Katie Baby at 5 and 6 months

I'm still way behind on blogging but better late than never! Right?

Katie has 2 bottom tooth and is working on a top tooth
She can roll over both ways really well
She is still waking up for one feeding in the middle of the night
Katie LOVES daddy and HE loves it!
She is really good at army crawling
It's pretty easy to get her to smile and laugh now
She has said dada once and she jabbers all day long
She loves grabbing anything that is in reach. Trying to make her a bottle while holding her is lots of fun because she goes crazy trying to get everything!
She lost quite a bit of hair recently but it was quickly replaced and her hair is starting to get full again.

 These two are going to be trouble soon. They love each other so much!

I love love love this baby!

Halloween 2012

Yes, I know Halloween was almost a month ago.. but I'm just barely getting around to blogging it!

Sweet little Kate was a cute elephant. It's pretty much the only time that you can be an elephant for Halloween and get away with it. She was so adorable!

 This was the only decent picture I got of the two girls together. Yay me!

 This year I told Bella she could could choose what she wanted to be for Halloween. Every other year I've picked out a costume for her but I felt that she was old enough (and it would be more fun) for her to pick her own.

It sounds like a good idea until her suggestions were a tree or a leaf..seriously? Finally she decided on the tooth fairy and I thought it sounds good and easy! So we headed off to the costume store but she didn't like any of the fairy costumes. She said none of them were the tooth fairy. As we were walking back to the car, I asked her what the tooth fairy looked like. She said she has a big pokey skirt and she made huge hand gestures. ????? She said she saw the fairy on Yo Gabba Gabba. As luck would have it, right when we got home that episode was on and there she was!

So my sister helped me sew up an apron. We made a vinyl heat transfer for the tooth and some felt and button embellishments.. and there you go! Later on she said, "Oh mom! It was her wand that was pokey!" Silly girl.

 She was a happy camper :) And an adorable tooth fairy! Halloween night we walked around Skye's neighborhood and the weather was beautiful!

 Bella wanted to paint her pumpkin again this year. So she went to town with paint and glitter.

 Katie baby kept us company. She seriously gets cuter by the day!

Playroom Makeover - A Storyboard

I'm working on a new playroom downstairs for the girls and I can't believe how much work it is! I'm pretty sure I over think these things! The carpet is an olive green color and I really don't want to get new carpet right before Christmas. Plus the carpet is in fairly good condition still so I decided it would be really silly to get new carpet just because the color is hideous. I was shopping at target a few days ago and found a rug with an olive green that would really tie in everything. I decided to put everything together on a storyboard and I really like how it all comes together. Now I just need a little elf to come and do all the hard work!

Zebra Throw, Target
Rocket Ship Play Canopy, Land of Nod
Rug, Target (can't find online)
Curtains, Wayfair
Paint Colors: G- Glidden SW- Sherwin Williams

Still needed - Toy storage, stuffed animal storage, wall decor (decals?), throw pillows for couch

Miss Isabella

Does anyone else want to remember all the little details about their children? I wish I could keep every little memory, remember every funny thing they say and relive every sweet moment that we share. Isabella is just such a sweet girl. I love everything about her. From her silly personality to her beautiful green eyes. She just simply sparkles.

The picture below shows in one little image how much patience Bella has with her baby sister. It rarely phases her when Kate cries. I've said it before but she really is the best big sister.

Bella loves to spend the night at her grandma and grandpa's house. She would probably stay there forever if I'd let her.

We have been working on learning the alphabet and phonics. She is getting really good at counting. 

She loves my iPhone and begs me for new apps every day.

She stills loves Spongebob Squarepants and macaroni and cheese.

She is very slowly growing out of her shyness. 

She is all of a sudden really worried about making Santa's "Naughty List." I find that to my advantage. :)

Bella recently started her 3rd year of dance. She is no longer in the "mommy and me" class and now gets to go by herself for a full hour. She really loves that she is a big girl and gets to go without me.. I'm not sure how to feel about that..

She is really well behaved for a three year old. She has her moments and sometimes she is nothing short of sassy, but she has a real understanding of others feeling and knows what it means to be respectful. She is such a beautiful & smart girl and I'm an incredibly proud mama!

