Happy 1st Birthday Kylee Lynn

Dear Kylee Lynn,

It's hard to believe that a year has already gone by. It's hard to believe that every day you are growing more into your own person. It's hard to believe that while you'll always be my baby, you are no longer a baby. What's not hard to believe..is that I love you with every fiber of my being.

I never thought I was a woman put on this Earth to be a mother. I didn't know if I had it in me. I was nervous. I was scared. Then God blessed me and showed me my destiny. To be the best mother I could be. To you.

November 18, 2008 was the scariest and best day of my life. Of course, in Kylee fashion, your entrance into this world was nothing short of dramatic. You were a fighter. I was thankful. It was a few hours before I could hold you, but when I could, I walked through pain and tears to you. I scooped you up and knew you were meant to be mine. It's cliche..but true... I never knew I could fall in love with someone at first sight. But that's how it happened.

It was tough in the beginning. I felt like I was fighting a loosing battle. Nursing. Sleeping. Soothing. I thought all these things would come naturally. I was wrong. But, we learned together and grew.

Watching you grow has been one of the best experiences of my life. Your first smile. Your first coo. Rolling over and sitting up. Crawling and standing. Solid foods and teeth. And now my baby girl.. you are our walking, talking, self-feeding, independent little girl. I'm so glad I've been able to see all of the things you have achieved and I look forward to watching you grow even more.

Sweet baby girl I thank you. For being the best daughter a mother and father could have. For being the reason I smile every morning. I thank you for making me the mother I am today. Happy 1st Birthday to you..my girl.

Love Always,

Mommy

Suck It Up!

Suck it Up Oreck Halo!... Please. Seriously. Suck up all the dirt and icky germs and yuckness that live deep down in my carpet! Oreck has a top of the line wonderful vacuum that I believe was made for ME and my family! It has a feature that actually kills germs, bacteria, mites, flea eggs and more. With my messy daughter my carpets have definitely seen better days.

The Halo is great because it is the only vacuum that uses Oreck Halo Ultraviolet Technology to kill many microscopic germs that can live and breed on your carpets and hard floor surfaces. Now.. doesn't that just call out to you? Still not impressed? Well did you know that there can be more germs on household floor surfaces than on toilet seats, kitchen counters, and bathroom tiles combined. Yeah.. gross, huh? Well the Halo will get rid of those nasty germs for you without using ANY harsh chemicals. Now I know you're convinced!!

So head on over to Eighty MPH Mom's awesome blog and enter to win one of these sweet vac's for yourself. I bet your carpets will be in tip top shape in no time! But don't enter too often because I need this vacuum. No, really. I do.

Boo! It's a Bug!

A ladybug that is!!!

The cutest ladybug to ever crawl this Earth if I do say so myself.

This year was Kylee's first Halloween and I was so excited to see how she was going to react to all the ghouls and goblins, witches and monsters, Octomoms and Michael Jacksons...you get the picture. I was hoping she wouldn't be scared and would love seeing all the costumes and the decorations.

Before hitting the road to go knock on doors and beg for sugary treats, we carved Kylee's baby pumpkin. She wasn't much into the carving but she loved sticking her hands inside and feeling the "guts" and seeds. I think her favorite part though was rubbing those said "guts" into her hair. (Secretly I think she just wanted to play in the bathtub.)

After a nice bath and cleaning up we went out trick or treating to a few different houses and then showed her off to a few friends. She loved it. Didn't cry or scream once. (Until she got hungry). She even helped her cousin hand out some candy!

She also got to experience chocolate for the very first time and I'm pretty sure it was love at first sight. She cried when her mini Hershey bar was gone and longed for another all night long.

Then next morning when she got up she enjoyed playing in her "winnings" and surrounded herself with chocolate, suckers, tootsie rolls, and candy bars. I imagine it was something that closely resembled Heaven. Sugar Heaven. Yummy Heaven.