Beautiful!

Our weather today was beautiful! I took the girls on a walk in their stroller this morning, and luckily, when we waved at Marge's window, she was there! We got to go in and visit with her for a half hour or so, and then she came outside with us for a bit. It was a really nice visit! After that we headed to the hardware store and to the post office. Last night Luke's brother brought over the awesome sand box that Luke's Dad had made for the girls. It works perfectly! It's a great size. Today Luke borrowed some sand from the neighbor's sandbox (the house is on foreclosure) and put it in our box. The girls had a blast! We spent a majority of the afternoon outside. When Luke got up we both took the girls to the park and let them play for an hour or so. When we got home, we did more yard work and cleaning. It's never ending. We found our first toad of the spring in the west window well today. He looked hungry. The girls chased him for awhile against my better judgement, and then I told them that we needed to get him to a shady spot so he could eat. I put him in the girls little hideaway in the evergreen bushes, and he hopped away. I hope he does o.k. I don't know why those darn things like the window wells so much, but they can't get out of them!
We brought in Emmalee's toddler bed the other day because it was getting wet in the garage, and we set it up in her room. She won't stay in it. I decided we'll leave it in there for her and Kailey to use for Doctor play, baby play and stuff like that. I'm sure they'll use it mostly for jumping.
Kailey is getting so excited for vacation. I took her special bags out today and Emmalee's pack-n-play, and Kailey just started talking and talking and talking about the zoo and Hannah and Alexi & Bailey and everything else. I hope she has fun!
Yesterday we had quite the afternoon. Emmalee and Kailey were standing in front of the couch where I was sitting talking to them and I turned to look at the news. In the meantime I thought Emmalee was kissing Kailey, and heard Kailey let out a blood curdling scream. Here I look and Emmalee has her big mouth clamped down on Kailey's cheek. I had to pry her little teeth apart. I don't know what the heck the deal was. They were getting along perfectly fine. Needless to say, Kailey has Emmalee's teeth imprints on her cheek, and it did bleed. I very calmly put Emmalee in her crib and shut the door. I was too mad to discipline her effectively at that point. After she got out of her bedroom, she didn't even want to say she was sorry. It was wierd. I still don't know why she did it. Darn kids.
We're supposed to have rain tomorrow and Friday, and possible snow on Saturday. I will be pissed if it snows. Really pissed. So I organized the girls' craft stuff to make some projects over the next few days. We have tons to do to keep us busy!
More soon!

Weekend Excitement!

We all had a wonderful weekend! On Saturday, Luke, the girls, and I went up to Timm's Hill in Prentiss, WI. It's a "mountain" I guess. Or the tallest point in Wisconsin. I sure wouldn't call it a mountain. Anyways, It's tall either way. We got there, and the road going up to it was closed. We were bummed, but we had a Plan B. We drove the girls up to Luke's Dad's cabin and we all walked around in the wilderness checking for fun spring-like nature. We took a walk down the road to go look at the Green Creek (I think it's called) and it was flowing pretty fast. The girls
like looking at water things like that. And of course, on our way down the road, Kailey and Daddy had to stop and look at all the deer and turkey tracks, and Emmalee was fascinated by all the leaves and nuts she found along the way. We went back to the cabin and Emmalee stepped in a half foot deep puddle and was soaked halfway up her legs. Needless to say, I wasn't prepared and hadn't brought any extra

shoes. Thankfully we at least had extra socks, so she stayed bootless the majority of the rest of the day. Kailey was excited to try out the potty at the cabin. I'm glad to say that she is not afraid of outdoor toilets!

After that trip to the cabin, we took the girls up to Big Falls Co. Park. They loved it! The falls were quite high, and the water was moving scary fast. We held on really tight to the girls since the whole side by the falls is big rocks. We stayed by the falls for awhile enjoying the scenery,
and then decided to head over to the park.

Of course, most of that was soggy and muddy. Emmalee put her wet boots back on at that point. The girls had fun going down the huge slide and swinging. It didn't last long there since Kailey was hungry, so we headed home. The ride home was terrible. Both of the girls were way hungry and way over-tired. Thankfully we had ribs waiting in the crock pot when we got home!