Katelynn at 4 months old

I'm so behind on blogging.. tomorrow Miss Kate turns 5 months old and I'm just barely getting to her 4 month post.. forget about all the stuff in between!

Our little baby is turning into such a princess. She is very sensitive and also very jumpy, which Bella finds to her advantage. She likes to pop out of nowhere and tries to give her little sister a heart attack at least 3 times a day.

Katie had her 4 month checkup and everything is perfect with her development.
She weighed 14.7 lbs and is 25" long. Both in the 75 percentile.

My cute girls in their matching PJs (yes.. I'm THAT mom)

Kate also got the go ahead from her doctor to start baby food. Bella was so excited and couldn't wait to help feed her.

 Katie is enjoying more tummy time and her dad has introduced her to Yo Gabba Gabba.

Fun facts about Kate:
Rolls over from tummy to back and back to tummy. She's much better at rolling over from her back to her tummy and then gets stuck.
She loves her toes!
She was sleeping all the way through the month prior to 4 months.. but this month has been a little rough. I bought her some warm fuzzy jammies to help keep her warm in the night and that's helped a lot!

Kate hates grocery shopping. She cries the whole time while I make a mad dash like I'm a contestant on Supermarket Sweep.

 Katelynn is the little love bug of the family and is definitely turning into a princess! We absolutely adore her!

My mom

Most of my friends know that my mom is a cancer survivor. She wrote this on Facebook a few months back and I wanted to save it here because it tells her story so well and from her perspective. I am so proud of my mom. I can't tell you how empowering it is to be the daughter of a cancer survivor. And how much I want to live a better life because she fought so hard to keep living hers.

My sister, my mom & me right before my mom started chemo

These are her words..

