The Fournier Six!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T08:22:00.009-05:00

It has been a few YEARS since I have posted. Alot to do because I could not log into my blog, and some to do with facebook. Seems as though EVERYONE has one and it's easier to update and post pictures there than here. Anyway, I am back. Not sure how often I will get to post, but I will try to be a little more faithful.

This year finds the girls turning SIX (on Feb.2)! Time has flown by that's for sure. They are in Kindergarten and LOVE it! They are both doing very well. They are still only a little over a pound apart which boggles my mind seeing as they don't like the same things to eat and Kaylee clearly eats more (most of the time). They celebrated their birthday at Jokers with most of their classmates, and then had a small

family party at grammy's. The girl's insisted on a LPS cake but we couldn't find one we liked anywhere, so we made one ourselves (bought the cake, and we just decorated it). Overall it was a good birthday for them. My grandmother made the girls dresses with matching baby doll dresses which they love. They put them on immediately and didn't want to take them off. This pretty much sums up the update on the girls. Still growing and still healthy. We do have an apt. for Kaylee's birthmark in Portland in March. Looking forward to seeing what they have to say about it. Kaylee has no desire to have it removed. She says she will not be Kaylee

without it and then no one will be able to tell them apart. I

think because she feels the way she does that we will just see

what they have to say about it. They have to do tests to see what exactly they are dealing with in terms of blood vessels as well. The Dr. says it looks as though she will be able to have it removed but they will have to see what it underneath to see how in depth it will have to be. Kaylee was very excited to find a little boy with the exact same birthmark as her the other day. This was the first thing she said to me when she saw him. I love that this doesn't bother her as I was afraid it would. I'm sure as she gets older she will decide to

have it removed but as of right now, she is happy as am I.

Toya turned TWELVE in Nov. Truly amazing that I have a child this OLD!

She is old enough to go for a week to Indiana and a week to

Pennsylvania with our church. I'm not sure I'm ready for it and neither

is she, but I think she will enjoy it when she's there. 6 1/2 years and she

will be a SENIOR in high school. We celebrated her birthday party at a

hotel in N.H. with her closest friends. They had a blast! This year she ran track (came in 5th in the championship race), played soccer, and is currently in vball. She has become quit the young lady.

This brings us to Jordan. Jordan will be 9 in April. He is currently in 2nd grade. Not too much has been going on with Jordan. He just finished his last bball game and has really come a long way there. He also did soccer this summer and loved it as well. I think he prefers soccer over bball. He continues to grow ALOT! He is getting ready to go into a size 12 in pants, and he's not even 9 yet!!! He takes after his dad, thankfully!

I will end with this. I am currently the assistant coach of our vball team at CCA. My sister is the coach. Our girls are currently seated second and finished the season 8-2. We are very proud of them. They have worked hard that's for sure. We go to quarter finals this Friday. I also do Kindergarten gym class and am a substitute teacher at the school. I also volunteer in the ymca child care room. All my kids are in school and yet I am busier than ever! Doug is still working at the same place but last year got a raise so he cut his hours back to be home more. He is currently home for supper every night except Friday and Saturday. We definitely enjoy having him around more. That sums up our life for the past 2 years. I hope to be updating more often now.

Catching Up!

2009-05-06T10:56:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I have posted, mainly for lack of things to post!

Happy 10th Birthday Latoya!

2008-11-25T22:21:00.002-05:00

This is going to a very quick update! I am hoping to do a longer one with pics tomorrow, but don't hold your breath! Today is Toya's 10th Birthday! There is no way I have a 10 yr. old. It's absolutely unheard of. Where did the time go?? I am SOOOO old! Anyway, today was very low key, we had a little party for her at my mom's, just cake and ice cream. She will be having a party for her school friends on Dec. 13th. I still can't beleive she is 10, maybe if I write it a few more times, it will sink in....lol. We as always have been busy. November is one of the worse months for us, because we have a ton of birthdays.....the same every year. My mom's is the 18th, doug's mom's is the 19th, doug's is the 20th, and toya's and my sister jessica's are the 25th. CRAZY! Plus there are a couple of neices and nephews and other close relatives in the same time frame. Anyway, I'm glad they are over, now Christmas here we come!

Here's some more exciting news.....I am going to be an auntie again! My sister Sarah is pregnant again and due about July. I can't wait because this time they live only about 10 min. from us and not half way around the world!!! Grayson is going to be a big brother. This too is hard to beleive! WOW!

Ok, I am going to end with this. Everyone knows times are tough right now, so, to buy Christmas gifts for the kids, I listed several twin auctions on ebay. Feel free to go check them out. Here is the link
.

I hope you all have a very happy Thanksgiving! Look tomorrow for pics nd a longer update on what we have been up to.

Apple Picking, Track Meet, Soccer, and Bowling!

2008-10-14T20:58:00.005-04:00

Can you say busy week! Yes, we have been at it again! Last Wed., we satrted out by taking a small goup from church to go apple picking. It turned out to be an excellent day for it! There were around 15 of us that went. First we toured the apple plant. We saw where they packed the apples, and then where they made the cider. Our kids were a little young for that part. They all got to sample some cider which I don't beleive any of them liked. After the tour, they brought us up to the apple orchard and gave each of the kids a bag to pick their own apples. This part, the kids loved! They had wagons to use there, so we pulled the kids up to the trees where we were supposed to pick the apples. They each filled their bags, and then grabbed an apple to eat on the way back to the farm. When we got back, they went to feed the animals and play. There was a sand box type thing with trucks in it, but instead of sand, it was filled with huge corn kernals. I think every kid under the age of 2 tried to eat atleast one. They played in there for a little bit then went in the hay maze and down the slide. It was a cute place, but there really wasn't a whole lot to do so we didn't stay too long.

On Friday we had a track meet at the school. Toy has been running track for a little while now and enjoys it. I think having all of us there made her nervous though because everytime she ran by us, she was crying. She's going through those early teenage years and is very much a crier (like her mom). Anyway, I was able to get a couple of pics. She didn't finish too good (hard to see where your running with all the tears), but she finished, and that is all that counts. The championship meet is this week. I asked her if we come to watch her, is she going to cry again, and she said no. We'll see.

Saturday was Toya's and Jordan's soccer games. I had to bring Toya to hers about 30 min. away, and my mom brought Jordan to his. Toya's team had not won a game yet, but they did a excellent job and got their first win this week. The team they played was undefeated until now! The team was very excited, I think they needed that.

After the games, we came home and made lunch. One of the bowling places in town was having free bowling for a few hours. We went last year and enjoyed it, so we went this year as well. You can't do too many things for free now a days. I think we all enjoyed it. The kids had one lane, and the adults had the other. Me and the kids went, Auntie Sarah, Uncle John, Grayson, Auntie Jess, Grammy, and Justin (John's nephew who they were babysitting). Grayson beat everyone! Yes, you read that right. He used one of the ramps and got the highest score. He loved it and couldn't wait for his turn. They also had a bounce house and other activities for the kids.

Well, that wraps up this week! You can tell the weather has changed, because this is what we have been doing this week:

Tomorrow we have a small group going to pumpkinland! We were lucky to be able to go since when we called for an appt., this was all they had. We are looking at another great day for it too. I hope you all have a great week! Enjoy!

Yet another Circus and Goodbye to Eden!

