Before Christmas

The girls received these beautiful dresses not to long ago and Carrie, being the wonderful family picture taking lady she is, decided that we would all sit down and take a photo. For those of you who have children, you know what we had to go through. For those of you that do not, it is a very large production to get a family photo with children.
There are two things that Katie does very well when taking a photo.
1. She says and does a nice Cheese when we ask her to take a photograph.
2. She holds Abbie's hand very well lately.
I think that it is amazingly cute that Katie loves to hold her sisters hand and is so sweet with her baby sister. I hope that will continue for a while.

Christmas letter 2009

Monumental achievement in the Patrick household, we wrote our Christmas letter before the actual day.

The Kids meet Santa and Mrs Claus

Attending the Leland ward party Carrie and Tia sat our girls down in the lap of Santa and Mrs Claus.

Don't let the photo fool you, right after Abbie sat down she started to scream.

While waiting in line Katie was very excited to see the big Mr C, but then when she actually sat down in his lap she wouldn't say a word. We probably need to teach Katie what it means to want things for Christmas.

Christmas at the Patrick's

As many of you are aware, its almost Christmas time and although it has taken me way to long to get in the Christmas mood I am now totally here.

My wife, who never ceases to amaze me, has spent some time decorating our mantel. I think it looks amazing, especially considering that we didn't have one last year.


**Please note: Our tree does not really glow like its a ghost, I personally think that it would be really cool if it did but that would probably be a very large fire hazard.

Goodwood and Heavenly Lemonade

I have been hearing for a long time that the restaurant Goodwood has the most heavenly lemonade and I had the opportunity to try some when Riche, Tia, Carrie, Katelynn, Abigail, and I went to Goodwood on the way to get Richie's Christmas present.

Well, I have to agree that Goodwood has some of the best lemonade that I have ever had the privilege of tasting. Katelynn as always loved playing with her BFF Tia, only pausing to take a photo with a cheese.

Thanksgiving in Gonah

Over the river and through the woods to Paragonah we went. Well, to be honest Carrie and the girls went first and then I followed behind after the work week was through. So on the way down I decided to send photos to Carrie telling her where I was (which she didn't find funny).

Now, each one of you will know that the thriving town of Paragonah is to the LEFT of the freeway. We will let the Barton Family know to expect visits from all the bloggers. :-)

After Dinner, Parker took out some toy cars that had to be the tiniest remote control cars I have ever seen. Katie took a liking to it and this video clip is of our dear sweet Katie "driving" the car. (I am afraid for the day that she can actually drive a real life car.)

In the Hood, well sort of.

The first storm of the winter season, at least the first one I can remember, brought out the coats for our dear little 2/20 year old Katie.

Once the warming coat was on, we headed towards the store. The one of choice was Macy's due to the cost savings on those lovely packaged baby foods. (Which I think taste nasty). Katie started getting a little bored with the whole walking around the aisle's thing and so I put up her hood and snapped a photo.

Blackberry storm = $200
Macey's visit =$68
Making my daughter laugh = Priceless.

Halloween Time

Trick or Treat time brought a cute Mini mouse and our little princess Cinderella. We had to teach our little Cinderella how to say "Trick or Treat" for about a week before. Now she always wants to say it.
It took her a while to get into the whole trick or treat thing but after that she was so very excited to go to each door. Tia went with us and was Katie's buddy the whole time.



Here is Tia dancing with Katelynn before we went out tricker treating, we call it the two princesses dancing.

Friends

Katelynn's trip to the cabin was enhanced when her "new friend" (her 2nd cousin Ellie) arrived at the cabin. The first night Katie latched right on to her and started following her around. They enjoyed dressing up, doing everyone's hair and playing with the dolls. They definitely are ALL girl. Here they are looking at Grandma through the stairs.

Talk about ORANGE

We were able to go down to the cabin this weekend for the opening of the rifle deer hunt. We all gathered at the family cabin to participate in the annual chili feast, Grandma-made doughnuts and of course the end dinner which includes some of Grandma's famous rolls! The girls loved all of the attention they received from the Barton family and Mom enjoyed the extra help.

