stick a fork in him, he's done...with his first year at least

tyler has officially finished his first year of medical college. i'm so proud of all of his hard work this past year, and know that he will continue to work just as hard these next three years. not only did he work hard studying, but he also worked hard at being a wonderful husband and father. i can honestly say that i never felt neglected or overwhelmed with my responsibilities as a wife and mother, and that's saying a lot when your husband is quite busy with his responsibilities. here's to the next three years!

we had a couple of fellow first years organize a little get together to celebrate the end of year one. i'm a picture person and made everyone get together for a couple of pictures. i realize not everyone is as enthusiastic about taking lots of pictures, and i definitely heard some grumbles from some husbands :), but hopefully one day, they'll appreciate these too.

the men, very happy to be done.

most of the first years were able to attend.

and of course katelyn was there stuffing her face full of cupcakes and enjoying the freedom of running around.

when katelyn won't nap...

we head outside. at least when it's warm anyway. we have some decent outside toys for katelyn to play with, so we have the perfect excuse to get out. if i even mention the word car she makes a mad dash for the door. nothing can beat her cozy coupy car. thank you rummages.

plus, i couldn't help making an excuse to get out as i finally saved up for and bought a dslr.

getting a good shot with a dslr, or any camera for that matter isn't as easy as some people make it look. there is quite a lot to think about when composing a shot, and a running toddler sure doesn't help that thought process. so i just might be spending a lot of time practicing trying to learn how to get it just right. and i have so much learn.

but we still had fun getting out. here's proof.

she really couldn't contain her excitement to be in her 'yellow and red car'.

she did stop playing for just a minute to find the airplane in the sky.

she was absolutely refusing to look at me. oh boy is she a two year old.

i love the determined look on her face.

until next time...

by the way, thanks kristen for helping me make the choice to get a d40!

.dos.tva.two.twee.doi.deux.zwei.

no matter how you say it, it doesn't change the fact that katelyn is no longer our little baby. she is now our big girl. on may 8th, we celebrated katelyn's second birthday. i'm pretty sure i said this last year too, but i can't believe she is growing up so fast. i've loved seeing her personality develop and grow these past two years, and i've loved seeing her understanding increase. she really does bring us so much happiness and keeps us laughing each and every day.

as i was purusing through all of our pictures of katelyn, i couldn't pick just one to share. so i decided to share many, in no particluar order.katelyn's first year.

she was always a very content baby. we had no problems putting her down for a while, holding her, getting her down for naps. as a newborn when she woke up to eat she never cried, only grunted very softly. she was a very happy baby. she did get quite attached to her mommy and daddy and only let us hold her for a while though.katelyn's second year.
her personality has popped! she's funny, wild and rambunctious, but can also be very calm, sweet and cuddly. she loves other people and especially her little friends and of course, as any two year old, loves attention.

some things i want to remember about katelyn at this point in time:

• is a talker...and repeats everything we say and more
• can finally jump. yea! two feet actually come off the floor
• knows all of her letters
• can count to 10 and does so often
• is sleeping in a toddler bed. the change went so much more smoothly than we planned
• knows circle, square, heart, star and triangle
• knows all of her colors
• loves to sing songs and do the actions. her personal favorites right now are the wiseman song, go bananas and itsy-bitsy spider.
• can throw a tantrum with the best of them
• gets so excited when her daddy comes home from school
• loves puzzles and play-doh and can play with both for a long time
• loves to be outside
• favorite phrase: it's mine
• loves to talk on the phone to "pampa"
• loves nursery. thank you nursery leaders!
• is still an extremely picky eater
• loves to help me clean whether it is putting away toys, sweeping, vacuuming or putting dishes away

to celebrate her birthday we invited katelyn's best little friends over to play some games and eat some cupcakes. her birthday party theme was all pink. we ate pink foods, decorated with pink paper and passed out pink favors. it was a great party. her friends, grandparents and parents all did a wonderful job of spoiling her. thanks everyone! happy birthday big girl!

drumroll please...

tyler and i went in for our 20 week ultrasound today to find out the health and gender of our baby. tyler had decided before hand that he really wanted a boy, and i was undecided. as soon as the sonogram popped up tyler spied the gender. i happened to miss it, but heard the nurse using a gender specific pronoun during the ultrasound. once the nurse got a clear shot there was NO mistaking that we are having a healthy little...

sorry for the extremely poor quality. we couldn't get our scanner to work, so i took a picture of a picture. not so good, but i think you get the point.

boy!

i did have my suspicions. i felt this kid move at 14 weeks, and this wasn't just that subtle butterfly feeling. it was a hard kick. and ever since then the hard kicks haven't stopped. i just assumed that hard kick=boy. well come to find out that because your uterus has a front and a back, the placenta can attach to either one. my doctor said that the placenta is most likely in the back meaning there is not nearly as much cushion to block the movement of the baby. makes sense. and hey, it's been tons of fun to feel the baby so well already.

we are very excited to have a boy and a girl. i honestly thought either one would be fun, but will admit that a boy makes me a little nervous. i'm so used to everything girl. i'm not sure i know how to raise a boy.

