The Life & Times of Kaya...

New blog...

2010-03-17T07:37:00.000-07:00

I have been a bad blogger... I was talking to a friend about why this is recently and decided that I needed a new reason to blog. I don't blog well because I don't often think that I have anything "worthwhile" to blog about. Or at least anything that anyone else would care to read. SO, instead of blogging for everyone else (because that SOOO didn't work), I'm starting a new blog for my kids. Anyone is welcome to read it, but I'm going to use that space to write to them. There are so many things that I want to tell them, teach them, and help them remember, so that is what I am going to do.

The new address is http://tomyhearts.wordpress.com/. Hope to see you there! But, don't worry, my feelings won't be hurt if I don't. ;-)

Kaya's turning 5...

2009-07-27T23:10:00.001-07:00

I always feel like I need to have something important to say when I blog, and I usually don't. But today is different. Today is the day Kaya turned five. I am tearing up as I write this. I can't believe how fast she has grown up. I remember being so anxious for her to be born on a Tuesday night 5 years ago. I remember the way I felt the moment I saw her and how I knew that I could never love anyone the way I loved her. I remember how anxious I was for her to grow a little bit more so she would sleep. I didn't mean I wanted her to grow this much! Really though, she is a wonderful little girl who cracks me up pretty much every day. Most of the time (I have my mommy moments - don't we all?), I can't get enough of her. :-) She is so fun to watch and is turning into such a beautiful young lady. Here are a few pictures of her growing up...

The day she was born....

The day she came home...

2 Weeks old...

Personality from the beginning...

And now...

Hats, colds, and so on...

2009-03-11T23:39:00.000-07:00

Well, I stopped working at the end of January and thought FOR SURE that I'd be a better blogger when I quit... I was wrong. My new theory is that I'll be a better blogger when I can have two free hands for longer than 5 minutes at a time during the day. :-)

A lot has happened since my last post and a lot has stayed the same. I quit my job to be a stay at home mommy and couldn't be happier with that decision! I was able to get some more photo equipment with my tax return and am now actively working on portfolio building. I'm planning to get my business permit in the next six months and get busy on that! For a long time, the plan has been for me to quit my job and start seriously doing my photography(http://www.jensphotogblog.blogspot.com/). The time has come to make that a reality!

Kaya started ballet a few weeks ago, and I've never seen her so enamored with anything in her life. Normally when I ask her what she did that day (at preschool, church, etc.), the response I get is, "I don't remember" or "I dunno" or "Can we talk about that later?" When I ask about ballet, I get a play by play of EVERYTHING that they did. Something like, "First we pointed our toes, then flexed, then pointed, then flexed, then did first position, then...." and on and on and on. I love it! I will try to get some pictures of her doing her "dance moves" (that's what she calls them) soon.

Oliver is growing like a weed and has had colds for most of his life (including right now). This has made it hard to establish any normal sleep patterns. It seems that once we finish one cold, another one starts. I guess that's what happens when one kid's in the first year of preschool and the other puts EVERYTHING in his mouth...

A friend of mine has been making hats and selling them in her etsy store (http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=46100521774&h=o5bKZ&u=NoTPW) and asked me to take a few pictures of the kids wearing the hats for her, so here they are...

And here's what happens when I try to get them in the same picture..

And, just because it's cute...

(Oliver fell asleep like this)

The new niece, Chloe, and other happenings...

2009-01-11T17:09:00.001-08:00

This is not a very pic-full post, but here I am anyway. :-)

The past month and a half has been very busy between the holidays, going back to work, a new niece, and just usual life. Everything is going well though! Oliver gives us a few nights here and there with a 4 or 5 hour sleep stretch and Kaya still loves him as much as ever! Even with all the busy-ness, we haven't had too much excitement as of late except for the fact that my sister, Kaytie, had her first baby. Her name is Chloe Virginia Wong and she made her appearance early on the morning of December 28th. She's a cutie and VERY aware for a new baby. I took some newborn pics and posted them on my other blog (http://www.jensphotogblog.blogspot.com/), but here's one just in case you don't want to go over there.

