Better late than never...

Kaitlin stays with her Gramby (my mom) three days a week. They took tons of pictures one fall afternoon while Kaitlin was playing outside. A few of these were so cute that I wanted to share them.

Another Elf Yourself Video!

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Elf Yourself--too cool!

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Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

I cannot believe it is already December 1st! The month of November just always seems to fly by. I love this time of year, but I wish time would slow down just a little so we can savor it just a little longer. Know what I mean?
You can see from my title that I'm hoping for snow today. I have no clue if we'll have school or not, but a teacher can dream, can't she? I am up WAY past my bedtime, so I could really use a day off tomorrow to catch up on some much needed rest.
The week of Thanksgiving was awesome. I was able to celebrate with lots of friends and family this year. I love getting together with the folks in my life that I love so much, but don't get to see real often. The food is always pretty great too!
I took on the role of being a shop-a-holic this past week and am glad to say that I have finished all of my Christmas shopping! I started on Wednesday by venturing out with Kaitlin, my Mom, and sweet Aunt Polly. I got a few things for Kaitlin at Target (she was easily distracted with the help of the elves that accompanied me). We then headed over to Cheddar's for lunch where we met my cousin, Amanda. I've not seen a lot out of Amanda lately, so it was great to catch up with her. After this, we made a stop at the mall where I placed a few items on hold at my favorite store, Gymboree. Kaitlin loves riding the train at the mall, and I love that for a small train ride fee of $2.00, my child will behave just so she can ride :)
Thanksgiving night, I met up with a couple of girlfriends and we went to Opry Mills for their midnight shopping event. I am proud to say that I walked out of that mall with three huge bags full of gifts, and only spent around $90 there.
After a night at the Mills, we arrived at JCPenney around 4 am, just after they opened. I picked up a couple of more gifts there before we joined the very long line outside of ToysRUs just before 5 am. That place was crazy---But, it was totally worth it. I loaded up on a few more toys for Kaitlin and other kids for Christmas as well as some birthday presents for some upcoming parties we will be attending. The prices were great!
We left ToysRUs in time to stand in the equally long, probably longer, Target line. They opened at 6am. I picked up several items there before heading to the mall a little after 7 am. I bought one last gift there and picked up my hold items at Gymboree (30% off entire store, plus 20% off coupon, plus Gym-Buck earning time--yippee!!). By midmorning, two of the girls headed home for some sleep. Becky Davis and I met my Mom and headed towards Kohl's. Although I was done with my shopping, I was in this adventure for the long haul--and Mom had not gotten to Rivergate until almost 6 am and I really wanted her to shop with someone rather than by herself. Kohl's had the longest lines of anywhere we went during the whole shopping trip, but Becky was able to find some great deals there, so it was worth waiting for over an hour.
I got home around noon on Friday and immediately went to bed. I was totally zapped. The rest of the weekend was pretty busy too (Sesame Street Live--another post, family visitors from out of town, church, schoolwork, etc.). I need a day to recover and put my Christmas tree up. Which brings me back to my title for this post--Let It Snow! I need a day off.

Pumpkin Patch

Yes, I do realize that we are nearing Thanksgiving and I am just now posting pumpkin patch pictures. I really wanted to get these on here a few weeks ago, but .... well you know that life is busy for everyone right now.

We waited until the weekend before Halloween to take Kaitlin to the pumpkin patch. Scott was gone to a ball game with some friends so Gramby, Granny, and Ella Kate went along with us. Now Ella had already been a week or so before with her Mommy, Maw-Maw, and her cousin, Tay-Tay, but she was eager to go back with "Kait".

Here's a tip to remember for next year. We arrived about 30-45 minutes before they closed down the pumpkin patch part (Haunted Woods would still be open). Since we wouldn't have a lot of time there, we all got in for half price. We had plenty of time to do all the things we really wanted to do.

Dancing Butterfly

I wanted to share this video of Kaitlin. She is so shy in front of most people that no one ever believes what a ham she is in her comfort zone. Her Granddaddy caught this video of her dancing at their house. Excuse the quality--it was shot on his cell phone. You won't believe this is Kaitlin.

