Shopping With Mommy

Kaitlyn loves shopping with her Mommy....

either that or she was glad we were on our way home.

I'm BACK!

I know, I know, I've been away for soooo long!

Now for a long update:

We've just been soooo busy! Our number one priority is to find a house right now so that we can take advantage of the $8000 tax credit. Basically we need to have picked out a house and be under contract by April 30th. The problem is, we still haven't found a house yet. We've already weeded through about 90 online and gone and seen about 15. Hopefully we'll find something soon!

Dave's been doing good in school and should be back to work either the first or second week of March. I can't wait, but I'm also dreading it! It's been so nice to have him home with the kids and help out around the house.

I've been doing very good on my diet this year. I've managed to loose 13 lbs. I only have 11 more lbs. until I meet my goal. This year I just need to stick with it until I loose it all and not gain any weight back. Good news is that I'm already skinnier than when I stopped last year and I can get some of my old jeans on. I can't really wear them yet, but I'm so close. I couldn't even get them over my hips before.

Onto the kids. Brandon is doing very well. In December we put him on Adderall and it seems to have really helped him in school :) YEAH! Kaitlyn is getting huge. She is 23 lbs now and in the 90% percentile for height. It seems like she learns something new every day. This weekend I taught her how to high five. She's also way too mobile now. It's hard to keep her from sprinting up the steps now. She gets into everything! Her vocabulary now consists of...Thank You, What's That, What's This, Go, NO, dog, hi, do do and a couple other words I can't think of right now.

All in all we are doing great! Just so busy! I'll post some other new pictures sometime this week, but enjoy the ones from the past month or soo below...

My Handsome Man sleeping over Grandmas.

Kaitlyn's new set of wheels

Brandon loves her so much!

Happy New Years to us...we met two years ago :)

Happy Blogiversary to Me!

Today is the One Year Anniversary of my blog!!!!

I must admit, I'm so glad I started it and I've kept up with it. For me it's like a diary that I can share with the world. I'm so proud of my family and beautiful children, and blogging is my way of showing it :)

Last week I read every entry and I realized how far our new family has come.

Everyone/everything has changed so much since we got married and had Kaitlyn. It's all been so absolutely amazing and wonderful!

Now onto next year...

This next year we hope to finally buy a house!!! I feel like a house will finally make us complete as a family. Wish us luck!!! I've kinda been looking for the past year and I think we've narrowed down what we want, at this point we'll just have to see what we can get for what we can afford.

I also hope to loose some weight again! I did so good last year and then gained about 10 lbs right back. Last year I just watched what I ate and didn't work out too much. This year, since I've already bought a gym membership, I'm going to do both, watch what I eat and work out too! The official weight reports will start within the next week. This time I need to loose all my weight and keep it off!!!

We are also praying that Dave will find a great job in the upcoming year! For those of you who don't know, Dave decided to go back to school to become an electrician in August. At that time he started a 4 year apprenticeship program. We'll be finalizing his resume within the next week and starting to send it out. Please send a prayer our way for him. As soon as he starts working again we can finally get into a house!

So sit back and buckle up, it's going to be a crazy year for us!

More December Fun!

As usual we've been pretty busy!

Sunday was my friend Katie's son Jack's 1st Birthday.

We had so much fun at the party!

Kaitlyn was all excited driving to the party.

I had to include this picture.
He looked like such a stud in his new Harley Coat,
too bad he didn't think so, lol!

Kaitlyn thought all the presents were hers

Katie and Jack
(I made the cake..check out my cake blog)

Boy does this kid love cake!

In other news, mommy did something bad

and something amazing to Kaitlyn all in one night!

Kaitlyn had her 1st Mexican Pizza from Taco Bell

(Mommy's Favorite place to eat!!!)

She LOVED it!

The same night, Kaitlyn gave up the baba!

YEAH! It took Brandon till two to give his baba up.

The best meal ever!!!!

Yesterday Papa took off work

and the kids headed over to Camp Ellman.

They had so much fun and even set up The Polar Express.

Kaitlyn was so tuckered out from all the fun!

Christmas Pics to come soon!

This should be such a wonderful Christmas for the kids.

We were blessed to be able to give them lots of gifts this year.

I hope everyone has a Very Merry Blessed Christmas!

A good little boy and a look into the future...

On December 12, 2009 Brandon made

his first confession at St. Martins...

He's been such a good boy lately too!!!

