I know I am so bad and I always say I am going to update more frequently and well, I just haven't. I am sorry. BUT, is there anyone out there who does read this or am I just making a journal? I think the journal is more likely. The past few months have been pretty fun-for the most part. Matt has been working a lot and has been showing signs of being very stressed lately. I wish that he could relax a little and not have to worry. If it is not one thing, it is another, work, sheriff's, money, house, spending time with Katie and I, maintaining things around the house, being able to buy groceries and on and on. He does not think that I worry or even think about these things, but I do. I guess I just don't show it as much as I should. Maybe I should make a note and stick it on my forehead telling him what I am thinking. He is such a perfectionist and is very critical and I know that what ever decision I make, there is always the "right" one that he would have made...oh well. Life is a b!tch, right?

At the end of February, Katie had her first visit to the ER, which I am certain now was a waste of time and money. I was changing her diaper and she had her Elmo barrette. She put the barrette in her mouth and at the same time, I went to grab it out of her mouth. She turned her head and my finger pushed the barrette further into her mouth and into her throat. She started to gag and was not making any sounds, but was trying to breathe, unsuccessfully. I made the mistake of trying to do a finger swap and each time I did that, I pushed it back into her throat. I finally held her in my arms face down and patted her on the back. Sure enough after a few pats, the barrette fell out and Katie gasped for air. She started crying and spitting. There was blood and it got on her shirt, my shirt and arms. I was not sure how much damage the barrette did or how far it really went into her mouth, but figured it would be safest to have a Dr look. I took her to Urgent Care and walked out right when I got there. It was packed and who knew why the people where there. Katie was not sick and I did not want her to catch anything. I took her to jamba juice and then back home where I met Matt. Katie was still not swallowing and instead she was spitting. Matt told her to swallow and she started to cry. She then started to gag and then threw up...blood. :( At this point, Matt grabbed her and we were off to the ER. We waited there for about 3 hours and then finally saw a Dr who said that he could not do anything, but recommend having a scope put into her throat to see if there was damage further down. Meaning she would have to have anastesia and I was not up for that. We went home and had a sleep over in her room and by the morning, she was fine....Thank GOD!

We also went to California Adventure and this was a much better trip than the Disneyland trip. Katie loved the Bugs Land and all the rides there. We took her on the Monsters Inc ride and she did not like it and also on the Toy Story ride and she cried-hated it. I don't blame here, it was really strange if you don't know what is going on. It was really cool for the adults though.

We also went to the Santa Barbara Zoo and that was so much fun. We saw a lot of animals and even got to feed the giraffe.

Katie's first Disneyland trip

On Sunday, Matt and I took Katie to Disneyland for her first trip. It was interesting. First of all, it was raining when we were about half way there. It continued to rain until we got into the park and then it finally cleared up and was not raining, but everything was wet.



There were 4 rides that I wanted to take her on: Dumbo, Small World, Tea Cups and Alice in Wonderland. We went on none of them. Instead, we took her to see a hippo get shot on the jungle cruise and to see a twisted version of Pinocchio-that ride is whacked by the way! Poor Katie had the look of "why did you bring me here????" on the ride and finally started crying about half way through.



We then headed to Toon Town and went into Mickey's house, Minnie's house and Goofy's house. The kids there were very pushy and pretty much made Matt and I carry Katie and she was not happy about that. She did get to meet Mickey, Goofy, Minnie and Pluto. Of all the mentioned, she LOVED Pluto the most. She had exactly 3.4 seconds to pose for a picture with him before the other park partons were pushing us out of the way to get their kids up there.







The picture below is Katie after she was kicked out of the way trying to say hi to Pluto.



At this time, Katie was ready for a nap-that was not going to happen. She wanted to run around and a wet, tourist infested amusement park was not the place. Matt and I tried to go to DownTown Disney for some late lunch/early dinner (hitting places at an off time (3pm) tends to work a little better for the little ones. Katie refused to sit in (or even get into) her stroller and we were stuck pushing it and chasing her. She refused to be held and wanted to only go in the opposite direction we were trying to get her to go into. We fed her and changed her diaper and found that she was pretty cold, her feet were frozen and her legs were 1 degree warmer. I think she must have gotten her shoes and pants a little damp.

