Meg lost her 1st tooth!

Megan had a bottom center tooth that has been loose for weeks. She's been stressed about it coming out, even asked why God made teeth that fall out.

This evening she was brushing her teeth, came running out yelling "Mommy and Daddy it came out while I was spitting". She was so excited that it came out so easy and wasn't painful.

The tooth is now under her pillow in a tiny white pillow made for the tooth fairy.
Now we await the toothfairy's arrival, she's deciding what is appropriate for a 5yr old's tooth!

Megan already knows about the toothfairy as she had to have a tooth pulled a while ago due to it being malformed. The tooth fairy sort of went overboard with payment for that tooth b/c she felt bad for Megan.

My baby is growing up.

Visiting Santa

Megan has seen Santa from afar several times this season, however she really wanted to talk to him face to face. So, last night we decided to head to the mall to see Santa and then have dinner. It was pouring rain and cold so we thought that would reduce the crowd (LOL!! We waited about an hour and half and were very hungry by the time we got thru!)

They did a nice job with the set up. There's a station to write a letter to Santa, a Naughty or Nice Meter,
a chimney that blew snow, Santa's workshop with belts of Build A Bears going over head and wrapped packages falling into Santa's bag, a mailbox to mail your letter to Santa (when the kids opened the mail box snow blew out- very cute!) and of course Santa himself.

The wait was worth it. Meg was so happy. And she had to take her stuffed Santa to see the real one (I manged to keep her from bringing 3 Rudolphs and Clarice!)
Kel enjoying the sights

Trying to get pictures, aka mission impossible

We haven't made it to get studio pictures done this year. I thought that since Kev is a pretty good photographer we'd do some at home and include them in our Christmas cards.
Well, regardless of how good the photographer is if the subjects don't cooperate it's useless..



These 2 will likely challenge Kev's skill as a photographer and push his abilities with Photoshop (he has taken a head from one picture pasted it into another picture to get a good shot for someone else's Christmas card, maybe he can do that for us)
Or maybe those who receive our cards will have to imagine how the girls look- that will have to be better than what we have so far!

Bunch of stuff!

Happy belated Thanksgiving. I am thankful for so much- we are so blessed. We managed to see both my family and Kev's parents over the holiday.

The girls are doing well. So are Kevin and I.

Meg's 1st report card and parent teacher conference went well. Her teacher says she is kind and participates in class. and is above or on target in every area. She loves music and PE, needs to work on her handwritting and taking appropriate risks (wonder which parent she gets the last 2 from???).

Megan asked Jesus into her heart the day before Thanksgiving, what a wonderful blessing! It was spontaneous during her bedtime prayers. She and I had talked about it a few weeks back when she asked me a question, and she hadn't said anything since. But apparently she had been thinking about it.

Kellie is still her busy self- she's into undressing, running, holding crayons (she doesn't quite get the concept of drawing yet), and closing doors (it's a slight obsessive thing). She loves to play with dolls- putting them into highchairs and strollers and feeding them bottles, mothering them. She is still pretty much a cheesocarbitarian, but is gaining weight so it's working! She adores Megan and Megan is such a great big sister.

Kel isn't really talking much yet, but she definitely communicates well (and sometimes just does stuff herself- like get cookies out of the cabinet).

So, there's our update. Just everyday life, but that's life!

20/40 beautiful numbers!

Megan had her every 3 month ophthalmologist appt today. And we got GREAT news!
Her vision with her glasses is 20/40!!!! So much better than the 20/400 of April and 20/100 in June.

In April, her dr said she'd be thrilled if we ever got to 20/40, well let me tell you, we were all thrilled to hear 20/4o only 7 months after starting treatment! Kevin and I cheered, the dr gave Meg a big hug and Kellie clapped. All the drops and patching are paying off (makes it easier to keep at it if we know it's working!)

Thank you God!

So, we continue what we are doing, go back in April and hopefully we have even more improvement. (And 20/40 means she'll be able to drive without restrictions when that day comes all too soon!) Now there is hope for perfect vision with glasses, wonderful (20/20 with glasses means she can be a military pilot- yes I think that far ahead!)

In April, we have to take Kellie for a full exam, as the dr thinks she has a difference in her vision between her eyes as well. But catching it at around 2 yrs old it shouldn't be anywhere near as bad as Meg's was at 5 yrs old.

Anyway, we're all smiles around here.

