Goofy!

Latoya, Kaylee, Kelsey, and Jordan

this picture says it all. they were all playing with their glasses that they got in their christmas goodie bags from church and i couldn't help but take a picture.

anyway, on to the news. well, there actually is once again not too much to report. the girls went to the e.n.t. (ear, nose, throat) specialist on monday. i had been thinking that kelsey had another ear infection as she had been playing with her ears, but when they got to the e.n.t. to have them checked, he said both of the girls ears were completely dry.....no fluid!!!!! this is a miracle! from the day the girls turned one (they got their first ear infection on their first b-day), they have had fluid in their ears. this is why they had so many recurrent ear infections, because even though the fluid would be clear (meaning no infection), it would never go away, so it would get infected again quickly. the dr. was very happy with how they looked as was i. he said she may have been playing with her ears just because she can hear soo much better without all that fluid in there and it is new to her. i don't care why she is playing with it as long as she doesn't have an infection. also while we were there, the same dr. had seen kaylee for the lumos on her jawline and he was very pleased to see that those are actually getting smaller. i hadn't noticed till he said something about them. he thinks the medication she is taking for the tb is what is making them go away. now if it would only work on the birthmark she has! anyway, she is still doing good on the inh with no signs of it affecting her at all. we will keep praying that it stays that way. we were told that if it hadn't affected her yet, that it whouldn't at all, but there is still a slight chance, so keep her in your prayers.

on to other news, i have all of the kids presents wrapped and ready to go. i usually wrap all of them the night before, but i decided i was going to get it done early this year. it's kinda nice to be able to relax a little. i think i'll do it again next year. i can't beleive christmas is only 5 days away. it literally just zoomed right in. i love christmas even thought i don't get presents anymore. i love to see my kids excited, it makes me excited. makes me remember the good "ole" days. here are some more pics i took on that same sunday as above, but in the morning before church. i had forgotten about these dresses that i had gotten them for christmas, so they wore them last sunday. have a great evening and a very merry christmas in case i don't update till after. here are the pics(i also included one of jordan in his train hat):

Kelsey (L) & Kaylee (R)

Jordan

A Very Busy Week :)

well, although there is not a whole lot to report, there has just been alot going on. this was the last week for school until next year! i have mixed feelings about that. good that i get to sleep in a little longer and that i get to see my kids, but that also means more fighting during the day so i definitely need to sleep in a little more. anyway, i got my 90 christmas cards and christmas letters out about 3 days ago. 40 of them were just for church families and the other 40 were ones that i mailed. both jordan and latoya had christmas parties on friday at school. jordans little pre-school put on a little show. they did 2 poems and songs and did the pledge. here is a picture of them doing the pledge:

jordan in the third from the right (the tallest one :))

the girls took a nap in the afternoon after jordans party so i missed most of toya's party, but i came about 30 min. early to pick her up. they were sitting on the floor singing christmas carols, so here is a picture of that:

toya is in the back holding kelsey (pink coat) and jordan is sitting beside them.

today, we went to a nicu family christmas party. the party lasted from 9 am to 11 am. the kids had a blast, they got to decorate christmas balls to take home. here are some pics:

they also got to decorate cookies and eat them, they got to decorate bags for them to bring their stuff home, fill some goodie bags to take home, decorate some paper ornaments for the tree, they also got to bring home christmas pencils and erasers. they also got to see santa and we got to take pictures home for free. they had trouble with the printer though so we had to give them our address and they will send them once they get them printed. when i do, i will put them on the site. the girls absolutely hated santa. they screamed. i told the lady taking the picture that we were going to sit them down and to take the picture screaming or not, so she did. i'm sure that one came out great...lol. we also got to meet up with one nurse who took care of all three of the girls (toya was in the nicu for a week when she was born too). i got a picture of her and then one of one of the nurses that took care of the twins. here are those pics:

kaylee, kelsey,cheryl, and toya ~ cheryl was great with all three of our girls while in the nicu. sarah was one of the two main nurses to take care of the twins. elaine was their main nurse, but we did not get to see her. we were a little dissapinted about that, but were very happy to see sarah, and cheryl. sarah informed me that it was a little harder to hold them both together now...lol. she was amazed as she used to carry one in each hand in th nicu.

kelsey, sarah, and kaylee

after the nicu party we did a little shopping and then we went to a birthday party for the little boy that i babysit and his cousin. the party was really good plus they fed the kids supper. the kids had a blast there as well. it made for a long day but fun. here are some pics from the party:

kelsey and caleb (the little boy i babysit) playing in the tent:caleb and molly (caleb's cousin) opening presents:

caleb enjoying his b-day cake, or the frosting atleast :)

well, that is all for tonight. have a great weekend!

