May-September Catch Up

Somehow, an entire season went by, and I didn't blog once. It's a lame excuse, but it's all I have. I take 90% of my pictures on my iPhone and I was waiting to be able to get them off my phone and on to my computer. But that isn't easy, so I will just add them later at some point if I ever get them off my phone. But I can't let more time pass before catching up. So, here is my attempt at getting caught up.

May
I had a fantastic Mother's Day. My mom and my sweet girls made it very special for me. Also, my best friend, who I am very thankful for. I got flowers and gifts and homemade trinkets. Anything a mom could ask for and more. I feel so blessed to be a mom and to be raising these two darling girls. They are my world.
Hadlee had her first pony tail. Her hair was FINALLY long enough.
Keelia had her Spring dance recital for her ballet/tap class. She did so great and I was so proud of her.

We had a Young family reunion in Steamboat Springs, CO that technically started May 31. It was fun to be all together as a family. It was good to have all the cousins together, but it wasn't without it's family drama. What family reunion would be complete without it? We had fun being together though. I took no pictures from the event. I will try to round some up from my mom. At the reunion, we discovered that Keelia had two loose teeth. WAY too early for her mother...
The weather in May, (well, March actually), was entirely too hot. So we bought a kiddie pool for the back patio. I don't like that we were swimming in May.

June
Keelia lost her first tooth on June 4th.

And her second tooth on June 26th.

My mom bought new outside toys because that's what grandma's do. My kids found they were better hats than toys.

 

In June, Colorado experienced several fires. None were close to our house, but it was sad to watch all the tragedy happy around us and gave us a chance to be thankful for our many blessings. The summer was too hot and too dry.
And sadly enough, I remember almost nothing about the events of June. I know we played outside a lot and went to lots of parks. We even battled the crowd at the zoo a couple of times. But three plus months later, it's kind of a blur.

July
We had a fireworks free 4th of July, due to the fires. Don't get me started. We went to the Highlands Ranch parade in the morning and then the girls spent the rest of the day at their dad's house. I'm pretty sure I watched a lot of OTH and did nothing.
We went to Utah for our annual Murphy family reunion. The reunion was fun. We had some crazy weather and I think it is safe to say that both of my girls are forever terrified of thunder/lightning/hail/wind/rain. So that's fun. We got to stay with my brother Sean and his family while we were there. We also got to stay with aunt Erin and uncle Mark, which is always a treat. My cousin Tricia, who lives in Canada was home visiting too, so we got to see her. We talked a lot, played a lot, and ate at the Do-Do. Did I miss anything? :) I also got to see a few of my friends from college who are still in Utah. It was good to catch up. We also got to spend some time with my sweet grandma Roxie, who lived with my aunt and uncle. She passed away just a few weeks after we were there, but we got to take some pictures with her and my kids got to have a sweet memory with their great-grandma. It was a tender mercy.
Other than that, July was hot and despite my best efforts to stay inside and run the AC, my kids insisted on going outside. So we went to a lot of parks and tried to swim at least once a week. We also got more slurpee's from 7-11 than I would like to admit.
Here is a picture of Hadlee's sense of style...apparently, you can never have too many flowers in your hair...

August
My grandma Roxie passed away and we went to Utah for the funeral. It was a crazy, quick trip and I'm pretty sure I didn't sleep enough, but I was so grateful to be able to go and celebrate her sweet life.
Keelia lost her third tooth on August 20th. I didn't take a picture, but it was equally exciting as the first two.
We went to Western Welcome Week's fireworks in an attempt to make up for missing fireworks on the 4th of July. We were a little too close and I think both my girls had their fill of fireworks. However, I loved them and was grateful to see some this year.
Keelia started another year of preschool. She is in "pre-k" this year and she loves it. She is learning so much and loves going to school. She can't wait until she can go to kindergarten next year.
I got engaged in August. It was kind of sudden and kind of quick, but it made me so happy. Getting to marry my best friend? Yes, please. So we started making plans...
I turned 29 on the 27th. Yeah, yeah, yeah...30 is just around the corner. Bring it on. I didn't love my 20's, so I am hoping my 30's and I get along better. I had a fantastic birthday. I got to celebrate it three times, with three different groups of people in different settings, and if you know me, you know I LOVE BIRTHDAYS! So it was great.


