December

Note that this post is just the start of many posts to come about December, but holy moly, a lot of stuff has happened since I have posted last.  First I wanted to post a little about the beginning part of December and things won't nesissarily be in chronological order as I need to collect pictures from all different sources (and phone)  but here we go.

So from the beginning of December we have been busy busy busy.  First our Relief Society Christmas party, Claire's birthday party (Kaylee's friend :-D ), and our dear friend's the Buchholtz Christmas party.  All were awesome and fun in their own way.  We love spending time with our friends.  It seems like we don't do it often enough!  The next weekend we had our ward Christmas party (in another Post) and then Kevin's work's Christmas party!

I look forward to Kevin's work Christmas party every year because it is a big hupla.  It was held at the Brown hotel in Louisville, KY downtown and not only was the party there, but they got everyone a hotel room there!  We got there early to settle in, then took a walk around 4th street.

 I turned the pictures before I uploaded them but they turned back.  Oh well they are still cute!  This is on 4th Street Live.  It was fun walking in the street without the fear of being hit by cars!

Later we got all dressed up and went to the cocktail hour and then to dinner!  It was yummy.  My favorites was the mini beef wellingtons and then the turkey with the yummy gravy on it.  I used my pregnancy card and got seconds on the turkey.  We got as our "Bingo gift" the dirt devil spot cleaner which was our #1 choice!  We thought since we will be potty training in the near future, we may need that!!  I'm very excited about it!  Kevin also got a Donan water bottle thing that keeps things hot and cold.  Very nice and sturdy looking.  Anyway, here are some pictures of us all dressed up!

 Kevin picked out the above outfit by himself.  I am very impressed!

 I was 18 1/2 weeks here I think.  Yes that is right.  Thought I'd bust out a bump picture!!

 Kevin!  He was beardless because he was Santa for our ward Christmas party.  Which you will see later.

Very handsome!  And here is some pictures of the hotel room!

 The chair!

 King bed!  I even used the little Brown Hotel Blanket.

Because we are silly and take pictures like this!!

The Walking Fool

Yes that is right, my daughter is a walking fool, and I finally have proof!!!  The first one is a good one of her walking I am standing up so I think it came out better.  The second is her walking, dancing and playing.  A little glimpse in the day of Kaylee and me.  How do I get things done with a girl this cute?  I don't.  Not really anyway.  Enjoy!

A Few things I left out

I was on facebook loading some pics when I found 2 really great ones from Thanksgiving!  Here they are!

 Here is Kevin with his finished tart.  Didn't he do a beautiful job?  It was just as tasty too!  I actually tried it because they berries weren't cooked so I liked it!  What a handsome devil he is.

Here is Allen carving the turkey!  It was so delicious!  It was brined and baked in a bag!  My favorite way to have turkey! YUM!

Thanksgiving Weekend

One thing that I LOVE about thanksgiving is that the weekend starts like on Wednesday!  For us, It started Tuesday night upon the arrival of Kevin's brother Allen, his wife Britany and their little son Cameron!  They traveled all the way from Utah to see US!  Well, and the rest of the Sproul clan, but we are so wonderful to be around ;-)  Heehee.  Anyway,. we were so excited for them to arrive.  They got in at 10:30 that night and stayed the night and the next morning Britany was SO nice as to watch Kaylee while Kevin and I went to our appointment for the baby in the belly.  Our appointment was at 8:15am so you can imagine how tired she must have been!  She caught this cute moment while we were out:

It was nice seeing Kaylee playing with a younger baby, especially her little cousin!  This picture is priceless!  Love it!

So we spent the whole day with Allen and Britany (AKA Britllen) and their little cuteness Cam. YAY!  We got stuff done, ate BBQ with the parentals, and played Allen's favorite game of Quelf (hehe he wasn't a fan!) Also, I was excited to have the opportunity to feed Cam rice cereal!  I have never seen a baby so excited about rice cereal!!

(Thank you Britany for some of these pictures that I stole from your Blog!)


