Happy 5th Birthday Kylee!!!

On April 9 2003 at 3:29 p.m. I began my journey into motherhood with the birth of my precious Kylee Brooke. She weighed 7lbs. 2 oz and was 21 inches long and as beautiful as any mommy would dream. She came out screaming and kept screaming for about 8 weeks. Yes, she was colicky and made my start to learning about being a mommy very hard (but since this is her birthday blog I will only say happy, cheerful things). I instantly loved her and thought she was amazing. I looked at her this morning and thought how did you grow up so fast into this wonderful 5 year old who is so much more than I could have ever dreamed of. She is truly an angel to Charley and I and greatly loved by her little sister.
Where did this baby go? Is she really 5? For lack of keeping up with digital photo files. These first few pics are from the first 6 months of her life. I still see little glimpses of my 5 year old in her baby pictures. I'll tell you going through these brought tears to my eyes and lots of sweet memories.


This is from her first birthday. I thought she was a big girl then but look at the next picture to see my big 5 year old!
Her shirt say it all!!!

Interview with my 5 year old:
Favorite color: Purple
Favorite place to eat: Nikki's and Corner Bakery
Favorite food: Spaghetti
Favorite place to go: Church and Chuck e Cheese
Favorite thing to do at school: Play outside with friends
What do you play outside at school: Mermaids and Superheroes
Favorite movie: Barbie Rapunzel
Favorite Song: Twinkle Twinkle (I think she started to get tired of me asking questions about here)
Favorite thing to do with mommy: Play Games
Favorite thing to do with daddy: Date days
Favorite thing to do with sister: Play Caribou
Favorite thing to play by yourself: Polly Pockets


More Birthday Celebrations
Kylee had her Birthday party a couple weeks at Build A Bear. She had the best time and had a lot of her favorite friends and family at the party so it was a perfect day for her. I have learned through parties that if the party girl is happy then it was a success. She had fun picking her dog she named Flower, stuffing it, brushing it, naming it, playing games and being sung Happy Birthday to, but most of all she had fun being with her friends and family:)




Kylee with her dog, flower!
Kylee and all her buddies that came to the party.
Kylee's cake and blowing out her candles.

Kylee and her very proud mommy and daddy!

Now I get to share my 5 favorite things or memories of Kylee:
1. She loves the Lord. She reminds me every night to read her bible story to her. She makes up songs about Jesus all the time and I catch little peeks of her heart through these. She says some of the sweetest prayers. She loves church and can tell you so many bible stories.
2. She has a string on her blanket that she has to hold every night before she goes to sleep. I seriously think I will have to cut it off and send it to college with her one day.
3. She tells me and Charley every night before she goes to sleep to check on her, cuddle and do something hard (she says this last one because she thinks if we do something hard she will wake up and get to see us. I have no idea where she gets this from.). She never misses a night telling us this and we do all of the things on her list and she has never woken up. My idea of something hard would be a sweet kiss on the cheek:)
4. She is so sweet to Katie (most of the time) . She has set a good example for her that Katie does everything she does from putting plates in the sink to being an expert at sommersaults. She plays dolls, games and kitchen with her daily.
5. She loves life and is excited about everyday. She ask first things what are we doing and she is pretty happy with just about anything except cleaning or laundry days. She loves most school days and play days with friends.

Charley and I feel honored the Lord is allowing us to raise her and call her our child on Earth. She is truly a joy and we can't believe it has been 5 years.

Happy 5th Birthday Kylee Brooke!!

Daddy Date Day

Last weekend Charley and Kylee had a special date with each other to see High School Musical on Ice Tour (according to Kylee you have to say tour at the end of it). We have been keeping such a busy schedule and no it is not a good thing for us to be as busy as we have been. We started to notice Kylee really struggling with some behavior issues ranging from acting up to crying over little things to only wanting me to take care of her so Charley knew it was time for some 1 on 1 time with daddy. He did all the work, got the tickets himself and made sure Kylee knew it was from him and a date day with daddy. This is definitely what the doctor ordered for her from the minute he told her about the surprise her attitude immediately started to change. They had great time and Charley said it was actually really good. He even admitted to walking around at work singing some of the songs. Kylee is still talking about what a fun time she had and she walks around singing the songs, too cute!!

