Year End

OMG, there are only 2 more days left of 2010. Where did it go? This year has really flown by! I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas, I know we definitely did! I think we need to buy a bigger house just to fit the kids' presents. And we're not done yet, Kailyn's birthday is in 2 weeks and Myer's is in 3! I've gotten all the Christmas put away and the house is back to normal so we can prepare for birthday-mania! Here are a few of the kids' favorite presents:

So Kailyn also got Bitty Twins from Santa, which she LOVES, but I just realized that we videoed that part and I don't have any pictures of her with them! What a horrible mom :( Myer got a rocking horse, but didn't really think it was all that cool.

Today has been kind of a crazy one. Myer is feeling under the weather and is heading to the doctor with his Papa Ray at 10:40am. I am very blessed to have such a wonderful family! Kailyn, on the other hand, is unknowingly about to have one of the greatest days of her life! Since she is out of school this week, her dad is going to give her her birthday present early. Are you ready for this? He is taking her to a kid's spa for a manicure/pedicure, then to lunch and then on to the new American Girl Store!!!!! Honestly, I should've put a diaper on her, because she is going to poop her pants! I CANNOT wait to hear all about this trip!

Alright, I have got to get busy! I hope everyone has a very safe and happy New Year!!!!!

Performing Arts

Kailyn had 2, that's right 2, performances last night! She had her cheer exhibition at 4:30pm at Shapes, where they did a cheer and dance and showed off their building and jumping skills. Kailyn can also do an assisted back-hand spring (just a little mommy brag right there), I know plenty of other kids can do all that stuff too, but I couldn't, so it really makes me proud that my daughter rocks at it!!!!!Then we headed home to change clothes and leave again for Kailyn's 1st grade Christmas Program at Benton at 6pm. They sang some awesome songs, including Jingle Bells, which featured a 2 verse solo by none other than my sweet baby girl! You wanna talk awesome? Oh Yeah! I hope I make it through her school years.....I was SO nervous for this solo, I can't even imagine what's to come!

It was a really great night, and we were even home by 7pm. Plenty of time to get supper and baths before the finale of Biggest Loser started! GO PATRICK!!!!!

Just for fun, Kailyn and I made our traditional gingerbread house the other night, so here are some pictures:

Have a great week!

Coming or Going?

I debated on what to title this post, since it'll just be a quick update. 90 second update? I don't know how fast you read! So I went with how our life has been lately, so busy that we don't know if we're coming or going! Anywho, I've been a crappy blogger (what's new?), so here's what's going down:

Kailyn - is the busiest kid. She has dance on Monday's, girl scouts every other Tuesday, cheer Thursday's and goes to her dad's every other weekend. That being said, she's probably also the smartest kid. She is an amazing reader and mathmetician, she is extremely athletic and artistic and she is by far the best big sister on the planet. We are truly blessed to have such a gorgeous daughter!

Myer - is an ornery tornado of destruction! He is standing on his own and climbing all over. He babbles lots and has mastered "Dada" and "Mama". He is a high-fiving, waving, dancing machine! He has discovered that feeding himself is much more fun than being fed, and also gives him the opportunity to throw bits of food on the floor for the dogs to fight over. We are completely in awe over how fast he is growing and learning. We are also blessed to have such a handsome baby boy!We are so excited for Christmas to come! Joe has a wrestling meet tonight and a tournament this weekend (GO OWLS!) and then they get a little break. School is out after 12:30pm on Friday and Dance is done after next Monday's holiday exhibition as well, so other than Holiday hustle and bustle, I think we'll get to slow down for a few weeks. *Fingers Crossed* ;)

Here Comes Santa Claus

This past Saturday we went to see Santa Claus! Kailyn was so excited to get to see him and tell him what she wanted! When I told her she was going, she asked if she could take her American Girl Catalog to point out the specific dolls she wanted, but I convinced her that Santa is always watching, so he knows which ones she likes. Now she knows that the man at Community Bank on Saturday was not the "real" Santa, because the "real" Santa is way too busy at this time of year to visit each boy and girl. Community Bank did a really great job! Not only did they have the best Santa, they also had cookies and coloring books for each boy and girl. It was super nice!

Have you noticed that I have yet to mention Myer's first experience with Santa?

That would be because I'm pretty sure he hates him.....

Isn't that sad?! Myer was having NOTHING to do with the big jolly man in red! No worries, though, big sister, Kailyn, told Santa what she thought Myer might like for Christmas ;)Well, it's already 9:30am and I've gotten nothing accomplished. I'd better get my rear to work!! Have a great week!

