Dates with Daddy

Charley has been busy a lot this month and he was missing time with the girls so he took them on two separate dates. I am so sad that I don't have any of the date Charley took Katie on but they had a great time. He took her to Build A Bear and then they rode the carousel and had dinner together. Katie really loved the undivided attention with Charley and talked about it forever. Then it was Kylee's turn. Charley had been give 2 free tickets to the Miley Cyrus concert in the company suite so we surprised Kylee with tickets. She has never been to a concert but loves Miley and was really excited. I don't think she fully understood everything about the concert but she loved being with Charley and had fun singing and dancing. I remember going to many NKOTB concerts as a kid and I know the Tshirts were much cheaper than they are now but since we had free tix she got a tshirt. I am so thankful Charley took the girls on a date. They both had a blast!

Butterfly Flutterby

This past month we went to the Butterfly Flutterby Festival. This was our first time to attend and it was really fun. The girls dressed in butterfly attire and got to go with friends so they were happy with just that. When we got there we watched a parade of lots of kids dressed like butterflies and other fun things. Then we went to the Butterfly release. They gave the kids an envelope with a Monarch Butterfly in them. I was so scared they were going to be smashed. Luckily, they lived and both of my girls flew off as soon as they opened the envelope. They did get to hold a butterfly also and I think it was the highlight of the festival. Then they wanted to get their face painted. We waited in line for a very long time but the girls were excited about getting butterflies on their face. Too bad Kylee ended up with a bad rash in the shape of a butterfly where the paint was used. That girls has sensitive skin. It was still a fun day and I hope we can go again next year.

Proud of Our Kylee

Every six weeks at Kylee's school they do a really fun awards celebration to honor the kids with perfect attendance, good citizenship, PE, art, and music awards and one student from each class gets the Exceptional Citizenship. Kylee remembered this awards celebration from last year and was so excited about it starting this year again. So last week was the Wrangler Roundup and Charley and I both got to attend. We were so proud of Kylee. She stood up for good citizenship and then she received the Exceptional Citizenship for her class this six weeks. To say she was excited is an understatement. Her teacher said such sweet things about her. She said she was a hard worker, good example to her class, and a good friend. She really listened to the things said about her because she asked me about her teacher saying she was a good example. So we got to spend some time talking about it. We are of course so proud of the great choices Kylee is making. She is loving first grade and we are loving watching her doing a great job. Way to Go Kylee!!

Katie Broke Her Arm

I am so far behind on all of our October happenings and this is not one of my favorite happenings but I really wanted to document our adventure with a broken arm. Two weeks ago around 7:15 on Wednesday morning I was doing Kylee's hair for school and all of a sudden I heard the weirdest noise and then a scream like I have never heard before come from Katie. I literally dropped the hairbrush and ran into the living room and found Katie on the floor between our two couches. I thought she had tripped and fallen because when I left she was watching Arthur and eating a muffin. So I picked her up and she was crying very hard and weird. So I lifted her back to ask what was wrong and she pointed to her arm. I looked at it and immediately saw it was broken. I really have chills when I think about how it looked. Then my spazzing out started. I really don't know if I have ever cried, screamed, panicked that much as a mom yet over something. I start screaming KYLEE, KATIE BROKE HER ARM WHAT DO I DO!!!! (sidenote: Charley is in Las Vegas at this moment at a work conference) Kylee picks on me now mocking how I was acting. It is quite funny now but not at the moment. Anyway, Thankfully my good friend Amber lives one street over so she and Tom and her family came over to get the big girls to school and I had to get dressed (I was still in PJs ) and I couldn't put Katie down. Katie had calmed down but was turning pale and not doing good (hence more spazz out). I called Charley and told him calmly we were heading to the ER and he asked if I was really sure it was broken. I assured him it was. It was VERY obviously broken. I also called my mom and she was on her way to go to the ER with us. Amber put Katie in the car and off we went. Of course it was rush hour and Cooks is not super close to my house. The whole way there Katie is in and out of sleep and pale. I start to panic about it. She was in obvious pain. We got to the ER and thankfully saw us right away (the lobby had tons of masked people and I said we are well and will not wait in there). They used the word deformed to describe her arm in triage which was true. We got back real quick and had the best staff ever. They loved Katie and said she was the best kid they had seen all day and were amazed at how good she was. She really never cried. They put IVs in, gave pain meds, did xrays, and determined she had broken her ulna and radius. They sent us to the ortho surgeon to be put under to have it set. They surgery nurse told us they had heard what a great kid Katie was and bragged on her. Katie loved this. So thankful for this just didn't plan on having my child put under that day for the first time esp when my hubby is not here to help with the decisions. So I left the surgery room and my mom and I waited 20 minutes and they came and got us and Katie was out of it but doing good and sporting a pink cast. We left about an hour later and came home about the same time as Charley got home. She has done really well and is having fun showing off her now purple cast. We have 4 weeks to go and this will be behind us. I felt so covered by prayer the day this happened and very thankful for friends and family. We are blessed.

The day after Katie broke her arm was PJ day at preschool and she was so upset to miss it. I took her up for about an hour and she was very happy about that. This last picture is her at chapel on PJ day.