I hope you all are having a wonderful new year!

(And I will try to be a much better blogger when I am home more in February.)

Photo blog link

2008-12-09T22:02:00.001-08:00

So, I finally decided to start a photo blog. It's a bit easier to give people a peek at their photos this way and it's just fun. :-) If you're interested, its at http://jensphotogblog.blogspot.com/.

Two-Month Stats, Rolling Over & Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-28T14:38:00.000-08:00

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We had a good Thanksgiving, full of Turkey and lots of goodies, with my family. Kaya & I (Jennifer) started out the day with some hot cocoa and the Macy's parade. (I LOVE holiday traditions!) After the parade was over, we made some Thanksgiving cards and then got ready for the festivities. I made blackberry pie and apple-cranberry tartlets for dessert, but most of that work was done the night before. That was our contribution to the wonderful meal of barbecued turkey (mmm...), mashed potatoes, stuffing, rolls, green bean casserole, and more that I'm probably forgetting. It was delicious and we had a wonderful time together as a family.

On to Ollie info... Oliver had his two-month check-up on Monday afternoon and we found out that he weighs 12 lbs 9 oz and is 23 inches long. In other words, he's a CHUNK. He's a very healthy boy outside of the colds that he keeps catching from his sister and his reflux, and almost always VERY happy. :-) On Wednesday, I realized that we hadn't been doing much with Oliver in the way of tummy-time. I was thinking that I'd lay him on his stomach, chat with him and maybe roll him over, just to show him how it worked. Well, I put him on his stomach and, to my surprise, he rolled over! I made him do it about 3 or 4 times before I gave him a break. :-) I don't know if it's because he's so huge or if his giant head just gives him some extra leverage, but either way, he's rollin'!

After Oliver's appointment on Monday, we went to the park to take some pictures. So here you go!

Halloween (late, I know...)

2008-11-22T13:35:00.000-08:00

I know, I know... Still a bad blogger. At least I'm posting now though, right?

Oliver will be two months old tomorrow. No Ollie pics right now, but we're going to the park on Monday just for the purpose of pictures, so they'll be up soon. He's doing pretty good and we've been able to shorten the "up time" after eating to about 20 minutes (it used to be a half-hour). Last night, he didn't spend that time after eating upright and we had about an hour of screaming followed by a massive amount of projectile vomit. Yuck! So, yes, he does still have reflux issues, but they're getting better! He's still not sleeping in chunks any longer than 2 hours, but hopefully that will come soon.

Kaya loves being a big sister and wants to help with EVERYTHING. She loves her brother a lot. :-)

Now, on to Halloween... Kaya got to dress up three different times this year, which she was VERY excited about. She dressed up once for a costume birthday party, once for her preschool Halloween parade, and on Halloween. Everytime, it was slightly different. :-) Luckily, she's a pretty easy kid to please, so she just dressed up in the princess costumes that we already had and we didn't have to buy anything extra. So, here are the VERY late Halloween pictures...

Preschool pictures first...

Ms. Lily blindfolding Kaya

Yeah, I only eat the frosting...

Kaya and her princess friend, Ashlyn.

Festivals on Halloween night.

Look at that throwing arm. :-)

Marshmallow shooting.

Fishing

Almost three weeks...

2008-10-12T20:34:00.000-07:00

I've been a very bad mom-photographer and an even worse blogger... sorry. I did manage to get a few pics this week, but nothing fancy. A wonderful friend of mine lent me a basket and a few of her blankets so that I wouldn't have an excuse not to take pictures, but I haven't even used them yet! I haven't actually done much "setting up" for any pictures; I'm just catching them where I can. :-)

Oliver will be three weeks old on Tuesday. We love him and Kaya LOVES being a big sister! Here's a re-cap of what our three weeks have been like.

