~The West Family~

New York City

2010-09-23T20:45:00.000-07:00

Well I finally did something...I WON A CONTEST! Yes, people really do win those "be the 7th caller" or "You will put in a drawing for the grand prize". The first thing I yelled on the radio when I won was "I have never won anything like this in my life!" But I did!

On my way to work a couple of weeks ago, a radio station in Nashville asked to texted in your name for a chance to win a New York City Getaway. I was seriously sitting at a red light and thought "Why not!". That afternoon I got a call as I was eating dinner with Kerry and Kaylor and it was the main DJ from the radio station. I immediately knew it was him when he asked to talk to me and right away I thought "no way!! I won!" He told me I won and I started screaming up and down in my house out my back door, and to my back yard. As I was doing this, Kerry was standing on our porch with his hands up like "what in the world are you doing" and Kaylor was yelling "mommy are you ok!?" The house next door to us is being built right now and the workers walked out of the house to stare at me act like a crazy person. Kerry had no idea I even entered a contest so he was really confused when I answered my cell phone at the dinner table and started running through the house and in the yard yelling. So I won 2 round trip tickets to New York, 2 nights in a hotel in Times Square and wait for it... Jay-Z and Eminem concert tickets at Yankee Stadium!! :) We kept laughing at the thought of us at this concert in the Bronx at Yankee Stadium at 1:00 a.m. I was just really excited about the trip and really nervous about the concert. We almost ended up selling the tickets right beforehand and then thought "it's free lets just go" I will honestly say it was a very entertaining concert. Many other singers showed up to perform with them and lets just say the stadium was rocking! Just to name a few Coldplay, 50 Cent, Dr.Dre, Kanye West and Beyonce were some of the guest appearances. I have never seen so many people in my life at a concert. We rode on the subway squished by Jay-Z and Eminen fans up and back and it was (surprisingly) one of the most fun nights we have ever had. So we did not regret going to the concert.
Some other things we did on our short visit was Today Show, Central Park, Ground Zero, Wall, Street, Canal Street, Greenwich Village, Trump Tower, and Grand Central Station. We had a BLAST in NYC and I am so glad we had this opportunity to go.

Here are a few pictures from our trip:
Times Square:Radio City:At the TODAY Show early in the morning. We got on TV!! Seeing Donald Trump at the Today Show:In front of the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street:Ground Zero:This is the FRIENDS building (my all time favorite show!) This is a picture of their apartment. Had to get a picture of this:And a picture from the concert:

County Fair

2010-09-16T19:19:00.001-07:00

We went to the Wilson County fair a few weeks back in Lebanon. I LOVE going to this fair because it is so clean, fun, and big! I love getting fresh squeezed lemonade and funnel cakes. Kaylor loves seeing the animals and riding the carousel. One of my favorite activities they have is the Banana Derby, which are trained monkeys on dogs that ride around a little track like a jockey would do on a horse. It really is funny because the monkeys do the jockey stance and act like they are whipping the dogs to run faster when they are racing around the little track.

We really had a good time! I'm so glad they still have fairs around that are like this.

Monkey riding the Dog:

Watching the Pig Races:
Riding the carousel:Feeding the Goats:

We Have Moved

2010-08-26T19:55:00.001-07:00

Wow, we have been so busy with this move. I didn't know how hard it actually would be moving with a child, but it was. I feel like the boxes are never ending and I still feel so unorganized. I wish we could have closed on the house when Kerry and I were both off in July, but that's how it worked out :( We just have to work around our schedules.

We absolutely love it though!! We added a lot of things that we have always wanted in a house and as of now I have no regrets on our choices. The building process was actually so much fun for us and we loved every minute of it. I honestly can say we did not argue one time with making choices. I think we both have the same personality and we both have the same taste in what we want so that made the decisions easy to make.

Here are some pictures of our new home:

Here is a view from our back yard. The builder is putting sod on it next week and we're going to do a fence in the near future:

Our Master Bedroom:

Master Shower:

Master Tub: This is the living room opening up from the kitchen:

Eating area and NEW kitchen table (this is the only new thing I have bought for the house):

Kitchen:

Living Room again from standing at the turn of the stairs:Kaylor's Room:Guest Bathroom (one of my favorite rooms) because I did the black cabinets with a granite I like. I was too nervous to try this combo in the kitchen. I now have to find a good shower curtain for this bathroom:

We can't wait to start making memories in our new home.

To The Beach...

2010-07-28T06:39:00.000-07:00

After this crazy and exhausting summer, my parents decided last minute on a trip to the beach! Kerry and I had already decided that since we were building a new house we were not gonna go to the beach this summer. However, my parents were nice enough to ask us to come along with them and boy did we have a fun time!
To back up a little bit, if you read my last post you know my grandmother unexpectedly passed away on June 22nd. That was really hard on our family because we were all very close to her. It was so hard going to her apartment and moving out everything, smelling her, and just wondering why she passed away. About a week and a half after she passed away, Kaylor came down with a HIGH fever. I just thought it was one of those 24 hour fevers and that she would be fine. Well her fever would not go down! The next morning it was around 103.5 and not coming down on medicine. She was lifeless on the couch (and we all know a 2 year old acting lifeless on the couch shows that they are really sick.) Then that night it was around 104 and still not coming down with the medicine. The next morning Kaylor was up to around 104.7 so we decided to take her to Vanderbilt ER (the nurse told us to do this because it was a holiday and she was not responding to medicine). As we walked through the front door of the ER Kaylor threw up all over Kerry and all over the lobby. Kerry did not bring another shirt so he had to wear scrubs all morning. The ER experience was awful! They wanted an x-ray, which we all had to hold her down to get and they had to put a catheter in her, which we all had to hold her down again. AWFUL! They couldn't really tell us what it was, so basically we did all of that to not get an answer. She kept a fever of around 104-104.5 for the next 4 days! We took her to the doctor three different times and they finally thought she might have pneumonia without showing in x-rays or hearing it in her lungs (because that can happen apparently). So my child went 4 days with a high fever and no anti-biotics for pneumonia. She finally started feeling better in time to leave for our trip to the beach.

With all of that to say, we were ready for a vacation! We headed to Panama City, Florida. It was SO FUN! They have made it very family friendly there. About five years ago they built a huge outdoor mall called Pier Park that has restaurants like The Backporch and Margaritaville. Kaylor did great at the beach. She played in the sand, got in the ocean with us, went swimming in the pool, and acted great the whole time. When she started to get tired she would tell us she was ready to go back to the room for a nap. It was so much better then I expected.

Here are some pictures from our trip: (Sorry I put so many)

Looking at the beach when we got there:

This is what she loved doing, having us pick her up over the waves. It was tiring:

Building sand castles.

Swimming by herself with her floaties.Swimming to Daddy:

My parents and brother:

Kaylor washing her feet off after walking to Pineapple Willy's:We rented a pontoon boat for a day to take to Shell Island. It was so fun! We saw dolphins and hung out on the Island that was so pretty:Kaylor on Shell Island:Kaylor saying cheese at The Backporch:Eating at The BackporchThere were some children rides at Pier Park. Kaylor wanted to ride all of them. So we did the carousel and this ride below that was a balloon ride. Kerry said they actually went really high and fast and couldn't believe she didn't get scared. Kaylor loved it and even raised her hands while they were riding:This was the entire family at The Shrimp Boat:

We had a great time!!

I will miss my Buddie

2010-07-13T12:53:00.000-07:00

Yes, it is the longest I have ever gone without blogging, but this summer has been the busiest and craziest summer ever. On June 22nd, we unexpectedly lost my grandmother Buddie. It has been very hard on our family because we were all so close. She went in for OUTPATIENT back surgery to fix a disc in her back around June 17th and a couple of days after surgery we think she went in to cardiac arrest sitting in her bed at the hospital. Buddie is my grandmother's REAL name and that is what we called her. When my mom ask Buddie what she wanted her grandchildren to call her she said "Buddie" because she didn't want to have a grandma name. Buddie was very unique. She never acted her age, loved gaudy jewelry and cute clothes up until the day she died, and was in the know about everything. Everytime I went by to visit her and I was wearing shoes that had some kind of jewels on them or a purse she liked, she wanted me to go find some that looked just like it for her. Just about 3 weeks ago she had me go to a local boutique and buy her those cute stackable bracelets because she saw them on me and my mom and loved them. She still went and got pedicures, and she had to pick out some crazy bright color for her toe nails everytime. Her latest color was electric blue and the nurses at the hospital thought it was so funny that she had that color on her toes to be her age and my mom and I would just say "Oh this is so Buddie."

I played basketball and softball my entire life. Buddie might of been my number#1 fan. When I played on a travel softball team growing up we would travel around the country and her and my grandfather would not miss a tournament. They would travel with me everywhere. (my grandfather passed away in '98). In college she could rarely make it out to any of my basketball games because her back hurt her so bad to sit in hard chairs, so she bought her a radio to sit next to her couch and she did not miss one second of any of my games.

She was such a beautiful person, in fact at the funeral my mom had three men come up to her as we were standing at the burial and tell her how "good looking" Buddie was and that she could "walk the walk" as they said. (These guys went to high school with Buddie). I laughed so hard when my mom told me that because I could picture Buddie walking around like she was hot stuff :)

I already miss her so much and when I hear the phone ring at my parents house I still think it's Buddie calling to see what we are doing. I will miss my cell phone ringing and her on the other line asking me to come over and fix her surround sound/tv so that she can hear a ball game that is coming on t.v., I will miss her cute jewelry and outfits, and her love for sonic milkshakes.

Buddie we all love you and miss you so much. Thank you for all the great memories!

Buddie with Kaylor when she was born

Summer Time...

2010-06-12T04:54:00.000-07:00

I absolutely LOVE summer! There are so many fun things to do and so much time to do them in the summer time. We try to do something fun (and free) a lot to keep a 2 year old busy. Swimming, going to the fountains, play dates, free activities at the park, story time at the library, and going to our farm in the country are just some of the things we have already been doing. Kerry has been very busy with basketball camps and practices, so he has not been around a whole lot while we do these activities. Hopefully we will all get to spend more time together in July.

With Miley at the swimming pool:

Walking with Daddy to go fishing up at the pond in the country:

Dad teaching her to reel in a fish:

With Mother Goose at the library:

We went with our friends Aubrey and Blair to Build-A-Bear. Here they are rubbing their red hearts on their face before they stuff it inside their bears:

We went to go buy some more sunglasses for the girls. They love sunglasses:

At the fountains:

I Love this picture! Jaxon and Kaylor put their arms around each other to snap a picture:

Moving...

2010-06-07T06:10:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I have blogged, but it is because we have been very busy! Back in the fall we decided it was a good time to buy another home. We LOVED our house we were living in, but we found a house plan and neighborhood we have been looking for so we decided to try. Even though it was a buyers market, it definitely was not a sellers market. It took us about 6 months to sell our house, but we eventually did! So now we are building a new one. It is so funny how many people tell us that building a house is a true test of your marriage, but honestly we love it! This is actually our 2nd home to build together. The one we just sold we built right before we got married. Kerry moved in to the week before our wedding. We LOVE to build. So for now we are living with my parents. I'm so lucky my parents are letting us move in with them. It has not been bad at all and its nice to have so many people around that want to entertain Kaylor.