On Sunday, Luke's parents came over to visit, and his Dad helped us get our big root from our evergreen bush out of the front of the house. It was a pain. I'm very thankful his Dad was here to help us! The girls enjoyed playing with Nana, and of course, the chocolate cupcakes she brought over for them! We had a nice visit. We spent most of yesterday outside, took a few walks, played in the yard, cleaned the yard, picked weeds... all that fun stuff that comes with springtime!
Today we took a walk up to the post office, and then headed to the hardware store to get some grass seed and a sprinkler for the hose. We came home and played outside and got some new rock for the front of the house where the bush was. It turned out pretty darn nice. Tonight after supper we took a walk down to Jilly's house and the girls got to play with Charlie, Gracie and Olivia. Mommy got somewhat of a break! Yeah! It was nice to talk to Jilly and Laura while the girls behaved quite abnormally well!!!! We came back home and Luke took a bike ride with my bike and Kailey followed on hers. She's getting really good at riding that thing! Emmalee and I followed them, and we ran into Deeann and Nate and Wyatt. So they stopped by for a little bit and the kids played together. After they left, we planted some sunflowers and some organic strawberries that Kailey got with her Strawberry Shortcake DVD. We also filled up the bird feeders in hopes that we will have tons of birds like we did at the old house. Although, as Luke pointed out, we may not be able to afford to feed them this year... Yikes! We'll have to figure out something because the girls LOVE birds!

By this weekend the girls will have their sandbox that Papa is making them filled. This will be their first sandbox, and Kailey is thrilled! I'm going to have it very strategically placed so that while I'm in the garden, or anywhere in the yard, I will be able to see them in either the sandbox, or on their swingset. It will be exciting I'm sure!

There is only 18 days until we leave for Vacation! I'm packing a little day by day. I think our breaks on the van need to be replaced before we go, but Luke thinks they're fine. I think I'll take the van in and just have Tom look it over and make sure it will withstand a 9 day long trip halfway across the US. Hopefully everything is A-OK!

Tomorrow is story time and the girls were pooped tonight. All this fresh air leaves lots of Mommy and Daddy time at night, which is nice and very needed. Too bad I can't do any outside work when it's pitch black out!

Enjoy the pictures.

Happy 2 Year Anniversary tomorrow Mom and Dad!! We all love you both!!!!!!!

Kailey Smartypants

Today went awesome at the Development Day at school! Kailey had a blast!

We got there and were greeted by one of my old teachers in elementary school (Kailey will be going to the school that I did). We then went over for the teacher/child observation part, and Kailey was lucky enough to have Mandy (my cousin) be her teacher/observer! I think that made Kailey feel much more at ease, but either way, she did awesome! I filled out a paper and then watched them string beads (a fine motor skill, which Kailey did great at!). Mandy then came and talked to me and let Kailey play by herself and with a few other little girls at her table. Mandy showed me a picture that she and Kailey colored and said that Kailey colors better than most 5-6 year olds she sees :o) She said she is at a 5 year old level for speech and all other areas, and that preschool should be no problem. She said that preschool and 4K are more for socializing and fun things like that. So that made me feel good. So then, a funny, Mandy asked me what Kailey calls her Dad. I said "Daddy usually, or if he doesn't listen, then sometimes Dad" and Mandy said that when she asked Kailey where Emmalee was, Kailey said "At home with Luke". And when Mandy asked her again later, she said "She's at home with Luke". It cracked me up! Later when I asked Kailey where she told Mandy Emmalee was, she said "At home with Daddy". I asked her if she told Mandy that Emmalee was with Luke. She said "Yes Mommy". So when I asked her why she called him Luke, she said "Mandy wouldn't call him Daddy because he's not her Daddy, she would call him Luke". LOL. And so very true! So I find out that Kailey is just a little more mature than I though!

