The Mckee's

Claire LeAnn

2010-08-14T17:30:00.000-07:00

On July 24th at 11:32a.m. weighing 7lbs 6oz and 20 in. long Claire was born. I know it has taken me 3 weeks to post this, I've been procrastinating.
First how she got her name, Adam and I both just really liked the name Claire and LeAnn was supposed to be my middle name. It is my dad's middle name Leland and my mom's middle name Ann put together. But when my dad filled out my birth certificate he decided to make my middle name Diane. Which my mom was not happy about. Anyways when we were trying to come up with a middle name, my family suggested LeAnn and we really liked it.
On July 23rd I was just over 38 weeks pregnant and was feeling pretty good just tired of being swollen, and feeling huge. I was dilated to a 3 already and was ready to have her. It had been over 100 degrees and humid for weeks here and being 9 months pregnant made it that much worse. So I decided on that day to go to the chiropractor and get adjusted then I had eaten spicy food the past couple of days, I also took caster oil (which I had never done before) then I bounced a little bit on the trampoline. That night our branch had a party at a park and we decided to go. It was 104 degrees outside and we were outside for a couple of hours. We then decided to walk on some trails. As you can see I did everything I could to start labor. We got home at 9 pm and I laid with Ellie and fell asleep with her. At 10:30 Adam woke me up to come to bed. I started having contractions and they felt different then my normal braxton hicks. I laid there for awhile and then told Adam I was having contractions every 3 minutes apart. So it was now 11 pm and we decided that we should go to the hospital since it was 45 minutes away. Since we are new here we didn't know anybody to watch the girls so we got them out of bed and took them with us. We called Adam's brother who was going to come to watch the girls to start driving because it was a 2 hour drive. We got to the hospital around midnight and they said I was dilated to a 4. They didn't want to admit me but didn't want to send me home since I lived so far away so they told me to walk around for 2 hours and come back. The girls had been awake so I told Adam to take them to the van and let them sleep while I walked around the hospital. After 2 hours Adam's brother got to the hospital to take the girls home and Adam and I went back to see if they would admit me. They said they would. I was relieved. I wasn't progressing that fast so they told me to keep walking. With my other girls I was induced and everything was quick and easy so this was weird going into labor by myself and then having to walk to keep my contractions going. I didn't understand why the doctor just wouldn't give me pitocin. So I was up all night long. Finally at 7 am the doctors changed and the new doctor walked in and said to me this is your baby and your labor what do you want me to do. I was so happy I told him I would like pitocin. They started me on that and then a couple hours later was ready for an epidural. Unfortunately it took them another hour before I got it and by then I was in pain. I was feeling comfortable after I got it and fell asleep. At around 10:45am I woke up to move a little and felt a gush. My water broke. I had never had my water break on its own, so that was weird. Right after that I told my nurse that I was feeling my contractions. For some reason when my water broke my epidural stopped working and for the next 30 minutes I felt all of my labor. Let's just say it was the worst pain I had ever felt in my life and I was begging the doctor and nurses to just give me more medicine, but they wouldn't. I never want to experience that again. Finally I felt her coming and pushed twice and she was out. It had been a long night and was a really different labor experience from my other girls. I was really surprised how little she was, she is my smallest baby. She never cried and we didn't hear her cry until she was 2 days old. I was able to come home only a day after having her which I was really grateful for. The girls came up on Saturday to see me and Claire. They loved seeing her and holding her. They have adjusted really well to having a new baby in the family and have been big helps to us. I feel really good and am recovering quickly. We feel so blessed to have this sweet new spirit in our family.

Adam's Birthday!

2010-08-14T17:08:00.000-07:00

Well Adam turned 29 this year! I can't believe it. On that day I had my first doctor's appt. at Fort Riley I was 36 weeks pregnant. Adam and the girls came with me. Then on the way home we went to Famous Dave's. I had never been there but Adam loves to go there. We had a good family dinner and then went home and he opened presents. It was a fun day. You can also see in the pictures how big I was.

Ellie's Birthday and the 4th of July weekend!

2010-08-14T16:30:00.000-07:00

This year 4th of July weekend was really busy. It started on July 1st when we went to Wamego's carnival. They had rides, games and food. We had fun walking around and the girls played games and went on the carousel. Then we went to Kansas City on July 2nd and shopped. Then we went to Adam's parent's house where we stayed for the weekend. On Sat. July 3rd it was Ellie's 3rd birthday. We actually went to my nephew Braden's birthday party that morning. My sister-in-law had a ton of fun activities for the kids to do. It was a really fun party. Then we went to the hospital to visit Adam's Dad who had a heart attack and had a quadruple bypass. Then that night we let Ellie choose where we went for dinner and she chose Burger King. They are so easy to please at this age! Then Sunday we went to Church and Adam's siblings and there families came over and spent the day and we celebrated Ellie's birthday with a cake and opened presents. She got a power-wheel, a Dora backpack, and a few other things. She had a really fun day and loved spending it with family. On Sunday the 4th we were going to go watch a firework show but we had a really bad thunderstorm and nobody in our area had fireworks. This was the first year I haven't seen fireworks! On Monday my sister-in-law Shannon, Holly and I went and saw the movie Eclipse which I loved! I love being so close to family and being able to spend time with them.

Our new home

2010-07-20T07:45:00.000-07:00

Adam and I had decided that we would like to purchase a home in Manhattan Kansas where we would be moving to. Well unfortunately it worked out that I would have to do it all by myself. We had to get a bunch of power of attorneys in order for me to do it all but I got pre-approved for a loan, found a realtor and started looking online at houses. I new I would have to go to Kansas to really look so I planned a trip the first week in March. This was the first time I have EVER been away from the girls overnight except for when I had Ellie! So I hated leaving them but they were in good hands with my parents. Thankfully Adam's family is in Kansas City area and my brother Ross and his wife Lindsay and there 2 boys. I asked Lindsay if she would go with me to Manhattan to look so that I would have somebody to bounce opinions off of. Manhattan is a 2 hour drive from Kansas City; she left Braden there oldest with her parents and brought Cashel who was 11 months old. We stayed in a hotel for 2 nights, so I only had 2 days to find a house. My realtor thankfully had everything lined up so we could see a bunch of houses. I new I wanted a 4 bedroom house that would be newer because of Adalyn's asthma and allergies. On our second day of looking she said a house had just come on the market in St. George KS which is a small town just 8 minutes outside of Manhattan. We went and looked at it and it was perfect. It is a ranch style home with a finished basement. 4 bedrooms, 3 baths. I love that there is a huge storage room downstairs and it's very spacious. It also has a tornado room with a steel door in the basement so that we can be protected. (Hopefully we never have to use it!) Anyways it had a fenced in backyard with a play set and a shed. One of the things I loved the most is that there is a new elementary school right across the street that I can see the playground from my front yard and walk Adalyn to school everyday! I just felt so strongly this was the house for us. I had to convince Adam a little bit because he wasn't here to see it in person but he finally said yes. (I actually thought it was a lot easier looking for a house without him because I just got what I wanted!) We put in an offer and a week later had a deal. We didn't close on the house until June 1st because we didn't need it until then but now we are all moved in and we able to buy a bunch of new furniture. Both of the girls got a bedroom set which I love. Adam and I have never had a bedroom set so we also got a king bedroom set. I love that we have been able to decorate and do whatever we want because it's our house (not the military's)
An interesting thing about living here is that we go to a branch it’s called the Wamego branch which is an awesome little town 5 minutes away. Our branch has about 80 to 100 people in it. They have been so welcoming and we have felt the spirit so strongly there. We meet in the back of a chinese restaurant! Yep, it's interesting but there is some vacant rooms between us and the church completely renovated the small space we have, so once your inside it looks like a church just very, very small. Adalyn loves her class and Ellie is very slowly adjusting to nursery (I sit with her) Adam this past week was called to be the young men's 1st counselor. There are about 45 primary kids, 8 young men, 8 young women. They have informed me that they have big plans for me but are waiting until I have the baby which should be in the next 2 weeks. So we'll see what happens. So far we love it here it is so green and beautiful.

Dining room and kitchen

Upstairs living room

Upstairs living room

Adalyn finally got her purple room.

Ellie and the new babies room.

Ellie's room

The girls bathroom.

Master bedroom.

Master bathroom

Basement family room.

The downstairs(basement) family room.

This is our downstairs(basement) guest bedroom. So come visit!!

Adam Coming Home!!!

2010-07-19T13:24:00.000-07:00

So finally on May 21st Adam was able to come home! Yeah I was so excited! I had decided that it would be better not to tell the girls he was coming because I new they would just ask me about it 24/7 and be upset when I left to go to the airport. He wasn't flying in until midnight and then we stayed at a hotel next to the airport. We had webcam while he was gone but this was the first time he saw me and my big belly. It was fun for him to feel the baby move. It was so nice that he was home.
Thankfully my parents were able to watch the girls and the next morning we were both anxious to get to my parents house and see the girls. I had thought Adalyn would be surprised but would be ecstatic. I also warned Adam that Ellie who had a very hard time with Adam being gone and cried for him constantly would probably cry and not want to go to him. As you can see by the videos, that's pretty much how it went.
I new once the girls got over the shock of him being home that they would not want to leave his side. Once again it was Ellie that really struggled with that, if Adam even got up to go to the bathroom she would have a melt down.
We had a fun week together in Oregon. On Sunday we saw my sister Kristy and her kids. Then on Monday we just spent the day together, shopped around and Adam just played with the girls. On Tuesday we went to the beach and spent a night in an awesome hotel with 2 bedrooms and it was right on the beach. It wasn't the best weather but we didn't let that stop us from enjoying our time together. On Thursday we went to Eugene and spent the day with Jay and Chelsea and there kids. Then on Friday we spent the day getting the van packed up and ready to leave. Adam on that Saturday would be driving to California to our old base to out-process and then drive to Kansas to meet us. I flew out Sat. with my mom and girls to close on our new house and get all of our stuff delivered from the moving company. My mom stayed a week to help me get a little settled.
It was really hard to not be with Adam consistently but we new that it would be that way and that when he got to Kansas he would only be with us for a day before he would leave for Alabama for 2 weeks for training for his new job. The girls struggled with this a lot and hated him coming and going. While he was gone for 2 weeks I just kept getting unpacked and taking care of everything that goes a long with moving. I was 33 weeks pregnant when we moved.

In this video you can see that the girls were surprised, but when you see Ellie walk to me and it stops that's when I picked her up and she started crying so hard, and burried her head in my neck and wouldn't stop. Adam tried to comfort her but she just gripped me tighter, finally I thought if I made her go to Adam she would be okay well her reaction to that is in the next video!

I felt so bad. Ellie has always been very sensitive and Adam being gone for so long has really affected her. After about 30 minutes Ellie finally calmed down and went to Adam and didn't leave his side again!

A family visit

2010-07-13T18:41:00.000-07:00

The end of April all my siblings but one sister (Jackie) came to Oregon to visit and to go to Kayla my nieces wedding reception. It was a busy week and a full house but we had a blast. We went to the Zoo, to Bauman's farm, and to my sister Kristy's house for Mother's Day. All of the kids play so well together and love being at grandma and grandpa Jones' house. There is so much space outside for the kids to run around and so many kids that they just go off and play all day. My brother Ross and Lindsay came from Kansas and there 2 boys Braden and Cashel, they enjoyed digging in the dirt with my girls. It is so nice to be able to talk and hang out with my brother and sisters and there spouses. We of course shopped a bunch and just had a good time. Living with my parents has been such a blessing. I can't imagine being alone while Adam has been away. The girls have gotten so close with my brother Jay and sister in law Chelsea. They love when they come stay with us from Eugene. They have really gotten to know all of there cousins better and just loved being in Oregon. Most of all it has been so nice to watch my girls with my parents. They love my Mom and Dad so much.

