I'm Kayleigh. I began this blog as a baby book to document my daughter Lily's first year. It was called "Lily Blooms". Now, as an expansion of "Lily Blooms", "Family In Bloom" has been created to include the whole gang: Kayleigh (Mommy), Jason (Daddy), Lily, Kiera, and brother puppy Mowgli (arguably our first-born). A little background information:
I met Jason when I was still a senior in high school. Jason was already in college, which immediately made him 3x more attractive than he may have really been at the time. After of year of friendship; helping each other through break-ups, make-ups, midterms, final exams, new part-time jobs, losing part-time jobs, new friends, old friends, bad friends, parties that never stopped, parties that should have stopped before they even began, class schedules and leaving the Nest, we both found ourselves in a precious little window of opportunity as we were both single at the same time. We held hands, said a quick prayer, hoping never to become a real life version of a painful episode of "Friends" and dove right in.
About a year after we began dating, our first child, Mowgli the mutt became part of the family. A pound puppy with a past, he quickly became our training wheels for parenthood. Mowgli was born on the mean streets of Wakulla, Fl. Found as a puppy wandering the woods alone, he was taken to a shelter in Wakulla County where he bunked up with a full-grown pit bull.
Apparently he learned some bad habits from his cellmate as he was quickly diagnosed with "food aggression" and shipped of to, what I guess is, a higher-security shelter in Tally. Mowgli stuck out right away because at four months old, he looked more like a lemur than a dog - I kid you not, the oddest looking puppy you've ever seen. He could have had the personality of a rabid wolverine, I didn't care. He looked like something out of a Rudyard Kipling novel, which is how he got his name. He came home with us the next day and is the best dog and big brother anyone could ever ask for.
Jason proposed July 4th weekend in 2008 and we were married the summer of 2009 in a small and beautiful sunset ceremony on the shores of Henderson Beach in Destin. The sun set, a rain storm stopped by to congratulate us and knock out the power, and we danced illuminated by the stars and candlelight provided by the 150 votives we had lit under our pavilion on the beach. The storm was the ultimate blessing in disguise - how deep is that? It was beautiful.
We welcomed our daughter, Lillian Elizabeth in the spring of 2010 and she is growing like a weed. We never knew time could fly so quickly. Don't get me wrong, we were told over and over that it would - but what's fun about listening the first time?
In September of 2013, we welcomed our latest addition, Kiera Laurel. Who knew our family could get even better looking?
Jason and I are working hard, saving up, and constantly reminding each other to stop and smell the roses. We are a team. A good one. We are young (...heartache to heartache we stand...) and we are new at this, but we are growing. In so many ways. Everyday we learn something new; about anything from babies to plumbing, cooking to renting, home loans to tax breaks (or lack thereof). And in acquiring this knowledge we learn more about ourselves. Through knowledge and prayer, we grow. We bloom. This is a space to document our family in bloom.
