Crawling

Kate learned to crawl forward today! It was quite a fun day watching her wobbling as she crawled toward Jeff and I. I don't have pictures yet, but soon...maybe I'll get the video thing figured out. Have a wonderful week everyone!

A Fun Holiday Weekend

We had a great start to the Christmas Season this past weekend. Friday night, Jeff and I had a night out attending a lovely Christmas party and then Saturday my whole family came up for the day. Grannie took all of her granddaughters, husbands and boyfriends, along with Uncle Jim and Aunt Margaret, to see Raleigh's version of A Christmas Carol at Memorial Auditorium. Mom and Dad stayed at our house to play with Kate and Scarlett. We had a wonderful time. Our cousin and her father were in the play. She was part of the Cratchet family and her dad was the Lamplighter, who had a major part in narrating the entire play. They were both fantastic! We then celebrated Heather's 22nd birthday. On Sunday Jeff, Kate and I traveled to Greenville for the annual Cookie Baking Day hosted this year by Jennifer and Dan. Their house is beautifully decorated and Jennifer was a great host.


The girls had fun playing too!

Happy Birthday Aunt Heather!

Meet the newest member of the family! My parents gave Heather a puppy for her birthday. A "Pugle"-a pug and beagle mix. He is so cute! She named him Baxter.

Cookie Baking Day

Grannie-the judge-is hard at work picking the winners.


And the winners are...Heather and Jason! What an awesome trophy!!!

Happy Thanksgiving (a little late)

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving Holiday and had so much for which to be thankful. (Do you like the proper English? Like I tell my students, who have a major paper due on Tuesday, you should not end a sentence with a preposition... but I have to wonder if that rule applies to blogs?)


Jeff and I are especially thankful for our little pumpkin. We spent a lot of time with both sides of the family and were able to visit with many friends that we had not seen in a while. It was wonderful and Kate did a great job traveling around and being flexible as every day seemed to be a new adventure.


We spent Thanksgiving Day in BC with my family. Kate and Scarlett said the Thanksgiving prayer with a little help from their Mommies. Uncle David was here and we spent a lot of time hanging out with him as well. Kate had so much fun playing with him and you can see from the picture below how much she loves her Uncle Dave!

Daddy's Soccer Game

Sunday afternoon Kate and I went to Jeff's TFC soccer game. It was a beautiful afternoon and Kate really enjoyed playing on her blanket and watching Daddy coach. Jeff is on the other side of the field and when he yelled, she certainly took notice.


Of course her favorite entertainment was playing with the grass. I had a hard time keeping it out of her mouth! Unfortunately Daddy's team lost, but we had a great time.

I'm a Tarheel born, I'm a Tarheel bred...

Kate and I shared a special moment on Wednesday when UNC officially opened up the 2007-2008 basketball season. Some of my earliest and fondest memories growing up are of my family gathered around the television set to watch Carolina basketball. Which usually also included all of us sitting on the floor, eating a pizza with plenty of cheering and yelling going on. For this season opener, Jeff was at soccer practice, so it was just Kate and I. How cute is she in her cheerleader outfit? Please notice for Jeff's sake that she also has a soccer rattle with her!



Sunday, when UNC crushed Iona (sorry Uncle Barry!), Kate wasn't quite done with dinner so we pulled her over to the TV, so we could watch the beginning of the game. We never let her watch TV, but we make an exception in these cases! Look how happy she is when we scored! Or maybe she's just excited about her teething cracker.

Kate is 9 Months Old!

Kate has reached the "big .75", as my friend Lisa would say. As Kate sits here on my lap, chewing on a toy, and drooling all over me, it's all I can do not to smother her with kisses. She is getting so big and it makes me thankful and sad at the same time. Her top two front teeth have come in (those were some fun nights) and she weighs 16 lbs 5 oz and is 27 inches long. She is sitting up really well, doing the army crawl with her arms, and has recently learned to clap and is very proud of that skill. She doesn't yet know how to crawl forward, but she can roll and twist around enough with her arms to get where she wants to go. You can bet that if there is a laptop, remote control, or cell phone on the floor, she's going to get it. Her favorite foods are bananas and squash. Everyday she becomes more overjoyed at seeing our dogs, Precious and Max, and last week she finally said mama, after weeks of conversations that went something like this:
Mom to Kate: "Say Mama"
Kate: "Dada"
Mom: "Say Mama"
Kate: "Dada"
Jeff was so proud.
The whole family is really excited because basketball season is finally here-as we sing "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" we look forward to seeing our first glimpses of Duke and UNC this week on TV. Oh yeah-the holiday season is here too! Uncle David and Gina the Great are coming next week, Thanksgiving is upon us, and cookie baking day is just around the corner-so stay tuned for more fun updates. Maybe Kate will soon learn how to actually crawl through her tunnel instead of just backing up into it!

Welcome Baby Will

Our friends, Dennis and Lisa, recently adopted a baby boy from Taiwan-Will. Jeff and I, along with other friends from college, hosted a baby shower for the new addition this weekend. It was great to see Dennis and Lisa and Will is so cute. It was also fun to see so many friends from college and catch up with everyone. We just need a karaoke machine and it would have felt like our old parties on Church Street! Unfortunately the State/Carolina game did not go so well on Saturday. Everyone, which was about 20 people, except for Jeff and Tripp Flythe were Carolina alums-so the game was a bit disappointing. However, good friends and good food made for a fun time. Kate really enjoyed playing with all the other children.

