tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15378734179343433732024-02-18T22:50:29.915-08:00The Bennett ZooSteve and Nicollehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01799055245158066477noreply@blogger.comBlogger312125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1537873417934343373.post-18623154227685831012018-05-06T23:33:00.000-07:002018-05-06T23:35:39.775-07:00Kassidy's 4th BirthdayOh Kassidy... It's so strange to think that she's 4 now when she still acts so much younger than her sisters did at the same age. However, once in a while we see a glimpse of an older Kassidy who can be helpful. Regardless, she is so fun and loving and creative. She tells the most outrageous and creative stories, and we can't even wrap our minds around how much she has grown emotionally and socially in the last 6-8 months. Here was our big girl on her birthday.<br />
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Oh the mischief in that face... So very Kassidy. I was asking her if she was excited to be 4 while she ate a Reese's Peanut Butter cup she got from the Bishopric the day before at church. She was excited for a few minutes, and at other times she has cried and complained that it isn't her birthday. So... pretty typical Kass.<br />
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We had her birthday party on Saturday, May 5th. Kassidy has been into bugs and butterflies lately, so we got her some live caterpillars that will become butterflies and they arrived this last week. She calls them "Slimey" (from Sesame Street). Kassidy also loves the pigeon from the book Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! So, that's what we decided to make for her cake.<br />
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Honestly, that pigeon constantly tries to finagle its way into doing things it isn't supposed to and is both rational and crazy at times, so it's a pretty dang good fit for our ginger. Kassidy wanted pink cake, but vanilla flavored, and chocolate filling, so that's what we did. I have to say, chocolate ganache is easy and dangerously delicious!<br />
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For Kassidy's birthday we ended up watching The Greatest Showman on the movie screen - she loves the songs. Then we ate tacos and fajitas for dinner. Whenever we asked Kassidy what she wanted for dinner she just kept naming another books she likes - Dragons Love Tacos - and eventually she said she actually would want tacos for dinner. We also had watermelon, which Gavin enjoyed, though I'm not sure I'll ever save that shirt....<br />
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Then came presents. Kassidy can tear through a gift with the best of them. She opened this dinosaur mountain from Aunt Julie first and was so excited when she saw it, shouting "Chocolate Chippy!"<br />
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You can tell the dinosaurs were a big hit. She was handing them out to people telling us what dinosaurs we wanted, all the while holding on to at least one while she continued to open gifts.<br />
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Gavin gleefully snatched dinosaurs and ran too. He fits the typical little brother stereotypes.<br />
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After gifts we did cake and ice cream quick. Kassidy loved her pigeon cake. I had her hair in cute french brain pigtails and then she tore one out right before her party started - of course.<br />
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Sunday morning Kassidy came out of her room fully dressed before we even knew she was awake in one of her new shirts and spent the rest of the day when she wasn't in church being a butterfly with her new wings and pulling her helium balloons around the house. I'd say she had a pretty good birthday.<br />
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Happy fourth to our wild child!Steve and Nicollehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01799055245158066477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1537873417934343373.post-27242972057836740752018-05-06T23:11:00.000-07:002018-05-06T23:11:03.376-07:00Mg's First Lost ToothMckayla has had a loose tooth for MONTHS! But the tooth was barely loose. Lately it started to actually move some, and then this last Tuesday we noticed that she suddenly had a shark tooth coming up behind it! Just like Ellie's first tooth... I wiggled it every day a few times as she whimpered<br />
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and whined at me, and we ended up making an appointment to get it pulled by the dentist so the adult tooth could come up into its proper place. We figured it probably had too much root to pull, but it was fairly loose, so I kept trying. Thursday night at bedtime I realized the shark tooth was now securing the baby tooth in place more, tightening things up instead of the tooth getting looser. Mckayla didn't react to my pushing on the tooth that night, so I pushed hard to one side and then to the other only to hear a distinct tear sound as the tooth loosened and came forward quite a bit. At that point she started to bleed - and cry, but we knew we needed to get the tooth out once it was that loose. After a few tries it came out! At which point I felt like a bully since half of the tooth was still root and it was probably in there pretty securely. <br />
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But, it was out! She had a bit of a hole left, but of course the adult tooth is already coming forward and she just looks like any other kid with a gap now. That's so strange to me though, where she isn't even in school yet and that gap is such a big kid look to me...<br />
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Now, just a few days later, I'm not even going to bother canceling her dentist appointment. The other bottom, front tooth right next to it is coming through behind the baby tooth too! This tooth is barely loose, and now having teeth all around it on three sides, I have little hope of getting it out before the 21st. (The dentist was booked a few weeks out for non-emergencies.) We'll keep on it, but one way or another, in the next couple of weeks MG will have no bottom front teeth.<br />
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She also has one of her top front teeth loose, and is getting two molars on the bottom. Once our kids start getting teeth, they don't stop for a while. The Tooth Fairy is going to know our house well in the coming weeks and months...Steve and Nicollehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01799055245158066477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1537873417934343373.post-31230520830460654972017-11-12T23:33:00.000-08:002017-11-12T23:33:06.398-08:00Halloween 2017I was really sick up until just a few days before Halloween, so we ended up buying random costumes the kids liked just 4 days before Halloween.<br />
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Ellie was a tiger.<br />
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Mckayla was "an Egyptian Queen." She was so excited about wearing make-up, and loved her "wings." (Also, hearing Kassidy say "a-dyp-shin" always sounds bad... but funny.)<br />
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Kassidy was a pink leopard - the perfect costume for her.<br />
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Gavin was the only one who didn't get a new costume. Each of our kids has worn this blue monster costume on their second Halloween, so he continued the tradition.<br />
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And all the kids together. The second picture is to show a perfect example of taking pictures of our kids right now... With Kassidy - the blur.<br />
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After Ellie got home from school on Tuesday we got all the kids together quickly and then grabbed a treat and a book at the local library. We then went trick-or-treating at our local hospital in the assisted living wing. Then we headed to our ward trunk-or-treat. The kids had a blast and enjoyed chili and hot dogs once they had collected their candy. It was getting pretty cold by that point.<br />
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Lastly, we visited a family friend and then saw Grandma and Grandpa Bennett before bringing the kids home for a snack and hot chocolate and then getting them to bed.<br />
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Oh, and that night this is How Kassidy put on her pajamas.<br />
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The next morning I heard her bedroom door open and she literally ran out. A few minutes later she showed up looking very similar to this picture. And weeks later, she is still completely in love with her leopard costume. We are finally getting to the point where she isn't have melt downs when we don't let her wear it or she has to take it off to go somewhere. Oh Kassidy...<br />
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We didn't end up doing any real trick-or-treating this year, but we still ran plenty and the kids made out like bandits and had a great night. We had a great Halloween!Steve and Nicollehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01799055245158066477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1537873417934343373.post-8990925493821353082017-11-12T23:32:00.002-08:002017-11-12T23:32:55.668-08:00MG's Birthday<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Mckayla wanted to have a family birthday party, but none of the cousins were with our side of the family around MG's birthday, so her party got pushed back till November. She was really good about waiting and being patient. We had planned to do treats and a couple of gifts right around her birthday, but then I was really sick for several days before her birthday and a few days after. </div>
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We finally got ice cream a few days after her birthday and then let Mckayla open a couple of gifts later that week when I didn't have work. She was so excited to open a few gifts. We gave her a couple of small gifts from us and her gift from Grandma and Papa Rose and Aunt Julie.</div>
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Then, on November 4th we had Mckayla's family birthday party. Mckayla wanted a DJ Suki cake from Trolls. I thought it turned out really cute!<br />
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Mckayla wanted to watch The Lego Movie, so when family arrived all the kids watched the movie down in the movie room while the adults chatted. MG had chosen hot dogs and hamburgers as her birthday menu, so Steve made deer and/or beef burgers and hot dogs for everyone. After dinner Mckayla was so excited to finally get to open her gifts!<br />
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This girl seriously gives the BEST reactions to gifts. The best part of the whole party was watching and listening to her react as she opened her presents.<br />
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After gifts was cake time. Mckayla loved her Trolls cake, which made getting in the zone and accidentally staying up till 2 AM working on her cake the night before totally worth it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivtk4FjkhuKwNXb8iIcEDZim5TgvTd5ShJslnQT4YolStjjpDw_6NqSLniEp3cl5VNo_ITkxHmslSDOgBG60GKkmrDf9gTlQYHEDdwS8rYWUY9THeOmoIJCVpeFnT4yMx7gUuil0P_LeM/s1600/DSC_0972.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivtk4FjkhuKwNXb8iIcEDZim5TgvTd5ShJslnQT4YolStjjpDw_6NqSLniEp3cl5VNo_ITkxHmslSDOgBG60GKkmrDf9gTlQYHEDdwS8rYWUY9THeOmoIJCVpeFnT4yMx7gUuil0P_LeM/s320/DSC_0972.JPG" width="213" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9lm3YGjn4Xc1f2etaxmX-2tZssicS0pnygFH_ZE4oJTDcvAOAar7lezFjgZHEk-QBO6l6MgaRIyc7k94ktvGjtl08A9ddYNgjXrTGxuUBuAjYzw8vzPwEUXk-pW80ODvzQXiuAVVGCGo/s1600/DSC_0973.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9lm3YGjn4Xc1f2etaxmX-2tZssicS0pnygFH_ZE4oJTDcvAOAar7lezFjgZHEk-QBO6l6MgaRIyc7k94ktvGjtl08A9ddYNgjXrTGxuUBuAjYzw8vzPwEUXk-pW80ODvzQXiuAVVGCGo/s320/DSC_0973.JPG" width="213" /></a></div>
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We had so much fun with almost the entire side of the Bennett Family at her birthday celebrating this big girl. Mckayla is so much fun. She is continuing to progress in her reading and loves doing math on Khan Acadamy online. She is goofy and mischievous but also so very caring. She LOVES preschool this year and can't wait for school next year. She is very creative and so quick witted it is scary. She can tell the most amazing stories because of her amazing imagination and quick wit. We sure love our spunky 5 year old!Steve and Nicollehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01799055245158066477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1537873417934343373.post-48762517372236242322017-11-12T23:32:00.001-08:002017-11-12T23:32:34.642-08:00Family PicturesOn October 6th we went to Green Canyon with a local photographer out of Logan and had updated family pictures taken. Getting pictures of the kids individually, together, just Steve and I, and our whole family each year has become so important to me. Yes, it always stresses me out, and Steve kind of hates it, but this process also gives me some of my favorite pictures to look back on over time.<br />
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Our photographer wanted us to meet her there about 5:00, which meant leaving our house by about 4:15 - which is still nap time. So, Kassidy was.... uncooperative. She was Kassidy. However, we still got some cute pictures of her fun little mischievous personality. So, here are some of the best photos we got.<br />
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Ellie:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO9R-5nAr8-ixetJK9biJJFWqrXKcDEnk2ql2vg2aOMFkEA-LV9KHquIdZmv4_o6ezhjStNJ2vavFUlH_lTA7_YP4lWH4QqXgzpy7COM9_pod_4fFPqfvPOs3Ap1JE2RwIF_o8WV3YmuA/s1600/FALLFAMILY-0002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO9R-5nAr8-ixetJK9biJJFWqrXKcDEnk2ql2vg2aOMFkEA-LV9KHquIdZmv4_o6ezhjStNJ2vavFUlH_lTA7_YP4lWH4QqXgzpy7COM9_pod_4fFPqfvPOs3Ap1JE2RwIF_o8WV3YmuA/s320/FALLFAMILY-0002.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Mckayla:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1hyJmsySGZOqLqVI6egBsZIPME7WvZfTH2DwwFOddK-WWKRrrw_jUeiIt8nPYL9f6GeTX9SkR89caLnHdp8gm994hDpA_fAUvzBrDDfq-ranL2R3piF9QVGV3jlTuAkC0CdOUdft0fw4/s1600/FALLFAMILY-0015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1hyJmsySGZOqLqVI6egBsZIPME7WvZfTH2DwwFOddK-WWKRrrw_jUeiIt8nPYL9f6GeTX9SkR89caLnHdp8gm994hDpA_fAUvzBrDDfq-ranL2R3piF9QVGV3jlTuAkC0CdOUdft0fw4/s320/FALLFAMILY-0015.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Kassidy:<br />
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Lots of pictures trying to get decent ones of Kassidy - of course...</div>
<br />
Gavin:<br />
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Kids:<br />
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Steve and I:<br />
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Our family:<br />
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<br />Steve and Nicollehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01799055245158066477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1537873417934343373.post-27469704353732349122017-10-08T22:40:00.000-07:002017-10-08T22:40:15.825-07:00Gavin's 1st Birthday<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
We waited to do a combined family birthday party for Gavin and Ellie where their birthdays are only a couple weeks apart. I have to admit that I was busy enough with food, cake, pictures of Gavin, etc that I didn't get many pictures of anyone else... We were trying to get some things done through the day, and most of the family coming had commitments earlier in the day too, so we ended up getting started a lot later than we had planned. We grilled hot dogs and brawts and had corn on the cob, chips, and lots of fresh fruit and vegetables as sides since that's what Gavin liked to eat best. We watched "Sing" with the family on the projector while we ate and then did gifts and cake. Poor Gavin was tired by the time we got to gifts.</div>
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However, he had two gifts that especially brightened his mood - dinosaurs from Aunt Julie, and a helicopter toy from Aunt Sheri.<br />
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It was also the time for our first boy to get his first tonka trucks, which was fun.<br />
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I made Gavin a ceiling fan cake, because that boy LOVES ceiling fans, and finds them anywhere we go that happens to have one - restaurants, warehouse stores, you name it.<br />
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Here he is with his cake.</div>
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Like I said, it was late - he was really thrilled to be sang to, considering he had no idea what was going on...<br />
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He did like his cake and ice cream though.<br />
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We sure do love our happy one year old boy!<br />
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A little about Gavin at one. He is huge. Like 28 lbs, wearing 2T clothing huge. He is so happy most of the time, but definitely has a temper. He is our first baby who had no real words before his first birthday. He is a great eater even though he doesn't have that many teeth (for our babies) and only had 6 teeth for his birthday. He's funny too, because he got 4 teeth on top and only 2 on bottom, which is backwards of most kids. He Sometimes sleeps through the night. He is cruising on all sorts of furniture, but clearly thinks far too much and doesn't walk yet. He is best buddies with Grandma Bennett and has a special smile that lights up his face whenever he sees her. His goofy grin lights up our house and he definitely has some mischief in him - although I'm sure Steve has no idea where that came from... We are just so grateful we have him, even when he decides he is manly and yells when he doesn't get his way and we are constantly taking him out of cabinets, dishwasher, and everything else. He's pretty darn fun, and we sure love our Gav-man!Steve and Nicollehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01799055245158066477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1537873417934343373.post-2994058087393833042017-10-08T22:01:00.000-07:002017-10-08T22:01:51.531-07:00Back to School<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
August 21st was supposed to be the first day of school for Ellie, but her district moved back a day so that families could see the eclipse. So, Tuesday the 22nd saw us up bright and early to catch her school bus. Ellie's teacher, Mrs. Murray seems like a fantastic match for her this year and Ellie was so excited to get back to friends and start second grade!</div>
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A couple of weeks later, after Labor Day, on the 6th, our little girls started pre-school. Mckayla is at a new school this year with Miss Mindy, who I'm not sure could be nicer and love those kids more. she loves it. Of course. </div>
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Miss Mindy set up a little photo spot before the kids headed into their first day.<br />
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MG has done so well there already and made the "High Five Club" a few weeks ago on the very first testing, where she got a pin, ribbon, and sticker and got to give everyone high fives in her class to celebrate that she recognizes all her letters. Honestly, she's beginning to read, so we expected her to make the club pretty quickly, but she was the only one in her class and was so proud of herself, which is awfully fun to see.</div>
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Kassidy is with Miss Cherie, who taught Mckayla last year. She's in a class for 3-4 year olds and only has two twin boys in her class. Unfortunately for Miss Cherie, Kassidy is - well, Kassidy - which although very fun at times, is very challenging all the other times... So it's probably for the best that she is in such a small class... We have high hopes that preschool will be good for her and not overwhelm poor Cherie. She sure does love preschool though, and asks everyday if she can go see Miss Cherie.</div>
