Gardeners village

Last year me and my mom went to Gardeners Village with the girls. It was so much fun. They had a "Ride to the Witches" where they had people dressed up as witches and we took a hay ride to the different witches houses and participated in activites like dancing, stirring a brew etc. I was really looking forward to it. We went up this year and the "Ride to the Witches" was gone because they are building and indoor soccer field! I was so disappointed. We still were able to hunt for the fake witches and get a cookie for that. Alyssa seemed to still like it. Kate was of course afraid.

Alyssa

We have been dealing with Alyssa's sleep issues since she was born. I always attributed her bad sleep habits to not sleep training her when she was a baby. She slept in our bed till she was 1 1/2 because I was too tired to do anything different. Since then we have tried to get her to sleep by her self in her own room. At times we were more strict than other. We would eventually give up because we were so exhausted and it never was getting better. There was a time earlier this year that we gave her an incentive and she did sleep for about a month. That was the longest she has ever slept all night 30 days ever. The past 2 months it was getting worse and worse. When I say worse I mean waking up 15 times a night. Sometimes that is every 20 min. She wakes up crying and screaming. We tried every behavioral modification we could think of. I googled ideas tried those. We tried benadryl, melatonin, essential oils all with NO help. I was about to lose my mind. I had been thinking about getting a sleep study on her for about a year. I finally called the Dr. Of course he was out of the country. I started researching sleep problems. One thing I found was that kids with large adenoids (lymph tissues behind the nose) can be enlarged causes trouble breathing. I talked to an ENT that works in my office (the same Dr that did Kate's ear tubes). He looked in her throat and tonsils were normal. He then stuck a camera up her nose (she hated this) and saw that her adenoids were HUGE! We were both shocked. He thought this could be the trouble for her poor sleep. We schedule surgery to get them removed. She was terrified of course when we got to the surgery center. I held her and we watched the Ipad while we waited. When the nurse came to get her they had to pull her off of me to take her back to the surgery room. I almost cried. The surgery was only 30 min. Everything went well. She slept most of the morning and then woke up happy. There was a lot of swelling and mucous after the surgery so she didn't sleep well. The next day she developed a fever. I called the Dr and he put her on antibiotics. Her breath became awful due to the bacteria. Poor girl didn't feel good till 6 days after the surgery. She is now sleeping through the night. I am so happy and I am sure she is too!

She looks so little

she helped the nurse take the IV out. She said "why do I have a cast"

After a long nap after the surgery.

Coming out of anesthesia

Her bed

Before surgery

Fall

Me and the girls went with my mom to Cascade Springs this week. We went the same exact day last year. Russ has been at a conference all week. It was cold and getting dark but we still enjoyed it. Alyssa loved picking leaves of all different colors. Kate like walking around. At the end she was so cold and wanted to blanket around her but still wanted to walk by herself. She is loving getting older and more independent

Last year

This year

Alyssa wants every thing like Kate. So when I got this new shirt for Kate, of course Alyssa wanted it too.

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Califonria/Disneyland

We went with our good friends to Disneyland last week. It was hot but still a lot of fun. We love Disneyland! Alyssa was brave and went on all the rides she was tall enough for even splash mountain! She loved Space mountain and the new Radiator Springs racers in California Adventure. I think her favorite ride of all was the Ariel ride in California Adventure. The lines weren't bad, the longest we had to wait was 30 min. But in the heat that was hard. Kate did surprisingly well since we missed most of her naps and she went to bed late. She was actually the most well behaved child. My favorite ride is splash mountain. We did 2 days at Disneyland and 1 days at California adventure. We rode most the rides at Disneyland except Matterhorn because it was broken. We missed a few at California Adventure, like Tower of Terror. Kate cried on every ride when we got on but after 5 seconds she was fine. She LOVED its a Small world. She was laughing, singing and dancing. I am sad we didn't get a chance to go on it a second time with her. We loved the shows. World of Color, Fantasmic and the Fireworks. We wanted to see more shows but we were also trying to ride all the rides and ran out of time. We saw 2 cute little plays Tangled and Beauty and the Beast. I guess we will have to go back again to see the things we missed =)

We then spent one day at the beach with our friends. Then they headed home and we went to San Diego for 3 days. We went to the zoo (it was miserable because it was so hot). then we played on Coronodo, which I loved. It had a perfect beach for the kids with small waves. Kate is a beach baby and loved it. Alyssa liked it but was being particular about the sand getting all over her. Kate even had her first boogie boarding experience. She really liked it and kept asking for more until she tipped over =(

Alyssa and Mylie. I made them into Mermaids but its hard to see the tails

Riding a Suri on Coronado

Chasing seagulls with a stuffed dog

My beach baby!