Knapp Family Adventures

School Fall Pictures

2012-02-12T00:48:00.000-06:00

Here are the girls' fall pictures. Turned out cute. :)

I love these 2 little girls so much! They are such a blessing to me and Andy.

Community Parade

2012-02-12T00:41:00.000-06:00

In November we all went out to our annual Community Parade. We haven't had a very cold winter, but that morning it was very cold and windy. We had a great spot though and Katie enjoyed her 1st parade. Our trip was cut a little short when Hannah got sick. But we had fun while we were there.

Baby Shower

2012-02-12T00:35:00.000-06:00

At the end of December my niece and nephew had twins. Here are some pics from Leigh Anne's baby shower (that Mindy and I made the diaper cakes for.)

Buckaroo Bash

2012-02-12T00:26:00.000-06:00

In the fall, my school had a Buckaroo Bash. Lots of fun stuff for the kids. Katie always has fun going to "mommy's school" and watching all he "big kids".

A Love of Learning

2012-02-11T17:10:00.001-06:00

Katie loves books, loves school, and loves learning her letters and numbers. As a teacher this makes my heart smile. I hope she always loves learning and school. Teaching kindergarten this year with a 3 year old has been a lot of fun. She's getting close enough to the grade I'm teaching that I'm able to do some of my school stuff with her.

Here are some letter matching cards I ordered from Scholastic for her.

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She also has some pattern blocks Mimi got her for her birthday. I guess they're learning patterns at school because she likes counting and making patterns now.

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She always wants to sleep with all of her books in bed with her. We try to take them out, but every night when we go to tuck her back in after going to bed, she has them all back in bed with her. We can pick her up, move her, change her clothes and she has no idea we're even in her room, but if we try to move a book, she will wake up and immediately know we've taken a book out of her bed.

Happy Halloween

2012-02-11T15:51:00.000-06:00

Halloween was so much fun this year. Katie loved it and we were some of the last ones out on our street! She did not want to go home. Hannah was a trooper and finally fell asleep in my arms for the last few houses.

Kaite "Batarina"

Me and my girls before Trick or Treating

Trick or Treat!

Andy and our little butterfly, Hannah.

Still all smiles after trick or treating no matter how late it was.

Pumpkin Carving Time

2012-02-11T15:38:00.000-06:00

Katie had fun this year helping with our pumpkins. She thought the inside was really gross but wanted to help clean them out.

After carving our pumpkins, Katie painted a small one.

And a little extra painting...

Thanks to pinterest, I got this cute photo op idea. I love how they turned out. :)

Sunday Smiles

2012-02-07T20:51:00.000-06:00

Just a few little snapshots of the girls after church one Sunday...

Diaper Cakes

2012-02-07T20:47:00.000-06:00

Mindy and I had lots of fun making these diaper cakes for Leigh Anne's baby shower!

Katie had fun helping us roll the diapers too.

Church Fall Festival

2012-01-22T17:31:00.000-06:00

I love 3 year olds! Yes the tantrums are in full force, but Katie's finally old enough to really enjoy some "big kid" stuff. She had so much fun at our church fall festival this year and was able to do so many more of the games.

Poor little thing was so cold, but she was having so much fun she didn't even care.

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Happy Birthday Lily!

2012-01-22T16:52:00.000-06:00

We had fun at Lily's birthday party at Buld a Bear.

Katie with her new bear, "Wilbur Clifford".

And a little bear for Hannah too.

We love the carousel!

We are so thankful for our playgroup and the friends we have both made through the group. Thanks Lily for inviting us. We had fun!

Fall Sewing

2012-01-22T15:59:00.000-06:00

Once school starts I don't have a whole lot of time to sew, but I did manage to sew these matching outfits for the girls for their fall school pictures. :)

And... Hannah started sitting up with little help!

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Pumpkin Patch #2

2012-01-22T15:42:00.000-06:00

Our favorite pumpkin patch is a bit of a drive for us, but worth it. So many cute picture ops.

Hannah's 6 Month Update

2012-01-14T22:27:00.001-06:00

What's Hannah up to at 6 months (mid-October)?

14lbs lloz (25-50%)

25.3" long (50-75%)

116.3" head (25-50%)

Here is where the fun begins. Hannah's starting to play with toys and definitely has a preference for some things over others.

She's starting to roll over from her back to her tummy (not always consistentlly).

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Her favorite toy is her jumparoo.

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She loves playing with Daddy.

She loves her sister too. Katie is having lots of fun with Hannah as she gets older. She likes to help feed Hannah and loves to make Hannah laugh. They are going to be such good friends as they grow up.

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She loves to make "motor boat" sounds and smiles all the time. I love my happy baby girl!

And here's a little bit of Katie...

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I have a footprint plate for Katie at 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, and 1 year and I'm doing the same for Hannah. Here's Hannah's 6 month plate.

2012-01-14T16:49:00.000-06:00

Katie (and Hannah's) daycare has a Fall Festival every year. This year Katie was finally old enough to really have a lot of fun!

They had crafts...

face painting...

and games.

But her favorite was the bounce house. I didn't think I was going to get her out of there. :)

Hannah's 1st Foods

2012-01-14T13:20:00.000-06:00

I'm WAY behind on my blog but since this is the girls' baby book, I don't want to skip anything. So this was actually 3 months back when Hannah tried rice cereal for the 1st time. She was 6 months old when she started on rice cereal then moved to purees about 2-3 weeks later.

Katie wanted to help too but Hannah was not interested in this new food so she didn't eat much at all.

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Pumpkin Patch #1

2011-11-26T00:02:00.001-06:00

We went to 2 pumpkin patches this year. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the 1st one.

Katie made a new friend in the hay maze. They had lots of fun playing together.

She loved the bounce house!

Hannah sitting in the pumpkins.

My sweet girls in their matching spider outfits that I made for them.

Little Skeletons

2011-11-26T00:02:00.000-06:00

I love their Halloween pajamas. So cute. And they glow in the dark. :)

You Are My Sunshine

2011-11-26T00:01:00.000-06:00

More dance pictures

She loves Ms. Tammy.

Katie with BFF, Melanie

They had costume night the week before Halloween.

For several weeks, they learned a dance to "You Are My Sunshine". Here's Katie singing her song. There's a part at the end where she always says "turn". That must've been the spot in the dance where they turn. LOL

Happy Fall Y'all

2011-11-02T23:22:00.000-05:00

Brush, Brush, Brush Your Teeth

2011-11-02T23:17:00.000-05:00

Katie finally went to the dentist for the 1st time. It was during school so I wasn't able to take her but Andy said she did great.

Drivers Ed

2011-11-02T23:15:00.000-05:00

Katie LOVES her new jeep but we've got a lot of practicing to do.

Taking Dora for a ride

Keep your eyes on the road, Katie.

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Daddy's Little Girls

2011-11-02T22:14:00.000-05:00

Playtime with Daddy

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I love those hugs. So sweet.

Sleepytime with Daddy

Sleepytime with Mommy too.

Katie 3 Year Update

2011-10-30T20:30:00.001-05:00

So what is our sweet little Katie bug up to these days? She's growing up so much and I thank God every day that he chose me to be her mommy.

Katie just turned 3 years old and she's mostly wearing size 3T clothes. She can still fit into some 2T stuff though. She weighs 29lbs 8oz (50th percentile), and is 36"tall (25th-50th percentile).