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Of course, Kassidy's pictures are un-posed and on the move. Her coming down from a happy jump in the second picture is almost expected whenever we take pictures of her anymore. We really do love our crazy girl.</div>
Steve and Nicollehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01799055245158066477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1537873417934343373.post-58185483185398439532017-10-08T21:27:00.002-07:002017-10-08T21:27:42.617-07:00Solar Eclipse - 21 August 2017<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
We live only a couple of hours from the path of totality for the solar eclipse that happened in August, so Steve being the science teacher / adventurer that he is, there was no way we were missing the total eclipse. We drove to a small park at the base of the dam at Palisades, Idaho the morning of the 21st. We got up and out the door early, not knowing what kind of traffic we would come up against based on all the warnings on the news. We actually had very little traffic on our way to the park. Steve's friend had given us some eclipse glasses long before and we even managed to find them. That meant we had lots of time to play around and then see the eclipse come and go. The eclipse started not too long after we arrived though. It was chilly with the wind, and of course we forgot jackets - again - but we did have blankets this time around!</div>
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Everyone (minus Mom) and excited for the eclipse to start!<br />
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Kassidy didn't look at the eclipse much, which was probably for the best as we were worried about her hurting her eyes, but she was excited to see the eclipse when Steve or I helped her look. (We still occasionally hear her randomly ask if we can see the eclipse.)<br />
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Gavin was completely oblivious of course, and just enjoyed crawling around in the grass everywhere.<br />
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Kassidy is always happy to find dandelions.<br />
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I have pictures of MG smiling, but I just loved this one. Classic Mckayla.<br />
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I also love the joy on her face here as Daddy helps her see the eclipse.<br />
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Gavin was so happy to find sticks and bark from a nearby tree to investigate.<br />
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Annnnnd...... Kassidy. She was trying to crawl under her blanket over and over all over the ground. We often just saw a lumpy blanket shape somewhere on the ground.<br />
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Or laying on the picnic table. To be fair, all the girls were sitting on the concrete wrapped in their blankets pretending who knows what at different times...<br />
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Daddy made a great wind block while the kids ate their picnic lunches.<br />
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The secondary show while we checked on the eclipse was all the osprey hunting fish below the dam. We watched a LOT of fishing as the birds dove into the water and carried off large fish.<br />
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Just a fun picture of Mckayla checking on the progress of the eclipse with her collection of sticks from the day. It's hard to capture it in photos, but you can kind of see here with Mckayla and the grass behind her how the light was changing. It was so strange to see the light progressively dim and just - change - there's no explaining the different quality to the light just before totality. Strange and kind of creepy, but so cool too!<br />
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Ellie popping out from her blanket hiding from the wind.<br />
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And then we got to totality. The temperature dropped, although not for us like many people described - because of the wind. Everyone started cheering at the dam and it was just incredible!<br />
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Just before totality as the sky darkened the lights on the dam went on, which was pretty cool to us.<br />
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One of my favorite pictures - just as totality started to end. It was just so cool.<br />
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Here is a picture of where we watched the eclipse as Steve brings the last of our supplies back to the durango.<br />
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Although we didn't have much traffic on the way to Palisades, we did have traffic while leaving. You can see the cars lined up behind us. We really only had about an hour, hour and a half of bad traffic, and then it was smooth sailing the rest of the way home.<br />
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I have to say, I give Steve a hard time sometimes about his restless nature (I'm too much of a homebody in comparison) but I am always so grateful when he gets these crazy ideas for adventures because our family gets to have the most amazing experiences together. Seeing the eclipse in totality really was so incredible and I'm so grateful Steve took the day off so we could share that with our very excited girls (and oblivious little boy). Bucket list item if you ever get the chance!Steve and Nicollehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01799055245158066477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1537873417934343373.post-8925366249753854812017-10-01T22:36:00.001-07:002017-10-01T22:36:14.300-07:00Ellie's BirthdayEllie's birthday was extra special and extra long this year. In July, there had been sign-ups for mutton-bustin, which Ellie really wanted to do. However, Steve had farm work and I had swim lessons, so I went and got in line before work. Time was getting late though and I was still several people back, so I ended up asking the ladies in the front of the line if I could sign Ellie up quickly and they were so nice to let me do it! <br />
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As a result, Ellie's birthday had us eating at Panda Express (her choice) on our way to the rodeo so Ellie could ride her first sheep. (Per Ellie's request we had to go out and find Ellie a "cowgirl shirt" in red or blue because it was Patriotic night.)<br />
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We got to the rodeo early thinking that mutton bustin would be early on where it's all young kids. Here the girls are getting acquainted with the sheep.<br />
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Wrong! We were one of the last few events... It was so late for our poor, tired kids. We also learned after we got there that they didn't provide the protective equipment... Ellie was clearly nervous, but we were proud that she bravely kept going since criers aren't allowed to ride.<br />
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We learned too late that the parent can place the child on the sheep, and one rider didn't show which meant they announced Ellie wrong, but all the same - she rode!<br />
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She fell off pretty quickly - you can see they put her too far up on the sheep - and scored a 51, but she hopped up quickly, gave a thumbs up and waved (as we'd discussed to try and avoid an upset reaction) and then was proud of herself, which was the biggest accomplishment for our very timid girl!<br />
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Here are all the kids with their belt buckles. She still loves this belt buckle and talks about trying again next year. It was a huge relief for us to have had it go so well and we were so proud of her!<br />
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A few days later, on the 14th, we had Ellie's birthday party. It was her first friend birthday party and she was so excited. We had 6 friends confirmed as coming, but only 3 made it that day. We had lots of fun though. Ellie chose a "Trolls" birthday party, so we watched Trolls and had popcorn and capri suns. The girls took a break partway through the movie to make their own "hug-time bracelets," and I made Ellie the cake she wanted - a Baby Poppy cake.<br />
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Ellie then opened her gifts. Here is my favorite picture - the girls all in shock and excited when Ellie opened her new pearler beads from Aunt Julie. <br />
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We have been trying to do more meaningful, homemade gifts for the kids. Ellie wanted a "pretend face-painting kit" which I'm pretty sure doesn't exist... So, I got an idea and I made one! (I bought the brushes and pencil case obviously.)<br />
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Kassidy has dug her fingernails into the kit several times, requiring touch-ups, but Ellie liked the kit and I love giving her something so personalized that I put the time and effort into making just for her.<br />
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Ellie also opened gifts a few weeks later with family at Gavin's party - we did one party where Ellie and Gavin are only a few weeks apart. And when the package from my parents arrived she opened her gift from them. My Dad made her an amazing and personalized jewelry/treasure box. The hilarious part is that two birthdays in a row - my girls loved the rock they sent!<br />
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I can't believe our big girl is seven already. She keeps talking about her baptism next year and it is blowing my mind how big she is getting. We sure love our giggly, gappy-toothed girl though!</div>
Steve and Nicollehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01799055245158066477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1537873417934343373.post-50664833080657701842017-10-01T21:54:00.000-07:002017-10-01T21:57:42.175-07:00Summer Mini-Adventures Part IISome other quick things we did in the second half of the summer:<br />
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More quick fishing - no, we didn't catch anything, but that's not the point is it? Despite the girls' unrealistic expectations...</div>
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The kids all got haircuts on July 31st, which had been a long time coming. Ellie wanted short hair, and Kassidy needed to lose a few inches, so we decided to just go short with her too, since she hates having her hair done. </div>
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Mckayla just got a trim since she is growing her hair out to have "princess hair" although she did try to convince me to have the lady cut her hair short after she got her trim since everyone else got short hair cuts, which we denied. We also got Gavin his first hair cut. It was a HUGE change. Like crazy different. This was his fuzzy head before, and his clean cut hair after.</div>
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Needless to say, we left a lot of hair on the poor woman's floor.<br />
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We took to the kids to the local carnival that comes each year with the rodeo. The girls love the rides, so we always go on Thursday night when rides are only a ticket each. MG loved the roller coaster, although the other girls did NOT.</div>
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Steve and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary, which seems a bit crazy to both of us... We went to dinner at the Copper Mill which had delicious steak in my case and scallops in Steve's case. Then we went to the Martin Harris pageant, which was kind of hokey with the mediocre singing in the beginning, but had such a strong spirit and powerful testimony of the Witnesses of the Book of Mormon by the end. It was a fabulous night, especially given I had a rough day earlier that day.<br />
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Which brings me to another big event of the summer - I got fired! For the first time ever! Last spring I was supposed to be running the same program I supervised the summer before, but a few weeks before the season started they suddenly told me they were moving buildings because they couldn't support the pool anymore. So, I was out of a job. I found one pool that was still certifying staff (mine had lapsed while pregnant on limitations with Gavin) and hiring. I got a job teaching there Monday-Thursday from 9-1 all summer. Then, at the end of the summer they needed a new Head Guard/Instructor. I was interviewed and told I had the position. Then, a girl on staff who hadn't applied and insisted she didn't want the job, and that she wanted me to have the job turned around and got the job. I was told the manager "owed her one". Later on, she tried to blame everything on the outgoing supervisor, and when I wouldn't agree to that she started causing a lot of drama. So, I was told it wouldn't work with both of us on staff, and that even though I hadn't done anything wrong, it was too much and that I was being let go. Fun times! I still teach my lessons there, just as a private individual now. So, yay for being self-employed?</div>
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Other not-so-fun things, included health challenges with the kids through July and August, which was a blast... Most of the challenges started when my parents got here in July. Gavin had a cold that day and then woke up in the night with distressed breathing and vomiting while crying and gasping for breath. He ended up in the ER that night getting steroids, breathing treatments, and popsicles to help the swelling go down. Thankfully his breathing did normalize. We later found out we were just a few minutes from the doctor admitting him to the hospital. After that, we never could seem to get Gavin healthy, or Kassidy. By August we had Kassidy suddenly leaking some strange yellow discharge from her mouth with really swollen tonsils. We later found out that they both had bad sinus infections that had moved to ear infections, and in Kassidy's case caused major tonsil inflammation. They finally got healthy after antibiotics. In Gavin's case we first found out he seems to be allergic to amoxicillin and had to take expensive antibiotics. Yeah, it was fun. It also taught us Kassidy and Gavin have very high pain thresholds since we had almost no idea they were even sick until they were VERY sick. Once they were on antibiotics we couldn't believe how much more Kassidy was talking, how much less she was crying, and how much easier she was to be around. Obviously she wasn't feeling good, and just never really complained.</div>
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Lat this summer Reva and I have also been busy canners. We canned green beans, pears, peaches, spiced peach butter, green gage plum jam (those plums are delicious!), pickles in a few different varieties, and we still need to do apples and carrots. It has been busy but awesome to get all that good food put up for our family!<br />
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We have also made a TON of progress on the house this summer. Wyatt visiting meant we pushed Mckayla's new room into high gear. Admittedly we still haven't done our last fill and touch-up paint, but it is definitely her room now with wall decals of princesses and planets hanging from the ceiling. This is what it looked like when Wyatt came. I'm pretty proud of the work we did.</div>
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Similarly, we got the wiring done in the family movie room downstairs so we could watch a movie on the projector for Kassidy's birthday, but that project stopped there. Then, we got some temporary flooring and cheap seating and I organized all the junk that was in the room before Ellie's birthday party.<br />
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The playroom has been organized (several times), has temporary flooring through most of the room, and while my Dad was here we hung closet doors. I even organized a large part of the game closet with what I could put together and we've started doing family game night on Sundays. Ray helped us hang the last of our doors a few weeks ago, so all of our doorways officially have doors! (if not knobs...)</div>
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We also took our yard from full of rocks, scrap metal, weeds, and uneven mounds and dips to just dirt and then to flattened out dirt, and eventually laid 3 truck loads of scrap sod. </div>
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And we got a second, larger propane tank so that we don't have to fill up in the winter!</div>
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I also raked out two small flower gardens in the front yard and we have some flowers growing up against the front of the house now. I have worked some on the sides of the house, but they won't get done till spring probably at this point. Ray just laid gravel at the side of the house next to our garage as well. This is about what our yard looks like now.</div>
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Our next project will be a fence around the back yard. We already bought wooden posts, metal gates, and metal fencing fabric so that the dogs and kids can play more freely and more often. However, rain and crazy schedules have delayed our fence. Hopefully in the next week or two it will go in!<br />
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The last thing I'll put on here is that we were much more involved in farm work this year. Because of my work schedule the kids got to ride in lots of trucks and tractors and spend lots of time with Grandma, for which we are SO GRATEFUL. Here are a few pictures of the kids enjoying their time on the farm.<br />
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Oh, and a field caught fire just down our road - that was exciting. Thankfully, they saved the wheat near the fire, although they did lose the hay, the trailer and truck hauling it, and a tractor that fell into the fire trying to help.</div>
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Other fun things this summer included hikes to Willow Flats, trips to zoos, and lots of great family walks around the farm.<br />
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It has been a very busy, but great first summer in our home!Steve and Nicollehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01799055245158066477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1537873417934343373.post-66665345578661643032017-10-01T20:16:00.002-07:002017-10-01T20:16:22.700-07:00Our Newest Family MembersWhen my parents came to visit they brought their new dog Lucy with them, which the girls loved. It also reminded us of our promise to get a dog when we had our own house. However, we planned to have a yard and fence first, and had some bills come up which delayed those plans. As a result, we hadn't so much as gone and looked at dogs. That changed when my parents took Lucy back home. Only days after they left, we headed to the local humane society to see what they had as far as labs - since we wanted a family dog that could potentially be trained to hunt. They had so many labs, but most of them were really young and we were worried that they wouldn't do well on the farm without a lot more training than we had time to provide right at first. We ended up looking at a young male black lab, a couple of mixed breed dogs that were nice, and then a pair of labs that were bonded and had to be adopted together. <br />
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The mix of them needing to go together and the fact that the male lab was already 8 meant they had been at the shelter for a couple of months already and hardly been looked at. They were so sweet that we had a hard time not dwelling on them the next few days while we tried to find time between swim lessons and farm work to go back and look at them closer.<br />
