What Was That I Was Saying...

....about KT being stubborn? Cause tonight, she was totally killin' it! So proud :)

Piggies

They may be small, they may be crooked, but I can FINALLY get KT's hair in piggies. And I LOVE IT!

Just Because

Happy Birthday, Grumps!

My Dad is 62 today. I always knew he'd be a great Grandpa (or Grumpa), but to witness it, is completely awesome! Happy Birthday, Dad! Love you!

KT is 14 Months

My little girl is 14 months old today, and total, 100% attitude. We are in for it, folks! I think the following picture best describes our household these days. I asked her to smile for Mama. This is what I got instead. Okay, okay, okay, it's not like that ALL the time. My sweet girl still comes out. And she delves out some awesome snuggle time - I mean, seriously, one day I'm really going to miss that time we have together. Doesn't this next face just make you want to kiss her all over!

But then, after a moment of snuggles, we are back to this:

And this:

And sometimes there is just shouting because we want to be heard:

But then we are back to snuggles and sweetness and all that 'tude goes to the back of our mind:

And then, "Okay, fine Mama. I'll smile for you!"

"How 'bout this smile Mama?"

"Now I'll just blow raspberries"

Total happiness, right here:

Oh, my sweet girl, what a personality we are going to have on our hands! But Mama would expect no less for her girl. We are starting to learn some bad habits such as pitching fits and using our hands in anger. But your Daddy and I are definitely trying to put this to an end as soon as possible and teach you how to be gentle and not react so quickly. So while we MAY seem to you like our mouths are constantly saying "No, No, No" - please know that we love you so much, and that is why we do what we do. I can only say, that we are both a little apprehensive of the 2's if this is what the early 1's are like! ha!

We have discovered that the best form of discipline for you at this age is to put you in your crib. My how you HATE that. But, that's the point isn't it? Tough love is very difficult, KT girl. It's hard to here you cry, but you are learning life's difficult lessons and will be such a better person later on because of it.

Your teachers at school still love you! I mean, why wouldn't they, have you looked in the mirror lately? However, instead of asking me if you got an "Incident Report" every day, I told Daddy to start asking me if you DIDN'T get an "Incident Report" that day. Ha! Between trying to figure out those feet of yours, opening doors, and getting underfoot. It seems like we are having a lot of little bumps lately. Unfortunately, clumsiness runs in the family. I wish I could tell you the end was in sight, but you still have to get through those awkward teen years one day.

Walking is our next conquest. Are you walking? Yes. But boy, oh boy, you decide only to do this on KT's terms. When you want to. And no other time. I bought you some squeaker shoes, that, while it may annoy others, hopefully will encourage you to walk longer (as to keep the squeaks going!). There are times when Mama and Daddy want you to go for awhile, but if you aren't up to it, then FORGET ABOUT IT. Fine. Understood. But I will be constantly pushing you these next few weeks. After the activities I have planned for the summertime, you will understand why!

Happy 14-month birthday, Goose. You. Are. Completely. Awesome. and such a Joy to have in our lives.

Love, Mama (and Daddy)

XOXOXOXO

Signs of Spring

I am a cold-weather lover. But even I can appreciate the Spring. Outdoors. Play time. Great weather. And hammocks. Ahhhh.......

KT {hearts} Olivia

(and so does Mama)

I love reading to KT. Maybe it dates back to my UIL Prose days, but I love acting out the characters and watching how engulfed she gets in the book. She sits there, watching all intent, with that oh-so-famous serious expression of hers. And then everyonce in awhile she'll shout out, or opt to turn the page (regardless if Mama is finished reading that part or not).

I'm not exactly sure how we discovered the Olivia series, but I''m so glad we did. This series is so cute. What an imagination Olivia has! The simplistic illustrations are perfect. Nothing too in your face or all over the place that KT can't take it all in.

KT received more Olivia books for her birthday and a DVD for Valentine's Day from Grammy and Grumps. Needless to say, we can spot Olivia ANYWHERE. So when I was going down the aisles in Target the other day, it's no wonder that KT recognized the Olivia doll!

It's her best friend right now. I hope she has just as active of an imagination as this little pig does!

Walking (Kind Of)

This walking business has been interesting to say the least. I thought for sure we'd be walking for our 1st birthday, but apparently, she was not ready. Which is fine. I didn't want to force the issue. But now...now we are almost 14 months and while we've been making serious strides (no pun intended) we still have some work to do.