Holy cow, today is December 1st!!!!! Christmas is a mere 24 days away! How exciting is that?! I got my Christmas cards in the mail yesterday and will be promptly sending them out! I LOVE CHRISTMAS!

So I've been reading a new book. The Good Sister by Drusilla Campbell. I am super hoping to get an Amazon Kindle e-reader for Christmas and have been only buying one book at a time. I found this one at Wal-Mart one day and the synopsis is this:

"Roxanne Callahan has always been her younger sister's caretaker. Now married, her happiness is threatened when beautiful and emotionally unstable Simone, suffering from crippling postpartum depression, commits an unforgivable crime for which Roxanne comes to believe she is partially responsible. In the glare of national media attention brought on her sister, Roxanne fights to hold her marriage together as she is drawn back into the pain of her troubled past and relives the fraught relationship she and Simone shared with their narcissistic mother. At the same time, only she can help Simone's nine year old daughter, Merell, make sense of the family's tragedy. Cathartic, lyrical, and unflinchingly honest, THE GOOD SISTER is a novel of four generations of women struggling to overcome a legacy of violence, lies and secrecy, ultimately finding strength and courage in their love for each other."

I thought it sounded pretty intriguing, so I went for it. Now let me just tell you, I will finish this book, because I don't like to just quit in the middle, but I don't recommend it for anyone with a heart or a love for children or family at this point. Hopefully "their love for each other" shows up soon! I don't really know how to explain myself, but some of the things that are said or done in this book, while not physically abusive, are emotionally devastating. It completely breaks my heart. I don't think this is supposed to be a book that brings you to tears, but I've cried multiple times. The little girl, Merrell, is Kailyn's age. I could never imagine not feeling my whole heart bursting with love for her. I don't know, the book is extremely well written; I guess the story, although I know it happens in this cruel world, is a reality that I don't care to know about. All those poor babies in the world who are made to feel that way by their own mommy's!

Well, I think I'll go address some Christmas cards. Cards with pictures of my beautiful, amazing, fantastic babies on them! ;) Have a great day!

Baby's still got it! Woo Hoo! Jennifer Gray won Dancing With the Stars!Biggest Loser was a major tearjerker last night! Those people are so amazing and so dedicated, not only to their own goals, but to each other's as well. What a great show!

There are so many things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. My family, my friends, my job, my health, I could go on and on! I feel truly blessed everyday! Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Today is a very special day. Miss Evie Lou Coleman is 1! Happy Birthday, sweet girl!

Homework

Kailyn brings home a weekend "homework" assignment each week in her Friday folder from school. It is usually a game involving words or sentences or coloring a picture according to weekly sight words. Along with her normal homework this past week was a family assignment. We got a picture of a plain turkey and our task was to disguise it so that no hunters would shoot it for Thanksgiving. I was super excited! I remember Andy, Mandi and Aubrey making a Hannah Montana Turkey when Aub was in Mrs. Smith's class! So we put our heads together for an awesome Turkey idea. I came up with either an Edward Turkey (Twilight Vampire) or a Justin Bieber Turkey. Joe immediately wanted to go with Justin Bieber, he's got a severe case of Bieber Fever ;) When Kailyn got home from dance on Monday, she and I discussed the ideas and she also thought of an MHS Cheerleader Turkey. In the end, I put the decision in her hands.

AND THE WINNER IS:

EDWARD CULLEN in Turkey form! For those of you who are not die-hard Twilight fans as Kailyn and I are, let me walk you through our thought process. Kailyn colored his body and face white so he'd be nice and pale, colored his feathers black like death and his gullet red like blood. I attached a nice white fang tooth to hang from his beak, sprinkled some silver glitter on his feathers since vampires "sparkle" in the sun, made him a sweet "Team Edward" shirt out of construction paper, made his eye golden (as "vegetarian" vampire's eyes are) with glitter, fastened an Edward and Bella pin to one wing like he was holding a picture of them and finally made a picket sign of Jacob the Werewolf that said "Eat Werewolf". Kailyn and I are VERY proud of our family turkey. Joe's part of turkey decorating was keeping Myer occupied ;)

Speaking of my fabulous hubby, and don't get me wrong, because he is fabulous, but I am slightly disappointed. Prince William has announced his engagement to Kate Middleton. Kate will be the first commoner to enter into royal marriage in 350 years. She is wearing Princess Diana's engagement ring from Prince Charles, and it actually needed no sizing. I told my mom I was sure Prince William was going to propose to me, but she said that was illegal since I was already married. I told her I thought it was ok since we lived in different countries, but I guess I'll never know. Thanks a lot, Kate..... My mom said she would call me "Princess Aimee" if it would make me feel better. I told her it would. I will give them one thing, Prince William and Kate Middleton are going to make some gorgeous babies!

