Happy Halloween!

Our Halloween was filled with candy, candy, and more candy! I guess that's the way it's supposed to be. As the pictures show, Kale was a KU basketball player and Bailey was a skunk. I really got off easy this year because we had all of Kale's outfit (except the sweatbands), and the skunk costume was a hand-me-down from Kale. I glued a pink bow to the top so that people would know she was a girl skunk :) Cousin Kaden was an adorable Jayhawk. We met him at Uncle Neal's and he proudly announced, "I'm a Ju Ju (Jayhawk)!"

Prior to stopping by Uncle Neal's, we trick-or-treated around the neighborhood. Kale made it most of the way around our "block" before announcing that he had enough candy and wanted to go home so that he didn't get a tummy ache. Dain and I both agreed that was just fine by us. Hope your Halloween was as candy-filled as ours :)

Pumpkin Patch

The pictures pretty much sum up our trip to the pumpkin patch (Bailey Boo sleeping.......Kale and cousin Kaden playing)!

Miss Bailey

Bailey Anne, 3 months old...visiting mom's co-workers!

Bits of Advice and More....

Have you ever noticed that they seem to put up Christmas decorations and things earlier every year? I was doing some shopping this weekend and I saw more than one Christmas display! I haven't even got the kid's Halloween costumes yet!

Miss Bailey has sort of passed TWO more milestones: She's rolled over from her back to her belly twice, and she's had one laughing episode. Now, I have to be honest in saying that I didn't really see her roll over the first time.....I just looked down, and there she was on her tummy! The laughing episode came after getting her diaper changed. The girl loves diaper changing time!! I guess I would like it too, if it meant that I wouldn't have wet pants anymore :) Anyway, I started talking to her, and next thing I know she was in hysterics. I'm thinking about taking my act on the road........

Kale learned about fire safety this week at school. He came home with all sorts of useful information in case of a fire: get out fast, don't stop for your toys because mom can buy you new ones, stay outside, call 911, and my personal favorite........
"If your house is on fire, you can't have a party because your cake will get burned." Put that one in your file just in case you were thinking about throwing a party while your house is on fire! He has also become very concerned about what would happen if a tornado went into a fire. I'm usually pretty quick with come-backs for him, but we resorted to calling Grandpa Ballard to ask him because I couldn't come up with a response! Grandpa said that the tornado would probably blow the fire out. I'm not sure that's scientific fact, but it seemed good enough for Kale.

Kale has also decided on his Halloween costume: a KU basketball player. This is after being "Jake Sharp" the football player last year. I thought about trying to sway him in another direction (you know, something a little more creative), but then I realized that I won't have to buy anything for the costume, and that's just fine by me!

Dain's football team has continued to win games. He was actually sick this week with strep throat (again). The doctor told him that the combination of working in a very large office building, having two kids in daycare, and coaching a little league football team was like inviting germs into his life. I told him to toughen up :) I recently uncovered a new talent at our "Read Night" at school: face painting! I can do flowers, smiley faces, hearts and "KU" like no body's business. Beyond that, I'm really awful. I think I'm going to practice before next year if anyone wants to volunteer their face.........

Hope your week is everything you want it to be! God Bless you all.

The School Year Is In Full Swing

It's September, and that means one thing: BIRTHDAY FEST has begun! I'm quite proud to say that I kick off the annual parade of September birthdays on September 9th, followed by my friends Laura, Layne, Sarah, and Karen, and Ryan. My sister-in-law, Dawn, and my mother-in-law also celebrate September birthdays. I guess September is just a popular month to be born......... :)

So, I'm officially 26. I'll be honest in saying I don't feel either old or young.......I'm just 26. Dain turns the big 3-0 this March, and I'm more concerned with giving him a hard time about that!

Bailey is almost 3 months old now. She's got what I lovingly call "wild woman hair.' All the smoothing and combing in the world won't keep the hair on top of her head flat. They generally are sticking straight up! I think it gives her character, and lets be honest. If she's anything like her mother, she won't be known for being perfectly neat and groomed with flawless hair. She was baptized the last weekend in August, and Uncle Shane (Hammerschmidt) and Aunt Kelly (Ballard) are acting as God Parents. The weather was great and we had a nice time with all of our family at our house afterwards. She had a bad cold with a cough this past week that had us a little on edge, but the doctor reassured us that her lungs sounded fine. The last day or so she has sounded much better.

