Valentines

The morning of Valentines had so much excitement. 

The kids got up to a scrambled egg and heart shaped bacon breakfast. 

{B} and I made this little hello kitty mailbox to hold all of her valentines. 

Ry and I are trying so hard to get completely out of debt. 

We decided to keep our Valentine gifts and date very simple this year. 

A couple of years ago I bought this recipe board from Goodwill for 2 bucks. 

I didn't know what I was getting it for, but it's been in my stash for a bit now. 

I saw this cute photo idea on pintrest where you put lipstick on and kiss your baby all over. 

I thought it was adorable and decided to turn it into a cute Valentine for the family. 

I painted the board added paper and the 8X10 Photo. 

Then I embellished it up. 

 It was fun because I had all the supplies on hand. 

 I only had to pay for the pix. 

Then I filled up these little boxes (that were in my Valentines Day stash)

with hersheys hugs and kisses. 

I printed some wallets up as well and made a simple card for each of the kids. 

The back said "Lots of hugs and kisses from me to you" 

 It was a big hit and EVERYONE loved it!!!   

For dinner we had strawberries and honey dew shaped like hearts. 

 I shaped the chicken pillows to look like hearts. 

 We all enjoyed some "love potion" red Cherry 7Up with a fun label

Ry was in charge of our date night. 

He took me to my favorite Mexican Restaurant Tia Rosa's

Then we went to Walmart.  Sounds exciting doesn't it.  hahaha. 

Actually it was. 

As I said we are on a very tight budget

and didn't want to spend much on Entertainment. 

There were some grocery and neccesity things that we needed. 

But Ry being true to who he is made is so much fun. 

He made the list of everything we needed. 

Next he wrote clues for me and sent me on

a scavenger hunt for those things. 

 It was such a simple date but seriously one of my favorites. 

I haven't had that much fun in a LOOOOONG time

I'm so blessed to be married to my best friend and someone who

can always lift me up. 

I absolutely adore my boy!!! 

{Ky was a little camera happy and to be honest I LOVE it. 

He got some fun photos of us before we went out} 



One year older and wizer too!

Hard to believe it, but our little {B} is 6 years old now. 

 Since it was a school day we held of on gifts til after school/work, but there were two gifts she needed to open before school. 

She was excited to open her birthday outfit from mom and dad.  Hello Kitty cupcake shirt and cute little jeans from mom and dad. 

She also got to open her gift from baby sister.  New cupcake earings. 

She was soooooo cute and super adorable.   

Luckily Daddy only had off-duty work so he was home the same the kids were done with school. 

 {B} opened all her family gifts and LOVED them all. 

 For her dinner meal she picked Macaroni and Cheese, with oranges and carrots. 

I always let the kids pick and thats what she wanted.  haha, that's easy enough. 

 After dinner we had cake and ice cream.  It was a good day. 

 

{B} is at such a fun age. 

I love, love LOVE listening to her read. 

She has mastered her sight words and is awesome at sounding out the others.  She is getting so good. 

She loves all things hello kitty and riding her bike. She still LOVES dance class.  She has become quite the tumbler and is amazing at doing head stands.  :)   I am so glad she is a part of our family. What a joy it is to be her Mommy. 

Snow White Birthday party

Crazy to believe it, but our little Princess is going to be 6 this week.  

We decided to have a Snow White party since she has been 

smitten with a young newlywed couple from our ward 

that she believes is the real Snow White and Prince Charming.  

My friend Janell let me come to her house and get pictures for the invite at the well in front of her home. 

I got so many comments on the the invite.  

It was a huge hit.  

She had fun posing for it.  

  Once the girls arrived they each colored a bag to hold all there prizes for the games

We did a pass the poison apple game (hot potato style) 

Once they were out, they went to the princess bed.  They rolled a dice and Prince Charming kissed them awake with the number they rolled.  (candy kisses of course)  The girls LOVED this game and asked to play it again after the party.  haha  

Snow White blew bubble for the girls to catch 

Each girl got to take their own bubbles home.  

Snow White brought diamond rings for each of the girls from the dwarfs.  

Birthday girl got a diamond necklace from the dwarfs and a neat Princess book with play mat and princess figurines .  It was magical.  

We had this throne spot set up for Snow White and {B} to read to the guest.  

Snow read 

and {B} got to push the button that went with the story.  

The guest all seemed to enjoy the story.  

At the end of the book there was a clue for a treasure that was hidden.  

The girls had to find all seven dwarfs (fisher price dwarf toys)  with the next hidden clue.  

Once they found the treasure they brought it back to Snow.  

Then we opened presents.  

As each girl gave {b} her gift, they got to pick a prize out of the treasure box.  

Next we did cake and ice cream.  

