KaileeJo playing at the beach. She was so fun to watch as she explored.

Fun in Galveston

We went to Galveston on Friday and had a great time. KaileeJo loved the beach and the Gulf. We were in awe of the damage that there is from hurricane Ike. We went to East Beach first where there is still a lot of clean up left to do. We actually found a slide that came from who knows where. KaileeJo had a good time playing with that. There were a lot of sea shells and KaileeJo would hold them up to her ear to hear the ocean. It was so cute. We then went to the sea wall where there wasn't as much garbage. Then the fog started to roll in and we figured it was time to go.

Christmas morning

KaileeJo loved Christmas morning this year. She loved opening presents even though she wasn't interested in them at all before Christmas, which was nice. She is loving having grandma, grandpa, aunt lizzy and uncle dan here to visit. They take her for walks, give her baths and read her stories. Aren't relatives great.

KaileeJo had a great time opening presents this year. By the end she was ready to just play with all of her new things. We ended up opening up some of her presents but she didn't seem to mind.

We went and had family Christmas pictures taken. These are a few that were so cute and really show KaileeJo at her best. Happy Holidays!

Adam and KaileeJo decorated the tree this year. There wasn't much to put on since all of our Christmas stuff is still in Wyoming. It didn't make the cut of things to move to Las Vegas when we moved, and therefore didn't make it to Texas. It is all on its way in just a week!! Then our tree will have a little more spunk. KaileeJo has actually been really good about having the tree. Every once in a while she will touch it but hasn't been fascinated enough to do any real damage.

Last night was our ward Christmas party. We were lucky enough to get to have Santa there and KaileeJo wasn't quite sure what to think of him. She was content but not excited to see him. Now I am really glad that we didn't end up taking those really expensive pictures in the mall since she wasn't really into it anyways.
We are all really excited to have Grandma and Grandpa Ostler and Liz and Dan come to visit for Christmas. The holidays are always better when you get to spend them with family even if it isn't all of the family. They will be here for about two weeks. We are most looking forward to the good cooking and free babysitters.

Frozen Precipitation!!

I was listening to the forcast last night and they kept using that term, frozen precipitation. I guess the people down here in Houston have a hard time with the four letter S word. SNOW. So far we have gotten about 1/2 an inch on the ground. We are all so glad to see this white stuff we were thinking we wouldn't get any at all this winter since the last time that they had snow here was about 5 years ago. Now with any luck at all tomorrow Adam will have a "snow" day and get out of school. So for us "Its beging to look a lot like Christmas"!!!

I

Ice Skating!!!

We had so much fun. KaileeJo didn't want to get off the ice. Don't worry there were no major bumps or bruises. Just a good time had by all.

Thanksgiving

One of the perks of having the only grandchild and niece in the family is that we get to tell the family where to go for the holidays. The past several years everyone came to Rexburg, but this year Grandma and Grandpa Finlayson, Wendy, Matt, and Christina all came to Houston for Thanksgiving. Becca and Mikey Johanson were also able to make it with their two boys. It was a little strange not having the Ostler Grandparents there, but at least they get to come for Christmas.
As you can see from the pictures we had a blast and KaileeJo was of course the center of attention. She loved every minute of it.
It was interesting fitting all of those people into our small apartment. We had one table with six chairs on loan and then a set that we just bought as well. We filled every single chair and we were definitely nice and cozy. Although we were a little cramped, it was a wonderful holiday and we absolutely loved having everyone there.

Baths are so fun

Did anyone say TURKEYBOWL?!?!?!

This year was a new experience for us. For the past three years we have been in Rexburg Idaho where on Thanksgiving morning you may be playing the Turkeybowl in snow, ice, frost or a mixture of all three. This year there was no white in sight. It was about 60 degrees and extreemly humid. Everyone had a good time and amazingly no major injuries occured. Nothing gets you in the mood for eating turkey like playing football.

As promised here are the ultrasound pictures of Taydom. I think that they turned out great. She is starting to become more and more active especially at night. I am starting to get the aches and pains (I don't remember them this early with the last one) We hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.

