The Sparks Family

well hello

2010-03-17T12:49:00.000-07:00

now that it is getting somewhat nicer out I'm able to venture out some with Kenna. We are all doing good. We have had a long winter locked inside due to the RSV season, and actually are suppose to still be on lock down until the end of April. Then we are as free as the birds again until October for MaKennas second winter. The frist two winters are the hardest on preemies, which we already knew that, but we are being more careful with Kenna then we ever were with the twins.

We went to her 4 month post nicu check in February and got a wonderful report from them. She is only behind in a couple area and still has a lot of her preemie tone left. All normal! Since then she has caught up to where she should of been for the screening, by rolling both ways and laughing. And she can finally sit unassisted for about 3-4 minutes. Which is huge for her. Her newest trick she learned just last week and that is how to army crawl. While I'm very happy to she her progress, I'm also sad, because she is the last one. However to see her today and remember just how far she has come in 8 short months, it a true blessing and a constant reminder of what God has giving to our family.

The other kids are doing well also. Madison is just finishing up the 3 quarter of school and has done well in the 1st grade all A's so far. William and MaKayla are both registered to start kindergarten in the fall and are so excited!! Kayla however is not a huge fan of the "bus", its to noisy. I guess she better get use to it, shes got a long ride!! All three will be playing T-ball and baseball this summer so it should be an interesting one.

I will have to upload some pictures a different day because I forgot the card at home, sorry.

2 posts in 2 days!!

2009-12-06T20:33:00.000-08:00

So how do those look? Personally I love MaKennas!! So I hope that these will make everyone happy and will keep you happy for the next couple of weeks again. I do hope to post more soon. And If I don't before Christmas again, I hope you all have a Very Merry one!!

Rachelle

how about a new post!!

2009-12-05T19:02:00.000-08:00

Sorry guys, but we still have no Internet at our house. I'm to cheap at the moment to have it hooked back up. Live with it!! I'm only kidding!!

We are in Billings again this weekend. The twins have an appointment with their new ENT and MaKenna has a follow up with her cardiologist on Monday. Everyone is doing great. Madison is loving the 1st grade and got all A's on her first report card. William is also doing well in his same school again, this year we added some OT time to increase his fine motor skills. Kayla is at home with me again and loves the extra time with me and Kenna, and she hates working on school work.

MaKenna is doing awesome!! She started room air trials on the 1st of October and has officially been off her oxygen since the 20th of October. She stayed on her monitor until Black Friday, when I finally got annoyed enough with the beeping. Man is it great not to hear that going off all night long! Not to worry her doctor does no and because she hasn't had any apena and bradys (major) for awhile we felt ok. We did have a little bump in the road last month when she somehow caught Influenza A! She was a trooper though!! At her 5 month check she weighed in at 11lbs, I thought it was pretty good anyway.
So now what everyone has been waiting for PICTURES!!

We are Home!!

2009-09-14T10:36:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay!! We have been home since the 1st of September. Kenna came home on oxygen and a monitor and things have been good ever since. She is now weighing 6#6oz as of discharge day. Once I get everything at home hooked back up I will post some pictures and get a longer blog on here.

How about some pictures!!

2009-08-09T18:52:00.001-07:00

Well I'm finally able to give you all some pictures of MaKenna. However keep in mind that the last ones taken that are actually on a disk are on July 12. So she is way bigger and differnt now. Not so alien looking! lol I can say that because she is my daughter!!

That will have to do for now someone else needs to get on here!

Just Peachy!!

2009-08-07T09:59:00.000-07:00

That is exactly how things are over here. Things for the most part are stable, with just a few of her "attitude moments". I seriously think she just misses her nurses by her side ALL the time! Because once they get closer to her she manages to pull everything back up. Again she is really spoiled in there. I guess that can happen when you are one of 3 babies who have been there for over a month. She is now up to a whole 4# 10 oz as of last night, and 17 inches. And has the cutest chubby checks now! I would love to put some pictures on here, but again I can't because there is no loading stuff onto the computer at the McDonald house! So you ll just have to wait!!

Her feeding are hit and miss, depending on how her days are going, and she is up to 41ml of fortified breast milk and it taking it over 30 minutes. Which is down from the 1.5 hours when she started. Her feedings increase daily depending on her weight gain. They have stopped her caffeine as of last night and so far we really haven't noticed a difference in her. If things start to change the plan is to put her back on it.

That's all the time I have so I hope that everyone is good!!

We have graduated!!

2009-07-29T16:40:00.000-07:00

Not so much from the NICU but from the ever so cute micro preemie diapers to the standard preemie ones. I actually used the last one on Monday so this comes a little late!! Sorry! Little "pork chop" is now 3# 15 oz. So hopefully tomorrow I will finally have a 4 pound baby.

I guess it time to update

2009-07-27T11:49:00.000-07:00

Sorry I'm such a slacker these days, but can you really blame me! First off I want to send out Congratulations to the Milbradt family on the arrival of their little boy! Megan if your reading this I'm so happy for you guys and he is so cute!! Haven't had the time to leave you a message either! Sorry. But if anyone wants to head over and congratulate them you will need to click on Megans' link on the right side of my blog. I'm honestly to lazy today to link it up for you all.

Now lil miss MaKenna is up to 3# 11.5 oz as of this morning! They increased her caffeine while I was home last week (yep you read right I went home) and by Friday it finally kicked in and her spells have lessened. In fact she only had 4 major ones all day yesterday. They say its the caffeine but it maybe that she is finally starting to out grow the apena and brady episodes since she is 33.1 weeks gestation now. Time will tell. They were also able to lower her flow rate from 3 liter's to 1 liter in one week. They have slowed down on the weaning for a few days because her respiratory rate has increased a little and they don't want her to work to much yet. She is up to 33ml of breast milk per feeding with 24 calories. She prefers fresh over frozen and must be held during feedings or she doesn't digest it all. Can we all say spoiled!!

Alright well I'm off to do some grocery shopping. Sorry for such a shot update but I also have Will here as well so my time is even shorter.

We hit 3 pounds!!

2009-07-16T11:20:00.000-07:00

Little miss has been hanging around at 2lbs 15.5oz for the last two days and just this morning she finally went up. She is such a turkey! Everything else with her is good. Dr. Carrol increased the high flow cannula to 3 liters last week, still on room O2 though. He had hoped that it would help with her apena and brady episodes. It really hasn't, its only pushing more air into her little tummy. So he is now in the process of weaning it back down. Up and down we go. He was joking with me yesterday on how much MaKenna reminds him of William when he was there! My how they have a good memory. Her calories have also been increased now to 24, I can't remember if I had put that on the last post or not, if so sorry! And its actually causing my breast milk to turn pink, if that is TMI sorry! Kayla saw it this morning and asked the nurse if she was giving her sister strawberry milk!! We all got a good laugh from it. Dr. Carrol is also throwing around the idea of starting her on medication for acid reflux, besides her spitting during feedings he thinks that may also be causing some of her other apena and brady spells since they are only happening during feeding time. We shall see.

In other news I have MaKayla up here with me this week. I think that a week off of a somewhat normal schedule is not for this child. She hasn't been sleeping that much or eating that great. And usually she is the best with both of all my kids. It has been a constant struggle every day. Not that I"m not enjoying my alone time with her I think she just gets tired of going over to the hospital and misses Will and Madison to play with. So today I walked her cute little butt over to the daycare across from the house and begged them to take the child! There wasn't much begging to be done they were more than willing to take her so I can regain my sanity!! She was more than excited to have kids to play with. I just hope that it goes well, since its her first time in daycare.

Rachelle

How about an update!

2009-07-15T11:18:00.000-07:00

I bet you all would like that! Hopefully tomorrow I will find some time! Sorry!!

Rachelle

Finally!

2009-07-06T19:07:00.000-07:00

We got some poo out of baby girl! I was beginning to worry a little since she hasn't had ANY since the day she was born! I will say though that I was a little ticked off when I came in for her cares at 5pm and found it ALL over her bed!! In some places it had already dried up and now her cute little butt is red! We will be having some words with the doctor in the morning about that because there is no reason for it especially since she is still on a 1 to 1 ration with her nurse!!

However, in other news she is now back on the high flow cannula (still room air) because she was having a few more apnea and brady episodes. Dr. Carrol wanted to play it safe so he put her back on and she hasn't had one since, go figure!! Her PDA and the other one, they think has closed, at least they can't hear the murmmer anymore. We will find out for sure next week sometime when they repeat the echo. She got the UVA and UVC ( I think thats what they are called anyway, I forget, the belly lines) out yesterday night some time, and they have finally gave up on ever getting a PIC line to stay in her. Since those came out her TPN was stopped also!! They have settled for a normal IV in her little hand for the next couple of days. Her feeding are increasing daily, so they hope to have that out soon. As of today she was up to 15 ml or 1/2 ounce. And as her feedings increase they are decreasing her IV fluids, as long as her sugars come back in the normal range.

I kept Madison here with me this week and we are having a fun time together! Even though she didn't realise how often we would be at the hospital. but she is enjoying he time with just me I think!! But its time for bath and bed for her, so goodnight!!

Rachelle

Momma is a............

2009-07-02T18:12:00.000-07:00

I'll spare you! But just know that I was complaining to Holly and my Mom on Sunday how hard it was to pump for 30 minutes and get a tiny amount. Then have MaKenna spit all my hard work back up. I stopped complaining on Tuesday! Now her nurses just laugh at me when I come in with 8 bottles full from the night sessions! But what can you do!!

Today was a big day for MaKenna! She is starting to get a lot less puffy finally, she was really bad. She had her first visit from Uncle Derek and Auntie Angie and cousin Caden. What I didn't know was that other kids weren't allowed in the NICU just siblings! OOPS! They let Caden stay though and he was so cute just looking at her and trying to touch her. She also got a new perferial (sp?) line placed,and unfortunately its right smack dab on top of her cute little head again! She also had the ultrasound of her kidneys today. And for the main event....she is now off the nasal cannula as of 2 this afternoon. And she is doing awesome with out it, still stating between 95-100%. The only downfall still is her apnea and brady episodes! She also has a new found love for her paci, now that they found one that fits! She goes to town on that thing, ever so cute.

Her weight this morning was 2lbs 6 oz. They told me that was perfectly fine, so don't worry about it!! She is actually getting closer to what she should be for her gestational age. She should start gaining again as soon as they start back up her feedings. But they can't do that until she is done with the meds for her PDA. So hopefully tomorrow!!

Welcome Baby Girl!!

