My Baby's First Birthday

It amazes me how fast my little girl is growing...well both of my little ones to be exact.  Time flies by so fast these days.  So, without further ado, Kenya's Birthday details.

Kenya had a great b-day.  She woke up about 7 ish and I brought her up to my room to play for a little while so we wouldn't wake Ian.  She cuddled and played with me for an hour and a half till Ian got up and it was so much fun.

The day was good and the kids played and had fun.  Kenya surprised me by deciding to take her first steps.  She took 3 steps and then fell into my arms laughing.  What a cutie!

We had decided to keep her b-day just a family thing.  I made a Strawberry Jello Cake and we sang to her, blew out her candle, and ate cake!  She also got calls from her Aunts, uncles, and grandparents wishing her a happy first birthday.  She did a really great job of eating her cake and loved every bite. 

So, all-in-all it was a great 1st Birthday for my little angel.  I can't believe that she is already 1 and that she growing so fast.  Where did the time go?

Happy Birthday Angel! 

Kenya's Brithday

I know I haven't gotten the details up yet, but I'll let you know how Kenya's birthday went soon. Just haven't quite got that far yet.

I've Become a True Mom

I know, that statement is a little odd considering I have been a mother for over two years and have two children, but it's also true.

When I got married and we knew that Ian was on his way into our lives, I wondered many times how I would handle motherhood. I wondered if I'd be able to handle the snotty noses and dirty diapers and sick kids. Well, last night proves that I can handle it.

Okay, so Brian was out of town on a business trip. At approximately midnight, Ian woke up and retrieved his dinner all over his bed. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I don't do well at all around vomit, I swore that would be Brian's job to take care of when we got married. Well, seeing as how Brian wasn't around and this obviously needed to be taken care of I rose to the task. I got everything cleaned up and had moved Ian to the couch. A few minutes later, Ian's breakfast and lunch were all over the couch. You've got to be kidding me, right?! After about 45 minutes I was able to get everyone cleaned up and back in bed. What a night!!

So as I stated above, I've become a True Mom. For the first time I had to deal with a full blown vomit disaster all by myself and I did it. I made it through the night!

*Just trying to look on the positive, trust me, I'm not that excited about it. Mostly just exhausted. :)

Happy Birthday Kenya!

I can't believe that it's been a year since my little baby girl was born.  It amazes me how time flies!  But here we are, and Kenya is now 1 year old.  When did my little angel go from being a little cuddly newborn to a semi-independent little girl?  Where did time go too?

My little Kay-Mae was born on Sunday, November 9th at 10:09 pm.  It was a rough ride and we almost lost her, but thanks to the doctors training and the blessings of the Lord, Kenya was born to us healthy and happy, a perfect little angel.

She's always been patient with Ian and his wild manners and shows us her love in every form possible.  Our family wouldn't be complete without her.

To our little Kenya on her 1st Birthday.

Love,

Mommy, Daddy, & Big Brother Ian

I'll be Home for Christmas!

Yeah!  We've finally got it organized and we will be coming/going home for Christmas!  Hallelujah! I'm so excited to be spending the Christmas holiday's with family! 

Conversations with a 2 Year old

While cleaning Ian up after dinner we had this very short, but great conversation.

Mom/Kayla:  Ian, I love you!

Ian:  I luv you too!

Mom/Kayla:  I love you more!

Ian:  Yup!

I'm just glad he realizes it now, cause I'm sure somewhere down the road the conversation will be much different.

Pumpkin, pumpkin and more pumpkin

So I spent this morning, literally all of it, carving, cleaning, gutting, steaming, pureeing, bagging and everything else pumpkin.  We didn't actually carve any pumpkins this year (not sure how we missed that one), but I still had two pumpkins and I wasn't going to let them go to waste.  I called my mom up and found out how she purees leftover pumpkin so you can freeze it for Pumpkin Pie for a later date.  I have now spent 5 hours doing it, I have 12 cups of pumpkin in bags freezing, and I still have half of a large pumpkin to go.  I also roasted the seeds.  All I gotta say is, the pumpkin pie made with real pumpkin better taste darn good so that all this craziness was worth it. 

Our Halloween

For some reason, this Halloween went by so fast that we didn't end up actually cutting a Jack-O-Lantern.  We did at least get Ian to color his pumpkin.  Kenya just looked at it with mild curiosity.

 

Both kids were pretty unhappy about getting dressed up for Halloween, so this is the best we could do.  As you can tell, neither of them look terribly happy about the whole ordeal.

We were invited by our good friends to go to the Georgia Aquarium on Friday the 30th to go Trick-or-Treating and see the fish.  We've gone a few times with them and it's always a fun adventure.  The kids really enjoyed the decorations and of course the candy.  It's always fun to see giant fish. 

Halloween evening we actually didn't go Trick-or-Treating.  We'd been several times already: Ward Trunk-or-Treat, Georgia Aquarium, Marietta Square.  We were ready to relax and I was definitely in no real condition to walk around for another hour or so (due to the Silver Comet Half-Marathon I ran that morning - it'll be the next post I work on).  We joined some neighbors for a dinner get together, left before the drinking started (not sure why that is a normal get together activity), and headed to our friends for movies and goodies.  While passing out candy at RaKel and Jim's, Jim would grab Ian by the heals and hold him over the banister and would swing him out in front of the trick or treaters when we opened the door.  It was rather hilarious to see the reactions from the kids as a little boy popped out in front of them.  All in all it was quite a fun night.

A Run to the Death...

... that's what it felt like.

I'm really not sure why I decided that it would be fun to run the Silver Comet Halloween Half-Marathon, but I apparently thought it was a good idea.  May jogging partners and friends, Hayley and Marcy, signed up for this run a while ago, but both ended up not being able to run.  So I guess that is when I decided to run in Marcy's place.  I think the logical portion of my brain was on vacation at the time I decided that.  So Halloween morning I woke up at 5:30 am and headed to Karen's to meet with the other ladies for the run.  There were 5 of us in all and I was really astonished that one of them was running being 6 months pregnant (she's an amazing woman).  We got dressed up in similar costumes and headed to our run.  The first 2 miles we all stayed together pretty well, but Bonnie, Emily, and Ariel are quite a bit faster than me.  Thank goodness Karen stayed with me to run, she was my pusher for the run.  She was AWESOME!   I totally wouldn't have made it to the end with out her, and it I had, it would have been a long time after what I really came in at.

The first 10 miles weren't bad at all;  I felt good, didn't hurt, and kept a steady pace.  At mile 11 I started feeling all the muscles in my lower body and it was really beginning to burn.  At mile 12 I was done.  I would have stopped and walked the rest if it weren't for Karen literally pushing me at times to keep going.  Mile 13 was the very hardest and when I finally crossed the finish line and slowed down all my muscles tightened and stiffened.  It didn't help that it rained the entire time that we ran and when I stopped I was shivering from the freezing cold.  But I had finished, and in pretty good time too.  I made it through a Half-Marathon, 13.1 miles, in 2 hours & 17 minutes!  Whew!  I am still feeling that run 2 days later, sore muscles all over.  But it was fun, and I think that in 6-9 months I might do another one and actually train for it.  It's a challenge, that's for sure. 

Latest Hobbies

Lately I've been trying to get into more interest.  I've seen some pretty awesome things on people's blogs and wanted to try them out.

These are two dresses that I made out of woman's sweaters.  They aren't perfect, but I think that they are cute on Kenya.

My friend, Marissa, taught me how to make these bows.  I'm still learning, but they are very fun to make and I think they are adorable in Kenya's hair.