Gingerbread

Kate went to her first gingerbread making party today. Here's the final product. It took her a little while to get what to do. She was really excited about getting a bowl full of candy, not so excited to put her candy pieces in sticky frosting. After 30 minutes of watching her friends make colorful houses she started in. Mommy helped a little but she did most of the decorating. She only ate every third piece of candy or so. Katelyn, Good job on your first gingerbread house. The 2 hour sugar high has provided a lot of entertainment!

SEC Championship

We headed down to Gameday to let Kate ride the train for the first time and check out the crowds. Fun times. It's hot out here! Guess we don't need the mittens and scarves we brought.

GO DAWGS!

Falcons vs Saints!

Cute outfit

Here's a close-up of Grammy's cute Santa pic outfit.

Santa sneak preview

We took Kate to see Santa today. Here's a sneak preview. Amazingly, she didn't cry!!! She didn't exactly smile but she looked cute anyhow. Grammy got her the cutest outfit for her Santa visit. Thanks Grammy!!!

Playground upgrade

Kate graduated to the big girl playground in our neighborhood. She can handle some of the parts. This one is scary, but she's close to mastering it.

We had a great Prather family photo shoot today. I can't wait to share the pics. This has been a weekend filled with cousins. Katelyn was on cloud nine :) were lucky her older cousins like her so much.

Halloween Parade

Katelyn had her school parade on the 26th. Do you like her costume? She dressed up as the cutest fairy in all the land.

When the parade started and her class came out front, she was front and center with her wand raised high. She marched with a lot of confidence. I think she was do excited and thought she looked pretty :). She sure did!

After the parade we grabbed Mexican with Grammy and gramps. They got to witness Kate shoving tacos and rice in her mouth with 2 forks. Quite a show!

Thanks for the good times Grammy and Gramps.

Kate with her new Dora Toy

Here is a link to a video of Katelyn playing at target with her new, still-in-the-box Dora microphone. How could you not buy a cute little girl a toy she loves so much even still in the box?

She singing the hello/hola song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8d2BTSmlA4


Please excuse any typos or auto-corrects. This was typed on a cell phone.

Toy Museum

We took Kate to the Atlanta Children's Museum this morning. She loved it. We fished, went grocery shopping, learned about the weather, played with moon sand/clay, and played with the giant ball contraption. The ball machine was her favorite. We had to bribe her with Dora to get her out.

Dora now rules the Allen house. Kate is obsessed. There could be worse shows for her to love. She interacts with the show and speaks the Spanish words.

I have a feeling Santa will be buying lots of Dora toys. Can't believe Christmas is inching closer.

Katelyn Feeding Daddy

Katelyn was nice and shared her breakfast with daddy she dragged a chair in from her playroom and was really excited.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bATP9CbBkL4

2 year check up

Katelyn had her 2 year check up this week.  Here are her stats:
Height-36" (yard girl), between 90th and 95th percentile
Weight- 28 lbs. she dipped to 50th percentile on the chart
Head- don't recall the measurement, but she was Off the charts (above 100th percentile)

We love seeing our doctor.  katelyn did great and got good marks by him, but was definitely a terrible two with the nurses.  Kate's doc just has a special way with her and we both completely trust him (as we should I guess)  but I'm very thankful he became a pediatrician and Kate is blessed to have him.  He enters the room and she is mesmerized. She lets him prod and poke her and just lays there and giggles. The wooden depresser in the throat always gets her a little angry, but I'd be the same way

Kate seems on track for development and we have our parent teacher conference at school this week. It's hard as a parent not to compare your kids to their peers/classmates. I'm a little curious to see how she's doing vs her class.

Shades in the AM

I guess katelyn thought the den was too bright for breakfast.

Eat up hombre

Katelyn is quite the eater when she wants to be. Either she eats everything in sight or she barely eats anything.  Here is a video of Katelyn at Mexican. What do you think, will she eat everything or pick?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewWsKdDS5w4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

A few other things to point out in this video:

-looks like she might be ambidextrous
-these smiles at the beginning are how she smiles for cameras (calling Linda Baker).