2009-07-01T15:00:00.000-07:00

Little Miss MaKenna Louise joined our family on June 28 at 1:27 am. She weighed in at 2 lbs 14.2 oz, and is 15 inches long. She is just HUGE!! It has actually taken us by surprise, so totally not what we were expecting as we drove into the hospital. I figured I was going to be on my way back to Billings. Which I was but not the way I thought I would be. We arrived at the hospital at 12:50p.m. on the 27 and as you can see she was born 37 minutes after we arrived! There were preparing my for a repeat section and I was talking to the medicine man when she came out. I'll spare you the details this is a G rated family blog after all!! Dan had just stepped out to get a drink, so he missed the big event. She was doing great soon after but needed to be flown to a hospital with a NICU, so we are back in Billings.

As of today she is doing great. We have had a few bumps along the way but that is to be expected with a 29 weeker. She was only on the vent for a few hours Sunday, she actually came off of it shortly after I arrived up here. She spent the rest of the day just on the nasal cannula and 38% O2. Monday they started feedings thru her feeding tube and she had to be moved over to C-PAP. That just provides continuous positive air pressure to inflate her lungs, that was also with just room air O2. Yesterday proved to be a little more of a rough day for her as she started having brady spells and bouts of apnea. However they are only when they are messing with her of try to give her a paci. I did have a wonderful surprise when I went in for her 5 o'clock cares to find her back on the nasal cannula and only at 28% o2. Today she her doctors heard a heart murmur so she had an echo preformed. It appears that her PDA and another little valve (i forgot which one) haven't closed yet. So they are going to start her on some indomicen (sp) to work on getting those closed up. All 100% normal things with a premi of her age.

I think that is a quick run down of the past few days. I'm out of time now so I need to go.

Rachelle

One week down

2009-06-23T09:41:00.000-07:00

I've only been home a week today, and I have already lost my mind. I really think the next couple of weeks are going to drag on for eternity. If that happens I think I just may die. Only kidding of course. I have an appointment with the doctor on Thursday and hopefully everything will of stayed the same. I did speak with him yesterday, because I was wondering about the latest ultrasound I had before things went south. They were looking at her right kidney in particular. I was really hoping for some good news, but alas we will have to wait a little longer for that. Her kidney has dilated now to 8.5mm up from the 5mm it was 3 weeks before the new ultrasound. They want to repeat the ultrasound 6 weeks out from the last one, which will be around 32 weeks, if I'm still pregnant by then. My doctor won't discus anything with us about the kidney issues until after it reaches 1cm or more. So if anyone has any experience with this please let me know, that would be great. The only things I'm finding online range from one extreme to another. Other than that things are really great!

The kids are doing wonderful. They are enjoying having Jade at the house everyday to play with. And I'm loving the fact that they for the most part are finally picking up after themselves and what they miss or can't do Jade does for me. Their project this week is our garden weeding! I was going to can the whole thing since I can't get out there But my mom had the wonderful idea of sending them all out there to do it! So far I think its going good.

Our pastors' wife, Mandy is going to start tutoring Madison for me a couple of days a week. Which is a huge blessing for me. One because I don't want her to have any problems with 1st grade next year. The other is I know she has learned everything she needed to and does a good job for me with it, but I want her to know it better. She is still having problems with a few letter sounds and numbers. All which is normal for her age. I know it will be easier and more fun for Madison to do it with Miss Mandy, especially since she is a teacher.

I think that's all, I'm off to take a nap! Life is really hard I tell you!!

Rachelle

Guess What............

2009-06-16T08:30:00.000-07:00

If you can keep a secret from my kids I'll share one with you! My appointment with the doctor went well this morning so I can come home! I couldn't be happier! However I didn't get to see Dr. Jackson this morning I had the doctor who admitted me on Friday. He said that things look good, so no change, and that I can go home and resume NORMAL activity! Yeah you did read that right! I think he has lost his mind or something!! So tonight I will be sleeping safe and sound in my own bed with my kids!!

I have another follow up appointment with my usual doctor back home tomorrow. And it was decided on the phone that I'm not to resume my normal activity until he can see that things have for sure settled down some and defiantly not until I'm after 30 weeks. That is only 3 more weeks away I think I can make that!!

Another plus at my appointment this morning was that Dr. Joyce did an both ultrasounds and we could see baby girl practicing her breathing and swallowing so the steroid shots are starting to work.

At the moment I'm waiting, and dying of a heat stroke, for Mary Jo and the kids to get her so we can start heading home!

Rachelle

Leaving on a jet plane don't know when......

2009-06-14T17:29:00.000-07:00

I'll be back home again!! That's so sad to say!! For those of you who don't know I'm now blogging from a lovely hospital room at St.Vincent Healthcare in Billings. Wahoo!! It doesn't have much of a view, I promise, but the room service and nurses are great! The medicine bites big time!!

I was flow here on Friday because baby girl wanted to make her grand entrance into the world a couple of months early! After a day on mag sulfate things started to slow down some so I was able to come off of that terrible drug by Saturday. Since things started to slow way down they moved me to the postpartum unit. Dan was in heaven with the big huge wall mounted flat screen TV. Our stay there was short since by 3pm the contractions started back just as bad, so back to labor and delivery! And that is now where I sit! Stuck in bed with a medicine that makes me fell like I'm not alive. Waiting and praying that baby girl will stay put at least another week or more.

Dr. Jackson the peri I had with the twins will be back tomorrow. I hope that he will have a trick or two up his sleeve so I can get home sooner than later. In the meantime there plan is to keep me here until things settle down some. They are hoping that the new medicine will kick in and the contractions will slow down today and tomorrow. After they do they plan on letting me stay at the Ronald McDonald house to see how I do on my own and then if things go as planned there I just might be able to venture on home! On bedrest of course and direct orders to come back if things start going down hill again. We will see how things play out. But so far this afternoon my contractions have spaced out to about 5-6 minutes apart, that's compared to the 2-4 minutes they had been, baby steps I guess!!

But the good news is that today marks 27 weeks for me, and both steroid shots are in and on board for more that 24 hours. She is looking good on the monitor and I haven't changed from 2 cm and 90% since Friday night. So the contractions aren't changing me any more, they are just annoying!!

If you didn't know about any of this I'm sorry, but it has been a very stressfull weekend for me and Dan both! He is currently on his way home to see the kids and get ready for another week at work. And we will continue to play our lives by ear with no set in stone plan!

Thank you mom for watching and taking such great care of our kids! I hope that they are being very good for you! LOL!! Please give them a huge hug and a kiss from me as I miss them like crazy!!

Rachelle

Drumroll please!!

2009-05-29T08:23:00.000-07:00

You all have to suffer through a post before seeing what the title is about. You should be happy I haven't done a full one in a while again.

Yesterday we had a big day, between doctor appointments, ultrasounds and Williams end of the year program. Little man is now officially done with preschool for the year, and his program was so cute yesterday. Even though when they all first came out he wasn't into all the singing he warmed up quickly. I'll put some pictures up later, not enough time this morning, sorry! This morning however he is sad that he is not going to school! I begged his teachers to let him come to summer school! But he has showed no signs of regression this year. In fact he is finally where he should be, we are so happy. His language jumped from 1 year 9 months at the beginning of the year to right on 4 years as of now. That's a 2 year 3 month increase in one school year, lets hope it can stay that way this summer.

I had another doctor appointment yesterday and all is well with me. My doctor was finally happy to see that I gained some weight. Three pounds actually since last Monday, I wasn't to happy with that, but who is complaining when that's all I've gained in 6 months. I'm guessing most of it was due to all the water I've drank in the past two days, I had a deal with the doctor that I needed to win! Everything else with me was good, still need to take it easy and listen to my body, not exactly easy with 3 kids. But whatever!!

Now on to baby.....we needed to recheck baby because there was a question about the kidneys from the last ultrasound. The right one is large and dilated and the left one is about half the size it should be. What I was hoping was a mistake clearly wasn't yesterday just by looks. It was very clear that the right is still larger than it should be. But we still need to wait for the Dr. to read the U/S and give his report, hopefully it doesn't take a full month this time to do so. From what my doctor said that if this u/s still showed the same finding they would follow with monthly u/s and go from there. Sometimes they fix themselves in utero and others by the time they are a year old. So we wait, gain!! My doctor also wanted to redo the growth measurements on baby due to the weight issue again. And our baby who was measuring a week ahead this whole time is now a week behind. Meaning that I'm 25 weeks 2 days and baby is measuring at 23 weeks and 6 days, as of yesterday. Its actually just an average of all the different measurements they took, the head was the biggest at 26 weeks, and the leg was the smallest at 24 weeks 2 days. So how they got 23 weeks is beyond me, baby does weigh right on track at a huge 1lbs 11 oz.

And now for the good stuff!!! We did find out what we are expecting!! Baby #4 is a GIRL!! Now if that proves to be wrong I'm going to hunt Rance down!! But in his own words there doesn't seem to be a tally wacker down there! I almost died, because Madison was in the room with me, thank goodness she wasn't paying attention. After he left the room Madison told me and the u/s tech that "he sure was weird!" If only she just knew! We got a good laugh from it though.

Rachelle

Happy Birthday little man!

2009-05-27T06:01:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to send a big Congratulations out to Kellan and Lanis on the arrival of baby boy #2. We can't wait to meet him!!

Rachelle

24 weeks and i feel........

2009-05-21T12:14:00.001-07:00

GREAT!! LOL! If only that was true, I would give anything for it to be. We had an unexpected visit to the doctors on Monday, everything went alright, I guess. He just so happened to find out I haven't been resting as much as I guess I'm suppose to. But who has the time with 3 kids at home, its going to get worse once school gets out this week. My regular appointment is next Wednesday and I get to repeat my GD test once more. Oh goodie!! Other than that things baby wise are going good. We got the names for either boy or girl, since we still don't know. And William has finally warmed up to the idea of the baby. He loves it! Still doesn't want to get a new room though, baby steps I guess!!

The room situations is moving at a slow pace, think snail. Hopefully we can knock some of it out this weekend. But the good news is that I have almost everything to do the girls room once its ready. I think it will be cute. Madison is having a hard time picking out her wall color though and keeps changing her mind.

Well I think that's all for now. I need to start a small project here, since i missed my spring cleaning, cuz I was so sick. Hope you all have a great Memorial Day Weekend!!

Rachelle

Come on please!!

2009-05-07T08:07:00.000-07:00

Alright people this is going to be a shameless plea for comments, sorry! I've noticed over the past few days that there are a lot of people stopping by here. And don't' get me wrong, I love the attention. BUT......however nobody is letting me know who they are. Most of the places that are coming up are not familiar to me. So if you are visiting please let me know what brought you here, who you are, etc... I'd love to meet you.

