JDRF Say BOO to Diabetes Walk 2009

Make a Smilebox slideshow

We had the best time~ KACI raised $1,575.00! WOW! Amazing...thank you to everyone who donated to the HONEY, RUFUS AND KACI TEAM! Please know that no matter what the size of your donation....it WILL and DID make a difference. Not only for research, but to my little girl~No amount is too small! We appreciate all that you gave! Bailey won the coloring contest. They are supposed to call us this week to let us know what he won. He can't wait! He got to be on stage and talk on the microphone with the news anchor. I talked Kaci into entering our poster in the poster contest (even though we won't get our poster back)They will announce the winner of the poster contest in December and the winner will be invited to the Awards Banquet. Keep your fingers crossed for us. Grandma Dee and PaPa were in Greenbay watching Bret Favre...so they could not be at the walk this year...and other members of our team had last minute cancellations...but we would not let that stop our good time~ Aunt Amber was there to support us and it was overwhelming to see all of the other people out their walking as well. The weather was awesome! It was a perfect day!

A few nights ago...Kaci was crying about getting her shot. When Bailey heard her, he put his arm on her shoulder and asked..." Kaci, are you crying about the pokes?" When she answered, "Yes!" He said to her, " Don't worry...remember we are going to that walk this weekend and we are going to get a cure!" Oh....so precious! Part of me wanted to say something to him- like that we weren't going to come home with a cure in a bottle. BUT the other part of me couldn't squash his hope. As much as I want a cure to come....I also NEED and WANT Kaci to know that she can do and be anything she wants to be even with diabetes. We will not let it limit her.

Chaos is the score upon which reality is written.

Last night the First and Second Graders had their Fine Arts performance! What a great job they did! I am so proud of Kaci. She was a little nervous about getting up in front of such a BIG audience...and it was BIG! But she did it and they were AWESOME!

Daddy and his girl!
Even Aunt Amber made it to the show!

Kaci is way up on top~ Can you see her?

In the crowd...way up top!!

Adi and Kaci! Such cuties!

Relaxing after a great performance!

So proud of my singing star!

Kaci is all smiles with her PaPa!

Bailey looking good with Coach DiCarlo!

Date night is BACK!!!

Silly Boy!
Ready for Tball practice with Dad!

The last few months have been busy! School started back up, Girl Scout meetings, t-ball practice and games....but when Clint came home tonight...he declared that "date night with the kids" was BACK!! WOO- HOO!
Once a month, Clint takes each kid on a date (just the 2 of them). They may go to dinner, the park, or even the movies. Since Kaci has been feeling a bit under the weather (and had to miss 2 days of school) he started, the return of date night, with Bailey. Bailey was over the moon when he heard he was going to get to go on a date with date. He has really been enjoying hanging our with Clint (all alone) ever since t-ball started up and Clint is one of the team coaches. They made a trip to SouperSalad (Bailey's restaurant of choice) and finished it up with a trip to Party City where they looked for a pinata for Kaci's birthday. They couldn't find the perfect pinata for her...but they did find some long balloons....since Clint has recently taken up the art of making balloon animals: hats, swords and flowers for Kaci's upcoming birthday! I think it was a perfect night!

This is an old picture of Clint and Bailey, but it is one of my favorites!

Picking strawberries together!

POSTER CONTEST!!!

Kaci...snacking and coloring...
The finished poster....

I hope we win!!!

Kaci and I made a poster last night to enter in to the "JDRF Say Boo to Diabetes Walk " poster competition. I would love to win they are giving away a family pack of concert tickets to some Christmas play or musical! I don't know how they choose...but ours is pretty cute.

Our team is called, "The Honey, Rufus and Kaci Team." Those are her 2 diabetic bears. One she got while she was in the hospital (Rufus) and the other, (Honey)her Uncle Chad gave her to hug while she was getting her pokes after we got home. Honey proudly wears Kaci's Great Mama's medical alert diabetic necklace!

So the rules are- you must incorporate this years walk theme....SAY BOO TO DIABETES and include your team name. So..I drew Honey, Rufus and Kaci and the BOO Ghost on the poster...all wearing the trademark Juvenile Diabetes Sneakers! I think it turned out really cute! I also included the JDRF Research logo at the top! I can't wait to turn it in! I just hope we get it back.

"Open your presents on your birthday, but be thankful year round for the blessings you receive!"

Today we spent a good portion of the afternoon at Zane's 6th birthday party! It was so much fun! It was a birthday/costume party!Kaci and Bailey couldn't wait to get their costumes on!
Here is Miss Hannah Montana ready to rock!

I couldn't resist asking this pop star to take her picture with me.

My friends are never going to believe this!

There were so many cool costumes and Bailey even found some of his good buddies: Luigi and Knuckles! (Zane is Knuckles...I love that outfit. His grandma made it! How lucky is he?)

The kids got to play tons of games and won lots of cool prizes. They played bean bag toss and pin the jelly in the net. Bailey is so silly!

The last game of the day was " Freeze Dance!" It was lots of fun to see the kids get their "groove on"! Here is Kaci showing off her moves.

Bailey was good at freezing! He won the 2nd game.

Next we moved outside for the pinata! Here is the birthday boy taking a good swing at it! I have never seen so much candy.

Love the SpongeBob cake! Great job by his Grandma again! She is one talented lady!

Here is Kaci enjoying her chocolate cake and ice cream. Yummy! Thank you so much for having us: Valerie, John, Zane and Cameron. As we were leaving, Bailey turned to Zane and said ," This was the BEST birthday EVER!" I would have to agree!

Red Ribbon Week~

This week was Red Ribbon Week at Kaci and Bailey's school. They had fun dress up activities for each day this week. I had good intentions of taking pictures of the kids each day-

but that didn't really happen :)

Monday was School t-shirt day

Tuesday was wear your sunglasses

Wednesday was wear red

Thursday was crazy hat

and today was wear your favorite college t-shirt.

