sweet Katie Boo

We had our sweet Katie Boo's 3 year old pictures taken this past weekend and I think they turned out well. Our friend, Brett took them again and I think he captured some good ones! I look forward to having both of the girls' Easter pictures taken soon!

This is one of my favorites! I have a 5x5 of this that I think is cropped a little bit closer and it is so pretty! I don't know if it will show up on the computer, but her eyes are so very blue in the "real" picture!
I love her eyelashes and this picture shows them off perfectly!
I love this because it shows off her personality so well!
another favorite-I think she looks old in this picture.

I took this picture so it's nowhere near as good as the ones up above. I had bought these 2 frames in Atlanta awhile back at Garden Ridge. They were soooo inexpensive and I love white frames in my house. As you can see, I already have them hanging in Katie's room with some of her new pictures in them. Chris doesn't have them hung in there really well yet but enough for me to see what they're going to look like anyway. I plan to put a picture of the girls together in the 5x5 frame when we get their Easter pictures done. I have a frame for Gracie's room too. Next time I'm in Atlanta, I think I'll go back and get the double 4x6 frame for her room also.

TMJ

I started not feeling well some time over the weekend. My head was so stopped up and my right ear specifically was almost completely stopped up. I was feeling quite off balance and just weird. I felt sure that I had either an ear infection or a sinus infection. One of my friends offered to watch the girls if I wanted to go to the doctor so I took her up on the offer and made an appointment for that afternoon. He examined everything and decided that my problem was TMJ. He has referred me to an oral surgeon. I thought it was kind of weird that my throat wasn't hurting and my nose wasn't really stopped up-symptoms I thought I'd have with a sinus infection.

He said my ears looked good and my sinus areas didn't really hurt when he pressed on them. He had me open & close my mouth a couple of times. He said, "That just hurts!" I told him I'm pretty used to it. My jaw has popped for as long as I can remember. He said it sounded like someone was grinding corn. I'm not sure what that really sounds like! He asked me who my dentist was and he said general dentists don't usually want to do anything about it since it's really a joint issue and not a teeth issue. I told him that I have talked to my dentist about it because last year I think I popped it out of socket and then back in. I just remember this horrible pain and I think a few minutes later it happened again and then for a few days I couldn't really bite down all the way on the right side. It was like I had to use my hand to manually move my jaw into position so I could bite down. It lasted a few days and I had a dentist appointment about a week later.

My dentist had basically told me there wasn't much they could do and it wasn't covered by insurance, etc. My general doctor told me this week that the guys he's sending me to know what they're doing when it comes to this and that I had to have something done. He told me to take 2 Advil 3 times and day and gave me a pain prescription. Honestly, I think I've only taken the pain pills twice because the pain was never too bad-it was more discomfort from having one ear stopped up! I have taken the Advil more because he said it would help with the anti-inflammatory issue that was stopping up the ear. It is really much better now so I'm anxious to see the oral surgeon next week to see if he thinks it's as bad as the other doctor seemed to think. It really doesn't usually bother me except for the 1 incident last year and then this week with my ear. Chris did look up the surgeon and he IS on our insurance plan so that's good. I'm not sure to what extent his services are covered but at least his name is listed as a provider so the initial visit should be covered!

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I got to sit outside with some of the kids at lunch Wednesday like Mrs. Stauffer had proposed. She chose 7 students and it was really fun. It was such a different atmosphere from the classroom. The kids were goofy-as 1st graders will be-I really enjoyed it!

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Last night, we went to Bruster's for ice cream. Gracie had a "free cone" coupon from her Book It reading and it was a nice night. Katie got a free "baby cone" too because of her size (yippee!). She was so cute eating it and she said-so enthusiastically, "I love it!" Gracie said, "Thank you, Mommy!" and Katie said, "Thank you Daddy!" I love it when they say thank you without having to be prompted.

