Crazy Hair Day

So Red Ribbon Week is this week and it has been a little stressful.  In the past I only have to do one girl in the morning and one girl by lunch time.  It's hard getting them both ready and to school by 8 especially because none of us are really morning people.  The pictures don't do their hair justice, but both girls liked their hair and were excited to go to school. 

 Right after school I had to get homework done, feed them and change them into Halloween costumes for their dance party.  Every day of dance (which is Mon-Thurs) I've had to get them in costumes and it has added a whole new level of stress.  We've managed so far though which is great news!  Here is Shelby on her second day wearing her cave girl costume to dance.

 I couldn't make Kadence's hair work after crazy hair day so we had to add a shower to our struggle.  She was really good while getting her hair done and wasn't pokey about it all which was really nice.

 She seriously loves being a pirate and loves talking like a pirate.  It makes me laugh.

It's a good thing I love these girls because sometimes making sure they are taken care of and participating at dance and school is super difficult.  We manage to pull it together in the end and I love seeing how excited they get.  

Parent Teacher Conference

To start the girls UEA break, we had parent teacher conferences.  I had also gone that morning and bought tickets to go see "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day"  We had a coupon for a free kid pack meal so we were able to get the girls both their own.  It was a great movie and the girls were so excited to see it.  They both kept saying that is was a good movie because "it teaches you that you have to have bad days to see your good days."  It was really cute.

 We made a deal with the girls a long time ago that if they have a good report at PTC's that we would buy them a book from the book fair.  Well, their school didn't have a book fair which was shocking.  We had rushed David up to school afterwards, then picked him up and went to Hastings quick before heading to our movie.  Kadence picked "My Pants Are Haunted" and Shelby picked "Jingle Bells, Batman Smells P.S So Does May" It worked out better because they were more age appropriate books and cost less money.  Win Win!

 Now onto the details.  Kadence is doing very well.  She's below benchmark in two areas, but she's only 1 point away from benchmark.  Pair that with the fact that they are based on memory and her teacher isn't concerned at all.  She said she expects her to be below because of her struggle to remember.  The only way we can try to improve it would be to keep doing what we are doing and have her tell us what she has read.

 She is still behind in her addition and subtraction facts but she is improving.  Since this test she actually improved a little already.  Mrs. Andrew is working with her and we are working with her at home.  I think she struggles more with being timed than the actual math.  

 Kadence is a very accurate reader which is great!

 She was rated a 4 on everything dealing with classroom behavior and Mrs Andrew said she is very well behaved.  She also said she sits kids who struggle to pay attention next to Kadence because Kadence helps them to focus.  

 Shelby is also doing very well and was rated 4 on everything dealing with behavior.  She can already read all of her sight words which is the goal by the end of the year. She's performing well above the benchmark level in every category and they retested her after the initial test and her scores increased.  That's what comes with reading every day I guess.  

 Shelby is past all of her end of year goals so we need to just make sure she keeps working hard.

 This is an example of one of Shelby's writings.  It made me laugh because she wrote "Name" before her name.  

Both girls are so super smart, well behaved and kind to others.  I'm so proud of them and I love seeing that they are doing well.  

Pumpkin Walk

We have loved going to Logans Pumpkin Walk every year with the girls and this year was no different.  We invited David's brothers and Jeffy was the only one who was available to come with us.  Connie was able to come too which was fabulous! The girls loved having them both with us.  I made some chili and got pumpkin bread bowls.  The girls hated the chili but loved the pumpkins.  

We pared pretty far away and decided to just walk.  

 We've only gone during the day before and it's definitely more busy at night.  There was a line but it moved pretty quickly.

 Kadence was so excited there was a Jack Sparrow in the tree while we were waiting.

 Sword in the stone

 Shelby wanted a picture of this display because it had the Cat in the Hat and the "Caterpillar book"

 You can't see it super well but Jeffy is Michael, Shelby is Peter and Kadence is Wendy

 They had super hero pumpkins.  The heads were pumpkin and the rest were just comstumes 

 There was a tribute to Robin Williams that was really well done and super sweet.

 The girls only got to take one picture in the cut out area (because it was busy) and Kadence chose Snow White

 Shelby chose Harry Potter

We had a lot of fun and I was so glad that Grandma Joy and Jeffy could come with us.  

