S is for Sunflower

Thursday evening the first graders put on their "S is for Sunflower, A Kansas Alphabet" music program.

They sang eight songs including Home on the Range and We're off to see the Wizard.

An awesome part of the program was that EACH child had their own speaking line.

Aidan's line was about Maurice Greene, the world's fastest man who was born right here in Kansas City. Grace talked about the cities that begin with the letter C. They both did a great job.

It was amazing to watch 100 6 year olds come together to sing, do choreography and recite their lines perfectly.

What a proud parent moment for everyone.

Speech & language please

Besides going to the Lee Ann Britain center for weekly baby class (music, pt, ot and speech therapies)and individual physical therapy, Alayna has been receiving home occupational therapy for the past 8 months bi weekly with Magen. As she is doing so well meeting her motor milestones we are going to pursue home speech and language therapy every other week instead of the home OT.

We hate to not have Magen see us every other week as she has been a huge wealth of information and suggestions for us but, she will come once a month to check in on Alayna and help us with an issues that may arise.

Alayna is using 10 words consistently (speaking and signing) and is trying to make a lot of word approximations so we really want to continue to guide her to keep her on this successful path. Her speech therapist Valerie is very sweet and Alayna really likes her too. I look forward to seeing her speech blossom.

Sleep babies sleep!

I should have blogged about this last week because as soon as I wrote down that my normal great sleeping kids aren't sleeping guess what? They went back to sleeping through the night. I only heard one cough out of each of them throughout the night. YAHOO! I am sure it was blogging about it eh?

Well OK maybe not. I think both of them are on the tail end of their drainage situation so hopefully we will be back to great nights again every night. I know I am blessed as many of you experience sleep issue all the time. My prayers go out to you because although in college I could stay up all night at 40 I am too old to party that long, even when I have sweet smiling babies looking at me!

God knew what he was doing when he gave me my kids. They are great eaters, great sleepers and laid back like Jason. Thank you, thank you, thank you God for Aidan & Alayna being wonderfully and perfectly made by you for our family.

Now if I can get myself from waking up at 3am we will be in business. Sweet dreams everyone~

Oh sleep interruptions

I am thankful that Alayna is such a sweet spirit and is never grumpy even when she isn't sleeping well (unfortunately you can't say the same about her mother...dark circles don't become me). The past week she has decided to wake up from about 2-4 am thinking it is time to play. She has been in a great mood all smiles and giggles, so much so that all I can do is laugh at her.

I thought the culprit might be a molar coming in but can't feel one yet. Trust me with those 8 teeth I don't stick my fingers in there for long. I do think she had another growth spurt she looks taller again.

But, now with her lack of sleep she has caught a cold. Nothing big just the runny nose and cough when she lays down. Thankfully no fever. We stayed away from baby class today as to not spread it to our friends or pick up anything else while her immune system is down. As she slept through the night last night hopefully we are on the mend.

We are good with Aidan's ears although he has some residual drainage so sniffles constantly... he has always been a great nose blower but nothing is coming out. The doctor thinks his sinus' are swollen making them feel like he needs to sniff or blow but there is nothing there. It is driving Jason and I crazy! Hopefully this will go away soon too. He woke up at 2am last night (yes the ONE night Alayna gets back to sleeping through the night) and all we heard from down the hall was sniffle, sniffle, snort, sniffle, snort. It was very comical.

I am thankful for my kids even at 2 am. They always find a way to make me smile even when I am exhausted.

Fly paper

Aidan is back up and running again today. Although he really wasn't down and out, no fever etc. He isn't a complainer especially when it comes to not feeling well. When he said his ear was bothering him again I knew that the infection hadn't gone away. We kept him home just to give the antibiotics time to work and him some rest time.

We had a fun day playing together and Alayna loved it that the bus went by but Aidan didn't get on it.