She's so sweet and cuddly. She loves reading books. She would let me read to her all day long if I was able to. I love reading to her. She's beginning to comprehend stories I read to her and ask questions or tell me what's going on in the story. She is also starting to memorize some books and retell or make up her own stories by looking at the pictures in books. She sleeps with almost every stuffed animal she has and about 30 books. We try to take some of her books out of bed but she has a huge meltdown when we do and ends up getting out of bed after we leave the room to put them all back in bed anyway. It's kind of cute so I don't make a big deal of it. She's a pretty heavy sleeper. After she goes to bed each night, Andy and I go back up and tuck her back in on our way to bed. We've completely redressed her before and she had no idea we were there, but after redressing her when we tried to take some books out of bed (so she wouldn't have to sleep on top of the tons of books in her bed), she woke up and said, "Don't take my books." Ha!

Most nights we get to read books (usually a devotional book, prayer book, or one of her kid Bibles). We always say our prayers. I usually ask her what she wants to say to God tonight. What should we thank him for, etc. Then as I say a prayer, she repeats each thing after me. Lately she always wants to thank God for her yellow Bible and thank God that the Bible is true. I love it. Makes my heart melt.

When I was little, every night I told my mom, "Good night. I love you. Sweet dreams. Sleep tight. Don't let the bed bugs bite." Now I've continued that with Katie. If I forget to say it, she says "I want to say it mama." So she repeats each thing after me as I say, "Good night. Sweet dreams. Sleep tight. Don't let the bed bugs bite. I love you. See you tomorrow. Marshmallow!" I think when I say "See you tomorrow" it is so fast that to her it originally sounded like "Marshmallow." So now we've added marshmallow to the end of it all. She cracks me up.

She doesn't alway nap. When she does it's a very late nap. She plays (looks at books) for a long time before falling asleep. But she sleeps really good at night and unless it's a school or church day, she will sleep until about 8:00 or 8:30 then usually stays in bed looking at books until me or Andy goes and gets her up. I let her sleep with me one night while Andy was out of town and found out that she talks in her sleep. Ha!

She is getting more into the pretend play thing. She likes playing with her dolls and ponies. She likes playing with her kitchen set. She loves listening to or watching Veggie Tales.

She loves school and talks about her friends all the time now. She's learning so much at school. She knows all her shapes and colors. She knows all of her capital letters and some lower case letters and sounds. She counts to 20 (except she skips 16 every time). She recognizes her numbers to 10. She spells her name (orally, she can't write it yet). They have a letter and a word each week and show and tell every Friday with the letter of the week.

She started dance class this fall (ballet and tap) and LOVES her class, her new friends, and her dance teacher.

She loves her sister and is so helpful. Hannah's starting to play with toys so Katie helps Hannah with her toys, making them play music, or handing them to Hannah so she can reach them.

And she is finally completely daytime potty trained! Yea! No more Katie diapers (except for nighttime).

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She's definitely 3 and has mastered whining and throwing fits about as good as I did when I was a kid. But she's so sweet and loving. I'm proud of her every single day and love her more than words can say. Happy birthday sweet girl!

Happy 3rd Birthday Katie!

2011-10-26T22:57:00.000-05:00

Three years ago Andy's and my life were blessed with our 1st baby girl. I always knew I wanted to be a mommy but I never imagined it as great as it is. I have loved every minute of time with my sweet little Katie bug. She amazes me all the time and makes me laugh every day. I'm so proud of my little girl and so thankful that God chose me and Andy to be her parents.

Because of Hannah's baby dedication, we had Katie's birthday party the week before her actual birthday. So on her "real" birthday we took her to Gattitown and Build A Bear. She LOVED Build A Bear!

She loves her bear already.

Stuffing her bear

Cleaning her bear

Hannah got a toy too

And then it was time to pick out some clothes for her bear

And then we filled out the birth certificate for her new bear "Sparkle"

After picking out Sparkle's clothes, she wanted to clean her off again

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Oh and I forgot to mention while we were out at the mall we decided to get her some new shoes. We knew she was growing out of the shoes she had. She had been wearing a size 7 shoe. They measured her feet and said she's an 8 1/2 and recommended we get her a size 9 so she can grow into them. Oops. We got her some "twinkle toes" (they light up) and then Build A Bear just happened to have the same shoes for Sparkle!

Can you tell why she named her bear "Sparkle"?

We finished off her birthday celebration with the "Happy Birthday Song" and her Junior cake.

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And a little play time with her new toys. These are her My Little Pony barretts.

This year was the funnest birthday celebration yet. It was the 1st year she really "got it". She was so excited to celebrate her birthday and turning 3 years old. She's growing up so fast. I love my sweet little Katie bug so much!

Hannah's Baby Dedication

2011-10-26T21:30:00.000-05:00

The day after Katie's birthday party we had Hannah's baby dedication at church. On September 18, 2011 we made a promise to God that we will raise Hannah in a Christian home.

With Pastor Chuck before the service...

Katie loved listening to the orchestra before the dedication.

Sweetie pie!

Playing with Memaw at lunch after the service.

And Aunt Allison too.

The girls hanging out at home that afternoon in their pretty little dresses.

Playing with Becky and Mimi (and Sandy too)

A Very Veggie Birthday! Part 2

2011-10-16T16:36:00.001-05:00

It was very windy, but great day for a park birthday party. After bubbles, we had pizza and cake!

Birthday girl enjoying her pizza

Amber and Brooke, "the twins" from dance class

Lillie and Maddy from play group

Brody from school

Caleb and Micah from church

Zaina from school

Dalani from school

Bella from school

We were so glad to have family there!

My sweet red head Hannah girl...

Daddy Hannah time

We couldn't get all of them to stay in 1 spot long enough for a picture but this is most of the crew.

We finished off with a little play time on the playground.

Then we came home along with some of our family for family presents. Here she is all decked out in her "Fancy Nancy" gear.

Her Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber stuffed animals.

And her new jeep! I was a little disappointed. It's supposed to ride in grass and I guess it does, but our yard is sloped so she can't just go ride it in the backyard anytime she wants to. We have to go out to the sidewalk to really ride it. But she loves it.

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A Very Veggie Birthday! Part 1

2011-10-16T15:13:00.000-05:00

Wow! I can't believe Katie is already 3 years old. Where has the time gone. She's growing up so quickly and I have loved every minute of it. Katie LOVES Veggie Tales so we had a Veggie Tales themed birthday party. This was the 1st year that she really "got it". We talked about her birthday party for months before it was actually here and she helped me pick out decoration stuff, cakes, etc. This was also the 1st year we invited school and dance friends. It was so much fun getting to meet her friends that she's with every day at school and their parents.

We rented the pavillion at a local park.

The cakes turned out really cute. The icing cracked when I took them out of the freezer, but for a party of 3 year olds, nobody cared about that. :)

Aunt Becky and Mimi had fun entertaining Hannah Bug during the party. I love this picture of Becky and Hannah.

Hannah loves to chew on her fingers.

The kids played with some sidewalk chalk while they waited for all of Katie's guests to arrive.

Then we went on to do some veggie painting. Fun!

Amber from dance class

Maddy from play group

Lillie from play group

The big 3 year old birthday girl!

Zaina from school

Brody from school

Brooke from dance class

Micah and Caleb from church (and they have baby brother Aiden now too)!

Dalani from school

Bella from school (they've been in school together since they were babies)

Next they played with giant bubbles.

Here's Leigh Anne and her 2 babies in her tummy helping Katie. I can't wait to meet Baby Boy and Baby Girl in late December!

More pictures to follow. I just couldn't narrow them down. So the rest will come in a 2nd post.

Katie's New Haircut

2011-10-13T23:15:00.000-05:00

Katie got her 2nd haircut this month. Right before her birthday party we got her hair cut. I think we cut it shorter this time than we did last time and I love it. It's still pretty long, but much cleaner and healthier than before.