Update on Jennifer

Jennifer is doing great. Surgery went well and she is resting at home. Scarlett handled everything really well too. Jennifer still can not pick up or hold Scarlett, which is very hard for Jennifer, but hopefully she'll be able to do that next week. Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes.

Prayer Request

Thursday my sister Jennifer will have surgery to remove her gallbladder because of complications stemming from her pregnancy. Please pray for a successful procedure and a swift recovery. Also pray for sweet little Scarlett, as she will have to spend a few days eating from a bottle while her mom is recovering. Thanks everyone.

Happy Birthday Great Grannie!

This weekend we celebrated Great Grannie's 83rd Birthday. Kate tried to help her blow out her candles and had a great time with cousin Scarlett. Grandma also surprised both of them with their first Christmas dresses!

I love this picture of the girls sitting with their Grandaddy.

Our Little Bunny

Here you go Aunt Jennifer and Scarlett-pictures just for you! We hope everyone had fun night of trick or treating. The Costa family sure did. We will see you on Saturday.

Here is Kate's bunny tail-

Kate had loved having her grandparents visit. Who knew bunnies could be so much fun!

Trick or Treat!

I think Kate had the most fun opening the door and finding out who was waiting on the other side for some candy. Here is her friend Jack-cutest monkey on the block.

Pumpkin Carving

Earlier in the day, Daddy and Kate carved a pumpkin while Mom was at a meeing. They did a great job and Kate was fascinated with the process.

Pumpkin Patch Time

We went to pick out our pumpkins yesterday. As you can see-Kate was very excited. Of course, we did the obligatory "baby in sitting in the pumpkin patch" picture. Jeff hates posed pictures and for some reason especially disapproves of staged pictures with pumpkins-don't ask me why. But, alas, mom wins this parenting decision and Kate thoroughly enjoyed posing with the pumpkins. She tried to get a taste of several of them. Thank you cousin Scarlett for the "little pumpkin" shirt and the cute socks!

Here are the lucky three to come home with the Costa Family! Good job, Kate.

Happy Birthday Grandaddy!

I enjoyed celebrating with you!

Thanks for taking Mom and Dad to the football game!

Carolina Girls

Kate is 8 Months Old!

Kate turned 8 months old on Sunday. Jeff and I can't believe it. Here she is showing of her two teeth for those of you who haven't seen them! She is sitting up so well now and scoots around using her hands and arms. She only spins around going counter-clockwise, it doesn't occur to her to go to the right, but she gets where she wants to go by rolling and scooting. Daddy better baby proof the house soon! Kate also loves to wear bows in her hair. When she sees herself in the mirror with a bow, she squeals at her reflection. I think she also managed to get a piece of bannana into her mouth on her own today, although, it was probably just stuck on her hand.


Grandma and Grandaddy came for dinner yesterday to celebrate Mommy's birthday. Our power was out because of an accident at the entrance of our neighborhood, so we celebrated by candlelight. Kate enjoyed playing with her grandparents in the cool hats that Jeff bought.

Party Fun!

This past weekend Kate and I travelled to Concord, NC with Heather and her son Drew to attend Kate Burton's Cinderella themed 2nd birthday party. Heather and I were college roomates with Kate Elizabeth's mom, Kelly. There is Kate blowing out her candles on her Cinderella cake. It was so much fun and a little surreal to attend a party for our children! We have great news too. Another roomate of ours, Lisa, and her husband just adopted a little boy. He is a month older than Kate Costa. We can't wait to meet him and are so thankful that the adoption is complete! It was great to see you Kelly-I'm so glad you guys live closer! Here are a few pictures. It was a bit difficult to get the kids to all look up and smile at the same time-aren't they precious?

Kate and Scarlett

Scarlett and her parents came to visit Kate a few weekends ago. Scarlett has grown so much and is so cute! We had a nice lunch and the girls played so nicely on the floor-just out of reach from each other. Kate is now scooting around doing the "army crawl", so I think the era of peacefully playing on the floor together may have ended for a while. Look out Scarlett!

Finally-An Update

It has been almost an entire month since our last post-we're sorry! We have become blog slackers. It has been a very busy time, full of ups and downs for our family (as you will see from all the pictures), so I hope you can forgive us.

Sad News

We have some sad news to share, on September 6th Kate's great grandaddy, Vicente Hurtarte, passed away. A visitation was held here in North Carolina and his funeral and burial were held in Guatemala City. He is missed, but we are thankful that he was able to see his first two great granddaughters. We love you.

Scarlett's Dedication

We atteneded Scarlett's baby dediction a few weeks ago-she is such a little princess. Here are all the girls with Great Grannie and then me with the guest of honor. Kate loves Scarlett. As you can see above, I had to hold her back from grabbing her sleeping cousin.

Happy Birthday Nonni!

Kate's Great Grandma Mary celebrated her 80th birthday September 16th. We flew to New York over the weekend to celebrate and attend a lovely party in her honor. Even though Nonni was the focus of the party, I think Kate was the belle of the ball! Everyone looked lovely and Kate was especially enamored with her fancy bracelet. She thought that banging her wrist on the table was the most fascinating thing ever! Kate finally went to sleep about 10 pm after entertaining everyone with her smiles. We hope you had a wonderful birthday Nonni! We were glad to celebrate with you.

First Flight

New York here I come!

Kate was great on her first airplane trip. Bill Cowher was on the plane to New York and Kate kept looking at him and smiling as he stood behind us in line to board (we were not one of those couples that say, "can you hold our baby and let us take a picture?"). It will be a good story to tell her one day. Kate also loved to look out the window as we were landing.