Christmas Traditions

Today we decorated some Christmas cookies. Merilee and I rolled out the dough and baked our "dairy and egg free" sugar cookies. Then today, we made the "Cara friendly" icing and finished them off. Merilee was there helping me from start to finish! She gets so excited when I let her help me bake. Cara was napping and woke up for the tail end of decorating so I put some frosting in her mouth and she would throw a fit until I gave her more. She is so limited on the "treats" she CAN have, so I gave her plenty of frosting. She is so funny because when she sees one of us eating she will come up and open her mouth, saying AWWW!! Many times she gets told, "No Cara you can't eat this". "How about something else, like raisins?"

Sunday we are having our official birthday party for Jesus;) We are making a red velvet birthday cake and watching "The Nativity" put out by our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). Merilee totally knows that we have Christmas to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Her favorite part of Christmas is the star of Bethlehem. She has to mention it every chance she gets! Maybe she will be into astronomy?

I've tried to fit in as may Christmasy activities I could this year, but we haven't enjoyed much time with friends....yet. The best part of Christmas is being with family and friends. We will get to see some family, but I've still felt kinda secluded and lonely at times lately. Maybe that is because we haven't gone shopping crazy everyday. In fact we spent 10 minutes at Walmart today to pick up some toiletries. Other than that, I have not gone anywhere besides the gym 4 times and mutual on Wednesday. That has been the case the last few weeks actually. Well, this post has become lengthy, so here are some pictures of our cookie decorating.

Was I really bad this year?

So, there have been a few unplanned semi-crisis that have happened these last few weeks that makes me wonder if "Santa" is saving that coal and giving me trials. First, we had to replace the breaks on the van. This could have been a lot worse. Justin knew a guy at work who has connections to a mechanic shop in Shamrock and they were able to get the van in the air and replace the breaks with no charge for labor. Second, it has been too cold these last couple days for Justin to be able to work his part-time job, thus we are out of some finances. And then today, the washing machine didn't drain and I didn't realize until too late. I had washed all the sheets and quilts since I had been sick and ran about 4 loads through. I stepped into the laundry room and it was a wading pool. I squished the water out from under our kitchen floor as much as I could but it is probably ruined. It is laminate and the padding underneath is soaked and I can't get to it to get the water out unless I rip the floor out. So, along with all the other things on our list to spend with tax return money may be another new floor. We put in the floor when we moved here 3 years ago, hoping to move in a couple years and have some nice updates done to the house. But, it looks like we will be here at least another couple years and have to redo some. I just don't know what to do to fix it. Justin probably won't be able to do anything about it for a few days. And I still have laundry..... Well, there is my rant. I know it could be worse and that these things are just inconveniences, but I wanted the holidays to be trouble-free. Maybe there is hope for the new year.

Pictures

This was our Thanksgiving at Justin's sister, Carrie's, house. Merilee and her cousin, Coyt, are both getting ready to blow out their birthday candles. Coyt's birthday was Merilee's due date, the 17th. Striking family resemblance, huh!

This is a picture of Merilee's first piece of "art". She drew this cat and was so proud of it. Merilee said the cat's tail was inside it's body and that is why she didn't draw it. It is amazing how far her drawing has come in a few short months.

Cara and Merilee after playing with the Christmas toys at Walmart. It wasn't very busy in the store so we took over the aisle and had fun dancing to all the musical stuffed toys.

Visiting with Santa at Justin's work party. Merilee has always loved Santa...Cara, not so much!

Cara and Merilee playing at the play center at the Promenade in Tulsa. We went to visit Justin's sister and her family. Their twin boys are one day older than Cara. It was pretty crazy at the mall on a Saturday afternoon!!

Leighanne and Cara at the play center.

Another picture of Merilee and Santa. This was Walmart's Santa and they printed a free 5x7 from the photo center! However, they only print one so we chose to have a screaming Cara in the picture too (for the memory, ha!)


We also went and visited some good friend of ours who recently had a baby girl (six weeks ago). Merilee tried to help too much but did really well holding Kaylena. I just have to say (because she will probably read this) that this family is a keeper! Calista and I have shared a lot growing up and we are still good friends. Now we can share in the trials and joys of motherhood!! We love you guys. P.S. Kaylena is beautiful...I can't remember if I told you that the other day.

Well that catches everyone up on our activities the last week or so....until next time!!