Cabin Fever

Katie went to the cabin with the Barton's over conference weekend. From what I hear she had a wonderful time. She made herself useful by helping out around the cabin. See below how she is "helping" Stephanie with her hair? Katelynn just couldn't let poor aunt Bephers go with "crazy hair"

Great Grandma Barton read Katie stories while they were up at the Cabin. Katie loves to read stories and will love anyone that reads to her.

Magic Carpet Ride

At the end of August we went with the Barton's to Lake Powell. The sun was warm and the girls loved the boat. Katie cried when we tried to get her in the water until we pulled out the blue floaty. She called it her Magic Carpet, which she didn't share with anyone.
Abbie loved to chill in the boat and Katie loved to walk from the front to the back. Occasionally she would do ballet for us.
Somehow they convinced me to get on the tube behind the boat. Someone safely on the boat took this shot of us enduring through a turn..... Truth be told, I had a blast riding on the tube.

Good Morning Baby Sister

Katelynn has learned how to climb into Abbie's crib. We didn't know that she could do it and then one morning, hello Katie and Abbie.

The cutest thing about it is that she doesn't do anything to hurt Abbie, she just sits there and talks to her.

Abigail seems to like her sister pretty well and tend to laugh when she plays rough with her.

Singing

It is so much fun to sit and listen to Katie singing different parts of songs throughout the day. This was the breakfast songs (hence the pretty hair=).

Abbie is growing up so fast and she is definitely a cute chunk, weighing 15 and 1/2 pounds at her last doctors visit. But next to my big head she is looking pretty small. I still can't decide who she looks like but I have had quite a few people tell me she looks just like me. What do you think?

Smile

This is Abbie who is wearing Aunt Jamie's flower, which is about as big as her head. We have been especially blessed by this sweet girl. She is so easy going and loves to laugh and smile all the time and sleeps so well (which I am especially grateful for).

Chillin'

Katie chillin' with with Daddy in the car.

Singin' in the Rain

This is Katie quite literally singing in the rain. This summer she has loved singing and dancing with Aunt Tia and so she knows parts of multiple songs from "Singin' in the Rain". So Grandma Barton brought Katie a "'brella" and when it rained she had to go out and dance.

Sisters

So these are the cutest girls. I was able to quickly catch a picture of Katie holding Abbie. Katelynn loves her sister but only wants to hold her for a few seconds and she normally does NOT want to take a picture with her. Hopefully this stage wears off and we can get some more cute sister pictures.

Moving

So I just had to put this out there. Yes, that is Katie in the cupboard under the TV. After I emptied it to move she just thought that it was the best place to be. Katie only had one issue when it came to the move. When Grandpa and Stacie started taking apart her bed she was very unhappy. Subsequently that was the first thing to be put together in the new house and once she saw her bed and books she was okay. Actually the next day when we had to finish moving and we pulled up to our "old" house she said "no, new house."

SORRY

Okay, so I have totally sucked at updating our blog, but I do have a few excuses. We moved, very quickly, over the 24th of July. (Thank you , thank you, thank you to those of you who helped especially family who were sore for a month and Dan Jensen, who is my new best friend, because he boxed up my whole kitchen!) Then once we were in our new home we didn't get working internet for almost a month. Yes it has been weeks since then, but I'm a busy mom and only can update during naps. So please forgive me for the lack of info. I will try to catch everyone up. First of all I am now on Facebook. After my 10 year class reunion, yikes, where everyone was asking why I wasn't on I decided to just jump in. I will update the rest of the past two months with some fun pictures of my cute girls. Thanks for the patience.

Swingin' Time

Abbie likes her older sister, despite how rough Katie is with her.

Where Jed Lives

I have been thinking lately that I spend way to much time at work. So since it is a big part of my life I thought I would share where I love at work. The Cannon Building as a cubical farm with not a lot of living space.
Note the large bottle of Hand Sanitizer, the Crock pot I keep forgetting to take home, and the corner of my 24 inch monitor. Sadly I must confess that it is cleaner then it has been in the past as I am getting ready to move to a different building to head up the new DTS campus service center.

Chubby Baby

We went to the doctor for Abbie's 2 month visit and shots. We found out that she is in the 50% for height and 80% for weight. Quite a different experience from Katie who was, and still is, in the 5%. Our baby is not so small anymore.