Thanks everyone!!

Rachelle

And the verdict is....

2009-04-27T11:35:00.000-07:00

we have a VERY naughty baby growing! What ever it is wouldn't show us it's needed parts to see if its a he or a she! Oh well!! But baby is growing very nicely and will not sit still. Everything else was good with the apt. Changed a couple of things around medication wise and started a new one to cover the side effects of the zorfan I take. I hope it works as I'm so very tired of the constant headaches!! He also hopes that with the new change I will finally be able to gain some weight, since I'm still about 5lbs under my pre pregnancy weight. I was hoping he would be happy with the 1lbs gain this month, guess not. Personally I think he needs to make up his mind on that subject, first he wanted me to loose and now he wants me to gain. MEN!! I know things are different not, but still I'm on track for what he first wanted me to gain.

Next month we are redoing the GD test again to confirm last months findings. I can't wait!! And on a little more serious note, if I can't stay hydrated and get the ketones and protein out of my "sample" (TMI sorry) I'm getting a lovely room at the hospital, at least I'll get a good nights sleep out of it.

Have a wonderful day!!

Rachelle

Please Pray!!

2009-04-22T09:46:00.000-07:00

Located on the right side of my blog are buttons to other sites. Little man Stellan had surgery yesterday and is doing remarkably with his recovery. Please check out his site and let his parents know you are praying for them.

And precious princess Kayleigh had surgery early this week to place a feeding tube. Which was one of her last steps needed before she could finally go home after spending the last 9 months in the hospital. Sadly she has had a major setback now. Her doctors seem to think she may of had a stroke shortly after her surgery.

Both of these family are amazing! So please take a moment and let them know you were thinking of them. Thank you!!

As for us we are great! We are back to our normal schedule now after a two week break. Dans dad came for a visit and to work on the house for us. The kids loved it very much! We just want to say thank you again! You saved us a lot of headaches over the next few months!

As soon as I get my house back on track I will post some pictures from Easter and the last few weeks! It might not be this week though as its jam packed full of stuff. I've over scheduled this week with soccer, dance class, dentist, a dance competition and our awana derby all need to fit in by Saturday.

But come Monday you'll know if we are having another boy or girl. That is unless I choose to make someone wait a little longer........you know who you are!! LOL!

17 weeks already!!

2009-04-02T12:34:00.000-07:00

I find it so hard to believe that I'm already 17 weeks into this pregnancy! The time is just flying right by. Now if only things would stay nice and mellow for the rest. But that I don't see happening anytime soon. My appointment on Monday went just as I expected, not so great! It actually ended in my taking an early gestational diabetes test, that I failed miserably. I knew that it was to much to ask for an uneventful pregnancy as my last! I'm now back on the worst diet ever, for the next 3 weeks to see if that helps any. Oh goodie!!

Lets see what else............Madison starts going to school everyday next week, she can't wait. She also has her first soccer game on Tuesday, unless we go to the circus in Williston instead that night. Soccer? Circus? Oh what to do??

The other two are good. Nothing exciting with them, unless you count Kaylas new rash. She looks like ringworm has taken over her body again. Don't worry is not really ringworm, its just an allergic reaction to something. We have no idea what either. It started to show up a couple of months ago and took almost a week to go away, it was really bad then. I don't think this round will stay that long as its not that bad, but I see a lot of new ones starting today.

We are also slowing getting the kids new rooms ready. The girls new bedding will be here tomorrow, Madison helped pick it out even! So I can start gathering things for the girls new room. The closet will hopefully get done this weekend. I had a guy come out today and look at everything that needs to get done inside and out (hopefully the quote won't kill Dan) and just maybe I might have a 75% finish house by June. I hope at least! Dan gave in finally and said to find someone to finish up all the windows and sheet rock work. Especially since I'm starting to worry about it getting done before baby comes.

Rachelle

Update

2009-03-24T07:32:00.000-07:00

I was lucky enough to get a very understanding woman on the phone yesterday. They are going to cover both service calls and the part. Thank goodness!! Now I just have to wait 2.5 weeks to get the stupid thing fixed again! Oh well at least I don't have to dish out the money.

Does it ever end???

2009-03-23T13:58:00.000-07:00

We went away this weekend back to Wyoming. I even fessed up to my husband on the way home that I actually miss living there. Can you believe that? I don't personally miss Worland, but take me to Powell and Cody and I miss everything! We were able to see so many friends, new babies and Grandma Mona! The kids favorite was of course Grandma, who wouldn't! The main reason for the trip was a wedding reception for one of Dans oldest friends Jared and his new bride Amanda! We are so happy for them and are excited to meet the new little addition to their family coming in August.

On another note....great things must always come to and end! If you remember the last time we went to Wyoming we came home to a fridge that someone turned off. It sat for 2 days in the nice and hot August heat! How nice was that!!! This time I come home to a stove with a flashing clock. I thought of great power went off check the fridge it was good. So I put it to the back of my mind until today. I went to make Kayla and I lunch and I have NO oven!! So after a few choice thoughts I did what the repair man told me last time this happened ( 3.5 months ago) and turned off the breaker for 5 minutes. I tried it again and no such luck. I call my handy dandy repair man at Norby repair, and he knows whats wrong again as do I. We were thinking the last time he fixed it was the end of November or first of December so we were cutting it close to the 90 day warranty on the part. We were wrong and it was fixed the 3rd of November! Which means now I have to pay the $164+ for just the part and his service call!! UGGHHHH!!!!!!!! Screw that!!! We have ONLY had this piece of crap Whirlpool stove for 14 months, it shouldn't need to be fixed twice already for the same freaking problem!! So he told me to call them and explain the situation and maybe they will send the part and still cover it. I hope so or so help the person on the other line!! Wish me luck!

Oh yeah and another rant....I dropped my wedding set off at Samules in Billings to get fixed once again. Only to be told that they no longer have our records and that I need to fax our paper work to them so they can make sure the warranty is still valid. Now I only need to find the paperwork from 5 years ago!

Rachelle

Baby #4!!

2009-03-16T07:40:00.000-07:00

As most of you may know we are expecting #4 finally! And to those out in blogger land sorry,I just haven't had the energy to post about it yet. We are expecting our little miracle baby #4 sometime in September. I would love to give the actual due date, but seeing as every time we look at baby it gains a week so it chages all the time. If the doctor gets his wish of 39 weeks baby will be here September 7-10 sometime. He has VERY high hopes!! I laughed at him and said that was almost impossible given my history, my nurse agreed and said it was very unlikely he could get me that far. So we shall see who wins in the end. As long as its healthy and doesn't come to early we will be happy.

The kids are excited, actually that's an understatement! The girls are wanting another brother. William on the other hand changes his mind daily. Although he has been wanting another sister for a week now!

And it I can figure out how to scan a picture I'll share them from our NT scan at 12 weeks.

Rachelle

PS. If anyone knows how I can make this bigger please share!!

Hello my people!!

2009-03-10T12:54:00.000-07:00

Okay since I'm feeling better and everyone is down for naps it's time to finish off our vacation! Its only 2 months later, so its going to be quick so I can get everyone up to speed.

We did so many fun things every day its hard to pick which ones so lets just do day 3 & 4. Day 3 was spent in Modesto at Johns Pizza and Boomers. They both were as Dan would say a "parents nightmare" or like Chuck e Cheese. They played there little hearts out! Boomers had both indoor and outdoor areas. Dan and Madison both climbed a rock wall, and played on the bumper boats. And lets not forget the go-carts! Dan was upset because he never one, poor poor baby! Day 4 was spent shopping for the girls! Wahoo! And the boys went golfing and to an outside plane museum, we had actually went to on Day 2 but I thought that it would be more enjoyable for Dan and Will to go with my Dad than me and my mom who could honestly care less about them. Boy was I right! While us girls were out and about we finally got Kayla's' ears pierced! Yep daddy finally caved!! She had been begging for months and months. I was ready for full out hysteria and she took it like a champ! The girls who were doing the piercing asked her how old she was and Kayla proudly told them she was "FOURTEEN" it was way to cute.

Days 5-8

On day 5 we started our trip up to LA so we could go to Disney Land! Once getting all settled in to our hotel everyone else started to show up. Uncle Derek, Auntie Angie and "baby" Caden, Mary Jo, Jade and Grant, the kids were so excited to see them all again. And after a quick trip to Target, I somehow lost Kaylas swimsuit, they all went swimming! In the cold water! Then we all had dinner, nothing to exciting that day. Day 6 & 7 were spent at Disney. And so the non stop walking started! Seriously we walked for 10 hours straight the first day at Disney and 12 the next day. Between both days we went on every ride we could, except somehow we missed the teapots! Oh well, better luck next time. MaKayla was a little, OK alot, freaked out on some of the rides, but the other two had a complete blast! And we won't forget the "kids at heart" Dan and Uncle Derek went on some big kid rides with Jade and Grant over on the California Adventure side. So did Aunt Angie, but after the Tower of Terror, I think she was all done! I didn't blame her one bit!! They were able to a bunch of different Disney characters through out their days, but nothing beats seeing them meet Micky for the first time! Will was kinda a stinker when it came to getting pictures with most of them, but we did get some. He really liked Pocahontas alot! He wouldn't let go of her!

On day 8 we all packed up and started back home. Since Dan and the kids have never seen the ocean my dad drove the coast line home, just for them. We were even lucky enough to see some dolphins jumping. We also stopped at Pismo Beach and picked seashells. The kids had a blast running on the sand and getting chased by the waves. It was a super long drive so we got in kinda late.

Day 9 was spent resting and going to a few other spots mom wanted to show us before we left.

Day 10 we all cam home. Boy William was so happy to see some snow when we arrived back in Billings! I personally could of done with out the snow and cold weather!

Ok that's all the rest of the vacation. Sorry it took so long to finish it but I've been sick!

Rachelle

For the "Normal Family"

2009-03-02T11:26:00.000-08:00

So since i can't find my camera cord yet I went on to find the link to my smaller stroller. Here it is: http://s.sears.com/is/image/Sears/04988720000?qlt=90,0&resMode=sharp&op_usm=0.9,0.5,0,0 . Ours is exactly the same minus the hanging bag on the side.

Talk to you later
Rachelle

2009-02-18T13:09:00.000-08:00

I'm working on the new post for the rest of our vacation, I promise. Really I am! I'm just so tired these days, sorry! Hopefully by the weekend it will be up with lots of pictures.

And a BIG surprise for all you blog readers. Or I should say my lack of them lately since I'm such a slacker!

Our Trip!

