Pumpkin Patch Palooza!

Can't beat a great, cheap, fun family outing!!

We made our annual pumpkin patch trip only this year we added a few more friends and had a blast! We bundled everyone up and headed out to Random Lake to Speiker's Pumpkin patch and boy oh boy did we love it! The kids were actually fully entertained with the inside corn maze, hayride out to the field to pick a pumpkin, silly pictures, animals and more animals!

However.....we are paying for it, of the 6 kids that went Saturday 3 of them are sick, it was cold out (40 I think?) and it would start sprinkling for 2-4 minutes then stop then start again. All in all it was soo much fun! There were a ridiculas amount of funny/cute pictures so I'm just posting them all to my Facebook account! Enjoy!

Potato Heads!

I was talked into playing with the infamous potato heads and we had a blast! Whoever invented them were brilliant! These spuds have been around since before me! NUTS!

(Don't mind the jammies, we just got up)

OUR CREATIONS!!

Last but not least, Kaleb's finished creation.......his NANA!

Way too cute!! We had a blast!!

Now on to my PROUD PARENT boast! Andrew memorized his entire memory verse in Awana (John 3:16) and graduated up to the bigger book and earned his vest! I was a wreck watching him get called up for his award and accept it! He was so proud of himself he yelled from that front of Children's Church "MOM! LOOK!" and was waving that new book around like crazy!! I am so very proud of him, however had I known about the award I would of brought my camera! :(

Kaleb attended Cubbies Awana (3-5 year olds) and also made me very very proud. Not only did he do awesome at his first event by himself, without Andrew (Kaya, Kaleb's cousin/best friend was with him though) he also memorized 3 weeks worth of verses (short, very short age appropriate ones of course)!! How awesome is that!?

Merry Monday!

So our family being the holiday fanatics we are, just my immediate family and my grandma, we have started to count down! 81 MORE DAYS!  Now to be fair it is a bit addicting since I have been Christmas shopping for a few months now. Just here and there, if I see a good deal on an item that I know I can give as a present. Most people have told me I am crazy BUT....I am done by December 1rst usually! It really does make sense :) That being said I thought I would share some of my favorite online and retail stores and why.

AMAZON.COM
   There just isn't enough room to say all the awesome things about Amazon. I love how cheap you can buy brand new things and the shipping is waaay reasonable and I always seem to get my products earlier then stated on the page. Always a plus! My favorite things to buy on there are books and dvds mainly (just purchased 3 brand new factory sealed dvd's fairly new releases for $17.19 including shipping!).

WALMART
   Everyone has something bad to say about the place and I do too but I can't knock a good deal! I learned something about Christmas shopping early...NEVER WRAP THE PRESENTS BEFORE BLACK FRIDAY! Walmart is always soooo kind enough to give me the price difference! LOVE IT! It may cost me more now but after I am done I can cross an additional 2-3 names of my list with the money I received as the difference!

HALLMARK
  If I can't find that perfect special gift for someone I always head here, never fails! I have never walked out with a failed mission :) Plus you can almost always walk out feeling even more grateful then when you walk in, they aren't kidding when they say Hallmark cards say it all!

To wrap up my short list I must say CONSIGNMENT STORES!
  We have a few in town now and I love them! Mainly for all the baby showers and the little kids we buy gifts for. A while back I attended a shower and I bought 20 new baby outfits, tags on them from the store yet (Kohls tags too) for $25.00! CAN'T GET ANY BETTER THEN THAT!

So in retrospect, I'm not as crazy as people think, it does pay to shop early!

Why?

So I just got back from a class I took at church tonight so I can start volunteering in the Children's Ministries and I just had to comment on a very shocking, very disturbing fact I heard on the dvd they had us watch.

There is a church (location was not released and you will see why) that has 800 sexual abuse charges in 10 years.

Why? I know some will question me posting this but I had to, I had to write it out so I could try to fathom it. I just don't, can't understand it! They told us that our church does thorough screening because everywhere else is (application process, interview, classes, background check and so forth) so these people are turning to the one place where blind trust is left....CHURCH. Is this not just INSANE!?

There is still good people!

