Belated Happy Thanksgiving!!

We have stayed quite busy lately chasing our little walker around! That's right Miss Kate finally decided that she prefers walking over crawling. I'm a little late getting this update on the blog. She decided literally the day after we had her birthday party. Nick was saying for a couple of months leading up to Kate's birthday that he wanted her to be walking for her party...well I guess she showed him! Monday morning my Mom and Dad packed up to head back to Florence and Kate got up from her afternoon nap that day and decided she was done with crawling and walked all over the place.

We also traveled to Florence for the Thanksgiving holiday and were lucky enough to spend the whole week with family up there. We had a perfect week! Kate had a great time visiting with Nonna and Papa, Granny, Aunt Anna and Uncle Jason and all her cousins! In addition to visiting with family we also did some fun things around Florence. Nonna and I took Kate to visit the lions, Leo and Una, at UNA where I went to school. Kate is CRAZY about animals right now so getting to see the big cats was right up her alley. Nick and I also got to go to the Iron Bowl with Anna and Jason while Nonna and Papa watched all of the kids. It wasn't quite the outcome we had hoped for but we had a great time anyways! Even got to see out good friends Brad and Christie Berry while we were in Tuscaloosa.

We hope that all of you had a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. We are so thankful for all of our family and friends and our precious Kate! We couldn't have a busier, chattier, funnier and sweeter little girl and we are so thankful to be so blessed!

Enjoy some pictures from our Thanksgiving week

Kate at UNA making our way towards Leo and Una

Kate stopped to check out the pansies. Purple and Gold for UNA also like another school I know...

Nonna and Kate checking out Leo

With Una

And Leo again

Kate liked trying out this lion riding toy

Family photo for Thanksgiving

With Daddy

Nonna took Kate for a ride in the wagon a few times over the weekend. Kate absolutely loves it! I think she's trying to give Santa a hint about what she might like to have for Christmas.

Nonna and Papa helped us snap some family pics in hopes that we'd get some good ones to use for Christmas cards. I've saved the Christmas card hopefuls but thought I would share a few from our shoot. Here's one of Kate and Daddy

One with Momma

And the family

First Birthday Party!!

Kate's First Birthday Party was on Sunday. We had a great time! Kate was great for the entire party except for when it was time for her cake. Even with our practice during the week before her party she really wanted nothing to do with her cake. She didn't mind it if we gave her a few bites but she didn't want to dig into it with her own hands. Kate got a lot of great gifts! She has LOVED having new things to play with this week! Thanks again to all of our family and friends who were at the party in person and those who were there in spirit! Kate knows that she is loved by each and every one of you and loves you too!

The birthday girl!

The family

Playing with Candace and Adi Levy

Kate loved the decorations for the party. I thought she would like the balloons the best but I think she liked the banner a little more. She was reaching for it all day.

Kate's cakes

Looking like she's ready for her cake...

Still looks like she's interested in the cake...

And now she just wants to get away from it

She kept turning around in her seat and burying her head in her high chair cushion

After we got her out we finally convinced her to try a bite of the cake and she was pleasantly surprised

We coaxed her back into her seat to see if she would try the cake now that she had a taste but she was more interested in feeding it to Daddy

Kate finally got a little messy but it was from playing with and not eating any of the cake

All cleaned up and ready for presents

Helping Momma open gifts

Kate was excited to see everything that we opened and starting playing right away with all of the toys

Adi showing Kate how to use her ride on toy

And here's Connor giving her tips on another ride on toy

All the kids enjoying the new toys

Adi, Kate and Connor testing out the "house"

After all the guests left Kate and Papa kept playing outside with all of her new toys

The pictures above gave a short play by play of the cake experience but I thought that I would also share the video.

Big Weekend!

This past weekend was a big weekend! Nonna had been in town all week and Papa got in town on Thursday night along with all of the Jungs--Aunt April, Uncle Alan, Camden, Owen, Langley and Harper. So Friday Kate and I decided to go to the Baton Rouge Zoo with Nonna and the Jungs (Papa and Pop Pop stayed behind to cook gumbo for Saturday's tailgate while Nick worked). Kate had a great time! The weather was perfect for a trip to the zoo and all the kids had a great time! Kate had fun watching the animals that she could find/see and had equally as much fun watching her cousins enjoy seeing the animals. Kate's favorites were the giraffes, goats in the petting zoo, birds of any kind (ducks, parrots and egrets) and the lemurs (like zoboomafoo). It was a great day and we are excited to know that the Baton Rouge zoo will be another easy, fun trip in the future.

Me, Langley and Kate strolling into the zoo with Nonna behind us.

Everyone checking out the tigers. They were pacing, perhaps in anticipation of the big game the next day.

The Jungs minus their Daddy checking out the bears.

Kate and Langley talking to a crazy looking bird

Kate was eating a snack when we went to see this donkey and he REALLY wanted a bite.

Owen checking out a prairie dog.

