Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the great dads out there!  I am blessed to have a wonderful, Christian, hard-working Dad who tells some of the corniest jokes I know :)  Thanks to him & God I knew what kind of man to look for, and now Kiley gets to have an awesome Daddy too!  (even if he does throw her in the air & have her do flips & all kinds of acrobatics, which she loves...)  We are very blessed :)

We gave Brad his present last month (I'm no good at keeping secrets!)  We had gone to the Mud Room (paint your own pottery place).  We decorated a tile for him.  Kiley fingerpainted on it (she loved it!) and then I put her footprint on it in gray & made it look like a saw by adding the teeth & a handle.  Then I wrote "Best Daddy I Ever Saw".  In hindsight, I should've let her fingerpaint in a lighter color instead of green, because after they fired it you couldn't see the footprint very well.  Oh well, it's a Kiley original :)

I know this day is not a happy one for many people, whether it is because of the loss of a dad, not having a dad, or not getting the chance to be a dad.  Just wanted you to know that I'm thinking of you today also.  Stay strong & keep the faith!

Running to Rescue

This morning the three of us participated in the Running to Rescue 5k.  Mostly I wanted a 5k to run in, but this really is a good cause.  The money was raised to support The A21 campaign.  The group's focus is to fight human trafficking.  Sadly this is a big problem for the world today.  Millions of women are victims of human trafficking & are forced into this horrendous crime.  It's easy to ignore it or think that it doesn't affect us or that it only happens in the movies.  (I remember watching the movie Taken several years ago.  That movie freaked me out because you know that kind of thing happens all the time.)  I'm glad there are groups like this & events like this to raise awareness of this horrible industry.



As for the race itself, it was pretty good.  It was held in Vintage Township & we raced around the neighborhood.  You had to do three laps for the 5k.  I lined up with the runners (toward the back since my running is not that fast, lol).  Brad had Kiley in the jogging stroller & he was lined up kinda between the runners & walkers.  It was soooo hot.  We realized when we had already left the house that we had forgotten sunscreen & hats & Brad's sunglasses.  And the saddest part was that I just cleaned the car out yesterday...we had all that stuff in there before I cleaned it out!  It was hard for me to tell how good I was doing (since you had to do 3 laps, it felt especially long!), and since Brad kept catching up to me :)  I tried to run as much as I could & only walk a little (and walk fast when I did have to walk).  My time ended up being 38:04!  I'm pretty pleased with that.  My goals were pretty similar to my first 5k:  finish, not be last, and finish in at least 43:20 (my last 5k time) but I really wanted to finish in less than 40 minutes!  What I like about running is that you can compete against yourself & try to beat your own time. Sometimes it is easy for me to feel like I'm not doing that good when there are people who finish in less than 30 minutes, but I just remind myself that I haven't been running that long & when I started I could not even run 2 minutes!  Oh, and Brad finished in about 39 minutes...and he hasn't even been running or anything!

Summertime!!

So, once again, it has been forever since I've posted!  I won't even try to fill in everything I've missed.
I'm very excited that it's summer!  I think Kiley is the perfect age for this to be a really fun summer!  So far we've gotten to:

• Visit LOTS of family
• Take a road trip through Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri!  It was a bunch of driving, but we had fun.  Kiley did great, but I know she was glad to be home & not have to be in her carseat.
• Go to two family reunions (Gunselman reunion at Fall Creek Falls in TN, and the annual Seaton reunion in Brownfield, TX)
• Go paddle boating.
• Go on a big long hike (where we learned that the backpack carrier that we have isn't all that great, and we should've just used our Ergo which is an awesome baby carrier!)
• Go swimming (Kiley enjoyed it, but was very clingy to us)
• See some miniature donkeys
• experience our first communicable disease as a family (Kiley got Hand, Foot, & Mouth Disease...it's a virus, no biggy really...you just have to wait it out.  She gave it to Brad & he was pretty miserable.  Luckily I passed on this one.  Maybe it's my super-immune system I have from working in Micro!)
• run a 5k!  That was actually back in April.  I ran (well jogged/walked) & pushed Kiley in the jogging stroller.  Our time was 43:20.  Not bad for a first!