The next day was Thanksgiving! We hosted and I think it went really well.  We did some of the preparations the day before, so we only had a few things to do on the big day.  This was the first thanksgiving that Kaylee could actually eat Thanksgiving food.  Last year she only got it through breast milk afterword.  :-)  This was also Cam's first Thanksgiving!  Last year he was in his mom's belly.

 Here is me and Mama Sproul preparing tasty dishes for Thanks giving!  Kevin and I made the turkey, the gravy, the mashed potatoes, the cranberry relish, and seen below, Kevin made a fruit tart all by himself for the first time.  It was a huge success!  The cranberry relish was also a huge success although I did not partake.  I don't like cranberries.  Mama Sproul made the rolls and corn and helped all of us with our dishes as well as played a majority of the roll in clean up.  Brittlen made pumpkin pies and Dixie salad, both delish!  All of it was delish!  I'll tell you, our family sure has good cooks!

 Here is Kevin making the fruit tart!  He made everything from scratch, except the crust was left over from Brittlen's pies.  I was so proud proud of him.  He volunteered to make it and I am glad he did!

 Here is Kaylee sampling the berries while she waited the big dinner.  Trust me, she was anxiously waiting for this dinner!

 In between cooking, Britany had this wonderful and fun idea to do a Thanksgiving craft!  We cut out paper leaves and colored them on the butcher paper.  The outline of the leaf would be made on the paper leaving a fun design on the table!  It also kind of turned into a coloring session.  We have some lovely drawing by Kevin and Kaylee here. Plus we all wrote what we are thankful for on the table!  So cute!  I think it should turn into a tradition of ours.  We were supposed to start this the day before and spray paint the leaves, but this turned out so well too! 

Here is the whole gang at thanksgiving....wait Britney isn't looking, lets try this again.

There we go!  After dinner all of us or most of us somehow passed out in one form or another.  I think the best one was Mama Sproul made a little bed in the hall and took a nap!

The next day Kevin and I traveled down to Lexington to join the rest of the fam.  That night we had a couples night out without kids!  We went to Johnny Carinos!  Very yummy!!!  Here is us all full and happy!

From left to right: Rodney and Denisha (Rodnisha) Kevin and Cindy (Kevindy) and Britany and Allen (Britllen).  It was so fun to be out with my bro and sister in laws!  We later went to look at the black friday leftovers at Best Buy and Kevin and I got our Christmas for ourselves taken care of.  Hello Kinect, you will be of much help when I go to loose the baby weight after May!  We then headed to Rodnisha's house where we watched Arthur (I highly recommend this movie) and ate this fabulous brownie pecan pie.  I have decided that they are the masters of pie making.  every pie they have made and I have ate has been amazing!

The next day was 2nd Thanksgiving except with Ham.  :-)  Yum!

 Here is Grandma Sproul with ALL her grandbabies!  From Left to right, Bentley, Kaylee, Copper, Cam, and Paisley!  We had a lot of fun having them all together. Aren't my neices and nephew SO cute!  I love them!

 Here is Kaylee and Cam ready to bust out some food!  They are adorable!  I love their cute smiles!  I think Cam likes sitting in a high chair like a big boy!

So, funny story.  We went on 2 walks this day.  The first one was super cute because Bentley and Paisley wanted to push Kaylee and Cam in their strollers!  The second walk we had Paisley and Kaylee in a double stroller and Copper in another stroller and Bentley grabbed my hand and we headed for the front of the line.  It was funny, because before the walk she whispers in my ear, "I want to walk really fast so I want you to come with me."  A little background, at the end of the first walk Paisley, Cam, and I ended up very far ahead of Bentley, Kaylee, and Jayne.  I think she saw this and noted that I can walk pretty fast sometimes.  Anyway, so there we are at the front of the line.  Walking, then skipping, then walking, then more skipping, then downhill run!  We get to the bottom and walk around the culta sac (My spelling of this is all sorts of wrong because when I was young, my friend Monique and I just called it the circle place) and then we started uphill.  After recovering a bit Bentley would look back at Rodney pushing the double stroller, laugh, and start running, then look back, laugh and start runing again.  All while holding my hand.  I thought, what the heck, I'll go with it.  And we ran all the way back to the house.  It was fun, I burned a ton of calories, and I was happy to have a moment like that with Bentley because I don't get them often!  The girls are SO cute and it is fun to see what the future will hold with Kaylee!

