Cate's First "jack-o-punkin"

This little two year old has a mind of her own. She didn't want to put her costume back on to go trick or treating, and we weren't going to fight the battle. So we stayed home this year instead of going trick or treating, and carved Cate's first "jack-o-punkin" as she calls it. We were really surprised, she really loved carving the pumpkin and getting the guts and seeds out. She wanted to be "big help" as she refers to herself now when she helps us=) Cate was right there with us until Dada took a little more time to carve out the mouth. Then she was done.

 "bebe" even had to get in on the action...

 While Cate was waiting on Dada to carve out the eyes, she decorated one of her "baby jack-o-punkins"

 and there he is...Spookly=)

Hopefully next year, she will want to wear a costume, perhaps the one I bought for her this year, and we will go out trick-or-treating. I'll admit though, mama and dada were both a bit tired and it was really nice to have a nice evening in!

First pumpkin carving - preview

Cate carved her first pumpkin this Halloween. We were really surprised, she LOVED it! She wanted to help and scoop and get all the seeds out, and she actually was interested the whole time, until it was time to carve out the mouth. Not bad! 

More Halloween pics to come!

Cate's First day of Preschool

Cate started preschool this fall. She is going two days a week from 9-1. Her first day was last Wednesday and she did great! There were no tears from either of us the first day, and the second day and today she cried a bit when I started to leave, but she knows she is going to have a great time so I am pretty sure the tears are just a show=) 

She loves talking about her school, and when I ask her about school she says, "rasha" which means, Mrs. Rashmi, one of her teachers, and her other teacher is Mrs. Sherry. I'm so glad I registered her for this school (back in like February of this year!!=)  I knew Cate would be ready, and I knew I would be ready too, and we honestly were. I could actually tell that Cate was getting bored here at home, so the timing couldn't have been more perfect! She is so social and loves being around kids, so hopefully she will thrive in this environment. Hopefully, she will learn to share too=) 

A slew of Cate Firsts

A few weeks ago Cate had her first cold, (not her very first cold ever because she did have a few little colds during the winter) but this was her first cold with a fever!;( since she had fever I panicked because it was the first fever she had ever had, so I made an appointment and took her in, on after hours time, for an extra $25, for the dr to say she just had a cold with fever.  BUT, her ears looked fine, so that was the good news. The dr. said that if her sleep habits start to disrupt to bring her back in, that it's likely she will have an ear infection. 

Sho nuff...two weeks later, she wakes up at 1am and poor thing tried and tried and tried to go back to sleep, but never did. I went up a few times to check on her, she wasn't fussy at all, which is what threw me off, all she wanted was a kiss from me and me to leave and close her do. So that's what I did. Matt finally got up with her at 5, so I could at least get an hour or so of sleep, (because Cate was up she was starting her music player, thus mama was awake too during this time). So mama got some sleep, then called the dr. at 8 to make her an appointment. Cate still awake...we took her in at 11, dr. confirmed it was an ear infection in her right ear, gave us an rx. and we were on our way.

Here is a pic of our poor, tired little girl that morning...

and a video of her sawing some logs because poor thing was sooooo congested...

After a few doses of the antibiotics, she was good to go. We just kept giving her motrin and mucinex as well, and are suppose to take her back next week or so to make sure everything is cleared up! Thankfully, this first ear infection wasn't too bad! Cate is definitely back to her old silly self again, and I think she has kicked it up another two notches in the energy level department. Yikes...

another Cate first...Cate meets pigs

and a kitty, and some cows!

While we were back home for Thanksgiving, Cate met and saw for the first time...pigs. Meet Eggs and Bacon...

 Aren't they SO cute?

 Mama...look at that pig!!!

 Oh boy...a kitty...

 She has seen cats in the neighborhood and such, but never one this close...and had never been able to pet one...

 Hi moo cow! She's seen cows before when she has stayed with our parents...but now she can definitely point out/identify a cow, cat and pigs...;)

 cow patty hop...amazingly she made it back to us without stepping in any...

Oh the fun learning experiences and fun she has...

gobble gobble...cate's first turkey

Cate had her first "real" Thanksgiving...meaning she ate turkey this year, compared to last year, it was all milk! She had turkey, dressing and the trimmings and loved it.

 playing outside...and her new fave...giving high fives!

