No Throwing Allowed

Holidays are a great time for the family to get together for fun and games. Over Thanksgiving Uncle Tom, Aunt Shelli and their boys Jacob and Jonas came out. One night we sat around the table playing cards and, of course, snacking. At one point James wadded up his napkin and tossed it at Kaylin who was busy drawing pictures on a piece of paper. We all, playfully, gave him a hard time for this and she took the opportunity to add a special message in her drawing meant just for him.

Notice the small circled item on the bottom left of this picture:

Recognize it? That's the universal symbol for "No Throwing Allowed!"

She is too clever...and makes me laugh really hard!!!

Below is a larger image. She included a smiley face this time.

Daddy Daughter Dance

Last month my darling hubby took my darling daughter to the Daddy Daughter Dance. I was very excited for them to have this nice bonding moment together. We told Kaylin about the dance a few weeks early and she talked about it often as her excitement built. She LOVES to dance. Daddy, shall we say, isn't quite the dancer Kaylin is so it was all the sweeter that he took her. As the time approached she was like a giddy school girl (okay - so she is a giddy school girl). She put on her special dress and I curled her hair (which didn't last long) and they set off to have a night they'll remember for a long time. She couldn't stop talking about it for days. She's all ready for the next one. Here are a few pics of my special duo from before the dance:

Spunky

Fourteen years ago this month I got a feisty little kitten and named him Spunky. That very first night, despite my own personal objections, I placed my new little kitten next to me in my bed. Every time I moved my hand away from him he reached a paw out to see if I was still there. He wanted to be close even then. In the beginning his personality fit his name to a tee. He played a lot, wrestled, and even practiced his combat skills. But as is the case with most kittens - Spunky grew out of his "spunkiness". His playfulness made way for seriousness. He was serious about two things in particular - eating and sleeping. He spoke when he had something to say. He did not blither blather. When he talked he wanted you to listen. Usually it was "Feed me!", "Wake up and feed me!", "Please sit down long enough for me to get comfortable in your lap." or "Tell that other fur ball cat of yours to leave me alone." (Okay - he usually said that with a glare.) He may have lost his playfulness along with his youthful figure but he definitely never lost his personality. He was a character through and through! And I really think he thought he was king (at least of this family). He was tough and macho in the house. It was a different story on the other side of the door. He always thought he was brave enough to handle the outside world but when given the chance he ran back in the house at the slightest sound. Those that knew Spunky knew him as being a little moody. But the two of us always had a bond. He was my "pet" and I was his "person" as they say. I will miss my little "babykitty". I love you Spunky!

Here are a few pics.

Here is Spunky in what James likes to call his "Jabba" pose. Spunky used to prop himself up on the couch and clean his belly. He's even been known to fall asleep in mid-lick. Here is my sweet baby. Funny how he looks so sweet when he's sleeping. Now he's annoyed that I'm taking pictures. I know this because he keeps slapping his tail up and down. The cat equivalent to waving his finger at me.

Kitty Yoga - stretch and touch your toes.

"Don't mock me and my weight. I can fit in this box and I'll prove it."

"Now - if I can just get this lid closed. Almost....got....it."

"I've been meaning to thank you for buying this throne for me. It fits me perfectly." These last two pictures were actually taken by Kaylin in September of this year. Spunky had lost a lot of weight but seemed to be doing okay on his medicine. After he got sick earlier this year - he became much more of a cuddler. It was nice to have him in my lap again.

Spunky (1996 - November 15, 2010)

We miss you!!

Halloween Sprout

If you know my daughter, you know she loves flowers. Well - this year for Halloween she said she wanted to be a flower. Uh...okay....I thought - how am I going to pull that off? I could envision it in my head. This actually kind of scared me because I can always envision Kaylin's birthday cakes in my head too (and we know how those turn out). My fear was that her costume would look like her cakes. But - alas - turns out I'm a better flower maker than cake decorator. I was just ecstatic that it all came together (and stayed together). James helped me cut out the petal shapes and frame (Thanks Babe!) Friday morning she got up and put on her stem (green outfit) and stepped into the dirt (her boots) and sprouted petals. She looked really cute and was quite the stand-out in her class at school (okay mostly because her head gear was larger than everyone else). She loved being a flower and I loved "saving the day". Here are a couple of pics.