2009-02-01T13:33:00.000-08:00

Sorry it has taken me so long to do this! I've just started feeling better. We had a FABULOUS time in California! I'll cover the first few days now and then you'll have to wait again! LOL!

The kids loved flying and watching all the planes come in and take off! They got a little irritated during our layover, just because they weren't at grandma and papas yet. But they survived!

Our first night brought little to no sleep for my wonderful husband who stayed up with a sick William. He was having some serious breathing issues, which prompted a call the next morning to Dr. Cook, and a nightmare trip to a walk in clinic in Merced. The rest of the day was spent trying to find a script for some predinsone. Would you believe me that we tried 6 different pharmacy's and none of them had it! We tried the "other" doctor first before calling Dr. Cook for a different one. The doctor from the walk in clinic changed the script to a generic called something can't remember, but it turns to the predinsone in your system. However I'm not sure if he had the original dose wrong or what but when I was "almost" given the new script the pharmacist noticed the dose was off. Come to find out that the walk in clinic doctor had given Will a dose 2x the legal limit for his age and weight, and I was suppose to give him that twice a day!! I was one hot momma!!

Oh my goodness I forgot about our morning walk! We took the kids out for some fresh air hoping that would help William out some. But no instead the poor little boy got his 1st bee sting! Of all days! And he has spent endless hours outside at my parents house here with all the bees and not once ever got stung, but gets nailed the first day there!

When we finally got home that afternoon we took the kids to pick oranges. They loved just being in the open and running! Madison and William ended up being good little orange pickers. Kayla wasn't strong enough to pull them all the way off, but she gave it her best.

I'm out of time so one day is all your getting for now, hope that makes you happy!

Rachelle

We Are Home!

2009-01-26T10:17:00.000-08:00

But you will have to wait for an actual update, sorry. I'm dealing with a couple different problems at the moment, one of them a kidney stone. Oh how great it is!! The other being the lack of energy to unpack! But know we had a blast and I have a ton of pictures to share.

Rachelle

Happy 21st Birthday!!!

2009-01-10T18:14:00.000-08:00

We just wanted to wish Uncle BUBBA a happy 21st birthday!! We hope you have a FUN and safe night........and please no phone call at 3 am again tonight! I really need to sleep some!

So if you were keeping track that was just 3 birthdays in a row! Madison didn't want to share her "day" with either or her uncles.

Madison just reminded me that its now only 2 more nights until we leave. That's how we count down the days here, by nights.

Rachelle

Happy 6th Birthday Madison!!!

2009-01-09T10:45:00.001-08:00

My first baby turned 6 today! I can't believe it! We only had a little party this year with some family. Wasn't what we had planned but with the storm we made do. Today since there is NO school either she is having the neighbor girls come over and they get to play all day. On the plus side daddy will be home soon for the day since they aren't working either, he was stuck out of town last night!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!!! Mommy and daddy love you so very much!

Big news and birthday wishes!

2009-01-08T14:44:00.000-08:00

So I'm slacking again. OOPS! First off..Happy Birthday to my lil brother Derek today, okay so maybe he isn't so little anymore!

Big news is...we leave for California in 5 days!! I'm so ready to leave this freezing cold state. I'm so tired of the snow and today we are getting dumped on with freezing rain. You should see all the morons in the ditch right now outside our living room window! Sorry but its true.

I'm busy still with all the cleaning and purging of our house. I was hoping to finish before we leave but its not looking like that's going to happen. But by the end of the month it will all be done, promise!

Tomorrow is Madison's 6th birthday and then my other brothers 21st on Saturday. So you will only get 2 more post out of me before we leave probably sorry. I will try and do at least one while we are gone if not then there will be an overload when we come home.

Rachelle

My OH My!

2008-12-30T08:47:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Christmas!! And I hope you all did as well!! Now where to start? Lets do Christmas Eve.. We had our little family Christmas. The kids were able to ope up all their presents. Lets just say they were excited until they started to open them up. Mom and dad always get boring things.......clothes! It was so funny, because every time William would open one up all he would say was "AWWWW not again!" To cute. Now don't go feeling all bad for them they each got 1 toy from us and Santa ALWAYS brings the good stuff. They also got a spider man operation game. I bought it for me and Madison since I thought the twins were to little for it yet. Boy was I wrong!! William loves playing it, although he can't get any of them without the buzzer going of but that's not how we play anyway.

Christmas morning brings the Santa toys. William is always the first up! The kid never sleeps!! He came running back into our room telling us to come see "his" new bike! If only we knew he wanted one. The big man gave Madison a new bike, William a race car track and MaKayla stuff for her babies. She however was a little sad that Santa forgot a new baby! But he new she already had TOO many! The twins also got new booster seats, I know lame! And a new basketball hoop for inside, which can also be moved outside during the summer, for all of them. When everyone was done "playing" meaning Daddy with the new race track, we headed over to grandmas and papas. They hit the jackpot over there! All fun stuff also. Madison got her new camera for our trip to Disney. William got trucks of course and a really LOUD gun from non other than Uncle bubba. MaKayla got her new baby and barbies. And my parents got us (Dan and me) a Wii! Well I guess its more of a family gift, but it was our main gift. Boy is that thing fun! And the kids are loving it as well. They got tons of other stuff but those are just what stand out as I watch the kids walk around with them. That is except the gun which has been taken away for the 3rd time today for shooting the darts at someone!

(love this picture. every time Kayla would open a gift she would make Will cover his eyes)

Thank you to everyone who gave the kids gifts! They love them all and there are many more I could share about but it would just take to long. Thank you so very much, we love you all!

The count down to our Disney trip has now started! Before we would always say after Christmas. Well as you know its now after and they want to know when we are going!! Only 14 day left till we hop on that plane.

Rachelle

2008-12-24T13:29:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!!!!

From our family to yours.

And so it begins!

2008-12-22T18:52:00.000-08:00

The start of the present opening! Oh, the many joys of Christmas! We have had these three under the tree since the beginning of the month or close to it. But whose counting! They had been taunting the kids since they arrived, sitting all alone under the tree. However just today I put some more under there. I figured its close enough to actual Christmas and since the twins left the others alone the new ones would be fine. Or at least I hope!

Now about those 3 presents that have been taunting the kids. They are from Debi and Donald. We tried telling Madison that it was just Donald's dirty socks and underwear, but she wasn't buying that. I guess she knows Debi a little better than that.

And then the FUN began! MaKayla is the biggest chicken in the whole world!! Seriously!

Here he is getting ready. MaKayla completely in the dark!

All ready. Its just WILL! Just Will she kept saying!

Then it was on!

Maybe he can't get me!!!

Oh man! Really it was to funny! I really hope she grows out of this sometime soon! Just had to share it with you all.

I hope everyone has a Very Merry Christmas!!! We'll see you all after Christmas unless something comes up!

Rachelle

Busy, busy!

2008-12-16T10:47:00.000-08:00

Time sure does get away with me. But show me one person it doesn't with! Usually by this time of year most if not all of our family are getting their Christmas cards in the mail. This year however, I have run out. I miscounted when I ordered. At that time I could only find one sheet, sorry. Just the other day I found the rest and of course added a few new ones this year. So hold on while I find another picture to use and have some made at White Drug. I hope to get them off by the weekend. I hope they will be there before Christmas if not shortly after. Again I'm sorry!

Poor Madison had a dental appointment last week for a cleaning and to have some cavities looked at. She had 4 one on each of her 1 year molars. Actually she only had two new on the top, because the two on the bottom were there from the year before. But the dentist didn't see the need then to fix them, so those ones just kept getting bigger! Lucky me after seeing how she reacted last time I had grandma take her! Of course this time she was perfect. Well today again with grandma in tow she had the cavities on the left side done. From what I hear she was a trooper, except when she got sick. She is now soaking up all the attention resting in mommy and daddy's "huge" bed with heated blankets and watching cartoons, must be hard.

We survived the snow storm this past weekend. The kids loved watching it all day. Now if only it would warm up some so they can actually enjoy it. Kayla is going crazy being locked inside for 5 days now, she is even driving me nuts. Madison and Will have been out twice for school and both came back "frozen" every time. I haven't been asked if they can go outside even, kinda nice.

No mama I wasn't peeking at the presents in your closet, I promise!

Not a whole lot of exciting news sorry. But some new pictures to tie you over for awhile.

Rachelle

I'm in love.......

2008-12-12T07:56:00.000-08:00

Not only with my kids and husband but my new camera! I have hated my old camera for so long that I just stopped getting it out. That so bad, but its been used and abused so much it started taking really crappy pictures.

Dan and I have been "in talks" for months about it! His theory just buy it, mine was but there are so many other things to get first. You know how that goes! But I decided I wanted one for sure before our trip to Disney in January. So i searched the couches for spare change the kids missed and didn't feed my family........kidding!! I actually hoarded (if that's an actual word) my daycare income, to splurge on our new toy, a Nikon D60. It was a sweet deal and couldn't pass it up. I however have buyers remorse now, if there is such a thing!

It arrived on Wednesday so I've been busy trying to figure it out. Lets just say its not an easy task. So many new functions to learn and everything else. WOW!!! But the pictures of my my my, can't get enough of them. They are so awesome. And I haven't missed a shot since it came. But if anyone can help me to learn this camera fast please help!!! Thank you!!

I would love to share, but I need to start getting William ready for school, sorry!!

Rachelle

Happy Birthday MOM!!

2008-12-04T10:07:00.000-08:00

Today is my moms birthday and we just wanted to wish her a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! Its her 35th AGAIN!! She would probably kill me if I put up her REAL age! But I do believe she hasn't gotten any older in a few years, wonder how that works.

I asked MaKayla how old grandma was the other day and she just said old, but Madison added but not as old as dirt.. However this morning when I asked Kayla again she said 80. LOL, sorry mom!

Happy Birthday! We love you!!

Happy 1st of December!!

2008-12-01T11:24:00.000-08:00

Seriously where does the time go?? I can't believe that it is already December.. Only 24 more days until Christmas! And at our house that is usually a HUGE thing. However this year we've opted to go another route. The kids are liking the idea now, but we will see what happens on Christmas, hopefully they will all still be happy!!

I forgot Grandma came over with cupcakes and the kid helped her make turkeys! They all had so much fun!

The girls and Great Uncle Sonny. Kayla use to scream everytime he was by her or even talked! We would go and visit grandma great and he would have to leave the room before she would come in always. And then last Christmas after grandma passed she walked right up to him and gave him the biggest hug and kiss ever. Now they are great buds!