Her hair was getting really long. She definitely needed a haircut! Here's the before pic...

She requested the pink and purple Barbie jeep.

We cut about 3 inches off...

And it looks precious. They gave her a new hairstyle. Last time it was princess braids. This time it was the 1 french braid across the front and over to the side keeping her hair out of her face.

Enjoying some yummy Raising Canes after her haircut.

She chose green fingernail polish for her mini manicure they do at her haircut place.

Hannah 5 Month Update

2011-10-13T23:00:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm a month behind. Hannah will be 6 months old in just 2 days and I'm just getting to her 5 month post. But here is what she was up to at 5 months old...

She's growing so fast. Hannah LOVES her big sister, Katie. She watches every move Katie makes and laughs and smiles at her all the time.

Hannah is such a happy baby. She smiles all the time.

Her favorite past time these days is jumping in her jumparoo. Her feet don't touch the floor yet so we have some books under her feet for her to stand on.

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I guess she was pretty sleepy. LOL

She wants to sit up so badly. When she lays on her back, she lifts her head and legs up like she's doing some stomach crunches. She doesn't roll over from her tummy to her back yet, but she rolls over from her back to her tummy pretty effortlessly now.

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Hannah's new little sound (another favorite past time) is blowing bubbles. Here is a video clip of the 1st time she did this. Her poor chin is covered in drool from spitting when she makes the sound. She just drooled like that the 1st time she did it though. She makes her sound really good now without drooling all over herself. Ha!

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She LOVES her bath time. And she LOVES to chew on her hand. She doesn't take a paci and doesn't suck her fingers or hand, but chews all the time on her fingers. No teeth yet though.

Eery night she sleeps the same way... she sucks on her right arm when she falls asleep so she sleeps with her left hand behind her head and her right hand is either in front of her mouth like this or it falls to the side so her right arm is up next to her head.

She doesn't nap much during the day. She takes a few quick naps (usually like 20-30 minutes at a time) but sleeps good at night. She gets fussy around 6:30 or 7:00 so I feed her and put her to bed. Usually I have to wake her up at 6:30 to feed her in the morning before work, but on the weekends she usually wakes up pretty close to 6:30. After I feed her she lays back in her crib really good and plays with her fish music toy until she falls back to sleep.

She still plays with her play mat but she doesn't like it nearly as much as she used to. Sometimes I let her sit in her bumbo seat and play with the stuff hanging on there. She likes that better than laying down on it.

Birthday Baking

2011-10-03T23:25:00.000-05:00

Katie loves helping me cook. I bought a Tupperware "kids in the kitchen" baking set and I can't wait to use it with her. We had breakfast for dinner a few weeks ago at Katie's request and she helped me cook. She doesn't like doing the eggs though. It makes a mess and she says it's yucky so she says mommy does the eggs.

As my birthday tradition, I made Katie's birthday cake(s). She decided on a Veggie Tales birthday party so I was going to make a Bob the Tomato cake and a Larry the Cucumber cake. After making those 2 cakes, I realized that wasn't much cake so I made Laura Carrot (AKA "Snoozie" according to Katie). Then Katie kept saying "we're going to have Bob and Larry and Snoozie and Junior"! She was so excited about them, I couldn't resist making a Junior Asparagus cake too. So we made 4 cakes! And Katie helped me bake them all.

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You can't forget the best part... licking the spoon and bowl when you're done! Daddy joined in for this part too.

She also helped with the crumb coat of icing on Bob.

And here are the final products! I think they turned out realy cute. Junior is my favorite.

Sleepytime

2011-10-03T21:56:00.000-05:00

I love watching my babies sleep. Katie got a new nap mat for school this year. It's pink an dhas monkeys on it. She loves her nap mat and brought it with her to bed for her nap her 1st weekend after using it at school.

Hannah's sleeping a lot better at night now. She's been sleeping through the night for a couple of months now, but when we moved her to her crib she cried a lot before falling asleep at night. She still doesn't like to nap in her crib during the day, but falls alseep much better at night. She likes to play with her fish toy and her little stuffed puppy dog. When she wakes up in the morning, she's starting to play with her toys and talk to herself while she waits for me to get in there to feed her.

Hi Pop

2011-10-03T00:27:00.000-05:00

I love this girl. Here she is talking to Pop on the phone. She's so funny!

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Last (and 1st) Swim of the Summer

2011-10-02T20:55:00.001-05:00

We finally made it out to the pool with Hannah over Labor Day weekend. I had cooled off enough to take her out there but was still warm enough to swim. Katie had a blast and I think Hannah enjoyed the water too but it was a little chilly in the water.

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Bye Bye summer. Hopefully we can go to the pool more often next summer.

Hannah 4 Month Update

2011-09-13T23:20:00.000-05:00

Wow. With the start of the new school year I've gotten way behind on my blogging. Hannah will actually be 5 months already in just 3 days and I'm just now getting to her 4 month post. So I'll let you know what Hannah was doing at 4 months and then I'll post again soon with a 5 month update...

At Hannah's 4 month well visit (about a week late), she weighed in at 13 lbs, 7 oz (50th percentile). She was 25" tall (75th-90th percentile-- tall girl). And her head measured 15.8" (25th-50th percentile). She's wearing 3-6 month clothes and growing so fast. According to her weight she should be in size 2 diapers. We're having issues with her diapers leaking a lot (and yes, we're changing her often) so we're trying different brands and sizes. We're trying out size 3 Huggies right now but they're really too big so she'll go back to a size 2 next but in a different brand.

Hannah started going to daycare right at 4 months old and does really well there. When I picked her up on her 1st day there was a sign on her crib that said "I can roll over." They said they don't put a sign on their crib like that unless they actually see them roll over but at this point we had only seen her roll over once. I put her on her tummy with her arms under her chest and she rolled to her back.

She loves for us to help her sit or stand. She's never been a huge fan of laying down. She likes to play in the exersaucer and sit in her Bumbo seat with her toys in front of her. She reaches for and grabs and holds her toys. She still won't take a pacifier, but likes to put things in her mouth (her taggie, stuffed animals, her hand, her shirt...). No teeth yet though.

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Hannah LOVES her big sister. She watches Katie all the time and smiles at her really big. She's started giggling and it's so cute. She also makes some funny growling sound. She's a happy, smiley baby. I love her so much!

Sweet big sister. She loves her "Laura Numeroff" books and stuffed animals and really wanted to take a picture with them. I love her so much!

Tiny Dancer!

2011-09-02T00:31:00.000-05:00

Katie started her dance class about 3 weeks ago and she loves it. Half the class is ballet and the other half is tap. They are all 2 and 3 year olds and it is precious watching them. These pictures and video are from her 1st class. The other 2 girls took 2 months of classes this summer, but Katie jumped right on in there too. There are 7 kids enrolled in her class now and it's funny to watch their short attention spans. I think they all will watch the teacher for a little bit then they tend to wander off and kind of do their own thing.

Ballet

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Katie is making friends in her class already. She was so sweet to Anna who was a little reluctant in that first class. And now she keeps asking about Melanie in her dance class and wanting to invite her to her birthday party. So sweet.

Tap

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D is for Dinosaur

2011-08-30T23:53:00.000-05:00

I love the girls' daycare! Yesterday when I picked them up, Hannah had this "artwork" and these pictures to show me what she's been doing.

Yes, that's a paintbrush and a puzzle in front of our 4 month old daughter. LOL There are only 2 babies enrolled in her class right now so I guess they've been playing around and having fun with them. They have definitely worn her out!

