"I'm a magical unicorn..."

We were surprised by a visit from the Millers yesterday, Kevin, Cam, Ben and Jack. It was Ben's birthday yesterday so I was glad to be able to tell him Happy Birthday! Of course his present isn't wrapped yet... he'll have to wait for his birthday celebration when they return from Utah next week. Luckies are going skiing!
They came bearing gifts! Kaitlyn unwrapped her birthday presents; beautiful pink princess gloves with bracelets and jewelry from Cameron, and a musical rocking unicorn from Ben and Jack (Kev and Mandy too of course :) ). The unicorn was a hit from the beginning, and still today, the kids are taking turns riding "her". What great gifts! Thanks Millers!
Kaitlyn's two year birthday is slowly approaching... March 15. I can't believe she'll be 2 already, but along with her age comes a little more freedom, for her and ME. We're finally getting to that phase where we don't have to be home bound, which is AWESOME! So far it's not making me want any more kids! :)

The Miller kids came to visit with gifts for Kaitlyn!

Scared!

One of Kaitlyn's favorite words right now is "scared" and she uses it regularly! It so cute, and pathetic, all at the same time! She uses it at the smallest things... like for instance, the other day she had something like banana or cheese stuck to the back of her spoon. She said, "Scared!" and then said, "Look! Monster!" Ha ha ha. No honey, it's just food, eat it!
Yesterday she did get scared for sure though. She was in the butler's pantry by the back door when Kona decided to announce that DADDY AND JAMES WERE HOME! I was in the bedroom and heard Kona bark then a blood-curdling scream come from Kaitlyn's little mouth. It was so sad! But funny! I've literally never heard her scream like that before. Aw, poor thing. :)

Whew...

As you saw on a previous post, we attended a wedding last weekend. WELL... on the way to that wedding we stopped at Walgreens to get a card for the happy couple. We pulled up, and I hopped out to run in while Nathan hung out in the car with the kids.
I was so proud of myself for walking in, finding the perfect card, and back out in 3 minutes. Literally.
As soon as I made my entrance back into the car I was greeted with a nice little story from Nathan.
"It wasn't a second after you shut the door to go in there that James said, 'WHEW!(wiping his brow) Got rid of her!'"
We had a nice laugh... then I cried. No, just kidding. ;)

Wedding Fun

We attended Todd and Heather's wedding on Saturday night, with kids in tow. I meant to find a sitter, honestly, but it just slipped my mind. Once I realized I didn't have one I tried to find one, but... the kids had a BLAST! ;)

Don't smile James!

Upside-down boy!

A sweet hug for a sweet sister.

CHEESE! This was BEFORE Kaitlyn skinned her knee. :(

Look, MOM! Cards with pictures on them!

Our family, so cute!

Kaitlyn loves her Papa!

Fences are fun! Ha.

"Hold you?"

Kaitlyn is finally starting to remember Uncle Richie enough to be comfortable with him. We've been WAITING for this!!

Uncle Rich and James engage in "flip your tie" style dancing!

Break it down!

Weeeeeee!

Me too! Me too!

Awesome sunset against the Florida landscape.

My little peanut... she's almost 2 years old!

Say CHEESE Pops!

Ah yes, CAKE! AAAAAHH!

Time-out and I do it.

Kaitlyn had her first ever time out today on the naughty spot. Since she's almost 2 now, I thought it's time to make a go of it after her all out fit about not being able to hold the wet wipes from the bathroom. She was irate! I was trying to get her socks on to then put her shoes on but her fit went so wild that she was taking her socks OFF after I would get them on. This was a lot of fun since I was trying to get us out the door to take James to school.
She actually did quite well with the whole thing, she only got up once. She knows what "stay here" means apparently. Ha. Here we go!
Kaitlyn also has an obsession with doing things by herself. "I do it!" she says and pushes your hand away. She loves buckles, especially the buckle on her booster seat and the one in the car seat. I'm totally fine with her doing things by herself as long as she can a) HURRY UP and b) do it correctly. This never happens. Ha.

Shoes aren't cheap.

