Kelsey Plays T-ball

This summer I signed Kelsey up for t-ball to get her some exposure to sports. Needless to say, it wasn't a huge success. She got bored and would just stand in the field and say she was hot. It wasn't until I cheered her on that she would run and try to get into it. She would ask me, "Mom when can I take dance again?" Okay, so t-ball right now is not her thing. I think it was good exposure though and it was something structured for her to do everything Thursday this summer.

Do, ta, do

Look at that ball go! Good hit Kelsey!


Kelsey and her team doing a cheer.

Look at her field that ball!

Our Little Gymnast AND Our Garden

Like mother like daughter, Kelsey is my little gymnast! She loves going in the backyard practicing her handstands, cartwheels, headstands, and even makes up her own little moves like in the picture below. She'll get on her tummy and rock back and forth. Mylee will often try to copy Kelsey. Mostly she ends up doing a forward somersault then finishes with a TA-DA!!

Here is Kelsey goes doing a cartwheel

This spring we planted a garden in what used to be our sandbox. After too many hair fulls of sand and cleaning sand out of my house, it went bye-bye. We planted tomatoes, cucumbers, yellow squash, green and red bell peppers, and jalapeno peppers. Our only successful plants have been the squash and cucumbers. Our tomatoes got some sort of disease and our bell peppers never produced for us and our jalapenos peppers turned red--probably let them get too ripe or something. The girls have enjoyed going out there to see the food in our garden grow!

Blake's 2nd Surgery

Blake had his 2nd surgery on July 12, 2010. The procedure went smoothly, but being that this was such an involved surgery that included at 12 to 13 vertical incision down his abdomen and a reconstruction of his small intestine to create what is called a "j-pouch", it was expected that this recovery was going to be rough. And rough it was! The first time I saw Blake after surgery he was in pretty bad shape. He was as white as a ghost and couldn't mutter more to me then "This time it was MUCH worse." He was in a lot of pain. Blake's dad and I ended up leaving that night to let Blake get some rest. We went to Chili's for dinner then checked into the Super 8 around 8 PM with the intention to visit Blake early the next morning.

When we saw him the next day, he had improved significantly. He was sitting up watching television making the best out of his situation. His recovery in the hospital was pretty smooth after that. Just 4 days after his procedure, he was discharged and we headed back to Lubbock. The next week and a half was hard to say the least. I had never seen anyone let alone my tough husband be in so much pain. In hindsight we would have stayed one more night in the hospital. His sodium and chloride levels were extremely low which caused severe nausea--not something you want to have when you have a 13 inch incision down you abdomen! After getting those levels in where they needed to be, he improved rapidly and was able to go back to work 2 weeks after his operation.

These are pictures of Lanaea during his hospital stay. I still thought Blake looked as handsome as ever, but he had banned pictures of him. The hospital rooms are really small, so I had to get creative in finding things to entertain her with. On the 17th, I put a blanket on the floor and let her stretch out some. She enjoyed this. Sitting in her travel swing all day wasn't her idea of fun; however, she did pretty good at staying content.

Kelsey Loses 2nd Tooth

Kelsey lost her second tooth on July 7th, 2010. Her wiggly tooth this time was a lot more stubborn then her first. It took quite a few tears and a lot of help from mom and dad to get this tooth out. Dad was finally able to get it pulled after some tweaking as he called it. Instead of money the tooth fairy gave Kelsey a certificate to get a new pair of sunglasses! She was so excited because hers had broken and she had been asking for new ones for a while.

A Day in the Life of Lanaea

Lanaea is definitely my easiest baby. She is usually content on her own an occasionally she squeals for my attention.

Starting at 5 months to the present at 7 months her schedule is as follows:

7:30 AM wakes up and eats

10:00 AM takes her morning nap

12:00 PM eats lunch

12-2:00 PM plays which usually involves interacting with her sisters, playing with toys, rolling and crawling around, and playing in her exersaucer.

Kelsey is making her laugh in this picture

2:00-4 or 5 PM takes an afternoon nap

5 or 6PM eats dinner





Yummmm, dinner. This expression is so funny to me, but oohhh so cute!! She does it all the time! She'll get that nose crinkled up and give me the happiest smile--can anyone say priceless!!



8 PM goes to bed and sleeps ALL night!
This particular night (June 21st, 2010), she fell asleep on the family room floor. Looks like she had a good long day of play.

Dancing/Posing Princesses

Just look at this kid and tell me she's not cute!! She and Kelsey were having a great time posing for the camera on June 17, 2010.

