Karsten goes to work!

Karsten came to visit Mommy at work today. My boss has 3 girls of her own and misses the baby phase so she asked for a "Baby Fix". We snapped this picture on her blackberry and then an email was sent out with the caption "Future lawyer, I can tell- she liked hearing me read the memos!"

Coeur d'Alene Komen Race for the Cure

Today was the 10th Anniversary of Coeur d'Alene's affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Each year in honor of breast cancer awareness there is a 5K race thru downtown Coeur d'Alene. We participated this year in honor of Mary Lou Piazza, who is the mother of our best friend, Nicci. We lost Mary Lou in January after battling cancer for a third time. Mary Lou was named as the Honorary Chairperson of the 10th Anniversary race and Nicci gave the opening address to all participants before the race started. She was AWESOME-her mom would be proud! We had special t-shirts made in honor of Mary Lou.

Nicci and Levi before the race.

Karsten wore a special onesie that said "In Loving Memory of Nana Lou".

That is what all of the grand kids called her.
She was decked out in every shade of pink!

Britt's dad and Chris's mom walked with us.

Chris ran and Britt walked 1/2 and then ran the last 1/2.

Surprise Weekend

Britt's dad surprised us and flew into town for the weekend. We had a wonderful time hanging out and celebrating Britt's birthday early. What a special time for Karsten to spend with her Gramps!

Reading her 1-10 counting animals book. It makes all of the animal sounds...she LOVES it!
She is such a good eater.

Weekend Getaway

This weekend we had a little getaway to Boise for a college friend's wedding. It was great for Britt to see some old college friends and Chris was a faithful travel companion. Hey, he got free food and beer out of the deal...can't be ALL bad! And the husbands have been great at making friends too!

Cindy, Bodie (15 mos) Britt and Karsten

Jessica, Jen, Suzy, Andi, Cynthia, Katie,
Mackenzie, Britt, Jill, Cindy, Hayley and Molly

Brynn and Karsten. They are birthday buddies.

We got the text when I was in the throws of labor that Jen had just delivered Brynn!

She loved playing the drum!

It sounded out her letters, number, music, you name it!

Bodie and Karsten playing at Nana and Granddad Thomas' house.

Karsten's pictures

We had Karsten's 6 month pictures taken today. She was so funny and performed just great! This picture is just one of the many cuties that were taken.

My Friend Dawson

Last night we had our friends Nicci and Levi over for dinner. Their son, Dawson, is 5 months older than Karsten and is a BIG BOY! These two had a blast together and once Karsten gets crawling they will be heck on wheels!

Aunt Nickers and Karsten

Dawson and Karsten in their matching high chairs!

Camping!

This weekend was Karsten's first camping trip! We went to Springy Point on Pend Oreille Lake in Sandpoint, ID. We had a great time and she was trooper, enjoying herself the whole time. Believe it or not, we actually realized that it was the first time that Chris and Britt had camped together since college! How crazy is that?!

Chris and Bill working on breakfast on the grill
Her walk took it out of her!

Karsten's cousin Richie made sure that she had SOME camo on while in the woods!

We hiked back to Snow Creek Falls up north of Sandpoint toward Canada.

Visiting the Cloughs

Jessica, Ashby, Kennedy, Britt and Karsten

What tried to be a good family picture...gone bad, well, FUNNY! I had the self-timer on the camera and was running to make it into the picture. I darn near fell in the sand on beach and from the look of her face, Karsten thought her Mommy was pretty crazy!

Magnificent Mt. Ranier

Simply precious

This weekend we made our first road trip with Karsten and went to the Seattle area to take care of some military business, shop at the wonderful outlet malls and visit some college friends. We had a great time and it was a good getaway. Karsten was a trooper and learned what 3 hours in bumper to bumper traffic is like. And mommy got to clean a Karsten blow-out in the car in the middle of all the traffic! Oh the stuff that memories are made of :-)

Fun with bathtime!

Karsten LOVES the bathub! She is perfecting her "splash, splash" technique and is funny when she gets water in her face. She flinches and then goes back for more! She especially likes the big girl bathtub...what FREEDOM!

Headband

We are trying to keep Karsten's bangs out of her face as her hair grows. Her Gaga gave this headband to her. It works great...for now as she doesn't realize that it is in her hair~! Sorry the picture is sort of blurry-the girl is always on the move!