I LOVE MY DADDY

As I previously stated around May of last year, Kailyn hit the “daddy” phase. Things no longer were “I just want mommy”, but “where is my daddy”… “I need my daddy!” Kailyn is still like that. She knows Tony has to work and still asks for him every morning, rejoices on the mornings he gets to stay home and is anxiously awaiting his return when he does have to work. Lately, Kailyn has become especially attached to Tony. I don’t know if it was because she was able to spend so much time over Christmas break with him or because he is just the best dad ever! The other night we were getting Kailyn ready for bed and she insisted that Tony do everything. Then when it was time for goodnight kisses, she calmly told me, “Mommy, you don’t kiss daddy…he is my daddy.” I was a little taken aback and wanted to say, “I can kiss him whenever I want…he’s my husband!” However, I then remembered this was our four year old daughter I was talking to. Instead I simply said I would give daddy a kiss later. Then a few days after, Kailyn came to me with this light up necklace and told me, “Mom, I am going to wear this for my wedding.” I chuckled softly and said I thought that would be a great idea, I would definitely save it for her. That night, she told Tony the same thing. Tony’s response was a little different. “Wedding, your never getting married…right!” She only responded with, “Yes I am daddy. I am going to marry you.” Tony and I looked at each other not sure what to say. Then we told her that I was married to daddy and she insisted that both she and I could be married to him. Obviously she doesn’t have the same idea of marriage that most people have. I do believe to her it is the idea of loving someone and just spending time together. When I think of it, it is rather beautiful to see how much Kailyn loves and looks up to her daddy. As I stated before, she not only thinks Tony hung the moon, but the stars as well!

Another new year

I can’t believe that it is 2009 already! My how time flies! This New Year, we decided to spend with my family celebrating Christmas because we were gone for most of the Christmas break. It would be fun night with a big dinner, presents to open, games to play and fireworks to watch! Now since we were gone so much, we had decided to save most of Kailyn’s gifts for when we got home. We wanted to have a Christmas at our house with our gifts to her, stockings and all our usual Christmas traditions. So New Year’s Eve wasn’t just going to be a fun night, but a fun day too! Kailyn woke up that morning not really knowing what to expect and was totally blown away! There were presents under the tree, stockings stuffed with goodies, homemade cookies to eat for breakfast (my favorite part), and a new swing set waiting outside for her! She was so happy…and so were we. We spent the rest of the morning and afternoon playing with all our new “toys” and enjoying yet another Christmas. Now if I were Kailyn, I would think, “Man what a great day,” but there was more! Around lunchtime we reminded her about the party that night at my sister’s house and it goes without saying that she was rather excited! Since we had been out of town for about two weeks, she hadn’t seen her cousins at all…she was dying to see them! Not only did she want to see them, but almost as soon as we walked in the door she wanted them to open her presents that we had gotten them. It was so cute to see her handing each of them their gifts and saying, “I got that for you” and then excitedly wait while they opened it. After eating and opening the many gifts, we decided it was firework time! Sparklers twinkled in the darkness as the “pyrotechnic crew”…my dad and brothers set up the big fireworks! Now for the past few years we have had mediocre fireworks…nothing much but still good. This year my brother in law went to South Carolina to get us some good one (they are illegal in GA). We actually had to stop doing them because they were so big and so loud! One in particular was gigantic…and beautiful! It literally made us all jump it was so loud! After that one, in fear of the police we headed inside for the quieter part of the evening. We played games and watched football until midnight. Then we toasted in the New Year with champagne and sparking grape juice for the little ones. It was a long and wonderful day that finally ended around 3am. What a great way to bring in the New Year!

Our traveling Christmas

What a wonderful Christmas!! This year, we decided to do something a bit different for Christmas…visit three states in two weeks. Sure it doesn’t sound too hard…unless the states are Texas, Oklahoma and Kentucky…and oh yeah, you are driving! Despite having to be on the road a fair bit, we had a simply beautiful Christmas.

