Happy Thanksgiving!

We are incredibly THANKFUL this year to be back in California! John worked this morning and then we spent the afternoon and evening with my Aunt Jenifer, Uncle Laure, cousins Phillip, Kelly and Bryan! I also made Kaylee's Thanksgiving dress this morning when I realized that nothing in her closet was very "festive". Oddly enough, "Turkey" is Kaylee's nickname so I thought this fabric would be fitting for both her and the holiday!

Kaylee spent the afternoon chasing Kylie, Bryan & Kelly's chocolate lab. Getting Kaylee to look at the camera with Kylie running around was impossible! Any guesses as to how many times one of us said "Kay...I mean, Kylie" or "Ky...I mean Kaylee"

new pajamas

I have been trying to stay away from the flame-resistant pajamas for Kaylee since they are laden with crazy chemicals. I thought I had been buying the right ones, but it turns out there is no such thing thanks to the feds...I'll spare you my PSA on this topic though (unless you want to hear it). You can buy organic pj's online but they run $50+....um, no thank you. So this week I decided to start making Kaylee's pajamas. I didn't have a pattern handy so I ripped the seams out of an older pair of pants and used them to draw a bigger pattern. I impressed myself! Last time I tried to make pants (USING a pattern) they weren't even wearable! I attribute my increased sewing skills to my sewing teacher Nancy back in Sanford. She's one of the few people I'll miss in NC.

Incase you can't see it, that is the John Deere logos on pink plaid. :)

I'll use long sleeve shirts for the next pairs though since we're headed into colder weather. These pj's are flannel but I think I'll try fleece next. Off to Joann's to find flame-retardant free fabrics!

Kings Canyon National Park

We now live 1 hour from the Kings Canyon National Park! I've grown up seeing the redwoods but they are still an awe-inspiring piece of nature. John had today off so after lunch we headed up...and up and up and up through the smog layer, then the fog layer and out we popped at 6,000ft elevation.

Kaylee had a great time picking up sticks and pinecones.

We asked some German tourists to take our picture but I should have just used the timer function...not sure how you take a blurry picture on the auto setting, but here it is.

John should've worn his camo pants too, I wouldn't have been able to find him!

Coming back down the mountain we hit the fog line again and had to pull over for this shot.

We are enjoying being back in California for sure!

Whirlwind!

After 2,688 miles and approximately 40 hrs of driving we made it to CALIFORNIA!!

We stopped in Barstow, CA for lunch on our last day of traveling. They have a nice little monument area that we walked around.

Kaylee was the most awesome traveling 2 year old in the history of traveling 2 year olds! She watched Tangled 17 times. I tried changing the movie, but we all agreed that we just loved Tangled the best. Kaylee's carseat was and is still rear-facing. We had no issues keeping her entertained. (Just throwing my PSA in) :)

We arrived to my cousin Heidi's house and stayed with her and her husband for 2 days. Jason treated us to donuts....oh how we've missed real donuts! This is was Kaylee's first donut EVER! Think she liked it? ;)

On Monday, October 31 we got the keys to our rental house and the Mayflower truck arrived! What perfect timing, God is good!

Kaylee was so excited to unpack her toys that she hadn't seen in 3 weeks. She was very busy while we unpacked and we soon found her sound asleep on the floor. This is the first time she's ever fallen asleep on the floor anywhere. :) Too cute!

We moved in on Halloween and had plans to trick-or-treat in our neighborhood with our cousins that night, but Kaylee threw up before they were supposed to arrive so we canceled the plans. She didn't get sick again so I think it was just the stress of everything and the fact that we had eaten fast food for over a week straight! But we dressed her up and trick-or-treated at our own door. Then she helped me pass out candy to the trick-or-treaters!

We're slowly getting settled in and enjoying having family so close! John's Starbucks is 10 minutes from our house! And there is one within walking distance from the house! Dangerous! Kaylee and I have walked to that one already. :)

I meant to blog about our trip for all you non-facebookers! But apparently, driving for 8 hours a day wipes a girl out and I forgot about the blog. So here is the run down:

Monday the movers arrived at 9am and left at 3pm. They were suppose to have been done by noonish, so we got a much later start to our trip than I had planned. Luckily, we had no reservations anywhere...just playing each day by ear.

Monday night we stayed in Statesville, NC.

Tuesday we headed to Tennessee. We stopped in Pigeon Forge, TN at a river for some last southern fall color photo ops.

Then we headed to Franklin, TN where my friend Beth lives. We had dinner with them and stayed in their beautiful home! Kaylee was excited to play with her friends who we haven't seen in over 6 months! We miss them!

Walkin' in Memphis

Wednesday we drove through Arkansas and stayed in Van Buren, AR for the night.