2008-10-06T20:21:00.003-04:00

So, this past Thursday, we went to yet another circus! This time it was the Barnum and Bailey Circus. This is the third circus we have been to this year. I would say this was the best, but onlt because of the animals. We got to see elephants and tigers! We were greeted by the protesters at the entrance to the show. I haven't been to a Barnum & Bailey Circus in so long that I had forgotten about the protestors. Once we watched the show, I found it interesting that they were only protesting the elephants, but it was the tigers that I thought were treated badly. I guess I didn't remember them hitting the tigers with whips. I am not a animal activist by any means, but I really found that to be very disturbing! The elephants from what I could see were treated quit nicely. Anyway, the kids had a good time and besides the tiger act, I was impressed. Here are a couple of really cute photo's of Gray with the kids. He loves to hug them and kiss them (or anybody for that matter). You'll have to excuse the red photo's, I think that my battery was not fully charged so it made the quality of the shots red? Anyway, they are still cute!

On Friday, my sister and I threw a babyshower for one of the daycare workers at the gym we go to. We love Eden, and the kids love her. For some reason, our gym has a hard time keeping workers, but Eden has always been there on time everyday and goes above and beyond her job. She doesn't just like to play with the kids, she LOVES them. She is philipino (I believe) and doesn't speak very good english. She seems to understand it fine, but just does not speak it well. She is 36 and is having her first baby! She is due next month, and we are very excited for her. She has no family here and only a few friends. Her friends threw her a baby shower, but all she got was some clothing. She had no big things for the baby (crib, bassinet, carseat, swing, nothing). I was laying in bed one night and thought how nice it would be to give her a shower from us mom's that use the daycare. I talked to my sister, and the planning began. We went to all the mom's in the daycare and asked them to either bring their own gift, or give a donation so we could buy her some of the big things she needed, most of them chose a donation. We hatched the plan and Eden had no idea. On the day of the party, we had the guy at the front desk get her out of the daycare to "fill out some paperwork, and then pretend he couldn't find it". While he was doing that, we snuck in the back way and set everything up. She never had a clue! All the mom's snuck in (their kid's were already there), and we yelled surprise. She started crying and got everyone else crying. We were able to get her a brand new pack n play with the bassinet, changing table, mobile, and accessories on the side, we got her a carseat, stroller, snuggli, swing, playmat, diapers, plus a couple other brought clothes and a gift card. Here are some pictures from the party, and a slideshow:

I also wanted to share something kinda neat that happened last week. My girls have been going to speech for a while. Usually they work together, but about a month ago their speech therapist decided to seperate them. She had been saying that she wanted to find a couple of kids for the girls to work with, but didn't have anyone yet, so they worked alone for a few weeks. Last week, we walked into our appt., and there were two boys sitting there. I didn't pay much attnetion, until she came out and said to me "look who I found for your girls". I looked up and relaized they were identical twin boys! They are the cutest things! I asked their mom how old they were, and she said 3 1/2. Their birthday is a month before the girls. So, now, each of my girls works with one of the boys. Isn't that neat! There are 4 sets of twins that go to our gym daycare too. Three of the sets are the same age, my girls, a set of fraternal girls, and a set of identical boys. The other set are fraternal girls, but they are babies and mostly go at night. Anyway, just thought that was neat!

I also wanted to update on my weight loss, or lack thereof. I have literally been told by 5 different people this week "wow, you look like you've lost weight". While I am flattered, I am embarrassed to say that I had not...until today when I was down 1.2 lbs. I have really struggled with this, but am happy that I am atleast keeping it off for now. I am happy to report now that I have hit the 50 LB. mark!!!! I hope to keep going now that I seem to have made it out of the rut. I'm nto getting my hopes up though. I guess for people to say this, it means that I have probably lost in. I will check that on Friday to see, out of curiosity. Anyway, just wanted to update that. I also wanted to let everyone know that I have a weight loss tracker on the right hand side. If you don't see that go down in a while, it means I'm struggling! :) Anyway, I hope you enjoy the post! Have a great week!

Alot has happened in 3 months!

2008-09-29T22:00:00.009-04:00

I could definitely make this a long one, but I am so lost as to where to even start. I think I will just give you a run down of what has been going on with a few pictures! So, to start where I left off.......3 months ago! I will just do the big events, but will include pictures in a slideshow at the end of some of the smaller things we have done as well.

First was the moxie day parade. We love the moxie day parade, it is the biggest in Maine and is all because of a soda which I find tastes terrible! The kids enjoyed themselves though.

We have a free classified book here that is called "uncle henrys's". I do not check it often, but happened to look at it one day and saw a free wooden swingset advertised. I emailed the guy and he got back to me and said if we had a way to come and get it, then it was ours. John has a trailer he can use from work, so we made arrangements. The swingset is a big hit, and it was free!! Auntie Sarah and Uncle John had put one together a long time ago just like it, so they did all the work. Here is what it looks like:

Next was our trip to York's Wild Kingdom. This is a zoo and amusement park. It is not very big, but once again the kids really enjoyed it. We went with the church as an activity. You can see how much the twins and Grayson enjoyed it by this picture:

My friend Gina and I then took our boys to the "Day Out With Thomas". Jordan and Austin had a blast. I got the tickets VERY cheap, and we spent the whole day with just the 2 boys. Sarah and John watched my girls. I figured Jordan had never been and this was probably the last year he would really enjoy it.....he's almost 7 you know! Plus, did I mention that I got the tickets CHEAP!

Sarah and John finally moved into their house on August 3rd! It was a long time coming, and they were happy to finally be "HOME"!

On August 5th, we were invited to the "Circus Smirkus". We went wioth my friend Gina and her 3 kids. I was a little leary as I hated the last circus we went to, but this one was really good. It is a bunch of kids that do a ton of acrobatic stunts. These kids go to a camp during the summer and learn all these things. You can look it up online too.

Next was Gray's birthday! He turned the big ONE on August 10th. They were in their house on time, so we did a small birthday party there, and then a bigger one the following weekend! Last year, I remember sitting up all night waiting for her to call and tell me he was here (and what gender "he" was since they didn't find out). Grayson Cole is my buddy! I love him just as much as my own kids. Words cannot express what I feel for him, he is the happiest baby and soooo smart! He has gone through quit a bit in his short life! I hope next year brings soo much fun and excitement for him and his parents. He deserves to have a great year!

The following weekend was Gray's BIG party! He had lots of family and friends who came to help him celebrate! They had hotdogs, chips, and soda's. I brought over half the toys in our yard for all the kids to share since they live at the end of a culdasack. They also had a bounce house. I think things went very smoothly and the weather cooperated well. It was a little on the hot side, but atleast it didn't rain! I had to put his party pictures on a slideshow as there were too many:

The first day of school followed Gray's party. Toya started 4th grade, and Jordan is repeating Kindergarten. We baked some cupcakes and decerated enough for each child in their class. They said the cupcakes were a big hit on the first day! Toya was a little nervous as she was having a new teacher this year (because it is a private school, they usually have the same teacher for 2 grades). Her new teacher is our Pastor's Wife. She really loves her now and enjoys going to school. Jordan's teacher is the same and he couldn't be happier. The kid's all got haircuts to go back to school. We chopped the twins hair off. It was an accident as the man cut it quit a bit shorter than we wanted. We LOVE it though and get comliments on it all the time. It makes them look soooo grown up! Toya and Jordan also got a cut. Here are some pictures:

That brings us to the Buckfield parade on Labor Day! Daddy drove the frietruck from the volunteer firestation he is a part of. The kids as well as some of our friends kids got to ride up top and throw candy. They all seemed to enjoy that.

