Daisy is TWO!!!

Eating ice cream with chocolate syrup for her birthday at Rafferty's.

Chewing on a lemon at Rafferty's.

Daisy eating her birthday breakfast, egg and cheese omelet.

Seeing her big present, the kitchen, from Grammy and Grampa Kent.

I can't believe our baby is two! These two years have been a big change in our life. She brings light into our family and brings a smile to our faces through any circumstance. She has grown so much...from walking to going to daycare to sleeping in a toddler bed to using the potty and not needing diapers anymore. And soon she will be a big sister and I know that she will be amazing with Madison!! She already plays with her dolls, strolls them around, feeds them while singing or talking to them and putting them to bed.

Since Daddy wasn't here for her birthday I made her an omelet for breakfast (which is among her favorite except for Daddy's chocolate chip pancakes) after opening presents from her grandparents and us. After getting dressed for the day, I took her to Rafferty's for a birthday lunch. She ate some mozzarella sticks, some of my salad and baked potato. Then after telling the waitress that it was her birthday, they brought her a bowl of ice cream with chocolate syrup. She loved that! Then we made a trip to Toys R Us to pick up play food to go with her kitchen and an outfit for her two year pictures.

The rest of the day was pretty normal...taking a nap, eating dinner, going for a walk. Today she had her two year check up and a shot. She weighs in at 22lbs and 33in. Her doctor says that she is growing on her own curve even though she's in the 3RD percentile with weight. She also has to go see a dermatologist because of the warts on her side. She was born with one but now they have spread around it. I'm sure that'll be a fun trip.

We are getting ready for her birthday party this Saturday and for my parents to visit for her party. We are really going to miss Matt, but know he is doing his job overseas and will be home in time for this baby to be born. We love you and miss you Baby!!! XOXO

8 days and counting...

So Matt has been gone for a week now. Man, it really does feel like he left yesterday, but December seems so far away. Daisy and I have been busy keeping up with the potty training, hanging out with friends and cleaning and working around the house. She's a great comfort to have running around the house when I feel lonely. Her laugh and funny faces are hard to ignore!! We will soon be celebrating her 2ND birthday with friends, grandparents and cupcakes!! Wow, how time flies! I remember when she was born...just a little peanut. We are so very blessed to have her in our lives! She make any day better with just a smile and a hug. She loves giving away hugs!

While Matt's gone we have decided to add a construction paper link to a chain for every day that he is gone. We have 8 so far and I'm thinking by the time he gets home, we'll have a long enough chain to wrap around our Christmas tree. I will soon be going back to school and Daisy to daycare, so we will be very busy (thank goodness)! Here are a few pictures from 2 years ago when Daisy was born and a few from our present Daisy:

Daisy the night before Matt deployed (23 months)

Daisy practicing being a big sister (23 months)

Daisy on the day she was born. Here she is in the special care nursery. (a few hours old)

Our first family photo with the 3 of us! (Daisy is a week old.)

Our first weekend alone

Daisy reading on her toddler bed with her new bookcase. Her room is coming together piece by piece.

Daisy playing at the concert.

Mommy and Daisy before the concert started.

Daisy's kitchen she's getting for her birthday from Grammy and Grampa Kent.

So this first weekend with Matt gone has actually been kind of busy, which is nice. Yesterday while Daisy was napping I decided to stencil flowers onto her kitchen. She's getting it for her birthday and it was kind of plain. I let her pick out the colors. I think it turned out really cute! After she got up from her nap, we headed to post to the concerts they were having for Week of the Eagles. To perform were John Rich, Jake Owen, Hank Williams, Jr. and Carrie Underwood. It was a little warm, but not as bad as it was the last time we went to a concert. We had some hot dogs and chips and enjoyed the music and hanging out with friends. I really went to see Carrie, but she ended up not coming out until after 10pm. Daisy and I decided to leave around 9:20. She was pretty tired and so was I.

Today we did a little grocery shopping and picked up her new bookcase for her room. While she napped, I put her bookcase together. We later put it together in her room and rearranged a little bit. Now we just need to find a dresser and she'll be set. So that's been our weekend. We miss Matt very much and can't wait to hear from him!!

Daddy's Departure...

Daisy giving Daddy a hug good-bye.

Daddy reading to Daisy in her toddler bed.

Our last family dinner, we went to Old Chicago.

Saying good-bye to Daddy. :(

So this has been coming for a while. Matt is heading on his annual business trip for a while. We normally have an evening out before he leaves, so last night, by his choice, we ate at a pizza place Old Chicago's. It was a nice evening and Daisy even went potty while we were there. She has made huge progress in the week that we've been potty training. Sometimes it doesn't feel like he's getting ready to leave until he doesn't come home after work. I do know that's a part of his job, but it doesn't get easier with time. We love him and will miss him every minute he is gone. I know that God has his hands on him and his aircraft and that he will keep him safe. I plan to keep updates on here for him to check. One thing he doesn't like to miss is seeing how big I get when I'm pregnant. If you didn't know, when I was pregnant with Daisy he missed to same part of her pregnancy that he will miss with this one. Until next time...

Trip to the zoo!!

This was a duck at the zoo in the inside "bird" greenhouse...

one of Daisy favorite places at the zoo!!

Daddy, Daisy (and a cold Sprite), and Mommy...not pictured Baby K!!

Arin, Baby Nathan, and Daniel Johnston...they went with us to the zoo...
Nathan's first trip to the zoo!

Daisy in the "bird" greenhouse watching the ducks in the little pond!

