Photogenic Bug, Dancing Queen & Chai turns 9!

Bryleigh LOVES being the center of attention & as soon as the camera comes out – she poses. It cracks me up just how much she loves getting her picture taken. After all the pictures I’ve taken, you’d think it’d be like pulling teeth – but nope – she puts her hands on her hips & smiles..

Tina’s wedding was BEAUTIFUL! I wish I had more pictures – but they were on my phone…which Bryleigh dropped in water…boo.

This picture shows Bryleigh having a blast dancing…

I also have a video of Bry dancing at Aunt Kathy & Steve’s wedding. Holy dancing – the girl didn’t stop!! She was a hit on the dance floor.

Malachai’s 9th b/day party was at Nickel World. The kids always have fun there. I hate the smell of change – so I don’t really partake in the games – but watching the girls play is fun for me.

Cadence was excited to turn her tickets in for a pair of fangs..ooohh – scary!

Aiden was freaked out by Bryleigh's hyperness...

And it seems every kid in the family loves Monster High!!

We're pretty lucky to have so many kids in the family & for them to all love each other  :)

I (irregular)HEART(beat) Blogger again!

Blogger finally put up a form for people to fill out if you lost content during their outage last week. I filled mine out & by the next day (5/18) all of my posts were back! WOO-HOO!

My goal is to now draft posts somewhere else before I put it on Blogger. I have a few that I’m working on now, including my most recent The Voice update, Cadence riding a bike w/o training wheels, Bryleigh’s use of a foot massager & Cai reading to us!!

Tomorrow I’m looking forward to spending time with Sarah – my wonderful-more-like-a-sister-than-cousin, cousin…our kids will run around terrorizing each other & she & I will talk.

Saturday is the Rally by the Rails parade & Cadence’s team will be participating in that.

After we’ll swing by Selena’s graduation (HOLY SHIT – HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?!)

& end the day w/a bbq with our wonderful friends, Selena & Jeff.
Sunday will hopefully be all about relaxing, but at some point during the weekend we have to stain the decks, plant more grass seed & paint the trim on the shed…

Sounds like a pretty awesome weekend to me (except the yard work part)!! I hope you have lots of fun things in store for yours.

Orthopedic Appt for possible spine curvature & Cheer Parent Meeting

Cadence had her 1 yr follow-up w/the ortho dr. She originally started seeing him b/c she walks so pigeon toed & was tripping a lot. Last year as he was examining her, he noted her spine might have a slight curve & w/the family history of spine curvature, he wanted to see her in a year.
While we waited for the dr. to come in, the girls played & were really good. It’s always touch & go at dr appts. Sometimes they are overly anxious about seeing the dr & act insane. Today, they were just happy little girls playing.



Her appointment was well, the dr said there was no curve, she looked perfect! WOO!! I was concerned b/c of Dennis’ families backs…I felt a lot better after this appointment!

After the appointment, we ran over to Randi’s room & saw her & Aiden.

He’s so darn cute! Randi is in a lot of pain, but she did a great job! I hope she heals quickly..i hate seeing my family in pain.


After Cadence’s practice today, there was a parent meeting..they talked about next seasons competitions, tryouts & fundraising. I’m looking forward to the competition, Cadence loves it them & I love seeing her out on the floor giving her all!

Tonite has been pretty low key…Bryleigh was extremely fussy & I put her to bed a few mins before 8:30. She cried for like 15 mins. I felt bad, but she was miserable for most of the evening!

Tomorrow after work, Cadence has practice & Dennis has school. Cadence has to work on her journal - during spring break that's her homework. Also she only needs two more sight words & she'll know them all! I'm hoping by weeks end, she'll have them memorized!

Overnite Guest, 31 & relaxation..

Friday Emily stayed the nite – it was nice to see her, she hasn’t been allowed to stay in months…like a typical teenager she was more interested in playing on facebook than hanging out w/us, but she did spend some time with & even emptied the dishwasher before she went to sleep!

