happy birthday kate!

so, i am just a day late. but things have been a little busy here at our house. my colorado grandma is here visiting with my mom, and we had a little birthday brunch party for kate today. so the last few days have been full of preparations for company and the party. and now we are more than happy to enjoy an extra hour of daylight savings sleep. :)

here are some pictures from kate's birthday cake on her actual birthday

and here are some pictures from her sunflower brunch party today

4 generations (great grandma vollbracht, cydney,kate, mom)

happy due-date-versary to me!

kate is just 2 days away from turning 1 year old. and sappy me is feeling all nostalgic, thinking back over her first year, and thinking how time sure does FLY!

so when i get to feeling nostalgic like this, i start thinking "so what was i doing a year ago today? 5 years ago today? or even worse, 10 years ago?" (ok, so i wasn't really considering the 10 year one until i started writing here...i am not that ridiculous.)

a year ago today was kate's "due date". and i use that term loosely, because we all know that no one really knows the day their baby will arrive (unless you have a scheduled c-section, of course). and i am pretty sure i was feeling really depressed on this day because i had convinced myself that kate was going to be 2 weeks early, and she had shown no signs of her pending arrival- yet. but then, on october 30, sweet little kate evelyn, just 55 minutes before i was supposed to be at the hospital to be induced, was born at 5:05 am. and that is what i was doing last year.

5 years ago, i had just quit my job at starbucks to join my friend julie, who had her own cleaning business. we cleaned, on a weekly and bi-weekly basis, about 24 homes. we loved it, and loved the paychecks too. :) little did i know that just 8 months later, jesse and i would be packing up our belongings and moving to the bluegrass state.

10 years ago, i had just graduated from high school and was 1 month into my freshman year of college at covenant college in lookout mountain, georgia. i loved the school, but wasn't liking the fact that i was in school and not knowing what i wanted to get my degree in. let's just say, the whole school thing didn't last long. :)

any of you remember what you were doing last year? 5 years ago? 10 years ago? this is a memory challenge. :)

p.s. i just have to make it public here- last night i made janelle's/kate's apple butter pork roast and it was DEEEE-LISH! thank you ladies!

a good reminder

oh the innocence of 2 year olds. they tend to say anything and everything.

over the last few weeks, jesse has been trying to teach jacob how everything we "own" has been given to us by God. the toys we play with, the food we eat, the clothes we wear. none of it is our's.

so every time we drive up to the house, pulling into the driveway, jacob almost always says, "this is not our's jacob's house."

thank you, my dear 2 year old, for this reminder. :)

on the topic of food

following the recent dinner blog posts of 2 fellow blogging friends, i decided to photo diary our dinner the other night.

"what are you doing?" jesse's looking at me like i am crazy, snapping photos of the food after i get it on the table. (kate and melissa- tell me your husbands are wondering the same thing :o).)

a minute later, after i don't answer him because i am trying to be as still as can be so the picture isn't blurry (you know, when you're taking a close-up and trying not to use a flash), "you're gonna blog about this, aren't you."

"maybe." :o)

well, it's not as fancy as your delicious-looking apple butter pork, kate. and it's not as well-photographed as your comforting cheesy potato soup, melissa. (and i must add, i am anxiously awaiting to try these 2 recipes out...they are on my grocery list this week!) here is my attempt to blog our dinner. :)

this here has been a staple meal for the last, oh, 6 or 7 weeks at our house. some of jesse's favorites, and i have figured out ways to prepare them quickly so i can make them on a regular basis.

tried and true, jiffy corn muffins, hydrogenanted lard and all :o)

roast chicken (which i used the leftovers to make broth after dinner, for our chicken noodle soup the next night)

green beans (yes, dripping with butter, wouldn't have it any other way)

sweet potato casserole (for jesse, jacob and kate)

and sweet potato fries (for me- i prefer them to the casserole. and since i take my green beans dripping with butter, i'll skip on the marshmallows and brown sugar that make the sweet potato casserole edible)

the big reveal

last night was the long awaited date night...telling jesse about his 30th birthday surprise. been keeping it a secret for over a month and it's so good to not have to hide it anymore!
although he doesn't turn 30 until december 31st, candace and i decided that for planning sake, we should tell our husbands in advance about the trip we have planned for them. in january, candace, lee, jesse, and i will be travelling to cozumel for a 5 day vacation- kid free!

so last night, candace and i got our unknowing husbands to Chipotle (to keep with the mexican theme) where we presented them with their sunscreen and luggage tags for the trip. to read about the exciting details of the night, candace wrote about it on her blog.

yep, that's jesse with the luggage tags hanging from his ears. it's never a dull moment.

since kate had a little cold, only jacob got to spend the evening with some friends, who kindly babysat him. and thus, kate tagged along on our date night. and had fun trying on this super cute hat we found for her at the Gap. (no we didn't buy it... i think it was a $30 hat or something ridiculous.)

just a FEW of my favorite things

• chocolate. obviously one of jacob's favorites too. he had his first OREO this weekend. and notice his shirt even has the chocolate monster on it.

