March 13th- March 25th

March25th

I thought with having a girl, I would have at least one child that did not like getting dirty.  No.  Such.  Luck.  Girlfriend loves to play outside.  She loves dirt.  She loves to do whatever the boys are doing.  I am in trouble.  Unfortunately, I forget what it is like to have a toddler running around and into everything.  So far this week she has pooped in the bathtub.  Twice.  She pooped on the playroom floor.  Got in the shower fully clothed.  Ate cat poop.  And ruined that cute outfit by playing in the dirt.  It is a good thing this is one of my favorite ages.  

March 24th

It is either playing together and laughing... or fighting.  No in between with these two.  Luckily today, we had a lot of laughing.  Jeff came up with a game where you have to knock the other person's ball out of bounds while still dribbling yours.  They love it.  And we love watching them play.   

March 23rd

March22nd

Have I mentioned yet that I like where we live?   This spot is a ten minute walk from our front door. Some of our friends found a perfect rope swing tree.  We spent the afternoon building a rope swing and exploring.  I just try and tell myself we did not find two rattlesnakes and they don't live that close to our house.  Otherwise, I wouldn't step out my front door.  Ever.  

March 21st

Princess Elsa.  Have I ever mentioned that I love having a girl?  Cause I do.  I pretty much love all things princess and pink.  And I am so glad she does too.

March 20th 

 March 19th

Today was eighty five degrees.  Remember... it is March.  I don't know if I am ready for the really hot days, but for now, I kinda like this.  And I kinda like those two up there.  

March 18th

So.  This may be the ugliest picture of all time, but I still kind of love it.  Crew still has not figured out how to wear swim goggles.  His ears tend to stick out like that every time he wears them.  I think it would be uncomfortable, but he does not seem to notice.  Jake's fake smile.  And Cole's closed eyes.  Who knows what any of them are doing.  But.  We had to have some way to document the fact that all three of them somehow made swim team this year.  They are so excited.  Jeff cannot wait for the early morning swim meets... 

 March 17th

Happy Luck Day.

 March 16th

A little bit of peek-a-boo.  You cannot tell she is loved by every person in this household, can you?

 March 15th

 March 14th

I am pretty much in love with where we live.  They bring hundreds of sheep out every spring to eat the grass for fire safety.  This is literally steps from our house.  That girl up there loves all animals.  One day I will get her squealing in excitement on camera because it is pretty much the best sound ever. 

March 13th

Pretty sure her booty sticking out may be may favorite thing.  It is hard work pushing that baby up a big hill!  

March 3rd- March 12th

March 12th

This has been the week of never ending doctor appointments.  Today was an especially long one.  Jake met with his oncologist.  He looks amazing.  His blood work came back great.  It is always a huge sigh of relief when we get those results.  Oncology wants to see him every three months for the next year, and then he will go down to every SIX months.  I can't believe it. I cannot even fathom going six months without taking him in.  We have been doing this for almost seven years now and it has always been such a huge part of our life.  We also met with his endocrinologist.  That appointment went good and bad.  The last two appointments, Jake had lost weight.  This time... he gained weight.  Thank goodness.  Everyone was starting to get concerned as he was getting very thin.  The bad.  He has always stayed in the 75th percentile for height.  He has dropped down into the 50th percentile.  He is still tall for his age, but they are concerned his body is not growing the way that it should due to the radiation he received.  We are waiting for some blood results to come back to determine what steps they want to take from here.  There is a high likelihood that he will have to be on growth hormones.  We should find out in the next few weeks what they decide to do depending on the test results.  

March 11th

It has been a rough week around here with doctors appointments.  Rems had her allergy testing done today.  We went to the allergist two weeks ago, but her skin was so bad, they could not do the prick testing.  Instead, they did a blood test.  For the last couple of months, she has had a horrendous rash.  It starts out around her mouth after she eats something, then moves into her eyes and eventually all over her body.  We have tried everything.  We took her off milk, thinking it had to be a milk allergy, but no luck.  The only thing that has been able to clear it up was steroids.  She was on oral steroids for three days.  It was fun.  They were, ironically, the same steroid Jake was treated with.  I hate them.  I hate that drug with all of my being.  But, it worked.  And then it came back.  So, we tried a steroid cream.  That worked too.  But.  Then it came back.  So, onto allergy testing we went.  The blood test came back positive for wheat, coconut and oats.  I just about fell out of my seat.  Wheat.  It made total sense.  Unfortunately, the blood test is only 85% accurate, so we had to do the prick testing as well.  It was awful.  She was poked 26 times.  And.  Everything came back... negative.  So.  We are pretty much back to square one.  And I am pretty upset about it.  Anyone have any ideas?  This poor girl is miserable.