Week 1: No sleep, but a very cute baby. :-) Oliver has his day and night mixed up.
Week 2: We still have a very cute baby. A couple of nights of 2-hour sleep stretches! Woohoo! He's figured out that nighttime is for sleeping and it's much more fun to be awake during the day. Now he has stomach issues though. Not sure what it is, but he's projectile vomiting and added bile to the mix.
Week 3: We now know that he has reflux. The vomiting is not a regular occurence as long as we hold him upright for a half-hour or so after he eats, but he still wakes up pretty uncomfortable. :-( This makes for (again) not much sleep. Two hour stretches are gone, but I'm hopeful that they'll return soon! We've discovered that Ollie REALLY likes lullabies and classical music. And, yep, we still have a very cute baby. :-)

So, here are a few of the pictures that I did manage to get.

After the first bath he actually enjoyed...

My messy haired child with my bald child.

This is how he usually wakes up. ;-)

His cute little smile. :-D

And a yawn...

My sleeping baby...

Oliver William Herring

2008-09-24T19:05:00.000-07:00

Oliver William Herring arrived at 12:34 PM on September 23, 2008. He weighed in at 6lbs and 13oz. Mommy and Oliver are both doing well.

Induction tomorrow

2008-09-22T09:59:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Just a quick update - I'm set to be induced tomorrow sometime, so Oliver should be making an appearance soon! I don't know what time it will be happening (they'll call me when they have an open bed) and I'm still hoping to go into labor on my own before then, but either way he should be here soon!

Have a great day!
Jennifer

"A Baby Changes Everything"

2008-09-17T22:14:00.000-07:00

I heard this song on the radio the other day and thought I'd share... I heard the DJ announce that they were going to play a song from Faith Hill's new Christmas album and thought, "Seriously? In September?" Well, being the Christmas-obsessed person that I am, I had to listen. Well, this is not your typical Christmas song - it is VERY good. So, when you get a minute, listen. :-)

Kaya, the weather girl

2008-09-02T16:44:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure why I forgot to include these in the last post, but here they are anyway...

When we were at the fair, we went to the News10 booth and had Kaya's "weather girl" picture taken. (She LOVED pretending to be the weather girl.) Brief explanation: In the first picture, she was very serious about doing the weather...The people at the News10 booth thought that it would be a good idea to get a picture of her smiling, so they all told her to smile for the second picture. EVERY TIME someone told her to smile, her smile got bigger.

So, to sum it up - Picture #1 = Serious 4 year old doing the weather, Picture #2 = CRAZY child.

The State Fair and a new blog address...

2008-08-31T17:27:00.000-07:00

As you can probably tell from the blog title, we went to the state fair this last week. I am one of those weirdos who LOVES the fair. I've been every year of my life and it's just one of those traditions that I don't see myself breaking any time soon... even when I'm hugely pregnant. Walking around the state fair when you're about-to-pop-pregnant is probably not the smartest idea in the world and definitely not super fun, but we still had a good time. :-)

Donovan, Kaya, & I went to the fair on Monday at about 12:30 and stayed for about 5 hours. Kaya's favorite part of the fair used to be the animals, but we've now started a new addiction... RIDES! She LOVES rides! We started off with one of the spinning rides. It was one where there are about 6 or 7 "bowls" (sorry, I can't think of a better word) attached to spider arms that spin while going up and down. Each of the "bowls" spins individually as well. Being that this was her first ride ever and that the "bowls" got pretty high, I wasn't sure how she'd react, but she REALLY wanted to try. So, Kaya & Donovan squished themselves (I say squished because Donovan's 6'4" and all legs...it was a pretty funny sight) into one of the bowls and off they went. Kaya's initial reaction was to freak out and grab Daddy's leg, but after about 2 seconds of that she was laughing histerically and thinking it was the best ride in the world. It was pretty funny to see her go from sheer terror to pure bliss in the matter of about 2 seconds. I think she's going to be a thrill seeker when she gets older -we're going to have our hands full! (I would attach a picture, but the ride was going too fast for me to get any good ones.)

