Birthday Party

Our tradition is to have a real birthday party every four years - so when our girls turn 4,8,12, and 16. I'm glad we decided on this. It's alot of work - next time we'll rent the swimming pool!

Our kitchen area all decorated up.


The carnival all decked out.

Here are what the games looked like. Totally homemade and simple. Kendra helped pick out the prizes.

Tickets please!

Mark juggling.

Watching our clown twist balloons.

Mark was our clown - he juggled and made balloon hats and animals.

I made a lion poster so each kiddo could have their picture taken.

Kendra was so excited to have the spotlight today.

It was too windy to have the carnival outside so we packed it into our front room!

It was fun and I think the kids had a good time.

Sisters

We have a tradition that on the day of the girls' birthday they can pick where they want to go. This year Kendra wanted to go to the aquarium. Even though I left in plenty of time to make it home for Megan's nap, they both fell asleep in the car. I thought it was so cute that I took a picture.

I love how they're holding hands.

Kendra turns 4!

Kendra through the years:

Kendra at birth - what a pretty baby!

1 year old. She has such a mischievous grin.

2 years old

3 years old - look at all that hair!

4 years old.

Kendra is such a fun little girl. She expresses exactly how she feels which make simple activities enjoyable. Her favorite thing lately is to make sister laugh in the car. It is so much fun to drive places with the two sisters in the back and watch and listen to Kendra as she does anything for a laugh. We are so glad she is ours. Happy Birthday!

Doctor Day

Megan saw the GI specialist yesterday morning. I've decided that I love specialists - way better than regular doctors. Ofcourse the cost is higher, but he spent alot of time with me and was very thorough. He thinks Megan still has reflux and that is where her problems stem from. i.e. sleeping problems, eating problems, weight loss, gagging/choking, etc. So she gets to take prevacid again. I'll call him in a week to let him know if any symptoms have improved. Hopefully Megan will begin to gain weight again. They must be somewhat concerned about her weight loss since it took less than 2 weeks to see him.

Then Mark took Kendra to the doctor. She got a fever on Tuesday and still had it on Friday. Nothing I did could break it. She was suppose to have her birthday party today but we had to postpone it. I thought for sure she had some type of infection. Diagnosis - virus. Last night she sweat like a pig, finally breaking the fever. It's always a long week when Kendra is sick. She feels everything to the extreme whether she's happy or upset, well or ill.

In other news...

Megan had these horrible blisters on her thighs. After reading about the problems with the new Pampers diapers we finally switched to Huggies (the store was all out of Luvs size 3!) and the sores are healing. I called Pampers to let them know that yet another child had a reaction to their new diapers and they treated me very well. They are sending me two coupons each for a giant box of Pampers diapers! I'll either use them for a baby gift or try to sell them on craigslist.

Mark had to fix our swamp cooler this morning. He had to buy and install a new floater. When he returned from Lowes he climbed up the ladder and reached way up high only to notice that his fly was down and probably had been for some time!

Precious Moments

It's so good to have Megan feeling better again. She still has green snot - but she always does. The medical profession says she's healthy so that is why we are taking her to a naturopathic doctor to see if she has an allergy causing it. My favorite thing with Megan now is when I give her a bottle. As I shake the formula in the bottle and show it to her she comes crawling as fast as she can - faster than she crawls at any other time. It's so funny to watch. Megan still doesn't sleep well so by 4 or 5 am I bring her into bed with me. When Mark leaves in the morning Kendra usually gets up and waves goodbye to him from her window and then joins Megan and I in bed. It's very difficult for her to let Megan sleep. She just wants to maul her with hugs and kisses. As soon as Megan shows an inkling of waking Kendra is all over her. This is a moment I will miss when these two get older.

Picture Overload

On Saturday afternoon we went to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point. All these fun things in Utah County that we never did because it was too expensive as students!

Kendra and Grandpa feeding the goose.

Kendra on the hayride.


This is Belle's horse who pulled us on the hayride. Kendra can always find Belle's horse. Basically, if she sees a horse, it's Belle's.

Megan just woke up to join us on the farm! She took a little nap in the car.

Shoni and I were trying to be show girls, there's a sign that reads, "Miss Kitty's," but it's cut off in the picture.

Grandpa, cousin Brendan and Kendra in jail.

Kendra in Miss Kitty's Parlor.

Kendra on her pony ride. She was a little scared so I had to walk beside her.

This is in Springville where my cousin Tami lives. She owns the Hoof Beats to Healing foundation. The website is: http://www.mofoxtrot.com/hoofbeatstohealing/ The movement of the horses create a rhythm like crawling which reconnects the brain. Hope I said that correctly.

Kendra's favorite horse because it's just her size.

Kendra wanted to pet the bigger horses too.

Grandpa helping cousin feed the horses.

Grandpa taught Kendra how to blow dandelions.

Kendra and cousin playing with a ball in the arena.

There she goes!

This is Tami's giant dog.