Best buy mania

Katelyn had lots of fun at best buy this weekend. She must have run 20 laps around the store. I think she was on a sugar high after a breakfast with powdered sugar. Check out a little bit of the madness here.  This is after 30 minutes at the store, at least 20 minutes of running straight. And yes, she has no shoes (gotta pick your battles with a two year old).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGd3pz4DtMY&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Early Bird

We decided to use the money we got from selling our UGA tickets for a yummy hibachi meal. Even better, our neighbors came with. Katelyn LOVED it. You could say she was shoveling the food in her mouth.

She ate so much that the table across from us commented on it. Katelyn had so much fun sitting next to her crush, Jackson. Big girl has moved on to a booster seat.

Kate got a little scared at the fire. Her eyes almost bugged out of her head, she leaned back, and about a minute after the fire show was over with tears in her eyes she said, "oh my".

She used kids chopsticks and may have even licked her ice cream bowl at the end.

What a great Friday night.

Moves Like Daddy?

Katelyn is quite the dancer. She got a fun toy from Papa Ger and Mama Lin for her birthday and she LOVES to dance with it. Here's our cutie and her stellar moves. Watch out dance world... http://youtu.be/CUWWuyH7Acw I've started a video channel for Katelyn on you tube. You can see the other videos here too.

Walkin with Daddy

Mexican night, part 2

Taco Girl

We went out for Mexican tonight (Friday). A hole in her tortilla and a little daddy help turned into this...

A new super hero! We debated names, Taco Belle, taco girl, super tortilla, if only we had a super hero logo. Watch out captain America!

Like my hat?

Another Day at the Office

My company, Intercontinental Hotels Group is a sponsor of the Olympics in the UK. We are running the Olympic Village. We had a few torchbearers that were employees around the world. They were at the office today and I got to run with the torch.

Cancun!!

Well, mommy and daddy decided to take a quick trip to Cancun and let katelyn play with Grammy and gramps. The flight leaves from Atlantans new international terminal. See below, so pretty!

Katelyn, we'll miss you bunches!!!

Here's proof.

I ran the Peachtree. This was run #2 and it took me longer. I felt much better after this time, even though I didn't train. I got heat stroke last time. I just ran too fast with friends. This time I enjoyed it, ran at my snails pace and walked up the big hills. 1:20 was my official time. I ran for 53 minutes. Nothing to brag about, but at least I crossed the finish line! Dad- Next year, you and me. I'm looking forward to it. Tiff said she's in too.

Alex & Max

We've been promising Kate a playdate with her cousins do we headed over last night. The had fun and even played dress up. Before we knew it we were 1.5 hours past bedtime. (that is a smile on max's face in case you think it's a cry).

Good times for the parents too.

Happy 4th!

Today has been a great 4th of July. I ran the peachtree then we headed up to Chattanooga to visit papa her and mama Lin. Katelyn has been playing her little heart out. Here she is playing twinkle, twinkle little star on the keyboard.

Tomorrow we have fun plans in Chattanooga, Knoxville and the smokey mountains. Fun!!

Dad/gramps: happy anniversary. I'm so happy you here to know Katelyn and I'm forever great ful to those that saved you. Love you!!

Yogurt facial

Daddy's at hockey, mommy was watching the euro game. Five minutes later I saw this...

She decided her fingers were a lot more fun to eat with. Oops!

We had a great weekend. Katelyns BFF at school had his b-day party then mommy and daddy had date night. Today was a fun day indoors filled with bed jumping playing chase and kate taking special care of her dolly.

Grammy is back from a trip to her hometown, Wichita. Welcome back!!