Kadence's Fall

On October 18th we spent the morning going to brunch with Mrs. Gambles.  She's absolutely one of our favorite people.  Then David went with the girls and Jeff Brady and Nicholas on a hike.  Taycina had planned a surprise 30th birthday party for Jeff and I offered to have David distract him for a while.  (I was helping Doug and my mom) The girls were so excited to go on a hike and loved it!  I called David when he was done to ask him if he could get a few things at the store that Doug wanted.  He said he would, asked if I wanted a drink and then casually mentioned that Kadence fell on the hike and her whole back went numb.  WHAT?! You don't just casually mention things like that.  Panic set in.  She fell on the last hike, but was totally fine.  She just slips when going downhill but it's always a slow fall.  David said when she fell he could tell something went wrong.  He asked her if she was ok and she said "My back just went numb."  After a minute she said she was fine.  She was acting fine and playing fine and said her back didn't hurt and wasn't numb.  We decided to fill a pinata full of bacon and head to Jeff's party.  While there I started getting worried.  Spines are not something to blow off.  I had David call Shriners to see if there was something we should do, if we should follow up with an appointment or if we should even be concerned at all.  The charge nurse seemed mortified and remembered Kadence and her lack of complaints.  She had David see if it was still numb by pushing on different parts.  Well, it was still numb.  When we asked Kadence why she didn't say anything she said "It's only numb when you touch it."  The nurse called the resident on call who said that if we were worried to take her in to the ER or if it got worse to take her in. Well, we were worried and more parts of her back were numb.  On the way to the ER she said that part of her back hurt and was a "3".  The highest she ever has rated anything was a "4" and that was right after her rod was placed.  We were concerned but we knew chances were everything was fine.  Shelby on the other hand was freaking out.  She was so worried that Kadence would need surgery and that we would end up living in Salt Lake again.  Here are the girls in the ER...you can tell Kadence is worried but she was completely acting like she was totally fine.  

 This is how the girls prefer being in the hospital.  Just in the same bed next to each other. 

 Kadence decided that she wanted to go get xrays by herself and didn't need one of us with her.  She does that at Shriners, but never at another hospital.  It was a little shocking to me and sad.  She's so used to it that at 8 years old, despite being totally freaked out that she might need more surgery, she walked away with a total stranger to go to radiology.  It breaks my heart and makes me proud all at the same time.  They thought she was beyond adorable and gave her a little bear.  She was so excited about that.

The ER doctor called Mike Pond who has worked with Kadence since the very beginning.  They talked about the xrays and he said that all the hardware was still in place and that he couldn't see any damage to the vertebrae.  He had said that "Kadence just gave the hardware a REALLY good stress test and now they know it can handle a fall."  He wanted her to take it easy for a few days just in case.  When we were getting discharged we recognized the nurse as a wife of someone we went to high school with.  She was so sweet to the girls and gave Shelby a bear too.  Shelby was stoked!  My girls understand that they don't get things just because the other one does....but it's always nice when they both get pampered.  

Since the fall, Kadence has had a little pain here and there and her back is still numb to the touch.  She says "its like how your mouth feels at the dentist" and she can feel it, but not real well.  In fact when I was touching her back to ask if she could feel it she said, "Not really good because my shirt is in the way".  Well, I had my hand under her shirt so it wasn't in the way.  She can feel something going on, but it's just not right.  It hasn't spread beyond her back and she knows that if it does or if she gets tingling in her hands or feet she needs to tell us.  She was super bummy for a while and would just burst into tears randomly.  I finally sat her down when she was happy and well rested to talk to her about it.  It was two things, but a major part was that she got so scared about her back.  It's a lot to deal with.  I think it made it real that she could be injured so easily.  We tell her all the time, but this just made it real to her and not just something we say.  After talking to her a few days ago she has been so much better and more herself.  No more tears! 

Pumpkins!

Every year we let the girls paint pumpkins, but never have really let them carve them.  Back in 2008 we carved pumpkins, but that involved the adults doing all the work and Kadence eating pumpkin guts only to throw them up into the pumpkin.  The girls love painting pumpkins but we figured they are old enough to carve them now.  The girls were so excited!  We picked our pumpkins out from a farm stand in Willard.  (Kadence forgot which one was hers so she picked again at home)

 I bought the girls some battery powered pumpkin carving saws....their first official power tool!

 David scooped the guts out because we were in a hurry.  Kadence only had an hour until we needed to get her ready to go to her dance Halloween party.  

 We invited Robby, Ashley, Chloe and Naomi to carve with us.  All the kids wanted to choose a pattern from the book except Shelby.  She wanted to "create her own design." 

 Kadence was pretty good at poking holes to get the pattern on her pumpkin, but because of the time crunch I took over and did it quick for her.

 David had to teach Shelby how to use the saw, and she did a little on her own but liked having help.

 Kadence was pretty good at carving.  The saw wouldn't work on her pumpkin for some reason.

 Shelby would carve the straight parts by herself and I did the teeth.

 Kadence carved most of the crossbones, but David carved the rest so it could get done before dance.

 Shelby's finished pumpkin

 Kadence's finished pumpkin

I'm so glad we were able to find the time to carve pumpkins...even if it was only an hour.  

(The girls were in sports gear for red ribbon week at school)