Birthday Girl

Today is our little Kassidy's first birthday. Her birthdate is an estimated date by a doctor according to her weight an size when she was found. They approximated her age to be a week old at that time. We are so fortunate to have Kassidy before any birthdays so we would not have to miss out on any birthday celebrations. This birthday of hers came a lot faster for us than normal. Afterall, we have only had her for three months before her first birthday. She is doing so well and is walking more and more each day. She gets excited and tries to take off running at times before she has even mastered the walking so there are many plops of the bottom down on the floor on a regular basis. Although we did not celebrate her birthday with a party today, we will be doing so on Monday when we go home to WV with our family for the Thanksgiving holiday. We are so looking forward to our family getting together for not only Thanksgiving but also for Kassidy's birthday. We did however want to get a few pics up on the exact day of her birthday on this blog just to share the day itself. Daddy and mommy went ahead and gave her our gift today which is an Elmo Live. This thing is so crazy. It does and says everything. I think we like it even more than Kassidy does. We are posting a few pics from today when she got her Elmo. At first she was a little afraid because it talks and moves rapidly. A little later on she got used to it and all she wanted to do was hug Elmo so we had to get some pics of that of course. When we get back from WV we will have a lot of pics on the blog of her party and some pics of family and friends. We cannot wait to go and let everyone see how far Kassidy has come over the last couple of months. Ta ta for now and have a Happy Thanksgiving. There certainly is a lot for us to be thankful for this year.

Thank You Lord

Dear Lord

I am so glad the road you have taken me to and the things I have learned along the way.

After just walking out of a room where my husband and daughter lay snuggled up together taking a nap, I realize how little I have thanked you for giving me such a wonderful life with a wonderful husband and most precious baby daughter. I never would have dreamed of the love that has filled my heart as of late and I know I owe it all to you. There were so many times in my life that I felt things were not going as they should or how I would like them to go but now I realize that if my life would not have taken each and every road it took then I would not be at the point I am today. Yes...there were times when I wished I had made different decisions or times when I was going through that I even wished I was not born so I would not have to endure the pain in which I was experiencing but now is one of those times when I have had a revelation. I had the realization that if I had not had those rough patches in my life then it would have kept me from being where I am today. So I am glad now that I had those times to go through. There are many places throughout your word that tells us that for each difficult period we go through there is a reason and it is up to us to either see that reason and accept it or just trust you when we cannot in any way see any good that could possibly come out of the situation. There were times in my life that unfortunately I questioned why you would allow things to happen and now I see why and am so glad that you had me travel the road that I did. I cannot imagine being any happier than I am right now and I want to whole heartedly thank you and say I love you which I fail to do as often as I should. Thank you also for putting people in my life whether it be my mother or just an acquantaince because there have been so many examples of Godly people and reasons for me to strive the same way they did/do so that in the end I not only achieve certain things in this life but to know also that I can be at peace in the afterlife and that there is an important reason for us to do the things we do. Please Lord look over my family and help me be the wife and mother I need to be along with the role I can play in other's lives also.

Your child

NOTE: I made this prayer public to be of encouragement to you and to publicly thank God and let everyone know how blessed I feel for what he has done for me. I know many times I get caught up in the ongoings of life and push moments like this away and replace it with other things. When I see someone who has been touched by God and shares it with me, then it gets me thinking in the right direction again. I hope by sharing with you my gratefulness to God for what he has given me that you too may take a few seconds to thank God for something in your life. And thank you to all of you whom have been a source of encouragement, good examples, and love over the years.

Love, Nikki

Miscellaneous

Just some more cute pics of her with her book by the fireplace, mastering drinking out of a straw, and a pic with daddy.

Pics with Friends and Strolling Downtown

Here are a few pics with friends Eric and Min and some other pics of us when we were strolling around downtown and one with her getting excited about having lunch. hehe

Standing and Walking

These pics show Kassidy standing on her own. She has been standing on her own for awhile now but she is now starting to walk. Just yesterday she stood up on her own, looked at Nikki with a great big smile and proceeded to walk about 8 feet to Nikki. Billy was just walking in from work as she made it to Nikki and was wondering what the yelling was about because Nikki was just telling Kassidy how well she did and Kassidy was excited too because she knew she did something special. It is only days now until she will be walking and getting into more things than she already is.

First Time in Bible Class

Nikki took Kassidy to Bible Class for her first time. We are going to try to get her used to being in there before we leave her by herself but she actually seemed to do quite well. We may try in another week or two to just leave her in there without mommy or daddy and see how well she does. With children this young, the Bible Class consists mostly of singing Bible songs and then letting them play with each other the remainder of the Bible Class. Above are some pics of her with some of her Bible Class friends and her playing with some of the toys.

More Trick or Treat

She absolutely loves all of her stuffed animals. I know many babies who get tons of stuffed animals and could care less, but not Kassidy. She loves them sooo much. She may be fussy when trying to be put to sleep but as soon as you give her a stuffed animal then she calms down most of the time. It is so cute to see her hug them and cuddle with them. Billy and Nikki only wishes they got as much love as the animals do. Although she is very clinging to us she is not yet a snuggle bug or much on hugs or kisses. We are still waiting for the first kiss and hug. In the pic with Wes, she mocked him in blowing a kiss which was the first time she ever did that so it was special.

Trick or Treat (Con't.)

In addition to our butterflies and doctor, we also had a priest and nun. hehe Nikki had bought these outfits several years ago and the only time they were worn was Nikki wore the nun costume one time for Halloween but she convinced others to wear them this year. As you can see, you cannot get much more halarious than this. Billy dressed up as a nun long enough to get his pic done however he and Wes rethought the idea when it came to them actually walking around the neighborhood together. hehe...okay...I cannot blame them but we still got use out of it and convinced Amy to put it on.

Trick or Treat

Wow...did we have fun or what? For Halloween night, we invited over our friends Wes, Amy, Grace and Allie Kate. We had dinner then everyone but Nikki went trick or treating around our neighborhood while Nikki stayed and gave out candy. Fortunately, we get lots of trick or treaters in our neighborhood so it is always real fun. The girls had a great time and then came back and helped Nikki finish giving out candy. As you can see, in our little gang we had two butterflies and a doctor.

Sleeping Baby

Who doesn't like pictures of a sleeping baby? All I can say about this blog is CUTE.

Ms. Amy and More Bathtime

We are trying to get Kassidy familiar with our friend Ms. Amy so that when we need a babysitter for whatever reason then she will be comfortable and familiar with Amy. She will not let anyone hold her except Nikki and Billy but Sunday morning at church services Amy came over and sat down beside us and Kassidy reached for Amy and let her hold her. It was a BIG deal and Amy's heart melted. Everyone is worried about Kassidy's separation anxiety from Billy and Nikki but Nikki went to vote yesterday and was gone for two hours while Billy watched her and while Nikki was gone she was okay but as soon as she walked in the door and saw Kassidy it was like she had been gone for a week. When you get used to someone tugging on your pants 24/7 then two hours away can be kind of weird. The other pics are of bathttime. We cannot seem to get enough of those pics as they are so cute and she loves her baths so much.