I can't believe Thanksgiving is next week! Time sure does fly. Have a great week!

Watching T.V.

We watch way too much t.v., especially with the invention of DVR. In the last week, there have been some interesting stuff on my favorite shows!

I'm not a "hardcore" Dancing with the Stars watcher, but I wanted to watch this season because Jennifer Grey was on it. I hope I look half that good at 50! Then Kailyn decided she liked watching Kyle Massey (Cory in the House) and Joe like The Situation. Anywho, can someone please tell me how Bristol Palin is still on that show? I feel for the girl, I do, she has no dance experience and isn't an entertainer.....blah, blah, blah. She's stiff and has no personality, she's gotta go! And while Brandy is a fantastic dancer, she seem cocky to me. I think Maks is rubbing off on her, he is out of control.

I have been increasingly disappointed in Grey's Anatomy. I know I complain about how it "just isn't like it used to be", and you're probably saying "quit watching then, stupid", but I can't. What if I quit watching and that's when it starts getting good again?! Private Practice was pretty edgy this past week! Charlotte was attacked and raped, always a horrible, sensitive subject, but a very real one! Charlotte has also decided that she doesn't want anyone to know that she was raped because she thinks people will look at her differently. What a secret to keep. I think the previews kind of show her melting down, so hopefully someone can get her some help!Fatal Attractions hasn't been the greatest lately either. The past few episodes have been about people with snakes. I mean, like, people who own poisonous snakes and kiss them and stuff and can't figure out why their beloved snake would bite their face and kill them. One man said that having a snake was no different than having a German Shepard or any dog. He said dogs used to be wild, so they could turn on you at any point too. Right. Snakes are the same as dogs. Apparently what they didn't know about that guy is that he was high. Back to the topic! Last week Fatal Attractions was about people who had raised cattle (bottle calves) and when they grew up, the cow trampled and killed them.....Kara, I know you read this!!!!! One man on the show had a bottle calf that he kept in the house and used to drive around with it in the bed of his truck.....until it broke most of his ribs. I recorded a new show on WE on Saturday called Downsized. I haven't watched all of it yet, but it's pretty interesting. It's about a family of 9 that used to live the high life, but didn't budget their finances well enough for this economy and have gone bankrupt. They are on food stamps and live paycheck to paycheck now. It's very enlightening.Oprah, who is in her final season, had Katherine Jackson on her show yesterday! I have also only watched a little of the show, but I'm excited to watch more! I love me some M.J.! Oprah talks to his kids and Joe Jackson too, but I haven't gotten that far. I'm not going to lie, I'll probably cry when she interviews his kids!Tonight is Biggest Loser. I love the motivation on that show! Bob is going to do live reveals of the eliminated contestants! Wow, it doesn't take much to impress me, huh?

Enjoy this beautiful day, I'm afraid there aren't too many left before winter blows in! BACK TO WORK, PEOPLE, THE AUDITORS ARE HERE ;)

Distance Makes the Heart Grow Fonder?

I'm a horrible blogger, I know.....but just let me explain, would you? I had quite the week last week! Since September, my parents have had really terrible luck. My stepdad has fallen off a ladder, had surgery on his fingers, rolled his company mini van down a 30-foot embankment when a car pulled out in front of him on 65 Hwy with my mom (my mom had some MAJOR bruising, but was ok) and had a fractured hip and most recently has acquired a kidney stone. This past Tuesday, my mom called and said she was at the ER AGAIN with Ray. I couldn't believe it! She said he had pain in his lower abdomen and was throwing up. The doctors found a kidney stone with a CT scan and kept him in the hospital overnight to try and monitor his pain. Now let me add in here that this is Tuesday night and my mom was scheduled to have surgery to correct her carpal tunnel Thursday morning. Wednesday didn't go too bad, my mom went to work until Ray could come home from the hospital and then took him home to be nursed by my Gma. The pain was still really bad, so he kept on his pain meds as much as possible. Thursday morning came and my aunt and Gma took my mom out for surgery. After I dropped my kids at daycare and school, I joined them. The surgery went great and they let me take mom home. After I took her, I came to work (our auditors are actually coming today) to get things ready and my mom called. She said she and my Gma were taking Ray back to the ER. The percocet was not touching the pain and the doctor's office said just to take him there and hope for IV meds. They got him set up on Demoral patches (with nausea medication) and sent him home. After I got to work on Friday, my cell phone rang. It was my mom and she was hysterical. She said Ray was completely out of it and he still wasn't passing the stone and she was getting something done about it today. She got the doctor on call, who told her that, by some miracle, there was a urologist from Columbia at the office on Fridays and he would beg for Ray to get in. He got right in, and the urologist sent him straight to Columbia for surgery.....DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT $200. I packed them up and sent them with my two stepbrothers. They got to Columbia around noon and Ray finally got in for surgery around 6pm. Now are you ready for this? In surgery, they found an infection and couldn't remove the stone. They put in a stint and will call this week to let Ray know when he can come back and have the stint and stone removed. All the while, my mom has one freaking arm (the left one, no less) and can't even shower or dress on her own! Who has this luck? So I've been nursing some patients this past week and weekend. Kailyn and I kidnapped my mom Saturday night, leaving Ray with my brother, Tim, to care for him and we waited on her hand and foot! We had a very fun time at our sleepover!

