it never fails, she makes me laugh

Just had to share these few with the blog...Lydia cannot keep a straight face, not that I'd want her to



and C...without any front teeth!

December Favorites

Sorry I haven't posted here in ages. Here are some of my favorites from December with Christmas and Lydia's Birthday

This was Cassidy's first school program. She is the one near the middle above the piano with the blue and black dress.

We had lots of snow last month and during a blizzard we got some really good snow for making snowmen, here was our family of snowmen, but now they have melted some and are in shambles.

Christmas morning the girls had fun opening their gifts

We gave them dolls and made doll beds for each with their own special bedding and outfits with help from grandma!

For Lydia's 3rd Birthday we celebrated by going to House of Bounce and saw the movie Tangled!

For Lydia's party we took everyone out for pizza and bowling!

She tried so hard to blow out those candles and finally let all of her friends (cousins) help her out!
Grandma makes quilts for all of the grandkids. Lydia's turned out so cute! I can't wait to re-do her room to match!


Well, my winter break is almost over. I thought I had 2 more weeks, but unfortunately I got an email this morning giving me the news that classes start next monday :( It felt like it went by fast and it didn't help that I had the flu for part of the week before Christmas so I was ripped off a bit. Back to reality I guess!

Sara

Last day of Preschool

Her last day of school was monday. And a hot and humid day it was! When I picked her up from school she was all hot and sweaty, yuk! They must not have turned the air on at school.
It's funny to think back to last september when she started school to now and see such an improvement in socializing, skills, artistically, and maturity. Lately she's been talking about a certain boy a lot. I don't know him or the family, but she likes him a lot. I asked if he was her boyfriend, she said "yes, but he's not Lindsay's boyfriend." Okay...I'll just let it go.
I had to take a picture of her on the last day, hopefully making that a tradition through the years:

And Miss Lydia had to get in there and pose too. It's impossible to keep a straight face with this kid.

Visiting Santa

We visited Santa at John Deere earlier this month.
It was really great this year, no screaming, crying or protesting!

Lydia only cared about her treat
The tractor ride was a big hit, again, no protesting-a first!

Lydia's 1st haircut

Lydia got her hair cut for the first time today. Trish said that in the 10+ years that she's been cutting hair, Lydia is her best 1st haircut client! Lydia sat so still and patient while Trish cut it and then showed her in the mirror. Lydia looked and said "BABY!"

BEFORE:

So shaggy!


AFTER:

Now she looks like a big girl!

cowgirls & cousins

Two weeks ago we went to visit my sister's farm to ride horse. It's actually her friend's farm, but she keeps her horse there and lets us come to ride every now and then.

Lydia rode first! This was her first time on a horse, doesn't she look like she knows exactly what to do?? It was so cute, she was gripping with her little legs and holding on tight to the horn. She really enjoyed riding the "hoo-hee" (horsie)

This is Dubbs. Not my sister's horse, but a nice old horse that's great for kids.
Cassie loves riding with her cousins.
Lydia loved petting the fluffy kitties. Our clothes were full of cat hair when we left!

Thanks for letting us come and ride!

June Happenings

WARNING: LONG POST!
I realize it's almost the middle of July, but before I add anything that has happened this month, I thought I should go back to June because it was pretty eventful.

For the third year, we planted our vegetable garden and grew our first radishes, and nobody likes to eat these in our house other than me, so they were all mine. They could have been a little hotter, but I won't complain too much. At least they grew! Other things in the garden: Beans, peas, carrots, lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, asparagus, jalapenos and sunflowers. We planted cucumbers, but we think they got overrun by weeds and didn't make it. Currently we're trying to stay on top of the weeds, and trying to be much better about it than previous years. Maybe next year on those cucumbers??!!
The second full week in June was our first time attending VBS (vacation bible school) at our church. Around 65 kids attended and it was so much fun. Cassidy still talks about it. They had a safari theme and I helped with crafts. Every day was something different and the kids kept very busy because they had different activities every 30 minutes. Here is the preschool class during their program on the last night:
Cassidy is in the front with the zebra hat. They made them in their classroom and I think she still has it in her bedroom. I had to staple it a few times because Lydia got her hands on it!


The following 2 weeks we had swimming lessons everyday in town. Again it was our first experience with lessons, so I wasn't sure what to expect because Cassidy has been so scared of water. She would cry & scream in the tub if a tiny drop of water got on her face. So I was sure we were going to go to lessons, because we needed to get over this "fear".
The first day was bad. I wasn't sure if we were even able to make it the next day. The teacher taught them how to do a bob, back floats, and at the end of that first day they were jumping off the side! Cassidy was very proud and excited and was ready for another day! She even called her daddy and told him all about it while he was at work.
The last day was their test day. All of the kids passed easily. Here is Cassie jumping off the diving board:
Even I can't do that!!
And her face is all wet too!! YAY Cassidy! We're so proud of you!