In the afternoon we played with some contact paper. Aidan stuck things to it and tried to get Alayna to take them off, or to rip the tissue paper and stick it on the contact paper. Great idea eh?

She had a blast but, was more interested in sitting on the contact paper like a big fly stuck on fly paper. Oh well we got the idea of sticky down for sure and she enjoyed Aidan teaching her!

She is chasing Aidan all over the house as fast as she can crawl. He is such a good motivator. She also squatted down to pick up a toy with one hand remaining on the couch. Normally, she keeps her legs straight and tries to pick things up but ends up on her bum. But, not this time she figured it out to bend her knees and she can go up and down.

She is cruising well to the right, definitely not as fast going left and is holding on with one hand then looks to scout out where she can go next with that proud I did it smile.

It is so fun to watch them grow and learn each day.

Urgent care junkies

Yep, we love hanging out at urgent care, 4th trip this month.

Aidan came home from school yesterday saying his ear hurt like it did a couple weeks ago.

I looked in his ear and sure enough it was completely red again. So off to urgent care we go. We figure the ear infection from January 4th didn't completely go away with the antibiotic he was on so he is on another round of antibiotics. No fever, doesn't feel bad so we are home enjoying a day together and having him rest up so he can go back to school tomorrow!

A great reason to drink coffee...

When I was an assistant principal I had one of the most dedicated Christian, young women work as a special educator on my staff. She was a blessing to all who came in contact with her. Through her awesome walk of faith she has impacted numerous lives, mine included.

She and her husband Cameron have 3 children of their own but are feeling God's call to adopt a little girl from Ethiopia.

They have set up a coffee fundraiser to help them with their adoption fees.
If you love coffee (or maybe need to buy a gift for someone who does) and want to help an orphan find their forever home. Please visit their website and help their cause. You can also follow their family on their blog.

We are all called to help the widows, orphans and less fortunate than us...maybe this is where God is calling you to help today.

Upward basketball season starts

Aidan started playing basketball for Upward today. He has attended two practices and has really learned a lot. He definitely isn't a natural at basketball like he is at soccer hmmm I wonder why? But, he has improved and is learning about the sport and the rules all while learning about Jesus. What could be better?




It was a blast to watch him play this morning. Check out the video at the top if you want to see him in action. He is definitely scrappy. His coach tried to get them all to guard their man but they just kept going after the ball. So funny.


We are really proud of him initiating wanting to play basketball. He knew at tryouts he wasn't the best player but, he really wanted to play and is giving it his all. For Aidan who is my super overachiever and always wants to do things 110% this was so cool to see him step out of his comfort zone and try something that he isn't "perfect" at.


He got a red star today for awesome defense and a green star for memorizing his scripture verse.

God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 1John 1:5

Alayna was a great cheerleader and kept clapping her hands and lifting them above her head as if to say YEAH Aidan, GO Aidan! Oh she is smitten with that big brother of hers!

15 month stats

Alayna had her 15 month well check up today. She weighs in at 18 # 14 oz. and is 27 1/4 inches long. Her weight is in the 60th % and her height is in the 20th %. We think that her height was noted wrong at her one year appointment as it was 27 inches. We know she has grown more than 1/4 of an inch in 3 months. Also from her 9 month appt to her 1 year appt it appeared she grew 2 inches. The doctor and nurse think that the 1 year height measurement wasn't accurate.

However, I think she is still taller than today's measurement showed. When I measure her at home I get over 28 inches. She wouldn't lay still long enough to be measured accurately.

She was declared in great health and doing fabulous by Dr. Rozina. After a shot in each leg we were good to go. She is a tough little one, no tears!

Playdate with my pal

Today we were blessed to have LC with us while Courtney took Jace to the doctor.


Oh my did the girls have a grand time playing together.


They read books, did puzzles, built towers and knocked them down, played with musical instruments and worked on their pretend play skills.



I think they are playing cops and robbers here...All right ladies put your hands on the wall and spread em! Or maybe they were working on their audition for American Idol?













