All we want for Christmas is...

All the Kindler kiddos want for Christmas this year is: a rocking chair (for Em), a new tooth (for Daws) and Star Wars legos for Masen (of course!).

Can't believe it's that time of year again. You know, the time of year when we get to celebrate two Kindler birthdays and Christmas. Dawson will turn 5 on Sunday. Wow! I knew he was getting bigger, but can't believe that five years have gone by so fast. He was excited to lose his first tooth last night. Unfortunately, the tooth fary didn't make it last night. BUT, he didn't mind since the tooth just broke in half this morning...and now he thinks she will pay double for it. He's been wiggling another lose one all day today too. We're looking forward to a fun swim party on Saturday with all of his cousins to celebrate!

Masen will be having his big 8th birthday in January. Sounds like we will be having a Zonkers party for him. He's been having a blast in 2nd grade. Especially during recess and PE. He continues to amaze us with his reading and math skills! So, so smart - sometimes too smart :).

Little Miss Em is cruising all over the place! She was discharged from physical therapy and is so close to walking. Her hip continues to improve, although her dysplasia is still present. She continues to wear a brace at night and we are praying that the socket comes down a little bit more, in order to prevent a future surgery. She doesn't let it stop her though. She's climbing and crawling on everything (she loved climbing in the rocking chair at Grandma and Papa's house over Thanksgiving). Unfortunately, she has been battling respiratory and ear infections for the past few months. We are going to an ENT next week, and it sounds like she may have to get tubes. She's on her fourth antibiotic and we are praying that her ear drum doesn't rupture (one of them is very close!). She's talking up a storm and loves to have tea parties with mommy.

We are looking forward to this holiday season. I am especially looking forward to my hubby being home for two weeks. Yipee! May you all have a Blessed Christmas and enjoy your time with your loved ones. We have so much to be thankful for this year!

Emerson LOVED this rocking chair at Grandma and Papa's house!

Our three angels!

Dawson's "new" smile!

**~~The Ladybug Turns 1 ~~**

I can't believe my baby is 1!! Where has this year gone?!? We had a great celebration for Em's 1st birthday(which was actually almost a month ago....a little behind on posts these days). We had about 40 people over to help us celebrate and had lots of birthday fun - complete with swimming, slip-n-sliding, squirt gun fights, pinata fun, and of course, CAKE!
Em LOVED her cake (she almost ate her own entire cake!). I worked hard the day before making a ladybug cake and 4 dozen cupcakes too. We had a blast and we know that we have had a Blessed year! I'm really just hoping that time slows down a little this next year...

Here are some pics of the birthday bash!

Daddy's helping Emerson hit the pinata.

Opening presents - look at those teeth :).

More presents!

As good as a family pic can get anymore -quite humorous, really!

MMMMM CAKE!!

I found it hard to get Em's attention for pics when the cake was in front of her, but finally got one!

Grams (Em's Birthday Buddy) and the ladybug.

Summer Highlights!

Since it's been almost 3 months since I posted something, thought it was due time! Where to start...
Well, the summer has definitely flown by for us! Both of the boys had fun playing baseball - Dawson, T-Ball, and Masen, Coach Pitch. It was fun to see them in action, and I have to say that I think we have some ball players on our hands. They both also took swim lessons. They have really improved this year! Masen actually went off the high dive this year and Dawson is jumping off of the side (in the deep end) and swimming back by himself. We have really had a lot of fun swimming this summer.

Emerson is a little fish herself. She LOVES the water! She gets so excited when we're walking up to the water, or even just the bathtub. She could splash for hours. She even likes to dip her face in sometimes.

I'm happy to say that Emerson is helmet and cast FREE!! She is still wearing a hip brace to sleep in, but her hip has really improved and is doing great. She isn't quite crawling yet, just rolling, or spinning in circles, to where she wants to go! It's so cute. She recently started kneeling and standing too, which is a HUGE step as she has never put weight on her legs. We're hoping that she'll be "brace free" in a few months. She is so smart!! Did I mention that she knows how to take her brace on and off (it has 3 different velcro-loops to undo), she can say "Daddy, Hiiii," blow kisses, say "TA DA" while raising her arms, and she loooves to play peek-a-boo. So, so smart!

We are so proud of our little angels! They bring us so much joy!