He's right in the middle with the funny look on his face

The entire group....St. Martin's is such a beautiful church!

Meanwhile Kaitlyn has gotten sooo big lately!
She has gotten such a personality,
I often wonder what the future holds
and how she'll turn out
until I see the next few pics...
and then I just get scared!

Texting away...
I'm guessing she'll want her first phone around 3 or 4

Another look I'm sure I'll get a lot when she's a teenager...

Doing the drunk walk (I better not ever see this again, lol)

It's the Holiday Season

We had another busy weekend preparing for Christmas!

Shopping, Cleaning, Making Presents

and Just Spending Time Together!

It was the perfect weekend!

Kaitlyn looking Fabulous while Christmas Shopping

Happy Girl Under the Tree

This kid just LOVES his sister!!!!

Kaitlyn loves Rudolph!

What a lovely surpise that awaited me on my desk this morning!

It's Christmas Time!

Sooo...Cute!

Kaitlyn looks soo thrilled to be all bundled up.

The Christmas Season is here! My favorite time of year! So far we have done so much to Celebrate.

• Had Christmas Pics taken of the kids, Check
• Holiday Lighting Downtown, Check
• Put the Tree up and Decorated it, Check (only 1/2 of it has ornaments this year due to Kaitlyn)
• Decorated the House, Check (almost done, I wanna get a couple new things this year)
• Bought Presents, Check (almost done)

Last night we all watched "A Christmas Story" and Brandon officially wants a Red Ryder Bebe Gun, lol!

Hopefully by next weekend we'll have all our decorating and shopping down. Maybe we'll even have enough time to make cookies.

I hope everyone is having as wonderful of a season as we are!

Happy Thanksgiving

Haqqy Thanksgiving...lol (The sign and the corn were Brandon's Contribution)

My little Pocahontas

Just a little update...

Brandon's Basketball Pic

I think she looks so much like me here.
Can you see the molars? She's up to 11 teeth.


Walking with her best friend.

Kaitlyn's favorite game is dropping stuff and saying "uh oh"

Just a short video of Kaitlyn walking.

Just wanted to throw out a quick blog...

Kaitlyn is changing so much every single day! She now gives kisses and every single one just melts my heart. I can't believe the little personality coming out of her in the last 3 months.

Meanwhile, Brandon is doing good with basketball and just learned this weekend that he'll be getting a new sister...Chloe Ryan Stevens (Brandon picked the middle name, its the same as his). Congrats Nick and Heather!

Papa's Day Off

Last Tuesday Papa Marty took the day off to hang out with Brandon while he had a day off of school. Here's what they did all day....

The day started off with a walk to the "Great Field"

Then they went track walking.

And even saw a train go by...

Grandma joined in the fun at the end of the hike.

Brandon had tons of fun 4 wheeling!

They did some fishing...

and caught two fish.

Finally they hung out in Brandon's clubhouse.

I'm jealous I couldn't join in for all the fun!

Happy Halloween (again!)

Some pictures of Trick or Treat at Nick and Heather's house. This year Carter (Cowter) joined us. Carter is Candy's (Heather's Sister) little boy. He was born only two weeks before Kaitlyn, and is the cutest little boy ever. I just love his little laugh!

Bat Girl and Cowter

Cowter, Venom and Bat Girl

Daddy getting Kaitlyn ready

Mommy and Kaitlyn

Hey....what's in here?

Jackpot!

The first step!

What a Happy Halloween it was!

Kaitlyn finally took her first steps!!! She has been walking around the furniture for quite some time now but has refused to walk on her own...until now! I'll always remember this Halloween with the fondest of memories!

I also have a bunch of other Halloween pics I'll post after I do a bit of editing.

Soo much to share....

We have been crazy busy in the last couple weeks. Dave has started school. Football has ended. Basketball has started. We have been preparing for Halloween (going to 4 stores in one night just to find a Venom costume, making cookies, haunted gingerbread house, etc. etc.) I also got sick again (yes AGAIN) and yesterday Kaitlyn was sick for the first time. It was so horrible and sad, but she appears to be on the road to recovery today. Below are some pics from the last couple weeks. ENJOY!

The cookie monster!

Sooo Spooky....I just love the bleeding windows!

Brandon loved his trophy I stood outside in the cold
to get so that he didn't miss basketball.

That's Brandon (in the middle) during his first basketball game.

Lucky #8

Look how happy Gramma looks with our little angle.

This is my favorite picture of us!