When it suddenly gets quiet...

You should go check on your child to see what she may be up too. It wasn't until she got up from her nap we learned what she had done. Brown bear and brown dog are now the proud owners of a new makeover. Kaylie decided to share her chap stick with her two best buds and their face shows the evidence of that. Too funny!!!

Super Sturdy

Our fence is done and it is beautiful!!! I would highly recommend the company that did it for us in case you are ever needing to replace your lemon like we did ours. We decided to move the fence up to in front of the gutter and it increased the amount of backyard we have. I know the dogs are loving it. We really love our fence!!!

Next few pictures are from the outside of the fence. If you notice we do not have any poles showing. We decided to cover them making both sides of the fence appealing. We wanted to make sure everyone had the pretty side.

Ta Da...

She walked out of the game room and into her room. When she came back she was decked out in her dress up clothes and yelled "ta da" while sporting the cutest smile.

A time for giving

After volunteering for Operation Christmas Child and seeing how much fun Kaylie had we decided to go as a family to buy stuff to make our own boxes to bring as well. We ended up making 6 boxes. 4 girls and 2 boys between the ages of 5 to 9. Since the boxes are going to children in foreign countries we provided several different types of things. Hygiene, hair needs, and toys were some of the major things. Other things we added were shoes, socks, and school supplies. It is amazing how much you can get at the dollar store. All said and done our boxes were packed to the top and covered in stickers for decorations. We plan to make this a family tradition.





Boxes before I found more the next day.


Day 2...We were short one box so I went to anther dollar store. While I was their I found a few more things to add to the boxes. Kaylie also got to decorate each box with her favorite stickers. She loved picking with ones she wanted to go onto each box.

Special Moments

Last week I had the joy of helping with Operation Christmas Child Collection center. I was able to bring Kaylie and Fletch with me as well and they were a huge help. They helped us pack shoe boxes as well as collect boxes that were being brought in. Kaylie had so much fun doing it I couldn't get her to leave. She loved knowing she was helping another child and wanted to keep working. Jason and I really want her to understand the art of giving so seeing how well she did with the idea of helping others really pleased us.

Marshmallow goodness

Kaylie eating marshmallow fluff with her feeding therapist Ms. Kathy . They have been together for two years now. As we are looking at a discharge date I am not sure who it is going to be harder for?!? She loves Kaylie and takes joy in her accomplishments especially since she has seen us at our worst. We are so grateful for her and the things she has done to help our family. We are finally able to sit down and have a meal. We have waited for this day for a long time. When all is said and done we will miss her very much!!!

Thanksgiving Feast

Yesterday Kaylie had her Thanksgiving Feast at school. She did great with the centers but didn't want to eat or change her hat into an Indian hat. I wonder where she gets her stubbornness from?!? Her shirt says..."Everyone is thankful for me." I love it. We are thankful for our little miracle.

New Bed

The other night Jason had to work late. When he got home he went to check on her to say goodnight. This is what he found. Funny thing is how she had positioned Brown dog and Kitty. The other thing is if you look carefully you can see two hot pink things towards the bottom of her screen. These happen to be her princess shoes that she most likely wore as she was making her new bed of choice. Silly girl!!!

Sandwich please...

It has been awhile since I have done an update on how she is doing. I think it is because I don't want to jinx things.

All I have to say is wow!!! Jason and I have been floored by her progress. She is loving school and is soaking up everything she is learning. The other day she walked up and said the Pledge of Allegiance word for word. We had no clue she had even been practicing it. Now she comes home singing her color songs. She can spell red, orange, and brown through the songs as well as her seasons. Every day she walks out, sees what the weather is like and starts to sing the corresponding song. Her favorite is the windy, windy song. Makes me smile every time. She is doing so well we are currently trying her out with a group of 4 to 5 year olds to see if she is ready to move into a less restrictive class. After a lot of arguing she finally went over to try it and as expected is loving it. At this point in time we are at least hoping they will keep her through the end of the school year but with the amount of progress she has made it may not happen.