Parties!!

Tonight is Justin's work Christmas party. They usually have catered food and tons of people. We did not go last year because he was working the evening shift. I am just glad because I will not have to cook. This morning we took Merilee to her art class and then was planning to go to Walmart to visit Santa, but Justin had the day wrong and Santa does not visit until tomorrow. Instead we played with all the Christmas toys and I got some fun pictures of the girls. I will have to post them later. I just finished being really productive around the house and thought I would post a quick update on our day so far. I have lots of ideas of picture posts so stay tuned!

Christmas gifts

What the heck does someone get for a 15 month old girl? I have no idea what to get Cara for Christmas. Everything I see in the paper or at the store would be 'perfect' for Merilee. Cara has just played with all of Merilee's things up to this point. Anything I do think of, Merilee would probably claim it, so it doesn't really seem like a gift just for Cara. I don't want random/miscellaneous toys laying around taking up space. I want them to really get some good playing out of the toys. I also need it to stay around $10. Any ideas? What are you getting your kids for Christmas? I am running out of time!

Grateful

We had a wonderful thanksgiving with both sides of our family. I am not sure how much longer we will be able to do both families for holidays...it gets really complicated and hectic. We don't visit as often as we used to, so it was nice to have lots of family around. Which brings me to the purpose of my post...things I am grateful for.

• 
  the holiday season when we can visit family and friends



• music--it makes the world sound beautiful



• food--so that we can experience all the senses at once!



• a husband who provides for our family, no matter what



• two beautiful girls for me to love and learn from



• a cozy house that is OURS



• staying home and manning the fort



• my beliefs and the happiness I feel because of the truths I know

Living within our means.

Justin is on a scout camp out tonight and I am letting Merilee stay up late to watch "The Little Mermaid: Part II". So, I have some time on my hands to write some things that have been on my mind. I can't take pictures of what is in my mind, so you'll just have to enjoy the read.

I took Cara to Physical Therapy yesterday to see if they could help her start walking. She actually started to take a few steps here and there, but nothing to get too excited about...until Tuesday night. We left the girls at the sitter and when I went to pick them up, Cara was a walking maniac!! She was walking across the room, back and forth. And then on Wednesday at church, she did the same thing. Why can't I get her to walk at home? Anyway, I will probably not be taking her back for a follow-up at the Physical Therapist. She still falls a lot and is real wobbly, but I think she will continue to improve. I wish I had never been told that she might have club foot as a baby. It put ideas in my head and undue concerns. I have probably been overly paranoid, but when I saw other babies 9 or 10 months old walking, I started to think Cara was behind.

Another thing on my mind is how to get Merilee started on some home preparation for schooling. I want her to be able to write her name and know her address, phone number, etc. before she starts school. I am also very lazy in this area and need easy ways to implement teaching tools. She is still having problems with her ears! I think I wrote about this in my last post.

I have been doing a lot of reading about stay-at-home moms who write about how they live frugally. As a necessity, we have been having to take this more seriously, and it is not easy. I have learned so much from these moms who "work" to save money at home so they don't have to "work" outside the home. I never hear about moms locally who are true "scrimpers". I don't know if ladies don't say much because they are embarrassed or if they just assume that everyone knows their "tricks", but I am all ears. I have learned so much from "mom-blogs"! We have committed to some of their ideas, such as not spending more than $40/week (for daily living expenses). It is not easy. I have taken a calculator to the store and write down the price next to everything on my list and I can't go over $40. It adds up fast!! So, since I have picked up some tips, here are some others that we do now:

• Wash out ziploc bags and reuse them.
• Make food from scratch (it's healthier too).
• ONLY SHOP ONCE A WEEK (learn to be creative when you run out of something). The less I am at the store, the less trendy items, decor, new foods, clearance items, and other things that "call my name" have to tempt me to buy them.
• Move current decorations around so that it feels like "new".
• For free entertainment, rent Redbox movies on Monday with their promo code.
• Look for coupons, why pay full price!! I even sent an email to "Tofutti" and asked for coupons for Cara's milk free food products and they said they would mail me some!!
• I have been requesting free samples from links on the blogs I read. I got the first one in the mail yesterday. I was so excited. It was a Walmart sample of Orville Redenbauckers 100 calorie smart cakes and an individual bag of popcorn, including a packet of $6 worth of coupons. I now eagerly check the mail for samples instead of bills.
• Of course, I buy used clothes for the girls 95% of the time. I believe in consignment, thrift stores, and garage sales!!
• The last thing I can think of right now is to keep the thermostat at 68 degrees (bundle up!).

