Park Outing

I have been loving this warm weather, even though it's been pretty rainy the last few days. Nick and I took a little excursion to the park on Monday to enjoy some fresh air and give Kathryn some exercise. I've been slacking on my posting, so here are some pictures...

I love life through a toddler's eyes...everything is fascinating, including a plane in the sky, which is what she was pointing at in this picture.

Sittin' like a lady

Thanksgiving in Hilton Head

We just got back from a lovely weekend in Hilton Head at Gram's house (my mom's mom). We met up with my parents, my sister Margaret and her husband Josh, and my mom's sister Becky and her family. It was so fun being with extended family for Thanksgiving...lots of cooking, which is exactly what I was wanting. We actually had Thanksgiving dinner Wednesday AND Thursday to accommodate the different people coming and going. I contributed corn casserole, pumpkin bread, an egg and goat cheese fritatta, and sweet potato casserole. Can you tell I like comfort foods? :)

4 Generations- Mom, Kathryn, Me, Gram

Dad carving the turkey

"The Ladies:" Gram, Lauren (my cousin David's fiance), Lisa (cousin Jordan's wife), my mom, Becky (my mom's sister), and me. We threw a little bridal shower for Lauren on Thanksgiving morning.

Dad and Bill trimming the trees outside Gram's house so we could see the beautiful view of the golf course pond.

Here are some shots of the Salt Lake Marshes, part of the neighborhood that Gram lives in. It is just beautiful.

Gram (or "Gam", as Kathryn called her) and kathryn playing

Our 2008 Christmas picture

Stockings

My new project is making stockings so that we all have matching stockings (as well as future kids). So, opinion time...I'm trying decide if I should put just the first letter of our names on the stockings or figure out a way to write the full names across the top of the stockings. Thoughts?

Cooking

Kathryn has been really into "helping" me cook this last week. Every time I go into the kitchen, she drags a chair across to the counter saying, "I want to see" (well, it's more like "Ah seeee"). Then she pulls all of the measuring spoons out and "cooks" with me. I try not to think about kitchen sanitation as I put all the spoons she's sucked on back in the drawer. :) She's also been very into wearing an apron, which is so funny. I think I'm going to make her one for Christmas.

These are actually some of my sweetest times as a mother. I hope that Kathryn always wants to cook alongside me...I love having a daughter and hope the future brings lots of time in the kitchen together. What sweet times these are.

Playing

Well, I'm a little sad to see the beautiful weather turn into being quite cold outside (I know, it's not THAT cold compared with a lot of other places, but I've quickly become used to Southern climate.) We enjoyed a few days outside last week while the leaves were still pretty on the ground. And now more of our time has been spent inside, like trying out the new Elmo coloring book I got Kathryn at Dollar Tree. That is a great place to go for "art" stuff for 2 year olds, by the way. I love how concentrated Kathryn looks in this picture...I think she gets that furrowed brow from her mother. :)

6 Month Picture

Getting quite the pooch!

New Recipe

I like to try new recipes every now and then, and it seems like a lot of the ones I've tried recently have not gone over super well. But I think I found one that's a keeper. We had it for dinner 2 nights ago, and it was delicious! Healthy, too, which is always a plus. AND most of the ingredients (with the exception of the multigrain pasta) can be found at Aldi, even a bigger bonus!

Three Cheese Chicken Penne Pasta Bake

1 1/2 c. multigrain penne pasta, uncooked
1 pkg. (9 oz) fresh spinach leaves
1 lb. boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces (I used two small chicken breasts to save meat)
1 tsp. dried basil leaves
1 jar (14 1/2 oz) spaghetti sauce
1 can (14 1/2 oz) diced tomatoes, drained
2 oz. Neufchatel Cheese, cubed (could also use cream cheese)
1 c. (I used a little more) part skim Mozzarella cheese
2 T. parmesan cheese

Heat oven to 375.
Cook pasta, adding spinach to boiling water for last 1 minute.
Cook and stir chicken and basil in large nonstick skillet on medium-high heat 3 min.
Add sauce and tomatoes; bring to boil
Simmer 3 min. or until chicken is done.
Stir in Neufchatel cheese
Drain pasta mixture; return to pan.
Stir in chicken mixture and 1/2 c. mozzarella (I used 1 c. for this), spoon into 2-qt. baking dish
Bake 20 min. Sprinkle with remaining cheeses. Bake 3 minutes.

Pregnancy Update

It's hard for me to believe that this week I'll be 6 months into this pregnancy! Did I say it's flying by? I'll wait til the end of the week to take a belly picture, but thought I would write a blurb about it first. Physically I've been feeling great, for which I'm very grateful. I think I'm nearing the end of running days for a while, but meeting Jeanie 3 days a week has been very motivating to get some exercise. I consider the second trimester the "glory days" of pregnancy for me, when I am not tired or too uncomfortable. So I've been enjoying this nice little window. :) Kathryn is kind of getting the idea of a baby in my stomach...we talk about it almost every day, although I'm sure she has no idea of how much her life will change in a few months!

