That's it for now, folks!

It has been over a year and a half in the making and I hate to say it but I'm going to have to take a long sabbatical from updating this website. I just have so little free time on my hands these days (juggling between taking care of Kate, being on the road for work, getting in shape, reading, watching junk on TV, etc.) that I'm going to have to give up on updating our little website for now. As much as it pains me to admit it, most of you can find me on Facebook (if you haven't already) where I'll be posting up current photos of Kate periodically. Thanks for being a loyal reader of this site and I hope to get back to it someday, but that'll be it for now.

Stacey

Here's to '09!

I apologize for the extended hiatus, I can't say that I haven't had time since I've been in Colorado for the last 3 weeks without work travel. I guess it is the holidays and the relaxation mode that comes with it. I sure hope you had a great holiday and a very Happy New Year!

It's hard to believe that Kate is 16 months old already, while we are aware that it is completely cliche Jeff and I were talking today about how her life is flying by. She's such a dream. She is signing and talking more and more everyday, which is a joy to establish the two-way communication that life is made of.

Christmas time was fantastic, we were up in the mountains with Jeff's parents and brother. We had a very relaxing and enjoyable time. Santa was very good to Kate, she received lots of pull toys, which are her current favorite toys. She's also become a bit addicted to reading. It is book after book in this house. She brings one over and reaches up to you to bring her on your lap and start reading. After that book is done she scrambles off your lap to go find another to read. I have to replace the 10 or so books in our living room with new ones every 3-4 days so that at least we have some variety in the board book marathons!

Now we are back to the routine of things in 2009. I'm leaving for my first business trip of 2009 tomorrow AM, which will entail leaving the house at 5:30 in full business-suit style. It'll be an early morning!

Kissing and Signing!

Kate's been making all kinds of progress lately that I thought you might be interested in hearing about. She is now hugging us when we ask for a hug. She will also attempt a kiss when we ask for one, but it varies between a lean forward with a wide open mouth and an actual kissing noise that goes along with the lean forward - either way it is too cute!

She also has finally begun to communicate using hand signs! This is a long time coming, as we've been showing her signs for "hungry" and "more" and "done" since she was six months old (that was 9 months ago!). Lo and behold she began to perform the "done" sign when a couple weeks ago and within the last week she's begun doing the sign for "hungry" (mainly when she is really hungry and trying desperately to get her point across) and she also is doing the sign for "more" half way through each meal. It was pretty rewarding for us to see the signs and I think it is thrilling for her to be communicating successfully with us.

The good news too is that she is also talking a bit. The words she can perform with various levels of proficiency are: mama, dada, nana, night night, doggie, coal, bye - I think that's about it.

Our little cutie is coming along and we're thrilled to see the progress.

5 Pounds Happier (and heavier)

The week of Thanksgiving is officially over and now it's time to get back to life, and the gym. We had a fantastic week-long trip to Milwaukee to visit my parents along with the rest of my sib's and their "lovers". We had a good week and Kate being the only kid in the bunch was spoiled rotten; we've had to endure a few crying fits since our arrival back in Denver to remind her that we don't indulge her as much as when there are grandparents, aunts and uncles at her disposal.

The highlights of the week included a gingerbread house decorating contest, of which the winner has not been determined - if you have a favorite, please vote in the "comments" section! Joe got all of us to pitch in to make firewood, each couple put on a family meal, we were "treated" to venison that was sauntering in the woods the morning before dinner, a 1000 piece puzzle was completed, ping-pong domination, and a cute little under-the-stairs closet for Kate to sleep in (very Harry Potterish).

My folks were nice enough to watch Kate one afternoon while Mike, Kristin, Jeff and I went to the Lakefront Brewery tour in Milwaukee. If you're ever in Milwaukee wondering what to do with an afternoon I highly recommend this tour - it was interesting, hilarious and complete with Kristin and I standing on the conveyer belt leading the group in the Laverne & Shirley theme song as Kristin dropped the rubber glove on a beer bottle - good times.

Have I mentioned the food and wine of the week? There's nothing like a week in Wisconsin full of pies, apple crisp, cinnamon roles, pumpkin bread, and your usual meat and potatoes to put on the couple of extra pounds I'm carrying around with me. Was it worth it, absolutely - I wouldn't trade it for the world. I figure that it took me one week to gain it, I get two weeks to lose it - now I'm headed to the gym! Enjoy the slideshow!

