Pictures from Christmas 17

I know. I'm super behind. But I'm missing a TON of pictures from our Christmas trip because most of them were on my iPod and it's totally gone. Lost. Stolen. Thrown in the garbage by a toddler. Who knows. But... these are the pictures I do have. So I'll at least save those. And then I borrowed a bunch of pictures from Grandmas' too.

Kadee was just a little confused on this trip because every house we went to had a Grandma and a Grandpa. She just started calling all the older people in church "Mama" and "Papa" too. But she was super spoiled by all the Grandparents so we were sure to at least teach her to say "please" and "thank you". Also, she'll eat all your food but she'll tell you "thank you".

 Kadee and her Great Grandpa Wallace

Walking to church in the snow with Great Grandma Wallace

 So much driving!

Kadee was pretty happy to be out of the car and lay on the floor with Grandpa

 Kadee loved playing with the Nativity at my Mom's..

..and with Ruffy

Snow at Grandma Bertoch's and sledding at Grandma Wallace's.

 I was super happy to score these snow pants and coat for Kadee in Oklahoma! All pink!

Kadee with Great Grandma and Grandpa Dana

 Being silly

Kadee was making Grandpa look pretty. In all fairness, he's the one who taught her how to do it.

We visited Grandma at the high school.

Her Grandpa Bertoch gave her a balloon and we watched Brynne play basketball too. Plus we got a tour of the new high school!

Spencer and Jess and Nate had a project going on. I think they were making a chandelier out of shot gun shells.

Kadee and Carmen playing with Grandma's Christmas tree!

Christmas Jammies!

Kadee while skyping Uncle Tanner in Mexico!

 Nate and I made Christmas ninja cookies,

You can clearly tell which cookie was Nate's idea.

Christmas Nativity

 Kadee feeding her baby doll from Grandma Wallace

Grandma Dana and I shared a birthday cake! Brynne helped me bake and decorate it. I did the flowers, she did the lettering.

 Meeting Finn!

And...back in the car.

Kadee got all kinds of fun things for Christmas! Cute outfits, fun books, a movie, a dolly, a bath towel and jammies and church shoes that actually fit! Although, nothing fits Kadee for very long. She was a pretty good girl considering how much time we spent in the car. But she definitely LOVED all the attention.

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things

Kadee is growing so fast! And learning so much! I cannot keep up with her and nothing I do will slow her down.

Kadee likes to :
Read books
Play outside
Climb things
Play with Daddy
Make animal noises
Talk on the phone
Skype call
Eat!
Give hugs and kisses
Pretend her stuffed animals are babies
"Sweep"
"Help" with dishes
Splash in the bath
Watch Pooh Bear
Watch Finding Dory
Go for walks
Go down the slide
Play on the swings
Play the piano
Play with Mommy's book shelf
Go to the Zoo
Help Mommy with her glucometer
Sit on the potty
Put clothes into the washer
Guzzle Daddy's water before he notices she has it

Kadee loves:
Puppies
Hank from 'Finding Dory'
Winnie the Pooh
Bears
Peaches
Pears
Shoes
Anything "pretty"
"Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree"
"Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam"
"The Itsy-Bitsy Spider"

Kadee's "big" words and phrases:
Goo-a-coo-a (glucometer)
Daddy beshooo (sneeze)
A Wah You (I love you)
Ba-bye puppy -or- na-night puppy
Mommy mon peass (more please)
Hep seeping (help sweeping)
Wash wash wash wash, ah cean! (all clean)
Bum bum poop woowee
Kakee keek bap (Kadee kick bath)
Hu-too hu-too hu-too (marching)
Hungy (Hungry)
Papa, wah you (Grandpa, love you)
Mama, wah you (Grandma, love you)
'Gin! 'Gin! (Again, again)
Pay Pano (play piano)
A, B, A, B, A, B, F, G, A, B, E, F (usually in that order)
One...egg.. (all drawn out)
Ah-meaw bue! (Oatmeal with blueberries)    
Hank fawl! (fall)
Gickle-eeckle-ickle-ickle (tickle)
Shoesh. Shock. Hep. (shoe, sock, help)
Roun-a-roun (round and round)
Ba-bye, Pooh. Na-night
Bum bum ceam (bum cream)
Wee-wees! Wee-wees! (when all the fish chant "release" on Dory)
Doo-ah, Hank! (Dory and Hank)
Na-night bishie (fishie, usually said when the movie is over)
Tut tut a wain ("tut tut, it looks like rain" from Pooh)
Weeno I see ("I looked out the window and what did I see..")
Wooogy! Whaaat? Wonna wone. Wone too! Honk! 
      (from her book, "Frogy!", "What?", "Quiet please, I'm on the phone.", "I'm on the phone too. The saxophone!" Honk.)
Ahva, see, puppy. (meaning, go visit Ava to see her puppy)
Dee-o, peass (cereal, please)
Aaaaah done (all done)
AAAAAAAAAmennn (super drawn out)
Wahk ah-side (walk outside)
Mommy pi-ee hair (Mommy pretty hair)
Ah-gone 
Ha-cheer (high chair)
A-course! (of course)
Bush teess (brush teeth)
Go! Side! 'Gin! (go, slide, again)
Pah-cone keek (pinecone, kick)

The last hilarious thing she did was while Skyping with my Dad. He pretended to sneeze for Kadee and she said, "Beshoo. Papa beshoo!" It was so funny and adorable at the same time.

Favorite things at the Zoo:

New experience at the Zoo. But she was riding a bear so she at least loved that part. 

Kadee the Diabetes Educator

Kadee watches everything I do. And I really do mean EVERYTHING. From sweeping the floors to putting on my shoes to checking my blood sugar. Kadee knows more about diabetes than most adults do. 

So... Kadee will now show you how a goo-a-coo-a (glucometer) works.

And this video is from Spencer:

She sure is observant!

Dexcom for Brooke

After a lot of insurance headaches and phone calls and doctor calls and back to the insurance and blah blah blah blah blah... I finally got my Dexcom CGM. 

I have had it for 2 weeks now. It has been pretty great. I can see where my blood sugar is 24/7. Every 5 minutes, the sensor sends a blood sugar reading to the receiver. I have gotten to a point where I don't really notice the sensor anymore. It just stays attached to my stomach somewhere. But it does have to be changed out ever 7 days. It freaks me out every time I have to change it though. The first time, I was scared to take the sensor off because I didn't know what I would see when I pulled it out of me. That however, proved to be the least of my concerns. It's super itty bitty. Spencer described it as looking like a small piece of fishing line. The thing that freaks me out more, it pushing down the plunger with the needle to put the new sensor in. The way it works is, you attach the sticky pad to your stomach. It has a plunger with a needle inside of it and inside of the needle is the sensor. So you push the plunger down into your skin and then there is a part you pull back so the needle comes back out and leaves the sensor in there. Then you pull the plunger part off and pop in the Bluetooth transmitter. I have had to call Spencer at school every time because I've worked myself up into tears just thinking about it too much. Hopefully I'll get past that one day. But this last time I did it (yesterday) I was afraid I had screwed it up because it really hurt and would sting a lot. But the blood sugar readings look just fine so I'm pretty sure I just hit a nerve. Not pleasant though.

With a CGM, I have been trying to get to know my blood sugar trends better. It has been extremely hard to figure out how to exercise. I do know that something like going for a walk will make my sugar drop. I have to take gatorade with me all the time so I can drink some fast sugar. But on Tuesday, I tested out what would happen if I went jogging. I went before lunch though and I probably should have waited until my sugar was higher before I started. My sugar dropped to 59. I felt like crap. But it did that after I had stopped running and was waiting with Spencer for Institute to start. So at least it didn't happen while I was out. But I'll be sure to be more careful with it next time. 

It has made sleeping a little more interesting. The first night I laid there and cried because I could feel it so much and the sensor inside me was freaking me out. I didn't think I would be able to calm down enough to sleep at all. But I asked Spencer to give me a Priesthood blessing and it was perfect. He prayed that I would get used to it and I would be able to relax and sleep well. I fell asleep soon after that and by morning, I couldn't even tell it was there. Spencer made all the difference in the world.

Kadee has kicked it or sat on it and such a few times. That doesn't feel very pleasant either.. but so far we haven't had any big problems. She just knows that Mommy always has an "oow" and I've been trying to help her understand that she needs to be more careful. I don't think anything has really stuck with her yet other than she just says "oow!" every time she sees it. Getting Kadee to understand more will definitely be a constant struggle. I does make me worry about if I ever do get an insulin pump (hopefully but not looking super likely in the near future....) because there will be more things along with a pump that Kadee will have to be careful about. I don't know. We'll see.

But knowing where my blood sugar is at all times has been a huge blessing. I gets alerts every time my sugar goes below 80 so I can do something about before I really end up in trouble. Hopefully with this I won't experience any hypo blood sugars. I'm afraid the high sugars are just going to get higher as I start to need more and more insulin.

2018 Family Goals

It's a new year and everyone makes new goals. Well.... at least we try to. For Family Home Evening we came up with these. Here's to 2018.

Family Goals:

• Family prayers every night
• Learn and sing Primary songs during Family Home Evening
• 10 minute clean up before bed
• Sunday morning walks; weather permitting :)

Marriage Goals:

• Hold weekly planning time as a couple
• Go out on at least 4 dates this year (without the 3rd wheel, aka, Kadee)

Spencer's Goals:

• Finish Doctrine & Covenants by the end of the year
• Continue weight lifting routine
• Learn at least 1 new recipe a month and make it for dinner

Brooke's Goals:

• Read 20 books by the end of the year
• Get 2 forms of exercise a week
• Memorize "The Living Christ"

Kadee's Goals:

• Make it through 10 days of Nursery without completely freaking out

Please hold while we attempt to follow through. Reporting soon.

Family Pictures 2017

Kadee keeps growing so fast, we have to keep up with her by taking pictures every year. So far, so good. Hopefully we can keep this good thing going.

Thank you Lynnzie Jean Photography for our family pictures!