Kailey's shoe obsession

A lot of kids like to try on other people's shoes, but Kailey is kind of obsessed. I was just thinking about it the other day, as I was going through some recent pictures. I think that in every set of pictures, there was at least one of Kailey in someone else's shoes. She comes up to me daily, taps on my foot with her foot, looks up at me, and says shoes over and over until I take off my shoes so that she can put them on. I'm gonna put a few pictures that I have collected over the past few months. I've got a couple more that are on the other computer, and some really recent ones that are still in the camera.

Tigers vs. Hokies and more

Last weekend Joel, Kailey, and I went to Jelani's the watch the tigers vs. the Hokies. The Hamiltons also came. We had a great time. Jelani picked up buffalo wild wings. Kailey and Allison had a really good time turning the tv off as we watched; it was a fun game for them. It looks like the Tigers are off to a good start. I definitely thought that that game would be a lot closer than it was. I am just excited that it's football season. First of all, I love to have football on tv, even if I'm not watching, just to hear it in the background is great. I think I love to hear it in the background, because it reminds me of when I was younger, if there was a football game on, pappaw had it on the tv. Secondly, if football is on tv, that means cool weather is coming!!

Kacelia found some toys for the girls to play with.

Kailey trotting because she was excited about the food (notice french fry in the hand)

The game went way beyond bedtime, but the girls did well.

Jamie and I went to the mall tonight to get Allison a birthday dress (she turns 1 tomorrow!!!), and had a really good time. We found an incredible sale at Children's Place (cute t-shirts and pajamas for $0.99!!), I got Kailey a Halloween costume, and we went to Chic Fil A for dinner in hopes that we would run into one of our former students that we both taught at Tara, that works there. We were in luck, he was there, and we got to talk to him about how his senior year is going, his promotion to manager at the chic fil a, and his college plans. It is always so much fun to see former students and to hear that things are going well for them.

One week until the sonogram. I was talking to a friend Robin last night at a group FHE about the sonogram, and it was brought up that some times the babies aren't cooperative. I will be soooo sad if we are not able to see if its a boy or girl. I think that baby knew I was typing about him/her because he/she started moving all around just now :) Also, I have a friend that was told that she was having a girl, but the girl turned out to be a boy! I hope that none of that kind of stuff happens to us because I am so anxious to buy some cute clothes, start looking at bedding, and planning the room.

Tomato sauce fiasco and boat ride pawpaw

I haven't put up any new posts lately, but Joel just put in a movie, a Beowulf looking movie, and I decided that now would be a good time to get caught up. Don't get me wrong, I love the story of Beowulf, but I think mostly because I had a wonderful senior English teacher. Anyway, the medieval action movies aren't usually my type. Mostly Joel and I like the same movies, but there are a few that we just don't agree on. Mrs. Ulmer (my geometry teacher) always said, "different strokes for different folks."

Only 12 more days until the next sonogram!! I am so excited to find out what we are having. I can't wait to start planning for the new baby. Not to mention, it is so fun and exciting to see the baby moving around inside. With my first sonogram with Kailey I felt so foolish lying there crying, but I was just soooo excited to see her that I couldn't hold back the tears.

Speaking of Kailey, she seems to have hit the terrible two's a little early. Maybe I should remind her that her second birthday isn't until December. She has gotten so mischievous and rebellious lately. So far time-out has been working pretty well, but I know it will only get me so far. It is hard to be creative all of the time, thinking of ways to make the best of difficult situations, and helping her learn to be a better, more well-behaved child. I had no idea how challenging parenting could be. I have to admit that having an energetic and little bit rebellious child can also be entertaining.

A week ago I decided to try out a new recipe, Shrimp tacos with fresh tomato salsa. With the tomato salsa, I made it according to the recipe, but decided at the last minute to do some improvisation with half of it. So I got out some tomato sauce and the blender. Well, as I was deep in the thralls of experimentation, I didn't notice two little hands grabbing the 3/4 full can of tomato sauce that I had left on the counter. I didn't realize that Kailey had grown tall enough to reach stuff on the counter. She pulled it down, and as she did, dumped it all down her head and white shirt. It also made it's way onto Rickey's head, who always sticks close to Kailey in hopes that she might drop a crumb (she got more than a crumb this time). Stating the obvious, it was a HUGE mess. So i set to cleaning, first undressing Kailey. Just as I got the last of her clothes off, including her diaper, the door bell rang. It was Jamie and Allison, coming to watch the LSU game with us. I ran to get the door, and as I was gone, Kailey peed on the floor, and slipped down in the pee and tomato sauce. I felt so bad, that I had left her there and she had fallen down. Jamie helped me get her to the back and get her bathed. Jamie also got out her camera and took a picture. Once I get one from her, I'll add it to this post. I think that this was the worst mess Kailey has ever made; poor Rickey ran into her box and hid for a while.

I have also got some pictures that I've been meaning to put up for a while. A few weekends ago, we went to Ferriday, and my dad took Kailey and Allison out in his boat for their first boat ride. They both loved it! I was a little worried that Kailey wouldn't like it, because she is so afraid of anything that makes loud noises. The boat motor was a little loud, but I think Kailey would follow her pawpaw anywhere.

Allison sitting in the steering wheel. It was fun until time to turn the wheel.

Queen of Clean

I don't know where she got this, but Kailey likes to clean things. Over the past few weeks I have caught her cleaning a few times, which I think is funny, because she didn't get this love of cleaning from her mother.

