Kaeley Grace

I admit I am not the best blogger. I'm usually at least a month behind trying to document happenings in our little corner of the world, and as a matter of fact, I am behind now but I had to take just a moment and blog about my Kaeley. She's getting so big so fast! I had lunch with her at school a week or so ago and for the first time I felt as if she would have rather had lunch with her friends than me.... broke my heart a little, but deep down, I know she's still a momma's girl. Kaeley catches the bus at 6:50a.m. That's early for the Morton clan! It's usually just me and Kae up at this time of morning. I help her get ready and fix her breakfast, pack her lunch, and then I drive her up to the bus stop. I've really come to treasure this time with her. She's so sweet first thing in the morning. First we usually snuggle for a few minutes in her bed until her alarm goes off. Then I get lots of hugs and kisses, which are not freely given by Kae. The other day we were waiting for the bus and she asked me if I was lonely while she and Ella were at school and daddy was at work. I answered that one with a "no...ummm.... I stay busy..." Then later that week when I was going to be working on a cake she told me "I hope you have a good day and do a good job on the cake." It just felt good to know she thinks of me. The absolute best part of my day is when she gets out of the car to get on the bus. I get the most sincere "I love you" and she blows me a kiss. Then when she gets on the bus, she tries to get a window seat where she can see my car and she'll wave or hold her hand on the window until the bus drives off. My sweet girl! Since I'm on a roll, I'll go ahead and brag on her interim report card that came home Friday. She brought home all "E's" with the exception of an "S" for classroom work habits. Supposedly, she talks a bit much to her friends. Guess I can't blame that one on her daddy! Anyway, I'm so proud of her. She brought her reading and her writing grades up from "S's" She's been working hard and it's really paid off! She also lost another tooth on Friday. She's very proud of that. She said it makes her look more grown up. No argument there. I don't know that it's so much the tooth, but the bottom line is that she is growing up. She primps in front of the mirror, is concerned about her hair and clothes and being stylish! When she gets all dressed up, she must top it off with some lip gloss and she's got a perfumy body spray that she likes. I have also noticed that she's taken an interest in jewelry as of late too. As a reward for a good report card, she was treated to a manicure and pedicure ... OPI Red - no doubt! She was bummed that it was cold and dreary today and she had gym... she wanted to wear flip flops and show her painted toes off to her friends. I love you Kae - you're one special girl!!!

Disney in February

February was also when we had our whirlwind mini-vacation to Disney World. We flew down on a Friday afternoon and spent Saturday and Sunday at Magic Kingdom and then flew back home on Monday. We've decided that when the girls are older we'll go for a week and hit all the parks. For now, Magic Kingdom is plenty of fun for us! Ella of course was all about seeing Mickey and Minnie. She loves the princesses too, but Mickey and Minnie still rule her world. Kaeley enjoyed seeing all the characters too, but she is still painfully shy when meeting them. Saturday we managed to make it all day without a stroller, but Ella was getting over a cold and although the weather was perfect at 70 degrees, it got cool in the evening, causing her to cough. So typical Ella with a cold, coughed until she threw up in the hotel Saturday night. I was prepared because Sundays tickets were already paid for - gave her some Zofran and off we went. She was a little tired and rundown, but still we had a great time. We even finished Sunday out with dinner at Chef Mickey's. Of course, they were too excited to eat! Since Kaeley and I both have February birthdays, we decided to make this a birthday trip so at Disney they gave us Happy Birthday buttons to wear. Every time we ate at a restaurant or saw a cast member or even just other visitors in the park, they told us Happy Birthday! The girls both loved riding Dumbo - probably their favorite, but the line was so long. Peter Pan was a hit too. They especially enjoyed the shows and the parades, and shopping of course! So much fun! Here's some pics from our trip...

Kaeley Takes the Ice!

Now that we are enjoying some beautiful spring weather, I need to go back and catch up on February! Kaeley had her first ice skating experience in February. Her friend, Megan Defranco had her birthday party at the icearium and so we just had to go! I have to say I was quite impressed with my Kae... at first she was going to have no part of it. I got her skates on her and sent her out on the ice, well, they had the lights off - for "Friday Night All Skate". 7 year old, 1st time skaters were not liking that! So I got some skates on and went out with her. She held on to me and the side wall for a couple of laps and then she was off. Mostly still grabbing the wall, but she would get brave and go out in the middle of the ice too. Even when she would fall down, she did it with a smile. Much better than I ever thought she would do and she even asked to take lessons. Now, with Kaeley, you have to take that with a grain of salt because she's not asked to take lessons again, but perhaps we will give it a try later. Here's some pictures.

Kaeley and her bff - Lulu, known to most as Lily...

So Much to Blog...

So little motivation...blogging is not my talent, but I'm trying to stay afloat! February was busy, busy, busy! Kaeley and I both had birthdays, she had a birthday sleepover with her bestest friend, Lily, and also had a party with family. I prepared for a huge teacher luncheon at Kaeley's school that was cancelled due to the "massive" (NOT!) snow/ice in our area. Kaeley went ice skating for the first time, and did I mention we made a whirlwind trip to Disney!?! I have pics of most all of it... might as well start with a few and perhaps I'll get another post in before the weekend is up.

