Labor Day Weekend

I wish I was here to tell you about the fun vacation we want on over the long weekend, but there was no fun vacation.  We were just home for three days with absolutely nothing we HAD to do.  Sometimes these are my very favorite weekends! 

I was scrolling through my phone pictures so I could at least give some kind of update, but I didn't do a very good job of taking pictures.  I guess we didn't really do anything interesting!  One thing is for sure, we slept in every morning.  Lately, this little girl has been coming to our bed in the 6 o'clock hour so we can all catch another hour or two of sleep.  I love snuggling with her, but sometimes she just outright takes over my spot in the bed!   Pictured on the right is Katie bug napping in her crib.  I can't remember why I had stripped her clothes off her.  I'm sure she had gotten into something!

Have I ever told you about how she loves admiring herself in the mirror?  #girlproblems

For the most part, Katie Wynn loves any and every kind of food we put in her mouth.  She has not really turned her nose up at anything, nor does she get over excited about any one particular food.  There is one thing that gets her kickin-her-legs excited, though...sweet tea.  Her Mimi usually always orders a glass of it and lets her have a sip or two from her straw.  This girl can't get enough of it!  I guess she really is a true Southern girl. 

Katie Wynn spent Labor Day in a new outfit her Mimi made.  The top is reversible and the bloomers are red with little white polka dots.  Too cute!  I've been trying to do a better job of putting bows in her hair since her bangs are getting so long, but she immediately tries to yank them out.  The picture on the far right shows the look she gives me when I won't let her grab it and she's tired of taking pictures.

Check out these monogrammed shoes we made her.  Almost all of it was done on the embroidery machine!  The very last step is done on the sewing machine, but that's it.  These pictures don't really do them justice; I think they're a lot cuter in person.  Of course, hers were practically black after crawling around the floors in them all day! 

I'm in the middle of a bunch of different projects right now.  I want to update you on all of them but most of them are only half-finished.  A lot of the weekend was spent on a woodshop project for KW's upcoming birthday party (!).  Dad and Matt spent a lot of time on it.  Mom and I are still working on the burlap door hanger tutorial for you. We, uh, figured out another way NOT to make them.  Third time's a charm, right?  I have a really good feeling about the method we're trying out now so hopefully a tutorial will be coming soon.  

I'm also in the midst of trying to figure out our dining room.  That deserves a post of its own.  But as of this weekend, I'm the proud owner of this pretty dining set.   

I purchased it at the Habitat for Humanity Restore for a whopping $122.  I only wanted the four chairs but they wouldn't split up the set.  I plan on donating the table to our fall church auction.  I have another set of four chairs very similar to these headed my way.  I hope to be able to pick them up on Friday, which means this coming weekend may be spent painting chairs!  Hopefully I can make them look better than they currently do...I don't plan on adding a plastic covering over the seat cushions! 

We ended our holiday weekend with a cookout at my parents' house.  Before dinner was ready, we walked over to their neighbors' for one last summer swim.  I had snagged this suit off the Gap clearance rack about a month ago, but hadn't had a chance to put it on KW yet.  I'm glad she got to at least wear it once before outgrowing it!  It should still fit when we go to the beach in a few weeks, so that's good.  Aren't those ears and ruffles just the cutest? 

Does anyone want to come over to play "Nail Salon?"  I think Katie Wynn is ready to start giving manis and pedis! 

Hope you all had a fantastic long weekend!  What'd you do?  Anything fun?  I'll be back with more soon. 

School Is In Session

If you're on Facebook, then your news feed has probably been full of first-day-of-school pictures lately.  At least I know mine has!  Now that it's late August, I think all schools are back in session and students and teachers are getting back into their daily routines. 

So when I started thinking about what Katie's monthly themed picture should be for August, it made sense to play off of going back to school.  It's what all the other kids are doing, right? 

I set up an old wooden desk in my mom's backyard this week and added a simple red apple.  I just loved the simplicity and old-school-ness of it all.   Feast your eyes on these precious pictures of my star pupil!

One of my favorite things about these pictures, other than the cute little student, is that the desk she's sitting in is actually one from my alma mater, Lambuth.  When it closed a few years ago, I was able to purchase the desk for $25.  I had already started a mini collection of vintage school desks (I have three total now) and so I was thrilled to get this one.  It's probably one that I sat in at some point!  The plan will be for these to eventually go in the playroom, but I think I may have to creatively disguise some of the non-kid-friendly carvings in this one first.  

I know I'm totally biased, but I just think these pictures are too cute for words!  How will I ever pick a favorite for her official August one? 

She is the apple of my eye!! Har har har.

Recent Happenings

Here are some pics from my phone from what we've been up to over the past month. 

Fun times at the swimming pool!

Helping trim Mimi's flower beds for her birthday.

Happy times out at a restaurant with friends!

Llama, Llama, Nighty Night read by Poppy.

We have been so incredibly busy the last month with work and other projects, but we've managed to squeeze in some fun times too.  We had the big kids a couple weekends ago and they just play so well with Katie Wynn!  They adore her and she loves them right back.  We signed up as a 5K together and all did well.  Wyatt finished 20th overall!  I pushed Katie Wynn in the stroller and am just glad we finished! 

Before

After

I ordered this cute push wagon toy for Katie Wynn for her upcoming birthday.  The day it came in, I put it together to see how it looked and Katie Wynn grabbed hold of it and just took off walking!  We decided to let her go ahead and have it since she may be already walking on her own by the time her birthday gets here.  She LOVES it!  She walks behind it some but mostly she loves crawling in and out of it.  And if you're around when she crawls into it, you better get ready to give her a push!

