we tried

Kylene and Connor looked so DARLING in their Christmas attire. all we wanted to do was take a few pictures for posterity. i mean, is that too much to ask?
these were our best ones. posterity will see we were a normal family after all. :)

Holly Jolly

some friends of ours let us borrow their Santa hat for a few days after seeing how much Connor was into wearing it. the next day (Sunday) I came out from getting ready and saw the hat on Byron and each kid taking a turn sitting on his lap. the most hilarous thing though, was that Kylene wanted Byron to wear the hat always and would find it, give it to him when he came home from work, then motion for him to sit on the couch and back up into him to sit on his lap. it cracked us up!

hey, the girl knows what she wants and she knows how to communicate it. i love that about her.

Santa Train Ride

earlier this month we went on a Santa Train ride at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham. Connor was sooooooooooooooo excited and Byron and I were excited too! Our train departed at 6:00 and it was packed with excited children and their parents. The train was decked out in Christmas lights and the whole route was all light up was Christmas decor. the train stopped at the North Pole were an Elf came and gave each child a candy cane and told them to keep their eye out for Rudolph and to tell him to come home! if they saw him. Santa also came and visited with each child and Connor was pretty star struck.

afterwards, we did some crafts and Connor and Byron got their faces painted like Rudolph (Connor thought it was GREAT that Byron got his face painted too).

Kylene loved all the blow-up Christmas decorations and we couldn't pry that sticky mess of a candy cane from her chubby little hands.

hooray for the Santa Train Ride!

book worm

often, when Kylene is quiet, I'll find her sitting in Connor's rocking chair flipping through a book. as soon as she's done, she'll scoot herself off the chair, go pick out another book from Connor's book shelf, and shimmy herself back up.
she's totally enthralled and doesn't ever notice me watching.

it's about the cutest darn thing I've ever seen. :)

thanksgiving 2009

this year, with Byron working the Friday after Thanksgiving, we decided to stay home and have a "relaxing" day together as a family. (if you can call any day relaxing with two small children. fun yes, relaxing no.)

i have to say, we had a super delicious feast as evidenced by our succulent bird. :)

since we live in North Carolina and this place is awesome, it was a beautiful day to go to the park. we went for 2 hours and had a great time. we went on a "bear hunt" (hike) through the woods and our rock and stick specialist (Connor) collected many special treasures along the way.

we couldn't be more thrilled with each other and come on, with these two pumpkins can we ask for anything more?

we are so blessed and try to be mindful of our blessings daily. i'm so grateful for this time of year that gives us a chance to reflect on all the wonders in our life and be happy with each other.

happy 1st birthday!

on Thursday, November 19th, our little Kylene turned 1 year old!

she had a little cold that day, but it didn't seem to keep her down and we had such a wonderful day celebrating our sweetheart.

that afternoon Byron came home early from work (Byron was our photographer for the night and this is the only picture we have to show he was there--sorry Byron!)

and Maw Maw and Paw Paw drove down from Virginia.

Mimi and Papa came up from South Carolina,

and Kylene found a new friend in Paw Paw.

Nana was there as well (she has come for the birthday week) and kept Connor entertained with a sword fight.

Connor has us all laughing as he would voluntarily bend over for a wack. :)

the time came for presents...

and Connor opened his up first! (Nana was nice enough to bring a new pair of Nike's from Grandpa and two cool swords so Connor could have some present excitement too).

Kylene also liked the swords

but seemed most fascinated by two new books.

there's big brother again, helping open

a present from Mom and Dad that both the kids got a kick out of.

Kylene was fascinated by her new baby doll

and loved on her the rest of the night.

after dinner it was time for cake!

the Birthday Girl was dainty at first.

but then decided the plate-in-the-face method worked better.

delicious!

the aftermath. the girl needs a bath!

after her bath, our neighbor and friends stopped by to give Kylene a Little People bus which she loves.

It was so wonderful having so many family members with us to celebrate this wonderful girl. Happy Birthday Kylene!

