Our First ER visit

We went to the ER last night. Kaci had been wheezing and coughing all day. I made her take it easy. Before bed I made her sit and watch a movie but she was still panting and her cough was getting pretty pathetic, I got nervous. I called a nurse hotline number and the nurse encouraged me to take her to the ER. We spent 4 hours there. She got an x-ray, a steroid shot, a breathing treatment and lots of unwanted attention. She has viral bronchitis. She's doing fine. She likes taking the breathing treatments, at least at first. She thinks the smoke coming out is funny. It should only last a week or so. I now know how my mom felt during my asthmas attacks, it's not fun to watch your little girl struggle to breathe.

Daddy... bike!

Brad almost always rides his bike to school. Kaci always says "Daddy? Bike!" And I always tell her that yes daddy rode his bike. One morning, Kaci got a bright idea. She got her bike out when Brad got his out. When Brad started to leave, Kaci rode her bike right behind him. Smart little cookie. Luckily the camera was close and we could get a picture. She really did think she could go too. I would have let her, but I just don't think her wheels would hold up on the 2 mile bike ride on the 42 (the main road Brad takes to and from). She already wants to be just like her daddy!

I feel stronger!

I wanted to share something that had a powerful impact on me. I linked it so you could read it too, if you're interested.

I just a read "Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ" by Kevin W. Pearson. I really liked it. It talked about faith in Christ being an action. It talked about that action being obedience to the things he taught and admonished people to do. He also highlighted that 6 D's detract from faith: doubt, discouragement, distraction, lack of diligence, disobedience, and disbelief. I think that this talk is something I've been needing to read for a long time. Faith in Christ is something I am always pondering and yearning to have a greater abundance of. Life is so ruff at times, it seems like bad people are winning instead of good and I just keep trying to fight for the good side. I just didn't know how to use my faith to empower me. According to to the talk, being obedient is how. Thinking about it in one word instead of a zillion (have patience, teach, be kind, study His life and teaching, be charitable, be humble etc.) really helps me see how I can be MORE faithful and it reassured me that I do in fact have more faith than I realized. I can be obedient, I can have greater faith.

I like that I believe in Christ, I wish everyone did.

easter dress

Kaci bubbling with excitement to finally wear her adorable easter dress!

Kaci's Easter Dress

My Mom made Kaci an Easter dress. She got it done early and sent it early. I had to hide it from Kaci for like a month. When I pulled it out on Easter she came running to me to put it on. She was so excited (see video). She looked dashing in her PINK (not purple, mom) dress.

Kaci started standing like this when I started doing Yoga at home, I think it is her version of the warrior poses, those were always her favorite. Probably not the best pose to do in a dress... we'll work on it!

Cherry Blossom Festival

Brace yourselves, we went to another Festival! I LOVE FESTIVALS!! The Cherry Blossoms are a huge deal in DC. Over 17,000 trees and they all get these beautiful blossoms and look amazing. Unfortunately, we missed the peak,(a kind sir advised us that we missed the peak but we might see some petals on the ground or in the water, bah! I saw plenty in the trees) got there at the end, but the fireworks were our consolation prize. My dad served his mission in the DC area and has always talked about the blossoms, so I feel great to have seen them for myself now.

How cute is that, she took of his hat and gave him a kiss. Kaci's kisses or more noise than touch, "mmm wha". She typically just presses her cheek to our cheek and makes the noise, what a treat to get a real kiss! Well deserved, poor Brad was sick and out-of-it from one of his dizzy spell vertigo deals (don't worry all, we're looking into the problem). Kaci also threw up that day, she tends to get car sick. What troopers! I was giddy with excitement to see those blossoms, one less life necessity checked off! (I did offer to turn around several times, but Brad wanted to press forward as much as I did, we went to the temple too--see future post-- and it was his turn to go in while I watched Kaci)

HUGE HIGHLIGHT of the day, we NEVER got lost. That's right folks, we made it in and out of DC and NEVER got lost!! We even exited the freeway early because of traffic (a huge no-no in a city not built on a grid system). Kaci was an awesome navigator, so was Brad!

In addition to the cherry blossoms, they had this "tulip library". Every color tulip you can imagine. Kaci loved "smelling" the flowers. She prefers to pick them, but I convinced her to smell them instead. Essentially that meant leaning over each individual flower, scrunching her nose, and giggling before going to the next one.

As the sun was setting, Brad noticed we could try some silhouette pictures. I think they look fun! Does anyone know how to make that guy in the background disappear, in photoshop maybe? If you do, let me know!

I love silhouette pictures, they are so cool!! Aren't the colors phenomenal?!!

On our way to see the Jefferson Monument (super cool, loved all the quotes on that monument) we ran into fellow BYU-Hawaii alumni WILBUR(yeah, Hayley's ex-boyfriend). Crazy beans huh!!

On our way to our spot for the fireworks, Kaci found a lone duck swimming in the water. Definitely a highlight for her. We watched the little guy swim for a while, she loves ducks!

We sat by the water under a cherry blossom tree to watch the fireworks. We didn't sit on the bench just a few feet away because a guy was sitting there. Brad really liked the thought of that bench, no matter how snuggly I was with him on the concrete ground. The firework show was fabulous (still the show at Waikiki two July's ago has been my favorite because of those crazy jelly fish ones they set off). The finale was so cool, the most colorful I've ever seen by far. It was fun, Kaci was mildly amused. I think she was totally pooped by that time. I, on the other hand am still living off the buzz I got from going to the festival!! I LOVE FESTIVALS--fun, food, facts "for freeeeeeeeee!"

