Mondays are typically our "family" day. Doug and I are both off on Mondays so after running any necessary errands (yesterdays was checking out a new Dentist office andsetting up routine appointments for all three us), we try to do something relaxing and fun together as a family. The sun peeked out for a few hours, so, of course, we spent some time out of doors letting Kerry run off some pent up energy at her favorite neighborhood playground. And after her nap, she played in the back yard for a while.

I just love seeing my girl smile...

My Cherry tree is in full bloom...ahhh, I love early spring.

Kerry was tickled to see this little guy in our back yard. He's becoming a regular visitor.

There's that smile again =)

Of course, today it was chilly and gray and sleeting again...but hey, we enjoyed it while we had it. And better days are ahead, weather wise.

Well, it's now sleeting and it's 37 degreees cooler than when I last posted (on Tuesday). That's spring in Kentucky for ya, if you don't like the weather here, just wait a half hour and it will most likely change. This is especially true in early spring and in the late fall. Thankfully that means that by next week, we'll probably be in short sleeves again.

This is also the time of year the various types of "ick" start spreading like wildfire...and one of these bugs has found my girl. I noticed a rash forming under her arm and down her side earlier in the week, and at first I thought it might be heat rash. It didn't go away and the more I looked at it the more it started looking kind of like a strep rash (remember I worked in pediatrics for 12+ years so I've seen plenty of rashes) except that it was only on one side in a large "patch". I took her to the Dr. yesterday and they swabbed her throat and sure enough, she's got strep, although her throat doesn't look bad at all...go figure. I was worried that she'd be less than happy about going back to the doctor, but as soon as I explained that we were just going to look at her rash and that she wasn't going to get any "ouchies' on her legs, she was fine. She even let them swab her throat with no fuss at all. Anyway, she's on Amoxil now and she loves the taste of it...funny girl.

Spring has really sprung her in the last few days. Yesterday was sunny and just over 80 degrees and I was off work ( I work Wed-Fri.) so we, along with my parents, took advantage of it with a trip to Bernheim. Kerry enjoyed our "pick-a-nick" lunch and little nature walk.












Then we found the playground and let her run free...

Getting a little help from Mamaw on the balance beam. Her little tush is apparently not big enough yet to hold up these 3t cropped pants without a belt, ha ha.

She played with this neat little table..

And spent a while swinging, of course. She also got to feed the geese, fish, and turtles in one of the ponds (she absolutely loved the turtles) and she collected a few rocks. I love watching her explore and enjoy the outdoors. It gives me a great excuse to do the same =).

Cousin Sydnie turned five over the weekend so Saturday was party day! The weather was warm and beautiful so it was the perfect day for a celebration.



The party was held at a firestation (Uncle Travis is a firefighter) and had a carnival theme complete with bounce house and lots of games. Kerry loves trampolines but for some reason is scared of bounce houses...I think it has something to do with the shakiness and instability...not sure but she hates them.






However, she did surprise me by getting her face painted. She wanted a flower and chose light blue for the petals.

She had lots of fun playing games for prizes..including this little penny toss game. I love her funny expression and stance in this one..ha ha.

Soon it was time for the Birthday Girl to blow out her candle.

And open presents...

Kerry is sporting her blue cupcake mustache here.

It seems like yesterday we were at the hospital welcoming Sydnie to the world...she was the first Grandbaby of the family. Now there are three Grand-Girls, the newest of these is this little beauty. Cousin Kinsley is just shy of four months old.

My girl, looking so tall, to me. You may notice her expression is a bit ..reserved in some of these photos, there's a reason. Kerry and I rode with Doug's parents to the party (Daddy works nights so couldn't go). As we were leaving, I had my hands full so after walking out to the car with Kerry to unload, her Papaw picked her up to put her in the car and buckle her in while I ran back to the house to lock up. I didn't tell her what I was doing and that I'd be right back...big mistake..totally my fault. In the seconds it took me to run to the house and lock up and run back, she had dissolved into tears. We've always had to be careful when letting anyone else she didn't know well hold her...and if she was uncomfortable or refused, we didn't force it. And even if it was someone she knew and we even looked like we might walk away, she would often start to panic and cry. But this was her Papaw, and she could see me the whole time...not enough, apparently. I handed her to someone, and walked away...and she lost it. Luckily the whole thing took just seconds to transpire, and I was able to calm her down pretty quickly afterward, but I still felt so bad. I should have warned her, and I won't be making that mistake again any time soon.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Always remember to forget the troubles that passed away.But never forget to remember the blessings that come each day.

Irish Blessing

This is the second, and it looks like the last, year that Kerry was able to wear this shirt from our sweet bloggy friends, Jill and Lilah.