I am going to try to capture a tough time in my life for my friend. So here goes if I leave anything out feel free to add it. I went in for a routine mammo. A few days later I received the call they wanted to look closer. I went in for an ultrasound and they confirmed there was something suspicious. I went back for a needle biopsy. On June 7th, 2007 I got the dreaded phone call that they had good news and bad news. The good being that the left side showed no signs of cancer but the right side did. I already knew that. I felt it that woman's intuition. I just knew. Okay so treatment would be surgery, chemo and radiation. Surgery first. But because of previous heart problems we new had to clear my heart. All the while the tumor was GROWING. Next came the bone scan to make sure the cancer did'nt spread to my bones. All clear. Heart tests treadmill, nuclear dye all turned out that my heart was strong enough for anesthesia. August 13th, 2007 was the surgery date. They got the tumor out and got clean surgical margins. Now anyone that has ever been diagnosed knows how scary this step is. The lymph nodes turned out to be negative. That was great news. Sigh of relief. A port is planted into my chest that they will draw blood out of and then add all the chemo through to kill the cancer cells.However the fun is just beginning. My world at this point was very black and I can't even explain how negative I felt. But one foot forward. Here we go. Surgery is over now to just get past the pain. Next step was GammaWest. Internal beam radiation. 10 treatments. Just 10. However as I was sitting up one day shortly after surgery. POP!! The doctor assured us that the odds of that balloon that was inside my breast popping was slim. We met at the hospital the next morning and yes my balloon had indeed popped. We are in trouble now. With out that balloon I can no longer have 10 radiation treatments. Now we are facing external beam which is going to be a lot longer. So back into the surgical room we go hoping to remove the balloon and insert a new one. The first one coming out hurt but not too bad. Going back in was a different story. However. I looked at my surgeon and felt total trust. He could do it. He could get this situated again so that I could just have internal radiation. Back to GammaWest to be re-evaluated. It looks like Dr Wilson did it. It's going to work. Into a small vault I went. I had the balloon at the tumor site. A cable that came out of my side that they hooked a machine up to. They sealed me inside a vault only big enough for my hospital bed and the radiation. I could feel it pulse into my body. There was a small monitor that they watched me on. The whole time I am locked away. ALONE. 10 treatments. I am exhausted physically. I made it. I became friends there. It was sad to say goodbye but we are now on to the next phase of treatment. CHEMOTHERAPY. Before the chemo drips into my blood and poisons my body I want my long hair cut so that I can donate it to locks of love. We pull it into a pony tail and Rex cut it off. Tears of sadness. My hair has been a part of me for years. Now I am off on a new journey without it. Skye and Sunny cut their beautiful long hair off. I can say the support was appreciated but as a Mommy I loved their long hair and I would give anything if they didn't have to experience this. All in all 106 inches of hair was donated on my behalf. Rex shaved his head. Ty was the smart one who said no way!!! Chemo is scary. Unknown chemicals are going to drip into my body now. I am scared. Terrified is more like it. All of the drugs are on the IV pole. A needle is placed into my port and the drip begins. They are watching closely now. Closely because now they are watching to make sure I don't have a reaction to the chemicals dripping into my blood. Anti drugs are placed into the blood stream to make sure I don't have any reactions. I feel pretty good. The last thing to happen is the neulasta shot. This is a bone marrow booster. I am done. I feel pretty good. Tired but I have been feeling tired since radiation. D Says later I feel it. The neulasta shot hurts. I am achy. I hurt so bad. This is the result of my body boosting the bone marrow. Flu like achy. My doctor puts me on pain medication. It helps some. Not a lot but some. I question the chemo because I don't feel horrible. I feel okay. Football practice is starting. Ty really really needs this outlet. I have a great friend Chris who drives us to his practice every day. I am sitting in a lawn chair the sun is shining. I am watching my son. Best of days. I reach up and run my hands through my hair. OMG I can't see my hand for the hair covering it. My hair is falling out. So much hair it is unbelievable. It looked like a cat was killed for the fur. I am sitting in the sunshine with tears. It is really happening. I am losing my hair. This I knew was coming but it is unbelievable grief. I come home and call my beautiful daughter Skye. She came right over and we shaved what was left. I start feeling better. Time for round 2. Here we go again. Chemo. Neulasta. Pain Meds. Chemo. Neulasta. Pain Meds. I get weaker and weaker. I am trying to not complain but my world is pretty darn black now. I don't see any light. In fact now I am facing my own mortality. Now I need you to know my final wishes just in case I don't make it through this. No one wants to listen. But you have to I may not live through this and you need to know. Wigs. I hate them. Hats I look like a cancer patient. Scarves, no not me. Ski caps?? It's winter I live in Utah. I can do this. Many a night Rex took Ty night skiing and my great friend Chris drove me up to the mountain so that I could sit and watch them come down. What a great time that was. My mouth is on fire. I can't eat anything. The doctor perscribes a mouth wash that causes my whole mouth to go numb. It helps. Everything I eat or drink tastes like sour milk. Yuk I can't drink anything. The dr. stresses I either stay hydrated or I go to the hospital. My choice. I can't drink. Somehow I manage to get enough fluids in that he is happy. I don't have to go to the hospital for IV's. Every 3 weeks more chemo. About 5 hours in the recliner watching the chemo drip drip drip. Finally 18 weeks later the chemo is finished. 6 rounds of chemo. Now I still have to finish herceptin therapy. This is a specialized treatment I have to continue for one full year. Chemo was every 3 weeks but herception is weekly. Finally the day comes. I am finished. I have lost the hair on my body but the most devasting for me was my eyelashes. Oh how I cried when I was putting on my mascara and it kept hitting my eyelid. Then I realized my eyelashes were gone. Now I am a basket case now no matter how I tried to hide my baldness I looked sick. I couldn't put on false eyelashes. Now I looked sick. Now I look like a cancer patient. Now I looked sick. I could no longer hide the fact that I looked sick. I have cancer. Now I can die. I had good days and I had bad days. I didn't go anywhere anyone knew me. I didn't step foot into my store until the day I went back to work one year later. On the day I was sitting there waiting for Ty to get out of school I was looking in the mirror and realized I had tiny new eyelashes growing. I called Sunny ecstatic. I had great friends. Cami sent me a jar with awesome memories that everyone added. I was supposed to read one a day on bad days. I must confess I had a bad day and read the whole jar all at once. Then I cried. I realized I had great friends. I had someone to love me through it. As I healed and and moved one step forward I realize I have scars. I have emotional scars. I can't begin to describe diagnosis, treatment and cure. I have physical scars. Where they performed the lumpectomy and where my port once was. I had decided to keep my port forever. What if the cancer returns. A friend Stephen told me no you can't live your life like it is coming back. Move forward. Have it removed and walk into the light. How right he was. I still have the scar and the port in a little plastic bag as a reminder. I walk forward into the light. I have great friends and family who walked that path with me. Thank You. I will forever have a special bond with you my friends. Thank You for loving me through it. There you have it. I still take tamoxifen. I have to take it for 5 years. Hopefully at the end of that path I will still be cancer free. Today I walk in the Relay for Life. Okay I walked it before but now I walk that survivor lap with friends who have fought the same battle cancer. Then my caregivers walk the other way to meet me. It is an emotional lap. The first year I couldn't walk it. I didn't make it through this story without a lot of tears. My wish is that no one will ever hear the words You have cancer ever again.

