I love long weekends

Since Kallie was out of school on Friday I decided to take the day off and extend my Memorial Day weekend! We decided to get up early and head to Vashon for the night. Kallie loves the beach as much as I do. We spent our time collecting beach treasures, listening to music on the deck, kayaking, and of course early morning coffee chats with papa on the deck(my favorite thing to do). Tons of neighbor kids arrive on Saturday so Kallie was in heaven! It was a beautiful sunny day so the kids spent most of the day in the water or playing games.

We spent the rest of the long weekend at home. Kallie had a birthday party and we went for a family adventure on Monday. Daddy took us to Franklin Falls for a 2mile hike, up to the mountains for spectacular views and a pit stop along the river to relax at the park. We had a great day!

It's official, we have a bike rider!

Kallie is official a bike rider and she is so proud of herself. Over the last year we have tried bike riding with training wheels a few times which she did not love so we moved to scootering. She mastered scooting and the balance it takes which I think probably helped with biking. While I was out of town she had an REI bike class with daddy. She was determined to learn to bike and did it! We are so proud that she got over her fear and went for it. Every day after school she wants to go ride her bike, she gets more confident every day.

Kallie and her friend Violent both learned to ride over the weekend so we had an impromptu bike date after school!

Mothers Day 2018

Mother's Day is a day I do not take for granted. I truly feel lucky every day that I was given the chance to be a mom but more importantly Kallie's mom. There is not a night the goes by that don't sneak in her room before I go to bed, kiss her on the forehead three times and whisper "mommy loves her girl". I am not saying parenting is always easy because it is not but I wouldn't trade it for the world (the good and the bad).

Kallie,

The day you entered the world was the day my dreams of becoming a mom came true. I still remember the first time I held you in my arms and the feeling of unconditional love I felt in that moment. To this day I am not sure how I got so lucky but I thank God every day for giving me the gift of YOU!.

I love you to the moon and back!



Love

Mommy

Spring Break - Cabo San Lucas

This year we spent Spring Break in Mexico with friends. The weather was amazing so we spent most of our time at the pool. I am pretty sure Kallie could swim from 7am to 7pm without stopping. Outside of pool time we went to few fun dinner shows at our hotel, saw whales breeching daily, walked along the beach collecting treasures and chasing the waves, took a glass bottom taxi to Lovers Beach to see the arches and most importantly unplugged from the real world and spent time together as a family! I love vacation . . . here are a few highlights!

Happy Easter 2018

Easter snuck up on me this year but we managed to squeeze in dying eggs, going to the neighborhood egg hunt, brunch with Eric's family, dinner with my family and of course a visit from the Easter Bunny! It was a busy day but fun to spend time some quality time with family.

First Broken Bone

It's official, Kallie broke her first bone . . . her middle toe! She was running into our room and caught her foot on the bottom of our door. I thought she stubbed her toe so kept getting ready for work, well once I actually look at it I realize it was facing the wrong direction and noticeably broken (whoops, not winning mom of the year). We took her to the Dr. and she now has a lovely boot on for 4 weeks. She was a champ all 4 weeks and according to her teacher and Cougar Club it did not slow her down one bit!

Fast forward 4 weeks and the boot is off . . . just in time for Spring Break in Mexico!

Allergy Challenge Accepted and Conquered!

We found out Kallie was allergic to peanuts when she was 18 months old. I gave her a bite of my waffle with peanut butter and her eyes immediately swelled shut. After a call with the Dr. we avoided peanuts until she was a bit older for an allergy skin test. Although we were devastated and scared when the results came back positive (anaphylaxis)we were so happy she was not allergic to anything else. Over the years we have been diligent at checking labels when grocery shopping, informing restaurants when we eat out requesting the wait staff actually look at the label versus just assuming there are no nuts and make sure she was safe at daycare (lucky for us they were nut free).

As Kallie got older and entered Kindergarten life started to get a bit more complicated when it came to her allergies. We found out the hard way she was now also allergic to all tree nuts which was quite a shock to us. Since we were already avoiding peanuts she has had minimal exposure to tree nuts so we didn't have to change our habits all too much. The hardest part about her allergies is when she goes to birthday parties or playdates. She just wants to eat what everyone else is eating so she doesn't feel different. Kallie knows we can't make exceptions and is able to move on but she has shed many tears before birthday parties b/c she has a cupcake and everyone else was eating cake.

Well when her most recent allergy test came back she to our delight she was negative to almonds. So, we decided it was worth taking the "Almond Challenge" at the allergist. Basically it is a 4 hour appointment where they feed her almonds every 30 minutes starting small and ending at 2 TBS worth of almonds. I was terrified and she was too but man she was such a trooper! It was a long appointment but she PASSED!!! We now feed her some sort of almond product (usually almond butter) a few times a week with hopes that it will help her grow out of her other tree nut allergies. Time will tell but for now we will take this a win and celebrate (with frozen yogurt of course). GO KALLIE!