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! :)