Halloween

Halloween just seems to be more fun each year. For Kaitlin's third Halloween, she dressed as a cute little butterfly. She had so much fun wearing her costume.

We certainly feel like we got our money's worth out of the costume because she wore it four different times. The first Halloween event we attended was at Disney World. We went to a special event called Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. All the characters were dressed up, there were special lights, displays, and parades, and she got to trick or treat in the Magic Kingdom! Way cool.

We also went trick-or-treating with Ella Kate and Amber at our old high school. Ella was a very cute little fairy. The girls enjoyed being together for that.


My school hosts a trick-or-treat event the night before Halloween. Kaitlin's Daddy took her trick-or-treating there while Mommy (Snow White) passed out candy to all the kiddos. We sure did miss Ella Kate being with us for this one (AHEM, Amber!)

Finally, we visited family and close neighbors for our final round of trick-or-treating on Halloween night. We are glad the Halloween hoop-lah is over and the butterfly can go back into its cocoon...I mean back into the closet.

Want a FREE Skirt for your cutie?

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They Finally Met!

So you all know that Kaitlin is obsessed with Mickey Mouse. What does Kaitlin want to do every morning when she wakes up? Watch Mickey. What does Kaitlin like to do during the day? Watch Mickey. What does Kaitlin have to do before she will go to bed? You get the picture. She even wants to have a Mickey party for her next birthday. I'm having a hard time with that one since she had a Mickey party last year. When I told her to consider other kinds of parties she said, "Well, maybe I'll have a Goofy party." It looks like her love for Mickey and friends is not going anywhere fast.

I wanted to share a few pictures from our Disney World trip. These are of just a few of her autograph signings. She had so much fun meeting all the characters.

I love this picture below where she is showing such joy. We saw this smile all day long on the trip.

As you can see, Uncle Jody flew down during our trip to enjoy a couple of days at Disney. Kaitlin loved playing with him in Pooh's play area.

Kaitlin had a blast...Scott and I both admit that we had the time of our lives as well. We can't wait to go back.

I'm Still Here!

I know it has been a VERY long time since my last post---okay, it's been over two months. Life has been crazy to say the least. I cannot believe August and September are already gone. Those months were so jam-packed with hecticness (is that a word?) There is so much to catch up on, but I haven't a clue where to begin.

Kaitlin got her first hair cut in July. Yes, she WAS 2 and a half years old before she got her hair cut! We only trimmed it a little. Our sweet and wonderful friend, Kara, cut it for her. Kara is so great...she had Kaitlin hold a sucker while she was cutting her hair. It worked...Kaitlin was the perfect client. Check out her hand in the last picture!

School started the first week of August. It is going well. I have a really great group of kids. I am so glad there are only 21 students this year. (I started out with 24 and have already had three to transfer to other schools.) God is just taking care of me after having had 29-30 for the past two years. This makes it so much easier to work closely with the kids. It also is a big time saver as far as grading papers.

There is a different level of school stress for me this year. I have taken on the role of being a Curricular Leader for my school. I'm glad to be able to represent my school in this way, but this also means more responsibilities and more time away from my classroom. Every teacher knows how hard it is to prepare and catch up when it comes to being out for a day. Between the beginning of the year and some days planned for the rest of October and November, I've already been out of the classroom or am planning to be out eight days. I normally don't even miss that many in a whole year. Three of these days were sick days (not taken for my own sickness). So, I say all that to say that school is crazy just like the rest of life lately.

Mom and I took Kaitlin to her first county fair in August. Yes, it was the Robertson County Fair...Yes, there were lots of interesting people there. The "Carnies" (carnival workers) were among the cleanest people there! I was disappointed that Kaitlin wasn't able to ride very many rides because of her height. I guess we got spoiled at Holiday World where she was allowed to ride tons of rides. She did get to ride the ferris wheel with me, and a worker even sneaked her onto the kiddie train "just this one time". There were pony rides set up for an additional fee, so Kaitlin was able to ride those and loved it. Hopefully she'll grow 2 inches in height between now and next year's fair.

