Backyard Camping

Not much to say here except we were all excited to camp in the backyard, but ended inside in the middle of the night J. The wind was SOOOO loud it was keeping me up all night and I felt like the tent was going to collapse. The girls in the morning said, “why did we wake up in our beds inside??” They weren’t very happy….but at least I tried. I guess I am kinda a fair-weathered camper :/.

School Ends- Reese Graduates from Preschool!

The school year was a great one! Emma of course loves it because she LIVES for friends and being social. She finished the 1^st grade in Mrs. Leeflang’s Class. WE really liked her a lot! Emma’s best friends in class were Lydia, Elise, Mac and Will (twin boys).

Reese went to preschool at the Little Redd Schoolhouse with Mrs. Redd. It’s the same preschool Emma went when she was 4-5. We carpooled with Dean, our next door neighbor, and Jude, another friend near us. Carpooling made preschool possible. Her best friend from preschool though is Emily. Reese wants to play with her every day. They got together about once a week. Too bad they won't be in Kindergarten together...they'll go to different schools. But Reese had a wonderful year. Here are pictures from her graduation:

Dean and Jude:

Nolan (they kissed in class and he was positive they were going to get married :)):

 Emily:

Backyard Construction

We under went a big construction job in the backyard. The owners who finished the backyard did some really weird things and I really wanted it done right. We got a new underground trampoline, new playset, moved the playset area (which meant moving the sprinkling system and new sod), and put in a planter with trees on the west side of the yard. I love the way it looks now and the backyard feels so much bigger. I absolutely love our house, yard, everything. We are SO blessed to live where we live.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Being Mom

Happy Mother's Day. I love taking a picture with my girls on Mother's Day and see how we change over the years. I love these girls with all my heart. I can't imagine any one of them not being in my life. Each girl has a special place in my heart and I love them so much.

 

Lucy Health Update

Well, we FINALLY got some answers about our sweet Lucy. The first of April I brought Nora into a pediatric ENT about her tonsils. He was nice enough to look at Lucy's ears for me. He mentioned that if she has had 4 ear infections in the past 5 months and the fluid wasn't going away, she was a great candidate for tubes. I waited 5 more weeks and got her ears checked again and she still had fluid in her ears. So I went to an ENT I saw when Emma was a baby and I remember LOVING her. Her name is Dr. Heidi Heras. Dr. Heras was so kind to sit and talk with me for about 30 minutes asking all sorts of questions and finding out how we could help our little Lucy. Ever since her first ear infection the week of Thanksgiving, she had been crying and screaming at night almost every night. It was never consistent and we never knew what the night was going to entail. Sometimes she wouldn't go to sleep and cried until midnight. Sometimes she would go to sleep okay but wake up and scream from 10-2 am. 

Dr. Heras scheduled Lucy to get tubes the next day and she also did a scope and found her throat was very red and inflamed- indicating she's had silent reflux. Who knows how long she's been dealing with that?? Sometimes being on an antibiotic over and over again can cause the reflux and sometimes the reflux can cause the ears to get infected. So it was a cycle that would't end. Poor thing has been suffering for so long. So Lucy got tubes put in on May 2, 2017. She also got put on Zantac (reflux medicine). The day after she got tubes, she got a nasty cold that her older sister had and she was pretty miserable for the next week. 

Today is June 3, 2017 and I am happy to report Lucy has been sleeping through the night for over 2 weeks now. Our 15 month old is FINALLY not screaming all the time at night. It had been a rough 6 months with her but I am happy we found some answers and are able to help our sweet girl. 

Fairy Garden

I decided that since I have 4 girls we should jump on this fairy garden train and make one of our own! It was a lot of fun and the girls loved it. It has since gotten big and most of the plants are covering all the fairy stuff, but you live and you learn!

Portland Trip for Work- just Cade and I!

Denise from EBS needed Cade to fly to Portland to train her new sales team on Fishbowl. So luckily she wanted me to join! It was the first time we have left Lucy and that part was stressful. Lucy still screams at night often (sometimes for hours at a time, and it's never consistent so you don't know what to plan on), so I was so worried leaving her with Grandma (my mom). But we left anyway and we had a FABULOUS time together.

I fell in love with many things about Portland. The city was fun to visit, but overall it was like most big cities- dirty and crowded and too much traffic for my liking. But I'm glad I adventured by myself. Alone time is just what the doctor ordered.

We got in to Portland Thursday night pretty late. Friday morning Cade went with Denise to EBS to work all day and I got to play all day!!! It was great! I just looked up on google some things to see and do and took the rental car out by myself.

First I went to the Japanese Gardens. It was beautiful and peaceful and I loved walking slow, being still in God's creations. I walked around with a tour group for a little while and also brought my journal and sat on a bench for a while and wrote in there.

After the gardens, I looked up on my phone best places to eat around the Pearl District (which was 15 minutes from the Gardens). I found the Garden Bar and knew that was my cup of tea! I finally found a place to pay for parking and as I walked to the Garden Bar to eat, I passed by the biggest book store I've ever seen- Powell's City of Books. Apparently it's pretty well known around the world. So I ate lunch at the Garden Bar...I ate the biggest salad I could. And loved it. Then I walked around that book store for over an hour and just read children's books and found some to bring back for the girls (of course Reese got a book called The Skunk). I went back to the hotel for a short cat nap.

At 4:00 Denise's husband Ryan, whom I had never met, came and picked me up from the hotel and took me to the office of EBS where Cade was working all day. I got to meet a bunch of people from there and then we went to the nicest restaurant that overlooked Portland called The Guest House. The food was incredible and the view was amazing. Everything about it was amazing- except for trying my first oyster....yuck!!! But Denise was paying and so I had to try one for her! I told her kindly that it tasted like what I imagine the bottom of the ocean tasting like. Salty and slimy. I WON'T be having one of those again.

Saturday morning Cade and I just took in easy in the morning. We packed up and headed to Denise and Ryan's house at 10:00. Then we headed to the harbor and got to walk along the _____ River. It was a perfect morning. We actually got the only two sunny and gorgeous, non-rainy days they had seen in weeks. The sun shone just for us! We walked around for a while until this cute restaurant opened up at 11:00. The food was of course yummy. After we chilled at their house until we had to go to the airport. It was a quick buy very fun weekend! And Lucy only screamed all night ONE of the two nights for Grandma :).

Side note: I HATE flying. I really do. Every time I do my mind races about all the ways I could die and how many things I have not done in life and how bad I would feel if my children were left without a mom on earth............and then we land safely and I wonder how I cheated death yet again. I always swear I'm never flying anywhere again. And then I do.