CATE TURNS 1

It is hard to believe Cate turned one year old in February.  She had a great party at Asheville Pizza Company with plenty of friends and family.  Time keeps passing by and Cate continues to grow and mature.  Since she has been walking for five months now, her new favorite thing to do is climb.  Somehow, she has figured out to climb on top of almost every surface in the house.

Below are some recent pictures and a video from her birthday party.  She refused to touch her cupcake with her hands; instead she just sunk her face right into the icing.  Her cupcake was followed by a great rush of sugar which resulted in lots of uncontrollable  running, twirling and yelling.  After about five minutes in the car, Cate crashed on the way home and had a restful and long nap, much to the pleasure of her parents!

Enjoy the pictures.  Happy Spring!

A Month of Firsts.

Well, October was quite a month of 'firsts' for Baby Cate.  She attended her first Appalachian State University football game, had her first visit to Chapel Hill with a stop off at Peppers Pizza, and did her first round of trick or treating.  On a sadder note, Cate attended her first funeral for her Great-Grandfather Howard Butler, who was a retired, two-war Marine Corp veteran.  He was buried with full honors at Camp Johnson/Lejeune near Jacksonville, NC.   

The biggest (positive) news of the month, however, is walking and clapping.  Cate started walking several days before her 8 month "birthday."  Since that time, she has increased her walking skills and is now walking more than crawling. In fact, we can't stop the little monster.  Needless to say, Baby Cate has been busy and her parents are exhausted. She keeps us on our toes and we enjoy every minute of it!

November 8 marks 9 months for Cate.

Here are some recent pictures and I included a video of her learning to walk and a video of her at the mall walking with her mommy  in her Halloween costume.   (Blogger reduces the quality, so they may be a bit blurry.  One of the videos you have to turn your head sideways . . sorry.  Maybe one day I will figure out how to work the camera!)

Cate learns the "Motor Boat."

While dining out one night with friends, Cate finally mastered the motor boat sound.  Enjoy.

Going up the steps.

Its a little dark and fuzzy and you have to turn your head sideways, but nonetheless, she crawled up the steps by herself.


Some other recent cell phone photos of Baby Cate.

The First Vacation

Earlier in August we took Cate on her first vacation to the beach.  We visited Tybee Island, GA right outside of Savannah.  Cate thoroughly enjoyed her week off from the fast-paced life of being a 6-month old.  While Cate loved the pool and beach, many of our pictures  were taken in the condo. 


We also had several friends join us on the trip.  While our friends Ian and Nicole visited, Ian took some great shots of Cate on the beach and I hope to post a few of those in the future.

But for now, enjoy Baby Cate relaxing all her worries away . . . (except in the last picture, in which she was demanding more food!)

5.5 and counting

Five and a half months and counting.

Crawling . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . check

Pulling up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . check

Standing while holding onto my hair . . . . . . . . . . . . .check

Bouncing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . check

Into everything she can get her hands on . . .  . . . . .  check

Making messes in which she is physically unable to clean up . . .  double check

Cate is getting around very well these days and really starting to enjoy entertaining herself with toys and things that I would rather her not touch. (Mainly the latter, of course.)  We obtained a bouncer a few weeks ago and she has really taken to it.  Hopefully I will be able to post a video of her bouncing as it is rather hysterical.  But here are some pictures of her playing in the bouncer as well as some pictures of recent water events with Cate's good friends, Chloe and Stella Higdon.

Last two photos taken by Bryon Graeber who kindly allows us to borrow his pool on occasion.

Cell phone photos

Usually, my Nikon is not around at the times when I need it most; thus I must turn to my cell phone camera. Here are a few pics featuring Cate caught on mine or Jenn's cell phone.