Skinny girl, long legs, short jeans

Kaylin is growing taller and taller. It seems growing "out" is not happening right now. She's stretching. As you can imagine it is very difficult to find pants that fit both her waist and her legs. Thank goodness for adjustable waistbands. But - still it isn't easy. So - I'm trying out a new trick. I bought some 2 1/2 inch ribbon and sewed some to the bottoms of a couple pair of her jeans. I think they turned out cute. Just thought I'd share in case any of you ever run into the same issues.

Prayer-er in Training

I came up with this idea (although I'm sure it's not original) to help teach Kaylin the importance of praying for others. I made a list of all the kids in her class. Every night when it's time to say her bedtime prayer we pick a name off the list and pray for that kid. When we're done we put a check by that name. After we've prayed for all the kids (and the teacher) then we'll begin again. We've just started this exercise and I think she's into it. I know she doesn't fully understand what praying for them does but I know she will eventually. My hope it that praying for other people will become 2nd nature to her. It will just be something she's always done.

Alarm Clocks Make Me Tired

It may be sad to say - but I haven't used my alarm clock for several years. Instead, either the sunlight, my cats, my husband or my daughter have fulfilled that role for me. Sadly, my gradual awakenings are now a thing of the past. Now that Kaylin is in kindergarten I have to wake up at the crack of dawn. And in order for me to do that - I have to set my alarm. Every morning it goes off. Every morning it rudely interrupts my slumber. And every morning I'm tired. So I have concluded that my alarm clock makes me tired.

A Year of Success

A year ago I started a new prayer "program". I make a list of people I know (family, friends, and/or acquaintances) and I pray for them daily for 40 days. When the 40 days is over, I make a new list and start over. Earlier this month I discovered that I have successfully done this program for a year. This means something to me because I've tried many different ways over the years to get myself dedicated to prayer. This method works for me. I have found myself committed. I truly believe I'm making a difference in the people's lives I'm praying for. I know they are being blessed and it feels great being a part of God's blessings.

I'm Six!!

Monday was my birthday and it was a holiday. Mommy says it won't always be a holiday. Not sure I understand. Oh well. I'm six now. On Sunday I was still five and now I'm six. Cool, huh?

Mommy, Daddy and Grandma took me to the park. I love the park. I wanted to wear my white dress with the purple butterflies but Mommy wouldn't let me. She said I had to wear shorts. She said there was a reason and to trust her. We had a picnic. Yummy! Then I ran over to play on the swings because they are my favorite. When I went back to the table Mommy and Daddy surprised me with a new bike. My old was was broken. And now I have a new one. It's pink and blue with flowers on it and it's bigger than my old one.

It's pretty. I got to ride all around the park. I fell three times but that's okay. It was still fun. Thanks Mom and Dad for the bike.

Later we went over to Grandma and Granddad's house to have dinner. I wanted to know when we were going to open presents but Mommy said we'd have to wait until after we ate. Ughhh! I could hardly wait. I ate my food really fast. But not as fast as Granddad. He must have been more excited than me. After dinner we got to eat cake. Mommy made me a castle. She's the best. Everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to me and then I blew out my candles. That's always fun!

The cake was yummy Mom. And it was pink. Thanks.

Finally it was time to OPEN PRESENTS! Here I go!

OH! Are you kidding me? I got a camera. WAY COOL! I love taking pictures. I'm so excited! Mommy and Daddy got me a picture book to put my pictures in and a whole bunch of fishy puzzles. I love fish. I love everything in the water - fish, dolphins, whales, starfish, seahorses, sharks. Well maybe not sharks. They scare me a little. Unless they're behind glass then they're okay. Thanks for my presents! I gotta go take some pictures now. Say CHEESE!