Here they are again. Stike a pose!!

We can't leave Lanaea out.

Kelsey and Mylee LOVE to dance. Nothing seems to resonate as well with Kelsey as does dance. This video of her is a crack-up to me!! I especially love her pose at the end.

Swim Lessons 2010

I signed Kelsey up for another session of swim lessons this year. Unfortunately I wasn't that impressed with her teacher this year and at her progress, but nevertheless she had a great time and looked forward to going all 14 days class was in session. She got pretty good at swimming on her back and putting her face in the water this year wasn't even an issue.

I loved seeing her interact with the little friends she made.
She got brave and jumped off the diving board this year by herself too.

Long Hard Day

You know it's been a long day of play when your daughter falls asleep on the hard tile floor. This picture was taken on June 2, 2010.

Summer Days of 2010

The Summer of 2010 has been an interesting one. Looking back I felt like we didn't do anything more then manage Blake's health and go to Abilene for his surgeries. Despite and even because of the trials we have been through the past months, we have learned that joy in the minutia.

It will be a summer I will never forget because of all I was able to learn. Including the realization that I have a Heavenly Father that loves me and is mindful of me and my family. The love I have felt from Him has helped my love for Blake and my children grow and deepen. There have been many days that I can barely contain the joy I feel in being a wife and mother. The Orthopaedic surgery wives gave me this exersaucer before Lanaea was born. It has gotten lots of use!! There has been many summer days spent on this little bench swing. In the middle of the day, there is shade on this swing so it's not uncommon for me to look out our kitchen window to see the back of my two little girls swinging along. My heart just flutters of joy when I see that. The girls have had many a popcicle together on this swing.

Much to my excitement, Mylee learned to pump on the new big girl swing we got for her this summer. It has been so great for me because I'm not getting constantly nagged to come and push her and she has loved her autonomy to go out and swing at her mind's content. She doesn't have the rhythm down perfectly, but she does amazingly well.

Kelsey has enjoyed riding the bike she got for her birthday. I usually push the younger girls in our double stroller and we follow her along throughout our neighborhood. She has become quite good at riding her bike and enjoys showing Blake and I tricks she can do. Awww, summer days.

Icecream for FHE

A couple of days after Blake's first surgery on May 25, 2010, we went out to Baskin Robbins for ice cream. I had gotten a coupon from the newspaper and Blake of course had been famished from not being able to eat for so long that decided to make it an outing while Blake's mom was still here with us. She had stayed with Kelsey and Mylee while Blake, Lanaea, Blake's dad, and I were in Abilene. Amazingly Blake was discharged earlier then we had expected, so we got to enjoy Blake's Mom for a couple of days before she went home to Utah. We all enjoyed our yummy treats and Grandma's company!

Mylee Taking Care of Sister

On May 11th, 2010 Lanaea became really dozy in her little bouncer. Mylee noticed this and decided to get the baby she sleeps with every night for Lanaea to sleep with. It was so sweet to see Mylee taking care of her little sister.

It looks like it comforted Lanaea like it does for Mylee.

Sleeping in a Fort

Kelsey is an excellent fort builder!! She will literally spend hours building them. She'll grab

all the blankets and pillows that are accessible to her, all three of our stools, occasionally a table chair, her activity table, and occasionally her play tent. She's become quite creative by stuffing blankets down the couch pillows to hold them in place and making little windows and doors by drapping the blankets just right. Usually they are quite elaborate and of course usually wants to sleep in them. The pictures shown above is on April 20, 2010. Kelsey and Mylee decided they wanted to sleep in their tent fort together. Grammy Polly gave the girls this little tent and it has been put to good use. The next morning I asked Kelsey how she slept. She said, "Okay, it was a little bit uncomfortable." Usually the nights I let her sleep in her forts, I'll find her in her bed the next morning. But she's learned to line the whole floor of her forts with pillows to make it more comfortable. The picture below was taken on June 30, 2010 in one of Kelsey's homemade forts in our front room. That had been reading books with a flashlight until they fell asleep.

Kelsey Looses her First Tooth

On April 17, 2010, Kelsey lost her first tooth!! One day Kelsey came up to me and said, "Mom, I feel something funny by my tooth." I was alarmed when I looked in her mouth and saw what looked like a tooth coming in!! Thinking it was WAY too early for her to be getting a tooth, I called Trent, my brother-in-law who is in dental school, to see if it was normal. He assured me it was. When Blake got home later that day he inspected her new tooth and in the process of helping her wiggle her baby tooth, it came out. Both Kelsey and I were surprised. The tears that had began to well up in her eyes were soon replaced by laughs and smiles as Blake and I praised her for loosing her first tooth!! She was excited to get visited by the tooth fairy that night and get some money from her!