5 months

another test week come and gone

wow. i'm shocked that it is almost may. i swear it was just yesterday that we were starting medical school, and i was left thinking that we had four whole years to go. but what was i thinking? now i'm sitting here saying that we only have three years left. again, wow. i can't believe how quickly this time has flown by.

tyler recently finished his second to last week of tests. congrats to him i say. that means he has put in so many hours of studying that i don't even dare count. but we are so proud of his hard work. he has accomplished so much in just one year. what a smartie.

as for katelyn and i, well, i can't say we were working so hard. no, we played hard. you see, during these test weeks, you don't see your husband so much. we try to find fun things to do together and with friends to keep us occupied. this is what we did.

we made sugar cookies

ryan and katelyn. they were each give a little ball of cookie dough to lay out and cut shapes out of. they both kept laughing and smiling the whole time.

and of course they both did their fair share of taste testing too.

this is ryan's "cheese" face. i thought it was pretty funny because he almost looks mad, but he's not. he probably had the most fun out of the two kids. oh, and notice the dough in his mouth. more taste testing.

katelyn felt it was her job to make sure we had plenty of flour on the counter. she took it very seriously.

all done.

we went to the park

this is katelyn's best little friend, eliza, or as katelyn likes to call her, ziza. they follow each other all over and love to hold hands together. it really is quite cute.

and to top off the test week, we went to a barbeque

it was turned out to be the perfect day for a bbq. the weather got up in the 80's. we got to pull out the shorts and sandels. katelyn stayed entertained that evening with sidewalk chalk and croquet balls.

just some of the ladies that were present. the roberts were so kind to host this. they invited all of the first years and some of the second years too. it was a great crowd with some good food.

now this week we are patiently waiting for our ultrasound appointment. we find out the gender of the baby tomorrow.

fun in the sun

we had the best week last week! the sun was shining and it was warm almost every single day. it totally reminded me of how much i love the warm weather. i realized how much i missed just sitting outside soaking in the rays while watching katelyn happily play with outside toys. come on summer...we're ready. can't you tell?

one morning last week was spent hanging out at the lake with the ladies and the kids. i'm not sure who had more fun. the grown-ups or the kids. it's debatable. the only reason we got these three kiddos together is because jaycee (on the left) had a bag of marshmellows that they wanted. and isn't that little guy so cute? i babysit him a couple of days a week, and he's tons of fun to have around.
again, same story, only this time you can see katelyn trying to steal some of the goodies. i didn't take a ton of pictures of our outside adventures. i guess we were enjoying the sun way too much.

i also decided to do this post because i realized i have never really blogged about the things katelyn and i spend doing during the week. sure, we keep quite busy with our errands, blah, blah. but we spend tons of time with my girlfriends and their cute kids. not sure what i would do without them!

Easter

i realize it has been so long since i've actually updated, but katelyn and i have been stuck indoors for the past two weeks with colds. so naturally, blogging got pushed to the side. thankfully we are now feeling much better.

we had a wonderful easter weekend. katelyn got to go to a friend's birthday party where she hunted for easter eggs. she was a little confused at first. she couldn't figure out why we were telling her to put the plastic eggs into her basket. that is until she realized there was candy inside.

she also got to experience decorating eggs for the first time. the back of the dying box said that the dye was non-toxic, so we let katelyn have at it. by the end she had one dark green hand and no amount of soap and water was going to take it off. so now she keeps walking around the house telling me, "it's green!" over and over again.

on sunday katelyn got to wear her new, cute easter dress and she got to see what was in her easter basket. that was a pretty quick affair. we basically showed the candy then hid it away after she had a couple of pieces. that girl can down the sweets. we had a lovely stake conference that morning where we were reminded of what easter is really about. then that evening we had a nice fhe as a family where we talked about the real reason for this easter holiday. although i don't think it sunk in at all for katelyn, i was grateful that we took the time to do this to remind ourselves about the Savior and of His resurrection.

we hope you had a wonderful easter!