I'm back. I know I mentioned that I would have other posts about random things that I felt and maybe one day those will come but again just have not had the time to write. So here we go with another update on all things Ferrero.
Makenzie unfortunately came down with Pneumonia again! (Remember last post about complications with swine flu?) We were sent straight from the Dr. to the hospital for X-Rays due to her O2 Saturation levels being so low and the Pneumonia being in the same lung and area as just a few months prior. She spent a week and a half out of school but has made a full recovery thanks to some kick butt antibiotics and her nebulizer (sp?) machine that I have at home. She knows now that as soon as she starts a cough it is time for her "Dinosaur Medicine". (Her oxygen mask that gives her albuterol is in the shape of a dinosaur face). She has since been healthy and we are very happy for that. Not sure if I have mentioned this before but Kenzie loves to sing. The only thing is, is that it is not a sweet soft melody....no, when Kenzie sings she sings from her gut and as loud as she can (now a days nothing Kenzie does is quiet). She definitely is developing a love for attention and she really knows how to get everyone's. Her teacher's even ask me if she sings at home because apparently while she is in the bathroom taking care of her business the whole school can hear her singing away. Grandma and Grandpa got the opportunity to hear her in all of her glory while we visited for Christmas a couple weekends ago! She is getting excited about this Santa fellow that is coming although I am not sure that she really gets what is happening or what that means. I do know though that she does not like buying presents for her cousins and then having to wrap them without being able to play with them. The concept of giving is still something that we are working on.
Kylie's first half of the year is over and she is now out of school for 2 whole weeks. We are lucky that we have been able to arrange things to where she does not have to go to daycare either and so she is getting a true Christmas break. (If we had planned better and known in advance we could have hit up Grandma and Grandpa for a couple of days! =) She is still doing absolutely amazing in school (although we did have an issue a few weeks back...a lesson in cheating that we never even imagined would be needed had to be taught the hard way.) We are hoping for straight A's again! She is still an amazing child (although her emotions can get the best of her sometime...God help us for the next 11 years) and she makes us very proud. We have been lucky that she has stayed pretty healthy recently minus one day of a very random stomach virus that hit last week. She is really looking forward to this Christmas and Santa. The amazing thing is that she is starting to understand the true meaning of Christmas and not just the presents, even though they are definitely a very added bonus. Lastly, here is a Kylie/Daddy story for you. While at Grandma and Grandpa's in the mountains Kylie pulled out/lost one of her teeth. We completely forgot to put it under her pillow and the next morning the tooth was gone. We got home the next evening and Rian told Kylie to write a letter to the tooth fairy and put it under her pillow (this is something we did talk about doing)....the only problem was that I completely forgot and Daddy did not tell the "tooth fairy" that she had put the note under her pillow. The next morning we had one very disappointed little girl. Kylie though, being the reasonable child she is decided that maybe the tooth fairy was very busy and she would try again. I guess the tooth fairy felt pretty bad because she ended up getting $5 for that tooth!
Rian's work is picking up for the time being and for the last 2 weeks he has been working 6 days a week (56 hours). It is definitely nice that he is working but we are definitely missing him in the evenings and on Saturdays. We are really looking forward to the next 2 weeks of 4 day weekends with him due to the holidays. This time has definitely proven to me that there is a reason that kids need 2 parents and that I never want to have to do this on my own! He definitely is an amazing daddy! Not sure that I could get up at 5:00 every morning and not get home until almost 7 at night and still be able to function as a husband/father without any complaints! He truly amazes me every day at his dedication to his work and his family (I knew there was a reason I married him! =)
We hope that everyone is enjoying their Holiday Season and that everyone has a very Blessed and Merry Christmas!

