August 2, 2010-- Panama City Beach 2010

We just got back a few days ago from vacation, Panama City Beach, FL. We had a great time! It seemed jam packed but still plenty of time at the pool and playing on the beach. We did the souvenir shops thing, played Laser tag (Kendall, Mommy, and Aunt Tiff against Papa, Delaney and Aunt Tammy--we won by the way! Whoo hooo!! :o) We went on a helicopter ride, took a boat ride to Shell Island(an island that is totally uninhabited, no bathrooms, NOTHING) and snorkeled, Kendall saw a dolphin on the way back from there. We went out on the pier and ate at Margaritaville where Kendall got the biggest balloon hat you can imagine from the balloon guy on stilts. We ate at a couple restaurants and got to sit right at the edge of the deck overlooking the beach, very nice and relaxing. And Kendall loved watching the seagulls hanging around hoping for scraps. The only down note was Kendall got sick on the way home, several times. Ugh! Laptop is now limping along, hope it recovers!

July 8, 2010 My First Grader

Today on the way home Kendall and I were talking about her upcoming field trips. When I mentioned the roller skating trip I asked her if she was going to be able to do it by herself. (Her one and only attempt at roller skating was and still is a painful one for Mommy. I still have a knot on my knee from months ago to prove it!) When she PROMPTLY (with much attitude) told me she was a 1st grader now, she could do anything. She was in Kindergarten then, but now she's in 1st grade, so she can do anything she wants now, just as serious as she could be. She is hilarious!

May 29, 2010 Kendall's first official riding lesson

Kendall had her first riding lesson today, from someone other than Mommy. She loved it. Sandy said she did really well. She has very good balance, no fear of anything, was a very good listener and tried very hard to do what she instructed. She and Julia shared the lesson and had a ball together. There was one point where Sandy had stepped away from Kendall and Dancer to open the other side of the arena. When she opened the gate I don't know if it was Dancer's idea or if Kendall gave her too much encouragement to move forward but Dancer started out at a very fast walk. Sandy was telling her to pull back and ask her to stop, Kendall kept telling her she couldn't and Dancer just kept the pace. We were both behind her so I couldn't jog and catch up as it could push Dancer to move faster. I told her to shorted her reins and pull back, she did and Dancer stopped for her. She was totally fine but my heart did some flips there for a minute. She was never in any real danger but I didn't want her to fall and open up the chance of any minor injuries or fears. After that I went and sat on the other side of the barn to stay out of the way. We went for lunch after their lesson and they played at Mc D's playland for awhile. When it was time to go, the girls begged for Kendall to go back to Julia's for awhile, not ready to stop playing. When I went to pick Kendall up we stayed for dinner, everyone had a great day. It was nice day to hang out with good friends. We have made plans for this to be a regular thing. We always want to spend more time together but it just seems to go by so fast, we are hoping since it is now planned with the lessons we can make it happen more often. When we were leaving, Kendall told Julia she was the best friend ever! :o) It's really neat for my best friend's little girl to be my daughter's best friend too. We have always talked about how cool it would be for our daughters to grow up together but now it's actually coming true! :o)

Kendall taking care of Dancer, getting her cleaned up and ready for her lesson.

January 7-9, 2010 Snow Days!

(pink hat pic) My daughter's face after she crashed into the garage!

(pic w/tan hat-- after she crashed and almost took me out on the way as I tried to get her picture on her way down the hill)

Kendall LOVES the snow. School was out Thurs and Friday so she was able to stay home and play outside, sled down the hill in the back yard. Saturday we went w/Carrie, Julia and Vince to the park and went down a good hill. Everyone had a great time but the girls especially LOVED it. They would scream and squeal the WHOLE way down the hill. Kendall, being my little daredevil, wanted to go head first so bad she couldn't stand it. Not a good idea, since they were traveling far enough they hit the trees at the bottom of the hill. She then came up with going down backwards, when I vetoed that b/c she wouldn't know when she needed to bail off before crashing into the trees, she moved on to kneeling/sitting on her knees as she giggled and whoo hooo'd the whole way down. That's my girl!.....and her partner in crime :o)

October 13, 2009 Adoption Day!

Us and Judge Bowles.
(my camera messed up! Today of all days!)

The day I was beginning to think would never come finally arrived. Kendall's adoption was finalized today!! I still can't believe it is really over. She is legally, 100% ours.

Kendall and her gifts from Grammie and Papa to remember her special day. A soft dog and a beautiful bracelet!

September 13, 2009 Kendall's first REAL roller coaster!

Kendall has always been fearless in everything she does, however, today she blew me away! She rode her first real, full size, go upside down roller coaster! This one just goes straight so there wasn't any jerks to the side, just really fast take off and through the loop then backwards to return to the starting spot. The first time she was a little unsure when we got to the loop. I had told her if it was too scary to just close her eyes, so when we started upside down she did. When we were out of the loop she opened her eyes and the look on her face made me a little nervous that she was going to be afraid or freak out but she kept her eyes open on the way back through the loop and watched the ground as we were upside down! Before we could even get out of the ride, she was asking to do it again! And again, and again! So we rode it three times before she was ready to move on to the next ride. Wow! 5 yrs old. And my niece, Delaney, was just the same, two peas in a pod, all smiles and begging to do it again!

August 12, 2009 First day of Kindergarten!

I just can't believe she is in KINDERGARTEN!!! It just seems like yesterday that we put her in the car to bring her home from the hospital. I have been taking her to school every morning but she is still daily, morning and night, asking about getting to ride the bus to school. I am sure she would be fine, I just worry about older kids on the bus, her learning things she doesn't need to know from them, rough housing, learning bad behaviors, the bus wrecking,....I could go on...but I will stop there. :o) She loves kindergarten and her teacher, she is learning a lot and having fun too! We have already had homework! Grandma helped Kendall with part of it this weekend, Thanks Grandma! (this is the only first day picture I have, my camera blacked out the rest!!! Uggh!!!)

Summer 2009

Kendall has been having a ball this whole summer. She has grown so much this summer and her personality has really been developing. She is quite a character, such a sense of humor! She loves to laugh and I still love to hear it! She has had so much fun at the Jungle this summer, on the field trips and swimming, and learning all of the science lessons. She is just so grown up now! :o) Not sure how I feel about that though! lol :o( It just doesn't seem possible for her to be such a big girl now!

Panama City Beach, FL August 2009

Kendall had a BALL! We went on vacation with Grammie, Papa, Aunts Tammy & Tiffany, cousin Delaney and of course, Mommy, Daddy and Kendall. We had a condo right at the beach. Kendall LOVED collecting shells, we went over to the beach pretty much every morning to collect shells and spent several afternoons there too. Kendall swam in the ocean and rode in the small boat Daddy bought for her and built sand castles with Aunt Tiffany and Delaney.

We spent most of the days at the pool. Kendall was swimming with just floaties instead of her life jacket by the end of the first day and was swimming completely on her own by the end of the second day. The third day she was like a little fish, she learned to dive (really well!), blow out through her nose and swim underwater. We saw dolphins, a big jelly fish, and a sting ray from the pier before dinner one night. And Kendall and her daddy were swimming one morning and saw dolphins near the shore maybe 50-60 ft away. Kendall and Delaney had the best time with each other, swimming & playing games and they even put on a show for us every night. They even got Papa up to do the hula with them one evening!

It was a great vacation!