Daddy's Birthday

Daddy's Birthday was Sept 21st. We celebrated Friday night before our trip because we knew that we would be travelling part of that day. We went to dinner and come home for a home-made cake. I have been taking a cake decorating class and was going to miss a week, so I used Bret's cake to practice one of the things I would miss: shell piping. I made him a chocolate cake with white chocolate shaving curls.




Then Kyndal took Daddy to see his new present, a TV and stand for his Man Room. I even got some thumbs up from random men as I was wheeling it through the Sam's Club, I guess I did good ;)

Almost stuck in Atlanta on e!

Wow, two weeks since my last blog post here! Well there will be plenty to come as we went on a family vacation to Savannah, GA and Charleston/Folly Beach SC. I am however starting with the last night/day of our vacation.

So many of you who are not local blog readers haven't been plagued with the major gas shortage that we have had here in Nashville. In fact my parents who live only 1.5 hours away have not had any problems finding gas and it has been around $3.40 a gallon there, a steal for some of us. We were a little worried about the gas situation when we left because we didn't know what to expect on our driving trip along the way. We managed to get gas here in the midst of the shortage. Bret went out late one evening and found a station to fill up. Lots of other people were staying put because their tanks were almost empty and most of the stations were out of gas. I emailed someone in Charleston and they said that there were no problems with gas, so on our way we went.

We had no problems finding gas along the way and while were were at our vacation spot. The last night of our trip was going to be a stay in Atlanta and shopping at my two favorite stores The Container Store and IKEA. That night we were in our hotel room watching the debate and baby girl was asleep in the bed between us, then the local news came on. WHAT, no gas!!! Those stations that had it had a several hour wait, and were soon to run out in a matter of an hour or two, but good luck finding a station that had it. Oh no, our gas tank was on E! Our car tells us how many miles that it has left in the tank, until it gets below 30 then it just flashes at us. It was in the flashing stage, and we didn't know how many miles we had left.

Bret decided to go out and try to find a station. He found one with lines 30 cars deep and he had no idea when they might run out. He came back to the hotel because he thought if he were going to run out he rather be with us. We did some major freaking out and praying. I mean we probably didn't have enough gas for him to drop me off at IKEA for the day while he found a station. So we called the station that had gas and asked them when the expected to run out. They said that they did not expect to run out any time real soon. So off he went again, if he ran out while at the station he would just have to push the car to the pump. He managed to fill up and make it back and only had to wait one hour. All this as our daugther slept peacefully in the bed!

Chicken and Rice

Tonight Daddy was going to the Men's meeting at church, so I asked Kyndal what she wanted to do for dinner. I was kind of expecting something along the lines of McDonald's. Nope she very matter of factly said, "I want to eat chicken and rice." So that is what we had, chicken and rice. I will be asking her from now on, I love that she made a decision so easy. It takes Bret and I forever to decide what we want to eat.

Kyndal's 2 year check-up

Last Wednesday Kyndal had her 2 year check-up. I was dreading it because I knew that she had one shot coming and it had been so long since she had a shot. Kyndal is a little peanut. She is 24.5 lbs and 32.5 inches tall. She is 20% for height and weight. The Doctor said she is proportionate. I asked if that means she is going to be short like me, he said yes! You can estimate hieght at this age by doubling their current height. That would make her 5 feet 5 inches tall (Uh Um that is quite a bit taller than me!) It is surprising that they grow half their height in just 2 years! Everything with her checked out great. We don't have to give her whole milk anymore and she has a bump left on her head from when she hit the coffee table that has been there for quite some time, he confirmed that it is just a bruise under the skin that could take several more months to go away. Then she had her shot, it wasn't quite as bad as I thought. Then she had her finger pricked at the lab to check her iron, she just acted like that was nothing at all.

So all is well and no more shots until she starts Kindergarden. Next check-up at 3! I can't believe it!

Daddy is Fummy... um uh... I mean Funny

Kyndal and I are lucky to have such a funny guy in our life. He has always made me laugh, sometimes I don't let him know that I still think he is funny because I don't want it going to his head. Anyway to clue you in on his humor....

After Kyndal's Dr Appointment (update on that later), we were sitting at the lab waiting to have Kyndal's finger pricked. We had already seen the Dr. and I ask:

"How come Kyndal lets the Dr. do things to her that she kicks and screams if I try, like look in her ears, look at her teeth?"
Bret responds... "maybe she knows he is a trained professional and you are just a Hack" Ha Ha

Then the nurse looks over at Kyndal sitting in Bret's lap and says "Someone looks sleepy" and he responds with-out a beat... "yeah, and she is pretty tired too"!

I love you dear and miss you both! (Daddy and Kyndal are in Kingston tonight and all day tomorrow, Daddy is going to the UT game.)

Happy Birthday to YOU!

With her birthday and a few others, Kyndal has learned the song. Here she is singing it:

Toe Talent

I guess this is a Petry family talent??? Kyndal has mastered the skill by 2! Daddy thinks we are freaks because he can't do it.

Cookies for School

Mommy send her first home baked treat to school for Kyndal's birthday. Nothing too fancy or messy, heart shaped sugar cookies (since it is Kyndal's favorite shape). It sure was fun for me to be able to do this for her and her class!

