Little Buds Arrive

Introducing Sparkles with Sophie.

Introducing Snowflake withe Simone.

The Girl's received these special Elfs from their Aunt Andrea and Uncle Jason. Magical delivered them early one morning. They can touch these Elfs and every night they sprinkle them with snowflakes! They are also very silly, they hide under toilet paper and bring fun little gifts in the red velvet gift bag. They even bring them to church with them.

New Warm

Grandma and Grandpa Jones came by for a visit and brought these warm hats and jackets for the girls. They LOVE THEM!

Simone and Mommy.

Sophie and Mommy.

The Disease

(These photos were taken a few weeks ago when the girls were helping us decorate the outside of the house for Christmas. Simone loves to have her gymnastics leo on most of the time.)

Sophie just came in from outside to say, "We are outside searching for Lewey Poop! Simone stepped on a poisonous mushroom, she does not know if she has THE Disease."

Such Troopers

Reagan and Nixon letting Simone mix them some kind of healthy drink.

Ohhhh, Cooper is so super good with the girls. He pretty much does what they ask of him. Here they dressed him up like a Kitty Dinosaur Pumpkin Cowgirl!

Sophie's Projects

Sophie brought home a spider today from preschool!! She was so proud of it and still loves to chew sugarless gum!!

Her Teacher was so sweet and also mad a set for Simone!!! Love them. Thanks Teachers!

We Finger Paint With Shaving Creme and Finger Paint

Today we received a fun note from Sophie's PreSchool Teacher:

We Finger Paint With Shaving Creme:
Sophie said, "My hands are sad 'cuz they're all messy."

We Finger Paint With Paint:
Sophie said, "It's cold. It's warm."


On another note last night the funniest thing happened:

When I went up to bed at ten pm last night I collected all the things that needed to go back to their "home" in my arms and then started to climb the stairs.

I dropped hair bows and headbands in Simone and Sophie's bathroom, dropped Sophie's dolls off in her room and then went to Simone's room to drop off her Zoo Zoo Pet Hamster.

Well I pressed against the Zoo Zoo Pet Hamsters back and it started to make loud noises so I ran out of Simone's room into the hallway. I put it down, Simone moved but went back to sleep, Sophie let a little cry out and Daddy, not so happy.

The Zoo Zoo pet would NOT stop!!! So I ran it to our bedroom at the other end of the house. Well Sophie still heard it and is crying by this point so I go back into her room. Daddy tries to turn Zoo Zoo Pet off with no luck.

I lay in bed with Sophie and start to laugh. She gets mad at me because I am laughing and tells me "you too loud!!"

Rick gets even madder and takes Zoo Zoo Pet down stairs.....I laugh even harder, Sophie thinks this is not funny and I get a look from her!

I laughed so hard!!! Simone slept through it all.

I just asked Rick what happened to that Zoo Zoo Pet last night??? He said, "it is in the garage with the batteries taken out."

Memories ;)

Honey

I guess I use the word Honey a lot!! So much that the Girls named both of their new Scarecrows "HONEY".

Time to think of a new nick name, well maybe ;)

Happy 5th Birthday Sophie!

No Luck

Sophie has had no luck with her teeth. She recently had about 8 cavities filled/fixed. She was a trooper and would march back every time although it was not fun for her.

Here is Simone and Sophie at the Dentist's office.

(once again another bad photo from my cell phone.)

Sophie Goes To Visit Her Surgeon

Today, bright and early we go to visit Dr. R. (Sophie's Surgeon).

I will try to post a video of her xray.

What a brave Girl you were today!
The head of Sophie's right femur is getting enough blood and growing well. Her acetabulum looks good as well. Plate and four screws still in the same place ;)

We will not have to have another xray of her hip until one year from now. Not out of the woods but getting there.

If the next visit in one year from now looks good then we will not have to have another xray of this area for three years!! Good news.
Compared to our last visit six months ago Sophie's right leg is even more shorter than the left. 1 centimeter difference. Last visit it was 3/4 of a cm.

Sophie receives two new fresh lifts for her shoe and one new leather one. She does not like the new one so she sticks with using the softer one.

The Doctor will watch this closely. If this stays under 2 cm then her treatment will be the same.

If it goes over 2 cm - 6 cm then she will have to have her growth plate of her "healthy leg/left" drilled to stop it from growing so the right leg can catch up. This would be a "day" surgery and she would be able to come home in one day. Most likely this would be around age 11 so the right leg would have a couple of years to grow and catch up until around age 14.

If it becomes a 6 or more then the shorter leg would have to be lengthened but that is a HUGE surgery as it takes many days before you could go home.
Sophie says, "PLEASE I do NOT want a cast......" After the Doctor says some thing like,
"you ready to put a cast on today..."

This brings us to the topic of her Achilles tendon on her right leg. This is because she was born with club feet. Her Achilles tendon is very tight, at the point where she needs to be casted now.

We have had a brace for Sophie to wear for a few months now but have not been "very good" about making her wear it because it makes for a ruff night for all of us. (She is suppose to wear it for a minimum of 8 - 9 hours a night and since she is a light sleeper any ways we have not been pushing it very hard until now.)

The Doctor tells Sophie and Us that if she does not wear the case over the next three days then she has to come back on Monday and have her leg put into a cast. Once in a cast she would have to be re-casted every two weeks. If that does not work then surgery.

The Doctor said it was up to us. We could leave today in a cast or wait until Monday. If she does wear the brace then we could wait to be reevaluated at the start of the school year (September). He usually likes to cast during the winter time.

So here we go sweet GIRL! What a good time to do this, during summer vacation because you do not have to go to school the next day and we can remind you many times during the night while you are having a fit why it is important that you need to keep your brace on....SO your Achilles tendon can stretch and hopefully you will not need surgery.

Here we go.

YOU CAN DO IT SOPHIE!!!!

Mt. Hood

Simone and Sophie in the parking lot at Mt. Hood.

Rick had a great idea that we would stop at Timberline (Mt. Hood) on our way home from our vacation at Kah Ne Ta.

WE HAD AN AMAZING TIME!!

Shuffle Board

We spent time playing the shuffle board at Timberline.

It was so cool and the table was so long!! The girls loved it and so did we.

(Taken from my cell phone.)

Daddy and His Girls

Daddy with his girls!

Exploring in our Keens!!!

Schools Out for Summer

Sophie,

You finish your last day of school today.

We have decided, with much thought and conversations with your Teachers to have you do another year of Pre School. You will be going back to the same school next year which would be easier on you because you are so familiar with it and you love your teachers. Another year of consistency.

You have learned so much this year.

You are now writing your name and recognizing more letters.

You probably would do good in Kindergarten but you need more time and another year will give you that. Since you turn 5 at the end of August it feels like the right thing to do. We hope when you are older in the 3rd and 4th grade we feel this would help you to have a little bit more of maturity behind you and that you do not struggle withe academic demands.

We love that you love school and that you LOVE your friends!!

You are very social, silly and a sponge!

We love you so much Sophie.

Lady Bug Dresses

Simone and Sophie.

My friend Casey at work made these dresses for the Girls!!

It was so thoughtful and sweet! Bring on the Sun!

Marshmellows

Rick took these photos of the girls while I was gone.

He said they were roasting marshmellows......"pine cones on sticks".

Love it. Sophie in her usual, gym shoes and a dress. Simone in PJ's and gym shoes.

Panda Rides

Simone, Sophie and Emma.

Auntie Becca is now picking up Simone early every Wed. and brings her to her gymnastics class. We are so thankful because we were late every Thursday to Simones 4pm class by fifteen minutes. This is so much better so she does not miss her warm up and stretches.