The Past 6 Months

It has been way too long since I've posted anything. I don't know if anyone still checks this, but if so, here is a quick recap on the past 6 months. No pics yet, but at least this is something :-)

Kylie is in preschool everyday Mon-Fri and LOVES it. She really enjoys her teachers, friends, and all the fun activities. She loves to have playdates with friends and cousins and visit Grandma and Granddad. She is really into coloring and drawing and gets very creative. Her imagination is very active and she is always playing something different (store, party, etc).
The preschoolers put on a play called Stone Soup . She sang all the songs great and did so well speaking into the microphone when it was her turn to say her line.
She is a sweet child and we have many nice conversations and she gives great loves. On the other hand, she is very stubborn and we have lots of backtalking/punishments, etc. I was told girls were hard to raise, I just thought it started in their teen years, not at age 4 :-)
Kylie also got the swine flu at the beginning of November. I took her to the doctor because she had a fever, but nothing else like sniffles, cough, vomit, etc. I heard that was when you should worry. The doctor swabbed her for the flu and it came back positive. Her fever got pretty high, but she never had the other miserable things that come with being sick. She was better in three-four days, but stayed at home for a week so she didn't spread it. None of us in the family got it from her, which was pretty amazing. I could tell my body was fighting it pretty hard though because two nights in a row I got chills and my body ached, but I didn't get a fever. All this hype about the swine flu had me so scared, but it was just a normal sickness, actually not as bad as some she's had before.

Gavin had his 2nd birthday in September. He is getting much better at telling us what he wants, unless he is frustrated and then he just whines. He copies pretty much everything Kylie does and always wants to play with her. He also asks to go to Grandma's house and to Disneyland pretty much everyday, multiple times per day.
He has had a cough since June of last year. We are going on 7 months now. We've tried all sorts of things. We've done a few different antibiotics thinking maybe an infection. We've tried an inhaler for asthma. Nothing has worked.
I took him to my brother-in-law's uncle a few weeks ago. He is a chiropracter who believes in healing with vitamins and so forth, I think holistic is the right word. He tested Gavin and said he has environmental toxins in his lungs, specifically chlorine. He body is trying to cough it out, but hasn't been successful. I also had him check some marks that have been appearing on his skin in the past 6-7 months also, and same thing; environmental toxins. We have him taking some natural vitamins everyday and I am very hopeful that it will work.
In addition to his cough he seems to get a runny/stuffy nose every other week. He's on his second cold this month already.

For Halloween Gavin was a monkey and Kylie was a witch. They had a lot of fun trick-or-treating this year. For a few weeks after that, Gavin would say trick-or-treat to me when he wanted a treat from me. He learned that those few words got him candy:-)

We spent Thanksgiving with my side of the family. We had a very nice day being together. The kids put on a little program. Kylie and her cousin Brian sang "I want a hippopatomas for Christmas" and Gavin sang the "ABC's".

We had a nice Christmas too. One evening, we spent time with my side of the family doing our traditional things: dinner, decorating gingerbread houses, re-enacting the nativity with all the kids dressed up, and enjoying a visit from Santa Clause.

Another night, Kylie and I went caroling with my sister and her family. Kylie loved it. She got right up there at the front door and received lots of attention from the families we caroled to.

Christmas morning was really nice. We spent the morning here at home opening presents and playing with the kids new toys. In the afternoon we went to my parents house and spent the remainder of the day/evening there as we all exchanged presents with the whole family.

We are back to normal life now the holidays are over and Ty and I are trying to shed some weight. We have planned a trip to Hawaii with our friends Jared & Jenny and want to be bathing suit ready! We are very excited!!

P.S. If anyone wants to babysit our kids while we're gone, let us know! We have someone for 3 days, but still need to finalize the other 5 days.