Surgery, a new job and more...

Every time I think there is going to be a lull and life will slow down a bit, it doesn't.  I guess that's how life is with two young children.  It did slow down for a couple days as I FINALLY had my surgery.  I was really worried it wasn't going to happen because there was still some residual fluid around my pancreas and I was super emotional driving to my pre-op appointment, but he came out with great news and it was done.  No joke that I was probably the most giddy patient they've ever had.  I was ready and had a great team in place to perform the gall bladder removal, so I wasn't nervous at all.  A little anxious since I've never had surgery, but not necessarily nervous.  All went well and I was out of there by noon.  I was extremely excited that I could eat again and enjoyed some delicious Coldstone ice cream for lunch the following day.  I was immobile for a couple days just hanging out in bed for the most part, but I was up and around soon enough even though I was pretty sore.  I also started a new job, so I was officially unemployed for about a month.  Scott and I also finished our bowling season, which we were sad about as it's so much fun but we will be at it again next year.

As for the girls, Leila is a wild woman!  She is also a bit of a troublemaker and very mischievous. She also seems to realize when she is taunting Keira by taking something from her and running away with it.  She thanks she is really funny.  She also has to be anywhere and everywhere that Keira is.  If Keira is eating, Leila is there and wants some.  If Keira is playing with her stroller, Leila is right next to her.   She is almost standing up on her own, can wave bye-bye, and claps all the time.  She is also cruising around furniture quite proficiently.

This face looks sweet and innocent, but it's far from it!

9 months! 17 pounds!

Lookin' for some trouble

About two weeks after my surgery, we did have a fun adventure with one of our neighbors and we went to the second to last day of Cardinals Training Camp.  Keira LOVED it!  She honestly thought she was going on the field and as we got there she was running through the concourse saying how she had to get to the field to throw the ball. She would then make a throwing motion with her arm.  She was pretty distraught to learn she wasn't allowed to be on the field as was her friend.  They did get to cheer nice and loud for Larry though.  They kept saying (regardless of who caught the ball) "Go Larry!"  At the end of camp we had special bracelets to get autographs from four of the players which was a bit of a wait, but she had fun and now has some good signatures for guys that have made some key plays for the Cardinals this year. She was not a fan of Big Red as we don't do people dressed up in costume and had to keep an eye out for him throughout the entire time we were there.  You never know when that big red bird might pop up behind you.  Of course they are very kid friendly and also had a mini combine set up.  Keira participated like a champ and definitely excelled at certain obstacles over others.

Keira is getting even chattier (if that were even possible) and really says the funniest things as she's learning how to form sentences and have conversations.  One example is when she wants the lights on she says "Turn the dark off."  Also, we hear a lot of "oh man, Leila" if Leila is into something of Keira's and messes it up or we also hear a lot of "no Leila, no. NO!"  One recent conversation at the dinner table was as follows:

• K: This not your monkey water, mommy! (in reference to me stealing her water cup with a monkey on it to take a sip)
• Me: sorry!
• K: Daddy have beer?
• Me: Yes, he does.
• K: Mommy too little?

It's so interesting where her mind goes and how she processes things.  She is also just the sweetest little girl.  She used to not be super cuddly as a baby, but she has gotten a tiny bit more cuddly and is getting so affectionate.  She has to always give kisses and hugs when saying goodbye to anyone, even Leila (which Leila loves as she squeals in delight), and she will also blow kisses like a champ.

So those are the highlights of the month.  I can't wait for September as we head to San Diego at the end of the month for our annual vacation!

 Sisters having a tea party!

 Leila right up in it, per usual

 Keira is eating, so Leila is close by 

 Scott swimming with his girls.  They LOVE the water!

A LONG, busy month!

We had quite the busy month in July! This will mostly be a month in pictures with a few stories.