• happy toddlers and kind friends. we recently received this table as a gift from a friend of our's who was thinking of kate when they saw it. don't mind that it says "princess" all over the table top and the back of the chair. pink and princess don't matter to jacob, he loves that it is his size. he asks to eat breakfast there almost every day. i am not keen on the idea of eating meals in the living room, but this week it has been a special treat for him and i love to see him when he is happy.

• new magazines. especially Fall or Holiday editions! got this new one in the mail the other day and am slowly going through it.
  
  
• frost. not the cold that comes with it, but i like how beautiful everything looks with a sparkly frost covering it. stacia- here's my "out my kitchen window".
  

• dancing babies. kate has been working on her dance moves. here's a video at one of her recent practice sessions.
  

tractor heaven

jacob was thrilled to see all the tractors at the pumpkin farm yesterday. we enjoyed a hayride, petting zoo, and muddy corn maze. kate seemed to enjoy herself too, although she did start to get fussy in the corn maze. i guess we weren't getting out fast enough for her. and in her defense, it WAS getting chilly! all in all, a pleasant evening out with the family and friends. i always enjoy bringing home pumpkins to add to the fall ambiance. :)











and while we're on the subject of things orange, can i just say, i am loving the recent victories of the cincinnati bengals! how exciting for a team who is not always been that good, and has spent years losing game after game. keep it up, team. who dey! go bengals!



(sorry to all pittsburgh friends and family, there's always next time.)

and speaking of WINNING, jesse and i are officially addicted to the mcdonalds monoply game. jesse is most convinced that the next time we go, we will be the million dollar winners. ok, maybe next time. no? ok, then definitely the time after that?!
crazy? yes. we went there 3 times this past weekend- yep, friday, saturday, and sunday. so far all we've won is a small coffee or soft drink, and i may have gained a pant size with all the french fries and sweet tea i've consumed. maybe once we win that million dollars i can hire a personal trainer and lose the weight. :)

photo shoot

we had a family photo shoot this morning with Lauren Bryson Photography. and i can now agree wholeheartedly with candace when she said what she said about 2 year-olds and photo shoots. very stressful for mom and dad, and you would have thought it was torture to the toddler with the way he was behaving. but also, just as candace mentioned, lauren is very talented and i am sure she captured jacob and kate's good moments (as short as they were). jacob wouldn't sit still or do anything he was told. kate sat there great, but was stoic and wouldn't crack a smile. thank you for your patience, lauren!

so we get home from our photo shoot, and while kate is still in her dress, i thought i would get some quick fall pictures of her with the pumpkin (wasn't even an option for jacob- he was DONE with the camera, and the tractor was way more interesting than a pumpkin). and wouldn't you know... i got her to smile. all by myself. :)

elephant walking

when i picked kate up from nursery this past sunday, one of the nursery volunteers was telling me how kate likes to keep busy during her time in nursery. she proceeded to tell me about kate's "elephant walk" around the room. i was glad to have a name for it, since i had just captured it on video just several days before, and thought it to be quite odd and funny. i guess when you're wearing a dress and your main mode of transportation is crawling, you have to get creative. :)

kate will be 1 year old in just a few weeks! her birthday is just one of the many reasons i love october. and here is one other

the mum that i replanted in the spring has proven itself hearty. it has more than quadrupled its original size, and the color has been amazing!

it's also the pumpkin and apple pies i had time to make this weekend as pappy and gammie pié were here to play with the kids, allowing me time in the kitchen. :)

we enjoyed having pappy and gammie here, but obviously not as much as jacob. (you kinda have to look close. jacob has his arm on her back. it was a precious moment.)

saturday afternoon we ventured out to the local Hebron Fire Station where they were celebrating fire prevention week with an open house event. there were helicopters, fire trucks, police cars, military hum-v's, a water rescue boat, an fbi surveillance van, and lots more for the kids to climb in, on, and all over. we all especially were fascinated with the Blackhawk helicopter and even got to watch it take off.

jacob in some military vehicle

kate got a turn at the wheel

jacob on the gun control in the Blackhawk