Maddie's 18 month check up

Weight: 20lbs 12oz
Height: 30 inches

The doctor was very happy with her height and weight, and that she was developing very well.

Foods: She eats table food, is picky about meat sometimes (texture thing), veggies, and only fruits she likes is bananas. But she will eat yogurt and fruit blends. 

Developments: She is now feeding herself with a spoon, she is toddling (running), tries to sing, dances, climbs on things.

Talking: She says hi, bye, momma, dada, brother, sissy, up, cup, shoe, nose, eye, down, hi dadda, what's that, hair, sunshine, sky, blue, nigh nigh, baby, uh oh, juice, yeah, bath, truck.

She is quite the spit fire and is very quick to let you know if she doesn't like something, she is sweet nature and very loving and thoughtful.  She is my little helper when it comes to Kenzie and is quick to get a diaper or help feed Kenzie her bottle. She loves to swing and chase after her brother.

Kiddo update!!

Let's see where to start, so we took Kenzie to see a Pediatric Neurologist about a week ago because she tends to shake her head and she is very stiff. The Neurologist said the shaking was not seizure related, which I breathed a sigh of relief, but the stiffness could be cerebal palsy but he won't say for sure and we have to take her back when she is 9 months, that way if they need to they can do an MRI. She is also qualifies to get help and therapies from the state, and will be starting that soon.  We just started her on solids, she had peas for the first time the other day and liked them a lot, even tried to take the spoon out of my hand.  We go in for her 6 month check up in a couple of weeks, but when we were at the Neurologist she was 13lbs 14oz and 25 inches long.  Maddie is getting bigger by the day, she is starting to talk a lot more and follows Jaxson every where.  She can say: hi, bye, up, happy, momma, dada, brother, sissy, uh oh, papa, all done, thank you, more, eye, nose, baby, book. She knows what sounds a doggy makes and a monkey makes, she is becoming very independent and quick to let you know when she is mad or her filling have been hurt, she is such a fun loving little girl. We go in for her 18 month check up later this month.  Jaxson is doing good and growing like a weed, he is starting to talk a lot more, but still talks a mile a minute so it's start hard to understand what he is saying.  He is starting to ask questions like what's that? do you hear that? where it go? Can I? He loves Team UmiZoomi, Bubble Guppies, Dora the Explorer, Max and Ruby, Thomas the Train, Dinosaur Train.  He loves being outside and likes to swing, and he is quick to ask "you wanna snuggle?" It's crazy to see how fast they all have grown, and before I know it Jaxson will be ready for kindergarten, and Kenzie will be walking. Time sure does fly when you are having fun.

Yummy in your tummy!! :)

So tonight I decided I would venture and make my own tomato sauce for dinner instead of using jar, and it turned out yummy and not that hard to do. So I thought I would share the reciepe, and I know when the kiddos want seconds I did a good job, especially with Jaxson since he can be a picky eater from time to time.

Home made Tomato Sauce:

2 15 oz Hunts Tomato Sauce
2 celery stalks
1/4 yellow onion
5 baby carrots
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp oreagon
1 tsp basil
1 tsp thyme
4 garlic cloves
1/4 tsp parsley (fresh or dried)

Directions:
Dice celery, onion, and carrots, put int food processor add chicken broth or water to help blend it. Once blended add a little bit of olive oil to the bottom of the pan and add mixed veggies and sautee for about 4 to 5 minutes. After 5 minutes add Tomato Sauce and spices, bring to a boil and than turn on low and simmer for 10 minutes or until pasta is done. 

side note, I added browned ground beef to it as well.

