New Year/New Update

Hello all! Happy New Year a little late. I cannot believe it is already February. We are doing well at the moment. I will try to recap our holidays and get everyone up to speed.

Christmas was good. We spent Christmas Eve and Day with Dad, Donn, and Adam and the 26th with Cary's family. Kayla had a great time opening and testing out all of her new gifts. She received a toy vacuum cleaner, a xylophone, a dollhouse, a farm play set, a Dora sticker book (probably her favorite gift), a dancing Dora doll, some coloring books, a new outfit (she's in a 3T already), some stamps, a wooden alphabet game, and the "big" gift for the year was a mini laptop from Poppy Darden. She has her own computer!!! She plays games on it every now and then but I suspect she will use it more in a few months.

We had great food and great family fellowship.

New Year's Eve day we went to the Georgia Aquarium and the Varisty. Kayla loved the fish and especially finding her favorite, the Nemo fish. She also loved the 4D movie theatre where we were splashed with water and hit with jellyfish "tentacles". We had a quiet New Year at our house and made corn chowder and fruity pebble rice krispy treats. Kayla and I did not make it to midnight. It was nice to stay home for a change.

Other January highlights:

Mimi came for a visit in mid-January and brought a bunch of goodies for all of us to open. Kayla got some dress up shoes, a new coloring book, some bubbles, and another sticker book (she REALLY loves stickers). My Mom took one of our cats Jenny home with her to live and she has adjusted very well. We had a little bit of snow in January so we got to walk around in that for a day or two. The roads were very icy and we we didn't travel until it thawed out. We had fun staying around the house for a few days.

I am still working part time and home with Kayla on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We usually go to they gym in the mornings and then either to my women's group at church, the library, or meet with a friend. We usually do lunch at Chick-fil-a once a week. Kayla takes an afternoon nap for about 1.5 hours and then we color, do stickers, or play in our basement. She is a lot of fun and every day is a new adventure to her. She still has quite a few tantrums and can be whiny but the more she is able to communicate, the better that gets. She can play by herself quite a bit and loves to read a big stack of books. We're ready for the weather to warm up so we can play outside more!

At the 4D theatre at the Aquarium - too cool!

Thanksgiving 2009

I have been pretty bad at updating my blog on time. With facebook I don't feel the need to update as often.

This year for Thanksgiving we traveled to Norway, Maine as I have done since I was 9 years old. We haven't been since 2006 so it was nice to see everyone. We had a very early flight schedule heading up. Our plane left at 6am and we had one connection. Kayla did quite well with everything. When we landed we met Parnie and Mom at the airport and went to do a little shopping in Freeport. We decided to poke around the giant L.L. Bean store and we saw lots of goodies in there. Kayla had fun in the kids area and went inside the camping tents they had set up. Mimi bought her a new pair of shoes as well. After eating lunch we headed up to the farm where Kayla met Mary, Parnie's Mom. Kayla did lots of stickers to pass the time and also helped Mary decorate her Christmas tree.

On Thanksgiving day we spent the morning preparing for our big feast. We went for a little walk on the dirt road all decked out in orange so the hunters would not mistake us for an animal. For our meal we had turkey, pork, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, turnips, cranberry sauce, broccoli casserole, corn pudding, and four different kinds of berry pie for dessert. All very good! We also celebrated Christmas that night and Kayla had fun opening her gifts. We all got lovely things.

Friday we took a trip into town to shop around a little bit and then got ready to head home for out late flight. Again, Kayla did great traveling and we were all very happy to be back home after a long day. I turned the heat off while we were away so we came home to a chilly 49 degrees in the house!

Kayla has been waking up every night since that trip and sleeping in our bed. Not sure how long this phase will last. I don't mind her sleeping with me, but Cary does, so we need to figure something out.

Kayla's 2nd Birthday Party

We had a great party for Kayla on 10/31. We celebrated at my Dad's house with Dad, Donna, Cary and his parents, Aunt Carmen, Uncle Todd, Abigail, Haley, Kayla's cousin Luke, Ryan, Amy and her two kids Francie and Charlie, Elias and his two kids Eva and Nathaniel, Katie and Aaron Ashlock, Kayla's babysitter Ashley and her daughter Gracie, Jake, Tiffany, and their daughter Addison, and Tiffany.

We had a Dora fiesta so for lunch we had chili, hot dogs, and chips and dip. We had a cookie cake for Kayla's cake and she really enjoyed us singing to her. We let her open presents and she loved each and every one. Finally we did a pinata and the kids loved that too.

Kayla's all ready for her Dora party!




Here we are singing Happy Birthday to Kayla - so sweet!


Because Kayla's birthday is on Halloween, she had a really busy day! Kayla is sitting in her new reading chair and reading her new Dora book (both birthday presents) and dressed up in her Halloween costume. She made a beautiful Minnie Mouse and had a blast trick or treating. She tried to go inside people's houses when they opened the door.


We had a 2 year check up for Kayla on 11/3. She is 36 inches tall and 30 pounds. The Dr. gave a mostly good report, but has referred us to a cardiologist to have a heart murmur that he heard investigated. Many people that I have spoken with say it is probably innocent. This appointment is 12/2.

Some of Kayla's funny sayings:

She says "I need want some....water, milk, etc." She says need and want.
If she doesn't want to eat something she says "No please" instead of No thank you.

Pumpkin Patch

Our family recently drove to the Blue Ridge Mountains and stayed the night with friends. We went to a huge pumpkin patch, Burt's Pumpkin Farm. I've never seen so many pumpkins at once! We also did a hayride and Kayla had a great time. Here are a few photos:

Kayla's all healed up!

After 3 1/2 weeks Kayla seems to be 100% with her arm and shoulder now! I'm so happy and amazed she healed so quickly - praise God!

The second week of her injury she got a nasty bruise and has a small lump over the place where the bone was broken. Now there is no bruise and the lump is smaller.

I'm now getting her birthday plans together for her party on 10/31 which will be a Dora the Explorer fiesta! Can't believe she's almost 2!

First Broken Bone

I suppose it is a rite of passage but it was still hard nonetheless. Kayla fell down the stairs while we were in MD this week and broke her collarbone. She should heal up in four weeks and there is really nothing we can do other than try to keep her from putting weight on her arm. I'm so thankful she didn't have further injuries! She continues to amaze me...she is learning quickly not to use her arm and is really quite a trooper despite the pain I'm sure she has.

Two's: Terrible, Terrific, Traumatic???

Kayla is 2 months away from being 2! I'm excited for her and slightly worried about me and my sanity.

Everyday we have at least 5 (on a good day) to 10 (on a bad day) tantrums when Kayla realizes that the world doesn't completely revolve around her! She has the most trouble when I'm trying to get out of the house for something (it's Murphy's law that the faster I want to go the slower she will be). She has to feed herself, walk down the stairs herself, climb in her seat herself, and she of course decides which pace she is going to do all of this in. So when Mommy comes to speed things along - WAAAAHHHH! We have a tantrum!

The really mind boggling thing is she can be screaming, crying, stomping, hitting and causing me to wonder if I should be concerned when all of a sudden she can completely turn off the tantrum and be sweet Kayla again. Manipulation. We were born sinners and Kayla is proof. I love her dearly and I will love her through all of this. God feels the same way when he watches his children fight him for something that is actually for our good.

Kayla's two's will probably be terrible, terrific, and traumatic but what part of life isn't?