Kaydree's Birthday with Family.

On Saturday Morning we were busy getting ready for Kaydree's Baptism and Birthday Lunch with family. My Parents drove up from Marshall (four hour drive), Steve and Lori drove from Kansas (11 hour drive) and Spencer and Emily drove up from Iowa. (3 1/2 hours drive) They all arrived around lunch time so that we could celebrate Kaydree's Birthday before her baptism.

Right before everyone arrived, Grandpa sat down with Kaydree and shared some thoughts with her about baptism. He asked her what the best gift she has been given and she said the scriptures.
Grandma spent time convincing Karsyn that she has a tail!

Charlee trying to pick up Cooper's scent on Spencer.

Kaydree blowing out her candles. I love the look on Nick's face!

I don't know if you can tell from these pictures, but Kaydree was so excited and our family felt so grateful for the love and support of family!

Grandpa and Grandma Villarreal's Anniversary

Benjy brought his parents back to the airport this morning and there were a lot of tears. Karsyn was sooooo very sad. I just got the computer out for the first time since Friday morning. I have a lot to blog in order to preserve our memories. It will take a couple of post to update our blog! I wanted to take advantage of every moment we had with Grandpa and Grandma and the rest of the family coming up, so I took a break not only from blogging, but laundry and going to the gym. Today...is get caught up day!

On Friday we spent the day shopping and then we went out to eat with the Klines. They served a mission in Argentina when Grandpa and Grandma were Mission Presidents.

We went to Ruby Tuesday's and enjoyed the evening catching up.
We ended up shopping so long that we didn't get to Como Zoo which is okay, because it was so cold!

Grandma Villarreal is making blankets and Karsyn liked to snuggle up next to her and play her DS.

Grandma really liked Charlee. She has decided that he is way too spoiled!

Grandma French Braided the girls' hair and they loved it! Too bad their mother doesn't know how to because the looked so cute. Grandpa bought Kaydree and Karsyn birthday gifts. Kaydree got an E-pet and Karsyn got a Little Pet Shop.

Karsyn decorating her dog.

I love Grandpa's hat. Uncle Danny and Auntie Shalayne sent it to him and it reminds me of the one my Grandpa Cap use to wear!

Benjy looks a lot like his mom!

Karsyn showing off her hair!

They're Here..

Grandpa and Grandma Villarreal are here and today is their 40th that's right 40th Wedding Anniversary!!!! So...where are the pictures????? I am working on the camera thing again. I need to find Lithium Rechargeable photo batteries. I have been looking, but haven't been able to find them yet, sooooo I will have to break down today and buy a non-rechargeable lithium battery. I will have pictures tonight. We picked Grandpa and Grandma up around 6:30PM and took them to the Mall of America, right away. WE all enjoyed some Panda Express, Pizza and of course McDonalds for the girls. We had some ride points left so the girls went on some rides and then we came home. WE read some scriptures put the girls to bed and spent some time discussing the baptism and other "deep" conversations about life with Grandpa and Grandma. WE were in bed around Midnight. We are spending the day at the Como Zoo (I know it's cold, we will probably just do the inside animals and conservatory.) WE are going to head down town and spend the rest of the time preparing for tomorrow.
And tonight we will be celebrating Grandpa and Grandma's 40th..... anniversary!

Why We Bond...

in Minnesota. They say people who go through tragedies together, often bond in a special way. I believe that is why we Minnesotans love living here. This extremely, freezing, unbelievably cold, beyond your imagination cold...is somewhat of a tragedy! However, we Minnesotans will go out and brave these conditions and keep on pluggin' along and we do it with a little complaining (because it's kind of fun to complain). This morning however I was actually laughing at how freakin' cold it is.
Trip down memory lane:
When Spencer and I moved to Minnesota after living in Colorado and we were walking into school one day, we both were really quiet.
I finally broke the silence and said, "Spencer, something is wrong with my nose! It feels really weird!"
Spencer says, "Kristen, that is your nose hairs actually freezing!" Ugh!!!
Well we are well beyond nose hair freezing type temps...
Oh yeah....WELCOME to MINNESOTA...GRANDPA AND GRANDMA VILLARREAL...WHO ARE FLYING IN FROM WASHINGTON TONIGHT!
When I left this morning my car temp said - 20 by the time I got to Andover High School is said - 30, I mean really?
I'm proud to be a Minnesotan where the temps are always cold and I'm proud to be a Minnesotan where my nose hairs get to freeze! (humming to the song, I'm Proud to be an American.)

Another Birthday Update on Kaydree...

Kaydree says she has been tortured waiting to open her gift from Grandpa and Grandma Koch.
She was so excited for Under Armour, toe socks and a magic scarf.
My poor little peanut. This is not starting out to be such a great Birthday, but she is being a trooper about it. She is sitting home sick from school today after a determined trip on the bus only to find her dad standing inside the school doors to bring her home. As Kaydree walked up to him, she knew, "I'm positive, oh....man!!!!"

Kaydree had strep over Christmas, took 10 days of antibiotic only to wake up with and ear ache on Sunday and a sore throat yesterday. I sent her to school yesterday because she wasn't running a fever and I thought I would just call the doctor to get another course of antibiotics. Of course they wanted to re-swab her, so I pulled her out of school early for their only appointment yesterday. Since she already tested positive on a rapid strep (2 weeks ago to the day) they had to do an over night culture to be sure it was a live strain. They told me they would call me at 8:00am if the test was positive yet they gave her another course of antibioitics yesterday to start. She has had 3 doses starting yesterday.