I realized that Wednesday being the "hump" day, middle of the week, BLAH day that I am going to make it my GRATEFUL day! A reminder as to why I continue to push on through the week!

1. Praise Fellowship
              I'm so very very grateful for our church and their love for one another. We spent last weekend getting water baptized and doing a bit of outreach work. We teamed up with the Coca Cola company and did another neighborhood clean up. It was great watching Andrew and Kaleb work along side the adults, to see their excitment and telling us that not only are we helping the Earth but we are also making God happy! Andrew also amazed his Sunday School teacher with his awesome prayer at snack time...GOOD JOB BUDDY!

2. Birth to 3
              I recieved a surprise visit from our old Occupational Therapist that Kaleb had for 3 years and Zoe had for a few months. Now mind you we were done with therapy as of Aprilish. She stopped by to drop off a very nice winter coat for the boys that her son grew out of. Miss. A always thinks of us and is soooo sweet, even after the 6 months we haven't seen her she still misses us and is still a sweet lady and remembers that we have 3 kids that love to grow out of at least 2 winter coats a season! THANK YOU MISS. ANN!

3. Maturity
              This one is double sided, Zoe is growing up sooo fast so it makes me kind of sad. I was playing with Zoe yesterday and this morning and noticed how much she has changed! My best friend (Zoe's Godmother) was over last night and Zoe sat with her copying her and talking, doing big girl things. It is sooo nice to be able to just put her shoes and jacket on and walk with her out to the truck to go somewhere, no huge diaper bag, no huge car seat to carry around (we are talking about a small car ride here lol:) She is such a big girl and it amazes me all the time at how far my two miracles have come!

4. Last but not least my FAMILY
                The have been really pulling through for us lately! I am trying to get the boys more involved in church activities but due to Zoe's schedule she is in bed right after they start so I have been cashing in on the offered babysitting services and IOU's passed my way! Also thanks to an awesome family member Bill was given the opportunity to go on a Christian's Men's retreat this weekend. Going to be freezing but what a great way to follow up with just being baptized! I am heading up north with the kids and Bill next weekend for my cousins baby shower and am SO very excited, I miss everyone up there and am so excited for Zoe to take her first trip up there!

This is just what sticks out for the week, I'm grateful for everything I've been given and recieved, HE is wonderful and continues to bless our family!

Kinda blah around here

Well there isn't much going on here right now but wanted to update so you all know I'm still checking and updating :)

Kaleb and Andrew are totally in LOVE with school! Which I might say is kind of nice right now! I don't have to fight to get them up or moving in the morning. Today when I dropped Kaleb off we were going back to his class and putting his backpack away and the teacher called him over and showed him a surprise......her THOMAS THE TRAIN TABLE! He was so excited, just rambling to the other 2 boys at the table...what a way to bond for him! :) If the weather permits Kaleb's Uncle Matt and aunt Ashlie are going to be taking him this Sunday to see a bunch of real steam engines, he is going to pee himself :)

Well that's about it! Update later with or when some news comes our way lol!

Pictures!

Since there are soooo many pictures to upload from our summer till this past Monday I thought I would use my old Flickr account I used for Zoe Lynn when she was in the NICU.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26567010@N06/

The pictures do start from the most recent first but please do enjoy! I am very proud of the kids and their awesome summer!

BIG NEWS..

Monday night Zoe Lynn finally took her firsts steps, she took 3 steps from Bill to me! It was so wonderful to see since we both were working when Kaleb took his first steps! Luckily I was also prepared (since I started scrapbooking my camera spends more time out of it's case then in) and caught it on camera, however I can't figure out why it recorded sideways so please forgive me but enjoy it:)

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/video/video.php?v=131605633878&ref=mf

So very proud of her! She also had her 15 month check up yesterday and is 24 pounds 1 ounce which puts her in the 75% for weight and is 29.5 inches which puts her at the 25% for length. The ped. said she is doing awesome development wise too! He was shocked at how well she was doing for being a 26 weeker, he said she is doing 100% better then Kaleb did at 15 months! Way to go Zoe!