What we have planned for this summer:

• Swim lessons!  Kiley's going to be taking a parent & me swim class starting a week from Monday.  It's a two week class at Texas Tech.  I think she'll love it!  Brad will be going with her since I have to work during those times.
• Music & Signing class!  One of our friends is teaching music classes.  She has a baby class and also recently got trained (or whatever) to teach Baby Signing Times.  So, it'll be a music & signing class.  I'm really excited!!  Kiley loves music & she knows several signs too.
• Another family reunion.  It's in Brownfield...another one on Brad's side.
• Just the three of us trip.  I want to take a trip up to Amarillo & take Kiley to the zoo and to one of their splash pads at the park.  Amarillo's not very far, which I like because I'm kinda still roadtripped out from our trip east earlier in May.
• Another 5k....or 2.  I want to try to run 1 each month.  We are doing one on Saturday (Brad, too).  I wanna see how well I do without the stroller, so I'm gonna let Brad push Kiley at this one :)  I enjoy running.  It's my "me time".
• RELAX!  Well, it sounds good in theory.  I'm terrible at relaxing...just ask Brad.  I usually manage to find things to do always.  *sigh*

Cool things about Kiley (since I know that's what people really want to know about):

• She is amazing (it had to be said :)  She is learning so many new things!  It's crazy to think how little she was last summer.
• She can say a bunch of words:  Dada (says it ALL the time), Mama (says it if I'm lucky!), Doge or da doge (long "o" sound) = dog, dackkk = duck, dow = down, ba = ball, kee = keys, baybee or bebe = baby (which she calls anyone under the age of 5, lol), yay, beaw (soft "r") = bear, and the cutest recent one she says is "mem" or "amem" when we pray (for amen).  She loves trying to repeat words.
• She can sign several words:  milk, eat, food, more, finished, and down.
• She has two molars FINALLY starting to poke through.
• She is an excellent walker now.  She started walking at about 13 months.
• She is fearless.  She is a little daredevil, and I blame Brad!  She looooves being thrown up in the air, and being chased & tickled.  I kinda taught her something bad too.  One day I was trying to make her laugh so I was falling onto the bed after saying "1....2....3!!!"  Then I had her do it.  Now she loves it & she remembers it!  Occasionally she's gotten the look like she's gonna fall backwards on the tile so we have to stop her!  Also, in the baby class tonight at church, she kept getting up on the chairs & then standing up & letting go (yes, mother, I was right there...)  I foresee lots of roller coasters in her future :)

And, that's all I've got.  Maybe I'll get better at keeping up with this blog.  Maybe.

Our Little Toddler

I am a terrible blogger.
Kiley is 1 now! It's so hard to believe. It doesn't seem like it was that long ago that we were seeing her for the first time & I kept asking Brad if she was okay because she wasn't crying a lot, LOL. Now, she's practically walking (took 5 steps today!), has EIGHT teeth, and is such a goof-ball. She likes to make silly faces. We're pretty sure she can say the word dog...it sounds like "doe". Although sometimes she calls other things doe, so who knows!lol She doesn't say mama much (figures!) but sometimes she'll say dada very clearly.
Her 1 year check-up isn't until April. I'm very curious how much she weighs. I've tried using our scales to weigh her, but I don't think they work right. At her 9 mo. check-up she was in the 17% for weight, 50% for height, and 75% for head (gotta have room for those brains, right?). It seems like she was 17 lbs. forever, but I think she's finally bigger than that now! Also, pray that the shots go well. Shots make me so nervous. But it's the lesser of two evils in my opinion (disease vs. possible side effect of shots)
I'm hoping we will get to swim a lot this summer. Kiley LOVES water! She looks like a little frog trying to swim in the bathtub. There's also some classes at the community centers that I think she would enjoy. I think she'd like being around other kids too. She's usually just around me & Brad, but she likes being around other kids like at church & stuff. She likes Bible class, but sometimes she's the only one in there. Oh well, more attention for her I guess :)
Well, that's all for now! Happy Spring!

