Stayin' Alive

We're still here! Yes, it's been some time since I blogged. I'm having a hard time finding balance between my TWO new jobs, the kids, the husband, and activities I enjoy. Now that we are settling into more of a routine, I hope to have more time for the things I enjoy (other than my kiddos!). In addition to the new routine we've been trying to get established, we have been BUSY!

We celebrated a birthday. Kendra turned 5, and we celebrated with a pool party at her favorite water park. We invited all of her favorite people, and many showed up! Aside from the minor cake disaster (butter cream transfers and black icing in a cooler for several hours is not a good idea), we had a GREAT time!

I got to take a trip with the girls to fabulous Las Vegas. I missed my family terribly the three days I was gone, but it was a great time with one of my best friends, and some new friends!


We had our first visit from the tooth fairy. Kendra has now lost her first (and second) tooth. This was a very exciting time. Our tooth fairy is rather ditsy, though! She forgot to get the tooth, and had to come back for it the next night!


We visited the pumpkin patch. Alexis had a great time throwing hay and following the goats. Kendra was a little more adventurous. She really enjoyed jumping on the hay bales, going through the maze, and riding the zip line!

We got all dressed up for Halloween. We did get to go trick or treating as a family to the community event one evening. Unfortunately, though, we had the stomach virus attack our family, so Alexis and I were not able to go out Halloween night. (I don't think she really noticed, especially since her sister was kind enough to share her candy with her).

We (I) encountered a deer. Not fun.

Four days later, we encountered another deer. Even less fun.

We've also been keeping a close eye on our baby girl. We truly feel like we dodged a bullet, but we are not out of the woods yet. We are closely monitoring her development. We started going too a new pediatrician, and she felt that AJ was delayed in the speech area. We had her evaluated by a speech pathologist, and she felt like AJ was slightly delayed in her expressive language. We will begin meeting with her once a month to monitor her, and if we can't get her caught up, or if she regresses at all, we will get yet another referral to a pediatric neurologist. Honestly, though, we think she is doing just fine, and her language has really started to blossom. We are extremely thankful for this. Our new pediatrician is very understanding, and actually spent some time during her residency at the hospital we want to take AJ to next, should we need another referral. She has stressed to us that while it is a serious condition, hers is mild enough that we have some freedom to make decisions on what we do about it.

That's about all we've been up to! We had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving, and enjoyed spending time with each of our families, but more on that later!