Christmas

Our Christmas was wonderful. As much as we would have loved to have spent the holidays with all of our family, we decided to stay home. It was very fun and relaxing. We spent the day in our jammies, and ate, played and watched movies. The kids all enjoyed their gifts. I didn't take any pictures of them with their gifts. But I did take a couple before and afters.

at the beginning



during



and after

We had a mess in all the common areas
of the house. We opened gifts in the
living room, threw trash in the entry way, kids opened boxes
in the family room, and we ate and dirtied
dishes in the kitchen and at the table.
It was a great day.

Merry Christmas.

We hope your Christmas was a beautiful one. We love you.

The Party

The boys creating

Logan-the little chef

The group

Andrew - Tanner's Best Friend

Tanner was so happy about Legos!!


I threw together a last minute birthday party for Tanner. It turned out great. We had lots of fun. 7 out of 8 boys showed up. We had aprons and chef hats. We made pizza, played games, cars and basketball. Cupcakes, presents and made ...


Gingerbread Houses. They had a great time designing their own masterpieces. Thanks Melissa for the cool idea. It was a hit!!

7 !!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TANNER!!!

7 years old. How is that even possible. I am not sure why it is so hard for me to believe that Tanner is 7, but it is. something about him being the oldest boy.

Gage

We took some pictures of
Gage this weekend.
Here he is with his walker
that we borrowed from
our physical therapist.



He wanted to eat a fudgecicle
just like everyone else.

He really gets into his work


Scary. just had to share
this funny picture

tree and other fun pics

We finally got the tree out, it
is in many pieces, but it goes
together quickly with everybody's
help.

can you say attitude?

the santa hats are out

It is tradition that Jared
and the kids put lights on,
then I pass out decorations to
each of the kids, and they swarm
all around me like bees to the
hive.

I didn't get a picture with the
lights on yet, but here is the
finished product.
we had a good time.

smile

Yesterday Austin was throwing

a fit, so Jared stuffed him in

the laundry basket.

It only took him a minute to

fall back and get out, but

not before I snapped some pictures

I'm sorry I didn't post info on Gage. I know I said I would after the MRI. I just never got to it. We found out right before our trip in October that Gage has Cerebral Palsy. As most of you know Gage was born 10 weeks premature. He had a brain bleed, causing scaring near the ventricles of the brain called Peri-ventricular Leukomalacia, which is what caused the cerebral palsy. The form of cerebral palsy that Gage has is called spastic displegia. It means that he has muscle stiffness and makes it hard for him to move. He crawls pretty good. But has trouble otherwise moving his legs the right way. This is what he struggles with the most. He has a bit of trouble with his hands, but for the most part gets along just fine. His eyes are doing good with 2 surgeries so far and glasses. We are very blessed to work with a early intervention group called The Learning Center, through them we see a physical therapist and an occupational therapist. Also an eye specialist. They are all great and they help give us ideas of things to do to help Gage progress. He is a happy boy. We are not upset or sadden by these challenges. He is a wonderful blessing in our lives. I am happy to serve my Heavenly Father this way. I feel honored that he would entrust me with such a special spirit. I will continue to try and do what He asks of me.

Its a good thing I have the tiniest bit of will power because I probably would have eaten through an entire bag of chocolate chips and case of diet dr. pepper. The kids were all sent to bed at 8 pm. They are now all in bed, but not asleep at 9:45.


nuff said...

We are home

We made it back. We had a great time. The park was not too busy. We found a great hotel. The kids loved that they could watch Disney Channel whenever they walked in the door. It poured down rain on us on Friday, but it was still fun. Our shoes are just now dry. We ended up staying an extra day, just because. We were ready to come home by Saturday morning. I am so glad we were able to take this trip with the kids. I had some nice one on one time with each of the kids, that I will treasure always. It wasn't anything big, but it was great. I love Disneyland . It truly is the happiest place on earth. It is my happy place. It makes me smile to just think about the decorations, and happy spirit that are there.
I took over 200 pictures. I promise not to show all of them, but here are a few.

I decided to be a bit obsessive
with pictures this time, since we
won't have our passes anymore.
(yes Nikki, we had season passes)

This is a goofy picture, I think
Logan was trying to take my picture
and he was too close. But I
thought it was also kind of cute, and
there aren't many pictures of me
because I am always behind the camera.

Can I get one of these with a
lock and key??

as many of you know Gage is
behind in his gross motor skills,
as well as pretty much everything else
due to the cerebral palsy.
He is just starting to like
standing. He loved being
able to stand and hold on to
bars, nets, steering wheels,
Whatever we were next to.
Doesn't he look cute?

Austin got new glasses right
before Thanksgiving, so we
tried to get him to wear them
as much as possible.
And whenever I ask him to
smile he always sticks his tongue
out.

off again

we are off again to Disneyland. Except this time with the kids. They are all so excited and frankly I am too. I can't wait to watch them get excited and have a great time.

We are almost ready. I am halfway packed and the kids are all packed. The food is almost ready. just need to check my list.

I will post pictures when I get back, but for now, here are a couple fun ones.

love you all. Have a great week!!

fun at the park

I am no photographer by any means, but I decided I needed, no really wanted, to take some pictures of the kids. I need some good ones to hang, so we went to the park and took some shots. We are missing two of our family so we will be back there again next week, but here are a few.

and just for fun

I was going to write about how thankful I am for each of my children, but I decided against it today. I know at this point I would not give them the credit they deserve. So today, I am thankful for Mommy time.
I ran to Target to get a few things all alone without any children. I am thankful for this time, because I felt a little patience come back to me. I took the time to enjoy the quiet and accomplish something at the same time. Yea for me.

