Kaylee is 10 years old!

Today my firstborn daughter is 10 years old!! How did that happen? I do not know why but this birthday has really been hard for me. I keep thinking that she will only be in my house under my roof full time for 8 more years. Oh, I cannot even bare the thought, so on to happier things.

Kaylee is in fourth grade this year and soaking up every moment of it. She makes friends so easily and really enjoys meeting new people and making them feel welcome.

It seems that each season we add a different sport. So far we are still enjoying softball and have added basketball this year. I love my little athlete!

One of her favorite past times is watching any type of sporting event with her Dad whether it is on the television or in the ballpark. I am so thankful they get to bond in this way.

Along with watching sports with Dad she also loves to go hunting. He cannot even think about leaving the house to do either one of those activities without her included in them.

She still wants to be a baker and open her own bakery one day so we do enjoy cooking together as our special time. Kaylee has also gotten into shopping over the past year so we get to have our bonding time too.

She is still enjoying piano lessons and looks forward to them each week. I love listening to her play!

She has the most tender heart and hates to disappoint anyone. This can be good and bad. When it comes to school this can be hard because she wants to get 100's on everything and pushes herself very hard. Luckily school work seems to come easily for her now so I pray that continues with this personality trait. The good side is she is always polite to others and respectful.

She loves Bible Bowl and learning about God. I love the conversations we have about God and the things we learn about in the Bible. Seeing it all through the eyes of your child gives it a new light and she teaches me something new too.

She loves listening to music and singing as well. It is a sound I never grow tired of.

She loves her sister, most of the time;-) Over the past few months I have seen more of a friendship growing between the girls and I pray each day that this lasts a lifetime.

She is a great encourager of others. One of her favorite things is to praise her friends for their good job on something. It is so sweet to hear.

I love our precious daughter and cannot wait to see how she uses all the gifts God has blessed her with over the next year. You are a constant joy to my souls and I am so thankful I get to be your Mom!

Kaylee's 3 Birthday Celebrations!

Kaylee is lucky enough to have a birthday around Thanksgiving so each year we seem to celebrate several times.

The first celebration was with Cary's family over Thanksgiving but for some reason I have no pictures. She did enjoy celebrating with her cousins.

The second celebration was at my parents' home. My Mom got Kaylee the best cake ever, a Texas Rangers cake. I really think they could have gotten away with n

o gift at all after the excitement over the cake.

Kaylee is blessed to have a birthday around the same time as Papaw so we usually get to celebrate their special day together. They both love getting to share in the fun and papaw does not seem to ever mind the theme of the cake. I am so glad that my girls are always so excited to spend time with their Great Papaw and love him as much as I do. He is an amazing man.

A few of Kaylee's favorite gifts were a Nook color, Rangers pillow pet, Connect 4 Launchers, and money.

The third celebration was at Chuck E. Cheese with just our family. I wonder each year how many more birthdays we will spend at Chuck E. Cheese before our girls want to eat somewhere else. I know that when the time comes I will miss the mediocre pizza, the fun games, and the what seems like hours picking out prizes with he tickets won. However the smiles on these two precious faces make it all worth it in the end.

Happy Birthday to my sweet 10 year old girl!

San Francisco!

The first week in November Cary had a business trip to San Francisco planned so I decided to tag along since it had been a while since we took a trip together. What a fun place San Francisco is and a little odd too;-) We managed to pack a lot of places into a weeks time.The first evening we were there we went to this fun alley filled with restaurants called Belden Place. I wish we could have eaten there again on our trip. The food was amazing!

The next day we took a tour of the Napa Valley area along with Sonoma. Our schedule was full so there was no time to shop in the square of Sanoma but it was somewhere I would like to go back to one day and experience some fun shopping.

The third day we ventured on a tour of Muir Woods and Salsalito. If you ever have a chance to hike in Muir Woods please do. The trees were amazing and the views were breathtaking. What a Mighty God we have who gave us such natural beauty to enjoy! We also enjoyed eating at a restaurant on the water in Salsalito and shopping around town a little before heading back to the hotel.

Look how tall these Redwoods are! I could not even capture all it in my camera lens. Amazing!!

The fourth day we only had half a day together because of Cary's conference starting. We enjoyed a leisurely morning and then went on a group tour with the rest of the office to AT&T Park, home of the SF Giants. It was very informative and I picked out a suite I would love to sit in if we ever take in a game there;-)

Can you tell Cary is in his element??

We ended our day going to an event where we got to take a cruise ship to Alkatraz for a nighttime tour of the facilities. Let me just say if you ever go there wear comfortable shoes not high heeled boots;-) Our tour guide I think was one of the best. He had us going up random ladders and really get a feel for what the prison was like for those incarcerated there. We were there an hour and a half and still did not see everything. It was a very interesting place with all the history and people who were locked up there.

The next day while our spouses were in classes I got to experience ships and submarines with this character, Larry. He and I had a lot of fun walking around several piers, a submarine (The Jeremiah O'Brian I believe), too many ships to count, and even a stop at In-N-Out burger. We also did some sight seeing/people watching in the process. That evening the whole crew went to eat at a restaurant across from the ballpark and enjoyed a delicious meal.

Larry's sweet wife insisted the next day that Larry go with me shopping so he could carry my bags. Lucky for us the hotel was located off Market Street which was conveniently located close to some of my favorite places including an indoor mall, Tiffany's, Macy's, Ugg shoe store, H&M, and about 200 other places to enjoy. We decided to tackle the indoor mall since it was a little rainy. There were so many wonderful shops and I even got to find a few treasures to bring home. We did stop for a little bit to enjoy the Brookstone massage chair which I am sure Larry is getting for Christmas;-) Larry was a great sport and did not complain once. Thanks for the company Larry.

I am so thankful I got to spend a week away with the Love of my Life! Thanks again Nana for taking care of the girls!