I don't want to spoil the photos that we are sending out for Kate's 2-year mark, so I am mostly posting photos we didn't actually choose. This was the most fun photo session yet because Kate was in a great mood, and when the ladies posed her, Kate embraced the moments of feeling like a model, and they got some hilarious shots. It helped that Kate was feeling pretty sassy in her boots (I couldn't help myself- having a girl is dangerous!).
Grandma and Grandpa Adam came down for a much-awaited 4-day visit. Unfortunately, Greg had a stomach virus almost the entire time they were here, so he was stuck in the bedroom and missed out on a lot of fun. The hit gift was a Dora house that Kate could crawl in and hide. She also built tall towers, played shuffleboard with Grandpa, and by the end of each night, was exhausted. Grandma and I spent a couple of naptimes in "retail therapy," and the best news of all is that we will get to see them again this weekend for Kate's 2nd birthday party. What a great couple of weeks!
Christmas this year was so much fun with Kate. She helped pass out presents (my long time job) at Aunt Nancy's house on Christmas Eve. Her favorite part may have been actually unwrapping the presents more than actually seeing what was inside. Though she did say the occasional, "Oh, wow!" or "Neat!" On Christmas Day in the afternoon, we went over to hang out with Emmy (Jenny's baby), and the picture of the two of them is only a result of Jeff (Jenny's husband) waving a Santa hat around and acting goofy in a desperate attempt to get them to both stop at the same time for the perfect shot.
We got all dolled up and headed to the last Sunday before Christmas church and then came back home for picture time. Now anytime I take a picture of Kate she says, "Cheese...Go Hawkeyes!" because of the video I took on our camera for the blog yesterday. She's a little confused. The two pictures side-by-side are of last year's Christmas and this year's. I can't believe how quickly the time has passed and how very much Kate has changed over the past year. Just today, she sat at her little table/chairs set downstairs and said, "Party time!" as she picked up her teacups and teapot to mix up her special blend of tea for Greg and me. What fun we have in store for the year ahead!Because Greg and I wear Hawkeye attire way too often, Kate one
day pointed to one of our shirts and said, "Hawkeye." Then, we said,
"Go Hawkeyes!" and now she loves to say it too. We're so proud:)
Grandma bought this sassy dress for Kate, so we had to get some pictures on the way out the door to church last weekend.
For the second year in a row, we have continued my childhood tradition of heading out to a Christmas tree farm to choose the perfect tree. Even when I came home from college, my dad and I would pick the tree together. So Greg, Kate, and I drove to Wright City and found a lovely tree to then take home and decorate. In the first picture, Kate found one just her size, but we left that one to grow for a few more years. In the third and fourth pictures, Kate is playing with the manger that Uncle Joe and Aunt Marcia made for my parents years ago. So she calls the manger a "house," and says "match" as she holds Mary up to me and Joseph up to Greg, and she calls the straw the Baby Jesus is laying in "hair," but at least seems interested in the real meaning of Christmas:) The final picture is one Kate took with our camera of the partially- decorated tree. 
After an incredibly healthy almost two years, Kate has had a little rough patch of ear infections and a virus, all packed into November, causing a lot of missed daycare. I'm not complaining, though, because we've spent a lot of time relaxing at home. Bailey's not complaining, either. She got some snuggle time in with Kate, too:)
I was not hopeful that Halloween was going to be a big hit. Every time I said, "Kate, are you going to be a ladybug?" she replied with, "No, no, no, no, no, no." I even tried to get the costume on her on several occasions, each time resulting in a scream-fest. On actual Halloween night, though, I was a woman on a mission. I bribed her with a sucker (great parenting skill, I realize), and I thought that might be the solution. However, as I put the costume over her head, she began crying. This crying, though, was quite non-threatening, so I pushed forward. We ran out the door in hopes that other forcefully-dressed children would be gleefully walking around the neighborhood. They were not. We were early. But the outside air worked its magic, and Kate shyly began to embrace her "ladybugness." We forged on through the neighborhood, and by the last few houses, she was even saying, "Bye-bye!" and "Boo!" At home, Kate carefully rummaged through her loot and discovered (for the first time ever!) the joy of chocolate candy. The night was quite the success:) See the video below for the trick-or-treating aftermath:
Kate and Daddy carved Kate's first pumpkin while I supervised and took a ton of pictures. The end result was a happy pumpkin with a few missing teeth here and there. Ironically, I didn't take a picture of the end result because by the time we were finished, it was way past time for dinner, and Kate let us know she was beyond ready to eat. Oops.
Kate and I got home from school last Friday, and all she wanted to do was lounge on the ground and watch t.v.- totally not like her. I took her temp. and, sure enough, she had a fever. I stayed home with her the next day, and she was lethargic but happy until Saturday in the middle of the night. She started screaming, flailing, acting just plain strange. I told Greg I was expecting her head to start turning in full 360 degree circles Exorcist-style. We took her to the ER and, sure enough, she had an ear infection. It was her first official one, so we are really lucky. The antibiotics have done the trick, and she is back to her sweet self:) Bailey was looking out for in the first picture, and she was sitting with all her stuffed animal friends in a wheelbarrow in the second one. 
On Greg's day off of school, he took advantage of the great weather and spent the Daddy/Daughter Day with Kate at the Missouri Botanical Gardens. Kate loved playing in the "wa wa" and climbing around on the crocodile sculpture. When Kate was napping in the afternoon, Greg sent a couple of the pictures to me via e-mail, and they made me want to be home even more than I already did:(
We headed out to Eckert's for a morning of apple-picking fun. Kate had a blast. She collected as many of the ground apples as she could fit into a bag, and then I would dump them on the sly. And by the way, yes I am that pathetic...she is wearing a shirt and pants that have apples on them:) 
