First birthday and more big events...

So much has happened in the last month and a half. This is really the first time I've had to sit down and let you all know how we've been and what we've been up to. Please forgive my absence.

We finally sold our house in the city and moved to the "country" 3 weeks ago. We're all settled now and love our new digs. It's so quiet here and the house is very "Kyleigh friendly". She's even got her own little play area in the basement and is free to roam at her leisure. Plus, the house sits on 1.5 acres and Kyleigh loves to run around outside.

Taking a step back, Kyleigh celebrated her first birthday quietly with a few close family members at home. Mom Mom, Pop Pop, Aunt Kathy, Uncle Tom, Jen, Sam, Joseph and Aunt Pat all helped us celebrate. Kyleigh got lots of cool gifts and spent the evening playing with her cousin Joseph. We all enjoyed the butterfly cake that mom made. The previous week we made a trip to Nana's so that Kyleigh and Nana could celebrate their birthday's together. We had a nice cookout with a few of Nana and Auntie Paula's friends and then had cake. We can't believe our little girl is one already...where did the year go? At least we all survived!

Other recent happenings include a trip to the pumpkin patch. Mom and Mom Mom met up with Jen and Kyleigh's cousin, Joseph, as well as a few of Kyleigh's other friends - Grey and Sophie. We all went for a hayride, which the kids seemed to love and then we treked through the field in search of the perfect little pumpkin. We discovered at the park that Kyleigh loves the sliding board!

Halloween was exciting this year as we finally got to give candy to "respectable" trick-or-treaters. Kyleigh was the most adorable skunk ever! She really fit her name...stinky!

I've attached a few photos for your viewing pleasure. Till next time...

A month...really...so soon???

I just checked my friends blog and decided to peek at my own as well. I cannot believe its been exactly a month since I last posted an entry. I'm so sorry to all of you that faithfully check in to see how Kyleigh is doing. We've been very busy lately, which is only a semi-acceptable excuse to have not posed. Even Kyleigh's 11 month birthday has passed without note. To explain my absence, we've sold our house (or at least we're in the process of selling our house). The whole transition from city to county has been quite stressful. Add in 6 months of pregnancy and a walking almost-one-year-old...I've been very tired! I'm happy to report that the sale of our house has been going smoothly thus far and we are scheduled to settle on October 14th. We've decided to rent a house for a year since we haven't found anything that we love in the area we want to live. The house we're renting is a 4 bedroom rancher. It's tiny by Parkton standards, but really its about the size of our house today. The bonus is that its in a great neighborhood, on a no-through street and sits on 1.5 acres of pretty level land. Is it strange that what I am most excited about right now is that I am going to be able to put pumpkins on my front porch and they won't disappear! Plus, I can really envision Kyleigh running around in the grass with all the fall leaves around her. I LOVE this time of year!!! As for the truly important one...Kyleigh is doing great! She "officially" began walking on September 4th and we haven't been able to stop her since. That afternoon, Rob and I were sitting in the living room and she had crawled into the kitchen. She stood up, which she could do easily, and then she started walking towards us and didn't stop till she had crossed the living room rug. We were both so shocked and were cheering her on the entire way. She loved every minute of it! I can't believe that she's turning one in just 9 days. Time has really flown. I'm so relieved that we've survived. I have faith that we can also survive the next one! I only hope she's as good a baby as Kyleigh has been. I promise...I'll post for her one-year birthday. We're not having a party, but will definitely let her eat her own cake! I'll be sure to have photos.

Weekend with Nana

We wanted to post a few photos from our weekend with Nana and Auntie Paula. We figured since it would be a long time till we'd get to see them again, with the trip to Hawaii and all, we paid a visit to their new home on the Eastern Shore, VA. We had a very nice visit and even got to go for a quick swim. Oh, and they had some oh so cute kittens. Nana tried to get us to take one. Hahaha! Fat chance, 3 kitties is quite enough for us.

First's

I can hardly believe it (though I've been predicting it for weeks). Kyleigh took her first independent steps on 7/15. Rob was on the sofa and I was in a chair about 4 feet away. Only in the last two days has Kyleigh discovered that she can stand without holding onto something. So, she was standing near one of us when the other encouraged her to come to them. I can't remember which way it was and with whom. But, she repeatedly was trying to move between the two of us and next thing you know, she had taken 3 steps from one to the other. She repeated this about twice and then I think she was pooped. Our girl has no fear. Her other new feat is climbing the steps. She can climb our steps bottom to top in rapid succession. Then, she likes to turn around and come back down...adult style. She gets quite indignant if you will not allow her to take both your hands as she maneuvers her was down the steps, one at a time, while standing up. She has worn out a few of us doing this over and over. Finally, one last funny thing. We broke down and bought good baby gates to protect Kyleigh from taking a nose dive down our steps. Now, since we have three cats we have to creatively place them so that the cats can a) get to their food and b) get to the potty pans. Wouldn't you know, in a matter of moments Kyleigh figured out that if the cats can squeeze under the gate...so can she! It was like she was in training to be a Navy Seal. The only thing preventing her from falling down the steps was that she banged into all the cat food bowls and made a ruckus. If she's going to be a Seal, we need to practice her stealth! Till later...