Christmas 2008

Kayla had a wonderful Christmas and was so surprised with what Santa brought her since she had been a good little girl all year. Mommy and Daddy where naughty and bad if you asked Kayla since she didn't get her black baby sister for Christmas, which is a really long funny story, but she was excited with her gifts. We hope that everyone had a wonderful and happy holiday. We will post more pictures for Kayla's 3rd birthday coming up on Jan 2nd....less than a week yeah!









Kayla playing "Dress-up" with her Disney Princess Trunk


More Dress Up



Kayla helping Daddy open more presents!

Helping Kayla open Presents

Brushing Mommy's Hair on Christmas Morning

I will make you beauuttttiful Mommy hold still...she is so Darn CUTE!

How does this thing work? Mommy it's broken

Christmas Cookies with Kayla 2008

Kayla Unpatiently waiting for the cookies to get done. She was ready to eat them as soon as we decorated them, they where very yummy!







Before the cookies where baked, she wanted to use her Princess Sprinkles.
















































Trying to keep Kayla out of the cookie dough long enough to mix it all up.















Kayla loves to help cook and is great helper most of the time. We had so much fun making cookies this year. She really got into the cookie decorating too!

Christmas with My Best Friends 2008

Kayla wanted Sara and Mandy to wear her Sleeping Beauty Costume, so they attempted just for her, it was so funny. It was a great night had by all.







Paul and I with our tissue paper hats on










Mandy, Kayla in her Sleeping Beauty Costume, and Sara with their tissue paper hats on.










Daddy with a pink tissue paper hat on, he was such a great sport about it all night.










My friends Sara, Mandy, and I get together once a week and do GNI--Girls Night In, since it is cheaper to go to each other's houses and eat and be sociable than going out to eat all the time, plus we don't have to rush, we have been doing it for about two years, it has been so much fun. We exchanged Christmas Presents with each other the week before. Here are some of the fun pictures of that night!

Christmas Play 2008

I was laughing so hard that I couldn't take a really great picture, but Ms. Katie is about 7 months pregnant and was carrying Kayla back towards her classmates.







Kayla singing and Dancing with her classmates.




Kayla getting ready to bolt and run around the stage....she was great!

Mommy and Daddy with Kayla after the show!


Kayla had her Christmas Program with her daycare at Porter Memorial Church here in Lexington on Dec 6th, 2008. Her class dressed up as Chipmunks, as each class had a theme. Of course my child stole the show, she ran around on the stage, and wanted to play especially since she had this huge audience to be able to make laugh, she is so much like Paul, always the jokester. She did eventually stand with her class mates and sing and dance. Santa Clause was watching her she said so she had to be good...lol.

Thanksgiving 2008

My Handsome and Yes Ladies Single Daddy......any takers let me know! LOL


Kayla and Grandmother Hodges reading a Animal Book with Sound Effects.




Kayla, my daddy, and I went to my Grandmother Hodges' house this year for Thanksgiving, it was the first time I had been home to Charlotte since Paul and I got married, 6 years ago. Kayla got to meet her Great Grandmother for the first time, it was such a wonderful time for us all. My Grandmother is such a wonderful woman and a retired school teacher with the patience of a angel even at 86 years old.

Halloween 2008----A little late!

Kayla and her Prince Charming for Halloween


My Beautiful Cinderella.

Kayla was so excited about Halloween this year, she loved her Cinderella costume. She tuckered out pretty quickly though since it got chilly quickly after we started and she hates to wear a jacket.

Just Ramblings.......

So I couldn't sleep last night because I couldn't manage to get my brain to turn off...shocker I know considering I am go go go all the time. But since it has been 10 years since I have graduated high school, my reunion has came and went, I have been thinking of all the things that I have accomplished and what I had hoped to accomplish because when I was 18 I thought I had all the time in the world. Now no one has to feel compelled to read this or even comment on it, but I felt like I would feel better if I wrote it!

Accomplishments that I am proud of:

Married the love of my life, we have been together for 11 years and married almost 6 years, most of which have been the happiest years of my life, I just wish parenthood and marriage came with a guide book....lol.

Speaking of Parenthood, I had three unsuccessful pregnancies, and one pregnancy that resulted in the most beautfil little girl in the world, Kayla is the best thing that I have ever done in my life, I hope that we can have at least one more! (soon I hope)

Had a successful, rewarding, and extremely challenging career in the United States Marine Corps as a Military Police Officer, I miss it more and more everyday, but my family and marriage were the most important thing, so alas I am a civlian.

I have managed to go to college on and off and only have 6 classes left....almost done!

We have purchased our first home and made it ours! No more painting just new carpet, countertops in the kitchen and new windows and we are done!

I work for a company that appreciates me and rewards me for all of my hard work, which is what we all want in our jobs!

I have re-established a relationship with both of parents, I still have good days and bad days with them, but that is to be expected!

Regrets that I have so far:

Not staying at Barry University and finishing college with all of my friends and being able to have that piece of paper that I have been working toward for 10 years!

The three miscarriages that I have had, I have always told myself it was God's way of telling me that there wasn't something right with the situation to bring a baby into the world or something wrong with the baby, but it still doesn't make it any easier to deal with!

Getting out of the Marine Corps and not fighting longer and harder than the two years that I did to get them to fix my right knee and pay for the surgeries needed to fix it.....no cartlidge left it sucks!

Not staying in touch with my friends and family as well as I should , life does happen and we seem to go in different directions, I should try harder to be involved in their lives.

Realizing that I am not Super Mom,Super Wife, and Super Friend/Family Memeber, but that I exhaust myself trying to be all three!