Life in a nutshell

I don't know why life feels so crazy right now because it's been a pretty lazy summer. A couple of months ago my sister started helping me with my business and it's been nothing short of amazing! It's really helped my level of stress. Ha ha.

Here is a little bit of what we have been up to lately..

Tea party with my sweet girl. She LOVES having tea parties!

Katie Bugs gorgeous eyelashes. Bella and her both have pretty lashes. She is such a beautiful baby!

Playing on the fence at grandma's :) She was so sad that she grew out of her twinkle toe shoes so we had to go out and buy new ones.

Bella & Kate with their cute cousin Tayzhia. She is pretty much Bella's favorite person ever!

I'm getting Lasik done TOMORROW morning. Ahhh! I'm a little bit nervous. I'll just ask Bella any questions that I have. She loves to look through the book that they gave me.

Today Bella brought over the milk, a cup and the strawberry milk mix. She doesn't even need me anymore!

And that's it folks! We are pretty boring lately.. I'm looking forward to when it cools down!

Katelynn - 3 months

I just love our little lady. She is so sweet. She is definitely our princess and makes sure that everyone knows it.

Kate at 3 months..
- She loves Daddy. She can't keep her eyes off him.
- For awhile she was obsessed with the windows. She would stare at them all day long. Now she has moved on to light fixtures.
- She has definitely found her hands and munches on them all day long.
- She smiles and smiles and smiles but has yet to let out a full on giggle.
- She loves to be snuggled with a blanket.
- She still has lots of hair. Bella was almost bald at this age.
- She loves sleeping and gets grumpy at night when it's close to bedtime. Just like momma & Bells ;)

She's not too crazy about tummy time but we are slowly incorporating it into our day.

Bella LOVES her. Very rarely do we sneak off to the store alone and leave Katie with daddy, but when we do she will keep asking why we didn't bring baby sister with us.

Snuggling up with big sister Bella. They are going to be best friends!

 Isn't she just the sweetest thing? She is getting close to growing out of her 0-3 month clothes. It's time to go shopping!

 Katie bug and Bella Roo, mommy & daddy love you!

Fitness check in

I've been working my little behind off on my fitness goals, hopefully literally. :) I've lost right around 6 pounds! Today was day 21 as far as TurboFire goes and I'm really starting to love it! I wasn't sure that I would in the beginning but as I'm getting the hang of it, I'm really looking forward to it each morning. The music is also really catchy so I end up getting the songs stuck in my head all day.

And I decided to treat myself to a new little gadget for all my hardwork. It's a Fitbit and tracks your calories burned, steps taken, and lots of other stuff. It's a great motivator! You can log in to a website and there is tons of information.

This shows my calories burned for today. The peak at 10 am was my Turbofire workout. The grey shows sedentary, the light blue is lightly active, yellow is fairly active and red shows very active. It also works hand in hand with My Fitness Pal (app for tracking calories) and will show you what your calorie deficit is for each day. It really is the coolest thing and I'm addicted to it!

I'm waaayyyy behind on blogging so hopefully I'll have time to catch up this week! I need a nap :/

A series of fortunate (and unfortunate) events

Just before our wedding, I got into the best shape I have ever been in as an adult. I will never ever forget the way that it felt to be thinner. It was easier to buy clothes, I felt better and I had a ton more energy. Through a series of fortunate (and unfortunate) events I gained that weight back. Several pregnancies have definitely taken a toll on my body. And sometimes, okay a lot of times, I just don't eat right.

