Weir Together Forever

Kathryns School work

2012-01-31T09:13:00.000-08:00

Kathryn's First Dentist Appt

2012-01-31T08:14:00.000-08:00

Kathryn is a star patient when it comes to going to the dentist.

Look at that smile. you would think she actually likes getting her teeth clean. She must get that from me. I like going to the dentist! Especially one that only takes like 15 minutes in and out!
Kathryn is 3 and some change

Our only Snow and Carolin plays Basketball

2012-01-31T08:08:00.000-08:00

This has been our only snow this year and today is the 31st of January. I can handle that but Carolin really wants a snow day. I guess that might now happen and the Rain day is what she gets to have.

Kathryn's Snow angel!

Carolin has started to play basketball with the young women. She was the MVP at her first game. It's fn going to watch her play. Last game Chiara came too. They have lots of fun together. I'm so glad I got such awesome girls to spend my time with this year with ETC. I hope next year they are just as fun and MORE!

Happy Birthday Carolin

2012-01-31T08:05:00.000-08:00

Carolin turned 17 this month. I can't believe our time with her is half gone. It's gone by so fast. Here's to a fun and exciting down hill! Her parents are coming to pick her up. I'm so excited to meet them. Sad they already have flights... It means she's really going to leave us. I guess we'll have to go to Germany soon!

There are Princesses in our house!

2012-01-31T08:02:00.001-08:00

Our latest Pics of the girls

2011-12-09T12:00:00.001-08:00

Kathryn Olivia 3 years old, Almost 4

We had pictures done at Kiddie Kandids at Baby's R Us in November. They didn't have their Christmas stuff out yet so we went with all White. I think they turned out dang cute.

Just look how cute my girls are. I am amazed everyday at how cute they are. I so love my little girls. I have also learned to love my big girl Carolin. She is a joy to our family. I'm really going to miss her when she leaves us in June. We are definitely going to visit her in Germany in the not so distant future.

Charlotte Adara, 18 months

Isn't she amazing. Look at her standing up and all. She's so strong! She does something new and exciting every day. I see her try new things and wow she understands how they work and what to do. She's my beautiful, strong, wonderful, miracle baby girl.

Walker

2011-11-21T13:19:00.001-08:00

I had to post this one as it's so fun. She just ate a blue sucker. She sure loves candy!

Charlotte got a little walker about a month ago. She took to it very well. We first did it this way for pushing it and walking behind it but after two weeks and the PT came back and said we need to turn this around so she pulls it. It will help her stand up straighter. It sure does.

One of Charlotte's favorite things to do is stand at the chalk board and color. She can get up to it all on her own now. She can get the walker going that direction and maneuver from the walker to the chalk board. She's just getting better and better at getting around.

This is the first time using it. She did so well.

Ok so each time I make a video and see that it's sideways cause I want it tall way on my camera I don't remember that the video is video and is shot sideways. Sorry about that. maybe someday I'll learn that video can't be done sideways. But she does so well in this video I didn't want to just scrap it cause it's sideways. Enjoy!

Halloween - lots of pictures

2011-11-21T12:02:00.000-08:00

We had a mermaid, a ladybug and a pirate at our house for Halloween. Kathryn was so fun to be with this Halloween. She knew what to say and to say Thank you and well she was just so cute this year. Charlotte had fun and can now say Candy but I think next year and the next will be even better. I know a lot of people don't like this holiday but come on its so much fun to dress up and eat chocolate.

Publish Post

Kathryn the Mermaid

Carolin the Pirate!

Charlotte the Lady bug!

Ric and Thadius our Home Teachers are Huge Star wars fans.

The Cup Cake walk- Kathryn decided it took to long to get a cupcake and went up and took one anyway. I would have to agree.

Carolin had a lot of fun dressing up. I guess in Germany Halloween is really just a little kid thing. Little did she know that Halloween is definitely a grown up holiday too.

Posing for the camera!

Ghost, Goblin or a Ghoul... No Mermaid, Pirate and Ladybug

Carolin's Jack 0 Lantern

Chiara's Jack O Lantern- can you tell it's Tinkerbell's silhouette?

My Halloween craft this year. I found the wonders of a bleach pen. They turned out pretty good if I say so myself.

Kathryn's first jack o lantern this year. She had lots of fun doing this.

I actually roasted the pumpkin seeds for two pumpkin carving sessions and I cooked up one pumpkin and made homemade pumpkin pie with it. I did two of them and they both turned out really good. Carolin is a fan of pumpkin pie. I haven't perfected it yet but I'll get there.

We took the girls trick or treating in our little half circle neighbor hood and one across from us. Kathryn's pumpkin candy holder got way to heavy for her. lots of good candy to be had. I certainly ate to much. Maybe that's why we all got sick just after Halloween. to much candy!

Kathryn's in Preschool

2011-11-14T07:58:00.000-08:00

I can't believe I've let a whole month go by without posting.

First big thing since I posted last was that Kathryn started Preschool. She Loves it! We goes Wednesday and Friday afternoons for 3 hours. I have lots of art all over my walls because she's in school. She has become quite the artist. Her favorite is drawing people.

Matthew heard her the other day talking to one her little drawings and it talking back. The drawing said,"no I don't want Brown hair", Kathryn says back your going to have Brown hair", then the drawing says "Noooooo' as Kathryn draws on the hair.

So cute.

She also got featured at church yesterday for being confident with yourself. She walked or rather danced into church yesterday with her purple tutu dress and awesome Pink sunglasses on. Now I wish I would have gotten a picture. But the Young Women's teacher saw this and after Sacrament meeting she came up to Matthew and asked if she could come to her YW class on being confident and loving oneself. Kathryn was asked to do some dancing with her sunglasses on and just and a fun time.

She sure knows how to have fun! I love that she's so much into drawing and coloring right now. She now colors within the lines now. does patterns too. She is growing up so fast.

Charlotte's Cruising

2011-10-02T08:54:00.000-07:00

Charlotte gets her braces this week. Dafo's they go just above her ankles. Pictures will come soon. They are pink and purple. I know Kathryn will love the colors so I picked some she would like as Charlotte hasn't yet given me a preference. She's pulling to stand all over the place and is doing so well with the little bits of walking she's doing.

So fun to share in light of it being Spina Bifida Awareness month. This is what Spina Bifida looks like for us. A Beautiful, happy, determined girl.

Love ya Charlotte Bee!

Happy Balloon Halloween

2011-10-02T08:50:00.001-07:00

Cox Farms 2011

2011-09-22T12:29:00.000-07:00

Girl mischief

2011-09-22T11:57:00.001-07:00

Kathryn really likes coloring on herself.

"pot head"

Kathryn thought it would be fun to color on Charlotte. Isn't she a cutie!

Shake your body. Charlotte finally gets into at the end.

First day of school

2011-09-22T11:55:00.000-07:00

Happy 6:35 in the morning!

Skyline Caverns

2011-09-22T11:11:00.000-07:00

We went out on Labor day to drive down Skyline Drive but saw the signs for the caverns so we followed them instead.

The caverns were awesome. Matthew made an awesome video of the whole affair. Charlotte decided she didn't like the idea of being in a cave so screamed the whole time. I asked to be escorted out half way through and I took her to the car and ate some yummy cherries. Anyway Carolin really liked it and Kathryn liked it too. There was some amazing rock formations and the fun colors they did for lighting was fun. They say that using colored lights helps make it so no growth happens with plants and algae. White lights are more like the sun and cause the growth. We took stuff for a picnic afterwards and just had a nice time. it was a nice end to a summer vacation. School started the next day! 6:45 to the bus is really early!

Here's the video that Matthew made enjoy. Right in time for Halloween scary shows...

Life with our Exchange student Carolin

2011-09-06T18:00:00.000-07:00

We are a family of 5 for the next 10 months! Carolin joined our family from Germany on September 28. She'll be here for the school year. We waited at the Airport for a few hours and then she and Chiara the girl I'm coordinator for came out and we rushed home. It was certainly a long day for these girls. They got up at like 6 in Germany meaning midnight here. They are 6 hours different. We got home I made some yummy taco's for her first meal in our home and then we took her for a walk down to one of the parks in the neighborhood. We couldn't let her go to sleep to help with the jet lag. She finally said she was tired about 8 and we let her go to bed.

Monday we just hung out at the house called to get school appointments and got to know each other more. She played with the girls a little bit.

Tuesday we went out to the Manassas Battlefield after a little Shopping. It was fun and I think she was interested in the things we saw. Stonewall Jackson got the name Stonewall at this battlefield.
Stonewall Jackson

Union Officer Charlotte

Confederate Officer Carolin

Union officer Carolin.
Which is her color??? Grey or Blue???

Kathryn's the Unions lead for the Cavalry!

Wednesday we had the school appointment which took about 2 1/2 hours because all exchange students have to pass an English exam before the school will register them. She passed with flying colors. Then we got the appointment at the High school the next day. She's taking some killer classes if you ask me. But she's excited. I hope Matthew will be around for some of the hard classes she's taking...

Friday she did her student orientation with all the freshman. She found her classes and where all the main rooms at the high school were. She came home on a school buss. Her first ever time on the school bus. I think she had a good time. We went for some more shopping for some school things and had a nice evening home.

Saturday we were going to go downtown for some sight seeing of the capital but it was rainy all day. So we went out to Tyson's mall and walked around that for a good hour or so. We didn't get to everything but she was sure impressed. I'm impressed and I've been in some big Malls. This thing is enormous! That night we went to the Nationals baseball game at their big stadium. We got $3.00 tickets. I thought it was awesome. Kathryn slept through the whole thing, Matthew looked for the camera guys, Charlotte played around on the chairs, I watched and explained the game to Carolin and Carolin watched and then fell asleep for part of the game. She slept most of the way home too.

On Sunday she came to church with us and I think she enjoyed it. She said she'd come next week too and then let me know if she'll keep coming or just come once a month like I asked her too. I hope she does just so she gets to know the kids better. She got to talk with her parents on Skype Sunday afternoon. I think it was hard for her but She's doing a lot more with us and I think she's getting used to us more. I think she needed that with her parents to know she's not alone and she can be apart of our family too. She's really getting into playing with the girls and helping me out with cooking and doing dishes.

Anyway I think this is going to be a great year! I can't wait for all the fun adventures we're going to have and all the things we're going to learn from each other.

My goal this year. Follow her US history class and take her to see as many of the things she's learning about in her class.

The Girls get Away to AZ and the Heaton Ranch!

2011-08-24T19:58:00.000-07:00

Rochester, New York July 13-17

2011-08-24T18:58:00.000-07:00

The pictures are in reverse of what we did but here it goes.

We left a day early so Matthew could drive through the night and not day! We got to Jolene's around 2 in the morning. It was a nice drive though. 8 hours on back country roads to avoid toll's. Now I want to drive it during the day so I can see the beauty of it. I'm pretty sure we drove all along the Susquehanna river for a long time. Anyway the girls traveled really well and even went back to sleep when we got there.

The first day was Niagara Falls. Niagara Falls is in Buffalo, NY only an hour from Rochester. I've been to Rochester and seen Niagara Falls before but it was nothing like I remember. It was an amazing sight to see though. Jolene Paid for all of us to go on the Maid of the Mist. Wow you do get up close and personal with the falls, quite wet too. There is a reason they hand out the ponchos. You would be soaked if not for those things. It was really noisy down there too.

One of the facts about the falls that I thought interesting is that he falls that the falls erode 1 foot back each year I'm sure that's why it looks a little different as it's been almost 20 years since I was there last.

