Its a rough life!!!

The last few weeks we have had several cold fronts come through dropping our night time temps close to or below freezing. We have a few plants that needed to be covered up. I am not sure why I was caught off guard by this picture but knowing how smart Shiner is and how much he loves blankets I should have expected to find him on top of the blanket. Needless to say it was not used four "OUR" intended purpose. The funny thing is Shiner loves the cold and loves to be outside. It has been so cold even he hasn't been able to handle it.

Mommy's lil' helper

It has taken us awhile to get our Christmas lights up. The other day we decided to surprise daddy by putting up some additional lights to add to the holiday spirit. Kaylie was such a good helper and had so much fun helping me. We finished just in time for the cold front to come through.

My superstar

All of a sudden she is in love with her sunglasses as much as she is in love with her pockets. We went to the UPS store and she had to wear them in. I looked down saw they were gone to see they were in her pants pocket. With Meow Meow in one hand and her purse in another I couldn't help but laugh. She is so grown up.

Santa

On Friday Kaylie and several friends from our play group decided to go to the Color Me Mine studio for Paint Me a Picture with Santa. Santa reads you a story, the kids paint and ornament, decorate a cookie, and then make a plate where their hand goes on top of Santa's. It will make for a great keepsake. After they were done Santa had kids come and talk to them to tell them what they wanted.

Even though Santa was very sweet and loving Kaylie wanted nothing to do with him. We had to sit as far back as we could and at some points that didn't seem far enough away. Thankfully, she finally came around...never mind the fact it took almost an hour. Overall, I am thrilled we got the picture with him even if I am in between them.

Kaylie and Macy shared the same feelings for Santa. They are happy at the end of the table.

Kaylie blowing me a kiss. She is getting better at this.

She did good actually catching it and slapping it on her face.

Hoping to get a picture with Santa somewhere in Kaylie's vicinity I asked Santa just to pop his head around the corner. That is ALL!!! He must not have gotten that memo.

Here is the minute Macy realized something was standing next to her. She was terrified. Kaylie followed suit and lost it.

Do you think she will hate me for this picture in the future?!?

Jason and I laughed that in the middle of screaming she kept painting

Santa read The Night Before Christmas.

This is to give you an idea of how far back we had to sit.

With a short attention span she quickly turned her attention to the paint brushes. These were a lot more interesting.

Plate painting. Santa's hand was in the middle and hers was going on top of it. I can't wait to see the finished product.

I was shocked she let the lady do all this. I thought she would flip when they painted her hand let alone take it and put it on the plate.

Once done with the plate they got to make a cookie. She had a great time with this. The only problem was they didn't have anything for her to stand on. She had to reach to get what she wanted.

I loved this picture. The icing looks gigantic in her hands.

What is up with the lip. She has been doing that a lot lately.

After a lot of prep and seeing all of her friends go she let me walk up to him without screaming. This is the only way we could do it.

An attempt to get her on his lap. It didn't work.

We knew we were in trouble when she didn't want to show Santa her Meow Meow. Thankfully, the fist bump came through. By the time we left she gave him a high five and a fist bump.

Once we were in the car she kept saying Santa, Santa...high five. She was so tired she passed out in a few minutes.

Holiday decorations

About a month ago Kaylie and I went to a Pitter Patter Pottery Party. The two things I got turned out so cute I had to share them. I am so excited to be able to use these things from year to year. The picture of the ornament was taken to show both sides.

On Friday we had a MOPS meeting. Occasionally we will do a craft. This particular one has to have been my favorite. We used plates from IKEA and decorated them with Sharpies. To keep it as is all you do is throw it in the oven at 350 for 20 minutes (do not preheat oven). I love it. For those that are not crafty you can trace a design. I loved this idea. I got an extra plate for Kaylie to make one. We will see how that goes.

Pockets...

Are a Kaylie's best friend! This girl is infatuated with them. We find her walking around like this. Unfortunately she was not in a picture taking mood so this was the best I could do before she turned around running making sure to let me know with a loud screaming noise that she wasn't having any of it. Watching her put everything she can think of including her goldfish makes me smile. We went half the day yesterday before I noticed she had a bottle in her pants pocket. I am going to have to keep a closer eye on this little one.


Kaylie funnies...

She is learning the song "Jesus Loves Me" and how to pray. She will walk around yelling at the top of her voice..."Jesus loves you, Jesus loves you" and then sit down with her animals to say her prayers. If you don't say them with her she will keep yelling "prayers" over and over with her hands pressed together in front of her until you do it. How can you ignore that?!?

