Broken, or Not

Last night Emily and Mordecai were goofing around in the family room. I looked at them and what they were doing at told them to stop it because someone was going to get hurt.  Not even 5 minutes later Mordecai was crying.  Mike and I looked down and his right foot was swollen. We gave him some ibuprofen to bring down the swelling and sent them to bed.  Today, Emily didn't have school so we joined some friends for lunch at McDonald's.  Mordecai was still limping around and Marci asked what happened.  I told her and she agreed with my thought that I should take him to the doctors since he was still limping.  I called Mom and she thought so too.  We got in at 3:45 today and Dr. Miller said it was 50% chance it was broken because he only complained when he pushed on the side not anywhere else and if it wasn't broken his whole foot would hurt, but 50 % chance it wasn't because he would walk on his heel. Since I had all 3 kids and Ruby was tired I opted to not get an X-ray. I was instructed that if he was still favoring it on Friday to come in for and X-ray.  Here's to hoping it isn't.

Icicles

We have had snow on the ground for at least the last 3 weeks.  This just isn't typical Colorado weather.  Well we had this major icicle spanning the whole length of our entry way window which is 5ft tall. It finally melted all the way, but not before Mike captured some pictures of it and the other crazy long icicles we had.

Emily's Big Day

My day started off at 6:30 when Ruby woke up.  I was hoping Mike would have offered to get out of bed with her since I did it last Saturday too, but that was a no go. Shortly after Emily, the birthday, girl woke up. Not too long after Mordecai was up so the kids and I headed to King Soopers for some donuts and juice to have for the requested breakfast. When the kids were digging in Mike joined us, about 7:30.

After we cleaned up, did some laundry,  wrapped presents and had lunch we headed off to Jumpin' Jordy's for the kids to play.  Emily and Mordecai really are best friends, so it is nice to go places cause they have each other.

 For dinner Emily really wanted to have a "party table" so she tied all the balloons I blew up to each chair. She also set the table, and kept commenting on how this was like a restaurant except without the music.  We ate steak, broccoli and home made sweet potato fries.  Then we sang happy birthday for the second time, had cupcakes and opened presents.

-Funnies-

As Emily was opening her card from Grandma and Grandpa Bainbridge she noticed that Grandpa signed it, "G-Pa B" but the 'B' looked like a '13' because it wasn't completely attached so she read it "G-Pa 13".  I told her it was a 'B' and she said, "Oh, I guess Grandpa just doesn't know how to write 13's very well."

Also for dinner I made a rather large side of broccoli thinking we would have enough.  I was wrong because we didn't. All three of the kids kept asking for more, and at one point Ruby was actually yelling at Mike because he wasn't giving her any while he dished more up for Mordecai.

Well Child - Emily & Ruby

My girls had their well child checks today, and boy was it long!  The first appointment was supposed to be at 11:00 and the next at 11:30. Well we didn't even get back to a room until 12:30.  I wish they would call you and tell you they are behind, that way I wouldn't of had to pick up Emily from school early.  Either way the kids were so good that I told them they could have cupcakes when we got home (I made cupcakes for Emily to take to class since her birthday is this Saturday and there isn't school tomorrow).
After Ruby's shots and all we were all starving so we stopped at the mall for lunch and the kids to play at the dinosaurs.  It worked out well because I needed some foundation and to get some clothes for Emily's birthday presents.  Lame, I know.

Stats:

Emily
Weight: 45 lbs - 60%
Height: 45 3/4" - 60%

Doing awesome all around. No concerns, except for the teenage drama already :-)

Ruby
Weight: 18 lbs 4 oz. - 15%
Length: 29 1/2" - 60%
Head: 17 1/2' - 30%

Doing awesome too.  She is very chatty and demonstrated some words for Dr. Miller.  She can say yes, Jesus, please, and a few others we think she is saying, but these are very intentional.  She also walked a little for him and hammed it up. Whenever we go anywhere I always get comments on how they are the cutest kids.  I don't know how I got blessed with such beautiful, smart, healthy wonderful kids but I am grateful!

Valentines/Ruby's Birthday

Valentines was pretty low key for us.  Mike bought me the traditional lilies like he usually does.  This year however we bought the kids cards and chocolates. They were pretty excited.  The kids gave Mike a card and straws filled with strawberry balls, chocolate balls, and cookies' & creme balls with the idea that it would flavor his milk as he sips it. I think it was more for them. :)

For dinner we went to IHOP to celebrate Ruby's birthday.  After dinner we came home to open presents from Grandma & Grandpa Rogers.  We let all three kids open since Mordecai seemed left out until next month. A month to a 3 year old is like an eternity.

Pee-Wee Poms

When Emily was honored at the DU basketball game over New Years for being a "Rising Star" part of the honoring was to meet and take a picture with the cheerleaders. Since the streets were filled with water, and she obviously didn't seem to care I opted to cut out of the game early.  Bad choice. As we were driving home she starts crying and pouting about it.  I immediately told her that I thought Jill's (friend from our old ward) daughter Carrie was a cheerleader at Standley Lake and that I would call her and see if Carrie could come over. That seemed to calm things down, and I forgot about it.  Well fast forward to January when Emily came home from school and had a mini cheer clinic flier.  I  and immediately texted Jill, before saying anything to Emily just yet, and she said that Carrie was in the Poms and that they were doing a clinic in February, and that we needed to sign Emily up.  I was hoping that we would get another flier.  February came and we got the flier. I asked Emily if she wanted to do it, after already signing her up mind you, and of course she said yes.

