Kacie's First Day of School

Well, it's not really "school," but it was her first day at Ms. Karen's house, which also means it was my first day back at school.  We went over so Kacie could meet Karen last week, but I wasn't sure how she would act when I dropped her off in the morning. She's still hit-or-miss with strangers. Here is her first day of school outfit.

 Thankfully, she didn't cry when I left. She had a very serious and somber look on her face, but she didn't cry. Karen sent me this picture later and I loved seeing her smiling. 

She did pretty well. The main issue is the nap. The kids sleep on mats and blankets on the floor, so I didn't know how Kacie would do. She went to sleep easily, but didn't sleep very long. When she woke up, the other kids were still asleep, so Karen had to try to keep her quiet and still. That's hard to do with a 1 year old! Kacie is the youngest of 4 kids that are there. I think it will be perfect for her this year!!

One Last Outing

On our last day of summer break before I had to start inservice, we went with Amy, Addison, and Dawson to a place called "Jump Mania." It is a bounce house place that has an open gym for 3 and under every Thursday. Kacie LOVED it. I wish we had known about it all summer.

 She liked jumping, but she played with the toys almost as much

What a fun way to end our summer. She also took a 4 hour nap when we got home!

My little talker

I've been trying to write down all the words Kacie is saying. Here is a list (mostly for memory's sake) of what she's saying so far that I can remember and/or have written down.

Her words are:
"reee"         read
"wa-wa"      water
"wa-men"   watermelon
"eat"
"ice"
"bi-per"      diaper
"ra-ra"        yogurt (this is the only one that doesn't really make sense!)
"up"
"ta too"      thank you
"joo"           juice
"bubble"
"Bible"
"ca-ca"      cracker
"Tacie"       Kacie
"ah don"     all done
"Boo!"        as in-peek a boo
"papa"       Grandpa
"hat"
"hot"
"nana"        banana
"apple"
"hi"
"tickle"
"munny"      Minnie Mouse
"day-dee"   Daisy Duck
mama, dada, bye-bye, night-night, uh-oh, oh-no, no

She does the signs for more, eat, milk, all done, please, and thank you.  She also has her own little signs that she does for certain things-coloring, bee, monkey, lotion, spider, and ranch. (She acts like she's dipping food by tapping her plate. It's so funny!)  It's not official sign language, but she's definitely communicating what she wants.

She also has whole conversations in her own jibberish language!

Summer Fun!

Our summer vacation is almost over. I've had so much fun with Kacie. The only thing I have to complain about is she woke up between 6-6:30 EVERY single day this summer. We'll have to get that under control before next year. Haha! Our routine was usually the same:  I usually didn't get her out of her crib until 7. Then I would bring her to my bed, and we would watch tv and play and snuggle until about 8. Then we would eat breakfast. After that, if it wasn't too hot yet, we would go for a walk, go to the playground, or go swimming. When she was taking two naps, sometimes we would go to the store or run errands between the 2 naps. This is a post filled with more of our summer fun!

Playing in bowls of water

Playing with pom-pom balls and a muffin tray

Playing with Carter & Nathan

More playground fun

"Painting" with food-colored yogurt

She liked it at first, until she looked at her messy hands. Then she started fussing and didn't stop until I washed her hands. Lol!

Coloring fun

 Coloring with Grandpa

Playing with her animals

 Doing a puzzle

 Bath fun

 She even got to go with me to get my hair done.  She was pretty good, and I only had to chase her a few times.  Thank goodness for the DVD player and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!

Fun at the Spray Park-at first she didn't like it, but as the summer went on, she got more and more "brave"

She also has been trying SO hard to jump. It's really funny.

Here are a few more cute pics from our summer:

Little Snuggle Bug

Lately, Kacie has liked sitting in her little chair, snuggling up with a blanket, and watching tv or reading.  She just looks so sweet all cuddled up!

 Laying on the floor, waiting for Daddy to get home

 Sitting in the big chair

Girls' Weekend with the Besties!

This weekend, Danielle, Misty, and I FINALLY managed to get away for a weekend. It was actually about 24 hours, but it's as close to a weekend as we'll ever get with all our busy schedules. We decided to meet in Tyler, which is almost exactly halfway between here and Shreveport (where Misty lives).  We didn't really do anything crazy, but it was definitely fun to just talk about kids, husbands, school, church, and just life. Danielle & I left Friday evening as soon as Jason & Stephen were home. We got to Tyler about 8pm and ate Cici's for dinner. We wanted to go to the pool, but since it was late, we just went to the grocery store to get snacks and DP, and just stayed up late talking. Saturday morning we tried to sleep in, but still woke up earlier than we would have liked. We ate breakfast at the hotel and got ready for a "big day" out on the town. There was a Statue of Liberty at the front of the hotel, so of course we had to take our picture with it. 

Then we killed time at the Tyler mall until our movie. We had a little too much fun in Claire's....

Here is a normal picture of us.

We went to see Step Up 4, and then had dinner at Chili's before heading home. It was a great weekend (24 hrs), and I can't wait until we are able to do it again.

Back on the home front, Jason had a good time with Kacie. He took her to Bass Pro to walk around and look at the fish. Unfortunately, this is the only pic he took.