By His Grace: The Hogue Family

Awesome shutterfly deal

2010-11-18T10:38:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone, I wanted to let you know of an awesome deal shutterfly is having! I love shutterfly and plan on using them for the holiday season. They have things from Christmas cards, photo books and so much more. i plan on using them for photo books which you can check out at www.shutterfly.com/photobooks and their holiday cards at www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards. They have such an amazing selection that everyone will defiently find something they LOVE!!!!! I would defiently use them for all my Christmas stuff as well as the many other days of the year you want to keep and cherrish and for other holidays as well! For the quality and variety of options, you can't go wrong with shutterfly.com! Here are a few examples of holiday cards that shutterfly offers:

This is a beautiful classic Christmas card where you get to show off many pictures of your adorable family!

I love this "Oh Holy Night" card because this is a time of celebrating Jesus's birth and reminding all the true meaning of Christmas!
This card is absolutely adorable. Not only do you get to show off your family on the card but also put your top 10 family moments to share with all.

There are so many choices to choose from , so what are you waiting for, get on shutterfly and check it out! You won't regret it!

Graduation from the Collier County Police Academy

2010-08-05T20:23:00.003-04:00

Josh graduating

Kaylee was hillarious, she kept turing around and saying "dada" and pointing up to the front but she was quiet the entire ceremony.

Marco Island Police Department

Josh's cousin, Doug, came to support Josh. It meant a lot to see him there. Doug got the privilage to tazer Josh during his training. :)

Josh has been going through the academy to become an Auxillary Policeman for Marco Island. He just graduated from the academy and will start serving the community soon. We are so proud of him! I don't have any family pictures, but will have some soon. I was given speical permission from the doctor to attend the ceremony but was to staying sitting as much as possible. One of the other wives mother took some picutes of our family while I was sitting down.

First time fishing with daddy and mommy

2010-08-05T20:12:00.002-04:00

She loves to fish. One of her favorite words is "fishhhh"

Daddy helping Kaylee

She caught a fish and she kept saying "fishhhh" and "fishhh wa wa" which means fish back in the water. She loved to catch the fish but didn't want to hurt them. Too cute.

We went to McDonalds afterwards to get an ice cream cone and play on the playgroud.

Kaylee's Big Girl Bed

2010-08-05T19:40:00.002-04:00

Kaylee LOVES her big girl bed. We deceided to go ahead and turn it into her big girl bed because it was getting difficult for mommy to put her in her crib with her pregnant belly and daddy was gone more nights due to the Police Academy.

Yes, we let her jump in her bed, she has a blast.

We had a tough couple of nights but then she adjusted really well. It was hard on mommy's emotions walking out of the room while she was crying each night but I had to remind myself that is what I had to do to get her to go to sleep by herself, just like in the crib.

When she wakes up in the mornings or from nap time, she yells out for mommy and daddy and stays put in her bed until we come in and get her. She is a great little girl! She just melts our hearts! We are so blessed to have our little girl!

Special Gift from Papaw

2010-08-05T19:35:00.002-04:00

Papaw sent Kaylee a special package. She was so thrilled to open the box. On the way up to our condo she kept saying, my present, my presnet. It was filled with yummy candies and gum, which she absolutely loved!

The biggest surprise was a book and a DVD of Papaw reading the different stories from the book. Every time she saw Papaw on the DVD she kept yelling "Hi, Papaw, Hi PaPaw" She loved getting to see Papaw's face and hearing his voice! Thank you Papaw for the special gift! She loved it!

Hogue family times from this summer

2010-08-05T19:21:00.004-04:00

Kaylee LOVES to play hide and seek, her new favorite spot is under daddy and mommy's bed.

She's mimicking everything daddy does, she loves playing with him!

4th of July before heading to church and a party that night

Father's Day 2010

For Father's Day lunch we ended up going out with our friends from The Family Church. We had a great afternoon with the Hoskins, Nowlins and Khors families. Baby Luke was with us but somehow didn't make the picture. Then we headed to Josh's parent's house to celebrate Father's Day that night.

6 months pregnant the night after we got back from our trip

West Palm Beach Boardwalk

Headed to the East Coast

Disney 2010

2010-06-29T16:24:00.011-04:00

Josh surprised me for my 26th birthday to take our first family vacation. Josh's sis, Jennifer, went with us as well. We had a blast. Josh took us to the Cornado Springs Disney Resort. It had a mayan ruins theme through out the entire property. We got there late at night (Orlando) and then headed to Disney World the next morning. We spent the entire day there, literally we were there from around 9:30 am until 9:30 pm, when the fireworks show was over. The next day we spent the day at the resort and enjoyed the pool area. It had ruins built over and around the pool property, had a large slide for anyone to go down. (You could only go down one at a time, so we didn't get to take Kaylee down) She would have loved it but there is no way she would have made it 5 feet down the slide alone, of course :). They also had a kid's pool, where she got to play with the water shooting up out of the pool. Afterwards we headed back to Naples and on our way home stopped at Amish Restaurant somewhere in between Orlando and Naples. It was delicious food!

Our family at Disney! (I was 6 1/2 months pregnant)

Kaylee was ready to go and have some fun

Cinderella's castle

Dancing in the streets of Disney with Daddy

Kaylee is super excited to see all the characters

watching her first Disney show

having fun on the tea cups

She was so excited to see Mickey and Minnie(her birthday party was Mickey Mouse Club House)

After Minnie had to pull Mickey away bc he was scaring her

On Dumbo looking over the park.

Kaylee and Aunt jennifer on a ride waving to all the characters

I am not for sure who is more excited!

At Disney's Parade, she loved it!

Daddy talks to Kaylee like Donald Duck...mommy loved it when he did it back in college and now Kaylee loves it too. She was yelling "daddy" when she saw donald duck.

Enjoying some time at the resort's pool area

Daddy going down the slide

Kaylee having a blast in the kiddy area!

Josh is ordained!

2010-04-25T15:35:00.006-04:00

Josh giving his testimony

Josh's ordination was on April 11th 2o1o after we had the birthday party at our house. It was an extremely special occasion. Pastor Tim Neptune preached a sermon to the pastor's and had a few other pastor's from the ordination council speak as well. Then, each man had to share his testimony to the congregation and Josh brought me and everyone else to tears when he addressed me at the very end of his. Then all ordained pastor's prayed over the men:for their families, calling and their ministry. Then Pastor Neptune preached and then the men were presented their certificates and the wives flowers. There was a party afterwards at the church where the men got a concordance of every book of the Bible and the wives got a book as well. I didn't take a ton of pictures bc we had a photographer there and all the pictures as well as the service are on FBC Marco's website. We also had other family member's attend such as Josh's mom, G-G and sister (jennifer) who are not pictured on this blog but super grateful they were there in love and support!

Two prego pastor's wives: I found out I was pregnant at their house!

Pastor's wives who's husband's just got ordained:

Katie, Jamie, Amanda, Jenny and myself

whewww...we've survived!

Pastor Aron put his ordination certificate down somewhere so we wives shared our flowers :)

Praying over our husbands

Mimi and poppy

Jim, Jenny and Ashley

Grandpa, Sara and Stephen (Amanda-pastor Casey wife ducking her head :)

daddy's first baby gift for Elijah from me

Daddy and Kaylee on April 10th-their birthday! After an amazing dinner

Kaylee and Daddy's Birthday Party

2010-04-25T14:54:00.007-04:00

The day started off by going to church then a baptism followed. Then headed home with lunch to finish preparing for the party. We had a wonderful day. After everyone arrived, Kaylee opened gifts and showed off every single one, I have a few pictures of some gifts on here. She loved being the center of attention and even twrilled for everyone multiple times. We were so blessed to have so many family members and friends (Nichols and Ashley Santana) who came to the birthday and ordination party. Josh had a great time as well. It is my prayer that Josh always feels special on his birthday as well...two down....many many more to go..Lord willing! We also cut the cake to announce the gender of our second baby due Sept. 10th, 2010. We had an absolute blast. As soon as we finished, everyone headed to FBC Marco for Josh's ordination ceremony, sermon and party afterwards. Then we all went out to dinner late that evening to finish the wonderful night off! Thank you Lord for such a wonderful day and to have two special people celebrate their birthday's on the same day!

Kaylee liking what she sees

seeing her cake for the first time

loving on her new bear and her new shoes

Kaylee twrilling for everyone, she loved the attention!

loving on her new bear

showing Mrs. Jenny her new shoes

opening a gift from Poppy and Mimi

Again, showing off another pair of shoes

super excited she got fruit snacks from Grandpa/ma

A picture of her with her new pony

Adorable rain/barn boots to go see her new pony in

A new trike from daddy and mommy

She's a "big" girl, she knows what to do

Happy Birthday Kaylee and .......

Daddy

and baby # 2 is.......

a Boy: Elijah John Hogue

She loves "H" : Hansley, she is showing him her picture of her with her pony

Daddy got 2 i pod touches amongst other things

Daddy used a rabbit as part of his teaching lesson the morning of the party and we brought him home until his parents could take him....we fell in love with it..NO we did NOT keep it at our house for good!

This is daddy's ordination gift from mommy: newspaper front page article his was on, our first FBC Marco publication of introduction and a picture of surprise party on first day at our new church.

Birthday boy with with birthday girl! The two most wonderful people in my life! HAPPY BIRTHDAY YOU TWO!

Kaylee's Birthday Cake

2010-04-25T14:37:00.007-04:00

Covering the top level of the cake with fondant

Daddy "dirty" icing the bottom layer of the cake

Making the fondant for the bottom layer

Kaylee's 2nd Birthday Cake

Side of cake with Goffy's extended leg

Back of cake

other side of cake with hot air balloon hand

We deceided to make Kaylee's birthday cake again. She absolutely loves Mickey Mouse Club House so we searched the internet for different ideas. Also we deceided to keep the gender of our second baby a secret until the birthday party. We colored the inside of the cake to let everyone know what the gender was. I found a recepit for fondant that actaully taste really good, unlike the professional fondant. Now that I tried out a new recepit for fondant, know how it works and molds I am super excited to make more with it. I loved the recepit.

"Da Da, Boo Boo"

2010-04-09T19:30:00.002-04:00

Daddy and Kaylee were playing, aka: Kaylee was sitting on daddy's back and jumping up and down. Kaylee got a little too rough and slapped daddy on the back pretty hard. Mommy told Kaylee " that wasn't very nice and that hurt daddy" and to " tell him your sorry". Normally she would proceed to say "sorry" and give a hug and/or kiss. Instead, this time as she was sitting on his back, had a remorsful look on her face and leaned down to appoligize, she pointed to daddy's new facial hair and said with such a serious look, " Da da, Boo Boo". She thought daddy's new facial hair was a boo, boo. Too cute!

Easter 2010

2010-04-05T17:02:00.008-04:00

HE IS RISEN!!!!

We allowed Kaylee to spend the night with grandma/pa bc we had just been surprised with her pony the night before. We don't do the Easter Bunny so it didn't matter when she got her Easter Basket and she is about to turn two so in the nursey at church, she wasn't really going to understand much about the real meaning of Easter.
After church, we headed to Aunt Beth's house for Easter lunch/dinner. We all had a great time seeing everyone and enjoying the fantastic weather! We tried to take some family pictures but Kaylee wasn't always the most corpertive :). Then we ate dinner and then had a Easter egg hunt which Kaylee had so much fun with. Kaylee loved going down the slide and and playing on the swingset and in the play house.

Kaylee and mommy hunting for eggs

Daddy and Kaylee searching for some yummy candy!

Daddy and mommy relaxing for a moment

Trying to get one more family picture. Then Kaylee left to a white chair she found

Kaylee wanting to be done with pictures

Now she is letting us know she is done!

I've had it mommy!

Daddy trying to get mommy!

Having fun on the swings

Clapping her hands bc she did such a great job of taking a picture

Kaylee playing with her cousin Kayla

Getting home that night and finding her Easter basket in her room. Yummy suckers!

What is this daddy?

Mini Pony for Kaylee

2010-04-05T16:22:00.006-04:00

To say Josh's family loves animals is an understment! Josh's mom has really been wanting a minature pony for her grandchild/children to have to ride on. They have 5 acher's of property and have a ton of room for Kaylee run around and have fun. Josh's parent's called and asked us to come over Saturday bc they had a surprise for Kaylee and it couldn't wait til Easter. So we went to their home and this was her surpirse...a Mini Pony named Macaroni, which Kaylee calls Roni becuase it's easier to say. Not only do they have Roni but also two other Pony's. I don't have any pictures of the other two. Kaylee loves her "Roni". She had to warm up to her but then she started to give her hugs and kisses (no, not on the mouth) and rode the pony around the front yard. Later she took the rope and started walking the pony around the front yard. She had a blast. She loves her Roni!

Showing Daddy and Mommy what she got

Metting Macaroni for the first time

Sitting on Macaroni and getting use to her

Grandpa and Grandma taking kaylee for a ride
on her pony

Giving her a kiss

Feeding her a carrot

Giving Roni a hug.

Loving on Roni

Walking her pony

Taking out the Gym

2010-04-05T16:17:00.002-04:00

Our church, FBC Marco, the Family Church, owns a Gym. It is used to transport people to the other parking lot. It is fully open on the sides and is street legal. So we put Kaylee's car seat in and bucked up and hit the streets of Marco for a family night. We drove around for an hour enjoying the beautiful Florida weather! (We have been waiting for this weather for a while now).Here are a few pictures of us while riding in it.

MOPS Table Easter Egg Hunt

2010-04-05T16:07:00.004-04:00

I am a small group leader for MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) at FBC Naples. I was having a tough first tri-mester so one of the ladies hosted at her house. I was extremely grateful just to have to show up and not plan anything! We had a great time, the kids played in the house for a while, then we had an Easter Egg Hunt and then enjoyed a wonderful lunch. Kaylee had a blast expect for when a kid accidently knocked her off her feet onto her back due to her walking in front of the swing set. (first time experience for everything I guess).

Naples Zoo

2010-03-26T10:41:00.005-04:00

We finally after living in Naples for over a year got to the Naples Zoo. It is quite expensive to go to this zoo, but on the first Saturday of every month you can get in for free if your a resident. So we finally found a Saturday we could go and and got there early bc we were told it gets crowded. We had a great time. Kaylee did great with all the animals and loved making the sounds with them. This time she wasnt afraid of the monkeys, she loved them! The lion scared her a little when she started doing his "call", boy was it loud! We got to take a boat ride to see the monkeys on the islands where they live. Then afterwards we played on the playground before leaving. We got there at the perfect time bc when we were wrapping up with the last animals it was starting to get crowded.

Visit Auntie Gail and Bob

2010-03-26T10:26:00.004-04:00

Josh has Monday's off, so one monday this past month we packed up and headed to "The Villages". It is a city North of Atlanta. It is a really cool place. It is a place where inside the town they have everything they need. They can drive there cars everywhere or the golf carts to where ever they want to go. And when I say golf carts, most of the golf carts are more dected out and cost more than many people's own personal cars.(not everyone's is like that but many have some pretty amazing golf carts) It's pretty neat. We got to their home around lunch time and enjoyed a wonderful meal with them and then spent the afternoon with them until around 6 pm and then had to head back home because we had a 4 hour drive. We had an absolute blast! Kaylee and I have never met Bob before becuase he is sick and if you have even a slight temp or cough, ect you can't come around him. The last time we stopped bye Kaylee had the sniffles, so Autnie Gail met us at one of the resturants in the town and Kaylee and I got to spend some time with her. It was great getting to see her again and getting to meet Bob for the first time. After lunch Auntie Gail took Kaylee and I out on the golf cart to show us around while Josh

stayed back with Bob. Kaylee is like her daddy where she has to adjust to the new people before opening up with her bubbly personality. After a little while she loved on Auntie Gail and Bob like she had been around them every day of her life. It was so sweet and special! We pray we can get back there again in a couple of months!

