Kacy - 18 months

Kacy has developed quite a little personality lately. She is quite silly, and very adventurous! She has to try to do everything that Adilyn does, which is great, but many times what she wants to do is just not possible! She gets very frustrated!
Here are some of the things that she has been doing lately.
*She is finally talking a little more. Her "words" are: Mama, Dada, Ad-ad-y (her version of Addy), uh-oh, ball, dog, milk, juice, thank you, wow, baby, mine, and her favorite (especially around all the Christams gifts) is "whoa"! She has just started trying to repeat sounds that I make, so I'm sure she will be on her way to talking with real words soon! Then, we will definitely never have a quiet moment around here!
*Even though she can't talk much, she has definitely mastered her "yes" and "no" head shakes. I think she knows it so well because Adilyn always got them wrong, so we would over exaggerate it when we used it.
*She loves wearing Adilyn's dress up shoes. They are about 4 times too big, but she motors around in them pretty good.
*She doesn't like to sit in her booster seat when we eat, so she ends up in my lap for the last part of dinner almost every night.
*She still loves to be outside, and she gets out there every chance she gets.
*When she gets bored in the car, she dumps out her entire cup in her lap. Of course, I give her sippy cups, but she has figured that if she shakes it enough upside down, it comes right out. I always notice about 5 minutes too late!
*There is one teacher at school that she loves to go to in the morning, Ms. Irma. I love it when she is there to get her from me. If it is anyone else, I know that it will be a rougher drop off!
*If she comes out at school first, she will give me a hug, then she will point to Addy's classroom. When I ask her if she wants to go find Addy, I get a big nod, yes! She jumps out of my arms and runs to find her.
*When she doesn't want what I offer her, she shrugs up her shoulders like she is scared of it.
*She is terrified of things in the bathtub. It's so weird! I dropped a blob of soap in the tub the other night, and you would have thought there was a snake in there trying to bite her! She has pooped in the tub a couple times, and any time she does when she sees it floating in the water she starts to scream! I guess I would scream, too.
*She has started hugging, and it's awesome! She gives these tight, little mini bear hugs right around the neck.
*Any time Cory, Adilyn, or I are laying on the ground she "body slams" us without any warning at all! She will just come and jump right on top of you! Her favorite part to slam us in on our heads. When she does it, she just giggles! I guess when you are the littlest one in the family, you have to throw your weight around, literally!
*When we are in the car for any amount of time, she always wiggles her left arm out of the strap. I swear, I can tighten that thing so much, and she still escapes!

A Quick Frio Trip

Throwing rocks is ALWAYS fun!

The day after Christmas, we loaded everyone and everything up again to take a quick trip to the Frio River. Our friend, Ryan's parents have a cabins out there, so we decided to get out of house. We used to go there every year between Christmas and New Year's, but we hadn't been since Adilyn was about 6 months. We had a lot of fun! Kacy wanted to be outside all the time. She kept grabbing her shoes or her jacket, and she would bring them to me or Cory. Adilyn liked taking hikes, too. She was scared of strange noises, though, and kept asking questions about what it was. Even though she was a little scared, she wanted to go on every hike! Both girls loved picking up rocks and throwing them. Luckily, with the gravel roads and gravel paths, there was NO shortage of rocks! I think their favorite part was playing in their princess tent that we bought them for Christmas. It was a real teeny tiny pop-up tent. I set it up inside the cabin in the morning. Adilyn put every single blanket in there, and every single toy that we brought also. She kept asking every one to come "camping" with her. Unfortunately, Kacy didn't like being closed up in it, and I didn't quite fit. Eventually, she settled for her Barbie dolls as her camping pals. I love that she is playing independently more and using her imagination! Later that night, we brought the tent out by the fire. She really loved it then! It was really cute!

Nothing better than dancing to some country music when you are in the country!

