Ready for the Rain.

Kaelyn was out of school all of this past week with strep throat.  Tuesday, I took her to the doctor.  It had rained off and on most of the day (actually for several days).  It wasn't raining terribly hard when we got home but there were puddles above my ankles between the car and the house.  I thought, "Great, that's just what I need.  Kaelyn getting her feet soaked and cold when she's already so sick."  Then I remembered that she has a pair of rain boots that she had never worn yet.  I went in and got them for her and she insisted on using her umbrella too.  She looked just as cute as can be all ready for a walk in the rain.

Isn't She Lovely...

Isn't she lovely

Isn't she wonderful

Isn't she precious

Less than one minute old

Isn't she pretty

Truly the angel's best

Boy, I'm so happy

We have been heaven blessed

I can't believe what God has done

Through us he's given life to one

But isn't she lovely made from love

(Taken from Stevie Wonder's song "Isn't She Lovely")

Last weekend at Epcot, Kaelyn and I were sitting down resting while waiting on Kevin. Kaelyn was "smelling" and playing with this flower that she picked.  I was taking a couple pictures of her on my phone and I just happened to catch the setting sunlight on her face and hair.  When I looked at the picture after taking it, I couldn't get over how pretty the light made her look.  Even though the picture is not great quality since it was taken on my phone, it is a new favorite.  Every time I look at the picture, it strikes me just how beautiful and sweet she looks here (pardon my mommy partiality kicking in here).

I was just going to post the picture above but I decided since I was doing a blog post and loading pictures from my phone, I may as well post some other recent ones from my phone.  These were all taken sometime within the past week.

She's crazy!  She loved this fake snake and what's more, she really has no clue that some people are totally freaked out by snakes and would NOT care for this fake one.  I'm not sure how she would react around a real snake but I'm not so sure she would be bothered by it.  It was her idea to wrap it all around herself.  She needed my help with it but it was totally her idea.

I said, "Pretend it's giving you a kiss on the cheek" (mainly just joking) but she did it and then did it again so I could get a picture.  (Once again, most of these pictures look fuzzy and not real great quality).

We put her in a purple shirt because we wanted to make sure she matched the poles at Magic Kingdom. 

:-D  Ha ha ha!  Just kidding of course!!!

She got a Mickey lollipop from the Boo to You parade at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party.

She had just lost one of her top middle teeth on this morning.

When they found out (at Hollywood Studios) that she had just lost her tooth that morning, they gave her one of the special buttons to wear around.  She was SO proud of her button!

Phineas and Ferb

Reading, reading, reading.

OH NO! Yes, it's true.  The other top middle one came out today.  Now she is missing both her two front teeth ---- and she has her school pictures this week.

She can't stop looking at herself, or more specifically the spaces in her gums, in the mirror every time she passes a mirror - or anything that reflects for that matter - for instance, the window at Five Guys.  We were eating outside and she kept looking at her reflection in the glass.  I'm sure the people sitting inside were wondering why she had her mouth pressed up to the window looking like she was peering inside.  :-)

Joy's Recital

When we were in New York this past summer, our trip happened to be timed just right so that we got to attend one of Joy's piano recitals.  I was very happy since so many of those things of Joy's we all miss now since we're all away from home - and so far away besides.  It was a Sunday afternoon at a local Catholic school.  Leah and Maddie also came so we all had a "good 'ole time".  Joy's song was Fur Elise and she plays it beautifully (we got to hear the "pre-views" of it also when she was practicing at home). 

Waiting for the recital to start.

Chatting during the break.

  Look at that tongue. :-)  She sat and layed contentedly on my lap for a long time like I wasn't a stranger even though this was the first time we saw her.

Standing around chilling during the intermission.

This one some how got out of order.  I love the way Maddie just looked at Kevin like she was posing for him in these pictures.

A picture of the outside of the school.  A beautiful building.

Finally her turn.

I love all these pictures where she is VERY concentrated on her playing.

All of the piano students gathered for a group picture afterwards.  I don't remember how many students Mrs. Barnum has but I'm thinking it was close to 40.  It was quite a chore just getting them all arranged by height so that you could see them all!  :-)

The "already arranged" students waiting patiently for the pictures to be taken.

Joy and her piano teacher.

Joy with Mama and Daddy.  A couple of GREAT pictures of the three of them.

I was so happy to get to be there and be part of Joy's "fan" section,  :-)

More cute elephant pictures

No, it's not Dumbo this time.  A few weeks ago at Animal Kingdom, a baby elephant was born.  Back when the first baby elephant was born at AK, they kept it in it's "backstage home" for several months.  Since this is the sixth baby elephant born to the herd, they were able to introduce him to the other elephants much sooner.  We were so excited to get to see him when we were at Animal Kingdom last Saturday because he was only about two weeks old and he had just been "released" onto the savanna that week.  His name is "Jabali" which means "strong as a rock" in the Swahili language. 

This is a cropped/zoomed picture of one we got on our camera.  He was a bit hard to see as he was right up under his mom and older sister.

His older sister is quite protective of him - about as much as the mother herself.

I copied these two pictures (the one right above and right below) from the Disney Parks blog since obviously they have better pictures.  These show just how tiny he is comparatively though he will eventually grow to be more than 10,000 pounds.

This is his big sister, Kianga and his mom, Vasha (I'm guessing also African names).  The most recent blog posting about him said that he's making friends with one of the other "baby" elephants that just turned a year old.  She's also small but not like this one.  This is a small "blip" that I copied from the blog because I thought it was interesting and cute:

"Members of our elephant team report that, at first, when Jabali approached Luna, she would run away, probably not sure what to make of the new kid on the block. Then, once she became more comfortable, she would try to wake him up when he took a nap – until big sister Kianga put a stop to that. Now, the team reports Jabali and Luna are hanging out together."

So there you have it - me and Kaelyn's newest online fascination.

Have You Ever Seen An Elephant Fly? ;-)

The Dumbo ride at Magic Kingdom is one of Kay-Kay's favorite rides right now.  Her Dumbo pal always has to ride with her of course, and now she has a new pair of "Mickey" ears all except they're Dumbo Mickey ears.

We had to take the hat off before the ride started or it would have flown off for sure.

These two pictures were actually while we were waiting to get on the ride.

Cute and Sweet (And Short and Sweet)

Just a couple - or three - pictures that I thought were too cute to pass up on posting.  I have more pictures chosen and ready to blog when I get a chance but I thought I would sneak these ones in in the meantime.

All three of these pictures are from this past June when we were in New York.  We spent a couple days at a cabin on Peck's Lake with Kevin's family.  The lake and surrounding mountains were absolutely beautiful and we had a good time taking the boats out on the lake and making smore's etc. on the campfire.