Thankful

I am very thankful for hand me downs. Some friends just dropped off 3 bags full of clothes for my kids. What a wonderful blessing.

and for friends. i feel very blessed to have friends who listen, support, love us. So, Thanks everyone. We love you.

Giving Thanks

It is getting so close to Thanksgiving, and I thought it might be a good thing to express somethings I am thankful for.
First and Most, I am so greatful for my husband. He works so hard, and has been working so much more so we could take a family vacation. He is working day and night. It is such a great blessing that he is so talented in so many things. He is able to work his normal job, and also have side jobs going on. He is a great dad. He is also very creative,full of ideas and full of humor. If it weren't for all his many talents life would be so boring. Thanks honey, You are awesome.

and another little thing I am thankful for...

Cute little boy shoes. They make me smile. I love seeing my little baby in cute little shoes.

Hope your having a great day, full of many things to be thankful for.

Ratatouille

Mmmm Mmmm Good.

Inspired by the new Disney/Pixar movie "Ratatouille", we made ratatouille for dinner tonight. Thanks to the Better Homes and Garden cookbook we had a yummy veggie side dish. I made it as a side dish because 1. I had never had it before, not sure we would like it. 2. It has just veggies in it and I figured we wouldn't be satisfied with just that.
It was so good. I will be making it again. We had a 5 out of 7 mouths fed at dinner that liked it. Austin and Gage wouldn't try it, so they had no vote. and if you can believe this-Tanner loved it. He had two helpings.
If you need a good side dish, try it.

a little spill (really, really LONG)

Friday, November 2nd, 8:30 am, Tanner and Kathryn collided on the their bikes. She was going down to leave for school and Tanner was going back up to see where she was. And the result, a head on collision, a trip to the dr. and x-rays. The dr. didn't see anything on the xray, so he sent her home with a sling, and she has been wearing ever since. and told us to come back in a week for a recheck, if she wasn't better. So Thursday afternoon I call and get an appt for 8 am Friday, November 9th. I take the 3 little boys and Kathryn to see Phil, our very nice and competent Nurse Practitioner. He examines her arm and sends us to the hospital for more x-rays. After waiting for almost an hour we get the x-rays done. I race to take the 2 smallest boys to a friends, Kathryn to school and Logan and I go to preschool. ( I am supposed to be helping, and I was LATE) After an hour at preschool I keep getting call after call on my cell phone, which I am not answering because I am in the middle of helping the kids paint these really cute Indian shirts. I finally answer one of the calls. Its Jared telling me to leave school, go get Kathryn, and take her to the Orthopedic dr. She has a fracture near her elbow and because it has been a week already, they want us in right away to take care of it. GREAT! I am not only late making it to preschool but am now having to leave over an hour early. I get that squared away, call Jared back and tell him to pick up Logan when he gets into town from work. I run to get Kathryn, and we race to the dr. When we get there we end up waiting over an hour to see him. So much for needing to be there NOW. He shows us the x-ray and tells us that surgery is needed to put the bone back where it is supposed to be. So we head over to the hospital again, and this time go to Surgery Services. After sitting for just a few minutes they call us back, we get a weight, and height, blood pressure, temperature, and oxygen levels. After that Kathryn gets changed into a gown. We are all settled, and have all the paper work, and questions done. They then tell us that the wait is going to be 2 hours, TWO HOURS. YIKES. We just sat and watched tv, we aren't able to eat anything because she is going to be sedated and is not allowed to eat anything. So we sat there, and waited and watched some dumb shows on tv. Then at about 4:45 pm the nurse, anesthesiologist, and dr. come in. They are finally ready. They give her some funny medicine, and take her back. She goes in about 5 and is out by 5:30.

The dr. didn't have any problem putting the bone back, and he didn't have to cut her open or anything. So he was out soon. It was a lot faster than I thought it was going to be. They put a full arm cast on her. I was back with her by 6, and we hung out, watching tv and drinking apple juice. We were home by 7:15 pm. She had a hard time coming out of the anesthesia and cried a lot. But she is doing fine today. I had to wake her every couple hours through the night. It kinda sucked, but it was all to make sure she didn't have some reaction to the drugs.

The fixed arm x-ray /the broken arm xrays.

The happy patient

costumes galore

The greeter at Wal-mart gave each of the boys a candy on the way out Halloween morning. Gage held the kit kat for awhile, then by the time we got home he had bit the wrapper open and had eaten some of the chocolate and had it all over himself in the car-seat. I grabbed him out, and turned his back to me, so I wouldn't get any chocolate on me, then sat him in the high chair so I could snap a picture. What a funny kid.

Gage was going to be dressed up as a dog,

but he didn't like the head of the costume,

so he ended up wearing a lightening mcqueen jacket,

a charlie brown shirt, and doggy pants.

Cori and Sydney were Pajama models,

Cori ended up painting her face for the

trunk or treat at the park, but then when

we went trick or treating later, she had washed it off.

Logan was Obi Wan Kanobi,

(Jared made this costume. Awesome job Honey.

I heard Tanner tell one lady he was a

Chinese Black Ninja-where does he come

up with that stuff.

Kathyrn was a business woman

Austin loves CARS, so Jared

made him an awesome Lightening

McQueen Car to wear,
but this is what he ended up wearing.

We had a trunk or treat (its where people brought their cars to the park, and handed out candy from their trunks, or side doors. The kids walked from car to car and said trick or treat. There were also games in the park. Face Painting, bean bag toss, tractor pull to name a few.

After that was over, we went to the neighbors for "rat meatloaf" "deviled eyes" "ghostly rolls" and monster mash potatoes.

We did take the kids trick or treating, until the little ones couldn't walk anymore.