Carly’s Soccer Wrap-Up

Carly’s soccer season started in August with practices twice a week. Once games started after Labor Day they began playing games twice a week instead of practicing. We thought the format was a little strange, but her coach spent a few minutes before each game working with the girls on various skills so they did get a little time to practice. Carly’s last game was on October 12th. She played a solid season and quickly became known for her quick hustle.

She scored goals in nearly every game.

(I realize this is a terrible picture, but it’s the only goal shot I managed to capture at all)

Her team won most of their games and seemed to be fairly evenly matched with the other teams in the area their age. I think Justin and I are much to competitive because it was torturous to watch some of these girls at this age still go the wrong way or show a complete disregard for instruction from the coach. Carly was rock star – she played hard and had fun.

Keeping the goal in sight!

She was the only girl on her team to be voted MVP during the season and was given an awesome soccer necklace from her coach.

(The other girls received their necklaces at the end of the season soccer party)

Carly’s team was called the Husky’s and consisted of girls from three different elementary schools – her coach brought the team mascots to the final game for a team picture.

18 months

As of today Katie is 18 months and one week old.

Usually turning 18 months old is a much anticipated milestone because it’s the age that kids can attend nursery at church, giving parents two hours of peaceful Sunday classes; however, since Justin is a nursery worker she’s already been going to nursery for several months with him.

I think Katie might be our most curious toddler. She likes to get into cupboards, explore her sister’s room for restricted treasures, and make messes.

Compared to many other children though I consider ourselves very lucky - thankfully we still haven’t had any major coloring incidents, make-up messes, or items submerged in the toilet. Knock on wood…

Katie still takes 2 naps a day if our schedule allows.

We had a few weeks last month that I feared my sweet happy baby was turning to the dark side, but thankfully she was just cutting her four pointy teeth simultaneously, and once they all tore threw her gums she was back to her sweet, content self.

Katie prefers to feed herself; once her container is empty I can then step in and feed her everything she dropped on her tray, bib, and face.

The past few weeks we’ve noticed that Katie wants to have more control over things. Sometimes she’ll refuse to wear a certain pair of pajamas (she currently prefers jammies without feet). She’s also shows some interest in picking out her own clothes in the morning. This new independent streak also means she doesn’t want to sit in her booster seat in the kitchen anymore. Sometimes I’ll let her just stand by a chair and eat.

Other times she’ll sit on a regular chair and eat, but this can be quite messy since she can hardly even see over the table.

As you can see Katie has also found her cheesy smile.

Katie loves her binkie and unfortunately she’s become quite attached to it… I’m fine with her having it in bed, but we need to do better keeping it there.

I’m not entirely confident in Katie’s ability to come down the stairs yet, though she goes up several times a day on her own. Sometimes I’ll find her sitting at the top of the stairs dangling her little feet; testing her limits no doubt.

Has learned to climb onto couches and some chairs. Yesterday I actually found her standing on the kitchen table. Katie has even managed to find a way to look outside the windows that are too high for her to see out normally.

Katie is beginning to say some words – hi, "sh" for shoe, ball, car, “bu” for book, “bo” for bowl, dada, ma, “k” for truck, “aba” for Abigail, and “nana” for banana. She also has a few signs she uses regularly like: more, drink, all done, and binkie. We love that she now nods yes or no when we ask her something.

Katie is often at the mercy of everyone else’s schedules and has been quite the trooper at soccer practices and games, even in the freezing cold or the pouring rain.

Katie loves to play outside and has reached the point where she can play at the park and I don’t have to follow her around everywhere. That is always a wonderful milestone for parents.

Katie is generous with her kisses. She puckers up her little lips and makes a little humming noise. Katie kisses are the sweetest!

This girl is loved!

Remlinger Farms

Saturday, October 8th was our community fall picnic at Remlinger Farms. We waited too long to register for it so we ended up on the waiting list and didn't find out we would be able to go until the day before. So glad we got the opportunity and in the future will be one of the first to register so we don't miss out on this fun activity.

Abigail had a soccer game that morning so we arrived a little late, but there was still plenty of food. All you can eat hamburgers, hot dogs, BBQ chicken, corn on the cob, chips, soda, slaw, and a variety of fresh pies.

We'd heard conflicting comments whether the rides were included in our discounted admission and were thrilled that to find that all the fun the farm had to offer was included. The kids were $5 for the huge lunch, unlimited rides, and a free pumpkin - SCORE! And Katie was free!