Our Christmas

Christmas Eve was our last family Christmas celebration. We went over to Cory's mom's house in the afternoon for presents and dinner. Amy and Grandmother Henderson were the only ones there. All the other "kids" were working or having their own celebrations. It was a much smaller group than we usually have over there. We all had a nice, relaxing, fun time. Once we finished over there, we headed home. Kacy was pretty tired, so we put her right to bed. Adilyn and I stayed up to get things ready for Santa. We decorated cookies, put out the milk for Santa, cheese for Santa Mouse, Coke for reindeer, and the letter. I am not sure how the Coke tradition started, but that is what we always used to leave out. The cheese for Santa Mouse came from a book about a little mouse that travels with Santa each Christmas Eve. He gets hungry, and nobody ever remembered him. All he ever wanted was cheese, so we would leave him cheese. Adilyn was pretty tired, but she didn't want to go to bed. We upstairs to read, and I had all these Christmas books to read her. She threw a fit, and she didn't want to read any Christmas books! She wanted to read a stupid baby book about letters and colors. I was really irritated, but I tried to convince her to at least read one Christmas book. After the book fiasco, I laid down with her in bed. It was a real windy night, and there were a lot of noises outside. Every time we heard one, we would pretend it was Santa. We talked for a while in her room, and then I finally left. I could tell she was really excited. I think I was just as excited as she was!
Once Santa got to our house, he was really busy! There were full stockings, a huge dollhouse, and a fun hunt with clues leading to another present.

Cookie time!

Santa's handywork



I didn't know if Adilyn's excitement would wake her up earlier than normal, but when I got up and the clock read 8:45, it was a nice surprise! Kacy actually woke up first, and we got Adilyn up. She was really surprised to see the huge dollhouse down there, but of course, she also saw the presents. She got to work on those pretty quick! Kacy had been a great present opener this year, but she was not that into it at our house. Maybe it was because it was early, or maybe she was just over the whole present thing. After a couple presents, we realized that this was looking like it was going to take a pretty long time. We decided to take a break and eat breakfast. After we ate our yummy eggs and sausage cooked by Cory, we got back to the presents. The food seemed to give Kacy some renewed energy, and she got right to opening. They got games, toys, dolls, and tons of other things they didn't need! The presents were all open around 1pm. We started about 9am...there were many breaks even after our breakfast to play with opened toys, to drink milk, to play with the dollhouse, but finally all gifts were unwrapped!

It was so much fun to watch them open presents to see which ones they were excited about, which ones they could care less about, and which ones they wanted to play with right away. Some of the things that I really thought they would like, they didn't. And some that were just little after thoughts, they loved. One of Adilyn's favorite things was a princess watch so she "could tell everyone what time it was" (her words). All day long when I asked her what time it was, she would look at the watch and say, "6 o'clock". I don't know why it was always 6, but it was. :)

This was the first Christmas Day that we had no where to go. It was really nice not to have to rush from place to place. I loved staying in our jammies, playing with whatever we wanted to play with, and just relaxing. Of course, Cory enjoyed watching football throughout the day. Lani and Amy came over in the afternoon to see the dollhouse and the other toys, they were very impressed, too!

Later that day, Cory fried up a turkey for our dinner. It was a very cold and windy day, but Kacy and Adilyn wanted to go outside with him anyways. We got them all bundled up, and they went outside. Of course, it didn't last very long, but they looked cute on their way out. :) We had a great dinner, and I think it was the first time that everything came out great and at the same time.

It was a great Christmas, and I look forward to many more to come. Every year gets more fun as the girls get older. I love seeing them sharing, having fun, and just loving each other. I love everyday I have with my family, but there's something about Christmas that just makes everything a little bit sweeter. Could it be all the sugar cookies? :)

