Christmas Cookie Time!

It's that time again: my annual trip to OC's main office in Toledo to spread some sugary love and thanks to all of the people who support me and my customers. They work hard to keep me in line :) Wish I made it there more often! Merry Cookie Christmas!

They're taking over the kitchen!

Ready for delivery

Not Much of a Belly Yet

Yay! We're 15 weeks now and rolling right along. I'm finally starting to feel a little more normal, but the mornings are still a little tricky. I never thought morning sickness would linger so long...it was definitely over with both Grant and Lilly by now. Must be a girl is what everyone tells us. Grant would agree. Every time we ask him what he wants he says "girl like Lilly." Too sweet!

I've never been one to really show enough for people to figure out anything until closer to 18 or 20 weeks, but my clothes are not the most comfortable anymore. I'm not rushing it...I'll have a huge belly long enough :) Even with this being my third, it's still just as exciting as the first!

You Know You're a Mom...

...when you get SUPER excited to find this on your porch after a long day of work! I had this on my Christmas list...I know - lame, right, but my laundry days just got a lot easier. I don't even know who sent it yet, but it is GREAT! I've never seen anything like it!

We only dry sock, underwear, and clothes we really don't care about. All of the kids clothes and our nicer things go straight to the drying rack. If you've never tried it I would highly recommend it...our clothes last SO much longer! I've used the same Wal-Mart drying rack since I was a freshman in college so you can imagine how many loads of laundry it's been through. But, it's been a faithful follower of this gal all over the Midwest - I kind of hate to retire it. Funny how you get attached to the strangest things.

Wow, I just re-read this post before publishing it...I'm such a dork. But, admit it: you're jealous, and you know you want want too.

Happy Belated Fall!

We've made it an annual tradition to have professional family photos taken every fall with our wedding photographer who is incredibly talented. He never disappoints us and seems to come up with something new every year. Although our babies aren't the most fond of the camera we were so happy with the results! Check out his work: Chad Franz.

We Have Cloned

Tim's been putting together a project for school that involves his entire life story in pictures. He's been digging through the hundreds (maybe even thousands!) of pictures between his parents and our growing library. There's a lot of classics that are just adorable of my sweet husband, but this one completely took my breath away. I am officially announcing that Tim and I have successfully cloned a Kegley in the form of a short, 22 lb., 18 month old little lady. I need to call NBC and get this on the news. Is this not crazy????? I am in awe every time I look at it...maybe it's just me...or it might be the pregnancy brain...that really does exist. I swear! Love these cutie pies!

Workin' on a Full House

` Baby Kegley #3 at 7 weeks!

We are beyond excited to announce that another little Kegley will join our family in June! Blessed...we just feel so blessed and grateful for the miracle of new life that God has given us. We are officially 13 weeks today and our due date is set for June 8th. Another June baby!! If this one is anything like Grant or Lilly, I will NOT deliver early. Fingers crossed because I need to be at Tim's graduation in May!

I am SO grateful for this pregnancy, but wow this has been toughest of the three! Hormones are NO joke. I'm extremely nauseous literally 24/7 and the heartburn is out of control...I like to picture a herd of angry trolls running up and down my esophagus twirling fire batons. We switched OB's this time around and will deliver at Community North. We had to cut down on the drive time in case Baby #3 wants to come as fast as Lilly did!! Pretty sure I'll be packing an emergency kit in case we deliver in the car...I'm seriously worried about that!

I just cant' describe to you how excited we are!!! Babies are such blessings. The best times of my recent life have been when I'm pregnant. I feel so fulfilled -I think because I know God is using me for such a tremendous purpose. Thank you God for this child! I can't wait to see Grant and Lilly with a new baby in the house! We'll keep you updated with the progress and some belly shots soon. Feels good that the secret is now out!

Still My Baby Boy

We had a great time celebrating Grant's third birthday last weekend! I love having the house filled with our friends and family - just something great about be surrounded by so many fantastic people. Grant had a train-themed party complete with Thomas decorations, a train cake, and lots of train related presents. The cake, as tedious as it was to make, actually turned out better than I had envisioned and it tasted pretty good too! Hard not to when it's covered in candy and Oreos! Poor Grant didn't seem to like all of us signing to him for the third year in a row...he had a very puzzled look on his face. Oh well, maybe next year! We are so proud of Grant and what a sweet boy he is!

Papa likes trains too!

Lilly had to have a present too!

Isaiah and Papa waiting for Grant to crack a smile while we all sang :)

Sweet tooth fix!

No Turning Back!

It's done...he's really, really officially a preschooler now. Ugh...Monday was so hard (today was almost as hard!). I spent most of the morning moping around the house, crying about nothing, and fighting the butterflies. Grant was psyched...thank goodness, because that made it a smidge easier on me. He was ready to suit up with his backpack, ready to head to the car, but not so ready for his necessary first-day-of-school picture. We talked a lot about what he'd be doing that day and how excited and proud I was of him on the car ride. I managed to stay tear free until I pulled into the school. A mess...I was just a mess! At least I have another 15 years to prepare for seeing him off to college...I might need to be sedated when that time comes :)

He seemed to really like it and we got a great report from his teacher yesterday and today. He didn't cry at all and jumped right out of the car when his teacher opened the door to get him. Such a big boy. It was just priceless to see him holding her hand walking toward the school - well, at least what I could see of it through my giant tears! These are the moments I know I'll never forget.

