Kaylea's 1st Haircut!

We have debated about whether or not to cut her hair for a long time. I think if Eric or my mom had their way they would still not have her cut it. Her hair is so long and beautiful! But, I wanted her to get it trimmed just to get the dead ends off and keep it healthy. So, we took Kaylea to get her very first haircut yesterday (June 1st, 2008). She really did a great job. She was very nervous about going and kept saying she did not want to get her hair cut. We made a deal with her that Eric would get his cut first then me then her just to ease her into it. Well, Eric had to go to work so I made a deal with her that she could watch them cut my hair first then she could go. Also I promised her I'd take her to get a donut afterwards as a reward.

So she agreed and then as her turn got there... she got excited about it! She was thrilled to sit in her own special booster seat and have a kid's cape on around her. She smiled the whole time, and it ended up being fun (not like she expected!) She got to keep a little piece of her hair in a card that had the date on it.


So I did as promised and took her to Dunkin Donuts where she picked out a chocolate frosted donut with pink sprinkles. As we walked out of Dunkin Donuts Kaylea said, "Mommy! Did you see all those people in there were lookin' at me! They thought my hair was beautiful and they were lookin at me cause my hair is so pretty!" I busted out laughing. So cute! And the rest of the day she just kept saying how beautiful she was with her "new hair". :-)

Last Day of School

Well today is Kaylea's last day of school before the summer. I can't believe my little girl is growing up! When I dropped her off today I got all of the things she had worked on through the year it was really neat. Also I got her class picture! Notice Kaylea is posed with the boys and is a good 6 inches taller than the rest of her classmates! That's my girl!


Tonight she is going to sing at the Pre-K graduation and then tomorrow her class has a end of the year picnic. Then the summer begins! Kaylea starts swim lessons next week. She will go three times a week for a half hour each time and this year mommies and daddies don't get in the pool with them! (Biting my nails!)

Then she will have three weeks of camp at her current school this summer (just random weeks we picked). Week 1 will be themed Florida Plants and Animals. Week 2 is Camping week where they will camp out in their class, fish in their water table and go on a flashlight adventure! Week 3 is Dr. Seuss book week, and perhaps her favorite I expect as she loves reading and loves all her Dr. Seuss books.

And so the summer begins!

That's my brain!

Last night I bent down to kiss Kaylea's forehead as I was rocking her to sleep. She said, "Mommy, that's my brain! You just kissed my brain... cause my brain is in there!" Don't you know it my smart little one - Dr. Kay!

Too Slow!

Last night as I was rocking Kaylea to sleep and singing to her, I sang her "You've Got a Friend" by James Taylor. We have sung this many times and she knows the words to it. Well I got to the part that says, "You just call on my name and you know where ever I am... I'll come running (I added: just as fast as I can) to see you again". Well Kaylea quickly responded, "No you won't Mommy cause you are tooooo SLOW! Your not fast really fast fast, your slow and my room isn't big enough for you to run fast!" :-)

Memorial Day Weekend

Well, its Memorial Day and I have to work today... but only till 5pm so not too bad. This weekend was pretty jam packed for us. On Saturday night, Eric and I got to have a date! I surprised him with tickets to the Alicia Keys concert. I got fixed up and looked pretty darn cute I have to say! (See my picture above!) I didn't take my camera because it said no photography on the tickets, but when I got there everyone had their camera. Darn! Anyways, we were right by the stage in lower arena. Our seats were amazing and the concert was great too.... Jordan Sparks and Neo opened for her.

The next day bright and early, Eric's uncle Tommy, wife Samantha and her son Alex, and Eric's mom, dad and little sister Courtney came over. Tommy is building a deck for me in exchange for me building a website for his new Private Investigation Agency. But Tommy did have some help... cause Wes and Eric helped build it all day with him. THANK YOU ALL! Its awesome! We love it! And thanks for helping Wes!

So this is part to of Summer and Eric's Extreme Home Makeover! Rocks have been put in around the plants, the pool is now blue and it tested perfectly balanced, and the hot tub is fixed! Plus we added the deck and a hammock this weekend. (Can't see the hammock in the picture.)

