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

Dancing with Daddy

We have a dancing diva on our hands so we decided to do an experiment. We put different kinds of music on to see if Kylee adjusted her dancing. The results are really cute. It is a five minute video so feel free to just watch a small bit, it won't hurt our feelings.

Shocking!

I know that all of you are shocked that I am actually updating my blog, but here goes. We have been doing a lot around here, but as I sit down to write, not a whole lot sticks out.

Last weekend we went to East Texas to visit Kylee's Great Grandparents and she had a great time. She was very entertaining to the family. When we got there she put on a show with her twirling and dancing.

We took her in a covered wagon:

Here she is with her Great Uncle Herschel

She really enjoyed the ramp outside of Herschel's house

We got her a kitchen at a garage sale. Here she is practicing her skills :)

And one to make you say, "Ahh."

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.

Easter

Kylee had her first Easter egg hunt yesterday at preschool. We practiced the night before. She loved finding the eggs, and she even put them in her basket. Here is a little video.


I got to go and watch her at the preschool. Here are some pictures from the action!

Bluebonnets

Last weekend we went to visit our sisters. Kylee and I drove Jonathan to the DFW airport where he flew to St. Louis to help his sister pack. Shara has been living there for the last 6 months or so and working as a stenographer. Her company did some reorganizing and she got transferred to Ft. Worth. Yea she is back in Texas!!

We got lost going to the airport and leaving. If you have never been there, try to avoid it. I had only been to Lovefield. Plus to top it all off, we got hit while waiting in bumper to bumper traffic. We didn't have time to call the cops b/c Jonathan would have missed his plane. Luckily it wasn't a lot of damage, just a couple of small dents and scrapes. My poor car. Here are some pictures from our trip up there. Kylee had to get out of the car and we found these huge rocks at a truck stop.

Kylee and I got to Karen's house (my sister) before she got home from work. Here we are waiting on her porch with ALL of our stuff. Remember the days when you only needed a duffle bag for a weekend trip?

We got to relax on Saturday. Poor Karen had to take one of her certification tests for teaching so I helped her study a little. Then my brother-in-law, Scott, took me to the toll tag office and I now have my very own toll tag. It is very exciting that I no longer have to have cash on hand. While I was in Houston I got quite a few toll violations. I thought it was like Austin where you can not pay the toll and they will send you a bill. I found out that it is not that way. I am still waiting on my TICKET and bill. I'm kind of scared!!

We got Shara moved in on Sunday and got home around 6:30 that night. Shara's apt. is very cute and I am excited for her. Thanks for the visits sisters, we had a lot of fun!!

Here are some picture of Kylee in the bluebonnets that we found coming home.

"See Mommy this one is my favorite."

New additions

Jonathan's parents moved into a new house and we got their old stove and fridge. The stove is a flat top and the fridge is a side by side with the little water and ice thingy. Here are our new additions.


Kylee really likes her bathing suits. She has figured out which drawer they are in and helps herself daily. I guess she likes that they are silky like her blankie. Here is a picture of her carrying them around.

I finally put one of them on her. She was trying to put it on herself and she was so excited when I helped her. I think I am going to have return it though, it is a 2T and it left little marks on her. I am still waiting for her to "slim down."

Prayers

As most of you know, my mom had surgery about a month ago to remove a tumor in her salivary gland. The doctor seemed very confident that it was benign. The surgery went well and she was recovering nicely. She doesn't have much use of the right side of her face, but that was to be expected. The doctors said it would take a couple of months to get the feeling back.

She went for her post-op about 2 weeks ago and was told that the tumor was malignant. We were shocked. I drove down the next morning to be with her. I got to stay for two days and go to a doctor's appt. with her. I was glad I could hear from the doctor. He said that it is stage 3, but only considered so because it was so big. They are going to start radiation as soon as they can. She is "living" there in Houston for now so she can make it to all of her doctor's appts. She is staying with a very sweet friend and looking into getting into one of the hospitality houses at MD Anderson. She is in great spirits, but please keep her in your prayers.

