Family Christmas

Wow, what a great first Christmas we had with Kaylor. It has been a very busy break. We had six straight days of Christmas' with different families. We are so blessed to have such great family and friends to spend the Holidays with!! Kaylor got more than she needed of course, and we have been having so much fun with her with both of us being off of work.

Here are some pictures of the Holidays!!

Christmas at my Grandparents:

We are in Mt. Juliet every Christmas Eve and we decided to start a new tradition this year with Kaylor. There is a house on the road 109 that is full of Chrismas lights and we decided to drive through it late Christmas Eve night. Kaylor loved the lights, but we quickly drove by Santa because we all know how that would turn out. The house is AWESOME if you have never drove through it. It has a real Santa and Mrs Clause, a live snow man, real lambs, and TONS of lights everywhere. I can't even imagine their electric bill.

Opening Kaylor's presents from Santa early Christmas morning

Sitting on her new wagon from Aunt Christy:

Her favorite toy, the musical table:

She sometimes gets brave enough to let go and stands up on her own.

We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!!

Visit With Santa

So we have been curious to how Kaylor was going to act with her 1st visit with Santa. Let me first say that Kaylor gets upset for some reason when she is around older men, especially with beards. Kaylor will let anyone else hold her except for older guys. So our expectations of her liking Santa were slim.

We Were Right!
For the first picture, Kerry and I sat on Santa's lap with Kaylor and she was doing pretty good. She hadn't got a good look of him yet. (The lady told us to get a family picture, Kerry was embarrassed :) ). So then it was her turn and the minute she saw him she started to get upset. We even tried it twice, by letting another family go between the pictures to see if she would warm up to him. It didn't work!

The pictures we had printed were HILARIOUS. It is the classic "baby not liking Santa picture". I couldn't stop laughing when I saw the printed pictures. I can't wait for her to laugh at it too when she is older. I took some pictures myself, but the ones that they took were classic.

Here are my pics:

Before she saw Santa:

Kerry taking her over to Santa for the 2nd Time:
Maybe she'll like him this time:

Thinking "Dad please don't leave me":

And the classic scared face!!

Great Memories!!

Standing Strong

I sound like a broken record when I say how fast time goes and how fast Kaylor moves on to the next steps. The other morning I go in her room to get her from her nap and she is just standing up looking at me like "what Mom, aren't you going to come get me?". I didn't even know she could stand up, I thought we were just finally getting the knee thing going with the crawling. (for some reason she just liked to army crawl, what is that??).

So she has gained much confidence in standing and walking her way down EVERYTHING plus she climbed up our entire stairs the other night--didn't know she was doing that either. They seriously just learn things over night.

Something else that is not as fun to talk about is how she is not sleeping at night. I guess its her teeth. (I love how I blame everything on her teeth--not sleeping: teeth, nose running:teeth, cranky: teeth). Maybe it will get better soon. :(

Here are some recent pics:

After a nap

Lexie is her best friend

Christmas Appliqued Shirts

Kerry and I woke up to the greatest day of being a teacher-SNOW DAY!! There wasn't any snow to look at or play in, but we will take it! I can't tell you how much I love hearing the snowbird theme then reading Sumner County. I mean I love my job, but you gotta love the unexpected snow days.

Anyways, I have posted on here a couple of times about me sewing and embroidering. It is something that I have come to love. It is actually relaxing for me to sit down and make an outfit, shirt, or something for Kaylor. I have also made some things for some friends, which is rewarding to see someone else wear something you made. Some of my good friends sew as well which makes it fun to talk about it to them-like Alison (maggiemoosmom.wordpress.com) and Stacey (who just makes adorable outfits for little Kelvey). Alison and I are always talking about good fabrics to use and she has been so helpful in helping me out with my sewing projects-thanks Alison!!

Here are some things I have made lately for Kaylor and friends:

Burpcloth and Bib for a sweet little girl named Taylor.

Here is a boy's longall that I made for my good friend Ashley's son Jaxon to get his 6 months picture taken from Josh.

