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?

Never underestimate your 13 month old!

We have always known that Kylee is independent and seems to have no fear. But what we didn't realize is that she is becoming capable of a lot more! Yesterday morning I was getting ready for work. I was in the bathroom putting on my make-up and Kylee was walking in and out of the bathroom entertaining herself very nicely. I hadn't seen her for a while and I wondered what she was up to. She walked into the bathroom and she was smacking her lips. I looked down and she was holding a PEPSI! Daddy must have left it out in the living room. We later figured out that it was on his desk and she must have gotten on her tiptoes to get it. It was all down her shirt and she was a mess! I took the pepsi away and to my surprise, I didn't hear a peep from her. She walked back into the living room and located the puddle of pepsi that she had left in the entry way. She then splashed in it and and drank some more from her fingers. It was like she was saying, "That's okay mom, I have more!"

This morning I was in the kitchen fixing our lunches and Kylee was looking in the pantry. I saw her grab a container of dognuts out of the corner of my eye. I didn't think anything of this though, because she has grabbed these every morning since I have had them. She usually carries them around until I put them back. Well this morning she carried them to the couch and got them OPEN! She then got one out and was eating it when I found her. She licked every bit of chocolate off of her fingers. So I will now have to sweep the LR for drinks and keep the pantry door closed.

On another note we are still in the rental. Me and the corolla have gotten pretty close. Jonathan got stopped the other night for driving too fast and the cop asked for his info. He looked at him and said, "This is a rental? It looks like ya'll have moved in." (Don't worry he just got a warning). Tomorrow will be day 30 with our rental car. The day that insurance will cut-off our rental coverage. They are trying to get the shop to pay for the extra week that they are estimating. I can't wait to get my rodeo back so I don't feel like a mouse on the highway.

Here are some picture I don't think I have posted yet. If I have oh well I don't have any new ones.

Don't worry we have child locks now :)

Silly girl

Kylee is like most toddlers in that she doesn't care beans about her toys. She would much rather play with anything else. I keep my receipts in the drawer in the coffee table and Kylee loves to open it and get them out. Recently I got a little organized and put them in a folder thingy. Kylee found them and well this is what happened.

Pigtails

I took these pictures for my mom (she bought this precious outfit for Kylee's b-day). I attempted to put Kylee's hair in pigtails today. The picture that you see is the third time that I had to redo. Kylee was less cooperative each time (they did look better this morning). But anyway my mom said that they are only called pigtails if they are braided. Is that true? I call them pigtails if there are two and a ponytail if there is one. Leave your comments :)

Brother's room has been closed off since his last home visit. He is coming home tomorrow so I went in there to tidy up. Kylee wanted to explore everything!

Yea for Presidents!!

As most of you know I work at my old school in Killeen on Mondays and Wednesdays. So yesterday I hurried around the house to get out the door by 7:20. Jonathan took Kylee to the babysitter and all was well. Then I got to my school and noticed that there were no cars in the parking lot, weird. So i drove around to the front and looked at the sign and saw that it was President's day, a holiday. Ooops. I don't teach on Fridays and nobody mentioned it. I printed out a school holiday, but I obviously didn't look at it. So I turned around to go back to Temple and get Kylee from the babysitters.

So we had a whole day to ourselves. It was fun. We danced, rode on her car, built with blocks and got to try out her new miniature chair from Aunt Shara :) I guess she was having so much fun with Mommy that she didn't want to take a nap. She took an hour nap in the morning, but it took forever for her to go to sleep. Then she talked and fussed during what was supposed to be her afternoon nap. She finally slept 20 minutes in the car, but that was it. Then she fought going to bed. I don't know what has gotten into her!

On another note, Moms I have a question. She has been waking up at 5 ish and not going back to sleep. I have tried two things, I can leave her in her bed until 6 and then get her up and feed her. Then she stays up. Or I can go in and nurse her at 5 and she goes back to sleep until 7. I don't want to feed her too much, but I like her to sleep until 7! Oh and she goes to sleep between 7 and 7:30. Have any of you had similar experiences? Advice?

Pictures!

Her cute little chair.

Enjoying the freedom of getting out of her chair by herself.

