Some of the Many Talents of the Roundy Girls

A few weeks ago, there was a community yard sale down the street.  While Maryn scored a toy horse, Ailee got a sweet "new" guitar.  This girl really knows how to rock out!  I think I love it best when she makes the facial expressions to accompany her guitar playing.

 Our girls love music.  Some of the favorites around here include "Don't Stop Believin'," (listening to it now...oh yeah!) "Jessie's Girl," "Chariots of Fire," "Hey Soul Sister," "Poker Face," and of course, "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun."  We love a good dance session.

Maryn thinks it's a pretty great trick to do a head stand (up against the wall) these days.  Anything for attention, right?  But check out those abs!  I think this girl is .0005% body fat.

Maryn starts swim team this week.  She has been pretty excited about it, and I hope she really gets involved and does well with it.  I'm sure there will be pictures to come.

The Birthday Boy Celebrates Again

We really know how to party around here!  A few weeks ago was Kade's birthday.  I love having a reason to make an ice cream cake!

Getting' ready to par-tay it up!

 Maryn is really big into homemade gifts (just like her Momma...but her gifts are way sweeter).  This was her present to Kade.  Love it!

Opening Baseball cards...it's pretty exciting when you find a really good one!

The Party Goers:

Cora has been into giving me these cheesy smiles lately...

Little Ailee Bug...

Maryn striking a pose...

This is my pretty poor excuse for a Birthday cake.  Seriously, cakes are not my thing.  I'm just happy that it tastes good.

Again with the cheesy smile...enjoying some ice cream cake.

Now That It's Over

I really appreciate what a healthy family I have.  Sure, my kids get sick from time to time, but over all, they are pretty healthy, and I'm glad.  We did have a little scare starting back last Christmas.  On Christmas day, Maryn came to me complaining of pain in her feet, and when I looked at them (after ignoring her several times...bad mom!) each foot had a swollen area on it.  The good Doctor consulted with his Brain Trust (his brothers), and I, worrying that it was some sort of bite by some specie of bug here in San Antonio, took to vacuuming every corner of my house.  Over the next few days, little spots started to show up on the poor girl's legs, and the swelling got worse.  Maryn's pediatrician treated it as an allergic reaction, but when a round of steroids didn't kick it, we were sent to a dermatologist.  At this point it was about two weeks out, and her feet/legs looked like this:

Yikes!  Right?

It's funny because as I took this picture, I remember thinking to myself, Wow, this looks like something I've seen in a Pathology book.  Turns out, I had.  Maryn was diagnosed with HSP (Henoch-Schonlein Purpura), which gave me some comfort just knowing what it was.  However, the next day after the diagnosis, was spent surfing the internet reading horror stories of people whose lives had been turned upside down by this disease.  No good.

Luckily we were under the care of a good, caring physician.  We were very fortunate that all of Maryn's lab work has always come back normal.  I think at the height of the disease progression, those big red splotches covered her poor little swollen legs.  And even her hands and arms had red dots.  Her biggest complaint was the arthritic type pain she had, mostly in her legs and a little in her arms, and that her shoes wouldn't fit over her fat feet.  I always gave her the option to go to school or stay home, and she always chose school.  We must be pretty boring around here.  

Maryn was such a trooper, and I was very proud of her for being so tough and brave.  It lasted for about two months, then just as we thought she was over it, she had a brief recurrence.  We hope that all is healed, and her doctor informed us that we were lucky her skin was so fair, because darker skin tones tend to hold on to a bit of the blotchiness.  (Did I just make that word up?)

Maryn may kill me for putting this picture up on our blog.  I just thought that now that it's all over with, it would be a good way to remember how blessed we are to have a healthy family.

These Legs Were Made For Walkin'

So our kids are slow walkers.  I'm going to go ahead and comfort myself by saying that my kids make up for their lack of physical skills with mental skills.  Cora, is our slowest, yet.  17 months old...that's right, 17.  I have to thank my sister in law, Stacie, for motivating this little one.  Cora seemed to really like Stacie (I mean, seriously, who couldn't!) and she was the first person Cora decided to walk to.

Now, a few weeks later, she's getting around pretty well.

Ok, maybe think Maggie Simpson.

I guess now that's she's "mastered" walking, she's going to move on to improving her dance moves!

Bounding Through the Blue Bonnets

This is our first Spring in Texas...and I am so impressed with how beautiful it has been! Granted, everyone keeps saying this is a really good year for wild flowers because of the rainy, mild winter, but WOW!
Blue Bonnets are the Texas State flower. Since they started popping up in open fields, I've been wanting to get the kids out to take some pictures. One evening, we were actually having dinner at a decent hour, so we decided that we would hop into the car and drive out to a field a friend had recommended to me. After a mad rush to get the girls looking picture worthy, a few fights followed by some tears, we made it out and took lots and lots of pictures. So worth the fight!
This post is mostly going to be pictures. I just had so many pictures that I loved, and I didn't want to cut any of them out of the blog.
Our field of Blue Bonnets was a great place for pictures. We even had a rustic old farm as our background. And what a lovely sunset!

These beautiful flowers are so amazing when they take over vacant fields.Alright, here come lots of pictures of my girls!

I guess, I'll start with the youngest first.

Little Cora

She is a lucky girl to have such good big sisters.

And she can be such a ham.

I love this one:

Next up is Ailee.

Seriously, this may be my favorite picture of all time:

I've never met a more caring, sweet girl, than Ailee.

Love those brown eyes.

How can you look at this picture and not laugh, too?

And, finally, we have Maryn.

She has got to be my most cooperative picture taker. I'm not sure if it's because she likes to take pictures, or if she's just well trained.

Those pretty blue eyes match the Blue Bonnets.

My favorite one of Maryn:

Just some random pictures of the girls together. And not fighting.

I'll keep these next three as proof that Maryn and Ailee do love each other, and can be within 2 feet of each other without yelling.

Three of my favorite girls!

Making silly noises

Those are my girls!