2 days at home with Mommy

I missed out on some good family time Sunday and had to work. Everytime I called to talk to Madison, he and Kegan were having a blast. I was so jealous. But, to make up for it I have had Kegan to myself the last two days.

Our big news from the weekend is that Kegan started walking Saturday. We were at my friends house for a baby shower, and I guess Kegan figured she needed to to keep up with the older kids there. I almost choked on my food when I saw her. She was across the room and took 7 steps like it was old stuff. She is still wobbly and falls alot, but she is starting to see it as transportation and not just a trick. She is, however, camera shy. I am having the darndest time getting it on film. She gets distracted everytime I have it out and spends more time falling than walking.

Just me, mom and these cups. It's gonna be a party!

Just climbed into the swing to watch a little TV and play with my cups.

Steady.......steady.......getting turned around

Wait one minute! Did you just change the channel Mommy?!

Awwwww! I was watching that!

Fine! We'll watch the news, but I'm not gonna like it.

Even watching the news is pretty fun from my swing.

Time to go....on to the next thing.

A brief demonstration of Kegan walking. She really does do better than this. I think she gets excited when I get the camera. Not too good under pressure to perform. At least Aaron was here to vouch for Kegan that she really can walk.....a little.

Thanksgiving in Mississippi

Madison, Kegan and I flew into Jackson early Thanksgiving morning. Kegan did pretty well on the plane. Having two of us to handle Kegan makes a big difference. Don't think I'll try it by myself again. After a few fits, Kegan did sleep a good portion of the flight. Cousin Kiley (who is expecting...yeah!) and Brad picked us up and brought us to Monticello to see the rest of the family.

We had a super warm welcome as usual and all the little cousins were there to greet Kegan. We hardly saw Kegan after that. She was swept up by the band of children and we would only get a glimpse every now and then of her as she came by smiling and giggling away. Kegan never meets a stranger and loves her favorite game...."pass the baby". She loves to hold her arms out to one person and then, as soon as they take her, turn to the other person and do the same. If you are lucky, she'll plant a sweet hug and kiss on you when you get her, then off to the next person. I set out a job to the cousins to have Kegan walking by the time we left, but it still hasn't happenend. Kegan is just not interested yet.

We had a huge talbe stretched across the room set so nicely, and of course, we never took the camera out once. Sorry no pictures. The food was fantastic. Kegan discovered greens and loved them....don't think I can ever cook them like Nana, but Kegan enjoyed them while she had them. We all ate, and ate, and ate. It was fun. Kegan finished the evening with a bubble bath in Nana's huge tub with cousin Kelly.

The next day was Kegan's birthday!!! We went shopping in Brookhaven and McComb. We were taking Kegan to have her birthday pictures made and they came out so cute. Kegan got ot have her first McDonald's happy meal. She ate the whole cheeseburger. I bought it thinking we were going to share....not so much! Mommy had to eat some of Aunt Alex's fries becuase Kegan didn't leave anything for me. Nothing else exciting, since the party was going to be tomorrow.

Saturday Nana and Pop hosted a wonderful birthday celebration. We had the most adorable frog cake. Nanny Jen and family, Nana and Pawpa Autin, and Old Pawpa and Mawma all came from Raceland. We had a suprise visit from our friends Bryan and Christine too. Nanny Jen, made Kegan's little cake which was delicious. Kegan enjoyed it. She had a great time playing with all the cousins. Ava the cutie squeaked around in her shoes and everyone had a great time. The gifts were great. Kegan did so well missing her nap and all and played the whole time.

The cousins together

Ava and Kegan playing sweetly while the boys watched

Mawma and Grandma enjoying watching the little ones play

Kegan playing peek-a-boo with me

Kegan giving one of her sweet hugs to Evan

Kegan playing "pass the baby" with Mawma




The pretty birthday cakes. The frog on the cake came with a flower in her hand and a pearl ring. She was so cute. Nanny Jen's cake was absolutely delicious and we all ate more of it than the frog cake. Thank you Nanny Jen and Evan!


Birthday girl ready for some grub!

Yummy, birthday hotdog and french fries!

Kegan's first Texan Birthday Party

Sunday Grammy and Grampy along with Aunt Nikki and the kids made it to Texas. Thanks to Aunt Sherry, we celebrated Kegan's birthday early for her first Texas birthday. All the France cousins were there and Paran Aaron too. We had a great time. Surprisingly Kegan has great manners and was more interested in the cards than the gifts at first. Aunt Sherry made Kegan a great cake and Aunt Nikki decorated it extra special. It was so pretty. Kegan got to wear her special birthday suit made by her Aunt Alex.

Cute birthday girl!

Hey! Somebody gonna read this thing?

Ring-around-the-rosie-ing, with Grammy

Wow, look at that cake!

Wait a minute, where are you taking the chocolaty goodness?

We moved Kegan to the kitchen and covered her in a dish towel, which ended up looking more like a poncho....perfect for Texas. Everyone watched waiting to see what Kegan would do. Once she got a taste of the sweet, she was digging in. Aunt Sherry also made birthday cupcakes, so we switched to that since Kegan could handle it easier, and boy did she! A few times Aunt Sherry thought we would have to give Kegan the Heimlich she was inhaling the cupcake so fast. We managed to slow her down for a little while with milk, then time for round two. After she was done, she didn't want to think about eating her dinner....I know, I know....stupid giving her dessert before dinner, but if you can't do it on your birthday, than when else can you!?

Aha! we meet again.

Ummmm! delectable! Do I taste a hint of Belgian chocolate?