As usual I was in a hurry to leave the other night. In a mad dash I told Jason I had to go. She dropped her toy, ran over to the middle of the kitchen and said, "bye-bye...hug" and then hugged me. My heart melted.

In the mornings or anytime we come home she drops EVERYTHING she has in her hands, tells us, "she do it," runs to the tree and turns it on. The first few times I was caught off guard. What personality!

In the middle of a meeting for the preschool program with the school district she picks up my phone and in a rather loud voice pretend calls daddy. How can you not laugh out loud in front of a bunch of people who don't know you?

We drove by a huge inflatable Santa on the road. She saw it and was happy to talk about him. When I told her we were going to see him today and asked if she was excited she quickly repeated "no" over and over. She is not so sold on this Santa guy.

We have been trying to teach Kaylie how to blow a kiss. She is very confused by this process. She will blow on her hand really hard, kiss it and then catch it and put it on her own face. When you try to redirect all she does is blow and spit all over her own hand. We will keep working.

Kaylie is learning how to take her pants off. This has only caused problems when I leave her in her crib too long after a nap. One day I walked in, realized she had trouble pulling her pants back up (they were waded up around her knees) so I went to help. I quickly realized that not only had she successfully gotten them off but she turned them inside out and put them on backwards. It was quit a sight.

Anytime she runs into anything she apologizes and kisses it. It doesn't matter that it was the corner of a table, the chair in the kitchen or someones foot. She kisses it all.

We were running across the street in the cold and rain. She started fussing and showed me her that her shoes were undone. I told her I would fix it in the store. We kept running and she ate it in the middle of the street. When I went to pick her up I realized I wasn't feeling her pants but her skin. Poor babies pants were at her ankles. This has become a problem now that we are in between sizes.

This morning she noticed I had Santa on my socks. She threw herself on the floor, put her face right up to my socks and pointed.

Last but not least...tonight Kaylie learned how to put a diaper on her Meow Meow. As I glance over at her she opens his diaper and yells "nuggets...clean." Jason and I about died.

Oops...

She found one!!! We knew it would happen at some point and it finally did. We had stuck them in a bag for a trip and never took them out. We were in the study and all of a sudden we heard the sucking nose. I turned around to find this. Surprisingly, she let us take it without any trouble. Ultimately we think she knew she wasn't supposed to have it so she was taking advantage of every last bit.

On a side note...we had our first snow fall of the year on Wednesday. It seems like we get snow or ice once or twice a season but seeing how early this one was it might make for an interesting winter. When we woke up the flakes were somewhat heavy and actually stuck to the ground but before we could get down stairs and dressed it started raining and went away. I was sad we didn't get to play in it. At least Kaylie got to see it and is old enough to understand what it is...I think?!? Prior to this we had been reading a book about building snowmen. I think she got confused because every time we looked out the window she would call the snow a snowman. Loved it!

Other Kaylie funnies...

* Kaylie was able to count to 5 in Spanish way before she could in English? Can you say she has watched a little too much Dora. The I noticed/pointed out that she was counting in English she immediately switched back to Spanish...one, two...uno, dos.

* The other day Kaylie walked over with 6 Tupperware bowls with lids inside of each one. She walked over to us and gave us each one and told us they were cookies. We all took a bite and then she took them back so she could feed her animals. Where do they get this stuff?

(We did not help her with this...this was all her)

Here are the rest of the pictures from our tree decorating. We started in on Saturday putting up the tree and lights and finished it on Sunday by doing all of the ornaments. On Saturday Kaylie was obsessed with her Dora ornament and on Sunday she was obsessed with the doggy she is clutching in her arms. When we finally got it away from her she did not like the fact they had to stay on the tree.

Kaylie was a very active participant in putting the tree up. She showed us where to put them and then once we walked away she would take them off and put them somewhere else. After about 15 minutes of this we decided it was nap time. When she woke up from her nap she remembered where we had finally put each of her friends and was upset when we told her they had to stay on the tree.

A week later and she is now fine with her friends on the tree but every once in awhile we will find on that is with in the Kaylie zone reach on the floor or I will catch her poking one of Bailey's ornaments. Between her and Shiner trying to make his nest behind the tree we are hoping to make it through without anything breaking.

Kaylie and Dora...definitely a first!

Our first night/attempt at putting up the tree was an interesting one. Kaylie was so excited about her new ornament. We let her pick one out and she decided on Dora. Not much of a surprise there.

Kaylie loved the idea of putting her on the tree but did not like the idea of keeping her there. She moved from branch to branch. At one point she even took her and laid her down on the tree skirt to rest.

