Snow ball fights don't work with powdery snow...

I'll try to get Elaine to post Christmas soon, but for now...

We went out the other day to play in the snow. The snow was so powdery, the snowballs would disintegrate halfway to the person.


The only way she will wear a hat is if it has something to do with a "princess."

Sadly, our mailboxes don't look like this anymore... A truck must have hit them and the left half is gone or mutilated.

Ashlee turned 3!!

It's a family tradition to have the birthday kid help make their own cake or cupcake. I think Ashlee was doing more eating than helping.



Ashlee is all girl. For her cake she wanted a pink cake with pink frosting and pink ice cream. She is obsessed with princess, also. For her birthday she got princess books and dolls. I threw in some play dough too. When she was opening her presents she wouldn't let go of the presents she had just opened to open another. I finally convinced her to put them in a pile where she could play with them all later.

Elaine forgot to post these back in October...

After School Run

In Burkburnett, the school had a walking club. Here, the high school cross country team hosts a weekly run for the elementary school kids. It's 3/4 of a mile for 1st - 3rd graders.

Mara said her ears got cold and now knows what frostbite feels like.



Ben is just too fast (as shown by the blur of the camera...)

Camping

Ever since David and I got married, we had planned to go camping. We finally went ten years later. We have been slowly saving up our camping supplies through the years. A tent here, some sleeping bags there, a propane stove (which we didn't bring because it is still packed away in a box somewhere). This weekend was free, the weather has been great, so we decided to go. Just one night at first to start off slow. We found a perfect place 70 min from our house. We thought we were all prepared. I put Mara's insulin, needles, etc in a cooler with the food. I thought I saw David taking it to the car. we got down there set up the tent, were about to start the fire to roast the hot dogs....when I asked David....where is the cooler I can't find it in the car? he said he didn't pack it, he thought I did it. It was still sitting in our home. So we are 70 miles from Mara's insulin and dinner. For a type 1 diabetic that is bad We had some nuts and chips. David went back for it, I stayed and fed the kids, nuts and chips. I had some insulin in her blood sugar checker bag with one needle. But we needed more. Anyway, David got back, we had a blast after that. Had hot dogs and s'mores. Told scary stories. The kids didn't get to bed till 11. After the kids went to bed David and I looked at the stars. It was amazing. I have never seen so many stars. We went to bed after that. I was sure glad I brought my blow up mattress, especially after laying on the hard ground with Ashlee trying to get her to sleep. Then Ashlee woke up at 6 am and Mara soon after. So they were tired today. But it was fun. I really like our tent, it sleeps 8 and has 3 separate little rooms. We got it at a day after thanksgiving sale 4 years ago.





Here is Mara and Ashlee enjoying see the sun rising. David took this picture, I was asleep still.





After the sun rose a little higher in the sky we all enjoyed a hike by the lake.

We are looking forward to doing it again, hopefully we will be more prepared too,

Labor Day

The weather was wonderful for Labor Day. We went to Lake Sakakawea and went canoeing, swimming, and general fun.

Copy Cat

So Mara was ever so happy taking pictures until Elaine decided she wanted to take some. She all of a sudden put on her sad face. Ashlee seeing the change in Mara, decided she wanted to be just like her sister.

I couldn't leave Ben out of the pictures. He loves his cars still....

Pretty Dresses

A week and a half ago, we went to Ohio for Ben's wedding (David's younger brother). All of our younger nieces were flower girls and had beautiful dresses. Ashlee didn't like hers at first because it wasn't pink, but when she saw everyone else wearing them, she changed her mind.

Ashlee didn't last the whole wedding up front. She came and sat with us for a bit.

(Ben actually took this one.)

Ben is 6!!!

Benjamin's birthday was a couple weeks ago, but with the 4th of July weekend, we didn't have a party for him until last Saturday.

With the Texas heat, we just got the pool, slip & slide, and sprinkler out and let the kids go wild.

We did a pinata and bobbed for apples too.

Great Wolf Lodge

Last week, we took a little vacation before David left. We had a doctor appointment for Mara down in Dallas, so we went to the Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine. In case you are wondering, Ben is pointing at one of the slides.


Ben probably went down this slide about 25 times. He liked the big slides too, but we couldn't get a picture of that.

