The Chilton's

Happy Birthday Kaylyn!!

2012-02-12T20:21:00.011-06:00

My Baby Girl turned 11 years old today! Can you believe it??? I can't! She is growing up way too fast and turning into a little lady right before my eyes.

This year she opted to not have a big slumber party (YEEEESSSSS!!) and have a family party at her favorite restaurant, Sumo's. We all had a fun time enjoying some Japanese Cuisine and she loved her party.

Kaylyn and Granny. Waiting on the show to start.

Kaylyn with Nana and Pop.

Chloe's getting to be a big girl too and will be getting a little brother or sister in September!

Do you see Chloe peeking out from behind Paul? That's where she stayed the entire night. The fire at the beginning completely freaked her out and she would NOT rejoin us at the table, even after the chef was finished cooking and had left us. We told her he was gone and there would be no fire and she said, "I'll eat when I get home."

Kaylyn's cake. What can I say? She's MY child. Of course she chose and Alabama Football cake! Roll Tide!!

They sang her the Japanese Birthday Song and the cake finally lured Chloe from her safe place.

Enjoying her birthday song.

That's a wrap. Happy Birthday Baby Girl! Please slow down just a little bit!

Christmas Season 2011

2011-12-31T19:01:00.024-06:00

Now that Christmas 2011 has come and gone, I suppose it's time to update the ol' blog. I hope everyone had a fun Christmas. As usual we had a busy Christmas season, attending multiple family Christmas gatherings.

The gauntlet of family Christmas gatherings was kicked off with the Kacharos family Christmas party. Believe it or not, this was the only picture I took the entire night. Not sure how that happened, but before I knew it the party was winding down and I hadn't picked up my camera. Anyway, here's a shot of the kids, who had gone WILD with excitement about getting to play with each other and made for an impossible situation of getting 5 kids to look at the camera at the same time! I have NO idea what is up with Luke and Chloe's faces!

The next day we attended a family gathering at Chris' aunt's house, but in my mad rush to get out the door for church, (the party was immediately following church services) I forgot my camera....so no pics of that one.

Next, we move on to Christmas Eve at Nana and Pop's house. As you can see, the kids were bursting with excitement. The next few pics are my futile attempts at getting a good picture of the kids in front of the Christmas tree. This one is the best attempt. The look on Chloe's face is priceless.

This one is okay

This one says, "I'm tired of taking pictures, so I'm just going to act silly."
This one full of forced smiles....

Finally time to open some presents....

Kaylyn's "Just Dance 3" game. She's been begging for this one for the past 3 months....the perfect game for her.

Kaylyn's animal shoes....there are no words.....

Next, it was time for these two kiddos to get home to get all snuggled in their beds, with visions of gum drops dancing in their heads.

Because my children have made it a habit of getting up in the middle of the night and sneaking to see what Santa has brought, I was tired of not getting to see their initial reaction to their presents. So, I decided to have a little talk with Santa and asked him to wrap ALL of their presents this year. Oh, and he could not put names on any of the presents. This little prank led to some frustrated kiddos at 3 a.m.!

Santa did leave them a little note telling them who's presents were wrapped in red and who's were in green.

The big hits this year were iPod touches. Both kids have been begging for one for months. I am very thankful Santa brought these, now I can have my iphone back!

As you can see by their faces, Santa did good!

Kaylyn's drums. Short story here: Kaylyn has been begging for a set of drums, literally for 6 months! My reaction to her request: "#1: Why??? and #2: ABSOLUTELY NOT!" I admit, I give in to a lot of my children's requests, but drums???....not going to happen in this house! We already have too many noisemakers and their names are: Kaylyn and Luke!

After checking out Santa's goodies, it was time to pack up and head to my Grandmother's house for more Christmas fun. The kids got to open MORE presents and the adults got to play dirty Santa.

Well, that's a wrap to our fun family Christmas! Wishing everyone a very happy 2012!

Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes

2011-11-28T21:46:00.002-06:00

Changes. Not normally a fan of those. But, there always comes a time when a change is needed. That time came for me about a month ago when after 12 1/2 years I left the ER and joined the Diabetes Team to become a Diabetic Educator. It has been a lot like leaving home for the first time. The ER raised me from a brand- spanking new - 21 year old - fresh out of school - baby nurse, to a real grown up nurse. There comes a time when everyone must leave the comforts of home.

While I miss the ER tremendously, I really do love my new job. I am learning so many new things and the people I work with are so nice and have welcomed me with open arms (literally!) I love teaching the families of the newly diagnosed diabetic patients how to care for their children. Plus the fact that I get to work like a normal person is a big bonus!

Iron Bowl 2011

2011-11-28T21:21:00.015-06:00

Guess who spent this past Saturday in Auburn at the Iron Bowl???? WE DID!! We had a good time and I, for one, was very pleased with the outcome of the game. (Chris, on the other hand, feels differently about this subject.)
This cute litte cheerleader was kind enough to stop to pose with the kids. (Luke standing a little taller with his goofy grin.)

Chris in his Auburn gear stood out in the sea of crimson.

Me and my Bama babies waiting for the game to start.

A few of my latest heroes in pre-game warm-ups.

First play of the game.

Enjoying the game.

Big Al

The UA and AU band united at half-time as a tribute for the victims of the April 27 tornados.

Kaylyn decided to play with my camera during the game. Chris was happy about something....must have been a good play by Auburn.

Self portait by Kaylyn B. Chilton

The final score. Rammer Jammer!! Then we got to make the LOOONNNNGGG drive back home on hwy 280 game day traffic. Uggghhh! But the game was well worth the drive!

Ground Breaking Ceremony For Our New Church!

2011-11-07T21:19:00.008-06:00

As most of you know our church was destroyed during the April 27th tornadoes. After 6 months of planning the design and sorting finances, we had the ground breaking ceremony for the new church building. The day was a very emotional day for the entire congregation. The theme of the ceremony was the future building on the past: Upon this hill, God's vision to fulfill. I can't wait to see this new church building become a reality. I know it will be beautiful!

Kaylyn stopping to pose before the ceremony

Chloe and Luke playing in the dirt. Why is this significant you may ask? You see the scrap wood they are playing with? That's leftover wood from the old building. I realize it's just scrap, half rotten wood, but it's a part of the building, which was so much a part of my childhood and adulthood.

Pastor Ryan, the architect, the contractor, and the chairman of the building committee turning the first ground.

Notice the buildings in the background. Those are the buildings of mainstreet, which are FINALLY slated to be demolished. The last physical reminder of that dreadful day. Now to just rebuild on all this bare ground around here!

The next group to turn the ground consisted of the elders of the church and the youth of the church. Luke was chosen as one of the youth. I hope he will always remember he was one of the one's to use the "golden shovel," as he called it and realize the significance of that event. At 7 years old, he was just thrilled to get to play with the "golden shovel." I hope when he is a grown man, and the church building is celebrating it's 20th anniversary he can remember he was a part of it's beginning.

And here's a sketch of the future Long Memorial United Methodist Church.

Halloween 2011

2011-11-02T21:16:00.009-05:00

Halloween has come and gone. I hope you all had a wonderful time. We sure did, with the exception of Luke being sick. We were still able to make it to our annual trick-or-treating event for a little while.
This year the kids picked out their costumes, with no persuasion from me.

Kaylyn wore a "Devilrina" costume....

....complete with a tail, which she loved.

Luke decided he wanted to be something scary. He picked out the "Scream" costume. He has no idea exactly what the Scream costume is, since he's never even heard of the movies, but he thought it was scary and ugly, so that's what he wanted to be.

It came complete with oozing blood on the mask, which he loved.

Oh how I long for the days-gone-by when I got to pick out their costumes.

*sigh*

Chloe's costume was a cute little Smurfette....

....complete with a ginormous blue nose. She really got into the whole trick-or-treating thing this year and kept saying "I like this!"

The Great Hives of 2011

2011-10-16T19:24:00.004-05:00

******Update******

So I get a call from my doctor today with some lab results. It turns out my Lyme Disease test was "VERY positive." THAT explains alot! Like why I still feel...just bad. Tired, dizzy, nauseous, AND why I'm still SO darn itchy! So I'll get my antibiotics and be as good as new again!

___________________________________________________________

So, exactly 1 week ago today, I awoke having an allergic reaction and I am STILL not over it. Yes, it's 7 days later!

Last Sunday, I woke up with a few very small patches of hives on my wrists, feet, and chin. By that evening, they were EVERYWHERE and I was miserable. I finally gave in and went to the doctor, got some Epi, Decadron, and Benadryl shots, and sent home with some steroids and antihistamines. I woke up Monday morning hive-free, but they had returned by Monday afternoon, and by Monday night they were back with a vengeance. I went back to the doctor Wednesday when, at that point, I not only had hives, but leg and feet swelling, and purpura. (I have some pretty cool pictures, but I'll spare you the gory details. They are not very pretty!) Luckily all of my labs were normal and I was given MORE steroids and antihistamines. Keep in mind by this point, I literally had not been to sleep in 3 day because of the steroids I was already on, so I was less than thrilled to hear I would need a few more days of meds. Luckily, these meds have seemingly worked. The hives are gone, the swelling is gone, the purpura is fading, but I'm still itching!

I'm told I had a "hypersensitive reaction." To what, you may ask? Well, that's the million dollar question of the year! I will have to go for allergy testing to find out what this mystery assailant to my body was, but I can guarantee, I will NEVER go near it again....once I know what "it" was!!

Feathers and Mismatched Socks

2011-10-16T19:09:00.005-05:00

Kaylyn, like every other 5th grade girl in America has discovered the latest fashion fads and I have finally given into the hair feather craze. Yes, Kaylyn is the proud new owner of turquoise hair feather!

And the next fad......

...Mismatched socks??? I really don't understand the point, but it sure does make laundry day easier!

Over Due

2011-09-14T07:34:00.002-05:00

So I was told it was time to update the old blog. Yes, I realize it's been almost a month since my last update. There really are no excuses, except we live a boring life...and I like it that way! Seriously, nothing blog-worthy going on around here.

