pizza party

We are so thrilled that Reese's trial for his dairy allergy worked and he no longer has the severe dairy allergy he has had his entire life. He still has his peanut allergy but not having a dairy allergy will
greatly impact our daily life. He was so thrilled to be able to eat the cake at a birthday party yesterday, eat eggo waffles with Caleigh at breakfast and eat the cheese cracker snack at school today. We
celebrated with a pizza party tonight. He loved pizza!    

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Colorado

Rusty, Reese and I spent last week in Colorado while Caleigh spent the week being spoiled by Rustys parents.

We were able to spend 3 days with Rustys best friend and his family in Colorado Springs. Rusty and Aaron had a blast all day catching up (4 years since they had seen each other), while Reese and I were busy touring the city. We went to Pikes Peak, the Zoo, Garden of the Gods, a Cave, an amusement park, hiking and seeing the city.

From Colorado Springs we met up with my family outside Rocky Mountain National Park. Reese was an excellent hiker! He LOVED playing in the snow.

We spent a night on the return trip in Amarillo where we went to Palo Duro Canyon and watched the "Texas Show" in the outdoor amphitheater. Reese loved the show!

Reese loved being an only child and was an excellent traveller. I couldnt have asked for a better trip (except of course if my daughter was older for her to have been there).

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Chester

Sadly, after 8 years with us, we had to put Chester down on Tuesday.
He was a rescue dog who overcame heartworms (trip to the ICU from that surgery) and was gentle to every person and child he met.

Rusty and the kids went to Kelley's on Tuesday to bring him back home (he had been living with them the past 2 months) The kids had a lot of fun playing with Chester Tuesday afternoon. Chester was loving every minute of it in this picture. I took a lot of pictures of the kids with him. Rusty must have feed him half a pork loin . He had a good day for sure.

The kids seem to be taking it far better than Rusty and I. Reese even got out the shovel and helped rusty bury him in the back yard.

Nathan, Micah and Kelley did such a great job taking care of him these last two months. Micah was just disappointed that he didn't want to play with the dog toys they bought him ( which was a nice thing when we had baby toys because he never touched them). They took him for walks every day and showed him a lot of love.

2 weeks ago he was shaking and having issues breathing so I brought him up here to my vet. We were going to put him down but then he peped up when he was here and we thought we were past it all. He was at Kelleys for a week and was doing great when he had another spell. We had an ultrasound done and nothing was found (looking for tumors, heart issues etc). On paper he was the picture of health- just had all his shots, teeth cleaned, ultrasound and blood work. The dr thinks it must have arthritis of the spine. He was having these spells of tremendous pain where he had difficulty laying down, walking etc.

Easter

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We were thrown a loop for Easter when I came down with the shingles last week. I had to miss the church Easter eggstravanza and lay low last week, but I was cleared to go to church on Sunday! The kids loved hunting eggs, dying eggs and making resurrection cookies. The Easter bunny came while we were at church and left Reese pencils, a plate, and a puppet. The bunny left Caleigh a shirt, plate and sunglasses. They loved their baskets and the inside egg hunt. I didnt manage to get any pictures of Caleigh with her bow and all dressed for church, but taking a family picture these days is always a challenge! Our family came for Easter lunch and to hunt over 250 eggs. My mom works for a solid month filling eggs!

snow day fun

snow day fun
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Sonshine School

Reese and Caleigh started their new school last week. It is called Sonshine School. It was hard to leave Wee School after 3 years, but it has actually been our best week yet on the potty training and behavior. I am really happy with the school and I think he loves it and is really learning a lot already. Its an adjustment to get them their earlier and pick them up earlier since it chops my work day up into 3 pieces now, but its going well.

Reese just came up to me and told me the trash can was all full and he needed to take it out. I wondered where he got this from (definitely not from my wonderful and loving husband whose strong suit is not the trash). He said- I learned at Sonshine School that boys take out the trash and I am a boy! That's what I call training them right and money well spent on school! He insisted on taking the kitchen trash out to the garage garbage can.

Yesterday they had Grandparents Day tea. I went as the "grandparent"

Caleighs 12 month pictures

These are the pictures from Caleighs 12 month professional pictures. She did her first photo session and once I told the photographer how she tore into her cake at her party, we decided to meet again for a cake session. It made for great pictures- cant say the same for my newly cleaned grout and tile. We threw her in the tub to clean off after the cake and that turned into another photo session. I had collages made from each session to hang on the wall of her room- those are at the end of the show. Rusty cant complain anymore about the lack of Caleigh pictures in the house with 5 collages:)

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Caleigh had her 15 month checkup on Fri. She is now 39 inches and 22 lbs. She continues to be like her brother at 90% height.