Spring is here!!

And we had to celebrate with some ice cream!!

Babies

My brother and sister in law, Heather, had their first baby at the beginning of February, and we were so excited about the first Biles cousin!  Her name is Addison "Addy" Lynn, and she just the prettiest little thing you've ever seen!  Here are some pics from the hospital: 

 Luke didn't pay a whole lot of attention to her.  He was just excited to see Uncle Tim!  

 But little Miss Cate was really interested in her, or maybe she was wondering why her mommy was holding another baby!  Cate does love babies and kisses the phone every time I show her a picture that Tim or Heather send me.  Adorable.  I think Cate and Addy are going to have lots of fun together!

Here's one more recent picture of Addy that I happen to have on my phone.  Isn't she the cutest?!

Cory's brother and our SIL had a baby boy a few days after Addy was born so we gained a niece and a nephew in just four days!  Pretty amazing!  We can't wait to meet Jessup David as soon as we can make another trip to Texas!

Look what we have!!

Stay tuned for some really cute soccer pics in the coming weeks!

Snow!

We had a couple of small snows this year.  We had high hopes for more, but no such luck...  We did have just enough to play in although neither child loved the snow.  Both of them got cold and wanted back inside after five minutes.  Here are a few pics though!

 Cate got all bundled up in Luke's old snowsuit.  She was snug as a bug, but hated it cause she couldn't crawl (and she wasn't walking at this point).  Cory and I thought it was hilarious though!

 See Cate face--she's done.  After three minutes...

There was just enough snow for a snow angel, and then we ran inside for some hot chocolate and to enjoy the snow from inside our warm house!

Luke's birthday party

Luke's birthday party this year was at his favorite bouncy place.  We did a superhero theme, and all the kiddos came and bounced til they couldn't bounce anymore.  Luke was very specific about who he wanted at his birthday party and named off each of his little preschool friends and friends from church.  He had THE best time playing with all his favorite friends at the same time!

 Luke and Landon with their matching superhero shirts and capes!

 Madison and Claire

 Brooke was super mom of the day and got in all the bouncy things with little Hudson!

 Luke and Cooke--one of his very best friends whom he talks about all day long every day.

 My dad and Carolyn came to celebrate with us, and they helped so much with Cate and one of the other babies there, Emerson!

 Luke got to sit in a huge blow-up bouncy chair!  Every 4 year old boy's dream!

 Ethan and Luke H--Luke's friends from preschool/church

 Hudson REALLY enjoyed the pizza and cupcakes!

 Luke B and Luke H. 

Landon, Mason, and Luke loved playing the video games (although I'm not sure they ever actually put money in them. But they thought they were playing!"

For party favors, I made super hero masks and arm cuffs for all the kids.  Little miss Riley modeled them for me, and she refused to take them off the whole day!  I kept getting texts and tagged in pics on facebook of the kids in their masks, and I loved it!  They were a hit!

And Luke and Mason shut the bouncy place down.  We basically had to drag them out of there, and Luke immediately fell asleep in the car.  I'd say it was a successful birthday party!

Happy birthday sweet Luke!!!

Sometimes eating is very hard work...

Happy birthday Luke

On Luke's actually birthday, we started the day celebrating.  Cory got up and made him a pancake in the shape of a 4, and I filled the living room floor with balloons.  He also got to open one present that morning.  He was SO excited!

 Okay, and maybe still a little tired...

He's obsessed with robots and transformers, so I found him robots that transform into letters called Alpha-bots.  They are perfect for little boys!  He loves playing with them, and they're super easy to transform.

 He lined up all the Alpha-bots so they could fight the Decepticon Transformers...

Then later that night when Cory got home from work, we went and ate Mexican food which is our tradition for Luke's birthday, and then we came home for cupcakes and a few more presents.

Cate however was done partying...  

 Oh my big big four year old...

And Cory brought home this extra special Bumblebee balloon for Luke which he LOVED (and of course Luke needed a crazy face in the picture!)

