Just a Tad Behind!

Well, needless to say I have gotten a little behind on my blog. As I sit here watching Kaylee sleep in our bed, I was thinking - what can I do? And wholah - here I am. Her tummy is hurting her tonight so I am cuddling with her when she wakes up and lulling her back to sleep so we can hopefully beat this tummy ache! We have been pretty busy but having lots of fun! Here are a few highlights of our summer fun...

Kaylee's Great Aunt Carol made this dress and Kaylee was loving modeling it! The blue really brings out her eyes (I think!). thanks Carol for thinking of Kaylee and sending this dress to us!

She is definitely Daddy's little helper outside. She loves to ride with him on the mower and it's bonus if Daddy pulls out the trailer! She is such a great helper to me as well - we got very lucky!

Granny came to visit over the fourth of July and we took Kaylee to her first fireworks show! She was quiet through the whole show and we thought she had fallen asleep, but no - she was taking it all in! After the show, we would hear pop after pop in our neighborhood and she would get so excited to look for the fireworks in the sky. Her love of fireworks was created that night and we look forward to many more shows in the future...

We have also explored the wonderful world of animals. We went to Animal Paradise which is a drive through park where you can feed many different exotic animals such as emus, water buffalo, deer, camels and many other animals. She was a little scared at first, but warmed up to the idea of being able to throw food out the window! Her favorite of course was "reindeer" which is what she calls all deer!

A few weeks later, Chad and Kaylee found a turtle that was crossing the road and rescued him from danger. We were having a major heat wave that week and so they put him in Kaylee's pool to cool off and she named him "Tuck". She was so excited to show me her new friend when I got home and then we decided that we should let Tuck go free to get to the river. She waved goodbye and I never saw a turtle move so fast once he was set free!

We had our first getaway weekend at the Lake with the Beaver family and had a blast!! Kaylee got to hang with her best friends Emily and Cory and best of all swim to her hearts content! She loved the pool, but it took a little longer for her to enjoy the lake. When she first sat down, a boat went by and of course made waves - well one wave was just a little too big and that scared her...Once she got used to the waves and saw Emily and Cory having fun in the lake, she soon joined in!

Kaylee went to her first production on Sunday. The Backyardigans were in town so we surprised her and took her to go see them. When they first came out on stage, she got really quiet and Chad and I wondered if she was okay...she then really started getting into the show by yelling out answers to their questions and helping them save the big green egg! She was knighted by them and she has her shield to prove it! Whenever they would start the music, she was a dancing and singing machine -

To end this lovely blog, Kaylee wanted to end with a performance. This is a pen that plays a Hannah Montana song and she likes to use it as a microphone...a little diva on our hands - what do you expect coming from 2 dramatic parents?!?

Auntie DiDi's Wedding!

Boy did we have fun at Aunti DiDi and Uncle Mark's wedding! Kaylee was the flower girl but she was MOST excited to be able to play with her cousin Declan!! That is all she talked about during the drive down to Fort Worth and when she finally fell asleep Chad and I enjoyed the peace and quiet (for the short time) about not having to answer questions about Declan! She told us he was her favorite and rightly so after sharing her toys - that is LOVE!















She did her job as Flower Girl very well. The wedding day was busy and she did not miss a beat! Kaylee got to hang out with the girls and get her hair done for the first time. She sat on the chair very serious during this time without one squiggle or squirm - I had to double check on her a couple times because she was not talking at all and that is not normal. She was just taking in the moment and the end result was fabulous!! On her walk down the aisle, she was very determined to get each and every petal out of the basket and that she did.

But I think she made her mark on the dance floor the most. She started doing this dance (which was the boy's dance at her recital) when the music started playing. Kaylee had a great time dancing with her cousin Mia. Chad and I were amazed that she was able to remember this dance she saw at her recital - once again - she amazed us!! She danced the night away and would have kept on going had Mommy and Daddy not spoiled her night and made her go to bed! We did learn, however, that we will NEVER again let her miss her nap and let her stay up until 11 PM all in one day! She was SO tired that she couldn't sleep and that my friends was when Mommy and Daddy's nightmare started! Lesson learned! :-)

Since Kaylee has enjoyed dancing so much, we decided to try out a dance class. After our first class, we know that now is not the time! A 2 1/2 year old that only wants to dance to Hannah Montana does not have the patience to stretch for 15 minutes before ballet and she had more fun sliding around on the floor because it was so slick! I love this picture though because she picked out her case and was super excited for class - so maybe in about 6 months you will have more formal dance pictures to see!