Giving Auntie Gail a High-5

Kaylee and Bob

Daddy, Kaylee, Bob and Autie Gail

Kaylee takin to Grandpa on the way home

Kaylee is growing up!

2010-03-26T10:07:00.003-04:00

Kaylee is turning 2 in two weeks. Time sure does fly bye! She has changed so much. She is just now fitting into her 12-18 month size clothes and size 4 shoe. She just started twoish weeks ago wearing size 4 diapers. Even though she is a tiny lil thing right now she is a ball full of energy. My goodness I have an idea of what my mom went through with me :)

She loves her frog (and it smells terrible bc she sucks on the silky part at night and sometimes during the day if we go somewhere). I have to wash the frog once a week just so we can survive with it being around :) She is a lover but not a cuddler (unless she's sick). She loves to run up to you and randomly give out kisses, especially if your in the bed. I think she could give mommy and daddy kisses all day long. I am praying that our next baby (we know the gender and name but not announcing yet) will be a cuddler! Kaylee wants nothing to do with cuddling or rocking! She crosses her arms in the sign of love to tell you she loves you but right now she gets a kick out of telling us "no" when we ask if mommy and/or daddy love her or if she loves us because we have a tickle "fight' with her and she loves it.

We have started to read in our bed at night to get her calmed down at night time. Doesn't happen every night but try to. She says B, B-which means her Bible. She loves reading her Bible, we just pray that this desire will continue throughout the rest of her life. She also loves to sing and dance. Oh my does she have her daddy and mommy in her. In the shower, yes daddy calls it "water park", where he stops the drain with a plastic bag with magnets to where the water fills up while the water falls down from our shower head and plays in the 'water park". Usually Kaylee tells daddy she wants him in and she doesn't usually give up until he gets in...it's quite humerous! In the shower she will start singing and dancing and having a ball!

When we ask her a question or ask her to do something she says "ta" for "ok". It is so cute, just melts our hearts! We are working on using her words and learning new words. She has got quite a few animal sounds down such as: monkey, lion, dog, cat, cow, duck, ect. Now we are trying to get her to learn the actual words to them and other things.

Kaylee plays so well on her own. I am amazed at how she keeps herself entertained! She is all girl and loves to play with her dolls, stroller, purses, dress up clothes and shoes, oh especially shoes and her kitchen and all the things that go with it. She absolutely loves shoes!!! She has to show everyone her shoes!

I am sure I am forgetting a lot of stuff right now so I will post some more when I can get internet access and remember what else I wanted to post so we wouldn't forget!

Baby # 2 updates

2010-03-14T20:36:00.005-04:00

Sorry it's been so long family and friends since I have up dated our blog. I am 14 weeks pregnant (3 1/2 months) and it has been a tough pregnancy so far for me. I am not complaining, greatful I have a precious child in my womb but it has been difficult compared to when I was carrying Kaylee. I have been nausea off and on a lot of days, which brings me to a point of laying on the couch a lot or in the floor by Kaylee playing. I have been getting severe headaches (usually at least one a day, sometimes more) that last for a good while..even Tylenol doesn't help some of them. I am not as exhausted these past two weeks, praise the Lord, because I was taking a nap almost every day while Kaylee took a nap (sometimes 2-3 hour naps). I hated it becuase I felt like I had lost so much time in the day to get stuff done but I know this is what my body is needing right now so I am just having to "let my house go" a little. I like everything in it's place and clean but lately it hasn't been like that everyday when Josh gets home.

He has been such an amazing husband and daddy. He's been so considerate by helping out extra with Kaylee and even getting her out of our condo for "adventures" a lot of nights. Sometimes they are only gone for 30 minutes (just enough time to get all the dishes cleaned up and the rest in the dish washer ) but Kaylee's loves them and it gives me some quiet time while I get it done. He has been great with dealing with the mess when he gets home.

I have also been getting sharp shooting pains in my legs, I think from sitting too long but I haven't been back to the doctor to be for sure. It can be quite painful and there is not much I can do to get rid of it. I get up and walk around and move up and down my legs and knees and it helps a little. I gained almost 6 pounds in between my first and second doctor's appointment. I will find out where I am when we go back to the doctor on March 22. We hope to find out the sex of our baby. We think it's a boy :) because this has been a completely different pregnancy and much harder. We are going to wait to announce it everyone when Josh get's ordained on April 11. Kaylee and his birthday is the day before, the 10th so we are going to dye the inside of her cake the color of the sex of the baby.

What has been super exciting is that I have been able to feel our baby move for about a week now..not just flutters..like wow..that felt like he/she flipped. It's not an all day experience but it's been pretty cool. Josh got to feel the baby last night for the first time. I know it's early but I read that it is normal to feel the baby earlier with the second pregnancy. God is good no matter how long the yuckness last...only 6 1/2 months max, right :) After we announce the sex to the family, we will post it on here for the rest of famiy and friends.

Precious Life

2010-01-25T21:06:00.002-05:00

We went to our first doctor's appointment last Tueday, 15th of Janurary. We got an ultrasound and got to see our baby's heart beat. It was beating so strong and fast. I was just reminded of how precious life is and how quickly a baby develops and how amazing it is God created the ability for women to carry a baby for 9 months and be fully developed to come into this world.
I was reminded of how I was only 6 weeks and 4 days along in my pregnancy but I was able to see the baby's shape and the heart going up and down over and over. I was just overwhelmed by God's love and design for each and every person! Life is so precious! Thank you Lord!

We're Expecting Baby # 2

2010-01-16T17:19:00.003-05:00

We took a test on Jan. 15th at our new friends house, Terry and Jamie Hoskins. We took a test in Dec. at their house because we thought we might be pregnant and Jamie, who is now 6 months pregnant, insisted that I take a test. She still had some at her house. It turned up negative. So the next month came, I had my friend come that month before so thought nothing of it. Then I was late again. So we deceided that if it did not come before we were to hang out with our dear friends again, I would take the test at their house again. I was 10 days late, but since Kaylee was born that wasn't anything weird b/c my body never got back on a regular schedule. I bought a cheap test because I was thinking if I am pregnant, it's going to pick it up. It was hard to read, so I took the other one in the box and it was a little darker but not for sure, so Josh and Terry ran to the store while I put Kaylee down to go to sleep for the night. When I took the expensive one it was within seconds, just like the time with Kaylee, it read positive.

We weren't personally trying to get pregnant but God sure had it planned for us! I know that is hard for many women to hear because you so desperately desire to have your own, please let us know and we will pray for you and the ability to conceive a child! (whole heartily take us up on this!) We know this is God's plan for our lives even if we desired to wait another year just so we could get settled into ministry(this is our first couple of months as Josh serving as a pastor) but we will find strength in the Lord! What is tough about it not being planned by us is that you don't always get positive responses from people, people close to you, when you share the news. Their responses are: your not ready, not the right time, too much student loans needed to pay off, can't afford another baby and so on. Well, what we have to say is this. God planned for us to have the sweet precious child come into our lives and we are going to welcome the båby with joy and excitment even if it wasn't "our timing". Think about it. You can't have better timing than God's. His timing is always perfect even if you don't always understand it at the moment. For example, our first child, Kaylee's timing, was also God's timing and now we see why God brought a baby into our lives right after we moved from TN to Nc and Josh hadn't even started seminary yet. We would not be where we are today if we didn't have her in our lives. So, we learned quickly that God's timing is always PERFECT and seek His face for strenght, comfort or whatever we need at that moment. We are super excited and feel blessed to welcome another baby into our family.

We made a t-shirt after we got home around mid-night that said "I'm a Big Sister". The next morning we took a picture of Kaylee wearing the shirt with a cute pair of pants...and she actually wore the hair bow I put in and didn't pull it out! We were going to send it to my parents via mail but deceided to take a picture with Steven's cell phone, Sara's boyfriend and texted it to my family. We put a jacket on Kaylee to cover it up and picked up Josh's dad at their house and gave the excuse that we needed to go to Home Depot really quick. We had to pick up our washer and dryer to put into our condo. (Josh's mom just happened to be working at HD that day and we wanted to tell his parents together. So we got there and said hello and then took her jacket off and let her run to grandma. It was the best reaction I could have ever receieved. I prayed for a great reaction and the Lord gave me one ( I am extremely thankful for it) We told her to look at the new shirt she got for Christmas. She said, as Kaylee was running to her " I.....am...a....big...sister"....I am a big sister....ohhhhhhhh...I AM A BIG SISTER...THEN hugging Kaylee so tight and started crying and said I have been hoping you two would have another one soon". OHH it was what I needed!!! Such a blessing. Thank you Lord! Then we went to Jennifer's house and let her see the shirt and then to Sara. Then we texted my family the news.

Family Life

2010-01-10T17:51:00.003-05:00

Sorry I haven't updated this blog in a while. We have been super busy. We moved the beginning of Nov. and I (Misty) had the privilage to unpack the boxes with a toddler running around our home...aka...undoing what I just neatly did. Yes, I like my things in their spots...I can't help it. Our friend Adam back in NC would come over with his wife and he would move something out of it's spot to see how long it took for me to notice..Go Figure!

Anyways, we don't have internet so I haven't been able to update I would have desired, plus it took about a month to get fully settled, along with starting at our new church, Thanksgiving, Christmas parties, Christmas, Christmas travel to TN..where we all drove back ..18 hour trip..praise the Lord Kaylee did well..she got fussy the last 4-5 hours but it was late so it was time to sleep. She would wake up about every hour, cry because she wanted out of her carseat and then fall back to sleep. Then we had to re-organize our home due to Christmas, which took awhile and then New Years and now we are here today.

Kaylee is growing so much and learning so much. She is starting to potty train. we are not rushing it, just going with the flow. She has gone a couple of times and then sometimes refuses to go..she gets upset when she goes number 2 in her diaper. She is a ball of energy and sweet as can be. We just love the random kisses and huges she gives. It just melts our hearts. She can put on her own socks and shoes..it takes time so when we need to go I do it, but she can put them on correctly. She LOVES shoes, that is her favorite word right now. She loves anything girly. Purses, shoes, dress up stuff, jewerly, shoes, mom's purse (that she gets in trouble for), shoes and gum. Oh my, we have had numerous battles with chewing gum. If she is quite and I can't find her, she has been in my purse with my gum in her mouth. She has pulled it down from fruniture, climbed on things to get my purse and so forth. She has deceided that she will take the consequence for getting into my purse just so she can have the taste of the gum. She has finally reached the 20 pound mark. Just recently.Praise the Lord! So we are in front facing car seat that she loves. She loves, loves, loves to sing. She goes around singing her songs. Twinkle, Twinkle, ABC's- and A A apple, B B Ball are some of her favorites. She does the motions to I've got the Joy, Joy Joy Down in my heart.
She got a kitchen for Christmas (her cousin Gabby's) so she has a blast with pretend play in the kitchen..we could play forever. She's got some of her toys outside on our balcony-sandbox, slide, bowling pins and loves to play out there. We have so many we can't figure out what to do with them all and have left some at Josh's parents house. She's got a lot that just take up space, She now has my old table and chairs I used with my sister to play with and Jerry, my grandfather who has passed away, had a huge part in engineering.
She loves to take baths and could play forever, she takes "special' adventures with daddy while mommy usually cleans up the kitchen..usually they go to the first floor and go outside and run around and 'check" things out. She also loves to brush her teeth and has to go first and then mommy or daddy finish. It is just so amazing to see the impact we have on our precious little girl. How much she is learning and how God is using us to teach her so much. She is talking so much now.
She is still blue eyes and blonde hair lil peanut. She has the bunny that she got from my gran (her great grandma) and it has her name on it. the bunny has silk on it and she sucks on it a lot and it smells so bad, we wash and wash this crazy thing and when we went to TN and my gran got her another one so she could go back and forth between the two so I could wash them more often. She sure does love her frog now and has a special love for both of them.
I am absolutely loivng staying at home and have been blessed so far to continue. I don't know what the Lord holds in the future with being at home but I am grateful for the time I am givin right now. Josh is loving the church and we are having a blast. Josh had 4-5 graders over for a movie in our movie theater downstairs and I am getting ready to have 2-5 grade girls over for a huge, and I mean huge slumber party..can't wait..it's going to be a blast. Josh said he is running far away from our home that night :)

Our New Home

2009-11-25T17:09:00.005-05:00

There is so much more to post but haven't had time to competely finish due to being so busy. Our life got even busier than it already was but praise the Lord some of the ministry from our last church just finished...some things we couldn't just drop due to we were personally going through it. I will also do another blog with how we have it done now with our living room, dinning room and den. We have been blessed to be able to live here. it has a state of the art work out facility, social room to throw parties and events and a movie theater all included. I feel super safe here due to security guards at the gate, a special clicker to open the front door in picutre below, guest have to call up, then a button in my condo I can turn on, usually keep on all the time, that doesn't allow anyone to stop on my floor unless they have the clicker..only Josh..unless I turn it off. Our elevator opens up to our entry way and front door so I don't have to worry about anyone knocking on my door when were home by ourselves.

Entry way to condo. Classical music plays as you walk out to the parking garage. Love it!

Out of the front doors

Kitchen

Master bedroom view

Master Bathroom

Kaylee playing in her room

Kaylee's and the Guest Bathroom

our balcony...16th floor

view of Marco Island

view from our balcony

our pool

view from the pool of the condo

Josh's Welcome Party at FBC Marco Island, The Family Church

2009-11-25T17:04:00.003-05:00

The senior pastor did not even know this was planned so it meaned even more. The children had a Welcome party for Josh and I after worship on our first sunday, Nov. 1, 2009. They had cake and ice cream for everyone. It was so special and meant so much! We can't wait to see what God does with this ministry!!!! We are so blessed to be serving here!

PaPaw's Visit to Naples and Marco Island and FBC Marco

2009-11-25T16:50:00.003-05:00

PaPaw came to visit Naples and Marco Island for the weekend. We had just recently accepted the Children's Pastor position at FBC Marco so we also got to show him around the church and island. Some pictures are us out to lunch on the island at Joey's-great pizza place with a great atmosphere!

Kaylee getting a piggy back ride on mommy's back at our new church.

Part of Josh's office view

Another view from his office.

Kaylee kicking back in daddy's office.

Daddy's new office at FBC Marco Island.

Kaylee having fun in the sanctuary

Kaylee loves PaPaw and her bunny!

Trick or Treat 2009

2009-11-25T16:35:00.003-05:00

Kaylee first time to go trick or treating. She was a bird last year and a duck this year becuase "Duck, Duck" is one of her favorite words right now. Grandma/pa have 3 beautiful white ducks running around their back yard in their pond. She first trick or treated at Grandma/pa's house before grandma went to work and then we went to Craig and Nicole house to trick or treat in their neighborhood with Chloe and Skyler. Skyler was Minnie Mouse and Chloe was an angle. She got over hot in her costume so half way through and we had to take off everything but her diaper so Nicole gave her lay for her to have something to wear. We had a great time.