Kindergarten Orientation

On April 14, 2010, we went over to Kelsey's school for kindergarten orientation. I was surprised that they were having orientation so early with school not beginning until August 23rd. The school had a power point presentation to show us parents while the kindergarten teachers took the children to their classrooms to get to know them so they could better assess what teacher to place them with. I had to fill out a lot of paperwork and give the school Kelsey's immunization records. I learned about the school's schedule and about their curriculum. I was impressed with their staff and with the curriculum and think school will be good for Kelsey. When I went to pick her up at the kindergarten classrooms, she was playing simon says. She had drawn a picture and was nothing but smiles! She LOVED going to school and was disappointed when she couldn't go to school the next day.

Tiara and Bugs

Don't let that pink headband accessorized with a purple bow fool you (she designed it herself!)! My girls are girly girls, BUT they don't mind getting a little bit dirty and I'm okay with that ;). On April 14, 2010, Kelsey decided she wanted to go digging for bugs. She was so excited I had just finished off a jar of jam because the jar made a perfect bug home. Don't you love her shovel? Know that shortly after the video her measuring cup was traded out for a real shovel. It's not uncommon for my girls to go squish a pesty little bug when it is not in a place they believe it should be. They've stepped on many bugs at Walmart and had a fun time chasing around a little black beatle in Firestone on day while we waited for our car to get inspected. Those men didn't know what to think of these little girls who were so unafraid of bugs and I'm sure they appreciated them killing their pesty beatle.

Don't Be Fooled by this Cutie!

Mylee as you have probably learned is my mischievous one. For months we had lost the movie Cars. I had looked EVERYWHERE and it was no where to be found. Well today we decided to open our old DVD player to try to fix it because we had learned from Kelsey that Mylee had stuck a pony card in the DVD slot and after that it wouldn't open. Low and behold, look what we found!! The movie Cars, a workout movie and of course the pony card that got us to take the DVD player apart in the first place.

A Newly Painted Fence

On April 10, 2010, we gave our fence a well needed makeover. The color the fence was painted before was hideous and it had come off in a lot of places. Blake and I agreed on the color capaccino--it makes a color in our brick perfectly. We both were really happy with the results. AND we were really glad we had invest in a paint gun or this job would have taken much longer. When our paint got low, we had to hand brush some of the fence, but it wasn't a big deal.

Kelsey and Mylee did a lot of this. Mylee even at one point came over to help and stepped in our bucket of nearly empty paint. It made for some cute foot prints in our paint bucket that we now use as a garbage can in our garage. As Blake painted with the paint gun I stood on the opposite side the fence with a big cardboard box to help prevent overspray. Both he and I were covered in stain.

Our Little Thumb Sucker

Have I ever mentioned that Lanaea is a thumb sucker? This picture was taken of her on April 10, 2010. She was just a little over 3 months old. Now nearly at 8 months old she still going at it strong. Granted, I realize that thumb sucking has its disadvanges, but man it's really nice that she can soothe herself. Since she has been 2.5 months old, she has been sleeping through the night. It's been wonderful and more then before I have REALLY been enjoying having a baby. I don't know if it is because I am a seasoned mom now with her being my 3rd or that she's seriously a perfect baby! Whatever it is, I can't get enough of this sweet little bundle of JOY!! Lanaea Joy, I Love You!!!

Swimsuit Mylee

Mylee thinks the best clothes are swimming suits. Be it winter or summer, you will find her in a swimsuit at least once during the day. I don't know what it is. She feels so beautiful in them. I must say I have to agree with her--just look at that cutie!! But really? Does she had to wear one every day? It's a good thing I have a lot of hand-me-down swimsuits in her size. I end up putting them ALL through the wash every week.

Stylin' Kelsey

Kelsey prides herself in getting ready for the day before she comes and sees me in the morning. On April 8th, 2010, I thought her choice of clothes and hair bows was too cute to not share with you all. She LOVES that green scort and would wear it every day if I didn't snatch it to get it cleaned every so often. Oh and that little baby giraffe is her little companion. It goes with her everywhere. Her name is Cassia. Yes she came up with that herself. Grandma Cheryl got it for her at the Hogel Zoo when she was just over 3 years old. She's now 5 it still goes with her everywhere!