Kevin has been reminding me for the last month that we needed to spend the money in our FSA before the end of the year.  He was afraid that we sat aside money for medical expenses that would not be taxed and we would not use it.  I, on the other hand, was not concerned.  I knew how supportive my family was, always being there for each other in a time of need, and would answer Kevin's call.  Ava, being the caring and understanding child (Ha! Ha! Ha!), answered her father's call.

Yes, that is a picture of Ava's ankle.  Although hard to see, her ankle was the size of a tennis ball when she came home from her friend's house on Wednesday.  Ava, her friend, her friend's brother, and his friend were jumping on a trampoline when one of the boys landed on Ava's ankle.  The trooper that she is, Ava did not cry.  The mother iced her ankle and Ava continued to play with her friend, even taking the dog for a walk.   By Thursday morning, she could not put any weight on her foot so began our adventure for the day.

First stop, the pediatricians office.  Ava and Emily waited very patiently.  After spending much time in hospitals between Ava's health issues and Emily's broken bones, we had packed a bag with books, a DS, and food.  We were well prepared for the long day awaiting us.

Then the doctor came in to take a look at Ava's ankle.  Concerned about the amount of swelling there was, she ordered an x-ray.  She was concerned that perhaps Ava's ankle was broken.  Off to office number two.


Once at the imaging center, we waited some more.  The girls were still fairly good entertaining themselves but I could see the cracks of boredom begin to show.  After waiting about 20 minutes, Ava went in for her x-ray.


The nurse asked us to wait in the lobby for our results.  10 minutes later the nurse came out and announced that a nurse from our pediatrician's office was on the phone and wanted to talk to me.  My stomach dropped knowing that could only mean bad news.  I picked up the phone and sure enough, Ava had broken her ankle.  The nurse, the mother of one of Ava's classmates, called a pediatrician orthopedic surgeon and had scheduled an appointment for 1:00.  It was now 12:15 and Emily had soccer across town at 1:00.  I quickly called my friend who was planning to pick Emily up for soccer and asked if I could drop Emily off at her house early so that Ava and I could make the appointment.  Bonnie, always so gracious and helpful, said yes but they were at Pizza Hut so to drop Emily off there and Bonnie would get her a pizza for lunch.  Thank God for blessings like Bonnie!  I got Emily dropped off at Pizza Hut and to the doctor's office, stop number three, by 12:50.

Now I would just like to point out that since Ava could not put any weight on her foot she needed assistance to get around.  She could only hop for so long so that meant I had to carry her.  44 pounds gets heavy very quickly.  Needless to say, Ava had many piggy back rides in and out of the offices and by the time we made it to office number three, I was pretty tired.  Ava however, loved her multitude of piggy back rides.  A trip to the chiropractor for me was in order.

The doctor saw Ava quickly and informed us that Ava had broken her ankle in two possibly three places.  One break was a small chip that would eventually dissolve and the bone would grow over the chip.  The second break was on her growth plate.  Luckily it was a minor fracture and the doctor was not concerned that it would cause any problems with Ava's growing.  The third possible break was covered by fluid and the doctor could not tell for certain if there was a break or not.  In any case, no surgery was necessary however Ava would need to be casted.  Ava was very excited about this news because she has always thought having a cast would be fun.  I'll let you know about that opinion next week when she returns to school.


Ava getting her foot checked by the doctor.



Ava getting her ankle set into the right position.



The cotton gauze being wrapped around the ankle.



The fiberglass cast being wrapped on to the ankle.



The nurse checking to make sure everything was fine.  Look at Ava's smile.  She LOVED the attention.



The final outcome.  Ava will have this cast until next Thursday.  Then she will get it off, have some more x-rays, and have another cast put on.  She should be able to walk on the new cast and will have that for three weeks.  After that, more x-rays, and a boot.  She will not be able to play winter soccer or gymnastics until the spring.  Her spirits are high and she has enjoyed having people sign her cast.  Her foot is non-weight bearing so she is hobbling around on crutches.  No pictures of that but I'll post those soon.  As she hobbled into my bedroom this morning on her crutches she reminded me of Tiny Tim.  Yet another nickname for Ava.

