Casida Randomness

Maddie was all smiles when she got to ride a REAL HORSE at our school carnival in May! She has loved horses since she was a baby.






We love the ride Space Mountain at Disneyland, and I thought Trevor was pretty funny in this pic. He was totally playing to the camera!

Hmmmm..who stole my camera??? This was the night that i first discovered that horrid nose smell!

Maybe she's trying to check out the the new hole in her nose here...

Maddie Update #2- The Little Stinker! No,really, P U!

The Friday night before Mother's Day we went to an auction/dinner fundraiser at church that the girls of the ward did to raise money for Girl's Camp. At one point during the evening, Maddie came and sat on my lap. I leaned down to give her a kiss on the cheek when I was suddenly ambushed by the most hideous smell! Maddie's face stunk! The only way to describe the horrid odor is to say it smelled like butt. Sorry, but that's the only way to truly get across the foulness of it! I immediately pulled out baby wipes and started wiping down her face and hands. My first thought was, "where have her hands been?!" I know, disgusting, right?!

OK now cut to Sunday, Mother's Day. We've eaten a fabulous dinner cooked by the men and Cousin Amber, and all of us moms were lounging on the couch waiting to be served our dessert. (Jealous?) Maddie came bouncing in the room, plopped down between my mom amd I, and gave me an eskimo kiss...I nearly lost my dinner! Her face stunk-AGAIN! So gross! So of course I sent her from person to person and told them to smell her face. I don't know why, but not everyone wanted to join in the smelling game. Those that did participate did indeed agree that the girl had definite stench issues! After smelling and discussing, we came to the conclusion that maybe it was Maddie's nose healing. I talked to the Dr. the next day, and his answer when I asked him about the smell was, "That's great news!" Umm really Dr., not so great! He said that was a step in the healing process. It just keeps getting better!

So we went and saw the Dr. yesterday, and he said there is definitely a hole all the way thru in the septum. The smell was dead tissue, and he was kind enough to clean that out, so I might let my daughter come within 3 feet of me now. :) Good news though- she will not need reconstructive surgery! Woohoo! She will just have a perforated septum, no big deal. There's a slight chance she'll need surgery in the future, but that wouldn't be for many, many years down the line. Thank goodness!He'll keep checking on the healing process monthly for a while. So, another chapter in our lives comes to an end!

Carrying on the Family Tradition!

In my family,we are bakers.We love to bake. It's in our blood. It's also in our love handles...;)
This afternoon Nate told me he wanted a cake. I was in the middle of paying bills and creative finances, therefore could not break away to bake a cake. So Nate asked if he could make it. Sure, why not?!
So he roped in Maddie to be his helper, and baked his first cake. He even made his own frosting- completely on his own, just following the recipes. Here is the finished product. Quite delicious I must say! I'm so proud of you Nate! You did an amazing job!
And believe it or not, my kitchen doesn't look any worse for the wear!

A long time family favorite- yellow cake with chocolate frosting. He even frosted it himself!

Maddie Update

Just wanted to let everyone know that Maddie had her follow-up appointment today with the E.N.T. We didn't find out much because there was a lot of scabbing, and he didn't want to disturb the scab or disrupt the healing process. We did learn that there is no infection and that the damage is just in the 1 area. (He was afraid that the battery acid moved and caused damage elsewhere.)So, we go back in 2 weeks to check on the healing progress.



Today when the Dr. walked into the room, Maddie was all smile sand sitting in the chair by herself- complete opposite from last week when she was sitting on my lap, clinging to me,and putting up a fight when he tried to look up her nose. He said to her, "Madison, I couldn't tell last week because you were so upset, but you are a very cute little girl!" to which Maddie replied, "I know." and just smiled at him.



We're working on humility.....

Maddie's Field Trip to the Farm

Maddie's pre-school went on a field trip to the Sonora High School Ag Farm a couple of weeks ago. It was HOT and all of the parents were melting, but the kids had a blast!




Maddie driving the tractor.
Maddie and her friend Jaren.

The pre-school gang and a few siblings.

Spring Break Adventure

We had a pretty low key Spring Break. It was nice to not have any plans and just hang out together. Friday we went on a hike in Eaton Canyon in Pasadena to a waterfall. It was a lot of fun, and a beautiful day. We went with our friends the Breens and the Putnams.

Nate, Trev, and Maddie
Maddie, Nate, Emily, Trevor, Christopher, Luke, and Joel
Trevor, Luke, and Maddie. Luke was giving Maddie a ride on the log.
Emily, Liza, Deanna, and Maddie
Trevor
Nate was a huge help, taking our hands and helping us across the million creek crossings. He's helping Maddie here.
We had the kids go ahead and scope out the best way across the creek each time.

Easter

My cute kids in their Easter duds! I was busy, so Todd took the pics. Not the poses and backgrounds I would've picked, but we got the job done!