We all had a great Thanksgiving! Spent the day over at my aunt Mary Jo's with a small extended family this year. I can't remember the last time it was that small. The food was good, company great and the kids somewhat behaved! We went in to watch the parade of lights Friday night in hopes to see the big man himself, Santa. We missed him!! Yep!! Hopefully we can find him somewhere later.Like the goggles? She wouldn't take them off all day on Thanksgiving!

Most of the rest of the weekend was spent working inside the house. Dan keeps telling me to get these thoughts out of my head and leave things be. Hes the one who disagrees with everything!! He never can see the whole vision, until halfway through a project. And then he will fess up and say "you know that looks better" or "i see what you were talking about" every time. But he can never just do it with no complaining. I don't get it! Maybe one day, I'm not betting any money though!

That now brings us to Sunday. Madison had her fall dance recital. Due to her school schedule and my babysitting one she was only able to take Ballet this year. It was so very cute. She told us on the way home she wants to do a solo next year! We'll see how everything goes when that time comes.

That brings us back up to date!! Enjoy the pictures!!

Rachelle

HFH update!

2008-11-21T07:19:00.000-08:00

Well its that time again....Friday weigh in. We are now into the last couple of week of this challenge and I'm kinda sad that its going to be over. I hope she has something else up her sleeves for us all! I did my best this week to follow my vows I really did, but I just couldn't' work in all those workouts. I'll have to try better this next week! So that leaves the good stuff....down 2 whole pounds. Whew! I'll take that over zero any day. I also earned myself a new shinny badge. I'm having a hard time convincing myself that I have in fact lost more than 15 pounds since this started. If it wasn't for the fact my pants are fitting better and the smaller shirt size now fits I wouldn't actually believe it.

So what do you think of the new page? I also added some music..

Rachelle

Randomness!!

2008-11-19T10:11:00.000-08:00

I have been tagged by Christie O. from Baby Tea Leaves to post 8 random facts about me. This should be fun...Where to start?

1. I hate shopping for me! I can buy everyone else something but never me. And Dan has to force me to do it. There is always something either the kids or the house needs.

2. I love hearing my kids laugh, and hate to see them cry.

3. I have only wrecked one car in my life. Just so happens it was before I got my license. (remember that A?)

4. I have the greatest friends and family in the world.

5. I met my husband while working at a motel. (Get your minds out of the gutter) By chance I may add...he wasn't suppose to come up on that trip and someone got sick so up he came.

6. I to LOVE Christmas...I have already started to decorate for it. Call me crazy, its a long process.

7. I miss my grandma more everyday.

8. I'm having a blast doing my mini book that I ordered from Melanie over at Mo's Joy, (its actually under Jake's Aunt on my blog list) She still has some if you want to do one also, I think, head over there and find out.

And you probably thought you were going to get some juicy detail about me.. Sorry its a family blog so its gotta stay clean. Ha ha like I have anything juicy in my live anyway!!

I tag anyone who wants to play as well. Just let me know so I can check them out.

Rachelle

PS. Anyone know how to make a new signature for me to match my new page? Please share! Thanks.

HFH update!

2008-11-14T10:39:00.000-08:00

This week our challenge was to write our vows , and because she said we could copy and paste hers in they were similar, I cheated a little! I'm busy today!
-For the next 4 weeks, I will eat clean.
-Every time I want to sluff off a workout or I want to spontaneously stuff a donut in my piehole, I will think of this group and how it has pushed me to lose 15.4 pounds already in the challenge and how we have lost 400 pounds as a group. By staying true to myself and making myself a priority (for once). I will think about how I am only a stone's throw away from the healthiest me I can be.
-I will make healthy meals and surround myself with healthy choices.
-I will enjoy treats but only ones that I have planned in advance and in moderation,
-I will work out three times a week and work out an additional two.
-Above all, I will not comfort and/or reward myself in food.

I tweaked some of them a little, my personal favorite is the second one. I really need to work and getting more "me" time this week. Kinda have pushed it to the back burner the last two weeks and my numbers have shown that. But this weeks loss was 2.4 pounds. Really wasn't expecting that but I'll take it.

Ohhhh MEGAN!

2008-11-04T15:17:00.001-08:00

Here they are, the long awaited pictures. I hopped on here this afternoon only to get called out into putting on some pictures. So I caved. Even though I'm fighting a major cold among other things. Anything to keep my friends happy! I was expecting Angie first though. Here is Madison's new glasses. Aren't they cute?!?!

Things are good. William is doing somewhat better. Still on his breathing treatments 6-8x daily, depending on the day. Madison was kept home yesterday from school due to a fever that took forever to break. And MaKayla.......the drama is with her this week. I have a great pictures to share, but it would probably gross alot out so I won't post it. I ended up taking her to the ER last night. Due to the fact that she had blood gushing out of her nose most of the day. No I didn't type that wrong. It was gushing, so bad it would soak through ALL her clothes, blankets and start to pool. I had never before seen that, and I have seen alot of things with these three! The ER doc said it was due to a virus she has. He wanted to cauterise the blood vessels up there, her ped. said no. Then he moved to the nitrate stuff, another no, that stuff burns! And just one more great idea to pack her nose. All three shut down by her ped. doc. Thank goodness! Verdict is to keep it super moist with Vaseline, and go back in if and when it starts back up.

On to the pictures!! They are kinda funky looking. I think my camera is messed up bad. So you'll just have to deal with them. sorry!

A trip to the ER!

2008-10-31T06:40:00.000-07:00

I know I promised pictures of Madison and her new glasses.........but the batteries for my camera won't hold a charge! Time for some new ones. Hopefully they will work to at least get some pictures of the kids in their Halloween costumes. We have a Hannah Montana, Spider man, and a Southern Belle. They are going to be so cute!

The kids had a "surprise" yesterday. Mom and dad came home this week from California. My mom had went to Plentywood Wednesday, to get Great Grandma. They were so happy to see them both. MaKayla asked Great Grandma if she was home from Heaven. It was so precious and sad at the same time.

We took William to the ER on Wednesday night. He has had a cough for a few weeks now nothing major, just extra drainage. (I know TMI) But Wednesday night it turned into something more. His treatments and cough medicine weren't helping at all. With our pediatrician out of town this week, we braved the SHS once again. It wasn't as bad as its been before. I'm thinking it had a lot to do with Dan being there and very nice nurses. They were awesome! Poor little boy has croup and double ear infections in both ears! By the time we got to the ER he was barley able to breath between his coughing, his O2 stats were in the low to mid 80's. A few breathing treatments a shot of rocephin (sp) and some lovely predisone (sp) has helped tremendously! He is almost back to his normal self, I guess as much as he can be with the predisone.

Also our family photo session with Megan in up on her site if anyone wants to take a peek. Its the very last one on the left side of her blog. We had so much fun that weekend. Even though it was freezing cold. The pictures turned out awesome. Thank you so much Megan!

SOOO

2008-10-24T07:13:00.000-07:00

Okay so I haven't been the best at updating lately. I can't even say we were busy or anything. Just not a whole lot going on. Where to start!

How about HFH. I was so expecting a gain this week, since I bought a new scale last week and had a huge loss. BUT...down another 2! Seriously, I don't know where its coming off from, cuz I haven't noticed anything major. Well I guess there are a few spots, and I'll spare you the details. The major thing I suppose it that its finally coming off!

What else...Oh Madison got her new glasses yesterday! I don't have picture yet, because my batteries are dead, no surprise there! But I'll get them up tonight hopefully! We still haven't heard anything on her EEG and its starting to upset me a little.

MaKayla and William are doing great! Will is excelling in school so much that its just awesome. His speech has improved by leaps and bounds in just 2 months. I would love to say so has his hearing, but that would be a lie! And boy oh boy has he developed an opinion on everything!! But then again so has Kayla. Maybe its just their age! I remember Madison getting this way as well at that age. But its harder now with the two of them!

Pictures

2008-10-22T20:04:00.000-07:00

HFH update

2008-10-17T10:07:00.000-07:00

Well today is another Friday weigh in. I will say that I didn't have high hopes for this week at all. Just to much going on. I was lets just say SHOCKED when I stepped on the scale this morning! Total loss since last Friday was 6 pounds! However, I did buy a new scale this week, so I'm thinking that has a whole lot to do with it. But considering I was weighed 3x last week and my old scale was way off from the other two I think the new one is right. Time will tell though.

Madison

2008-10-14T19:34:00.000-07:00

Last night Madison and I had the privilege of staying up ALL night long! And let me tell you it was one long night. This mama and her girl like their sleep. I will admit that I had high hopes of getting some things done last night, but Madison just wanted to watch movies, so we vegged.

Madison was suppose to get all of her testing done today for the episodes that she has been having. The only other thing that was worse than staying up all night was the 6:30 a.m. appointment in Williston. Driving for an hour at 4 in the morning with a 5 year old, that you had to keep awake was not much fun. Her movie was turned up all the way and she was still trying to sleep. The only thing that helped was looking for Christmas lights. She thought the lights on the drilling rigs we Christmas lights. She couldn't figure out why they were up already.
Her EEG went on with just a little problems. She was so tired and loopy from her medication she didn't want to be touched at all. And boy oh boy did she let us all know. Bless her heart! But as soon as everything was hooked up, out she went. We finished up just in time for her MRI. But however by the time they called us back her medication had began to wear off! Then they had to put her into a gown and tried to get her to lay down. We worked for a good 45 minutes trying to talk her into doing it. But the second the tech slid down the face cage it started all over. And don't even let me began on what happened when they slid her into it. Goodness! And then they turned it on! We decided it would be better to have her fully sedated for the MRI. There was no way she would sit 100% still during it. Dr. Cook wants to wait and see how the EEG comes back before scheduling the MRI again.

Next we had her eye appointment. She could barely keep her eyes open towards the end. But that because the whole apt. was about 2 hours long! Little girly with be sporting some cute new glasses soon! She wanted pink, and we couldn't find any where were at. However she did get two pairs and I will post pictures of her with them when they come in.

Well that's about all. Its bedtime and considering I've had little sleep in the past 24 I want all I can get tonight!

Here is the low down!

2008-10-10T17:20:00.000-07:00

Okay so two posts in one day. You all should feel special! Do you??

Boy have we had a busy week. As some of you may or may not know. Madison had an episode at school last week which prompted a call home to me. They described it as a possible seizure. And our ever so lovely pediatrician Dr.Cook gave her a complete look over on a Saturday morning. She made the decision to do and EEG and a MRI. Those both will hopefully give us the correct answers we are looking for. But from what the note the teacher wrote and a few other odd things that have been going on since the beginning of summer that's what we are thinking is going on. She has both tests set up for this next Tuesday. So please keep her in your prayers.