"I have always thought of Christmas as a good time; a kind, forgiving, generous, pleasant time; a time when men and women seem to open their hearts freely, and so I say, God bless Christmas!" - Charles Dickens

Where have I been? Good question. How do I start this? Do I say that there has been nothing to write about? That would not be true. Do I say I have been in a funk lately? That would also not be true. Do I say there has been no time? That would not be true as well. So…I guess I will just say that there is no excuse, no excuse other than I have not wanted to write. Not wanted to write because I get bored. I get bored with writing about our everyday lives. Yes, I know that may be why you are here…here to read about our everyday lives, but to me that gets boring. Especially when I get behind and then I sit down and realize that I have so much to catch you up on and it would take so long to let you know every detail that I know you are wanting to know about, so I just don’t write. So…I have come up with some sort of a solution. Not sure if you will like it, but it will definitely help me to get things up here more often and not get so bored with the mundane things that make up our everyday lives! Don’t worry your precious little hearts, you will still hear of all things that are The Ferrero Four, but in between I am going to talk about things, things that I feel strongly about or things that I feel someone might want to hear my opinion about. I already have a laundry list of things from Houses verses homes to love to realizing marriage means waking up every morning to the same person for the rest of your life. Today though…today…I will let you know what has been happening because I know a lot of you are very curious of all things Ferrero.

Let’s start with the youngest, the baby, the possibly last child of this Ferrero Four family that might not ever become a Ferrero Five…Kenzie Roo. I guess her biggest issue since you last heard from us was that she was bitten by the “pig” and by that I mean that she contracted the swine flu. Yes, I have watched the news and yes I have read the stories, but did you know that the regular flu kills tens of thousands of people around the world every year. Am I saying that the swine flu is something to play with? No…I am saying that it something new and so everyone is panicked about it but I can tell you from experience that most likely it is no worse if not easier than the normal everyday flu that people get. Are there side effects? Complications? Yes! Makenzie developed Pneumonia as a side effect of the flu but she got through it and so did we! Would I have vaccinated her if it was available before she contracted it…absolutely not (but we can save that for another post.)! She did survive and she is fine. I think the human population itself has made this into such a greater deal than it is. Especially when you look at the numbers of people who die from Influenza type B (normal flu) and type A or H1N1 (aka Swine Flu). Anyways…like I said…she survived and we are all just fine.

We always call Kylie our drama queen and now Kenzie has become our animated queen. Her personality and vocabulary cracks me up daily. She is definitely one of the most talkative 2 year olds I know. Does everyone always understand her? No. Do we…yes. She is in LOVE with her Nana and most of the time drives her crazy with her fascination of all things that are Nana but I know she eats it up. If she is not listening to me… all I have to say is that I am going to call Nana and tell her she is not being a good girl and she becomes putty in my hands! I find it quite funny and probably abuse that power but it seems to work and so I am all about it. She has recently become our singing bee…she loves music….all music and can repeat…sing songs that she has only heard once or twice. She is amazingly tough and can be rough quite often but then in an instance can become the most loving, sweet, precious thing you have ever laid eyes on.

We then move on to my Kylie, my first born, the one that turned her daddy’s life around. She is in the full swing of second grade and again I could not be more proud. For the first time in her school career her grades are based on the alphabet and not just Effort, Satisfactory, etc. We have received her first true report card and I am happy to report that just as I expected she earned all A’s! I mean, she is my child and I am totally not surprised. Would she call me a homework Nazi? Yes. Do I make her rewrite her homework if I feel it is sloppy? Yes. Do I make up my own “homework” from the school work she brings home that is wrong? Yes. Does it pay off? Absolutely! She has straight A’s right? She has also just finished her first season as a PeeWee Softball player. She was actually allowed to pitch (fast pitch) this season and she is in love. She has been working like crazy to master the art of pitching and is sure that this is her calling in softball. She is actually one of the only girls at the age of 7 that can get it over the plate and someone has actually hit it. I do understand that the point is not for the girls to be able to hit it as you do want to strike them out but the fact that it is even in the vicinity that another 7 year can shows that she has the right idea. She is still our very dramatic 7 year old going on 17 that thinks life is unfair because she does not have a cell phone or an iPod touch but I find her absolutely amazing and can only imagine where she can go from here.

So this is your quick fix of a few things that have been going on around our house. Is it everything? No. Are most details that I left out just the norm? Yes. Have we had some hardships lately? Well, all I can say to that one is did you see the flooding that our state endured? If you did than you can imagine that some of the worst you saw was almost in our backyard. We are all still here and still alive unlike one lady that lived literally 2 miles from us. Did we have damage? Yes. Are we still fixing that? Yes. But again we are all still here and as of last week Rian is back at work again and hopefully this time it will be for good. We have a roof over our head, priceless family, amazing friends, and love, hope, and thankfulness in our hearts, so as far as I am concerned we are doing just fine!

“As your faith is strengthened you will find that there is no longer the need to have a sense of control, that things will flow as they will, and that you will flow with them, to your great delight and benefit.” – Emmanuel Teney

A lot to say...a lot happening... here is just a quick break down that I will expand on later...
My brother and Jessica moved into their new house....(pictures to come)
We went back to the water park (free tickets) with Reid, Ally, Aubrianna, Leah, & Jacob....
We found out that our friends Tommy and Danielle are having a baby...Congratulations Guys!!!!
Last weekend was spent at my brother's and sister-in-law's at their pool...(you will see pictures below!)
This weekend we are going to my 10 year high school reunion...really...10 years?..already?..
Labor Day weekend we are going to the Nascar race in Atlanta and camping out....
We also have the Chili Cook Off coming up in September and we are camping out and my brother is cooking again this year...unlike last year...remember?
So for now I will leave you with some pictures, because who does not love pictures!?


Her is Kylie at the Water Park at my Dad's company picnic. This is the only picture you will see this time. Not because I favor one child more than another it is just because I have a 7 year old that has more important things to do than hang out with her mom and have her picture taken.

This is Kenzie swimming at my brother's pool all by herself! Such a big girl!

Here she is jumping into the pool! She is so proud of her new found independence.

This is Kenzie on our way to Uncle Steve and Aunt Jessica's house. Does she not look amazing in bright colors?

Here is Kenzie and Aubri enjoying a snack on our free day at the Water Park.

This is Kylie's T-Ball All Star sign that is permantely hung at the field. What a great accomplishment as this is the first for Brookwood T-Ball All Stars.

And in honor of Rian and Mine 3rd Anniversary tomorrow....

"A wedding anniversary is the celebration of love, trust, partnership, tolerance and tenacity. The order varies for any given year." - Paul Sweeney

Not me...and yet probably me....Monday!

***I am a complete computer genius and there is no reason why I should not be able to get the cool "Not Me Monday" logo to appear but I digress...***


So...because I am the most organized, on top of everything, all my ducks in a row, super mom who can do it all, I am totally not overdue for an update on all things Ferrero and I actually did not have to back track to find out exactly where I left off....so to keep you guys in the loop and to update what I promised I would, I will do a quick run down to catch you up to the last week...Ready, Set, Here we go!



All things stated below are believed to be true to the best of my forgetful memory....



Sunday, June 21st...took Kylie to meet Grandma and Grandpa for her week long stay.



Sunday, June 21st - Saturday, June 27th....Kylie spent the week with Grandma and Grandpa in the mountains and had an absolutely amazing time! She had the absolute pleasure of going horse back riding, swimming at the lake, shopping, getting her hair cut at the "beauty parlor", learning the amazing alphabet (that she will still recite to anyone who will listen), etc. She had an awesome, wonderful, learning experience (and even learned a little new trick from Grandpa about what can get a point across when Grandma forgets to give him the keys to the car when he is getting it washed! ;) I am almost positive that Grandma is either reading this saying What? or possibly saying....Oh no...she did not go there! Arliss will have to give you the answer!) I thought it was quite funny because I swear (although I try not to) that she catches me doing no no's all the time!



Saturday, June 27th....We had Kylie's end of the year party for All Stars and she received 2 more trophies. That put this year's total to 7 and 10 overall! Not bad for a 7 year old!



Saturday, July 4th...We had an amazing time up at the Rabun's for the 4th of July. Yeah....I know, not so much to say except it was a wonderful time spent with wonderful people. And yes...you waited over a month for me to tell you that.



Saturday, July 18th...My dad's company ViaSat had their annual summer company picnic and we all were invited to Lake Lanier Island's Water Park....free of charge. This included free lunch, beer, and entrance to the water park. Kylie had a blast on all of the water slides now that she is tall enough to ride them all and Makenzie had so much fun with Nana at the kiddie slides, lake, and wave pool. Thanks Mom for allowing Rian and I to ride the rides with Kylie!



Thursday, July 23rd - Monday, July 27th...We spent the long weekend in Chicago. We had absolute fabulous time meeting our new nephew Luca and spending time with Dain, Amy, and Gianna. You would have never known that Kylie and Gianna had not seen each other in almost 2 years. They are like old kindred spirits and never missed a beat!



Saturday, August 1st...We were allowed the privilage to help my brother and sister-in-law move in to their new house that they just purchased. It is absolutely beautiful and I will post pictures as soon as I have them. While we are very happy for them it is also very hard to get used to not seeing them several times a week!



Wednesday, August 5th.....Our baby girl, our first born princess turned 7 years old. We celebrated at our house with Grandpa Ferrero, Nana, Papa, Uncle Steve, and Aunt Jessica. Kylie had her usual Filet Mignon (sp?) that she has every year and the rest of us had Chicken Burgers.



Saturday, August 8th...We had Kylie's actual birthday party with 50 of our closest friends and family at my parent's house and pool!



And that my friends brings us to today! Monday, August 10th, the day that my oldest started 2nd grade, my baby got moved into the next level of "new big gir cass" as she likes to tell us, and I am fast aproaching my one year blogiversary (August 14th of 2008 was my very first post!)

Times are flying and good times are had by all! We hope that this post is finding everyone in wonderful spirits and good health! Good night to all and may God bless you.

I am not sure who the author is of my quote for the evening but I actually read this in Arliss' bathroom while I was taking care of some bussiness and I absolutely fell in love with it and completely sums up how I look at our lives...(I hope I don't screw this up)

"We may not have it all together...but together we have it all!" - Unknown

Enough said!

Chiacago Part 2....

Some of these may be repeats. Sorry...


Kenzie and her baby "Yuka"...

Kenzie riding the horsies at Navy Pier...

Dain, Gianna, and Kylie somewhere on this Ferris Wheel. They are in #11. Can you see them?....Me neither....

The Bean in Millenium Park. Can you see Rian & Kenzie's reflection in the background?

Another picture of the bean....

Millenium Park...Water Fountain. The faces spit on you.

Here is one of the face fountains....

Luca & Uncle Roc....

Kylie & Gianna...

"Words and pictures can work together to communicate more powerfully than either alone."

-William Albert Allard

Chicago Part 1....

Pictures & Chicago Part One...It has been a while....I know that I still owe 4th of July and other things that I said I would post about but it is the end of the summer for Kylie so we are trying to make the best of it and have been staying quite busy. I also need to post about Kylie's trip to Grandma's house. But for today because I am tired and ready for bed I am going to leave you with pictures from our absolutely wonderful, amazing, relaxing, peaceful, fun filled trip to Chicago to see Dain & Amy. (These are in random order due to the way the blogger uploads them...)

The BEAUTFUL Chicago...
A Sculpture at Millenium Park...

Rian, Kylie, and Makenzie @ Millenium Park....

Makenzie playing in the fort in the backyard....

The girls trying to escape out of the back gate of the yard...

Absolutely Precious Baby Luca...

Rian, Dain, & Luca...

Makenzie playing in the sandbox...

Another picture of baby Luca (or "My baby Yuka"...according to Kenzie)

Uncle Roc & Luca

Kylie & Gianna

Paddle boating....

Kenzie watching the paddle boating....

Kenzie sliding while everyone else went on the boats...

Kenzie pouting about something.....

Wrigley.....

The most amazing backyard....

Kenzie and Daddy at the pool....

Kylie & Gianna at the pool....

The most amazing backyard again...

Kylie & Gianna...(Look at the eyes...can you tell they are related?)

More pictures to come tomorrow! - I promise!

"Lost time is never found again." - Benjamin Franklin

No "Not Me Monday" today. Too tired and no time. A big update on the 4th of July happenings of the Ferrero Four coming in a day or two as well as catching you up on my reminder from my last post. But for now...some pictures to hold you over...

Here is Kenzie getting her water to water Granny Rabun's Flowers at the 4th of July party....

This is Kenzie watering the concrete instead of the flowers...

This is Kenzie's beautiful black eyes and nose from her baseball bat to the eyes...

Here is Kenzie and Daddy swimming at Granny and Papa Rabun's house at the 4th of July party...

Here is Baby Grant at my parent's pool...

Another beautiful picture of a very beautiful (I mean handsome) Baby Grant....

Here is Aubrianna contemplating her next move at the 4th of July party...

Here is Aubrianna and her daddy at Grandma's in the mountains...

Here is Kylie and Kenzie at Grandma's in the mountains....

Here is Grandma with Kenzie and Aubrianna reading a book....