January Randomness

January had it's ups and downs.  

The winter months took a toll on us all and Cannon got the worst pneumonia.  It sucks hard to see your kids hurt in any way.  

I had to go under the knife for a small surgery and was very thankful for the sweet flowers, treats, calls, and all the help I got from so many awesome people.  I am now missing more body parts but am excited to hopefully feel better than I ever have.  

Cannon has loved drawing comic strips lately and he makes up the best stories and has the best imagination.  He reminds me so much of my little brothers.  It makes me smile.  

One random school day I woke up to Kylee already up and ready for the day.  Dressed and everything.  This isn't really an uncommon thing, she is very responsible and is often up and ready before my alarm even goes off.  This particular day Cannon was in my bed because he had woke up in the night, got scared, and came and got in bed with me.  Kylee noticed he wasn't in his bed when she woke up so she decided to make his bed for him and leave him this sweet note.  

I love how thoughtful she is.  It was such a small but sweet gesture.  

Our friends from Kinetic Fitness were so good to us this holiday season that we wanted to make sure we said thank you to them.  

We made the biggest thank you note we could. 

I am so blessed with such great people in my life.  

We loved KFP 3.  

It made us laugh. 

I had to do a makeover of my room.  I love the transformation and am so thankful to J and Scott for their help.  Janina is SO talented and I'm thankful she will share some of that talent and help a lame-o like me out.  

Such a big difference.  More change is coming to the house as I have started painting the halls and am getting new carpet this spring.  It's amazing what a little makeover can do.  

Kylee's Casts

My sweet Kylee girl has walked on her tip toes a lot of her life.  I never really thought anything of it, it wasn't all the time and she didn't ever complain about pain or anything so I just figured it was her being her.  Then she started complaining about leg pain all the time and so I figured we better get it checked out.  Come to find out she has VERY short Achilles tendons in both legs, which was why walking flat footed hurt and why she would naturally go up on her toes.  Her pediatrician suggested she go to PCH for physical therapy.  The PT said her tendons were too short to physically be able to do the exercises they do to help lengthen the tendons and that we had to fix that before we could even do pt.  

Instead of doing surgery to lengthen the tendons we decided to try a different treatment called serial casting.  They basically stretch her foot as far as they possibly can to stretch the tendon and then cast it that way.  Every week they would take the casts off and recast them again, stretching it as far as possible each time.  The idea is to naturally help lengthen the tendon and avoid surgery.  

It was not a fun process 

but this sweet girl handled it like a champ.

The first day of a new cast was always the most difficult. 

I thought these snapchats she took were pretty dang cute.  

But soon she was in them like they were no big deal.  

And we learned that they could be a lot of fun to draw on

The day finally came that she got to get her casts off permanently and we were both VERY excited.  

Seriously love this girl so much.

She said it felt so weird to walk on the ground for the first time. 

Even though the casts were off she still has braces she has to wear every night and lots of exercising and physical therapy weekly still but she is doing amazing.  

She hardly complains and is so good at doing her exercises and stretches and wearing her braces without me even reminding her.  I love how responsible and sweet this girl is.  I am so proud.  

New Year - New York

Me and my best buddies took a quick weekend trip to NYC just after the new year.  It was fun to see the ball dropped in time square and the HAPPY NEW YEAR! sign still up.  There is something about NYC that is super liberating and fun to me.  It will always be a favorite place to visit. 

The whole reason we took the trip was to see Alfie Boe in Les Mis.  He is by far the most amazing Jean Valjean there has ever been and we couldn't wait to see him perform.  

The weather wasn't the best while were were there, with it being cold and rainy, but we still had a fantastic time.  

Sadly, the cold, rainy weather must have made Alfie Boe sick...because he was unable to perform both nights we were there.  :(  

We made the best of the situation and really enjoyed seeing Chicago instead.  

Another great musical and the girl who played Roxie Hart was awesome.  I loved every second of it.  

We also enjoyed a night at the LOL Comedy club as well as awesome food and fun.  

It was a quick but awesome trip.