Christmastime Pictures

Kilee kissed all of her stuffed animals as she opened them.

She looks like such a little girl here!

Grandpa looks proud!

Winner of the Cutest Santa Award 2007

Happy 1st Birthday, Kilee Anne!

Our little girl is officially 1 year old! It's really difficult to believe. Scott and I are so excited and thankful for such a wonderful, healthy and growing girl, but you'd better believe there were a few tears as we watched our "baby girl" turn one! We had such a great time visiting family. Since it's just her 1st birthday and we didn't think she'd mind, we just combined Christmas and birthday celebrations with family this year. She had such a great time playing, opening presents, destroying birthday cakes, and being adored by all. We started our Christmas/Birthday trip at Grandma and Grandpa's house (Scott's dad and stepmom) and we had a blast playing with Uncle Dylan and Aunt April!
Then, we went to M-ville to visit Nana and Papaw (Monica's parents). We celebrated Uncle Jeremy's graduation from college, too! So much fun.
Then on Kilee's birthday, the 23rd, we went to see Scott's mom (Kilee's Mamaw), Eldon, Uncle Chris, Great-Grandma and Bill and even more family and friends. They threw a birthday party for Kilee that night and then we celebrated Christmas with the family the next day. It was great! We all had such a great time. I'm afraid Kilee is really missing all of her adoring fans now that we're at home and it's just me and Scott with her! She seems to be looking for all of her "grandies" as she walks around the house.
We had a wonderful Christmas with family and we were blessed to be able to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at our house, just the three of us! We put Kilee to bed after we read the story about the birth of Jesus. Scott and I had a great time "playing" Santa last night! Once we figured out where the English instructions for Kilee's kitchen were (we have got to get our Spanish textbooks out for a refresher course!), we assembled it in no time flat! We got some great video footage of Christmas morning, too.
Well, I'm signing off for tonight. I'll post some Christmas pictures later! Merry Christmas everyone!

December News

Hello Everyone! Hope all is well. We're really having fun as Christmas and Kilee Anne's 1st birthday are approaching. Scott has been able to be home a lot more since recruiting came to a close and we've been able to enjoy some fun family time! We got to spend Thanksgiving with my cousin Mandye and her family and then we spent the rest of the break doing "Deer Camp 2007" out at C-more with the Melber family. It was too much fun! Scott got a couple of does this year. We spent a romantic Friday evening processing deer meat and now the freezer is full for the next year! Scott is really hoping to kill a turkey this week before shotgun season is over. We're country folks just livin' off the land. :o)

Kilee is now walking all by herself! WALKING! It's nuts. We're so proud of her. It's so funny to see her stepping all over the house. She's getting really good at it! I had to post these pictures of her. I was outside putting garland on the front porch rails and she was watching me through the glass storm door. She looks so hilarious!












We're going to be working on our Christmas letters and baked goods this week. I hope to get everything done a little early this year to beat the rush right before we travel home. It's going to be an exciting Christmas this year, but not nearly as exciting (or excruciatingly painful) as last year! Ha ha.

Fall Memories

Here are a few of the promised pictures from some recent memorable Fall Events.

Playing Guitar with Daddy.


Pushing chairs around the kitchen. (She's a really cute version of "The Hulk".)


Cleaning out pumpkins with Daddy.


Mommy carving the pumpkins. Not pregnant -- just a bad shirt. :o)


The finished pumpkins.


Our adorable little puppy dog -- Halloween 2007!

Lately . . .

It seems we've been busy lately. Scott's been keeping the road hot on his recruiting adventures while Kilee and I have been running around doing various things together. Not that we've kept the world's craziest schedule or anything, but I've been finding myself excessively tired. And no . . . I'm not pregnant. :o)

I am really enjoying the Mom 2 Mom group at church. It has really been an encouragement to me to meet with other moms and discuss how we can grow as wives, mothers and followers of Christ. We have a lot of fun talking about our kids, too! I'm learning a lot. We've had a few projects going on at home in addition to the usual ones. I've been trying to get all of our clothes "switched over" from summer to fall for about a week now, we've had a "no eating out" policy for over a month so I've been cooking constantly, and I've found some other home improvementish tasks to do as well. Kilee Anne is constantly on the move! Scott and I think she is really close to walking now. She "cruises" around all of our furniture and walks holding onto me with just one hand! Is it really possible that our baby is almost a year old? It can't be true!