Matt and I finally decided to try to go back into the park and see if we could get on any more rides. The shortest line was about 20 minutes-which Katie was not going to wait for. I tried Dumbo one more time. Nope, she made it to about 3 minutes total in line before she was having a melt down. Small World was just redone, so it was about an hour and a half wait-which we did not even try. Alice and the Tea Cups were still "Closed due to incliment weather." The rain stopped about 2 hours before, so who knew when they were going to open again. We decided to leave.

We got to the tram and Katie finally knocked out. Hard. She did not wake up until we were almost home and then she finally got up and it was pretty much an hour and a half before her bed time and she was not going to go to sleep any time soon. Ugh! All in all, it was an interesting time, but Katie just did not have fun. The most fun she had was climbing the planters at the front of the park. up. down. up. down. about 40 times. Well, I guess if it was the highlight of her day-whatever!

So, we are going to do what any person in their right minds would do after having such an adventerous time. We are going to take her to California's Adventure Park in two weeks. haa haa. hopefully this time will be a little more fun for her.

Last week (on Monday) Katie had her 15 month appointment and it went very well. She is 24lbs 4ozs and is 32" tall. 90th percentile for height and 75th percentile for weight....she is slowly moving into the average weight for her age. She is talking so much and is my little motor mouth. She talks all the time, when she is going to sleep, playing, in the car, eating-I have never seen anything like it. On and on and on her mouth keeps going. Just like her daddy! She is starting to interact a little more with the other children at the park and is not eating the sand like she was....now it is the flowers and plants. She also loves to pick the flowers and smell them-I mean really smell them.

This weekend, we took her to the beach and she LOVED it. She kept trying to get deeper and deeper into the water. Matt and I took turns holding her while she got her feet wet.



We are planning (weather permitting) to go to Disneyland on Saturday. It is my sisters birthday and that was her request, so we were happy to go with her. My mom and dad are also going to go, so it will be really nice to have some help. I found tickets for $61 at my dads work, so more than likely we will get those ones. I hope it is not too wet or crowded. I can't wait to see the look on her face.

Matt is working so much lately. He has a huge project at work that is taking a lot of his time and I can't wait for him to be finished, but it is nice to have a little extra money to help with the bills.

Wow...I didn't realize that it has been so long since I have written anything. I guess mostly it is because of my addiction of Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn-not to mention Midnight Sun. My sister gave me Twilight for my birthday and I have not been able to stop reading all the books in the saga. I usually am very intimidated by books over 300 pages, which is why I have not read any of the Harry Potter books. I guess I got over that fast-considering I have read somewhere in the ball park of 2,000+ pages in a little over a month. The last book I am not reading so fast because I don't want to finish it. I limited my self to 2 chapters a day. I have a feeling I am going to reread it when I am done-can you say LOSER?

Katie is doing really well. Talking and playing all day long. She loves to go to the park and eat the sand. I have been taking her there pretty much everyday since the weather is so nice. She loves to play and climb and slide. She keeps trying to eat the sand though. Today she climbed one of the latters there all by herself. I could not believe it because they are pretty hard to balance on, but balance is not a weakness for her. She is a VERY friendly little girl and has to go up to everyone and say HI before she will start playing. It is kind of funny because she waits for a response and if she does not get one, she will just keep saying HI until she does. The problem is that she will go up to people who have their backs to her and she gets frustrated when they don't say Hi back. I have found that she has a peculiar sense of humor for such a little thing. She is interacting more and more with the characters on TV. When Elmo does something funny or different she laughs histerically at him. In the begining of Sesame Street, Elmo rides his tricycle and she thinks that it is just the funniest thing she has ever seen. She also got a pair of Snow White attire (with mini heels) for Christmas and I gave them to her and she thinks that she is so cute wearing the shoes. It is pretty funny.

I also did a Valentines Day photoshoot for cards for my parents and Matt's parents.

Wow....what a wonderful Christmas we had this year. Katie loved everything about it....the tree, the lights, the presents, Santa, snowmen. On christmas eve, we went to my cousin Ambers. She has 3 girls and her sister in law has a little girl too, so there were 5 of them running around and having such a great time.

Here is my cousin Amber and myself...

Here is the best group shot. It was perfect until we realized that my mom was in the bathroom...ugh!

