Kasen playing with rocks

Kasen is finding many things a lot more interesting these days.  Who knew small rocks and rain chains coule be so much fun.  Here is a little video showing her in action.

We have been a little sad in posting lately but will try to be better, especially with her 2 year birthday coming up.

Music Lady

Kasen really likes music, listening to it, dancing to it, and playing instruments to it or just making up her own music.  For Christmas she got a little instrument set with a tambourine, symbols, maracas, and a triangle.  She loves to play them around the house and have Mom and Dad play with here.  Usually once we get out the camera to capture the fun she stops and is more interested in posing.  The other night she was on a roll and actually let me grab a video of her.  Here she is singing some Kasen original.

Girl Hair

One of my fears with having a girl was doing the hair.  I don't do my hair.  In fact my stylist has strict instructions... "This has gotta look good even though I just wash it and walk out the door..".  I know I had pigtails as a kid (there are pictures to prove it), but my hair was short from 3rd grade to high school (although one side was long enough for crimping in the 6th grade).  Fast forward to today, Kasen's hair has finally gotten long enough to attempt pigtails and this morning I tried.  Here is what we got (with A LOT of help from Mickey Mouse):

That look says THRILLED right?

 No idea if she likes them.  She tried to pull them out immediately, but after a quick mirror trip, she seemed less bent on destruction.  More interested in pulling on her new "horns".

These are surely the pigtails of an amateur.  Note the large patch of hair that didn't get included (see photo below).  I am still proud of the effort though.  After all a stranger on the street could identify these as pigtails.  I honestly thought I might be stuck saying "They're pigtails" when confronted with strange looks all day.  We'll see how long they last......

We call it Soccer

Kasen has been taking "soccer" classes for a few weeks now.  We go on Sat morning as a nice way to get out of the house in the Seattle winters.  Basically the kids stretch, run around, sometimes kicks balls.  That would be the soccer side, the other side involves playing with cones (they are suppose to build towers and kick them over but that rarely happens), parachute time (which involves getting spun by parents with sitting on it or pointing out colors from underneath), and Kasen's favorite part stamps at the end.  She goes with her friend Jacob and they seem to enjoy it.  Here are some pictures from the cone tower building section (cones lately have become "hats").

Seattle Snow

When it snows in Seattle the city shuts down.  Today Karl came home early from work today and got Kasen out of the house enjoying the snow.  Here are a few shots

All these presents...

Christmas was a lot of fun, while Kasen still doesn't get the Christmas thing for sure she is getting better about presents.  Christmas eve she got some gifts from friends of ours John and Kat, she has a nice new shopping cart and blocks which she loves putting into the shopping cart.  On Christmas there wasn't much opening; we got her a little kitchen and because of size didn't wrap it.  That was basically all she wanted to play with all morning so the rest of the opening of presents was done by us.  Here is a little video of her playing with her new toys.

Later that day we went over to our friends James and Rebecca and their son Lucas's.  We had a great dinner and the kids played with the gifts "they" got each other.  Here are a couple photos

Playing with Lucas's "computer" 

Ready to head out in my new Jacket and hat

Helping and getting help with presents, thanks Rebecca

After dinner we had a little jam session before heading home

 Hope you all enjoy the pictures and videos, I am sure next year she will be much more into the opening of presents (possibly even by her birthday).

Here comes Santa Clause

It has been a while since we last blogged. The little one is keeping us busy, there was family in town for Thanksgiving, and Karl keeps a busy travel schedule for work. Kasen even had a little modeling job for a company called Zulily. We'll do a blog soon and put some pictures up. Hopefully some of you saw here on the site.

We have been getting ready for the holidays. The house is light up Griswold style. The Christmas tree is up and decorated. Kasen's favorite thing ia to point out ornaments as we ask for them.

 The other day Santa visited her Aunt Karen and Uncle Scott's house. It was fun for her cousin Phaedra but Kasen was not all that confortable with a guy dressed in red and a big white beard. Here is her trying to get away while Mom does the best she can to get a quality photo.

Hope everyone has a happy holiday and a good new year.