Monday, April 16, 2012
Family Photos!
I'm not sure why I forgot to post our family picture ... It was freezing cold but we'd been dying to shoot at this old homestead so we seized the VERY small window of opportunity before Christmas cards had to go out and this is what we came up with! Not bad for doing it all ourselves!
Spring has Sprung!
Spring is in the air -- even though the weather hasn't quite caught on yet.
The girls were healthy for about 3 weeks, but are again fighting snotty and stuffy noses =( Nothing near as bad as it was a month ago, thank God!
Easter was a blast! The girls were so much fun to watch, running around looking for their eggs! Claire would get so excited and grunt and growl whenever she'd find an egg! (Family picture to come) And I was so happy that Easter Sunday was such a GORGEOUS day! Sunny and warm ... Mmmm!
What's that saying about Spring?? "In like a lion, out like a lamb." Something like that? Well that seems to be very fitting for us this month. I received a letter on April 11 informing me that I had been turned in to the state for unlicensed childcare. My thoughts at that moment? "Well, yes. I do run an unlicensed daycare ...... I thought that was legal as long as I was within these certain conditions!" Well it's not! Now I know. And now I am in the process of making it legit. The last week has been quite the whirlwind of emotions, but I've reeled it in and taken charge! After making list after list and checking off all the necessary boxes, it's just a waiting game now. We're in the process of REALLY child-proofing the house - inside and out, building an appropriate outside play area - shout out to my Dad for the fencing materials! - I've scheduled my TB test (tomorrow), I have my CPR/AED, first aid and blood born pathogens course on the 25th in Tri-Cities ... ALL DAY, Cory and I have the Family Home Care orientation on the 27th in Spokane, food workers cards for the pair of us online sometime between now and May, Cory gets to take a 20 hour basic education course (hehehehe!), then our first home visit with my licensor is scheduled for May 22! Due to the circumstances, and what an amazing and sympathetic and understanding lady she is, my licensor is fast-tracking me and says I should have my license within 2 weeks of our home visit! Thank God, again, for my ECE college classes and 9 years of child care experience!!!
The girls were healthy for about 3 weeks, but are again fighting snotty and stuffy noses =( Nothing near as bad as it was a month ago, thank God!
Easter was a blast! The girls were so much fun to watch, running around looking for their eggs! Claire would get so excited and grunt and growl whenever she'd find an egg! (Family picture to come) And I was so happy that Easter Sunday was such a GORGEOUS day! Sunny and warm ... Mmmm!
What's that saying about Spring?? "In like a lion, out like a lamb." Something like that? Well that seems to be very fitting for us this month. I received a letter on April 11 informing me that I had been turned in to the state for unlicensed childcare. My thoughts at that moment? "Well, yes. I do run an unlicensed daycare ...... I thought that was legal as long as I was within these certain conditions!" Well it's not! Now I know. And now I am in the process of making it legit. The last week has been quite the whirlwind of emotions, but I've reeled it in and taken charge! After making list after list and checking off all the necessary boxes, it's just a waiting game now. We're in the process of REALLY child-proofing the house - inside and out, building an appropriate outside play area - shout out to my Dad for the fencing materials! - I've scheduled my TB test (tomorrow), I have my CPR/AED, first aid and blood born pathogens course on the 25th in Tri-Cities ... ALL DAY, Cory and I have the Family Home Care orientation on the 27th in Spokane, food workers cards for the pair of us online sometime between now and May, Cory gets to take a 20 hour basic education course (hehehehe!), then our first home visit with my licensor is scheduled for May 22! Due to the circumstances, and what an amazing and sympathetic and understanding lady she is, my licensor is fast-tracking me and says I should have my license within 2 weeks of our home visit! Thank God, again, for my ECE college classes and 9 years of child care experience!!!
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
And it continues ...
Notice how my last post was in November, and it was about the "Creeping Death"? Well -- it's mid-March and The McLaughlin Creeping Death is still creeping. Since the new year I've had the girls in to see their pediatrician 5 or 6 times (total, not each). ON the 10th I took them in to see the on-call ped. because the girls had been sick and not sleeping well, Friday night being the last straw. After check-ups, chest x-rays for pneumonia and asthma, and an RSV swab the results are ..... RSV, for both. Ellie was sent home with an antibiotic for some swollen bronchioli and off we went. A few days later Claire ended up with a fever, Motrin seemed to do the trick so we didn't think much else of it. Saturday night (17th) after spending Friday night punching herself in the side of the head in her sleep, Nana took her into the walk-in clinic and she came home with antibiotics for a double ear infection. On top of it all Daddy and I both have been battling a sinus infection. Awesome. I'm really hoping that these antibiotics kick the funks' butt and send it all packing for good. I'm ready for sunshine, warm weather, and no sickies!
We are gearing up for Miss Ellie's 4th birthday party (sniff-sniff, tear)! Some friends of ours opened an indoor jumping house downtown so we booked her party there, complete with pizza and cupcakes! She can hardly wait! =)
She is loving preschool, she knows all her letters and their sounds and is starting to sound words out and write them! she blows me away!
Claire is feisty and I love it! She's got her sister's sense of humor and temper. She's finally starting to say words, but only on command LOL! She's so stubborn! hahaha! She's finally calling me "mama" which melts my heart!!! And she knows "more", "please", "thank you" in sign language! She's such a smart baby!
