First Day of Early Preschool TWO

Today was Katie's first day of Early Preschool Two (2.5 to 3 year olds).  She'll be there for the entire year and we even have a Back to School Night this coming Thursday to meet her teachers.  Our little girl is growing up!  Look how proud she is to start her "big girl classroom."

So I have some serious concerns . .

On what would happen if our family was part of a disaster (natural or otherwise).  These concerns first came to light earlier this week when a 5.9 earthquake shook Richmond Tuesday afternoon, the tremors left little damage but our phones (both land and mobile) stopped working for a couple hours. 

On Saturday Hurricane Irene (actually a tropical storm by then) fell on Richmond and left our family without power, a land line, cell service and even my air card.  My point being, that although trees were uprooted and there was damage, this was a tropical storm, god forbid that we ever encounter a category 3 - 5 hurricane.  At the time of Hurricane Katrina US citizens voiced outrage on how long it took help to reach those in need.  If I'm still without power on day three of a tropical storm, I can absolutely understand how we became immobile over the wrath of a substantial storm.  Going forward I will always make sure my family is prepared for the worse.

On a lighter note, our family was able to spend a lot of "quality" time together this weekend!  Katie made me laugh when I asked her what she thought of the earthquake on Tuesday, she responded with "Katie's birthday in March, want a pink bike" . .well okay then, both girls came through it wonderful.  When the power first went out Saturday and I was explaining to Katie why the lights wouldn't come on, she responded with "Mommy needs batteries?" . .that's exactly right, we need lots and lots of batteries.

We did get incredibly lucky and purchased a generator from Home Depot early Sunday morning, which started powering our refrigerated just in the knick of time!

With it being 90 degrees during the day, both girls were sweating profusely in there beds, so Dave and I decided it was time for the first Farmer Family Sleep Over.  It wasn't the easiest, but when Katie rolled over in the middle of the night to put her little hand in mine, it was the best thing in the world . .a couple days without power, who cares!!!!!

Thank you Home Depot, foresight obviously made your store a lot of extra money this past Sunday!

The Farmer Family Sleepover

Holy Princesses Batman!

Last week we received a box from my god-daughter Ava (who will be turning six on October 15th) holding the Disney Princess Dresses that she's now too old for.  What an assortment of dresses that box contained, my girls are beyond set . . THANK YOU SO MUCH AVA for sharing with us!  I know both Katie and Caroline will enjoy these for many years to come.

All excited about her and "sissy's" present

Our very own Princess "Cinderella" Katie

Who doesn't love Mickey ears?

Caroline Mackenzie at Ten Months

What I've noticed about you lately:

• Goldfish crackers may be your newest favorite food.
• You're obsessed with Katie's play kitchen.  You crawl into her room constantly, from the living room, from your room, only Katie's room will do - even if you're surrounded by a ton of "Caroline" toys.
• You love playing with Katie's play lipstick and squeal with delight whenever you come upon it.
• You started chewing on the top of your crib while standing up.  We're met each morning with your mouth covered in brown flakes.  I've since bought a special cloth wrap that ties around the posts to protect both you and the crib.
• Man can you crawl, fast!  You now follow us wherever we go . .along with branching out on your own (no fear there).  You can also crawl down a step and pull up on everything and anything. 
• You love the water and could splash in the pool for hours.
• You come rushing to greet us at the front door when we get home and stand up looking out when we leave.

On the move . . .

. . . to Katie's room of course!

C A R O L I N E - Don't you eat that!

Ha ha!

Goodbye EPS1 Classmates :(

We had a party in Katie's classroom on Friday, August 19th . .but not exactly the good type of party!  Two of her classmates, Maggie (who's been with Katie since the nursery room and was born two days after her) and Aditi were leaving Primrose.  Needless to say myself and some of the other mother's were very sad to see our children's close knit class broken up.  We know this is part of life, that people come and go in our lives, but does it need to start when they're two?

I of course had to get involved and come up with a goodbye "theme"

Early Preschool One

Always a fan of sweets . . .

