Merry Christmas

Kabree was very excited to see Santa came

Look what Santa brought Kabree

She went right for the books

Can you tell she loves to read : )!

We had to take away the books so she would

open her presents from Daddy and Mommy

Look another book

Kabree loved Grandma Sally's singing snowmen

Kabree was very excited about her glow worm

from Grandpa Vance & Grandma JoAnn

We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! We loved having Kabree this year and enjoying our first Christmas as a family. Kabree wasn't sure what to think about it but she still had fun. She liked the tags better then the actual presents. We stayed at our house this year and had Christmas breakfast as our little family. We planned on just staying home but after I talked to my Grandpa Elmer on the phone about 1 p.m. I decided we needed to head out. So we headed out to see both sets of parents and my Grandpa Elmer. Kabree loves being around family and I think they were all pretty happy to see her too.

Cookie Party!

The only picture we got of the cookies

Libby, JoAnn and Grandma Evelyn

Oh, look at the happy couple!

Kabree loved having Caleb and Sandra come stay

We told the kids to act excited about the lights,

so we showed them what acting excited looks like!

We had our annual Cookie Party on the 23rd and as always we enjoyed having everyone come to our home for a little party. I decided to do Potato Bacon soup this year, as per Zach's request and well, I love the soup but let's just say that was a 1 time deal making it for that many people. Peeling and cutting that many potatoes was a little more time consuming then I had anticipated. However, Chase did make it feel worth my time when he kept going back for more and there was none left so hopefully that was a good sign.

I had to laugh because as Grandma was eating the Raspberry Shortbread cookies she says "I love these cookies I have to get this recipe" (They are her recipe, I guess she hasn't made them in a while : ) I told her Grandma you made like 8 dozen of them for my first wedding, and she started laughing "I did, I don't remember that, I guess I was better then I thought"

Kabree loved having so much company. She did get sick that night, I think all the excitement and all the batting of the eye lashes landed her lots of "little" bits of cookies, which adds up to lots of cookie for a baby. She loves having family over though, she just grins and squeals.

I just want to say thank you to Heather for helping me cook all the bacon (I hate cooking bacon, the smell kills me, I like to eat it though :), bringing me lunch the two days I cooked all day and watching little Miss Kabree. Thank you to Mom for making those yummy bread sticks. Thank you Libby for keeping Kabree entertained while I made 4 double batches of cookies. Thank you to Jessica for telling me how much her kids were looking forward to it and how much fun they have every year (I thought about cancelling a couple times but Jessica telling me that I knew I couldn't disappoint little Mo:) And a HUGE Thank You to our families for coming to our party every year!

8 Months

I had to show one that showed her pretty eyes!

Kabree hit 8 Months this week and is growing like a little weed. Some days I think she looks so tiny and others I swear she is a mini giant. I got to pull out all the 6 month clothes and even some of the 6-9 month ones this week. Kabree is a very active little girl and I think that's why she stays so skinny. She is crawling like a mad man and trying to walk all the time. Even when she is just sitting she is either bouncing up and down or rubbing her feet together. She is loving all the new foods she tries and gets very upset if her Daddy and Mommy aren't sharing from their plates. She still gets jealous of other kids getting certain peoples attention. She gets jealous of Hanna when Zach plays with her but not when I do. She gets jealous of Justice when I love on him but not when Zach does. Kabree is VERY full of personality to say the least and sometimes people are shocked when they see it coming out. It makes me laugh to see other people watch her with big eyes, I think people think I'm exaggerating when I say she is very BUSY and like I said FULL of Personality. We love her so much and wouldn't change a thing about her!

Our VERY Busy Kabree!

