Monday, May 4, 2009

Busy Day


Our 14 month old nephew, Bryker spent the day with Kaylee, Kianna, Trace and I. It was fun getting to spend time with him. He was a really good boy! As one can imagine adding a toddler into my already young crew, was a bit of a challenge. The toughest part was trying to keep a close eye on him while nursing Trace. My solution was to nurse Trace in his room with toys scattered on the floor for Bryker to play with while the door was closed securing him in the room with me. Like I said, Bryker was a really good boy, so it actually went really well. My daily challenge is always trying to tend to the girls, especially Kianna while I am nursing Trace. She is potty trained but still needs some help wiping and washing her hands. The girls are also hungry first thing in the morning, so trying to get them taken care of hunger wise prior to or while feeding Trace is sometimes a bit of a challenge as well. Later in the morning, we were able to play outdoors. Bryker's favorite activity of the morning was undoubtedly swinging on the swing set. The girls had fun playing with their cousin. Thanks Bryker for being such a good boy!!! 

Proud Parents


Kaylee had her 2nd soccer game last week and although her team lost we were very proud of our little girl, but not for the reason you may think. During her game one of her teammates, who happens to be a little boy with cerebral palsy, fell down. Well everyone including Kaylee was chasing after the ball and running towards the goal in the opposite direction. Kaylee happened to look back and see her teammate on the ground and instead of continuing to chase the ball she turned around and began running towards this little boy. When she got to him she reached down and helped him up. It was one of those proud moments we have as parents. I had tears in my eyes watching her sweet "Christlike" action. After the game the little boy's mom came up to us and told us how sweet that was that Kaylee helped her son off the ground! Way to go Kaylee!!!

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Go Galaxy!!!

Kaylee after her 1st game. Notice the snack in hand.Proud Daddy
Uncle Patrick and Kianna

Kaylee's fan club

Kaylee started playing soccer a few weeks ago and LOVES it! She had her first game last night and although they lost, Kaylee said "soccer is fun". In fact, Kaylee was so excited for her game that she wore her new pink shorts and Galaxy jersey all day yesterday in anticipation! I admit our expectations for 4 and 5 year old soccer are not that high. For example, we realized Kaylee's team has never even scrimmaged each other in practice, so on our way to the game we were explaining to Kaylee that there would only be ONE ball on the field and that she needed to try and get that ball from everyone not wearing a grey "Galaxy" jersey. We thought that was important for her to know! Kaylee made a big play as goalie when she stopped the blue team from scoring! Way to go Kaylee!! Although Kaylee had a GREAT time playing soccer, she may have been even more excited about the gatorade and cheese crackers she was given AFTER the game. It's tough to beat the excitement snacks bring...

Kaylee unquestionably had the largest cheering section. Fans included: Mommy, Daddy, Trace, Kianna, Aunt Sam, Bryker, Grandpa Bob, Aunt Stacie, Uncle Patrick, Grandpa John, Aliyah, Grandma Sue, and Grandpa Wayne. Grandma Jacque and Grandma Becki were there in spirit and would have been there in person if they could've. Thanks for all your support! 

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Scary Day

Kaylee has been having difficulty hearing lately, so I took her to the doctor this morning to check things out. Surprisingly, despite her not once complaining of her ear hurting, she infact has a VERY BAD ear infection. I guess ear infections can cause difficultly in hearing. Unfortunately, it can take 6-8 weeks for her hearing to improve! What? If you only knew how many times a day she says that...