I wouldn't say that we hold her all the time, so I don't think that is the reason she hasn't been intersted. I seriously think that our little girl has a stubborn streak, which is becoming more and more apparent in her personality (another post entirely). Therefore, I think she's not walking simply because...well, we want her to.

Almost one month ago, she took her first few steps. In which she didn't repeat for several more days. In fact, she would only take a few steps, if there was something in it for her. Such as an ice cream sandwich (what? it was skinny cow) Observe:



However, Jeff and I have actively been making a point to put her on the ground and walk her from room to room. Or walk her outside. No more carrying. And sometimes she does great. In fact, this week we are walking more and more, but it's only a matter of let's say 1/2 the distance of a room, then she sits down and crawls the rest of the way. And in some cases, looks up to us as to say "I don't think so" - stinker!

Sometimes when we put her on her feet to walk, she crumples immediately. This is an ABSOLUTE NO. It's almost immediately followed with a bit of tantrum. But again, I'm saving that for another post.

I think we are oh so close to walking "full-time" - school has even mentioned that she's been walking more and more there as well.

Come on my sweet girl! We have a summer full of exciting adventures which require skipping, and playing! We need legs!

Oh Really?

KT has always been a great eater. She pretty much eats anything I put in front of her if she's in the mood. I was suprised that she eats as much meat as she does as I've heard kids can be kind of picky when it comes to meat. However, I guess the other night she wasn't in the mood for chicken.

Please, please, please do not judge the mess. CONSTRUCTION! Enough said:

Living Room: New and Improved!

Apologies for the lackluster photos. I've misplaced my card reader! My CF card!!!! and all I'm using right now is my iPhone. Must remedy. Like tomorrow.


Anyway, quick update on the flooring. Jeff and I have been busting our butts these past few weekends and managed to complete the living room. I even helped! Wish I would of took a picture of the three bandaids I had on my fingers and 1 that I had on my heel. Yeah. Flooring - 4 Colleen - 0. Good thing I can take revenge out with heels and liquid drinks. But wait..... I think I'm in a lose, lose situation here.


Back the point. We finished the largest room in the house. And we are over 1/2 way through "Operation No More Carpet". The longest hallway is over 1/2 way complete and then all we have left is the hallway to the master and then the master bedroom itself. Ahhh, it's going to be so nice to have this project over with.


I am really enjoying the results though (even if I haven't quite figured out how to keep these darkwood floors clean). I even played around with the placement of our living room furniture and I think we finally reached a compromise. With whom you might add? KT's toy collection. That ever growing, mass that seemed to have no home next to our fireplace.


Behold, KT's Nook:

One Room Down

Jeff worked his tail off this past weekend and finished up the guest bedroom flooring. It looks fantastic if I do say so myself! Only thing left to do is caulking. I think KT thought we made this room specifically for her. She went crawling in and then went NUTSO! And I wish I would of taken footage instead, because she was crawling all over the place and making noises cause of the echo sound it was hi.lar.i.ous!

*pardon the dust - just finished up - need to clean*

KT is 13 months

Katherine Teal Koenig at 13 months

on.... March 1? I suppose. Since there is no February 29th.... how odd now that I am really thinking about it.

The past month has seen such an interesting change in our little girl. Her affection is growing and growing. Though she only delves out the kisses when she feels like them. I definitely bribe her though. "I'll hold your lovey for ransom, if you don't give me kisses." Shameless, yes. Does it work? Heck, yes!

Punching in numbers on her cell phone and sitting on her new chair
(had to get one after seeing her excitement over chairs at friends houses)

Although we aren't walking on our own yet, we are definitely showing progress. Standing without holding on to things (though we are wobbly). But man, the girl can get around on that walker. I am going to try to let her use that less and less though so she can get more comfortable on her own. I also am making a conscience effort for us not to carry her everywhere. Jeff and I have now started walking her from room to room. I can only see this helping. I'm hoping 14 months will see her walking on her own!

KT made this at school with her teachers for Dr. Seuss' birthday!

Grown attachments to toys, and recognition. KT absolutely LOVES her Olivia books. She will pick them out of a stack and just point and make noises to that book as if to say "READ ME OLIVIA, NOW!" :) The same goes for anything and everything Mickey Mouse. She gets so excited she can hardly stand it!