Toddler Charades

Kellie only has like 4 words (one for mom, dad, Emmett, Megan, Nana) in her vocabulary. We've been lazily teaching her baby signing and she has about 10 signs that she uses regularly.

I was putting her to bed the other night and she kept handing me books, I'd start to read, she'd take it out of my hand and give me another. Then she signed "book", made a kissing sound and danced, she kept doing it while handing me books.

She handed me the book "Snuggle Puppy" by Sandra Boynton and I started reading. She shrieked a happy shriek, made the kiss sound and started dancing.

AHHH, all along she was trying to tell me what book to read. See, Snuggle Puppy is about a song a parent dog sings to their puppy about how they love everything about puppy. "It starts with an OOO and ends with a kiss and all along the middle it goes something like this- OOOO snuggle puppy of mine, everything about you is especially fine..." (that's from memory-the actual words might be slightly different!)

I am amazed at how resourceful kids can be! She definitely has a way of letting us know what she wants, if we just stop and pay attention and are good at charades!

Halloween- a little late

I've been meaning to post pictures of the white & pink kitty and the yellow duck that visited us on Halloween.

Megan had a costume parade at school- PopPop, Nana, and Granny came for it. That made her happy. They had a party with food and crafts, fun times!

After the parade, Kellie and I went to visit Daddy at work and had lunch there.

Megan went to a few houses and then came home, she wanted to give out candy. Kellie wasn't a big fan of all the noise (neither was Emmett), but enjoyed playing in the candy and seemed to like her costume, she went next door to Dave and Weeze's and was done with the being out in the dark!

pictures of Meg's creativity

Megan's creativity on her reindeer that I posted about yesterday-




Back

Creativity

Those of you who know me pretty well know I'm not creative. I need directions for things and am not llikely to change up colors or supplies specified in the directions. My "art" tends to be more realistic and matchy.

Well, apparently this not one of the things Megan got from me! Case in point-

Megan and I went to a pottery painting place recently and of course, painted pottery. We had fun- a great mother/daughter day.

I chose a penguin ornament- I painted him black and white and within the lines. Megan insisted we use the paint that had flecks of other colors in it and that made it slightly less conservative.

Megan chose a cartoonish reindeer to paint. The all important red nose is present on this reindeer. Otherwise, It was one colorful yellow polka dotted reindeer!

It was so hard for me to not make suggestions on which colors to use where. She did ask me to help her paint "Mommy, my arm is tired. Will you paint this part yellow, I want it yellow" and so Mommy did as requested. It was killing me to not "fix" it.

As we walked towards the counter I saw several other moms with that "I can't believe you are painting it like that, but I'm not going to say anything" look! I looked at them with a knowing sympathetic smile.

It turned out cute and is a one of a kind masterpiece . One I will cherish forever.

(When I get the camera battery charged I'll download the pictures and post them in a new post)

Farm fun Weekend

On Saturday we went to Jumbo's Pumpkin Farm and South Mountain Creamery (Michael, Samuel, Luke, Carter, Danielle, Cara, and Natalie joined us- poor Cassie wasn't feeling well so she and Angie stayed home and watched movies!).

It was fun-At Jumbo's they had a hay ride, pumpkin patch, corn maze, pony rides, farm animals. The kids really enjoyed themselves. The guys and the bigger kids went thru the corn maze- to Danielle and I who were chasing Kel and Nat around the patch it seemed to take them a long time, but they made it out safely. Everyone picked out pumpkins to take home and enjoyed running around.

At the Creamery there were cows, free kittens, fresh ice cream, , another hay ride, other fun stuff, some guys selling chocolate covered espresso beans (something new to add to my list of things I like to eat!).

On Sunday the 4 of us ventured to Whispering Meadows Alpaca Breeders. Alpaca's are such neat animals and they are soft. However, they aren't the friendliest animals- not mean just kinda snobby. They had a hay ride, pony ride, a cool store full of Alpaca fiber items (such soft warm gloves, hats, throws) and of course Megan asked for a bear made of Alpaca fiber- so incredibly soft.

Such family fun this weekend! Check out our photo sharing site to see more, if you want!

Bookend birthdays and cousins

Happy 1st Birthday to my grandniece Sophia and Happy 4th Birthday to my niece Cara!

Last week we attended Sophia's party on Sunday and Cara's on Saturday. What a way to bookend a week- with CAKE (I love cake, esp birthday cake!) and family (I love family, too).


Both parties involved driving for a while to get there, so I had time to think about stuff. This is a synopsis of some of those thoughts...