Well Kabree started crawling last Saturday and I'm not going to lie, I love it. I think she's stinking cute doing it and I love watching everything new she does. However, within a reasonable time frame. I feel crawling at 7 1/2 months is appropriate. However, trying to escape the crib and walking 1 week later, not OK. Friday morning after I put Kabree down for her morning nap, usually lasting 2 hours, I jumped in the shower. Well at the end of my shower I hear an odd sound on the moniter and hurry and get out wrap a towel around me and peek in her room to find an awake Kabree hanging with the top 1/3 of her body leaning over the side of the crib. I of coarse run in and grab her just to see her smiling and laughing. By the way we had just lowered her crib last week, thank goodness or she really would have been out and over. We figure she used the bumpers to help get her up.

It's still pretty high for her to climb

A little later I set her in the middle of the living room and walk in the kitchen turn around and she has pulled her self up and is holding on to the piano bench walking. I think "that's pretty cute, crazy but cute". She then let's go of the bench and tries taking a step alone, I now think "what the crap are you freaking kidding me??" She falls of coarse but rolls over and grabs the box next to her, discovers it has tape on it and proceedes to stand, yanking on the tape until it of coarse gives way causing Kabree to fling backward, smack her head on the kitchen floor and scratch her face on the way down.

So I decide we are going shopping with Grandma and getting out of this house or apparently death trap for Kabree. I leave Kabree in the living room run out start the car come back inside the door to turn to my right and see my baby sticking her head through the railing (that by the way we thought would be impossible for her to fit through). Let me also mention that Kabree had to squeeze between the two couches and under the end table to get to the railing.

I guess at the end of a day like that, as my Dad ALWAYS says "I'm just so glad she is so healthy and so smart!" But then I worry cause my Mom tells me Heather was doing about the same thing at this age and she is the one who climbed out of her crib, crawled to the kitchen and climbed the drawers and cubards to get to the top of the fridge to get a graham cracker at 9 months! I'm thinking we have many adventures ahead of us with this little Miss.

Christmas Time

We finally got our Christmas tree up last week. I've been wanting to do it since the day after Thanksgiving which is when I put it up every year but this year has just been so busy. Kabree loves the decorations, we put her in her exer-saucer while we put up the Christmas village and she screamed the whole time. The second we got her out she started smiling and laughing and reaching for EVERYTHING! Which holy cow I thought my house was baby proof until Kabs started crawling. She went from army crawl to 100 mph on her hands and knees. She loves her mobility and for the most part I love it too : )! I must admit Christmas decorations and a crawling, curious baby keep me busy pretty much all day!

Keri (our birthmom) gave this dress to Kabree and I think she looks pretty stinking cute in it. She didn't know what she thought of the hat at first but once the Christmas ornaments caught her eye she completely forgot about the hat.

7 Months

Kabree is now 7 months old and is changing so much. She army crawls all over the place and can sit up all by herself. She is loving trying all the new foods and her new found mobility. She is still our very active, very full of personality little girl. She loves squealing and growling and of coarse rubbing her feet together really fast. She makes us laugh every day and we love it! She makes us so happy and keeps us smiling all the time.

Did You Know?

Grandpa Elmer

Grandpa Elmer holding Kabree & Justice

Hanna enjoying the cookies Grandpa brought her

Grandpa Elmer came to visit this week. My Grandpa loves babies and was very excited to come and love on them for a few hours and they were just as excited to see him. Grandpa forgot his cookies at home so he had my aunt Laurie stop by the store on the way so he would have cookies for Hanna. Kabree got so excited when Grandpa came, when he came to the top of the stairs she started kicking her feet and squealing. She was a little stink once Justice got here and she had to share her Grandpa Elmer, we are hoping that she grows out of this little jealousy thing. But aunt Heather played with her while Grandpa played with Justice so she was fine then.