I could not find a shopping cart cover anywhere that I thought was very cute, so I decided to make one. It was a project, but I was very pleased when I finished. I also got to add things I wanted like a toy loop and a pocket to keep her pacifier in to use when she starts crying in the middle of Walmart :).



Finally I have been making some Christmas outfits and Appliqued Shirts. To all my mom friends out there, if you want me to make you one just let me know the size and if you want white or red. Just email me at courtney2017@yahoo.com if you want one :) They are $13.00. The turtleneck onesies I have 12month-4T. Regular long sleeve/short sleeve onesies I have newborn to 12 months.

I have some more designs that are not shown here (Christmas tree, Santa, and stocking). But here are some examples.

So Thankful

We had a great first Thanksgiving together with Kaylor. It was very busy and we definitely ate too much food! We had two Thanksgiving dinners in one day, so we were stuffed by the end. We stayed in town this year for Thanksgiving and it was great seeing everyone. We are so blessed to have such good families. Here are some pictures from the past week:

Kaylor wearing her Thanksgiving outfit that I made for her

Kaylor wearing the hat Aunt Kathy made for her while we were waiting on the food.

My Favorite!

Kaylor tends to get in moods where she just belly laughs at everything. The other day my mom was visiting and started making her laugh while she was playing. So I grabbed the video camera and caught some of it on tape, on top of our dog Lexie coming up and giving her a big lick across the face. Thank goodness Kaylor loves Lexie!! :)

Here is the video clip:

I found some time to blog!

It has been so hard lately to find some time to sit down and blog. I have been very busy working, getting ready for the holidays, and sewing/embroidering! I have really gotten addicted to making outfits and bibs. I will post some things soon that I have been making for Kaylor and some friends.

Besides that we are getting ready for basketball season. For the past two years it has been nice to sit back and watch basketball games for a change. My whole life it has been playing basketball games or coaching them, so for now its nice to just to be a fan. We have to work out a schedule for Kaylor though. She goes to bed anywhere from 7:00-8:00 and his games do not start until 7:45, so that should be interesting.

Kaylor is (army) crawling everywhere. She also can pull up on things that are low enough to grasp. I will post a picture we took of her last night in her duck bath.

Halloween!!

It was Kaylor's first Halloween this year and we all had so much fun. I know she is still too young to understand what is going on and not able to enjoy the candy, but it was still fun dressing her up and being apart of the madness. Every year we go to my sister-in-laws on Halloween night. She lives in a neighborhood called "Ballentrae" in Hendersonville and let me tell how CRAZY it is there on Halloween night. First off it is hard to even drive down the streets of this neighborhood because it is so crowded during Halloween. Many of the houses have orange lights in the bushes, fake grave yards, haunted campers to walk through, fog machines on the porches, and hayrides everywhere hauling kids around. It is something from a movie if you have never seen these streets. We brought our neighbors, their mom, and my mom to see the madness and they couldn't believe it. It is so much fun and I can't wait until Kaylor will really get to say "trick-or-treat" on her own.

The Waylands or Jeff Fisher and his football player!

Some Mom Advice

Frequently, I catch myself thinking "I wonder what other moms do about this". So I thought I would post some things that other moms could respond to and give their advice on.

1. How do you open the plastic containers of vegetables and fruit without tasting the food yourself? I end up opening the containers with my mouth because its too hard with my fingers and almost every time I do this, baby food shoots in to my mouth. I now know why Kaylor makes her funny faces.

2. Do you just wake up your child every time they fall asleep in their car seat when its time to get out of the car? It is so hard for her to take naps at home, but the minute I put her in the car, she is asleep. Then 5 minutes later I get somewhere I have to wake her up.

3. How do you wash their hair when they are sitting up in their tub without pouring water down their face and in to their eyes? I try so hard to lean her head back, but she refuses to keep it there.

Just some questions I frequently have that I thought would be interesting to hear what other moms have to say.

We're looking forward to Kaylors first Halloween!! I went ahead and posted her duck outfit at the top that Josh took of her last week. Too bad she can't really trick-or-treat yet. But maybe Mommy can push her around and enjoy a whole bag of candy for herself :)

Her are some recent pictures:

Rainy Day

Nap time. Kaylor loves her Daddy!

