Pigtails

Cate's hair is finally long enough to get into pigtails.....when she'll sit still long enough to let me to get them up! These are both phone photos....but they still show off how cute she is!

This one is from a birthday party this weekend, it rained horribly Saturday morning, so the park was a mud pit....Cate's never played in, or walked on mud, but she had no problem taking a seat in it and then immediately wanting "up, up" from her dad....we all came home muddy, but we had a great time celebrating Austin's 3rd birthday!

St. Louis

We have been on "vacation" for the past week or so and we decided to spend some time Hot Springs with Grandpa and Grandma Bodemann. Cate had a great time just running from the living room to the kitchen, chasing the dogs, asking for "up, up" from her grandparents, watching cousin Claire play volleyball, seeing her great-grandparents and then traveling to St. Louis to surprise Aunt Julie (My parents were going that weekend, so they invited us along and we decided Julie needed to be surprised by Cate, which she was shocked). Here are a few photos from our travels.

Cate sitting like a big girl at the dinner table at Don Juan's (the HS equilalent to El Rodeo)

On the flight to St. Louis, she's a master at using Dad's iPad.

I just love this one....she looks like such a big girl in her jeans!

On Saturday afternoon in SL, Cate and I went to a hot air balloon race with Aunt Julie and Grandma Peggy, we got to the area where the balloons were launching just in time.....even though it was VERY hot and humid, it was amazing to see all these balloons so close. They just slowly started coming up over the hill (in the above picture) and soon the skies were full of balloons!

Cate loved to just point and say "boon", and of course clap for them!

So we thought this balloon was riding a little low.....it landed right in front of us! We later found out that because there was so little wind that day, many of the pilots decided to land where they could because it was too dangerous, we saw several balloons bump each other, which I guess is scary up in the sky!

Balloon landing behind Cate

Cate and Mom (again, it was very hot!)

The Energizer Bunny, this is the first balloon launched during the race because they sponsor the event, so we knew were on time when saw him rising into the sky!

We had a great weekend, lots of football watched, a fire on the back deck (before the rain), a trip to the zoo....we needed more time! Thanks for letting us invade your house Aunt Julie and Uncle John and thanks Grandma and Grandpa for letting us travel with you and invade your house for a week!

TCU Football

TCU kicked off it's home season a few weeks ago against Tennessee Tech, so we packed up and headed to Fort Worth for the afternoon/evening. We were hoping the temperatures would cool down being an evening game, but nope, we got to experience 105 degree heat index with a walking 13 month old at the tailgate.....I think we'll be getting a sitter for our next TCU football outing!

Cate and her Daddy enjoying snacks once inside the game. Cate was a little nervous about all the yelling and noise at first, but got excited when she realized everyone was clapping so much.

Trudy, Eloise and Cate watching the game from our seats.

Eloise and Parker Pittman, just love her smocked TCU dress!

Family photo at the end of the night......it was very hot and humid, sorry we look so rough!

It's going to be a fun fall with TCU football and good friends.....GO FROGS!

"12" Month Stats

(this post is primarily for my benefit....so I have details documented)

Cate had her 12 month check up finally here in Dallas, she was actually 13 months old when we could finally get in to be seen. She did pretty well, had a great time running around the exam room in her diaper, hated having her shots (4) and then had to have blood drawn, which required an additional person bedsides me to keep her still....

Here's where she is on growth:

Height: 31 3/4 inches (95%)

Weight: 26.2 pounds (95%)

I can't remember her head size, but again 90%+

Cate's Got Moves!

Cate loves to dance every time she hears the Apple iPad commercial, so we finally got her on video. She just gets so excited......

Labor Day Weekend

We were lucky enough to have Lanny home all weekend over Labor Day (he's on an outpatient rotation for two weeks), so Cate got to enjoy breakfast with Dad on Saturday.....she came to his lap with her own spoon (from mom's coffee mug)!

Saturday afternoon, Uncle Brian came over to watch Cate while Lanny and I headed to Cowboys Stadium for the TCU game. He said Cate was pretty sad when we left, he wanted to give whatever she wanted just so she'd stop being sad.....so sweet. Aunt Rosie came over a little later to help with bath and bed time, I think Brian was relieved to have some help with the sad face!

(view from our original seats)

Lanny and I were some very lucky TCU fans....we bought tickets to the game through Groupon (for $30 each....great deal considering they were $75 each originally). They were endzone tickets, which were fine by us because it gave Lanny the chance to see the new home to the Cowboys! When we got to the stadium we were trying to meet up with friends (The Pittmans and the Baades), when they called, they had extra tickets in the suite their mom had gotten for the game (she had family in town from Oregon supporting OSU). Anyway, when they offered us the tickets, we jumped at it! We had a great view of the jumbo screen and the field and we got to explore some of the nicer parts of the new stadium.....it's a pretty amazing place Jerry's created!

(view from the suite)

Go Frogs!

Cate is excited to kick off the football season cheering for the TCU Horned Frogs! She is sad mom and dad are going to the game without her, but she'll be having fun with Aunt Rosie and Uncle Brian tonight! We're off to Cowboys Stadium to support the Frogs.....happy football season!