kate's new love

i don't think she's getting teeth quite yet, but kate has been loving to chew, or gnaw, on toys. her grandma mclane picked up this super cool "razberry" teether at the pittsburgh airport a few weeks ago. she LOVES it! so, to all you moms who might be looking for a good, and stylish, teether- here ya go! www.razbaby.com

sixburgh

after arriving back in cincinnati on thursday, i had just enough time to do a load of laundry before we packed up the car to drive to pittsburgh for the weekend.

we've spent the weekend hanging out with family- mclane, pié, hanna, sawyer, and stotler families. jacob has expanded his vocabulary 1000% and kate has started actually holding her own toys. maybe we should travel more often- seems to encourage the kids to get a little smarter! :)

here are some pictures from the weekend:

kate with great grandma mclane at her 90th birthday party

jacob with great grandma hanna (gi-gi)

jacob with great grandpa mclane (pappap)

jesse's family at his brother's birthday dinner (happy birthday, uncle josh!)

finally caught

so i wasn't home to rejoice with jesse, since i am in colorado this week, but he called yesterday to let me know the mousey mouse has been captured!!! yay!

now i guess we just wait around to see how many of his friends he told about the peanut butter and cheese snacks that are available at the pié home.

i am spending a few days in colorado to be with family and attend services for my grandfather vollbracht who went to be with the Lord last week. it has been good to see extended family and spend time together remembering our grandpa. yesterday he was buried at Ft. Logan cemetery in Denver, which happens to be where his parents were buried, and also my grandfather on my dad's side. here are my sisters and me at our great-grandparents' (vollbracht) headstone.

kate has been enjoying being passed around and held by everyone. here she is with her great grandma vollbracht.

kate and i left jesse and jacob home in kentucky- we'll see what the house looks like when we get back tomorrow! i am sure it looks fine- actually jesse impressed me and made himself a crock of homemade chili yesterday!

a couple cute pictures of kate hanging out with her cousin silas (my cousin's boy who was born 29 days before kate). i think he REALLY liked her! :)

he's still alive?!

unbelieveable! the crushed red pepper must have had no affect on that darned mouse. he is still alive and eluding our efforts to end his sad little life.

we thought the red pepper would have done the trick (even though that wasn't a trap set by us- just the dumb little mouse being curious), but it didn't. so we set a trap the other night with fruit loops. when jesse came home on wednesday evening to check if our power was back on- there was the trap on the living room floor, with a dead mouse, and- get ready for it- dog slobber. YUCK! yes, our dog, jackson, whom we have been doting on the last few days ever since we saw the movie "Marley & Me", had a mouthful of nasty mouse germs. let me just say he has not been getting any attention from me since wednesday! thanks to jesse who was willing to wash the dog's mouth out with anti-bacterial soap.

so our mouse problem is taken care of...not! there is now another little guy that is making home in my cooking utensil drawer. oh disgusting! don't worry, my utensils have been thoroughly cleaned and disinfected and have taken up temporary residence elsewhere.

so last night jesse set 3 peanut butter traps for him. we woke up this morning- little terror had licked all the goodies off all 3 traps without engaging them. and to rub it in, he ran right past me this morning as i was at the kitchen sink, sticking his tongue out at me (i just imagined that last part- the tongue thing didn't really happen)
oh!! he is going to get it! we are buying a case-load of traps this weekend and all mice at our house are GOING TO DIE!!!

winter storm

we're trying to warm up from the recent storm that passed through kentucky the las 48 hours. our power has been out at home for almost 12 hours now, so we decided to bunk up at a warm hotel for the night (us and a couple hundred other people!) we got 5 inches of snow on tuesday morning, followed by 12 hours of freezing rain, follwed by another 4 inches of snow. it's been quite exciting!

so here's whats been happening around our house the last few days:

jacob got to play with mommy in the snow during our first round of snow (5 inches)

our pet mouse must have been a little hungry last night- but i would say that crushed red pepper is not the best midnight snack. his bowels are probably screaming right now! serves him right for trying to steal room and board at the pié house!

we were trying to keep the kids warm today and so they were both wearing their snow hats in the house. :)

some of you might remember when jesse had a little fun with photoshop and came up with this picture:

well, the other night we were wondering what kate is going to look lke with hair- and this is what happened:

and lastly- this one's for the grandparents- kind of a boring video, but i know you guys want to see what kate is accomplishing these days.

j-a-c-o-b

jacob is learning letters- loves letters! he only knows a dozen or so right now, and every word is spelled with those 12 letters. our tv has the brand name printed right below the screen - jacob will walk up to the tv, point at each of the letters, and spell "B - R - X - E - O" (VIZIO)



so we hung letters in his room spelling his name, and he has been getting lots of practice with that.

UPDATE on my mom:

thank you to those of you who have been praying for my mom and her recent surgery. the surgery on friday was a success. there were complications after her surgery, but God was good, and the doctors/surgeons were able to stop her bleeding. she moved from ICU to her own room yesterday afternoon and is now on the road to recovery. she is very tired and in a lot of pain. we still covet your prayers for her as she starts the recovery process. she will be in the hospital for another several days, off work for 4-6 weeks, and will be very limited in what activities she is allowed to do.

kate continues to be a cutie pie. she is smiling and coo-ing a lot and has just discovered her hands- they are in her mouth all the time!

december visitors: round 4 and happy birthday, jesse!

we celebrated jesse's birthday and rang in the new year with uncle josh and aunt heidi.



jacob and kate both loved having their aunt and uncle visit. jacob had fun playing with them and kate enjoyed sleeping in their arms (and having explosive poop diapers on uncle josh's lap)


jesse pretending to blow out his birthday candles (he had a cold on his birthday, so he didn't actually blow them out to spare us all from his germs):