Sick Little Girls

We had an unfortunate turn of events for our weekend. Trevor's uncle, Lyle, passed away early in the week and the funeral was on Friday up in Rockford, IA. We drove up for the funeral, spent time with family and then headed to Des Moines to stay in a hotel. We stayed at a hotel with a swimming pool and the girls were so excited to swim after 4 hours of driving. We had a great time last night swimming and goofing around as a family. The trouble began this morning...Kianna woke up fussy but she isn't a morning person so that wasn't completely unlike her. We had a nice buffet breakfast in hotel's restaurant, although the girls barely touched their food, which was unlike them. We went back up to the hotel room and Kianna came into the bathroom and said "sick" and then puked all over the bathroom floor and Kaylee soon followed. Poor little girls! 

We were in Des Moines to do some bunk bed shopping for the girls, as they are going to be sharing a room soon. We decided to cut our trip short and head home. Thankfully, we already had a puke bucket in the car due to the girls and I having motion sickness from time to time. The girls shared the bucket on the way home and seem to be on the mend now, as they have been holding their food down since noon. I feel bad for the poor maid who had to clean up our stinky room...

Kaylee's 4th Birthday

Craft time

Kaylee hitting the pinata
Kaylee with her Dora Cake
Kaylee not happy that Kianna is trying to blow out her candle...


I can hardly believe that Kaylee is 4 years old already. Where does the time go? We had her look at her newborn pictures from her actual birthday and she thought that was pretty neat. It has been so much fun watching her grow from a baby into a little girl. She is a smart little girl with an amazing memory. She remembers details from things that happened a year or more ago. For example, on Halloween we were talking about how Grandma Gee Gee (my grandma) was coming over again this year to hand out candy while we went trick-or-treating. Kaylee pointed to a decorative table in the corner of our living room and said "Mom isn't that the table we setup for Grandma last year so she didn't have to bend over to reach the candy?" Her memory continues to amaze us on a regular basis! She is also very thoughtful. She often asks how people are feeling when she knows something has been bothering them (ie. "Mom is your back still hurting you today?" or "Daddy how was your day today?"). We are very proud of the young lady she is becoming!

We celebrated her birthday with two parties at our house: a friend party on the 11th and a family party on the 12th. The theme she chose this year was "Dora the Explorer". She had 10 of her little friends over to celebrate. That made 12 kids total with our two. Lets just say that Trevor and I were in a little over our heads managing 12 kids. Thankfully, our neighbor, Madison decided to stay and help manage the chaos, as well as, one of the aunt's, Sarah, after we began thinking at the last minute that maybe we should have recruited some helpers. It was chaotic with them, so I really cannot fathom what it would have been like without them!! We had several activities planned for the kids including a craft, pinata, scavenger hunt, eating cake, and opening presents. The scavenger hunt was pretty cool. We pretended that Swiper the Fox, one of the characters from Dora, had taken some books and necklaces and the kids needed to go downstairs and try and find them. Trevor had made some maps for the kids to follow. He had them going through a cave (underneath our pool table draped in blankets), a forest (through a narrow hallway with three inflated intertubes that the kids had to climb over), our playhouse where the books were hidden, our ball pit where the necklaces were hidden underneath all the balls, and then crawl into the theater room. The kids loved it. The activity was chaotic because Trevor only wanted to take 3 kids at a time and I had to entertain the other 9 in the meantime, "Duck, Duck, Goose" only entertains kids for so long... Despite the two glasses of milk that were spilled during cake time I'd say the party was a success. The kids all seemed to have a good time and that is the important thing! One of the funniest things that happened was after all of us had finished singing "Happy Birthday" to Kaylee and she was getting ready to blow out her candle her little sister, Kianna, beat her to it and blew out the candle first. You should have seen the look that Kaylee gave her sister and she was just about to yell at her, when we started laughing. I relit the candle and all was well...

Her family party was a much tamer crowd, with only one other young child present. I made her favorite meal: macaroni and cheese, salad, and fruit salad. She got lots of nice presents and has had fun playing with them since. I can't imagine her needing any other gifts come Christmas time, which is only 6 weeks away. Crazy, I know!

Sisterly Love

28 weeks pregnant...I can't imagine how big I will be in 12 more weeks...

Just thought I would share this adorable picture with all of you. The girls are so excited to meet their baby brother. Kaylee has felt the baby move several times and Kianna likes to kiss my belly. They will make wonderful big sisters!