Not a baby anymore

So my baby turned two and she apparently decided on no more baby things. She asked this morning "I want to watch Mickey Mouse", not "Icky Mouse". WHAT?? I can't lose two cute things in one week, and a complete sentence too!

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E - Part Four- Details and more Fun

Here are some details of the party...


The handmade invitations that went out (my first attempt at making cards)


Some decorations The gift boxes.... Oh Toodles!!! Each child went home with a giftbox and a laminated Clubhouse placemat with their name on it and I got a laminating machine out of the deal, yeah!

Now for some more fun.

A couple of cake stained faces.

This face isn't cake stained, but I bet you his tongue was a very bright shade of red from all of the icing!!

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E - Part Three- Presents

Kyndal got lots of great gifts for her birthday. She is really into drawing and art right now and got some really cool books and art supplies. She also got some Mickey Mouse toys, Strawberry Shortcake, My little Ponies and lots of other stuff!

Here she is having a blast opening her gifts. She kept wanting to stop and take everything out of the box to play with it, so I kind of rushed her through it.

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E - Part Two - Food and Cake

The food and cake....

We went all out with the Mickey Mouse theme and had Hot Dog, Hot Dog, Hot Diggity Daaaawgs for Dinner. We had popcorn as a snack and had a Hot Dog stand with all the fixin's.

Here is the Homemade hotdog stand or Kyndal's "new table".

We also got this awesome fruit arrangement from Edible Arrangements. It had a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse base and Mickey shaped Pineapple's. It must have been pretty good because it was all gone by the end of the party. I however didn't get to try it.


I spent a bit of time making this cake (my first cake attempt) for Kyndal's party. It had just about the complete clubhouse on it. My neighbor Jennifer who is a much more experienced cake decorator, did the yellow piping, the green grass and Kyndal's name on the cookies. Thanks Jennifer! The homemade icing was awesome. I am not just saying that because I made it, there were several guys with different bowls of the multiple colored icing scooping it out and eating with spoons, forks, and I think I heard chips. It is not exactly what I was going for with the cake, but I guess it was not too shabby considering it was my first cake making effort.

I however did not get a picture of Kyndal blowing out the candles, I was too busy with her. If anyone has one to share with me, please email it to me. Here she is right before blowing them out.

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E - Part One - Fun with Friends

It's the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
Come inside, it's fun inside

It's the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse .. roll call

Lola, Emma, Will, Emily, Katie, Jonah, Lauren, Courtney, Abbey, Tannith, Liam

Thanks to everyone who came, Kyndal was happy to have so many friends here and all of her Nana's and Papa's and Aunt and Uncle.

Here are some Pictures of the F-U-N!

The party started with Aunt Tami greeing at the door with some Mickey Mouse tattoos. Follow the colored shapes on the floor to some outdoor fun. The kids really gave the newly assembled swing set the test. This was Kyndal's birthday present from Mommy and Daddy. The assembly was complete just in time for the party.

The birthday girl in her handmade Mickey Mouse dress (no not by me, I had someone who actually has sewing talent make it!)
Next the kids sat down to do a craft. Foam hats and door hangers to decorate with colorful shapes and letters.


Stay tuned for more posts on the food, cake, presents and MORE FUN!

Funny

See what did I tell you, it happens overnight. Kyndal last night was telling me I was "funny", I am not "fummy" anymore. I had a sad moment until she started "shaking her boobie" again. LOL!

Our little girl turned two today!

Our precious little girl had her two year birthday today. We had a party on Saturday for her, but today was the actual day! We can hardly believe it, two years just flies by! She is just an amazing special little girl. I will be posting about the party soon with pictures, but first I wanted to post some pictures from today and tell those of you who can't be here to see her grow what she is like.

Kyndal is a little chatterbox. We figured she would be talking in sentences by two but never imaged they would be actual conversations. She still has a few Kyndalisms and we think they are pretty cute. Fummy for Funny. "Shake you Boobie" for "Shake your Bootie", LOL! "icky Mouse" instead of "Mickey Mouse". We treasure these because we know one morning soon she will wake up and ask for "Mickey Mouse", just like she one day she started saying Elmo instead of Melmo and never turned back.

She loves art and music and we have art time just about every day. She is so smart.... already potty trained, she recognizes and can name all of her colors, and almost all of her shapes. Her favorite color is pink and her favorite shape is the heart. She is always saying to Mommy "Mommy, draw a PINK heart". She can count to 10 (sometimes she skips a few). She can say some of her ABC's too, pretty much ABCDEFG and then XYZ. Apparently she can count items too. We saw a set of triplets in McDonalds today and she said "babies" I asked how many and she said "three", she is one smart cookie :)

She has a little sense of humor and can be quite "fummy" at times. She smiles with her whole face just like she always has and it just lights you up inside. She can also shoot you a dirty look too, the looks that she gives are so funny (the teenage years will be fun!). She is very independent. She loves her friends and talks about them and asks to go see them, she also includes them in her prayers at night. Sometimes our prayers can get quite lengthy depending on who she played with that day.

She is already a little OCD! She will shut every drawer if they are open. She is great at putting her toys away, and getting them in the correct spot too. She will line up her animals on her fridge farm. I guess that is the Virgo coming out of her.

I suppose I could go on and on as most mothers could. We are so blessed to have her! Happy Birthday our precious girl!