1 year

{18.74 lb, 28.5 in}

is it possible Kylene is 1? this past week has brought back a flood of memories about the time surrounding her birth. it was such a sweet and hard time. i was so full of love and adrenaline and pure exhaustion. one thing's for sure, we all loved her instantly and i think we love her even more now.

at 1, Kylene is easily walking and running. now that she can walk so steadily, we loves to go outside and walk along and explore as Connor rides his bike or "mows" with his lawn mower.

Kylene LOVES books and will bring a chosen book and crawl up in your lap to be read to.

Kylene loves dolls and will find one wherever we are. she's pictured here with a baby doll her Mimi gave her for her birthday.

Kylene's very observant and follows what's going on around her. a few weeks ago, when I was getting Connor ready for Preschool, she walked up behind me holding Connor's shoes worn only for Preschool. she's also knows when we're putting on coats and shoes, we're going somewhere and will go stand by the door knocking until she's let loose.

Kylene has recently discovered chicken and mashed potatoes and asks for more, and more, and more...

Kylene also loves to flip through books by herself and can be found on Connor's bed, in his rocking chair or in her crib after a nap flipping through a book. below she is "reading" a flier from a magazine after she crawled up into our bed and snuggled herself in. pretty cozy, eh?

Kylene is fascinated by animals and other babies.

She has started to learn the art of twirling and thinks this is pretty fun.

Kylene has things to say! and babbles and "talks" to us constantly.

Kylene likes to play games, especially chase (when she's the one being chased) and peek-a-book (she likes to be the one peeking).

she LOVES doing what Connor's doing and bless Connor's heart, he doesn't mind...most of the time. :)

Kylene has an ocean full of people who love her. what a great life. :)

Charm Design Bags and Totes $50 gift card GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Charm Design Bags and Totes $50 gift card GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Halloween 2009

we had such a great Halloween this year. we had pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast which i called "Halloween" pancakes so Connor was totally in to it. we spent the afternoon at a Halloween festival with some good friends and we all had a great time participating in some games, eating some food, and loading up the candy--holy smokes there was a lot of candy to be had!

we thought we had the cutest Tigger on the block and our Moto Cross man thought life couldn't get much better.
together with some friends before gathering our loot.

it was a relaxed happy day that we got to spend together. now THAT is a great day in my book.

11

i can't believe it. this time last year i was starting to waddle around and here we are approaching Kylene's first birthday.

at eleven months Kylene is walking and has just learned how to push herself up to a standing position from the ground. she LOVES to walk and is very proud of herself. up to this point, Kylene's prefered mode of transportation was walking around on her knees. she wore out quite a few pants and tights that way.

Kylene wants to be doing what Connor's doing and other big kids for that matter.

she is happy happy and such a pleasure to be around.

Kylene LOVES books and kicks her legs and claps when she is put on your lap to be read too. she loves having books in her crib to flip through before falling asleep (like her brother). her favorite story right now is The Very Busy Spider. I think she could listen to that all day long!

Kylene has become more particular about what she likes and has started shaking her head "no". she does this most often when food is presented that she does not prefer.

We feel Kylene communicates with us very well. when she wants her sippy cup, she comes over to the fridge and "asks" for it to be opened and then points to her cup. when she wants a book, she points to the book shelf and then chooses the book she would like and brings it to us to be read. we like her lots.

Kylene has really started "talking" to us and telling us all sorts of things. she seems to have quite a bit on her mind.

Kylene loves dolls and will sniff one out of a pile of toys where ever we are. {as a side note, my Mom called Kylene "dolly" when she was a newborn because we thought she was so perfect and looked like a doll. other people commented likewise so we felt justified in our name. }:)

what a love.

we attended our ward's Fall Festival last night and had a great time. i'm so proud of us that we dressed up! it all happened in a whirlwind about 5 min before it was time to leave. activities for the evening included a chili cookoff, games for the kids, dancing, and truck-or-treating. as we were leaving, Connor turned to me and said, "Mommy, this was the best day ever." i think that pretty much sums it up for us.