Happy Easter!

And a great easter it was! Makayla doesn't understand the concept yet, but she had a great day. It sort of started at daycare last week. She had a ice cream party and a easter egghunt that Duncan and I both attended. He was able to come back for the weekend and it just so happened to be Easter weekend so that was great. Kayla was of course was loving it. She didn't want to give him any space and he didn't mind.
Here is our girl tearing up some ice cream. She just learned to use a spoon so she wanted to eat it out of the cone with a spoon. All of the other kids were going at it with out the spoon, but not my little girl.



Here she is showing off for her dad. She had these two eggs and was completly satisfied with that.

We tried so hard to get her to pick the eggs up and put them in the basket, but she wouldn't hear of it. All she needed was her 2 eggs.



Today we lounged around the house all day. We planned on going to church, but that didn't work out. We did the whole egg coloring thing and gave her a basket. Her basket had books, DVDs, elmo toys, and ducks in it. Of course she reached in and grabbed one duck and that was all she wanted. This little girl is way to easy to please.
As we have all noticed, Duncan has a habit of buying Makayla the biggest stuffed animals he can find. This is the duck that made the cut for this easter. He was to big to fit in the basket, so he hung out on my swing until she found him.
Here she is pulling that purple duck out of the basket. She makes us laugh. We run around the store finding all this stuff that she would love and spend all this money on all if it, then she pulls out the cheapest thing we put in there and is completly happy with that.
And of course she loves her purple duck. Here she is making out with it!
I'm not really sure why she looks scared in this picture. It must be something about that bush. I know why I don't like the bush. I have to keep it neatly trimmed or I get "nasty-grams" in my mail box about it!

The weather out here has been crazy. We have thunder storms in the mornings, then hot sun in the afternoons. We finally had to break down and pull tags off of our shorts and pull out the sun screen and sun glasses.

Hope you all had a great Easter! There are more pictures on the flickr site.

Morning at the parks

The weather finally got nice enough to go to the park today. I put her in her wagon and we went to 2 parks. Doesn't she look excited about being out of the house? The weather has been so cold around here lately we can't do much except go walk around Walmart, or the mall.

One of the parks we can see if we look out our back window, and the other is down the street. It is actually the playground for the elementary school I know Jill knows where I am talking about. For those of you that don't know Jacob and his family were here at Fort Knox when Jacob was around 7 years old. They actually lived in a house right down the street from where we live now. He tells me some of the most interesting stories about when they were there. Most of the stories make me so happy I have a girl. LOL
Here is Kayla when she first got out of her wagon. She seemed really nervous about walking in the grass. I think its because it was so uneven.

She stayed in one spot and pointed at everything she saw. The funny part was when she started walking and fell. (Sounds mean huh?) This little girl would NOT let her hands touch the ground. She even broke one falls with her forehead because she was trying to keep her hands off the ground. It reminded me of Diyosa talking about how her daughter never wants to get her shoes dirty. LOL When Kayla would fall she would try to stand up using her arms, without putting her hands on the ground. I couldn't stop laughing. Unfortunately I couldn't get a picture of it. When I went to take a picture of that my camera said that my memory card was full. :-( Sorry... maybe next time.

Once she got walking there was no stopping her. We walked over to this gate and visited with the dog. She really enjoyed him. I did too until he threw that big stick at my baby! Of course he only wanted to play, but if I didn't grab her when I did it would have smacked her on the head. When this dog stands on his hind legs his head and shoulders are over the fence. He could jump out of he really wanted to.

Yesterday we went to Value City to look at some lawn furniture that I am going to get. Of course she read most of the way. I turned the music off so she could read to me. It lasted about 10 mins. It was really sweet.

And in case any of you are wondering... this is the new way to wear necklaces. Makayla is setting a new trend! LOL
I love this girl!