To end, I wanted to share a few more pictures taken sometime in the last week.

 This is Kaylee giving her Daddy kisses! How cute!  This was taken on the Friday, I can tell by the cute outfit she is wearing.

I think this was the Sunday after thanksgiving.  I am 16 weeks 5 days in this picture.  I have decided that the weight I am loosing is coming off my face, maybe my legs and arms too.  But certainly not the belly.  What a great family I have married into.  I am very thankful for all the blessings I have and for the family Kevin and I share (both sides) and for my beautiful daughter Kaylee and her little sibling in my belly! 

(Also thank you again to Britany for some of these pictures)

Life Lately

So I have realized it has been awhile since I have blogged.  I actually have the whole month of November worth of pictures that I just copied onto my computer.  It is like I am pregnant and have a 1 year old or something.  Weird.  Anyway, so Kaylee is more and more active everyday and keeping me on my toes.  She has some hard days due to teething, but she only has one more (first year) molar to go and then onto the canines I think.  I hear those aren't fun and maybe worse!  But we will see.  One fun thing is that Kaylee is finally able to do some signing!!!  Let me tell you, I kind of started trying when she was around 5/6 months old and wasn't consistent with it because it kind of seemed useless, but once I did become consistent with it, I eventually did see results and am SO happy!  She can say MORE and ALL DONE and PLEASE! Next I am going to teach her THANK YOU.  :-)  I started getting really consistent when she was trying to communicate by throwing food on the floor, throwing sippy cups across the room after she was done, and whining for more food.  I had enough.  That was not behavior I wanted her to continue.  So I began to teach her signs and am VERY pleased with the results.  I will have to tape her doing it because she is SO cute doing it!!! 

As for the youngest Sproul in the womb, he/she is doing just GREAT!  I am feeling a TON better and I am in the "catch up on everything you put on in the first trimester" phase of life.  This includes TRYING to hang out with my friends.  I had an appointment last week (THANK YOU Britany Sproul for graceously watching Kaylee that early morning when I know you were super tired!  And for doing my dishes!  Such a saint!)  I have lost another pound.  It is funny, because she always says, "Don't worry it is totally ok that you lost more weight."  and I am thinking, "NICE!"  I really don't want to gain a ton of weight.  But trust me, I am not trying to loose the weight.  Although I am eating, I usually don't eat a ton due to a smaller appitite and I am chasing my 1 year old here and there and I excersize.  Anyway, the doctor found the heartbeat with the doppler, and then it quickly vanished.  She wasn't able to get it again, so she said everything is fine but she wanted to get a picture.  (Ultrasound)  So here this little one is.  Apparently it is Halloween in there because he/she looks like a little ghoul!!  Love it!

It is a small pic because I took it with my phone.  But you can still see it.  The body starts in the bottom left corner and if you follow that you see the face.  There is two little arms flying about.  The tech actually said, "Do you want a picture of this because it is kind of scary!"  We laughed and said YES  it is AWESOME!  Don't get me wrong, she was totally nice and awesome and she got us, and so that wasn't an offensive statement.  Just funny.  So everything is looking good and it looks like I am indeed pregnant!!  lol

Who needs shirts?

Yesterday we looked over at Kaylee and saw this hilarious site!  Watch and enjoy!



She never succeeded in her goal, but it was funny to watch!!

Things that Made me Cry

I always cry over funny things when I am pregnant.  Not every one is funny.  But here are a few things that made me cry:



This above commercial was saw last night and I started balling! 

There was also a comercial where a military day probably in Iraq got a Christmas book with his kids reading it to him that made me tear up.  But I couldn't find it.

I also cried once because the thought of making biscuits sounded like a great idea......

