CK5

July 2009

It's hard to believe, but my sweet little CK turns 5 today. Where did the time go? Yesterday, Dave had everyone go around say one thing that they loved about her. It wasn't hard to think of things, the only real challenge was only saying one thing! She has the cutest little sqeaky/raspy voice and says the funniest things... for example... Friday night, we were home, sitting around before bedtime and Dave put his arm around me and asked CK if he had a girlfriend. She promptly looked disgusted and said no. He said, "No? What's Mommy then?" She looked at us for a minute and said, "She's your woman."
Anyway, she has brought our family so much fun and happiness and we are so thankful for her! Here are a few random pictures of the last 5 years:

Last spring... wearing her crown for the "q" page of her alphabet book for preschool (she was being a queen).

4 mo. old: She and I spent way to long out in the rain when Extreme Makeover Home Edition was here in town. We waited around all day for the reveal. It was fun though and I'm sure she has pleasant memories too!

3 years old

1 year old: just a few days after her birthday, I was doing my nails and had some cuticle remover out with the lid off. She saw it and thought it looked like a bottle with milk so she grabbed it and threw it back. She swallowed quite a bit, but a lot also went into her eye. We took her to the ER and spent what felt like hours while they tried to flush it out. The doctor told us that there was so much damage to her eye that he couldn't say whether or not she'd be able to see again. After hours at the ER, they put her in an ambulance and sent her to the children's hospital to spend the night. Here she is strapped into the gurney getting ready to get on the ambulance. She was so worn out from all the trauma that she would just crash as soon as someone quite poking her in one way or another. She is holding my dad's hand who had come to help Dave giver her a blessing. (I only had my phone, so it is a pretty bad picture)

3 yrs old: Dress rehearsal for her first dance recital

About 2-3... I came home from the grocery store one Saturday and found her and Dave asleep like this on the couch. Once again, the only camera available was on my phone.

2 year old birthday pictures

Happy Birthday, CK! We love you!!!

Cute School Clothes

This year before school started, I decided the last thing my kids needed were new clothes. As it is, I can barely get their clothes in their dressers. Well, when the first day of school came, I was pretty embarrassed about what my kids were wearing. I realized that while yes, they do have a lot of clothes, they aren't in the best shape. This is especially true of L. She is really tough on her clothes. They all had holes in the knees and paint all over! Anyway, I went through and threw out most of her clothes and then got her a couple of new outfits. This was my favorite. It is just so sassy... just like my girl!

I had already bought CK plenty of clothes because of the uniforms, but still! I just think she looks cute in them! (She decided she wanted to pose just like her big sister).

KL wanted her picture too after her sisters. Of course, I obliged. D jumped in the picture too.

Pretty Smile

Not too long ago, I asked KL to show me her pretty smile. She was so funny the way she pulled out this really cheesy grin. I kept asking her over and over and she never disappointed. Here is a little picture:



Incidently, it was also the first day I decided to try and curl her hair. L has some hotsticks and wanted me to curl her hair that morning. After I got done, I decided to put some in KL's hair. We got a big kick out all those little curls!

A day or 2 later, she had been playing in my bathroom and walked out, over to D and asked, "A see my pwetty mi-yo?"

Baby Lily

My older sister has been pregnant for about 2 years now. Ok, I know it wasn't really that long, but I swear it has been the longest pregnancy the world. I'm not even sure MY pregnancies have felt this long! She has had all sorts of complications from almost the moment she found out she was pregnant. Anyway, we are very proud to finally announce that the baby arrived! My older sister has given birth to 4 boys and adopted 1 girl from Russia. We never really thought that she would get a girl any other way, but this pregnancy has proven to be a miracle in all sorts of ways...not the least of which that she had a little baby girl!

She was born on August 14, and was 6lbs 15 0z 20 in long.

Here is my sister Jill with her little Lily

I was watching my nephew so I had the perfect excuse to go down to the hospital as soon as she was born. I brought my 2 little sisters with me. Here is big brother Sam, Katy and Lily.

KL, as always, was fascinated with the baby. Here she is holding her (while Mariana helps)

My kids were heart broken they couldn't head off to the hospital the day she was born. I did manage to take them down the next day.

B:

CK:

D:

L:

Jill was quite small while she was pregnant (well, she is small all the time). She looked like she had a small basketball in front of her. KL was so fascinated by it. She was constantly asking about the "baby baw". I tried to get a little video about of her. She was distracted by the camera, but you can still get the idea.

Shiners!

You may have noticed from the last post, that some of my kids appear a little bit banged up. Actually, someone asked my sister at church if my family had been in a car accident. I would just like to say, for the record, that I didn't cause any of these! A couple of weeks ago, CK and D were playing around and chasing each other and CK got tripped up and landed on a wooden chest at the end of the couch. Ouch! Her eye started swelling immediately. This was just a couple of days before school started.

