Hello again

Hello all our fans! It sure has been hard to find time to update this thing since going back to work! Sheesh! I miss blogging on a regular basis! :) Well, here's our update! I am now 12 weeks along in my pregnancy and am starting to feel better now that I'm at the end of my first trimester! Whew! 12 weeks already! I'm definetely wearing maternity clothes! At work, my students enjoy keeping track of baby Sappington's growth. Every couple of weeks, we measure out how much growth it has made. Everyday, several of them ask me how Baby Sapp is doing. It's very cute! :) We should find out around February whether Jadyn's getting a brother or a sister!

Speaking of Jadyn, she is such the cutie! Her newest achievement is saying, "Yuck--kee!" Haha! Jay taught her that! She says it for everything! We've learned that she is allergic to dairy....at least to milk. For the past 6 weeks, we've been trying to figure out what's going on with her. It started when she woke up on a Sunday six weeks ago today, covered head to toe in a rash. Her skin color was also turning an orangish yellow. After several weeks and a few different treatment approaches, we took her to another doc who had us take her off all dairy and carrots. In a matter of 2 weeks, her skin is completely cleared up except for a few patches of excema and her skin tone is not so yellowish-orange. We take her in tomorrow for bloodwork (per our request). We want to make sure there's nothing else going on internally, as she's still a bit yellow. We are also going to schedule her for allergy-testing to find out specifically what she's allergic too. In spite of it all, she still remains her happy, bright-eyed self! What a blessing she is! We love our Pigtail Pie!!!

On an annoying note...maybe someone out there has advice. Our cat, Gretta, is 3.5 years old. About 2 years ago, we got another cat, and Gretta began acting out by peeing on our futon. We thought it was Squared, our other cat. The peeing increased when Jadyn was born and has gone downhill since then. She pees on the carpet (futon's been gone since shortly after we got Squared). We figured out that it was Gretta when we caught her in the act!! All this time, we'd been blaming Squared. We have tried EVERYTHING we can think of! We changed the type of litter, we added another litter box, we've cleaned the litterboxes daily, we've tried different chemicals to clean the spots she's marked as well as to keep her from going back to there, we tried foil, we've moved her food to those spots, and so on. Our latest endeavor was buying the litter robot (very cool invention, by the way). It will eventually pay for itself by saving in cost of litter. It is on a timer and self-cleans every time it's used, so the litter stays fresh. We are going to have to replace the carpet, no doubt. Our house STINKS!!! It's horrible! Gretta won't use the new litterbox and now defecates on the floor. Every day, Jay's having to clean up poop and treat that area, in hopes she won't do it again. Gretta's a part of the family, and we are not wanting to get rid of her. Jay jokes that we need to get the cat whisperer here! :) We are going to start looking into bids on stained concrete to replace the carpet. It has to go. Our house smells bad, and defiled! Gross! Sooo, any other advice!!???

We are looking forward to Christmas break! After Christmas break, we're going to Phoenix to visit family! I can't wait to see all our family, especially my grandparents and Aunt Carol and Uncle Jim!! :) My aunt Dorothy's turning the big 5-0 while we are out there too! whoo hoo!

Well, there's more to write, no doubt, but presents need wrapping and Christmas cards need addressed! :) I hope to update a LOT more on my Christmas break!

Love you guys!