March 26, 2010

Evalie Says...
I was able to pick Kate up today from daycare which I missed doing while I was gone for the last few days. Josh had informed me that Kate has been crabby and pulling on her ear a lot the past few days. I decided to bring her into urgent care to make sure everything was okay. It turns out that she does have an infection on her scalp (which I always thought was cradle cap) and an ear infection. So, we had to head over the pharmacy to pick up some medicine. Kate decided while we waited for her medicine to just sit down and read the paper!

March 25, 2010

Joshua says...

Kate likes to play with stuff. Kate always has to see what is in your hands or in the bag and play with it herself. The camera is not an exception to this rule of hers. So when daddy was holding the camera to take the picture of the day, Kate wanted to hold the camera and see the pictures. I decided to turned the LCD around for her to see herself in the screen. Then she proceeded to take a pretty nice self portrait. What do you think?

March 24, 2010

Joshua says....

I'm going to get some major husband of the year points for posting a blog post without being forced to do so by Evalie. Evalie is at her sister's house right now helping out after Kristin's procedure. She has been gone since 6:00 yesterday and will return sometime tomorrow night. When Ev goes away, Kate and Daddy get to play. We eat Yum & Yums (M&M's), pizza for dinner, drink juice after 8:00 at night, you know, all kinds of crazy things. But our favorite thing in the whole world to do is play outside, I think if it wasn't March, we might even camp outside so we don't have to come into the house. Kate loves running around with Shiner, driving her car, riding on both of her bikes, riding in the wagon, racing daddy down the driveway, climbing the retaining wall between our house and the neighbors, and pretty much anything else you can do outside. That being said, it is raining today and our plans changed. I don't think that Kate liked the idea of staying inside tonight.

Thank God it's supposed to be close to 70 degrees next week.

Because of You.

Joshua says....

Today is my beautiful wife's 30th birthday. I wanted to take some time and let her know exactly how much I love her. She is the most amazing person I have ever met. She is the strongest, kindest, hardest working peron I know. She is always there for anyone, especially me, to talk to about anything that I need to talk about. She has given me the greatest gift in the world, the reason for this blog, Kate. She is my inspiration and I strive each day to be more like her; hard working, dedicated, friendly, loving, kind, inspired, always remembering, and beautiful. She is grounded in what she beleives in and it inspires me every day to watch her morals reflected in what she does. The truth is, I can never do justice to how important she is to me, or how thankful I am to have her in my life. I just wanted to take a feable shot at letting everyone else know, and her know, that I am truely blessed to have her in my life. Because of you, I am the man I am today.

Happy Birthday Evalie, I love you.

Here's to 30 more, and then 30 more after that.

Love Joshua

March 22, 2010

Today is the famous two picture day -

Josh joked that this should be the picture of the day....

Did you know that I hate doing laundry?

Did you know that I hate putting my clothes away?

Did you know that I rarely do it?

Did you know that my husband wanted proof that I can put my clothes away, so he took a picture of me?

Did you also know that my husband and daughter are two peas in a pod?

March 21, 2010

Every night after either Josh or I read Kate her bedtime stories, she calls for the other parent from her room to come help her turn off the light. I do believe it all started after my surgery when I couldn't lift her to turn it off. Kate and I would yell/call, "Daddy, come turn the light off." We have begun a new routine!

March 20, 2010

Josh and my sisters decided to throw me a little surprise birthday bash today. I don't have a lot of pictures to show because I was too busy socializing. But, here are the two pictures Josh took of me walking into the big surprise. It was such a lovely evening with my family and closest friends. I'm completely blessed to have such a wonderful family!!




PS - Can someone send me pictures of the night?

March 19, 2010

My niece, Jessica, is visiting over our spring break. We have been so busy that we haven't been great about remembering the picture of the day. Last night and this night have been quick pictures before bed. My little book worm is getting a little more reading in before she is off to bed after a long day shopping with Jessica, the shopping queen.

March 18, 2010

We have a little fascination with the light switch in the dining room. It is a dimmer switch, so Kate enjoys learning a little cause and effect while playing with it.

My favorite thing is that she pushes her chair over to the light a few times each day.

Her brain is thinking....

What curious eyes...

March 17, 2010

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Today Josh stayed home to help me spring clean the house and to go the St. Paddy's Day Parade. We were in a hurry to get out of the door because we knew it would be hard to find a parking spot downtown, and we forgot our camera. I have a few from my cell phone to share. It was so much fun to watch the parade and the thousands of people that show up for the parade! It is probably the best attended parade in Cedar Rapids. We had a great time.

Hanging Out on Dad's Shoulders

Check That Out!!

I was trying to get a picture of the people and the parade, but my camera phone isn't the best.

Kate liked this lady!

Kate taking a break from the parade!

Asleep on the way home!!

March 16, 2010

Today Kate went to back-up daycare, so I could get some hours in at an elementary school for my grad school. When we got home, Josh was already home and had received a "congrats" balloon from work for being done with their "peak" season. Kate wanted to play outside with the balloon. I had a few amazing leaps in the air to save it : )



My camera died right after I took these pictures, so they had to work for our picture of the day...

