a new week to look forward to!

we are finally all better! praise the Lord! it took a grueling 5 days for all of us to get back to normal. kyri is running, dancing, playing, and eating like a normal (almost) 2 year old little girl. now we have a very fun-filled week ahead of us!

kevin's parents get here tomorrow morning and we are in much anticipation for their arrival. we haven't seen them since august so we know this will be a very enjoyable visit. new years eve is tomorrow as well and we have decided to just stay at home, get a pizza, and maybe do a lord of the rings marathon. thursday is kyri's 2nd birthday! wooohoooo! i couldn't be more excited to celebrate this special day with her. since christmas didn't go over so well, we are looking forward to a day of fun with our finally healthy little girl. i decided about 6 months ago to do a finding nemo birthday party (yes, i start planning early because its my baby and i love to plan!) and so when you ask kyri what she is getting for her birthday, she says, "nemo birthday cake!" she is such a big girl now, actually tiny because she has lost all of her baby rolls. so sad. so many things to look forward to in the next year of kyri's life. for now...tomorrow brings the beginning of a new week and i can't wait for it to begin!

a christmas we will never forget.

i was so excited to get kyri out of her bed on christmas morning! her kitchen was all set up in the living room and i knew she would be so excited to play with it. when i opened the door to her room, i was so sad. kyri had thrown up all over her bed and herself. she wasn't crying, i think she didn't know what was going on since she had never thrown up before. we quickly got her into the bath and put clean jammies on. now we could start our christmas morning.

kyri loved her kitchen of course. andy came over around 11:00 and shortly before that, it all went downhill. kyri started having diarrhea. we knew right away that she was sick and that this was going to be a long day. we changed her diaper about every 30 minutes. she would cry every time she went in her diaper because she developed a rash so quickly from the diarrhea. we changed her clothes many times and it felt like an unending cycle. i was starting to get worried because it was really hard to get her to drink, even eat anything. we were putting pedialyte in a seringe and she would actually drink it out of that. i called our insurance nurse line and they said with how many diaper changes and how little she is taking in, we should take her to the e.r. to make sure she wasn't dehydrated. we decided to go, leaving my first christmas ham (a martha stewart ham!) right from the oven and the rest of dinner. so the first time we were in the e.r. was on christmas day with our little baby girl. after an hour wait, the doctor said she was a little dehydrated but not enough to give her an i.v. to put fluids in her. he said to put her in the bath everytime she has diarrhea so that we don't have to wipe her rash. we got home, gave her a bath, put her to bed, ate our christmas dinner at 10:00, and prayed for a quick recovery for our kyri.

kevin went to work the next morning. kyri actually ate a good breakfast and seemed to be doing a little better. as the afternoon rolled on, i started to feel pretty nasty. kevin came home from work, and the worst was yet to come. we both got whatever yucky bug kyri got. taking care of a sick toddler while you are both sick is not the easiest thing. kevin and i both spent the entire evening throwing up and sitting on the toilet with the worst diarrhea ever. not very pleasant, but true. i tried to sleep on the couch, while kevin attempted to sleep in our bed. neither one of us got any rest.

kevin stayed home from work today and it was a very long, difficult day. andy brought over some gatorade, chicken noodle soup, more pedialyte and saltine crackers. we both have just been lying around all day, watching movies with kyri. she still isn't feeling well and her rash is getting worse. i think we will be taking her to the doctor tomorrow to get a stronger diaper rash cream. it is so hard to see your little baby in so much pain. she screams every time we have to change her diaper. she is sleeping in her bed now, sound asleep. kevin and i both just took showers after 3 days. i've done 3 loads of poopy laundry and there is more to be done. i feel a little better, but definitely not myself. i'm just thankful this is happening now and not next week when kevin's parents will be here for kyri's birthday. what a christmas this has been. so sad that we don't have many happy memories from this christmas, but we sure won't be forgetting it.

yay, kyri!

for the past few months we have had a little potty in our bathroom. every now and then we put kyri on it and see if anything happens. she will sit there and read books for a few minutes, but she loses interest very quickly. last night when we were getting her ready for her bath, we decided to try the potty again. after about 2 minutes, kyri went pee-pee on the potty! we were so excited as was she! yay, kryi! now that she is almost 2 (in less than 2 weeks!), we really want to pursue potting training, especially before we start planning for our second child. i know it is not going to be an easy road to go from diapers to big girl underwear, but it is our next big obsticle in the life of raising a toddler. potty training, here we come!