Yesterday (Sunday), we went to the Fryeburg fair. I forgot my camera, but we did take a picture with all of us in the BIG chair. The weather held out nice and we all came back tired and ready for bed! Here is the picture:

We went to the toy library a couple of times in the past 3 mo., as well as the children's museum, a couple of beaches, a hot air balloon festival, and recently the Air Show at the navy base here. We got to see the blue angels fly and really enjoyed ourselves. They had a tent setup from home depot where the kids could go in and make a craft. The kid's enjoyed that, and it was free! We watched the paratroopers and I think it was bittersweet for John. This is what he used to do in the army. We also al went down to a cabin my parents had rented at Dunn's camp and stayed the night there. There were 11 of us in a 2 bedroom, and the bedrooms were tiny! We did it though! :) The kids also went on their first paddle boat ride while we were there. I want to update about Grayson before I put the slideshow on.

Grayson was seen at the Children's Hospital in Boston. He had 2 appt. in the same week. This was very hard on mom, dad, and of course Grayson. It was also VERY expensive as Boston is about 2 1/2 - 3 hrs. away. As soon as the Dr. there saw Grayson, he knew what he had. He has parasonomia with seizures. He said there are several different forms, and there are so few cases of the one he has that it doesn't even have it's own name yet. There are only about 50 cases in the world, and he has only seen 7 of them. He said that the disease is caused because they mature too fast. This makes sense as Grayson has done EVERYTHING early......very early. His brain developed so fast that it created a misfire. He said that in all the cases he had seen that the medicine he was going to put Grayson on had helped in all of them. It didn't help for Grayson! The medicine is highly addictive and is not even supposed to be used on children. They gave it to him for about a week and decided to take him off when they saw it was not for kids, plus it didn't help him. It made him VERY angry! He had withdrawals for a couple of days but it wasn't too bad as he hadn't been on it for too long. They then decided to try a natural doctor that we can get a hold of through our church. He is all the way in Chicago, but because it is all natural stuff, he did a consult over the phone. He is now on a couple of different meds. He still has his good days and bad days, and sleep is very elusive for all in the house. The dr. said that the good news is that in all the cases he saw, the kid's outgrew it by the age of 2! This would be great, but he had also said that the medicine had worked in all the other cases and didn't for Gray. We are praying that he will outgrow it sooner, but I don't think anyone is getting their hopes up! Please keep them all in your prayers!

This is the end of this very long blog! I hope to keep this updated, but cannot make any promises! We do not have one free day where there is nothing to do anymore. Toya is doing cross country track, soccer, and cheering. Jordan is doing soccer. I would write out my schedule so you can see how hectic it is, but it makes me tired just thinking about it, LOL. I hope you enjoyed all the pics! Have a great week and enjoy the slideshow of all the in-between things we did!

A day at the beach & Grayson's test!

2008-07-11T22:42:00.004-04:00

We haven't been to busy around here lately, but we are definitely enjoying some GREAT weather! Our temperatures have been in the 80's ALL week! This makes it great to be outside, but horrible to be at the gym! No, not because we would rather be outside (although we would), but because our gym that supposedly has air conditioning is unbeleivable hot! We checked the thermostat the other day when we went in there and it was HOLDING at 81! Needless to say, we have not been working out the way we used to. It's just way too hot, we get physically ill. I think this is why I am having problems losing weight, but it will get cold again, this is Maine you know! I am still happy to say that I have not gained anything either though! So, I am atleast working out enough to maintain my weight loss. I will get there.

Anyway, my friend Miranda had vacation this week, so on Tuesday we all went to the beach. We got there at around 11:30, and left at about 3. The weather was awesome, and the kids had fun. Grayson took a nap as seen in the picture, and then we went to the park that was there. In the other two pictures, you will see Latoya and cousin Kylie. They have been taking cheering this summer and were practicing the paramid with the girls.

On Wed., we went to the local beach and the kids enjoed some more sun and water. We didn't stay very long though. Thursday we went to the gym, but we didn't work out. This is the day it was 81 in there. We walked in, realized it was stiffling, checked the thermostat, and walked back out. It really was rediculous. We did our shopping, then went home.

Today, we went to the gym as well. We only worked out about 30 min. though. Grayson had to be in Portland at 12:30 to get hooked back up for his 3 day test. I got my Aunt Theresa to watch all 4 of my kids so I could go with Sarah and help her. We got there a little early, so we went to have lunch, then headed to the Drs. office. They called us in and the fun began. You could tell that he remembered from last time. They didn't even have to wrap him up last time, but we did this time. It took a nurse to hold his head, Sarah held his arms, and I held his legs while the other lady applied all the elctrodes (25 of them). Even with all of us holding him down, he still managed to move! He is a strong little guy. It took a little over an hour to apply all of them. As soon as they were done hooking him up, he started smiling and playing again though. He is such a sweet, happy baby! Although the maching is not (as bad) per say as the last one, it is still bad. He has to wear the backpack because the cord on this one isn't long enough for someone to follow him. This wouldn't be bad, except he walks all the time now and the backpack is HEAVY! It must weigh atleast 10 lbs. (half his weight). When he falls, he falls hard now! Poor thing! After supper tonight, we went to Sarah and John's house to look at the progress. It looks great, and they should be in at the end of this month, or the beginning of next. They are counting down the days! We walked from there to the local park, and I watched the kids and let them play while John and Sarah ran back to get the truck. Here are some pics of Grayson at the park all hooked up. I will also include a slideshow below the pics. from this week (don't worry, it's very short, only 21 photo's and it's set on fast speed). I hope everyone has a great week, check back for more updates on Grayson. Please keep him, mom, and dad in your prayers this weekend!

Happy 4th of July!

2008-07-05T12:46:00.013-04:00

Well, since I seem to have a minute, I thought I would update. First I want to say thanks for all the comments on my last post! You all are great! I honestly thought I had lost all of my readers, but you guys made me realize that is not so! To be honest, I should probably be at the gym, but I took a 4 day hiatus to celebrate the holiday. Maybe I just needed a break to get me over this bump in the road. We'll see. So, our 4th, actually started on the 3rd. My hubby was not going to be off for the 4th, so we decided to go to the races the day before as they were having fireworks following. We like going to watch the races anyway. I must say that I did not really enjoy them, because even though I was there in body, my mind was not there with me. I honestly don't think I could tell you one thing about the races. The fireworks were great as usual though. They never dissapoint. In retrospect, I am glad we went because the ones on the 4th were horrible! The kids did well. I wasn't sure about the twins, so, before they started, I prepared them for the booms, but told them it was ok there would be plenty of pretty lights and the lights would stay way up in the sky. Kelsey did fine, but Kaylee at first was scared. She was sitting with daddy and he covered her ears while she hid in his shirt. I finally decided to give it a try and held her. She didn't cry, she just didn't want to look at them or hear them. Every once on a while I would "forget" to cover her ears or eyes and say "oh, did you see that color, isn't it pretty, what color was it?" Before I knew it, she was just sitting there watching and listening to them. She enjoyed them after that and kept looking for her favorite color, blue! She actually would get mad and say "I want a blue one". When that didn't work, she said "I want ALL blue!". Kelsey of course was looking for pink ones. All in all, the kids had fun, and so did daddy. Here are some pics and video:

July 4th started with a parade. It wasn't really that great, but the kids still had fun, and it gave us something to do. We then went in the field where they were having some activities. The kids all got their faces painted, including Grayson. They all looked mighty cute! Grayson tried pulling the girls in their wagon:

Have you guys seen this wagon? It's awesome! I found it on amazon. It is made by razor, and it is electric! I got it since my girls are now over 30 lbs. each. For the most part it does the job. I really got it so it would be easier to go on walks, but it doesn't go fast enough. It says it goes up to 3 mph, but with the girls it doesn't go that fast. It was great for the parade and little activities like that, plus you can pull it faster and it helps you a little. Either way, we did enjoy it and the kids were happy to help with it! It was regular $180, but I got it for $103 plus free shipping. When we got back from the parade, the girls went down for a nap. Toya and Jordan got to go with Sarah and John to go swimming at one of John's relatives house. We weere supposed to go to Rumford to see their fireworks. We have gone there for the past few years and they have the best ones in the area. Sarah called later and told us that they were not having them this year due to not raising enough money! We were highly dissapointed and had to find somewhere else to go. We decided on Winthrop. This was a bad decision! They were not very good and only lasted 15 min. from start to finish. Needless to say, we will not go there again. Hopefully next year we will return to Rumford, but if not we will probably venture to Boothbay. So, that about sums up our last couple of days. On a plus side, the girls and Grayson got to enjoy their first sparklers. The girls were a little scared, but did a few. Grayson loved it. I was very careful that he did not grab it, but you can tell by the pics that he thoroughly enjoyed it. So, here are some pics and a video. Enjoy!

10 Years and 4 Kids! Plus a serious Prayer request (at the bottom)

2008-06-28T21:39:00.007-04:00

Well, I realize it has once again been a month, because if this, I also realize that I have lost most of my readers. I am quit sad about this, but what can I do? Really, where does the time go? Anyway, Friday was our 10 year anniversary. Nothing makes you feel old like being married ten years! I still can't wrap my mind around it! Of course having 4 kids will make you feel old as well, if not more so. We really didn't do too much for our anniversary, but we were on vacation last week, so we can count that I guess. We also went to dinner on Thursday night. Our vacation was actually very nice. We usually go to N.C. to visit my sister and her hubby, but as most of you know, they moved home in December! So, they went on vacation with us as well as my younger sister, Jess. We went to Boston for a couple of days. We actually stayed at the Hyatt Place in Boston/Medford. It was beautiful! My only complaint would be that the pool looked nothing like it does in the picture, but the rooms were excellent. We got to the hotel at around 11 am, and then we got settled and took the subway to market square (basically a whole block of vendors and stores). We then went back to the hotel and then to supper at the Old Country Buffett. We got a little lost going there, but we found it eventually. After supper, we returned to the hotel. They had a free continental breakfast in the morning that we enjoyed, then we headed to the New England Aquarium. We had a blast and got some cute pictures. We also went to the Imax theater. I really was not impressed with it, and it's very expensive! So, without further ado, here is the slideshow:

This brings us to the next portion of the trip. We went home for a few days in between, then we headed to N.H. We stayed at the North Conway Grand Hotel. We were originally only supposed to stay one night, but my hubby and I decided to go up a day earlier. I booked the hotel online right before we left to go. When we go there, they informed us that they had no more rooms available for the 2 Queen beds. They then informed me that they were upgrading us to a suite!! I then asked if we had to check out and then back in since we had booked the rooms at seperate times, and they told us not to worry about it, we were upgraded for both nights, and there was no extra charge! The room was HUGE! The bedroom had a king bed plus a pull out sofa, the the living/kitchen had a pull out sofa as well. The hotel also had one indoor pool and hot tub, plus it had a ouside pool and hot tub, plus a kiddie play pool. ALL the pools were heated! The kids spent the first night in the pool for 2 hours. The next morning we took the kids swimming while we waited for Sarah, John, Grayson, and Jess to come up. They went swimming for 2 hours while we waited. We joined them for lunch while they waited for their room to open, then the kids went swimming with daddy while we went to the outlets (the hotel is right in the middle of the outlets). While we went shopping, the kids went swimming for 6 hours straight! We ate breakfast the next morning and although it was free, the continental breakfast was awesome! Kids did eat free though. After breakfast, we got checked out and headed to Storyland! Of course the kids had a blast there. We had to pay for the twins, but it was worth it because they are finally big enough to ride everything. They did too, and they enjoyed it. Here is a slideshow (there are lots of pics, but I put it on fast so it shouldn't take too long):

So, that was the end of our vacation! Doug went back to work on Saturday and we returned to our normal schedule.....kind of. Our church had planned a trip to Santa's Village for the Tuesday after our vacation. I did not plan to go because I knew we were going to Storyland the week before. Turns out someone in our church saw that we were not signed up and they decided to pay for me and the kids. Obviously, the kids had a blast. The weather could have been better, but we made the best of it. We had a few downpours, but atleast it cleared up in between. Now we are going to relax the rest of the summer, atleast I hope to. Here is a slideshow of course:

This brings us to a very serious prayer request. I mentioned my nephew Grayson. My sister has been struggling for the past 3 months to figure out what has been going on with him. He had a EEG done last week that required him wearing a contraption on his head for 48 hours. Not only did he have this thing on his head, but someone had to be with him at all times because it was attached to a box that you had to carry in a little backpack and the cord was VERY short. After a very rough night, my sister decided that 24 hrs. was enough. My sister pushed the button 17 times that night signaling him having these spells. I went with her last Wed. to have him unhooked. They told her that they would not know the results for 2 weeks, but they also keep telling her how serious this is, and that at any time he could have a VERY serious one that could cause brain damage. The thing that makes this difficult is that this Dr. is the only pediatric neurologist in the state of Maine. The machine he had on is only one of 3 in the whole state. Thankfully the nurse got things moving and the results were read just a few days later. Sarah got the call last Friday night that he is indeed having seizures! So, almost everytime he sleeps, he is having seizures. They now want to do a 72 hour EEG test on him. For this machine, there are only 2 in the whole state. How absurd is that. Because of this, he cannot get a machine till July 11th!! Sarah is exhausted as she is up with him about every night while he has these seizures. So, needless to say they need your prayers! He is such a handsome little guy and so happy. Here is some pictures of him with the contraption on, and a video of his newest talent.....WALKING (at 10 mo.). Did I mention how smart he is??:

I hope you all have a great week, I will keep everyone updated on the little man! Sorry once again for the delay in the update and for making this so long. I hope to get some of my readers back! :) Sorry if this seems all over the place, I'm exhausted! Also, as far as the weight loss, I am at a stand still. I have not lost anymore, but haven't gained it back either. I am not sure about inches yet as I plan to do them in the next couple of days. I'm stuck in a rut!!! HELP! :)

A few new things!

