The arrival of spring

We are finally starting to thaw out a bit. It seems like it's been a long, cold, and rainy winter! We recently had a fence built in the back yard and it's nice to let Kayla out when the sun is shining and let her explore.

We recently dyed Easter eggs and Kayla had a blast decorating the eggs with stickers. Stickers are still her number one obsession. Who knew they could be so entertaining?!?

I signed Kayla up for a preschool that will start in the fall. It is called Chapel Hill Christian School and they go up to 5th grade. I'm not sure how long she will attend but I was very impressed with the facility. Kayla seems excited.

She is doing well with potty training. Almost 100% success at home during the day but I don't quite trust her at night or out for long stretches of time. She went through a spell of waking up and wanting to come to our bed and we let her for quite some time. I decided I wanted my sleeping space back (three in a queen is a tight fit) and we made a treasure box with cheap toys for her to go to if she stays in her bed. It works for the most part but she still occasionally wants to come sleep with us.

Kayla is really starting to interact with other kids and people. She's very friendly. She also got an adorable haircut - a little bob. I really like it and it makes her look so grown up.

Kayla's favorite place to eat is Chick-fil-A - a girl after my own heart. We go weekly for some nuggets, fruit, maybe some fries, a little ice cream cone, and a ride down the slide. So fun.

Applying stickers to the dyed Easter eggs:

Checking out the process:

A trip to the zoo:

A good pic of her new haircut:

Some Funnies from Kayla

Me: Kayla, do you what animal honey comes from? (I guess I should have said insect)

Kayla: Pooh Bear!

Me: Oopsie Daisy!!! (Donna has two dogs named Daisy and Peanut"

Kayla: Oopsie Peanut!!!

Kayla takes my bra and tries to put it on and says, "Look Mommy I'm wearing your boobies!"

Kayla pottied on the floor and said, "Look Mommy it's a circle! We can make smiley face!"

Instead of saying "I don't know" she says "I di bon't know"...it's the cutest thing ever

While at the church nursery she was given a small cup of water (no lid or straw). She looked at Mrs. Julie (her sitter) and said, "Help me get the water out!"

While saying prayers she will often pray for Nemo - her favorite blanket

She has made up a game called "Puddling". It involves taking our belts out of the belt drawer and sitting on them, tossing them around. I don't really get it.

We lost one of Kayla's shoes at a local restaurant called The Lazy Donkey. I told Kayla we would need to call Lazy Donkey and find out if they had her shoe. She put her hand to her mouth and said "Lazy Donkey!!!!" I guess she called him!!!

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!