CONFESSIONS:
- I seriously could live on junk food. It may make me feel like a slug and gain 500 pounds but I'd be perfectly satisfied.
- I have a really hard time eating meat. I'd become a vegetarian but I've always been afraid that I'd just eat junk food all the time.
- I've always hated working out until I started going to Zumba. It's seriously the funnest workout ever. It's the only thing I've EVER looked forward to.

But even with those things against me, I have a real desire to be HEALTHY. My mom had a heart attack at the age of 38. My maternal grandfather died of a heart attack and my maternal grandmother died after going into a diabetic coma. They were in their very early forties. I need to be healthy for me and my family. I want to teach my girls to eat right and be active from an early age. I want it to be natural for them.

THE PLAN:
Exercise: I mentioned I found a new workout called TurboFire and that will be my exercise plan. I started it and made it 4 days.. and then quit. So tomorrow is day 1 and I am excited. There is a 90 day schedule, working out 6 days a week and I intend to follow that through to the end. I also want to start going to Zumba again.. either as a replacement for one of the days or in addition to my TF workout.

SOURCE

 Eating: I joined a nutrition challenge on Facebook and it starts TOMORROW! It's a clean eating challenge and it goes for 6 weeks. If you haven't ever heard of clean eating, basically you want to eat foods in their whole natural state. No preservatives or added junk. You eat lots of fruits, veggies, lean proteins and healthy carbs. I've been browsing lots of websites and really love the recipes and information on The Gracious Pantry.

By posting everything, I know it will help hold me to some accountability. Wish me luck! I'll post an update next week!

So there's this guy..

The 16th of April marked the day of mine and Justin's first date.. 8 years ago! We went to Applebee's and then back to my apartment to watch a movie. There was just something about him that I really liked. He was sweet, caring and focused. And besides that, he fit right in with my family, he cared for both of his parents who weren't in good health and he was crazy about me!

We dated for about 2 1/2 years before we got married.

And we were married for another 2 1/2 years before we had Isabella.

Daddy and Bella

And then of course, our magic number.. 2 1/2 years before we got pregnant again.

Daddy & Katelynn

 I'm so thankful that we took the time with each other before getting married and adding a baby to the mix. We definitely cherished the time that we had together first.

During our 8 years together, we have lost his mom, my dad and then his dad. He went to Arizona and got certified in mobile electronics and I finished college and got my degree, we started two businesses, we adopted two dogs, we had two kids, and the list keeps growing! Life has taught us a lot of lessons, including to be there for each other during the good times.. and the bad.

Not only is he my best friend but he is also the best dad that I could have chosen for my children. He is a loving and thoughtful daddy. He isn't afraid to play dolls and loves to teach Bella all about cars. Both of the girls adore him and so do I.

This post wasn't for anything special.. just because.

I love you Justin!

Our Fourth of July

Our fourth of July was a little lazy this compared to past years. We skipped the parade and slept in.

We went over to my sister's house for swimming and a BBQ. It was perfect!

Later on Bell's went to fireworks with my parents and I took the baby home to put her to bed.

It was a perfect, lazy and relaxing day!

Pouty Lip

Kate has the best pout ever! I finally caught a picture of it. So sweet :) She melts my heart!

Katelynn - 2 months old

Our little Katie Bug is already two months old! She is so darn cute! Everyone who meets her falls in love.

She had her two month appointment yesterday. She now weighs 11 lbs 5 ounces (80 percentile) and is 22" long(50 percentile). Her 0-3 month clothes are still pretty big on her.

-Smiles at anyone and everyone (started at 6 weeks)
-Hasn't started to lose her hair yet.. *knock on wood*
-Starting to like her swing
-"Talks" and coos
-She has found her hands
-LOVES her binky

She sleeps through the night usually from 10 PM to around 5 AM. I'm so thankful that my kids are good sleepers because mommy needs her beauty rest. We've been lucky so far! She is still a mommy's girl but daddy has a few tricks up his sleeve and she is starting to fall for them :)

Prepare yourself for some major cuteness..

Bella is still doing super good as a big sister. She loves helping out when she can and is doing a really good job sharing. I'm really really proud of her.