I'm sure the list will go on, and probably more funny.  With Kaylee most of my crying was because of a really good food or something tragic happened to the food.  For example: yummy crunchy stuff on a salad, a frosty that Kev surprised me with, and a tragic fall of a cupcake that had me dramatically falling onto the couch crying leaving Kevin to clean it up...  I'm weird.

Halloween

So I failed to take any pictures on Halloween, and maybe later I can post a few that my friend Adrienne took, but for now I will post this one.  This was taken by my friend Paula Robinson at the trunk or treat.  Kaylee was actually looking at the camera.

She wore the same costume on Monday the actual day of Halloween!  We joined our friends the Feldmans in the neighborhood by them and had a fun time trick or treating with Kaylee and their son James who is 8 days younger than Kaylee.  So we got a fair amount of candy, that Kaylee was so nice to share with us.  It was overall a great night!  It was also nice to see the Feldman's newest baby Sam again who is just over 2 weeks old.  So tiny and so cute!  They really are a good family!

Trunk or Treat

Here is a couple pics we took of Kaylee at our ward's Trunk or Treat.  Kevin and I have never been to one before and we were not disappointed!  It was SO fun!  Kaylee got some good stuff.  Her favorite is the goldfish that she got from Hal and Paula Robinson, one of the best couples in the world!  She loves her some goldfish!  Anyway, look at this tasty treat!!  LOL

 At home getting ready!

In the parking lot ready to go!  Unfortunately these are the only 2 clear pictures we got but we are doing the Halloween thing on Monday too so hopefully I get better pictures there!

12 weeks

Just a quick update on this little one's progress.  Still feeling sick.  Still taking the Zofran.  Which is doing it's job.  Still tired.  But it is all worth it and I am almost to the 2nd trimester which is total madness!  This is going MUCH faster than it was with Kaylee!  I had an appointment today.  (Thank you Anna for watching my Kaylee girl!)

Dr. Nett said that everything looked great.  There was a great heartbeat on the doppler.  There is one hiccup in the mix now.  They found Group Beta Strep in one of the tests done.  Not a big deal and the doctor told me not to get worried and everything will be fine.  This just means that I will need to have an IV of antibiotics during labor.  Like I said a hiccup in my plan.  I made the next 2 appointments.  The big appointment where I find out the gender will be at 21 1/2 weeks on December 30th.  Soon after my return from San Diego. 

Here is a picture Kev took of me today at 12 weeks 1 day.

Sometimes I forget I am pregnant.  Even though I don't feel great I forget.  Then look down or see the ultrasound on facebook, and say to myself, "Yep, this is happening!"  Don't get me wrong, I'm totally excited.  It is just so sureal!

As for an update on Kaylee, how cute is she!  SO!  She is really starting to get moving on her walking.  She discovered that if she walks, she can more easily hold something in her hand.  This makes her a happy panda.  Tonight we had a sweet moment where I was reading her one of my personal favorites, "What was I scared of" by Dr. Seuss. (It is a good read if you haven't read it already)  toward the end of the book, she just kept looking up at me giving me a HUGE Kaylee grin.  My heart melted.  She fell right asleep hugging on her pooh bear her Aunt Claudia gave her and tucked under a pink blanket.  I sure have a great daughter.  She is going to be a great big sister.

Kaylee's BIG NEWS present!

The last present Kaylee opened at her party was this:

You can click on it to enlarge it, but the shirt says, BIG SISTER!  That is right, sometime around May 8th, Kevin and I will be welcoming a new little bundle promoting Kaylee to the position of Big Sister!  We are very excited!  How have I been feeling?  Sick as a dog, without the vomit (so far).  I actually thought I needed my gallbladder out because I felt so bad with heartburn and all.  Then I decided to take a preg test before hand because the next test they were going to do I couldn't be pregnant or breast feeding.  The line showed up dark and clear right away.  So there you go!  After the initial 2 weeks of pure shock, we are extremely excited and can't wait to have a newborn in the house again. (Not looking forward to the exhaustion though)  :-)  Kaylee and baby #2 will be approx 19 months apart, so we get a month in between starting church nursery and having a newborn.  Not bad.  Here is the ultrasound we got at 8 weeks 3 days!