Here are a few pictures of our new home:

A Trip To The Zoo

2010-05-10T19:18:00.000-07:00

We tried the zoo again this year and Kaylor really enjoyed it! She was telling us all the animals she was wanting to see before we got there, and when she did get to see them she was so excited! She was pretty exhausted after a day at the zoo because she doesn't want to ride in her stroller anymore, so she walked everywhere.
Overall it was fun and tiring day. We hope to make some more trips to the zoo soon.

This was us entering the zoo and she lasted in the stroller for about 3 minutes after this picture:

Feeding the goats:

Trying to get her to pose:

Loving the carousel:

And didn't want to get off the carousel:

Daddy's Girl

2010-04-25T19:46:00.000-07:00

Kaylor is such a daddy's girl! Every morning she wakes up she calls for "Daddy" to come and get her out of bed. If Daddy is not home, she always asks where he is. She will also ask him to snuggle all the time in the bed (which I love to hear her ask him). She will go "snuggle for a second Daddy?" We both know that question won't be around forever, and he always says yes to her. Kerry is also a huge hunter, particularly a turkey hunter. He loves to go find wildlife in fields as he is driving, so of course he shows Kaylor all the time. At least every other day Kaylor will come home from riding with him and say "we saw turkeys!" or "we saw deer!" She also will go around the house with a turkey call and make the noise like Kerry does.

Kerry can't wait to take her hunting for the first time or fishing for the first time. He is already planning to get her the lifetime hunting license that you can get a child before they are 3 years old. So I think she will always be his little girl ;)

This was after Kerry killed a turkey this year.

Kaylor turns 2!!!

2010-04-21T16:22:00.000-07:00

I am a little late for posting Kaylor's 2nd Birthday. I accidentally deleted all of my pictures that I took on her birthday, I have never been so mad at myself!! It is the worst feeling to know you deleted something you can't get back!! Thankfully, my mom took some pictures so that I have some to share and keep.

I can't believe Kaylor has already turned 2!! We had her party on her birthday, April 8th, this year. We rented the play area at First Baptist in Hendersonville, and it was perfect for all the kids to play in.

Here is her invitation made by my friend Dana. If you ever need invitations, cards, etc. she is great at custom designing anything you need! Here store is here.

Kaylor waiting for her party to start:

Kaylor running out of the slide:

Miley playing:

We tried to get a group shot of the kids, but some were missing and some were not looking at the camera, oh well:

Kaylor about to blow out her 2 candles:

Jaxon about to leave Kaylor's party:

Kaylor giving Kelvey one of her side hugs as she was leaving:

We can't believe we have a 2 year old now!

Easter

2010-04-13T14:26:00.000-07:00

This Easter was the first time Kaylor could actually understand an easter egg hunt and know she was getting a easter basket. When I asked her what she wanted from the Easter Bunny, her answer was always "paper". She LOVES to draw so she wanted some more blank sheets of paper to draw on. (She also chooses to draw on our back door and floor with markers, but thankfully after some elbow grease those drawings were cleaned up). We were invited to an easter egg hunt from a boy in her class at school. It was such a cute party, with a real easter bunny, face painting, and tons of toys for the kids to play with. Here are a couple of pictures from the party: Before church on Easter Sunday we got ready early and planned on some extra time for pictures. It took a lot of tries because we had to use the timer, but we finally got some family pictures with everyone looking at the camera. My favorite picture of us got our dog walking in the middle of it (of course) but I'm still going to share it:

Here is Kaylor Easter Morning putting on her bunny ears:

This is Kaylor's Easter basket. Let me just quickly mention that she is obsessed with Hot Wheels and cars!! We even recently got a hot wheels track that goes across our entire living room, but that's for another post. So her basket was hot wheels, paper, and peeps. I have a low maintenance child :)

As I mentioned earlier, our plan was to have plenty of time to take pictures and make it to church on time, but of course it didn't happen. As we went outside to take pictures, Kaylor fell and skinned her knee up, which we didn't even know was skinned up because she got right back up and took off running. So as we are done taking our last picture I look at Kerry and see blood all over his Easter shirt inside his jacket and Kaylor has blood all on the inside of her new Easter dress. Then I am taking Kerry's shirt to the laundry room and Kaylor comes running by and trips over my feet and busts her chin on the floor. It didn't bleed, but it was a bad bruise and strawberry. We finally make it in to church with a bloody dress and a bruised chin. The life of having a 2 year old!

On Sunday afternoon we went over to my parents house for another Easter Egg hunt and some lunch. Here are a couple of pictures from there:

Hope everyone had a great Easter!

Camping Trip

2010-04-12T06:40:00.000-07:00

We went camping for the first time with Kaylor last week at Fall Creek Falls. We were a little nervous to go with a 2 year old in a tent over night, but it actually turned out great! The weather was perfect and she loved playing with the other kids that were there with us. (We did have 2 people we were with go to the hospital on 2 different days, but besides that it went great).

Growing up, my family vacations were going to Fall Creek Falls in a pop up camper, so it felt like home to me :)

Here are some pictures from the trip:

Here we are getting ready to leave, Kaylor loves to get in the driver's seat:

Popping her head out of Clancy's tent:

Here is our campground area with all of the tents and campers set up. There were 2 other campers across the street with the group we were with:

Enjoying a swing:Here is Kelvey and Kaylor on the playground:

Here is a picture of all the kids we went camping with. This is definitely gonna be one of those pictures we will bring back out when they are all in high school and show them :)

Can't go camping without making some good smores:

And the smores are a little messy:

Mom's Surprise 50th Birthday!

2010-04-09T07:39:00.001-07:00

We had a surprise 50th birthday lunch for my mom last Saturday. It all turned out great and almost everyone came. We had about 20 of her close friends and family there. She had no idea that we were having the party and it was a very good lunch :)

My mom has done so much for me over the years, and this was the least that I could do for her.

Mom, I hope you had a great 50th birthday and we all love you so much!! Thanks for being such a great person, friend, and mom!

Surprise!!

Yummy cake that our friend made!

Blowing out her candles!

With some of her best friends...

Halle was my flower girl and I have known her since she was born. KK reminds me of so much of Halle and I hope she turns out to be just like her :)

The Family...

Not much to say...

2010-03-31T21:55:00.000-07:00

Wow, I don't know where time goes. Kerry has finally finished up basketball season and now we are all excited for Spring time to start. I will just update with pictures for now:

Here is Kerry getting recognized at the last Belmont game at the beginning of March: (It was his college team for getting the most wins in Belmont history--good job guys!!)

Kaylor being silly in our yard:

Here she is pointing and laughing at me:

In her favorite chair:

Shopping Cart Cover and High Chair Cover

2010-03-08T19:28:00.001-08:00

It is finally time to introduce my shopping cart/high chair covers that I have been working on for while. I talked about these about 3 months ago, and I have now set up a website and started selling some of them in some boutiques.

These covers are made from designer fabrics and made extra thick. I have received very good feedback so far from my customers and I really think it is a must have

with a child! These are also a GREAT baby gift as well.

Well to kickoff my grand opening of my website, my friend Heather is having a giveaway for me. I asked her to do this because she has so many followers on her blog and I know she has done some giveaways before. Heather is one of my friends from high school that moved to Texas a few years ago and now blogs about her life there. It is a very fun blog to keep up with and she is such a sweet girl with a beautiful family. You can visit her blog and enter the giveaway here. The winner will get a shopping cart cover of their choice along with a monogrammed name on the cover. She will choose a winner on Friday.

For the month of March I am offering free monogramming on any cover that is purchased.

This has become such a fun hobby for me to design and sell these covers. I hope that when you are thinking for that perfect baby gift you remember Four Petals Comfy Covers ;)

Visit my new website HERE!!

My Valentines

2010-02-15T14:10:00.000-08:00

We had a great Valentine's Day. Kerry surprised me with some money to go get some jeans I have been wanting (because he could not pick them out), a cookie bouquet (my favorite), and some other little things that I have been wanting. I got him a good turkey call for the hunting season coming up. I know that sounds kinda redneckish, but I am practical with my gifts :)

We went to go eat at Septembers Cafe, which was pretty good (but not good enough for the price) and to go see the movie "Valentine's Day". The movie was a cute date night type of movie. I'm sure if you have seen the previews that you know Taylor Swift was in the movie. Well Taylor went to Hendersonville High School, where my husband teaches and coaches, so he saw her a lot before she became really famous. Kerry never had her in class so he really didn't get to know her very good. However, Kerry's co-worker had her in class and he was her favorite teacher, Mr. Schwabe. This past year she offered Mr. Schwabe a GREAT job as the head of her security while she travels. So he quit his job at Hendersonville and now travels with her. In the movie we noticed that her teacher was named "Mr. Schwabe" and that the high school her and Taylor Lautner went to was "Henderson High School". We thought it was a little coincidence. I always tell Kerry I wish he had her in class because maybe she would have hired him as her backup singer or something :) (just kidding).

Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day!

Here are some pictures of my Valentines :

Around The House

2010-02-03T15:29:00.000-08:00

We have been doing a lot of staying home lately with the weather and snow days. It is easy to get cabin fever with an almost 2 year old in the house. Kaylor has only been to mother's day out twice since Christmas because of her getting the stomach virus and snow days. She is definitely ready to get back in to a routine.

My child is always wanting to go "bye bye". When she wakes up in the morning she asks to leave. I really just think she is that type of kid that can not stay home every day. She wants to always be around other kids and entertained at all times. She does not play well by herself. Her favorite things are to go to school and to the gym (Daddy's basketball games).

Well Barney has been a life saver for entertainment lately. I don't understand the obsession with a purple dinosaur, but she LOVES HIM! I'm sure it is just a phase and she will move on to another show soon. I took a picture today of her dancing and singing to the plane song on one of the episodes:

Here is a picture I took of us when Kerry and I had a date night last week. We try to have a date night with just the two of us once a week, and the grandparents definitely don't mind keeping her :)

I also wanted to mention this article that I recently came across about house blinds/shades. This article was discussing how dangerous blinds are for your baby, toddler, and child. The first thing I thought when I read this is "Oh great, something else to worry about with your child." (The way they make everything so dangerous these days I sometimes wonder how any children survived when our grandparents were little.) But seriously, I watched this home video that was linked to this article that accidentally caught this woman's son on video being strangled by their own blind cord. The child ended up being fine, but it was crazy to see this! You can read a website here that is completely dedicated to this. There have been almost 800 kids killed by house blinds alone! It made me realize that I didn't even think about this throughout my house and also where I positioned Kaylor's baby bed. Thankfully it is not near a window, but it never crossed my mind when I was choosing a spot for her bed. So if you are a mom, soon to be mom, or babysitter this is just something to remember at your home. I ended up tying all of my cords up top and rigging them to stay very far from the ground. The article said the worst part with this is that it is obviously silent and you never know when your child is playing with these. Just something else to think about and be aware of on top of the many other things when having children in your house.

A Real Snow Day!!!

2010-01-30T17:27:00.000-08:00

The weatherman finally got it right....WE GOT SNOW!! We got a lot of snow yesterday and today to make for some GREAT sledding. If you are not from Tennessee, then you would not understand how everyone freaks out when the mention of snow is said around here. The grocery stores are slammed, salt is scattered on the roads immediately, sleds can not be found anywhere and news stations are scattered around middle tennessee with updates of pictures and videos of the accumulation (which is usually like 1/2" if that). However, today Nashville got anywhere from 3-10 inches depending on where you lived!

