Holiday Photos

             

                             

rollin rollin rollin

I captured Kate rolling over this morning with my camera and made a stop motion out of it. It's about 2X normal speed.

happy thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family!  We are thankful for all of you.  It's Kate's first Thanksgiving and we can't be more thankful for her being with us.  Unfortunatley, she's also dealing with her first cold.  Listening to a 4 month old try to sleep with a stuffy nose makes you feel so bad for them. She seems to be doing a bit better today, so hopefully the worst is over.

teething sucks

my gums, my gums!  Teething is in full force.  Everything goes to the mouth now, fists, toys, anything and everything is headed there. More after the break...

4 months

UPDATE: 4 month measurements: 16.9lbs, 24in

Kate's four months old today!  She has her next well being appointment on Friday, we are excited to see what her new measurements are.  She's clearly gotten taller because she can jump herself in her jumperoo without the help of mommy, daddy, or a blanket underneath her.  She's also now very intentionally reaching out for objects and taking things right out of our hands.  We also think she's started to teeth, she's drooling like crazy and can't take her fingers (or fist when she's really bad) out of her mouth and gets pretty cranky when she doesn't have something in her mouth.  Oh yeah, she found her thumb and loves sucking on it, still won't take a binky much though.  No rolling over yet, but she loves standing is suprisingly stable.  Most nights, Kate's sleeping through the night, which is relief, but now it's even harder when she does decide to get up at 2 or 3 in the morning.  Some mornings she gets up around 5am and talks for 20-30 minutes and then goes back to sleep.  My favorite thing to do with her when she has her diaper changed, is tickling her neck, she giggles and squeels like mad.

Overall, the family's doing great and Kate's doing very well, and loves going to daycare each morning.  As always, new pitures are fairly regularly hitting the picasa web album.

Go Huskers!

Kara and I are going to the NU vs OU game tonight.  In the meantime, we took a family husker photo.  Grandma and Grandpa Altman are watching Kate tonight.  So we made sure to dress her up in her cheerleader outfit and take some pics of her in some Husker gear.  She may be related to Sooners, who us Nebraska fans respsect as an opponent more than any others, but she's still a Husker to the bone, daddy's little girl!  More after the break...

Kate's First Halloween

fixed!

look!  to the right...there's a sidebar.  I spent an hour tonight jacking with the stupid css file to get the sidebar back to where it belongs and get the main content back down below the header. UGH...time for bed.

happy halloween

Happy Halloween Everyone!  Kate's all ready to celebrate as...a dragon.  Yes, we toiled and toiled over what she should be.  Kara found this great costume at Nobbies after searching online for weeks.  At one point, she was going to be a slice of pizza with her parents being pizza delivery dudes.  I was all for a gaming costume, like a koopa troopa, goomba, princess peach, or even a space invader, but to no avail. :(  Oh well, she looks absolutely adorable as a dragon as well...she even screams like a dragon, and she learned how to breathe fire too...COOL!  There's a couple more pics after the break.

Sunday Morning with Daddy

Kate and Tom enjoying some quality

time this morning after breakfast.

beautiful view

My wonderful view out my new cube has a nice big pile driving crane out it. It's only about 50ft from our building, pray it doesn't fall my way. :)

Tom - via mobile

3 months

Believe it or not, Kate is three months today. After I recovered from game night and Kara recovered from watching a scary movie and not being able to sleep, Kate celebrated by playing in her new exersaucer that Kara and Kelly bought at Babies R' Us last night. As you can see, she really seems to enjoy it!

rotting the brain

Either that, or it's a sign of early intelligence in a 12 week old.  I came home tonight to find Kate enjoying Disney channel cartoons while mommy was making dinner.

Raking Leaves With Dad...

Kate helpped Dad rake leaves in the yard tonight.  Next year she wants to rake them all by herself. 

first snow

NOOOOOO! Way to early for this. In any case, it's Kate's first snow and we took her out for some pictures.  You can see the rest in her picasa album (link to the right)

day care

Today was Kate's first day of daycare at the Gallup Child Development Center (CDC).  Here are the before and after pics:

Just kidding, these were both before pics :)  She had a great first day.

