Christmas morning!

On Christmas morning, we got up and got around then opened presents. We had to do a couple of "shifts" for Kay-Kay because she was in "overload" and getting frustrated. She did not completely understand the concept and couldn't figure out why when she opened something she wanted to play with she had to put it down to open more. After we cleaned stuff up, I prepared lunch for Rach & John and us. Because of flying out that evening I didn't want to make a huge Christmas dinner so I decided to do various platters. I waited too late to order a meat and cheese platter so I decided to try to make one myself. Now for those of you who may not know me well, that won't seem like a big deal but for those of you who know my SERIOUS lack of creativity when it comes to making things look nice, you may be surprised. I went to Wal-mart the day before Christmas and got three kinds of deli meat and three types of cheese. Then, I looked carefully at the picture of the platter hanging above the deli and went over to the produce section. There were tons of various "leaves" and I had no clue what kind of "pretty" leaves are used on those trays so I just grabbed a bunch of leaves that looked "food decoratishy". I also had a shrimp ring, a cheese ball and crackers, and wings so I got inspired to put those all on an appetizer tray. I cheated on the fruit with chocolate dip tray and just bought it. I was so shocked after I got it all put together because I really didn't think I had it in me to make it all look nice but I was kinda' impressed with myself.
That evening, we flew out of WPB. Both of our flights were VERY empty and we got bumped to first class. (Kevin still has his gold status with U. S. Airways till February.) Both flights boarded and left early and we arrived about 20 minutes early on each flight. That almost never happens when you fly so we were happy about that. We stayed at a motel in Syracuse that night and then got up and drove to Kevin's parents the next morning. I will be posting more pictures from our time here in NY sometime soon. For now, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

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Matching outfits photo shoot

When I was buying a Christmas dress for Kaelyn, I discovered that one of the ones I was trying to decide on was very similar to the pattern of a skirt I had just bought for myself to wear for Christmas. Since I still have a few years for us to match before she gets wise to how "uncool" that is, I decided to have us match. The pictures on this slideshow are a couple of Sundays before Christmas. Not only did the three of us at least coordinate if not completely match, but we got to church and saw that Megan had a dress on similar to Kaelyn's. So we did a little photo shoot in front of our house after church. Later in the afternoon when Rach and John were at our house, Rach took some more pictures of Kay-Kay and I. You will see that it was quite interesting trying to get Kaelyn to pose and cooperate for the pictures. I left some of the "bad" ones in because they are kind of funny. I only labeled a few of them. So, here's to matching clothes - the joy of mother's and the dread of kids!

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Memory Lane 3

These are all pictures from LAST year. We did our annual Christmas Orlando trip. We went to Dixie Stampede and then to "ICE" at the Gaylord Hotel (which is decorated spectacularly at Christmas time). We usually walk around in the hotel after we finish going through ICE. Kaelyn was getting old enough by last Christmas to be a lot of fun. Due to Kevin's flight status from when he traveled thousands of miles for work every year, he was able to get "bumped" up to first class when we flew up to NY. Kay-Kay looked so little sitting in her big seat. She got a kick out of the [real] snow.

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Memory Lane 2

Back at the end of November I posted a slideshow of pictures from Kaelyn's first Christmas. At the time, I wasn't expecting my computer to be out of commission for so long so I was going to do one for all three Christmas seasons prior to this one. Because for the first slideshow I had to go through folders of pictures and copy and paste everything to a jump drive etc. I lost heart for doing the following years. Now since I have the time and my computer back, I decided while I was sitting around, I would put another one together. This one is pictures from Kaelyn's second Christmas two years ago. I thought my family that read my blog might enjoy this.
That December (2006) Kay and I tagged along with Kevin out to California on one of his work trips. We stayed at a really, really nice Marriott in Redondo Beach right along the ocean. We also took a day to go to the SanDiego zoo and meet up with my aunt and uncle while we were out there. Then the three of us went up to Orlando and spent one day at Sea World and went to "Ice" which is a walk through display of sculptures made entirely from ice. After that of course, there are pictures from our own Christmas on a 80 degree Christmas morning and then Christmas in NY. See if you can spot the "cousinly love" photo of Bryce and Kay-Kay.

