What we did this weekend:

Got married! Lots and lots of times. Our church had its Easter presentation, "The Kingdom", and Nathan and I contributed our little part of getting married. During the "wedding" Jesus turns the water into wine. Overall, it is an amazing production and extremely meaningful. The songs are beautiful and the set is something to see. We put in about 4 hours each night from Thursday to Sunday, but others put in much, much more time.

Also on Saturday, we decided to do a little spruce up of our front flower beds. Unfortunately, we forgot to take a before picture, but here is the after. We got a new weed border and the red mulch, and pulled lots of weeds, and planted one more little plant.

Snow Day! (or Morning, anyway)


Just when I'd given up on the possibility... Nathan woke me yesterday morning and told me that it had snowed and I didn't even believe him! Too many years of living with my brother...
Kaleigh had fun playing in it and eating it, and I brought some inside to make snow cream.



My mother-in-law, Patti, was inspired to write this poem.

March came in like a lamb,
It lasted 3 days.
The lion roared through
Blowin' snow for kid's plays.

On Sunday it's 60,
On Tuesday there's snow;
Arkansas weather is crazy,
That's one thing we know!

One day it's a coat,
The next, none at all.
Is it springtime or winter,
Summer or fall?

Our weather's a paradox.
Our seasons will lie.
Not Knowing what greets you
Upon openin' your eye.
-Patti Statton

We are so glad that the weather is getting better and Kaleigh can play outside again! On Saturday Nathan and I worked all day in the yard removing these leaves, and Kaleigh entertained herself for hours outside. We will be planting some gardens soon, and doing our 2nd attempt at growing grass in the backyard, and hopefully have some sort of play area for Kaleigh by the end of summer. We'll keep you updated on our progress. Now, I must go read about perennials that will look pretty year round and thrive in the shade with little upkeep.

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph - Genealogy search - Family pedigree

I've been having so much fun with this web site that I found through Begina's blog. This was an awful picture of me from when I was pregnant, but funny how much (I thought) that I look like this picture of Sofia Coppola. What do you think, have I found my celebrity twin?

Here are some recent pictures. It was so pretty outside today that Kaleigh and I just had to have a picnic. Or as she would say "picnict". She was sooo happy to be outside! I'm looking forward to spring, and hoping it will last a while and not just go straight into a long hot summer.












Here is her new awesome mohawk hairdo. This is actually what happens when she pulls her ponytail holder out.











Happy Late Valentine's Day! It's so hard to get Kaleigh to cooperate for pictures these days, so these were the best we could do at the time. She's still our little sweetheart.

Kaleigh Statton next American Idol!!!

Kaleigh and Maddie

Kaleigh tells me all the time that Maddie is "best friend to me". When Maddie comes over, they are joined at the hip. These pictures were all them, this is how they watch TV! Too funny.

YouTube Favorites

I have just recently discovered the wonders of youtube and all the fun things that can be found there. By chance I happened upon this video of Charice Pempengco. She is from the Phillipines, and apparently is quite the sensation over there but I don't think it will be long before we start hearing about her here. She's only 14 or 15 and I think she's better than anyone on American Idol. Nathan didn't think it was actually her singing, but recently Ellen found out about her and had her on the show so I think she must be for real. Here is the clip:



Another funny video that my sister showed me. This is just so cute.

Deep Thoughts with Kaleigh...
I have to take a break from Christmas to share some of the funny things Kaleigh has said and done lately. Here goes...

K is excited about graduating to her "big girl panties" as we call them. She's also excited for other people, like the other day when she saw Nathan getting dressed for work and said "Look, Daddy gots big girl panties too!"

The other morning she came to lay down in bed beside me for a few minutes, snuggled up close to me, looked over and said "I'm just hanging out".

Coming home from church the other night:
K: Where are we going mommy?
Me (after having told her at least 3 times that we were going home): Where do you think we're going?
K: A party?
Me: O really? What kind of party?
K: A pink party.
(Funny b/c everything now is described as either pink or big)

Kaleigh saw a picture of a wedding on someone else's blog:
K: Look mommy, married! Gettin married!
Me: yeah
K: Sing a married song?
Me: What's a married song?
K: Joy to the World

And, another slightly embarrassing encounter that happened today. We were in Wal-Mart and looking at the vitamins. There was another lady standing there but I wasn't paying much attention to her until we walked past and noticed Kaleigh staring. Then I glanced over and saw that she had a patch on her eye. I was thinking to myself that I should probably hurry before K's staring turned into something else but I wasn't quick enough. In a not quiet voice she says "Look mommy, she got a pirate. Look mommy she got a pirate" and continues saying this over and over again while I'm running off as fast as possible and trying to discreetly cover K's mouth at the same time...

