The Best Gift of 2013

By far, the best gift we received this year was:

Our sweet Kaleigh! 

Here are some pics from her first Christmas:

This season always reminds us of how thankful we are that "the Word became flesh and dwelled among us" John 1:14. We are so thankful that Jesus came to earth as a man to take on our sin so that we could have a right relationship with God.

We are also so thankful for the gift of Kaleigh. She is so precious to us. It was so fun to celebrate Christmas with. She really got into tearing the paper by the end of it. She thought it was really funny. Our families spoiled her and gave her lots of fun gifts. Our house looks like a toy store exploded in it!! We hope that you and your family had a very Merry Christmas and will have a great 2014!

Kaleigh Month 11

In less than a month we will have a one year old. That is just crazy!! We are blessed beyond belief to be her parents. She is such a joy to us. We had a busy month and got to see lots of people!! Here's the recap:

At the beginning of this month we had Kaleigh dedicated at our church. We committed to raise her with a knowledge of God and train her in the ways of the Lord. Our prayer is that she will love Him and know Him and walk with Him all the days of her life. 

Crawling EVERYWHERE!! She is on the move! She is really close to walking but isn't quite brave enough to let go!

She learned to climb up the stairs...that's now a "no touch!"

Lindsey came to visit!! We had so much fun and it was her first time meeting Kaleigh!

We did some traveling over Thanksgiving. One of our stops was Evansville and we got to see the Cazee's. Here we are with Lily-what a cutie!

We also got to see Hillary!! Kaleigh got to meet all kinds of new people this month!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our sweet little turkey!

11 months!

Things she is doing:

*wanting to walk really bad

*"talking" up a storm

*she dances ALL the time...anytime she hears a beat she is moving

Things she likes:

*music

*her play table

*her walker

*remotes, cell phones and all kinds of other things that she's not suppose to touch!

*the ABC song

Things she doesn't like:

*still just not getting her way! 

We love this little girl!! 

Tears Abound!

 Kaleigh has always been such a happy baby...that is until about three weeks ago. She got a cold and was getting a tooth and it was downhill from there. She literally was screaming her head off most of the day. I'd taken her to the doctor and been given the all clear, I tried to let her cry it out, I had tried pretty much everything. It was so wearing on me mentally and emotionally. It was so hard for me to realize she was upset, but not be able to figure out what it was. Part of it was she just wanted me all day every day. If I wasn't holding her then she was upset and sometimes when I was holding her she was upset. She wanted me, but she wanted down too. At one point when Heath got home I handed her to him and went upstairs. Here was our conversation:

Heath: Where are you going?
Me:Upstairs
Heath: Why?
Me: It's quiet up there

I know that sounds ridiculous, but I seriously just needed a minute. I'm pretty sure every parent has faced days like. All of this really led me to see how much I really need the Lord to help me. Intellectually I know that I need Him to help me all the time, but I don't always feel that way and therefore I try to do this parenting gig on my own and in my own strength. I need Him. I need His help. I need His wisdom. I cannot do this on my own. I need His grace in my life.

I know there will be many more days like this:

And when those days come, I will need Jesus just like I need Him everyday. May God help me remember that. 

Isn't she cute even when she's crying?? :)

Kaleigh Month 10

I know I say this every month, but how is Kaleigh 10 months old? Time is f-l-y-i-n-g by. Everyone tells you it does but you just don't know until you experience it. It just seems crazy to me that we have a 10 month old. Here's the review:

 We celebrated that a year ago on October 17th we got the call that we had the privilege to be the parents to this little girl. 

 We visited Appleworks. It was fun to go out there and we plan to make it a yearly tradition. It is a pumpkin patch that has a petting zoo, a corn maze, games and all kinds of fun things!

 We went to a fall fest and Kaleigh got to pet an alpaca!

Going to our Church's Fall Festival!

Ready for some trick or treating...aka go say hi to all the neighbors

First wagon ride!

Trick or Treat!

One day Kaleigh decided she would like to crawl, pull up and try to stand on her own. Seriously?? A few days later I was in the kitchen making lunch and walked around the corner to find this. She only did it if we were standing there until this day. 

