Updates

I have been slow on blogging lately, so I am composing what we've been up to in one blog post...

We had a few friends over at our house two weekends ago. There was an abundance of yummy food: Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans, and Stuffing.Wish I had taken a picture of all the food before we devoured it! But here is the cake that K.R. made! It was super yummy and Pretty! Now if spring will hurry up so we can go to the strawberry farm!

Stuffed after dinner, Chels lays on the floor, to help with digestion???-who knows... but Kaile went and laid with her aunt!

A few performances with the air guitars...

At some point that night, Ariel was caught hanging from the glasses!

Last week, Bryan bought some more gravel for the driveway. Kaile thought the big mountain was great!

Dance again this past Friday. This is definitely getting a lot harder for Kaile to want to go! I guess she is getting burnt out on it. We will be taking a break after this semester is up. =( Makes me sad because I enjoyed watching her, but I know not to push, so I will go with whatever her interests are.

Big Cheese through the window

Toe Points... look, do you see... she is actually following directions! I have Proof!

Don't remember what they were supposed to be doing, but thought the picture was cool that I caught her in mid-air!

Jumping off the spring board

After class, we went and ate at Q-Shack. I smell that place EVERY week and couldn't help myself this time. I love the days when me and her have nothing to do so we can take as long as we want for things in the day. We sat here and ate at our own pace... not that of Bryan's where he scarfs his food down and gets fidgity waiting on us to finish! It was a warm day out, so we sat at the outdoor tables they had there.

Handmade Diapers

For Kaile??? NO... for her baby doll! I found this tutorial at 2 little hooligans and really wanted to make Kaile some. I have only made one so far, but have plans to make her a set of them and also for some of her bigger babies. But here is the first one...

I took the baby that Kaile wanted to use and cut out a template to fit the baby... this took several attempts! Then the rest of it, I did according to the tutorial. I did add a flower to the front where the tutorial had a heart on the back.

Kaile LOVES it!!!

Our Family Study

We have been learning about Noah, the arc, the flood, and the rainbow during our family studies. Kaile still has a very short attention span so we broke this subject up into 5 weeks. With this long length of time, Kaile has been able to understand the story and can now retell it.

Each week we read the section of the story, that we would be discussing that night, out of the 'My Book of Bible Stories'. We started off talking about why Noah was asked to build the arc and how he filled it with the animals. So I printed off a few animals, doubled, and we glued them to Popsicle sticks. Then Kaile colored a picture of an arc I had also printed off. I added a flap of paper to the back of the arc so the popsicles could sit in and show the animals 'inside'.

Next we learned about the Raven. This craft, I printed off the raven's parts, she colored them and we glued them to another piece of paper. The raven's wings are Kaile's hands.

Then we learned about the Dove. She did a dot to dot that was shaped as a dove. Also, I printed out a dove where she colored the pieces and we glued them to an empty toilet paper roll.

After the dove found an olive branch, we learned about the rainbow's promise. I let her color a print out of a rainbow in the correct color order. Then we used Melty Beads to make a '3D' rainbow that she could hold. And Yes, I know that some of the colors are missing from the rainbow- the kit didn't have yellow or purple.

Next week we will be watching the Noah DVD to complete our lesson.

Hmmmm... what to do next...???

Meaningless Mondays

Bowl of Cuteness

In a previous post I had an inquiry about this bowl in the background of a few picture... so here you go, a bigger picture of my bowl!

This bowl was a gift from GrandMIL. She thought it would go good in my orange kitchen... and it goes PERFECTLY!

4 years ago...

Wow, 4 years ago today I looked like THIS...

I know, I know... it looks like I am carrying triplets! But no, just extra fluid and an 8lb 4oz baby girl! So if anyone ever thinks they feel big during pregnancy, please refer back to this picture! haha.

I entered the hospital on a Monday night to be induced. Here is a picture to show just how BIG I looked in the hospital gown. And this is Chelsee beside me with her lighter and much longer hair!

After a quick labor, Kaile Faith Catlin came into the world! She was a quiet little thing - little did I know she would grow up to be a 'talker'!!!

She came out squishy and kinda gross looking, sorry I admit, fresh newborn babies are not the prettiest...

But the sweet newborn nurse gave Kaile her first bath and cleaned her right up!