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Gracie didn't have school today because of a Teacher Workday. I had said I would make a breakfast casserole for the Teacher Appreciation Breakfast one of the PTA ladies was coordinating. Chris agreed to take it up there around 7:30 on his way to work. Well, I got up around 6:00 and got it put together. I got back in bed around 7:00 and told Chris he would need to take it out of the oven. When I got up later and looked at the one in the kitchen-this is after he'd taken 1 to school-(I'd made 2) I was horrified! It was so ugly!!!!!!!!! It didn't taste that good either! I am soooo embarrassed!!!!!! Chris took the other one to the school and I'm only hoping no one really knew I made it! He gave it to the secretary who took it to the room where the breakfast would be. I just know the lady who coordinated the breakfast is going to know I made it because I'm sure she was mentally checking off all the things people had said they would bring and she'd suggested I do a hashbrown casserole-which is what I attempted to do. I'm not sure what I did wrong but it truly looked horrible! It tasted decent but looked horrible! I'm not sure if I should apologize to her or just leave it alone and hope she doesn't realize I made it!

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Posting these pictures will somewhat be telling on myself but yesterday Gracie & I did quite an overhaul on her bedroom. Cleaning & organizing. *Whew* What a mess. (this is part of what I swept up!)The poor girl doesn't really have any hope of being organized with Chris & I as her parents. She keeps any & every little toy or trinket that she ever gets. She wants to tape up everything she draws or writes. I love seeing her little "art galleries" around the house, but after awhile I find it's time to de-clutter them a bit. I took down quite a few things yesterday (I kept many of them) and already today she has put 3 new things up! I really do try to teach my girls how to keep the house neat and I try to model it. I just have to admit that being a good housekeeper is not my greatest talent. Please-no lecturing. I try.

Once I start in Gracie's room, it's really hard to stop until I'm finished. I did take some breaks but ended up finishing before we went to bed. I love how it looks now-all nice & neat. (nice & neat dresser-I do have the drawer pull for that bottom drawer) (her bed after we piled stuff on top of it so I could move furniture and sweep!)(she made her bed this morning and I think she did a great job! I had made it right before she went to bed last night so she must have slept very still!) If only it could stay that way. I have encouraged her to do a little each day so it doesn't get so bad. We'll see how this works out! She did spend quite a bit time today working at her table(her table piled high with stuff so I could move furniture & sweep) (much better! we put her dress up box under the table so it's out of the way-she can pull it out when she wants it) and I think she really liked everything being so clean. The bookcase & closet are the worst! I can spend forever working on those 2 areas. I love books & reading-as does Gracie-so books are aplenty!(only a little glimpse into trying to organize her books-The Kissing Hand is one of my FAVORITES!) (I love an organized bookcase-mostly chapter books on top, mostly hardbacks next then paperbacks) She did help me with the organizing & cleaning. She got to approve some of the things I threw away----and I threw some things away "on the sly." I filled a garbage bag quite full of "stuff!" (horse stuff-bigger horses are in the closet)

(closet-I'm not showing the inside-even after organizing it still doesn't look great!)

Now I need to work on Katie's room!

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Part of what Gracie did today was turn an empty box into a boat! She named it "The Family Ship" and upon my prompting, added people & a seagull to her ship and wrote a little story about it. Isn't the imagination of kids amazing?!?!

No!

Let me set the record straight.

No, I am not pregnant.

2 people commented wondering if I was.

I understand the the title of my last post, "I'm late, I'm late" could lead you to think that, BUT if you read the whole post, it should show you that "I'm late, I'm late" was referring to the famous White Rabbit line ("I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date!") from "Alice in Wonderland."

I'm late, I'm late

I enjoyed watching Gracie take her tests yesterday morning. I also enjoyed watching her class do their exercise video in the classroom! They get a pretty good workout! Chris liked doing the St. Patrick's Day activity with her and even went to lunch with her a little bit.

I gave Gracie one more hint about our surprise last night: "I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date." She said, "That's from 'Alice in Wonderland.' " She still never really guessed it but that's what we did. The community theater in town was having the play, "Alice in Wonderland" and we took the girls to see it. We enjoyed it. There is a 'Charlie Brown' play coming in a few months that I think would be fun to see.