Mandy gave Kailey a heavy sheet of paper with 18 spaces on it. For each of the 18 spaces there was a booth, and at each booth Kailey got a sticker. She enjoyed finding the numbers of the booths and putting her sticker on. "By Herself!" she said. They had a lot of booths with resources for parents, a snack booth, library booth, and I think Kailey's favorite, the fire department booth. She whispered, "Mommy, there's FIREMAN BOB!!!" Oooh la la! I think she has a crush on him! So Fireman Bob dressed Kailey in his jacket and hat, and they took a picture of her and gave it to me. I scanned it for you all to see. It was so cute! Then he took her out to the fire truck and put her up in it and let her ring the siren. Awww! It was really fun. She got to meet a police officer too, and liked her. My favorite part was the end, when she showed Ms. Hammet her filled sticker card, she got a goody bag. In it was a Pooh book with interactive shape things, a bag of chocolate animal cookies, and, drumroll please............. An ADORABLE little shirt that says "Future Thorp Cardinal". Darn right she is!

And, funny thing was, today Andrea told me "Just wait until the first day of school when you bawl" and I told her that I wouldn't cry until the first day of Kindergarten. Ha! I walked into the school today, and walked past the commons area and lost it. I had to go in the bathroom with Kailey and sit there and compose myself. Kailey asked why I was crying. It was emotional. Just cool I guess to know that Kailey is going to have an awesome school and that she is growing up so fast. *tears*

So, Emmalee did stay home with Daddy. Thank goodness, because when we got home, she was a WILD CHILD. It was terrible!

It's supposed to rain tomorrow. Not good. Possibly Saturday too. Oh well, we have lots of activities to do to keep us busy....

Sick, Sick & Sick

Mommy's sick, Kailey's sick, and Emmalee's sick. Luke was sick on Friday, and on Saturday he felt better. Hasn't been sick since. Emmalee started Sunday night, Kailey on Monday afternoon, and me, yesterday. And I have a raging ear infection. This will be interesting to see how Kailey feels tomorrow when she has to go for her preschool screening at 3:30. Darnit. She is really looking forward to it though. I hope she likes it when we get there!

On a positive note, we went outside to enjoy the warm weather today, and the girls, Luke and I got to meet our backyard neighbor and her 2 little girls. Kailey and Emmalee both enjoyed playing with them, and Kailey was so cute and invited Abby (the older girl) over to play. The girls are 2 1/2 and 7 mo., so they are all different ages, but played really well together. It was fun! I'm glad the girls have some little friends in the neighborhood to play with!

I'll write some tomorrow after we get home from preschool screening. I'm hoping that Luke gets off work early so I don't have to take Emmalee with us. Not that I don't want to, but I'd like to concentrate on Kailey since it's "her" day, and I'll need to listen closely to what the teachers have to say. We'll see!

Weekend Fun!

This weekend, our family took a MUCH NEEDED "vacation". Probably more for Mommy and Daddy, but we wanted the girls to come with too. And I'm glad we did now, because we had a blast!
Saturday started out with a balloon release for little Ethan Powell's "Going Home to Heaven" celebration. His family asked that anyone who wanted to participate could dress in blue and release balloons with a note. So we did. I wanted to do this since I've followed Ethan's story from almost the beginning. We said a prayer together and Kailey and Emmalee let their balloons go. I hope they made it far. I watched and thankfully didn't see them get stuck anywhere.

After that, we got loaded up in the van and headed to our destination, Waupaca. It was a 2 hour drive, and the girls did pretty well! We got to our hotel and were lucky enough to check in early to our room. We got ready and took the girls down to the hotels' waterpark. They loved it! Luke and I loved it too. We took turns watching the girls while the other one of us went down the 175' waterslides. That was super fun! We swam for a few hours and then went to eat at Burger King. The girls had a blast playing in the play area there. There were 2 other children there, and everyone played nice together :o)

We went and got some groceries and headed back to our room. We sat there and played with the girls and watched some TV and then headed down to the game room. We played pool and a few "just go ahead and TRY to win these prizes" games (we didn't win) and relaxed in there. After that, we ventured back, yet again, to the waterpark.