What are your "tricks"?

Sorry this got kinda long and boring, but now maybe I can go to bed and not have to have this all running through my head. I do want to say how grateful for my family and friends. And above all, I have been richly blessed by my Savior for everything that I have and things that bring me true happiness.

Happy Birthday Merilee!

We celebrated Merilee's 4th birthday this last week. She turned four on the 14th and guess how we spent the day...at her well child check-up!! Boy did she love that;) When we went in for her 3 year check, she was so excited to get shots. Well, she remembered them this time and was pretty scared. Cara was crying in one arm and I held Merilee down with the other (fun times). Thankfully, they split up the amount and she only got three. Interestingly her stats are:

33 pounds 25-50th percentile

42 inches tall 90th percentile

BMI (body mass index) 13% (severely underweight category)

Her other issues include.......her ears and her hearing. We had a second set of tubes put in her ears in June and they were supposed to last for 2-3 years. That would hopefully be long enough for her to grow out of ear infections. Well guess what...the tubes have fallen out already and she is on her second ear infection in her left ear. She has hearing loss and has been referred to the Hearing Clinic for testing and to see what to do next. The poor girl constantly says, "what", "can you turn it up", "I can't hear you", or says nothing at all because she didn't hear/understand you.

Despite her tiny setback, she is healthy, beautiful, sweet, and smart. She has such a fun personality and a nurturing spirit. She loves dress-up, baby dolls, pretend cooking, stickers/crafts, books, and Cara. She says the funniest things. She was pulling out the paper from a Hershey's kiss and said it was a note that said, "dear chocolate, you may go in my mouth". She says, "Mommy you're right, good thinking!" "Yeah, I know it is. Isn't it wonderful!" She is very dramatic and loves to dance and act out scenes in movies. She is the best big sister and the older she gets, the more she helps me with my "responsibilities" around the house and with Cara. I am so glad I had her first because she is such a blessing to me and our family. Happy Birthday, Merilee!!

Showing her brownie in a cup with candles.

After pinning the tail on pony.

A Strawberry Shortcake puzzle.

Pants made by Grandma because Merilee is tall and skinny...and she needed pants.

Giving "thank you" hugs to cousin, Maren.

Riding her pony that she got for her birthday.

Coupon giveaway!

There is a great coupon giveaway over at www.frugallivingonline.blogspot.com
Head over there fast because it ends tomorrow!!

An Evening at the Lake

We decided that we would take dinner and cook it outdoors at a nearby lake/park. We had steak, french fries, and corn. Cara had steak, grilled cheese sandwich (tofutti cheese and earth balance butter on homemade bread) and wafer cookies. I set up the tent for the girls to play in and since Cara doesn't walk yet, it kept her out of the stickers. Justin did all the cooking and clean-up (except, I took down the tent). It was fun but got dark REALLY fast. We ended up shining the car lights on the table so we could see our food. It was fun and we will do it again, cause it is a free night out!!

As a side note...did you know that Redbox has free movie rentals on Monday night (with a promo code)? We just found this out and rented "Nancy Drew" for FHE yesterday. Can't beat a free movie. Let me know if you need to know how this is done, or maybe we are really behind in receiving this entertainment secret.

Merilee, Me and Cara hanging out in the tent while Daddy cooked for us.

Daddy doing his outdoor thing.

Playing in the tent.

Our outdoor dinner.

Halloween Pictures

Cara was a baby chick.
Merilee was a princess. She kept changing her mind about being Cinderella or a fairy princess, so we ended up with this...and yes I made the costume!!!

She was very upset because the sun was in her eyes, but I made her stand this way otherwise there was shadow on her face. I just could not win.

Merilee by 'Sammy' the witch. Merilee got to name her.