We were so glad Grandpa Elmer came to visit, we love him so much. After Grandpa left Heather and I reminisced about all of our memories we have with our Grandpa. First of all as kids I think we went over to Grandpa and Grandma's at least twice a day. During the summer our Grandpa use to take us fishing and water skiing all most every week. Plus our Grandpa use to let us take friends sometimes too. One time when I was a teenager Holly, Emma and I all went to Stone for a couple of days with Grandpa and he played chubby bunny with Emma. I've never seen something so funny in my life. They both had so many marshmallows shoved in their mouth I don't know how they didn't choke. Anyways, I love that story because my mom has always said since the first time she met my Grandpa she thought he was a big marshmallow, he acts all tough and rough on the out side but he's really a big marshmallow.

Halloween

A cute little Lady Bug

Kabree w/Grandma Sally

Kabree w/Grandpa Gary

Here she is loving the sound the wrapper makes

Skylar as Joe Dirt (he didn't have the mullet on yet)

Don't you just love his facial hair lol!

Since Kabree is so little to go trick-or-treating this year we went over to Zach's parents house to hang out. We had pizza and got to see all the cute trick-or-treaters. Kabree of coarse was happy as could be with her Grandpa and Grandma there to play with. Gary let her play with a bag of Skittles and Kabree thought that was the best thing ever, she loved staring at it and trying to suck on it. It made us very excited for next year!

Family Pictures

The closest we got to a smile

I love this one,

just a little perspective on how small she is

The fascination of polka dots

I love her blue eyes

This is my cute baby girl

Kabree telling us she's done

and she's done NOW

My friend Ad took our family pictures a couple weeks ago, we scheduled back in August and wouldn't you know my luck it was freezing cold for the first time the night we scheduled. This is also what happened back when my siblings and I did pics, oh well : ). So, it was pretty dang cold and Little Miss Kabree decided she was more interested in her polka dot sweater then smiling. It's a good thing Ad's my friend cause I was kind of embarrassed that Kabree wouldn't look or smile and then when we moved her from the box onto the chair that I so bad wanted a picture of her on, she screamed bloody murder. Needless to say our photo shoot wasn't exactly what I had imagined it would be (you know perfect with your baby, smiling for every picture and it running smoothly and exactly how I imagined in my head), which I guess was just another realization for me that when kids are done they are done and it's best to just stop. Ad was so patient and good about it. I was so amazed with Ad that she was able to get so many good ones considering I know what Kabree was acting like that night, thanks Ad once again for the great pictures, I love them!

Family Halloween Party

The Flintstones

Our little Pebbles

Seeing Double

I guess great minds think alike

Haylee, Darrel & Laurie

I love Laurie's hair and Darrel's boots

Jessica & Larin aka Peter Pan and Wendy

w/The Lost Boys, Tiger Lilly and the Fairies

Grandpa Elmer w/Justice the mouse

Jamie the vampire

Libby as Lady Gaga

Dad holding Justice & Mom

(These shouldn't count as costumes)

J.T. & Heather as KISS

We had my families Halloween party last weekend. As always it was a lot of fun and everyone had fun dressing up. I thought Zach and I were being so creative with our costumes and I guess my aunt Laurie thought the same, what can we say great minds think a like : )! Actually my aunt Laurie always goes all out on their costumes as you can tell, she even did the hair and check out her cool Wilma Flintstone jewelry she made out of marshmallows, I made mine out of styrofoam and it itched so bad I had to take it off. I do have to say thanks to my Mom and Wendy for helping me make my costumes, I'm so cheap which translates to a lot of work. Good thing my Mom is super crafty and creative. We went to DI and the dollar store looking things we could transform into costumes and Zach found these fur purses at the dollar store and he said "I have confidence in your Mom, she could make a costume out of these for Kabree." He was right I showed my Mom what I had and she told me exactly what I needed to do and I think it worked pretty good. I won't lie I didn't think the costume, sewing machine and I would all make it out alive but we did. Anyone who has ever done any sewing with fur knows what I mean.

Since Koopers baptism was earlier in the day Jessica had a lot of family visiting so they got to come too. I didn't post pics of them because I didn't get permission first. But Jessica has the funnest family and I must say Kabree LOVES her sister Saundra (we do too ; ).