September
Keelia started her ballet/tap dance class again. She loves it.
This was a huge month for me, personally. I'll leave it at that and hope that my future self remembers what I was talking about.
We did away with all things wedding related.
Keelia lost her 4th tooth.
It was still entirely too hot for September.
Hadlee had to have a sleep study done at Children's Hospital to figure out what is going on with her noise that she makes. I don't get the results back until October, but it was a sleepless, less than fun night for both of us. My mom kept Keelia at home, which was better for everyone involved. Look at this sad picture...

We went to Georgetown to see the Fall leaves change colors. We stopped at this really fun park on our way. The girls had a blast. We took a TON of pictures. Here are a few.

We had some family pictures taken. They turned out pretty cute. Keelia fell and Hadlee refused to cooperate...sounds about right. Here are some of my favorites.

Well, that about sums up our Summer. I am sure that I missed a lot of events and I know that I missed a lot of pictures. But I want to be better at blogging, and waiting on pictures is a silly reason to not record events. So, at least I am sorta-kinda caught up and can start on current events.

Caught Up. Mostly.

So I didn't remember everything, but at least I got caught up. For the most part. I will start on May tomorrow and hopefully I can be better at getting down daily/weekly/monthly events. And maybe my blog won't look like a ghost town. :)

March and April 2012

March 1st, my divorce was final. It was a little nerve wrecking not knowing what to expect from a court hearing, appearing before a judge, but it went smoothly and when all was said and done, I was back to "Kathryn Young." I had Keelia in therapy so that she could talk to someone impartial in case she needed to. I loved her therapist and I think it was really good for Keelia. She "graduated" from therapy in March because she was doing so well and had really learned the tools necessary for her to process the changes going on in her life. Lucky, or unlucky, Hadlee is too young to really understand what changes are taking place around her. But we are all doing very well with things and I know it was best for my little family.
On the 17th, Jenny and I went to see the WCR play here in Denver. It brought back the good old rugby glory days and I wanted to get out on the field so bad. But it was good to see the girls play and to see how far they have come since I was on the team.
We celebrated St. Patrick's Day on the 18th with the usual corned beef and cabbage and lots of green foods.
The girls and I went to the park on the 31st and fed the geese. Hadlee loves animals and thinks that all animals pant with their tongues out of their mouths, like dogs. So it was entertaining for her to get to see the animals. Keelia was okay with them until we ran out of bread and she noticed they had us surrounded. She has her mother's love of animals. ;)
In March, we also obtained health insurance for the first time since we left Utah. Don't judge me. So I found the girls a pediatrician and made appointments for April 4th. Both girls did well. While we were there, Hadlee hit the corner of the sink counter and split her head open. The pediatrician glued it back together. Lucky place to have that kind of thing happen, I guess. Keelia was off the charts for weight and 98th percentile for height. And Hadlee was 83rd percentile for height and weight. Hadlee also had to get 3 shots after she cut her head open. Needless to say, she was not happy with her mother after we left the office. And good news, the girls really like their doctors and nurses, which if you know my kids, that's a hard thing to accomplish.
We had a fantastic Easter. Keelia had an Easter program at school. She begged me to make "pink" rice krispy treats because she "loves" them. Well, it was like my second time ever and like most things baking, very stressful for me, and it turns out, she doesn't even like them. Awesome. We dyed eggs the Saturday before Easter. The girls really loved it and Hadlee wanted to just keep redyeing her eggs over and over and over. Yeah, all the brown eggs get credited to Hadlee this year.