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Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!


Kay-Kay and my monkey pajamas


On Christmas eve, we went down to Rod & Betty's for
pizza. We had good food, lively conversation, and we
laughed a lot!


After dinner and a little bit of packing, we
opened the gifts from our stockings. This is
a Veggie Tales toothbrush that plays a "medley"
of silly songs while you brush your teeth. :)


Kay getting another present from her stocking.

She can't figure out why she has to open more

once she opens one and there is something she

wants to play with or look at. We should have just

given her one present a day up to Christmas because

she was kind of getting distressed last night that we

kept making her open more.

For three years now, Kaelyn has gotten sock

monkey pjs from Target. She opens them before

Christmas so she can where them Christmas eve

night. This year, Target also had them for adults - at

least women. Thus our [kind of] matching pjs.

Cozy living room

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care:

And here's a picture of the tree - not that you all care. :)

Ha, ha - I can rhyme.

Christmas magic!

I really don't have time to be on the computer right this minute as I have one more bag to unpack and a load of laundry ready to come out of the dryer but I just wanted to show you all what we were up to yesterday. I have a feeling this will be about all the pictures anyone cares to see but if I can't restrain myself, I still might put a slideshow together later.

Disney at Christmas time was one of the neatest things ever to see!

Happy, Happy girl!

After seven VERY LONG weeks of separation, I have a long, lost friend back:

Need I say more? I am a very, very happy girl!

(I promised my computer to always be nice to it in the future and give it whatever it needs if it will promise to never take a long "break" like that again!)

Comfort in my own words

So I was sitting on the couch crying my eyes out the other day - don't really remember which particular day it was :). Kaelyn was doing her own thing and playing. Finally she came over to where I was and just stood beside me. She looked at me for a second then she said [repeatedly], "What's the matter? Are you okay? It's okay. Don't cry." Now for Kaelyn, that was not really her coming up with her own words of comfort because she understood what was going on. She just recognized the crying and "parroted back" phrases that are spoken to her when SHE is upset. But somehow, in a strange way, even though I knew she was just copying what she has heard said to her so many times when she's upset, it was still comforting all the same. Maybe it's lame, but just the sympathy from my 3 year old caused me to try to dry my tears, give her a big hug and then try to remember how blessed I really am. I guess it pays to watch what you say and how you interact with your kids because it IS going to come back to you in some way at some point somewhere. Thankfully this time, it was in a good way! :) Merry almost-Christmas to you all!

Cow pictures

I was starting to post all of the cow pictures below but when I realized I had 20 some and I didn't feel like sorting through them and choosing the best ones, I decided it would just be easier to put them into a slideshow so you will have to read the post below if you want the whole story. The pictures include the first pics we took of Kay and the cow before he "left" and then lots of pictures of everyone with him when he "came back" as well as pics. from last Tuesday night. Some of my favorites are when they were trying to get the cow to fit into the convertible. It was VERY small and VERY low to the ground. He got partly into the car and we didn't think he was going to fit all the way (though he's not a big guy w/out the costume). Somehow he squeezed in which was quite humorous.
Also, you will notice only one picture without the cow in it. It is a pic. I missed in the parade pictures posted below so I threw it in here. It is Kevin filling the convertible up before he and I returned it after the parade. It is NOT meant to imply that he is a cow even though the title of this post is "Cow pictures" and all the other pictures have cows in them! :) He's so glad to be married to such a smart-alech as me. As a matter of fact, he likes it so much that he's constantly saying he hopes our daughter is just as sarcastic and smart-alechy as me - though I suppose he could be saying that just because he's hoping for retribution NOT because he finds me so charming! :)-

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Chistmas hustle and bustle - part 2