Aside from two vacations, we did 2 major house projects this summer too, OH, and Josh had his appendix removed! Whew! It's been quite the whirlwind, but so much fun.

Here are some pics of our eventful summer. We were blessed to be able to take vacations with both sides of the family this year. We went to Omaha (to the zoo) with Nini and Pops (Rumsey) and to the Ozarks with the Kindler fam.
I promise to get better at posting from here on but for now....
Enjoy your last days of summer!

The fam at the Omaha Zoo. We spent ALL day there and it was so much fun!
Em on the 4th. Our cute little Firecracker!

She still is sooo happy!!

Dawson's first year of T-Ball!

Daws helping Papa Kindler drive the boat at the Ozarks.

Masen and I had fun tubing together this year (his first time!)

Ready to hit a home run!

Look At Me...NO CAST!!!

Emerson is finally CAST FREE!! Yipee! The cast came off early this morning. She will be wearing a brace for 4-5 months, but hopefully after the first 2 months it will only be nightwear. She is starting out wearing it 20 hours/day, but we can take it on and off and there are no restrictions as far as activities and movement go when it is off. We are so happy for her. She has been such a little trooper! Can't believe that 11 weeks actually went pretty fast. She will be moving in no time...in fact, the first time that I put her on her tummy today (with her brace on) she flipped right over. She just zipped over and then looked a little shocked at what she had just done, as was I! It was really cute. We can't wait for her to enjoy the little things out of the cast...real baths, sitting in a highchair to eat instead of lying down, and actually moving! Once again, thank you all for your support and prayers during the past few months. We are so blessed and amazed by God's Grace and Love! Here's a pic of the "free woman" sitting in her highchair for the first time at 9 months old. I'm sure there will be many more pics to come...

Busy Bees...

We have been Busy Bee's here at the Kindler household over the last few months. Can't believe it's been two months since I posted something. Here's what we've been up too....

April was a big month. We enjoyed Easter with the "Blaich/Rumsey" side of the family. The Easter egg hunt was loads of fun and of course, the kids came home with enough candy to last until NEXT Easter. They also had a lot of fun doing Resurrection Eggs for the first time, which of course, makes Josh and I so proud. The boys are really getting into the story of Easter and appreciating the sacrifice that God made for us all. We are so Blessed!!

The month of May was a busy month. We celebrated mine and Josh's birthdays and Mother's Day. I received my 8th Mother's day present - can't believe I've been a mom for 8 years!! Josh took the kids to make an annual ceramic creation for me, another beautiful plate with their hand prints and other decorations. I treasure these gifts! The boys finished their Awana year and both started baseball. Starting this week we have 3 games/week between the two of them. Whew! I can only imagine how busy our lives will be when they are in middle school and high school. I'll post baseball pics soon.

And finally...the biggest event of the month is going to happen on Thursday. Emerson is getting her cast off!!! YAY!!! It has been a long (yet somewhat fast) 11 weeks. She has been such a trooper and we can't wait for her to be a "free girl." She has had her shorter cast for about 5 1/2 weeks and it has been much better than the full cast (this one only goes to above her knees instead of to her ankles). She has figured out how to move around on her belly. It's pretty cute. She just scoots in circles to get where/what she wants. We can't wait to see her move around once the cast is off. We know that she will crawling in no time. And once again, our lives will change as we will no longer be able to place her in one place and know that she will be there - or at least close to there- when we come back. She will still have to wear a brace for 3-4 months, but we will be able to take it on and off and she will have much more freedom in it. She is still so joyful and such a good girl! And her first tooth just sprouted this week :).

Hard to believe that in only 2 more weeks we will have a 2nd grader, pre-K'er and 9 month old. Wish we could just freeze time sometimes...although we are excited to see what God has in store for us! Enjoy the pics.

Masen and Dawson proudly showing off their Awana awards. This was Dawson's first year and Masen's second. Both finished their books - which is a lot verses memorized. We are so proud of you boys!

Emerson at 8 months. Yes, I am still having her pose with bows on her head whenever I can. Hopefully the helmet will be off by the end of summer and she can get back to wearing bows everyday :). She is so beautiful!!

Mother's Day with my 3 angels.

Easter 2010.

Josh's birthday. Proud Dad!

March Madness...

