Great Pumpkin Swap!

One of the things I look forward to every fall is the Great Pumpkin Swap hosted by Kristin from Stuff, Things, etc. and Becky from Rebeckann's Random Thoughts. I've participated in it for the last several years and it's always so much fun.

I was paired up again with the amazing, Rachel from A Nesting Nomad. I've been following her blog for several years and I just think she is wonderful. She currently lives in Australia and I knew what she sent was going to be awesome.

She put together the best box and it was so fun receiving a package from out of the country. I mean who doesn't love receiving goodies from another country. 

Let me start with the sweet treats! Oh my! These caramello koalas were so so good haha. I'm not going to lie they disappeared pretty quickly. 

 Rachel must know my love of chocolate because she sent some of the most delicious chocolate goodies. I have to say that Tim Tam is now a favorite. Yum! 

She also sent some fun things to use. These magnetic picture frames are awesome and they will definitely be making a home on our fridge (well once E moves her magnets out of the way haha).

 2018 calendar planner. I have been looking for one for next year and it was perfect that she sent one.

 The love of food sticker book! This is so fun and will get used with the planner. 

Now, my favorite things in the entire package that she sent are these amazing finger puppets. E absolutely loves them and we play with them everyday. They are designed in Australia, made in Nepal with wool from New Zealand. I honestly couldn't asked for anything better.

Thank you so so much, Rachel!!! I hope you love the package I sent you as much as I love what you sent me.

Thanks Kristin and Becky for hosting!

Day In The Life

I was inspired by the lovely Kait when I read her day in the life post a few weeks back. I thought it would be fun to write out what a day typically looks like in our house.

7:00am- This is usually the time I get out of bed. Kyle is out of the house by 4:30am everyday and back by the time we get up. I make sure I get myself ready for my workout class before E is up. It's just a matter of throwing on workout clothes and pulling my hair up. Not long after I get up E starts stirring and it's time to get her up. I do tend to set an alarm just in case, if I sleep any later than 7 I feel terrible.

7:30-8:30am- This time is spent preparing E's breakfast, feeding Emma, unloading the dishwasher and doing any other little things that need to get done before we leave for class. I get E dressed and grab our water (her snacks as well) plus make sure that we have everything we need for the workout. She will play for a little bit and yell at me from her play area haha. I'm also usually talking on the phone or face timing with family. Morning phone calls are pretty typical. We head out for class and get there about 15-20 minutes before it starts.

9:00-10:00am- It's SLAM time! I look forward to this time every single day. It's hard but so rewarding. I get to hang out with awesome ladies who are so motivating and just have fun! E gets to interact with her little people friends and relax in the stroller.

10:15-11:30am- Usually after class we will end up hanging out with friends. Some days we will meet at a local bakery and have cinnamon rolls or donuts. Rewarding ourselves for all of our hard work at class haha, of course the kids enjoy this as well. I mean how can you say no to any kind of sweet treat.

12:00-1:30pm- By the time we get home it's noon and time for E to go down for a nap after she has some lunch. I use this time during her nap to take care of things like laundry and cleaning. I make myself a list at the beginning of the week of all the things I need to get done. The cleaning usually consists of cleaning bathrooms, emptying all the trash cans, dusting, and vacuuming. Depending on the time I'm able to enjoy some downtime which means browsing Facebook and playing lots of Solitaire. It's obscene how much Method cleaner we go through haha.

1:45-3:00pm- This time is usually dedicated to play time! Unless we have other errands to run you will find us either playing in E's room, taking walks with Emma, or playing in her play area. After a while she gets tired of me being in her space, so I will find other things to do while she is playing.

3:15-4:30pm- This is dedicated snack time for E and then it means it's time to prep dinner. Kyle is typically home from class around 12:30 but if he has a lot of reading he will go into the basement and be done around 4pm. E can be found wandering around the kitchen "helping me" after she finishes her snack.

4:30-5:30pm- We always have dinner together (well unless other obligations come up) and it's our time to catch up and see what has happened in each other's day.

5:45-6:15pm- Most nights we take a walk as a family. E is usually pushed in her radio flyer and we have several walk routes that we can take and we spend 30 minutes walking. Some days it ends up longer if we stop and talk to friends.

6:30pm-6:45pm- This is bedtime for E! It's the same routine of pajamas, milk, cuddling and then sleep time!

6:45pm- This is mine and Kyle's time to decompress together and just spend that time talking or not talking depending on how tired we are haha. I usually will take a bath (usually end up talking to my sister on the phone during that time haha) and Kyle will sometimes go into the basement and play video games. It just depends on the night. Kyle heads to bed at 9:30 so it's usually me and tv until I finally give up and go to bed too.

We don't lead the most exciting lives during the week but it was fun to document! 

Happy Halloween!!!

I can't believe Halloween is over and it's November 1st! 

We had a great time last night trick or treating with friends in our neighborhood.

We knew it was going to be a bit cold for trick or treating but what we didn't expect was snow! It starting lightly snowing around 2 and the flakes got thicker but it didn't really stick. However, we do have a little pile of snow on our patio table. Well played, Kansas, well played. 