For Sale . . . SOLD!?!

This past week has been very crazy. On Monday night our house went on the market and by Tuesday evening it was under contract, much to my shock and amazement. So with the prospect of becoming homeless we quickly began searching for a home. At first we thought we would buy land and then build, but land is still so pricey we discovered we could get a completed home with landscaping for cheaper. So we searched all over Utah county and found a place we like in Salem and put an offer in on it. So within a week we basically sold our home and bought another.
This is a picture of our new home, with stucco the color of Paragonah dirt:-).

Katie's Owie

On June 11th Katelynn had to have her Adenoids removed. Here she is coloring with Daddy waiting to go back. Katie did very well with the whole procedure and has recovered very quickly

Abigail's Blessing

On May 30th we were lucky to have a lot of family come for Abigail's blessing. It was a fun day, Jed did a great job and we had a fun lunch in our backyard.

Abbie and her (2nd) cousin Peyton

Abbie made her first trip to Paragonah and was able to meet a lot of the extended family. Payton was born about 4 weeks before Abbie, but they are about the same size.

Abba Daba Doo

Abbie is such a good baby. She is quite understanding when her big sister tries to share her food or hug her a little too tight. She still likes to sleep a lot during the day, but from about 8:oo-10:30pm she needs to be held and paid attention to.

Cute Girls

Katie has done quite well with the new addition of Abigail to our family. Most of the time she ignores her, but at least once a day she has to hold Abbie. In the car Katie always makes sure that Abbie is buckled in and will tell her "shhh, don't cry" if she is sad.

Daddy and the Girls

It is so cute to watch Jed with the girls. Katelynn and Daddy have become quite close since Abbie's birth. Katie has to have Daddy give her, her bath and put her to bed.

Happy Birthday

On May 3rd Katelynn turned two. Mom worked hard and made Katie's cake. But Katelynn's favorite part was the candles. We had to let her blow them out at least ten times, and we had to sing before each blow. We started to shorten the song by the third time.

I want to mow daddy

This morning I was going about my business mowing our actually green lawn. Upon turning back towards the house I saw my little Katelynn looking at me.
She tapped and asked what I was doing. I yelled through the window that I was mowing the lawn. My too smart for her own good child replied "ME MOW." Which later my sister gave me the idea I should have replied Finding Nemo is in the house. I guess I was not that creative this morning.

Kissin Kate

We have found that Katelynn is getting used to her baby sister, she loves to give her kisses.

Sometimes she wants to kiss her a little harder then we, her parents, like.

Abbie

Announcing the birth of Abigail Mae
April 26, 2009 at 5:00PM
7 pounds 10 ounces
19 1/2 inches

Disney Playhouse Live

A few months ago we went with my parents to playhouse Disney. She was so very happy to see all of her favorite characters on the stage. However, I think that my parents might have been more excited to see Katie's face then Katie was to see the characters.

After the show, my parents bought Katie Handy Manny and all of his accessories. She is still happy with her Manny toys to this day.

O Boy

Katie has some of the cutest faces, this one I think of as Katie saying O boy my head mommy. This photo was taken in our kitchen/dining area.

Looking back graduation day

After a long time attempting to get through school I finally finished. My wife had to convince me to walk in graduation, but after I walked I was glad Carrie had convinced me to walk.

You may notice my daughter's tongue sticking out of her mouth, that would be an inherited trait from me when I am really smiling my tongue pops out of my mouth.

Eating Mickey

My parents went to disneyland recently, when they returned they had a gift for us. They brought us a pancake outline in the shape of Mickey Mouse.

For those of you who don't know, Katie loves Mickey Mouse. So naturally, my parents knew she would love Mickey shaped pancakes.

When she saw the pancake shaped like Mickey she screamed with excitement. The problem happened when we attempted to have her eat the pancake.

Running Baby

When we went to see Tia and Richie and there house Katie noticed the treadmill and had to hop on it.

Her aunt Tia was more then happy to introduce Katie to the Treadmill. After she ran on it for a few minutes she wanted to see what her Uncle Richie could do. Richie out ran the treadmill much to Katie's excitement.