Daisy sitting on the potty, during PT!!

Well it's been a busy week with the potty training and then yesterday spending all day in Nashville. We wanted to do something as a family for Matt deploys and we have a zoo membership, so we decided to take Daisy to the zoo. Friends of ours, pictured above, went with us. We first went to Babies R Us, because we don't have one in our hometown, to look at double strollers for after the baby is born. I looked at few. I have had my mind set on the Kolcraft Contours Options Tandem Stroller since I found out I was pregnant, but wanted to sit Daisy in it and see how she fit and all the fancy things on it. I really like it, but while we were there we saw a double, sit-n-stand stroller by Baby Trend. Matt really liked that one and it does have the sit-n-stand part for when Daisy doesn't want to sit in a seat. The Kolcraft one is a bit more expensive than the Baby Trend, so we'll see which one comes out on top.

After Babies R Us we ate lunch at this cute BBQ place that's been open since the 60s. The name of it was Barbie-Cutie. The food was really great as well!! Then finally we headed to the zoo around 1pm. It was pretty hot outside, but I knew Daisy would love all the animals. We headed to the farm animals part which has one cow, one horse, and many goats. It wasn't that great. After that we went to the "bird" greenhouse, which Daisy loves. It has a ton of these little parakeet type birds with lots of bright colors and they fly all over the place and are very friendly. After the birds, we saw the African animals...elephants, giraffes, zebras, etc. While walking to view the elephants from a different area, Daisy had a little accident. She fell on her face and got her first bloody nose, a few scrapes on her forehead and also on her knees. She made it through, but the rest of the day was pretty much a wash. Daisy had been up since 5:15am, had no nap and it was really hot, so around 4:15pm we headed home. It was a pretty good day with the family...tired and all!!!

Day 3 of PT!!!

Well this morning we got a little later start on the day, so Daisy had on panties around 9:00am. She had an accident early on. From about 10 to 11:30 she kept saying potty, so every time I would run her back to the potty and sit her down. I would sit on the floor and read her a book. Every time but the last time she didn't go. The last time though "pooped" in the potty!!! No accident before hand!!! Yeah...we are making progress!! The rest of the day went well with only one more accident. She took a really long nap, so that took up some potty time. We went to eat dinner at Olive Garden since Daddy is leaving soon and we put a pull-up on her. I checked it when we got home before putting her in the tub and it was dry. More progress!!! After putting her in the tub and going to get her jammies she was saying "potty, potty", so I put her on the potty and less than a minute later she was "tinkling" on the potty!!! Today was a very good day for potty training and has reassured me that she can do this with a little patience. Daisy was rewarded twice with M&Ms today...maybe tomorrow she'll get them 3 times. Here's hoping!!!

Day 2 of PT (potty training not physical :))!!

I thought day 2 of potty training Daisy would be better, but I was wrong. I had to wash her clothes and panties during nap time to make sure she had enough to get through the day. We have had many accidents today, though she did poop in the potty (partly)!! So she did get 2 M&Ms today. She has peed in very odd places today...on the side of the toy box, in the bathroom on the floor, and ON her books that are residing in the new baby's room (for now). I feel like all I've done today is put new panties on her and sit on the floor in the bathroom with her on the potty doing nothing. She has made some signs that she peeing and tried to get my attention, but just not in time. Hopefully tomorrow goes better since it is the third day of the 3 Day Potty Training!!
Until tomorrow...

First day of potty training

So today was our first attempt at potty training Daisy. This morning went pretty well. I put panties on her around 8am and she had an accident about 8:30. We changed her clothes and put on dry panties. I took a shower and she did fine watching cartoons. She did well all morning, though she never used the potty. She went down for an early nap at 11:15am, so I put a diaper back on her. When she woke up from her nap at 1:30 she had a dirty diaper, so I changed it and put her panties back on. We made chocolate chip cookies for daddy (Matt) and while they were cooking she had yogurt and a Capri Sun. Around 3pm Daisy said, "potty". I took her to sit on the potty, she sat there for a few minutes, but never went. About 30 minutes later she tee-teed behind the recliner on the carpet. She now has on a clean pair of panties. Hopefully the rest of the afternoon goes well. We will keep you updated as to how the training is going!!

August is here!!

Here is a picture of the new baby's room, completely painted! I painted it brown since her bedding will be brown and pink.

This is Daisy's room. I painted it purple to go with her new bedding and her big girl furniture!!

Matt and I before heading out on our date.

Baby K #2 at 21 weeks!!

This past weekend Matt and I had a chance to go to the movies. We haven't been to the movies since before I was pregnant with Daisy...over 2 years!! Our great friends Ski and Melissa watched Daisy so we could go see Transformers 2. I wasn't sure about it at first because of the Christian reviews it got, but it turned out to be really good!! The special effects and action figures were awesome!

Since my last post I finished painting the girls' rooms so I included photos of them. I think they turned out pretty well. The painting is finished, but they are still in shambles waiting to get the rest of Daisy's bedroom furniture. She will be moving into a toddler bed...it will be very interesting to see how well she adjusts to this transition!!

I have since hit the half-way point of my pregnancy...YEAH!! It seems like just yesterday that we found out. I have been feeling a lot better lately. This morning I didn't even take my nausea medicine, so we'll see how that goes. I feel the baby kick a good bit now...Matt seems to miss it every time I feel her though. Only about 4 more weeks until I start school. Daisy and I will try and make the best of the last of our summer days.

Well I have a list of phone calls to make this morning so until next time...

God bless your family!!