Makayla hads her 1st "Incendent Report" written up on her on friday. I know the words "incedent report" sounds so bad. Try hearing this over your voice mail "Hello Melani this is Mrs. Graves from Kaylas class room. Can you call me back when you get a second. Makayla is fine, but she had an incedent this morning that I would like to tell you about." My heart jumped out of my chest! I just pictures some kid biting her, or her biting some kid, or her falling and bumping her head. A million things ran through my head. I called back and she told me that when they were serving breakfast one of the ladies put grits into a bowl and Makayla reached in to grab them, but they were still really hot. Of course Kayla screamed. The lady got the grits off of her hand as quick as she could and put a cold towel on her hand. There was no blistering or anything like that. I was so relieved to hear that. It might sound weird but I was thinking "thank God she only burned her hand." A lot worst could have happened.
I gotta run. I just laid Kayla down for a nap. Now I have the rest of our day to plan out. Hope you all have a great week.

I almost forgot

I have yet ANOTHER site for everyone to check on. This time it is a VIDEO site!!! I know... how exciting! There are only a select few that I will let have this site. I haven't password protected it yet, and there are some videos on there that I don't want any wierdos to look at so e-mail me, or leave a comment, to get the site. There are some really cute videos on there. Some of her dancing, walking, playing with her new hippo toy, laughing, taking a bath, and the very first time she ever reached out and grabbed for some toys in front of her. The bath ones are the reason I'm not putting the site on here. I have no way of knowing who looks at this site. It is really sad that I have to be like that, but this world isn't the safest place. Hope yall don't feel like im over-exagerating, i'm just an over protective momma! :-)
Here are some pictures from the last trip we took to the zoo before Duncan had to leave. The first three are some of my favorites. She couldn't get enough of him this day. I really think she knew he was going to be leaving.

Here she is seeing ducks for the first time. She must have said "du" a million times that day after seeing them. There was no animal in the zoo that she didn't call "du!"

This is another shot that I love.


A picture of me! WOW... that's rare.

I love cats, so here we are checking one out. Of course Kayla re-named him "du!"

Look at the curiousity in that face. This girl really amazes me. I can't remember what I did before she came along.

It's Official...

I am now the mother of a toddler! Makayla started walking for good on the 6th of this month. Before then she would take a few steps here and there, but nothing constant. On the night of the sixth I guess she figured "they know I am walking... so I might as well give in." She got up and circled the house probably a dozen times like she had been walking all along. We were SO excited! Now all she wants to do is walk, and believe me, I don't mind. This girl is heavy!
I think a lot of her walking has to do with the fact that she has moved into the next age bracket daycare room. Up until she was 13 months she was in the "infant room". Anyone who knows Kayla knows that she was bored out of her mind in that room. They had a small "boxed-in" play area that had very immature toys. She could entertain herself but we all know that Kayla is extremely observant and it is hard to be observant of children that are doing less that you. Now she has moved up the the 13 months to 3 year old room and she is doing great! I LOVE this room. It is the best thing for her. They have an art room where the kids get to paint and draw and stuff like that. They have a gross motor room where they get to climb. They have a wonderful outdoor play ground which has a garden in one corner of it. The kids grow fruits every year in their garden and get to pick the fruit when it is ripe and make a fruit salad. They also teach them to self serve their food when it is time to eat. They have designated nap areas, and story time. I could go on and on about how wonderful this room is, but I think what I like the most is the communication between me and the daycare providers. The other room never really updated me on how she was doing and I HATED that. The "lead" in this new room tells me everything Kayla does from the dozen times a day she wants to wash her hands to the pulling of hair on a little boy who wanted to sit in the seat she was sitting in for lunch. (Yea... she thinks shes a bully, or maybe he thought he could pick on the new girl! LOL) The providers all seemed as excited as I was about her walking. I just love this new room. I can't say that enough.
A lot has changed here in good ole' KY. Duncan is officially out of the army and loving that. He unfortunatley took a job with his dad who works for th military, but is currently in Georgia. Duncan HATES being away from Makayla, but makes more than enough money to support his family. I am so happy that is able to look at the big picture of things like this. We both know that finacially this is what is best. We all know i'm broke... i'm in the military! LOL J/K... well, not really!
Another new thing around here is the constant use of the "R" word. That's right. I am in my window to reenlist and they are doing EVERYTHING possible to get me to do it. They sure are making it sound tempting, but I would have to end up in Cali to actually consider it. They are trying to get me within 2 hours of Napa with a huge bonus, so we shall see.
Now for the good stuff. PICTURES!!!
Our princess is still a book worm, and I completely encourage that. Here she is in the middle of her bedroom floor looking at some books. Notice how she has to pull ALL the book off the shelves so she can look at one of them for 20 mins.

