Christmas Week 2010

We had a great week and a half of celebrating Christmas with our families! The girls have been completely spoiled by their grandparents, aunts, uncle, and us! We started the celebrating by traveling to Shreveport to be with Casey's family. We were there December 19-22. We had a ton of fun with them, and Kailey, especially, had fun playing with her cousin Caden!

Makenna's shirt says "All mommy wants for Christmas is a Silent Night"! SOOO true! :)




On Monday (the 20th) we met Casey's sister and her two boys at Sci-Port Discovery Center. They had a ton of fun playing with all the various displays.






On Tuesday, we had a "baking day". The kids made Rice Krispie houses, and sugar cookies. We also had a family gathering with part of Casey's extended family. It was a lot of fun to just hang out, eat, and play games.










On Wednesday, we opened gifts. The girls got way too many gifts for me to name! Kailey has been having so much fun playing with all the gifts she received. Makenna's big gift from Gran and Papa was the lamb critter chair from Pottery Barn Kids. She LOVES it!





On Wednesday night we traveled back to Temple to spend a couple days as a family celebrating Christmas. On Thursday we just relaxed all day, did a bit of shopping, and then drove through a Christmas light park that night. Then on Christmas Eve, we opened gifts that morning, I baked cookies and cupcakes all day, and then we went to our Christmas Eve service that night. Kailey's big gift was the Bitty Twin dolls from American Girl, however the gift she simply cannot quit talking about, is the claw! She always plays with this claw when we go to Target, so we decided to get one and put it in her stocking. It was $2, and by far her favorite gift!








Casey was in charge of the service this year, and so our family was in charge of lighting the advent candle. It went well, although watching both girls by myself during the service was a task!
(Especially considering the mood Kailey was in, as you can tell!)






We left after the Christmas Eve service, to travel to have Christmas with my family in Kingwood. My grandparents, aunt, and uncles came for lunch on Christmas Day, then after a nap we opened Christmas gifts. Kailey got lots of fun things to go with her Bitty Twin dolls, including my sisters' American Girl Doll bunk bed, they played with when they were little!




In this picture, Kailey wanted to "take a picture with baby Jesus" so she went and grabbed Him from the nativity scene. haha.



After we opened gifts, Casey had to drive back to Temple, because he had to preach on Sunday morning! (the 26th). After he preached he drove back to Kingwood, and we stayed there until Tuesday, the 28th. We just hung out, ate out, and had a good time with my sisters (2 of whom live out of state). The only bummer was that Makenna got another UTI while were there, which made for some not so fun nights!

We had a very Merry Christmas, and are very thankful to be back home safely! We hope you had a great Christmas as well!

Thanks for reading this monsterous post! I will post Makenna's 7 month post soon, because she turned 7 months on Christmas day!

I got Scammed!

Many of you know that I LOVE LOVE LOVE to buy clothes for the girls on etsy. They have the CUTEST baby girl personalized items I have ever seen! My sister-in-law Kenya also does the same for her 2 boys, and recently she recommended another website to me with similar clothes.

Cotton Candy Shop
If you look at it, you will just fall in love with her clothes! They are SUPER DE DUPER expensive, though, so really, I was just admiring them from afar. Now, this girl, Lauren Bergmann,(owner of the shop) not only supposedly sells beautiful clothes, but one of her hottest selling items is her Photo Shoot Package. For the package you get a cute outfit, and a photo shoot with an all-star photographer, for the price of the outfit, plus you get a CD of all the pics. Well I was SO tempted to do this, and Kenya actually signed up to do one of these photo shoots in October.

In the meantime, I became a fan on facebook of Cotton Candy Shop, and started noticing that she did the "comment game" every few days. On the comment game, you could get her clothes for half price, which was the only way I would ever be able to afford them! On Halloween she had a comment game, and was selling Turkey shirts for Thanksgiving on which she made turkeys out of the first letter of the child's name. I was SO pumped. It "guaranteed it would be recieved in plenty of time for Thanksgiving" so I bought 2 of them. $40.00 all together. Well..the days went by and I never recieved the shirts. I soon began corresponding with Lauren attempting to get my items, and she began saying she was sick, etc. and would I mind changing them to Christmas shirts. I said, "sure no problem". Well, to this day I have still not recieved my items.

