Happy Birthday, Mackenzie!

Did I mention this is "Birthday Season" for us? Yesterday we celebrated Mackenzie's 11th birthday. One more year of primary--hard to believe! Since all of our birthdays fall around the same time of year, our party rule is that you only get a "friend" party on your even number birthday. This was not her year. The kids are out of school all week for Thanksgiving, so she had a friend over in the morning and then we went out to dinner and had family friends over for cake and ice cream.

Mackenzie is our 2nd daughter and life would be pretty boring without her around. She adds so much excitement to our family. "Big Mack" couldn't even wait for the Doctor to arrive before she made her entrance into this world. She was in a hurry and was delivered by Nurse Rosie and Mark. She is definitely NOT a shy little girl and is our drama queen and performer! She was so thrilled last night at dinner that the waitress had her stand up on a stool so that the entire restaurant could see her and wish her a happy birthday. She is a fun loving, very compassionate girl who loves to be with her friends. Happy birthday, sweet girl!

Kindergarten Thanksgiving Feast

Ashtyn's kindergarten class held their Thanksgiving Feast today. They have been working so hard learning about the first

Thanksgiving and the Indians and Pilgrims. They made place mats and the cute little Mayflowers that were used on the tables. The kids all dressed up as either a Pilgrim or an Indian for the big event. There was turkey and ham, mashed potatoes, rolls and pumpkin pie. A fun day with all her friends! Now we are ready for a full week of vacation!

Twilight

Saw it! Absolutely LOVED it! Can't wait to see it again!

New Haircut

I finally caved! Mackenzie has been wanting short hair for a very long time, and this past weekend I gave in. Gotta admit, it looks pretty cute on her. Or maybe it's just the t-shirt! Let's just cross our fingers that she doesn't start acting as sassy as the haircut!

Heartbreak

When Mark and I found out that Sierra would be going to the Early Childhood Intervention program, we were excited. Excited to finally have some answers, excited for her to get some help, excited for her to be able to return to school and make new friends. We are still really grateful and anxious to see the progress that she makes, but I think now that I am going through a grieving process of sorts. Our daughter has been diagnosed with a problem. No, it's not life threatening. But it could be life altering. Someone told me my baby isn't perfect and that hurts! I'm worried about what her future might hold and how people will perceive and treat her now that she has this label. Mark is more optimistic and really thinks that she will be fine. But when I drop her off every morning I see the other kids that are in her class and realize that she fits in. Not that these kids are bad or anything, but they're the kids you feel sorry for because of the challenges that they've been given in this life. I went to the bookstore to get a book that was recommended and was directed to the section for "children with special needs". I'll admit that I shed a tear, right there in Barnes and Noble. In fact, I've cried a lot the last week or so. I'm not ready to have my baby gone so much...I miss her! I don't like knowing that something is "wrong" and wondering what that means for her. Will she struggle to learn? Will she be "normal"? Will other kids laugh at her or treat her differently? How will this change our family? No one told me that being a mom could be so heartbreaking!

Today I dropped her off at school and she didn't want to go. She clung to my neck and then was so sad when I finally drove away. She tried to pull her hand out of the teacher's and chase after me. I cried again, just like I do everyday when I drop her off. And with every tear I say a prayer for her and for her wonderful teachers...and hug her just a little bit tighter!

Paying the Sitter

How much do you pay your babysitters? I've often asked girls that have babysat for me how much to pay them and they never seem to have an answer, or they don't want to tell me. Now that Lauren is old enough to babysit I don't have to worry, but she is getting asked by others that she sits for. Do you pay by the hour? Do you pay according to how many kids you have? If they do most of their sitting after bedtime, do you pay less? Do you pay more if the house is clean and dishes done? What's the going rate?

Christmas Comes to Town

Yesterday it happened. I cracked! I pulled out the Christmas music and listened to it all day long while I ran errands. Nothing sets the mood for some Christmas shopping like Holiday music! I usually wait until later in the season, but this year I have wanted to pull it out since the day after Halloween. And I would have, but it took me a few days to remember where I put it last January. My favorites? I love the classics...Silent Night, Jingle Bells, O Little Town of Bethlehem. But I think my favorite is Believe by Josh Groban. And The Polar Express just happens to be one of my favorite Christmas movies. Bring on the Christmas cards!