Let's Face It

I may not be the first to jump into something new but ultimately I do believe it's a good idea to try out a new skill (within reason - I mean I'm not going to jump out of an airplane). Well - as you know I have this precious little daughter. She turned six on Monday and I wanted to make her a special cake. Flashback to when she turned three. I attempted to make a butterfly cake for her before giving up and placing cupcakes in the shape of the number three. (Incredibly creative I know.) But as any good mom would do I decided to try again. After all it's been three years. I was sure I'd magically gained some cake decorating talent in the interim. I looked on the Internet and decided to attempt a castle cake. Seemed easy enough. I was going to do a two layered strawberry cake (because it's pink), frost it white and use pink frosting for the piping. The turrets would be ice cream cones dipped in white baking chocolate (aka almond bark) and topped with some marshmallows to finish off the effect. Ahhh! It was so simple in my mind. I had visions of a perfectly cute princess castle. And then I started.

UURRCH! (Crash noise.)

What happens when the cake does not cooperate? Yes...I blame the cake. First, I couldn't get the cake out of the pan. The bottom layer was somewhat mangled. That's okay...I'll just fill in the holes with frosting and other goop. Second layer on. Now we're going somewhere. Or maybe not. I cut out some corner notches so the turret cones could fit notched into the cake while resting on the bottom layer. More crumbling. Would frosting be my saving grace? It's a magic cover up isn't it? UURRCH!! Frosting became my nightmare. The cake crumbled at every move of my knife. I even chilled the cake like I read to do. Didn't help. To make matters worse my magic cover up was almost all gone. I still had over half a naked cake. OH....the PAIN. My poor little girl. What would she do when she saw IT? Scream in fear? Wouldn't you? It's time to face it....a cake decorator I'm not. I'm actually okay with that. I mean I feel bad for Kaylin but there are worse things in life than not having a shaped cake. So...how did I recover from this disaster? I went to the store and bought another cake mix. This time I left it in the pan. I put the turrets in the corners to give it some semblance of being a castle (which, by the way, she recognized right away), frosted the cake and added some sprinkles. TA-DA!!!!

It may not have been a thing of beauty but she loved the turrets and she loved the cake. Well - let's be honest she was really more interested in the presents anyway.

So - to make a long story even longer - I think I vindicated myself somewhat the next day. I took treats to Kaylin's kindergarten class. They were Rice Krispy treats cut into the shape of butterflies. Layered on top was some more of the white chocolate, licorice strings for the antennae, and more sprinkles to decorate the wings. Even though they looked a little messy they came out really cute. One little girl even told me that I was the "bestest decorator ever". Gotta love 5 year olds!!! And Kaylin thanked me over and over again for her butterflies.

I think the moral of the story, at least for me, is to stick with what I know....or....practice weeks in advance!!

Rainbow Dragons

My soccer player husband is so excited! Kaylin has reached the age where she can join him in his soccer dreams so we signed her up in the local soccer league. Her team is called the "Rainbow Dragons". Very cute. (Albeit - maybe more cute to the girls on the team than the boys.) She had her first practice Thursday night and yesterday we traveled to a nearby town for her first game. There are only five kids on her team so she gets a lot of play time which is nice. They play three on three with no goalie. Kaylin loves to run so this game is a good outlet for her. Here are some shots from yesterday's game.

Really can't beat the smile on her face!

This is Kaylin starting a play with a "kick off".

Ready - Set - Goal!

Daddy went to get Kaylin some shoes for the season. Cute huh!?

They even have pink cleats.

First Day of School - Kindergarten

This morning James and I took Kaylin to school for her first day of Kindergarten. Although she is used to going to pre-school this will be her first time in full-day school. She was excited to go. And true to form - I mostly retained my composure until I walked out the door--and then I got choked up. It will be a weird experience for me to have her gone for so many hours. I know the time apart will be good for us. We will both grow in many ways. But - I'm still sad those pre-kindergarten days are now gone. Here are some pictures we took this morning.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL CHECKLIST

1 - Pose for pictures

2 - Show you are prepared with backpack

3 - Pose for picture at school with teacher in background 4 - Drop off backpack

5 - Let go of Mommy (sniff sniff)

and 6 - HAVE A BLAST

WE LOVE YOU BABYCAKES!!