The school year has started off great. Both kids are doing well and like their classes and teachers. Kaylyn's class is planning a trip to Washington, D.C. in May and she is so excited about that trip. Dance has also started again. This makes year number eight for us. So far we have 3 competitions scheduled for the Spring. Looks like it will be a busy Springtime for us! Her dance school is going to Disney World to dance in the parade at the Magic Kingdom next summer. We are still deciding if we want to do this trip. We were contemplating going to Disney again next summer anyway, but the trip with the dance team sounds more like work than a vacation...like rehearsals once we actually get to Disney, then the parade (which is not just go and dance in the parade. It's be at a certain location at a certain time so she can get on a bus and be transported to a certain location, then dance, then be hearded back to a certain location, and so on.) I don't know, we're still thinking about it, but I'm leaning toward just going to Disney and her NOT dancing in the parade because, who wants all that hustle and bustle on their family vacation? I'll let you know what the final decision is when I actually have to make the decision, which is not long!

Luke is just hanging out. Enjoying first grade and learning lots of new things. He's doing pretty well with the whole test-taking thing and has learned the difference between a "D" and a "B" :). He really wanted to play pee-wee football, or "little man football" as he calls it. We decided he needed to wait at least another year. He's just too little! Baseball will be here before we know it! He is still just as funny and quirky as ever. The other night he was eating a bowl of ice cream and this is how the convo went:
Luke: "This ice cream is really good. It has chocolate syrup and coconuts in it."
Me: "Coconuts???"
Luke: (very matter-of-factly)"You know, peanuts with cocoa on them."

Well, that sums up the last month. Stay tuned for the next update....

Back To School!!!

2011-08-16T20:57:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was the kid's first day of school. Kaylyn started 5th grade (sniff, sniff) and Luke started 1st grade. They are growing up too fast! They were happy to be back at school with all their friends and have been ready to go back for the past few weeks. Both kids even got up early AND willingly yesterday! That, in itself, is a miracle! We'll see how long that excitement lasts, but I'm giving it about a week before we're going through the daily battle of getting out of bed and getting ready for school. What can I say, I'm a realist like that :)

Both kids had good reports from the first two days and were happy with their teachers. One of the firsts for Luke is he gets real grades on his school work this year. Today, as he bounced in the car, this is how the conversation went:
Luke: (very excited) "I got a D on my test!!!"
Me: "You got a D?????"
Luke: "Oh, I mean a, um, B.....I think...."
Poor child, doesn't know the difference between a "D" and a "B."

Happy Birthday Luke!

2011-07-30T20:48:00.007-05:00

My baby boy turned 7 YEARS OLD today! I can't believe it! He is growing up WAY to fast for me. We had a very relaxed day today and had a family party for him. He has been so excited all week and was so happy the big day FINALLY arrived.

This year he picked a Transformer's cake. Yes, it has grey icing. I couldn't help but think of Steel Magnolias when I saw it: "It's got grey icing. I can't even begin to think how you make grey icing."

In case you were wondering what grey icing does to your tongue....

His favorite part of the day

This was a hint from his Nana. Coupons for a haircut at Hair Pro....He doesn't look excited, but I promise, he will be getting a haircut before school starts!

Our Last Day :(

2011-06-23T21:24:00.001-05:00

On our last day we decided to go back to the beach and just take it easy before packing up to come home bright and early the next morning. The water was perfect and the kids had some big waves to ride.

A perfect end to a perfect vacation. We will definitely be going back in the future!

What is this????

2011-06-23T21:15:00.004-05:00

I forgot about this picture on my other posts. Would anyone care to
guess what this stuff is??? It's soap! It's in every public restroom on the island. Its made of sea salt and liquid soap. Very strange, but very exfoliating!

Day 5

2011-06-22T20:11:00.014-05:00

On our 5th day it was supposed to storm (thankfully it never did). We decided to fore go the beach for the day, due to the impending storms. So instead of the beach, the kids wanted to go back to Harbour Town for some more crab fishing! They had just as much fun as the day before. They just couldn't get enough of it! It think they are now ready to for The Deadliest Catch!

Assuming the position

Chris got brave and started catching them bare-handed....luckily he made it home

with all 10 fingers.

This guy decided he wasn't going down without a fight. I'm telling ya, these crabs are mean little boogers! On this day, there was a man and his daughter fishing beside us who were keeping their crabs to cook for dinner that night. Instead of throwing our crabs back, we donated them to their dinner.

After crab fishing, we walked around Harbour Town and did a little souvenir shopping.

Luke picked out a hat and a shirt.

Kaylyn picked out a shark tooth necklace and a shirt.

We also stumbled upon a play area with a huge "Forrest Gump" tree.

The kids had a blast playing on it.

I guess Kaylyn decided the tree limb would make a good hammock!

Of course I had to get one of "these" shots

Chillin' in the swing.

Later that night we went back to Harbour Town for dinner. Guess what they found....another Forrest Gump tree!

And I found THIS! These boaters had just docked to eat and shop.

I decided boating might not be so bad after all!

Sunset over the bay.

Day 4: Harbour Town

2011-06-21T19:48:00.014-05:00

On our 4th day we decided to go to Harbour Town to see the lighthouse. The picture above is the drive there. The pic doesn't do the beauty of the area justice. There were HUGE Live Oak trees with Spanish Moss growing on them. It was like a tunnel of trees.
Harbour Town Lighthouse

114 steps to the top

Whew! We made it!

The view from the top. Beautiful!

Another view. Lots of boats...hence the name "Harbour Town."

Can you guess what they are doing???

Here's a hint: They are crab fishing! While we were visiting the lighthouse, we walked to the pier. There were kids everywhere crab fishing. So, off to the good ol' Wal-Mart we go to purchase some crab baskets. They had a BLAST! $10 crab baskets = HOURS of fun!

Kaylyn caught the first one.

Then it was Luke's turn

I have to admit, crab fishing was fun! The crab are mean little things and they SPIT! We let them all go once we had a little fun chasing them around the pier!

Luke versus the crab. He was trying to catch it with the tongs to get him back into the water. The thing stood up in a fighting stance and started spitting!

Swamp People???? On the way back to our villa we came across this gator! Of course I had to get a picture of him. He was just meandering along like we weren't even there.

Day 3: Back to the Beach and to the Docks!

2011-06-20T20:06:00.017-05:00

On our third day we decided to venture back to the beach. We stayed there the for the majority of the day, then decided to go to dinner at The Black Marlin in Palmetto Bay before heading to the fireworks show in Shelter Cover. Whew! It was a packed day that day! (Really it wasn't, but it sure does sound like we did a lot of traveling)

Can you guess what he is looking for???

While Luke was on the hunt, Kaylyn made a friend and they decided to dig a hot tub on the beach......who knows????

Still searching......

And the answer is.....

.....Sand Dollars! They were EVERYWHERE! I've never seen LIVE Sand Dollars! They are actually kind of creepy. They have millions of little legs on the bottom, which make them stick to everything and allow them to bury themselves in the sand. They also turn your hands bright yellow! (I can only imagine what the yellow stuff is...)

Luke and his Sand Dollars. He was fascinated by them.

After our day on the beach we drove to the other end of the island for dinner in Palmetto Bay.

Silly Boys!

Me and Darling Daughter

Sittin' by the dock of the bay....

Checking out some boats after dinner

Kind of looks like the Jenny

Kaylyn and her glowing earrings. Getting ready to watch the fireworks show at Shelter Cove

Luke Chilton or Luke Skywalker???

Day 2: Savannah, GA

2011-06-19T21:49:00.018-05:00

On our second day we decided to drive in to Savannah to spend the day. The historic district of the city is absolutely gorgeous. However, the weather there is miserably hot and humid. Seriously, it was unbearable....and I say this as an Alabamian. I am acclimated to summers in the South where daily temps sore into the 100's....in Savannah the heat index is well over 100 with humidity of about 900% and NO breeze. Just stale HOT, THICK air. I would love to go back to Savannah...in January! It's a beautiful city and I would love to go back when I can enjoy it without the distraction of the heat.

River Street. When the city was founded this was the street just off the river and served as the city's market place. It is still where the main shopping in the city is located and still has the original cobblestone street.

Gordon Square. We took every opportunity possible to seek sanctuary in the beautiful, shaded squares. These are all from the original city. They each have a statue or a fountain, and each square has a church and a bank outside of it. The huge Live Oaks with Spanish Moss are gorgeous.

The streets of the historic district

Oglethorp Square: One of the few times I'm not behind the camera

Doesn't Chris look thrilled to have his picture taken???

One of the Cathedrals

Some interesting stuff you see while walking down the street.

While we were walking out of one of the squares, a nice man handed the kids these roses he had made out of the reeds from the marshes.

Pretty cool

The building you see behind Kaylyn is The Lady and Sons' restaurant. Paula Deen is Kaylyn's hero. The child has spent many hours watching her show, starting at about 3 years old. I don't know what her fascination is with cooking shows, but she loves them all. When we told her we were spending the day in Savannah, her first response was, "Do you know what's in Savannah??? Paula Deen's restaurant!!!" So we HAD to go eat lunch there. Luckily we were able to get in at a descent time. Another day we ate at a restaurant Rachel Ray had made famous in her $40 a day show. It was a little hole in the wall place on Hilton Head Island with the best seafood. Kaylyn ended up eating a places promoted by both of her cooking heroes!

Enjoying her meal

After lunch we decided to ride out to Tybee Island. There's not a lot there for those of us just passing through and sight seeing. There is a lighthouse which is one of the few of it's kind still functioning. By the time we made it out there, we were so hot and exhausted, we opted to not climb the 154 feet to the top :)

After visiting Savannah, we decided to head back to Hilton Head and find some ice cream. While we were driving along, lost, we came upon these deer. They just stood there looking at us. I'm sure they were wondering what the heck we were doing in their territory.

