The Pittman Family

What we've been up to this week.

2012-02-02T11:15:00.000-08:00

Playing.

Crafting.

Cleaning and organizing.

Reading.

Learning about fire safety. (Complete with a visit from the fire dept. after our carbon monoxide detector went off. It was a false alarm and all is well.)

Recovering from the sniffles.

Matching.

Kissing.

Pajama parties with sponge rollers!!!

Laughing and loving life with our two littles.

(Please ignore my awful fake laugh in the video.)

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Artist

2012-01-16T18:48:00.000-08:00

Kate's Christmas present from us was this art easel. She LOVES it! It's been a lot of fun watching her draw and make up stories to go with her art.

Here's her name- e Kat.

She says this is me. I'm not sure if I like that or not.

Our family according to Kate and me. (Matt was offended that I didn't give him a beard so I added one.)

This one is a little more complicated. The thing in the middle with brown hair was a giant with "lots of legs", then it was Matt. The blue one in the top left corner is Kate- the little giant. The tiny red one on the right is Claire. The purple circles on the bottom right side is "where we all live".

Settling In

2012-01-15T20:21:00.000-08:00

We've been back at work and in class for 2 weeks and we're finally figuring out how to live life with 2 kiddos. The house is still a disaster, but hopefully we'll get it back in order tomorrow since we don't have to work. There are lots of toys that need a new home and we're just out of space!

I've got a lot of posts over the next week and I'll post them with the date that it actually happened (or close to it) to keep things in order so scroll down to make sure you don't miss anything!

2 months old

2012-01-12T08:01:00.000-08:00

Claire is 2 months old! She is smiling a ton and loves looking at Kate and laughing with her. At her 2 month appointment she was 9lb 8oz and was 23 inches long. She's a little small so we go back in 2 weeks to check on her again. She's been getting better with her head control and loves lifting it up when she's on her tummy. She also likes lifting her legs up so she looks funny balancing on her tummy.

She looks so much like Matt! I'll post some of his baby pictures soon for comparison.

Kate got this doll for Christmas and we laugh that it's almost as big as Claire.

Azle Christmas

2011-12-30T17:53:00.000-08:00

We had a blast in Texas over Christmas! It was so fun to show Claire off and introduce her to all our families.

There are a ton of pictures- enjoy!!

Christmas in Lubbock

2011-12-30T17:42:00.000-08:00

Kate wanted to see snow so bad and she got her wish! It snowed in Lubbock before we got there and there was still a little on the ground when we arrived. She was so excited to play in it.

Kate turns 3!

2011-12-19T08:08:00.000-08:00

Our sweet Kate is getting so big! She cracks us up often and keeps us on our toes. We are loving life with a 3 year old...for the most part.

We did a little interview with Kate and these are her answers word for word.

Name: Baby Ellis. Kate Amelia- that's Claire's name.

How old are you: 3 (holding up 3 fingers)

Who's your dad: Matt

Mom: Ellis (laughing)

Siblings: Anything

Who's your sister: Claire

Where do you live: Here in this house.

What town: California

Best friend: Naomi

Favorites-

Things to do with your friends: slide with them

Food: Strawberries

Drink: Apple juice

Color: Red

Shape: I think triangle

Number: mmm....a circle

Letter: ABC alphabet

Song: ABC alphabet

Book: PBS Kids

Toy: Baby Belle

TV show: I don't know

Movie: Beauty and the Beast

Thing to do at home: Do crafts

And the attitude comes out!

She posed herself for this one. We were laughing so hard!

She's been really big into sticking her tongue out for all pictures. It took a lot of bribing to get all these taken. :)

Matt loves palm trees and has created the same enthusiasm in Kate.

Kate's 3rd Birthday Party

2011-12-12T08:03:00.000-08:00

We had a great time at Kate's 3rd birthday party! She wanted a pink party and I think we accomplished that. I know I say this all the time, but we have truly been blessed with great friends here. There are lots of little girls Kate's age and she has a blast playing with them.

We had the party at the playground and kept it really low key. We played pin-Cinderella-in-the-window-of-the-castle and ate pink cupcakes and cookies.

I can't believe my little girl is so big!

Claire is 1 month old!

2011-12-12T07:32:00.000-08:00

I can't believe Claire is already a month old! We love our little Claire Bear!

Laying on the blanket Grammie made her.

Christmas Card

2011-12-09T05:42:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas from the Pittman family!

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Birth Announcement

2011-12-09T05:41:00.000-08:00

Here's Claire's birth announcement. Shutterfly did a great job and I love them!

Polka Dot Pink Birth Announcement

Customize your own unique baby announcements with Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

More pictures of Claire

2011-12-08T08:22:00.000-08:00

My Girls

2011-12-06T05:56:00.000-08:00

I love having a sister and I'm so glad that my girls have each other. Kate has been so good with Claire and gets excited about teaching her things as she gets older.

As the older sister, I see a lot of myself in Kate. She is such a helper and lover. She also likes being the boss and telling Claire what to do. I'm sure that will be the cause of a lot of fights as they get older. :)

I pray that my girls have a close relationship and become best friends who will always be there for each other.

Family Pictures

2011-12-05T10:02:00.000-08:00

We took some family pictures last week and had fun being really silly. Kate loved holding the remote and taking pictures. I love my family!

Yogurt Face

2011-12-05T09:03:00.001-08:00

Kate decided to drink her yogurt at lunch a few days ago. When she saw this picture she said, "Hey! That's yogurt face!" She's so silly!

Finding our new normal

2011-11-22T20:10:00.000-08:00

We are so blessed!! We had family in town for the past several weeks and I don't know how we would've survived without them. My mom is a rock star and stayed for 3 weeks. She was a huge help- doing laundry, washing dishes, cleaning, keeping Kate in line...especially with using the potty, and the list goes on. She left this morning and we already miss her!

Matt's family came in also and we had a good visit with them over the weekend. Kate loves seeing her grandparents and I'm so glad they were all able to come and see the girls.

We are slowly trying to find our new normal. Mom left this morning and Matt had work until lunch. Tomorrow he's gone all day, home for an hour at dinner and back in class until 9:30pm. It should be interesting to see how I do alone for so long. We went to the grocery store yesterday with Grammie and it went well. It'll take some getting used to to get 2 kids ready, down the stairs, in the car AND then get the errands run.

Kate has been doing great!! She has her whiny tantrums occasionally, but overall she's been really good. She got some new books at the library and we've been reading them a lot. She's been sleeping really well...even when Claire cries at night.

Claire is doing well. She's still super sleepy and isn't awake much. She's eating well and seems to be gaining weight. We go back to the doctor next Tuesday to make sure she's back up to her birth weight and that the jaundice is gone. She's learned how to poop and pee when we open the diaper. Almost every time we go to change her diaper we get attacked...even after we plugged in the wipe warmer. A couple of times she's gotten some pretty good distance with the poop. The carpet has been cleaned a few times already. :)

Supporting our Red Raiders on Saturday. Wish they were doing better this season!

My friend Hollie made the hat and booties...so cute!

Nona & PawPaw with the girls.

Grammie and the girls.

Pictures of Claire

2011-11-18T20:08:00.000-08:00

Here are a ton of pictures of Little Baby Claire, as Kate calls her. Thank you for being patient with me. This past week has been amazing!! We are loving our new little addition!

Soon after birth

Our long, skinny girl with chubby cheeks.

Proud Daddy!

Proud Grammie

Grammie and PaPa with Miss Claire

This is the dress Claire wore home from the hospital. It was one of my mom's dresses when she was a baby. I love this dress- the color and style are so cute! Who knew it would be back in style so many years later.

Kate has talked for months about Claire's birthday. She really wanted to have a party for her so we got cupcakes and had a party! Kate even got to blow out the candle for Claire. It was pretty cute!

Getting some sun to help out with her jaundice.

Sorry this is so dark. The second night home she found her fingers and went to town sucking on them.

Kate helped me give Claire her first bath. Kate did such a great job being gentle and helping wash her off and put lotion on her.

Kate has done an amazing job! We've had our moments, but overall she's excited that Claire is here. The other night Claire was crying and woke Kate up. Kate said, "Why is Claire so mad? Why is she so loud? When will her stop?"

Claire is doing great! The last couple of nights she's slept really well. She's nursing like a champ and is a pretty content.

Family of Four

2011-11-17T18:27:00.000-08:00

We've been home for a couple of days and are adjusting to being a family of four. Kate is loving having both Grammie and Nona in town and is eating up all the attention. It's been so nice to have so much help with Kate, laundry, cooking and dishes.

Claire is doing well. We went to the doctor on Tuesday and her bilirubin levels are better. She's nursing well and sleeping all the time.

I've got a lot of pictures that I'll get put up soon.

Our first picture as a family of four

Daddy and his girls.

You can see how yellow she was at the hospital. I'm so glad that she's getting better.

Introducing...

2011-11-12T20:14:00.000-08:00

Claire Amelia Pittman!

She arrived on 11/12/11 at 1:57am. She weighs 7 lbs 9oz and is 21.5 inches long.

Mom and baby are doing well. She is perfect and Kate is loving being a big sister! We are blessed beyond measure!!

I'll post more pictures soon!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T15:44:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween! Our little Texas Tech cheerleader had so much fun at the Fall Festivals at Fuller and our church this weekend. And with the 85 degree weather there was no last minute scrambling for a turtle neck and leggings. :)

She was so excited to get to sit and pose like a real cheerleader.

Kate and her good buddy, Maddie.

With Daddy on the hay ride.

Matt's the one in the red shirt with his back to the camera.

Kate loved the cotton candy...I think she had the same reaction last year.

Poor kid doesn't get many sweets!

More friends- with the 2 Naomi's.

I'm still pregnant...

2011-10-27T11:37:00.000-07:00

This was taken 2 weeks ago at 35.5 weeks before my shower.

All the contractions I was having 2 weeks ago...and the 2 weeks before that...have completely stopped. I've had maybe 2-3 contractions in the last week and a half. Sigh.

I would have put money on having a baby in my arms by now with the way I was feeling.

We're just hanging out and waiting. Matt is working really hard to get papers written and assignments done since we have no clue when Miss Claire will make an appearance.

