snow!!!!

It snowed today in Texas...here's a video I took with my cell phone on the way home from work. I wish it turned out better...the snowflakes were HUGE!!!! The kids thought it was the coolest thing ever!!!

Random Photos

Tristan in time-out wearing his transformers costume

Henna...done by my friend Tas
right hand
left palm
left hand
We put up the Christmas tree...I think this is the earliest we have ever gotten it put up :-)

Pumpkin Cake Balls

Today I decided to bake...not something I usually take the time to do--unless I'm getting paid :-)

So I decided to make some cake balls but make them pumpkin flavored. I don't like pumpkin so didn't try them...but Jason liked them and even the kids (who don't like pumpkin usually) thought they were pretty good.

I used this recipe from Mom's Cookbook (the one dad and mom put together awhile back)

Pumpkin Cake
2 cups pumpkin
4 eggs
1 cup oil (recipe said butter flavored...I used regular)
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups flour
2 tsp soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
I also added about 1/2 tsp ginger and 1/2 tsp nutmeg

Cream pumpkin, eggs, sugars, and oil...Add dry ingredients...Bake in ungreased pan at 350 for 40 minutes

Then once the cake cooled I crumbled it all up and added 1 tub of cream cheese frosting.
I formed that mixture into balls and then chilled them in the freezer.
While the cake balls were chilling I melted white chocolate bark coating.
Once the coating was melted I dipped each cake ball into the chocolate and allowed it to harden on wax paper...I also sprinkled the top of each cake ball with some cinnamon sugar.

Here's some pics:

I also made Jason's favorite dessert today...Pumpkin pie...now to see if he can eat them both before they go bad :-)

Halloween!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Take a Bumblebee, Dark Rose Maiden, and Goddess Fairy and add in Hannah Montana and Anakin Skywalker....Now that 's Halloween!!!!

Tristan and School

Well, here's an update. About 3 weeks ago we had a teacher conference for Tristan. His teacher mentioned that she was having problems with Tristan being "off-task" a lot and "roaming" the classroom instead of sitting in his seat. Overall, it didn't seem like a big issue and she kept saying that she knew that Tristan is very smart and that even though he gets distracted easily he is still learning...even when it doesn't look like he is in class. We asked her to keep us updated on what was happening in the classroom so we could reinforce the correct behaviors at home. We gave her our contact numbers and email and told her that email was usually the best way to contact us unless it was urgent. So a week later, we get 2 "disciplinary reports" home for Tristan (no email/no calls). One was for "eating dirt" on the playground...one was for "pulling his pants down in the bathroom". Ummm, he's 6 and a boy. Anyway, in response to those reports we sent in a letter reiterating that we wanted to be notified of any of his behaviors so that we could work with him at home. We also said that we hadn't received any communication prior to these reports coming home that these were still issues. Well, the teacher got the letter and called us up (talked to Jason) and was quite offended by the letter. Long story short, we asked for an ARD meeting (kinda like a conference--with Speech, OT, PT, teacher, parents, principal, etc) and the first thing out of the teacher's mouth was "well, if you want another teacher, that's fine". That has really frustrated us!!! So today, we got an email about how Tristan was so distracted this morning that he had to be sent to the office to do his work. Jason and I then went up to the school...talked to Tristan, and scheduled a sit-down meeting with the principal.

Our meeting with the principal was only for 20 minutes but we feel it went well. We were able to voice our concerns and get her take on the situation also. We have a tentative ARD meeting on Thursday of next week. We will be doing further testing on Tristan just to see if we can get any more answers about his needs and what can help him (psychological, etc). Hopefully, these evaluations can give us more info about Tristan and his delays. We also had a parent/teacher conference for Rehanyn today (she has Tristan's AWESOME Kindergarten teacher). Rehanyn is doing well and her teacher is very happy with her progress. Mrs. C was also willing to let us talk to her about Tristan and said that she would talk to Tristan's 1st Grade teacher and see if she could give her some pointers about how to best make Tristan pay attention. We LOVE Mrs. C!!!!!

So that is where we are just now. Just pray that we can get this figured out so that Tristan's teacher isn't frustrated ('cause that's what we think is happening) and so that Tristan has a GREAT year in 1st grade!

