Here you have it...August!

Hey! We have still been busy around here. Alyssa ran a 5K race with Damien a few weeks ago. She ran the whole way and did not come near to last! In fact, Damien said that she decided to sprint the last block and was going so fast that he was secretly hoping that she would slow down so that he could keep up and not get beat by a 10 year old! Here she is crossing the finish line. Alyssa has also started to do some cheerleading which she really likes.
We also were able to have my sister Lisa and baby Gracie come visit us for a few days. Gracie is growing up so fast. So fast in fact she is catching up with Leanna! We were able to do our usual outings like the zoo and Sea World.
Leanna is only 22 pounds. She is still not eating like she used to. I tried giving her the chocolate pediasure yesterday which she promptly told me in her exact words "chocolate milk is disgusting and I do NOT like it." She is the most verbal 2 year old I have ever had. And everything lately had been "No Way Mommy" or "I DO IT". She knows most of her colors and counts "1,2,3,5,6,7,8,9,10" and honestly I don't try and teach her a thing! She also is using the potty at home with only a handful of accidents. I have yet to be brave enough to take her out in public though without a diaper. But that is my next step! In bad news...the insurance company is not paying our medical bills! They are saying we are responsible for around 11k of them! The bills for the doctor that performed the two surgeries were for about 10k and they are only agreeing to pay only 15% of that! We have a max amount we should have to pay (3400) but they say that the max does not apply to expenses that go above the "allowable"!! Then we have the hospital bills and radiology bills on top of that! They claim that since he was an "out of network" doctor, he does not have to charge a contracted rate even though there was NO in network oral surgeons for us to see. So…so much for having medical insurance!
Anyways, Emily is still just as happy as ever. Here she is catching butterflies (we have had an explosion of them) in our front yard. She is excited to start kindergarten NEXT WEEK! (I am not and I am sure Leanna is going to miss her during the day). I am afraid she might be burnt out before school starts because she wants to do nothing but the workbooks I bought her. I took her out for just a day with Mommy the other day, which she said was the "best day of her life!" We spent the morning at Chuckie Cheese playing games and won over 300 tickets that she was able to get the make-up kit she has wanted for the last year but never had near enough tickets for. Then we had lunch (she picked Chick-fil-A) and went to buy some new school clothes. Well we never went shopping for her with just the two of us and she just kept going around the store saying what her “style” was and trying everything on. It was very cute. Well I will tell you all how back to school goes next week!