Christmas Day at the Stattons

Kaleigh's Big Bump

I have to take a little break from Christmas stuff to put these pictures of Kaleigh up. The other night we came home from a friend's house and Kaleigh was running through the living room and fell straight into a chair that has a piece of wood running along the bottom of it. She hit it just right and got a nice little goose egg. She cried pretty hard for a minute but then was brave and calmed down. We held ice on it for as long as we could. Here are some pics.

These first two are from right after it happened.










This is from a day and a half later












This was two days after it happened. Starting to turn green.












This was from today. You can't really see the bruise but I liked how she was dressed up in her chef attire.

Some Christmas Highlights

I know, it's been way too long since my last post. I was just a little overwhelmed about Christmas and everything we did, but I will do it in stages. Here is a slideshow from Christmas Eve, starting at my parents house and ending back at our house. Kaleigh started out tentative with opening presents but by the end of the night, she was an old pro. She just starting ripping open anything and everything she could get her hands on, and then went digging under the tree for more. She likes her Dora bike that Santa brought her, but next time she gets something like that, Santa really needs to assemble it beforehand! She was a little impatient about getting to ride on it. I got some nice things, including a straightener from my sister and lots of clothes from Nathan that he picked out. Also some Dvd sets and a book of cake ideas.

First Ever Kaleigh Video!
I love when other people put videos on their blogs and have been wanting to do one for a while. Kaleigh would never "perform" for the video camera until one day she said "take a picture, mommy" and this is the result. Notice how Southern she is...

Visiting Santa

Kaleigh went to see Santa on Thursday night and sat on his lap for the first time ever. She was slightly frightened but never actually cried. We asked her to think of something to tell Santa that she wanted for Christmas so when she was sitting in his lap she said "bicycle". Then when we got up to leave, she asked "where's Kaleigh's bicycle?". I'm pretty sure she only endured the whole experience with hopes of getting that bicycle at the end!

Recent Conversations with my 2 year old:

Nathan is always telling me to write these things down, so this is my way of recording funny things that Kaleigh says and does during the day. It is so much fun talking to her now and I'm sure it will only get funnier as she gets older.

This first conversation took place after we read this sweet Christmas story called "You are my Miracle"

Kaleigh: I'm a miracle too, mommy.

Me: Yes, you are. You are mommy and daddy's miracle.

K: And mommy's a miracle too

Me: Yes (Awww, So sweet)

K: And daddy's a miracle too.

Me: Yes he is.

K: And Dora and Boots are a miracle too.

Me: (feeling slightly deflated) Well, Dora and Boots aren't really real and someone (not God) created them and so they aren't actually...

Whatever, yeah Dora and Boots too.

Here's the 2nd conversation taking place at the table getting ready to eat lunch:

Me: What are you thankful for Kaleigh?

K: Want mommy's drink

Me: But what are you thankful for?

K: Uh

Me: Are you thankful for food?

K: Yeah

Me: And our house, and friends?

K: Yeah and Randy.

Me: You're thankful for Randy? (he was at our house for poker Tuesday)

K: And Amber, and Andy and Liz

Me: Okay, that's nice

K: and Cat

Me: Mimi's cat?

K: Yeah and dog

Me: What dog?

K: And Daddy

Me: Well, that's nice, I'm sure Daddy will be glad to know that he was on the list even if he did come after the cat and some mystery dog.

My New Christmas Card Holder

I've been looking for an affordable Christmas card holder for at least two years and they are so hard to find. On a whim I went into Pier One not expecting them to have anything and they had this one that I like so much, and it was only $10! It is almost exactly like one that pottery barn sells for $60+.

My Christmas card holder

Pottery Barn holder on sale at ebay for $55 minimum (including shipping).

My favorites of 2007

Oprah recently aired the episode of her favorite things of 2007, and I got to thinking about a few of mine. Most of my favorites you can't necessarily go out and buy at the store, and some aren't really new this year, but they are just things I really, really like or use a lot. This list does not include people. So in no particular order, here is the list...

