KevRach News: 2010

Hello Friends and Family! It has been a very busy October and November for us! Casey's 1st birthday has come and gone, believe it or not. Crazy. Let me catch you up on what we did the past few months.
     First off, we took Casey to a pumpkin patch in Half Moon Bay for the first time. It was actually a very hot day when we went...which is pretty weird for the Bay Area in late October. Casey liked the pumpkins a lot, but his favorite thing was to just sit in the dirt and pick up all the pieces of bark on the ground, around the pumpkins. I had never really let him play in the dirt yet, so this was his first experience. Most of the pictures we have from the pumpkin patch are him looking at the ground and handing us pieces of bark. Haha...and him pointing at everything that he sees. It was a lot of fun though.
     He also had a great time on Halloween night. He helped me take the pumpkin seeds out of his pumpkin and he loved the squishiness...and yes, he did try to eat the pumpkin guts and seeds (he only got a small taste though and spit out the seed) :). Then Kevin and I took him Trick or Treating for the first time. At first he had NO idea what we were doing...he thought it was so strange we were knocking on strange doors and seeing different people. Eventually, though, he got the hang of it and I could see anticipation on his face when we would walk up to another door. He even started to reach out to take a piece of candy from the buckets. He definitely liked it...and then he had a great time looking at all his candy afterwards and trying to eat it, wrapper and all. He had one real taste of candy (an Airhead) and loved it. But I'm afraid the rest of the candy went to Mommy and Daddy (haha...the best part of Halloween!). So, what was Casey for Halloween? He was a little red Lobster!!! In a POT! Yes, we really put him in a pot.
     This year we went to the Lucasfilm Halloween party and we all dressed up. Casey was a lobster in a pot and Kevin and I were Chefs. We got real Chef costumes online. It was really cute. I hope you like the pictures below. The Halloween party was really cool...lots of loud music and food and tons of people...probably around 500 or so. We entered the costume contest and we were picked to be in the top 30 for costumes! We were happy and surprised, especially since most of the people there work in movies! It was pretty embarrassing though because we had to walk across the stage to music and tons of people were staring at us and taking our picture and clapping. Even when we were just walking around the party, people would stop us and ask us if they could take our picture...and say, "Oh my goodness...what a CUTE idea" and "Oh, you guys should win" and so forth. It was fun but very tiring. Kevin is already trying to think of costumes for next year because the prizes for the final 5 costumes are HUGE...like tvs and trips and crazy stuff. Anyway, it was a lot of fun and Casey had a lot of fun looking at everyone's costumes. He even stayed in the pot most of the night, which we were shocked at! :)
   So after Halloween we started to think more about Casey's birthday party! It was a lot of planning and work, but it turned out really fun and adorable. It was a dog-themed party or a "puppy party". Kevin and I made the cake and it actually turned out really well...it was a dachshund cake, sort of like the slinky dog from Toy Story. We used fondant to decorate the outside of the cake, so it was quite an experience getting the fondant to be the color we wanted and to making it smooth on the cake. We used twinkies for the feet and shaped the head with rice crispy treats. An ice cream cone hat and a fruit by the foot collar. I hope you like the pictures. Kevin and I were baking pretty much the whole day before the party and we were exhausted...we made the dachshund cake, tons of cupcakes with fondant cut-outs of bones and fire hydrants, puppy chow (chocolate covered Chex cereal) and rice crispy treats cut in the shapes of dogs, dog houses, and bones for the treat bags (the "doggie bags"). It was A LOT of work, but well worth it. We also made a dog house out of cardboard for the kids to play in and it turned out really cute. I also worked on two different collages of Casey and a timeline of things that happened in his first year. The decorations were really cute too...dog books in the center of the tables, frisbees all around and paw print balloons. We got delicious food from Whole Foods (Hawaiian chicken drumettes, mac and cheese, and mini baguette sandwiches) and then had fruit, chips, and veggies too. My mom made hot cocoa with marshmallows from scratch and we also made Italian sodas for everyone. It was so fun! Casey had his own little mini smash cake which he picked at and finally got into eating. He also had a great time opening his presents. Everyone was so generous and we are so thankful for everyone that came! They definitely made it a great first birthday for Casey. We've decided that next year we are going to tone it down a little bit though....which will be much more relaxing for me! :)
Another great development that has happened in the past two months is that Casey is walking all over the place. He took his first step at the end of September when he was about 10 months old, and when he was somewhat over 11 months he started to be able to take 8-10 steps in a row! Now he is just walking all over, even though he still crawls a lot too. He mostly walks when he is inside...he is just too interested in the leaves and dirt when he is outside! But he is getting better every day. He thinks it is so fun to walk around...he puts his arms up in the air and starts to yell and lunges toward us with a happy yell. It's cute. He also had his first taste of cow's milk and he loved it. He is still nursing, but I will slowly be starting to wean him over the next few months. I am so thankful that I was able to nurse him for a year...that was my goal! I am also SO thankful that he has NEVER really been sick...in a whole year! God has been protecting him! Also, at church, Casey has been going in the nursery on Sundays and on his 11 month b-day, he stayed in the nursery the ENTIRE service without us having to go get him because of crying. That is a BIG development...it has only happened once, but at least we know there is hope that it can happen again! :) He is still not a great sleeper and we would appreciate your prayers as we try to get him to sleep on his own in his own bed...he usually ends up sleeping with us during the night, because we are so tired and don't have the energy to rock him back to sleep or to let him cry it out. Overall, though, he is doing great...he is very happy and energetic and loves to try to say new words and he LOVES to dance...it is hilarious when he dances. He tries to sing too. We are so blessed by him and we can't believe a whole year has gone by!
    Kevin's job is going great and he is getting more and more responsibilities at work...his boss seems to love him and often puts him in charge of different projects. We are still meeting in our small group every week as well, and I am starting to help organize a "Young Married's with Kids" event at our church, planning a fun event once a month with the families in our group. So hopefully that will take off soon! We had a great Thanksgiving, yesterday, with my parents and have tons of leftover turkey, which has been great. We are planning on going to Tahoe with Kevin's family for Christmas (where Casey can play in the snow for the first time) and then spending the rest of the Christmas holidays with my family in the Bay Area. We would love to see any of you that are in the area. We hope you are doing well and we are so grateful for your prayers and thoughts! Also, at the bottom of all the pictures are some of Casey's 1 year professional pictures. Hope you like them!