Malia's 5th Birthday!

On Thursday, September 11, Malia turned five!! Malia had been counting down the days for quite a while. She is the last of her friends to turn 5, and she barely made the deadline for starting school this year, so it was a major celebration around here. After putting Malia to bed on Wed. night, I ran to the store (don't worry, rod was home) and got her a boquet of flowers, a bunch of helium balloons, and some texas toast to make her french toast for breakfast the next morning. Malia had requested french toast for breakfast, so I made a bunch while she was still sleeping, stacked some up, put a candle in it, and went to her room to wake her up with a rousing rendition of happy birthday!! She woke up with a big grin (totally made my day) and blew out her candle! We had breakfast and then let her open a few presents. My mom left some gifts with us when she was out a few weeks back and so she opened those too.Malia is really into all the Barbie movies (this too shall pass) and so she got a couple of Barbie DVD's, some pony's, a Barbie, and a Hello Kitty CD player. I had a few things to run around and do that day, and so Malia and Brin joined me. Most of the day was pretty chill , but I tried to make it special for her. Rod's parents got into town that afternoon and we hung out until Rod got home from work, and then we let Malia choose where she wanted to have her birthday dinner. She chose Olive Garden, which is no surprise, and so we headed to Reno to eat. Olive Garden was packed, and so we headed to Claim Jumper ( much to Rod's delight). Malia ordered "pasta with white sauce" and had a great time eating it!!I had talked to our server when we first got there about it being Malia's big day, and so at the end of the meal she was served a huge piece of ice cream pie and we all sang to her. She loved it!!
On Saturday, we had her friend party at a Museum in Carson City. It was a great time and Malia had a lot of fun with her friends. When we first got there all the kids just played in the museum before heading downstairs to the party room. The kids made a couple of crafts and then played a fabulous game of duck duck goose ( it's not a party without duck duck goose). Rod showed up with pizza, but I totally dropped the ball and forgot to bring ranch dressing. The kids ate lunch, had cake and ice cream and then opened presents. Malia got the Barbie Mariposa DVD and the actual Mariposa barbie, a little makeup kit, a Webkinz puppy, and a few other little things. She has some great friends and she had a great time.
I love this next picture, I had Malia and her friends all stand together for a picture. I was having a hard time getting them to all smile, so I said " who can smile the biggest"? I think we have a clear winner here!! Notice the huge veins popping out of her neck!! (backfire)
All in all, it was a fun day! These are just a few more pictures of the day. As you can see, Brinley had a great time too!!
Malia, you have got to be one of the funniest girls I know, you crack me up on a daily basis. I love you!!!!

Malia's 1st day of school

Well it had to come eventually, but it seems it came way to quickly! My sweet baby girl started Kindergarten today. Has it really been 5 years since my prayers were answered with the arrival of my beautiful daughter? Why does it sometimes seem that the days seem to drag on, yet before we know it, our children don't need us as much as we need them? Today at Malia's school, they just had a Kindergarten orientation for the parents and the kids basically took a walking tour around the school. Malia was pretty disappointed to find out that mom and dad were coming inside with her and not just dropping her off. I have to admit, I felt kind of bad that she didn't want us there, but I guess a part of me was proud. It made me feel like I had done what I was supposed to do to prepare her to be on her own (at least for 3 hours a day)! I know that tomorrow will be so much harder on me than today because I will actually have to leave after dropping her off, but I know I won't be the only mom who will be crying, right?? I know that she will have a great year and learn so much. I am so excited for this big step in both of our lives, I know that she is ready, but am I??

Where has the summer gone??

It seems like this past month has just flown by so quickly! Before I post about Malia's first day of school, I wanted to write a quick recap of August. August has been a good month for us to spend some quality time together as a family. I feel like we are all so busy that we do not do this enough, so I wanted to make a special effort to do so. The girls and I still made our weekly drives to Tahoe to hang out on the beach, and funny enough, the more we went, the more we enjoyed it. We have been here in Nevada for 6 years now, and I have gone to Tahoe many many times, but I have never gotten in the water until this summer, and only in the last couple of weeks. The reason, the water is so freakin' cold. When you are coming from St. George and used to hanging out at Quail, Mead, and Powell, anything would be cold. I would just dip my toes in and then spend the rest of my time on the beach. A few weeks ago, I decided to take the plunge, literally, and I put a floatie tube around my waist ( I can't swim very well) and swam out to the bouy. It was a blast!! Once I got fully submerged into the water, it wasn't really cold anymore, and it actually felt really great! Last week was really windy, so we had some awesome waves to play in and that was even more fun. Maybe it just takes 6 years to become acclimated to the cold water, who knows, but I am so sad that summer is coming to an end and I can't wait to get in again next year. We have also been riding our bikes as much as we can. We usually put the kids in the trailer and Rod pulls them behind his bike. We have been riding trails up in North Lake Tahoe and the Truckee River, it has been alot fun to get out and learn more about this beautiful place that we live. My mom was able to come out this last week and visit and we loved having her here. I took her up to the beach with us on Wednesday, on Thurs. we went on a bike ride in Tahoe and then played Bunco with my friends that night. On Fri. I took my mom to the gym with me that morning for my favorite class, we went to Malia's school for an open house and to meet her new teacher, and then went and did some last minute school shopping for Malia. She flew out on Saturday afternoon and we have been missin' her ever since. Thanks mom for coming, you are welcome any time! Oh yea, and an update on Brin, she had another blood test last Monday to check her white blood cell count and her iron levels. Her white blood cell count came back normal, but her iron levels are still really low. They hadn't changed at all since the blood work 3 weeks prior, even with the extra iron supplement.The doctor said that it is possible that her body is not allowing any iron to be absorbed. Yikes!!! Maybe that would explain why my kids get sick so easily, low iron= weak immune system!! He told me to double the iron that I was giving her and take her to the lab in one week for another blood draw. We did the bloodwork today, so we should know in a day or two where she stands, wish us luck!!

