Birthday- Version 3, Part 2

My mom has thrown Kyndall a family party the last couple of years so that my family won't have to travel so far to celebrate. Let's just say that this kiddo is blessed(or spoiled depending on who you ask). I mean she went to Chuck E. Cheese, opened some gifts, and went to Olive Garden yesterday, had a party today, and has one next week!

Kyndall, you are a miracle and deserve to be celebrated!

You insisted that Grandma get Tinkerbell on your cake. She did!


Last year you had issues with blowing out the candles, but not this year!
"Don't think about taking my ice cream bud!"

Even though Tinkerbell has moved into the #1 spot, Minnie Mouse is #2, and you still get excited about her.

I still can't believe you're 3 years old!

Birthday- Version 3, Part 1

My dear sweet Kyndall,

You are 3 years old today! Where did the time go? You weigh 26.6lbs and about 36.5 inches tall(we'll get official measurements Jan. 4). I think you've finally caught up clothes wise(at least for the fall/winter), and you're wearing 3T in almost everything and size 8 shoes.

Your vocabulary has exploded, so has your attitude, but you can make us laugh with some of the things you say. You have amazing gross motor skills and can hop, jump, run, and even skate with the best of 'em! You sing and count all the time.

You are pretty excited that your daddy "saves kids" and drives an ambulance at work, and that mommy drives a bus at work. You have lots of friends at school that you talk about all the time, and you LOVE your teacher, Ms. Nell.

So how did we celebrate your birthday? Well, the Baylor Bears celebrated early and won their bowl game! And because you stayed up to watch that game, we slept in.

I put on your special birthday girl outfit, and you made me go outside and take your picture. (I'm sure the days of wanting your picture to be taken are limited!)

After the photo op, we went to Chuck E. Cheese, where I didn't take many pictures, but you did end up with almost 800 tickets! You got a soccer ball, a thing of play dough, a pencil topper, and smarties. After CEC, we went and got banana shakes.

Then, you did a little skating! You got these from Santa, and you've skated almost every day. I have to admit, you're pretty good at it, and when you fall you get right back up and go at it again!

Later that day, Ganny and Pawpa came over to help celebrate! They brought you a cake, cupcakes, and lots of gifts. Then we went to Olive Garden for dinner where the whole section sang Happy Birthday to you! You were a little shy about it.

After dinner, we came home and you opened presents from Mommy, Daddy, and Uncle Mikey. You got a new comforter for your bed, new cowgirl boots, and a Tinkerbell tea set.

You had a tea party with your baby and bear! You even helped them eat and drink when it came time for that.












You light up my world and can always make me smile! I can't believe you're 3 now! I am excited to see what the future holds for you!

I love you,

Momma

(We also have a celebration planned for tomorrow for family and then a pancake pajama party is next weekend!)

Alamo Bowl

It's a good day to be a Baylor Bear! With a score of 67-56, Baylor beats Washington in the Alamo Bowl! This is Baylor's first 10 win season.

Sic 'em Bears!!

Merry Christmas

Because of Chad's work schedule, we did Christmas early. We did our Christmas Eve tradition on Friday and Christmas Day on Saturday.

Kyndall made out like a bandit! It was the year of Tinkerbell. I didn't know so much existed!

Checking out her stocking! She got Orbeez, which are the little water ball things.

Santa brought a kitchen! She's been asking for one of these since at least August.

Uncle Mikey got her Duplos. She has played with them a lot since she opened them!

She also got new puppets!

Christmas Eve we went to my Grandma's house for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner and to open presents. I some how didn't take but just a very few pictures, and those were taken at the end.

Here is GG with her 2 great granddaughters.

While Christmas has come and gone with lots of food, fun, and presents, we haven't forgotten the real reason. Happy Birthday Jesus!

Speaking of birthdays, I can't believe Kyndall will be 3 in 5 short days!

A new bed!

Kyndall is growing up! My parents got her a new mattress and box springs for Christmas/her birthday.

My dad set her bed yesterday, and I think she likes it. She made me lay down in it last night when I got home from work, and then made Chad do the same this morning.

She is getting new bedding for her birthday next week(holy cow, where did time go?!) so it'll look a little different once she has bedding that actually fits the bed.

I can't believe Kyndall will be 3 next week!

Kyndall loves her grandparents

My parents are in town for Christmas, and Kyndall is all about them! She has ridden with them to different places, she's had them pick her up at school, and has enjoyed having other people to read with her and fix their hair.

Kyndall and Grandpa reading:

Fixing Grandma's hair:

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas

With Christmas just around the corner, we've done somethings to help get into the spirit!

A couple of cities over, they do a big light display every year down town. We haven't gone since Chad and mine's first Christmas married, but we decided to take Kyndall this year to see the lights. It was a little disappointing for the adults but to an almost 3 year old, it was fantastic!

Here we are in front of the court house.

They had the world's largest rocking horse for people to ride on. Kyndall looks so small on it, and Daddy had to ride on it too.

There was also a 45 FOOT slide. Kyndall could have done this all night long if we would have let her! She went twice- once with me(pictured) and once with her daddy.

Every year at the church I grew up in, and the church Chad and I got married in they hold a Carols and Candles service. I have gone all but 1 or 2 years(one of which was 3 years ago when I was on bed rest) since I was almost 3. I figured that since Kyndall is almost 3, I'd see how she did during the service. She was a little restless before it started, but once it got going, she did really well! She did take about a 10 minute nap during the service, but woke up in time to light the candle. She held it super still and watched it closely. I can see this being a tradition that will continue for years to come!

Christmas pictures

I decided that this year instead of just putting Kyndall's picture on the Christmas card, we'd all be on it. I had a friend of mine take our pictures downtown, and they turned out amazing!

