A New Chapter in our Life

So much has been going on in our life, and our poor little blog has been neglected!

Next week our life officially changes. We will be making the first of at least two moves for this year. The first move is still local, then in the summer we will be moving to San Antonio. The girls are really excited to move to Kansas first of all... and they're slowly getting excited about Texas. Katie will be the first to say that she'll have a hard time being away from her grandparents. But, we'll visit, they'll come visit, not to mention family can stay connected via the webcam, so hopefully it won't be as hard as we're anticipating.


On to the updates on the girls... Maddie is now missing FOUR teeth! We always tease her by putting our pinky fingers in her mouth, and she chomps down on them and of course, doesn't bite us b/c she doesn't have four teeth. She lost her second tooth at Katie's birthday party, then her third tooth a few minutes later just fell out on its own. (thanks Kasey for pulling them out! I've got a weak stomach when it comes to teeth). Her fourth tooth came out within a week or two later while at another birthday party. She's still struggling with her stuttering, but is currently working with a speech therapist to help her overcome her struggles. Every once in awhile, you can hear her just chattering away to her baby dolls (she's such a good little momma) and she doesn't stutter at all.

Another fun thing that we're learning about Madison: we're on a one level apartment (basically). She was always afraid to go upstairs at our house alone, so her toys would hardly get played with. Now, when we go to the apartment, she never comes out of her room. She loves to play with her Sweet Street toys and oh yes, her baby dolls. Her American Girl doll (thanks cousin Kasey!) is now being dressed over and over and over again (oh, and all of her other 50 dolls are being dressed too ~ the girl does not have a shortage in dolls!).

She's been working extremely hard with her "popcorn" words, and constantly amazes us with the books we pull out for her to read ... she can read them!! Sadly, when we move, she will be going from a full day Kindergarten to a half day Kindergarten class. I'm not sure she will know what's going on! But, since I am quitting my job to be with her during the half day she will be home, I know we'll have some amazing times together. I remembered my times with my mom growing up, and remembered how often she took the time to be with me, to do things with me and taught me much. I always hope I can be the type of mother to my children that my mother was to me.

Katie celebrated her 10th birthday bash at the ice skating rink. She had a few of her friends come and join her for this festivity. It was a very fun (and cold) day!!

Katie's been learning the recorder... man, just that word brings chills up and down my back! I couldn't believe it when she brought her music to me and her recorder, and was having difficulty playing "Hot Cross Buns" ... I didn't even look at her music, I just showed her. I remembered from my elementary school days how to play! Maybe the new school doesn't play the recorder? One can hope. :)

This past Saturday we spent the afternoon unloading stuff, and I took the girls to the playground to play. Katie was worried about making friends, and finally, after an hour, a few girls showed up who were around Katie's age. She was very relieved to know she had some friends! Maddie just played in the sand volleyball pit ... happily content with her sand and oblivious to the mess she was making (no one her age was out playing).

heck back in often ... now that we're moving away from family and friends, I will update often on the family. I know this is basically the girls' stuff, but I will post about the entire family's adventures as well. :)