Trace Lost Two Teeth

                   

Trace has been watching his friends lose their teeth over the past year and has been anxiously awaiting his turn. Well it finally arrived. Not only did he lose one tooth but within two days he had lost two teeth. He pulled them both out himself. He was so brave. The only problem was he expected to receive "two 10 dollar bills" and only received "two one dollar bills" from the tooth fairy. I guess we have a cheap tooth fairy...

Kaylee's 11th Birthday

Our 11 year old

Our blessings

Dinner at Sauce

Basketball gear

Swim party

Fondue party

Mom and Kaylee

Slumber party

We just finished Kaylee's birthday week extravaganza. She has officially been well celebrated. The festivities began a week ago when we went out for italian food at Sauce with Daddy before he headed to Iowa to start his new job. We came home and ate rhubarb crisp and let her open a couple gifts. We finished the night off with a Hallmark movie.

The festivities continued when she and I baked side-by-side the night before her birthday preparing her treats. She made her brownie, chocolate chip cookie and reese's peanut butter cup treats to take to  school, while I made her chocolate chip banana bread cake with peanut butter frosting for our family celebration. The next day, we Facetimed Daddy at 5:30 AM his time, so he could watch her open her presents. She had a fun day at school, as one of her friends decorated her locker, making her feel extra special. At home, we celebrated farther with her favorite penne pasta dish and a game of Life.

Daddy came back from Iowa late on Friday night. Yeah! The festivities ended on Sunday, more than a week after they originally began, with a friend birthday party. She had five friends come: Lauren Swiggum, Hannah Spohn, Katie Shane, Amelia Grupp, and Emily Willet. The girls went swimming at The Centre pool and sang the night away doing karaoke. We ate fettucine alfredo with broccoli and chicken for dinner and had chocolate peanut butter fondue for dessert. Can you see a theme here? This girl LOVES pasta and dessert! The girls thought the fondue was super fun. The night ended with a movie and slumber party. As mentioned previously, she was well celebrated!

A few facts about Kaylee:

• She is a super sweet girl! She has a kind, generous heart. She is very mature for her age and is a good friend to those around her. She loves life and has developed a good sense of humor. She loves to laugh and brightens up a room when she enters it.
• School- She loves school! She gets excited about classroom projects. Her favorite subjects are literacy and history. She loves to read, especially about World War II. She has been working on the Left Behind for Kids Series. She also just read the first two books in the Maze Runner series. 
• Sports- She loves sports! She plays volleyball, basketball and soccer. She likes them all equally and is becoming quite the aggressive athlete. She just finished soccer and volleyball season. Basketball just began this past week. She will be practicing twice a week working on fundamentals. The season ends right before Christmas with two tournaments. Back in Iowa she gets to play on her school team and will play Upward Basketball at church.
• Percussion- She just began taking percussion lessons  at school this Fall. She is currently learning to play the xylophone and the drums. The verdict is still out, as to her interest level, but songs are beginning to become recognizable. 
• Friends- She has a really nice group of friends, which makes moving to Iowa difficult for her. Her closest friends are: Amelia Grupp, Hannah Spohn, Katie Shane, Lauren Swiggum and Emily Willet. We are trying to get her lots of friend time in before we move. Thankfully she also has some friends back in Iowa, who she is looking forward to reconnecting with. 
• Games- She loves to play board games, especially Life and Monopoly. 
• Movies- She still enjoys watching Hallmark movies with me and Super Hero movies with Daddy.
• Adventures in Odyssey- This girl continues to be addicted to Odyssey. She has now listened to the entire Odyssey library via her online membership and is still listening. Now Kianna is getting hooked...

We love our Kiki Bear. Happy Birthday sweet girl!!!!

Fall Sports

FCA Soccer Sisters

League Champions

Kaylee's team signed a soccer ball and framed one of their team photos for her.  They will miss her this Spring.

Kaylee

Daddy and Trace playing under the lights.

Abram and Trace

Kianna and Tory

Kianna's team

We had a very busy Fall schedule and we are happy to report that we survived and had lots of successes along the way! Here is our crazy schedule:

• Monday- Trace and Trevor flag football practice from 6-7:00 PM. Kaylee soccer practice from 6-7:30 PM.
• Tuesday- Kianna soccer practice from 6-7:00 PM. Kaylee and Keri volleyball practice from 6:30-7:30 PM.
• Wednesday- Kaylee soccer practice from 6-7:30 PM.
• Thursday- Kianna soccer practice from 6-7:00 PM.
• Friday- Free night or games.
• Saturday- Volleyball, flag football and soccer games.
• Sunday- Church and soccer games.

As for successes:

• Trace loved flag football and pulled lots of flags and scored some touch downs!
• Kianna really enjoyed soccer and turned a corner in athletics. She worked super hard this season, had a great attitude, scored several goals and developed some fancy footwork. She played goalie a few times and enjoys that too.
• Kaylee went from not being sure she wanted to go out for soccer, to really enjoying soccer. Her team was amazing. They won two tournaments and were the league champions. Kaylee played left side defender and was a force to be reckoned with. She threw elbows and stood her ground making it difficult for girls to get past her!
• For volleyball, Kaylee learned how to set the ball and worked on hitting for the first time. She is a very aggressive athlete, which I love! Her serves are improving and she can now serve behind the service line (or very close to it) for underhand serves. 
• Another blessing this Fall were the friendships that were developed. We carpooled with the Swiggum family and really enjoyed getting to know their family better. Kianna and Tory became good friends and so did Lauren and Kaylee. Trevor and I also enjoyed getting to know Aaron and Amanda better. 