Since the task of putting on the ornaments was not going well and it was quickly approaching bed time we decided to wait until the morning to finish this task. She was fine with this with one exception...she would not give Dora back. Dora was put in her booster seat to eat, played on the floor with Kaylie, and even had her diaper changed with her babies. She was so attached she even took her to bed and had the privilege of taking the spot Meow Meow usually claims. Never thought I would see that happen.

Her other ornament was her initial. This one had the same outcome only this one had an unfortunate accident when she dropped it on the ground. Oops. Also, it is hard to see but her shirt says, "Good things come in small packages." I think that saying applies in our case.

Turkey Day

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. Jason was off the entire week which allowed us to leave for Austin on Tuesday rather than Wednesday beating the usual holiday traffic. We had a great seeing both of our families. Now that Kaylie can interact with everyone she is definitely a blast to watch. She can say every one's names and knows she is the life of the party. She definitely seemed to soak up all of the attention.

The past two years Kaylie has been border line RSV and in the hospital for severe malnutrition so this year just having "a cold" was a piece of cake. Thankfully, it did not turn into anything more. You would never have guessed she felt bad with the amount of energy she had. The first night she ran non stop around the couches. Once down she stayed awake in her crib until past 11 ish. We figured she would sleep in but she decided to prove us wrong and wake up a little after 7. It wasn't until Friday morning that she slept in until 11 (yes...11) and went to bed/crashed by her normal 8 pm bed time. The little girl was the true definition of the energizer bunny. Jason and I cracked up watching her and the family sat in shock at seeing how much she has changed since they last saw her a few months ago. It is amazing to see how her personality has developed.

On Wednesday we got to see Jason's family for lunch. Keeping Kaylie occupied, especially on very little sleep is always a challenge. Thank goodness for Dora on the I-phone. Jason down loaded some movies for her to watch and I think it saved us our sanity. Lil Miss has become incredibly independent and has started to hate booster chairs so keeping her in a chair when she is tired is a challenge. Dora rocks!!!

Kaylie is a pro at moving around to play what she wants on the I-Phone. It blows me away to see how quickly she figured it out and how fast she can move from window to window. She is definitely a smarty pants.

Kaylie showing grandma Chris how to use the phone.

Checking out grandma's beautiful garden. She is amazing at keeping a beautiful yard.

Caught red handed with a melt in her mouth.

Showing off her first pair of tennis shoes. They are white Sketchers with pink glitter on them. They look precious on her.

After her nap we went over to Nonna's house (Corrie's mom) to spend some time there. Since cousin Eli was not home Kaylie had free reign to play with anything in his room. She wanted all of his cars and his chair.

Nonna gave Kaylie a new Dora purse. Kaylie loved it. She walked by Jason and I, told us Dora, love and then hugged her bag.

Hopefully, Kaylie will not turn into a bag lady. She loves to take her bags and put the most random things in them. Usually it is just her toys. I fear something else that is not hers may get picked up and put in there as well. We are going to have to keep an eye on that when we are at someone else's house.

While exploring cousin Eli's toys she came across the easel. It has a dry erase side and a chalk board side. She loved it. Due to some of her mother's issues with chalk boards I was happy she only tried to play with the white board side.

Her next favorite thing was discovering the eraser. So much for drawing pictures

Thursday - Thanksgiving Day

On T-day we were at my mom's house or Nonna's as Kaylie knows it as. Eli was there and the two were ready to see each other. The age difference has definitely is not a factor and the two of them played together all day long.

A first...Kaylie is actually eating a Go Gurt for the first time. She actually did pretty good with it. We just had to remember to cut it as she went down and squeeze for her to help her along. She loved them.

Looking at the cat that was on the porch. I think it is appropriate that she abandoned her Meow Meow for a real one. Meow Meow got his feelings hurt. Can you blame him?!?

My two brothers, Jason, and through Ryan's arm...my mom. Cracks me up!

Friday

On Friday morning, Jason, Chris, Kaylie, and the dogs headed down to Westlake to see the grandparents/great grandparents while I stayed back to do my annual black Friday shopping spree with my mother.

Right before our dinner with Jason's family.

Don't be fooled by this picture...she was fine. She was trying to keep me from taking her picture. As you can see she did not succeed.

Sitting at the dinner table. I loved that Papa was in the background. Turned out to be a cute picture.

Grandma Chris and Kaylie

We had many fun but late nights while out of town. Glad to be home but miss our family and can't wait to see them in a few weeks.