KT loves spaghetti! Mama has learned to strip her down before she chows down!

She's got such a mischievous smile, it's so cute, but oh my can only mean trouble is a coming. Or, actually, might be here already if this week was any indication. Along with age, comes the frustration of communication. She so desperately what's to tell us things or ask us to do things and instead of communicating, we get fits and tantrums. This week has been particularly rough along those lines.

If you say, "Where's KT?" this is what she does! Such a smart cookies!

I picked her up from school on Thursday only to have TWO "incident reports" waiting for me to sign. One, fine. Two??? Two, KT? Really? And for the same thing? BITING A FRIEND! two minutes apart! Oh, Lord! I'm really going to have to figure out this discipline thing. I feel like I've been saying "No!" for the past 4-5 months already, but now it's going to have to get more serious. It's hard to teach a kiddo what's right and wrong when she doesn't act up or bite us at home. It's going to be a learning experience that is for sure.

My dearest daughter, you have become more amazing to us this past month. Your level of interaction has your Daddy and I in constant states of amusement, laughter and amazement. You are such a joy to watch grow each day and we are so excited to see the amazing person you turn out to be. Discovering your personality has been such an exciting time for all of us. The next year is going to be such an interesting one. I can not wait to share your stories for you and capture the moments with my camera. I love you, Goose!

Love, Mama
XOXO

Tahoe 2011

Lake Tahoe, California

I failed at my whole day by day travel blog that I usually try to do while on vacation. But, seriously, our place didn't have wi-fi and we were so busy every day (well, mostly, AND I was catching up on sleep) that I just didn't care all that much. For shame.....

Our annual ski trip this year (it had been 2 years since the last trip, thanks to KT's arrival last year!) was at Lake Tahoe, California from Wednesday evening of February 23rd through February 28th. So many new experiences for KT, as this was her FIRST plane ride and her first real experience in snow, minus that whole freak storm a few weeks ago that we had.

Let me just put this out there. KT traveled like a CHAMP. I could not have asked for a better experience traveling with at 13-month old. We did give her a dose of the 'ole Benadryl (because I have heard nightmare stories, and was not wanting to experience that). But it also helped that on our trip TO Reno/Tahoe it was during her normal sleeping ours.

pic right before we pulled out of the gate

Our first night was spent at the El Dorado Casino in Reno, NV. My Dad and Jeff did most of the planning, so I guess I have them to thank for this experience. I'm not the most enthusiastic of individuals when it comes to casinos, or anything along those lines. Add that to the list of things I didn't get from my parents (in addition to the whole sci-fi thing, and liking cantaloupe). But, it really wasn't too bad and we were only there for a night.

Thursday morning, Jeff went and grabbed our rental car. We had to rent a huge SUV to handle all the luggage we had. Jeff and I both had a suitcase each, plus two for KT, plus 2 carry-ons each. It was a little insane. In my defense, we did have a lot of 'bulky' ski items, coats, shoes, etc. AND I could not possibly think of traveling without KT's walker, so we folded it up and packed it. Crazy. I know.

Tahoe is only 45 minutes from Reno - who knew?! The drive would of been relatively short had it not started snowing about 10 minutes into our drive. We knew there was a storm expected, so it didn't take us by surprise. I was a little on edge, hoping we wouldn't need chains for the car and also hoping that none of the roads were shut down.

Rosie's Cafe, where we spent a lot of time the first day

Inside Rosie's, they had some amazing old-fashioned bikes on display

Rosie's had this awesome mechanical pony that still worked! KT was not a fan. It was only $0.25!

By the time we got into town, the snow was REALLY coming down. We met up with Frances and Gene (Ashley's Dad and his girlfriend) once we got to Tahoe City, CA. JR and Ashley were having a helluva time making it into town. For one, they were really stuck in the thick of this storm, and apparently one of the passes gets pretty precarious during snowy weather. And poor Ashley was suffering from the end of a flu so her ears kept popping. They had to take it slow so she could adjust to the elevation.

Once they made it into town, we all ate some lunch and got the keys to the house. We always rent vacation homes when we go on trips. When traveling with a large group, I find this one of the most efficient ways to travel. I like the fact that you can buy your own groceries, have the comforts of home (except for wifi) and it's really not too bad on the pocket book. No worse than a hotel. This house was pretty great. Except for the whole taxidermy thing. For one, strange things were stuffed. Badgers, Buffaloes, and my biggest issue, a wolf. Ugh. Is that even legal? Can you imagine me coming across that at 5am when KT wakes up hollering for milk? No, thank you.