After a few days, and many 'baby refusing to breath' scares... we were sent home. I entered the hospital on Monday and we left on Friday!!! Those 5 days were ALL of Bryan's vacation... so come three days later, I was ALL on my own!

Here she is at 1 year...

And at 2 years...

And at 3 years...

And here she is today at 4...

We are so glad we have her and she has brought so many good times to our lives! I have to say, 4 years old is my absolute FAVORITE age so far! She is very independent, knows what she wants, caring, lovable, and sweet little girl! I am glad I have made the decision to stay at home with her while I still have the time. In 18 months, she will be off to Kindergarten! I can't wait till the spring and summer months to come because I have lots of things in store for our 'Mommy and Kaile Time'! 

Day 4-6 of Vacation

Enjoying our mornings laying in bed watching cartoons before breakfast

Wednesday we went to storytime at the library in Hampstead...it was Horrible!!! We ended up walking out!

Then we went to Wilmington to shop. Kaile was helping me push the cart...

Kaile holding Paco. He is a mini chihuahua that weighs 3 lbs. 

Kaile decided that the fisherman statue in the living room was Brody, so she keeps talking to him and hugging him!!!

Thursday night, we visited the Kingdom Hall in Jacksonville. (Didn't get a picture of us before we went and Kaile was passed out asleep be the time we got home, so no picture). The congregation was Very small but their singing was strong! I got to answer twice - a perk to a small group.

Friday was the Tea Room. I though Kaile looked cute walking in the rain with her pink umbrella!...and pink dress, pink coat, and pink flower hair bow... can you tell what her favorite color is???!!!

A short cat nap on the way home. She is holding the flower that they gave her at the Tea Room right before we left. LOVED that place!

Bryan arrived Friday around 5pm. I think Kaile has had enough of me and has been hanging all over him this weekend! Today Bryan was napping and Kaile was watching TV with him. I went in to check on her and found her cuddled up with Bryan fast asleep! You can only see Bryan's arm and nose!

Tomorrow we go back home to reality! :-(

Our Tea 'Party'

One of the things I knew we were going to do, sick or not, was to visit the The Wilmington Tea Room. I have never been there before and have been wanting to try it out. I made sure to bring a cute dress for Kaile, so she could be dressed appropriate for her 'tea party', as she was calling it. It was a VERY raining day but we still made it out of the house. Kaile LOVED her tea party! She wasn't too sure about it at first, but she got the hang of everything and fell right into character! I am guessing she will be high maintenance when she gets older! :-)

Here was our rainy view looking outside of the Tea Room. The place is located right on the water front of downtown Wilmington, right across from Chandler's Wharf. 

Another view from our table... a set up of all the tea pots they had for sale. The whole set up was very pretty along with the their lavender walls and white ceiling tiles. If you look at the left side of the picture there is a coat rack full of dress-up hats (I will show you them later).

Kaile putting her napkin in her lap!

Here was my tea cup

I ordered their small pot of tea called 'On The Waterfront'. Their description of it: "This tea combines strong peppermint with light floral hues." Kaile got the tea called 'Tutti Frutti' - "For the young, or young at heart, this tea has a candy-like flavor.Caramel brings sweetness while berries provide depth and flavor." Both of these were great choices!

My pot on the left and Kaile's pot on the right.

They had a set of 3 hourglass timers on the table to time how long your tea should steep. They pre-made Kaile's and added ice cubes to cool it down, but mine came out and I had to use the black sand timer (5 minutes) for my tea. Of course there was a little cup full of sugar cubes - and this Kaile Loved! She was eating them straight.

Kaile smelling her tea

Sipping the tea

Her adding/eating sugar cubes, stirring, and drinking the tea

Kaile ordered the 'Wee Tea' which consisted of - PB&J finger sandwiches, cheese finger sandwich, two sweets, and fruit which was grapes.

Mom and I ordered the 'Full Tea' which consisted of - Choice of soup or salad, we chose the Asian Salad- Very yummy!... assorted tea sandwiches, there were two: ham salad sandwich and chicken salad sandwich- and the bread it was on was Awesome!!... assorted pastries and sweets... plain and fruit scone with Devonshire cream and fruit preserves... and grapes & chocolate covered strawberries. Mmmmmmm! :-)

My salad

Our tiers of yummy food

After Kaile was done eating, she decided to start twirling to the music

And here is where the hats come in... We decided to play dress up with Kaile with all the hats! So Cute!

Kaile and I