February part 3

Concentrating so hard on her Play Dough
She LOVES this stuff!

I really think she'd do it for hours and hours!!!

Hi All...

Not too much new down here. Had a busy week with volunteering, shopping, and playdates. I'm pooped and wish my weekend was going to consist of just laying around...but think I'll be doing laundry, dusting, vacuuming, mopping, grocery shopping, paying bills, etc! FUN!

Tomorrow we have church and then Casey and I are having brunch with two ladies in our church who are originally from Nazareth and grew up at St. John's UCC! Small world! Kyle plans to work on the boat when he is not working this weekend...hopefully it'll all be repainted soon and then we can post the before and after pics!

Enjoy the pics and hopefully the videos will upload, too! (They are below the post...just click on the middle of them to watch!) One is of Casey "ice skating" along with the Olympics. She really LOVED the ice skating. Unfortunately this video is only a quick take of what she would do...sometimes she really got into it!!! The other video is of her dancing and dancing and dancing. I apologize for her brief Britney Spears impersonation when she comes out of her second "split"...you'll hear me tell her to get up real quickly! Ha ha! She's a piece of work!

Love,
Katie, Kyle, Casey and Jimmy

February part 2

Meet the newest member of the Kilian Family...

Here he/she is...baby #2! (Or as Casey refers to the baby...Payton-who is my sister's baby)

We had our first dr. appt. today and the baby not moving around a whole bunch, but we did see he/she wave his/her hands around. We also saw and heard the heartbeat. The doctor said everything looks great. I'm about 11 weeks and due on 9/14/10!

Hope all is well with you and and more updates soon!!!

Love,
Katie, Kyle, Casey, Jimmy, and Baby 2

February

We told her it was bedtime and time to clean up...she said she wanted to sleep in her toybox.
Kissing the fishies goodbye at the Ripley's Aquarium at Myrtle Beach.

Wanting mommy to touch the crabs...she was a little scared, but kept wanting to go back and see them again and again.

Checking out what it swimming above her!

Making some very important business calls...

MOM! I'm trying to get some privacy down here!!!

Cheese!

Trying on mommy's shoes and caught this picture in the middle in the of her falling...

Running down the street (with daddy right behind her on a windy day).

Hi Everyone,

Sorry it's been so long again. Here are some highlights of the past few weeks:

1. Our fish bowl had it's first casualty. "Spiderman" the fish decided he'd like to go back to the ocean. Casey was fortunate enough to still be sleeping the morning that I found little Spiderman doing the backstroke, so now when she talks about him she says he's back in the ocean with his friends.

2. Kyle is in the process of painting his boat. He's finished sanding it and has ordered the new paint...now we are waiting for the weather to warm up so he can actually paint the boat. Pictures when that finally happens!!!

3. We found a great church down here (Sea Island Presbyterian) and Casey and I joined 2 weekends ago. Kyle plans to join as well (hopefully the next time he attends with us). It is a great church, we love the pastors, and everyone is so welcoming. Casey really loves going to nursery, too. Even better, there is a preschool there and Casey will start going 2 days a week in the fall! When we went for our "tour" she cried when we had to leave! Hope she feels that way in September!

4. We spent this past weekend up in Myrtle Beach with the Kilian's and the Genther's. Kyle, Casey, Jim and I drove up on Friday night and woke up on Saturday expecting just the Genther's to join us, but were surprised to have Kyle's parents walk in the door, too! We had a great weekend with them...they watched Casey so Kyle and I could have a night out on Saturday, we did some shopping, took Casey to the Ripley's Aquarium, and watched the marathon Daytona 500 on Sunday, too. We got back to Beaufort just this afternoon...and the Getz's (my parents) will be arriving early Thursday morning.

5. And the biggest news of all....(guess this one kind of goes with the last one in a way)...we had SNOW in South Carolina over the weekend! In North Myrtle Beach we had about 3 inches or so...guess Beaufort got a dusting...the nicest part of it all was that is snowed overnight on Friday and by noon on Saturday the roads were dry!

Well...hope all is well with everyone else and I hope to post again much sooner than before!!!!

Love,

Katie, Kyle, Casey, and Jim

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