SoJam

Last weekend we went to Raleigh to spend the weekend with Megan and Tim. Megan and I went to SoJam (an a cappella music event). This picture Megan made tells the story better than I could:

Camping

We finally got a chance to take Keely camping. We'd bought a nice tent last year, but it got too cold immediately afterwards so we never got to use it. So we finally planned a 1 night camping trip fairly locally, just in case Keely didn't handle it well. We drove up there (about 1.5 hours) and set up camp. The campgrounds were fairly grounded and it is just not the kind of camping I grew up doing. You know, with people around.

Well then we realized that we'd left our down comforter at home. Keely had a nice warm sleeping bag, but we had planned to use the comforter and we were left with no blanket. It was supposed to get really cold that night. Thankfully one of my friends lives fairly close (about 30 minutes from the campsite) so I went down and borrowed some blankets (thanks Janis!).

Keely and I spent some time in the must have hammock.

After dinner we roasted marshmallows. We told Keely it was her choice how cooked she liked her marshmallows. It ended up with her leaving them in the fire for about 2 seconds and then proclaiming them done. I think she just wanted to eat marshmallows. :)

 These are the things we found in the little pouch over Keely's sleeping bag. This is what she thought was worth bringing/keeping. Two bracelets, a plastic spoon, a rubber spider, 2 lego candles, a leaf, and a superman ring. Love that girl.

First Ice Cream Cone

While Keely has had ice cream several times she'd never had it in a cone until my dad visited in September.

At first she wasn't sure how to handle it. She kept asking for directions.

 But she soon realized she loved it!

Swimming!

I'm still working on catching up. Sorry.

This summer Keely took swim lessons with Ms. Kindall. It was great. After about 8 lessons she was swimming underwater by herself. Keely loves swimming. She would swim all day if I let her! We've been going to Lenoir City's covered pool about once a month just so that she doesn't forget how much she LOVES swimming and how good she is at it.

This video is from mid-July after about 6 lessons.

These two are from mid-August near the end of her lessons.

Our Poet

Back in July (yes I'm behind. Sorry) Keely wrote a poem. It consisted of a piece of construction paper with squiggles that were "words". Then Keely proceeded to read it. Apparently it was an epic poem in the style of Beowulf. Its about 4 minutes long. Daniel recorded audio of it, but it took me awhile to figure out how to make it a "video" that I could post here. He'd also taken two pics of her reading it, so I just made it into a slideshow. There are only two pictures so it is really just about the audio, but this format allows me to share it more easily. Enjoy! (more posts coming soon)

One Year Ago

I had to make a post today to celebrate my one year anniversary of my surgery. This surgery was a miracle in my life and I think even more life changing than the car accident that caused the damage in the first place. Not only did it give me back everything I'd lost for the 3 years between the accident and the surgery, but it gave me an unbelievable appreciation for the gift of my body and what it can do. I would go through the 3 months of recovery many times over for the benefits I got from the surgery. Within 6 weeks of the surgery I was off all pain meds and hurting less than I had before the surgery. It has only gotten better from there. I mean, I'm a gym junkie now!
But one year ago today I think was just now waking up in recovery and begging to be allowed to roll off of my back. After a 6-8 hour long surgery where they sliced through my muscles, removed a vertebra and replaced it with a titanium cage.

Here is video footage of my car following the car accident:

Here are my before and after pictures: (read the original Before and After post for more):

before 12/10

after 7/11

Beach Baby

We spent another week at the beach last month. It was wonderful! Not only were we at the beach, but Megan and Julie's families joined us! The only sad part was that we didn't have Nick with us. I realized this is the first time Daniel and I had been to a US beach without him.

We went to Oak Island, NC which I think will become our usual place.

Julie's sons Jackson and Joey were so great playing with Keely at the beach. Some how we didn't end up with a picture of Joey playing with Keely. He was very patient digging with her and even helped her swim quite a bit, letting her lay on the boogie board and swimming her around.


Keely still has Aunt Megan wrapped around her finger. I slept in one morning and as I was coming out of the room I heard Megan reading to Keely and telling her to be patient waiting for me. I hid and listened to the sweetness then came around the corner to see this:

And Keely convinced Megan to play some "shake shake" (Just Dance) with her again!

Overall Keely LOVED the beach. Her swim lessons have given her a lot of confidence in the water, but not to the point where she was running into the water and scaring us to death. A pretty perfect medium. Just a few pictures to show you a picture of her joy.

