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.

Football is Here!

We are very excited that football season is here. Even though none of our college teams are very exciting to watch right now, we have fun on Sundays watching the Panthers and the Giants. Thanks to Kate's friend Dillon, Kate even has the appropriate clothes for a football watching afternoon. Go Giants!