Go Gators!!

We are getting ready to cheer on our Florida Gators tonight. Erik, Kayleigh and I all wore Gator stuff to school and work today. Kayleigh wore a cheerleading outfit (not pictured) that she got from Erik's parents to school today. She supposedly had a blow out, so they had to change her outfit! This afternoon, I changed her into an outfit from my parents so that we could take pictures and you could hear her tell you what a gator "says"--chomp chomp with hand motions. Kayleigh was in the middle of eating a cracker when I took her picture and video, so I'm sorry about the crumb on her chin!

"Come Ginger!"

Kayleigh has figured out how we call the dogs to us and now uses it herself. It makes me laugh, because I guess it is how I always call the dogs and never realized it until Kayleigh started doing it herself. It doesn't really work for her, though, because the dogs don't understand her when she calls. Kayleigh is making the kissing sound on the video, and the first word she says is Ginger, but I think you have to listen for that if you don't understand her.

This method of telling someone to come can work on humans, too. Mama Shirley will come running when Kayleigh calls, and this afternoon, I heard her call her friend, Jack to come over to where she was. Erik and I try not to give in to her when she calls us like that. We'll at least tell her to say please so that it doesn't seem as bad.

Big church

We had a combined church service today, which means instead of having a traditional and then contemporary worship service, everyone was invited to one service at 10:30. The church does this every year around the holidays because of the lowered attendance. I liked starting so much earlier (the contemporary service starts at 11:15) and getting out earlier. Our Sunday School class is getting ready to combine with a couple of other classes. Before the combined service, we had a big pot luck breakfast. Yum! All of the kids were invited to breakfast as well, so Kayleigh stayed upstairs with us. She was so content to be with us that we decided not to take her to the nursery when we went to church. She cracked us up and embarrassed us during church, so I don't think this was the start of a new tradition. I can't imagine having to keep her with us every week, because it is so distracting. Here is what she did this morning:

--At the end of several songs, she clapped and cheered, "Yay!!!"
--During one of the prayers, and yelled, "Amen", more clearly than we've ever heard her yell.
--She tried to rearrange the hymnals and Bibles.
--She tried to help the worship leader conduct the songs. It was funny watching her move her arms around like she was mimicking the conductor.
--She saw someone leave the sanctuary and realized that it was a door we were sitting next to in case we needed a quick escape. She started miming knocking on a door and said, "knock, knock!"

It was funny for one Sunday, but I think that was enough for us.

Videos

Here are two of the videos that I tried to take of Kayleigh chasing Grandma. They're both short and cute, so I figured you could handle watching them. We've decided that next time, as soon as we see Kayleigh doing something cute, we're going to run for the camera and try to capture the moment. Until then, here you go!

More Merry Christmas

We three traveled to see my parents and other family members for Christmas. On Christmas Eve, we had a Cuban dinner. Lots of family came over for the visit, and we had a great time seeing everyone. On Christmas morning, we took our time getting up and ready to go. We even ate breakfast before we started opening gifts! Kayleigh got a neat little armchair with an ottoman. She also got a basketball hoop from Aunt Valerie and Tio Matteo. She is good with a basketball, let me tell you! We're excited about it because it's something that she can do outside besides try to chase the random cats that roam the neighborhood! One of the funniest moments was after she got a little talking phone from my parents. My aunt called the house, and while Mom talked to her on the real phone, Kayleigh talked on her toy phone. Too cute!

Today we went to visit Granny and Aunt Ola. Aunt Ola is recovering from a heart attack in the hospital. We took Granny over to the hospital so that we could all visit together. Granny fed us some delicious white chili and fresh cuban bread. Yum! I think we're going to a Thai restaurant with my parents tonight. We got a lot when we're down here, but it's a treat for Erik and me because we don't eat Thai food back home. Tomorrow we'll travel again so that we can go to church on Sunday. We're having a big breakfast with 3 different Sunday School classes that are going to combine in January. We'll have some new teachers, and more study topics to choose from each week. I think it'll be a little weird at first and that each of the Sunday School groups will stick to themselves, but it won't be too long before we branch out to our new classmates.

I'll end this with a video. You have to know that Kayleigh LOVES her grandma! Earlier this morning, Kayleigh was chasing Grandma back and forth down the hall while Grandma was trying to get some things done. Of course, by the time I wanted to get it on video, Kayleigh had pretty much given up the chase. It's still pretty funny, so I have to share....Okay, the video didn't work tonight and I'm tired. I'll try again tomorrow when we're back home.

Family Christmas

On Saturday, we celebrated Christmas with Erik's family. We made out like bandits and Kayleigh got some good stuff! We have some pictures of Kayleigh with her cousin, Thor. They liked the gifts that they each got, and were upset when one wanted to play with the other's toys!

On Tuesday night, we went out to dinner with Erik's parents, and then went back to their house to open a few more gifts. I had forgotten our camera at their house on Saturday, and when got it out to take more pictures, the batteries had died. Go figure! Kayleigh is getting good at opening presents, but she doesn't have the attention span to stay with it the entire time. One of her favorite gifts was a "Tickle Me Cookie Monster". That thing is VERY ticklish, and would roll on the floor laughing if you tickled him. I think Kayleigh got a kick out of it until it rolled towards her one time. Then she was a little freaked out, but wasn't ready for Daddy to put it away. Thanks again, Jim and Shirley, for all of our great gifts!

Next, it's off to see my family and have one more Christmas celebration. It's a busy season, but it's always good to spend time with family.

Christmas parties

Last weekend we went to two Christmas parties with Erik's work. On Friday night, his company hosted an adult party at a country club in town. There was a photographer there that took our picture. I had teased Erik while we were in line about doing a prom pose for our picture, and almost started to laugh outloud when she actually made us do it! The party was fun. We hung out with people that I already know, and I got to meet a lot more coworkers of Erik, including the father of one of my students!



On Saturday night, we went to a kids' party, again hosted by Erik's company. They had it at a place in town with a bunch of blowup slides and play areas. Since Kayleigh is so small, we got to go on the slides with her. We had so much fun, but I was sorry that I wore a long sleeved shirt and pants! It was cold outside, but I was hot from all of the playing I was doing. At that party, all of the kids got to have their picture taken with Santa, a gift, and a $10 gift certificate to Walmart. Do you like the look Kayleigh is giving Santa??? Priceless.