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We went back on July 26th with Steve's Dad to look at them since Ray has never met a dog he didn't make friends with. We learned that they had lived on a farm somewhere in the valley and when the family moved away they surrendered the dogs in May. The shelter then tried to split the dogs up, but the female stopped eating and they eventually agreed the dogs had to stay together, but as a result the 3 year old female was under weight. We took them out and they were so sweet. So, we filled out our adoption papers and brought them home! <br />
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Their names were Tally and Whacker, because someone thought they were funny. After Steve making fun of me for not knowing what a "tallywhacker" was, we changed their names to Cally and Tracker. Too bad Ellie remembers everything and tells everyone what their names used to be, which kind of defeats the purpose of changing their names to begin with...<br />
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Anyway, they were happy to be out of the shelter. They stayed under Steve's parents' shed for a couple of nights of rain storms until we could get a kennel built and then they came across to our house. <br />
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They loved moving pipe with Steve and you have never seen anything as funny as watching two shelter dogs bound and leap into fields of ripening grain. They were out of shape, but our initial vet visit that verified we just needed to put weight on Cally, and we thought all was well.<br />
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Then about a week later Cally got hit by a four-wheeler coming down the road. Apparently she heard the four-wheeler and got excited and ran out into the road. She now stays away from the road, but we have to kennel the dogs regularly as we work on getting a fence in because Tracker likes to cross the road all the time and we were lucky we didn't lose Cally. It took several weeks, but I don't even notice any difference in her gate anymore as she runs and jumps. Cally loves to jump on her hind feet when she gets excited. We are so grateful she survived and healed up completely. <br />
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Now the dogs love when we go for family walks down the lane to a low spot where our neighbor's over-watered field drains and creates a pond. Tracker loves to splash and jump in the water. Cally loves to eat plants - they will eat green beans, peas, apples, and under-ripe squash that we have learned so far... <br />
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Cally also loves playing fetch with a ball and both dogs go nuts attacking a sprinkler. Oh, and Cally loves to chew on and destroy things like plastic pools... When we got some sod laid down in our yard a few weeks ago we also learned how much Tracker loves to roll in the grass. They're good dogs, and we are loving having them. Tracker looks and acts like a lab, but Cally is small and her face is so smiley that we think she has some beagle in her. We'll feel even better when our fence is built and they aren't so penned up. But we are all happy to have our dogs, even me surprisingly. I have to admit I was not excited at all to get the dogs, but I spent part of their first night out in the shed with them through the rain storm, and they are definitely my dogs and I have zero regrets about getting them!<br />
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Steve and Nicollehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01799055245158066477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1537873417934343373.post-90227364862129760602017-09-24T22:42:00.002-07:002017-09-25T08:20:28.245-07:00Spokane Trip and AfterJune 30th, after a single make-up swim lesson (puke in the pool always throws things off) we headed out for Spokane to visit my family. I hate to admit, I was in full swing of not taking any pictures, so I have basically nothing to show from our trip... However, we had a great time barbecuing and catching up with family at my Dad's house on the 1st of July. The kids had lots of fun playing outside and seeing cousins for the first time in a few months, and making friends with my parents' new dog, Lucy. Ellie especially loved Lucy, and would move around my Dad's yard with her while she was doing her "reading" we told her to do during the other kids' naps each day.<br />
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The other events of that week included:</div>
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1. A bucket list event for me. Steve and I went to Phantom of the Opera put on by The Best of Broadway cast while we were in Spokane on the 6th. It was so much fun and something I have wanted to see since I was a teenager. Seeing it with Steve made it that much more special. We could not believe who intricate the stage sets were - like mind blowing - and just enjoyed being "us" for a bit. It was fabulous!</div>
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2. Lots of fun new health firsts for our family.<br />
For instance, we learned (repeatedly throughout the summer after this) that Mckayla reacts rather strongly to mosquito bites anywhere near her face with lots of swelling. We later did some research and learned that this is not completely unusual, but was a new one for us! Poor MG looked like she had a good shiner. Later in the summer she had a huge swollen spot between her eyes on the bridge of her nose, and again another swollen eye... And then Kassidy had a swollen eye like this a few weeks later. Fun.<br />
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We also learned that Kassidy had hurt her teeth and not just her lip when she sat down hard in the tub and caught the edge of the tub the week before. We had checked her teeth and not seen any issues and even took her to the doctor because she was acting a little off after. The poor girl had such a swollen lip and black inside of her mouth for a while, but no signs of issues with her teeth till a few days after we got to Spokane, when they seemed a little shadowed - and were loose. <br />
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We later found out she killed the two top front teeth, but they firmed back up so they are viable unless they abscess, loosen up, or rot. They are now dark grey and I miss her white smile... I have since learned that it is so common for kids to kill teeth through falls and injuries, but I still feel like they look like we just haven't taken care of her teeth...<br />
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Despite these hiccups, we had lots of fun visiting family in Washington. When we left on the 8th we also brought my nephew, Wyatt home with us for a couple of weeks. We hadn't planned on bringing him home with us until just a few days before we left for Spokane, so we had a big rush of finishing Mckayla's new bedroom in the basement and buying a bed so that we would have a bedroom for him when he came back with us.<br />
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While Wyatt was here I was still teaching swim lessons Monday-Thursday and Steve was doing farm work, so we didn't do much special. However, he had fun with the girls (despite him and Mckayla developing a bit of a sibling rivalry over time) and loved riding in tractors and grain trucks. Here he was all dressed up for church with Ellie.<br />
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We did have one big special trip planned, which was an extended family reunion on the Bennett side that he happened to be here for. We went camping up East Canyon for a long weekend. Our extended family was so great and welcomed Wyatt right in. Kathy and Ryan were especially fantastic with him taking him fishing for hours one day. We had lots of fun swimming with the kids one day too, until I started feeling sick that afternoon. We then had a major rainstorm during which I ran out and threw up into the trees during the storm. I spent the rest of the trip in a bunk-bed room sick at the condo the oldest generation was staying in. That trip was not fun for me. However, the kids had so much fun and I'm glad they had a great time with family!<br /><br />
A few favorite stories that I was told: Kathy and Ryan took our two oldest girls and Wyatt fishing, but Wyatt was hooking everything around him. So, they asked him if he wanted to fish with a lure instead of a hook. And he did. For hours. With just a lure - no hook. To be fair, he caught the same number of fish as everyone else did, but hilarious none the less... Then Ryan gave the two lures to Wyatt that he had used - just the painted metal oval mind you - and Wyatt was so excited that he would give them to him that it was the sweetest thing I've seen in a long time watching his big grateful hug to Uncle Ryan.<br />
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Mckayla also took to family, but to much older second cousins who she decided were awesome. This was while I was sick, but the teenage girls were so sweet to MG, making her a craft, letting her eat with them, holding hands with her as they walked places, etc. Mckayla called them her "best friends" to everyone and felt so cool to be with the big girls.<br />
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After Wyatt had been here for a week or so my parents also drove down so they could ring him home with them. One of the best parts of my parents visiting these last few trips is seeing both of our parents get along so well. We love it. And we're so lucky. We're lucky in who our parents are, that they're so loving and supportive towards our family, and that they get along so well. <br />
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Before my parents left we also did some fun things with them and Wyatt. We took them to the Dinosaur Park in Ogden. There are so many fun dinosaurs outside and they have amazing fossils inside! This deinosuchus skeleton with Wyatt is so huge!</div>
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We had to take some pictures of Kassidy with triceratops where that's her favorite dinosaur.<br />
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Here are the kids with yet another incredible and huge fossil.<br />
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Here are the four kiddos talking to one of the paleontologists working in the office. I have to say, it's so awesome that they have the windows open so that the kids can come right up and watch them work and speak to them! This was my favorite part of the dinosaur park.<br />
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Here's Kassidy with another ceratopsian.<br />
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There were so many incredible dinosaur statues outside. <br />
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They just added a new Spinosaurus which was neat to see.<br />
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Kassidy took to my Dad in a major way when we went up to Spokane, and picked that right back up when my parents came to visit. It makes my heart happy to see one of my girls so close to the man that I have always been so close to and means so much to me.<br />
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Wyatt loved the displays of dinosaurs attacking each other. They were pretty cool...<br />
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Gavin spent most of his time in the backpack.<br />
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The kids just wanted to get through the outside displays so they could play at the park. It was a pretty fantastic park.<br />
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Gavin enjoying the shade while the big kids played.<br />
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All the kids after lots of fun play at the park.</div>
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We also took the kids and my parents to Golden Spike where the Trans-Continental Railroad was completed. They did a reenactment of the driving of the last spike that we watched. It was hot, but really interesting.</div>
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Here Dad was teaching Mckayla about the construction of the railroad.<br />
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Everyone watching the reenactment.<br />
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The cast of the reenactment afterword.<br />
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They also had these AMAZING old engines. The downside was that they have some broken track so the trains had to stay in the shed instead of bringing them out. The upside was that because the trains couldn't be moved they were letting the kids go through one of the engines, which they loved.</div>
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Our last stop with my parents and Wyatt was Orbital ATK. It's a business just a few miles from Golden Spike where they build rockets - like, real rockets. They have parts of missiles and rockets out where you can see them, and the kids loved climbing on them.<br />
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This was my favorite piece there - a huge part of a rocket with the NASA logo on it.</div>
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The kids were running in this huge tube, and Kassidy was counting to play hide-and-seek which was hilarious with the other kids five feet from her.</div>
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A view of most of the missiles from the parking lot.</div>
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My parents left with Wyatt on the 23rd and we were sad to see them go. It's always so fun to have them visit and see family. We are so grateful they make the drive to come see us and the kids!Steve and Nicollehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01799055245158066477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1537873417934343373.post-54955419495594199312017-09-17T22:44:00.000-07:002017-09-17T22:44:13.095-07:00Mini Summer adventures Part 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Here are a few of the fun things we did with the kids that we actually remembered to take some pictures of...</div>
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First, in June we went and rode horses at the neighbor's house. Our neighbor Lena is so good about getting the kids on her best trained ponies and horses. We planned to do a lot more of this through the summer, but between farm work and my work schedule it didn't happen more than a couple of times sadly.</div>
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Lena was great working with Ellie on leading Twix by the reins on her own.</div>
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And each of the girls got a ride, of course.<br />
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Kassidy mostly rode with Mckayla, but in typical Kassidy fashion was much more interested in the other horses, cats, cows, or any other animals around.<br />
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Or, this pink ball.<br />
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Even Gavin enjoyed sitting in the saddle for a few minutes.<br />
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Steve and I also got turns because Lena and the girls insisted, but those were some really bumpy, awkward rides on such a little pony...<br />
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Another day we took the girls fishing again at a local reservoir. Ellie's early fishing luck continued. We couldn't believe she caught this fish - before we even had all the kids out of the car! We decided it was a little Blue Gill.<br />
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Mckayla got her own massive catch as well - a little Perch. Those were our only other catches of the summer between our few, quick fishing trips. We hope to do more fishing next year as the girls loved it.<br />
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Another fun hobby we had this summer was watching killdeer nests. Our first nest got destroyed, but this second one got marked so it would be safe. Then one day Mama killdeer was going nuts - which honestly is amazing to me to see to this day - doing the broken wing act. We went and checked the nest and sure enough it was empty!<br />
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We eventually had to listen closely and watch where mama went to check after we walked away and found three little baby chicks!<br />
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Steve was careful to wash his hands in alcohol before he touched this baby to show the kids and then we put them back. After just a few days the chicks are mobile and we didn't see them anymore - although we "enjoyed" listening to killdeer in the early morning hours all summer long...<br />
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Ever wonder what 144,000 lady bugs looks like? They fit into just two canvas bags... We had a weevil problem in one of our hay fields and Steve and Ray decided to try using ladybugs to kill the weevil where the timing wasn't right to spray insecticide. So, when the ladybugs arrived, it was a family affair releasing the lady bugs into the fields.<br />
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Steve took the two little girls (Kassidy was in front) out on a four wheeler to release his sack.<br />
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And Ellie accompanied Papa.<br />
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While Grandma and Gavin hung out. These two are such good buddies and it's awesome.<br />
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So, there are a few of our mini adventures from the first part of summer. We had a pretty fun June, even working around pipe and my swim lesson and guarding schedule.Steve and Nicollehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01799055245158066477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1537873417934343373.post-64773006703188275592017-09-17T21:52:00.002-07:002017-09-17T21:52:32.255-07:00Free Fishing DayThe second Saturday of each June is Free Fishing Day here. We missed last year, but wanted to make sure that we got to take the kids this year. There is a fish hatchery here that does fishing for just kids on free fishing day each year, and we figured that was our best shot of the kids catching anything, so we headed there first.<br />
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We did mess up in assuming that June 10th would have nice weather, so when the day started off chilly and drizzling, we didn't actually have any coats for the kids... But they had fun anyway.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0HX-fTXGBI_sN9gV6gkzU0t16U_1_gz9yZfo0A6aRrR8BuYpp6gNXmTrzyYXMlUYm_Qy1DWR8Vd00PJg5og_8_E8O3S0prn-CEUOX6S62Do2smkAmMhvh5vyxIjaELn0cJyDVX5INXBU/s1600/DSC_0458.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0HX-fTXGBI_sN9gV6gkzU0t16U_1_gz9yZfo0A6aRrR8BuYpp6gNXmTrzyYXMlUYm_Qy1DWR8Vd00PJg5og_8_E8O3S0prn-CEUOX6S62Do2smkAmMhvh5vyxIjaELn0cJyDVX5INXBU/s320/DSC_0458.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />The Gav-man watching everything from the background.</div>
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We couldn't put poles in until 9:00, and at about 9:010 and 20 seconds Ellie had one of the first bites of the day, leading to one of the first fish of the day. She was a little excited... She caught her second fish about 3 casts later. You can see how thrilled MG was for all of her big sister's success...<br />
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Our next fish came two at a time as Kassidy and Mckayla both caught their first fish at the exact same time. Kassidy also was jumping up and down, and soon after one of the rangers was over talking to us about all the excitement. The staff there were great interacting with the kids, ours and others who needed more help. <br />