After the first ride, we made our way over to the animals. Kaya loves the animals, but after a couple of goats tried to attack us in the petting zoo, she decided that she only like the small "cute" animals. Soooo, we looked around at a lot of different animals but didn't do much petting this year. Kaya's favorite animals of the day were the baby pigs. She also got to learn how to milk a cow and ride a horse. I didn't get any pictures of the cow-milking, but I got a super high quality ;-) cell phone pic of the horse ride. (This was the first year that she didn't want me to walk next to her horse.)

After we were done looking at the animals, Kaya got her first bumper car ride. This was, by far, her favorite part of the fair. She rode twice all by herself and had a great time speeding around running into people (after she figured out how to do something other than go in circles). After that, we decided our day with Kaya at the fair was done and came home. Donovan & I went back for a while that evening, but spent most of the time sitting... Boy, giant pregnant ladies aren't very much fun, are we? We enjoyed ourselves though and ended our evening with some gelato under the fireworks. All in all, it was a very fun (and exhausting) day.

On another note - I'll be changing the title and address of the blog pretty soon, so keep your eyes open for that!

And the name is...

2008-08-18T15:16:00.000-07:00

We finally decided on a name...

Oliver William Herring

We like it and we hope you do too. If you don't, that's okay - just don't tell me. :-)

(I know - this post is way too short. I'll try to post again soon with other news.)

Boys, boys, boys

2008-08-04T10:28:00.000-07:00

So, I was right... It's definitely a boy! I can't get a good scanned picture, but I have the proof if anyone wants to see it. :-)

EDIT: Here's the proof...

And... Yesterday, my wonderful friends threw me a beautiful (and yummy) shower and generously contributed to a group gift which included a stroller, car seat, car seat bases, swing, and a TON more. Thank you all SOOOO MUCH! I will see what pictures Kaya took yesterday and try to get some of those uploaded tonight. :-)

On another note, Kaya has been talking a lot about husbands lately... She's really trying to understand who she's allowed to marry and who she's not. :-) For a very long time, Kaya has been saying that she wants to marry her friend Tommy when she grows up. This has made Donovan & I very happy. We LOVE Tommy and his parents, so this would be ideal. But then, things changed... Tommy & Kaya were both at a birthday party and were asked if they were brother and sister. Well, Kaya REALLY like this idea and decided that Tommy would be a great brother. I told her that if Tommy was her brother, she couldn't marry him and she said, "Okay, well I'll just marry someone else!" I tried to talk her out of that one... I like Tommy... There was no talking her out of it though. She really wanted Tommy to be her brother. Not wanting to let go of the husband idea (she inherited her mommy's love of boys), she started looking around at her prospects. In the last week or so, I think that she's said that she wants to marry every boy in her Sunday school class at least once, but none of them ever stuck. So, in trying to understand the boundaries of marriage, Kaya asked me this on Saturday, "So, if our baby is a boy, when he grows up and I grow up, can I marry him?" Back to marrying brothers... I explained that one again and she named a few more boys that she might want to marry. Not Tommy though - he's still her brother.

Well, then came Sunday. Tommy's mom, Kristina, was one of the gracious hosts of the baby shower, so Kaya got to play with Tommy for a while when the shower was over. That was the end of Tommy as brother. She is now in love with him again. :-) She told me when we got home that Tommy is now her boyfriend and they are going to get married when they grow up. The really funny part about this whole thing is that Tommy is completely oblivious. He has no idea that marriage plans are being made and that this girl has already decided his future. Hmmm, that could be a problem...