We finally found the ice cream parlor, which had the BEST home made ice cream in town. The perfect end to the day :)

Hilton Head Island 2011

2011-06-18T21:19:00.012-05:00

The Chilton Family vacation has come and gone. We spent 7 wonderful days on the East coast of South Carolina on Hilton Head Island. This was our first time visiting the island and we LOVED it! I believe we may have found our new family vacay spot. The island is beautiful and very quiet. It's not so "touristy." Although the beaches can't compare to those of the Gulf Coast, the island is very quaint with lots of family stuff to do. We spent time on the beach, went crab fishing, saw some lighthouses, and drove into Savannah one day. Overall, it was a perfect family vacation. I have tons of pictures to post, but right now you can enjoy the pics from our first day, since I have lots of laundry to do and I have to get ready to go back to work tomorrow. *sigh* Back to the real world....

We spent our first full day playing on the beach ALL.DAY.LONG. We were a little surprised when we walked out that morning to see so much beach. We had walked on the beach the evening before after we arrived at our condo and got settled in. It was late evening and the tide was high and there was essentially no beach there. The next morning when we got to the beach, it was HUGE. Seriously, there was probably 200 yards of sand, which had not been there the night before. What can I say? We are first timers to the East Coast. It was a little unexpected. Since we were first timers, we also did not think to set up camp WAY back from the water. Lesson learned...we ended up moving our stuff 4 times while the tide was coming in!

Catching some waves

Snack time!

Wipe-out!!

Riding the waves

Chris decided he needed to go help Luke out. He really just wanted to go play as well.

They finally caught one

After a late lunch, it was time to head to the pool.

Dance Recital 2011

2011-06-06T21:15:00.013-05:00

Another year of dance is in the books. Yes, the dance recital has come and gone...that makes 7 for us! This time of year is always fun because it's more relaxed and the girls have an awesome time. Us Mom's are exhausted at the end of the day, but it's all worth it.

Chloe had her very first recital this year! She's such a big girl! I love this pic! Her songs were "Hickory Dickory Dock" and "Tomorrow Night at the Dark Town Strutter's Ball."

Chloe loves her Kay-Kay

The girls had fun and I can't wait until next year....after a short Summer break :)

Dance Videos

2011-06-06T20:38:00.004-05:00

The Spirit of '45. This dance placed second overall at The Alabama Theater Competition and was invited to compete in New York City. Not bad for a small dance company like ShowStoppers!

All Night Long

Workin' Day and Night

Dance Pictures!

2011-06-03T21:18:00.002-05:00

I told y'all I was way behind! I've had these for about 3 weeks....guess it's time to post them....

She always loves getting all glammed up and being a camera hog!!

This one is my fav.

Sa-Lute!

Workin' Workin' Workin' Day and Night...
Straight out of The Jackson 5...

One Proud Mama!

2011-06-02T20:56:00.003-05:00

Okay, so I'm waaaayyyy behind on posting. I know, I'm shameless. I have no excuses, except for our usual daily lives. I've also been preoccupied with a natural disaster hitting my small town and the, ahem, drama that has followed us for the past few weeks. Who would have thought Cordova, Alabama would be known GLOBALLY??? I'm just going to say, don't believe everything you hear on the news and read on the web. People love controversy.

Anyway, on to the point of my post. A couple of weeks ago the kids had their end of year awards ceremony. And the results were.....

Kaylyn had straight A's for the entire year, with her lowest grade being a 97 in Reading! She worked hard and was very proud of her medal. She is now ready to move on to 5th grade. *sniff sniff* My baby girl is growing up way to fast!

Luke received a certificate for the "25 Point Club" meaning he had at least 25 AR reading points for the year. He actually had over 50 points, meaning he read over 100 books for the year! This is no small accomplishment for Luke, since reading is his most challenging subject. He also received all "satisfactory" on his report card. He is officially ready for the 1st grade!

Devestation.....

2011-05-01T20:35:00.012-05:00

....is the only word that comes to mind when looking at my small town over the past few days. On the evening of April 27, 2011, my little map dot town of Cordova was invaded by a large, deadly tornado which basically obliterated the town. Cordova was actually hit by the straight-line winds of approximately 100 mph (according to James Spann) during the morning hours and suffered some damage, but the major blow came approximately 12 hours later when the tornado hit the town.
This is the view from my neighborhood, approximately 1/4 mile from ground zero. This picture was taken by my neighbor (I was not crazy enough to be out taking pictures of the thing!) My family and I were so very fortunate and had no damage from the storm. However, just 1/4 mile away is total destruction at the hands of mother nature.

We spent the evening safely hunkered down in my parents' basement, approximately 2 miles away from the storm. The above picture is the hail we saw. I have never seen hail this large!

My poor town. It's hardly recognizable. The first big pile of rubble in the street is what is left of the bank. Up the hill the destruction continues. This hill was covered with trees and homes just 4 days ago.

This pile of rubble is what is left of the town's laundromat and a landmark restaurant, "The Rebel Queen." I sure am gonna miss those greasy burgers!

The pile of rubble on the hill is the town Doctor's office.

I think this is another picture of The Rebel Queen

This is the Piggly Wiggly.

Downtown

This broken building is my church. I am so heartbroken at the loss of my church. I realize a church is just a building and what really matters is the people inside, but this almost 100 year old church was a town landmark. It's were my entire extended family attends church, it's where Chris and I were married, and both of my children had their infant baptism there. There are just so many memories.

One of the things the church is most known for is it's beautiful stained-glass windows, which we worked so hard to preserve. They were full of vibrant colors and a truly remarkable. The church also had the original pews, which have been restored numerous times and still very creaky and uncomfortable, but I loved them. They are all gone now.

This is a picture of the church taken the day Chris and I were married. You will have to excuse the poor quality of this pic, it is a picture of a picture. The photo is framed and hanging on my wall.

This is one of the stained glass windows, taken on the day of Luke's infant baptism.

This is one of the other windows. Truly breathtaking.

This is my church today. A broken building. The windows are gone. The pews are broken. All from mother nature's fury. It's hard to believe just one week ago, we were all gathered to worship at the Easter Sunday service. Please pray for our town's strength to rebuild, as well as for those who have lost their homes and their lives.

Easter 2011

2011-04-24T21:44:00.005-05:00

Happy Easter to everyone out there in bloggerland! We had a fantastic Easter. We went to church this morning and then to my parents house for dinner and an egg hunt for the kids....followed by a detour by the Afterhours Clinic for Kaylyn. She is sick AGAIN, this time with Strep Throat. But the good news is, the ear thing she had going on a couple of weeks ago is clear. For those of you who don't know, she had cellulitis in her ear canal that just wouldn't clear up. After a trip to the ENT before we went to the beach, we discovered an infected hair follicle, which was treated.

Handsome fella, looking SHARP!

Pretty Girl being the camera hog
(Pre Strep symptoms)

The kiddos in front of the Easter Lily tree at chuch

Time to hunt some eggs!

Kaylyn did manage to make it off the couch to hunt some eggs. Poor baby feels rotten. She got some good ol Bicillin in the leg and she'll feel better tomorrow :)

Saturday Morning on the Beach

2011-04-23T21:15:00.003-05:00

We spent Saturday morning enjoying the beach...until that crazy wind decided to start blowing again! It was pleasant for about and hour then out of nowhere the wind picked up and only got worse all day long.

Playing in the ocean with some BIG waves! They were having a blast until some guy walks up and I hear "Excuse me ma'am. There's a double red flag today. No swimming." So out of the water they came, and pretty bummed about it (they weren't in but about calf deep anyway. They are both squatting in the pic above.)

Dance Magic Competition

2011-04-23T21:01:00.008-05:00

Saturday afternoon was dance time. After all it WAS the reason for the trip. We lucked out this year and didn't dance until 2:00 and all of our school's dances were back-to-back.
All Night Long: This song got a gold ranking, although I thought they danced very well, and in my opinion, this was their best song.

Hold on to your hat!!! Still dealing with those pesky hurricane strength winds, which were worse than the day before. Her hat almost met it's untimely demise in the lagoon behind her! Luckily it was caught by a palm tree!

Working Day And Night: This song also received a Gold ranking.

The Spirit of '45: This song received and Elite Gold ranking and 2nd overall. They also won "Most Entertaining Dance of the Day."

Overall a very good weekend!

We took a little trip....

2011-04-22T20:37:00.006-05:00

....down to good ol PCB last weekend for Kaylyn's second dance competition. Let's just say this was a less than desirable beach trip. Friday was our only full day on the beach, which was also the day Alabama was invaded by a string of tornadoes. It was a sunny day in the heart of the Redneck Riviera, but we had to deal with hurricane force winds. Seriously, the wind was so annoying and howling so loudly, it made the day SO cold! The kids didn't seem to care as they braved the frigid waters of the Gulf Coast, claiming "The water feel great!" and "I'm not c-c-c-old" (through chattering teeth). They were very upset when it was time to go in for the day. (Because their parents were about to freeze to death!) Anyway, we came home just as pale skinned as we were when we left home :)

See....the wind is about to blow her over!

Searching for seashells by the seashore

Building his sand volcano

Still searching.....

I have no idea what was so funny

So happy to be at the beach, even in hurricane strength winds!

More Baseball!

2011-04-11T20:11:00.007-05:00

"MOM! Stop with the pictures!!!"

Check out that concentration

In the hole warming up

Wonder what THAT conversation was about???

Luke's baseball team had their second week of ball games this past weekend. They lost the first game, but were much improved from the week before. They won the second game in a nail biter and were so proud of themselves! Luke batted well and made several outs.

Alabama Theater Competition

2011-04-05T20:45:00.005-05:00

Saturday we had Kaylyn's first dance competition of the season at the Alabama Theater. Of course they all had a good time and danced well. At the end of the weekend they ended up with 2 gold rankings, 1 high gold ranking, and 4th place overall. I had to miss the first dance because Luke's game didn't get started on time and lasted longer than expected. I had hoped to get there before she danced, but it just didn't happen that way. I was so bummed because I've never missed any of her dances, but I am only one person and can't be 2 places at once. Sigh. I just need a clone of myself! Chaney's mom was kind enough to take some pics for me.

Pretty Girl!

Abby, Chaney, Kaylyn, Molly, and Mary Kate

Check out these Divas!

Showing some attitude

Thought this was a cool shot. It was taken in the mirrors on the ceiling of the lobby.

Abby, Kaylyn, Chaney, and Kensley

The same shot I get every year!

Group shot in the alley before going on stage. Kaylyn said hoodelems lived there!

