CaTcHiNg Up!!

It's time to catch up. My computer crashed so I didn't have a computer for a while. Luckily, the nice people at Best Buy were able to extract all of my files from the old hard drive. But, they were all just put into a single folder so I have spent hours and hours going through them and putting them back where they belong. I also had to reinstall all of my software and everything. What a pain! We've only had the computer for about 16 months. I guess we should have bought the extended warranty. Not that it would have done us any good anyway, because we bought it at Circuit City, and they are no longer in business. Anyway, the point is, I've got my computer back and all my files are now back where they should be! Yay!

Mackenzie is done with kindergarten. Where has the year gone? It seems like she was just starting. We are looking forward to summer-If it ever stops raining. It's been raining all week. We are going to Yellowstone this weekend and I'm kinda bummed because it's supposed to rain all weekend too. Oh well. It will still be fun.

My baby is already 9 months old! I can't believe it! It has gone by so fast! She is so much fun. She is into EVERYTHING! More than Mackenie and Gavin ever were. She is very "Grabby".

Mackenzie and Gavin absolutely adore her. They are all so fun to watch.

I took this the other day and thought is was so funny. I love her chubby legs and tummy.

Dallas took Gavin fishing the other day. They were gone ALL DAY and Gavin was furious when Dallas told him that they had to come home. He is definately his father's child!

Mackenzie got a caterpillar from school. She was so excited. She got to see the whole process of changing from a caterpillar to a butterfly.
She was sad when I made her let it go.
Silly girl.

Girl Scouts Camp-out!!

For Girl Scouts, we had a mom and daughter camp-out. It was lots of fun. We did lots of fun crafts. We painted hot-dog sticks, made flower presses, and decorated little gardening aprons. The girls all got journals and pens. We played games, made s'mores, the girls all got little gardening tools, and some seeds to plant in their gardens. We went on a nature walk and had a scavenger hunt. It was fun to get some one on one time with Mackenzie. We don't get that very often. She is already looking forward to next year's camp-out.

Kenzie and Hannah painting their hot-dog sticksKenzie and I roasting marshmallowsKenzie kept burning themeating S'moreswriting in her journal

Holding hands with Lindsay. They are so cute.

Getting ready to go to bed on the top bunk! She thought that was pretty cool.

Kenzie and Hannah going to bed

Painting her flower press

on our nature walk

coloring her apron

She is so sweet!

The clan

trying to warm up in front of the fireplace.

My Sweet Baby!

2 weeks ago, I took Avery to the doctor. She had a runny nose for a couple weeks and her eyes had started draining also. She had a horrible sinus infection that had gone to her eyes and to her ears, so he put her on an antibiotic. Her eyes cleared up within a few days, but as of this morning, she has been off the antibiotic for 2 days and her nose was still yucky, and she was rubbing her ears all day yesterday. So I took her back to the doctor and Dr. Rose said she has a horrible double ear infection. He put her on a stronger antibiotic. Her nose has been running for over a month now so he wanted to check her for food allergies. He sent us to the hospital to get some blood drawn. It as awful!! Her arms are so chubby, you can't see the veins and her veins are so tiny, that they couldn't really feel them very well either. It took them almost 30 minutes to find a vein. I got so sick watching the nurse move the needle around in Avery's little arm, trying to get the vein that I had to lie down. Avery took it like a champ! She didn't cry at all. I couldn't believe it! They tried in one arm for about fifteen minutes, then they switched to the other arm and it took about 10 more minutes for them to get the blood drawn. It's pretty sad that she didn't shed a tear, and there I am lying on the floor, about to pass out. I think I would have been OK if I hadn't watched. The nurses couldn't believe it! As they were digging around in the first arm, she fell asleep! She said that she has never seen anything like it. Avery must have a very high pain tolerance. She is such a good baby. We won't get the test results for about a week. Hopefully, they will all be negative.

SpriNg FeVeR!!

I am so ready for warm weather! It was pretty nice the other day so I mowed the lawn, which I have been anxious to do. I also noticed that our lawn was looking pretty dry, the harsh wind that we have here sucks out all of the moisture, so I also decided that is was time to get the sprinkler system going. Well, maybe that wasn't such a wise choice. The sprinklers are set to go off at 4:00 am. This is what we woke up to this morning. Everything is frozen!!

The Sill Family

Dallas's mom has been saying forever that she wants to get a picture of the whole family. So Last weekend we went to their house and finally got the picture. The kids had fun playing together. We even got to see Kyson and that doesn't happen very often. It was a good day.

DrEsS-uP-fUn!!

The other day Mackenzie was in her room playing dress-up and Avery hadn't let me get anything done all day so I took her in to play in Mackenzie's room for a while. Mackenzie came out laughing and said come look at Avery!! So I walked in and this is what I saw...Mackenzie had put dress-ups on her. She was so proud of herself!

This is how I found Avery sleeping the other night...Doesn't look too comfortable to me. SHe is getting so big. She says Mama and she's getting to be pretty mobile. I took her to the Doctor on Monday and she weighs 19 and a half pounds.

RaNdOm

Aww... Such sweet kids!

Avery and Kenzie snuggling on the couch

Gavin is such a boy! The other day, he was watching this bird and asked, "can I catch it?" We said "sure you can." Of course, we didn't think he would be able to, but the next thing we knew, he was standing on the porch with that little bird in his hands. He was so proud of himself. We let him hold it for a minute, then he let it go.
My sister Staci and her family came over the other day and the kids had a blast playing together. They got out a box of dixie cups and played with them for hours.. I wish I could be entertained so easily. Thanks for coming guys! It was fun!