I also have a video of Zoe Lynn being a typical girl, can't decide what to wear! I had to keep hiding so she wouldn't see me and stop. Too cute!!

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/video/video.php?v=125506603878

We are also on a whole week of no bed wetting for Kaleb...YAY!!

TODAY IS THE DAY!

Tody is the day that I promise myself that I will keep up on this blog! It's just that not a whole lot was going on for awhile with us but now...now we are moving right along! So here it goes, our first update in almost 3 months! (shame, shame I know)

Zoe Lynn is now 15 months old and has got to be the funniest little 15 month old I know. She goes to the doctor tomorrow for her well baby check up so we will know weight and length then but at her yearly she was 22 pounds. Zoe now stands on her own and can move like crazy but still REFUSES to take her own steps...a few tiny ones here and there, about 3 ever, seriously. Zoe is now off the bottles and on a cup which was a big task for her, she is stubborn! Zoe can say clearly mama, dada, bubba (Kaleb) and last but not least...UH OH! Yeah, absolutely love hearing that phrase come out of her mouth..."mamamamam, uh oh!" Last but not least, she loves her brothers unconditionally, where ever they go, she follows, whatever the are doing she tried to join. She loves them boys to peices!!

Kaleb is now officially a preschooler! YAY! He will still be seeing the speech therapist through out the year but nothing like last year in the speech/special ed program. He loves his class though, he already knows his teacher since it was Andrew's preschool teacher also and we did a lot of volunteering when Andrew was there. Kaleb has been nebulizer free for some time now and daddy and I are LOVING it! We are 100% day and NIGHT time potty trained...YAY! He loves it as much as Bill and I do! Kaleb has made a lot of new friends at Sunday School and has done such a great job helping us out with our Love Your City campaign through church, he gives it 110% every time so he can show God's Love. Kaleb has really blossomed over the summer and continues to surprise us all the time. He is also attached to Andrew's hip, they really truly are best friends. They do everything together, rarely ever fight and hate being away from eachother! Kaleb also spends alot of time with his other best friend/cousin, Kaya, those two are just as inseperable as Andrew and Kaleb are!

Andrew is now my FIRST GRADER!! How insane is that! I was looking through old pictures since I started scrapbooking and found the one of when Bill first brought Andrew to my house so I could meet him, he was only 16 months old and could barely walk, just learning. AMAZING! He loves it though, first grade and him are a good fit! He has matured sooo very much over the summer it's amazing, he has become very independent and is very much a little helper. Andrew is also an incredible big brother to Kaleb and Zoe. He takes that job very seriously as he also has a younger brother and sister at his mother's house. Andrew now adds double digit numbers, reads and writes a bit (his writing is awesome for his age), also can tell you what hour it is accurately! His latest favorite is bike riding with daddy, they do it a lot and I love that they have something together without me involved, a daddy and Andrew thing.

As for us, we are doing great! Bill and I have been talking and we are both being water baptized on the 27th. We volunteer at a ton of things through the church but only if we can do it as a family (the boys mainly, Zoe is still too young for most things). We have also been working more, Bill is on overtime (we are very thankful for it) and I picked up a few odd jobs around the resturant. My best friend is pregnant and is due on my birthday...HOW AWESOME IS THAT!?!? We did make it to the Zoo last month which was a blast! Zoe loved it and the boys were awesome. So now I close with a promise to continue to update this blog and once I figure out where my picture icon went to upload onto this blog I will post a ton of pictures!!

Being grateful!

Today was awesome! Finally some nice weather!

We were blessed today to be able to witness the water baptisms of some of our church members today. It made me think even more (I'm getting good at that....thinking hehe) about expressing how truly grateful I am for the Lord, our salvation. After that said I want to make sure I post something I am grateful for.

Today we are grateful for fellowship! We took the kids on a picnic and had a blast! We were joined by family and enjoyed the spectacular weather! The boys were just totally amazed by the fish in the pond...the simple things. I miss that, the simple things. Zoe was totally astonished with the baby swing, made it simple! hehe

Well as I promised, here are some pics of Zoe from her bday party, once I get the rest (my batteries died in the camera ah! thankfully Ashlie had her camera!). Enjoy...we did!!

