Those big baby blues

These beautiful eyes are one of my favorite features of our little girl. So big and so beautiful. They have a way of lighting up a room any time she enters and are usually the first thing everyone comments on when they see her.

Oh Kamdyn, those big blue eyes are going to be your daddy's undoing (and probably way more boys than we'd like too when you get older:)). I have a feeling they are going to get you your way more than I'd like and get you out of trouble often. They sure are beautiful, but they are going to be dangerous weapons when you learn how to use them:)

By the way, to see a preview of some of Kamdyn's birthday pictures and one year pictures we had done, go to gskillenphoto.blogspot.com to check them out. They are pretty amazing.....Thanks again Ginger!

It's been an honor...

I've been blessed with an amazing family. Even more so, I've been blessed with an amazing grandma. In fact, I don't even think the word "amazing" does my grandma justice. This past Sunday, our family had to say goodbye to this dearly loved member of our family. After a very unexpected stroke on January 9th, we were all faced with the reality of not having grandma around anymore. After a week of hanging in there, she finally went home to Jesus on Sunday January 16th. Needless to say, it's be a really tough couple of weeks on all of those who knew and loved my grandma. Yesterday, we were able to honor her life in a church full of family and friends, that showed just a small testament of how much she loved, and how dearly she was loved.

I told Brian earlier last week that in MY perfect world, grandma would have died with me in another 65 or 75 years. Pretty unrealistic, and selfish too:) But she's just that special; to me, to my kids, to our whole family. But since that seemed very unlikely:) I'm truly thankful for the almost 27 years of time and wonderful memories I had with her. Those memories she left with me are the things I'm clinging to dearly in the days and hours I miss her most. Because if there is one thing that my grandma was good as, it was loving on people. I'm never going to forget the Saturdays we used to spend with grandma and grandpa. The times they took us to the river and down onto the sandbars to play. The popcorn they made us in the evening while we watched Golden Girls:) I'm probably one of the few six year olds who loved that show! I will never forget eating cheerios while I sat on the church floor and colored on the pew on Sundays that they took us to church. The visits to the playground behind their house to play on the equipment. The trips she and grandpa used to take us on when we were kids. The time she lost her purse (leaving behind my cinderella watch in it) on one of those trips. The days she kept me when I was sick and out of school. How well she tucked in my bed sheet corners. To this day, I still try to mimic grandma's method so my sheets don't come untucked for the bed....I'm not very successful....she always did the best! The trips she took Ross and I even after grandpa died to Michigan, Virginia, Washington D.C. I will never forget the loving "nagging" and advice she used to give. The comments that she couldn't believe my mom would take her 16 year old to get her belly button pierced, or that I would want to show my bare midriff in a two piece prom dress. I will always remember her poor hearing and how it made me smile every time I called and had to practically yell so she could hear me, or anytime she left me a message on my cell phone. I will always remember her amazing food, our Sunday dinners. The look of pure joy on her face when she held her great grandchildren for the first time, and never wanted to give them up. Her willingness and excitement at watching our kids whenever she could, and the excitement Eli and Kamdyn showed when "geat bama" came over to play. I will never forget her proudly toting her only great granddaughter around and sitting on the floor happily playing with her on the day before her stroke. So many memories. I'm so thankful for a grandma who was so actively involved in our lives until her last days.

Grandma thank you so much for 27 years of love and memories Thank you for always being at every school play and musical and being one of my biggest fans. Thank you for being such a good role model and such a constant presence in my life. I love you grandma!

How is it possible that my baby is one?!?

Seriously, I have a hard time grasping the fact that Kamdyn is one now. I know I say it all the time, but I feel like it was just yesterday that I was in the hospital having her. But, fast forward a year later, and she's officially a toddler! Crazy!!!! We celebrated her birthday Friday night with a party with friends and a few close friends. It's was such a blast. Kamdyn is such a little social butterfly, she was loving all the attention. I don't have many pictures from the party on my camera since we had a friend come and take pictures for us. It was so nice to not have to worry about getting all the cute pictures I could to remember her party. But, that means I don't have many to share with all of you that couldn't be there to watch demolish her cupcake. But don't worry, I did take some of the cupcake eating on my camera, and it won't be long before I will have a bunch of fabulous pictures of the whole shindig:)

Anyways, Kamdyn was not timid at all when it came to eating her cupcake. This girl loves her food. She "sings" through every mealtime. Heck, she "sings" as long as she has food keeping her mouth busy. I predicted that she was dig right into her cupcake and she did. She didn't leave much behind either. She devoured the whole thing. My personal favorite thing was when she started rubbing it all over her bare belly:) She had crumbs everywhere and was a total sticky mess, but it was so fun to watch her.