Feeding wise...we are looking at discharge from her feeding therapy at the beginning of the year. I would like to keep it until after the holidays but drop it soon after. She is at the point where we are no longer getting sick or choking during her meals. She is eating pretty much anything they introduce to her in therapy and has just started eating new things for us. It is no longer an issue about can she but more of a will she when it comes to what she eats. The good thing is once a new food is introduced it turns more into a typical three year old rather than a three year old with a feeding disability. I have waited for this day and it is coming quickly. Things are finally clicking. I always knew their would be a time where she figured it out and that time is now. She is now able to sit and eat what we are eating and we love it. She had chicken Parmisian and spaghetti at a friends house followed by a brownie for dessert. Yesterday she ate her very first sandwich and had absolutely no refusals. This is huge for me because it opens up a bunch of options for meals. Variety has been a huge issue for us and this allows for many things. Later that night we went to a fundraiser for my MOPS group and the teacher in her room told me my little girl inhaled the entire slice of pizza followed by part of a cookie. I think my reaction scared them because i was absolutely shocked. I kept saying over and over...the entire piece...really?!? They said she didn't even hesitate. She is not one to be influenced by what others are eating so I know she must have really wanted it. I think we will be ordering Little Ceasars a lot more in our house.

Weight wise...it is what it is. She is healthy and happy. She is growing height wise and going to be petite. I don't really think petite is such a bad thing, especially for a girl.

The pictures below are from her first sandwich ever. We are so proud of her. We celebrated by all taking bites together as a family. Weird but it helps encourage her.

Handy Helper

Since the day we moved into our house 5 1/2 years ago our fence has been the true definition of a lemon. Surprisingly we made it 5 1/2 years for fences that are designed to only last 5 years only because we demanded in the first year maintenance from the builder as well as the diligence and quick thinking of Jason. I can not tell you how many times we would have entire pallets of fence falling down. Anytime a storm would blow through it would be more of a surprise not to have one laying in the alley or on our driveway. I knew we were in trouble when I was pulling into the subdivision and could see everything in our back yard. Not good!!! Add dogs to the mix and it is not a happy situation especially the morning shiner jumped over one part to chase after the neighbors.

So...after finding that they neglected to cement some of our posts and fixing that as well as Jason going in and putting a slew of screws into the fence we ended up making it longer than expected. We have tried to hold off on the added expense but the time has come. We have boards splitting and posts no longer holding. Right now one of our gates has bricks holding the door closed and ropes holding pallets up so the dogs won't get out. Thankfully their are rose bushes in the way to provide extra protection from the dogs getting out.

Tomorrow our fence will be no more. We did a lot of research and met with many people and are excited to finally have taken the final step. The one thing that needed to be done prior to was the removal of our trumpet vines. These things have gone crazy and have significantly added to the wear and tear of the fence. In some places they have pushed through the cross bars and posts. It is crazy to see what they have done. Removing them was quit a difficult task but thankfully Kaylie was up for the task...at least for a few minutes. She has her own princess gloves and was so excited to wear them. Now that the plants are gone it is a little depressing to look at our yard but will be worth it when we have a beautiful new fence at the end of the week.


Distracted by the airplane.

Whatever makes you happy

Friday a cold front came through on our way home from school. You could see the line of thick black clouds that were what I explained as "scary clouds" wondering if a tornado was going to drop out of the sky and get us as we were waiting in line to get our well deserved Dairy Queen frosties. As we were driving home the front quickly passed and the concern over bad weather quickly diminished.

The minute we turned towards our house little miss started asking over and over about her umbrella. She loves her umbrella so any chance she gets to use it she will. Since it wasn't very cold when we got home I decided the pros way out weighed the cons so little miss went outside and played. Thankfully it had slowed down some right when we got home and she wasn't soaked when she was done. This was definitely a whatever makes you happy moment. One of those not worth fighting moments and what harm could it really do. As you can see risking her being wet was definitely worth it.