Halloween Tricks!

This Halloween was a particularly good one at our house, our friends Lisa and Mark teamed up with us to host a Halloween party at our house. A good time was had by all, there was a tie for the "best costume" between Jeff for his Dr. Phil impression and Keith for his Roy Munson getup. Here are some of the photos of the evening!

A Wooden Block and Half a Fry In My Shoe

Kate's latest and greatest hobby is to move things from one place to another. It can be anything, from toys to food to clothes. She LOVES helping with the laundry: she pulls every piece out of the laundry basket and then either hands it to Jeff or I or it goes on the ground (it never ocurred to me until right now that because they are on the floor they made it to the floor they probably aren't quite as clean...). This is all well and good until I was putting on my tennis shoe to go work out and as my foot smooshed a week-old french fry (which goes to show how long it has been since I worked out) I also bumped up against a wooden block - both were in my shoe. It did make for a good laugh.

Trip to the Pumpkin Patch!

We went out to the pumpkin patch last weekend and Kate was in HEAVEN! All of the pumpkins were close to her size, so she had tons of fun walking around and checking out all the pumpkins. Now we just have to carve them up!

On The Road!

There is a reason why I haven't been doing many blog posts, I have been traveling A TON for work. I feel like I've been living the Johnny Cash song: I've been everywhere man, I've been to Newark, Chicago, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington DC, Charlotte. I've been everywhere.... It's going well, but my time at home has been cherished so I haven't been able to write on our site very much. It has been very interesting checking out different parts of the company and I have figured out one thing for sure: my favorite time to fly is east to west during the sunset, it makes for a very thoughtful and pretty flight.

The Fruits of Our Labor!

Our garden has been going strong and it has been so exciting to see all the delicious fruits and veggies coming up! Here's a shot of the loot from one of our big harvest days:


Here we have tomatoes, raspberries, cucumbers, zucchinis, jalapenos, green peppers, and green beans! We also had lettuce and spinach earlier in the summer. We are now nearing the end of the season now, but it's been a good go for the year! I love having a garden :)

Walkin' the Line

Well, Kate has officially crossed the line from crawling only to walking and crawling. Her record of steps taken without the help of a wall, furniture or an adult is about 10 or 12 steps; that being said she does sometimes just take one or two steps and plop down again. Here's some video footage of some of her first steps

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY KATE!

Saturday marked the very first birthday of Ms. Katie Harper. We sure had a good time celebrating and Kate LOVED her cake. She had her own cake to do whatever she wanted to with and then I made a different cake for everyone else. We had friends and family here to celebrate with us and she loved seeing everyone and had fun playing with some new toys too. Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate, you made it a fun day!

Climbin' On up!

Well, the latest and greatest on Kate is that she's learning how to climb things. Jeff discovered this the other day when he went to check on her in our one "baby-proof" room and there she was sitting on top of our side-table next to the couch! She's had several more incidences of climbing since that day and I was lucky enough to get on on camera today. Enjoy the footage!

This Old House!

Well, here we are - Friday night with an hour to myself, unbelievable!! As I think back I am very unclear of what exactly has been keeping me so busy. Oh yeah, maybe it has been the house remodel project, Kate, working, cleaning, laundry, etc.

ANYHOW.... Uncle Matthew just came by for week or so on his way from Portland to State College, PA (I don't envy him that drive, especially in the 1980's minivan he's driving these days). We did have a great time:



And we are making progress on the house remodeling. I keep encouraging Jeff to do a blog post about the project, but I know he's down to less free time than I between working, Kate and the project. Basically Jeff (with VERY minimal help from me) has added new lighting to the kitchen, done some drywall work, textured walls and the ceiling, taken out most of the old flooring, laid down sub-floor planks and now we are finally seeing some of the hardwood floors go in!


Within the next two weeks we expect the new cabinets, sink and hopefully counter top to arrive and magically get installed (by Jeffers). I'm really crossing my fingers that we have a functioning kitchen sink for Kate's first birthday party over labor day! I'll let you know how that pans out...

So, I think we have some work ahead of us!! It'll be a busy couple of weeks. Wish us luck!

The Days of Summertime!

