We had a playdate at Ethan's house and the kids got to wear their costumes. They were all adorable, but my prize goes to little Catherine in the pumpkin costume. Also, Alyssa Kate had some ladybug rain boots to match her ladybug costume. So cute!! Poor Caleb was not too happy with his costume, even though he was a darling little pumpkin too. Part of the fun for us moms is torturing the kids by making them take a picture before we can leave. Are we mean or what?!?

My little Hershey Kiss...

The kids had so much fun playing outside. I think Kaleigh went up & down the slide 15 times or more. The only way I was able to get her inside was to bribe her with cake! The whole way home she talked about "Amber house playdate".

I babysit Maddie a couple of times a month and she and Kaleigh are such good friends. They are only 10 days apart in age and have alot of fun together. Here are some pictures of them trying on these adorable jackets that my mother-in-law bought and then playing in the playpen (they wanted in there). Maddie is very sweet.

Dressing Up

Kaleigh likes to dress herself now and the results are pretty funny...











She is trying on one of her costumes. This kitty cat costume is from last year but it didn't fit too well then. She also has a Hershey Kiss costume. We will probably have opportunities to wear both.










Jill hosted Bunko this month and I was so impressed to see everyone dress up! There were some cute & funny costumes.

Kaleigh & Noah with their cowboy boots


At the pumpkin patch















Kaleigh "shopping" at Toys R Us - Kaleigh was so funny. We were walking through the store and she started pushing the little stroller. Then, whenever she saw something else she liked, she started carrying those things around too. At one point she had about four big things that she was towing through the store!

Fair Day
Well, I decided we just couldn't stay at home on Kaleigh's birthday, so we ended up going to the fair in the rain. She rode her first ride so I felt it was a success. Then she got to "milk a goat". Notice her very skilled one-handed approach. She also got to see lots & lots of goats. And it was all free!

Kaleigh's Birthday Bash
We had Kaleigh's party on Saturday. We grilled Shish-kabobs and ate outside. It was a gorgeous day. Then Kaleigh opened LOTS of presents from our giving families. Whenever she opened a present, she would say "open" meaning she wanted to get the toy out of it's wrapping and play with it. I thought this was much better than her just saying "more". Be sure & watch to the end of the slideshow so you can see the rainbow cake I made. It was a pain but I think Kaleigh appreciated it. And for her now, cake is synonomous with Birthday.

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY, KALEIGH!





We can't believe our little baby is already 2 years old. We celebrated her birthday this weekend with our family and today we are supposed to go to the fair, but it's not looking so good...


Some milestone information -


Kaleigh is a little chatterbox right now. She wakes up talking and doesn't stop unless she's got her thumb in her mouth. I love hearing her melodic little voice. She uses simple sentences like "You hear that choo-choo train?"


She's learning manners and will usually say "Thanks, Mommy" whenever I give her something. When someone sneezes she almost always says "bless you, ____" and if she sneezes, she says "Bless you, boo boo" because that's what I used to say to her.


She can count to ten and sing her ABC's. She loves to sing other songs too, like "Jesus loves me", "Wheels on the bus", and "twinkle twinkle little star".


She can name a lot of shapes, including circle, star, heart, oval, diamond and triangle.


She's working on potty training - some days are better than others. She will sometimes stay clean all day, but only if I take her to potty every couple of hours.


She likes to dance and work puzzles, and her favorite toy will probably be her new little kitchen that she got for her birthday. She loves TV, but I try not to let her watch much. She says "Baby Einstein?" every time we start messing with the DVD player.

She is starting to get a little bit of the terrible 2's, throwing tantrums and saying "no" alot, and "I do it" showing her independence.

I will post some pictures later because (drumroll, please) we are finally getting high speed internet! Yay! I feel like it's my birthday too.

New York City, here we come!
At least in 5 or 6 months hopefully...

My good friend Amy called yesterday. She and her husband, Jeremy just moved to New York and will be there about a year, and she wants to know when Nathan and I can come visit. We have both always wanted to visit New York, so we are planning a trip for the spring. It will be great to see Amy again. She has lived far away for several years now, so we don't get to see each other much. Only once or twice a year.

All that to say, I'm already planning the trip in my head. We will shop & window shop, go to museums, see a show, and try to attend a taping of a TV show. I'm looking for good suggestions of things not to miss, so if you have been, please give me some input.


What is mom cooking for dinner these days?

A blog would not be complete without a funny Kaleigh anecdote, so here it is. We were eating supper last night and I had made a pot roast in the crock pot with potatoes, carrots, and onions. Kaleigh got one of the onions on her fork, held it up and said "Look, Shelly! A worm!" Now I've cooked some strange things in my lifetime, including cookies without flour (an accident) and vegetarian spinach meat loaf (on purpose but a bad idea) but I'm pretty sure serving worms would be an all time low. As for her calling me Shelly, that's what happens when you laugh at your child instead of correcting them. She started calling Nathan and me by our names a couple of months ago, just every once in a while. Now she does it all the time. What a mess!

Hello all! I know you are all looking at this picture of me and wondering...

"How can I get hair like that?!?"

Well, it's not easy. To achieve this look - First of all, you have to be from the South. That is a must. Second, you must have big uncontrollable hair to begin with, and third, you channel the spirit of Dolly Parton and think "big, big, big". Good luck to you all.