Mulch Madness

Saturday was Mulch Madness at our house! My mom took the kids overnight on Friday so Cam and I could work without the kiddos here in the morning. We were even able to go out with our neighbors Friday night which was so much fun!!! Here is Cam scooping away. 10 yards of much! It was a lot of work!!! Thanks mom for taking the kids as we would have had our hands full.

Yes thats me....working away:)

Cam was out back trying to rip out a small bush. He wanted to make a little path from our walking path behind our house to our gate.

We ended up having our neighbor come and rip it out with his truck. It was a stubborn little bush! Thanks Dave for helping out!!

Ahhh....freshly cut grass and tons of new mulch. Despite all of the hard work it payed off and the yard looks great!

Catch Up Pics

Here are some catch up pics from the last week. Friday was Cams birthday...the big 34! I decided(the good wife that I am) to attempt to cut the lawn. Mind you I had just gotten home from getting a mani/pedi. Thanks to my neighbor Rose for 1. showing me how to start the mower and 2. taking a picture of me and making me promise I would put it on the blog(despite me thinking it wasnt a flattering pic). This ones for you Rose:) Friday night while I was running to the store Cam and the neighbors were hanging out outside and let all of the kids play in the dirt as if it were a sand box!! I about died when I cam home and saw Kaitlyn and Colin COVERED in dirt!! Look at this mess! They had fun though and thats all that matters right:)

Saturday morning Kaitlyn asked if she could have "white nails" for the wedding we were going to. So I gave her a french mani/pedi at 6:30am:)

Tuesday we met with Kaitlyn's surgeon. I already posted an update on what went on. Thanks Auntie Kelly for taking Colin for us!! And for spoiling him with a cupcake AND letting him get something from the ice cream man for dessert.

When we came to pick up Colin that night Kaitlyn was SO excited to see her cousin Quintin! Big hugs!!

Today my mom was supposed to come over. Every Mothers Day she buys all of my flowers and plants them for me. I love it!! Kaitlyn has been complaining of stomach pains the last month or so bu they didnt seem that bad. Today she was doubled over in pain when my mom arrived. We called the dr and they wanted to see her. Turns out they think she has a lactose intolerance. Great! Guess having a glass of milk, bowl of cereal and a yogurt for breakfast did her in today. She was in a ton of pain. So we are on a trial dairy free diet. Poor thing is allergic to peanuts and other stuff and now this. We did end up going to pick out flowers so they day turned out well after all!

The kids loved digging and helping Grandma plant.

Colin was a good helper!!!

We needed more flowers so we had to run back out. Thanks Rose for keeping Colin for us as he wasn't interested in doing anymore flower shopping:) Kaitlyn got to ride in style in Grandmas car. It was her first convertible ride! Thanks mom for a fun day even though it had an unexpected start with going to the dr. My flowers look beautiful!!!

Visit to Grandma & Papa Willis'

Last weekend we went to visit our Grandma and Papa Willis on the farm. We get so excited when we are driving there that its a long 3 1/2 hour car ride of us asking "are we there yet?". We had a family wedding to go to and we celebrated Mothers Day there. Here's a family picture before the wedding.

Of course we had to take one with Grandma and Papa too:)

We danced and danced and danced with our cousin Everett! He loves to dance just as much as we do!!

Grandma danced with us too!

Kaitlyn is now famous for her "Peace Dance". Its absolutely hilarious!!! Look at those pucker lips:)

Colin and Everett were so pooped from dancing that they had to lay down and take a quick break:) Then Everett grabbed Colin's arm and was pulling him all over the dance floor while he was laying down..it was too funny! Colin basically cleaned the dance floor with his khaki pants:) Check out the video below this picture. Sorry its very dark and hard to see though.

The photographer was blowing bubbles for us to catch. So much fun!!

Sunday morning we helped make mushrooms. Its a huge thing to do on the farm. People search for mushrooms and then you soak them, roll them in flour and fry them. They are daddy's favorite and we like them too. Mommy says that we can eat her share as she is not a mushroom fan:)

Happy Mothers Day Mommy!! Here we are before church.