Easter Fun

Finally a Easter post... We had a wonderful Easter weekend packed full and I mean full of fun and other stuff. I decided I planned way to much in a short weekend that is already really busy with just Easter. On Friday, Charley had the day off so we went to see my sister, brother in law and my nephew for a Easter egg hunt and fun. The little kids had fun opening the eggs and eating the snacks inside. These are pictures from the first Easter celebration.

Then Saturday night we got all dressed in our Easter clothes and headed to church. Charleys parents and Gan Gan came for the week and went with us.

Then Saturday night we colored our eggs. Kylee really enjoyed this and Katie loved just tossing the eggs as hard as you can into the color. They had a blast.

Sunday morning we had our Easter baskets out and the girls looked at their goodies and went on an egg hunt around the house. Their favorite thing in their baskets was a new toothbrush that plays music.

Then Saturday afternoon we had Easter lunch with our cousins from The Moore side of the family. On Saturday it was beautiful weather but on Easter Sunday it was cold and very windy so we had a quick egg hunt outside. It was fun and their Meme had hid eggs with the kids names on them and they had to find their own named egg with a special treat inside:)

Like I said Easter weekend was busy, here are the things we tried to fit in along with all the egg hunts, church, and all the others. I tagged 142 items for the JBF consignment sale (the picture below is my car completely full of the items). Charley, my dad and Charleys dad started putting together a wooden playset that is still not finished. They worked hard and made a good start but those things are so hard. I am impressed with what the did. I will post a picture when it is done (hopefully before 2009 rolls around). Lastly Kylee worked on her transportation box with Meme for school. They were painting it and getting it ready to be a train. It turned out super cute.

Kylee Finally Got Her Snow Angel, Sort Of

Kylee finally got to make her snow angel, sort of, after all the begging and pleading the day we only had a flake or two, it took her forever to attempt a snow angel. She had fun so that is all that matters. Well it is March and we just had the biggest snow here that I can remember since I have lived here. We had 6 inches of beautiful snow. It took me 1 hour to get home from Kylee's preschool because the roads were slushy and yucky. We headed outside after Charley got home for snow fun along with most of our neighbors. It was so fun to share this time with friends on our street. Charley threw a snowball at me and snow can really hurt. He did feel really bad but the girls thought it was hilarious and that became there favorite game. Katie liked it the most. Kylee had fun playing with our neighbor who is a little girl almost her age. Then they helped build the street snowman in one of neighbors yards. It was very tall. It was fun up until Katie took her gloves off and would not put them back on and decided she was done. It is supposed to snow some more tonight so tomorrow should be a real stay at home snow day!!

Kylee attempting a snow angel.
Katie attempting a snow angel. She wants to do everything Kylee does. I think laying in the snow was what led to a meltdown later on:) Kylee and our neighbor friend
All the kids playing on the street with their parents. The men, including my hubby, and older kids had a pretty good snowball fight at the end of the street. Charley had warmed his arm up throwing snowballs at me so he was ready to go.
After we came in straight to the fireplace we went. Doesn't this look like a

Kum ba ya moment?? Well, it wasn't. Too much time in the wet cold snow leads to major meltdowns and whining when we get too cold.

All in all, It was a fun night. I decided during the meltdown that we are a warm weather family. Note the swim suit post below. So bring on the sun and warm weather, we had our one snow of the year and that is enough for this family. In all seriousness, I kept thinking how amazing it is that God knew snow would bring such fun even if it was freezing outside. He always amazes me with the true things he made for us that we really don't need but he wanted us to have for fun and enjoyment. He is good!!

What season is it?

