One Year Ago...

I found out I officially had Hodgkins Lymphoma...I had become a cancer patient. Yikes!

I remember thinking about my life, my new born baby, my then 1 year old, my husband who I had only been married to for 3 1/2 years and Iwondered if I would live through the next year. I tried to think possitively - having thoughts like....I've always wanted to buzz my hair and now I have a good reason too, I hope I lose all my baby weight since I'm going to need chemo...at least if I get sick from it I'll get thin in the process (that didn't happen at all), and..ok...I'm just getting all the "downs" out of the way early in my life (2 hard pregnancys, cancer and husband going back to school).

Now I'm ready for the "UPS"!

My baby girl is now 1 yr old and is walking all over the place! My big girl wants to go to preschool and told me today that I'm cute :). My husband and I will be celebrating out 5 year anniversary in December and he will be done with his teaching cradential in 4 months! And best of all I'm still in remission!!!

I often wonder why God chose me and my family to go through this journey. I hope one day I'll realize the purpose for it all. For now I'm just grateful that He kept me on this earth so that I could see my little girls grow up. I feel like I've been given a second chance to be a mom and wife and I'm so thankful for that!

Thanks you to everyone who helped us survive this past year! We couldn't have done it with out so much support!!!

What's New With Us You Ask???

Keith is done teaching for the Summer, and he just found out he passed the PACT (big test of his teaching skills)
Cara has started going on "happy jogs" almost daily....instead of going on 'happy meds'
Bekah loves going on bike rides and can go quite fast now
Sadie is walking!!! and trying to run...she wants to be like big sister
Keith is amazing as usual and gave Bekah a manicure and pedicure this afternoon!
Cara is trying to find the balance between being a mommy, wife, employee, and friend...any suggestions?
Bekah tries to sneak out of bed at night like Cara did as a kid...she lays at the top of the stairs playing until we hear her
Sadie likes to walk through Bekahs block towers like Godzilla and pretend she doesn't know what she's doing :)
Keith has dicovered he is addicted to coffee just like me...we started drinking 1/3 caf. and it doesn't work quite as well
Cara has 15lbs to go before making her goal weight..bring on the veggies
Bekah loves to sing songs...it's so sweet
Sadie loves blueberries...we call them madames after the Veggie Tales movie 'Madame Blueberry'
We all went to the Santa Barbara Zoo last weekend and has a GREAT time together! The girls love seeing all the animals and Keith and I love the drive time....we use it as a date while the girls sleep

What's new with you???

I thought this only happened in movies...

Keith got up with Bekah around 6am and got started on the dishes....and they got the dishwasher going.....when I got up around 6:45am with Sadie I walk into the kitchen to find Keith and Bekah looking very confused at a pile of suds on the floor...after taking in the foaming dishwasher and growing pile of suds I asked Keith what kind of dishwashing soap he used...the dishwasher by this time is making some weird groaning noises and for good reason......on the back of a very large liquid dish soap container that Keith and the girls bought from Costco it says:
"do not use in automatic dishwashers"...

Oh my two big helpers...daddy and oldest daughter...who could ask for more.......at least Bekah had a lot of fun helping clean up all the bubbles....and part of my kitchen floor got a good cleaning :)

why did i check lara's blog today????

this is why there is a big picture of me, myself and i on this post....thanks lara!!!

"So I guess these are the rules.. [Lara Laity] tagged me for this. I think the rules are that you have to take a photo of yourself as soon as you see you've been tagged and you're not allowed to primp or get all dolled up...."

...although i have to admit....i did lick my lips just to help myself out a little...was that against the rules...oh well...happy wednesday

...oh and olivia, carrie, and summer....you are tagged! :)

Our Busy Summer

So I thought once we reached summer our schedule would be less crazy....I think I was wrong. The past few weeks have been insane with work and life but I'm making it my personal goal to figure out a way to have some much needed fun family time...and maybe some alone time too. Last week the girls and I met Keith in AG (one of his jobs is close to the village) and we all went to Klondikes Pizza and then to Bernardo's for one scoop (shared by all of us :) of peach ice cream (flavor picked by Bekah- I would have gone for chocolate). It was such a wonderful fun family date - I can't wait to splurge like that again....we all needed it and it was so so worth it.
Yay for Family Dates!!!

Say Cheese!!!

Friday night movie night has become a tradition in our home, we...make "sugar popcorn" (air-popped popcorn with melted butter and brown sugar sprinkled over the top, netflix a fun kid movie (tonight it's The Brave Little Toaster), push the ottoman up to the couch so it's like a big bed and cover it with a quilt. Tonight Bekah's best friend came over to join us - they each had their own bowl of sugar popcorn, juice cup, blanket and pillow....sounds pretty relaxing to me :)

Today the girls wresled for the first time and it didn't end in tears! They were so cute to watch...they loved rolling around on the floor with eachother screaming and giggling :)

I think Sadie Won!!!

Last week I took the girls for a Bali's yogurt and they loved it. I love this yogurt shop because you serve yourself - I get them each a squirt of yogurt in their own cup and it costs under a $1....pritty good huh!

Oh these girls are so cute...at least I think they are but that might just be because I'm their mommy :)

Have a great weekend!

Growing Girls

My girls are growing up...

BEKAH
can sing the ABC'c only missing 2 letters
can count up to 17
wears big girl panties all the time except when she sleeps
washes her little sister's back with soap during bath time
likes to put real puzzles together (the ones with big pieces and with a little help)
wants to pick out her outfit everyday and do everything by herself
and
I just sent in an application for her to attend Tiny Tigers pre-school in the fall!

SADIE
is eating real food...she loves green peas, beets and strawberries
can stand up all by herself from sitting
can take one solid step before dropping to her knees to crawl
loves to scream with excitement when she and her big sis are playing
loves to "read" books, speed crawl for the stairs when I haven't yet put up the gate
and
she has bangs now....making her look like a real little girl

wow...time goes by so fast!