Today, Chris has worked on a house project. Gracie & I went to the library-she wanted some books on the Boston Tea Party and the Presidents and then she & I went to Wal Mart for some groceries. Katie stayed home with Daddy. For some reason, Katie started getting sick this morning. She got real lethargic, fell asleep on the couch and woke up warm. She didn't want to eat, said she was sleepy and had said earlier that her tummy hurt. We cancelled lunch plans for tomorrow (soooo sad because one of my friends who is a wonderful cook had invited us over!), & started making other plans to get people to cover other things we were responsible for in the morning so that one of us could stay home with Katie. Of course, NOW she seems to feel fine. I do think it's because of the Motrin though. It'll be a good idea to keep her home in the morning, but maybe by tomorrow evening she'll be better and can go to Life Group.

Gracie Madelyn......

What is Gracie up to these days???

***I've been instructed that they can't say the "L" word at school. Believe me when I say that my mind raced when I heard that. I was thinking, "What in the world is the "L" word and please don't let it be what I think it might be!" Much to my relief, I found out that the "L" word was simply "leprechaun." Mrs. Stauffer told them they couldn't say the "L" word because then he might not visit their classroom. Of course, I've had lots of fun saying the "L" word just to hear Gracie squeal in protest! I'm anxious to see if he visits despite my having said his name!

***Tomorrow is a "Parent Activity Day" at school. Chris is off so he'll get to go! They gave quite a few options for ways we could participate. They'll be doing presentations of how the Smart Boards work in the library. I have a pretty good idea of how they work (and they're really cool!) but I think Chris is going to sit in one of the presentations since he hasn't been around them as much. Fridays are always "testing days" for First Grade, so the teachers said we could come & observe them take their tests then stay for the St. Patrick's Day activities. I am interested in seeing how the testing process goes each week (reading comprehension, phonics, math & spelling) so I'll go observe that then Chris will come for the "fun stuff" and stay for the Smart Board thing. This way, we can both participate but not have to take Katie OR find someone to watch her. Since I'm in her classroom generally once a week & have participated in other "fun things" this year, I thought I'd let Chris go do the fun stuff tomorrow.

***Mrs. Stauffer asked if I'd stay a little longer when I go to the school on my regular day so that I could stay through lunch. She wants to give the kids the incentive to sit outside during lunch-guess who their chaperone will be?? I guess they can get their name put in the bucket when they are acting the right way and then Mrs. S will choose a certain number of names to pull out. Hopefully it will serve as an incentive for the kids and more of them will make good choices. Sometimes even the simplest of incentives can go a long way in helping a child do the right thing! Gracie & I hope that her name will be pulled at least once!

***She is into reading the "American Girl" books right now. My friend Kate loaned her the 'Samantha' & 'Felicity' ones and Gracie has latched onto them. The other day we had a mini "Boston Tea Party" lesson after reading a reference to it in one of the 'Felicity' books. She wanted to go to the library to check out books on it so I guess we'll be making a trip there soon.

***She is turning into me as far as loving to watch "Little House on the Prairie." We watch it together a lot.

***She told me the other day that she still doesn't understand how God & Jesus are the same 'person'. I tried to explain it once again all the while admitting that I don't understand it all myself! We talked about how it's good to ask questions about things like that & prayed that God would help her to understand.

***She is excited about a special something we're doing tomorrow night but she doesn't know what it is. I gave her some hints but she can't guess it. The hints are: 1.) We're all 4 going. and 2.) a white rabbit

***I am having a HARD time clothing her!!!!!!! I am quite conservative when it comes to dressing her (& myself!) There are some things out there in the 6 year old fashion world that are probably "okay" but she's not begging to wear them and I don't love them so I'm not forcing them on her. I don't know if that makes sense. I'm just really trying to teach her modesty & decency. I know some people probably think I'm crazy but if I haven't started teaching her modesty already I feel like I'd already be behind. The problem I'm having isn't that she's begging to wear things that are inappropriate. She really couldn't care less about fashion! It's that she's 6 1/2 years old and a lot of size 6 or 6X things are HUGE on her. Shirts that hang off her shoulder or gap really big in the front or the armholes are so huge that you can see clear through to the other side-& everything in between! If the pants don't have adjustable waist I can pretty much forget it. Even if they do have the adjustable waist she still sometimes can't wear them. I think she's precious and I'm proud of her for already having a good grasp of whether or not she should wear something as far as the modesty factor goes. Like I said, I know some people probably think I'm crazy but I really don't care. Hopefully teaching her modesty in dress will impact the purity of her heart & life and that's way more important than whether or not she's wearing the "cool" clothes. Don't get me wrong......she looks cute! She just looks cute in a modest way! I have a hard time looking at 4/5 size things at Target for my 6 1/2 year old! Besides, some of those things are too short. She has been getting a lot taller lately. Let's just say when I find a t-shirt that fits (like some of the Target ones) I look for many of them in different colors/patterns!

