Thursday, February 28, 2008

New Clothes are a Girls' Best Friend....


Just wanted to tell anyone who cared that today I received the Spring Catalog for DownEast Basics. I love this store! Their clothes are excellent; fit wonderfully, and are so wonderfully priced!! They are also MODEST. It is so hard to find clothes (that aren't T-Shirts) that are a little more "trendy" for lack of a better word. Anyhow... go check them out at www.downeastbasics.com and request a catalog.....

So Much for Stomach Vaults......

Nice so I wake up this morning and Cameron proceeds to tell me that he was up with Kairi this morning about 5 am. She was throwing up!!!! NO WAY!!!!! This sucks. I may have chosen a career in the medical profession. I also will be the first to tell you that I can take the gore and junk pretty good, however, I don't do puke.......EVER!!!! So thankfully Cameron handled this without even waking me up. Although she did throw up this afternoon. It was really pathetic. She kept complaining that her chest hurt. Then she threw up, laid down and took a nap. She woke up and ate a whole bowl of Ramen. I really hope that it stays down. Oh and by the way, in case you couldn't tell I am really disappointed that my strong stomached child doesn't have the strong stomach I had hoped. This really makes me want to re-think this whole having kids thing. I can definitely take the baby spit up, but as they add table food, I don't do it so well. It is the kitten to cat drama. (Kittens are cute, but they grow to be cats.) So ya, babies are cute and cuddly and lovable, but they grow into lean, mean, table food puking machines. Definitely going to rethink the kid thing. At least for today........

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

New Element on the Sidebar.....

Stroke of genius..... This doesn't mean that is if it is your birthday you should check my blog, but it will be my way of recognizing you and whatever your life is doing. It is meant to let you know that someone is thinking of you ALWAYS. So...... Enjoy!!!! But forgive me if I am a little late!!!!

Monday, February 18, 2008

Mad, Mad, Mad, Madam Mim


As before, I mentioned that our family has been sick. I have just made it through the really bad part, and now Kairi is finding her way into it. Over the weekend, I have been wracked with fever, chills, body aches the whole she-bang. I think it is the flu that is going around that the flu-shot didn't cover. Whatever, I never get a flu shot anyway, anymore. Needless to say, it has sucked. For whatever reason, in my delirium probably, I envisioned myself laid up looking like Mad Madam Mim (minus the spots of course). Nice little vision to have while you are sick. The only problem now is that I look in the mirror and think to myself, "Wow! It would not take a lot to transform into Madam Mim." Very disheartening.... Even more disheartening is I actually think I have what made her sick. I watched a clip of "The Sword in the Stone" last night. You know the one with the wizards duel. Merlin turns into a virus (coincidence- I think not!) He proceeds to tell Mim that he has infected her and it starts out with spots all over her body. Followed by hot and cold flashes. Then violent sneezing. So let's review Spots?- nope! Hot and Cold flashes?- yup! Violent Sneezing?- yup! Anytime you sneeze while congested it is violent, I don't care who you are. So official diagnosis would probably be the "Merlin Virus." If I started hearing Merlin talking to me about my symptoms, I may have been very convinced that the only cure would have been to seek out Mickey Mouse and have him make me have fun. Of course in his home town- aka Disneyland!! Any excuse to go- right?! Anyhow back on track. It would probably be best to stay clear of here for awhile. Especially if you are related to Mad Madam Mim, or dragons!

Friday, February 15, 2008

Live Long and Prosper

Valentine's Day was Grandma & Grandpa Caldwell's 57th Anniversary. Huge Congratulations to you both. We love you both.

Snuggle Bunny


For Christmas, Grandma Winn made sock bunnies for each of the girls. Kairi enjoyed hers, but her sister loves it more. And not only one bunny- both bunnies. Kesslynn has confiscated them both, stripped them nude and she carries it around sucking on the arms, legs, or ears. It is very funny to watch, but she uses it as a comfort measure. She will walk around the house with this bunny hanging out of her mouth. Now my big concern is how do I wash them?

Favorite Things

I have kind of a hodge-podge of things I wanted to post about, so I thought that I would do just one post and let you sift through it.

#1. With the whole sick thing, I have not been going anywhere..... I mean anywhere. So I have been doing a lot of reading. My most recent adventure consisted of the "Twilight Trilogy." by Stephanie Meyer. Many of you may have already read it and awesome to you if you did. For those of you who haven't--- find yourself some time, and read them!!!! It has been a long time since I enjoyed a book, let alone 3. Twilight is book 1, New Moon is book 2 and Eclipse is book 3. I may be late on the bandwagon, but better late than never.


#2 Evidently, I am a book hound. Another favorite author of mine is for children's books. For those of you who have little kids, I am sure you have heard of Sandra Boynton. If not you'll want to check these books out. There are a handful of books that we have and we enjoy them all. In honor of Valentine's Day, though I am going to recommend "Snuggle Puppy" There is even music out there for it and it is so incredibly heart warming. For every other occasion I definitely recommend "Moo, Baa, LaLaLa" and "The Going to Bed Book" Little tiny babies even like them. So go get them. Oh and if you want to hear the "Snuggle Puppy" song go to youtube.com and type in Snuggle Puppy. You can hear the song there. The videos aren't impressive though.

The Reason...