Making a Pizza :)

well, once again, not too much to report. we had a very relaxing past couple of days. my house is clean, the dishes are done and there is not much to do, excepot laundry which i never get a break from. anyway, i have a few pictures of the christmas tree. no, the tree is not leaning, it is the photographer. here they are:


my parents also put up their christmas tree and while grampa was getting the tree in the stand, kaylee decided it would be fun to climb on him, so here are the pics from that. kelsey just kinda stayed on the sidelines:

next we have some pics of the twins hair from the back. i normally put their hair in pig tales to keep it out of their face, but i decided to try it with barretts the other day so i took some pictures. (look how long and curly the back is):

last but not least, and the title of the post. jordan had a field trip today. they got to go to a local pizza hut and learn how to make pizza. they had to be there at 9:30 am before it opened. the boys made one and then the girls made one. i didn't get any pictures of the girls, but i did of the boys. they made the pizza and then got to eat it. i wasn't too sure about eating pizza at 10am, but the kids didn't mind. we all got to eat the two medium pizza's that the kids made plus they made one more. we all got to take a piece home too, so we ate the other piece for the "real" lunch and had a snack. it really was an easy day.

Jordan in the freezer (getting the pizza dough). he said he was freezing....ya think??? lol waiting on the lady to get the dough ready
putting on the cheese (i wonder how much they ate and dropped)
jordan tasting a pepporoni (he informed me that it was hot)
the finished product (look how much taller he is than the rest ~ i'm the mother of a giant...lol)

Need Addresses ~ Please :)

okay, i know i usually don't update this early, but i figured there wouldn't be too much to report tonight anyway. i would like addresses for my christmas cards. yes, i do plan on getting them out this year and i should be receiving them within the next week. i know many of you will not want to post it in a comment, so, please email me at ds4nier@megalink.net. just put christmas card in your title so i don't delete it. please do not assume that just because you are family means that i have your address, because i probably don't. i have lost my address book. this is not just for family, this is for all the wonderful friends i have met along my way including those that read my blog. i figured instead of emailing everyone seperatley. i would try it this way. have a great weekend.

Too many toys????

well, once again there is not too much to report here. toya had no school today because of snow. jordan still had preschool but because it is small, she did not really count it as school, but kids could come if their parents wanted to drive. i was one of those parents. the pre-school is only two minutes down the road and it saved my sanity. of course jordan loves it and would have given me a hard time if i told him it was cancelled. so, he went to pre-school till noon, and made my day a little easier. don't get me wrong, i love having all my kids home, i just don't like all the bickering that goes on between the older two when they have seen too much of each other. anyway, he got home and then the twins went to bed, so it wasn't too bad.

i forgot i said that there wasn't much to report, but there is one thing. kelsey has taken to biting her sister. i always counted myself lucky that i never had a biter and now look. she doesn't do it often, maybe twice a week, but it is more than enough for me. she got kaylee on the back tonight and left a good impression of her top and bottom teeth. i'm not sure what to do with her to get her to see that she really hurts her sissy. i make her say sorry (which she does well), and then she has to give her a kiss. i must admit that i did bite her back once, but it did no good. anyway, any ideas???

on to the title of the post. i have often been told that my kids have too many toys. i thought "can you possibly have too many toys?" i answered my own question as me and toya cleaned out the playroom today to make room for the new toys that "santa" brings. we brought 8 big, full trash bags to the dump today. no, we didn't throw them in the trash, but in our town, we have what they call a swap shop where you can out the things that are still good and need a good home and then people can come and look and take the things that they are interested in. anyway, we took the 8 trash bags plus about 3-4 BIG toys. it looked like santa made a trip to the dump :) as toya commented later, "we still have plenty of toys". so, i guess the answer is "yes, you can have too many toys", but atleast it's organized. here is a picture of the "new" playroom. the love seat is not usually in there, but we had to make room for our tree that we got yesterday. i will post pictures of that once we get it decorated. here is the pic, have a great evening!