No, wait, maybe German?

I really can't be sure

Nick is wondering why everyone is watching "that baby" eat the cake and he isn't getting any.

Wow, a Kegan size cake. Now, this I can handle!

See how well it all fits in my mouth at one time!

What? I'm fine, really Aunt Sherry! The gagging was just a little joke!

According to Pawpa......Aaaaaahhhhhh!

After that we moved on to the gifts. The card from Aunt Nikki was the coolest. It sang Jojo's Circus. Kegan really enjoyed her gifts.

Oooohhh, what's in there?

Wow, new pj's!

Kegan raising the roof, to her musical vacuum

Birthday parties are so much fun!

a busy few weeks

We have had a few busy weeks, so sorry no update. Last week, Kegan and I took a last minute trip to Raceland to be with her Pawpa during his liver biopsy. It was so good to visit, and Pawpa needed his spirits lifted since he's been feeling so crummy. We just got the results today of Dad's biopsy and it is liver cirrhosis, blah! Still more tests to be done to get together a plan for treatment so we are trying to stay positive that we can get him back to feeling somewhat normal soon. While we visited, Kegan got to spend some time with her cousins too. She and Ava are so cute together. They had the best time passing Ava's Marie cat around.

The next video is of Ava singing. To the trained ear, you can hear her singing Elmo's World. She is quite the singer just like her brother. Her favorite part of the song is the fanfare at the end which you can see as she performs it with dramatic flare (like her brother)!!

On the way home from our trip, Kegan officially turned me into the lady on the plane with the screaming baby. She has taken 5 or so plane trips and been a total angel....except for the return trip to Dallas. We sat next to a man in a nice buisness suit...of course. Kegan loved touching his computer screen, his nice shirt with cookie hands, his face while he tried to sleep.....how that man didn't get up and move I don't know. He acted like it didn't bother him, but I don't know. Kegan kicking him constantly had to have gotten on his nerves. It was an hour of hell. We were both exhausted when we arrived in Dallas from our in-flight "wrestling match".

Then one night at home, and off to San Antonio for the Rock and Roll Marathon. Madison along with one of his friends from work, Jodi, and his family, ran. Jodi's wife and sister-in-law ran the half marathon along with Madison while Jodi braved the marathon. Kegan and I were the running cheerleaders. It was a really cool race. Kegan and I armed with a spectator map, went to the start fo the race and ran to different parts of the course to cheer Madison on. We actually missed him at one point becuase he was so far ahead of his goal pace. At mile 2 Madison hooked up with three elite women in the marathon and ran with them through mile 10 when the two courses split. They were followed by a truck with a time clock that was taking live video of the women....and Madison. He went there hoping to run 1:18 and finished at 1:14:42. We were so excited.

The Marathon crew and their supporters

Mommy and Kegan after an awesome Cracker Barrell lunch

Today it was back to same old. After getting in at 10:30 last night, Madison and I had to go to work. Madison could barely walk by the end of the day as his post-race soreness set in. He went to get a massage after work. Paran Aaron came by to visit since he missed us all weekend. Kegan was so glad to see him

Kegan's First Halloween

Well, Kegan is sick again. I suppose she just never has gotten better, just waxes and wanes between bad and worse. She is now on breathing treatments and some oral steroids for her new wheezing cough. It is going along nicely with her ear infection which has had for 2 months. Albuterol is pretty funny stuff. It is like Kegan crack. She gets pretty hyper with it, but is happy for the most part.
So since Kegan isn't 100%, we tried to enjoy some of the Halloween festivities before she turned into a pumpkin. We lit our jack-o-lantern Kegan and her Daddy carved last weekend and Kegan and her Dad enjoyed some yummy candy. Her first piece of candy was a 100grand bar. As you can see she enjoyed it thoroughly.

Yummy chocolate!

Uh, Oh! Too much dancing with slippery candy.

Splat!

That's ok. I have more!

Kegan enjoying her candy!

You can see the sugar high begin to flicker and fade....going, going, gone!!

Let the post-candy meltdown begin!

So we decided to quickly put Kegan in her costume and send her on her way to score some more candy. Not like we didn't have plenty here, but we had to let her experience the Halloween magic of neighbors handing out goodies just because you are cute.

Yeah, this is what we started with. Guess how long the trick-or-treating lasted?

Kegan quickly came home with her big score! She made it to one house and was done.

Kegan quickly took to the tootsie pop, and whoever said taking candy from a baby was easy, didn't meet my baby! We had to strip her down and let her have at it. She ate almost the whole thing. Even tried out some of the wrapper. She gave that part back later....fun!

Kegan is Big Stuff

Kegan is officially a big girl. She got to ride forward facing on her way to school. She was super excited to see everything up front. Guess now we can actually use the video system in the car. Hope it works since we have used it maybe 3 times in the two years we have had my car. Little miss hot stuff!!

Sunday Kegan cheered the Cowboys on to a win while wearing her shirt bought for her by Aunt Sherry.

Go Cowboys!

In the background of this picture you can see Kegan's favorite toy....not the baby doll, the medicine bottle. I put some candy corns in it and it makes the best shaker. Kegan loves it almost as much as the rattle she stole from Ava.

Trying to help mama take pictures

Kegan's Nanny Jennifer will be so proud to see Kegan loving her baby....sort of. She does it so good, but I can't seem to get her to perform well for the camera. She really is so cute whenever she comes across her doll, she stops to sit and ah, ah, ah and pat her baby. She even will give it a kiss every now and then.