Our next steps will be a barbeque pit/area, getting our grass green, pressure washing the pool area, rescreening some of the screens and thats all I can think of for now. By the end of the summer it will be ready to enjoy! LOL jk.... we are enjoying it now! :-)

Asleep Sitting Up!

This week Kaylea tried out a new all day daycare/preschool since Mimi and Gada were gone and couldn't watch her during the day. Well she isn't used to going to school all day long and playing so hard I guess. Every night I'd pick her up and we'd get dinner and she'd eat it at my work the last hour. Then on our way home from work or after we got home she would konk out asleep. Here I caught her on Thursday night. After we got home she fell asleep sitting up on the couch she was so tired. I couldn't resist taking her picture!

A New School & a New Back Yard

Yesterday and today I have been really nervous. Mom and Dad had to go out of town and so we had to find a daycare option for Kaylea for the week. We are letting her try out a new school and she will be there all day every day this week! Yesterday she cried when we left. Today, she grabbed the teacher's hand and ran off towards the playground not looking back and said, "Bye mom!" I guess I am more nervous than she is! Anywho, keep your prayers going for Kaylea this week and for mom and dad as well. They need it!

Now onto a new garden. In an attempt to keep my activity level I've decided to switch some of my chores with Eric and handle some of the outside duties. I'm rather proud of myself too! We bought a new lawnmower on our Home Depot card (no interest 12 months deal). Well it had sat in the van for two weeks as I was out of town, and Eric was working and hurt his side so he couldn't lift that week. So, this past week I got it out after work put it together, oiled it up and mowed our front and back lawn! (This reminds me of that Annie get your gun skit "I can do anything you can do better, I can do anything better than you!") Well I won't say I can do the lawn better than Eric, HOLY COW it takes a lot of muscle strength to mow Florida lawns. You Kentucky people don't know how easy you have it! In Florida our ground is all sand. ALL SAND. No dirt! So when you go to turn the lawn mower the wheels just spin holes in the sand! It was such a workout to mow the lawn that I actually had a vein pop out of my arm near my elbow whenever I flexed my muscle - after mowing! Crazy! I don't wanna be a body builder! Good news is after mowing I lost all the water weight I gained on the cruise! LOL

So seeing the results from the weight loss I decided to continue and not give up. I vaccuumed the pool and cleaned the filter twice and dug half a trench for a garden on Saturday. I was pooped. Utterly exhausted. So, Sunday, Eric helped me finish the gardening area.... he helped me dig the rest of the trench and we went to Home Depot to use our coupon before it expired and bought 2 Bottle Palm Trees, 2 Hibiscus Plants, 2 White Lilies and 1 elephant ear plant... and some little green plants as fillers to go in between. We also bought 15 bags of dark colored stones to lay on top. It was hard work just loading and unloading all this stuff! Thank God for Eric's help on Sunday! I wanted my father's day present to him to be this nice renovated backyard... but I gave up doing it on my own and had to recruit him to help LOL. It is hard work... (yes I know Eric you told me so!)

So we finally got all the plants planted and called it a day around 4:30pm. Pooped again. Tonight we have to even out the sand and put the stones out. Eric's uncle Tommy is going to help us build a deck, and I still need to get the pool area pressure washed, plant more plants, build a pathway to the deck, and get a hammock and more and more.... I'm totally renovating our backyard... cause this summer I actually want to use it! I will post new pictures to show our progress as we go!

PS - yes I know our grass is brown and dead... thats Florida for you! I called True Green Chemlawn out for a spray and a few waterings it should be back to normal. See in FL water is short so we can only water our lawns I think once a week - we aren't priveleged like Kentuckians with beautiful bluegrass. I'm praying it rains here...we had dark clouds this morning... but now its blue sky and sun. Rain please!