At the race 4 the cure this morning

We participated in the 1 mile walk at the Race for the Cure this morning.  This was Kate's first benefit walk, probably the first of an annual event for the rest of her life.  We had fun walking with Tim, Kelly, Bob, Chuck, Carol, and Mom & Dad, even though it was a bit chilly!

hello october

Welcome to October.  Lots of milestones this month,  Kate turns 3 months and starts daycare at Gallup next Monday.  I've been home with her this week while Kara has her first week back at work, and I have loved it, almost wish I could do it permanantly.  It'll be Katee's first halloween, only we know what she'll be dressed up as. :)  It's also uncle Tim's birthday this month. 

Unfortunately, October also means the "real" beginning of fall.  Even though the colors are nice, it also means, the ugly season winter is almost upon us.  The leaves have already started to fall, and of course, it's cool and drizzly.  Spring is where it's at!!!

thinking ahead

Start saving now for the family trip. We're planning a trip to Walt Disney World...in late 2014. We'd like to take Kate after her 5th birthday and are inviting all the immediate family to make the trip with us. So set aside some money now, you've got five years and no excuses to not be there with us. NONE WHATSOEVER!

If you're wondering the really long term big trip plans are:

2014: Disney (1 week)
2019: East Coast Tour (2 weeks)
2024: Europe Tour (3 weeks)

Plenty of other traveling to be done in-between too :)

i'll do it myself!

It took some coaxing and manipulation, but Kate held her bottle (with a tad bit of support). She might have pulled it off if she didn't need 4oz in there. :)

Month 2

Kate had her two month appointment today. 22 1/2 inches long and 14lb 5oz!!!! That's a big girl. She also had her first shots today, but was a trooper. She cried less from three shots than she did getting her ears checked.

tour of mizzou pics

I uploaded the best of about 900 :). Nothing spectacular, all in the raw.

@ the tour

Tom B. - via mobile

le tour....of mizzou?

Yep, we're in KC tonight. Bob, Kara, Kate, and I went to St. Joseph today to catch the end of stage 6 and are staying overnight in KC to watch the start of the final stage tomorrow.

Conducting dinner

Tom B. - via mobile

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GO BIG RED!

My little husker fan is all dressed up and ready for the game tonight. She thinks we're #1. Not yet Kate...not yet. :)

the best pork tacos EV-AR!

While at the grocery store Sunday, I was inspired to make some pork taco's like we had when we were in San Antonio last year when I saw a product in the mexican section, Chipotle Chili Cubes. Similar to beef boullion cubes, each cube is a whole spiced chipotle pepper pressed into a small 1/2 in by 1/2 in cube. So completely winged this recipe and it turned out AWESOME.

Chipotle Green Chili Pork (for tacos, burritos, whatever...)

1 lb of cubed lean Pork Shoulder
1/2 Large Yellow Onion
1 Large can of Green Chilies
2 Chipotle Chilli Cubes
2 tbsp of Vegetable Oil
1/2 c Water
1/2 c Chicken stock

In a large saute pan, warm the oil on medium heat. Dice the onion and add to the pan, sweating the onion till it just starts to brown. Add the cubed pork and lightly brown the pork. Turn the heat down to warm, add 1/2 c of chicken stock and 1/2 c of water and bring to a simmer. Add in the can of green chilies and 2 cubes of chipotle peppers. Stir till chipotle cubes are fully disolved into sauce, then cover for 30 minutes. Slid lid off of so steam can escape and cook down the sauce for 10 minutes.

Now for the part i didn't do:
Kara added about tsp of cornstarch to a 1/4 cup of water. She added about 2tsp of this mixture to the sauce to get it to gel up a bit and become a thicker sauce (not necessary, but if you want a thick sauce it helps).

Makes 8-10 small tacos (probably about 4-5 average sized burritos)

We made tacos with shredded lettuce, fresh garden tomatoes, mexican cheese, and fresh avacado slices and it was DE-LISH!

digital single-lens reflex what?

I love my new DSLR and my 35mm prime lens. We've gotten some great pics with it and am excited to spend some time out just shooting anything and everything. I am really looking forward to taking an advanced to really get the most out of it.

I've also added a new random photo's album for my fun photography...a total collection of randomness.

Our Web Albums

Finally, I've uploaded some new pics to the Kate album.

first bath, gary and norma

Kate was happy to meet Gary and Norma this weekend. It was nice of them to make the trip to Omaha to meet her and do some sight-seeing while they were here.

