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.

California!

Our 2 week vacation in California was absolutely wonderful! We celebrated Kaylee's birthday with family and friends, then spent the rest of the time at beaches, pools, and playdates! Get settled in, you're about to read the longest blog post ever...

A few days before we left for our trip, a large tree branch fell on my truck and put it in the body shop. We had a rental car which worked out nicely for our ride to the airport. So we dropped the car off at RDU and took the shuttle to the airline. This is the only picture I got of Kaylee wearing her cute backpack! I filled it too heavy and she fell backwards when I tried to make her wear it. Oops!

Kaylee was a great traveler! She stayed in her carseat and was content to watch movies and play with toys. Kaylee loves the movie Madagascar so she watched in on the first flight to Chicago, then we had video screens at each seat on our flight to CA so she watched cartoons. Brilliant!

We got into SFO just around dinner time. My dad and Michele picked us up and treated us to Round Table Pizza at Michele's house before doing anything else. That was my number one place to eat, no other pizza can even rival the King Arthur's Supreme. I was so busy devouring my pizza that I didn't get any pictures!

Other food places on our list were:

• Jade Garden (the best authentic chinese food around - specifically their Honey Walnut Prawns)
• Jack in the Box (oh how I miss their Spicy Chicken sandwich)
• Manleys Donuts in Willow Glen (can you believe they don't have REAL donuts out here? tragic!)
• Eriks' Deli Cafe
• Togo's
• Carl's Jr
• Baja Fresh (John's place, not mine)
• Casa Azteca (My place, not John's)

Sigh...as I typed all of those, I'm salivating. We were able to check them all off of our list! My dad took me to Jade Garden again the night before we left so I could eat an entire plate of Honey Walnut Prawns by myself. If you live in the Bay Area, you MUST go eat there.

Okay, back to the real stuff you came for. :) We stayed at my dad's house for the 2 weeks. The morning after we arrived, John and Grandpa (R.) took Kaylee up to feed the neighbor's cows. She's never seen cows in real life and seemed to really like them!

Kaylee also got to meet a lot of animals on this trip! While I prepped for the birthday party the following day, John took Kaylee to Grandpa W's house! Kaylee met Lady there.

Then Crum came to visit with Aunt Mandy and Uncle Seth! I think Kaylee liked how small he was compared to her own "puppies".

We met Bella, the Bloodhound who could be Gauge's long lost sister (if Gauge was actually a bloodhound that is!)

And Cleo was Kaylee's favorite animal of the trip! She petted her more than I've ever seen her touch a dog, including our own! And she gave Cleo lots of kisses! Made me want to get a little dog for her!

She liked to "woof woof" at my dad's cat Squirrel, but she never wanted to pet him. (Don't blame my dad for the cat's silly name, that was my doing! haha)

We celebrated Kaylee's 2nd birthday (2 weeks late) and the party was a success! She doesn't like cake or very many sweets, so the food was really for everyone else. The full party blog post is over on my Kayteedids blog!

I made her dress in my sewing class, and of course the matching bow! She was pretty tired by the end of her party.

We went to the San Francisco Zoo with 2 of John's sisters and 7 of Kaylee's California cousins! It was a typical foggy, cold SF day but we had a great time!

We got there just in time for the bear feedings and Kaylee got nose-to-nose (with glass in between obviously!) with the bear! She thought that was pretty cool!

POOLS! Kaylee LOVES to swim and play in the water. She had a great time swimming at her cousin's birthday party.

And twice at Pool 4 where Daddy grew up going every summer!

With Grandpa at Pool 4!

BEACHES!! Apparently Kaylee loves sand too! She got beach toys for her birthday and they were put to good use on the trip!

We went to Twin Lakes beach in Santa Cruz with Grandpa R.

And later in the trip, also spent a day with a lot of John's family at Seabright beach in Santa Cruz.

We also spent 2 days in Cambria (Southern California). My Aunt Charlene and Uncle Tim live in Pennsylvania but rented a beach house in Cambria for the week. It worked out perfectly and we got to spend time with a lot of my side of the family on that trip. John and I snuck away for a walk to the tide pools. He might not be smiling but he really was happy being there with me...I think. ;)

Oh my goodness, how white are my legs?? I need a California tan, stat!
Cambria sand must look like it tastes better than the other beaches since she didn't try to eat Santa Cruz sand!

She also learned how to "play" foosball with my cousins' kids (we just say they're Kaylee's cousins...much easier).

On our way home from Cambria, we stopped at Carl's Jr. to check it off our list. Mmmmm, Double Western Bacon Burger. *drool*

I had to take a picture with this sign. You can take the girl out of California, but you can't take the Californian out of the girl I suppose!

Kaylee had a blast with all of her cousins, but especially these two! They doted on her and she LOVED their attention! I'm really excited to be closer to them once we move so they can grow up knowing each other better than being so far away!

For her birthday, a long time family friend made Kaylee a special outfit to wear at Grandpa's house. Her shirt says "Kaylee" and the shorts say "Grandpa's Girl". And Grandpa got her a name rock to complete the current family rock line.

One night we went to dinner at Michele's (1 L) house, she has the best backyard for photo ops!

This is Michelle (2 L's). She was a good friend of my mom's and a long time family friend. She has been a honorary Grandma to Kaylee and a huge support to me. She's one of my inspirations for donating my hair (see how short it is!!). Blog post to come about that too!

Let's see, what else did we do...John went to the Giants game and rooted for the Dodgers. I got to see my best friend Jessica, Kaylee had a playdate with her friend Hayden, we ate breakfasts, lunches, and dinners with friends, and hardly stayed home! whew...I'm exhausted! I need a vacation from our vacation!

Cheesepuffs make the airport so much more enjoyable. :) Kaylee was a great traveler on the way home too, except for a little bit of crying on the last flight. Poor girl was sooo tired she just couldn't get comfortable in our laps. She eventually passed out snuggled in my lap though.

So we're home now, trying to get laundry done and keep the house clean for more showings. Hopefully we sell soon and can get back to CA. I got my "tan" (still white compared to most Californians though) but it's so hot here I doubt I'll see the sun for a few weeks. Today's heat index was 111. Awesome. As I type this the weatherman is saying 6am will be the coolest time tomorrow so plan to get out early....bwahahahahahaha!!! Me? Get up early? I'll just stay inside all day.