Another Happy Day

Sweet Love

2009-02-19T13:31:00.001-08:00

My Grandpa went into open-heart surgery a week ago and I am happy to say that he is at home and doing well. But I wanted to publish this post as a tribute to their love - this picture was taken a day after surgery and in those eyes shows love unconditional. I love my grandparents very much and am so thankful for the blessing they are to me and the example they set even in the most difficult of times. I thank the Lord for them and continue to be wowed by their marriage before Him. My uncle described this picture as love that 1000 words could not describe - I agree! Love you Gpa and Gma!

Cousin Brookyln

2009-02-19T13:24:00.000-08:00

Little Brooklyn came five weeks early, so we spent the first visit watching her through glass at the NICU. It was so amazing to finally get to hold her last week - she is so tiny and cuddly and makes the cutest little noises while she sleeps. Kaylee really loved to hold, but of course, was quickly drawn away to go play with Conner. Daniel and I fought over her though :) We love you Brooklyn!!

Cousin Miles

2009-02-19T13:17:00.000-08:00

It was such a joy to have Jolee and David come out last month to visit for a week. It was the first time we got to see little Miles and it was love at first sight :) Kaylee loved watching her little cousin and really enjoyed holding him, as she asks to do with all babies she sees. I love how he looks exactly like his daddy and has a great smile! Just wait a year and Kaylee and Miles will be inseperable and running around everywhere - she will teach him everything she knows I am sure! Thanks for coming to visit Miles!

It's been a while

2009-01-28T11:09:00.000-08:00

Well, times have been really crazy, and I haven't posted for quite some time. Sorry! Kaylee is growing so fast though and I wanted to post some pictures from this last month. She is talking like crazy and uses full sentences. She is also very active and independent. These pics date back to Christmas too :)

Halloween

2008-11-07T16:58:00.000-08:00

It's funny, because the last two years we put just as much effort into Kaylee's costume and making sure she "enjoyed" Halloween, but we had no idea how much our little girl would enjoy it now that she is older. With the encouragement of her older cousin, Conner, Kaylee quickly understood going to all the houses, knocking on doors, saying "Twick or Tweet", getting candy, and saying "Thank You." We managed to walk several streets (enough to retire poor pregnant Britt a little early) and had to fill our pockets with her candy to keep her Elmo bucket from weighing 10 lbs. As soon as one house was done and they were walking down the driveway, Kaylee would say, "Next door, more candy!" It is also amazing how unafraid she is right now of all the ghosts, goblins, giant spiders, and monsters - we will see how many years that lasts :) Anyway, we love our little Hula Girl and enjoyed watching her and our little Knight nephew on this fun night :)

2008-11-07T16:57:00.001-08:00

Daniel's Office: Before and After

2008-11-06T19:34:00.002-08:00

Well, it took about a month of work and lots of hours, but we are finally finished with Daniel's office and he has now officially started as of this week! It was a lot of fun (and kind of expensive), transforming this space from a plain white room to the office it is now. Of course, we owe credit to Shannon Roehr as well (okay...and you too, Andrew), as she spent lots of hours helping out with ideas and purchases (Andrew helped with the back-breaking work). Anyway, I know that those of you out of state will never get a chance to see it, so this post is for you :)

2008-11-06T19:34:00.001-08:00

Pumpkin Patch

2008-11-06T17:26:00.001-08:00

Cross Your Heart and Hope to Die?

2008-11-06T15:58:00.000-08:00

In October, we enjoyed our 2nd annual Murder Mystery Party with the COC Bible Study ! That is right - we act out a murder on stage at Grace Community Church :) It is a lot of fun! This year we did a 1950's prom....we had 7 actors, including Daniel - who was actually the victim this time and "died" half way through by arsenic poisoning :0 There were about 55 people there and we are already in the works for next year and really enjoying doing this event with the study!

Great-Grandparents

2008-11-06T15:40:00.000-08:00

Quite the performance :)

Helping grandpa get around...

It has been a blessing and privilege for Kaylee and I to set aside one day every other week to go out to my grandparents house and spend time with them. If God blesses me with another 60 years of life, it is like these 2 special people that I wish to be like. They are such amazing Godly examples to our family and such a joy to be with. I feel a special honor in that Kaylee gets to enjoy them too! She gets very excited to go to their house and evens starts yelling "Grandpa, Grandma" in the car as soon as we get off the freeway to go to their house. While there, she has found great makeshift toys.. such as the talking thermometer or the braille device that has buttons you can push. Grandma graciously tied strings to their chimes so that Kaylee can stand there and shake and shake the string while the chime goes crazy. There are many things that make this place special for her, but most of all: just being with her great-grandparents. She has recognized grandpa's need for a cane to get around and will now grab the cane and slowly guide grandpa to wherever she might want him to go - about every 2 feet she taps the cane to the ground. So far, she has not ran him into anything yet :) She has also put together that they make a great audience, as you see here in the pictures, she stands on the edge of the grass and sings, dances, and claps for them! It is very cute to watch. We appreciate them very much and just wanted to share with you all this part of our lives!

Back to the present...

2008-10-05T20:16:00.000-07:00

I stop our summer postings to update you on more current events! We were very proud this last week to be able to go down to Irvine for the last time to celebrate Daniel's State Farm's Graduation. It has been a long haul and he has finally finished his training after 6 months. Now we are on to the fun stuff like painting and decorating his new office, and all the really hard stuff too, like generating business out of thin air, but I leave that up to Daniel :) We look forward to the journey of State Farm and I am sure there will be many postings in the future about it, because it is now a very central part of our lives! By the way, the room was very dark, so some of the pics are pretty awful in quality, but it gives you an idea!