Saturday I went to a 31 party @ Michele’s. If you’ve never been to one, don’t go – you’ll want to buy everything! I was able to pick out a nice wallet for Cadence’s cheer sister & a tote to hold my groceries in the back of the van!

Sunday we went to the grocery store & then we came home to relaxing w/the girls & dennis...

a pic of me & my baby..

I can never decide if I enjoy low key weekends or fun filled weekends more… All I can say for sure is this low key weekend was pretty awesome!

The 2 week wait…

4/10 is my 21 wk u/s that we are hoping will tell us if Cadence is going to have a little sister or a little brother!
We're both so excited for this appointment and we're going to take Cadence with us. I'm certain she's going to get a kick out of seeing the baby.
I wish so much that this appt was sooner, but having high risk appts & seeing the regular OB, I don't want to miss too much work. I need to save time for my maternity leave and then for when I get back.
For this appointment, I won't even have to miss any work. It's at 3:15 & b/c it's Good Friday, we get to leave the office @ 1. Convenient, right?! Especially since I have a follow up appointment w/Dr. B the following Thursday @ 3 & am going to have to miss about 45 mins of work for that.
I'm still feeling pretty good, although for the last few days I have been a little more tired than usual.
Last nite Colin came down to play with Cadence for a few hours. It was a great distraction b/c I just wanted to relax and usually in the evenings, I spend the whole time playing/reading/arguing with her.
The weekend is going to be slow & I'm quite looking forward to it. Dennis' b/day is Sunday - so we'll have cake & ice cream & if it's warmer in the afternoon, go to the park.
Tonite, I'm going to go to the park w/Sarah, Dominic, Madison & Cadence. That should tire her out quite well! :)
In other news, we're looking into moving Cadence from the Y, sooner rather than later. My intentions have been to leave her there b/c she LOVES her swimming lessons & I think like the familiarity of being w/Heaven. But it is such a LONG drive & they don't take infants. We talked about it & thought leaving her there until the baby was born, so that things weren't completely out of whack for her - new school, new baby, new routine..sharing mom & dad - I didn't want her to have a breakdown. The plan was leave her in full time the first 2 wks after having the baby, then let her stay home w/us for a week, then send her back 2-3 days during week 4 & 5 of maternity leave & leave her home my last week off. When I'd start back to work, I was going to be taking both of them to a daycare much closer - one that I was still trying to find.
Today, I was just looking at some of the daycares closer to work & found the Childrens Discovery Center right DOWNTOWN!! 4 BLOCKS from my work!! That's perfect. We'll save so much on gas & time. I called Dennis & told him about it, so we're going to discuss it this weekend.
To be honest, while Cadence may enjoy swim lessons & art class, I really don't like it. I mean, it's not that I don't like it, but I don’t get the same vibe I got when I'd pick her up from TH. There they were outside playing ALL the time and ALL the teachers were so kind & we would carry on 10 min conversations over everything - not just about daycare. The Y does not go outside, even when it's nice out. I don't get that. Since last Wed, they've only gone out ONE time. That's ridiculous.

It's true - Spring is here!

This past weekend was some of the best weather we've had in...well I don't even know how long! Saturday - I took Mo to the event & unfortunately no one showed any interest :( After the event, I took him home & went to Aunt Vicki's to get Dennis. I offered to take Heaven w/us to the park. The girls had a blast! Cadence was so tired from running around so much - she was miserable!
I was happy when she finally fell asleep..

Getting ready to go down the slide

The girls going down the slide

Cadence hurt herself on the bars2 beautiful girls

Yesterday we stayed home & did laundry & cleaned. It was sunny - not quite as warm as Sat, but nice none the less.
Today was gorgeous! We didn't get out, but had the windows & door opened. It was great. Not much planned for the rest of the week. I volunteer at the church office tomorrow evening for a couple hours. Home group on Friday..that's pretty much the extent of our week. Have a great week!

