Christmas to be posted soon

I have loved all the Christmas letters and emails we've received during the past few weeks. Many have asked for updates from us. One word can sum us up - Busy. All of our family on both sides have been in town. I was heavily involved in our ward Christmas party, hosted choir practice at our house for the sacrament meeting program, organized our neighborhood Luminaria night, tried my best to get our ward Secret Santa program underway before handing it off when we left for Prescott. It was wonderful to start to relax until I came down with the flu... only to get better in time to hurt my back. Katherine had played with the control to the Sleep Number mattress and turned it down to 15... the softest it can go... I did not check it, so it serves me right that I ended up at the chiropractor, unable to move without utter pain. It took a priesthood blessing, naproxen, magnesium and a couple of nights sleeping on my face before I felt better. It makes me all the more grateful for Geoff's gifts to me for Christmas and my birthday - the opulent escape massage package at a day spa and a membership at the gym... I love him for knowing exactly what I need. He had to work through the holidays and never complained. I am grateful that he has been safe and protected. I am also grateful we could spend so much time with our families. But more of that lata...

Reading

Usually it's not a good sign when the house gets quiet, but lately we've been finding Katherine pretending that she read. Note that she's not reading to a baby doll...

This is an pretty good imitation of me every Sunday... Geoff teases me that I'm the only one who finds the comics so funny that I laugh out loud... It's more fun to be amused...

Bumming around at home

Katherine loves to cook more than anything else. It gets a little messy. I stripped her down to her skivvies and then documented the first time Katherine helped me make chocolate chip cookies.
I love that Katherine loves to cuddle with me. The night this picture was taken, she was singing "If You're Happy and You Know It"... This is a girl who KNOWS it. If you're ever having a down day, you just need to hang out with Katherine for a while and you'll be laughing and entertained in no time.
We have moved into a neighborhood with wonderful neighbors. This picture was taken at a Thanksgiving brunch on our cul-de-sac where everyone brought a peaceful pot luck, away from the craziness of preparing for the big meal. Katherine has fallen in love with the dogs of our neighbor, Jason. From sun up to sun down, every request Katherine made began with "Jason dogs?" Fortunately, Jason is very good natured about it and allows her to come over often. She orders those dogs into their kennels, feeds them dinner and makes do tricks for their cookies... It all feeds into her need for control...

Revolution

Ron Paul came to ASU on a book signing tour, so Geoff and I and a few friends decided to hear what he had to say. We were only 15+ ft away from him. It was fun to be around people who care about the country. A lot of their views were a bit extreme for me, but it's always interesting to hear ideas.

We took the light rail to Tempe and made a day of it. We had gorgeous weather. I spent most of the time following Katherine, trying to keep her off the stage, and making sure the dogs she introduced herself to were safe... There wasn't one on the entire green that she hadn't met...

Future lobbyist for canines asleep in my arms.

Playing around in Portland

Katherine and Pax loving each other

Picking out a pumpkin

Riding the train

Jumping on the trampoline. Jack and Bennett were so good to Katherine, playing ring around the rosies, holding her up, being careful while they wrestled. They are very good big brothers.

What an indulgent, sweet Nana!

Paxton's blessing

I was so glad to be there for Paxton's blessing. Paxton is a sweet baby and loves to be held so we got along great! It's touching to see a group of men surround an infant as the father pronounces a blessing upon the baby's head. Most of Marks' family was able to be there. It was fun to catch up with them. They are always doing something interesting. For those of you interested, go to http://www.journeygym.com/ for their latest business idea...
Geoff ended up missing the blessing because Genet and Mark's ward time switched unexpectedly a couple of weeks prior due to a ward split. So Dad and I had to duck out from Sacrament meeting to go pick him up. I missed him. He works hard and sacrifices a lot so I can play. I love my husband.

Birthday

True statements must be made... Poor Sarah could not come within two feet before Katherine started to shout "No! No!" and the arms would swing! She got better after 5 days of staying withe the Freisses.

