Kate & Will together again

Over Father's day we went to Uncle Alvin's for a big family party. I spent most of the time hanging out with the best cousin ever - Will!

We always have so much fun when we're together. Here we are eating blueberries while everyone marvels at how cute we are:

More videos!

There are actually from early June but I couldn't resist posting them. It was so hot here in early June you couldn't be outside for more than 40 seconds. Hence why I'm running around in only my diaper. There was nothing else to do!

And here's me playing catch with mom - I'm not half bad!

A day at the races

We went to the horse track the other weekend for Mom's work party. It was so much fun! There were so many horses and they had so many beautiful bright colors on. There were also little ponies, but the line was way to long to wait for a ride. So I just went right up to the fence to have a look. We could go right down to the fence to look at the race too! It was really cool! I think I want a pony for my next birthday!

Summer = Swimming!

There's nothing I like better than swimming! I'm not even afraid to get dunked, in fact, when I'm in the bath tub I regularly take the cup from my mom so I can dump the water all over my head and face. The water is so much fun! Joey and I have been heading over to the local pool a lot this summer, it's the only good way to beat the heat. Here we are playing just the other week...

Joey's mom always brings lot of fun toys for us to play with - and Joey and I are good at sharing now too! If we can't be bothered to go to the pool there are also a ton of fun sprinkler parks all over Chicago. They are just regular parks that also have some sort of fun water feature at them too. It's a lot of fun, here's some pics from on of those recent trips too. Although those are more about me and the water bottle. Drinking from Mom's water bottle is my new favorite way to drink water, but you can see the sprinklers in the background.

Here's some better video of another sprinkler park, enjoy!

Grandma's House

The other week I stayed with Grandma & Grandpa for a whole week while mom was out of town. We had a ton of fun. We watered all Grandma's plants, watch cool concerts with Grandpa, played dress up, went to book club, went to a sprinkler park, took lots of walks and even hung out with my cousin Will. It was awesome. Thanks so much for taking such good care of me!!! I love you! Mmmmwwwahhhhh!

Playing Dress Up

Over the past month or 2 I've really gotten into dressing up! I love putting on necklaces, bracelets, shoes, shirts, underwear, hats, sunglasses, glasses, rubber bands, purses - really anything to add a little swag to my outfits. If you let me, I'll put it on. Here are some of the highlights:

One day I broke into Mom's underwear drawer... don't worry it's all clean underwear.

A girl can never have too many shoes, my mom's already taught me that!

Here's my Elton John look - and a flash forward of what I might look like if I had my mom's bad eyes and had to wear thick glasses!

And finally, breaking into Grandma's jewelry cabinet and putting on every piece I could find. It's really quite stunning, don't you think?

Eating Peaches and Making IDs...

So I can drive this thing legally soon!! This is by far my favorite mode of transportation. I am always riding in style...

Video from Hilton Head

I'll have to go back and somehow put this in the right order, but here's a video montage of our trip to Hilton Head!

Hospital Visit

Oh man, Mom and Dad sure know how to over react! We were visiting some friends for dinner one Saturday night when I accidentally fell down a few stairs. I'm not really sure what happened, one minute I was playing at the top of the stairs, then next I managed to open the gate (I'm really very clever for my age) and was barrel rolling down the stairs, I made it down 3 or 4 stairs when Mom caught me, lucky she was there! I nailed my head pretty good though and got a nice goose egg right on my forehead, but I was fine. It didn't really even hurt. They tried to put ice on it, but I didn't want that cold stuff! I wanted more cheese to eat, mmmmm, cheese makes everything better. So they finally stopped trying to ice my head and let me play. I had a great time the rest of the night and slept like a baby that night.

The problem started on Sunday morning... I woke up with a runny nose. It was clear and it just kept coming out. It didn't bother me, I think it was just allergies. Mom didn't think too much of it either until she decided to google it when I woke up from my nap and it was all over my face. OH NO! What is wrong with Google! Google told my mom that she needed to be worried about a runny nose after a head injury! It could be my brain stem fluid or something ridiculous like that leaking out of my nose. So they packed me up and took me to the ER.

Luckily our good friend Karen was working as an ER nurse so we didn't have to wait too long to see the doctor. Karen is the best. She gave me bubbles and play dough and a fun light stick sparkler wand thing. It was great. All these doctors came in to check me and none of them could figure out why my nose was running after about 2 hours they finally decided to just give me a CT scan... that means they took pictures of my brain! Isn't that wild. I had to get strapped down, which I didn't particularly love, but I guess it was better than getting knocked out for it. Anyway, 20 minutes after the scan the doctor came in to say everything was OK! It wasn't brain stem fluid, my skull was totally fine. woo hoo!

