Watch out for fog

Did you know that when one has a hysterectomy and they leave one ovary it can throw you into a fog?

Oh yes. 

 A FOG!

And I didn't even realize I'd been in one until I started not sleeping this last week.

Literally not sleeping...at all.

So annoying!

Therefore I called my doctor and asked to go in. 

I had to sleep!

I think they thought I was suicidal, and they kind of rushed me back in.
For the record, I wasn't. 

I just wanted to sleep...and not be in a fog!!

I also knew I couldn't remember anything and felt like doing nothing except laying in my bed trying to sleep.  

Or crying, or just being left alone.

Everything was just fuzzy and I was lucky I managed to get the kids to any of their activities.

 Then Dr.O gave me a shot of Estradiol.  

Oh LOVELY estrogen!

I woke up yesterday morning and FELT like doing something.

I actually had grand plans for my day!!

And that was after less than 24 hours.  

Apparently it can take up to a week to completely take affect.  

YAY!

I did however over do it yesterday.  

Go figure.  

 But, my head feels great!

Ah, I'm back in the land of the living.

And, I'm allowed to do some light cleaning.  

Who knew that would be exciting!?!

Mom

My mom came to take care of us this last week.

I am so GRATEFUL!  

(And not just because she's going to read this blog.)

She did all the laundry AND matched all the socks (not to mention found all the socks).  

I hate matching socks.  I'm really in favor of the mismatched socks that kids think are cool these days.  Well for the kids anyway.  I personally won't wear mismatched socks.  Come to think of it neither will Phillip.

Mom also cleaned and helped me (okay she did it, I laid on Phillip's bed) go through Maija and Phillip's clothes to get rid of the clothes and shoes that are too small.  We took about 5 trash bags full of clothes and shoes and other stuff to Goodwill.

I'm not good at loading stuff up to take to Goodwill.  

 She made dinner and drove us around.  She made the kids breakfast and took them to school.  She had a pizza lunch with all of them and talked to them about Aunt Ila (really it was a talk on table manners and that Aunt Ila would have been proud!) on Thursday and then took them all to their appointments.

I'm so very grateful for a mom who is willing and able to come take care of us when I am down, especially when Stuart had to work late 3 of the 4 days he was at work this week!

The kids were so excited to have her come.  We don't get to see her very often and it was thrilling to them that she was coming and it wasn't a holiday!  They even got the traditional "Grandma breakfast" of pop tarts and hot chocolate every day.

Stuart was excited to have her come because it meant he could go back to work.  He doesn't think he'd make a very good stay at home mom.  

And I was excited because really, when you don't feel the greatest having your mom around is all a person could ask for!

THANK YOU mom!  We Love you!!

Choose to be Happy

I can't do it.  I thought I could.
I thought I'd be able to blog about what has happened in the last 2 weeks and I can't.

Suffice it to say that I had surgery on the 27th and spent the night in the hospital.  I'm healing slowly but it's supposed to be a slow recovery.

I'm Choosing to be Happy.
I wasn't sure if I could be.  But after visiting with our Bishop and receiving some great advice:
"Don't forget to put your faith in the Lord."
I'm going to be happy.

Funny how being reminded of something so basic when you are facing something you don't know if you can handle helps to reign in the fears.

So, I'm choosing to be Happy and grateful that I have the family I have.
I have 4 beautiful children.
And one very wonderful husband.
And a heap of friends.

Summer lovin' had me a blast!

The last time I posted was in July.  

Apparently I'm a slacker.  Or, I've been really busy.  

While I have been busy, I'm still a slacker.

We had a great summer!  

Samuel played soccer coached by Stuart.  KatieJo went to Grandma and Grandpa Mobley's, Maija hung out at home and Phillip had surgery to take out his tonsils and adenoids.  

The doctor told us it would be great for the first day or so and then he'd get worse.  They weren't joking with us.  He only needed pain meds once the first day and then he needed them right on schedule or he'd be in a lot of pain!  He's healed now and his throat looks fabulous.  Although he now has a very nasally voice that is a little high pitched.  We're pretty sure it's because he had such big adenoids and tonsils that he just hasn't managed to figure out how to talk right without them yet.  

We got to visit both the Baxley family and the Mobley's in August.  We met Chaney's family in Yellowstone for a week.  We all loved Yellowstone!  It was amazing and the kids are already asking to go back.  

