Our Elizabeth...so grown up...

I don't think I was quite prepared for the overwhelming love and joy Elizabeth brings to her father and I on a daily basis. S he has recently started with the "why" questions. I got my first one this week. She is also making 5 word sentences like "I want to walk too mommy" if I tell her Sierra and I are going walking. She is so happy... she sings and dances, has a great sense of humor, absolutely loves hugs and kisses, wants to be held or carried all the time (which I secretly love) and insists on sleeping in her "big girl bed" now. She likes it because she can get out of it by herself when she wakes up vs. having to call for us. She has been walking into our room at 3am but accepts the retreat back to her room pretty easily. She is also getting very excited when we tell her we are going places now as she is remembering more things. She loves to squeal and scream when she gets excited. She is such a girl. She knows when she is doing something bad and it is interesting to watch her work through her thoughts and impulses. She has now begun putting herself in time out. If she does not listen and you ask her if she needs a time out - she says yes and runs to her time out chair. Then she sits for 5 seconds (counting out loud), leaps out, yells "all done" and "sorry mommy/daddy/sierra (whoever she offended)" and is off again. Too funny!! Needless to say, we more often put her there but it honestly does not take much to keep her disciplined in the right behaviors. She also loves to take showers and has invaded every privacy I have known as an adult woman. I haven't had a shower alone now in a week. Of course the water cannot be hot and the entire time I am under it all I hear is "my turn mommy". She is only 1. What 1 year old likes to be under shower head water getting their face completely drenched? When completing any other task where I am not able to hold her, she has taken to using my leg as a "sit n' spin". So there are 3am wake-ups, no hot showers and physical pain as she leaps and jumps on me and the best part - every day I love her more and want more children to keep life so exciting and fun. God is amazing!!

We just returned from a long trip in April, we have more Sampson updates and we finally got our camera/camcorder back from the service people. I am hoping to blog more consistently now. Work is heading into a period of reasonable for me which is greatly anticipated after such a busy first four months of the year. Can't complain! It is a true blessing in this industry!

Love to all of you and I will post pictures soon! Karen

The March 9th update a little late....

But, better late than never. Ken had the camera this weekend on Sunday as he & Elizabeth headed to LA with two goals in mind. One, pick up GrandMary at the airport at 0730 on Monday and two, pick up the free 60" television my Uncle Javier (now our favorite uncle!) gave us as a "hand me down". So yes, we have moved into the 21st century and now have the TV to prove it. Now, for cable...Ken thinks that after 5 years of not having it...we may just have to get cable....and a new sound system...and so on and so on...

Here are our favorite pictures from our first week of March 2008... Our little girl growing up...looking quite demure...but really...

I'm naked & acting silly & won't put my water diaper on....

GrandMary is in town. She got me the Weary Wombat book and of course let me play with her cool hat...can you tell she just returned from Australia!!

Part of my daily routine is eating breakfast with daddy. He has taught me how to properly eat a bowl of cereal. First, you eat most of the cereal. Next, observe the bowl to make sure you have eaten just the right amount so that you can properly...

...drink the milk the old fashioned way before there were spoons...

You have to tip your bowl really high to make sure you get all the milk. It really takes a lot of skill not to spill...

Then, you pick out whatever is left in your bowl....Daddy gets a real kick out of teaching me things and making mommy laugh. See what I mean about skill...it takes practice too. On this day, I didn't do so well...
But I still had fun trying!
We hope you had a wonderful week. We will be posting more very soon! Hugs from The Bates Farm

Bubbles...

Elizabeth follows the 3 and 4 year olds around church. She blends right in...

The Orange Balloon...

Ken & I think Elizabeth sees the dogs do this quite a bit with their toys. She seemed to enjoy just as much as the dogs do!

March already??

Mary and Elizabeth hanging out at church. Elizabeth looked absolutely adorable in the blue dress Mary bought her....

Waiting for more bubbles...

Here they come...so much fun to chase...

Saying hi to Dani. So many friends to play with...

Another Sunday morning...these are great family time. Here is Elizabeth helping mommy get the paper. She picked out her own socks and insisted on wearing a hat even though it was already 60 degrees at 8am. Here she is stopping to admire a slug. I was just glad she didn't try to pick him up!

The Sunday paper is pretty big but that just makes her more determined to carry it by herself.

We always throw the bag in the recycle bin. Elizabeth decided to do this before we brought the paper inside. Once the sections of the paper fell all around her, she stopped to comtemplate the situation...

She decides bringing mommy some of the paper is a good start...

And then she decided, why bother carrying it all inside. So she sat down and started looking through the paper in the driveway. The weather was beautiful so I let her "read" her paper outside in the driveway for a while...

Mommy & Elizabeth spent Tuesday afternoon at Balboa park. Tuesday is free museum day. It took us 45 minutes to make a normally 10 minute walk to the Air and Space Museum. Elizabeth decided to stop and play on this bench on the way back to the car. She climbed on and off of it about 5 times. I think she was impressed with her small growth spurt that has allowed access to all kinds of new items, things on the counter tops and an increased ability to climb onto things!

I feel so lucky to be able to spend my afternoons just relaxing and hanging out with Elizabeth. She is already turning into a little girl. On this day, we shared lunch at the Prado where she sat the entire time and ate hummus, flat bread and tortilla soup. We walked, ran, checked out the fish, said "hi" to all the other kids, and really enjoyed the sunshine!

We hope you March got off to a sunny start! Much love, The Bates Farm

Our New Life....Clearing the Clutter....

