our little turkey (or ham)

We woke up early Thursday morning and ate some monkey bread, courtesy of Nana.  Kaylea had fun posing for pictures with all of the family.  We tried to take an afternoon nap, but this little turkey wasn't having any of that, so we just played until it was time to celebrate Thanksgiving with Jordy's family.  Kaylea was definitely tired, but did pretty good for not having a nap.  I thought she would fall asleep on the way home that night, but she didn't.  I think she missed her bed.  We had fun visiting everyone for Thanksgiving and are looking forward to doing it again at Christmas!

reasons to be thankful

We have so many things to be thankful for - and we got to see a lot of those reasons this past weekend. Below are some of the pictures Trina sent me from the time she and Meagan got to spend with Kaylea.  Thursday morning, Jordy & I took Meagan out to practice driving.  Trina stayed behind with my mom and Kaylea and played.  Kaylea loves these people and I think you can tell from the pictures. 

kaylea & mimi

trina & kaylea

it's a little early, but...

we got out the Christmas decorations this weekend.  I usually don't like to get them out before Thanksgiving and we typically take the tree down on Christmas Day, but things changed this year.  First, my mom was here to help entertain Kaylea (K actually did a great job hanging ornaments).  Second, we aren't going to be here right after Thanksgiving.  Finally, we are trying to go through packed boxes in the garage, so I was anxious to get going. 

I only took a few pictures of Kaylea decorating the tree, but we have done a little extra decorating.  It is cool to see how much more Kaylea understands some of the Christmas ideas this year.  I'm sure she doesn't understand the true meaning of Christmas, but she gets some of the ideas. 

She loves the Grinch!  I was hoping I could talk her into liking him because I had a Christmas dress made for her and that is who is on the front!  Enjoy our Christmas tree pictures and some random pictures of Kaylea in her cowgirl hat ;)



mimi is here!

My mom drove up to see us on Thursday afternoon.  She went with me to pick Kaylea up from day care.  Kaylea was excited to see her.  Kaylea said, "Mimi, you're home!"  That is what we have been doing all weekend - hanging out with Mimi (and Jordy & I got to take a date day to watch UL play Butler in Indy).  I miss my mom and it is great spending time with her here.  I sure hope she hurries and moves up here!

poor doodle

Last weekend, I noticed that doodle had been acting strange.  She didn't seem to feel well and she wouldn't eat or drink much.  She also had a scratch on the back of her hip.  I was worried about her, so I took her to the emergency vet at Purdue.  She had a case of pancreatitis.  She is going to be ok, but we have to put her on a low fat diet (chicken & rice), as this can reoccur.  She had to get an eCollar to keep her from licking the sore on the back of her hip.  She hated it!  She had it off within 3 minutes of getting in the car.  We put it back on and she just kept taking it off.  Finally, doodle won!  Kaylea wanted to take some pictures of the doodle and I took some of her.  She actually got one good one :)

videos

Jordy & I were running a few errands Saturday morning.  He went in to check on tire prices and Kaylea told me she wanted to stay in the car.  She was singing and making up songs, so I got out the camera and captured a few you may actually know.

lafayette dinner club

Jordy and I are making an effort to make friends in Lafayette.  I mean, if we are going to live here, we need to have people to do stuff with and need Kaylea to have friends.  Last night, we went to our first Lafayette Dinner Club.  We were disappointed that we missed our Southern Indiana Dinner Club (we would have been home way too many weekends in a row), but excited to meet some new people. 

There are 5 couples in dinner club here and this was our first one.  The hosting couple had to cancel, so we decided to go out instead.  Jen & Matt brought over their son, Owen to play with Kaylea.

Alex, Kaylea's daycare worker, came over to play with Kaylea & Owen.  Kaylea LOVES Miss Alex (can you tell by the look on her face) and was very excited that she was at her house.  Kaylea & Owen played...and ran...and jumped...and had a great night.

We stayed out a little longer than we planned and when we came back the kiddos were in full gear, running...and jumping...and dancing...and singing.  Needless to say, Kaylea was easy to put down for the night. 
We had a great time and I am thankful to have a sitter we can trust!