Another reading session. I put her in our reading chair and told her "read this while mommy cleans up the mess." Sure enough she opened it up and started pointing at the pictures and "reading." She is too much.

This was one of the rainy days that we had last weekend. We spent a lot of time in the house so we had to switch between the living room with the toys and Noggin channel and her bedroom with the toys and her childrens music CD's.

Another thing her new daycare room is teaching is writting and coloring. I was so surprised that she knew what to do when I handed her a pen for the first time. I went and got this magnadoodle because it isn't so messy.

Here is the toddler walking around "the island" at 0600am waiting for me to get ready to take her to daycare. That little squooshy face she is making is because she was trying to run. She gets really stiff and tries so hard to run, but really never picks up the pace and ends up throwing her balance all off. It is the funniest thing to watch.

This was another 0600am picture. Every time I see this pictures I can't help but laugh. We were sitting at the table waiting to leave for daycare. We were having our usual morning conversation and I was so tired I kept yawning. Every time I would yawn she would mock me. I could not stop laughing. I don't think I ever got a "good yawn" in that morning.

My little helper, still loves the dryer! Now I can get her to throw laundry into the washer and pull things out of the dryer. By the time she is 2 I might be able to take that off the list of things I have to do every weekend and add it to hers. LOL J/K
This is one of her new toys that she got some time in the last couple of weeks. It is an inflatable hippo. She can crawl through the mouth and the back is full of "chucky cheese" balls that she can jump around and play in. She loves this thing.





That's it for the pictures for now. I don't know how many of you check the flickr page that I have set up, but there are a few other new pictures on there. It is so easy to add pictures to that page. I can upload them right from my camera! I really love that page. I can update it quicker and easier than this page, so check it often!

A few changes

As you can all see I have made a few changes to the page. The pink was really starting to drive me crazy, and I have always loved blue. I also added a link on the right side to the Flickr account that I have created. A lot of the pictures that are on there are going to be duplicates to what I already have on this page, but flickr is extremly easy to use. On those days that I don't want to type a bunch I can post a few pictures on there and leave short captions. The only thing about Flickr is there is a limit to how much I can upload each month... and I have already reached that limit. It's ok though. I will pace myself better next time. Hope you all like the changes!

Snow... snow... go away...

It snowed here in KY the other day, and the snow still has not melted. Me and Makayla had a chance to go outside and play in it. She didn't really "play" but it was fun. I don't think she was as thrilled about the snow as I was. I was excited for a while, then we had to do some running around. That is when I was ready for this suff to melt. I hate driving around in the snow. My Mazda seems so light when the roads are icy.

Here is my little Knox house... all covered in snow. One thing I love about when it snows is how beautiful the trees look when the snow is covering them.

As you can see from the pictures... I could not get her to smile to save my life. She wanted nothing to do with the cold. I think she was uncomfortable in all the clothes.

She has this thing right now about standing on cement. For some reason she won't sit down if you place her on cement. She will stand there until you pick her back up. In this picture she didn't want to let go of my finger.

Once I slipped my finger out of the tight little grip she stood there for a few moments while I snapped a shot or two and waited patiently for me to pick her back up. Not once while we were out there did she crack a smile. Not even a grin!

Now... there is a sunny day we went over to the park to swing. I think I already posted a picture from this day on a previous post, but I really love her look on this picture. It is so sweet and innocent.

This picture isn't so sweet, but it was the only way I could get a shot of her teeth. I had to make her mad so she would yell at me, then I took the shot and gave her lots of hugs and kisses to make up for it! She has all 8 of her front teeth finally and actually has 1 moller all the way in and another on the way. I don't know if you can see the two front top teeth, but my daughter has a GAP!!! I really hope that fixes it self!

Here she is a few moments before I decided I had to have a picture of the teeth. This was Valentines day and she is with the elephant her daddy got her. This is the second valentines day she had a stuffed animal that was bigger than she was.