William and Makayla both had their flu shots on Thursday while we were over there for other appointments. They both freaked! Kayla was able to get the spray, but poor Will had the actual shot. He had to much mucus in his nose. I think Kayla may have a phobia now with her nose as well as her ears. Madison the lucky little dog, was able to stay with grandma for the day! As she had a flu shot earlier.

There are a whole bunch more things, but not enough time in the day. We are leaving this weekend to have our family photo session with my most favorite photographer Megan! The weather isn't suppose to be so great, like tons of snow! But I know they will be awesome! And we hope to visit with a couple other friends while we are in Bismarck.

HFH Update!

2008-10-10T09:55:00.000-07:00

So we have been doing this for I think 5 weeks. The progress has lets just say been slow and steady. But I suppose that's how it is to be sometimes. That's how I ended up with all the extra baggage in the first place. I however am proud to say that just this week a new leaf has turned and my work is starting to pay off! I have eared myself a pretty new 5lbs badge to go on this blog. But for some reason I can't get it on here. So for all you other HFH women out there, how the heck can I do that?!?! Never mind I just figured it out. Thanks though!

Wordless Wednesdays!!

2008-10-08T12:39:00.001-07:00

Still Here!!

2008-10-01T13:43:00.000-07:00

Yes we are! SO SO sorry its been awhile. Any one still out there?!?!

Where to start.....the past few weeks have been busy. With Madison and William both in school one would think I have extra time on my hands. Nope! Actually that's my own fault, but oh well.

William is doing wonderful in his new school! Its also a huge blessing that he loves going, he comes home so excited about it every day. Madison and him have to show each other their papers first thing when they both get home. Its super cute!

We enjoyed a short, but sweet visit from one of my oldest friends and her two cute boys! The visit wasn't very long, but so worth it. Next time Ang it will be longer. We miss you all very much! Can't wait until the next one.

We have also been busy around the house. With winter coming fast the new windows needed to be put in. Lets just say they weren't as easy as I had thought they would be. Dan would agree that the next time someone else can do them. But they only took about 3 weekends to finish up. I'm waiting on someone to come and give an estimate for the living room and basement windows since Dan refuses to do those ones. Now if only I could find the energy to finish up the work around the inside of them all. And then it on to the next project, which I'm thinking is going to be the main bath. We had a very bad accident this past weekend that happened in there. Dan and I were in town during the accident. But it involved: one child, the ticked off kitty Sophie, hinged door to the bath tub plumbing, a broken leg, crying, well you get the idea. Sophie is no longer with us as her leg was BAD. I'm thankful it wasn't a finger or another limb, but it wasn't easy. MaKayla still thinks she is at the doctors getting her leg fixed. William of course slaps her (literally) back into reality. She asks every morning if we can go and pick her up. Poor little girl.

We went to the river last night with papa and grandma to have a cook out and go fishing. The kids all had a blast. Papa and Madison caught two fish. William thought they were pretty neat and loved to pick them up! Kayla well that a different story...she did start to warm up to them at the end of the evening. Maybe next time she will be better.

Pictures to come later I need to pick Madison up from the bus stop now.

OK OK OK

2008-09-10T13:08:00.000-07:00

So someone was throwing a fit because I haven't had the time to upload the pictures yet. I won't say who, ANGIE, but come on. Its not like I don't have other things to do Ang, I'll try to do better next time. But wait one minute, where are the new pictures of your boys?? I think there is a saying that goes well with this, something about casting stones, or one of those other ones. You know what I'm talking about!

ANYWAY!! Here they are!

Madison 1st day of Kindergarten

William 1st day of his new preschool

I'm working on them!

2008-09-04T19:21:00.000-07:00

That is the pictures of course! Things have been busy here this week, and well my batteries died in my camera which means I cant upload any. Good news it though, I found the charger tonight so hopefully, fingers crossed you should have them tomorrow. MAYBE!

In other news....William is in school now also! Time to have a party! I didn't write that, promise. He was able to get into the special education program that they offer at the older elementary school in Sidney. He is super pumped about riding the "school bus". Oh the joys of being little. His current testing scores were lower than the original that we did in May, and I know that most of it was because of the age standards. Since they had to test him again after he turned 3 the standards went up, so he was well over 50% delayed in two areas, and 37% in another. And his poor speech, he is misunderstood 57% of the time. No wonder we have "issues" with him. He goes to school 4 days a week, with Wednesday being his day off. He gets on the bus at 10:50 and doesn't come home until about 4:00. That makes for a LONG day for a 3 year old, not to mention his mama! But let me tell you something, he goes to bed a whole lot easier now! He use to be a huge challenge at bedtime and now its a piece of cake, and the best part, he stays in his own bed the WHOLE night! Its great!!

William will also be getting a new set of ear tubes on Monday. This will be his 3rd set in 2 years. His ENT is hopefull that this will be his last set, as most kids outgrow the need for them after 3 years. I on the other hand am being a little more realistic about it and have a feeling that we will be dealing with this problem for awhile. He is still getting to many infections even with the tubes in place. Our pediatrician is having to refer back to medicine that I received when I was little, to treat his ear infections, as he doesn't respond to the modern medicine anymore. So we will see how things go!

Well Well Well

2008-08-29T11:29:00.000-07:00

Where to start! How about our trip back home to Wyoming. We loved it! We all had so much fun visiting with everyone. We left early Friday morning and the 5 maybe 6 hour trip there ended up being close to 8. Full credit there goes to the "I need to go potty" phrase. Dan will tell you it was every 5 minutes, but it really was more like every 20.

We started the weekend at Wade and Marsha's house. The kids LOVED it. They ran and ran and ran some more. But after being in a car all day what else are you going to have them do? The fed the cows and threw rocks. William even went to "help" irrigate, since he has his boots on. Then it was kitty time! Those poor kitty's are probably glad the kids are gone. It was to cute, every time William would start back over to them, they would all take off. I wonder why, maybe after the 10th free fall they decided he wasn't as nice as his sisters. Whoo knows!

Then later that night we finally got to meet baby Jax. The girls were in love. I have the cutest picture of all them with her but I need to ask Angie first, sorry. Madison was so happy to see Auntie Angie and Uncle Luke, but even more so for Grandma Mona. Thank you Zane and Ramona for letting us stay at the house! We made it to the frog pond on Saturday and they had a blast. William didn't want to try the slide until right before we left, and then he made up for it! He went about a hundred times in 5 minutes. MaKayla the chicken that she is never did try it!

Sunday was time to go, the kids were so sad! And that's an understatement. We stopped and visited a few others before heading out of town. It was great to meet their family's. When we moved nobody had any kid, except us and now they all have some, so it was fun.

Last Wednesday was the start of school. Madison had her first day of Kindergarten. She was stoked!! I must admit I was a little sad to see her off to school, but to see her so happy about something again, melts my heart. She loves everything about school, her friends, desk, PE and even the bus ride! Everyday after school she asks when she can go back. William misses her so much while she is gone, and welcomes her home every day with a big ole hug and kiss.

That's all for now. I'll finish and add pictures later this weekend! Hope everyone had a fun and safe Labor Day weekend!!

All about Madison!!

2008-08-14T11:07:00.000-07:00

So I forgot to mention the other HUGE milestone we reached last week. Time gets away from me. Madison has had 4 loose teeth all summer long, shes been waiting a long time for them to com out. And FINALLY!! We had thought for sure one would fall out during the fair, but no that little thing hung on. We tried numerous ways to finish it off, but it just wouldn't budge. She wanted so badly for it to come out during the fair so she would have some money for the games. That tiny little thing finally came out on Monday the 4th. She was so excited, even more so when she woke up the next morning to find what the tooth fairy had left her. Momma tooth fairy would of left more than daddy "molar man" did, he was being stingy!

She is all ready for school to start on the 20th. Mom on the other hand isn't. I can't believe she is starting school already. Where does the time go? We picked up her school supplies last week while we took brother to the doctor. She had so much fun picking out her own things. She even picked out her own first day outfit.

1st day of preschool "06" 1st day of preschool "07"

Isn't she just cute, or what?? Gosh I love this girl!

Here is what we did last Friday!

2008-08-07T08:23:00.000-07:00

I actually have another milestone to post later this week also. But first....here is what we did on Friday evening. A friend of mine from high school, Megan, is starting to build her portfolio for her new photography business. I was so exited that she was coming home this past weekend for the fair and was able to get her to take the kids birthday pictures and such. They are awesome! So to take a look click here!!

I can honestly say that they are some of the best ones we have had in a long time. Even though it was over 100 and we were outside. William was being a turd and has a serious look in alot of them, so not his personalty at all but they are still cute. MaKayla, she just loved Megan, and is still talking about her! Madison, was giving alot of cheesy smiles, but is ready for some more with Megan.

So for those of you over in the Bismarck/Mandan area, if you are looking for a great photographer, send her an email. Its listed on her website I believe. You will have a lot of fun with her.

Thank you Megan, !for taking the time away from visiting with you dad and his family to take the kids pictures. We can't wait until we do our family ones.

Birthday Pictures!

2008-08-04T20:56:00.000-07:00

Birthday Party and Fair

2008-08-04T08:39:00.000-07:00

Well lets see.......The birthday party went great! The kids had a ton of fun with everyone. William absolutely loved his spider man cake. The days leading up to the party all he could talk about was his spider man birthday, and it still continues. That's all he talks about. MaKayla loved her butterfly party as well. But once it was time for presents she liked the barbies more. She is growing up to fast. They couldn't open the presents fast enough. And then they had to try them ALL out.

This past weekend we had the fair. They all had a blast. Wednesday night started with the horse extravaganza. Madison and her friend, Gracie were part of Jades' performance this year. They had to "dance" upfront. They were really cute, William and MaKayla thought they needed to help out with the dancing. It turned out to be quite funny! Thursday we looked at the exhibits and the animals won. They were the favorite of the kids. Kayla screamed every time we went near them last year, and this year we had to drag her away from them. William on the other had was gagging from the smell! They loved the Budweiser's Clydesdale horses. Kayla was picking hers out to take home. If only it were that easy! We only went to eat on Friday as we had other things going on that day.

Saturday was the day they were waiting for. Rides!! Madison is starting to outgrow the "baby" rides so she was trying out the bigger rides that she could get on. I thought she would either freak out before she got on, or loose her cookies during the ride. But no, she LOVED them all! It was a good thing that I had bought Dan and I stamps to ride as well. They changed the height for the big slide sometime this year and she couldn't go on it. She had looked forward to doing it by herself this year, but couldn't. She couldn't even ride with dad! They all rode the roller coaster, while grandma and great grandma sat and watched while having a heart attack at the thoughts of what could happen!

Now that's its all over we have been spending the last two days trying to get back onto our schedule. We have some very unhappy 3 year olds! I think its a mixture of allergies and lack of sleep. I hope, unless its the start of something else for William he sounds worse than the girls. Time will tell.

We have a couple of other things to share but for now that will do. You'll need to check back later this week, to hear what we did Friday. I will also add some pictures of the party and some of the fair tonight. My camera is in the van, and Dan took that today!

Happy 3rd Birthday MaKayla & William

2008-08-01T07:54:00.000-07:00

Three years ago you two came into our lives a little early. But we were so blessed to have you here safe and sound. What a joy you have brought to everyones lives since that day. We can't believe that you are already 3 years old!

Happy Birthday!
all our love mommy, daddy, and madison

A little early!

2008-07-21T14:10:00.000-07:00

Okay so I know I'm early with this, but I seriously won't have time to post it later this week. Here is the Birthday video for the twins. On August 1st they will turn 3! I can hardly believe that we welcomed them just 3 short years ago. It seems like just last week! I'm kidding!!! They have forever changed our lives. Its a new adventure everyday! We love them both very much!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I will post some pictures of their party sometime next week. They are having a spider man and butterfly party. Nice combo I know. William is getting more excited everyday! Its so funny. When we first started talking about their birthday they started to fight over whose birthday it actually was. And now they have finally figured out that it is both of their birthdays, or brday as they would say.

Things are good here. We are trying to finish up a couple of different projects here before the party this weekend. I don't think we will make it though. The kids spent all of Saturday with my mom while Dan and I worked. And its just now starting to come back together. Dan ran into a couple of different problems. So there are a couple added hole in our walls to fix!

2008-07-16T14:25:00.000-07:00

OK, so I've been a terrible blogger lately. I don't really know why. I'm on the computer every day for numerous reasons for my home businesses. However, I just can't seem to find the time to post anything.

Here we sit mid July...I'm currently planning away for the twins 3rd birthday. I had been planning on a cowboy/girl party for awhile now. But just last weekend we decided to go the spider man and flower/butterfly way. (William loves spider man!) Maybe one year it will be easy for us to plan their party. Trying to have two separate kids parties on the same day with completely different likes and dislikes is really starting to rack my brain. If only they could of been the same sex!! I have almost finished up their birthday video and will post it sometime next week. But here is a picture of them then and now. For those who don't know William was on the

left. And if there are any family member out there that have any newborn pictures please let me know as we have lost ALL of ours except a few. So please let me know thanks.

That's about all. I'll post some more pictures later. Have a nice weekend.

MaKayla

2008-07-09T20:29:00.000-07:00

This cute little girl here.

Who would of ever thought she would be covered in POO!

Yeah I know she will probably die of embarrassment when shes 16, but it was her first time! But not the last!!!!!!

And a cute little princess at times!

The one kid that is going to keep us on her toes has found something else she likes to do. Besides her usual eating sand, dirt, rocks, putting stuff in her nose etc... She has now moved to her ears!! This is what the doctors pulled out tonight!

Its a rhinestone, from where, I have no idea. And how and why its there is a mystery to me. The child has NEVER let me do anything with her ears. The other main reason they aren't pierced yet, besides the fact daddy says no! It was a major chore to hold her still long enough for them to get it out. And now we even get to go back to Dr. Benions to have her ears cleaned since they are nasty! That's going to make for a wonderful visit!

Pictures!!

2008-07-07T11:34:00.000-07:00

What have we been up to??

2008-07-02T12:24:00.000-07:00

That's a great question! The days are all running together, it seems. I can hardly believe that's its already July!! The kids are growing like weeds. The twins are quickly approaching their 3rd birthday, August 1. Funny it seems just like yesterday they were born. I'm working on a slide show for their birthdays for on here. I hope to get it done by then anyway. But I can't seem to find all the newborn pictures here. So stay tuned. On to other things.

We have been busy here. But what else is new really. Three kids, jobs and a huge check list of things that need to get done, well you get the idea. Now that the fence is up, the grass has started to grow back somewhat. But we will fix that this fall so next year it will be super nice, hopefully. The kids are loving it outside. And I love the fact that William can't run off. The pool has been used everyday since we set it up. The twins finally were brave enough yesterday to try it out. Probably because it wasn't so cold.

Last weekend Madison went to Fort Peck with Mary Jo and the kids. They went to the Susical Musical. A play at the theater by Dr. Sues. She loved it. They were also able to go jet skiing and boating. And I'm proud to say that the little pasty white girl finally has a little tan! For those of you who have never seen her she has the fairest skin ever. This week we have my dads side of the family here. So we will be busy all week, and I promise to update with pictures later. I forgot my camera at my parents house last night. Sorry!!

Madison, she is a hoot! But we still love her. She says the funniest things. Just last night, she told my Uncle Brian, "I'm so glad to see your hair is starting to grow back!" I about died. Then later in the evening she was sitting on the couch with my grandma and says "when I get to be a grandma great I hope my arms aren't saggy!" Seriously, where does she come up with these things. She just tells it like it is, and that's just scary. I can't wait to see what she tells her teacher this fall!

MaKayla and William, where to start! They make life interesting. Every single day they are out to get me, I think. It is so fun to watch the two of them together when they actually want to play with each other. The night before last MaKayla was in the bedroom screaming and in charges William, sword drawn saying "I'll save you princess!" PRICELESS!! Dan and I have a meeting with the school district for the early intervention preschool for William next week I think, to see if he will qualify for it. So that is going to be interesting, to say the least.

I think that sums up the past week or so. Again sorry no pictures I will get those on here later.

Love you all!

Fathers Day and Birthdays!

2008-06-17T18:06:00.000-07:00

This weekend we had our ONLY (that's a hint to our brothers and sisters BTW) nephew Cadens' 1st birthday party on Saturday. He is such a cutie! We love him and so do the kids. I can't believe he is already a year old.

After the birthday party we were able to get the trampoline and swimming pool set up for the kids to enjoy. The kids are going to have so much fun this year with such a huge yard to just run. They have been outside everyday since it started to get warm. William and his endless supply of energy can jump on the trampoline for hours on end, never getting tired.

Sunday was Father's day. I think Dan was hoping for a nice quiet day at home!! Does that exist with kids?? He was able to sleep past 6, so does that count as sleeping in? One could hope! This Sunday was also our intern pastors last day so we had carry in dinner after church services. We all enjoyed the extra time with everyone. And for dinner my parents had us over for BBQ. Ended up being an easy day for me. I had wanted to stop by the greenhouse on the way home from church to pick up a few more flowers and replace some garden plants the dogs tore up. That ended up being a chore! Dan wanted to go back after he heard of the great deal I just received. So he picked up more of everything. And of course they needed to be planted, my garden is now huge! I know what I will be doing this fall. Or I should say I know what I will attempt to do this fall!

Yesterday and today we spent most of the days outside working on the yard. I have finally made it to my front flower bed and one by the garage. Tomorrow I hope to tackle the one on the side of the house, and replace some of the trees that have died out. We have also went with my Aunt Mary Jo and looked at a couple of houses near by for her and the kids. She has been looking for the past few years for a house with land and this must be her year, as there are 3 within 4 miles of each other. And best of all, they are all by us. So hopefully they can make up their minds soon.

My cousin Shane, AKA Shane the pain by Madison, is here for the summer. He came to help my dad out with the bees. He is so great with the kids, and they love him so much. Its so nice to be surrounded with my family up here. In July my dads sisters and my grandma will all be here for our annual family camping trip. Although we aren't going camping this year. We are excited to spend time with all of them!!

Okay that's about all for now. Happy Anniversary to my brother Derek and his wife Angie, it is two years also for them this year. We stressed our mom out a little bit with two wedding two weeks apart in 05. But I'm also forgetting to mention my baby brother graduated high school two weeks before my wedding!! LOL mom!

Welcome Baby Cole Thomas

2008-06-13T20:49:00.000-07:00

Today one of my oldest and dearest friend, Angie and her husband Wes, welcomed their second baby to the world. Another boy! Mister Cole Thomas came into this world at 5:16, a whooping 6 lbs 2 oz, and was 20.25 inches long. Please join me in welcoming baby Cole to the world, and showing your support to Angie, Wes and BIG brother Brody. (click here for their blog) We love you all and can't wait to meet little Cole! When are you coming home again?!?! Inquiring minds want to know!

They are HOME!!

2008-06-12T09:34:00.000-07:00

Well that is Mary Jo, Grant and Jade. They made it home for the summer finally. Which means life as we once knew it will no longer be. Madison is all ready itching to spend the night. They stopped by Tuesday night on their way to Sidney and the girls ran right up to all of them excited. William decided to play hard to get. Why, I have no idea, totally not his personalty at all!! But he did end the night on happy note on Grants belly! He jumped from the couch to Grant and yelled, I'm spider man!! Everyone thought it was funny, except Grant!

We all had a good weekend. Dan and Travis spent much of Saturday leveling out the yard. I think there was a slight miscommunication between us there. But what can you do really? We now have an almost flat back yard, but now its mud. It has rained everyday since Sunday. If only the grass seed would come in a little faster. Then fence finally was finished up Saturday night. Uncle Bubba and dad worked on it until late!! We still need to fix a couple of things with it, but it will keep William from wondering off!

Saturday we had to take MaKayla to the ER. She took a big fall while Dan and I were moving the swing set around. Her two bottom teeth went thru the inside of her top lip. We thought she would need stitches, so in we went. Only to find that my favorite Dr. was on call (NOT). There is a reason we don't doctor in Sidney!! He hardly looked at it the first time, until he asked why we brought her in...Um hello, she has a huge hole in her lip!! Not to mention a bruised tooth and she hit her head and she is only 2. One would think common sense comes to mind, but no. They told us it would be completely healed in 5 days. Um yeah nope! Today is day 5 and its just as bad and her lip is still swelled up. I'm just hoping now she doesn't get an infection. She can however do a new trick now. She pulls her lip completely up and over her nose all the way, as the piece of skin that once kept it from doing that is no longer there. Its kinda sick, but it gives a great view of the hole in her lip.

That's all the excitement for the week. No pictures yet, I will add them later. Hope everyone has a great Thursday!! Don't forget to let us know you were here!! You all are slacking in the comment department.

2008-06-06T11:49:00.000-07:00

I couldn't come up with a good title for this one. So I'm not as great about this blogging thing as I had hoped, or it could because I"m extremely busy everyday!! I'm going with the later of the two!

Well lets see....we went down to the river the week before last. Some friend that I haven't seen in years were here paddle fishing. The kids had a blast there. They were walking and picking rocks. William was chasing MaKayla around with a worm. My mom was freaking out that they would get poison ivy.....she worries to much! Madison got a ride on a motorcycle and loved throwing rocks in the river. Oh yeah can you believe we got little chicken Makayla on this for a picture!!

That's my mom there with the kids for those who doesn't know. And she will probably kick my butt when she finds out its on here!! Sorry mom!! Here are a few more from that day. They loved walking and picking the rocks. Too bad that we can't anymore, its all under water now!

Our friend Jamison came over for a visit this week.. Next to Uncle Bubba he is the kids favorite person. They played outside, had a sword fight, and hill climbed with the jeep!

Jamison, William and Casey the dog

I think he was loosing to a girl here!
I missed one of Madison and Jamie together, oops! Next time.

On Tuesday Dan and I celebrated our 2nd Wedding anniversary. We had dinner with my parents and Uncle Bubba. We have learned that things aren't always easy, and don't go as planed most times. But as long as you do it together it will get done. I hope that this year brings us more good times than the last.

Photo credits to Picture Perfect Photography

I thought that I had one of just me an Dan on the computer, bu I guess I don't. Might have to find one. On another note I think we should order our wedding pictures! We still haven't!! I wonder if Jan has a deadline on ordering them??? Better call her.

This weekend we are going to finish the last spot of the stupid fence! If we EVER need another one we are so having someone else do it!! And when that's done we can put in the last few trees over there and be completely done with those as well. We'll also get the clematis planted and hopefully it will take off fast!! We also hope to get the swimming pool up and ready. Madison has been asking for weeks now when it can go up!! So hopefully! Keep your fingers crossed.

My aunt and cousin, Mary Jo and Jade will be home for the summer this weekend also. The kids don't know yet. They are going to be so excited!! Madison and William are ready to ride JOJO again. They are actually hoping that daddy lets him, Jojo, come and live in the back pasture. Daddy isn't liking the idea!

Well that's about all for now. I hope that everyone has a wonderful and safe weekend. Oh yeah I forgot. My dad will be having hip surgery on June 13th. So please keep him in your prayers. And then on the 14th is our nephews 1st birthday party. Where does the time go??

As promised

2008-05-28T20:31:00.000-07:00

Madison wanted a picture of "Casey" on here also!

Don't ask aout the boots. He loves to wear Madisons'!

More will come later its getting late!

And the fence...

2008-05-27T14:31:00.000-07:00

Is still not up! Darn!! We, well maybe, I should say I had BIG plans for the weekend. It was to get up the rest of the fence. We are about 70 feet short. Dan had brought home what he thought was 6 foot high chain link from work. We stretched it out and I said you know this doesn't look tall enough. He replied that because its laying down. So we take it over there and yep sure enough its 2 foot short! I chuckled to myself, as he said a few choice words. So back to unroll the other pile. And that also looks like its not the right size. I made Dan measure that one before dragging it all the way over, that stuff is heavy. Thank goodness I did it was 7 foot! I would really like to know what kind of fence they had going on at Mitchells, especially with 3 different sizes in fence!! At least they had 100 feet of 6 foot, so that wasn't to bad. We only need to buy two more rolls, that is if I can get UBC to get them in. Speaking of them...UBC has failed me again. I relly think that people should change their nick name from "You've Been Cheated" to "You've Been Screwed" Okay I know it doesn't fit the same but all in all they can't get anyting done rght! The rest of the finishing pieces for the 4 foot side were suppose to be in last week, Friday at the latest. They just arrived today and they forgot to order an other roll of 4 ft high to put in place of the drive through gate until we can get to Menards. OMG!! How many times can they screw this up?? After a nice harsh phone call it will be here tomorrow along with the two other rolls. So no more excuses it WILL be up by the weekend. FINALLY!! William won't be able to escape anymore!!

Speaking of him, that little stinker gave me another heart attach this weekend. I was planting some flowers and he was over playing on the 4 wheeler, I went inside for a minute and came out and he was gone. I figured he went to play with the girls so I pick up my mess and went to check on them. He wasn't there. He had taken off again! This time he wasn't in the garage, but down the hill on his way to someones house! He told me he was going to see his papa! Granted that's only a mile walk but with the legs of a 3 yr old that would of taken forever!

Little Madison helped plant flowers, and some more things in the garden. She really likes to help with those things. That's good because we still have a bunch to do yet. Madison also got to help daddy with the backhoe dig out tree stumps! She said it was "Way Cool" and that she wants to drive one when she gets bigger! MaKayla wasn't having a good weekend. But she still was cute. She "almost" made it up to the tractor before freaking out! Dan got her to the tire and then it was over!

Monday we were going to make it to the parade in Sidney but ran a little behind. Oh well! We did however make it to the services at the Fairview cemetery for the Veterans. Will and Madison really enjoyed the 21 gun salute. We were able to see a bunch of people we hadn't seen in awhile and they were surprised at how big the kids have gotten. What do you think is going to happen in a year?!?!

My dad was suppose to be having hip surgery tomorrow but he asked for it to be pushed back a couple of weeks. The reason being he needs to get the bees out and supered up and workers lined up. Please pray that it all comes together. And that he doesn't mess up hip more.

That's about all sorry if it was boring. I never was one for writing! Always hated it! I'll post pictures later, can't seem to find my camera cord today!

OK

2008-05-23T12:23:00.000-07:00

Well I have noticed the past few days that there has been more traffic through here. And don't get me wrong I LOVE IT, but we haven't been getting any comments. We would love to know that you stopped by so please, please leave us a note. Come out of the shadows! Its not that bad!! That's all thanks and have a GREAT WEEKEND!!! We sure will!

Look What Daddy Came Home With!!

2008-05-19T13:39:00.000-07:00

Not exactly what we had planned on getting, but it was FREE!! Yep, that's the way my husband likes things to come. The kids love it so I suppose it will work for this year and next spring we can upgrade to the awesome one from swing in slide. Its been here since Thursday and daddy still hasn't found the time to attach the slide or the spin thing. But that's not keeping the kids from using the slide. They must think its okay for it to fall over as you go down, makes a better ride that way, I guess. The way things are looking for the week the slide won't get "put" on til the weekend either!

We were able to get one side of the fence put up this past weekend and the rest of the post in the ground. Hopefully this weekend we will be able to finish it up. THAT IS OF COURSE...if UBC gets us the rest of the top rails and things. I'm not really holding my breath especially since it took 2 weeks to get the 6ft posts when they promised it would only be a week! And then they sent half of the wrong items! I hope they get here so we can move on to the next item on the list. MORE TREES!! They need to be planted by the 6 ft side and I don't want a bunch of people walking on them just to get the fence up, so they sit.

No, that is not dirt they are standing on!! Gross I know, it was all DAD!

Other than that things are good. Still waiting to hear from Highline Homes for Williams testing. They must of forgot about it. If I don't hear from them tomorrow I'll call to see what is going on.

The girls are good. They are loving it outside!

Where does the time go?

2008-05-07T19:04:00.000-07:00

WOW!! I can't believe its already Wednesday! I guess the saying is right..."times flies when you are having fun." And that is exactly what we have been doing. The kids have spent every minute they can outside. Taking full advantage of the nice weather, if only we could get rid of that wind. But we will take what we can. Saturday Dan and I planted a few trees and started to put in some fence posts. We didn't get a lot accomplished since we always had to stop to see what "THEY" were up to. Mostly William, he likes to take off!

Sunday was an awesome day. My cousin Randall and Dan put up all the posts for the fence they could. While I was able to keep an eye on the three little tornado's. Madison helped me pant some more trees, we have a bunch to do. Then in the afternoon we had the Awana banquet which ended a terrific year with the kids.

Madison getting her awards and her Cubbbie Bear.

It was really windy on Sunday! She couldn't master opening her eyes!

He was thinking of a new way to hide.

We have had our last meeting with High-Line homes regarding William and his speech problems. Hopefully they will be able to help us out with that and since we no longer have him in speech at the hospital. I'll see the scoring next week and then we go from there. My hope is that it will work out to have it at the school next year so I'm not running all over the place!

Today we played outside more, its becoming the "NEW" thing. But after being locked up all winter they are ready for something different. With a special visit from good ole' uncle bubba!!

Hey Aliza this one is for you! Sorry!!! MaKayla just got a silly look and it reminded me of you and Landon!!

And last but not least my baby brother....uncle BUBBA!!

Kayla didn't want her picture taken with him, she was in one of her moods!

A Special Thanks!!

2008-05-02T10:24:00.000-07:00

Well as you all see the blog is finally complete. I would like to thank Hilary for the time she put into making the layout for us. We love it! Looking at her portfolio she had made a lot of the layout to blogs I visit. There is also a badge link at the bottom of the page. Thanks again Hilary.

As for us we are all doing great. We've had a few, okay well a bunch of "tantrums" this week. MaKayla is a drama queen! And I will just leave it at that!! The twins graduated from biting to hair pulling this week, since Will has hair to pull again from his recent hair cut. I guess that's still better than the knock down drag out fights they usually have. And they LOVE to tell on one another. The closer to 3 they get it seems they get worse.

She seems so sweet, but behind that smile...............

He likes to pretend also. Sitting with great grandma after great grandpas funeral last month.

But they do love one another!!!!! All the tantrums in the day are all better with one HUG!

And our BIG girl! She can't wait to start kindergarten this fall.

This weekend is a busy one so I probably won't post again until next week, sorry. But I will have some new pictures for you all. Tomorrow we have to plant the trees that are taking over my kitchen. Then in the afternoon we have a benefit for little Libby. She is Dans friend Levis' little girl. To find out what has been going on there, please visit her site and let them know you are thinking of them. And on Sunday we have our Awana banquet. Madison will e getting lots of awards for finishing her cubbie book. She has loved going to Cubbies, but is excited to be with me next year in Saprkies. I'm a little worried for next year as I don't want the other kids to think she has an unfair advantage. SO we will see how that goes.

On another note. Our little Caden is home with Auntie and Uncle and the kids were so excited to see them home. Their homecoming means that papa and grandma aren't far behind with presents of course as Madison would say! They are excited to go and "work" with papa!

Why??

2008-04-29T08:03:00.000-07:00

Okay so here it goes. As you see I decided to start a blog like every other American family these days. HA! No, I did it in hopes that I can look back one day and remember the silly things my kids did. Taking those extra 5 or 10 minutes daily will benefit our family more. And those who live miles away will always be able to see the latest pictures and happenings of our ever growing family!! So I hope you all enjoy it.