Dancing Queen

Allan had his first post-op appointment last week. He is doing great, and continues to heal well and quickly! We're so grateful to have such great doctors.

On our way down to his appointment we stopped and voted.

While we were down in the city we took at trip to the Temple. It was SO nice to go. We missed last month due to illness and Allan's surgery. We're so grateful to Grandma for watching Little A for us while we were at the Temple and the doctor.

On our way home we stopped at the law office where A1 works and had a meeting with our adoption agency. We recently signed up with Forever Bound Adoption. We have really liked it so far. Our profile is: https://www.parentfinder.com/allanandkami/about

Go and take a look! Share it! Thanks!

We had a much needed play date with one of little A's friends, C. They are such good friends, I'm so glad that we live close! They surprised me after lunch when they told me goodbye and ran down the stairs giggling. They then played by themselves down there for a good 20 minutes! I was thrilled to clean up lunch with out them under my feet! I also really enjoyed listening to their giggles! I tried to put them down for a nap later, but they were both too excited about playing with each other. I had to take a phone call while they were supposed to be sleeping. While I was on the phone they took turns shutting each other in little A's room and running out to squeal in delight at me, then running back to switch places. They're too funny!

Little A is getting better and better at dance class. She can get through about half of the class before her attention span is done, and she just runs around aimlessly. She has great jumps, somersaults, relevé walks! Little A's favorite thing to do right now dance-wise is the belly drum! Allan will pound on his belly like a drum, and she will dance to it. She's gotten really animated with it, stomping her feet, clapping her hands, and jumping around!

Another of her new favorites is to pretend she's a puppy and have me scratch behind her ears and rub her belly. My favorite is when she wags her tail, lol! It's the cutest!

Having Allan home for those two weeks after his surgery has been a great blessing for little A. They strengthened their relationship a lot during that time. She's always so happy when Daddy comes home and can play with her.

One night I got some blueberries out for desert after dinner. Little A came running over, climbed up on my lap, and stole my spoon, lol! She had a ball feeding the blueberries to me, and eating some herself too. We were both covered in blueberry by the end lol!

Another of little A's recent favorites is playing super-A. She puts on her cape (you can't really see it in the picture, but it's there), has me put on her red riding hood, and then she saves her dollies as I cheer her on. She likes to take some breaks to read a little in between each rescue, ha!

Little A has recently discovered that if she spins in circles long enough she'll get dizzy and fall over! She thinks it's hilarious! We're pretty silly around here. (Also, look at that cute smashed cheek, ha!)

I sang a solo in church last week. I've never done that before. It went well; I've gotten compliments all week. What a relief, ha! While I was singing Little A stood on the bench and watched me, grinning ear to ear, and telling all the people around her that her Mama was singing, ha! She also clapped and cheered at the end. :)

I'm getting better at braiding!

My Primary class made a deal with me that if they teach the lesson, I bring treats. So we decided that one of them will teach every other week. This was the first Sunday that one of them taught and it went really well! They are all 8 years old. I gave the little girl who taught a lesson plan to follow with some homework for her. She did a really good job and was very prepared. The rest of the class was really reverent and participated well (as per our deal). They definitely earned those cupcakes!

We had a fun family date this week playing in the backyard. We had planned on going to the park, but it was still a little too cold and windy, so we stuck with the backyard where the fence and house block the wind somewhat. We did sidewalk chalk, bubbles, hide and seek, wrestling, eating snow, and a little Frisbee. Little A had a ball. Then we made the cupcakes for my class today, and of course Little A got to eat one! She was a great helper! Allan and I had a fun stay-at-home date later that night too. We played Settler's of Cataan. Allan actually beat me!!!

Sickies

We had a super busy month planned for February. Unfortunately we ended up being a bunch of sickies for most of the month.

Little A started speech therapy. It has gone really well. She said two new words in the first appointment and has said several since. She still doesn't like to say words, she'd rather communicate through gestures, but it's coming along. She says the "D" sound for the beginning of almost all words.

We went visiting teaching and got stuck in the drive-way of the woman we visit teach. The week before we got stuck in my visiting teaching companion's drive-way. From now on when we go to that community we're parking on the road! We did have some fun visits with friends though while we were waiting to be pulled out.


