The Most Magical Place

Last week we went to Disney World for a family reunion of sorts. Both my sisters and their families were there, as well as my mother and her husband. I have to say that it was probably the most magical week of my life. Each day we went out and rode lots of rides, ate lots of food, and had tons of fun. The kids were really well behaved all 4 days at the parks and seemed to have the time of their lives. Even us adults were able to get out a few times and enjoy ourselves.

Kara was a peach the entire time and it was fun to watch her enjoy running around the park (which she may have enjoyed more than riding the rides) and being with her cousins (once she got used to them). I'm so glad that we were able to do this and that everyone had a good time. No one got terribly sick or had huge tantrums. And Kara was a little angel on all FOUR plane rides to and from Disney. It really was the perfect vacation.

We arrived at Disney World on my birthday so my mom ordered Cheesecake Factory for dinner. This was my birthday cake. It was nearly as large as Kara and very delicious.

All decked out for Christmas, which made everything even more magical :)

Magic Kingdom. Probably my favorite because we could take Kara on a lot of rides there. She liked the teacups the most, I think.

She liked to hold Dad's hand while in the stroller. I thought it was adorable.

Running around like she owns the place :)

Dumbo! We didn't actually go on the ride because the line was always too long.

Bath time with cousin Angela.

We were one exhausted family by Sunday. But it was worth it!

I definitely want to return to Disney World one day when our kids can enjoy it to it's fullest...or just with Trevor because that would be magical too.

Deck The Halls

Kara had her first encounter with a Christmas tree (that she can remember) last weekend. We went over to the Bodily's and helped decorate their tree. It was a lot of fun. Now I just need to get motivated to get a tree for our house.

It didn't take long for her to figure out what to do with ornaments.

She was actually really good with the tree. She didn't try to take everything off or destroy things. That's my girl :)



Also, I just think this is funny so I am going to blog about it. The other day I was cleaning up and Kara was wandering around with me, as she usually does when I clean. I walk into our bedroom and I see this:

Kara had climbed up and plopped herself on the full laundry basket. That was the first time she truly climbed up on anything besides the stairs. She couldn't quite figure out how to get down so I had to help a little :)

Baby Shower

I helped hold a baby shower (one of the reasons why I've been a little busy) the day before Thanksgiving. It was my first time hosting a baby shower and it was for my good friend from NY, Chelsea. I was in charge of the decor, which I gladly volunteered for because I wanted to actually make some of my ideas from Pinterest come to life. And they did! Some of them took a lot longer than others. Mainly, the white crepe paper flower ball. I didn't keep track of the hours I spent on it, but it was many. I'm glad I never have to make that again (heck yes, I'm keeping it for future use!)

See that white thing? Yeah, THAT'S what took so long.

Really bad lighting, I know. But it was an evening shower...

The entire spread (including catering from Zupas, yum!). And yes, people were sitting on the floor. We ran out of chairs.



 I was also in charge of getting the decorations for the white onesies we decorated. I can't remember where I heard this, but what you do is decorate onesies with different things/sayings and then the mom-to-be gets to pick a winner. The winner gets a prize and the mom-to-be takes home the onesies. It's a great idea, I think. Everyone did a great job.

This was mine. If you don't get it, you don't know Harry Potter :)

Better Late Than Never

I realize I am WAY behind on blogging because I'm talking about Halloween on the last day of November. Lately, I have been pretty busy so I just haven't been motivated to blog. But I'll try and catch up a little. Here are some pics from Halloween. We went trick-or-treating with some neighbor friends and it was quite successful. I was surprised at how long Kara was willing to stay out.

We saw our friend, Becca, at the ward Trunk-or-Treat

She was a huge fan of the candy.

The icing on the cake of this whole Halloween thing was that Kara learned to say "meow" and would say it while wearing her kitty costume. It was perfect timing. And oh so adorable. Here's a video. Oh, and she also learned where her booty is...and how to shake it :)

Another Cake

Every year the Allen side of the family (my mother-in-law's side) has a Halloween party. Nearly everyone is a good sport and dresses up. Some show up in some really creative costumes. This year the theme was Alice in Wonderland. We had a couple Alices, Queen of Hearts, Mad Hatters, and Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dums. I was a witch. Not very creative, right? Well, that's because all my creative juices went into this puppy:

It's an Alice cake with Halloween colors! The fondant tore pretty bad when I put it on the cake, which I was expecting because of the difficulty I had making the first Mad Hatter cake topper (not pictured, it got the brunt of my frustration and went to cake heaven). But I'm still proud of the outcome. My favorite part is the teacup and hat toppers. I just think they're so cute. AND I'm really proud of myself for making a topsy turvy cake. For being my first try, I'd say it's pretty darn good.

