Thanks!

Kailey received a fantastic gift today from Uncle Matt, Aunt Nancy, Hannah and Maddie. There is nothing better than a combination of gifts with the Jonas brothers, Gel pens and princess jelly jewelry. It truly doesn't get better than that! What great cousins!

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had a wonderful day celebrating our favorite loves! Kailey started out the day with a pizza and Valentine party at school. She was absolutely thrilled to receive all of her notes from her friends for the very first time. She was completely overloaded on sugar, but hey, that's what today is all about when you're three.

We got to talk to Aunt Nancy, Toosie, Grandma and Bubbie who all called to share their good wishes. Kailey is also very jealous of her cousins, Hannah and Maddie, who get to spend their Valentine's Day at a Jonas Brothers concert. (Okay, maybe I'm more jealous, but I'll pin it on Kailey). In Kailey's picture, she's modeling a pair of sticky earrings that she received in her Valentine card from Bubbie. Quite a hit!

Owen didn't get to eat any candy because he doesn't have the whole chewing thing down, but was overwhelmed with joy with his balloon, which he carried around all day long. I even had to pry it from his paws during nap time!

And, of course...J.A.S. + P.D.S = T.L.A.!

USCG Hurricane Katrina Aviation Response

Sometimes it's easy to get lost in the day-to-day events and forget about why we are here and what we are doing. I often crab about the CG life and that I miss my family and friends. I don't get to see Hannah and Maddie growing up and they don't get to see Kailey and Owen. So many babies are being born soon, Amy, Jenn, Tiffany and I have to miss it all. However, when I'm feeling down and honestly, just sorry for myself, it's good to take a second and realize the amazing experiences that we get to have. I've met so many incredible people and shared many life changing moments because of the CG. When I step back, I'm thankful for the choices we've made. When I watch these videos, my heart fills with pride and the tears flow for the amazing service that Paul and so many others are doing for our country. God Bless the USA and all the men and women who serve our country each and every day!

By the way, the song in this video is "When I Look to the Sky" by Train, which ironically is the song that Kailey calls "Daddy's song" whenever she hears it.

Semper Paratus

Tubing!

Yesterday,we braved the single digit temperatures and took the kids tubing. Kailey has been before, when she was only 12 months old, but obviously doesn't remember. And I guess one could say that Owen has been too, as he was about ten cells at the time, and well, he doesn't remember either.

Kailey and Paul braved the hill while Owen and I stayed inside at ate pizza for the majority of the afternoon. Surprisingly, Kailey absolutely, positively loved tubing! She and Paul tandem tubed and went down the hill at least ten times. We basically had to drag her in because her cheeks were so pink. For the record, Owen was too little to go down the hill and hated every single second of being outside in the cold.

Kailey had such a great time, she was asleep before we'd even turned out of resort...mouth open and everything!

Owen walks and sleeps

Owen started officially walking a few weeks ago and now thinks that walking is the funniest thing ever. He cracks himself up doing his drunken sailor imitation. His personality develops more and more each day and he is turning in to quite the ornery stinker pants!

Kailey-isms

Kids say the funniest things, and Kailey is living up to the saying. Lately, the most hilarious things have been coming out of that child's mouth. Here are a few highlights:

-Toosie came for a visit to celebrate Kailey's birthday. Part of the gift was a real rhinestone crown that Toosie had from her costuming days. There was absolutely no great gift...ever! Toosie had to rig it up with string to fit her head, but once it was able to stay on without holding it, Kailey would spend time gazing at her beautiful self in the mirror. The best was when she delicately leaned on one hand and softly proclaimed to the mirror, "A dream, is a wish your heart makes..."

-If she cuts her hand, she doesn't wear a band-aid, it's a 'bandit.'

-There is a cat living in Kailey's room. NO, not a real one. (Are you kidding me? Spot is the only remotely interesting cat I've ever met, but since the sesame seed horrors of Chi-Chi the cat, I will never, ever be able to recover and own one of my own...yuck!) Anyhow, there is a white cat named Kitty-cat (Original!) living under Kailey's dresser who gets very angry and wakes up when she is too loud. Which, apparently, is quite often. We thought it was Lucifer the cat from Cinderella, but she is quick to point out that it is not Lucifer because he is black and white and her cat is all white.

-Now this is the weird one. She has names for her hands. One hand is, go figure, Princess Hand and the other hand is Dragon Hand. Dragon Hand can be defiant and will often pull her hair to the point where she has to say, "Dragon Hand, stop pulling my hair." Princess Hand is very well behaved and will have chats with her feet that it's not appropriate for them to be on the table. Straaange.

The kid's got imagination!

Happy Birthday Sweet Kailey-Cakes!

Happy, Happy Birthday, sweet girl! It's so hard to believe it's been three years since you made your arrival into this world. It was a long, loooong labor that brought you here, but so very worth every single minute. You are the joy in our lives that made us realize how truly fortunate we are to be called Mommy and Daddy. We love you more and more with each beat of our hearts!

We had an incredible day of fun, food and friends. Our close buddies came over for cupcake decorating (Kailey had, by far, the most sugar and icing on her cupcake), pizza, presents, playroom time and the pinkest cake you ever saw. I did take on the role of Betty Crocker and baked her birthday cake...for the first time ever. Originally, Kailey wanted a green cake, but then changed her mind to a pink cake. I tried to oblige by baking the oooie-gooiest cake I possibly could. Yum!

The only disappointment of the day, as far as Kailey was concerned, was the Santa and her friends, the princesses, couldn't make it. She's a little confused about the whole gifts from Santa for Christmas vs. Birthday issue being that Christmas was just ten days ago. She also couldn't understand why Saturday had to be cleaning day for Cinderella, Snow White and Ariel and that's why they couldn't come to her party. (What am I going to do when these stories don't work anymore?)

Overall, these special days get better and better as the kids get older. Owen finally tasted some cake and absolutely LOVED it! Good boy, he likes his mom's better than any store bought cake! As for Kailey, I think three is going to be a pretty fabulous year!