February 2012

Wow!!  Time sure flies when you are busy!!  These three girls are keeping us on our toes!  There has been so much going on, but that's probably just like the rest of you! :)
We decided to get Madilynn an Insulin Pump and it's working out pretty well. We are in the process of getting her numbers dialed in, but that is pretty much a never ending battle with T1Diabetes!!  She's doing quite well with it and continues to show her bravery every day!!
Kallie is a little tender hearted girl. She pretty much loves everyone and shows it quite easily. :) She LOVES Justin Bieber like no other and even took her JB doll to school today for show and tell! She cracks me up! She loves music and likes to dance around the house. She really is a joy!
Emma is as feisty as ever! She is almost 2 1/2 and is talking like crazy!! It's pretty fun to have a conversation with her and just watch her little mind go!  The other morning she came out of her room and looked downstairs and said... ooooh... it's spooooky down there!!  Haha!!  It totally caught me off guard and I cracked up! She has become quite the mama's girl and tends to do anything in her power to try to upset her daddy, but he takes it all in stride. I hope those girls know how lucky they are to have Ryan as their dad.

We are in the process of building a home and it seems to be going so quickly!!  We have a lot to do to get ready for the big move which will happen sometime in April or May!  that is coming so soon!!  I hope to start packing the non-essential stuff this weekend!!  It's just crazy to think about this all happening. We started looking for a new home about 4 years ago!!  Timing never worked out quite right, but this time it's really happening!!  We will be renting out our old house, so if you know anyone in the market for a cute house right by an elementary school, let me know! :)

Here's our progress so far... and they just started digging on January 27th!!  That's only THREE weeks ago!!

Well... It's been quite some time since I've been on here and I think I'm going to give it another go!  A lot has happened since my last post (over a YEAR ago!) I probably put too much on Facebook.. I think this is a better forum to get a little more personal for those that choose to read it.
Anyway, a quick overview... Madilynn did very well in 1st grade, she was in a 1st/2nd split class so now that she is in 2nd grade, she's very comfortable with her teachers and what she is learning. It's only been a few weeks, but she seems to be doing well so far! In May of this year, Madilynn underwent a biopsy to determine if she has Celiac disease, and it was confirmed right away she does. I never would have thought my precious, perfect little baby would be dealing with so much in such a short time. There are certainly worse things out there, but Diabetes and now Celiac on top of it?!  I just wish I could take it away from her. She's done so well with everything though... and I don't know why. Her strength and courage amaze me. I am looking forward to see what this wonderful little girl grows up to be. Madilynn has taken a liking to reading and she just finished her first "chapter book"!  She was so excited! It was EIGHT chapters and she read it! She's such a cutie!  I hope her love of learning continues to grow!
Miss Kallie... Kallie is sooooooo Kallie!!  She's such a funny girl. She just started Kindergarten and she LOVES it. She has the same teacher Madilynn did and she just thinks that's the coolest thing! For kindergarten the child has to meet with the teacher for a preliminary test to see where they are at, and Kallie aced it! She did so well! I was so proud of her! Now that she's been in school for a few weeks, she's always practicing writing her letters and drawing pictures, which is something i could never get her to do!  For the longest time she wouldn't write her name because she didn't like the letter "K" it was too hard! Kallie has never been one that wants to help out a ton... and recently when she was asked to clean the kitty's litter box, she started bawling and said she was so tired and wanted to go to bed... Yeah... NO that's not gonna work! Then she decided that she just wanted to get rid of the cat!!  Little stinker! That comment led to a conversation about how even though we sometimes don't want to do something, we are still a family and we take care of eachother... My example was Emma, she's a baby and i have to change her stinky diapers, what if i don't want to do that?  Are we going to get rid of Emma?!  Kallie's response.... Well.... we could give her to Grandma!!  LOL!!  She is seriously so dang funny!  Love that Kallie-Bear! (Uncle Steve's nickname for her that stuck!)
On to Baby Emma... Emma is almost two, and it shows!!  She is such an independent little girl and always wants to do what her big sissy's do! Over the last couple of months her vocabulary has exploded and now she talks all the time! there are a couple of things that still sound like jibberish, but for the most part we can understand a lot. She loves her sisters and is such an angel, except for when it's time to buckle her car seat. She gets so angry when someone tries to help her because she wants to do it all on her own! Hey!!  YOU'RE FREAKING TWO!!  Yeah... she doesn't get it. I think she'd prefer to be 5 and in school with Kallie! Its so funny to hear her little voice say sweet things like "My mommy" as she's squeezing me... or her little "I love you"... ooooh that melts me! Then comes the "NO, mommy! Emma do it!!" and some of her looks are lethal!! Right now she is pretty much a walking power struggle! And a stubborn one at that! She'll even put herself in time out when she knows she's being naughty! LOL!  It's so funny. But then her tearful little sorry's followed by a big hug are so sweet.
As for Ryan and I... this past year has been an interesting one. In January, we found a house we were going to build, but that ended after the builder started trying to push us around. Then we decided to try to sell our house before we started looking for a new one. We did a LOT more work to the house trying to get it ready, then we finally got it up for sale in July. Unfortunately we haven't gotten any offers. This market is really crappy, but we knew that going into it. So it looks like the backup plan is about to go into effect and we'll probably pull the sign and wait it out a bit longer. Ryan is also about to head out of town for work again, and moving would just be too much for me to do on my own. With a full time job and three little ones, I just don't want to do it. Madilynn has a great support system at her school and we're fine here for now. So, we'll probably re-visit it this spring.

July 4th

We spent the 4th of July at the cabin in Palisades, Idaho. It was a nice weekend up in the mountains! This was Emma's first trip to the cabin! It is really amazing to see how fast our little family has grown!! Emma is the same age now as Madilynn was on her first trip to the cabin! We went for a drive on Sunday the 4th and found a good spot to take some pics of the girls. Madilynn even got behind the camera and took a couple of pics of Ryan and I! She loves to take pictures! Kallie was making some of the funniest faces, and Emma did really well sitting in the grass! The scenery was beautiful and it was a really nice day.