So I am vowing, right here and now, to have a better week! Auditors and all, who cares! This week is going to be great! I did get my Christmas decorations up this past weekend and am only waiting for my hubby to put up the lights. I also thoroughly enjoyed our extra hour of time on Sunday!

Well, I promise to be a better blogger, but for now I must go! ;)

Happy Halloween

Just wanted to wish everyone a very safe and Happy Halloween! We carved and painted some pumpkins leading up to this spook-tacular holiday:

I did this one -

Kailyn picked out the pattern for this one.....obviously she picked the most meticulous one she could find for Mommy to carve ;) - Kailyn picked out the pattern for this one also, it is Myer's pumpkin that Daddy carved - Kailyn painted this one (a vampire) for my cutie patootie stand - I painted this one (at Kailyn's request) for my spider stand - Does Kailyn run this family or what?!?! LOL! Speaking of which, I forgot to share our robot. Kailyn was talking one day about how cool it would be to have your own robot, and how we could make it out of boxes and such around the house. Being the sucker I am, we saved and saved and finally had all the "parts" we needed! Meet "Stacy" - Unfortunately, "Stacy" couldn't stand very well on her own and fell over a lot, one time proving to be fatal when her milk carton head fell off. :(

*One last side note*

I really just want to say how extremely proud I am to be a part of the community of Marshall. Yesterday was a very sad day as our fallen firefighter was laid to rest. I have never seen so many caring, supportive people in my life. The outpouring of strength and respect was so heart warming. In high school I was one of those bratty teenagers that said, "As soon as I graduate, I'm leaving this hellhole" I don't regret for a minute the day that Kailyn and I moved back here. HOME. While there are downfalls to living in a small town at times, the good times most certainly outweigh the bad. I wouldn't trade Marshall for anything. There are some detailed pictures and a video of the funeral processional at http://www.marshallnews.com/. I definitely recommend for anyone to take a look, but I was there and I still get chills and cry, so you may have your tissues ready. I still pray everyday for Randall's amazing wife and children.

Fallen Hero

Randall Scott Davenport April 16, 1973 - October 24, 2010

Randall Scott Davenport, 37, of Marshall, MO, died Sunday, October 24, 2010, in Marshall. Funeral services will be held at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, October 28, 2010, at the Martin Community Center in Marshall, with William W. Harlow and Mark Gooden officiating. Burial will be in Ridge Park Cemetery with full fire fighters honors. The family invites all motorcycle riders to join the funeral procession to the cemetery. Visitation will be held from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. Wednesday at Martin Community Center with the fire fighters walk thru beginning at 8:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers memorials may be made to the Maggie and Henry Davenport Scholarship Fund in care of Campbell-Lewis Funeral Home in Marshall. Friends may sign the online register book at www.campbell-lewis.com Born April 16, 1973, in Waverly, MO, he was the son of William Henry Davenport and Barbara Alspaw Davenport who survive of Marshall. He had lived in Marshall his entire life, was a 1991 graduate of Marshall High School and attended fire fighter recruit training through Columbia Fire Academy. On May 26, 2000, he married Sarah Hall who survives of the home. He had been a fire fighter for the Marshall Fire Department since September 13, 2004 and recently obtained his E.M.T. license. He was a member of Marshall Family Worship Center, Marshall Drag Racing Team and I.A.F.F. Local 2706. His life’s passion was being a fire fighter, loving his family and friends. He also enjoyed his Harley motorcycle. In addition to his wife and parents, he is survived by his children, Maggie Jane Davenport and Henry Parker Davenport of the home; his siblings, Lola Christine Jones, Terry Lee Davenport, Vickie Lynn Gochenour, William Henry Davenport, Jr., Roger Allen Davenport and Lori Ann Gibson all of Marshall; and numerous nieces and nephews.