We went to Long Beach/Los Angeles for the Fourth of July as we do every year.  We stayed for a few days and it was wonderful.  The girls had a blast and of course we loved seeing our friends that we don't get to see enough.  As for my surgery update, still nothing.  I'm still on my bland, low/no fat diet which is just so wonderful. I have a few staples I can eat and that's about it.  Scott has been loving dinners the past 8 weeks.  I am scheduled for surgery on August 7th, but I won't know until the 6th whether or not it will happen.  Also, I am hopefully on the verge of a new job offer.  I will keep you updated next month, but I'm excited.  I've been unemployed for one month now and I have definitely realized that I am someone who needs to work.  Scott and I did have an awesome date night out to see Bruno Mars in concert.  No joke that we had amazing seats and Bruno was amazing!  It was seriously one of the best concerts I've ever been to.

Leila is just getting bigger and bigger.  She is 8 months now and in addition to crawling, she is pulling herself to a stand, cruising around furniture, of course falling down and knows how to let herself down slowly.  It's quite impressive.  And of course Keira is so sweet with Leila when she falls down and she will squat and say "Leila, you okay? You okay, Leila?"

Leila's crawl is seriously funny. Sometimes she crawls normally, but most of the time it's a version like this:

Leila is also growing so much that she got her bottom two teeth in early July, right about 8 months old. This is quite the milestone as it took Keira quite a while to get her first teeth, however Leila was in beast mode while teething.  She is definitely not as pleasant as Keira was.  It's amazing how each child is different.

8 months!

LOVES standing up on this chair and burying her face in the animals

Just cruisin' around with sister's gardening shovel

Keira is still making us laugh on a daily basis.  Of course she has some brutal tantrums as well, but they are usually few and far between and the laughs make it worth it in the long run. Typical two year old behavior.  She had her fourth hair cut this month and it is quite the serious situation as she holds so still and only her eyes dart around to see what the stylist is doing.

We have had another busy month with gymnastics every Saturday, but we also added in a two week swim lesson session with the City.  She's great in our pool, but we wanted to get her acclimated to a different instructor.  The first day was rough in that she cried almost the entire lesson, but she still did everything the teacher asked (while crying), which I thought was quite funny.  The next day she was a different child and was completely fine.  She is quite the little fish and her kicks are getting stronger and stronger every day.  Her jumping on the other hand still needs some work.  Here's an example:

 Keira is also the best big sister ever!  She is always checking on Leila and is so sweet with her.  She will hold her hand down a slide, picks out a water bottle for Leila and holds it for her to drink, and just checks on her constantly.  Of course on the flip side we also hear a lot of "No Leila! Too little" when Keira doesn't want her to touch or play with something.  Leila just loves her big sister though and wants to be all up in whatever she is doing.  She can hold her own too.  She gets mad if Keira tries pushing her out of the way or takes a toy and she will yell.  Their interactions are hilarious.  I can't wait to see more as they continue to grow.  Keira also seems to think that anytime I go to Starbucks she gets something.  I mentioned Starbucks in passing one day and I hear her say from the backseat, "I need my Starbucks. I need my chocolate milk."  Needless to say I was shocked, but of course I had to take care of the little lady's needs (and mine).

 Loves to paint

Hosing the deck/pool/dog and LOVING it! She is quite the helper. 

Watching the progress on her dinosaur hatching from the Science Center

Below are additional photos of our adventures in July.

 BEACH TIME!

 Leila is loving her first time at the beach

 Of course no beach trip is complete without snack time

 Me and my girls

 Scott and his two girls

 A little beach wrestling session

 Fourth of July!

 The whole family!

 Sounia hung out with us and we went to the Aquarium

 Cousin Katelynn was in town and met us at the beach to make some sand castles

 The girls with their bestie, Mia, at the Science Center

 Leila building at the Science Center

 Just checking out the Sesame Street Exhibition

 This grump was hanging with Oscar

 Adorable!

Some highs...and some lows

June has been quite the month.  It started out great and went to crap by about mid-month.

Here's the fun stuff first:
Leila is growing so fast.  She pretty much wants to do anything Keira is doing, much to Keira's dismay.  She's into everything and Keira has to tell her "no, too little Leila."  It's pretty comical.  Leila is all over the place and Keira is continually expanding her vocabulary.  My most favorite is when she is telling me about her day at school.  Keira truly is pretty darn funny.  We are constantly laughing.  We've also come to the conclusion that Leila is quite the ham.  I was looking at photos from my phone and she is smiling in all of them. It's like when I pull out my phone girl has to smile.   I think my favorite quote of the month was when Keira said: "I bossy mommy. I get my way." Seriously though I had to ask her what she said again and she repeated it because I was in disbelief.  Well, at least she is honest!

We also had a wonderful Father's Day with Scott's family at the Westin Kierland.  The boys golfed on Saturday and us ladies hung out at the pool.  Seriously though...it was scorching out!!

Having fun with our friend Ellie 

Play time 

 Roxy doing a little reading

 A little sisterly bonding on dad's shoes

7 months!!! 

Keira needed a Spongebob photo too

Now to the not so fun stuff.  Seems like after my pregnancies I developed some gall stones which have resulted in some not so pleasant attacks.  I went to the doctor back in January and he suggested I have my gall bladder removed but of course I put it off.  I started having more frequent attacks (weekly) and in mid-June decided I should have the surgery. Got it all scheduled but the pain from the most recent attack did not go away.  I was in severe pain for a week!  I couldn't even eat it was that bad and I felt so dehydrated.  After I went to my pre-op consult my doctor had blood work done and called me that night to go to the hospital.  Turns out I had severe pancreatitis.  No joke that this pain was worse than labor.  So...I was in the hospital for 5 days and upon discharge still didn't have my surgery.  It wasn't safe to operate.  Now I am on a strict diet of very bland, low fat food.  It's been a delight.  There is an end in sight though as my surgery is now tentatively scheduled for the beginning of August so fingers crossed that my CAT Scan looks good at the end of July.

As if that didn't suck, my second day back at work I was informed that my entire group at the Bank was being dissolved and that was my last day of work.  Wow!  The hits just kept on coming.  So, I'm recovering and out of a job.  I am actively looking though and hopefully have applied for some challenging opportunities.  I've been very busy in my down time though which is good.

So that was our June!  It was a bumpy ride, but we got through it. And I'm sure Scott is happy I'm back to 100% now since he was taking the bulk of the load with the kids and housework.  He truly is an amazing man!

The heat is quickly approaching!

Another month has flown by.  I usually say this about the entire year as well, but at the beginning of the month it seems like it'll go so slow, but by the last day of the month it's like "where did the month go?"  We've continued to stay busy but towards the end of May it's been nice to have a little bit of down time instead of it being go, go, go constantly.

One of the most exciting things about May was that our summer bowling league started up again!  YAY!!  We look forward to this all year long and like to call it the McFarland/Foegal Sunday Funday as our teammates are two of our closest friends, Penny and Dave.  When Sunday nights roll around we are in it to win it!  Also, it was of course Mother's Day and it was such a wonderful, relaxing day.  Scott's parents and grandparents, as well as my mom, came over to our house for brunch and it was delicious.  We also watched golf all day which was pretty fun too.  My present from Scott and the girls was amazing!  Scott made it himself and it is now hanging on our kitchen wall.

Now for the updates on the girls.

Leila had her 6 month check up and she is a healthy girl and all looked good!  She weighed in at 14 lbs 12 oz (22%) and 26 1/2 inches (71%).  In comparison to Keira at the same age, Leila is 1 pound heavier but also 3/4 inches taller.  We've just got some petite ladies 'cause they can both eat like champs!

Leila also has a few other milestones to mention.  She is now crawling and she just started pushing herself to a seated position from her stomach.  In fact, she scared the crap out of me last night as I woke up and heard her and when I looked at the monitor she was sitting up with her hands on the edge of her crib trying to pull herself up.  I don't think I've ever jumped out of bed that fast in my life.  Needless to say, Scott lowered the crib before bed tonight.  Speaking of sleeping, She is also pretty much sleeping from 6:30P to about 6:00A.  we've been blessed with good sleepers though there are definite differences we've noticed in their sleep patterns as well.

Doesn't everyone wear coffee filters as a hat?

Loves to jump!

Loves to play!

Loves to eat!

Keira is still making us laugh, but she's also been having several terrible two's moments the last few days, which has us trying to not rip our hair out.  It's so frustrating and sad when she won't listen and just cries and cries.  Of course it's just a phase and I try to just remember in those moments how adorable she normally is and some of the funny things she does or says.  So far it's worked.  Let's see how long that lasts.

Ever since Keira was 6 months old she only used her pacifier while she slept, so we continually put off completely taking it away with various excused like she only uses it at night, it falls out of her mouth during the night anyway, we're traveling soon so let's not yet, and more.  Well, one night the inevitable happened and we could not find her 'paci.'  Poor thing was devastated.  And by devastated I mean crying and screaming so loud during her bath that I thought Leila was going to wake up.  We don't actually have any other pacis in the house so we couldn't do anything about it after an exhaustive search turned up empty handed.  She finally calmed down while she was getting her pajamas on and during her nighttime books.  As we laid her down she asked for her paci a few times, but as we walked out of the room she was silent.  Ahhh!!!  I figured she'd wake up in the middle of the night and want it for comfort, but she is quite the champion sleeper and we were so lucky.  She did ask for it the next two nights but there was no crying.  After that nothing.  Of course the inevitable happened and about a week later she found it.  She had put it in Leila's nightstand.  What?!?!  It's been amazing and it was so easy and now she found it?  Well, Scott told her she was a big girl and only babies use pacis and that was that.  Isn't it supposed to be more difficult than that?  We know that we were lucky.  For Leila, we will likely take it away right around a year as she doesn't care for it much anyway and I'd rather avoid the drama.

Another funny story involves the bathroom.  We aren't proactively potty training, but she does like to use the potty at times and we figure after our Los Angeles trip maybe we'll just do it. She also LOVES wearing big girl pants.  In fact she states "I no like diapers." So one day I was upstairs feeding Leila and my mom was downstairs with Keira.  Keira said she wanted to go pee and so my mom took her in and she did her thing.  After she flushed the toilet she still had no pants on and started playing with my mom by shutting the bathroom door and opening it, and then laughing so loud.  One time she opened it and had a shocked look on her face and said, "nana poop...ground" and pointed to the ground.  There was a tiny piece of poop and she was absolutely shocked this happened.  My mom realized what happened and then cleaned it up and put her back on the toilet, but the funniest part was Keira re-telling the story.  When I came down she immediately had to tell me that "I poop. Ground. Nana clean it."  It was hilarious (maybe a you had to be there moment, but I'm kind of laughing while typing this).  To this day, she still tells the story.  Girl has a steel trap for a mind.

Keeping up with her new chores...hosing and mowing

I mean, adorable.  Right?!?!

Budding gymnast

The proper way to wear a shirt

Keira has also started calling people on her phone and one time I heard her saying "hi Tina" over and over.  I asked her who she was talking to and she said Tina. Of course she must have heard my name before and put two and two together because when we ask who Tina is she points to me or says mommy.   I finally got a video of her chatting on her phone. This time she started to talk to Tina but then decided to chat with Nana.

A little afternoon wrestling

Keira loves her little sister and sometimes even calls her "my baby." She is also loving that Leila is more interactive and playing with her, but then that also means stolen toys and Leila gets angry when Keira takes a toy away from her.  Oh I can just envision the next decade or two of sisterly love and fighting.

Until June ...as the weather gets hotter and I become somewhat of a hermit inside our home as I hate to venture out in the heat unless I truly have to.

Another crazy month!

Another crazy busy month is in the books.  As much fun as we had throughout the month, it will be nice to be able to relax a little bit on some weekends versus being on the go all the time.

Some highlights of the month included celebrating my birthday and several other of Keira's friends birthdays.  Also I traveled to Dallas for a couple days for work, which left Scott on his own however my mom did coordinate her work schedule so she could help him out with bedtimes and all.  One of the best parts of the month was when my girls from CA, Sounia and Kim, came into town to hang out.  We had a blast and it was hard to see them leave, but we will see them again soon when we head to LA for our annual 4th of July trip.

Scott and I also participated in Pat's Run (Scott's 2nd time, my first).  I am obviously a lot slower than Scott so of course he was assigned a corral way ahead of mine (corral 4 versus 17).  Any normal husband would volunteer to start in the same corral as their wife, but Scott is a 'serious runner' and didn't want to be bogged down by us slow people. It turns out by the time I started, Scott was actually finishing.  Serves him right to have to wait for me!  And let's be honest, I haven't really run in 2 1/2 years (before getting pregnant with Keira) and that was basically my first big workout since having Leila.  Smart move on my part!  It was a run/walk situation, but I finished strong and got to high five all the Sun Devil Footballers!  Was it worth waking up super early and ultimately injuring myself  it just for that and the inspirational finish?  Still debating that one.  Speaking of getting injured, somehow I messed up my knee and it's been so painful.  I'm icing it, taking advil, and all that good stuff and it's just now starting to feel better (not that that means it feels great as I'm still limping around) so hopefully I'll be 100% soon so I can get back on the workout wagon.

Now to the fun stuff.  The girls!  Oh how they are starting to fight like sisters.  It's pretty funny.  I have a feeling Leila isn't going to tolerate being bossed around.  Keira will take a toy away from her and Leila will yell really loudly at her.  Girl gets angry!  But Keira is such a sweet sister too and will get her paci if she needs it, hand her toys, and just chat with her a bit when needed.  I can already tell they are going to be the best of friends.

Leila...she is just getting so big!  She is almost 6 months old!! Where does time go?

5 month photos

Clearly Spongebob's feet taste good

She loves to watch Keira and has the best belly laugh going on.  She laughs a lot and can just get the biggest grin on her face.  The best is going to get her in the morning and once she sees you she has a huge smile on her face and sometimes she squeals in delight.  One way Leila differs from Keira is that she always has to put something in her mouth. Keira wasn't real mouthy like that so I find myself really having to keep an eye out what is sitting next to her on the mat when she's playing (i.e. newspaper that Keira has strewn around).

Loves to be in the middle of things

Sitting up like a big girl! 

First swim

Keira...girl is still cracking us up!  The things that come out of her mouth, or the facial expressions she makes, are just hilarious!  Some of her recent quips include:

• Sings up a storm - we love all songs, but lately she will sing No More Monkeys Jumping On The Bed while hitting her head pretty hard.  LOL!
• Loves Candy (just like her mama) - for a while, after Easter, every day she would hold up one finger in front of her face and say "just one." I don't think she understood that only meant one because she would do it again, and again, and again.  It was pretty cute the way she did it.
• Time out - not sure if time out works when your child likes it. Sometimes she will send herself to time out for absolutely no reason and then fake cry while sitting there.
• Super clean - she likes to be clean and things around her tidy (except her books in her room of course).  If the toilet paper rips, spills her milk or it's not completely wipes up, fuzz in the bathtub which she thought was a bug she will say "ew, yucky!" and point at it.
• Does not like flies so we had to teach her "shoo fly" so she won't freak out every time she sees one. Now she will say it automatically.
• Loves to accessorize with bracelets and sunglasses.  When she puts on her sunglasses now she automatically turns to us and says "I pretty." We agree and say "yes, Keira is pretty" to which she replies "yeah." So far I don't think we have a self esteem issue.
• Definitely parrots what we say as I sometimes hear her say to us or the dogs, "Hi sweetheart"

We put her to work early.  She does her own dishes.

She's also in charge of taking out the diaper trash.

Our little scholar (during a meal)

After Pat's Run hanging with the girls back home

Just eating some lunch in the kitchen

Such a helper! Wanted to feed Leila

Until next time!