Kaylee's Third Birthday

Before we get to the birthday stuff Kaylee had her first observation lesson this week at dance class. This meant that mom got to go sit, watch, and video tape her class. She was so adorable and was such a good little dancer! If we can figure out how we will have to see if we can put a small piece of the video on here because it is hilarious!

For Kaylee's birthday she wanted a princess party! She is very into the disney princesses right now and loves to watch their movies and dress up and play like them! For the last two months at least all we have heard 20 times a day is "Kaylee's birthday coming up!" She has been so excited and we have been counting down the days! She also has been letting us know over the past while that she had some very specific requirements for her birthday. She said that she needed balloons, a cake, 3 candles to blow out, and presents. She obviously had the picture of what a birthday is all about!



Last night after Kaylee went to bed we set up the table and all of her presents on the couch. When she woke up this morning we made her close her eyes and we video taped her as she got her first look at her birthday presents. She was so excited!! We let her open a couple presents this morning that included her new Belle dress, gloves, and "Dorthy" shoes!



For Kaylee's birthday, her Nanna McMilland bought tickets for her to go see the musical "Beauty and the Beast"! We have been gearing up for this all week and Kaylee was so excited to go see the Beast even though she said it would be "very scary"! Kaylee and her aunt Janessa dressed up like little Belles for the show. Everyone thought they were so adorable and they had a blast at the show!



Later that night Kaylee was lucky enough to have her Nanna and Pappa McMillan, aunts Nicole and Janessa, uncle Andy and his friend Angie, and aunt Kaitlyn, uncle Taylor, and future cousin Alyssa at her birthday party!


As we said, two of Kaylee's birthday requirements were a cake and 3 candles. She had a very cute cupcake princess cake! We all sang "Happy Birthday" to her and then she got to blow out the candles (it only took her 3 tries :-) )




Kaylee had been waiting all day to open her presents that had been sitting on the couch since this morning. Finally the time arrived and she dove in with an occasional "Kaylee is so excited!" and "Let's open another one!"


When all was said and done Kaylee had a very very happy birthday! She was so excited with all her princess presents. She has more dress up clothes than she knows what to do with (we are sure she will be changing her clothes about 20 times a day now), some of her favorite disney movies, some princess puzzles and books (which she loves!), some adorable puzzles from aunt Kaitlyn and uncle Taylor, some every day cute stylish clothes from Nanna and Pappa McMillan, and a Belle tea party set that she will love playing with. The Princes Party was a hit!




Kaylee was very excited to get her present from Nanna K and Pappa Greg. Her cute purple dress, shell necklace and bracelet, and very cool pink sparkle cell phone holder (just the right size for her little pink cell phone) were all from Hawaii!

Halloween!

Happy Halloween!
Kaylee and Dan got into the Halloween spirit by carving pumpkins a few days before Halloween. We had to get three pumpkins: A daddy pumpkin, a mommy pumpkin, and a baby pumpkin. Kaylee thought it was very cool to stick her hand in and get all the sticky, slimy seeds out.





Here were our finished products. We put lights around the door and Kaylee thought it was very SPOOKY! We ended up with daddy's pumpkin (Frankenstein), mommy's pumpkin (Jack-O-Lantern), and Kaylee's baby BOO! pumpkin!




Kaylee started dance classes this fall and has absolutely LOVED them! She takes tap and ballet and goes every Wednesday night with her cousin Emily. She asks every day if it is dance class day and gets so excited on the nights that she gets to get into her dance clothes and "Tap Taps" (tap shoes) and go to dance class with her teacher Miss Chris. (She calls her teacher Chris Miss and it is very funny :-) ) Below are some pictures of her dance class Halloween party. Almost all the girls in her class were dressed as Disney princesses including Kaylee as Snow White and her cousin Emily as Ariel. Even her teacher, Miss Chris, was dressed as Cinderella.




Kaylee has been so excited for Halloween this year and has been asking for about 2 months now when she was going to get to wear her Snow White costume. (Daddy cheated quite a bit and let her wear it plenty of times when mom was not around! Mommy finally had to find a special hiding place for the Snow White costume where daddy and kaylee couldn't find it!) Kaylee did make the cutest Snow White you ever did see and had a really fun and exciting Halloween day!




Dan even got into the Halloween spirit and dressed up as a "scary vampire", as Kaylee would say. Kristin got to experiment with some makeup skills to try to make him as scary as possible for his big Halloween party at work. I think everyone was impressed with his costume, although it did take Kaylee some time to get used to!