what a treat!

yesterday kyri's friend, aaron, came over to play. we had so much fun when he was here! they watched ratatouille together and enjoyed running around the house, taking out every one of kyri's toys. after lunch, i decided to let the kids make gingerbread houses. aaron was so excited! i put the house together for him and he went to town! he was very good about putting the candy on the house, not in his mouth. kyri on the other hand, not so much. all she wanted to do was eat the marshmallows. everytime she would try to put candy on her house, she would push it over (which is why it turned out so ghetto). it was kyri's first time building a gingerbread house and i'm so glad aaron was here to build a gingerbread house too! we will have to have aaron over more often. having him over to play yesterday was a wonderful christmas treat!

love you, mama.

kyri has melted my heart once again. she tends to do that. she is now saying, "love you, mama" and "love you, daddy." it is so very precious in every way. those were the other two words that i couldn't wait to hear from that tiny mouth. she says it when we say it to her, but i'm looking forward to the day when she runs up to me and out of the blue says, "i love you, mama."

the joys of being a mom...they never end!

apple hill

it really feels like christmas! today we went to apple hill, which is right outside of placerville, ca. this was our first time and we will be sure to visit again next year! the first apple orchard we went to didn't have any apples, so we tried high hill orchard and that was the place to be. it was a very chilly, but beautiful day so we were all bundled with our warm jackets. we just walked around when we got there and checked out all there was to do. it was lunch time so we decided to grab a bite to eat first. after our tummies were full, we headed over to the pony rides. when we asked kyri, "do you want to ride on the pony?", she said, "ok!". she loved every minute of it! it was very hard for her to say bye-bye to the pony. i'm so glad we let her go on the pony ride, i know that was the highlight of her day and ours too!

after the pony ride, we got kyri a white chocolate snowman sucker at the fudge factory. while kyri enjoyed her treat, we headed over to the tree farm. i just love looking at the beautiful silver tip trees. kevin wouldn't let me get one, he didn't want to put it in the car. we'll be getting a christmas tree later his week, i can't wait much longer! we spent some time by the fishing pond, just letting kyri run around. it was fun for her to get close to the ducks and to see the fish that other kids were catching. our last stop of the day was to get a treat for mom and dad. i have heard about their apple doughnuts so we gave them a try. sooo yummy! we also picked up some apples to bring home. you can't go to apple hill and not bring home apples. i think i'll be making an apple crisp tomorrow.

what a wonderful day! i'm so glad we decided to make the venture out to apple hill. i love making new memories with kryi and creating traditions for our family. the pony ride, crisp winter air, and apple doughnuts, all made for a perfect day with the ones i love so dearly. this is what christmas is all about.

kyri's first ride on a pony.

daddy, look at me! i'm such a big girl!

kyri found a stick and didn't want to let it go.

i love my kevin.

beautiful. what else is there to say?

daddy and kyri looking at the ducks in the pond.

kisses, cuddles, and cold noses.

bye-bye apple hill. see you next year.

the foundry reunion

kevin and i moved to lincoln 2 and a half years ago to plant a church, the foundry, with a group from redding. we made some great relationships through the foundry and had to actually end the church about a year into it due to very unfortunate events. our pastor's son was diagnosed with a brain tumor and it was cancerous. the tumor was removed and he is now done with chemo treatments. he is doing great now and every test so far has come back clear. praise God!

we decided to have a foundry reunion this past sunday to get back together "the crew" so we could all catch up with each other, after a very crazy year. it was so good to see everyone! we all brought yummy food to share, i made gingerbread men for the kids to decorate (and a chocolate cake for the adults!), and we watched the polar express. it was a very relaxed evening with friends. the haskins have a drum set at their house and kyri loves to play whenever we go over there. she just sits there for so long and knows just what to do! i think she has a musical future, i'm pretty sure.

we also put together a "blessing tree" with little encouragements and verses on it for our pastor of emmaus, nathan, and his family. they are actually going through chemo with their son now, isaiah, exactly a year after kyler. crazy. we decided to bless their family at this time of year with the tree and a gift basket with a gift card to the coffee shop by the hospital. nathan has really been encouraging us all to give this holiday season, to those that need to feel the love of Christ through others. the foundry reunion was a great night of fellowship and friends. that's what christmas is all about!

kyri's first taste of gingerbread...and marshmallows!

kyler and his super-cool blue gingerbread man!