Our family was shocked last week by a crazy series of events.

My sister, Katie, started getting some back and leg pain and went to see her family doctor.  She was given some pain meds and muscle relaxers and sent home.  By Saturday morning, her pain was so bad that she went to the emergency room.  They were giving her pain medication and started doing some tests.  While she was in the hospital, her infection (that she got before Kayla was born) started acting up again. She spent a few days in the hospital, and the doctors saw that she had appendicidis, and needed her appendix removed.  It seemed like one thing after another, and then they found a tumor when they removed her appendix.

It turns out to be colon cancer.  We were all completely shocked and scared when we heard those words. Greg, my parents, and I were at the hospital that night with my sister.  We were all very confused and had a lot of questions.  The next day, they all met with the surgeon and the cancer specialist.  A lot of their questions were answered, and many of our fears relieved.  Luckily, it seems like they caught it early, and with surgery, it will be taken care of.  Right now, Katie is back home and needs to completely clear up her infection before she can have surgery. 

It's been a hard few weeks for Katie and Greg, but we are all very hopeful that everything is going to be okay.  It's going to be several weeks until the surgery, but we are all hoping for a quick, full recovery.  Thanks to all our family and friends who have been very supportive and helpful to our whole family during this time. 

We love you Katie! XOXO

The Holidays

We celebrated Christmas Eve and Christmas day, we and got to see everyone in the family.  It was a really fun, busy day filled with food and LOTS of presents!  Ray's truck was so full that we could not have fit one more thing in it!  Kenley had such a fun day.  I think she was actually expecting Santa to be at our house the morning of Christmas because when she woke up she was a little afraid to actually come downstairs.  The rest of the day everyone was asking her if Santa came to her house and she would say, "No, he didn't."  On Christmas Eve, Santa made a brief apperance at my parents house to visit Kenley and Kayla, but Kenley wanted NO part of it!  Maybe next year.....  She had the best time playing with Kyle and Jordan at Ray's mom's house, and my cousin's son, Kyle at my mom's house.  Next year, Kayla and Rachel will be old enough to get in on the fun!

THEN.....on the 27th, Ray and I flew out to Cancun with Katie and Greg!

It was 80 degrees and sunny most of our trip, and we stayed at a gorgeous resort right on the beach. The best parts of our trip were jumping the waves, swimming with the dolphins, and the boat and snorkel tour. I had always wanted to swim with the dolphins, and we got so lucky that our group was just the 4 of us.  We had 2 female dolphins, and there 2 babies swimming by us, which was really cool.  We also had a lot of fun taking out these small boats for a ride through the "jungle" and then snorkeling at a reef.  We also had a lot of nice dinners and did some shopping. 

I missed Kenley while we were gone, and I was glad to come home to her.  A few times I called home to talk to her she said, "Are you on vacation with my daddy?"  She had a great few days with my parents and Ray's mom.  The last few days have been pretty low-key. I even took a few naps while Kenley napped!  Just call me old, but I needed a vacation from my vacation! I haven't even been able to motivate myself to get any of my Christmas decorations down yet.




2012 has been a great year, and I am excited for 2013!  I hope everyone else is off the a great start in the New Year!


*I'm having issues adding pictures, but I will try again soon!

2 Years old!

Kenley turned 2 a few weeks ago!  We had the family over at the house for an "Elmo" themed party.  In her usual style, she was a little nervous at first with having everyone over, but within the hour she warmed up and had a great time.  When we first woke up with her that morning, Ray and I gave her her pink cadillac battery operated car!  She was excited about it, and she got to try it out later in the day with Caden.  I know she will be cruising around the block once spring comes!

She was very excited to open her presents and got so many fun toys, and nice clothes.  When it was time to sing, "Happy Birthday" she got a little shy, but I know she loved that everyone was singing to her.  We got her a really cute Elmo cake from Orland Bakery.  The rest of the night she played with all of her new toys.  Kenley and Caden played, "pin the nose on Elmo,"  Aunt Katie made Elmo and Oscar the Grouch vegetable trays, and I made buckets with little stuff for the kids.  We were disappointed that the Elmo costume didn't get here in time, and we are still in a fight with the seller through e-bay about that.  But, Kenley had fun, and that's all that mattered to me.

2 years old has been so much fun, and we have had a great few weeks with lots of excitement over her birthday, and Christmas.  Ray and I took her to see Santa for the 2nd time the day after her birthday.  She was a little bit braver this time, but didn't get up the courage to sit on his lap.  The Santa at Orland mall was amazing!  No fake beard, this guy is the real deal!  He was so patient with us, and really took time talking to us.  He gave Kenley stickers, and she gave him a high five and even a quick hug before we left.  That's progress!  Of course, the second we left she couldn't stop talking about him!

 

She had her 2 year check up, and is doing great!  She is still really tall for her age, and the nurse commented on how verbal she was.  She kept asking the nurse and our doctor to "check my eyes, my ears, and my nose."  and said, "I want to get the flu shot!" even though she already had it and didn't need it.  Ha, ha!  I guess the new doctor's kit she got for her birthday made her very brave.