Our struggle with infertility was hard, but because of it our kids are close in age to all of their cousins.

Even though Danielle is 8 yrs younger than me, with the infertility that Angie (our oldest sister) and I struggled with, our kids aren't that far apart.






Kevin's niece had her children while she was young, add on our infertility, and our kids are really close in age.










It's nice that the kids are close in age and have playmates at family gatherings and hopefully friends for life.


If I could go back and do it all over, would I choose to struggle again- nope, while we were in the middle of it if you told me it would work out this way would I have been ok with still waiting- probably not, but since it is how things happened- it's good. He took what was happening and made good things out of it!


Sometimes things that are hard to endure, when you get to the other side, they work out ok.

Webkinz addict

Megan now has 14 Webkinz (well, one belongs to Kellie, but Megan gets to play with it, too). Her 1st Webkinz was a cute koala that she got from Aunt Angie when Kellie was born. They are what she asks for as a reward and as gifts and what she saves her money for.

For those of you who don't know what Webkinz are- they are cute stuffed animals that you "Bring to life" on line. Next to this is a picture of a few of her pets. On line you can dress them, decorate their rooms, play games with them, feed them (you can cook for them), take them to the drs, do jobs & play games & answer questions to earn money. And of course, they sell clothes and accessories for the stuffed ones in real life as well.

Megan's Webkinz world has a room for each pet, a kitchen, a bathroom, a yard (which has a pool), a garden, a TV room, and a school room. We had to "dig up" the garden and unplant it because with school she isn't able to visit every day to tend to the crops.

She is learning the value of money (and mommy has found a few games that she enjoys playing, so I can make some Kinzcash for Megan to spend- good way to unwind after work) and how it's important to save up her money in Webkinz World to buy the next cool thing for her pets and also how to save money in real life to get one more Webkinz.

It has also been a good tool to help her focus while she is wearing the patch on her "good" eye. This way she has to focus with her "bad" eye and it's something she enjoys so patching time goes a little smoother.

Our neighbor says we have a stuffed version of nearly every animal. I think we're pretty close!

Progress report and I love this age!

Megan's 1st Kindergarten progress report came home this week. I'm so proud of her, as she received satisfactory in all categories. There were only 2 options Satisfactory and Needs Improvement so as "ok, but not the greatest" as satisfactory sounds, it's the best!

She has received a star for good behavior each day of school so far and several little prizes from the treasure box. I'm proud of her, it's hard to be good every day! She is learning a lot and loves to sing all the songs (they sing about everything- even about being quiet. I was walking down the hall at work the other day humming one of her songs- Our hands are by our sides, we're standing straight and tall, we do not talk at all, we're ready for the hall. Catchy little tune and not a bad idea for the hospital corridor at midnight!)

Kellie is 15 months old and it's so fun to watch her grow and develop. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed that time with Megan. It's so amazing to watch Kellie explore her world and become a little person. She still needs me, but is pretty independent with some things.

She has suddenly started signing several words - help (which from her can also mean pick me up, give it to me, and some other things that I'm not quite sure about), bottle/drink, all done, out (her favorite is a funny combo of out and all done so she can get out of her highchair or stroller), more, dog, fish, baby, eat. It has helped reduce the squealing/screeching as we can sort of understand what she wants.

We've been working on signing, but not consistently- I forget to do it sometimes. We need to work on thank you, please, sorry, and more specific words for food and drink. With Meg we were much more consistent, the poor 2nd kid gets shorted again! But Kel has picked up on them pretty well.

Emmett, our dog

I realized that while I have posted about both of the girls and about Kevin, I have neglected to post about our dog, the one mentioned in the title of this blog!





Emmett is a Sussex Spaniel. I know, "what the heck is that?" People have looked at him and guessed that he was a Cocker Spaniel mixed with a Chihuahua (that one made me laugh), and when we tell them what he is the response usually is "never heard of them before. Is that a new breed?" Nope, not new, just not common esp in the US. Here's a link to tell you about this beautiful breed- http://www.akc.org/breeds/sussex_spaniel/index.cfm

He and I are the lone brown eyes in this house of blues! I've frequently said that if I ever get my hair colored (it's getting gray so that may come soon) that I was going to take a piece of his beautiful golden brownish redish fur with me to get it matched!