March 10th

Our countdown to our Disney Cruise.  We. cannot. wait.

March 9th

March 8th

March 7th

I don't know if you can tell, but I really really really love having a girl.  Especially this girl.  And she is all girl with a whole lot of sass.  The things I want to remember when I look back on these pictures are the kisses and snuggles she gives to that baby.  I want to remember that the baby says "mama", but she repeats it as "dada" because everyone is "dada."  And finally, the skirt.  It was the first time she wore it today.  And you should have seen the way her face lit up when we put it on her.  She walked around like she was the queen.  Which, I guess around here, she pretty much is.

March 6th

Today was market day at school.  Each trimester, the kids are invited to spend the money they have earned throughout the year at market.  You can buy or sale, or do both.  Last trimester, Crew was in tears because he did not have anything to sale.  This time, he was ready.  We spent a few hours the night before getting ready for the big day.  He made monster rocks and mini bow and arrows.  Every single item he had sold and he was in a little bit of heaven.

March 5th

All four in one frame.  It does not happen often enough.  And that little girl really likes to be in the middle of things.  Rough housing and all.  Crew finally got his wish and is teaching her to "westle".

March 4th

A couple of weeks ago, this boy had the opportunity to give his first talk in church during sacrament meeting.  I am pretty sure he was blessed with the gift of public speaking.  I should post his talk, because it really was that good.  He wrote the whole entire thing on his own.  I know he is my kid, but I have never seen a twelve year old get up in front of a hundred people, tell jokes, not read his talk and not act remotely nervous.  He definitely did not get his speaking skills from me.  I still cannot speak like that in front of people.  I was so impressed with him.  I love watching who he is becoming.  I love watching him grow up.  It is amazing to see glimpses of who these little people will one day become.  

March 3rd

Jake had his annual eye exam today.  His oncologist found cataracts in his eye last year which they have been watching closely to make sure they don't cause him any problems.  Today, the ophthalmologist found NONE.  She could not see one cataract in either eye.  They do not go away on their own, so to us, this is nothing short of a miracle.  His vision was 20/20.  It was a good day.  We found ourselves once again, counting our blessings with this kid.  Every single day I am somehow reminded of how blessed we are to not only have him with us, but to virtually have no horrific side effects that we can see at the moment.    

February 16th- March 2nd

March 2nd

March 1st

What you don't see is the baby sprawled out on the ground twenty seconds later when the puppy decided to pounce on her.  I probably shouldn't have laughed, but I just couldn't help it.  She is a little apprehensive about dogs after that incident.

 February 28th

February 27th

 February 26th

Girlfriend has had a really really rough week.  Allergist on wednesday.  Well child on thursday included three shots.  After her nap, she decided she wanted to ride her bike.  She somehow fell off and hit her head on the tile.  She must have hit it in the perfect spot because when I picked her up, she went completely unconscious.  Scared me to death.  For about ten minutes after, she was pretty unresponsive.  We took a trip to the ER and she was fine but we are both pretty traumatized after the whole incident.  Just to top the whole week off, Friday she had to have blood drawn through an iv for some allergy testing.  Now that.  That was not fun.  Pretty sure she hates the phlebotomist.  And so do I.

 February 25th

New obsession.  Basketball cards.  All day.  Every day.  It is all he talks about.  He has all of the stats on every player memorized.  As soon as Jeff gets home, he wants him to put in order who the best player is so he can organize them perfectly.  

 February 24th

Allergy testing.  We have never done this before.  Allergies are a brand new ball game for us and it stresses me out.

February 23rd

February 22nd

February 21st

February 20th

Happy birthday to one of the coolest seven year olds I know.  

February 19th

February 18th

 February 17th

February 16th

We live in such a beautiful area.  I always wish we had more time to explore.  So, today we did just that.  We went on a hike and it was beautiful.