Update

We went to check out a private kindergarten for Tristan yesterday and are pretty sure that we are going to enroll him. They have good student:teacher ratios, and the teacher has a masters degree in special ed. He seemed to like the school and really wanted to be allowed to just wander everywhere. He was great with the director of the school--he introduced himself, answered her questions, and asked to "go see the kids". He also asked if he could take the playground home :-)

Visit mom's blog for pictures and video she took of the kids while she generously watched them for us Thursday night and Friday morning. Thanks so much mom!!!! We really appreciate it!!! I'm working my usual 3 day weekend and Jason is getting into his busy time of the month so will be working all day today too--so we are BUSY!!! Thankfully, the kids are all feeling better and are (generally) in good moods. Enjoy your weekend!

Man, it's been a long time!!!

It's been awhile since I wrote on here. Oh, well, that's life I guess :-) Jason and I have been busy working. All of the kids have had tummy troubles this past week--no fun for anyone in the family. Tristan and Rehanyn have been having a good time playing with each other this week. Of course, we are going through a bratty stage with both of them right now--I guess that's part of being 3 and 5 years old. Rehanyn has been spending lots of time in time out this week. She is getting used to it though apparently since she started putting herself in time out when she misbehaved. :) She is goofy! Tristan has been doing great--he gets easier and easier to understand and his speech improves all the time. It's still hard to believe that he turned 5 last month. Adreyn spent this week at a church day camp "Kidz Praize Dayz" and was part of the choir. The performance was tonight. The play was about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. It was really cute and Adreyn did a great job. She learned all the songs and hand motions and really had a good time! To celebrate after the play we went to Red Robin for dinner. And the best part--we had dinner late and no one took naps today so bedtime was a breeze!!!!! :)

Here's a few pictures from today.

Our week in review

Okay, here goes. I worked last Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I slept Monday for awhile and I believe I picked up Adreyn from my mom's house after VBS (I don't really remember much) :-) Then if I remember right I took Adreyn to her friend Devyn's house for a playdate. Tuesday--I think I took it easy--just did some laundry and took the video's of the kids. Adreyn was at VBS that day too and Rehanyn, Tristan and I picked her up. Thanks mom and dad for picking up Adreyn each morning and taking her to VBS! Adreyn had another VBS to go to that night! Wednesday I had a 7:30am meeting, a 9:30am meeting, then had to get my TB test and then picked up Adreyn from VBS on my way home. Jason dropped the kids off at moms house and I took Adreyn there so I could help mom with her blog page. Then we went home for naps. The kids got 1 1/2 hour naps--mommy got about 20 minutes :-( (Adreyn went to VBS again) Then I had a 5:30pm NICU Support Group meeting at work and after that was over I worked all night. Needless to say I was exhausted Thursday morning. However, I had a 7:30am meeting that morning (it was my impression that the meeting was to last about an hour) well, the meeting was 3 hours with a lawyer talking about labor relations and unions. We finally got out of there at 10:30am. Thankfully, mom picked Adreyn up from VBS and kept her until Uncle Phil and Aunt Tasha took her to her night time VBS. I got to sleep until 7:00pm and felt a bit better :-). I went to work at 1am that night. Friday I slept in the morning and then just took it easy and did more laundry. I don't remember how Adreyn got home from VBS that day (I think someone other than me picked her up. Does that make me a bad mom?) Anyway--we went out to dinner at Red Robin that night (it was nice to go out as a family) plus--it's Rehanyn's favorite. Whenever you ask Rehanyn what she wants for dinner she answers "mac-a-roni an cheese from Wed Wobin" And when we are there she has to order her own food--doesn't let mommy order for her!
Saturday was just another lazy day--more laundry of course! Adreyn is being a big help with emptying the dryer, switching the clothes from the washer to the dryer, starting the dryer and filling the washer for me. Tristan has been feeling under the weather this week--tummy troubles. I think he is finally better but now Rehanyn has it--poor little ones. Sunday (today) we went to a new church for Sunday School and really enjoyed it. We have been looking for a church where we feel comfortable and like we fit in and we may have found it. One of my friends goes there and recommended it and it has great programs for the kids and we enjoyed the sunday school class. We are planning to go back. The rest of the day was spent quietly and the kids and Jason got naps in. :-) Just in case anyone was wondering why I didn't go into detail about Jason's week is that his job kept him extremely busy all week and he took care of the kids while I worked so he didn't get to do anything really exciting this week. Oh--he did get to take his boss to the airport on Saturday evening--that exciting enough?

Hope you enjoyed hearing about our week, and that you have a great week this week!!!

Video of Tristan and Rehanyn singing

Hello to our cousins!!!

The kids wanted to say hello to their cousins and tell them about their day. Here ya go!!! :-)


Sorry about the finger up the nose in rehanyn's video--what can I say--she's 3

Kids and flashcards

Here's some more video of the kids--Tristan and Rehanyn this time. We are working on their ABC flashcards. I know the video is dark--I forgot to turn on a light but at least you can see how excited they are to be learning. You'll see how Tristan can read some of the words and how much Rehanyn likes "Queen". There are 6 videos I think--I'll try to list them in order. Enjoy!

