Picture dump from November and December

I'm starting with December's pictures.  This first one is a face Kaitlyn loves doing now.  She learned it over skype with her cousin Mykelle... I didn't even know she was paying attention.  Now she does it whenever I say "crazy girl." 

Kaitlyn wouldn't eat her bread with jam (she licked off the jam) until she put soy beans on it.  Mmmm.

We tried taking our own Christmas card photo by balancing my camera on a bike.  This is the best we got. 

Grandma and Grandpa Gibb came in the end of October and beginning of November.  Kaitlyn had the time of her life with so much attention.

We went to the SF Zoo.

We rode the train and watched the driver's pet squirrel jump off half way through the ride.

Kaitlyn's favorite thing was the carousel.  She had the time of her life and convinced Grandma and Grandpa to let her ride again.  

We had great fall colors at Stanford.  We had a photo shoot with Eva who was great because Kaitlyn copied everything she did.

She loved being in the tree all by herself!

 We went hiking at Uvas Canyon and decided it would be a wonderful place to live if it wasn't such a commute.

Thanksgiving was great in St. George, UT this year. We went hot tubbing, razoring, played pickle ball, watched movies, played a fierce game of Uno, went to the park, did lots of drawing with the cousins and all the usual Thanksgiving fun!  We had so much good food and got to see Beck Brower for the first time.  He is the cutest and best dressed little boy I have ever seen.  Sadly I didn't get pictures with him so I need to get the few we took from Mal's camera.  Kaitlyn got 4 new teeth, had trouble sleeping, and wouldn't leave my sight, but she had a blast with her cousins Alta and Ellie.  Here are some pictures from the playground.

I had fun making the pies this year and they all turned out great.  It just took us all night before anyone had any room in their stomachs from the amazing dinner we had at 2pm. 

Pink Flamingo for Halloween

I haven't updated for a long time, and it's too hard to get everything I missed, so I won't be trying.  Here are tons of pictures of Kaitlyn from Halloween.  I realized I haven't used my good camera in a long time because it was so easy to use my phone.  I went a little crazy because these pictures all turned out so much better than my phone takes.  

I get a crafty bug for Halloween and use it all up on Kaitlyn's costumes.  I don't really do much the rest of the year like this, but I have so much fun for Halloween.  I wanted Kaitlyn to be a pink bird, so flamingo it was.

Ron and Susan were here for Halloween and we had so much fun with them.  Thanks for coming! Kaitlyn loved every second.

Kaitlyn didn't really do much trick or treating.  At one house, I said to pick one so she took her time and concentrated as hard as she could.  She finally picked a sucker.  She demanded to eat it right then and there.  After that, she had no interest in going to other houses.  She had what she wanted and was completely content... and sticky.  

ABCs

Kaitlyn is learning so much so fast lately.  Every time we practice, she gets better.  Just ignore the random "choo choo" train noises throughout.  A few times ago, Kaitlyn would say "Beee" for every letter she couldn't say, which was most of them.  She's figured a lot out since then.

We love Visitors!

We had so much fun when Nicole, Stan, Mykelle, and Hailey came to visit us in the middle of May.  Kaitlyn just loved following Mykelle and Hailey and watching them.  She did get a little miffed that they kept playing with her toys, but that was a small price to pay for all the fun and joy they brought with them.

On Friday afternoon, Kaitlyn and I drove up to Muir Woods to meet Nicole, Stan, and girls on their way down from Portland.  We had fun hiking with 3 little girls and 2 strollers.  They played musical chairs with the strollers and walked and ran.  We stopped to look at a caterpillar and it was so interesting until Mykelle suddenly tried to step on it.  It was pretty funny- she was done looking, so it was time to be done with it.  We distracted her long enough to not have to kill it and went on our way.  We ate lunch on the way home and Kaitlyn and Hailey fell asleep.  We had hamburgers for dinner and played.  They loved our "back yard" and all of our toys.

Because of our small apartment, Nicole and Stan set up their tent on our back patio (it is fenced) and they all slept outside.  Mykelle and Hailey loved it, although one of the nights, would not go to sleep because they were having too much fun in the tent.

On Saturday morning, we walked to another park and had so much fun climbing and spinning.

This is Jeremy videoing the girls on a spinning thing.

When we got home from the park, someone in our courtyard had put up a bounce house.  Mykelle and Hailey loved it.  They might think we always have one at our house...

After lunch and naps, we drove up to Fisherman's Wharf at San Fransisco.  We loved watching the sea lions.  Kaitlyn kept yelling at them, and Hailey was very concerned when one of them was not with the rest until it joined them.

This was Mykelle's paradise.  Bubbles!  It's hard to tell in the picture, but there were so many bubbles from this bubble machine.  They were everywhere.  Mykelle even got to go inside the toy store and spend some of her own money.  She chose to get a smashed penny.  I love how kids love the simplest things.

We got some delicious Sourdough bread to share and cotton candy for the girls.  None of them liked it.  So silly. We got home and made homemade chicken BBQ pizza for dinner with pre-made pizza dough from Trader Joes.  It was very easy and good.

On Sunday, we went to church, then the girls took naps.  Then we took a tour of Stanford (Mykelle kept finding her dad's name everywhere.)  Kaitlyn wanted to push the strollers, so she was in heaven when she got to push Hailey. 

Kaitlyn had an instant bond with Aunt Nicole.  She was so happy to be with her and gave her hugs even.  She rarely latches onto people so fast.

In the main quad, we were reminded of Chariots of Fire so we had Mykelle race to the end.

Hailey decided to race too.

Kaitlyn thought all that running looked fun and joined in too.

Coming to the finish!

Mykelle exploring up the stairs.

We can't leave anyone out.

We had Cafe Rio Pork Salads/Burritos for dinner and played outside some more before bedtime.

On Monday morning, Jeremy stayed home from school for a while and we played in the sand.  Hailey was doing better with the sand now (she was a little scared of it) and we had so much fun while Stan and Nicole packed their car.  Jeremy had to go, so I was outside with all three girls for a while.  We went to the next playground over and were playing pirates and walking the plank when Mykelle went for higher ground at the top of the slide.  The slide was wet from sprinklers so I said not to go on it.  She went down anyways and did not like the feeling of wet pants.  So she did the logical thing and took them right off.  I couldn't hide my laughter, but we still needed to make it back to the house.  Hailey couldn't walk by herself at that point, so I carried her and tried to coax Kaitlyn to follow as we all went home to get Mykelle some dry pants.  Just as we got back, Mykelle ran away again and her dad had to chase a little pants-less girl around the courtyard.  It was hilarious!  She got put in timeout after that one.

We loved having family here and had so much fun!  Come back any time!