Kaylee Ka-Boom

If the last three months are anything to go by, Kaylee is accident prone. In March, we had to bring Kaylee into the ER because she fell out of the shopping cart and hit forehead first onto the concrete floor. She ended up being okay just a slight bruise on her skull. Yesterday David was putting the girls into the car and Kaylee got her thumb stuck/closed into the car door. We took a wait and see approach this time. But today her thumb was still swollen, purple and she wouldn't use it. We thought there might be a small chance that it was broken. Since I am still teaching, David brought her to the pediatrician. The pediatrician went ahead and ordered an x-ray. Turned out her finger is just severly bruised/sprained not broken. So she gets to wear a cool splint. She loved wearing it for the first 4 hours. But the novelty has worn off and we are now fighting with her to keep it on.

Conditioned

In psychology, you learn about conditioned responses. For instance, Pavlov's dog would droll whenever he heard a bell because the bell would ring every time his food was brought to him. Well, Kaylee has two conditioned responses.
#1. This one happened a couple weeks ago. I like to add Craisins (dried cranberries) in my stove-top stuffing. Kaylee loves craisins and will pick out all of the craisins before eating the rest of the stuffing. Well, this time I made the stove-top without the craisins. Halfway through dinner I look up to see Kaylee picking through her stove-top. I was pretty sure I knew what she was doing but I decided to ask anyways. Sure enough Kaylee told me she was looking for the the craisins. When I told there were no craisins this time, she did not believe me and told me that she was going to find them.
#2. Recently we have started giving cards that sing when you open them for birthdays, etc. Kaylee has gotten a lot of them because the cards we happen to find are Ariel (the Little Mermaid). She loves to open the cards over and over again and hear them sing. Just yesterday I found a card that one of her Aunt's sent her. When Kaylee opened it, she was very confused because the card did not make noise. So she closed it and opened it again. Still no noise. She looked at me and said, "This card does not sing. It must be broken. Can you change the batteries on it?" We tried to explain that this card was not supposed to sing. You just read it. Well she could not find the appeal in that so she went to find her card that sang.

Memorial Day in Pictures

Smoking a brisket

Happy Dog playing in the sprinkler

Happy girls playing in the pool

Three little princesses in a pool

Yummy brisket

Field Trip

This past Friday, I brought my two Aquatic Science classes to Galveston. I had some room on the bus this year so I invited my mom, Aurora, and my girls to come along with us. In years past, I have conducted the field trip on my own. This year due to Ike, I decided to have our field trip conducted by the Friends of Galveston Island State Park. They did a wonderful job and I will probably have them conduct our field trips from now on. They did a bay walk and a beach walk for us. For part of the bay walk, due to high tide we got to walk through the water of the mud flats/salt marsh. After Naomi and Kaylee knew it was okay to get their shoes wet, they throughly enjoyed walking in the water and finding stuff. My high school seniors were more reticent about walking in the water and getting wet. We were able to see a lot of organisms that my classes studied this year including marsh periwinkle snails, comb jellies, sea nettles, cabbage head jellies, ghost shrimp, bean clams, brown shrimp, fiddler crabs, blue crabs, and mole crabs just to name a few. My students, the chaperones who came with me, and of course the girls and my mom all had a really enjoyable time. For those of you, who live in the area or if you come to visit, should really take advantage of these guided walks that the Friends of Galveston Island State Park do. They do the walks on Saturday and Sunday at 10 am. They meet at the Welcome center/Nature center at the Galveston Island State Park. Right now until the end of June it is free entry into the park. You will have to start paying again once the State Park starts running it again in July.

Kaylee looking for a marsh periwinkle snail

Kaylee with her periwinkle shell

Kaylee looking at the fish and other stuff we found in the seine net

I Love You Stinky Face

The girls love having me read books to them. When Naomi was 2, she loved for me to read her Stinky Face. Now Kaylee loves the book and wants me to read it to her over and over again. Today during church Kaylee was reciting the kid parts of the book to me and wanted me to say the mom parts of the story to her. It was very cute even if it was in the middle of sacrament meeting. If you have never read it to your child, I would really suggest going to the library and borrowing it. The book is written by Lisa McCourt. Both girls love the book and it is a great bedtime story.

Birthday Girl

Last week on the 12th, Kaylee turned 3. Since my parents were still stuck up in Utah, we did not have her birthday party until this past Sunday. She was excited to finally open her presents. The bed was okay but she really couldn't play with her bed. This year Kaylee requested an Ariel birthday party again. And to go with the theme Kaylee got pretty much all Little Mermaid presents. Her favorite by far was the singing Ariel card that Grandma and Pop-pop gave her. The runner up was the Ariel jewelry set David and I gave her. The shell necklace does the "ah-ah-ah" from the movie. She was quite entertained alternately opening the card having it sing and then pushing the button on the necklace.