***Katie fell off the couch this afternoon (I don't know how!) and I loved the way Gracie rushed over to see if she was okay!

***My heartstrings were pulled the other day when I was at lunch with her class. I just stayed for 5 or 10 minutes and I told Gracie & Hunter that I'd be picking them up later. A sweet little boy who sits next to Gracie at lunch looked up at me and said, "Can you pick me up too?" It about broke my heart and I wanted to take him home with me! I said, "No, I'm sorry. I can't." He walks to a friend's house and we'll sometimes see each other as I'm driving down the road. It's only about 3 blocks he walks but it still makes me sad that he's walking just with other kids and no adults. We are very much a "neighborhood school" and quite a few kids walk alone or in groups-from the middle & high school also. I tend to keep an eye out my window and am very alert whenever I see a car stop and a child get in. I always think, 'if that child ends up missing, I'll know what kind of car they got in.' I really probably wouldn't have as good a memory as I think I would unfortunately. This particular boy was so incredibly shy last year (he was in Gracie's K class too) and this year has really seemed to come out of his shell a lot. He is reading really well and is funny and sweet. One time he saw us on the porch of our house as he was riding his bike and he talked about that the next time I saw him at school like he just thought that was the coolest thing that he knew where we lived.

***She is into horses, horses, horses. She wants to go to 'horse camp' this summer and have a sleepover birthday party with 2 little girlfriends (only 2-yea!!!!!) with a horse theme.

***These are just a few things I can say about my sweet first born baby!

our sweet 3 year old

*Post & pictures about the birthday weekend is below this one*

Happy 3rd birthday to our sweet Katie Boo!

our sweet newborn~3/10/04

our sweet 1 year old~3/10/05our sweet 2 year old~3/10/06our sweet 3 year old~3/10/07

Hot Dog, Hot Dog, Hot Diggety Dog!

This weekend was my baby's big birthday weekend-and a big one it was! Even though her birthday wasn't until Saturday, Friday kind of felt like it was because we had her party that day. Friday morning, she & Gracie ate breakfast together as usual, but that day "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" cereal was part of it! Mickey & Minnie Mouse were her party theme so I couldn't resist the cereal when I saw it-I even had a coupon. (note: it doesn't taste very good!) Her hair is slicked back in this picture because I'd just washed it.

Chris' truck decided to go kaput that morning on his way to work-as our vehicles are known to do from time to time, so the day didn't go quite as planned. He ended up taking the van to work while my friend MB chauffered me around all day picking up the cake and various other errands I needed to run.

Grammer & Pappy (my parents) arrived late in the afternoon in time for the party. Chris & I went to pick up the balloons, we packed up the car and off we went to set up for the party which started at 6:30.

One of my friends had told me about this party place. It was kind of far away to do a party-about 15 miles-but it was a neat place. It was at an ice cream place which had this huge party room that was totally overstimulating to the children. It was a party though so it was completely okay! I was glad for them to have a place where they could run and talk loud and just play without worrying too much about breaking anything or having to clean up too much when it was over!

They had 2 indoor "jumpers," air hockey, foosball, karaoke, Pac Man, other arcade games, toys, etc. We had hot dogs, chips, drinks, ice cream & cake. One time, my mom said Katie came up to her and threw her arms around her and said, "I having fun!" What more could I ask for?!?!