Santa's Wonderland

We had a great plan to stop and drive through Santa's Wonderland on the way home from Fort Worth. Since we have been driving down Hwy 6, I have wanted to stop, but it just never worked out. I was really excited! We timed our departure perfectly so that we would be in College Station right when it opened. Throughout our years of driving, we had seen just how long that line could get on the access road! When we pulled up, the line was still pretty long, but as Cory said, "We are doing it!" After I asked him a few more times if we really should wait, Adilyn answered, "Mommy, we are doing it!" The line actually moved pretty quick, but Kacy was getting very antsy. After about 3 hours in the car, she is usually done, and we had already been in the car for 4. We finally decided to get her out of her carseat, and she was much happier, for a few minutes anyways. Adilyn had to go to the bathroom, and there were no restrooms in sight, so I put a pull-up on her and told her to pee in that. She giggled, and said, "I'm going peepee." We finally got to the entrance, only to find out that it was a long, slow ride through the lights, too! I don't know what I expected, but the whole process took us about an hour and a half. The lights were amazing and beautiful! They had some really interesting designs and scenes - frogs jumping into a pond, longhorns eating, elves playing and making toys, and many more! I think it's safe to say that Texas might be the only state where you would find a huge light display with "God Bless Texas" (or whatever state you were in!) As we were driving, Adilyn laughed again and said she was peeing in her pull-up again! Thank goodness we had those pull-ups handy! I almost had to use one too before it was all over.

Kacy was a little less interested in the lights and a lot more interested in driving us crazy! She was all over the place - spilling my drink, trying to crawl out the window, changing the radio stations, turning the heat way up, etc. What could we expect though, she's only 1!

It was a great experience, and I think Adilyn really enjoyed it. Next time, we will maybe stop on our way out, so that we won't be in the car so long on the way home.

Christmas in Fort Worth

I love that we have so many people that love us, and I love that we can spend time with everyone around the holidays, but I must admit...the whole present opening extravaganza is a little overwhelming. We have 5 Christmas celebrations - my mom's, my dad's, Tommie's, Cory's mom's, and ours! By the time ours comes around on Christmas Day, we are all a little "over" the presents. Well, at least Cory, Kacy, and I were! Adilyn was still ready to go!

We started our Christmases this year in Fort Worth the weekend before Christmas. We stayed at my dad's house, and everyone came over for dinner and presents. It's always a ton of fun to be there. There are now 5 grandkids, so there is always something going on! Adilyn and Taylor got along really well, we looked out one time and they were quietly playing with the My Little Pony castle. Terilyn had grown so much since the last time we had seen her, and she was adorable! I loved her little expressions. She was so quiet and sweet, what a sweetheart! It's so great to see the cousins growing up together. Even though we don't see them as much as I would like to, it's still fun to make these memories with each other. We opened our presents, which was a chaotic few minutes, but once the "dust" settled everyone was interested in seeing everyone else's toys. All the toys were opened and shared very well! Cory got a fire going outside, and after all our festivities, we all sat out by the fire and relaxed.

Everything was going so well, until the second night. Kacy started crying about 11pm, and I tried to settle her down, but she was wide awake! She wanted to play and run around, and nothing that I could do was going to change her mind! We played for a few minutes, and then I decided that this could go on forever, so I turned off all the lights in the living room and tried to hold her. This went on and on! Cory finally came out and took over. They fell alseep together on the couch for awhile. They came in about 3am, and she woke right up again. I brought her in bed with us, but I don't think either of us slept much the rest of the night! She is such a great sleeper at home, but you get her out of her routine and it can be bad news!

Sunday, we went to Mom's house. It was so much fun over there, too. We did presents, and Adilyn and Kacy loved all their silly hats that Nammie gave them in their stockings. It's such a differet atmosphere over there. It's just Adilyn and Kacy doing their thing, it's much quieter. Well, it was quieter until Kacy opened her musical toys. She got a drum with 6 other instruments in there, so we all got one and marched around the house pretending to be a marching band. After all our presents and playtime, we decided to go eat at the Old South Pancake House, which was a good idea because it was not busy at all! We needed a quick in and out because the girls were getting grumpy! I hoped for a good night's sleep for everyone, and we got it! Woohoo! I forgot how painful it is to not be able to sleep at night!

Mom has been wanting to go on the mini train in Ft. Worth forever, but every time we tried something would happen - bad weather, someone being sick, etc. We were going to try to go on Monday. I had already checked the website on Sunday, and everything looked ready to go! We got up and headed that way, but before we even got there Mom called. There were closed because Union Pacific was doing construction on one of the bridges! Denied again! What a bummer! Being as flexible as we are, it turned out okay and we just went to the park. It was a beautiful day, so we played out at the park and walked down by the river. After the park, we got some ice cream, and we went back to Dad's house. Nina was in town from Seattle, and we hadn't seen her in almost two years! Everyone was coming back over for dinner, so we once again had a wonderful time with everyone. Kacy really liked Nina, which was really cute. Terilyn had gotten a crazy "white girl cornrow" hairdo from daycare that was absolutely hilarious. We got the highly sought after complete and total kid/grandkid picture, which I will post later!