Nate was in a wedding in June. It was Deron (he was our best man) and Erin's wedding. Erin has become a good friend of mine as well as my hairdresser.
We had a wonderful time and the day couldn't have been nicer. 80 degrees and no humidity, lucky for them! You can check out more pictures at the photographer's blog. Congrats Deron & Erin!


That's about it for June. I'll leave you with this picture, my favorite. She never looks at the camera and when she does it's quick and usually without a smile. I was a lucky to get this one!!

Lydia-18 Months

Isn't she just the cutest? We love her to death and couldn't imagine our lives without her. She's got such a fun personality and keeps us on our toes.
She's such a smartie pants, for example, this morning Daddy and Cassie were playing Wii baseball and Lydia seemed to want to join in the fun. She ran over to the toy basket in the corner of the room and dug out the little plastic Wii remote that we got from a happy meal long ago and started pointing it at the TV. I understand that it's quite a simple thing that she did, but we don't play the Wii very often, and I think she's pretty smart to make that connection. She understands a whole lot more than we give her credit for. Funny.
About 3 1/2 weeks ago we took away her pacifier, aka nookie. She handled it better than I thought she would. We only had about 2 days of difficulty and after that it was a breeze. We've replaced her nookie with a cd player which has really helped her settle down. I'm so glad we decided to take it away sooner than later since we've heard so many horror stories about other kiddos and their "addiction".


**photos taken at Lake Louise.

Life is tough...

My poor Lydia. It all started 2 1/2 weeks ago. She got pinkeye and we didn't even think it was pinkeye, so she suffered 2 whole days with it until we took her in. Things were going good, until the 10th day of her medicine...She developed a rash. And not just a little spot on her arm, but an all-over-the-body rash with little red bumps. She was really uncomfortable, so I took her in right away to our regular dr. and he figured it was an allergy to the medicine that has amoxicillin in it. Nice. So she possibly is allergic to penicillin. Nice.
We were told to stop taking the medicine and let it run its course. Fast forward a few days (late last week), and she developed pinkeye yet again! So another trip to the dr, and he was a little shocked that she still had the rash, that it was worse than 2 days before, and also has pinkeye again. This time she got eyedrops. Wow. If you have never given a 16 month old eyedrops, you are lucky. It's just not that fun, I'll leave it at that.
By Saturday this poor child has a nasty rash, pinkeye, and then developed a low grade fever on top of it all.
Things didn't get any better on monday when I was busy yapping on the phone in our bedroom and in the next room, Lydia climbed halfway up her dresser when it fell over ON TOP OF HER! It was so surreal to me when I ran in there, throwing dresser drawers off of her. She cried so hard, but didn't even end up with a bruise. So scary.
Yesterday we went to the dr again so he could see how her rash was, and I explained how she's had a little fever, but otherwise fine. He checked her over and found out she has an ear infection. I'm so glad that there was an explination for all of this. Hopefully this new medicine will work for her and she'll be back to her normal goofy self in a couple days!

Lydia's First Birthday

Last weekend my baby turned 1 year old. We had a party for her with all of the family and cousins here to celebrate. Her birthday was on Saturday but the party was Sunday, but I felt she needed to dig into a cake on her actual birthday, so we bought a twinkie at the gas station: It was devoured in seconds.

Classic Lydia.
She loved ripping off the paper. It helped that she had some practice from all of the Christmas presents days before.
She wasn't sure if she should touch her special cake.
But it didn't take her long to figure it out and make a mess!

1st teeth

Besides being ill and in the ER, Lydia managed to cut her first tooth last Thursday. Two days later the second one broke through. We might as well have bought stock in Motrin & Tylenol last week as I'm sure they went up after she got sick. She is much better now and ready for Christmas and her first birthday and party next weekend.
We've been snuggling under blankets over the weekend with all of these storms! Finally a break today, but sounds like more snow tomorrow. Cassie & I were able to make a bunch of Christmas treats and need to do a few more today. It was nice to have a weekend snowed in, although we did have to reschedule a Christmas visit with Nate's grandparents. (we missed you guys!!)

I hope you have a very merry Christmas and I'll be back next week to post our Christmas and birthday parties!

Lydia-11 Months

Wow. She's almost a year old. I'm really going to cherish this last month before her birthday. She's such a fun baby to be around.
11 months:
She can walk everywhere now! And she is so proud of herself when she does. When she falls, she gets right back up and keeps truckin'!
She is still toothless. I wonder if we'll see any in the next month at all. They do look like they'll come any day though.