LC loved riding on Alayna's car, I even got a few giggles out of her.








Alayna had PT today. LC was her cheerleader. Every time Alayna would do something LC would clap for her...it was adorable!







They put their music class skills to good use. They played with this drum for a long time. Ms. Erin will be so proud.









We had such a fun day. Aidan was a little sad that he had to go to school and miss all the fun.

I was so amazed that they played with each other so well. Usually at this age kids do parallel play (sitting next to one another but not really interacting) but, not these two they were doing a great job of taking turns and playing with one toy together then when they got tired of that toy one of them would find another toy and they would sit side by side and play again.



Thanks for a super fun day buddy & being such a great guest. Talk your mom into dropping you off here more often so we can have more fun.

Alayna goes to U2

Although it would have been super cool to meet Bono and the gang... we didn't take in a concert today.

Instead, I am blessed to be able to continue the Bible study through Bible Study Fellowship that I have been doing every Wednesday morning for the past 4 years. They have an awesome preschool program for kids 2-6 and a program for school age kids too. I took Aidan and my nieces and they learned so much about the Bible it was truly amazing to see how it transformed their lives.

Today BSF began a new program called "U2" for the under 2 year old crowd. Yeah that I can continue in my walk and Alayna can now go with me. They are even allowing nursing moms to keep their babies with them in discussion groups. Awesome!

They played, read a Bible story and sang songs with the kids. The teachers are even using basic sign language to communicate with the kids! Alayna is already using most of the signs they are including such as eat, more, thank you, milk, etc.

When I picked her up the teachers all said how wonderfully happy she was and that she played and played and was completely content. Yeah Alayna and Yeah God for starting this new program and allowing us to take part in it.

We are blessed!

15 months

Happy 15 months Alayna,

You are our pretty princess...

you continue to amaze us with

your sweet spirit and loving attitude.

Oh what a blessing you are to us,

we thank God daily for you!

Life on the prairie

Snow day # 3 this week...the wind chills are in the negative double digits brrr.

I feel a little like Laura Ingalls Wilder today. When we woke up we found we had no water....so thankful for sisters who bring over 3 gallons of drinking water so we could drink and make some coffee and thankful for our great neighbors who are allowing us to fill up buckets so we can at least flush the toilets.
The water company has been out to check the main line....bummer not in the main line but, somewhere in the house. UGH. We can't seem to find the frozen pipe and with -30 wind chills forecast again tonight I am not sure we will find it for days. I am praying that we don't find it with a break all over our new basement carpet. AHHH!

Bonus is we get a day home with daddy. Thankfully Jason called in today to stay home and try to resolve our plumbing issue.

Alayna has really been fussing lately when she sees daddy's brown uniform come out in the mornings. She knows that means daddy is going to work. Last night when he came home he was taking off his layers of brown and she started crying so hard, we think she thought he was putting them on because it was taking so long to take them all off. Poor baby. She is a daddy's little girl for sure.


Update: Thankfully our great buddy Shane (plumber extraordinaire) suggested we start a fire in the fireplace as he thought the frozen pipes were under the fireplace and what do you know....a few minutes later running water and no broken pipes! YEAH Shane and Yeah God! Thankfully we only had to go about 10 hours without water.

All better

We are so thankful for antibiotics. Alayna and I have clear eyes again and Aidan's ear infection is a thing of the past. WOO HOO!

Today was a snow day as we are getting another 3-6 inches and tomorrow school is closed due to the -25 degree windchills that are going to hit. I am sure we will be closed again on Friday for the same reason. Say a prayer for our UPS man that he doesn't get frost bite delivering packages in the next two days.

Alayna has decided that she wants to start cruising from one piece of furniture to the next. She decided to try it from her rocking ottoman to her rocking chair today...wow was that an unsuccessful adventure. AHH, I hope we don't see urgent care anytime soon. LOL!