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Kassidy caught her second fish soon after, but MG kept losing fish and breaking lines. Also, all the fish with no caution got caught pretty quickly, so by 20 minutes in everyone around the pond was getting a lot fewer bites. Poor Mckayla was getting a bit frustrated as she had seen her sisters catch fish so quickly. Eventually though, she caught her second fish (limit 2 each) and all of the smiles were well worth the wait.<br />
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Here were the big fisher-women with their catches.<br />
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Right after we went to a reservoir in the area, and Ellie reeled a fish in to where she could see it before losing it - once again on her very first cast. I'm afraid she may have rather unrealistic expectations when it comes to how successful she will be each time she goes fishing. However, this was such a fun day and was one of Steve and my very favorite memories from the summer. We will definitely be making this fishing trip a yearly tradition!Steve and Nicollehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01799055245158066477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1537873417934343373.post-51116712013058545432017-06-11T17:02:00.000-07:002017-06-11T17:02:06.664-07:00End of School 2017On May 24th Mckayla had her preschool graduation. I was at my American Red Cross WSI class for work - and not happy about it. Steve and Ellie went to graduation while Grandma and Papa Bennett watched Kassidy and Gavin so he could get pictures of MG. Technically Mckayla still has one more year of preschool, but we put her in the 4-5 year old class last year to challenge her, not knowing that Idaho won't let you put a child in Kindergarten before their 5th birthday.<br />
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Mckayla had a great year with Miss Cherie, her preschool teacher. She had some ups and downs with following the rules and interacting with her classmates, thinking she should be able to have her way all the time, but we have seen a lot of improvement in her writing and coloring as a result of preschool. Mckayla also started reading some BOB books at home this year, which has been fun. Here are some pictures from her graduation.<br />
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The kids all sang some songs on the stage first.<br />
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These next two pictures are of a goofy song where the kids eventually have thumbs up, elbows back, bums out, knees together, tongues out, and eyes shut while turning around. <br />
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Then all of the kids got diplomas and trophies. Steve said all of the kids got a trophy just for finishing the year, but if you ask Mckayla she got the hand trophy for being the best at shaking hands. Classic Mckayla stories...<br />
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Mckayla and Miss Cherie. I love that if you look at her diploma picture, our happy girl who always makes goofy faces for pictures made a mad face - supposedly because the light was bright in her face.<br />
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Steve also loves that there is a typo on her certificate so that it says Mckayla "competed" preschool, because he says that is more accurate.<br />
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May 25th was Ellie's last day of first grade. What do say about Ellie's year? She liked her teachers. That's right, teachers. We ended up switching Ellie just after 3rd quarter started. Although her teacher was nice enough, we kept hearing different stories at home about a lack of control and classroom management that had us concerned. We met with the principal and teacher a few times and thought we had things fixed to hear more troubling things from Ellie that seemed like the teacher was just trying to cover her tracks more with us. The worst part was that Ellie had gone from a mostly self-directed table in Kindergarten and having no trouble and a great attitude to having a terrible attitude about her school work and only doing what she thought she absolutely HAD to. We worried that although Ellie could coast through the year (her grades were fine) and be ok to start next year, that the work ethic, attitude, and expectations she was creating for school now would follow her through the rest of her life. So, we changed teachers, because we had completely lost faith in her teacher as sad as it was. Ellie's very first day in her new class she came home with about 10 times more school work she'd gotten done in the day. Her class even felt different. Kids were more on task and focused. It was a great change for Ellie. Ellie left Kindergarten at a beginning second grade reading level according to her state test. At halfway through the school year Ellie only had 34 reading points in her old class. She finished the year in her new class at 167 reading points. That's the kind of difference we saw as she switched teachers. It was also fun to see Ellie get really into these chapter books about fairies by Daisy Meadows, even though they're honestly too easy for her... Ellie's test scores the end of the year had her reading around a 4th grade level. She did have some ups and downs feeling like she had friends in her new school this year, but Ellie also tends to be a bit dramatic and emotional... Our biggest issue was that Ellie consistently found other girls who she was convinced were her friends, but sounded to us like they were bullies. Hopefully our many talks about how real friends act will eventually lead to Ellie standing up for herself more... All things considered though, we came out the other end of the school year fairly well, if more nervous about who her second grade teacher will be. Here was Ellie on the last day of 1st grade.<br />
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It's so crazy to me that next year we will have a second grader as well as two kids in preschool. Mckayla will go to a new preschool next year to get ready for kindergarten and Kassidy will go back to Mckayla's old preschool for her first year in the 3 year old class. Here's hoping that she doesn't lead a revolt and try to take over the preschool in the first couple of weeks. We already apologized to the teacher for our "Wild One." But she sure is fun!Steve and Nicollehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01799055245158066477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1537873417934343373.post-49464182472090813872017-05-06T23:17:00.000-07:002017-05-06T23:17:11.495-07:00Kassidy's Birthday Party<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
We celebrated Kassidy's birthday on May 6th, when cousins were with their parents so the kids could play together. Where it is only Kassidy's third birthday we just planned to have a laid back family birthday party. However, we somehow gave ourselves a lot of projects to do in order to be ready for the party on Saturday...</div>
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The main project that comes with any of the kids' birthdays is making a cake. Kassidy decided WEEKS ago that she would have a triceratops cake, and there was no changing her mind however I might try. I finally decided that making a triceratops silhouette would be acceptable. Then, because I seem to try something brand new with every cake, I made marshmallow fondant for the first time and made dinosaurs out of the fondant. These are a few of her most commonly talked about dinosaurs.</div>
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The main dinosaur would of course be the triceratops. I also played with a new cake decorating tip that my parents got me and that is what made all the orange stars. Kassidy picked out the pink and blue beads and decided she wanted white frosting, but a rainbow of colors, which gives some insight into the seemingly random colors chosen.</div>
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Here is her Eudimorphodon on the side of the cake.<br />
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And the Tyrannosaurus Rex on the back side of the cake.<br />
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I didn't have room for the Apatosaurus. Here is my overly large triceratops down the side of the cake. I actually liked him going off the side like this, even if it wasn't intentionally done that way to start with.<br />
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I was pretty pleased with how the cake turned out. It was rainbow chip inside (per Kassidy's request) with strawberry and cream cheese filling.<br />
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The other big project we had that I didn't take pictures of was that we decided it would be fun to set up our downstairs family room with the surround sound system and projector and watch a movie for Kassidy's birthday. Since she loves dinosaurs, we watched The Good Dinosaur, and ate Papa Murphy's pizzas (her favorite food). This was a much bigger project than we gave ourselves time to accomplish and Papa Bennett and Steve put in a lot of hours Friday night and Saturday to get it done. However, listening to all the kids giggle together, and sitting on our used sectional we recently got for that space while looking at a room full of family watching a movie in OUR basement - an awesome moment for me today...<br />
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After the movie and pizza we came upstairs to open presents. Here is our birthday Triceratops excitedly running around with her balloons and happily wearing her "dinosaur skeleton" shirt.<br />
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We got her some more shirts that weren't hand-me-downs and fit her interests right now. We had her open those first, knowing they wouldn't be very exciting further into the gifts...<br />
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Here she was excited about a new dinosaur book from Grandma and Papa Rose. She got comfy and had to flip through the book before she moved on to more gifts.<br />
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She gained a beautiful bow from Aunt Julie's gift and as soon as she saw it said "Ok, let's go." and tried to open the box. However, it was getting late so we were shoving gifts at her and kept her opening presents.<br />
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Steve and I got her a stick pony and she was excited and announced "I have a pony princess!" which is a favorite phrase of hers from Storybots Silly Songs.<br />
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One of her favorite things was this little train set from Grandma and Papa Bennett with Dinosaur Train characters.<br />
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I made her wait till the end to open the last few gifts, knowing we probably wouldn't get her back after she saw them. First, her new stuffed triceratops from Grandma and Papa Rose. A triceratops is the only answer she would give us when we asked what she wanted for her birthday, so we knew she would be excited.<br />
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Next came this project of mine. I saw a wall decal on amazon that was a little girl leading a triceratops. It was so perfectly Kassidy - who will introduce herself as Triceratops to people. But it was black and boring. Then I saw this great rainbow watercolor of a triceratops on etsy. I wanted to combine the ideas, but wasn't sure I could pull it off. Some visits to the craft store, calls for advice to my sister Jennifer who paints with watercolors, and a LOT of hours and self-doubt later, I was really pleased with how her picture turned out. It so captures Kassidy at 3 for me right now, and I hope she loves it for a long time and understands that it was a gift of labor and love, which makes it my favorite gift I've given her, because there's a bit of me in it.<br />
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Her last gift was the giant rainbow triceratops my parents got her, and she immediately started playing with the two triceratops together - almost like we discussed she would.</div>
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Don't you love when you inadvertently coordinate gifts? So here is our little ginger with her rainbow triceratops next to the picture of the little ginger girl leading her rainbow triceratops!</div>
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After presents we got right on to cake as it was way later than we had originally planned for. Kassidy held her two triceratops the whole time and happily started the birthday song to herself again.<br />
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She did pretty well blowing out candles one at a time, even if Steve had to lift her chin so she stopped blowing under the third candle.<br />
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And that wrapped up our party. All in all, I think it was a big success for our little dino-lover. Kassidy tries our patience, but she is also so spunky, hilarious, and loving. She is exceptionally bright and I love her original and creative way of looking at things. We sure love our little Triceratops! Happy birthday, Kass!<br />
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Steve and Nicollehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01799055245158066477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1537873417934343373.post-6958296992079031932017-04-30T22:42:00.001-07:002017-04-30T22:42:55.428-07:00Kassidy's Birthday<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
One tradition in our family is that on their birthday, our kids get to go choose a place to get some ice cream (or often frozen yogurt). Well, Kassidy's birthday was on Sunday when we don't shop, so we decided to go out Saturday to get her birthday treat. Then we had a rather dramatic dinner where I fought for a solid half hour to get Kassidy to eat one bite of meatball - literally - and when I had decided we weren't going, Kassidy finally took a bite. Welcome to life with Kassidy... By now it was getting late, so we just headed to one of our closest ice cream shops. </div>
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The girls each chose a flavored sherbet, watermelon and lime.</div>
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Gavin decided to celebrate being 8 months old by trying butterscotch milkshake with Daddy and LOVED it after a hesitant first bite.<br />
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Kassidy loved her watermelon ice cream.<br />
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The big girls being goofy to show us their colored tongues. <br />
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Then today Kassidy picked her dress out for church and I got her ready to go. She looked so cute I grabbed a few pictures of our birthday girl. Actually, I took a lot of pictures of a very wiggly Kassidy...</div>
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After church Kassidy's nursery leaders gave her a gift, and they hit it out of the park with a stuffed stegosaurus. She is definitely our dinosaur girl. We also gave her a new outfit as a small gift where she will get her gifts from us at her birthday party. Again, she got a "dinosaur skeletons!" shirt as she is so in love with all things dino right now.<br />
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After dinner we just did a small treat, so she had candles in chocolate pudding. It was fun to think back to when she hated all chocolate as a baby. She was so excited to sing happy birthday to herself. <br />
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A couple fun Kassidy quotes as of late. When I took Gavin's helmet off for a break this evening she brought the helmet to me and told me "He wants to be an astronaut." This is the way she has looked at his helmet the whole time, and especially at first it helped us to not feel so bad about his helmet that he was being an astronaut. Today she also found a piece of paper I was practicing watercolors on for her birthday gift and she saw the bleeding colors and promptly announced, "Uh-oh... The rainbow is broken!" That girl sure does come up with fun ways to look at things.</div>
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Kassidy is often so challenging for us. That remains true. She is so fun when she is fun, but is much less mature and yet more independent than her sisters were at the same age. We have lots of fits but lots of laughs and snuggles too. I love watching her excitedly bounce over and over when she is so happy about the smallest things in life. We sure do love our little ginger! Happy 3rd birthday to our Kassidy-Coo!Steve and Nicollehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01799055245158066477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1537873417934343373.post-1057711323096290742017-04-30T22:17:00.001-07:002017-04-30T22:17:56.706-07:00Mckayla's Run-In with the Law<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
This last Monday Mckayla's preschool went on a field trip. I haven't gone with her on any field trips because I have our Wild One (aka Kassidy) and a baby to keep track of and feel like more of a distraction than a help. However, Grandma and Grandpa offered to take the kids so I could focus on MG. So, I drove Mckayla and a couple other girls to our local Courthouse to talk to a deputy from the Sheriff's department.</div>
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The kids first got to talk to the woman who runs dispatch.</div>
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Then they got to take a look at a jail cell. Mckayla said she thought the room looked pretty comfortable - probably because she didn't have to share it with Kassidy...</div>
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Mckayla was the only one who was willing to climb into the driver seat. There's a metaphor there somewhere...</div>
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Then her and some of her classmates checked out the back seat, and we hope that's the only experience she ever has in the back of a law enforcement vehicle.</div>
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Mckayla is not shy, so she enjoyed talking to the deputy.</div>
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I love that Mckayla's preschool class did this. It's so important for children to see law enforcement officers as helpers who they can go to in time of need and not be afraid of. The officer was really kind to the kids and they had a lot of fun during their brief visit.</div>
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My favorite moment came during our short drive back to preschool. Mckayla was asking lots of questions and I was trying to field them. Suddenly Mckayla went quiet and then I heard her whisper to one of her classmates, "My mom is really smart." Where I am often doubted until Dad reinforces what I have said, it was a great thing to hear she thinks I know what I'm talking about.</div>
Steve and Nicollehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01799055245158066477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1537873417934343373.post-75927173707598711572017-04-16T22:04:00.000-07:002017-04-16T22:07:11.811-07:00Easter 2017<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Alright, so this blog was originally meant to keep family that lived far from us up to date on all the fun things the kids were doing. Well, we still have half our family far from us, so although this blog is literally years behind, I am going to try and get back at it. My problem in the past was trying to catch up. I realized that getting back to blogging is more important than trying to catch everything up from the last year and a half or so, so I am starting today and trying to keep it current instead. With that being said, here are the fun things we did for Easter.</div>
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We started with an egg hunt on Saturday. The big girls had been at a birthday party, and Kassidy had refused to nap, as had a teething Gavin, so if you wonder why everyone looks tired... They were. We tried to split up the big girls and Kassidy to make sure Kassidy got her share of more readily apparent eggs. Instead, Kassidy was - well, Kassidy. She threw a fit and refused to get any eggs in her section because she wanted to go be with the big girls. She wouldn't even pick up this egg right in front of her, or the others she ran to and then ran away from frustrated...</div>