He is such a laid back guy (until you leave him alone then he howls, neighbors know when we're gone b/c he can be so loud). He tolerates being the last on the list, but is finally learning to speak up if he wants something. He is so good with the girls and deals with Kellie getting right in his face and panting back at him. Megan says she wants a dog who plays, Emmett never has been a dog that played- no ball chasing, stick retrieving, or swimming. Our bulldog did all that, but not Emmett. He'd prefer to sit on your feet and bark at birds and squirrels.

When Kellie was still getting up at night to eat, he'd get up and sit by my feet. It was nice to have his company. He never seems to really sleep, he seems to be half on alert.

I am thankful that God placed dogs on the earth, they are great companions.

My cheeseocarbitarian

I looked it up and no, it's not a real word.

However, it describes my Kellie.

At 15 months this child can put away an entire grilled cheese sandwich (occasionally I am successful at hiding a piece of turkey or ham in said sandwich) for lunch (I can barely get Megan to eat that much at lunch).

She scarfs down mac & cheese (she prefers the box kind but will eat homemade- I have made more boxes of mac&cheese in the past 2 months than I had made in the previous 36 years of my life total!)

She will tackle a muffin or bread or bagel and send it sailing into her tummy.

However, a piece of chicken or beef (even chicken nuggets) sends her to a screeching halt- not gonna eat it- even covered in cheese (yes I've tried!). She's really not crazy about french fries either.

Makes it hard to do dinner on the run- Meg really prefers McD's, Kellie does not- Maybe I can get a cheeseburger happy meal minus the burgerpatty- hmm that's an idea.

She however, does like corn, peas, and green beans and sweet potato.

She now weighs 18 pounds 6 ounces. While that is still barely on the growth charts for 15 months, it's on there. It's good gain from her 16 pounds at one year old. Her pediatrician is happy with that and her momma was glad to hear that.

Apparently her chesseocarbitarianism is paying off.

Oh BTW- those of you who know Dr C- it's now officially fall- he had on long pants with his flip flops. Time to get out the rakes and pick your pumpkins!

I miss his nicely toned tanned legs, though... I found out how he gets those legs- Kevin ran into him (not literally ran into, that wouldn't have been good) while they were both out mountain biking.

Planes and Long Johns

On Saturday we went to the Martinsburg Air Show. It was really nice, the weather was beautiful, the planes were great to watch, and the company was great, too. Danielle and Carter (my sister and BIL) know people who are in on the planning of the airshow so, we got some VIP passes and were right up front near "show center" and the only thing between us and the planes was the guy doing the narrating. Thanks to Danielle and Carter for knowing folks in "high places" and thanks to them for being so welcoming!


Kevin took some great pictures (which he uploaded to our photo sharing site ). Below is a shot he took of the Heritage Flight- a WW2 plane and a current jet- very cool!







Afterwards we were hungry. When I was a kid we used to go to Long John Silver's for "seafood"- I remember loving their fish and hush puppies. Every once in a while I'll get to wanting some fried up fast food fish and haven't quite made it to a LJS- there really aren't any close to us. Since there is one pretty close to Danielle and Carter's house, we stopped and picked up dinner. YUMMO! It was delish!

Anyway, check out the pictures, he didn't put them all on there, but it's enough to get an idea of the cool planes!

15 years tomorrow!

Tomorrow Kevin and I will have been married for 15 years.

The song I chose for our unity candle lighting time was Just Never Say It Enough by Wayne Watson. I thought the song fit us pretty well at the time. Kev, this song is for you...

If I called you every time that I think of you
The phone would be ringin' all day
I keep thinkin' that these feelings would mellow with time,
But not yet... no way

We've had our share of heartache and trouble
We can look back and laugh at it now
But a mystery keeps haunting me
How you hurt those you love most somehow
A real love expression is long overdue
Hear my confession of my love for you

(Chorus)I just never say it enough
So before it's too late and time's up
You're more than all I dreamed you'd be
An answered prayer... gift of God above
I just never say it enough

I believe God inhabits a human heart
I believe it more now than ever before
I see His reflection in you, in you
And I'm sure, I'm sure
But a real love expression is long overdue
Hear my confession of my love for you
(Chorus)

In our 6 yr dating relationship we'd been through lots of ups and downs and breakups and get back togethers and struggles (lots of which came from the 3.5 yr age difference- no big deal now, but it was when I was 17 and he was 20!)

Now after 15 yrs of marriage I realize the song continues to ring so true. There have been good times and hard times, times where I wasn't sure we were going to get through, but we did and here we are! Here's to many many more years of ups and downs!

