picture that likely made my hot dog coupons fall out of my pocket. So sad! No hot dog for us!



Jenna (and her parents) met us at the pumpkin patch. The hayride was a big deal. The wheel fell off the back trailer.


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Read-a-thon

My nightstand looks a lot like this mess Katie made. Books are the best.

Cookie of the Month - Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Jon's cookie selection for October is Pumpkin Whoopie Pies. It's a Rachael Ray recipe. Jon usually says Rachael Ray stinks, but this recipe he loves!


Our little taste tester approves!

Fall Decorating/Redecorating

I was in the dining room attaching fabric scraps to my pumpkin sconce:
for a festive fall feel while Katie played with her toy stash:
in the living room. I spent maybe three minutes on the project and I was only 5 feet away from where Katie was playing. That is why I was so shocked to discover my living room redecorated from its usual look:

to this:
What do you think she thought she was doing?

Big Weekend, Big Fun, Big Tex

Friday night the cousins, Em and Mad Dog visited us. They look like the Bremen Town Musicians.

Here are the pumpkin pie bites Jon referred to in the last post. Cute and yummy!

We took Katie to the fair. She loved everything - funnel cake, rabbit exhibition, pig races, the midway lights, and latino dance demos. She looks scared in the picture, but I swear she was having a great time!


Katie checks out the prize winners in canned foods while modeling her new water resistant jacket.

Carrie is making these for dinner with for my family branch. Katie kept saying cake so we let her lick the spoon. She is starting to enjoy sweets like her dad.