Back to School

2011-08-28T23:40:00.000-05:00

We're all back in school and it's going great! Katie got to spend 1 more week with her teacher from last spring who she absolutely loves and then moved up to a new classroom. Her new room is a lot more structured with center time, a word and letter of the week, Friday show and tell, scheduled potty breaks, etc. So far she's done well in there, but after just a week and a half back she's got her cold she gets every year in school and got strep throat last week.

Heading to school on their 1st day back. Katie couldn't wait to go see Miss Charlie and her friends!

Hannah is at daycare with Katie and doing well. Her teacher said she rolled over, but we still haven't seen her do it yet. She doesn't nap much at school (just like her sister), but sleeps great at night. So far there have just been 2 babies in her room but a couple more are coming this week, I think.

I started back with kids this week too. I finally got to move back to kindergarten and I'm exhausted and have my annual back to school cold too, but I'm LOVING kindergarten. I knew I missed it, but now that I'm back, I realize I missed kindergarten more than I thought. It's going to be a great year for all of us.

Hannah

2011-08-05T00:39:00.000-05:00

Sleeping with her watchdog watching over her.

Yummy hands. She loves chewing on her hands.

Sea Life Aquarium

2011-08-05T00:36:00.000-05:00

We finally took Katie to the aquarium tonight! I've been wanting to take her to an aquarium since last summer. She LOVED it! Great aquarium!

Lots of fun little places to see the fish.

Fun little "fin facts" throughout the aquarium.

Really cool shart tank tunnel with a glass floor!

"Shark Tank" look out area with more glass floors.

"Petting" area where the kids can touch the sea stars.

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On our way home, Katie made up a really pretty song for us. :)

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Stress Free Potty Training

2011-08-04T23:47:00.000-05:00

We've been potty training Katie (sort of). We're giving Katie the opportunity to use the potty but not really pushing her too much. She's doing pretty good but wants her reward (candy and a Veggie Tales silly banz bracelet) so she will sit on the potty for up to an hour just waiting to go so she can get candy. Ha!

One day this week I went to check on her after she had been in there a while and this is what I found. LOL

I joined a mom group that has lots of events and they give away a lot of free stuff at every event. Today I went to my first event, "Stress Free Potty Training". The speaker was a co-author of the book and was pretty good. Everyone at the event got everything you see here in a goody bag except for the potty seat. There were lots of different kinds of those and everyone got to pick one out to take home. Awesome!

We also got these cute "Baby Legs" in our goody bag!

I can't wait to go to another one of these events!

Top Golf

2011-08-04T23:35:00.000-05:00

I found a new date place for me and Andy... Top Golf. We went with some friends and had a really fun time. It's a lot like bowling, but with golf. It's a 3 story place and you try to hit the golf balls into big targets, earning points for how close you get it to the bullseye in your target. So much fun and I don't golf at all!

National Night Out

2011-08-04T23:30:00.000-05:00

We met some new neighbors at a block party for National Night Out this week. Fun times...

Hannah loves looking at herself in the mirror and smiles and makes faces at herself. :)

She actually loved the bounce house this time!

Some firemen came and let the kids see the fire truck!

Yes, slip n slide in her regular clothes. We didn't know they were going to have water games there.

Checkin out the "buffet"...

Mother Goose!

2011-07-29T14:00:00.000-05:00

Today was our last storytime at the public library for the summer and Mother Goose came to share some of her rhymes with them. She even brought along a few puppets! After storytime, she let the kids come up and take pictures with her. My shy little girl was very reluctant, but on the way home she told me all about how Mother Goose talked to her and she said, "Mother Goose is awesome!"

Ready to Dance!

2011-07-29T13:56:00.000-05:00

I registered Katie to start her 1st ballet and tap class this school year! She LOVES her tap shoes! I can't wait for her to start classes in a couple of weeks. I don't think she's going to want to participate the 1st week or 2. I know she'll be really shy at first, but once she warms up to her teacher, other dancers in her class, and the whole idea of dance class I know she will love it!

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Kids in the Kitchen

2011-07-29T13:39:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite things about the summer is going to playdates with our play group. All of the other moms and kids are so sweet and we have some really fun, creative playdates. This week we had a "Kids in the Kitchen" playdate where our fabulous hostess, Brandi shared some fun kid recipes she found at Weelicious, a fun blog with lots of great kid recipes!

Brandi had all the ingredients for several recipes set up and ready for the kids to put together then they all got to sample the different foods the made. What a great idea. We came home with some good new recipes that Katie loves!

I love these next 2 pictures. It's so much fun to see Katie playing with other kids her age. She talks about her friends at school, but I don't know them and never get to watch her play with them. I'm sad that summer is almost over and it may be next summer before we're able to get together with the playgroup again. :(

Family Night at Church

2011-07-29T13:28:00.000-05:00

Every summer our church started having "family night" a couple of times during the summer. Everyone brings a picnic dinner, we sing and dance, play games, and praise God. Good family fun. Here are some pics from this week's family night...

Gatti Town

2011-07-25T22:21:00.000-05:00

Today we met some friends at Gatti Town for lunch. Usually when we go, we just eat while watching cartoons then leave, but today we played some games for a while too. We had lots of fun.

Bowling...

Hannah and Daddy went too...

Air Hockey with Katie's friend, Logan...

Beating the Heat

2011-07-25T22:11:00.000-05:00

We have had a really hot summer so we've stayed in way more than I would like to stay out of the heat. We've kept ourselves busy though...

more tummy time and play time

watching baseball with Daddy

I've been doing lots of sewing/crafts. I made this dress and bow for Katie.

We finally played in our little blowup pool today. We haven't even been out there much this summer because it's just way too hot to be outside for very long at all.

Andy let Hannah put her feet in the pool. She wasn't sure what to think about that.

Katie LOVED having her slide right there and sliding into the pool. Much better than the built in whale slide on her pool.

On a side note... Katie's new favorite word is "amazing!" She's so funny. She says our new car is amazing, Daddy is amazing, her new Veggie Tales silly bands are amazing. Just about everything is amazing to her. :)

I'm planning ahead for her Veggie Tales birthday party (still 2 months away) and brought her with me to buy plates, napkins, birthday candle, etc for her birthday party a couple of weeks ago. Now she keeps telling us we're going to her birthday party. She doesn't get the concept of time yet. We keep telling her it's 2 months away but that just goes in one ear and out the other. Ha!

Fun summer days. I can't believe it's almost time to go back to school.

Night Night

2011-07-25T21:56:00.002-05:00

I love watching my girls sleep. They look so peaceful.

She loves sleeping on her tummy. Always has. I can't wait unti she can roll over both ways really well and I can let her sleep on her tummy at night. I don't give Hannah tummy time as much as I should but have tried for about the last week to put her on her tummy more often so she can learn to roll over. She doesn't get much practice in though because she falls asleep after about 5 minutes of tummy time since she likes sleeping on her tummy so much. LOL

Sweet baby all balled up.

Wore herself out.

She still sleeps with her hands up in the air sometimes. Look at how big she is getting in that bassinet!

I like to keep my babies in the bassinet right next to me at night until they are consistently sleeping through the night (9+ hours a night). Hannah usually goes for an 8 hour stretch and school will be starting in just 3 weeks so I started putting her in her crib last week. Because I never put her in there for naps or anything, she wasn't used to her room and has not liked it very much. Tonight though she finally went to sleep without crying. I think she's getting used to her room.

Katie is not much of a napper. She's just like her daddy... doesn't need a whole lot of nap time during the day, very much a night owl, has a hard time going to sleep (fights it), but once she's asleep she's such a heavy sleeper! We always go tuck her in again before we go to bed at night because she doesn't go to sleep right away when we put her in bed and kicks her covers off. I went to tuck her in a few nights ago and she had taken her pajamas off. I completely redressed her and she was sleeping so good she had no idea I was even there.

