Alaina

Our sweet little neice, Alaina Christine passed away on Friday night. She was only three days old. She was born with a congenital heart defect that was unable to be repaired enough for her to live. It is so heartwrenching and tragic for this to happen to Matt's brother and his sweet wife Christine. They are the best parents of 4 little adorable boys and Alaina was their first, much anticipated little girl and sister. Why do we have to go through the trials we do? It is so hard to understand. I will definately not take my kids for granted, even when they make us nuts at times! I look at my little Malia and think that she must have known Alaina well, and is her great friend and heavenly sister. Our prayers are with them, it is so hard live so far away.....

MY BABY BOY

My baby turned 4 years old yesterday! I can't believe it. It seems like he was just a baby and now he is growing up! Jaden had a great birthday! He went to preschool and they celebrated there. Then we took him to lunch at Space Aliens, his very favorite place. All he ate was the free birthday shake and a bunch of french fries.... but he had a blast. I felt bad dragging Sadie along because she really didn't feel well-- Malia had her first french fry and loved it. She ended up eating a ton. No wonder I couldn't get her to sleep last night. A girl after her mother's heart.

All Jaden wanted for his birthday was a Candyland party. We decided to make this cake, and he was so thrilled. (Good thing I had a bunch of Halloween and Christmas candy still. Do you think that is gross to feed your kids or what!) Jaden and I had a fun time decorating it. I told him where to put stuff and he put it on. He was just giddy! When it was time to cut the cake, Jaden and Sadie only ate the candy off their peices--not the cake. Boy did it look nauseating. I told Jaden to say goodbye and it is happily in the garbage. Jaden had a great time though and told everyone we saw that it was his birthday. It is so much fun to watch them light up and get so darn excited! He got a new bike with training wheels, but we don't have the right wrench to put it together, so that will have to get done this weekend...

Jaden is super smart and he always has a smile on his face. He is silly and always keeps us on our toes. He is sweet with his little sisters--and is so darn loveable. Happy Birthday Jaden!

For Valentines, we decided to have an indoor picnic with hambergers and the works. It was so much fun! Jaden was wondering why we don't eat on the floor every night. Ha! My mom sent fun valentine books and candy toy bags. They looooved them. My sweet valentine gave me the willow tree figurines I have been wanting for a long time. (Actually, I gave him the dad one for valentines) Matt is an awesome husband and dad. Happy Valentines Day!

GLOBAL WARMING.......ARE YOU KIDDING?

This has been a busy week! Sadie has had this ongoing rash all over her legs and bottom and mouth. It has lasted about 6 weeks, it comes and goes and we have tried everything we can think of to get rid of it. I got home from doing my grocery shopping the other morning and Matt says, Sadie is all ready to go to the doctor. You need to take her now! So, off we went. There was an hour and a half wait at the walk in clinic---but I thought we are already here, we might as well stay. After urine and blood tests and about 4 hours, we find out that she has Henoch-Schönlein Purpura, a vascular "disease" that followed the flu she had a month or so ago. With the meds they gave her, it already looks so much better! My poor little Sadie though, she had a rough day! All she kept saying is that she wanted to show Jaden her blue bandaid....and a milk shake--so we picked one up on the way home.

It has been super cold here this week. Colder than I think I have ever experienced in my life. Who in their right mind would come here??? Us I guess! Well, we had 72 hours without the temperature even going above zero!!! But then a balmy day in the 20's so we headed outside to try and build a snowman. NO LUCK! The snow is super dry. All I can say is horray for February. It can't be colder than January? Right?

Matt is such a terrific dad! He can run the kids out on their sled forever. They think I am totoally lame because I am too slow of a runner in the snow. They say, NO! DADDY PULL US!

Here is our snowman if you can call it that--behind Jaden. That is all the snow we could pack together in about 10 minutes....

One more picture of my super helper, Sadie. She is always asking to help. She loves to pour water all over Malia when she is getting a bath. I will have to keep on trying to teach her not to pour it on her face. Such a jokester!