I started calling the clinic this morning at 8...no answer, 8:15 no answer, 8:20 no answer... Kaydree really wanted to go today, because it's her birthday, so Benjy said he would just drive to the clinic to get the results. He told me, "just send her on the bus and if she is positive we will go pick her up." (As a parent I would be sooooo mad at other parent's that would do this! If it wasn't her birthday...we wouldn't have even considered it! Looking back now... I shouldn't have gone against my better judgement!) Kaydree was saying she felt fine, she wasn't running a fever, she had 3 new doses of antibiotics, they hadn't called me with a positive test, she had just gotten off 10 days of antibiotic...she can't be contagious anymore, right? so I sent her..

Benjy was at the clinic for 30 minutes because the weren't answering their phones and after a fire drill and a broken water pipe with water leaking all over the clinic he calls me and says, "There are no nurses here to read the results, because of the water break." Then about 5 minutes later he calls and says, " I am going to go pick her up...she is positive again or still????" I don't know. The doctor is now wondering if she might be a carrier? Kaydree missed her Christmas party last year at school because of strep, the second day of school and now her Birthday, all because of strep throat! Benjy use to get strep all the time until he got his tonsils out...I wonder what will be next for Kaydree????

Here is my dilemma..I am glad she will be on antibiotics again so that all of our family coming in for the baptism will not have to worry about her being contagious, however we wanted to pull her out of school to hang out with her Grandpa and Grandma Villarreal on Friday. They haven't been here in over 2 and 1/2 years and it will be the only day to hang out with them while they are here. They fly in Thursday night...Friday (suppose to be a fun day) Saturday: baptism and Sunday: church (3 hours and a night training) and they leave on Monday morning. So do we still pull her out for Friday, knowing she missed a 1/2 day yesterday and a full day today????? The teacher in me says, "NO" but the mother in me says, "Yes."

Happy Birthday Kaydree

WE have already had 2 calls by 7:05 this morning, Grandma and Karen...;-) Kaydree is still sleeping so I will be working on her Birthday post a little later. It was 8 years ago today that Benjy and I became parents. Kaydree's birth started out under some stressful circumstances... After preterm labor starting at 26 weeks, bed rest and 6 trips to the hospital, her kicking me until my water broke, our little breech persistent little bundle of joy came out screaming at 36 weeks, weighing 5 pnds 11 ounces. She then went on to have Breast Milk induced Jaundice...which required numerous trips to have her blood drawn, all of which my mother went in with her, because Benjy was working and I sat and cried and cried and cried, watching them try to draw blood with a needle that was larger than her arm. They would tie one of those rubber bands around her tiny little arm and she would scream...and I felt like I was going to pass out!
It amazes me to this day how quickly you can love your child more than yourself in the instance you find out they are growing within you or that they are going to be your child (I believe in adopting you can have this same joy! another post someday!) Here is a little about her birth...pictures and more to come after our crazy morning settles down.

A Great Movie on Marriage and Faith.

My friend Andrea blogged about going to see this movie and highly recommended it to others. I am not a huge Kirk Cameron fan, so I wasn't going to it in order to see him, trust me! We went last night to the $3 movie theater in Maple Grove. Benjy saw the firefighter uniform and thought it was about firefighters, so he was in. I didn't tell him anything about it because I watched the trailer and really wanted to see it but after recommending it to others, someone told Andrea that they didn't really care for it. I wanted Benjy's opinion without knowing any of this just to see what he would think without basing it off an other's opinion. We laughed, I cried, Benjy said, "That is really sad in parts." This is what he said, "You tricked me. I thought that was going to be a movie about firefighting, like Back Draft...but I loved it. I want to buy a copy for each of my brothers and their wives, how could anyone not love that movie, it is funny, it is sad and it teaches you so much!" (sometimes the acting was a little cheesy but the message was so awesome you have to overlook that!)

My thoughts:

You need to be very comfortable with your faith and your commitment to trusting in the Lord with all your heart and in your spouse. If you don't consider yourself a religious person (whatever that means) you may be uncomfortable in this movie. It is a Christian Movie....You know when you start to talk about religion with some people and they just completely get uncomfortable....well this movie is dedicated to expressing the need to have God in your marriage and to learn that marriage is more about showing love rather then trying to find short comings in your spouse. It teaches that loving is more about giving rather than on how your spouse isn't showing you enough love or respect or in the right ways. It is a movie that teaches you how to love your spouse through the tough times and asking God to be there every step of the way and that there shouldn't be any other way. It describes marriage as a covenant between God and two people rather than just a contract until things get tough.

It was amazing! We left that movie feeling grateful for the love that we share and recharged on ways to show love for one another....awesome awesome awesome date night! Benjy says, "and comforting to know that others have been through fires and rough spots in their marriage, as most have... and that there are ways to grow deeper in love with each other during those times." Of course I am going to say, even if you don't consider yourself a religious person...you should still go see this movie! Okay..and Benjy says, "and if your not married you should still go see what marriage is sometimes going to be like and realize that it is an amazing process!"