Snowfall. Thursday Night.

Part of the house - see how much snow build up?

The house had this cowgirl pinup bead curtain on the wall for art

I waaay over thought this sign. I thought it was foreign. Dur!

First thing we did once we got settled in.

Friday was allotted as one of the days we were planning to ski. Considering that the snow started around noon on Thursday and hadn't stopped at all since that time, it was pretty rough conditions, but we decided to try the mountain anyway. We got a late start, so it wasn't till about 11:30 until we got up to the mountain. We decided to try Home Wood, as we heard it had the best views of the lake. Ha. Like that even MATTERED that day. The snow was really coming down hard. It took us forever to get all our gear on. My glasses and all our goggles kept fogging up (we even up the treatment on it) but alas, no luck. So I had to bail on them. Jeff too.

Friday skiing conditions. L to R: Jeff, me, JR (bro), Dad

We rode up the first lift with snow just pounding us in the face. Half way up the lift, the wind started and I for one was getting a little nervous. I am no longer a skiing novice, but I am no pro. AND I am a very cautious skiier, so nervous may be a bit of an understatement. When we got off the first lift, we skiied a quick green down to the next lift to take us a higher up the mountain. The top was insanity. Pure powder everywhere. When we came down the mountain, we were being hit with, and I don't think I'm exaggerating here, 40-50mph winds. The conditions were rough to say the least. By the time we made it down, we decided we were crazy for even trying. And we said let's call it. Maybe we'd return on Sunday, since we heard Saturday was supposed to be worse.

Ashley's birthday always falls on our ski trip. Or perhaps, our ski trip always falls on Ashley's birthday. Honestly, I think we should change our dates. Poor Ashley does not need to be forced to spend her day with all of us crazies. JR owes her a nice warm vacation on the beach for coming as many years as she has.

Peppermill and table lamp at steakhouse

That Friday was Ash's 38th birthday and we celebrated by going out for steak! I guess JR and Ashley had found this place on one of their previous trips so they knew exactly where we were going for dinner that night. I wish I could remember the name of this place. It was in Kings Beach, Tahoe, CA. Basically there are a ton of these little towns all around the Lake, and our rental house was right between Tahoe City and Kings Beach. Dinner was delicious and the snow finally eased up a bit on our ride home.

Saturday morning, I was expecting similar weather conditions to Friday. So wrong. I peeked outside that morning and saw BLUE SKIES. GORGEOUS! Jeff and I decided immediately that we were going skiing. Thanks to my Mom (and Dad) for watching KT so we could indulge ourselves. JR wanted to hang with Ashley and Dad had tweaked his knee earlier, so it was just Jeff and I on the slopes that day. We had such a great time. I mainly skied my "known" path, but really worked on picking up speed. Did I mention I'm a slow skier? We called it a day around 2:30 and headed back to the house for an amazing dinner courtesy of Frances (King Ranch Chicken and homemade banana pudding). It was delicious!

Family pic outside the house

Liked the snow. Hated the monkey suit I put her in.

On Sunday, we packed up early as we had to be out of the house by noon. We left the house around 10am, JR returned the keys, and we spent some time on our route back to Kings Beach taking photos of the lake. Which was just gorgeous now that we could finally see it. It really is very blue. I would LOVE to see this place during the summer. I bet the recreation and activity are phenomenal.

We said goodbye to Gene and Frances and JR and Ashley and headed back to Reno for the night. We ended up getting there by noon so the rest of the day was at our leisure. Jeff and Dad did some gambling. I spent the afternoon trying to get KT to get a nap in, and letting her know that vacation was over and we needed to return to some sort of schedule! ha!

Later that evening I watched the Oscar's and called it an early night.

We flew out of Reno the next day around 2pm, Texas time (we were 2 hours behind Texas the entire trip). Finally we landed around 9pm. A little late for my liking, but at hey, we made it. We were all road weary and I had to head to work the next day.

It was overall a fantastic trip. KT loved the snow, but hated the snowsuit I put her in. Ha! Tahoe was absolutely gorgeous and I recommend it to anyone. Just prepare yourself for a LOT of snow. Easily the most I have ever seen in my lifetime.