After Yellowstone we stayed with Stuart's parents and got to celebrate Stuart's dad's 60th birthday and for got to be in the Temple with 10 of Stuart's siblings while the youngest 3 were sealed to the family.  

Then school started.  

Such a sad day in our home.  It means we don't really see Stuart until the first week in November.  

All 4 kids are in school for at least part of the day 4 days a week.  Maija and Phillip are in school for 2.5 hours a day and I get those hours all to myself.  I really thought I'd be bored and I was for exactly one day and then I figured out I'm a whole lot more busy when they are in school than I ever planned on being!

We don't have a lot of downtime right now.  Both boys are playing flag football and so when we could be home on Saturday they both have games at different times.  

Whew!  I really thought we'd get back into a good rhythm once school started but I'm starting to think we had it really good this summer!

Lonely

I love my kids.  And I have a hard time being away from them.

Needless to say when Stuart and KatieJo talked about her spending a few weeks with Stuart's parents this summer I was apprehensive.  Truthfully apprehensive doesn't quite do how I was feeling justice.  

It has nothing to do with where she is but more the fact that she's not at home with us.  

I gave in and let her go.

But OH HOW I MISS THAT GIRL!

I miss just chatting with her, going grocery shopping or just plain shopping and listening to her giggle.

We go get her next weekend and I can't wait!

We've talked to her just about every evening, but it's just not the same.  

I'm glad she's having a good time getting to know her new Aunt's and playing with her cousins.  

However, I am SO very excited to have our family complete again!

This next week Samuel will be gone camping with his best friends family.  I'm glad he too is having and adventure this summer.  It's just so quiet around the house!
  I get tired of their fighting, but I sure do miss them when they are gone!!

We have one of the sweetest nephews staying with us this week!

Due to a sad turn of events we have the privileged of having Stuart's oldest sister's son Joshua staying with us until we head back to Montana later this week.

He is 2 months older than Samuel and he is super sweet and quiet...although that may be because my kids are LOUD!

Stuart's Grandpa Staples passed away on Sunday morning. 

We are very sad that Grandpa is gone, however he was in the last stages of Alzheimers and had recently lost a lot of weight.  It was very quick and from what I've been told fairly painless.  We didn't find out until last week that he was sick at all. 

Stuart and Samuel managed to make it back to Montana VERY early Saturday morning with Stuart's brother James and they got to spend the day Saturday with Grandpa.

I feel very blessed to have had the opportunity to know Grandpa Staples.  He was an amazing man!  When Stuart and I got married he looked at Stuart and said "if you hurt her, you'll answer to me."  I hadn't even known him for a week at that point.  I will always love him for making me feel special!

Rest in Peace Grandpa!  Can't wait until we get to see you again!

I Chose You

We have this book by Lindsey Shumway.

Most of you know we've adopted 3 of our 4 children.  The first time I saw this book I started crying.  

Stuart thought I was nuts, but bought the book for me.  

You see, I've know for a LONG time that KatieJo, Samuel & Maija were meant to be mine. 

And when I found this book I realized that they really were meant to be mine.

Both KatieJo and Samuel have asked a lot of questions about their adoption and whether we love them more than Phillip.  

We've always told them that they were lucky because we got to choose them. 

This book is a favorite in our house for that reason and many others. 

If you haven't read this book you should.  

With a box of tissues.

I'm so grateful for my children!

And I'm grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who let me "choose" them!

This post was brought on because I have 3 sick children right now.  Funny enough I'm not particularly stressed out by it.  I haven't gotten anything done what so ever.  Not even laundry.  (Bless Stuart and his willingness to do laundry!)

We've been doing a lot of reading lately.  In fact that's all Maija wants to do.  And, of course we've read this book a lot.  

I'm not thrilled that my babies are sick, but it sure is nice to be able to just stop and cuddle.  Usually they are too busy to cuddle and read forever with me.  But not this week, and I intend to enjoy every second of it!

Just Dance

I've discovered something about myself in the past month.  

It doesn't necessarily come as a shock to me.  And I'm pretty sure it won't to you either.

I'm a very rigid parent.  

I like to control things....A lot.

My poor children. 