So that's us in a nutshell as of now ....
We are gearing up for Miss Ellie's 4th birthday party (sniff-sniff, tear)! Some friends of ours opened an indoor jumping house downtown so we booked her party there, complete with pizza and cupcakes! She can hardly wait! =)
She is loving preschool, she knows all her letters and their sounds and is starting to sound words out and write them! she blows me away!
Claire is feisty and I love it! She's got her sister's sense of humor and temper. She's finally starting to say words, but only on command LOL! She's so stubborn! hahaha! She's finally calling me "mama" which melts my heart!!! And she knows "more", "please", "thank you" in sign language! She's such a smart baby!
So that's us in a nutshell as of now ....
Sunday, November 20, 2011
The Creeping Death
It has hit our house ... I think Ellie brought a little cold home from school in her pocket. Claire found it but it was nothing major ... actually, I wish all colds could run through like that one did! Then Cory caught it, but it mutated and destroyed him. Now, you guessed it, this mutant virus is keeping me company! And lucky for me it came for a visit just in time for Cory to leave town today for 4 days!! Thoughtful right?
Warm jammies and hot tea are in order for the next 24 hours for sure!
Warm jammies and hot tea are in order for the next 24 hours for sure!
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Falling into Autumn!
I love Fall ... or as Ellie would correct me, "It's Fall into Autumn!"
I love the colors, the smells, the holidays, family traditions and the food associated with it!
One of our first Fall family traditions is Klicker's Pumpkin Patch! We thoroughly enjoy taking the kids there .. the wagons, the haystack mountain and giant slide, the reindeer (which we terribly missed this year), the old trucks ... and of course the pumpkins! It's really a great photo op.
This year we didn't get our pumpkins from the pumpkin patch because we grew our own! BUT ... as parental failures, we totally spaced carving them this year...???... WHAT?!!???!!? I know. We suck! BUT regardless, I've always loved Halloween and it excites me that I have kids to share that excitement with! Ellie wasn't phased at all by the lack of pumpkin carving (I will blame her for not reminding me) so we spent our time focusing on the perfect costume!
This year Ellie insisted on dressing up as Strawberry Shortcake ... who am I to get in the way of her dreams?!!? Strawberry Shortcake she was! Claire on the other hand, doesn't get to have her own opinion yet ... at least not about this ;) She was a Ladybug. Although no one asked, I conjured up a wonderful story about how the two costumes were connected (I think coordinating family costumes are THE cutest thing EVER!) ... it went something like this: Well Ellie chose Strawberry Shortcake and aside from dressing the baby up as a strawberry, we went with a ladybug that LIVED in Strawberry's strawberry patch. I didn't even get to explain it once. Oh well ... maybe next year it'll be a little more obvious.
Next we get to move onto raking leaves into big piles and jumping into them!!! We JUST, last night, had a crazy wind storm that blew all the neighborhood leaves into our yard (I want to take this opportunity to add that we have ONE tree and it's a medium sized Dogwood tree) so tomorrow after school will be spent playing in the leaves! (Pictures to come, I promise!)
Happy Fall everyone!
I love the colors, the smells, the holidays, family traditions and the food associated with it!
One of our first Fall family traditions is Klicker's Pumpkin Patch! We thoroughly enjoy taking the kids there .. the wagons, the haystack mountain and giant slide, the reindeer (which we terribly missed this year), the old trucks ... and of course the pumpkins! It's really a great photo op.
This year we didn't get our pumpkins from the pumpkin patch because we grew our own! BUT ... as parental failures, we totally spaced carving them this year...???... WHAT?!!???!!? I know. We suck! BUT regardless, I've always loved Halloween and it excites me that I have kids to share that excitement with! Ellie wasn't phased at all by the lack of pumpkin carving (I will blame her for not reminding me) so we spent our time focusing on the perfect costume!
This year Ellie insisted on dressing up as Strawberry Shortcake ... who am I to get in the way of her dreams?!!? Strawberry Shortcake she was! Claire on the other hand, doesn't get to have her own opinion yet ... at least not about this ;) She was a Ladybug. Although no one asked, I conjured up a wonderful story about how the two costumes were connected (I think coordinating family costumes are THE cutest thing EVER!) ... it went something like this: Well Ellie chose Strawberry Shortcake and aside from dressing the baby up as a strawberry, we went with a ladybug that LIVED in Strawberry's strawberry patch. I didn't even get to explain it once. Oh well ... maybe next year it'll be a little more obvious.
Next we get to move onto raking leaves into big piles and jumping into them!!! We JUST, last night, had a crazy wind storm that blew all the neighborhood leaves into our yard (I want to take this opportunity to add that we have ONE tree and it's a medium sized Dogwood tree) so tomorrow after school will be spent playing in the leaves! (Pictures to come, I promise!)
Happy Fall everyone!
Friday, October 21, 2011
Claire is ONE!
Our baby ... she's officially a toddler and we just celebrated her first birthday!
Such a bittersweet day ... I'm really having a hard time with her growing up, probably because I have "that" feeling she's our last. Makes me sad. But MAN is she CUTE!!!!
Such a bittersweet day ... I'm really having a hard time with her growing up, probably because I have "that" feeling she's our last. Makes me sad. But MAN is she CUTE!!!!
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