Thursday was Oklahoma, the Texas Panhandle, and we finally stopped in Tucumcari, NM. NM by far was the most boring and weirdest part of our trip! So bizarre!

Friday we rushed out of NM and into AZ. We stayed last night in Kingman, AZ.

Today we're headed for Fresno! Should be arriving around 4ish. And now you're all caught up.

MySpace-Countdowns

I love this girl!

I just love this picture...it makes me incredibly happy.

Big news!

Happy Fall!

The Woertman Family Scarecrows

I forget that some of you aren't on facebook or twitter so please forgive me if this is the first you're hearing this!

We are currently in the Due Diligence phase of our house selling! The buyer, a deployed solider who has only seen the house via video!, has until Oct 19 to back out. If we make it to that date, we feel confident in setting our "move across country plan" into action. We close on Oct 31. John will be able to transfer jobs easily and we will most likely drive my truck across country while a moving van takes the rest of our stuff.

We've started to pack already but will really kick it into gear on the 20th once we feel more settled. I don't how people do this selling a house stuff! It is extremely stressful not knowing for such a long period of time! We will be renting in Fresno until we decide which areas we want to settle in. It will be so wonderful to so close to family!! 2 hours to San Jose for my Dad, John's family and our friends! And 4 hours to Mandy & Seth! Can't beat it! See you all soon!!

Rear-Facing Carseats for Toddlers too!

I've posted about this on facebook before, but I feel like it fell on deaf ears (or blind eyes?) So after reading an article on Parenting.com today about child safety, I feel like saying this about kids in carseats again: “REAR-facing is 5 times safer for two-year-olds.” -Dr. Baer, child safety expert

"The fix: Follow the newly-issued guidelines by the American Academy of Pediatrics that advise parents to keep their toddlers in REAR-facing car seats until age 2 OR until they exceed the height or weight limit for their car seat, which is typically 20 pounds for an infant seat, and 35 to 40 pounds for a convertible seat. Even if your child’s legs are touching the back seat of the car, or even bending so they’ll fit, it’s not unsafe and NOT a reason to turn your child around too soon."

(*info taken from a recent article about Child Safety on Parenting.com http://www.parenting.com/gallery/car-seat-laws-requirements-installation?pnid=318525 )

Don't want to believe me? Watch this... Crash Test Dummies Google it for more. Head on collisions are far more serious than a rear-ender.

I've heard these arguments:

1. I've already turned her around forward facing, she'll be mad if I turn her back around.

I say: So you don't want to enforce rules with your child? Your 2 yr old knows more about safety than you do? And you'd rather her have a broken neck?

2. I don't know how to install the seat.

I say: Take it to a fire station, they'll do it for you. Not an excuse.

3. Other kids will make fun of him for being rear facing still.

I say: Kids make fun of kids no matter what. Wouldn't you rather be safe than sorry? Wouldn't you rather have your child tell you when they're an adult that they remember being made fun of, vs not having your child make it to their adult years?

4. A rear-ended accident would cause the whiplash if they're forward facing.

I say: Do you want whip-lash from a minor rear ended accident, or broken neck, paralysis, or death from a head on collision. You choose.

5. The odds of getting into a fatal head-on collision are so small, it won't happen to us.

I say: I don't have those statistics, but my mom was killed in a head on collision so they do happen to normal people.

This is such a simple fix. You may be one of the lucky ones who never gets in the accident which would be wonderful on so many levels. You might be one of those parents who has had 3 or 4 kids already and never had an accident so why not keep doing things the way you have been, right? If you got cancer would you want the same treatment doctors were doing 10 years ago? nope. Maybe you're a grandparent who isn't up to date on all the new research...tell your kids!

I can't say it enough, this is such a SIMPLE thing to do to protect your sweet babies and toddlers! We run around our houses making them childproof, buying covers for our outlets, gates for stairways, locks for cabinets...why not childproof your car!?!

Back to Kaylee-ville

This is what happens when Daddy is in charge of getting Kaylee dressed. :)

My little seamstress taking a water break from our busy day of sewing.

"I prefer to go UP"

Cleaning up the deck after the "hurricane" (we didn't get anything major fortunately).

We went to a new park and Kaylee was more excited about the stuff on the ground than any part of the play area!

I've been busy!

My friends and I are putting together a little holiday boutique in October so I have been busy making Loveys, Loop Loveys, and Blankies to sell there. They're all listed in my store and I can always make more so check out the latest!! There just might be the perfect baby blanket for that little someone in your life!