Lovin the Fall Colors!

2009-11-25T16:27:00.003-05:00

Kaylee's first time to go to pick a pumpkin from a pumkin patch! She was really tired by the time we got there but she did still have some fun!

Carving the pumkin

2009-11-25T16:18:00.003-05:00

Kaylee carving her first pumkin. She has so much fun. She deceided to eat the pumpkin and loved it so she kept eating on it..gross!! We had a blast carving our first pumpkin together.

Kaylee in her Big Girl Car Seat

2009-11-25T16:15:00.000-05:00

So Many Changes

2009-11-21T13:09:00.002-05:00

I am in Josh's office at FBC Marco Island(1st new thing), as I type preparing for the Turkey Trot tomorrow night. We don't have internet in our new home (2nd new thing) right now and not for sure if were going to get it, which makes this more difficult to update for myself and family. We are living in a high rise on the 16th floor and have a view of the sunset. I will post pictures soon. Just finished getting settled into our new home and getting ready for our first kids event. God is blessing us beyond our belief right now(we don't deserve any of it). We are loving it and having so much fun...we could not have found a better fit for us with our amazing new church. Kaylee is doing great..has 4 more teeth coming in as I type...got 3 in three weeks ago...has most of her teeth now. She's eating like a horse...PRAISE!!! I am not for sure how much weight, if any she has gained since her 18 month appointment but she loves to eat again. Were almost finished with our ministries in Naples,well just me. We have cut our ties but I have MOPS that isn't finished for the semester until the middle of Dec. I just finished another ministry I was apart of last night at the Celebration Dinner for Apples of Gold.

I will post pictures soon...i promise so everyone can see our church and new home.

18 mth check up

2009-10-13T14:59:00.003-04:00

Praise the Lord. Kaylee does not have to get blood work done for being underweight! We went to the doctor yesterday. Kaylee weights 18 pds and 10 ozs. She can still wear size two diapers but we just put her in size 3 due to we have a huge box that has been sitting in her closet since Jan. of 2009. They are a little big but they fit enough and haven't leaked. She is exactly 30 inches tall. She grew two inches in two months..go figure. She still is not out of the 2nd percentile in weight. The doctor said bc she is eating so good at home she would not go ahead with completing blood work. So we will go back in three months to just keep a good eye on her weight. Thank You Lord for Kaylee gaining weight!

Blast from the Past

2009-09-29T22:24:00.007-04:00

Random pictures from the past few months...Enjoy

Kaylee climbing on a shelf in her closet. She loves to climb!

Such sweetness. Melts our hearts.

Trying on Daddy's Flip Flops

Now trying on Daddy's tennis shoes.

Feeding her baby. She loves pretend play!

Tickle Fight!

Kaylee will turn anything into a purse! Love those curls

4th of July party. Kaylee is wearing a 4th of July outfit, she just didnt want to smile any longer.

Kaylee wearing her rainboots for the first time.

MiMi and Poppy came to visit

2009-09-28T15:38:00.006-04:00

MiMi and Poppy came to Naples for a visit over the Labor Day weekend. We had a great time getting to see them. Labor Day Josh actually didn't work but got sick and spent the entire last day they were here in bed, sick. :( Bummer! Por hubby, finally gets a day off, still not paid and has to spend the day in the bed on one of the most beautiful days ever! Thanks Mimi and Poppy for coming to visit and seeing where we live.

Our sweet Lil girl

2009-09-28T14:52:00.004-04:00

Kaylee is now almost 18 months old...12 days shy of it. She is still wearing size two diapers but I just weighed her a couple of days ago and she was over 18 pds..praise the Lord! So hopefully we can now open the box of 3 I have had since Jan. when I thought she would be in them after the new box of 2's emptied :) I actaully just pulled out her 12-18 months clothes out this afternoon, some are going to be too big but I think she might be able to start wearing them now. Finally her 9-12 month clothes are getting to small...most of them not all.

Kaylee is a ball of energy. She starts in the morning by jumping up and down in the bed and running back in forth in her bed from side to side when you come to get her. When I read to her, she plays with her toys and runs around the room while I sit in my rocker, that I hardly rock her in (unless really sick) becuase she can not sit still enough for me to read one "page" from a book. Her favorite word is "duck, duck" and that is why she is going to be a duck this year for halloween. She also loves to make the sounds of a dog, cow, car and motorcycle. She is starting to say more words but sometimes you can't understand it unless you were the one talking to her. She says yes mama and yes sir(daddy taught her this), thank you, dada. she signs the word please but we can't even get her to start trying to say the actaul word becuase she knows that if she signs please, she get's it normally. Mommy has taught where her belly button, ears, nose, tounge are and we are working on our toes and fingers. She loves giving people high fives and oh my goodness, she gives the best hugs in the world right now! She wraps both arms around you tight, squizes and makes the noise when someone squizes you tight. It is so cute and sweet and makes our hearts melt every time she does it.

She loves playing pretend with her baby doll by feeding it and with all of her kitchen foods, cups and plates. We have tea parties. She loves to feed the dog Samson. We fill the scoop up with the food and then she carries it over and dumps it in the dog bowl. Anything she can do to help, she is all about it. She loves helping, now insisit on doing it. She helps grandma with screwing and unscrewing the cap off the creamer. Her new favorite word is "it's hot". Mama and Dada taught her this when she is sitting up on the counter and we're making toast or something likes eggs on the stove. She also hears this when she cries for her food and it's too hot to give to her yet. So now everything is "hottt". She still absolutely loves going to the barn to feed the animals and ducks and Josh brought a small (smaller than my hand) turtle home and gave it to grandma and Kaylee. Josh named him Skeeter and Kaylee absoultely loves him too but not as much as Samson. No one can compete with the dog, Samson!

16 months old Already

2009-08-14T14:07:00.002-04:00

Every day is getting sweeter and sweeter with our precious little girl, Kaylee. Don't get me wrong we have to be strong and consistent with discipline with her but it is just a joy to have her in our little family! We love how she giggles, walks up to you and bends down to give you a kiss: then realizes how crazy you act as a parent after she does it so then she continues to do it about 10 to 15 more times before she stops, we love her toddler run: it's too cute, how she loves animals and is so affectionate to them. Her smile can make your day better and how we are reminded how much God loves us through her.

Yes, she is still wearing size 2 diapers and 9-12 month clothes. We will evenutally get her into 12-18 month clothes it just might not be until she is almost 2. :) Hey, she is our little peanut, what can we say, we love her. We had her "15 month" check up yesterday. We were late on it due to josh's cousin who was 16 died in a car reck a day before the appointment and the visitation was scheduled for that day. In the three months since we have been to the doctor she has only gained 1 pd. That is normal for a child her age but we are trying to catch up with weight. She weighs 17 pds. and 6 oz and is 28 inches long. The doctor isn't too concerned bc she's eating a lot better and drinking her calorie loaded milk'shakes". The doctor said though that she wants her to gain a full pound by the next visit (2 months at her 18 month check up) or they might run test on her to make sure she is just small and that nothing is causing her to not hold on weight. We are not worried at all bc 1. God is in control and 2. I was this way all my childhood. I was always "under weight" for my age and size but I mean my family is mostly filled with shorter women and now I married josh who let's say isn't a 6 foot tall guy :) love ya hubby! We will see what happens but I am not going to fret over it and allow it to take away my joy.

In about two weeks MiMi and Poppy are coming to Naples to visit...Kaylee is looking forward to it :)

* Our laptop is getting fixed right now, so that is why all my recent post-back through St. Lucia trip have no pictures. My parents are bringing it to us so then I can up load pictures. I am also having difficulty with our blog site. I appoligize that everything turns into one extremely long paragraph. I haven't figured out how to fix it yet. Sorry for the inconvience. love you all.

Kaylee Signed "Please"

2009-08-11T22:22:00.002-04:00

I, mommy squilled with delight (yes, if you know me well, I squilled) when Kaylee was in grandpa's arms this afternoon and grandma/pa with Kaylee were asking if she could go ride on the mule(moterized vechile) to go to the barn and feed the animals and I, mommy responded to Kaylee by saying "say please" and she did it! Praise the Lord! Oh my goodness I really did not believe this day would ever come! Kaylee is the sweetest most precious little girl God could have given us but to say she is strong willed would be an understatment! Discipline started at the age of 6 mths and I praise the Lord I was encouraged to start that early with her. We have been working with her to say "please" and "thank you" by signing until she can really say the words. When mommy tells Kaylee to say "please" and then goes to kaylee and takes her hand to demonstate on herself "please" in sign language, Kaylee then jerks her hand away as quick as possible and sometimes deceides to hit. Kaylee has been hitting for a while and by God's grace she doesn't do much of it anymore unless she is in the mood to test mommy and daddy to see what we will do. She knows that we are wanting her to say "please" but for her to stop and sign would be a terrible thing in her little world. She wants to do what she wants, when she wants to and she is learning that this is not how the world works and eventually how God wants us to live. We are just so excited that she is finally doing it. She continued to sign "please" two other times that night before going to bed. Thank You Lord!

Kaylee's 15 months old!

2009-07-19T10:55:00.002-04:00

Kaylee is already 15 months old. Time sure does fly bye! We are absolutely loving this stage. We have loved every stage of her life but it just seems that each stage gets better and better. Now don't get me wrong, there are defiently difficultys with each stage but i am absolutely loving it! Kaylee is just such a joy to our lives. She is in full toddler mode right now. She is doing the toddler run..where they waddle back and forth at speed lighting pace. It is so precious. Mommy doesn't get to stop much anymore due to no gates being put up in the house at this point..were living with Josh's parent's to pay off college debt. So I chase Kaylee around the house much of the time. It is nice to play in her room sometimes bc I know I can shut both doors and she has most of her toys up there. She has the cutest giggle and smile. Her smile is looking more like a kid's smile than a baby smile. Kaylee has 10 teeth at this point. (She already has two wisdom teeth and all 8 front teeth. Kaylee loves blowing kisses to everyone. She loves loves loves people! She also reaches out both hands to someone, yes even strangers in Target and other stores, and open and closes her hands. That is her sign language of hold me. I have had quite a few interesting conversations with strangers in stores due to them stopping to talk to her and then she insist they hold her. Of course I don't tell them too but they all ask if they can. What am I suppose to say. I do remind you that they are all nice looking people...noone scary yet. :) Kaylee is at least 18 pds. We don't know exactly bc we had to cancel the 14 mth appointment due to a death in the family and I haven't scheduled the 15 mth appointment so we have weighed her at home. Oh the day we can turn her around in the car and put her in her new carseat!! I know she will be much happier to see everything mommy and daddy see's. There was one time we were headed to church on Sat. night and this white suv was keeping their pace with our's. Josh and I were in the middle of a conversation and we didn't think much of it until we stopped talking for a second. We all of a sudden looked over and it was josh's parents. Josh's mom said that they passed bye slowly (50 miles and hour keeping up with us) and watched Kaylee. She somehow noticed it was them and started going crazy waving and giggling. We had no idea what was going on. Josh's mom said she didn't wave first due to she didn't think Kaylee could see her through the tinted windows but even if she could who would have thought she could have recognized her in another car.

Kaylee also loves smacking her lips and saying "Ah" after every time she takes a sip from her sippy cup. She knows everyone finds it so cute so then she get's going and doesn't stop for a couple of days. We are still trying to get Kaylee to gain weight by drinking Peidisure. We just started putting her on Carnation Instant Breakfast due to it being much cheaper with the equal amount of nutrition. Kaylee eating better at certain moments. The only problem is now she doesn't want to stop to eat. She hates being put in her high chair unless she is just absolutely starving! Even then she usually only eats half of her meal and wants out. I can't force her to eat and she doesn't understand the concept of "we don't leave the table until we are finished eating" so I take the rest of her food and cup and put it on the coffee table and let her finish eating while she plays. I know this isn't a good thing but she is not old enough for me to tell her that she has to finish before playing. When that day comes, I will make her stay and eat. Right now our goal is to get her eating as much as possible and when I make her stay, she just crys and no food is eaten! To say this, I think and so do other family members, that we are already going through the "terrible two's" with Kaylee. Disciple has had to be very strong for her. If she gets mad she screams and throws things down on the ground..if it was in her hand. She throws her body all over the floor and throws a huge temper tantrum. This is where I have to grasp her head and slowly lower it to the floor bc the entire downstairs is tile and she will throw it back and hit it if I don't step in before it gets to that point. I then walk away and let her throw her tantrum. She has also been hitting when she is mad. Some days are a little hard with discipling due to when i pop her hand and say "no, no" she become's dramatic..who would have ever thought that :) and screams like someone has just abused her. She sheds those tears and some days it's hard to see those tears fall. Usually God gives me the strength where I hate it but I know I have to discipline her or she will become out of control. She is a very big tester too. She will look straight at you before she does something she know's she's not suppose to do and then do it. Of course mommy and daddy then realize that today (that day) is probably going to be a long day with her testing bc she gets in a mood and she does it usually all day long. This isn't frequent but more than I would desire, of course! But Kaylee is one of the sweetest girls ever. She loves on people by giving them kisses on the lips. Oh, how my day is brightened when she just walks over to me while playing and kisses me. Then she realizes how much I loved it and will do it a couple of more times before going back to playing. How sweet! She also will put her head on your shoulder when she is tired and that just melts my heart every time. Then there are other times when you want her to give you a kiss and she shakes that head "no". She also shakes her head no at any appropiate time when she doesn't want to do something. She is a smart little stinker.

Kaylee is babbling all the time. Some times she babbles so much is sounds like she's whining. She says things like "duck, duck", "dog, dog" which she has been saying for a while and she just said the word "baby" today. Not "baby, baby" like almost every other word she says, just "baby". Kaylee is such a girly girl and I absolutely love it!!! She has purses that she carrys around on each shoulder and puts things inside them. She also loves pushing her shopping cart around and filling that up too. She has now figured out how to open the cabniet doors in the kitchen and we allow her to play in the one with all of the plastic tup a ware. She gets into it at least once a day. It's so cute bc she can stand up inside of the cabniet. She still loves being outside which is difficult due to the humidity. She absolutely loves animals. She loves going to the barn to feed the animals. The two goats, horse, rooster,and ducks. She gets upset if grandma says out loud where she's going and doesn't take Kaylee. She also has a small motorcycle that she is too small to actually ride but we put her on it to sit and push her around in it. She makes the sound of the motocyle as she's ridding...grandpa taught her that one. She still loves to hide under blankets and pillows from you when you chase after her. It is the cutest thing ever! We just love being parents, that's all there is to say. If I could just have a baby born right now at this moment I would!

4th of July

2009-07-13T16:05:00.005-04:00

Kaylee and I had only been back for two days before 4th of july. We were trying to find tickets we could afford to go to DC to see our bestfriends Garrett and Lara and their baby boy Jack, who is only a couple days younger than Kaylee. We ended up staying in Fl for the 4th and overall had a good time. Josh's sister threw a party at the house and that is what we did. People started coming over early afternoon to hang out in the pool and play on the slip and slide. Josh's dad grilled burgers and hotdogs for everyone. People played pool, ping pong, corn hole, omish golf, and a few other games and just hung out. Late at night josh set off a ton of fireworks and then people just hung out for the rest of the night. Here is a picture of us as a family.

