A Weekend At Home

We had plans to go to the pool again this weekend....however, the weather was not cooperating. It was either extremely windy or raining...hopefully another weekend! Having a weekend at home was nice too though. Saturday we got a lot done. We started setting up Kaelyn's new bed and bedroom. She is SO excited! We still don't have it all ready for her....but soon she'll be sleeping in there. Such a big girl! We're praying for a smooth transition.

Kaelyn and Daddy trying out her new big girl bed!

Sunday afternoon our church was hosting a Petting Zoo. Knowing how much Kaelyn LOVES animals...we knew she'd think this was pretty neat. We went and had a wonderful time! Right as we got there, she walked right over the goats and said "Hi Sheep" in the loudest and cutest voice! :) It was adorable. We tried explaining that they were goats, but "sheep" is what they looked like to her....too cute! She also loved the little pigs, the dog and the bunny! It makes me excited to take her to the zoo again this year....she'll enjoy that a lot too.

Kaelyn getting licked by the dog! :)

It was a great weekend and one that was rather productive. That was probably a good thing considering we will be away next weekend in Cedar Falls helping my brother and his family move!

New Milestones

As I've shared in recent posts, over the past few months Kaelyn has started to show signs that she is ready for potty training. Scott and I wanted to take it slow and and let her tell us when she was ready. She often will tell us "potty" just after she goes, or just before. When she does this, we take her to sit on her potty where she'll sometimes go and sometimes won't. Lately though....she's been telling us before she goes a lot...and runs for her potty. Starting this month she would tell us when she had to go and would go almost every time! Then this week... she's been going EVERY time she tells us she needs to and we've had less and less wet diapers. We're still taking it slow, but I feel are making a lot of progress. Today she has gone in the potty every time so far...no wet diapers!! She goes over to the potty by herself, goes, then gets up and says "look" so proudly and of course after that says "mm" (m & m) which is what she gets when she goes! I'm so proud of her for letting us know that she's ready and really trying at this!! We haven't had to do much but encourage her...it's come so naturally to her which is nice too. It would be nice to have her out of diapers and trained by the time the baby gets here in November....let's hope so!! That would be GREAT!

As always, Kaelyn has been talking up a storm....saying new words and sentences that have Scott and I looking at eachother wondering where she learned that. Like the other day when I walked out the room she said "Mama where going? Wait!" Or yesterday when she said "I don't know" and "cute" :). It's just fun to see her learning every day! It's nice because between her signing and her multitude of words we know exactly what she needs/wants and she knows what we're saying too. The Baby Signing Time was the best thing we ever did. Introducing that to Kaelyn at 3 months old significantly increased her vocabulary and I believe helped to encourage her to start talking earlier. It's definitely something we will do with our next baby as well!

I can't believe I'm saying this (it doesn't seem possible)...but in just a matter of days my baby will be 20 months old already! Where has the time gone?!? She's such a joy and makes us smile each and every day! Like last night as I was standing by the stove making supper, she walked over, stood there by my legs and gave me a hug...then pushed up my shirt a little and kissed my belly as she said "baby"....what a sweetie...makes my heart melt! Children are such a blessing!

This week we got Kaelyn's new bedding for her "big girl bed" and also the bed rails. We are planning on setting up her new room this weekend and hopefully start the transition to a big girl bed. She's been a fantastic sleeper since the day she was born, so we're thinking that it will go fairly smoothly. We were hoping to be in a new house by the time we made the transition...oh well. We've decided that we'll move her to the other bedroom we have on the main level and will keep the nursery set up for when the baby arrives. If we move before then, then I guess we move...but we want to plan as though we'll be here just in case. So anyways...it will be a big change for her. I'll keep you all posted on how it goes.....

Father's Day Weekend

What a fun weekend!! We took Kaelyn to the pool here in town again...she loved it even more than the first time! It was beautiful out with lots of sun! What a fun time to spend together as a family. I love summer!