Last night while she was in the tub, she proceeded to clean all around the tub with her wash cloth, then she started grabbing toys and cleaning them too. She worked on her rubber duckies for a long time. One of them she even continued to clean after all the water was gone.

A couple of weeks ago she washed her car. I keep wipes and diapers in the storage part of our coffee table, and Kailey knows where they are. She went over to the table, and started patting on it, like she wanted something out of there. I eventually figured out that she wanted a wipe, and as soon as I gave it to her, she went over and washed her car. I thought that the car washing thing was a fluke, but the bath thing last night leads me to believe that she might just like cleaning.

Miami Trip Part II

When I was younger, ghost and alien stories always scared me really badly. I can handle the alien stories now, but the ghost ones still get me sometimes. I don't think that I have ever seen a ghost (one incident is questionable, but that's a whole different story), but I believe in ghosts to some extent.

On our Miami trip, we had a little bit of ghost story. Thankfully, I didn't hear the "ghost story" until Monday morning on the way to the airport. If I had found out when it happened, I would've been one scared girl! So, on the way to the airport, Joel asked Jelani if he was up late the night before, which was odd, b/c Jelani is usually up late every night and we all know that. Even weirder, Jelani's answer was no, he had actually gone to earlier than usual that night. So Joel went on to explain that the reason that he asked was, he had woken up at around 3 a.m., and was really thirsty. He sat up in the bed, and was trying to decided if he should go get something to drink, or just try to go back to sleep. Then he heard two guys talking in the living room. Our bedroom ran along side the living room, so we could hear what was going on in the living room fairly well. So Joel thought that Jelani was talking to one of the other guys in the living room, and decided that since some of the guys were still awake that he would get up and go for a drink. When he walked through the door, it was completely dark and not a soul was in sight.

When he told us about this in the car, I was still a little skeptical, but mostly grateful that I was learning about it after the fact. I had mostly forgotten about the story until a few days later Jamie showed me an odd picture that she found from the trip. I have heard that light distortions in pictures are supposed to be ghosts. I have absolutely nothing to back it up, but this picture did make the "ghost story" a little more fun.
Do you believe in ghosts or have any ghost stories?

Miami Trip

This trip actually happened a week or so ago, I'm just finally getting around to adding a post. So, Joel and his business partner Jelani planned a company vacation for us. When I first heard mention of it, I'll have to admit, I was skeptical. Then Joel started asking me about dates, and I started to think that maybe they were serious. Turns out, they were, and we had a really fun long weekend in Miami. I wish that we had been able to stay longer. Miami is such a fun and beautiful place. The guys did a really good job at choosing a location and planning all of the logistics. They bought the plane tickets, rented the house and the vans, and all we had to do was show up. Thanks Joel and Jelani for all of the work that you put into planning and executing the trip. We had a pretty big group, there were the six employees, Joel, Jelani, Kacelia, Joe, Paul, and Scott; and Joe brought Jamie and Allison, Paul brought Elizabeth, and Scott brought his best friend Jared. The people that you travel with can really make a difference in how fun a trip is, and I don't think that the trip could've gone better.

We spent some time on the beach, toured a fruit and spice park (sounds a little boring, but it was fun and we got to eat some interesting exotic fruit), visited "Monkey Jungle," and drove to Key Largo for a glass bottom boat tour of the coral reef. Allison and Kailey did really well on the plane rides, and during the whole trip. They both loved swimming in the ocean. The water was a really beautiful clear blue. I love going to the beach, and it is my dream to one day have a beach house (highly unlikely, but everyone should dream, right?), but I will admit, as I have gotten older, and had a few encounters with some sea creatures, jelly fish to be exact, I've gotten a little more cautious in the ocean. The water hear was so nice, clear, and inviting that I forgot about my fears of jellyfish.

Kailey had fun feeding the monkeys at Monkey Jungle

Kailey ate nearly all of this star fruit by herself, guess she was hungry.


This is us driving under the african sausage tree at the fruit and spice park. These fruit weren't edible, but very interesting looking.

The Hamiltons had a good time with the "dead man fingers" this is actually edible fruit. None of us were brave enough to eat it, but Jamie did admit to trying some of the juice, and said that it was sweet.

Kailey cut loose a little bit at the beach, check-out her cover-up.

Some how we managed to escape without any serious sunburn, jellyfish stings, or shark attacks :) I caught some of shark week before the trip, and learned that tiger sharks hang around the Florida coast sometimes. I didn't help that we saw a small shark just off the coast while we were on our way out on the boat tour.

There ofcourse, were no toys at the house, but the girls worked it out.

These giraffes provided endless entertainment. They were originally in our bedroom, but made their way around the house with the girls. Kailey drug that big one around with her every where, and when I made her leave it in the room one morning as we were leaving, she had to wave and say goodbye to it. They became such good friends.

Baby's First Pictures!

We had a sonogram of the new baby on the 24th. Today, I finally got around to unhooking the scanner from the desktop and installing everything on the laptop. For some reason the scanner refused to work on the desktop. I thought the scanner was dead, but decided to give it one last try on the laptop.

These are both side views. The baby is laying left to right. On the top picture the head and leg is labeled.



It was so exciting to see the baby moving around. It was moving its little hand around up by its face. It is just so exciting to see the baby and to finally know that all is well. We were also able to hear the heartbeat for the first time during the sonogram. The heartbeat was really fast, it stayed around 180. I don't think that Kailey's was ever that fast. I just wish that we could have been able to tell if it was a boy or a girl. I don't really like to call the baby "it." I can't wait until the next sonogram in September!