Kaelyn's Birthday Pics

Kaelyn had a rockin' 16th birthday by the time all was said and done. If we totaled everything she got including birthdays, cruises, gifts, and what not...she would've been able to get a car. Oh well! We're going to run through the pics and see what we see.

This was the cake made by Samantha with help from Nana, and Nicole who made the brown. :) This was their first attempt at a cake like this.
I had to show this because she's just weird.

What a happy birthday girl. What happened to my font? Anyway, this was last Saturday and today...she was diagnosed with mono. Here are her glands that she wanted me to take a picture of.

She told Logan she swallowed an egg. He believed her and wanted to see. Poor kid. She feels really bad. Say a prayer if you can. It would stink for her to still have this at Christmas.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAELYN!!!!!!!

Well, it's official. I'm the parent of a 16yo. How did this happen? Don't answer that. :) I'm trying to do some late night preparing for her birthday, but I don't think I'm going to get it done. I'm tired. Here are some things you might not know about Kaelyn.

1. She makes sense. She's got a good head on her shoulders. She thinks things out and makes it really hard to fight with her because she has good, solid, valid points. It's embarrassing sometimes. :)
2. She is a COMPLETELY different person around her friends, and I feel blessed that I got to meet that person.
3. Her best and least favorite subject is English. I take full credit for that because I drilled it into her when we home schooled.
4. She's an awesome writer. She once wrote a poem called "An Ode To A Breadcrumb" for a home school assignment. It was actually a really great poem.
5. She's one of those people that's messy but knows where everything is in her mess. (I have no idea where she gets that from)
6. She went to DisneyWorld for the first time in her life this year, and for that I am ashamed.
7. Sometimes she reminds me of an endearing child. For instance, she carried around a monkey almost all of our vacation so it would smell better before she gave it to it's rightful owner...even going on the lazy river with the thing.
8. Between sleeping in and Chick-Fil-A for breakfast, she chose sleeping in.
9. She's becoming a better bigger sister as she gets used to these teenage years.
10. She is a quiet, caring, outgoing, loving, funny, beautiful, smart, talented, AMAZING young adult, and I am SO proud of her.

Happy Sweet 16, Kaelyn! I love you!
Here are some recent and throw pics that are my favorites of Kaelyn.

Paula

Paula is my sister-in-law. She is my brother-in-law's wife. Here are a few things about Paula.

1. She's Portuguese.
2. She's always late. (see #1)
3. She taught my three younger children how to say the word, "no."
4. She wouldn't hurt a fly.
5. For weighing 90 pounds soaking wet, she can put away a bottle of wine, or beer, or Mike's Hard Lemonade.
6. Don't plan on having any sweet potato pie in her presence.(the only instance when #4 doesn't apply)
7. Her love for her family is tangible.
8. She has an awesome chew.
9. She has an amazing ability to get to Thurmont, MD from just about anywhere.
10. She is a loving, humble, refreshingly blunt, caring, and thoughtful person...beautiful inside and out.

We're pulling for you Paula. And next time, just tell me you don't want to go to yoga with me. You don't have to ride off in an ambulance to cancel. ;) We love you!

Disgusting Images

Doesn't that just make you want to read this blog? If you're reading this blog, you know that I don't like ketchup. That's a nice way to put it. I HATE ketchup. Using the word HATE here. There's nothing I like about it. I don't like the smell, texture, taste, color (even though my favorite color is red), nothing. If they had a crayon that was ketchup red, I wouldn't color with it. I would throw it away on principle. Do you get the message? Ketchup is bad. I think it has something to do with my sisters trying to get me to eat it as a kid at Memco. Does anyone remember Memco? When my mom would take me and my sisters there, I would hide in the clothing racks and freak my mom out when she couldn't find me. Eventually she got sick of this and just left me wherever I was. Then I would freak out that I couldn't find her, so I would drop to the ground and look for her shoes. I don't know what kind of shoes they were. They were blue wedge shoes I think...I think they're called wedge. I could draw them. Anyway....back to the blog.

I don't like ketchup. The end. I don't like anything really. The only condiments I eat are soy sauce (Hello!? I'm Filipino!), salt and pepper. Mayo, mustard, all that yuck...Kevin eats them. He eats mayo and ketchup on his french fries. I refuse to kiss him after such a meal. Bleh! AND THEN!!!!! HE GIVES IT TO MARLEY TO TRY AND SHE LIKES IT!!!!! He's already done this to Rory, and yes, she likes it too. Kaelyn and Logan are still with me. Well, Kaelyn likes ketchup, but not on her fries and certainly not with mayo. She doesn't like mayo at all, and Logan? Fuggedaboutit. He won't eat anything that isn't fruit! That's my rant and I'm sticking to it. Besides, I have pictures.


I have no words.

Lego Disney

I could tell that Kevin was really excited to go to the Lego store at Disney. He kept calling for Logan to come on, but Logan was more interested in playing on the play yard outside of the store. He went in with Kaelyn instead. Here are a couple things in and out of there that were cool.

Yep...all Lego's. I think I could work at this store just making Lego stuff all day. Actually, I probably wouldn't be good at it. There's a rumor going around that I'm not that patient. :o I'm sure that once Logan gets a little older, and we visit Disney again, he'll be right there with Kevin building something. They have little tables out front full of Lego's. Alas...here was Logan...

Better luck next time!

Car Picks

While we survived the road trip to and from Florida, it's not something I would choose over say...dental surgery. Yeah...that's saying a lot. Here are some pics of to and fro.

These two pics were on our way out. They were all that were taken for some reason. Everything else is on the way home. Since we started out when it was still dark, all the kids got glow sticks.

We were in Richmond. We hadn't stopped for a while and the natives were restless. I think Logan started crying, then Rory started complaining, then Kaelyn started complaining, and eventually we all were just whining and crying...on our way to get food to up the blood sugar in the car. It was funny, and I'm obviously not very good at taking pics of myself along with the rest of the car. Sorry.

Halloween

We spent Halloween recuperating from our drive from Florida and battling colds. Currently Kevin, Rory, Logan, and I all have colds. It stinks. Anyway, we went to Nana and Papa's for Halloween. We normally have dinner and then take the kids around N&P's townhouse complex because it's easier and in our neighborhood, you're likely to get a dime bag rather than candy. :) I forgot my camera for the actual festivities, but I did get costume shots before we left. Please keep in mind that each kid picked their costume.

Monster Marley

Katara (Mindbender) Rory

Wolverine Logan
For those of you that follow X-Men, Wolverine's real name is Logan

Monster giving Wolverine a drink.

By the end of the night, Marley had "Trick or Treat" and "Thank you" down pat. She was so cute. When people were handing out candy, she would be in the back of the pack yelling, "Me! Me!" When I would go to try and pick her up so we could move faster, she would pull her basket away from me yelling, "No!" thinking that I was trying to get her candy. She was traumatized. For now there's a bag of candy and two fat and happy parents. :)