It was so beautiful and the day was beautiful. After Niagara we headed back to Jolene's for naps and relaxation. We got some pizza for dinner and just had a nice night. We went to bed early because of the short night before. And as we get up Charlotte throw's up all over the room. I mean all over the room. Matthew picked her up and she vomits over his shoulder and then he turns and the spews again on the bed. Then I yell don't turn so he turns back and she spew's again on the floor...

yes Charlotte caught a flu bug somewhere along the way. I was actually worried Kathryn would get sick as it was her usual time of the month for getting sick. (two months in a row with no fevers, for those who are also keeping track). We clean up Charlotte and have an easy morning. Charlotte seems to be doing pretty good so we head out to Palmyra to see the Temple, the Smith house and the Sacred Grove. It was beautiful as ever. Charlotte did good the whole time and even feel asleep the last hour or so we were there. We brought sandwich fixings and had a picnic just out side the grove.

There are a lot more paths then I remember when I was there last time. And there were tons more people but we were there for the Hill Cumorah Pageant. So there were a LOT of people there.

We decided to make it an early day for Charlotte's sake and went back to Jolene's and just let the kids play while Charlotte took a nap.

Matthew stayed home that night with her and Jolene, Deven, and Kathryn and I all went to see the Hill Cumorah pageant. It was really good. I really enjoyed the end when then preview all the prophets of the book of Mormon testifying of the truthfulness of it.

She didn't throw up at all that day but we couldn't get her to eat or drink much of anything. then the next morning She felt warm and then threw up more in her bed. So we decided since we couldn't' get anything down her and she had a fever we would try the ER. We went Saturday morning and they did an IV for fluids, a Shunt series to rule out shunt failure and urine samples. She was definitely dehydrated. So they finally said they were going to keep us over night at like 6 that evening. That was not the most pleasant hospital stays I've had... But she continued to get better and then after lots of begging on Sunday late afternoon they let us go. We left Rochester at 7pm for home. We arrived at 3 in the morning. And Charlotte was fine ever since. Jolene did call one of the members in her ward to have him come down and help give Charlotte a blessing. I love having men who honor their priesthood in my life!

Besides the hospital stay and the throw up that got all over Jolene's house It was a good trip. I'm glad we went. Kathyn and Deven were great together! They played and played. She sure does have some great cousins.

Pigtails

2011-08-24T18:55:00.000-07:00

Adorable! Need I Say More!

Splash Pad- Play group

2011-08-24T18:49:00.000-07:00

So Arizona has the right idea behind Splash Pads. This one in Fairfax well I guess it does the job but with no style. The girls liked being out though. I got my first sun burn here. Don't I have the cutest girls.

I have to have long pants and socks on Charlotte or she'll scrap up her toes and knee's real good. Not a great combo when it's blazing hot out.

This was our July Playgroup activity. I love that we have a different place to go each month. Thanks to Helen Oliver for putting those together. I at least can get out of the house for a little bit each week.

Fourth of July- I know it's WAY LATE

2011-08-24T18:28:00.000-07:00

HOLY MOLY I haven't posted a little something on here for months. I'm so sorry. More sorry I don't have the last few months written down in a journal. Shoot. Why did I let myself get so out dated...

Anyway my first post will be our little Fourth of July celebrations.

We tried to go to a Fairfax County Fair and I say try because we got lost going and the van blew a tire when we were about a block from the fair. So Matthew spent the entire time laying in the dirt trying to get the spare on and I walked the girls down to this So Called Fair. It was horrible! plus it was HOT and HUMID! Kathryn got to ride all of one ride by her self. She loved it though. She rode it twice. Then we walked back and daddy was done so we drove on home looking for a tire place and lucky us there was one right across the street from Wegmens. So we went to eat lunch and walk the store. I like it and I hate it. It's big and has some awesome deals but it's always packed with people. Anyway the day was long, hot and not so very fair like.

For the Fourth we had a cook out with some friends. We brought our little charcoal grill and I grilled up all the hamburgers while the men enjoyed the cool indoors. then After dinner the fireworks were put together. We had like 100 little grounders. It was a show right before our eyes. We missed any big in the air fireworks cause I guess they like to do them the day before here and I didn't realize that. Maybe next year. Anyway Kathryn loved the fireworks. It's so fun now that she's older that she does and enjoys more things. Charlotte didn't know what to think. She didn't like the screamers very much but hey who does...

Kathryn loves the sparklers.

Lazy bums oh I mean my handsome husband and our friend Brent.

Kathryn's boyfriend Talon. Isn't he a cutie! Oh and can you tell it's humid as all get out. Kathryn looks like she just stepped out of the shower. but no that's just fun hot, humid VA!

Fireworks setting LOVE it

I made these yummy brownie's. Holy moly these were good. It was so hot out that the raspberries started to melt/juicy all over the brownie. it made it even better!

And last but not least my little Charlotte 'B'. Love the firework on her head.

(Disclaimer - Please do not try that at home. We are professionals)

Playing in the water

2011-06-27T12:26:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I took the girls while Matthew took a nap. We got all ready and went down to the stream that runs behind our neighborhood. Kathryn loves playing in the water. and Now I find out Charlotte loves it too. She was all over the place. my only consequence is that she crawls over everything and she got a few scraps on her toes. She's in socks and shoes today because of that. but they had so much fun. Next time I might have to sit down in the water with them. The water was nice and cool/warm enough to play in and not freeze. Enjoy the pictures I got of the girls.

One Step at a Time

2011-06-27T12:20:00.000-07:00

For Physical Therapy last week we worked on a few things on the floor like crawling over my legs and getting up to her knee's but she's a pro at those things so Miss Jean decided to see if she could do stairs. for only the few times that we tried with Charlotte she really got the hang of it. Now I'm not surprised if I see her on the bottom landing banging on the first step. And take a look at those legs all straight like she's going to start standing soon. She is getting into everything. I love it! Can't believe I say that but I do I love it! She's doing normal things like getting in to cupboards and crawling around the circle of our kitchen to family room. Getting in to the bathroom at any chance she gets. pulling out all the toys from the toy box. She's just so normal right now. You can't even tell anything is wrong with her legs sometimes. She's just more flexible then most.

Anyway I hope you enjoy this little video. And well there will be more to come soon, I'm sure of it.

Play Group

2011-06-27T12:09:00.000-07:00

Our Ward has a playgroup that meets every Thursday at a different park in the area. I've missed most but made it a few weeks ago and got some fun pictures of the kids playing. Oh I might add that it was like 90 degree's with like 90% humidity. It was an awful day. I was sitting in the shade not exerting any energy and I was dripping like mad. The kids had fun though.

Kathryn loves dinosaurs these days. Triceratops is her favorite! Thank you Dino Dan for making her aware of Dinosaurs.

Isn't she a cutie. She got so sweaty under that hat but it was better then getting sunburned.

Mormon Choir of Washington

2011-06-27T11:19:00.000-07:00

(pictures are from only the summer concerts as I never did get my camera out at the others. I will be better at getting pictures next time)

One of the fun things that I get to do for myself is sing with the Mormon Choir of Washington. No, no we're by no means the Tabernacle Choir, but we're good. We moved here 1 year ago today. I can't believe it's been a year in VA. I SO MISS my MOM but I get to see her in a few weeks!!

Ok back to my post. We've been here a year and our first Sunday here was a concert at the Visitor Center at the DC Temple. The Mormon Choir of Washington was doing there last summer concert with Sandra Turley as a guest Soloist. I had found out that the ward we moved into had 3 singers that were in the choir. I new our ward was good!

It was a great concert. I as so impressed and then the Ladies in the ward mentioned they would be doing auditions for the choir in September so I waited until then and tried out! I was so nervous and I'm pretty sure they put in on faith cause my audition didn't do me justice. I'm not a soloist by any means. Anyway I made it and started singing with them. We practice every Thursday night for 2 hours. and the drive there is about 45 min each way! So it is quite the time commitment. But I love it.

Our year was pretty impressive with all the concerts and things we did. WE did a few Why I believe Firesides in September and then October and then we started on Christmas.

We did a big concert for Christmas with the Mormon Orchestra at the Strathmore Music Center in Maryland. It was a very nice concert hall. My favorite of the Christmas music was A Christmas Festival and O Holy Night. Besides that concert we did the two lighting ceremonies at the Temple Visitor Center. The first night is invited guests only of Senators, Representatives and Selected Ambassadors. We had his Excellency Le Cong Phung from Vietnam there for the first night then the next night is also invited guests only of more ambassadors and city officials. There Elder Marriott spoke. I think they said he's been in charge of the lighting for close to 30 + years.

We had a little break for Christmas but were Right back in there starting on our Black History Month music. It took me awhile to get into the mood for this music but it sure got into me. We had two concerts for this music and probably my favorite concert of all the year was combined with the Alfred Street Baptist Church Senior Choir. They're choir was so full of SOUL It was kind of hard to combine but after a few lines of the songs we sang together it was so much fun! We sang songs like Witness, The Battle of Jericho, and I want Jesus to Walk with Me. My favorite was a song that the Baptist Choir sent us. Done Made My Vow to the Lord. It was so fun and amazing. I hope that next year we do something more with that choir.

The second night we sang with Tab Choir soloist Alex Boye' for a why I believe Fireside. He has an amazing story and has one of the I am a Mormon Videos.

Then we worked on Easter. It was such a nice change from the fun, exciting music of the south, to start singing music to our Lord. This was such a beautiful time of year and we sang beautiful music. One of my favorites was Hear us, O Lord and Beauty for Ashes. We sang a Bach that was really hard but I believe it turned out beautifully. Christ Gave Himself a Sacrifice. And then that we sang for the rest of the summer that is such a beautiful piece was The King of Love my Shepherd Is. I loved the Easter Concerts. The spirit was so strong and I definitely felt the Love of my Savior as we sang of his Death and Resurrection.

After the Easter Concerts we started with some fun and Patriotic music like the Battle Hymn and Away to America. We did Four different Genres for our summer concerts. patriotic, music for the Stage, Religious and Popular. We had Sandra Turley come again for this summer concert. She as been Cosette is Les Miserables for years and has toured with that company across the world. for the Stage music we sang You'll Never Walk Alone and a Medley from Les Miserables. Sandra sang Popular and One Short Day from Wicked. Matthew joined the choir for the Summer concerts and was in the back up singers for One Short Day. He had a solo saying at the end. "THE WIZARD WILL SEE YOU NOW" He was perfect. Then for religious we sang For the Beauty of the Earth and God So Loved the World. Then the Popular section the men did a medley from HMS Pinafore, then we did Edelweiss and the girls did Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy and we ended with Brothers and Sisters. Such a fun concert with lots of songs and soloists.

I'm excited for the next coming year! Our first concert of the season is on September 11 at the Temple Visitor Center to help honor the 10 years it's been since that dreadful day in New York. It should be an amazing concert! If your in the area for sure make that a priority!

I do have to mention that it was nice to have Matthew with me for the summer but being in the Choir is MY TIME. I'm not sharing it with him for the next year!

Charlotte Progess and a Hooray for Kathryn

2011-06-23T14:38:00.000-07:00

I've been so proud of Charlotte lately! She's gotten so big in the last month. Our visit to CHOP was May 15 and she wasn't even crawling well. Just started army crawling and now she's up on her hands and knee's pulling to her knee's at every thing and playing with everything and getting into all my cupboards. Seems like her favorite place is the bathroom. And then onto the kitchen to play with all the cookie pans under the oven. I'm so enjoying her mobility how it is and not working as hard as I could be on helping her learn to walk and stand. But I know she can stand, well, for a few seconds anyway.

At PT on Wednesday we worked on going up the first step on the stairs landing and she did it almost all by herself by the 4-5 time. She did it again today with just a little encouragement. I may need to invest in a baby gate or two.

I just love watching her get into things and be a little mess maker every where she goes. playing with one set of toys and then onto another area.

One of the goals that we made for her 8 months ago was to have her move independently across the floor to play with her sister or the play kitchen and be able to play at it for 5 or more minutes. She is definitely doing that. and that was her 18 month goal. She's 14 months now.