Sunday we spent Father's Day with both of our Dads. Scott LOVES to golf and hadn't had the opportunity to get out and golf yet this summer. So...I thought for Father's Day it would be fun for him, my Dad and my brother to all go spend the day golfing together. They did, and had a blast! The weather was a little dreary....but they made the best of it and ended up golfing 3 rounds! While they were out, my mom, Kaelyn and I all went to visit my Grandparents and had lunch. It was great to see them! Yesterday afternoon we headed to Scott's Dad's and had supper with them. Kaelyn had the chance to meet her very first baby pig! Grandpa Gaskill has such a fun farm for her play on...and the animals there are so cute! Now all Kaelyn talks about is going outside to see the pigs. :)




I hope all of you had a wonderful Father's Day as well! Wish it wouldn't have gone by so quickly...

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day Scott!! You are the greatest husband and Daddy in the world!! We are so blessed to have you in our lives and love you so much!

I also wanted to say Happy Father's Day to my Dad! You are the best!! Love you!

Today Is Our 4th Wedding Anniversary

Today Scott and I are celebrating our 4th Wedding Anniversary! I say this every year that goes by, but I can't believe it's been 4 years already! We were married June 18, 2005...and everyday since then I thank the Lord for bringing him into my life! He is the love of my life and the perfect man for me! I am the luckiest girl in the world!

The last 4 years have been filled with many blessings....two of which are the greatest is the birth of our daughter, Kaelyn Sue on November 1, 2007, and the exciting news that we're expecting our second baby in November of this year! We couldn't be happier with where our lives have headed in the past 4 years....God is SO good!

It's exciting to think about what the next 4 years will hold... :)

Happy Anniversary Scott!! I love you so much and am truly blessed to have you as my husband!

FINALLY....a nice day!

Well...we finally had ONE day of sunshine here in the northern midwest and Scott, Kaelyn and I took full advantage of it. Sunday after church and Kaelyn's nap, we decided it was the perfect afternoon to take Kaelyn to the pool. She hadn't been there since July of last year and we knew she'd have even more fun this time! We were right...she loved it and was walking up to little kids the whole time wanting to go play in the pool with them. She's such a social butterfly. :)

Playing in the water with Daddy

Making Friends Everywhere we go!

Hugs

She Loves Her Daddy!

We had a wonderful time and wish we could have stayed longer. The days just go by too quickly. Sadly, the following days have been very wet and cool here. We've gotten so much rain, which has meant that we're stuck indoors as we have been for much of the summer. Hopefully we'll get the chance to enjoy the pool again soon though!

Happy Anniversary Dad & Mom!!

I wanted to take a moment and wish my wonderful parents a very Happy Anniversary! They've been married for 30 years today and are the best parents in the world! :) I appreciate the Godly example they've set in their marriage...what a wonderful thing and such an inspiration to us all! Have a wonderful day Dad and Mom!!

We Love You!!! :)

Little Chip Thief :)

From the time Kaelyn was two weeks old we knew she'd be a girl on the move when she rolled over for the first time from her belly to her back. Now, at the age of 19 1/2 months she's proven to us many times that she still always wants to be going, going, going! She's running around all over the place, not to mention climbing anywhere she can. She's a little monkey. :) Scott is at work most of the day during the week so he often forgets just how fast she can be and what a good climber she is. He was warming up some supper for himself one night this week, and when he turned around, this is what he found! Miss Kaelyn standing at the table stuffing her face with the chips he had just set down to have with his supper. Little stinker. :) haha (if you click on the picture you can see she already has a whole one in her mouth :) ) She obviously enjoyed the few she had gotten and we couldn't help but laugh and capture this moment with a picture.