Check 'em out! (card to follow.)

Black Friday

I didn't do any shopping this year, though I wanted to. Instead, we went out to Chad's grandfather's house and had a 2nd Thanksgiving meal with his uncle from Oklahoma.

After lunch and before pie, we headed outside for some fun! Forget family football, Kyndall decided it was time for some family t-ball. For someone so tiny, she sure can pack a punch when it comes to hitting the ball.

After t-ball, she had to "drive" Popple's tractor!

Love this picture.

Hanging out in the tree.

Kyndall and Daddy in the tree that he grew up climbing! I'm sure Kyndall will follow in his footsteps and will soon be climbing this tree all by herself.

Next Black Friday, I'll be at the stores with all the crazies! As strange as it sounds, I really like Black Friday shopping.

World Prematurity Day

Today is World Prematurity Day. People all over the world are working towards finding a cure for prematurity.

Some facts about prematurity:

- 1 in 8 babies are born too early.

-There are about 1,400 babies in the United States alone born every day!
- 13 million babies world wide are born too early.

- Prematurity has no rhyme or rhythm. It does not matter who you are, how much money you make, what religion you are, what job you do. It can strike anyone at anytime.

- The cause for premature births is unknown in 40% of cases.

- The main causes for prematurity are infections/inflammation, maternal or fetal stress, and bleeding.

- The state of Texas scores a D when it comes to prematurity. (Find your state here.)

The March of Dimes is working hard everyday and doing research so that one day all babies will be born healthy.

Dallas Zoo

In addition to the Dallas World Aquarium, we made a trip to the Dallas Zoo. Kyndall got the experience so many new things, and we all had a really good time!

They have a whole section devoted to children. There is a big koi pool that has windows so that the little ones can see into it, goats, chickens, some playground type things, and a pony. We weren't sure how Kyndall would react to it, but we decided to give it a try. She was a little apprehensive at first, but once she got going she was all smiles!

One of the coolest things at the Dallas Zoo is that you can walk right up and feed the giraffes. I mean, how cool is that?! It's something that I've never done before, and I had fun. Kyndall wasn't too sure about it and wouldn't actually hold the leaf for the giraffe, but she was excited about the giraffes.

And this ladies and gentlemen, is the main reason we decided to go to the Dallas Zoo. Jamie the Giraffe, named in memory of James Camden Sikes. (You can read his story here.) She is still too little to be fed from the deck, but she sure is a spunky little thing!

Kyndall wanted to ride the camel as well, but finally settled for sitting on the elephant statue. Though she wouldn't sit on the "mommy elephant" just the "baby" one.

The zoo has a carousal that has a lot of different endangered species on it. Kyndall walked around almost the whole thing looking for an elephant. She made me ride the "horsey" beside her. If you ask her now what a merry-go-round does, she'll tell you it "goes round and round and up and down" a long with spinning her finger in a circle.

She still talks about the elephant that she rode on!

I'm sure we'll make it back to the zoo in the future.

Dallas World Aquarium

This weekend, we went to Dallas for Chad's birthday. We went to the aquarium and the Dallas Zoo.

We took a family picture in front of this waterfall last year, almost to the day. Goodness how things have changed!


Kyndall was super fascinated by the HUGE tank. I think she's telling me that that is "a big fish!"


By the time we got there, it was almost time for the shark feeding. We got to the shark tunnel a little early so we sat and watched the shark and sting rays swim over head and just inches away!

(Our shirts came from It's a Preemie Thing)

The aquarium doesn't just have fish, they have birds, penguins, bugs, and in the middle is a jaguar. It was pacing up down on one side of its cage, so Kyndall sat down on the other side. The jaguar changed directions, and it freaked her out a little bit. However, she thought it was pretty funny!

They also had a Mayan dance show close to the jaguar. Kyndall enjoyed watching them dance, and watched them intently, but wasn't too interested in having her picture taken with them.

We've only been twice, but its amazing to be able to see so many of God's creatures that we wouldn't be able to normally see without the aquarium.

Corn MAiZE

Yesterday, we went to the next town over to the corn maze. My brother came in so he went with us. We had a pretty good time, and I'm sure it'll become a yearly tradition!

They had a cute little set up to take pictures, but Kyndall wasn't so excited about doing that so the only one I got was of her on the little tractor.

Instead of a sand box, they had a corn box. I mean what else would they have at a corn maze? Kyndall had a ton of fun playing in it. She dug in it and even made a corn angel. She did have about 20 pieces of corn in her shoes though by the time she was done!

Through out the maze, Kyndall was out fearless leader. She would look at her "map" and tell us which way to go. She got us though the first half of the maze pretty quickly, but the

second half, we got pretty turned around and had to get a little help from the "corn cop."

We rode on the hay ride, which was just a covered trailer pulled by a tractor, but to a 2 year old, it was super fun!

They also had duck races, where you raced little duckies down drains by pumping the water up. Kyndall could have done this all day if we would have let her. She did it twice that day for about 10 minutes both times.

The maze has this awesome jumping pillow. It's like they took a blob and sunk it in the ground. If you know anything about Kyndall, she LOVES to jump(on just about anything!) So when she saw this, she took off towards it. She jumped for a good 20 minutes. Again, she would have done this all day if we would have let her.

There was also a barrel train, which she wanted to ride, but not by herself. Therefore, I had to get in with her. It was probably a 4-5 minute ride around the maze and was pretty bumpy, but she had a pretty good time laughing the whole time.

I finally got her to sit on a pumpkin and take her picture.

All in all, we had a good time, and next year will probably be pretty fun too!