She hasn't had the pleasure of any leftover cupcakes since the party, but something tells me it would be a repeat of Friday night if I gave her another one.

I took Kamdyn for her one year check today. We have such a petite little girl. It cracks me up. Especially for the amount of food this girl eats.

Kamdyn at 12 months:

Height: 26 1/4 inches (less than the 3rd percent)

Weight: 17 lbs 8 oz (3rd percent)

Head Circumference: 17 3/4 inches (50 percent)

Snow Fun

I hate snow. Truly I do. Sure it's pretty. But it's cold, and wet, and slippery. I'm not really a fan. I'd much rather be warm and cozy and dry. However, the kids love snow, so it's fun to watch them enjoy the pretty white stuff I so despise. Eli had a blast in the snow last year. We bundled the kids up this morning and took them out. Kamdyn kind of reminded me of Ralphy's little brother on a Christmas story. She sure looked cute though:)
Eli wasn't having anything to do with the sled at first, so I decided to put Kamdyn in first and send her down the drive. She loved it. Whenever the sled would slow down, she'd try to scoot herself. Pretty funny. (Btw, I realize this picture is bad, that's what happens when I'm trying to pick out of very small thumbnails:))

This is what Eli did this for quite a while before he finally braved the sled this year. He just walked up and down the driveway and walked through snow piles first.
Once he got on the sled, he had a blast. We loaded both kids up and pushed them down. They had a blast. Eli kept asking for more as soon as they reached the end of the driveway.
Despite the faces she's making, Kamdyn had a blast too:)

Even though hate snow, I'm glad we had enough snow for the kids to go outside and play. Now that we've checked that off our list, the snow can melt and it can get warmer again:)

Gingerbread house

I decided to get brave and try out a gingerbread house with Eli this year. I figured he would do fine with it, it was just me not wanting to do something quite so messy with a two year old that has held me back before:) I'm a very clean person, and I hate messes, so the idea of doing a gingerbread house just seemed like a lot of work for me. But, I decided to suck it up this year. I'm so glad I did. Eli loved working on his house. He didn't even make too big of a mess (he is so his mother's son:)). This will probably have to become a yearly tradition. Next time I will even let Kamdyn join us...this year she happily played all over the floor getting into mischief so we could decorate our house.

I have to say that I was very impressed that Eli didn't try to eat any of the candy until I told him he could have a gum drop. I was shocked....he loves gum drops so I didn't figure they would manage to stay out of his mouth.


Thankfully we were pretty much done with the house by the time I told him he could have a gum drop. He wouldn't stop eating them after the first one and I had to take them away. He wasn't too pleased. It's all fun and games until mom takes away the gum drops!
Our beautiful finished product. For next year I have a gingerbread train. So fun! Can't wait!!

Christmas Time

Whew! Another Christmas has come and gone already. Can't believe it's all over already. Christmas was so much fun this year. It was exhausting, but a lot of fun. We had several days full of lots of family and tons of delicious food. I definitely love the food of the holidays, but I feel like I have to do some major working out to make up for all the stuff I eat. Well worth it. I do love Christmas, but I'm always ready to get back to a "normal" schedule. The kids' rooms have been cleaned out to make room for all their new treasures, and I have a nice little pile going for the goodwill. I love cleaning stuff out:) I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas too!

Dips

I love all things chocolate. So a little tradition of the women in Brian's family is one of my favorites. Every year (sometime after Thanksgiving) we get together to make chocolates. The centers are made the day before (I have yet to help with this part....maybe next year:)) and then the next morning we dip the centers in chocolate. So yummy. The first year I was a "family dip" I wasn't sure how I would like playing around in chocolate, I don't really like messy hands. It was actually a lot of fun, and it's even better when you get to sample the chocolates you are dipping. It's a good thing we only do this once a year, I would get outrageously fat eating chocolates every day. I have no self control when it comes to sweets in the kitchen.....this time of year is dangerous for me:)

In the middle of the dipping process. We get warm chocolate on the counter and roll the centers in it. We do this over and over:)
Hard at work....I was dipping my oreo bon bons for our Christmas plates to the neighbors, the ones in front of me are cherry centers waiting to be dipped.
Virginia was busy cutting the carmels. YUM, my favorite!!
All done. We had a ton of chocolates, there was more over to the left. Good thing I give a lot of ours away:)