I remember when I was like in 5th grade, and Cherstin was in 3rd my parents signed us up for a cheer clinic with the IVC (local college in El Centro) cheer leaders.  We got to perform during the half time of a basketball game.  The only thing I remember was that we made our own pom poms, and that we danced to, "Hound Dog."  I can't tell you anything else, but that we had fun, so I was game to sign Emily up.  Thirty dollars was all it cost and it included 2 practices on Tuesday and Wednesday of this past week from 6-8pm.  At the practices they had drinks and snacks, plus they had group pictures taken and an individual with the school mascot, Gators, which were given to the girls in special frames the last day.  They also got pom poms, a shirt, a hair bow and tickets for free popcorn during the game.

It was fun to watch Emily cheer during the first two periods.  She was more concerned about her pom pom strings being around the handle then looking forward, OCD, and she did an awesome job following her leaders during the dance...especially since they only practiced two days and had a day off in between.  It was fun for Mordecai to be at the game even though he kept asking for the boys to come out and play, and I enjoyed visiting with Jill since I have seen her in about a year.

Kitchen Remodel

For all those who think we aren't that spontaneous, think again.  We have been working on updating and remodeling the entire house.  The wish list is almost endless.  Our friend, Katy Ellis, has her own design business.  She has a cabinet account with Mastercraft and gets a really good deal on them.  After some other friends have used her to purchase cabinets, we began to seriously think about jumping into remodeling the kitchen.  Katy came over and measured the kitchen and began working on layouts.  She came back with 4 layouts.  The first layout used the existing design.  The second two designs changed the bar into an island.  The forth layout had the existing dinning room converted into the kitchen and the kitchen area turned into the eating area with more cabinets and a pantry.  We thought long and hard about it.  The island was a cool idea but Mike was concerned about spacing with the island.  We continued to talk about it and got opinions from everyone who came over.  We finally decided to keep the original layout and then Mike was looking closer at the cabinet layout and was not happy with it.  We decided that the island layout just made more sense and gave us a more functional kitchen.  We had Katy order the cabinets in early December.  The cabinet style is "Lancaster" (shaker style) on cherry wood with a toffee color stain.  The biggest hurdle was making sure that we really could take out the section of wall that the bar extended from.  We had punched some holes in the sheet rock to see what was inside.  At first Mike thought it would be no problem to remove.  Then we took a closer look to find 3 studs  on the outside corner supporting the beam that carries the upper floor.  We had some guys come and take a look.  They all said no problem, take it out.  Demolition began during the Christmas break.  Mike took some extra time off because his program at work had a stop work order given.  Upper cabinets came down, the soffit box was taken down to reveal a bunch of electrical wires that needed to be moved.  Mike began moving all the electrical wires and fixing the framing on the end of the wall.  At the end of the Christmas break when mike needed to go back to work we hired Wayne to come in and help.  He worked for 4 days and was able to finish the sheet rock, mud and tape, texture, patch the wood flooring, put in the island cabinets and run the plumbing and electrical to the island.  He did a great job and saved Mike a ton of time and stress trying to get things done.  Mike cut some plywood to make a counter top for the island and put in the new sink so we could have a working sink after not having a sink for 4 days.  We painted the ceiling white and painted the walls.  Then the installation of the rest of the cabinets began.  It took basically another week to get all the cabinets installed.  Desi helped Mike, Tom Ashby came over and helped Mike.  We need to back up to Thanksgiving for a moment.  We were planning on keeping our current appliances but Mike was concerned about the wide door on the fridge and the spacing to the island and so after Desi got a hold of the black Friday adds, we ended up going to Lowe's to check out the new appliances.  The black Friday sale continued through the following Monday.  They had a fantastic deal on Samsung appliances.  Desi really liked the stainless steel look and we ended up purchasing a new french door fridge and a new range.  The appliances were on back order not to be delivered until end of January, first part of February.  That was great with the time we knew it would take to complete the kitchen remodel.  Mike was ready to install the microwave and didn't want to install the "white" unit just to take it down at some point to install a matching "stainless steel" unit.  So Desi went out an purchased a new microwave to match.  Mike installed it and it looks great against the new cabinet color.  Mike finally got the all the cabinets installed and we were ready for counter tops.  We found a guy to do our counter tops.  He recommended that we go look at "Stone Collection"  a wholesale granite warehouse.  It was an amazing place.  We picked "new Venetian gold" and were very excited.  Alex came over on a Monday to measure, and had counter tops ready to install by Thursday of that week.  They look fantastic.  The new fridge and range were delivered this week, and the only things left to do are install all the toe kicks, and the side panel of the fridge, and to find and buy a new dishwasher to match our new appliances. We are in love with our new fancy kitchen.

Ruby Walking

Ruby started taking steps two weeks ago this past Sunday. Since then she has been pretty daring. She will just let go of whatever she is holding onto and try to walk, even if there isn't anyone to walk to or catch her. She is also a little ham. She knows when she is being goofy and hams it up, proof in the video.