From

PS - Elaine was too busy being the SuperMom she is, so she let me (David) post these.

We're Moving!

It's finally official! We got our orders on Thursday. We are moving to North Dakota!!! Here is a picture of one of the houses I've been looking at. It's a 5 bedroom.


David leaves on Thursday for training in Louisiana, which is why I'm staying here. (I'm afraid of the bugs.)

Who do you look to for comfort during a lightning storm?

Ashlee had a hard time during the thunderstorm last night. She was so glad when Mara came in the room to comfort her. When I checked on them before going to bed, this is what I found...

Mara has Diabetes

About 3 weeks ago Mara started acting really tired and really thirsty. I thought Ashlee was keeping her up late and it is getting hot here so she is more thirsty. So I separated Mara and Ashlee for bed time and the weather got cooler and again, but Mara's fatigue and thirst got worse. I mentioned it to a friend of mine and she said those are the symptoms of diabetes. Well, I almost laughed at her I said..."Mara is skinny, we don't have it in our family history, it's not diabetes." It continued to get worse. Mara's teacher mention she looked skinny and asked me if she was okay. My reaction was she comes from a skinny family, of course she is going to be skinny. (losing weight is also a symptom of diabetes). Well memorial weekend came around. She was exhausted all weekend. I finally decided she needs to go to the doctor. So we made an appointment Tuesday morning. By this time we knew there was something wrong and we toying with the idea it might be diabetes. We had looked up online and saw that she had all the symptoms for it. The peds Doc almost laughed at us when we said we thought it might be diabetes. She said she would have her do the blood work and test for it but she didn't think it was it. She did say that Mara had lost some weight so she told us to fatten her up, give her lots of ice cream. I went home thinking she didn't have diabetes and was giving her lots of sugary fattening things. She had to fast 12 hours for the test, so she went in Wednesday morning before she ate breakfast. She did her blood work. I dropped her off and school, I went home. At 11:30 her doctor called and said....." she does have diabetes. Get her to the hospital right now!!" From then on our life has turned upside down. She was in the hospital from Wed to Monday. We had to learn all about insulin, how to count carbs, how to check her blood sugar, what to do if it is too high or too low, how to give her shots that she has to have 5-8 time s a day now, etc.....I have had my highs and lows. When I found out I cried for a while. I have cried on and off since then. Our ward and Friends have been great! Many people came to visit her and brought her toys and stuff. A friend brought her notes from all the friends in the 2nd grade. People in the ward came and visited us and gave a should to cry on. All the acts of kindness made me cry more often the remembering my daughter has diabetes.

Mara is doing wonderfully, she doesn't complain about the shots or the finger pricks. She does pretty well at accepting she can't eat certain things at certain times (hopefully when she gets the pump that will change). We are also thankful for David's job. If we had any other insurance plan we would be paying a pretty high co pay for everything since it is so expensive. But we don't have to pay a cent.

Here is a pictures of Mara's stay in the hospital....

This is 3 days into it. Mara was really positive throughout and acted normally once they got her on the insulin. She really enjoyed the visitors who came to visit.



She ended up being interviewed by a newscaster doing a special for the Children's Miracle Network. They had a ton of balloons and said Mara could take some home...

First time swimming this year - Memorial Day


A friend invited us to her house the kids had a blast swimming with Dad. The weather has not been that hot yet to get the pool warm so I did not swim.

How old were you when you got your ears pierced?

I got my ears pierced when I was 8 so I told Mara when she turned 8 she could too. So, after putting it off for a couple months we finally found a Saturday available to head down to Claire's and get them pierced. Mara was really brave and just said "Ow" four times (that is what she tells people when they ask if she cried). After the first one she asked the lady if she would not push so hard the next time. Now we are in for 6 weeks of cleaning the ears 3 times a day. She can't take the earing out for 6 weeks either, but once she takes these out she has to put others right back in because she has to always have earings in for 6 months.

She enjoyed showing off her earrings to all her friends at church today. I am sure she will enjoy showing them to all her friends at school. She has a friend (who is 10) that wears big hoop earings and I told Mara she can't wear any like that and she was perfectly fine with that. So that is good. Here are so pictures of Mara with her ears piecered. And one of Ben because he couldn't handle Mara getting all the attention.