Merry Christmas!

Kylie is doing so good staying out of the presents and Christmas tree. Don't get me wrong, she does go investigate every now and then. She usually only touches. She doesn't destroy, which I know some babies do. Here's she is checking out a Christmas dog that moves and sings. I think he scared her at first.

Last weekend, we went to Warren's squadron Kids' Christmas party. They brought Santa and Mrs. Claus in on a truck. As soon as Cailin saw him, she yelled out, "Oh Santa! You brought my costume?" Aww! So cute! She's asking Santa for a Snow White dress or costume and a Barbie guitar.

She then ran up to him and gave him a hug! She's definately not scared of him this year. She kept talking to them, so we had to tell her he needed to get inside. Hee!

The parents bring (beforehand) a wrapped present for their children for Santa to "give" them. She was one of the first names he called so she ran up there to get her present. Santa gave her a Disney princess book that has a puzzle on each page. Two things she likes in one, Santa did good! All the kids took off after they were done, she didn't. She stood watching them until they were done. I wish this pic was clearer, but oh well!

I don't think I have posted this pic before. This was Cailin and Kylie before another kids' Christmas party on base.

Merry Christmas! Let innoncence and joy prevail. May the magic of Christmas never end! ~ Mary Engelbreit

Smile

This morning I was holding Kylie while I was checking email and I looked down at her. She was sleeping so sweetly. Look at those eyelashes and that sweet little mouth. So I had to take a picture, she squinted a little in her sleep from the flash.

It must have woke her up, so I thought I'd show you how she wakes up every morning. Here she is trying to open her eyes. Notice the grin already starting.

Here she is trying to open her eyes. See the smile! Every morning, she wakes up with a huge smile on her face. She's my Smiley Kylie!

I had a "Baby's First Christmas" stocking ordered for her, but it was cancelled at the last minute. I guess they ran out of stock. So, this morning I was thinking about what I was going to do for Kylie's stocking. Then, it came to me. I would download a stocking pattern offline and make her a stocking out of some of her receiving blankets. I used part of a santa hat for the white furry part on the top. Please don't ask me where these ideas come from. I seriously don't know. I just know, my ideas (my good ones anyway) always come to me early in the morning or in the middle of the night. So, here's her ladybug receiving blanket stocking. I like how it came out.

Here's Miss Kylie before we headed to look at Christmas lights tonight. She was a little grumpy because she was in her carseat and she had that super cute hat on.

Here's the best one we saw tonight. We drove by it 3 times! Twice so we could get this picture, but Cailin had fell asleep. So, she woke up a little later and we went back. It was definately a hot spot, ton's of cars driving by slowly. It had about 16 Mickey Mouse blowups! Then, that front window of their house was full of Mickey Mouse figures and moving dolls! Pretty cool! Cailin was a little scared when she saw it! It's pretty overwhelming! Someone LOVES Mickey!

That's it for now! Bye!

Happy Birthday Pe-paw

Today is my Pe-paw's 79th birthday! Happy Birthday Pe-paw! We love him dearly!



















He is one of the best cooks that I know. He loves to search cookbooks for new recipes to try out. I've given him a few cookbooks over the years and he loves to get new books to comb through. I love going over to their house to eat anything he or my Me-maw cooks. Yum! It makes me hungry just thinking about it!

He's also a great gardener, and is usually reading the next year's Almanac by now, planning what is going in his next garden and when.

This picture cracks me up! We took it last Christmas day, when I was about 5 or 6 months pregnant. He's had a big belly for as long as I can remember (he was a truck driver for at least 20 years or more) before retiring.















This picture is one of my favorites! I've posted it to this blog before. Last Christmas, Cailin opened Pe-paw's and Me-maw's gift (a sweater), and she ran over to him. She said, "Thank you, Pe-paw!" and gave him a huge hug. So precious!

Cailin LOVES Pe-paw (and Me-maw) so much! I am so blessed that she is getting to grow up and know them. My other grandparents have sadly all passed away, so they are my only grandparents left. I hope and pray everyday that they are around for several more years so we can so many more precious moments with them! I can't wait until I am living close to them again! Happy Birthday Pe-paw, We LOVE You!

Fun Birthday Party and Red Neck Christmas Baking

Yesterday, we had a birthday party for one of my friend's little girl. It was a western theme, so we donned on our western clothes. Cailin LOVES wearing these boots that her best cousin, Reagan gave her. Kylie wore her hand-me down from Cailin boots. It looks like she has on shorts, but they just got caught up when I was holding her. Ha, ha!