We came back home on Tuesday with a load much heavier than we left with! It was, once again, another amazing holiday season with the family. I love spending time up there, and I treasure every memory that we make no matter how small or big it is!

A Little Artist

Adilyn has always loved to draw, paint, or color. It is interesting now to see what she comes up with as she is starting to really draw things. She drew a picture at school, and she brought it to me. I asked her what it was and her response was, "Um, it's Kacy. Can't you tell by her tiny feet? She is wearing a beautiful dress."

Stubborn!

I often wonder who made up the "terrible two" phenomenon...I do not have a single two year old in my house, yet there are kids throwing fits left and right some nights! Adilyn has gotten pretty fiesty lately. Her biggest thing is not leaving when it's time to go. We tell her that we are leaving, and she will fold into a pile onthe ground. When we get home, she will refuse to get out of the car. It's great. Of course she choses to do this when we are late, when my hands are already ridiculously full, or when I have to pee! It's amazing how hard it is to get a 35 pound kid off the ground when they are completely limp!
The other thing she gets really stubborn about is when she thinks she knows something, and I try to correct her. She truly believes that pig tails are "pink" tails. She also believes that nilla wafers are nilla "wipers". Another thing that she does is tell stories about things that didn't happen. When I try to tell her that she is just pretending, she doesn't want to hear it! She always says things like, "One time, when I was bigger, I went to the beach with Abby." I try to tell her that she has never been bigger, she disagrees. Sometimes the conversations that I have with her are hilarious, I love it!

Kacy - 17 months

I haven't done a Kacy update in a while! My little girl is growing up so fast. I can't believe how fast she has gotten big! Some times when I look at her, I can't believe that she's not a baby anymore!

Here some things about my little one:

Nicknames - Kacy-Kace, Kacy bug

Favorite foods - grapes, bananas, cookies

Favorite toys - little princess dolls (of Adilyn's), the ball popper

Likes - music, dancing, going up stairs, bouncing on balls, playing in the dog's water bowl, being in the middle of the action, doing flips, being tickled

Dislikes - having her hands dirty, when Adilyn "blocks" her from going out a door, being set down too early after a nap

She is a great sleeper! All I ever have to do is set her down in her crib, and she falls asleep. She may cry a little here or there, but then she's out!

Her height and weight are all in the average range, but she has quite a belly on her! I can't find any jeans that she can wear because they are all too tight on her belly. If I buy them bigger, they are way too long! Poor girl.

She is very cuddly, which I love (unless I am trying to cook or clean)! If she wants me to hold her, she will follow me around and hold on to my pants the whole time. Sometimes she even pulls my pants down if she is really persistent!

She copies everything Adilyn does! It's very cute, but many times there are things that a 3 year old can do, that a 1 year old just can't. When that happens, she does not hesitate to show her frustration.

I finally stopped breastfeeding. I was only feeding her at night and in the morning, but I didn't really feel like she needed/wanted to anymore. One Saturday I woke up, and I just decided to stop. She was totally fine with it. There were no problems with it, so that was nice. It is great to finally have my body back. I had been pregnant or breastfeeding since August of 2006! Of course, as all mom's know, we never truly have our body back because there is usually always someone on our lap! :)

When she was a baby, I really thought she would be a laidback kid. She has proved me wrong on that one time and time again! She throws fits and screams with the best of them! I have no 2 year olds at home, so I often wonder why I have "terrible 2" behavior almost everyday!?!