Riding her car with Mommy's hat!

Happy Valentine's Day

It's a little late, but I wanted to wish all of you a happy Valentine's Day. I hope that you had a wonderful day with your loved ones. In the past Jonathan and I would attempt to have a Romantic evening out. I remember how important this day was, but now that we have Kylee it wasn't so important to be romantic, but to take a day to be thankful for each other.

Saturday morning Kylee and I went to Wal-Mart to finally have her 12 month pictures taken. She is 13 months, but close enough, right? I took some pictures of her in her dress at home. And yes I did attempt to put her hair in a little ponytail. I know, I need practice.



We headed out for an early dinner at Chili's. We got there about 4:45 and got to sit right down. Kylee really liked the corn on the cob. I tried to cut some corn off of it, but she insisted on eating the actually cob. So Jonathan cut off a section and she chowed down. She now has one tooth on the top and another on its way and she is already putting them to good use. Oh and on a teeth note, I brushed her teeth for the first time tonight. She did very well. She thought it was funny and giggled while she tried to eat all of the toothpaste off of the little brush :)

After dinner we headed over the nearest Redbox and rented a movie. We got "The Traitor." I had never heard of it, but it turned out to be pretty good. Definitely not a romantic movie, but Jonathan enjoyed it. Then we headed over to the mall to get some goodies. I absolutely love the popcorn from the movie theater so we got some. I used to feel funny just going up and buying popcorn, but I have since gotten over it. Then we got Jonathan some chocolate covered coffee beans.

After we had our goodies, we headed over to the play area in the mall and let Kylee run around. She had a blast like she always does there. If you locals haven't taken your little ones there, you should try it! Then we came home, put Kylee to bed and enoyed our goodies while we watched the movie. It was a great day. What did you do for Valentine's Day?
I just love this picture because it shows how Kylee crosses her legs while she eats :)

Great Hubby

Jonathan and I have really been working on getting organized around here. It all started when we lost some of our W-2's and realized that we needed to get our act together. So we went through all the piles of papers around here and shredded most of them (that felt good). We have also been trying to get our priorities straight. We have decided to not turn on the TV until Kylee has gone to bed. Its amazing how much more time we have to spend with her when that darn TV isn't on. We have been taking her outside and letting her run around on the trampoline...she loves it! We need to save for a net now b/c it is making me nervous that she might go over the side.

But back to my hubby. He had to cover someone's late shift the other night so he got off 2 hours early today. When he got home I was cleaning the house while Kylee was napping. He said, "Let me eat my lunch and then I'll help you clean." I nearly fell out of my chair! There was no nagging or anything it just came out of his mouth. I absolutely love it when he helps me clean. Not only is it nice to do something together, but he cleans better than I do. He doesn't get overwhelmed, he just keeps going until the job is done. I love that about him. So I just wanted to give him credit for being so sweet!!

What Have You Done?

I was tagged to participate in this...What Have You Done?...questionnaire.

I tag Chris, Kari, Kristi, Alyson and Michelle to participate, just copy and paste in your blog girls and bold all of the things you have done. It's kind of fun!!

1. Started your own blog

2. Slept under the stars

3. Played in a band

4. Visited Hawaii

5. Watched a meteor

6. Given to charity

7. Been to Disneyland

8. Climbed a mountain

9. Held a praying mantis

10. Sang a solo

11. Bungee jumped

12. Visited Paris

13. Watched a lightning storm

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch

15. Adopted a child

16. Had food poisoning

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown your own vegetables

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France

20. Slept on an overnight train

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Drank an entire Sonic Route 66 by yourself

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb

26. Gone skinny dipping

27. Run a Marathon

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

29. Seen a total eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset

31. Hit a home run

32. Been on a cruise

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person

34. Traced your family tree at least 4 generations

35. Seen an Amish community

36. Learned a new language

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

39. Gone rock climbing

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David

41. Sung karaoke

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant

44. Swam with a dolphin

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance

47. Had your portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling

52. Kissed in the rain

53. Played in the mud

54. Gone to a drive-in theater

55. Been IN a movie

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Cut your own hair

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies

62. Gone whale watching

63. Got flowers for no reason

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma

65. Gone sky diving

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp

67. Bounced a check

68. Flown in a helicopter

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten Caviar

72. Pieced a quilt

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Driven a stick shift

75. Been fired from a job

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had your picture in the newspaper