"A" for Alice, get it?

My precious little hat cake. :)

I got more video than pictures of the party, so I'll post a video of Kara waddling around in her pink kitty costume. It's adorable. And she knows how to say "meow", which makes it even more adorable. But to tide you over :) here's one of her wearing my witch hat:

Not so happy about it. I think she didn't like it all that much.

She Moves, She Moves Like A Breeze

The title of this post comes from a YouTube video introduced to me my Freshman year at BYU by some friends we (my roommates and I) called The Bretts. I think it's hilarious, but others seem to think otherwise based on their comments. Maybe I like it so much because of the memories it invokes. Anyhow. I don't know why, but it's the first thing that came into my mind when I started thinking about a possible title.

BIG NEWS!

Kara walks!

A little over a week ago all she would attempt was two and three consecutive steps toward me. But on Saturday, at Grandma Bodily's house, she walked across the room for the first time (apparently she's extra comfortable/motivated at their house because that's where she first crawled too...exactly 4 months ago)! Daddy was away at the Priesthood session of General Conference so he missed it. She was standing next to Grandma on the couch across the room from me and I asked her to come over and give me hugs. Next thing I know she was walking over to me like she'd done it many times before! Funny thing was that if we showed any excitement she'd stop and plop down on her booty. Of course, all we did for the next day was prop her up on her feet and try to get her to walk. She resisted most of our efforts, but by Monday she was choosing to walk rather than crawl. It makes me smile every time.

I knew she'd wait to walk until she was so capable that she would just take off to the races. Until now, she wouldn't walk unless I was holding one of her hands...even if it was only one finger. Silly goose. She's a cautious one, but I like her that way :)

Sixth Disease

That's what Kara came down with last week. It's also known as Roseola. It's a viral illness that starts with a high fever, lasting up to a week. After the fever breaks a rash breaks out over the entire body. Thankfully, her fever only lasted a total of 3 days and the rash was gone within 3 or 4 days. But boy, she was a crankster for the duration of her sickness. Her fever got up to 102.7 Monday night and that's when I got a little scared. Thank heavens for baby Tylenol. By Tuesday I noticed the first signs of the rash on her back and on Wednesday she went to the pediatrician because she looked like this:

still smiling (sort of) despite being so miserable

The rash may be kind of hard to see but it looked pretty bad. Apparently, once the rash appears the child is no longer contagious. But I was still worried that people would notice the rash on her face and neck and judge me for taking my sick kid out in public. If she infected anyone it was before I even knew that she was sick.

So, Kara has made it through another common childhood illness. We've got RSV and Roseola covered. What will be next? I will say that I'll do everything in my power to keep her from getting the flu. Kara will start going to Nursery in January, but I am SO going to be that parent that scopes out the kids and takes my child with me if I see any signs of sickness. I don't mean to offend, but it's just not worth the risk.

Fashionista

Kara let me paint her FINGERnails! She was still the entire time and even tried to copy me by blowing on them. She only did it once but I'm sure she'll figure it out quickly because you've gotta know I'll be painting those nails again!

Kara is definitely going to be a girly-girl. She loves nail polish (well, she has starting to notice when she's wearing it and sometimes brings me over a bottle. so I assume that means she likes it...:)...), clothes, lotion (she knows how to rub it into her hands and will ask for it), shoes, brushes (she has figured out that you use brush to brush your hair), and lip gloss. Her daddy is going to be in for it; he'll have two crazy girls spending all his money...teehee.

Besides being a young fashionista, Kara is one smart little girl. Some things she does/knows now are (because it has been a while since I updated everyone on awesome my baby is):

-She knows a number of body parts: head, ears, eyes, nose, teeth (she's always asking me to brush her teeth), toes, bellybutton, and hair.
-She also knows what kitties are. She started pointing them out in Goodnight Moon and is quick to point them out in any book now. I swear she tried to make a mewing sound once. I always make the sound when she points to them and one night I heard her making a new sound. I turned around to see that she was reading Goodnight Moon and pointing to the kitties. She's a genius! haha.
-She loves to climb stairs but knows that I have to be with her when she goes up, so she waits for me.
-She has known how to sign please and more for a while now, but after only showing her a few times she has started signing thank you.
-She says "mom", "all done", and makes a mischievous face and says "mom" when we ask her to say dad. It makes me laugh every time, which only encourages her I'm sure.
-She will give kisses and snuggles on command. This is my favorite thing. She even started snuggling the floor when we call her precious. She must connect being called precious with snuggling because we tend to call her that when she snuggles us.
-She knows that her pacifier is only for sleeping. When she wakes up from a nap she takes it out and hands it to me.
-She has starting making the "aah" noise after she drinks. You know that noise you make when you take a big, long drink? Like it was so refreshing? Well apparently I made that noise once and now she loves doing it. Every time she drinks. It's hilarious.

I'm going to have to start being more careful about what I do. It's just amazing how kids become so smart so fast.

Climbing the stairs.

Munching on a snack.



She loves to snuggle pretty much anything. Look at those big front teeth! And a little snack to go along with it...:)



Budding Artist

Lately, I have been spending quite a bit of time on Pinterest. Not all of the time I spend on there is wasteful. One day I swear I'll do all those DIY/craft/gift/kid/sewing (when I learn to sew) ideas I have pinned on my boards. If anything, it is nice to see what things I like and what my style is based on what I pin.

Anywho.

A week or so ago I actually DID use Pinterest for something useful: I made homemade paints for Kara using a "recipe" I got on Pinterest. It was a great idea but I decided that next time I'll use a different recipe, one that calls for flour rather than cornstarch. I wasn't a fan of the consistency; it was more like gel than paint. But it was still fun to take Kara out back and let her play. She sort of got the idea and only tried to eat it once or twice (which was totally fine because it's made of water, sugar, and cornstarch).

See? She sort of got the idea.

We resorted to using fingers.

Finished product. With a little help from Mom.

Last Days of Summer

The Riverwoods, in Provo, is kind of a fun place to hang out during the summer. There is usually someone playing live music and kids are always running around in the fountains. It's just a fun atmosphere. I would argue it's Utah county's answer to The Gateway. Well, a while ago we went to dinner at Tucanos, located in The Riverwoods, and that's when Kara fell in love with the fountains. I let her play in them a bit while we were waiting for the rest of the family to arrive. She was in heaven. So, seeing as it was still nice and warm a few weeks ago I decided to take her back to the fountains, but more prepared this time around. Boy did she have a blast. It took her a second to warm up to wandering among the spraying water but once she got used to it she didn't want to leave.

She's my little busy bee...:)

Three Years and One Squishy Later...

...Trevor and I are still happily married. Three years doesn't really seem like that long, but a lot has happened/changed since that blessed day in August 2008. One thing that hasn't changed is how much I love Trevor. In fact, I would say my love for him has grown. He still makes me laugh...even more than when we were dating (because he totally unveiled his goofy side after we were married). But more importantly he is a loving, hard working husband and father. He is so good to Kara and me and I am so grateful to have him in my life. I love you, hun! :)



Lookin' good after a 22 mi. bike ride up Hobble Creek Canyon.



Family Reunion

Last week Trevor, Kara, and I went to the Allen family reunion. We had a blast. We went boating, ate lots of good food, went to the beach, played games, saw Harry Potter on opening day at this really old and smelly theater, had a dance party with all the cousins, and made a birthday cake for Jessica's birthday. Well, I made the cake. And Jessica is Trevor's sister. She turned the big 22!

Nearly all the pictures are of Kara because she's the only person I take pictures of anymore :)

Cheesy smile!

She ate a few mouth fulls of sand and didn't bat an eye. Gross.

Kara has a fascination with sunglasses. I call her a "cool lady" when she's wearing them. She loves it.

Swinging with uncle Brett. He was one of the few people she let hold her. And look at those thighs! YUM (Kara's, not Brett's. No offence, Brett...;)...)

She assumed so many strange sleeping positions in her pack-and-play, always getting herself scrunched in a corner. I had to take a few pics.

She was stinkin' hilarious in her life jacket. She couldn't move her head or pretty much anything else. But, surprisingly, she was happy the entire time.

The cake. Those daises took so long to make. There were TONS of them! But it turned out great!