First Dance Recital

Her dance teacher, Miss Becky

Kaity did a great job! She's the one in the purple Rapunzel pajamas with the short hair. Thanks to Mom and Matt for driving clear out to see it!

Christmas Ornaments

Jared's family has a tradition of getting ornaments every year for each kid.  Some years they are just cute ones that Mom found, and some years they are more individualized.  We have adopted this tradition at our home.  We get one for Kaity and sometimes one for us that remind us of the year previous.

Our First Christmas together

Kaitlyn's first Christmas. She was such a Daddy's Girl, right from the start. Whenever Jared would put his hand on my belly, she's snuggle. It took forever for him to feel her move because she was always snuggling to him!

Christmas 2009 - we became parents!

Christmas 2007 - we bought this in Hawaii on our Honeymoon

Kaity 2011 - She loved "Hat Buddy" so much, I had to buy several boy's shirts that year just so I could bribe her to get dressed each day!

Kaity 2010 - Kaity began coloring on everything. She hasn't stopped.  She is such a little artist!

This year, Kaity has become our little princess.  She is so interested in anything that has to do with make-up, princesses, dolls, dresses, and the color pink!

Decorating

Christmas Tree in the loft

When I moved into my house, my sister and my mom both asked the same question: "Where are you going to put your Christmas Tree?" So, to appease the curiosity, here are some photos of the already put up decorations: more to come.

Hallway, Front room on right, dining room on left

Side table in loft

Card holder in corner of stairway. I put swim bear there so you could see the size.

Olive Wood Nativity

Dreaming of those who have gone before me:

My parents, Lou & Florence

My brother, Ron

My son, John

My grandchildren, Brett & Kelli

I will see them soon

Dreaming of those I haven’t met yet:

Future generations,

I will send them off with a legacy, a smile, and a kiss

Dreaming of the day I met the love of my life

The day I gained a son and a wife

Two more baby boys followed

I raised them, all three to be great men.

The days they were married

Two beautiful women joined the family

And my four grandsons

Then two granddaughters

I watched them grow

I watched them graduate, marry, and have kids

Great-Grandkids

Nothing better than little ones

Dreaming of the day we became a forever family

Dreaming of the day we will all be together again.

The picture above was taken the day I graduated from college.  My grandpa was so happy and proud.  But it didn't matter that I had graduated from college or that I was the first one in my family to get a bachelor's degree.  I remember my grandpa coming to my spelling bee in the fourth grade and crying because he was so proud of me (I didn't win, I misspelled bicentennial). I remember that Grandpa came to EVERYTHING; primary programs even when he wasn't active, sports games, dance recitals, birthday parties.  He never missed anything.  I remember when I was able to lay my baby girl in his arms, he was so sweet and careful with her.  He didn't want to hold her because he didn't want to drop her. I will always cherish the tenderness that this big, gruff, kind man held this little new baby.  My grandfather was a rock to me, an example of Christlike love and service.  Because no matter how much I saw him do for my family and for others, I know that it isn't the tip of the iceberg as to what he did in his life for those around him. I am blessed to have known him, and I only hope to be a little bit more like him.

I will miss you Grandpa,

Love, Screwball.

Linder Farms & Kaity at the Funeral

We went to Utah last week because my grandfather was very ill and was going to pass away.  He did on Oct 11, 2012 and although I will miss him so much, I am so glad he is finally whole.  Because he served in the Air Force, they lined the street leading to the church with American flags.  Kaity loved playing in the leaves and seeing cousins.  More on Grandpa later, here are the photos of Kaity playing outside at the church.

This past Saturday, Oct 20, we went to Linder Farms, which is this great farm here in Idaho.  I've seen Carisa's posts on it the past few years and was so excited to take Kaity this year!  We loved it so much that she asks to go back to the farm every morning when she wakes up.  Her favorites were the slide, the swings, and the bunny rabbit.  Kaity has asked pretty much every day if we can go back to the farm.

So much fun!

Barrel Train

giant box of corn

making "corn" angels

swing ride & cheesy smile

bunny rabbit

This past Saturday, Oct 20, we went to Linder Farms, which is this great farm here in Idaho.  I've seen Carisa's posts on it the past few years and was so excited to take Kaity this year!  We loved it so much that she asks to go back to the farm every morning when she wakes up.  Her favorites were the slide, the swings, and the bunny rabbit.  Kaity has asked pretty much every day if we can go back to the farm.

Fotofly Family Pics!

My favorite of all three of us!

Originally we were headed to Utah to spend some time with the family, have a birthday party for my grandmother, and take family photos.  Family pictures are super important and fun to both me and my sister.
The first extended family photo I know of was taken in 1983 (ish). My uncle John was still alive, I wasn't yet.  The photographer was such a jerk and the picture turned out so horrible that the next extended family photo was taken in 2007.  Yeah, it was +2 grandchildren, 4 spouses, and 11 great-grandchildren.  That photographer was a friend of the family, Jay Bryant Ward.  He now focuses mainly on his painting career (and rightly so).

She looks so grown-up!

My immediate family took a group photo when I was in middle school.  I always loved going to friends' houses and looking at their family photos and seeing how much everybody had grown and changed - it made me kind of jealous and sad that we didn't have that.
Last year, my sister found this place on Facebook.  It's in Draper, Utah and it's called FotoFly.  They are amazing.  They have several different backgrounds and you rotate through everything in about 45 minutes.  They are AMAZING with children.  Last year I came away feeling like Kaity wasn't cooperative at all and my pictures wouldn't turn out - but I loved them!
This year, we all met up and did our sessions again.  Kaity loved all the attention and was such a little ham!  Here are my favorites from this year:

I am 3!

Candid Cuteness!

All the Zaelits

My dad is such a goofball, he is always doing stuff like this!

The best of cousins!

Brettster

 

Halloween Time

It's Halloween and we are loving it.  Kaity is going to be "Princess Hair" aka Rapunzel, so I am busy making the costume.  We are also getting ready for a trip to Utah to do family pictures and planning various Halloween parties for Preschool and Cub Scouts.  It should be fun.
I love the idea of having craft/learning projects as countdowns to holidays.  The Activity Mom has some great ideas and links, so this year we've put together a folder and have been doing a few of the ideas I found on her site.  You can see the whole countdown here.

So this week we have done sorting, matching, coloring, counting, and Spider Webs.  Kaity loved making these, and they were super easy and turned out so cute!  Kaity couldn't to wake her daddy up to show him her "pider wev." (Jared is working nights right now so he's usually asleep until 3:30, give or take).  Anyway, I didn't have any black yarn but I do have a ton of spare yarn so we picked out the colors.  I like how they turned out, I think the bright colors really make the spiders show up well!

Kaitybug turns 3!

Kaity totally got into the opening of presents, she was truly spoiled and had a great day!

This is a Mater book from her Daddy, she loves look and find books - and she is really good at them, too!

She actually squealed when she opened this Princess Hair (Rapunzel) doll.

She then had to hold Princess Hair with every additional present she opened.

Got some lipgloss and knew exactly what to do with it - don't tell me gender isn't inherent.

I got these dolls in a four pack to get the one for her cake, she loves the extras, especially making the wedding Flynn and Rapunzel kiss.

One breath!

This is her cake, it turned out awesome!  I was so excited because I was able to recreate the idea that was in my head.  Also, the little 3 girl with the doll was on my cake when I turned 3!

Thank you so much to everyone who came and helped us celebrate, we had a perfect day.