Today I felt like a kid again when I woke up. I couldn't look outside fast enough and then go get Kaylor and Kerry to layer up for our sledding. We had family and friends come over to sled, eat soup, play cards, make snow cream, and sled some more! What a fun day! It was Kaylor's first good snow and she loved the sledding. Here are some pictures:

Getting bundled up to go outside:

The family ready to go:

On the sled ready to go down our hill:

The Waylands:
Kerry pulling Kaylor back up our hill for another ride:

She liked to lay on her stomach:

Jaxon was worn out after a fun day in the snow:

Snow Day...if you want to call it that

2010-01-10T19:04:00.000-08:00

Well we were anticipating a big snow last week and this is what we got...

Of course, the weather people were a little off like always, but we will take what we can get. I love when the whole family is home together during the weekdays. Kaylor loved the snow and did not want to come in. However, the weather people were right about the temperatures, they were frigid, and we did not stay out very long in our dusting of snow.

During these cold and "snowy" days, I decided to clean out some closets. Kaylor loved my old shoes that I threw out of the closet because she could wear them around the house all day: saying cheese for the camera:

Christmas '09

2009-12-31T06:58:00.000-08:00

We had a great Christmas this year! The break really hasn't seemed like a break because of going to 6 Christmas' between our families, but it is always good to visit and see everyone. Santa brought Kaylor a new kitchen, which she loves, and some little people sets. Kerry bought me a navigation system that I am really liking too. Those things amaze me! I got Kerry a blackberry, which was a complete surprise to him. I am introducing him to the tech. world. He starting texting a couple of months ago for the first time (yea, unbelievable huh!?) and of course started doing it a lot. So I knew if he gave a blackberry a chance, he would love that too. I do have a very funny story to share with you about me getting him this blackberry....I had his blackberry wrapped up a couple of weeks ago and then I thought on Christmas Eve how cool it would be for him to open it up on Christmas morning with it working. So I somehow got out of the house on Christmas Eve with the wrapped gift and his phone (without him knowing) to go make the switch. I get to Verizon, and it was very busy in there of course, holding my nicely wrapped gift :) I explained to the guy at the front that I wanted to transfer one phone to the blackberry that was in the package. He said "Oh yeah, we can do that right now for you". Well I was not expecting him to just tell me right then he could do it, I usually wait 20 minutes before they call my name. My plan was to unwrap the gift as I waited, and I didn't want to unwrap it before I went in there just in case they couldn't do it or the wait was too long. So I started to unwrap the gift in front of the sales clerk and we are both laughing because I'm standing in the middle of the very crowded Verizon store opening a gift. When I get the gift unwrapped I open the box that I (thought) I wrapped his blackberry in. When I opened the box I pulled out 2 pair of UNDERWEAR!! Yes, I grabbed the wrong present as I was hurrying out the house and of course I grabbed the present with the annual boxers gift that I give my husband. The verizon worker and myself were just dying laughing, and no telling how many other people that were watching in that packed store that were laughing as well. I didn't grab the hunting camera, or shirt and tie present, I grabbed the underwear! This is something that would definitely happen to me! :)

Well, enough talking, I will post some pictures from our Christmas. Hope all of you had a great Christmas!

Christmas Morning:

Kerry opening his blackberry, not his underwear :)

With Gram and her cousins Ryan and Austin:

With B:

Cousin Emerie:

Working a puzzle with Aunt Cathy and Aunt Linda:

The Boynton Family:

Christmas Card Take 10...

2009-12-18T07:10:00.000-08:00

We attempted to take a picture of our family for the Christmas Cards this year. It is hard to get a 20 month old and a dog to look at a camera at the same time, so it took multiple tries. I really missed Bailey (my old dog) during the picture time. I am so used to putting on her reindeer antlers and her red Christmas sweater for the annual picture :( I sometimes get really sad when I am putting Kaylor to bed too, because we had a nightly routine of having Lexie and Bailey going in to her room with us and putting her down. Now it's just Lexie in there with us.

Here are some pictures of us trying to take the pictures and then our actual Christmas Card:

Sesame Street Live

2009-12-08T14:37:00.000-08:00

Last week, Sesame Street Live came to town and my mom and I decided to take Kaylor. She loves sesame street, especially Abby and Elmo, so I thought she might like it. She ending up loving it, but by the very end she was ready to leave. I realized though at the end that I think she thought we were just watching a big t.v. because she kept saying "bye bye tv". I was thinking "great, after spending money on tickets and taking her she just thinks we're watching sesame street on a big screen" :) Oh well, it was cute show.

Watching the show:

In front of my mom's tree before we left:

Thanksgiving

2009-11-29T18:48:00.000-08:00

How I LOVE the Holidays!

Thanksgiving came and went so fast this year. I think once you have a kid, time seriously speeds up.

Thanksgiving was spent in town this year and we had so much food! We got to visit with a lot of family, play games, relax, and eat, eat, eat!

On Black Friday I did not attempt the crazy crowds! I went the past couple of years, and if you have never been shopping in the early a.m. on Black Friday, let me tell you it is an experience!

Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving:

Kaylor getting ready to go inside to enjoy lunch at Grams house...

Enjoying a deviled egg...

Uncle Conner was in town....

Shooting some hoops at B's....

Also, I know it is getting time for Christmas (yay!!) and that means Christmas Cards. I just wanted to tell you about my friend Dana's etsy store. You can get designed Christmas cards (or any other card) just how you like it. Basically you tell her what you want, or you can pick out one of her designs, and she creates your card. They are very cute and affordable! I have been using her for over a year and love her work!

Here is an example:

You can find her store here

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Bathtub Video..

2009-11-21T06:11:00.001-08:00

It has been a while since I have posted a video. I figured for our family and friends that do not get to see her much, you can really see how much she has grown. I filmed this the other night when Kaylor was refusing to get out of the bathtub. She likes to just lay down in the tub when it is time to get out because she does not want you to pick her up. Oh and Kaylor calls our dog "Sexy" not "Lexie". Just so you know our dogs name is not "sexy" :)

Another day at the park

2009-11-15T20:22:00.000-08:00

What beautiful weather we've had for November! I'm still loving the fact that I can go outside and to the park and it not be freezing. The other day we had fun with some friends of ours, Miley and Hudson. The kids were loving the playground and of course we could not leave without visiting the ducks at the lake:

Holding Hands with Miley as they cross the bridge:

With Hudson and Miley looking at the ducks:

Hudson:

We hope this weather stays around a little longer!

Comfy Covers in the works....

2009-11-03T10:33:00.000-08:00

I have been working on a little project for a while now...

Some of you may know that I started sewing/embroidering little things for Kaylor and friends over a year ago and I have grown to LOVE it. Well, one of my favorite things that I made about a year ago was a shopping cart/high chair cover. When I was looking for a cover, I could not find one that was thick and cute. So, I decided to make one. After some changes and creating a good pattern that worked perfect for a mom, I have created one that I love and I think other moms would love too.

Here is my sample:

Cover on the high chair:

My first batch of them is in the process of being done. I have a boutique that has committed to sell some of them, so I am excited about that! There are about 8 choices of fabric right now, all designer, which makes the quality of them so nice! They are also super thick, easy to wash and dry, have their own seat belt system (so you don't have to use the ones that are attached to the cart), and most importantly it helps keeps all of those germs off of your child!

I will also be selling them myself along with a local boutique . So think....shower gifts and christmas! They will be professionally packaged and ready to wrap :) If you want to put in a pre-order for one you can email me at courtney2017@yahoo.com for more details.

It will be about 4 weeks before my first group is done. I will post later when they are ready!

I'm so excited about this because it is something that I love to do!

Here are some of the options you will see in some future covers.

If you like one of these just let me know through email:

Carnival Daisy (pictured)

Zoology Blue Disco

Pink Disco Damask

Lolli Dot

Multi Colored Disco Dots

(can line with blue/pink depending on gender)

Halloween....

2009-11-01T18:29:00.000-08:00

What a fun Halloween we had this year! Every year we go to my sister-in-laws to trick or treat, its such a great neighborhood. She said that her house probably got over 500 trick or treaters!! Seriously, there are so many kids through this neighborhood. Kaylor had fun with some of her friends, but she was ready to go by the end. We were a little cold and tired.

She was a lady bug this year.....

Notice Lexie squeezing her head in between us and smiling :)

With Gram

Pappy and B

Kaylor and Jaxon

Michael Myers, SCARY!!

With Aunt Christy

Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

Building Forts

2009-10-25T19:42:00.000-07:00

Kaylor is obsessed with wanting to build forts right now. She will constantly say "fort, fort!!" and point to the bonus room. Thanks to my dad, she realized how much fun laying under a blanket can be that is hooked on to some chairs. The other day she watched sesame street laying under it and of course wanted her best friend under there with her, Lexie!

She has a little static under the blanket :)

In the Mountains

2009-10-17T06:35:00.000-07:00

Over Fall Break we went to stay in a cabin in Pigeon Forge with Kerry's family. It has been a few years since we had been there and I forgot how relaxing and fun it was! Our cabin was awesome and the shopping was great :) The one day we had planned to go to Dollywood, it rained, so we were unable to go. It was only opened one day the entire time we were there (Dollywood has a weird schedule) so I was a little sad we couldn't go. Oh well, maybe next time. However, we did do a lot of eating, card playing, and shopping! That's my kind of vacation! Our cabin was three levels, 2 wrap around porches, a hot tub on the porch, and the best part...an air hockey table and ping pong table for our competitive nature! :)

Our cabin was not far from the main street, but you felt like you we were in the middle of no where! I mean, pitch black around us, no street lights, and not many other cabins even around. The location was good, but I have seen too many scary movies so I was freaking myself out a little bit at night :)

Here are some pictures of our cabin:

You gotta baby proof everything:

Gram with the Grandkids:

Race For The Cure

2009-10-15T10:07:00.001-07:00

This year my mom and I decided to participate in the Race for the Cure! My friend Alison told me about it and it was something she did every year. It is the Susan G. Komen breast cancer fund raiser at Maryland Farms in Brentwood. I am sure there is someone you know that had breast cancer or has beaten breast cancer like my Aunt Tina!!! My mom, Kaylor and myself ran in her honor. She was such a warrior with it and is doing so good now! I was shocked to see how many people were there. It was very crowded and it was even hard to have room on a 4 lane street to run. At the finish line of the 5k there were 2 separate ways you could go to the finish line. One of the ways was for the survivors, and it was amazing to see them cross the finish line under a big arch way of pink balloons. It really opened my eyes to see how many people have fought the cancer and to see how many people are racing for the cure!

Play Time....

2009-10-05T18:12:00.000-07:00

I'm not doing a great job of keeping up with the blog so I figured I would just add some random things that have been going on in the past month. Where does time go!? Kaylor is growing fast and I wish I could just slow time down! She is LOVING her MDO and her classmates. We were given a "class book" the other day and she loves to look through the book and say her friends' names. The night before school starts I always tell her we are going to school the next day and she gets so excited. I went to pick her up the other day and she didn't want to leave, so she layed down in front of the main entrance doors and screamed on her back. I was so embarrassed as TONS of these parents were coming in and out picking up their kids and them looking at me like I was that parent that couldn't control their child!