He/She measured 2 days small so my due date will stay the same!  For once!  I should find out the gender in December or January.  Either one is fine with us.  We are just hoping for healthy!  Here is the video of her opening the present.

Kaylee's First Birthday!

WOW!  It has been a whole year since Kaylee was cut out of me making Kevin and I parents! This year has been WONDERFUL!  Yes there was challenges, but those were nothing compared to the unexplainable joy that Kaylee has brought to our life.  Everything she does makes us proud!  A few weeks ago she started taking steps by herself and after spending 2 days with her friend James Feldman is doing her best at walking around more than crawling, so I would say she is an official walker!  She can also say a ton of words.  The doctor was VERY impressed.  To name a few she can say:

Hi
Ba-Bye
Tickle
Ball
"Baaaa!" (As in what does a sheep say)
Yay
Yea
Yes
Kiss
Mama
Mom
Dada
Daddy

And probably more.  She will look at you and just start blabbing away!  It is SO funny.  I can't wait until I can understand what she says, because she really likes to talk.  At least to us.  She will talk to you once she warms up to you a bit.  It is hilarious.  She also gives "Nose Kisses" (Eskimo kisses), and then will kiss you on the cheek.  She gives hugs, high fives, and has the best laugh ever.  She loves the "I'm gonna get ya" game where you chase her down a hall or something.  She cracks up.

On her actual birthday we sang her Happy birthday, which she cried, she got to hear Geffery the Giraffe on the phone and Grandma Jayne on the phone.  My parents got to sing her Happy Birthday on skype where she cried again...lol and Mom and Dad got to eat Chinese :-)

Her party was the following Saturday.  We didn't invite a ton of people because I was stressed out as it was, and we live in an apartment.  So I'm sorry if anyone felt left out.  I really just wanted a small group.  That is what it was and it was for the most part perfect.  I just had some time management issues but it was fun.  Below is some pictures from her party and the video of her eating her cake.

 By my one decoration that I got made!  lol I think it was pretty cute!

 In the middle of eating her apple spice cupcake.  Isn't she so neat with it!  I barely had to clean her or the tray!!  I swear she liked it too!

 Opening presents!!  She loves all of her new toys and looks fantastic in her new outfit and shoes!

I made cupcakes!  With the help of my best friend Manda and Kevin.  They are pumpkin with butterscotch chips and some apple spice ones.  Cream cheese frosting and sprinkles on top!  YUM!



Now the video above is 10 min long but the best part is the beginning anyway.  Is it bad that her reaction to the birthday song makes me laugh, every time?  lol  She did enjoy it!

Our funny little Girl

I absolutely love being a stay at home mom!  I get to play with Kaylee all day and get things done around the house.  Ok, for the most part.  It is also a ton of work!  I love watching Kaylee grow up and seeing her new tricks.  She is currently taking steps in preparing to walk.  Chasing her around takes most of my energy and a lot of times when she naps, I slack.  But I have been doing my best in keeping our house semi-clean.  Anyhow, this picture was taken as she found this green ball and decided it was a chew toy.  She is either preparing to bite it or has just taken it out of her mouth!!  Talking about her mouth, she has 7 teeth now.  Three on top and four on the bottom.  I felt quite a lump yesterday where molars would go so that might be in the works soon as well.  Can you believe how big she is?  I love this little girl!!!  :-)

11 months and Smiling!

 Last week our little girl turned 11 months old!  She is so happy and her personality grows more and more everyday!  She loves to play with her toys in the super yard and cuddle with mom and dad.

 One of her Favorite activities in playing with dad's hair and ears when she is on his shoulders.  She also took her first steps a few days shy of 11 months!!  She was standing and daddy walked through the door from work.  She went to get him and in the process too two steps!  She then took some more steps for daddy later that day.  She surprises us now and then with some steps but still prefers crawling, pulling up to stand and standing at the moment.

