Kayteedids

Check out the Kayteedids blog link up above for a new blog post about a recent baby shower!

Who needs toys when you have a craft room!

Awhile ago Kaylee found my ribbon drawer and pulled most of them off their spools. I wasn't upset because she was hilarious to watch and was having a blast. She likes the satin ones best. I vowed to re-roll them but then we packed up to move and the mess just got thrown back in the drawer. Today she found them again...I'd like to think she was trying to re-roll them for me. ha! She had a great time decorating me and we probably spent 45 minutes just playing with ribbon. Now she's down for a nap and I'm headed to re-roll...wish me luck!

hmmmm, I wonder if I'm suppose to be playing in here?

California winter

Last week we travelled up to San Jose for a few days. We are loving this California "winter" weather! We went to the beach one day and had a blast! It was warm with no wind...can't beat it! This picture reminds me of a summer vacation to Pajaro Dunes where Mandy and I had seaweed "pets" named Pebbles and Bam Bam.

Then we went to Happy Hollow with good friends who we haven't seen in way too long. Tony and I went to Mitty together and while standing here we realized that 20 years ago we were standing in the line with our moms to buy our textbooks before Freshman year. 20 years!! Now we have a 2.5 year old and a 1.5 year old on our shoulders!

Kaylee enjoyed the carousel, she rode a leopard with a fish in it's mouth!

Then we came back to Fresno and went to a local hockey game! The Fresno Monsters is a league for 16-21 year olds, basically a feeder team to colleges. We went with my cousin Heidi and her husband Jason.

We had a great time and I think Kaylee is officially a hockey fan. She would raise her arms and yell YAY whenever the crowd went wild.

This week we toured the Fresno Zoo. It is very small but we had a nice time. We purchased a season pass so Kaylee and I can spend a lot of time there during the warmer weather months.

Our favorite animals were the Orangutans (yes, I had to google how to spell that!). There was a Daddy whose head was MASSIVE! We were mesmerized by how large he was. This is the Momma. They have a 1 year old son and a brand new baby girl, and we happened to be there when they were all out playing. It was probably one of the coolest things I've seen.

We went back to San Jose this past weekend just to hang out. It is so wonderful being so close again!

Growing up

When my sister and I were growing up there were 2 kinds of braids we could choose from: 1. The Grammie braid, named for my Grammie Holt who braided this way. It is a braid with just one rubberband at the end but not a french braid. And 2. The Adelaide braid, named for a friend of mine in Kindergarten who wore her hair in a braid every day. Her braids started and ended with rubberbands. I think my mom knew how to french braid but I never sat still long enough for that kind. I've braided Kaylee's hair both ways but the Grammie braid falls out easily and the Adelaide braid looks like a rat tail! eek! So tonight after her bath I attempted a French braid!

Here's Kaylee's first French Braid and MY first time ever french braiding!

Pretty cool huh?! I'm impressed with myself! But there is a little twinge of sadness that my BABY has hair long enough to braid!

Catching up to 2012!

Happy 2012! We rang in the new year in our new (rented) home in Fresno and continue to thank God for this new season in our lives.

I suppose I should catch you up on the end of our 2011! I last left off on Thanksgiving. The day after T-day my dad, Michele, Mandy & Seth came to visit. We had cousins, aunts, uncles and more family members come for a grand "day after Thanksgiving party"!

The next day Rob and Brandy came to visit from San Jose! John, Rob and Brandy went to the San Jose St vs Fresno St football game (SJSU won!). John and Rob used to work at the same daycare and one of the students at the time now plays for SJSU. The 3 of them have kept in touch over the years and they had fun watching him play college ball.

The following day we went to Millerton Lake. Kaylee loves water and even though the lake was freezing cold (in my opinion) she had a blast.

The first week of December, Kaylee and I ventured to San Jose on our own leaving John to navigate the Fresno streets on his bike! It was just a quick trip to attend a baby shower. Kaylee enjoyed picking apples in Grandpa's orchard.

Then back home for some downtime until the holidays hit. Kaylee is LOVING having a bathtub, so much that I found her in it playing with her toys and no water!

I had to combine my sewing room with our guest room. Kaylee was suppose to be sitting in the chair next to me but had so much fun sorting bobbins on the table instead.

We went to 2 Christmas tree farms this year! We went mostly for the photo ops but did find a nice tree on one of the trips.

Kaylee was in heaven running in and out of the trees and since we were the only people in the lot we let her play hide and seek. This is all we really saw of her:

She had fun decorating the tree when we got home. Don't tell her, but I had to rearrange the ornaments later since her's were all in one spot. :)

The second farm Kaylee and I went once with my cousin and aunt, and the next day we took John back.

Then Christmas came! We went up to San Jose a week early to celebrate with John's family. It was absolutely a joy to be with all of them! Kaylee had a blast with all of her west coast cousins, aunts, uncles and Grandpa W! She absolutely loves her baby doll from Grandpa among so much more! She was (is) spoiled!!

On that trip to San Jose Kaylee got to play cowgirl with Grandpa R and went to feed cows.

On our way back home we drove up to the Sacramento area to see Joe & Courtney. They live in Colorado but Joe's parents live in CA so they were out here for the holidays. The last time we had seen Joe & Courtney was at their wedding 5 years ago. They're great friends despite the distance and we enjoyed getting our kids together for the first time.

Cindy (Joe's mom) was a dear friend of my moms and it is always a special time to see her. She had HUGE gingerbread men for the kids to decorate and the day was a great one!

(Isn't Kaylee a creative genius??? okay, okay maybe I had a little fun decorating too)

Then it was back home to celebrate Christmas in Fresno.

John worked on Christmas day so we waited until he was home in the afternoon to open presents. I feel very blessed to have a child who is content with small things and didn't demand more. In fact, she tried to give us her presents too!

Slinkys were the big hit...who knew a spontaneous dollar store purchase would go so far!

The other find of the season were the Water Beads (www.waterbeads.net)

We skyped with my dad, Michele, Mandy & Seth and John & Kim on Christmas night although "everyone and their brother" were also skyping so the connection was poor. It was fun to at least say hi and Merry Christmas to family!

My aunt and uncle from Pennsylvania stayed with us for 10 days so we had lots of family time! One of the nights the aunts and uncles ("the adult table" as we called it growing up) had dinner so "the cousins table" had a big get together of our own! We were missing a few but we still had a blast!

My dad and Michele came for 2 days after Christmas (have you been keeping count, this is our 4th celebration!) Grandpa got Kaylee the slide she's been wanting now that we have a backyard to play in with no bugs! And Michele replaced Kaylee's worn out Tangled DVD! We are forever grateful for the new dvd!

And 2 days later Mandy and Seth came to visit! 5 Christmases! I suppose we were making up for the last 5 years of being gone. :) Kaylee had a good time chasing Crum but her favorite activity was making Uncle Seth read to her, no matter how thick the book or how big the words. I think he could have been reading in latin and she still would have been mesmerized.

And now all of our house guests are gone, the Christmas tree is outside and the decorations are slowly going back in their boxes. We are looking forward to a wonderful 2012 in California with more family time, seeing all of our friends who we've missed terribly and watching Kaylee turn 3. It's going to be a great year! Come visit! Seriously! I'm so excited to live somewhere close enough to have visitors!!! :)

Happy 2012!