Something else she loves to do is jump on beds! I couldn't find her the other day, and then I heard the bed moving in the guest room. Of course she had climbed on to something else and started jumping:Kerry had to bring something home from Academy that was "camo" for her again! So this time it was a hat. She loves to put on hats now:

We had a family reunion again last weekend and she loved putting on these funny glasses:

We finally got to meet little Raegan. My friend Dana moved to New Mexico and she came in town to show off her precious girl:

Playing with her friends Blair and Aubrey:

Her friend Jaxon came over before bed time a while back to play. We didn't see them for a couple of minutes because they were playing in her room. Then all of a sudden they come out of the room with Jaxon in her baby doll stroller and her pushing him! :)

We will miss Bailey

2009-10-02T19:57:00.000-07:00

Last Friday night we lost out malti-poo Bailey. She wouldn't eat last Thursday night so on Friday we took her to the vet. They told us she had a tumor in her chest and basically passed away at home that night. I was with her the entire night (and middle of the night) until she passed away and it was VERY hard! I got Bailey when I was 15 years old. She went through many stages of my life with me including high school, college, out on my own for a year, married life, and having a child. She slept with me every night, followed me around the house, and sat by me on the couch through all of those years. It definitely feels different without her being around. I have been so sad it has taken me an entire week to write this post. To not make this post just terribly sad let me say a couple of stories about Bailey:

My mom and I got Bailey in Castner Knotts (now Macy's) parking lot in 1997 from an old mean lady that didn't want her. I was so excited to take her home and call my own dog. However, my mom did not tell my dad about us doing this. When we got home my Dad was very upset to find out that we got a dog behind his back and also to bring her home to live inside with us. He tried talking us into giving her back or selling her, and we would not even consider it. So instead my dad.........SOLD HER TO A LADY BEHIND OUR BACKS. I came home a few days after I had gotten her to find out that she was sold to a lady across town. My mom and I were so upset that we cried all day and didn't speak to him. He realized that he did a very mean thing and called the lady back the next day to beg for her back. She gladly said we could have her back because she said Bailey cried all night long and was not happy at her house (she knew I would love her the most) :) So my dad ended up paying the lady more than he sold her for, which meant he lost money on the whole situation. It's kind of a funny story now that we ended up with her and he lost money doing it.

About a year later, Bailey was in my parent's back yard just walking around like she always did. All of a sudden we heard an awful yelp from her and she came running in to the garage covered in blood. After taking her the emergency vet we found out that a coyote had her in his mouth and somehow she got loose from him (which the vet could not believe). She had huge teeth marks on both sides of her body and had staples put in her sides. I can't believe she escaped a coyote attack!!

Bailey was such a joy to have the past 12 years!! I really wish Kaylor would have gotten to be around her more. Kaylor did love her and would call her "Bay" all the time. Any white dog we see is "Bay". When Bailey passed away last week I was crying to Kerry and telling him I never want to get another dog again. But then I realize how much fun they bring to your family and how many memories you make with them. I do miss her sooooooo much and I am so lucky I got to spend the last 12 years with her.

I have so many more pictures of us over the years and I wish I could post them all. My favorite is the one where I took her to get OUR picture taken at my groomers. Yes, I am one of "those dog owners" that took my pet to get a professional picture taken. To make it even better, it was an hawaiian themed picture and I had a lei around my neck and Bailey had on a hawaiian visor and a lei on as well :) Great memories!!

Shades

2009-09-12T07:18:00.000-07:00

We have been having a great start of the school year so far! Kaylor is loving Mother's Day Out. Her teachers tell me she is doing great and they can't believe how much she eats. (It is crazy sometimes how much she does eat). She is NEVER full. I really believe she could eat any time of the day. She has been that way since the day she was born.

I also feel like she is learning new words everyday. Sometimes she will say a word and I wonder where she learned it. They just get big so fast!!

Here she is on Labor Day not wanting to take off her sunglasses. She asks for them all the time to wear around the house or outside:

She also loves to read books out loud in the chair. I can't understand what she is saying, but she talks like she knows what she is saying. It's funny to watch:

County Fair

2009-09-02T12:35:00.000-07:00

We went to the fair last Friday night and had such a great time! I didn't really know how Kaylor would do, but she actually loved it!! Her favorite thing was seeing all the different animals, well actually the ducks, which she calls "quack, quacks".

Pictures from the fair:

Loving the balloons, as always:

Walking with "B" and "Papy".

She doesn't call my mom Mimi, she decided to call her "B". All of her m words she uses a b sound. So now Mimi is just "B" Oh well!

Kaylor enjoying some shaved ice:

Can't leave the fair without having a funnel cake!

Mother's Day Out

2009-08-19T20:43:00.000-07:00

Well Kaylor officially started Mother's Day Out this week! I was a little nervous and really didn't know how it would be. I have heard how much my mom friends' LOVE mother's day out so we did it! Well, the first day my mom dropped her off and she cried, which I could not believe! I am not exaggerating when I say this, but she has NEVER once cried when I have left her some where. She usually says "Bye!" and waves. Even in the church nursery she just takes off and never looks back at me. (I know this is a good thing, but it does hurt a little when she doesn't care that I leave her) :) But when I picked her up this week her teachers said she did great! However, they did say that she talked to the other kids during nap time a little too much but she finally feel asleep. (I can't imagine what she was even attempting to say because all I hear in the mornings are Mama!! Daddy!! Bunny!! and Paci (pacifier)!!) And, can you believe they get 16 month olds to lay on a cot in a dark room all together and they fall asleep?? I am amazed at that!!

I had to get a picture of Kaylor after I picked her up on the first day: (she loved to hold her bag)

Family Reunion

2009-08-16T13:33:00.000-07:00

We went to our family reunion (my side of the family) this past weekend at Fall Creek Falls. It was an extra big one this time with family members from many other states. It was great to actually see some family that I have never even met!

Yummy!

2009-08-09T20:26:00.000-07:00

Kaylor is at that stage where she wants to do EVERYTHING herself! If you even think about helping her out she will throw a fit. I had to share some pictures I took of her trying to feed herself yogurt at breakfast. It takes her a long time to finish and it gets very messy:

Bike Riding

2009-08-01T07:01:00.000-07:00

Lately we borrowed our neighbors bikes when they went out of town. We took them to the park and also around our neighborhood every day when we had them. It was so much fun!! Kaylor also loved it ,which made it even more fun, because she didn't get bored. I think we are looking to go buy some ourselves now.

Some fun moments that I caught on camera lately:

Bed Head after her nap:

(Oh and notice the gummy wrap around her bed! When she was 11 months old she literally chewed chunks of wood out of her bed when she got her top teeth)

Maggie's 2nd Birthday party!!:She liked Maggie's new cousin:
With her cousin Keeley who just graduated pharmacy school and now lives here. She loves Keeley and she is a great babysitter!! And here is Kaylor in her maggie moo design outfit! She loves to feed the dogs so thats why she is by the dog food. Our dogs have gained so much weight lately because she constantly sneaks food to them!

Anniversary

2009-07-21T06:46:00.000-07:00

I need to do a better job of updating this blog. I feel like every day just goes by a little faster and time just gets away from me. Last week Kerry and I decided to take a little trip to Louisville. We LOVE water parks/theme parks and we have never been to Louisville, so there we went. We left Kaylor at my moms and went up there for a night. The park was very crowded (and it was a Tuesday) and let me just say it was o.k. I definitely like Holiday World and Atlanta better!
This past weekend we celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary by going downtown for dinner and staying at The Hutton Hotel. I would definitely recommend staying there! It was very modern, eco-friendly and nice! A little pricey, but we didn't want to go to Florida this summer so we considered it our "vacation" for a night:

Of course we had to eat tiramisu at Amerigos:

Here is Kaylor riding with Daddy on the mower waving: Miley and Kaylor playing:

Summer Fun!

2009-07-05T19:36:00.000-07:00

Wow how fast the summer is going! We have been having so much fun together now that Kerry has some time off. We did a basketball camp at my school together and we really enjoyed doing it. I loved seeing the kids again and we both love to teach basketball, so that turned out good!

Kaylor is STILL climbing everywhere and our chairs are STILL layed down in front of our couches. She even climbs in to her high chair and sits down now when the tray is off and she is hungry. I will film her doing this soon and put it on here, that girl loves to eat! Hope everyone is having a great summer!

Here are some recent pictures:

Kaylor loves to call for the dogs to come in. She has to go to the door every time we let them out. She will go "Bay!!!" (for Bailey) and "C!!!" (for Lexie)

This was on Father's Day before church.

This is the only time I have seen her keep on a hat. She didn't mind wearing it so I had to get a picture :)

Eating lunch with Ashley and Jaxon at the pool:

Kaylor loves to jump to her Daddy in the pool:

Every 4th of July we go to Mt. Juliet with Kerry's family. We have a big cookout, swim, and play games all day. Here is Kaylor in her festive outfit for the 4th:

With Gram:

The Aquarium

2009-06-26T09:41:00.000-07:00

Last week my mom, Kaylor, and I decided we wanted to go somewhere. However, we didn't know exactly where. We packed up the car, got on the interstate and said "where are we going?" We narrowed it down to Atlanta and Chattanooga, then right before the split to Atlanta, we said Chattanooga. So there we go! We went and stayed at my aunts house and we had a blast! We went to the aquarium and did some shopping downtown and it really was so much fun. I would recommend visiting the aquarium.

My cousin Savannah went to the aquarium with us and it was so great to spend some time with her. She is just growing up so fast!

Eating at Cheeburger, Cheeburger (so good!)

Out of everything at the aquarium, the penguins were my favorite part! I could have watched them all day. Kaylor loved them too! Mimi bought her a penguin stuffed animal when we left and she still loves carrying it around.

One of the penguins is swimming behind her. They are so fast!

And can you believe she got this close to a snake?? She even touched it!

Non Stop Fun??

2009-06-15T20:58:00.000-07:00

Kaylor and I decided to go visit the fountain at Indian Lake Mall the other day with one of my friends and her son. We thought it would be a good time to just sit and watch our kids run through the water and we could catch up, but instead I spent the majority of my time chasing Kaylor up to September's Cafe and the streets. She did get in the water, but she wanted to run everywhere when she got the freedom. So we didn't stay too long :)

Here is Kaylor sporting a different hair do. But I think she looks so different....

And, I couldn't resist not taking a picture of our living room. As I had mentioned on the last post, Kaylor LOVES to climb on things. I know this is not uncommon for babies to do, but I'm stuck! She will climb on the couches, and then try to stand on the side table or try to jump off the side of the couch which she has already hit her head hard plenty of times on our hard wood. I have tried EVERYTHING to teach her not to do this, but the minute I am not looking she is standing on top of the couch again laughing at me (which gets me even more frustrated). Any suggestions would be great! So, in the meantime I have put down a barrier in front of the couch and chair so she doesn't have a choice. She has given up trying to move the chairs to get on the couch, so I'm good---for now. But my living room never feels clean!

pmgc9jxw2y

Fun Stuff

2009-06-11T20:26:00.000-07:00

Summer is already going by so fast. Kerry is SO busy with basketball that he has not truly had a summer break yet. His birthday was June 4th and we did manage to find some time to celebrate!! We had a date night with dinner and a movie and it was great! Thanks Kerry for being such a great Husband and Daddy, we both love you sooooo much!

Kaylor and I have been having fun around the house and pool these days. It is amazing to see how much your child changes day to day. She is learning new words everyday and it reminds me how much your child is really listening. She is also in the habit of climbing on top of the furniture! The other day I was coming out of her room from hanging some clothes and she was standing on top of our kitchen chair laughing at me. I didn't even know she could climb on top of those things. Then at my moms house a couple of weeks ago I turned around for one second and I heard the back door open and she was trying to go down the stairs in my parents garage. I didn't know she could open doors either (my moms are the easy push down ones, she still can't turn the knob door handles--thank goodness, but she tries!).

