Merry Christmas!!

We had a nice Christmas morning. Of course after staying up late buying batteries at the gas station late Christmas Eve, we were up before 6 a.m. (Why, you ask, on the one day that I can sleep in am I awake before the sun?? A good question!! And no good answer!!) Kaitlyn, on the other hand, was smart enough to take advantage of the looming laid back day and woke up at 9 a.m. She did, however, quickly determine the day was slightly different when she immediately noticed all the new toys to play with in the front room by the tree. What was even more out of the ordinary, she knew things were different when she was encouraged to go into the front room near the tree that had been off limits for almost a month!!

Kaitlyn's favorite gifts were her new piano and baby doll with stroller. She loves to sit down like her idol Schroeder (Peanuts) and pound out some Beethoven or Bach (often giving herself a standing ovation as Mommy and Daddy shout out "Encore!!"), then sit down and feed a bottle of milk to her baby's eye. She is a good Mommy and pushes her new baby doll all over the house so she doesn't miss out on anything. Hopefully she'll make just as good a big sister someday.

Kaitlyn and Mommy got new Christmas jammies and special matching slippers to keep their toes warm. Daddy prefers his cold scratchy feet to stand out in the jungle so he passed.

It was a nice day and we enjoyed being together as a family. Some of our friends are still overseas so we definitely thought of them and their families and hope it was a nice day for all. We enjoyed using the webcam to visit with grandpas and grandmas later in the day and even snuck in a nap during the afternoon. We enjoyed our traditional Christmas breakfast (from the Oldham side) of orange juice, hashbrowns, link sausage, eggs, & toast and had ham later in the day. I baked cherry rolls in the evening and oh they were heavenly!!

Kaitlyn meets Santa!!

We took Kaitlyn to meet Santa today. We had heard that Santa visiting the North Star Mall in San Antonio was really good. So we didn't see Pajama Santa at South Towne in Sandy when the line was very short over the weekend. Of course we didn't get out the door as early as we had hoped and by the time we got to the mall it was noon. After standing in line for an hour, they cut the line off one person in front of us so Santa could go feed his reindeer. After debating what to do for a few minutes, we opted to wait another hour while Dasher and Dancer and Rudolph and gang got their gingerbread treats. Kaitlyn did amazingly well through this very long wait. She even didn't seem to mind sitting on Santa's lap -- initially. However, by the time they were ready to take the picture, she had had enough of this jolly old elf. Luckily Mom saved the day and got in the picture too!! Thankfully Kaitlyn didn't ask Santa for an ice cream maker two days before Christmas -- it's just not an easy thing for Santa's elves to put together in the middle of the winter. But Santa did come through at the last minute somehow for Kaitlyn's cousin Aaron -- way to go Santa!! :))

The Center of our Life

If for some reason after reading our blog you weren't absolutely sure what the center of our lives is . . . we'll just have to come out and say it with all these cute pics -- enjoy!!

Kaitlyn is doing so many new things. She has become quite the gymnast . . she will arch her back leaning her head backwards until gravity does its thing and she falls on her head. She also has decided that though she still doesn't like to cuddle, hugs are pretty cool. This was great because she started doing this just before we traveled to Idaho & Utah the week before Christmas so all of our friends and family were the recipients of her great hugs!!

She has also become an amazing dancer. She has gone from dancing to the music on TV commercials to hopping around the kitchen to the Christmas music on our iPOD. We took the young men and young women in our ward to a rest home to go caroling and, of course, Kaitlyn came too. One sweet lady asked the youth to sing her favorite carol Silent Night. While they were singing, Kailtyn decided she wasn't getting enough attention so she began break dancing right there on the floor to the tune of Silent Night (yeah, we were kind of suprised to see our little girl do the worm too!!). It's hard to tell what kind of dancer she'll be because in addition to the break dancing, she is practicing her ballet by walking around the house on her tip toes all the time. Who knew she was so talented and versatile?!?

She has also starting climbing everything in the house. This, of course, is Nell's favorite thing!! A few nights ago I caught her trying to climb over the gate we have to keep her away from the top of the stairs. Later that same night we started the water to fill the bath tub and then went into her room to get everything ready for bed after her bath. While I was getting out her jammies, Kaitlyn disappeared. I found her back in the bathroom trying to climb into the tub with all her clothes on. We find her trying to scale the back of her high chair and also caught her trying to get her leg up over the rail of her crib one afternoon after her nap. Though she's still too short, the mattress too low, and the rail too high, I can't believe that her mind is processing that all she needs to do to get out is put her leg over . . . hmmm!!

In tribute to her cousin Aaron, Kaitlyn has started running around the house with her arms stretched back behind her like Superman. She is so fast with her superhero speed, we can hardly keep up. :))

She also has become a much more finicky eater -- though, as you can see, she doesn't seem to have any trouble eating all of her chocolate cake!! I think we all wish vegatables and healthy things tasted more like chocolate cake!! Thankfully Kaitlyn does enjoy having her teeth brushed -- that is if she is not actively teething of course.

We are so grateful for our little PK (Grandpa O calls her PK, short for Princess Kaitlyn). She keeps us hopping for sure, but the smiles she brings keep us going everyday.