My favorite thing about Kacy is that she is silly! She loves to make silly faces, and she loves making everyone laugh. She gets really goofy right before bedtime, and it's my favorite time of the day with her! I love my silly girl! :)

A Bite from a Friend

When I picked Adilyn up from school today, she had just been bit. It had been quite awhile since she had been beat up at school, so I was a little bit surprised. I was even more surprised when I found out it was her little bestfriend, Abby who bit her! I asked her the story, and here was her response. "I was playing with Morgan, but Abby wanted to play with me. I usually want to play with Abby, but today I wanted to play with Morgan. Then when Abby tried to play with me, I blocked her out, but she blocked me out too. Then I walked away and she grabbed my arm and bit me right there!" I asked her "blocked out" meant, and she told me that it's when you stand in front of someone so they can't get by. It's so funny to hear her tell all these stories about her little social interactions! Of course, I wish that all her interactions were positive and sweet, but we all know that real life is not like either, so why should daycare? :)

Grandpa Lee

I'm a little late on all my posts, but better late than never. My grandfather passed away a couple weeks ago, and Adilyn and I went up to Michigan for the memorial service. When my grandmother passed away 6 years ago, I decided not to go. I had just had knee surgery, and I was still recovering a little bit. The minute I decided not to go, I regreted it. Because my grandmother lived in Michigan with the rest of my extended family, I never really had any closure on my end. I never really felt like she was gone. From that time on, I promised myself that I would never miss another funeral or memorial service again no matter what the circumstances were. Cory and I went back and forth trying to decide who would go and who would stay, but I decided that I would take Adilyn. She can sleep in a normal bed, and she can handle a couple long days better than Kacy could. We decided to use some standby passes that my mom had access to from working at American Airlines all those years. Our adventure began on Friday night. We flew up to DFW to spend the night at my dad's house. Everything went well except for the fact that our bags were stuck in transition, so we had to sleep in Mimi's borrowed t-shirts! Adilyn thought that was pretty funny. In Fort Worth, we picked up two more travelers - Brandon and Greg flew on the same flight with us on Saturday morning from DFW to Detroit. We had to wake up so early; it was pretty painful! Luckily Adilyn slept on the plane a little bit because we had a long day in front of us. Adilyn is such a great traveler these days! We color, read books, talk about things, and she is just fine. The only problem we had was when she had a bathroom emergency at a time when there was no bathroom available. We had just began our decent when she said that she had to go peepee. I told her that we couldn't go right then, but she proceeded to scream, "It's coming out! It's coming out!" I tried distraction, I tried calming her down...nothing worked. I was ready for a wet seat right there! Then I told her that if she had to pee that bad she could pee in the throw up bag. I took it out and everything. I was a kind of serious, but she was mortified! So...she held it! What a big girl! :)
My uncle, Richard picked us up and we headed straight to my grandfather's house where everyone was getting ready. We were there for enough time to grab some pizza then we had to head straight to memorial service. It was so great to see everyone. Of course, the circumstances were not the best, but it is always great to see family that you haven't seen in years.
The memorial service was amazing. My mom and all my aunts had beautiful things to say about their father. There were so many people there that just adored him - friends from the coffee shop, waitresses from his favorite restaurants, and other people from the community. How nice it must be when the end of your life comes that you have a room full of people with beautiful memories of you! There were many slideshows in between when everyone talked, and those are always my favorites. Moments in time that will never be erased...I love it!
When my mom gave her speech, she was crying. Adilyn started crying too. It was really sad. She asked me why Nammie was crying, and I told her because she missed her Dad. She said that was why she was crying, too becasue she missed her Daddy.
After the memorial service, we went to dinner with everyone and then back to the house. Dinner went well, with the exception of Adilyn throwing a fit in the corner. It's a good thing that the restaurant was loud because I completely ignored her. :)
Back at the house, my aunt Marcy and Adilyn made a leaf pile, so Adilyn could jump in it. I think that was her favorite part of the trip! We had to get to bed early because we had to get up the very next morning at 5am. Finally, we made it back to my aunt's house. Adilyn went right to bed, and Brandon and I stayed up and chatted with my aunt. It was a nice time to reflect on memories and all the fun times we had in the past.
I know now that we really need to go up to visit each summer. We thought about going last year, but we didn't because it was expensive. If we would have spent the money, Adilyn and Kacy would have been able to see Grandpa Lee one more time. I would have been able to spend a little more time with him before he was gone. I think that many times when someone passes away, you think about what you could have done differently when they were alive. I don't want to feel like I didn't do enough again. I want to feel like I spent as much time with that person that I could have!
All in all it was a great experience, and I am really glad that we made the quick trip! It was a time that I will never forget.