The kids had lots of fun participating and wore their red ribbons everyday this week. Kaci didn't want to wear her college shirt today- but she still looked cute with her ribbon on!

Just say NO to drugs!

Taylor Swift....here we come!!!

Well..we haven't won Taylor Swift tickets yet..but we aren't giving up hope yet. Front row seats could still be in our future....

In the meantime..we went ahead and bought them today, but not from Ticket City- oh no- all the scalpers and rip off artists beat us to the punch. So we had to order them off of Stub Hub for twice the amount. UGH!

Either way....I wouldn't miss this concert for the world...so Taylor Swift here we come! We may be in the nosebleed section and not have ANY money left over for a t-shirt (let alone a bottle of water) You won't be able o see us, but we hope we can see you!

"She's cheer captain and I'm on the bleachers!"

Taylor Swift is coming to the Frank Erwin Center Wednesday March 10th!! Tickets go on sale this Friday! We can't wait to get our hands on some of those! We have also entered to win tickets before you can buy them on KASE 101- we listen everyday at 7:20, 9:20, 2:20 and 5:20 for them call our names. It hasn't happened yet...but we aren't giving up yet!

The Walk to Cure!

Kaci is 98% Good Witch!

Bailey smiling like all his Jack O Lanterns!

We are both humbled and overwhelmed by the generosity of people who have made donations to Kaci's team for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Walk For A Cure.
When we signed up I wanted to set our goal at $300 . That would be $100 for every month that Kaci will have had diabetes at the time of the walk. (She was diagnosed on July 28th and the walk takes place on October 31st)

When I told Kaci she said...."NO WAY!! We will never get that much money. Let's just set it at $100" -- and so we did. Since then our family and friends have proven us BOTH wrong. We wouldn't collect only $100, nor would we only collect $300- but we would collect $1,125.00 and still counting as a few more people are getting checks to me later this week!!! HOW AMAZING!!! There are no words that seem good enough....no words that can express to all of you what your donations have meant to our family.

So, although a simple THANK YOU doesn't seem like enough...they are the only two words right now that I can come up with as I cry and type this entry! So I will type them several times....Thank you, thank you, thank you- to the following people and their families:

Bobbie, Billy, Wendy, Herb, Craig, Jennifer, Carol Anne, Renata, Jeff, Pierson, Alyssa, Aunt Stella, Emily, Uncle Chad, Austin, Amy, Amber, Mark, Colton, Aunt Sue, Uncle Charlie, Auntie, Bubba, Aunt Ginny, Valerie, Zane, Cameron, Gary, Bj, Denise, Jessica, Diane, Mike, Christi, Charles, Jessica F., Daddy, PaPa, Grandma Dee, Margaret, Brad, Charles L., Diana, Trey, Laura, Rich, Mrs. Murdock, Nurse Scott, Ruth Bongio and John Welch!

I love Uncle Chad!!

Once you choose hope, anything's possible.- Christopher Reeve

Each year we send out Birthday announcements for the

kids birthdays to family and friends!

We ordered Kaci's last week and they have arrived!

It reads:

It is almost the 19th

And I can hardly wait!

Because this year I

Am turning eight!

So cute. I love this picture of her.

Hard to believe she will be turning eight on November 19th.

I couldn't be prouder of the beautiful, smart and compassionate young lady she is growing up to be! My angel! I wish and hope only good things for her as she grows older. She makes the world a better place....just by being in it!

Welcome Great Pumpkin!

Picked the kids up from school today with popsicles in the cooler and headed to the United Methodist Church in Georgetown for a little pumpkin patch fun! They have a great selection every year and the money goes towards their Youth Group- so we are glad to help!

Kaci posing on a pumpkin or two!
So funny to turn around and find Bailey like this! What a goofy boy!
Kaci took this picture and I must say she did a GREAT job! It is very rare that I like a picture of myself....but this has become one of my recent favorites~
Bailey took this one! Me and my girl~

Here is Kaci posing like a mountain climber who has just reached the top! Silly thing!

Last picture before we loaded up our pumpkins to head home. Notice ...Bailey is missing one shoe. I wasn't supposed to get his feet in the picture (at his request) but obviously I didn't do a very good job of that! The patch was a little muddy and his shoe was waiting to be rinsed ...along with his foot once we reached home!

Bailey and Clint have T-ball practice on Wednesday nights too~ Clint surprised us by coming home early and treating us all to Rudys! We have never taken the kids there and Bailey loved it! He said it was like an all you can eat restaurant and he wants to go back next week. He ate brisket, bread and beans! Kaci brought some soup from home, but did enjoy a little sausage and a BIG pickle! Wish I would have brought my camera! Bailey was grinning from ear to ear!

...And the fun continues!

Grayson got to stay another night....So Saturday morning the girls decided to paint their nails

WOW! They decided on light blue with white dots!

Look how gorgeous they look!

Then they sweet talked Daddy into buying them

Happy Meals for lunch! Build a Bear and Bakugon toys! All right!

Then they decided to work off their nuggets and burgers with a little dance pad !

Look at Bailey! Nice dancing!

Go Kaci! Go Kaci! Go Kaci!

Then it was time to decorate the annual Halloween House! The kids did a great job! It looks really spooky and will be a great decoration on our kitchen table until Halloween arrives!

Doesn't it look great!?

Next we made a quick trip to HEB to get some hot cocoa for a night time treat and stopped at Taco Bell for a quick bite to eat. We even got to see some cool Halloween decorations in the neighborhood.

Yummy and Hot!!

Cheers to the best 2 day sleepover EVER!!!