Daddy and his girls!

Fun at the Burkes'!

 

 

Finally time for the park!

The weather's finally been nice enough to take the girls for a walk on the bike trails and to stop at the parks along the way. They are loving being outside!



Avera Cancer Walk

On Mother's Day Weekend family and friends partook in the Avera Breast Cancer Walk to support my Mom in the fight against cancer. We joined thousands of others to honor and support all those affected by it.

 Our team that walked the 5K

 

We made it!



Fingerpaintin'

The girls love finger painting.  We made some Mother's Day cards for the Grandmas and then made their own creations.

Some of the girls' loves..

 

I was just taking random pictures of the girls tonight and happened to catch alot of their "favorites"

 

 Cora LOVES Minnie Mouse..and her crazy socks

 

 ...and hats

 Olivia LOVES dressing up like a Princess

 ...and playing games on our phones

...and tattoes.

 

Olivia is 4 and a half!

Olivia is 4 and a half today!  I feel like I should post about this little milestone since I haven't done as much as I should have in the past 6 months. Olivia is our busy bee who keeps us going. She is always on the go and her little mind doesn't stop. She is the most beautiful, smartest, wittiest 4 year old I know, and I just love to see what she has to come up with next. On the way home from daycare the other day, after talking about something, she says "god!" Me-"what did you say?'" and to cover it up b/c she knows she's not supposed to use the word that way, she says, "Praise God!".  I know-we're in trouble. When she sticks her tongue out at us, she even has a little cover up that she pretends to be licking her chapped lips. Olivia loves to play with everything-hoarding toys in every bag, box, laundry basket, corner, you name it, is her favorite thing to do. She also LOVES to dress up in her princess and dance costumes, and is a walking Disney encyclopedia when it comes to characters and songs. Her dream is to go to Disneyworld. At Christmas time, we drove around looking at the lights and she saw the Cathedral lit up in the distance and she got all excited & yelled-"There's the Disney castle! There's the Disney castle!" She wouldn't believe us that it was a church, so we drove her by it, and her response was, in the most disappointed voice, "oh-it is just church".  I guess in the end, we should have just let her believe in the magic of the castle. But, back to her favorites-she also loves to draw, color, her Barbies (we just opened up my tote of them that we had saved and she thought that was the neatest thing-minus the stale mothball smell), and harass her sister (but also plays with her pretty well).  She is our night owl. Alot of nights she is still coming down the steps with different excuses, long after we are asleep. If we don't mentally go through the checklist of everything that has to be done (potty, lotioned up, doll/toy to sleep with, the blanket that just happens to be her favorite that night, 2 kleenexes, sippy cup with water, 5 million hugs and kisses from each of us, etc etc)  she will remember it as some point in the night and come ask for it. Our lives are ever changing with her, and I wouldn't have it any other way :)

Super Bowl Sunday

Spending the day at Justin and Jessica's for the game

 

 Cora and her cousin Korban

Won't be long before he's walking!

Olivia and Caden.  We had been to a hotel the night before swimming, so Olivia was still attached to her swimsuit cover-up :)



Happy Birthday Daddy!

Happy Birthday Daddy! And lucky for him it's on Super Bowl Sunday!

 

5 months of updates all in one :)

Well hello there-it's been 5 months since I've updated in the blog. Never thought I'd fall this far behind, but really hoping to keep up now. We've all been through some changes and busy with different things, so I need to be better about getting it posted!
I'll go through and highlight some of the happenings-
Pat had been at Hefty Seed since March doing drainage tile sales and was really enjoying it. He finished his "busy/long hour season" there, working basically 6 AM-6PM Mon-Frid for the months of Sept-Jan 1st. An opportunity came along for him to be an Associate Chiropractor at Envive Chiropractic and had started their January 15th. They have 3 locations now (Sioux Falls, Brandon, and Howard), and looking to expand their locations. Once Pat's trained on the whole business, he will open up a clinic for them and be the sole Chiropractor at it. We're very excited at the opportunity and Pat is anxious to be back into it!
I am still at National American University working in Admissions and also getting (another) Bachelor's degree in Accounting. I am almost done w/ my 1st year of classes but because I am going part-time (9 credits) I still have a few yrs left. Although I strangely enjoy the subject and find it interesting, it has been very draining and time consuming, so hoping it's all worth it in the end!
Olivia is still busy as ever-she will be the one that keeps us young w/ trying to keep up with all her smarts and non-stop busyness. We will be putting her in gymnastics/tumbling once we get settled into Pat's new schedule and hours-hopefully real soon. We took her to one place in town to try it & she absolutely loved it.  We had decided not to have her go to pre-school last year since she will have a year of it this upcoming fall before kindergarten. So, she still goes to daycare, but it has been nice to have her & Cora in one spot while we can.
Cora-See her update for 18 months :)
As most of you that read this probably know, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer this past September.  You never expect it to happen to someone so close to home, and now, not only had we gone through it with Pat's mom 5 years ago, my mom was given the same news. Thankfully it was caught early enough and hadn't gone into her lymph nodes. She went with the recommended lumpectomy and 3 1/2 weeks of radiation here in Sioux Falls, which she just finished at the end of November. I am ever so grateful that all the prayers were answered and for having such a strong mom-love her to pieces :)
The following pics are some from the past 5 months that I thought were either too important not to post or just too cute not to pass up :)   (they probably will be in a very random order too)

