The Christmas Story - As told by Chloe

CHRISTMAS 2008

The Christmas Story - As told by Chloe



This was the Christmas Story... as told by Chloe and her mommy.

As a means of full disclosure, this was by no means the first attempt at getting this story told for the crowd that had gathered. We tried it the night before, but she was way more interested in the presents.

This is something that Casey and I attempted to teach Chloe over the past few weeks and she knows the story very well. You put her in front of a crowd and a camera and she tends to be a little distracted.

Merry Christmas!

From our home to yours........we wish you a very Merry Christmas! We pray that your week is spent enjoying time together with family and friends! May Jesus be at the center of your celebration this week!

Love,
Kevin, Casey, Chloe, and Claire

A day at home.......

Chloe was reading Curious George to Claire.......

Sweet Claire listening to big sister read to her!

This past Thursday, Claire and I went in to get Chloe up from her nap. Chloe felt so special when Claire came in to wake her up! Chloe has asked several days since then to have Claire wake her up. They stayed like this for about half an hour!

How could anyone resist this face and those cheeks?

Chloe being silly! :)

Chloe's School Christmas Party

Chloe had her Christmas party at school last Wednesday. Mommy, Daddy, and Claire all came to celebrate and have snacks with Chloe. We had a good time and are so thankful for Miss Karen and Miss Jennifer and the time that they spend with Chloe each week!

Chloe and Mommy

There was a crib in the room so Claire had fun kicking and playing in there....it also kept her out of reach of the other kids!

Chloe, Mommy, and one of the twins.....I can't see her face so I'm not sure which one she is! :)

Chloe eating her "cookie" that her teachers gave her.

WARNING:

If you are not the grandparent, aunt, or uncle of my children, this video could cause extreme boredom! Ha! For the grandparents, aunts, and uncles......this is Claire talking, laughing, and cooing. She's the sweetest baby! She smiles at everyone and is so happy! This is especially for Grandma and Grandpa since it'll be a few more days before Claire can actually "talk" to them.......maybe this will hold you over!

The Girls

We seem to have gotten a couple of cute pictures of both of the girls lately! It makes it easier to get pictures of them together now that Claire is so alert. The top one is from this past week......Aunt Megan got them these cute onesies and had her good friend monogram them. The bottom picture is from the night of our Thanksgiving dinner at church. These outfits were made for the girls by a lady in our church.

We finally got pictures............

We finally got pictures of Chloe nursing her baby and then burping her! I was feeding Claire when she decided that she needed to feed her baby too......she's so funny and so sweet!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.......

Merry Christmas from the Kilgores! Here are a few pictures so you can see what Christmas looks like at our house this year. We hope that you are enjoying the holiday season and the celebration of the birth of Jesus!

Thanksgiving

Well, I'm trying to play catch-up on the blog and get some pictures and stories here that I just haven't had time to relate. Here are a few pictures from Thanksgiving. We headed to Americus on Wednesday and Kevin worked with Dad and Jess at the river on the new dock. Then Thursday we celebrated Thanksgiving with the entire McNeill clan (including the Souther group). It was a fun day to be with family. We have so many reasons to give thanks!

Our two little turkeys!

Playing in the leaves

"Aunt Bee"- to- be

We are so excited! Jess (my brother) proposed to his girlfriend, MeriBeth (Bee), over Thanksgiving. Despite the fact that it was pouring rain and the Dawgs had just lost by 3 to Georgia Tech, the evening ended happily for the two of them. They have been dating for some time now and we have grown to love Bee. Chloe calls her on the phone all the time! Bee has asked Chloe to be the flower girl (that makes me a little nervous!) and so now Chloe says that she's going to be in "Jess-n-Bee's weddin' and wear a pretty dress yike Bee!" (Kevin and I are trying to figure out how to type this sentence the way that she says it......sometimes you just can't spell out words with her little southern drawl!)

Congratulations, Jess and Bee! We are so happy to have Bee as part of our family!

Thanksgiving Party at School

Here are a couple of pictures from Chloe's Thanksgiving celebration at school. I feel like I would be remiss if I didn't share the entire story behind the pictures. So.......here goes. Just like every other Wednesday morning at the Kilgore house, Chloe headed off with Kevin to school. Claire and I had to be at her 2 month checkup mid-morning and then were going to meet Kevin and Chloe for lunch.

