An Unwelcome Guest

So...
About a week ago I was sitting in our recliner when I heard this very loud flapping sound coming from the fireplace. I looked at Allen who said "We apparently have a bird in the chimney." I get somewhat panicked at this thought but Allen reassures me that the flue is shut - so the bird cannot come in. Great. As the days wore on and the flapping continued my thoughts took another turn concerning the bird. "The bird is stuck. The stuck bird cannot get food. The stuck bird that is starving will die. We will have a dead stuck starved bird in our chimney. How do you get a bird out of your chimney?"Of course, Allen's "man" solution is to start a fire and smoke it out. There are a few obvious problems with this idea. I feel it is cruel to roast the bird in the chimney, and if we do roast it - that just leaves us with a dead, char-broiled bird that is still in the chimney. Ashlyn has heard this flapping and asked what it was - she has since been informing any and all guests at our house that there is a bird "up there" (as she points to the chimney). <-- this had no value to the story, I just had to add something about the kid! Fast forward to today at lunch. I opened the garage and walked in. I heard this loud "crashing of dishes" type of noise. I immediately think there is an intruder. That thought is extinguished quickly as I can plainly see the kitchen and there are no humans in sight. I then think there is some sort of varmint. I have visions of rats, opossums, armadillos, etc running in my mind. I cautiously round the corner and find nothing on the floor. Whew. Coast is clear. OR NOT SO MUCH. I glance upward and there on the ledge of our cabinets is a huge grayish colored pigeon thing. Staring at me. I FREAKED OUT. I go straight to my phone. I think; "Allen is gone - he can't come help me. I can call David (Kenna's fiancé) to come extricate this thing - but then I'll look silly." I finally decide to call Allen. After laughing at me he tells me to open the door to the garage, open the garage and "poke a broom at it" Um.. I can open the doors. No problem. But I will NOT poke anything at this raptor-bird that wants to gauge my eyes out. No sir. However, there is no alternative. I can't leave the bird in the house all afternoon. I take a breath. I am going to have to do this myself. I grab the broom and after a few screams I poke at the thing. It flies - into the window. Super. This particular bird is an idiot. I poke at it again - it flies right past the door leading to the outside and makes perch on the window curtain rod in the living room. At this point I realize that not only am I not succeeding I am shewing this thing further into the house. I make one final attempt and after a few more crashes into random objects the bird makes it's way into the garage and finally into the wild blue yonder. I say a prayer, grab my food and eat my lunch in the driveway.

Tummy time with sister

The other night I put Kenly down for tummy time while I ran to the restroom. I walked back in the living room to this:

After laying there a minute, Ashlyn ran and got her favorite "My Little Pony" book and started "reading" it to Kenly.

It is so sweet to watch the bond between them forming. I had no idea how close siblings could be since I never had any of my own. It is a truly amazing thing. However, I'm sure it won't be too long before I'm posting pics of them fighting!

Randi's Bachelorette

Saturday night was Miss Randi's bachelorette party. It was so much fun, but definitely reminded me that I am an old married mom! These girls know how to have a good time and I can't quite keep up. We started with dinner at Caboose, then headed to Kenna's house for the lingerie shower, and then boarded the shot bus and headed for Chimi's and Wild West. This was actually the first bachelorette party that I've been to (that I wasn't pregnant) since my own! I am so excited for Randi and Ryan and I can't wait for the wedding!

Stacy and Kenna... Love these 3rd nite girls!

Ah, Brandi! This is actually one of the sweetest girls you'd ever meet. She and I had just had a few too many jello shots. (Hey - the married ladies' who's hubbies work out of town have to let loose every now and again!)

And here is the lovely Randi! I guess she knows who to keep on her side!

This would be Stormi. I just met her that night and decided she is my "womancrush." She was so much fun, she's beautiful, and she has a wonderful deep voice. YOU ROCK STORMI!

Me and Randi.. I hate being in a picture with someone so beautiful!!

All of the girls (minus me) at the party.. this girl has a lot of close friends, and they were all so much fun!

Chuck E Cheese

Last weekend we took the girls to Chuck E Cheese... an interesting experience. We at pizza, played games... and got our kid stuck in the skytube. Here's the story. After Ashlyn had ridden every ride twice and played every game, we ventured over to the skytube. Allen kept telling me "Kayla - I don't think she's old enough. She'll get lost and not know what to do" I kept insisting that she would be fine. She's never scared of anything and I figured she'd follow the other kids until she located the slide. So - she gets up there and is crawling around. We can see her in the little 'portholes' every few feet and she's laughing and trying to talk to us. After a few minutes I look at Allen and he is white as a sheet... he said "I'm sick, I'm scared" Sure enough right then we look up and Ashlyn has realized that we can't get her. She freaked out. She's looking around and also realized she's lost. She absolutely loses it at this point. ANd there we are - just looking at her thru the porthole. We can't get her - we can't talk to her, all we can do is motion and point what direction she should go. Finally I send Allen up to get her - of course this contraption is not made for an adult human and he gets stuck. So he resorts to yelling her name - she finally makes her way to his voice and we hoist her out of there. CRAP! Not only was I scared out of my mind, but my dadgum husband was right. I hate to admit that. Al - I should've listened.



I had to throw this in of Kenly- hold on kid, you'll be big enough to get lost with big sister soon!

She loved the talking mouse. She danced and talked to him all afternoon.

She thought she was tough in this rig.

Is this Allen's child or what? She looks just like him!