"Mom, what on earth are you crying about??"

Humble Pie

Yep, I got a slice last week. Hard to swallow, but I'm thankful nonetheless. If you've been following us for a little while now, you'll now that our sweet little firstborn, Grant, hasn't been real interested in talking. We started noticing a delay between his first birthday and 18 months. The pediatrician pushed me to have him evaluated, but no, my son was NOT going to have a delay of any kind. He was fine, he would figure it out, right?

I finally swallowed my pride around his second birthday when we hadn't noticed a change in his speech and got involved with First Steps. He qualified for services and it was the right move to get him regular speech therapy. He's done well, we think, but we have nothing to compare it to. He uses sign language (which Lilly has picked up on!) and is growing his small vocabulary every week. My personal favorite is what he calls his little sister...sounds something like Woowee. Adorable! So, part of the process for First Steps is to transition him out of the program around his third birthday. We're there. Already. Yikes!

Long story short...he had his evaluation in a preschool type setting two weeks ago and it was confirmed that he is still well below average on speech and language development. I really fought back the tears as the evaluation team reviewed their interactions with Grant. They didn't sugarcoat it...he needed help. But, they are also confident that he'll do well with continued therapy. He'll be placed in a special education preschool class for three days a week as long as he needs it...most likely right up until kindergarten. The school is less than 4 miles from our house and they even provide bus transportation. WOW!!! He starts next week and we meet his teacher on Thursday. I have to buy him a backpack :( Not ready for this!

As a mother, I've really been struggling with his "diagnosis". It's not even that big of a deal...I mean geez, he just has a speech delay. I'm confident he'll be a fully functioning member of society, but I feel responsible. I should have been doing more. More flashcards, more sign language, more this, more that...who knows. I'm finding out that it's easy to beat myself up.

So here's where the humble pie gets served. I walk out of the building after his review, now crying, getting so angry with myself. Angry that I'm upset. I mean, what do I really have to be sad about? Grant is happy, healthy, safe, provided for, loved, etc. I get in my car and pray (thank you God for being on-call 24/7!) asking for him to humble me, remind me that I am a good mother, and to help me appreciate what a blessing he is in our lives. He answered those prayers in so many ways over the last week...it would be too long of a post so I'll spare you the details.

I guess the point of all this rambling is to remind all of us to be humble - being thankful in all of life's circumstances, good or bad, big or small. Oh, and pray that I get through the fact that my son is officially enrolled in our local school system...how can this be?? He's not allowed to grow up yet!!

Catching Up

It's been two weeks! I've been a bad girl...just too many other things keeping me away from my blog lately! But, now that daylight savings time greeted us overnight, Mr. Grant was up at 4:45am so what else should I be doing but entertaining you with our little lives??

We've had a fun couple weeks and weekends lately! About a month ago (I told you I'm behind!) we went to one of the local fire stations for their open house - super fun!! Grant was in heaven. He had is two favorite things lately in the same place: balloons and firetrucks. It's just that simple for him. Then the Life Flight helicopter landed in the field right next to the station...even better! We got up close and Grant got to check it all out. Let's just say that I hope to NEVER be that close to one of those for any other reason. I can't imagine the trauma those nurses see.

That same weekend we had some friends from Texas visit to go the Colts game with us. Beautiful weather and great friends! Always fun to be away with Tim for a day doing something that was so central to how we came together in the first place!

Last weekend we participated in a "trunk or treat" at Shepherd...how cool are those? We've never done anything like it so we were excited. Grant and Lilly tagged along and were so well behaved. They both seemed to like all the action, passing out candy, and checking out the costumes. Grant didn't let us down with his antics, however, and tried to escape a couple different times. Good thing daddy was in his Clark Kent costume to quickly chase him down Superman-style! Pictures on that later!

Lilly's Beauty Regimen

Lilly was feeling a little creative in keeping her beautiful brown locks nice and silky over the weekend. Who knew that raspberry yogurt could be the cure? I just love this little girl :)



If you haven't figured out from my earlier posts, I let my kids make messes and so does daddy. And then I lovingly clean them up celebrating how much fun they just had. As long as no Sharpies make it to the curtains or carpet, I can pretty much handle all else. Life's too short to stress about it!

Breast Cancer Awareness

Not to be outdone by the NFL and all their crazy pink gear, I had to get in on the action for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I've been wanting to do these for a long time and finally found a worthy cutter. I'm extremely proud to say that a woman, near and dear to my heart, has battled and BEAT breast cancer. I'm honored to call her my grandmother and I was so happy that the UPS man made it possible to share some sugary love all the way to Baltimore. Love you Gran!

