Katie's 4th Birthday

Happy birthday to my sweet baby girl Katie!

She was born weighing a mere 1 lb 7.9 oz and 13" long.  She spent 100 days in the hospital and came home a healthy baby girl, on oxygen.

My sweet friend Grace who is an amazing scrapbooker, scrap booked this page for me.  It is the story of Katie's birth.  It just so happened it was featured in Creating Keepsakes Magazine for the March/April 2012 issue.  I love this page.  Thank you so much Grace!

4 years later, we have this cutie pie. She is full of sass and sweetness.  She has a tender heart and loves to play with her brother and constantly gives compliments.

We were able to celebrate her birthday on her actual birthday.  We invited a few friends of her to come over for a tutu party.  I, with the help of my friend Brittney, made tutu's for all the little girls. 

We started the party with pizza since it was lunch time and then moved on to more interesting activities such as:  pinning the bows on Katie's hair, painting our finger nails and making bracelets.  Even Brad got in on the fun.  We passed out the magic wands and rings and they were very cute little princesses.

Katie was so excited to open her presents, blow out the candles on her cake, eat the cake and have a great time with her friends.  

 One of Katie's favorite books is Pete the Cat, I love my white shoes.  Online is a narration of the book with music and all.  We played it several times so the girls could jump around and dance.  They absolutely loved it!  It has a very catchy beat.

Happy birthday to our sweet Katie Beth.  May there be many more celebrations to come.  I can't wait to see you grow up and have your own personality and become your own person.

I LOVE YOU!

101 in 1001 days

With my recent injury (post to come) I am going to have to re-write some of my 101 in 1001 days.  It makes me sad to change some of my goals but there is no way I can do some of them.  List to come in the next week or so.  I need to figure out what I am going to do.

Cute Kiddos!

I think I have the cutest kids in the world.  They smile a lot, give me a lot of sas and are just fun to have around. I mean look at that pose with that hand on her hip.  And his hair, he just couldn't wait to wear it like that.  He has always wanted his hair spiked.

My sister in law Emily made that way cute skirt and tote to match.  She is very talented.

Random posts, random pictures

During St Patrick's week, Tyler needed to make a leprechaun trap. This is what we came up with.  We went to hobby lobby and picked out some green paper and I think we had everything else.  We collected sticks from outside and hot glued them together for the ladder.  He put the shamrocks on it and voila you have a leprechaun trap.  Tyler said he didn't catch a leprechaun but several leprechauns made a big mess in their class room.  There were chairs on top of the tables, paper all over the floor, but he did leave a few treats for everyone.  That is one happy little boy.

Tyler and Katie have been playing pirates lately.  I needed to buy some bandanas for young women and they wanted one also.  They really enjoy wearing them, a lot!  Especially Tyler.  Sometimes he ties it around his head and goes to sleep that way.  Man I love those two little ones.  They play so well together and laugh constantly, if they aren't fighting.

Brad's Surgery

Back in December Brad was playing racquetball. He went for a shot and rolled his ankle. He came home hobbling and could hardly walk. We iced it and wrapped it. After a couple of weeks it still wasn't getting any better so he went to the Dr. The Dr said he had torn his achilles and put him in a walking boot. The day before he was suppose to get the boot off, he was walking across the floor without his boot, stepped on Katie's hair clip, caught himself and tore the rest of the achilles. He said he could hear the fibers tearing. So we called the Dr, they scheduled an MRI and sure enough, there were only a few fibers still attached.

On March 8th, Brad was scheduled for surgery to repair his achilles. These are just a few pictures from that day.

Prior to surgery

In Recovery

The sling for the next few weeks.

The damage.
He received a black cast after they took off the sling.
He will be getting the cast off tomorrow and there will be more pictures to come. Even though he is getting his cast off, he will still be in a boot and still no weight bearing for about 4 more weeks.

Site Words

Tyler is working on site words in kindergarten right now. I want him to be successful and to be a great reader so we practice these words everyday. His teacher sends home 5 words. He practices them and if he feels he knows them well enough, he takes the list back to school and if he can tell them the words he moves on to the next list.

So I thought I would help him out. I have made flash cards with a lot of words on them. I have lamented them. When the list is sent home I pull those words, write the list number on the back and we practice them, in different orders.

I have put the list on our word wall. When he passes off a list, it gets taped to the wall. Also, when Tyler passes off his words, he gets a star next to that word.

We also have letters with magnets on an oil pan. This way he can see the letters, move them around to spell words but also be able to write them. I wanted to buy a white board but they are really expensive. I found this oil pan at walmart for under $10.

The vowels are red and consonants are blue. I have several sets of these letters in case we lose them or if he needs more for his word he is trying to spell.

After we have practiced his words I send him to the board, give him the word, have him spell it with the magnet letters and then write it out. I feel he will hopefully be able to learn them better. He can see them and write them. Also, this will help prepare him for spelling tests in the future.

This oil pan is also great for drawing on. This is Tyler and Katie's famous art work. They love to spell words. Katie will ask how to spell a word and then she finds the letters.

Snow Day

I was so happy to get that email this morning saying it was a SNOW-DAY!

That meant I got to sleep in right, no. My kids were up at 7 this morning. I just don't understand. When they have to get up for school they sleep forever, Saturday mornings or snow days, they are up bright and early.

Glad to have my kiddos home today and they are playing well together.

Thank Heaven!