2008-05-28T16:46:00.005-04:00

So, I figured I have some spare time, so I would update! :) We haven't had a whole lot going on, besides the gym of course! Of course, right after I wrote that, I realized that I definitely have a few things to update, and quit a few pictures. First up was a trip to the Maine Wildlife Park. This is Maine's idea of a zoo! :) Basically, it is where wounded animals go to recover. They have a few different animals, but nothing like a real zoo. We have a couple of bears, skunks, racoons, deer, moose, mountain lions, and a few others. We went that day because there was a children's singer performing there. Rick Charette used to play in the public schools when I was in grade school. I used to love him, and I still do! The kid's enjoyed it too. I don't think I will get in trouble for this, but I will take it down if I am asked too. Here is a video of one of his songs (with a slideshow to follow). It is called The Alligator in the Elevator:

We also had a birthday party for Rilee (youngest niece on Doug's side) on that same day. We went to the animal park first thing in the morning and then left from there to go right to the birthday party. Rilee turned a year old! We had a cookout and some birthday cake and enjoyed the family time. After the party, we decided to go to the races with them as well. It made for a VERY long day though. We left our house at 9 am, and didn't get home till 10:30 pm. Here are a few pictures of the birthday girl:

Since then, we had a memorial day parade. It wasn't that great, but was better than the one we went to last year! We also watched Caleb at some point, and the girls really enjoyed playing with their buddy. They gave each other rides on the girl's 4-wheelers, and then played in the sandbox. On Sunday night, we stayed at a local motel so we could go swimming. It is still too cold for any beaches around here. We rented a room, my sister Sarah rented a room, and then my sister Jess rented a room as well. We had pizza for supper, but mainly just stayed in the water for the day. The pool was cold, so you will see pics of all of us in the hot tub. It was still fun though, and the hot tub wasn't hot, just warm. It was great for the kids. We also went to the park that night before bed and had some ice cream. Fun was had by all! Here is a slideshow for you:

Ok, I'm winding down now! :) Last Tuesday was awards night and Kindegarten graduation at school. The kid's did really well. Jordan's class quoted some of their favorite poems and verses. As I said before (I think)), Jordan will not be going to first grade. He passed Kindegarten, but I think him repeating will be in his best interest. He just turned 6, so he will be older, and more mature. Wendsday was the last day of school. Latoya is officially a 4th grader. She did EXCELLENT this year. Here are some pics of the night, as well as the video:

I also just got the kid's spring pictures back from school. They came out AWESOME! Latoya always takes good pictures, but Jordan's usually look goofy. This year, his came out SUPER as well. The one with the 4 of the kids is above (as you saw), and here are the other two:

Now, a couple of things to close. Please continue to pray for Gray man (Grayson). He seemed to be doing better for a little bit, but has started to have the same issues again. My sister is hoping to have him referred to Boston tomorrow. He has had a couple of VERY rough nights. The poor little guy, and mom and dad. Please pray that he can get the referral, and that the Drs. find something to help him.

Last but not least. On week 20 of my weight loss, I am down 38.2 lbs. I also took my measurements a month ago and in for this month, I am down 12 in. This is from 5 different places. I am down 5 in. in my waist, and 3 in. in my hips. All only in a month! I was hoping to get to my 40 lb. mark this week, but I don't think that will be happening. I have had a very bad week and so far don't have any weight loss this week. In fact, I have gained about 1 lb. It's frustrating, and I knew it would start to get harder the longer I did it. Anyway, we will see. Either way, I will get there! Thanks for reading, I hope everyone has a great week!

Prayers for the Chapman Family!

2008-05-23T21:35:00.003-04:00

I know this is old news to most of you probably, but I think this family could use all the prayers they can get. I personally had never heard any of Steve Chapman's music before this happened, but after I read the news story, I looked up his music. Steven Chapman is a Christian Music singer. His 5 yr. old daughter was killed a few days ago when her older brother was backing out of the driveway. Here is a link to the story: Maria Sue Chapman. As I was looking uo his music, I came across his song entitled Cinderella. I didn't even get hrough the first minute before the tears started flowing. After the video, he talks about what gave him the idea for the video (his little girls). Here is the music video, and then I am putting on a video of him and his daughters. I can't imagine the grief this family is going through. Please pray for them. Here are the video's (have the tissues handy):

Grayson's Doing Good!

2008-05-20T16:15:00.003-04:00

Just wanted to update everyone and let you all know that Grayson came through the test fine. I went to the gym, then I went over to the hospital to catch him before he went under. He was tired and hungry. He hadn't eaten since 7 the night before. He had a juice bottle around 9 I think, and that is it. He did really well. The service could have been better, basically they were left in the room with a monitor on his toe and if they needed anything, they had to go find someone. The girls and I left right before he was sedated, because I knew it would probably be harder to go to sleep with everyone there. We went to get lunch, then we headed back when the test was over, and we brought Sarah, John, and Grayson some lunch. When we got back to the room, Grayson was awake, but still groggy. I held him, but wasn't prepared. His head flopped back like a newborn because of the medicine. It really was like holding a newborn again. He would try to crawl, and his arms would give out. He started getting upset because nothing would work right, and he was still sleepy and hungry. They finally let him have a bottle, and he ate 2 of them. Granted it was only 8 oz., but he usually only eats 4 ounce bottle at a time. He was still irritated after that, so I asked if he could go for a wagon ride. The nurse went and got a wagon and put pillows and blankets in there for him. The girls both pulled him, and they made quit the scene at the hospital. We took him all over the place. We weren't sure if he was supposed to leave the floor, but we took him anyway and they didn't send anyone after us. When we got back, you could tell that the medication was just about out of his system. He was doing much better at crawling, and was even pulling himself up and climbing onto a chair in the room. They finally discharged him. As far as the results, there was no one there to read them, and they said it would be between 5 and 7 days before they would get the results. They actually don't think this test will show anything. They think they will have to send him to Portland to do a 24 hr. test, but they will know that when they see the neurologist in June. So, that is all for today. Here are some pics. I am dissapointed because they came out so dark, and the first one is so tiny because it is off my camera phone (I had forgotten my camera in the van the second time I went up). The first one is after the sedation when we went for the wagon ride. The other 3 are before sedation. Thanks for the prayers, and have a great week!

Before & After, Plus A Prayer Request

2008-05-18T22:28:00.006-04:00

*********UPDATE*********

Grayson will be going in for a EEG tomorrow morning/afternoon. He will have to be sedated and will be admitted because the medicine they use to sedate him is not good for children as young as he is. This test will show if he has in fact been having seizures. They will not have the results for 5 days, but I will keep everyone updated.