We LOVE urgent care (I guess)...

Seriously, another trip to urgent care? Wow, we have made 3 trips there and one hospital stay in the last 2 weeks. We must love urgent care why else would we be going back?


Today was Aidan's last day of Christmas vacation. We had a really fun day just he, Alayna and I playing all day. Aidan was in a good mood and wanted to go to Alayna's baby class but, I thought it best we stay away from our buddies for another day just to make sure we don't hand out any pink eye germs.



About 4:30 his behavior changed dramatically. He was grumpy and started complaining about his ear. I looked in his ear and his whole canal was RED! Poor boy, he was begging to go to urgent care. I diagnosed this ear infection before the doctors even looked at him.



Thankfully Jason was on an early route and was home by 5:30 and took him so I didn't have to drag Alayna out in the -10 degree weather and have her sitting in yet another germ invested sick area to pick up some more germies.



Alayna & I are pink eye free after a few days on antibiotic eye drops. She is less than thrilled with the eye drops and puts up a huge struggle each of the 4 times a day I have to put them in. Strangely enough she still doesn't mind the saline drops in her nose or having her nose suctioned out she will lay still for all of that even after the 3 day stay in the hospital with all the deep suctioning.




We are so blessed. We are normally very healthy and usually only see a doctor for our well check ups.

We pray for those families who have serious medical needs.



We have great health insurance...a trip to urgent care is just a $20 copay same as a doctors visit for us.

We pray for all those that have little or no insurance and need to see a doctor but can't afford the trip.



We have access to antibiotics.

We pray for all the millions of people around the world that are dreadfully sick and dying all because they don't have a simple antibiotic.


Lord we thank you for our abundance, even in our sick moments we know you are with us, blessing us and protecting us.

Celebrating the new year in pink.

Jason suggested we celebrate New Years Eve England style (at 6pm our time is Midnight UK time). Great idea honey! I am all for getting a full night sleep.

We enjoyed a great dinner together, wished each other happy new year, talked about our expectations for the new year (Aidan wants to adopt a little brother...wonder where that idea came from ch?), played with the kids then got them off for a long soak in the tub including a little tea party fun. Alayna received a floating tea set for the bathtub as a Christmas present. You should hear Aidan sing,"I'm a little teapot".

However, when Alayna and I woke up on New Year's Day our eyes were red, swollen and I had a headache to boot. You would have thought that we stayed up late and drank in the new year literally.
Nope, just conjunctivitis (pink eye). Alayna had a bit of a cold that moved into conjunctivitis and I quickly caught it from her.

No problem, I thought, we will head to our pediatrician's urgent care and get antibiotic drops and be good as new.

Easier said than done on New Years Day... (note to self: never get sick on New years again!)

We drove to our urgent care at 9am as their answering service said they would be open then. Not a car in the parking lot besides ours was our first clue that they weren't open.

We tried CVS (not open), Walgreens (got checked in only to be told they don't serve kids under 18 months), called our urgent care back (yeah they were open at 10am) but WAIT....the doctor that they scrounged up to work on New Years day didn't have ANY dealings with kids under 5 so they weren't taking Alayna either. UGH! Double Ugh. Everyone kept referring us to Children's Mercy Hospital (where we spent 3 days just two short weeks ago).

I opted to wait until today (didn't want to be hanging around a hospital waiting room with something as low on the call back list as pink eye...I figured we would have been there all day waiting, especially in light of all the other urgent cares in town weren't open).

Bright and early, and after much cleaning of the goop off our faces (you will be thankful that I skipped the picture taking), Alayna and I headed to urgent care once again. We were 4th in line so were in and out of there with our prescription in about an hour. YEAH for finally seeing a doctor and for modern medicine.

After a couple rounds of drops our eyes are doing much better and we both should be good as new after 24 hours.

Unfortunately, we will have to skip church tomorrow . I am sure our KP friends will be very happy not to share in our pink new year celebration!