Cate 18 almost 19 months

Well, I missed 18 months and just realized that she'll be 19 months next week.  How did that happen??  So I'm gonna do an almost 19 month post since I can't promise I'll have time next week!

At almost 19 months:

~Cate is pure joy.  Seriously, pure joy.  She's easygoing, happy, content, and full of love.  

~Cate is FINALLY walking!!  She decided to wait til she was good and ready at 18 months, and she really just loved being carried everywhere!  Now she pretty much walks all the time--no more crawling.  And the really funny thing is that she spend most of her time walking around carrying something--a purse, a basket, a bucket. It usually throws her off balance but she's determined to have it on her arm!  

~She's already a girly girl.  She LOVES purses and bags of any kind.  If there's a purse or diaper bag on the floor, it's hers to go through and carry. She also loves shoes--trying on shoes, looking at shoes, and of course one of her first words was "shoe".

~She's a great little helper!  She actually likes cleaning and picking up toys, and she loves wiping off tables.  We were eating out last weekend, and she started wiping down the table when we were finished, and our waitress was flipping out and cheering for her!  

~Her favorite toys are her stroller and baby doll.  She puts all of her purses on the handles of the stroller and pushes that thing around the house all day long.  It's her favorite thing to do!  She's really good about entertaining herself and finding toys to play with, but the baby doll and stroller are her very favorite. 

~She says lots of words and repeats a lot of words we say.  She calls herself "Tay" when we ask her to say Cate, which is also one of her nicknames because that's what Luke called her when she was born.

~We consider her our cautious child.  She gets scared in certain situations (like in the aquarium at the zoo, on big slides, with loud noises, etc.)  She's the opposite of Luke who was never really afraid of anything!  

~Cate loves to read books.  Her favorite books right now are "Llama Llama Red Pajama" and a Karen Katz halloween book that she discovered on Luke's bookshelf (so random).  But she loves being read to over and over and over again.

~She's still not really a snuggler.  She likes to be held, but doesn't snuggle.  Ever.  If she's playing intently with a toy, I'll go and try to snuggle next to her so she doesn't notice me!

~Cate loves being around people and getting attention from others.  Funny story, we went to an indoor play place last week, and it was super crowded. I was trying to keep up with Cate and keep an eye on Luke at the same time.  Well, Cate was playing at the train table with a random little boy who was with his mommy.  And I watched Cate go over to that random mommy and hug her and hold her hands up to be held.  I rushed over there to show Cate that I was there, but she still wanted that other mommy to hold her!  So the other mommy picked her up, and Cate just hugged her neck and laughed at her.  It was hilarious!  And thankfully the other mommy liked the hugs because she had a couple of boys who didn't want hugs anymore!  

~Cate is definitely a mommy's girl these days.  She was a big daddy's girl for a long time and now she's in a mommy phase.  I'm soaking it up, because I know when she turns 15, she's not going to want anything to do with me!  Ha!

~When she went for her 18m appt, she weighed 26 pounds and was in the 75th percentile for weight.  She was in the 50th for height, but I can't remember what it was.  

~Cate has turned into a picky eater.  She used to eat anything and everything, but not so much anymore.  Hoping it's a stage!  She really doesn't even have a favorite food that she'll eat consistently.  Crazy.

~She loves music and loves dancing.  Oh, and she loves singing too!  

Our sweet Cate is such a blessing.  There are so many times I look at her and can't believe she's mine.  I'm so thankful for her and her precious personality!

Silly faces

Long time, no post.  I've just gotten busy with life and been neglecting the blog. And now I have so much to post that I'm overwhelmed!  Here's a fun little Luke post to get me started though.  Luke insists on taking silly pictures every time I get out the camera!  Pretty hilarious.  He has lots of different faces so here's a few. Most of these were taken on the same morning (hence the same red plaid jammies)!

Cross eyes--his favorite!

Oh how I love this silly boy!