It's been awhile

There has been a lot going on at the Luckinbill house the last week or so. I have been sewing and racking my creative mind while making Merilee's Halloween costume. It turned out really cute (will post pics later). I have also been on the computer non-stop doing research and searching recipes for non-dairy and egg-free foods. I do not feel as hopeless as I did a few weeks ago. There are many snacks out there in the regular grocery stores that Cara can eat, however many are brand names and more expensive. I did go to a natural foods store close by and found dairy-free cheese, sour cream, butter, and yogurt. So far, Cara loves them all. I have made her her own loaf of bread and her new favorite food is a ham and tofutti cheese sandwich on homemade bread. I also tried a wonderful new recipe(new to me at least). It is super easy:

1 box cake mix (any kind you want, I did devils food) There are several kinds with no milk!!
1 can pumpkin
The cookies or muffins take on the flavor of the cake mix. I couldn't taste pumpkin at all!
Mix ONLY the two together and bake 350 degrees for 10 minutes (for cookies)
It also makes muffins or breads or whatever you want. And it is HEALTHY!! Yum.

I have also experimented with using applesauce as a substitute for egg...I can't really tell a difference. Anyway...I have been a baking nut and Internet junky the last few weeks.

In other news, Justin got a promotion at work. He is now a lieutenant and his title is Assistant Shift Supervisor. Sounds exciting? However, if anyone has any part-time jobs on the side to recommend, we are more than willing to take suggestions.

Do any of you frequently use coupons? Or look for samples on the Internet?

Well, I am sorry I have no pictures, but I will have some fun Halloween ones soon!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

What do I blog about?

Click to enlarge....by wordle.net

Dairy Free

So with the confirmed results of Cara's allergy (RAST) test, it is officially no milk for her. I didn't really think it would be that inconvenient...boy was I WRONG. There is milk in practically all the food I traditionally make or buy. I have done some research for new receipes and safe snacks, but it seems that the kids just eat the same things over and over again. Cara is a fan of food. She likes variety and a lot of it! We are also trying to be very economical and don't want to just go out and buy milk free: cheese, yogurt, ice-cream, butter, etc. It can be very expensive. Instead, I tried to only give her small amounts of food that contained milk. This was a mistake!! The more "little bits" she is given, the faster and harsher her reaction. She gets painful gas and a horrible diaper rash now, even with the littlest bit of milk product. So, now I have to get serious and be really careful. But, I am running out of ideas to feed her. I don't want to make two seperate meals every time I cook. So, if any of you have receipes that don't include milk products or have ideas for milk substitutes, please let me know.

Also, what are your feelings about "Soy". I went to the whole foods store here and told the owner that I was looking for soy and cooking with soy instead of milk and she went off on a rant about how unhealthy soy was. She said it contained estrogen and made girls mature faster and boys look like girls. She also said soy will destroy the thyroid. She said she would never put something so harmful into her body! What are your feelings on this?

Free Handbags

I am doing this to try to win a free handbag. Here is their link so you can try too!

www.handbagplanet.com

Luckinbill Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Luckinbill Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Pedigree - Family genealogy

Happy Birthday to Me!

Along with my busy weekend, I managed to have a birthday. We went to the OKC Zoo with my mom, sister and niece. We went kinda late because I insisted the kids get a nap. It was perfect weather and there were very few people there. The animals were out because is was cool and dinnertime.

My garage sales and consignment sales were too much of a success. There was way too much cute stuff to choose from. Let's just say that Cara might not wear anything twice! I bought things too big for Merilee, thinking she had grown more than she actually did. I have plenty of shirts and dresses but no pants. Anyone out there have size 5 pants (for girls)?

Merilee's primary activity was fun, but I missed the whole thing. There were no prizes for the best car, but we had fun making it anyway. They had to vacuum up tons of glitter from Merilee's car.

I am really loving my calling at church. I am the Young Women's President. I went from having 1 girl to 7 active girls. They are so fun and into hobbies that I enjoyed in high school. I am always needing activity ideas, so send them my way.

What else, I guess I should mention Cara too. She is getting really good at playing Peek-a-boo and will hide her eyes and then say "boo". Sometimes she slaps her face as she is saying "boo". She got hit on the head yesterday while at the neighbor's house and now has a bruise on her head! She is also finally happy to interact with other people even when I am in the room. Usually she would prefer me to anyone else, unless she couldn't see me. But, now she crawls to other people to play. She's growing up!

I only took a few pics of the weekend and tons of the Zoo and Express Ranch enjoy!

I forgot to mention that we went to Express Ranch in Yukon while we were visiting my family. We then scooted over to Yukon park and Merilee chased the ducks. I didn't get any pictures of her actually playing but they have some neat toys. Later that night, Justin and I went to the temple and then drove back home with some sleepy girls.