Here she is on her first day of school:

A day or 2 after it happened:

At the end of the week and just about an hour before taking the rest of the kids to meet their teachers, D was playing "x-games" with his cousins at my sister's house on the trampoline, and he took a pole to his eye.

These pictures were taken a day or 2 after it happened. It is looking even more swollen than usual because he had just woken up and he was mad at me for sticking a camera in his face.


Both are recovering and I'm happy to report that CK's is almost completely gone. D's on the other hand, is still nice and colorful. Actually, after the swelling started going down, the bruising spread all the way down his cheek. It wasn't pretty, but still a cool thing for a 6th grader to show up at school with!

First Day of School

The kids are all back in school now. Yea! It really feels good to be able to get back into a routine. While I do enjoy being able to be lazy and take a break from those routines, it is so nice to have my schedule back! I just get so much more done.

Anyway, CK started kindergarten this year. She is at a different school than the other kids because I wanted to find a place for her to do half day kindergarten instead of all day. I plan to have her repeat it next year in a full day class at the school the rest of the kids are at. At any rate, she started last week, just a few days before the rest of the kids. The school she goes to does uniforms, and while I did complain a little bit about having to buy them, I think she looks really cute in them. I'm sure as time goes on, I'll be posting lots more of her in her little uniform!

Here we are outside the house just before we left:

We had cousin Sam with us when we went to school. I just thought this looked cute they way they started walking up to the room together:

In front of the classroom with KL

With her teacher, Mrs. Lane

Sitting in her desk

The other kids started on Monday. Here is B, D, and L

B:

D:

L:

D, L, B at the school

So, now it's just me and KL in the afternoons. I can't say that I've gotten lonely yet. I am actually really enjoying the peace and quiet! Last year when CK was at preschool, KL would get really lonely, but we don't have that problem this year since it is pm kindergarten. We have just enough time to run an errand before the baby's nap--then I really get quiet time! I've already put together a nice long "to do" list for my now-peaceful afternoons!

Summer Vacation 2009... Part 8: The Final Chapter.... The Leitzell Reunion

Our last night on vacation, we got to go a reunion for my grandma's family. She was 1 of 3 girls, but the only one left alive. I really feel incredibly blessed to have all 4 of my grandparents still living and am thankful for whatever time I get to spend with them.

My grandma and 1 of her sisters were both firey redheads. Their hair and their laughter have always been their most dominating characteristics. My grandma had 6 kids and almost 30 grandkids, but only 1 that had that red hair. I was always so jealous! I noticed at this reunion that her sister ended up with quite a few more redheads. I think it is save to say that Dave and I will never have any redheadded children. Bummer. Still, it was fun to see all that gorgeous auburned haired girls running around!

Here is my Grandma June and my Grandpa Pug.

Grandma June and Grandpa Pug dancing... They have been married for almost 69 years and my grandpa still treats her like she is the most beautiful thing he has ever seen.

Big group of dancers. CK in the front looking back, and L on the 2nd row behind my cousin in the gold capri's.Katy, Marcee, Grandma June, Julee and Annie (backside view) dancing.
There was a big water slide for the kids. They loved it, but it was pretty cold, especially for us desert dwellers.

My cousin was doing face painting. CK picked for me to have a flower.

My cousin couldn't be there, but my aunt wanted to make sure we felt his presence anyway! (D with Kellan)
Eating dinner: Annie, Spencer, Dude (aka Erik), Mariana w/ Gunnar, Marjon, Me, Dad
My brother Erik and my cousin Lane provided a little meal time entertainment. Dude is singing, and Lane is on the keyboards. Their friends are the drums and violin (that one's Lindsey, but I don't know who the drummer is).

Summer Vacation 2009... Part 7: BBQ at Kristy's

One of the last nights we were there, my cousin Kristy invited us over to her house for a BBQ. Her sister was there from Texas and had just had a birthday so it was so fun to see everyone. We had to miss our family reunion for this side of the family earlier that month, so I was really excited to see some of the family, and quite thankful to Kristy who was willing to have everyone over.

Kristy and I are only 2 months apart and have always been close (actually there were 4 of us girls born within a year of each other! It was always fun).

This is the 2 of us.

We both have little girls close to the same age. They had lots of fun playing with each other too. Here is CK and Alli
(I had really wanted to find a picture of me and Kristy at this same age too, but oh well! Even if I found one, my scanner isn't working so it wouldn't have done much good.)

Here are some of the family members hanging out:

Aunt Edie, Jason, Alan, Tyler, Mariana

My mom with her oldest sister, Aunt Edie

My dad with the birthday girl, Aimee. I haven't seen Aimee in years. I'm so glad our vacations overlapped a little bit!

Spencer was there, so of course the boys were thrilled that he played football with them.

KL and Tyton enjoying their deserts