In the meantime, Kenya went to her photo shoot. On Tuesday Kenya texted me to ask if I ever recieved my shirts. I said "no". She then told me that the photographer for her shoot had emailed her and said she could not release the pictures from the shoot, because Lauren had not paid her!

To make a long story short, there are at least 30 other people who have ordered items from Lauren and not recieved them. We figure the way she operates is she drags you on past the 60 day mark, so that you can no longer get your money back from your bank or credit card. There are some women out over $200, dating all the way back to March! I have tried to give her the benefit of the doubt, because her clothes are soo sooo cute! However, as I have investigated over the past few days, I now realize that I have totally been scammed.

She is actually so low as to fake illnesses to cancel photo shoots, and never reschedules them, and pockets the money! The photographer she used for Kenya's shoot informed us that Lauren told her "if you do this shoot for free for the parents, then I will let you do my next 5 shoots!" Then, she cancels the 5 paying shoots to scam the photographer! She did this to multiple photographers!

Basically, STAY AWAY FROM COTTON CANDY SHOP IN MCKINNEY, TEXAS AND LAUREN BERGMANN!!

Kailey's 3rd Birthday!

We celebrated Kailey's 3rd Birthday this past weekend. She turned 3 on Sunday (the 5th!) It is crazy how fast these 3 years have flown by! It is amazing how grown up she is getting to be! She talks like crazy, and is constantly making us laugh with all of the things she says! She is starting to have such an opinion about life in general. For her birthday I got her a blue outfit, because for the longest time she has said her favorite color was blue. She even told Casey she wanted us to paint her room blue! Yesterday when I got home from school she says, "I don't like blue today, I like green!", as she is wearing her blue outfit. She is fully potty trained, which is a tremendous blessing! She is a fabulous big sister. Yesterday she just went and danced around Makenna in her jumparoo and made her laugh and laugh. She is such a fun girl!

This weekend, we decided we just wanted to have a fun time with her, so we went to a mall up in Arlington to go to Build-A-Bear, Cheesecake Factory, and to ride the Carousel. My mom, my sister Emily, my sister Laura, Casey's parents, Casey's sister Kenya, her two sons Caden and Caleb, and our good friends the Dugans all met us to have a great day! It was super fun, and I am glad we decided to do that instead of have a party at home like we have the past couple of years.

We had a Zebra Minnie Mouse themed party!


At Build-a-Bear, she opted to make a "Hello Kitty", which she loves! She says "Where's my Hello Kitty?" when she is trying to find it. We put the birthday song inside of it too, which is cute!



We had this little Christmas craft to work on at Cheesecake Factory, while we waited on the food.

We got a cookie cake from the mall, to make things easy!

She got tons of gifts! (Dress up clothes, pretend make-up, My Little Pony, Princess Games, Sesame Street games, Minnie mouse clothes, regular clothes, Little Mermaid Barbie, a Play-dough set, My little Pony, a Tricycle, and more! Spoiled rotten!)



Riding the Carousel with Auntie Em:

Family pic:

On the way home we let her pick a snack and she wanted Cheetos. As you can see, she got it ALL over her. Then, she fell asleep....with her hand in the bag!! haha




When we got home she played dress-up and we read her new Minnie Mouse book:



On her actual birthday, she opened her gifts from us at home, we went to church, and then she played with her new toys all afternoon. Really she began to act extremely spoiled by the end of the day, because she truly has been!

For school on Monday, she took Minnie Mouse cupcakes:


It was a great weekend! Here are some comparison pictures for you to enjoy!:

A few days old:

One year old Birthday:

2 year old Birthday:

3 year old Birthday:

6 months old, already!

I can't believe it has already been 6 months since Makenna Grace was born! I mean that is half a year, people! She is such a joy, and challenge, all rolled into one! Even though it was a rough start, getting used to having 2 kids, I just can't imagine it any other way, and I am so incredibly blessed to have 2 of the most beautiful baby girls a mommy could want! (The pics are a bit blurry, because she just won't sit still these days!)





