Our Park Adventure Begins

So it has been such a long time since I have blogged anything, I have practically forgotten how. I hardly ever get the chance to sit down at the computer anymore, but I just downloaded the Blogger app, so I'm thinking if I can blog from my phone, without being holed up in the office, maybe it will be more likely to happen.

We made a goal for 2012 that we are going to visit every park in the city of Grapevine, and I decided I would try and blog about it. I read somewhere that there are 132 of them, but I can't find a complete list yet, so I may have to call the city. It's going to be a challenge, but it sounds kind of fun, so we thought we would give it a try!

Today we went to Glade Crossings Park, which is located at 512 Westbury. It's a smaller neighborhood park, but the playground equipment is new & it is well maintained and clean. Although it was a gorgeous day, we were the only people using the playground. There are picnic tables and benches and it is nice and shady. It backs up to a road that can be busy, but it is fenced on that side. A walking trail goes right through the park, so there were people jogging and walking dogs through the park, which can be good & bad. We were entertained by a man in a suit & tie walking his dogs with a woman in a skirt & heels; and the man was carrying what we could only think was a home made pooper-scooper. It was a loaf pan that he was carrying by a pair of pliers. That was possibly my favorite part of the afternoon. People are awesome.

The only downsides of this park was that there are no bathroom facility, which can be inconvenient with little ones; and there was an inexplicably dangerous piece of playground equipment. It was some sort of slide, but there were no sides on it. I was surprised that the fearless 2 year old boy in our group didn't have trouble with it, but the only person who biffed it was Kaiya & she didn't hurt herself. I have never seen a slide like this before, but really, I guess it could have been anything. I should have taken a picture.

Well, hopefully we will have fun working toward our goal, and if you are nearby, I will post on Facebook where we are going & we would love you to join us!

The Saga of Kaiya and her Ariel Doll

Well, they say in scrapbooking, you shouldn't worry about getting caught up with old pages, you should start with what is current, and go forward, then as you can do what you can to catch up. So I am applying that theory to the blog, and am starting with what happened Saturday!

About 5 weeks ago, just after Christmas, Kaiya and I were at Target and she spotted the Singing Disney Princess display. She had been given a singing Belle doll for Christmas that she loves, and had earned a Rapunzel doll by giving away a bunch of toys until all her toys fit in one big bin. And her first princess doll was her beloved Princess Tiana that she got because we spent all morning at Toys R Us picking out toys for other kids and she didn't ask for anything for herself.

So...back to the Princess display at Target...so Kaiya did something unusual, she really got a bee in her bonnet about wanting this Ariel doll. It was kind of strange, she doesn't even love "The Little Mermaid" like she does some of the other movies, but she just couldn't get over wanting this doll. So I did what I usually do when she asks for something she doesn't really need, I asked her "Did you bring any money?" and she said no, so I told her it cost $10 and that I would be happy to help her earn the money for the doll. I had probably told her that same thing 20 times before about all different toys, and she had never wanted to do it, but somehow, Ariel must have seemed worth it. So that afternoon Kaiya helped empty the dishwasher and earned 50 cents. We found an old change purse for her, put her money in it and then kept the purse in a special place.

We even had a Family Home Evening lesson about tithing, and she learned that if she wanted to have $10 to spend on Ariel, she needed to earn $11 so that she could give Heavenly Father a dollar too.

So for the last 5 weeks, she has emptied the dishwasher, helped clean windows, helped clean the garage, helped clean out the car and earned quarters. And finally, this Saturday she had $11 dollars. So Mommy & Daddy gave her an extra $1 for Uncle Sam, and we filled out a tithing slip, put $1.20 in the envelope and got it all ready to give to the bishop tomorrow at church. Then we all tromped off to Target. I have to admit, I wasn't thrilled about taking my 12 day old to a store, but I wasn't about to miss the culmination of this epic journey.

It was so exciting! Kaiya picked out her Ariel and we went to the register and Kaiya kept trying to just give her whole wallet to the cashier, but the lady was so nice, and just played along while I helped her count out her money and she paid for her special new doll.

I am so proud of Kaiya for keeping after her goal for 5 whole weeks, which for a 3 year old, is practically an eternity. I am also so proud of her for wanting to pay her tithing. And the smile on her face when she walked out of the store with that doll was absolutely worth it taking twice as long to empty the dishwasher, or having to re-clean the windows after bedtime, so she could earn her $.50.

And Miller was also extremely excited for his big sister to earn her Ariel doll as well.

Our Trip to the Great Wolf Lodge

Ok, here is another way back post, but back in February we went as a family to spend a few days at the Great Wolf Lodge, and I have to say, it was one of the best vacations I have ever had! Kaiya still talks about it at least a few times a week (although that is probably partly because we drive by it at least that often).