It was a wonderful birthday! She got all of her favorite things - clothes and jewels and crafts and a Little Mermaid big wheel from Grandma Bergeron waiting at home! Bennett was good at helping her open the presents - What would be do without him? We love you, Mr. B!
This would be a great shot had I gotten their attention to look at my camera...

This trip was so fun because of all the little ones.Thank you to everyone for making it a very special day.

Halloween

So, for Halloween I tried to create a costume inspired by Tallulah, the monkey in Barbie's The Island Princess. My neighbor makes tutus and I thought "I'll get the tutu and turn the princess into a monkey by adding fur...." Did not work. All my "fur" attachments ripped apart before she even got to the activity.
These pictures were taken at our ward Trunk-or-Treat... I had received the tutu that morning and I shopped all afternoon to try to figure out how to do fur and I couldn't make it work and she wouldn't wear her crown so she walked around in her tutu and cowgirl boots.
This is her best friend in the ward, Ella Shea. You can hear Katherine call out to her all during church. She gets so excited when she finds Ella Shea, she knocks her over when they hug... (Ella Shea had already taken off her costume in this pic, but what a sporting view of her belly!)Our ward staged a parade around the parking lot so all the kids could march around in their costumes and then go back around to get candy. One car at the end was completely decked out with scary paraphanalia - scary music, a ten foot Grim Reeper looming over the car, a fog machine, and skeletons that jumped out from the grave. Was Katherine scared? not one bit. She was fascinated, would not move from that spot the rest of the evening.

Hamming it up for over 30 minutes...

When we were in Oregon, we also got to go with the Friesses to their ward's Trunk or Treat. All the Friesses and the Williams dressed up as a Star Wars character and they looked GREAT!
Can you tell who everyone is?

(Jack & Lucas should correct my spelling)
Mark - Annikan
Paxton - Yoda
Genet - Princess Amidala
Bennett - the bounty hunter who's name I forget, right?
Sarah - Princess Leia who wouldn't wear her hair muff
Jack - Jedi
Lucas - Jedi who has won a lot of medals in Tai Kwon Do
Jonah - the cutest Ewok that ever was
Katherine - This is also documentation that I tried to turn the tutu into a monkey, but I am not blessed with talent. Next year, I'm just buying a costume!

Park Days

The weather has finally cooled off and we can go back to Anthem park. Here we are riding the train with our friend Olivia and her mom, Sally.The park has a splash pad that she could not resistThis is a face I cannot resist

On the phone with Grandma Bergeron

Katherine loves talking on the phone, especially her grandparents. Since they can't see what she's like during these conversations, we decided to videotape one of them.

Pictures with family visiting in Prescott

It was fun to visit with Aunt Donise and Uncle Lloyd home from their mission in Adam Ondi Aman, Missouri. They came up with Uncle Matt and Grandmother for General Conference. We had a blast!
Katherine has become Nana's shadow, attached to her hip, glued to her, however you want to call it, Katherine is with her at all times if she can help it...

Exploring the rocks

Katherine introduce Grandma Jackson to a Barbie movie

I love this woman. I'm so glad she was able to come down for a Jackson reunion (of sorts). Uncle Russell and Aunt Connie, Uncle Bill and Aunt Anne and Grandma were able to come down for a week together in Prescott (though I don't have pictures of everyone). It was very good to catch up with them. We don't see family near enough.

So I take Katherine outside to play ball...

She lasted two minutes before she insisted that we get the sidewalk chalk out and began to write. You will hear her singing a medley of the alphabet song and "Do As I'm Doing." You think it's an indicator that our girl is going to be more artistically inclined than an athlete?? I'm guessing so. I'd put money down that this romantic will be writing love sonnets and short stories by the time she's five.

