Monkey Joe!

Up until this point, any time we have tried to get the girls to play in bounce houses they have never ever enjoyed them. They have always been too afraid. 

But TODAY, is a different day, my friends. :)

Today we decided to take the girls for their 1st real experience at Monkey Joes & they absolutely loved  it!

This is within the first few seconds of climbing in bounce house #1

No Hesitation! 

I wish I could have edited these pictures so you could see the full effect of these moments 

buuuuut my good ole worn out computer is up to no good again. 

bleh :-/

Daddy & Emma 

She is my mini looking Rick for sure! 

They have such a fun Daddy!! 

I mean look at this boy! 

Mommy got in on the fun too! 

This is right as we were crashing at the end of the slide. 

My big girls had no fear in dropping down those slides by themselves either! 

Aaaand CRASH! :-)

 Silly Molly!

Emma's Turn!

 There she goes! 

Yaaaahooooo!!!! 

Team Effort!

"ok sis, lets try this together"

Aaand Boing! 

If you know my girls, you know they looove to climb! And they LOVE a slide!

So needless to say they had a blast climbing up.....

And dropping down!

Climbing up some more...

And dropping some more!

over & over again! 

This picture makes me laugh.

Molly gettin' her bouncy bouncy on :)

Sweet Girl!

Emma bouncing :)

 

 Molly & Mommy crashing after the slide

 Mommy & Emma crashing too! 

We had the best time playing together as a family today!

I am so glad Molly & Emma are finally at an age that they can enjoy this kind of stuff! 

22 Months

22 Months??!?!

My Precious Baby Girls are growing waaay too fast for my liking most days! 

I often go back through their baby pictures & "remember when".

It truly is amazing how extremely fast they grow up! 

My Adorable Emma Grace, 

You are becoming so grown up. Although you still have your toddler tantrums, there are many moments throughout the day that I just shake my head in pride.

Mommy is helping a friend with her itty bitty baby right now, and your big girl side truly reveals itself when baby Ross is around. You will go get his blanket & cover him up when you see him sitting in the swing without one. And when Mommy is feeding him, you take my hand off the bottle because you want to hold it yourself! And when mommy takes the bottle out of his mouth, you begin patting his back to help him burp.
You are SUCH a doll helping care for the baby.

You love to give hugs to your sister, and you two play so well together! Although, we still are working on that sharing thing.
You have started to try & sing the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme song & it makes mommy smile so big every time I hear you!

Donald, Daisy, Goofy, Pluto, Minnie & Mickey, in Emma & Molly language, are known as "Dah Dah, Die-see, Gooey, Poo-Poo, MinMie, & Meh-E"  lol

I am just glad you have finally started talking more than just saying " momma, daddy, sissy"
You are now forming (broken) sentences! Like " where go?" or "Hi Daddy"  simple stuff like that!
I can't wait for the day that you are full blast chitter chatter!

You have started telling mommy (sometimes) when you go poo poo!!
You will say  "I shewy" (shewy is what we say for stinky)

 or you will say " I poo poo".

I absolutely believe at this point that it is safe to introduce you to the potty chair.  So we will see what the future holds for us in that department. :)

I'm afraid Your picky eating has gotten worse. Mommy has  to seriously brainstorm day to day on what to fix for you.

You & Molly love taking all your bows off  your bow holder and playing with them. You will  bring them to me now & look at me & say "bow? bow? bow?" as if you want me to help you put the bows in your hair.

I love you so much Emma Grace Rabon! Words are just not enough to say!
The moments you randomly come up to me & throw your arms tightly around my neck to hug me or when you give mommy your sweet wet kisses-in those moments time really does stand still for me.

You make me so proud with how much you are growing up!

Happy 22 Months my Doll! Mommy can't wait to celebrate your very special 2nd birthday!

My Beautiful lil' Molly, 

You are my sweet little love! You love snuggling. Just sitting in Mommy or Daddy or whoever's lap & you just love to be loved on. But make no mistake, you are just as much sassy as you are sweet.

You are going through a stingy phase right now. You don't want to share with your friends. You share just fine with your sister, (most days) but the rest of the world can kiss it. :)

You are doing wonderful with your pretty new "shoe" (aka-cast). You honestly don't even pay it any  attention.
But you don't really like it when sissy gets to sit & play in the bath tub without you. You miss playing in the water so much! But soon enough your pretty shoe will be off, (feb 3rd) and you can have your freedom back. :)

You have finally started telling mommy at times when you want something! This is such a huge deal. I have been hoping you girls would start saying things like "cup" "paci" etc...when you wanted it instead of just whining & crying leaving mommy & daddy to play the guessing game with you.  So we really ARE making progress! :)

Your appetite is great. You drop whatever you are doing where ever you are and come running giggling & bouncing up & down anytime  " food, snack, or eat" is mentioned. You get so hilariously excited when it is time to feed that little belly of yours!

You still haven't reached 20lbs yet, so I am not sure where all that food  goes that you love to eat so much.

My Beautiful Baby Girl, you will never know how much I truly love you!
Mommy is so proud of the big girl you are becoming, & I am very excited about celebrating your very special 2nd birthday! Just 2 months away! I still can't believe it happened this fast!

Happy 22 Months to my Pretty Girls!

Birthday Angel

Today My Prayer is that Jesus gave my Grandma a huge hug from me, & whispered happy earthly birthday in her ear.

Days without her do not seem any easier yet, but I'm told one day it will be. It just hasn't happened for me yet.
I still feel dead inside. Numb. Very lonely without her here. I miss the friendship we shared. I miss being able to confide in her & being able to soak in every bit of wisdom she had to offer.

I try to hide all the pain in my heart & focus on just being the best  mom I can be & the wife Rick deserves for me to be. And I feel like most days I do a pretty good job. But behind the mom & wife in me, at the end of every day I still go to bed missing that wonderful lady I was so blessed to have in my life all these years.

I am not sure I will ever be completely whole again.

I still feel her presence in my soul & I am quite blessed to have frequent dreams of her still here hanging out with me. Those peaceful moments of bliss help keep me sane on the really rough days.

I still feel like I have part of her here with me when I am talking to or visiting with Pawpaw.  He is the other half of her and she was the other half of him.

I truly have been given one of the most precious gifts I could ever ask for. Not everyone is blessed with the closeness I have had in my grandparents. I will be eternally grateful for what they have always been in my life.

Please continue to keep Pawpaw in your prayers. I don't blog much about his journey through the C word just because it's way too hard for me to talk about. I am still heavily grieving the loss of my Grandma, my heart just is not ready to face the possibilities of what this too may bring.
 
I just try to enjoy him as Pawpaw and not really Pawpaw "with cancer"...if that makes sense.

I talk to God about it & I talk to Pawpaw about it if he brings it up. But otherwise, I try to pretend it's not there. I am not sure how healthy this approach is, because in the back of my mind I still have this fear that wont go away, and I have this heaviness in my heart that never seems to ease...but still I keep pushing those fears away trying not to think much on them. I can't stomach the thought of him suffering. It breaks my heart beyond repair.

I love him so much. I truly do. He is the dearest most precious man I've ever known. If  I could do anything at all to fix this I would do it in a second.

But all I can do is pray, and ask you to pray too.  Pray that no matter what, God gives Pawpaw pain free days so that whether in 6 months or 6 years he is able to enjoy this life till the very end.

Through it all, that is my biggest desire. Pain free days.

We are planning a trip to see him very soon coming up. And I can not wait. I wish that I was able to just be with him every day and never have to leave. I have always wanted to live near my grandparents but that is not the life God planned out for me. So I greatly cherish moments spent with them all the more.

Words are not enough to describe 

the love this picture holds!

"Casting" our Cares

Most of  you know that Molly has been in Physical Therapy since she was a tiny little one. She had some unique ways about the way she used her right leg that really stood out to me-but didn't so much seem like a big deal to most. 

But after talking with our Early Interventionist w/  Baby Net & then Molly's Pediatrician  

we all agreed that physical therapy would be a good idea. 

During the past year & a half or so that Molly has been in therapy, she has been able to keep up & do everything she should be able to do yet she has still had her ways with that leg. 

The muscles in her right leg are pretty tight which has caused her to drag it or swing it more than she walks properly with it. And times she does seem to be walking fine, she is actually walking fine w/ her left leg but with her right she is using just her tip toes.  

The tightness in that leg is preventing her  to use her muscles properly. 

But despite that, it has never once slowed my baby down from achieving all of her age appropriate milestones! 

Right now she may just seem like a tiny tot, teeter totting around. But as she grows older her walk will remain the same without intervention.  So this is where the cast comes in. 

  

The Orthopedic Specialist that we see explained to us that they can cast her leg in a way that will stretch out the muscles so that when the cast comes off  she will have so much release of tension & she should be able to use her leg without needing to drag it. 

He also explained that the casting is important because if those muscles stay that tight without intervention  that they can not grow. So while her left leg is growing her Right leg won't be able to keep up. 

So stretching those muscles as often as needed is necessary for proper growth.

SO all of that information leads up to this:

Today Molly received her 1st cast. 

Daddy & Molly in the waiting Room 

waiting to be called back

Finally got called back!

Waiting like a Big Girl for the Dr to come in

(her hair was SO full of static today!)

Granny came to the appointment with us too! 

Molly was such a ham today! She made so many friends with the Staff!

Here she is playing Peek-a-Boo with one of the nurses.

She would stick her little self out the door to find the nurse....

And as soon as the nurse would "jump" out 

Molly would take off running & laughing!

She would run over to this stool & sit down & look up to 

see if the nurse was still there. 

And when she didn't see her she would get up and walk back towards the door...

And laugh & run again as soon as she would see the Nurse! 

She so silly!

Ok time for business! 

The casting begins with Mommy, Granny, & fruity Cheerios! 

( and daddy of course was there too-taking the pictures!) 

The Dr had to call for some assistance because Molly's leg was so tight

 he couldn't put the cast on it by himself. :-(

Molly's little "ooh" face makes me smile :)

She was so curious & such a good sport the whole time! 

Now time for the pretty in pink part!! 

The nurse is finishing up 

Now time for her pretty new shoe!

Molly took her 1st step & the whole room cheered for her.

She was so proud of herself!!

This picture melts my heart!!

Love this Pretty Girl!

Every time my mom would pretend like she was going to 

take some of Molly's cheerios, Molly would tell her no, push her hand away, giggle, & 

then would eat them herself. lol 

My sneaky bear took off running first chance she got! 

Daddy had to chase her :-)

Silly girl! 

Ready to go Bye-Bye

A few of you knew that this day was approaching and I was incredibly nervous about it.  

It was way more than "just a cast" to me. 

I was worried about how Molly would react to it, get around with it, & mostly I was sad that her leg was such an issue that she even needed the cast. 

So thank you if you prayed about this casting coming up, and thank you for those that checked on us today! 

Your concern really helped keep my spirits at ease! It's comforting to know that we are surrounded by loved ones especially during uneasy times. 

Molly made us so proud today! 

On the way home we stopped at the store & let her pick out a special toy.

You'll never guess what she chose! :-)

She was so cute carrying it all the way to checkout!

Waiting with so much anticipation as she watches 

 Daddy take it out the box

And out the door with her new Minnie she goes! 

 After leaving the store we went home & got Emma from the baby sitter so she could join us for a special family dinner. 

I am so very proud of my baby girl Molly today!!!

I am proud of both my girls every day of course, but today was extra special. 

Molly just cooperated so well, & it took her no time to take off running despite a cast on her leg. 

She has proven since she was born that she is limitless!

She goes back to the Dr on Monday, January 16 th, to have her cast cut off and a new one put on. 

I am nervous about how scary the cutting off of the cast will seem, so please pray Molly (and mommy) doesn't get scared of the loud saw like utensil cutting near her foot! :-/

When they put the new cast on they will wrap it a little tighter this time, stretching that leg muscle a little further. 

The Dr did say today that Molly was so young for her leg muscle to be this tight that she was most likely going to need surgery to correct it a little further down the road. But for now we will just be doing the casting. 

So whenever you can, please just pray for her little leg, & for Mommy's heart :-/

Thankfully she continues to be my Jolly little Molly without a care in the world!

And I think as long as she is smiling, I will be okay too. :)