Now we are enjoying more free time and family time! I'd say we earned it!

Halloween Fun

Kianna and her friend, Tory Swiggum, dressed up as twin soccer players.

Trace came too and dressed up as Batman.

We had fun carving pumpkins and eating yummy food.

Big Bad Wolf (Kaylee), Little Red Riding Hood (Hannah Spohn) and Grandma (Katie Shane)

Kaylee and I had fun making her costume. 

Pumpkins

Trick-or-Treat- Girls are soccer players and Trace is a Red Power Ranger

This year due to our crazy sports schedules, we did things a little differently. We had to divide and conquer to get in our fun events. We also added some friends to the mix. We made mummy hot dogs, roasted pumpkin seeds, and cooked dinner inside a pumpkin for another yummy meal. Who says change can't be fun?

Carpenter Farms

Trace and Mommy

Cadie, Amelia, Trace, Eli and Marlie

Mrs. Banks 1st Grade Class

I had the honor of going to Carpenter Farms with Trace's 1st grade class. We learned about how pumpkins grow, played in a corn box, had a hayride, picked our own pumpkin, played on a rope swing and played in a straw maze. Well Trace did at least, I mostly watched... We had a great time!

Big News = Big Change

Our lot

New backyard

Superheroes

Boyson Road Trail

After nearly a year of praying, we have decided to move back "home" to Cedar Rapids. We want to be closer to our families. This past week, Trevor accepted an offer back at Rockwell Collins as the Senior Director of Corporate Strategy. We feel this move has been orchestrated by God, as we did not seek it out. Several e-mails came Trevor's way and God opened the doors. We are choosing to walk through these open doors.

This decision has been a difficult one, as we have spent nearly six years in Michigan. We have made wonderful friends and had many amazing experiences. This too has become our home. I love my job and the kids love their school. It will be very hard to say goodbye.

Trevor will begin his new job on Monday, November 9th. The kids and I plan to remain in Michigan until closer to Christmas Break, or until our house sells, whichever comes first. We have decided to build a house back in Iowa. We have picked out a lot in the new Bowman Meadows subdivision on the edge of Marion and NE Cedar Rapids. The lot is perfect for our family as it is two houses away from a beautiful bike trail and approximately three blocks away from a neighborhood pool. We are in the final stages of nailing down our floor plan, so they can start digging. Our house will hopefully be finished by the beginning of April. In the meantime, my dad and Sue have graciously agreed to let us live in their house while they are in Arizona this winter. We are very blessed!

The kids will attend Isaac Newton Christian Academy once we move. We were back in Iowa last weekend, so they were able to spend the morning in their new classrooms. They each had a very positive experience, which helped ease some of their apprehension. The kids have taken the news quite well. We all are excited to be closer to family, but dread saying goodbye to our friends here. We hope they will visit us. Lots of change is in store for our family. We pray God will continue to give us peace in the days ahead and a smooth transition to Iowa.

Allergy Testing

Three years ago, I noticed that Kianna had a rash around her mouth while eating an apple. I also noticed that it went away as soon as she was finished. At that time, her pediatrician said she could keep eating apples as long as the symptoms never progressed to anything respiratory. Since that time, I have also seen her develop a rash while eating pears and peaches. In January, Kianna broke into hives, got a puffy lip and began breathing heavily after eating a kiwi and/or mango. We have not allowed her to eat these fruits since that time.

At her most recent doctor's visit, her pediatrician felt that we should have an Epi-Pen. I went to purchase an Epi-Pen and found out they cost $470.00. Ouch! I decided that I didn't want to spend the money on something that she may or may not need, so we decided it was time to get her formally tested. 

A couple weeks ago, she met with an allergy doctor and a scratch test was performed on her back. They had me purchase the fruits I was concerned about and basically stuck a tooth pick into each of the fruits and then scratched her back. They checked back in 10-15 minutes to see the results. They tested birch, peaches, pears, plums, mangoes, kiwi and apples. She reacted to all of them with the biggest reactions being to birch, kiwi, plums and peaches and milder reactions to pears, apples and mangoes. Based on the results the doctor ordered that blood tests be performed on these same fruits. The blood test revealed that she reacted the worst to kiwi, apples, peaches and plums in that order. The doctor does not want her to eat any of these fruits for the next year. At that time, he will redo the test and if her levels are lower then that indicates that she may outgrow her allergy. Unfortunately, very little research has been done on fruit allergies, so it is kind of a guessing game. Of the fruits she is allergic to kiwi is the one that can be life threatening, so is the most dangerous. The other fruits typically only 1% of the population have an anaphylactic response, most just continue to have oral symptoms. I will definitely be purchasing an Epi-Pen for peace of mind in regards to kiwi. It is good to have some answers. 

Kianna was very brave with the scratch test and blood work. Until this point in time, she has been very afraid of needles. However, she was amazing and was pretty fearless with these tests. Now that the testing is done, she is very excited to be able to eat mangoes again. She has probably had them everyday since we got the results back. Of the four fruits, apples are the most difficult to avoid.  Honestly, I'm a bit torn on whether to not let her have them since she has been eating them for 3 years without worsening symptoms. One thing is for sure, definitely no kiwi!!!