Christmas Pictures

not much to report here, the girls still seem to be doing well with their tubes. we had the funeral for the teenager that was killed from our church. it was a great service and there were ALOT of people there. i beleive our pastor said that our church holds 450 people and there were still people standing and the pews were beyond full. i have never been to a funeral like that. anyway, i know the real reason you came to my page is to see the pictures. everyone did good except kaylee who thought the photographer was more looney than funny. i happen to agree with her. she refused to smile, so we did the best we could. they will be a little blurry as they are made that way so you can't copy them....who me???? here they are, enjoy!

Kaylee, Jordan, Kelsey, and Latoya (this was the package portrait we got)

Latoya, Kaylee, Jordan, Kelsey
Jordan and Latoya Kaylee and Kelsey
Latoya
Jordan (i don't know what he was doing???)

A long overdue update!

Kaylee with Jordan's train hat on

Kelsey with Jordan's train hat on

first i wanted to say sorry for not updating sooner. it seems that every time i get a minute, updateing the blog goes on the back burner. secondly i want to apologize for not getting a good picture of toya's haircut again. i have some pictures and you can see her haircut, but not good. anyway, onto the news portion.

the girls finally got their tubes in. of course they were the hit of the hospital, mainly because people were amazed that they truly do everything together, and of course because they are just soooo cute!!! it was not all roses though, we did have some thorns. first, we went down sunday night as the girls had to be at the hospital for 6:30 am and we live an hour away. the hotel wasn't the greatest, but i didn't see any roaches. the girls slept on a double bed. they had cribs, but wanted me to pay $10 extra per crib!!!! so i said no thanks! i now realize that i should have paid the extra. the girls did not go to sleep till 1 am. yes, you read that right. then, i finally got to go to sleep only to be woken up at 3:30 by kaylee screaming because she had fallen off the bed. she went right back to sleep, but of course it was a lost cause for me. anyway, the surgery itself went well. the dr. said it was a good thing they did the tubes because kaylee had lots of fluid behind both ears, and kelsey had puss fluid behind her ears. they both handled the anesthesia well, of course they were a little cranky when waking up from it, but have had no problems since. they have acted alot better i think, that could be just me noticing because that is what i expected. anyway, another hurdle overcome.

we also went to a christmas party at the firestation on sunday. the kids loved it and i have some pictures. my kids are near the front in the pictures. kelsey's present was first and she was so excited. she got a baby doll. kaylee was hilarious as her present was almost last and after kelsey got hers, she just stood there looking back and forth as everyone else got theirs. it was soo cute. you can see her just standing there in the pictures. i felt soo bad for her, but she handled it much better than i thought she would. she of course got a baby as well. had kaylee gotten her doll first, you better beleive kelsey would have been stealing it from her, so i'm glad it was kaylee waiting and not kelsey. jordan was more than excited to find that santa brought him trains! latoys loved her hand held tetris game. it really was alot of fun for them. here are some pictures:

Kelsey gets her presentNotice Kaylee looking around :(
Jordan gets his and Kaylee is still looking :(
Toya gets hers (notice the haircut), and Kaylee still waits!
Finally, notice the shock on her face that she finally has one!!! :)

on to some sad news. we had a teenage kid in our church pass away on saturday afternoon in a car accident. i didn't know him all that well, but he was not like any other teenager i have met, myself including. he was so committed to his family, and especially church. he didn't care what others thought and stood his ground on what he beleived and was very open about it. he was a popular kid. he wanted to be a youth pastor. his myspace page says alot about him. his idols were our pastor and our youth pastor. i am going to include some links for those that are interested. the first two were in our local paper, followed by a link to his obituary. the last two will be a link to a news story on our local tv station and a link to his myspace. i normally would not pass on things like this as i really didn't know him that well, but i think his testimony needs to be told. here are the links:

http://www.sunjournal.com/story/188285-3/LewistonAuburn/Auburn_teen_dies_in_headon_Lisbon_crash/

http://www.sunjournal.com/story/188399-3/LewistonAuburn/Auburn_teen_was_hard_worker/

http://www.sunjournal.com/story/188579-3/Obituaries/Ryan_D_Moore/

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=67492327

http://www.wmtw.com/news/10454806/detail.html (there is a longer version but for some reason they didn't put the full version on the website.)

anyway, that is all for tonight. have a great evening.