We went to Remlinger a few times when the girls were small, but it’s been years since we’ve been back. It's a really cute park and the rides are perfect for young kids.

This was Jason’s first time riding on amusement park rides (not sure you can count Disneyland when he was only 15 months old). We went on the roller coaster first and I could tell he was nervous while we waited in line, but he didn't hesitate to give it a try. When the ride ended he had a huge smile on his face and exclaimed, "That was awesome!" Next month we’re returning to Disneyland for a few days with Justin’s family so hopefully Jason (and the girls) keep their sense of adventure.

I think the pumpkin ride is the cutest of all the rides and fitting on this perfect fall afternoon. Everyone took a turn (or two) throughout the day.

The kids know that their Dad can get any spinning type of ride going ridiculously fast – he shows no mercy on those kids.

The kids could have stayed in the hay maze for hours. I had such a hard time getting them out there so we could move on to something different.

Try to ignore the ridiculous man standing in this picture. The kids stood there for several minutes waiting for him to get a clue and get out the shot but he clearly didn't catch on.

You can’t go to Remlinger Farms and not ride on the little train.

Jason was very excited about driving the antique cars. He took his job very seriously. Katie did a great job helping him steer from the backseat as well.

Another classic Remlinger ride is the boats, perfect for the very young. Katie spent most of the short ride dipping her hand in the water and watching the plastic ducks floating along side her.

I was really excited that the kids had the opportunity to ride the ponies while we were there. Carly has read several books this year about horses so I knew how much this would mean to her. She's a natural.

We learned from experience a few years ago that Abigail is allergic to horses and will puff up like a balloon if she rides so she had to miss out while everyone else got a turn.

This was Katie’s first time riding and as you can see she wasn't sure what to make if the situation. She loves animals and as we waited in line for our turn she kept making growling noises at the ponies, once on though she was perfectly still and silent.

Carly and Jason also rode another kind of horse.

Looks like this will be the last year for Carly.

The small ferris wheel was another big hit. Jason enjoyed swinging his cage back and forth as it went around and around. Katie looked so cute sitting next to Abigail and didn’t want to get off when the ride was over.

Abigail and Carly can’t pass up an opportunity to conquer a rock wall.

We ended up staying until they shut everything down at 6pm and we had no choice but to head for home – near the end of the day we basically had the park to ourselves and could ride anything we wanted without a wait.

It always feels great to come home after a fun filled day with our family. We can’t wait to return to Remlinger next year!

Mini Posts

I have several events to post in the near future (and Justin, don’t think I’ve forgotten you were going to post your “Summer with Dad” photos), but I’m feeling more random than focused so mini-posts will have to do for today.

1. We’re in the mist of a crazy week – the busiest week of the year for Justin at work. He came home from work at 1am on Monday night (or Tuesday morning), slept for a few hours then was back up at 6am. Hopefully we’ll have another D.A.D. Day after this week so I can have a little M-O-M time to catch up.

2. We are a week into our new egg-tolerate diet. It is wonderful. Not being used to cooking much with eggs, I ran out of eggs only two days into it. We’re stocked up now though and I’m loving all the possibilities. Abigail is keeping a list of all the foods she’s been able to try this week. The down side of this is the extra pounds we’re putting on.

3. I survived my first (noticeable) earthquake a few weeks ago. Jason, Katie, and I were in the bonus room playing one afternoon. I was laying on my stomach and felt the house move. It didn’t last long, but it was strong enough that Jason noticed as well. I couldn’t find anything online about it that afternoon, but when our local paper came out a week later Justin spotted a little blip proving my suspicions.

3.2 magnitude earthquake

4. For weeks I’ve been dropping Jason off at various homes, twice a week, for two hours of pre-school. It was inevitable – unavoidable – I had to take my turn as “teacher”. I really put off planning my lessons, but to be honest once I got started I actually enjoyed it… that’s the computer part of it. Implementing it wasn’t as much “fun”. I had a boy in tears less than two minutes after he arrived – he’s a sensitive, energetic little boy. I survived this week though and have another month before I have to do it again.

Our letter of the week was “E” so we made elephant headbands

Our theme for the week was “apples” – Jason did great gluing the apples to the right apple tree

5. After 6+ months of looking, I finally ordered a kitchen table. I still have to finalize the finish on it, but the deposit has been paid and I am really excited about it. Granted I’ve never even seen it, but I think it will be perfect. Now I just have to wait the LONG 14-16 weeks for it to arrive. Hopefully that will give me enough time to pick out some chairs to go along with it.