Went to TN to see family

2009-07-13T15:52:00.002-04:00

Everyone keeps telling me I should get a frequent flyers card for Kaylee bc we travel so much :) I do have to say it sure has been a blessing from the Lord to stay at home to where we have been able to travel as much as we desire to see family!! Thank You Lord! We started off by spending the night with MiMi and Poppy and Auntie Amanda. Auntie Sam wasn't around that night. Then the next four days we spent time with PaPaw. It was my dad's and his twins 50th birthday this year and since I was in town the month before we went ahead and threw a huge 50th party for them. Due to my grandmother not feeling well bc she never stops going :) I spent the next couple of days finishing out planning, buying and preparing for the party. It was so much fun and then Kaylee just stayed back with Gran, my grandmother -Kaylee's great grandmother and my dad. I got to hang out with one of my oldest best friends, Audrey Darbey Nelms. We went out to dinner together. She got to meet Kaylee for the first time. Once we were done we took Kaylee back to my dad's so they could hang out and that Audrey and I could get more quality time together. Kaylee had had enough with sitting in a high chair at Chili's :) Then we went out for ice cream and found a park and walked the trail for a good two hours before we realized how dark it really was and that we probably should have left a while ago. It was so wonderful to get to see her and I can't wait until Nov. when she has her first baby boy! On Friday night we had the big celebration and it was fun but I was exhausted!!! It was extremely hot outside and soaked up my engery from setting up outside all day long. But it was well worth it! then the next four days we spent time with MiMi. We went to my aunt Pat's house for a party for my cousin TJ's birthday party and then that night my best friend Patty happen to be having a second reception for everyone who could not come to Destin for the wedding. I honestly had forgotten about it bc I live in Fl and at the time when she said something I had no idea i would be in TN during that time. God's timing is AWESOME!! The rest of the time was relaxing. Kaylee played in the kiddy pool. Went to Toys R Us and Kaylee had a blast. Did a little shopping and went to the zoo. I was a bad wife and didn't think..oh yeah we have never taken kaylee to the zoo before and josh isn't with us. I fell terrible that happened but Kaylee is not very fond of all the animals, espeically the monkeys. They came up to the glass and her whole body literally started shaking...I got really scared. i grabbed her and walked away and she eventually calmed down. So I pray when we go to the zoo for the first time as a family it will be a great experience not only for josh but also for Kaylee!

Your an AWESOME DADDY!

2009-07-13T15:50:00.002-04:00

Happy Father's Day Joshua! This is Josh's 2nd year to celebrate being a dad. Wow! Two years already! Since daddy doesn't like breakfast in bed, unlike mommy, Kaylee and I let daddy sleep in and we cooked him pancakes for breakfast when he came downstairs. Later on he opened up his gifts and cards. Most of the day we played with Kaylee and later on that night Kaylee went fishing for the first time in the pond on the back of the property. She caught fish with daddy and grandpa! here are some pictures:

MOPS first summer playdate

2009-07-13T15:41:00.002-04:00

I was a part of the Steering Team in NC during my first year. In the middle of the year the Lord lead us to move to Fl. I quickly joined the MOPS group at our new church FBCN (just as a member not on leadership obviously). The Lord opened the door for me to be on this upcoming year's Steering Team. I am looking forward to see what the Lord is going to do. MOPS had it's first summer playdate in the church's courtyard. Due to Kaylee still being so young she couldn't just run around and play. This was back at the end of May to where she was really walking strong but when you have kids flying all over the place on their bikes, skates and scooters, she got really timid to walk. She mostly played with her new friends Hannah May and John Robert, Jennifer Patterson's kids. Jennifer and I get together once a week and literally spend the entire day together. We got to her house and the kids play. Kaylee abosolutely loves it. She takes her nap there and eats lunch there..it is literally an all day fun filled event! Here are a few pictures.

My Mom's 50th and my 25th Birthday Celebration in St. Lucia

2009-07-12T11:55:00.011-04:00

My mom and I had talked for many years that on our big birthday's we would go somewhere fun. Due to circumstances, we have been unable to do so for our earlier birthdays. For my mom's 50th and my 25th birthday we deceided to celebrate in St. Lucia. Our birthday was on the Saturday we were there! It was an absolute blast! Loved every minute of it! Steve, my step-dad, Sam, my step sister, Amanda, my sister, my mom, Joshua and I went to St. Lucia the week of our birthday. We left on a Tuesday and got there early afternoon. Josh and I arrived just a few minutes earlier than the rest of the family so it worked out perfectly. We had a driver, Terry, pick us up from the airport. We thought we might rent a car for the week but as soon as we got on the road we realized there was no way we would ever find our way around this island. There were no street signs. Our house we rented for the week was at the north point of the island and we came in from the airport in the south point of the island. So we deceided to hire Terry to be our driver for the week. We could have just taken taxi's (which Terry and his father run the company) but then we wouldn't have to wait and we got to get to know him really well.

St. Lucia was awesome. When we got to our house(Cap Estates), we had the ladies in advance prepare a meal bc we all missed lunch due to flying times. We asked them to have a true authentic meal prepared for us. We had a cabbage and other mixed stuff type salad, dark rice mixed vegatables and green chicken. All I have to say is Wow! It was absolutely delicious! We then took the rest of the night (it took 2 hours from the airport to get to our house..but i mean we got an awesome veiw the entire time and stopped at one spot to take pictures) We settled into our rooms and enjoyed the amazing view( we could see the Carribean and Atalantic ocean from our house), relaxed in the pool and hottub for the rest of the night.

Tuesday we had the woman who was in charge of the home to come so we could set up all of our tours for the week. Then we had Terry to take us to breakfast on Rodney Bay(10 min drive). We had no idea so we had Terry pick out his favorite resturant for us to eat at. We enjoyed Spinker's. It was right on the beach..just a few feet from the ocean water on the Carribean side. The water was crystal clear blue. Then we went to the local grocery store and bought our food and snacks for the week. We had two ladies who cleaned the house each day and cook some of our meals. It was really neat to see how their grocery stores are. Prices are a little higher bc they have to ship in the goods and all of their prices are in EC (Eastern Carribean Dollars). We also looked at some local stands to see their creativity. By this time it was in the afternoon so we hung out around the house for a little while before getting ready to go back to Rodney Bay for dinner and great music. We had an amazing dinner. Josh had rack of lamb and I had some amazing Mahi Mahi. After dinner we walked around Rodney Bay and enjoyed the music at the different resturants and clubs. At all of the resturants and "clubs"-not like what we have in the States, were built to enjoy the amazing weather and breeze.

Wednesday we slept in of course bc the next two days were packed full with adventure. We deceided to relax one of the days on our trip so we hung out in our pool and hottub and enjoyed the amazing view. We took some "nature" walks around the Estates and found some beautiful areas. We soaked up sun, had a great breakfast and lunch and had a blast enjoying the Carribean music. We also had a property manager on duty during the day who did the upkeep of the property. We had him and one the ladies teach us about all of the local fruits they have growing on the property. So many interesting fruits and some fruits we get in the states too. They had some kind of pinapple/orange tasting fruit (i am posting this blog almost a month and half after the trip so i dont remember all the details and names of things) that they made a drink for breakfast and just to enjoy everyday and oh my goodness, it was delicious! To say this, we had huge Cocunut tree's growing on the property and josh, of course, found a ladder hidden on the property and deceided to get some cocunuts down to enjoy. Then he broke them open, to say the lest they weren't quite ready to enjoy! Later on that night we went to Rodney Bay for a delicious dinner and fun music.

Thursday we had a great breakfast at the house and then had another great adventure planned. We headed to the St. Lucia's Rainforest. We got all geared up with our hairnets :) and everything and took a mile high ride into the Rainforest in the Tranopy. It's and open air tram and then when we got to the top we got to go down 10 ziplines one as long as 365 feet. We were up around 50 feet high in the trees. We had so much fun! The guides even put us on with them and had us let go and spun us around as fast as we could go until we got to the end...such a rush! My mom accomplished it wonderfully. She conqured her fear of heights. Each group takes 8 people so we had two other men with us. One man was about to be moving to St. Lucia in a month for business and he was there having fun and looking for a house. He was really nice and he had brought his nephew along for the trip. Our guides were absolutely histerical and we kept them entertained as well :) Then after that we hiked back up through the rainforest..quite tired i might add. you have no idea how many muscles you are using during the zipline until you are finished! Wow, we were all sore. I have done some ziplines in the states and i wasn't sore so i don't know what the difference was other than maybe how high they wanted us to keep our feet up so we could go even faster. Then we got to go back down through the rainforest. I mean we were dead smack in the middle of it, reach out touch the plants/flowers and reach for the birds and animals in the middle of it. The flowers were absolutely beautiful! Oh and what a view we had going down. Not only the beautiful rainforest but much of the island. We got to rest and cool down on the way down and enjoyed the shop. it's where i got my mom's birthday gift and my mom got Kaylee the cutest t-shirt that she has already worn as pj's :) Afterwards we headed back to the house to get ready to go out for dinner that night at Rodney Bay. We ate at another amzing and wonderful resturant and enjoyed the music.

Friday we actually got up early, had breakfast and headed to an resort bc that was where the catermarn boat was taking off from that day. We soaked up the rays while relaxing on the catermarn. We stayed on the front part of the boat the entire time where there is rope twisted as the floor to where the ocean water splashes upon you to cool you down..so refreshing. We boat went all the way to the south end of the island where we went to see the Mt. Ptions. After two hours out at sea we arrived at Sourjfre. We got off and had taxi buses waiting for us to take us to the different areas. First we got to see the heart of Sourjfre, the colorful buildings and a beautiful church. Then we headed to their waterfall where they believe that the water has "speical powers". It was freezing cold but so much fun to had the water hitting you so hard. We finally convinced my mom and steve to get in and to actually go all the way under the waterfall. It helps having us four around to pick on them and push themselves to try new things...even if it is fridge freezing water! Then we headed to the only drive in volcano in the Carribean. Basically it was very ugly..a pile of dirt with sulfer coming out of it. It smelt terrible! But still neat to see. Then we got to see the Mt. Piton's and then headed to a plantation for lunch. We got to see how they make chocolate. We even ate fresh coco..right out of it's shell..bitter but hey I wasn't going to miss out on any opportunity to try something new! Then we had a great lunch and beautiful view. Then we headed back to the Catermarn. when we were getting back on there were a ton of kids begging for money..the silver stuff. They would say "hey you throw coin in ocean and i will jump in and get it". Josh saw this couple take a picture of some kids. The young boys grouped together and smiled and when they were done one of the boys held out his hand, smiled and said "$5 dollars". Too funny. Then after everyone boarded we headed back. On the way we made a cuople of stops to see the different bays and one bay we got to snorkle in. So many reefs and fish to see. Josh and I found an eel too!! Ahhhh. It was yellow and about a foot long. We would swim below and chase after schools of beautiful fish, small and large and had an absolute blast!! We also got to see the ship (The Pearl) that was in the Pirates of the Carribean. You can take a ship ride on it and if we would have found a place to sign up for it, the rest of the family would have been in trouble bc my sister, Amanda is in love with the movies and the actor. That is where they keep the ship now! We snorkled for about an hour and then got back on and started heading back to the north part of the island. We had unlimited drinks and snacks on the boat which was good bc the water sure does make me hungry! It was late by the time we got back and once we got off we realized how exhausted we were from the sun and adventures. We went home to get ready bc the locals throw a huge street party on Friday nights. They put out table and chairs in the streets have these huge speakers in the middle of the road- about a block surrounding- and cops everywhere. That was one of the first times I had really seen cops. I saw one patrolling up and down Rodney Bay late at night but they dont have a speed limit, the bigger and faster you car is the quicker you will get somewhere! When we got there people were just starting to get there. These people are the chefs in the resturants but the food looked amazing...well almost all of it. I wasn't hungry for dinner but I didn't want to miss out on trying some of the food so i got a kababab. I tried it and it wasn't good and josh tried it and thought the same thing. Then the story i will never be able to forget was josh feed the rest of the meat to these starving dogs on the street..i mean you could see all of their bones type starving! They came over and sniffed it, licked it and spit it out and josh says that only "dogs dont eat dogs!" So now he tells everyone that I, Misty ate dog! they had these huge speakers, taller than me all over the streets playing the music with a live dj. It was so much fun! People were everywhere dancing and enjoying the music. Josh wasn't feeling the greatest so we left early. While steve went to find a payphone to call Terry to pick us up early he was propositioned by a prositiute!!! Oh yeah and Josh was proposition to buy some Cocaine the first morning we were there at Spinkers while enjoying the ocean after breakfast and then once again while snorking!! Who would have ever thought! Crazy huh! They are very bold in some ways but overall the people are so kind and friendly.

Saturday My mom's 50th and my 25th Birthday! We slept in and enjoyed a great breakfast. We had planned on having a type of picnic at Pigeon Point but ended up sleeping in later so we just had the meal that was prepared at the house before leaving. Pigeon Point was awesome! It was where the British fought for the island. It still had remains of the bunkards that the soldiers slept in and lookout spots and places they praciticed shooting their cannons at this large ( i mean truely large) rock in the ocean. We hiked all the way up to the top for a spectacular view and enjoyed every moment of it. We learned so much here and had a blast while doing it. Amanda found a beaten path and deceided to follow it after coming back down and we found this resturant tucked under the tree's on the ocean's line. We stopped to enjoy some snacks before leaving Pigeon Point. After spending a couple of hours there, we headed over and did some local shopping for gifts and then went to rent jet ski's. Josh and I raced Sam and Amanda in the Carribean Ocean. it was so much fun! then we deceided to get cleaned up and head back to Rodney Bay. We went and did some more looking around in the shops-kinda like their mall- and then went out for Birthday dinner which was absolutely amazing and enjoyed the night. This was our last night here sadly to say! Sunday josh and I had to get up at 4 am to have Terry's father take us to the airport..a 2 hour drive that we made it in a hour and half! Then we were suppose to have a 5 hour layover in Maimi but Drew Day and Mike -two of Josh's best friends and accountability guys deceided to pick us up at Maimi and we went out to lunch there and then headed back to Naples. We had so much fun with them and greatly appricated not having to wait for 5 hours in the airport!! They were so kind and generous!! We ran into quite a few people who were there and had horrible times at their resorts..including Sandals!! I know 6 people, including myself who highly reccomend St. Lucia but rent a house instead!! I will post pictures soon!

Harley's 50th Birthday

2009-06-05T16:08:00.003-04:00

It was Harley's 50th Birthday. I, Misty, had just got back in town from Destin a couple of days before and a couple of days later we were heading to St. Lucia. The weekend was Harley's birthday and we were going to Sanibell island but deceided not to due to the crowds during Memorial Day weekend. We deceided to go and eat their favorite subs, Stan's Subs and then go fishing for the afternoon. We all had a great time celebrating his 50th birthday. Happy Birthday Harley!

Daddy and Kaylee building

2009-06-05T15:50:00.004-04:00

Sara, Josh's younger sister, had brought home this package. It came from the Home Depot Build with your kid day. Daddy and Kaylee were suppose to build this on Mother's Day but it didn't happen so daddy and Kaylee took another day and built mommy a wheel barrel to hold a pot of flowers in.

