January Memories

Our first trip to the beach in Galveston. It was the perfect day and weather. We will be coming back often!

We buried Liam too, but he got up in less than a second. I think it freaked him out. I don't blame him!

Most of my days are spent in our apartment that we have enjoyed. I caught Katelyn going through the diaper bag. 

Liam does this a lot. Haha. We are potty training, so there is lots of changing pants! Actually, he has done way better than I expected. But poop is never fun to deal with. 

Wish us luck on our home search that starts next month!

Katelyn

 Katelyn is almost 11 months!

I haven't been very good about doing updates on her first year. 

Kate is super easy going. She will sit and play with most anything. Until you walk past and make eye contact. Especially if it's daddy after he gets home from work. 

She is crawling a lot more now, but still doesn't do it very much. She'll crawl if it's necessary and she will take her time doing it. Her main enjoyment is standing up. If any of us ever lay down, she crawls over, climbs onto us, pushes herself off and stands up for about 5 seconds. She lands on her bum and then does it again with a huge smile. 

She isn't scared of anything, including the vacuum, heights, and her brothers. She tries to get in on the action of jumping on daddy. 

Katelyn babbles words and grunts low when she wants something. Hilarious to her brothers. Troy tries to get her to do it again by taking away her toys, but then she cries and they just get in trouble. And so it begins. Troy always wants to feed her, and I have to monitor anytime he's eating something she can't have, like honey

Her favorite thing is the car keys.

She is hilarious when she is tired. She will laugh at everything and kind of sigh. 

Kate is very petite with dainty fingers, but maybe I'm just used to boy hands. Still has a grip of death though. 

She has 6 teeth, 4 on top and 2 on bottom. Her hair is straightening out but curls with any sweat. 

I can't believe how much I love my Kate. 

Christmas

This was our first Christmas with just our little family. We were beyond spoiled by our parents and we felt their love as we were away. 

Troy and Liam loved their Christmas Eve pjs from "Gramma an' Brayden." That's how they differentiate the Grandparents. Haha. It was really fun to see pink pjs this year!! Katelyn looked adorable. The kids went to bed and I got butterflies as I played Santa. Wow, that is fun. I think Ben and I were more excited than they were. Well... Maybe not Troy. He still asks to have Christmas every day and cried when I took the tree down. 

We played with each present as they were unwrapped. We are still enjoying things everyday!

 We had the best Christmas and skyped with our families. We had lots of friends over too and we loved it. Christmas Eve was spent at an Alligator park with our friends, the Beans. 

Bens coworker and his wife came for dinner that night and a little Christmas devotional. Christmas Day was with two families in our ward. We ate a lot of good food and played games, including Settlers. Ben won of course :) 

Ben had a wonderful brake and we went to lots of parks and ate lots of good food. New Years Eve was spent playing games with the Beans and eating more candy (I'm ready for a healthy food pledge.) I'm so grateful for the friends we have and the gospel to give us purpose and direction. It was a wonderful Christmas and holiday brake!!