Another reason why we are not getting a pet anytime soon

This stuffed animal is a gift from Grammy and Grandpa Howard. It is duly named "Cocoa" because Grandma keeps a real guinea pig named Cocoa safely in Michigan whom Katherine loves... probably too much...

The Princess Ball

Our stake started a tradition to hold a Daddy-Daughter Princess Ball for all girls 18 mos-12 yrs old and they go all out!

Katherine is wearing a dress I received at her baby shower that she had never worn or seen because I was saving it for a special occasion - mother's intuition??

My friend, Preeti, put together a pre-ball dinner for all the girls and their escorts. I got to be the lucky one escort since Geoff had to work (he had taken off the day before so he could take the youth to the temple), but we'll try to work out his schedule better next year.
We danced for an hour and a half. She did not want to be put down. She was not interested in making a tiara or posing for a formal picture. She just wanted to dance and dance... My kind of girl!
She did stop, however, to meet the King and Queen of the ball (a counselor in the stake presidency and his wife). They were announced by royal procession and everyone had to bow and courtsey as they passed. Katherine was IN AWE. She talked to them for at least 10 minutes straight, all the while they kept looking at me for translation and I just shrugged, "Your guess is as good as mine!"

All tuckered out!

In this video Katherine is talking with some sisters who are part of a family of 5 girls in our ward, the Bentzes. They babysit her a lot and she thinks she should be one of them. It's darling. She always says "Hi Girls!! Hi Girls!!"


All and all, it was a VERY fun night! We were so glad we went!

August visit with Nana & Papa

I had to post this because it's a good moment with Nana & Papa and you can understand Katherine's words pretty well as she recites "This Little Piggy went to market..."

Note the very special princess dress that Nana gave her. She wears it several times a week and I even let her wear it while I ran errands yesterday. Is it laziness on my part? I just didn't want the argument. Who wants to deprive a 2 yr old of her jewels anyway??

Can't believe it's been a month since our last post

Life has been busy and good. Katherine remains the focus of our joy and daily laughs. I am losing the battle of making Katherine's hair look nice. It's so soft and fine and growing at different layers, it just falls right out.
This is what her hair looks like most of the time. She is sporting my apron which we have transformed into a kimono.
She loves winter jacket and insists on wearing "jack" even though it's 108 outside. It's hard to say no when she flashes everyone in just a diaper...

I enrolled Katherine in a gymnastics class, just to get her interacting with other kids, comfortable with listening to directions... I spend most of the time chasing her, but she is so excited to have those trampolines at her disposal, she can't contain herself. talk about a giddy girl! She has showed the most progress on walking the balance beam and being able to climb a horizontal ladder. But most of the time she's yelling at the instructor, Miss Robyn, to "watch this!" It's good for her to experience limited attention and to be part of a group. Our last class for this session is Tuesday and we'll take a break till the new year.

THE BIG REVEAL

This is the moment that we've been waiting for...

For any of you who could not understand why I was not ecstatic when we first bought the house need not look further than the front bathroom... And this is what Geoff replaced with that awful linoleum... I am ECSTATIC now!

The entire entryway was carpeted...

So we added the tile walkway...

And created a Kids' Corner...The Transition into the kitchen
And family room



My neighbor sold us the flat screen which was used in one of his company's model homes - I always love a great deal! We're still looking for a TV stand. I'm tired of wiping off stick hand prints already!This is probably my favorite room, though I'm like all of them. The kitchen turned out more nicely than I imagined. It's really homey and comfortable but there is still a lot of space in the family room.

The master bedroom before...

After...

Master bath before...

Master bath still in progress, but the marble tile looks INCREDIBLE!!!

We still have some more work to do, but we had to show what the past two months of hard work has accomplished. I cannot tell you how grateful I am for a husband who is handy, persistent, diligent and patient. It shows in his craftsmanship. I did most of the painting, but isn't nearly as hard on your back nor did I have to work outside in 115 degree heat to cut the tile. He is a good man and I love him.