Getting there slowly but surely

Cumulative Undergraduate GPA: 3.77

Credits Completed: 24.00
Credits Currently Scheduled: 19.00

You only have 49.00 credits to go!
Your estimated completion date is: 2/9/2015 


Those are my stats for school as of yesterday, this makes me very happy..the process of going back to school has been on going for 11 years, on and off since graduating from high school. It's funny I was cleaning yesterday and I just lost in my own thoughts thinking about school, and before every time I would try and go back to school I wasn't happy and lose focus and just give up. But now I have more motivation to go back to school, more of a reason and that is reason is my 3 wonderful kids.  I want to be able to have a way to provide for them if anything were to happen and I had to work, and I want to show them that getting a degree is important.  I just can't wait to have my degree in my hands and knowing that I was able to accomplish this while taking care of 3 kids. Because it has not been easy and there have been times since I have started where I just wanted to give up, but I know I can do this, I have proof with 2 A's and 1 B+ so far, so my hard work has shown results. So I am going to keep pushing and working towards that goal and the light at the end of that tunnel is getting closer and closer. :)

Grandam Laverne

As I sit here and try to think about what I want to write about this wonderful woman I am at a lost for words. There is so much to say, she was such a loving, kind, strong, and inspirational person my life and others.  This wonderful women passed away on Mother's Day after fighting cancer since November,  she lived a wonderful 85 years.  I have so many memories of her that I will cherish for the rest of my life. Growing up in Coolidge and with cousins close, the cool thing to do when you were little was go over to Grandma's.  I remember coming home from church begging my mom can I go over to Grandma's, I remember plenty of trips to Diary Queen when it was still around and getting an ice cream cone.  Learning how to sew and making a small quilt for my dolls was always a fun experience, and that is the first time I sewed over my finger on one of the sewing machines, and ran my finger over with the iron.  She was so good about sending birthday cards, even when I had grown and moved away I still got a birthday card from her,  and my kids all have quilts that she made for them. As I have one as well and I seem to now have to sleep with it at night, as a way to have a constant reminder of her.  She was the mother to 7 kids (6 boys and 1 girl),  44 grandchildren and 63 great grandchildren, and more to come I am sure in the future. If that isn't an awesome legacy I don't know what else there could be, I miss her terribly and I am sure I am not the only one. But I know good bye is only temporary, and look forward to the day I get to hug her again.  She will be missed, but never forgotten.

This is how I feel or have always felt most of my life, like I never really fit in or fit the mold. I am not sure if it's from choices or decisions I have made thru out my life, but I feel like that no matter what I do or how hard I try to change people will only see me as the person I use to be. That I will always be the outcast or the screw up, I know you have only so many chances before people give up and I have plenty. I just wish there was a way for people to see the real me, but sadly i don't even know who that is any more. I am not even sure how to go about figuring that out, I have try to become what people and society expected me to do, a wife and mother, that I sort of lost my way int eh process of doing so.  I don't regret having kids of my own and wouldn't change it for the world, but there are days were I do want to give up because I feel like I am going to fail at, just like I have failed and given up on so many different things thru out my life. I am tired of feeling like this...I would rather feel like this:

Better late than never..

So this is technically a day late, but better late than never right,  yesterday was Father's Day and it got me thinking about the men in my life, my Dad and my own husband and how grateful I am to have both in my life.

Let me tell you about my dad, he is much taller than me; but I think that's a good thing because it just means how much I look up to him and always have. My Dad is the quiet type, and very supportive Dad, and will always let you know when you have done something wrong, but how to fix your mistakes. He was very supportive in my decision to join the Navy, and actually surprise that I made that choice in that point in time. I know without his support and my mom's I wouldn't have joined.  I learned a lot from him and continue to do so, I love how great of an example he is to myself and my brother's and sister's and my own kids. I am so proud that he and my mom are serving a mission and what a great blessing it is in their lives to be able to do that.

And than there is this guy:

My loving husband, without him we wouldn't have 3 beautiful and wonderful children, he is a good kind and gentle dad. He is still young but learning and he has the example of my Dad to look towards. That's what I love most about my husband is how much he loves and respects my own Dad and of course his. I am so grateful to have both of them in my life and how much they have impacted my life.

Happy Father's Day Dad and Dustin I love you both.