More Halloween Pics

Here are some more pictures of our Halloween fun!

Halloween 2010

Our Halloween celebrations started off with me dressing up for 80's Day at school. Adilyn really liked my pink hair, and Kacy was obsessed with my jewelry. The next day was the girls' Halloween party. We woke up extra early to get them into their hippie outfit and Thumbelina dress. Kacy was not interested in wearing any of cool hippie accessories, but she looked cute enough in her homemade tie-dyed shirt and khaki pants with patched. Adilyn was more than happy to get into her beautiful dress. She even sat still while I put her hair in a bun to make her look just like the beautiful princess Thumbelina. They, of course, wouldn't sit still for a picture, but they were adorable.
Sunday finally came around, and we ate dinner with our neighbors then got ready. We were kind of rushed because trick or treaters started coming way before the sun went down. I thought there was some universal rule about not starting until it was dark outside, but apparently I was wrong. We threw our costumes on, took a couple pictures and then began our candy adventure. This was the first year that Adilyn really went up to houses and felt comfortable talking to our neighbors. Kacy wanted to walk around like a big girl, but she didn't really care about getting the candy (which was a good thing). After about 10 house, Adilyn asked, "Who is giving candy out to people when they come to our house?" Once I told her that nobody was giving out candy, she wanted to go home. She was so worried about giving other people, that we decided to just head home. We had enough candy anyway! Once we got home, she sat out on our sidewalk and handed out candy to kids for at least an hour. She would get nervous with the scary costumes, but she would still slip some candy in their bags. I was so proud of her! She enjoyed giving candy more than getting candy...hope that lasts. :)
Here is a little video with some of our Halloween pictures! Enjoy!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Brandon's Visit

Brandon surprised us with a visit a couple weekends ago, and we had a great weekend. We were really lazy, but we still had fun hanging out around the house. The girls love Uncle Brandon, and he seems to be getting way more comfortable with them as they get older. He takes the best pictures of the girls; I wish I had his eye for photography! Here are some of the pictures that he took over the weekend.

Adilyn was showing Brandon all her "looks'. This is her "sad" face and her "sweet" face. I can't believe how grown up she is getting!

It was Brandon's birthday, so we made him cupcakes. Adilyn absolutely loves to decorate cookies and cupcakes with sprinkles and icing. Kacy liked them, too!

It was a gorgeous weekend, so we hung out outside a lot. Another one of Adilyn's favorite things to do is paint, but it's such a mess. Luckily, when it's nice weather we can go out there and make a mess outside. Of course, she asked if she could paint her hand, as she was painting it.

Kacy loves to pretend she's a big kid, and one of her new skills is trying to drink from a regular cup. Again, this only gets to happen outside!

Some days I can't believe how big my little girls are getting. Every now and then I will just get a glimpse of them, and it hits my how the time is just flying by! They are going to be in school, and out of school before we even know it! I try to enjoy each moment while they are young, and I hope that I can remember these sweet, simple, little memories.

More Thoughts on My New Job

The first six weeks of the year is over, and after many ups and downs, I have some new thoughts. I really believe that I this job is not "my calling". I had really hoped that I would get in the job and absolutely love it. Unfortunately, that did not happened. I think that if it was really an all P.E. job working with someone that was great to work with, I would like it. The health part is interesting, but it's difficult. I do not like try to keep them quiet and still while I am teaching. It's hard for the kids to sit still because they have been sitting and learning all day long. When they finally get to leave the classroom, it's hard for them to settle down and learn more! I try to make it as fun as possible, but the reality is that I still have to teach them information. We have been playing games for the last 15 minutes, so that makes it a little better. I have learned that all kindergarteners really want to do is color. I could probably let them color for the full 50 minutes, and they would be fine! I was feeling a lot of hostility from the 5th graders for the first week or so. I finally got them to talk to me about why they were so angry about health. They told me that the old teacher was really mean and treated them like they were in a bootcamp or something. She would not let them talk at all, and she yelled all the time. I think that they are having more fun, but I can't get them to shut up now!