Here we are and Kate's over 10 months old. I'll go ahead and tip my hat to cliches: time is sure flying by! What have we been up to? Well, mostly hangin' out with Kate and working on our house remodel (who am I kidding, mainly Jeff's been working on the remodel...). That and our garden is doing great - we've been eating spinach, lettuce, and radishes and we are looking forward to zucchini, cucumber, peppers, cherry tomatoes and green beans!! I'll take a photo or two for the blog when the garden is at its peak!

Kate's been having a blast hanging out at least once a week with her good friend, Landon. They've been getting along swimmingly, especially because Landon can't yet tell Kate to quit being so overbearing with her enthusiasm for him!:

We also had fun on the Fourth of July with Lulu, Poppy and Andy in Buena Vista, CO. Complete with a flag-style outfit on Kate for the never-ending Fourth of July Parade.

The following weekend we celebrated my birthday by taking Kate to the Cherry Creek Reservoir swim beach for a picnic and a swim. It sure was fun and Kate loved the sand once she figured out that it doesn't taste very good!


And today we gave Kate her 2nd official haircut. Here are two before shots and one after! Before with damp hair which turns into curls:

Before in the highchair as I pulled out the scissors:

After the haircut!

Kate is crawling like crazy and we're expecting her to walk shortly. She walks around the house holding onto walls, etc. and she walks really well when we are holding her hands so we'll let you know when she really goes for it and starts walking on her own. My mom's quote was, "you think she's fast now? Just wait until she's walking" - so we have that to look forward to!!

She's a Performer!

Here's a video of Kate showcasing her current talents!

It's all shortening up now, well at least until the Winter Solstice...

Happy Summer Solstice, everyone! You probably know that it was last Friday, and for us it marks the weekend of the summer that we have our annual Celebrate The Solstice party here in Denver.

This year we featured a badminton tournament - we had 8 teams participating and the grand prize went to myself and our good friend Mark Digan! I must say, we made a great team and I was hugely impressed by Mark's badminton skills. It's a good thing that it was the Summer Solstice because the tournament went on until we could barely see the "birdie" as it was flying around. The whole thing was really fun and I think we'll continue on the badminton tournament for years to come! I only wish we had taken some photos to post up!

The party wound down around midnight and I think Jeff made it into the sack around 2:00 - all of which are surefire signs of a good party! Kate stayed up until at least 9:00, which goes to show how much of a partier she is too! Here's a photo of Kate in her Rolling Stones onesie - she's a true "rocker".

Like Sands Through an Hourglass, These are the Days of Summertime...

Ahhhhhh, here we are - summertime! There's nothing quite like 90 degree weather in June to make you realize that summer is officially here! Kate is a happy camper with her new crawling skill - even though her little knees have rug-burn all over them from cruisin' around... We've had a few more exciting events happening in our house recently, within the last week Kate began successfully pulling herself up which we discovered after a nap one day:

She also has began to hold her own milk bottle, and have I mentioned that her two bottom teeth are coming up now more and more everyday? I also discovered that a top tooth is coming in today! We recently started swimming lessons for her:


And over the weekend it was 90 out, so we made it over to the pool, which Kate did enjoy, but it took a bit for her to get into it. Here are a couple photos of her progression:



So, yes - we are enjoying summer so far and Kate continues to be great fun!! Oh, and did I mention that is always amazes me how well you get to know your neighbors in the heat of the summer (I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing):

A Milestone for Kate!

Our anticipation has finally been met!! Kate decided to put it all together this morning and crawl in several consecutive motions. For months she's been rolling around and lifting her hands and knees, but today for the first time she used all of her skills in coordination to crawl from point A to point B!!

A big thank you goes out to Papa Joe for the crawling training regime that he and Kate endured when we were recently in Wisconsin - all of that hard work and training has finally come to fruition!! Here's a video of some of the highlights from today:



The only disconcerting part is that the "toy" Kate wanted to crawl to was the TV remote!! She has been practicing her new skill all day and we're realizing how much baby-proofing needs to be done around here and how much busier our lives just became.

The Price is Right Footage

Finally!! Here is a quick video of The Price is Right episode that I was an audience member for. I am two rows from the back in a dark pink shirt. The second half of this clip shows a guy being "called down" who is sitting just two seats directly in front of me, then he runs right by me and behind me... Enjoy it - I know I did!!!

Photo Update

Here are some photos of Kate - mostly from our recent vacation to Wisconsin. Enjoy!