Well, I believe that Kevin has learned his lesson about faith and to always have faith in his family because no matter the problem, we will always have a solution and be there to support each other.  Happy New Year!

Our Fall has been extremely busy.  I know, what else is new.  Both girls have been busy with their own activities which keeps Kevin and I busy carting them around.  We had Parent-Teacher conferences this past week and both girls had amazing reports.  Yes, I did say both girls.  Surprisingly, Ava is doing very well following directions, completing work, and behaving correctly toward others.  Believe it or not, she has become the "Norm" of kindergarten and has already had three marriage proposals.  I think that Kevin and I will need to keep our eye closely on our new socialite. 

As for the girls activities, both have been very active in soccer this season.  Emily is enjoying playing on her premiere team and has even been asked to be a guest on another club team for a tournament a few weeks ago.  Her team won their division this Fall and all of the girls were extremely excited.  They are now playing indoor soccer for the Winter and are enjoying the fast pace of the game.




Emily shooting the penalty kick the won the game and the division title.

Ava enjoyed her outdoor team that Kevin coached so much that they decided to play indoor soccer this Winter.  Although the Green Ninja's did not have a winning season, they did have a lot of fun playing together.





Besides playing soccer this Fall, we were able to enjoy watching the U.S. Women's Soccer team play at the Livestrong Stadium in September.  Emily was so excited that we went to the open practice the night before.  After watching them play Emily has determined that she wants to play for the U.S. team when she gets older.



Abby Wambach addressing the crowd after the open practice.

Another exciting event in September was Emily receiving her Third Grade Bible, a tradition in the Methodist Church.  Her great grandparents sponsored her bible which meant they bought the bible, presented it to her in church, and participated in the bible retreat.  All involved seemed to have a good time.  It was definitely a special moment to see my grandparents being able to participate in such special occasion.



In our busy lives, we were able to make it to the circus in September with my sister inlaw, Beth, her husband Doug, and my nephew Cole.  It had been a couple of years since we had been to the circus and it was so much fun to experience it through Ava's eyes.  She was so excited as well as observant.  For those of you who haven't been to the circus for a while, there is one act where 7 motorcyclists ride in a sphere cage that isn't very large.  While watching them Ava said, "What do they do if they're going to get sick?"  Really?!!  My greatest concern was that they would hit each other.  Only my child.


Cole, Ava, and Emily

Our most recent adventure was a trip to Louisburg to visit the cider mill and pumpkin patch.  While there, the girls enjoyed a treat of caramel apples and Kevin and I enjoyed some cider doughnut holes.  Very yummy!  It was a beautiful day and probably one of the last few times we go to a pumpkin patch without a child complaining about how boring it is.  I suppose that attitude will lead us into some other new adventures.


Emily and Ava devouring their apples.


Dad and Mom with Ava


Dad and Mom with Emily.

Each girl insisted on taking a picture of the other one.  Too bad we couldn't find anyone to take a family photo.

The girls are looking forward to Halloween tomorrow.  We will get a late start since Emily has indoor practice at 5:25 but they both seem to be okay with that.  I'll share pictures as they come.

Ava has always had a very difficult time getting ready for school in a timely manner.  This morning she came running into my room to tell me what she heard on the radio.  As she left the room, I asked her if she was going to have a good morning.  Her response was, "Maybe.  I'm not sure."  I have to admit that her honesty was refreshing and helps me to know the type of morning she is planning on having.

When in California this summer, my cousin Alex was giving me a hard time about the lack of entries on Xanga.  She said that I needed to have 6 month updates, so here you go.  To ease you into our lengthy update, I thought that I would start you off with an Ava moment.

Ava Moment
While on a vacation in Branson, MO this summer, Ava ran across the following sign at the fish hatchery.  She got quite a kick out of it.


Little did she understand that the sign was talking about cigarette butts and not her derriere.  You have to love those homonyms!

I can't really remember the spring all that well so I'll move onto the summer. Maybe I should have titled this 3 month update.  We began our summer with a trip to LA.  We met my brother and brother inlaw there and spent time at Disneyland, the beach, the aquarium, and with family.  Many of you follow by brother's blog so I won't go into great detail since he did such a wonderful job writing about our experiences.  This was Ava's first trip to the beach which she loved.