Rain Rain Go Away

You know when the song Rain, Rain Go Away really makes sense? WHEN IT'S RAINING INSIDE YOUR HOUSE. Last Tuesday, we had a major plumbing issue. We gave kate a bath after dinner, I put her down to bed and went to wash my face. The water wasn't draining and we thought that was very strange. Scott came in and asked by it smelled like eggs. Little did we know that it was raining in our basement. Scott was smart enough to turn off the water to the house, but the damage was already done. Water was pouring out of our downstairs toilet onto the floor. I mean POURING. It was about an inch deep in the bathroom and was leaking through the hardwoods and raining in the basement. A LOT of water. I called our neighbors Kelly and Michael who were nice enough to come over and help us. Michael and Scott went to search for the overflow valve in the yard (never found it) while Kelly helped me carry stuff outside to dry out. I called the county and they arrived about 30 minutes later to check the sewer main. Turns out a tree root had blocked our sewer line, all the water from the bath, my face washing, dishwasher and washing machine was coming out of the lowest exit in the house...our 1/2 bath toilet. Thank goodness it wasn't raw sewage!!! Public safety announcement: 1) If you have a home built before the 90s, locate your emergency sewage overflow valve in case you ever have an issue. It turns our only one was IN our house, in the basement. My parents house was built in the mid 80's and they had to have one installed. 2) Look online and use the tree root eating grannuals in your toilet. It may have prevented our issue. This all happened Tuesday night around 9pm. Wed they tried to snake the line with no success. Thursday they had to wait for the utilities to get marked, then Friday they started doing this: This is what they found to be the issue. This is not our pipe, it's what caused the blockage. It's tons of tiny tree roots smushed together. We were without water until Friday late afternoon. We stayed with my parents Wed. night but toughed it out otherwise and I showered at the gym. Thanks grammy and grams for the sleepover. They came back out to dig up the rest of the sewage pipe for replacement on Monday and Tuesday and now we are back up a running, just with a huge yard of dirt instead of grass. Oh well. I was hoping for new windows in our house instead of paying for a new sewer line and main water line..while our yard was already dug up figured we'd do that too. I'm now a little more knowledgeable in basic plumbing and I guess that's what you get for buying an older house. At least we don't have to worry about ever again. Case closed.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all of you dads out there. I hope you had a fabulous day. Scott- Happy Father's Day. I am very lucky you are the father of my child. I couldn't have picked a better daddy for Katelyn. It makes me so happy to see you with her and see her face light up when you enter the room. Daddy- I hope you had a fabulous fathers day. Thanks for letting me bounce on you and do flips. You are my favorite daddy EVER. I have so much fun with you, even doing the simple things. I'm a very lucky girl to have you as a daddy. I'm sorry for having a temper tantrum at your father's day dinner and forcing you to get your food to go and eat it cold at home. I promise to make it up to you. Dad/Gramps- We love you!! Thanks for being a great dad and Gramps. Katelyn loves you so much, and I know you would do anything for her. She loves playing chase with you and playing dolls with you. It's a good thing Maggie gave you good practice. Thanks for dinner last night, it was yummy. Happy early birthday and we'll see you this week. Papa Ger- Happy Father's Day! You are so much fun with Katelyn. I think Holly chose the perfect term, you find a way to make the simplest day magical with your imagination and youthful spirit. Katelyn misses you and hopes to see you soon. Facetime, facetime!! Grandfather Ricky- I miss you and love you. Kate is working on her golf swing, but she sure could use some advice from you. She also can't wait to go fishing with you like you used to do with Mommy. I hope you had a great Father's day.

Collage

I made this collage from our beach pics and it's now on my wall at work. It makes me happy.

Angel?

Angel? I think not! Someone bit mommy HARD this morning. It wasn't daddy. He's in NYC. I was in the garage and squealed so loud, followed with a loud NO! I'm sure that made a few neighbors wonder.

Here's the proof. See the teeth marks? Someone is in big trouble.

A first

Katelyn had a big week at school last week. First, she started in her new class, the Explorers class. She skipped the Toddlers classroom since she was in Wobblers for a year. She has been SO excited. The school does three weeks of transition so the change isn't such a shock. They also keep one of the teachers with the kids.