The best part was E experiencing her very first snowfall! This Louisiana girl didn't know what to think! It was so cute seeing her try to catch snowflakes and Kyle tough her to stick her tongue out haha.

Emma and Fishy have seen snow before but they weren't amused haha.

Our friends came over about an hour before trick or treating started to have dinner. I did chili and hot dogs which was perfect for the cold weather. Everyone enjoyed themselves and the kids got to play before we headed out.

I am so so happy with how our costumes turned out, we did get a lot of laughs. Can't go wrong with a frappuchino and 2 baristas!

We had a lot of fun walking up and down our streets. It was cold but the kids did great and got quite a bit of candy. It was so fun hanging out with our friends and watching the kids have a great time. 

We had about an hour left of the allowed trick or treat time on post so we sat on our porch and handed out candy. E loved seeing all the kids dressed up. Overall, it was an extremely successful Halloween! Now I'm planning costumes for next year haha! 

I hope you all had a great Halloween.

Weekend Festivities!

This weekend was full of fun Halloween activities! I always look forward to this time of year and I have to say that having a little one makes it even more amazing. 

Saturday morning we toyed around with running a fun run on post but when we got up and realized that it was going to be 30 degrees at the start we opted against it haha (if we had paid for it we would have thought a little harder about doing it). Instead we headed to breakfast at a local place, enjoyed some pancakes, and then headed off to Target. We picked up some candy for Halloween night and a few other things we needed.

We relaxed for most of the afternoon and then got ready for the Monster Dash 5k! I had our costumes figured out weeks ago and I'm so happy with how they turned out. The race was great and it was #99!  It started at 7pm and was chilly but once we got moving it was fine. It was a giant loop course which I love, but the best part was seeing everyone's costumes along the way. 

In case you can't tell we were characters from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Which happens to be one of my favorite movies. Kyle was Jack Skellington while me and E were Sally. 

It was such a fun event and as usual E was awesome!

Sunday morning we headed off to the Kansas City Zoo for Boo at the Zoo with some friends of ours. This was going to be the first time that E really experienced trick or treating. Oh my goodness, she loved it! She carried her bucket and held it out for people to put candy in it all while mumbling something that could have been "trick or treat". It was the sweetest!

She was excited for her first carousel ride!

 It was a beautiful day at the zoo!

 We left the zoo around 11 because we had a BBQ to attend. It was thrown by one of the Kyle's professors from his college ROTC program. He is retired from the Army and lives in Leavenworth with his wife. He invited a few other alumni from WSU over and it was a great time! 

Overall, it was a great weekend! We had a blast kicking off our Halloween festivities. I hope you all had a great weekend!

Always Trust Your Instincts

When you have kids you don't ever anticipate them having to deal with something medically that can alter their lives. One of our biggest concerns was that E was going to inherit the hereditary cholesterol condition that Kyle has. 

This condition is called Familia Hypercholesterolemia Type 2A, which is caused by a defect of the 19th chromosome. It is characterized by high levels of cholesterol as well as high levels of bad cholesterol know as low density lipoprotein (LDL). This defect makes the body unable to remove the LDL from the blood, which can cause narrowing of the arteries at a very early age. Only one parent has to pass this gene onto their children in order for them to get it. If both parents carry this gene and pass it, it can create significant problems and be harder to treat. If this condition goes untreated it can lead to heart disease, heart attack, and stroke at an early age. It is something that should be taken seriously and treated accordingly. 

Kyle was diagnosed with this condition when he was 2 1/2 years old due to the fact that his Mom has it. He spent his life being on a restricted diet before he was able to be put on medication when he was 18.  He received exams with a pediatric cardiologist every 6 months until 16 and then was moved to a regular cardiologist. He now takes both lipitor and zetia to control his condition with routine checks. My MIL has a severe form of this condition, she only received the gene from her mother but it mutated. She has a treatment every 6 months called Lipid Apheresis that removes the LDL from her bloodstream and she pairs that with a variety of medications and diet control to manager her condition. At 35, she had a triple bypass and then several years later had a complete aortic valve replacement due to the calcified cholesterol. She has the rare homozygous version while Kyle and E have the heterozygous that occurs in 1 in 500 people. 

Why am I telling you all this? Well, because our sweet E was diagnosed with this condition a few days ago. Kyle and I discussed on several different occasions that we wanted to get her tested but I think we were both afraid. He knew what that would mean for her if she had it. I took her in on Tuesday morning to talk to her primary care doctor and she agreed to put in the labs. She said there are no studies regarding a 1 year old being tested but if I was okay with it so was she. I had zero knowledge about this condition prior to marrying Kyle so this is all new to me. 