Tanya

Cakes...some of the latest :-)

Here are some of the latest cakes I've done

a 3rd Birthday cake

A baby shower cake

another baby shower cake


I know it's hard to see but this is a 3rd birthday Tinkerbell cake


Cheerleader cake

a birthday cheerleader cake

Ashleigh's birthday cake (at our house) (littlest pet shop)

Rehanyn's birthday cake (strawberry shortcake)

Adreyn's birthday cake (littlest pet shop)


Dora cake

Rehanyn's Haircut

Rehanyn cut her hair by herself again...so I took her in and got her hair cut...here's some pics :-)


Cute, huh!!! Her hair used to be down to the center of her back...

Twins...Or Not :-)

It would seem that Tristan and my niece Catie (Tamra's oldest) have something in common....

Here's Tristan

Here's Catie

They are only 5 months apart in age (Catie is older) so I guess it's just right for them to be losing teeth together :-)

Fun, Fun, Tooth Fairy Fun!

So, I was at work on Friday...working short staffed (we needed 2 more nurses), we had the most sick babies we have ever had in the NICU, (we had 8 ventilators in use---crazy!!!!). I was running around like crazy (well, okay, more crazy than usual)...................................and for some reason my text message alert on my cell phone kept going off, over and over :-) Well, after my husband called me on the regular phone I got to check my text messages and this is what I found...at 7:29 he sent this one




Then at 7:49 I got this one LOL


My crazy, silly boy had pulled both of his top front teeth about 20 minutes apart. While those teeth were loose, they really weren't loose enough to pull...but I guess Tristan decided that it was time those babies came out...either that or he decided that he wanted some tooth fairy money!!!
Here are some more pics of our toothless wonder! LOL!!!!!

Swine, Swine go away!!!

Well, I got to take Rehanyn to Dr. Dhoot today because she started running a high fever and was just generally not my normal little hyper scattered little girl. She was just lying listlessly around the house and falling asleep in her chair and stuff like that...and for anyone that knows my little girl...that is SOOOO NOT Rehanyn!!!

So, took her to the doctor and described her symptoms and he decided to get a nasal swab to check for flu...well Ree did NOT appreciate that...she looked at me like it was all my fault and like she couldn't believe that I let the nurse do that to her :-)

The test was supposed to take 11 minutes but we were notified of a diagnosis in about 5 minutes...hmmm. Well, Rehanyn has Influenza A...which they are assuming is H1N1 (also known as Swine flu). So, Rehanyn won't be going to school until next Monday, and the entire family is now on Tamiflu. Tristan and Adreyn are still allowed to go to school unless they start running a fever. Hopefully by starting Tamiflu we can keep the rest of us from getting sick. I really am expecting though that Tristan will be out of school probably by Thursday...he manages to catch any and every type of illness that goes around...

So that was my fun today...now we are trying to get Tristan to finish school work that he didn't complete at school today...it's not going very well...he is getting really frustrated (as are we g-( )

Our Date....

We went out to eat to a Mexican Restaurant by the house and then went for a walk around The Shops at Highland Village. We spent most of our time in Barnes and Noble...anyway...we were leaving B&N when I get a call from Jessica (our babysitter) telling us that Rehanyn is throwing things (including food), won't eat, and won't stay in time-out. Since we had time before the movie and were 5 or so minutes away we took a little side trip home to deal with our 5 year old. When we got home she was in her bed (where we told Jessica to send her) but her pillow was across the room on the floor and her blanket was in the hallway. After a discussion (and an apology to Jessica) our little girl went to bed at 6:50pm. When we told her that she was going to bed for the rest of the night she sadly said "but I'm hungry"...oh, well, I guess she'll eat breakfast in the morning, huh??? Plus, they were having Chicken and Rice for dinner--something we make weekly at our house...she eats it all the time...don't know what her problem was tonight!

Anyway, we went on and got back to the movie...man, they run short on help there during the week...there was no one at the ticket office to sell tickets...you had to go to guest services...then the guy would leave from guest services to tear your ticket then another guy would rush back to concessions to serve you....crazy!!! The movie was good...more a chick flick than anything else...kinda sad (The Time Traveler's Wife).

So, overall we had a good date...we are loving being able to go out more often :-)

And, today (Sept 3rd) is the 14th anniversary of our first date...how cool is that????