WooHoo - it's ALMOST Friday!!!

Monday - Cadence started daycare full time. I was excited for her to be going everyday - I think going all day, every day will help her in a bunch of ways. She'll be around other kids, so she'll get lots of play time in. Playing w/other kids, will help her speech. She won't be in the house snacking w/dad all the time (dennis is a great dad, but when she's bored & wants to snack - he lets her). She'll be working on colors (she knows most of them), shapes (she know 5 shapes), her alphabet (she knows all of it but the l-p portion) & counting (she can count to 12). They will also work on writing & learning days of the week & months. I'm excited for her to learn these things. She's very smart & catches on to things quickly, but once she knows how to do it - if she's no longer challenged, she gets bored. Now, she'll be learning so many different things, she won't be bored anymore. Plus, not being stuck in the house, she'll have more to talk to Madison about on the phone!
She & Madison talk about 3x's a week - but Cadence usually only talks about the dogs or her toys. Madison goes to the babysitters, so her days have something different all the time & their conversations end up one sided & Madison gets bored when Cadence only talks about the dogs & toys.
Dennis picked up Cai from daycare & when I got home from work, made tacos for dinner. We dropped Cai off at Marge's so that Dennis & I could go to class at church. When we got to Marge's after class, Cadence was ready to come home. It had been a long day for her & I think she needed the comforts of home. Dennis pulled up in front of the house so that we didn't have to walk in the mud & as I was getting out, Cadence started crying b/c she thought I was going home & she was leaving again. She just kept saying, I want to go home too. I brought her in the house & she curled up on the couch next to me. We headed to bed around 9:45 - I was exhausted, but I think Cadence was fighting it. She kept talking & trying to stay awake. I finally got her to sleep & I was out before my head it the pillow.
Tuesday morning it was much easier to wake Cadence than yesterday. She was a little cranky in the bath, but once she was dressed, she was much happier. I dropped her off at daycare & she kissed me good bye. She was very shy, but I'm hoping it didn't last long & that she started playing. I only checked on her 1 time yesterday! I was so proud of myself… I'm not sure if it's b/c we didn't see each other much yesterday, but I felt like I had to check on her 10x's! I didn't, but I sure wanted to! When I picked her up, she didn't even want to leave. She was playing w/the blocks w/some little boy. I had to physically go over & carry her away from them.
Yesterday was a long day at work. When I got to the daycare to pick up Cadence, they were outside playing. I figured I'd never get her out of there. However, she was ready to leave (mostly b/c she had mud on her pants). On our way back through the daycare - she took me into her room to show me their art projects. She has made a flower & there's a picture of her in the middle & they also made caterpillars. They were very cute & she was very proud of her work. My mom was going to Alan's after she got off work to run him over to pick up a pizza - I suggested she should pick one up for me. She hung up laughing. Around 6:45, my brother called & said, meet mom outside in a minute, she's got a pizza for you. YAH MOM!! It was yummy & we didn't have to cook it - which made it even better!
This morning Cadence was ready to go to school, that's all she kept talking about - but again, when I dropped her off, she was very shy. It makes me sad, but they said she opens up & has fun not long after I leave.
As for tonite - not much planned, watching Ghost Hunters that was dvr'd last nite & doing some much needed laundry.
Tomorrow nite is home group for church - we're going to have a potato bar & salad for dinner.
Saturday is Dennis' 32nd b/day. Unfortunately (or fortunately if you look at it financially), he has was asked to work. It will be overtime at that point - so it will be worth it.
Since he'll be working, I'll be taking Ranger & Mohawk to the event. Here's to hoping they find their forever homes..
Cadence will go play with Madison - she's pretty excited about that!
Sunday is my weekend to volunteer at the Welcome Center at church - so I'm looking fwd to that.
Have a great weekend!