I just read some posts from a friend Jamie, who had people send her emails and such about what doctors told them their little ones with SB won't or will not be able to do and are now doing that and much more. It was an awesome reminder of all of our abilities. I also looked back and I don' t think any of the doctors have said anything real negative about Charlotte's abilities. It was all mostly things like, 'you'll just have to wait and see' and ' every one's different' . From the time she was born they've all said she'd for sure walk.

She's so on track. Oh I almost forgot. She's also saying a few words. Mom, Hello, and Uh-Oh. Love it!

And Kathryn

SHE GOT EXCEPTED INTO PRESCHOOL!!!!!

We don't know if she'll be morning or afternoon but she's in! I'm so happy for her. She's going to love it!

1 Year MOM's Evaluation

2011-06-13T10:01:00.001-07:00

I love this quote. We should all strive to be angels!

I can't believe I forgot to post about this one. We all went up to Philadelphia May 15-18th to go to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) for Charlotte's one year evaluation for the MOM's Study. We drove up Sunday after Stake Conference and made it to the hotel about 5:30ish. It was a nice little drive. Only 3 hours. With a movie going the whole time it felt like nothing. The girls did great. Kathryn was really excited to sleep in a hotel room in a bed in the same room as mom and dad. When we came home she said we had to move our bed over so her bed would fit in our room.

We went to dinner that night and went to sleep early for a early arrival to CHOP. The first day was the Physical and Developmental Evaluation. And XRay of her head and spine. We met Jamie Koh the Nurse Coordinator for the study at CHOP and then had the two evals. We had to tape up Charlotte's spine so they wouldn't know what surgery she had. I think she did great. She had just started Crawling forward the week before that So I was glad to be able to show that off. Man she's come a long ways since then. now she's up on all fours crawling on hands and knee's and pulling herself up on her knee's. Today I've seen her try to move her leg up to stand. Anyway. I think she did great. She had to do some little tests thing like putting blocks in a cup or finding an item under a cup or putting her finger in holes and coloring. I haven't worked on coloring so that was not a strong point for her. We'll have to work on that soon.

anyway after that we got lunch at the hospital and went downtown to see the liberty bell and Independence Hall. We didn't get tickets in time for a tour of Independence hall but we got to see the side house where the Senate and House met. It was really neat for me. Matthew probably would have rather gone back to the hotel but I'm glad he walked around with me. I really wanted to go in the Mint but it was closed for tours. Just a bit to late for doing it all. I did get to try a Philly Cheese steak and I have to say I'm not impressed. The ones at Steak Escape at the mall back in AZ are way better!

The next day was a really early start so I just took Charlotte for her MRI and Matthew and Kathryn stayed at the hotel and chilled. I'm glad I had my Kindle with me so I could read at the hospital. Charlotte had to be sedated for the MRI. It was so sad seeing her get sleepy and then fall asleep completely. She did really good though. She was the best patient yet. One of the nurses said she wished that all her patients would be as good as Charlotte so her day would be easy. Even the IV was simple for them. Charlotte didn't even flinch. They must have used some good Numbing stuff on her little hand. They did have to put a brace over the IV because she kept pulling at it. That took most of the morning. I didn't get back until close to 3:00 and I made Matthew take Kathryn out so Charlotte and I could sleep some more. the Dr told us not to do much as Charlotte would still be a bit groggy. So we found a little place to eat the then went to bed.

The next day was Urology and renal/kidney ultrasound. The ultrasound was first and that was fast and easy. oh it was cold and rainy and we had to check out that day from the hotel. So anyway we did the ultrasound and then went to urology for urodynamics. We had to wait a bit for that and then Matthew went in with the dr for that one. I stayed with Kathryn in the waiting room until it was over and then they talked with both of us. Nothing really new there. He wants us to start giving her medicine 2 times a day spread out to 8 hours and then tape the catheter in at night so her bladder doesn't over work at night. He also mentioned a procedure that we could have done to 'reset' her sphincter and urethra so the work in sync and not opposite each other like they do now. I'll be asking about that at our next clinic day next week at DC children's.

The Neurosurgeon wanted to talk with us about something they found on her spine. Upper thoracic area. She as a cyst on her spine that he wanted us to know about but that we didn't need to worry. unless it starts causing her to deteriorate in her physical activity. But know we're wondering if it is stopping progression in walking, like would she have been standing more by now if it wasn't there and such like that. So we'll watch that and her shunt and hope for the best.

Over all it was a good visit for us. Every one was so nice and loved our girls. Kathryn wore her purple sparkly shoes and got comments every where she went. and at how blond the girls hair is. I don't think I go anywhere without a comment on that.

After all that we were done and were going to head home but decided to stop by the Zoo first. It was an awesome Zoo. Lots of fun animals, all close together, no big hills, and just fun. See for yourself in the pictures but the animals felt like they were right there to touch. The Lioness was HUGE. It poured on us while we were there so we got drenched but it was still fun!

I would love to go back and tour more of the down town history area but that will be far from now. We can go back to chop at 30 months but I think were ever we are I want to go to San Fran as that feels like 'home' for the Moms stuff.

Here's to another 18 months of growth to knock the socks off the doctors at UCSF !!!!

Wildlife

2011-06-08T13:53:00.000-07:00

We live in the forest. Yes a place where there are squirrels in abundance, deer that run along the roads, and a stream with fish not more then half a mile down the lane is the forest. We went fishing on the Free Fishing Day here in VA. It was a lot of fun. I caught the first fish. Only about 3 inches long. I think it's called a Sun Fish. I hate the removing the fish from the line part but casting and reeling them in is fun. Matthew caught a big trout next. Kathryn really likes to Pet the fish. We ended up eating the trout for dinner the next night. It got the hook way up in it's throat and Matthew couldn't get it out in time.

Then I must have not gotten all the french fries out of the happy meal box for a tasty meal for this squirrel. It was not 1 foot away from the door and he didn't mind us gawking at him eating our french fries. This is just a regular one but if you come on by you'll see black squirrels. Weird I know. We've asked about them and they are new to the area for a few years. It's like a camp out every time we go out side.

Memorial Day at Mount Vernon

2011-06-08T13:11:00.000-07:00

So our Memorial day activities started on Saturday.

We went swimming at the Rec Center here. Yes we all went swimming. Kathryn LOVED it. They had an awesome 2 foot deep kid's area that she walked around for ever. I took her into the lap pool for a little bit to try teaching her some swimming but she just liked sitting on the paddle floaty.

After swimming we got ready and drove down to Mount Vernon for 'Mount Vernon at Sunset'. It was their normal activities but just after 6. They usually close at 5. So we got there about 7 and walked around. The grounds were amazing. They had fun stick games on the bowling green in front of the house and all sorts of buildings all over. We toured the inside of his home which for that time was amazing. The two main entertaining rooms were a bright Blue but it certainly looked good. I wish I could have taken pictures of the inside but no pictures were allowed. We had dessert on the lawn over looking the Potomac. then had to go home for game night for Matthew. I need to go back because there was a lot more to see and do then just a couple hours will allow. George Washington was a science guy and loved new inventions one in his house was so cool as I would have most likely died back then with no AC and all the heat and humidity out here. Well anyway it was a chair with a built-in fan on top of it that he could wave the fan with a peddle on the floor.

Our next Memorial Day Activity we did was on Sunday where we went down to the capital and went to the Memorial Day Concert on the Capitals lawn. It was a really nice night and the girls did really well. We took the train down there. Collin Powell spoke and some American Idol singers and BB King and others. They had some memorials for some soldiers from 9/11 and then WWII and Vietnam and others. It was a really nice event. I'm really glad we went and got to experience that with thousands of others.

So much History out here and I haven't done as much as I've liked in the last year that we've been here. Yes it's been a year at the end of this month so . I guess I need a new goal to go out and tour some new places at least once a month.

We're going to Rochester next month to visit Matthew's sister so next month will be covered but well if anyone wants to come join us on my adventures please do, call and come!

Visual or not

2011-05-27T12:59:00.000-07:00

I just read a blog post of one of my friends back in az that has a baby who is hearing impaired/ deaf for all purposes of the word. He has hearing aids and just got tubes put in his ears so she knows that people SEE he is different. She said she was glad to have a visual disablilty compared to one that people can't SEE. It made me think about Charlotte and how she really doesn't look different then any other little 13 month old. She's cute as can be and can now get around crawling. But She does have Spina Bifida.

Ok stop I don't know where I'm going with this.

1. Would I rather have a child that is visually disabled so that I get more empathy or people feeling sorry for me
or
2. Would I have it how it is and have a perfectly wonderful child that no one knows the difference and I'm treated the same everyday until they see her back or see that I change her diaper differently or just until something comes up and then have them ask questions.

I think part of me likes the empathy and the wow you must be an amazing person to care for a child with a disability. I got so many comments when I was pregnant with her about how I must be amazing as our Father in Heaven wouldn't send such a spirit into my life if I couldn't handle it. I liked feeling like maybe I had more purpose then.

Now no one knows us out here expect out ward family and even some of them and the new people don't know anything about our story and they just treat us like everyone else. So I don't have to explain whats wrong or anything cause she looks completely normal.

Sitting in the grocery cart she gets more ooo's How Cute your baby is then anyone. And I have so much pride in that. She's sitting up, holding her self up, smiling at all the people. Interacting with the world. She's perfect!

I don't know where I was going with this post but my friends post made an impact on me and well I was thinking about it and thought I'd try to get some thing written down about it. I haven't put much depth into my posts lately.

Anyway Charlotte is doing great. She's got a summer cold right now but other then that she's my getting into things, crawling, pulling to her knee's little girl!

SB Bowling and Swimming

2011-05-23T09:10:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we had the Spina Bifida Bowling Party. It was on an Army base here in VA. They had the lights out and black lights on and disco balls going. It was fun. We had pizza and drinks and Even Kathryn got to bowl and get of the ever so awesome bowling shoes. She had lots of fun. Charlotte liked all the flashing lights and tried getting them on the floor.

Maybe next year Charlotte will be old enough to help push the ball down the ramp!

Kathryn has really been wanting to go swimming so I cleaned out the turtle and filled it up with the hose water. Charlotte really liked it but Kathryn well not so much. She could tell it was way to cold but they had fun anyway.

Kathryn liked splashing but was always just getting Charlotte. Not cool for the one getting splashed but Kathryn was having a ball!

And here Charlotte was on the floor and then I look back and she's up on her knee's! She's done it a couple times since then. She sure is growing up. So much progress in just a short time. I love it!

Happy Mothers Day

2011-05-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

I asked Matthew for a Corsage to wear to church for mothers day and he had Kathryn help pick on out. It was beautiful. I was the only mom at church with a pretty flower. I felt wonderful!

My girls that made me the mom I am. I couldn't be more happy with the special spirits that have been sent to me and Matthew. Kathryn is our Fire Cracker and Charlotte is our lovie. She Keeps me humble, except when she does such miracles like crawling and standing. She gives me so much to be proud of.

And I don't usually get pictures of myself but I had to get one with my babies. One day I'll like to get pictures of myself but until then you get to have pictures of my beautiful girls.

I guess I would be remiss if I didn't put a little blurb about my mother and Mother in Law.

Thank you Mom Turley and Mom Weir for the examples you are and the love you give to my family. Thanks for raising Matthew and I in the ways of Righteousness. I miss you both and can't wait to come and visit this summer!

Charlotte is on the move!

2011-05-21T09:58:00.000-07:00

Charlotte has just started in the last month to army crawl forward. and Just the last few days she's started staying up on her hands and knee's more too. It's so much fun to see her get around.

I especially love when I'm in the kitchen and she is in the other room and she finds me. I have to be careful now when she's up stairs to not let her alone to long or she might make it to the stairs and go down head first...

Out Doors

2011-05-21T09:47:00.001-07:00

More spring colors for your enjoyment!