Patty and Jason Keen's Wedding

2009-06-05T15:38:00.005-04:00

I, Misty, went to Destin Fl for my best friends Patty and Jason's wedding. This was the first time I had been away from Kaylee over night let alone for 4 days. I had a blast getting to meet all of Patty and Jason's friends that were from other states but I sure did miss daddy and Kaylee.

Playing at the park

2009-06-05T15:32:00.005-04:00

Kaylee and I went to the Vinyards Park with Bethany Gaddias and her two precious little kids, Jackson and Jovie. Jovie is Kaylee's age. Kaylee had just been walking decently for a couple of weeks so when we got to the waterpark the ground was way to slipery for her to walk on.

Mother's Day

2009-06-05T15:15:00.004-04:00

Mother's Day was so special! Daddy let mommy sleep in. He woke up with Kaylee and turned the monitor off. Then they went downstair and he fed her and played while mommy slept..such a wonderful gift! Then Daddy and Kaylee surprised mommy with breakfast in bed. I had eggs, toast and chocolate milk. It was delicious. Daddy and Kaylee also made a homemade Mother's Day card for mommy. It was special. Daddy took care of Kaylee all day long. The rest of the morning and beginning of the afternoon we spent with his mom and the rest of the family. We hung out by the pool. Then that afternoon Josh, Kaylee and I went to our good friends Stacie and Pastor Nate's house. Some other friends came over and we grilled out, played volleyball in the pool and had a blast. What a way to end Mother's day! It was great. All the while Josh continued to take care of Kaylee and gave me a break...a much appricated break! Thank You honey for such a wonderful Mother's day! The picture below is with Kaylee and I and Stacie and her little girl London.

Our little girl

2009-06-05T15:09:00.002-04:00

This is how we found Kaylee one night when we got home. Too cute!

Kaylee's 1st trip to the Beach...our home :)

2009-04-27T19:16:00.005-04:00

We have been blessed to live so close to the beach but we have not taken Kaylee until now due to her schedule of napping and eating and getting through her infant stages. We didn't want to show up at the beach and then within five seconds have to leave. Even now, it could have happened but we deceided to leave as soon as she woke up in the morning after she had breakfast. That would give us a couple of hours before she needed to go down for her first nap of the day. Here are the pictures of our great adventure to the beach.

Kaylee and London at the Park

2009-04-27T19:07:00.003-04:00

London is Kaylee's newest friend. London is 7 mths old and her mommy Stacie, is 12 weeks into her pregnancy. Yea!!! Stacie is the Youth Pastor's wife at FBCN. She is awesome and I pray that the Lord will continue to develop our friendship and that London, Kaylee and eventually the newest member of their family will all become great little friends!

Brushing Kaylee's Teeth

2009-04-27T19:00:00.005-04:00

This was Kaylee's first time to brush her teeth with her Barbie toothbrush from Mimi and her toddler toothpaste and a random picture of her sleeping so sleepy!

Kaylee's One year old doctor visit

2009-04-22T12:10:00.002-04:00

Kaylee has always been tiny but if you look at josh and i, it's not like either of us are 6 feet tall or anything..I am barely pushing over 5 feet tall. She is one wearing 9 to 12 month clothes..she just started wearing 9 mths clothes a week before she turned one. We went to the doctor's office for her 12 mth check up. We did not go to a 9 mth check up due to we were in the middle of moving and getting settled into our new home and i did not have time to do the research i wanted to do beforehand. That visit was just to weigh her and measure her height so I knew it wasn't that big of a deal.

At her visit she weighed in at 14 pds and 15 oz. The doctor is concerned about her weight. To be in the 3rd % she should weigh 17 pds. The doctor said that even if she is normally in the 10th % for her own growth she should still weigh more than she does. The doctor wants her to start taking Pedisure taking in at least 8 to 16 oz every day. The doctor said we might have to "force" feed her. I loved the doctor..first time we met her but i still don't understand how it is a good idea to force feed a child and how i would even go about it. I mean if Kaylee doesn't want to eat, she is not going to eat. The same with drinking anything froma sippy cup or from a bottle. The only time she gets a bottle now is at church. Dr. Shepard said that she wants to see Kaylee back in 3 weeks and see that she has gained between 4-8 oz. Dr. Shepard said that if not we might have to run tests to make sure everything is ok and maybe even see a speech and ocupational therapist. She said that they can help get children to eat foods they don't eat due to textures. Kaylee doesn't like most meats/chicken but she did have fish for the first time yesterday. Kaylee has refused to eat dinner for the last 3 nights. Please pray that she will stop her stubborness...bc she is strong-willed to say the least and eat her meals and gain weight. Sometimes she can eat a whole grilled cheese, half of an apple and half of a yogurt then other times she will pick and play more than eat anything. We discipline Kaylee when she disobeys and throws food off the table on purpose but it's not like she is old enough to understand this is what we are eating and your not going to get something different. She is not a picky eater but picky at what she wants, when she wants it. The only thing she won't eat is avacodo. It has become stressful with dinner bc she is not eating and we don't know what to do to get her to eat. We put her to bed for the night, sleeps throught the entire night and then wakes up earlier than normal screaming bc she is starving. We greatly appriciate all the prayers and encouragment we have received. Thank you! God Bless. He is good and would not give us more than we can handle!!

He is Alive!!

2009-04-16T09:52:00.014-04:00

On this Easter weekend we celebrated our risen Savior. He has risen! He is alive! Praise you Lord! Thank You!

This was our first Easter as a family of 3. Josh and I have had many discussions on how we were going to celebrate Easter now that we have our little girl. We did not want to take the focus off of Christ and the sacrifice He made for us but wanted to do some of the fun activities with Kaylee. We have gotten a lot of neat ideas of how to do some of the fun things while keeping the focus on Christ. Some things we are doing and are going to do is: a Easter Basket but not from the "easter bunny". We deceided that this is a time of celebration of what Christ did for us and that we did not want do the easter bunnny bc it was something that was created to take away from Christ.(it's a personal decision and would not look at anyone differently if they chose to "see" the easter bunny.) This year she got a book about the real meaning of Easter, a Praisebaby DVD, her favorite snacks and her toothpaste-fruit flavor and two stuffed animal lambs. We also did an Easter egg hunt at our home which was a blast. At first she did not understand that you pick the egg up and then put it in the basket but after a few of them she got the idea of it. After she collected all of her eggs, daddy showed her that there was a surpirse in some of them. She squilled with delieght when she saw what was inside bc she knew it was her favorite treat.(toddler fruit roll-ups that have all natural fruits). When she gets older we will put other things inside some of the eggs to help her learn that this is all fun but the reason why we celebrate Easter is bc Jesus died on the cross and has risen!
We attend FBCN on Saturday nights so we went to our Easter service on Saturday night and then went to our Youth BLG's(Bible and Life Groups). The day of Easter we rested and then just relaxed. We had to go to Walmart in the morning bc we were cooking dinner for our friends that night. Durnig the ride Josh and I were able to have great conversation and refect on the day..of course we did this throughout the whole day. We spent the rest of the day outside at the pool and the hottub. When Kaylee woke up from her nap, she got in and splashed around. She is our water baby..she loves the water. We ate our Easter lunch around the pool. It was a georgeous day to be outside and celebrate. We spent the afternoon with grandpa, grandma and Sara. That night we went to Pastor Nate (high school youth pastor) and Stacie's house. Kaylee played with their daughter London who is 6 months old. We ate dinner together and then the girls went down for bed and we hung out and had a blast with our new friends! Thank you Lord for great friends!

this is milk all over Kaylee's face that she shot from her straw from her sippy cup :) (@ Nate's and Stacie's Dooley's house)

Kaylee's 1st Birthday Party

2009-04-07T09:07:00.007-04:00

Hot Pink, Purple, cupcakes and one giant cupcake..what else other than a girly birhtday party and it was Kaylee's 1st birthday party! We had Kaylee's party outside of grandma and grandpa's house where we are living. We had a cupcake themed 1st birthday party. We had a ton of family over to celebrate. All the kids swam in the pool and had huge balloons to play with..thanks to sara having them. We were all sad that PaPaw, MiMi, Pappy and Auntie Sam and Amanda could not come. (Misty's family)

Mommy painting Kaylee's toe's for the 1st time

Daddy blowing them dry

Kaylee Havin Fun

2009-04-07T08:59:00.003-04:00

These pictures are from the day I was home packing for Kaylee to go to Auntie Jen Jen's for the weekend while Josh and I went with the First Baptist Church of Naples Youth Group to Tampa Fl for a conference.

A Picture of josh at the conference and Misty with a few of the girls at the conference.

Maggie, Marassia,Me,Carla, Stacie (Y.P. wife) and Alisha

Kaylee Playing

2009-04-07T08:46:00.004-04:00

Here are some cute pictures of Kaylee that I took one day. A few pictures are from when I had stepped into the bathroom, which is connected to Kaylee's and our room for a moment and looked in and found Kaylee on the rocking horse. She went with daddy to go see the goats outside. The other picutres are from that night when daddy was home playing and she discovered that there is space under her bed. She has this formula can that she loves to bang on..she is playing with it as we type..and that was rolled under the bed.

A Blessing from the Lord on the way to TN

2009-03-17T23:10:00.001-04:00

The trip started off with a blessing in disguise. After about 20 minutes of the flight attendants, pilot, and mechanical men on site at the Ft. Myers airport they canceled the flight. We all had to be rebooked. I remember sitting and watching them try over and over again and praying "Lord, I am really tired and just want to get there, please just let the door close and let us take off and go!" It isn't easy traveling by myself with Kaylee. Don't get me wrong Kaylee is a fabulous traveler. All the family says she should have her own frequent flyer miles bc of how much she has traveled in less than a year but still it's hard work! Then after a few moments the Lord spoke to my heart. He said what if I am trying to protect you from harm. At that moments I prayed "ok Lord, please don't let the door close if there could be a problem. I would rather get off and deal with all the hassel and be safe than no and something happen". I mean of course who wouldn't feel that way. I just remember thinking that even when difficult things happen, there is always a reason for them. After rebooking my flight and calling josh to come and get me, the Lord showed me what he protected us from. I was sitting at the check in area with Kaylee and all our stuff and a man came out and sat two seats down from us. He was on the phone telling his wife that he was running late bc of a problem with a plane. After he ended the phone call, he saw my Mem sticker on my luggage. He said you were suppose to be on that flight that was headed to memphis weren't you. He said you better feel lucky. He said that there was a 2 inch split in a part that cost $35,000 to replace and that if the door had closed and the plane had taken off, the plane would have depressurized and lost our oxygen on the plane. PRAISE YOU LORD! HE IS WATCHING OVER US AND PROTECTING US. THANK YOU!!! As we said in my youth group growing up "God is good, all the time! All the time, God is good!!"

Trip to TN to visit Mimi, Poppy and Pa Paw

2009-03-17T12:51:00.005-04:00

Kaylee and I had a great time getting to visit my parents. Josh was so kind to help us get our trip extended to a total of 13 days and it was great! It was extremely cold and yucky outside so we mostly stayed around the house, enjoyed the fire,played with "Ka Ka" "Kaylee Bug" or just "Bug" (Kaylee).Kaylee got her 5th tooth right before we went to TN and her 6th came through while in TN. Patty P. about to be Patty Keen :) came over one afternoon and hung out with us. It was perfect timing from the Lord that it all worked out to get to see her! Here are pictures of the trip.

Kaylee sleeping on the plane. She has to have something crammed in her mouth when she sleeps.

Kaylee and Auntie "Manda" playing.

Kaylee having yogurt for the first time and strawberries -strawberry yogurt.

Kaylee playing...were going to have to get her one of these..she loved it!

Gabby feeding Kaylee.

Pa Paw and Kaylee outside.

Pa Paw and Kaylee ridding on the 4-wheeler

Aunie Sam playing with Kaylee.

Pappy hanging Kaylee upside down having fun.

Kaylee and Mommy geting ready to go out to dinner

Mimi and KaKa ridding the pony. She absolutely loved it!!

Kaylee ridding the carosel for the first time!

She was so intrigued with the colors and lights that she didn't know what to think. She got to ride it twice. Once with mommy and once with Mimi. Poppy went with us to the mall to ride the pony.

My bestfriend Patty came over to visit Kaylee and I.

She brought Kaylee and I cupcakes from her favorite bakery.

Patty is always so thoughtful and giving. She is always bearing gifts. I am blessed to have met Patty and became best friends with her in a short 6 weeks before we moved to NC a couple of years ago.

Kaylee's first contact with a cupcake.

Yum! Yum! Mommy ..I like this cupcake..I want more!!

Celebrated 11 months in TN

2009-03-14T22:41:00.003-04:00

Kaylee turned 11 months old while we were in TN visiting family. Every day she makes us laugh harder and smile bigger. She is our precious little one. She is tiny and petite! She weights roughly around 15 1/2 pounds with diaper on. She is still in size 2 diapers and I don't think she will be out of them any time soon. She is still wearing 6 -9 month clothes and some of her pants are still falling off of her and are way too long. On the way to TN she had just gotten in her 5th tooth and now as we are getting ready to head back home, her 6th tooth just came in and pushed through.

She is doing great with eating adult finger foods. The only difficulty is when she decides she doesn't want it, she lets you know and refuses to eat anymore but if you give her something to eat that she desires at the moment she will go back to eating her meal. Yes, I know not a good habit to start but you really can't teach an infant that she has to eat what's in front of her or she doesn't get anything else. It is very important for her to get all the nutrients and calories so if she refuses one thing I have to find her something else. Don't worry, when she's a toddler I don't plan on being a special order cook for her :) She has started drinking whole cow's milk and she loves it! She has been doing so well with drinking more. I went ahead and started her on cows milk when our trip went from 5 days to 12 days. I am still nursing and I can't just stop cold turkey with that so I am introducing cow's milk and eventually will loose the 3 feedings a day I do with nursing. I have had extreme opposite feelings toward nursing. There are moments I love it, the time with her, the way she looks at me, so funny things that she has done and then there have been moments that haven't been so great. Like when she first started getting teeth. I didn't know if i would be able to make it to a year but she eventually learned. Moments where I felt that was all I was good for and just wanting a break, wanting to be able to go out with some girlfriends and not have to rush home to nurse bc she wouldn't take a bottle no matter what we tried. In the end though, I think I am going to miss those sweet precious moments I have shared so intimately with her!

She is becoming less afraid of letting go each and every day. These past couple of days at my mom and Steve's house she has been doing laps around the coffee table and has even let go with both hands and taken one step and then she get's scared and slowly brings herself back down to the floor. She is still doing the monkey crawl. She sure can book it while doing the monkey crawl. It's qutie hillarious! She is into everything and finds more new things to explore each and every day. She absolutely loves being outside and animals!!! If she is in a new surrounding, you probably won't see her adorable smile she usually is showing off, due to she is studying each and every new little thing in her surrounding area. She is so intruged and fasinated by new people and objects. Obviously she loves lights and mirrors right now too :) She is growing up so fast right before our very eyes. I can't beleive that once we get back home, she will have less than 3 weeks until her 1st Birthday!

2009-03-02T12:41:00.003-05:00

Kaylee has a new fetish with straws. She hasn't learned to drink from a sippy cup. We think that is becase she never really had a bottle. I found a sippy cup with a straw and that is what she usually drinks from. I had a large cup with a straw drinking water out of it and Kaylee deceided that it was her straw.