March 15, 2010

Today Kate and I enjoyed our beautiful day in the sun! We played outside almost all day long, and I even sat outside in the sun and read during nap time. At one point in the day Kate was chasing Shiner around the yard and tripped and fell. The two of them were in my little garden in the backyard, and Kate fell on the stone edging that I have around it. She began to cry, and I came to save the day. She had a few scratches on her arm and her belly. One scratch on her arm drew a little blood.

"Oh no," Kate says, "It has red paint on it!"

I reply, "No Kate, that is blood."

"Blood?" she questions.

"Yep, when we fall sometimes we bleed." I tell her.

"Okay, I'm okay," she says and is off to chase Shiner some more.



Kate also really enjoys hiding from Shiner when she gets a little snack. She is fearful of Shiner stealing her food. She wanted a pbj sandwich this afternoon after running around outside. She hid under my grandma's old table to keep Shiner away!

March 14, 2010

So, there is this family that I went to high school with that lost their mother to cancer a few years ago. I was not good friends with the kids that were close to my age in high school, but we were pretty good acquaintances. One of the girls in this family graduated a year behind me. She has a blog that I found out from being her friend on Facebook. Their family has decided to do a "Grandma Sharon" weekend. It just happens that her birthday and anniversary of her death are very close in date. The famiy all gathers together to teach their children about their grandma and to keep her memory alive. I find inspiration in this.

The first time they had their weekend, I was pretty impressed. It began a lot of thinking for me. And after their second weekend, I decided that I wanted to do something similiar on a little lower scale to begin teaching Kate about my mother.

Well, today is what would be my mother's 63rd birthday. Josh and I celebrated by calling today Grandma Kate day. Now, we didn't plan much for the day since I informed him of my idea laying in bed last night, but we did sketch out some ideas. It also made me realize that I really don't know my mother that well before she got sick, which makes me sad. I also realized that I need to learn how to crochet and quilt : )

So there is what we planned for today to help remember things about my mother:

1. We went to church. Now this is something we would have done anyway, but we know that church was important to my mother thus why it is important to us.
   
2. We cleaned up the yard. My mother was a big gardener. It really isn't garden season yet, but we did spend some time outside cleaning up the yard making it look nice. I will remember my mother a lot more this summer when we spend a Saturday picking weeds.
   
3. I made burgers on the grill for lunch. Most of the meals I remember from my childhood involve ground beef. Mostly burgers and meatloaf.
4. We went to the library. A lot of my memories of my mother before she got sick were at the Alton library where she was the librarian before she become a Spanish teacher.
   
5. We attempted to stop by an antique shop, but each one we stopped at was closed for the day. Perhpas this week on Spring Break Kate and I will take in good antique shopping experience looking for some green depression ware or a gem of buy!
   
6. I baked her amazing dill bread and my Aunt Annie's banana bread.
   
7. We made her famous enchiladas verdes for dinner : )
   
8. In the evening we all sat around the dinner table and had a tea party. We used Kate's tea set, but we used one of mom's tea pots.
9. Last but not least, Josh and I watched West Side Story after Kate went to bed.

I'm looking forward to next year because perhaps Kate will understand a little better what it was all about. I kept trying to explain things to her today, but I'm not sure how far I got. It was a really special day.

Look what I got at the library!

Mom's famous enchiladas verdes

tea party time

: )

Mmmmm...dill bread...

March 13, 2010

Kate really likes M&Ms. She calls them Yum & Yums. Daddy had to run to the store and brought some home for Kate. She enjoyed them as she woke up from her nap. After she ate a few, she stored the rest of the bag in the truck of her tricycle. Every once in awhile, I would see her open the truck and have one.

March 12, 2010

Tonight we wanted to have family movie night. We got the air-popper out and prepared some popcorn then settled on the couch. We put in the movie, and we were hoping for some little munchkin to cuddle with us and watch the movie. Just as I suspected, Kate couldn't sit and watch the movie with us. She was able to put in a few good minutes while she ate her popcorn, but then she was off to run and jump and skip around the house. I'm a little nervous for her school years : )

March 11, 2010

Tonight I had my last set of parent teacher conferences of the year. Before I know it, my kiddos will be leaving for summer break. This year school year is flying by. Anyways while I was at conferences, something important showed up in the mail.

March 10, 2010

Today I was on the look-out for a "no fear" Kate moment to honor my "no fear" brother, Seth, on what would have been his 34th birthday. My sister, Justina, jokes about how Kate reminds her of Seth, but today there was not a "no fear" moment. I was getting worried when the night was slowly coming to an end, and I didn't have a picture to share. Then at bath time, Kate had decided that she wanted to sing as she bathed. It wasn't the "no fear" moment I was looking for, but it sure made me laugh and smile. Making me laugh and smile is what my brother did the best.

March 9, 2010

Tonight while drawing on our whiteboard easel, Josh and I were drawing shapes and letter and quizzing Kate. She would look over at our shape or letter, say it, and turn back to her own drawing. Suddenly she scribbles something and turns to me, "Look Mommy, I make an M!"

March 8, 2010

Brush 'em Brush 'em Brush 'em

March 7, 2010

Yesterday evening, we ran to Target and a few others stores to putz around as a family. We hadn't been in Tuesday Mornings in a long time. We thought it might be fun to look around. We didn't find much, but Kate walked out with a keyboard. We have been wanting to get her a keyboard for quite some time. I think Josh likes it more than she does. She has been playing and singing with it a lot today.

Enjoy the show!