Yesterday when I went to get her up from her nap, this is how I found her sleeping. Her bed is full of toys too. I guess she was bringing toys in her bed to play with when she just finally wore herself out and fell asleep before she made it back in bed. LOL

My sweet little girl!

Proud Mama!

2011-07-17T01:45:00.000-05:00

In Hannah's 3 month update I said it's been a big week in the Knapp house. Hannah rolled over for the 1st time and we pulled out the bumbo seat and exersaucer for her this week.

Katie's had a big week too. She likes to play the Dora Skywriting app on my phone. It's a little challenging for her and she gets frustrated with it but still goes back to that one every time she plays games on my phone. Today I was doing dishes while she was playing with her chalkboard and she said, "Mama do you like my A?" I turned around and saw this!

I thought maybe Andy had written that earlier but then she drew another one. I'm so proud of her. She's really growing up! I love teaching letters and sounds and teaching kids "how" to read. I love that Katie's getting to the age where I can start teaching her letters and sounds and I'm sure it will feel like not time at all until she's old enough for me to start to teach her to read. What an exciting age!

We decided to start potty training. We tried for 2 evenings and all day 1 day and it was an absolute nightmare! I can honestly say I've loved every minute of parenting (even when we have 2 year old toddler tantrums) but potty training has not been fun. We were taking her to the potty every 30 minutes and even with a fun potty watch, Emlo potty book, etc she still threw fits most times we took her to the potty. After the 1st full day, I cried and cried that night feeling like a horrible mother to put her through all of that if she's not ready. The problem is that her daycare won't move her up to her 3 year old room unless she's fully potty trained so I feel like I have no choice but to do it now, even though she's not quite ready.

After such a rough day though, I decided to step back and take a break for a little bit. We'll try again next week. But yesterday Katie asked me if she could wear her potty watch and sit on the potty. She woke up from her nap with a completely dry diaper and used the potty when she got up! It was all instigated by her. I was so proud of her and she was proud of herself too. She told me she was using the potty like her friends. I told her that her friends at school are all learning to use the potty and apparently that was motivating for her. I'm feeling a little more hopeful now that maybe next week when we try it again that it will go smoother.

Butterflies

2011-07-17T01:27:00.000-05:00

A little over a month ago I got a butterfly pavillion for Katie and ordered some caterpillars. She knew right away that the caterpillars would turn into butterflies and we watched them and talked about what was happening as they made their big transformation. This week the butterflies finally came out of their chrysalids and we let them go yesterday.

We had 3 pink lady butterflies to set free in our back yard.

Sci-Tech Discovery Center and Legos

2011-07-17T01:19:00.000-05:00

Our playgroup went to the Sci Tech Discovery Center last week. I wasn't sure there would be much there for a 2 year old, but Katie had a blast. There was plenty of stuff there she could do.

Of all the things there, her favorite was the Legos. She played with them for quite a while when we got there and went back to them after exploring everything else there. She played with those things for a while even after all of her playgroup friends left.

Because she loved the Legos so much, after the Discovery Center, Andy and I took Katie to the Lego store and got her a Lego train. Andy likes Legos too so he had fun helping Katie put it all together.

She loves watching the train go around the track.

I used to sit like this all the time when I was little.

So excited.

What's Up With Hannah? 3 Month Update

2011-07-17T01:03:00.001-05:00

What a joy our sweet little Hannah is every day! Yesterday she turned 3 months old. She's changing so much every week. Look at that precious smile. She looks SO much like Andy's baby pictures here. I really think Katie's going to look more like me and Hannah's going to look more like Andy.

I took these pictures every month with Katie in this same chair with the chenille bear too. Katie saw me taking Hannah's pictures and wanted to be in the picture too. I'm going to let her sit in on these pictures every month too and watch how Hannah grows with Katie.

So what is Hannah doing at 3 months old? She makes lots of different faces. She loves making this little "o" with her mouth. Katie did this a lot too. She smiles all the time. Especially when we talk to her.

We've been trying since Hannah was born to get her to take a pacifier and she just hasn't wanted to have anything to do with them until about 1-2 weeks ago. She still doesn't take it often, but likes it sometimes and will keep it in her mouth when she wants to. She likes to chew on it more than suck on it. I keep feeling her gums for teeth, but don't feel anything yet. Katie was 11 months old before she got her 1st tooth so we may have a while.

She still likes to lay on her little play mat, but likes to sit up more now (not by herself yet of coarse.) She knows to hit the toys that are hanging down to make sounds and is really good at hitting them. And she loves to look at herself in mirrors.

She LOVES you to hold her so she can stand up. She's been doing this for a while and still loves it. We get lots of smiles and cute expressions when we let her stand like this.

Katie loves playing with Hannah now. I'm starting to see what they'll be like as they get older and can really play together. I can't wait for those days. Now that Hannah is awake so much more, recognizes our voices, has favorite toys, and watches us all the time, Katie really likes to show Hannah how to play with her toys, rattles, etc.

Funny thing with Katie... Andy has a thing about smells and Katie does too. When Katie was just over a year old, Aunt Mary made her a taggie for Christmas with felt strips on the corners. Katie loved the felt "taggies" best and likes to smell them. She used to sit almost the whole 6 hour trip to mine or Andy's parents' house just smelling those felt strips on her taggie. Yesterday when she was playing with Hannah, I noticed Katie smelling Hannah's hair then kissing Hannah on the head. Then she smelled Hannah's arm, then kissed her arm. LOL I don't know what the fascination is with smells, but it was sweet to see her do that to Hannah.

This was the sweetest moment with Katie and Hannah. Katie was really looking at Hannah and how tiny she is. She kept thinking Hannah was going to cry. LOL She loves her sister so much and is really good with her.

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We were really bad about "tummy time" with Katie and same goes for Hannah too. She's so happy on her back, sitting in her bumbo seat, swinging, laying in her bouncer, and now playing in her exersaucer so when we're not holding her she's in one of those places and we just forget about tummy time. She definitely likes tummy time better than Katie ever did though.

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Yesterday Hannah rolled over from her tummy to her back for the 1st time! She only did it once and I didn't have the camera but as long as we actually give her tummy time, I bet it won't be long at all until she's rolling over all the time.

I love cuddling with her and she's been letting me hold her and cuddle with her a lot more lately. She also has fallen asleep in my arms a lot more often lately.

Another 1st for Hannah yesterday (yesterday was a big day in the Knapp house), I put her in her exersaucer for the 1st time and she loves it. I have to roll up 2 blankets and put them around her to hold her up. She holds her head great but holding her whole body up is a different story.

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There's something about that blue horse that she really likes. She smiles at it a lot. And the likes to grab that little blue ring at the bottom on this picture. She grabs onto it so tight.

Apparently Hannah likes cartoons. Katie was watching cartoons while I put Hannah in her exersaucer yesterday and after playing a little bit, Hannah noticed the tv and stared at it watching whatever was on at the time.

Still watching those cartoons.

I love, love, love the baby stage and watching Hannah grow up and do new things almost every day. It's so exciting to watch her grow and learn. She's such a good baby and a sweetheart. I love her so so much!

More Katie

2011-07-09T22:04:00.000-05:00

I forgot to put these videos in my last post. Just more of Katie being Katie...

Katie doing ballet

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Katie playing in her tent with Daddy. She had just said, "you're the best daddy in the universe" or something cute like that. We couldn't get her to say it again though.

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What's Up With Katie?