6. We thought we moved from a windy neighborhood, but that was nothing compared to the wind we get here… and from what we’re told it will only get worse (apparently someone at church has had a trampoline crash through their window). Carly’s soccer game on Monday was cold, wet, and very windy. At one point a gust came through with such force one of the other mothers lost her umbrella – we watched it sail up high in the sky until it drifted out of sight…. very Mary Poppin’s like. I had to sit with my legs wrapped around the pole on our large umbrella the whole game just to keep it grounded.

7. New favorite show this season… Revenge. Have you seen it? It’s an awesome show that leaves me excited for week after week. We’re hooked.

8. At least twice this week, completely out of the blue, Jason has said how much he misses his Grandma Kesler. My Mom has been on her mission in Hong Kong for only about 2 ½ months, but we haven’t seen her since last Christmas. Busy lives and a 13-hour time difference make it hard to catch each other on Skype. We miss you Mom! Hopefully I can fix our internet soon so we can actually have more than a three minute conversation without being disconnected.

Allergy Update

Today was our fourth visit to the allergist in the past five weeks.

Back in January I took Jason and Abigail to the allergist to discuss the possibility of introducing eggs (in baked goods only) into their diet. My hope was that we'd get permission to perform an "oral challenge", where they would slowly eat something with egg under the doctor’s supervision. If their bodies didn't react then we could introduce them to a whole new wonderfully delicious world, it really would be life changing and make feeding my family so much easier. She did a skin test and decided their egg allergy was still too severe to attempt the oral challenge. We were disappointed, however, she told us to come back in 6 months to reevaluate.

Because we moved since then I decided to schedule their follow-up with a allergist closer to us (and with hopes that she would be more lenient).

Visit #1 was Jason’s skin test. Unfortunately, yet not surprising, he still reacted to egg (though only to fresh egg, not commercial). I explained to the doctor that as a toddler he ate baked goods without issue (unfortunately, years ago we were incorrectly advised to remove all egg from his diet resulting in his egg allergy actually worsening over the years). She decided it was worth a try so we left happy and excited to return for the oral challenge.

Visit #2 was Abigail’s skin test (bummer, that they couldn't fit both kids in on the same day). Abigail's egg allergy has always been more severe then Jason’s so we knew she'd react, which she did, but I was able to convince the doctor to let Abigail participate in the oral challenge with Jason so long as I knew the risks involved and that her chances weren't as good.

Abigail school class was asked recently to write about something they DESPISE, she informed me last night that she is writing about allergies. Imagine going to birthday parties and never getting to eat the birthday cake, having to surrender most of your Halloween and Easter candy cause you can't eat it, and going to a restaurant and only having one item on the menu you can eat. Because she has always handled these restrictions with such maturity, accepting it without argument or complaint, I was surprised and felt badly that she chose this as the thing she most despises.

Visit #3 was Katie’s turn to get a complete workup. Because we already had two kids with food allergies, we’ve always been careful what we gave Katie to eat. She'd never eaten anything with nuts, fish, or anything full-on egg-y. Several months ago someone in church gave Katie some cereal, Katie put it in her mouth then spit it out, she did this a few times before I caught on and within a few minutes she had red hives all around her mouth. Come to find out the cereal had nut in it and we inadvertently discovered that three of our four children are allergic to nuts. Thankfully, she didn't swallow anything so we didn't experience anything life threatening. Not wanting to be surprised again we decided have Katie tested so we would know what else we need avoid. A skin test requires the suspected allergens be pricked into the skin so it's not very comfortable. Katie did awesome though and didn't cry at all as they pricked her entire little back will all sorts of common allergens.

Just to give you something to compare – here are the welts on Abigail’s back when she was tested in January 2010.

We were surprised (and thrilled) with the results. Katie is ONLY allergic to peanuts. My greatest fear was that we'd come home with a long list of allergies including new ones that we aren't already dealing with, further complicated our lives. So peanuts, and only peanuts, was great news!