We had poison apple cupcakes.  

This little sweetheart was a gem the whole party. 

 She sat right in the middle of things and loved all of the excitement.  

We had a wishing well that the girls got to throw pennies in as they gave {B} a birthday wish.  

We also did a fish pond and bean bag toss game. 

I had so much fun throwing the party for {B} and all of her sweet little friends.  

I sure do love my little Princess.  

Happy Birthday, Sweetie!!!  

What a day

Yesterday was one of those days that as a mom I wish I could have just bottled it up to cherish forever.  

I was able to witness our little baby literally discover the world, one noise at a time.  

We got up early yesterday and headed over to Dr. Fucci's office.  

Little Love's hearing aides were in and it was time to try them out.  

I couldn't believe how teeny tiny they are.  

 She was so sweet and patient while the doctor got the tubing cut to the right size.

 I was told she would probably be cranky and constantly pull at her ears.  That it can take a while for babies to keep the hearing aides on and not pull on them.  {A} has not touched them and it is obvious she can hear things more.

 The top left picture above is the cute look she made ALL.DAY.LONG.  Every time she discovered a new sound.  She would freeze and listen for a second and them smile real big.

{K} sang karaoke to her and she loved every minute of it.
I made it a point to just focus on the baby and let all the to do's wait.  I am so glad I did.  It was such a tender feeling to sing to her and watch her light up. I think I sang her every primary song and hymn I know.
I adore this little girl and still can't believe she is mine.  I am so thankful for the day and age that we live it.

Ear and heart appointments

2013 has proven to be a busy year full of many many different dr. appointments.  

Our ENT Dr. Fucci noticed fluid behind the ears and wanted to get that resolved to see if that helped with {A}'s hearing.  She was scheduled to have tubes put in and the fluid removed.  While she was knocked out they were able to do a more in depth hearing test.  

Here she is right before going into surgery.  She was so sweet and happy.  

She was still pretty drowsy when they let me in to see her.  

She had to go in fasting, so she was pretty hungry and ready to eat.  

We had to give her antibiotic drops for a few days to help clear up infection.  

Jim and Gwen stopped by for a visit and made a delish dinner.  

Sure do love them!!

A few weeks later we went back to Dr. Fucci's office

 for her follow up and to meet with Dr. Lewkowitz,

 the Audiologist

She explained to us just how much Little Love can hear.  

The tan shaded in area is called the speech banana.  

She is not able to make out any distinct sounds of speech.  

She can hear someone talking, but can't make out what they are saying.  

They said to think of it as the Charlie Brown adults.  

It's just mumbled sound and doesn't make sense. 

 Her left ear is slightly better than the right but neither hear speech. 

 What she can hear is like being at the bottom of a swimming pool.  

She can tell there is noise but you can't make it out.  

The hearing aides with make it as if she is out of the pool and she will be able to hear.  

We will have a hearing and speech nurse come to our home for therapy.  

She will help teach her to tune in and learn where to focus as she won't be able to hear all 

surrounding sound at the same time.  

She was such a sweet little baby and just let them do what needed to be done. 

They put this wet goopey stuff in her ear.  

We had to wait about 6 minutes for it to dry 

Dad was awesome at keeping her happy and comforted

This is the teen tiny little mold they made.  

She did a great job and never cried.  

Her hearing aides will be done in 7-10 days.  

She will need new inner ear pieces made every three weeks for the first few years.  

Its really going to add up as we have to pay for each new pair but I am so thankful for the little help the insurance will provide.  

 The next day we headed to the Cardiologist for both of the girls.  

They both had an EKG and an Echo done.  

Dr. Ellsworth came in to talk to us afterwards.

 He said Little Miss {B}'s narrowing in the arch has grown with her and looks really good.  She of course still has a murmur, but no holes in the heart or other issues they were concerned with .  She has been cleared to go 5 years between appointments now instead of yearly, and was given a clean bill of health.  Yay!!!! 

Little Love's echo showed she still has Right Ventricle Hypertrophy which means...

she still showed a mild obstruction in the right aorta.  

She still has narrowing throughout the aortic valves.  

Pulmonary arteries are still small but don't seem to be worsening.  

The right ventricle shows some thickness

 which he said is caused by her heart having to work harder than most.  

Just like muscles grow and harden as you work out, her heart is doing the same.  

The Aorta pressure should be at a 20.  

Hers is a high 40's low 50's.  

80 or above is real serious so he is going to keep an eye on that.  

This is a diagram he gave.  The red in the middle part of the picture is where her narrowing is.  The bottom shaded in area is what is thicking because her heart is pumping so hard.  

The doctor wants to see her back in a few months and we will keep a close eye on things.  

We are sooo thankful for our little girls and the wonderful doctors we have found.