Sofia the First Party

Saturday was Natalee's party and she chose Sofia the First as her theme.

Because Sofia is so new and there are no party supplies/decorations out yet I had to get a little creative.

 

But I pulled it off and the party was a success!

{Backing up} Poor Natalee had a fever of 103 Thursday night so I took her in Friday because I knew she had an ear infection. I'm pretty sure the one she had a couple weeks back never cleared up. Although is was starting to feel better by Saturday she was still not feeling too hot and her voice was a little raspy but I think she still enjoyed her party and felt loved by all the people who came and all the cute stuff she got.

The party started with very special surprise guests arriving, Papa Jim and Grandma Kris! They drove down from Vegas that morning to surprise us all. Seriously the nicest thing ever.

For some reason Natalee was being shy and wanted to eat her fruit upstairs instead of downstairs where everyone else was eating. She is a nut.

But then it was time to open presents and she had just started to warm up to everyone when she poked herself in the eye on a book she opened. Poor Natalee. The whole time she was opening gifts she could barely see and her eye was watering and she was a mess. Party foul.

By the time we brought out the cupcakes and sang Happy Birthday she was back to her crazy self.

She wasn't sure how to go about eating her big cupcake so she started eating the frosting until she decided to start diggin' in.

After everyone left I showed her her gifts again so she could see everything she got and she was is Heaven. She loved all the Sofia the First and Doc McStuffins stuff she got and the McDonald's gift cards that she could buy ice cream with. She is one spoiled little girl and loved so very much too!

Herniated Disc Changes Everything

I am struggling today. I have been an emotional wreck this past week and things are just getting crazier.

I had my MRI yesterday. I have to admit, I was super nervous. Fear of the unknown. But I survived and it really wasn't bad at all. I was thanking God for not making me claustrophobic :) As soon as I was done the radiologist met me and said it was clear what was causing my pain-

This beautiful (huge) herniated disc. Totally obvious when you look at the image that it is pushing up against my nerve roots causing my sciatica issues and the pain down my leg.

 

So where do I go from here? Starting back at square one. My home away from home for the past 3 months, AFC Chiropractic, referred me to a new place that has the Lordex spinal decompression machine (I guess this is a state of the art machine) that hopefully will help with my herniated disc and other back issues. I am so sad to have to leave the comfort of AFC and start fresh, but my herniated disc is considered severe (8mm) and along with that I have some bulging disc and spinal stenosis issues which is just more than they can help me with.

 

So tomorrow I start a new journey to recovery. After looking at my MRI results I'm praying they will know exactly what to do to help me get better. My biggest fear right now is getting worse before/during my cruise. I am scared that whatever treatment they start might shift where the disc is pressing up against the nerve roots and cause more pain. Or that during my cruise my disc will just get worse all together. I know I can't live in fear but knowing I'll be in another country or in the middle of the ocean frightens me.

 

I pray as I leave the new office tomorrow I will have more hope and feel better about everything. I pray I will start to see some improvement before I leave next weekend and that while I am gone I have little to no pain. When I get back I will go full force with treatment to tackle this issue and get better once and for all. Until then please pray for me.

Sweet Haylee

Haylee told me the other day, "I'm pretty much 6 already because I have a loose tooth AND I can stay in the lines (when coloring)." She cracks me up. A few of her friends have a loose tooth or have lost a tooth and so Haylee is really wanting to be up to par with them. Sadly, I think it's just her imagination because the loose tooth of hers doesn't feel very loose to me.

I love Haylee's imagination. She loves to role play after she gets home from fun events. Her and Natalee rehearsed and performed their version of Disney On Ice the other night, daily she comes home and plays school teaching Natalee her phonograms and sending her to the Principle's office (ya Natalee is a troublemaker) and Saturday she came home and reenacted the birthday party she attended.

That's right, Haylee attended her first birthday party by herself on Saturday....she is getting to big! Her little friend Allie from school had a unicorn party and Haylee had such a blast and loves wearing her unicorn horn and tail.

Haylee likes to go in her own stall in the bathrooms these days too. She loves her independence and proudly walks out of the stall with a big smile on her face feeling accomplished. Silly girl.

She loves school and loves her teacher, Mrs Lukens. Out of the last 5 grading periods, she has gotten Principles Pride 3 times (all O's) and Honor Roll the other 2 times (for having mostly O's but 1-2 S's). She has the best memory. Each grading period she has to memorize and recite a poem in front of the class and she just amazes me. She was just given her final assignment for the last grading period- The Star Spangled Banner. I thought, what the heck? I can't even memorize that. I don't even know what half of the words mean let alone how to pronounce them. Well Haylee has taken me by surprise and almost has it memorized already. Seriously, she is one smart cookie.