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Mckayla found eggs on the porch. We were at Grandma and Grandpa's since they like - have a yard.</div>
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Kassidy was much happier when we gave up and let her go to the big girls' section and just dropped some of her eggs there.</div>
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Ellie finding some of the more hidden eggs.</div>
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Kassidy was finally content to go find eggs in her section when it wasn't a requirement. I love that girl...</div>
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Mckayla excited that she found one of the four "mismatched eggs" which had a little bit of change in them. That girl is so excited about money right now.</div>
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Grandma had gotten each of the girls "winder-rounders" and they enjoyed playing with those for a while once they had collected all the eggs.</div>
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Ellie with her "winder-rounder."</div>
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You can't tell in these pictures, but the wind was blowing and those things were spinning FAST.</div>
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It was such a beautiful spring day! Even if the wind was a bit chilly.</div>
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During this time the guys were content to hang out on the porch. I love this picture of three generations of Bennett men. </div>
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Daddy and his boy.</div>
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Gavin meeting Kingston.</div>
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Our happy little guy.</div>
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That pretty well took care of Saturday's fun for us. </div>
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Sunday we had a pretty busy day where we had a TERRIBLE night with MG being overly tired from the birthday party and waking up crying till she was hyperventilating and scared she couldn't breathe. And, I was teaching Relief Society... But, we did manage to get a few quick pictrures of the kids all dressed up in their Easter best before church.</div>
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Because things were so frantic in the morning we didn't end up doing baskets until after church. As a result they were a bit rushed so we could get to dinner at Aunt Sheri's in time, but the girls still had fun and Gavin got some treats and a couple small things too. Here the girls were excitedly watching Daddy bring out their baskets.</div>
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The big girls got fishing poles as they are so excited to go fishing this summer. They also got some small toys and treats. I forgot to get pictures of their baskets ahead of time this year...</div>
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Mckayla was excited about her striped socks and about getting some new shirts that aren't hand-me-downs.</div>
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Kassidy must have shouted "I got my own panda!" for a solid 5 minutes. It was glorious...</div>
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Ellie clearly didn't read the box to realize it was a puzzle before she opened it and was pretty excited.</div>
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And here's Gavin showing off his new Broncos tie and rattle.</div>
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The big girls were excited to take a picture with their new stuffed animals.</div>
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This year was a little strange with unknown territory for us as we have never done anything with the Easter Bunny before and the big girls suddenly had a great deal of interest in what the Easter Bunny brought. It did lead us to a good laugh though when I was explaining to Ellie that we do our egg hunt on Saturday to have more time to focus on the real meaning of Easter on Sunday - the Resurrection of Jesus Christ - and that actually helps take some pressure off the Easter Bunny. At which she responded, "Yeah, they do egg hunts on Sunday in Canada probably." Goofy girl.</div>
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Also, one of my many accidental traditions that I love - here are the kids' baskets that their Easter gifts come in each year. We added Gavin's basket this year, and I love that they are all hand-decorated with ribbon, but all different too.</div>
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So, that was our Easter. We hope you all had a great day and got to reflect on the joy that we can have from the miracle of the Resurrection of the Savior. We are so grateful to know that He lives!</div>
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<br />Steve and Nicollehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01799055245158066477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1537873417934343373.post-17367357015729179172016-10-23T00:05:00.001-07:002016-10-23T00:05:31.996-07:00Gavin's Birth StoryGavin Hyrum Bennett was born August 29th, 2016. Here is our story about the events leading up to his birth.<div>
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I went in for my 36 week appointment and was having some cramps, so my doctor checked me where I had dilated early with my last pregnancy. Sure enough, I was just starting to dilate - being at 1 cm and about 50% effaced. </div>
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Me on August 10th at 36 weeks pregnant for Steve and my anniversary date.</div>
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The next week I was officially on maternity leave and had hit 37 weeks, so we were ready for a baby any time at that point. At my next appointment on the 15th I was at 3 cm and 80% effaced, so we had made good progress that week and the doctor said he would see me at my next appointment - if we made it till then. </div>
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August 20th I woke up at 2:15 in the morning to contractions. By about six or seven that morning I couldn't sleep through them any more, so we called Steve's parents to come in case we needed to go to the hospital where my last labor went fast and we were at a 3 already. After walking around our block of townhouses for an hour or more, the contractions had completely stopped. It was so strange to be positive we were having a baby that day - and not.</div>
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However, we went to our next appointment on the 22nd sure we would have made good progress, only to be told I was still at 3 cm dilated but was almost completely effaced. The next week I had hardly any contractions and they were all irregular. I was getting really impatient. We had an induction date scheduled for August 29th since late July. Our deductible reset in September, and Steve's work was changing providers and we weren't sure they would cover the preferred hospital where we live, which also happens to be the only hospital our doctor can deliver at. Not wanting to pay our large deductible twice in six months, or worry about where we could deliver, we set an induction date for the 29th to give us as much time as possible to go into labor while still allowing us to be checked out of the hospital by the end of August if we made it that far. We were sure we would never make it that far, and our doctor was too. The furthest I had ever gotten into a pregnancy was exactly 39 weeks with Mckayla. </div>
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That being said, August 29th found me 39 weeks and 2 days pregnant and found Steve calling the hospital at 5 AM to find out when they wanted us to check in for our induction. Much to our surprise and delight, they asked us to be there at 6:15 AM, so we collected our things, grabbed fast food breakfast on the way, and drove the 15-20 minutes to the hospital. Our girls had all gone to have a sleepover with Steve's parents the night before so we could go to the hospital whenever they called us in and Ellie could get to school.</div>
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We checked in at the front desk of labor and delivery at just about exactly 6:15 AM. </div>
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By 7:20 they had us checked in, changed, and hooked up to low level pitocin per my request. My last two VBAC's had both overridden my epidurals while on pitocin and we wanted to use as little as possible this time around. The nurse was fine with that, and I started the pit and small contractions around 7:20 while at 3.5 cm. The nurse said that the doctor would probably be in and break my water in about an hour. At almost exactly 9:00 AM Doctor Fowers came in and checked me. We were at a 4, so he broke my water and warned me that things would move quickly now and I could have my epidural any time. I wanted to wait till the contractions got hard to get my epidural. So I waited. And at 9:14 I was breathing hard through much stronger contractions and asked them to call for the anesthesiologist knowing it would take some time to get my epidural. </div>
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That epidural was awful. Our anesthesiologist used older techniques, so the nurse warned me he would want me to lay in bed on my side to get my epidural rather than sitting like my previous two in Kennewick. One problem, three letters, SPD. My Symphesis Pubis Dysfunction had returned this pregnancy, and I hadn't been able to lay on my side without severe pain in just seconds since about month four of my pregnancy. The nurse and Steve had to work together to get me on my side and move me to the edge of the bed. Even with pillows between my legs for added support I was in terrible pain - on top of contractions - and cried through the whole process. To top things off, my epidural was not comfortable and fairly painful going in the way the anesthesiologist did it. However, at around 9:45 I had survived and was trying to get comfortable in bed with my epidural in place, and Steve assumed his waiting for a baby position.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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They told me the signs that would mean it was working - lessening pain, heat and tingling in my legs, etc. That came - on my left side only. We started re-positioning and the anesthesiologist came back and slightly adjusted the placement of the epidural while I breathed through the contractions which were still easily felt on my right side. The nurse told me I should not still be in that much pain and kept coming in every 15 minutes to keep hitting my pain medication button for added relief, but it never worked. My contractions had taken off by that point and at 10:13 I was already at 7 cm. Then the epidural seemed to fail almost completely as the contractions and pressure moved downward and the baby obviously was coming down. The nurse checked me where I was so obviously in a lot of pain and having to breathe through very strong contractions with little to no relief. </div>
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At 10:41 she called for Doctor Fowers to come deliver the baby, and we started pushing just a few minutes later. I pushed three times each on 3 or 4 contractions, which I unfortunately felt the pain of the entire time. The contractions were relentless and close together, but we got the baby's head out and then the rest of him, and at 10:51 AM, our baby boy came into the world. (I saw the clock behind the nurse, and he actually came out at 10:50, but she didn't turn around to call out the time right away, and 10:51 is his official recorded time.) Steve and I were both emotional as we considered all the worry that had accompanied this pregnancy. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQa3qeNnngtLsuh86ffKvPnUXiAnPue3D1Jn3k9UMzgL_1GivvyryOkqX_UQDbwyO50HqJtMnvaWBdPomMGQ10Xq85vfFoyOJA5PsTYE24ZeThdHLZyNU77zwXgHCw4V2j1dbB0C8tAtM/s1600/DSC_0069.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQa3qeNnngtLsuh86ffKvPnUXiAnPue3D1Jn3k9UMzgL_1GivvyryOkqX_UQDbwyO50HqJtMnvaWBdPomMGQ10Xq85vfFoyOJA5PsTYE24ZeThdHLZyNU77zwXgHCw4V2j1dbB0C8tAtM/s320/DSC_0069.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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I love this picture of Steve and his son. I just see the love and pride and joy in it.</div>
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Oh yeah, and Gavin was born with the LONGEST fingernails!</div>
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The doctor commented that I must have had a bleed at some point, which I had - and apparently it was rather large and had left bruising type discoloration across much of the placenta. I couldn't see anything, but Steve said it looked as if my bleed had been much worse than we ever thought, and we were grateful again that everything had healed - and that we hadn't known how bad things really had been in there. Apparently our baby boy had also done some acrobatics in his second trimester because he had a true knot in his umbilical cord. Our doctor wasn't concerned about it, and just pointed it out to Steve when Steve cut the cord. Once again, I never saw it, but heard the discussion.<br />
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Steve and I had both felt strongly about a name for a few weeks before, and as soon as we saw our baby boy, we both agreed that he was indeed Gavin Hyrum Bennett. Gavin was simply a name we had liked and felt good about. Hyrum is his Great Grandfather's name, and Steve felt strongly about naming him after such a wonderful man. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0rwi_q20n1c2mf7Xl1cMZ7IpcsOB3B1kGV_ELiagE5EMOD2tMLOyV0D0ceGLQqdqId8C2yyIhlCuMtOGtKez2-12NegLbeoM_CmVKLteOytjfjyKx__4pwrI_Go_1aqdtghehJLNl3bQ/s1600/20160829_183223.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0rwi_q20n1c2mf7Xl1cMZ7IpcsOB3B1kGV_ELiagE5EMOD2tMLOyV0D0ceGLQqdqId8C2yyIhlCuMtOGtKez2-12NegLbeoM_CmVKLteOytjfjyKx__4pwrI_Go_1aqdtghehJLNl3bQ/s320/20160829_183223.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Gavin came into the world at 8 lbs. 15 oz and 21 inches long. His head was 38 cm in circumference. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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He was a decently big baby, second only to Mckayla in our family who beat him on every statistic.</div>
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For the first time, I had no stitches or major recovering to do, so I got to hold and nurse Gavin right away. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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He followed all our previous babies by nursing well and then sleeping far too much. He ignored everything we did to wake him up to eat though, so the nurses had to deal with it even though they wanted him eating more than he was. Here we stripped him naked and everything, but he still wouldn't wake up to eat.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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About 3 hours after Gavin was born they moved us up a floor to the recovery wing of labor and delivery. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I finally got to eat and was pleasantly surprised by how good the hospital food was. I mean, cheesecake, baked macaroni and cheese, Caesar salads, and much more - all fairly delicious.</div>
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That night Steve brought the girls and his parents to meet their new baby brother. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The big girls were so excited to see him, and Kassidy was so excited to see me. She was running around the room meowing, crowing, and climbing on me repeatedly. That girl is funny... Then the girls went back to Grandma and Grandpa's so we could settle in with Gavin.<br />
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This picture cracks us up because if you look closely you can see writing on Steve's face from sleeping on a hospital pillow without a pillowcase.</div>
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Steve and I slept horribly in the hospital this time around though. (Us trying to get naps the next day as a result.)<br />
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That night Gavin had to get his heel pricked several times for blood sugar tests where he was a big baby, and they were worried he would fail them where he wasn't eating regularly, but he thankfully passed them all. They finally gave him his bath once he passed all his tests. That morning he also was circumcised by our pediatrician and by that evening we were thankful that both Gavin and I had been given the all clear to check out and go home. This was our little guy heading home on the 30th of August.<br />
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Before we left we had a photographer take pictures of us and Gavin after loving our photos of Kassidy in the hospital when she was born. Here are a few of them.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This is one of my favorite pictures of the whole shoot - Steve with his boy.</div>
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Another one of my favorites.<br />
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We also spent our first night at home just the three of us, which was good because is was a ROUGH first night... And then, we began our new life as a family of six. It's still unbelievable to me that we have four children, and that we have a son. <br />
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Really we are just so grateful that after all the stress, limitations, and fears of the last several months, that Gavin is here with us safe and sound.</div>
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(Sleeping in the bassinet that all the grandchildren have used as newborns.)Steve and Nicollehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01799055245158066477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1537873417934343373.post-29490908780438684642016-01-03T21:33:00.000-08:002016-01-03T21:33:36.600-08:00FebruaryOk, it is downright ridiculous that this blog is a YEAR BEHIND. So, even though I won't have/remember a lot of the little details of the last year, I'm relying on Facebook and pictures to get the big events recorded so I can catch up! With that being said, here were some of the bigger events and fun things that happened in February 2015. (I know!)<br />
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On February 8th Miss Kassidy started moving forward with purpose a little at a time. <br />
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She also had a rough couple of days and when I got desperate and threw a binky at her one day, she spontaneously decided to become a binky baby. She was in love with them from this point on.</div>
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Lots of Kassidy developments came that weekend as the 8th also saw us beginning to mix formula and the milk we had left to slowly wean her and get her to take formula in her bottles. (Seriously miss our fantastic pediatrician who helped us through that transition.)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgdqPtfYgFs-7IJbSSlAlyU3jfW6PriWITI_iQR8pz6m_doV4WuYxjPc1IRJv0C7kT1_RkiCyv4Ft3bQLb2O7Go1f2eJ1nSyiyOnfKoMLqVQDt656SuyG2GlCzSasrtCQdSWDNyPDYi4k/s1600/20150221_142548.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgdqPtfYgFs-7IJbSSlAlyU3jfW6PriWITI_iQR8pz6m_doV4WuYxjPc1IRJv0C7kT1_RkiCyv4Ft3bQLb2O7Go1f2eJ1nSyiyOnfKoMLqVQDt656SuyG2GlCzSasrtCQdSWDNyPDYi4k/s320/20150221_142548.jpeg" width="180" /></a></div>
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Here she is taking a bottle while I heat my shoulder because my shoulder kept mysteriously seizing up on me all month. I never did figure out why, but eventually it worked itself out.</div>
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Some of my favorite Kassidy developments (I know, but they change so much at this age!) were that she would clap and say "Hi!" and "Yay!"<br />