About 11:15, Kevin's phone rang in his office. The conversation went something like this........

Kevin: Hello

Preschool Director: Hey, were you planning to come to Chloe's Thanksgiving party?

Kevin: No

PD: Oh......okay. I just wanted to check since it started at 11!

Kevin: Alright, thanks.

After he hung up with the director, he kicked into "Daddy mode" and began to think that maybe one of Chloe's parents should be at her very first Thanksgiving party where she was all by herself because her parents hadn't shown up yet!!!! So, he headed downstairs, relieved that there was one other daddy and he wasn't the only man in a room full of mommies! After he got down there, his phone rang again.......this time the conversation went something like this.....

Kevin: Hello

Casey: Hey honey, I was just calling to let you know that I'm waiting on Claire's shots and then we will be leaving the doctor's office.

Kevin: I'm in Chloe's classroom.....did you know they have a Thanksgiving party today?

Casey: Ummm......I think I read it on the calendar. Was I supposed to be there?

Kevin: Yep.....we're all here (meaning he and the other parents).

Casey: WHAT?!?!? Why didn't I know about this?

Kevin: Okay......talk to you later.

So, then I kicked into "Mommy mode" and began to stress out in the doctor's office about why my poor child was the ONLY kid without parents at her very first Thanksgiving party and why Kevin and I (staff members at the church where preschool is downstairs from Kevin's office) didn't know about the parent attended party!!!! I was so distraught that I told the nurse all about it when she came in to give Claire her shots!!!

So, I finally get Claire calmed down, checked out, and loaded up and run over to the church (which thankfully is less than a mile from the doctor's office). There, I make my grand entrance to the Thanksgiving party where Kevin is sitting in a very small chair and being a good daddy and representing us. I found my sweet little Chloe having the time of her life because this day, she got juice in her cup at school instead of water! She was eating her snack and proudly wearing her turkey hat (btw, she was the only kid who would wear her hat!).

Oh what a morning it was! Of course her teachers apologized profusely for the miscommunication and I learned that if there is a box around the activity on the school calendar, that means parents are invited...........and encouraged to attend!

When Daddy wants to listen to football and Chloe wants to watch Cinderella....

Fortunately, this situation is no longer a dilemna when you drive a Honda Odyssey minivan. While we were out and about today, Kevin was swapping back and forth between the Georgia and Michigan games. Of course, Chloe (being the little princess that she is) wanted to watch "Cindawella"....her new favorite movie. So, Daddy (being the great problem solver that he is) broke out the wireless headphones that came with our van and got it all set up so our princess could watch her princess movie while Daddy enjoyed some football! This picture was taken right before we got home......she had just fallen asleep! We love our minivan!

Claire Update

As mentioned in one of my posts yesterday, the girls both had a well check-up at the pediatrician today. Chloe got a good report and got her flu shot. She won't have to go back until she's three! Claire has been very congested over the past couple of weeks and has acquired a cough as well. After hearing her, they sent me down to get her chest x-rayed while Kevin and Chloe got her flu shot. The chest x-ray showed some bacteria that was concerning to the doctor so she prescribed an antibiotic and instructed us to start breathing treatments for Claire every 4 hours. So......here she is following in her sister's footsteps. We're praying that the combination of the medicine and the treatment will clear up her chest infection and get her well in the next few days. The doctor seemed to think that we should see much improvement over the next few days. I'm thankful for a pediatrician that we trust and one that has my children's interest at heart. I'm hoping our sweet Claire will feel much better by the weekend.

Visit to Americus

Kevin was the speaker at a campout for boys and their dads this past weekend, so he was going to be gone on Friday and Saturday. I decided that the girls and I would go over to Americus and spend the weekend with Mom and Dad. It turned out that Megan was able to ride with us since Chuck was tied up all weekend with VSU athletics. We had a very relaxing weekend of "girl time," and Reesie and Papa enjoyed having us there. We stayed until Sunday and went to church there in Americus. I rarely ever get to go to church with Mom and Dad since we are always racing to get back on Saturday night. I enjoyed seeing some people that I don't normally get to see when I go home. Here are a few pictures from the weekend...............

Snapping beans......