Grandpa and daddy are adding onto the house. They are planning on closing in an area to build in the grill and cooking area outside. Grandpa was really excited and added on an extra area for Kaylee's swing to go. We haven't been able to use it becuase we didn't know where to put it. They have a ton of trees in their yard but nothing seemed to make sense due to location on the property and so forth. They worked through the dark so that Kaylee could sit in the swing before she went to bed.

Going to work with Daddy!

2009-03-02T12:32:00.003-05:00

Daddy had to work on Saturday so daddy wanted Kaylee and I to come along and spend the day with him. It was a georgeous day out and we wanted to get out of the house. We had a great time. Getting amazing ideas for us one day possibly and then just enjoying the homes and their beautiful views. Here is a picture of Kaylee helping daddy start up a car at the house that is my ultimate dream house on the beach...and I just happen to love the car too :)(Maserati)

The Last Couple of Days

2009-02-21T16:01:00.004-05:00

Kaylee is now about 10 1/2 months old. One night I, Misty, was eating some pretzels for a snack before dinner. Josh was home and we were talking while Kaylee was playing with her toys in our bedroom. I looked at Josh just for a few seconds while we were talking and I looked back and found this.

She is so funny. She is always so interested in what other people are eating. She eats solids now but if you try and eat your lunch while she is eating hers, she wants to see everything you have to eat and try it.

Family has been continuing to ask if Kaylee is walking. There was a time around 8 1/2 months old that she was trying to stand up so we assumed she would probably be taking off quick. Then all of a sudden she stopped trying competely to stand and trying to use her walker. All she wanted was to play with the toys on the walker. I just have enjoyed watching her continue to crawl and experience life. Three nights ago we were playing with Kaylee and she stood up, for a couple of seconds. We started putting her behind the walker to play with and she just took off. She went from not being able to take a step fast enough to pushing all over her room. She still struggles with placing her feet in the right spot sometimes but she moving all over now behind it. Two nights ago she was holding onto the rocking chair and let go. She took two steps and the fell. She's not close to walking on her own yet, she still has to get her feet positioning better but all of a sudden she is walking behind her walker. The next day mommy deceided to take Kaylee outside to the driveway because she kept running into her fruniture in her bedroom. They have a really long drive way so she has plenty of room to learn to walk and eventually run and play.

Then after Kaylee pushed her walker into the grass this is what she discovered.

She discovered leaves, grass and pine needles and she loved every moment of it!!

10 months have come and gone! Already!

2009-02-17T11:19:00.009-05:00

Kaylee playing on Valentines morning.

The morning Kaylee was playing with the door trying to shut mommy out.

Who Me mommy? of course I am not trying to put my finger in the goats mouth!

Kaylee's 2nd time to eat a grilled cheese

Kaylee's 1st time to swing (Walk N Roll for Crew)

Kaylee turned 10 months old this past week. She is changing and growing every second and it is so amazing to watch her personality shine more and more each day. We have a little tiny girl on our hands. She is still in size 2 diapers and not going to be out of them for awhile. She is still wearing her 6 to 9 months clothes with no difficulty and the last time I weighed her she was a little over 15 pds and that was with her clothes on. I am waiting to take her to the doctor at her 1st birthday due to it being so busy with moving, unpacking and settling in to our new home and finding and getting settled into our new church. She is getting slightly taller but not a huge difference...her parents are short. Kaylee is saying mama, dada, bye bye and waving and waves when you say hello and wave to her. She is in the process of teething as I type. This will make her 6th tooth but who knows exactly when it will show up. She loves playing peek a boo, clapping her hands, dancing to music. Daddy didn't realize that her playtime CD was in the CD player and turned it on for her to go to sleep one night. And the second song is " I am a C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N". It is a engertic song and then as he is getting ready to walk out of the room, Kaylee's head pops up over the rails and starts bouncing in her bed to the song. I think Kaylee could be entertained for hours with opening and shuting doors and drawers. One morning Misty was in the bathroom getting ready for the day and Kaylee was in the floor playing with her toys. Kaylee crawled into her room..it's connected to the bathroom.. and starting closing and opening the door and giggling at mommy. Then when mommy tried to come in she closed the door and didn't want mommy to open the door. It was cute. That same morning we were sitting in front of the mirror in her room playing. Kaylee was in my lap and I was pointing to her and saying Kaylee and then pointing to me and saying MaMa. After a few times she pointed to me and said Mama. Oh, how it melted my heart. It was so darling.
Kaylee has good days and difficult days with her finger foods. One day she will love one food and the next day she doesn't like it and will spit it out..Kaylee did not spit out any baby food even if she didn't like it except for Avacado. She has now spit out every food that she eats pretty much. She will shake her head no..like she is not going to eat anymore of it..she's finished! Mommy will try to put it in her mouth and finally she gets feed up with mommy not giving her what she wants so Kaylee sticks out her tounge so that no food can enter that she doesn't want. I know she isn't full bc if I give her cheese she will eat it and usually she has only taken a couple of bites of her lunch/dinner when she does this. Kaylee loves, loves, loves cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches, wheat bread, applesauce, bananna's-absolutely loves. Depending on the day she loves, chicken, carrots, potatoes, green beans, asparagus and much more.
Kaylee and walking. So many people keep asking me if she's walking bc around 8 1/2 months she was trying to stand so we thought she would start taking off soon. Kaylee all of a sudden stop taking any interest in trying to stand. I have no idea why. She has never cried after falling on her booty after trying to stand so I don't know. Well, last night Kaylee and daddy got her push walker out and she took quite a few steps by herself(with the walker, not alone). We have been trying to get her to walk with it but her steps are so slow when she would take just one that the walker would go out from under her. She just wasn't ready for it. We didn't catch it on video due to mommy was sick in bed and daddy didn't know where mommy had put the camerea. So who know's if she will want to try it today.
I think if Kaylee could be outside all day long she would be. She loves being outside. Josh's parents have a muel that we whip all around in on the property and she just loves being in our laps while "steering" the wheel, going fast and feeling the wind on her face. When you stop, she bounces up and down until you go again. She giggles with excitment. She also loves being around the animals. The horse, dogs, and cats. We went to the fair and she got to see a ton of different animals from cows, sheep, goats, turkeys, pigs and many more. She loved it but that doesn't mean mommy has any desire to have any other animals than a dog once they move into their own home. I love animals but just don't have any desire to own them or have to take care of them..No thank you! I do love animals!
I just can't beleive we are already planning our little girl's 1st birthday party! We are trying to cherrish every moment the Lord gives us with her bc time sure does fly bye quickly. She is always changing and growing right in front of our eyes. We love her dearly!

Kaylee crys out Mama

2009-01-29T14:08:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, Kaylee woke up from her nap and was crying. Usually she will wake up, sit up in her bed and contently play with her bunny and bear that she sleeps with. But yesterday she was crying. I was in the middle of something and could not get to her immediately. While finishing up what I was doing quickly I thought I heard Mama. Well, I listened to Kaylee on the monitor closely and she said it again. It was so sweet even though she was crying. I told Josh about it when he got home and he said she had done it the night before when she woke up in the middle of the night and he went and got her for me. He said she was crying out mama! I never thought it would mean this much to me to be called out for. Not because she said Mama before Dada but because I am her Mama and there for her whenever she needs me..Lord willing. It is like our Father. I know He loves when we cry out to Him, in praise and song or tears rolling down our cheeks. If only we cried out to Him more. He is and always be there for us. He will never leave us nor forsake us. No matter what He is waiting to hear our voices call out His name! I pray as Kaylee's Mama that I can be there for her and give her biblical guidance in all her situations in life but I will not have all the answers and can not always be right by her side. One day she will grow up and be on her own but she will always have the Lord to call out to no matter where she is in this world! Abba, our Father Loves us dearly!

We have been parents for 9 months!

2009-01-19T15:06:00.000-05:00

Yum! Yum! Kaylee loves her crackers!

Kaylee just turned 9 months old. Time sure has flown bye us! We are loving being parents and are having such a blast with Kaylee. She is so much fun!!! Every day is more and more exciting with her moving all over the place. Kaylee LOVES bathtime. I think she could stay in the tub all day if we let her. She has duck and fish bath toys that she plays with the whole time to where mommy usually has to take them away to be able to give her a bath and then she gets to go back to playing. She loves splashing all around. She also loves playing peek a boo with someone in the shower. She loves crawling over to the tub, standing up and then jerking the decorative curtin back and giggling. Kaylee and daddy play this game a lot. He will sit down in the tub while the shower is running and she has a ball. She doesn't want to stop. She finds this so humerous and enteraning! So, I think in one of my most recent post I said she said MaMa. Well, she has not said it clear again. She talks alot of gibber jabber such as mamama, dadada, bybybyby and so forth and a couple of weeks ago we started teaching her Bye Bye and waving to someone when they leave or she leaves. Now Bye Bye is her favorite word and she loves to wave to people, all the time. She has been going through a lot of adjustments recently. She is loving her new room and home..it has dogs, cats, a bird and turtles. Kaylee LOVES animals..she will chase after them..aka...crawl after them all over if she can. Her favorite animal is a dog right now, especially Kyra...Sara's golden retriver. Kyra is almost two and has tons of energy and feeds off of Kaylee's energy. Kyra can get Kaylee giggling and not stop. She was trying to stand up on her own a lot for a couple of days and then all of a sudden she quit trying. She still trys every once and a while but not as often. She loves to dance. Daddy beat boxes and she can move to the beat. She loves music and loves to move to it! It is so cute. She does this crawl we call a monkey crawl. She is up on her hands like she is when she normally crawls but instead of being on her knees she straightens her legs and "monkey crawls". This is how she crawls now....it is very rare for her to crawl on her knees and now she is really good at the monkey crawl and can go really fast. She is great at playing all by herself...which is great for the early morning wake up call mommy gets. Mommy goes and lays back down on the couch in her bedroom and rests while she starts playing in the mornings. Mommy has not quite gotten adjusted to the move in the sense of everyone else in the house stays up late...really late..dinner is not usually until 8:30/9 pm and then everyone stays up and talks afterwards..with Kaylee getting me up around 6 am I am struggling to be coherant due to lack of sleep. I am trying to go to bed earlier bc my body just can't do it. Kaylee is roughly 15 pounds and is struggling to fit her 6 to 9 month clothes. Some of her clothes fit great but some still swallow her hole. Due to the transition of moving she started waking up again in the middle of the night and I would nurse her. Now she is teething again. I can see her 5th tooth coming in on the bottom and we think another one on the other side is also coming in. So due to all of this mommy had not gotten to sleep through the night. Kaylee also has changed her nap pattern. The first four months of her life she did NOT nap so when she finally started I didn't know what to do with myself. NOw I have plenty to do and all of a sudden a couple of weeks ago she started sleeping for an hour in the mornings compared to the 2 hour morning nap and an hour to hour and a half in the afternoon which she use to also sleep for 2 hours. So she only took two 2 hr naps for 5 months and she is already cutting them back. She is waking up from her afternoon nap as I finish typing.
Josh got a great job doing home watch. It is a dream job for him bc he gets to drive his dream cars for the homeowners. (in the sense of a secular job) and such a blessing from the Lord. He makes sure everything is taken care of while the people don't live in their homes down here in Florida. We can't believe we have already started thinking about her 1st birthday party...crazy huh?
I am a little sad today due to Kaylee finished off all the homemade baby food I made for her back in June. It is bitter sweet moment bc as of tonight I am putting her on all table foods and no more baby food. She has been eating cantalope, bananna's crackers, toast-toddlers toast, puffs, and so forth and now we are going to move onto the rest of the foods. She is still being nursed and will still have her otmeal baby cereal for breakfast but to me it just is one more thing to remind me that she is growing up quickly and appriciate every moment we have with her.We have been so blessed from the Lord with such a happy and healthy baby girl.

Trip to Jacksonville, Fl; Washington DC and St. Augustine

2009-01-12T21:35:00.001-05:00

We took a a spur of the moment trip. We got in touch with our great friends Garrett and Lara Conner...meet at seminary. We actually moved on the same day to Florida. Josh called Garrett at 8 pm to see if he wanted someone to ride with him to DC and to help him move. He meant to call earlier that day and we had been talking about calling for a few days. So at 8:30 we rushed to eat dinner, rushed to pack for 3 people..one including our little baby girl and drive 6 hours to Jacksonville, Fl. We got there at about 3 am. Josh got up early the next morning and headed to Garrett's house. Then they headed to Wake Forest, NC. Loaded up the truck and spent the night. The next day they headed to DC. They spent the next couple of days unpacking, hanging out with some of Garrett's friends from the intership they are about to start at Captiol Hill Baptist Chruch and toured DC. Their new home is going to be on Captial Hill. Lara, Jack-her son who is 4 days younger than Kaylee and Kaylee and I got to hang out for the next 5 days. It was great getting to hang out one more time before they offically move to DC. On Monday we headed to St. Augustine for the day. We ate at Harry's and then had some amazing homemade icecream for dessert. The picture of Kaylee in a pack n play is when I found her after a nap wondering why she wasn't crying for me to get her and feed her. She had pulled the toast box off the table, gotten through the plastic slit and pulled out all the toast and had one in each hand eating on it. Too cute. I was blown away that one she knew that there was food in that box and how to get into it. That afternoon I got a huge scare. I went to put her down for her second nap and she was throwing a fit so I left her in her room to cry herself to sleep and walked out. About 45 minutes later Amanda, Lara's sister said I think she is still crying..I didn't hear her but all of a sudden I got this feeling like I needed to go and check on her and now! I went in and she was sitting up crying. I noticed she was gagging on something. I had moved all the food from the table next to her except the cereal box. Her cereal box has a big cap that you screw on and off. I thought that there is no way she could get into it so I didn't move it. She had gotten the cereal container down, somehow got the cap undone and put it in her mouth. I grabbed her out of the bed, trying to hit her on her back not realizing at the time what she was chocking on. Then I looked inside her mouth and saw the cap and had to use my fingers and reach all the way into the back of her mouth to pull the cap out. My heart was racing. It scared me half to death...not literally but I was shook up. I don't know how she got the cap off but she did. From this point on everything has to be out of reach, no matter how difficult it is to get into! Praise the Lord Amanda told me that she was still crying bc I couldn't hear her at that moment. Praise the Lord the cap was large enough she couldn't swallow it and it become stuck in her throat! Praise the Lord that nothing was extremely wrong to the point of something happening to Kaylee. God is so good!

Kaylee's New Bedroom

2009-01-12T21:10:00.001-05:00

These are pictures of Kaylee's new room while we live with Josh's parent's for the next couple of years. Jennifer and Sara went out of their way to paint Kaylee's room and surpirse us when we got to Florida.

