Farm Party

We had Kylee's birthday party on Saturday. For her first birthday we just had the family come to the house so we decided to go all out for this one. We had it at our church and it turned out great! We had a farm theme which proved to be more difficult than I thought. I assumed that the party stores would have farm stuff, but boy was I wrong. I looked at our small store here and all they had was zoo stuff. So I ran down to Round Rock and they said they only sold it online. So I had to be creative. I went to the teacher store and bought a bulletin board set to decorate and found some pictures online to make the cupcake toppers. I think it turned out pretty cute!











Kylee loved the bounce house. Thanks to my friend Brooke for letting me borrow it. Now every time we drive by the church Kylee says, "Bouncy House!" I was so proud of sweet Kylee. She blew out the candle all by herself. My how she has grown in a year. Kylee was blessed with a lot of gifts, thank you to everyone for being so generous. She had lots of helpers with opening them so we finished in record time! One our friends had her birthday that night and Kylee thought that she should open all of her gifts too. I guess she was on a role.

Blue Hat, Green Hat

As I mentioned in my previous post, Kylee got a new book for her birthday and she was super excited about it. Here is a video of her reading it!

My baby girl turned two yesterday! I can't believe it. She is really turning into a little girl even though I still call her my baby. She is talking up a storm, learning how to walk with Mommy instead of being carried, interact with her friends and naming almost anything. She can count to three, but likes to stop on two. She is still working on her colors, right now she can repeat the colors, but when you ask her what color something is, she replies, "Red," almost every time :)

She still likes to snuggle when she is sleepy, gets hurt or gets in trouble. She makes messes all the time, but is learning to help clean them up. Thank you to all of my friends for giving me pointers and encouragement as we encounter new challenges everyday. I absolutely love being your Mommy, Kylee, and I can't wait for birthday number 3! Daddy and I love you very much. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

The day started out with a family birthday breakfast of oatmeal. When I got Kylee up I told her "Happy Birthday!" She walked around the kitchen looking for her birthday (I think she was looking for a cake). We gave her the two candle and she decided that was her birthday. She even blew out the candle after we sang to her at breakfast.

She is trying to hold up two fingers

After breakfast I picked her up and we were about to head out the door to go to school. Then I noticed that she had a whole bunch of blood in her ear. We found some on the pillow too. I thought for sure that she had burst her eardrum. I called the doctor and got her an appointment. We ran Bubba to school and then headed to the doctor's office. She was such a big girl at the doctor's office. She pulled out the step at the bottom of the table and decided to read her magazine.

b bnl [''''//ll

The doctor said that her eardrum had not burst, but she did have an ear infection. He said she probably stuck her finger in there because it was hurting and scratched herself and made it bleed. Poor baby, I guess I need to trim her fingernails twice a week!

My mom dropped Kylee and I off at school and she headed to Walgreens to pick up Kylee's medicine. Kylee had only been at school for about an hour when she fell and busted her lip. Her teacher brought her to me with blood on her shirt. My mom was still there so i asked her take take Kylee home with her. I thought she had enough excitement for one day and we should let her rest at home.

We planned to take the kids to Chick-fil-A and let them play for her birthday dinner, but I came down with a bad cold and did not feel like going anywhere. So Daddy picked up food on his way home and we had Chick-fil-a at home. My mom got her a giant muffin to use as her cake and she very much enjoyed being the center of attention. She asked us to sing to her a second time and also had to repeat the blowing out of her candles.

After cake/muffin we opened presents. Bubba got her a book that she been asking for since Christmas. It is a Sandra Boynton book that her teacher has a school called, "Blue Hat, Green Hat." She was so excited when she got it. Mommy and Daddy got her a little table with folding chairs. Her and Bubba enjoyed reading together at it. That table is really cool b/c you can use dry erase markers on it and they erase! We did not show Kylee this cool trick. We were afraid she would think that everything was erasable, the walls, the table, etc.

Yummy Soup!

We had some friends over last night and I tried a new recipe for Mexican Bean Soup. It was so good so I thought I would share it. Our class at church gets together once a year and we all share our favorite recipes and put them in a book. This recipe was entered by my good friend, Becky!

1 lb Hamburger Meat
1 pkg. Pork Breakfast Sausage
2 Cans Pinto Beans
1 Can Mex-Corn
1 pkg. Taco Seasoning
2 Cans Rotel Tomatoes (I only used one)
2-3 Cups of Water
1 pkg. Dry Ranch Dressing Mix

Brown and drain beef and pork in large tew pot. Ad remaining ingredients an cook on med/low heat for 25 minutes. Garnish soup with chopped green onions, sour cream, shredded cheddar, and Tortilla Chips.

It was so yummy and perfect for these cold days. I hope you enjoy it with your family!

Christmas 2009!

So I know this is a little late, but oh well.

Jonathan's Mom, Dad and Sister came up to our house for Christmas Eve. Shara and the boys went to see Avatar while Pam, Kylee and I wrapped some last minute gifts. We then had snacks and opened presents. We tried to take turns opening presents. We started at 6:45 and at 7:15 Kylee was done and ready for bed. So we tried to hurry up and have her open all of her presents and then we put her in bed. We had a great night!!

Kylee feeding her new baby from Nonny and Mawmaw. (I haven't showed her that it poops and pees yet).

Bryan got new shoes from Papo!

Bryan got a really cool laso rope from Uncle Herschel and Aunt Pattie

Jonathan got new work gloves.

I got a new gps!! Thank you Chris and Pam. Chris set it up for me and he named it "Saving Becca." I think that is a very appropriate title.

Christmas morning we stayed at home and opened presents with just the four of us. We always enjoy spending Christmas morning at our house. We let the kids open their stockings and see their presents from Santa when they get up, then we eat a big breakfast and open the rest of the presents. Kylee woke us up at 6:30 and when we went into the living room Bryan had already sorted all of the presents and was waiting for us to get up!

Kylee got a new rocking chair from "Santa"
Bryan got a new tractor from John Deere.

This is one of my favorite pictures! Kylee is giving Bryan a hug and thanking him for the set of tools that he gave her.


Here's Bryan with all of the presents. We tried really hard to get Kylee to sit still for this picture, but we did not succeed.

We headed up to my sister's house in Allen (north of Dallas) about 1:00 on Christmas day. I got to use my new gps and I didn't get lost. We had 16 people at Karen and Scott's house, thanks for putting up with us!! We had a great time just being together, cooking and looking at Christmas lights. Karen and Scott took us to the Galleria Mall and we got to see the huge Christmas tree. That is a huge mall. I must say that is my first time to be there. Maybe the next time I go back I can actually do some shopping :)

This is a video of Kylee doing the Cha Cha Slide!

Kylee hanging out with Aunt Karen and Wallace!

Kylee helping Mommy make scrambled eggs.

Mom making breakfast!

I hope that all of you and yours had a very Merry Christmas.