We went out on the first day we could that was nice and windy and not rainy to fly a kite. It got really hot out well 80 or so degree's so we decided to go cool off in the stream down from us. The girls loved it. I'm quite suprised Kathryn got in as far as she did. The water was so nice and refreshing. We'll be spending some time there this summer for sure.

Our kite flying adventure. Kathryn did pretty good holding on to the end. It stayed up for awhile and then the wind would die down then it would pick up again and die down again. Over all it was a fun afternoon.

Ok some more fun flower pics. I still can't get over how pretty it is here.

Charlotte's Birthday Party

2011-05-21T09:28:00.001-07:00

We had just a few friends come over to help celebrate Charlotte's birthday with a party.

This pretty little dress was a gift from one of my friends.

The aftermath of the birthday cake for Charlotte. She didn't have any qualms about digging into her cake.

Happy birthday to Charlotte, Happy birthday to Charlotte, Happy birthday to Charlotte, Happy birthday to you!

Kathryn helped blow out hte candle!

She ate probalby a little more then half of the little cake.

the little friends that came to help celebrate. eating cupcakes!

Helen and Maria with their kids. Thanks so much for coming and helping us celebrate the birth of our little Charlotte.

Easter - the egg's and bunny side

2011-05-21T09:05:00.000-07:00

Have to start out Easter with a beautiful picture. Spring is amazing. I can't tell you how awesome it was this spring to see the daffodils shot out everywhere. Then came the Tulips and now there are Iris's everywhere. Besides the tree's that blossomed. Color was everywhere.

Kathryn's stash. There was a limit on how many egg's they could get so kids wouldn't feel left out but she did good.

A friend in the ward does a huge Easter gathering at her house and this was her 3rd annual Easter party that got rained out for the first day and had to have it the following Saturday after Easter but it was still fun for all.

They did a relay race. Kathryn and I were a team as she was to small for some of the things. Here she is hopping like a bunny. Isn't she a cute bunny.

And this was Charlotte the whole time. Just having fun in the grass.

We did dye some eggs this year. Kathryn did a good job and I got to try out my pressure cooker for cooking eggs. It worked good.

I'm sad I didn't get pictures of them in their easter dresses but maybe I'll just dress them like that tomorrow and add it in as a easter picture. ha ha no one will ever know.. oh wait I just told you...

I wanted to see the Ant Swim

2011-05-04T07:59:00.000-07:00

Kathryn has a great imagination. Just a funny thing I surely want to remember.

We were at a friends house doing VT and just playing . The kids were playing out on their patio and grass and having a good time with blankets and just having fun when I look up and Kathryn is standing at the door with a puddle under her. Yes she just stood there and peed her pants. She doesn't do that much anymore so it was weird to see her do that. So as I was cleaning her up I asked her why she didn't come in and use the potty she replied, "I had to pee on a BAD ANT". I laughed out loud.

Later that day I asked what she thought would happen to the ant and her witty reply was "I wanted to see it Swim!" Hilarious.

And I thought boys were the ones with problems peeing on things or with an affinity for peeing outside.

Kathryn loves to pee outside. We've been on a few walks were that has needed to be done but now every time we're even just on the patio she wants to pee outside. Silly girl!

My Darlings

2011-04-20T18:39:00.001-07:00

Spring Spring Spring

2011-04-19T19:03:00.001-07:00

I can't begin to tell you how BEAUTIFUL SPRING is here. There actually is spring here. Arizona skips right over this wonderful season. I can't believe all the daffodils growing along the freeways and just springing up out of now where. It's amazing! Enjoy the pictures below. This is all just in our neighborhood on a walk we took the other day.

Love this speckled flower.

Kathryn Loves to pick the flowers around for me and by now she's gotten used to me saying Oh thank you but lets leave it there for others to enjoy too. The other day at her friends house she picked a pretty flower from their yard and she brought it to her friends mom and said this is for my mommy but she's going to tell me I should have left it there for others. At least she's understanding what I tell her.

The drive into our neighbor hood was lined with these pretty things. with a smattering of pink here and there. It was glorious. It is now mostly green. My family in AZ is surely missing one of the BEST seasons of the year.

Charlotte is ONE

2011-04-19T17:44:00.000-07:00

My baby is ONE! I can't believe it. She sure came to us with with a bang and wow it's already been a year.
One year ago today I was at University of California San Francisco waiting to be cleared to go see my baby after having a C Section and her off into the ICU. It was 5-6 hours before I got to see my little darling.
She sure has gotten big. We just got her the new forward facing car seat. She looks so grown up in it.
Stats first
Weight 21.3 lbs = 60%
Height 30 1/4 in = 90%
Head Circumference 18 1/2 = 95%

Here are a few pictures of my darling. Then more about her below.

Spina Bifida T-shirt

Look at her on her knee's! She's so awesome!

her Birthday outfit. Sorry it's blurry. I was trying a new setting and I couldn't get it right.

Cheesey Daddy with the Birthday girl.

Her Birthday toy that Kathryn picked out. I think she likes it.

Her teefers!

Our for a walk.

She's doing some amazing things if you ask me.

Sitting
Rolling
Army Crawling
Gets to Sitting from laying down
Plays with Kathryn
Puts Weight on her Feet
Uses her Pincer fingers to grab little things
SMILES ALL THE TIME
Wakes up Happy!
Sleeps good
Jabbers
Two Teeth
Says Mamamama
Knows her Name
The Cutest chubby cheeks
HEALTHY and STRONG
KICKS SPINA BIFIDAS TAIL!!!

Looking back and thinking about how I felt when I was told the news I would have a child with Spina Bifida, Man I wish I would have known what I do now. I wish I would have seen how wonderful everything is and how uncomplicated things are right now. My Pediatrician hear always says things like "wow, she's just all tucked away nicely, I don't even have to do anything" meaning with SB clinic and Early Intervention, and MOM's study things She is Well taken care of!

Oh and I'm so exited to be coming home this summer. We'll be there for her 15 month appt. and I get to go back and see Dr Ciminello! He is seriously the BEST doctor in all of Arizona.

Anyway Happy Birthday to my sweet, adorable baby girl. Whom we like to call Charlotte 'B' or Baby Q. Charlotte B came from me because my best friend growing up mom used to call me Heather 'B' and I think it sounds cute and Matthew calls her baby Q. You'll have to ask him why he calls her that. He says it's something about that he calls Kathryn, Baby O and we have enough Baby P so the next letter is Q...

You're growing up so fast, but you will always be my baby girl. I love you Charlotte 'B'

Loosing a Friend

2011-04-18T11:38:00.000-07:00

I got an email from my mom last week about a good friend from long ago was killed in a Motorcycle accident. He was recently married and is expecting his first baby in just a month. His wife created a facebook page for friends and family to leave comments and words of love for Josh and his wife Jessica.

I went to elementary school through high school with Josh. We were in the same ward for church all growing up too. Times like this I wish I had a better memory. I wish I could remember the details, the fun group dates, the birthday parties anything that we would have done together. I know my dad was his bishop getting ready for a mission and he certainly had a special place in my dad's heart.

Reading the posts from people I knew and didn't know that knew Josh has made me think about my life and what I would leave behind. Josh will be remembered as a man of respect, love, genuine happiness. He had the biggest smile. He always would greet us girls in HS with Lovely Ladies or Some other term of beauty. He was a ladies man in the sense that he respected and showed sincere love and appreciation for all women.

I have two gifts from Josh that I have kept after a long time of getting rid of things a long the way. I used to collect Baseball hats and he got me a hat for one of my birthdays. I have kept two hats one was the one he gave me. I have also only kept two porcelain dolls one of which he gave to me just because.

I was always so strong, muscles everywhere. I don't think he was afraid of anything. I certainly was taken from this earth to soon. A good friend posted something very touching and wonderful to think about at a time when someone is taken early in life. Our Father in Heaven must have some big plans for him on the other side. He was to good a man not to be.

Tears are already flowing. I called my husband Matthew after I got the news and told him I loved him and that he needed to be careful. I don't want to loose him. Life is so short anyway. We need to tell those we love that we love them. What they mean to our lives! What they have changed in us.

Self reflection always come in these times. I hope that when it's my turn to leave this world that I will be worthy of the type of praise that Josh is getting now. Why do we wait so long to tell someone there worth to us. It might end up being to late.

Someone posted this song for his Wife telling her he's sure this is what Josh is thinking right now. I think it's fitting for you all here too.

the picture at the beginning is not my friend...

That's two friends that I've lost .
My thoughts are with you Eric Russell and Joshua Flanders! Both taken from this life much to early.

Quibids Plugin Ready

2011-04-12T05:32:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you're all aware of a few of the things we've won on Quibids lately. Last night we won Donkey Kong Country Returns + 25 bids.

$1.44 final price
+ $13.80 in bids (23 * $0.60/ea)
- $15.00 (25 free bids worth $0.60/ea)
+ $4.99 shipping
------------------
$5.23 total cost.

Now I'm sure there's several of you who are peaked in interest as to how much a Quibids auction would cost you to win. Well I spent all night finishing up my first browser plugin in order to satisfy your curiosity. It will allow you to use virtual bids on real live Quibids auctions so you can get the hang of it and find out if it's worth your time and money. Check it out. It's free. Details can be found at http://quibids.grinderholf.com. Please send me constructive suggestions if you have any.

Thanks,

Matthew

My little Princesses

2011-04-05T09:30:00.001-07:00

All ready for church. Mom are you done yet... Ok so I can get my girls ready but not myself. At least they look good!

Princess Kathryn

Princess Charlotte

Pressure Cooking at it's Finest

2011-04-05T08:29:00.000-07:00

So I've been asked to do a cooking class for my Relief Society on Pressure cooking. I guess since I make a to die for Tortellini Soup and I've mentioned how awesome it is to everyone I know, just so I get a little praise on something I do well I get to now, do a class.

When they first asked I only really every made 3 things in my pressure cooker.
Chicken Bacon Tortellini, Hawaiian Delight, and Porcupine Meatballs. They are all SO good everyone wanted a class. I for sure can't do a 30 minute class on 3 things. So I've been trying out some things. I checked a couple books from the Library. One called Pressure Cookers for Dummies and Pressure Cooking for Everyone. Anyway I flipped through these and found the section on beans and decided I would try that out. Beans can be pre-soaked in a pressure cooker for only 2 minutes under pressure then rinsed and then cooked at pressure again. So I decided to try black beans.

Quick Soak
1 lb black beans then cover with water plus 2 inches above and then pressure for 2 minutes then rinse and you are ready to start the actual cooking.

I did a basic Bean recipe to cook them.
1 cup beans
3 cups water or chicken stock
1 tbsp olive oil
salt to taste

Since I did a whole pound I added 6 cups water for the 2 cups of beans.

Place all in 5-7 quart cooker then pressure for 7 minutes. Remove from the heat and quick release method meaning running cold water over it for a few seconds until pressure has been released. Then Open lid and check beans for doneness. In necessary return to pot to medium low year and bring to a simmer and cook as needed. If possible cool beans in cooking liquid. Drain beans saving the liquid to use in soups if desired.

Mine I pressured for 10 minutes and I think it could have cooked a little longer but with what I made with them it was fine. I then used them to make Churro beans a recipe I got from another RS meeting from Mary Anne Morriberon.

1 lb black beans cooked according to pkg. directions - do not drain
1 med onion diced
1 pkg bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 large tomato
1-2 jalapenos, minced
1 large Garlic clove minced
1 cube chicken bouillon
1/2 bunch cilantro finely chopped
1/4 tsp cumin
up to 1/2 tsp of salt to taste

Saute Onion, Garlic, and Jalapeno in a pan until soft. Add to beans. Add remaining ingredients to beans. Serve warm over rice. Grate Cheese over top.

Can also be served as a warm dip, with tortilla chips. Garnish with Sour Cream, Salsa and cheese.