I'm not very good at dropping things and just going with the flow.  It's my way or no way.

I have one child who is the same way.  

Unfortunately we both think we should be right which has led to quite a few power struggles.

And some counseling sessions.  Okay, a lot of counseling sessions for the said child and us as parents. 

You know what I've learned? 

I've got to let go and relax.

Turns out that's harder to do than I imagined.  

I'm trying.  VERY hard.

We danced while I was making dinner tonight.  For 15 minutes (doesn't sound like a lot, but I was cooking at the same time).  

Before the reformed me came out I would have been telling them to clean something, or do something constructive.  The reformed me however danced.  

And it was fun.  And we were all smiling.  

AND the best part...Stuart came home to a very happy family.

I think we'll do it again before bed. 

Dancing is good for the soul (and the waistline...LOL!)

And for the short people who live in my house and like to dance with mom...on her feet.

Gotta love that!

She had a birthday...Shout Hooray!

I think I say this every year, but I'm fairly certain I'm not old enough to have a 10 year-old daughter!!

KatieJo turned 10 yesterday and had a great day.

She had a manicure and pedicure earlier in the week and I repainted her nails for her birthday.

She also got to go shopping and picked out some new clothes earlier in the week for her present from us.

So she put on one of her new dresses and then we headed to Wally World to get some treats for the movie we were taking her and some friends to.

After picking up her friends we headed to the theater and watched Mirror Mirror.  Cute movie!

I think all the girls had a fantastic time, and felt pretty special because none of them get to go to the theater very often.  

After the movie we came home and had her mint chocolate cake (chocolate cake on the bottom with mint chocolate chip ice cream layered on top then frozen and stabilized whip cream and crushed mint chocolate oreos on top) and she got to open her presents.  

She said her day went way too fast.  I would agree, but it was fun none the less!

Our beautiful girl in her Easter finery.  

 getting ready to get her friends

 Happy Birthday!

20 Questions with KatieJo:

1. What is your favorite color? purple, aqua and brown

2. What is your favorite toy? Don't have one. 

3. What is your favorite fruit?  grapes

4. What is your favorite tv show?  Alvin & the Chipmunks

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?  Peanut butter & honey sandwiches

6. What is your favorite outfit?  Shorts & a t-shirt (like Daddy)

7. What is your favorite game?  Monopoly Deal

8. What is your favorite snack?  orange

9. What is your favorite animal?  Dog

10. What is your favorite song?  Child of God

11. What is your favorite book?  Beverly Cleary books

12. Who is your best friend?  Shelby

13. What is your favorite cereal?  Frosted Flakes

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside?  Ride a bike

15. What is your favorite drink? Pineapple Juice

16. What is your favorite holiday?  Easter

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night?  Buggles (her teddy bear she's had since she was 2)

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?  German pancakes

20. What do you want to be when you grow up?  Math Teacher

Guest conducting

In the fall Stuart got a call from an old colleague asking if he wanted to come back up to Curlew and be the guest conductor for the Panoramic Music Festival that he took kids to when he worked up there.

He has been so excited all year!  The kids and I were excited as well because any chance we get to visit the Haddenhams is exciting!

We got there Thursday afternoon and it was raining...HARD!  In a typically city rain is an inconvenience.
In Ferry County it can be a tad.....muddy and debilitating.  

When we headed up the dirt road to Holly and AJ's we realized how bad it was when the road we were driving on was missing HUGE portions of the actual road.  Then, thankfully we have Ruby who is 4-wheel drive because their driveway was washed out....I should have taken pictures!

Friday morning Holly, Phillip, Maija and I drove Stuart into the school and then headed into town for a little grocery shopping.  We tried to go back at one point, but the grater was on the driveway fixing it so that we could get back to the house so we left for a little while again.  

It was still incredibly muddy when we left for the concert Friday night, but at least it was driveable!

When we got to the school this is what I saw.....  

 Man he looks good in a penguin suit!!

The choir wasn't terribly large, but it is a small schools festival and they sounded AWESOME!

This is a picture standing at their house looking out at one of the pastures.

the sheep!

 Holly and AJ live on 40 some odd acres and have 12 horses (one of which is a miniature pony), 8 dogs, 2 cats, 4 guiney pigs, a ton of sheep and 1 bottle fed lamb who has to be the cutest thing I've ever seen!