This is how Claire snapped beans! :)

Going to feed the fish.....

Throwing the fish food out there.......one by one!

So much fun!

"Look Papa!"

I love this sweet girl!

Chloe and Aunt Megan

Claire - 9 weeks old

How could anyone resist this sweet and adorable face! Poor Claire seems to have been in the "shadows" of the blog here lately because so much is going on with big sister Chloe! So I wanted to take the opportunity to post a couple of pictures of her and tell you all what a sweet baby Claire is! She rarely ever cries, unless something is wrong. She's sleeping good and eating good. Last time we were at the doctor, Claire weighed 11lbs 2ozs......she was about 7 weeks old then. We have her 2 month checkup tomorrow (Wednesday) so we'll be anxious to see how things are going. She has had a really bad cold over the last couple of weeks, so we are praying for relief for her little body from the congestion and cough.

One other thing about Claire is that we participated in our church's baby dedication service on November 2nd. Long before Claire entered this world, we dedicated her life to our Heavenly Father and prayed that he would use her. However, this dedication service was a great way to do this publicly in front of our real family and church family. We were blessed to have a host of family members to share this day with us! The irony in that is that I forgot my camera and the only person with a camera was Kevin's mom and she was far enough from the stage that her pictures turned out blurry! So......I'm following in typical fashion for the second child and I already feel guilty about it! Here's the only pictures that we have of the day. We pray that Claire will come to a saving knowledge of Jesus very early in her life and spend the majority of her life serving the Lord.

Claire's Room

For those of you who are interested, I finally got the bed out of Claire's room and set up the rocker, end table, and bookshelf. In the first picture, I'm standing over by the crib.....in the second, I'm standing in the doorway to her room. Not great pictures....but it gives you the idea!

Visit from Michigan

This picture was taken the morning that they left.....Kevin's mom, Beth, was taking the picture so she's not in it.

We were so fortunate to have Kevin's grandparents visit us the first weekend of November. Kevin's mom and dad left from Indianapolis and drove to Michigan to get Grandma and Grandpa Kilgore and then drove them down to Tifton! In total, they were all gone about 10 days as they made their way down here, spent the weekend with us, and then made their way back. This was the first time Kevin's grandparents had been able to visit us since seminary, so we were very excited for them to be here. We are extremely thankful for Grandma and Grandpa's good health ......they are 90 and traveled lots of miles with little trouble! We are also thankful to Gary and Beth, Kevin parents, for making the effort and taking the time to get Grandma and Grandpa down to Tifton.....it was a special visit for us!

Fall Festival

Friday night was our Fall Festival at the church. Chloe was dressed up as a flower.....she was so cute! Her headpiece only lasted about 20 minutes! There were so many pictures that I decided to do another slide show. I'm hoping to get some new pictures of Claire this week since she is growing like a weed and staying alert and awake longer during the day. She wore a cute little pumpkin outfit on Friday night and slept in the carrier on Mommy!

Pumpkin Carving Time

We got a pumpkin earlier this week and finally had time to carve it last night. Here are some pictures of our lion pumpkin!

1st of Many...

Well, Casey and I have been talking about doing this for some time now, so here we go. This will be the first in an endless list of things that are "Not Only In Tifton, But In Tifton Nonetheless." There have been many things that we have seen, but not had the opportunity to get a picture. We are going to be prepared from here on out.


So, here it is... hard working Americans, probably not in the category of small business owners making over $250,000 a year, but still working hard to make ends meet.


We'll call this first installment... "Who ced educatin is importent!"

So... if you are ever in the market for a good BARGIAN, come to Tifton....the corner of 82 and Tift Ave. Ask for J.R. and tell him Kevin sent you. He might give you an extra DISCOWNT.

Until the next time...

Date Night With Daddy

"Date night with daddy" began at Lowes.

We played a little hide-and-seek...

Did some laundry...

And, not wanting to lie to mommy, we decided to take a bath while we were there too. She didn't say we had to take a bath with real water.

After almost an hour of fun at Lowes... we made our way to Chicken-Fay (a.k.a. Chilck-fil-A) to get some "chicken nuggets."

Chloe always looks forward to "Date Night With Daddy," but not near as much as daddy does. We have a great time and always end up with some great stories (and pictures).