Dance classes started again in August, but we didn't sign up for this go-around. I kind of waited to the last minute to go up to the center to register her. Then, I noticed she would be missing the first two classes because of other things we had planned. Money was also a little tight because of a vacation we have planned for Fall Break. Kaitlin has asked about dance a couple of times, but she seems totally fine with not being there. God worked this one out because we now know what He had in store for the month of September (we might have made it to one class out of eight).

You all know that Scott's brother, Gary Wayne, received his heart transplant on September 11th. He is recovering very well. There are so many things I could say about this miracle, but it's not really my place to tell. Gary Wayne is planning to share his testimony at church when he is able. I will try to post when it will be so you can try to make it. It's definetly worth hearing. Oh, and if you see Kaitlin, ask her what Uncle Wayne got and where he got it.

We went to Scott's ten year reunion at the end of September. It's hard to believe that ten years have gone by. I really dreaded going, but had a good time once I got there. It was nice to catch up with some people we hadn't seen in a while. It's amazing to talk with our old classmates who have children around the same age as Kaitlin. They'll begin going to school together in just 2 years!

Kaitlin was sick last night with a stomach virus. She was sick with this past Monday night as well, but from what I'm hearing from other people this virus seems to go away and then comes right back within a few days. She is still running a low-grade fever, but is playing hard. We stayed home together today. It's been nice to rest and catch up on things around the house.

We have just one more week of school before Fall Break. I really need some time off (and so do my students). We are going to Disney World on Sunday. I'm just hoping everyone is healthy by then so we can enjoy it. It's going to be so much fun to see Kaitlin meet Mickey and friends. If you've been around her much, you know she is in love with Mickey and the whole gang. (She just asked me to turn Mickey on for her on the TV!) We have some really neat things planned, so hopefully I'll post pictures on here in a TIMELY manner.

I hope everything I wrote makes sense! I've covered a lot of ground.

Thanks for reading!!!

55

Yep, Mom hit the Big 55 on Monday. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we threw a Surprise party for Mom. It was Aunt Polly's idea, and she put so much into it to make it great. Mom was definitely surprised (as you can see below). Mom had a blast.I was at an inservice Monday when Jody sent me a text saying that we were going on the General Jackson that night.......okay, if you know my brother at all, you know how odd this sounded coming from him. The guy rarely eats out, much less takes a dinner cruise on the General Jackson. It was true though. Mom decided she wanted to do something special for her birthday, so off we went. I wasn't crazy about going simply because I have TONS to do and was about to leave for Holiday World early the next morning. I have to admit, however, that it was really fun. We had a great time. This was the NashVegas Cruise, so we enjoyed the entertainment of Tina Turner, Elton John, and of course Elvis. So what if they weren't the real thing? You can try to make them out in the picture below. My photos have all been taken with my blackberry lately, so please excuse the quality.

Consignment time again

Since Kaitlin was first born, I've been shopping twice a year at Encores and More North Children's Consignment sale. This is the most awesome sale I've found. It is run by Brea, the sister of my terrific friend Alison. There is so much wonderful stuff at this sale. The used items are carefully inspected so that only the best items are found there. My favorite part though, is all of the new with tags items you can always find there. Brea specializes in buying out children's specialty shops, so there are always PLENTY of boutique finds at GREAT prices. The Gymbo Lady always has lots of new Gymboree clothing at unbelievable prices. Anyone who knows me very well at all knows how I SOOO look forward to this sale for MONTHS! Amber and I always make sure we have a babysitter when it's time to shop so we can take all the time we want. We literally spend HOURS sitting in the floor at the sale trying to "weed out" what we don't just have to have. We always walk away with a ton of clothing at a very small price. This is going to be my first year to put items into the sale. I have already tagged over 150 items and I'm not done yet. Whether you want to make some money selling clothing, toys, gear, etc., or you just want to get some awesome deals on some great items, you HAVE to check out the website. http://encoresandmorenorth.com/ See you there!!!