One day last week, Kerry came home with one of his camp basketball t-shirts for Kaylor. He was excited for her to try it on, even though it was no where near her size. Here is what it looked like:

We also went to "The Country" as we like to call it, last weekend to visit our farm. We own some land in Clay County and we went to see how it was. Some of Kerry's family live up there so its nice to go up there to relax. He enjoys to hunt, fish, and plant some food plots on our land. Here are some pictures from the visit:

On Granny's porch:

Kaylor running around on the farm:

Pictures

2009-05-27T07:33:00.000-07:00

The start of the summer has began and I love it!! Sunny weather (well, hopefully that will get better here in TN), pool time, play dates, vacations, and family time. Love the start of summer. Kaylor has already been in the pool three times this summer and she is LOVING it. She never wants to get out and she will just walk right in to the pool if we let her. Here are some recent pictures including some pictures that Josh took about a month and half ago for her 12 month shoot.

At the park feeding the ducks:

At Hudson's 1st Birthday Party:

Going in to the pool:

Some of the 12 month pictures:

Shooting Some Hoops

2009-05-12T18:59:00.000-07:00

The Christmas before Kaylor was born she already had the biggest present under the tree. Kaylor's cousins gave her an indoor basketball goal. Of course we hoped she would like it, but you never know. Well we set the goal up about a week ago and it is very tall! Its actually for like 2-3 year olds. So what did we do with it? Box it back up?? Nah, Kerry and I left it up in our living room and have played a game of horse on it everyday. I mean some good horse games too! We decided to play when Kaylor was taking a nap the other day and we learned our competitiveness and a hard wood floor is not the quietest thing. Kaylor woke up immediately and we had to make the rule to only play when she was awake!

Anyways, we got a smaller goal that she can reach and she loves it!! She'll say "shoot" and go get her ball and shoot (lay) the ball in to the basket. We do know one thing, if basketball is not her thing, her parents will have fun playing on her basketball goals :)

Some Pictures

2009-05-03T07:04:00.000-07:00

Thought I would post some recent pictures of us over the past couple of weeks:

Kaylor and Jaxon love taking wagon rides through the neighborhood together.

Jaxon's 1st Birthday Party with Addison and the Birthday Boy!

Mimi reading to Kaylor:

Kaylor in the bathtub after she dunked her face under the water and had bubbles all over her face:

Here Kaylor was trying so hard to put Kerry's shoes on, I loved watching her do this. She only has one of her feet in his shoe in this picture:

Here is Kaylor opening her drawers to pull EVERYTHING out. (Including drawers in the kitchen.) I really lose my patience after she does this over and over again. I can't tell you how many times I re-fold her clothes to put back in her drawers and pick up utensils around the kitchen.

Daddy Mowing

2009-04-27T18:52:00.000-07:00

When Kerry mows the grass Kaylor loves to go sit at the door and watch him. Well today I was picking up around the house and I kept hearing her say "hi" like every 20 seconds. I went to the front door and Kaylor was waving to Kerry everytime he drove by. I thought it was so funny so I ran to get the video camera. I got some of it on video so I thought I would share.

I have also been saying the "A,B,C's" to her from books and just in general. She loves to say "B" and "C". She didn't really do it on camera, but that was what we were attempting to do at the end of the video. I wanted to cut it out of the video, but couldn't figure it out. She sounds so country when she says "B" (wonder where she gets that from). :)

Girls and their baby dolls!

2009-04-11T09:51:00.000-07:00

Kaylor got a new baby doll and stoller for her birthday. She loves to find her doll and put it in to her stoller and push it around (like mommy!!) I love seeing her push her doll and stroller around the house!She also likes to push her new mower. I took it outside the other day so the noise of it spinning as it is pushed was a little bit more tolerable :)

Spring time means flowers are blooming!! So I had to get a picture of Kaylor with the thrift at Gram's house:

Kaylor's 1st Year!!!!

2009-04-08T20:25:00.000-07:00

Oh how I love Birthdays! Kaylor officially turned 1 today! I had such mixed emotions about it. I'll have to be honest and say for the most part that I felt sad today because Kaylor is not a "baby" anymore, she is a year old!

Being today the day that she was born also brought back memories of me having her this time last year and what I was going through. Throughout the day I would look at the clock and think "this time last year I was having her," "This time last year I was not feeling so good." To spare you the details, let me just say that I did not have an easy time getting her here. I had a couple of Baptist nurses and one doctor tell me that I was "the unluckiest patient they have ever had!" WHAT!?! The baby factory hospital told me that they have never had a patient have this much stuff go wrong with a woman in labor before?!? Kaylor was a week old before we all got to go home and she had even gained weight while she was there, which the pediatrician said that was a first too!! I didn't get to change Kaylor's diaper for the first time until she was a week old and then I didn't do it again until weeks later after that. I had no energy, my friends were not allowed to visit by doctors' orders (after the 2nd day), I was on TONS of medicine, and then I was told I had to have surgery in the months to come--it was a rough time!! But I am saying all this to say that it was seriously worth EVERY MINUTE of being scared, in pain, and exhausted. I can remember different doctors coming in (for different reasons) throughout the week while I was in the hospital telling me the "plans" for some things and I really only broke down one time. But I remember telling Kerry "at least Kaylor is healthy, it really could be worse". I would endure it all over again to know she was ok.

But enough with the drama stuff, since then I found out about a month ago that I DON'T have to have surgery!!! I was actually the 2nd patient ever to heal with what I had and I am fine! And when people ask "are you ready for another one" I can imagine the face I have with the words of "no, not anytime soon" come out of my mouth :) I need time to forget!!

However, today was GREAT!! We spent some great family time together. I baked a cake and then we all headed to the zoo!! I really thought that Kaylor wouldn't get to see much, but she actually did!!! She noticed a lot of the animals when they were on her level and she was in such a great mood all day!!!

Here are some pics from today:

Running around outside before we left. She LOVES being outside!!!

We planted this tree the week she was born. We thought it would be neat to always come back to it and know we planted it then and see how much it will grow over the years:

With Daddy leaving the zoo. She is such a Daddy's girl!!

I also thought I would post some pictures of her throughout this year to show you how much she has changed!!! It's amazing to look back at these pictures.

This was her a couple of days old in the hospital:

Here she is when we got home from the hospital:

Here are 2 pictures where Kaylor was 1 month old:

Here she is at 3 months old:

Here she is at 4 months:

6 months:

9 months:

And at 1 year old!!!!

Oh how time flies!! It has been such an AWESOME year!!!

Kaylor's 1st Birthday Party!!!!

2009-04-05T19:15:00.000-07:00

We had a PERFECT day for Kaylor's first birthday party!!! It was a great turnout with almost 40 people! (We have a big family). The party was at Mimi's house (my mom's) and it was a perfect place to have it. I didn't realize how many little things you have to remember when it comes to planning a party. I took a TON of pictures, but I will try to narrow it down to just a few :)
I really didn't know what to do for a "theme". Well until I started planning her party, I didn't even know about themes or all of the other things that you do when planning a birthday party. So I decided to just do a polka-dot theme?? Well, to me that meant add some polka-dots to the invitations, cake, and some where in the decorations. Here is Kaylor's invitation that I used:

Here is the Birthday Girl!!

Here is the deck and the new pool at my Mom's house. I have to brag on my Dad and say that he built the brick columns, fence (thats not done), and the deck all on his own!!!

We had some GOOD Bar-b-que from Whitts!!!

She got so many great presents!!

Her yummy cake and smash cake!!

With the hat (that she refused to wear) and the bib that I made her:

Some of the guests:

Miley and Hudson

Ashley with my Dad and the "recreational" area thanks to Kristen and Marcie :) Its good to keep kids busy!

Jaxon loving the balls!

Trying to get a picture of Addison and Kaylor. They did not want to sit still:

With Mamaw (my grandmother):

Cousin Austin and Aunt Christy

Blow out the candle!!

She dove right in and said "Mmmmmmm" after she tasted the icing and cake!!

Opening presents!! She loved her Elmo Live that she got:

With my family:

Of all the things, she loved the ice from the party tub. She wouldn't leave it alone!!

Kaylor with all of her presents:

Here is the present from Mimi and Pops. Her first table and chair set!! You can see that she loves it!! Thanks Mimi and Pops!

Kaylor was worn out!!! She went to bed at 6:30 that night and slept until 7:00 the next morning!! She then took a 3 hour nap today! She never sleeps like this-promise! We had such a fun day with family and friends!!

Our Little Turkey

2009-04-03T10:41:00.000-07:00

Well Turkey hunting season has officially started. Kerry has been going a lot and yesterday he was able to kill one. He was so excited to get Kaylor in the picture with him and the turkey when he came home with it. (I have been replaced :) ) I am going to try to go with him sometime soon so I can get another shot at one (it really is fun). Here is Kerry with both his pride and joys:

We have been taking Kaylor on wagon rides lately. Aunt Christy gave her a radio flyer at Christmas and Kaylor LOVES to ride in it! She just sits still and looks around while we pull her through our neighborhood, it even came with a backing for her to sit against and a seat belt. Its a great thing to have if your wanting to mix it up from a stroller:

Daddy pulling her:

She doesn't even want to get out when we stop. She just sits there (which is unusual):

I Love Hand Made

2009-03-29T17:25:00.001-07:00

As some of you know, I love to sew and embroider now. I got the urge to do this after I had Kaylor and realized you can make such cute things! Like Kerry says, its healthy to have hobbies (but I think he just says that because he likes to hunt and fish all the time, ha ha). Not only do I love to make things myself and for other people, but I love to be given things that are hand made. They really mean so much to me because I know some one took the time to sew, paint, draw, and create something just for me. I appreciate the work that is put in to something. My Grandmother quilts and has every since I was little, and she quilts the pieces by hand! I cherish those quilts now more than I ever have because I know how long and hard she worked on them. I wanted to show some things I have received lately and also things I have made for others and Kaylor:

Here is a bow holder that my friend Carrie made me a couple of weeks ago. She painted Kaylor's name by hand, I never knew she was so good at this. I loved it! :

Here is a cubed pillow toy. This was made by my friend Alison (maggie moos mom) It has bells inside and Kaylor loves to throw it and chase it all the time. It is so soft and each piece was sewn together with an added "K" just for Kaylor:

Here is something else made by Alison that I love. It is a key chain, so cute! :

Here is a pillow I made for our friend Jaxon:

An Easter outfit for Kaylor to wear around:

And lately I have been finding shorts, skirts, and pants that Kaylor will be wearing this spring and making tops to match, its been fun! :

This is why I never get to bed early!! :)

What A Face

2009-03-23T14:01:00.000-07:00

We love Spring!! Since the weather has been so nice in the past couple of weeks, Kaylor just dies to go outside. When we open the back door to let Lexie and Bailey out you can hear two little feet take off across our house from wherever she is to the back door for a chance to go outside. She will throw a fit if we close the door without her getting to go.

Kaylor has also started making this certain face lately. Like when we go in to get her from her nap or she will be looking at you and then make this face for some reason. We call it her "angel face" because its like she uses it to make you think she never does anything wrong. Well, the other day my Mom saw her do it and she said "she looks just like you Courtney when you were little, you used to make that same face." My mom then found a picture of me making this face and I took a picture of Kaylor making it.

See what you think....