Phillip thinks Holly is his, and his only.  Holly too thinks Phillip belongs to her.  So when he asked if he could ride Duece Holly got out the riding gear.

 And here we have a VERY happy Phillip!

 Samuel and Duece looking good!

 KatieJo thought this was the greatest thing ever especially since she wants riding lessons for her birthday.

 And I'm pretty sure Maija had her dreams come true being on that horse.  She LOVES loves LOVES anything to do with horses!

 After doing chores at Cathy's we came back and played games....like Quelf.  Love Quelf, and LOVE playing it with Holly, Cathy, AJ and Stuart.  HILARIOUS!  If you're wondering that is wrapping paper around Cathy and Holly does have a box under her shirt.  You really have to play the game!

 Then there were some Jedi fights.  As it turns out AJ really does know how to fence.  Samuel....not so much. 

 And we got to eat homemade ice cream in homemade waffle cones.  Holly even made me sugar free cones with sugar free ice cream!

 And last but not least we got to ride the Ferry TWICE.  Maija was convinced there were sharks in the Columbia River.  And Phillip wanted to go swimming.  The rest of us just wanted to get back into the car because the wind was cold!!!

Chickens everywhere!

A friend of mine recently popped my bubble about how chickens who lay the eggs you buy in the store are treated.  Since then I've wanted to get our own chickens.  Well, we went to the Farmers Exchange on Saturday and found some cute chicks.  We went looking for tomatillo plants and ended up bringing home 8 chicks.  

For the record, I will NEVER eat one of these chickens.  We (not the collective me & Stuart we....just the me we) only want them for eggs and as pets.  

The only way one of them will become dinner is if it's a rooster.  We can't have roosters in town...not that we really want one.  

They're cute little things and I love the sound of chirping inside.  It makes me feel like it's spring for real outside!!

We bought 4 Leghorns (think Foghorn Leghorn from Looney Toons...they'll look like that), 2 Rhode Island Reds that lay brown eggs and 2 Ameraucanas that they call Easter egg layers because they lay different colors like...blue.  

It may not be terribly cost effective as far as eggs go.  However, they are a fun project for the kids and are a fairly easy pet.  

 This one is Terri....as in Terrell Davis the football player...can you see why?

March madness

Mary's  I mean March update.

Mary....this is really for you.  This time my blog has been updated...LOL!

March...really?  Wasn't it just December?

Samuel finished basketball season a week ago and started spring soccer this last week. 

 WHEW...I feel like a chicken with my head cut off some days!

We are also starting science fair projects.  KatieJo is doing how different sodas, juice and water affect the shell of a chicken egg.  And Samuel is doing which bag (biodegradable bags, plastic & paper) & leaves biodegrade in soil the fastest.  I like science projects.  I despise ones we have to document EVERYTHING.  And take pictures of EVERYTHING!  Oh well.  It's always fun to see them learn something.  

Stuart is coaching middle school track this spring.  Thankfully the season is just 6 weeks!

KatieJo had her eye check this last week to see how therapy is working.  She's doing great in therapy, however in the last 6 weeks her eyes have gone from a -1.25 to a -2.  That's a huge difference for 6 weeks!  Apparently getting older and closer to puberty can do that to a person's eyes.  She and I had a chat.  I thought we had an understanding that she wouldn't get any older etc.  But she insists on aging....some people's children!  She's excited though because with the new prescription she got to pick out new glasses.  This time the frames are red....I happen to think they're cute.  But then again I'm partial to both KatieJo and to red.

Phillip also had his eye exam this last week.  He's been going about every 3 months.  At first it was because he was blinking ALL the time.  Like turrets blinking.  So she put him in glasses.  Which helped, but not enough so she upped his prescription.  And now he's getting bifocals because although he isn't blinking like crazy anymore he's not using his focusing system correctly which means he isn't very good at sorting, counting out groups of items, playing memory etc.  It's not that he can't count or sort it's that his eyes don't want to focus on it and so it's hard for him to do.  So, bifocals it is.  Once he gets them we get to use 3M tape or post its when he is doing close up work to remind him to use the bifocal lens.  

As for me and Maija...well we've "joined" a group of moms who get together every morning for an hour at someone's house (we rotate) and help clean or purge or do whatever project needs to be done.  It's amazing what 5 women can get done in an hour that would take one person FOREVER!  