10 months old already!!

Things she is doing:

*crawling

*pulling up

*walking if you hold her hands

*standing on her own for a few seconds

*clapping

*eating table food

*got one of her top teeth

Things she likes:

*hearing cock-a-doodle-do

*standing-all the time 

*peek a boo

* "If you're happy and you know it" she almost always claps her hands!

Things she doesn't like:

*falling :(

*honestly it's been a hard month (more in a later post) so there has been plenty she hasn't liked, we just aren't real sure what it was!!

Kaleigh is such a blessing to us and we are so thankful for her sweet life!! 

Kaleigh Month 9

So here we are, 9 months old. Our little girl is not so little anymore. I have already started thinking about her first birthday party! This should not be happening!  We are so in love with her! We have had a very busy month. It all started with a trip to TN...

Kaleigh's cousin Shelby hadn't met her yet. She was precious with her! She fed her and wanted to hold her and talked to her. She has even named some of her baby dolls Kaleigh and makes her mom call her Mary Leslie because "she's baby Kaleigh's momma." PRECIOUS

We got to see Katie and Levi. Katie and I have been friends for many, many years and I am so thankful for her continued friendship. It was so fun to catch up and for her to meet Kaleigh. 

 Kaleigh loves spending time with her Poppy and Nonnie!!

We have watched lots of UT football and cheered them on. Go Big Orange!! Some people become UT fans, but some people are born UT fans :)

All ready for church!! 

One day we were giving her puffs and this is how it ended up! I love how it looks like she has buck teeth. She hasn't quite mastered feeding herself. She puts it in her palm, closes her hand around it and then sucks on her hand. Surely she will figure it out one day!

This little girl wants to crawl so bad! She will get up like this and then just kick her legs but doesn't go anywhere. She did get rolling down though so that is her mode of transportation. Also, if she is sitting up and falls over and we cheer for her she laughs and smiles, if we don't cheer she cries!

Our sweet little pumpkin! 

We were suppose to go to a Fall Fest with some friends, but it rained all day. I was so bummed. Here is a family picture anyway! 

Sweet Jenni moved to northern Indiana and was driving through Columbus so we got to see her! Love this girl and love that she got to meet Kaleigh! 

Isn't she so big! How did this happen?!

We got to spend a day hanging out with Graham and Aunt Jaye! They actually acknowledged each other's existence this time!!

It's starting to get chilly in what I like to call the "frozen tundra." Being from the South, that is what it feels like. Anyway, the point is, Kaleigh got to sport this cute little jacket!!

Our sweet baby girl is 9 months old!! Words could never, ever express how much we love this sweet girl. She is such a blessing and a joy and we are forever grateful for her! 

One sad thing did happen this month. On September 28th my sweet grandmother passed away. She has had Alzheimer's for about 10 years so it wasn't unexpected, but still sad. Most of my childhood memories have her in them. My brother and I were the only grandkids so we got lots of attention. They came every Christmas Eve and spent the night with us, we went to lunch at their house many Sundays (she would cook for a small army and it was GOOD!), they made sure everything was even-if they spent $1.06 more on my brother I would get that much in an envelope!, they came to school and church programs, they helped us so much when my mom was sick, they gave towards a college fund so I could be debt free and they loved us. Oh they loved us! This was my last living grandparent. I am so thankful that I had her as one of my grandmothers. She was precious and will be missed. We did get to go to TN again and see family and friends so we are thankful for that. Also, when we were in TN in June Kaleigh got to meet grandma. I will treasure this picture forever. 

As far as Kaleigh goes these are things she's doing, things she likes and things she does not like

Things she is doing:

*rolling everywhere

*sometimes waving bye bye

*got her second tooth 

*getting up on her knees and rocking

Things she likes:

*talking, talking, talking

*JUMPING in her jumper

*when we blow on her stomach

*playing peek-a-boo

*She smiles every time someone says "what does a cow say? moo" LOVES it!

*looking at books

Things she does not like:

*she really, really hates not getting her way! she is such a sassy pants!! 

*she also doesn't really like solid food-she could take it or leave it