Our first stop was Texas to stay with Tony’s Uncle Kevin and Aunt Jeannie. Also, we met up with his mom and brother Scott here, too. It was a bittersweet visit. Tony’s Uncle Kevin is battling Cancer and despite his struggle it was amazing to see him. He is a man Tony and I both look up to with the utmost respect and love…a man we are very lucky and proud to call our Uncle. Being able to visit and just be with him was a true blessing. We had a wonderful time talking and just enjoying each others company. Kailyn made a new friend in Topanga and had a blast spending time with her beloved Gemaw. Now this whole trip wouldn’t have been possible without you, so thank you Charlene…for everything and all you did. We stayed in Texas for a few days and were sad to have to say our goodbyes to all the family there.

Now it was off to our next stop, Oklahoma to visit Baba, Grandma, Jaq, and Jasmine! We arrived the day before Christmas Eve and were so happy to be there! We had such a nice Christmas filled with yummy food, great family and of course Guitar Hero! I will have to say one of Kailyn and my favorite things was the duck pond. On Christmas we brought a loaf of bread to the duck pond and had the best time feeding the ducks and running around acting crazy! It reminded me how much I love being a kid! Of course we were completely spoiled and loved every minute of it…especially Kailyn! Again, it was sad to leave family we love so much and made us realize we do really need to visit more often!

So, next we headed to Kentucky to visit Tony’s grandparents and aunt. As with each place we were welcomed with immense love. We spent the next day relaxing and just enjoying being with Tony’s grandparents. It was a wonderful end to our marathon of visiting.

As we were heading home, we realized again, just how very blessed we are to have such a wonderful family to love and be loved by. Each of you is such an important part of our lives and even though we don’t see you as much as we would like…know you are always in our prayers and we love you dearly. Thank you for a wonderful traveling Christmas!

Our shining star

Each year at Kailyn’s pre-school, they have a Christmas pageant, and each year the “graduating” class of that year gets to have all the lead roles. Since Kailyn fell into that category, she was chosen to be the head Angel and the star of Bethlehem. Now, as with most things, Kailyn took this responsibility very seriously. She practiced her lines intently and even asked the teacher if she could have more lines to recite! In no time at all, she had her lines memorized. Her teacher even asked if I wouldn’t mind reading the story this year…I felt honored and a little nervous at the same time…I don’t like getting up in front of crowds…not matter how small! So, the day came for the dress rehearsal and like the previous year, it went really well. The difference between last year and this year was that the day of the pageant, it went better than rehearsed! The children did great and Kailyn was perfect! She felt so very important standing up there saying her lines and hold her star! She was without a doubt our little shining star!

I don't want to grow big!

Lately, Kailyn has been rather upset at the fact that she is growing bigger everyday. She’s not too happy when we say how much she is growing or how big she is getting. I started to get a little worried when she started not wanting to eat her food. At first I thought maybe she just wasn’t hungry and so I didn’t bother, but then after a few meals of her not really eating that much I thought there has got to be more to this. I decided we would make a batch of one of her favorite treats and talk it over. As we began to gather the ingredients for our delicious rice crispy treats, I told how much of a helper she was and that she was getting so big. She looked at me and simply said, “Mom I don’t want to get big, I want to stay small forever!” I explained to her that would be silly and that someday she would grow big like me. She didn’t seem to like this very much, so I asked her what was wrong. She was quiet for a few minutes and then gave me a sweet hug, looked at me and said, “Mom, I don’t want to grow big. I want to be your daughter forever!” Immediately tears filled my eyes! I picked her up, gave her the biggest hug and kiss and replied. “Kailyn, no matter how big you get…you will ALWAYS be my daughter!” She seemed a bit surprised by this and only answered with, “Really?!?” I reassured her that no matter how big she got she would always be my daughter…no matter how big or how old she got! It was amazing to see the relief in her eyes…she seemed so happy now. Needless to say she is eating just as good as ever and quiet often will remind me, “ Mom, no matter how big I get I will always be your daughter…right?”

