Update for Friday, April 4

By now, all of you should be used to the erratic posting schedule of this blog. We're back with so many pictures to catch up since November (eek!!!) that I'm sure to either fill you with so much Katie-joy, or quite possibly bore you to the point that you don't even make it to the end of this post. We've got lots to cover, so let's begin with some old pictures that I don't think ever made it on the blog. I'd usually just let them go as irrelevant at this point, but they're so good that I just can't share:

Here's the tag-team duo of Grandma and Katie playing with arguably the best toy ever invented - the cardboard box:

And here's a few photos from last summer - I can't imagine how I didn't share them before. Paul went out on his pontoon boat, and Grandma and Katie met him at the lake for a short visit:

If we're going chronologically, the next event was Christmas. You'd expect a lot of photos from this day, but really there's only one thing you need to know . . . Katie got a trampoline from her Uncle Matt:

In preparation for the holidays, Katie spent a lot of time baking cookies at Grandma's house. She quickly realized that nobody at her house was going to take time to make cookies, so she learned to do it herself. The cookies were a hit, but my favorite were the chocolate dipped pretzles:

By the time we had recovered from the sugar coma from Christmas, it was already Valentine's day. Katie and our cousin Morgan spent a day at Grandma's house making valentines for everyone:




Once they finished their valentines, they set upon the task of making a birthday cake for Katie Grace who turned 3 the day before Valentine's Day. You've never met a sweeter pair of girls!

Later that evening, we celebrated Katie's birthday at home. It was a great party, complete with horn blowing clowns!

First there was this:

Which led to this:


Which led to this:
Here's a picture of two happy party-goers:


Katie got her first 'fishin rod' from Daddy, a great set of read-along books from Grandpa, and a darling little tea set from Mommy (who didn't really want to give it up):

The present that made the biggest 'splash' this year was her very own fish tank - which she promptly pulled over on her head the next morning 'trying to take care' of her fish. Did you know they make earthquake straps for almost anything?

A few days after Katie's birthday she had two special visitors in town - her Auntie Tara and Uncle Bryan from St. Louis. Auntie Tara earned mega cool points for all the time she spent playing with Katie in her room. We still talk about the 'cave' in her bedroom where the 'dragon' lives.



We also spent an afternoon at one of our favorite children's museum:


Speaking of birthdays, a few weeks later we celebrated the birthday's of Katie's Grandma and Auntie Liz. Note the combined ages of these ladies - we're not saying who owns which years! You'll note that Katie fine-tuned her candle blowing skills on the beautiful cake which she made with Grandma's help:



At the end of March, we took our first family vacation in almost a year - we spent a long weekend at Lopez just relaxing - everyone hunkered down with good books:

Katie and Daddy went fishing with her new 'fishin rod', and she learned the precise nature of getting skunked:

We braved the cold drizzle and explored the dock at low tide. Daddy was able to reach a really cool starfish that we loved for a little while before returning it to the sea:


What follows is a random collection of photos. We'll begin with a photo montage of what Katie does during a typical morning - eat cereal, wear princess shoes, and ride Luna:

We also have made more time for our friends. We went to the children's museum with Spencer Brown and his mom. The kids had a great time playing in the tree house and looking down through the 'hole' in the floor!

They played in the percussion room - a must for any kid:

...they made a stop at the face-painting station:

... and they learned about leverage by pulling ropes to lift bowling balls. I don't know how much leverage it takes, but it's a bit more than they've got at this point:

Katie and Spencer had a great time and finished the day with a refreshing cookie:

We recently were invited to a 'cowgirl' party for Miss Morgan's 6th birthday. We especially enjoyed painting little ponies:

The little pony party favors were fun too - we still like to line them up in Katie's room, and they often sleep lying down in a little plate:

It's been noted before in this blog that Katie loves to cook. Here she is one morning with Daddy - helping him make breakfast. As usual, it's eggs!


Speaking of eggs, I don't have any Easter photos to share with you. My camera died (again) the day before Easter. I do have a few photos from Katie's Grandma when they were decorating an Easter 'tree':

Let's wrap up this post with a photo under debate at our house - Paul says she's having a blast at the local reptile museum - I say it's thinly veiled terror. You decide:

That's all for now! See you..... sometime!