Thanks

I am totally overwhelmed with all of the responses to my post yesterday. I sat here this afternoon reading all the comments and thanking my lucky stars I have so many amazing friends/family members who care about me and my family.

I am much more calm today. I have done some research and talked to a few people. I feel a lot less scared. There is just something about the unknown that makes me panic, especially when it comes to my kids. Things are looking up and I have chilled out enough to know that she is going to be just fine...even if there is a surgery involved (fingers crossed it doesn't go that way). Kenna is such a sweet little girl, I am just glad to have her. Thank you to all who are sending your prayers. They are much appreciated, and in fact, I think have already helped. We will be meeting with the specialist up in Sioux Falls on May 18th (that is the soonest they could see her). We will take it from there and know what we need to do next to get her to 100% and hopefully walking soon!

It's Raining, It's Pouring...

As some of you know, I brought Makenna into the Doctor again on Monday. He wanted to see her if she still wasn't walking by 16 months. His gut told him to take some X-Rays of her legs and hips although there was not a lot of evidence of Hip Dysplasia. Well, instead of the all clear phone call I was expecting this morning, they asked me to come in asap and meet with the Doc. They told me that it was Hip Dysplasia in her left hip and that we would need to go to the Peds Ortho Doc in Sioux Falls. I know it is not the end of the world, but when something is wrong with your children, it is STRESSFUL! I feel bad for not being able to catch it earlier and I hope it can be fixed without surgery. I have been reading some articles online and for the most it looks like if you catch it by 6 months you can brace their legs, unfortunately a lot of them say that if you don't catch it when they are infants, the best option is surgery. Really, hip surgery on a one year old? Just makes me sad. For now, I am going to hope it doesn't come to that. It all depends on the severity.

I guess for me, it just makes me wonder if all those times I questioned why she wasn't walking yet I should have done something more. Guess it is what it is. We will have to wait and see when we can get into the specialist. Wish us luck, and maybe send a few prayers Kenna's way...

Here are a couple articles about it if you're curious:

http://orthopedics.about.com/od/pediatrichipinjuries/a/dysplasia.htm

http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/uvahealth/peds_hrnewborn/ddh.cfm

Side Note

Yesterday was Collin's last day of classes....EVER (I hope)! We went out to breakfast with the girls to celebrate. Gotta be weird being in school for 20+ years and then all of a sudden being done. We are so proud of him. Next week, finals. Two weeks, GRADUATION BABY!!!!

Duck Pond

One of these kids is not like the others...but she thinks she is!

We have had some beautiful weather this week (I already have a tan line!). So, Nichole and I decided to bring the girls up to the duck pond in Yankton. It is a beautiful pond where they can feed the ducks and fish and there are picnic tables and a playground. They had a blast and it was hilarious to watch. Some of those geese were HUGE (almost as tall as the girls!) and when the girls would yell, they would honk back SO loud, it would scare them and they would run away. So funny. We had a great time and I am glad we made it there at least one more time before we leave! I thought this one was a nice view of the whole park. It's so pretty.

This is the best shot I got of Kenna with the geese. They wouldn't go any closer.

This poor little lady had a rough day. She had a broken leg or something and the males seriously took advantage of that. Someone had called the police because she was being "attacked". The police informed us all that ducks do not "willingly mate". The males force themselves on the females in other words. I don't know how much this officer knew about ducks, but that is sure what it looked like to me. And the poor thing was having to try and fight off two and three at a time. It was kind of sad to watch...

P.S. For those wondering how the car situation turned out. We tried two different things Wednesday night ourselves. Didn't work that well. Thursday we brought it in to the shop. They said they would be able to buff them right out. Well, we went back to pick it up and it looked WORSE! The manager told us the guys must have not sanded it and to leave it there. So, we went back 3 hours later and it looked better, but not good. Also, when we got there there was a new scratch! One that none of us recognized and was deeper than all the others the girls had done. We couldn't prove it though....so we were just SOL. He said he didn't know why they didn't come out but that he had never had that problem....of course! He told us we would needed to get it all painted. Ouch. We went home and tried one last thing. A paint touch up pen I got at the store, it actually worked pretty well. They are satisfied and told us that they don't want us to pay for the car to get re-painted. They are good friends! It all turned out ok in the end... except for our car...

Just One More Thing...

That we REALLY didn't need right now.

Why is it that when you already have a million things going on, and financial stresses above and beyond that something bad always happens?

I don't know, but that is sure how I feel today. It was a BEAUTIFUL day here, so naturally, we spent the afternoon outside. Makenna was with us so we were in the back (she will only crawl on the grass, because the cement hurts her knees). Marlee disappeared to the front for a few minutes. They always ride their bikes in front so I didn't think much of it. I then realized I could see her bike. Hmmm... if she wasn't riding her bike, what was she doing up there? So, I went to check on her. I turned the corner and saw what I suspected to be Marlee and Olivia coloring in the dirt on our neighbor/friends car. When I got closer I saw that they had ROCKS in their hands. They were writing on the cars with ROCKS. I almost died. The hood of my friends (who will remain nameless, b/c I don't know if she wants everyone to see) nice little black car was covered in circles and squiggles. I was mortified. I panicked, screamed at Marlee, gave a swift pat on the behind and then assessed the real damage. They had gotten the front AND back of that car, a little bit on the same couples other car, the hood of my car AND the front of Nichole's (Olivia's mom)Van. I can NOT believe they did this. We worked through the afternoon trying to buff out the scratches and repair the damage, but to no avail. We will be trying another approach tomorrow, and if it doesn't work we will have to take it to the shop. Needless to say, our car won't be getting fixed at this point.

