We survived!!

Well our first week of preschool was last week. Both of my girls are going with me :) Kylee is in a 2's class and Bailey is in the tiny class. Here are some pictures of them on their first day. I didn't get to drop Kylee off so I don't have a picture of her with her teacher.

We have been busy the past couple of weeks. We got to go see Barnum and Bailey's circus in Austin in August. This is the circus that I used to go to when I was little. I was excited for Bryan and Kylee to get to see it. My mom was sweet and watched Bailey for us while we went to the show. It's really different watching the circus as an adult. I was thinking the whole time about how all of the performers could easily fall/injure themselves. It took some of the magic out of the show, but I still enjoyed it! Kylee thought that there would be ladybugs at the circus. When it was over Kylee asked, "Where are the ladybugs?" I replied, "They must be at the zoo."

Kylee was wiped out!

We also got to take the girls to the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco. It was a good time. Great weather and the girls had a blast. Kylee was determined to find those ladybugs at the zoo. These are the only ones that we found.

Kylee and Mommy on the slide :)

Kylee looking at the fishies (Mommy enjoying the air conditioning :)

Bailey's first time to the park by our house. She was like her sister, she cried when I stopped the swing.

Kylee still loves to swing. I'm kind of thankful that we don't have one in our backyard b/c she would ask me all day to go outside and swing.

4th of July Weekend

I was a bad mama and didn't get my camera out once this weekend. The girls even wore matching dresses to church so I will have to dress them up again and take a picture.

We got to bring Bryan home with us Wednesday night after I me and the girls had a short visit with my mom. Friday afternoon all of the Nystroms came up to visit (this is the family that Bryan is living with now). We ate a quick dinner of stack-ups and all of them went off to the rodeo. They said that they had a great time. Kylee asked to see the horses again all day the next day so i think they made an impression.

While they were off my sister and I went to get a pedicure! This was only my second one in my life. I took Bailey with us and she was great. She nursed part of the time and then just watched a little tv in my lap for the rest of the time. My sister and I were celebrating her birthday that was the day before. It was nice to have some much needed sister time!

Saturday we were supposed to go to the Belton parade where Jonathan drove some John Deere tractor. But I chickened out b/c there was a chance of rain. It turned out that it didn't rain and it was perfect weather, but I enjoyed taking it easy at home and staying in my pj's till lunch.

Sunday we all went to church and then had a leisurly Sunday afternoon. The Nystrom clan left about 5:30 that evening and we were left with our two girls and our sweet Bryan. We put munchkin to bed and played some games with Bryan. Miniature finally went to bed and we watched Alice in Wonderland with Bryan. I couldn't get into it so I went to my room and went to sleep.

Monday morning I went to work for a little bit and then we got all of our swimming gear on. We went over to the Lion's Junction park for some swimming time. Again i forgot my camera. Kylee loved the water! Bailey sat in the water with Daddy and she cried when he tried to take her out. I think she is going to be a water baby!

Then we headed down to Austin to see Toy Story. We weren't sure how this adventure would turn out with a munchkin and a miniature, but we decided to brave it. I thought the movie was absolutely adorable!! For those of you who have seen it, my favorite part was when Mr. Potato head became a Mr. Tortilla Head!! Kylee didn't watch the whole movie, but she did entertain herself with her silky and cow. When the movie was over and we were watching the credits she told me that I needed to come sit on the floor with her and play with a toy. She didn't have anymore toys, so she gave me the nursing wrap instead :) Don't worry we were sitting on the carpet part, not the sticky gross part. Bailey slept most of the movie. When she woke up, she nursed and then sat with Daddy and watched the movie!

We had to take Bryan home after that :( We look forward to our next visit. I hope all of you had a great July 4th weekend and maybe you remembered to take pictures :)

Easter 2010

I hope all of you had a great Easter weekend. My mom surprised me and took Kylee and Bryan back to Austin with her on Thursday afternoon. Jonathan and I had a couple of days with just Bailey. It was good to have her by herself, but I must say I missed my other kids!! Saturday Jonathan and I headed down to Austin to pick up the kids and visit some family. We made a stop by Academy to pick up an enclosure for our trampoline. We have been wanting one for a while so that it is safer for the kids. We had to shop around b/c everyone was out of them. Jonathan and Bryan worked yesterday afternoon to get it up. Kylee and I played in the new "cage", as she calls it, this morning. I wanted to take a video of her, but she zipped up the "door" and told me that I couldn't get my camera.

