Phipps Conservatory and Yet another Birthday Celebration!

We had so much fun at Phipps Conservatory in downtown Pittsburgh, PA. It was the perfect place to go with the kids. They could run around the paths and enjoy all of the beautiful plants and flowers. We came here to celebrate Chloe's birthday with Papa and Grandma Kilian.

Grandma with Kayley and Caden. Notice Kayley with her worksheet to find all of the flowers. She was so in to it. She wanted to check off all of the flowers that she found! :)

Puddles! Caden especially liked the puddles. He kept on walking through them, then he would put his hands in them! He is all boy!

My wonderful husband Rex

Mom really? Another picture????

The kids loving all of the water!

Chloe getting a ride from Papa.

Mommy, look at the water!!!!!

They just LOVED Phipps! We need to go at least once a month!

My Beautiful Kayley.

Our big one year old! Happy Birthday Chloe Grace!

Sweetness

Okay Daddy, I'll stay here while you talk, but I would rather be running with Kayley and Caden.

The fish are so cool, we just wanted to touch them!

Chloe taking it all in.

I think this was Caden's favorite spot! He LOVED the trains. He kept on making train sounds. So so cute! I love having a little boy!

Kayley making a wish. She wished for more sunny days! :)

Me and my sweetie Chloe.

Goodbye Phipps! We will come back really soon!

Chloes' birthday presents

Chloe's princess cake

It's so nice to have a sister and brother who help me blow out my candle.

I get another smash cake! This time for Papa and Grandma Kilian to watch!

I could get used to two cakes all to myself within a week! :)

Papa helping me unwrap my new friend Violet. She is programmed with my name even. She says I love you Chloe! and she says many other things with my name too! :) I really like this toy!

Chloe with a beautiful name plaque painted by her Great Aunt Sara. It is so pretty! We love it Aunt Sara! We cannot wait to hang it up! Thank you so much!!!!!! :)

Happy First Birthday Chloe Grace

It's only for a moment you are mine to hold

The plans that heaven has for you

Will all too soon unfold

So many different prayers I'll pray

For all that you might do

But most of all I'll want to know

You're walking in the truth

And if I never told you

I want you to know

As I watch you grow

I pray that God will fill your heart with dreams

And that faith gives you the courage

To dare to do great things

I'm here for you whatever this life brings

So let my love give you roots

And help you find your wings

May passion be the wind

That leads you through your days

And may conviction keep you strong

Guide you on your way

May there be many moments

That make your life so sweet

Oh, but more than memories

I pray that God will fill your heart with dreams

And that faith gives you the courage

To dare to do great things

I'm here for you whatever this life brings

So let my love give you roots

And help you find your wings

It's not living if you don't reach for the sky

I'll have tears as you take off

But I'll cheer as you fly

"Find your Wings" by Mark Harris

Happy Birthday to our sweet sweet Chloe Grace. We love you so much and you make our family complete sweet baby girl.

Happy St. Patty's Day!

There's a smile from my serious girl!

Cutie Pie Caden

Sweet Kayley

Caden was fine with pics, until we put the hat on him. He liked holding the hat, but not wearing the hat! He was kinda mad that he didn't get a headband like the girls! Poor guy!

New pics of Chloe

Haven't really updated my blog too much! But I thought I would add some new pics of Chloe. I am thrilled that she has enough hair for pigtails already and that she has RED hair! :)

Update by Rex

Here's some more info about the job...

It's a new start-up company called Lockerz. It was started by people who used to work at Yahoo, Amazon, and American Eagle. They are trying to be the next popular site like Facebook or Twitter.

- website started in March 2009
- execs from Yahoo, Amazon, and American Eagle
- well funded by Libery Media group, not venture capital like all those DOT COM busts from a few years ago

The site has not officially launched yet, but you can get in even though there is only a limited amount of things to do. It is targeted at Generation-Z and is currently invite only. The idea is that you invite friends and build a network like Facebook, but you earn points for everything that you do on the site. Then you can redeem your points to get free or discounted stuff to put in your locker - like ipods, video games, snowboards, handbags, sunglasses, electronics,
etc.

Good pay and benefits. Really flexible environment, but long hours. So Kasey and I are slightly concerned about me being away from the house for more than an 8 hour work day and her being home with all three kids. That's really the only thing we can see as a negative right now. Typically I would be concerned about working for a start-up company, but I've only had month-to-month work since Feb and no benefits or salary. So when you look at it that we it would still be a good offer even if they don't last past 2010. But they will... because that's why they hired me. ;)

In other news...

We met with the PA Turnpike Commission last night (Nov 12, 2009). This is the first meeting to start the acquisition process for our house. They will be purchasing it as right-of-way for a new highway. We've known this was going to happen before we bought the property and built the house in 2002-2003, we just didn't know when. This is good news. They will be buying our property for fair market value, helping us find a suitable replacement, paying for any difference in cost that would create a hardship for us, paying the closing cost on both our current property and the purchase of new property, and paying for the moving expense.

God has been wonderfully meeting our needs this entire year. It started with "How do I finish my masters degree because I need 12 weeks off in the summer to take classes?" - so He laid me off. Then it became "How do I earn a living with a new baby on the way in April?" - so He gave us severance, gov't subsidized COBRA medical coverage, and had my previous employer bring me back as a contractor allowing me to work part-time through the summer and then back to full-time in the fall... AND I don't own them tuition money if I find a better job after graduation because they let me go as opposed to me wanting to leave within 3 yrs of graduating. Then we came to "Where do we get medical coverage since COBRA expires after 9 months?" - so He provided several job leads in both PA and OH resulting in a job offer in PA. So we decided to accept it for now because we were not sure when the house was going to be purchases. So now is has become "What do we do once the house is purchased?" - We'll see what He has in store next.

Thanks for praying for us!

Rex, Kasey, Kayley, Caden, and Chloe

New Post Can You Even Believe It?????

Okay, so I'm not the best at this blog thing! I shouldn't even be up right now. I should be in bed sleeping so I can keep up with my babies tomorrow morning!!!!! Sooooo.... Catching up from my lapse in blogging. June was a crazy month! My nephew Kyle graduated from highschool, My sister Kami got married, and then Kami had a wedding reception in Ohio too! We were traveling every weekend with the kids and it was crazy!!!! July slowed down a bit for us which was nice!!!! Rex is almost done with his final project! He is done next week in fact! We are so excited to be done with all of this education stuff! He has a lot of job leads right now, so we are excited about that as well! I am going to try to be more consistent with this blog. Just every day details with the kids. So if you are following my blog, stay tuned for more posts about the Kilian household!!! Hope everyone is having a safe and fun summer!!!