Kaylee's Debut Performance

Well, it is official! Kaylee had her first school performance tonight and it was absolutely adorable. She made all of us so proud and had quite a fan club tonight cheering her on! YaYa, Papou, Meemaw, Poppy, Uncle Scot, Aunt Sandi, Cory and Emily accompanied us tonight for this event.



As she walked into the auditorium, she got so excited to see all of us sitting there, she screamed with delight! Her teacher had to remind her that she needed to be quiet but boy did we love to see that reaction. She made her way down to the stage like a pro and walked up with such confidence that blew Chad and myself away...






Her 2 year old class sang two songs and the last one was B-I-B-L-E (which is one of Kaylee's favorites and she really got into it! But at the same time she was very focused so it we never did get her attention. She would look all around the audience like she was looking for us and we would all wave crazily, yet she never saw us! As you can tell from the picture below - she knows to open her mouth when she sings - our future star...





Of course there always has to be one class clown and Kaylee was standing right next to him. He would jump around (and get in the way of our view) and it wasn't his energy that was the problem, we just wanted to make sure we could see Kaylee! It was funny because in between the two songs, she just gave him a look like "C'mon, quit jumping and behave!" That was a classic look and I am sure we will see many more to come! But here is a little tidbit of the BIBLE song for your enjoyment.










Kaylee also has been participating in dance class through school. Every Friday, an instructor has come for the last 12 weeks and provided dance classes for those that wanted to participate. They did learn how to shawsay (I am not sure if I spelled that right) and Kaylee was the last to go. They all got in a line and would shawsay across the stage. She patiently waited for her turn and when she went, she just looked straight out to the audience and was very focused! No smile, she was a girl who wanted to show you her shawsay...

Then they ran back to the other side of the stage and jumped over the "crocodile". For their last selection, they did a freeze dance. We were all quite impressed that Kaylee clapped right on the beat, but then when she was supposed to freeze, she just kept on clapping! Oh well - we can't have it all, right? All in all, it was SO enjoyable to see our Kayleebug be so independent and we kept on telling her how proud we were of her all night! She was treated with an ice cream cone afterwards and didn't even get into bed until close to 9:30! So I am sure tomorrow morning might be a little crazy but it was all worth it! Hope you enjoyed this recap as much as we enjoyed the evening...her excitement..."Mommy they clapped for me!"

Well, I am hoping to be as good as my sister Lora and start posting pictures of Kaylee. This eliminates any emailing of pictures (since I haven't in over a year and a half anyways!). So here is my new connection to keeping you up to date on Kaylee's World!! She has really grown up WAY too fast and keeps us on our toes - but we love every minute of it! I am not too sure about how to do all this so it will be a learning process so be patient, but most of all - ENJOY!!

Kaylee had her first dentist visit and LOVED it! She got to play with the water and suction tools and kept them in her hand when the dentist counted her teeth. She has 20 beautiful healthy teeth! YEAH!

We found this little vanity at a yard sale for $2 and she would not leave until we had it in our car! Since this purchase, Kaylee has discovered the art of lipstick! She loves putting on her makeup before she goes out on the town! It was a mess when she first started putting her lipstick on, but she has gotten a lot better with practice! We had to teach her that even though Mommy might put makeup on her eyes, she can only put it on her lips or cheeks. It has made for some interesting surprises for Mommy and Daddy!

We have a little chef on our hands - Kaylee LOVES to cook! I can't wait until she is old enough to cook for real as I will GLADLY give up the kitchen in our house!

Kaylee has become our little singer! She loves to sing any type of song and her favorites include BINGO, Summertime, and Stinky Diaper Song. Here you will see her sing If You're Happy and You Know It...she didn't want to let go of her cup so she improvised on her clapping.