Following the Fobarts

of the end.  The end of immobility.   We’ve actually crossed that point a while back when Kate started rolling and crawling, but we could at least keep her contained somewhat.  Two days ago Kate realized she could take steps on her own!  4-5 steps at a time, actually.  She can walk and walk and walk with no trouble as long as she is pushing the stroller, or even just has a hold of my finger.  She doesn’t need the stroller or my finger, but she still thinks she does.  At least for now.  But this is all ending.  She will be fearlessly walking any day now.  And there’s no turning back.  I will be a preggo and tired mommy chasing after Kate.  (YES – for those of you who don’t know already, I’m pregnant, again! Baby #2 due late August).    So I guess all hopes of my bedtime becoming later after I get through this first trimester might be wishful thinking.  On the bright side, at least she’ll keep me in shape!

Here is a link to a video Ryan put together of Kate walking…..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKpB1_MAZu0

About two weeks ago, Dad, Kate and I met up with Tracie and Nick at Baylor.    It was Kate’s first trip to Baylor!  She sported her green and gold and was the cutest Baylor Bear on campus!  We started at the Maybourn Museum, then ate lunch, walked around campus, and then dropped the guys off at the Baylor Bears basketball game.  The girls went to get frozen yogurt, get our toes painted, and do a little shopping!  We then finished the day off with dinner at Ninfas.  We wore Kate out so much that she literally slept through more than half of dinner in my arms.  It was cute.

Kate turned 9 months old on Sunday!  Boy, how time flies.

She currently weighs 18 lbs 8 ozs and is 28 inches long.  She is as talkative as ever – and especially likes to give speeches with both arms raised.  It is quite cute.  She turns pages in books, drinks from a sippy cup, loves smacking her lips, and her favorite toys are ones that make noise when you shake them.  One of her favorite games is peek-a-boo.  It puts a big smile on her face every time.   Kate now knows what “no” means and almost always behaves!   She can stand on her own and will be taking steps any day now.  She loves to walk around the house pushing her doll stroller walker and it is SO cute.  She still only has two bottom teeth, but we can see 2 teeth about to pop through – one on top and one on bottom.

We keep saying she just can’t get any cuter, but she keeps proving us wrong!

Texas weather is so unpredictable.  We haven’t had a white Christmas in 80 years, and this year it not only snows on Christmas eve, but again 4 days later!   We missed the snow on Christmas eve, so we were excited to get to take Kate out in the snow this time.   She wasn’t quite sure she was having a good time out there, but I know that in a year or two we won’t be able to keep her out of the snow!  She’s the cutest little snow bunny ever!

Back in 1983, Aunt Linda started a Christmas tradition with her two nieces, Tracie and me.  The tradition was making Christmas sugar cookies.  I’m not sure whether we had more fun showering the kitchen with flour, or actually making the cookies, but we had fun nonetheless.  This year Aunt Tracie was so excited to restart the tradition with Kate.  She was so cute!

We want to wish all our family and friends a very merry Christmas!

We are very blessed with loving family and wonderful friends this season.   We thank God for the awesome gift of his son, Jesus, and that through him we have eternal life.   We hope this Christmas is as joyful for you as it is for us.

Ryan turned the big 3-0 yesterday!  I like to tease him and tell him he’s now an old man, while I’m still young and in my twenties (even though in two months I’ll be right there with him).   We plan to celebrate this weekend since he had to work yesterday.  I did make him his favorite birthday cake – chocolate raspberry truffle – which he will eat off of for days to come!

Thirty years old. A milestone birthday.  Three whole decades.  Seven presidents.  8 olympic games.  28 volcanic eruptions.  87 space missions.  203 overthrown governments.  1712 oscar nominations.  420,000 new miles of highway.  And only 51,000,000 acres of cleared rainforest.

Boy, he’s old!   We love you so much and happy birthday!!

Jeni, Kate, and Bailey

Every year our neighborhood has a Christmas event with a Christmas Tree lighting, pictures with santa, live reindeer, horse drawn carriage rides, and more.  This year we got to take Kate to meet Santa for the first time.  It was very cold outside, so we bundled her up and took her to the clubhouse for pictures.  We had to wait a little bit for Santa to arrive, so by the time the pictures were taken, it was a good 45 minutes past her normal bedtime.   Because of this, we didn’t get any cute Kate smiles, and after about 30 seconds of sitting in Santa’s lap, she decided she wasn’t having fun.  The pictures speak for themselves…

All bundled up

blurry pic, but still had to share!

Kate turned 8 months old yesterday!  She now weighs 18.5 pounds and is 27 inches tall.  She spends most of her day pulling up on toys, furniture, walls, doors, etc.  She loves standing up!  She has also learned how to sit back down from the standing position (at first she would just fall over or cry) and can let go of one hand to lean down and pick up a toy while standing.   She can walk with assistance, whether it is holding onto our hands or holding onto her walker toy.

Other updates:

• Kate is now an expert crawler and loves to be chased down the hallways by mommy and daddy.
• Her second tooth has come through, so she now has two bottom teeth!
• Kate can feed herself cereal – the kind that dissolves in her mouth – and she loves it.
• One of the cutest things she has learned to do in the past month is give “high fives”!
• For the past month, she has been sleeping 12 hours straight through the night, which has been wonderful for mommy!!

Her monthly picture is becoming very challenging, as she doesn’t want to sit still anymore.

We are still greatly enjoying our time here in Playa del Carmen.  The past couple of days we have spent a lot of time relaxing at the pool.  I took beginners tennis lessons on Saturday and am now a pro…..okay, maybe not a pro, but I wasn’t hitting the balls over the fence!  Aislin and I also enjoyed getting pampered with massages on Saturday.  In the evenings, we seemed to always end up having about a two hour dinner.  We aren’t sure if that is because of all the entrees we order (why order one when you can order two for the same price?!) or because we always got the slow waiters.  Either way, we enjoyed the time.  Yesterday we went into town and shopped on 5th street.   That is one cool area of town!  And one never ending street!!  There were a ton of shops, but also a lot of really neat restaurants.  Most of the restaurants were built around trees and I thought they looked like tree houses.  Very unique.  Today our friends Aislin and Dan left us, so we’re on our own for the last day and a half.  The week has gone so fast, but I have to admit, I’m looking forward to squeezing that little bundle of joy we have back at home!  Love vacation, but really miss Kate!

Herbie the Hermit Crab

Gorgeous beach

Too many Mudslides, I think!

Don’t smoke all those at once!

Love at first sight

Christmas Tree in Playa…wrapped around an actual tree trunk

Our last night together…sniffle, sniffle