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.

Kenzie

Shake

The women in my life..

I am grateful to have two wonderful examples in my life, to have helped guide me and mold me and always be there, whether for advice or a shoulder to cry on, to trips to DQ, attempting to help me learn how to make quilts for my dolls. They will always have a piece of my heart.

Hospital Stay

This little lady had to stay in the hospital the past 4 days, we went in on Friday afternoon to recheck her weight (she hasn't been gaining weight), and she was 9lbs 9.4 oz. So the doctor admitted her to figure out what is going on.  The doctors there said it is acid refluex or GURD.  So we were sent home last night since she had made some weight gain, she is still 15g under her weight when she was admitted. But I am giving her 24 calorie count formula and she is eating 4oz now!! :) She has a follow up to tomorrow, and waiting to schedule appointments with occupational therapy so they can look at how she sucks to see if that is also a problem. Nutrition also wants to have an appointment and follow her to make sure she stays on track.  Also we will also be talking to gentics to see if there is something else wrong. But we are glad to be home, and hope she continues to gain weight. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers it has helped in so many ways.

Life update (and two post in one day oh my!!)

So wanted to update on everything that has been going on lately, let's see Jaxson went in for his 3 yr check up, he is 29lbs and 39 inches, and his breathing has been doing good and he is a very active boy.  He is starting to talk more, but we are waiting on his birth certificate, and we have to take him to the local elementary school to get an IEP, and than we will be getting him into head start.  He told us the other day, friend come over? He was talking about a little boy who had been over the previous weekend that he played with while Dustin worked on his mom's truck, and it broke my heart because he is now understand the concept of friends and I so want him to have friends to play with.  We also took Kenzie in for her 2 month appointment this last Monday, at birth she weighted 7lbs 10oz, and when we took her in she was 9lbs 8oz, and 22 inches long, so the doctor had me switch her to 2oz every 2 hours and only let her sleep 5 hours at night. And I took her back on Friday, well she weighed 9lbs 8.6 oz, she had only gained 1/3 of an ounce. :(  So the doctor had blood work done to check her thyroid and for anemia and some other things. I also will be bringing her back this coming Friday, and the doctor said that if she has not gained a significant amount of weight they will have to admit her to the hospital.  So I am keeping my fingers crossed that when we go in on Friday she has gained enough weight so she doesn't have to be hospitalized. Madison is doing good, she is such a smart little girl, she is blowing kisses now and getting faster and faster every day since she tries to keep up with Jaxson.  The other day she walked up to me and said nigh nigh, and I told okay go to your room and go nigh nigh so she walked straight towards her crib and waited for me to put her down for a nap.  I am done with my first class, as of tomorrow so far I have a 98%, but we will see if it stays that way after my final paper and posts have been grades. I start my next class on Tuesday which is Psychology, a little nervous because I have taken it before and didn't do very well. We are planning on taking a vacation to Montana next month to go and check it out and look at places, since that is the plan to move out there come next year after Dustin gets out.  I am nervous and excited about moving out there, will miss being super close to family, but there are lots of jobs out there, and if we could we would move to Arizona but the job market out there isn't very good.  So we have to go were the jobs are, no matter how far away. 

Family is forever

                                                      And I am glad they are mine.

Kenzie talking

Late birthday post/development update

    

           

So this little boy turned 3 on March 15th, I can't believe how big he has gotten in the last 3 years. He started out so small and is now one tall little boy.  I don't have his growth stats since he goes in on Tuesday for his 3 year check up.  But I can remember from when we went into wic, they weighed him and he was 31lbs and 38 inches tall. 

Eating: he likes hot dogs, pasta, rice, cheerios, yogurt, vienna sausages, bananas, grapes, peaches and pears, carrots, green beans, most meat, cuscuous, pb and j.  He can be a pretty picky eater, I have tried new things and they are a hit or a miss, oh and he loves mac and cheese.

Developments: he is slowly starting to talk more, I would say we can understand him about 50% of the time, which is a lot better than what it was.  Last night I asked him to go get the wipes for me, and he ran and got them and came back saying "I coming Daddy".  So slowly but surely he is talking more.

Interest: he is your typical boy, he loves, cars and really loves trains, all I hear all day long is Thomas, Percy, Gordon.  He really loves Thomas the Train, and will ask constantly to watch Thomas.  He loves playing outside with our dog Harley, and playing with Maddie.  He loves helping me with Makenzie, and is such a loving big brother to both Maddie and Kenzie.

I love this little boy so much, he has his moments where it can be difficult, but whenever I see how loving he is towards his sisters or Dustin and I it makes me feel even more blessed to have him in my life.  I can't wait to continue to watch him grow and see what kind of man he will be.

Easter

So proud

My heart is full of gratitude towards my parents, they are getting ready to leave for their mission to the Philippines for the next 18 months.  I am excited for them to start this next journey in their lives, and I am sad because I will miss them like crazy.  It will be different to not be able to have them only a phone call or text away and even a 6 hour drive, but I know they will awesome missionaries and the people of the Philippines are lucky to have them.  I am grateful for the example they are setting for not only me, but my siblings and their grandchildren as well.  I am going to miss them, but know that Heavenly Father will be watching over them. 

they hold my heart

Picture update