An Auction for Children's Cancer Research

Through a friend in my mom's Bible Study a couple of years ago I was introduced to the story of Eve, a 2 year old (at the time) who was diagnosed with bilateral Wilms Tumor (cancer of the kidneys). As much as I feel like I stalk her mom's blog, I won't try to wow you with statistics because I'm sure I'll get them wrong. BUT you can read her blog for yourself...it's listed in my blog list to the left of this post, or click here - Eve vs. Wilms

Eve's mom Christy is absolutely hilarious and writes from the heart. Eve is currently cancer-free...woohoo! But Christy continues to be a warrior in raising money for research to help current and future families. She'll be hiking The Ultimate Hike in October as one of her many fundraising gigs.

So in honor of Eve and to help Christy, I am auctioning off a Kayteedids Lovey and 100% of the total sold price will be donated to CureSearch for Children's Cancer - the organization that the Ultimate Hike is designed for.

The auction is on Facebook with the help of The Mom Shoppe who has a lot more followers than I do. Click here to go to The Mom Shoppe, "like" the page, then go to the multi-vendor album. Look for this blanket to bid on!

If you don't have a facebook account but would like to contribute to the fundraiser, click here to donate The Ultimate Hike.

Air conditioning

It is still too hot to be outside so we stay home mostly. The other day I was sewing in my craft room and Kaylee was playing in her room. I peeked in to check on her and found her nicely reading to herself. She loves to read, but what she loves even more than reading is hamming it up for the camera.

So I loaded up the rocking chair with more books and went back to sewing. She had been "reading aloud" earlier but soon her reading turned to giggles. I smiled as I listened to her laugh, and tried to picture which book I had given her that was so funny. So I went to find out....

Oops...notice there are no books in sight! She had quietly put them all on the floor, quietly opened the top two dresser drawers and proceeded to "clean out" every single item from the dresser. It's a task that has needed to be tackled since most of these clothes you see are from last winter! She was quite proud of her cleaning job and how could a mom be mad when you walk in to that face?!

Today all 3 of us braved the heat from the house to the truck, then the truck into the mall! We mostly just wandered around, but Starbucks is always a necessary stop. Cake pop anyone?

Chores

Is it too early to start adding chores to Kaylee's daily schedule? haha kidding But she sure loves to vacuum. She gets mad if you don't turn it on for her! No fake vacuuming for this kid!

A BIG THANK YOU!

Picture me up on a stage, glamorous dress, 10,000 people in the audience waiting to hear my speech thanking everyone for helping me put together Kaylee's birthday party. Here it goes:

I'd like to thank God (don't those speeches always start off that way?), but seriously, God gave me Kaylee and therefore it is a must to thank Him. :)

ohhhhhh...she's not a baby anymore!! sniff sniff

And the following people:

My Dad for hosting the party at his house! For cleaning his house spic n span just so we could whirlwind our way through and mess it up again!

Michele for baking chocolate cupcakes (of which I may or may not have eaten 5 of!) and the cake we used for the cake pops. For making her delicious Taco Dip. For channeling her inner-child to make pinwheels. And for all around party prep!

Mandy & Seth (& Crum) for driving in the depths of night just to make it to San Jose in time for me to start cracking the whip on party prep! Mandy did all the flower arrangements using Trader Joe's purple tulips and flowers from the garden and helped with the cake pops and all the set up! Seth helped move heavy things, drove John and Kaylee to Grandpa W's house, and taught Kaylee how to play the Xylophone they gave her. Crum supervised.

The headless Uncle Seth!!

Michelle for running around San Jose with my shopping list prior to our arrival so that I didn't have to ship EVERYTHING out here. For channeling her inner-child too and helpingMichele with the pinwheels. And for attempting to feed Kaylee a corndog after I had neglected to feed my child lunch prior to her birthday party and only realized it 3 hours later when she began to melt down from hunger!

Annika for designing and baking the cake! She hand piped the damask on and added a purple fondant ribbon! Did I mention that she's only 13 and her mom wasn't home to help her while she did all this? Cake Baking Genius! She also helped with the cake pops and party decor!

Bridget for the amazing tissue paper flowers and the much needed & valuable cake pop advice!! (I didn't get any pictures of Bridget, but she was a big help!)

And most importantly John. Without him this party wouldn't have happened...literally. No Kaylee, no party. No money, no party. :) In addition to being my baby's daddy and our financier, he also took Kaylee for the day so that we could party prep without having distractions!

Party Central

My friend Laurie made the cupcake toppers

The purple boards are styrofoam wrapped in purple wrapping paper. If you ever want to make cake pops, I have a lot of advice for ya! We finally got it right on the last few. ha!

h2o...get it?? :)

I saw this table set up on Pinterest and changed it up to match our color scheme. I made the tablecloth because it was cheaper to just buy fabric than an actual tablecloth!!

The party was fun! Kaylee didn't seem to care about opening presents, she just wanted to play with the toys! So her helpful friend and cousins unwrapped them for her.

Life is rough when your mom tries to make you eat a cake pop.