Kate trying to do the same. She loved it even though we didn't see any while we were in the bubble.

Friday evening we cooked burgers and hotdogs and hung out at our house. Saturday morning we woke up bright and early to head out to tailgate for the Alabama vs. LSU football game. It was a big game by almost anyone's standards but it's especially big around this house. Nick was surrounded by Bama fans which led to an even sweeter victory for him in the end I'm sure. Despite the game, we had a great day! Last year Kate was less than a week old when AL played LSU and got in on the family rivalry (check out last year's post here). This year she did yet again. Nick left in the first car headed to the tailgate so I was able to dress Kate in the cutest outfit for the tailgate...her AL dress of course. Needless to say Nick was not pleased with it when we got there. I was nice enough to bring her LSU dress too and she had a wardrobe change about half way through the tailgate.

Me and Kate being tigerbaited by Nick

Nick showing us how much he loves us by posing with his Bama girls.

Kate and Papa cheering for Alabama

Despite all the noise and hoopla at the tailgate, Kate was able to settle in for a pretty decent nap so that she could have some more tailgate fun before heading home to watch the game

Owen, Camden and Langley at the tailgate. Owen loved the boudin balls!

Nonna and Kate

Papa and his two youngest girls. And you will notice Kate had her LSU dress on. Funny there weren't more pictures of her in the LSU dress...wonder who was operating the camera...

There's still more to come from this fun weekend. I'm working on the post from Kate's birthday party. It was the perfect end to a perfect weekend!

Speyrer - Johnson Bowl VII

Speyrer - Johnson Bowl VII
LSU 24
Bama 21


Established 2004
Speyrer - 5 Wins
Johnson - 2 Wins

Best Year Ever!!

Well, it's finally here. Our Kate turned one today. It's hard to believe how fast this year has flown by. Nick and I both have been overwhelmed repeatedly with love, joy and awe at this amazing little person that we created. Each day has seemed to get better and better as we have watched Kate turn from a baby to a little girl with quite a personality (and a little bit of attitude), a smile that melts our hearts and plenty of love to share with us and the rest of her extended family. We simply cannot get enough of her. Nick and I fight daily over who gets to be the one who gets her out of bed (you can't have a bad day if you do...she greets you with a big smile, a bounce or a little dance move and a big ole "Heey!") and who gets to put her to bed (to get all the great snuggles). We are looking forward to the many years ahead!

Now for recent stats--Kate is weighing in at 26.6 lbs. She's still not just walking all over the place but she's getting better and better at it every day. We think that she's not so determined to walk because she's such a good, fast crawler...and she's impatient like her Daddy. When she wants to get somewhere she doesn't have the patience to take her time and walk so she drops down and crawls. But she can do it and walks across the room at least once a day. Kate is also jabbering like a motor mouth. I sure do wish I knew what all she had to say! Some of the recent recognizable words are "Uh Oooh!" and she's uses it correctly when she drops something in the floor, "Hot!" which she says for things that are indeed hot but also for things that are cold and for things that we're not quite sure why she's saying hot, kind of a mix between "woof" and "boof" for what a dog says, and "Heeey!" as a greeting to everyone she sees. Kate is blowing kisses like crazy. She has a funny way of kissing the back of her hand with a "Mwah". She can also give a soft high five and wave bye-bye and/or night-night.

I am posting some pictures from her birthday today, which was pretty low key. Kate just hung out with me, Nick and Nonna, who's here spending the week. Kate's birthday party with family and friends is this weekend and there will be more pictures to come from those festivities.

We started off the day with Kate's current favorite breakfast, homemade waffles.

We ended the day similar to how we started except with a yummy cupcake. We thought that the practice with the candle might be a good thing. Kate wasn't too impressed by it.

Kate also wasn't too impressed with the cupcake. She really hasn't had hardly any sweets at all so I think it was just so different she didn't know what to think. This picture was after her first taste of the icing.

So just for a little fun--below are 1 year old pictures of all 3 of these Speyrers. My mom (Nonna) got us into this because she brought down pictures from my first year and subsequent birthdays up to 10 years old. I think it's obvious who is who in the pictures below. It has been been interesting that EVERYONE thinks that Kate looks just like Nick, but after seeing these pictures I think she looks a little more like her Momma than most people think. You be the judge...

And finally for the grand finale of the first First Birthday post, I have attached a video slideshow of Kate's first year. For those that keep up with our blog it is kind of a "best of" slideshow of pictures and videos from blog posts with a few "never before seen" pictures buried in there. I think this will probably be a version #1 because I plan to go back and add in pictures from the birthday party this weekend but I just couldn't wait to share. It has been in process for over a month and we watch it daily around here because Kate LOVES to see herself on the video. It's a little long (about 7 minutes) but of course we think its totally worth it!! Hope you enjoy!

Or click here if you want to see it on You Tube...just in case you need to enjoy Kate's beauty in full screen