I think I have spent a small fortune on shoes for James. Granted, he's a boy, and he doesn't need all the fancies that a girl needs, but still, he goes through shoes as much as a roll of toilet paper... okay, maybe not. :) Thankfully he has slowed down now, but his feet are going to be HUGE, and NARROW to boot.
Luckily, we have Harrison and Bennett to hand the shoes down to, but probably not for long in the tennis shoe department. You see, The Methodist School for Early Education has plasma cars. I love plasma cars, and so do the kids. However, before James went to Methodist, he didn't really know about dragging his shoes behind him to stop. Apparently this is a rite of passage in the coolness factor at Methodist, because he now drags his feet. He got his first official HOLE in his shoe a few days ago when I inspected them. Well, there goes his awesome New Balance tennis shoes.
It's funny, too, because I remember my sister-in-law, Mandy, complaining about the plasma cars at Methodist way back when her kids were there, and how they would get holes in their shoes as well. Why don't they just get rid of them? I really don't understand... they must get complaints from mothers like crazy! But have I complained to the school? NO. Ha.
Kaitlyn and I are off to Target to get official plasma car shoes for school. Maybe Payless, we'll see. I wonder how long the next pair will last!!! Geez.

Snuggle time

James is not cuddly. In fact, he insists that he does NOT like kisses. However, I do get about 5 to 10 minutes of James snuggle time when I read to him before bed at night. It's sweet, really. All I have to do is lie down by him and put my left arm up over my head. This is his signal to snuggle up to me, usually putting his head right up on my shoulder. We read, cuddled up, and it is one of the best highlights of my day.
For Kaitlyn's bedtime routine, we read stories, and then sing with the light off and rock in the chair. When we sit down to read, she likes to ask for certain books, just not quite by name yet (she's great with "Peek-a-Who" that we inherited from the Miller kids). Songs do have names though... and usually the first one she asks for is "Twinkle", then "Blackbird" and then "Sunshine" and "Lala" (which I take to assume she means Lullaby). It's really sweet to hear her ask for these songs, and the other night she actually was singing along with me. She'd only say the last word of the line, but it was so sweet, and I was so proud that she knew it!
Another cute thing that Kaitlyn does during song time is rest her head on my shoulder and put her arms around me. When I sing, she lies down, when I stop, she sits up. As SOON as I start another song, back down she goes. So cute.

Update: Nathan informed me last night after putting Kaitlyn to bed that she really enjoys her bedtime routine. When you try to stray from the routine and skip a step, like rocking in her glider and singing, she does NOT take it well. Last night Nathan read to her, put her in her crib and said goodnight. Kaitlyn's response?
She pointed her finger and said, "NO! Twinkle! Chair!"
So Nathan said that they sat down in the rocker and "twinkled it up"- ha.

God tapped me on the shoulder last night.

Nathan and I weren't feeling that great last night, for different reasons, but none-the-less, we were tired and cranky. The kids were both in bed and both awake, but it was Kaitlyn that was a motor mouth. I decided to go up and check on her to see if she had filled her diaper when I noticed that James' door was cracked open. I knew that Nathan had closed it after tucking him into bed... hmmm... suspicious.
I walked in to his room to find James in bed cuddled up at the foot of his bead rather than at the top (not unusual). I casually asked him if he had dirtied his diaper, and gave him a good pat on the bottom to see if his diaper was wet or anything. WHAT? NO DIAPER!
I investigated further and found that he had gone to the bathroom, taken off his diaper to go potty, put his jammy shorts back on and gotten back into bed. All by himself! Good boy James... but you need that diaper!
I asked him why he didn't have his diaper on, and he says, "I just want to try tonight without a diaper on." Awww, what a courageous little boy. I calmly explained to him that his diaper is usually soaked in the morning and if he wanted to try that sometime, nap time would be better than nighttime and that he could still try to "hold it" all night to see if he could keep his diaper dry. He agreed, diaper went on, and off I went back downstairs.
His diaper was like a lead canon ball this morning. Whew. Good call on my part. Ha.

Kaitlyn talks to the camera!!

A big lunch out at Steak 'N Shake. MMmm...

My trip to Austin to see the Powell Family!

I took a little trip to Austin to see my new godson, Sutton Powell. I also wanted to go there to photograph the family, for a gift to Courtney for having another BOY. :) Sutton is adorable, just like his big brothers. No... no way in heck am I having another baby... yet. Ha.
I had a lot of fun there in Austin getting to play with the boys and be able to help out with daily things like making dinner, etc. One night we had Grandma Casey's turkey noodle bake... man was that good!
Here are my favorites from our photo shoot at the Powell house... Steve was too busy for us... just kidding Steve. Ha.
