The end!

Play Ball!!!!

2011-04-03T19:52:00.004-05:00

We've had a busy weekend. Luke FINALLY got to play in his first game of the season after being rained out twice last week, then it was on to Kaylyn's first dance competition of the season. This year is Luke's first year playing coach pitch and he's playing pitcher. The team lost in slaughter-like fashion, but they had fun and that's all that matters.

Pre-game pep talk. Don't they look excited???

Doesn't he look cute in all his pitcher's gear?

He played well and caught several balls and assisted in a couple of outs for the team.

I didn't get any good pic of him batting because my camera decided to act crazy, but he batted well and hit a double.

I Suppose....

2011-03-10T21:06:00.002-06:00

....it's time for an update.

It's that time of year again...yes, early Spring when our lives go into hyper-overdrive with baseball and dance competitions.

Luke started baseball again last week. This year he is playing coach-pitch and is doing really well, considering he has never played coach-pitch ball. He has been practicing in the pitcher's position for the two days they have been able to practice. The rain spoiled a couple of practice days. His ballgames will be starting in a couple of weeks and I can't wait to see him play ball!

Kaylyn is gearing up for another competition season. We have two dance competitions scheduled for April; one at the Alabama Theater and one in Panama City. I'm SO ready for a weekend at the beach. We had to cut the trip short because of all the snow we had back in January. The kids lost their weather days and I didn't want them to miss 3 days of school so we are just going down for the weekend. It will be a nice break though and I am looking forward to it. I can't wait to see her dances. I have purposely not watched her practice this year because I want to be surprised when I see her on stage.

As far as Chris and I - -same old, same old. Just working and being our kids personal chauffeurs. Nothing new there.

On another note, I had the pleasure of enjoying my very own root canal today. Yay me!! It was LOADS of fun!

Pageant Day!!!

2011-02-13T08:51:00.003-06:00

Yesterday was Kaylyn's school beauty pageant. As always, she loved dressing up and being pampered for the day. She did very well and ended up with 1st alternate and most photogenic. I'm so proud of her for getting up on stage in front of all those people, which is something I could never do!

Chloe also got to be in the pageant this year. It was her very first pageant and as you can see, she was less than thrilled! She did very well though and walked out on the runway all by herself!

I tried all day to get a good picture of her in her pretty dress, but she was having none of it. As you can see in the pic above, she's sporting her "Get this dress off of me and get that camera out of my face, I'm sick of pageant day!" look.

I attempted to get a picture of Kaylyn and Chloe in their dresses, and this was the best I could get. Chloe had hit complete melt down, and there was no turning back.

Kaylyn and Shaylan

T-R-O-U-B-L-E.......Chloe, Kaylyn, and Shaylan

Chloe and Kaylyn

Kaylyn and Abby

Anxiously awaiting the results

And the winner is......Chloe! With Kaylyn 1st alternate, Kymie 2nd alternate, Abby 3rd alternate

Two happy girls!

Kaylyn and Kymie

Whew! Glad that's over. Great job girls!!

Chloe's parting thoughts about pageant day!!

2011-02-13T08:43:00.002-06:00

Hopefully she'll have more fun next year!

10 Years.....

2011-02-12T05:00:00.002-06:00

Has it really been 10 years....

...since I first heard that sweet cry???

Have I really been watching her grow for 10 years???

Cherishing every minute of it!

I can't believe my baby girl is 10 years old today! Yes, she's in the double-digits, and PROUD of it!! Happy Birthday Kaylyn!!!

It's Party Time!!

2011-02-06T15:06:00.008-06:00

This past Friday night my nice, quiet home was invaded by....dum-da-dum-dum....six 9 and 10 year old giggling, squealing, screaming little girls. We had Kaylyn's 10th birthday party and of course she wanted a slumber party. We had the party a week early because next weekend, her actual birthday, is pageant day. She had a blast with all of her friends spending the night at one time.
This year she picked out a cool peace sign cake

Present time

One of her favorite gifts was a Snuggie of all thing! Yes....a SNUGGIE! She has been begging for one for a while. Who knew she would be so easily pleased???

Another prized gift was the game Just Dance 2 for the Wii. These girls danced, literally, ALL.NIGHT.LONG! It was hilarious watching all of them!

Check out who's right in the middle of the group showing off her moves!

The next morning....some tired little girls! I finally shut the party down at about 4 am.....couldn't take the noise any longer.

Feeding time at the zoo!

Then right back to dancing!

I can't believe my baby will be 10 years old next week!

FYI

2011-01-16T18:18:00.002-06:00

This is what happens when the front end of a Honda Accord collides with a deer at 40mph. Not pretty! Luckily no one was hurt....not even the deer. As I sat speechless, in shock about what had just occured, I watched it bounce down the road about 50 feet, get to it's feet, fall down and roll some more, then get up and run away! (Excuse my dirty car, haven't washed since I've been driving around in snow-mud for the past week.)

Yep, here's a pic of the detached fender.....

....and the busted head-light.....

....and the busted grill, with a little souvenir fur left behind by the deer lucky enough to cross in front of my speeding car!

Snow Day!!!

2011-01-11T20:15:00.003-06:00

She's so happy because we finally got some REAL snow! We had about 5 inches of snow Monday morning AND we didn't lose power! Life.Is.Good. The kids had a BLAST playing in it...and they are STILL playing in it! Yes, we're going on 3 days of snow and no school! They couldn't be happier. As for me - well, I'm ready for the white stuff to go away now! At least the roads are somewhat drivable now, just a bit slushy.

Hubby even got to stay home to play in the snow

Luke making a monster snowball

Me in my "Michelin Man" suit. Don't laugh. It keeps me warm!

Of course we had to make some snow angels. She only went through about 5 changes of clothes, with each change, equaling 3 layers of clothes. Yeah, lots of laundry for me!

Snow boy Ninja about to nail me with a snowball

Yummy snow!

Found a cool snowman!

And now we move on to the Redneck Sledding portion of the day....

Hey, it's Alabama. We don't see real snow often enough to own real sledding gear, so we make do with whatever we can find. In our case: the bottom of a car luggage carrier (complete with kindermat seating) tied to the back of a 4-wheeler in an open field. Yeah baby! Fun times!

Christmas in Georgia

2011-01-03T21:24:00.002-06:00

After a short while of checking out the gifts from Santa, it was time to pack up and drive to Georgia to spend Christmas day with my family there. We had lots of fun spending time with family and of course lots of good food.

A few generational pictures....Grandmama and her children: My Uncle Mike, Aunt Tammy, and my mother.

Grandmama and her grandchildren: Me, Paul, Amber, Kevin, and Chad

And here's the great-grands: Brian, Chloe, Kaylyn, Luke, and Brandon

And here's what we saw of the first White Christmas I can ever remember....We actually spent the day driving away from the snow. When we left home it was raining and yucky. When we got to Anniston, the rain turned to snow, and as we drove over Mt. Cheaha, the snow got harder and was starting to accumulate. Once we were over the mountain, the snow stopped and we drove back in to rain. It rained ALL. DAY. LONG while we were in LaGrange, but they had 2-4 inches of snow predicted for the night. With the temps predicted to remain below freezing the next day, we knew the roads would not thaw enough for us to be able to drive home the next day. Since Chris and I both had to be at work Monday morning, we decided to drive home Christmas night instead of risking being stuck in Georgia. SOooo, we headed home just before dark and drove BACK into the snow, couldn't cross Mt. Cheaha by this time so we had to come home through Talledega and the roads were still pretty treacherous and it was snowing really hard, but thank Goodness we made it home safely....and we made it to work Monday morning!

This wraps up the Christmas pictures. Wishing everyone a very Happy 2011!

Christmas Day 2010

2010-12-30T23:14:00.002-06:00

The big day finally arrived! Santa came to visit the Chilton household! The kids must have been VERY good this year (when I wasn't looking! Ha!) because he brought them lots of goodies! The big hits were their Nintendo dsi's and new bicycles. Luke also got a new train set, which he asks for Every.Single.Year. Seriously, we have enough tracks to build our very own Polar Express. Kaylyn got a new camera, which she has used almost every minute of everyday for photo-documentation of her life!

I think the kids were only asleep just long enough for Santa to deliver their goodies because when I got up Christmas morning, this is what I found! Kaylyn was sound asleep in her bed and Luke was asleep in the chair with his new Toy Story 3 movie. Apparently, they had been up for several hours during the night playing with their new toys, while Chris and I were sleeping soundly in our bed, unaware of all the activity happening in our living room! While I would greatly appreciate being allowed to sleep on any other day, I was disappointed I didn't get to see their faces when they saw all their surprises. Oh well, I guess the days of having to wake them up so they could see what Santa brought are long gone. I think in the future Santa may start wrapping all their presents! Next year.....Benadryl for everyone! Just kidding....sorta!

Presents from mom and dad!

Santa brought us a family gift this year! Yes, we are now the proud owners of a Wii. We have all had fun playing it for the past few days. Kaylyn totally rocks the Michael Jackson Experience and Luke is hilarious to watch playing Wii Sports. He runs all over the place trying to hit the ball in tennis and has managed to actually hit the T.V. while boxing!

Christmas 2010

2010-12-26T20:45:00.005-06:00

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! We sure did! We started the Christmas festivities on December 23 at my parents' house. We had lots of good food and enjoyed spending time with the family.

Presents, Presents, Presents!The big hits of the night....

An Easy Bake oven for Kaylyn....the girl LOVES to cook!

Yes, that is a gun for Luke....in celebration of him shooting his first deer. He's been officially inducted into my family's hunting obsession. The gun is locked safely in Pop's gun cabinet, where it will remain.

A scooter for Chloe.

Stay tuned, more pics coming!

Happy Birthday Chloe!!!

2010-12-02T21:02:00.001-06:00

I can't believe Chloe is 3 years old now! She is such a big girl and has turned into a little Diva. She loves clothes and especially loves shoes....I don't know who she could get that from :) The little Diva is growing up so fast and is doing very well with her hearing and speech. She is talking so much lately and will definitely tell you what's on her mind, no matter what it may be!