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This is a shot of her wearing it last St. Patrick's Day while we were in Florida. What a difference a year can make.

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I'm happy to see my little daffodils popping up. Winter is almost over! Have I mentioned I'm not much of a winter person. Actually, I love up until late December, because I love the Christmas season. But January and February just about do me in every year. At least it does make me appreciate Spring that much more. I get so excited to see things just starting to bud, and patches of green grass popping up, and bags of mulch and garden soil being stocked at the lawn and hardware stores. Ahhhh...makes me warmer just thinking of it. I'm already happily planning little projects for my yard.

I think Kerry is looking forward to Spring too =).

And growing in leaps and bounds...

Speaking of, she went in for her 3 year old check up today. She now weighs 32.8 pounds and is 37 1/4 inches tall. Just about 50th percentile. Her weight gain seems to be slowing just a tad bit, but certainly not her vertical growth. She looks taller and more stretch out to me every day. She's feeling pretty well and seems to be getting over her cold/allergy thing, but we did have a nice discussion with the pediatrician about some GI issues she's struggled with for the last several months. She was so, so brave and did everything the Doctor asked with no fuss. He had to do a quick rectal examination, and I thought she would lose it then, but no..she just laid there and I held her top half and talked to her. It just about broke my heart because I could see the little tears start to well up, but she never fussed. She did cry very briefly after her shot but I don't blame her one bit. Next Monday is her 6 month follow up with the cardiologist, and we're going to be setting her up for her first dentist appointment soon, too.

She's going down for a nap now, and she just told me that robe is making her boo-boo feel better =).

My girl has been a little under the weather...we both have been, actually, with runny noses, congestion, cough. Let's just say we've not been far from a box of tissues for the past couple of days. We did have a nice warm up in the weather yesterday, and some sunshine, so Kerry got to enjoy a little bit of outdoor play.



She loves her sandbox.

And never tires of bubbles.

You can tell she's feeling a little "blah" in this photo...but she's hard to slow down, even when she's a little bit sick.

I liked this shot, even with the...umm...mucus. Poor baby.

She's played pretty well today, too, but we did skip church services just to be safe. I want her to share with her church nursery friends...just not germs. I took the above photo just about a half hour ago and she's now napping soundly with robe. Yep, she still loves robe and sleeps with it every night and at naptime unless we happen to be out and she falls asleep in the car.

And now for a little Kerry update:

I found out this past week that she knows which is left and which is right. I tried to trick her to see if she was just a good guesser, but nope...she knows every time. I haven't worked with her on this yet, so I don't know where she picked it up. She surprises me like that sometimes. She is full of imagination lately, and pretends to open the gate at the top of the basement stairs for us with her "magic key". She'll also say "oh no, you in twubble, I hafta rescue you!" and then she'll pretend to do so. She also likes to put on her "Umi-Goggles" and pretend she has a "belly screen", and she'll say her pigtails are like "Milli measures", (if you've ever seen Team Umizoomi, you'll know what this is about). She also likes to play "pirate" and still loves to have tea parties...sometimes she combines both.

Kerry quote from yesterday:

"I'm not Mommy's baby, I'm Mommy's Kerry"

Yesterday we got a break in the constant rain we've been having lately so we went to a nearby playground to get some fresh air and soak up a little bit of sunshine. We ended up spending almost 2 hours there.

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She could swing all day...she loves it. A far cry from the baby girl who hated swings when we first brought her home. She would cry as soon as her little bottom hit the swing seat.

Now she begs for mommy to push her "way higher!"

This girl loves to get outside...and so do we. Funny how that works out =). Seriously, it was obvious from day one that we fit together perfectly as a family, and I thank God everyday for that.

Today, she decided she'd rather hop like a bunny than walk like a little girl...

And I, of course, decided I needed to snap some photos of Kerry, and her pigtails, in action.

Despite the fact that she's pretty darn cute, she's actually quite difficult to photograph simply because she's always on the move. This, combined with the fact that her idea of smiling for the camera usually involves a cheesy grin and the "pirate eye", makes a good face shot next to impossible most days. Thank goodness for a digital camera, patience, and the occasional stroke of luck...which was not on my side today. So...I guess we're sticking with action shots today which is fine since, well, she's all about action.

Quote from Kerry: "I'll like Sa-yem when I'm bigger"...ha ha. I Guess poor Salem is just going to have to bide his time until them.

They actually tolerate each other pretty well until Salem decides he wants to be a part of what she's doing or he gets curious and sniffs her toys. She doesn't like that so she'll yell "No Sa-yem! No eating my stuff!"