My parents are also struggling to find a car that can make the trip back and forth to Houston. Their one working car's transmission went out. Please pray that they can find one that is reliable and reasonably priced.

Here is a picture of my mom with Kylee after the surgery. Doesn't she look great?

Strep, or not

I woke up Sunday morning with a horrible sore throat. I have had strep quite a few times and I assumed that's what it was again. So I headed to a doctor after I got home and the rapid test came back negative. So they sent it off, and negative again. This was by far the worst sore throat I have ever had. It lasted 5 whole days and once I even took a vicatin and it didn't even touch the pain. Jonathan is sick now with the same thing and his strep test came back negative too. Maybe we have found a new strain. I finally can swallow with no pain, its great.

Bryan is home this week, poor guy, two sick parents. It is his Spring Break. But the temperatures are in the 40's and raining. Sunday it was very pretty and Kylee was even sporting her new shorts. Here is a video of her in the SPRINKLER!


As you can see Daddy was a little mean with the water pressure. Kylee came over and gave Mommy a big wet hug.

Here is another one where Kylee is riding brother's 4-wheeler.

Happy 30th Birthday

Happy Birthday to Jonathan!! He is 30 years old today. I am so happy to have the privileged to be his wife and watch him be such a great father to our kids. We had his birthday celebration last night. Here are some pictures.

Kylee really wanted to help Daddy blow out his candles. She even went over and pointed to the lighter to relight the candle. Yes that is an 8 that was cut to look like a 3 :)
Daddy doing the dishes after his own birthday celebration because I have strep :(

Bryan decided that he needed to measure the whole house. Kylee of course had to join in.

Eating, Bubba and other stuff

I just got home from work, put Kylee down for a nap, ate a quick lunch and now I finally have a quiet moment to blog a little. Sorry it has been so long. I didn't realize how long it had been until I looked back at the pictures from my camera. I have some catching up to do!

We had a great time with Bryan weekend before last. And he gets to come home again on Saturday. It is his Spring Break. It is a week before mine, so he gets to go the preschool with Kylee and I. I'm sure he will occupy himself with his DS or a movie and it will work out fine. Here is a picture from his last visit. Kylee wasn't sure what to think about someone else being in her bed.

We had Kylee's baby blessing at church a couple of weeks ago. It was very nice. Grandma got to come, but the rest of the grandparents were sick or working. So here is a picture of her all pretty.
I'm sorry I don't have any of the actual ceremony. Let me just say that it was the longest service ever. It actually lasted 15 minutes shorter than most, but we had to keep Kylee in the auditorium the whole time. Crazy!! I think she ate her weight in goldfish.

Kylee loves to help mommy clean. I used to block her out of the kitchen when I would mop, but now that she can walk I let her hang out with me. Plus my sis got me a swiffer wetjet for Christmas and it does a good job without making your floor dangerously wet. So Daddy got my old swiffer and shortened it. Now it is perfect for Miss Kylee.



Yesterday was a very long day. I went to work all day tutoring. Then I came home and got a quick snack with Jonathan. Then we headed over to church for our biweekly counseling. Then we went to the babysitter's to pick up Kylee. We grabbed a bite to eat and headed home. We hadn't seen Kylee all day and we were really hungry. So we decided to have a picnic in the living room hoping that we could play with Kylee while we ate. Well of course she had other plans. She wanted to eat with us! Jonathan got chicken which came with a roll. Kylee helped herself to the roll while we were in the kitchen getting plates. Then I was eating my chicken sandwich and she came over and grabbed a hunk of bread off of my bun. What a silly nut. So after she finished her carbs (we only let her have a little of course). I got her some crushed ice that we had in the freezer and let her go to town. I don't know what her fascination is with ice, but she loves it!


Notice how messy my house is in all of these pictures. I have decided that it is more important to play with her than maintain a clean house. Can I hear an amen?