Fall parties

This fall, Kailyn’s school had a fall costume party (they don’t celebrate Halloween). Kailyn was so very excited about the party, as she is every year. Her new found love for Narnia and of course the name Lucy inspired her to be none other than Lucy herself from Narnia. She had a wonderful time, playing games and eating loads of sweets!

Not only does Kailyn have her fall costume party, but also the All Saint’s Party we attend every year. At this party all the children and some adults dress up as christian men and women. This year in line with the whole Narnia obbesssion, she convinced her cousins to go as Peter and Edmund and her friend Carrie as Susan. Even little Gidieon was involved…he was the great and majestic Aslan! For days leading up to it, this is all they talked about.

This year, Tony and I were in charge of setting up the party. We had a wonderful team help us and despite a few set backs proceeded to get it up and running on time! When the party finally came the kids had a blast! When they first arrived, they announced who they were on a microphone and then proceeded to decorate their goody bags with tons of sticker, markers and crayons. They also each got a glow bracelet, which when dark looked really neat to see all the kids running around with them. After that , we headed to games and candy hunting! Amid all the fun, we still were able to jump on the moonwalk and eat plenty of the cotton candy and popcorn! Toward the end, we decided to jump on the hayride, cotton candy in hand. We ended up riding four times in a row! It was such a wonderful time! We asked Kailyn if she had fun at the party and her classic response was, “Of course! I got a lot of candy and stickers! Can we do it again?” Since then on numerous occasions, she will pull out some sticker a bag and set up her own party…games and all!

Pumpkin fun

A few years back, we visited a pumpkin patch with my sister and her family in Virginia. Last year we found a wonderful pumpkin patch about 40 minutes from where we live. Now, I know that seems a bit long to drive just to get some pumpkins and play some corny games, but it is really an amazing place. Last year is was just Tony, Kailyn and myself and we had a blast, as we do anytime we are together. Since my sister and her husband just moved home last summer, we invited them to come along. As usual Kailyn was ecstatic her cousins would be coming too! Needless to say we had a blast! We rode the infamous cow train numerous times and by I mean “we” I mean all the parents too! Yes, this ride intended for the younger ones was also braved by a few parents who squeezed and stuffed themselves inside. We all know now why it is a children’s ride. We also spent time on this enourmous pillow thing. At one point Caleb flew about four feet in the air…it was really awesome!!!! They also had this big field of flowers and an area with a tall slide, toys and a corn box. In between the crazy jumping, cow train riding, animal feeding, corn playing we managed to squeeze in a relaxing hayride and a not so relaxing race though the corn maze. Now, let me preface this by saying a few years back when we were first introduced to the idea of a pumpkin patch (by my sister and her family), we also raced through this massive corn maze. A race doesn’t sound too bad right? No, not if it’s all the adults and it’s fair! This race however wasn’t fair. It would be girls against boys…basically Mike and Tony vs Sarah and myself. If you haven’t figured out by now that we are all VERY competitive you must not really know us! So, the teams weren’t exactly fair because we ended up with the little ones and the boys eventually shot off into the corn alone and childless. So my sister and I were left carrying and literally dragging the little ones though something that was supposed to be fun but ended up stressful and hot! Long story short we lost. So, in light of our less than wonderful first corn maze, we decided this year we would go through together and maybe try and enjoy it. But alas, we all have very short attention spans and soon were chucking rotten corn throughout the maze at each other, hiding and scarying the mess out of one antother and running through to see who could finish first. I guess corn mazes just aren’t any fun unless you are running through them! We finally decided to get out pumpkins and head home…the kids were ready to leave! But no, we need to have a photo opt at the pumpkin patch! After tons of picture, tears and a few smiles we ended up calling it quits. Needless to say, we had a wonderful time and left with countless memories and pumpkins anxious to be carved!