Vegas trip!

2010-07-13T14:18:00.000-07:00

So my niece Kayla was getting married in early April in the Vegas temple and my sister Kristy, and my parents and the girls and I decided to go. It was really nice to get away from our everyday routine and the Oregon weather. We spent 1 week in Las Vegas. We stayed with my sister Jackie. The girls love there cousins Audrey, Kirsten, Ava and Evan. They had so much fun swimming and playing. My other sister Paula lives only a few minutes away. It was so much fun being around so much family. My other nephew and nieces were so awesome and because they are all a little older they helped my out a ton with the kids. It was a nice break. Oh the pictures of us in the RV were so funny, Mike my brother in-law had this RV that weekend and since we couldn't all fit in a few vehicle's we decided to go to the wedding in the RV. Plus it gave the kids a place to hang out while we were in the sealing. The kids loved it and sat on the queen bed the way there and back.

Easter in Oregon!

2010-07-13T13:45:00.000-07:00

Well this year for Easter it was a lot of fun to be at my parent’s house and do things that I did as a kid. First some of my good friends I have known for a long time live in Woodburn so we got together and had an Easter party with the kids. Then on Saturday morning we went to a Hubbard park where they had over 3000 eggs scattered. It was separated by kids’ age which was nice. Jay and Chelsea were there too. The girls and I love doing everything with them. Hannah and Ellie went with them while I took Adalyn. It was freezing cold outside but the kids didn't mind too much. It's funny the eggs were in a huge field and I was telling Adalyn to pick up all the eggs she saw. Well her and most of the kids just took off running and ran past tons of eggs, I had to remind her to stop and pick them up just not run to the end of the field. It was really funny. We then went to the Bauman's farm and did an egg hunt there.
On Sunday Kristy and Will and there girls came to Mom and Dad's house and we had a big Easter dinner and had our own egg hunt in my parents yard. It was just a fun weekend hanging out with family.

Adalyn's 5th Birthday!!

2010-07-13T13:04:00.001-07:00

Wow! I can't believe we have a 5 year old! On March 22 we celebrated Addy's birthday in Oregon. Unfortunately Adam couldn't be there but he sent a box full of books and candy and jewelry for her. She loved it. It just so happens that Addy's cousin Brinlee's b-day is on the same day and her other cousin Hannah's birthday is the 20th so we celebrated all of there birthdays together. It was also Easter weekend. It was thankfully a really nice weekend. We went bowling and had pizza and soda there, which all the kids loved and then went back to grandma's house where we had cake and opened presents and all the kids played outside the rest of the day. Adalyn thought it was the best birthday ever and loved spending it with her cousins.
Adalyn at 5 is 47 lbs and 46 in. tall. She loves the color purple (that's an understatement) She can write her own name and everyone else's in the family by herself. She can also copy anything I write for her. She has become very independent and likes to pick out her own clothes and how she wants her hair done. She definitely the oldest and likes to be in charge and is very mothering. She is very sweet and compassionate. We love her so much.

There has been a mistake...

2010-04-07T17:32:00.000-07:00

So for the past 4 weeks we have been so excited to be having a boy. I have bought boys clothes and some decorations for his room. So on Monday I went to my doctor and she said let's do another ultra sound, I said sure and that's when she said we are not having a boy it is a GIRL!! I was in shock and sad that I had to call Adam and tell him but he was fine with it. It's not like the baby changed just now we know the truth. Thank goodness we found out now and not in the delivery room! Just to make sure it is a girl I had another ultra sound today and yep it really is a girl! So now I will be taking back my boy stuff and be buying some new girl stuff. The girls had been praying for brother Owen and talking to him in my belly but when I told them it was a girl they both said "Okay". So anyways here comes baby girl McKee #3!!

IT'S A...

2010-03-28T16:23:00.000-07:00

BOY!!! We are so excited to tell everyone that on March 11th we found out we will be having a boy. At first he wouldn't show us what he was so the doctor did the rest of the ultra sound and had me go wait in the waiting room for awhile to see if he would change positions. I was hoping that he would because I couldn't wait another 4 weeks to find out what we were having. As soon as I went back in you could tell right away it was a boy. Adam was on the phone with me as I found out and the girls and my Mom came. It was fun to show the girls, especially when we did the 3D ultra sound you could see him moving his arms and legs. We feel so blessed and everything looked great.

A First!

2010-03-12T11:38:00.000-08:00

So Adalyn a few weeks ago came in crying saying her two bottom teeth hurt, when I looked they were really loose. She freaked out at the thought of me pulling her tooth and wouldn't let me touch it. So Adam sent her a book about loosing your tooth and the tooth fairy which she loved but it didn't make her want her tooth to come out. So after about 3 weeks of her teeth being so loose I finally decided it was time to just take them out. They were so loose they weren't even up and down anymore they were laying crooked. So on Sat. March 6 I literally pinned Adalyn down who was screaming and refusing to open her mouth and got her to open it after 10 min. of fighting with her. It fell out the second I touch it and even she said she didn't feel it. After she calmed down she was really excited that it was out and couldn't wait for the toothfairy to come. That night she put her tooth under her pillow and in the morning had $1. The next day I told her the other tooth needed to come out and she cried a little but opened her mouth and let me take it out. It also just came right out. So the toothfairy came again and she got another $1. Oh and because I made it so tramatic for her the first time I let her go to Walmart and pick out a barbie. I felt a little guilty about pinning her down but in the end it all worked out and now she loves to show everyone her 2 missing teeth.

The Oregon Coast!

2010-03-12T10:06:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend of Valentine's day and presidents day my brother and his wife asked if we wanted to join them and go to the beach. I said we would love to. So we packed up and went on Saturday to Lincoln City which is where we always go since we were kids. We stayed until monday at a hotel with 3 queen beds and a microwave and fridge. It also was right on the beach and had an indoor swimming pool. It was supposed to rain the entire time we were there but it ended up being one of the nicest times I have been there. It was clear skies and even a little warm on Saturday. We never got rained on so we were really lucky! It was so nice to get away and I just love spending time with Jay and Chelsea.

Some random pictures.

2010-03-12T09:50:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of the girls and some things we have been doing. We love being so close to my brother Jay, his wife Chelsea and there 2 kids Hannah and Colby. We have seen them a lot and they come stay with us for days at a time and the girls just play and play. We also have my sister Kristy and her husband Will with there 5 girls only 45 min. away so it is fun the girls get to see them and play. They love it when we get to see cousins. These are pictures at my parents house and at a farm close by called the Bauman's. They have a lot of fun area's for the kids to go and play and a petting zoo. So we have been out there a bunch of times.

Last day with Daddy

2010-03-12T08:18:00.000-08:00

On January 7th we said goodbye to Beale and left for Oregon. These were some pictures I took of Adam and the girls. They were taken in the TLF(hotel) we had been staying in. It was a sad day.

Christmas in Kansas 2009!

2010-03-12T08:02:00.000-08:00

Even though we were about to move, we had already gotten our tickets to go to Kansas for Christmas with Adam's family. So we left December 21st and came back on the 31st. We had such a good time. We didn't worry about anything that was going on and just had a fun family vacation. All of Adam's family was together except for Andrew his little brother who is on a mission. The girls loved playing with all there cousins. We shopped and had lots of good food. Unfortunately while we were there I was pregnant sick and threw up everyday. Then everyone else got sick with throwing up and diarhea, so Adam and the girls also got it. Adam had it the worst, thankfully the girls each threw up a few times and then were done. Ellie threw up at 1 o'clock in the morning christmas day but by the time we woke up to open presents she was fine. Thank goodness.
On Dec. 23rd we went to see Ross(my brother) and Lindsays and there two boys. It is so nice they live in Kansas City and we can see them whenever we go visit Adam's family. We went with them to Lindsay's family party and had such a good time, the girls loved playing with there cousins Braden and Cashel.
We also met them one day for shopping and eating out. I love spending time with them and will be so happy we are only 2 hours away so we can see them more often.
On Christmas eve Kansas City had one of the worst blizzards it had seen in years. So we spent the day inside and out of the freezing cold. The girls did venture out once for about 10 minutes but then they got to cold and were ready to go back in the house. It snowed so bad that some of Adam's family couldn't get out of there driveways to make it in time to open presents with us christmas morning. But were all able to get together that night. It was a really good christmas.
We also went one day to Manhattan to see where we will be moving to and actually really liked it, so I am excited.

Megan and Ellie Christmas morning.

Adam and Adalyn opening up her new leapster.

Ellie and her cousins Micah and Aliza. So cute!

Braden and Ellie playing at the outlet mall. We couldn't keep them out of the snow.

The girls at Grandma McKee's house in the snow.

Adalyn and Ellie on Christmas eve in there new pajamas.

Wesley, Ellie, Kiera and Adalyn waiting to open christmas eve presents.

This is my sister in laws Lindsays sister Amanda. Ellie just loved her.

My brother Ross and his family with ours.

Adalyn and Ellie giving Cashel some loving.

Adalyn's last day in Pre-school!

2010-02-18T11:32:00.000-08:00

Adalyn's last day of pre-school was on December 18th, it was also her christmas party. I volunteered to help. They had stations set up for the kids to do different crafts. Then they got to eat lunch and treats. They played outside while the parents helped clean up and then at the end the kids sang jingle bells for all the parents and all the kids and teachers said good bye to Adalyn. It was so sad. She still talks about her pre-school and doesn't quite understand that we are not going back to school or our house there. It's hard to explain to a 4 year old. But she is enjoying being in Oregon.

Adalyn saying goodbye to Shyanne Hofman who moved at the same time.

She made an ornament.

They made a bird feeder out of pine cone, peanut butter and seeds.

Adalyn saying goodbye to Mrs. Rosie, Ms. Terri, and Ms. Nicole and her friend Lindsay.

Guess where we're moving...

2010-02-18T11:22:00.001-08:00

So we also found out the middle of December that Kansas State which is in Manhattan Kansas is where we will be moving to! I was really shocked but thankfully it is only 2 hours away from Adam's family and my brother who lives in Kansas City with his wife and kids. Moving to Kansas is going to be a big change from California, I'm not looking forward to hot humid summers especially since I'll be 7 months pregnant and then really cold snowey winters. We were lucky in California to never have really cold weather so this is going to be a challenge. We did get a chance to go to Manhattan over Christmas break and thankfully it is a pretty big town with everything we could want or need. So that is nice. There is no Air Force Base so we will hopefully be buying a home. Adam will be teaching the AF ROTC cadets. Adam is so excited to be moving back to Kansas and to be teaching I think it will be a good place for our family. Hopefully by the first week in June we will be back together and in Kansas.

LOT"S OF CHANGES!!!!