 This was in the hospital right after Grandma's surgery. Her nurse gave Olivia some fun things because Olivia said she wanted to be a nurse for Halloween. Olivia was right there to help make sure Grandma did her breathing exercises every couple hours.

 Grandma's birthday was during her weeks of radiation, so we were lucky to spend it with her (of course wish it were under different circumstances).

 My mom and I at the hospital on her last day of radiation. Afterwards we all took her out for a celebratory breakfast of being done.  

Dad by her side every step of the way.

 

 Tubing at Great Bear this January for Bella's Birthday. It was our first time out there. Olivia absolutely loved it and screamed with excitment the whole way down. She is in the pink in the front of the pack in the pic below.

 

 11-2-12 At G & G Froehlich's. Olivia loves to help in the kitchen!

 

And some from my trip with the girls to visit G & G Driscoll last weekend..it had been 5 months? that we'd been there so we were well overdue. I had last Monday off so we were able to spend an extra day. Pat had just started his new job and didn't have that day off so wasn't able to go.

 Grandma had sewn Olivia's doll, Sally, some new cute PJs while we were there.

 Monkey see, Monkey do

 The girls and their robes they had gotten from G & G from Christmas. They love lounging in them after bathtime!

 Grandpa enjoying his time reading to Cora

 Mom and I had worked on this puzzle until 2:30AM Sunday night/Monday morning. We finished it later Monday morning and I think spent a total of 8 or 9 hours on it. Was definitely some fun bonding time!

 



Cora is 18 months old!

Our little Cora, aka Cora Bora (not my favorite nickname) Cora Lea, Peanut, Half Pint, Curly Q, Cutie Pa Tootie, is 18 months old!  So hard to believe-especially because she doesn't grow and still remains to be light as ever! (at her 15 month she was still in the 25th-30th percentile for ht & wt). She is beyond words a joy to have around. She and Olivia are the bestest of friends one moment and frenemies the next. They are at the age where they want just what the other one has. But, for the most part, they play real well together. If anything, Olivia loves on her too much with her strong squeezes and hugs. It's been so fun to have 2 girls and see the sister-bond with them. Cora is starting to talk more and more. She jabbers quite a bit but some of the words used most are bye, hi, no no no (alot), ya-ya (Olivia), momma, dada, amma (Grandma) ampa (Grandpa) and help & more (when you ask her to use them). She absolutely loves food, which is a mystery as to where it goes and always wants in her highchair for her favorites-hotdogs, mac & cheese, applesauce, veggies (green beans, carrots, peas), fruits (bananas & oranges), crackers, and chips. She does not like sweets-which is completely opposite of Olivia. And unfortunately, is allergic to ice cream/milk, peanuts, and egg whites (all to an extent). We had her tested for allergies at 15 months and those, along with dog and pet dander came back positive. She only tested really high to the egg whites, but just recently, on 2 separate occasions, had given her a bite of a peanut butter cookie and ice cream and she got very sick from them. She can still do her daily recommendation for dairy, but just really reacted to the icecream.

Cora also loves her toys-among her favorites are her Baby Beans doll (and many others), Minnie Mouse (she LOVES Mickey Mouse Clubhouse), Tiger, building blocks, books, her kitchen, and playing in her room. She loves to play peek-a-boo, to snuggle with us and her blanket (which is the best), and to steal Daddy's spot on the couch when he gets up-and then laughs and laughs. She loves to climb things- especially into her highchair, and as we just realized-out of her highchair. She was strapped in, with the tray on and eating. I had gone downstairs to switch laundry and heard a thud. I came up and she had maneuvered her little self out and fell onto the floor-not even sure from what heigth, but thankfully she only cried for a second.  

I captured some really good pictures below of her beautiful goldilocks and blue eyes, but she's not one to smile or pose for the camera alot-so they don't capture all of her fun and bright personality, but she's quite the Cora and I can't wait to see what her fun and oh so loving self has to offer :)