Some of my interesting experiences:
*We were talking about emergencies, and I never could have imagined how many kids lie like crazy! I had about 5 people that told me that their house had caught on fire. They didn't stop there, they went on and on about how they saved their little brother and they jumped out of the window or how their dog was upstairs, but they went up and found him just before the house blew up. Wow! One boy told me that he got bit by a shark when he was a baby swimming in the ocean by himself. I asked him where he got bit, he said, "I think it was my whole leg." Very interesting imaginations!
*Some kids came outside for recess, but there was no teacher with them. I asked one of the kids, who brought them out. He said, "I don't know, I was just following the line." It's so funny that everything they do is in lines, and they all just blindly follow the person in front of them!
*I showed a video to the kindergarteners about when to call 9-1-1. The main character handed out "9-1-1 Hero" stickers to the kids in the video. I had of the same stickers, and when I gave them to the kids, you would have thought they won the lottery! It so funny that they were so amazed that I had the very same stickers from the tv!
*To 90% of the kids my name is not Mrs. Henderson. It's Mrs. Health Teacher.

Now, here is my new epiphany...I went to the Beck volleyball game last week. I was a little anxious about how I would feel. My girls and I were sitting there in the stands. I was watching the game with little emotion. The girls were climbing all over me and being really cute. Some of the Beck girls said hi, some parents talked to me, but there was no emotion connection at all. I didn't feel sad, I didn't miss it, and I sure didn't feel like I mad the wrong decision. That night I was thinking about everything, and I realized that this may not be my dream job, but it has taught me some things. The first thing that it taught me is that I do not "have" to coach. I really don't miss that. The other thing that I have learned is that I would really like to do elementary PE. The only problem with that is that those jobs are pretty hard to find, so if I leave my current job, I may not find another one! I guess I'll stick with this one for awhile, and we will see how it goes. :)

Oh, How Different They Are!

My little ones are so different in so many ways, but the biggest one lately is their eating habits. Adilyn has never been the best eater, but I never really let it bother me. I always figured that the more I bugged her about it, the more she would fight me, so I let her eat what she wants to eat at dinner. If she doesn't feel like eating what I made for dinner, then she just doesn't eat that night. I feel a little bit bad about it, but I think that it is better in the long run. I am not going to be cooking different meals just because the kids don't want to eat it! I believe that they will eat if they are that hungry! :)

When Kacy started eating solid food, she ate everything! I don't think that I ever had to throw any food away that I made for her. I would scrape the bowl for every little bit that was left. Once she started eating "real" food, she went through a period that she got a little pickier. For about two months or so, she wouldn't eat any fruit! I refused to believe that I might have a person in my family that didn't like fruit! I love fruit, and we eat it all the time. Because I refused to believe that she wasn't going to eat fruit, I put it on her plate every night. Every night the watermelon, peaches, grapes, strawberries, etc would just sit there, untouched. A couple weeks ago one night at dinner, I noticed her fruit was gone! Yay! My little eater was back! Now, she cleans her plate, and even tries to lick it some time. She loves to hand me her "happy plate" when she is "all done!" (They call it a happy plate at school when they eat all their food.)

Fun Times

The sound on someone throwing up is never a sound one likes to hear, but it's especially bad when you hear it coming through a monitor. I went upstairs last night to find Adilyn asleep in a bed full of throw up. Yuck! Then, you always have to make the decision - do you clean up or take care of the kid. I tried to do both. I had to clean her up first so I could actually hold her without getting it all over me. Poor girl! She threw up almost every hour until 3am. Of course, she was sleeping with me, and as much as I tried to push her to the other side of the bed, she would get right up next to me! Every time I heard her make a noise, I would make a mad dash for the trash can. It was pretty funny, sad but funny, to hear her comments. Whenever she thought she was done, she would said, "I'm done, Mommy." Then, of course more would come out! She apologized when she threw up on me, sweet girl. After one episode, she asked, "Mommy, where am I going to throw up at school tomorrow?" I told her that she wasn't going to school. She said, "Okay, will you tell my teacher?"
So sad! She is much better today, and we have spent the day hanging out and watching movies. Thank goodness those nasty stomach bugs usually go away pretty quickly!