That I am so stubborn and strong willed that I never ask for help when I really need it!-I am working on that though....I think most women are like this though, it seems to get worse when you become a parent!

I suppose that is all for now.....I just had to get that off my chest now maybe I can actually take a nap later and sleep comfortably instead of tossing and turning all the time! Love you all for reading this post!

Dressing Up Like Mommy

Notice the "pearl" necklace and shoes...she walks in them better than Mommy does, less distance to the floor if she falls down.



Notice she was trying really hard to put them on and the concentration! LOL :-)















Kayla has been really into dressing up lately. I was trying on my shoes for the Marine Corps Ball earlier this evening and she wanted to wear them, so I of course got the camera out! Becs I know that you will be excited two blogs in one day! That is a record for me! LOL.....

Halloween 2008

Kayla and her Mommy. I went as a witch, I loved the hat and so did Kayla, it was a lot of fun! I will keep it for next year too!



Kayla acting shy with "Prince Charming"



Kayla and her "Prince Charming" Daddy












Our Beautiful Cinderella, so is getting so big!



Kayla was so excited for week about Halloween, but unfortunately a few days before Halloween she got a stomach virus, you can't tell in these pictures that she felt bad, but she had been running a high fever and throwing up for two days. But we promised her if she felt better that she could go Halloweening as she calls it. We only went out for about an hour since she was sick and once it got colder in the evening she was done. She was so much fun though! Hope everyone had a great Halloween too!

Pumpkin Carving with Daddy

Our Finished Pumpkins....Kayla choose the shapes on their faces!

Playing in the Pumpkin Seeds

Kayla was afraid to stick her hands inside the pumpkin, she said that there was a monster there! LOL!!!!

Before we cut the Pumpkins, notice the Disney Princess table she had to do at that table first.....LOL my little princess is so big now! :-(

Kayla was trying to help any way she could, we have had these Pumpkins since Thursday and she was so excited.

Kayla and Daddy drawing on the pumpkins!

Kayla has been really excited about pumpkins this year, so we bought two "small" pumpkins, which I would have said that they where large pumpkins. Anyways, she was really excited and she found her Cinderella Princess Costume as well, she has been dying to wear it, I have tried to hide it several places, but she always seems to find it. We had a busy day here of cleaning and airing the house out, since the low tonight is going to be a nice 37 degrees, we have to turn the heat on too!

Kayla, Paul, and I went ahead and carved our pumpkins, she had a blast, she even helped pull out the brains and separate the seeds.....I can't wait roasted pumpkin seeds! Thanks honey!

It has offically happened---the embarassing bathroom trip!

The other evening Kayla and I went to the bathroom at this little pizza place, it is really great because it caters to families-and since we are in full potty training mode, we made several trips to the bathroom. On one of our many trips to the restroom I decided that I would pee pee too. Since Kayla is potty training I always praise her and make a huge deal about it, I usually clap and tell her good job for pee peeing in the potty. So I am sitting on the potty to pee pee and Kayla announces very loudly that She tooted and said excuse me, which was of course very good manners and cute at the same time, but they she starts clapping and telling me good job, Mommy did you go pee pee in the potty? Yeah Mommy!!!! That wasn't so bad, I could take it. We finished our business in the bathroom and washed our hands and went back to the dinner table. About 15-20 mins later we went back to the bathroom and I guess an older lady was in there doing number 2, and we walked in and Kayla said it was yucky and pascoooo-which of course means it stinks- and said did you go poopy Mommy? I quickly got her in the stall did her thing, washed hands , and got out of the bathroom before the stinky lady could get out of the bathroom too! I couldn't look at any other ladies in the restaurant without wondering which one was the stinky one, thankful we where getting ready to leave. I couldn't stop laughing about it on the way home. I am sure that this is one of many times that this will happen, she was so proud of herself and her observations. LOL the joys of motherhood and potty training. Thankfully we are almost in panties or big girl panties as she calls them, even at night! YEAH!

Hello

Hello All, so it has been a while since I have posted anything on my Little one! Although she is growing like a weed, also there is only like four people that ever look at this blog anyways. Kayla is doing great, she is able to sing her ABC's quite vocally and count to 10 pretty regularly. She can also tell you her name and age when asked, so as far as I can tell we are right on track for 31 month old.
Potty Training is going great! Almost completely potty trained in less than a month, that is wonderful by my books, she has potty parties at school on Fridays if there is not accident, the school makes them into to theme parties and then allows one child in the class that hasn't had any accidents to be the "class special helper" for the day. It is apparently a very big deal. Kayla loves her "big girl panties" too! I don't have any current pictures of her to post, but I promise to get a camera in her face ASAP!

Kayla Washing the Car with Daddy

Busy weekend and day. She got to wash the car, go to the park, help cook dinner, and eat ice cream. Man, she was tired. We paid for the little cat nap, she didn't go back to sleep until midnight. Man I wish I had all that energy.

We just washed Paul's car yesterday, but Mommy's car was dirty too! So she got it started a day early! She did good though, she also helped water the lawn! LOL

She was mad because she was getting wet and dirty! She is just like me! LOL

She helped wash one side of the car, that one side is REALLY clean!

Kayla was so excited yesterday that she was going to go play in the water outside and help Daddy wash the cars. She was really happy that she could get naked, she normally loves it. But yesterday I put her little bikini top on and she cried and kept asking for a shirt. So, she helped washed the car in her bottoms and t-shirt. She was so cute. She finally tuckered out and took a cat nap too! She is so cute! Although, she definitely keeps us buys. :-)