I was just so disappointed and frustrated. Not only did I stress all day about dealing with her punishment, but also the financial stress of getting it fixed plus the embarrassment of your child doing something like this! This is the LAST thing we wanted or needed to be spending our time and money on. Graduation is in 2 weeks, we have friends and family trickling in starting next Friday, Collin is stressed with finals, and we just had to dish out $2,500 for a BAR class. Anyway, seems like life never fails to throw you a curve ball, especially when you don't feel like playing the game! Ok, I am done ranting....just had to get it out of my system. I am sure SOMEDAY I will laugh at this.... but it's definitely not today.

Omaha Zoo (Part 2)

So here is the story behind our weekend. The girls and I took off for Lincoln after Marlee got done with school on Thursday. We were going to meet my life-long friend Abby and her baby boy Chase. We stayed at Megan's house, a friend of Abby's from high school. It was so nice of her to let us all crash there, and she was SO much fun and a great help with the kids. We got there (to Megan's)around 4:00. We met baby Chase and hung out with them for a couple hours, went to dinner, hit up Target (THANK YOU....oh, how I miss Target) and went back to go to bed. Friday we woke up and got ready to head to Omaha. It is about an hour drive.
We had SO much fun at the zoo. The aquarium and the gorilla's were my favorite parts. They had these cool little bubble things that you could crawl in and actually kind of be in the habitat with that animals. It really is a cool Zoo.

This African Lion was CRAZY! I swear if this glass wasn't there we would have all been dead. He had a crazy look in his eye and he was eating his own tail! It was all scarred and bleeding. Really creepy!

The butterfly pavillion was cool. They have a place at the end with a big mirror where you have to check for "hitch hiking butterflies"

The aquarium was amazing. They had a walkway that was all the glass tank and the sharks and sting rays could swim right over the top of you. Marlee was scared to go in at first but, once I told her it was just Bruce and Dori she felt ok about it.

(Us in the walkway. It didn't turn out very good, but it's one of the only ones I had with all of us in it!)

Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures with Me, Abby and Megan...maybe next time. Thanks girls for a fun trip!

Omaha Zoo (Part 1)

Gorillas!!!!

One of my absolute FAVORITE things to see at the Zoo has always been the gorilla exhibits. This was our first time at the Omaha Zoo, but they definitely have the best gorilla habitat I have ever seen. It was AWESOME! They have little bubble type windows in the habitat so you can actually be in right next to them. You get so close it is truly amazing. I could have spent hours in there! I think they are beautiful and special animals. They act so human sometimes. I had to post these tonight, before all the other Zoo pics I took (once again, I went WAY overboard) for my sister Nikki. Her favorite animal has always been the gorilla. I couldn't help but think of her while we were in there and know how much she would have loved it. For me...it was magical! LOVED IT!

We started calling Marlee "Gorilla-Girl" because while we were going through the exhibit, wherever she went to look, a gorilla would come sit by her. It was crazy!
Exhibit A:B:C:

This was the Daddy. He was HUGE!

This little gorilla here, is our friend Bambio. She was funny....you'll see why...
She was totally picking her nose at us...AND EATING IT! Just
like a normal 3 year old!

She was one of several in this specific habitat. She had a sister Baina and her Mom and Grandmother. It was kind of cool to see a whole family in there.

Fun Fact: Her mom was the first Mother of a test-tube gorilla baby!

It's HERE, It's HERE!!!

Here it is, the book that deprived my children of TLC for almost 2 weeks while making it..

I got my BLOG BOOK today. I have been impatiently waiting since I finished it a few weeks ago. I LOVE it. It turned out exactly how I wanted it to. It is simple, classic and I am so pleased. I have several people who have asked me about it, and wanted to see how it turned out, so I took a few shots. It ended up being almost 200 pages in all. A LOT of pictures. Since I haven't been scrap booking lately, at all really, it will be a perfect way to reflect back on 2008! On a completely unrelated topic. Why are pig-tails SO cute on little girls? I have been pulling Kenna's hair back that way lately, and I think she just looks so stinkin' cute!

Easter (part 2)

Well, I finally went through my other 200 pictures from this week and got it some what narrowed down. We had SO much fun this year, I think because Marlee is getting older and really starting to understand things.

We did and Easter Egg hunt at home, in the back yard with some of the neighbors:Kenna didn't do much hunting...
Easter Egg Hunt at the Nursing Home:This is one of the more freakish looking bunnies we saw this year...Marlee was lucky. She got to go in the 1-3 year old group, since she was one of the oldest ones, she cleaned up. Then, we made her share!We dyed eggs:

I caught Marlee admiring her work in most of the pictures...

And of course...the Easter Bunny cameShe got a princess digital cameraIf there was such a thing as a Bed-Head-Bunny contest...she would have it in the bag!