Cousin Kimmie with Bailey

Grandma and Grandpa w/Bailey

Cousin Emily and Bailey

Bryan helping Jonathan put the trampoline thing together.

We went to church yesterday and this was Bailey's first appearance at church. She slept all during service, but Kylee was not so laid back. She usually goes to the nursery after communion. I tried to take her, but she didn't recognize the lady in there and refused to go. I finally had to take her out to the foyer and let her run off some energy!



We headed home to have the traditional post baby meal of leftovers. We all got a nap, put the trampoline thing together and then headed up to the church to have our class Easter hunt. Bryan and Kylee had a great time. Kylee actually understood the hunting this year. She is her mama's girl. She opened each egg to check and see if it had candy in it. If it had some other snack, she would discard it! Bailey slept through the activities.







We ran home and got all the kids bathed and into bed. Bailey slept for five hours, so Mommy got 4 hours of sleep in a row, thanks baby girl.

Last week Kylee had her egg hunt at preschool. Here are some pictures from the festivities!

Yea Bryan

We got a letter in the mail the other day telling us that Bryan passed the TAKS test, yea Bryan!!! He attended Summer school in June and I guess it paid off. We wanted to celebrate so I picked up some pizzas (his favorite dinner) and we headed over to the little water park in Temple. My 15 year old niece was in town and watched Kylee at little while we were there. Jonathan and I actually got to sit in the water and talk, woo hoo!

This second pregnancy is really taking it out of me. I know that I am more tired than the first, or else I just forgot how tired I was with the first. Jonathan pretty much has kid duty at night as I lay on the couch and coach him on what to do. Some days are better than others. I'm thankful to be pregnant, just ready to be in the 2nd trimester.

Kylee still needs her two naps. She will be 19 months on the 12th and I know that most kids have switched to one, but not her. She gets up between 7 and 7:30 in the morning and by 9:00 she is sucking her fingers and snuggling. I just feel cruel trying to keep her awake. I am worried about when preschool starts. She never slept well there last year and she definitely will only get one nap. I think if I felt better and we were out and about more it might be easier b/c she would have to be awake. I'm sure it will resolve itself in time.

I have started working at the preschool and there is a lot to do. I am trying to remember that things will go okay even if I don't get every single thing done by the time I would like. I am trying to keep an eye on the big picture. I think after I get through September I might feel like I know what I am doing :) I'm sorry for the lack of pictures, but I haven't taken any lately. Bad mama I know.

Happy Father's Day!!

We had a great Father's Day. We gave Jonathan breakfast in bed and all joined him for a breakfast picnic. Then we went to church and heard a great sermon about the importance of Fathers. We headed over to the Olive Garden and met Jonathan's Dad and sister for lunch. It was very yummy!! Kylee enjoyed the tomatoes, olives and onions from the salad. I think she would eat anything that had their yummy dressing on it.

Then we came back to our house and played Dad's new gift, Guitar Hero for the wii. We went over to friend's house last week and he had gotten it as an early Father's Day gift. Jonathan began dropping hints about how he wanted one, so I took the hint and we have really had fun.

Here is a picture of Jonathan with the kids!

Never to old for Daddy to read you a story!!

In other news, Kylee is really growing up. She now picks out what she wants to wear. Recently her favorite thing is swim diapers. Don't ask me why, but she finds them and brings them to me just about every day. I even try to hide them, but it doesn't work. She then cries until I give in and put one on her.

She is talking a lot more. These are the words that she says regularly: Dada, Daddy, Mama, Mommy, Bubba, snack ("sac"), berry ("bewwy"), cheese, , Bible, dog, kitty (very high pitched, "ki-ee") no, yes (but only shaking her head), please (but only in sign language), and I'm sure there are others that I have forgotten.


