pictures

I fell behind on pictures and missed a few days. I still need to dump the card on here and get them up. I'll do that soon. Maybe tonight!

Menu Plan Monday

I was going, going, going all weekend with, Divine Consign, the consignment sale I partake in twice a year. Friday night I was dropping off, Saturday I was shopping at it, and Sunday I volunteered all day, and then we went over to the in-law's house for chili mac. So, we have 3 carry overs from last week.

Cowboy Stew and cornbread muffins (this is baked beans, onions, beef & potatoes with salt & pepper to taste - there are several different recipes out there but I kinda made it up as I went along, like subbing ground beef instead of stew meat, because it's what we had already in the freezer)
Pulled Pork tacos with black bean & corn salsa
Deep Dish Pizza Casserole (I will also add mushrooms & onions to a portion - the part the kids won't be eating)
Leftovers
Beef Goulash
Copycat Whataburger bacon, egg & cheese taquitos (scrambled eggs, bacon & american cheese inside a tortilla with salsa)

Menu Plan Monday

Chicken fajitas, beans, chips and queso
Brown Sugar Glazed Pork Chops, mashed potatoes, broccoli
Pancakes, eggs, bacon
Leftovers
Pulled Pork tacos with black bean salsa
Beef Goulash
Cowboy Stew and cornbread

Smartypants!

Jonathan kept running away from me while I was trying to put his shoes on, so I told him he had until I got to 3 to come to me so I could put them on.

Me: Onnnnne!
Jonathan: Twoooooooo!

And I lost it. Punishment is not very effective once you start laughing, but he did stop running away from me since we were both laughing, and I got him to sit still so we could get his shoes on. So, I still won, right?

43.365 Valentine party cookies!

We made cookies for Jonathan's Valentine's Day party at MDO. Kaylin helped me make them. She did pink sprinkles and I did red. We had a slight mishap with the pink sprinkles at first. I had to buy a new jar of them, and apparently the holes are twice the size of the other sprinkle jars I have. As soon as Kaylin tipped it over they just flowed out! We had a pile of pink sugar covering one ball of dough and in a mound on the cookie sheet as well. So, we rolled that one in it and continued with the rest of them, just rolling them in that one little pile of sugar.

42.365 Candles

I was going to meet my friend Carla tonight to get her candles order to her, but we decided to postpone until I would be headed her direction, next weekend. So, since I had her candles out and ready to go, that's what I took a picture of. I had not yet trimmed the wick, but they are trimmed now.

41.365 100th day of school!

Today was the 100th day of school. This was her marshmallow sculpture, that she put back together at home. They had a long day of different projects where they had to count to 100 pieces of snack mix, read stories about the 100th day of school, write 100 on crackers with easy cheese, etc. They asked parents to volunteer and help out in the classrooms, which I did for a few hours. Then, when they went to specials (P.E., music, art) I went home for a little bit, picked up lunch & went back up to the school to have lunch with Kaylin. She really enjoyed her 100th day of school!

40.365 Long day!

Jeremy had a long day at work, apparently, and fell asleep in "his chair" watching TV. He doesn't know I took this picture. hehe!

39.365 Valentine mailbox

This is Kaylin's valentine treat box that she had to make to take to school. She even drew a line for me to cut a slit in the top of the box!

38.365 Valentine treats

These are Kaylin's valentine's. They are chopped crayons, melted together in a heart shape for a marbled crayon. When you color with it comes out in the various colors. I put several in a little treat baggie & sealed with a heart sticker. She loved making these so much that we had to make some to keep at home!

37.365 Kaylin's surgery

As most of you know, Kaylin was born with a cleft lip and palate. She had surgery at 3 months old to close her lip and again at almost 1 year to close her palate & get ear tubes. She had a second set of tubes put in her ears at 19 months, but that is the last surgery she had. She was scared of the upcoming surgery and would start crying any time she heard the word. Of course, she's overly dramatic very sensitive anyway and tends to cry at very small insignificant things as well. She has yearly check-ups with her surgeon, who we saw in November. At that time he told us that he wanted to do surgery to try and repair her left nostril, which was not symmetrical with the right one. He told us he likes to get this done before they start 1st grade, because that's when the teasing tends to pick up. So, after talking with him and determining that surgery should be fairly simple and a fast recovery, we scheduled it for February 6th, as that was a Staff Development day, so Kaylin was out of school. That would give her the weekend to recover, though Dr. F told us that she should be fine by the next morning.