 . . . and who wouldn't be with these cookies, so cute!

Just love this picture (that's me in the jeans)

We're going to miss these gals!

Making the MOST of it!!!

With Caroline out of school all week, with Katie out most of the week, with Grandma in town and the girls feeling better, I thought we should make the most of it.  So we went Blueberry Picking Wednesday, to the Richmond Zoo on Friday and to Busch Gardens Williamsburg on Saturday!

Swift Creek Berry Farm

The Zoo

Busch Gardens

Kate and I going on the Log Flume!

Merry Go Round with Grandma and Daddy

Not the weekend we were planning . . .

We were all set to enjoy the weekend of August 13th, our first weekend home in four weeks!  The biggest thing on our agenda was Chloe Lake's 2nd Birthday . . a Minnie Mouse themed party to which Katie talked about all week.

The party was at four, so at three we started getting everyone ready.  After waking Caroline up and feeding her a bottle, David noticed that there was something wrong with our youngest.  Instead of talking normal breaths, she was grunting in short pants instead of taking air all the way in.  I immediately pulled up her shirt to see if she was struggling to breath (if her ribs were showing), but she looked fine and even gave me a smile.  Despite that, the sound was making us nervous and we decided that Dave should head out to KidMed, an urgent care facility a couple miles from our home.

Unknown to me, immediately after leaving Caroline started screaming and didn't quit.  By the time they reached KidMed she was soaking wet with sweat and was turning blue from the waist down.  I will be forever grateful to the doctors at that facility for handling the situation so swiftly, she was given a catheter, IV of fluids, x-rays, blood tests, pain medication, high dose antibiotics and oxygen. 

Dave proceeded to call me shortly thereafter and sparing me the details, requested that I drop Katie off someone and come immediately.  Thank goodness for the Lake Family, who handled my hysterical phone call with ease and actually met me at the car to take Katie so that I could be on my way. 

Once at KidMed, the doctor pulled me aside before I could see Caroline.  I'll preface that Dave and/or I have been to the doctor countless times with our sick children.  They always diagnose the problem, give us medicine and send us on our way (just as we assumed today would be).  Never had I been in a situation where the doctor was so serious and forth coming.  She told me straight off that Caroline was a very sick baby, that she had already called our pedestrian for a second opinion, was quite certain that Caroline had a blood infection and that they would be transferring her to a hospital shortly.  More to the point, what scared me the most was that she was visibly concerned, very worried about our daughter.

Over the next two hours Caroline started slowing improving until finally she was sitting up, laughing, acting right as rain and we were able to go home.  Nothing but a simple ear infection was found, though the doctors say an undetermined virus must have been the more serious culprit.  At our follow-up appointment on Monday, our pediatrician once again relayed to me how serious Carolines situation had been.  Obviously concerning, it took her a full week to eat and return to normal, but we're just happy that our baby is well so we're going to focus on that!

On Sunday Katie woke up with 102 and a stomach bug, the first time we'd ever seen her feeling so poorly.  After another call to our pediatrician's on-call doctor they gave her the same high-dose antibiotics that Caroline was on, just to be on the safe side.

So I would like to take a moment to say  . . THANK YOU!

• To Dr. Carpenter at KidMed who went over and beyond with our daughter
• To the Arin and Jason Lake for watching Katie during the time we needed it most
• To my mother-in-law, Nancy for dropping everything and coming straight to help
• To my mom who came that next week so that I could keep Caroline out of school
• To Katie who went right into Jason Lake's arms excited about the party and not bothered that her mommy was leaving her.
• To Caroline, for being a trooper and coming through like the champ that she is!

After learning that we'd be soon leaving KidMed with Caroline :)

Katie enjoying herself at Chloe's Birthday



Valley of the Sun

And off to Arizona I went this past weekend for our bi-annual meetings.  I love how Knight finances and allows me to keep in touch with all of my college friends, a great perk that I take every advantage of.  This trip I went from late Thursday to Sunday.  On the personal side Heather, Angie and I had dinner and drinks out in Scottsdale Friday night.  I always enjoy any amount of time that I get to spend with these two and that night was no exception.