2010-02-18T10:48:00.000-08:00

So the past few months A LOT has changed for our family. Over Thanksgiving break while in Las Vegas with my entire family we found out we were pregnant with our 3rd baby! We are so excited to welcome a new baby into our family and feel so blessed. My due date is Aug. 3rd. I am currently 16 weeks pregnant and will find out on March 11th what we are having. I have been really sick and thrown up everyday up until about 10 days ago. It feels really good to not be so sick! The kids are very excited for a baby to be in our family.
We were so excited about this news and were awaiting so more news. In May it would be our time to move from Beale since we would have been there for 4 years. Adam thankfully got picked to teach ROTC for a university. We were just waiting to see which school we would go to for our next 3 year assignment. He came home the middle of December and woke me up from a nap I was taking with the girls. He told me he had some news for me, I thought it was where our next assignment would be but instead it was that he was deploying for 4 months and would be leaving in 2 weeks! Thankfully it was only for 4 months and it was in Dover AFB which is in Delaware. I know that seems odd to be deployed there but it is a deployment. That is where the mortuary is and every body that comes back from the war goes there. Families have to be notified, funerals arranged, and everything else that come along with that. It would be a challenging deployment in a different way. With Christmas right around the corner and me being pregnant I was a little panicked as to how this was all going to work. We had already bought tickets to go to Kansas to see Adam's family for 10 days. I was also overwhelmed at the idea of during Christmas we would have to have our house packed up and cleaned so we could move out. I was also really sad that Adalyn would have to leave her pre-school that she loved so much. Thankfully Adam got it extended for him to not have to leave until Jan. 7 and he would drive to Delaware so he could have his car there. So we went on Christmas vacation, came back had the weekend to pack everything we would need for 4 months and then the packers and movers came. By Wed. we were out of our house and on Thursday Adam and I drove separate cars to Oregon where the girls and I would live with my parents until he got back.
It has now been 6 weeks since we have been here and things are going pretty well. We miss Adam like crazy but are thankful we can webcam and talk on the phone. The girls love being at grandma and grandpa's house and having cousins close by to play with. I found a doctor here in Woodburn to see which is nice and close. Unfortunately when we move in early June I will be 7 months pregnant and have to find a new doctor. I know the Lord has a plan for our family and we have been so blessed to have things work out so well.

Wheatland Ward Christmas Party!

2010-02-18T08:50:00.001-08:00

December 5, 2009
Our ward had a wonderful Christmas party that I was able to help set up. We had a nice turkey dinner with all the sides. Then the primary kids sang some christmas songs(Adalyn went up but did not really sing, I'm just happy she actually went up.) Then the kids played with there friends. At the end we had a special visitor Santa Clause! The kids were so excited to see him and they he gave them a candy cane. It was a really fun night.

Ellie, Lindsay, Adalyn and Shyanne

Thanksgiving in Las Vegas!!!

2010-02-05T10:13:00.000-08:00

For Thanksgiving this year my whole family decided to go to Las Vegas where my two older sisters live. Also my nephew Josh was turning 12 and recieving the priesthood. So it was a great time to go. The only one who didn't make it was Kristy and her family. We missed them. So of course the weekend before we are about to drive 11 hours to get there both of the girls get sick. Ellie gets the whooping cough and Adalyn go bronchitis again! So we were taking them to the doctor the morning before we left but we finally made it out the door and got to Las Vegas the monday before thanksgiving. It was so fun to see everyone. It was the first time I had seen my new nephews Colby, and Cashel. The kids played so well together. Even though the girls didn't feel well they still were able to do everything they wanted to. Unfortunately I got really sick with a horrible cough and soar throat. Thanks to Ellie! So I had to go to urgent care to get medecine. Then Adam had to fly out on Wed. for work and he flew back Friday afternoon. We stayed until monday. We wished he wouldn't have had to leave but he had to go back for work but at least we didn't spend the whole week without him. Anyways it was fun seeing everyone and all the kids. They loved to jump on the trampolines, go hot tubbing, and have my nieces Haylee and Alexa give them all make-overs. For me I loved going to see Twilights New Moon with all my sisters and mom and going Black Friday shopping. We were up at 3 am to go and we got the best deals! Adam got to go with all the boys and go 4-wheeling and Sandrailing at the dunes! All in all it was a wonderful family trip!

Adalyn holding Cashel, he is 6 months old!

Adalyn holding Colby who was 3 months old!

We came home from Twilight to find the boys were letting the kids get into the cold pool with all there clothes on! They had fun but were freezing!

Yeah Pizza Night!

Playing dress-up

Another day where Haylee and Alexa did all the little girls hair the same way. It looked so cute. Ellie, Adalyn and Ava played so well together.

The girls with Grandma Jones and Colby.

My mom, and her Mom Grandma Woolsey. It was good to see her.

Haylee helping Adalyn with her hair.

Alexa painting Ellie's nails. All the girls got there hair done and nails painted! They loved it, thanks to Haylee and Alexa.

Ellie after her "make-over" She looks beautiful

Some of the cousins.

Hannah, Ellie and Braden had so much fun playing together.

Fire Fighters!

2010-02-05T09:20:00.000-08:00

In early October Adalyn's class got to first have the fire department come to her school parking lot and they brought a fire truck and a trailer that simulates what it would be like to be in a house with smoke and what you should do. So Adalyn suprisingly went into the trailer and crawled on the floor and then out the window. Then a week later they went on a field trip where they walked to the fire station and took a tour of it. They also got to get into the firetruck, and spray the fire hose. All the kids loved it.

Adalyn sitting in the trailer learning what to do in case of a fire.

Adalyn climbing out of the trailer filled with steam.

Pre-School halloween party 2009!

2010-02-05T08:52:00.000-08:00

She got to decorate and eat a pumpkin shaped sugar cookie.

Adalyn painting a little pumpkin.

It was so funny to watch the kids hold there hands behind there backs and eat 3 doughnuts. She did a really good job.

The kids singing there songs outside.

October 29,2009
So right after Adalyn was in the hospital her preschool had a halloween party. Thankfully she felt good enough to go. I went and helped which was fun for me. The teachers had set up different stations the kids rotated through and then at the end all the kids went outside and sang songs for the parents. It was really cute.

2010-02-05T08:47:00.000-08:00

YES WE ARE STILL HERE!!! We have had a lot going on the past couple of months so I am going to try and start getting caught up! Sorry I have been such a slacker!

Ward Halloween Party!

2009-11-11T17:26:00.000-08:00

This year primary was in charge of the Halloween party and since I am in the primary presidency that means I got to help. Since our ward is tiny we new we wouldn't have enough people to do trunk-or-treat. So we decided to do a candy land themed carnival and chille dinner. It was a lot of work but a really fun night. We set up the gym to look like the candy land game board and at each stop kids played a carnival game and got a candy to go along with it. At the end we had 4 pinjatas and divided the kids into 4 groups. We filled the pinatas with good candy and that is how they got the bulk of there candy. It was a really fun night and the girls loved dressing up. They were cowgirls this year(pink and purple of course!)

Some of there friends Lindsay and Shyanne.

Adalyn loved being a "purple" cowgirl!

Ellie as a cute cowgirl!

The chocolate swamp where you fish for fudge!

They loved Princess Frostine where they frosted sugar cookies.

This is Gramma Nut you throw bean bags through the windows.

This is the girls on Halloween day. They were so excited to carve pumpkins and get dressed up again. As you can see Adalyn kept posing and Ellie copied her. It was so funny to watch them.

Bishop's Pumpkin Farm 2009!

2009-11-08T20:40:00.000-08:00

I know I already showed that I went with Adalyn and her class to the pumpkin farm but we wanted to go as a family so we all went together one day. It was great weather and the girls had so much fun going. We went and did everything they had to do, hayrides, slides, animal petting area, and the thing they loved the most is that this year they had real pony rides. The girls have never done that before and I really thought they would chicken out but they didn't! They had so much fun and were so cute. With our girls getting bigger it has become a lot easier and a lot of fun to go and do things. They are getting so big, and it's been nice to be able to experience new things with our girls.

Fun Family Night!

2009-11-08T18:04:00.000-08:00

On October 10, 2009 we decided to take the girls out to have some fun. They love to bowl so we went to the base's bowling alley were they also have a very small miniature golf course. The girls had so much fun bowling they both would carry there heavy balls to the ramp and push it down. Ellie was really funny to watch carry a heavy ball grunting the whole time. As you can see while playing miniature golf they didn't quite figure out how the game was supposed to go but it kept them busy for like an hour and it was hilarious to watch! I love my family and loves days like these!

First Field Trip!

2009-11-08T17:40:00.000-08:00

October 6, 2009
So Adalyn's pre-school took all the classes to Bishop's Pumpkin farm this year and I went as a parent volunteer! All the kids were so excited about it and it was Adalyn's first field trip and first time on a school bus! She loved feeling like such a big kid! So we drove just 10 minutes from base to the farm and first went on a hay ride and we each got to pick out a pumpkin then we went to some slides and other fun playing areas. We also saw a pig race, and went on a train ride. At the end we got to have the best sugar cookies and apple cider I have ever had! It was such a fun day for her!

Adalyn and Shyanne Hofman on the train.

Adalyn at the pig races!

Adalyn's class and her teacher's Ms. Rosie and Ms. Terri

Sick kids!

2009-10-28T10:25:00.000-07:00

You can see in her eyes how scared she was.

The paramedic gave her a bear to help her not be so scared.

As you can see by the end of the night she was tired and miserable!

Anyways at about 9 pm the doctor came in and said they would give her one more breathing treatment which would mean in half a day she would have had 6! And that if her pulse oxygen could stay at 94% we could go home. Finally at about 10 pm all the results were back she didn't have RSV, or pneumonia, or the influenza. The doctor said there was a chance she could have the swine flu but that they didn't have a way to test for it at the hospital and since asthmatic people were having serious complications like death from the swine flu that they would treat her with Tami flu as a preventative measure and give her oral steroids, along with antibiotics, singulair, and pulmicort and albuterol in her nebulizer. So a lot of medicine but it seems to be helping she is slowing wanting to eat and drink more and she is breathing easier. Ultimately they said this was all due to her asthma and bronchitis. They have finally decided to send us to a pediatric pulminologist in Sacramento to see why she keeps getting bronchitis.
Something funny she did say in the beginning is that she heard us talking about her heart rate and looking at the monitors and the lines going up and down showing her heart rate and she looked up at me and asked "Mom is my heart cracking?" It made me so sad and want to laugh because she thought the lines on the monitor were showing her heart cracking and she was worried!
So I have a bunch of new posting to do but I haven't gotten to them yet. But I thought I would write about what just happened to Adalyn. Well I just posted something about her asthma and bronchitis episodes and how she has had it every 6 weeks well here we are 6 weeks later and she is sick again!! It started Saturday night after our wards Halloween party I noticed she had a slight cough. So we gave her usual breathing treatment before bed. Sunday she woke up feeling okay but did still have a cough. We went to church and she was okay and we went on with our day but I started giving her breathing treatments every 4 hours to try and stop her cough from getting worse. Well Sunday night she was up coughing all night and started to get really sick. She had a fever and was just miserable. First thing Monday morning called and got her a doctor's appointment because she was wheezing and really struggling to breath. Also that morning she threw up in the van. So by the time we got to the doctor's office I had already given her 2 breathing treatments. Her pulse oxygen was 92% and she threw up all over the doctor's office. They immediately put us in a room it was 4 pm and I called Adam at work to come get Ellie because I new Adalyn was really sick. The doctor listened to her and she was wheezing, her heart rate was too high and she was working really hard to breath. They immediately gave her a breathing treatment which got her pulse oxygen to 93%. They gave her another breathing treatment. It didn’t help. After being in the doctor's office for an hour they came and told me that she was not getting better and that they would need to ambulance her to the emergency room. I could not believe this was happening again. So she was really scared but I stayed with her they strapped her onto the gurney and we drove 25 minutes to the hospital. Immediately we had 2 nurses and a respiratory therapist and a physician’s assistant working on her. They started asking me a ton of questions while getting her changed into a gown and putting things onto her chest and finger to monitor her heart and pulse oxygen level. They gave her oral steroids, another breathing treatment and oxygen. Nothing was helping her oxygen level kept going to 88% and 90%. They told me we would probably have to stay the night. They gave her chest x-ray, started an IV line and drew blood. They also shoved 2 small things up each nostril to check for influenza and then to test for RSV they had to shoot saline up each nostril and shove a tube 3 in. long up each side and suck out her mucus to be able to test her. She was screaming and fighting with us to get everything done. By the time they finished all the tests it had been a couple of hours and she was exhausted from all the crying. She fell asleep on me in the bed and slept for an hour. I felt horrible for everything she was being put through and was hoping we could go home, that's all she wanted to do was go home.