So Tuesday we dropped her off in her new class. She did great! The teachers said she is already adjusting and fitting right in.

On Wednesday I picked her up and got some fun news... She pee-peed on the potty!!! Such a big girl, we are so proud. Could she be potty trained soon? Maybe, but well just be patient and let her tell us when she is ready. The good news about her class assignment is that it is a hard core potty training room. Since she's one of the youngest, hopefully the older kids will get her motivated. We think she's almost ready.

Where does all my time go? Life is like a speeding bullet these days. Last weekend was a lot of fun, but it was filled with birthdays. On Saturday we went to Katelyn Cohen's 2nd birthday party. I worked with Katelyn C's mommy through my Arby's position. The Katelyn's are 3 months apart and had never actually met until this weekend. Her party was Sesame street themed, so even though my Kate was a little shy she quickly was right at home with the party goers and her sesame friends. We had to party hop b/c of overlapping times, and when we had to leave Katelyn's fun party Kate was NOT happy. She was having so much fun with her toys. The next party was for Wyatt. He turned 1 on 5/6, but we celebrated on Cinco de Mayo. It was a blast, we stayed until they kicked us out. Katelyn had to potential future husbands born on the same week (son's of some of scott's best friends). We decided to get a pic of the boys and Katelyn. Isn't it cute?

Did you get a close enough look? See anything suspicious about the pic? Scott's got his eyes on you Wyatt! (j/k) We think this is hilarious. See Wyatt's wondering hand and Ben's cute little hand over the mouth laugh. This could be priceless at a wedding one day. I'm thinking this photo could also win an award contest. Let me know if you find any we should enter. Katelyn closed this party down. We were the last to leave besides the grandmas. Wyatt and Kate spent an hour jumping on sofas and chasing each other in circles. They were on cloud 9. The next day was Ben's 1st b-day party (the hand over the mouth laugh-er). Scott had to leave early b/c of a hockey game so it was mainly a mommy-daughter date. She was the only little lady at the party, but she had a blast with the boys. They had a baby pool and water table set up outside so after some fun inside and some EXCELLENT cake smashing we went out to play. Good times! What a fun weekend! Katelyn slept until almost 8am Monday morning. She was exhausted from the fun. She hasn't slept past 8am since she was 6 months old. Thanks for the fun Katelyn, Wyatt and Ben. happy Birthday!

Hairstyle

First, let me say Katelyn NEVER lets me put her hair up. This is how she came home from school today. So cute!

4 eyes

Kate tried on Papa Ger's glasses. Very funny.

Fun with cousins

Kate loves her cousins. Max and Alex have made katelyn very happy.

Beach babe

Katelyn is loving the beach!!

Playing in a giant box

Kate and Maggie

Happy Easter

We had a great Easter. The easter bunby visited our house!! Last year we were at the beach, so the bunny didnt stop by our house. We started the day with church, a place we don't go as often as I'd like. Then we headed to my sisters for linner and Masters watching. I was rooting for Bubba the whole time. I really didn't know much about him until I saw him on a golf special the week before the masters. I was obsessed with the dukes of hazard as a Little girl. He owns a general lee and played golf at UGA. so he quickly became my favorite golfer :). His win was a great finish to a great day!

Here are some great pics of katelyn and her cousin Maggie. (I'm blogging from my phone so it's easier to send them as separate blog posts. Don't they look like sisters??

Happy Easter.

Hibachi

My favorite place to eat is hibachi. We finally got up the courage to take Kate. We weren't sure how she would handle the fire, loud noises and flying knives. She did pretty good. I think the biggest surprise of the night was that she ate her entire ginger salad. She ate tons of food, but the loud noises did scare her a bit.

It was fun :)

Scruffy daddy

Easter Party

Katelyn had her Easter party at school today. We were lucky to snap a picture of one of her best friends. This is Mason. The teachers say they are best buds and love to pal around with each other. Katelyn still loves school. She starts clapping and saying "yeah" when we pull into the parking lot.

