1/23/10

Grant Stoneback sitting in his Bumbo chair on Idol night! TOO CUTE!
My newest niece, Dyllan and her mommy, Lindsey! Just beautiful!

Casey, Dyllan and Linsdey.

Casey and her uncle Joe having fun!

Casey, me, and Dyllan (who is exercising her lungs--they work!)

Awwww....little Dyllan. Looks like she's smiling!

Casey checking on her fish.

Meet Spiderman, Nemo, Princess and Daddy. The newest members of the Kilian family.

Precious.

The pizza was better than the game.

Ok, so I said I was going to start blogging more...and I did well up until Christmas, and now have failed miserably. Woops. I will try, try, try to blog more!

Here's a quick recap of the past few weeks. We spend New Year's Eve at home. Casey was in bed by 8:30 and Kyle and I watched Angels and Demons. We split one bottle of champagne, watched the ball drop and went to sleep!

I found a church here that we've been to twice now. It's a Presbyterian Church and I really like it. Casey goes to the nursery while we are in church. I hope to make it a habit we continue with during our time here in Beaufort.

Casey and I got a nasty cold the second week of the new year. Casey had the sniffles for a few days and unfortunately it knocked me for quite a loop. Just a nasty head cold, but not fun!

Aunt Dit and Uncle Fred came to visit for the night the weekend of the 9th. We had a nice time with them, went out to dinner, took them to church with us, and celebrated with them when we got news of the birth of our new niece, Dyllan Rose! Yep, that is the big news for January. Joe and Lindsey (my brother and sister-in-law) welcomed baby Dyllan on January 9th. She weighed a hearty 9lbs. 4oz and was 21.5 inches long.

Casey and I got to visit Dyllan, Linz, and Joe (and the rest of our family and friends) when we travelled to PA on 1/15-1/21. Dyllan is a "little" sweetheart and it was so nice to be able to see her and hold her in person. Casey was less than impressed with her new cousin, but she did have a lot of fun playing "phones" with her uncle Joe.

Casey and I just returned to SC late yesterday afternoon. We drove to Richmond on Thursday and stayed with my friend Shannon, her husband Abe, and their daughter Sianna. Thanks again guys for your hospitality...then we got up on Friday morning and drove the last 6.5 boring hours down 95 in the rain. Needless to say, we were very glad to be home and see our boys (Kyle and Jimmy) and of course our fishies! Happy to report that Spiderman, Nemo, Princess and Daddy fish are all still alive and kicking (or should I say swimming)!

Hope you are all well. Not sure when we'll be up to PA again. Hopefully in April.

Love to everyone~

Katie, Kyle, Casey, and Jim

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Cousins...Payton and Casey.
Santa brought me a new (kissen or tichen) kitchen! WOW!

The Reichl's, The Getz's, The Kilian's

Cousins: Casey, Alex, Jacob, Jon, and Pat

Sit and Spin...note that she has already taken off her dress.

Prior to disrobing. Casey and Payton admire the sit and spin.

Opening gifts at the Kilian's on Christmas morning.

Family picture on Christmas Eve

Cousins: Casey, Hannah, and Mia

Happy in the snow!

Not so happy in the snow...

Hi Everyone,

We are back from our whirlwind adventure in the land to the North (well, ok...we are back from our trip to PA)...it was an eventful trip! We were set to leave on Friday 12/18 and drive overnight. Mother nature had other plans and due to the monster blizzard the northeast got hit with, we chose to postpone our travel. We ended up leaving on 12/19 and drove to Stony Creek, Va (just south of Richmond) and stay at a hotel. Now we were traveling without the pack and play so Casey and I had the joy of sharing a bed. She thought it was fantastic that you could get in and out of bed whenever you liked and did so until 1:30 AM! We got up on Sunday morning and hit the roads (snow covered and all) around 8AM and didn't arrive in Nazareth until 4pm! Casey was a great traveler in the car...my special thanks to the portable DVD player along with Peter Parker and MJ (I think she watched SpiderMan 3 at least 3 times!!!)

Our time at home was great, very hectic, but in retrospect, we are so thankful to have such a big, loving group of family and friends surrounding us at the Holidays (and always).

Casey got to play in the snow for the first time. She HATED wearing snow boots. She didn't want to walk in them and that made it kind of hard for me to carry her in all her bulky clothes, plus the saucer up the hill for a ride. She LOVED the snow though!

Kyle and I had a great anniversary dinner at Mama Nina's in Bethlehem. The food was awesome and it was so wonderful to get through a meal without having to cut up someone elses food or wipe dirty hands!

