Babies and a CAT

Where do I start:
Well, K is doing much better now that her antibiotics have taken course. She started a new daycare last week and so far so good. She loves the fact the daycare has animals...including two love birds. She is growing so fast. In two days she will be One and a Half! So exciting! She is definitely signing more and trying to talk to us in her language :) We were SO LUCKY to have grandma W come and take care of K for a week while she was in transition between day cares and while she was ill with a double ear infection and bronchiolitis. I think K missed grandma W and playing all day long in her own domain!
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Thursday, cousin Mikey tried his hand at building his own fort. Like the Egyptians building pyramids, he darn near killed himself doing so. In a quirky five year old's mind, there seems to be a need for a 4x4 on top of the swing set to make a great fort. So as any other crazy five year old would do, he pushed a 4x4 up the slide and onto the top of the swing set. Apparently when he himself reached the top, there was just too much temptation- "I must slide with this enormous hunk of dangerous wood"- not so sure those were his famous last thoughts, however, knowing Mike it can't be too far off. Well the 4x4 was longer than Mike was tall. So the 4x4 touched ground before Mike and the hunk of wood stopped Mike in his tracks by striking his cranium. That's right folks, the 4x4 slammed into his head. Needless to say, Mike wasn't quite the same. So off the ER they went and one CAT scan and Cars coloring page later, they found that he in fact 1. has a brain that developed that great idea and 2. the fore-said brain was not bleeding. Hooray! Aunt Heidi and I are sitting together talking about this on Sunday waiting for Michelle and the kids to arrive and in comes Mikey. No battle wound- just a bad haircut!
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This past weekend Cousin Brian came down from WI and hung out with us. Friday night was quite eventful with K's tirades to go to sleep and Saturday they went over to Uncle Gary's house to play some Wii. G and Brian had a great time and they were all able to catch up with one another. While the boys were out to play, M and K stayed at home and had a great time themselves! This would be the first time ever that K got a diaper and laid down for me to change it on her very own! I thought I was going to crap myself when I saw her do that- not once, but twice! Sunday when we went to grandma and grandpa's there was no displaying of this talent. I must keep it in my precious memories I guess.
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As most of you know, our family has been blessed with a new baby last August, a brand new bambino a couple of weeks ago, Gary and Erica are expecting in June and now just yesterday we found out that my beloved sister Heidi is expecting in September!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited! The last baby on my side of the family besides K is wonder Mike! So it's been a while for me to have a new niece or nephew on my side! I'm thrilled to be a new aunt TWICE this year! I can't wait to shower them with love! Congrats Heidi and Bryan! K is going to just love having a cousin her age on our side! (Heidi asked wonder Mike what he thought they should name the baby and he said "mike" that was turned down faster than you can spit it out and then his second suggestion was "grandpa"- the kid would definitely be the only "grandpa" in kindergarten!)
Please keep all these babies and mommies in your prayers!
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I will post pictures soon! :) Love all of you!

Beautiful Bouncing Baby Boy!

I was excited to hear last week (Thursday) that our cousins had their baby! Congrats Anne and Grant! Andrew Grant is perfect! Welcome to the family big guy!

Ramblings of a teacher...

This week has been crazy to say the least. We had several inches of snow melt in less than 2 days with 60 degree weather. On top of that, we got rain dumped on us and many of the roads around here were closed due to flooding. On Monday, a very interesting turn of events occurred. First, one of my students came to tell me all about her break and the fact that she got a new car for Christmas. I was excited for her...she's a great girl! Then, during my 3rd Mod class a student was crying telling me that her community was flooded and that the fire department had to bring boats out to their trailers just to get them to safety. It amazes me- the diversity at my school. There are students that come from multi-million dollar homes in "OD" and ones that don't have a home, or ones whose homes are a wreck. I just gave a presentation to our faculty on Povertyin Decemeber. The most interesting thing is that everyone in every economical class can be in poverty if you consider all resources- financial, emotional, support systems, spiritual, etc. And truly to make a complete assessment you'll have to consider all resources. This makes teaching complex- their resources or lack there of, makes teaching the various levels compounded. However, there is nothing like being greeted back to work by tons of students telling me they missed me and couldn't wait to talk again. Sure does make it all worth it! I'm going to miss them as well after this semester- which ends next week after their finals. :(

All GOOD must come to an END

(SORRY ABOUT THE PICTURE LAYOUT...didn't turn out quite how I had hoped!)
Ugh...break is over. Back to the grind tomorrow. It was a gratifying break with all of us home hanging out together, getting each other sicker than sick and of course playing and sharing LOTS of laughs together!
This past weekend we went to Uncle Gary's house. G helped him, his dad, Aunt Erica's brother-in-law and her dad put up some drywall down in their basement. Uncle G created two bedrooms down there for the boys and it looks great! They seemed to move a little slower today, but they got about 95% of it put up. Of course Aunt E had some incredible food to share with everyone there- thanks again! M and K visited upstairs with Aunt E, her mom, sister, niece and Miss Diane while the boys were hard at work!








It was so nice to visit with all of them again because we hadn't seen them for a couple of months and M was so grateful to pick Aunt E's sister's brain about little girls. (She has one that will be turning 4 soon!) Thank you, thank you, thank you for all your advice :) Saturday night grandpa and Miss Diane were able to stay over, although it was straight to bed for us as we were all done in! We went out for a yummy breakfast (thank you again for your generosity:) ) and then back to work! M was quite impressed at what they were able to get done this weekend considering just about every piece of drywall had cuts!
K was running around, looking at fish and being goofy. She thought that was just so funny to get everyone to laugh! She was quite the character today from the moment she woke up :)


She enjoyed a few books with Miss Diane...Sesame Street, of course!

























Tonight after her bath she was still in a kooky mood so we couldn't pass up a few good pics!



Uhhh...my hair isn't camera ready! Give me a freakin' shirt at least people!


Check out these set of chompers! I CAN destroy things with one bite...i.e. fingers and Molly!

My new popular face! I can get anyone to laugh at this great new trick! :)