Backyard Water Fun

We love the water here at the McMillan house. Ashlyn would rather be swimming than doing anything else, and so she does. We set up the "big pool" a couple of weekends ago - and Ashlyn has been in it almost every day since. It's only 10 feet wide and 3 feet deep, but never fear - the small size does NOT stop the adults from having a good time in it as well. I've been known to roll out of it a few times and last weekend Kenna and I set our coleman chairs in the pool and caught some sun. So, if you're bored - come on over! It might feel like a romper room at first, but have a few margaritas with me and soon you will see just how much fun a few inflatable seahorses can be!!

Ashlyn and cousins Courtney and Kaylee.. these girls all together wore me out!

I am a FREAK about grass in the pool, and I constantly walk around with the net cleaning. I guess Ashlyn picked up on a little of my OCD!

Daddy just couldn't resist! We couldn't get Ashlyn to run and slide so he thought he'd show her how it's done. Too bad he was sore for a week after this!

Lack of sleep led to this..

Yesterday when I got home from work I was exhausted. I finished feeding Ashlyn and went to get Kenly out of her bouncy chair; she wasn't there. I looked at the swing; not there either. I was thinking at this point "Why am I so tired that I can't locate my kid?" The whole time I'm asking Ashlyn "Where is your baby sister?" "Do you remember where Mommy put her?" I continued to search all of our "baby spots" throughout the house, each place bringing no luck. I was about to the point of all out panic when I realized I WAS HOLDING HER. Not only was I holding her but I had been patting her back the whole time. WOW! I just sat in the floor and laughed and apologized to Kenly... how do you misplace a child??
This story illustrates how completely different things are with the second child. For one thing - your first born has every second of your attention. Everything was SO new, so exciting, and we were so worried about every little thing. We spent every second holding, cuddling, doing tummy time, playing with rattles, etc. With Kenly - we know a little more about what we're doing and while we love her just as much and cherish every second, we can't physically spend the same amount of time with her. Add to that the fact that Allen was home every night for the first 7 months of Ashlyn's life and he's gone almost every night now; leaving my attention divided between both girls. I am completely outnumbered! It's a super fun challenge however and it's been very entertaining at times. I was trying to give both girls a bath simultaneously the other night and it ended with Kenly peeing all over me twice, Ashlyn having been in the tub for almost 45 minutes without getting her hair washed, and a total of 4 towels being used. One thing is for sure, I am never bored!!
I have so many pictures I need to get up from last weekend but have somehow lost the cable for the camera. Keep checking - they'll be up soon!

The mullet..and other hair tragedies

This would be the mullet... and that is a bowl of guacamole she's eating!

As close to fixed as we ever get!

WILD!


When I look at past pictures of Ashlyn I think "Do we NEVER fix this kids hair?" She has the wildest hair in so many of our pics. The truth is she loves for Mommy to blow dry her hair and/or curl it, or put it in a pony tail, but after a long day of playing the hair is a mess. I laugh because there was a time not so long ago when I would see wild haired tots and think "those parents need to do something about their kids' hair." I get it now. You can wake up extra early and spend serious time primping - but after five minutes of chasing Daddy it's all over.

Coming soon: Pictures of my kid with decent hair.

Ahh, Allen

I have to brag on Allen a little bit. He is the most awesome dad! He loves his girls SO much and he has a way with them that is truly amazing to watch. From day one of Ashlyn's birth he's been comfortable with feedings, changing yucky diapers and keeping the girls by himself. When Ashlyn was just 3 weeks old he kept her and sent me out for a night with the girls

-which is a pretty big deal seeing as he had never been around an infant before in his life! When Kenly was born he blew me away with how well he was able to adapt to having a newborn again. He is an excellent playmate - I constantly catch he and Ashlyn coming up with some new game and he will lie for hours in the floor with Kenly doing "tummy time." I know it's so hard on him being away so much (he works on the railroad) but we love him all the more for the sacrifices he makes for us. These girls are so lucky to be able to call him Daddy! If only we could get him to remember that the kid needs bottles of formula at 3AM rather than bottles of Dr. Pepper... (ask me about that story sometime. It's classic)

Random Realization

Since I am apparently computer illiterate and can't manage to upload photos of my kids to share..I figure I'll share a story.
Allen and I had some friends over the other night and we cooked out... I was standing in the kitchen peeling what had to be my 45th potato and I said "Do you know what I just realized?" "We're adults.."
Note that it was not moving out of my parents' house, nor getting married, nor was it even having 2 kids that clued me in. It took me standing in the kitchen peeling potatoes for a cookout to come to this conclusion. It is strange though. I have my own house, my own car.. I have to pay bills and clean house and be responsible.. I'm raising children and building a marriage.. I have a job.. WHAT? When the heck did that happen? I suppose it is ludicrous that I am just now grasping this fact - but it just never occurred to me that I made the transition from being a child to being an adult. So weird.. and so very random I know - but I'm known for being nothing if not random.
Someone please come to my house ASAP and assist me with the picture situation - or else I will be forced to publish more stories of this nature and lose all hope of having blog followers!

I'm a Blogger..not a Blog Stalker...

FINALLY! After many months of stalking blogs, I am finally starting my own! I would like to take this time to thank all of you out there who have provided me hours of entertainment with your blog-journals. I must confess that I have frequented the blogs of humans that I don't even know and for that I feel a little guilty. However, I am redeeming myself by throwing my own journal out there..I am now suceptible to weirdos (like myself) who get a thrill from reading about a complete stranger's life. The Blogging shall commence...