This turned out way yummy and Kathryn LOVES it. it didn't turn out the same as Mary Anne's but it still worked out great.

Next I wanted to try some Quinoa. I friend on Facebook mentioned that she was excited to actually use her quinoa for dinner with a recipe she found on Allrecipes.com. I thought I'd adapt that recipe to a pressure cooker recipe and it turned out great well in my taste anyway. The girls didn't think it was that great. Anyway here's what I did.

Just a basic quinoa recipe for Pressure cooker

1 1/2 cups quinoa rinsed and drained
3 cups water
1 tbsp of oil

Combine all in pressure cooker
Cover and bring to high pressure lower the heat to stabilize the pressure cooker. Cook for 7 minutes.
Remove and less pressure drop using the quick release method.
Unlock and remove cover quinoa should be slightly chewy. If hard return to cooker and pressure another 2-3 minutes
Drain any excess liquid

it was ready to use when I was done at 8 minutes. I then added a cup of the Churro beans to it and added a bit more seasonings. That below is what I got. Yummy healthy meal to add to my pressure cooker meals.

If anyone as their favorite pressure cooker meal or thing you make all the time let me know. I want to try some new things. My next thing will be sticky rice and chickpeas to make hummus. Then to big things like roast. Oh and hard boiled eggs. done in 3 minutes then let it release naturally. That will be way easier for Easter eggs then boiling for 10 minutes...

Oh and below is the pressure cooker I would recommend. It's $88 on amazon right now. This is definitely on my wish list. Anyways enjoy

Kathryn Vs Charlotte

2011-03-25T08:22:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd go back and find the heights and weights of my little girls and see the differences as they grow up.

Kathryn born Feb 8, 2008 she weighed 6 lbs 7 ozs and was 20 1/4 inches long	Charlotte born April 19 2010 she weighed 6 lbs 13 ozs and was 20 inches long

3 month Kathryn was 12 lbs 11 oz for some reason I couldn't find a height	Charlotte was 14.4 lbs and 25 inches

6 month Kathryn was 17 lbs 11 oz and 26 3/4 inches	Charlotte was 16.9 lbs and 26 inches

9 month Kathyrn was 20 lbs 1 oz and 28 inches	Charlotte was 19.6 lbs and 27 1/4 inches

1 year Kathryn was 22 lbs and 30 inches	Charlotte is 21.3 lbs and 30 1/4 inches tall

Quibids 1st Winnings

2011-03-18T05:29:00.000-07:00

Just got my first winnings in the mail from Quibids .

1 x $10 Home Depot Card + 10 bids
$0.01 - Auction winning price
+ 0.60 - 1 Bid to win x $0.60
+ 2.00 - Shipping
-----------
$2.61

1 x $10 Home Depot Card + 10 bids
$0.02 - Auction winning price
+ 0.60 - 1 Bid to win x $0.60
+ 2.00 - Shipping
-----------
$2.62

Fun times,

Matthew

Charlotte Cuteness

2011-03-16T12:23:00.000-07:00

Here comes an overload of pictures of my sweet Charlotte. She'll be 11 months old on Saturday. I can't believe it. She's still my baby.

The Developmental therapist has told us she's not a baby anymore and has told us to take away her pacifier during the day only at night for now and that we shouldn't have her sit in her car seat any more. I was getting tired of holding her in that car seat anyway but I've put her in the cart a few times and had her sit in the high chair's at restaurants and she loves it. And her pacifier well she is a great baby with or without it. I just know more of her schedule now as she cries when she's hungry and doesn't just satisfy the hunger with her paci.

Anyway enjoy the sweet love my Charlotte gives with her beautiful blue eyes and big cheeks!

She really does move all over the house. She got herself here in no time. Couldn't get herself out though. She started to cry and well I had to get my camera for a photo op like this. Sorry Charlotte for not getting you out sooner.

It's spring!

First time with Spaghetti! She loved it!

My angel, cutie pie.

Matt likes to Drive

2011-03-16T12:12:00.000-07:00

Matthew gets in these moods where he wants to just drive and drive with no particular end in sight so the other day the girls were feeling pretty lousy and tired and Matthew thought that would be a good time to go on a long drive.

At the bottom of this blog I have a map with states that Matthew and I have been together and he wanted to add another state or two onto that map so he looked up to see how close West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland all are and they are all actually within 20 miles of each other but getting there from where we are takes like 2 hours.

So we headed out on the rainiest day we've had yet. Rained all day long. Kids slept most of the way and we saw some really cool little towns and country side. Kathryn wanted pizza so we stopped at a little pizza joint and they had a left over pizza there that someone canceled their order so he gave him that pizza for free. Awesome I know but the pizza was well not a place I want to go back too.

Anyway we didn't end up getting to all 3 states but we did add West Virginia to our places we've been and we'll add PA next month when we go up to CHOP for Charlotte's Evaluation for the MOMs trail.

This was the town Library. Awesome building I know!

Crafts with Kathryn

2011-03-16T12:02:00.000-07:00

I checked out a craft book from the Library and found one thing that I thought Kathryn could really get into that wouldn't cost to much. We got flower pots and potting soil and some flower seeds for a fun flower pot. But we decorated it with eggs shells. You wash and dry the egg shells then paint them and then dry again and then break them into smaller pieces then glue them on in random shapes and designs.

I put Kathryn in my paint shirt so she wouldn't get her clothes messy. She really liked wearing one of my shirts. She thought it was so funny to where such a BIG shirt.

I found the paints at the dollar store. Kathryn LOVES to Paint!

But she doesn't like to get dirty so I had to hold the eggs while she painted cause she didn't want to get her fingers dirty.

LOVE THE TONGUE

Our finished products. I did a flower.

And Kathryn did the moon and stars.

The flowers are starting to grow. There are lots of little stems coming out of the pots. I thought it would take longer but it was only a few days and they are out and growing.

Zero Waste

2011-03-15T13:39:00.000-07:00

So my husbands job around the house in taking out the trash both out of the house and then on trash days out to the curb. And he's good at getting it out of the house into the big bin but remembering to get it out on the two days a week it goes to the curb is like pulling teeth for him. He just doesn't remember. I got after him the other day and he sends me this link The Johnson Family and puts at the end. "I've figured out how to solve the problem".

Man after watching this a few times and really thinking about how we could do this I want to try to make our carbon foot print lighter. I found some statistics on recycling that I'd like to share. My copy paste is not working so check out this Link here for some items on Recycling.

I think our biggest problem here is that we don't have a recycle bin or garbage can to take to the street. In AZ we had two big dumpsters for trash and recycle and for sure the recycle container was the one that was most full each week. We'll have to do some investing and buy ourselves another container for just recycle items.

Next I think our biggest trash item is diapers. And I've been thinking about this and since Charlotte is Cathed , she doesn't have as wet of diapers as she would have letting her pee all on her own so I'm considering cloth diapers for her. I think I could do it since she's on a schedule anyway of being changed I don't think that would be do difficult.

Next big problem I see is just having to much STUFF. the house in the video looked amazing. I want a home that is simple yet inviting with out all the STUFF everywhere. I can do without all the STUFF around my house. What to do with it all? What is worthy of keeping? Those are the questions I need help with.

Next idea - This women in the video has a blog that I've looked through just a bit and she says she clothes shops two times a year and only has like 7 items of clothing she uses. Mix and Match idea. I could so get into not having so much stuff to pick through that I don't really like anyway.

Toys we have to many toys. and my little girl is only 3. I know it's just going to get worse!!!

Anyway that's been on my mind lately. Next I need to find some whole food stores around here and where to buy bulk grains, cereals, oats, etc...

Home Made Wreath

2011-03-11T10:43:00.000-08:00

My sister Shelley is amazing. I'll start there. She is so crafty and can make anything. Sew anything, quilt anything, repurpose anything. And do all things on the cheap. This is one of those things.

This is a sheet I found at a second hand store for $1.50 cause I didn't have an old one to part with. Glue sticks, thread and needle, and a diaper box. I of course had one of those.

I made 4 different type flowers. My sister has the tutorials on her blog. check her out. She entered this into a contest! I hope she wins. seeshellspace.blogspot.com She's also an amazing photographer. check out her pictures there too and on etsy.

The first two types of flowers. Kathryn really liked the fluffy ones!

Up close. I really like it!

On the wall. I think it's beautiful. Thank you Shelley for an awesome craft that didn't take much time at all.

Pretty Girls

2011-03-05T10:36:00.000-08:00

I seriously have the cutest girls. Charlotte is getting more beautiful each day. Her hair is starting to curl up over her ears and curl a bit on top. Kathryn's hair is down more then half way down her back. She is so grown up. She's at least 7 or 8 not 3 years old. So smart and funny. They love to play with each other. When ever I do laundry Kathryn has to get in toe baskets and make the her bed. This time she let me put Charlotte in and play with her.

We've had some good warmer days lately so we've taken advantage of the out doors on those days. Charlotte likes to eat the wood chips. But both Kathryn and Charlotte and well Me too loved being out side. It's been a long winter.

Look at such beauty. Hair, eye's and all. Plus she's doing so well at learning to army crawl. not yet going forward but she's getting there.

Kathryn's scary face. Looks like a silly face to me.

Necklaces for Sale

2011-03-05T10:12:00.000-08:00

Bulk set of necklaces for sale. 192 necklaces and earring set X $0.50 = $96.00

Kathryn turns 3

2011-02-17T10:31:00.000-08:00

My Baby turned 3 on February 8th. I can't believe she's already 3 and so grown up. She had her 3 year doctor visit the day after her birthday. Here are the stats for my 3 year old

Height 38 inches - 75%

Weight 34.7 lbs - 80%

She got 3 shots and was a good girl through out. We went to the doctor for a follow up for Charlotte today and Kathryn kept sayign she didn't want to have a shot.

Happy Birthday my Kathryn Olivia.
Charlotte wants in on the fun. and the Birthday Cake!

Thank you Grandma Turley for the fun backpack. She carries around her other presents in it.

Grandma Weir sent this fun crown and a tutu. Thank you so much for the gifts for my big girl. She certainly misses her grandparents.

We went to McDonalds for lunch on her birthday. She got the happy meal so she could get the pony inside. She also got to play on the playground but got scared at the top and thankfully another mom was willing to go up there and help her down. I guess she's still my baby sometimes still. Not fully grown up and doesn't need her mommy. I'm glad she still needs me sometimes.

My birthday cake creation. Not the best but it tasted great to me.

Gifts from mom and dad. She loves to water color.

And here is the apron I made for her. I need to shorten the neck piece but she likes it all the same.

And to her Party. We invited 7 little kiddo's over for Kathryn's party. I think they all had a blast. I think my activities were a little old for this bunch but they had fun anyway.

We made valentines and decorated cookies, and Matthew got out the Bounce house and set it up in the front room. that was a huge hit for the kids. And no one got hurt. So glad for that.

They really liked Kathryns letter mat. I wanted to do letter races like we do with Kathryn but the other kids didn't think that was a good idea. maybe next year...

Kathryn got such fun presents from all of her friends.

This is from Talon and Zia. We have food all over our house now. Kathryn said she was hungry the other day and I handed her a water melon slice and she said "no mom real food."

Gavin got her a camera. She loves taking pictures so this was a great present for her. I'll have a post coming shortly of the 30 pictures she took in the first minute of it working.

Rebecca got her a book Silly Sally and a rhyming game. The book is silly I love it. And the game will be good to help her start to recognize sounds and what sounds the same. I love learning games and things for the kids. Kathryn is so smart to. All the help I can get to help her learn more and more.

Noah got her these fun barbies and princess game. She's pretty good the game already. It's like candyland with colors and such. She loves the barbies. These are her first barbies and they were a hit.

Valerie got her this pretty dress. This is one I was looking at getting her for easter. Valerie and her mom beat me to the punch. She wore it on Sunday. She was adorable.