Kale is doing great. He is such a good big brother--watching him kiss her and talk nice to her just melts my heart! He is learning a lot at his "school" and spends a lot of time asking what letter things begin with. Last night he was watching "Pretty Woman" with me during the half-time of the KU football game. The scene where Julia Roberts is trying to buy new clothes was on. In the scene, one of the store clerks says something like, "Our clothes are very expensive." "You don't belong here." Kale watched that and looked very seriously at me and said, "They are not being very nice." "They should say, could you please leave?" Moments like that make me wish I had cameras mounted all over my house so I could catch him in action.

Last weekend I took the kids to the Hutch High/Rockhurst football game. Despite the fact that the Salthawks ended up losing by a touchdown, I was VERY impressed. They should have a very successful year. After the game, my nephew Kaden came to spend the night. He is so cute, I just want to kiss his chubby little cheeks non-stop! He did a great job, and didn't even cry when he woke up the next morning in a strange house. Kale and Kaden played and played-- their two favorites are races between the front door and back door and wrestling on the floor. Dear little Kaden gets left in the dust during the races (he is only about 1 1/2 compared to Kale at 3 1/2) nonetheless, he keeps chasing after Kale with a smile on his face. On the flip side, Kaden does usually dominate the wrestling matches!

Dain's in full swing coaching football. His 5th grade team looks to be pretty good if they can avoid injuries :) I've starting helping with running club at my school, and tutoring will start in a couple of weeks as well. Things are good as we roll along towards October. I can't believe it's almost time to start getting Halloween costumes ready! I'm still coming up with ideas for the kiddos, so if you've got a good one, let me know!

God Bless you all!

I Knew This Would Happen...

See.....I'm already behind. It's August, and my last post was about the 4th of July!



Here we go.....

Kale is doing great. He is back at "school" now (that's what we call his daycare). In his defense, Miss Erin, his teacher, does pre-school curriculum with them. He brings home some WONDERFUL art projects. We're working on the concept that not every single picture you make has to go on the fridge, only "special" ones. Kale says all of his pictures are special. How can you argue with that??



Bailey is now almost 2 months old. I know every mom says it, but I can't believe it's been two months. Maybe in two more months I'll be getting a full night's sleep again. Hey, a girl's got to dream, right? She is smiling and cooing and wrapping her Daddy around her finger a little more every day. There had been some debate about who she looked like, but after a recent comparison to one of my baby pictures it's official. She's a mini Katie. I'm not giving out hope that she'll get Dain's blue eyes, though.



Dain and I went on a mini-vacation last weekend. Our big destination????? Kansas City! You'd think I'd be embarrassed to say that, but you've gotta take what you can get! We went see Brad Paisley at the Sprint Center on Friday night, then stayed at the Westin Crown Center. The next day we slept in. Let me repeat that....SLEPT IN!!! (That was actually one of the highlights of the weekend) That afternoon we did some shopping, then went to the Royals game. It was about 110 degrees, but they actually won, so it was pretty fun. That night we went to dinner in the Power and Light District and hung out with some friends.

All of our fun and excitement was made possible because my parents graciously came up and stayed with the kids. Actually, they were in charge of a 3 1/2 year old, a 7 week old, a fat cat, and a blind dog (we were "dog sitting" Jack, Brett and Kelly's blind lab). In typical grandparent form, they took the kiddos to the fair, left our fridge stocked with food, and even offered to do some laundry. I'm still wondering why I told them not to worry about the laundry...

It may be a while until I post again; I start back to work on Tuesday, and students start the 18th, so I'm sure things will only get busier. Dain is coaching football again, this year taking on the fifth grade team. In my "spare" time I help with the running club at my school and do some tutoring. Somewhere between all of that I'll have to find time to post again.

Hope everyone is enjoying the last few days of summer as much as I am!!!!! I promise to post some pics asap!

4th of July

Where does the time go? Has it already been 3 1/2 weeks since Bailey joined our family? I guess so! Not too much excitement around here. We had a great 4th of July at Dain's parents' farm. The whole Hammerschmidt crew was there, plus a few extras. I think Kale ran about 10 miles chasing his cousins around the farm!! He really liked the idea of fireworks, but the "big" ones scared him a bit. As a matter of fact, after watching Dain shoot off a few fireworks at our house on the Thursday before the 4th, Kale asked if we could "just throw the big ones in the trash." Needless to say, his favorites were the smoke bombs, sparklers, and parachute men (all nice and quiet)!