College Football Fun

Weekend of Fun

We went to Bryan for the weekend to visit Adam's cousin, Becca Johanson. KaileeJo had a blast playing with their boys and we had a nice visit eventhough we didn't take any pictures of that. They had a nice big back yard to play in with a basketball hoop just KaileeJo size. Adam got to play in their elders quorm football game. They just happened to play on one of the coldest days that we have had since we have been here. We are now ready for the Turkey Bowl in a week!!

Daddy Daughter Date

Stephanie had a night out with the girls, so KaileeJo and I decided they were going to go hit the town. We decided to make it a Daddy Daughter Date with another daddy with his two girls. First we went on the carousel, KaileeJo loved it, but it started to make me feel a little woozy. In the picture above is a picture of KaileeJo's best friend Liza. She can actually, almost, say her name. They are so cute together. They get so excited when they see each other and play so well together. Which is a very good thing because they are together almost every week day. KaileeJo at the end of the night started to get a little tired, but as soon as we pulled into the Sonic Restaurant to get some ice cream she seemed to perk up a little. She is definitely my daughter, she loves her ice cream. The picture below I am not sure if she is pushing me away, or if she is patting my face.

Another fun activity that we did is crawl around on the play equipment in the mall. There is a big play area that has really thick foam material for kids to run around on and climb on. I just barely fit under the bridge. We played there for most of the night and had a ball. My favorite part is when KaileeJo would climb to the top of something and then not know how to get down. Another reason I can tell that she is definitely my daughter, she is terrified of heights.

After crawling under the bridge she spotted the beaver, as you can see in the picture above. She was trying real hard to communicate with him, but he just wouldn't talk back. Our last visit was to the Disney store. She thought the giant Pooh bear and Tigger too, were great. We had so much fun on our Daddy Daughter Date that we are going to do it once a month.

Daddy made the mistake of teaching KaileeJo how to splash in the bath tub and then gave her a cup. She figured out how to dip the cup in the tub and then throw it all over the bathroom floor.

KaileeJo loves bath time. Right now it is cute but it might not be for much longer.

Sweet things

IT'S A GIRL! We had an ultrasound on Tuesday and we got to see our baby girl. We are positive that she is a she. Hopefully we can get the pictures from the ultrasound scanned soon so you will be able to see for yourself. Her name will be Taydom. We still havn't decided on any middle names so if you have any sugestions feel free to pass them on.

Halloween

(just click for a bigger picture)
I thought that we would do a collage of our Halloween pictures since we did many different Halloween activities.
*Old Mac Donalds Farm
*Carving Pumpkins
*Ward Halloween Party with Trunk-r-Treat
*Halloween Carnival
We had lots of fun. KaileeJo was a very cute Red M&M. We tried to be Minnie Mouse but with KaileeJo the ears and the black nose weren't the best fit. Good thing for a back-up plan.

Playing with cars

By watching KaileeJo play at friends houses we noticed that she like to carry around little toy cars. So for her birthday we gave her some. We love her interpretation of the noise a car makes.

Our Adventures in Houston

We moved to Houston, well north of Houston, in August. We were welcomed in with excessive heat and humidity and soon followed by our good friend, we will call him Ike. Since we knew Ike was on the way, we dicided to play it comfortable and head north to Dallas where Adam's good friend Zach lives. We ended up staying for almost two full weeks there until our power finally returned and we were very grateful that we were able to be comfortable and stay with friends. Other than the weather we really like it down here in Texas. It is deffinently diffrent from the west but it has its own kind of beauty, like the lizards and frogs that like to live around our house.
Since we have been here we have been doing lots of fun things. We have been to two professional baseball games, one in Dallas while we were waiting out Ike and one in Houston as a fun date night. We have also been to the Houston Zoo which was fun even if Adam had to miss all of the fun. And since Halloween is right around the corner we went to a pumpkin patch with the playgroup from our ward.
We have really enjoyed getting to know the people in our ward and have made some good friends. There are a lot of teachers in our ward and some of them teach in the same district as Adam. He is now teaching fourth grade science and social studies. He loves his job but wishes that a lot of those kids had a better home life because they need it and it would also make his job a lot easier.
A few other exciting things that have been going on are that Stephanie is starting to look more and more pregnant everyday and should be going to the doctor soon. KaileeJo has also hit some major milestones.

She is now very good at walking and is starting to learn a few words and has turned the ripe old age of 1. She is still as happy as ever and loves to play with friends and go out and about.