Kaylea & Alex

Kaylea & Owen

Jumping!

peanuts

It is great to know that our daughter is still entertained by the most minor things.  I ordered something and Kaylea was thrilled to play with box and peanuts.  If only life could be this simple forever!

where's kaylea?

Kaylea hasn't enjoyed taking baths lately, so I decided to try a few things.  We have switched to showers, color tabs, and the big girl tub.  I took some pictures of Kaylea taking a bath in the bubble bath a few nights ago.  She loved taking the bath - or maybe she just loved the bubbles..  We turned on the whirlpool to create a huge amount of bubbles - so many that I could barely see my little monster.  She had a great time and did not want to get out.

children's museum

Jordy had his first field trip at the new school - the Indianapolis Children's Museum.  It just so happened that I was off work this Friday, so Kaylea and I tagged along.  The field trip was only from 9:30 - 1:30 and then he was allowed to leave, so we thought it would be easy to hit the road from Indy, let Kaylea sleep, and make our drive easy to Sellersburg. 

I forgot my camera, but I did capture this picture of Kaylea on my phone.  She had a great time.  We didn't get to spend the first hour with Jordy, but he was able to join us around 11:00.  (Crazy field trip where you don't even stay with the kids.  All of them have parents with them and end up splitting up and meeting for lunch).

We looked at the dinosaurs and the trains - we played in the water & sand - rode the carousel - listened to finger puppet story time - enjoyed a snack - sat in a race car - and lots of other fun stuff. 

I'm sure we will make this trip again sometime while we live so much closer!

happy first birthday alton

We headed back to Southern Indiana this past weekend to celebrate Alton Niemeier's 1st birthday.  As we were driving out to the house, Kaylea tells me that her belly hurts.  I thought we should stop and get some medicine.  She, of course, hated it.  She continued to say her belly hurt and looked to be in a lot of pain.  She started screaming, and then puked everywhere.  Poor girl :( 

We weren't very far from the party and we were pretty early, so we got Kaylea changed and decided to see how she was feeling.  The mommy in me said she wasn't sick, that there wasn't a bug, and it was just something she ate or drank.  We watched her outside for a bit and she seemed to be fine.  She was running around and wanting to play, so we decided to go ahead and have the party.

Amy did a great job with the Hungry Caterpillar theme.  She had every last detail planned and everything was perfect.  The kids took home the Hungry Caterpillar book & a baggie of gummy worms.  Kaylea had  fun reading her book.

Alton dug into his cake. At first he wasn't sure, but he started to taste the icing and said, "yummy, yummy, yummy, yummy!"  It was too cute. 

happy halloween

We had a fabulous Halloween and hope you did, too!  I picked Kaylea up from "school" and we had to get our Moe's Monday to go.  They had a party at school - when I asked her what she had for lunch, she told me cupcakes!

We were probably the first trick or treaters out the door in our neighborhood (we were going to start at 5:00, but held off until 5:45).  There were only 2 houses that Kaylea was a little scared to go to - one had a big blow up ghost and the other had a guy dressed up pretty scary :)

Our neighbors had an Elmo pinata that they let kids take 3 swings at with a baseball bat.  Kaylea, of course, wanted a turn...she was clearly the smallest kid swinging the bat.  I held her up, and she swung 3 times.  She didn't do much damage, but I think she liked the idea of beating up on Elmo. 

Is it just me, or do people love to give gigantic handfuls of candy to the younger kids?  We only stayed out for 45 minutes, but Kaylea had plenty of candy.

When we got back to the house, Kaylea wanted to help hand out candy - she did a great job.  I thought for sure she would be up all night, but she pretty much crashed!

my favorite letter carrier

in full costume (she insisted on carrying her Elmo bucket instead of the mail bag)

her loot

one of the scary houses she wouldn't go to - do you blame her????

elmo - before he lost his arms & legs

my sweet baby girl

look how our baby has grown?