Mother's Day

Sorry I haven't posted in a while... been super busy catching up from vacation. So here is an update on what we did for Mother's Day. First we got up and got ready and headed to my mom's house to take "Mimi" to lunch at El Zarape Mexican restaurant. The mexican restaurant trip was part of my Mother's Day present from Eric and Kaylea and so I brought my mom along for the ride. Mother's Day was a great excuse for cheating on my diet! We had very yummy flan and Kaylea loved her fried ice cream as you can see in the picture!

After lunch we headed to Eric's mom's house to wish her a Happy Mother's Day and from there we al headed to eric's Uncle Tommy's house to plant a garden in honot of Eric's grandmother. Everyone brought a plant and/or seeds and I know Grandma was happy.

After planting the garden we hung out, ate dinner, and the kids swam. Look at this adorable couple pictured below! :-)

Sean-y, Courtney, and Kaylea
all enjoyed time in the swimming pool!

After dinner and after swimming Kaylea and everyone else ate some juicy watermelon (except me of course cause I don't like Watermelon).

It was a very Happy Mother's Day!

Back from the Bahamas

We are back and we have learned two things on this trip! The Bahamas are beautiful .... and never take a free (or close to free) offer for a cruise and not expect to pay something or go through a time share presentation! Luckily we got out of the presentation because our cruise had to board and they didn't have time to give us the presentation... not to mention we didn't know about it until after we had paid for the port fees etc.

Anyways, the cruise itself... well it wasn't Royal Carribean or Carnival, but Eric and I go with the flow so we still had fun. Its all what you make it. Many complained about the accomadations and the little boat and cheesy entertainment and bad food.... as for us... we were away from home for two days and that was good enough for us!

Kaylea had a blast and was so perfectly well behaved even we were in shock I think! I also think she was so excited to have her Daddy back after being in KY with out him, that she was extra sweet! She even had good table manners and was commented on many times by other cruisers as to how good and how cute she was. (Mommy is proud!)

The entertainment while cheesy ... still gave us a good laugh and so we enjoyed it. Kaylea loved the show, she loves music and dancing, and she couldn't keep the smile off her face! After the show they opened the floor for dancing so Kaylea boogied down and even danced with an older couple there. Then of course she had to dance with her daddy.

Each night we listened to the "Music under the stars". The girl who sang had a good voice, but a strong accent.... and she must have only known those certain songs because she definitely couldn't do requests and she sang the same songs the next night. But its ok because it put Kaylea peacefully to sleep each night.

Once we arrived in the Bahamas, we went on a shore excursion to Cable Beach Resort. It was absolutely the best part of the trip and so relaxing. They had a HUGE pool, a live band, and the most soft sandy beach I've ever been to. The water was so clear and blue. It was gorgeous! We both said we'd love to go stay there next time instead of going on a cruise! The other good thing is we got to eat at Cable Beach and their buffet was out of this world... we were so hungry because the food on board had been less than desirable, so when we got to that lunch buffet and it was so good, we filled up our plates! Yummy!

On the beach there were ladies selling purses and braiding hair, so we asked Kaylea if she wanted to get her hair braided and she did. She got to sit and pick out lots of pretty colored beads out of this big bag full of beads. I couldn't believe she sat so still! She won't sit still for 30 seconds for me to do her hair, but she sat still for 5-10 minutes for this Bahamian woman to do her hair! It looks really pretty.... Eric calls her our little Bo Derek LOL.

After cable beach we headed shopping downtown and went to the straw market. Kaylea had talked us into buying three things before we even left the first row of the straw market... so we didn't stay too long. She got a toy turtle handmade from coconuts and wood (that she already broke). She also got a toy flute that she won't stop playing, and a little straw purse handmade with a picture of Hello Kitty sewed in with straw and they sewed her name onto it so it says Kaylea on it!

Overall we had a great time... maybe not as good as other cruise liners.... and we probably won't take another promotional offer again, but we still had fun and had a chance to relaz together as a family. That said... we sure are happy to be home!