Speaking of her new favorite toy, we had friends over for dinner one night and Katie Wynn did a good job of sharing the wagon her friend Addi Clare.  By "sharing," though, I mean she somehow convinced Addi Clare she should push her around in it.  

Another one of Katie Wynn's current favorite activities is making a royal mess.  I imagine this is an activity she will continue to perfect over the years.

While we were visiting my aunt a week or two ago, Katie bug found a horsie her size! 

One day while shopping I set KW down on the floor in Gymboree so I could skim the sale rack.  Next thing I knew, she was standing up going through the clothes rack too!  My job here may be done...

My mom was keeping Jett and Bren one day and KW and I came to visit.  We told the kids that if they behaved all morning we could go out to eat for lunch and they could even choose the place.  That's how we ended up sitting in a booth at the gas station McDonald's enjoying some fine dining.

I think that gets us pretty caught up.  It's been a busy summer but we have been enjoying every minute with this sweet little girl!

Saturday Evening Photo Shoot

A few Saturdays ago, we had an evening photo shoot of Katie Wynn with a local photographer.  I had actually scheduled this shoot so we could get some full-family photos, only to realize the day before that we had our weekends backwards and weren't going to have the big kids with us after all.  So the photographer focused on Katie Wynn and we'll schedule some more full-family ones later. All of these pictures are courtesy of Kasey Mcalpin Photography.  I have resized them for the blog so if they aren't showing up perfectly crisp, that's why.

Kasey just plopped this yellow chair down right outside where we'd parked our cars, and Katie Wynn went straight to posing and smiling.

I love this one of her on the gravel road.

We are pretty smitten with this little girl.

Kasey was sweet enough to let us do a few outfit changes while we were there so all the pictures didn't look exactly the same.  Sitting KW in front of these pink flowers was a good idea...I love how they look in the background!

You can see her two little teeth in this one!  (She's totally cracking up at her Daddy.)

Oh man, I love this one too.  Kasey got so many great shots!

Kisses!

I think I'll get this one framed for my desk. :)

I can't believe Kasey got this shot below.  As soon as I put KW down, she pretty much immediately sat down.  Kasey must've gotten her right before she sat.  Love it!

And I saved my absolute favorite for last.  (We actually got a lot more shots than I've included here.)  Expect to see this one in a big frame at our house.  As soon as I get it printed, that is...

9 Months!

Can you believe my last post didn't have a single picture of Katie Wynn in it?? This post should make up for that. :)

Time is just trucking along and Katie Wynn continues to grow like a little weed.  I think this past quarter has brought the most changes in her.  I had to go back to her six month post to see what she was up to then, and man, she has really grown since then!  Before I get into her stats, here are her monthly pictures.

Love this little grin!  Can you tell from the sign that she had a good time smearing all the writing?

I chose this one for 8 months because of that little elbow on the arm of the chair.  Just love it.

I was working alone for the 9 month picture and she was not in the mood to sit still.  I snapped this before running to grab her before she crawled out of the chair.

Playing with mama on the front porch.

This face cracks me up.  What kind of grin is that?

And what kind of face is this?  This was the closest I had to a smile in this set.

You may remember the rainy day photos we took.  This was perfect for April Showers.

And those April showers brought May flowers.  In this case, the flowers were hydrangeas in my parents' yard.

My little swimmer!

Here's what's up with Katie Wynn at 9 months old:

• At her 9 month check up, she weighed in at 19.2 pounds and was 27.75 inches long.
• Two teeth!  Her bottom two teeth broke through when she was about 8 months old, and they're still the only two she has.  It wasn't too terribly bad the week they came in and thankfully, the drooling has majorly slowed down.  Maybe it'll be a while before more come?  Either way, it hurts when she bites now!
• She really took off crawling on her official 7-month birthday.  She had taken just a few steps (crawls?) before that but April 23 is when she really took off.
• About three weeks after learning to crawl, she started pulling up on EVERYTHING.  She can now cruise around a piece of furniture and has, on several occasions, let go and stood on her own.  We think she will walk any day now!
• She has a head full of hair!  I actually have to fix it in the mornings because she wakes up with crazy bed hair.  I wet it down each morning and brush it (like really brush it) into place.  We have teeny bows that she is now wearing on occasion.
• Occasionally she also wears shoes.  :)  I went a little crazy and bought about 8 pairs of shoes in the span of about a month, but apparently her feet are really short (and very chubby).  Only a couple of them fit her but she isn't crazy about having them on her feet.
• She still loves to talk and jibber jabbers all day, but is most talkative in the mornings right when she gets up.
• We are very much in the middle of a clingy stage.  It has been going on for about 3 weeks now.  She doesn't want to go to anyone else if she's being held by me or Doc.  And she gets upset if we set her down and walk out of the room.  Girl doesn't like to be alone!
• Katie Wynn eats food three times a day now.  She has two just-bottle feedings too.  She love, love, loves to eat and will gobble up anything we give her.  We've tried just about every flavor of baby food now and so far, there hasn't been one that she wouldn't eat.  She now also eats lots of snacks throughout the day and is using her pincer fingers to eat things like banana pieces, avocado, puffs, crackers.  She has also tried water from a sippy cup, though she still won't hold it or her bottle by herself.
• She can wave bye-bye and loves to get high fives!
• She has said mama on a few occasions but it's not consistent enough for me to say she's talking.  Doc and I love interpreting her jabbers.
• Katie still sleeps through the night but has learned that if she gets up around 6am, she might get to lay in our bed and snuggle.  I will have to break this habbit but right now I'm just enjoying our snuggle time!

I can't believe we've made it three quarters through her first year already!  The next quarterly update I do she will be ONE.  Woah.