After church we went to Aunt Donna and Uncle Bills house for a family get together to celebrate Mothers Day. Thanks Amy for taking us out to see the cows and playing with us!!! We now love Lincoln Logs!!

Plastic Surgeon Appt

Here are some pictures so you can see how well Kaitlyn has progressed! I put her appointment update at the end of this post. When she was born the nevus was raised and not very big.

Then is began to spread within a few weeks.

It grew and began to branch out. Then it became a dark chocolate brown color right before her surgery.

Recovering from her 1st surgery at 6 months old. All of the pics taken right after her surgeries were too graphic to put on here so I opted for these:) We even had her ears pierced while she was under the anesthesia! She had over 30 stitches so she had to be put back under to have them removed about a week later.

Recovering after her 2nd surgery at 18 months old. She had to wear "penguin arms" so she would not be able to bend her arms and pick at her surgery site.

A week after her 3rd surgery last May. Her new skin went from bright white to black. It formed a scab and then fell off and she had beautiful pink skin underneath!!

Here is where Dr. Vicari took skin for her skin graft. This was only a few months after surgery. Today you can barely see a scar!!

Look how far we have come!!! She's our healthy, beautiful princess!!

Tonight we met with Kaitlyn's plastic surgeon at the hospital. Dr. Vicari is an amazing doctor and we are so thankful to have Kaitlyn under his care! Kaitlyn has such a bond with him..its so cute! Kaitlyn was peeking out the door looking for Dr. Vicari and when he came to the door she pointed her finger up at him and said really loud “I’ve been looking for you “Cari”. We were all cracking up! She had to show him her Bitty Twin Kaylee who was in her little stroller that she pushed all through the hospital. Kaitlyn has been picking her surgery site and we are trying to get her to stop. She did pinkie promise with Dr. Vicari that should would stop:) Everyone at Children's is so wonderful! Cam even commented tonight about how the nurses and doctors are so amazing with kids. What a difference it makes being treated at a childrens hospital! When we arrive everyone always remembers us and tonight they were asking where Kaitlyn’s other half was as Colin was not with us. Auntie Kelly watched Colin for us so we could concentrate on Kaitlyn…thanks Kel!!! The nurse was asking us Kaitlyn's birth date just to double check info and Kaitlyn's blurts out “Nobember 18”. Can’t believe she remembers it!! Dr. Vicari was pleased with how she is healing. Hard to believe her last surgery was a year ago May 30th. Right now our plan is for a few more surgeries but they should be a piece of cake compared to what she has already endured! The first one will be this coming August. She will be put under general anesthesia and do a special type of laser to try and reduce the redness around the new skin and touch up some areas. Then we wait about 2-4 months, depending on how she heals, and do another round. Dr. Vicari anticipates she will need about 3 rounds. Then he discussed with us doing dermabrasion in a few years to smooth/shave away some of the new skin around the perimeter so its all flush and hopefully not as noticeable. That would be done under general anesthesia too. Scary to think that she has been put to sleep already 4 times and we probably have 4 more ahead of us! But we have so much faith in Dr. Vicari and his decisions for her treatment plan! I need to call and schedule her surgery date. The only thing we will have to be extremely careful of is after her surgery she will NOT be able to be exposed to the sun. I will keep everyone posted when I have a date set. Cam and I never thought that this journey would be as long as it has been. We assumed when she was born with this (congenital facial nevus) that she would need 1 or 2 surgeries and be done. It’s a been a tough, longer than expected journey but we know that she is healthy and thats whats most important! Our hearts hurt when we are in public and they make comments or see people stare as we know she is absolutely beautiful inside and out!! Our hope is that we can do whatever it takes to continue to improve the look of her surgery site and it be less and less noticeable so she doesn’t have to endure any teasing when she is in school. Being in the education field Cam and I know how cruel kids can be! Thanks to all of our family and friends who continue to support us and know how difficult this has been on us!!