THIS TIME, we just happened to see a lady with her little girl (around Emmy's age) go down the waterslide TOGETHER! Luke and I exchanged a look, and I told him to take Emmalee down with him, (I knew she'd be more apt to try it!) so he did. She LOVED it! Then, I asked Kailey.... suprisingly... she went, and loved it too! So we kept taking the girls down these fast slides (half indoor-half outdoor, covered) and it was tremendously awesome. I have not felt so much like a little kid in a long time! We even raced with the girls, each of us on a different slide. I got 2 pictures, one of each girl with Daddy, however, Emmalee made such a big splash that I didn't get her face. Darnit. Aside from all that fun, the girls loved the little kiddy part of the park, and met some little friends. Kailey still is quite afraid of the water in the deep part, and clings to us, but Emmalee, she LOVED to jump off the side and go underwater. It was a hoot! After we swam, I knew the girls had to be tired because Daddy and I were, so we ordered some food, and were all in bed by 9:30. What party poopers, huh?!

We woke up in the morning and ate breakfast and got everything ready. Then headed to the waterpark for a few more hours. My feet are killing me from being in the water so long, but it was so worth it! After that, we went bowling. Or at least ATTEMPTED to go bowling. Emmalee had about had it by that time, and was ready for a nap. She was really, really, really naughty. After half a game, I just told Luke to let Kailey bowl for Emmalee and I rocked her. Or tried. We finished as fast as possible for Emmalee's sake, and headed to eat. Needless to say, Emmalee didn't make it the 3 miles to go to eat. She was out within a mile of the bowling alley. Kailey really enjoyed the bowling though, but of course, due to my camera and dim lighting, the pictures are all dark. Figures.

So, we're home now, and all pooped. I picked a few pictures out of the 80 or more that I took. I'm so glad we had this weekend together as a family. Of course, now Luke wants to go again this weekend. Too bad we aren't rich!
This week we have storytime on Tuesday, and then on Thursday, Kailey has her preschool/developmental screening at the school. I'm pretty excited to do that with her!
Hopefully our weather cooperates since last week was awful. I'll have more to write about soon!

Signs of Spring!

Ladybugs and bathing suits? What more do you need!?



The girls got new bathing suits for the summer and for our vacation to Omaha, Illinois and Indiana in May. They both just love them, and they fit really well!

Today it was a cruddy day again. Cold with periodic rain. Thankfully, the girls had story hour at the library today, so we at least got to get out of the house for that. Today's story hour was based on ladybugs. Miss April read the kids 3 ladybug books, and then they got to make these adorable ladybug hats. Both girls loved that project! They were so proud to wear those hats around :o)

Last night, Kailey apologized to me about 2 hours later for something that she did while I was making dinner. She came up to me and said "Sorry for yelling Mommy" and I didn't understand why she was apologizing since she hadn't yelled at anyone. I asked her when she yelled and she said "When you were making supper" I told her I forgave her and that it was o.k.. Then she said "Mommy, why did I yell?" and I didn't know why, so I said "I don't know". She apologized again. It must've made her feel bad to apologize a few hours later! It was cute either way.



Both girls in the past week have been excellent helpers. Suprisingly, both of their bedrooms and the living and dining room have been "clean" almost every day since Sunday. Amazing! That's certainly a record for us. I try to keep on them to clean as they go and put toys away when they're finished with them. That hasn't worked too much so far, but when I ask them to clean up, they both pitch in to help, with little or no effort on my part. Wonderful!

Emmalee was saying a few new words today; Chicken and Goose. I can't wait until she just explodes with vocabulary. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a day soon when I can understand her and have a 2 year old conversation with her.

Drawings...

I took some pictures of Kailey's drawings yesterday morning and afternoon. The first one, in her PJ's, is of one of her make-believe friends. Ronshon is how she pronounced it. Their names change by the minute :o) The second one is of Dusty, our cat. I just love them. I think she does a pretty good job. They all have really long legs and big ears usually. So cute!



Yesterday was a beautiful day outside. We spent a majority of the day outdoors. We took a stroller ride in the morning all around town, stopping at the post office, and at the store to get some cucumbers and a corn dog for the girls. They loved it! We came home and did alot of work outside, or at least as much as could be done with all the sloppy half grass/half snow yard. I feel so bad that I won't let the girls go on the yard just yet. I know what a mess will be made if they are running on a muddy lawn, especially after the way our yard looked after Grandma and Grandpa's auction in October. I'm hoping the yard will look just as nice as it used to after a few weeks or so. I'm maybe hoping too much.

