Dancing Kate

I failed to mention that in June Katie took her very first dance class with the Spanish Fork Youth Arts Festival. They had class every day for two weeks. The first week she did okay, the second I had to dance with her almost every day. But she came away knowing how to stretch, leap, hop, twirl (of course), dancing feet, dancing arms and worked on following instructions. This is a picture of Katie and her Aunt Tia dancing.

Girls Birthday

What with Katelynn and Abigail's birthdays being exactly a week apart we had a combined family party. It is amazing that they are growing so fast. Katelynn turning 3 and Abigail 1.

Every piece of clothing Katie got she had to put on, so here she is with about three layers of clothing on.

Abbie got the exciting gift from her parents of a new car seat, so this is her trying it out while "reading" her new book. I think Katie enjoyed playing in the box more that Abbie did the actual gift.
This is them with their cakes. Mom made Abbie's and Aunt Tia made Katie's request--an Elmo cake.

Jed's Birthday

Jed turned 29 this year.
For his birthday I made him a candied pecan, Sherlock Holmes birthday cake.

The night before Abbie turns 1

April 25th 2010. At the Younger Patrick's home.
Katelynn fell asleep in the car, making the transition from car to bed in her mothers arms without waking. She is almost 3.

Abigail on the other hand, is just getting started with playing. This photo was taken at about 9:45 pm. Does she look tired to any of you? Among posing in the warm comfort of Mom's sweeter Abbie began moving forward her little bouncy chair. I suppose she got tired of not seeing where she was going while traveling backwards.

Tomorrow she turns 1 and to be honest it is freaking me out. I know what everyone reading this is thinking "what a woos....." Your right I am, but if you came to date a teenage daughter of mine would you be intimidated by me?

Not one of Dad's better ideas

I am not sure how many of you out there in digi land are like me and hate seeing cute little kids cry. Well I absolutely hate it, which Abbie has probably figured out.

There I was eating a thin mint, my version of crack, and Abbie starts to cry. Its obvious after a few moments that she is crying because she wants my cookie. Silly me actually goes into the pantry and gets one just for her. Suffice it to say, Abbie fingers melt chocolate quickly.

Egg Mania

Our ward primary set up an Easter egg hunt for all the young children of our ward.
Of course they were smart enough to separate the children by ages. The younger ones got to go into the gym and hunt for eggs.

As the process began Katie ran, with Grandma in tow, to get the eggs she wanted.

Abbie on the other hand, after finding out candy was in the eggs, settled on just 1 Easter egg

Lucky for us, Grandma talked Katie into helping Abbie get the rest of her eggs.

The Amazing Abbie

It seems like we just blinked and now Aba is crawling and getting into everything. Just today she managed to fall down the stairs, hit her head trying to pull books off of the bookshelf and hit her head again trying to stand and reach for something else. Luckily Katie is trying to help and be a watchful sister. But she normally just ends up taking away a toy Abbie wanted to play with and makes her cry.

Scuba Katie

Last Thursday, not a cloud in the sky, but little Katie is ready for the rain to come down.

It began with my friend Dave coming over to visit / help me check out my car after it was making a very funny noise. His two children stayed around and played with us for a while along with Dave.

We went outside, after running into our neighbors began to play outside.

The mask my dear Katie is wearing comes from our neighbor Kirsten Quist (That might be the right spelling). She brought a large bag of toys outside to let the kids play through them and Katie decided on the mask. It was very funny to see her try to put it on herself, even more humorous for me to attempt it, then finally a neighbor successfully navigated her hair accessories and got the goggles on.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed HORSE???

For Christmas the Barton Grandparents gave the girls a horse. Not a real horse, but a bouncy horse, that sings (much to the parent's dismay). Abbie and Katie both really like the horse and enjoy bouncing and singing along with him. When she is sad, Katelynn has started running to and cuddling with him. The other day we asked Katie what the name of the was and she responded, very resolute, RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER has a very shiny nose. We tried to dissuade her and tried to get her to name it something more . . . horsey. But she is resolved the horses name is Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Growing up is hard on Dad

As most of you know I am a very emotional father when it comes to my two girls. Well lately, I have been watching them grow up so quickly that it simply amazes me how fast they are doing the who growing up thing.

Something very amazing, and very grown up. happened with dear little Abigail Mae the other day. I was sitting with her by me watching some non Sponge Bob cartoon (I hate him with a passion, his pants are RECTANGLES not SQUARE) anyway, Abbie pushed herself forward and did this spin twist move ending up in the position you see.

I at first thought she was going to begin the little, soon to go away and be replaced by a much louder, cry. However, my dear little princess Laughed at me and started scooting towards my bare toes. (She was trying to tickle them like Katie does)

It is truly amazing when I witness my dear little ones doing these small acts of growth. I wonder if I am the only weird one who thinks such things are so amazing and this blog worthy?