Birthday Celebration!

"But Kate, the prettiest Kate in Christendom"
-Taming of the Shrew Act II, Scene I

So Kate turns 1 on Thursday. Seriously?? Our little baby is 1??!! Sometimes I have a hard time believing I'm a mom (shouldn't I still be in high school?).

Anywho, yesterday we celebrated Kate's birthday with Dustin's family over at Grandma and Grandpa Muranaka. We did it a little early because Grandpa Muranaka is going to Germany on Friday and we wanted him to be there. We love seeing him with Kate!

At the party, Kate took a few steps for everyone to see. She took her first step this past Friday and has been getting better and better everyday at walking. I'm confused as to how I should be feeling. Happy, Sad, Excited, Scared? Oh well. What can I do. It has arrived. The Total Kate Takeover.

But I digress. Back to the birthday party. Kate had a good time opening her presents. And yes, that is a Victoria's Secret bag. Good times, Grandma. Good times :)Along with these presents she also got some books. One book had a side panel where you push buttons and can listen to different sounds. Yeah, she ripped it off within two minutes and then we had to glue it back on. Good thing Grandma had a hot glue gun.

Kate and Grandma. Two beauties.

Here's the birthday cake Dustin's mom made for everyone. Carrot Cake. Yum!

And here is Kate her cake to destroy. I decided to make an appesauce cake since she loves applesauce. The cake actually stayed intact for awhile. She wasn't that interested in making a mess. She just wanted to eat the frosting and little bits of cake. This is after Dustin helped her smash the cake a little. The she started to dig in.She had been putting her face in the cake, and soon was rubbing her nose to get the cake out!

No cake in the hair (surprisingly), but we still gave her a little bath in the kitchen sink because the rest of her body was covered! I wish I had a sink like this. Perfect size!

We love Kate so much and can't believe how lucky we are to have her as our daughter. We never thought we could laugh so hard and often as we do now that she's in our family. Every day is a new experience and we look forward to the many more years we have with our angel. Happy Birthday Kate! Mommy and Daddy love you more than you know!

Kiddo Talk

Dustin and I suscribe to the Parents magazine

and last night we were reading a section called Baby Bloopers. We found one that made us laugh so hard that I had to put it on here.

"At a gift shop, my 3-year-old daughter, Mia Rose, was mesmerized by a large jar of marbles. She reached in, grabbed a few, and said, 'Mommy, what beautiful choking hazards!'"

Danielle Verrilli; New Rochelle, New York

Hope that brought a smile to your face! Oh, and if you have a story you want to share about your child or a child you know, that would be awesome. I LOVE hearing these kinds of stories (like the King Herod story Ash). So PLEASE share!!!

Yea for Family Pictures!!

Ashley put up a few of our family pictures, so you gotta check 'em out!! www.everydaylovephotography.blogspot.com She did an AMAZING job and are so grateful for her willingness to share her talent. We love you Ashley!

Happy New Year!

It's so crazy that it's already 2009! This time last year we were a month away from Kate coming and now she's almost a year old!! 2008 has been a wonderful time for our family. Having Kate in our family has been the most amazing gift. We love you Katie Girl!

I've been thinking about a word to focus on this year, and I've gone back and forth a lot. But I've finally settled on one: Believe.
I have so many things that I would love to do and even feel like I should do, but I get so scared because I don't believe in myself! Looking back on my life, I think I've missed out on a lot of things that could have brought so much joy and happiness, but I didn't think I could do it. I'm done being scared and letting negative thoughts control my life!

Believing in myself means this to me:

Believe in myself, believe in others, believe that Heavenly Father truly wants me to be happy. Believe that although life is hard, I can do hard things! Who wants to look back on their life and regret not doing things they wanted to do, but didn't THINK they could do? If our thoughts are powerful enough to keep us from doing things, then I truly believe that I can use my thoughts, prayer, and the help of my Savior to do things I never thought I could do.

Anywho, I'll move on before I bore you to death!



Dustin's semester at UVU was AWESOME! He got a 4.0! He was so surprised when he saw his grades (although I wasn't; he works so hard!) and is determined to do well through the rest of college. That's the nice thing about starting college AFTER your mission. You don't have the pre-mission grades haunting your GPA.

Here's Kate playing with some of her Christmas toys. This tugboat set was given to Kate from Grandma Rogers. She loves bath time because she can splash, yell, and play with toys! Thanks Grandma!!

Ok, so this toy is a little old for her, but she loves it! It's a keyboard that teaches kids how to play the piano. We'll save the lessons for later, but for now she really loves to bang on the keyboard! And the nice thing is that she knows how to turn it on and off.

Kate is just making us laugh everyday. We love to ask her where her nose is and see her point to it. Although sometimes she likes to put her finger UP her nose. Yuck! Her favorite song right now is the one about the Wise Man building his house upon the rock. She'll bang her fist on her palm whenever we sing it to her because that's what we do. So fun!! It's so cool that she interacts with us. Funny girl.

Life is so fun and exciting! We're so looking forward to 2009 and what it will bring our family!