Room Makeover

Ever since Cassidy was born, Ella Catherine has been talking about the day that they would share a room.  Matt and I wanted to wait until Cassidy was out of a crib and potty trained for that to happen.  Well, she has been out of the crib and potty trained for quite some time.  So, while the kids were away at Grams and Grandpa for their grandparents week at the lake.  Matt and I transformed Ella Catherine's room.  I wish I had taken before pictures with the furniture but, we are very happy with the results and the girls were thrilled with their surprise.  Wonder how many years we have before big sister isn't going to want to have little sister in the same room?  Until then, we will enjoy it.

Before- walls were a dark sage green

After- walls are a tiffany blue.  Brightened up the room a lot

They each have their own closet

A dresser to share

And what they are most excited about, bunk beds!!!

Unfortunate Accident

I got a call at about 11:40am yesterday, when I looked at my phone it was Cassidy's Daycare.  It is never good to get a call from the daycare.  However, I was not prepared for the reason for the call.  I thought I was getting the " your child is sick" call.  Unfortunately instead, I received the "your child has had an accident" call.  I was then informed that Cassidy had fallen and chipped her teeth.  My first thought was ok no big deal just a little chipped tooth.  Oh No, she then preceded to tell me that one tooth was 50% gone and the other was about 25% gone in her estimation and that at least 1 of the teeth was loose.  

My next call was to the dentist and then to Matt.  His reaction was much like my initial reaction, no big deal.  That is until I sent him the pictures below.  His reaction to the pictures was the same as my reaction when I saw my sweet little girl as I arrived at the daycare.  Oh My Goodness!  How in the WORLD did that happen.?  WOW.  Apparently, one unfortunate face plant that hit things just so that it broke them.  She was a trooper and didn't appear to be in pain.  I got a hold of the dentist office and we had an appointment later that afternoon.  So, i took her home for a nap.  She woke up from her nap stating her teeth hurt, so I gave her a little Motrin to take the edge off.  We watched Sophia the first and then off to the dentist we went.  

I was NOT prepared for what the dentist had to say.  Or the news I was going to receive about my precious baby girls teeth.  What I learned was that when she fell and her teeth broke, she damaged the nerves and that the nerves were exposed on both teeth.  Both teeth were loose but one worse than the other.  He gave us two options.  We could try and salvage the teeth, in what he described as a type of mini root canal.  The pulp in her teeth would be removed and replaced with an artificial substance and then they would have to stabilize and rebuild her teeth.  There was no guarantee it would work and she had an increased risk of having abscesses in 6month-1 year.  Which if that happened they would either have to repeat the procedure or extract the teeth.  Our other option, extract her teeth.  

Let me tell you, this was not an easy decision.  However, after discussion with the dentist and talking things over with Matt, our decision was to have her teeth pulled.  So, at approximately 10:40 today Cassidy had her front two top teeth removed.   Throughout the whole ordeal she has been amazing!  She cooperated with both dentists fabulously.  She was such a trooper.  Thank goodness for treasure boxes and wonderful care providers.  However, as I sit here and type this and my sweet little one is sleeping off the anesthesia I am still filled with the anxiety and sadness.  Doing the right thing for our children is not always easy.  Parenthood comes with some tough decisions.  One thing is for certain.  Front teeth or not, this little spit fire will still be able to light up a room with her smile. 

Cassidy Making her bulldog face with her broken top teeth

Closer picture of the extent of the damage

Sweet girl waiting on the dentist yesterday

Such a little girl in a big chair, keeping her eye out for the dentist

Matt and our sweet Sassy Cassidy playing in the waiting room this morning waiting on the medicine to start working

Dentist putting on her "princess mask" AKA the good stuff

Precious girl watching TV in the ceiling and being soooo good.

Soccer Saturday

Spring soccer season has begun.  Today was our third weekend of play, but the first weekend it actually felt like spring.  It is so fun watching our kids get into the game and enjoy themselves.  Guess I have officially become a soccer mom!  Ella Catherine has a new coach this year.  She was a little nervous because she was playing her old team this morning.  They tied 3-3.

Carter is on a whole new team too.  I think he coach is the cutest!  :)  His team fought hard but couldn't ever quite get in their groove.  They lost 3-1.

Getting some last minute guidance from coach

Ready for kick off

What you can't see in the picture is that Ella Catherine was using her body to block the ball.  Super proud of her aggressiveness.

Making a run at it.  She got so close to a goal on this one that I might have yelled shoot it a bit too loud and broken my promise not to yell.

