these little piggies

kate has her first piggytails! i know, it's a stretch, but they totally count :)sorry for 5 pictures of a hairdo, but i couldn't really decide, so i uploaded all of them :)

thanks for the suggestion, danae :)

Breakfast for dinner...

I had an uncontrollable urge for French toast on my drive home from work. We hit IHOP at about 10:15 p.m. Kids eat free at IHOP on Tuesdays...but only from 4-10 p.m. They wouldn't even give us just a side of hash browns for Kate. That was some good French toast.

Kate wandered into the office carrying one of my empty soda cans she found in another room. She knew exactly what to do with it. Believe it or not, I haven't given her any soda at all. Then she'll get hooked and want to drink all MY soda. Can't have that, now can we.

the croup is the crap

sunday afternoon, we noticed kate was starting to lose her voice and cough here and there. i was hoping she wasn't getting a cold and kind of chalked it up to her being really tired, which she was. by about 9 that night, she was down for her nap [i know, i know, 9pm for a NAP? what are you crazy? no, we're geniuses :)] anyway, she started coughing so much and so severely that she couldn't catch her breath - at all. she was barking and wheezing and scaring the crap out of us. weston was sure it was an asthma attack since he's struggled with it his entire life. we decided she needed to go to the hospital. i think i stayed pretty composed (hearing your child labor for every breath is unnerving to say the least) and got her in a fresh diaper and fresh pjs so we could take her to the ER.

getting out in the cold night air seemed to really help, she was able to really calm down and catch up with her breathing. by the time we got to the hospital, she was back to her crazy self - doing laps running circles in the waiting room. we got her to a room and she was checked out and determined to have croup. i guess the main difference between croup and asthma is that you labor on the exhaling or labor on the inhaling (i think asthma was the exhaling). anyway, they gave her a dose of steroids to open her airways and she had to sit under a cool mist hose for what felt like all night (she was NOT a fan of the continuous burst of air in her face). needless to say, we were all relieved and ready to go home when she got discharged.

she's doing pretty well but still sounds pretty bad. of course the nights are worse, so there's that to deal with. hopefully she'll get some good sleep tonight.

not a fun close to the weekend, but we're glad she's a survivor! :)

mr. president

the following is a non-partisan, non-specific rant about politicians. and the way they love interrupting regularly scheduled programming.

why is it that presidential speeches have to be televised on every major network? fox included? fox used to be cool enough (really? maybe that's an overstatement) to not feel the pressure to join in on the televised speech club. and why is it that no matter WHO is speaking, the audience feels the need to break out in applause and/or give a standing ovation (usually a combination of the 2) every 6 words? not only is the night's programming lost, the interruption is probably twice as long as necessaryt because of the overzealous applause. we get it, you like what he/she is saying - do you really feel the need to stand and show it EVERY SINGLE TIME? i think these are occasions when the audience should be instructed to "save your applause for the end of the show." don't you think that would be a good idea?

one thing i do have to say to mr. president, and i'm going to include my disclaimer that: i don't care too much about politics and i hate the contention it stirs, so take my opinion/naivety with a grain of salt. so my one thing to say is this - i may not understand the entirety, but i think this bailout business SUCKS. guess what, we didn't buy a house 5 years ago. we signed a purchase contract, we started the loan process, we were even in underwriting, but we didn't complete the transaction. we knew, no matter how low the rates were, no matter what people told us ["you can afford the house payment..." or "why pay rent when you can pay almost the same amount for a house..." or "you really need to take advantage of the market right now..." etc.] so no matter what people told us, we KNEW deep down that we really probably couldn't afford a house. we knew that the next 5 years were going to be unsure (school, jobs, kids, etc.) and we couldn't bank on being able to afford that payment every month. so guess what. we didn't buy a house. and we have been renting the whole time. but hey, maybe we should have bought a house that we couldn't afford, maybe now we'd be able to bank on money from someone else to pay for us. man, we really are suckers!

sorry for all you home owners out there that think the bailout is awesome.

some of my favorite people

so in preparation for our impending departure, we have become aware of wanting to spend as much time as possible with our friends here in utah.