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Six Flags - More Flags - More Fun!!!!

Well, it's been awhile since I updated, and we just got back from a fun little vacation, so time to share, yeah!! Rod and I realized a couple months ago that we have never taken a vacation with just us and the kids. We always go with his family or mine, never alone. We love going with the fam's , but we thought it would be fun to just have our own schedule and do what we want when we want. We thought about where to go and decided that we would just take the kids to Vallejo, Cali to go to Six Flags Animal Kingdom. It is about a 4 hour drive from our house, so nothing to major. On the way home, we would spend a day and night in Sacramento and hit up some fun museum's and stuff! We were all really excited to go, especially Malia. About a week before our trip, Brin started getting a fever, but we were able to control it with tylenol, so I thought it must just be the teeth that she is cutting. Boy, was I wrong! We were scheduled to leave town on Wed. But on that Tues. Brin's fever still hadn't gone away, and she was not eating very well. I assumed it was an ear infection and went to the doc. to get some antibiotic. He checked her ears and said that they both looked great. He then went on to check a few other things and what happened next made me feel like a real loser of a mom!! He proceeded to tell me that she was dehydrated(even though she wakes up with soaking wet diapers), she was anemic(lacking iron), and her white blood cell count was at 16,ooo!! Basically, I was dealing with a really sick baby, and I had no idea!! He told me that she was fighting off a pretty serious respiratory infection, hence, the high white blood cell count and the fever. I had told him in earlier conversation that we had a family trip planned and we were leaving the next day. After getting the blood test back, he asked if I had any family I could leave her with while we went, because he really didn't want her out in the crowds at Six Flags. What?? I was not going to leave my sick baby, while I went on vacation, Crazy!!! He wanted us back in the next morning for a follow up blood test before he felt O.K about letting her go with us. I packed up that night, acting like everything would be fine, but in my mind, I couldn't help but wonder if it would be. We went back in and she had her blood draw, and her count was now down to 15,000, a drop, but not by much. I told him that we would all go to Vallejo, and I would just stay in the hotel, while Rod took Malia to Six Flags. He thought that it would be fine to do that, so off we went. The hotel was fabulous, and we had a good time swimming when we got there. The next day was Six Flags. Rod took Malia in the morning, we met up for lunch, and then I went back to the park with her and Rod went back to the hotel with Brin. Malia and I went on a few rides, we saw a dolphin show, and Shouka, the killer whale show. Malia totally got into the shows and really wanted to get in the tanks and swim with them! We got takeout for dinner and then went for a nice swim before bed. The next day we went to the Jelly Belly factory for lunch and a tour. We got in line for the tour and realized quickly(thank goodness) that it would be about an hour and a half wait!! We promptly got out of line and ate lunch! Who would wait that long (with kids) to watch them make jelly beans?? So after lunch, we just went into their little store and bought a bunch of jelly beans, that should count for something right, who needs to see how they are made?? We made a few more stops on the way into Sacramento, one of them being The Discovery Museum of Sacramento-Science and Space Center. It was really fun, and everything is totally hands on, even better. Brinley slept in the stroller the whole time we were there, so that was nice, and Rod and Malia were able to check everything out. After leaving the museum, we checked into our hotel and then went to dinner, shopped a bit, and came back for our nightly swim. The next day we had to back up and get back home to real life. Rod had to work that night, and I was ready to get things back to our normal routine. Sad, I know, but I thrive on routine and structure. I'm not very good at the whole "flying by the seat of my pants" thing! Anywho, the drive home was nice, very scenic, and we made it home safe. The trip was fun and we decided that we should definitely do it more often. Brinley is doing much better and we are glad to have our spunky monkey back! Malia, on the other hand was in the doctor's office today. You guessed it, another ear infection!! Sometimes I feel like such a bad mom, why can't I keep my kids healthy??? Aaauuggg!!!! Brinley missing daddy and Malia! She wanted to go swimming with them! This is Brandi, one of the dolphins Brandi's friend, Sunni Malia in the butterfly garden. It was really cool, so many butterflies!Alice the camel has 2 humps...... Malia with the camelsMalia riding in a bouncing frogSplash pad at Six FlagsA nice way to keep cool from the heat. She was kicking water from the puddles back at me!Having fun at the Discovery Museum. As you can see, Brin had a great time!!Having a good time in the pool.

Longest post ever, I know!!

My two princesses

I thought this was so cute. Malia used this dress as a halloween costume when she was 2. Brinley loves to dress up when Malia does, and yesterday I put her in this dress and took a few pictures! It's so funny to see how much they look alike!