Make a Wish!

Noah

Dirty Rebecca, She was the youngest of the group. She certainly knows what the good stuff of a cookie and cupcake are. FROSTING!

Happy Valentines day!

2011-02-17T10:18:00.000-08:00

I got the girls matching outfits for V-Day. They got the skirts too but Kathryn didn't want to wear hers and well Charlotte has been on Antibiotics and they have been making her have really bad diarrhea which make for having matching outfits for very long hard. So needless to say I didn't get any other pictures then this one with them in their shirts. Another day and they will be all prettied up and cute for pictures.

We tried pink eggs this morning. Kathryn wasn't so sure about them but after she had a bite and it tasted the same she was all for them. She even asked today when I got out and egg for my breakfast if I was going to make it pink.

Here they are. So cute I know. I guess it has been a little cold for a short skirt but I bought them in mind to were their tights under them.

We made cookies. I need to get more cookie cutters as this star one I have is the only big cookie cutter I have.

Charlotte's just chill'an as we decorate the cookies. I've since found out she is a big fan of cookies. She'll munch on cookies and sweets for that matter all day if I let her.

Some finished product.

Matthew even got in on the fun!

We had a nice day for Valentines day. I put cut out hearts all over the house and watched Charlie Brown's Valentine Special. what better way to celebrate love day with Charlie Brown and the little Red haired girl.

Curly Hair

2011-02-17T10:13:00.000-08:00

Kathryn loves her curlers. She even doesn't complain about sleeping in them. And the end product is so pretty. I love her long hair. She's so pretty.

Thank you to Amber Tryon for the bow.

Isn't she silly. I"m trying to get a good picture and she does this...

I like this mirror picture. Isn't she so grown up. brushing her own teeth, having curlers in her hair, and such cute jammies. Matthew and I sure do make such beautiful babies!

Something I want to try

2011-02-17T10:06:00.000-08:00

I went to the Dulles Expo Center with my neighbor Katie and was fascinated by one particular booth for kids toys and such. It was all fabric made, quite books and the like. I really like this one in particular. I want to try my hand at making this for my girls. Maybe get Charlotte's done for her 1st birthday in April. I'd have to have two sets of cups unless I did the Weir's and the Turley's. That would be easier for grandparents I'm sure.

My sister Shelley could do this in a jiffy so maybe I"ll have to get some advice on this and have her help me over the phone.

I think this would be a great shower gift or birthday present. Maybe I could get good at making this and sell them. Anyone interested?

Playing together

2011-02-17T09:59:00.001-08:00

Kathryn and Charlotte have gotten to the point where they can actually start to play together. Here's a few shots I've gotten so far. I love my girls so much.

Oh yeah and you can't forget the play dates that Charlotte can now start to participate in. Or at least sit and watch and try to interact.

Maybe this will give her incentive or the now how to start pulling up like this or crawling if she's around other little ones to learn from them.

Kathryn's feeding Charlotte her watermelon.

This was so fun the watch and get pictures of. They play together so well. Kathryn is such a good big sister and Charlotte is so easy going that even if Kathryn is a little rough sometimes she's ok with it anyway!

SNOW STORM - late post but it was a doozy

2011-02-17T09:27:00.000-08:00

So I've been complaining about how cold it's been with no snow to play in. Well the end of January the Snow came down! It started snowing about noon and didn't stop snowing until like 7 or 8 that night. It was heavy snow too. The news said it was a Thunder Snow Storm. It took Matthew 8 hours to get home from work, which it normally takes about 45 mins to an hour. But we did go out and try and play in the snow and slide down some hills this time.

This is a castle some kids in the neighborhood were making it was so cool!

The little thing sliding down in the middle is Kathryn in a big plastic garbage bag. She loved it!
I have a fear of sledding since my time at Ricks College but that didn't stop Kathryn and Daddy from having some fun.

The turtle didn't work so well. to many grooves on the turtles back.

Here's are second attempt at a snowman this time it's at least a foot and a half.

Just an awesome tree that is just down the way from us.

We had to dig out the parking space by the time Matthew got home. I went out to help our neighbor cause her car got stuck before she got into her parking spot and then Matthew pulled up and she helped us get him in as he got stuck as well. It's kinda fun to shovel snow. I don't think I'd want to do it more then a few times a year though.

It is quite pretty when it's all covered in snow!

This is just a few hours after it had started. I didn't move the van for 5 days after it snowed. It was so stuck in there.

I hope this was the last of the snow for this winter. I need some sunshine! Warmth!

MOMS Trail over with great results!

2011-02-10T12:08:00.000-08:00

My day has been full of reading articles and watching clips about the trial Charlotte and I were apart of at her birth.

Here are a few of the articles I've read n an watched.

New York Times

New England Journal of Medicine

I am over joyed that we got picked for the prenatal surgery. I knew that we did the right thing for her from the start. I wanted to do what I could for her and well I guess what we did actually was the best thing.

The trial was closed early because the benefits were clear it helped with Mobility and brain function. We were told that from the MRI we had before we excepted to be part of the trial that CHarlotte's hindbrain herniation was quite severe. That was probably the clencher for me. That part scared me more then the possible need for a shunt. And because of the surgery before, I'm sure that hindbrain herniation has reversed. and for CHarlotte the SHunt was still needed. So the main scare in my book was gone. When she was born she was kicking her legs and wiggling her toes too. I was overjoyed.

We delivered at 36 weeks 4 days. We actually had our c-section scheduled. The gal right after us delivered at the same time a month later. So there are still those of us that do not have premature babies. I knew that part of the risk was not a problem for us. I knew my body could handle it and each week I didn't deliver was a blessing in Charlottes life.

We go do CHOP for our 1 year Eval in May. I can't wait to show off our little Charlotte Bee.

And what a blessing this is for all those moms out there that there is a better option for those SB kids. I hope that the option doctors give now is not termination it's prenatal surgery!

Kathryn's birthday present and my Christmas present

2011-01-22T11:00:00.000-08:00

I got a wonderful Christmas present this year! I got a sewing machine. It was so almost a suprise. I didn't know until Christmas eve when the gal in our ward that got if for Matthew came over to drop it off. But I was so Excited in side for that day when I got to open it up and try it out.

I wanted to make something for Kathryn for her Birthday coming up in 2 weeks So Matthew and I dropped by the Fabric store and I picked out 3 pieces of the quarter fats and made an apron. It's two sided. I made it from my own pattern in my head. I think she'll love it. I want one now. hint hint Rachel get that finished so I can cook in style with Kathryn!

I hope she likes it! I'm sure she will. Now I just need to be patient when she wants to help me cook.

My new machine. I love it. Does 10 different stiches and is just easy to use. I love it. Can I say that enough. I need some more things to make. Oh and Charlotte sat there watching me the whole time. I think she rather enjoyed it too.

ICE

2011-01-22T10:57:00.000-08:00

We had a very ICY day this week on Tuesday. There was a layer of 1/4 - 1/2 inch of ice over everything. Very pretty but very scary trying to get anywhere. The whole patio was covered with ice. a big skating pad not just the turtle. It took me 10-15 mins to deice the car to head to the SB clinic at 11 in the afternoon.

Kathryn loves the Snow

2011-01-22T10:24:00.000-08:00

We've only had a few snow's this winter, which I am grateful for. But Kathryn would so, like a lot more snow.
It was so cold that day so I was freezing. and holding Charlotte, so I made the excuse of having to come back in cause Charlotte was cold, but I"m sure it was just me as I had her bundled up pretty good. Kathryn sure had fun the 10 or so minutes we were out there. I don't have snow shoes so I wrapped my shoes in plastic bags and that worked great.

We made a ice skating rink in our turtle. Kathryn liked trying to break the ice the first day and then got into trying to skate on it or rather stand in her boots and try not to slip and fall.

Kathryn got a little snow shovel for christmas and she's only gotten to use it a couple times but the times she did need it she had a blast.

We tried a ice experiment and put this cup of orange juice outside to freeze that night and this is what we got the next morning.

You can't really see it but that says it's just over 20 degree's. I can't believe I can stand outside in that kind of weather and not totally FREEZE to death.

This is our fish pond that is and has been frozen on top for at least 2 months now and the fish underneath are still swimming around, slowly but still swimming. See the orange, red that's the fish moving around.

Our snowman after one day of melting.

Kathryn wanted to put a hat on the snowman like frosty!

I think our winter might be almost over. Spring is just around the corner. I can't wait for spring and the flowers and leaves to start to bud. I'm so grateful that this winter wasn't as bad as last years snowmageden.

9 Months! can't believe it

2011-01-22T09:34:00.000-08:00

Enjoy some Charlotte Overload. Love my cute, angel of a baby!

Charlotte is now 9 months old. Smiley, Happy, Laughing!
She's sitting up pretty good now. She's getting so strong!

She loves playing with her sister. Kathryn loves having someone to play with too.

Her new physical Therapy ball. She gets to sit on it and lay on it like this to strengthen her back and oblique muscles. Her Therapists are all very good and are getting her to do so much more then I thought would come by this time!

She really loves this ball!

I have the cutest kids ever!

Charlotte is such a special girl . I can't believe I was so worried at the beginning. She's more then I could have ever wanted.

Love her hair! it's not as long as Kathryn's was but it's getting long and sticking up after baths I love it.

It's coldy, Coldy here. I'm so glad we have a car seat cover for her that's all warm and cozy.

She's started playing a lot more with all her toys. It's fun to watch her move around and get to the different toys all around the floor.

She really likes books, or rather she likes to play with them and eat the edges. Oh and the book in the picture is really cute, I highly recommend it.

Some stats on my sweet Charlotte.

Weight 19.6 lbs - 50%

Height 27 1/4 in - 75%

Head Circumference 17 in - 90%

She's rolling all over the floor, starting to army/ inch worm crawl, she has a little trouble with solid foods, but she likes sucking on apples and oranges. She takes good naps and sleeps through the night. She babbles all the time. So far for SB, we still cath her and she's had NO UTI's, no SHUNT problems, her Orthopedist thinks she's doing great and on track, her Pediatrician is pleased and thinks she's well taken care of. Her Opthamalogist thinks her eye's are fine and we'll keep watching them for any other changes.

We look forward to May when we get to go back to San Fran for the MOMs trial for her one year evaluation.

pants go on your... head?

2011-01-17T10:37:00.000-08:00

Kathryn is so silly sometimes. She likes to twirl around until she's so dizzy she fallas over. And her favorite is to do that with pants on her head. Here's a few photo's of one of those events and well of course Charlotte has to have a turn as well.

Charlotte's new play table. The PT thought this was a great idea. She sits up pretty good to it now not all bent over. Hey any of you SB mom's do you think I should be worried about her eye's being to close together? Or did your babies look like this?

I am such a mean mom, laughing when she runs into the wall.

DC Temple Lights

2011-01-02T18:34:00.000-08:00

We went down to the temple lights on the last night, Jan 1, 2011. It was a warmer night but a little rainy. The musical talent was the Baltimore Maryland missionaries. It was a nice concert and we even got to hear the bagpipes and a ukulele.

The lights were very nice. A little different then the lighted palm tree's. Definitely not as many lights as the AZ Temple but still beautiful all the same.

Tangled with Kathryn

2011-01-02T18:09:00.000-08:00

Oh and she wanted to wear my bling necklace and bring her puppy in a purse. We hid the m&m's in that to bring into the theatre. She was really interested in this picture of what the little men were doing.

I took Kathryn to her very first full length feature film at the theatre on New Years Eve. We went to see Tangled. I thought she would like this one because I tell her the story of Rupunzel but I tell her the princesses name is Kathryn Rupunzel. We got some popcorn and some rootbeer and m&m's to make her first experience good and to have somethings to bribe her with she got to noisy. There were times I thought we would have to leave but she was a good trooper and made it through. I thought it was a wonderful movie. She was scared of the mean mommy but I think she enjoyed it. She said at the end, why did her hair turn brown? and then on the way home she said she wanted long yellow hair and yellow clothes and then it just turned into she wanted everything to be yellow.