To celebrate we went out to eat a pizza pot pie at Chicago Pizza & Oven Grinders! mmmmm pizza!


Then I woke up on Monday with a cold, green boogers, eye boogers, and a small cough... go figure! I'm never going to ask Google anything when I get older!

Exercising for Ella

In May I ran in my first 5k, exercising for my friend Ella. Okay, so I didn't actually run in it. I rode in the double jogging stroller with my friend Ella while our dad's pushed us. It was way better than actually running. And even though I didn't run, I still worked up quite an appetite - and there was plenty of food around to help me out. It was a beautiful day and a great event to raise awareness about Epilepsy!

Also we spent the rest of the weekend at various fairs and festivals around the city.

It was pretty hot though and not to over share, but I had my first throw up experience. Poor mom and dad. But I felt great afterwards!

More from May

Whoops, we've fallen a little behind in blogging. What can I say, I'm a busy lady these days. Summer is here and there is so much fun to be had, I can't spend all my time in doors at the computer! I will make it my goal though to try to post a new entry every day this week to get caught up - I am almost 2 months behind! So, here it goes....

May! May was a beautiful month and we spent lots of time on the play grounds around the neighborhood. Here's Molly and I on the teeter-totter, seesaw thing at the park - we were having a great time!

Up next, was a lot of dining al fresco. One of my new favorite things. I can be slightly louder and a lot more messy when we're outside : )

Up first, Club Lucky for Mother's day... mmmm butter and meatballs

Then we head over to Lottie's for a little pub fare

Also, it's not really al fresco, but who doesn't love a good helping of guacamole from chipotle?

And finally we have Smoke Daddy... love that mac n cheese! More please!

I can't believe Mom took all these picture of me eating, so embarrassing! I'll have you know that I'm still maintaining my girlish figure with all the running, climbing and sort of jumping I've been doing too!

Hilton Head

My first family vacation, well big family vacation anyway, was awesome. Grandma & Grandpa Roudabush, Great Grandpa, and Aunt Julie, Uncle Billy and Will and our family all headed down to Hilton Head for a week. We rented a huge house on the ocean, with a pool - and an ELEVATOR. It was the coolest. I can even say elevator now - "ella". 

I loved playing in the Ocean the best. Mom & Dad kept getting mad at me because I would just take off running into the waves. It was so much fun to have them come washing into me and I really liked it when Daddy would take me out even deeper and hold me up above them. We also built lots of sand mounds (not quite at the castle stage yet), went on bike rides, played in the pool, and ate a lot. It was amazing! Here's the highlights from our trip!

We flew in and out of Savannah and on the way home we had some time to kill so we took in all the sights. I got a little tired fell asleep on the drive... then I didn't wake up once. I slept through lunch, though the river and the big cargo ships, though the random liberty bell and a few other sights and woke up just as we were getting back in the car. Oh well, I guess I'll always have the pictures to remember it by...

More Bath Time Fun

I can't really decide if I like baths or not. Somedays I love them, other days, not so much. However, whenever my mom & dad's friend Kelli comes over - I LOVE THEM! Kelli is the best, she's super fashionable and cool - and she has a dog!!! What could be better. How about the fact that she also has a ton of bling! Kelli let me put on all her bling while I was in the tub the other day. I had on 4 rings, 3 bracelets, 2 necklaces and a pair of sunglasses. Look at me rock this bling...

Outside in April

As we finished out the month of April, the weather turned warm and we spent a lot of time outside! I went to the Zoo and saw so many animals! 

I rode around in my cool car (although this one in the picture is Joey's, mine is pink)

And I spent a lot of time meeting new dogs! This one is Kona, she was living with our friends AJ & Diana for the weekend and they invited me over for a play date! Kona was actually a little afraid of me. While I have a lot of experience with dogs, apparently Kona didn't have a lot of experience with little people. We still have fun though, she let me play in her cage, which was awesome! I was trying to talk mom and dad into getting me one of these... but I don't think it's going to happen. 

Playing Dress Up

My mom's friend Bonnie sent me these amazing scarfs to play dress up with. Bonnie's mom made them! Can you believe it! I'm so lucky that she shared them with me. Look at how much fun we have...

I was very inspired and decided to go for the dramatic all week long. I insisted on wearing my sunglasses to school every day and I even found some fancy pink shoes to wear around the house this weekend. No boring house shoes for this girl!

Ride 'em Cowgirl!

It started with the cowboy boots, but I couldn't stop there! Now I have a cowgirl hat and my very own trusty steed. I have a lot of fun riding through the house and roping cattle, well I haven't actually caught anything yet, but I'm close. 