Pensive Keely

Megan is right next to her, promise!

Dancing on the beach.

On Thursday of the week Megan, Tim, Daniel, Keely and I all went to Medieval Times. Tim and I had been there before, but no one else had. Keely was so good and patient! I tried very hard to convince her she needed something girly from the gift shops like a crown, but she had her heart set on a sword...

End of Year Celebration

For the last few weeks of school Keely would tell me that they practiced their songs that they would sing for all of the mommies and papas. Her school does a "graduation" celebration that includes all of the kids. Its pretty adorable. She did a great job! She sang the whole time and did the dancing for most of it. It was her first time wearing a new dress and apparently the fabric is really soft. She kept rubbing it against her face...which showed her panties to everyone. We're working on that one!

Walking in with Ms Debbie!

"Little red box"

Daniel had come straight from his interview so they were both all dressed up. Keely was kind of done at this point though.

For some reason I can't get the video uploaded but please go watch it on our picture website. It is HILARIOUS! 

My Obedient Girl

I love my kid. Even during a tantrum she follows the rules. One night this week she was refusing to do her quiet time and I closed the door and she started screaming "open it! open it!" We ignored her and a few minutes later she stopped screaming, opened the door, and said "I need to potty". She took care of going potty went back into her bedroom. The minute SHE closed the door again she started screaming "open it! open it!" again. Daniel and I couldn't stop laughing.

Keely's Birthday Party!

The rest of Keely's birthday weekend was wonderful. On Saturday we had her party at a bounce house. She LOVED it. Anytime she gets to be the star of the show is a good time for her. A lot of her friends came, which made me really very happy. She was most excited about Uncle Patrick and 'Stina coming though. Here are some pictures:

three big smiles

She was determined to wear this dress. It was kind of hilarious.

She got this nice scepter (and the crown you see below). Confirming her princess-ness

She shared Jeff with Max and Cooper. How nice of her!

I love that her and Patrick are both laughing in this one. 

Wee!

Crazy girl!

The whole crew!

Her princess birthday cake

First year blowing out her OWN candles!

See more pictures at my picture website!

Taking Off

For Keely's 3rd birthday present Daniel and I decided to take her on a helicopter ride. She has plenty of toys and we thought a great memory would be a better present. Last summer when we were at the beach with Uncle Nick right next to our resort was a helicopter tour. Since then she has been in love with helicopters and pointing them out all the time!

So we got there and they let us go up and see the helicopter, which was good for Keely. She got a little nervous, but we kept telling her it was safe, etc.

They cranked up the helicopter and we opted to pay the extra money for the headphones that connect to each other so we could talk. I'm glad we did it because we could talk to her and it drowned out MOST of the noise. We climbed in and she sat between Daniel and I. As we were taking off Keely was chanting under her breath "I'm safe, I'm safe, I'm safe".

She stayed plastered to me at first, but then relaxed and looked out both windows. The only time after that she got scared was when the helicopter banked to return and we tilted a LOT. Thankfully that didn't last long.

Thankful that we were able to make such great memories! She loved it so much and it was hard to get her to stop talking about it. She even made up a song on the way home, but I can't get the file to post.

Keely Quotes

Since I've gotten the iPhone I've been posting some of the cute things Keely says on Facebook. Since the whole reason I'm keeping this blog is to have this kind of thing archived, and because not everyone is on my Facebook, I wanted to repost them here.

Feb 15th

Today's talk:

K: Are you happy mommy?

Me: Yes. Are you happy Keely?

K: No.

Me: Why?

K: I'm REALLY happy. No little happy but BIG happy.

♥ her!

Feb 21st 

Quote of the day "Jesus always loves potty rings. "

March 7th

Quote of the Day:

Keely (to Daniel cooking in the kitchen): Are you Papa? Are you making dinner?

Papa: Yes I'm Papa and I'm making dinner.

Keely: Why isn't mama making dinner? 

March 15th

Today's quote: (while looking in the mirror thoughtfully) K: I have eyebrows. But I don't know why.

What do you say to that? I told her otherwise her face would look silly.

Mommy misunderstanding of the day: we were in the car listening to keely's music and I was asking her about her day at school. Suddenly I was sure she said "I have to crap!"

I was a little shocked to say the least until I looked in the mirror to see her CLAPing with the music.