Kate knows something is up and has been acting out. She's had lots of accidents (which very rarely happen anymore) and wrote on the wall and her belly with a pen in the last week. We've had lots of mommy/daughter time and have been doing some fun things. I hope Claire shows up soon just for Kate's sake. I know it must be hard for her not really understanding what is happening. At least Kate is still excited. She even offered to save part of her snack yesterday for Claire "when she gets big enough to eat it". It was so cute!

Baby #2 Update

2011-10-19T05:04:00.000-07:00

I went to the doctor on Friday and he thinks I'll have Miss Claire sometime in the next 2 weeks. I'm already dilated a little and have been having contractions that are getting stronger every day, they just don't stick around for very long.

Mom and Dad have cut their trip to Hawaii short and will be here this afternoon. We've got everything we need. I've got our bags packed and just finished the hair bows to match the little sis/big sis shirts I've made.

I still haven't finished making the diaper bag- actually it's cut out, but I haven't sewn anything at all. A Target sack will have to do until I can get around to it. ;) My goal today is to clean house and hang out with friends like we always do on Wednesday mornings.

Matt is requesting that she come on a Thursday because he's finished with classes for the week. Ha! I've had the 19th in my mind for months. I always thought it would be November 19th, but maybe today is the day.

Say a prayer that everything goes smoothly and at the right time! We'll keep you updated!!

On another note, some friends threw me a lovely shower on Saturday. It was so nice to be loved on! I didn't take a single picture, even though I had my camera with me. I did take a belly shot before I left for the shower, but I'm too lazy to find the camera to upload it here. Maybe I'll get around to that today.

Matt's Birthday

2011-10-13T08:58:00.000-07:00

Matt turned 30 a couple of weeks ago and we had fun celebrating! Kate and I joined him at his office and had cheesecake. It was fun getting to know the people that he works with better. It was very sweet of them to throw him a little party.

We usually don't do presents for each other. We just go on a date for both of our birthdays. But since he was turning 30, I was sneaky and got notes/letters for Matt from friends and family. I ended up with a whole bunch and had them bound into a book. He was super surprised and loved reading all the sweet, encouraging things everyone wrote about him. Thank you to all those that contributed!

Kate suggested we have a dinosaur party for him, so we did! We had about 30 people over and had fun hanging out with everyone. I made dino cupcakes that didn't turn out very well. They didn't even taste that good. :(

The kids had a blast running crazy. As it was getting later, I turned on a movie. They all immediately sat down and were glued to the tv.

I was proud of the banner I made out of some fabric scraps! Kate helped me hang some balloons around the apartment too.

I wasn't very good about taking pictures. I completely forgot until it was too late.

Celebrating Matt really made us realize how blessed we've been over the past year. We have made some really good friends and couldn't have survived this long without them. I love having others that are going through what we are and understand the life of seminary. The only thing that could have made it better (besides better cupcakes!) would have been our friends and family from TX. We missed them during this big celebration.

Crew Comes to CA!

2011-10-11T20:06:00.000-07:00

Mom & Dad brought Crew (and Aunt Lindsey) to come visit. It was a quick trip, but we had a blast. After we picked them up from the train station, we headed straight to the beach. It was Crew's 1st time to see the ocean and he loved it!

It was supposed to be cool that day and the water is always freezing, so we didn't wear swimsuits. I should have known that the kids would end up soaked and clothes-less anyway.

They loved digging in the sand.

And burying PaPa's feet.

And chasing seagulls.

When we were little we would go to the beach with Nonnie. Poppa made all of us viewfinders so we could see what was under the water and we loved them. He made 2 new ones for Kate and Crew. It was a little cold and their legs were a little short to really make them work, but they had fun trying to look.

Lindsey and Crew! Lindsey is pregnant with another boy and is due in January. We are excited for her and Riley. Kate kept asking Crew if he was going to be a big sister. One of these days she'll get it all straight. :)

Digging for tiny toy dinosaurs that were left over from Matt's birthday party. (Pictures coming soon!)

Matt buried their legs. Right after I took this picture, Kate kicked her legs up and sand went everywhere.

After we were done playing, we changed clothes and walked down the pier to see the tiny aquarium Manhattan beach has. It wasn't anything to get excited about and was really crowded.

Then it was off to lunch at Wahoo's Fish Tacos. We came home and cleaned up and rested before dinner. It was a long day and we were all exhausted. We didn't do much besides go to church on Sunday.

It was fun getting to show Crew our house and play! I hate that it was such a short trip.

(I promise to get Matt's birthday pictures up soon and tell you all about our fancy, almost free date night we went on for our birthdays.)

Because I'm a Procrastinator

2011-10-07T10:30:00.000-07:00

You get a 2nd post today because I should be cleaning house and I don't want to. :)

Grammie & PaPa are headed this way with Crew (and Aunt Lindsey). They will be here in the morning and I have a lot of cleaning to get done. I'm almost done with 6 loads of laundry and I have bread in the bread maker for lunch. I'm pretty impressed even though the bathroom won't clean itself and I need to get to work. :)

To say that Kate is excited is an understatement! She's asked about where Crew is going to sleep and sit at the table and in the car and what we are going to do while he's here.

We've got a lot of fun to fit into 2 days- expect lots of pictures! Grammie & PaPa will head back to TX Sunday night and Aunt Lindsey and Crew are headed to see some other friends here in CA.

I like my sleep and often bribe Kate to come lay in our bed if she wakes up early in the morning or I'm not finished with my nap and she is. She's been asking to read Daddy's magazine and takes it really seriously. It took some convincing for her to look up for this picture. She makes me smile!

Dinner at the Beach

2011-10-07T05:28:00.000-07:00

Several weeks ago we took a picnic dinner to the beach and watched the sunset. Kate loves picnics and playing in the sand, so she was in heaven!

It was chilly and a little cloudy so it wasn't perfect, but we had fun. There were several seagulls that thought our dinner looked good. They circled the blanket and stayed close to make sure they didn't miss out on any crumbs. There was one that was trying to fight off the others since he was there first. I sure was glad to get the food put away!

Catching up!

2011-10-04T14:07:00.000-07:00

Matt has been begging me to make an apple pie for awhile. About a month ago I needed a dessert to take when we were having dinner with a couple from church. I searched the internet and found a recipe and got to work.

I'm pretty impressed with myself for making a from scratch apple pie and it actually turning out ok.

Matt loved it and I got bonus wife points! It doesn't get better than that!

Happy Birthday Matt!

2011-09-29T05:48:00.000-07:00

Matt is 30!!

I am thankful to have him as my husband and friend. He is such a good Daddy to Kate and I can't wait for him to meet Claire. I am one blessed lady!

Happy 30th birthday Matt! I hope you have an amazing day!

(We're having a big party tomorrow and I promise to take lots of pictures.)

Our New Pet, Sharky

2011-09-27T06:08:00.000-07:00

Kate is obsessed with dogs.

She wants a dog.

She asks for a dog all the time.

She asks us to buy a yard all the time so she can have a dog.

A few weeks ago she got a balloon at the grocery store. The next day when it lost its lift, she named it Sharky and pulled it around the house calling it her dog. It was hilarious. One morning she was holding Sharky's "weash" and threw a tennis ball. The look of devastation on her face was priceless when her beloved "dog" didn't fetch the ball. It was fun to try to explain that one. Later that morning, she gave Sharky his 1st bath in her toy basket. Lots of memories were made.

The original Sharky last several days and there were tears when he finally popped.

Matt & I were thrilled when she got another Sharky from the grocery store the next week. That one was yellow and lasted 10 days.

10.

days.

Less tears were shed that time around and we've talked extensively about how balloons aren't made to last and she can't be sad when they pop.

We haven't taken Kate back to the grocery store since then, but she still talks lovingly about dear old Sharky.

Texas Tech

2011-09-19T09:08:00.000-07:00

Uncle Josh sent Kate a Tech cheerleader uniform so she could cheer the Red Raiders on in fashion this season. She was really cute on Saturday asking for pom poms and spinning around.
I think I know what she's going to be for Halloween.

In a perfect world..

2011-09-05T06:21:00.000-07:00

...my dishes would always be clean.

...the blog would get updated regularly.

...I would be able to walk up our 2 flights of stairs without dying.

...I wouldn't waddle when I walk.

...clean laundry would magically appear in the closets and dressers.

...I would be able to sleep all night and would be able to go longer than 10 minutes between bathroom breaks.

...we would have central air and I would never be hot.

I'm 30 weeks pregnant!! I'm feeling as good as anyone this pregnant feels. I've figured out that it's really easy to over do it so we're adjusting our days and how much I try get done. It's stressing me out that there is still so much on my to-do list. Matt has the next 3 weeks off from school and we have plans to do fun stuff and get some work done. After school starts, things get really busy until Miss Claire makes her arrival.

Kate talks about Claire constantly. Her favorite thing is to pretend that she has a baby named Claire in her tummy too. She likes to lift our shirts and bump bellies. She talks about Claire coming with us wherever we're going and makes sure that Claire gets food at every meal. We look at the calendar often and Kate can tell you that Claire will be here in November. She is so ready to be a big sister!

My Silly Girl

2011-08-25T08:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday when Kate woke up from her nap I asked her what she was doing. She said, "I just got up on this summer day". I'm not sure where she comes up with this stuff...or anything she does.

After dinner last night Kate put on some socks and shoes...and a hat. I'm proud that she matched the hat to her panties. :)

This has been Kate's bed for the past week or so. She pretends she's going to sleep a lot during the day. She'll put her babies to bed here also. Notice the plastic kitchen container for the pillow.

We love our silly girl!!

Deprived

2011-08-24T06:24:00.000-07:00

This is Kate's iPad.

She plays with it all the time. Typing. Coloring. Watching videos.

Matt has been teaching her for months to answer "iPad!!" when someone asks what she wants for her birthday/Christmas. When we were in Lubbock she was lucky enough to test PaPa's iPad out.

I wonder who the lucky person is going to be that gets a real one for her in a few months??

Merry Christmas to Me!

2011-08-22T11:10:00.000-07:00

I spent some of my Christmas money on new bedding and fabric to make pillows for our room. 8 months later it's all finished and I love it!!