The cake made by Candace and her mom

Love the look on her face when everyone was singing Happy Birthday to her

Presents, presents, presents! She told everyone "thank you" after opening each gift

Here's the big 3 year old!!

Happy Birthday Granny!!!!

2010-11-28T19:59:00.002-06:00

Today is my Granny's 80th birthday! We celebrated last night by taking her to dinner and then coming back to my parents' house for some yummy cake and ice cream. My Granny is by far the wisest woman I know. She spent 35 1/2 years teaching 7th and 8th grade Social Studies, but if you ask her former students what they remember most about her, they would tell you her etiquette lessons are what stand out the most. Seriously, she probably taught over half of the adult population of our small town how to properly use a fork and knife! She has taught me so many life lessons and I hope she can continue to help me teach my children these same lessons for many years to come!

The 2 birthday girls! Chloe's birthday party was yesterday as well. I can't believe she will be 3 years old this year! Stay tuned for pics....

He Got One!!

2010-11-26T09:43:00.002-06:00

Luke went on his first hunting trip to my family's hunting camp this week and he shot his first deer all by himself! He was so excited! Not sure how excited I am with the fact that my 6 year old was handling fire-arms, but he is home safe, with all limbs in tact. Isn't he cute in all his camo gear!

Not so excited about having deer blood on his face! Sorry Buddy, you can't fight tradition....just be glad your first deer wasn't a boy deer!

Paul and Luke

Dillon and Luke

He now officially has "the fever" so I guess he'll be going on a regular basis!

Bama vs MSU

2010-11-14T20:52:00.006-06:00

Yesterday we had the pleasure of going to MY favorite place during football season. Yes, the fam and I took a little trip down to T-Town to watch the Tide play Mississippi State. It was the kid's first game day experience and they had a BLAST! We went early to join in all the pre-game fun and they loved every minute! It was a fun time, topped off by a big win for Bama.

**Side note: Yes, that is my Auburn loving husband sporting his Bama colors! Oh, the things he will do to make his wife and kids happy! Thanks Honey for leaving the Auburn shirts at home!

Stopping for a photo op

Pre-game fun on The Quad. Love the look on Luke's face as he's peaking around Kaylyn while standing in line for the obstacle course.

Photo op in front of Denny Chimes

Here comes Big Al getting ready for The Elephant Stomp. Doesn't his driver look happy about me standing in his path to take a picture???

On our hike back to the stadium from The Quad, the kids were tired from all the playing in the inflatables, so they found themselves a seat to rest in! (While Daddy stopped at every tent to check on the Auburn game!)

Finally in the stadium! "Whoa" was their first word as we walked out of the tunnel at ground level and saw all the bright lights! They were totally amazed at the size of the stadium!

Watching the pre-game warm-ups and The Million Dollar Band

This little boy had SO much fun yelling for the team and shaking his shaker! He got to change seats with Kaylyn at the end of each quarter so the other parent (and the people behind us) could get a break from being beat with his shaker!

Loving her first Bama Game

Doesn't he look thrilled to be there???? (Sorry to the lady sitting a couple of seats down from us who obviously thought I was taking a picture of her. When you cram over 100,000 people into one place, you've got some close quarters!)

A few shots of the game

.....and the final score!

Happy Halloween 2010

2010-10-31T20:29:00.004-05:00

I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween. We sure did! We went Trick-or-Treating last night and the kids had loads of fun and got lots of good candy (enough to last us well into the next millennium)

Watch out! This pirate is one tough cookie!

Iron Man!! He loved his Iron Man costume and even wore the mask most of the night.

Cute little Tinkerbell!

Cheeeeeesssseeee!! Chloe's newest thing is puting her fingers to her mouth whenever you tell her to say "cheese" when taking her picture.

Our Trick-or-Treating crew stopping for a photo-op.

Granny and her Great-Grands

2010-10-23T22:24:00.002-05:00

Last weekend my cousin MacKenzie and her family were here visiting from Mississippi. This is the one picture I got of the weekend. I know....so unlike me! It was great to see MacKenzie, Jason, and baby Oden (and his little brother or sister, who will arrive in March). It was also great to see my grandmother able to entertain guest again. She is doing well since her cardioversion just a little over 1 month ago.

Oden is such a sweet and happy baby and just went with the flow. He did really well being in a different environment around family he had never met. We look forward to their next visit at Christmas!

I know....

2010-10-18T07:44:00.001-05:00

.....I need to update this blog in a REALLY bad way. Updates coming soon, I promise! Just as soon as I have something to blog about....what can I say, except we live a very boring life and I like it that way!

ER Beach Trip 2010

2010-09-29T22:09:00.005-05:00

Last weekend was our annual ER beach trip to the good ol' Redneck Riviera. This year the group was Laura, Lindsey, LaKristen, Sarah P., Donney, David, A.K.A. Pocket (because he's so small he will fit in your pocket!) and myself. As usual we had the BEST time!Friday we made it to the beach around 12:30 and immediately hit the beach.

Friday night we went to dinner at The Back Porch. Good food and fun times!

After dinner we went to Tootsie's for some more fun. That place rock's! We discovered Tootsie's during last year's beach trip and now it's like home!

We spent all day Saturday on the beach just relaxing. Pocket and LaKristen decided to relive their glory days as cheerleaders by stunting in the ocean.

It's always fun...until someone gets hurt! Donney was the back spotter for Sarah when a big wave hit them and knocked them down. On her way down from a full extension she managed to nail Donney right in the nose! It was hilarious. He was fine, but had a busted nose. There's always something funny about watching watching someone fall and poor Donney with his nose gushing blood was just the icing on the cake! Don't hate...you know you laugh too!

Poor Donney, dosen't he look pitiful!

After some beach time, it was time to get ready to go out again. We had dinner at Angelo's and then back to the old fav....Tootsie's. It seems Donney, LaKristen, and Laura decided to play with my camera while I was getting ready to go....I found these pic's on my camera when I got home.

Saturday night it was just me, Laura, and Lindsey paying patronage to Tootsie's. The others decided to stay at the condo and watch the Auburn game.

Sunday it was time to return to the real world. We sure did have fun during those 48 glorious hours of not having to worry about husbands, kids, and jobs!

Meet Fiona....

2010-09-15T16:34:00.003-05:00

Fiona is the newest addition to our family courtesy of Kaylyn's 4th grade science class. She is an African Dwarf Frog, isn't she cute??? In order to gain this new pet Kaylyn had to learn all about the African Dwarf Frog and it's care and write an essay about her findings. She's been so excited and has been talking about it for weeks. I'm glad the frog is FINALLY here...if I heard, "hey Mama, you know the African Dwarf Frog....." one more time, I think I would have to choke the child! I'm glad she's so excited about learning new things, but it's time learn something new now!

Let's hope Fiona doesn't meet the same fate as the other critters who have joined our home....i.e. the bird named Bama, the rabbit named Cadbury, two more birds named Bear and Bryant (because we didn't learn our lesson the first time), and the cat named Callie, who just disappeared one day. We seem to only have luck with dogs! Maggie and Crimson are still alive and kicking!
Doesn't she look happy to have the camera stuck in her face???

Update

2010-09-10T10:53:00.002-05:00

We just received an update on my grandmother. The cardiversion was succussful! They were able to convert her heart back into a normal rhythm. We're just waiting for her to wake up from sedation now.

Say A Little Prayer....

2010-09-09T17:45:00.002-05:00

As many of you know, my Grandmother has been having some heart problems with an irregular rhythm. This irregular rhythm was diagnosed about 6 weeks ago and she was placed on medication in hopes of converting her heart back into a normal rhythm...it didn't work. The abnormal rhythm, along with the medication have made her extremely weak and very unsteady. She has become very feeble over the past few weeks. Our next step is cardioversion, which will happen in the morning. If the cardioversion does not work, the next step will be to place a pacemaker. Please say a prayer that the cardioversion works so she can get off the medication and hopefully gain some of her strength back and avoid surgery for a pacemaker.

Roll Tide Baby!!!

2010-09-04T23:34:00.002-05:00

Friday was Spirit Day at school. The kids were excited about wearing their Bama gear. Yes, I've finally brought them back to the good side! Hopefully the brainwashing their young minds endured at the hands of their Daddy will have no long-term effects!

I Suppose....

2010-09-01T18:46:00.002-05:00

...it's time for an update.

Nothing really exciting happening around the Chilton household in the past few weeks, hence, the lack of blogging activity.

The school year is off to a great start. Both kids are doing really well. Kaylyn is loving 4th grade and she likes the fact that she gets to change classes. I guess moving from room to room makes the day go by faster. I really wish I could slow down this growing up process though. I guess my baby girl would now be considered a "pre-teen," judging by her recent activities. She is still obsessed with talking on the phone and asks at least once a day when she will be old enough for a cell phone of her own....I tell her it's NOT happening for quite some time! She is also hanging out with one friend or another almost every weekend and always has something planned. Another new thing is her clothes. Darling Daughter has decided she needs to pick her own clothes and "never has ANYTHING to wear!" Dance started back a few weeks ago. I can't believe this is year 7 for her. She's loving it, as always and is very excited about the upcoming competition season in the Spring. Looks like we're heading down to PCB again this year.

Luke is doing much better with Kindergarten this year. His behavior is much improved and he is excited about learning to read. He has been bringing home his reader books every night and reading them with very little help from us. So far we've made though nearly a month with no discipline issues. He told me he doesn't get in trouble any more. I hope the remainder of the school year goes as well as the beginning!

Chris is feeling much better and is fully recovered from his bout with the good ol' meningitis. He's back at work and back to his old self again.

As for me...just work and keeping up with the kids. Nothing new there.

I guess that sums up the past few weeks around the Chilton house: school, work, dance, homework, school, work, dance, homework, school, work, dance, homework.....

Back to School!!!

2010-08-10T21:42:00.002-05:00

The kids started back to school yesterday after a long summer of being "soooo bored." They were both ready for school to start back and happy to see their friends. Both kids had a great day and had good reports.
Kaylyn started fourth grade and moved to the big kid hall. That makes me sad! My baby girl should not already be on the other hall! She is also changing classes this year and has a locker for the first time. She's super excited about that and thinks she's hot stuff!