Things with Scott's job are starting to get a little less hectic far as his schedule is concerned, although he will have to travel a bit this month, too. He keeps busy, but he's been so good about coming home and making special time to spend with us. He's been hunting a few times, but no deer yet. I'm sure it's only a matter of time -- he's pretty good with a bow.

Tonight we dressed Kilee Anne up like a puppy dog for trick or treat! She was SO cute. Like, seriously . . . she was the cutest baby EVER. I speak the truth, (and yes, I am her mother). :o) We will be posting pictures soon. Scott borrowed a video camera from work and got some great footage of the whole trick-or-treat experience. We had so much fun! God has given us such a wonderful blessing in little Kilee!

Take care everyone! More to come . . .

Fall Events

These past few weeks have been a blur! We've had a lot going on. We've enjoyed visits from family, trips to the Zoo, birthdays, and picking pumpkins! Scott's already been on the road quite a bit recruiting Summer Staff for 2008, so that's been busy for him -- and I've been busy with different activities at church, playgroup and visits with Kilee, and generally just keeping up with the little girl! Her latest feats include crawling (she's amazingly fast), walking while holding onto furniture, pulling up to anything and everything (all toilet lids MUST be in the down position at all times), and "cleaning out" all of our baskets, drawers and cabinets. It's exhausting, but VERY fun! I can't say much more, not because there's little to say but because I have GOT to go to bed! Here are some pictures you might enjoy. They're from my birthday where Scott and I had a cooking date and made a cake in the shape of a pumpkin, a trip to the Zoo, and our latest outing (today) picking pumpkins at Gallrein Farms in Shelbyville. It was a blast, we rode a hayride to the pumpkin patch, listened to live folk/bluegrass music, and picked some awesome pumpkins. Kilee Anne LOVED it!

"Welcome Home, Honey" in 1955

This was sent to me by one of my friends at church. It's an actual 1955 Good Housekeeping Magazine Article. You'll probably have to click on it to read it. This is how I greet Scott every night when he comes home from work. Just kidding! A few of the pointers are probably very valid! Scott said it sounded nice! Ha. :o)

GO Cats!

UK's secret to success against U of L last Saturday . . .

Vacation in Florida

We were blessed by some friends to be able to go to Florida earlier this month for our family vacation. They let us stay in their condo for a week for FREE! The condo was in Clearwater, FL and it was absolutely gorgeous. We brought food to cook all week and we just basically became beach bums. Kilee Anne LOVED the beach! Our friends even babysat Kilee for a day so that Scott and I could have a date on the beach. They recommended the coolest restaurant on Anna Maria Island called the Sandbar. It was so great! This was definitely a dream vacation in every sense of the word. Kilee Anne was a good traveler to be in the car for so long, too. Thanks Cushings for a spectacular time! I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves about how much fun we had.

Our Trip to the Zoo!

Hello everyone! I just wanted to share some pictures from our trip to the zoo on Saturday! It was a great family day. Kilee Anne really enjoyed seeing the animals and Scott and I had fun, too. We started with all of the big animals, which Kilee really enjoyed. The picture where Scott's holding her is from the Elephant exhibit where they were looking at the new baby elephant, Scotty. She loved the giraffes, too. We walked through the petting zoo as well and Kilee was very interested in the goats. We brought some snacks with us and sat down and ate for awhile and soon Kilee Anne was asleep! Scott and I enjoyed the rest of the zoo, especially the Herpaquarium with the Albino alligator, "King Louie." We were walking through the snake exhibit in the herpaquarium and just when we got to the dark room with all of the snakes in it, I stepped on a straw that some kid had left in the floor and nearly screamed! Scott thought it was pretty funny. After the zoo, we went out for Chinese food. It was great day! We were so excited to get to take our kid to the zoo! Enjoy the pictures. . .

New Pictures

Here are a few new pictures! This is from our anniversary date last night. We went to PF Chang's and ate incredible Chinese. One of the perks of PF Chang's is that they have a Gluten Free Menu for Scott, so he has a lot of food to choose from. It was great! They brought us free desserts, too! One for me and a special GF one for Scott. They were so thoughtful. Then, we went to Java Brewing Co. for some coffee and on home to relieve our wonderful babysitters, a couple of college students from summer staff. Kilee Anne did really well. We hung out for awhile and then went on to bed. Scott and I are both sick with the same virus Kilee had! Oh well.
Here are a few pictures of Kilee playing in the living room that I thought you all might enjoy. She's a sweetie!