The bedding is from Target. I covered the big euro pillows and the smaller throw pillows. I love the ruffles! I also made the art above the bed. I made the letters out of the same fabric from the euro pillows and covered the old art that was hanging up with white fabric.

I also made a nursing cover. Kate has been obsessed with it and wears it everywhere saying that she's feeding her baby.

Trip to Lubbock

2011-08-16T05:16:00.000-07:00

After several days in Azle, we headed to Lubbock to see my family. Kate and Crew are a mess and just giggled when they saw each other. We ate even more good food (sometimes I think we look forward to the food as much as we do seeing family), went fabric shopping, played lots of games, and saw friends and lots of family. Kate was excited to be reunited with baby (doll) Gus and didn't let him out of her sight. When she saw the picture below, the first thing she mentioned was Gus.

Uncle Jonathan was working on Saturday, so we had to make a trip to the fire station. Kate kept asking if she could drive the fire truck. Luckily she was happy sitting in the driver's seat and turning on the lights.

Grammie has new funky shoes and Kate loved playing with them.

Crew brought over his gator to ride around in.

On Saturday we had a Blair family reunion. My aunts and cousins all came over and we had fun catching up! We missed those that couldn't make it!

My dad with 2 of his sisters- Regina and Pam.

The cousins- Matt, Ed, Sheriee, Stormy, Shannel, Misty, Jonathan, me & Josh

Our kids. Emily- with the pink bow- is a month younger than Kate and Crew. The older girls loved playing with the little kids. It was fun!

Trip to Azle

2011-08-15T14:15:00.000-07:00

We had a blast in Azle! Kate and Ali are hilarious together! We ate a ton of good food, played really hard and tried to get some sleep in there. The guys went fishing with Dennis, we went shopping for double strollers and Matt and I were able to sneak off for a lunch date. It was so good to get to see family, cuddle with baby Riley and watch the girls play.

Kate and Ali watching Beauty & the Beast.

Kate loving on Riley.

Riley, Kate & Ali

Having fun with Uncle Tim & Aunt Amanda.

Uncle Matt was excited to get to meet Riley for the first time on this trip.

The girls played "fishing" for awhile after the guys got home from their fishing trip. I'm pretty sure those hats were sweaty and stinky!

One afternoon while Kate was finishing up her nap, Ali was playing story time. She was the teacher and was trying really hard to get Uncle Tim and Uncle Matt to listen and mind. Kate joined in when she woke up and they were putting on a puppet show for us. I really wish I would've had the video camera- they were so funny!

PawPaw took Kate for a ride on the 4 wheeler. She didn't know what to think at first, but had fun!

Later in the week both girls went for a ride.

We had dinner at Papaw's house. I was mad that I didn't take more pictures. This was as we were getting ready to leave. Poor Riley was already strapped in.

1st Airplane Ride

2011-08-15T07:07:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to post this since last week and Blogger hasn't been working! Sorry!

We're back from our trip to Texas so I have a lot to catch you up on.

Kate was so excited to get on an airplane that she had her backpack, baby and sunglasses on 30 minutes before we left for the airport. It was so cute!

The day before we left, she was really clingy and whiny so I asked if she was scared to ride the airplane. She said yes so we watched several videos on Youtube. I was shocked at how many people videotaped while boarding a plane and taking off. I sure was thankful! She loved the videos and her mood improved after that.

She did great all 3 legs of our flight. She was ready to be done as we started descending the last time. She kept saying, "Get me out of here!!" We all felt the same way. It was tough on my pregnant body.

She was being goofy and wouldn't smile for me. :)

I did learn a thing or 2 about flying with a 2 yr old.

1. The airplane bathrooms are really small. They are even smaller with a 2 yr old and pregnant belly.

2. Ice from your drink is just as entertaining as all the toys you packed.

3. Once they notice that they can turn the lights on and off, that's all they'll want to do the rest of the time.

4. Pack a lunch/dinner! We had to eat on the plane going because we were on the same plane the whole time. Our sandwiches were boring, but good and FREE. Coming home, we ate in Vegas and paid $30.44 for 2 foot long Subway turkey sandwiches and 2 bottles of water. Rip. Off.

We're packed

2011-07-29T05:57:00.000-07:00

and ready to head to Texas to see family today!

I Doubt It

2011-07-27T17:01:00.000-07:00

-A couple of weeks ago Kate had an accident and as I was cleaning her up I asked, "Did you get anything on the floor?" She said, "I doubt it."

- On Sunday Kate raised her shirt and said, "I have Maggie's (her baby doll) baby in my tummy. Her name Anna."

-Kate loves helping me in the kitchen. As soon as she sees me walking in there, she runs to pull a chair up to the counter. She was helping me cut up veggies for our salad the other night and was so excited to get to use her little pans. I put a little of everything in her pans and she would stir it up and then eat it. Her favorite is to help stir batter and then lick the spoon. She also loves eating dough- of any kind. Last night she ate a whole corn tortilla worth of dough as I was making them and then wanted more.

-On Monday Kate asked, "Tie my hair back?" and was insistent that it be a regular ponytail in the back, not on top of her head. She was so proud of it and kept touching it and talking about it all day. Tuesday was the same thing. I'm just so excited that it'll actually (barely) go into a "real" ponytail!

-We had a sports camp themed VBS at church a couple of weeks ago. The little kids learned how to play t-ball and Kate was hilarious! She saw one of the 4 yr old boys sliding into home and thought it looked fun. Every time if was her turn to run she would take a couple of steps and fall on her knees and laugh. She would "slide" about 16 times before she got all the way around the bases... it took forever- she loved all the attention.

One of the songs we sang went, "We will fight the fight. We will run the race." Kate came home singing, "I will fight you!" which made Matt wonder what she was learning. And she is still making us put our hands in the middle together and yell, "Go the distance!"- except she says, "Go to the distance". It was a fun week and I'm glad that I was there to see all the funny things she did. :)

-Kate and I grabbed a burger at In-n-Out a couple of weeks ago when Matt was in class one night. I asked her if she wanted a hamburger and she said, "Just cheese. Just cheese with no hamburger". Luckily they will make just that for her- a grilled cheese on a hamburger bun. When we got to In-n-Out she told me that they had funny hats and that they should "get one like Daddy's cause it's better".

Beach!!

2011-07-26T19:28:00.000-07:00

We spent Saturday at Seal beach and had a blast! Kate usually just wants to play in the sand and has to be talked into putting her feet in the water towards the end of our trip. On Saturday, she wanted to play in the water as soon as we got there. She didn't want to hold Matt's hand and kept asking to go in further.
I handed Matt the camera while Kate and I chased seagulls and looked for seashells.
Here's a belly shot (at 23 weeks) for all you that have been asking. It's really grown a lot over the last 3 weeks or so! Claire is healthy and growing like she's supposed to and I'm feeling great. I've been sleeping sooo well lately!

A super nice man offered to take a family picture for us. I'm so glad he did! (Please ignore my pasty white skin.)

I love that Kate always puts her sunglasses on upside down. I'll fix them for her and she just turns them back the other way.

Happy birthday!

2011-07-25T15:16:00.001-07:00

Happy birthday Uncle Randy!! We hope you have a great day! We can't wait to see you in a few days!!

(I'm giving up. I can't keep up with all the birthday posts and I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings by forgetting. I won't be posting all our families birthdays from now on, but know that we still care!!)

Baby Stuff

2011-07-22T06:32:00.000-07:00

In honor of my doctor appointment this afternoon, I'll post some pictures of the burp cloths and blanket that I made a few months ago for Matt's cousin Randee, and her new little one, Tieghan. They were expecting a she and ended up with a he. I think that's the only time that my procrastination has paid off. As soon as I heard the news, I got to work making baby things in blue and green.

Growing Up

2011-07-20T08:05:00.000-07:00

Kate is getting so big and I've been weeping like a baby a lot lately.
I blame it on the hormones.
Some friends graciously gave us this tricycle for Kate a few weeks ago. We've been super busy and didn't have time to take it outside to practice, but Kate became a quick pro riding it around the house. Over the weekend we finally headed outside to let her have fun. She looked so big riding up and down the sidewalk. She was doing so well steering and turning the bike around all on her own. She was so proud and grinned from ear to ear the whole time.

Kate loves for us to pray, but gets shy and never wants to pray on her own. She's prayed a couple of times on her own asking God to make the dragons, giants, monsters, etc. go away, but won't pray by herself at meals or bedtime.
Last night Matt prayed over her like normal, kissed her and he left while I was saying good night. She asked me to pray for her blanket and her nightlight and her calendar and....
So I did. After I was finished she started praying by herself. She said, "Thank God for Mommy and baby in Mommy's tummy and her hair." I was crying at this point and yelled for Matt to come back. Kate kept praying, "Thank you for Daddy and his pants and Mommy and her shirt. And for baby and blanket and..." She continued naming just about everything in her room. We were all laughing.
It was such a special moment! I am blessed to be Kate's mom. I can't wait for Claire to get here so we can create even more special memories.

My Little Pirate

2011-07-14T06:54:00.000-07:00

We had a pink pirate birthday party on Saturday and Kate loved it! Here she is rocking the gear a couple of days later. She'll walk around with her finger hooked saying, "Arrggg". :)

Life

2011-07-13T05:59:00.000-07:00

We're busy. Really busy.
Matt's in 2 intensive classes right now and is gone every morning and Monday/Wednesday nights. He's busy reading and writing when he's home.
Kate and I are busy running the boys to their activities, playing with our friends and having fun at VBS this week. I also volunteered to host a Mom's Prayer group for church at my house every week. And I'm now in charge of the preschool volunteers at church...a much bigger job than I thought it would be. :)
Add in laundry, dishes, grocery shopping, birthday parties every weekend, small group, etc.....
We haven't stopping running the last couple of weeks.
We're really looking forward to this weekend- we have NO plans. And I plan to keep it that way.
We are counting down the days until our trip to Texas at the end of the month. I can't wait!!

Tank Top Dress Tutorial

2011-07-08T15:12:00.000-07:00

It all started when we got this dress for Kate. I fell in love with it- the look, the fit, everything! I kept getting comments asking if I made it. Every time I would say no, but that I could have.