First I want to start out with the prayer request. I really wish you all would pray for my nephew, Grayson. He is my only nephew on my side. He is 9 months old. It seems like ever since he has gotten teeth, that he has been grinding them and biting his tongue. For a while, he was biting his tongue so bad that he was actually biting pieces out of it. It finally got really infected and was turning black. He was put on medication, but ended up being allergic to it. My sister brought him in and the Dr.s were confused and referred her to a ear, nose, and throat specialist. He of course didn't know anything and tried to call lots of his specialist friends. That leads us to today. Today while in nursery, it seems that Grayson stopped breathing and had a seizure. He was gievn two rescue breathes and came to. He was very lethargic after and rested for a bit. My sister and her hubby brought Grayson to the ER tonight. They think he has been having seizures all along at night, but is only noticeable now because he is biting his tongue when it happens. They did a CAT scan, which he didn't even need to be sedated for! It came back normal. They also did blood work and the only thing that showed up was elevated liver numbers. He is home now, but is being referred to a neurologist and further tests will be done to find the reason for the elevated liver numbers. Anyway, please pray for him and mom and dad. It's never easy to hear that something could be seriously wrong with your child. Here is a recent pic of him:

Ok, since you guys asked so nicely, here are my before and after pics. The first one was taken at my sister's baby shower in July of last year. The second was taken a couple of days ago. Neither of them is posed, obviously, I just found some that would work. So, when you look at the pictures, please remember that I still have a long way to go! I was very big to start with, and now I am getting smaller. :) So, that being said, I still have my spare tire around the middle, but it is shrinking! I also got a haircut a couple of days ago. Anyway, here are the pics. I tried to get them to be side by side, but I couldn't. For some reason all my things that were on the side of my blog have been moved to the bottom too, and I can't figure out what happened. Any help would be appreciated! Here are the pics (remember, the first one is "before" and the second is the "after" pic.):

I've been tagged ~ Unnoficially!

2008-05-17T06:59:00.007-04:00

I actually wasn't tagged individually, but more of a group thing. Angie tagged a few people and then said well, I tag everyone that wants to participate. Well, I have been thinking about it since I read her post and finally came up with something. Here is the scoop on the game:

6 Word Memoir Meme

Angie tagged me for this Meme, and I'm so glad. This one took a lot more thought than I would have expected, yet was really fun. The Meme orginated over an idea that was prompted by the book written by Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser, Not Quite What I was Planning: Six Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure. It's a compilation based on the story that Hemingway once bet ten dollars that he could sum up his life in six words. His words were- For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.

Here are the rules:

1. Write your own six word memoir
2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like
3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to this original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere
4 .Tag five more blogs with links
5. And don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!

My Life: Never A Dull Moment!

And I will tag:

Stephanie: http://www.stephaniechristner.blogspot.com/

Ellen: http://ellen-eternitytoday.blogspot.com/

Debra: http://thecryercrew.blogspot.com/

Laura: http://our-munchkins.blogspot.com/

Angie: http://waitingformaggienatalie.blogspot.com/

Erin: http://thepruetzfamily.blogspot.com/

I will also end by saying if there is anyone else who wants to participate, please do. This made me think, but was alot of fun!

Please look below for another update!

Catching up!

2008-05-13T20:54:00.009-04:00

I have to say that I think this is the longest I have ever gone (thanks Laura for letting me know you missed me)! One of the problems is that I always think there is nothing to write about, but then everything sneaks up on me and there is too much to write about. Then, I get overwhelmed and don't know where to start. Anyway, I really am going to try to update more often so I don't get so overwhelmed. Things here are going well. Too well. You know how it is when you have a good streak, and you are just waiting for the ball to drop, that's how it is here. We have finally gotten rid of our snow and have had some awesome weather! It really has been great, I think this is our reward for the horrible winter we just had. Anyway, alot has happened since my last post. Nothing over the top, but alot I can write about, so I will get right to it. You will either have ti skip to the bottom to see my weight loss, or you can do it the right way, and read all the way through (I would skip to the bottom, but you guys are good and will read all the way through, right?). Anyway, since my last post, Jordan has turned 6! Yes, he is finally six. It really is hard to beleive. It seems like going from 5-6 is such a big hurdle, atleast in my mind. He had his party at Jokers and they had alot of fun. I didn't get too many pictures, but I will share a few in the slideshow at the end. I am going to give you a condensed version of the past month and all the pictures will be in one slideshow. So, first we had Jordan's birthday, then we went to a circus. It was the Shriners Circus. It was not that great, and I definitely could have done without the half dressed women in a kid's circus. The kid's really were not that interested in it. It is nothing like the Barnum and Bailey (which never comes this way). This one has horses, clowns, donkey's, dog's, and pigs. Not the real circus animals. We've been to a couple of parks and the kid's have gone swimming in our tiny pool once when it was really hot. We then had another birthday party at Joker's and you could tell the kid's were finally getting sick of going there. They did enjoy themselves, but were ready to leave much sooner than normal. Most things that we do now a days is done with my sister, Sarah, and Grayson. You will see them in quit a few pictures. A couple of weeks ago, the kids got to go fishing for the first time. One of the local town's was having a free fishing day for kid's. We took the kids as well as Sarah, John, and Grayson. John's brother also came with his wife and two boys. If 5 & under caught a fish, they got a prize. 6 & up had to catch 3 fish. I think 3 & under didn't have to cathc anything, they just had to try and they got a prize. Lucas (one of the other little boys), caught his fish first and then just a few seconds later, Jordan caught his. Luca got a sunfish I beleive, and Jordan got a catfish. Uncle John too the fish off the pole before we got a picture, and the fish slipped out of his hands. John grabbed it and ended up getting poked by it, but we got a couple of pictures. At first, Jordan wanted to hold it, but then when Uncle John got poked, he didn't want anything else to do with it. Latoya had no luck at all. She actually must have "caught" about 6 fish, but they all got away befopre she could reel them in. Since Jordan got a fish, he got a prize, and picked out a brand new fishing pole. The girls picked out a fishing pole and a tackle box. We gave the pole to Latoya since the girls really will never use it, atleast not for a long time. While we were fishing, Kelsey grabbed a hold of one of the poles and saw the bobber floating in the water, she tugged on it and said, "look, I caught a ball!" It was quit funny. Anyway, I think that is about it for now. Here are some pictures of the kids fishing, and then a very short video of the twins and Graysin on the train at Joker's, and then finally the slideshow. There are quit a few pictures on it, it has been a whole month you know! Enjoy!

So, you really want to know my weight loss total? Well, it was week 17 on Saturday, so technically I should have been down 34 lbs. I didn't quit make it, but I am officially down 32 lbs (and this is still without dieting)! I am super excited! Not only do I go to the gym 5-6 times a week, but we now go for a walk at night, after supper. We do just cardio on Mondays and when I go on Saturdays. We have also started taking classes at the gym during the week. We do total body, step, step/kick boxing, and lower body. I think I am forgetting one, but anyway, I feel great (maybe a little sore). I am going to keep going, and I will get there eventually. I hope everyone has a great week! We have a very busy weekend, so hopefully I can update during the week with more pics!

Easter, Swimming, and Weight loss!

2008-04-05T07:15:00.006-04:00

How come every time I blog now, I feel that I have to start off with an apology? Could be because I have not blogged in forever! So, I once again am sorry for my lack of updates. I know we had Easter and I usually atleast put pictures up, but of course as you can see, that did not happen. We had a great Easter and just spent the day at my parents (which we do every Sunday anyway). We went to church on Sunday morning, then did the Easter hunt at grammy's after. I got video of the kids doing their Easter hunt, but I don't feel like putting it up. So, even though they are a little late, here are the kids Easter pics (including one of Grayson) as well as a slideshow. I think this is the last year I will be able to dress the girls alike. It will make me sad, but Latoya is growing up and will be out of children's place clothing very soon! So, here are the pics:

Next on the agenda is swimming! I know I just blogged about how much snow we still had, the snow has gone down, but not enough to go swimming! My sister and her hubby have been staying with my mom since they moved back from N.C. They are waiting for their house to be built, which they just signed off on yesterday! Congratulations guys! I know they are super excited, and the house will be beautiful! Anyway, they wanted to get away and just be their little family for a little while and they rented a hotel room. The hotel had a very nice pool! They invited me and the kids to go down and go swimming with them. We went down at about 7 pm. the first night and the kids loved it! Jordan is still a little scared, but once he warmed up and got in his ring, he did better. The girls took a little longer to get used to it. They used their arm floaties as well as their baby floats. Latoya, of course, was fine and was jumping in within minutes of getting there. We stayed for about an hour and went back home. My kids have always been good sleepers, but even they crashed! We then went back on Saturday after the gym. We got there right after lunch (we stopped and ate), I think it was around 12:30 pm. We stayed until 4:30 pm. They were in the pool for 4 HOURS! Grayson didn't last that long. They only stayed for an hour, and then went shopping. They left us with the hotel room key so we could get changed after. We had alot of fun, me included. Needless to say, the girls missed their nap, so, as soon as we got to the van, they were out by the time we left the parking lot!