As pictured, Ava was thrilled to finally be at the beach.  She was very hesitant about the seaweed, but it was kind of disgusting to look at, let alone step over.  Once past the seaweed, she had a wonderful time playing in the ocean, collecting shells, and building sand castles.


Kevin holding the girls hand as they were a little hesitant to originally get into the water.



The girls totally comfortable in the water.

We also spent some time at Disneyland and California Adventure.  This was the first time for Kevin and the girls and it was fun for me to take them someplace that my family visited when I was younger.  The girls had fun riding the rides and hunting down characters to get autographs.




The girls really enjoyed spending time with their uncles and were able to build some great memories with them.  Hopefully, the uncles feel the same way!


Emily was excited to see that she was almost as tall as Mickey Mouse.



We discovered on this trip that one of our daughters loves roller coasters and the other one doesn't.  Can you figure out which one loves roller coaster by looking at the picture?  After riding Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and Star Tours, Ava declared that she would no longer ride any "baby rides."  So much for riding Dumbo.  We had a fantastic time in California with Chris and Tawn and also enjoyed meeting some of Tawn's cousins as well as visiting with my aunt, uncle, and cousins.  It was wonderful to see everyone since we don't get together very often.  The girls especially enjoyed playing with their cousin Tommy who was definitely more active this time at the age of  2 1/2 instead of 18 months when they last saw him.



My cousin took a much better picture of the three of them but this portrays how much the girls love Tommy.

Upon returning home, the girls took two weeks of swim lessons and then we were off for our second vacation to Branson with Kevin's parents.  They take each grandchild to Branson when they turn five and this year was Ava's turn.  It was extremely hot while we were there so we spend most of our time in the pool.  We did play miniature golf one morning, saw the Chinese Acrobats, and played shuffleboard and other games at the clubhouse.



As usual, Ava had to play the games her way.  We had a great time and the girls have requested that we go back sometime.  Upon our return home the girls took another two weeks of swim lessons, each finally passing their level.  Emily has a beautiful backstroke and freestyle stroke, and Ava is doing a fantastic job floating on her back and getting the coordination down for her backstroke and freestyle stroke.  Now if they will remember it come next summer.

In addition to swim lessons and vacations we did make it to the zoo few couple of times.


Here Emily and her best friend Erin enjoy the new sky tram over Africa.  They wouldn't turn around to have their picture taken until I promised them that I would take them for ice cream.  After I got my shot, they said they couldn't wait until after the zoo to get their ice cream.  I just smiled and said that I promised them ice cream but I didn't say that I would take them for ice cream on that afternoon.  They weren't happy but they did get their ice cream at the end of the day.

Emily and I have also been running a few 5Ks this summer.  Our final 5K will be this Sunday when we run for the Susan B. Komen Race for the Cure.  Each time I run, I run a little faster and for longer periods of time.  I set myself a goal to run a 10K by the time I'm 40.  Two years to train!



Emily and Jenn after the Freedom Run 5K on July 4th.

I head back to work tomorrow, excited about my new year.  Both girls will be at my school now which will be nice.  Emily will be in 3rd grade in the room right next door to me and Ava will be in Kindergarten.  Where does the time go?  Right now both of the girls are in Indianapolis with my parents enjoying their last vacation of the summer.  It sounds like they are having fun and needless to say Kevin and I are having fun ourselves.  As Emily says, we are being "spoiled" because we have eaten out many times, seen a couple of movies, and relaxed in our own home without listening to a child cry or whine.  We even made it to the art museum.  It's like we're newlyweds again!  We do miss the girls but greatly appreciate my parents taking them so that we could have some time to ourselves as well as not to have to find babysitters when I begin work this week.

I have one last chore on my summer to-do list which is to clean the oven so I better get that done before time runs out!  I hope to blog about Ava's first days of Kindergarten but no promises.  Awfully busy with Emily's premiere soccer, piano, girl scouts, Ava's soccer, and gymnastics.  No wonder Kevin and I need some time without the girls!