We love it to :)

My shoes

Katelyn got her first pair of Crocs. It took a while for her to warm up to the weird plastic sandals. She finally figured out she can put them on herself. Ding, ding! New instant favorites.

Here is a cute video. It was right after a diaper change and miss priss refused pants. Listen for the "my shoes". Too cute!

Sands of time

We've been wanting to get Kate a sandbox and wagon for a while. While mommy played tennis, daddy took Kate to toys r us. They found a great sand and water table, which Kate has been playing with ever since. I love it.

Next to buy... A wagon. Any suggestions? We're thinking a radio flyer.

Ps: mommy lost her tennis match. 2nd 3 setter loss in a row. Ouch, those hurt!! I have to play again Tomorrow which I am SO not happy about.

Working for a Living

Man, I sure have dropped the ball. Work has sucked the blog-life out of me. We've been busy with cousin dinners, tennis and car shopping. Scott loses his company car at the end of the month. We bought a new car, but you'll have to wait to see what it is (it arrives next week).

I don't have any great pictures of Kate on my phone, but I've provided some cute stories below to make up for it. Katelyn is in SUCH a cute stage.

Katelyn updates:
She has started reading out loud. The words don't make sense, but she talks only when I talk. She must think she is saying the right words. I've got to get it on video. It's the cutest thing ever.

She has also started singing the words to songs. Row, row, row your boat seems to be a favorite. Elmo's world is a good one too.

She is counting better now. Very cute. Scott and I tried teaching her to count in Spanish but every time we get to "dos" she points to her nose and gets distracted.

She loves to jump. WE do family jumping time and all hold hands, count to three and jump high in the sky. Her feet don't leave the ground, but she gets really excited anyway.

More to come later, but I wanted to give a quick update since I haven't posted in so long.

Drawing

I love to draw these days! the only thing mommy touched on here was her name.

We had our 18 month well check up today. We got a great report. Almost 27 lbs, 80th percentile. Height and head circumference were both off the charts. Dr. G was pleasantly pleased with development and said she was one of the calmest 18 month olds he has seen. He said its usually the worst well appointment age. Well done Kate!!

New jacket

We found katelyn a new jacket yesterday. Do you like it? She does! We've also started putting bows in her hair. Scott's rule was: no bows until she has enough hair to need bows. It's time!!

She sure can rock the bows!

We are all sick and taking it easy this weekend. We had a fun night out with our neighborhood friends Friday. We usually do Friday night dinners with kids, but Friday we all got sitters. Thanks Grammy and gramps!!! We needed an adult night out. Don't think that helped our healing of the body, but it helped our spirits :).

Hope everyone is having a great weekend. Brrrr! At least Kate got a fun new jacket!

Super sunday

What a beautiful day!!

Fun with daddy

Katelyn is having lots of fun with Daddy tonight.

Grunting

We are watching a little tennis. Katelyn is just playing with her toys, but she started making a funny noise. Can you tell what it is by this short clip?

We finally did...she is imitating the players grunts from TV. Too funny!

We had a fun day yesterday. It was my last free weekday before work starts Monday. The plan was to have a fun day with Kate. We started the day with a visit to Catch Air, a play place up in Marietta. It was awesome. Katelyn clung to me for the most part. After, we grabbed lunch at moe's. Usually Kate eats up moe's, but she had only a few bites. She's been teething so I thought her teeth just hurt her.

We stopped by Grammy and gramps on the way home, where she developed a fever. 102. I took her to the Doc. Ear infection. Then last night we had our ritual Friday night dinners with our neighbors. Katelyn was in a much better mood.

When she went to bed she seemed fine, Just tired. Then she woke up at midnight. With a 104.4 temperature. We gave her Advil and called the nurses line. They suggested a few things to get the temp down. Told us to bring her in tomorrow.

Then she woke up this morning with no fever whatsoever and in a GREAT mood. If the ear infection was causing the high fever I guess the antibiotic finally kicked in. I'm so glad she's better. She's back to being herself.

Here's to my last weekend as a non-worker.