Casey really enjoyed her Christmas. I finally got her to sit on Santa's lap on Christmas Eve day at the mall! Woo hoo. She was not a huge fan of opening her own gifts. I'd hand them to her and start to pull at the paper. She'd give it one feeble attempt and look at me and say, "Is stuck"...so I opened most of her gifts again this year. Of course, she was super excited about what was inside!

Our ride back to Beaufort took longer than the ride up (and we were driving in perfect weather conditions)...We split the drive in two parts again. Casey was not as happy for this trip and kept saying, "Home"..."Home"....I felt bad for her and then 10 minutes from our house, she finally fell asleep. Of course, this ruined my plan of walking her in the door to show her the new kitchen Santa brought her down here. Oh well, when she awoke from her mini-nap, she came downstairs and was surprised just the same. She even woke up this morning and asked for her "tichen"/"kissen" so I think we did well!

Now we are are anxiously awaiting the news that my brother Joey and his wife Lindsey are new parents. Lindsey is due on January 10, so I hope to return to PA sometime in late January to see my new niece!

That is all for now....best wishes to everyone in the new year. We aren't doing anything too exciting down here, so if you are out having a blast tonight, have some extra fun for us :o)

Love you all~~~
Katie, Kyle, Casey, and Jim

December Part 3

Casey and Jake
Alexis and Casey

Casey playing with the train.

Alexis and Casey

Casey -- the first night she had to wear her hat and mittens. The hat was mommy's!!!

She really liked her mittens!

It's us again~~~

Another quick update on our last week in South Carolina before we head north for Christmas.

We've had an eventful 24 hours here in SC.

Last night, Santa Claus came through the neighborhood on a firetruck. We got to go outside and say "Hi" and he gave Casey a coloring book and crayons. She was a little nervous, but is still talking about her book, and "kayins" from Santa.

Today was a very fun day for Casey (and me). We went to the Island Playground down in Bluffton/Hilton Head with some friends. It is an indoor playground with bounce houses, pretend play areas with dress up clothes, a dinosaur dig, a play kitchen, restaurant area, a train table and lots of slides. The kids played for close to three hours. Casey had SUCH a good time with her friend "Lekis" (Alexis) and Jake. She fell asleep on the car ride home around 1:30 and slept until almost 4pm. Yay for long naps!

When Casey woke up we took Jimmy for his walk and to see if Santa brought us any mail (she thinks all of our Christmas cards are from Santa)...While we were walking and talking I asked her what her name was and she replied "Casey" and then I asked what the dogs name was and she said "Boo bears" (a nickname we've always had for Jimmy). Then I asked her what Daddy's name was and she very quickly said, "Kyle"!!!! So I thought I test her out and ask what Mommy's name was...and don't you know -- she said, "Kayee"!!! I was so shocked!

Anyway...enjoy the few new pictures and maybe I'll post again before we leave...if not--hope to see many of you soon~~~

Love,
Katie, Kyle, Casey and Jimmy

More December

Casey's Christmas present--I put it together myself! (The doors work and everything)
I can't wait to give it to her!!!

Reading her new "Blue's Coos" book from Santa at the Battalion Christmas Party!

There was even a bounce house at the Christmas Party.

Casey did NOT want to sit on Santa's lap...

So she watched him from across the room.

The Lyceum at Parris Island (our Battalion Christmas Party!)

Casey wearing the antlers ;0)

And Casey wearing a tin as a shoe...it makes a wonderful sound on hardwood floors!

Hi Again~

One of my New Year's Resolutions for 2010 is to update my blog more regularly. So I thought I try it out early and add a few more posts on here before 2009 winds down!

Let's see...we had another stormy Wednesday down here this week. Two Wednesdays in a row now we've had severe thunderstorm warnings and tornado watches/warnings. Yikes. I was in the middle of baking cookies with Christmas music on, all my lights on, feeling very festive...and I thought I heard thunder. I flipped on the weather channel and low and behold we were under a Tornado Warning until 2:30pm. WHAT? It's December!!! I miss the Northeast more than ever right now. I am REALLY hoping that Casey gets to see some snow while we're home over Christmas! Keep your fingers crossed!

I volunteered at Family Day yesterday for 1st Battalion/Delta Company. I LOVE doing this! It is so exciting to see the families come in and they are oozing with pride and anticipation of seeing their new Marine for the first time in 3 months! And then the few that come back into the Visitor's Center the Marines are released for the day...you can just sense the overwhelming emotions that are going on...it's awesome. Graduation is probably the only other thing that tops this. Grown men crying--so proud of what their sons/daughters have become. If you are ever thinking of visiting us while we are stationed here, try and make it on a Thursday/Friday when there is a graduation. It is so moving.