So, this week so far has been totally about boys. The one Kaya will marry and the one she will grow up with. I can't wait to see how things turn out! (Oh wait, I take that back... I can wait... If you ever read this, Kaya, please wait... please...)

So...

2008-07-23T13:02:00.000-07:00

I don't think we're going to find out if this baby is a boy or girl. Oh well... If I had to guess I'd say boy, but we'll see! At this point, the baby is so big and there's so little room that it's highly unlikely that he/she will be able to spread his/her legs for us. That's okay! Now we just need to pick a boy name...

Also, two of my wonderful friends from church, Kristina & Paige, are throwing a baby shower for this little one on August 3rd. If I've forgotten you (it's nothing personal, I promise - I'm just forgetful) and you'd like to come, please let me know! And, for their sanity's sake, if you have received an evite and haven't responded yet it would be wonderful if you could let them know if you'll be able to make it. Thank you!!!!

(See Paige - I told you I'd post... ) ;-)

Well, it might be a boy!

2008-07-03T19:47:00.000-07:00

I went back to the doc today and he now thinks that it might be a boy. :-) The kid was covering certain "parts", so we (again) couldn't tell for sure. I'm going back in again next week, so hopefully we'll be able to get a better picture then!

On another note, if you could please pray for the baby and the pregnancy, it would be greatly appreciated. The baby is looking nice and healthy, but my body is doing some things that may make it necessary for him/her to come early. We would obviously like to avoid that, so your prayers would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Camping and Old Sac

2008-06-14T22:49:00.000-07:00

Some friends of ours, Paige & Oscar, were kind enough to let us use their already reserved campsite this weekend! (They were not able to use due to family illnesses - please keep them in your prayers.) Well, we found out about the site on Friday afternoon and left on Friday evening. (Who knew I could be that spontaneous?!?!) On the train on Friday morning, I spent about half the ride talking to my dad about how much I wanted to go camping, then Paige offered up the site the exact same day! How could I say no? Sooo, since Donovan had to work, Kaya, my mom, and I packed up and left. We had a great time! Kaya has decided that sleeping in tents and getting dirty are two of the greatest things in the world. I can't even describe the level of dirtiness that we reached. I was happy to let her get dirty and have a good time. :-)

In the rush to leave, I totally forgot my camera. I was quite bummed about that, but we had a really great time! We got there at about 7:20 on Friday night, set up the tent, started a fire, and roasted marshmallows. This was Kaya's first camping trip, so everything was fascinating to her. She didn't like the marshmallows roasted at all, but she loved sticking them in the fire! I told her that when you go camping you get to stay up late, eat junk, and get dirty, so she kept saying things like, "I'm hungry - can I have some junk?" It was pretty funny. We didn't get to bed until about 11:00 that night and Kaya woke us both up at about 6:30 in the morning. We spent today (Saturday) doing things like getting dirty, wading in the river water, pedaling a boat, watching peacocks, chasing lizards, bbq-ing over a fire pit, etc. We decided to come back tonight instead of early Sunday morning to make it back for Father's Day, so we left at about 8:00 and Kaya was asleep within about 5 minutes of starting the drive home. We're home now and had a great time! We made lots of good memories and Kaya has discovered that she loves camping!

Thank you Paige & Oscar!!!

On another note,

Last Saturday, I got to spend a little bit of time with Kaya in Old Sac and managed to get a few pictures. It's been so long since we'd had a chance to do this that Kaya wasn't really sure what to do and wasn't terribly cooperative. I can't really blame her though - there were a lot of fun things to do that I kept trying to pull her away from. After about 20-ish minutes of picture taking, I decided that I'd rather spend some quality time with her and we spent the rest of the evening having fun in Old Sac. I did manage to get a bit though, so here you go. As you can see, a lot of these are her own poses - very contemplative and serious... ;-)

Grammy & Papa's house for Kaya and Monterey for mommy & daddy

2008-05-31T17:23:00.000-07:00

I know, I know - it's been a REALLY long time since our last post. But here we are again!