Here are all 5 little girls. Poor Sadie. I gave her the job of holding Katie. Sadie was awesome. She made sure Katie did not go anywhere-notice the neck hold?

I guess she decided that she would have better luck with a chest lock...whatever it was-it worked!

The next morning, we waited until Katie woke up (which was around 8am) and then went downstairs and opened her gifts and played with her new kitchen. She loved it and it was funny to see her trying to figure it all.

We then packed her up and headed to my mom and dads. She was spoiled. She got a little quad-ATV thingy that my brother picked out for her, an art easel, a Santa mylar balloon, clothes, books and some more things, I can't think of it all off the top of my head right now. I got the rest of the 3 books from the Twilight saga-woo hoo, Britney Spear's new CD-yes, I WANTED it, a new cell phone, a $90 wreath, picture frames and some clothes!

After my mom and dads, we headed down to Matt's sisters to wrap up Christmas with his family. It is always a little chaotic there, but with 9 kids, it should be, right. No, his sister does not have 9...lol. Here is a picture of Katie with her cousins.

The past few weeks, Katie has not been sleeping very well and has been waking up several times crying and some times screaming. Today, I found out why....her molars are coming in. Poor thing. I know that they say that runny noses/diaper rash have nothing to do with teething, but I absolutely do NOT agree with that. EVERY SINGLE TIME she has gotten a set of teeth (they seem to come in twos) she has had had both a runny nose and a diaper rash. It is the only time that I have really noticed her with a runny nose and (unless I don't change her - usually because I can't smell it or she is sleeping and goes poopoo) a butt rash. Go figure....I am not convinced at all!

It is late and I am pretty much falling asleep, so I need to go night-night!

Katie ~LOVES~ Tan-ta!

Last Thursday, I took Katie to the mall to see Santa. She has been talking about him like crazy and knows where everything 'Santa' is in the house. She calls him 'Tan-ta'.

When we got there, she walked up to him and let me put her on his lap and take pictures. Hmmm...I wanted some where she was screaming because they are just too cute, but my little girl seems to LOVE old men! Here she is on his lap.



She is really digging this Christmas thing.

The BIG 30!

Well, today is my 30th birthday. 3 decades old. Humph! The good thing about getting older is that you don't really feel it until it is too late. I don't feel any different other than having to convince people that I am 30 and not 17. I am married. I get strange looks-like "You are too young to be married". I have a child. That seems to push them over the edge- "Really? Hmmm...you still look 17". I guess it is a good thing and I am glad that it is that way and not the other "You are only ___?" that would really suck.
It was a really good couple of days-other than the fact that Matt had to work a lot of hours because he has a demo on Tuesday.

Dinner last night consisted of Kisho's. It is a teppan style restaurant and Katie loved it. The food was excellent as always and it was Matt, Katie, mom, sis, her boyfriend, bro and dad. We went to my house and ate the cake I made-Pineapple-Coconut Cake AKA: Better than Sex Cake. My grandma used to make this cake for all our birthdays for as long as I can remember. What a treat it is. I opened my gifts.....a sewing machine, boots, face mask/facial scrub/facial lotion, a dragonfly necklace, Twilight (the book), a sweater dress and the razor I have been looking for for years. OMG! My DAD of all people got me this razor. How funny is that? When Matt and I had our house fumigated in July, we stayed with my parents. I used her razor (the same exact one I first shaved my legs with when I was 12!!!!!!) and could not stop talking about how close it shaves. It is actually discontinued and has been for a long time. My dad found it on E-bay and won it for me. Kudos to dad for: 1. Listening to what I like 2. Doing something about it 3. Suprising everyone with it.....especially me. I *LOVE* all my gifts. Good job everyone!

Today, Matt and I went to dinner at Sushimi. The one thing I asked him for-a nice sushi dinner. It was the yummiest dinner I have had in a long time. Spicy Tuna Hand Rolls made to order "With the tuna chunked, not mixed. Add cucumber, gobo, sprouts. No mayo. Medium to Hot spicy." Katie stayed with my mom and dad. My mom taught her how to say "snowman" and "Happy Birthday". Yes, she is 13 months old and can say "Happy Birthday"....lol. She has the most incredible vocabulary I have ever seen!

Where is Katie????

There she is!!!!