Love you guys!!!

Aw-rite...

Kaitlyn's new favorite word is "alright". She says it without the "l" sound though, so it's more "aw-rite". One of the funniest times I remember her using this was last week at bed time. She has this slightly irritating way of constantly repeating "MOM?" one after another until I come up to see what she needs while she's in her crib. Literally, "Mom? Mom? Mom? Mom?" (also can be DAD?- ha). Fully annoyed, I went upstairs one night to tell to stop, and I went in and said, "Kaitlyn, now that's enough, you need to go to sleep." and she replied... "alright" and laid down. I nearly fell over in laughter. I also was taken by surprise that she didn't cry when I left. Since then she uses "alright" a ton... do you want breakfast? alright... do you want a drink? alright... you need to eat some asparagus first before you get any more hot dog... alright. :)
She also is attaching the name of the person that she is so politely thanking. "Thank you, Mom." or "Thank you, Dad!" If she looks at me and says, "Thank you Dad!" she immediately fixes her mistake and says, "Thank you, Mom!" However, when she says, "Thank you, Mom!" to James, he fixed it first before she even has a chance by saying to her, "No, I'm JAMES!" then she says, "Thank you, Deem!"
Her favorite ritual now at night is running around naked after her bath. It's so cute to see her tooshie swinging back and forth as she's running through her room and around in the hallway... usually carrying Lovie. That's just one of those cliche things that kids like to do, but it's just do darn cute!
Kaitlyn will be 2 years old one month from today!!!!!!!!! Sheesh.

Oh to be caught up on the blog...

So I've really been bad about blogging the last few weeks. My schedule has been ramped up with a new MOMS group that I'm facilitating, which requires a lot of time for preparation, etc., plus photography work time, and a trip to Austin, and throwing parenting all in the middle. :)
I flew to Austin on Wednesday morning, very early, and by noon, I was there having lunch with Courtney, Molly, Aunt Bev and sweet baby Sutton.
I had a great trip there, filled with lots of laughs, lots of baby time, some photography, and much more food. Ha. The last thing I wanted to be was a burden while I was there so I jumped on the wagon and made dinners for the Powell family, earning my keep. Ha.
My goal of the trip was to photograph Sutton and anyone else that would have been willing. It turns out that Alex and Gabe are excellent subjects when they are having fun... we just talked, causally, about cars, favorite foods, school, etc, with me snapping in the middle of conversations. Turns out Gabe and I have a TON in common... we both favor chocolate ice cream, chocolate chip cookies, and PORSCHES! :)
Sutton doesn't have a career in baby modeling... that's what we decided. ;) Courtney would get him fattened up and asleep and when we'd try to photograph him, he'd cry almost immediately. However, it turned out, that the last day he cut me some slack and modeled with his Mommy for me. I did get some super cute photos of him by himself too, so I'm anxious to have some time to work on those here at home. To answer everyone's question, NO, I don't have baby fever now from seeing Sutton. HA.
As for the Powell family, I wish them luck finding and getting rid of the ever present sour-milk funk emitting from the back of the van. Good luck! Ha ha.
I was excited to get home yesterday after a few days away from my sweet kids. James came down with some kind of sickness while I was gone, so the mommy-guilt of being away was tripled. I hate having my kids with someone else when they are sick! Booo. They did fine, though, and all is *hopefully* better now. I did get to video chat with the kids when I was in Austin, and it was nice to see James all cuddled up on my side of our bed. Sweet.
I came home to a full dinner already prepared by my wonderful husband. I ended up waiting for my bag for an HOUR so it was time to eat when I got home. It was the best Valentines present I could have asked for... along with a good hot dog for dinner. Mmmm.
Today, Nathan is off to the Daytona 500 with Rich, Kevin, Cameron, Ben, Jack, and Ben's friend Peter. I hope they have a great time... and hope they have good weather, since it's a bit ugly outside right now! Hopefully it's nicer farther North!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Grandma Kathy gave the kids M&M beanie baby bears. OOOOOH, what a hit!

A scolding

Kaitlyn was walking down the stairs the other day with Daddy when Daddy tried to reach out a hand to help. Kaitlyn looked at him with a stern stare, pointed her finger up in the air and shouts, "IIIIIIII! I do it!"
Silly Miss Independent.