Pure

A little over two years ago we decided that our baby girl was going to be named Cate. I've always been intrigued by names & their meaning & I loved what Cate meant. Cate = Pure. So sweet.


On July 13, 2008 @ 8pm after one, that's right...just one push, Cate Ann Barkley made her appearance into this world. I remember crying as soon as I saw her...tears of joy of course. I wanted her in my arms immediately. Cooper's first sight of his baby sister was that of any barely two year old. Definitely interested but much more happy she brought him a couple of gifts when she came into our family. :)

Cate is...sweet, determined, charming, funny, coordinated & fearless. She loves...fruit, Cars, animals, shoes, singing (her fave...Jesus Loves Me), chocolate milk (thanks Grandpa for introducing that to her!), & swimming.

Thank you God for choosing us to be the parents to this wonderful girl we call Cate.

Her first of MANY pictures!

Her birthday morning picture...i love her bed head!

She got this tricycle for her birthday but as you can see, Cooper had to show her a few things!

Summertime!

We love being outdoors so when we were invited to my uncles beach house in Galveston, we were packed and ready to go in minutes! Cooper asked every 5 minutes if it was time to go to the beach. We left right after his school graduation and got to the house about midnight. Early the next morning we went to the beach and played in the sand and water. Cate loved the water. She didn't play in the sand as much as I thought she would. She could live in the water if we let her! We took some family pics while we were there, went swimming and made another trip to the beach. The kids had a blast and we did too!

We spotted TWO sting rays swimming right next to us. I think this is Coop chasing after them. (We quickly left the water after this pic was taken!)

Goodbye 3yr old class

Hard to believe another great year at preschool is over! Cooper has learned so much this year. It's incredible to see the scrapbook that the teachers make for the kids and to see how much they've grown both physically and developmentally. Cate and Cooper will both be enrolled next school year. I'm not sure I'm ready for both of them to be gone! I know Cate is ready. She sings all the songs with her bubba, loves carrying her backpack and loves to learn. Here's to a funtastic summer!!

1st day of school!

Graduation 3yr olds...

Graduation 2yr olds...

This year...

Last year...

My Big Girl

A little over a month ago we knew it was time to ditch the crib and give the big twin bed a try for our baby girl. She learned that she could put one leg over and climb (fall) out of it so we weren't left with much of a choice. Plus, Cooper was put into a twin bed when he was 20 months old and did excellent so since Cate was 20 months, we thought it was time. We got her bedding, moved out the crib and went to work setting up her new room. The bedding couldn't fit our little girl better. She is in love with animals but really likes to watch birds. She has done awesome!! I just knew she would get out of bed over and over but she hasn't once. When she wakes up in the morning she either lays there until I come get her or yells for me to come get her. I am so thankful she hasn't figured out she can get climb down and open her door yet! Cate absolutely loves her new room and loves showing people when they come to visit.

May

May was a busy month!

Daniel got off early one day so we decided to take the kids to see How to Train Your Dragon (It was in 3D which explains the huge ugly glasses). It was the first movie Cate has ever seen on the big screen. She did okay but mainly because we let her hold a bag of popcorn. :)



Family Fun Night with our church was also in May and it was our first time to go. We had fun and the kids loved it. The fireworks at the end was the best part. Cate didn't remember fireworks so watching her watch the fireworks was so sweet! She kept saying "Oh wow!"

My mom and I took the kids to the FTW Museum one afternoon. They really enjoyed the water area and the grocery area in the childrens museum. Fun stuff!

We recently found out that Home Depot organizes childrens activities and so we decided to give it a try. It's a laid back activity that parents and kids do together. Our kids love it. They have made a butterfly house and a picket fence chair planter. All of which they gave to grandmothers for Mothers Day. They were very proud of their work!

We also had the last soccer game of the season. It was a good run but we are not sure if we will do it again. He enjoyed it but got bored quite a bit. Cooper definitely needs and wants something that requires a lot of running. We need to look into some track events!

Happy Birthday Cooper-man!

A week ago yesterday, April 19th to be exact, my baby boy turned FOUR! I can hardly get those words out of my mouth. How can it already be that we have had four years with this baby? It seems like just yesterday we were driving home and I was freaking out about every passing car that was going above 45 mph or driving too close to us. I remember thinking when we got home...is this it?! He's sleeping and I'm getting stuff done around the house, Daniel's mowing and everything is perfect...what's the big deal? HA! I know better now! He was a good baby and is still a great kid. He has his moments but he loves to make "good choices" as he calls it.

For weeks before his birthday, he asked if he could have balloons tied to his mailbox for his birthday. So, of course we said yes. He also asked if he could have a trumpet birthday party. Not sure what that would be like, so we asked for some other ideas. He simply wanted to spend time with his friends. He loves games so we thought we would choose four of his favorite games and have tons of fun at our neighborhood park. Every year before this we have had great weather. I guess asking for four years of warm weather and sunny skies was pressing our luck. We had rain, rain and more rain. So, we had everyone over and tried to play some of the games. We obiviously didn't get to do the 3 legged race or the golfing game but we managed to play duck, duck, goose and an egg game. The kids had fun so that's all that really matters, I guess.

We decided to have family over on his actual birthday also so the balloons once again were up on the mailbox. We made dinner, ate some cake & opened presents. We gave him a bike and helmet for his birthday...he has been wanting a bigger bike for a while now. He was pretty excited! Everyday he straps on his helmet and takes his bike for a spin. He had fun with entire family over and could hardly sleep that night he was so excited.

We are truly blessed to have so many family members and friends in our lives!

His birthday request!

Listening to instructions for the next game...

The rain stopped long enough to get this pic!

Tradition has been to get a cake with some sort of vehicle on it. I couldn't let him down!

Test drive #1. He loves his helmet with blinking lights.

Family pic! Poor AJ didn't want to be apart of it but Coop was determined that he needed to be in it.

Soccer!!

Cooper is all boy but he has never really shown that much interest in sports. However, this boy can RUN! We ran a 5k a couple of months back and he didn't stop but maybe once and it wasn't cause he was tired. So, when we heard that soccer was now accepting 3 year olds we decided to give it a shot. The season is only 5 games too so if he didn't like it, he could stick it out for 5 games. Not to worry though, he loves it. I'm proud to say he made the first two goals of the game. One for his team, one for the other! We taught him to be nice and share so I guess that's what he was doing. ;) He has a friend from school on the team and this kid is amazing. He did most of the hard work and let Cooper kick it in. After scoring his first goal, Cooper did some sort of victory dance. It was too cute for words! We are looking forward to the rest of this season. These kids are the cutest!!

Cooper and his buddy waiting to go back on the field. He chose his favorite number 7 for his jersey.