Turning 25

Another year has come and gone and I'm so greatful for all that I have been given. I told Josh not to get me anything since we are in the process of buying a home. So he was sweet enough to make me this cake the day after my birthday. He made one on my birthday but opened the oven before it was done baking so it sunk. I told him I didn't need another cake but he insisted and here is the result.

Thanks babe for being so loving and thoughtful. I love you!

6 Months Old

I can't believe my Kaylee-cakes is 6 months old already. Where did all the time go?

Kaylee has grown so much! No matter how much I want to deny it she has. She had her 6-month appointment on Nov. 3rd. She got all checked out and looks good. She is having some diaper rash issues and sensitive skin (I hoped she'd be able to skip them but it didn't happen) but other than that she is doing well. The dr said not to be surprised if she's walking by 9 months old. I am definitely not going to be encouraging her but if it happens I guess it will and I'll deal with that when we come to that point. I just want her to stay little forever! We had all of her shots given and made sure to get the flu one as well. Poor little girl didn't like that and it didn't help that Ashlyn started crying when she cried. These two little sweethearts can be so sensitive to each other and it just makes me smile. Below are Kaylee's stats and some other tidbits about what she's up to these days.

Her stats:
26 1/4"
15 lbs 10 oz
definitely teething

Things she can do:
-crawl
-sit-up by herself
-hold her own bottles, rattles, etc
-say baba and mama
-loves to babble, laugh, and follow her sister around
-eats rice cereal and formula
-find any cord no matter where we put them (definitely have to put them up before it becomes a problem

New Experiences with her:
bathing her with Ashlyn
eating veggies (and anything else Ashlyn leaves for her, so far she's tried waffles, peas, cereal and french fries)

She is at such a fun stage! It's hard not to just love on her all day. We love how much joy she brings into our lives and are excited to see her grow and develop her talents. But she can definitely stay little longer and I wouldn't mind.

We love you Kaylee!

Tired Girls

So one Saturday afternoon Ashlyn wanted something and we had repeatedly told her no. After continuing to whine we told her she could either be happy or go to her room until she was ready to be happy. Well she chose to go to her room and about 5 mins later I went in to check on her and this is what I found. She was so tired!




How can you not love this?

Halloween 2011

Halloween this year was spent with our friends the Garlic's. Davin works with Josh so that how we got to know them. While the guys and Kaylee stayed home to pass out candy and watch football at their place, Kristen and I ventured out with the 3 kids. We recycled Ashlyn's costume from last year but I told her if she wanted we could add eye brows and some scars. She was so proud of what she looked like. Kristen's boys went as a cop and a jail bird. Totally forgot to snap a picture of the 3 of them so I'll have to ask Kristen for a copy. It was a lot of fun to go with them even though it was pretty cold. I like that we just went around their townhomes and one subdivision. We didn't turn into human ice cubes and we got just enough candy to satisfy but not over-indulge in. (I think I'm probably the most thankful for that one)

Next year should be a lot of fun since both girls will go out, and who knows which ever one of us is the lucky one to take them just might dress up to. We shall see. Hope you all enjoyed your trick-or-treating

Kaylee sitting up and crawling at 5 1/2 months

Do you think this girl likes the camera?

Going to the Dentist

So I took Ashlyn in for her annual dentist check-up. Once again she is cavity free. Wahoo! She also got to do her first set of x-rays. Was so proud of her for being such a big girl and doing what the dental assistant. Ashlyn has always done really good at the dentist and we've never had any problems, but this time it was more of challenge because at the office we go to they have kids Ashlyn's age lay down on a table. Of course that brought back memories of her ER experience the week before so it definitely took longer to get her teeth cleaned and she wouldn't let the assistant floss her teeth. Thankfully she was willing to let the Dentist look at her teeth and put the vitamin stuff on them. He told her that he was going to paint her teeth so she was totally for it. By the time we left she was smiling again, got a ring and sunglasses, had her picture taken, and was entered into a drawing. I think the next time we go the whole experience will be back to the way it has been.

Ashlyn's ER Visit

So Ashlyn got to experience her first traumatizing ER visit on Oct. 15, 2011. She had been running a fever since Thursday that kept spiking as soon as the medicine would start to burn off in her system. At first I wasn't too concerned because it was only around 100 and she acted fine as long as the medicine was working. But by Saturday it had gone up to 104.6 and that was with us still alternating medicines. I just wasn't sure what to do so I finally decided to call the Urgent Care here in town to see what they thought. I didn't want to take her in just to hear that there was nothing I could do and waste my time and money as well as the dr's time. When I called to see what the nurse thought I should do with her, she was of course with a patient and so I just left a message with the receptionist and my number. I got a call back a few minutes later with the nurse saying that the doctor didn't even want to see her with a fever that high and to get her over to the ER.

Josh was good enough to stay home with Kaylee so I got Ashlyn dressed and told her to say bye to daddy. Then we headed off to the ER. When I got there it was nice because no one else was there so we didn't have to wait long to be seen.

Poor little Ashlyn didn't what would happen and I didn't either. I knew they'd want a urine sample and was hoping they'd just give her a potty bag and not the catheter. They checked her temperature and got a reading of 107, holy cow that was high! They gave her some more medicine and did a strep test to rule out that possibliity. They then decided that they needed to do the catheter because it was faster than letting her go in the potty bag. I laid her down and she was fine until the nurse came in and tried putting in catheter. Of course it was traumatizing and the nurse was unsuccessful. She had to have another nurse come in to help and it took two of us to hold her down while the nurse did the catherter. I felt so bad for her and even though I know what she was going through I couldn't help her understand why she was having to go through the pain of it all. After they were done. I got her pull-up back on and had to hold her for a long time. At this point the nurse came back in with some stickers and a cute little bear. It helped a little bit but as you can imagine Ashlyn did not want anything to do with these people and kept asking to go home.

We then had to do 2 chest x-rays. Even though these aren't invasive it still scared her after what she had just been through. I had to do a lot of coaxing to get her to hold still and let the tech to his job. Finally after about a half hour of convincing her that it was a big camera and looking at the board that lines up that the techs use kind of looked like a pumpkin (she found the eyes, nose, and mouth) we were able to go back to our room.

The Dr. came in after the x-rays and labs came back and told me he felt that it was pneumonia but wasn't serious enough yet to admit her. He gave me an antibiotic prescription and then had the nurses come in and give her a shot of rocephin. Needless to say they had to bring in more stickers and a sucker this time. He told me to make a follow-up appointment with our regular doctor on Monday, but if things worsened before then to obviously come back in.

We spent the next 45-60 minutes at Wal-mart waiting on her prescription to be filled and getting her some popsicles. I felt so bad for her. She just cried because of everything that had happened. It's so hard to explain to a 2 1/2 year old why they had to do those things.

I took her back in on Monday and am glad to report that everything turned out okay. The anitibiotic that was prescribed is one of the best ones out there to help get rid of the pneumonia if got early enough. Our Dr. was surprised that the ER doctor hadn't admitted her with that high of a fever, but I'm glad to say things started turning around for Ashlyn.

The only thing now that is hard is doing diaper changes after bowel movements. She'll come and tell me that she's stinky and then say "Mommy don't hurt me" over and over again because she's afraid I'll hurt her when when I have to wipe. This has been very challenging for me and I feel bad to because I would never hurt my child intentionally. I know the experience is still fresh in her mind and am hoping that she will be able to forget about it sooner than later.