Katie-Bug

For Katie's first Halloween she was a lady bug! My grandma bought her this super cute costume and we even had a party to go to so she had a reason to wear it. Thanks Nani!

This one finger pointing thing is Katie's new favorite thing. I think it means she's excited!

With the cute little hood on.

Yep, pretty cute.

Friday Favorites...

1. Rice Cakes. I had no idea how interesting a rice cake could be! The first time I gave Katie one it kept her content for 20 minutes! Wow! Yeah for the simple goodness of rice cakes! They do fall apart quite easily and leave a trail every where we go though...
2. Rice Krispee Treats. I haven't made these in years. I happened to have all of the ingredients today and made them for the Halloween party we went to. Yummee! I even dies them orange with red and yellow food coloring.

3. Pumpkin. I love pumpkin flavored things. This week I made this super yummy pumpkin desert that I haven't made in a couple of years. My principal from when I was a teacher used to make for the staff and we LOVED it.

...funny that these favorites are all foods...

I've been sick

and we have visitors so I either haven't felt like posting or I haven't had time. Sorry grandperents who want to see your cute granddaughter. I'm working on it. :-)

These are some pictures our friends took the other day. They're expecting their first baby in January so they bought a nice new camera. We were over at their house for dinner the other night so they tried their new camera out on our lovely little model.

Daddy's 10K run

Friday Favorites...

(Yes, I know it's Saturday not Friday but we were traveling ALL day yesterday! We got home at about 1am... Sleepy, sleepy...)

1. Spending time with all of the great people who were at the conference with us this past week. Especially our Portuguese co-workers who were able to come too!

2. Swimming in the pool! The hotel had a great little kiddie pool that Katie and I enjoyed several times. It was nice and warm and shallow. Great for splashing and playing!

3. Blogs! I have a couple of friends whose kids are going through some tough times right now or they themselves are going through difficulties. I love that I know what is going on in their lives and I know how to better pray for them through their blogs. Thanks for keeping them up dated, ladies!

Our Little World Traveler

Friday Favorites...

1. Visiting Melissa! We're at a conference in Hungary and had to fly through Vienna to get here so we came a little early and spent two nights with Melissa. We were roommates way back in our freshman year at Biola. Wow, where has the time gone??? She SO kindly gave up her room for us. Thanks, Melissa! It was great to see her and to see Vienna - we'd never been there before.
--By the way, Melissa runs an outstanding Bed and Breakfast and even throws in dinner if you're really nice! Stop by and check it out!
2. Seeing FALL! Much like So. Cal. we don't get to experience much of the change of seasons over here so it was lovely to see the Fall colors and enjoy the cool weather.
3. Exploring Vienna. What a beautiful city! I love it! Beautiful buildings, great history, and delicious apple strudel. What more can you ask for?

First Blood

Jonathan wrote this the other day, accounting to our families a notable incident that occurred at our house last week.

--------------------

I’m writing to report a new first for us parents and Katie. I like to call it……

Katie Noelle: First Blood!

I like calling it that because it sounds like a cool action/warrior movie. And even though Katie’s a cute little girl, I think, inside, she’s also a little warrior. J

Here’s the Plot:

Scene 1 – Gaining confidence

This scene opens with a cute little girl, who is gaining confidence every day. Standing for short bursts, transitioning from right to left, new abilities are being mastered at an amazing rate. She’s confident, bold, fearless, and super cute.

Scene 2 – The Fall (aka. -hard wood floors are…….hard)

Katie is about to confidently attempt one of her difficult new skills, known as the “Transition”. She is standing on her feet. She lets go of the foot rest with her left hand, twists, and reaches for the sofa with her right, all while holding a toy at the same time (this final bit probably increased the difficulty level five-fold). Just before she completes her move, she looks up at Mom who is sitting nearby, perhaps in a premature attempt for validation and applause. Momentarily distracted, she loses her balance and falls to the ground. Hand busy holding her toy, she is unable to break her fall. Her face hit squarely on the wood floor! Violent crying commences almost immediately.

Scene 3 – Red Blood

As Mom holds little daughter, attempting to comfort her, Dad rushes in from the office desk, where he was deep in Bible study and prayer. Dad looks down and sees, starting to line the mouth of his little daughter, a dark red substance. Katie’s mouth is delicately opened for further inspection, and yes, all six white little teeth are framed in red blood. “She’s bleeding!” Mom and Dad gasp in horror. More violent crying ensues.

Scene 4 – Ice cubes and Quick Recovery

Mom rushes to the refrigerator, quickly pulling out some ice cubes. Dad looks on in awe. Katie starts sucking on some of the ice cubes, the cool water soothing her broken lip. It’s hard to tell exactly where the injury is. Is it her teeth, mouth, tongue? No matter, Katie is quickly calming down. Tears still well up in her big blue eyes, but the crying has stopped now. She’s a brave little girl, this is the first of many injures, she knows. She gives a tough, knowing look to Dad. That’s right Katie, you’ll be alright. This is just your first of many.

The End

As you can see, it was quite exciting. The critics are saying that First Blood was such a hit, there are sure to be sequels. Of course we will let you know when they are released!

Brought to you by your producers,

Mommy and Daddy Shoemaker

Starring- Katie Noelle

Glad I caught this one on camera

A Big Step

Katie experienced her first Cheerios the other day. Yum!
sorry, the video is a little long...



She'd had magic Stars before but this was the first for the all important in a child's growth and development - Cheerios!
FYI, they're Multi-Grain Cheerios. We can't get regular ones here. I wonder why...

Friday Favorites...

#1 - Trip to Starbucks! See the previous post!

#2 - Finishing my language class! As much as I liked it, it's always nice to finish something, especially when it involves homework! Class finished on Tuesday and the rest of the week felt like a long weekend since I didn't have any homework to do.

#3 - It felt like Fall today for the first time! I think I should pull out my fall decorations tomorrow...

Just a cute picture of Katie while we were waiting for the Metro.

A Thing of Beauty

That's what I thought of today as I was walking through the mall and I saw a girl walk out of a coffee shop carrying her coffee in a paper coffee cup as she continued on her way to wherever she was going. You see, this isn't something I see very often. Actually I NEVER see this. I have ONCE before this in the 2 years we've lived here seen someone walking and carrying a paper coffee cup (or any other kind of food or beverage for that matter). Well, this was no ordinary day in no ordinary week. You see, this week the very first Starbucks cafe opened in Portugal. And so this girl walking through the mall taking her coffee with her (possibly a flavored coffee - gasp!) was doing something that up till now very few Portuguese people have done. Eat and run. Wow. Culture is being turned upside down. So today was no ordinary day because I took my first trip to Starbucks, Portugal.

Let me tell you, it was lovely. I had a tall, decaf, iced caramel macchiato and a raspberry yogurt muffin. Did you read that??? A MUFFIN! That I didn't bake myself! The things you miss when you can't get them...


It's kind of funny that I'm so excited about this. I have never been a major Starbucks person and I didn't even like coffee before moving here. But it's amazing how nice it feels to have some things that are familiar when so many things are not. Of course, they're much more familiar now than they were 2 years ago but still, I've lived in California a lot longer than I've lived in Portugal! So, today I am very thankful for coffee, specifically the iced flavored kind. Yippee!

By the way, this picture was taken by a nice American girl teaching at a school outside of Lisbon. I met her and her two fellow teachers as we were leaving. It was nice to share the, "wow, isn't this great?!" with someone who really understood.