Keeping her eye on the ball

LOVE her hustle

See, I told you Carter's coach was a cutie!  Matt giving carter's team some last minute instructions

Although it makes me a nervous wreck, I do love watching him play goalie.  He really has been practicing hard and shown some great progress

See that kid on the ground blocking that goal kick?  That is Carter!!  Way to go Bud

Goal Kick!!!

I was too quick with the camera on this one!  but right after this Coach and player/Father and son shared a high five.

Love this pic because Matt has been working with both kids on their throw ins.  It paid off.

Princess/Super Hero Day

Today was Princess/Super Hero Day at Cassidy's daycare.  She initially wanted to be Batman.  That is the beauty of having an older brother and sister, her options were WIDE open.  Unfortunately, we couldn't find brother's batman cape.  In the process, we looked through all of Ella Catherine's princess costumes from when she was little.  No to Cinderella, No to Snow white, No to Tinkerbell, No to sleeping beauty and No to princess Sophia.  But a BIG yes to building her own princess costume starting with a tutu.  Thanks to our good friends and hand me downs we had a Rapunzel shirt and she just happens to be Cassidy's favorite princess.  The rest just fell into place and Ella Catherine helped put the finishing touches with her socks from her dance recital some years ago.  LOVE my free spirit!!  Guarantee that no one else had the same costume.

So Happy

So proud of her outfit

Easter with Mimi

 Family photo with Mimi.  

Family Picture after church.

Ella Catherine's 9th birthday

Ella Catherine had a big time celebrating her 9th birthday.  The morning of her birthday she had soccer try-outs and then the celebration kicked off with a bowling birthday party that afternoon with her friends.   Then on Sunday, Matt, Ella Catherine, my dad (AKA Pop) and I went to watch the USA women's  soccer team take on France.  It was a beautiful day and luckily our seats were not in the sun, it was perfect.  Even better was USA won in a down to the last second goal.  It was such a fun and exciting game to watch.  While we were at the game, Nana was home with Carter and Cassidy.  They had dinner all ready for us and we had a nice birthday celebration dinner with all of ella Catherine's requests.  Hamburgers, macaroni and cheese and green beans.

Her big gift this year was a family trip to go gold and gem mining in Dahlonega, Georgia.  Ella Catherine is our young geologist in the making.  She LOVES rocks and learning about all the different types of gems and stones.  This trip was amazing.  We went to Consolidated Gold mines.  When it was up and running, it was the largest mine East of the Mississippi.  We had a great tour of the mine and then the kids went gold and gem mining.  The kids each went away with a bag of precious stones.  We had intended on spending the night in Dahlonega; however, we finished up at the mine a lot sooner than we anticipated.  So, we decided to head back to Chattanooga to play a little.  We had hoped to get back in town in time to go to the children's museum or the aquarium, but unfortunately they were both about to close as we rolled into Chattanooga.  So, we went to the park where we played and road the carousel instead.  It was Cassidy's first carousel ride.  She was a little fearful at first but when it was over she said she loved it.  We went out to dinner and then we drove back home as sleeping in our own beds sounded nice!  A great two weekends spent celebrating our first born.  She challenges us in so many ways every day but she also teaches us so much every day.  We are very blessed and lucky to be her parents.

Birthday girl with her bowling ball cake pops ready for the party to start

Birthday shirt #9

Nissan Stadiun ready to cheer on the USA womens soccer team

watching the players enter the Stadium

Group Selfie (amy, matt and the birthday girl)

Pop and Ella Catherine

Father and daughter/ Nashville skyline

Loaded in and on our way to our family adventure in Dahlonega, Ga

Ready to get this party started

Waiting on our tour guide for the mine tour

Going down into the mine

The large hole you see was the largest Quartz Vein that they extracted from this mine.  It contained the largest amount of gold ever taken out of the mine in a single day.

Under ground

Pointing out a small quartz vein

Cassidy wasn't so sure initially when we were going down into the mine, but once we were underground she loved it! 

Larger view of the underground tunnels

After the tour we were all set to start mining ourselves

Ella Catherine panning for gold

Still panning

Matt helping Cassidy pan for Gold

Matt Panning

Success!  He found 4 flakes of gold

Matt helping Cassidy pan for gold

Success!  she found 2 flakes of gold

What she was really excited for, gem mining

Carter gem mining 

Cassidy showing off one of her stones

Very important decision.  Which animal to ride.  Cassidy picking out her first carousel ride.

And she chose the Tiger.  Ella Catherine chose the Rabbit

And Carter chose the horse

After the carousel we went and played at the park.  This is part of the water park.  In the summer animals like this elephant each squirt out water.   It was a beautiful park.

Big kids and Matt played some football in the park while Cassidy and I went and looked at the river and other sites at the park.