One year ago.....26 Weeks into the pregnancy and here she was, 2 pounds 3 ounces, grade 2 brain bleed on the right, grade 3 on the left, 4 blood transfusions, 3 infections, hemangioma (bengin tumor), lowest weight of 1 pounds 12 ounces, PDA (A valve in her heart didn't close like it should of had she been born full term), after 51 days in the NICU she came home!


NOW! 22 pounds, 29 inches long with no residual effects of prematurity except for minor vision problems!

I'm slacking soo bad!

Alright, per several requests I have come back to my blg, I just didn't think people were really checking it out so I gave up! :)

The Gardner household is doing really well lately! Lots of big events!

Zoe Lynn just turned a year and we had a huge bash here for her, unfortunately my camera batteries died so I need to get some new ones to upload bday pics. (Thanks to Ashlie who was right there with her camera!) She had her 1 year check up today, she is 22 pounds and 29 inches long. She is something else I tell ya, only knows 1 speed and that's HIGH! Zoe now pulls up on everything, crawls on her hands and knees, sits, talks (mainly dada and hi), waves bye bye and so forth. She now eats all tablefoods but we are having issues with her taking regular milk, peds. just says to keep trying it off and on. Zoe is a rockstar though, she is a good girl though, just moves insanely fast:)

Kaleb is stinkin' funny! He has his last day of school on Monday, he moves on to regular preschool next year and will have Andrew's awesome teacher! yay! Kaleb has also growen up so much in the last 3 months, just maturing:) My baby turns 4 on the 27th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So he started out at 2 pounds 9 ounces and is now a 45 pound chaotic, Thomas the train loving, Spongebob freaking 4 year old! WOW!

Andrew, a lot has happend with him! HE IS GOING TO BE A FIRST GRADER!!! Andrew has also lost his front bottom two teeth. Ah yes, my 6 year old step son is growing even faster!! He is sooo smart too, he comes out with the most insane things, stuff you wouldn't expect a 6 year old to know but he does! yay!

As for Bill and I, we are hanging in there, busy right now with the kid's bday parties, we are also both in a wedding coming up fast! Just livin' it! Here are a few pics of the kiddies, I will definately keep up with the blog this time, I promise:)

100% sickness

Well I know I've been slacking but we have been seriously ill lately. I'll start, I was very lucky to catch that awesome chest cold floating around...NOT! I couldn't breath, couldn't move, couldn't stop coughing! Now 2 weeks later I'm doing better, just fighting a nasty ear infection. Zoe missed a hospitalization by a fever, she was on nebulizer treatments every 2 hours, steroids, amoxicillian for her ear infection and so forth. She was doing way better after easter but suddenly last night she spiked a high fever off and on but as of today she is just crabby, no fever! Kaleb was also on neb treatments every 3 hours as needed, not pleasent! He is very strong! Andrew and Bill escaped it thankfully!

Haven is doing awesome here! She is housebroken now and has opened up a ton! She loves Bill like crazy! The only issue now is she gets so excited when he comes home from work that she follows him into the bedroom to change and she tinkles a bit on the bed! I've washed more bedding in the past 3 weeks then I ever have!

Andrew begged to be signed up for soccer through the Rec. department so I signed him up and he was pumped, we get there and it's a no go! HE WOULDN'T MOVE! He's so shy so I can't say it surprised us. We are going to continue to take him though and hope that he opens up, besides he wants to try baseball and football but I can't see spending that kind of money on it if he wont participate so maybe just hanging out a practice or two will be enough for him to see how much fun everyone else is having!

That's about it here, not a whole lot, but I wanted to post some new pics!

Here she is!

Here's our newest Gardner!

Haven Chevy Gardner
DOB: 11/13/2008!!!

She is such a sweetie! She has taken to the family immediately, even with being beaten as badly as she was from her original owner. Bill can't go anywhere without her being right behind him. Haven loves the kids but is NOT housebroken. We are getting there though, tons of prayers and patience! :) The boys have stepped up and are helping a lot with her cares, Andrew had been watering her and Kaleb has been feeding her. Haven listens great on and off the leash, when we walk it's almost like you forget she is there, she walks perfect! She does have a bit of trouble with her hips, they are shot already from being hit there. It looks like she is really old when she walks. But she loves everyone, loves her belly being rubbed. She is a sweet little thing!