She says so many funny things, and this morning she said, "That was pretty funny, don't you think?"  She also knows a lot of Christmas songs including Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer, We wish you a Merry Christmas, and Santa Claus is coming to town.  I love when she spontaneously breaks into song.  It's going to be a really fun Christmas.  Only 2 days away!  I just finished wrapping a few gifts, and tomorrow will be a few last-minute things. 

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Parties & traditions

I have been to the park twice this week.  I don't think I have ever said that in the month of December!  It's pretty crazy to have days in the 60's for this time of year. While I will take that anytime over the negative temps that I know we are bound to have, I would also love to take Kenley sledding sometime this year. She has been asking to build a snowman, which I know that she got from watching one too many Caillou episodes.
I have my first official Christmas party this weekend with my girlfriends from high school tomorrow, and then, Saturday is Kenley's 2nd birthday! So, the weekend will be filled with lots of fun stuff! Tonight we celebrated Saint Nicholas day.  And, really I didn't know it was today until I got to work, so I scrounged up some stocking stuffers that were supposed to be for Christmas and put them in the stockings.  But, it was something I always celebrated as a kid, and I would like to continue that tradition. Kenley was so excited to pull her little surprises out of her stocking,  It made me look forward to Christmas even more.  I wonder how she will react opening her birthday presents this weekend.
I know pretty much everyone with kids is doing elf on a shelf. We have one, but Kenley doesn't quite understand it yet. But, she did name our elf, "Chewy." We have no idea where that came from. We took her to breakfast with Santa past weekend, and she had a great time getting her face painted, eating breakfast, and doing the crafts, but wanted no part of sitting on The Big Guy's lap. She clung to me like a spider monkey. Since then, she keeps asking me if she can go see Santa, and says she wants to sit on his lap. Maybe we will try another day. Or, there is always next year!

It was such a nice weekend and I'm sad to see it end, but I made the most of every minute.  Thanksgiving was really nice, and we had such a good time with our families.  The food was amazing, and we are still eating leftovers.  We are so thankful for our families, and it was great to spend the day with them.  I got to meet the newest member of our family, Rachel.  It was so cool going from Kenley being the only baby last year, to her being the oldest of 3 now!  Kenley had a fun Thanksgiving, and took a little while to warm up at my Grandma's house, but was great the rest of the day.

I went shopping Thanksgiving night for the first time ever.  It was insane, but I am so happy I went because I was able to get Kenley's birthday present at a great price!  It was worth the hour long wait at Toy's-R-Us.  Ray came and picked it up around midnight, and then dropped me off at Kohl's to meet up with my mom and sister. Between us all being so tired, my mom & sister's cell phones dying, and pure maddness throughout the store, I panicked when we all got separated.  We were all delirious by the time we left the store at 2:00 am.  But, it was a fun, and I kind of liked not rushing out early in the morning even though I still made a quick stop at the mall to Carson's and Macy's.  I got quite a lot of gifts, and I even started wrapping a few!

We put up all of our Christmas decorations throughout the weekend.  I was happy at the end of the day when Ray started up the fire place for the first time this year, and it felt very cozy.  Kenley was so excited about every decoration, and she has had fun checking everything out.  Ray and I watched Kayla for the first time this weekend for a few hours, and my sister took our family Christmas photo before they left.  There was a lot of bribing going on, but we got a few good ones. 

I'm excited to do a lot of fun holiday things over the next few weeks.  We started "elf on a shelf" today.  I don't think Kenley quite understands it, but she has named our elf, Chewy.  No idea where that came from!  I can't wait to take her to see Santa, to play in the snow, to look at all the Christmas lights, to build our gingerbread train, and lots of other holiday stuff.  We have a busy couple of weeks between her birthday and the holidays, so it should be really fun.

Let the Holidays Begin

I am so looking forward to Thanksgiving weekend, and it is almost here.  Besides getting an extra long weekend off of work, I am looking forward to spending some time with family,  eating good food, doing some "Black Friday" shopping, decorating our Christmas tree, and having some downtime at home. I am actually considering going to Kohl's at midnight on Thursday depending on how our day goes.  It might be kind of nice to beat some of the crowds and not have to worry about chasing Kenley around or pushing a stroller.  I also will probably hit up Toys R' Us since I need to get Birthday and Christmas gifts for her.

This weekend I got almost all of my indoor decorations up!  I was having fun digging through all of my boxes of holiday stuff, and remembering what I have accumulated throughout the year.  Kenley's little pink tree in her room went up and she loved it.  She kept saying, "Come see my Christmas Tree Daddy!"  She wants us to leave the lights on all the time.  I know it is going to be extra fun this year now that she's older and is starting to understand the holidays.  She has even started learning a few songs and can sing most of, "Santa Claus is coming to town."  It is so adorable. 

Well, I'm off to finish the rest of this work week.  I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving with their loved ones!

Here are a few pictures from Halloween that I never posted.  Once she got a hold of the candy it was hard to get a shot where she wasn't eating!  She wouldn't really say, "trick-or-treat," to anyone, but everytime they put something in her bag she would look at it and say, "I got candy!!"  and then she would want to eat it right away.  We just went to a few of our neighbor's houses, but she had a good time.