First Christmas as a Family of 3

2009-01-01T10:36:00.000-05:00

Our first Christmas as a family of 3 was spent at our new home (Josh's parents house) in Florida. We did not get our tree up until 2 days before Christmas. It was very important for us to have our own family Christmas tree. Sara had a white 2' tree with pink orniments all over it with lights in Kaylee's room when we arrived. I sadly did not get a picture. After I had taken the tree and the decorations down I realized sadly that I did not get one. We had our reef on our door and our stocking we hung (off of our desk hatch). you do what you have to do when the situation is not necessarly ideal for putting up Christmas decorations.
This was Kaylee's first Christmas and we wanted to start traditions and make our own family memories...and we did! We planned on reading the story of Jesus's birth on Christmas Eve but we went to church and did not get back until her bedtime and there was no holding her off. So Christmas morning we woke up and got the video camera and went into her room. We got her and brought her back to our room with the Christmas tree.
First, daddy read to Kaylee the story of Jesus' birth. Then she opened up her stocking and boy did she know what to do! She pulled out her sippy cup and a hot pink bathing suit. Next, was her ornimant. It was a bird..for all the bird faces and sounds she made this past 8 months. (she was also a bird for Halloween)Then it was onto what Santa brought...which was wrapped...at least for this year :) She got books and a Leapfrog BrightLings toy. She didn't really understand the ripping the paper off even with mommy and daddy helping out but once the paper was off she had a ball with it! The it was onto Kaylee helping mommy and daddy opening our stockings, orniments. Our gifts to each other were our orniments this year but mommy got daddy good buy getting him the National Treasure 2 movie for his stocking. Joshua always goes over budget while I work extremely hard to use every single penny without going over. We had a $10 limit for our stockings this year ...just enough for some candy but I got him good! He was expecting for me to do that and he was excited!
After we were done Kaylee, Josh and I went downstairs and had Christmas with his parents and sisters. They were all ready and waiting. Kaylee was ready. She ripped through her stocking that had stuff overflowing from the top. One thing I learned is that my family is not the only one's who do Christmas BIG!! Kaylee was a pro at taking things out of her stocking one by one. The onto the gifts... Kaylee participated a little more with the unwrapping..aka..she actually pulled a strip of paper off of most of the presents. She was hillarious. She knew exactly what to do...unwrap the toy and play with it for a second and then she was ready. She knew there was more and she was estatic. She wanted to open more. As soon as the one was opened she looked toward the tree where more of her presents were and would get giddy and clapp her hands in excitment!
It has been a whirl wind moving, unpacking, getting up decorations, celebrating Jesus' birth, Kaylee opening gifts, organizing all the new stuff and still get our home together. It has been such an amazing time to see Kaylee grow and try new things. She is now eating bread...it's the kind for teething, unsalted crackers and yogurt puffs. She is about to start testing out cheese in the next couple of days. She now has two more teeth in and has started standing up on her own. She stood up on her own and actually balanced herself instead of just falling down on the Monday after Christmas which was Dec. 28,2008. We are having a blast being parents and are so blessed that the Lord has brought Kaylee into our lives. Joshua has so much fun playing around with her and he is such a great dad and husband. He helps me out a ton when I need it. I am truely blessed!

Moved to Florida

2008-12-18T11:03:00.000-05:00

We have now been at our new home for 3 days now. We are living with Josh's parents so that we can pay off our college debt. It has been an interesting week of adventure this past week. We finished up loading the truck and headed out Sunday night at 10 pm. We drove through the night and stopped and slept for about 2 hours. Now I, Misty, of course slept through a decent amount of the night driving. I rode with Josh in the 26 foot moving truck with his car in tow and his parents drove our suv with Kaylee. We stopped in Daytona, Fl to see the largest Harley Davison Store. The last three days here have been busy unloading the truck and starting to unpack boxes. It has been a blessing to have his parents and sister's around to help us out with Kaylee so that we can unpack.

Little miss Kaylee has been busy this week too. She started clapping her hands together this week. She does it when we say things like: "good girl", "big girl", "yea Kaylee" and so forth. She loves playing patty cake and will sometimes take the outside of your hands and slap them together. Randomly sometimes she claps them over and over....i guess she is giving herself praise when she does something well and exciting! The first full day in Florida I, mommy, was feeding her cereal and I ran into the other room to get her high chair. It is one that fits inside of a chair. By the time I had gotten back she had taken the spoon, got some otmeal on it and put it in her mouth correctly...with a lot of mess of her face in the process. Lately she has started shaking her head no. she does it randomly but it is quite funny. Kaylee's doctor said at her 6 month appointment that her top gums were swollen and her teeth could come any time-which means from now to many months later. Josh found two more teeth last night in the top of her gums. They have already broken the skin and pushed a good bit through. So soon you will be able to see her four teeth in the front. It was a long night bc nothing made her happy unless mommy was carrying her around and held her close. This is the only time mommy spoils her-when she's sick and not feeling good and teething. Kaylee has been running a fever with teething just as she did when her bottom two teeth came in. Our little girl is growing up and fast. We are cheerishing every moment with her and are blessed to have a healthy happy baby girl. Praise you Lord!!

8 Months Already!!

2008-12-12T02:19:00.001-05:00

Kaylee just turned 8 months old while we are finishing up packing up our home to move to Florida.Kaylee is a little over 14 1/2 pds. I am having a blast being a mommy. Every day bring more excitment, fun and adventure! It is so amazing to "try" and see through the eyes of Kaylee. She is such a content, happy baby. She is full of energy. We can put her in her crib at 6 am after her feeding and get about 2 more much needed hours of sleep. She plays great all by herself but she loves when you get in the floor and she can climb all over you. She loves to dance and beatbox with daddy. She bouces on everything-it makes her smile and giggle. Kaylee is an extremely ticklish girl!!!! We have tickle sessions often just to hear her giggle out of control! It is the cutist thing ever. She is to a point now where she will take a few very slow steps on her own when she holds onto your fingers. It will be a long while before she walks on her own but she wants to walk so bad that there are many times where that is what she wants to "try" instead of crawling.

Kaylee loves playing peak a boo and lets copy mommy. I will put my head down and then she will mimick me and then I will lift it up and so forth. She knows it melts our little hearts so one morning we were all lying in bed and she started laying her head down the "cute" way. Kaylee loves to babble. She says a lot of babababa and mamamamama and close to dadada but there are no distint words in the sense she realizes what she's saying, just repeating. But I know this girl is going to Love to talk..but what girl doesn't? Kaylee loves books and puzzles. She has a puzzle that makes sounds of the animals that she plays with a lot.

Kaylee also has a strong willed sided. She lets you know when your doing something that she does not like you doing-aka- putting her down for a nap or bed, telling her no,no, and so forth. She has thrown quite a few temper tantrums. It just reminds Josh and I that we are born sinful and that only by God's grace can we strive to be more like Him.

One thing that I have fallen in love with is watching her on the monitor when she is sleeping. It is just so precious. I love it when she wakes up and starts to whimper-it is so sweet. I think that is the only time I "enjoy" her cry :) I just love being a mommy and getting to see all of these stages that she is going through. I have been blessed to be at home to experience this with her. Daddy is already wrapped our her little fingers. He is smitten!!

Kaylee's 1st Thanksgiving

2008-12-12T01:56:00.000-05:00

Josh and I have decieded that for the holidays we can only travel to one set of parents. It was just getting out of hand how much traveling we were doing for the holidays. I remember one year we had "Santa" 5 times!! So this year we planned to go to Misty's parents and then for Christmas we were going to Josh's parents. It worked out even better due to the fact we are moving to Florida in two days and will get there 10 days before Christmas. Just enough time to settle into our new home and get ready for the day of Jesus's birth!!

Josh took off work early on Tuesday before Thanksgiving and we drove through the night to a small town outside of Nashville. Kaylee did great a first. She cried at the typical times when she needed something-aka:feeding but after a while she just got sick and tired of the car seat!!! We drove 9 hours that night. It was such a blessing that we drove through the night because it hit a large part of her bed time...Praise the Lord!!! When spent the night with Giles-one of Josh's best friends and then headed to Jackson, TN to see the Rolands-the Associate pastor and wife of the church Josh was a Youth Pastor at while at Union and had lunch with them. Then we headed toward West Memphis, Ar to see the Kings. We had a blast. About 10 miles outside of Memphis we deceided to drop Kaylee off at my mom's house bc Kaylee had enough of being in a car. It was another day of driving even though we were only a couple hours from Memphis bc we stopped to see people. We headed to see the Kings and their new home and enjoyed their company and friendship! Then late that night we headed back home to my mom's.

The next morning was Thanksgiving. We went to my aunts first and then to my grandmothers-dad side of the family. We all spent the night out there and then headed to my dad's house for Christmas. Kaylee had a blast! Then we headed to my mom's that night and had Christmas and hung out the next day with my family and then the Peasley's came into town and got to meet Kaylee and catch up! It was so good to see them too! We had to load the car up that night. It was packed to the brim. There was not an ounce of space left with things that have been saved for us when we had a baby. We had a rocking horse, 4-wheeler, clothes galore-praise the Lord, and much much more! God is so good!!! He always provides!! Josh left Sunday morning bc he had to get back to finsh up his last week at State Farm and his last week in school for this semester. He has a quite house to come home too-which he did not like- but it was good for him to study for his final. Kaylee and I spent the rest of the time hanging out with my family and got to see my best friends Patty and Hillary along the way! We flew home on Thursday the day of Josh's final. I don't have any pictures from the time spent with my mom and everyone on that side due to my camera was broken and I got a new camera but it did not fit my memory card so I am getting a new one! But here are some pictures with my dad and Kaylee.

Kaylee's Baby Dedication

2008-11-17T09:34:00.000-05:00

Kaylee was dedicated to the Lord on November 16th 2008 at Wake Crossroads Baptist Chruch. Our entire sunday school class who has new babies got dedicated. There were a total of 9 families. Josh and I started off the year by having Kaylee in April and then 9 families followed from May to October and then one family was out of town who just has a baby and then another family delievered two days before the dedication. There was still two families to go that are expected to deliever in Janurary! Children are such a blessing from the Lord! It was an awesome time. Then afterwards we went out to lunch bc our friends from Africa were headed back. They had come back to the states for their sister's wedding and then she was to far along in the pregnancy to return so we were blessing by getting a couple of months to hang out and get to know their adorable family before they head back tomorrow!

7 MONTHS OLD!

2008-11-10T15:34:00.000-05:00

Kaylee is 7 months old today. Right now I hear her crying from her room. This is something she picked up after a couple of months and has continued to this day. Every time I lay her down for a nap-which is twice a day and to put her to bed for the night-she crys and screams. Sometimes she even throws temper tantrums-yes where she kicks her legs and tears up her bumper in her crib. I am encouraged that this too shall pass. Many mom's have told me that their child did this and now they are great sleepers. All I can do is shut the door, turn on the monitor and go on about my daily tasks. I have to let her cry it out or she will have won the battle and learn that mommy while come and get her if she cries. Usually she does this for 15-20 minutes but if she is exhausted she will do it for about 30 minutes. At this moment she has just cried herself to sleep. She is getting better and better and the time it takes is getting shorter.

This month has been a big month for her. She just got over her first cold. Last monday night she started getting a runny nose and by the next night she had a fever over a 102. She wasn't very fussy this past week but very clingy. She just kept reaching out for me to hold her and of course I cheerished every moment of it! She actually rested her head upon my shoulder-I never get to enjoy this feeling bc she is so busy and occupied with the things around her. It was a tough week for her but she is back to playing with her toys, smiling and giggling. Also this past week was when I vaccumed up my wedding rings. Josh sifted through the vaccum and found 3 out of the 4 diamonds that came out of my engagment ring. The next day I was able to find the final missing diamond..praise be to the Lord! I actually just dropped off both rings to get fixed. Praise the Lord we got insurance on them back in the summer of this year!

Kaylee is into everything now. Especially the things she is not suppose to be into. I have had to tap her hand quite a few times and her little precious bottom twice. After telling Kaylee no, no - six different times and moving her away from the things she was not suppose to be touching or messing with I had to go to the bottom-just a little tap. She knew good and well what she was doing and that mommy did not want her to do it. After I would move her away from the thing and back to her toys she would watch me and when she thought I wasn't looking anymore she would start crawling back to whatever it was. One day it was the handheld vaccum, another day it was the computer cord behind the baby carrier, another day it was the monitor and so forth. One day I went into the kitchen to do something really quick while Kaylee was in the floor playing with her toys. All of a sudden I hear a crash, it was our 6 1/2 to 7 foot decorative tree that she had crawled over too and tried to pull herself up on and instead it came crashing down. It didn't hurt her but really scared her. Thank goodness the tree branch was high enough that on it's side it was higher than her head. Silly girl.

Her newest adventure is pulling herself up. She learned how to do that and crawling all in the same week but now she is getting it down much better. There have been many tears in this household this past month due to her having socks on her feet bc it is cold here and having wood floors. Socks, wood floors and pulling oneself up do not go together. After a couple of times I took her socks off around the house. She is now pulling herself up in the crib and will stand their holding on and cry until you get her when she wakes up- not every time just depending on the day and time. She can pull herself up the couch and the stairs. I have to keep a good eye out for her and what she is doing. Daddy is about to lower the crib down because I am afraid that if we don't do it now, we might not do it soon enough before she can get hurt. She got a huge blast of energy this past Saturday and crawled all over mommy and daddy like we have never seen her do it before. She will pull herself up and stand up while holding on-for some reason she deceided to let go with one hand and wobbled all over and fell onto the bed- she didn't like that feeling very much so she hasn't tried that agian :)

We are 5 weeks away from moving to Florida with going to Thanksgiving right smack dab in the middle of it. Honestly that is how I like it though bc once the Lord is doing something I am ready right then and there and this waiting thing gets me wanting to pack a lot sooner than necessary so I will pack some before thanksgiving and then Kaylee and I will stay a couple of extra days after daddy leaves TN and then when we get back daddy will be done with his Hebrew class that he has done awesome in this semester and have 10 days to go before we move. And during those 10 days we have to finish packing, I have a MOPS Christmas social at night to be a part of, sunday school party and choir presentation on Sunday night before we head out Monday morning. So much to do and so much fun!! It's going to be a fun-filled next 5 weeks.

** I no longer have a camera bc it is broken so it could be awhile before I post picutes depending if I can borrow someone's camera for right now and someone is borrowing our video camera so as soon as I get it back and figure out how to post video I will. Love you all!

Kaylee's 1st Halloween!!

2008-11-08T09:02:00.000-05:00

Kaylee's first costume took a ton of man hours to make. Josh was the majority of the thinking process and creative process. He also cute out the bodysuit we made and helped out with cutting the feathers. Misty helped with the creativity..even though mostly Josh, and she did all the tedious hours of sewing! Misty is so greatful to have a sewing machine...this costume would not have been done without it! After it was finally done, Josh and Misty said that we probably would not make another costume again. But as soon as Kaylee had the full costume on, it was all well worth the time and effort. We both came back and said we would consider making one again when she is old enough to enjoy the costume...aka...have fun with it!
Kaylee was a bird this year. We came upon the decision to make her a bird because when she was born she would make a little bird's face with her mouth when she was ready to eat and she would make these squaking noises that she still sometimes makes to this day. We thought that nothing would be better than to make her a bird this year! We made every piece of the costume except for the velcro that was at the bottom for easy undoing to change a diaper if necessary. Everything was FREE. We did not spend one penny making this costume. The bodysuit was made out of one of Josh's t-shirts-grey, the feather's were an array of colors that came from some of Josh's t-shirt's also. The beak and eyes were also made from t-shirts of Josh's......yes he has a ton of t-shirts and if you looking in his drawer and closet you would still think he has way too many t-shirts! There were at least 6 different t-shirts involved in making this costume. The question that now is in the air...what will she be next year? Well that depends on what happens in the next year. We like to have things that relate to that past year. Events that have happened and so forth to not only have pictures of her dressed up but to also remember something funny or cute that took place.