2011-07-09T13:19:00.000-05:00

I love my little Katie bug so much! Before she was born I was never a huge "baby" person. Yeah, I thought babies were precious and liked holding my nieces and nephews, but I was never the type that would work in the church nursery or rush to hold anybody's baby. That all changed with Katie. After having her, I LOVED the baby stage... holding and cuddling with her, I was so excited about every little new thing she did like when she first started looking at us, recognizing our voices, cooing, etc. I remember saying "This baby stage is my favorite. I wish she would just stay like this forever." Then she grew up and started sitting up, then crawling, walking, talking and every time she grew up a little and started new things, I would say, "Well, now I think this is my favorite age." She's almost 3 years old now (wow, where did the time go) and I still haven't stopped saying that. Yes, she's 2 and is really good at whining (she gets that from her mommy) and throwing fits, but she is learning so much every day and I just love it. I've always said that's what I like best about teaching kindergarten... It's so exciting to see the tremendous growth they go through in that 1 year. Well now I'm seeing that in my sweet little girl. She says the cutest, most random things and makes us laugh every single day! I've started a collection of funny things she's said and done over the last few months and here they are...

She loves putting on her "ballet skirt" (tutu) and "doing ballet". And she likes watching "mommy's dance show" (So You Think You Can Dance). I've actually gotten Andy to watch a few episodes with me because Katie will beg us to watch mommy's dance show. I'm planning to put her in a dance class this school year since she'll be 3 and that's when most studios start classes. I can't wait to see her all dressed up in her little dance wear and learning how to dance.

She's had some pretty good falls that have scared me a little bit, but at Memaw and Papaw's house a couple of weeks ago she got her 1st huge goose egg. She was sitting on the couch with Lindsay (totally calm and not even playing around) when the phone rang. Lindsay got up to answer the phone and before she even made it to the phone, Katie had climbed on the back of the couch and fell head first on the wood floors then flipped on her back. I rushed over to check on her and she already had a golf ball size knot on her forehead. This picture was after 30 minutes of ice! Poor baby I'm sure she had a huge headache but she did really good. She asked for ice to put on her head and let me hold it on and off of her knot while she watched Dora. I think she had a bruise on her head for over a week!

Before Hannah was born, we talked about her a lot with Katie and since we induced we were able to count down the days with Katie until her baby sister came to meet her. One night when I was putting Katie to bed, she randomly said, "Guess what Mama!" "What?" "Hannah's going to see me!" She was so excited to meet her baby sister and has loved every minute of having her here.

She loves buckling things... Hannah's car set or bouncer, Katie's car seat, the straps in her booster seat. She can't unfasten most of them yet and I'm thankful for that. She can unfasten 1 part of her carseat and tried to undo it in the car once. Only once. Andy and I got on to her pretty quick and told her NOT to touch her carseat buckles while we're driving. Just from raising our voices at her she was pretty scared and I hate to say it, but I'm glad we scared her because she hasn't tried to unbuckle herself while driving again.

Katie likes to play with Hannah's stuff now. Hannah has a little wrist rattle that Katie likes to put on. At storytime yesterday Katie crawled into Hannah's carseat. We recently pulled down Hannah's Bumbo seat and Katie likes to sit in that too.

Katie is such a night owl. She doesn't nap a whole lot and stays up very late at night. She gets that from her daddy. She's never been a big napper at school. That all started in her 12-18 month class at school when they got rid of the cribs and started napping on nap mats. Her teachers told us she would go around to all the other kids in the room, stand over them, and say "baby, baby, baby" until they woke up then she would move on to the next one. In her 2 year old room this year, we got notes about 2-3 times a week saying she did not nap. Often times NO NAP was written in all capital letters, underlined, and with several exclamation marks. There were days she was kicking the wall, going around and trying to wake up her friends, etc. I have to say in her defense, they nap VERY early in the morning. 11:30! She doesn't wake up until at least 8:00 most days and goes to bed around 8:00. So 11:30 isn't anywhere close to the middle of the day for her. But she doesn't nap much at home either. We usually put her down for nap around 1:00 or 2:00. We hear her playing in bed... singing and talking to herself, making silly noises, looking at books, and playing with her stuffed animals. When we finally go to get her up 2 hours later or so, she will finally be asleep.

She does the same thing at night. We always go in to cover her up before we go to bed because she doesn't stay tucked in after we put her to bed at 8:00. Last night when Andy went to tuck her back in around 11:30, she was still awake! If I try to put her in bed with me while Andy's out of town, she DOES NOT sleep. I've had her in bed with me as late at 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning before I finally give up and put her back in her own bed. Andy and I wonder how late she would really stay up if we just let her stay up with us all night.

She has no problem going to her bed for nap or night night most of the time though and stays in bed the whole time. She likes being in her bed and will entertain herself literally for hours in there. I've even started telling her that when she wakes up from nap or in the morning, she can get out of bed and play. She doesn't have to wait for me or Andy to come get her. She's so content and quiet when she gets up in the morning, I can't use her as my "alarm clock" anymore because even with a baby monitor in her room, I don't hear her and know when she wakes up. Even after me telling her she can get up on her own, she still waits for us and stays in bed until we come get her.

Katie watches sports with Andy and has heard Andy say "There's no crying in baseball." So one night when Hannah started crying, Katie told her, "Don't cry in baseball!"

Andy was talking on the phone during the NBA playoffs and said that the Mavs were playing on ABC that night. Katie heard "ABC" and started singing her alphabet. She's listening even when we don't think she is.

She was playing the other day, coloring, and just out of nowhere she said, "Bluetooth ready!" That's what our car says when we press the bluetooth button to make a phone call... Listening even when we don't think she is.

She listens to us when we're on the phone now and likes to play with her toy phones. She will walk around the house holding the phone on her shoulder and just talks away... "OK. I'm coming over soon. Yes. I'll be there in a little bit. Ok. Bye." When we ask who she's talking to she usually says, "grandma."

Katie loves playing with games on my phone (the iphone has a ton of great apps for kids). I don't mind this because she learned all her colors and shapes pretty quick from playing games on my phone. She even knows what a hexagon is! She's learning patterns, numbers, letters, letter sounds... It's great. She also likes doing her puzzles. The teacher in me can't just let her put a number or alphabet puzzle together on her own. I lay out 3-4 letters at a time and tell her which one to put on her puzzle. about 90% of the time she can pick out the right letter and knows her letters to 10 pretty consistently. We're working on her naming the letters in her name without help. She still needs help doing that, but she's getting there.

We were telling her what some of the letters "are for" one night while she was doing her puzzle... "C is for cat, A is for apple, etc" Andy told her "J is for Jack-a-moe!" Now Katie will tell you "J is for Jack-a-moe!" all the time.

Wearing her In N Out Burger hat she walks around saying "Ahoy Captain Hook!" (She's never seen Peter Pan.)

Several months ago I made muffins for breakfast. When Andy was getting her ready for school and gave her a muffin she got really excited and said, "Cake? I get birthday cake for breakfast?" Andy went with it and said, "Sure." She replied with, "Thank you Daddy" and proceeded to sing "Happy Birthday to Daddy."

She still loves Dora and Diego. She would watch them all day if we let her. And she loves Veggie Tales too. She goes upstairs and plays in her room by herself now sometimes. She was very quiet one day up there so I went to check on her and she was just sitting in her chair listening to her Veggie Tales music. Not playing or anything. Just listening to her music.

We read her Bibles often for bedtime stories, say our bedtime prayers and sometimes say prayers to talk to God throughout the day, etc. Katie got her 1st skinned knee last weekend and told me, "It broke. I can't fix it." Then she told me "Jesus will make it all better." When we said our night time prayers that night, we asked God to help her booboo get better. It's still scabbed over, healing and she tells me every day, "I have a booboo. Jesus made it feel all better." So sweet. I love my little girl!