The Easter Bunny was too kind this year. The girls were spoiled, like it should be. Hadlee really didn't get the whole "egg  hunt" concept and was happy with whatever egg she found. She had no desire to find more. Keelia, however, wanted to find every egg and paid no attention to what it was or if she found something special. At least they balance each other out! And Hadlee had an Easter dress, but due to us being late to church every week and her needing a nap the second we get home, she didn't get a picture. Sorry, Hadlee. Your life up to this point has been poorly documented. But I promise I love you and I will do better.

Here is a random picture of Hadlee in a new outfit she got from her dad's family.

My aunt and uncle came for a long weekend in April. My uncle is such a good sport and he loves grandkids, even when they aren't technically his own. He let Keelia, Mallory, and Marshall do this to his head. Enough said.

Hadlee turned 18 months old in April. Which means one big thing...nursery! She and I had been going for a month or so before she turned 18 months old to try and prepare. Well, I'm still attending with her, if that's any indication of how it's going. Here are some pictures of the girls from before church on Hadlee's first nursery Sunday.

Towards the end of April, I decided to start eating better and exercising again. It has been a long time since I did anything regularly. I started drinking smoothies made of fruits and vegetables, but no, they are not green. And I do not like it. I tolerate it, but I have started to feel "better" and have seen some results. So I guess I will keep on keepin' on.

February 2012

February was a fun month. However, mostly picture-less. Don't worry, I have added "take more pictures not on my phone" to my new year's resolutions. And also, "don't get this far behind in blogging ever again because then you can't remember anything."
I started it off by falling down the stairs on the 1st...holding Hadlee. Yeah, I know. I'm an awesome mom. Luckily, besides some bumps and bruises, we were both okay. I just lost my footing and we went down. It was pretty traumatic...for both of us!
For the first time in I don't know how long, I slept for 8 hours uninterrupted. That has only happened one other time since. But it was glorious.
We, of course, had Valentine's day. It was pretty uneventful. We had our red dinner hosted by my sister. Keelia had a party at school and we did Smurf box valentines for her class. My kids were the best valentine's I could have ever asked for. Keelia even wrote my name all by herself on my valentine!

And here is Hadlee sporting a valentine's day shirt my dad bought for Keelia when she was this age...

February marked 2 years since my dad died. We had a family dinner and did our balloon letting go again. The kids really love that and it is always so sweet and tender to hear their wishes that they send to grandpa in heaven. 

Keelia went with me to my hair cut and got her's done too. She looked so dang cute with her bob!

And here is a random picture of Hadlee because I thought it was cute. She is such a sassy little thing. Don't let her cuteness fool you!!

Also, sometime in February, my girls took a bath together for the first time. I know, that sounds silly, but we only have a shower in the basement and we don't venture upstairs for baths very often. But when I am feeling really energetic (HA!) come bedtime, sometimes they get to play in the bath together.

January 2012

I usually do a list of resolutions at the end of every year. In 2011, I didn't. I think my only resolution was to make it through 2012. And since I am writing this is in mid-May, I would say I am doing a good job so far! And I don't really remember a lot about January. But like past months, I will do my best to get down what I can.
We did New Year's rockets with the Guellers like we do every year. Someone has pictures, but it's not me. And they let us borrow old rockets from last year, because I don't do rocket building.
Hadlee turned 15 months old in January. She celebrated by getting her last tooth (until her 2 year molars). And she went off her bottle. I just decided at 15 months, it was time. And the transition wasn't too bad. It was a rough day or two, but she never needed it back. And she has been a cup girl ever since. And I celebrated by taking this picture!

My nephew Marshall got baptized over the long weekend in January. All the family came and we had a crazy house full. It was nice to see everyone though. There are pictures somewhere of that too, but I don't have any.
January was a rough month. We had our second court meeting for our divorce. Luckily, things went smoothly after a lot of divine intervention and help from angels here on Earth. We got a date set and just had to wait. But there were times where I thought, this month is going to be the end of me. It wasn't obviously, but the January me would beg to differ.
My month was so awesome, I took my 4 year old to Target like this...