Top Ten List

10. I loved watching the Oscars. A lot of it was boring, but I love seeing what people wear, listening to acceptance speeches - and especially this year, Ellen. She's one of my favorites! I also loved listening to Jennifer Hudson sing, and the sound effects choir was pretty cool too.

9. Oprah's special on her Leadership Academy in South Africa. Awesome. That woman has so much money - and she does lots of good things with it. I love her too.

8. Kaitlyn and Cora. This is one of Kaitlyn's favorite things to do in the morning. She says "it's just what sisters do." Okay...

7. Dieting stinks. I miss really good food and sweets. I miss real Dr. Pepper. I miss eating late at night... but I don't miss the 9 pounds that I've lost. Only 15 more to go. Yikes.

6. Kaitlyn and I enjoyed a "summer like" day on Friday. It was so pretty and warm! She got to wear shorts and eat a popsicle outside. She was in heaven.

5. While we were outside that day, some electricians came to replace some wires in the alley behind our house. 2 of them were up there actually working. The other two decided to hang out on Kaitlyn's swing set. Both of these "manly" men started whistling the tune to The Carpenters - Close to You. I only wish I was kidding. Yes, I took their picture.

4. My parents got to come for a visit this weekend. It's always so much fun having them here. Besides the incredibly disgusting dust storm that rolled in on Saturday, we still managed to have a good time!

3. On Sunday, some good friends gave us tickets to go see Cinderella at the Paramount. The Abilene Performing Arts center was putting in on, and we had seats on the 2nd row! Kaitlyn LOVED everything about it. Except when the Prince came out into the audience to try the glass slipper on a few little girls. She was terrified of this and held on to me so tight!!

This Step-sister was her favorite character.
Leighton, Kaitlyn and Emma - such sweet friends!

2. It's official... I'm not going back to work at ACU. Though I am so sad that I won't see those fun people everyday, I know this is what's best for our family! The Lord has just worked things out for me to be able to stay home during the day. I will start teaching next fall at Young Childrens World - where Kaitlyn goes now. I also started a new job yesterday with Big Brothers Big Sisters that will allow me to work some in the evenings and some from home. I am so thankful and excited for this opportunity! I just want to really enjoy these last 2 years before Kaitlyn goes to Kindergarden.

1. I have two beautiful girls that totally crack me up every single day. Kaitlyns personality is absolutely hilarious and Cora's smile just lights up the room. I am so very blessed!!!

Oh my goodness...

We just got back from Cora's 2 month appointment. I think she will be bigger than Kaitlyn. She weighed 14 pounds 6 ounces and was....are you ready..... 27 inches long. Yikes. Kaitlyn weighed 13 lbs 2 oz, and was 25 inches long. I'm just curious - does anyone else have a baby that came remotely close to this?

By the way - the rest of her appointment went really well. Kaitlyn was very concerned about her having to get shots. She held her hand and kept whispering, "It will be okay, it will be okay..." So sweet that girl. Cora stopped crying before I even picked her up. She did great!

Daddy Daughter Dance and the weekend....

Last Thursday James and Kaitlyn went to a Valentines Daddy Daughter dance. How cute it that. They both got all dressed up and enjoyed an evening filled with yummy food, getting their picture taken, and lots of dancing. They had a blast. Here are some pictures of Kaitlyn getting ready for their big night...


Oh my goodness, I better hurry!!

Brushing her teeth - one of her favorite things to do now.

Waiting for Daddy to get home...

All dressed up and ready to go!


They had such a fun time. Kaitlyn came home in such a silly mood. She couldn't wait to show me all of "her moves." She was proud of her daddy twirling and throwing her around. It was so sweet to see how happy she was when she came home. She wanted to take some funny pictures with me:

This weekend was Sing Song at ACU. I'm proud to say that Siggies won for the 6th year in a row. They were french fries and had a really cute show. Unfortunately, James' poor Moonies got 3rd. Too bad, so sad.... It's my cousin Brenna's senior year - so this was her last show. It was fun seeing her and all of her friends so excited. I will be so sad when she is gone and all of her fun friends don't come over anymore! They make me laugh so much.

So... today starts a new week. Cora has her 2 month appointment on Tuesday. I'm so anxious to see how much she weighs. I feel like she is HUGE!!!

Happy Valentines Day!!!!

Well, what a fun day so far! First of all, it snowed this morning - so that was fun to see. Although, I am getting ready for some spring weather so we can go on more walks and take more trips to the park. Second, Cora slept for awhile this morning, and I really enjoyed my time with Kaitlyn. We made a few Valentine pictures, did some activities in her new workbook, and watched Curious George. She's not usually snuggly, but she really snuggled with me on the couch for a little bit. I really miss that with her and was thankful to have that time this morning.