School

On Friday we visited my sister's 2nd grade classroom.

Kendra stood in front of the class and named movies. If the students had seen that movie they raised their hand.

The children obviously loved Megan and bombarded her with their stuffed animals.

This little girl that Kendra is with is a little ball of fire. Wow, her energy definitely needs channeling. She was really sweet to show Kendra the books and read her a story.

That night (and the whole purpose of our trip) Shoni had a show with her elementary school. She and two others do a play each year. This year they did Aladdin and it was amazing.

BYU

Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."

That is why we visit BYU Campus whenever possible.

This is the museum of paleontology. a.k.a. dinosaur museum at BYU. Kendra was scared to death of the T-Rex because in the movie, "The Night at the Museum" it comes to life.

This was Mark's favorite exhibit. The giant crocodile.

Megan was very excited she got to buy BYU socks.

The BYU food court. We each got a donut at the Sugar and Spice shop.

Refiner's Fire

The last few months have been tough. It began when Kendra and Megan got croup. It took Kendra 2 1/2 weeks before improving and Megan 4 weeks. Megan never really got over it and became ill again after 2 weeks of her recovery. 2 weeks ago (after being sick for 2 weeks) I finally caved and took her to the doctor...again. She has had a persistent cough since croup and I wanted her lungs to get checked. Her lungs were fine but she had a horrible ear infection. I reluctantly took the antibiotic because, by this time, I was so desperate for her to be well again.


After croup I said, "no more sickness until the fall!" I was tired from holding Megan night after night so she could breathe and was pretty much up all night. Then she got sick again. "This is it," I said, "surely this will be our last sickness until fall." I was wrong again. We went to Utah this past weekend to visit family and Meggers got the flu. Now I just expect we will continue to get ill with whatever is in the air. I must say that I am very tired of her being sick. I'm sure she feels the same way.

And as it continues Megan IS sick again. She has a cold and cough. Sometimes she coughs so hard she vomits. It's fine. I'm use to it. Sometimes she eats too much and pukes. I'm use to that too. She even will gag on her food and vomit. That is just how life is.

I'm very sleep deprived and wonder how moms of chronically ill children do this year after year. One of my students (way back when) had restricted lung capacity. This made it very difficult for him to breathe but particularly difficult at night. For years she and her husband took turns sleeping next to their son to help him during those nights. Or another mom whose son I also worked with had severe but high functioning autism and he had bi-polar disorder. He had the most severe behavior of any student I had ever worked with. Due to his bi-polar disorder he would also not sleep for days. His mom put all of her life aside to take care of her son. She rarely gets a break from him because no one can handle him like she can. Amazing. How do they do it?

Today is the first day this week (Friday, May 14th) Megan has not insisted I hold her all day long. It drove me crazy not to have a break from her. Even when Mark would come home she didn't want her daddy, just her mommy.

The Gag Reflex

I'm so grateful Megan has such a wonderful gag reflex. I hate scrubbing my carpet, but hey, at least I've been able to avoid an ambulance call. It doesn't matter how hard I try to keep the floor clean, Megan can find anything. Kendra left a small toy in Megan's little peoples barn. I didn't notice it, but she gagged it out. whew! Megan has also found leaves that have been tracked in from outside and has puked them out each time too. The gag reflex only works against me when it comes to her food.

Kendra thinks she is big enough to pick up and carry Megan. She is a very sweet older sister but I have to watch her a little more closely.

Megan looked like a little sucker fish as she mauled the bowl. She is very messy and loves to feed herself.

After Easter I noticed a graham cracker bunny house. Kendra loves these things so I waited until it was 75% off and to our luck - it was still there! She had a great time decorating it.

Family Pictures

We had our pictures taken a couple of weeks ago and bought the CD so we could print what we wanted. Here are some of the highlights:

I was surprised at how uncooperative Megan was. Even though Kendra never enjoyed having pictures taken, she was a much easier baby to photograph!

Easter Weekend

We enjoyed our Easter weekend. Mark was home for the entire weekend (minus the priesthood session of conference) which doesn't happen very often.

For FHE on the Monday before Easter the girls decorated eggs.

Megan had a great time banging her egg on the table until it cracked.

We had an "after Easter egg hunt" this past week. Kendra and her friend hid the eggs in the backyard. This is how they were hidden:

For conference we printed a conference booklet, puzzle, and apostle cards for Kendra. We then built a tent so she could face the prophet - like they did for King Benjamin. She loved it.

For the first Sunday session of conference we have a tradition of eating monkey bread for breakfast. This year I added a whipped cream cheese frosting to it, and wow! It's so yummy!

I began teaching sign language to Megan about two weeks ago. I was surprised to see how quickly she picked up on it. She can already do two signs.

Kendra's favorite thing to play is Candyland and we play it everyday when Megan takes her afternoon nap. She also enjoys saying words, the first sound she hears, and what letter makes that sound. So glad the academics are coming along!