March Madness for the Kindler clan has proven to be full of fun times. It started with a trip to Grandma and PaPa Kindler's farm over spring break. 17 of us in all (including 8 grandkids - ages 8 and under!) stayed under one roof. Fun times had by all! The kids swam in the hot tub at least 3 times/day, played legos and the Wii, and watched "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" - aka "Meatballs and Noodles" according to Taylor, at least 15 times in four days. We stayed up too late, but stayed in our pj's almost the whole time, which was the best. So many fun memories made. We can't wait to do it again this summer when we go to the Lake of the Ozarks.

We also got to celebrate G-G's 90th birthday on March 11th! She is such a blessing to us all. She is still her spunky self at 90. She refused to let us throw her a big birthday bash, so we had a family dinner to celebrate. She made her "annual" speech and was so excited to have received over 100 /pictures from her friends and family for a special memory album. She is such a special lady to so many!!

Well - time to cheer on the Cats for the 2nd half of the big game...still a sore subject to some in our household. Here are a few March Madness pics!


Emerson turned 7 months old today! Can't believe it. She is so happy, despite the many contraptions she is sportin' these days. She is finally adjusting to her new cast (she's had it for 3 weeks now). As the picture states - she is gorgeous!!

Here are the crazy Kindler cousins with Aunt Joy and cousin, Alida. They always are so thoughtful and are buying cool things for the kiddos. They stopped by for a bit while we were at the farm and brought the kids these cool shirts!

I love this pic! Shows you how different the Kindler cousin's personalities are...this is one of many fun dips in the hot tub. I think Papa only had to drain it twice while we were there :). Dawson (4), Aidan (5), Masen (7), Owen (4), and Lauren (8).

Here's the beautiful birthday lady! We love you G-G!!

67 Days to Go!!

Only 67 more days for Emerson to wear her newest contraption - her body cast! We're on Day #3 and things are finally getting better. Emerson's hip surgery was a success! We were so relieved to find out that nothing "surgical" was needed on the day of the procedure. The surgeon was able to manipulate Emerson's ball of her hip right into the socket and it was stable enough to just place it and then cast it in place to stay that way. This was a big relief and blessing. The first night was not fun at all - poor little Em would sleep for 30-45 minutes and then would wake up screaming. Either that, or the nurses would come in to check her vitals just when she feel asleep! Needless to say, we are glad to be home. Last night went much better. She went to bed around 6:30 and was up every two hours until midnight. But after having a bottle she was able to sleep until 7:00 without waking. Of course, that doesn't mean Josh and I got any uninterrupted sleep - we are having to set our alarm to reposition her every 2-3 hours at night so that she doesn't get bed sores. I think we'll get used to it though. It will just be like when she was a newborn. She is currently taking nap #2 today and her mood/comfort level seem much better today. She is back to her joyful, happy self most of the time!

The cast was quite shocking to see at first and she was pretty grumpy coming out of the anesthesia, as expected. We've really have had to get creative as far as where/how to lay her down, how to prop her up to feed her, etc. She doesn't fit in a highchair, stroller, etc. I just had a friend from church bring me the greatest gift to borrow - a carrier that I can hold her in when I need to get things done, or if we want to take a walk to the park, for church, etc. She is super heavy with the cast, so this takes all of the weight off and she loves to face forward so that she can see everything going on around her. This is going to be really helpful to have during the next few months! Thank you Staci!!

On April 12th we will be repeating the same procedure. If the hip still seems stable, then the doctor will put a new cast on - it will only go to the top of her knees this time. We were told that it is "not likely" that she will need the surgical procedure at that time, but there is still a chance. She'll wear the second cast for another 5 weeks and then she will then have to wear a brace for a while (not sure how long), but we will be able to take it on and off.

We are blessed by God's Grace and Care and are also blessed to have so many people praying for Emerson during this time in her life! Thank you all for everything you do and have done for us. We appreciate every one of you! Here are some pics of our hospital stay and some at home. Many more to come in the next few months. We know that we will get the hang of this shortly and the time will be over before we know it. Emerson is such an Angel!!

Here's the ballerina with her new ballerina legs :). So glad to see her so happy today!!


The day after her surgery. She is starting to be her joyful-self again!

Blowin' raspberries again.
First pic of Em with her "new frog legs."