Project Jordan

We had the great opportunity three weeks ago (a little behind here!) to serve again at Shepherd and it was fantastic. We served with family, friends, our small group, and neighbors - such a great group of people! Shepherd has a really neat program called Project Jordan, which is for families that belong to the center to come together quarterly and share parenting tips, healthy lifestyle choices, and benefit from the AWESOME private donations to the center. They need volunteers to run the behind-the-scenes stuff and that's where we came in.

Some of the highlights:

- Before the event we organized the enormous donations that the families leave with...everything from baby supplies to toys to clothes - very humbling to see the generosity toward this ministry
- We were prepared to feed 50 people (a very healthy meal!), and only spent $80 to do it thanks to my favorite place ever: Aldi
- While the parents had their time together we were in charge of the kiddos, and oh, they were just adorable
- Grant got to hang out with us too, while Miss Lilly stayed at home with Papaw. I'm grateful for opportunities to bring along our children, especially to serve!

I just thank God for using us in any way he can and providing this wonderful center to serve with. Later this month we're participating in their Trunk or Treat as part of their Fall Festival. We get to dress up...YES!! If you're reading this and would like to get involved, let me know - the more the merrier. And trust me, you leave events like this feeling closer to God and being humbled by spending time serving others.

Lovely kitchen staff :)

This isn't even a 1/4 of the things we put out...so many great things!

Captain Derek ready to head out!

Tim's long lost daughter...she was SOOO cute!

Our awesome neighbor, Tina and her son. Jenga anyone??

Fall is Here!

And so is my craving for buttery, sugar induced happiness. I love the feeling of fall in the air so it was only approriate to get some fall-ish cookies going!! So excited for the new cookie cutter I just ordered. A special cookie for October coming soon!

Mommy's little helper that gets to play with the screw-ups and leftovers. He spent most of the time taste testing!

Mommy In-Service

Just a little disclaimer...all my posts are starting to sound the same...I love my babies, my babies are adorable, they are the light of my life, etc. Well they are. I can't help it! At least I'm consistent :)

Tim's parents are on a little vacation this week and because they help us with the kids the days Tim's in class means mommy had to cover for a day. Yay!! It was so fun and I thought all day: "this is a like a mommy in-service day." A day to do the things that keep me up at night like how much laundry or dishes are waiting? What bills are due? When can I make my next batch of deliciousness that involves sugar and chocolate? While I did do a few things around the house I soaked up the time at home alone with my two favorite little people.

I have to admit that I shed a few tears that morning while Tim was leaving wishing I could do it everyday. I think the guilt of being a working mom catches up with me every now and then. I know you working moms out there know what I mean. I could list a thousand ways I justify having a career and being a mom, but I can't fool myself - I really miss my darlings when I'm gone. Enough of that...

Anyway, our day went a little like this: Lilly got into the markers and for some reason likes to taste them. Each color. Every single one. Luckily they haven't made their way onto walls...yet. We went to the orchard for our weekly cider slushy run, which was a dusty, bee-swarming mess, but fun. Then we made a complete wreck of the house with toys strewn in every room, dug in the mulch with shovels, had a pretend car lot on the porch with the countless Matchbox cars Grant has collected, and played in the tub that ended up with brown water when all was said and done. Probably a pretty normal day for most families with a SAHM or SAHD, but what a gift of a day for this working mama!!

I feel like she's thinking: "Oh come on, mom? I couldn't possibly be doing something wrong!"

Non-toxic is our friend!

Firefighter in Training

All things firetrucks is the name of the game with my sweet little boy! Well, let me rephrase that...all things trucks, tractors, airplanes, boats, motorcycles...you get the picture!

The local library had a firetruck in the parking lot last week so I swung home after running some appointments to take a little mommy/Grant field trip. Two quick things: #1 - I am SO blessed to have the job I do. Praise God that I can make time in my day to spend valuable time with my babies. #2 - we have absolutely fantastic neighbors that took the time to pass on a simple opportunity to us that meant so much to me. Thanks Katie!!

Grant just ate it up...we were there until almost all of other children left and there was a TON of them there! He loved every inch of the truck, but especially sitting in the drivers seat. (My totally awesome camera died right before he climbed up in the seat so no pictures of that moment...UGH!). It's just adorable to see his sweet little face light up with amazement over seeing something like a firetruck. Oh to live like a child again!

He loved the horns and huge tires...had to check it out up close

Grant's Wardrobe

I sat and stared at this enormous pile on our bedroom floor this weekend for a long time...I mean a good 10 or 15 minutes, just staring. We have been SOOOO blessed by Tim's brother, Matt, and his wife Jenni, by the amazing clothes they've passed down to us from their son. And this pile only represents the 4T sized clothing!!

Grant has literally had about 90% of his wardrobe, since he was about a year old, furnished by these hand-me-downs. Here's the thing...they're really not your typical hand-me-downs...they're in perfect condition, NO stains (how does that happen with a little boy????), and just beautiful! Thank you, thank you, thank you to our generous and thoughtful family!! I'm just hoping we either have some friends/family that have a little boy soon so we can pass on the favor - his closet is overflowing!