Thanks to our lovely friend Jill, who runs the spa at the GWL, we got a totally awesome room, and Kaiya had her pick of lovely camp themed bunk beds. She didn't really want to leave the room, but I was sure glad we convinced her to! She loved the water park!

Now Jamie's favorite part of the trip was the Magiquest. You get a wand, and it is like a giant electronic scavenger hunt that has you running all over the hotel. Kaiya and Jamie worked on it every time we were not in the pool. You solve the clues to find the right place and when you wave your wand at whatever the clues led you to it lights up and responds to you, and when you collect them all you complete the quest and can move on to the next one! Jamie really got into it and even worked at it after Kaiya went to bed.

Kaiya liked the fairy house best, which lit up and giggled when you waved your wand at it.

The part Kaiya talked about the most was "the show". It was an animatronic show with a talking moose, raccoon, squirrels etc. It plays a couple of times a day, including right before the bedtime story, which she also loved.

Then, after the bedtime story the kids get to give a hug to Wiley, the GWL mascot. I think it is funny, Kaiya has always loved the giant characters (I can't wait her take her to Disneyland).

I can't wait to go back, and neither can Kaiya!

More Adorable Pictures

Here are some more pictures from the fabulous photo shoot our friend Megan took of Molly and Kaiya!!!

We went to the train station on Main Street, and there were the most beautiful backgrounds. I think this one is one of my favorites, the girls were playing inside an old pioneer wagon.
They played peekaboo in and out of the wagon too...


Here is one of Kaiya's cheeser grins...

Molly and Kaiya are so cute together, they always have a ball.

Here they are inspecting a rock, apparently Kaiya had a lot to say about it, and Molly was really contemplative.

Thanks again Megan!!! If you want to see more of her adorable pictures, here is her photography blog address...

http://poppylanephotography.blogspot.com/

Birthday Pictures

For Kaiya's birthday pictures, our talented friend Megan took pictures of Kaiya and her sweet friend Molly, who were born one day apart. We are having a joint party this year, and wanted to put their pictures on the invitation. I had a little trouble getting the pictures to load on my computer, but Megan put some on her blog, so here is the link...

http://blakebradyfamily.blogspot.com/2010/04/cute-birthday-girls.html

I should get the rest of the pictures tonight, and will post some more!

It's Almost Bunny Time

T'was the night before Easter and all through the house...wait, wrong poem...

Kaiya is finally in bed and I thought I would just post a few pictures of our Pre-Easter festivities. I think I will go backwards here...

After much consideration about our own Easter Bunny traditions, we decided a few things. Since there are so many fun activities like Egg hunts and things before actual Easter, and because I wanted Kaiya to be able to take an Easter Basket she really likes to them, I wanted her to be able to pick out her own Easter Basket for the year. So we decided that Kaiya would pick out her own basket, take it to all the other activities and stuff, then on the night before Easter we would put the basket, the eggs we dyed, and empty plastic eggs on the front porch for the Easter Bunny to fill and hide. So here is Kaiya in her jammies on the front porch setting out things for the Easter Bunny.

She was very excited!

And of course she was silly too...


On Monday we also went to a super fun Easter egg hunt at Kaiya's friend Maura's Grandma's house. The kids had an awesome time, and the weather could not have been more beautiful. There were quite a few kids there, and while she was among the older ones, she still had a little trouble grasping the idea of "you have to hurry to find the eggs, or the other kids will get them all". She just doesn't have that killer instinct...(not that I'm sad about that, I like it actually) But eventually she got the hang of it, and got a few eggs in her bucket. It was pretty exciting!



She would pick one up, inspect it, then start looking for another one...

The only time she hurried was when we told her it was time to open the eggs...


We tried to take a group picture of all the kids, but this is how Kaiya looks in EVERY SINGLE ONE
She has her head buried in her basket. Of course, I guess most of the other kiddos do too.


Another fun thing about Maura's Grandma's is that they have goats!!! A highlight of the day was feeding the goats Graham Crackers.

Overall, it was a fabulous day!!!



The first Easter activity of the season was the annual Grapevine City Easter Egg Hunt. It was a zoo! Actually they did have a petting zoo, which was probably Kaiya's favorite part. They petted a bunny...


And here is Kaiya telling me that this is a Guinea Pig, just like Lenny (from the Wonder Pets)


I think it is funny, that a lot of kids Kaiya's age are scared of big character costumes, but Kaiya loves them! She always has, she runs up and gives them hugs...

Sometimes she will even stop talking to them long enough to look in the general direction of the camera...

