Cute Pics...and Christmas Pics

It's been barely over 1 week and I've had several complaints that I'm not keeping my end of the deal here. So you want cute pictures...outside the hospital, huh? Here are a few. Due to upload time on the good ol' dial-up, I have to keep things small and simple, but I hope you will enjoy these.

I couldn't resist putting in this last picture from the hospital.

Christmas morning with Grandpa. She was Grandpa's little girl while he was here.

This is 10 days old.

Caitin is shy about hugging or kissing Mater, but she does love her. She has her own baby doll to feed and play with too.

We went out to eat and Caitin wore her new stocking cap everywhere!

Dad and I set out to replace the floor of our front entrance. He began demolition Christmas afternoon.

Caitin helped me put the final touches on the new hardwood flooring.

Bobbing for Apples

We all sat down to dinner on Wednesday this week and Sarah and I were talking about the day for a few minutes. Caitin had gotten quiet and I looked over and saw that she was about to dunk her noggin in her Taco Soup. I caught this little video of her before Wifey saved the day. (Heaven knows I wasn't going to help out.)

Winter Fun!

This week we received a bit of snow. Caitin didn’t seem to be fond of it to begin with, but we got her some snow boots anyway. She and Dad went out to check it out and try out the boots. Dad began shoveling the sidewalk, and she immediately had to try it! (I think she feels the shovel is hers because she had to carry it out of the store when we bought it.) She took that shovel and really went to work. She was doing her best to shovel that snow and succeeded in covering up almost all that Dad had cleared! All the while anyone driving by would watch and smile, and some would laugh at the site of this little girl doing such a big job! The funny thing about Caitin is that once she finds something Mom and Dad do that she can do, she wants to do that thing any time it is to be done. This usually lasts for a couple of months before the pleasure of doing something BIG wears off.

K-Mart scored some points on our list this weekend. When we walked into the store, their greeter came up and gave a tiara to our little princess. While we’ve been trying to keep that piece of information (that she is a princess) a secret from Caitin, we thought it would be alright for her to enjoy a little royalty before she is dethroned later this month. She wore the tiara every way she thought was right, and was very cute all day.

Oh yeah, and before I sign off for today, here's a little picture of Sarah and Caitin ready for church this morning. What precious women they are!

WORDS

Caitin has finally caught on to the idea of speaking. A couple of weeks ago she began venturing beyond "no" and "yets" to say words when coaxed... "pese" and "Dady". Just today I heard probably 5 new words! She knows the names of Thomas ("Toss") and his friends ("Peecee" and "Jainse"), says "toot toot" when she plays with them, asks for "cheese pese", and points to a jar of "penies" to play with on the bed. She attempts thank you ("de-do"), but we are more likely to understand "ti-er" and know she wants to watch "Pooh". Her own name has been pronounced properly a handful of times, but is most often reduced to "Tin". When she is in the tub she throws the shampoo bottle across the tub and says "SPLASH!" Very often we hear "theese one" and see her holding something in particular or pointing to a "game" that she wants to play.

We are glad she will be able to converse with her grandma and grandpa at Christmas time. We also look forward to the time when we no longer have to guess what she wants or doesn't want. Some day she may even be able to say "MOM"!

Saturday Night Activities

Sarah and Caitin and I each have our own agenda for Saturday night. Sarah is painting (in the nesting phase of her pregnancy) our bedroom. I was helping earlier, but she banished me to the preparation of my Priesthood lesson for tomorrow. I only add that so I am not thought of as a tyrranical husband, forcing my wife to paint the room "Drama Queen" red on a whim.

Caitin has yet again pulled out one of our more intricate board-games to practice her organizational skills. She pulls each bag of pieces out of the box, and then looks around for the bag of smallest pieces that Mom hid from her. Sarah relenquishes the hidden packet, in order to retain a peaceful environment.



I am bound to my Priesthood lesson, and am in the process of organizing the mass of information I have gathered from several sources. I'll likely forget most of these tomorrow and stammer through an agonizing 30 minutes. So for now I'm taking this little break to give all of you a glimpse of one of our better Saturday evenings.

Welcome!

So these first posts tell a little about us. We'll try to keep semi-regular posts, but it's not always very simple. We, like many of you, want to share our lives with our family, and have chosen to follow the examples of family members. I'm not a traditional blogger with a daily rant, but I suppose I'll eventually come around. We hope you all enjoy and share these little snippets of our lives!

Sarah's Scrap-booking

Sarah likes scrap-booking, but she likes making cards more. Recently she tried to include Caitin while making birthday invitations...Caitin is not the greatest helper yet. Guess what happens when you hand a stamp to a sub-2-year-old? Hence the bib. Sarah is a great mom.

She is now working on a train page in Caitin's scrap-book. Here is one of the pictures she is using.

Caitin loves trains right now, especially Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends. She also loves puzzles, and this puzzle is always out!

Caitin's 2-year photos

Caitin really hammed it up for her 2-year-old photo shoot. She did everything the photographer asked her to. I was astounded once again, though, at the prices they charge for prints of the photos. Of course they print extras and have them ready when we pick up the packet that we ordered. Upon seeing the prints they put together who can turn them down? I ask them what they are going to do with the photos that no one else is going to purchase from them and they say they are going to recycle my little girl. Maybe they don't say it quite that way, but that's the way it feels. So I pay the extra $30 dollars to save the moment and then I see that there are two more very cute pictures that we still do not have prints of. I ask the photo technician:

"What if I want prints of these?"

"That'll be $14.98 per print."

"What!?"

"And you have to order at least two prints."

"Yeah right." then to Wifey, "Let's get out of here."

They really have a strong market when they hold photos of our pride and joy!

Anyway, here was one of my favorites.

About Geo

From the day I (Geo) received my first Tonka Dumptruck...

Dirt became fun...and dirty became life!

Outdoor fun has kept me alive (albeit dangerously at times).

Anything with wheels is great fun, and especially in combination with a motor!

Anyway, just starting this blog to keep up with my little brother.

I know it's his wife that does it all, but the blog address has his name in it, so I'll give him some credit for convincing her to include him. Hopefully the drag of dial-up doesn't restrict us too much, cause we want to share our photos and life with our family abroad.