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A few days later Mckayla hit a big mile stone as she went to the dentist for the first time. She did so much better than Ellie at her appointment it wasn't even funny! MG is hilarious though, because whenever she's unsure of a situation she just gets very serious and takes everything in.<br />
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That same night we began quite the adventure as a man came and knocked on the door fairly late at night holding a duck and asking if it was mine. Come again? Yes, he had found a hurt duck nearby in the road and decided for whatever reason it might be ours or we might know who it belonged to. Given the fact that some people down the road had roaming chickens I guess it wasn't THAT weird. But it was. And the duck got away from him. Into our window well. Under a huge pile of leaves. Yeah....<br />
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So, we left the duck there to see if it would get out. It didn't. So I called animal control - who told me to call bird and game or whatever it's called - who told me to call state patrol because they often pick up animals after hours - who told me to find a vet to take the bird to. Did you know that our county had some limited bird flu, so you can't transfer that duck across county lines? And that most vets won't touch a wind animal even to put it down because you have to have special permission to deal in wild animals? MANY phone calls, the next morning I found one vet in the county who would take the bird - in Prosser. So, the next morning, when the bird was still alive, I trapped it in a towel so I wouldn't get bit, put the bird in an empty cage we had, and packed up the girls after Ellie got done with preschool so we could take the bird to the vet in Prosser.<br />
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The vet took the bird in (it had a broken wing) to see what they could do, and we left. I never did hear from them if they had to put the bird down or if it healed, and I honestly kind of prefer it that way. When the girls asked what happened to the bird I just told them we hoped he had gotten better, and could honestly just leave things at that. Yes, Steve knows he is married to a bleeding heart...</div>
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After the vet, it was lunch time so we stopped at the McDonald's there in Prosser to get the girls food and make the drive worth it for them. They called it "Old McDonalds" which I like because it means we obviously don't eat there very often...</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit7K7KhrTwFhitS5PWNi1n4c-LipU9z_JEGcqQxjz7xGEPxgUU07Llqvw08Q5s1shcFSm9ntZp06vC4iyuCX7JPJx4V-WL8CtWxzvuv1XFQ_LZdq0o1rQTJtoBC_njEf26B0F36FBd2yY/s1600/20150212_142424.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit7K7KhrTwFhitS5PWNi1n4c-LipU9z_JEGcqQxjz7xGEPxgUU07Llqvw08Q5s1shcFSm9ntZp06vC4iyuCX7JPJx4V-WL8CtWxzvuv1XFQ_LZdq0o1rQTJtoBC_njEf26B0F36FBd2yY/s320/20150212_142424.jpeg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgar4gQZpfbRNkq0ULA_vnCZ51NJMXUSerisCATeHZOVO3SB_5JwsaE-o3DDMSBoZKKnk9amYyIdznzCG5bUapp4AUrhaThl1IL-1828A8p6asAghyphenhypheno7DVCg4KtCo6gZGYv5mvRFq_tVxY/s1600/20150212_142352.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgar4gQZpfbRNkq0ULA_vnCZ51NJMXUSerisCATeHZOVO3SB_5JwsaE-o3DDMSBoZKKnk9amYyIdznzCG5bUapp4AUrhaThl1IL-1828A8p6asAghyphenhypheno7DVCg4KtCo6gZGYv5mvRFq_tVxY/s320/20150212_142352.jpeg" width="180" /></a></div>
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The big girls loved playing and Kassidy enjoyed taking her first whack at french fries.</div>
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In the beginning of the month we seemed to be making progress with MG's potty training again and after Ellie was purposely using her pull-up as a bathroom at night, we decided it was time to change things up. We eventually learned that an incontinence pad was not the same as a pull-up to her and motivated her to try and not have accidents at night! On the 20th Ellie was dry the whole night with us taking her potty once or twice in the night, and we continued that pattern while she earned daily small prizes for being dry. We had a few small accidents, but something obviously clicked where her body was finally ready to go all night without having accidents, and Ellie picked a prize to work towards when she could be dry for a whole week in a row. Here are pictures where she made a princess shrinky-dink bracelet and a foam sticker picture.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnT9D9Eto0NO3fpkpLf7I7wvWs6TM0GDRXSrf0LPTeYtLVX8oLq-kENsLLMPOosZLOogfnk7_yMcN5tEgqzw8_Qh-_M2baJLIRGlkcQ1-_WpyQ5lc_nOA0vBIoW13Smh5YezgCYLJNHWY/s1600/20150224_142850.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnT9D9Eto0NO3fpkpLf7I7wvWs6TM0GDRXSrf0LPTeYtLVX8oLq-kENsLLMPOosZLOogfnk7_yMcN5tEgqzw8_Qh-_M2baJLIRGlkcQ1-_WpyQ5lc_nOA0vBIoW13Smh5YezgCYLJNHWY/s320/20150224_142850.jpeg" width="180" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2pQLPkURQYPrKkRF13efoNgIluQL8XI1vA9MhzylrPiQHB8Uuqw2uCc_WLlpAS5Dg7b_FK9XPUPOnMK8FpG3b9kLg0pn06m5-tM1JzwBEWvpUpfgoVUZX8JgXXMSzthcXpbrdoIu_uF8/s1600/IMG_2606.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2pQLPkURQYPrKkRF13efoNgIluQL8XI1vA9MhzylrPiQHB8Uuqw2uCc_WLlpAS5Dg7b_FK9XPUPOnMK8FpG3b9kLg0pn06m5-tM1JzwBEWvpUpfgoVUZX8JgXXMSzthcXpbrdoIu_uF8/s320/IMG_2606.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Other fun things from that month: include the weather getting warm enough for Mckayla and I to start venturing out to parks during Ellie's preschool. She was so adventurous and would amaze me at the ladders and things she would climb at just 2 years old.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgnOcds3DqmVm5xowZNYuTWC_OmniCzkabxVgeBVOHxbIhl8-EI73Aw-OLIpa3Jg5zHebfkVloAu7wz9NJ3RHGJlJFhiTYJRCsI36T2On5dBd4gGhiU-DyVfiZRM2AoMH88sA1-iqEWbE/s1600/20150217_121051.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgnOcds3DqmVm5xowZNYuTWC_OmniCzkabxVgeBVOHxbIhl8-EI73Aw-OLIpa3Jg5zHebfkVloAu7wz9NJ3RHGJlJFhiTYJRCsI36T2On5dBd4gGhiU-DyVfiZRM2AoMH88sA1-iqEWbE/s320/20150217_121051.jpeg" width="180" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu4Gal0f59tjbwLD1qaEIrNc1QexxJywNjmzW1YDksj2SIaeZCE4bowgz2trOO6U7MaiLjTsF6-lTOR7mIGI7SY-bIJHRkverVkZBXty3VID1pRcGJ0-gLfibfow-JW44a1ksgNC-Q4-c/s1600/20150217_121033.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu4Gal0f59tjbwLD1qaEIrNc1QexxJywNjmzW1YDksj2SIaeZCE4bowgz2trOO6U7MaiLjTsF6-lTOR7mIGI7SY-bIJHRkverVkZBXty3VID1pRcGJ0-gLfibfow-JW44a1ksgNC-Q4-c/s320/20150217_121033.jpeg" width="180" /></a></div>
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This also meant that Kassidy went on a swing for the first time on the 20th. She loved it, if only because she enjoyed playing with the chain.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjdbsnH41lptN5j247TDPuUVDp-S9sViEyPXcxyVZ6gpgLZQly3JOCR9U5QxwtB0nwIABq2L2Fvh14Xq-jRph4Tz1CW2OCofhrhwWVNQD5LcqBzVFdVyNYZxCWr89ugL41iQHunBQGxDQ/s1600/20150220_123848.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjdbsnH41lptN5j247TDPuUVDp-S9sViEyPXcxyVZ6gpgLZQly3JOCR9U5QxwtB0nwIABq2L2Fvh14Xq-jRph4Tz1CW2OCofhrhwWVNQD5LcqBzVFdVyNYZxCWr89ugL41iQHunBQGxDQ/s320/20150220_123848.jpeg" width="180" /></a></div>
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The girls also provided us some awesome entertainment with their "dinosaur hunts". Daddy would hide their toy dinosaurs and they would make tinker toy guns to go hunt them down. Daddy was proud. This day Mckayla cracked me up as she dressed up as a princess and then used her princess wand as the barrel of her gun. She assured me "I only shoot t-rexes, Mommy. If you see a t-rex, Mommy, you shoot it!" Ok sweet girl, I will.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNzh-OavLLLkbcWMz-EwEBYGatiUT8lsdtn182idtO-OPtHq3Jfs2XrpCTeP_wSXrY-iIMTqGITz52pM3_0rPrEIJ4fF2zEV6RI6acjZxlOF2rul4goLIH0hY7-5bHAvLfc9N1mwOX2fg/s1600/20150227_132428.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNzh-OavLLLkbcWMz-EwEBYGatiUT8lsdtn182idtO-OPtHq3Jfs2XrpCTeP_wSXrY-iIMTqGITz52pM3_0rPrEIJ4fF2zEV6RI6acjZxlOF2rul4goLIH0hY7-5bHAvLfc9N1mwOX2fg/s320/20150227_132428.jpeg" width="180" /></a></div>
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While MG's dress up tends to be fairly princess-like, Ellie's can be quite eclectic. </div>
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I also had the pleasure of watching my friend, Holly J's kids one day, so that meant I had 6 kids 4 and under for a few hours. It was an adventure, but a fun one as all of our kids pair up fairly closely and had buddies to play with. The biggest issue was Kassidy trying to maul poor Cort constantly...<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizkgf5vhGb1VdXQwdgRIoTCHSHrdCT4QNZkTB2fi1UGFEzYwxYlb4BmeXqo6CO2Fx6BQrNeXr_ZuZqaYgGz3YK8zVtfT8Va_B3iwhbi9Xz-VjpHjPhMNqdIkCpYGQlI1fby5hvBCnFm8w/s1600/20150213_131636.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizkgf5vhGb1VdXQwdgRIoTCHSHrdCT4QNZkTB2fi1UGFEzYwxYlb4BmeXqo6CO2Fx6BQrNeXr_ZuZqaYgGz3YK8zVtfT8Va_B3iwhbi9Xz-VjpHjPhMNqdIkCpYGQlI1fby5hvBCnFm8w/s320/20150213_131636.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I also had an experience where I was extremely grateful for my lifeguard training when Kassidy choked on a yogurt drop at stake conference and I gave her back blows till she threw up in my hand and was fine, all with no one the wiser. Mom level - expert. HA!<br />
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We also celebrated Steve's birthday, which the girls and I get much more excited about than he does. And then on the 14th we continued one of my favorite family traditions, our Family Valentine's Dinner at home. As usual, we all got dressed up and Steve and I cooked a fancy meal and the girls were big enough to help choose some of the sides. They are always running wild, even in dresses, so it can be quite difficult to get decent pictures, but we always document the day, so here was what I got.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2Y3D_jwBhfwrRsu6y6Mb5YdS1SQ_ZZPlvuKcUi5Sg-ktunkRwdOZpUGP6uIEhLVrY9-0RWYnTor44GVWUPgZh0BBo_Sn-teV5ouiFt_QDNyYSLVEOsiNzZ_pfD6XCtY_hsQmaqVxp50A/s1600/20150214_165909.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2Y3D_jwBhfwrRsu6y6Mb5YdS1SQ_ZZPlvuKcUi5Sg-ktunkRwdOZpUGP6uIEhLVrY9-0RWYnTor44GVWUPgZh0BBo_Sn-teV5ouiFt_QDNyYSLVEOsiNzZ_pfD6XCtY_hsQmaqVxp50A/s320/20150214_165909.jpeg" width="180" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgVUbASe80F4eJPxoyXkHA535juN3IrRKjp2yU8JS7lbc09HSQLGrZfSkmoV1QwkqEXjMEIipzFSiFCJACEjElqC_6tjiDOd2o_beXalMSaTcXC-m2MddLTqV-Dy3s472EPwALVj7ikKk/s1600/IMG_2571.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgVUbASe80F4eJPxoyXkHA535juN3IrRKjp2yU8JS7lbc09HSQLGrZfSkmoV1QwkqEXjMEIipzFSiFCJACEjElqC_6tjiDOd2o_beXalMSaTcXC-m2MddLTqV-Dy3s472EPwALVj7ikKk/s320/IMG_2571.JPG" width="240" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXgoe5llOyosVQ5assVK-JoszjuqPwFfOd8emz0wdSbJGdPUHhpgeZKUgYzzQad7PBTH5F6Al68vkJc3mJvMX5ucH9OE1wlSneT8ARLslMrRb3RLBVE6OEFvwRVGedQ3ZKrJLYDWISoGk/s1600/IMG_2568.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXgoe5llOyosVQ5assVK-JoszjuqPwFfOd8emz0wdSbJGdPUHhpgeZKUgYzzQad7PBTH5F6Al68vkJc3mJvMX5ucH9OE1wlSneT8ARLslMrRb3RLBVE6OEFvwRVGedQ3ZKrJLYDWISoGk/s320/IMG_2568.JPG" width="240" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4OB-PysC82EFsqBCqZod6ktKU14NfyX0GWIu8rq7Tvkl6faJ75QKhMEGPy7yUvviHKneDfPWZjWDsW7GvQRt44KLluHPinjx93TTZvynMgX8EKTAzY9j2IN5i3oP6-qojcjni8cbNB7I/s1600/IMG_2561.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4OB-PysC82EFsqBCqZod6ktKU14NfyX0GWIu8rq7Tvkl6faJ75QKhMEGPy7yUvviHKneDfPWZjWDsW7GvQRt44KLluHPinjx93TTZvynMgX8EKTAzY9j2IN5i3oP6-qojcjni8cbNB7I/s320/IMG_2561.JPG" width="240" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU5Jq5CO-h_refnJkn6LkKuF6Z7a0LTr8rjpcoGuFkgz5torUSKZeVTav7czXvtdt2iIfaezYT-Vr0V9ZhAic4CAEjyDQlaccGGemvVDaIqZALDhG_tehrGoABGEv74pA2RC5VlcE7B_s/s1600/IMG_2560.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU5Jq5CO-h_refnJkn6LkKuF6Z7a0LTr8rjpcoGuFkgz5torUSKZeVTav7czXvtdt2iIfaezYT-Vr0V9ZhAic4CAEjyDQlaccGGemvVDaIqZALDhG_tehrGoABGEv74pA2RC5VlcE7B_s/s320/IMG_2560.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtit9lHgHZx182YEEqFgvJaQ6HcEfdDbFCF_8UTvSjodUifW2hjkAyPYYV7yv9gUz4kCb92n98WhfP82EihWkRTFtCsVa2Ek24NhDrVLXcBYav81X2OMGoMxW5R9LGGm4k2iXlwqy-N9A/s1600/IMG_2553.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtit9lHgHZx182YEEqFgvJaQ6HcEfdDbFCF_8UTvSjodUifW2hjkAyPYYV7yv9gUz4kCb92n98WhfP82EihWkRTFtCsVa2Ek24NhDrVLXcBYav81X2OMGoMxW5R9LGGm4k2iXlwqy-N9A/s320/IMG_2553.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Our dinner this year included crescent rolls, steak, crab legs, asparagus, and strawberries.</div>
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The best family shot we got for the night.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8ZBe3MSXPyATxwe8E0fW88N7zRzAeEJY3P73J2FBb-Vjzn85FyPX8Rb3bwRnsm7BDWg8hCn2Sh0LW-SOuXnAcJXxT54Epen7Rk6O5YieShyphenhyphenueIvsAUi95oxxjB16vfb_iiK6dOzn0Qgw/s1600/IMG_2578.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8ZBe3MSXPyATxwe8E0fW88N7zRzAeEJY3P73J2FBb-Vjzn85FyPX8Rb3bwRnsm7BDWg8hCn2Sh0LW-SOuXnAcJXxT54Epen7Rk6O5YieShyphenhyphenueIvsAUi95oxxjB16vfb_iiK6dOzn0Qgw/s320/IMG_2578.JPG" style="cursor: move;" width="240" /></a></div>
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Yeah, I have to admit, Steve may fear February each year as he thinks he's getting old and decrepit, but this tradition gives us something to look forward to every time Valentine's Day rolls around.<br />
<br />
A few last fun things that happened in February... <br />
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Kassidy had a well check on the 19th and her stats were 21 lbs 1 oz and 29.25 inches tall. She officially had the big Bennett head, and was wearing 18 month clothes. She now had 5 teeth through and was crawling and working on eating table foods. <br />
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Ellie told me one day, "Mommy, thank you for giving me DNA to do taco tongue!" (rolling your tongue) Yeah, she's not your average child.... lol<br />
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Speaking of DNA, Steve and I learned through a family finder application through the church we attend, that we are 13th cousins once removed. Nothing like being able to pull that into conversations and see if people get uneasy or not!<br />
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Lastly, poor MG was having some nightmares about bugs and spiders. Daddy - ever the scientist - had the solution. He told her about how one of her stuffed animals - a bushbaby - eats insects. So, bushbaby would come sleep with her and keep any insects or spiders away and eat them. That bushbaby had renewed importance and increased love, and she still has him sleep on her bed. So cute, and such a funny, loving Daddy!<br />
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Anyway, that should hit most of the major, and fun things we did in February. Now, I am officially less than a year behind and hope to keep making progress over the coming days and weeks!Steve and Nicollehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01799055245158066477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1537873417934343373.post-7723441240233419852015-06-22T00:16:00.000-07:002015-09-20T21:12:34.414-07:00JanuaryOur January started off in Preston. January 1st we went and had a girls' night at Aunt Lori's house. Unfortunately Grandma couldn't come after her surgery, but Aunt Lori made sure there were lots of fun crafts for the girls and Moms, too. Lori made sure my girls had a lot of fun painting little owls, which the girls still love. Bridget had lots of fun with Kassidy. And all of the rest of us made Thankful trees. It was lots of fun.<br />
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The next day our big girls had fun playing out in the snow with Daddy. We didn't get snow where we live this year, so they were really excited! Granted, it was cold, so they didn't last very long, but they enjoyed it and also liked the hot chocolate they got after.<br />
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This picture was from our final night before we left. Steve said this is his definition of cold - seeing the pink on the mountain tops as the sun goes down. It was beautiful.<br />
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On the 3rd we drove hom from Preston. As soon as we got back, the girls were very excited to open up their new drum set from their Aunts Kathy and Lori. The first picture is from the day we got home. This has seen a great deal of use. Ellie enjoyed dressing up in some of their new Christmas dress-up clothes and playing in the second picture.<br />
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It was a rough return home for Steve and I. As soon as we got back we both got stomach bugs. Then, around the middle of the month I got all stuffed up and sick. I was just about ready to give up on breastfeeding so I could take some medication or something to help me breathe, sleep, and eat. After a couple weeks I got better, but later in the month, Steve got the flu and had to take sick days because he kept coughing till he was sick. We got to take turns keeping the kids busy so the other one could rest, but we survived.<br />
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We also had a rough time with potty-training Mckayla. We realized that she kept having accidents - only at home! Which was frustrating to say the least. We were having a hard time getting her to care. Eventually we had to go back to washing her with cold water after accidents and giving her treats when she used the bathroom. We were using every technique from the very beginning of potty-training just to try and get her to care about her constant accidents. It was rough, but the only good thing is we knew it would end - eventually.<br />
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Kassidy just kept growing by leaps and bounds. She started sitting up independently and figured out how to pull toys out of her toy basket so she could sit and play on her own happily. I love that stage... where babies can sit and keep themselves happy with toys but aren't mobile yet...<br />
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Kassidy also discovered the joy of these mesh food bags. We thought these were so silly with the older girls, but then tried them with Kassidy and she loved having cucumbers, apples, berries, and other food in her mesh bags.<br />
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By the end of the month Kassidy was understanding some basic signs like food, milk, more, and all done. She also started shaking her head, clapping, and was starting to accidentally scootch backward and could barely get her stomach up off the ground. It is so fun to see all the abilities a baby adds as they grow so quickly!</div>
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A few other fun things from the month. Steve saw a mouse in our kitchen towards the end of the month. He set traps for nights, but the peanut butter kept getting licked clean. He finally caught the mouse on the 25th and we were actually kind of sad about it because it was a tiny mouse but was a worthy adversary. <br />
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We also attended some Ready! for Kindergarten classes. I have enjoyed the program immensely and think it's a fabulous asset for our family and community. I asked about becoming part of the program where we have enjoyed it so much and I enjoy teaching and informal education from my college degree. I was so excited to have the director of the program excited to have me come observe and get ready to teach the next session!<br />
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We also were so grateful to have an experience at the very end of the month which showed us once again the way the Lord cares about the details of our lives. We have been really stressed about where Ellie will go to kindergarten next year because we are zoned into what is probably the worst elementary school in the city. I happened to mention to a friend that we weren't sure about getting a transfer to a better school, and she told me the deadline was the next day! We called the district, and sure enough that was the deadline. We got her transfer request in just on time. It doesn't mean she'll get to that school, but it did give us comfort that the Lord knows this is a big concern in our lives right now.<br />