Flowers and Fun!

Today I had a doctors appointment so Grandma came over to babysit the kids. While I was gone they had a picnic lunch outside and the kids picked some dandelions and put them in a vase...instead of a bud vase Grandma used one of my champagne flutes:) They were SO extremely proud of the flowers that they picked for me. When they woke up from their nap they dragged me down to the kitchen to give me my "yellow flowers". It melted my heart as they were so sincere and said they were for Mothers Day:) Here I am with my beautiful hand picked flowers!

They wanted to pick some more after naps so we went outside. Colin was showing Kaitlyn his flower...he likes to pop the flower part off. Boys will be boys!!

Relaxing and letting Kaitlyn do all of the work:)

She changed her mind about adding to my collection of flowers from earlier. She was having a wedding she said. The things their little minds think of!!!!

Colin was enjoying a ride on his scooter. He was carrying it to me to show me how his shirt matched his scooter.

Cam was gone tonight so can you tell I was bored:) After the kids took showers they were reading on the couch while I was getting their beds ready so they could go to sleep. I came out into the loft to find them reading side by side out loud. They do this all of the time and it cracks me up to listen to their interpretation of the story. You have to listen carefully as they are both reading at the same time.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Tonight we celebrated Daddy's 34th birthday! His actual birthday is Friday but we decided to celebrate early as we have a busy weekend. Grandma and Uncle Bill came over for dinner and cake. We missed the rest of the family! Being that we had the plague the last 2 weeks Auntie Kelly was a little hesitant to come over quite yet:) And Papa was in MN for work. Here we are with daddy when he came home from work. Mommy let us pick out our clothes (Kaitlyn wanted braids which mommy is not very good at doing) and we picked yellow....Daddy came home and he was in a light yellow shirt too:) Thats ok Uncle Bill! (this is my pouty face) I will forgive you for spilling your Corona on me!!

Grandma and Kaitlyn! Kaitlyn had to pick out another "dry" yellow shirt to change into.

We had fun playing with Uncle Bill!!

Daddy was looking at our card...he was SO proud that we can write our name!!!

Helping Daddy with his presents!

Never knew some wrapping paper and a box could be so much fun:)

Daddy didn't want a chocolate cake for his birthday...all he wanted was a plain angel food cake. Its healthier right?!?! :)

We stayed up way past our bedtime and watched some American Idol while sitting on Daddy's new weight bench from Grandma and Papa.

Helping with the last pieces.

Now to try it out....Colin has great stomach muscles and was trying to do sit ups like Daddy.

Kaitlyn was trying too...she said it was too hard:)

Back to Business....

Its officially back to business in our household!! FINALLY!!! It was about time as this yucky virus about did us in!! Here are some pics that I wanted to post of our healthy, happy kids!! Colin has been a little crabby the last few days and is still working on getting his appetite back but he was all smiles and giggles for the camera last night!! Taking a rest from playing house...their new favorite thing to do.

They were playing mommy and daddy...its so great to see them playing together again!!!

This morning Kaitlyn was all packed up to go to "Fourda" to visit her best friend Madi. She is there and Kaitlyn misses her so much! Kaitlyn travels like her mommy.....4 purses(hanging on her stroller) and a backpack...I love it!!!

Working on their new puzzle from their friend Morgan!

Thanks Morgan for our new puzzle!! We love it!

We had a complete stranger come up to us yesterday and ask us if the kids were twins and had a ton of questions for us. She asked if they were identical which cracks me up. No, obviously they aren't identical(cant be)!!!! She was very sweet but was driving me a little nuts as I was in a rush and she wanted to talk my ear off about how similar the kids were. I told her that K & C couldn't be more opposite. They have very opposite personalities! Here's a fun fact for you....Kaitlyn likes mustard on her hot dog and Colin likes ketchup. Twins or not...they are 2 different kids with different likes and dislikes:)