This last week, Donovan & I (Jennifer) were given the opportunity to spend 3 nights in Monterey and it was very nice! While we were gone, Kaya got to stay with Grammy & Papa.

While at Grammy & Papa's house, Kaya got to do all sorts of fun stuff. She got to help Papa make cookies, play outside (a lot), use chalk to draw on their driveway, go to the coffee shop with Papa, play with Emma the dog and Molly the cat, and lots more. She had quite a fun time being spoiled and did very well while we were gone. Apparently, Molly (the cat) is no longer afraid of Kaya and Kaya is no longer afraid of her. Here's a picture to prove it! (Just in case you can't tell what's going on, Kaya's swinging Molly's toy in front of her and Molly's getting ready to strike)

Since Kaya's now in her twin bed at home, her toddler bed is at their house. Here's some pictures of her in her PJs getting ready for bed.

And some pictures that Kaya took...

Self Portraits:

A lovely picture of Papa (which I'm sure he's going to love me for sharing ;-) )

And raisins. Apparently they're fascinating...

While Kaya was having fun at Grammy & Papa's house, Donovan & I were having a good time in Monterey. Our wonderful family and friends were kind enough to pay for a delayed honeymoon and it was quite nice to get away with each other. It was nice just to be able to see each other for more than a half hour in a day and even nicer that it was Monterey.

We left on Sunday morning and got there before check in time that afternoon, so went to see Indiana Jones at the movies. :-) Just in case you're wondering, it was very Indiana Jones-y, which we both enjoyed very much. We went to a local pizza place for dinner then settled in for the night. With the room darkening shade, we both slept pretty late on Monday & Tuesday and didn't leave the hotel room until around 11:30.

Monday, we spent the day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and on Cannery Row. The Aquarium was very interesting and Cannery Row was very nice. We ate dinner at Bubba Gumps and spent some time just sitting on the beach. Donovan had never even stuck his feet in the bay or the ocean so it took a little convincing, but once he did he had a good time.

Tuesday, we ventured out to Fisherman's Wharf and went to the History Museum, then spent the afternoon on the beack and walking around the shops on Lightouse (the street that our hotel was on). We had a very good dinner at a place called International Cuisine (which was recommended by a co-worker) and then brought ice cream back to our room and played some board games for a while before we settled in.

We had a late breakfast on Cannery Row on Wednesday, then left for Sacramento. We made pretty good time and got to my parents' house around 3:00. We had a great time and were very glad to see Kaya when we got back. She seemed totally okay with us being gone for as long as we were, which made being away much easier, but I (of course) still missed her. :-)

Here's some pictures from Monterey. Most of them are from the aquarium shot through glass (or splashed on plastic) with very bad lighting (in other words, very slow shutter speed and not the sharpest of pictures). Soooo.... the pictures aren't the greatest, but they're definitely enough to remember the trip by. :-) (Note: I didn't enhance these pics in any way - the colors are just that cool)

Thanks for looking!

(I'll post again after our next ultrasound on Wednesday afternoon.)

I wonder where the baby gets that from?

2008-05-07T17:48:00.000-07:00

Our child is apparently very stubborn and tricky. :-) I made sure to drink plenty of sugary stuff right before I went in to my appointment, but that didn't do much for us. We got a great shot of the baby's legs and "special" area - along with a great shot of the umbilical cord blocking everything that we need to see! Soooo... we still don't know if it's a boy or girl.

On a positive note - the baby looked wonderfully healthy and just the right size, so all is well!

Coming soon (hopefully)...

2008-05-07T11:06:00.001-07:00

Our next ultrasound is scheduled for this afternoon at 4:00, so hopefully we will soon know if our little one is a boy or a girl. Kaya is still very insistent that it's a boy - hopefully I'll be back to tell you this afternoon!

The question of all questions...