6 Month Pictures

Well, it was time again to get some pictures made. You can't get too many of those. We went over our good friends Alison and Josh's house. It was so fun and it went so smoothly. I love the way Josh takes pictures, very creative and they all have this unique and "homey" feel about them (if thats a word). We also got some pictures of the family and Kaylor in her halloween costume, it was great!

Kaylor is almost crawling. For some reason it is hard for her to stay up on her knees, she just army crawls everywhere. She has two teeth now and getting more active by the day. I will post some of the GREAT pictures from the photo shoot:

6 months old, teeth, and scooting!

We had our 6 month check up this past Friday. Everything looked great and I'm just glad it is over with. She was soooo tired plus the 4 Shots she got was not fun at all. Here were her measurements:

Weight: 17 lbs 13 ounces ( 82nd percentile)

Height: 29 inches (off the charts)

The doctor said that she was probably going to be tall (she guessed 5'10'') from how she is growing. I guess you never really know, but we will see!!! :)

Kaylor also got her first tooth about a week ago and it looks like another one is fixing to break through so you can imagine that everything she grabs goes straight in to her mouth. She also likes to scoot/crawl everywhere now. She is not fully on her knees moving around, but just on her stomach and part knees to get places. She will literally do this across a whole room, so she is getting to the crawling stage. I just can't believe how fast all of these 'milestones' come. She is learning to sit, getting teeth, saying da da, moving to the big car seat, eating vegetables, and trying to crawl all in weeks of each other. All of this happens too fast! What happened to the days where I could lay her down and and not worry about her moving anywhere and actually get things done?

They grow too fast!!

Here are some pics in her "big girl" car seat:

Vegetables!!

Kaylor has been eating vegetables now for about a week. She does pretty good with them. She seems like such an easy going person already and I feel like whatever new things we try with her she just kind of goes with. The first time she tried vegetables she didn't really do much.

She also has graduated to her big car seat. I haven't taken a picture of her in this yet, but she loves to be able to look around and out the windows as I am driving. The only negative I see with this car seat is that everytime we go somewhere and she falls asleep, I have to wake her up to go inside. The old one I could just put in a stroller or inside a cart, but she was squished in that thing and it was time to move up.

This past weekend we had the Boynton family reunion at Fall Creek Falls. It was very relaxing and so fun to see the entire family. This year we didn't camp out like we normally like doing because of Kaylor, but we hope to do it next year and introduce her to the fun of camping.

She has her 6 month checkup on Friday, which means more shots :( So I will update after the appointment.

Eating some carrots:

Sitting in a chair at Fall Creek Falls:

Sitting (somewhat) and Da Da!!

Kaylor is doing something new each day. She is now trying to sit on her own!! She will hold herself up for a little while and then start to lean to the side. She gets better and better everyday. She is also saying "Da Da" all the time. She will say it in her bed in the mornings or in the car, and I love it! Now, she doesn't know what it means because that is just some of the first syllables that babies say. But according to Kerry she knows who her dad is, I'll just keep letting him think that is true :)

I bought her the infamous Ducky tub to have during bath time. She LOVES IT!! She gets to sit up and splash around and she is constantly wanting to play in all the water. I now feel like she is out of that little baby stage.

We went to our first wedding this past weekend. I swore I would never do this, but I didn't have a babysitter and I knew she was invited (I know some brides don't want them there, which I understand). But we made it through without a scream or a cry, thank goodness!! I don't think I will do it again though. I was a nervous wreck the entire time. I was just thinking "please don't cry, or scream out da da!! or just make her usual noises".

Here are some pictures of her at the wedding with the bride (congrats Dana!) and in her new tub.

6 Interesting Things.....

O.K. So I am continuing what Alison did about saying 6 interesting things about myself. Since our blog is mostly about the milestones of Kaylor I thought I would change it up a bit. So here it is:

1. I can walk on my hands...yes like a gymnast. Now, I have not tried this since I've had a baby, but I used to walk on my hands across a whole gymnasium. I never was a cheerleader (ha!) or a gymnast, but for some reason I can walk on my hands.