To see all of our pictures from the trip go to:

http://picasaweb.google.com/kayleasmom/Bahamas2008/photo#s5199088120988283218

A slideshow from our trip to KY

Kaylea's First Plane Ride

Kaylea took her first plane ride on Derby Day, May 3, 2008! She was very excited to go on her "adventure". On the plane ride to KY she was wonderful. No fussing except a little at the end she said her ears hurt. She enjoyed the plane and watched Alvin & the Chipmunks the whole way! We flew to Kentucky to visit with family and got a chance to see I think pretty much everyone. Wish we had more time and three generations of females traveling together is not always easy, but we made it through it and overall had a really great time. Here are some pictures from the plane!

Kaylea at take off!

Three generations on the same flight!

Alvin & the Chipmunks on DVD!

Embarassing Before & After Pics

Many of you have asked for some full body before and after pics. Well now that I am halfway to my goal I think I can do that for you! I've lost 40 lbs and I still have 40 lbs. to go to get to the finish line! I started out at a size 22. (Yeah I know can you believe it!) Now I am wearing 16s comfortable and some 14s! Thats a total of 5 pant sizes down! Below are my before and then my after pics that I had someone take this morning at work. Keep in mind today I have no makeup on and a baggy t-shirt so they aren't the most flattering but I still look amazing compared to my before! I'm not gonna stop here though... I'm gonna keep working hard! I'm starting to see the finish line after all! Let my success be an inspiration to you!

Halfway to my goal!

Well today is the start of a brand new week! I have one more week of work and then vacation! Finally! Whew! Good news this week: I weighed in this morning for another 2 lb. loss. My grand total is now 40 lbs I've lost since I started on 2/4/08. Thats 40 lbs in 12 weeks! Not bad if I do say so myself! My initial goal was 80 lbs so today I made my halfway mark! I'm pretty proud of myself but not ready to stop yet!

On Saturday my mom and I went shopping at "Avenue" a store like Lane Bryant that serves women 14 and up. Unbelievably almost nothing fit me in the store! I finally settled on some items that we size 14! I was speechless! I will have to post pictures soon, but just wanted to share my excitement. Next week I'm headed to Kentucky to visit with my family. I'm going with Kaylea and my mom. I wonder if anyone will recognize me since the weight loss? LOL

Then, Eric and I will be going on a short 3 day cruise to the Bahamas! I'm pretty excited about that! 3 days is good... long enough to let me cheat a little on the diet... but not so long I gain 10 pounds!

As for an update on Kaylea she is growing up faster than ever. Her favorite cartoon to watch right now is an old 90s DVD of Alvin & the Chipmunks. One of the episodes is the chipmunks reenactment of the movie "BIG" and the other episode is a reenactment of the movie Back to the Future". So Kaylea has a huge imagination lately. She has lots of imaginary friends and plays pretend all the time. The chipmunks (Alvin, Simon and Theodore) go with us everywhere we go. This weekend Kaylea built a time machine to transport her to work and make copies of "paypal" (little note cards she was playing with at Kinkos). Then she grew up big into a grownup and became a mommy. Then she said she was upset cause she really wanted to be a kid againl. I can't wait to see what this week brings!

Life is too short. Tell them I love you

Sometimes life hits you hard and you realize that every moment in your life needs to be lived to the fullest and not taken for granted. I know in my life (as much as it hurts my pride to admit it) I take my parents for granted. I've realized this week that life brings unexpected turns and we may not be around forever.... we won't actually... its just a hard reality to face.

MOM: I want you to know I really do love you. And as much as we argue, its probably because we are alot alike (again as much as it hurts my pride to admit it). Mom you have been there for me throughout my life. You gave up your desires to take me and Corey and move with dad to a foreign country. I don't give you enough credit. Yeah as you've gotten older you are as paranoid as ever, but moving to South America to become a missionary - thats an Indiana Jones move and much more brave than what I have done in my life. You definitely deserve props for that. (I'll explain what props means later) You are always there when I need you even if I've hurt your feelings. You really are selfless and I'm sure its hard when you are raising and living with 3 people who might think about themselves too much (me, dad and brother of course). After having Kaylea you have sacrificed all of your time to help me raise her while I go to work. I wouldn't have it any other way and I don't tell you I appreciate you enough. So today I want to tell you I love you. And I do mean it. Even though we will probably argue today about something as trivial as Dancing with the Stars.

