Jammin' with daddy

Sneak Peak

Here is a little peak at the project K and I have been up to...

More Fun Projects

KayLynn and I have been busy working on a 2 part project. The first part just involves paint and re-arranging. The second part will actually involve some small purchases. As soon as we finish the first part - I will post some pictures.

We have also been finger painting - making matching hand prints - painting butterflies - stringing up our projects, and making jewelry out of roses... Stay tuned for some pictures coming this weekend(from my new camera).

Also, thanks to Max's aunt, we have been doing a little bit of directed learning each evening. This week we are working on the letter A, the shape square and the animal cow and its baby calf... Be sure to ask her what the A says, next time you see her!

On another note...
Although not a dangerous situation - a few weeks ago in nursery, I asked a little girl what her name was, and she responded with, "I'm four years old". Every time... It didn't matter how many times I asked her, or how - she could not tell me.

So, I have been teaching K important info in case she ever gets lost. I have seen too many cases where children cannot say there full name, parents names or phone numbers. We have been working on last names of people we know (She has been calling me 'Mommy LeFebvre'), as well as learning mommy's phone number. After that, we will work on Max's phone number and our address. Hopefully we will never have to put her knowledge to the test, but if we do, she will be ready!

Easy to clean messes

The other day KayLynn wanted to play outside, but I had dishes to wash and dinner to make, so I made a sand box in the kitchen.

I put all the sesame seeds that were left over from the wedding (yes, 3 years ago) and put them in a bowl, with slatted spoons, bowls, and cups for her to play with.
These crafts were really fun, but I did learn something from all the messes. KayLynn will be receiveing this washable, color on tablecloth as a gift - as soon as I can afford it. That way, I can just pick it up and dump the mess back where it goes - or throw it in the wash (with no soap, jsut cold water!). I used to have one when I was little and I remember it being very fun.

More fun messes together

Another fun mess we made was using food coloring on cornstarch/water. You use equal parts and then it makes a hard (though pourable) mixture that is fun to play with.

K's favorite part was putting the food coloring in.
We had fun, and then at the end, I couldn't resist playing myself.

Fun with Messes & a snack...

I have been trying to spend some quality time with KayLynn having fun. One of our crafts was playing with and writing in whipped cream. She had so much fun.

And, of course, she ate it, so it was a nice snack - this is why I used whipped cream instead of shaving cream!
We used chopsticks, popsicle sticks, spoons, and our fingers to play in the cream...

We had so much fun.

The outfit she is wearing, I made from one of Max's old t-shirts so that she could get it as messy as she wanted.

Congratulations

As you know, Max has been training for a job here at the Detention Center where I work. He graduated from the Academy on Friday and now he is a full-fledged Detention Officer. Thank you so much for your prayers.

Tomorrow starts his 'on call' life as a DO. They can call him in for up to 32 hours a week, so now starts the praying for enough hours!! Once they get the funding - he will be full-time permanent. Please also pray for Max. He is really praying for peace of mind and the ability to do all that he has learned. Starting tomorrow he will be on his own in pods with hundreds of criminals, trying to follow all the protocol that he has learned in the last 5 weeks.

Please pray that the Lord will enable him to do a great job. He is a little nervous, but I think once he gets through the first week on his own he will be better equiped for this job. I am so thankful for my husband and the lengths he is going to, to reach our goals and take care of KayLynn and me.

Thank you so much for your prayers - and please, keep them coming!

A Day in the Lof of...Me!

**INFORMATION OVERLOAD

4:22AM ~ I hear a loud cry from K's room. This is her scared cry, not her 'I just woke up in the middle of the night and don't want to put myself back to sleep' cry. I get up and go get her. The following conversation unsues...

K: Mommy? KayLynn and Mommy go cuddle in Mommy's room?

Me: Nope, its night time, and you have to sleep in your big girl bed.

K: Mommy cuddle in the rocking chair?

Me: Of course, thats what Mommy's are for (I actually do say this to her all the time - don't laugh at me).

K: And sing a song?

Me: Which one?

K: Christopher Robin? No, Winne the Pooh.

Me: OK, Close your eyes and relax.

She promptly falls back to sleep, and I go to bed praying that whatever awakened my darling daughter does not bother her again and she is able to sleep well, for as long as her little body needs it. I also take the time to thank the Lord that Max is sleeping well for the first night in weeks.

6:00 ~ Max's alarm goes off and he puts his arm around me to talk with me about the day. This is unusual for three reasons. First, I am sleeping in, second, KayLynn is not yet awake for the day and third, Max is NOT a morning person. Perhaps the fact that we went to bed at 8:45PM the prior evening helps!

6:10 ~ Out of bed to get ready. While I am puttering around getting my work clothes on and hair somewhat fixed a little bit of makeup on, I also pick up the house and get ready for K's day with Rosie. KayLynn is still asleep which is unusual.

6:40 ~ Rosie arrives, I tell her what's for lunch and that K is still asleep and I leave. I get gas on my way to work.

6:55 ~ I start the coffee maker and eat my eggs while I turn on my computer and get ready to work.

8:30 ~ Second cup of coffee

12:00PM ~ I eat lunch.  Nothing much, but I work through my lunch because there is so much to do.

3:30 ~ Turn off computer, straighten work desk and leave work.

3:45 ~ Arrive home to see K and Rosie playing. KayLynn is perfectly happy and loves playing with Rosie - in fact she seems a little bummed that I am home at all!!

3:50 ~ I drive Rosie home, the whole way KayLynn narrates what we are seeing out the window, "A red car!" "A puppy!" "Where's Rosie's car?" "There's Rosie's house!"