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So, that was the end of January. We were sick a lot, but thankfully it was a slower month after the busy holidays so that we could try to recover. The next month was much busier though, so it was a good thing we had a slower January to get ready for a busy February!Steve and Nicollehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01799055245158066477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1537873417934343373.post-26805516417382418492015-04-13T00:00:00.002-07:002015-04-13T00:00:39.869-07:00Our First Christmas On Our OwnSteve and I decided this year, that since Ellie was now four, she would be old enough to start remembering Christmas morning years down the road. As much as we love having Christmas with family around, we wanted her to have memories of Christmas morning in her own home. So, it was our first year to spend part of break with my side, part with his, and Christmas Eve and Christmas at home. Honestly, this was kind of a depressing prospect. The last several years we have opened presents Christmas morning with at least one other family around us, and having just the five of us seemed small and lonely at first. However, we were excited to start our own traditions and have fun with Christmas on our own.<br />
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We started Christmas Eve out in Spokane, and drove home that afternoon. We raced to get our last few things for Christmas Eve and Christmas dinners before stores closed, and then came home for dinner. <br />
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Grandma Sun had sent some sugar cookies home with us to decorate, which was great, because driving home Christmas Eve and wanting to make cookies for Santa that night were not really going to work the best together. The girls really showed just how different they are while they decorated their cookies. <br />
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Ellie was big enough she enjoyed frosting her own cookies. She carefully made sure she frosted the whole cookie. Then she took turns with the sprinkles - first this type, then that - painstakingly covering each area in different sprinkles till the whole cookie was covered. She would not consider a cookie done till the whole thing had sprinkles.<br />
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Ellie and her finished cookies.</div>
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In contrast, Mckayla was content to let me frost her cookies after trying one knife of frosting. She then would grab sprinkles and shake with both hands with reckless abandon, spraying sprinkles. Now, to be fair, the girl is fairly ambidextrous, but that had little to do with her technique of just getting the job done quickly.</div>
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MG and her finished cookies. Man this girl's mischievous looks terrify us!</div>
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Comparing the two finished products. Funny girls.<br />
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And Kassidy enjoyed sitting back and taking it all in. Next year, Kassidy....<br />
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After we had decorated cookies while listening to Christmas Carols, it was time to continue a fun tradition from the Bennett side. We had picked out an Olaf pinata for the girls, hoping they would be less afraid of this pinata than they had been of others in years past. We also let the girls wear their shooting muffs which we use for anything loud, like viewing fireworks or going to hockey games, because Ellie is extremely sound sensitive and Mckayla wants to be just like her big sister. It was fairly hilarious to watch, and took some help from Daddy to finally put the poor thing out of its misery, but the girls did have fun.<br />
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I have to say, the first time you shove a My Little Pony figuring into a pinata through a small hole in its back, you feel really bad for poor Olaf, and you laugh till you cry even though you should be more mature than that...<br />
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Daddy is always the pinata holder.<br />
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This kid is too funny, and decided to get some cheap shots in when Steve went to get something quick. I just laughed and took a picture...<br />
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Ellie and Mckayla also cracked us up by taking turns using Ellie's camera from last Christmas to "take pictures" of each other as they hit Olaf.<br />
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The big girls enjoying the spoils of their hard work, with Kassidy watching from her walker (at a safe distance).<br />
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Then, it was time to leave cookies out for Santa and get ready for bed. Steve and I had been trying to get presents wrapped and things ready over the weeks leading up to Christmas, and thought we did well, but it still ended up being a late night for us.<br />
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Here was our tree this year.<br />
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After Santa came! One day I will finally get around to finishing and personalizing the girls' stockings. For now, I am just content that they each have one and they are homemade.<br />
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Santa loved their cookies. Especially the gingerbread ones Grandma Sun made. Delicious!<br />
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And then it was Christmas morning! The girls were good and came and got us up right away. They still aren't old enough, nor do we talk it up enough, for them to have been super excited, but Ellie is getting there.</div>
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We were mean and made them get dressed and ready before they could open anything. Then we let them get into stockings. Santa usually brings them a new toothbrush, and every year it cracks me up how excited they are about that, even if I only usually get blurry pictures of it. They were also obviously excited about other stocking-stuffers.<br />
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We then started with the real presents. Call us mean, but we had them take turns one at a time, helping the morning excitement last a little longer. Mckayla got a car tower here.<br />
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One present the girls got to share was a trunk with some Frozen dress-up clothing. Needless to say they wanted to put it on first thing, and wore their Frozen clothes the rest of the morning.<br />
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Ellie opening her new magnet set from Santa.<br />
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I love that I have pictures of the girls patiently waiting to see what the other got, but with intense interest.<br />
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We let Kassidy sleep in where she was still sick, but eventually it was her turn to open presents too. Wrapping paper was so fascinating. Everywhere we opened presents she mostly just wanted to eat wrapping paper...<br />
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Our happy girl and her new giraffe toy.<br />
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I like to think of this picture as a great illustration of "Christmas Carnage," and it makes me happy.<br />
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Kassidy dressed and playing with some of her new toys.<br />
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After presents we had pancakes and sausage for breakfast - a favorite of our girls - and later watched A Muppet Christmas Carol. The movie is an unofficial tradition from growing up with my Muppet-loving Dad, and so all of us girls have a soft spot for the Muppets as well. I LOVE this movie still, and the girls thankfully do too, so it's now one of our family traditions to watch it with them each year at some point in time for Christmas.<br />
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Steve and I tried really hard to stay to a reasonable budget for our first Christmas with 3 kids, and were worried about how that might go. All I have to say, is that we had a fantastic first Christmas on our own. The girls loved their gifts, we had fun really putting time and effort into buying gifts we thought they would enjoy and were within our budget. We fudged a little in the end, but not by much, and the girls were so spoiled anyway! It felt great to not over indulge honestly. And they played all day with their new things while we enjoyed a guilt-free Christmas. <br />
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It was great to start our own family traditions, even if we did miss having more family around. It was wonderful that we got to do presents with family on both sides and have time aside for our little clan this year as well. <br />
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That night Steve made a tasty turkey. I made real mashed potatoes (just like Grandma Sun's which are my favorite kind!). We ate far too much good food, and even had pie after. We also took time to watch some wonderful youtube videos The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and others produced about the birth of the Savior, Jesus Christ. It was so wonderful to spend time on Christmas Day to focus on the real reason we give gifts and have such joy. The girls still occasionally ask to watch those videos, and it still brings us all joy each time we do.<br />
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Yeah, it was a quick layover at our home for Christmas between coming from one set of Grandparents and leaving for the next, but it was a great first Christmas in our home, and we look forward to many more to come.Steve and Nicollehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01799055245158066477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1537873417934343373.post-50002922760504146392015-04-05T23:21:00.001-07:002015-04-05T23:21:34.433-07:00December - Minus ChristmasDecember is always such an intimidating month to blog - especially months after the fact - because it is always so busy, but here we go anyway!<br />
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One of the first things I like to do after Thanksgiving,especially where we travel for much of December, is get our tree up. On the 4th we put up the tree and the girls loved helping put up some of the less fragile ornaments. I have to say, not good for my OCD... But I loved watching them stare at and talk about the ornaments after.<br />
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Our December started out with Kassidy making sure I knew she had gotten those two teeth in over Thanksgiving break. I got bit. A lot. Like 7 feedings in a row a lot. And as a result, she went for about a day on bottles exclusively as I decided that I was done nursing. Then at church the next day I couldn't get into the kitchen to warm a bottle of milk without interrupting a class, so I nursed her. And what do you know - she liked nursing better than bottles and never bit much after that...<br />
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The beginning of the month was also very exciting because Steve and I went on a DATE. I know, with 3 kids four and under, it doesn't happen much, but we did it. We headed out to a work Christmas party my employer throws each year on the 7th and left the girls with a girl that had babysat for us a couple years earlier. The poor girl apparently couldn't figure out how to turn off our blu ray player and listed to Frozen about 3 times in a row before we got back, but Steve and I had a fun night out socializing and eating a nice dinner at a local hotel before heading home to be parents again. It's always nice to have the reminder that we still really enjoy time just the two of us.<br />
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The blessings just kept rolling in too. I cried to a stranger on the phone on the 10th. Literally. We always save up money, but with healthcare changes Kassidy barely being in the hospital with a quick, normal delivery cost us the same as Ellie's emergency c-section followed by ultrasounds, tests, and a four-day stay at the hospital despite our using the same facility, doctor, and health insurance plan. We had been (and continue) to diligently make payments on our debts, which is unromantic, but real. I called our OB/GYN to make that month's payment with questions about my last bill, only to have the office's accountant tell me that she had been impressed by our steady, timely payments and had deducted a large sum (to us at least) off our bill. She simply told me she enjoys rewarding people who are doing the right thing occasionally, so merry Christmas. And I thanked her, in tears. Only a few weeks later when I called to pay off the last of that bill, another woman in accounting discounted my last payment in half. We were very, very blessed and I am grateful we work with such wonderful people at my OB/GYN.<br />
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Our next blessing came with a phone call from my Dad. We had been looking at using our Christmas money and some savings to finally buy a new washer as we were getting mystery stains on clothing occasionally, ruining the stained clothes. We were fairly certain after looking around we couldn't really afford one yet and then my Dad called about a washer they were looking at in a store which was going to be a discontinued, popular model and happened to be on for a great price. We looked up the model and told them to snatch it up for us and we would be happy to pay them back for it. Steve and I seriously have the best parents who always help us in so many ways...<br />
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So, on December 13th Dad and Kerry brought our new wash machine to us. We celebrated with "Indian Tacos," a recipe which Steve had resurrected from his mission days, and homemade cheesecake, another of Steve's old recipes. It was delicous and we were so happy to have a new washer!<br />
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That same day we also got a super fun package from Aunt Lori with a small, cushioned nativity set for the girls - boy did they love that, and we loved that it was a reminder of the true reason for Christmas - and some fun aprons and chef hats which got pulled out a lot for science and cooking over the coming weeks. Thanks Aunt Lori!<br />
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On that note, here is a picture Ellie drew of the Nativity.<br />
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And another, which had nothing to do with Christmas.</div>
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And if we're doing random December pictures, I love this one of Kassidy asleep on the way from preschool.</div>
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We also had fun at our Ward Christmas party on December 11th. The only child who wasn't terrified of Santa was Kassidy, go figure. Mckayla did warm up some when he offered her fruit snacks, but that was the best we did for the big girls...<br />
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On the 15th we continued Christmas fun by going to a local garden shop here that brings in reindeer and has Santa's workshop set up. The girls still had no desire to approach Santa, but they did like seeing the reindeer.<br />
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Ok, so at this point we were awfully spoiled and blessed, so things had to even out a little bit... On the 16th Kassidy got really stuffy and sick, coughing till she would vomit, with red weepy eyes. I was up with her till 3 AM and ended up calling friends to take Ellie to preschool so I could try to let Kassidy rest and recover as much as possible. The poor baby just looked miserable, and neither of us was getting much rest.<br />
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This was literally the only way I got her to take 20 minute naps some days - skin to skin.<br />
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Kassidy seemed well enough to go spend a few days at Grandma and Papa Rose's house for Christmas still, so on the 19th we headed to Spokane. This was a mistake. Kassidy slept all of 3.5 hours that entire night and screamed and cried, refusing to nurse or eat anything all night. The next morning we were able to see that she had even screamed until she burst a blood vessel in her eye.<br />
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However, that was the worst of the nights, and she slowly got better day by day. So, we still got to have fun with family and celebrate the season. On Monday, the 22nd, we got together with my Mom and sisters Jennifer and Julie, and Jen's kids and celebrated Christmas with them. We met my mom at Chuck E. Cheese's and the kids had a lot of fun playing and eating pizza there. Mckayla even accidentally hit the jack-pot on one game! <br />
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We then headed to visit my Mom's father, who has been suffering from dementia and is in a group home. He was having a very bad day, and did not want to get out of bed and could not process or handle the noise of the 6 young children. We quickly left, and it was a very hard visit.<br />
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On the 23rd the sisters and cousins met again, but this time at Grandma Sun and Papa Rose's house for Christmas out there. Despite my parents now being retired, the kids still got abundantly spoiled and had a great time. Our traditional Christmas dinner with my Dad is prime rib, so that was delicious, although as I recall Mckayla gagged and threw up some again, just as she did at Thanksgiving. We are getting quicker on the reaction to her weak gag reflex though and it wasn't a big deal this time.<br />
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I love the sprawled out 6 grandkids and two aunts in this picture.</div>
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The grandkids with their stockings Grandma Sun cross-stitched with their names.</div>
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We also learned that the Durango needed some work and asked my Uncle Brian (who is WONDERFUL and a mechanic and always helps us out with car issues) to come help Steve and my Dad do some routine work on the vehicle. It turned out we may have much bigger issues as some parts needed replacing, and potentially some very big parts. In the end we were very lucky that of our potential problems, we only actually had the smaller one and were exceptionally grateful that we didn't have to invest a lot of time and money unexpectedly into the car on December 23rd! Especially since we had already just paid to put new tires on the thing.<br />
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Normally we would have stayed in Spokane anyway and done the extra work, but Steve and I had decided that as our children were growing older, it was time to start spending Christmas at home and creating our own traditions in the years to come. So, on December 24th we headed back home. This was the girls in their matching Christmas outfits they got at Papa's as we left that day.<br />
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As you can imagine, it was a bit of a rush when we got here. We had some groceries to buy before stores closed, and things to get ready for the big day where we hadn't been home. I also got a call that my new glasses had arrived which was a big deal for me as the glasses I was wearing each night and morning were literally from 6th grade and were now about 15 years old.<br />
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We managed to get all our errands run and then it was time to have fun with our girls getting ready for Christmas! Here's where I am going to be lame and make this it's own blog, so I'm going to skip Christmas for now.<br />