85. Read the entire Bible

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someone’s life

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous

92. Read an entire series of books by one author

93. Lost a loved one

94. Had a baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person

96. Seen the Pacific Ocean

97. Been involved in a law suit

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee

100. Seen Mount Rushmore in person

101. Learned to play an instrument

Trampoline

Kylee absolutely loves to go outside these days. She stands at the window and bangs on it while crying to let us know. Needless to say we usually take her outside. As soon as we get out there she wants to get on the trampoline. She giggles with glee when we bounce her. Here are some pictures.

Talking

So Kylee has held out all of this time. Jonathan and I think that she is perfectly capable of communicating by speaking, but simply chooses not to. Don't get me wrong, she definitely communicates, just not through words so far.

My sister Debi got her a new jungle animal book for her birthday and she loves it. So now my daughter can make the sounds of an elephant and a snake. Most kids might choose to first utter sounds of cats or dogs, not my girl. I tried to get her to perform for her preschool teacher this morning and Kylee looked at me like I was from mars! But hey any progress is good.

Her babysitter said that she heard her say, "No" yesterday. I haven't heard it yet, so I am hoping it was a fluke. I would rather her say anything but no. Sorry I don't have any new pictures :(

Hug Your Babies

Yesterday I was driving to work after I had dropped Kylee off at the babysitters and I found some black ice. Before I new it, I was spinning in circles and seeing my life flash before me. I finally skidded to a halt on the other side of the bridge. I was on the inside lane and I crossed over two lanes of traffic. I got out without a scratch.

I immediately began praying and thanking God for saving my life. I realized that my life was totally in God's hands. I had heard of others having trouble in ice, but I always thought that I would know how to handle it. I quickly learned that I had absolutely no control.

I know God was watching over me b/c it could have been sooo much worse. There was no traffic coming from the other direction when I crossed over the two lanes. There was a nice big wall that kept my car from going over the bridge. Kylee was not with me. A very nice man stopped to help me and let me use his cell phone (of all days for mine to cut out).

The cop arrived about 20 minutes after we called him and then Jonathan came about 15 minutes after that. He was my knight in shining armor. I was so glad to see him. I ended up taking him back to work and heading on to Killeen (driving a different route of course). As soon as I picked Kylee up from the babysitter's I gave her a big hug and thanked God for giving me the chance to hug my baby many more times. So go and hug your baby!!!

PARTY!

Well we survived the 1st birthday, and we had a blast! All of Kylee's cousins that live in the area were able to join us and Kylee was her happy old self the whole time. I let her take a nap while everyone was getting here and visiting and then we woke her up and she adjusted quite well. She was a little clingy to Mommy, but that is to be expected.

She actually helped open the presents this time, unlike Christmas where she just watched me do it. She massaged her cake, but didn't eat it until we put a little on a separate plate for her. I think the whole thing was a little overwhelming. I made the cake and I think it turned out a lot like the picture I found on the internet. For those of you who don't know, my mom is a cake decorator. While she was here to coach me, she didn't do any of the icing, except the writing.

Bryan was also able to come home this weekend for the party. He was such a sweet big brother. We had a good time with him. It was very hard to take him back. It is getting harder and harder on both of us with each home visit. Please pray that Jonathan and I are able to get in the right place to take him back this summer. We have been working through some things, but we aren't quite there yet.

Here are some pictures!

Setting the scene

The birthday girl!!

Why is everyone staring at me?

This was my modelThe final product before Kylee got to it!

Yea for cake!
Should I eat it?
Maybe my baby wants some?
Mommy, they're staring again.

Jungle Boogie

Last weekend we went to Austin and got to see Kylee's cousin Jackson. Here they are doing the "Jungle Boogie."

Here are some other pictures from our visit.

Kylee and cousin Jackson

Kylee and her Great-Grandmother
Kylee, Jackson and Nonny