This year instead of a birthday party with all her friends, Kaeley opted for just 1 friend to come over and spend the night. It was an easy choice ... LILY! Kaeley just adores Lily. Kaeley and Lily were in the same preschool class, then Kindergarten class, and now 1st grade! They've become quite close! The sleepover fun actually started right after school. The girls were able to run wild in the school gym while we moms set up for the teacher luncheon. Then Lily came home with us and truthfully, both my girls are just smitten by her. The three of them played everything. We ordered pizza and had cupcakes. I convinced them to take a bath, but they only agreed because I said they could wear bathing suits! Then they watched some movies with popcorn and it didn't take long for them to wind down and crash on sleeping bags and the air mattress I put in the floor in Kaeley's room. SO MUCH FUN!!! Saturday morning the fun continued - a little TV time, they played teacher/school, and had a dance party in Kaeley's room. Indeed - Girls Just Want to Have FUN! Here are some pictures from the sleepover....

January 2010

Surely January is not over already! I'd like to say it's been fun and exciting, but it is the middle of the winter... not too much of that going on. We've been staying busy though - hair appointments, dentist appointments, birthday parties, working out, snow days, and I've had what feels like a zillion meetings related to PTA stuff. Oh yeah, and I've made 3 cakes this month and Greg's been on one trip - Naples, FL. Now for February -- it is going to be crazy busy too! Next weekend is Kaeley's 7th birthday party, and then I have the HUGE teacher appreciation luncheon at Kaeley's school on the 15th and the 19th, we're headed to Disney World! Oh, yeah, and I have a birthday in there somewhere. Let's not talk about it. Here are some pics from January to enjoy... and I think they're in reverse order, but I'm in no mood to fight with blogger!


Jan. 30th snow day...

Girls in the tub together... this is a big deal because it's been a long time (over a year if not 2) since they've bathed together. They starting fussing and fighting and so we gave them separate baths. They forgot how much fun it could be together!

Modeling their outfits my friend Mary made for them before church on Wednesday night...

Jan. 8th snow day... not a lot of snow, but the girls were determined to make something... this is their "Snow Castle" made with a sand bucket!


This is a very important picture for me to remember... the 1st time Ella has worn blue jeans...and she put them on to play in the snow!

Christmas Recap

Happy New Year! It’s hard to believe another Christmas has come and gone. Ella has been none to happy about Christmas decorations coming down. I told her Christmas was over and she informed me that no, it’s here. Sweet girl. All of our Christmas decorations are down with the exception of the air blown Mickey and Minnie that Papaw purchased for our front yard. Ella simply loves them. I think she’s finally convinced Christmas is over and has agreed to let us put them away. I was worried they would still be in the front yard come summer time!!! This year we tried something different for Christmas Eve, when my mom and John arrived, we headed to the Japanese restaurant for dinner. We usually cook, so this was a real treat for me and the girls love it minus some small fears of the fire. Christmas morning the girls awoke to a living room full of goodies. Kaeley tore into her presents and was sad when she had them all opened that there were not any more. Ella on the other hand enjoys each present she opens and oohs and ahhs over it so she had several presents left to open after Kaeley was all through. This year the big Santa gifts were a DSi for Kaeley and an American Girl Bitty Baby w/ Pig Tails for Ella. Kaeley also got lots of arts and crafts stuff, several DS games, and Zhu Zhu accessories. Ella got a high chair, double stroller, bath tub and bouncy seat for her American Girl babies. Oh, she is definitely a little mommy! Greg never gets anything very exciting for Christmas and I tried to get him to put a new kitchen trash can on his list since ours was on its last leg. He’s all about getting something practical that we need. He informed me he didn’t want a new trash can. So he bought one for me! How sweet. Reminds me of the Father of the Bride movie where the bride is given a blender from the groom as a wedding gift. What kind of expectations does this gift set? Definitely something I needed and I have to admit, I do like it! Greg also got me some new jewelry that I picked out. I just wanted some new silver earrings and ended up getting hooked on this new line of jewelry called Kameleon. You buy the sterling silver jewelry pieces like earrings, bracelets, etc. and then you buy jewel pops that you can interchange. Pretty cool… but the jewel pops themselves are none too cheap. Anyway, I love them! He did such a good job picking them out! J Greg ended up with some gift cards, clothes, and books. Exciting, I suppose! Better than a trash can? Debatable. I also cheated on Christmas dinner this year. We usually spend HOURS cooking and cleaning, but this year, I let Pimento’s do the catering. It was great! My grandparents live in Asheville, NC and had been snowed in and Christmas morning were iced in. They were able to make the trip to Knoxville, but my aunt Deb didn’t make it because she couldn’t get out of her driveway. At least most of us were together. Aunt Deb and Uncle Tim were missed though!

Christmas night we head to my dad’s for Christmas with him and my step-mother. The big gifts from papaw were the Fur Real Lulu kitties. The girls each had to have one. I think their huge and a little creepy. Not sure what you’re supposed to do with them…let the batteries run out I suppose? The next day we headed to Manchester for Christmas with Greg’s family. There are 4 grandkids ranging from Kaeley age 6 ½ to Luke who is almost 6 months. Needless to say our going around the room one at a time to open gifts didn’t go so well. The kids tore into their presents and the baby had to nap… it was all a whirlwind. Not sure what presents any of us got (just kidding, really, I do know) but it was great getting to spend time together. We haven’t seen baby Luke since he was born.

We got back home on Monday and we’ve been enjoying family time since Greg is off until the 4th. We took the girls to see the Princess and the Frog the other day, it was really cute. The girls have been playing like crazy. Kaeley even set her alarm for 6:45 so she could be up before anybody else so she could have alone time with her toys! Silly girl- she should know she has plenty of time since nobody around here is classified as a morning person! For sure not me, I’ve had way too much sleep and am a little on the bored side. Greg has had a touch of a stomach bug so he’s not much fun. Next year, I think we need to plan a trip for after Christmas. Or maybe “I” should go on a trip after Christmas and leave the girls with Greg! Ha, ha!