Little Notes about My Favorite Girls

It is about that time of year for me to do write an update on my girls. They are getting so fun and doing so many fun things I want to remember.

1. Both of my girls love Barbie movies. We have all of the most recent ones and have watched most likely all of them. When we go to Family Video they have seen all of them and some twice and if Katie had her way we would get them every time we go. The most recent one came out this month and we rented it last weekend. It is Barbie and the Three Musketeers (of Mouseketeers as Katie calls it). They loved it and the next morning they both found boots and gown to dress up like the Three Musketeers from the movie. They also had props for some of the pictures. This whole week Katie and been Corrine for all her games. They are already talking about the next Barbie movie that comes out this spring Barbie and the Mermaid Tail (nothing like a preview).

2. Katie only wants to wear dresses right now and specifically only dresses that spin. Which is quite difficult because I will not buy only dresses that spin. Besides it is getting cooler outside and that is quite a task so I tend to let her wear anything at home that spins and I pick for our leaving the house. She also loves getting my iphone and dancing to the Enchanted song in a pink dress that spins.

3. Kylee is way into reading and is an excellent reader. I have been laughing lately because when she gets into a book and has to leave her location to go to the car of in from the car, etc. she walks around carrying the books in front of her face not missing a single word or sentence. She is really into Junie B. Jones books but her take home books from school are so long that we have only time to do them and she insist we read them twice, it is so hard to do that and time consuming. We are so proud of what a great reader she is becoming.

4. Katie is really doing a great job starting to learn to write her name and numbers. I was quite proud of her the other day when she came in and had written the number two perfectly. Charley and I praised her so much and she was so excited about her accomplishment. Let me tell you this girls feeds off praise. Charley and I have to keep reminding ourselves that she needs affirmation and this is one of her top love languages.

5. Kylee's confessions.... Kylee has such a sense of her conscious (sp?). She is constantly confessing things she does that are wrong. For example-when she says any word we consider bad (stupid, hate, shut up, and any variety of words she thinks may be bad like idiot) she confesses these to me. She will not say them again but tell me the first letter and then she has me guess what it is. I always ask her who she said it to and it is always in her head to herself. Which makes me giggle and smile. The other day she confessed that during their spelling test she was looking around the room which they are allowed to do but she accidentally looked at someones paper. She felt so bad about it but I assured her that it was OK and she will be fine. I could type on and on about the confessions Kylee makes. It is very sweet and some of the time she even tells me she has already asked God to forgive her. Charley and I hope and pray she continues to want to tell us stuff like this esp. as the teenage years creep up on us.

6. Katie and Kylee are both so great at praying for people that need prayers. I have a lot to learn from them. Seriously when I say someone is sick the first thing they both say is let's pray for them and then they say the sweetest little pray. So proud of them

7. Our girls do not get along 24/7. When they are having those moments of love it looks like this.

Kylee to Katie-Oh sweetheart, come here let me help. or Let's hold hands, hug me.

Katie to Kylee-sister, I love you. play with me. Let's hold hands.

A couple weeks ago we went shopping and all they did was hug and hold hands. Of course hours later they were bickering over who knows what.

However these sweet times may be few we love them and treasure them when they happen.

Just a few sweet moments on my girls!

Kylee's Dance Clinic

This past month Kylee went to the district high school and had a day dance clinic with the Sidekicks. She kept calling is ballet but it was definitely dance/jazz. She went with her friend Anna but I don't have any pictures of the two of them. She loved the dance clinic and we enjoyed watching her dance. Really for me it is about letting her experience different things to help her come out of her shell and not be scared to do bigger things. One of the benefits of doing this camp is she could dance at the next home football game. So this past Friday night Kylee chose to go to the game and dance. We went to the game and met Kylee's dance girl, Marisa, she was super sweet and nice to Kylee. So we left Kylee with her for them to practice their dance and march around the stadium with the band, too cute. Just a little side note, this stadium was incredible. It was so nice and huge. I was really surprised actually but very impressed with it. So we got to see Kylee march around and then do her dance which I really thought she did well for not doing it but a couple time before the performance and she really tried. We were all so proud of her. When she was done we stayed and watched the first half and left. Kylee was not happy about leaving in fact she wanting to stay the whole game but we had a sleepy head on our hands in little Katie. We have promised Kylee to go back and watch the whole game. She may be Charley's little football fan. (Finding Kylee in the pictures below may be a little bit like playing Where's Waldo?? Just a hint she is always on the front row or close to the very front, center. Her dance girl was a Lt. on the dance team so she always got to be close to the front. That was a bonus.)

September Family Birthdays!!

WOW!! September has been a month of birthdays and we have loved celebrating everyone of them. My niece Ella turned 1, my niece Maddyn turned 2, and my nephew Hudson turned 4. We had so much fun with Maddyn and Hudson at Chuck E Cheese and my niece Ella's at her house on a very wet, rainy day but the kids all still loved playing outside and inside. We love all out cousins and loved these special days. I don't want to leave and the other Sept. birthdays:my mother-in-law, sister-in-law, lots of extended family that I am sure if I start naming I will leave someone out, and several friends. Such a fun time of year:)