What Makenna is up to at 6 months:

-She is about to pop out a tooth, any day now! (Or at least it seems that way..)
-She is almost sitting up!
-Any day now I feel like she is just going to start crawling!
-She is eating cereal pretty good now, with fruit. She especially LOVES pears! (Just like her big sister!)
-We have about gotten her to only wake up once at night. Last night she only woke up at 12:30, and then slept the rest! It has been that way for about a week now (with the exception of the two nights with the UTI over Thanksgiving!)
-She takes 2 naps. Sometimes she'll even take one without being in the swing!
-She discovered her hands this weekend. She just sits and stares at them, watching them move.
-She LOVES her jumparoo. Actually she just loves to jump! On our laps, in the jumparoo, really anywhere!
-She LOVES soft blankets. She reaches for them and buries her face in them when she is taking a nap or sleeping at night.
-She is just the happiest baby! So fun!

We are taking her today for her 6 month check-up to get all her stats! We also are taking her to the urologist next Thursday to find out what we need to do about her "urinary reflux". :( Hopefully all will go well! I'll update on her soon!

Still Thankful

We had a very eventful Thanksgiving, but I am most definitely still thankful! On Thursday we headed to my grandparents house in Zavalla, TX. We arrived there around 11:00. When I got Makenna out of the car, I noticed that she was a bit warm, but hoped that it was just from the ride there being a little toasty. After a couple hours, she was still warm, and beginning to get a bit fussy. I began to worry that she might have another UTI, because she was acting very similar to what she had been acting before.

(Sidenote: I have forgotten to blog about this, but since Makenna had that UTI about a month ago, her pediatrician recommended that we have some tests done to make sure everything is ok. It turns out that she has "urinary reflux" which just means that instead of all of her urine coming out when her bladder is full, some of it tracks back up into...well..her kidneys maybe? I don't know where it goes. It just doesn't come down! haha. Anyway, this happens sometimes in tiny babies, so supposedly it can be fixed by taking some antibiotics for a few months. We are seeing a urologist on December 9th to find out more details.)

We called her pediatrician, but since it was Thanksgiving the only person on call was a resident, who was not allowed to call in prescriptions to out of town places. We then had to make the decision of whether or not to just head home, or try to find an Urgent Care clinic in Houston (which is where we were headed for the remainder of the weekend). We decided to just take her to Urgent Care, and when we got there, there were kids screaming in the background, from what we found out were turkey knife related injuries! It was pretty crazy. I digress. Anyway, the doctor listened to her history and since she had a fever of 102.4 he went ahead and gave her a prescription. I am thankful for this, and also thankful that the UTI did not get to the point the other one did. She still had some issues sleeping for the next 2 nights, but what else is new! :)(The only bummer was that it cost 100 buckaroos to take her to the clinic!)

The other unforunate thing that happened was on our way home yesterday night. We were driving between Montgomery and Navasota and all of a sudden this HUGE 18-wheeler tire was in the middle of the road, and there was nowhere to go but over it! It made a very loud sound, which scared the snot out of Kailey and I who were riding in the back seat. None of our alerts on the dash went off, so we were hoping it didn't do any damage. We were wrong. We stopped in College Station and found that our bumper on our beloved Swagger Wagon was cracked in like 4 places. It is pretty bad. But, once again, I am SUPER thankful that the only thing that is wrong is the bumper, and that the tire didn't fly up into the windshield after the car in front of us hit it. Things could have been so much worse!

So, even though Thanksgiving wasn't as fun or smooth sailing as we had hoped, we are definitely so blessed and so thankful for all God has given us and the protection he gives us each and every day!

I will do Makenna's 6 month post this week. I can't believe she is already 6 months old!

Thanksgiving

I was about to sit and write a post whining about everything I am irritated about (with school) at the moment. But then, I felt convicted that instead I should write a Thanksgiving post. (Because, people, we still have Thanksgiving to get through! It seems like this year 9 out of 10 people already have their Christmas trees up, which really bothers me!!!). But alas, to the positiveness!

I am thankful for: (not in order of importance!)

T- Teachers who are so fun to work with

H- Health of me, my family, and my friends.

A- A loving Savior, who gives me grace, even though I don't deserve it.

N- New car AKA the Swaggerwagon

K- Kings- AKA my family

S- Sisters!

G- Girls! My 2 beautiful girls!