Our poor little Christmas tree, I totally covered it up when we stood in front of it for this picture.

Here's Cailin in all of her western goodies that my friend, Eve, gave all the kids. This didn't last long, they all shedded the hats and bandanas shortly after.

Here's Cailin with one of the little boys (can't remember his name) and Sophia, the birthday girl. It was in the mid-60's yesterday and so warm in the sun! Great for mid-December!

Here's Cailin and Sophia again. She kept saying, "Ride Em, Cowboy!" She loves playing cowboys. The kids all got these cute little stick horses that they ran around "riding" on, so fun!

OK, don't laugh (too much) at this pic. First, I know we look like we could be on a red-neck Christmas card. No hair or make-up for me, yikes! Look at Miss Kylie's hair, takes after Mommy, poor baby! Cailin and I were baking Christmas goodies yesterday morning, and she made us all put on an apron. I thought it was funny, so we set up the camera. My apron said, 'King of the Grill', yeah right!

Hope everyone has a great weekend! We are having Warren's parents here for Christmas with them this weekend. Should be fun! I'll post pics Sunday night. Bye for now!

My 2 Girls

I was just looking at pictures from last year and remembering how little Cailin looked. We took this picture last year in front of the Christmas tree at our church.

She had little curls that only made it to the top of her shoulders and still wore these one piece pajamas that had the built in footies. So cute!

Now, she wears big girl night gowns and her hair is much longer (with bangs). Look at how big she looks with her ballet friends.

This little one was born this year. Look how little she looked in her carseat!

Now, she's sitting up on her own and standing up on her own. Crazy how much they change in just about 9 months!

I'm loving my 2 sweet girls! Bye for now!

Cailin's Prayer

I was lying in Cailin's bed last night trying to get her to sleep and she said, "Time to pray." The words she prayed really came from her heart. Usually, we remind her of what to say or help her along, but last night she didn't need any help.

Cailin's Prayer

Thank you God for Alta and Thurman, and, and Alta.

And ballet for me

And pretty dresses.

Thank you for my Christmas trees

The pink one and the green one

And for Kayla, her names not Kaylie, no, it's Kayla.

Amen.

It was SO sweet and innocent that as soon as she fell asleep, I came to write it down so I wouldn't forget it. I'm going to write it in her journal too!

Today, Last Night and Yesterday

Days 10-13 ~

Today, we went to church. It was such a nice service with some really beautiful music! Wow! I wish you could have all been there to here "Ave Maria" sung by this guy we have in our choir. He was SO awesome! I need to try to get a copy of it. I LOVE Christmas music!

Here's a pic of the girlies before we headed out the door this morning. That is Cailin's "cheese" smile! ;-)

I caught Cailin in the truck with her sunglasses on. She wore them all the way to church until we walked in.

Last night, both girls played SO hard! Here's Kylie smiling at some baby dolls she found in her big sister's toy crib. She stood up there forever just talking and playing with these dollies.

Yesterday morning, Kylie was in her 1st dance performance. Her dance instructor put together a quick little Christmas program. Literally, we were only there for 20 minutes for about 6 groups to perform. Cailin's class did 2 dance routines that were just a minute long each.

Cailin did SO GOOD! She really had fun during the 2nd song, it was Santa Baby.

Here's my pretty girl on stage and waiting to start dancing.

We had a blessed weekend. We got to spend some nice quality time with our dear friends and together as a family. Hope you all had a great weekend too! Bye for now!

Christmas Party

Day 9 ~

This little girl is standing on anything and everything. She's learning how to steady herself and sometimes takes a fall. She even letting go with one hand and trying to move to another. She hardly wants to sit or crawl anymore, she just tries to get to the nearest tall surface to stand. I'm SO not ready for this!

Here's Cailin before we headed out in the freezing weather for the base's Christmas tree lighting. They had a little indoor party for the kids.

Here's Cailin in front of the fire at the club on base. They had jumpy houses, cookie decorating, face painting, cookies and hot chocolate. She had SO much fun! We saw a lot of friends there.

Kylie is growing closer and closer to Warren. She actually doesn't reach for me all the time now when he has her. Last night, she even fell asleep on his shoulder, just like this.

Cailin and Kylie both sat on Santa's lap. That's Warren's arm in this pic, where he just had picked Kylie up. She stared at him, then reached for Warren. They got a really good pic that we should be getting by email soon. Cailin told Santa that she wanted a Snow White dress and a Barbie guitar. She LOVED him!

Bye for now! Woohoo, I'm caught up!