Today it rained. I had a migrane so we didn't do much but read and play in the house. Kailey has been such a big helper cleaning up lately, it's unreal! It makes up for her whining.

One last really cute thing- While I was on the phone with my Mom last night, Kailey and Emmalee were arguing over something. Shocking, I know! So I hear Kailey say "Emma!" which in my best description sounded like EMMM MUHHHH, really drawn out. And all of a sudden out of little Emmalee's mouth comes "EMMM MUHHHH", just like Kailey, but much more drawn out. They sat and laughed at each other for a few minutes over it, and Mom and I cracked up too. They're still at that one today!

Hopefully I'll have more pictures and videos soon!

Cute Video

Here is a video of the girls. It was going to be a video of Kailey reading in her own little way, but little miss "I have to be in the camera too" Emmalee had to add in her funny acts! The only thing I can get out of Kailey's reading is her saying something about having a treat after we go to the circus. Cute, cute! She has been doing an awful lot of reading lately. I plan to get more after I switch to a larger memory card. Enjoy!

Heaven is rejoicing, those left behind grieve...

I have been reading this blog for the past 12 months, and have really come to feel that I "know" this little miracle - Ethan Powell is a little 16 month old boy who was diagnosed at the age of 2 months with a rare form of leukemia. He was given a 15% chance to live. He has fought this battle hard and won for the past 14 months. Today, at exactly 16 months of age, he lost his fight. His parents are Ben and Becky. If you have time to pray, or to check his webpage, please do. Pray for his family to be strong and thank God that little Ethan is in heaven and is free of pain and suffering. Ethan's website is www.ethanpowell.com

Why?

This is Kailey's favorite word lately. She asks "Why?" about everything. While I was on the phone with my mom tonight, Kailey told me that she likes to ask questions, and that she has a lot of them. By goodness, she surely does.

I'm posting a few pictures that I took tonight while we were outside. We took another walk around the block this time, so that Kailey could get used to riding her bike again. She did pretty well except going up Jilly's hill was a bit hard. She still cannot grasp the concept that she needs to pedal forward, or how to really steer, but she manages to ride pretty good, given all that!

The girls sure enjoyed playing in the water and mud today. Makes for a fun bathtime :o)

Emmlaee was a little chatterbox tonight. I think she was all wound up from all the fresh air. She enjoys to babble to whoever cares to listen, although none of it makes any sense!

Anyways, enjoy the pictures. Maybe I'll have something new to say tomorrow or Sunday! Enjoy the weekend everyone!

Another beautiful day!

The girls and I took advantage of the beautiful day and walked to the post office. Not in the stroller, we all walked. Needless to say, it took much extra time because for some reason, the school kids must've gotten let out early today, and main street was filled with high school boys. Emmalee had to stop and wave and say hi to ALL of them. (Along with all the old folks that were walking on this beautiful day!) Thankfully, they all thought she was really cute and waved and said hi back. The girls loved to walk and got alot of excercise. We went on the bridge by Marge's place and looked at the creek for awhile. It's getting pretty high and moving quite fast with all the snow that's melting. The girls really enjoyed seeing all the water.

Well, since the princesses are now napping, I'll return outside while Daddy and them sleep to continue sweeping gallons and gallons of water into the sump pump. Had I not went outside today, our garage would've been a lake. We had about a half foot of water standing next to it, and it fills up within about 10 minutes. Ugh.

I'lll take the pain of sweeping and draining water for this warm weather anyday!!!

Hello Again...

I will not mention how long it's been. Most of you probably know remotely how crazy life has been since our big move, others, maybe not. I will do my best to sum up how things have been with the girls lately-

Kailey really loves our "new" house. She understands that this is the house that Great-Grandpa built, and still talks about him often. Usually out of the blue she will say that she misses him, or that he's in heaven. Any time she mentions it, we talk about it. I don't want her to forget him. She enjoys her new room, and has actually been scheduled with sleep for the past week. Both her and Emmalee now have the same bedtime of 8:00, and the bedtime routine has been working great. Kailey still has a little trouble staying in her bedroom, and usually joins me in bed sometime during the night. I can't complain though, my biggest accomplishment has been getting her to bed at a normal bedtime. Check one.

