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.

Loving the Camera

So Ashlyn loves the camera and wanted me to take pictures of her. I'm not good at taking pictures but I think it's fun, especially where Ashlyn likes to try and pose. Here are some that I took of her the other day. She liked them so much that I told her that if she puts clothes on and lets me do her hair next time then I'll do a little photo shoot with her. That got her pretty excited! By no means will they be anything great but it's fun to do things like this with her. So here are some pics, hope you don't mind that she's only in a diaper. If this is a problem for you please just skip this post; otherwise, enjoy.

Where did the sun go?

Oh, I looked at the window and what did I see? This deary day was looking at me!



So this is what it has looked like here for the last 3 days. Boy oh boy, has it been a quick change of the weather. I was dying in the heat of the high 80's-low 90's since we moved and have had the ac running a lot. So it's been nice to not have to run the ac now, but a little crazy that the heater was going all night long. I'm definitely not use to having to have long sleeve shirts and socks on all day but it's definitely that time of year now in Idaho.

Positive things about the weather:

*We haven't gotten snow yet(knock on wood) like some of my family. It's just been raining a lot. Yesterday it tried to snow but didn't really succeed.
*It really makes me want hot chocolate or apple cider
*I don't feel as guilty when I want to just cuddle up with the girls under blankets and watch a fun show, do reading time, or simply nap with them.
*Eggnog is in the stores
*It makes me want to simply bake yummy deserts, breads, and an occasional soup here and there

Speaking of baking, this is what I enjoyed doing yesterday





Dinner was so yummy last night with homemade bread, mash potatoes (surprisingly I have started to enjoy making my mash potatoes), and a yummy smoked apple-glazed pork
loin.

Starting Solids

So we finally decided to try some rice cereal with little Miss Kaylee (Oct. 4th) to see if it would help her sleep better at night. To my surprise she actually likes the stuff and didn't make any disgusted faces, like Ashlyn did.

I really wish I had her on video camera when I let her try it for the first time. She was so funny. She was trying to get out of her seat to get to it. It'll be so much fun to see how she responds to other foods, but that will have to hold off until November. With her allergies, the doctor recommended that if I wanted to I could start her on solids at 5 1/2 mo-6 mo to go ahead so I'll wait til she's 6 months before I introduce the other foods. It seems like a long time away but it's only 4 weeks away. I think it just seems long because we started Ashlyn on solids at 4 month of age due to reflux issues.

Looking forward to all of your milestones Kaylee Kakes, but take your time. I want you to stay little!

Story time

So I am totally taking advantage of story time at the library every Wednesday. It gives Ashlyn and I something to look forward to each week. Ashlyn learned about silly animals yesterday and had lots of fun joining in on the songs and sitting next to the reader. After we listen to the stories and songs we go and pick up several books. This week I checked out 6 books for her and she's already had me read them all to her. Her favorite one this week is called "Yummy Yummy, Food for my Tummy" because of the monkeys and sharks. It's great to see that she loves books and wants to read with me. I think it's so important for kids to learn and to enjoy reading so I'm glad we are starting early. I try to get her excited and tell her what kind of things we are going to read about at story time so she is more willing to answer questions and speak up when the reader asks questions. The interaction with other kids her age is great and it's nice to let someone else entertain her for a half-hour.

This is a great little program that the community does and I'll be sad to see it leave during the winter months :(



Yummy animal crackers and a fun coloring sheet for me to enjoy ;)



All ready to go, waiting on mom and Kaylee

September

So I realized I haven't updated and I mainly blame it on being back and forth between Blackfoot and Rexburg. So now that my little family has all gone to bed and I'm not tired, it seems to that there is no better time to update then now.

Hunting season has fallen upon our home as it has with many others I am sure. This was Josh first year trying out archery hunting. My brother-in-law got him and my older brother intrested and it turned out to be a really good season. John was able to fill both of his tags and Max got his elk. Although it was not as successful for Josh, it was still a lot of fun. While they were out hunting I ended up at either my mom's or my sister's house with the girls. It's been fun but I'm glad there is a small break before rifle season.

Josh and I have both recieved callings in our ward now. It's going to be pretty busy for the two of us but I know our family will grow and become stronger as we do our best to fullfill our callings. I won't lie, when we got our callings I was a little nervous about them and wondered if they were really what we needed to be doing in our ward. I know though that the Lord calls us to certain callings at certain times not only for the benefit of our ward families but also for the learning and growth of our own spiritual beings. Josh has been called to be the Elders Quorum President and I've been asked to be a ward missionary. The Bishop definitely wasn't lying when he told us that we'd be put in callings out of our comfort-zone. All I can say and hope is good luck to us and what is in-store. I know that it'll be a great learning experience for both of us if we let it be. It's definitely nice to be in good ward.

Two of my brothers got home this month from serving in Iraq. This was Matt's 2nd tour and Sam's first. Glad to have them home and safe. It was really neat to be able to go to the airport and see them get home. We had a family dinner this last Sunday for them and it was so good to be around family. Thank you Matt and Sam for your willingness to serve our country.