Our first experience and probably close to last as movies cost so much and it's only $1 for redbox a few months later was a success!

Christmas 2010

2011-01-02T17:49:00.000-08:00

Pictures not in any particular order but here is our Christmas in a nutshell. I didn't get a lot of pictures but Matthew did some video that someday he'll have time to download, edit and have her your viewing pleasure.

Matching Christmas outfits! I got these after Christmas at Walmart for $9 total. Two shirts and two pants!
Matthew got Kathryn these big foam letters. It was fun having a 'rug' in the family room for a few days. Now I think it will be a play mat for the girls bedroom.

I learned to make better snowflakes. See a few Christmas tree's and the sort of Snowman in them!

Her new outfit and lots of toys that make up our floor. This was our floor for a few days. TOYS, TOY, TOYS!

These next few are our Christmas grinch/ santa clause. Matthew made a green suit for video but this worked out well for Santa grinch.

Christmas Tree snowflake!

Talking with the family on Skype for Christmas

Kathryn's gift from her Aunt Jolene. I think this is awesome!

Charlotte wasn't really into the whole tearing the paper like I thought she might but then again she was sick.

It snowed on Christmas for a few minutes. It was fun for some pictures and to say it snowed on Christmas.

Kathryn was funny at first. She got this in her stocking and wanted to go paint and not open up her other gifts. so we let her. after this painting though she got into the opening of presents and wanted to open them all regardless of who they were for.

My new PJ's

Charlotte's new PJ's

Kathryn's new Pj's

We tried to stay in a budget this year which I say I did pretty well staying with in that but I did get Matthew some pants and a long sleeve shirt. And Matthew said he wanted to get me something good since the last few years Christmas and birthday have been well in his words not his best times. So he with the help of my VT got me a nice Sewing Machine. Just what I need for doing little sewing jobs for clothes for the girls. I can't wait to get started and use my clothing budget on stuff I can sew! We'll have to see if I can have a craft budget too. we'll see.

Anyway it was a good Christmas even if Charlotte threw up on the foam letters.

Charlotte Rolling! and some not fun stuff

2011-01-02T17:29:00.000-08:00

So it's been awhile since Charlotte has started rolling over from Back to Tummy but I had to put this video on here of her doing it over and over. She's been doing really good with PT and DT and just growing up in general. She gets all over the floor, well maybe not all over but she moves quite a bit now and is learning to wiggle forward a bit. It's amazing the places I see her in when I've left the room for a little bit. I have to admit some of the times its because Kathryn has taken it upon herself to roll Charlotte over and over and over or drag her to where her 'castle' is or something like that but left alone she still gets a good distance away. I love that she's starting to get herself moving.

On a sad note...

For Christmas or rather the week before and after Kathryn was sick the Monday and Tuesday before Christmas and then Charlotte got sick throwing up and refusing to eat the Wednesday before and was sick till this last Friday. a whole week and a half. Not a fun time for us. I was worried it might be her shunt or UTI or what ever it may be so I sent Matthew to the ER with her on Christmas Eve. They did a whole series of tests including CT scans of her brain and such and found nothing wrong with the things I was praying there was nothing wrong with. They said she just had a tummy bug of some sort and that it should go away soon. Well I was thinking Soon should be a day or two not another week so on Monday I called the after hours Pediatrician and not having luck the time I called on Christmas Eve I called my Ped from Arizona.

(side note) I would move back to AZ just because I LOVE my pediatrician there not because my family lives there. They would be a close second but it would be because of Dr Ciminello! Anyone else have a Doctor they would just die to live without?

Anyway he called back in like 10 minutes and remembered us and Charlotte and was very concerned and gave me such good advice. He was concerned about what the doctors here had not done and I got the impression maybe I should try another Doctor again but anyways. It's because of him she got better so quickly. He said if she's still throwing up everything tomorrow take her in and have her checked for a UTI then get some IV fluids soon but beyond that STOP all DAIRY. Push Clear liquids and thats it. So I went to the store that night and stocked up on some pedialyte, pear juice and Gatorade and that's what she got for the next 2 days and that cleared up her tummy problem leaving just a few days of some really soft poop and then to normal! I had to push fluids in her with a syringe but she soon got the hang of it and starting eating 2-3 oz at a time and then got better. I'm so relieved both my girls got better in time to celebrate the new year happy and healthy!

We had a good Christmas besides the sickness and a fabulous new year. pictures and details to come.

Work Party = Fun Give aways

2010-12-24T10:26:00.000-08:00

Matthew's new job had a Christmas party at a nice Restaurant in Reston. He works for a company that contracts with DOD and well I guess they are doing a pretty good job.

Matthew was telling me about past parties that he was told about from his coworkers but I was in for a real treat. I knew it was all for real when we got there and everyone got a Apple TV for just being there. Retail $99.00. There were probably 35 employee's there. Then we got a raffle ticket for other prizes to come. There was a plentiful corner of liquid refreshments that we didn't partake in and lots of fun fancy clothes to look at. And the Prize table. Holy cow I was amazed at the prizes.

My top 3 choices on the table was the

1. Home Theatre System with Blu-Ray player

2. One of the 4 lap top computers

3. IPad

Other items on the table and then some I didn't know cause they were certificates

4. Pocket video camera

5. two $500 visa cards

6. Amazon Kindle

7. Pulse Pen

8. Laser Color Canon Printer

9. Pulse picture viewer.

10. gift cards for $150 to the restaurant we were at.

Everyone got something so if you weren't in the drawing you got a certificate of some sort. We won the Kindle, that had a $25.00 amazon gift card attached. I love it. We bought the full standard works for church so my RS bag isn't so blasted heavy. I've downloaded two audible books from Audible.com. Which is fun to have it read to me. I've been listening to it while I did my baking. It's really fun. This one retails at about $139.00. So I think we did ok.

The Apple TV I think we'll be selling as the HDMI cable and the optical cable that we need is pricey and it's just cheaper to go to redbox then rent from Itunes. and the Netflix down loadable movies just wasn't what we liked when we had it for the few months in San fran. Don't know for sure yet. We'll see Matt was joking today that we'll keep it cause he just bought us a blu-ray player. Fun for Christmas!

Spina Bifida Christmas Party

2010-12-24T10:17:00.000-08:00

Take a good look at this santa, I'm certain he was the real thing. All his real hair, big bowl full of jelly belly, jolly old man. And the kids loved him. I guess he's there main attraction for the past few years parties too.

We went to the Spina Bifida Association's Christmas Party this last weekend. It was fun to see some friends I see at the Monthly Brunches and see lots of new friends. So many cute little kids rolling around in their wheel chairs.

It was at an Elks Club, there was a puppet show when we first got there then lunch was already underway downstairs. Santa came and gave each of the kids a wonderful gift. I let Kathryn open her gift as the other kids were opening theirs. She got the Tiki Barbie Elephant from the movie Enchanted Island. I think. It's actually a really cool toy. It's magnetic and lifts the two dolls that it came with up on it's truck and sits them down on his back. Way cool.

Kathryn really wanted to open Charlottes and I've said no we're waiting for Christmas for her's but it now has a whole in the wrapping so I hid is so Kathryn would stop pestering me about it. It's a good thing that the only presents out under the tree are things we've gotten in the mail or we would not be having a christmas on Christmas, All the gifts would be opened by my little mischievious little girl.

Thank you SBA for the wonderful party and gifts for my daughters!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

2010-12-16T18:27:00.000-08:00

So my last post was a teaser for what was to come. Today it snowed for 5 hours straight, Below is some pictures as it gradually gets deeper and deeper. It was fun to watch it snow and see the change from dusted over to ALL WHITE. Kathryn loved playing in it. She's a fan, and mom, she even loved eating it.
I found out that we are missing some key elements of snow gear.
1. snow shovel
2. sand/salt
3. water proof WARM gloves - how can we build a snowman without these
4. snow boots- how do we trapce around the park without these
5. snow pants - how can we go sledding without these
6. Sled/ snow disc of some sort - see #5 can't really go sledding without a sled.
7. water proof snow suit for Charlotte- can't play in the snow if I have to hold her all the time, need a wagon with a cover to pull her around in so I can put loads of blankets around her and keep her warm

Just some ideas if anyone is looking for things we might need this year!

I love this picture! Look at that snow fall right on her tongue!

After all is done this is the after math of the 5 hour snow fall!

Where's the turtle???

It Snowed or rather Dusted

2010-12-13T19:01:00.000-08:00

Christmas Card... well sort of

2010-12-13T18:41:00.001-08:00

So to say that I've been busy this year is well and understatement or quite the opposite. I'm not sure. Having been in the Mormon Choir of Washington DC and two little girls and a Dave Ramsey class the last 13 weeks and just life I think I've been pretty busy in general but If you actually look at my days you'd be like, and why are you not getting anything done, like some Christmas cards for your friends and family that you don't see any more since you moved so far away. I'm going to blame it on the cold weather, it has frozen me and I can't move much now that it's 30 degree's and WINDY! I can always blame the weather right?

So here is what I would have said if a letter had I sent a letter.

Dear Family and Friends,

What a year we have had. So many changes have happened in the last year. I'll try to wrap the year in one short paragraph maybe two, to catch up all those who haven't been keeping up with us crazy Weir's otherwise.

December 28th we find out our newest edition will be a Beautiful baby girl with a problem with her back, Spina Bifida, after a long thinking period we decide it will be best to participate in a trial to either close her back inutero or after she's born. We get picked for the first and have surgery January 25 in San Francisco at UCSF. We loved our time in San Francisco and got to see a lot of fun things and meet some really awesome people, though we missed our little Kathryn so much. We got to stay in California for the next 3 months to await Charlotte's arrival on April 19th, we then came home April 26th for a much needed family reunion!

Matthew had taken a job in Virginia in January but they let him telecommute for the time we were there and for a few months after. He then headed out to Virginia again in May to find us a place to live. We signed a year long contract and thought it would be fun to try the east coast and what better place then 30 miles from the Capital! The girls and I along with my parents came out the end of June and made ourselves at home. We've loved our new ward and the beauty of the East. Tree's galore and we live by a nature trail that often has deer and such animals. It has been fun to see the seasons change. I'm most grateful for the summer, humidity to be gone!! I am so a dry heat kind of girl! And not the leaves are gone and we actually had our first snow fall that stuck to the ground for a few hours this morning. We are looking forward to the next year with great anticipation and hoping it will not be so up and down as the last!

So here is what we're up to now,
Matthew- Came out here to work for Intercel in web design/ programming and has since after being in the Dave Ramsey class realized we needed to do a little gazelle intensity at our debt and decided it was best for our family for him to get a second job. He landed a job that contracts with the Military and so had to get a Secret Security Clearance. He's doing programming there too. He's also done his first try at video journalism with a guy he found of Craigslist from India. He's also had a greensuit made and purchased a Green/Blue Screen for making fun videos. When he has some time I"m sure he'll want to play with this more. He is our wards favorite balloon guy and the missionaries best friend. They think he's the most awesome guy and I don't blame the, he is. He's the Elders Quorum Secretary and I'm pretty sure that now that the activities committee has been disbanded he'll get asked to do some activities for all the ideas he keeps throwing at the Elders Quorum. He's working from 7-3:30 and then 6-12 with an hour commute in there so we don't get a lot of Daddy time but he's doing a really good job keeping up with what he has to do! He is our super daddy!