 Bernie has SO much fun at Gigi and Pops'

 Sportin' our lucky Longhorn outfit! HOOK 'EM!

and a few of Cate and Mama...

 Cate has started making this face when we take pics...not sure if it's her "cheese" face or what?!?

 I thought it was only appropriate to do the same...

bet that made you laugh! Hope you all gobbled 'til ya wobbled and had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We sure did!

Weekend surprise!

That title got your attention, did it not?=) HA!

This past weekend was definitely different from what we thought it was going to be, (and no, I'm not talking about the 55-17 loss, we won't even address that.)

It all started last Friday morning, with a text from my mom that said something like, "just a thought, we could meet y'all halfway and we could keep Cate for the weekend..." My first thought was, hmmm, well that means we could actually "watch" the game, but then I was like...I just don't want to send her off for the weekend...

Long story short, and after talking with Matt, we decided YES! It would be good for Cate, and good for us. She has TONS of fun with the grandparents and her auntie, and she will have a blast, probably more fun than she would have with us!=) So off we took her for her first weekend to stay with the grandparents...and our first weekend at home without her! So what did we do?!? Whatever we wanted!

On the way back from dropping her off, we/(Matt wanted to) stopped and took a picture with Miss Pearl the Squirrel, Berdoll farms newest addition... 

Crazy huh? That's one big mama squirrel! Friday evening we didn't do much, we ordered Bridesmaids off the tv, didn't like it. Saturday we went over to our friends Jonah and Catherine house to watch the game with our fellow Longhorns and their two littles. I got some sweet snuggles with their new six week old precious baby Paisley, and Wyatt missed his friend Cate=(, but I showed him videos of her on my phone and he was like, "baby Cate, baby Cate!" Too sweet!

Saturday we also picked up and cleaned up around the casa. Much overdue. We also went out and did some casual shopping for some things we needed for the coming months, and if we spent an hour or two in one store, it didn't matter...we were on OUR schedule, not the schedule of our precious 15 month old=) When Cate is with us it's go get what we need between her naps, have a plan of attack, no messin' around, get in and get out of the store while she is content, so everyone has a pleasant shopping experience! Not this past weekend, we just looked...and looked...and looked... we even did more shopping and looking after our dinner date Saturday night! Sunday...you guessed it... MORE shopping, had to exchange some things from Saturday, and the BIG highlight, we became REI members! FUN and exciting stuff I tell ya! (I also found a dress for our family pics at nordies rack! My personal highlight=) 

We went to pick up Cate Sunday evening, and she was SO excited to see us. She recognized the tahoe and started running towards Matt, SO cute! AND, she gave me two real hugs! I was holding her and she would kind of push back and look at me, then put both her lil arms around me and give me big squeezes! Sweetest moment ever! A sweet surprise and I LOVED it! I really don't think she missed us until she saw us, kinda like she did when we went on our weekend get-a-way a couple of months ago, but it's better that way=)  The Grandparents, auntie, and all of her other visitors she is blessed with while she is there keep her really busy and entertained, and she has TONS of fun, while mama and daddy get LOTS of things done!

Some firsts for all!

Matt and I had our first weekend away sans Cate this past weekend, while spent her first weekend with grandparents! Mama and Daddy went to the Hyatt Wild Oak Ranch resort and had a wonderful, RELAXING time!


(we didn't take any pics really while we were there, so thanks to trip advisor, I found a few;)
We arrived there Friday afternoon, checked in, and checked the place out!

We spent a lot of time here...








And enjoyed happy hour with "a few" of these...


We had NO plans, NO schedule, and NO worries!!;)
It would have been nice to relax in one of these...


but let's face it, when it's 105 out, it feels much better with your toes in the water!;)
The resort is gorgeous! Definitely some beautiful scenery...








The rooms there are 1, 2, or 3 bedroom condos with full kitchens, so you can definitely vacation here for a while;)








A home away from home!
We had a great time...





But definitely missed this sweet girl...


And I don't think she realized we were gone until we came back! Gigi, Pops and Auntie Ash kept her VERY busy and entertained/spoiled....
They went out to eat


Relaxed


And went shopping


How could she not have fun?!?
When we got home and she saw us, her mouth opened, she had huge smiles, and was gasping with excitement!! It was SO cute and she was SO happy! We all survived and just like everyone says, I don't think Cate even knew we were gone until we were back! And it was probably harder on us than on her!;) Obviously it was!