As far as anxiety about the baby or about the transition to 2 kids, I feel like there's been much grace from the Lord on this front. I remember with Kathryn worrying a lot about whether she was going to be healthy or not, and I thankfully haven't found my thoughts going down that path very often. More and more, I'm just getting really excited to meet this little peanut inside of me, and although I know life will dramatically change, I have a feeling that it may be an easier transition for us than going from 0 to 1. I may be totally wrong about that, but it's been nice just trusting that God will give us wisdom and strength to handle adjustments as our family grows. We go in for an ultrasound tomorrow, and as of now we're not going to find out the sex. I'm actually kind of excited about waiting until March to know (sorry, I know it drives everyone ELSE crazy.) But we may have finally picked out our names, which is fun. And those will have to wait until Spring as well. :)

Baa Moo Farm

Our "playgroup" took a fieldtrip to Baa Moo Farm, a cute farm with lots of animals about an hour away. This outing led to an interesting outlook on how I handle such little trips. First of all, it probably wasn't wise of me to plan a long morning out on a day that I teach in the afternoon. Secondly, I already know that Kathryn doesn't really like getting close to animals, so I shouldn't have expected a farm to thrill her. And thirdly, I learned that I need to prepare myself on these outings to be armed with extra patience and understanding (and snacks for K!), as I am uniquely tempted to impatience in big outings like these. I'm still glad we went, and every morning since then, Kathryn has "talked" about the animals we saw (partly from my prompting). The one thing that cracks me up is when she's talking about the sheep, she'll say "BAAAA!" and then pretend like she's chewing, since the sheep we saw were eating. I continue to be amazed at the little things one-year-olds notice and can communicate in their own way.

CJ, Avery, Alathea, Savannah, Kathryn, Andrew, Wesley

Looking for an egg in the henhouse

"I'll just look at it from back here, okay?"

Fun with Hayden

Last weekend I went to Wheaton with Kathryn, partly to visit my family and partly to play at Credo's 10th year reunion. For those of you who don't know, Credo is a Christian chamber music program that my former viola teacher started. I loved having the chance to play so much on Saturday, although my arms were quite tired at the end of the day. My viola chops aren't as in shape as they used to be! I enjoyed a nice visit with my parents, although the house felt very empty with just Kathryn and me staying there...I'm used to a lot of activity when everyone is around for Christmas. Kathryn and her cousin Hayden kept each other company on Friday and Monday. Here are a few shots of the cousins at play. They are only 3 months apart.

"Giddiup, Horsey!"

My mom and I took the kids to the shoe store, then on to the park. It's fun that the kids are old enough to really play together.

"Promise you won't tell anyone!"

New Office Help

This is Kathryn's new game...as soon as she hears the printer whirring, she jumps up to give Nick the paper. It's so funny!

5 Months...Already?!

Not sure where this month has gone. And this pregnancy is flying by for me!

Pumpkin Pickin'

Last weekend we went with Joe and Jeanie to get some pumpkins in celebration of Fall being upon us. This year there were actually pumpkins that were grown, unlike last year, when they scattered imported pumpkins on the field because of the drought. We ordered a pizza and headed off to Hodges Dairy Farm, a family owned business that's fun for the kids. Lots of animals, lots of pumpkins, a corn maze, and hay rides (although we missed the last one). I've been meaning to write about how much I love Fall, but time seems to be more scarce these days with trying to squeeze in naps when I can. This little outing reminded me of how much I like Fall. I have loved the cooler weather, pulling out jeans to wear, lighting my Mulled Cider candle, making apple butter and applesauce, putting up Fall decorations, drinking Pumpkin Spice Lattes (mmmm...), sleeping under the covers all night, going for walks, planting mums and pansies in my garden, the list goes on. What HAS caught me off guard, though, is how much Christmas stuff is in stores already! And this is coming from the girl who usually pulls out my Christmas music October 1. I think I'm enjoying Fall a little too much to wish it away to Christmastime this year...

Snuggling with Daddy

"This looks like a comfy place to rest my weary legs..."

"Heavy" is the new word recently

Best Buds

Trip to the Mountains

It's hard to believe it's almost been a week since we got back from our trip to the mountains! So finally, here are some pictures. We stayed for 5 days at the McCoy's cabin near Brevard, and once again we had a wonderful time. This year we met up with Matthew and Aliza Williams, good friends from Pastors College who live in Virginia. They were a wonderful couple to vacation with! They even inspired us to go hiking, which we didn't do last year, and we saw some pretty awesome waterfalls (pictures below).

Here's a picture of our first hike to Paradise Falls, which was a 9 out of 10 for difficulty (oops, we now know that means NOT baby-friendly). We thought we could do it, but poor Kathryn kept getting hit in the face by little branches, since the path was hardly a path at all. It was really a step above bush-wacking. And after getting bonked on the head by a fallen tree (miscalculated clearance), she was a bit traumatized. About .2 miles from the bottom of the falls, we decided she had had enough, especially when the way forward involved a steep drop, weaving in and out of fallen trees. So kiddo and I stayed up on this little ledge while Nick, Matthew, and Aliza hiked to the bottom. Here's a shot of the three of us, just before heading back up, while telling Kathryn to be "brave and cheerful" on the hike back. She actually did much better on the way back, thankfully.

Here's the ledge where we waited for the others.

Riding the 4-wheeler with Nick driving...a much more efficient way to explore the wide trails around the cabin!

Looking for the "woof woof" that kept coming up to the cabin. Kathryn could hear him barking, so she took off (without shoes) on the gravel, determined to find it.

Upper Waterfall on Sols Creek- we didn't see anyone else during this short hike, which was fun. It was like having a private waterfall.

The view on the way back from Sols Creek...simply beautiful.

Schoolhouse Falls- this was cool because you can get behind the falls and walk around

Warden Falls

Greenland Falls- a great one to do with kathryn. The trail was very interesting and pretty wide.

Another shot of Greenland Falls- if you click on the picture to enlarge it, you can see Nick in an orange shirt at the top.
This was an unnamed rapids on the way to Carlton Falls from Greenland Falls. The hike to Carlton was a 9 out of 10, so Nick stayed back with Kathryn at the bottom of Greenland Falls while the rest of us hiked to Carlton. On the way, though, was this beautiful scene.

Worn out from a day of hiking...I couldn't believe Kathryn fell asleep in the backpack!