Trip To Albuquerque

Travis was gone to scout camp this week so we decided to head to Albuquerque to see my sister Amber and her family.  As usual the girls were great in the car and they loved hanging out with their cousins.  It was a very relaxing trip filled with swimming, playing, hanging out, and a little Chucky Cheese!  

Maddie and Kamree

Payton

Kenzie

Kamree

Maddie

Kenzie and Leah

Amber and Payton

Kamree and Kenzie

Leah sat on this horse waiting for her prince!

A little worn out

A lot worn out!

FSA Swim Party

We had our annual FSA (Families Supporting Adoption) summer swim party this week.  I LOVE getting together with our fellow adoption families, we always have such a fun time.  Our group tries to do a girl's night once a month and a family party once a quarter, we are a pretty close group.  It is always nice to get together with other people that truly understand all your struggles and all your joys of growing your family.

I love watching all the kids play together and having fun.  I love the socializing with other adults (since most of my conversations are with my kiddos) and who doesn't love pizza!  Here are some pics of our fun night.

Our FSA group

Travis and Kenzie

Happy Kenzie

Shanna and Brian (Davis was inside going to bed)

Getting sleepy

Sally with Olivia and Leah

Leah the fish

Joyce and Daisey

Jon and Kaylee

Janice and Regan

Olivia making the plunge

Me and Kenzie

Helping Leah catch the ball mid air

Sally and Olivia

Best Friends

This last week I have spent most of my days just sitting back and watching Leah and Kenzie play together.  Now that Kenzie is mobile and pretty fast, she and Leah do everything together.  As soon as Kenzie wakes up Leah rushes into the room, climbs into the crib and starts doing every thing she can to make Kenzie laugh.  Kenzie follows Leah every where, Leah can no longer go to the bathroom without Kenzie poking her head in to see where Leah went.

Leah leaving a trail of food for Kenzie

This morning we played hide-and-go-seek for about an hour, Leah's version.  Leah and I would run past Kenzie and into a room.  We would then sit and call Kenzie's name until Kenzie would army crawl to the room and poke her head in and both girls would erupt with laughter!  Then, we would do it again...run past Kenzie into a new room!

Leah does quiet time in her room during Kenzie's afternoon nap.  The last few days Leah has been asking to do an extra quiet time so Kenzie can do it with her.  I end up checking on them every few minutes just to make sure Leah is not trying to teach Kenzie to fly, or carry her up the bunk bed, or anything else a crazy 4 year old might try with her little sister.  They were both giggling and I went to check on them and this is what I found:

Leah is still very protective of Kenzie and is always making sure there are not little things on the floor she can choke on.  Yesterday Kenzie made her way into my bedroom and Leah quickly ran in and unplugged EVERYTHING and moved the cords so Kenzie would not chew on them.  She is such a great sister and the two are so fun to watch together.  We are so blessed to have these girls in our family!

Kenzie 8 Months and Leah 4 Years Old

Kenzie is eight months old now and is still growing fast.  She now Army crawls everywhere and loves to follow her sister around.  She still has only 2 teeth, but I swear more are going to come in any day now.  She is such a chill kid, she loves playing with her toys and is always smiling.  We are so blessed to have her as part of our family!

Leah is growing up too fast!  She is such a fun, intelligent, caring and sometimes sassy princess.  She has such a creative imagination, always playing with her imaginary friends (usually boys from church) and creating wonderful stories.  I love her more and more every day and we are so thankful the Lord brought her into our family!

The two girls together make up the perfect duo.  They play so well together and are always super excited to see each other.  They were definitely meant to be sisters!

Leah's Birthday Part 2 - Hospital Visit

After getting home from the Grand Canyon on Saturday, we were all worn out and went to bed.  At 12:30 Leah woke up hollering for me.  I went in her room and when I turned the light on I saw something that no mom wants to ever see...she had blood coming out her nose and her mouth, it was on her shirt and her pillow.  I got her to the bathroom and then woke Travis up, he got her all cleaned up while I changed my clothes.  I took her to the hospital, on the way there she vomited a bunch of blood, and then again when I was checking her in.  She ended up vomiting blood 9 times in an hour and a half, she was white as a ghost and just wanted to sleep.  

The doctor said that her scabs from her surgery had come off and she was bleeding really bad.  Apparently scabs usually come off around day 7 and hers waited until day 11.  Why she bled so much, they really don't know...they decided it was just something freaky!  (That is not comforting to a mother)  They admitted her and she ended up staying one more night so they could make sure her blood count did not drop anymore.  She was a trooper in the hospital and a very tough girl, she insisted on watching the nurse put the IV in and thought it was cool that she had "a needle in her arm!"  

She was so proud of the IV

She loved the food

The nurses at the hospital were great, they constantly wished her a happy birthday and gave her so many prizes.  We ended up bringing her presents to the hospital (we were so worn out from the Grand Canyon we were waiting to open them) and she had a fun time showing the nurse what she got.  

Leah's favorite part of the day was when we would bring Kenzie in to see her, both of their faces would light up and they would just start giggling.  

Leah also had a surprise visit from our friends and her best friend Landri. 

She also loved the "huge" toy room they had, and went in there as often as she could.

Painted ceiling, looks real!

She finally got to go home Monday morning!  The first thing we did when we got home was make Leah's birthday cupcakes and then we ate them!!

She got the big cupcake

Her teacher Miss Wendy stopped by at just the right time!

We told her to "dig in"

It may not have ended up as the best birthday, but we are glad she is doing great and we did our best to still make it fun.  We love you Leah and Happy 4th Birthday!