One of the funniest things that was completely caught on video but not on camera was when Katie literally spit on her cake! She was working hard to blow out her candle and I could tell that she was probably spraying it pretty good but then we all saw spit literally drip onto the cake! It was so funny! I told everyone I would eat that part! We had invited 5 little friends around her age. We included siblings & parents for this party so it ended up being quite a few people. It was fun! I hesitate to post pictures of other people's children in case they're not comfortable with it, but I promise there were actually other people at the party!

After the party, we went home where the girls played with party gifts and I gave Katie one of our gifts. I had made her a Mickey & Minnie blanket. We saved the rest of our gifts for the next day which was her actual birthday.

Saturday morning started with the girls getting in bed with Grammer & Pappy rather than us then Pappy made Mickey Mouse waffles for breakfast. It's kind of a tradition for him to make waffles and I got him the MM waffle maker quite a few years ago. I figured it fit the day nicely so I asked him to bring it.

She opened her gifts from us and other family that morning. Gracie made the sweetest card for her. It's a fuzzy picture, but it says, "Dear Katie, You're the best. I'm glad you're going to be three. I love you very much. Happy Birthday. Love, Gracie."

I let Katie decide what to do since it was her birthday and she chose going to the park. It was kind of cool at first but then turned very nice! The girls had fun playing on the playground and Grammer was excited to find a community garage sale going on at the community center. After they played, we went to eat lunch then Katie took a nap and I went to a baby shower at church.

Everyone except Gracie & I took a nap that afternoon then the guys watched some basketball on tv and Grammer & I went out to pick up one of Katie's gifts that Gramme & Gramps had sent money for us to buy-an "add a pearl" necklace. I think this will be something special for her to have one day. It will be fun for us to add to it throughout the years.

After dinner, Chris & I decided to go to a movie. Problem was, we didn't get there in time to see the early movie so we bought tickets for the 9:50 showing. Wow-we are getting old because it was very hard for us to stay awake to see it. We went to the mall, Lowe's & Target trying to waste time. We probably should have just gone home but we had free babysitters at home and that just doesn't hardly ever happen!

Sunday was church then lunch then one of the best naps I've taken in a loooong time! Last night was church then potluck. Today I'm taking it easy as is Katie. Chris is at work and Gracie is at school. Life has somewhat returned to normal.

Dear Katie Boo Brooklyn,

On the event of your 3rd birthday, I write you this letter: I sincerely hope that one day you realize that your name is not really Katie "Boo" although I'm not sure you will since so many people call you that. I started calling you that when you were tiny and the nickname stuck. It is so "you" and I love it. My friends tease that your wedding invitation will include the "Boo" as part of your name!

You are such a joy to my life. You make me laugh daily and also frustrate me from time to time, but I'm so glad God made you the way He did. I love that you have such "spirit!" I love that you will carry around your pink bear or doll but that you also love Spiderman! I love how you squeal when Daddy comes home from work. I love how much you adore your Sissy and how you enjoy going to get her from school. I love how you say, "hold you" and hold up your arms for me to pick up.

Your best friends right now are Dillon (sounds more like Dillion when you say it), Bryson & Tatum. You have quite the crush on Dillon but Bryson too so who knows which one you'll choose! You & Tatum are both so sweet there needs to be 1 for each of you so I guess the 2 of you will have to each choose 1. I love how when I take you to "school" on Wednesdays, you almost always say, "Dillon be there," "Bryson be there." I love that those friends are not only in Bible Class with you but also at Mother's Day Out with you.

You love your grandparents and have fun playing with them. I love watching you talk and just be you and watching them be amazed at all you say & do. You are definitely a grandfather's girl. If you have a choice between Grammer or Pappy, you will almost always choose Pappy-which is okay because Gracie tends to do the opposite. You both love them both but you definitely lean towards being with one over the other.

I love how you throw your arms up in the air and say, "Touchdown! Romo!" It makes your daddy so happy! I love how you sing your "Thank you God" prayer. It is so sweet! I love how you like to point out things that God made. Even though I didn't think I would like it, I kind of like how you've started calling me, "Mama" lately instead of "Mommy." It sounds so sweet the way you say it.

I love you, Katie Boo Brooklyn and I'm so glad God picked me to be your Mommy! You're my favorite 3 year old!!!!!!!!!!

Love,

Mommy