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Who are you?

Tonight we went to visit Santa. Katherine was pretty upset about it. We plan to try again and hopefully get a better picture where she is not crying.

For those of you in Dallas, the Santa at Northpark is great. He is really an old man with authentic white hair and beard. He was great at pulling out toys to try to get her in a better mood. The best part is that while they do take a picture and you can buy it from them, you can also take your own pictures for free! That was great news for us since we would not have wanted to pay for a picture with her crying.

Well, we thought that we were all over the illness. But, apparently when we went to see Sam’s family we were still contagious though we had not had any symptoms for 48 hours. On Saturday Sam’s dad, brother and sister-in-law all got sick. We stuck around a little longer than planned to help out with the other kids so that they could all rest. Then on Sunday night Katherine got sick. She was nursing and getting ready to go to bed when she threw up all over me (sorry, no pictures). We gave her a bath and she was perfectly happy and awake for another hour before nursing again and going to bed. She did not wake up any more frequently than usual and was her normal self today.

From November 2006

Today I decided to wask all of her toys to get rid of all the germs. I just put them all in the washing machine. Most of them say to wash the surface with a damp cloth but I di dnot think that would really kill the germs. All the toys came out ok except for the red dog. He is now possessed and barks on his own. Hopefully when he dries out he will go back to normal.

What a fun weekend with cousins. Katherine had a great time chasing around Emily and Nathan and Ty. She also had a fun time pulling up to Hannah’s bouncy seat and bouncing her younger cousin. There were times I was glad Hannah was strapped in because it looked like Katherine was tryin to catapult her. I anticipate that it will get even more fun as they get older and are able to play even more.  

From November 2006

Story Time

Katherine enjoys books but at this stage that often means squirming and turning the pages before I can read the words or of course, eating them. Grammy some how got her to sit still to rean an entire bedtime story with her cousins. So precious.

The Broyles Family

This year we spent Thanksgiving in Wichita Falls with Sam’s family. It was a fun time to spend with the gang and the cousins enjoyed playing together. Katherine was able to interact more than before and even sat still long enough for Grammy to read them a story.

This year we are thankful for many things. Of course the most obvious is our sweet beautiful baby girl. We are so thankful that we had a healthy pregnancy and delivery and that the past 9 months have been so wonderful. We are so lucky.

We are thankful for both of our wonderful families and that Sam’s brother and sister have moved closer to us so we are able to enjoy more time together.

We are thankful for our great friends. We are truly blessed with so many great friends - Christy’s girlfriends, Sam’s guyfriends and our couple friends. They are such an encouragement to us as we raise families and struggle through life.

We are thankful for our church and the family we have there. Though sad that our Sunday School class has dissolved, we are thankful for the three and a half years we had together and the life long friends that we formed.

We are thankful that we live in the US and that we have freedoms that are not enjoyed by so many others.

We are thankful for God and our relationship that we have with him and the salvation we have through him. Without that, we would be such different people with no hope or purpose.

9 Months Old

Katherine, today you are nine months old. That means you have now been alive as long as I was pregnant. That is pretty hard for me to believe. I continue to be amazed by you and how much fun you are. I laugh with all of my friends because every month we all say that it was our favorite month.

You are a really fast crawler now. You follow me all over the house and get into everything. Sometimes you move so fast that I can’t find you. I have had to move all of our plants (fake ones) out of the den because you love to go over and pull all the moss out of the pot. Really pulling things out is one of your favorite activities. You pull trash out of the trash can, laundry out of the basket, toys out of the basket . . . Someday we will have to teach you how to put the things all back where you got them.  You love to stand up and can pull up on anything. You just need a little something to support you and help you balance. YOu can “cruise” along the furniture really well too. You have not tried to let go too often so I am not too worried that you will start walking soon. That will be exciting, but I am not quite ready for it.

We are still working on eating solid foods. You like almost everything, just in really small quantities. We are also working on getting the consistency a little chunkier. You prefer homemade baby food and big people food over the stuff in a jar. We are introducing protein as well. You are still not great at a sippy cup. You can actually get the water out, but you just don’t like it. Your favorite is still just to nurse. You sometimes still nurse 8 times a day. I don’t think you realize this, but that is actually a lot for a 9 month old. I have been working really hard to get you to eat more solids so that we can stretch out how long you go between nursing.

You finally have teeth! Your two bottom teeth poked through about 2 weeks ago and I feel another coming in on top. That has not caused you too much pain and it is helping in your eating.

You are still not the best sleeper. It is really hard to get you to take a nap longer than 45 minutes unless it is in the car and you are still waking up at night. I am so ready for you to sleep better so I can sleep better. You have one tired mommy! My favorite time of day is when you wake up in the morning. Usually when you wake up daddy will go get you and bring you to our room to nurse. Sometimes you will fall back asleep but when you wake up, you play on our bed between us. It is so fun for all three of us.

You are so curious. I love to watch you as you investigate something or just sit and observe. I forget that everything is new to you and things that I take for granted are exciting and interesting.

You love to laugh, squeal and make all kinds of fun noises. It is so fun to get you laughing by tickling you or having Hooligan lick your feet. You babble all the time and talk to your toys. It is so cute.

You are expecially interested in your dog, Hooligan. If Hooligan is in the house you want to crawl to be with her. She actually is not that interested in you unless you are in your high chair and you get frustrated that just when you get to her she will walk away. You love to pet her fur. There is a chance that you are trying to say “dog”. You were in your high chair as Hooligan was lurking about hoping you would feed her some puffs (you think that is so much fun). You were looking at Hooligan and kept saying, “ga ga ga”. Maybe it was “dog”. I think you also may finally be using your first sign. When you are done eating you have waved one hand around kind of like I do for “all done”.

You have started wearing shoes more now that you are cruising and the weather has gotten colder. If I put you in your carseat, I usually hear the velcro ripping. By the time we arrive usually you have one or both shoes in your hands and you look so proud of what you have done.

You are having so much fun with your friends. We continue to have weekly play group and play dates. Now that you all are sitting, crawling, standing and cruising, you are having so much more fun as you play.

I am so thankful that you are such a sweet little girl and that I am your mommy.

Must get dinos

Katherine loves her dinosaur bowling set. She does not really get the bowling part yet, but she loves her dinos. So far this is the toy that Hooligan loves the best too. Occasionally I will find one of the “bowling” balls in her mouth. Katherine also loves to look out the window at Hooligan so I set her dinos in the window sill. They did not last long before being knocked down.

My Daddy Pillow

My daddy is so comfortable. I love to take a nap on his chest. See how comfortable I am.