Here are some pics of our new bed set...I love it!!!

hmmm...

Rehanyn turned 5 yesterday. It is hard to believe that our baby is 5 years old! She loved her gifts and is looking forward to the family birthday party on Saturday...I'll post pics later...or you can just go on FaceBook to see them.

Tristan was able to go back to school on Monday...he is still coughing a bit at night and has a bad runny nose but other than that it seems more like just allergies now.

Adreyn is doing pretty well...we have been having some "accidents" around the house lately...like today she managed to "accidentally" break the curtain rod over her window, and then "accidentally" the lighthouse snowglobe in the bathroom "fell on the floor, all by itself" and shattered tonight. She does come by her klutziness honestly though :-)

Jason is still busy...which is a good thing. Today he only had a couple appointments so was able to do some shopping with me and we went out to lunch. It's nice being able to have time away with just us :-)

I managed to pick up whatever bug Tristan had and was feeling pretty cruddy on Sunday and Monday (Ree's birthday) but have felt better today...I just have to take my sinus meds and then I do all right.

Tomorrow night Jason and I have a babysitter coming over in the evening so we can have another date night...we are looking forward to that!

Today we bought a new bed set for our bed...it is soooo pretty. I'll have to take pics and post them. We got a pretty good deal, a sheet set, comforter, bedskirt, 2 shams and 4 decorative pillows for $70. Not too bad huh! :-)

Saturday is Adreyn's birthday and we have planned a (half of the family) family get-together for that evening...Mom and Dad get back from Australia that day, too. We will be having a family birthday party for Rehanyn (August 31st), Adreyn (September 5th), and Ashleigh (September 10th). We should have a good time. Adreyn is really excited about her birthday. I think we will have a party for her with a couple of her school friends on the weekend of the 18th. These birthdays crept up on me too fast!!!

Well...

Well, meeting yesterday got cancelled...which I found out when I got to the parking lot at work...nothing like last minute!

Well, We sat through 2 hours of parent orientations (I got to see the school orientation powerpoint for the 3rd time). We got home and both the little kids were already asleep :-) Adreyn quickly got into bed and Jason started to finish up his work for the day.

Well, At 10:00 we heard the sound we hate coming from the little kids room. Tristan was coughing a horrible barking cough. So we got to put him in the bathtub and start nebs. It took about 30 minutes but we finally got his cough to stop. He is here at home with me today...Nothing like getting sick the first week of school. Apparently he is the 4th kid in his class to be out sick this week...frustrating!

Well, He was running a fever last night but seems pretty good today...hopefully we caught this early and he will be able to get back to school on monday...

Updates

Kids have been enjoying school. Jason and I have been enjoying the fact that all 3 of them are in school during the day :-)

Today was interesting...
Kids were in school, I was going shopping for birthday presents, and Jason was working in Keller

While I was at the bank I got a call from Jason. He was calling because he accidentally drove into a HUGE pothole while trying to figure out a back roads way between 2 major areas. When he drove into that pothole it apparently managed to smash part of the undercarriage of the car up into the a/c compressor...making the car undriveable. So I drove to Keller and sat in the Surburban with him waiting for the tow truck to arrive. After we had been waiting for an hour Jason called the tow company and found that they were still 30 minutes out. So, we decided to cancel the tow company and go rent a car dolly to take the car home ourselves. We found a U-Haul company who rented car dollies but when we tried to connect it to the surburban we ended up having difficulties with connecting the lights so ended up having to rent a U-Haul truck to tow the car on the dolly. Anyway, we managed to get that all done and get home before the kids got out of school. When we arrived home we found that the gutters were finally being installed. YAY!!! Anyway, took back the U-HAUL, and then Jason started working on the car.

We had beef and noodles for dinner YUMMY!!! Then while Jason kept on trying to get the car fixed I got to go to school for 4th grade parent orientation. When I got home Philip was there helping Jason out...and thankfully they managed to get the car fixed and driveable!!!

So that's been our day today...

Tomorrow, I am gonna try to get that shopping done, I have a massage in the morning, I have a mandatory meeting at work at 4pm, then in the evening we have Kindergarten parent orientation at 6pm, and 1st grade parent orientation at 7pm....Hopefully, I can get it all done :-)

First Day of School!