Masterpieces

I am pretty sure most parents are conflicted with what to do with the beautiful artwork their child comes home with. If it were up to some of us we would have drawers filled with it because we feel too guilty to throw it away. So far, at her early age of 3 I have been pretty good at keeping the things I know she has done and that have to do with a picture of her, a foot print, or something she has to have input in. The other stuff...well...the recycling bin has become my friend.

One day Jason was online and found an article about kids and their artwork. To avoid clutter it suggested taking a picture of it and either making it into a photo album or in my case putting it on my blog. I still keep the was that are extra special but this allows me to enjoy to other special ones without feeling bad when it is time to throw them out. I already have a hard time staying organized and this is one way to help me in that area.

The picture is a little scary but I still loved it. She tends to avoid having her picture taken at school and knowing that makes this picture even more special. She is really coloring and painting well and works hard to stay in the lines. (10/19)

They tried to get her to tell them what she was thankful for and she just stared at them. She did the same thing when we asked her. (MOPS 11/12)

Late night at the deep fundraiser for my MOPS group. I am assuming she had help with the thankful part but I figure she was able to answer some of the questions considering she has Shiner and Bailey's name on here and the person in charge most likely had no clue what their names were. (11/13)

There's no place like home...

You guessed it...little miss went as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and even though I am bias rocked the costume. For the longest time she said it was Snow White and when we corrected her she would get angry so we just let it be. When she was asked yesterday I was shocked when she said Dorothy and seemed excited about it. Good thing because she was the one that picked out the costume.

The basket was her favorite part of the costume with the shoes coming in a very close second. Since the Toto that came with the basket was a little scary we substituted it with her Brown Dog. Either way he was tagging along so why not make it one less thing I have to carry.

Daddy decided to dress up this year. Can you guess who he is?!? Some of our neighbors kept asking what he did and cracked up when we told him it was part of the costume. Other times we would be walking by people and her them laugh as they told the person they were with that he was Tony Romo. I was impressed with his creativity. I did help by having him wear his hat backwards.

Love this picture. The only smile he gave us the entire night. Poor lil man wasn't feeling to good but was a good sport and let us enjoy our time out.

This is how she reacted to the first house. You would think after weeks of her asking if it was Halloween and wanting to go trick or treating she wouldn't have thought twice about going to the door especially since it was our neighbor that she knows. Silly girl!!!

Sasha helped by bringing the candy to her. That was all Kaylie needed and from that point on she was unstoppable. Candy did the trick. Once she would get to the door she was ready with her basket already opened.

With football on as well as the Rangers playing in the World Series many people put candy on the porch for the taking. I was surprised that the majority of the containers had not been emptied by the time we got there. Both kids were really good at taking only a piece and coming back.

What do you think they are talking about?!?

Not even phased by the other kids. The only things that would slow them down were random decorations hanging in the door. One house had a ghost in the entry way and another had a head that shook when you went to knock. The ghost they wouldn't go near but the door with the head wasn't as noticeable to the kids so when Fletch proudly ran to the door for the first time without an adult and the head went off both kids turned around and ran back to us at sonic speed. It took a few more houses of nothing scaring them to start going by themselves. Is it bad that we couldn't stop laughing?!?

Kaylie's get me the heck out of here face. She got her candy and was gone.

I felt bad...we had to slow them down and not let them run after Kaylie ate it on a walk way with rocks embedded in it. She cried a little but was able to shake it up. This morning I realized the knee that has now been landed on two other times and finally healed is re-cut. The funny part is the next fall has been happening right after the one before it healed. Thankfully, this didn't stop her in the long run.

Once we finished getting our candy we went home and were able to give candy to to more trick or treaters. Both were families we knew which made it more fun for Kaylie to hand it out.

She dumped the candy out by herself and told her daddy to come and look. They then called me to come and take a picture. The next few were all her. I did not force any of the poses. She was in a great mood and was hamming it up for us.

We have used this pumpkin for the past three years. This year we added some bows so we didn't mix it up with the others.

I think the sign of a successful night is a pumpkin filled to the top with candy, her costume falling apart, and a smile on her face. Happy Halloween!!!