Here is the whole Kemp family on Halloween night! Dan took Kaylee trick or treating with her Aunt Janessa and Kaylee did not take long to get into the swing of things. She had the knock - knock "Trick or Treat" down and when she came back her pumpkin bucket was full and she kept asking to go out and do some more!


Kaylee with her Aunt Nicole (14) and Aunt Janessa (8). She loves to play with her aunts!!!

Our California Vacation

This summer we decided to take a trip to sunny Palm Desert California. It was VERY HOT! We spent a lot of our time swimming in the pool to cool us off. Kaylee loves swimming and was always asking when she could get her "swimmin' soup" on and when we were going to go to the "swimmin' poool".





We left for our trip on July 15, 2007. We went on the trip with Kristin's parents and sisters and brother as kind of a celebration of her brother Andrew returning from his Houston, Texas mission. We all piled in a big gray van and headed off on our vacation. Our first stop was Las Vegas. Kaylee was sooo excited that we got to stay in a castle! It was just like her Disney princesses! She still asks when we are going to go back to the castle. In Vegas we shopped, saw the sights on "the strip" and ate at The Rainforest Cafe.







While at the Ex Calibur Castle you always have to take a few minutes to go down and play the "Fantasy Fair Games"! Kaylee had a lot of fun and thought it was very neat that she got to participate in the games. We walked away winning three new little stuffed animals which Kaylee was very proud of!





We packed up on Monday morning and to all of Kaylee's dismay had to leave "the castle". We jumped back in the van and headed off to Palm Springs, California.





Back to the pool! Kaylee, Janessa, and Nicole's favorite spot. We stayed at a Marriott resort in Palm Spings and the resort had an amazing pool area. There were three large pools, a kids pool, two hot tubs (which in the 120 degree weather did not get used much), and even a grill and drink shack in case you got hungry or thirsty. Laying by the pool was very relaxing and a lot of fun!



Here are the girls. Kaylee is attached to her aunt Nicole and Janessa at the hip. They are definately her best friends and she is always happiest when she is spending time with them. They are three peas in a pod!





It was SOOOO hot in Palm Desert! You couldn't lay out for long without jumping in the cool water. We were all pretty shocked and excited when even mom got in the pool - she never gets in the pool!



Two of Kaylee's favorite activities on the trip - eating and laying out in her lounge chair on the patio. She would love to go out onto the patio, sit in her lounge chair, and watch the people swimming at the pool. If she couldn't be at the pool I guess she figured the next best thing was to watch others swimming :-) We would hear her out there singing and trying to talk to the people at the pool.





One day on our trip we visited the Children's Museum in Palm Springs. It was very cute and the girls completely loved it. There was a lot of fun activities there for kids including a bungie maze, a pulley system to pull up your own weight, an art center, a mini grocery store, a pizza parlor, and a dress up room.



Daddy and Kaylee. Daddy got some bicept workout pulling up not only his own body weight on the pulley, but Kaylee's as well. Kaylee thought this was a very fun ride!





This picture makes daddy a little nervous as Kaylee looks a little too comfortable using the credit card! She is a true shopper at hear just like her mom!



Hey! Look at these two motorcycle roadsters! Even mom and dad got to get in on the fun seeing what it would be like to ride on a police motorcycle. (Pretty sure Dan was wishing it was a dirt bike motorcycle or one he could actually take on a spin and show off his skills on!)



Lookin' good! Who are these two cute girls all dressed up to hit the town?! Both Kaylee and Janessa love to play dress up at home so this dress up room was a dream come true for them.



Here is Kaylee playing vetrinarian on a stuffed animal cat. She thought it was very fun to do a check up on all the pets there. She loves her little animals (puppy and monkey) and as we left the children's museum she had gained one more stuffed pet to go home with us. Nanna and Pappa bought Janessa a new kitty and Kaylee a new adorable puppy. Kaylee loves her new friend!





Well at the end of our week we had done a lot! We had drug Kaylee all around Palm Springs and she was a real trooper. But, as you can see, by our ride home she was totally pooped! Kaylee spent most of the ride home sleeping, Kristin spent her ride home reading the final Harry Potter book, and Dan slept and got caught up on some reading as well. We had such an awesome trip but it was good to be heading home. I think we need a vacation from our vacation!