At about 4:30 that day I received a phone call from the nurse. She confirmed what we already knew in the back of our minds. E has it. She said they have never seen a 13 month old's levels that high. Here are her numbers:

Cholesterol: 263 (normal range in a child is under 170)

LDL: 166 (normal range in a child is under 90)

HDL: 37 (normal range is over 35, she is borderline here)

This cholesterol level is high for even an adult male, so for a 13 month old it's scary. I was happy when the nurse said that before they even called us they had faxed her paperwork over to the children's hospital in Kansas City. She will see a pediatric cardiologist that specializes in lipid abnormalities. She will also see a nutritionist at this same appointment. So she couldn't be in better hands. Until we have that appointment we will work on her diet. No juice (she doesn't get that anyway), no flavored milk, limit starches, and lots of vegetables, fruits, and protein. Her labs will be re-done approximately 1 month before that appointment to see if there has been any change.

While diet, exercise, and medication can help with this, it is never going to go away. This is something that she will live with for the rest of her life as have Kyle, his Mom, and brother. At this point it is all about managing the condition and ensuring that she is healthy. There is no magic medication or alternative treatment that will cure it because it is a chromosomal abnormality. It's hard enough to deal with this as an adult but for a child it's even harder. I am so glad we know now so we can move forward with a plan.

If you wouldn't mind sending good thoughts our way it would be greatly appreciated.

Of course, E has no idea what is going on. She is still a happy and amazing little girl!

Kansas City Half Marathon

For the last few weeks I have been prepping to run the Kansas City Half Marathon. Kyle and I made a deal that I would run this race solo and he would run a half in a few weeks solo. With such an early start time we didn't feel comfortable getting E up so early. So they stayed home and had a daddy/daughter morning. I was really looking forward to this event because a lot of my friends (mostly from SLAM) would be running it. 

On Friday, Lauren and I headed to KC to pick up our packets. I have to say that for an event of this size they made the process so easy! 

On Saturday morning, I was up at 4:15am! I don't think I got more than 2 hours of sleep. I was pumped and ready to get the day going. I was picking up Lauren and our fearless SLAM leader, Meghan. 

We arrived in KC at around 6am and waited for the rest of our ladies to show up. We had some that were running the half and some that were running the 10k. We, of course, made sure that we took a pre-race photo.

We lined up at the start and I was in awe of how many people there were. I found out later that in the half alone there were 3,585 people (6,978 people total).

(photo credit to Lauren)

The race started right on time at 7:05am, with fireworks! It was impressive and really neat. With all of the people it took about 5 minutes to cross the start line. I knew from the start the I couldn't bolt out, I had to pace myself and really be cognizant of my time otherwise I would burn out too quickly. The wind was also a factor, I think at one point there were 15mph gusts and it was hard to get through.

I ran with Lauren for the first mile until the 10k split off and she went her own way. I caught up with our friend Sara and ran with her for a few miles. The course was really nice, a little hilly, but not terrible. The half we did a few weeks ago was worse haha. I did my best to keep a steady pace and at the half way point, I realized I was keeping an average of a 9:30 pace. I was thrilled with that.

In all honesty it felt like the time went by really fast and before I knew I was at the 12 mile mark. I couldn't believe that I was almost finished. I turned the last corner and realized that the last .5 mile was all downhill! Whoever designed this course was brilliant! 

I could see the finish line and I felt instant relief and I saw friends at the finish line. I crossed and stopped my watch, I was shocked when I saw 2:07! I PR'd my half time by over 10 minutes. I was blown away. My gun time was 2:13:14 but my chip time was 2:07:47! 

 Lauren was awesome and snapped these photos for me!

It was such an amazing event! It was so fun running with friends.

I really hope that we are here for another year because I would love to run this again!

Shatto Home Delivery

One of the things that I was most excited about when it came to moving to Leavenworth was the milk delivery company that services post and the surrounding area. 

This company is Shatto Milk Company. This company has been producing high quality products for 75 years and they call Osborn, Missouri home. We had the opportunity to visit the farm during their family day a few weeks ago and it was amazing. Seeing how the cows are cared for and the facilities they use was impressive. 

One of the things I love about them is that their milk products are in glass bottles. There is just something special about getting that glass bottle, I don't know why but it tastes so much better. Even more amazing is that they don't just provide milk. They have a variety of products and are partnered with the Kearney Culinary Academy to provide meals as well. They have delicious side dishes, entrees, cheese, meat, eggs, fruit, vegetables, sweet treats, bread, as well as things like salsa. Kyle absolutely loves their salsa! 

Now that E is drinking whole milk, we wanted to get a good brand that was high quality and we knew that Shatto was it. Home delivery made that decision even easier, there is nothing better than having the products you order on your doorstep every Thursday. We just place our cooler on the porch the night before and we get a text message when our items have been delivered. I love how easy their delivery service is. If I have empty bottles from the week before I place them in the cooler and they take them, plus I am refunded the $2 bottle deposit. 

You can tailor your deliveries how you want. You can set up weekly recurring orders, biweekly orders, or even just simple one time orders. They make the process extremely easy and everything is paid automatically through their website. 

Our first order consisted of 1/2 gallon of whole milk, 2 pounds of strawberries, and a package of everything bagels. It may seem like a simple order but we go through a lot of this stuff and I know that their product are always good (the commissary and walmart have been slacking with their strawberries lately). I plan on adding more items to our list but this has been a great start so far.

If you ever have a chance to try their products, please do!

I cannot recommend them enough.