Celebrations

I have been M.I.A. here for a few weeks, so here is my catch up!

Kayla's christening was 2 weeks ago, and I was honored to be her Godmother!  She looked so beautiful in her gown made from Katie's wedding dress.  She was so good during the whole ceremony, and I think she enjoyed the actual process of having the water on her head.  Katie and Greg had all their friends and family for a big party afterword for the first big party at their new house. 

In other baby news, my cousin, Darcie, had her baby this week!  We have seen a few pictures of Rachel, and we are so excited about the newest addition to the family.  We can't wait to meet her on Thanksgiving or Christmas!  Also, Cheryl's baby shower was today.  It was really nice, and only 2 more months until her baby boy is due!  I also got to meet up with Ashlee this week, who is due with #3!  So many babies this year!  And, yes, it does give me baby fever :)

I truly CAN NOT believe that it is almost Thanksgiving!  I know everybody, including me, says this every year.  But, for real, where did the year go? I think part of the reason this year seems to be going extra fast is that I am having a better school year so far.  I am teaching 2 honors classes this year, and it is like night and day.  So, fingers crossed that the rest of the year goes well. 

I have already been buying Christmas stuff, and I am ready to start decorating.  But, is there some law against decorating before Thanksgiving?  I also don't want my neighbors to think I'm nuts!  I saw people "liking" on facebook that Nordstrom's won't be decorating until after Thanksgiving, but I don't mind the early celebrating one bit.  Ray came home from work the other day to find me and Kenley rocking out to Christmas music in the kitchen. I keep telling Ray that we have to go Grizwald style this year.  I don't think he quite shares my love of decorating, especially since he's the one who has to get up on the roof!

We are also starting to plan for Kenley's 2nd birthday!  It's less than a month away now, and all I'll say for now is that there will be a "special guest" attending.  I'm not sure if Kenley will be happy or scared about that, but either way, it will be fun.  I've spent way too much time looking at pinterest and other sites to get ideas about her themed party.  Totally worth it, she only turns 2 once!

Hope the start of November is treating everybody well, and I'm pretty happy that it's been in the 60's here this weekend!

Fall Festivities

So, I failed in uploading pictures for over a month now, and I have a lot saved up on my camera since then.  I had an amazing 30th birthday with my husband and baby girl, and family, and friends.  Ray surprised me by telling me that I would be picked up at 9:00 and to get ready.  My sister picked me up, and we drove to a nail salon.  I thought that was so sweet that he planned that, and I was happy to get pampered with my sister.  I walked into the salon and found my mom, mother-in-law, and best friends were there to surprise me!  We had our own room for pedicures, plus wine and snacks.  It was a great start to the day.  Later, we hung out at our house, and went to Trio later that night.  I had such a fun day, and I was happy to celebrate with my family and friends.

The last few weeks we have been to a lot of fall fests and little activites around the neighborhood.  I have had so much fun taking Kenley to these events now that she is old enough to do things like pet/feed animals, ride ponies, and jump in the bounce houses.  Also, since I'm a kid at heart, it gives me an excuse to do all of these things without looking like a complete nut!  I can't believe that Haloween is only about a week away. I know things will start getting crazy after that with the holidays approaching. We have already started talking about what we are going to do for Kenley's 2nd birthday, since it is only a month and a half away.  The great thing about time going by fast is that I am finishing the 1st quarter of school this week!  That truly makes me happy, and despite a few bumps in the road, I think the year is going okay so far. 

Happy Haloween Everyone!  You know I'll be posting pictures soon of Kenley in her costume!

Thoughts on 30

I have officially been 30 for an entire day now!  I've had mixed thoughts about turning 30, but so far it's been pretty good to me.  Most of my friends are already 30, so I'll still always be younger :)  I don't think of my friends as older, so that must mean that I'm not getting older either!  Ray sent me flowers and a huge balloon boquet at work, so it was pretty obvious that it was my birthday.  Several of my classes of students sang to me, and I was pretty happy when most of them didn't question me when I told them I was turning 21! Ha!

  I don't "feel" 30, even though I don't really know what that means.  Maybe I thought I would feel older hitting this milestone, or maybe that was just because when I would think about being 30 it always seemed pretty far away.  And, in some ways I do "feel" 30.  I'm doing the things that I thought I would be doing, that I wanted to be doing at 30.  I have a job, a husband, a house, and a kid.  Considering that those were my main goals by 30, I know that I am very lucky. 

A few times recentlly, I've thought, "Am I too old for...." Like, am I too old to shop in the juniors section, or to rock out to teeny-bopper music?  I also feel kind of old when I talk about being in college OVER ten years ago, or reminiscing about my high school days. Wow, those years really creep up on you.

I also have thought about how much has changed in those 10 years, and how I am different now than I was at 20.  At 20, I was thinking about where I would get a job, when I would get married, and when I would have kids. I wonder about what life will be like in another 10, 20, or 30 years. 


I'm looking forward to celebrating this weekend, and I am hoping to do some serious picture up-loading!  Until then, here are a few of my favorites from a few weeks ago!