  
Emily and I are just finishing our third snow day of this week, sixth since winter break.  As I'm sure many of you heard, the midwest and northeast were hit with a major snow and ice storm.  This was the first blizzard KC has had since 1983 and we came out with about 1 foot of snow.  The metro had a variety of snow readings, which were hard to take with the blowing snow, but Kevin and I thought that we had about 1 foot.  Kevin and Ava were both off Tuesday and Wednesday since the Federal Building was shut down.  Kevin could not remember a time in the last 15 years that the building was actually shut down for 1 whole day, let alone 2.  Either way, we had good quality family time together for 2 days.  What did we do?  Well, likely for you, I took pictures.  These pictures are actually from all 6 snow days that we have had.


The girls blew bubbles from cookie cutters on our second snow day.



Then they made sugar cookies and frosted them.



On our 4th snow day, this Tuesday, the girls decided to put on a fashion show for us.  Here they are applying their make-up.



Outfits number 1.  Jasper was being bashful.



Outfits number 2.  Jasper finally overcame his bashfulness.



The final look for the morning.  Which were your favorites?



Then we moved on to science and made Borax crystals.  They didn't turn out very well which is the reason why I did not take a picture of the final product.  It was still fun to make.  This was about 9:30 in the morning and as you can tell, the snow had not really begun to accumulate yet.  The girls then went and played by themselves for awhile.  After Kevin, Emily, and I had eaten lunch, Ava was sent to her room because she was crying over what I made for lunch which she had asked for, we played games while Ava napped.




In all, we played Sorry, Sequence, Rummicube, Uno, and Set.  It was like the good old days, before Ava could play board games with us.  Now Ava begins the games and within 10 minutes looses focus.  Can we say ADD?



After playing so many games, Kevin needed a massage.  Emily was glad to be of service. 


The rest of the afternoon the girls watched a movie, while Kevin and I cleared our driveway as well as two of our neighbor's driveways.  This is a view of the storm from our garage. 



Jasper decided to come out and help.  He loved running in the snow.  He really has had a difficult time since he has been cooped up in the house due to all of the snow we have had since Jan.  As soon as one snow melt, another storm comes and the snow piles up again. 


We ate dinner, had a little fun, read books, and the girls went to bed. 

 

After the girls went Kevin went back outside to shovel a path for Jasper off of the patio.



As you can see, the snow really began piling up and Kevin became concerned that Jasper would have difficulties "doing his business" in the snow.



Kevin shoveled a path and a 3 x 3 square for Jasper in the yard.  Jasper pranced right down his path, onto the 3 x 3 square, and jumped over the mound of snow to do his business.  I told Kevin that at least now we can actually see some grass in the little 3 x 3 patch.

The next morning, Kevin and I slept in and finally rolled ourselves out of bed around 8:00 to start the shoveling process again.  Yes, sleeping in at our house is 8:00.



A view of our front stoop.



Ava and Kevin clearing the driveway.



Emily attempting to help clear something.



The girls standing on our mound of snow.  It was taller than Ava.



Too bad Ava's shovel wasn't a pitchfork.



Finally the girls gave up on shoveling the snow and decided to go sledding.  The snow was so deep and powdery that it was hard to sled down our front hill so they girls decided to use the driveway instead.



As usual, Jasper had to participate as well.  I would like to say that he was pushing Ava down the hill.  Unfortunately, he was trying to bite the sled.



Soon, Jasper found a new game.  He discovered how much attention he got when he took off the girl's hats and gloves.  This, of course, did not make the girls happy.  After a short amount of time playing, the girls and I went inside.  We spent the rest of the day lounging.  We did go over to Kevin's parents house to clear their driveway and Emily went to her friend's house.  The girls made their Valentine's Day boxes but unfortunately I did not get any pictures since I was out shoveling snow. 

Today Ava and Kevin went back to school and work.  Emily and I went to school so that I could get a few things ready for the kids tomorrow, went to the library with Emily's friend, and got our hair cut in the afternoon.  Tonight, Kevin took Ava to gymnastics and Emily decided to go along.  When they return, Kevin and Ava will finish dinner and then we will have pie and presents to celebrate Kevin's birthday.  We'll have his actually birthday dinner tomorrow night but due to our busy late afternoon schedule of piano and gymnastics, we didn't have time for the surf and turf dinner he wanted.

Keeping our fingers crossed that there will actually be school tomorrow.  I don't know what we will do if there isn't!