Daniel's mom received a plaque too, because her State Farm office helped to train Daniel! It was very cool. My mother-in-law is a very famous person in the State Farm world, so we were proud to be with her at the graduation :)

Delta 08

2008-10-01T15:24:00.000-07:00

The house we all stayed at
Getting some pretty good air :)

There is no time like the Delta! An annual staple for our family, we always love going to the Delta, kicking back, relaxing, wakeboarding, skiing, and having fun with family! Kaylee loved the boat this year (this is her 3rd trip) and we had a hard time getting her off! Although she very much did not like swimming, maybe because she is used to clear water in an enclosed rectangular space where the water is heated to 80 degrees - so the big, non-see-through cold river was not her favorite thing! She loved playing with her cousin Conner though, her best friend in the whole world! Loving the boat!
I do what I can on a wakeboard and I get about a 6 inch jump! Oh yeah :)
Trying his 180!
Still holding on!

Boys being boys!
Daniel loves the tube! You can hear him laughing from a mile away I am sure :)
Having fun surfing the wave!

Kaylee turns 2!

2008-10-01T14:38:00.000-07:00

We realize now that Kaylee is pretty spoiled, but in a good way, right? Why? Because, yes, she got to go to Disneyland again this summer for her 2nd Birthday. And what a difference 4 months make, because this time she loved it so much more. She knew the characters better and could say their names. She could tell us what she wanted to go on more than once and what she didn't want to go on again! She was also able to see Lightning McQueen and Mater in the Pixar parade, which she loved. To this day, she still talks about the fireworks over the castle and Tinkerbell flying! It was a very special day and we are very thankful that we were able to do it! On the "Horsies" which we rode over and over, because she just loves them!

A proud 2 year old!

Far less scared of Mickey this time!

If you didn't know already - our little girl loves cars!
Dancing with Minnie Mouse

Okay - maybe still a little scared of Tigger :) I am not sure how much she understood Astroblasters, but we went on it three times because mommy likes it so much!
Once again, bushed from the long day! As soon as the fireworks ended and we told her it was time to go home, she closed her eyes and fell asleep.

Fillmore Train Station

2008-10-01T14:26:00.000-07:00

After several weeks of Kaylee asking about trains, we finally decided to take her to the train depot in Fillmore. She really loves the Metrolink trains that run parallel to San Fernando Road, but she is always asking to touch it. So she finally got to touch the train! She really enjoyed walking on the tracks with daddy and exploring all the neat things inside the train shop. It was a really hot day though so we took the opportunity to go to this cute little vintage ice cream shop and enjoy some ice cream. It was a really fun Saturday for our family and we hope to do it again soon!

It was right after 4th of July, so the store clerk gave her a Americana pinwheel for free. She enjoyed it outside and destroyed it in about 5 minutes once we got into the car.
Our (hot) little conductor :)

The Grove

2008-09-18T10:51:00.000-07:00

For Father's Day, we were able to go the Grove in LA for dinner and some fun. Kaylee loved showing Grandpa the pretty fountain show. We also had a great dinner at Wood Ranch. If you have never been down to the Grove, it is a little bit of a drive, but well worth it. We always have so much fun walking around and dancing to the live music!

I love this picture of Daniel and his Dad.

Zoo Going

2008-09-17T08:50:00.000-07:00

There is nothing like taking your little one to the zoo for the first time. Of course, it was dreadfully hot, but we made the best of it! She loved all the animals, but especially the giraffes and monkeys. Too bad the elephant exhibit was closed that day- I guess we will just have to go back soon :)

Summer Swimming

2008-09-11T00:24:00.000-07:00

For my birthday this year, we received an amazing new camera that takes crystal clear images! Our first trial run was taking Kaylee swimming! It was so much fun, we took about 100 pictures in about 20 minutes :) As you can see, we are still figuring the camera out! Well, here are a few fun shots that capture our little one enjoying herself in the pool.

Sea World

2008-09-10T17:06:00.000-07:00

We went to Sea World at the beginning of the year and received those free season passes, so we had the chance to go back in May when Daniel was sent to San Diego to take his licensing exams for State Farm! It worked out perfectly and Kaylee really seemed to love all the animals this time around. She really wanted to touch and hold them, as all 2 years old probably want to do - not until just recently did she acquire the "fear" of such things.

By far, this is my favorite picture of Kaylee and Daniel together!

They smell, but she still loves those flamingo's.

We were such proud parents!

It all started with Disneyland

2008-09-10T16:44:00.001-07:00

It was almost six months ago now, but we had the most fun time in March when we took Kaylee to Disneyland for the first time. She seemed a little overwhelmed, but really seemed to enjoy all the characters. She loved the Winnie the Pooh ride and especially the tea cups. What can I say, our little girl loves to get dizzy!

Loving those Tea Cups!

Just being silly :)

Teaching her early to be brave.

Just laying her down to change her diaper, we realized it had been a long day!

On our way to the blogging world...

2008-09-10T16:39:00.001-07:00

Well, I have given in to two technologies of the future this week...opening up a Facebook account and now starting up a blog! I guess it was time. So, now that I have entered into this new world, I guess I want to start my postings at the beginning of summertime and share all the amazing adventures our family has had over the last few months. Thanks for joining in and I hope that some pictures of Kaylee will at least make you smile. :)