on saturday, i got to have lunch and spend a few hours with my girlfriends. i didn't take any pictures (how does that always happen?). so i met up with erin g, emily, and michelle at michelle's house in orem. we usually go out, eat, and chatter loudly, but this time someone suggested we pot-luck at someone's house so we could relax more and get to spend some time with the kiddos.

i made my mom's brocolli cheese & chicken soup - it was delish! i was proud of myself :) we had soup, salad, bread, and this yummy peanut butter cake. we talked and talked and caught each other up on life and love and kids (sorry em & erin!) :) it really doesn't matter how much time passes between our get togethers, we always just pick right up as if we were all still working together. i can't believe the time is coming where the group will be split (by distance) again. we have dwindled in number over the last few years and the 4 of us are all that are left! i can't believe i'm next! i will miss you girls DEARLY so we must see each other a lot before the summer comes!

on sunday, we had dinner with cory, danae, and their kids: zoey and colston. thanks for inviting us over, guys. we had a great time! danae made the yummiest sandwiches (my first time trying au jus - SOOOOO GOOD!) and i had literally THE best cookie in my entire life :) we love you guys! if we end up moving away, i don't know how it's going to feel being so far away! :) seriously, weston and cory have been best friends since 6th grade and i fall in there somewhere around 1996 :) thanks for all the invites! you guys are the best!

I look old, and Kate is a mess. Oh well.

count us numbered

among the throngs of first time parents who take millions of pictures of their first born.

we partied like it was 2009

now onto kate's birthday party.since we had her party in monroe to save everyone else the travel, great grandma carson came over to give kate her birthday presents - she got a doll and some clothes.
thank you great grandma!


in monroe . . . kate had lots of family there: grandma and grandpa cottle, grandma and grandpa colton, aunt jessie, uncle chad, aunt annie, and cousin sophie, and great aunt ann and uncle sherwood.
sophie is 2 1/2 months older than kate, but she sure is a lot bigger! she will have a lot to teach kate in the next couple of years.but kate doesn't need to learn a thing about being cute :) i think she might know it, too.with grandma coltonkate's cupcakes! i made the cupcakes, cookies, and 2 kinds of frosting! i was pretty pumped on the results. they were ULTRA sweet, however.
a little bit of festive decor
everyone getting their grub oncan you spot her 2 front teeth on top? they are still making their way down. i know top baby teeth are so huge, but i can't wait to see them - we think she looks adorable with her big front teeth!just like a baby shower, i had everyone write something down - but there were no shower games involved. i just asked everyone to write a note to kate so she could read them later on and know who was there to celebrate her first birthday and hear what they had to say to her. i'm glad i did this - i suggest it to everyone.with daddyand mommy - i got to help her unwrap her giftsshe totally got the hang of it, though. i think everyone's applause between shreds of paper really helped her get going :) she did MUCH better than at christmas!kate and her new doll, too bad you can't see the face - she's really cute and it was super easy to do!
the big ticket item for the night - her own table and chairs! she was pretty excited and so was sophie :) they both jumped right up there and started pounding on top of the table.with grandma cottleand grandpa coltonsinging and blowing out candles, of course i had to help her with that before she burned her fingers grabbing at the flame.yum!i wish we had this on video - it was the cutest thing, i promise :)with aunt jessie

thanks to everyone for coming! we had a great night and kate loved every minute!

happy birthday, kate!

i can't believe that a year ago to this very minute, weston and i were alone with our brand new baby girl. my mom had probably just left the hospital to go stay at our place and we were now 3. kate was so wide-eyed and alert - she just looked around at us and the room like she was taking everything in. she was such a beautiful baby, perfectly shaped head, gorgeous pink skin, beautiful dark eyes. i was in love instantly. talking about it makes it even harder to believe that it was actually 365 days ago! where in the world does the time go? kate was born just before 9pm and the three of us stayed up until about 3am getting to know each other. i wish i had a video of that night so i could just relive, and watch through a different viewpoint, the entire thing. i am so grateful for the blessing that kate is in my life - it may sound trite and cliche, but she is such a blessing to weston and me. she is the first and i am so happy she came to me one year ago.

i love you, kate! happy birthday!

one year ago

how can 12 months go by so fast?please please please ignore the frightening amounts of back fat, but feel free to pay attention to my cute haircut :) pregnancy gives you the best hair!boy were we ready to meet her, and boy did we not have a clue! :)