 The above picture makes me say "Superwoman!"

We love her and can't believe it has ALMOST been a year since she was born!  Around this time last year we were anxiously awaiting the birth of our little girl, wondering what she would look like and be like.  Little did we know how extremely amazing and beautiful she would be!  So proud to be her parents!!!

PASTA

Ok, so Kevin and I bought a pasta machine and TJMAX/Homegoods.  It was a good price and we wanted one.  So we made our own pasta and it is delicious!

We made very thin noodles and to be honest it tasted like Top Ramen.  But it was still tasty!  We are going to try different flour, and thickness next time.  We are so excited and LOVE our new pasta maker!

A Few fun Videos

Kaylee is growing up so fast.  I was in San Diego when she turned 10 months so I didn't post a blog about it, but it sure is fun to have her around.  She will be 11 months this week so I will post something then.  But I wanted to post a few videos to show what she has been up to this month.  The first one is when we babysat our friend's the Feldmans little boy James.  He is 8 days younger than Kaylee and is A LOT bigger. He is so fun to have around.  He is really good with Kaylee trying to take all his stuff.



This next one I took today of her playing.  I was trying to get her to stand.  She can do it and do it well.  I swear!



Love our life!

Beach Camp!

Ok get ready for photos.  Because there were too many good ones to NOT post.

 My sister and I shared an air mattress.  I never woke up when Kaylee woke up and so my mom and Anne Marie got her and me up.  :-)  Good thing they heard here (and are early risers!) 

 Kaylee got a LOT of love from my family and friends.  Above is my brother "Uncle Chuck" and my mom looking at Kaylee's cute face!

 One morning she was especially spunky.  Look at these pictures!!

 Anne Maire said she didn't just happen to catch this face, she was making this face for awhile!!  What a goof!  I LOVE it!

 My mom being wonderful and letting me sleep in!!

 Gazing at the California sky

 Sometimes we would let Kaylee play outside in the pack in play!  She loved being around everyone!

 Aunt Claudia LOVES her Kaylee girl!  Kaylee LOVES Aunt Claudia too!

 Some of the gang ready to celebrate Aunt Ree's birthday.  She is my "adoptive" sister.  She grew up across the street from me my whole life.

 Here is Aunt Ree!  I think she had a good B-day!

 Kaylee joining in the festivities with some good ol formula!  What can I say, she knows how to party!  (I stopped nursing her at the beginning of our trip because she was not interested at ALL anymore and I really don't think she was getting enough)  Ree's mom is giving her some attention.  Kaylee loved her too!

 On Ree's birthday we saw dolphins out in the water.  They were jumping out of the water like they do at Sea World!  It was so cool!

 The above picture are balloons Anne Marie's aunt found on the beach.  They were abandoned so she brought them up.  Attached were 2 letters.  One from a mother and one from a father, to their unborn daughter who was either miscarried or still birth.  I would imagine it was a still birth because they knew it was a daughter.  I fought back tears as the letters reminded me of my miscarriage in 2009.  The pain is so deep, I can't imagine feeling their pain as they were farther into the pregnancy and knew that it was a little girl.  I had to take a picture to remember because I didn't have the letters to remember them by.  I hope they are finding comfort in this time of great sorrow.  My heart goes out to them.

 Ok, I am not good at segways (sp?).....My sister can seriously sleep anywhere!!!  Seriously!  We were even talking about it and a few moments later, here she was.  She then transferred herself to the tent and then was woken up when we took out the poles because we were packing up and leaving.

 Here is my star camper!  Went to sleep pretty fast, didn't wake up at night.  Woke up in the morning babbling and not crying.  Naps were slightly tough due to the heat but she did wonderful!!

 Yea I don't wear make up when I camp.  No reason to.

Aunt Claudia and Kaylee embrace as they get ready to board the cars for home.  It was a WONDERFUL trip!  My favorite parts were swimming in that wonderful ocean, watching Kaylee experience the water and sand for the first time, and the games!  Oh the game of Things, so WONDERFUL!