Flashback 2006 - Little Girls and Lipstick Don't Mix

In June of 2006 (Kaylin was about a year and a half) we went down to San Diego to spend some time with Great Grandma Charlene and to have a mini-vacation. On Sunday afternoon I placed Kaylin down for her nap (in her Pack-N-Plan) in the guest bedroom. I then proceeded to the living room where James and I visited with family for the next couple of hours. I had a habit of peeking in on Kaylin when she was napping. But the house was old and the bedroom door was tight and squeaked so I tried to keep my distance. At one point I finally decided to risk it. I gently cracked opened the door and to my horror found my little girl sitting up with her face and body completely red. A split second of panic set in as I wondered if she was choking on something or having an allergic reaction. And then in an instant I discovered what she had done. First of all - she had not been sleeping (for who knows how long). Instead she had been discovering the joy of "painting". Turns out the Pack-N-Play was within arms length of the dresser where just hours before I had placed two tubes of lipstick. My precious daughter had spent an unknown amount of time "detailing" her body in two lovely shades of pink. After I got over the initial shock I carefully (and I mean carefully) picked her up and re-introduced her to the rest of the family. Below are the pictures of her handy work:

The first two pictures you can tell by the look on her face that she's unsure of what's going to happen to her. She couldn't tell if she was in trouble or not. After our shock wore off we couldn't help but laugh (I mean really - how are you suppose to react to something like this). Once she saw us smiling she knew she was off the hook and began to ham it up. (Well - it was funny until the clean-up began. Just an FYI - lipstick will leave a ring around the tub. So after I cleaned her, the tub, and her clothes and sheets I banned all lipstick from the premises.)

Kaylinisms 10

Hi everyone. It's been a while since I blessed you with the wit of my 5 year old. Here are some of her latest sayings that tickle my funny bone: *One day she found a spider in the bathroom. She told me it was a "chinchinilla" and talked about the "chinchinilla" all day. Saying things like: "I cannot believe we had a 'chinchinilla' in the bathroom." (In case you didn't figure it out - she really meant Tarantula - which it wasn't by the way.)

*She likes to make jewelry with her beads. But instead of laying out a pattern she makes a "patterin"

*A couple of weeks ago Kaylin went to Walmart with Grandma. As they passed the swimsuits Kaylin commented on the "zuchini's". (Translation: wait for it........bikinis).

*Since Kaylin was about 2 she's been saying "Holy Smoley". I still think it's the cutest. But lately she's been adding on to her favorite saying. She says "Holy Smoley Kwok-a-mole". And if that wasn't enough - she's started saying "Holy Smoley Kwok-a-mole Macaroni Salad" (Don't know where she comes up with these things.)

Question for fellow bloggers

Does anyone know how to work the "Pages" gadget. I've seen it in other blogs where people have different pages (home, info, pictures, etc). I know you go into the "add a gadget" function but I'm still not sure how to get multiple pages listed.

Steamboat Springs

Last month we went to Steamboat Springs for my nephew's wedding. It was a mini-vacation for us. We headed up early and stopped off in Glenwood Springs for the Strawberry Days Festival. Good thing the festival was free because we paid $6 for a chocolate drizzled strawberry kabob. After that we drove over to the carnival. Kaylin had a blast on the rides. I was hoping to go on the ferris wheel with her but she didn't meet the height requirements yet. For now she must stay on the kiddie rides. It didn't make a difference to her. She LOVED the roller coaster. I have to say - I think James and I enjoyed watching her face as much as she enjoyed the ride. After our fun in Glenwood we made our way to Steamboat and met up with family. It was time for food, fun, family, wedding and more food, fun and family. We had a great time. Steamboat is a very beautiful and picturesque place. James and I came home with the plans to retire there someday. Here are just a few pics (mostly of family).

James, Kaylin and I at Fish Creek Falls

The cousins: Fallon, Trevor, Kaylin, Heath (the groom), and Maverick

Fallon and Kaylin in the park

Kaylin "swimming" for the first time with the help of cousin Trevor After wedding pics of the kiddos Fallon and Kaylin again (one of these girls looks like she's used to posing)