Kaylee is sitting, crawling and pulling up

2008-10-28T16:07:00.000-04:00

I forgot to update my records of when Kaylee sat up the first time. Today is Oct. 28, 2008 and Kaylee sat up for the first time on Oct. 23, 2008 at Lara and Garret's house while playing with Jack. Jack has been sitting up for a couple of weeks and I was joking around and said "ok, Kaylee ready..your going to sit up and counted one two three and i let her go and she actually did it. I was expecting her to fall over. Kaylee has been trying to crawl for about a month and a half. At 5 months she started learning how to move her legs to crawl but couldn't push her arms up. Then at about 5 1/2 months she figured how to get up on her arms. Then all of a sudden she couldn't figure out how to move her legs so she would scoot around and rock back and forth on her arms and knees. At her 6 mth appointment her doctor said she might would skip sitting up bc she wanted to crawl so badly. Kaylee would not sit still long enough to even try to sit up. As soon as you would sit her up she would flip onto her stomach to push up. The doctor said she would eventually sit up but she might crawl first bc she wants to move.
On Oct. 28, 2008 Josh was home for lunch and was about to leave. Josh called for me to come downstairs. Kaylee was crawling...slowing but surely. She had her focus on the computer that was laying in the floor and wanted to get to it. I jumped up and down on the stairs. Once Kaylee got to the computer, Josh pulled her back for her to crawl some more. She is not speedy yet but sooner or later she will be. I already know I am in trouble bc last week she got acoss the room into some of my bags a couple of different days.
Earlier this morning, Oct. 28th, I put Kaylee in her laundry basket. Kaylee had hit her head on the floor while she was playing while I was folding laundry. I picked her up and soothed her. She reached out for the laundry basket so I thought it would be fun to put her inside it. It is the perfect size for her to sit up and could reach all sides of it..it's a round one. All of a sudden I see her looking at the other stuff around her..outside the basket and she starts to pull her self up. She got onto her feet and then fell down in the basket. So she didn't stay up very long.
A couple of days ago I was coming home and was on the phone with Josh and asked him what Kaylee was doing. He said she was playing. He all of a sudden said Kaylee is trying to pull up on the stool...she got to the first step and Josh got her..thank goodness!
She is a busy body and keeps me on my toes. We are so blessed to have a healthy baby girl! Thank You Lord!
Family - We let someone borrow our video camera so I will get video of her crawling and pulling up as soon as possible so all of you can see it so you don't have to wait til the holidays!

Moving to Naples, Fl

2008-10-27T22:56:00.000-04:00

We are moving to Naples, Fl. This all happened exactly a week ago. A couple of weeks ago, Lara, one of my best friends husband Garrett was talking to Josh and suggested moving back home in with family to get rid of our debt. (We have a substainal amount of student loans from Union. We also have a small amount of medical bills were paying due to Josh getting Lime's Disease back in July. Due to this we have not been able to save any money for Josh to take classes next semester so we were going to have to take out more student loans.) Josh said something to me about it and we did not think twice about it. Well this past Monday I was with Lara and Josh was with Garrett...don't worry Kaylee was asleep with Josh :)Without knowing it each of us got into this conversation again. I came back home that night after having a blast with our friends and Josh and I stayed up til 3 am praying and discussing it. By the next day we felt like the Lord was probably leading us to do this but did not make rash decisions and wanted to pray about it more. Josh asked his parents on Tuesday to start praying about us moving to Fl. and in with them. Wednesday my Assoc. Pastor's wife, Meliane came over and I shared all of this with her. By this time I had a complete peace about it. Both Lara and Meliane said it was a very wise decision to make.
The Lord calls us to be good stewarts of our money and taking out more loans is not being a good steward. Also, how can Josh preach to the congregation one day and tell them the Lord calls them to be good stewarts of their money and we have not been living it. You must practice what you preach bc while your preaching the Word to the congregation you are also preaching it right back to yourselves! Also, we were told that when you go on interviews for a position the committee is going to ask you how are you doing stewartship wise..how are you finanically. If you sit there in say we have got ...... amount of debt due to school. They are going to say...ahhh ..you probably need to take care of that first before you conisder taking a position. It was awesome to hear Meliane say....I can see the joy and peace you have about this decision.
God has blessed us so much with all the encouragment from all of our friends and family already! Such a blessing. Also, it has been so neat bc after we made it offical that we were moving...Wednesday..yes..two days later...the Lord blessed Josh with 10 sales on Friday and a large check from a couple in our sunday school class. We now how what Josh would make in a two week paycheck to deposit into our account to pay bills we didn't know how we were going to pay. He is so good and faithful!
We are so excited to move...7 weeks and we are moving...Dec 15th. Josh will work full time and I will continue to stay at home with Kaylee as of now. Right now we feel like we are to stay for 2 years and pay off as much debt as possible. We could end up staying longer depending on the Lord's. It has been a crazy week but very exciting. It is so neat how this all happened in one week. It was such a blessing to have such a peace so quickly bc with Thanksgiving in the middle of this 7 weeks and Josh's class we have a lot to do and get done.
I think I have put everything in here..if you have any questions..just ask!

Running the Race!

2008-10-27T22:44:00.000-04:00

I, Misty....defiently not Josh...he thinks running is of the devil :), have been training for the half martathon that is to be held on Dec. 6th in Memphis tn for St. Jude. I was extremely looking forward to it due to my step dad, mom, her sister and her son were training for it. It was going to be a famiy event. My best friend Lara and I have been training together and we were up to 6 miles a couple of weeks ago. We went out for an easy run of 3 miles and at the end of my run all of a sudden I wasn't able to run anymore. I started hobbling trying to finsh. I finshed but I have not run since and that was almost 3 weeks ago. I just tried to run again an easy 3 miler this past week but could not even make it a mile without severe pain in my knee.
I walked it off with Lara. As we did this I shared with her something I felt like the Lord was trying to say to me through all of this. I felt like the reason I was having knee problems was bc it was a spiritual issue. I have been wanting to run the race, I wanted to run with my family....I, I, and I. There is absolutely nothing wrong with running in the race for anyone else but it is for me.
I am a discussion group leader for MOPS this year and for me to run in this race I was going to have to miss the last meeting of this year in Dec. This meeting is when the speaker will present the gospel to all the women. I don't know if the Lord wants me to be there for my own spiritual growth or to lead someone to Christ but all I know is the Lord wants me to be at that meeting. The last meeting the discussion was on Priorities and is what you do day to day showing the true order of your priorities. Mops is one of my ministries and I was putting the race over one of my priorities. I honestly felt like the Lord had been speaking to my heart saying Misty until you make it clear that your not going to run in this race, your knee will hurt to where you will not be able to run. Since I have let my family know and truely got it out of my head that I was going to run this specific race my knee has felt a lot better.

Kaylee is 6 and a half months!

2008-10-24T19:14:00.001-04:00

Time is flying by. It has been such a blessing from the Lord to be able to be at home to cherrish these precious moments of her life! It is crazy to think that Kaylee is already a half a year old! She has changed so much. She is becoming more and more like a little girl every day. Her personality is developing each and every day. She has a bubbly personality. She loves to laugh,smile, jump on the bed aka-bouncing on the bed with daddy/mommy and read books. Everything intrigue's her. She is so fasinated with everything that suronds her. She loves playing games with songs to it. If she is crying mommy can sing the A A apple, B B ball song-sing the sound of each letter twice and then the word..it rhymes and it will instantly calm her down. Her favorite book is her Bible. I am not just saying this either family :). That is the book that she reaches for. She loves to be read too. She loves to be in control too. She wants to turn the pages of the book, take the spoon out of mommy hands and feed herself and have the bowl in the other hand. She is eating marvelously!
She has now experienced almost every food that I have made for her. She loves zuccine, asparagus, squash, brocceli, mangos and so much more. It is really funny becuase her mommy is an extremly picky eater but Kaylee is not. The only two foods she does not like is mashpotatoes and green peas....one of the only two her mommy loves. I have learned that if I mix these two with corn she will eat every bite! She started out eating 1 cube of food at 5 months and is now eating 4 cubes of food at each meal. Kaylee's first two teeth started coming in on Sept. 1 and they fully pushed through on the 18th of September. The doctor said at her 6 mth appointment that her top gums were swollen so she should be getting in at least another tooth in a month to a couple of months later. I was praying that it would be later than sooner. It was an extremly rough week when the teeth were really pushing through. I don't hold Kaylee a lot unless we are playing but I was not able to put her down. She was miserable and running a high fever the entire week. I felt so bad. The medicing defiently helped but it did wear off.
When Josh's parents came to visit Josh thought it would be funny to let Kaylee try out a straw. Not expecting anything but just watching her basically slobber all over it. She slobbered over it and then figured out how to get something out of it. After that she would reach for the cup with the straw in it. Ever since then she does this. We let her practice sipping out of a sraw a little. When my mom and sister came a few weeks later my mom and sister has a strawberry bananna smoothie and she reached for it. I had told my mom that she could do it but could not beleive her eyes. It was so precious. She enjoyed that smoothie. We have been giving her sippy cups and one with a staw but they have the invention of spill proof and she is not ready to use those. She has not figured out how to suck hard enough to get anything out. We are so excited about Halloween. We will be going out with one of my great friends Lara and her son Jack and her husband Garrett to their church, Providence Baptist. Kaylee is going to be a bird. She has this bird squill she makes all the time. It is hillarious. Also when she was younger she made bird faces when she was hungery. So she will get to be a colorful bird this year....hip hip horray!!
The Lord has been doing a lot in our lives and we have some crazy and exciting news about what He is doing but can not announce it yet. We will soon! We love all of you.

Kaylee's 4 months old!!

2008-08-21T12:13:00.000-04:00

Kaylee is growing up a storm. She starting eating rice cereal on Aug. 3, 2008 for the first time and she LOVED every bite of it. She kept moving her legs back and forth to mean that she wanted more! The only time she has not liked it is after we visited the doctor for her 4 month appointment the doctor said to mix with my milk b/c she is on the smaller side to help get more calories in. I didnt start doing it at first bc I am producing just enough milk for her and it is very difficult to pump anymore out.
Her four month appointment went great..except for the shots...I hate hearing her scream like that! She now weighs 11 lbs and 15 oz. and 23 and 3/4 inches long! The doctor was very happy with where Kaylee is developmentally too. The peds. office gives you a sheet to show you what you baby more and likely will have accomplished for the next visit..6 mth visit..only by God's grace is it that Kaylee can do it all already...nothing I have done only God! She has been for a while doing most of these things: coo's, blows bubbles and makes "raspberry" sounds, laughs and giggles all the time and mommy and daddy know how to tickle her to where she just can't stop laughing, reaching, grabbing for her toys and playing well with them, hold her head up with no difficulty, supports her weight on her legs, holds body stiff when being pulled up from the ground and much much more. Please don't take this as bragging, I have done nothing to have Kaylee where she is now except play with her and spend time with her at home..also by God's grace. I am writting all of this b/c it will be many months before most family will see her again and I just want to let you know where she is right now. The doctor said the next thing she should be accomplishing is saying "mama and "dada". Oh how we can not wait to hear those words one day!!
Kaylee loves to play games and have books read to her. The only problem is she loves the TV. I have nursed so often that I would turn the Tv while nursing so now it draws her to it any time it is on. We are defiently working on this though bc she loves it way too much. She loves her Baby Einstein movies! She usually watches one every day. We are still having difficulty with her taking a bottle. I was always with her so it was just made more sense at the time for me to feed her...little did we know that bc she didn't have a bottle after 2 weeks of age and then at 6 weeks for a weekend while visiting grandparents...it would hurt her. Now it is hard for me to go anywhere without her bc Josh can't take care of her bc she wont take a bottle. We are working hard to get her to take it at home and at church. She is in the nursery on Sun mornings/nights and on most Fridays while I am at MOPS meetings preparing for this year to come.

Kaylee is rolling over

2008-07-27T21:31:00.001-04:00

Kaylee and I just got back from Tennessee. We were there for 8 days and hung out with Mimi. Daddy missed us extremely bad. He said we were not allowed to travel without him again...he just couldn't take it! How sweet. Kaylee learned to roll over but mama never got to see her do it. The Sunday after we got back, the 20th of July, we were at our friends house for lunch and she rolled over for mama and dada. Hip Hip Horray!! Now that she figured out how to do it without difficulty she doesn't want to stop rolling over. She is still not sleeping through the night. I am waking up around 12:30 am and 4:30 am and 6:30 am to feed and once 6:00 am comes she is wide awake but she lets mommy sleep until 8:30 (her next feeding)...which I have really needed. Kaylee is going about 2 1/2 hours between each feeding. She just got over a growth spurt. She was eating every hour. All mommy was doing was feeding.

2008-07-27T21:27:00.000-04:00

Life in North Carolina

2008-07-27T21:15:00.000-04:00

Josh and I have been married for over 3 years now. God has and is continuously blessing us and our marriage. Kaylee was born on April 10, 2008 at 9:35 pm. She was born on Josh's birthday. She is now 3 and 1/2 months old. She is growing so fast. I already put up her 0-3 month old clothes and brought out all of her 2-6 months clothes. I just dont understand how anyone could have a child and not believe in God. How amazing it is to see a baby that the Lord created in my womb and now is out in this world. How blessed we are that God is intrusting us with her. Just to look into her beautiful eyes and see how she is such a gift from our Lord! On the way home from the hospital I looked at her and was reminded about how important it is to share the gospel.
Josh is working full time at State Farm while I am staying at home raising our precious daughter. I am so grateful to be able to stay at home and raise our child. Josh is about to start his second year at Southeastern Baptist Theological Semianry. Due to working full time and having Kaylee Josh will not finish for about four more years...Lord willing.

2007-09-01T20:42:00.000-04:00

I am 7 weeks PREGNANT!! God completley surprised us with this news!! GOD IS SO AWESOME! He is already showing us how He is going to take care of us and the baby(s)....i am praying for he/she/them due to the fact that we are both in line for twins...i would LOVE it...and if we have twins i want to be able to tell them that i have been praying for the both of them since i found out i was pregnant. i found out on August 21st(Tuesday Night)! On August 24th(Friday) I found out that all that we have to pay with the docs. visit, the pregnancy and $7 for an Advil is a $20 co-pay at first first doc. appointment which is Sept. 17th and a $250 hospital entrance fee...PRAISE BE TO GOD!! Most families have to pay a couple thousand dollars. My company is coving 100% of doc. visits and pregnancy costs!!! THANK YOU LORD. Then Friday afternoon my dad surprised me. My dad came up with a sneeky plan to make sure i would be home friday night..josh was out of town working. My dad had me put on my shoes and get josh on the phone. We went outside to wait for my aunt and uncle who were suppose to be coming in town for business and taking me out to dinner. Well to my surprise my dad called my grandmother "gran" and she said "Merry Christmas Early". There was a SUV with a bow and ribbon on it! I had prayed when i was pulling into our aparments that we needed my car to last bc we did not have to money to buy one right now . What is so cool is how God worked. When we found out we were pregnant, my gran had already bought the car and there had been insurance on it for over a week! At that time noboby..not even us...knew we were pregnant but God knew and He knew we needed a new vehicle and He took care of us! GOD IS AWESOME AND SO GOOD. HE ALWAYS TAKES CARE OF YOUR NEEDS!!! PRAISE BE TO GOD!!!!

2007-09-01T20:31:00.000-04:00