~Amber

Another post

Man, I haven't posted in a while. I kinda forget about the blog. I usually post pics & stuff on facebook & intended for the blog to be for longer updates that maybe not everyone would want to read about.
Kiley is 8 1/2 months old now. Her 3rd tooth just started poking through today! She likes to crawl, but only until she can get something to pull up on. I think she's going to skip walking & go straight to climbing! She really wants to walk. I'm not sure I'm ready for that, but it would be nice if she were a little better on her feet so maybe I wouldn't worry as much about her falling. Tile floors seemed so nice when we moved into this house! I'm considering a bubble-wrap outfit for her...
I can't believe it's almost Christmas again! Hard to believe at this time last year Kiley still wasn't here. I much prefer having her here than in my belly. I really don't miss being pregnant. It was all well worth it though :)

What a pain!!

So, I am trying to close my yahoo account because it is just full of junk & mostly because it keeps sending out stupid e-mails with crazy links. I've been using my hotmail account more anyway. It's just so annoying trying to switch all my important stuff over to my hotmail address (paypal, ebay, etc.) Everything makes you confirm that you really do want to change it, which is good I guess, just annoying!

In other more exciting news, Kiley is 6 months old today!! She is about 25 1/2 inches & 16 lbs (according to our not-very-accurate measurements). She's accomplished a lot since last month...she can sit up all by herself, she can scoot a little (backwards only so far, LOL), she can suck her toes, and she started eating solids today! We gave her some cooked baby carrots. She did pretty good, got them mostly in her mouth...dropped them a lot...but overall I think she ate some & got the taste & I think she will start getting the idea of eating big people food! :)

Another thing...I went to the Cradles 2 Crayons sale today (it's a consignment sale they have here twice a year). I got some ADORABLE outfits & things for Kiley for super cheap! Today was the 1/2 off sale...I love sales! I got her several Christmas dresses that are soooo stinking cute! I think I have a weakness for Christmas outfits!

September!

Wow, hard to believe it's already September!  Kiley will be 6 months old this month.  Not sure how that is even possible.  She's so amazing.  I can't get over it.  She is such a good, sweet baby.  At least when she is well rested, that is :)  When she's tired she's Miss Fussy Pants!lol  But since we have her on a pretty good schedule she is almost always all smiles.  Sometimes I wonder if it hurts her face to smile that much!lol  She hasn't gotten crawling or scooting down yet.  She can rotate her body while on her belly.  She always turns to her right (clockwise).  It's pretty funny.  She always rolls to her right also.  I'm not sure if she knows she can roll both ways, LOL.
The other day after she had woken up from a nap she was fussing wanting somebody to come in there & get her so she could play.  Anyway, I went in there & she had one hand on the top railing of her crib & was trying to figure out how to get the other one up there.  That kid.  She is definitely her Daddy's girl.  When he was little he kicked the slats out of his crib.
Since Kiley will be 6 months old we will be starting solids soon.  We're waiting until she can sit up by herself.  Our plan as of right now is to do baby-led weaning with her.  It's basically letting the baby feed themselves with managable soft pieces, of course.  You don't spoon feed & therefore do not feed the pureed baby food.  We'll see how it goes.  We may still spoon feed her sometimes, if she will let us! (She tries to hold the bottle herself now; it's hard to get those hands out of the way sometimes!)  I think she'll really like eating "big people" food.  She already thinks she's a big girl.  She's like a chihuahua...she doesn't realize how small she is!
Well, that's what's going on here!  I don't know about you but I'm ready for some FALL weather!!