Other funny things:
The other day she said, "Mommy, you are a teacher, right?" I told her yes. She said, "Well, you have to teach me something." I asked her what. She replied, "You need to teach me how to jump on one foot. Chloe and Abby can do it, but every time I try, I fall down!"

She was talking to Cory on the phone the other day, and she was just talking away about everything she did that day. She wouldn't let him get a word in!

She wanted to wear a jean skirt the other day, but it was pretty chilly. I put some tights on her, and she started screaming, "Get them off! Get them off! They are too tight, I can't breathe!" Sorry Sweetie, they are called tights for a reason. :)

My Follower

Adilyn has been best friends with a little girl named Abby since she started at daycare. She used to love to pretend that I was Abby. Adilyn started coming home saying "poo poo head" and "pee pee head", of course, she would say, "Abby said that." One day when I went to get her from school, the teacher told me that she wasn't listening in class very well. They said that she didn't like to do her work, and then she showed me her name tracing activity from that day. It was just a bunch of crazy scribbles! The teacher said that she never works when she is with Abby. She also said that she follows Abby around all the time. Yikes! I wonder what's worse, to be the follower that gets in trouble, or to be the leader that starts the trouble! :)

Some recent funny things Adilyn has done:

*We were outside, and she started screaming, "I have a snake! I have a snake!" I looked over at her and she had stepped on a worm.

*She busted out laughing at the dinner table, and she said, "Kacy has bean face and bean hands!" When I looked at Kacy, she did have beans everywhere!

*I was reading her a book, and I guess she didn't like the way that I said "mountain goat". She said, "No mommy, it's like this...mount-in-go-at." She emphasized each syllable exactly the way I do when I am trying to get her to say a word right.

*All of a sudden, she has decided that she can pick up Kacy. The other day she was trying to pick her up from the ground. I asked her what she was doing, and she said, "I am taking her to Daddy."

*Whenever I get back from running, she stretches with me. She tries to copy me exactly, but when she can't do it, she'll say, "That's my new stretch."

*She loves dancing and she always wants me to "announce her". I have to say, "Announcing Adilyn Kade Henderson, from Katy, Texas." Then she will dance out of the bedroom.

*She still doesn't like to nap, and the other day during her rest time she pulled the curtain rod right out of the wall. It hit her on the head, so needless to say, rest time was over that way. I hope she didn't do it on purpose to get out of her rest time...who knows what she'll try next!

*She made cookies with Cory the other day to take to school for show and tell (Letter C). She was so proud, and her teacher said that she passed them out to all the kids telling everyone that she made them with her daddy. So sweet! (The picture at the top is the proud baker!)

Lake Travis for Dad's 60th B-day

Oh what an amazing weekend! We had been planning to go to Lake Travis for Dad's 60th birthday for many months now, and it was so much fun. Dad and Kris rented a house on Lake Travis for all of us to stay in. It was a 5 bedroom house, just perfect for the whole family. We all got there on Friday night, and we got settled in. All the grandkids were there - Maren - 9, Adilyn - 3, Kacy - 1, Taylor - 2, and little Terilyn - 1 month. We ate dinner that night, and the kids, of course, had to go swimming that night. We tried out the lake, but everyone (dads included) decided that the pool would be better especially since it was getting dark outside. There were deer everywhere, and the animal lover, Maren, had to feed them. They almost came right up and ate out of her hand! We had a great nights sleep, and Saturday was a full day of fun. We swam, played in the gameroom, made up silly games, swam some more, watched some tv, and played some more. Taylor and Adilyn got along pretty well. We only had a few moments of sharing issues, and it was Adilyn not sharing with Taylor. Maren helped them make up silly games. One that she was doing was pretending to be a bridge, and when Taylor and Adilyn walked by they had to answer a question to get by. She was telling them to make a sad face or tell her their favorite color. It was hilarious to see them making silly faces or telling her that their favorite shape is an octagon! What fun times and great memories!
The weekend was amazing, and I am so glad that we have such great family to spend time with. It was great to get away together! We had never done that before, but I think we definitely should do it more often!