Luke is going to kindergarten again this year. He was so happy to start back to school and meet some new friends. He had a good first day, but when I asked him what he did at school, his reply was "I don't remember." We may have a long year....

Luke and Shelby. Shelby is his friend Shayna's little sister....Hmmm.....we may have some drama going on later in the year.....

White Water Rafting

2010-08-07T21:23:00.004-05:00

It was finally time for us to go white water rafting. We rafted the Lower Pigeon River, which was a great beginner trip for the kids. If you have small children, this is the perfect trip; it's not too rough for them and there are still enough of the fun rapids to make the trip interesting. We plan to raft again next summer when Luke is old enough for the Upper Pigeon River.

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

2010-08-07T21:09:00.002-05:00

After our rafting trip we decided to eat a late dinner and go to Cade's Cove to see some animals in the wild (because seeing the bear the day before just wasn't good enough :)). As I said before, it's been 10 years since I've been to Gatlinburg and I had forgotten just how long it takes to drive through Cade's Cove. We headed out there just before dark, around 8:00. We finally made it out of the cove at 10:00, and we only drove 1/2 of the loop. We saw some deer and water buffalo, but it was too dark to take pictures. Anyway, by the time we made it back to town we were all STARVING, and Luke was sound asleep. On the plus side, there was no wait at Bubba Gump's at 10:30 pm! This was THE.BEST.PLACE.EVER!! The food was awesome and the service was great. The atmosphere was so fun, and family oriented, even if it was midnight by the time we left! We weren't the only crazy people with young children out on the town so late either!
As I said, the service was great. There were these signs on every table. If it was flipped to the blue "Run Forrest Run" side, the staff knew everything was peachy at your table.

Poor baby, he was so tired, and not happy about being woke up to go eat, but 3 out of 4 of us agreed, it was way past dinner time and we were famished!

The other side of the sign was "Stop Forrest Stop." This meant we needed something at our table and when it was flipped to this side, one of the staff would stop and yell "STOP FORREST STOP!!" and see what we needed. Kaylyn thought this was hilarious and kept flipping the sign.

Say Bye-Bye To The Smokies

2010-08-07T21:01:00.002-05:00

Of course we had to stop by "THE" sign on our way out of town to take a picture. We had a fun trip, but it was good to be home.

The Dixie Stampede!

2010-08-04T21:20:00.002-05:00

After our day at Ober Gatlinburg we spent the evening at The Dixie Stampede for a little North versus South competition. The kids loved it, especially the fact that they got to eat all their food with their hands!
Patiently waiting for the show to start.

Camera Hog!

Two goofballs!

Me and Darling Daughter

Almost show time!

Here are a couple of my illegal pictures.

Look What We Found!

2010-08-04T20:45:00.004-05:00

Or should I say, look what found us?! We were driving back to our Chalet, creeping up the mountain on the winding roads, when there it was...just walking along! I think Chris expected a scene from "The Great Outdoors." We stopped in the middle of the road and it just kept walking towards our car before it finally went to the driveway of another chalet.

These pictures aren't zoomed. We were THAT close!

Walking down the driveway of some poor, unsuspecting souls who had rented the chalet

Didn't find anything in their cars, so he decided to look in the garbage.

Unable to get into the garbage, he decidedto find something in the ditch.

He finally just gave it up and went back to his bear cave.

Party Time!!

2010-08-03T21:56:00.002-05:00

In the midst of Chris' hospitalization this little boy turned 6 years old! Since Chris was in the hospital on his actual birthday, we postponed his family party until Sunday in hopes that Chris could be there. No such luck, but Luke still had a great birthday party.

On the day of his birthday, I spent the morning with Luke before going to the hospital to check on daddy. For dinner, I told Luke we could go where ever his little heart desired. His little heart desired....McDonald's, of course! (Is there anywhere else??)

On Sunday we had his party at my parent's house and he was so excited.

His cake: Iron Man

Clothes from Nana. He's grown so much, nothing fits him anymore!

Guarding his presents from Pop. Pop told him it was a "family tradition" that when a boy turns 6 years old, he has to give half of his birthday presents to his Pop. Of course Pop was just kidding, but Luke thought he was serious and tried to hide all of his presents.

And what birthday wouldn't be complete without some hunting gear. Paul got him some hunter orange and a deer call. He's ready now!

Luke has been saying some of the funniest things lately. Here are a few of the conversations between he and I:

Me: NO! (Can't remember why I was saying "No")
Luke: When I grow up, I'm gonna get me some of those babies and I'm gonna let them do whatever they want.
Me: I don't think when you "get" you some babies you will let them do what they want. They might get hurt.
Luke: Uh-huh, I'm going to the hospital and pick them out and I'm gonna let them do what they want!

Another conversation:
Me: Luke, time for bed.
(A few minutes later when he reappears from his room for the 3rd time)
Me: Luke, I said, GO. TO.BED!
Luke: Oh, I didn't hear you. I think I'm losing my hearing.

We're Outta Here!!!

2010-08-03T09:04:00.003-05:00

Chris has NO headache this morning! Hallelujah!! We are homeward bound! Waiting on discharge papers now.

Anything Else???

2010-08-02T20:19:00.003-05:00

So Chris' spinal headache from yesterday returned this morning so he didn't get to come home today. We waited the majority of the day for an anesthesia consult to see about getting his headache resolved.

The anesthesiologist didn't think today's headache was a spinal headache since it was never completely resolved when he was lying flat. It was, however, much improved when he was lying flat and excruciating when he was standing. This anesthesiologist thought today's headache was occipital neuritis caused by the meningitis. He decided to do an occipital block this afternoon to help with the occipital neuritis. Even if today's headache was a spinal headache, Chris can't have another blood patch for another 48 hours.

Are you bum-fuzzled yet?? Cause I sure am!

Anyway, after the occipital block, Chris can't feel his head, so if he still has a headache, he doesn't know it.

We'll see how he feels in the morning. If he's better, then he can come home. If not, then we'll discuss our options.

2010-08-02T09:49:00.002-05:00

Chris' blood patch from yesterday worked great at the time, however this morning the spinal headache is back worse than ever. We're waiting now for an anesthesia consult to see if they can do another one so soon after the first one. Doesn't look like we're going home today unless there are some drastic changes.

I'll update again later.

What Now???

2010-08-01T20:56:00.002-05:00

So what has been going on since my last update? Chris is STILL in the hospital, that's what! Long story short, his cultures were all negative, which we knew they would probably be negative since he was afebrile and his head and neck pain were somewhat better.

However, his head and neck pain were still pretty bad until late last night, when they were down to a dull ache and we decided he could come home this morning. When his doctor saw him this morning, Chris was in great spirits and pain-free and more than ready to come home. This discharge orders were written, his IV had been pulled and I was on my way to get him. BUT when he stood up and started moving around, his headache returned with a vengence and he started with some major vomiting. He said it felt like a vice squeezing his head. So, back to bed he went, the doctor was paged, his IV was replaced. He had a spinal headache and had to have a blood patch to give him some relief. After some, Ahem, persuasion on my part, we were able to get the blood patch today. Luckily anestesia was in-house for another surgery so they were able to get his blood patch done this afternoon.

His head feels much better, but he still has some pressure when he stands up and is now having a lot of pressure in his lower back. Most likely the back pain is from the blood that was infused there but they wanted to keep him again for the night to make sure.

He is SO ready to get home, but would rather stay put until they know sure what is going on with his back. We sure don't want to have to come home only to turn around and go back.

Hopefully he will be home tomorrow.

Update and How we got here

2010-07-30T21:40:00.003-05:00

Chris is feeling some better tonight. No fever since last night and his headache and neck pain are a little more tolerable. Hopefully he will get to come home on Sunday.

Now...how did we get here? It started Monday afternoon when he had some cramps in his calf muscles and just felt really tired. I decided was probably mild dehydration from working in the sweltering heat and not drinking enough liquids while do so. He drank lots of Gatorade and rested for the night and felt better. Tuesday he still had calf pain but had more energy, we thought his calves were just sore from the major cramp the night before.

Moving on to Wednesday afternoon. He worked all day Wednesday, still with the calf pain. He called me on his way home from work and told me he had a really bad headache and his arms and legs were cramping. I decided it was time to drag him to the doctor for some IV fluids. We went to the Urgent Care here in Jasper, we waited about and hour before he was triaged, his headache was getting worse during our wait. Once he was in a room, I needed to go get the kids settled and dropped off at my parents. I was gone for about 45 minutes and when I returned he was much worse, he spiked a fever to 102, and he had some major neck stiffness, which he didn't have when we checked in. I knew he probably had meningitis.

I found his nurse and told her about the neck stiffness, the doctor came in and told us to go straight to the ER; he was very concerned about Chris having bacterial meningitis because of how fast the symptoms were progressing. They threw a mask on him and off we went. When we got to the ER they put him in a room immediately (thank goodness because the place was PACKED!) and did his spinal tap and started his antibiotics within about 20 minutes of us being there. Luckily his spinal fluid was clear, indicating viral meningitis. The ER doctor decided to admit him until his cultures came back negative and until he was fever-free and his pain was tolerable.

It was at this point things came to a sudden halt. As I said the ER was packed and they were very busy. They also had to shuffle some other admitted patients around because Chris had to have an isolation room. We deal with this issue at work every winter, and I know the process can take several hours. I told Chris to get comfy, we would be there a while. I went to the nearest Red Box and rented us...well ME some movies to watch on my laptop while we waited....we ended up watching all 3, yes, T-H-R-E-E of the movies I rented. We were there for 11 hours and were finally moved to his room at around 6:00 Thursday morning. Apparently there was a lot of shuffling to do.

As of now, we are still waiting on the cultures to come back, it still looks like viral meningitis. Hopefully he can remain fever-free and his pain will continue to improve so he can come home.

P.S. I still have lots of pictures to post from our Gatlinburg trip. I'll get them posted as soon as things get settled down around here.

Happy Birthday Luke!!!

2010-07-30T12:27:00.000-05:00

My baby boy is 6 years old today!!!

Update

2010-07-30T12:11:00.002-05:00

Chris still doesn't feel much better. Still with a lot of neck and back pain and headache. His fever returned last night, but no fever so far today.