2008-04-24T20:47:00.001-07:00

I knew it was coming, but I didn't really want it to come so early...

Tonight, when I put Kaya to bed, she looked at me and said, "People don't die." I was really hoping that I could not say anything and she'd forget to ask me about it for another couple of years. Yeah, right. She looked at me again and said, "People don't die." In my head, I was going through all the different responses that I could possibly have to this statement and still didn't say a word. So she looked at me again and asked, "People don't die?" And I, in all of my motherly unknowingness, said, "Yes, they do." She then looked at me with a horrible look of despair and said, "People die?" I told her yes, but if they loved God they got to go to Heaven and live with Him forever. This didn't solve everything like I was hoping it would. She asked me the same thing again and I kept trying to convince her that Heaven made it all okay... Even better than okay... No, not in the mind of my three year old daughter. She started crying so hard it was all I could do to keep from breaking down myself. She kept saying, "I don't want to die" and sobbing and sobbing. I hugged her and held her and told her more about Heaven and eventually, the fact that we could go to Heaven and live forever and ever made it okay. For now.

My parents can attest to the fact that, as a child, I had an unnatural obsession with what would happen to us when we died. I was always thinking and worrying about it. And, to a certain extent, I still do. I know where I will go, but now I worry about my family, my daughter, my unborn child. I'm telling you - it's unnatural how much I think about this. My husband can now attest to this. I don't want this unnatural obsession for my daughter. I especially don't want it to start now, at three years old. I'm hoping that tonight's question is not the beginning of anything. I'm hoping it was just a question.

So now that Kaya is peacefully sleeping, I'm praying for good dreams and distraction until her level of comprehension exceeds that of a three year old. I really am happy that Kaya has such a curiousity and thirst for knowledge. (I'm just not always ready for it) God has blessed us with such a wonderful and amazing child. On this note, she has been VERY excited about the baby. She's really anxious to be able to feel movement and tries to convince it to kick hard enough for her to feel. It's cute to see her put her mouth right up to my stomach and say (very loudly), "Hello in there," then put her hands and head up to my stomach to feel the movement. It hasn't worked yet, but she keeps trying. :-) She's still stuck on "George" for a boy name, but her girl name keeps changing. It's been Lana, Genevieve, Pip, and I can't even remember what else. They're all very cute and she finally seems to be okay with the fact that we haven't picked a name, but only because we don't know if the baby's a boy or a girl. She loves this baby already and is determined to teach him/her everything she knows. And I'm sure she will. :-)

Well, now that you know more about me than I ever thought I'd post on this blog, I'm going to stop writing. I might come back later and delete parts of this, but in my attempt to let people know me for who I am, I'm going to try to resist this urge. :-)

It's a...

2008-04-09T16:42:00.001-07:00

...baby! I know, I know, that's not very nice, is it? Needless to say, we did not find out the gender today. The baby was not in a very cooperative position, but, as far as we could tell, was nice and healthy! He/she seemed to be kicking around, trying to make more room in there. Sorry kid...

Again, the scanned pic isn't great, but here it is anyway!

Well, hopefully I'll be able to take some new pictures of Kaya this weekend. I'm not sure what we have planned on Saturday, as it is Donovan's & my 5th anniversary, but we'll see!

ETA: We'll be having another ultrasound at our next appointment on May 5th, so hopefully the baby will be in the mood to let us take a peek then!

Happy Easter!

2008-03-23T09:28:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter to everyone! He is Risen!

Or as Kaya would say, "Jesus died and came back to life so that we can have a party"... She's getting there. :-)

UPDATE: As of today (Easter), Kaya now says, "Jesus died and came back to life so that we can live with Him in Heaven someday." She's got it!

Late, I know...

2008-03-18T22:16:00.000-07:00

Hi all,
I'm bad - I know. I said the end of last week and that SOOO didn't happen. Here are some pictures from about a month ago. I've been insanely busy since we got our computer and haven't been able to take Kaya out for new pictures, so this is as new as it gets. :-)

And Kaya's idea of a pose... :-)

Hope you're all having a wonderful week!