The girls are growing up so fast! Sometimes I think it's a good thing and other times I think "stop...you need to stay little forever. I'm not ready for you to be so big and independent."





Ashlyn is really taking off with singing songs and trying to learn the alphabet. She now will tell you how old she is and say her name when asked. Just beware that if you ask her age you will get the answer "2-n-half" and don't expect anything less or more. If you ask her someone else's age after this question she will actually get kind of upset and tell you "no, I'm 2-n-half" and until she hears you say yes you'll get attitude. She has finally put on some weight too, which makes me feel so much better as a mother. For the longest time she wouldn't budge past 25 lbs. but now has finally gained 2 lbs with the help of carnation breakfast meals and encouragement to try more foods. She's still very picky about her food but we can at least get her to usually try something.

Tidbits about Ashlyn:
*Favorite color is blue,
*Can count to 10 with help and sing the abc's
*Can point our Jesus Christ in pictures as well as the Temple, and loves to help say the prayers
*Favorite shows are Dora the Explorer, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and anything to do with princesses
*Loves to play with her toy kitchen/food, coloring, playdough, dressing up, and making her sister laugh.
*Food preferences-french fries, taco shells, carnation breakfast meal, cereal, and chocolate chips




Kaylee thinks that it is almost time to be attempt crawling. She's been getting up on her hands and knees the last few days and rocking back and forth. Today she finally tried to crawl but didn't get it all the way(for this I'm thankful for). She's been scooting backwards for the last week or so and has finally managed to scoot forward. She loves to hold things in her hands a lot. She is now weighing in at 15 lbs. She is definitely my good eater and is able to put on some chunk, which by the way I love! I love this little girl and it's so fun to see how much she's growing even though I wish she'd stop and just stay little longer.

Tidbits about Kaylee:
*Things she can do- scoot,hold bottle, play with toys, sit up with assistance still
*Verbal things- laugh and jabbers a ton
*Eating habits- still eats every 3 hours anywhere from 4-7 oz, just depends on how she's feeling and if she spits up a lot (she has to be on sensitive formula and distilled water)
*Sleeping patterns- as of lately she's been waking up 1-2 times a night which has been happening since hunting season (before that she was actually sleeping through the night which we hope happens soon)
*Enjoys bathtime, being held, playing with toys and having her sister make her laugh.

Josh and I keep busy with our daily things (work, housework). We've both been enjoying going to the gym lately as well. Just trying to enjoy the time we do have now becuase once the new year gets here we will be super busy with tax season, our callings, schooling (for those who didn't know, I'm going to start classes up and try to get my bachelor degree in Health Care Admin). Life is good and I'm soooo looking forward to the holiday!

Can't believe it!

So Kaylee is almost 4 months old now and has decided to hold her bottle every once in a while. I took this picture of her on the 16th of August since it was her first time holding a bottle through the entire feeding.



This little girl is growing so fast. She likes to roll over on her sides a lot and has even made a full roll-over twice in the last month. She is now talking all the time and loves that she has discovered her feet and holding things.Making her laugh is one of my favorite things to do with her of course.

She'll go in to the dr for her 4 month check-up so we'll see how fast she is growing. I just took her in last week to have her checked because she has trouble breathing. The dr said that it's most likely allergies and where her little nasal cavity is so small it's easy for her to become congested and have trouble breathing. So now when she gets bad we give her a breathing treatment otherwise we just keep suctioning her little nose and giving her medicine to help slow down her mucus supply. Her feeding have increased this last week so I won't be surprised if they tell me she's 13 lbs or more, she was 12 lb 12 oz when I took her in last but she sure knows how to put on the weight, which I have to say I love.

Ashlyn's first haircut

So after much debating back and forth I finally decided it was time to cut Ashlyn's hair. For awhile I was gonna let it keep growing but she's gone back to her old ways of not letting me do it at all or else just taking it out after we are already on our way somewhere. I think it turned out really cute. When I find the usb cable to my phone I'll post the pictures while she was in the chair. She did really good sitting there. I love her hair now and will probably keep it this length until she agrees to keep her hair in. It was so cute though, after we finished and I was getting her in the car she looked up at me and said, "Mommy, my haircut is pretty." I just loved it and love her!


Before Picture



After Pictures

Some things my girls LOVE

Kaylee loves to sit up and Ashlyn is usually asking a few times a day to hold her.


Kaylee loves her swing!


Ashlyn loves her bike and is thrilled when we bring it upstairs or just let her ride it in the garage.

Shocking...Jamie's cooking

So I've become more adventureous in the kitchen lately. This is one of the meals I've made, it's called Swiss Cheese Pie. Other things I've taken to making are indian fry bread, cookies, banana bread, and zuchini bread.

Big Brown Eyes and Long Hair

How can you not love these features?

Swimming at Ross Park Aquatic Complex

On Tuesday this week, I was able to take the girls to the pool in Pocatello. My sister-in-law invited me to go with her and her kids and it was so much fun. Ashlyn loved it and was pretty adventureous at first but by the end she just wanted to sit in the water by Aunt Angie. Thanks again Ang for the invite it was really fun. Here are some of the pictures from our day out.