A week ago this past Saturday was the annual Hobe Sound Christmas Parade. Kevin's company was in the parade again this year. They (HSBR Insurance) teamed up with our local Stuart Chick-fil-A for the parade. Kevin and Rod rented a convertible and then the general manager of Chick-fil-A along with Kevin, Rod, several of Rod's kids and their friends, one of Kevin and Rod's employees and the Santa Cow from Chick-fil-A all rode/walked in the parade. Besides handing out stuff from HSBR Insurance, they also handed out coupons for free shakes at Chick-fil-A that also had HSBR's name and info. on them. After the parade was over, a bunch of us hung out at the office, which is conveniently located right on the main street of Hobe Sound and the parade. Kaelyn LOVED the Santa cow. She didn't really notice it during the parade but once they all came back to the office she ran right up to it and hugged it. He picked her up and was dancing around with her and she loved it! When they took him into one of the back rooms of the office to change, she "camped" outside the door wating for the cow to come back out. Everyone tried to tell her that the cow was all gone but she was still trying to get into the room she saw him go into. When we finally convinced her that he was gone, she burst into tears. The guy (who had been the cow) felt so bad that he said he would put the costume back on again, which worked out nicely because everyone wanted to get pictures with him anyway. He did a fantastic job and was hilarious even though it was his first time to be in the cow costume. It was also quite warm that day so he was a good sport to get back into the costume. Kaelyn was thrilled when he (the cow) came back out and danced with her some more.

The following two Tuesday evenings for family night at Chick-fil-A, they had/are having the Santa cow there for pics. We went last Tues. half afraid that Kay would be so obsessed w/the cow again that it would be a problem but she did okay. She went over to him several times when there was no one else over there and she was happy just to sit in his lap. Now mind you, she won't get anywhere near the Santa Clauses at the mall and stuff but she LOVES the santa cow! (AND NO SHE'S NOT GETTING A COW FOR CHRISTMAS!)

Waiting for the parade to start.

Kay-Kay and I and my friend Larissa before the parade

started. (We had a great spot reserved in front of the

office where a bunch of us sat.)

Kay in a Statute of Liberty hat that she got from

Liberty Tax Service.

The sign for Kevin and Rod's "float".

HSBR insurance and Chick-fil-A - Kevin said everyone

LOVED the cow!

Kevin and Robyn handing out "goodies"

Good Christian Men Rejoice

A couple of months ago we ordered Kaelyn a couple of Cedarmont Kids Christmas DVDs. They are really cute because the kids are dressed up and doing different Christmasy things from sleigh rides, to nativity scenes, to playing in the snow as they sing Christmas songs. Kaelyn loves music so she has picked up on quite a few songs this season from the DVDs and other places. Out of more than 30 songs on the 2 DVDs, of course one of her favorite songs HAD to be "Good Christian Men Rejoice". I had a bad feeling about it when the first time she watched the movie she kept starting the song over again. Now it's not that I DISLIKE the song necessarily and if that song is on your list of common and favorite Christmas carols then you won't find it strange at all. But for me, "Good Christian Men Rejoice" is not one of those carols I find myself humming and listening to over and over throughout the Christmas season. So tonight after she had her bath and I had read her a Christmas story, I was singing some Christmas songs while she was still on my lap. We sang "Joy to the World", "Away in a Manger", "Angels We have Heard on High", etc. I was hoping to get by without having to sing "Good Christian Men Rejoice" - partly just because I don't know the words that well, though I DO know the song much better this season than I ever have before. Of course silly me for thinking that we were going to have a Christmas singspiration without singing that one! So I start singing "Good Christian Men Rejoice" especially enjoying the parts where you sing "Give you heed to what they say" at which point you emphatically half sing,half say, "News! News!" or "Joy! Joy" (depending on which verse you're on or whether you have the words mixed up) "Jesus Christ was born today..." Well, I WAS getting mixed up so I was kind of mumbling through some of the phrases, which is NOT acceptable to an avid fan of the "Good Christian Men Rejoice" fan club. I made the mistake of singing "He has COME FROM Heaven's door", which really doesn't make much sense but anyway.. I was promptly stopped by, "Uh no, no, no!" So while I was trying to figure out what I had just sung and obviously sung incorrectly, Kaelyn said, "No! He has opened heaven's door" So I went back and re-sang the phrase but by that point I was so tickled at the whole thing that I just started laughing. Leave it to Kaelyn to have a favorite song like that! Oh well, it's better than her version of Jingle Bells that she sang last year when she was 2 1/2 that sounded EXACTLY like she was saying a cuss word when she sang it. It was quite embarrassing when she decided to belt it out when we were walking through the Christmas section of Wal-mart or anywhere else even though it was completely innocent.
P. S. If "Good Christian Men Rejoice" is one of your favorite songs, please don't take offense. I just think it's an odd choice to be a favorite of a three year old.