I'm sure we all remember this picture! Look how tiny my baby was. It is really crazy how time flies. (Sorry it's so small. Last time I put this on the site I resized it down to this size and it won't let me go back to the regualr size without destorting the picture.)

Here is the big girl we are used to seeing! She was showing me her block that came with one of the toys Sally sent her for Christmas. This is her way to say "Thank you Sally. We love you!"

Here she is all bundeled up and ready for daycare. It gets really cold around her at 0530 (5:30am for you civilians).

This was another cold day. Are you seeing the pattern here? At least soon winter will be over. Then you all will see the cute spring/summer clothes she has already. She is in 24 months already... can you believe that?

Another sweet face for me.

Makayla is starting pick up on everything I show her. If you look at the toy in her right hand it is a blue cirlce. Well... in her left hand she is turning the container to find the right spot that it goes in. So far she has learned the red square and the blue circle. This little girl is so smart. It amazed me how much she picks up.

Here she has found the blue circle and is putting her toy in the slot! And incase you are wondering... yes that is a watch on her wrist. It didn't last to long, but is was really cute.

This girl loves hanging out with her dad. Especially when she lets her play with his phone. I don't let her play with mine so she loves this!

Makayla is still being stubborn and refusing to walk. She takes a few steps here and there, but once she realizes what she is doing she flops down to the ground. I don't know what else I can do to make her walk. I will just have to wait until she gets confident in herself.

Happy Bithday to us!

Makayla is officially 1 years old... and I am officially old! We had a party here at my house for Makayla. It was really fun. I think she was really happy to have other kids around the house. Here are a few pictures of her special day. Here she is with her hat and balloons. She LOVED those balloons.

She was concentrating really hard on what was going on here. She has become such a nosey little somebody.

These are two of her new toys that she is "sharing" with one of her buddies. No matter which one I gave her, she was more worried about the other. (Can you see all the curls in her hair. It used to be so straight!)

Here is her new wagon. She studied the box for a while after the paper was torn off of it. Of course the tearing of the paper had to be done by me or her dad. She still wants nothing to do with unwrapping.

Here she is watching her dad put this thing together. I think she wanted to make sure it got done right.

After it was finally done she got to go for a short ride. Looking at the weather you would never believe it was January in Kentucky. It is usally freezing and snow covered this time of year.

For some reason dad wanted to do a lot of "off roading." Surprisingly this thing never tipped over.

Makayla had a blast with her cake. We got her a regular cake that she shared with everyone, then we got her a cake that was just for her. She tasted a little bit of the frosting and then went crazy!!! She had both fists in the cake and was stuffing it in her mouth like she had never eaten before.

She really could not get enough of it. At one point she picked up the whole thing, including the cardboard it was sitting on and was trying to put it all in her mouth. Needless to say, after that she had to get a quick bath and a new outfit, but it was all worth it. That was her with her first experience with sweets, and im sure it wont be the last.

The rest are not from her birthday. Here she is reading. It is so funny to watch her read. She will grab a book and sit down with it on her lap. (Like her lap is big enough to hold anything) Then she will open the book and start "reading." She will even point at certain things on the pages as she "reads." Every night when I read stories to her before she goes to bed I point out things that are talked anout on that page. Im sure thats where she gets that from.

Here is some more reading... even though the book is up-side-down.

Here she is hanging out with dad.

And another trip to the swings. She really enjoys the swings.

OK... now this is where you see how weird my daughter has become. Here she is "making out" with the dryer. Her first love. LOL

But I think this is why she is in love with the dryer. Its her a place where only she can fit. I put her in her and she loved it for some reason.

She looked around for a while then made her self at home.

She just looks way to comfortable in there.

I think I mentioned before about how horrible her first bath was. All the screaming and trying to crawl out. Well... that has changed. She enjoys her baths now. I showed her how to splash with her hands, and she figured out how to spash with her feet, so now she has a blast. She still hates to have her hair washed though.

Thats it for the pictures for now. I hope you all enjoyed them. Kayla is in Virginia right now with her dad, so I have time to get some scrapbooking done. The only thing I have done so far is try to catch up on some sleep. I miss my girl already though. I can't wait for her to get home. She is going to get her first hair cut while she is there. She is going to get her first hair cut from the same person her dad got his first hair cur from.