DAD: I love you too. We are alot alike in so many ways. You've put up with a lot in this life... and continue to do so. You've touched so many people in their lives. When I hear the song "Thank You" by Ray Boltz it reminds me of you. You are just one of those people who can make people feel better no matter what they are going through. God speaks through you like I've never seen him speak through anyone. I'm proud of you dad. I don't think anyone could have a better dad than you. I love you.

This has been a tough week for Eric and our family. I don't want to go into all the details on here but we lost someone close to our hearts. When something like this happens all of a sudden it really shakes up your world. I'm going to Kentucky to visit my family and my grandma on my mom's side soon as a mini vacation. I'm more thankful than ever this week that I can go visit them. I haven't spoken much to my grandma over the years but now I want to give her a big hug and let her know how much I love her and I wish I could take those years back.

Life is too short. I encourage you to tell those close to you in your life that you love them today. And give them a hug. Make every day important because it may be the last time you have to do so. Please say a prayer for us and for Eric's family as well.

Orlando Magic Playoffs!

Eric and were lucky enough to score some Magic Playoff tickets! They pretty much just fell into our laps! A friend of mine stopped by on Saturday who had 4 Lower Bowl Orlando Magic Playoff tickets for Sunday's 12:30pm game and couldnt go. His son had won all of his baseball games that day which meant he had more games on Sunday... lol I think he'd been hoping his sone had lost so they could go to the game lol. But lucky for us he won! So yesterday we drove to Orlando and had a great time. Here are a few pictures of our trip!

No words... Its a sad day.

We could really use your prayers. Its a really sad day today....

"My Daddy"

Sometimes you never know if what you are telling your little toddler makes any sense at all. A month or two ago I was trying to explain that God is our father just like Eric is her father. Only, Eric is her father on earth, and God is her father in heaven. She looked confused, but said, "Oh." And nothing has been said about it since.

Until last night. Eric and I were saying our prayer with her as we do every night before bedtime. After we prayed and Kaylea was giving Eric a hug goodnight, Kaylea was talking about praying to God and she said looking at Eric, "You are my daddy in here and God is my daddy in heaven!"

It was a really tender moment and one I wish I could capture on video but it will have to stay captured in my memory instead.

Matthew 18:3
"And he said: 'I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.' "

Fun in the Sun!

This Saturday Kaylea and I took her bunny "Dumbo" to get his nails clipped and then enjoyed some fun in the sun at Mimi and Gada's swimming pool. Take a look at the pictures below... Notice Kaylea has become a "master" at rolling her tongue to make a funny face!

Kaylea Says the Darndest Things!

News Alert: Summer lost 5.4 lbs this week for a grand total of 35.7 - and she has on size 16 pants today! Woooo hooooo! Now on to the blog:

Kaylea was driving in the car with us this weekend and said, "Mommy, look at your hair. Its Black.... (she hesitated)... and Gray! Yeah your hair is Gray just like Gada's!"
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On Friday I received an email from my mom. She watches Kaylea during the day and will share some funny moments with me via email. Here was the email:

"ROFLMAO - She just had one side of her diaper (pull-up) opened up and was trying to put water (from her sippy cup) in it. I asked her what she was doing. Her response: "I'm waterin' my butt so it can grow bigger - and bigger - and BIGGER - like my Mommy and Daddy!""
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Kaylea's vocabulary is really growing. Last week it was the use of the word, "interesting". This week she used the word "interrupting". Kaylea was humming a tune and Eric started talking to me. She said, "Daddy, I was trying to sing a song about Kaylea Jade, and you were interrupting me!"
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News Alert #2: Kaylea successfully pee pee'd and poo poo'd in the potty friday, saturday and sunday! We are on a roll folks! Wooo hoooo!

Here is also a picture of Kaylea's newest dress design. What do you think? Fashionista in the making?