Elizabeth is 19 months old and it is time to clear the clutter.... No matter how hard you try to keep the house orderly, it is a constant challenge to keep the hallways and living areas clear of toys, cars, baby strollers, and the list goes on and on....Since Ken & I are working from home now, we decided we wanted to declutter and make the house a place where we could really relax and unwind. Now if only we can keep it this way....................

So this week, along with pictures of our toddler, we have included some photos of the "after" the 2 trips to goodwill photos! We also learned that if you put furniture in front of the house with a "free" sign, it will all be gone in less than 24 hours...location, location, location....this would not happen in every neighborhood!! Elizabeth decided along with her pajamas, she needed to wear her hat to bed...you can just see the joy in her eyes...what a gigglebox!

Getting bigger every day. We can let her sit in the bar stools now. A real treat for a toddler...

Showing off her "chocolate chip" face. Since Sampson spends 3 days at the vet every week, Ken & Elizabeth made the vet staff a huge batch of cookies to give them on Friday! Nobody enjoyed them more than Elizabeth....

I am very good about wiping my face. I actually dislike being dirty...after all the fun of getting dirty of course.

The weather was so beautiful yesterday that we decided to give Sampson a break from his cone. So we took off the neck towel and the cone and brushed him really well. He absolutely loved it. Elizabeth spent the next two hours chasing the dogs with the brush. She loves to help!

Since Elizabeth is getting older, we decided to put her name up in her room. Along with decluttering, we moved a lot of the book shelves from other rooms into her room. They were much needed as she has so many books, stuffed animals and trinkets. Her room will, beyond a doubt, remain one of the most cluttered in the house!

Her daddy also put a coat, hat and book bag rack on the end. She loves to grab her jacket, hat and shoes on her way out the door and always knows just where to find them now!! She also likes to take her book bag filled with sunscreen, lip gloss and other items on trips for the zoo and animal park. So independent!

We also got her valance up finally along with her hand prints and foot prints from birth. Shaping up to be a nice toddler room...where does the time go?

Elizabeth in her new dress for church this morning. Too cute for words....

Our friends Brandi & David dedicated their daughter Jewell today. It was a beautiful ceremony. Afterwards, we visited with them to give our love and support.

So perfect.......

Proof of the declutter....Elizabeth now has one spot for toys in the living room. In the right had corner you will see her book shelf with books and toys. She also gets her alphabet letters. We spend each day singing the alphabet song and running in circles to step on the letters as we go. Who knew singing the alphabet could be so much fun!

Okay, the sit-n-spin snuck into the living room....and thus it begins....

There were book shelves above these windows in the family room. Now that they are gone, Ken realizes he really must finish the mantel. But hey, no toys!! Yeah!

On the business front, God is taking care of us....one of our two full-time employees moved to northern CA in November. This allowed us the opportunity to try working from home, something we had not done in 3 years. We also set up Carolyn, our other full-time employee to work from home and she loves it. Our office lease is up in April so we gave working from home a shot and we absolutely love it! Not only is it cost effective on so many levels (lease and commuting expense for starters), it also allows each of us at least 30 hours more of actual work time each month (due to no commute) and the best part... much more family time. So here is our new home office ..........

We close the french doors and the curtains when it is time to get to work. We love our new commute!

Ken's desk is on the right, Karen's is the back left desk. It is great to be working "side-by-side" ...literally!!

We moved an extra desk in as well. Karen just hired one of the teenagers from church to work several hours a week filing and keeping the office paperless.

If you look closely in the picture above, you will see Sierra just under the left side of Ken's chair under his desk...her favorite spot every day!

With the industry having a tough year, it was a great time to do this. Everyone just nods and says...good move!!

Thank you for taking the time to check in with us! With love and hugs....The Bates Farm

Where have I been? 3-Month Update!! Part 1

The Bates' have had an exciting couple of months! We will try to be better about keeping up with the blog. Mommy & Daddy say not to worry though, they have a ton of video and pictures of me!! We love you all! Please enjoy our 3 month update....

Here I am at the world famous San Diego Zoo...Can you believe it is November? Great weather.

I like to wear my hat because mommy always wears a hat....it's our thing....

Uncle Andy sure can make me giggle. Daddy says he has his own little girl now and I have a new cousin, Cassandra Lee Bates....

We spent Thanksgiving in Connecticut with GrandMary and the gang...what fun we had.....

December was the best. We celebrated the birth of baby Jesus at church and with the Aguayo's. Here we are looking silly with our santa hats on. Mommy & Daddy love Christmas.....

Mommy & Daddy were impressed with my ability to get all the gifts open. I even stopped to admire the "prizes" and gave a hearty "thank you" after opening many of them...


Here I am enjoying my cousin's Christmas present. I didn't quite get that they were not all for me. Daddy, Sierra and I stopped for a pose at Christmas Tree cirlce. The lights were so pretty and brought out a big "whoah" from me at every turn!

Me and some of mommy's cousins. So many girls....





My first taste of cookie dough. Daddy let me try a little. I also had my very first cookie. I spent the next two days asking for nothing but cookies to eat. Unfortunately, I got a big "no". I am getting much better at using my utensils but sometimes it is still a lot of fun to wear my "hat" when I am done with my food.

My first hair cut. My bangs were getting in my eyes so I had a trim. I did well and sat still.


Being a kid is so much fun. I like to roll around on the floor and be silly...

Here I am helping daddy measure stuff....I'm lots of help...



Here are Gina and Jasmine. They hang out with me every afternoon. Gina teaches me spanish. I get so excited when they come over to play with me. Life is good....