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!