She always notices sounds and asks, "What's that Mama?" We were playing outside one day when we saw a couple of planes in the sky. After the 1st one flew over our house then out in the distance so we couldn't see it anymore, Katie started saying, "Come on plane! You're in the sky!" She wanted the plane to come back. A minute or 2 later, a smaller plane flew over our house. She told us it was the "baby plane going to the mommy plane."

Katie loves being a big sister and helping Hannah all the time. She finds Hannah's paci, stuffed animals, and blankets and likes to bring them to her. She usually just calls her Hannah, but if you ask her to introduce her baby sister to someone, she introduces her as Hannah Banana. We didn't teach her that. She just started saying that one day before we had Hannah. I guess she heard her teachers say that at school maybe? She has a Hannah in her class at school.

When Hannah was about a month old and going through her several weeks of a very fussy stage, crying a lot, we were all in the car together. Katie was singing when Hannah started crying. Katie then started singing "Hannah stop crying. Hannah stop crying." to the tune of "Where is Thumbkin."

The list could go on even longer. Like I said, she makes us laugh every single day with the cute random things she says and does. I thank God every day for my 2 sweet girls and can't imagine life without them. They are such blessings!

Happy 4th of July!

2011-07-08T21:05:00.000-05:00

We had a great 4th of July this year. We actually celebrated a couple of days early beginning with Katie's 1st movie at the BIG movie theatre! We went to see Cars 2. She got her own popcorn and a Sprite!!! She did really good and she had so much fun. It was almost sold out so she had to sit in mine and Andy's lap. She turned to me several times and said, "I'm so happy!" The movie was cute but didn't hold her attention as well as a Toy Story or something else would've so I took hour out in the hall about half way through the movie to let her run around and get her wiggles out.

After the movie, we stopped by our house to pick up Aunt Mindy then we went to our 4th of July festival for our town. It was way too hot to be out there so we just picked the 3 things that we knew she would like and then came on home to get out of the heat.

After the festival all of my family in town came over for some yummy jambalaya and beer bread. I love when they family is all together. I just wish Danny and Mary and their kids lived here so we could see them more.

Katie and Beck play so good together.

Future mommy of TWINS! Practicing for her babies in January!

So sweet!

When playing at a house with only girls, the boys will still find ways to have fun with the girl toys. Check out those pretty pink shoes. LOL

This one's a little blurry but I love it anyway.

I think this may be the best family picture we have with all 4 of us.

Mommy's Little Helpers

2011-07-08T01:35:00.000-05:00

Next year I get to teach kindergarten again! I'm so excited. I've enjoyed teaching 1st grade for the last 6 years but have really missed kindergarten. Switching grades also means switching classrooms. Katie and Hannah went up to school with me while I worked in my new classroom and they did great.

I brought a Dora DVD for Katie and she was happy watching that on my computer.

And Hannah played with her playmat the whole time.

The air isn't on for the summer so I don't think I'll bring them back up with me again, but I was so thankful that they were so good for me that day so I could get some work done.

Knapp Visit

2011-07-08T01:29:00.000-05:00

Busy, busy week. When we got back from Memaw and Papaw's house, Mimi, Pop, and Aunt Becky were at our house visiting for the weekend. It was a really quick visit but we were able to fit in lots of fun things.

Bass Pro Shop

Rainforest Cafe

Hannah really liked watching the fish.

Katie liked playing in Sandy's dog kennel. Silly girl!

Andy has started teaching Katie some "cheerleader" moves. He usually does this with her in our living room. I'm much more at ease with them doing this in the pool. Ha!

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Katie's getting more and more comfortable "swimming" without holding on to us every time she swims.

Snow Cones!!! Yum!!!

Mimi and Pop with Hannah

Aunt Becky and Hannah

Couldn't get Hannah to look the right way, but cute family picture anyway.

Swim Time!

2011-07-08T00:44:00.000-05:00

And with the end of the rain, we were finally able to go swimming!

Go, Lily, Go!

Safari Zoo

2011-07-08T00:32:00.000-05:00

On our last day at Memaw and Papaw's house, it finally stopped raining and we were able to go to the new safari zoo in town. It's been open for a year and I've been wanting to go ever since it opened. I have to say the website makes it look much better than it is, but we still had fun.

We were the only people there which was kind of nice. They had a little bus that they drove us around in to see all of the animals.

Katie was scared of them at first but warmed up a little the longer we were there.

Memaw bought some food for us to feed them, but none of us really enjoyed these big smelly animals sticking their mouths right up by our faces. Katie had the right idea and just poured the food out on the ground for them. LOL

The ostriches were my favorite. They would run alongside the bus as we drove on to the next spot to see more animals.

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Besides the bus ride, there really wasn't much else.

We were in and out in about an hour, but it was really neat to see some cool animals and a great experience with Katie.

Cousins!

2011-07-05T21:32:00.000-05:00

We had tons of fun with Tess and Lily too. They are such sweet girls.

Hannah, Tess, Lily

Lily reading to Tess and Katie

Lily and Katie had fun playing together.

Lily put on a cooking show for us all and Katie "helped". Later in the video Katie started "doing ballet". She loves dancing and always calls it ballet.

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I love this picture of Lily and Katie. Katie looks so grown up to me in this picture.

"The girls" with their crazy hairdos courtesy of Tess.

Katie and Lily enjoyed playing "dress up" too.

Aunt Jana and Lindsay came in town on our last day there. All the girls had fun playing on their phones and iTouches.

Memaw and Papaw's House

2011-07-05T20:07:00.001-05:00

After our fun Indoor Safari playdate we hit the road to Memaw and Papaw's house for a week. Katie was super excited to see her grandparents, aunt and uncle, and cousins. And Hannah got to meet Uncle Danny, Aunt Mary, and cousins Tess and Lily. We missed more of our family who were out of town that week. That just means we'll have more family for Hannah to meet next time we go there!

It rained most of the week while we were there so we got to stay in to rest and play a lot.

Cuddle time with Memaw

Aunt Mary

Uncle Danny

We love ice cream and popsicles at Memaw and Papaw's house!

We also got to go see my friend, Robin and her sister and kids...

Sydney, Katie, and Langdon

Indoor Safari Playground

2011-07-05T19:52:00.000-05:00

I'm sure I've said it before, but I LOVE our playgroup. We have such fun playdates. This one was at an indoor playground with a safari theme. Very cute! Complete with...

several ball pits...

a balance beam...

a trampoline...

friends (Katie and Bliss)...

mechanical animal rides...

and a train ride! (Katie, Levi, and Logan)

This was Katie's favorite. She rode the train several times.

Hannah came along too and slept the whole time.

Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-19T22:13:00.001-05:00

I am so thankful for my amazing father. He's taught me so much and has always been such a Godly role model in my life. And our family has been truely blessed by such a great husband and father that Andy is. He loves his little girls and they love him so much. I'm so thankful to have a husband to gives his all to his children and makes quality time with his family a priority.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Today was Hannah's 1st day in the church nursery and she did great. Katie is telling Hannah, "It's OK Hannah" because she was starting to get fussy.

Katie was smiling great for the camera, but Hannah wasn't in the mood for pictures.

A little play time for Hannah...

We had a nice relaxing day with church, Outback, and lots of resting and play time. I love my family and thank God for them every day. Life is good!

Soccer Ball!

2011-06-19T22:01:00.000-05:00

We got to go watch Andy's soccer game this weekend. Katie loves soccer (or soccer ball as she calls it). Andy brought her up there early so she could run around on the field and play with the soccer ball with him. She was having so much fun when Hannah and I got there.