Here is Kaylor making the face:

And here is me making the same face:

Isn't that funny??

We also celebrated my birthday last week. It was a great day!! We went to go eat at the Spaghetti factory with my parents and brother. It has been a family tradition since I was like 10 years old.

Kaylor playing outside. What she loves to do!!!

My Little Bailey

2009-03-10T19:37:00.000-07:00

As some of you know, I have a malti-poo/maltese/bischon? Don't really know the breed, but who cares. I basically "rescued" my dog Bailey from a mean old lady that was not nice to her when I was 14 years old (12 years ago). She has basically been my 1st child throughout the years. I had her through all of high school, college, single life after college (a year), married life, and now she is still with me when I had my own child. I love Bailey!

Now all of you dog lovers understand how attached you can get to your dogs :)

However, I am a realist and understand that 12 years old in doggie years is getting on up there in age. Well this morning Bailey was trying to get down off of our bed and I usually help her down but I just let her do it herself for some reason today. Right after she landed she yelped very loudly and could not put pressure on her back leg. I knew something happened immediately. So me, Kaylor, and Bailey jump in the car and head towards the vet. After 2 x-rays and an exam we realized.....Bailey tore her ACL and Lateral Ligaments! I didn't even know dogs could do that! I thought that only happened during "human" athletics :) She pretty much blew out her knee. The vet thinks that there is a 90% chance that it will heal on its own, which is good news. But she can't really go up stairs, jump on anything, or go on our afternoon walks for 6-8 weeks :( !! But she is acting normal, just a little slow with her knee. Vet bills are also an unexpected expense when you have to go, so I was a little stressed about that today. I prayed about it and just thought "well at least we didn't have to do an expensive surgery, or they didn't tell me she was not going to make it". So this afternoon we were on our way to our weekly trip to Wal-Mart when we were passing our bank and Kerry told me to pull in because he had a message on his phone from a lady from our bank. He runs inside to see what she needed while I waited in the car. He comes back out and tells me that last time he was inside the bank he put his name in a drawing while he was waiting in line and he won!! We got a $100.00 Visa card!! What a blessing, especially on a day when I was stressed about spending money on a vet bill.

Here are some pictures from the past couple of days:

I went in to check on her during her nap time and this is how I found her sleeping, feet on the head board, bunny in one hand and a blankie in the other. I'm trying to give her anything to grab on to instead on her hair, HA! :

Playing with her friends Aubrey and Blair Breakfield:

Getting ready to go outside and to the park. You can see that Lexie is dying to get out:

Kaylor petting Bailey after she tore her ACL. You can see her baby doll in her right hand. She loves that thing and goes and gets it when I ask her too :) I love this picture:

Kaylor eating her pasta and cheese, a little messy. She is getting so big.

Swimming

2009-03-04T19:40:00.000-08:00

I had previously posted about us taking swim lessons. Well, our first class was this past Monday morning and it went great! (Excluding the fact that it was FREEZING). My friends Stacey (Kelvey) and Nicki (Harper) are in the class with us, and we all were wondering why it was so cold. It looks like we will be getting a wet suit.

I didn't bring my camera, but Nicki's husband caught some great pictures behind the glass as he watched the class and Stacey got one before class started. I'm so glad we have these pictures:

This is the one I took before we left for the class:

Kaylor and Kelvey getting ready to begin:

The swim instructor took Kaylor under for the first time,

this is her before he pulled her off the side in to the water. You just let them sink and then pull them back up, kind of scary for the first time :)

We are practicing her kicking, she didn't really get this one. Maybe she will get better :)

This is Kaylor floating. She did do good with this one. I'm only putting my hands on her forehead and chin. All of the babies in the class did good with this:

She was soooo tired. This lesson was during her nap time, so by the end she was laying down on me (she never snuggles, so I knew she was extremely tired):

Busy Week

2009-03-01T18:56:00.001-08:00

We've had a busy week!! We went to some basketball games and have also been dealing with our family passing around some kind of stomach virus. Kaylor has had an upset stomach since last Wednesday, so I think we are finally going to the doctor tomorrow. I have called and they have told me to try some different things, but nothing seems to be working. It started last Wednesday morning when Kaylor woke around 5:00. I was already up pumping (yes, I am still breast feeding) so Kerry went to go get her. All of a sudden I heard "Courtney, come here". I knew this was bad because for one he doesn't ever call me Courtney and two I could tell by his voice. I walk in to her room and she is covered head to toe in diarrhea, along with her bed sheets. So I took her in the bathroom and start taking off her clothes while Kerry is holding her. As I am doing this Kerry is dry-heaving, literally, off to the side while he is still holding her. I am laughing and saying "you have got to get it together, its just your daughter and we have to get her in the bath." She gets cleaned, but I think it is so funny that Kerry still gets sick sometimes when the diapers are bad.
Besides that Kerry and I both had alumni games to attend this week. One to Belmont and one to Lipscomb. (Isn't that funny that we went to rival colleges and rival high schools (Hendersonville/Beech). Anyways, Kerry was asked to be in a 3 point shoot out with some of the players one night this past week so we went out to support him. It was fun and Kaylor got to run around on the floor and play with basketballs.

My husband in action :) :

Here is Kaylor with Andy Wicke. Andy played for Kerry at Hendersonville and now he is plays for Belmont:

Here is Kaylor with some the players:

She loves to pick up basketballs and carry them around or attempt to bounce them. We don't want her to like basketball at all do we (ha):

On Saturday it was alumni day at Lipscomb. Here is Mimi with Kaylor watching the game:

Some of my old teammates after the game. I wish we could all hang out more often:

Playing

2009-02-21T15:30:00.000-08:00

I have been thinking of some activities for Kaylor and I to do for her to stay busy these days. The older she is getting, obviously the more active and she is ALWAYS looking for something to be doing. My friend Nicki mentioned to me that she was taking swimming lessons with her daughter. I had thought about wanting to do that before, but didn't realize we could start now! So we signed up and are starting in a couple of weeks. My mom and sister-in-law both have pools, so I want Kaylor to be used to it before the summer gets here. So we will see how that goes!

Today we decided to go to Opryland to go see the National Turkey Hunting Convention. Kerry is a HUGE turkey hunter, and I really enjoy it myself. (Even though I have missed 2 turkeys and haven't gone in 2 years). It was still a lot of fun. Better yet when we were parking, this nice couple who were getting in to their car next to us gave us their passes to get in (savings of $16.00). We were so appreciative of that! I couldn't wait to give another couple our passes when we were walking out to make their day as well.

Here's a picture of Kaylor and Kerry before we left. Kerry put his PRIMOS hat on her to look more like an "outdoor girl".

Here we are in the hotel coming out of the convention:

Kaylor has also got in to the habit of wanting to flip the pages in all of her books; and right now she will sit and listen to you read to her for a short period of time before she gets bored. Here is Kerry reading a book to her:

And here she is carrying her baby doll around the house. She didn't want to let it go.

And for anyone who loves consignment sales and wants to donate to a great cause, here is a great thing to do. My good friend Alison's sister runs the consignment sale Encores and More North. She is also wanting to adopt a child. She is selling raffle tickets for $5.00 each. For every ticket you buy, your name is put in to a drawing. If your name is drawn, you get to shop before ANYONE and you get $100.00 to spend, and your helping her adoption fund! Here is where you can read more about it and donate.

My Valentines

2009-02-15T19:38:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day! Wasn't it fun that is was on a Saturday this year? It actually felt like a "holiday" if you want to call it that. Kerry, Kaylor, and I went to Mimi's and Gram's house to deliver a cookie from the Cookie Bouquet (my favorite :) ) and a card for them. They appreciated the gifts.

That night Kerry and I went to dinner at Amerigos. Since we had reservations we walked in and gave them our name and they said "yes, we are ready for you Mrs. West". I felt like I was a celebrity or something (you can tell we don't do that a lot), then they took us to the back room where no one else really was. For some reason they didn't have many people with reservations, and the wait was hours long. We really go to Amerigo's for the tiramisu (dessert). It was great like always! It was such a good Valentine's dinner.

On the other hand we have been dealing with a hair issue with Kaylor Brooke. Kaylor has always had a head full of hair from day one. Since the day she was born, she has grabbed her hair when she is tired or when she sleeps. She also grabs it hard when she doesn't get her way (temper). Well, I noticed within the last week that when I would go get her from her bed in the mornings, she would have some of her hair in her hand. After a couple of mornings of this I could tell her hair was thinning up top. This was SO SAD for me because I loved her little bangs. So now just the middle/front of her head is thin. I called the doctor and she said to cut her hair really short so she couldn't pull it :( So I took her to the hair salon and all of the hair dressers there came in to look at her hair and try to figure out what to do. They all decided to not do anything because the options were for her to be completely bald (which was too extreme), get a boy haircut but she still was going to be able to pull it, or have a mullet. None of those options seemed good to me so we all decided to wait and see if she pulled out any more hair. Since then, her hair has grown back somewhat and she isn't pulling at it as much. So I am hoping that this will stop. I am so glad we got her pictures made right before she decided to do this. Maybe its just a phase.

Also Kaylor is walking everywhere now. She has been trying to walk for a couple of weeks, but I didn't know when to consider it truly walking. She will walk everywhere, but when she falls she doesn't have enough strength to pick herself up. So she has to crawl to the nearest thing stand up and take off again. But everyone I talk to says that its still consider walking, so I guess she has been "walking" for over a week now. She never wants to be held anymore, she wants to get down everywhere and walk! Fun fun!!

Kaylor also loves to say "Hi" to everyone she passes--literally. We went to Target and Kohl's the other day and I promise she said hi to around 20 people. Everyone we passed would respond with "well hello there" I was laughing to myself because she loved it so much. When we were in Kohl's I was looking at some shirts where the front doors are and everytime someone would come through the doors she would yell "Hi" with the stiffed arm wave. I ended telling people when they came in that she was the greeter for Kohls. It was very funny.

Well we hope everyone had a good Valentine's Day!

9 month pictures

2009-02-10T14:13:00.001-08:00

I am finally getting a chance to post Kaylor's 9 month pictures with Josh Harris. We did them on a beautiful day so we were able to get some pictures outside at the park, along with some inside ones. Like always, we LOVED the pictures that he did. He is so reasonable in price and you get to keep all of the proofs on a cd. I hate only being able to choose one or two poses when you like so many. I wish I could post them all because I really like how they turned out.

Here are some of them:

Play Time!

2009-02-07T18:33:00.000-08:00

What a BEAUTIFUL day it was today!

The 70 degree weather made me want spring and summer to get here soon.

I couldn't just sit inside with Kaylor all day so we decided to go to the park and let her swing. She loved it!! She would just die laughing as I pushed her.

Here are some pictures from our visit to the park:

She was laughing and enjoying the swinging:

Here is something else that I find her doing ALL the time....pulling toilet paper off the roll and playing with it:

And here is one in her Tennessee outfit that Uncle Conner (my brother) gave her for Christmas. Conner is a junior at UT and I know he would be so proud of her wearing it:

Like Father Like Daughter

2009-01-28T19:54:00.000-08:00

The other day Kerry and I were looking through some pictures that his Granny had and we came across one of Kerry when he was 9 months old. When I saw it, it reminded me of a picture we had of Kaylor. One day before Christmas I went to my moms to pick her up after work and my mom had taken her to get a Christmas picture made and surprised me with it.