Easter Lunner 2012

Easter Lunner is here again!
I was really excited for my second Easter Lunner, I don't think I was quite mature enough last year to really appreciate how much fun it is - and last year I didn't have any teeth so I couldn't eat any ham! I can't believe what I was missing! I love ham!

To prep for Easter Lunner, I first learned to talk like a chicken, then I played with some cool Easter egg toys, and finally Besty sent me a fabulous chicken dance card that I danced to all week long (and for weeks and weeks after).

Then the big day arrived. We had a wonderful day with wonderful friends. Mom made a great Easter ham and these cute chick cupcakes and bunny cupcakes - I was hoping for cake pops, but in order for those to get made I would of had to sit and play alone for a few hours, maybe next year. Then all our friends brought amazing sides and desserts to share too! Everything was so good. I mostly ate Ham, cheesy potatoes and corn casserole.... mmm mmm good! There was also zucchini casserole and a cauliflower casserole that were good too - but I could tell they were good for me, so I only had a little. Mom even let me have a little cupcake for dessert.

After all that eating my friend Molly and I played house. We had a lot of fun talking and laughing together.

What a great Easter Lunner! I'm already looking forward to next year!!

Peas Please!

I love peas!!! Heat em up, sprinkle some cheese on em, and hand them over! Yum!

I also love yogurt - but only if I'm allowed to feed it to myself. It's a little messy, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Flash Cards

Here I am going through just a few of the flash cards I know. We tried to do all of them, but the iPad was more exciting and I got distracted!

Catching Up!

I got a little behind in my blogging after vacation... what can I say, we were really busy! We were only home for a week before we left again for Cincinnati - it was cousin Will's 1st Birthday!! Then I started school full time, then I got another ear infection, then I got better, then it was Easter.

Here's what you missed all in between...

I love my sunglasses and I can even take them on and off all by myself! And as you already noted I love purses!

I got in a lot of daddy/daughter time. We tried on thug hats and went on lots of walks...

Cousin Will turned 1! And Jake the dog was back for the celebration!

I found out I love Smoothies

and Enchiladas

but I'm still a little unsure of these headphones...

And that's what you missed from Me!

Single Ladies

I learned another new dance move! Check out my single ladies moves and how I "put a ring on it". There's even a little drop it like its hot thrown in for fun.

Purses & Cell Phones.

Who doesn't love a purse? They are pretty, they look good on your arm, and they hold a ton of really important things... like cell phones! I love talking on the phone already!

This makes my Dad cry a little. Sorry Daddy! I'll only call you, I promise!

Socks

Here I am trying to put on my socks! I'm so close, but I just can't quite get there!

Bucking Eggs

Here's an Easter game that was always played in my daddy's house growing up. Egg Bucking! Everyone gets a hard boiled egg and you have bucking wars to see who's egg is the strongest, if you hit another egg and your egg does not crack - you win! I was not very good at winning, but I had fun trying. After all that bucking Grandma made egg salad with the eggs, but sadly I wasn't a fan of that either. Maybe next time though!

Thanks for the egg bucking lesson Grandma and Grandpa! I had a great visit! I love you!

Colorado - our last night

After another beautiful day, we ended our Colorado week with dinner on the town! I was a handful, but we still ended up having a lot of fun.  Here's a video from dinner and also some of our last pictures...

The Gondola

After our big snow day, Grandma & Grandpa took me up the Gondola for a wonderful view and an amazing lunch! I was a little frightened on the way up, but realized what was going on and calmed down. By the time we made our way back down after lunch, I was a pro. Speaking of lunch, buffets are my new favorite meal... they have everything I could possible want! And since I'm so little they mistakenly think I would never eat my weight in food so they give me a discount - suckers!

Here's a few shots of us on the Gondola and then us up at the top of the mountain, well the top of a mountain, not the biggest one out there. Oh and did I mention that my Uncle Joe was in town too!!! He was trying to take me out snowboarding but mom said not until next year. I can't wait to go snowboarding with Uncle Joe!

Snow, Snow, Snow, Snow!

So it did finally snow, one day and just enough to cover the driveway for about 8 hours, but I'll take it. We layered up - me in my fancy matching snow suit and BOOTS. Then we hit the snow hills for some serious sleding.

It was all fun and games... until we decided to up the ante and head to a real hill, and then grandpa dumped me out of the sled and dad stuck me in waist deep snow and my boot came off. Real nice guys!

But I must admit, it was a really fun day and I'll be really excited for our next trip when it this place is actually covered in snow - all day, every day - not just for 8 hours!