Visit #4 was Abigail and Jason’s oral challenge early this morning. I had a special cupcake/muffin recipe to make and bring with us. The appointment was to go as follows:

• Check-in, examine body for existing redness, rash, or swelling
• Eat 1/8 of a cupcake
• Wait 15 minutes, check for reaction (any reaction would immediate stop further exposure)
• Eat 1/4 of a cupcake
• Wait 15 minutes, check for reaction
• Eat 1/2 of a cupcake
• Wait 15 minutes, check for reaction
• Eat a full cupcake
• Wait 90 minutes, check for reaction

If allowed to progress through the entire process we would be at the office up to four hours. We came prepared with books, DS's

and movies

I spent my time typing this here novel on my phone

We were happy that they both reached the full cupcake stage

After waiting 90 reaction-free minutes we met with the doctor and were given the most exciting news... they can BOTH start eating food with baked egg! There are a few exceptions - still nothing heavily concentrated in egg like french toast or omelets, no ice cream with egg, mayonnaise, fried rice, etc... Of course we need to take it slow and keep a close eye on them, but they are thrilled!

And so am I! My recipe book is about to multiply radically – meals that we can ALL eat… my whole family. To make sure they don’t have any delayed reactions, they can’t eat anymore egg today, but starting tomorrow they are good to go. I'm thinking homemade rolls are a must... and for dessert??? the possibilities are mind-boggling!

Conference Weekend

I've mentioned before that I'd love to have my family quarantined at home. Not allowed to run errands, go to work or school, no appointments, just time at home playing together and working on that never-ending household to-do list. This past weekend was about as close to that as I can expect given our current circumstances. It was conference weekend, which means the leaders of our church speak to us during four two-hour sessions of conference. It's a time for us to refocus on what's truly important.

We spent Saturday morning at soccer games – leaving the house at 9am and not getting back til close to 1pm. Before heading home we ate lunch at Herfy’s (a small local diner with yummy fries – and fry sauce, a rarity in these parts).

Once home we watched the Saturday morning session of conference (yeah, for DVR’s). On Friday afternoon, our home teacher brought by cookies and conference packets for each of us to work on as we listened to conference. The kids had lots of fun coloring in the ties for each of the apostles and doing the little activities in the packet - Abigail’s packet included areas to take notes as well.

My visiting teacher gave me a neat little basket full of conference goodies: licorice, a pen and notebook, a mug and hot cocoa, popcorn, tissues, etc… the attached note had a cute little explanation for each of the items.

I’m grateful for people that come up with these cute ideas and share them with our family.

Justin headed down to Auburn Saturday afternoon/evening to attend the Priesthood session of conference with a friend. The kids and I got out our 72-hour kits for their annual clothing and food update. The kids look forward to this each fall cause they get to eat all the food out of their kits throughout the weekend. Which always means we’re eating soup for dinner, beef jerky and granola bars for snacks, and fruit leather for dessert.

(I braided Carly’s hair as we watched conference – something my sister and I used to do when we were kids – she slept in them Saturday night and had quite the fro on Sunday)

Hopefully, I can manage a trip to Winco in the next week or so to restock our 72-hour kits so we can move them out of the family room and back into the garage until next year.

Katie’s kit consisted of three days worth of baby food. My baby from last October has certainly changed in the last 12 months. Thankfully, she’s not a picky eater and had no problem eating pureed squash for dinner.

I love a Sunday morning that I don’t have to be in drill sergeant mode to get Justin and the kids out the door for church. Instead we lounged around in our pajamas, cooked pancakes for breakfast, and enjoyed the rest of Conference.

There were several talks that I really liked, but as a mother of three daughters, I’ve gotta say my favorite was Sister Elaine S. Dalton’s that focused on raising happy, well-adjusted daughters in today’s increasingly toxic world. She concentrated her thoughts on the father’s role in this, but much applies to mothers as well. The highlight for me was when she expressed to fathers that, “The most important thing a father can do for his daughter is to love her mother.” Sure I like it because that counsel also holds some perks for me, but I honestly believe it is true. Our three daughters adore their Dad. He has a special relationship with Abigail and Carly that I will never be a part of and I love that. Miss Katie desires more and more of Justin’s care and attention as she gets older as well. The relationship my girls have with Justin will continue to play a crucial role in the young women they become, and we are blessed that he recognizes that.

After the Sunday afternoon session we decided to venture down to Justin’s parents. Linda made her yummy chicken soup for dinner - yes, more soup, but it wasn’t from a can or styrofoam cup and it tasted delicious. The kids love playing with their cousins and grandparents and we ended up staying until it was time to get the kids home for bed.

It really was a great weekend. No we didn’t necessarily accomplish anything around the house on my to-do list, but we played games, cuddled, wrestled, talked, feasted on lots of soup and most importantly the gospel.