Kaylee's Baby Dedication

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!

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!!

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

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

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!

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!

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.