So, we made our way to Dallas nice and early (I almost said bright, but it was still dark out) for her surgery. It was scheduled for 9am, but we were to check-in at 7am and we are at least an hour from the hospital. We got there early, got her checked in and settled, talked with the nurses, she got to watch tv for a while and then it was time for the goofy juice. Goofy juice is Versed, with sno cone syrup added to it, because it apparently does not taste good AT ALL. And apparently, the sno cone syrup doesn't help nearly enough. She must have scrubbed her tongue with a wet washcloth for a good minute after taking it. Once the goofy juice took she started acting goofy and we put a Hannah Montana DVD in until they were ready for her. She kept trying to sit up and couldn't because of the goofy juice, so she kept telling us they were holding her down. I don't think we even got 5 minutes into the DVD before they came to take her back. The nurse told us we could call and check on the progress and how Kaylin was throughout the surgery, about every 30 minutes.

After Kaylin went back, Jeremy and I went downstairs to have breakfast before settling into the waiting room. We were told the surgery would likely take about 2 hours. We had breakfast and then headed back to the waiting room. The first 30 minutes had passed, so I called and the nurse let me know that she went to sleep fine, was nice and warm and the surgery was going great. Some more sitting, waiting, and the same answers from the nurse, everything is going great. About an hour and 45 minutes after, the surgeon comes out to get us, they are done. We walk back to recovery and Kaylin is still sleeping. Dr. F told us everything went great and he had already compared her pre-surgery photo to her nose now, and he was happy with the results. Kaylin started to move around and open her eyes a little. Then she started crying and the nurse told us that Jeremy or I could climb in the bed with her to cuddle her. We asked her who she would prefer, she picked mommy, I climbed in and cuddled her. She complained about the pain 3 times in about an hour and each time the nurse added drugs to her IV. After being in recovery for an hour we were moved to her room where she was given tylenol and continued to sleep for about an hour and then she was discharged.

She had 1 dose of motrin when we got home and that was the end of the pain management! I asked her all weekend if she hurt and needed any motrin and she always told me no. Can you believe that?! She was well enough to go back to school on Monday.

Kaylin right after we got settled into her room. See her hair? I guess the nurses braided it and then put the braid up after she got back there. And they did it with office rubberbands. Dude, you could have just asked me to do that, with good hair bands. Yeah, I didn't even try and remove them. Just cut them out when we got home!

This is Beary. He was given to her by the nurses before her very first surgery. He's been through every surgery with her thus far. Yes, he literally goes into surgery with her. He also had a cleft lip repair, see his stitches under his nose? That's why they give him to their patients! In recovery, she actually woke up at one point because he dropped out of her arms. They sleep together every night!

36.365 Playing pool

This is a picture of Kaylin playing pool in the Child Life room at Medical City on the peds floor. We had appointments half the day since she is having surgery tomorrow.

35.365 dollhouse

This is one of the many pictures Jeremy took of a dollhouse that he wants to build for Kaylin with his dad.

34.365 Rosa's Cafe

Rosa's Cafe. That was where I had dinner with some girlfriends from high school. We get together every other month for dinner and sometimes drinks. Jennifer & Erica are pregnant, so they are no longer joining us on the drinks part, but soon enough!

33.365 Chili's chips, salsa & ranch

I went upstairs to give the kids a bath & do the whole bedtime routine and I come back downstairs to find that Jeremy has demolished the salsa and almost all the ranch. MEANIE!

By the way, if there are any of you left who haven't tried this - you are REALLY missing out!

32.365 toy clean-up

Still going through toys. I just took every container, basket, etc. and dumped it then went through it. Fresh clean start (again) with trucks in one bin, dolls in another, balls in yet another, kitchen food, etc. it never stays that way long enough for my liking - sadly.