Chistmas hustle and bustle

I am going to try to catch up on my blogging in the next few days. I was hoping to have my own computer back by now but it is still in the computer hospital. :( Oh well, someday...
The last couple weekends have been crazy busy for us but in a good way. Hobe Sound Ministries puts on a huge Christmas production including a singing Christmas tree, drama, snow, angels descending from the ceiling on the Hallelujah Chorus etc. This year the program was just phenomenal. The first two songs were sung by an ensemble of "carolers" before they actually showed the tree. During those songs, there were all kinds of Christmasy things going on. There were little ones dressed as elves, reindeer, snow angels, presents, trees, etc. Kaelyn was an elf which meant we had to go for at least the first song every night. Tuesday of that week was dress rehearsal, Wed. was the first performance for the Church people and then Fri., Sat. and Sun. there were thousands of people there. We went for the whole program Saturday night and enjoyed it so much that we also went for the whole thing again Sunday night. All Kay-Kay had to do was walk around, wave, and look cute. She didn't actually wave but she DID look pretty cute! :)
This slideshow is from various nights of the program so they are mixed up as far as content. I apologize for the non-Christmasy smilebox template but as I have explained before, it is one of a couple slideshows I actually paid for so I use it so I can use my own music and this particular one orients itself to the pics. so I don't have pics. getting cut off at the top or bottom. Because of not having my computer with my own photo editing software, I wasn't able to fix the red-eye, which bugs me greatly but I'll have to live with it. Hopefully tomorrow I can post pictures of the Christmas parade last Saturday as well as Kay-Kay with the Chick-fil-A cow (which she was obsessed with!)

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All I want for Christmas is... a 5 piece chicken nuggets.

Kay-Kay doesn't have two-way conversations with anyone very often. That doesn't mean she doesn't know what's going on but she just doesn't communicate it necessarily. We were at Kohls the other evening and the cashier was talking to her. Kaelyn mainly was saying random things about Christmas to the woman because we had just been back in the Christmas section. Then the lady said, "What is Santa Clause going to bring you this Christmas?" (after asking her several other questions without much of a [sensible] response). Kaelyn said, "Umm, ummm, a five piece chicken nuggets." The lady said, "You're getting chicken nuggets for Christmas?" Kaelyn said, "And a small fries". I was about to die laughing and the other guy behind the register as well as the cashier were laughing. Kaelyn later also added "a small sprite" to the list. I didn't bother to explain to the people that because they were behind a counter (like the people are at Wendy's) and Kaelyn didn't understand the question she just assumed the desired response was to place her typical Wendy's order. When we go inside the restaurant, she walks right up to the counter and says, "Yeah, I would like a 5-piece chicken nuggets, a value (or small) fries, and a value sprite please". I guess Christmas shopping for her will be much easier than I thought. Now what would the rest of you like for Christmas - Wendy's, McDonalds, Subway, or Arby's? :)

Teacher in Outer Space!

Today my class was doing a reading comprehension activity about the first dog and chimpanzee to go into outer space. Space travel is a topic that always seems to interest students of that age so we ended up having quite a discussion about shuttle missions etc. Somehow the topic came up of civilians going into outer space. I told the class that the first civilian chosen that was supposed to go into space was a teacher. I explained how thousands of teachers wrote essays which were then judged and Christa McCauliffe won the contest. I shared the story briefly of the space shuttle explosion. (Of course because we are in Fl., many of the kids have been to Cape Canaveral). We got ready to move on to the next subject and one of the kids spoke up and said, "Well Mrs. Mosenthin, if they ever ask you to do that thing, just tell them that you are sick and can't do it." I was so confused as to what he was talking about that I didn't really say anything and then some of the other kids chimed in, "Yeah, if they want you to do that writing thing just tell them you can't do it because we wouldn't want the same thing to ever happen to you!" When it finally dawned on me what they were talking about I was quite tickled. I assured them that I didn't think they had to worry about me ever winning a writing contest OR going into outerspace. I thought it was quite cute!

