Happy 3rd Birthday Kate!

Wow, how time flies! Our girl Kate is 3 years old!

I was reminiscing the week of her birth. I was trying to remember what the doctor said at my appointment in which he recommended a C-section. I was remembering how I cried because I wanted to have Kate the good ol' fashioned painful way. I remembered scheduling the appointment and arriving at the hospital around 5am; I was so nervous. I had started contractions around midnight and when they were plugging me into all the machines I had asked the nurse how far apart my contractions were and she said 8 minutes. I was so uncomfortable and she said those contractions were not anything near the pain they can be...so at that time I was SO glad that I scheduled the C-section and was going to by-pass the labor! But what I remember of course is the birth of Kate, who arrived at 9:23 AM. She came out MAD and boy was she a fussy baby...she is still calling the shots, pushing our buttons, and has turned our lives upside down. She puts a smile on my face everyday, she makes us laugh everyday, and we are so grateful for her every single day!

To honor the birthday girl we planned a party for her at West Wetlands Park. However, Mother Nature was not working well with us and she sprinkled some rain on us and was blowing so hard that we had to cancel the party. Luckily we did not cancel all together, we just moved the party to Nana and Papa's house. Kate had her cupcakes and friends so she was a happy girl. This year we did a Sesame Street theme because for a while she was really into Elmo and the whole Sesame Street gang. I could have had a plate of cupcakes without the theme and she would have been happy. The one thing we all agreed on - next year the party will be indoors.

Don't know why I look irriated, but Kate looks so happy!

Mommy and her themes right Kate?

Oreo cookie pops and candy, yum-O!

Happy 3rd Birthday Kate!

Happy New Year!

When I was a kid we would have garage parties in Puerto Penasco at my Tio Fausto's home. The adults would buy the kids decorations and let us go wild in decorating the garage for the New Year's Eve party. The adults would drink and dance the night away, and we danced right alongside them. Those were the best childhood memories I have of New Year's Eve. As time passed the tradition slowly faded and went away. We are hoping to revive this fun family event as now we have little ones and want them to have the same fond memories of these garage parties. Ma cleared out her garage, and Ma and Eric worked very hard to set-up the garage for a party. There was a full service bar, a dancing area, places to sit, and a table ready to be filled with food to feed an army. Tio purchased a pig leg and carved away for us to eat delicious Prosciutto.

Eric served as bartender, and Bella helped out as a waitress taking drink orders.

Kate did not last until midnight. Chris and I only made a little past midnight. We knew that we needed our sleep to be able to keep up with Kate later that day. I think another reason New Year's Eve and Day is so important to us is because it is Nana's birthday on the 1st and Tio Fausto and Tia Angelica celebrate their anniversary as they were married at midnight New Year's Day (they celebrated their 34th wedding anniversary). We had a blast and can't wait to do it again to ring in 2013.

Kate and Bella in the festive mood

All the Soto girls: Kate, Nana Delia, Ma, Annette, Bella, Nanalu Marilu, and Carla.

Silly Girl

Kate cracks me up. She is really starting to insist on clothing options. I have to make a show about her outfits. Like, oh put on her princess skirt. Don't you want to look pretty for Santa and wear your Santa dress? Wow, you are going to look so cool in this outfit. We need to play, let's put on play clothes. The other day I was trying on some new tops and Kate was with me in the bedroom and she stops to look at me and says, "Oh mom that is so cute!" The tag was sticking out and she says, "take the tag off". Oh-oh, I am creating a mini-me. I have a picture from summer time that I will have to find and post. She is wearing her pink bikini, with goggles, and a red sock. The other day she wanted to wear her tutu and Uggs while playing outside on her trampoline, slide and tricycle. Then she wanted to ride her tricylcle in the house, naked, with her plastic toy heels (which Chris calls her hooker heels) and then proceeded to find my phone to play a "Pussycat Dolls" song titled "when I grow up". And this, well she opted for no pants and her Hello Kitty helmet.

I go see animals

We took Kate to the Sahiti Camel farm where they house Arabian camels and other animals. It was pretty rinky-dink but it was something to do with Kate. Of course she was scared at first even though for an entire day all we heard from her was, "I go see animals?". Well, when she went to go see animals she started being "chipi" with me and wanted "hug, hug, hug" which in Kate language is, hurry up and pick me up and don't put me down.

The donkey's made us laugh...

Getting brave to feed the donkey...

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!