Announcing...

2008-03-12T13:45:00.000-07:00

Donovan, Kaya, & I are proud to announce that, come September, our family of three will become four. I'm about 13 weeks along (due September 19th) and everything is going wonderfully! We're feeling so very blessed to be having a healthy baby this time around, and are SO excited to meet him/her. I got to see the baby sucking his/her thumb today and am attaching a picture for you all. The quality of the scanned pic is awful, but I wanted to share it anyway. :-)

I just realized that the words on the ultrasound are pretty small... The box on the left says Thumb, the top-right box says Head, and the bottom-right box says Torso/Spine. Sorry the quality is so bad, but you get the idea. Kaya is very excited about the baby and asks me questions about it ALL THE TIME. She loves to talk to him/her, tell me all the things that she'll teach the baby, come up with some very interesting names, and all kinds of stuff. She's VERY happy!

I've been super-busy lately, but am going to try to get some Kaya pics up by the end of this week.

New computer!

2008-03-05T23:00:00.000-08:00

Sorry it's been so long since our last post... Our computer died, but we just got our new one! I'll try to post some pictures from the last few weeks and give a little life update sometime in the next few days. It's late now, so this isn't much of a post. I just want to say that I'm so excited that we've been blessed with such a BLAZIN FAST computer!

Thanks for being patient. :-)

Fun and life...

2008-01-17T08:54:00.000-08:00

Kaya has had an interesting week when it comes to what she's been learning and asking about. About a month ago, Kaya received a beta fish as a gift from a friend. This fish (which Kaya named Lana) was very sickly and we were pretty sure it was going to die quickly. We tried to prepare her for the possibility and went out and got a couple of goldfish (George & Fred) to distract her in case this happened. Well , George was quite a bit smaller than Fred but tried to eat just as much. This did not end well. Kaya had her first lesson in fish death on Monday.

We flushed him down the toilet together and she seemed satisfied with this. (She was, however, afraid that she was going to "pee on him" the next time she went to the bathroom.) Kaya was very concerned that Fred would be lonely without George, so on Tuesday night we went and got Fred a new friend that was closer to the same size (she named this one Jack). We then woke up on Wednesday morning and found Fred doing the sideways float... lesson number two. Kaya was a bit more unsettled by this death because I couldn't explain it to her and started coming up with her own theories as to why he died. She then began to ask me if everything else died too. "Do dogs die?" "Do kitties die?" etc.. Each of those questions was followed by a "why." These conversations have been interesting, to say the least. Kaya has been asking a lot of questions lately that I don't know if I'm really prepared to answer. She's already asking a lot of questions about God, which I love, but I'm not always sure how to answer. "What does God look like?" is one of the cuter/funnier (yet still hard to explain) questions that has been coming up quite a bit lately. Yesterday, Kaya saw a man on TV and asked me if he was God. I kind of did a double-take when I heard that one...

Needless to say, I know that I am not the only parent who's ever had to figure out how to explain the many confusing aspects of life to a young child. I'm blessed to know that God will provide the answers that she needs when she needs them. I only hope that I will be a good example to her and that she might learn to look to Him for the answers she needs.

And now for some fun...

A girl and her daddy...

2008-01-06T23:14:00.001-08:00

More fun pictures :-)

2008-01-05T21:17:00.001-08:00

More fun pictures!

1st Post

2008-01-03T10:30:00.001-08:00

Here is our first official post! This blog will be just what it sounds like it will be - the life and times of Kaya. She loves the computer so you may see a few posts that look a little "funny", but it is her blog. :-)

Kaya got a new coat, hat, and gloves this weekend that were begging to be photographed. Sooo.... On Sunday, while at Grammy & Papa's house, we took some pictures and wanted to share them with you!