Blogging Marathon

This is pretty much how we all feel - tired and worn out! We had a great Thanksgiving holiday but we are exhausted from being up late and going constantly. As you can see, I'm just now catching up on my blog. I actually took this pic. of Kay-Kay a few days ago. We were in Wal-mart and I thought she was asleep. She had been like this for about 10 min. and I hadn't heard a peep out of her. She apparently wasn't completely asleep because she heard my camera when I turned it on and opened her eyes. You can probably see that it looks like her eyes are only partly shut here. Her head popped up and she said, "Say cheese!" I said, "Oh, I wanted you to close your eyes so I could take a picture of you with your eyes closed." So she promptly turned toward the camera, closed her eyes tightly and said, "Say cheese!" with a big smile on her face.
I am thankful for her every day of the year not just on Thanksgiving. I know I didn't blog on Thanksgiving day but I constantly feel overwhelmingly thankful for my life right now. I have so much joy in my heart even when I may not be happy at the moment. I am grateful for Kevin and Kaelyn, a great job, a great house and car, for awesome friends and family, and for the fact that I am an American. I didn't want to "skip over" the meaning of Thanksgiving on my blog but honestly, I feel so blessed and thankful on many, many days besides Thanksgiving. I don't verbalize it a lot and go on and on so as to lead people to believe that I have a perfectly, put-together life, but I am thankful every time I feel overwhelming joy in my heart over the various blessings in my life. So on that note, I will say that I hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving also and feel as blessed! Good night!

New car

No, WE aren't the ones who got a new car. Kay-Kay's Disney friends are the lucky ones. :) We did the whole shopping thing Friday. We decided to go with the "mildly insane" Black Friday plan and we got up shortly after 6:00 and left the house shortly after 7:00. Surprisingly, even though we weren't at any of the places when they first opened, we still got some really, really good deals. I got several REALLY nice gifts that I am quite excited about because I would not have been able to get them for anyone at normal prices. Anyway... back to the car. Around 12:30, we breaked for lunch. The three of us and Jess all went to Cheeburger, Cheeburger in the mall (LOVE the buy one, get one free coupons from our Enjoyment book!) The kids meals there come in cardboard models of old cars (the restaurant is kind of a retro type place). I should not even attempt to guess what kind of car it is because I don't know much about classic cars but I think it might be an old cadillac. Kay-Kay played and played with her Mickey Mouse toys the whole time we were in the restaurant and she was thrilled when she discovered that they could "ride" in the car (after we boxed up her leftovers). This was after she had entertained herself awhile by sticking the toys down in the empty paper towel roll from our table. Once we left and were walking around the mall for a little bit longer, she continued to play with her toys and the car. I thought it was kinda' cute so I took some pictures. She has even been playing with it (the car) more today so I suppose I will wait till she forgets about it and the idea gets old before I throw the car away.


Mickey and Donald going for a ride.

And now they all get a ride.

pac-man

Kaelyn's mommy likes to play pac-man online on the computer. Kaelyn likes to watch her mommy play and she has taken to copying phrases, etc. that her mom says while playing. One of my favorites is when she (Kaelyn) slaps her hand down on the couch and says "Oh man! My died!" (not a typo by the way) everytime I lose a life. She can copy all the sounds and noises on the game quite well and she sits there and says, "There's the cherries! Get the cherries!" One time we were having a discussion - rather one-sided - about how "he" was hungry for lunch. Kaelyn was doing the talking and I was mmm-hmmming. When the fruit would "appear" on the game, Kaelyn would start saying the prayer she says before she eats. It can be quite distracting to say the least but I can't help but get tickled with her. For some reason unknown to us, she calls the actual pac-man guy "Hewwos" (like Hellos but with a "w"). She has since learned that the game is actually called pac-man so now she calls it "hewwos pac-man".
The other evening, I had been playing and then I got up to do something and left the computer up and running. When Kevin called me over to see her a few minutes later, I got a couple pictures so here is Kaelyn playing "hewwos".