2. I debated on mentioning this, but I have so much pride in the fact that I played in the NCAA tournament. Now, I didn't play at a huge DI school or anything (a small one) and that is why I think it was awesome that we were in the tournament with Vandy, Rutgers, and UTC. This happened my junior year in college and it was the best experience that I have ever had in athletics. I love thinking of us playing on national television and people saying "Who is Lipscomb?" Go Bisons!!! :)

3. I have secretly, well not really because my college teammates always told me to do this, wanted to be a news anchor. Yes, I love Holly Thompson's Job! (I see her at Wal-Mart occasionally and look at her and think "what an awesome job you have!") When I was a little girl I would set up a video camera and talk in to it like a newscaster. Now I couldn't imagine not being a teacher, but we always think of that other profession we would like to do.

4. I love technology! I have a knack for fixing computers, televisions, and dvd players. I love messing with it until I fix it. My family always call me (instead of Kerry, hehehehehe!) to come over and look at something that is wrong with their tv or computer. I don't know why I enjoy fixing those things so much, but I do.

5. I have been a front row audience member on the Oprah show, well 2 shows in one day!! My goal for a long time was to go to the Oprah show. So a few years ago my friend Carrie and I flew up to Chicago and went to the show (I did try for many hours to get tickets). Determined to get a good seat, I showed up in a Chicago alley at 5:30 a.m. and Carrie and I were the first ones in line! After fighting our way in with psycho (and I mean psycho) Oprah fans, the Producer called us over and asked us to sit in the front row, which was reserved for guests, for 2 tapings of the show!! It was like the producer knew how much I wanted to do that! We sat next to Oprah's aunt and uncle who were on the show that day and it was awesome!! I almost passed out when Oprah walked out for the first time. We were literally feet in front of her during the whole taping. I did get to say a couple of sentences to her during one commercial break. It was awesome!!

6. I used to work at Starbucks in Green Hills. One summer I stayed in Green Hills and worked at the Starbucks with some of my teammates from college. We had so much fun!! Just never ask me how many calories are in a frappuccino :(

There it is! These girls are next:

Ashley W.
Heather R.
Kristen H.

Busy..

It has been a while (I feel like) since I have updated. Kaylor is growing everyday and time is going so fast. I can't believe we are getting in to October. First off I have started a new hobby!! I bought a sewing/embroidery machine and LOVE IT! I have had so much fun making things and embroidering them. It makes me want to embroider everything! I will be posting some things soon that I have been making.

Kaylor is trying to sit up. She is at the stage of sitting up on her side, but not fully sitting up. She loves sitting in high chairs and looking around and now hates her little car seat because she can't look around out the windows plus her feet are inches over the end. We are very close to moving up to the "big girl" car seat. Right now she rolls every where she wants to go. She will literally roll across a whole room.

I will post some updated pictures below. First off, the camo outfit is from Kerry's pep rally at school (I know, I know, I went to Beech and you can't believe I dress my girl in Hendersonville gear) but I couldn't resist the cute outfit with her name embroidered on it--plus she's gotta support her Daddy :)

Another picture shows her wrapped up in a sheet. For some reason she LOVES doing this and she pulls the sheet over her face and then pulls it off and starts laughing, I guess its her own peek-a-boo game.

All the toys that we have, and the one she likes the most.....the water bottle!

Time Flys

It has been so hard lately to find some time to sit down and update our blog. I always tell myself that I will do it later on, and of course I find something else to do or find myself asleep at 9:30, exhausted from the day. Kaylor had not had any big changes lately. She rolls everywhere when she needs to get to a certain place and she is still not sitting up yet. I am ready for her to sit up in the grocery cart when we go shopping because I have no room in the buggy. Her car seat does not fit in the front section of the cart, so I have to put her in the big part with groceries piled on top of her. The other day I pretty much had pizzas laying on her as I was squeezing groceries in around her. It was funny!

Here are some recent pictures:

Kerry was very excited about capturing this picture with her basketball :)

With Aunt Tina and Uncle Rickey. It was great visiting them.

With my Dad