So here is where you are clued into why I haven't posted in quite nearly 2 months. After we got back from New Orleans, the proverbial crap hit the fan. Kesslynn, poor baby, came down with the flu- bad! She started puking everything up. And all over everything. She would lay in my arms and sleep until she had to puke again. Now we aren't talking about a few days either. Nine Days!!!! 9 whole days!!!! I had her into the Doctor twice through it all and he still maintained it was the flu. I have my theories as to what was happening and when I put them into practice, she quit throwing up. Go figure! In the meantime, Cameron came down with it and recovered-- again clued me in to the fact that it may have started as the flu, but continued for another reason. Kairi and I are stomach vaults..... seldom had the flu and Kairi doesn't even know what it was. This was the first time that I KNOW it was the flu and Kairi has NEVER thrown up in her life. After Kess came down sick, we tried to explain to Kairi that if she felt like throwing up she needed to get to the bathroom- quick! Her response: "What is throwing up?" Cameron started to explain it to her, but I told him to not bother. Anyhow thankfully we didn't get that. However, about a week later Cameron comes down with a horrible cold. Three days later, Kairi does (She loves her dad- A LOT!) Next day, Me and Kesslynn. We are miserable: fever, chills, body aches, runny noses, coughs, sore throats, congestion, oh yeah and the whining, the whole bit. I am blogging just for something to do. Now after this is all said and done I am going to have to teach my kids to sleep in their own beds again and also impress upon them that mom and dad need to sleep at night.....

Our House, is a very, very, very fine house....



Well, the long awaited update on our house is here. We, well Cameron, has been working off his tail and getting stuff done. About the end of January we got insulation and then within another day we had the dry wall started. Those people can move.! They had our house dry wall hung, mudded and taped and textured in less than 2 weeks. We are currently in the process of hanging doors and trim. After that it is paint. Ya, Ya- we would have painted first, but with the program we are in everyone is getting white paint, so that is that. I've picked out my countertops, cabinets, light fixtures, flooring etc. It is finally starting to come together. The only downfall is that there are others in our group of 5,(they finally split the groups) that are still waiting for their four-way inspection (plumbing, electrical, HVAC, and framing). They are close though and with as quick as the dry wall and insulation went they should be caught up quickly. So there is our tale. No we don't know when we will be in. I have my hopes, but I'll keep them to myself so that I don't have to renig on them when it doesn't happen.

The Big Easy....

We've been home almost a month and I am just barely getting the chance to post about our family trip to New Orleans!!!!! We had so much fun!! Every year, Cameron has a buying trip that he goes on and the business pays for it. I have gone the last 2 years and it has been great fun. This year we came across a predicament. Cameron doesn't do the whole traveling thing well. So he likes me to come (it is one of probably 2 areas I have more patience in.) Kesslynn is still nursing and so I couldn't leave her. In previous years we have left Kairi with family and we had planned to do that this year. However, I thought that if they are going to be okay with sending the three of us then what is one more? So plans were made and we all went to New Orleans together. We've never traveled with kids and were a little concerned that it would not be enjoyable, but what the heck, you only live once-right!? We surprised Kairi at the airport that she was going to go on the plane. She did wonderfully. She handled take-off and landing and even some turbulence like a pro. Kesslynn was alright. She fussed a bit and slept, but she just couldn't get into the swing of flying as easily. Cameron took drugs and he managed--- I just made sure that all was well. I new going into this that Cameron would not be available to help me with the girls. So I made plans for things to do with them while we were there, including Cameron when he was around. We went to the Aquarium of the Americas and it is one of the top 5 aquariums in the nation. We saw all kinds of fish and aquatic life.They had several different "regions" from tropical to the bayou and we saw it all. There was even a chance to touch a shark (which I did--WooHoo for me!!) We talked with a number of people there and asked about the state of the aquarium after Katrina. One man told that the evacuated the employees and they weren't allowed back until about a month later. Unfortunately, most of the 10,000 fish were dead. I wouldn't have wanted to be one of the workers who had to clean that up. There was also a white alligator there and it had a most fascinating history. It is one of 16 alligators discovered hatching by a couple of fishermen. They rescued them and 14 survived. They would not have made it in the wild because their color would make them easy prey to predators. Anyhow he is not albino, just lacks pigment. Interesting. We also visited the Louisiana Children's Museum. This too, was a highlight. Kairi asked to go there everyday. It was two floors of child-friendly fun and discovery. There were areas for pretend play (an entire grocery store as well as a cafe) Interesting science displays, things that taught safety and much much more. We went twice and had so much fun. Both the girls and I enjoyed ourselves immensely. The second day Cameron came and had a ton of fun as well. We also took a ferry ride across the mighty Mississippi River and went to Mardi Gras World. 80% of all the Mardi Gras floats are built here. They are HUGE!!! I couldn't believe how big they were. We rounded the trip out with a jaunt to Jackson Square, toured the oldest cathedral still in use there and walked through the French Quarter. We also took a street car up to the New Orleans Museum of Art and were wowed by the beautiful works of art. We missed the Mardi Gras festivities by about a week, but that was okay. We still saw a great deal and enjoyed our time there.

snow, Snow, sNOw, SNOW, SNOW!!!!!



For those who aren't aware, Utah has been getting slammed with snow....lots and lots and lots of snow. Roofs are caving in because of the sheer amount of snow. Cameron tells me this is what it was like when he was a boy. If that is the case and this will continue year after year... I may need to move back to Nevada. Anyhow, so one day while Kess was sleeping, Kairi and I decided to take advantage of the sheer volume of snow. My intention was to build an igloo, but that fell apart when the snow was more like sand than snow. So I eyed the gazillion icicles hanging around and thought we could put this to good use. About 45 minutes later, we had a magnificent icicle fence and it glittered and gleamed in the sunlight. Beautiful.....

Just put one foot in front of the other....


I don't know that I posted this or not, so bear with me if I did. I try to update the girls progress so that the whole world can see what they are doing. Also because they are my girls and I am a very proud momma.... Kesslynn has been walking for months now, I just have not put a picture of her performing such act. So I am posting it now. She took her very first steps 2 days after she turned 9 months. It is so surprising how quickly they grow.