She looks like she knows exactly what she's doing
doesn't she?

Decorating in frigid temperatures

This past Wednesday, we put our Christmas tree up and started decorating the house for Christmas. I was so excited because it got down into the low 50s outside. We had the back door open (with just the screen closed) and the front door open (also with the screen opened). I had put the tree up in the eve. right before Kevin got home and then he got all the lights connected and everything while I made dinner. After dinner, we put some cookies in the oven and we (my friend Jessica and I) worked on the fireplace mantel and stuff while Kevin napped on the couch. Meanwhile, it had gotten quite chilly in the house and SOME OF THE PEOPLE in the house were complaining about it but I, like any intelligent person would, made them leave the doors open and excitedly went and put socks and a fleece sweatshirt on. As you remember from a previous post of mine, the official "hot chocolate rules" state that if it is under 70 degrees outside, you can have hot chocolate - of course, if you are willing to look a little crazy, you can have it no matter how warm it is out. So, it was time to break out the cocoa. Once again, we exemplified intelligence at its best by standing around on the back porch in our sweatshirts drinking hot chocolate. After that, someone shut the doors and turned the heat on (wasn't me - I was so in the spirit of the season I could've frozen to death and they would have found me dead with a happy grin frozen to my face!) Then we put the decorations on the tree and exchanged gifts with Jess.
I had gotten Kaelyn a Little Einsteins rocket decoration. I had this great idea to wrap it up and then let her open it when we got the tree up. She, of course, then would be all excited to open it and hang it on the tree. Unfortunately, she didn't get the memo about what she was supposed to do. She WAS very thrilled to open a present and she was VERY, VERY excited when she saw it was rocket. She didn't want to wait while Kevin put the batteries in (it plays the Einstein's theme song). However, that's where she decided not to go along with the plan. She could NOT understand why we kept trying to "take it" from her. (She had already been traumatized earlier when Kevin was trying to get her to go pick the wrapping paper up and throw it away because she thought he wanted her to throw her rocket away. She was almost in tears over it by the time we realized she wasn't understanding that she was supposed to throw away THE PAPER that rocket was in not rocket itself.) Suffice it to say, I don't think rocket will make it onto the tree this year but she sure loves it a lot!!


Opening her "special" ornament for this year.



Taking Rocket out of its box


Waiting (very impatiently) for Daddy to put the batteries
in.


Hot cocoa - need I say more? (It was yummy!)

Memory Lane

I was browsing through LOTS of old pictures on the computer the other night and I decided that I wanted to do a slideshow from each of Kaelyn's Christmases so far. I'll admit it's mostly just for my benefit but a couple more of you might enjoy the old pictures too. Most of the pictures are of Kay with a few others mixed in. Luckily for you all, Kaelyn has only had 3 Christmases so far. I typically would probably sit down and do them all at once but given the fact that I am using a borrowed computer for a limited time in the evening, that's not really practical. By the time I had to download smilebox, download quick player, download my music, AND get all the pics. I wanted off my computer on to a jumpdrive, it was such a time consuming ordeal that I'm surprised I got as much blogging done as I have tonight.
Anyway... this is Kay-Kay's first Christmas. She was 7 months old and she was pretty wide-eyed at everything. The first 2 Christmases that Kevin and I were married, we flew to NY before Christmas and stayed Christmas eve at the Desmond in Albany. It is a very, very, very nice hotel that typically costs a lot more but because there was almost NO ONE staying there we got really good rates and free upgrades to whole suites both years. We did our own Christmas at the Desmond on Christmas morning and then we went to family's for the rest of the holidays. The pictures you will see toward the end of the slideshow were taken at Upper Canada Village where there is a whole pioneer village that is turned into a festival of lights at Christmas time. We took a horse and wagon ride around, bought fresh homemade bread, and ate in a restaurant there. Every single building is completely outlined in LED lights and sometimes they are coated with ice. It is ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL - and ABSOLUTELY FREEZINGLY COLD! By the end of the slideshow I think maybe you'll see why we decided to keep her(Kaelyn)! :)

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