Big Weekend Ahead!

So, nothing exciting has really happened in the last couple weeks. Here is a quick list to catch everyone up.

1. Cara's one year check-up. 25th percentile in every category. 19 lbs. 15.2 oz., 283/4 in. long.
The Dr. ordered a food allergy test because of Cara's strange allergic reaction to milk products. The lab techs were not thrilled about having to draw as much blood as they had to. Her little arms were bruised from all of the tests from her poisoning and it made it difficult to find a strong vein. My poor baby had a finger prick, four shots, and a lot of blood drawn that afternoon.

2. Merilee is acting like she is everyone's mommy. At first it was cute and now it is out of hand. She will say, "I'm not Merilee, I'm mommy!" She will give us spanks for back talking and is a BIG-TIME BOSS! She also prefers to use the real baby things (diapers, wipes, clothes, blankets, etc.) when taking care of her dolls which is very inconvenient.

3. Justin and I have been playing tennis instead of walking and it has been a nice change. It is such a workout! He wins 99% of the time, but the score is always very close. I am super competitive and I must admit, I'm not the best winner or loser.

4. We saw a mouse run into our bedroom closet and I slowly emptied things out while Justin waited ready to attack. He then beat it to death with a shoe! It is so gross to have house pests because I feel I am a clean person, but being in the country, we cannot avoid them. That was our first one in a long time, since we put the poison out (that Cara ate).

5. I never noticed how long Merilee's attention span was as a wee one until observing Cara's. I'm not saying one is better than the other, just different. Cara has ADD cuddling. She will be in bed with Justin and I, and she just throws herself around until she finds a cuddle spot. Then 2 seconds later she is up and finds another one. This goes on, and on, and on, and on, well you get the picture. Merilee will just lay there forever. She watches lengthy movies and will sit still through numberless books.

Okay, now on for our weekend:

1. My sister is coming up from Edmond and we are going to the Adorable Affordables consignment sale at the Expo center. I do this every other season and fill my kid's wardrobes for CHEAP. And they are really nice, modern, minimally worn items, from maternity to big kids. The half price time is Sat. from 8-12.

2. Merilee has a primary activity and had to decorate a box to look like a car. It was so messy to help her with this project. We modge-podged tissue paper to the outside and used glitter on the wheels. If I remember to take a picture, I will post later.

3. Then, we have a baptism for a lady soon to be in our ward.

4. Later that night, we have dinner and the evening planned with some good friends (Mark, Jamie, and Noah)!

5. AND it is Cushing's garage sale weekend!!

Did I mention this all happens on Saturday. I am super excited for some good deals and catching up with friends. I will post pics of my goodies later!!

It's Official

Cara's results are in and they were 1.009....so we are done with the E.R. trips!!! Now if she would stop smacking her mouth on things and busting her lips...I would have a normal, healthy baby girl. Hopefully my next post will be about something fun!

Cara's follow-up visit

The trip to the E.R. today was so LONG. There were several ambulance emergencies that arrived while we were waiting, so we were pushed to the back burner. Finally, they got her paperwork to have bloodwork done. Then, we waited forever to consult with the doctor about the results. The results were: Monday's level .914, Wednesday's level 1.026

It was up just enough to have us go back on Monday for more bloodwork. He thinks that some poison got into her system, but not enough to really worry about. The next visit is to make sure that she is positively cleared of the poison.

Emergency Room Visit

We were watching TV and Merilee had just woken up from her nap. I was cuddling her on the couch and noticed that Cara was not in the room. I called her name and then asked Merilee if she knew where Cara was. We checked the kitchen and when Cara was not in Merilee's room, I thought, "Oh no, she's in the bathroom!" Sure enough I ran to the farthest point in our house, which Cara can get to in about 30 seconds. I found her in my bathroom eating rat poison. I swabbed her mouth and got about 5 bits out and emptied her handfull while calling to Justin to call poison control. They told us to go the the E.R. and they would call ahead for us. At the E.R. they took her vitals and then gave her 2 doses of charcoal to help absorb the poison. They drew blood and eventually gave her the remaining 3 doses of charcoal. Cara acted fine the whole time. She acted like the charcoal was her dinner and fussed for more. The nurses and doctor were amazed that she ate it so well. The nurse came and put a "pee bag" on her to collect a urine sample to make sure there was no blood in her urine. Then we were discharged and came home.