Storytime

2011-06-17T14:26:00.000-05:00

Another one of my favorite things about summer is taking the girls to our public library's toddler storytime. Katie loves books and of coarse loved storytime every week last summer. This morning Hannah came with us and I think she liked it as much as Katie.

The doctor asked me yesterday if Hannah follows us across the room with her eyes. I told him I wasn't sure because I just haven't paid attention to that yet. I've noticed that she will follow my phone lit up or her seahorse that lights up when she's in the dark and I move them around in front of her to look at. I also know that she turns her head to look at me, Andy, or Katie when we're next to her and talk to her. But I hadn't tried moving around in front of her and watching to see if she will turn her head to keep looking at me. Well, I now know that she can definietly follow us with her eyes. Storytime today was lots of singing and Hannah stared at the girl leading the storytime and teaching us the songs. Hannah would turn her head and watch so intently as she walked back and forth across the front of the room. I think she's going to like storytime just as much as Katie!

After storytime, we treated ourselves to some Chick Fil A lunch (Katie's favorite) then the girls played together for a little bit before Katie's nap. Katie is so sweet to her sister. She loves to help Hannah with her toys.

Giving Hannah her seashorse and showing her how it works.

Father's Day Craft Playdate

2011-06-16T19:37:00.000-05:00

With summer, comes more time for us to go to playdates with our playgroup. We love our playgroup and really miss them during the school year.

Today Hannah went to her 1st playdate with us. It was a Father's Day Craft playdate where the kids decorated mugs for their daddys for Father's Day. Katie picked out some camo paper to decorate Andy's with because she knows he loves camo! She's so proud of that mug. So cute!

And of coarse we spent some time playing in the backyard too.

Hudson and Hannah... 2 weeks age difference.

Cuddling with my Hannah Banana after a very long day. Judging by the hand over her face, I think Hannah would agree too that it's been a very long day. Ha!

Hannah's 2 Month Check Up

2011-06-16T19:22:00.000-05:00

Hannah Grace had her 2 month check up today and she's doing great! She weighs 11 lbs 6 oz now (75th percentile), is 22.8 inches tall (75th percentile), and her head is 15 inches around (50th percentile).

She's starting to smile sometimes and coo and make noises.

She still likes to sleep with her left arm straight up in the air. She will sleep like this for at least 30 minutes at a time when she's in her swing or bouncer before she finally puts it down.

She's awake a lot and likes to look around at this big, new world around her.

Katie loves her baby sister. Our beautiful redheads! I never thought I would have a redheaded kid, and now I've got 2 and I love it!

Poor baby got 3 shots and 1 oral vaccination today. Of coarse she didn't like any of it. She screamed and cried when she got those shots but calmed down and fell asleep really quick as soon as I picked her up. She did great for about 3-4 hours after her shots but started feeling bad after that. No fever, but I think she was sore and feeling pretty crummy. She cried and cried, but was very cuddly for me and slept in my arms for a really long time. I LOVE holding my cuddly little girl!

She loves tummy time and playing on her playmat. Anything with lights and sounds keeps her entertained for a while.

I can't believe she's already 2 months old. She's such a sweet baby. I love her so much. She's been a great night time sleeper. She's slept two or three 3-4 1/2 hour stretches at night since she was born but in the last 2 weeks, she's been sleeping for a 6-7 hour stretch and then another 4-4 1/2 hour stretch most nights. Last night she slept for 8 hours! Good girl. She loves to be swaddled (with her arms out, just like her big sister did) and sleeps great in her bassinet at night. She's still sleeping in her bassinet in our bedroom. When she consistently sleeps about 9+ hours then we'll put her in her crib. But for now, I'm happy with her in our room with me and Andy.

Snuggle Bug

2011-06-11T19:29:00.000-05:00

Andy and I always go in and tuck Katie in on our way up to bed because usually by the time we go to bed she's already kicked her covers off. Last night when we went in to check on her she had pulled all of her stuffed animals from her bed up around her face. So cute!

Sisterly Love

2011-06-11T19:24:00.000-05:00

As I was putting Katie down for a nap and had Hannah laying next to her, I just had to get a picture of them togehter. I love it. I think this one is going to be in a frame soon!

I had to include this one too. I love Hannah's tongue sticking out in this one.

Summer is Here!

2011-06-11T18:53:00.000-05:00

Summer is here and that means we get to swim and let Katie play in her blow up pool. She's way to big for her little blow up pool this summer but she loves it anyway.

Outside Fun

2011-06-11T18:44:00.000-05:00

I love summertime and having the time to sit outside and play with the girls. Katie loves playing outside and Hannah is happy hanging out in the shade in her bouncer.

Little Miss Independent

I really enjoy when Katie colors, paints, or plays with her stickers at our kitchen table while I cook.

Sweet Hannah

2011-06-11T17:47:00.000-05:00

I love my little Hannah girl. She's awake a lot now and loves to play on her play mat. She sometimes swings her arms at the toys hanging from it and likes to look at herself in the mirror on it.

She started sleeping 6-8 hours most nights when I went back to work for the last week of school. That was right at 6 weeks. Not too bad. (Although Katie was doing that within the 1st 2 weeks and sleeping 9 hours or longer at 4 months.) Hopefully Hannah will make that extra 2-3 hours a night soon. It's nice to get a long stretch of sleep. She doesn't sleep like that every night, but at least every other night or a little more often than that. She loves to be swaddled and just looks so sweet all bundled up sleeping so peacefully.

Playing on her playmat again. Katie likes her playmat I think almost as much as Hannah does. She turns the music on for Hannah and plays with the stuff hanging too. :)

I love this little dress with that pretty red hair. She was so sleepy when I took this. Bless her little heart for letting me take a few pictures before laying her down to sleep.

Silly girl... Hannah loves to sleep in her bouncer or swing. We've noticed in the last week several times when she's fallen asleep with her hands straight up in the air and she will sleep like that for at least 30 minutes. And it's almost always her left hand sticking up like that. LOL

We're getting lots more coos and cute little baby sounds out of her these days. My how I've missed these baby days with Katie. I love, love, love this baby stage and it goes by so quickly!

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Then they grow up to be precious little toddlers that make us laugh every day. I can't wait until Hannah's old enough for her and Katie to play together.

Memaw and Papaw

2011-06-11T14:19:00.000-05:00

We love when Memaw and Papaw visit us!

Memaw got Katie a new interactive book and teddy bear to go with it. Katie loves for you to read books to her. She's always been this way. She would choose to look at books over playing with toys any day! I love that girl.

Memaw loves her grandbabies!

Papaw was sick when Hannah was born and not able to hold her last time they were in town. I love this picture of them.

When I put Katie to bed, we read her new Cooper book. It's so cute. The teddy bear is from the story and he talks to you while you read his book. Katie loves her Cooper bear (she calls him "Scooper") and book.

Memaw this is for you...

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Daddy Time

2011-06-10T23:09:00.000-05:00

Katie had fun helping Daddy work in the yard last weekend.

Hannah loves to try to stand.

When Katie was a baby, Daisy used to follow her around everywhere and just sit and stare at her all day long. I don't remember when she stopped "stalking" Katie. I guess it was when she started walking and chasing Daisy around. Now Daisy has turned her attention to Hannah. Just like with Katie, Daisy is always wherever Hannah is. She's such a good dog. So protective.

Andy taught Katie to talk in a really high voice and a really low voice. It's so cute...

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Beautiful Girl

2011-05-26T01:46:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago we met one of my best friends, Leandra and her family for lunch at Magic Time Machine. Katie had her picture drawn there and I thought it turned out really cute so it's now framed in her bedroom. Ya gotta love that beautirul auburn, red hair!