Haircuts!

well, i didn't post anything that i am thankful for this thanksgiving, but as i went to my page to put on this update, i saw the first photo from thanksgiving and it really hit me how thankful i am for my kids! it's not like i am just realizing this, but it just hit me again. anyway, enough with the emotional stuff! :)
so, today after school i took the kids to a new hairstyle place. the business is not new, but it was the first time we have been there. it is called family fun cuts and is located in augusta, me. the kids loved it. toya had a dress on so she only got to use a regular chair, but jordan got to sit on a police motorcycle while he got his hair cut. it's about 40 min. away but it was worth it. jordan usually hates his hair cut but he loved going there. the price is really reasonable too. kids are 9.95 and adults (yes, adults can get their hair done there too) are 11.95. on tuesdays everyone is 8.95. it's like a huge playroom. the kids can either play games while they get their hair done or watch a movie. i was highly impressed. of course the person that owns it is a man, do men ever grow up!!! :) here is a picture of jordan getting his haircut on the motorcycle:

doesn't the hairdresser look like a big kid (that's the impression i got anyway) :)

here is kelsey on one of the other chairs (a horse), no she didn't get her hair cut.

i didn't get any of latoya as i got busy with the twins. i will try to remember to take a picture of her tomorrow so you can see her haircut. we got it cut all the way up to her chin. we've had it that short before and it looks super cute, of course now she doesn't look like her pictures we just had taken, but oh well.

i think that is all for tonight, exceot these last two pictures of the girls. they were trying on toys scarf and earmuffs. kelsey did it first so i was just going to take a picture of her, but as soon as kelsey took them off, kaylee wanted them on and kept insisting "cheese, cheese" until i took her picture....lol. these are the same twins that i could never get a picture of smiling a few months back. i don't knoiw what happened, but they LOVE the camera now. :) here they are:

Kelsey

Kaylee

Have a great evening!!!

Happy Thanksgiving from us to you!

first i would like to say happy thanksgiving to all!! secondly, wow, it has been a long time since i have updated. it seems that lately, my sleep has won over updating. well, lets see where to start. i guess i should update on the twins. they went to see the e.n.t. in brunswick and we have decided to do tubes on both of them. we just think it will save them some pain in the end. they will be having them out in on dec.4. we will spend the night in brunswick the night before because they have to be there for 6:30 a.m. kaylee will go first at 7:45 and then kelsey will follow at 8:15. they cannot have anything to eat or drink after midnight, so that will be fun. these are girls that want a drink as soon as they get up. the dr.s office gave them little dr. beanie babies. i thought they were adorable. okay, on to other things.
we had a few birthdays this past week. my moms on the 18th, mother in laws on the 19th, hubby's on the 20th. we got clocks with the kids pictures on them for our mothers. on hubby's birthday we actually had toya's party. we did it immediately after school. it worked out great. there was minimal set up and clean up. here are some pictures of her party and also one of daddy's cake:
Toya's cake

Nothing like being the senter of attention. the kids did that themselves without being told. i thought it was pretty cool. the twins even got involved.
Playing games. it was a little room and it got quit loud in there.
ready for cake!
daddy's birthday cake (remember he is a volunteer fireman)

i also wanted to include a copy of toya's school picture. they came out soo good. i can't beleive she will be 8 on saturday! she has grown up soo fast. i should have taken a close up picture of her today. she lost another tooth, so both her front teeth are missing now. i will try to remember to do that tomorrow. she is going to have three of her friends sleep over tomorrow night, and then we will take them all swimming tomorrow at the ymca., yes, it is a inside pool! well, i guess that is all for tonight. enjoy the rest of the thanksgiving night. i think this picture is the best she has taken. here is the picture: