Long Ago in a Land Far Away...

...God made a little boy with a big passion...a passion for animals! He gave him parents who allowed him to grow spiders in bath tubs, catch snakes in the backyard, and spend his savings on buying a puppy. He grew into a man and gave him opportunities to work cattle, ride horses, and doctor puppies. He guided him through an education in biology to prepare his mind for the journey ahead. There was no doubt that God had crafted the heart of a rescuer into this boy and was going to help him chase that dream his whole life. Even when the boy thought he was better cut out for running after other life passions, God always provided a critter for saving and brought him back to the core of his heart. Forever faithful, God has opened doors and paved roads for him to continue towards the life of a veterinarian.

Yep, you guessed it, the boy is KACEY! and that boy has been officially accepted into the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, TN!!!!!!!!!

It is just starting to sink in that he is actually going to be going back to school this very next fall!God is so faithful!! ALthough our hearts were pounding as Kacey opened the letter, we were confident that all was in God's hands. It just seemed an inevitable next step in Kacey's life...whether it be this year, the next year, or even the year after that! There is just no denying that this is what God created him to do, and that is an amazingly comforting and exciting realization.

Sakora was also super excited! SO excited that she hasn't been able to sleep the past several nights and even tried to eat his letter of acceptance! :) What a supportive little daughter. She has also taken to screaming lately (I was a screamer, apparently, so i guess that too may have been inevitable!). Maybe she's screaming with excited anticipation of the years to come?? Probably just gas.... We started her on rice cereal and it seems to be giving her significant stomach problems, even though she seems to really like it. She always eats the whole serving!

Other progress....she is becoming a much braver reacher. Always very tenative, she used to prefer to just intently study most things. Now, she reaches out for almost everything within reach and loves feeling new things. She was especially enthralled with my hair, which i recently wore down for the first time since her birth! Reading is also more fun as she reaches for the pages and turns then back and forth. Her favorites right now are "Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy" and "Tiny Bear's Bible". Mama and Dada see very close to being on her vocab list....she says da-da-da-da very clearly (still doesn't know what it means but still says it!), although we are working on the mamamama.

THe dogs have also been very entertaining for her. Showing her the dogs is the one thing that will always make her laugh and smile. SHe absolutely loves it when Spanky comes running up to her and she starts squealing when Mightly and Bear run at her....looks like we may have another vet on our hands??

Well, life calls, so I will have to save the garden and yard and house update for the next blog, but here are two pics of our lovely outdoors :)

On a roll!

We have exciting news!! Sakora rolled over finally! About 2 weeks ago, she rolled from her back to her stomach and has been doing it quite frequently ever since. She still has trouble going from stomach to back, but we are working on more tummy time and hopefully she will conquer that feat soon. On top of that, we found out that Kacey got an interview with the University of Tennessee for Vet School! He has the interview March 16th (so send up a prayer if you remember!) and the acceptance letters will be mailed out April 2nd. So hopefully we willl have some more good news next month!

Can't hardly believe it, but next week, Sakora will be 5 months! She is starting to get quite the personality and has been a blast the past couple of weeks. Depsite having some major seperation anxiety (over the past 2 or so months, she has very strongly objected to ANYONE else holding her except Kacey and I and Grandma Betty), she has been extremely generous with her smiles and squeals. Bear, MIghty, and Spanky even get some of her amused glances and giggles. Her happiest moments are when she wakes up in the morning, when her Daddy gets home from work (she gets super excited to see Kacey! it's so cute!), immediately after she fills her belly, when we sing and dance for her, and when she gets tickled :) Her growth has started to slow a bit and she is now only in the 75% percentile for weight (she was 15 lbs exactly at her 4 1/2 month check-up). So, the doctor recommended started her on rice cereal sometime this month. Still haven't had her try any, but we did discover that she loves water! At a resturaunt this past weekend, we let her suck little drops of water off my straw and she seemed to be enthralled with the whole thing. Although when Mom gave her a sip off of her straw, there must have been a tad bit of lemon juice because she scrunched up her face and give a quick head shake. I don't think she was expecting sour.

She has started sleeping on her side 50% of the time, which is adorable...

Sporting her track jacket...:) Thanks Dr. Sherrod!

In other news, we had massive, torential rains last week and our backyard was completely flooded, as was much of Fountain City (our Knoxville community). THe main road a few blocks from our house was flooded and Kacey couldn't get home for several hours. He ended up having to leave the Truck in a parking lot and catch a ride from Keyunta in the Tahoe. People were even having to be rescued from their cars by rescue boats. It was nuts! THankfully the waters receeded as quickly as they came once the rain stopped and the only damages suffered were by the fence in our backyard (and both vehicles...ugh). It's hard to tell in the pictures, but the water was gushing through the yard like a rushing river... it even pushed open our neighbors gate and was strong enough to push huge tree limbs into our fence and uproot it.

Kacey and the dogs survey the damage....

Don't want to rub it in....

...but Tennessee is amazing! The weather this past week and a half have been AWESOME! Sunday it was in the 70's! I can't stress enough how thankful I am to be in a warm climate and experiencing spring already, even though it's still February! Nothing makes you feel quite so good as the first warm, sunny days of spring. In celebration of the warm temperatures, Kacey, Sakora and I have been doing lots outdoors. We have worked on our back 1/2 acre, collecting fallen branches and cutting down weeds/bushes in hopes that we will control the wild growth before it's so thick you can't even walk through to the back gate. Sakora seems to love being outside, even though she does get antsy sitting in one spot... I generally have to pull the stroller with one hand and pick up sticks with the other. We have also enjoyed lots of stroller time, taking trips to the park, the store, and through the backyard. Yesterday on our walk/run we found a tree that was budding!



Sakora's new trick was blowing bubbles, although now she has seemed to lose interest in that and is back to chattering away and has now discovered her bottom lip. She has also been laughing more and smiling a ton! That has been the most fun of all. I LOVE hearing her laugh. It doesn't matter what else has gone wrong in a day, as soon as she laughs or smiles, everything is well with the world. She also makes getting up in the morning something to look forward to because she is always soooo happy and excited to see Kacey and I! Sometimes she wakes up an hour to 1/2 hour before it's time for her to eat and will just talk and squeal in happiness in her crib until we go in to get her around 7:00. We wake up laughing and that is always a great way to start the day. The pictures below are ones I tried to capture of her blowing bubbles...

Kacey has also been very hard at work in the construction room and has already built 2 walls, knocked out 2 windows, installed 1 window, reinforced all ceiling beams, and began preparing the floor in the bathroom area (where you see the rolls of insulation) for tile. The doorway on the left will lead into the master bath and the doorway on the right will lead into the master bedroom. The washer and dryer will stay in that spot in an open laundry room off of the kitchen.

Another thing Kacey accomplished was single-handedly transporting 10 extremely heavy sheets of plywood from downstairs to the upstairs. It was probably the craziest, coolest thing i've ever seen him do! Sakora also loved watching him. She watches him very intently whenever he's working :). Anways, getting hte plywood upstairs was a several step process that involved hoisting one part of the plywood up into the rafters and jumping from the floor up to the ceiling!

Preparing the bathroom/laundry room floor for tile...The huge hole in the side of our house~! This was the window, which used to be a door, so Kacey knocked out the whole thing and is going to rebuild it into a window....confusing, i know :)

No, this is not a barn, this is the back of our house!

And in between working, we took out first family nap this past weekend! Sakora cuddled up inbetween Kacey and I for a little snooze. I couldn't sleep, though, because i kept looking at how precious Kacey and his little girl were :)

Stroller Time! Sakora loves her stroller rides and even likes riding around the house in the little one.

Looks like they may call her carrot-top some day!

Tummy time...trying to get her to roll over! She is soooo close! But still has not made it a full roll. She's taking her sweet time... (that is a 12 month outfit by the way!! of course all baby clothes are made differently and she does still fit into some 6 month outfits, but I couldn't believe how well this one fit!)

Under Construction

I forgot to post these pictures of our future master bedroom/bathroom and laundry room. This is the section of the house that used to be the guest bedroom, office, and laundry room. Like the baby room, everything had to be stripped bear. Unlike the baby room, this room didn't even have a frame! Directly behind the panneling was cinderblock. No wood, no insulation, nothing! After investigating the black marks that were all over the cinderblock, Kacey figured out that there had been a fire in that part of the house at one time. We checked with the neighbors and sure enough, there had been a cooking oil fire. This house has a crazy history...

Anyways, Kacey has been hard at work and hopefully tomorrow he will be building the support walls. The support beam running along the ceiling was previously supported by two 1/2 inch boards....not good. The huge beam was sagging pretty badly so Kacey had to jack up the ceiling after jacking up the floor from underneath the house. You can kind of see the sag in the beam at the bottom of this picture:
So, half of our house looks like a construction zone right now, but it is so exciting to see the progress. I'm just glad Kacey is the one working on the house....it is a bit overwhelming for me! He is so patient and thinks everything through very carefully. If I was in charge of the construction we might be finished by now, but I'm sure there would be sagging beams all over the place.

And of course I couldn't post a blog without putting some pictures of Sakora!

Our chunky monkey snacks on her felt banana.

Turban Time!

Pretty in Pink...

Sakora is so close to rolling over! She is always rolling onto her side from her back now, but never quite makes it the full roll. The other day, she was on her activity mat and when I came back into the room, she looked like this!

I wish those poles wouldn't have been there...she may have gone the whole way!

To move around in her crib, she throws her legs around. Sometimes we wake up at night to her thumping :)