Kaley's first week of "school"!

Kaley went to daycare for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I always knew that the daycare at our church was great, but I didn't realize how great it was until our own daughter was a part of it. Her teachers are Miss Claudette and Miss Julia. They were so caring, compassionate and encouraging as Kaley (and mommy) got adjusted to our new normal. Kaley had many firsts these past two weeks and has done amazingly well. Mark and I count it as a huge success in our parenting skills that while she missed us, she quickly became accustomed to her new surroundings and made connections to her teachers and to the other kids. She has made a little "friend" which is so cute to see!

Her first week she marble painted a leaf, pushed her stuffed dog in the stroller, played with playdough, rice, water and leaves in sensory play, and made some cute art projects. Kaley also learned this really cute chicken/stomping/sumo dance routine. I have yet to catch it on camera, but it is adorable. She has always loved dancing around to music that she hears, she just now has some choreography to go with it!

The daycare is such a great place. Her teachers absolutely love her. She always gets quite the welcome when she comes in the morning and even her classmates get a smile on their face when she walks in. There is a ton of teaching and learning that goes on and her day is filled with a lot of fun and interesting activities. As far as the next best place for Kaley to be, I am thrilled with the choice we have made. We couldn't have asked for anything better! I'll blog about my journey through this a little while later, but for now, here are a few pictures to enjoy!

Having fun with getting her picture taken:)

Kaley's many masterpieces!

All is well again!

All is well again!




All is well again!

This past month has been a little crazy. Shortly after getting back from Alaska, Kaley and I headed down to Minnesota/Missouri for two weeks. While I was down there on the second to the last day, I had my computer lying on its side and Kaley came into the room with a water bottle. She went over to where the computer was, opened up the bottle and attempted to take a drink. As luck would have it (or my stupidity) the water spilled down onto the computer. It wasn't a whole lot of water, but some did get on the computer. I quickly picked it up, turned it over and tried to dry it off as best as I could. When I went to turn it on, nothing happened!
When I got home, I took it to a computer guy who took it all apart and tested the various areas and came to the conclusion that the mother board wasn't getting any power. He said that he didn't see any signs of water damage, but either way, the computer was toast! So, then I had to wait a couple more days for them to get a new computer in and transfer everything over.
While I was waiting for all of this to happen (which ended up being close to two weeks) I was using a backup computer, which decided that it didn't like the blogspot page, so I couldn't sign in and thus couldn't write any new posts. Here I had all these things i wanted to write about, birthdays to catch up on and vacations to talk about, and I couldn't do any of it.
So, long story short, I now have a computer which is working and I didn't lose anything from my old computer. Now I get to play catch up!

In limbo for awhile...

I know that I haven't written on here for almost a month!:( It's not that there hasn't been anything going on in our lives, quite the opposite. Kaley and I have been on vacation for two weeks and then my laptop stopped working so it has been in the shop for the last couple of days! So, as soon as I get that back, I will update the blog about our travels and our family's adventures over the past few weeks. Be back soon hopefully:)

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday. I have always admired and looked up to my mom, but never more since becoming a mother myself. One of the greatest gifts that my mom gave to Jason and me is being at home with us while growing up. I remember mom having us help planting the garden, taking us to the library, baking cookies with us, going swimming at Cherokee pool, and letting us play hours and hours of make believe using pots, pans, chairs and whatever else we could find. Mom always made a great breakfast to start our day and made sure to have nutritious meals for us to eat.
Mom showed us above everything else the value of family, the importance of demonstrating care to others and most of all the importance of prayer in our daily lives. I have never met anyone that is more of a prayer warrior than my mom. She has a lot of life wisdom that comes in handy quite often. She is an amazing grandma to Kaley, Olivia and now little Easton. She always comes bearing gifts and trinkets chosen especially for Kaley and always has some cute little outfits for her to wear. She has a lot of love to share and I appreciate and love her very much.
You are an amazing woman and we thank you for all that you are to our family and for the time that you give to your family. We love you very much mom and wish you a very happy birthday.

Mom holding her second granddaughter Kaley

Grandma doing what Grandma's do best!

Grandma with her two little girls.

Grandma getting her hair done by Olivia.

Our Little Baseball Commentator

Tonight just before Kaley was getting ready to head to bed, she was sitting in the living room with Mark and he called me in to see what she was doing. Mark had the baseball game on and all I heard was "ooo...ooo.ooo." She just kept doing it whenever something would happen on the t.v. She has never watched the t.v. for more than half a minute, but tonight the baseball game must have caught her attention (to the utter delight of her daddy.) I love it how she gets shy when she realizes that someone is watching her. It was very cute!