Kaylee's Bad Day

As you can see Kaylee isn't having the easiest first year of life with her big sister Brooklynn. Let me tell you what we think happened (we are still not 100% sure). Tuesday night the girls were playing on the floor, which they do quite often, and Kaylee was having fun for a while then she got fussy so we knew she had enough. The rest of the night Kaylee would cry whenever I sat her down. I thought she was teething or something because as long as she was being held she was fine. Well, Wed. morning rolls around and I am trying to get ready for work when my mother-in-law shows up. I was changing Kaylee's diaper and she started to cry when I pulled her legs back. I thought, maybe there is some diaper rash or something...NOPE. Still thinking nothing of it (am I a bad mom?!) I left for work. My mother-in-law called me at 8:15 and said that she thinks something is wrong because Kaylee will not crawl or pull herself up on anything...RED FLAG! Kaylee does NOT sit still. As most moms know that once your child can move on their own, they will!!!!! Anyway, I decided to come home and get Kaylee into the doctor. Well, her pediatrician was completely booked and so was the on-call doctor so we drove all the way out to Urbana to see Dr. Shuster. I tell you this because Dr. Shuster was my husbands pediatrician who moved to Michigan and has obviously returned. The 1st thing he said to me was "I remember your husband Dan." I thought to myself of course you do he was a crazy kid!! :) I love you hunny!! Anyway, we had to get an x-ray taken which Kaylee HATED and as you can see she broke her leg. It is a proximal tibia fracture and has to be in that pretty purple cast for 4 weeks. She is quickly learning how to get around. She will not let this keep her from being active. Kids are AMAZING!!!

Anyway, in light of everything that has been going on lately, I am just so grateful to be a mother! Children are fantastic and they bring so much joy and love to the world!

One tough cookie

While all the guys were outside working on the yard, I was inside with the monkeys and right when I think things are calming down, Brooklynn gets hurt. She was laughing, eating cheese and twirling in the kitchen when she went WHAM into the corner of the counter. Before I could even finish asking where her ouchie was, I saw the blood and while I was trying to calm her down she pees on me. She felt so bad that she went potty...she kept apologizing to me. It was pretty precious but I have to admit that the 30 seconds of chaos was enough for the whole day!

Today we asked her how her ouchie was and she says " I fine mommy." She likes looking at in the mirror and saying "awwwww"

She is a trooper. We call her our little boxer now :)

Have a safe weekend everyone!

We have GRASS!!!!!!!!!!

So most people wouldn't get excited about grass, but WE ARE!!! After a week of VERY hard work and some rain the yard is done! Dan and his dad worked all week to prepare the yard and then Dan's uncle helped lay sod and it looks great, right?! Not only do we have grass but we have 2 trees! It is pretty amazing how our backyard went from a muddy mess to a play area! I just wanted to show you all the pictures :) Hope you all are having a fantastic Memorial Day weekend!!

Home improvements

Ok, I am a slacker I know! As I sit at home sick today I thought I should finally update this thing. So a lot has happened! I have a new job doing hygiene...FINALLY!!!!!!!!! I love it!!!!! Right now I work 3 days a week which allows me to be home with the girls some. The dentist I work for is so fun and all the girls in the office are FANTASTIC! Brooklynn and Kaylee are growing like weeds and I am trying to enjoy every minute of it. Brooklynn is doing a TON better with potty training (unless Dan is the only one home...for some reason she won't tell daddy, but she will tell everyone else) and Kaylee is so close to walking. I am not sure that I ready to chase 2 little monkeys around, but I guess I don't have much of a choice. Dan is trying to switch his job in the army. Right now he is a mechanic for duce and a halfs, humvies, etc., but he is thinking about becoming a generator mechanic. I really like this idea because as it sits now when Dan leaves for Afghanistan he will be on the recovery team (he has to go out and get the trucks that have either broken down or been blown up...not my choice of jobs). However, if he works with generators then he will sit safely on a base and not have to travel out. Obviously, I like job #2 :)

We are doing a lot of home improvements. It all started with the bathroom, now our guest room is complete (as you can see above). We bought a new kitchen rug which I LOVE and we have a new counter height table on the way!! Dan went out last night and got a new kitchen sink AND Dan and his dad are preparing our backyard for sod (I will get pictures!!!) It is so fun to change things to make this place our own (until the bills show up of course :))

I hope all is well for my family and friends. We miss you very much!!!

Love,

Susan

Just in case you were wondering...

Dan really likes the bathroom and he told me that he would never question my painting skills again...YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think my next project will be our guest room, but I am taking my time with that one! I think we have all the colors of our house picked out but than again, Dan changes his mind a lot :) Alright, have a great night everyone!

Adding character...

I painted our 1/2 bath this weekend while Dan was away at Drill. The pic to the left was the before color and to the right is the after color. The picture doesn't so it much justice because it is a lot brighter than that, but I am finished and excited to see what Dan says when he gets home. This project really helped me to remember why I dislike painting so much...the obstacle of getting around the toilet and the sink....it is no wonder that houses get painted BEFORE all the junk goes in!!! Anyway, I just wanted to drop a note about this because it is the first really change/character that we have added to our home. I will let you all know what Dan thinks of it later...keep your fingers crossed! :)

Potty Training

Ok so here is a very quick insert about something exciting that happened to us just last night!!! We have been working on getting Brooklynn potty trained for what seems like forever now and we had ahit a bad spot where she just didn't care anymore. So we thought and thought about what to do to get her excited about the big girl potty again. We tried punishment...didn't go over well. We tried getting her own step stool so she could be more independent..that was exciting for about 5 seconds and then...of course CANDY!!!!!!!!!

Every time she goes on the potty she gets candy. If she climbs on the potty, squeezes a couple of times and then still doesn't go she gets a small candy. But if she goes potty then the candy gets bigger!!!!

Ok on to the exciting part...Dan and I spent last night taping up our small bathroom, as we are getting ready to paint it, (sorry Jackie I forgot to take before pictures!!!!). Anyway, we are in there working away when Brooklynn (who was in her pull ups for bed and normally does not care if she wets them) came in and said "I poo poo." She then pulls down her pull up and gets on the potty to go both pee pee and poo poo! We were SOOOOOOOO excited! Now if this sticks we will soon find out, but I had to share that exciting news! Have a fantastic day!!!