Anyone with advice on how to help along an abused dog would be awesome! We are working on housebreaking, which she is doing eh with. It has only been a day though:)

I've become another victim....

Of TWILIGHT!!!!! I swore to myself I wouldn't do it, no vampire movie could be that good but it was! I'm a 100% addict, I watch it all the time. Most of you know I love to read vampire romance books and this movie was perfect for me! I am heading to the library today to get all the books:)

Yesterday was my birthday but I wanted to say Thank you to all the birthday wishers out there. Tonight we are celebrating it, cake and ice cream and a few people are coming over, Andrew wants to come over after school (it's his mom's week to have him) to sing me happy birthday so we are getting him too. Bill even took a day of vacation for me! We are going to a Praise and Worship tonight at church called Touching Heaven.

Today we kick off our 7 days of servolution, getting out into the community and letting them know that hey, we care! Bill and I signed up for a gas buy down this Sunday, the church buys so much gas, then when we pump it for you and you go to pay it's anywhere from .75 to 1.00 off a gallon. The church is targeting much needed neighborhoods to do outreach in like removing garbage, hauling to the dump, free newspapers. On the 11th it all ends with the youth group/kids church holding an Easter egg hunt and cook out at 3 parks (in desperate neighborhoods) for the kids who live around there. We are extremly pumped and proud of Bill's uncle for coordinating all of this with the Pastor.

The kids are doing great, 100% great! Kaleb started Sunday School finally and had a blast! Andrew has had awesome behavior and starts soccer in 2 weeks. Zoe is silly as ever and is doing great too! Nothing to really report on them they have just been so good lately!

We are adding a new addition to the family on Sunday after the Gas Buy Down. Haven is a dog that was beaten and abused. Andrew's mom found her when she was visiting her sister and took her home but she is having another baby in a few months and can't handle her 11 month old daughter, Andrew, the baby and the dog. She asked us if we wanted it and we said yes. She is a golden retriever, springer spaniel mix, 4 months old, housebroken, crate trained, leash trained (on and off the leash), up to date on everything. She is very shy around men but is coming around, just takes some time. I have met her and she seems like she will fit in very nicely plus we would hate for her to be given away to just anyone since Andrew has developed such a bond with her, Andrew needs that, he needs constant stability. Losing her I think would crush him. We are very excited and I will post pics as soon as I get some!

Hope everyone is doing well!

Not much to update on

I don't have much to talk about so I thought I would share this ultra cute video of Zoe dancing after dinner tonight! I hope everyone is doing well!

They just keep growing and growing!

Both physically, emotionally and mentally. I am so proud of my kiddies it's crazy!! Within the last month they have really matured, all 3 of them!

Zoe had her 9 month check up, so hard to believe it's been that long already! She is 20 pounds exactly and 26 inches. She pretty much has a clean bill of health from her pediatrician. She now sits up for about 2-3 minutes on her own and can roll both ways. Zoe frequents both movements with ease. The only thing we have noticed is she seems like with certain tasks she knows what needs to be done but can't get there, like coordinate her body to do it. She still does not hold her own bottle, not out of stubborness, she tries like crazy. Zoe also refuses any foods, table or baby, except for stage 3 fruits and those Gerber graduate puffs. We have tried every tactic we know of. She also cannot coordinate her snacks that are in her hand to her mouth yet. I do know I need to calm down and remember that she is only considered to be at a 6 month level but it is still hard!

Kaleb had a WIC appointment yesterday and he was so stinkin' cute! He is 44 pounds and 39 inches tall and looks great! He had to have his finger pricked for iron and lead levels and it was funny! Kaleb was sitting on my lap and she cleaned his finger and so forth and pricked him and he didn't even flinch he goes, "LADY! STOP! That hurt me!" So for being so good I took him and Zoe on a walk after we got back. My cousin came with with her husband and Kaleb best friend/cousin. On the way back he picked up a stick and I was telling him to leave it once we reached our block. I knew he was going to either hurt himself or someone else. I just got done saying "Kaleb, really I don't want to do this, we had a great walk, let's not start know" so Kaleb being Kaleb looked at me and said "one more time mom and I'll sit in time out!" I don't really think he knew what the entire sentence ment that he had put together but still, cracked me up while trying to discipline.