Pampered Chef!

2009-10-21T21:24:00.000-07:00

I just hosted my first pampered chef party and had a great time. My party actually closes on Monday morning(10/26) so you can still buy items online and I get the rewards! If you would like something for yourself or a nice christmas gift go to http://www.pamperedchef.biz/juliehaak and click on shop online. Then type in my name as the host and buy what you would like. Thank you for your support.

So you think YOU can dance? Not like my girl!

2009-10-02T11:43:00.000-07:00

Ellie is a wonderful ball of energy who is constantly doing things that make us all laugh. She loves to dance and sing and just do funny and random things. In this video I caught her dancing to Dragon Tale's the cartoon. The song was saying to wiggle you arms or jump or do different things she was copying. I love that girl. She also while Adam was home for lunch walked over with Adam's boots and hat on. His boots are so big on her. Of course Adalyn wanted to do it to and I thought it was so cute so here are the pics.

Another trip to the doctor!

2009-10-02T10:27:00.000-07:00

So ever since Adalyn had RSV and pneumonia and was hospitalized for 6 days when she was 2 she has had respiratory problems. She has literally had bronchitis every 4-6 weeks for about the past year. So her doctor finally diagnosed her with asthma and told me to start giving her a breathing treatment of pulmicort everyday to prevent her from getting a flare up. So we have been doing that for about 3 months. But as soon as I forget to give it to her even 1 day she starts coughing. So Sept. 9th I ran out of pulmicort and was supposed to go pick up more medecine. I forgot that thursday and friday and felt horrible because by Sat. she was not stop coughing and had a fever. By sunday she was miserable and I could hear her wheezing really bad and she just had a really bad cough. So on Monday I new she had bronchitis again which she had just had 4 weeks earlier. So we went to the doctors and her temperature was over 102 and her pulse oxygen level was 92% So they made us stay and do some breathing treatments to get her pulse oxygen level up. It did go up to 95% so we got to leave and it took about a week for her to get back to normal but she is doing a lot better. I felt horrible for not getting her medecine and causing her to get sick. I know now she has to have it everyday! Poor girl.

If I kiss the frog will it turn into a prince?

2009-10-02T10:17:00.000-07:00

Every night we go outside with the girls and water our flowers and the girls color with chalk. They also love to go for walks. Well the other night while we were watering the flowers a baby frog started jumping around. The girls were so excited and wanted Adam to catch it. As you can see Ellie wanted to kiss the frog. She got pretty close but there was no way I would let her acutually do that. We also have 2 baby lizards that have lived in our flowers all summer. I tell you we live in the middle of no where!

Big girl in Pre-school!

2009-10-02T09:34:00.000-07:00

Megan and Adalyn.

Adam and Adalyn. Adalyn's 2nd day of school.

Adalyn saying goodbye to Ellie!

The first thing they have to do is wash there hands. I love these little sinks!

It's a big classroom with a lot of seperate areas to play in.

She is the tallest and biggest person in her class! So her cubby is up top!

So I've been a littel lazy in keeping up with my blog so here is what's been going on with us. On August 24th Adalyn now 4 1/2 years old started pre-school. Now I had mixed feeling about this. It is a free pre-school on our base which is really good, it's mon-fri from 12:30 to 3:30. I couldn't imagine everyday Adalyn not being with me. Plus she was still taking a nap everyday.(she loves to sleep) and I am a very protective mom and didn't like the idea of not knowing what was going on, could she get hurt, what if somebody was mean to her, a million thoughts went through my head. Also the fact that she would be going to the bathroom with no help worried me a little bit. But we decided it would be good for her and help her break out of her shell. In her class there is about 20 kids and 3 teachers. Ms. Rosie is her teacher and Ms. Nicole and Ms. Terri are the helpers. It is a really good set up that they have. We know Ms. Nicole from some friends in our ward and have hung out with them before she also has a daughter Adalyn's age. Anyways on the first day only half the class comes at one time for only an hour and the parents stay to help the kids. Of course I got really sick and couldn't even get out of bed so Adam took her.I was really sad to miss her first day. She wouldn't leave Adam's side and cried when he tried to. The next two days were also only and hour and while all the other kids were happy to say bye to there parents Adalyn insisted that I stay with her. Thankfully she already new Nicole and would only go with her in her group. By Thursday it was her first full day with all the kids and I had convinced her that she could stay with Ms. Nicole and I would be back to get her. For the next 2 weeks she was glued to Nicole and would even go with her if she needed to leave the classroom. Now it has been a month and Adalyn begs me to go to pre-school. She loves it and all her new friends. She learned to write her name all by herself, and a ton of other numbers and letters. She comes home with fun new things everyday and has lots of stories to tell us. She is learning so much and I am so happy that she's in school.

Megan's Surgery

2009-09-09T17:53:00.000-07:00

So for some of you this might not be something you want to know about but I am writing it down so that I can always remember my experience. On September 3rd I had Dr. Walker fix my deviated septum. When I was 5 years old I was twirling around on a Sunday afternoon with my brothers from couch to couch and got dizzy and fell. Of course my nose hit right on the end of the couch and my nose broke. The doctor never corrected the brake and just let it heal which made the middle bone and cartilage of my nose crooked. I have been unable for 20 years to breathe out of one side of my nose. So now that we're in the Air Force and they would fix it for free I figured why not? I have never had surgery before or been knocked out so I was a little nervous but everything went really well. The surgery took about 2 hours and then an hour in recovery and I came home. I must say thank you to my friend Aimee for watching the girls! It was a huge help not worrying about them. They removed the crooked bones and moved some of the cartilage and then put splints in each nostral to stabalize it all with some stiches. As you can see in the picture the splints were big and uncomfortable but I had them taken out on Tuesday so I could finally breathe out of my nose. I had to wear the gauze dripp pad until tuesday as well from constant blood and mucus drainage(sorry probably TMI) Today is Wednesday and I am finally feeling mostly back to normal. My nose is still very tender and I still have stiches in my nose but other than that it just feels like I have a sinus infection. The worst part about all of this was I had an allergic reaction to the medicine they gave me and the first night I was up itching everywhere and then the next day was throwing up and felt nauseous for the next 4 days. I couldn't keep anything down so that was not fun! Anways it was definately worth it all. My actual nose does not look any different.

This is when I am 5 years old and had broken my nose.

Before surgery I was feeling pretty good.

After surgery not feeling so great. I was really groggy.

Such a stylish thing isn't it? Yeah this is was I looked like for the next 5 days!

The girls were very worried about me and especially Adalyn didn't want to leave my side because she was "taking care of me"

Not a pretty picture but if you look you can see my splints in my nose.

3 days after surgery. My nose was swolen and I looked HORRIBLE!!!

That was one of the splints in my nose. Yikes!

Kiddie Kandid Pictures!

2009-09-09T17:13:00.000-07:00

Well I am a little late in getting our family pictures done and Ellie's 2 year pictures and Adalyn's 4 year pictures but we finally got it done. So here are the pictures before they were cropped down in size. The girls are getting so big I can't believe it!

6 years going strong!

2009-09-02T16:25:00.001-07:00

So on August 16th Adam and I had our 6 year anniversary. Unfortunately he was in Florida for 10 days and I was at Beale. It the first time we have not spent our anniversary together. That was not very fun but Adam thought ahead a planned a fun night for us. He wouldn't tell me what we were doing but he got a babysitter for the girls and we ended up going to Roseville to the Olive Garden (my favorite) to eat and then we went and played miniature golf. Out of the almost 7 years we have known eachother we have never done that. It was definately a fun night and even better we didn't have the kids with us plus I whipped him at golf!!! So then we went and got ice cream before heading back home. I can't believe it's been 6 years but what a great 6 years! I love you honey!

A long drive to Oregon!

2009-09-02T16:00:00.000-07:00

So July 28th was the day me and the girls drove to Oregon all by ourselves. I was really nervous about getting there safely and about the 2 girls not screaming the whole way but we did it. It took 10 hours but we made it to Woodburn.I must say though about 2 hours into the drive I got my very first ticket!(not a fun way to start a vacation!!) Adalyn did not make a sound the entire trip there or back, Ellie on the other hand had a few rough moments. But I was prepared with the DVD players and candy and activity books to keep them happy. I just stopped everytime Ellie needed me to and gave her a break and she was fine. We made it to Oregon just in time for Chelsea(sister in-laws) baby shower. I really wanted to go to oregon because all of my siblings would be there except for Paula and her family so it was a lot of fun. Plus I got to see Cashel my nephew for the first time and man is he cute and so cuddly to hold. Of course while we were there Oregon was having record highs and it was over a hundred for about a week which was not fun but as you can see by the pictures the kids were naked or in swim suits a lot and we ate a lot of popsicles. We went to the beach one day to get away from the heat which was a lot of fun and one day we went to Enchanted Forest. It's a park in a forest for kids with fairy tales, nursery rhymes, and other things for the kids to go through and play on. It was really fun to take the kids somewhere we went as kids. It was a lot of fun to get away for a little bit and let the kids play with all there cousins. I loved being with my parents and all my brothers and sisters and there spouses hanging out. We were sad to leave but very happy to come home to daddy. Of course the last couple of days we were there it got cold and the we had to find jackets and pants to wear. Thanks Mom and Dad for having us all home!

unexpected news!

2009-08-25T15:31:00.000-07:00

So after the skate party I brought the girls home to get them to bed, and there was a message from President Johnson who is in our stake presidency asking if he could meet with us the next morning. So knowing that the 2nd councelor was AF and moving to Germany we kind of knew what was coming. So we went the next morning and sure enough Adam was asked to be the 2nd councelor to Bishop Arlie Capps. Which would also mean he would be ordained a high priest. Adam and I were both taken back a littel but felt very good about serving the Lord and know that our family will be blessed for it. So when we got home Adam called his parents and they said they would be here for his Dad to ordain him. It was so nice of them to come all the way from Kansas. The girls were so excited to see Grandma and Grandpa McKee. They flew in Sunday morning and left Tuesday morning. It was a quick but fun trip. We took them to Bridgeport and had a picnic and played in the water on Monday. Thank you for coming Grandma and Granpa McKee.

Skate Night!

2009-08-25T15:21:00.000-07:00

On July 24th we went to a skate party here on base that Adam helped ogranize. (he was asked by a captain to help) Anyways they had pizza and nachos and drinks, and they had skates you could use. The girls have never skated before but were excited to try. It was more like Adam and I holding them up while we pushed them around but they had a lot of fun. It was a fun family night out.

Adam's Birthday!!

2009-07-22T13:42:00.000-07:00

So this year Adam turned 28! For his birthday me and the girls surprised him at work and brought him lunch. We also made for him a poster candy graham with a bunch of candy on it. Then for dinner I made him one of his favorite dinners Lasagna with garlic bread, salad and lemonade. Then the girls helped him open his presents and we had cake. It was just a fun night together as a family.

2nd set of Swim Lessons

2009-07-21T14:09:00.000-07:00

The first and second week in July Adalyn did another swim class. We also decided to put Ellie in a swim class. It's a mommy and me class. So I had to get in the water with her which I didn't love that, but I like that Ellie loved being in the water. The class was a lot of singing while teaching the kids things like, floating on there backs, blowing bubbles, going under the water, jumping into the water and kicking. The last day of class both Adalyn and Ellie went down the slide by themselves. I was so excited for them! Adalyn has really gotten over her fears and I am so proud of her. Ellie loves the water and once even jumped in when I wasn't looking! She's Crazy!