His labs still look viral and his white blood count is down, only slightly elevated now. The ultrasound on his leg was normal, but he's still having a lot of pain in his left calf. No one can explain this pain, but it doesn't appear to be anything bad.

They changed his antibiotics and his pain meds last night and so far no more allergic reactions.

We're still waiting on the final results of his cultures, which should be back tomorrow to give him the definite diagnosis of viral meningitis versus bacterial meningitis. At this point, it's very unlikely the cultures would grow bacteria, but he still has to be on isolation until the final results are in.

He's just hanging out waiting on the headache, fever, and neck pain to play themselves out so he can go home.

Prayers Needed

2010-07-29T20:14:00.003-05:00

I'm exhausted, so I'll get right to the point of this post.

Chris is in the hospital. He has meningitis, most likely it's viral meningitis, but we're waiting on cultures to come back.

He feels rotten, having lots of neck and back pain and a killer headache. He's on strong antibiotics, so in the event the cultures were to come back as bacterial meningitis, we're ahead on treating it.

He's also on some strong pain meds for his headache and neck/back pain, which only dull the pain. He had an allergic reaction to one of his medications tonight, most likely the pain med, so they changed it. Hopefully, the itching will stop now.

Another concern is some pretty significant pain to his left calf, which he's had since Monday. No one is sure why he has this pain, but it hurts with even the lightest touch. They did an ultrasound this evening to rule out a DVT.

That is where we stand now...waiting on result of cultures, waiting on his neck/back pain and headache to resolve, waiting on ultrasound results, and a change in his pain meds.

Please pray for the cultures to be negative, for his pain to be resolved, and for the ultrasound to be negative so he can come home, hopefully Saturday.

Also, please remember Kaylyn and Luke. They just don't understand why they can't go see him. He's on isolation precautions and they should not be around him until we know for sure he's not contagious. Luckily, they did not see him at all yesterday. Also, Luke's birthday is tomorrow and he's pretty bummed about not getting to see his daddy on his birthday. I know, it's a "small" issue in the grand scheme of things, but to a 6 year old little boy, it's a huge deal.

I'll keep you posted and give a more detailed account of the events of yesterday after I've had some sleep....the non-consecutive 2 hours of sleep I've had since 4:30 yesterday just aren't enough for my brain to function right now!

Pool Time!!

2010-07-27T22:20:00.000-05:00

Of course we had to have some pool time. I think if we just took our kids somewhere with a pool for vacation they would be perfectly content! It was the first thing they asked about when they woke up every morning and the last thing they wanted to do before they went to bed every night. We were at the pool every night.

Day 2

2010-07-27T22:01:00.003-05:00

After the eventful day from the first day of our vacation, we were ready for a calm day on day 2. We ate breakfast at one of the 300 pancake houses in Gatlinburg and spent the morning and after noon around town and at Ober Gatlinburg.
Still amazed by all those rocks!

Trying to catch one of the baby trout...with their hands. For some reason they were not able to catch a fish on this morning...but they sure did try hard.

Riding the ski lift to the top of the mountain at Ober Gatlinburg to ride the alpine slides down the mountain, which totally rocked! Loved the alpine slides, not so fond of the ski lift.

Kaylyn was not so sure of the ski lift either. We were all a little nervous about being carried up the mountain on a small chair attached to a thin cable with the only thing holding us in the chair being a bar across our laps. I could just see one of us slipping between the chair and the bar and falling out of the sky.

Riding the alpine slide.

Riding the rapids

The kids loved these rides.

Stay tuned for more pics....

Gatlinburg 2010

2010-07-26T21:53:00.002-05:00

So our family vacation has come and gone. We left a day early on Wednesday night with plans on stopping in Chattanooga for the night and spending Thursday morning seeing the sights around the city. However, THIS was our first stop of the trip.....Yes, it wouldn't be a Chilton Family vacation without a little drama/trauma. The trip was off to a great start. We left at 5:45 on Wednesday evening, then returned home at 6:00 because I had forgotten something. When we were finally on the road, we drove to Chatanooga, checked in a hotel and slept for the night. We were up bright and early with plans to stop by Lookout Mountain, Rock City, and Ruby Falls, then drive on to Gatlinburg. With everyone in great spirits, we ate breakfast and were about to go to the car when IT happened. Chris was walking out a door and Luke was walking in the same door...do you see where I'm going with this?? COLLISION...metal door to Luke's big toe...ripping half of his toe nail off. OUCH!!! So, instead of taking a detour to Lookout Mountain, Ruby Falls, and Rock City, we took a little detour by T.C. Thompson Children's ER with a screaming Luke who was certain they were going to amputate his toe, begging us to "just put a band-aid on it."
Here he is in the ER. Luckily Chatanooga has more than one pediatric hospital, and we were just about the only one's there. We were in and out of there in about an hour minus 1/2 big toe nail and plus one bulky bandage(which he promptly removed about an hour down the road). Luke was very relieved to leave with all of his toes.

We finally made it to Gatlinburg. I haven't been there in about 10 years, literally. Kaylyn was a fetus the last time we went to Gatlinburg. Anyway, I had forgotten about the traffic going into and out of Sevierville and Pigeon Forge. After the trip to the ER and creeping along for nearly two hours in traffic, finding the office to pick up the key to our chalet, we FINALLY made it there around 4:00 Thursday afternoon. Kaylyn was so excited to be in the mountains, since she's never been north of the Alabama state line. I know, I know, she's a deprived child. What can I say, we're normally beach people in the summer. Anyway, we decided we would drive up to the highest point of the Smokey's and let her check out the view. She loved it.

Here is the view from the top of the mountain.

The North Carolina - Tennessee State Line: Elevation 5046. It was about 20 degrees cooler up there making it a cool 80 degrees. We've grown so accustomed to this sweltering hot weather, I thought we may need to break out the winter coats with the 20 degree drop in temperature. Ha Ha!

Of course we had to stop and play in the river. Yes, with Luke's newly injured toe, which was missing half of it's toenail. He was very careful to guard it and would scream if anyone or anything even thought of coming near it.

Luke was amazed by the big rocks in the river and that the river was so small. He talked about it the ENTIRE trip. Yes, he is easily amused.

Stay tuned, more to come...

SO Not Fair!!!

2010-07-07T20:59:00.003-05:00

It's just not fair that my offspring got to take a trip to the beach a couple of weeks ago...while I stayed home to work! They went with Nana and Pop and Paul, Candace, and Chloe. So, yes, my ENTIRE family was at the beach having fun....while I stayed home to work! They had a blast and got to play on the beach for two of their three days. On the third day a storm came and blew all the tar balls on the beach. Here are a few pics Candace sent me.
Enjoying some time in the ocean, pre-tar balls

Chloe's getting to be such a big girl! They said she really had a fun time playing on the beach.

And then there's this picture...Oh, what do I say about this one??? I died laughing when I saw this one. It is quiet hilarious! You have Chloe looking like Aunt Jemima in...I'm not exactly sure what kind of hat that is, Luke who's built like a string bean, and Miss Thang who looks like she's got a future as the cover girl for the Sport's Illustrated Swim Suit Edition! What a crew!

Back on Track

2010-06-15T21:46:00.002-05:00

So... it's been a while. This time I actually have a legitimate excuse! June 8, 2010 will now be known as the day The Big Crash of 2010 occurred. Look for it in history books of the future. Yes, my computer crashed and burned. The devastating crash of 2010 may or may not be related to the number of pictures stored on the computer/victim of The Big Crash of 2010.

In any event, we're up and running again AND they were able to recover ALL the pictures and important documents which may or may not have contributed to The Big Crash of 2010.

Tee Ball Party

2010-06-15T21:27:00.003-05:00

A couple of weeks ago we had Luke's Tee Ball party. The party was a skating party and all the kids had a fun time. Personally, I am not a fan of skating parties....placing 5 and 6 year old kids in shoes with wheels and telling them to go around in circles on cement flooring is just not a good idea to me. Add to the fact that most said kids have never worn a pair of skates and there are many kids who are much older flying around the skating rink, trying to show off for whomever may be watching...it's a nerve-racking experience! But that's just the ER nurse/mama bear in me talking. The kids had a great time and everyone made out with all their teeth and extremities in tact!

A little concerned about these rolling accessories
Required a little help from Daddy

A little more confident

Kaylyn and BFF Shalyn.

Just one of many encounters with the cement flooring
Taking a break from skating to take in a little air hockey
After skating/colliding with cement, it was time for pizza, cake, and ice cream. The team also received their trophies. Luke promptly dropped his and it ended up in about 3 pieces. Another one has been ordered and will be here by the end of the week.

Another Year Of Dance Is In The Books...

2010-06-01T22:47:00.004-05:00

This past weekend we had Kaylyn's dance recital, ending her 6th year of dance. It's hard to believe it's been 6 years since I sent my 3 year old little pig-tailed girl bouncing in to her first dance class. She's come a long way from the days of "I'm A Little Teapot" and "Three Little Fishies!"Backstage, ready to dance!

Showing off the trophies from this year's competition season

Kaylyn and Chaney striking a pose. These two have been together since the begining.

Now for the videos. This is what they've been working so hard on all year.

The quality of these videos is not great. I had to put the video shot with my digital camera on here because my video camera does not save the video in a format I can upload (or maybe I just haven't figured out how to change the format of the video). I think it may be time to upgrade our technology around the Chilton house. HINT, HINT!

"You Know You Want Me..." This song had all four competition teams dancing together and won second overall at the Alabama Theater competition. They move so much in this dance making it hard to point out which dancer is Kaylyn. Here's a hint: She's the smallest one!

"Freakazoid" This is the girls' hip-hop dance.

"Proud Mary" This one is Kaylyn's favorite dance.

Kindergarten End-of-Year Bash

2010-05-28T10:14:00.004-05:00

On Monday we had Luke's end-of-year party. They went bowling and saw the new Shrek movie. (BTW, LOVE all the Shrek movies, and this one was the BEST!) All the kids had a great time bowling, which was a first for many of them, including Luke.
Luke and his buddies, Boone, Payton, and Casey. Can you say T-R-O-U-B-L-E

After bowling, it was time to load the kids on the bus and head to the movies.