He Got IT!!

That's right folks, Brad got the GA (graduate assistantship) he wanted. He'll be a mentor for the international students. The glory of this GA is that it is 10 hours a week, four of which are study hall hours where Brad can do his homework too. It'll cover a large portion (if not all of tuition) plus a stipend to live on AND (here's the kicker) a new laptop!!
Brad is super excited and so am I. I'm already day dreaming about what it will be like to have my husband back. This year has been super duper quadruple hard with Brad trying to work and go to school and do church stuff not to mention be a dad and husband. He'll cut his work hours in half and we'll be way better off! Wahoo!! Now, if we can just make it through August, the glory will begin... I hope time flies!!!
(p.s. less debt for tuition means the sooner we'll pay off tuition debt which means homeownership just got closer, ah the dreaming and scheming continues!)

Oh Kaci Bear!!

I have a Presidency Meeting every other Tuesday at my apartment at about Kaci's nap time. When the ladies get here, Kaci will not come out of the room she is in. Usually she is playing in her room, so she plays happily until she gets tired and then just lays down and goes to sleep. One time she was in my room and climbed into my bed to go to sleep. This time, she was "doing the dishes" in the kitchen, so she fell asleep on the kitchen floor. Poor little dear. Brad says this super crazy shyness is just a phase that kids go through, I wonder how long it will last? Honestly, I wonder if she really is just shy by nature, she's never been overly social... only time will tell.

The Many Faces of Kaci

This girl has personality! Brad took these pictures during dinner one night. She sure can make us laugh.

Mustache March

Sean (a friend of ours from church) decided to make it "mustache march". He encouraged as many guys as possible to grow a hideous mustache all month. Then he held a man-richment at the end of the month to celebrate their ugly mustaches. Brad had Kaci duty that night (I had a church thing) so Kaci went along, but not without a mustache! We painted one on her before they left so she wouldn't feel left out. Now, Kaci not only knows where her eyes, ears, nose, and mouth are, but also where her mustache is. Oh those silly boys. (Click on the picture to really be able to see Kaci's mustache)

Sunglasses

Thanks for the sunglasses Grandma Lynda. Kaci likes to dance in them!

Spring is in the AIR, not the HAIR

Kaci must have mis-heard the words to that song. It says spring is in the air, not hair! Though, I must say that is one way to celebrate green grass again!! She just kept picking grass and putting it in her hair, she's too silly.
Can ya see all that grass in her hair? The sun made it impossible to take a picture of her almost white hair, pretty funny. We tried!

The Maple Festival

Consider yourself warned!! I tried to make this as short as humanly possible, but the festival was amazing!

Kaci and I bummed a ride with the Billy and Laura to the Maple Festival. Brad had to do homework and go to work, so we took off to Highland County, West Virginia. It was quite the adventure. I had heard about the maple festival when we first moved here and got way too excited about seeing a real maple tree tapped. It was everything I had dreamed of and more!

This is an action photo, in case you can't tell. If you blow up the picture you can see a drop of sugar water falling into the bucket. I took at least a zillion pictures to catch a drop actually dripping, so please click on the picture so you can find the drop as it's falling! Very cool, very very cool! It is just sugar water, by the way. They make syrup by boiling all the water off and keeping all the natural sugar. It takes 50 gallons of sugar water to make one gallon of syrup! Is that crazy or what? It takes multiple trees to get that much sugar water. One place said they had 1200 trees and in a good year they make 400 gallons of syrup! Think about that next time you eat some pancakes.

We're standing in a forest of maple trees. They tap the trees with plastic tubing now, no buckets, but they just use gravity to get the sugar water from the forest to their little huts to boil it and make sugar, no vacuums or nothin'! So, the trees all had taps and tubs and at the bottom of the hill there was a huge holding tank for the sugar water. I thought it was cool that they keep it pretty simple. The place we visited still boiled it with a fire and after 4-6 hours their grand daddy knew it was done by how it looked coming off a ladle. Of course, they also had the super high tech boiler thingy-ma-bob, but they use both techniques.

Laura's mom came with us too. She is tree lovin' hippie and I say that with the greatest respect. She teaches forestry at a college, she could name any tree we drove by (in the George Washington Forest and any other forest, we just happened to drive through that one for a long time) and genuinely loved each one she saw. She LOVED this maple tree. It was super old and amazing! She insisted that we take a picture with it, with all of it. Hence our tiny specs at the base of this humongus tree! Yup, that's us down there. Kaci's wearing her white coat, definitely us! I have a greater appreciation for trees now, I look at them completely different now. What an amazing lady, she was a lot of fun that day.

This little guy over dosed on the sugar water--lesson learned don't ya think. Let that be a lesson to all of us. Kaci and I felt much the same way after eating maple ice cream, maple doughnuts, maple candy, and a taste of pure sugar water from the tree. The wind-y drive home did us in. We both puked in that lovely George Washington Forest permanently renamed as "puke-city" by Billy. Despite all that, it was still a very memorable day that has created yearnings for my own small forest of maple trees so I can make a gallon of real maple syrup every year when the weather turns to freezing nights and thawing days as that's when the sugar water runs!