Adam came one day and swam with us.

This was taken right after she went all the way under water.

They let the kids wear these suits going down the slide to make them feel more comfortable.

Ellie opening her gifts!

2009-07-21T13:33:00.000-07:00

So on her actual birthday since we went to Santa Cruz we didn't bring any of her gifts and we didn't do a cake. I was planning on doing it Saturday but since it was the 4th it was to busy. So she got a birthday weekend and we did it on Sunday. She was so excited to have a Dora cake and open her presents. Although as you can see it was Adalyn who opened most of them and then convinced Ellie to let her have them. Ellie loved all her presents.

4th July 2009

2009-07-21T11:07:00.000-07:00

For the 4th this year our base was having a free pool party with a free bbq. So we decided to go and do that since it was so hot and the kids could swim. Then we came home and the kids took a nap. After that we went to some friends house in Wheatland that are in our ward the Zarges family. It was so nice to go to friends house and let the kids play. There youngest Karlie is a little bit older then Ellie but they love to play together. Almost every sunday Karlie comes and sits with us and in nursery they are always playing. Ellie came out of nursery about a month ago saying "Karlie my best friend" It was so cute. Anyways so we had a bbq and the kids played and then when it got dark all there neighbors came outside and we all set off fireworks together. It was a really nice night.

At our bases pool.

This is the first time Ellie did sparklers. She loved it!

Adalyn loved driving there power wheels.

We changed Ellie into her pajamas before we left, she is so cute!

Happy Birthday Ellie!!

2009-07-19T22:48:00.000-07:00

I can't believe Ellie is 2 years old! Time flies by. She was very excited for her birthday and instead of having a birthday party we decided to take her somewhere fun. We have never been to Santa Cruz but thought it would be a lot of fun. Adam had Friday and Monday off for 4th of July so Thursday night we drove to Travis AFB which is in the middle of our drive to Santa Cruz. It is such a nice base I am so jealous of it. Anyways the girls loved staying somewhere new. On Friday we got up on Ellie's B-day and drove the rest of the way. There is a huge board walk there with tons of rides and yummy food. It's also right on the beach. The sand was so soft. The girls loved seeing everything and were so excited. We kept telling Ellie it was her birthday she was so excited. Both girls went on rides for the very first time. I was very suprised about that! After eating and walking up and down the board walk for a couple of hours we went to the beach where Ellie got right in the water and rolled around in the sand. By the end of the day we had worn out the birthday girl and she fell asleep in my arms while Adam and Adalyn made a sand castle. It was a great day and we had fun celebrating Ellie's b-day. A little bit about my sweet girl. She makes my heart melt with her big eyes and cute smile! She is very independent and loves to say, "I do it my self" She is also a lot more adventerous than Adalyn. I call her my jumping bean because she jumps on everything, the floor, couch, all our beds, she loves to jump everywhere. We love her so much and are so happy we are blessed to have her in our family.

2009-07-19T18:34:00.000-07:00

I am finally getting caught up, I posted 9 new entries so scroll down a ways to see them all.

Slip-N-Slide

2009-07-19T18:12:00.000-07:00

On June 27th it was really, really hot so I decided it would be a great day to get out our new slip-n-slide and little pool. I didn't know what the girls would think about it but they loved it! We had a really nice family night. The movie with Ellie is so funny, She wanted to do it,"all myself" so she army crawled down the slide. It was hard work!

A camping adventure!

2009-07-16T14:52:00.000-07:00

So Adam and I have never been camping together. Which means we have never taken the kids camping. This year Adam talked with his cousin Bam who decided to bring his wife and two kids to Lake Tahoe to camp so Adam said we would join them. Of course I was a little nervous about camping with the kids but they were VERY excited! So we left Friday afternoon and met them and set up camp, us wifes started the fire, the boys were very impressed. It was just a fun weekend. We biked with the kids and went to the beach, the kids played and climbed on rocks and loved being dirty. At night it was really cold but we piled on the blankets and were okay. We loved spending time with family and the kids played great together. Ellie still asks about Kohen and baby Kate.
June 19, 2009

First Swim Lessons

2009-07-15T12:47:00.000-07:00

I decided since Adalyn is so afaid to get in the big pool that this summer would be a good opportunity to put her in swim lessons. I thought for sure she wouldn't get in but her friend Shyanne was there with her and I told her is she did what her teacher said she could have fun dip! So she got right in and did everything her teacher asked. It was a 2 weeks class and she learned how to get in the water, kick, blow bubbles, back float and learned how to climb out of the pool using the ladder. She loved it! I am so proud of her for being willing to try something new. She has really started to grow up and isn't as afraid to do things any more. I love it!

Las Vegas!!

2009-07-14T17:27:00.000-07:00

We decided to take a family trip to Las Vegas. Adam hasn't been back with us since we left Utah May 2006. We decided to drive, it took about 11 hours to get there. The girls did really well watching movies and hanging but man what a horrible drive. You are in the middle of the desert for hours with nowhere to stop! That was no fun, but we arived in Las Vegas on June 3rd. We stayed with my sister Jackie because she has kids my kids age and she had an extra guest room. My sister Paula lives about 5 minutes away. The girls loved going to her house to see there dog, jump on there trampoline and swing on there swing set. We went to Vegas mainly to see family but also because my neice Kayla was graduating from High School. Although I realized I didn't get any pictures of her. Dang it! Anyways my parents were there and my uncle marvin who Ellie kept calling grandpa which was so cute and he loved. She also called my dad grandpa though(she thinks every old man is Grandpa) Also my brothers wife chelsea and there little girl Hannah came. It was so fun we went shopping, swimming everyday in Jackie and Mike's awesome pool, and just let the kids play and have fun. Adam went one day sandrailing and 4 wheeling with Mike and another day they took his boat out. Of course Adam loved that. Adam had to fly back to go back tgo work on Monday but we stayed until Thursday and my mom was nice enough to drive back with me, thankgoodness i couldn't have done it without her. It was a really good trip, I love being around my family and leting the girls get to know everyone better. Thank you Paula and Jackie for letting us come and stay!!

Fairytale Town!

2009-07-14T16:14:00.000-07:00

On May 26th I took the girls with a friend from church Kerrie Corbridge and her daughter Ellie to a place called Fairytale Town. It's in Sacramento and it a fun park that the kids can play and climb on and interact with a lot of fairytale's and nursery rhymes. It was the perfect day to go, not to busy and not to hot. It's a lot like Enchanted Forrest in Oregon.

Random!!

2009-07-14T15:49:00.000-07:00

I had some random and funny pictures of the kids. One is of Ellie when she was so tired she fell asleep on the couch(that never happens!) And she was sleeping with her eyes a little open. I thougt it was funny. Also The girls helped us make cookies and they are obsessed with eating cookie dough, cake batter or brownie batter. I wonder where they got that from?? Of course Adam is always yelling at us girls to stop eating that stuff because we'll get salmonilla but I'm 25 and have never gotten sick from eating it! The other pictures are when I thought I would try something new with Ellie's hair but it didn't really work out, poor girl her hair just isn't that thick!

A fun trip with family!

2009-07-14T13:39:00.000-07:00

Around the middle of May Adam's sister Chelese and her husband Greg and there little boy Cole came to our area for a couple of weeks and we got to stay with them for a night at the Marriot in Lake Tahoe. It was fun such a nice day at the lake and the kids loved to play in the sand. Then the next weekend they came to our house. We gave them a tour of our base and took them to a place about 25 mintutes called Bridge Port. We had never been there before but it was really cool. It was a covered bridge built in 1862, at 251 feet, it is the longest single span covered bridge in the United States. There is a river that runs under it that you can float down and has sand banks so the kids thought it was a lot of fun. We can't wait to go back and hike and play in the river.

Last day of pre-school!!

2009-07-14T13:15:00.000-07:00

So I am really behind in updating my blog, but the end of May we had our last pre-school class for Adalyn. We decided to have a pool party since it was hot and play a bunch of games. The kids popped ballons while sitting on a sprinkler,and did relay races. They had cookies and made homemade ice-cream. They played with water balloons, and we made huge bubbles around the girls. Pre-school with the kids was a lot of fun. Every Friday we would get together at my friends Carrie or Alisa's house and have a lesson. It really helped Adalyn learn how to identify letter's better and numbers. It was a lot of fun.

Adalyn finished Gymnastics!

2009-07-14T13:07:00.000-07:00

So for about 9 months Adalyn took gymnastics class here on base, but it ended the end of May. It was not the greatest class but it was a good deal, close and Adalyn loved it! She learned some fun things.

Start Smart T-Ball

2009-05-27T22:17:00.000-07:00

Adalyn was excited to participate in Start Smart again. She loved learning all about T-ball. It's a fun 2 week one hour a day little program for kids 3-4 yrs old. They got to learn how to hit the ball correctly, catch with a glove, and throw the ball. They also had to teach the kids which bases were 1st, 2nd and 3rd. That took awhile to figure out and I think Adalyn is still a little confused. It was funny to see the kids running all over the place. And of course Ellie thought she was part of the class as well and ran and hit and did everything she could with all the kids. Adalyn's friend Shyanne was also there which the girls loved!

YEAH!! I can finally pull Ellie's hair into a tiny pony tail!

"Hannah Atana"

2009-05-27T14:27:00.000-07:00

I can't believe my 1 year old know's the lyrics to Hannah Montana songs. Now I must say she knows the words because her big sister walks around the house all day singing them and so Ellie has learned the words. Any time they hear Hannah Montana or Miley Cyrus Music they both scream "Hannah Atana" Even on the radio they know when it's her. It's makes me laugh hearing them sing so here is a sample of some songs, you'll have to turn up your volume because Ellie sometimes sings very quietly.

Chemical Free Home!

2009-05-07T16:06:00.001-07:00

So about a month ago I got my hair cut and was telling the girl who cuts my hair how unhealthy I thought my hair was. She told me to buy a salon product because it really did make a difference. I asked her what's the difference between store and salon products, she said salon products don't use harsh chemicals like alcohol that make your hair brittle and break easily. So I went home thinking I'll do a little research before I buy. A long story short after about a week of constantly on the computer researching chemicals in different products I was determined to find not only hair products but all soaps, toothpastes, sunscreen, lotions, baby soap, anything for your body to not have so many chemicals, but to be natural. Also to find all household cleaning products that would contain no harsh chemicals like bleach, ammonia and other things that can really hurt you and your children. If you look on almost all shampoos, conditioners you will find a long list of chemicals things you can't know what they really are. Actually pretty much any thing you use for your body is that way. There were a few chemicals I saw the most of, one of them being sodium laureth sulfate, and others were alcohol. After researching it is very toxic to your eyes and can cause permanent damage, also it is harmful to your digestive system and toxic to not only to your liver but other organs. I could go on and on about the stuff we put on or use to clean with everyday. The thing that bothers me the most is that I use this stuff with my kids. I was looking for real natural good products.
If any of you have ever been to Rexburg Idaho you have heard of Melaleuca. It's a company that is really big there. Anyways there products use oils like tea tree oil to make tons of products anything you can think of that are all natural. The thing I like most is that yes it is a little bit more expensive but almost all of there products come in concentrated form and you add the water, so it lasts a really long time. I bought laundry detergent it has no chlorine and no phosphates. All of there cleaning products would not harm your child if they got into it. The most it would do is give them diarrhea. Anyways I also got the laundry cleaner and all there household cleaners. They were better then any cleaner I have ever used and I know they are not leaving behind harmful chemicals that get into our food, clothes, and skin.
Now for soaps, lotions, deodorants, and baby products I have found a lot of products online but wanted something more affordable and easier to access. Burt's Bees products are completely natural are ph balanced, sodium lauryl sulfate free, paraban free, and phalate free. A lot of companies out there claim to be all natural but when you read the label it has the same ingredients as all the other products. On Burt's bee's it tells you the ingredients and then what it means for example it will say coco betaine (coconut oil) so you know what it is. I love it, no chemicals. You can buy Burt’s bees at Wal-Mart and target and is only a little bit more expensive and they have a complete men's line. For myself and kids I love knowing there are no chemicals.
This is just the stuff I found and think that it is better than the products I was using before. If you know of any good, chemical free products please let me know, my goal is to have NO harsh chemicals in any thing in our house! We'll see if we ever get there!