Thank you to those who pray for us, who give us their thoughts and advice , who listen to us, who love us, who are examples to us- now and in the past. You are all part of this celebration.

Kevin, I love you. I know I just never say it enough, you are an answer to prayer, a gift from God.

Megan's classmates- Whiney and Squishy

Megan was talking about kids in her class and she said "I played with Whiney today, and Squishy stuck her tongue out at Olivia."

I said "Megan remember we talked about not calling people mean names" (I figured Whiney was a kid who whines- pretty typical for 5yr old and Squishy was a chubby kid).

"But MOM, that's their names, it really is!!!!" Megan replied "I'm not being mean" as tears rolled down her face at being falsely accused.

"It's Whiney with a www sound, Mom, you aren't saying it right, " she said with an exasperated look on her face "and the girl who sticks her tongue out is Squishy, her mom named her that."

So I went to the teacher's website and we took a look at the class list. Hoping that these children didn't have such names!

Megan was a little off on the pronounciation of the names-

Whiney is apparently a little girl named Riley (Meg's R and L speech issues really came into play there!)

And Squishy is apparently Kushie, a different name, but definately not Squishy!

Gotta work a little harder on speech!

BTW- anybody remember the claymation/cartoon show (probably from the mid 90s) Bump in the Night? It was about this green monster who is the bump in the night. He had a friend whose name was Squishington (Bump called him Squishy for short)- I think he was the blue water out of the toilet? Anyway now everytime I see Kushie I think of Squishington and smile! Here's a link to YouTube so you can see Bump and Squishington- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaQ27Hu8ix0

A Bible story, 5 stars, quiet "mall day"

This morning Megan and Kellie were in the living room playing with Noah's Ark. I heard Megan say "God told the animals to get in the ark." A short while later I heard "And God gave them a rainbow as a promise to never flood the whole earth again" I got all teary as I watched and listened to Megan tell Kellie about Noah and God. What a sweet moment!

Today Megan got her 5th star in 5 days for good behavior. So she got to pick another item out of the treasure box. Today she chose green playdoh. She's very proud of herself and so am I. I asked her what she would do if Ms. S stopped giving prizes for good behavior. She said "I want to be good, so I'd still be good. But the prizes are fun!"

Today my mom, oldest sister, and Granny had our bagel breakfast at the mall (we did it weekly for quite a while, but it hasn't been so regular lately) It was quiet! With 4 of the 5 in school Kellie was the only one! She enjoyed the attention and even got to walk around in the mall (usually she was confined to the stroller since we had other kids to keep track of). She smiled at every one she met.

Kellie Kong

Kellie Kong is my new name for the baby. She's not quite the fuzzy bumble bee who flies around quietly buzzing, so her nickname of Bumble Bee just doesn't quite fit!

She loves to scale buildings and hang off the spires- well not really. I'm exaggerating (imagine that- me exaggerate???)

I think she has suction cups on the bottom of her feet- she has scaled the glass doors of our TV cabinet and climbs on everything.

She stomps on things in her way (maybe that's more Godzilla like, Kelliezilla has a nice ring to it!)

She also gives the biggest squeeziest hugs- ones that feel like a big gorilla is holding you!

My sweet Kellie Kong!

Meg earned 5 stars

At school each kid has a paper car that starts out the day on green. If you have trouble following the rules it moves to yellow and then to red.

We asked Megan what happens if your car goes to red, she put her hand to her ear and said "Hello Mom and Dad, your child is having trouble behaving today. This is the teacher. " Funny girl! Hopefully I don't get one of those phone calls!

If the car stays in green all day and you have "excellent behavior" (as Meg put it) you get a stamp on your star. Get 5 stamped stars and you get to reach into the treasure chest. Since they introduced the treasure chest on the 2nd day of school it's been all Meg talked about!

Yesterday going to school Meg was so excited that she'd be earning her 5th star, she was confident she would! And she did it!

Those of you who know Megan can probably guess what she chose from the treasure box- a stuffed animal. It's a horse that she named Goldie. She's getting better at naming things- unlike Square the lamb and Wall, the name she 1st wanted us to use for Kellie!

I'm proud of our girl! She's growing up and doing so well!

Decided to start a real blog

I decided to start a real blog. I feel like sometimes life is so busy that I miss stuff and forget to share important things (at least things important to family).
And it's the little things in life that make life so memorable!
So, I am going to try to update this now and again.
Stay tuned!