Cadence IS Picture Perfect!

Everywhere we go, Cadence gets comments about how cute and beautiful she is. These compliments come from women, men, old, young... basically everyone. After stating her natural beauty, we are told that she should be a model! Cadence is a model of many wonderful things to me - of beauty, of learning, of curiousity, of kindness and sensitivity, and of joy! She loves being alive and enjoys (almost) every moment. Childhood is her specialty. She is the princess in our home and she knows it. She will even humbly tell you if you ask. Currently, there is a stylish online clothing company, Shabby Apple, doing a model search for their next picture perfect princess. It would definitely be in their best interest to choose Cadence as the princess to model their dresses. Her smile is infectious. Her eyes are breathtaking and kind. Her hair is joyful. Her tan skin is warm. Her little cute body is pure energy, EXCITEMENT and happiness. Cadence IS A PICTURE PERFECT PRINCESS to many people!
All the dresses that Shabby Apple produces are just so cute! I would love to have a couple for myself! Cadence would look amazing in all the little girl and girl dresses from shabby baby, but I think the "Gumballs" dress would just capture her fun and spunky personality. Not to mention that she could still dance around, run, and be her silly self in it.

I hope that Shabby Apple chooses Cadence to be their next princess. She would represent the company and their adorable dresses well. She is a princess to me!!!!

Tortured Breathing!

Last week, Cooper started getting a runny nose. Then came a little cough and then a bigger cough. He was warmer than usual. His breathing started to sound labored. At nights, he would whimper for hours and/or arch his back and cry like he was in pain. He slept more often during the day and wanted to be held closely. He wasn't himself!!! After a couple of days, I thought I better call the doctor. I usually just let sicknesses take their course, but something seemed a little different with this one. I was mostly concerned about his tortured breathing. Maybe he had an ear infection or something that needed to be treated.

I took him to the doctor and it was a good thing! His breathing was very labored, his lungs sounded badly and his breathing tubes were congested and wheezy. Dr. McKenna said he is pre-pneumonia, but it could develop to that quickly because of the pesky virus. Cooper was started on breathing treatments 4-5 times a day and one medicine.
He HATES the breathing treatments. It is Albuterol(?) which is what the give people with asthma. It is supposed to help open the bronchial tubes and clear the lungs. Cooper fights and fights - turning his head from side-to-side, squirming, throwing his head back, pulling with his arms etc. He thinks it is TORTURE! What a strong little guy! The dr. also said to keep him away from kids under two for a week. He went to church to hear Emerson Hadfield be blessed and Dad speak, but then we went home. That's about our outings where kids would be for the past week! He is doing so much better now. He still has a little cough and runny nose, but is breathing and acting well and happy!

On Friday, Cadence started coming down with a cough, runny nose and fever. She slept A LOT on Fri, Sat and Sun. By Monday, she was feeling much better too.
I'm excited for both of their coughs and runny noses to go away completely!!!

Swinging Spring

The weather has been wonderful...some days. Other days, it is rainy and snowy. It is definitely spring in Utah!!! On those good days, we take a walk around the neighborhood and usually end up at a park. Cadence loves to swing. I think Cooper is big enough to gently swing too. This is his first time in a swing!
They enjoyed swinging together as brother and sister and friends!!!
The other favorite activity at the park for Cooper was to eat woodchips, naturally!
And Cadence thoroughly loved the challenge of climbing up the slide!

I have a feeling that we will be spending LOTS of time at the parks this spring. We love being outside!!!

Scary St. Patrick's Day

When the kids woke up, they were wearing green. I didn't want to have to pinch them!!! I dressed them in some green too. I told Cadence she had to wear green or she could get pinched. She was paraniod all day about getting pinched!!!! I was in charge of the storytime activity for our ward today and chose a St. Patrick's Day story about a parade and leperchauns. A "leperchaun" put shamrocks all over the church with clues about where he hid a treasure. Unfortunately, Cadence and Cooper were the only ones that were there for the story and leperchaun hunt. Once again, Cadence was afraid of what the leperchaun might be like and I had to drag her from clue to clue. At the end, she was so relieved to find a bucket of candy all for herself (she thought!) While Cadence at the candy Kisses filled with caramel, Cooper ate the green shamrocks and turned himself a little green.
While Cadence and Cooper were eating their treat of choice, Carolyn-Kate showed up. We decorated a green sash and had a small parade around the gym!
Aren't CK and Cadence cute?
That evening we had corned beef and cabbage with the Coltrin family. I forgot to get pictures because there were so many kids running around and it was crazy! Cadence learned a lot about St. Patricks Day this year. Hopefully next year, she won't be so scared!