Greetings from Holiday World

It's really sad that I had to go out of town to get time to update my blog! I've been extremely busy lately. School starts next week, so I've been working on my room several days each week. I've painted the walls (with much help from my family), painted my file cabinets (with much help from dear dad), and I've rearranged my classroom (much help from mom). All this is in addition to the regular back to school organizational things to be done. I'm not ready yet, but I'll get there soon.
A few other things I've been busy with lately include inservices, taking family members for doctor appointments, attending showers/parties (3 just on Saturday alone), throwing a surprise party for my mom, getting ready for a big consignment sale (more info to come), trying to keep housework done, and of course, planning fun things for kaitlin.
When I sat down, I didn't plan to explain what life has been like lately, it just all came out. I'm not griping or complaining at all, because God has given me a wonderful life. I think I'm trying to explain why I haven't posted much on here lately.
Thanks for taking the time to read. By the way, Holiday World is great but very crowded. We're spending one more day here tomorrow, then we will head home tomorrow night.
Busy, busy.

Are you enjoying your summer?

Being a teacher, that is probably the question I hear more than any other at this time of year. The answer is always yes. Kaitlin and I are having a blast. I could really get used to staying home all the time, but we need both of our incomes.

There are quite a few fun pictures I have been wanting to share from this summer. These first few were taken at different times when we have gone swimming. Kaitlin loves the water, so we try to go to the pool (or the backyard) as often as our schedule and the weather will allow.

These next few pictures were taken on a fun zoo trip we took with our friends Alison and Baby Maggie. It was such a great day. Kaitlin loved all the animals, and we were so glad to spend the day with our great friends.

Mommy and Kaitlin with the elephants:

Maggie is such a sweet baby! Isn't she just beautiful! Kaitlin and Maggie:

Kaitlin loved these giraffes so much that she asked her daddy to put her on one and let her ride. Alison, I believe this one was CoCo.

Kaitlin and Daddy are looking at alligators in this one:

We took this picture just as we were about to leave. Can you tell from Baby Maggie's feet in the stroller that she was konked out? What a fun day! Alie, Kaitlin is still wanting to see the zoo's Christmas lights.

Finally, here are some pictures we took on a trip to Holiday World with Scott's family. We spent two days there, and we all had a blast. There is definitely something for everyone. Kaitlin stayed on some rides for 30 minutes at a time just because she loved them so much. I didn't get any pictures of her at the water park, but we'll be going back in two weeks so I'll be sure to take some then.

She loved the airplane and fish rides that rotate her around in circles. I couldn't believe they didn't make her dizzy. She even stayed on the fish so long that she nearly fell asleep.

She rode the big carousel with Granny's help, but this little one had straps to hold her up. What a big girl!

This bumper boat had one of the few lines Kaitlin had to actually wait in. It was hard for her to understand why she couldn't just go ahead and get on one. The whole time we waited, I really thought she would never get on the bumper boat. All the other kids her age seemed to back out once they got on. Kaitlin is a brave little thing! She loved riding the boat. There wasn't even a strap to keep her in!

Scott enjoyed this launch ride with his dad and brother:

Holiday World is in Santa Claus, Indiana. The park's theme includes various holidays we celebrate. Kaitlin was all about taking her picture with the statue of Santa. On the second day, the real Santa was there. She didn't want anything to do with him. This is the closest she would get to Santa for a picture.

This is how Kaitlin spent her afternoons at Holiday World:

That's what our summer has looked like so far. Thanks for reading such a long post!

4th of July

I just wanted to share a few pictures of Kaitlin taken around the 4th. She attended Greenbrier's annual Turning of the Pig with all of her Grandparents on the 3rd. I think they all had a great time. Kaitlin managed to find something she wanted to do. She took her first pony ride. On the fourth, we visited with my parents a bit. Kaitlin and her Granddaddy had a great time playing together all afternoon. He took this picture of her. Swinging is one of her favorite things to do at their house (along with looking at the cows).
Our church has a 4th of July Celebration every year. This picture is of Kaitlin and Ella Kate at the church. It was hard for them to keep their eyes open because of the bright flash of the camera.

I hope all of you had a wonderful 4th of July. I am thankful to live here in the United States. Even though we seem to have plenty to worry about in our country, I still believe we are extremely blessed.

I couldn't leave out these last two sweet pictures.