What I wasn't expecting this morning was that Kianna woke up UNABLE to walk. Talk about SCARY! She woke up and went potty at 6:00 AM and was fine. She went back to bed and got up about 20 minutes later to go potty again. This time she called for me and told me she couldn't walk. She said that her leg hurt and pointed to her right hamstring. Being a physical therapist, I evaluated her leg and decided that her bones all seemed intact, but discovered that right hip internal rotation was very painful for her. She proceeded to crawl around the house the rest of the morning. I decided since I don't specialize in pediatrics to get her seen by the doctor as well. After x-rays of the right leg and blood work, both of which came back normal thankfully, it was deemed that since she has had a fever and diarrhea intermittently over the past 2 weeks, that her hip pain is due to a virus settling into her joint making it difficult to walk. She continued to have difficulty walking the rest of the morning, but when she woke up from her nap said "Mommy I can walk again". She favored her leg a little bit the rest of the day but no longer seemed to be in pain. Please pray that this truly was caused by a virus and that it won't happen again. My concern is that this is actually the 2nd time this has happened. It happened for the 1st time about 4-5 months ago, but only lasted about 30 minutes. At that time, it seemed to me that her hip was almost dislocated and then went back into the socket. The doctor was concerned too that this wasn't the first time it had happened. Please pray with us for her health and safety.  

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Trace is 3 months old!!!


Trace is really a smiley little guy these days. He loves being talked to and will even "talk" back now. He has a lot to say, especially for being a BOY! He LOVES staring at his hands, as he is currently in the process of discovering they are HIS! He also loves lying underneath his play gym and can often be found just smiling up a storm talking to his toys. It is very cute to observe. Trace enjoys going on walks outside, although he isn't quite sure what to think of the wind. It is pretty funny listening to him dramatically gasping for air, when the wind blows across his face. Very cute!

Trace is now only nursing 4 times per day. He eats approximately 7-8 oz of milk each time. He is a good little eater! He wakes up and eats at 7:30 AM, plays until 9:00 AM and then naps until 11:30 AM. He eats again at 11:30 AM, plays until 1:00 PM and then naps until 3:30 PM. He eats again at 3:30 PM, plays until 5-5:30 PM, takes ~45 minute nap and then eats again at 7:30 PM. He goes to bed at 8:00 PM, which is the same time that the girls go to bed, so we are liking that! Trace is such a happy, content, little guy. We are so blessed to have him in our lives!!!

Who do you think our kids look like???

Trevor with Spiderman-age 3 or 4Keri's preschool picture-age 4
We often are told that the kids look like "so and so". I rarely hear that they look like me, but personally I think that Kianna looks a lot like me when I was little, so I decided to get some evidence. What do you think???? I won't be offended if you disagree. I just thought it would be fun...

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Happy Easter

Kids on Easter
Trace
Kianna eating her egg
Kaylee decorating eggs. Notice how colorful her fingers are...

We had such a fun Easter this year! The girls had a blast decorating eggs. Well I should say, Kaylee LOVED decorating eggs and Kianna loved EATING the eggs! The girls also enjoyed the Easter egg hunts. Our neighborhood had one and then on Easter Trevor hid 113 eggs for the girls and their cousin, Aliyah, to find. They had a blast finding all those eggs. Not to mention finding all the goodies hidden INSIDE the eggs. The Easter bunny was pretty generous with gifts this year. It was pretty funny because Trevor and I dropped the kids off at my parent's house on Friday night, so we could do some shopping at Toys R Us for Easter gifts. Kaylee was aware of what we were doing and so on Easter after finding all the gifts from the Easter bunny and jumping up and down in excitement she politely asked "Mommy, when do we get the presents that you and Daddy bought us at Toys R Us the other day?" What is a Mommy supposed to say to that??? 

It is important to us that despite all the fun that Easter encompasses, that the true meaning of Easter is not forgotten. When asked both girls will tell you that we celebrate Easter because Jesus died on the cross to save us for our sins. I just love hearing them say that. When asked what a sin is Kaylee says "all the bad things we do". Hearing their answers makes me think "they're getting it". Kaylee even made up a song about Easter, well two acually. One about the Easter bunny and the other about Jesus dying on the cross. She gets her lyrical talent from her Daddy who often makes up songs when inspired...

Addendum: It was cute because after I posted this Kianna was watching me nurse Trace and I asked her "Do you have milk in your boobies?" and she answered "no". I said "How did milk get in Mommy's boobies?" and she answered "Because Jesus died on the cross." When asked if Jesus lives in their hearts, Kaylee says "yes" and Kianna says "no". When asked why Jesus doesn't live in her heart Kianna answers "I don't have a heart".  So maybe she doesn't COMPLETELY grasp it all quite yet...