4:10 ~ Home again. Max is home also, and he has K so that I can work for a few hours.

6:00 ~ Once I am finished with work, I start dinner.  We had tacos.

7:00 ~ KayLynn gets cleaned up and ready for bed!

7:15 ~ Max and I talk over the day and what we need to do for the upcoming day.

8:00 ~ I turn on a movie on my laptop and go to bed watching it, knowing that when Max comes to bed he will turn it off!

What do you Think?

This what do you think is really a challenge for you. There are people out there who wonder what a Stay at Home Mom does all day long. I, for one, am not one of them. However, I find that many SAHMs wish that they did more, or had more to show - than children who are cleaned, fed, watered and healthy - at the end of the day. I don't think women give themselves enough credit. I often receive comments that because I work (outside the home) they think its harder for me. I beg to differ. We all have 24 hours to fill each day, and they get filled with something. We have hard days, long days, easy days, short days... So, my challenge to you is to do a Day in the Life of YOU. Chronicle one day in your life as detailed as possible. Keep a notebook handy and write it down. If you want an example check out Day in the Life, she amazes me. I had forgotten the newborn stage. So, do it. Take pictures, write notes, or just type it up and share with us.

Are you up to the challenge??? I will do it as one of my posts in the next few days.

Oooh this too...

I wanna do this. I'm thinin Saturday. K loves to cook.

I wanna do this #1

I can't wait till K is a little bit older....oh the crafts we will do...

Craft I want to try

Lead Problem Fixed!!!

There is no longer any concern for KayLynn's health, we figured out the problem...

Remember this cute picture? Yeah, well, dont ever let your kids drink out of the hose. If you are anything like me (Probably you are smarter than me) you have ignored the labels that say, "Dont drink out of hose" because you did it as a kid. We all drank out of the hose as kids.

After finding out that the water in my home is not contaminated we checked KayLynn's most recent blood work and found that her lead levels had already gone down. Aunt Tam had just recently bought a new hose and read the warning that drinking from hoses can cause lead poisoning. When I talked to my doctor he was almost positive that is what caused KayLynn's raised levels. Praise the Lord that this is an easy fix. Thank you for your prayers!! If you want to learn more about lead poisoning please read on...

If you don't believe me about the harm that drinking from the hose can cause, read this article. The articles says, "the water standing inside may contain worrisome amounts of lead and other chemicals that leach from the hose itself. Many hoses are made of polyvinyl chloride, which uses lead as a stabilizer". You can buy safe drinking hoses but they are very expensive and why, when its easy to teach our kids? I will leave you with this...

“young children under the age of six are especially vulnerable to lead’s harmful health effects, because their brains and central nervous system are still being formed. For them, even very low levels of exposure can result in reduced IQ, learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders, behavioral problems, stunted growth, impaired hearing, and kidney damage. At high levels of exposure, a child may become mentally retarded, fall into a coma, and even die from lead poisoning. Within the last ten years, children have died from lead poisoning in New Hampshire and in Alabama. Lead poisoning has also been associated with juvenile delinquency and criminal behavior."

Somedays you just need to go crazy...

"I'm jumping Mommy, I'm jumping"

Is it the dirt or the water??

So, in order to keep this girl beautiful and healthy we are getting both our water and our dirt checked for lead today. We should have the water results back by Tuesday. Pray for KayLynn's patience with us as she is not allowed to play outside or drink our water until we find out what is poisoning her.

Please Pray

Yesterday was KayLynn's 2 year appointment - yes don't remind me how late it was... She is perfectly average in height (50%), weight (45%) and head circumfance (50%). Her red blood cells are way beyond great - which the doc was happy about. Last time he was concerned about Vitamin D definciency, but it seems the soy milk has fixed that problem.

The one thing of concern is that she has a somewhat high level of lead in her blood. She is not sick (she has no symptoms or anything). KayLynn is only at a 4.8, 5 being where they notify the state and 10 being where they worry about sever health problems. So, that is good news.

As for now we are tasked with figuring out what in our home is poisened and fixing it. I have already contacted the US Environmental Protection Agency, and we have to contact the Department of Health and the City of Tacoma. We then need to find someone who checks lead levels, and then fix whatever is the problem(s). It looks like there are grants that may help pay for some of the fixes that will need to be made, so I am looking into those.

We are so thankful that the Lord gave us this indicator and that now we will be able to fix the problem before KayLynn gets sick. Please pray for us as we figure how to handle this situation, and for peace of mind.

What do you think?

I read this article yesterday. I have not read something that made me this mad in a long time.

It is about - get this - Negotiated Infidelity... It says that men are hard-wired to betray women on the long-term (this I don't disagree with, we are all hard-wired to sin). It says that if we women thought about how men are really made, then we'd be "OK with him having sex elsewhere its a logical way to prevent him from doing it in secret" As if the only problem with cheating is that they lie about it.

But don't worry, she doesn't leave women behind. "But the woman definitely needs to negotiate infidelity as well, especially because that will generate her man's competitive nature. The more lovers the woman has, the more attraction the man will have for his partner."

Is anyone else screaming mad about how immoral and disgusting this is? I mean, this is in the newspaper. Young people are reading this as if it is true and will help them be happy. Ugh!

What we've been up to...

Went shopping with the baby - KayLynn's baby!

Ate some really good ravioli
Played with new toys

Tried on the new suit

Made smores

And smore

And smore

And went Camping

But only till 10:00PM because, not only could we not get her to settle down because she was so excited to be campling, but K got a little scared when the cat was walking around outside the tent. The good thing is that this was just a practice round in the backyard - so we just went inside to bed!!

Anyone want to join us for backyard camping and smores??