Hooray

I am a few days late on a post I intended to do. I was going to ask for some prayers. I interviewed with a company last week. It was my third interview. This is the 4th company I've had multiple interview with. I had been praying for God to give me a sign when I found the right opportunity.

I was leaving my 3rd interview, feeling really good about the opportunity and thinking it felt like a good fit for me. Then I got my sign. My favorite song right now is Oh Darling by Plug In Stereo (http://youtu.be/M2gwCyh-Y6c). It's rarely on the radio. It was playing as I exited the parking deck after the interview and the line that came on was "if you ask me for my heart, there's no way that I'll say no". I took that as my sign. The next song on the radio was Good Feeling. That's on all the time, so I took that as my confirmation that this move would make me happy.

I got a call from the company yesterday. I GOT AN OFFER!! And I accepted. Who is my new employer? Intercontinental Hotel Group otherwise known here in Atlanta as IHG. The offices are close to where I live. I'll be running their digital media campaigns targeted to business travelers. I've heard great things about working for them, and I can tell my boss is a rock star. I'm looking forward to my first day, this Monday the 30th!

I'm trying to make the most of these last few days off. I've got to dust off my work clothes. Not wearing work out clothes every day will be tough. Mama needs some new shoes and maybe an outfit or two. Time to go shopping :)

Katelyn and I went to the park yesterday to celebrate. We had fun on the playground and swings.

Thanks for all your encouragement and well wishes through this whole process. I'm lucky to have friends and family like you guys.

Yum

I think someone likes her dinner...

Tennis anyone?

Mommy had her first tennis match of the year, and is starting a win streak for 2012. Katelyn seems like she's ready for her first match too.

Fun with a side of sass

Scott and Kate have had quite a bit of fun this morning. I caught some on tape. So, katelyn has developed a sassy way of saying no. It got captured at the end of this video...notice the finger wave.

Chillin on the couch

Kate figured out how to climb up on the couch all by herself this weekend. It caused a lot of time chillin' on the couch, sipping on an "8". (instead of a 40)

The rack

Kate was mommy's sports bra rack this morning. Pretty funny.

Thanks for sleeping until 6:45 this morning Kate!!!

5am snooze

See, same outfit as the 5am wake up picture. This was on the way to school. I think someone was really tired and that must have caused the meltdown. Mommy had to drive around for 30 minutes then finally just parked in the parking lot. A 45 minute nap and she still napped for 2.5 hours that day at nap time.

5am wake up call

Daddy headed to Miami for work today. He asked me to set my alarm for 5:30 as a back-up wake up call. Little did we know Bean was going to handle the wake-up call for us.

5AM!!! Why? Good question. I'm a little scared she is going to get sick while Scott is gone. The change in weather always seems to bring poor health in our household.

This is what a 5am wake up does to her usual jovial "going bye-bye" self...

Although you can't tell in this picture she loves her hat now. At first she couldn't stand it, but now it means we are going on a fun adventure outside of the house.

Where's the beef?

This is what I found at my local target yesterday. See all the refrigerated shelves? Empty... Not a single item.

Why? A power outage overnight. They had to empty the shelves. Crazy, right? That's a first for me.

Video 2

My friend, anderson

We had folks over to watch the Dawgs yesterday (cue the Debbie downer music...tough loss). Katelyn had SO much fun playing with her friend Anderson. He is mommy's friends little boy. Here is a video of some of the fun.

Daddy b-day breakfast

The only thing worse for new years b-day treat eating is when that holiday is on a Sunday. We celebrated yesterday for the most part. We started with breakfast with Tripper and family, aunt holly took this great pic and used a cool app to make it even cooler. Gosh, they sure are a cute pair, aren't they?

Happy birthday Daddy! I hope you enjoyed your 2 day celebration.

Hat #2

Brrrrr

Kate got all bundled up before school today. This was before the last layer, her big insulated windbreaker. Next I'll send a pic of the hatch also tried.

Escalators

Kate's favorite thing to do!!