I love the detail and ruffle around the middle. Can you see how it's pleated? That's what I love!

So, here's my take on the dress.

(Click the picture to make bigger to see detail.)
You basically add a fabric skirt to a tank top...or any top that you want.

(I'm in the process of making another dress for a birthday party tomorrow. I'll put pictures up of the steps soon!)

-I took a tank top and drew a line with an disappearing ink pen and ruler where I wanted to sew the fabric to make the skirt. I liked it up high- right under the armpit, but you could make it wherever you want.
-Next measure the length you want the skirt to be- to the knees, ankles, wherever- and add about 2 inches for hemming.

-Cut your fabric that length times the width of the fabric- usually 45 inches. The width will give you your ruffle. The more fabric you have, the more ruffle. (You will have to adjust the width for a girl that's much younger or older- they usually say about double what you really need- the underarm or waist measurement.)
-Turn the bottom hem under 1/4 inch or so and iron. Turn again about 1/2 inch and iron. This will make it so much easier when it comes time to hem.

-Do the same for the top so you will have a nice ruffle. I turned the top a 1/2 in. and another 1/2 in.

-Sew the two short ends of your fabric together (right sides together) to make a big tube with your two hems at the top and bottom of the tube. Zigzag or use pinking shears to finish the seam, press open if necessary.

-Line up the seam of the skirt fabric with one of the side seams of the tank top. Pin the skirt to the tank top- wrong sides together. Find the middle of the skirt fabric and pin it to the other side seam of the tank top. Find the middle again for the front and pin and then a last time for the back and pin.

-At this point I just started sewing. I bunched up the fabric as I was sewing- making sure to keep it all pretty even. I left a little less than 1/2 in. at the top to create a little ruffle. Just make sure you catch the hem underneath. This was my first time winging it like this and it turned out well. Just go slow!

(I really like the pleated look, but you could very easily make a ruffle at the top of your fabric, pin right sides together and sew onto the tank top. You would still have a ruffled skirt, it would just look a little different. )

-Hem the bottom. Cut the extra tank top off from underneath.

-Make a cute fabric flower and sew it on. (This is the one I made, but Google it. I'm betting you can find one just as cute and that would be a little easier.)

And you're finished!!

Hopefully this makes sense without pictures. I'll get them up asap. If you don't know how to do what I'm saying, just Google it. There are tons of videos and tutorials on the basics of sewing.

New Tank Top Dress

2011-07-05T18:59:00.000-07:00

This is my new favorite dress! It was super easy to make.
Tank top + fabric + button= Fabulously easy!
I've seen these, but couldn't find a tutorial online that I liked so I just winged it. I love the little fabric flower on the top. :) Here's a tutorial!

Daddy's Girl

2011-06-29T05:43:00.000-07:00

Kate is a Daddy's girl in every sense.

She gets upset when I get her out of bed in the mornings and cries for Matt when he has a night class and can't pray over her before bed. She's always letting me know when I mess up- 'Daddy not do it that way'. They drink coffee/milk and share Matt's breakfast most mornings before he leaves for work.

I am so thankful for Matt and the incredible Dad he is. He's definitely going to have his hands full when Claire arrives.

Father's Day 2011

(I made the dress Kate is wearing!! Pictures coming soon.)

It's a Girl!!

2011-06-28T13:15:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we found out we're having another daughter! We are excited- especially Kate. She's been dying to have a sister. She got really upset that we couldn't leave immediately and get a pink paci after we found out. Having to call the grandparents first to let them know really upset her.
The baby's name is Claire Amelia and we can't wait to meet her. One of the first questions Kate asked was what the baby's last name would be. She is full of questions lately!
Kate loves talking to 'Care' and patting and kissing my belly. I'm ready for Matt and Kate to be able to feel the baby move. I think it will amaze Kate.
The sonogram pictures weren't that great, but I'll try to get the best one up soon.

Random Thoughts

2011-06-21T05:42:00.000-07:00

-Matt's back in school this week. We enjoyed his week off but didn't get as much done around the house like I was hoping.
-It's hot here!! I know, I know it's nothing like the 100 degree Texas weather, but we only have a window a/c unit and it doesn't do a great job. Being pregnant doesn't help.
-I got a parking ticket yesterday for parking in a 'No parking from 8-noon on the 1st & 3rd Monday' zone. I couldn't see the sign, but should've known. We were at the playground with a friend and she did the same thing and also got a ticket. So frustrating!!
-There's a new Mom's Prayer Group that's started with the ladies at church and I volunteered to host it at my house since Matt has class on Monday nights. Last night was our first meeting and it was great!
-I've been sewing again and have some cute projects to show you once I get the pictures off my camera.
-We find out the gender of the baby on Saturday! I've felt little kicks this last week. Kate has started telling people that she wants a brother. I don't understand her! We'll find out soon!

Disneyland...Again!

2011-06-16T09:33:00.000-07:00

This is Matt's break week before he starts summer classes and we were blessed to get free tickets again to go to Disneyland. Just one of the many perks to living in LA!
We were better prepared this trip since we knew what to expect. I planned out all the rides we wanted to go on to make the most of our day- especially since this will most likely be the last time we go for a long while.
We did so much and were completely exhausted by dinner time. Kate says her favorite ride was Dumbo- getting to make it go up and down. Matt and I loved it all. Kate was so excited and loved it all- even the "scary" rides.

Sitting on the Storybook Canal ride.

Alice and Wonderland ride

The white rabbit's house from Alice and Wonderland.

Waiting in line for the Buzz Lightyear ride- it was crazy!

The cars didn't stop, you just had to jump in while they were moving. You got a gun to shot at the bad guys and targets to get points. I was afraid Kate was too small, but she loved it.

Pouting because she didn't like standing in line and waiting.

The only thing we repeated from last time was the Royal Coronation with the princesses. I love her look here. She wasn't sure what to think.

Finally warming up and helping Baby Nonnie learn to dance and be a princess.

Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and Cinderella teaching us how to be a princesses.

My favorite picture from the day!!

We didn't plan on seeing any characters, but got really lucky and saw several perfect ones for Kate! She loves Woody!

Kate has really gotten into Winne the Pooh and was so excited to ride Pooh's ride.

Then we got lucky and got to meet Pooh!

And Eeyore- who wanted to hold Baby Nonnie. We were afraid Kate was going to have a breakdown, but she did a good job sharing.

We headed over to California Adventures to see who we could find over there. Kate has been obsessed with Cars and loves to find the billboards while we're driving. She hugged both Mater and Lightning McQueen and didn't want to leave when our turn was over.

Kate had been talking for days about giving Pluto a high five and hug. We hit the jackpot towards the end of the day and she got to do exactly what she wanted.

We were getting tired so we stopped to see "It's Tough to be a Bug" in 3D. Kate was really too young, but she did great. I was more scared than she was. We both ended up taking off our glasses about halfway through.

We headed home before dinner and were lucky to not hit much traffic. We had a blast and did everything that we wanted to do.

Happy birthday!

2011-06-12T06:04:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday PopPop! We love and miss you!

Happy birthday!

2011-06-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday Nona! We miss you and can't wait to see you again! We love you!

Fun in the Sun

2011-06-02T06:18:00.000-07:00

We headed to the beach early on Saturday morning to beat the crowd. We went to Santa Monica and had a blast. I just love people watching and we definitely had some fun laughs that morning.
Kate loves the sand and could play for hours. She also loves messing up Matt's sand castles. It's become a game for me to distract her long enough for him to get something built before she notices and knocks it down. He never gets very far...
I got sunburned but no one else did. How does that happen??

If you look closely you can see the farmer's tan she's already been working on.

Kate saw a lady behind us doing yoga and was very curious. She asked what the lady was doing and I said she was exercising. Kate got excited and said that she knew how to exercise and starting with her own yoga poses. She then wanted me to take pictures of the lady. I said no!

Watching the helicopter with Daddy.

Happy birthday!

2011-05-31T05:54:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday PawPaw!! We love you and miss you!

PawPaw helping Kate fish with the rod he got her.

Fun with Playdoh

2011-05-30T05:57:00.000-07:00

On Friday after nap time, we had some Playdoh fun! Matt started making something and made Kate and me guess what it was. Kate guessed the right thing before I did.
I apparently need to brush up on my guessing skills.
We all made lots of things and made the others guess what they were. It was a lot of fun. By the time I pulled out the camera my brilliant masterpiece had already been smashed, but I came up with something else I thought was a good 2nd.
Can you guess who made what? We each created one of the lovely sculptures below. Leave your guess in the comments. (And I helped you out by labeling the items.)

A car

A bird

A cake

My favorite things about Kate (right now)

2011-05-26T05:49:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to write about these things for a while, but I've been MIA for so long...

-Kate loves family hugs. We'll all be doing our own thing and all of a sudden she'll yell, "Family hug!" and start pulling us together.
-Growing up Mom and Nonnie always wanted our "sugars". And they always happened to be in our neck resulting in lots of giggles as they "got them".
We have a game with Kate that I absolutely love. I tell Kate that I'm going to get her sugars and she squeals and says, "No". I kiss her neck anyway as she giggles and tells me no. Then she kisses me to get her sugars back. I keep doing it over and over so I can get lots of kisses from her!
-Kate loves to pay pretend. The other night she had Matt and I sitting on the floor playing "Bible Class". She was the teacher and was having us sing, color and eat a snack. She also told us all about how God made all the animals. The best part was when she told us, "Member tell me if you need to go potty. Member." I guess she thought Matt and I would have an accident if we didn't remember to tell her we need to go.
-A couple of mornings ago I was kissing Kate and she told me, "No kiss me. Your beard in the way." All I could do was laugh. Where does she come up with this stuff? (This is when my siblings make fun of me...)
-Kate is obsessed with the letter K. She knows that's what her name starts with and loves to find K's while we're driving or reading a book. When I'm texting or typing on the computer, she tells me to "Type a K! Type a K!".