I- Ice. Sonic Ice in my diet coke to be more precise.

V- Voyage of the Dawn Treader. And all the Narnia books. Brilliant symbolism. Makes me see my faith in a whole new light!

I- I guess I'll put husband here. I kept waiting on a letter that coincided with husband, but it never happened! I have the best husband in the whole world, who is patient and loving, even though I have oh so many faults! Not to mention, that he keeps our house clean, and I don't know what I would do without him!

N- Next month! I LOVE December! Kailey turns 3, We have our 7 year anniversary, and I have two glorious weeks off for Christmas break!

G- Giraffes. I mean they are just really cute animals!

Almost a Very Sad Post

This was almost a very sad post. Our dog, Addie, went missing yesterday evening. We, unfortunately, didn't notice she was missing until around 8:00pm. Kailey, as we were putting her to bed said "Where's Addie?". This is when I realized, that I hadn't seen Addie at all since I had gotten home from school, around 5:00! Ever since we have had the kids, Addie has definitely taken a backseat to them, obviously. It was the most sickening feeling, realizing that I hadn't even realized she wasn't around. I think in the back of my mind, I thought she was in the backyard, because she loves to stay out until dark on days like we have been having. (We think what must have happened, is that she ran out of the garage when Casey was getting the girls out of the car)..Whenever Kailey asked where she was, we began looking in every room for her, and all over the backyard. We couldn't find her anywhere. Casey then left and drove around the neighborhood to look for her, with no luck. So we then hung up signs around the neighborhood in the hopes somebody found her, and would return her to us, safely. This morning, Casey got a call saying somebody had seen a small black dog running around, but the dog had collars on, and ours, unfortunately did not. (1. Addie NEVER runs from us, she always stays right beside us. 2. Her tags jangling always disturbed the babies while they were sleeping, so she hasn't worn her collar in about 3 years.)Most of today I felt so very sad, everytime I thought about all Addie has been to us, these past 5 years. So, I set in my mind to write an "Addie Tribute" post. Luckily, this story has a very happy ending, but before I tell you what happened, here are some pictures and things about our special Addie.

When Casey and I first got married, I wanted a puppy SO badly. We did not have very good jobs when we first got married, and didn't have very much money, so we didn't buy a puppy. In October of 2005, Casey and I went over to his sister's house, and she asked Casey to go and get a box from the garage. At the time, I was selling Homemade Gourmet, and it was a HG box, so I assumed it was having to do with that. They told me to open the box, and here is what happened:


Out popped a 2.2 pound solid black, gorgeous Miniature Schnauzer! I immediately burst into tears, because I had wanted her for so long! Casey's sister, Casey's parents, and Casey had all pitched in to buy Addie for me for an early birthday present. She is still the best birthday gift I have ever recieved. For the longest time, Addie was our baby. She has always been the sweetest, most loving dog that I have ever had. She is definitely the BEST dog I have ever had, and I have had a BUNCH! The only time Addie makes noise, or is hyper, is when somebody comes for a visit. Other than that, she is always so calm and loving.








Ever since having Kailey, Addie has been SO gentle with her, and her and Addie are buddies. Kailey's first word was "Addie". She went around her school classroom talking about Addie, and her teacher had no idea what she was talking about! Here is a link to a post I made about the first time Kailey and Addie played together.




When we brought Kailey home from the hospital, and when we brought Makenna home from the hospital, Addie did this same thing:


Makenna is just now starting to notice Addie. It is pretty cute how she reaches out for her and gets excited when she sees her.

Addie is my naptime buddy. She always comes to find me when I am taking a nap and takes a nap with me, under the covers. She knows that is the only time she is allowed in the bed!

So, as you can see, Addie is a pretty important part of our lives. Thankfully, this evening, Casey got a call from a neighbor who had seen one of her neighbors with a little black dog, yesterday evening. She gave him the lady's name and number. Casey followed up with it, and it turns out the lady lives on the street behind us. We met her in the park, and the dog was in fact, our Addie! I was so incredibly thankful and so happy! I love this dog so much, it would have made me feel horrible to know that somebody kept her for their own, or was mistreating her in some way. So, even though we found her, I wanted to go ahead and post about her, so you would know just how great she is!