All I want for Christmas is...Cookie Monster?

I hope I can remember all of Kate's cuteness in my memory forever. I want to remember that this is the year she began to understand Christmas, Santa, Snowmen, Elf on the Shelf, gift-giving and all about this great holiday season! We are trying to teach Kate that Christmas is about baby Jesus. She liked singing Happy Birthday to Jesus while in the car. Kate even came up with her own mix of Jingle Bells-Twinkle Twinkle-Happy Birthday.

We took Kate to see the lights on 55th Drive and Candy Cane Lane. I must say that 55th Drive puts Candy Cane Lane to shame and our new tradition will include taking Kate to see the lights out in the Foothills instead.

I tried taking Kate to see Santa and she was so excited. Kate was in her beautiful Christmas dress and faux-fur coat all decked out to see Santa. However, when we arrived to see Santa, she clung to me very tightly and would not let go of me and sit on his lap. Nana and I even sat by him and held his hand and talked to him but Kate would not give and refused to take a picture with Santa. Oh well.

When I grew up the tradition was to wait until midnight to open presents. Chris had to wait until Christmas morning to open presents. So with Kate, we decided to let her open a gift, or two, on Christmas Eve, and wait until Christmas morning to see what Santa brought her for Christmas. We hosted Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. It was fabulous. Delicious food (tamales and Pozole) for dinner and mini frittatas, mini hashbrowns, sausage and mimosas for breakfast! Christmas Dinner was hosted by Nana and Papa.

Kate riding her tricycle in her dress and fancy jacket; so classy she took off her tights...

The Howard-Hausman-Arnold family was very blessed and SPOILED by Santa this year!

On Christmas morning this house was filled with gifts for Kate. Kissy must have reported to Santa that Kate was a good girl. The grandparents must have been blinded by her cuteness. Maybe I should just write what she didn't get?! Kate got a "jumpy" (trampoline) and a barbie big wheel. She got a Melissa and Doug easel that has a chalk-board on one side and dry-erase board on the other. It also has a place to hold a roll of paper and bins for paint, colors, chalks and other messy things. Kate got a really cute pink retro Kitchen with tons of faux food and pots and pans, and an apron of course. She got books, puzzles, Sesame Street toys, and tons of other little toys. Our home is no longer ours, it is really just a place to hold all of Kate's things. The best part? When Kate was pulling out goodies from her stocking...she pulled out stuffed animals of Big Bird, Elmo and Zoey...and she said, where's Cookie Monster? I want COOKIE MONSTER!!!!! Dang kid.

Kissy enjoyed his last night with us. He had a bud light, a bowl of pozole and a tamale before he left us to go back to the North Pole.

So other than not getting Cookie Monster it was a very successful and happy Christmas Morning for Kate, and all of us. We are so blessed. I know this blog is full of the material items Kate received, but I am truly grateful for having a beautiful, funny, smart, and healthy happy daughter. She is surrounded by so many people who love her and I hope she knows how blessed we all are to have each other. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Tamalepalooza 2011

Growing up I never helped in making tamales. My grandma always made them and I think she preferred making them by herself. One year while I was away at the U of A, Chris had called and told me that he and Gary helped my mom make tamales. I was in shock that my mother, a bit of a control freak, allowed others to help her make tamales. I think that was 13 years ago. Well here we are and the new family tamale making tradition continues, including Kate. Papa (Gary) is the one who began calling it Tamalepalooza and we had aprons made for the family members. Bum Bum is "Masa Boy", Papa is "Hoja Boy", and now Grandpa Mike is "The Meat Squeezer" - to affectionately remind him not to squeeze the juice out of the meat so we don't have dry tamales (like we did one year).

I love that Kate can now partake in this fun family tradition! Happy Tamale-making everybody!

I go see her?

I love Kate and her Kateisms. She makes me laugh everyday, what a funny girl she is turning out to be!

What is in a typical day for Kate? Hmmm, let's see.

Bright and early every morning I hear, "Maaaaaaaaamaaaaaaaaa!" I either (a) go running to Kate and ask her how she slept and then I rub her back or (b) Chris and I convince her to get out of her bed and open door (as we are laying in bed yelling instructions to her).

If I get up to to do morning routine with Kate, she always asks where her daddy is. If I tell her that he is sleeping she says, "I go see her?". I correct her by saying, "yes, you can go see HIM". Everybody seems to be a "her" right now. We asked her if Santa was a boy or girl, and she responded "girl". That is another thing, Kate is really getting into and understanding Christmas and Santa Claus. She is also really into pretending. Kate loves to pretend to bake and give cupcakes to everybody. However, be prepared to eat the cupcake correctly by peeling the cupcake liner off first and then taking a bite! She loves to pretend it is somebody's birthday and sing the birthday song and then of course hand out cupcakes to everybody. She is still into her babies and loves pretending to bathe, feed, and change their diapers. She even tried to change one of my Santa figurine's diaper today. I catch her singing all the time, right now her favorites are 'twinkle twinkle little star', 'happy birthday' and 'jingle bells'. She even sings to her babies which now include more stuffed animals (monkey, 2 Olivia's, pillow pet, baby pillow pet, Brobee, heart, and elephant). She sits them down and I hear her say, "I'll be back okay guys?"

She is SO verbal, and to think how worried we were about her language development! Kate talks nonstop, asks questions nonstop, and is just a little chatterbox. We are constantly asked "what are you doing?" When we explain what we are doing she responds, "oh, okay"...like she knew all along. Kate is also counting to 20 (not perfectly, but getting pretty good). She even counts objects and has number correspondence up to 11. I just cannot believe how fast she is growing up and what a bright, beautiful, funny, and independent little girl she is turning into. What a blessed family we are! We love you Kate Ava!