Changes

2011-05-24T06:10:00.000-07:00

We have been so busy! I feel like we haven't stopped going and doing since January- even though I spent the better part of the last 2 months on the couch or in bed. :)
We found out about a month ago that our apartment complex is getting turned over to a new property management company at the end of May. That means that we will no longer be considered a part of Fuller Housing in a week. There are lots of pros and cons, but we are excited to stay where we are. (I don't want to pack any boxes, would you?)
We were especially excited last week when we got a phone call asking if we would be interested in being the on-site property managers with the new company. We said yes! (The nice rent credit is an added bonus!)
All of this happened along with our stuff being taken, so it kinda got lost in the shuffle.
One thing I'm sad about is still not having a washer and dryer. I had convinced myself that we would move into a little rent house where our friends live a couple of blocks away, when they move out this summer. They have a washer and dryer. And a storage shed. And a small backyard. And a parking spot right outside their door....
But they also have tiny closets and a tiny kitchen. I have to put everything into perspective.
Anyway, we are really excited and can't wait for this new adventure!
Now we just need to figure out a way that we can still use cloth diapers with Baby #2 while not having a washer of our own.

Baby Pittman #2

2011-05-23T14:44:00.000-07:00

The head is on the left and you can see a leg and foot on the right.

The morning before we headed to Texas, I had a Dr. appointment and my first sonogram. Matt and I loved getting to see our #2 kicking and moving around.
The doctor moved my due date back 2 weeks to November 15th which makes me 15 weeks pregnant right now. And he said that everything looks good!
The heart beat was 158 at the appointment (almost 12 weeks along).
I'm feeling much better! I haven't been sick in weeks and have more energy than I did, even though it's not back up to the level it was before I got pregnant. I haven't really gained any weight, but my tummy is definitely bigger. I'm already in maternity pants because I'm all about comfort. I can't do the rubber band thing with my pants.
Any guesses on what flavor baby we're having?
Kate insists that she's having a sister and won't even listen to any talk about a boy. I'll save our guesses to tell you later. :)

2011-05-20T05:58:00.000-07:00

It's been a long week in the Pittman house!
Last Thursday I found our storage unit downstairs EMPTY! To make a really long story short, our stuff was thrown away by Fuller because they thought it was left by old tenants. It was a big miscommunication and mess!
All of Kate's newborn clothes and stuff- bottles, burp cloths, toys, etc.- plus some other things were down there. Including the dress that she came home from the hospital in- which happens to be the same dress I came home in too.

Sigh...
I've spent the week sad, mad, frustrated, angry, etc.
Our stuff can't be replaced, but it's just stuff. And Fuller was very apologetic and they are in the process of cutting us a check so we can replaced everything.
Now that it's all said and done, I have to say I'm a little excited to get to shop for baby clothes for this new little one that's on the way. :)

Mother's Day

2011-05-19T05:41:00.000-07:00

Kate and Maggie

Kate and I headed back to CA on Saturday. It was my first time on the train, but Kate was an old pro since she rode with Grammie and PaPa in January. It was fun, but long. I think I was just worn out from the week and Kate was ready to run around after being in the car so much. Kate had a hard time settling down to sleep, but slept great once she was down. She even slept in late enough that we missed breakfast.

Kate ended up with a new baby- that has a pacifier!- for the train ride. Her name is Maggie and Kate was so cute showing her everything on the train.

Matt met us at the train station Sunday (Mother's Day) morning and we were so excited to see him!! He was sweet and had a card for me in the car and a gift certificate for a massage! The rest of the day was spent on the couch trying to recover from our fun week. I wish I could say that I at least unpacked our bags, but no- the suitcase sat in the living room floor for 4-5 days.

I'm also a horrible person and forgot to give our Moms their cards while I was with both of them. Oh well, I blame my forgetfulness on the pregnancy!

Our Quick Trip to Texas

2011-05-17T05:23:00.000-07:00

We were able to do some fun things while in Lubbock. Most of them consisted of 2 giggling 2 yr olds! It was a blast seeing Kate and Crew play together.

Sporting her new raincoat that I got on clearance and have been eyeing for months. :)

Batman and Superman playing in the sprinkler.

Grammie's big helpers! Sweeping and watering the plants- very important tasks.

Trying to get away from silly Uncle Jonathan.

Helping PaPa drive the "tractor" and riding in the wagon that we used to ride in when we were their age! You can tell by the pictures how much they loved it!

Baby Riley is Here!!

2011-05-16T08:38:00.000-07:00

We've been back from Texas for a week and I think I'm finally recovering! I'll slowly be getting pictures up from all our adventures.
Kate and I were so excited that we were in Texas when Riley Grace was born! She was born on May 4th at 3:19pm, 7lbs 5oz, 20.5 in.
We are so excited to have 2 nieces and Kate is beyond excited about Ali having a baby sister. Congrats to Randy, Becky and Ali!!
Kate and I headed to Ft. Worth on Thursday and went straight to the hospital. After loving on Riley, Nona and I took the girls to go play. Kate loved being with Ali and they were so silly that whole day! They had fun taking a bath together that night and attempting to sleep in the same bed. (Kate was just too excited to make it work out!)
The next morning they loved watching Tangled before Kate and I headed back to Lubbock.
We were excited to get to eat lunch in Abilene with Uncle Tim and Aunt Amanda too.
It was a quick trip but I'm so glad we were able to see everyone and get hugs!

3 girls!

Isn't that tutu just precious! And Riley is soo cute!

Proud Aunt!

Nona with Kate and Ali

The girls were so silly! They thought it was hilarious to lock themselves in the dog crate.

Happy birthday!

2011-05-07T06:58:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday Mamaw!! We miss you and can't wait to see you again!

This picture was taken last Aug. before we moved at Pittman Swim Day.

Surprise!

2011-04-30T05:45:00.000-07:00

Grammie and PaPa came in last night and Kate and I decided to hitch a ride back to Texas with them. We are leaving around lunch time today and will be in Lubbock for a week. Matt can't miss school and work, so he's staying here and getting a lot of homework done.
We are super excited to see everyone! And we're planning a trip to Ft. Worth to see Matt's family and soon-to-be-born niece later in the week.
Please pray for Becky and baby Riley that she has a quick and easy delivery and everyone is healthy.
Kate has been bouncing off the walls excited to see Crew and Ali. She misses her cousins so bad!
I'm looking forward to relaxing and eating some good Mexican food and BBQ. It's just not the same around here.
Please pray that the drive to Lubbock goes quickly and smoothly and that Kate does well.

I'm headed to an OB appointment this morning and will have a Baby Pittman #2 update as soon as I catch up on sleep once we get to Lubbock. ...And hopefully have a sonogram picture too.

Some of Kate's favorite things at the moment

2011-04-28T05:41:00.000-07:00

I asked Kate a bunch of questions and these where her answers.
Favorite song: The Wheels on the Bus
Favorite thing to do: Brush her teeth
Favorite food: Ice cream (No clue where she got this. I would guess the real answer is mac & cheese or blueberries.)
Favorite color: Pink
Favorite game: Basketball (She's never played! But the big kids play outside all the time.)
Favorite toy: Her dinosaurs
Favorite book: Bible
Favorite show/movie: Mary Poppins

I would also add that she loves the playground, singing, taking care of her baby, helping us cook, helping put away groceries and dishes, the ABC song, playing on Daddy's ipod, picking out letters and things that match, and eating. :)

Kate loves playing peek-a-boo...especially when I have the camera out.

We busted out the kiddie pool a couple of weeks ago. Kate loved it! Best $10 I've spent in a while.

Totally random, but there was a hit and run outside our apartment and this was the result. Matt took this from our window. It was crazy!

Little Fashionista

2011-04-26T06:22:00.000-07:00

Kate loves to dress herself. About a month ago I caught her putting her pants over her pjs with brown socks and sandals.
Classy!
Every morning she says, "Two shirts, two shirts" and wants us to pick 2 shirts for her to pick from when we're picking out her clothes.
On Saturday while we were folding laundry, she got ahold of a couple of her shirts and ended up putting them both on over her other shirt- 3 shirts on at once. She does pretty good putting on shirts, pants and shoes. They aren't always on the right way, but she can do it by herself most of the time.

Pictures for your enjoyment!

2011-04-25T05:34:00.000-07:00

I know a lot of you have Facebook and have seen these pictures, but for those of you that
don't, here you go! I know you're having withdrawals since I haven't been posting so I've got a lot of pictures ready to post all week. Just don't get your hopes up, because I'm not going to be posting this much after this week. :)

Showing off her dress from Nona before church last week.

I. love. this. smile.

Kate is so in love with her 'Baby Nonnie'. I just love the sweet look on Kate's face.

Matt has to stay late after church to help put everything away every week. After we get tired of running around outside, we usually head to the car so Kate can drive. She loves to sit in the front seat and buckle up. I also let her sit in my lap while we drive across the empty lot. She loves to honk and mess with all the controls.

Easter Pictures

2011-04-24T20:12:00.000-07:00

I tried to get more pictures, but we were running late this morning and I only got a couple of Kate before we left for church.

After church we rushed home to eat and take a nap. Then we had a birthday party to go to. After the long day (and pigtails falling out), Kate wasn't in much of a mood to take pictures.

Happy Easter

2011-04-24T06:49:00.000-07:00

On Friday, Matt was telling Kate the story of Jesus dying for us and all about Good Friday. She looked at him, raised her arms in the air and said, "But He alive!"
I love it!
This year has been special because Kate is old enough to learn about why we celebrate Easter. We spent all week talking about Jesus and him dying for us. We should all have the excitement of a 2 year old that our Savior is risen!!

Noah's Ark

2011-04-23T04:57:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday after church, we went to Noah's ark at the Skirball Cultural Center with some friends. It was a blast! The girls loved every minute of it and we had fun hanging out with the adults and playing too.

A Kate sandwich! Naomi, Kate & Naomi

Helping Daddy build the ark.

Lyndsay and Naomi building the ark.

Kate riding on a creepy looking camel.

Nellie & Naomi making thunder and lightning.

Kate and Naomi helping the animals onto the ark.

Kate making it rain.

The girls cleaning up the animals' messes on the ark.

And yes, that's a piece of fake poo on the floor beside Kate.

Climbing around the top of the ark.

I tried...

2011-04-21T17:26:00.000-07:00

I've tried all day to upload pictures from last weekend, but I can't get it to work.
I've uploaded a bunch to Facebook, so head over there and comment on all the cuteness.
I'll try again tomorrow...

