Five Years Ago...

...Our Little Savannah Was Born

First Birthday

Second Birthday

Third Birthday

Fourth Birthday

FIFTH BIRTHDAY!

We can't believe we have a five year old girl! We love our Savannah so much and we are so proud of how much she is learning and what a sweet, helpful, smart, beautiful girl she is.

Happy Birthday "Miss Lulu"!

Holly Supposes Her Toeses are Roses!

I'm grateful for...

- my almost 5 year old who is the best playmate for her 14 month old sister and makes her smile

- my 14 month old who insisted today on giving me snotty nose slobbery kisses all over my face

- my husband who is a very dedicated and loyal employee (and father) (who spent another 10 hour day at the office and is now home, but STILL working...almost 9pm) so that I can stay home with the children.

- Monday Mom Movies where I can take both my kids for FREE (Mom's are $5 and kids 5 and under are free) and not worry about bothering someone with a crying child. (We saw "Horton Hears a Who" today. Cute.)

- New neighbors...a family of about 8 adopted kids...all different backgrounds...who welcomed my green tinted shamrock rice crispy treats with wide eyes and ear to ear smiles.

- The sound of silence once both kids are asleep in their beds.

- The hot tub (on the deck my husband labored for 4 months to build) of which I'm about to retreat to after a very long day of wiping noses and calming fussy sickypoo kids.

- my bed and the softest most welcoming set of sheets I've ever slept in...maybe I'll skip the hot tub and just go to bed.

- sleep (goodnight)

My little composer

When I was 17, I composed a song for one of my Young Women Laurel projects. I had never composed a song before nor did I posses any music theory whatsoever. I had taken piano lessons since I was 10, but I wouldn't have considered myself advanced enough to compose music. Nevertheless, I felt that there was something in me that needed to be expressed and so, after about 3 months of tinkering around on the piano one summer (being particularly inspired by the pioneers who suffered much while crossing the plains), "Kacy's Theme" for lack of a better name, was born. For 15 years, my mom urged me to get it printed on paper, but I didn't have the resources to do so. Well, a year ago Christmas, I was able to surprise my mom with the sheet music for my very own copyrighted one hit wonder...now titled "All Is Well". She was so surprised and SO happy to have a copy that she could now learn to play after being able to only listen to it for 15 years! Well, I now keep my sheet music proudly displayed on the piano...knowing it will most likely be the only thing I ever compose.

Seeing my sheet music on the piano must have sparked some interest in Savannah as she all of a sudden felt the need to compose her own song (with no help or assistance from me or any other resource). This was the result... ...needless to say, I was very impressed, knowing she had not copied from any music. She just sat at the table and wrote it. It was her original. =)

Now both of our songs sit displayed on the piano for all to see.

Here she is in her musical debut, playing "Savannah's Theme"

(love the playing posture).
I think it's safe to say, she's ready for piano lessons!

Poor Sick Baby

Our poor little Holly has been sick...last week with pink eye, and now a yucky ear infection. She had a horrible night last night and was up whimpering on and off from 2:30am-6:30am. I checked her at 4:30am and she was burning up and had pee all over her clothes from drinking nearly 15 ounces of fluids before bed. Bless her heart. So, I changed her and gave her lots of drugs. I rocked her to sleep but it took a while and then she woke up about 5 minutes later so I just put her in her crib and let her cry back to sleep. She only slept like 10-15 minute intervals for the next 2 hours, which meant that Doug and I didn't get much sleep those two hours either. But at least we felt good. =}Her eye was swollen shut when she woke up the second day of her pink eye. I managed to get it unstuck after a few minutes but it stayed pretty swollen till later that day.
Here's yesterday...fever and ear infection = not happy. =(
I've had a hard time getting Holly to eat while she's been sick. In one sitting, I tried string cheese, puffs, baby cereal (which she usually scarfs down), peanut butter (usually her favorite), fruit...nothing really interested her beyond 2 bites. So, I gave up. A few minutes later, I opened up the remains of my Valentine's Day chocolate to have a piece and immediate Holly started whining and signing "want". Of course, she's my daughter!
Besides, chocolate makes everything better! =)
She ate almost an entire caramel patty. Hey, it made her happy and that's all I cared about!