Dinosaur Day

Last week, we went to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point with Grammy.These are a few of the pictures we took. Cadence was a little bit nervous at first, but got used to the bones and replicas after a few minutes. She wanted Dad to hold her most of the time.
Cooper enjoyed looking at everything also. We took the stroller and the Moby, gratefully. Cooper is just so heavy to carry all the time. Luckily, none of us wereeaten by any T-Rexs . It was close, but we got away!
Cadence enjoyed playing in the sand and water. She was supposed to be learning about how water, dirt and erosion played a part in fossils and the burying and discovery of dinosaurs. I'm not sure she understood that:) She and I enjoyed brushing away sand as looked for dinosaur skeletons. Very therapuetic! Riding on the dinosaurs is much easier than riding on a bull!

This was fun. we will go again in a couple of years.

Life In The Treehouse!

I was going to do a little write up about the Treehouse Musuem in Ogden that we visited last week, but Cooper is sick (doing breathing treatments) and Cadence is developing a phlegmy cough. I'm just posting pictures some since I don't know how to do a collage.

I NEED blog help! I also want to learn how to make a banner, change the background and post a picture from the internet on my blog. If you know how to do these and want to show me, I would appreciate it!

Spring Break Staycation

Last week was Spring Break at USU and Chris HAD to take it off (without pay:( Instead of going somewhere exotic, we chose the easy, cheap way and stayed close to family. It was so much fun!

I watched my nieces in Ogden for a few days while my sister went to a conference with her husband. Cadence loved hanging out with Maddie and McKinley. I can't believe how mature and responsible all my nieces are. They are growing up too quickly!

While the girls were at school, we visited two McD's playlands,

the soft play at the Newgate Mall,

walked through Target, JoAnn's and just had lots of fun around the town! When the girls came home from school, we played in the snow, played with the hamster,

visited some friends (karah from Impact, Brian &Tawna), skiied on the Wii, and played games, etc. We also tried to do some homework and reading!

Chris joined us on Thursday and we explored the Treehouse Museum!!! Cadence LOVED it! If we lived near Ogden, we would get a yearly membership and be there weekly! Cadence and Maddie participated in a puppet show, played musical instruments, cooked in the kitchen, and so much more. It was a ton of fun!!!!!!!!!

After we left my sister's on Friday, we headed down to the Draper Temple open house. The temple was so beautiful. Simple, yet elegant! As we walked through, Cadence kept whispering "shhhh!" to us. In the sealing room, we looked in the large mirrors and Cadence counted how many Cadences she saw. She stopped at six and thought it was cool she could see where people get married. I'm grateful that families can be forever!
Unfortunately, there were street preachers outside the stake center where we ate cookies and drank water. One had to start yelling about how Chris was black and the church is racist, etc. I wanted to tell him, "Thank you for acting lik a racist by screaming about and focusing on the obvious color of my husand's skin." I decided not to. Contention is not of God!

Swinging on Grammy's big swing and jumping on the tramp made Cadence and Cooper so happy! On Saturday, we visited Mary Lampros and kids. We hoped Cadence would enjoy the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. She liked playing in the water and the sand the most.From the dinosaur museum, we attended an Impact reunion for Chris' Lift Off group. He enjoyed visiting with all his friends. Cadence loved watching Pocahontas and playing with the kids until...she threw up! That ended the party. We arrived back home in Cache Valley at 1:30am so we could be here for Church on Sunday!

What a staycation! We visited many people, museums and explored new places all for less than $100 including gas! That is my kind of vacation!

Boy Eats Cow

Cooper is a biter! He puts EVERYTHING in his mouth! Now that he has teeth on the top and bottom, he is deadly! Some objects that go in whole come out missing pieces. Cadence won this spongy-type cow at USU's homecoming party. It was a bath toy!



Cooper got a hold of it and now it is...in the garbage. He bit off the ears and both hind legs. I got tired of worrying about him choking on the chunks he was biting off and finally tossed it.

The cow brought Cooper so much joy and happiness. He would start bouncing when he would see it! As soon as he picked it up, it went straight to his mouth for chewing and biting pleasure! I'm sure if he could have had it longer, he would have eaten the whole cow (chewed it to nothing). The foam swords that he and Cadence received for Christmas also are a favorite for him to chew, bite and destroy. I hope this oral fixation ends soon!!!