I really like this picture of the two girls

Blowing out the candles

What a pretty princess!!

New Beds

Kaylee and Naomi having been sharing Naomi's twin bed since Kaylee was 2. It has gotten quite crowded in the twin bed especially when David or I are in there cuddling with them. We have been talking for a few months about getting a bed for Kaylee. This past week we finally got one for her. We were out shopping for birthday presents for Kaylee and we found a Little Mermaid toddler bed sheet set complete with comforter. It was on clearance and I could not pass it up. After all it was perfect for Kaylee. And since we bought the bed set, she now needed a bed to go with it. We set up her new bed with Ariel sheets on her birthday. And gave it to her for her big present. She absolutely loved it. I would like to say that it is easier getting her to go to sleep at night but that is still a work in progress. But she does get into bed easier. (P.S. So Naomi did not feel left out, we gave her the Tink quilt I had bought on clearance two months ago and was saving for Christmas. She already had the sheets so this was something she had been wanting.)

Kaylee's new bed

Kaylee enjoying her new bed

Naomi's new quilt

Galveston Bay Day

This past Saturday we went down to Kemah Boardwalk. Kemah was holding a Galveston Bay Day celebration with educational activities for the whole family and lots of neat booths and exhibits about Galveston Bay. Since I teach Aquatic Science, I thought it would be a fun thing to go to. We did not get there as early as I would have liked so we did not get to see everything. But what we did see and do we throughly enjoyed. One of the girls favorite parts was the fountain where they got throughly soaked. They also got to touch some hermit crabs, blue crabs, and anemones in a touch tank. And I got to show off my knowledge of Galveston Bay. Here are a few pictures from that day. My dad has more on his camera.

Playing in the fountain

Next time we need to bring swimsuits

Take my picture please

Pack Rat

Kaylee's toys in Pop-pop's printer cabinet

Kaylee likes to put her toys in "safe" places. She loves to stuff her toys in the bookshelf, in the back of Mr. Potato Head, or in Pop-pop's printer cabinet to name a few. Occassionally she likes to "trade-up" her toys for something cool of Pop-pop's. For awhile there if Pop-pop found a Kaylee toy in his room (usually his sock drawer), he knew that Kaylee had taken something but he did not know what. This past Sunday, against my better judgement I allowed Kaylee to bring her two mermaids into nursery with her. When I went to pick her up, she only had one. I asked Kaylee where her other mermaid was and she said she couldn't remember. The nursery leaders started looking in the toy closet but couldn't find it. Then Kaylee said something about Mr. Potato Head. I asked to see the Mr. Potato Head even though they had already looked in the box. But they had not looked in the back of him. Sure enough Kaylee had stuffed her mermaid in the back of Mr. Potato Head. I love Kaylee. She is always good for a laugh!

Salon de Naomi

Q: What do you do when your 5 yr old gets bored watching NBA finals basketball?

A: Let her paint your toenails of course.

First attempt my left foot
Second attempt my right foot. (This one looks a little better)
Kaylee's foot. She fired Naomi after this foot and had me paint her other one!
The artiste showing off her own work. Her hands and toes turned out the best!!

I love my dad!

Today when we were getting ready for church, Kaylee looked at David and said, "Daddy you are very handsome today." "Daddy, you are a prince!"

Two Reason's I am Glad that I am a Mom

Happy Mother's Day

When it Rains it Pours!

I know there needs to be opposition in all things. But seriously do I (we) need this much. Here is my list of trials/opposition that we have had these past couple weeks:
1. Brake lights on our saturn when out. Brought it in and decided to have the coolant problem fixed. Our slight coolant problem turned into major coolant problem. Out of car all this past week had to get a rental.
2. Parents out of town had to find alternative day care. (Day care was fine but just had to pay a lot for it.) Parents should have been back this weekend but transmission on Dad's van went out. Repairs will take about a week.
3. Went to pick up Saturn from dealership today and Mom's car tire decided to shear right off in the Saturn parking lot. (Back down to one care again.)
4. Watching tow truck unload car back at our house. Wasn't watching where I was standing stood in a fire-ant pile. Now have 20 bites on one foot.
5. David continues to have difficulty with his job.
And these are just the top five. Guess I have some major blessings coming my way.