Zoo

Katie has been on a major animal kick recently. Within the last couple weeks she started saying "roof roof" when she sees dogs. She absolutely loves the squirrels and birds in our backyard, and she can't get enough of the Baby Einstein's Animal videos. So, Matt and I decided it was time to take her to the zoo. It was a rather hot day, but it was worth it. Katie really seemed to enjoy the trip. Nevermind her red cheeks in these pictures. I promise, we were doing our best to keep her shaded and drinking water.

Her 3 favorite exhibits were the monkeys, the rhinos, and finally Josie the giraffe. It was so hard to get a good picture of her. Most of the time she was so focused on the animals that I couldn't get her to look at me/the camera.

Katie didn't understand why she couldn't touch the bird and she just kept reaching for it.

Before we left Matt took Katie on her first carousel ride. Our little girl loves her daddy!

Playing Catch Up

So, you all may be wondering what happen to the Katie updates?!?! Well, I've been terribly busy at work, like 12-16 hour days, so please forgive me. With that said, I've got some catching up to do. Starting with Katie's 1st birthday....

Katie's birthday celebration is really separated into 2 days. Her actual birthday, Friday August 6th, and her birthday party on Saturday August 7th. On Friday we had a pretty low-key day at home. That morning we had a photographer come to the house and take professional pictures (I'll be posting some of those a little later....still waiting on the digital copies to arrive). The evening of her birthday we had dinner with my mom, my dad, and my grandmother. After dinner we took Katie for her 1st trip to Dairy Queen. As you can see from the pictures below....she's a fan of the chocolate cone! :-)

Being silly with Papa. These two are quite the pair!!!

Katie was born at 11:08 PM, August 6th 2009. Matt and I spent the entire day of the 6th reflecting on where we were and what we were doing 1 year ago. We even stayed up until 11:08, crept into Katie's room, and snapped a couple of pictures. Want to know how much changes in 1 year's time....check out the 2 photos below. She's a little bigger, about as noisy, and still melting our hearts.

So finally Saturday arrived, and it was time to party! We celebrated her birthday at our home and were fortunate to have most of our family, and a few close friends, to help us mark the big occassion. The theme for her birthday party was Lady Bugs....since we call her our Katie Bug Lady Bug! Katie seemed oblivious to the 25 additional people in our home. She was interested though in cake! :-) Go figure. Below are a couple pictures from her big day.

The house....before all the craziness began.

First bite of cake!!! :-)

Katie helped open a couple presents, but most of the time she made a total MESS of her existing toys.

This is a picture of Katie and her birthday buddy Libbie (plus me and Lara, Libbie's Mom). Matt and Libbie's dad were best friends growing up, bestman in one another's wedding, and had little girls just 9 hours apart - August 6th 2009. Thank you Lara, Benjamin, Libbie, and Jacob for joining us.

The cousins checking out a musical toy from Uncle Jake.

Here's Katie absolutely loving her rocking chair made by Aunt Katherine!

Her very own John Deere wagon......and yes, its pink! HAHA!

At the end of the big day, I'm not sure who was more exhausted....Katie or us. We all crashed and took a 2 hour nap that afternoon. Whew, what a day! Thanks again to all our family and friends!