Domestic Kate

Yep, it's January. That means that my precious little guy is almost ONE year old! As all mothers say, I truly can't believe how fast this year has gone by. Tom and I have been looking back at photo's from Day 1 of little man's life and he was just so darn cute and tiny! He's gotten even cuter as the year has gone by, but not so tiny any more! Forgive me for not updating the blog as often as I'd like to...we've been busy over here working on some projects and often preparing for the big O-N-E birthday party! We're doing a golf theme and we're able to have it at Tom's golf course. We're keeping the budget low and, so far, have been super excited at what we've been able to make with things at home and at the golf course. This week, I'm going to attempt to make a (practice) cake that is a ball shape. If it all turns out well, I'll be making Hans' birthday cake as the shape of a golf ball. If it turns out to be a disaster...

As any new mother can probably attest, photography takes on a new level of passion once you have your special littles in your life. It's been some of my favorite times shared between Hans and me, especially as a stay at home mom. I just love when he wakes up from his nap and the sun is at it's perfect place and we get crazy and silly with photo's. And another thing I love about photos is that I can choose where I point and shoot my camera. Meaning, I can point at my little guy playing with his new hat rather than the multiple piles of laundry that were once folded in a basket and are now strung all over the floor (thanks Hans). Anyway, taking pictures of Hans (among other things) has just been so fun for both Tom and I. We started playing around with our pictures in photoshop and let me know just tell you....comp.li.cat.ed . Tom is figuring it out like a pro but I'm struggling along. I took some photos of Hans today and just wanted to share a couple of them. I ...

While I know this is a horrible picture of me, I just had to share it because I think it's funny that Hans and I are making the same expression with our mouths. Hans continues to look like a complete combination of Tom and I. Sometimes, when Tom is holding him, they look identical and then recently I've noticed a lot of expressions that Hans makes remind me of me when I was little. Regardless of who he looks like, we can't help but fall more and more in love with this little guy. Can you believe he is already 10 months old?!

I still haven't uploaded the Halloween pictures but wanted to put up a recent picture of Hans because I just feel like he has grown by leaps and bounds since our Superior trip. He just seems like such a 'big boy'. About a month ago, I definitely thought I heard him say "Hi" as he was waving to himself in the mirror and then just a few days ago we were at my parents house and he was waving to me and my mom and we BOTH heard him say "Hi". Last week, he was playing with some toys on his play table and hitting them and "babbling" the whole time and then clearly I heard him say "uh oh". I don't know if it was a fluke or not because he hasn't said it since, but it was so crystal clear. "Uh Oh" is something Tom and I say to him all of the time so it's plausible he'd pick up on it this early. He stood for 8 seconds without holding on to anything the other day. Last week, he also had his first whole meal of all fi...

We've got a fun filled weekend planned with pumpkins, friends, family, and costumes! We had fun playing with Hans in the backyard during the warmer weather we had last week. Now, the temps have fallen and it's actually feeling like the fall season that it is! Look for more of our weekend pics coming soon.

Here are a couple of videos we took of Hans yesterday. He is absolutely in love with the dishwasher and it usually makes cleaning the kitchen slightly difficult because as soon as that dishwasher door is down, little dude is crawling straight for it....so, really, you can't get much done with him crawling all over in it. But, with Tom and I both home, we allowed him to "help" unload the dishwasher and were able to get a couple cute videos of it as well!

We had a wonderful time this past weekend as we dedicated Hans at our church. We chose to dedicate Hans at our church so we could publicly declare our intention of raising Hans in a christian home and that we will do our best to show and teach Hans the love of our Lord so that he will one day choose to follow Him. We are so thankful for our friends and family and church family that have made this commitment with us. We know that Hans has a lot of people that love him and pray for him every day! This is the photo we used during the service and the verse we chose for Hans was Ephesians 1:17-18 "I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, May give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints" This verse is so powerful to me. We pray many diffe...

No editing here. My son has blue eyes. And I need a new camera lens cover. =-)

Here we are on our first day of MOPS. Tom snapped the picture as we were heading out. The first day was "college" themed so we were all sporting our t-shirts and sweatshirts from our alma mater's. We had a lot of fun hanging out with the other babies (in Moppets) and the mommies in MOPS! I wanted to show you just a glimpse of how Hans is literally into everything. Crawling, Climbing. Standing. The boy is always. on. the. move!

This afternoon when I was taking the trash out, I looked up to see this little munchkin crawl to the door and find me outside through the glass. His grin was priceless especially as he proceeded it with standing up and smooshing his chubby cheeks against the glass, banging his hands as he frantically waves at me, and licking all over the place. I had Tom grab my camera inside and quickly went back out to capture this comical picture. You'll have to excuse his outfit this evening. He just finished dinner and while he is known to spit up quite often, let's just say Sweet Potatoes don't sit well with him. Actually, every time we have given him sweet potatoes (and we have for a couple months now already) he spits up A LOT but doesn't spit up this much with other solids. After tonight we've decided that it's probably best to put aside the sweet potatoes for awhile. I don't like them either so it's fine with me =-) Meanwhile, we're busy doing some t...

Old baby blocks from when daddy was little, paired with a 50 cent garage sale wooden tray, makes for a great time with baby and mommy in the backyard...oh and need I mention there were pictures?

Hans is growing up. There's no doubt about that! These photo's show a couple of ways I'm noticing this change daily. He loves his sippy cup. He loves to hold it by himself and chew on it. The look of Hans behind a sippy cup like this just pulls on me. He looks like such a big boy and I love it! Of course, I have the my-boy-is growing-up sadness but that just gets eaten up by how cute he is looking when he's "so big!". They say it's "like taking candy from a baby", meaning, It's Easy. But after you take said "candy" (or toy, or cell phone....) away from baby, you have to deal with this..... One of the many ways Hans is showing us that he is growing up. He is getting opinions and showing us his wants and displeasure. We just love it all up though. This boy has got some guts and loves to show his blossoming personality everyday. It helps that the crying lasts all of 7 seconds too! =-)

Just wanted to send you off to a great weekend with some recent pictures of the little Bundle.... Gotta love the drool dripping down the chin... And my personal favorite...

We took a quick trip up to the cabin the last couple of days. It ended up to be gorgeous, breezy weather. It was slightly cool so my mom and I used the cool weather as an excuse to go antiquing! I picked up a little work bench for Hans that was a steal! It needs to be touched up a little bit, but it is solid and sturdy! With the break from the heat, I was able to put Hans in some jeans and a warm vest and we went for a walk. He looked so cute! "Can you tell that I'm happy" - Hans

I think Hans has been one of those kids that has never really been super duper calm. He always seemed "on the go" from the very start. In the beginning this manifested itself in kicking, now it's kicking along with every-inch-of-his-body-movement. I like it though because it shows he's already a strong boy. The following pictures are just a glimpse into the past few days. We've already purchased several baby proofing items and will begin to start operation baby proofing soon. We're not going to go crazy into this proofing business, however. We're just going to take care of all of the electrical outlets, some cupboards we don't want him in, some wobbly tables, and the stairs. Pounding on the wood floor... Looking into his toy basket... Well, what do we have here?... Looking at the bookcase... While near the bookcase, he got a hold of some paper. Eventually, I had to take it away from him. This is the aftermath... He found another bookcase, som...