It's been almost one month since our last post. We've had a lot going on. I went to Atlanta with three friends for the last part of my birthday celebration. Andrew arranged for us to stay at his parent's condo. We enjoyed a great meal while watching Florida win the championship on Thursday night. The place we went was so packed, we ate at a little counter in the serving area. It was fun, though!
Friday, we slept in, shopped, napped and went to Agatha's Mystery Dinner Theater. That was hilarious. It was an interactive show. Gail, Lydia & I sang a little song in a chorus. Amber had a speaking part. I highly recommend it if you are ever in Atlanta (not for kids, though). Saturday, we slept in again, did more shopping and saw "Bride Wars." It was a weekend I won't forget.
Just this week, Andrew & I went with the rest of the staff at church to a Ministers and Mates retreat in Georgia. That was a nice little getaway for us. Katherine stayed with the Howards, so I'm sure I'll have pictures to post later from her adventures with them.
Katherine continues to expand her vocabulary. Her favorite phrases right now include, "Mama, come here. Sit down." "I want boof (movie)!" "Mama, Noooooo!" "Daddy funny." She loves puzzles and hardly plays with anything else. She has discovered playing dress up. Katherine puts my shoes on her and also wants to put her shoes on us. This morning, she had three of her shoes all on one foot of Andrew's. Pretty funny, but I didn't have the camera nearby.
Katherine also loves to say, "Cheese!" whenever we pull out the camera.
We are trying to simplify our lives a little bit. We gave away both of our dogs, Arwen & Lucy. I have resigned from Wellpoint, the insurance company I worked for in San Diego. I had still been doing 5-10 hours a week of work for them. That job ends next week. Both of these things were very hard decision to make, but we think our family will really benefit from making them. And who knows, maybe I'll have a little more time to keep the blog updated!
Friday, we slept in, shopped, napped and went to Agatha's Mystery Dinner Theater. That was hilarious. It was an interactive show. Gail, Lydia & I sang a little song in a chorus. Amber had a speaking part. I highly recommend it if you are ever in Atlanta (not for kids, though). Saturday, we slept in again, did more shopping and saw "Bride Wars." It was a weekend I won't forget. Just this week, Andrew & I went with the rest of the staff at church to a Ministers and Mates retreat in Georgia. That was a nice little getaway for us. Katherine stayed with the Howards, so I'm sure I'll have pictures to post later from her adventures with them.Katherine continues to expand her vocabulary. Her favorite phrases right now include, "Mama, come here. Sit down." "I want boof (movie)!" "Mama, Noooooo!" "Daddy funny." She loves puzzles and hardly plays with anything else. She has discovered playing dress up. Katherine puts my shoes on her and also wants to put her shoes on us. This morning, she had three of her shoes all on one foot of Andrew's. Pretty funny, but I didn't have the camera nearby.Katherine also loves to say, "Cheese!" whenever we pull out the camera.We are trying to simplify our lives a little bit. We gave away both of our dogs, Arwen & Lucy. I have resigned from Wellpoint, the insurance company I worked for in San Diego. I had still been doing 5-10 hours a week of work for them. That job ends next week. Both of these things were very hard decision to make, but we think our family will really benefit from making them. And who knows, maybe I'll have a little more time to keep the blog updated!
It did not stop Katherine from having a great time opening presents. 
Presents from us included a Jack-in-the-Box, name puzzle and a music DVD.
Katherine ended up with a book.
So sweet.
Katherine had her 18 month check-up this month. She is still in the 25th percentile for height and weight. She's older than everyone else in the class, and you can see here that she's smaller. She is talking like crazy, loves to do puzzles, read and entertain everyone she's around.
We had some delicious food! We got it from places all over town: Wing Zone, Publix, Peterbrook Chocolate, Celebrations Bakery, Sams. 70 people had signed up for the party, but only about 50 showed up. We had a TON of extra food left over. Here is Jeffrey bringing in the fried mushrooms from Zaxbys. Yum!
I was not going to put up any Christmas decorations because of everything going on but got inspired one night to put up a little cheap tree we got from Target last year. I'm glad I did, because Katherine really enjoyed helping. She stayed entertained the entire time.
Every one's turned out differently: Martha, Brandon, Amber, Lori, Nancy & Ashley.
Picture time before church. 
Big smiles.
Monday, we drove to Florida to visit Andrew's sister and family. It was a LONG 12 hour day of travel. Katherine had a great time with her cousins, Rose & Grace. Here she is playing on the swing set. Look at the beautiful sky - the weather was great in Florida.
Fun at the mall on Wednesday. Andrew entertained the girls while I shopped for a couple of hours.
We went to the beach on Thanksgiving morning to take some pictures. Katherine finally decided that the sand was okay to walk on. It was too cool to dip her toes in the water. Maybe by next summer, she'll like the beach. She enjoyed picking up shells and did not want to leave.