After the petting zoo, and the meet and greet with Mr. and Mrs. Bunny, it was time for the Easter Egg Hunt. I wonder what they are talking about? Somehow I don't think it is strategy.

The actual egg hunt was a little bit crazy, but luckily she had a good coach.


Afterwards she had so much fun opening up her eggs, she didn't want to let me take a picture. When we finally got her to look up, this is what we got...
This is the "hurry up and take my picture so I can finish looking at my loot!" picture.

Overall it has been an awesome pre-Easter season. I can't wait for tomorrow!

Christmas Trip to the Gaylord Texan

All right!!! The computer is back up and running about 98% and I can get back to the blog! Yay! So I will try to play an abbreviated catch up.

So we have a Christmas Tradition of getting together with the Churchwell's before Christmas to do something holiday-ish and exchange presents. We usually do it all together as families, but this year Jamie was sick and Rick couldn't make it for some reason which escapes me (shocking I know, seeing as it was 3 months ago). So we made it a girls night! We went and ate pizza and then battled the crowds at the Gaylord Texan. For a girl from Nashville, going to the Opryland Hotel at Christmas time is an Official Holiday Requirement, but the Hotel is a lot bigger and maybe we used to go late at night or something, because I never remember it being this crowded in Nashville!

Nevertheless it was Christmas Opry style, with a Texas flare, so we enjoyed it all the same.

As always one of the main reasons to go with the kiddies is for the great photo ops! Here are the girls in front of a cute little Christmas tree.



Of course no adventure is complete until somebody's mom says "Get away from there, you're going to fall in!" This time it was a Koi pond, and I could just picture having to carry a soaking wet 2 year old out to the car in the freezing weather.


Here are the girls sitting on a bench with a reindeer. Haylee not only has on her blinking Rudolph antenna, but she got hot pink vampire teeth from the prize machine at the pizza place. Cute huh? (I wanted some too, but ran out of quarters) Kaiya, as always is loving being with her favorite sisterfriend Hannah.

After the Gaylord Texan we all came back to our house to open presents
Here is Hannah modeling her new Justice shirt and Kaiya and Haylee falling a teensy bit behind in the melee. Kaiya loves her stacking Dora, Diego & Boots, and in fact they are an important part of every successful trip to a restaurant. The Stir-Fry set has eggs that you can crack open and rubber fried eggs fall out, which is wonderful, because any time I reach for the carton of eggs, Kaiya is right there asking if she can crack one.

In fact when Kaiya was first learning how to crack eggs, I showed her how to tap tap tap the egg on the counter then pull it apart...well Kaiya did a very gentle tap tap tap then palmed the egg and squeezed for all she was worth. The look on her face was priceless when it exploded open and raw egg went everywhere. I think she was worried she was going to be in trouble, but it was so funny, I couldn't stop laughing. Now she tap tap taps the eggs for me, and we pull it apart together.

Merry Christmas Y'all!

And Now, a Word From Our Sponsor...

One of the nicest things about having a husband who is brilliant at fixing computers is that when your home computer breaks, he can almost always fix it. Unfortunately, he has to find the time to work on it...so for the time being, I can't do much to update the blog. However I have been promised that it shouldn't be too much longer.

I have a ton of Christmas pictures & other fun stuff to share, so stay tuned!

A Christmas Visit from Mimi & Papaw

Last week we had a little Christmas visit from Jamie's parents. With everything that has been going on, and their traveling back and forth from Tennessee to Florida, things can get pretty hectic, so we had a very fun early Christmas.

They decided to come early enough so we could all go to gymnastics together, which was great. Kaiya had quite a little cheering section in the parent's aquarium. She did really well, and for the first time hung on the rings and pulled her little feet up to touch her hands. I was so proud. Now she tries to do that on everything, especially the bars in the handicapped stalls of public restrooms (as you can imagine, not my favorite thing). She also is getting a lot closer on walking across the balance beam.

After Gymnastics, we ran some errands, had naps and then went to Babe's Chicken Dinner House, man is that place yummy. It is kinda country kitsch, so everybody has a good time. In fact one of their claims to fame is that the waitresses all do the hokey pokey down the main aisle of the restaurant, and the kids like to come out and participate with them. Well, Kaiya loves her some Hokey Pokey, so when they started doing it, I asked her if she wanted to go out there too, and she said yes, but got about 1 foot away from the table and came running back to Daddy's lap to watch.

