Kara is 19 months.

I don't know if it's not having ear infections for an entire month (for the first time since July), but she is such a happy little kid!

One of my all time favorite pictures of her.

This month has been one of great growth. She's shot up in height, out grew all her shoes, and has quite a vocabulary now.

She's such a mimic - she'll copy anything you say... good or bad. Her favorite word is "Daddy." When ever Mama doesn't fall for the drama queen act, she begins a chorus of "Daddy!" She also has another favorite word, in the right company, of course. "Gapa, Gapa, Gapa." She'll say "Papa" (Jana's name for Grandpa S), but Kara has decided that he is "Gapa," and boy does she have him wrapped around her little finger!

She's getting 'the look' down. She is such a charmer. She has the look down that prompts most strangers to come over and say, "She's so cute!" But, Kara always starts it, with the coy smile and puppy-dog eyes.

Kara Mae still likes to take everything in, then proceed with the goings on around her. She spends lots of time watching her sister and cousins before joining in. After two trips to Grammy and Papa's house (Thanksgiving and pre-Christmas) with the cousins, she's starting to learn now NOT to be underfoot all the time. She lets the other three play chase with the big Tonka trucks and bus, but then takes her turn of running crazy and crashing into everything when they're busy doing other things. I'm not sure this one is going to have Mama's competitive streak.

Kara's other new love (thanks to Jana's Mickey Mouse Clubhouse obsession) is "Meenee" or Minnie to the rest of us. Any time she sees a Mickey or Minnie, she yells "Meenee" with such excitement.

Jana and Kara are starting to play together more; however, Jana has the old adage as her new philosophy on toys, "What's mine is mine and what's yours is mine, too." This makes sharing difficult and when Kara gets old enough to decide she doesn't want to give Jana the toy she has, we're going to be in trouble. They still insist on being together and now that they share a room, they hardly want to be apart. They copy each other and now Jana's starting to get into "matching sissy!"

Kara's hair is finally starting to grow; however, I think she's going to be slower to get it than Jana was. We can get a clip in and a couple of rather pathetic "piggies". She wasn't a fan of them, but loved them once they were in.

Another new obsession for Kara this month are "ats" (hats). Daddy bought her a Seahawk hat and she now LOVES all hats. Especially Daddy's.

Daddy and Kara in some Seahawk Santa hats.

Kara is still very much a climber. She finds everything and anything to climb in or on... including the ornament boxes when we were decorating the tree. She was happy sitting her for about 20 minutes.

She's still our drama queen! One minute she's fine. Next, we have the wind up.

Then the full-blown histeria!

And then it's over and we're back to smiles. What was this over? Not a clue!

I know this has been documented in many pictures, but this is Kara's 2nd most favorite thing in the world, next two her precious blankie - the fuzzy bear jacket! She can be pink cheeked and sweating, but will refuse to take this off. She has been known to scream so much when taking it off, that she's been allowed to sleep with it. I have no idea what we'll do when she out grows this. Yikes! This has also resulted in Papa's favorite nickname for her - Kara bear.

Daddy and Kara swinging.

And here's our poor little girl all bundled up for the first round of snow. She's so in between sizes right now. I think these snow pants are 2T. Poor kid could hardly walk.

Kara's new words this month:
"Ah Juice" (juice)
"o-ger" (yogurt)
"mo-mo-mo" (more)
"moke" (milk)
"chsssss" (yes, note the complete lack of vowels here - cheese)
"eeeshees" (fishies - gold fish crackers)
"I duck" (I stuck)
"cack cack" (quack, quack)
"Meeeneee" (Minnie Mouse)

and our favorite!!!

"Why -ya" (our dog Maiya) She's got the M sound down, but no, she insists on calling the dog Why - ya. And it's always a yell, calling to her, no matter how close the dog is.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!!

We headed up to Grammy and Papa's to go to the Santa Breakfast, hang out with the girls' aunts and uncles, and play with the cousins.

After arriving on Friday evening and a little sleep, we headed to the breakfast bright and early.

Jana and Tyler had no problems visiting Santa,
but we had a much harder time getting Justin and Kara to stay still. Laura manged to hide out of sight of the camera, but not I.
Then we enjoyed our breakfast.



There was a rather long break between breakfast and the entertainment, so the kids started running around the floor. Leave it to our kids to start the craziness. :-)


Someone brought out some books and Jana discovered they had a copy of one of our faves - "Where, oh, where is Santa Claus?"

Then the music started and Kara started dancing.

And then Kara was done and just wanted "Gama, gama" and "Gapa, gapa, gapa."

Then the rest of the weekend was all about enjoying the snow!

Grammy and Jana trying to catch snowflakes on their tongues!

Grammy, Papa, (Auntie) "Princess Kaley", Mama, Jana, and Maiya (the dog) went for a walk while Dada and Kara stayed nice and warm in the house.
Jana did a good job walking, but then pooped out, so she was content taking a ride instead of walking.
How about NOT covering Mama's eyes, please?!?!?!


Grammy and Papa with Kara in the snow.
Grandpa and Kara eating some snowflakes.
Grammy and Kara
It took Kara a while to warm up to the snow.
But she did enjoy it.

Jana loves everything about the snow and ice, including how it tastes.
Yummy!

Snow

If you know anything about the Northwest, you know we RARELY get snow and when we do, it lasts but a few hours, if it does stick at all.

We got some snow Sunday mid-morning, but it never stuck to the roads and didn't last long. Then we got the next round of snow around 5:00 that evening. Jana could hardly eat her dinner, she was so excited. She wasn't so sure about it when we got out there.

The dog joined in and had a blast too.

Jana insisted on "stomping" on all the fresh snow. By the end, there was hardly any untouched snow left.

We were out for at least an hour and despite the bitter cold, we greatly enjoyed the gorgeous evening.
And the night was topped off with Jana's first snow angel.

We managed to drag her back into the house with only a bit of screaming, but getting her out of her snow pants was a whole other battle. This kid LOVES those pants.


Dada had a snow day today, so we all got to enjoy the snow... okay, we got to enjoy the snow and Dada shoveled the sidewalk. :-) It was a beautifully clear day, but I'm not sure it got over 26 degrees today, so our trip out was short.

Kara wasn't so sure about the snow and didn't really have great footing in boots that are big enough to fit Jana.
She did have fun, but was certainly tired out from trying to walk in the snow.

As we walked up the hill, we came across some fresh, untouched snow... until Jana got there.

While Jana was "stomping" on the new snow, Kara thought it was a good idea to follow Jana. But unfortunately Kara tipped over and got stuck - unable to stand back up. Then Jana wanted to see what Sissy was looking at. So, here are our two little snow butts.

Ah. Another snow angel? How about not in the middle of the street, please!?!?!

Mama and Kara headed inside after becoming human popcicles, but Dada and Jana had their own adventures. After another walk to the top of the hill, Dada and Jana decided to make a snowman... a very little snowman. The snow is so dry and the temperature is so cold that snow balls and snowmen are hard to make; however, this is what Jana and Dada came up with.




Nothing like black beans for eyes and a macaroni mouth!
He now sits on the railing on the front porch - for safe keeping!