The Crook Family

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Oh Baby...

What a summer! Or maybe I should say "What summer?" It doesn't feel like we have had a summer yet. The last week of school the girls had a piano recital. The next week they had multiple dance rehearsals followed by that dance recital. Right after that, we learned that my dad (who happened to be truck driving over by Vegas) had had a stroke. My mother left right away to be down in Vegas with him. I am always grateful for all she does and missed her help and company terribly. While she was gone, kids had to go to a sitter and we did two weeks of swim lessons. Kadie turned seven. Mom was able to bring my dad home for a couple of weeks, but life wasn't slowing down. On his birthday, (July 8th) my dad went back into the hospital since he was not doing well and having trouble keeping food down. An ambulance came to get him and it was somewhat amusing since they got lost and we could hear the siren (that wasn't supposed to be on) zig-zagging down wrong streets. The next day we learned that he had not had a stroke, but had a tumor pressing on his brain. Amazing that the big Vegas hospital missed this, but our small-town hospital found it. He was life-flighted to Casper that day. The girls got to say bye and we watched the helicopter take off. Taylor had a birthday that weekend and turned nine. This past Monday my dad had brain surgery to have the tumor removed. I got special permission from my OB to travel and we drove to Casper to see him before surgery and support my mother. The surgery went well and he is now in rehab. He needs radiation to catch anything they missed and has the potential to be home in a few weeks. I worked my last twenty hours of work for the upcoming weeks, had a post-op OB appointment, and am having our baby TOMORROW! (Hence the massive blog catch-up posts today...)

We made this paper chain a couple weeks ago to track how many days until baby brother is born. It now has only one sad loop hanging on a nail on the wall by itself. It has been one crazy summer and we are adding the cherry on top tomorrow morning! I am so super excited to meet this little guy. Oh how our life will change with the addition of a baby brother. (I wish I could say I was excited about the c-section but I am super anxious and will probably not sleep tonight. Oh well, we have to be there by five in the morning anyway...) Too bad baby's don't actually arrive by stork!!! So there you have it, our crazy summer roller coaster so far. Stay tuned for pictures of "baby brother!"

(Out-take of the same picture...Love Kimmy's face!)

Swimming Lessons

I am a little out of order (these happened before Kadie's birthday) but I am trying to play a super game of blog catch-up before we have the baby tomorrow!

The girls did swim lessons for two weeks. Taylor was in level 4. It was great because there was only one other girl in the class and they had more one-on-one instruction. She did great and can swim pretty independently now.

Kimmy got tubes in her ears at nine months and had them forever so this was the first time for her lessons. She was in the preschool level and did more than I thought she would. She was super cooperative and had a lot of fun. The only time she didn't like it was when they had them lay down on their backs while wearing a life-jacket. She was not impressed and got out of the water for about twenty minutes before going back in. Other than that, she loved every minute of it:

Practicing blowing her bubbles:

Cheese:

Kadie was in level one this year. She did not want her picture taken but let me snap a few. She was nervous about moving into the deeper pool this year, but did great. She was willing to jump off the diving board with the rest of her class and seemed to have fun!

Kimmy's First Haircut

After dance was over and we didn't have to have hair long for the recital hairstyle, I took the older girls to get their hair cut. It has been much easier to manage during the summer and they look so cute!

During the haircuts, Kimmy had desperately wanted hers done too. I had only scheduled time for the two older girls and didn't have time to get hers done. I was also hesitant to cut it since you lose the natural curls that my little girls have all had. Aunty Liz has been here to help with the upcoming baby and she took Kim to get hers done. She was so excited:

Kimmy very serious about holding still:

We have a lock of her curls that we kept and are loving the shorter hair!

Taylor is Nine!

Three weeks after Kadie had her birthday, it was time for another one! If we thought life was crazy around Kadie's birthday, it got even crazier on Taylor's, but that is probably a post for another time. Taylor spent the morning with a good friend at day in the park. They had a blast. I imagine she had more fun doing that than spending time with her very pregnant mother! Later we had her friend over and opened presents and did cake. Can't believe this girl is NINE!

Taylor loved the doll Kadie got for her birthday, so we got her a different one. She has carried it around constantly since then. I love that she is still innocent enough to love dolls. I have a feeling those times will not last forever and I better enjoy them while I can.

In our town they have been doing hot-air balloons so we thought the cake was fitting Sisters and her cousin, Emma watch on in anticipation:

Birthday loot:

Kadie is Seven!

Kadie turned seven on the 21st of June. She is growing up so fast! We decided to have partys on the even years and just family on the odd years (works perfect for me since we are having the baby this year on their odd year). Kadie had fun even though it was just us!

Opening presents:

Love this picture! It totally sums up our Kadie.

She is the plucky comic relief in our family:

The cute card that Taylor spent the time to make for her sister:

Kimmy modeling a doll hat:

Kadie rockin' with her gifts:

Matching girls:

Happy Birthday Kadie:

(Hello Kitty was sinking in the frosting...)

Dance Recital

The girls had their dance recital the first week of June. They had tons of practices that week and life was a little overwhelming. These are pictures we took the night of the recital with hair and make-up done. The night was so crazy and they were so tired when they were done that we didn't get any pictures of them in their costumes. I was going to take them later but summer life picked up at full speed going 1000 miles-per-hour and I never got the chance. They did a great job but we will probably be skipping lessons this next year. I am not ready to commit to anything for the next year until we see what having four kids is like!