Hope you enjoyed them--have a GREAT day!

thoughts

Just some random thoughts:

--Figured out why Tristan looked like he was sitting up while sleeping in the previous post--he had filled his pillowcase with all of his stuffed "aminals" that routinely sleep in his bed.

--I am trying to decide if I'm going to cut Rehanyn's hair--it definitely needs a trim but I am so scared to cut it and lose her curls. I have never cut it so it definitely needs it.

--I can't believe that school is out a week from Thursday.

--Adreyn will be a 3rd grader--she's growing up too fast

--I've been reading some "random" blogs and find myself continually being thankful that my kids are healthy and were born without any issues. With my job taking care of premature and critically ill kids I am drawn to some of these blogs (one where a husband blogs about almost losing his wife and premature daughter) and then to some of the sadder (is that a word?) blogs where people have actually lost their children (some immediately after birth some after several days) The way these families deal with this is in a word--inspirational. I mean, in our immediate family mom had 11 grandkids born in 6 years--all essentially healthy (only one NICU stay and that one belonged to the NICU nurse mom {me}) and all are still healthy. What kind of odds are those. We were blessed to have healthy kids.

--We are getting ready to go on vacation in about 2.5 weeks. (all 5 of us plus my mom and dad) and Jason is already teasing me about my need to start making lists for everything we need for vacation. I guess it's a good thing he can still laugh at my obsessive need to make lists. We haven't gone on vacation before--we've planned to but the plans have always fallen through. We are just praying that everything works out this time and no one gets sick. We are going to San Antonio for 3 nights. Adreyn is getting very excited and is looking forward to seeing dolphins. Mom and Dad said they are looking forward to seeing the Alamo. I'm looking forward to time off work but figure I'll actually be more tired when we get back from vacation than I would if I had worked all those days :-)

--Jason is really busy right now. Work is going well--so well as to be almost overwhelming sometimes. He's actually had to get my dad involved to make sure stuff is done on time. It means Jason is working long days but at least we can't complain about not having work.

--Tristan will be 5 in 2 weeks. I really can't believe it!! He should start kindergarten in the Fall. It just doesn't seem like he should be 5! He is growing up so much and his speech is improving every day--he is still hard to understand sometimes but getting so much better. I think school will really help with that too.

--I need to figure out what to do about Rehanyn's attitude. She so firmly believes that she is the little princess and everyone else is her loyal subject and should do exactly what she wants and she is entitled to have whatever she wants even if someone else is using it. We've used spanking, time outs, and she is still just a pain in the butt!!! Gotta work on that! She is also a big fan of saying "NO" and throwing impressive fits--and STUBBORN--what a will that child has! Wonder where she got that lovely trait :-) Of course it couldn't have been from me!

--Adreyn got to IM her Aunt Tamra for the first time last night. She LOVED it and is now so addicted! She asked this morning before school if we could try again tonight and then added that she would like to right now but that it is nighttime in AU so Aunt Tamra would be asleep.l Adreyn did great with typing all of her own comments (and loved the emoticons) I think it is a great way for her to work on her writing, spelling, and communication skills. Now we just have to talk Tamra into agreeing to keep on talking to her JK--Tamra said she would get her girls involved next time :)

--Later I'll post pics of my new henna art. My friend Tas does this for me and I just love it! This one is so pretty--it looks like flowers and butterflies.

Okay--enough of me just typing whatever is popping into my head. Hope you enjoyed the updates--if not, oh well :-)

Catch up

Haven't blogged in a while--so let's catch up

Adreyn was Student of the Week last week!!! Yeah, Adreyn!!!!

Tristan is still crazy about Pokemon--I did get his birthday supplies in this week!

Rehanyn is almost potty trained!!!! Hopefully just a couple more weeks!

Jason picked up some new territory for work and has been quite busy. Plus he's been being a great daddy/husband taking the kids during the day for me when I need to sleep after work and taking care of them when I'm at work. He's such a great guy!!!!!

Me, well, I've been chatting quite a bit with Tamra (so nice to be able to keep in touch this way) and we've managed to crack each other--and mom--up trying to spell the "raspberry" sound (I say it is "ppffffffflllllllluuuuuuuubbbbbbbbttttttttttttt" or something like that) and explaining "rotflmbo", and "lol", and "rotfl" to mom. Amazing how just typing back and forth on an instant messenging service can make you fall out of your chair laughing.

I've also been working my usual shifts and just loving on those sweet babies. We had a good NICU Support Group meeting on Wednesday--got to see one of the graduates who is almost a year old!!! I've been able to come off a couple of committees at work so I'm enjoying the extra time I get at home with the family.

So--no big changes--just alot of the same stuff and life keeping us busy.