Luke and his, Ahem, girlfriend Shayna.
(But don't talk to him about it, he turns about 5 shades of red!)

A Decision Made

2010-05-23T22:11:00.004-05:00

We have finally come to a decision about our Summer vacation. Originally we had decided to go to the beach for a few days, but just after I found and reserved a condo for the days we wanted to go to the beach, the big oil spill in the gulf occurred. When days and weeks went by with thousands of barrels of oil pumping into the gulf everyday, we decided it might be wise to look into other options for our vacation. We decided on a white water rafting trip if it looked like we would be unable to go to the beach in July.

Although it is still very likely our beaches will be spared any major damage from the oil spill, the threat is still there and I need some concrete plans in place. Beach or rafting...that is the question. The answer came the other night over some Chinese food, of all things! We were eating dinner, discussing which trip we would take....should we take our chances with the beach, or should we go rafting??? In the middle of this conversation, Kaylyn opened her fortune cookie and it read "Boats and water are in your future. Have fun." No lie!!! White water rafting it is!

Dance Pictures!!

2010-05-19T18:30:00.000-05:00

It's time for the dance pics again, which also means this year's dance season is winding down....Hallelujah!! The dance recital is next weekend and then we're through with dance for at least a month or so!

This one is my fav, but Holy Moly, Where oh where has my baby girl gone???

Slacker!

2010-05-15T21:21:00.006-05:00

Hello. My name is Nicole and I'm a blog neglector. Yes, I've been a slacker when it comes to my blog. I have no excuses other than our usual busy Spring/End of school lives.

Luke finished his Tee ball season today in the post season tournaments. They played 3 ball games and won one with a forfeit from the other team. They won their game on Thursday night in slaughter-like fashion. Friday night was the forfeit win and today finished with two losses. They played great, but just couldn't pull it off. They had fun though and at this age, they really don't care if they win or lose.

Kaylyn is finishing up third grade and ready for summer break. Her dance recital will be coming up in a couple of weeks and we are all ready for it to get here...we need a break! I don't know what I'm going to do with myself for the next 2 months with no ballgames or dance functions to attend! I'm sure I will find something to occupy my time and August will be here before we know it!

Tuesday we celebrated the 5th Anniversary of Chris' 29th birthday. I keep telling him it doesn't work that way, no matter how he says it....he's STILL 34 years old!

We have a beach trip planned for July, but with the oil spill happening in the Gulf, who knows if we'll get to go. If not, we'll be going somewhere in July.

Anyway, that pretty much catches everyone up on the happenings of the Chilton household....a birthday, an uncertain beach trip, ball and dance...and in a few weeks...NOTHING!

May Day!

2010-05-15T20:46:00.005-05:00

This past week, the kids had May Day at school. It's a fun day for the kids with rides, jump houses, slides, face painting, hair painting, and games. I was able to go and help out with Luke's class by being a parent escort. Luckily there were lots of parents helping so I was only responsible for keeping up with Luke and his buddy Payton. I say "luckily" because there were hundreds of kids who had gone WILD! Seriously, the doors opened and it was a stampede of screaming kids who were ready for a fun day at school. Chloe also got to tag along with us for part of the day. Because I was being drug from place to place by Luke and Payton, while either holding Chloe on my hip or dragging her by the hand behind them, I didn't get to see Kaylyn too often. She was busy with her friends and too cool to hang out with Mom and those baby Kindergartners! I did manage to get a few quick pictures of her though, but then she was off to the next adventure!

Sweet picture of Chloe and her buddy waiting to go outside to all the fun

She decided she needed to hold both of his hands
Luke waiting to ride the airplanes

Kaylyn and buddy Kimberly...one of the 3 times I saw her all day...

Luke and his friend Shayna in the planes

Chloe and buddy Payton (Not Luke's buddy Payton) in the planes. She LOVED this ride. We had to ride it several times!

Of course we just had to do the hair painting. He kind of resembles Ronald McDonald. Yes, he still has pink hair!

Chloe was not to be outdone. She had to have her hair painted as well.

Taking a break from the heat

The next time I saw Kaylyn she had purple hair!

Luke's favorite ride was this Velcro thing. He loved jumping against the wall and sticking, then he decided to climb!

Then the guy threw him way up and held him on the wall. Luke loved it!

Here's the third time I saw Darling Daughter.

Luke and Payton going down the giant inflatable slide.

Another big hit of the day was this pumping, spinning thing. The faster they pumped the bars, the faster they spun around. They had it flying before it was over. I don't know how they didn't get sick!

The End!

Dance Magic Competition

2010-04-22T22:38:00.001-05:00

On Saturday we had the big competition, which was, after all, the reason for our trip. The girls danced very well. In fact, they danced much better than the week before, but scored lower at this competition. The judges were very strict and there weren't but a handful of "Platinum" awards given. They had fun anyway because they got to dance at the beach! Bright and early Saturday morning, ready to dance!

"Freakazoid" received an "Elite Silver" ranking, which is not great. You either want an Elite Gold or a Platinum ranking in order to receive and overall award.

On to the second dance, "Proud Mary," SEVERAL hours later. The thrill of dancing on the beach is gone, because you can't play on the beach while waiting all those hours!

This dance received a "gold" ranking.

FINALLY time for the last dance of the day!

The chaos of getting 50 dancers of various ages lined up and in their correct groups!

"You Know You Want Me" also received a gold ranking.

My Bootleg Pictures!

2010-04-22T22:31:00.002-05:00

As I've said many times before, taking pictures while the dancers are on stage is a big "NO-NO," however, when we got there Saturday I noticed several other people taking pictures during the competition. I thought I should join the club! So, here are my bootleg pictures, taken with me hiding behind a tent. I got the first two dances, but there was a group disqualified while we were waiting for our third dance, so I decided I'd better not risk it!

A Day At The Beach

2010-04-21T20:04:00.005-05:00

Friday we spent the entire day on the beach. Ahhhh....8 hours of uninterrupted beach time, just sitting in my chair, reading my book, taking in some sun. Just me...and two kids who insist they need to go to the pool 10 minutes after we get all set up, then decide the pool water is colder than the ocean and they want to go BACK to the beach after we're set up at the pool. Yep, just me and these two angels and my loving husband, who came to my rescue after the third trip to and from the beach and just let me stay on the beach.

We really did have a great day at the beach Friday. The kids played in the water and attempted a sand castle, but got bored after a little while and gave it up.

Awww....doesn't this just look so sweet? A sister and brother playing so well together and doing the unspeakable...SHARING....

Think again! Check out the look on Kaylyn's face. This look says "Stay back or you are shark-bait!" Pesky little brother, always hanging around!

I think she's got the same look here. I'm sure he was doing something to annoy her...you know, like, breathing! How dare he!!

Luke concentrating really hard...probably thinking up his next move of aggrevation for his sister!

Stay tuned, more to come!

Boingy-BOOOIIIInnnggy-Boooiiiinnnggggyyy!

2010-04-20T20:41:00.003-05:00

Thursday night, after spending a few hours on the beach we went to eat at Hammerhead Fred's.
After Kaylyn devoured 3 entire clusters of crab legs BY HERSELF, we went to Pier Park to walk around.

*Side Note* We had only ordered Kaylyn 1 cluster of crab claws as a side item to one of our meals, but when our meal came the waitress had a surprise for her and there were 3 clusters on her plate. You would have thought Kaylyn had found gold!

Okay, back to the point of this post. While we were walking around Pier Park we came across this Super Jump thing. After watching several other children and one grown man jump, (and live to tell about it) I decided the bungees would hold my 40 and 50 pound children just fine and allowed them to take a turn jumping. The kids loved it! They jumped and flipped over and over.

Getting all strapped in! "Hey Mister, be sure those are extra tight....No cracks in your bungees....Okay, you're ready to go!"

My little acrobat! He loved flipping!

This one.....Notsomuch! I couldn't believe my little daredevil was afraid to flip. She had fun jumping though!

And he continued to flip!

And she was content to just jump REALLY high!

Here was an attempt at a flip, but she chickened out before she could complete the flip!

And here's another attempt

More pics to come!

We Took A Little Trip...

2010-04-19T16:46:00.002-05:00

...down to good 'ol PCB this past weekend. Although this was a trip intended for Kaylyn's second dance competition, we were able to squeeze in a couple of extra days at the beach. We left early Thursday morning and got to the beach in the early afternoon. The kids had a blast playing on the beach and even played in the freezing water!

He loved digging in the sand with all of his new sand toys, compliments of the Easter Bunny.

She had just been hit by a cold wave!!

Stay tuned for more pics...

Competition #1

2010-04-11T19:16:00.005-05:00

Yesterday was THE LONGEST day! The day started bright and early with the first of Luke's ball games. His team won...thank goodness they won quickly because Kaylyn and I flew home to get ready for her dance competition at the Alabama Theater, were we spent the next 10, yes T-E-N HOURS! Now, don't get me wrong, I love the Alabama Theater. It's beautiful and there are lots of cool things to look at, but around hour 5 of sitting and waiting and running backstage for costume changes, up and down stairs about 32 times, I was a bit stir-crazy! Speaking of backstage, I'm not sure if any of you have ever been backstage at the Alabama Theater, but let me tell you a little bit about it. It's old, and dusty, and stuffy and CREEPY with it's dark and narrow hallways and winding stairs. After our first song, we were stuck back there for about 45 minutes awaiting the awards ceremony! Not a pleasant experience! Anyway, the day is over now, and the girls did great!

The first dance was "You Know You Want Me..." In this dance all 4 competition teams are dancing together, for a total of 50 dancers, ages 6-18 all on the same stage. No easy task!
This dance received a ranking of "high gold" and won second over-all!

Waiting backstage!

Our next song was "Freakazoid" In this song the girls were robots. This song received a "gold" ranking. Yeah, it needs some work!

A little robot action!

Kaylyn and Kensley waiting between songs...4 hours!

Ready to take stage.

The next song was "Proud Mary." A very cute dance. This dance received "high gold" ranking.

Next week we're headed for Panama City for our next competition.