Mystic Plum

Memorial Day 09

First, thanks to Uncle (Farmer) Dave for the pictures from the weekend!! Try not to click too much, I owe him 5 bucks per click. Copyright and all. Kidding. But he is awesome to share! I married into some great family that I never really had in my own. Grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins...

Hooray for summer and being back at the lake! Ava did her fair share in helping to open up this year. Her skills at weeding the beach were unparalleled.
Kaiya learned to clap! When she wasn't clapping, she was absolutely totally delightful. So in love with that girl!
Annual hot dog roast.
The water was maybe 55 degrees? She is becoming a true Michigander! I don't touch the stuff until late June!
Mark working hard with Ava looking on. ("Whatcha doin Daddy?")

Best Week Ever

Kaiya the Giant hanging out with Baby Isla!
I love how she has her hand around Isla's head. Isla does not.
As most of my close friends and sisters will attest, I love having people sit and talk to me while I do work. The girls both hung out on my bed for an hour while I folded laundry and put clothes away. This is a very exciting thing for me-we had so much fun together! I love my girls. :)
The women below are from my MOPS group and were so very kind to us while Kaiya was sick. Emails, sweet gifts, meals, and visits to the hospital were just a few of the ways they showed us love! Three of us also had babies in the same 2 week span, so I think they felt extra compassion for me! Michelle even brought her baby Grayson to the hospital when Kaiya was on the ventilator so I could hold and smell a baby. Given my track record with thank you notes, I decided a thank you lunch was in order.
Kaiya (woken up for picture), Grayson, and Lena.
Our neighborhood buddies came over Friday night. Grant, Molly, and Ava.
Little buddies!

Ava sharing her love with the world.

do what you gotta do....

This day? I had to make dinner. So I let Ava play in the sink. And of course ran to get the camera so I could document her destroying her beautiful blow out. (This is a hair term, moms, not about diapers :))

Lather, rinse, repeat!

Drool Much?

Free At Last!

We are spending most of our evenings, rain or shine-outside. It has been a long, cold winter, and a little dirt and more frequent baths seems like an easy trade off for fresh air!

Obviously every 2 year old needs adequate UV protection.

Mmmmmmmmm. Dirt. I put her in black for a reason.

And here's "Sunshine Kaiya". Every morning when we go to get Kaiya up Ava runs in yelling-"GOOD MORNING SUNSHINE KAIYA!"...I didn't realize I ever used the term sunshine, but I suppose I must. (Funny how you hear the things you say repeated back to you!)

Lots to smile about when there's not an annoying patch on your eye!

Arizona

We got a quick little getaway over the weekend to Arizona with our good friends Jared and Mandy.

Got off to a bit of a rocky start...on our way to the resort after leaving the airport in our fancy Malibu, a semi tire flew at us-which seemed like not so big a deal when according to the sound I was sure we had been shot!

Can you see how the glass is hanging like a hammock? Uh, yeah. Scary. Mark was covered in shards of glass..but thankfully escaped with just a few cuts.

On to happier times...(I love how you can see the mountains in the window!)

We had such a great time. I kind of fell in love with the Arizona climate. About 200% less humid than where I grew up...which made the heat feel fabulous. I'm ready to go back!

La Isla Bonita

So excited to have beautiful Isla here! We could not WAIT to get to Detroit to see her. Here are a few pictures of Ava and Kaiya with their new best friend(Mark and I too..yep, I was jealous :)) We are deciding which ones will go in Kaiya and Isla's dorm room at Taylor!


This baby tastes much better than my oatmeal.
Whew. That pretty much sums up Ava lately!

Crackberries for everyone!!

Isn't she beautiful?!

Patch Bootcamp

We got in a little bit of trouble from the eye dr. for not patching Kaiya's eye enough. (Translated: at all)

She hates it. So I don't do it. But I get the message...her eye has declined and so we have to hit it hard-and I've been doing it like a good Mom.

Here is how she feels about the matter:

What we would have missed...

I don't often let my mind wander to the "what if" side of the tracks. But this morning we had Kaiya's 6 month appt., and I just felt so overwhelmingly grateful to be there with her. (Ava was there, too-felt less grateful about that, but that's another, less beautiful post.)

Every dr. we have seen has told me what a miracle she is. They don't have to. I know.

So thank you God, for 6 months with this happy, smiley, cuddly, PERFECTLY on track, developmental all star. May you continue to receive all the glory for every day of this precious baby's life. I'm SO thankful she's still here!