My girls can't figure out if it is summer or winter. Today Kylee wanted to play swimming so I told her that was fine we can pretend. Next thing I know she is fully dressed in her swim suit with sunglasses and ready to go, then Katie comes running, "I go swimming too!!" Now it is harder for Katie to understand it is 30 degrees outside and will probably snow tonight. My silly Kylee is always ready for a chance to go swimming. A month ago when I got her a swim suit at Old Navy during their sale, she wore it all day and that day after nap she said alright lets go turn the sprinkler on (it was 35 degrees outside). Guess my family is ready for summer.
Then tonight, it really did start snowing, so Kylee had begged to go outside to see it. Now it just started so there is none on the ground and it is little tiny flakes but I gave in and got the girls all dressed warm. Kylee immediately is ready to stick her tongue out to catch it. Then she starts to get on the wet soggy grass and I asked her what she was doing and she said "Making a snow angel" . I got a good laugh then had her hop up before she got soaked and told her maybe in the morning.
I remember when I taught school, I loved the chance of a snow day but now that I am a mom I am thinking we stayed home all day today because of yucky weather so two days in a row doesn't sound too fun. I know the girls will love a fun day to play in it if it sticks just wishing it was the weekend and daddy was staying home with us.

Happy 2nd Birthday Kaitlyn Mary!!

On Valentines Day 2 years ago we received our best Valentines Day gift-Our Baby Kaitlyn. She was also a huge surprise since I was not due for another month. But God's timing is so amazing and he gave us our Valentine Day Baby who we love with all our hearts. We always tell Kylee that the night before Katie came she prayed at dinner that Katie would come tomorrow. Her prayer was answered. The night before I remember cleaning my baseboards, cleaning my door frames, and even my light switches!!!! Can you say crazy!!! At 2 am my water broke, some of my friends still remember me telling them that after my water broke and before I went to the hospital I took a shower, dried my hair and put a little make up on. That does seem a little crazy but I had cleaned house the night before and you know how unclean that can make you feel. When we made it to the hospital I was only dilated to a 4 or so and they ended up giving me pitocin to speed it up. So at 11:30 am Katie was welcomed into our lives. She weighed 6lbs 2 oz. and was 18 1/2 inches long. Everyone kept guessing she would be 5 lbs. but she was a good size for a month early so she did not have to go to NICU or anything abnormal. She was so sweet and her big sis fell in love with her from the start also. A few days after her birth she struggled with eating and was jaundice. Her weight fell to 5lbs. 5 oz. She was close to being put back in the hospital but she came around and slowly gained weight. She still slowly gains weight. She had her 2 year well child check yesterday morning and she weighed only 22 lbs. 8 oz (7%) and was 35 inches long(80%). She is long and skinny. My doc was not worried but said to add some calories. Like if she has bread put butter on it, no skim or 2% stuff. So if you see us with a tub of butter and a spoon just know we are beefing up the calories and Katie (just kidding:)) This little 22 lb child is full of spunk and loves life. She lights up our days and can make anyone smile and laugh. She is so smart (except every color is blue or purple:)) and loves us and her sis so much!!! If you can tell, I am quite proud of my big 2 year old that God has given us to raise and love on earth. Below are pictures of her from her birth, 1st birthday and most recently her 2nd birthday party. We had a party for her this past Sunday ats the Little Gym. She had a blast running around, jumping, swinging and being her busy little self. It was the perfect place to celebrate her birthday. She had practiced at home blowing out her candles after singing Happy Birthday but at her party when the lady was lighting the candle she just kept blowing it out. Her sis and a few friends helped her with the presents. She was smiling ear to ear the whole time.



Since Katie is two I am going to share two of my favorite things about her:

1. Katie loves the Lord. If you ask her where Jesus lives she points to her heart and says Heart. It melts mine. Her prayers are already so sweet. If we would let her she would pray forever. She just sang me The B-I-B-L-E at bedtime. When we are about 2 miles from church she starts cheering and saying Church Church. I just pray that her knowledge, love and understanding of the Lord and his word will continue to grow.

2. Katie is busy all the time. Maybe that is why she is in the 7th percentile for her weight. I love it because when she plays she is so fun to watch. Her favorite thing is baby dolls. She loves them. She kisses them. She hugs them. They all take naps in her bed with the sound machine on and reminds us to be quiet because they are asleep. She is so gentle and loving to them and this really shows me her heart.



I love this girl and so do her daddy and sister!! Happy Birthday Katie!!!



Katies Birthday-2-14-06



Katies 1st Birthday 2-14-07

Katies 2nd Birthday-2-14-08