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After we wrapped up Christmas on the 25th, we then rushed to get laundry turned around and all our bags re-packed. On the 26th we drove down to Preston to be with Steve's family. The only day we could see one of our nieces was the 27th, so that was the day we were all doing family Christmas and other adventures on the Bennett side. So, on the 26th we drove down to Preston and on the 27th we drove again, this time to Draper, UT where we were all meeting to go to the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium. This was everyone minus Curtis, taking the picture. Ellie latched right on to Aunt Sheri.<br />
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Ok, so it was literally the only day that worked for everyone, but just so you know, don't go to a major public attraction like an aquarium on a Saturday! It was still great, just busy. But we all did have fun looking at the animals and watching all the cousins interact. The girls loved all the animals, of course. And Ellie is seriously enamored by Ella and Amanda.<br />
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I was also so impressed and surprised, although maybe I shouldn't have been, that Mckayla wanted to cross the giant rope bridge they had there. I started her off, and then she just went, carefully walking on the giant rope. She was awesome!</div>
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After the aquarium we all met at a buffet for lunch. This was Kassidy trying to be her father's daughter on the way. (And no, of course she isn't drinking Dew!)<br />
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MG was too funny at the buffet when everyone was finishing up. The big girls surprised everyone around us, but not us, as they both ate huge salads for lunch. Then, once Kassidy was done, Mckayla crawled into the baby seat we had, and tried to clean up the left over baby food. This kid is a mischief maker, but man does she crack me up!<br />
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And then we headed back to Aunt Kathy and Uncle Ryan's house for gifts. It was the biggest gift exchange the family has had since we got married, with all four siblings and most of the cousins there, which was a lot of fun. The girls got totally spoiled, and we had a lot of fun giving the gifts we'd purchased.<br />
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Mckayla was the only one of our girls who participated in the family pinada this year, but what we lacked in numbers she made up for in enthusiasm!<br />
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The family party is also always meat night, so Steve cooked steaks and everyone ate far too much. It was such a fabulous time with wonderful people we love to be around. I know I say it in my blogs all the time, but one of our biggest regrets is that we don't live near enough for our kids to be around family more often.<br />
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We spent the next couple of days recovering and enjoying time with Grandma and Grandpa.<br />
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On the 30th Grandma and Papa watched the big girls and Bridget and Aunt Lori watched Kassidy for us (so she would be closer if she needed nursing) so that Steve and I could go to the Temple. It was the first time we'd been able to go together since we had gone and received confirmation that it was time to get pregnant with Kassidy, so it was long overdue. I wish I could say that it was an especially wonderful trip, but mostly I felt that I needed to try better to be making the daily choices that would lead to my feeling greater peace in the Temple and that the answers I was seeking were not there yet, but would come in time. Regardless, it was wonderful to just be in the Lord's house with my husband.<br />
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December wrapped up with a bang for us all, too. We didn't throw any amazing New Year's Eve party. Instead, the 31st was the day that Steve's mother needed to have shoulder surgery. Honestly, it was such a relief to us that we could be down for part of the recovery time and try to help out in any small way, especially with all the help that Steve's folks always give us. This was sunset that day though - seriously, Cache Valley is BEAUTIFUL!<br />
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And that pretty much wrapped up our December. Like I said, always busy, and with some definite ups and downs, but still so wonderful. The girls make each Christmas season more and more fun as the get older, and we got to spend so much time with family this year that it made it one of my favorite Christmas seasons ever.<br />
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Steve and Nicollehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01799055245158066477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1537873417934343373.post-50401957282441433342015-03-22T23:53:00.001-07:002015-03-22T23:53:52.541-07:00NovemberNovember started out with the little girls getting over colds. Thankfully, they took them in stride and kept right on going. Unfortunately they shared with their mother, who happens to have a completely dysfunctional immune system. That stinking bug knocked me flat! I was still nursing and couldn't take much of anything, so thankfully Steve let me rest as much as possible. Really, we were just grateful it passed over Kassidy so easily and Mckayla didn't get croup, which we thought she would at one point. After last winter, we knew how miserable a little one with croup can be and were very thankful we didn't have to experience it two winters in a row.<br />
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As we were getting healthy, we ended up with an awfully fun surprise. Grandma and Papa Bennett decided to come up for a weekend in November. Steve had a couple of days off the following week, so November 8th Grandma and Papa came to visit. They stayed until the morning of the 12th when Steve had to go back to work, and the girls soaked up as much time with grandparents as they could. It's always fun when our girls get to be around family, and we only wish we could make that happen more often. I admittedly wasn't great at getting pictures, but here is one cute one of our big girls in their aprons Grandma Bennett has made them. Any time with Grandma calls for baking a sweet treat, and they love being her helpers!<br />
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Our next event was Steve and I giving in to the fact that it was now cheaper to get a deal on smart phones than to try and find basic phones we liked, so on the 20th we went and got new phones. Steve had been using one from two upgrades ago as his died before we could upgrade, and we finally gave up on finding a basic phone we liked. We now have androids, and they're nice to have I admit.<br />
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November 20th was also Kassidy's 6 month check-up. She was 19 lbs 3 oz and 27.5 inches tall. Yup, she is definitely trying to keep up with her big, big sisters. We also had some scary conversations at that appointment with our amazing pediatrician. Kassidy had been doing these little head shakes for a few weeks, and seemed to be doing them more and more. They looked like a cold chill, but she wasn't cold and did them far too often to be a cold chill. Then the day before her appointment Kassidy was very sleepy and nursing and had a full body tremor for about 5-10 seconds or so. It looked like it may have been a small seizure. Kassidy's pediatrician suggested that we have an EEG done to make sure that our seemingly healthy baby girl really was developing normally. She didn't seem too terribly concerned where Kassidy's development was on track with her sisters', but said we should be sure, and we agreed to have her seen. <br />
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You just never know until you're in the position how gut-wrenching it is to look at your baby who appears completely normal and healthy while listening to the doctor say things like "A specialist at Seattle Children's Hospital will interpret the results and we will decide from there if she needs to see a neurologist." Specialists? Neurologists? My baby?! Yeah, I kept calm in the office and then quickly walked out and cried on the phone to Steve. <br />
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We let grandparents know what was going on, and not many others. We really wanted to be able to digest the news on our own timeline if Kassidy's test results came back positive for seizures or other abnormalities. We got a call from the doctor's office that Kassidy's appointment would be Tuesday the 25th in afternoon and that we needed to keep Kassidy up till 11 PM or so and then wake her up at 6 AM and keep her up till her appointment at 12 PM. Yeah, because nobody loves being sleep deprived more than a 6 month old...<br />
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The next few days were ROUGH. I did ok until we hit the weekend, and then I lost my mind. We had too much time. During the week I am so busy with the girls, but having Steve home we tend to play more, relax more, I am not on constant alert, I clean less, and am just less busy. That's great! Unless you can't even shower without coming up with analogies about how thinking about your child's upcoming test is like Simba walking into the elephant graveyard in the Lion King. Yes, that really happened, and yes, I am totally the mom of 3 young children. Needless to say, I wasn't taking the stress well, so we reached out to family. I texted Steve's sisters and my own and asked for prayers. I needed the extra support that I couldn't find in myself. And I prayed. A LOT. The funny thing is, sometimes all we need to do is go to our Father in Heaven and cry and let Him help us with our burdens. As soon as I prayed and asked family to do the same, it was like night and day. I was still nervous for the test as much as the results (sleep deprived baby hooked up to monitors and all) but was calm and able to keep it together.<br />
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We were trying to stay calm and not say anything in front of the big girls to worry them, so they went to bed like normal on Monday night and then Steve and I kept Kassidy up. I'm telling you all, this is the biggest testimony builder of prayer and our Father's tender mercies and involvement in the daily events of our lives that I have experienced. Kassidy was happy and playing for all but about 20 minutes of the night. Our baby who normally would turn into a pumpkin around 7:30 or 8 was totally content. She went to bed and slept well till we woke her up at 6:00, happy as a clam. Steve took the day off so he could drive while I kept Kassidy up. Ellie went to preschool like normal and then to a friend's house after where we would miss her pick-up time. Steve and Mckayla paled around in Richland near where the test was done. MG was none the wiser to why she got to have a day out with Daddy.<br />
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And Kassidy was so good!<br />
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She was even happy for the test. Mind you, she complained some about the electrodes all being taped to her head, but when I signed the doctor was all done with that, she calmed right down and snuggled with me happily. She went to sleep for most of the test, and even when I had to wake her up (which took some time with her having slept 7 of the last 20 hours) once she stopped falling back asleep sitting up, she was happy all over again. Even the doctor commented on how sweet and good she was. PRAYERS ARE ANSWERED.<br />
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We were also very blessed in that we didn't have to wait very long for the test results. We got the call the next day, on November 26th. It was a huge relief as we knew many places would probably be closing down the next day for Thanksgiving week and we didn't want to wait for a week or more for results we'd missed by just a few hours. We knew that day would linger in our memories either as the beginning of learning about some health issues Kassidy had, or as the day we got to move past those fears. Thankfully, we got a call that afternoon from our doctor's office that the test results were normal! That didn't mean Kassidy didn't have seizures, just that she didn't during the test, but with her normal development we could just watch her and see. We now believe her little shivers (which decreased greatly in frequency) were just a tick, similar to one Steve has now and then. Even her full body tremors, which she had once or twice later on, seem to not be serious as she kept nursing through one a few weeks later, so she obviously was still in control of her body. Once again, all we could do was cry in relief that our happy baby girl was healthy and we had been so loved and watched over by family and a loving Heavenly Father.<br />
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And even during that week or so, life kept going. Even Kassidy figured that impending major medical tests were no reason to get hung up and on the 21st we could see she was cutting her first tooth and then she rolled over onto her stomach for the first couple of times - while my back was turned of course. Kassidy had her first two teeth cut by Thanksgiving.<br />
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The 21st was also a very fun day for Mckayla. We took her to a fun kids salon and got her hair cut for the first time. I thought she looked so cute with her long, curly hair whenever it was braided or pulled back, but it looked so scroungy when it was down, so although I didn't want to cut her curls off, we weren't really getting to see them anyway. I went back and forth on it for weeks, but after I was so glad we did it!<br />
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Here are a few before pictures. (By the way, don't let your child have a free chocolate "lollie" from See's Candy at the mall - go butterscotch! And definitely don't let them color with markers after.)<br />
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Playing while waiting her turn at Monkey Dooz.<br />
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She did so well! Her seriousness shows how unsure she was, but she sat so still and did awesome the whole time.<br />
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And after. The picture above from the day of the EEG does it more justice. Soooo cute on her!<br />
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Poor Ellie also decided to try and keep us busy during the time we were worried about Kassidy by getting some mystery illness. No fever, no symptoms, but she wouldn't eat, kept waking up in the night, would cry over the smallest things and fall apart, and all we could figure out was somehow Tylenol made a big difference. Our girl who usually fights naps and bedtime by talking, singing, and moving constantly just wanted to curl up on the couch with a jacket on, and then would just fall asleep anywhere - NOT the norm for her. This was the poor kiddo on the 24th.<br />
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But, she was better just a day or two later which we were grateful for as we needed her to go to preschool and her playdate on the 25th. Once again, we were so cared for and blessed during that time.<br />
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On the 26th, after we got the all clear on Kassidy's EEG, Steve got off work early for Thanksgiving break and we headed to Spokane. We were so relieved and ready for Thanksgiving happiness after such a stressful last week! We kicked off our festivities by taking a boat ride to the North Pole. Ceour d'Alene does holiday boat rides of a few varieties, and when we did this for the first time the year before and the girls enjoyed it, so we figured we would go again this year. The lights are fun, the girls love sipping hot chocolate on a boat, and Santa reads their name off the nice list. Here are a few pictures from our quick trip to the North Pole.<br />
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They even had fireworks for the first week of the lights - which we didn't know about till we were out on the boat. We were both excited and unhappy about the fireworks as Ellie really doesn't appreciate anything with a lot of noise, so fireworks is high on her list of things to avoid.<br />
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Yeah, she was really thrilled about them...<br />
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But hot chocolate and snacks fix many things. An elf even grabbed a picture for us.<br />
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After we returned from seeing Santa and the lights we headed back to Grandma and Papa Rose's house for the next few days. We had fun relaxing and spending time basking in our many blessings, which felt much more tangible this Thanksgiving than any before it.<br />
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Aunt Julie, Grandma Sun, Papa Rose, and our family spent Thanksgiving dinner together and the food was fantastic!<br />
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We even got Kassidy sweet potato baby food to join in on the festivities where she still wouldn't take table foods at all. She loves her sweet potatos!<br />
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Most of the crew. Sadly we all lost our appetite towards the end of dinner as Mckayla has a weak stomach, gagged on a mouth too full of potatoes, and threw up all over the table. She was just helping us avoid over-eating.... Ah the adventures of children.<br />
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After dinner Kerry and I even had some adventures of our own. Unbeknownst to Steve, two of his sisters and I were all going to Walmarts for black Friday to try and get him a new Xbox to replace his which had been dying slowly for months and months. Kerry and I got to Walmart early and most of the products were already out, you just couldn't check out till 6. Worried we had missed them already, Kerry and I scrambled to find where the Xbox's would be, getting incorrect information from many customers along the way. As I ran to where we were told they would be, Kerry found the man pushing the cart of consoles out, and just followed him, stuck to him like glue. As soon as he saw us, he just asked if we wanted one and we enthusiastically said yes and celebrated, clinging to that xbox for dear life! We also got some great shopping done for the girls for Christmas. That night, we decided at the last minute to continue our black Friday shopping (all on Thursday) and headed to Carter's in Spokane where they had amazing deals! I got clothes for our ever-growing Ellie Bell and for Kassidy for Christmas where she is off season in her baby clothing sizes compared to the two big girls. I don't normally black Friday shop, but Kerry and I had a blast!<br />
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Black Friday itself found us lounging and at my parent's house. Steve and I snuck out after the girls were in bed that night for our first date in over a year. We decided we'd go see a late night showing of The Hunger Games movie Mockingjay Part 1. The movie was great and it was so wonderful to do something just the two of us. However, we got home to weeping and wailing as the girls had woken up (thankfully only 5 or 10 minutes before we got back) and decided that we had left them forever when Papa went in to put them back down. When we showed up they were almost calmed down and we set them off all over again. Isn't it nice to be loved?<br />
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Anyway, November was filled with some stressful times, but also an abundance of blessings. We are so thankful for amazing and supportive family and for the tender care and succor from our Father in Heaven and Savior, Jesus Christ. And that was a great reminder for us heading into the Christmas season.Steve and Nicollehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01799055245158066477noreply@blogger.com0