THEN.... (a little background) yesterday, my friend Amber called to see if Kaitlyn wanted to go over and play with Emma today. So at 11:00, I took her over there, and found that James had left a card for me. Inside, it said that I had an appointment for a massage at 11:30 and lunch plans to follow. It also said, "Don't worry about tipping Natasha, I already took care of it." I just thought that was funny - like I go see Natasha often or something. Anyway, James had called Amber last week about all of this, so she was prepared to watch both girls. Thank you!! I had to run home and change clothes real quick - seeing as I was still in my pajamas at 11:15 in the afternoon. I went and got a FABULOUS massage, and then got to eat lunch at Fujis - one of my favorites. On the way there, he told me to look in the glove box (because it's way more dramatic than just handing it to me), and I found a diamond necklace that I have had my eye on for a long time! James Mayo - you are totally out of control. It was so fun to be surprised, and to get an awesome relaxing morning!

Thanks for the best Valentines Day ever. You made me feel very special today. Love you!

A Day in the Life.....

This post may be totally boring, but I wanted to record what one day looks like at our house. Unfortunately, yesterday started WAY too early...

4:30AM - Cora wakes up starving
4:45 AM - Kaitlyn decides to join us
5:10 - Get back in bed, but I can't go back to sleep, so I head to the gym
5:45-6:45 - Body Pump
6:45- 7:15 - ran on the treadmill. Almost died.
7:30 - home to find Kaitlyn has not been back to sleep since 4:45. Should make for an interesting morning.
8:00 - James leaves for work - 12 pounds lighter. Whatever. Why do guys lose weight so much faster than girls? I read a few blogs while eating my Kashi cereal.
8:30 - Cora wakes up starving again. Kaitlyn watches TV for an hour until I make her turn it off.
9:30 - Send Kaitlyn to bed to take a nap. If she's been up since 4:45 it feels like the afternoon to her right?
9:45-10:45 - I thought I could take a nap, but Cora decided to be wide awake and talkative, so I hung out with her.
11:00 - Kaitlyn finally falls asleep (She had been up playing until now)
11:00-11:30 - I lay on the couch with Cora and try to sleep - didn't happen.
11:30 - Feed Cora. Again. This child eats too much.
12:00 - James comes home for lunch and Kaitlyn wakes up. Man - that sure was a long nap.
12-1:00 - Get everyone fed for lunch
1:15-3:00 - Take girls fora walk around campus, followed by a trip to Sonic for a drink and an ice cream cone for Kaitlyn
3:00 - feed Cora - wow! She made it 3 and A HALF hours this time! Kaitlyn watches The Backyardigans
3:30 - Kaitlyns attitude gets a little out of control, so she goes to her room for awhile. I start hearing her "play the blues" on her harmonica. After laughing to myself, I go talk to her about why she is in there, etc. and let her out. Then I cleaned the living room, washed dishes, washed out bottles, swept the kitchen floor, put on a load of clothes, and straighted up our bedroom
4:45 - Leave to go pick up James for a family trip to Hobby Lobby! I had to get stuff for Kaitlyn's Valentines box. She needs it for school on Tuesday. Nothing like waiting until the last minute.
6:00 - Home. Get dinner ready and eat.
6:30 - Help Kaitlyn do "her homework" as she calls it. We decorate her box while James feeds Cora.
7:15 - Start the bath for Kaitlyn
7:30 - Switch with James. I take Cora who usually gets fussy about this time. He makes sure Kaitlyn is clean, dries her hair, puts PJs on her, reads, prays, goodnight...
8:15 - James and Kaitlyn are both asleep in her bed. Nice. Anyone remember that I've been up since 4:45?!?!?!?!?!?!? Just wondering.
8:45 - Start making a CD for a sweet girl in our huddle group. I love iTunes.
9:00 - Katie comes over for a quick visit so I can burn a couple of her CD's. I love Katie Hooper!
9:30 - Feed Cora her last bottle for the night.
10:45 - She finally goes to sleep and I pass out in bed.

Well, there you have it. One long day. BUT - Cora slept all night! She didn't wake up until a little after 6:00 this morning. She's getting better!!!

I should be sleeping, but I'm blogging.

I had to change the template of this blog. I was getting so sick of the other one! I would LOVE a custom template - Kristen, how did you get yours??? Anyway, this will do for now.



Today has been a relaxing day. Me and the girls stayed in our pajamas until 3:00 this afternoon. If it would not have been for my friend Kat coming over, we probably would have stayed in them all day. It was great! I even got a 2 hour nap!


On Wednesday Kaitlyns good friend Emma came over to play. They have become such sweet friends and play really well together. It's fun to watch and listen to them.







