When you turn your back for a minute....

This is what happens.

Yep, she is IN the washing machine. She was helping me unload the washing machine just a minute before this and I went to grab the laundry from another room and came back to find her like this. I was shocked, then laughed, then of course had to grab my camera. Probably not winning parent of the year for that one huh? But, we did have a chat about staying out of appliances..... all appliances. She just smiled and said "I know." Sigh. :-)

Revealing Closets

Back in September I did a post about the way Makenna's closet looks, and a really smart lady commented on our craziness. This is part of what she said:

"Those photos are overwhelming me! Somewhere I learned that the state of one's mind is reflected in their closets! Haha. "

When I read that it really hit me. And, I couldn't shake it, for days, then weeks, then a month. She was right. The state of my mind was just as confused, jumbled, stuffed and unorganized as M's closet. Our days were overfilled during most of summer and then right into fall. It was running everyday to M's therapy and then work. It was stress. It was too much. It was chaos. It was time to change.

So, I have been working on my state of mind and on M's closet. It's not perfect. But we're making progress. Thanks for the tough love really smart lady!

Before

After

Laptop Strike is OVER!

Sorry y'all my laptop cord completely fell apart(wore out from overuse probably) and apparently the "universal" replacement cords that Best Buy, Circuit City, etc are NOT universal. Even with giving the make and model, the sales people still couldn't find the right one, but were more than happy to sell the wrong one. Anyhow, we are back!

We have been really low key around here because it has been so cold and the kiddos have both been sick. They just got over the cough/cold crud and now have for the last three days had a fever. Nothing else, just a fever. I am perplexed. Oh, and Makenna doesn't just get a little fever. When that girl gets a fever, it's high--crazy high--like 104.5 degrees high today again. It is scary! But you would never know it. She really doesn't show signs of being sick until at least 102-103 degrees. She is so tough. Kya on the other hand is a sobbing, whining mess at 99 degrees. But, the silver lining is that I get tons of snuggles when they don't feel good. I hate having to give them medications, but obviously having been trying to keep them comfortable. I am just praying that I am not next. I think cabin fever has officially hit us already.

Is it summer yet??? Think happy thoughts, think happy thoughts, think happy thoughts...

Kya-versary

December 27th was our first anniversary of Kya's re-adoption here in Wisconsin. On both of the girls' court days we try to spend the day as a family and really celebrate the creation of our forever family. We really have reason to celebrate our family after how far we all have come in the past year. I remember when the judge asked us if this adoption was in the best interest of Kya, and I thought "man I hope so" because at that point she wasn't too fond of us. Now, just a year later I would shout yes, yes, yes!!!! It is in the best interest of all of us to have her in our lives forever.

(NOT a great family pic, but it was the only one we got of all of us, so....)

For Kya's special day we decided to head to the Mall of America to hit Underwater World, Nickolodean Universe and American girl.

Here are few from UnderWater world first. This was the first time that Kya really got into it, so it was cool to see. Both of the girls made shark tooth necklaces to commemorate our visit. Kya loves purple, so picked a pink and purple one for her and Makenna choose sparkly pink, of course.

Nickolodean World was not Kya's favorite, except the carousel, which she really liked.

And then it was off to the ultimate in crazy ideas--the American Girl store. We decided before we went in that the girls were going to get the bitty twin dolls that looked more like them than some of the other brown dolls. And, we really wanted it to be a sister bonding thing. These dolls are sisters, just like they are sisters. It was a big step forward from where we were last year. And, Kya is really big into babies, so we thought that she would love it. Turns out Makenna loved it way more--Kya was a little into it, but was definitely less than we thought.

(Kya having a heart-to-heart with her baby)

Look at how different their hair is. I hadnt realized the dramatic difference in color until I saw these pictures. The texture I knew, but this really shows how we cover opposite ends of the hair spectrum in our house. :)