Andrew is really sick right now, he has missed 3 days of school this week and I don't see him going back really at all this week. He has the nastiest cold, he was coughing so hard Monday night that he literally almost fell out of the top bunk in their bunk beds! We are trying to figure out what to do for his birthday, just not sure, last year it was still freezing out the first weekend in May. It's so hard for me to fathom that he is going to be 6 years old next month! I remember when I first met him, he was 16 months old and still unsteady on his feet! Then Tuesday we were working on subtraction and he was whizzing through it, CRAZY HOW FAST TIME GOES!








Bill and I were invited to church by his uncle and his fiance 3 weeks ago. We fell in love with the place and everyone else with it! It's an amazing thing. Upon the end of the service I was just crying with the realization that I needed this, I needed to come back to God and thankfully I have, it's the best feeling ever, Sundays. The kids have enjoyed it thoroughly also. Andrew is 100% in love with Sunday School and has blossomed a lot. Kaleb, he's working on seperation anxiety right now, we are getting there. Zoe loves the nursery and I love the fact she does! It's done a lot for our family in just a few weeks and we are truly grateful for the invitation! Bill is hanging in at work, no more overtime so he is a bit happy about that, he's been burning out I think, painful job sometimes. We spent yesterday outside nearly all day with the 75 degree weather and let me tell you, IT'S A TEASER FOR SUMMER!!! BRING IT ON!!!

MILESTONES!!

Once again, Zoe made me smile! She not only has a tooth now, on the bottom, she is rolling both ways AND she sat on her own more effectivly today!! BIG DAY!! She was a hoot! The boys and I were playing with her on the floor and she is scooting around and rolling everywhere. She thought she was hot stuff! The boys were so cute encouraging her on, helping her not fall when she would get tired and so forth. I'm so proud of Zoe for accomplishing these things and I'm VERY proud of my boys for being so supportive and helpful of her! They just try so hard to encourage her to crawl! I don't think they realize the enormity of her crawling, their bedroom/playroom will have to be 100% clean and the door closed when they aren't in there. They want her to come play. I can't wait though!!

Thankful Thursday!

One of the blogs I frequent always lists things she is thankful for on Thursdays and I felt that since I have so very much to be thankful for I should join in!



I am thankful for my dishwasher!! My grandma in law gave it to us and I have to say I am in LOOOOOOOOOVE!! It made an hour open for me to spend some one on one time with Kaleb while Zoe naps!! THANK YOU GRANDMA GARDNER!!



Wheat bread is our new favorite, even the kids love it! Bill and I have decided to try to make things healthier for us and our kids so we are slowly switching things over to better options.



A decorated fridge!! Who doesn't love kids artwork!?



And last but not least, BUB BUB! Kaleb's beloved bunny who's missing an eye and if is held up to the light is see through. He is a life saver and has been since Kaleb has been little. Gotta love him!!

Well that sums up this Thankful Thursday, even though I'm thankful for everyone and everything, it's hard to put that many pics on:)

Nothing much to blog about so enjoy!!!

Sleep baby sleep

Alright, for all the mommies out there!!

Zoe has for the last 2 weeks has refused to nap for longer than 30 minutes, so she has been getting about an hour nap a day. She is just shy of 9 months actual, 6 months adjusted so I know she is supposed to be napping more. She just refuses! By 5pm she is exhausted, falling alseep while eating dinner and/or playing. Zoe gets very fussy and very very "vocal" so any advice right now would be appreciated as it is getting frusterating, it's almost like older baby colic!! AAAHHH!! Any advice!?

Yay!