We had Auditions for "The Wizard of OZ". They went really well. We are excited about the cast we have!

I was there the first week of auditions, but the second week I came down with the flu and wasn't able to make it. I pulled myself together for the dance auditions, but otherwise crashed. The Valentine show that I helped put together was that week as well. I was able to make it to the tech night, but missed the actual show, which was a big bummer. I heard it went really well though.

Little A had a check up for her ears. She always loves to climb up in the chair. She has gotten so brave and doesn't mind for her ears to be checked anymore. Her right ear looked great, but her left eardrum is pasted with wax. We're trying to get it to loosen up and come out on it's own; if not then she'll have to have a systematic cleaning. Boo. The Dr. did say that she probably isn't hearing out of that ear very well, so her speech will probably still come slowly.

Allan surprised me on Valentines day with a valentine from him, and one from little A. It was so darling! A was so excited to give hers to me.

He also brought home a flower for little A, and a box of Turtles for me. :) We were so excited that he was able to find Turtles. Our stores don't usually carry them! I was nice and shared one with little A. The next morning she got into them and ate some more, lol! Teach me to leave my chocolate within reach of little hands!

The following week little A came down with the flu. Allan was supposed to have surgery on his hip that week, so we were pretty nervous that he would catch it and not be able to. I took care of Ava as much as possible to keep him away from the sickness, and thankfully he never got it. Some of his coworkers were headed down to the city where he was having his surgery, so they took him down and met his dad somewhere. His mom took him to have his surgery the following morning.

Little A and I stayed home and watched a whole lot of Daniel Tiger and ate a little bit of noodles. Bleh.

We went down and picked him up a couple of days later when we weren't contagious anymore. We are so grateful for our amazing family. It was such a blessing that his family and coworkers were able to take care of that! He's had problems with his hip for 6 years! We're so relieved that he has finally had the help he needs, and it wouldn't have happened if not for some great friends and family.

Poor little A just wanted to play and play while we were sick, but she could only handle it for about 20-30 minutes before she was dead again. We did manage to play kitchen a few times though.

When Allan got home we explained to little A that he had a big owie and couldn't do a lot of things for awhile. She promptly went over and kissed his leg all better! She was very confused as to why it didn't work immediately, so we then had to explain how some owies just need a kiss, and some need extra time. We played with Daddy by bringing the toys over to the couch and setting them on a chair. Favorites were playing sandwiches or barn. Allan discovered a button on her barn that sings "Old MacDonald", and they've had a lot of fun with that!

Since then we've just been taking care of Allan, trying to make sure he heals correctly. He has two machines he has to use frequently throughout the day: an ice machine (in the above photo) and an exercise machine that moves his leg for him.

Little A wanted to have a hoodie like Mama. :)

A's new favorite place to play is underneath her highchair. This day we were having a little snack under there.

This is her new favorite place to hide. :)

The disposal on our kitchen sink fell partly off. There was a ton of water leaking before I found it. My step-dad came over to try to fix it, but we weren't able to get it back on, so we had to call the plumber. Allan was so bummed that he couldn't help.

My mom and step-dad also took little A for a day so I could get our house cleaned up and work on our new adoption profile. It was such a huge relief to have their help! Little A had a great time playing play doh, making necklaces, and playing with cousin P.

Grandpa made Little A an easel for her birthday! We are so excited about it!

Snuggling Daddy while he's on his ice machine. Little A watched the movie "Cars" with Daddy one day. Now she'll go up to him and say "Vroom, vroom?" and move her hands like she's driving a car. It's her way of asking to watch the movie again. Her favorite movie though is Kung Fu Panda; she thinks it's hilarious!

This picture makes us laugh. Little A is a definite Mama's girl, and we've joked before that she is tied to my apron strings. Now there is proof. Ha!

Our friends got little A this adorable dress for her birthday! I love it!

K3 and C came over with a gift for little A. They were sick on her birthday. It was fun to visit with them and their adorable little girl for a while. They gave A a Princess Sophia play set. She has loved it, especially the little treasure box that came with it. She also really enjoyed having her cousin there.