Kaylee Gives Back to Texas Children's Hospital

We have been extremely blessed this past year, and for that, we are thankful to God. It came time for Kaylee's birthday in February. The girl needed NOTHING. In fact, I am at the point where Chris and I are tired of arguing with her over which toys to get rid of, in order to make room for new toys. My house is EXPLODING with toys, clothes, games, books, etc.

So we sat Kaylee down and explained to her about the time she spent time @ Texas Children's Hospital when she was just 2 weeks old. She had cought a virus from someone, and we were down there while they were running tests on her to figure out what it was. It turned out to be ROTO virus, but they had to do a spinal tap, and lots of blood tests and urine tests to determine that because of her age. We were down there for 3 days total.

We decided together that instead of presents for her birthday, we would make a donation to Texas Children's Hospital on her behalf. We also thought that instead of having her friends bring HER presents, they could bring either a monetary donation, or books for the library @ the hospital, for the children who spend time at the hospital like she did. We taked about how there are some really sick children who have to stay down there for long periods of time, and how they like to read and play games to pass the time.

Kaylee liked the idea and was excited to make her donation.....on one condition.....SHE wanted to go down there to give it to them. (She also had to fill out the monetary donation form, and do it ALL BY HERSELF) I was NOT allowed to help her. The ladies down there really enjoyed her "independence" and kept commenting on how that was such a big thing of her to collect these donations instead of presents.

So, thank you to all her friends who donated to her cause. She really enjoyed "paying it forward" and she is looking forward to choosing a different charity next year to donate to.

Her bag of books and her cash she collected from her party.

Her handing her donation to the ladies at the hospital volunteer crew.

She is definitely MY girl.....

Thursday, we were heading out to run some errands. Kaylee picked out her own clothes for the day...she IS 6 now..... I thought she looked fine, but I guess she wasn't happy with her shirt. So, she disappeared into her room for a few minutes. She returned with stickers all over her shirt.....not just any stickers.....

Yep....Rhinestone stickers! Apparently, my business has worn off on her just a tad. I asked her what was on her shirt and she replied "bling".... "OK".. I responded...."why?"

She answered with "My shirt was just too plain, so it needed some bling, and I tried to spell I LOVE YOU, but I didn't have enough stickers"

She was so proud of her creation and she wore it like that ALL DAY!

My Mini Beethoven

Click Here to watch Grayson playing piano. This toy has been the BEST toy we ever bought. Kaylee enjoyed it, Brayden enjoyed it, and now Grayson loves it. It sure is loved! He loves banging it, and singing along with it...."dah-dah-dah-dah"

(you may want to turn your volume up a bit. I had to stay further back to video him, or he became camera shy, so he's kind of quiet on there)

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St Patty's day from my lil' lucky charm!

Questions and Answers from the Kids

My sister in law had a post on her blog the other day with questions to ask your kid. I thought it was a good idea to see what my kids answers were, so I asked them. I actually did it at 2 seperate times, and seperately, so neither one knew the other's answers and I found it interesting how close some of their answers were. Here were a few of the questions on Kay's blog:

1. Where did you come from?
Kaylee- Your stomach
Brayden- From Town

2. Where are you going?
Kaylee- to the store
Brayden- Somewhere

3. What is dancing?
Kaylee- having fun
Brayden- for "grils" (he says the word "girls" funny)

4. What's the best place in the whole world and why?
Kaylee- Home and School
Brayden- Dance, because I like it, and School (he loves going to Kaylee's dance class because he gets doted on by all the "grils" there and they carry him around like a baby)

5. What do you wish for?
Kaylee- Spring break to be spring (yeah, me too, this weather sucks)
Brayden- School (I think he is just answering school for every question now)

6. What is a giggle?
Kaylee- Laughing
Brayden- I don't know....

7. What do you dream about?
Kaylee- You and Daddy
Brayden- a big bad "walv" (wolf) trying to wake me up and he was chasing me (oh, yes, I remember that dream....from like 2 weeks ago)

8. What did you dream about last night?
Kaylee- God (was that Me or Daddy?? LOL)
Brayden- I don't "a-member"

9. Do you want to be smart or beautiful?
Kaylee- Both (that's my girl)
Brayden- Smart (that's my boy)

10. What is the sky made of?
Kaylee- Blue fuzz with white clouds
Brayden- Clouds

11. What did you do today?
Kaylee- went to go put up dog signs (we had a dog adopt us the other day and she has a collar, so we put up found dog signs but no one has claimed her yet)
Brayden- Ride my bike fast (actually, we have been house bound because of this crappy weather, so he has been indoors all day)

12. How fast can you run?
Kaylee- really, really, really, really, really fast
Brayden- (took off down the hall running)

13. What is the meaning of life?
Kaylee- to love
Brayden- God
(I am so proud of my kids answers on this question)

Look Mom, I can Feed Myself!

Grayson graduated from his high-chair to the big table with the big kids...I know, FINALLY....I mean, he IS almost 9 months old already!! LOL. Geeze... So, he thinks he is big stuff now. His facial expression says it all....

He is learning to feed himself. It's pretty funny to watch. He thinks as long as he is at the table, he needs to be eating...hungry or not! He normally has an "innie" belly button, but when he is done eating, it pops out...just like a turkey. I've told a few people, but I actually took a picture of it, just to prove it. He's pretty quick too, and he cleans his plate faster than the other kids...and then gets a second plate....finishes that...gets another plate....until we remove him from the table. Meanwhile, the other kids are still working on their dinner plate, and not even half way done. Seriously, he can eat an ENTIRE 4 pc chicken nugget meal, while Kaylee and Brayden SPLIT a 6 piece kids meal!

Look how swollen his belly looks after a good meal! I think it is sooo funny that it does that. We went to a pizza buffet Saturday night, and he had 4, YES 4 plates of noodles! The first plate was spaghetti made with curly corkscrew noodles. Then, after seeing his face turn completely red from spaghetti sauce from ear to ear, we switched him to the chicken noodles soup without the broth. He continued to eat 3 more plates of noodles. Then, he had a brownie (half of it fell on the floor) and then he had half a peice of apple struedel pizza. He had so much fun. Everyone kept checking him out. He would just grab a handful of noodles and shove them in his mouth. He loved all the attention he was getting and all the giggles he heard from how much fun he was having. He got excited at one point and banged his fists on the table because he ran out of food! Oh, they are not small plates either.....see.....

Look how excited my lil man is....he LOVES to eat! He has not met a food yet that he does not like. It's no wonder his legs are so chunky! I just laugh when I look at this picture because he is so happy to be eating real food like his big brother and sister! (This is all that's left of 4 plates full) Needless to say, we left a good tip for them since they had quite the mess to clean up. We also left a note that said "I enjoyed my first pizza buffet. Sorry about the mess. I had fun feeding myself. Heart- Baby L"

OMG.....I am still laughing at this picture! Look at the sauce spread from ear to ear....

Wednesday's Word(s) of the Day

"toni-po holder"

Definition according to Brayden:

The thing that mommy puts in Kaylee's hair to hold it in a ponytail!



"Terial-bac hand gel"

Definition according to Kaylee:

The stuff we put on our hands to wash them when we don't have water or soap