She also loves to sit in her baby doll's stroller. I think she looks like such a little lady here.

She loves Bibles. Here is a little video of her singing her new favorite song!

Here's to all the Fathers, we hope you had a great day!!

Bryan is Home!!!

Bryan has been home for a week now and I am just now getting to post about it. We went to Stephenville last weekend and picked him up. Jonathan and I both agree that we will NOT miss that drive.

Here is he is his house parents, Debbie and Joel.

Here he is with his family of Home 5

Snuggling with Grandma!

We had a welcome home party for Bryan last Saturday. Here he is with all of his cousins!

I liked this one. It's a great shot of Kylee.
This is supposed to be one of those cute shots of everyone's feet.

End of the school year

Well today is my last day tutoring in Killeen. I will miss the kids and the money, but not the drive :) They have offered me the position for next year, but I also just accepted another offer. I am going to be the new co-director of Belton Christian Preschool. I will only have to work 2 days a week, drive 5 minutes from my house and have Kylee with me at all times! How can I beat that?

The other director is a very sweet lady and I think that we are going to work very well together. I am excited and a little nervous since this is uncharted territory for me. But I'm sure that I will get the hang of it quickly.

Bryan comes home on the 30th of this month, that is less than two weeks away!! We went up and visited him in Stephenville. We got to go to church with him. It was interesting. It was a very small town and they were very conservative. All of the hymns were slower and clapping was not part of the assembly. I was going to clap to one of my favorite songs, but quickly saw that they did not do that. It was weird to see our preacher there though. He left Stephenville and came to work at our church. Then he went back to Stephenville a couple of months ago. I still love his preaching, but understand why he wanted to go back there.

We are getting everything in order for Bryan. We found a therapist in Round Rock that specializes in reactive attachment disorder and we have appointments scheduled. But then we found out that his medicaid was not renewed. I have started the process, but please pray that it will move quickly. We can't get him on our insurance yet either, so hopefully he won't get sick.

Kylee is 16 months old now. Can you believe it? She is doing everything including starting to throw fits. We are trying to get that under control. I think she just wants to do things that she can't do yet and gets very frustrated. She is officially weaned!! It only took 2 bouts of mastitis, but it is done. She still asks to nurse sometimes, but I can usually distract her with a snack.

My mom is doing well with her radiation. She only has about 2 weeks left, so she is looking forward to it being over. Please pray that these last two weeks go smoothly with minimal pain.

And we have to have some pictures to round out this very long post :)

Two weeks ago Kylee's best friend, Skylar came over to play. They loved rocking in the recliner.

My sister and her little ones came up on Saturday.
Emily and Kylee

Daddy reading to Kylee

Easter

I hope all of you had a wonderful Easter! We were afraid it would be another year where we had to have our egg hunt inside the house, but it turned out to be a beautiful day. Last year Kylee was only 3 months old so she did not participate in the whole egg hunt. We were excited to have a nice day for her first official Easter. Here are some pictures from the day. Sorry Grandmas I didn't get a really good picture of her in her dress. She wouldn't stand still so I had to hold her.

Kylee helping Bubba find his eggs

Bryan and his lute.

Kylee enjoying her chocolate. (Don't worry we only gave her one)See Kylee loves her Bubba!

After searching finding a couple of eggs, Kylee decided it was more interesting to go and play in her house. Luckily we also hid some eggs in there.

We had a great time with Bryan this weekend. He had Friday off so we had a longer visit. We surprised him when he got here with a new room! We painted the walls blue and painted his furniture black so that it would match. He didn't believe us that it was the same furniture. I will get a picture soon.

Kylee absolutely adores Bryan. She giggles at him all the time. When she got home to see him she immediately held up her arms for him to hold her. She follows him around and loves to play in the same room as him. I was very proud of him, he even let her play with his cars. He is such a great big brother. I was worried about their relationship since they have been separated, but I think they will get along well. What an answered prayer.

Please continue to remember my mom in your prayers. She has begun a lot of the preparations for radiation and is still in good spirits. A friend from school introduced her to her parents and she is staying with them in Houston. Another answered prayer.