I thought they resembled each other in these,

their smiles are identical:

Trish Hodgson

2009-01-26T10:22:00.001-08:00

It seems pretty sad that I am writing about another person that has passed away in the past couple of weeks, but I couldn't go without saying how awesome this lady was. Mrs. Trish Hodgson was my physical education advisor and teacher at Lipscomb. She was awesome!! She passed away from ovarian cancer, and she did not go with out a fight. She tried everything, but stayed very positive through it all. She was only 58 years old, and actually started women's athletics at Lipscomb. She taught me SO MUCH and gained respect from many with how well she taught and coached. She was the most ATHLETIC woman I can honestly say I have been around. She would beat everyone in our classes in any sport-seriously. She was a Canadian Olympic badminton player and she would hit the birdie so hard we couldn't see it. When we were doing double dutch during our jump rope lesson, she would jump right in with us. Guys around campus would make appointments to play her in raquetball, badminton, tennis, etc. and they would ALWAYS lose.
Besides the fact that she was an incredible athlete, teacher, and coach, she also taught us how to be a godly person. She loved the Lord and you could see that in everything she did. I am fortunate that I was her student and friend. Everyone celebrated her life yesterday and it turned out great. She was definitely loved and she will be missed greatly.

9 months

2009-01-23T13:53:00.000-08:00

Over a week ago, we had Kaylor's 9 month check up. Wow-9 months old!! Believe it or not I have already been thinking about her 1st Birthday!!! WHAT?!? Where does time go? Well, her checkup went very good, excluding the long wait we had for some reason. She is still very tall for her age and about 75 in weight. Here were her measurements:

Height: 30 inches tall (not on the chart)

Weight: 20 lbs. (75 percentile)

I was always tall for my age, and I hated it until I was in high school and it came in handy playing sports. I'm only 5'9" (which thats the height the doctor predicts Kaylor will be) But I remember as a child the teacher would ask us to line up from shortest to tallest for yearbook pictures and I HATED IT!! I would be the last person in line because I was the tallest in the class, behind all of the boys, and I would argue that I was actually shorter than them (which I knew I wasn't).

Oh well, hopefully Kaylor won't feel the same that I did if she is tall for her age. :)

Besides that, Kaylor is still trying so hard to walk.

She has gotten 8 steps in a row so far.

So maybe within a month or two she will get it completely!

Granny

2009-01-15T06:48:00.001-08:00

Unfortunately this week we lost Kerry's grandmother at 88 years old. She was such a kind-hearted and thoughtful lady who will be missed very much. Even though there is not any time that is a good time to lose someone, we know she is much more comfortable now.

Some interesting things about Granny Cherry:

1. She has never driven a car, EVER!

It wasn't because she physical couldn't, she just never learned.
Somehow she found a way to get everywhere she needed to be.

2. Sometime in the last 10 years someone tried to break in to her house. Instead of getting scared, calling the police or her son next door, or hiding under a bed (like I would do) she decided to get a shotgun, go to the window where he was trying to get in and say "I will blow your head off if you don't leave". The guy took off running.

3. She made by far the BEST homemade strawberry jelly that could ever be eaten. Our friends would always ask for some jelly in the jars when that time of year came to make it. I want some right now just talking about it.

She will be missed.

Granny visiting when Kaylor was born:

Celebrating her 88th Birthday this year:

Kaylor with Granny and Gram at Christmas a couple of weeks ago:

Just Playing

2009-01-12T09:28:00.000-08:00

Kerry and I were talking about how fast time goes once you have a child. It seemed like it took forever when I was pregnant for 9 months to go by and for Kaylor to get here, but now that she is 9 months old it seemed like she was born yesterday. I try to cherish every day with her and every stage she is in. I really don't want her to be in the next stage, there is no hurry for me.

We all have so much fun together.

She wants to walk so badly, but continues to fall down every time. The most she has done is 5 steps by herself, which we were proud of. But like I said, she can take all the time she wants. I think its cute seeing her crawl all over the house and when she sees us coming behind her she crawls in super speed and starts laughing because she doesn't want us to catch her. She loves saying "Hey!" and waving to everyone too. She actually likes to say "Hey Daddy" to everyone, but she needs to learn that everyone she sees is not Daddy. Oh well.

Here are some pictures since Christmas.

With my Dad swinging.

What I called the "carrot" as a kid. I wanted my mom to do this to me all the time in the tub. Now its Kaylor's turn.

Her toy that she likes to push around downstairs.

I went in to Old Navy and Kerry and Kaylor went shopping at Dicks the other day. I come back to the car and Kaylor is playing with a new ball in her carseat because Kerry said she "wanted it". Uh huh :)

She does like to throw/push balls though, we don't want her to like sports or anything :)

Family Christmas

2008-12-29T20:47:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-16T15:36:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-08T21:16:00.001-08:00

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

2008-12-02T08:37:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-01T10:54:00.001-08:00

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!

2008-11-18T16:50:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-11-13T16:22:00.000-08:00

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!!

2008-11-02T15:32:00.000-08:00

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

2008-10-28T18:43:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-22T16:26:00.001-07:00

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!

2008-10-12T19:21:00.000-07:00

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!!

2008-10-08T18:56:00.000-07:00

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!!

2008-10-02T18:54:00.000-07:00

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.....

2008-10-01T15:24:00.000-07:00

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..

2008-09-24T14:53:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-17T19:14:00.000-07:00

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

Growing and Giggling

2008-09-04T19:09:00.000-07:00

It has been so hard lately to catch Kaylor giggling on camera. She is such a happy baby, but it is not very often that she giggles out loud. I really think that there is nothing more precious than hearing a baby laugh. Kaylor is also starting to recognize our dogs Bailey and Lexie. They love her, but she really has not noticed them until lately. She gets SO EXCITED when they come around and starts to automatically reach for them. She's not so gentle when it comes to petting them, but they don't mind.
Everyday I notice something new with her and it is so much fun to watch her grow. Here is a video of her giggling and some recent pictures:

Laughing at the dogs

Snuggling With Daddy

Cereal all over her face

Playing with Lexie

Playing with Bailey

Like Father/Mother like Daughter??

2008-08-27T19:15:00.000-07:00

I frequently have people ask me who Kaylor looks like the most. Being the mom, I really don't look at her and see a lot of either one of us. She is just Kaylor to me, but I get so many opinions on who she looks like the most. I decided to post some baby pictures of Kerry and I around the same age that Kaylor is right now, so you can judge for yourself. It was funny looking at both of our baby pictures and seeing what features (we think) that she got from us.

See what you think.....

Kerry

Courtney

Kaylor

Kerry, Kaylor, and Camo

2008-08-21T19:07:00.000-07:00

I came home the other day and we were getting ready to go somewhere else right after I got there and I asked Kerry to change her outfit before we left. So, to my surprise, Kerry and Kaylor walk out of her room with her wearing a new camo outfit (trimmed in pink) and a huge grin on both of their faces. It was hilarious and too cute!! The mom in me had to get the video camera to capture this moment that my husband was so proud of. I guess the camo outfits were gonna come sooner or later.

Here is the video from the camo incident and some pics:

Thanks for the new outfit Daddy!

Getting So Big

2008-08-17T14:55:00.000-07:00

Well nothing too exciting has been going on lately with us. Kaylor is rolling over non-stop and is loving her "jump and go" seat that we hook over the door and her Baby Einstein Entertainment Center. She is just now big enough for both of these and LOVES it!! When I lay her on the changing table she rolls over and looks over the edge at me when I am getting her pajamas out of the drawer, I have to keep a hand on her at all times!! It was easier at the beginning when they were not mobile, but here on out you have to constantly keep your eye on them and she isn't even crawling yet! Here are some updated pictures:

In her NIKE hat

In her new Jumpie Toy

Some Daddy and Daughter Time

es:

The Start of a New School Year

2008-08-12T14:33:00.000-07:00

I have been so busy lately getting ready for school with lesson plans and scheduling. It has been nice to start this semester part time, I feel like I am getting the best of both worlds. Seeing all the kids again today was also fun. It had been a while since I have seen them, especially not being pregnant.

I feel like Kaylor is changing everyday. I can't lay her down without her automatically turning over on to her stomach. She is starting to sleep on her stomach because she is so fidgety and rolls over when I put her down for bed. She is also starting to giggle out loud when we play peek-a-boo with her, I really need to catch that one on video.

I am going to add a video that I got about a week ago when I came home from the mall. Kerry was holding Kaylor in his lap reading to her. She was loving it. By the way...if any of you have kids, I signed Kaylor up for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library and it is awesome!! Every month she receives a hard back, nice book for us to read together. This month it was The Little Engine That Could. It is a great program and IT'S FREE!!

Monkeying Around

2008-08-04T20:55:00.000-07:00

O.K., So about a year ago Kerry calls me one day while I was at the flea market to tell me that there is a monkey on our fence in the backyard. Of course my answer was "Yeah, right--a monkey!?! Like the kind at the zoo? Aren't those illegal?"

So, I never saw the monkey when I got home and it was an on going joke that he was the only one to see a monkey that really didn't exist. Well one day when I was at home right after Kaylor was born, I happened to look out my back window and saw a glimpse of a monkey in our neighbors yard that lived behind us. I took pictures for proof, but I didn't see it for very long.

Well.....today Lexie was whining to go outside and right when I opened the back door that monkey was sitting on our fence about 10 feet away staring at me. Lexie and Bailey start going crazy while Kaylor was crying for food. I had to grab the video camera to prove that there is a monkey that lives at our neighbors house and that it was making noises at me in my yard. I saw a woman walking beside the monkey, so I went over there to ask her about this. She said that her name is Jasmine and she is 9 years old and has her own bedroom in their home!! I couldn't believe she had a pet monkey. It reminded me of the FRIENDS episodes with Ross and Marcel. Thankfully Kerry came home right after our dogs were going crazy to get them back in the house.

Here is the video from today:

4 months

2008-08-02T17:00:00.000-07:00

We had our 4 month checkup this morning. I was dreading it again because of the shots, but it was actually easier this time. Kaylor didn't even cry on her first shot!! Everything looked great. She is still in the 95th percentile in height and weight. Here were her measurements:

Weight: 15 lbs 9 ounces

Height: 26 inches

We also started rice cereal today. She did good with it for the first time. I know I say this everytime, but I can't believe she is already 4 months old. The thing I heard most when I was pregnant and right when she was born was "enjoy every moment because they will grow so fast". And it is so true. That made me think of something else that happened this week. I found out that I am able to job share this semester at work. I will be working 3 days a week and rotating the days I work every week. This gives me a little more time to spend with her.

Since Kerry and I didn't take a vacation this summer we decided to take some money and buy a video game called "Rock Band". If some of you are unfamiliar with this, it is a game where you are able to play the guitar, drums, or sing to a rock song (i'm the drummer) . If you every had the dream of being a rock star, then this is the game for you!! :) We love it. So the other night some people wanted to come over to try it out. Mandi and Clancy came with their WEEK OLD son Weston, who is just precious; Stacey and Ron came with their daughter Kelvey, and Jonathan and Ashley came with their son Jaxon. We had a house full of kids with the parents rockin' it out on a video game. But we all had a lot of fun.

Kaylor Eating Cereal

She loved the spoon and wanted to chew on it

Baby Weston Hall one week old

Stacey and Kelvey (who is about to turn 1 year old!)