Saturday I borrowed a room key from a co-worker and spent my morning relaxing at the Buttes Resort Pool.  It was a hot 109 degrees, but then again that's no different from the current 100 degrees with a billion percent humidity in Richmond.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading by the pool and it absolutely made me look forward to Dave's and my cruise, six weeks from today.

On the work side of things everything was pretty standard, the one aspect that I can speak very highly of was our team building activity on Friday.  I had assumed it was something along the line of indoor go-gart racing (which would have been fun), but Knight threw me a curve ball and we actually volunteered for two hours at the Saint Mary's Food Bank in downtown Phoenix.  In those two hours, 100 of Knight's Leadership Group boxed up and palletized 48,000 meals for people in need.  I was extremely pleased by the entire event, kudos to Knight Transportation for the opportunity!

Assembly Line One

Assembly Line Two

Random, but I raided Heather's closet for our meetings on Friday as I wanted to look cute and fashionable (the red Knight Shirt I brought, just wasn't cutting it).  Plus now that I've lost 30 pounds, I'm finding the "old Lee-Ann" so to speak and wanted to dress up a bit.  To be completely honest, I still have a ways to go, but I'm extremely proud of my progress and revel in the hard work it's taken me to get here.   Attached is the outfit I "stole" from Heather, earrings, shirt and headband!

The only downer (for me) on this trip is that now Katie "gets it."  She understands that Mommy's gone and isn't quite happy (judging by her behavior).   She greeted Nelson's mom at school Friday talking about "Mommy Airplane," so obviously it's on the front of her mind.  Whenever I talk to her she tells me excitedly what's she doing, but then sounds a little sad when asking me about the "airplane."  Perhaps I'm imaging things, but I'm not going to lie, pretty much breaks my heat . .hence my 6:00 a.m. flight out of Phoenix this morning, so I can get home to my girls as soon as possible!

When Mommy was a little girl . .

I loved Madeline, Babar, The Bernstein Bears and Clifford books.  I loved my Cabbage Patch Dolls and Pound Puppies.  I loved big large families and holidays that were celebrated by people in the masses.  I loved all the places I was able to visit with my Mom and Dad and I absolutely adored my Grandma and Grandpa!

I now read my own little girls Madeline, Babar, The Bernstein Bears and Clifford books.  They have my beloved Pound Puppy - Footprint and the (yearly) Birthday Dolls that I collected till I reached Sweet Sixteen.

I married into a much larger family and although I can be defiantly known to complain, I love and enjoy our time together immensely!

We'll plan trips so that our girls may be educated about the ways of the world.  Fun family vacations to different places, although with old faithful’s such as Disney World thrown in.

Most importantly my Grandma and Grandpa meant the world to me.  Although we had a good distance between us, I would say that I was incredibly close with them and they're still greatly missed by me.  My grandfather, a locksmith and carpenter was a man with simple ideals.  Perhaps not simple ideals, but down to earth ones - the right ones in my opinion.  With only an eighth grade education, parents that were immigrants, he fought for his country in WWII and loved his family, wife and daughter. 

This past weekend I went into my parent’s attic and brought down the dollhouse he made for me when I was six.  He spent the time to not only to assemble it, but to decorate inside as well.  My grandmother made curtains for the windows, my grandfather painted little pictures to hang on the walls in frames; they wallpapered the rooms, laid carpeting down, assembled furniture and turned a standard dollhouse into a wonderful home.  30+ years old, it had a renovation (when I was home one summer from college), but has amazing held up really well.  Katie loved playing with it and I enjoyed sharing a part of my childhood with her.  It's wonderful to pass on things that meant so much to me as a little girl . .

Coming into the room and seeing it for the first time!

 Checking it out



Showing Pooh Bear

Loves it (as did Sissy who kept trying to pull herself up on the table to play with it :)

Katie threw a tea party!

Christmas 1980

The original inside