Update

My pictures for this post are above. I have been working on this photobook for Kaylen for weeks now. It was a ton of work and I am not always happy with all of the design elements but it is what it is... done. I really hate her birthday page. I did that a long time ago and didn't have any good embellishments or papers. In hindsight I might have written more often but this is a learning process. I am about to do a San Fran book from our trip last summer. I am making this one all about the images. Totally on a black background. Clean. Crisp. Easy.

I have entered into quite a busy time right now. (Hence the lack of posts)Last weekend was a leadership retreat with our church and it was nice to be in on the goings on and things to come. I love our church and think we are doing some pretty amazing things. This weekend is the High School Retreat - very different than the weekend before. We will be staying in cabins (they are really nice though), having campfires, low ropes course, horseback riding (canceled due to soggy ground), and end of the night devo's from me at 11:45 pm! Oh, and I am leading an art project. I really hope it goes okay because I don't know that I want to be leading anything. Oh well. I am going to put it in God's hands that all will go well. It should be a fun and jam-packed weekend. I am already tired from a late night at a Gaither Vocal Band Concert?!?! Who knew it would still be going strong at 10:30?!? I don't know what time it was actually over because we left so that I could get my toddler in bed by 11pm. I would have never thought that a concert that started at 7 would last so long! Especially one that the average attendee age was roughly 77.

Some things Kaylen has been doing. She has been surprising me lately. Some things she looks at and can read. Like her towel said I (heart) Daddy and she asked me, "Mommy, why does my towel say I love Daddy?" That shocked my socks off! Not only did she read the word Daddy but she inferred that the heart meant love. Smart gal! And lately when I read she wants me to show her where the words are coming from. So I have to put my finger under where I am reading at. She is following along! I know, I am a momma and so that is why I am so proud of my little one but I wanted to write about those things on here so that I wouldn't forget when she's older. Oh, and she went to a UAH basketball game with her grandparents and ended up dancing center court, by herself, to the music. We got many calls and texts telling us about it. Alle said he wished he could have seen it and I reminded him that if we were there he would have never allowed it to happen. He agreed. She is such a sweetheart right now. Very much in to being a helper and is so loving. At night she will ask me to pray for her school. So I do and here is how it goes: Lord, please help Kaylen to obey her teachers (I will)and to share with her friends (I do that. I will) and to obey her Mamaw and Papaw and Mommy and Daddy (I will. I do that, Mommy. I will)... you get the point. But she specifically wants me to pray for those things and wants to let me know that she will do that. It is too cute. We have been pretty successful with the new sleep routine. She is doing great with going to bed in her own bed and comes in our room during the night about 50% of the time.

Everyone have a good weekend... see you back here next week! Oh, let me know what you think about K's book.

What is with all of the upcoming boys?!?!

Okay...I am going to keep a running tally of all the babies I know of that are due out this summer. So far, I don't know of one girl! Surly one will creep into the mix. I will just update this as more people find out.

List so far:
Christy (co-worker): Boy
Me: Boy
Kyllie (previous neighborhood friend): Boy
Connie(friend): Boy
Amy(friend): just had a boy
Ashley (previous neighborhood friend): GIRL!!! :)
Whitley (5th cousin and close friend): Boy
Tara (co-worker): BOY
Updated due to the girls coming out of the woodworks:
Ange (college friend): girl
Jess N (college roommate): ?????
Leslie (old trainer): girl
Michelle R (college friend): girl
Tiffany (previous neighborhood friend): girl

I am sure I am forgetting someone. If you can think of others who are expecting... add them to the list! This is sort of a fun survey.

Dance!

Kaylen is so into dancing these days. Here is a sampling of her most recent moves:

Kaylen is 3!!! Happy Birthday!

We had a Snowflake birthday this year. I really didn't get great pictures of it - sadly. I do have lots of video so all is not lost. My camera battery died and so I charged it briefly and that didn't really work. It took pictures but they were blurry because my camera was running slow. Anyway... this is what I do have to show you:



A few highlights from the day: We had 4 little friends - Rylie, Jonah, Andrew, and Andrew. There were also some younger babies in attendance - Jack and Joseph (making his debut for me). We had lots of family there as well. My aunt and her kids even came from Memphis. It was a great success. The kids created snow globes and then played in the "snow" pit. I had bubble makers running and a big pit full of packing peanuts. There were snowflakes everywhere and my garage will be forever glittered. I think it really adds something anyway. I had lots of help from family members all week and this wouldn't have happened without all of them. Some of them took all my Christmas decorations down and put them away and others cleaned, cooked, and decorated. Also a big thank you to Snow White, Cinderella and Ariel. Those three made it to the party and made my little girl's day! I will say that I am already planning to not have her party at my house next year. I think every other year of ridiculous planning is a good idea. It was all worth it and my little princess had a blast. That's all that matters! Love you, Kaylen!

Random Christmas

In the first two images we are having Christmas openings with different families. Kaylen just wanted to open presents. She honestly didn't care all that much what was inside. She just liked to open them. Allen and I (as well as many other family members) let her open all of our gifts as well.


I did one sewing project over the break (that was long overdue). I finally made curtains for the downstairs living room and eat-in areas. I went simple but I think they do their job.


This last shot is just a cute one of Kaylen modeling one of her gifts. Our families got so much for Kaylen. She has more toys than I have room for in my house. I have got to get organized!!!!

Christmas Morning

Kaylen loved everything but her stocking was her favorite. Thus all the pictures of her with it. She took each and every item out one at a time. It felt like Mary Poppin's bag as she s-l-o-w-l-y got everything out. She kept her stocking in tact with some added articles until I put all Christmas decorations away. I had to put it up when she wasn't looking! The little things!



This video is funny because it is a sampling of things she got for Christmas... a shirt, vest, no pants, and a crown. She is dancing so much these days. This isn't anywhere near what she can do. I will have to work on capturing some of her real dance moves and showing you later.

Christmas Eve Activities

We made cookies for Santa as a family after we got back from church. It was really fun because Kaylen could really get involved with everything. She had the best time. Here she is cutting out her basic shapes.

Next we made the icing and Kaylen and her daddy licked the beaters.

She can do it all by herself, Daddy!

She let me know what she wanted to tell Santa in her letter to him. So here is the finished product from all of that. I may have taken over a bit on the icing. I am still not brave enough to give her full reign with something so messy.

And after all of that... here is all that Santa left for Kaylen! She must have been a really good girl this year!

Christmas Pics

I know this is so late but I am playing catch up. It took us a while to get presents wrapped this year. And I dont get on my computer when I am not at school. So there will be many posts today. Here is our tree and gifts all ready for Christmas!


The last of the decorations to be organized. This is always Allen's thing. He arranges the nativity scene. I think it is either because he was actually there and remembers where everyone was or that he is totally OCD about things like that. You decide! ;)

This next picture is of the outdoor playhouse that Santa dropped off for us early so that we could put it together for him. We started early in the day but since we live in Seattle all of the sudden... it started raining. So I had to drag those heavy boxes and Allen had to carry that basic structure in to the garage. I will attest to the heaviness of the cedar wood.

This picture needs an explanation. I asked Allen to give me a visual of how he thought our progress was going. ha! I will say we were up until 4:45 am finishing up. ugh!

Here we all are about to go to church. I love Kaylen's face in this picture!

Survey says:

Someone asked the name... yes I am sharing... and yes we do know. So I thought I would share on here. Jeffry Allen Wilson III (obviously I didn't have much input on this) Allen really wants to name this baby after his dad and I am fine with that. So there you go. We will be calling him Tripp Wilson. I do like that very much. Very athletic sounding, I think. ;)