Beale Air Show

2009-05-07T15:29:00.000-07:00

On April 18th Beale put on an Air Show. It was a really hot day and a lot of people showed up. It's nice because everything is free except for food, so it's a fun, free family activity. Of course Adalyn was terrified of the planes for the first couple of hours. Especially when the jets would fly by really close it was really loud and she would scream and cry. She hates stuff like that but she did like the ice cream and eventually she didn't mind all the planes. The girls even got to sit in some planes and helicopters. We took shade where ever we could which was usually under the wing of a plane. In one of the pictures you can see after a hot and long day of walking Ellie finally fell asleep. She wanted to ride on my back and two seconds later she was asleep. I couldn't believe she could fall asleep like that or so quickly, it was really funny. Thankfully it was towards the end of the air show so we just sat under the plane and let her sleep.

Happy Easter!

2009-04-23T20:37:00.000-07:00

No we didn't adopt a baby that's our friends little girl, they were painting eggs with us.

We had such a fun easter. This year Adalyn was really into Easter. Both the girls loved the easter egg hunt that the base put on. You can see in the video that Ellie was at first more interested in watching the other kids and was a little unsure about picking up the eggs. But after a couple of minutes she finally started picking up eggs and was excited she even won a free basket and Adalyn won 2 pez candies. Then we came home a colored eggs. On sunday we have early church so after church they got there baskets and we hid real eggs. It was just a fun weekend for our family.

A Visit from Family!

2009-04-23T18:58:00.000-07:00

We were so lucky to have my Mom and brother Jay and his wife Chelsea and Hannah there 2 year old come visit over general conference weekend. We decided to buy there 2003 toyota highlander and they bought our 2000 honda accord. So they drove down so we could switch cars. Adam is very excited to have a new car and one that has a tow package.(thanks Jay and Chelsea) We had the best weekend, it was really warm the entire time they were here so the kids wanted to be outside all day. My girls love playing with Hannah and they get along so well. It is always so nice to have family around, I wish we lived closer. I didn't want the trip to be over. The girls love being spoiled by Grandma, Adalyn asks me everyday if we are going on an airplane to see her. So here are some pics of our fun time together.

Our new car! We are officially a Toyota Family. We love our Sienna and Highlander.

Grandma Jones and the girls.

One night Chelsea painted all the girls finger and toe nails. They loved it!

This is where they ate while they were here.

This is how Adalyn kept posing for pictures! She is so funny!

the girls found the blow up air mattress and this is how we found them! Sneaky!

Enjoying being outside.

Ellie just kept loving on my mom and wouldn't stop hugging and kissing her. It was so cute.

Adalyn decided to have a picnic outside with Hannah, so they got food and plates and ate outside. They had so much fun.

Adalyn over the past 4 years!

2009-04-23T18:09:00.000-07:00

Over the past 4 years we have literaly taken at least a thousand pictures of Adalyn. We have so many but here are just a few of her. Looking at all these pictures makes me remember what it was like having her and what a joy she has been in our lives. Since coming into our family our lives have not been the same. She made me a mom, I have learned so much from her. How to be more patient, loving, caring and how to just have fun. Adalyn has always been a little stubborn and likes to learn and do things at her own pace. I delivered her almost 3 weeks early, she was ready to come. She weighed 7 lbs. 10 oz and was 19 in. long. She of course had so much hair nobody could believe she was really ours. She didn't learn to crawl until 2 days before her 1st birthday and didn't walk until 15 months. She just wasn't interested in moving. At age 1 she had an MRI on her brain because her head from birth was always above the 100%. So with her delays the doctor thought something was wrong. Thankfully the doctor told us she just has a BIG head,(have you ever seen her dad! :) She also had a dairy and peanut allergy which made eating very interesting and hard, she thankfully out grew that after her 2nd birthday. It hasn't always been easy, we've learned a lot and experienced a lot with her but it has all been worth it. Adalyn is very kind, caring, funny, she loves everything princess, girlie, purple, gymnastics and to play with her friends. She loves to help in the kitchen and sometimes she even loves to play with Ellie! She is a little OCD. She is also a pack rat and everyday has to have her "special things" it changes weekly that she carries around with her. We love her so much.

Adalyn's New Bedroom!

2009-04-15T10:21:00.000-07:00

Well a couple of months ago our base was selling furniture from hotels and things here on base. It was all priced really cheap like dresser's for $10 and nightstands for $5. So we decided this would be a cheap way to get some new stuff. So we bought a bunch of things, but it drives me crazy having miss-match furniture in all our rooms. So we decided that we should paint Adalyn's furniture to make it all look a little more put together. So once I did that than I thought why not get a bedspread and make it all look good. So after 2 weeks of painting and then a bunch of trips to Michaels and the Dollar Tree to pick up stuff and a lot of painting and trying to be crafty I finally finished! So here is the finished product. Adalyn loves her new room. And thanks to my Mom and Chelsea who came to visit and helped me too.

Adalyn's 4th Birthday!!!

2009-04-13T20:24:00.001-07:00

Wow I can't even believe 4 years has gone by since Adalyn came into our family. I really can't remember my life before her! I wanted to first tell about her birthday party and then I put together some pictures of her from the beginning to now.
So first off Adalyn could not wait for it to be her birthday that is why I started the birthday countdown. Whenever she would ask me "is it my birthday yet?" Which she did everyday for a month I would tell her, "go look at your countdown, is there still paper?" It really did help her understand a little bit better about waiting.

Anyway, she told us she wanted a princess party with her friends so I invited over some kids from our ward she likes to play with and they painted, played some games, hit a piñata, had cake and ice-cream and then she opened her presents! She enjoyed having the spotlight on her and kept reminding the kids that it was HER birthday! It was a fun party and she loved all her gifts, she got moon sand, play-doh, a dress, crayola magic markers and paper and her favorite from her friend Ellie was a purple my little pony with a DVD and a book called Purplelicious! It is the cutest book. For those of you who don't know Adalyn is obsessed with purple. Everything has to be purple, she only wants to color with purple have purple shirts and pajamas, EVERYTHING!! It's been going on for almost 2 years now.
We gave her for her birthday a T-ball set which she loves and can hit the ball really far she is definitely athletic (YEAH!!) and a hand held v-tech v-smile pocket and game, and our big gift to her was her Barbie bike! We figured she should be learning how to ride a real bike with the help of training wheels. She was so excited. She got a few other things as well.

Now that she is 4 she is learning so much and can understand so much more it is a really fun time for us and her. She can play games and is learning to write more, she can write the letter "A" and "D" and "i" the number "1" and "2" and draw a balloon, a person which is hilarious and hearts and circles. She started sunbeams in January and every Sunday we listen to the new primary songs they’re learning. It amazed me this past Sunday she could sing every song on the CD. She is so smart and has and incredible memory!
We also had a talk with her about now that she is 4 she needs to be our big girl and be a good big sister. Also that she needs to have some responsibilities which will be pulling up her covers on her bed, learning to buckle herself in the car and learning how to go the bathroom all by herself without my help.(she needs to know that for pre-school) If she does these things than we started with her a "Coin Jar" which is every time she does something nice, plays well with Ellie or just does what is asked without whining than she gets a coin(a nickel) and if she is bad than she gets one taken away. My sister Jackie gave me this idea; it's an instant gratification or punishment which she needs. She knows that every week if she has enough coins then she can take them to the store and buy what she wants. So far it has worked really well. If we tell her we're taking a coin she stops what she is doing. It's awesome.

Sacramento Zoo!

2009-04-13T20:00:00.000-07:00

So the day before Adalyn's birthday I decided to take the girls to the zoo. In march it was half price, so it was a good time to go. The weather was in the 70's and it was just a beautiful day. We went with our friends from our ward Carrie and her daughter Ellie. The girls loved seeing all the animals which we were lucky they were all out so we could see them. It was fun to see Ellie experience seeing these wild animals up close. They all loved it. I would say there favorite animal was these little monkeys that swung all over the place and made a really loud sound. We got to ride there very little train as well.

Make-Up

2009-03-24T07:57:00.000-07:00

My sister Kristy's little girl Asia had Adalyn's name for christmas this year. She gave Adalyn a make-up kit. It was really cute and Adalyn was so excited to have make-up. I keep it up in her closet so she can only use it when I can supervise her. So Adalyn and especially Ellie is always bugging me to get it down. They love to cake it on there faces. So here are some pictures of them. Also I added a video of Ellie and had her say some words. I love the way she talks!

Reading scriptures as a family!

2009-03-22T22:04:00.000-07:00

Every night after dinner we read our scriptures and my sister Jackie about a year ago gave me a great idea to let Adalyn read also. So we say a word or two and she repeats it until she has read a verse or two. Well a couple of weeks ago Ellie wanted to start reading, she does really well with most of the words. It just make me laugh to hear her say these big words, she loves to do it and makes sure she gets a turn. Not only that but I have noticed that she says a lot more words and started putting 2 and 3 words together, I think it has helped her speech a lot.(you'll notice when she sees I'm video taping her she stops reading and is messing around!)

2009-03-22T18:23:00.000-07:00

So I just figured out how to post video's,(I know it's taken me awhile) Anyways I am going back through some of my blogs and adding pics and will also just post a bunch of random video's from the past 6 months!

Camping in our house?

2009-03-22T15:16:00.000-07:00

So I'm a little behind but I'm trying to catch up on my blogging. So the first Friday in February Adam decided that he wanted to camp with the girls. It was a little cold outside so he thought why not camp in the house! So we got pizza and pop, and had a fun dinner eating on the couches why we rented and watched a movie. Then we had dessert and Adam and the girls set up there tent. It's a little two man tent that we had. It was such a fun night and the girls loved setting everything up. Adam didn't want to sleep on our hard wood floors so he blew up an air mattress and put it under the tent. Then they got there sleeping bags and flash lights and had fun getting settled in. Of course 2 minutes after I went upstairs Adam called for me to come get Ellie who wanted to just play and not go to sleep. So she slept with me which she thought was so fun! It was just one of those nights that we were really able to enjoy one another and create a good memory for our kids!

Start Smart Basketball!

2009-03-16T16:08:00.000-07:00

Adalyn the beginning of February was able to go to start smart basketball camp. It's a program here on base they also do other sports through out the year, T-ball, golf, soccer and b-ball. You have to be 3 so this was Adalyn's first time doing it. It was 2 weeks long. They got a shirt and a really cool basketball. Basically 3 times a week for an hour we went and she learned how to dribble, shoot the ball, bounce pass and chest pass. They also worked on running correctly and a few other drills and games. It was a lot of fun. She loved learning and but hated me to correct her or try to teach her. She kept telling me "Mom, I can do it myself!" She can be very independent when she wants to be. My favorite sport to play is basketball so I hope that it is something she can enjoy as well. She did really well for her age.

Megan's Birthday/Valentine's Day!