This weekend was actually a good one despite the chaos! My parent's celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary at the end of last month and to commemorate it my sisters and I threw them a party. It was fantastic except for one thing, I FORGOT TO GET A PICTURE OF ZOE IN HER FIRST REAL DRESS! Made me a bit upset once I realized it! But it went well, the kids were just amazingly well behaved, Zoe lasted 5 hours without a real peep out of her, just enjoying the attention. The boys had a blast dancing to the dj and playing with balloons. Despite the snow storm, which it was oddly the same way on their wedding day, it went really well.

Zoe unfortunately has caught the cold that the boys had. So far it's just a runny nose but we are watching her very very closely. On top of it she is teething (if it wasn't for her voice coming and going I would for sure say the nose was due to teething) she is soaking herself in drool:)

Kaleb got over his cold real quick and with minimal issues. He was so exhausted Saturday that he kept asking me to carry him, he never does that. He is very excited because they are having a pajama day at school next monday in honor of Dr. Seuss. We are just getting over excited waiting for summer so we can go have a day out with Thomas the train, Kaleb's prefect day!

Andrew really did himself in Saturday. When we cut the cake I gave the boys both a peice and sat them down at a table, later my sister came up to me and asked if Andrew had gotten cake earlier to which I told her he had. I then realized what he was up to, he went to 4 other people after I gave him his and told them he hadn't been given any cake. I wonder how that tummy ache came about that he had all day Sunday!?!? Andrew was so darn cute as he decided to get up on the stage (the dj was a close family friend) and start head banging and dancing all crazy. Such a goofy boy I tell ya!

The kids were playing in Zoe's bedroom yesterday and I snapped a few pics so I hope you all enjoy!

I need to keep up!

Alright I know, I'm pokey!! Everything has just been on fast foward lately! So here are the updates!

I was just saying to my cousin yesterday at how pleased I am with Kaleb's lungs this winter! With him starting school this year we were terrified of what kind of illnesses he would bring home. As I was saying that Kaleb started coughing!! He has some junk in his lungs so we are going to the peds tomorrow morning early. Pray for good news! He is usually on his neb through out the winter but we haven't needed it. Kaleb is doing fantastic in school though, his speech is improving so much! We are very pleased with his program and the teachers/specialists. That's about it for him, just being cute as ever. He cracks me up all the time "mom, you're beautiful, you're my beautiful Mary" "I have a good idea, no really, it's a great one!" (that one usually ends up in an injury or a time out hehe) His latest thing is when I go to grab his hand to go to the truck or somewhere he always has it balled up like he has something in it and I ask him what he's got and he tells me it's his kids lol. Oh yes, his imagination works well!

Zoe is doing awesome! I am totally amazed by her and the progress she is making. We went to Children's Hospital today and had her hemangioma looked at and thank the heavens it hasn't gotten any bigger and actually looks smaller! She will not need the steroids again and they are just going to keep watching it. By 2 it should be pretty un noticable to most people. We had her at the Opthamologist a few weeks back and her eyesight hasn't gotten any better or any worse so that's a good thing! She still has an astigmatism and no clear vision out of the eye with the Hemangioma but they are going to have her come back 2 days before her first bday! Zoe's OT (which was Kaleb's for 3 years) is now coming once a week for some weak muscles on one side, we are thinking she wont need it long though, she is catching on quickly. She is very very vocal and loves the attention she gets from her brothers! Zoe is also now 19 pounds and 8 months old already, wow has time flowen by!

Andrew is doing fantastic really! He is pumped for his bday which is at the end of April, he keeps asking when spring will be here. We went to his first school dance, it was a pizza party dance. They had a chlidren's dj and it was a ton of fun, Kaleb and Andrew dances away! He is doing really good in school and his speech has also just been taking off. I sometimes just sit and watch him interact with friends, his brother and sister and am totally amazed at watching him and his progress. He has come a long way!

As for us as a family, we have been busy. We are planning my parents 25th anniversary party that is going on this weekend. They are going to be renewing their vows. The following weekend my cousin, whom I am very close to, is getting married and we are all going away for 4 days (the trip was planned first but then they decided to get married quickly:) That's about it here, I am going to get some more pictures up tonight sometime and I promise I will update more often, not every 2 months :)

thanks for reading and I hope everyone is doing well!!