In other Gaskill news....I had my 4 month dr appointment on Wednesday. It was just a quick routine checkup to listen to the baby's heartrate which is always fun! Next time, in 4 weeks, we get to see our little one on ultrasound. If we were going to find out the sex of the baby we would find out at that time....however, I think we've decided that we want to be surprised again like we were with Kaelyn. It will still be great to see him/her again though...ultrasounds are always my favorite appointments! I can't believe that that appointment will also mark the midway point of my pregnancy! I can't tell you how much faster this pregnancy is going. It hardly seems possible that we're almost to 20 weeks already! I feel like November will be here before we know it. YEAH!

Other than that we're still in the process of looking for a house and selling ours. We've had some very interested people walk through...so our hope and prayer is that it will still be some time this summer. God knows the best timing...so we're just trying to be patient and know that everything will work out perfectly.

Kaelyn and I are still anxiously awaiting for the temps to warm up a bit so we can start spending more time outdoors. It's the middle of June already and doesn't feel like it at all. We still enjoy having a ice pop once in a while though...even though it's still not the warmest out...Kaelyn sure loves them. :)

Lots of Changes....

We've had quite the busy weekend. It was great though!! Friday my brother came up to visit and stayed with us. He is always so excited to see Kaelyn and she loves her Uncle "Jakey" as she always says! :) He and my parents went to Philadelphia Saturday morning for the week so we are watching my parents dog Zoe. That has been a lot of fun for Kaelyn. She's always saying "come zoe" or "nice puppy" as she pets her.

Saturday afternoon we had a graduation reception to go to for Scott's cousin. It was great to see his whole family and spend some time out and about...even though the weather was not as enjoyable. It's been raining here ALL weekend! We had really hoped to make a trip to the pool sometime this weekend, but I guess that will have to wait until the weather decides to cooperate.

Today we had a fairly relaxing day...went to church, came home and all took naps, then relaxed as a family. It was a great way to end the weekend! Today we began working more with Kaelyn on potty training. It would be great to have her out of diapers by the time the baby gets here. We haven't worked with her too much up until now. She'll often tell us she wants to sit on the potty, so we take her in and sometimes she'll go and sometimes she won't. Today she began telling us she had to go and each time she'd actually go when we sat her on the potty. It was very exciting! I'm going to continue to encourage this and hopefully she'll catch on quickly!! :) In the near future we'll also be getting Kaelyn into a big girl bed so we can get her all transitioned before the baby comes. Hopefully that transition will go well too! Lots of changes in the Gaskill household!

Still House Hunting

Well...the house in FC that we had made an offer on fell through. We haven't sold our house yet, so it was only a contingent offer...which means that someone could still make an offer on it and get it...and someone did just that. Although it was a bit disappointing...we know that God's hand is in all of this and that this house must just not be the one for us. So many times in our lives the Lord has shown us His plan for our lives. Sometimes it's not what we thought it would be in the beginning...but as time goes on we see why it's the very best. He is so good and only wants the best for us!

Our house is still on the market and we're awaiting that perfect offer still. As we wait, we are now searching again for a home. Since Forest City didn't have much else to offer that we liked, we have expanded our search to include Lake Mills. It was our second choice for the town we would live in and does a couple of potential homes that could work for us. Last night we actually looked at one for the second time and took our parents to take a look as well. It's difficult not to be picky when we love the house we're in so much...but overall the consensus was good. It doesn't have quite the space ours does, but is newer and very nice. There are definitely things that we would want to do to "personalize" it and make it our own...but what fun would buying a house be if you couldn't do those things, right?!? We don't know what we'll do at this point....we're going to keep praying about it and following the Lord's leading. If we decide to make an offer and all goes well I think it could make for a very nice house for us. We'll just have to see what happens. God is in control! :)

This week has been fairly uneventful other than that and that we've had a couple of showings for our hosue. Kaelyn turned 19 months old on the 1st...that was pretty exciting too! Kind of bittersweet though...our little girl is getting so big and growing so fast! This past weekend we actually got her a baby (it cries, coos, closes it's eyes, etc) to help get her ready for her baby brother or sister in November. She calls her Emma and carries her everywhere! I know she'll be a terrific big sister!!