Where have we been?

I'm sure ya'll are wondering where we've been. It has been two whole months since my last update. We've been very busy, but there really is no excuse for going that long without an update. As you might remember from my last post, Kaylee had 6 teeth removed in mid January. As a reward for going through that pain, we told Kaylee to pick something fun that she would like to go do with Craig and I. She decided that she would like to try bowling. Now, the only type of bowling that Kaylee has done is on the Wii so we thought it might be fun to take her to try the real thing. I think she enjoyed herself, but it was very hard for her because the balls were so heavy. She used the underhand granny roll and I think eventually she will enjoy playing. I actually played very well in both games. I almost beat Craig, but if he sees I'm close to him in the final frames then he turns it on and beats me in the end. I wish I could do that! Here are some photos of us at the bowling alley.

On February 3rd Morgan turned 3 years old! Can you believe it? I have trouble sometimes believing that she is 3 already. She is growing up so much. She is now running all over the place. She loves her time at the Y with "her friends" and is just a fun person to hang out with. The other day we were at a doctors office and Morgan was in the kids play area with a few other kids and I heard her say "I'm 3, I'm Morgan!". By the time the other kids left after about 10 minutes they were all saying "Goodbye, Morgan!" If was very fun to see her be so outgoing. We had several small parties for her birthday. We had a some friends over on her birthday for a Birthday/Super Bowl party. Then we went to Chuck E. Cheese on Monday for another celebration. We went with our friends that came over for the Super Bowl Party. Allyson was Morgan's Special Instruction Therapist and she and I really hit it off. Her husband Tom and Craig seem to be cut from the same cloth. I have never heard two people use the same silly phrases even without hanging out together. It is kind of weird! They have a little girl named Bess who is 4 years old. Morgan says that she went to Chuck E. Cheese with her best friend Bess, her best friend Allyson, her best friend Tom, Kaylee, Mom and Dad. You will see a picture of Morgan with a little girl in a school bus and that is Bess. Here are some birthday pictures.

My big news is that I am really into baking right now. I would really love to have my own bakery some day, but for now I'll have to practice at home. One of my first big things I started working on is Cinammon rolls. I wanted to try to make them a "little" less fattening so I tried making the dough with applesauce instead of shortening. I wasn't sure if it would work, but it did. I decided I should take pictures of the process so you will see the dough when first made, after raising for 2 hours, the rolled up cinammon rolls, then the raised rolls and then the final product. I also used applesauce in place of the butter on the inside with the cinammon and sugar and raisins. The great part is that they turned out really good. Craig even made a great coffee flavored drizzle to put on them. In fact, I just made a Blueberry Buckle that is cooling on the counter as I am typing this.

The next exciting thing that happened to us is that we had a visitor come and stay with us. My Mom came out from Oregon! We were all very excited to have her here. We got to show her our home and where we live. We had a great time while she was here. Mom and I took one day just for the two of us and went to visit Biltmore Estate. It was amazing and we had a great time while we were there. We had lunch at the Winery Bistro and sampled some wine. It was a wonderful way to spend the day. The only down side was that Kaylee was home sick that day. She was supposed to be at school but came down with the flu that morning. I thought that she was faking, but when she started throwing up I had to admit she was probably ill. She ended up staying home with Craig and was feeling better when we got home around 5pm. The bad thing is that she have me her sickness, so the last day Mom was here I was totally sick. I was out for several days, but luckily no one else caught it.

The weekend after my Mom left we threw a big surprise party at our house for Craig's Mom's birthday. Luckily I had the house clean from when my mom was here. We ended up having about 25 people here for the party. Chris and Brian came in from Cincinnati and Holly was here from Atlanta. It was a complete surprise and everyone had a great time. Here is a link to Chris' website for pictures.

Well, I better get back to packing. We are leaving tomorrow for Orlando, Fl for Spring Break. Craig's parents have a time share down there so we get to go down and stay in their condo. Grammy and Grampy and Auntie Holly will be there with us. I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures to share when we get back.

Have a great day!