I have recently began showing Haylee how to wash her own hair in the shower and that makes her feel very grown up! In fact she wouldn't even let me help her get out. She said, "if I am going to be taking a shower by myself I have to be able to get out of the tub by myself." lol

Haylee has always been a good kid. Not perfect, just a good kid. Of course she has an attitude like no other, but she always usually chooses to do the right thing. I had to change from always to usually because I remembered the day she took scissors to Natalee's hair. But aside from that, Haylee has never been one to get into things she is not suppose to or be destructive. I can trust her to be in a different room and not have to worry if she is getting into trouble (unlike little Miss Natalee).

I can't believe Haylee is going to be 6 in just 2 months. Breaks my heart how fast she is growing up!

Perfect Day!

Today the weather is beautiful! Overcast and a bit chilly...wish it would last forever.

Saturday is was not so chilly. We spent hours outside cleaning up our backyard and it got so hot that Natalee had to cool down in the water table (it wasn't really hot, she is just a goof)!

The girls also busted out the sprinkler for the 1st time and played with water bugs.

Josh took care of all the weeds, cleaned up the side yard disaster and put his shed back together.

And I cleaned up the patio and organized, what I do best!

Josh ripped out all of our backyard plants because he felt they had died from the cold winter. They survived the last 6 years but he didn't want to revive them again I guess :( We will replant soon!

Fun on the Farm

Last Friday we met up with the Abernathy's and went to Superstition Farm. This was our first time going there and the girls had a lot of fun. We started off with an adorable Easter picture complete with a real bunny and baby chicks!

Then the girl got to feed all the animals.

The donkey was their favorite!

Next we took a hayride tour to learn about the farm and all their 100's of cows. It was very informative and amazing how much milk they collect every single day. The girls were excited to see the cows that supple their milk (both girls LOVE milk).

After the tour we decided to get some yummy ice cream! Natalee wanted cotton candy and Haylee and I got mint chocolate chip.

The kids played on the tractor, fed the animals some more and then we decided to go to McDonalds for lunch.

It was a fun day with good friends!

Danielle's Senior Pictures

I had the privilege of taking Danielle's Senior Pictures recently, it's hard to believe my niece is graduating next month!

I was so excited to try out my new lens and I now have a favorite photo shoot location- Mesa Art Center!

These are just a few of my favorites!

We are so proud of her for following her dreams and being a "good kid" despite all the negative influences these days.

 

We love you Dee!

The Never Ending Easter

Was it just me or did Easter seem to never end this year? I think it's because we did all of our celebrations on Saturday (2 egg hunts, family dinner, egg dyeing at Grandma's etc) so by the time the girls got their baskets Sunday morning, did their 3rd egg hunt and we went to church I was done. Then I remembered we still had eggs for the girls to dye. Eeek!

So back to Saturday. Our HOA did an egg hunt that morning which was the girls first egg hunt aside from at our house or Grandma's.

There were over 100 kids and more than 1000 eggs hidden at the park and the girls had a lot of fun.

Each girl found 5 eggs packed with starburst, tootsie rolls, stickers and toys, our HOA did a great job for a first time egg hunt.

Right after the egg hunt the girls got to go see the Easter Bunny, or as I called him, Creeper Bunny.

The girls saw the EB at 2 different malls so they know what the "real" EB looks like. Haylee told me "that wasn't the real EB. I heard him talk and I saw his shirt. That was some guy dressed up." Hahaha, she cracks me up.

But since we didn't want to spend $20 for one picture at the mall, a picture with Creeper Bunny was gonna have to do.

Next we went to Grandma's to color eggs. 

Natalee did very well this year. Of course we heard "I do it myself" (her favorite saying) but she did great and didn't make any major messes!

Then it was nap time, and I love how Natalee tells me she is ready for a nap each day. She'll say "I go take a nap." Love it! After nap we went back to Grandma's for our Easter dinner complete with ham and all the fixings. The only pictures I took were of the dessert because the "candy overload cake" my Mom saw on Pinterest was made especially for Natalee.

I don't think she actually ate the chocolate cake, but she ate plenty of peeps and hand fulls of M&M's. After our bellies were full the girls did their 2nd egg hunt at Grandma's and they were excited to find stickers, candy, tattoos and money in Grandma's eggs!!!!

Oh and Hannah found a bug that Josh brought and hid as a joke.

That night we played games at our house and taste tested the new Seagrams in preparation of our Girls Weekend in California.

Sunday the girls awoke to find the EB had paid them a visit.

They were so excited about all of their goodies and excited to have another egg hunt!

The EB brought pre-filled eggs and we also added a few eggs with money.

We went to the 12pm service at our church and my Mom joined us too.

There were 146 people being baptized and the girls stayed with us to experience it all. Unfortunately since I had Natalee the whole service I only caught bits and piece of the message :( That is one of the main reasons we love our church, the girls have their own class they learn in and we can fully enjoy or sermon in peace and quiet. But for Easter and Christmas we love to celebrate as a family.

After church my Mom treated us to Paradise Bakery. I am addicted to their new Tortellini Alfredo or as Natalee says "turtle wieney" lol!

The end of the night we finally colored eggs at our house and added Hello Kitty stickers and masks to the eggs.

The girls had fun and slept very soundly that night after a crazy, busy weekend. And so did I!