Kailey is going to start preschool in the fall at the daycare here in town. One of my old high school friends' Mom will be her teacher. I really hope she enjoys it. She's a bit leary of it, so hopefully *economy permitting* we will be sending both Kailey and Emmalee to daycare a few hours per week just to get them both a bit more socialized with people other than family and close friends. We've been going to story hour at the library for about a month now, and Kailey seems to like that, but again, really likes to stay by Mommy.

She's excelling at her "studies". She can say her ABC's, and say what each letter is by sight. She can count from 1-20 (with the exception of 15) and also count backwards from 10 to 1. She knows her numbers 1-10 by sight also. We got her a little girl computer for Valentine's Day, and she really loves it. She loves to read with us and anyone else who will read with her. She's big on coloring (which she does really well!) and doing preschool workbooks. She has been actively playing Memory, Hi Ho Cherry-O, Go Fish, and some other games lately. She really loves games. She has many pretend friends and has a VERY ACTIVE imagination! It gets pretty crazy sometimes, but I know how good an active imagination is! She definately likes to be the boss of any games we play, or things we do. She still loves Dora, and a few characters from TV shows on Nick, Jr. She doesn't seem to be as interested in TV as she was before. The favorite thing lately has been getting outside finally! (we do still have tons of snow here. Ugh)

Overall, she has really been growing up too fast. She was weighed and measured the other week and weighed in at 33 lbs, and was 36 3/4 inches long. Finally over 3 feet tall! She isn't even on the charts for her height, and people keep being concerned. She will never be tall, that's just how it is!

And, little Emmalee. She is still just a tiny little peanut. The last time she was weighed and measured she was 30 1/2 inches, and weighed 20 lbs. 5 oz. That was in January of this year. Her pediatrician didn't seem concerned about her weight since she is so very active. She is on the very low end of the scales for both her weight and height. Even lower than little preemie Kailey was at her age.

We had a referral to Birth-3 from her Pediatrician for her lack of speech, and after a few different evaluations, they determined that she is slow on her speech, but not too slow to be in need of speech therapy. They think alot has to do with Kailey's non-stop talking, and talking for Emmalee. Emmalee can say alot of words now, and a few 2 word phrases like "All done", "No more", Night-night", and "Stand up". She can repeat alot of words if you ask her too, some still not, and she definately does not like to "perform" if you ask her to say things in front of people. Which is all right. I know she is healthy, and I just have to believe that she will talk when she's ready. When I think of both of the girls talking (especially if Emma is anything like Kailey), it makes my head spin....

Emmalee has really warmed up to people, even more so than Kailey ever was. She enjoys to go for walks and go places where people are and she waves and says hi to nearly everyone. We get alot of comments how cute she is when she waves and calls people Mama or Dada. She definately is a social butterfly.

She enjoys to climb on anything and everything, she can now almost do a somersault, jump off things, run, dance, and is very advanced in her gross motor skills. She was at an almost 3 year level at 18 months. Active, quite kid. Nothing wrong with that! She really enjoys playing with Kailey, but definately stands up for herself when Kailey gets too bossy. She also has all her teeth in finally, except for her 2 bottom eye teeth. And their on the way! She's still an excellent sleeper, except this past week she's been crying a little at bedtime. I think it's the damn teeth. Poor girl.

So, in short, the girls are both doing wonderfully! We went outside today for the first time in what seems like years WITHOUT JACKETS ON!! Lately every day when we've been outside it's been with hats, winter boots and winter jackets. Today, no hats, no jackets. It was a whopping 57 degrees! Praise God! We've finally been able to try out the girls new double stroller, and they love it. I love being back in town so that we can actually take meaningful walks that involve more action and time than just walking up to the Hwy. stop sign and back. The entire move was certainly a blessing during such a sad, sad time.

I'm hoping to keep up with this blog more. I know I always say that. This will be the last one I ever make. Between keeping up with the girls, working from home, working on the home, having time for me, and having time for Luke, there just isn't much time left. I will do my best though. Love to you all, and enjoy the pictures finally!