Heather- I guess the biggest thing for me is that I actually tried out, had to audition and made the Mormon Choir of Washington DC. We've had some amazing concerts in the last few weeks. From doing a concert at the Strathmore with the Orchestra of Washington DC with Jenny Oaks Baker as guest violinist, to singing for His Excellency the Ambassador for Vietnam, to a nice fireside in Maryland that had well over 500 people attending. We have some amazing concerts coming up for the next year including one in February for Black History month with a baptist choir. I have so much fun in this choir. There are 6 from my ward in the choir so it's fun to car pool and get to know more of the ladies in the ward.
The girls keep me busy and trying to keep my house in order, going grocery shopping, meals, laundry, doing Visiting Teaching, keeping up with my calling as Relief Society Secretary and trying to remember and keep appointments for Charlotte. I am always going, going, going, but take my occasional break to get a episode of Glee, Psych, or House. I guess I do have my down time too.

Kathryn- Wow my almost 3 year old is the energizer bunny! She loves playing at friends houses and doesn't like coming home when it's time. She hates sleeping but takes the longest naps if I can get her to just fall asleep. I think she thinks she'll miss something if she's sleeping. She's gotten really good at computer games. She especially loves playing all the games on Nick Jr and PBS kids. She can do the mouse and go to different games all by herself. Which is really nice when I need to be working with Charlotte for awhile. We're trying potty training off and on as she'll be doing really good and then gets sick and has a really long set back. She still has her once a month Fever which we still can not figure out. I hope it doesn't last very long. She's getting big and can open the fridge and loves it when she can get the milk out when it's not to heavy. She loves saying she's going to be big like me and that she is a big girl. She doesn't let me call her my baby any more. Oh and she is so smart! we'll be looking for a preschool for her next year for sure!

Charlotte- almost 8 months and going! Charlotte is doing so well. I couldn't have imagined what life would be like with a child with Spina Bifida and if you do imagine that it is was worse then what it actually is. Charlotte is the best baby! Seriously! Only cries when she needs to poop, she's been sleeping through the night since 3 months and takes awesome naps. She's also really good with other people. Only a few times have I noticed a little stranger anxiety but otherwise she is all smiles. She gets handed off to other's in our ward every Sunday.
Medically speaking she's doing really well too, No problems so far. We still have to Cath her every 3-4 hours and watch her closely for Shunt failure. She's in Physical Therapy twice a month and Developmental Therapy once a month. I hope to start Occupational Therapy when she gets a little older. She's doing really well in her therapies, or rather I'm doing well at doing them with her in the in between times. She's rolling over both ways now, can sit up holding herself with her hands and is in the process of learning how to crawl/ army crawl. I think there might be something wrong with her eye's so we see Opthomalogy tomorrow, hope nothing to serious. We've been to the Spina Bifida Clinic at DC Childrens and had a great time there. We'll go back sometime in January for more followups. She's started receiving Respite care from a girl in our ward. I think it will work out well.

Well That was by far the longest Christmas letter and you probably won't get through it all in one sitting but if you did good for you.
An end to all letters, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-10T12:25:00.001-08:00

Our house is getting ready for one of the Best holidays of the year. I love Christmas, I loved the Christmas Devotional this year and all the wonderful Christmas Music that I've been able to sing and listen to. There are so many beautiful Christmas songs out there. I was introduced to a new one I love now called Star Bright. Matthew and I are singing it at our wards Christmas Party tomorrow. I may have someone record it for us.

So here goes

Our Beautiful Tree!

The Christmas ball wreath I just tried to make today I didn't have enough balls but this will have to do as it's just hanging on the bathroom door cause it's to fat to put on the front door with the screen closed. I realized this season that I don't have anything christmasy wreath like to put on my front door. I guess My search is still on with this not working for the door.
I just did this today too. I've felt really bad about not being able to put lights outside because of no outlets but I think I did a pretty good job even if it isn't lighted.

And my Nativities, well the breakable ones that are out of reach of the little hands in the house.

The newest member as of last year. I wonder what it will be this year?

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and that we keep the true meaning of Christmas in our lives. Even the Grinch realized that it isn't the decorations, the presents, the Santa that makes a Christmas special it's the joy of our Saviors Birth and the Love He has shown to all!

Becky Kelley - Where's the Line to See Jesus - OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO

2010-12-07T19:24:00.000-08:00

Beautiful song

Festival of Lights at the Washington D.C. Mormon Temple

2010-12-01T19:53:00.000-08:00

33rd Annual Festival of Lights at the Washington D.C. Mormon Temple

I got to sing at the Lighting Ceremony tonight, that was a invitee only event. It was for the Ambassador's and congress and such dignitaries. His Excellency Le Cong Phung, Ambassador of Vietnam was the main speaker at this event. It was amazing to sing for such officials.

Our closing number was Peace Peace/ Silent night. We had a Vietnamese couple sing the first verse in Vietnamese. I felt the spirit so strong it was hard to do the Ooo's in the background. Tears were certainly forming in my eyes. I think it made it so special that this couple were refugee's from Vietnam as they were kicked out of their country and they told a member of the choir that it will not be a problem to sing for the ambassador as it has been a long time and it was time to put all that behind them.

I get to sing tomorrow for all the invited City Officials in the area. I am so glad i actually tried out for the Mormon Choir of Washington. I was so nervous and just knew I blew my audition but thankfully they saw past my nervousness. I love being in the choir. Our season is almost over for the year. two more concerts and one more practice. It's been a busy last few weeks.

Anyone in the area, please come to see the Temple. It was glorious!

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-12-01T12:15:00.001-08:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. Even being away from family we ended up having family around us! Thank you Ted and Hisako for making the 10 hour drive to have this holiday with us. It wouldn't have been the same with out you, and dinner would not have been so good!!!

This was the first year I've ever had dinner and all at my home. We have always gone somewhere else for Thanksgiving. I suppose the one year at Ricks College counts but I'm going to leave that out cause I didn't have to do all the preparing.

I was worried I'd forget something because I was planning on having Hisako help/ do lots of the cooking with me. I got everything I needed but just so happened to forget about all the other times they were going to be here. I guess I have a one track mind when it comes to preparing for a huge meal, the little meals in between didn't even cross my mind. Thankfully we had enough odds and ends to manage through the whole weekend.

Ted and Hisako and Family got here about 7 Wednesday evening after a frightful drive with Ken driving part of the way. Thankfully they made it alright. We had frozen pizza and tortellini for them. We stayed up and talked awhile and then all got to bed around 10ish.

Thanksgiving morning all the big kids and men went to our non ward sponsored Ultimate Frisbee game while Hisako and I cooked, and cooked and prepared and prepared. We got the Turkey in the Oven at noon and ate around 5:30. We played Quelf which was funny and then the adults but me went on a drive to Culpeper which I found out turned out to be just a really long drive to get some groceries Hisako wanted to add to the party.

All the food was amazing if I do say so my self and I do as I've had some of it for the last 5 days. I didn't get any pictures of the pies but they were all amazing too. Pumpkin Cheesecake and Lemon Meringue prepared by me, Apple and Pumpkin Pie from Hisako and two ice cream pies, Chocolate and Mint Chocolate Chip provided by one of Ted's good friends that joined us from Snowflake who's here in the military but his family is gone to Bulgaria. Dessert was a high light of the night as always.

Friday we hung out at the house lots of the day and the kids had fun playing the Wii. I totally won the archery game! We played Catch phrase a lot too. We took them out to Bull Run Park to a trail that Matthew and I had been on before to help get some of the wiggles out. To much inside after eating a lot can get to you. After that fun walk we came home and Matthew and Hisako went to work on preparing yet another fancy meal of Japanese food. Dang I should have gotten pictures. Matthew invited the missionaries over for that. They sure do love coming to out house. I think all the young men in our ward including the missionaries think Matt is the coolest guy on the planet.

Oh we watched a cool Japanese cartoon about an earthquake in Japan. made me cry.

On Saturday I was out the door to my concert at the Maryland Music Center, Strathmore for the concert with the Mormon Choir and Orchestra at 7:45am. and Ted and Family left around 9 I think. Matthew had the girls all day and they were asleep in bed when I finally arrived home at 11pm that night. Such a long and glorious day. I'll post another Choir post later. As I have two concerts this week for the Ambassadors and City officials in the area at the DC Temple Visitor Center. AWESOME!!! I can't wait.

It was so fun to have a full house. Kathryn loved playing with her cousins and even had a sleep over in her room with her girl cousins. She slept on the floor and gave her bed her Erika. She's growing up so fast.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and remembered to give thanks for all our many blessings!

Leaves, Leaves, Leaves

2010-11-30T12:25:00.000-08:00

Charlotte's Rolling over!

2010-11-10T04:09:00.000-08:00

Charlotte rolled over last night like 4 times. It was awesome. now on to getting her to turn form her back to her tummy. But what kid wants to do that cause then they are on their tummy and in her case for sure she'd rather be on her back.

I love all the progress even just the little victories everyday. Like she's now taking actually bites of her cereal and not just mushing it with her tongue. My precious baby! I lover her to pieces!

I can't believe I've missed this beauty all my life!

2010-11-06T18:32:00.001-07:00

So Fall is definitely my most favorite time of the year and it is even more true here in Virginia. In AZ it's just nice to get out of the 100's finally but here in Virginia I am blown away at the beauty around me. The leaves have been turning colors for awhile now and we decided that we'd go to Skyline Drive that everyone raves about. It was beautiful. We got some wonderful pictures of the colors of the tree's . Our little nature path down the way from us is just as beautiful if not more cause it's not an hour's drive... Anyway it is part of the Shenandoah National Park so we got a stamp in our National Park Passport. I have a goal to get all of them since I probably won't hit every Temple the way they are popping up all over the world.

So far we've made place mats with the leaves and I made a tree of many colors. I gathered all sorts of leaves and then a little branch and then hot glued the leaves to the branch so I have a green, orange, brown, red and yellow tree branch for my center piece. I really like it but other people probably think I'm weird for having a bunch of dead leaves on my table.

It's also starting to get quite chilly. I went to the store this morning at 8 and had ice on the car window I had to scrap off with my credit card. So we winterized the house with some help from our neighbor. Never had to change the flow of water before. I hope it works. It's really fun to bundle up the girls. They look adorable with their big jackets and beanies. I just have to join in and get some warm clothes. I've got nothing. I guess I have what is called Mom Disease when there is any extra money it usually goes to the kids not to the mom. But I'll have to get something soon! Oh and we were told to get the Salt for the side walk early as it goes fast once the first snow comes.

I've been preparing for the Thanksgiving holiday buy trying out my sisters heavenly home made rolls and my first try was awful! so next week we'll try again to see if I can perfect it a little better or it might be Rhodes rolls for us. I also made my favorite pumpkin cheesecake. It was wonderful and I'm glad I got to share with some friends. I'm worried about the Feast coming up as I have to have everything ready to prepare on Thursday as my sister in law is coming late Wednesday night. I hope I don't forget anything. I'm sure it will be fine. I love thanksgiving and everything that goes with it so I think I'll have everything under control but I'm still a little worried and ansy for the up coming guests and holiday!

I've got Kathryn's Christmas all done except for a Sunday Dress and I've got the Dress for Charlotte. Not sure what I want to get her. I got a toy today that I'm hoping will help her want to crawl after it as it moves. I have Weir families gifts all done. and am on to thinking about my family and Matthew. I think we might forgo presents for ourselves except for some much needed pants for Matthew and I may get a sewing machine but we'll see if we can afford it after all is said and done.

I sure do love this time of year. I've already put in the Christmas CD's in the car for my listening pleasure!

Charlotte Overload!

2010-11-01T18:09:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to show you all how cute Charlotte has gotten. She is beautiful and is getting so big! She is such a joy to my life!

Her almost roll over. She gets up on her side all the time. Just doesn't want to flip on over.

She loves looking at herself in this mirror. I think this has helped with tummy time more then anything! She is holding her head up like a champ and can get up on her hands now not just her elbows. She's going to blow the PT and DT away at their next visit.