With Daddy on our way to Opry Mills

Swimming and Thumb Sucking

2008-07-26T10:52:00.000-07:00

Well I finally got Kaylor in the pool for the first time this summer. We went to Aunt Christy's house in the late afternoon so we could enjoy the warm water and not worry about getting sun burned. Kaylor loved the water!! The minute we put her in the pool she was just smiling and kicking her feet from being excited under the water. We had fun!

She has also been getting in the habit of sucking her thumb lately. Every time I see her doing it I pull it out and put in her pacifier. But she still always tries to find that thumb! She usually only does it when she is napping or going to bed at night though. I'll post some pics from this week:

Our first swim together

Napping, and you can see where she spit the pacifier out under her hand.

Again on her bebe seat

Relaxing!!

2008-07-20T10:13:00.000-07:00

I finally did it! I finished my Master's last week!! It was such a great feeling after I mailed my portfolio to my professor last Monday. I have been working on it for 18 months and you never think you will get to that last course, but I did! Kerry, Kaylor, and I went to Cracker Barrel to celebrate after we left the post office from sending my work :)

Besides that, I have been enjoying the extra time around the house. Before, I would be watching videos or writing papers on my free days, but I guess you could say now the house stays cleaner and I'm now caught up with laundry on a regular basis :)

Kaylor is getting so big. She has been teething for a couple of weeks now. I know this is early because she is only 3 1/2 months old. Her teeth are not through the gums yet, but you can see them coming in. She has been a little bit more fussy and so much drool!! I have been giving her a cold teething ring and it always makes her feel so much better. She also rolled over for the first time on Thursday!! She was playing on her mat and I happened to look down at her from the couch and she just rolled over completely to her tummy!! Of course since then she has not done it again after many attempts with the video camera and her dad watching. But I was so glad to see it--it's funny how excited I got when she did roll over though. I will hopefully get it on video soon and post it on here.

Since many of you are unable to come over to our house, I will post a picture of the 20 x 24 collage that Josh Harris got printed for me after her 3 month photo shoot. The picture does not show how good it looks in person. Josh did her pictures and we met him and Alison for dinner the other night and picked up all of the pictures I ordered. Let's just say I went straight to Hobby Lobby after dinner to get it framed because I could not wait the next day to see it up in our house. Hobby Lobby let us stay 30 minutes after closing so they could finish the frame. We love it!!

Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks:

After my Master's I ate some cookies from the 'cookie bouquet' that my Mom got me!!

The picture collage in our house.

The teething ring and bebe pod seat that she loves!

And of course the 'after the bath' picture. We always have to take these :)

3 Months and 4th of July!

2008-07-05T20:06:00.000-07:00

What a busy summer we have had so far! I am having so much fun with Kaylor that time is flying by. This past week has been extremely busy. On Thursday we went to visit my Grandmother, Aunt/Uncle, and Cousins in Dunlap, TN. We drove up and back in the same day and boy were we all exhausted. The next morning we got up and went to visit Kerry's Aunt/Uncle and all the other family in Mt.Juliet for a 4th of July picnic. By today Kaylor was soooo tired. She has slept so much, but it was great seeing all of the family and I know everyone enjoyed seeing Kaylor.

Last Sunday we went over my good friend Alison's house for Kaylor's 3 month pictures. What a great family and awesome time we had there. Josh did so good taking her pictures and we all had fun making them. Let me just say that Kaylor pooped 3 TIMES and wanted some food during the shoot!! But they were so great they just laughed about it. I just got the pictures from the photo shoot and man I love them! Josh does a great job plus you feel so relaxed doing them with him.

I'm going to add some pictures from the busy week.

2008-06-23T21:35:00.000-07:00

Each day keeps going faster and faster. Before we know school will be here again, that is why I am trying to enjoy every day. Our schedules are about to slow down a bit after all of the basketball camps are finished. I only have one that I am doing this week at my school with Kerry. We are having a lot of fun with it and we love doing it for the kids.

Thought I would add some pictures that we took lately. This Sunday we are going over to my good friend Alison's house for her husband to take Kaylor's 3 month pictures (can't believe we are already at 3 months!!) This is the same guy that took a couple of pictures for her birth announcements. He does a great job and I can't wait to see how they turn out. I will update soon.

Another one after the bath

We don't have many of just Kerry and I anymore :)

It was so funny taking these pictures of Jaxon and Kaylor. They are already buddies :)

After Bath Time

2008-06-12T02:19:00.000-07:00

Kaylor just absolutely LOVES getting a bath. When she is fussy to eat at her feeding before bed, I can always give her a bath and she forgets she is hungry. (She quickly remembers afterwards though). Last night Kerry took some video of her after the bath on her changing table. Thought I would add a video on here this time instead of pictures to mix it up.

Kerry's Birthday and the Doctor!!

2008-06-04T20:09:00.000-07:00

Today is Kerry's birthday, which I did not see him until supper time. We went to eat at Shane's (yes, Shane's Ribshack)--he is pretty easy to please! This is where he chose after a long day in the gym. We also enjoyed desert at Maggie Moo's afterwards and then called it a night.

Today was also Kaylor's 2 month check up at the doctor. This was the one I have been dreading for a while now--the vaccinations!! I always heard my friends saying how hard it was for them to take their child to get shots. I always thought in my head "why, every kid has to get shots-why would you get so upset?" Well I was wrong, it was hard! Kerry could not even go with us! So here I am holding down my daughter as the nurse gave her three shots in the leg. The sad part was she was so happy on the table, smiling and cooing, and then it quickly went to a screaming cry (the one where they can't catch their breath). It broke my heart!! When I was finally able to pick her up, she just curled up tight against me in pain. It was all I could do to not start crying. I had tears just sitting in my eyes. I can tell her little legs are so sore tonight, but its all part of it. I'm just glad it is over with. She weighed 13 pounds 1 ounce and was 24 1/4 inches long. She was in the 95th percentile!! The doctor said she will be tall.

So it was an eventful day. Happy Birthday Kerry!!

Birthday Party

2008-06-02T20:11:00.000-07:00

Summer has officially started and I feel busier now than when we were working. Kerry started basketball camps and practice, while I have been going to doctor's appointments and finishing school work.
Kaylor went to her first birthday party yesterday for my friends son Addison. He turned one year old and had an Elmo themed party. It was very cute and fun, I just wish Kaylor could have enjoyed it a little more. She was so great at the party though-she just sat in her carrier the whole time and looked around. It was kind of nice being the mom not chasing around my kid or worrying what they were getting in to (but I know I won't have this much longer) :)

Summer Time

2008-05-24T12:49:00.000-07:00

Well I have not been doing a good job at updating my blog this month. I will get better, it is that I have been soooo busy. I went back to coaching Beech softball and we lost last night in the state championship. It was great to get back on the field, but it was very hard juggling that and little Kaylor. Thank goodness for my family being here for some babysitting (I don't think they cared too much :) I am also finishing up my Masters Degree and it is not a very good idea to try to go to school and have a newborn. I only have 4 weeks left until I am done, so I decided to push it out and finish. When I am at home with Kaylor, I really do not have a lot of down time. Between the feeding, pumping, laundry, cleaning, and school work, I feel like there is not enough time in the day. I will say that she has been sleeping for about 6-7 hours a night! Yes--my six 1/2 week old baby started this last week and I know I am very lucky for this. I hope she continues, it is great to get 6 hours of straight sleep!!

Kaylor Brooke is changing everyday-literally. Each day I see her she looks a little different and gets a little bigger. I try to take pictures and video of her all the time because of this. I will post the most recent pictures of her below and some of my favorites. If you noticed the very clear and professional looking picture of Kaylor at the top of my blog, it was taken by my great friend Alison Harris' husband Josh. He has started his own business of photography and he was nice enough to snap a couple of Kaylor when he came by to visit the other day. He does such a good job and I will be using him for her 3 month pictures soon!

I will be sure and do a better job at updating our blog. I am so glad summer time is here!

Kaylor during bathtime. She absolutely LOVES getting a bath.

Getting ready for bed after bath time. There is nothing sweeter than a baby after her bath, such a great baby smell!!

This is Kaylor's friend Jaxon, one of our best friend's son. We are neighbors and can not wait until they can start playing together. They were born 2 weeks apart.

Kaylor in her boppy just hanging out.

She's Growing Everyday!

2008-04-30T09:46:00.000-07:00

With Mom and Dad before the Doctor's Appointment

In Her Swing

The Great-Grandmothers:

Little Kaylor keeps changing and growing everyday. We went to her 2 week doctor's visit last Friday and she already weighed 10 pounds and grew to 22 and 1/4 inches. The doctor said she was growing very good!

This past weekend we had all of my Dad's family come in town to visit. It was great to see everyone and we all had so much fun with Kaylor. She is so loved by family and friends.

We are still trying to figure out a sleeping schedule. Some nights she will sleep up to four hours at a time and some she likes to wake up every hour, but I love every minute of being a new mom!

Kaylor Brooke is Here!!

2008-04-14T18:38:00.000-07:00

Finally we have come home with our little girl. Kaylor was born last Tuesday, April 8th at 10:15 in the morning. She weighed 8 pounds 14 ounces and was 21 1/2 inches long-BIG BABY to be a week early! Going back to the day before, I had my 39 week doctors visit. Right when I got in there they checked my blood pressure (which was high) and saw my increased swelling and the doctor casually said " Go check in to the hospital, it is time to have the baby". We had no bags and had no idea we were going in to have the doctor tell us she was inducing me.
They induced me at 2:00 a.m. on Tuesday and after a long night of waiting, she was delivered at 10:15 a.m. Unfortunately I had some complications after delivery and had to stay in the hospital until Sunday. The doctors would not let me have any visitors because of my high blood pressure, which I still have, so I did not get to see all of my friends. However we have a healthy baby girl that we are crazy about now. I am still very weak, but each day gets a little easier.
We appreciate all of the phone calls and prayers from everyone. We still need your prayers until my complications clear up, but we are so blessed to have such a healthy child. We will be in touch

with updates and pictures.

Homemade from The Heart

2008-03-30T09:25:00.000-07:00

I thought I would post some pictures of some things that our family and friends have made for baby Kaylor. We are so blessed to have such great family and friends and we can't wait for Kaylor to be a part of their lives.

The quilt above was made by my grandmother "Mamaw". The picture on the left says "handmade by Mamaw Janice". She makes beautiful quilts and stiched every piece on this butterfly quilt by hand. I know this is filled with a lot of love.

The quilt above was made by Kerry's co-worker Debbie Lewis and friend Carol Byrd. Mrs. Lewis matched this pattern to Kaylor's bedding and it could not have turned out any better. It is so cute and looks so good in her room!

The above onesies were made by my great friend and co-worker Alison Harris. She makes the most adorable outfits, dresses, burp cloths, or basically anything you want by hand. She is starting her own little business on the side and she is getting very busy. It is called Maggie Moo Designs and you see more of what she has made on her blog. I have a link to Maggie Moo Designs on this page, you should check it out! I can't wait until Kaylor can wear these!!

The dress above was made by another co-worker, Amy Rose. She actually made this dress out of a pillow case! It is so cute and I could not resist putting it on here.

This crocheted blanket was made by Kerry's cousin Kayla. You can never have enough of these. I know this was made with a lot of love!! Thanks Kayla!

This hand-painted frame was made by my friend Mandi. It matches Kaylor's nursery perfect and I always love things with initials and names on it!

This was my body cast when I was about 30 weeks pregnant. The art teacher that I work with plastered my stomach and then hand-painted it with a sports theme!! It is so cute and will be so funny to show Kaylor one day.