Abbey's Playtown with Meredith and Peyton

Well I think I started this post sometime back in September, although today (October 26th), I am going through my settings and notice this 'draft' in my posts! Met my sister at a really cute place called Abbey's Playtown down in Grand Prairie so the cousins could hang out for awhile! Should've gotten a pic of the girls on the HUGE swing they had hanging from the ceiling - that was probably the hit of the day, next to the "Extreme Roller Coaster" ride that went down the hall (much bigger than the plastic ones I've seen before!) If I can find the video clip from that (I'm sure it's sideways as most of my videos are) I'll post it :) Got it... hope it works below!

Kenna's 5th birthday!

This has been quite a week/weekend for Kenna! I am hoping 5 brings great things for her, and she really seemed to enjoy all her birthday moments this week. At school they sang to her (several times!) and she got to have her favorite cookies for snack, then Wednesday night we took her to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner! The girls had a blast running around (I'm sure Adelyn thinks it was her birthday too for all the fun they had). I am loving that they are finally old enough to do some games together and pretty much carry their own coin cups! :)

Then GrAnne and Grandad (my parents) came up on Friday to help us bake cookies (and a cookie pizza) for her party Saturday. Kenna may wind up being quite the baker, unlike me, and she loves to bake with GrAnne! My sister and her family came over for dinner, so it was pretty much birthday celebration for 3 days this week for my big 5 year old!

First Haircut!

At this point I'm going to have to work our way backwards through the summer posting some of the fun things we have done... but today was a BIG day, so I just had to get it posted! I have been putting off cutting Adelyn's wispy thin locks since she actually lets me put it up, and the bangs on McKenna drive me crazy, so just letting it grow out has been great... but I finally broke down and scheduled appointments for them to go at the same time since I thought that might make it better for Adelyn! And I had planned to break out the camera as we walked in the door and document the whole thing, but it's never as it's planned, right? Before I knew it she was drying Adelyn's hair and I freaked out and ran for the camera! Kenna's an old pro so she didn't really want her picture taken, but begging Adelyn to say cheese was the only real good way to keep her from fussing and wanting out of the chair - she sat through the cut pretty good, but didn't want to sit through any styling! A few spritzes of sparkles and some curls and viola! And yes, I kept the poor little 'mullet' that got cut off... big improvement!

Get me down!!!!
Well you didn't tell me I would get a lollipop when we were done!

Do I have to say cheese AGAIN?

A summer of surgeries, switches, and some sadness...

Well, well, well. Has it really been over a month since I have posted? I don't doubt it... things have been pretty crazy here the last month or so, and I just can't believe the first day of fall is next week! I'm looking forward to a new season though, and kicking it off with Kenna's birthday next week is a good way to start! I promise to be back soon with some fun pics from this summer, but first a little about this summer we've had...

Surgeries have included taking out tonsils and adenoids for BOTH girls - and at the same time!

It was a real tough 2 weeks in July before things were really back to normal - they both sleep better now, and I think in the long run we will be so glad we got it done when they were young....

Then the weekend before Joel's birthday we took a trip to Horseshoe Bay for some birthday golf, and the day we were coming back we went out on my parents' boat for a few hours in the morning for a little fun on the lake... well, Joel pulled some hamstring muscles trying to waterski, and had to have surgery last week to fix it! He's sporting a leg brace (Adelyn calls it his 'robot'!) for 4-6 weeks then he gets to work through physical therapy for awhile...

Switching from a PC to a Mac when our computer crashed (sometime in August - I've lost track now) has set me back a bit... I think once I get the hang of the different programs I will really like it! We opted to get a laptop so I can tote it with me to school sometimes, but since I hardly have any pictures on the Mac I haven't been real motivated to get on and post stuff (might be my motivation to get an iPhone soon - great pics posted right from your phone!).

Then at school they switched me from having Kenna's class as my homeroom to the young ones! I still teach the same Discovery curriculum during our rotations, but most of the kids in my homeroom are just now turning 3 - big change! Also means in the next six months I might have Adelyn move up to my class. That should be interesting, very interesting...

And finally, the sadness of summer - on Labor Day we decided to let our older Great Dane Canyon make the trip to heaven. After she started losing weight and really stopped eating earlier this summer, the vet located a mass in her abdomen that eventually just got to be too much for her. Without wanting to put her through surgery, we put her on some meds and a special diet, but by Labor Day none of that was working anymore. I have not wanted to talk about it too much since I was with her when they put her down, and even today thinking about it is hard. I have had some great support and know that it was one of the last unselfish things I could do for her - and she had a great and pretty long life for a Dane! I think I knew it was time when I gave her the go ahead to get on our bed that weekend (one of her favorite spots to be), and she just turned and walked away... She was our first 'kid', a wonderful dog, and loved by all who knew her. I leave you with one of my favorite last pics of her - sporting her favorite pose...