1. My compact digital camera
2. Garage Sales
3. Ceramic straightener
4. Blogs
5. Book of Daniel (from the Bible)
6. Ski Trip with Friends
7. Sushi (Monster Roll & Arkansas Roll at Kobe)
8. Heroes, the TV show
9. Harry Potter Book 7
10. Kaleigh Talking
11. My new Christmas card holder from Pier one
12. Hannah Montana - fun to have on while I play online computer games
13. Online Computer games
14. LSU football
15. DSL
16. DVR
17. Portable Dvd player

Sweet Daughterly Concern...

Just a quick funny Kaleigh story - Me and Kaleigh were shopping yesterday in a busy store and I felt a sneeze coming on. I stopped and sneezed and was expecting the normally polite Kaleigh to say "Bless you, Mommy". Instead she looked at me really intently and asked loudly "Got a Booger?, Got a Booger, Mommy?". I just had to laugh! Nobody said anything but I think I noticed a few smirks around me.

Just a funny picture to go with a funny story.

Check out my Slide Show!

To register or not to register...

That is the question.

I've seen and heard many people talking about registering for Christmas gifts this year, and I'm a little torn on the issue. On one hand, it's always nice to have a list to shop for other people, and to make sure I get things I like. On the other hand, I really don't know what I want and people like Nathan and my mom have been able to find gifts that I love and never would have thought to register for. Also in the past, I've spent a while trying to make a list (at someone else's request) only to not get one thing off of my list. I just think that part of gift giving is the process of really thinking about another person and trying to find a gift from the heart that will please them. What do you think?

Camping Trip

Friday night we went out camping with Nathan's parents and had a great time sitting around the fire and talking and eating really well. It was Kaleigh's first true camping experience. I think she had fun. She was a little scared of the fire at first. We know this because she looked at it and said "I'm scared". Also, we roasted marshmallows and Nathan gave Kaleigh one, thinking she would be all over it. Well, she just didn't get it. It was too strange a taste and texture for her. She held it in her mouth a little then walked off and spit it out. She'll learn.

Nathan and his dad went fishing for a while. Take a look at those catches! I think they had a good time. They did come back Friday evening with some fish that they grilled and we got to eat. Combined with the chicken, potatoes, corn, and beets that we had, we were able to get quite full off those fish!

Our Lil' Ladybug...
Nathan took Kaleigh out trick or treating last night while I was at Awana. Our neighborhood is apparently the place to go b/c people were coming in by the carload. I could barely get back to our house with all the people and cars everywhere. Anyway, once she figured out she could get candy, she had no trouble saying "trick or treat" to these perfect strangers! She couldn't narrow down to just one candy, so for a while she carried around suckers in both hands with her little fists filled with smarties! Too funny!
By the way, I don't know what is up with these older teenagers trick or treating. They don't even dress up! A little tacky if you ask me.


Nathan painted her face. We weren't exactly sure what a ladybug face looks like, so it does look a little like a cat, but still cute either way.


Oh and I have to tell what Kaleigh did today. I was in the study trying to blog and she was pestering me a little bit so I locked her out while finishing up. She was not in the least bit happy about that. Anyway, when I went to find her, I had a feeling she would be doing something rotten and sure enough... She was in the living room sitting in her little white rocking chair with pull-up and jeans around her knees. She looked at me and said "Hey mommy, I went peepee." And yes, she was sitting in a puddle and her jeans were soaked. Needless to say, mommy was not happy but i guess she was thinking something along the lines of "that'll teach you to lock me out".

Parties, Princesses & Pox...

As you can tell from the title of this post, this has been an interesting week. We had our SS slumber party Friday night and it was a lot of fun. We mostly just talked which is the one thing we never seem to have enough time for.









Then Sunday was Maddie's birthday party. She was a very pretty princess. Her mom made her costume and it was much prettier than anything you can buy at the store. Kaleigh just loves Maddie and she did not want to leave the party. It was outside and the weather was perfect.












Monday I started really noticing some suspicious spots on Kaleigh & took her to the Doctor on Tuesday to confirm that she does have chicken pox. She is really fine though.

I know it's kinda gross, but I couldn't find any pictures on the internet of what chicken pox looked like, so here is one of Kaleigh's "patches". Maybe someone else will find it helpful if you are trying to figure out if your child has them. She only has 8-10 spots in all.