Happy Birthday, Ashtyn!

Today Ashtyn is 6-years-old and it's hard to imagine there was ever a time when she wasn't a part of our family. Ashtyn is our little angel, our sweet little love bug who is always ready with a kiss and a hug. Ash is our "unexpected" baby and she couldn't have come at a better time. When I found out that I was pregnant with her, our little family was in need of some sunshine. We had just lost Austin about 6 weeks earlier and we were missing him so much. We were surprised and excited to find out that there would be another addition to our family.
The day that she was born was just like any other Saturday. Lauren and Mackenzie were playing their last soccer games of the fall season and we had spent the day at the soccer fields. I had been having some minor, sporadic contractions all day and was pretty miserable. Having just had a baby 10 months earlier, I was so worn out and huge. Mackenzie and I sat on a hill watching Lauren play soccer and I was able to pay attention to the contractions. It seemed they were more regular and a little bit painful. There were several moms on our team who were nurses, and as we left the game I asked them how close together contractions needed to be before I got concerned. I still had 6 weeks left. We decided to go home and rest and see if they would stop. At about 5:00 that night we decided that we should go to the hospital, thinking that we would be sent home. We weren't. Ashtyn Michelle arrived a couple hours later and weighed in at 6 lbs. 14 oz.! She had a full head of beautiful blonde hair and was perfect!

Now 6 years later we couldn't imagine life without her. She has the greatest laugh! Sometimes we tickle her just so we can hear it. Ash is a good friend and is so loving and kind. She loves animals and doing art projects with her sisters. She also loves to swim and play soccer and loves our little dog, Princess.

We celebrated her birthday yesterday with a party at the movie theater. We saw Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa and then had cake and ice cream with her friends. It was a great day and we had a great time. Happy Birthday, Ashy! You're growing up so fast!

More soccer

Soccer season is drawing to a close. Lauren has 2 HMS games left, and they all have 2 Saturdays of rec games. I think we will be glad to see the end this season--especially Sierra. She is less than thrilled to load up and head off to another game!

Ashtyn had 2 goals in her game last Saturday and played hard. I think it's finally clicking for her. Lauren's HMS team played (and lost) 3 games this week. She played well and they held one team to only 1 point. Last time they played each other, HMS lost by 5. Mackenzie's rec team won on Saturday by a score of 8-0! Too bad I was at Ashtyn's game and didn't have my camera! Way to go girls!! Rock on!

Answers and a New School

For the past couple of months, Sierra has been having some evaluations. We knew her speech was behind, but when she started preschool more problems became evident. We have seen speech and occupational therapists and were finally given the results in an IEP meeting yesterday. She has a sensory disorder and qualifies for some special education through the school system. Yesterday we got her enrolled in an Early Childhood Intervention program, and she started today. I am really excited about the help she is going to be getting and I'm anxious to start seeing results. She will go 4 days a week, 3 hours a day. I was a little sad this morning as I dropped her off and left. She's not my baby anymore and I'm not ready to have her gone every day, but she was excited and had a great time. Her teacher is so fabulous and she will spend a lot of time with speech and occupational therapists. I'm sure as soon as she adjusts to the routine she'll do great!

After I dropped her off, I headed over to Ashtyn's kindergarten class to help with a paper mache project. That was a lot of fun, and messy! I even got to participate in a fire drill while I was there. That took me back a few years!

Halloween

I have really gotten behind on things this week! We have been so busy, going from one activity to another without much time to catch a breath. My blog isn't the only place that I have fallen behind, but it's certainly more fun to catch up on than the housework!

We had a great Halloween. The girls went really simple and used costumes that we had already. I'm so glad they were agreeable to that! We went trick-or-treating with friends on Friday night and came home with bags full of candy. Lauren wasn't too big on the dressing up idea, but was willing for some chocolate! Then Saturday night we headed up to our ward's chili cook-off and trunk-or-treat and filled those bags up again! With all of the chocolate in our house, I should make it through the chaos of the next couple of months just fine!

Trick-or-treating in style!

Sierra gets her favorite treat!

Tennessee hillbillies and their Bishop!?