Christmas is over...

Time to get the laundry caught up, Christmas presents put away, and the kids back on schedule. Here is an overview of our holiday season...

Miss Kathryn Claus Miss Olivia Claus The Petty Family Christmas party was a huge success... (except for the fact that Olivia screamed almost the entire night) Fortunately, she didn't spoil it for the rest of us.
Gramma made Kathryn a Moses Basket for her baby dolls. When Gramma put a baby doll in it to show her how to use it, she looked for a second, pulled the baby doll out and climbed in!
Santa brought Olivia a Bumbo seat. She LOVES it!!! (and so does Mom!) Kathryn was a little overwhelmed with Tickle Me Elmo X-treme. She did, however, LOVE the box. The rest of us really couldn't stop laughing, and Brad "tickled" him all day.
We made huge strides with Pheobe ("Bee-Dee") over the weekend. Here she is feeding her Life cereal :).
For some unknown reason, whenever Claire is sitting on the floor, Kathryn feels compelled to sit in her lap :). Thankfully, Claire doesn't seem to mind. She just looks at her like she's crazy....
This is the real "Kathryn's Korner". She spends about 1/4 of her day here listening to her favorite One Voice Kid's CD.

Prepare to be overloaded with pictures...

Needless to say, I finally reloaded my photo software. I have so many great pictures back as far as Thanksgiving, but I will spare you all :). Here are a few more recent ones.

When Rosie and Claire stop by, it is always a much needed diversion. This day especially...

Claire learns to drive

Kathryn's new pastime

A friend's blog made me realize that I really needed to get some pictures of Olivia's sweet little smile. It is so contagious... even at 5 in the morning :)




Kathryn's very favorite thing in the world is to play with Olivia. I can already tell they will be best buds one day. Most of the time when I look over at the two of them, Kathryn looks like she is about to crush Olivia's head, but Olivia never cries! In fact, no one can make her stop crying faster than Kathryn! Too bad she's not old enough to babysit...
The only other news we have is that Kathryn is finally starting to get all of her teeth in. And when I say all, I mean all. She is working on seven right now. Needless to say, she has been a BEAR; but who can blame her? Perfect timing too with Christmas right around the corner :).

Merry Christmas

And here is our Christmas card :). Unfortunately, time crept up on me and I am not going to be able to get cards out this year... but here are Christmas pictures of our sweet little girls. Just a reminder... I haven't received very many emails with the contact info that I requested in my last post. Unfortunately, due to the hard drive crashing, I am missing most of your addresses and phone numbers. If you have my email address, please email this info to me ASAP. The only people exempt from this are those who go to church with us and family. I have hard copies of those. If you're wondering whether I mean you, YES, I do!!!

Lesson Learned.

One month, one plumbing leak (thank you), one crashed hard drive (thank you), and a few Thanksgiving pounds later, here is my very long overdue post. Unfortunately, we have not loaded the software for our camera yet, so I have no pictures to post. Let me assure you, though; much fun was had by all. I have never seen Kathryn enjoy herself as much as she did with all of her cousins. I hardly saw her the whole time we were home! Brad and I had a great time too, getting to catch up with family and old friends.

Since our hard drive was not backed up, we have really had a time getting back into the swing of things. (Yes, we both worked for Iron Mountain, "the leader in records and information management", and should have known better. Please, save the speech...) Unfortunately, we had all of our addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses stored on the computer. If you have our email address, could you please send us your information? If you emailed us around Thanksgiving time or a little before, there is a good chance we either didn't get the email, or didn't have a chance to respond before all was lost... Please be patient with us as we try to catch up!

Finally, as far as the Colts game Sunday, I sure hope you Titans fans aren't getting a big head over this. Let's be honest... you know we let you win ;o).

Hidden Treasures

I am always finding "hidden treasures" around the house now that I have a toddler. Anytime something is missing, I try to think like a 1 year old when searching for it; shoes in the trash can, hairbows in the guitar, money in the coke can box, etc. Unbeknownst to me, her latest discovery was the hole in my sewing machine case (where the handle pulls up when my machine is under it). I hardly ever cover my machine, since it is almost always in use, but I did move it to vacuum the other day. This was my discovery...

We've been looking for those crayons!!!

This is why she likes to go to Gramma's...

Kathryn's favorite thing to do while Mom cooks... I hope I never have a house with little to no counter space :)

Bibbity, Bobbity, Boo!

We had no plans of trick or treating, thus no plans for costuming, until Brad came home from work last week and told me they were having a little party for the kids at his office... So we scrounged around and came up with some little fairies... It was really fun to take the girls up to the office and have everyone ooh and ahh over them :o). His whole office was participating (15ish floors), so there were quite a few kids there, and some really cute costumes, and then, well... just some interesting ones.
Okay, so introducing, Katie Fairy...

And Olivia Fairy...

And this is how we were feeling by about 6:00... the "I Haven't Had My Supper or My Afternoon Nap Fairy"

Mommy and her biggest Fairy...

Silly me didn't get pictures before the party, so of course, every one was conked out by the time we got home and we got zero group shots... oh well. Next year.

Friends come to visit...

Kathryn's friend Shelby came to visit! The girls played so well together! It gave us some time to catch up with Jessica and Jeremy and made us wish they lived closer. Shelby was so sweet. She and Kathryn were constantly giving hugs and kisses (and many germs too, I'm sure :). Our neighbor friend was sick, but Adam came and brought Claire Bear (and an apple spice cake :o) so she could play for a little bit. What a great evening!

A face only a mother could love...

I thought maybe Olivia would escape the pimples all over her face like Kate had, but alas, when she woke up yesterday, there they were. On top of that, she is starting to lose her hair. Looks like the transition from newborn to infant will be a hard one. Oh well, I still think she's cute... :o)

Here is a sneak peek at Kathryn's Halloween costume. We didn't really want to put any money into a costume, but she needed something for the party at Brad's work. You probably can't really tell, but it's supposed to be a fairy. Hopefully the finished product will look a little more authentic. If not... oh well...

It doesn't get much sweeter than this! If only she were always this sweet :).

Kathryn got the baby doll in the mail yesterday that we got her for her birthday (long story...). She was SOOOO excited! We probably should have saved it for Christmas, but I couldn't wait. Now poor Olivia has to share her swing, carseat, and blankets :).

My sister Heidi will be having her baby boy via C-section tomorrow morning around 7:30. Please keep her in your prayers for a safe delivery, a healthy baby, and an "easy" recovery.

It's Winter in TN

Okay, well, maybe not winter, but if this was all you had to go on, you might think so... Everybody at church was very concerned that she was going to suffocate in this thing. Let me assure you, she can breath just fine...

Kathryn "helps" with the dishes

Kathryn learns about lollipops

Olivia at 1 month

Kathryn at 1 month

So you can decide if you think they look alike for yourself...

In other news, he was very concerned that Olivia might suffer from "low self-esteem" unless we renamed the blog :o). So, we need a little bit of help. We've already had one suggestion for "Pettes' Place", and one request to leave it as it is. Any more ideas?

Double Trouble

Olivia looking like Mom

Olivia looking like Dad

A very bad attempt at catching a smile

Just being her impish self