Today, Kate had her first true bath. It went great, she truly enjoyed, not crying a bit till we drained the tub, she must of realized it was over.

Pictures from the past week have been uploaded.

shower

Thanks to all those that came to the shower on Saturday and sorry that we missed those of you that couldn't make it. Hope we get a chance to see you soon. We had a great time and are thankful for all the wonderful gifts.

Special thanks to Kara's parents for hosting the party and to Tim and Kelly for their efforts and planning.

We've also added more pictures to the picasa web album. Please send us an email if you want us to email any hi-res originals. We only post some of the best pictures there so we don't use up all our space.

Baby Kate

Kate's still awake tonight...going to be late to work again tomorrow at this rate.

pictures pictures pictures

I've added some new pictures to the web album. I've also created a new album, I took Emily to the Bellevue dog park today.

http://picasaweb.google.com/tkbellinger/

middle name

fyi...we decided on a middle name prior to leaving the hospital the other day:

Kate Elizabeth Bellinger

album updates

We've added addtional pics to the picassa photo album.

http://picasaweb.google.com/tkbellinger/BabyKate

introducing Kate

Hey everyone,
Yesterday was a big day. We went early in the morning to be induced. Say hello to Kate [TBD] Bellinger (we haven't picked a middle name yet).

Born: July 18th, 2009 3:09PM
Weight: 8lb 6oz
Length: 19.5in

Here's a link to a web album: http://picasaweb.google.com/tkbellinger/BabyKate#

one week to go

We have one week to go according to the the 'official' due date. Kara and I are both hoping that it will be sooner rather than later. At one point, I hoped for my birthday to be the day, but now, I'm just too excited and am ready for her to come anytime now. Our bag is packed and I'm just waiting for the call.

BTW, if you're planning on having a baby...I hope you drive a car larger than a compact...rear facing baby seats just don't fit well into compacts. :(

packing our bag

With only about three weeks to go, we've started packing our bag in preparation for the trip to the hospital. The carseat's going to get a trial installation this weekend.

items in the bag (or will be):
- toothbrush
- toothpaste
- deoderant
- travel shampoo/soap
- sleepwear
- change of clothes
- slippers
- camera
- camcorder
- ipod
- laptop
- cellphones + chargers
- gum
- baby clothes
- receiving blanket

Any suggestions?? Xbox? just kidding :)

you've been waiting...

Here's some pictures of the nursery. Thanks so much to Tim & Kelly!!! We'll add some to our Picassa Albums (click the photo link to the right).

a taste of what's to come...

facebook...ugh

Kara and I are on facebook. As reluctant as I was to join, once Microsoft announced at E3 that it was to be integrated with Xbox Live, my technical curiosity got the best of me.

Send us a friend request if you facebook.

another item off the list

We officially have a little person mode of transportation:

Only a couple necessities left!

Game Night - June 13th

The next game night will be Saturday, June 13th at my place.

Plan to start after 5pm, the usual games: CoD:WaW, PGR3/4, Burnout Paradise, Halo3.

j-mohar...remember my headset...listening to people over speakers blows!!!

12006 Quail Dr

Bellevue, NE 68123

ahhhhhhh

We made it. We're in Missouri at the grandparents on table rock lake. Going to do some outlet shopping today.

Tom B. - via mobile

registered

We've registered at Babies R' Us if anyone is interrested. No plans for a shower right now, what we are planning on, is having a get together after the baby is born so that everyone can meet the little one. We'll post more once it's organized.

2 months

Only two more months to go. Just had our first of two week appointments on Friday. Everything checks out ok, as it normally does. Time's starting to fly by. The room is nearly ready, so we took a break this weekend. Next weekend we'll be in Branson, visiting the grandparents for Memorial Day. It will be the last trip for a while.

Cribs we like

Tom B. - via mobile

Baby's first pic

[UPDATE] better late than never, but here are the scans from the u/s on Friday.

We'll update later with a better scan, but we had a 3d pic taken today. We think she has Kara' nose and chin!

Tom B. - via mobile

pics from the trip

Chick-fil-a...YUM!

driving...driving...driving

view from the room

the overrated Hyatt (no free internet anywhere, paid parking, or free breakfast) Glad we got it for less than half the normal price...Thank you Priceline.

Braums...not exactly the what we remembered (Culvers Rules!)

Wind power at work in the plains of Kansas

Crossing back into Nebraska