Changes

2011-04-07T05:21:00.000-07:00

-Matt has a new job!! He's working on campus and loving it. It's 20 hours a week and it keeps him busy. He's gone all day now between that and class and it's a big change from what we've been used to. He also started a new quarter last week and has a night class 2 nights a week. (He got his grades from last quarter today and he made all A's! I know he doesn't think it's a big deal, but I do.) -I've quit 1/2 of my job. I was taking the boys to school and cleaning their house. Now I'm just taking them to school. It was too much with being sick/pregnant to clean. I'm so excited to only have one house to clean now- mine! -I went to the doctor yesterday and found out I'm further along than I thought. I'm so excited that I'm that much closer to being done with the morning sickness. It's been brutal the last couple of weeks. Due Date: 11/1/11 :) -I'm so proud that the laundry is caught up and all the dishes in the house are clean. That's a huge thing that hasn't happened at all in the past few weeks. Can I just say that not having a dishwasher while pregnant is brutal! Matt and I have basically been washing 3 plates, 3 forks and 1 pan at a time just to get dinner on the table. I've been sick in the evenings and Matt is gone all the time. -Kate has been accident free for 2 days!! I hate to even write this because she's been at this point many times before and always regresses. I can't believe how defiant she's been about this whole thing. We started potty training in September and she was doing so great. She was mostly- 95% or so- trained before Christmas. Since then it's been a roller coaster. We're really pushing the rewards and being proud of her this time so maybe it'll stick. ( I tried to upload a picture, but it wouldn't let me. Maybe I'll have some up in the next couple of days.)

Baby Names

2011-04-04T05:37:00.000-07:00

We were discussing baby names last night at dinner. It was very interesting. Kate voted for "Baby Riley" when we asked what she wanted to name the baby if it was a girl. That's our soon-to-be niece's name. She knows Ali is going to have a sister named Riley and is still pushing for that name for her sister. (She doesn't want a brother, just a sister.) We did get her to give us another name- Sarah. Matt wasn't much more help. He was in charge of writing some of the names down that we liked while I was looking at Top Baby Names Lists online. He thought it would be helpful to write each name in Greek also- just in case we wanted to use that version. When we were picking names for Kate, he would tell everyone we were naming her Starquesha. There was lots of eye rolling from me. Tonight his first suggestion was Kay Telise for a girl. Haha! (Kate's middle name is Elise.) While looking at names, he found a list of top names from the 1800's. His new favorite names are Otis, Cornelius, Bessie and Eleanor. I still don't have a girl's name that I love. If it's a boy, we'll probably use the name we had picked out from before we knew Kate was a girl. I guess we'll see...

My Thoughts

2011-03-26T15:09:00.000-07:00

- This is the 1st day that I haven't taken a nap in the afternoon in over a week- yea!!
- Matt & I just finished cleaning out our very wet storage cabinet downstairs. It's been raining for over a week and the carport flooded. There were about 6 inches of standing water- including our storage cabinet in front of where we park. Once maintenance fixed the drain, most of the water disappeared...except for our parking spot. It slopes down and still had 2-3 inches of standing water today. Since this is the 1st day that it hasn't rained in a while, we decided we needed to sweep the water out and survey the damage to the stuff in storage. It wasn't too bad. The crib and infant car seat are the only things I really care about and they both survived. The box of garage sale stuff was soaked and pretty disgusting. I have an awesome husband who did all the dirty work!
- Kate is so excited to be a big sister. When we 1st told her, she asked if our friend's month old baby, Aubri, was going to be her baby sister and come live with us. We laughed and told her that she'll get her very own baby soon. When we told our families about the baby, Kate kept looking at the front door, asking, "My sister come now??" It was really cute!
- I finished making 5 Jedi robes yesterday! Juan Carlos' birthday party was this morning and I can't wait to see pictures of all the boys! I've known for 2.5 weeks that I had to make 6 (then it became 5) robes. I'm a procrastinator and even after I found out I was pregnant...and knew I would be getting sick...I still waited until the last minute to get them finished. Matt had to keep reminding me that the boys were 6 and didn't care if they were perfect. I think he was afraid I wasn't going to finished and we would lose our friends over it.
- I've been super sick with the flu (or a really bad cold) all week. Add in nausea and I was a blast to be around! Ha! Matt has been a super "single" parent this week. He cooked, cleaned, did laundry, did dishes and keep us all alive. I'm soooo glad he was on Spring Break this week and was able to help out so much.
- My long to-do list for Spring Break has one thing marked off- make the Jedi robes. And that's just because it HAD to be done. All our fun plans went out the window with all the rain and me being sick. Maybe "we" can do all the Spring cleaning this coming week. Do you think Matt will go for it?
- I'm cursing our friends for introducing us to Sprout's yogurt covered pretzels. They are addicting and Matt and I can't get enough of them.
-Kate has become obsessed with her pockets. If she actually has pockets, she walks around with her hands in them all the time. The last several days she's worn knit pants without pockets. That doesn't stop her for putting things (kleenex, coupons, her grocery list) in her "pocket" (inside the front of her pants). When she put the grocery list in there, she said, "It over here (down her leg). It hurt." There have been many times we've taken her to the potty or gotten her up from nap and a kleenex surprises us by falling out of her pants. She always gets excited when she realizes something was in her "pocket" that she forgot about.

Guess What?!?!

2011-03-21T19:22:00.000-07:00

Baby Pittman #2 coming in Nov.

Happy birthday!

2011-03-13T04:59:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday Uncle Tim!! We miss you and wish we were there with you today to celebrate!!

You are what you eat!

2011-03-11T19:50:00.000-08:00

Last weekend Matt and I watched Super Size Me and Food, Inc. Wow!
Super Size Me (you can watch it here for free) is about a guy that eats nothing but McDonald's food for 30 days. It was disgusting. The 20-something pounds he gained and the health problems he had were jaw dropping.
Food, Inc. (watch the trailer here) looked into where our food comes from. I've read about how only a few companies have complete control of all of our food, but it was really surprising how those companies treat the animals, their workers and the farmers. They also work for the FDA and USDA. It's just not right. We highly recommend both movies!
When we got married 6 years ago we had a deep fryer on the counter and it was used more than the oven and stove top-combined. Everything we ate came from a bag in the freezer or a box in the pantry. We didn't buy many fruits or veggies.
About 3 years ago we started slowly changing the way we eat. The first big change was when I heard that margarine was only one molecule away from being plastic- it freaked me out. We switched to real butter shortly after that. I never really questioned if the claim was true or not, I just felt better about the 2 pronounceable ingredients in butter- cream and salt- over the long list that I didn't know how to say on the margarine tub. Somewhere around the same time I also heard that baby carrots were dipped in chlorine to keep them fresh since they didn't have skin on them. I could smell it in the bag of carrots and didn't feel right about it. We switched to big ole normal carrots.
Kate came along and I had a friend that was making her daughter's baby food. I decided that I would make all of Kate's food too. I loved making her food and felt good because I knew exactly what was going into her little body. And it was a lot cheaper than buying it.

To Be Continued...
(I'll have the rest of our food journey up next week! We aren't perfect eaters, by any means, and I don't want to sound like our way is the only right way. It's just what we feel is right for our family. I'm just hoping that writing it out will help me to really, finally, once and for all, kick the Dr Pepper habit.)

Happy birthday!

2011-03-10T05:01:00.000-08:00

Happy birthday Aunt Shannel!! We love you and hope you have a wonderful day!

Kate at 26.5 months old

2011-03-07T05:01:00.000-08:00

We are totally loving this age!! Kate is hilarious and knows it. She comes up with new ways to make us laugh all the time. The conversations we have melt my heart. I am so thankful that I get to spend my days with her.

Her hair is finally long enough to put it all in pig tails instead of just the top part.
It was about 78 degrees on Saturday so we busted out the shorts and took some pictures.

Showing me the flowers she picked off the bush behind her.

This kid loves all things transportation. She was pointing to the bus to show me it was coming.

Happy Birthday Nonnie!

2011-03-02T04:58:00.000-08:00

Happy birthday Nonnie!! We love and miss you! Hope you have a great day.

Nona came to visit!!

2011-03-01T04:52:00.000-08:00

We had a fun weekend with Nona and Grandma Ellis!! We were busy all weekend showing them around LA and Pasadena.

On Friday we headed to Hollywood and Beverly Hills. Our first stop was at Kodak Theater and Grauman's Chinese Theater. They were busy getting ready for the Academy Awards and we got to see so many cool things.

This was the red carpet covered with plastic to keep it clean. And you can see the Oscar statues on the right covered in plastic.

This was right outside the entrance to the Kodak Theater. It was raining that day and they had tents set up everywhere outside. (What's up with it raining every time family comes to visit us?? It even snowed this weekend!)

This is outside Grauman's Chinese Theater. Nona was taking a picture of Matt and Kate.

Grandma Ellis, Nona and Kate

Kate loved putting her hands and feet in Tom Hanks' prints.

From the top of the Hollywood & Highland shopping center. This is where both theaters are located.

At the other end of the shopping center you can see the famous Hollywood sign.

As we were leaving I was able to get a shot of the big Oscar sign at the corner.

While driving to Beverly Hills, I got one of the Capitol Records building.

We drove through a few neighborhoods to see celebrity homes. This was Lucille Ball's house.

I'm kinda sad that I didn't get pictures of anyone else's house.

It was so hard to see a lot of the houses. This is what the streets all looked like- really tall shrubs and gates.

Kate was sad that PawPaw couldn't make it. She asked to call him several times to tell him what we were doing. Here she is wearing her princess dress and talking to him on the phone.

It was a blast and we can't wait for them to come back again!!

Debt Update

2011-02-23T05:05:00.000-08:00

Do you remember way back at the beginning of 2009 when we started the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University class?
Well we finally have an update!
Yesterday we paid off our LAST credit card!!!!!! Can you see me jumping up and down?!?!

We started the process with 7 credit cards, 2 car loans and lots of student loans. By the end of 2009 we had paid off 6 of the credit cards and both of our cars- for a total of $18,800 paid toward our debt. (Click here for our story.)
At the beginning of 2010 we started the process of moving to CA. We sold our house and started saving every extra penny to make our dream come true. We were able to pay for our move and get settled in with cash. It was so encouraging knowing that we had a nice cushion in the bank and didn't have to stress about finding jobs as soon as we got here.