2009-02-24T15:54:00.000-08:00

So I just turned 25 which I cannot believe I am actually 25 years old! I still feel like I'm 19(although when I look in the mirror I am reminded that after 2 kids I don't have my 19 yr. old body!) So Adam was so wonderful we got a baby sitter which we never do and we went to the golf course here on base and hit a bucket of balls and pitched and putted. It was so fun especially because I pitch/put better then him. Then he took me out to BJ'S. It was our first time there and we loved it. It was just a fun date. It's always nice to go out just the two of us. Adalyn was so funny she kept asking "is it my birthday?" I had to keep reminding her that her birthday isn't until march. She was so excited to help Adam make my cake and help me blow out the candles!

For Valentine's Day we got a babysitter and went with 2 other couples down to Roseville to a restaurant called Lucille's. It's a bbq place which I hate bbq but I knew Adam would love it. We really enjoyed going out with friends and enjoying a good meal. Even I loved what I got, fried chicken, mashed potatoes and fries. They had the best biscuits with apple butter, and at the end of your meal they give you a warm towel to clean off with. It was a great Valentines Day! We forgot to take any pictures though.

Officially a BIG Girl!!

2009-02-24T15:33:00.000-08:00

So when we were in Oregon over Christmas break Ellie got into the bad habbit of only falling asleep with me rocking her or laying with her. She just didn't like sleeping somewhere new and so we dealt with it. Well when we got back home it was the same thing. She wanted me to rock her to sleep or worse lay in our bed with me until she fell asleep. Then it became that she also refused to get into her crib. So she started sleeping with us. Which I said I would NEVER let a child do! Needless to say it has been a challenge. So in mid January I told Adam she obviously doesn't want to be in her crib so lets set up the toddler bed. She loves it and will atleast stay in it. But unfortunately we haven't broken the habbit of me rocking her to sleep. Hopefully we can fix that soon. But for now she thinks she is such a big girl for sleeping in a toddler bed.

Riding Bikes!

2009-02-24T15:25:00.000-08:00

As soon as we got back from Oregon it started getting really warm here. It was so weird that is was early January and 65 degrees outside. So the girls really enjoyed riding there bikes and scooters. They are getting so big I can't believe it!

Potty Training!! Yikes!

2009-02-05T11:11:00.000-08:00

So on Jan. 7th Ellie kept telling me that she needed to go "pee pee" I didn't want to put her on the potty thinking she would just play around but I put her on anyways not thinking she wouldn't do anything and she totally pooped!! We were so excited. Now everyday she tells me when she wants to go "pee pee" or "poo poo" I can't believe she is trying to potty train herself. She does like to tell me now all the time that she has to go and a lot of time she doesn't really have to. But most days she does really well. We are just letting her have fun right now, not really trying to make her go if she doesn't want to. We'll see maybe she could be out of diapers by her 2nd birthday! That would be wonderful!!

Happy New Year's!!

2009-02-05T10:43:00.000-08:00

So for the rest of our vacation my mom took all the kids and mom's to McDonald's for lunch.(thanks Mom!) The kids loved to run around and play and after that we went swimming at Woodburn's Aquatic center. The boys met us there to take the kids in the water. They all loved swimming and it was the first time Adalyn didn't hesitate to get into the water. Ellie is always ready to jump in. We even got Ellie to go down a big slide with Adam and she kept crying to go again and again. Of course after that Adalyn wanted to go. They had so much fun. On New Year's Eve we made lot's of food and yummy treats and played games waiting for midnight. It was a really fun night just hanging out with my whole family. We loved being home and spending time with everyone and the kids loved running around playing with and getting to know there cousins. We left on the 1st to start driving back home. It only took us 8 1/2 hours and the kids slept for most of it! It was a wonderful trip.

Christmas 2008!!

2009-01-30T15:10:00.000-08:00

So it is now the end of January and I am just now getting to updating my blog! I have thought about doing it everynight but I have been lazy! Sorry this is going to be long! A lot happened over christmas vacation and I wanted to write everything down so that we don't forget this wonderful Christmas! This year was by far one my most favorite Christmases! Adalyn is getting older and new all about Santa and that he would bring her a present if she had been a good girl (which was nice because I could threaten her that she better be nice to get her presents!! :)) For about a month she had been telling us that she wanted Santa to bring her a barbie guitar. So at our ward christmas party that is what she told him she wanted!(she got it too, Santa couldn't say no to her!) The girls loved getting out all the lights and tree and hanging ornaments. Everything about Christmas this year was so exciting for them and for Adam and I to be able to teach our girls all the fun traditions but also teach them the real reason we celebrate Christmas.
So on Dec. 17 Adalyn, Ellie, and Megan flew into Portland to spend a couple extra days with family. We're lucky we were able to fly in it snowed so hard for a couple of days! It's not like woodburn to get a lot of snow so it was fun but a little crazy. This was the first time Adalyn wasn't affraid to touch the snow and Ellie isn't affraid of very much so they loved it. My brother Ross and Lindsay and there boy Braden flew in the same night. Jay and Chelsea and Hannah live down the street from my parents, and Kristy and Will and there 5 girls live in Vancouver Washington about 45 min. away. It was the firt time I had seen Roxelle and she is Beautiful and such a good baby. My girls absolutely loved playing with all there cousins but they really loved baby Roxelle and thought they were the only ones that could hold her. Adalyn asked me a series of question like "do you have a baby roxelle in your tummy?" I said "No" Adalyn asked "Can we go to the hospital and get one?" And we have had a converstation like that almost everyday since. She is so funny. Anyway we did lots of shopping and played and then Adam drove in on the 23rd. The girls and mommy had missed him! We made lots of food and played games everynight, watched lots of movies and just let the kids play all day. It was wonderful! On Christmas morning it was just Jay, Ross there families and our family with my parents and later in the day Kristy and Will came down. It was such a fun Christmas morning. The girls loved everything they got and so did Adam and I. We got lots of good stuff. Late christmas night Jackie and her family flew in. A couple of days later Paula and 2 of her kids Haylee and Alexa came. There whole family was going to come but because of the snow there flights kept getting cancelled and so last minute the 3 of them decided to still come. It was so fun having us all at home. There were a lot of people. 13 adults(2 of them pregnant) and 13 grandaughters and 2 grandsons. It was a full house. We love being able to spend the holidays or anytime with family.

My "Stylin" Girls

2008-12-14T22:33:00.000-08:00

So Adalyn keeps telling me "I'm stylin mom!" I say yes you are Adalyn. I don't know where she heard to say that phrase but now she is always aking me if she's "stylin." It makes me laugh so I thought I would post some recent pictures of the girls looking "stylin"

Thanksgiving in Kansas!!

2008-12-14T22:10:00.000-08:00

This Thanksgiving we felt very blessed to go and visit Adam's family in Kansas. It was a wonderful trip. We got to stay with Bryan and Holly a couple of days(adam's brother and sister-in-law) and there 3 kids Cody, Cammy and Grace. Our kids played so well together, it was fun seeing the girls get to know all there cousins. Then we stayed a couple of days with Adam's parents. We are so grateful to have such wonderful family and to be able to spend time with one another. We were also able to be at the blessing of Cam and Christy's new baby girl, Olivia. Both of the girls were so excited to travel and see family (especially grandma and grandpa) and it snowed!

Grace, Cammy and Cody had Adalyn and Ellie for Christmas and they gave the girls a doctor kit amd the little people Nativity. They were so excited to get presents and they LOVED playing with Cammy and Grace. Thanks Byan and Holly for letting us stay with you and for our awesome presents!

Some of the cousins, Grace, Jordynn, Keira, Ellie, and Cammy. The girls loved playing with there cousins!

Grandpa and Grandma McKee with Adalyn and Ellie 11/28/08

Great Grandma McKee, Uncle Paul and Aunt Sharon and Aunt Tinker with the McKee Family.

James and Rebecca VonGunten with there 2 kids Kaitlyn and Dillon. They are great friends from college and just moved to Kansas City. It was so fun seeing them.

Grandma!!!!

2008-12-11T22:19:00.000-08:00

We love when we have family come visit but we especially love when it's Grandma Jones!!! I know I have the best Mom! We had such a great time and the girls were so excited to see her. Even Ellie warmed right up to her right away. Of course she had presents for the girls and Addy was so excited she got the new barbie movie "A Christmas Carol" She came on Nov. 11th and Adam had the day off so we did some shopping and then the next day we just hung out went around base and my mom got to go to Adalyn's gymnastics class which of course Addy was so happy about. The girls just were so happy to have somebody else to play with besides me. It was a nice break. It happened to be very warm while she was here and so the girls always wanted to be outside and Grandma never said no. She would pull them around the block in our wagon or let Adalyn ride her bike. She also taught Adalyn how to climb our two little jungle gyms and Adalyn was very proud of herself. And of course Grandma couldn't leave until we all had boots, so we went to Target and the girls got to pick out boots which they now want to wear every where we go. I love mine too! It was just a wonderful 5 days. Thanks Mom for coming and spending time with us. We love you!!

Energetic Ellie!!

2008-12-11T21:59:00.000-08:00

So here are some pictures our cute little Ellie the night before her accident. She loves to sit in the cupboards and say "hide" She closes the cupboard to hide and waits for one of us to find her! She is so full of energy and just fun! Then the next day around 4:30 p.m. we were waiting for Adam to get off work a little early it was Friday Nov. 7 and I was upstairs playing with the girls in Adalyn's room. Ellie loves to climb on Adalyn's bed and play even though we are always telling her to get down because she runs and jumps on the bed and there is a wood head and foot board she could hit. Anyways I was helping her get down and holding one of her hands while she was jumping and being crazy. All of a sudden she tripped on Adalyn's blankets and like in slow motion I could see her falling toward the end of the bed and would hit the edge of the wood but I couldn't move fast enough to stop it from happening. So when she hit and looked up at me literally her mouth was filled with blood and she was screaming. I had never seen so much blood come from one of my kids. I cupped my hand under her mouth as blood poured out all over the floor and ran and grabbed a towel and called Adam asking him to quickly come home. Thankfully he did and the bleeeding stop but she completely bit threw her bottom lip and it was huge and swollen for about a week. Poor girl!

Halloween!!!

2008-11-09T22:00:00.000-08:00

We had a great Halloween this year. We went to our wards trunk or treat on Saturday the 25th. Adalyn decided she wanted to be Barbie as the Island Princess and Ellie was a beautiful butterfly. I loved both of there costumes. Both of the girls loved dressing up and seeing everyone elses costumes and getting candy. On Halloween day we went to a little parade here on base where kids and parents walked to different building trick or treating and that was a lot of fun and then that night Adam and I took them around our neighoborhood. It was not to cold out as you can see in the pictures Adam is wearing shorts it was 80 degrees which was nice. Also there is a picture of Adam wearing a mask, during the week of Halloween the base was doing what they call an "excercises." Where basically they simulate different emergencies and attacks. This time they acted as though they were in a deployed environment out at the flightline. They practiced chemical attacks and so he would have to put on these special clothes and mask and get under the table. It made me laugh to think of him hiding under the table but everyone had to do it. Anyways the girls thought it was funny that he had the mask on.
Oh yeah also the orange shirts the girls are wearing with the pumpkin face is something we did at her pre-school. I thougth it was such a clever idea. We took white shirts and tie-died them orange but made an orange circle in the middle to paint a pumpkin. The girls loved making them.

Bishop's Pumpkin Farm!