Here is a slideshow as well as a video of Latoya jumping in:

Here are some random pictures as well:

We went to the mall a little while ago and they had these strollers there that you would rent. He was just playing in one, but he loved it so much, that Auntie had to let him get one! He was in heaven, but it did make it hard to get him out of it in the end:

This is our new stroller. I LOVE it. It was hard to find one that the girls could still fit into for walks and fairs, and malls! We used it for the first time at the mall, and they loved it! We used it again a couple of days ago to walk and pick up Toya from school. It was so much easier to push and the girls enjoy it. It comes with a attached rain cover too. They retail at LL Bean for $350. I was able to find this one on Craigslist for $150. The lady had only used it for one month before winter came and now her older child refuses to sit in it, so she sold it!

Next, we have Lightning Mcqueen from Cars! At our local mall, we had a bunch of race cars on display. These are just local drivers, so no big time people here, but one of the cars was painted to match lighting Mcqueen. The kids were excited to see it, except Kaylee who you can see was not impressed and didn't even want to stand by it. I thought it was pretty cool though!

Last but not least is my weight loss. I wish I would have great number to report, but sadly I do not. I have not had a great couple of weeks, so, this is one reason I have not been blogging. It gets very discouraging when you are working out 6 days a week and still get stuck in a rut. I guess I am going to have to have to throw in a diet now. I was hoping to just do the exercise for a while longer because I really have a hard time sticking to diets. We'll see what happens. Anyway, this is week 11, so I should be down 22 lbs, but I am only down 20.6 lbs. I am happy to finally hit the 20 lb. mark! I am also happy that I have yet to gain at all in any week! Even though the weight loss has not been exactly where I want it to be, I know I have lost quit a few in. I bought a skirt about a month ago that ran small. I was able to wear it last Sunday for church and it was actually a little loose. I also tried on 2 things in the next size down and I was able to get them on and zipped without having to lay down! They are still a little tight for my comfort, but I was definitely encouraged. So, anyway, I guess I am happy with where I am but a little dissapointed that the scale is not showing more. Anyway, this concludes my post for this week! I hope you all have a great week! I am going to try to catch up on some blogs today, I have missed reading all of them.

In the Paper!

2008-03-17T07:23:00.003-04:00

The twins were in the paper yesterday! The journalist took a ton of pictures, but theirs was the only picture in the actual paper. He had a ton of pictures online though, but only the write up of the girls. No big deal, just kinda cool! :) Read below for a much bigger update if you haven't already. Have a great week!

WOW, It's Been a whole month!

2008-03-15T22:23:00.005-04:00

Ok, I am very sorry for the delay! I didn't realize till today that it has bene a month since I updated. Honestly there is no good excuse, I have just been busy. I tell you, I don't even know which way I am going anymore. I have a routine and I stick to it. Here is a run down of my week:

Monday ~
8:15 bring the kids to school (they go to school on Mondays now to make up snow days)
9:00 - 11:00 Gym
12:00 - lunch
12:30-3:30 Speech and Occupational Therapy for Jordan and the twins.
5:00 Supper
7:00 Baths
8:00 Bedtime
8:00 - 10:00 Clean house and get ready for the next day
10:00 my bedtime (I used to stay up till hubby got home from work, but I can't do it anymore)

Tuesday ~
8:15 bring the kids to school
9:00 - 11:00 Gym
12:00 - lunch
12:30-2:30 naps (sometimes for me too)
3:00 Pick the kids up from school
5:00 Supper
7:00 Baths
8:00 Bedtime
8:00 - 10:00 Clean house and get ready for the next day
10:00 my bedtime

Wednesday ~
8:15 bring the kids to school
9:00 - 11:00 Gym
12:00 - lunch
12:30-2:30 naps
3:00 Pick the kids up from school
5:00 Supper
7:00-8:30 Church
8:30 Bedtime
8:30 - 10:00 Clean house and get ready for the next day
10:00 my bedtime

Thursday ~
8:15 bring the kids to school
9:00 - 11:00 Gym
12:00 - lunch
12:30-2:30 Jordan's speech
3:00 Pick the kids up from school
5:00 Supper
7:00 Baths
8:00 Bedtime
8:00 - 10:00 Clean house and get ready for the next day
10:00 my bedtime

Friday ~
8:15 bring the kids to school
9:00 - 11:00 Gym
11:00 - 1:00 Grocery Shopping
3:00 Pick the kids up from school
5:00 Supper
7:00 Baths
8:00 Bedtime
8:00 - 10:00 Clean house and get ready for the next day
10:00 my bedtime

Saturday ~
9:00 - 11:00 Gym
12:00 lunch
1:00 - 3:30 Clean the church
5:00 Supper
7:00 Baths
8:00 Bedtime
8:00 - 10:00 Clean house and get ready for the next day
10:00 my bedtime

Sunday ~
10:00 - 12:15 Church
12:15 - 1:30 Clean the Church
2:00 Lunch at my parents
3:00 - 4:30 Naps
5:30 Supper
6:00 Drop the kids off at church for their program
7:00 - 8:15 Church
8:30 - Bedtime
8:30-10:00 Clean house and get ready for the next day
10:00 My bedtime (then we start all over again)

So, now you know how busy I really am. I am up past my bedtime to do this post too! I really do hope to keep uo with the blog still and I guess I will have to schedule my time to update things. To update the past month, we have had 3 ear infections, and a few colds, but other than that there has not been a whole lot to update. We have had a TON of snow! This is the snowiest winter I have ever experienced for as long as I can remember. Here are soem pictures of our snowbanks in our yard. This was about 3 weeks ago and we have since gotten a few more snowstorms, but we have also had some melting, so the snowbanks are not quit so high, but very close:

Walkway to our house (very narrow)

Looking at our house from the driveway

Jordan next to one of the snowbanks in our driveway

Our pile in front of the barn

Today my younger sister and I took the kids to a Easter party at a local Armory. They had a blast and for the most part it was free, except the food. They had lots of booths with games and then a section for the kids to do a Easter egg hunt. The girls may be in the paper since a man from our local paper was there and asked permission to take some pictures then got their names. He couldn't say for sure cause he took soo many pictures that you never know who is going to end up in there. If I do see them in there, then I will be sure to put a link up so you all can see it. Each child was supposed to only collect 5 eggs. Needless to say, the twins did not get that concept and filled their buckets. They were VERY good when I told them they had to put a ton of them back and only keep 5. They never complained or cried. Kaylee was a little hesitant when I kept handing her eggs to put back, but she did it. Toya and Jordan got their faces painted as bunnies. The girls wanted nothing to do with it at all, so I didn't force them to have it done. Here are some pictures and a slideshow of the kids at the Easter party:

With the Easter bunnies (Kaylee, Kelsey, Jordan, Toya) With the big inflatable police officer (he was huge and was kneeling in this pic)
Jordan the bunny
Toya the bunny

Well, that is all I have for now. Jordan's back is completely healed and you would never know it had been burned so bad. We were told six weeks of healing time, and he was completely healed in 1 1/2 weeks! The Drs. were amazed! I also forgot to mention that during this past month, Jordan was one of the ones that got a ear infection. His took two medications before it finally cleared up. During this time, he started to experience some hearing loss as well as "beeping" in his ears. We were quit concerned and I brought him in to the Drs. They referred us to a specialist to have his hearing tested. His appt. is on Mar. 25th. I will keep everyone updated as to what we find out. I have said from the time he was 2, that he didn't hear right, but we have had him tested before and his test came back normal. Now, he is telling us he can't hear, so, I am hoping to find something out. Now that his ear infection has cleared up, he seems to be hearing better, but not "good". Anyway, I am really going now. My weight loss is still going good, and I am now down 16.2 lbs. in 7 weeks! YEAH!!! Slowly but surely! I hope you all have a great week!

Birthday Party, Sickies, and Burns!

2008-02-16T21:33:00.009-05:00

So, as you can tell by the title this has been a BUSY week! We'll start with last Friday. Friday was a usual day (atleast I think it was). Latoya cheered for one of the basketball games and I was able to get a video, but it's hard to see her. Here it is though, plus some pics!

The rest of the weekend was pretty good (atleast I think it was) :)

Monday brought the girls birthday party at Jokers. There were quit a few people and the girls really enjoyed themselves. It was really hard to visit with everyone since we all had kids of different ages. In that sense it was a little annoying, but all the kids enjoyed themselves and that is what counts. Here is a slideshow of the party, and a picture of the girls on their Dora atv's from us. I have never seen so many Dora things in my life! You will also notice that the cake was a little messed up. Seems Kaylee wanted one of the toys on top! :)

On Tuesday Kaylee was not feeling well at all. She has a rough night after the party which we attributed to being exhausted from the party. Just to be on the safe side, I brought her to the Drs. Turns out she has bronchitis as well as a ear drum that was about to burst! The ear thing really threw me off since she had only mentioned it once and that was in passing. We had brought her in for her cough. Anyway, she is on antibiotics and is doing alot better. Boy do I wish the week had ended there! No sooner had we left the Drs. office and Kelsey started coughing. I can't win! I just went home and figured we would wait and see what happened. Wishful thinking.

On Thursday, Kelsey started running a fever. It hovered around 102. I still declined from making an appt. This was also Valentines day. We really didn't do anything for it, but the girls had a really cute outfit they wore and Kelsey insisted on telling everyone "Happy Valentines Day" over and over again. Here is a picture of them in their outfits. There is also a cute pic of Kaylee with cups on her feet as shoes:

On Friday after we (my sisters and I) went to the gym, we did our usual grocery shopping. While we were checking out, I received a call from my mom (she's the secretary at the kids school). She said Jordan had been burned while at school. At first I was thinking a rug burn. She said he had been burned by soup. It still didn't really sink in, then she explained. Jordan and another classmate were going upstairs with their soup. The girl behind him tripped and her soup spilled on Jordan's back. My mom was in the office and heard the screaming and new it wasn't good. Seh went running and found them on the stairs. While I was talking to her, I could hear Jordan screaming in pain. They gave him tylenol, then wrapped a cold towel around him and my mom met me at his Drs. office down town. By the time I saw him, he was calmed down and not in too much pain. We got right in and were told that he has 1st, 2nd, and in one spot almost 3rd degree burns. We were given instructions and sent home. He has been doing remarkably well with it, but I am keeping him well medicated and it is in a pretty good spot for a burn. While we were in the Drs., we must have had 3-4 Drs. come in just to see how someone gets burned by soup on the back! :) There were so many things that just fell into place during this. Why, I don't know.
***First thing, my kids NEVER order hot lunch from school, but I was running out of time that day and decided to let them get the soup and sandwich.
***Secondly, the ladies that were doing the lunch do not normally do it.
***Third, when the elementary kids order lunch, it is normally brought to their rooms, they don't go get it.
*** Lastly, the soup bowls normally have covers on them.

Anyway, here are some pics of his back (don't worry, they didn't come out too good so they aren't too gross), as well as his stock of things to care for it. Like I'm not busy enough!

I also forgot to mention that Friday morning Jordan had woke up with croup. So, all 3 of the younger ones are now on the nebulizer. We went to watch Latoya cheer at her last game even after all this. I hadn't downloaded all the party pics off my camera yet, so I was not able to get any pics.

This morning I ended up bringing Kelsey in since she has continued to run a fever, has had a rapid heartbeat, and complains of leg pain. I had given her motrin this morning at 8 am, and when we got to her Drs. appt. at 11:15, her temp was still
103.1. They said it is just the flu and to try to keep her fever down so when I got home, I gave her tylenol as well and her fever finally broke during her nap. We'll see if we can keep it away, if not then she needs to go on Monday for blood work. This evening we went to my mom's for supper and a birthday cake for my sister. So, Happy Birthday Auntie Sarah!! I didn't get to get pics of the "party", but I got some pics of Grayson. He was watching Jordna playing with his cars, so when Jordan was done, I gave them to him and he really loved playing with them. Here are the pics:

I guess that ends this post. Please pray for Jordan to heal quickly as well as the girls. Toya continues to be my healthy one! :) Atleast I have one! Have a great week.

Oh, by the way. I am down 8.6 lbs. total for 3 weeks. So, that is 3 lbs lost for this week!

3 Yr. Checkup & 3 Yr. Pictures!

2008-02-07T19:33:00.000-05:00

Well, this has completed another week. The girls are officially 3! We had a family birthday party on Saturday and the girls really enjoyed it. It was just me and the kids, and my mom and sisters, Grampa, and uncle John. The girls picked out Diego cupcakes (there wasn't any Dora), and Dora ice cream. They weren't sure what to think of everyone singing to them, but joined in and sang to me. They still remember when it was my birthday. :) They received Dora dolls from auntie Sarah and uncle John, and Dora backpacks from auntie Jess. They also received Dora pj's from Grammy and Grampa. Do you sense a theme here? They had a great time. Here is a slideshow from the party:

This week has been absolutely hectic. Besides going to the gym every morning, we had appts. EVERY afternoon. Monday and Thursdays are ot and speech. Tuesday was a dentist appt. for Toya. Wed. was pictures and the girls physicals. Tomorrow will be grocery shopping. I am ready for a break!

As you read, we had the girls 3 yr. pictures taken. We went to Sears. We went to the gym from 9 am to 10:30 am (our normal time). We had an aoot. for 11 am and got there just in time. We were the only appt. scheduled for that day so the lady had lots of time. She took 76 pictures of the girls and Grayson (he was having his 6 mo. pics done). She was very nice and patient, but not very attentive to detail. Alot of Graysons were ruined by drool and the girls had quit a few that I was not very impressed with. