Teeth.

Can't see them very well, she so wasn't impressed with my taking this picture, but there's two little teeth by my fingernail.

Katie loves going to feed the horse. And since it's above freezing this week, she doesn't need bundled so much and it's a lot easier on both of us. She's so funny, just spends the whole time yelling at Bailey.

That's it for now, one more picture quick, Katie's waking up.

Squirrel bread

I made bread. Squirrelly-type bread with lots of grainy goodness. It's actually called Mashed potato flax bread. The recipe says "the potatoes give this bread a light, smooth texture". Eh. It's pretty good, but I think I need more practice. For the flour, I ground some wheat in the blender. The recipe calls for fresh ground wheat, but they use a mill and I don't have one. I think the blender worked nicely, but I used the coffee grinder first and some of the grains didn't get ground very fine. It's a nice bread, heavier and grainier than I'm used to, but very tasty. I think I'll try sticky buns next. Maybe for our crafting group next Thursday.
The recipe actually makes 4 loaves, but I turned one into buns and the other was in the oven when I took this picture.



And Katie was busy getting herself stuck on the table leg. I moved her to different places in the kitchen not less than 5 times. Every time she wound up stuck on this single table leg. I guess it's more magnetic than the others.

She has decided, now that Daddy has gone back to work, that she simply can not sleep anywhere but his spot on our bed. How sweet. She misses him a lot.

More excitement, I strapped her on my back with our new bug carrier this morning when I went to feed the horse. She was in her snowsuit and it was fairly warm today. We were outside for about an hour (no reason to go in if there's no baby inside waiting for me), and she spent the entire time laughing at Bailey. She just loves that dog. Charlie wasn't sure what to think of us.

Katie & a haircut

So apparently, someone pretending to chew on your cheeks and tummy is most funny. It brings peals of laughter and attempted retaliatory chewing. Which, of course, is funnier than the initial chewing was.

Katie is not quite crawling, but she's definitely mobile. She can scoot across the room faster than anything. She does it backward, but she makes it there. It's really pretty entertaining. Then she gets hung up on a wall or a chair and screams for someone to fix it. She can also scoot considerably well sitting on her bum. Not sure how she manages that, it's some sort of thing with her legs pulling her, I think. When I put her in the crib, or a laundry basket, she now pulls herself to standing. Which is very exciting if you're a baby. But it just reminds Mom & Dad that we need to get on that babyproofing.

Also, I got my hair cut & dyed. It was time for a change, and I'm very happy with how it turned out.

New pictures again:
Not sure what she's doing here, but she's doing it a lot lately. Maybe it's just too easy to push up onto her knees.
Haircut

More

I made another bug carrier, this one is called a mei tai.Katie loves it, and it really makes her feel lighter than she is so I love it too.

She helped make it.

We now have 2 teeth. They have broken through her gums but no pictures yet because they're still barely visible.
More later. There has been much not sleeping here and we're tired.

A New Hat for Bug

I made this for her yesterday. Haven't had a chance yet to put together the matching jacket, but soon, I hope. I'll post pictures of the whole ensemble when it's finished. The upper brown part of this hat is made from the same fleece I used for our new pouch. I posted a picture of that fleece a bit further down the page.

lots of pictures

I'll probably post more later.

Katie and her Great-Grandma Lake.Katie and Great-Grandpa Lake.
(I think she likes him, what about you?)

Great-Great-Uncle Bob
Katie Elizabeth and Katie Alizabeth. Me & Aubrey. I can't believe she's 11 already.
Plans are in place for her to come visit us this coming summer. Yay!

Me & Brynn.
She's almost 7. Wow!
Grandpa Lake made this horse for me when I was a little girl.
With a bit of modification to the mane & tail, it is new again for my little girl. Just because she's cute.

And, I finally had a chance to finish Katie's stocking, so here it is.

Catching up.

This is going to be a big jumble, because I've got 3 weeks to update. Bear with me.

First things first, dear sister... It's been exactly 2 weeks since the last picture, not three. So there.

We have had a whirlwind few weeks. We left here on Dec. 20 and headed south. Spent the first night with Andrew's sister and her family. Left there the next morning, late because there are kids there to play with, but we made it to Grandma & Grandpa's (the Greats) house in N. Idaho that night. The border crossing was super easy. We think that we got the same guard as we had when we went down in September but he wasn't so friendly this time. I imagine that the holidays are stressful for them too. We did Christmas with Grandma & Grandpa, and also Gary, Joy & Rob on the 23rd, then headed south once again Christmas Eve to surprise my parents with an early arrival. Stayed there until the morning of the 5th when we headed back north to Idaho for 2 days, then back to Olds for a night and homeward. Katie did amazingly well travelling. We've decided that she doesn't mind long trips but she hates short ones. She doesn't like the in & out, I think. She wants to be in & stay there then out & stay there. There was really very little crying in over 20 hours of driving time, and the little crying there was could be solved by some food, a clean diaper or just turning on the light so she could see.

We arrived back in Northern Alberta just in time for "the biggest blizzard since 1968" which over the next 24 hours became the biggest since 1980 and the biggest since 1978. We're not sure what the deal is there. Didn't seem like much of a blizzard to me, but what do I know, I grew up in the Willamette Valley where it doesn't snow. There was a bunch of wind and about 7 inches of snow, but it didn't seem much like any blizzard in any book I've read. Needless to say, though, Andrew had to plow the driveway the next afternoon when we decided to venture out of the house again. Or rather, he ventured out because one of his mom's friends needed a tow out of a ditch.

We've been home for almost a week, and it is so nice to be home. Bailey was most excited to see us. Andrew's cousin stayed here for her, but that's not the same as having her family home. Although, she obviously got away with more when Aunty Kristy was here than she usually does. Charlie is happy to see us, especially since we decided to start feeding him 2 meals a day. Morgan is Morgan. She acts the same now as she did when we left. And Jose is a fish, what do you expect from him?

And, we have a tooth! You can't really see it yet, it's barely broken through, but it is out.

I think that's all for now, except maybe one parting note:
Some of you have seen our dining room chairs. For those of you who haven't, you can peek at them here. People tell me I'm crazy to have white dining room chairs. "But," I say, "they have slipcovers. All you have to do is take them off and wash them." And they say ok, but secretly still believe I'm crazy. I can see it in their eyes. Well, they were looking dingy, so yesterday I took the covers off and washed them. And they are bright, shiny white again. Not so crazy after all.

Pictures to come next.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

We've been visiting my parents and a whole lot of people we haven't seen since we were last here 2 years ago. We've had a great visit, Katie has been loving the attention.

For Christmas, Katie received, among other things, a new amber necklace to help with teething,
A cozy new sweaterdress
and some crinkly wrapping paper.


I also made us a new baby pouch out of this fun, pretty fleece.

Ho Ho Ho. & PSA

Look what I did Mommy!!

Katie is very much enjoying helping with the Christmas preparations.
We're heading south within the week. Andrew will be off a few days before we thought he would, so we're not sure now where we'll end up when. I believe that we're still planning a few days in Idaho before we head on down to Portland, but I'm not sure where that puts us.

The nieces and nephew have a school program on Wednesday, so I think we're planning to attend that, then leave sometime after. Not sure now if after means nighttime or morning. Then we'll drive as far as Katie allows each day until we get where we're going.

In the meantime, I'm cleaning up the house for Kristy, who will be Baileys temporary roommate and the official feeder of the critters. Biggest item, make sure that there is food in the fridge and make sure that all the food in the fridge is edible food. Hope to tackle most of that tomorrow.

Katie's 1st Christmas

I got Katie's 1st Christmas ornament at the Butterdome Craft Fair on Saturday. I love it.

Miss Morgan

I just realized that I've never really spoken about poor Morgan except to say that she's fat. So here's Morgan's story.

Andrew decided one day that Bailey just wasn't keeping up with the mouse population, so we needed to get a cat. So we called the people who'd put up the "free to a good home" poster and they had one kitten left. She was approximately 4 months old. When we got there, they couldn't find her, so we told them to call us when they caught her and we'd come pick her up. Then, just as I was getting into the car, she peeked around from behind a bush and then she was ours.

She's a sweetie, and an excellent mouser. She loves Bailey and Bailey loves her. So happiness abounds with the two of them. Except when Morgan catches a mouse, then they fight over who gets to eat it. I'm not sure who wins that arguement.

She's pretty too. Here she is the day we brought her home.The second day, she'd already claimed Bailey's bed and toys.
And the girls cuddling.

Here are the pictures.

Bailey!

Charlie Horse!

And, the Christmas tree.

Just because

Katie isn't the only cute critter at our house.

Here are some more recent pictures of Bailey & Charlie.

Okay, well...

I was going to post pictures of them and of our Christmas tree, but apparently Blogger isn't letting me do that right now.

Oh well. My Charlie pictures aren't that great. One makes him look like I'm starving him, and the other one makes his head look deformed. His head is actually quite shapely for a horse, and he is most definitely not starved. In fact, he's the only horse I know in real life who gets to eat grain. Well, Jack probably does, but not every day I suspect.

Rest assured, all the critters are doing fabulously. Morgan has gotten so fat that if I wasn't certain she'd already been spayed, I would swear she was pregnant. Bailey is loving the snow, as always, even though in most places it's higher than she is. And Charlie is loving this grain-every-day, spoiled life he's found himself in.

Life, love, and the pursuit of happiness

Why do birds keep running into my window? They do it even when the curtains are drawn, so I'm sure they're just stupid. Actually, I think it might be the same bird that keeps doing it. He came inside for a visit during the summer, because that particular window doesn't have a screen. Not sure why, but hopefully it will within the next couple weeks.

Morgan is fat. She's going on a diet. She now gets fed once a day, and if she wants a snack in between, she can catch mice. That's her job anyway.

We started feeding Katie a bit of rice cereal last week. She's pretty funny with it. She doesn't like the first bite. It's cold, and that's just not okay. But the second bite is good stuff, apparently.

More comparison pictures

Here we are. 1 week and 5 months +1 week.
Thanks to Great-Grandma & Great-Grandpa for the adorable dress.

Hard to believe she's gotten so big.

another picture

Well, seeing as we're having some sort of developmental or physical growth spurt, or teething or I'm eating too much sugar or something... Katie isn't sleeping well. I suspect the teething and am desperately hoping it doesn't last too much longer.

But how can you resist this face?
This is how she greets me when she wakes up. I think I'm in love.

Look for another comparison shot soon. Just waiting on our photographer (aka Andrew).

Quick update

Just a photo montage today.
Maybe I'll update later if I get a chance.

Musings from the frozen north.

I happened to find a cooking show that I didn't know was on. CBC, go figure. So as I eat my kraft dinner, I'm subjected to mouth watering video of a greek community in Montreal. A bakery with a wood oven, fresh melons, grilled seafood, fresh herbs.... Hooray for boxed noodles. I need a good cookbook with recipes from other cultures. Thai, Greek, Indian, whatever. Something with lots of spices and herbs. Yum.

I have to laugh though. We got a phone call early (okay it was like 1030) this morning from my mom. Telling us how cold it is there and they got snow! Okay, the snow is exciting, but it's not cold there. Not a chance. There is currently over a foot of snow on my truck, and it was -30 when we woke up this morning. (that's -20 for you imperialists) It's cold. If the horse didn't need to eat, I wouldn't leave the house, but I have to take him hay. So I cover my mouth with my scarf so my teeth and lungs don't freeze, and march through the yard to bring him some breakfast. For those of you who know the layout of our yard, the hay is next to the garden and I feed the horse a bit behind the propane tank. By the time I got from the house to the hay to the gate, the steam from my breath coming over the scarf had collected on my eyelashes and frozen them.

But Andrew, Katie & I are nice and warm in the house, as is Bailey, Morgan is happy and warm in the garage, and Jose is as warm as ever in his bowl (though I may move him to the table so he's not so close to the windows. Only Charlie has to be outside, and he's tough. And he's got a nice coat. Horses, after all, were designed to live outdoors in all weather.

Oops, almost forgot pictures.

New diaper!
So cute.

Katie's new favorite toy is...

Anything that crinkles.

All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth.

It's funny how fast time goes. Katie is already 5 months old. Every day she becomes more of a kid and less of a baby. It's hard to imagine life without her. She loves the shower, thinks it's hilarious when the water sprays in her face, and loves to try and catch it. She's started "talking" to her toys as she chews on them. I wonder what she's telling them. She adores Bailey, won't even look at me if Bailey is moving around the room. She's also very excited about Daddy. We're going to find her a new carseat tomorrow, she's outgrowing this one rapidly, and I don't want to be stuck with one that doesn't fit. We'll probably move her up before she's too big for the bucket. My car now lives in the garage, so it's not quite so cold in there as it is outside.

I'm very excited for Mom & Dad & my Grandparents to see Katie again. As much as I want to visit for myself, I can't wait for them to spend time with her. The last time they saw her was September, and she's changed so much since then. Only a month left till our big trip. I'm so not looking forward to the drive though.

And can I just say how much I love cloth diapers? Even without the economic and environmental considerations, disposables just don't come near to the absolute cuteness. Not to mention how much happier she is in them.

Toes!

Katie's found her toes. She actually found them a while ago, but she's decided now that they are great for sucking on. She now rolls both directions too.

Cruisin' right along.

Katie pushed up onto her knees this evening. Yikes! This means crawling could be not much further down the road. I'm not ready to have a mobile baby! But she's so cute trying to push up, and she was so excited about it. She stayed on her belly longer tonight than she ever has before, and she was really working those legs. She even managed to spin herself around almost 180 degrees.

Of course, as with all great developmental leaps, this comes with crazy sleep troubles. Still not as bad as some babies though, so I can't complain too much.

Pictures!

Here is what Bug looks like when she's up past her bedtime.

Peeking over Daddy's knee

Leave us alone, Mom. We're snuggling.

Driving Miss Katie

Andrew's been home, so I haven't been updating like I should. Silly me not spending so much time on the computer. Our morning routine seems to be fairly settled at the moment. We wake up about 9 ish, play with Katie for a while, then Katie & I usually have a shower while Andrew eats breakfast. Katie loves the shower. Then after Katie goes down for her morning nap, I head out to feed the horse. This is a good routine to get into, because he will now need to be given hay every day. He's grazed down all the grass, that's what happens in a small yard. If I get used to feeding him during her nap, then I don't have to worry about forgetting like I do with the fish.

Katie is growing so fast. Hard to believe she'll be 5 months old in only a few days. We're on the hunt for a new carseat, she's almost too tall for the bucket now. I'm going to miss the convenience for those quick trips in somewhere, but most of the time I have her in the sling anyway so it won't make much difference.

This is the most recent picture, we were playing with her (go figure) while we were waiting for some friends to get home. She is so much fun. No teeth yet, but soon enough, I'm sure. She's chomping on everything she can get her hands on. And she feels the need to yell while she's chewing. That cracks me up.

Oops, she's waking up. That's all the update for now, I guess.

In horsey news.

We (I), after much thought, decided that Jack and I are not meant for each other. We just don't have enough experience to be a good match. So I had to make the decision to let him go. Had I held onto him, he would have either become a pasture ornament, undoing all the training we just paid for, or one or both of us would've gotten hurt. It was a hard decision, but I definitely feel it was the best decision to make, and I am very much at peace with it. He is a good horse, he will go on to be a great horse, and he will make someone very happy.

Dwayne (very generously) offered to trade one of his horses for Jack. Jack is going on to cow horse schooling. When he's there, he'll be worked/trained in actual ranching work. Dwayne thinks that Jack is a rare horse that will be excellent for that work and in very high demand. I'm excited for him and I'm glad that I had the opportunity to have him in my life and bring him to a place where he can realize his potential.

In return, I have a nice, well-broke 11 year old gelding in my life. His name is Charlie, and he's a registered Quarter Horse. (I still can't figure out how I keep getting registered animals.) Charlie has been used for team-penning competitions, dressage competitions, english lessons, western lessons, trail riding, etc. He's a well-rounded horse with tons of experience and I am very comfortable with him.

Andrew built me a fence here, so I even get to see Charlie every day. Katie has petted him a couple times but as yet is fairly uninterested.

Wow.

Apparently I got distracted. It's been ages since I updated this blog.

I guess I'll start from 4 months ago, the day our lives changed.

Katie Elizabeth was born June 23. No, Katie is not a nickname. We figured if that was what we were going to call her, we might as well just make it her name. She has been an absolute joy, and we now cannot imagine life without her.

We had an adjustment period, of course, but as soon as we learned to adapt to her schedule, life has been smooth and easy. She's growing like a weed and learning so fast. She's amazingly smart, and strong. Has had good head control since the day she was born, and has no problems walking around for hours in her sling. She loves to walk around holding our fingers, yes already, she's been doing that for over a month now. She's sitting under her own power and is almost stable enough to call it "unassisted", but she still needs a bit of balancing a lot of the time. She started rolling at 2.5 months, but only when she feels like it. Hehe. Today she figured out how to pick up her soother, turn it around and stick it in her mouth.

Will add pictures later.