We said that if we got enough money on our tax return this year we would use it to pay off the last credit card. And we did it!!
I am so excited and proud of us. We have worked really hard and haven't used a credit card in 2 years. It's been tough (and not always fun!) to budget every penny, use cash for everything and get rid of some of the fun things we were used to having.
But it was all worth it.
We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the FPU class. There's no way that we would be able to afford for Matt to be in school full time if we still had all that debt.
We have truly been blessed!
Now we'll be working super hard to get the student loans paid off!

I encourage you to find a Dave Ramsey class. It's the best $99 we've ever spent! Thanks for letting me brag! :)

All About Kate

2011-02-22T05:03:00.000-08:00

This is my ramblings about life with Kate lately.

*We've been having fun feeding and taking care of Kate's baby dolls. Kate has become slightly obsessed about the babies' needs. She feeds them, rocks them, puts them to sleep, puts them in time-out and pushes them in the stroller.
*I've taught her to say, "I want a brother" and it's adorable. She goes around saying it a lot. We've had 2 friends here that have just had little girls and Kate knows that her friends have new little sisters. The last few days Kate has changed her saying to, "No brother, I want a sister". She'll be such a good big sister when that day comes. -No, I'm not pregnant!

Notice the burp cloth on her shoulder.

*Kate has been imitating us for a while now. She loves to wear our shoes and clothes. She was playing with the snaps on Matt's shirt the other day and asked him if she could wear it. She was so excited when he said yes. She put on my socks Sunday and they went up to her knees. She wore them all afternoon.

*Kate has become so observant. The other day we were driving to the bank, which is the same way we go to church. As we got closer to the turn off for church, she asked if we were going to church even though I had told her we were going to the bank. it surprised me she knew that's where church was.

She also knows what our street looks like. Sometimes we'll drive by our street as we're running errands and she'll point down the street towards the house and ask why we aren't turning.

*Kate has become a backseat driver! A couple of weeks ago she started telling me to go when I stopped at a red light. I explained about the red and green lights and now she always lets me know what color the lights are as we pull up to them. She'll say, "No go. Stop. Red." All as she tilts her head to the side and holds out her hand.

*It still weirds us out that Kate is talking in sentences sometimes. The other day at lunch she said, "I want some blueberries on my plate now." On one hand, I was proud of the long sentence but I'm not really ok with the demand instead of please. I just looked at her and she laughed as she said, "please". She thinks she's so funny when she knows she does something wrong. She's testing us to see if we notice. She's a clever one!

*Kate keeps catching me talking to myself. She hears all the little things I say and wants to know what I'm saying and why. I'm pretty embarrassed that it happens so often.

*Last night before bed as I was rocking her she said, "Like me?" Tell me." The day before we were rocking and talking and I was telling her all the things that I liked about her and how special she is to me and Matt. It amazes me that even a 2 year old needs encouragement and praise. She was just beaming and giggling both times as I told her how loved she is.

*Kate's imagination is so crazy and I love it! She's been using her baby's little wipe case as a DVD player. She'll put a flashcard in as a movie and sit and watch it for a while.

She "took" her baby to the park the other day in the stroller. She told me that the park was in the corner of the living room and she needed to take the blanket so she wouldn't get dirty on the grass. She circled the living room a few times and finally arrived at the park. She laid the blanket out and sat and played/talked with the baby.

This age has been a blast! I love having conversations with Kate and seeing her grow and learn!

Here's some pictures of the snow we got on Sunday. Winter in California is so brutal. Ha! The snow was so pretty up on the mountain tops. It has cooled down here some- it's supposed to be in the low 60's all week.

We are also sooo excited to see Nona and Grandma Ellis later this week. They are supposed to be here late Wednesday night. We've got a lot of fun stuff planned and I'll take a lot of pictures.

Happy Birthday Poppa!

2011-02-20T05:00:00.000-08:00

Today is my granddad's birthday! We hope you have a great day! We love and miss you!!

"God Gave Us So Much" Review

2011-02-19T15:00:00.000-08:00

God Gave Us So Much is a collection of three children's books that explore the many blessings that God has given us. The books all focus on a family of polar bears, with Little Cub being the main character. The books are posed as explanations to questions that Little Bear has.
The first book in the collection, God Gave Us the World, looks at the differences between types of bears to show the creativity that God had when creating the world. This book helps children understand why people are different from each other and that all of these differences reveal the creativity of God.
The second story, God Gave Us Love, seeks to define love in language that young children would understand. It portrays a light hearted exchange between Little Cub and her grandpa, with Grandpa Bear trying to explain what love is.
The final book is called God Gave Us Heaven and as the title implies this story attempts to explain heaven in kid-friendly language.
The writing by Lisa Tawn Bergren is simple and effective. The books are written so that children can easily understand the concepts that are presented and I think that the author did a good job. Young children should be able to learn a lot from these books.
Children should also enjoy the artwork of Laura J. Bryant. Her pictures are well done and illustrate the stories nicely.
Overall, this collection of books is a good read for kids and can help parents try to explain the concepts of God/creativity and love and heaven. These concepts are not always easy to explain to kids, but these books are a good place to start.

*I received this book free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Bubba Gump

2011-02-18T05:24:00.000-08:00

When we got home from Disneyland, Grammie and PaPa were here waiting for us! It was great to be able to spend some time with them. We had lots of fun hanging out and exploring.

Kate watching a video with PaPa.
Sunday evening we headed to Santa Monica to eat at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. While waiting Matt and Kate tried on Forrest Gump's running shoes. His suitcase and a box of chocolates were sitting on the bench too.

Matt is so proud that Kate likes shrimp since I won't eat it. Here she is showing off a piece.

Our waitress was impressed that we did so well on all the Forrest Gump trivia questions she asked. It was a good place to eat.

Disneyland: Mickey & Minnie Edition

2011-02-17T12:01:00.000-08:00

After leaving the princesses, we headed to It's a Small World. Kate was more fascinated with the fact that we were in a boat and there was water under us than with the actual ride. She kept wanting to lean over the side to see the water. It was a neat ride.

The lady behind us was sweet enough to take a picture of all 3 of us before we headed into the tunnel.

Next up was Mickey's house. We were able to walk through the house and see Mickey in the back. Sorry for the awkward face I'm making- it was the best one we got. :)

Kate sitting in Mickey's chair.

Next up was Minnie's house. She was standing on the front porch and we got a picture with her!

Minnie's kitchen was neat! Here's Kate starting the dishwasher.

She also got to bake a cake. It would inflate when you turned the knob.

Here's a picture of Toontown from the top of Donald Duck's boat. Mickey's house is on the left with the red roof and Minnie's is in the middle with the purple roof. The sky was crazy blue that day and completely clear.

While waiting to ride the Roger Rabbit ride we played on the woo-woo. We sure do love firetrucks around our house!

We got to meet Goofy too! Kate was so excited to meet all the characters. She talked about giving Mickey a high five and Minnie a hug and couldn't wait to get to the front of the line to see them. But as soon as we got up there, she froze. She was attached to us and didn't want to get close to them. She was scared of Goofy's hand close to her shoulder and didn't want to give any high fives or hugs. As soon as we were gone, she wanted to see them again. Kids are so funny!

We also got to play on Goofy's playground. It was small but Kate loved it!

Walt Disney with Mickey at the entrance of the park.

We couldn't leave without eating a Mickey Mouse pretzel. Matt made fun of me for taking a picture.

This was the entertainment while we ate our snacks. They were really good and funny!

It was a great day and we were worn out by 3pm so we headed home. We figured Kate would nap on the way home, but she just kept talking about everyone she met.

We made some great memories!!

Disneyland: Princess Edition

2011-02-16T05:15:00.000-08:00

We had such a blast on Saturday at Disneyland! A huge thank you to my boss for getting us tickets! (I don't think I've ever mentioned that he works for ABC News and has 3 Emmys. I get to dust them every week. :) It's pretty crazy!)

We got there when the park opened and it was packed. We saw Goofy right inside the gate but Kate said she didn't want to see him. He wasn't stopping to talk to anyone so we kept walking.

The first stop, after pictures in front of the castle, was to see the princesses. (Can I just say that the castle was tiny, really tiny.) I knew the line was always long for the princesses and our best bet was to start there.

It was so neat! We got to see 3 princesses. They talked to Kate, calling her princess over and over. They were all really sweet to her and so nice. It was a great experience!

Kate with Belle. She was my favorite!

Kate and Ariel

Princess Tiana, Mommy and Kate

The Royal Coronation Ceremony started right as we were meeting the 3 princesses, so we were able to see most of it.

Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Snow White taught us all about being princes and princesses.

We learned how curtsy and dance.

And even got to grab a ribbon and dance around a May Pole.

Kate didn't want my help and just took off on her own. She's there in the front and I'm on the other side of the circle.
At the end there were confetti ribbons that came down as the princesses were leaving. I'm so glad we were able to be there. Kate loved it! We took her Cinderella dress but she never asked to put it on. I wish she would've had it on for the Ceremony, but there wasn't time. I'm glad we took hers just in case because the ones they had for sale were extremely expensive!

Tomorrow you'll get to hear all about the rest of the day!

Disneyland

2011-02-13T21:26:00.000-08:00

We had a blast at Disney! Kate loved it almost as much as Matt and I did. We're still playing with Grammie and PaPa, so the rest of the pictures will be up later. :)

So Excited!!

2011-02-11T17:30:00.000-08:00

We've got a lot going on this weekend and today has been super productive! I've really had to resist not updating my Facebook status a million times. I would really hate to annoy all my friends and instead thought I would just put all my would-be-statuses in a post. Aren't you lucky??

Here's what's already been posted on Facebook today:
-Last night and this morning Kate has been running in circles singing Jingle Bells non-stop. I'm not really sure where she learned the song or why she's singing it now.

-This day can't end quick enough. In the morning we're going to Mickey's house (aka Disneyland) AND Grammie & PaPa will be here tomorrow evening!! I'm not sure who's more excited out of the 3 of us. I think it might be a tie.