Well, we were there at just the right time, and as we were leaving, it was Hokey Pokey time again, so this time she ran right out there and was hokey pokeying with the best of them! I of course, didn't have my camera (that could be a whole nother blog post right there) so Jamie went around and was taking pictures with his camera, but they weren't turning out so well, because it was dark, and a pretty fast hokey pokey. Kaiya was so adorable out there, that other people were taking pictures of her dancing with the waitresses, so I went over to talk to one of the ladies. I wanted to give her my email address and see if she could email me a picture. This lovely lady, named Oksana, was visiting some friends in Texas from the Ukrain, and she doesn't have an email address, and the people with her were VERY country and they "don't do so good with computers & stuff". So this nice Ukrainian lady asks for my address & says she will send the pictures to my house. I wasn't too sure what to do about this, and maybe I've been living in the south too long, but I trusted her, so I gave her my address. I half expected never to see those pictures, but low & behold, today I got them!!!!

"You put your head in, you put your head out, you put your head in, and you shake it all about..."

"You put your whole self in, you put your whole self out..."


The next day, we had Christmas in the morning, and Kaiya got a "Loving Family Doll House" which she loves, and Jamie got to do his favorite Christmas pass-time, assembling things (no seriously, it's his favorite). She also got some books, including a Fancy Nancy book, which she absolutely loves.

After our early Christmas morning, we told Kaiya all about going to see Santa, and we got all ready and headed over to Bass Pro Shop, where someone had told us there was a really great Santa & free pictures.

Well, I should have done a little research before we got Kaiya all psyched up for Santa, because he is only there in the evenings on the weekdays. So we got over there, and there was no Santa to be found anywhere. Here is where I have to brag about my little girl, I think it would have been totally understandable to get all upset about not being able to see Santa, but she just rolled with it. She was sad for a minute, but never got mad or upset, and just went and looked all around Santa's Workshop, and then wanted to climb on the boats and look at the fish. I was so proud of her for not throwing a fit, I thought I was going to burst.

We looked all around Bass Pro Shop and even saw a shark!

There was also a reindeer carousel set up, which only ran during Santa's hours, so we explained the situation to her, and promised we would come back after nap time, when Santa would be there & she could ride the reindeer. So basically we had to be satisfied with taking a ton of pictures in the Santa area, without the big guy.



Well, the tip about the great Santa was correct, and when we came back it was worth all the wait. There was a little bit of a line to get to see Santa, so we went and rode the reindeer carousel while we waited. Kaiya LOVED it, and we rode it over, and over, and over!


When it was finally our turn, Santa of course asked Kaiya what she would like him to bring for her, and we were all a little surprised by the answer, she said she wanted a toy reindeer and a box of candy treats! Kind of random, isn't it? I guess now, while I am writing this it makes a little more sense, she loved that reindeer carousel so much, I can understand her having reindeer on the brain. She stuck with that though, and said all Christmas season, that she wanted a toy reindeer and a box of candy treats (which she got, by the way, thanks to Buddy & Grandma).

The Santa was awesome too, and the nice thing about going someplace where you get a free Santa picture, is that they didn't care if we took pictures with our own camera! It was the best!

After we saw Santa, of course Kaiya wanted to ride the carousel again, and again, and again (thank goodness it was free!).


Then after she rode the reindeer, she needed to ride in Santa's sleigh. She even got it stolen out from underneath her by another kid, but she waited so patiently, and was excited when she finally got to ride in it.


It was great seeing Mimi & Papaw, and we can't wait to visit them again in a few months, hopefully in Florida, and cross all your fingers and toes, maybe we will be able to visit our good friend Mickey Mouse while we are there too!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

A Cute Gymnastics Post

Here is a cute blog post about Kaiya and Molly on Megan's blog...

Holiday Parade of Lights!

We love our town! There are so many fun activities, and we had so much fun at the annual Parade of Lights on Main Street! It was soooooooo cold, but we bundled up and headed out. Jamie even got a chance to wear his famous hat, although once we got there he was a little disappointed he didn't wear his Santa hat. I gave Kaiya some new purple mittens, which she was thrilled with (purple is her favorite color).

(It really isn't snowy, they spray the grass white, I don't really understand why)

There were lots of fun floats

Decorated classic cars

I liked this one because I have this exact car (including the tree on top) in my Christmas village.

Kaiya actually liked running around the grassy area we were in front of better than watching most of the parade, but she did enjoy the marching bands and the animals, including this fun guy:

Kaiya even knew someone in the parade! Her friend Betty and her mommy, who runs the spa at the Great Wolf Lodge were marching with a giant reindeer. Our town isn't a small town, but it kind of has that feeling, that is one of the many reasons we love it here.

We actually stayed until the end when Santa came by in a horse drawn carriage, but unfortunately I didn't get a good picture of him & Mrs. Claus. However Kaiya was happy to pose with her new friend the Mr. Polar Bear...