2008-11-07T14:40:00.000-08:00

So the last couple of years we have gone to Wheatland the closest town to us about 10minutes away and gone to Bishop's Pumpkin Farm. It is a huge farm that has a ton of things to do. A petting zoo, a train, slides, pig racing, trains to play on and tons of really yummy food! We always have a good time when we go and at the end of it we get to go on a tractor pulled hay ride and go to the pumpkin patch and pick our pumpkins. Both of the girls loved it all and it was a great family day. We went on Columbus day, Monday October 13th. The military gets that day off which is really nice.

Broken Teeth!

2008-11-06T14:07:00.000-08:00

This picture was taken a couple of days later. It looked a lot better then when it first happened!

Well on October 18th it was stake conference weekend and I had decided to do some deep cleaning before we left for the Saturday adult session. I was upstairs cleaning and had just finished mopping the down stairs. I could hear Adalyn running around and singing and then a big "BANG" and a scream. I new she had fallen so I came running downstairs and Adam had already picked her up. She was bleeding on her bottom lip and I was asking Adam what happened. He said she was running through the kitchen and slipped on the floor and pretty much face planted it. Her bottom lip was swollen and bloody but I thought a popsicle would make her feel better. She still kept crying and I decided she was probably tired, so I calmed her down and put her down for a nap. A couple hours later Adam had left early for the Stake center and Adalyn woke up. She was still really crying and upset. I was trying to get ready to go and she finally said to me "this hurts" and pointed to her top teeth. I pulled back her top lip and could immediately see something was wrong. Her gums were dark purple and bleeding right above her top big middle tooth and the tooth right next to it. I gently touched her teeth and they were very loose! I freaked out thinking she had gone a couple of hours with her teeth probably hurting so badly and telling her to just go to bed. Plus Adam was already gone, so I called her dentist there was an on call dentist who said he wanted to see her. After getting a hold of Adam we met at the dentist office who took x-rays and told us that she had fractured both teeth at the root tips and would probably need both teeth pulled by an oral surgeon who would sedate her to do it. It was been a few weeks and she hasn't lost her teeth yet. They are still loose and there has been no infection yet. The dentist said they will probably turn dark (die) and then need to be pulled but that could take a month to happen or a year. So now we are just waiting so see what will happen and hoping that she is able to keep her teeth since her adult teeth won't come in for another 3-4 years! I would hate for her to have a big toothless smile!

Pre-School!!

2008-11-06T13:26:00.000-08:00

So I wanted Adalyn to start pre-school this year but the one here on base was full, so some ladies in my ward decided that we should just do our own. Every Friday we meet at Carrie Grummert's house. Her two boys do it Scott and Porter, Adalyn and Ellie Corbridge another little girl in our ward. Adalyn loves going each week and us 3 moms take turn teaching the lesson. We usually sing, teach a new letter and number and do crafts with a snack. It is a lot of fun and Adalyn is learning a lot. For October they made pumpkin bats and spiders. They thought it was so fun to be able to paint.

Random Pictures!

2008-10-27T21:40:00.000-07:00

Here are some random pictures of the girls taken over the past month or so.

Adalyn loves to wear headbands and thinks this is how they go, and of course Ellie wants to do everything like her big sister! September 24, 2008

Ellie is obsessed with going through my kitchen and pulling everything out of the drawers and cupboards and this is how I found her sitting! She keeps us entertained! October 3, 2008

Sweet Ellie!

2008-10-01T15:43:00.001-07:00

Our little baby is getting so big! She is now 15 months old and is changing everyday! She can be so cuddly and loving and fun to play with and a second later be attacking you! That's our Ellie! No really she is a wonderful baby. She loves her mommy and doesn't like to leave myside. She loves to torment Adalyn by standing in front of the T.V. or turning it off and on while Adalyn is watching it.(all with a little smile on her face) She also like to pull her hair, bite and scratch her. She loves to play with Adalyn and follow her around and she can be so sweet but sometimes very mean. Adalyn almost never hurts her back which I love but Adam tell her don't let Ellie hurt you. Adalyn usually yells for me to "come get her mom!!" Or tells me "Ellie needs a time out!" They like to keep me busy. Ellie loves to run, be outside, color(especially on the walls and floors!) and be read to. She can say- "Oww" for ouch, "mama," "dada," "addy," "mo"(more),"Ha"(hot) "I want dat," "Hi" "Heew"(Here)"nana"(banana) and a few other little things. She loves to wave bye bye, sing songs, and play hide and seek with Adalyn. She is such a blessing in our lives and we are so grateful to have both our wonderful girls!

A Visit from Family!!

2008-10-01T15:13:00.000-07:00

It is about time that Jay, Chelsea and Hannah come to visit! It was so nice that they were able to drive here for a long weekend. Adam and I purchased an '08 Toyota Sienna and we asked them if they would drive it to us and then fly home. They said yes and so we got to have a fun weekend. The girls loved having Hannah here to play with and they especially loved that Uncle Jay took them outside as much as they wanted! Ellie still wakes up and wants me to put her shoes on to go outside first thing in the morning!(thanks Jay!:)) We really did enjoy having them here and hope that one day we can live close eachother! We love you guys! Oh and Adalyn loves her new "Van Car" It has so much more space and more than just our family can fit in it. We feel so blessed to have it. Here are pictures or there trip and a few recent photos of the girls

YEAH for Gymnastics!!!

2008-09-21T21:44:00.000-07:00

Well since Adalyn didn't get into Pre-school this year we decided she needed to get involved in something. She is very excited to be learning about gymnastics! She loves the outfits I bought her the most! We go every Mon. and Wed. here on base for 30 min. She loves having something of her own to do and I love watching her learn new stuff. She is very good at it and will do anything the teacher asks of her. So far they have gone over forward roll, cartwheels, exercises on the long Trampoline, The bars, the beam and a backwards flip! She's only been in the class for 3 weeks but they've done so much! Oh yes and I can't leave out Ellie who every class tries to go and do what the class is doing and is very persistant but has to wait until she's alittle bit older! She loves playing on the matts though!

Lake Tahoe

2008-09-06T21:05:00.000-07:00

So for Labor Day Weekend Adam's parents Mike and Nadine came into town. On Friday Adam took them to the Sacramento Temple. On Saturday we all went to North Lake Tahoe to King's Beach. It's 2 hours away, it was really hot at Beale over 100 degrees but in Tahoe it was a nice 85 degrees. We looked around the cute town and then went on the beach. The girls loved the sand and Ellie also loved the water. Adalyn was very afraid of the water. (she's afraid of everything!) It is so Beautiful there. It was really nice to have Adam's parents in town and for the girls to spend sometime with Grandma and Grandpa McKee.

Family Photo's

2008-08-21T16:25:00.000-07:00

Well we finally got our family pictures and Ellie's 1 year pictures taken. I love kiddie kandids! I think they did such a great job. (these are not cropped yet but they did crop them down)I am happy to finally have a picture with all of us in it. It's a pain getting it done but once it is, it's all worth it! It was a nice anniversary gift and Adam to all of us The Cheesecake Factory for lunch since it the day of our actual anniversary. It was SO good! I love cheesecake. August 16, 2008

5 YEARS AND GOING STRONG!!!

2008-08-21T16:00:00.001-07:00

Well on August 16, 2008 Adam and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary! I can't believe it has been that long. It seems like just yeserday we were at BYU-Idaho! We decided to go to a water park in Roseville called Sunsplash, they have a special deal that you can go at night from 7:30 to 11. So we got a babysitter and left the girls for a fun night out. Neither of us have been to a water park in probably 10 years so I was a litte nervous but after our first ride I couldn't wait to go on more! We don't leave the girls very often(never) so it was fun to have a break! We actually went to the park on Friday Aug.15th. I can't imagine what my life would be like without Adam. He is a wonderful husband and father who is loving and supportive and most of all a worthy priesthood holder who sacrafices so much for our family so that we can have a better life.

Family Home Evening

2008-08-21T15:29:00.000-07:00

So for our family home evening Adam or I will pick out some articles from, the Friend to read. This time Adam did and Adalyn wanted to climb up onto his lap to see the pictures. Well not soon after there was Ellie begging for Adam to pick her up so that she could be a big girl like Addy and sit with them. They were laughing and playing most of the time. Ellie pulled Adalyn's hair a couple of times but I thought it was so cute Adam with his girls reading. Also most night's we go for a walk and Adalyn rides her bike and Ellie goes in the stroller or walks, and she thought it was so fun to wear Adalyn's bike helmet. She is so CUTE!! August 11, 2008

Hand Prints

2008-08-21T15:16:00.000-07:00

For Adalyn's 1 year birthday I found this really great crayola stuff that you open and use however you want and within 24 hours it dries and can't break or crumble. So for Adalyn we did her right hand and left foot print. So for Ellie we thought it would be fun to do the same thing. I think it is a great way to remember how little they are. We had enough left over to let Adalyn do her right hand which she loved. She was so excited to paint her's purple and she painted Ellie's pink like her first one. It was a fun family event. July 30, 2008

July 2008 Las Vegas!!

2008-08-02T15:44:00.000-07:00

Once again a I'm catching up. This is our trip to Las Vegas. Adam couldn't go with us because he had to work, but me and the girls had a blast. We went to Las Vegas to watch my sisters 6 kids from July 15th to the 23rd. There ages ranging from 9-18 years old! This is the 5th time I have watched them. My other sister Jackie and her family live about 10 minutes away. We swam everyday at Jackie's new pool! The girls loved swimming and playing with all there cousins! It was so nice seeing family!

Redwood Forest!

2008-07-31T17:22:00.000-07:00

Sorry I am doing some catching up. This was the end of our Oregon trip, on July 8th to 9th we went to the Redwood Forest for Adam's Birthday! We had a blast!

2008-07-31T16:54:00.001-07:00

This is the face Adalyn likes to give us. With all her attitude!

Things Adalyn Like's to say recently

2008-07-31T16:20:00.001-07:00

I thought it would be a fun way for us to remember all the crazy things Adalyn says by posting them. These are phrases I hear almost everyday, "I'm going to spank daddy's booty" "Two words, that's not nice" haha she's crazy "Ellie's getting me" Which usually Ellie is pulling her hair or scratching her. "I talking Daddy" not to me(mommy) "Daddy, mommies not nice" "Mommy, Daddy's not being nice" She uses this one when one of us have told her no. "I'm so hungry, I want some gum" She keeps us laughing everyday with her dramatic personality and stubborness, She must have gotten that from Adam! hehe

Ellie turning 1 and changing!

2008-07-27T19:23:00.000-07:00

Well I'm sure I will post a lot of things most people won't care about. But since I'm also doing this blog for a family journal I thought I would write about how much Ellie has been changing. She started walking on her own July 10, 2008 and has gotten better everyday. While in Las Vegas from July 15th to the 23rd. She got to the point that she didn't want to even crawl anymore! YEAH!! I am so excited that she isn't crawling anymore, well this has also made her want to be more independent. She now likes to try and feed herself, she will shake her head no if she doesn't want something or throws a tantrum if you don't do what she wants. She has also become the bully of the family, she loves to scratch, pinch, bite and especially pull Adalyn's hair! But she is also doing so many wonderful and good things, she is learning to communicate what she wants, she loves to cuddle and give wet kisses. It is so amazing to see how in a couple of weeks she isn't my little baby anymore, she is becoming a big girl just like her sister. We love our girls with all our hearts!

2008-07-25T20:19:00.001-07:00

2008-07-13T22:05:00.001-07:00

Here is just the pictures of Ellie's Birthday party which we had on the 2nd so that we could have a joint birhtday party with Braden her 2 year old cousin. It was a lot fun opening presents and Adalyn loved helping Ellie. However the cake thing didn't turned out like I was hoping. Ellie burned herself on the candle and would go near the cake again, so she didn't even touch her first birthday cake! Makes me sad but we always have next year!