We had some friends over to watch the Super Bowl last Sunday - and may I just add that I love the Colts. I love Tony Dungy, and Peyton Manning. It was a fun game to watch - but more fun to hang out with fun people!

Michael, Holly and Cora's future husband Riley

Our new friends Clint and Kat! Kaitlyn LOVES them...

Shout out to Lindsay, Brenna, and Katie who were also here - but the picture of all of the girls came out blurry! Bummer. We had fun though!

My cousin, Brenna is a Siggie and has been teaching Kaitlyn all of the Siggie songs. It's hilarious to listen to her sing them. Brenna babysat for us the other night and took Kaitlyn to Sing Song practice where they were decorating their costumes. I'm sure Brenna didn't get much done on hers, but Kaitlyn came home thinking she was 18 years old. I was changing Cora's diaper the other day, and Kaitlyn goes, "Mom - do you know that Cora is a Siggie?" Hilarious.

Brenna and Cora
Cora had her baby blessing at church last Sunday. It was so sweet - I love the way they do it at Highland. I will write about that tomorrow - it's 11:30pm and I better get some sleep while I can.

One more thing real quick - Kaitlyn knows pretty much all of the words to Beyonce's song Irreplaceable. I have got to post a video of that. To the left, to the left.......

Happy Birthday Mr. Progress 2007!!!

Today is James' 29th birthday! One more year until the big 3-0. Crazy!! His company had an awards dinner last night where he won "Mr. Progress 2007." I was so proud of him! Though I'm not completely sure what "Progress" is, I think it's a publication the newspaper puts out once a year that highlights what's going on in Abilene. It's supposedly a pretty big deal - one advertisers look forward to all year. James was the only one on his team to exceed the goal. And he's only been there 90 days! I really enjoyed meeting the people he works with every day. He is enjoying this job so much and is doing really great at it.

So, thank you James for working so hard to support our family! We are all very proud of you. Thank you for being such a wonderful daddy to your two girls, and a wonderful husband to me. Though I may not show it or tel you enough, I am so blessed to have you in my life every day.

Happy Birthday!!!

Here are a few more pictures that I've taken the past couple of days. Cora is such a little smiler! We enjoyed the beautiful weather yesterday and went to the zoo.

A Better Update

Okay, now I have a little bit more time. Here's how things are going.


Cora

She is a great baby for the most part. She has had a few days of crying her head off every time she is awake though. We have found that she loves for us to swing her in her car seat, and she likes sitting in her bouncy seat on top of a running dryer. Those two things calm her down with out fail. She sleeps really good, and if we can stay up and feed her the last bottle around 10 or 11, we only have to get up once with her, and then up in the morning. That's not too bad! She does have really sweet dimples on both cheeks, and so far her eyes are still bright blue. She had an abstructed tear duct, but that has cleared up - thank goodness. She is definitely putting on the weight! We find new rolls every day. We are so blessed to have another happy, healthy baby girl!


Kaitlyn

She seems to be adjusting well to being a big sister. She always wants to help, and will go get anything we need her to. We kind of feel lazy asking her to go get a diaper, go get a paci, a burp rag, etc. But she loves being in that role I think. Everytime she wakes up or comes home from school, she has to know where Cora is. The first time we put Cora on top of the dryer, Kaitlyn freaked out and yelled, "No! Don't wash Cora!!!"

We are really trying to figure out an approach to discipline that works. She is so strong willed and defiant sometimes. She is into talking back, and making really mean faces. We've tried sending her to her room - put she'll just play in there. Spankings work sometimes, but not consistently. There is nothing she is super attatched to that we could take away. So, I've ordered two books in hopes of finding some other alternatives. The Strong Willed Child by James Dobson, and another book called Shepherding a Childs Heart.


James

He is really loving his new job at the Abilene Reporter News. He has done really well so far! He is such a great daddy to both of these girls. He is always up for a sleepover in Kaitlyn's princess tent, a game of hide and seek, or letting Cora take long naps with him on the couch. I know it's hard for him to be at work all day long, but working so close to home he usually spends his lunch hour with us. Another thing I love about Abilene!


Me

Well, I'm trying to get used to staying home with two girls. Housework is never done, and dinner is rarely ready when I plan for it to be. Laundry is hard to keep under control, and I rarely get out of my pajamas. But I love every minute of it. I love the special time I get with Cora when Kaitlyn is at school, and I love when Kaitlyn is home and we can all hang out.

I'm finally back into the swing of things at the gym. It feels so good to exercise again. I'm in a little six week weight loss contest with some girls. Wish me luck! I have lots to lose that's for sure.

I guess that's about all for now - here are a few more pictures.

Happy Girl....

Sisters

Kaitlyn singing her High School Musical songs. She's quite the performer.

Cora chillin' out on top of the dryer. Whatever works!