And what I've wanted to post:
-It's so frustrating to see so many orange trees bursting with the juicy fruit and not be able to just pick it all. Would it be weird if I started knocking on doors and asked if I could pick oranges (or lemons or limes) from their trees?

-I'm pretty proud of all I've accomplished in the kitchen today. Homemade pancakes for breakfast, new pasta and pepper dish for lunch, 2 loaves of banana bread (one with nuts, one without), homemade Italian dressing, homemade ranch dressing and homemade BBQ sauce. (The dressings and bbq were soooo easy and quick and taste really good! I'll let you know all about it next week.) And Matt has chili going for dinner.

-My hubby is the BEST! I got potted tulips today as an early valentine's day gift. I love tulips and Matt Pittman.

-The other day Kate named her baby doll Nonnie. That's what we call my grandma. I thought she would forget but the name has stuck. Baby Nonnie goes with us everywhere. It's so cute!

-I got Kate a princess calendar on clearance yesterday. I loved seeing the light bulb go off when I told her that the princess dress she got for her birthday was just like Cinderella's dress in the picture. She wore her dress all afternoon and just stared at the picture on the wall saying, "Me just like Cinderella. Pretty."

Only in California...

2011-02-11T05:43:00.000-08:00

...will you find motorcycles ruling the roads. They don't have to follow any of the rules. They can cut in between cars anytime. We've had them pass us going 65 on the freeway not in a lane. They can ride up to the line at a stop light by passing in between the lanes and cars. It scares me to death!

...can you be slapped with a FELONY if you are caught jay walking with a child. It's child endangerment. A felony means you won't pass a background check and will have a hard time teaching Bible class and getting a job. The crosswalk is out of the way where we have to walk for Wives' Group every week. Once they told us this law, we all walk out of our way to use the crosswalk.

...will you have a hard time parking your normal size car in. every. parking. lot. I guess they try to conserve what little space they have and make all the parking spots tiny. I can't park the minivan in 90% of the lots if there are cars on either side. I drive around until I can find at least 2 spaces together so I can park. It's awful.

...will you get weird looks if you call those big roads highways or interstates. They are all freeways and you have to refer them as "the 210" or "the 5". We live north of the 210.

...do you have to keep a lookout for celebrities at all times. Several weeks ago I was walking around the Rose Bowl with the girls from church and one of them saw Carlos from Desperate Housewives drive by. Another friend's husband saw some-celebrity-that-I-can't-remember at the gas station across from the Fuller campus.

...will you get a $446 (yes, you read that right) fine for running a red light. The intersections with red light cameras are crazy! There are a ton of cameras and you can see the flash of the cameras several blocks away. I think it's a pretty steep fine, but no one asked me.

Baby Needs a Nap

2011-02-10T05:08:00.000-08:00

1. I'm sorry I'm in my cleaning clothes and you have to look at my butt the whole time.
2. I'm sorry we have music going and I'm washing the dishes. It's a little loud.
3. Yes, our house looks like this every night after dinner. Kate likes to play hard. But she picks it all up every night before she goes to bed.
4. At the beginning she is saying, "Baby needs a nap!" over and over.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Naming the Baby

2011-02-08T05:13:00.000-08:00

Kate is in love with her baby dolls. Her 1st doll was put in the top of the closet when she became very well loved. Her name was Starquesha. When Starquesha was put away, Starquesha 2.0 arrived and replaced the beloved 1st doll.
Kate found the original Starquesha a few days ago and didn't understand why this baby had her other baby's name. It's all a little confusing! (You should really hear Kate say "Starquesha", it's hilarious!)
Matt and I decided that the original Starquesha needed a new name. (Gasp!) I picked Samantha and Matt picked Harriet- which comes out "Parrot" when Kate says it- super hilarious.
We were both pushing the name we picked and Kate finally started telling us, "No like that name. Different name."
So I asked her what she wanted to name the baby....

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

(Click here for background information about Starquesha and how she got her name.)

Facebook

2011-02-06T20:43:00.000-08:00

We're finally on the mend, but it's getting late and I'm not up to a nice, normal post. Instead here are some Facebook statues from the last week or so for you to enjoy.
I'll be back with a real post (with pictures and a video!) soon!

I've been sick. Kate's been sick. Matt really shouldn't leave us alone together. Yesterday I was "resting" on the couch while Kate was entertaining herself. She got in my purse & both chapsticks. "I eat it. It yummy." She had it all over her face and really did eat as much of it as she could dig out. I woke up and took the purse away, but didn't find her mess until after I "rested" some more. Sigh...

My house looks like a bomb exploded! I'm so ready to feel better and get things back in order.

By the way, Matt has been awesome!! He's really picked up the slack and helped out a ton!

Just watched a FIGHT in the middle of our street. Punching, hitting, cussing. Traffic was backed up and they didn't care. The cops just came to break it up. WOW!

I have failed as a mother. Kate doesn't like nuts. She makes us pick the "yucky" parts out of her banana nut bread. Every time I make it I hope and pray she forgets that there are "yucky" parts, but it's not working. I made things really hard on myself my chopping the nuts up really well in the bread I made last night. This morning her poor piece was torn to shreds after I finished picking all the nuts out. :(

Kate reading her Bible out loud: "Jesus loves Kate. Peanut butter sandwich is good. God. Jesus. Bible."

Sick

2011-02-03T05:10:00.000-08:00

Kate and I have been sick for the past several days- blah!
We had some friends over Friday night for dinner and had a BLAST! I'm pretty sure the guys living under us were very ready for everyone to leave. 5 kids and 6 adults can sure make a lot of noise. Saturday Kate woke up with a runny nose and it's just gone downhill from there. Luckily Matt has been feeling ok.
For the past several days every time one of us prayers for "Kate to get better", she gets upset and says, "Kate no better yet"! Poor thing wants to make sure we know that she's not better.
We've had another busy week full of dentist and doctor appointments, babysitting jobs and lots of school work for Matt.
I've been working hard on getting the pillows and art work sewn for our room. I'm hoping to have it done by Monday. I have been very productive and got our taxes done on the 31st and our budget updated for 2011. God has really blessed us! We can actually eat for the next several months. :) We have some exciting financial news coming soon! Dave Ramsey would be very proud of us!

How has Kate never licked a beater before now? She was so excited last week when I let her have the beater to lick. She licked it clean! She's had another one since then too. One was cheesecake and the other was banana nut bread.

Beach!

2011-01-26T05:03:00.000-08:00

Since we didn't have work or school on MLK day, we headed to the beach! It was about 80 degrees and we had such a good time. We went to Santa Monica and got there before the crowd. We got our feet wet, but the water was so cold. Kate face planted in the water and was soaked, but she didn't mind. She "helped" Matt build a castle and moat and they buried my legs in the sand. It was such a fun and relaxing day! Here are some pictures before she got too messy.

Because you asked so nicely.

2011-01-24T05:06:00.000-08:00

When I start getting emails, phone calls and Facebook comments about updating the blog, I know everyone is dying for pictures of Kate.
The past 2 weeks have been super busy! Kate did really well adjusting back to CA time and normal life. Kate has been so fun lately.
She loves playing with her new Mr. Potato Head (among other things) and calls him Humpty Dumpty or Mr. Tao Head. It's so cute! She also loves singing Itsy Bitsy Spider with her microphone/music thing and cutting her (wooden) cookies and baking them in her kitchen. I'll have pictures soon of all this.
Kate did great at her 2 year old well check. I love her new doctor and how sweet she was with Kate. Kate is 28 lbs (50%), 36.75 inches tall (95%), and doing great developmentally.
Kate had her 1st paid babysitter about a week ago when we had a church meeting to go to. It was only for a couple of hours and Kate did great! She sweet talked Hannah into leaving the light on for nap time, but fell asleep easily and behaved herself. Kate also experienced her 1st all-day care on Saturday at church while Matt and I attended the leadership conference. They didn't have to page me so I assume everything went well. We peaked in on her when we had a break; she was eating lunch and didn't see us. I'm not sure she had a nap, but we all survived.
Kate still calls me "Mom" 90% of the time and has started calling Matt "Dad". He doesn't like that much and is working hard to keep 'Daddy' as his preferred name. I've just given up!
Kate asks us to write her name all the time and also wants us to write our names- Mommy Pittman and Daddy Pittman- except she pronounces it Pippin. I just love hearing her say her name!

This is another funny thing she's started doing. At dinner, she uses her napkin as a hat to make us laugh. She cracks herself up and laughs so hard!

6 years!

2011-01-22T05:12:00.000-08:00

I am blessed with a husband who...
...loves me even when I'm not acting my best
...helps with dishes, laundry and cleaning
...is the best Daddy and makes Kate laugh- a lot
...gives Kate her bath every night
...loves God and leads our family closer to Him
...is funny and can always make me smile
...is my rock and makes me a better wife and mother

Happy 6 year anniversary, Matt!

Kate's Home!

2011-01-10T05:05:00.000-08:00

She's back!!
Matt and I had a fabulous 10 days without Kate! It was such a great relaxing time. We're rested and ready to get back to normal life with our rowdy 2 year old. We missed her!
Kate had a great time with Grammie and PaPa. Crew spent a few nights with them and they had the 1st official Grammie & PaPa Camp. Grammie even followed (most) of my rules and brought her back in one piece. We were able to talk on the phone with her and Skype a few times, but she was too busy playing to pay any attention to us. I don't think she missed us too much.
They rode the Amtrak train into LA yesterday morning and it was fun to see her face when she saw us walking up. She kept saying, "Kate's daddy, Kate's mommy" over and over.
We take Grammie and PaPa back to the train station this afternoon and jump right back into real life.
Matt has started his internship for school at our church and I'm still taking 2 boys to school every morning, cleaning their house and picking them up in the afternoons when needed. Add in trips to the park and library, Wives' group, small group, having people over for dinner and keeping up with Kate- our schedule is pretty full! We have Kate's 2 year old doctor appointment next week, I have a baby shower coming up and Matt has a leadership conference for church next weekend.
Anyway, all that to say I'm taking a break from the blog for a week or two. Pray that we can get Kate adjusted back to CA time and into our routine. {aka: super strict, drill sergeant parenting :)}