Since then, Cara has spit up quite a bit of "inky" stuff and had a thick, black poop, like meconium. The spit up was super hard to get off the furniture and has stained her clothes. I was prepared with the clothes, but forgot that it would get on the floor and...everything else. Justin was wise and suggested that we "de-cutesify" her bed, just in case the spit up and poop get everywhere while she sleeps.

I had Justin take the "pee bag" back to the hospital in the pouring rain. It only had a couple drops but I didn't want her to have to wear it all night (very uncomfortable). Since the specimen was probably not sufficient I put on another bag that we brought home after Cara took her bath. We had a lot of "oil" to wash out of her hair (if you know what I mean). I guess I put the bag on better and was able to collect quite a bit more that I am saving in the fridge until tomorrow when I will run it up to the hospital. We have to go in on Wednesday for another blood test and if all is normal then she will be free to go, but if her levels have gone up then she will have to be seen every 2 days for the next month. He PT count (no idea what that is) is .946 and as long as it is under 1 it is okay, but if it goes up, then an unsafe amount of poison is in her system. In the mean time, I have to watch for bleeding and bruising.

That is as much as I know right now. I will keep things updated. In her blessing that Justin gave her, he felt she would be fine. I am optimistic as well and have a feeling she will check out just fine on Wednesday!!

Happy Birthday Cara!

Cara turned one yesterday! We already had two birthday parties with each side of the family, so we just took it easy yesterday. Cara Liza Luckinbill was born on September 4, 2007 at 6:23 pm.

She weighed 7 lbs. 12 oz. and was 20 3/4 inches long.

Disclaimer: If you do not like birth stories, STOP reading now!

I was very anxious to have her and have Justin there for the birth so we induced early that morning. Once the induction medicine was placed, I had a very long, very hard contraction that really scared the doctor and nurses. They rushed in and broke my water to put several monitors on Cara and to better judge the strength of the contractions. That one contraction dilated me to a 3 and Cara did not like it one bit. From then on out, the contractions were really strong and LONG, longer than was safe. Cara was not recovering from them very quickly and after 12 hours of labor and pushing, the doctor advised me to have a C-section. Cara was still very high and not handling the labor well, so my choices were to stop pushing and have a C-section...or keep pushing and have an emergency C-section. I felt I had no choice and was very emotional, but wanted Cara born healthy. So I went in for the C-section and it took 8 attempts for my spinal block to take affect (which gave me icky side effects later!). The medicine did what they call a "splash" where it doesn't completely numb you where it should, but "splashes" into other areas of the body. In my case, I went numb up to my forehead and it made it difficult to breath, I couldn't swallow, and because the meds did not get localized, I had some feeling during the surgery. Of course, I had to throw up and choke because I could not swallow or breathe. Needless to say, the experience was very scary and painful. I was not conscious enough to greet my new baby and while I was in recovery, the pain medicine I was supposed to have been given was not charted, so I came out of surgery with all the awareness of the PAIN! The nurses would not give me anything, so in the morning when my Dr. came to check on me, they thought I had developed a uterine infection because I should not have been in that much pain. The Dr. was pretty upset that no one had called her about it and had me attached to a morphine pump for the next couple days. Justin's mom was so worried about me that she feared for my life. Now I will not go as far as to say that I felt like I was going to die at any point, but I was more miserable than I have ever been. Long story short (too late), Cara was born healthy (she had abrasions or "rug burns" on her head from rubbing on my pelvis and the cord was wrapped around her shoulders, keeping her from descending) and after a long 8 month recovery for me, we are back to normal and loving every minute of life.

Birth story is over, it is safe to read from here out!

Cara is such a loving and cuddly baby. She has been very attached to her mommy from day one. She is pulling up and cruising. She loves to play with Merilee, but likes her own space. They entertain each other, and I can only hope that they grow up to be best friends. I am so thankful that Heavenly Father knew to send us our two girls and give us more blessings than we could have dreamed of. We love you Cara!!

Cara looks like a turtle. That is why Daddy gave her the nickname "Toogie".

Cara on her blessing day.

Cara with her first baby doll.

Modeling her "World's Greatest Sister" shirt that Merilee gave her.

Cara eating her "turtle" birthday cake.