So far we've gone through my kids toys and got rid of 3/4ths of them, cleaned another kids room, 

de-cluttered a back porch, organized and purged a linen closet, cleaned floors, organized a pantry, hung shelves, and cleaned up a back yard.  

It's so much more fun to do these projects with others!  I don't necessarily need the group to get my projects done, but some of the others do and hey....I'm a social person so it makes my day go by super fast.

Phillip's 5!

It doesn't seem quite fair all of my kid are growing too fast!

Phillip turned 5 on Saturday and somehow he seems to have aged over night, and grown a couple of inches. 

He is so excited to be five!

He's been planning his birthday forever.  Every couple of weeks he would tell me which cake he wanted and what presents he wanted for his birthday starting in about June.  

He's finally settled on a red cake.  Thankfully I have a friend who has a superb red velvet cake recipe who is going to make the actual cake (because she won't share the recipe) for me and then I'm going to decorate it like a mushroom with his beloved smurf toys on top.  Well, I'm not sure they are beloved yet those are a surprise for his birthday party.

He is having a combined party with his best friend Lexi who is 3 days older than him at a local gymnastics gym.  They have an awesome array of toys including bounce houses for the kids to play on.  

It's really hard to believe that he's so big!

I'm so grateful that he's ours!

Happy Birthday Phillip!

now....20 questions with Phillip....

1. What is your favorite color? Red

2. What is your favorite toy?  Papa Smurf

3. What is your favorite fruit?  Blueberries

4. What is your favorite tv show?  spiderman

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?  biscuits

6. What is your favorite outfit?  Spiderman costume

7. What is your favorite game?  Hungry Hungry Hippos

8. What is your favorite snack?  Grapes

9. What is your favorite animal?  Monkey

10. What is your favorite song?  Love One Another

11. What is your favorite book?  On Monday I was a Monkey

12. Who is your best friend?  Lexi and Jaylen

13. What is your favorite cereal?  Pops

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside?  Play with my scooter

15. What is your favorite drink?  Rootbeer

16. What is your favorite holiday?  He likes "Holly-days" with mom's friend Holly

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night?  My green toys

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?  German pancakes

20. What do you want to be when you grow up?  A missionary

Tubes

Maija has had at least one ear infection a month since school started. 

Her doctor finally sent her to an ENT last month and lo and behold they wanted to put tubes in her ears.

I wasn't shocked, and am a little grateful that they wanted to.

She had surgery Monday morning (2-6-12)

To "calm" her down they gave her some liquid medicine.  

Really the medicine was to make it easier to put the mask that the anesthesia went through on her, and to make parting with mom and dad easier.

She was so funny on the medicine!

At one point I covered her legs and she looked down with a shocked expression on her face and said:

"Oh no, my legs are gone!"

She couldn't sit up on her own, not for lack of trying.  However, when she did she'd just start falling over slowly.

Stuart wanted to let her try to walk. As funny as that may have been we were worried she'd hurt herself.  

After a while she just started staring at the ceiling while smiling and giggling.

The surgery itself literally only took about 10 minutes.  

And instead of having to wait for her to completely wake up we got to go right back so that we were there when she woke up.  It was hard watching her be so confused as she was waking up and she kept saying "MOM, MOM I CAN'T HEAR YOU"  

As it turns out between the anesthesia and the cotton balls in her ears she couldn't hear me.

She's doing great and here's hoping no more infections!

I had pictures, but blogger is having issues uploading them...sorry!

The big "reveal"

Have you ever seen the movie Miss. Congeniality?  

You know the scene at the end of the movie where she says that she's vaguely aware that she's proud of her breasts?  

I feel that way....about my entire self.

I have lost approximately 60 pounds.  Truthfully I didn't think it was that much until I realized that KatieJo weighs 63 pounds.  I've LOST my "child"!  

WOW!

And I feel great.

I've discovered I love being a girl.  I have bought new clothes and turned from "frump girl" into a girl who isn't afraid to go into public.  I have nice clothes that I have thoroughly enjoyed shopping for, perhaps a little too much.  However, I am a frugal shopper so they have all been DEEPLY discounted or found at a thrift store. 

I've discovered I really enjoy wearing makeup every day along with jewelry.  Who knew that I was a fashionable girl hiding in a fluffy body?!?!?!

See the smile in the picture below?  I love that smile.  I never thought I'd say that.  But I think in all of my 31 years (shhhhhh...don't tell the kids they think I'm 23) on this earth I've never felt so good.

I can go up stairs and not be out of breath.  I can exercise and not feel like I'm going to die!  That's HUGE in my world!  

Oh, and I've started wearing belts.  I NEVER would have done that before.  But shockingly enough I like them.  GASP!  I think something is on the verge of freezing over.

Even the kids have noticed a difference.  Although Phillip did draw a picture of me and Stuart a few weeks ago and then said "Mom I drew you fat"....I prefer to think that's what he thinks I used to look like.

KatieJo keeps asking me if I've lost weight to be skinny, and really at first I would have said yes that's why I've lost weight.  However, I've now realized that I am a MUCH healthier person and truthfully that is why I have lost weight.

Could I stand to loose some more weight...you betcha.  However, I'm very happy where I am right now!

And what makes it even better is Stuart's reaction to me.  Because I feel good about myself he seems to be OVERJOYED.  He's always seen me the way I now see myself and for that I'm so grateful!

So now for the "before and after" pictures......

 

What do you think?  Can you tell a difference?

3 days and a funeral

Sometimes I really despise medicine!  

On New Years Day I came down with a sinus infection and double ear infection.  

Maija was fighting a double ear infection as well and so we stayed home and tried to get better.  

I eventually made it to the doctor after trying to get better on my own.  

The antibiotic they gave me wasn't working and so they changed it to a stronger one with side affects like...dizziness, nausea and vomiting.  You know, flu like symptoms.  SO lovely when trying to take care of a family!  On top of it Maija's on her 4 or 5th ear infection since school started and so they are sending us to an ENT (tomorrow Wednesday the 18th) because one ear drum is still bulging and the other has fluid behind it. 

We've been a couple of sad girls!  Poor Stuart has been doing such a good job on doing his job AND mine!  I'm so grateful for him!!  Some days I wonder what I did to get so lucky!

This past weekend despite my lack of wanting to move due to the medicine we headed to Seattle for a funeral of my good friend AJ Haddenham's father.  He was an awesome man whom we didn't know too well, but wish we could have.  

We drove down to Pikes Place Market before heading up to Snohomish.  However, it was snowing and yucky and I felt worse than the weather so we opted not to get out of the car.  After the funeral we headed down to Vancouver which happens to be right across the river from Portland, OR.  While driving back through Seattle we got to see the Space Needle lit up as well as the Sea hawk's stadium (Samuel was REALLY excited about that).  *Disclaimer*:  We are NOT Sea hawk fans, but Samuel was excited regardless. 

Stuart's brother Mark and his wife Julie and kids live in Vancouver.  We stayed Saturday night and Sunday night with them and had such a great time.  

We had to leave fairly early because Maija came down with a rash which meant a doctors visit yesterday afternoon.  However, I did manage a visit to Ikea before we left Portland.  WOW!  What a place!  I've been there before, but I don't remember it being nearly as awesome!

Having never been to Seattle or Portland, I was pretty excited about this trip even if it was so quick.  I wasn't that thrilled with Seattle.  It felt like we were going to drive into the ocean.  It was also strange how they laid out their highways.  They have byways all over the place.  It was really strange to us!  

Portland on the other hand was still green!  I knew that before we got there but was shocked none the less.  

Belated 3

It occurred to me that I forgot to post anything about Maija's 3rd birthday.  

It's still throwing me off 3 years later to have a birthday right before the holidays.  

She turned three on Friday November 18th and had a great day!

She wore one of her favorite dresses, had her hair done and despite what is in these pictures she did have nice hair and a hairbow in at some point.

Maija LOVES horses and ponies.  

I didn't have a horse cake pan so we went with the second best I could think of (besides having to free hand a horse on the cake)...a horseshoe.  

 I searched and searched Craigslist for this rocking horse.  I bought it at the end of September and stored it at a friends house so Maija wouldn't find it.  She loves it!  She says goodbye to the horse when we leave the house and gives it kisses and comes and says hello whenever we get home.  

 We are a lucky family to have this silly little girl!