What else??!! Getting things ready to pack up and hit the road to PA next Friday night. Can't believe it's just a week away! OH...and for those of you who I told the "shake your butt" story to...(I though Casey was walking around dancing and saying "shake your butt") I have decoded the sounds--Sake a bah, to .....(drumroll).......................................................

Jingle Bells. And she was dancing because she wanted to hear the song and dance to it. Silly mama!!! Woops!

Well, enjoy the pictures and see you all soon~~

Katie, Kyle, Casey and Jim

Thanksgiving and Christmas Decorating

The mantle
The winning photo from our Christmas Card photo session...

Someone was not behaving during the photo shoot...and for once, it wasn't my four legged child!

Dad! Where's the turkey??

Stockings :o)

Ready for my Thanksgiving dinner...

Redfish.

You might be a redneck if you have a picture like this one!

We got a BIG tree this year!

Empty boxes=so much fun we lose our tops!

Hi Everyone,

Sorry it's been awhile. We've had a LONG month. Busy with volunteering, starting up an AVON business and trying to get Casey 100% healthy.

Volunteering is great and a lot of fun. I did my first family day (the day before recruit graduation) this month and it was so neat to see all the anxious families so proud of their new Marines!

I decided to give selling AVON a shot. If you or someone you know would be at all interested in ordering or selling AVON check out my website:

www.youravon.com/kkilian. Orders can be placed online now and sent directly to you! Shipping costs are very low and there are always lots of promotional deals!!!

Casey had that nasty stomach bug at the beginning of November and soon after developed a bit of a cold. Well, she's run low-grade fevers on and off, had a drippy eye, and complained of ear pain...so we've had a bit of a rough go with her. She's remained in pretty good spirits, but it stinks when your little one just isn't quite right. Hope we are on the upswing now!

We decided to decorate early for Christmas this year because we are headed to PA on 12/19. We wanted to enjoy our decor for as long as possible...and we had the Kilian's here for Thanksgiving so it was nice to show them our house all "decked". Casey is really so much fun this Christmas. She sees decorations and lights and she says "WOW!!!" She is a huge fan of trees and knows who Santa is now, but is not too sure of the big guy in person. She slapped high five w/Santa at the Savannah mall, but wouldn't sit on his lap. And there was a Santa at our Batallion Christmas party that should wouldn't even go near the side of the room he was on. But she talked about him and the books she got from him for the whole next day. "Santa...books".

Kyle and his dad had a very successful Thanksgiving Day fishing trip. They caught lots of redfish and Kyle even brought one home. We grilled it up for Black Friday breakfast and it was yummy.

Not too much else to share.

Hope to see some of you over the Christmas. We should be home from 12/20-12/28.

Love,
Katie, Kyle, Casey and Jimmy

November part 1

Casey really liked when I put make-up on her for Halloween. So much so, that when I was folding wash a few days later, she got into the make-up and put it on all by herself :o)
Marine Corps Ball 2009

Sliding all by herself!

Pigtails

Sick baby...

Hi Everyone,

Happy November. It seems like things have cooled off a little down here...weather has been beautiful. Highs in the low 70's most days and MUCH less humid...and cool nights in the 50's. I'm a happy girl...wouldn't mind if it got even cooler, but I'll take what I can get!

Casey had a yucky stomach bug last week. We were having our "girls night" last Tuesday...eating dinner and watching Annie. All seemed fine, when she walked over to me and asked for me to pick her up while simultaneously spewing her dinner all over the chair, the carpet, herself and me :o) She battled it on and off for 3 days. We took 2 trips to the ER for anti-nausea meds but now all is well! Kids are so resilient that way!

Last night was the Marine Corps ball down here. We had a really good time. It is a much smaller scale ball than we've been to before, it was actually held on base at the All Weather Training Facility...but we still managed to have a fun evening out.

Getting ready for Thanksgiving -- can't believe it. The Kilian's are coming down to see us so we're really happy and thankful to have family to share the holiday with. We will head up to PA for Christmas...not sure of dates yet, but really looking forward to that, too!

Casey knows who Santa is and picks his picture out of the circular ads...anxious to see how she'll react when we take her to see him in person!

Ok...hope you enjoy the updated pictures...more soon~~

Love,
Katie, Kyle, Casey and Jimmy