Snow, Sleet and Wind

Day 8 ~
Ok, well I'm still behind, darn it! Yesterday was a crazy weather day here. It sleeted, snowed, the sun came out and then, the wind picked up really fast!
Cailin was watching the sleet come down at our window in the living room.

I caught Kylie checking out ornaments on the tree. She does this daily, but she's pretty good about not grabbing them off.

Ally, my dog, was totally lounging on her doggy bed yesterday. I'm sure she was thanking God that she wasn't outside like our 2 other big dogs.

Note: Her legs are still stained from that bad dirt storm we had several months ago! I'm beginning to wonder if it's ever going to turn white again.

Cailin had gymnastics, here's her bridge.

Bye!

This Isn't Mashed Potatoes

Day 7 ~

I have got to catch up here, so I'll post again tonight.

Cailin was getting a little cabin fever yesterday, I think. It's been SO COLD here, so there isn't much getting out unless it's Tues. for gymnastics or Wed. for ballet. So, I'm having to come up with ways to entertain her. So, this isn't mashed potatoes in this first picture. I found a recipe online for playdough that was made from salt, corn starch and water. Easy! You had to heat it on the stove so it would come together. She loves mixing anything, so I measure, she pours and stirs. She enjoyed playing with this dough. I did too! It said on the recipe that you can air dry it and paint it after it hardens. So, I made the girls handprints on some dough that I rolled out. We'll see if it works.

Here's Cailin playing with her dough.

Notice Cailin's wearing a leotard? She changed clothes and dress-up clothes a HUNDRED times yesterday.

Warren has been working on our Christmas lights and decorations for several days now.

I think he's finally finished! For those of you who didn't see my Facebook entry over the weekend, Cailin and Warren had a funny coversation on Saturday.

Warren had just got on the roof of the house to start hanging lights.

Cailin: Daddy, can I get up there?

Warren: No, it's too dangerous.

Cailin: Then, why are you up there?

Ha, ha! She's a smart little cookie! She's always telling us to "get down" or "your going to get hurt" if we are standing on a chair or step stool.

Bye for now!

Sunday

Day 6 ~

We had a nice Sunday. We started off with church, Sunday school and a potluck lunch. When we got home, Warren finished up the lights around the yard. It looks really nice. I need to take some pics outside after dark. We watched movies, played and made nachos for dinner. Warren took this cute pic after the girls had their baths. He was in the kitchen with them while I was in the back cleaning up the bathroom. He caught them playing in the tupperware. Hee! Look at Miss Kylie, she had pulled herself up to her knees to see what Cailin was doing. Then, she pulled herself all the way up so she could "help" re-organize the dishes, too!

"Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." ~from my '31 Family Devotions for Christmas book' (it was actually yesterday's devotion) :-)

I hope everyone has a blessed day! I'll try to post today's blog later. Bye!

Light Parade

Day 5 ~

We went to the annual Christmas light parade on Main St. I think this is the 3rd year that we have went. We just sit inside our car, because it's so cold, and watch the floats go by. We honk and wave. They were throwing candy to the kids outside and one man even put some treats on the hood of our car for Cailin.

Here's one of the pretty floats.
Here's Cailin watching the parade go by. When Santa went by she yelled, "Santa, wait, I just want to show you my dress!" Ha, ha! We cracked up laughing. I got her and Kylie's Christmas dresses in the mail last week. Well, I made the mistake of showing Cailin her's **cringe**. She LOVES dresses and when she saw this fancy Christmas dress she went CRAZY wanting to wear it. I kept telling her it was a special dress for Christmas, but she didn't understand. So Warren let her try it on. Now, everytime we go into her closet she asks if it's time for Christmas yet. We have told her we would take her to the mall in it to let her show Santa the dress, that's why she wanted him to wait. Ha, ha!

After the parade, we went to Taco Box. I know, real exciting, huh? Not usually, but in Dec. they set up lights that are syncronized to Trans Siberian Orchestra music and you can sit in the parking lot to watch the light show. It's pretty good!

Kylie is pulling herself up everywhere! She stands on the coffee table, door, chairs, EVERYWHERE! Yikes!

This is a blurry picture, but here she is standing up against our coffee table with one of her signature smiles! She smiles like this as soon as she wakes up. This morning, she started stirring and before her eyes where even open, she had this huge, toothless grin on her face. So funny!

Cailin stole the shot in this one. I was trying to take a pic of Kylie crawling and Cailin jumped into the picture. She came out good, but I had to crop Kylie out of it, she was so blurry!
Here's the good one of Kylie that I caught. She was crawling towards me, so she's a little blurry, but she has that smile!

Bye for now!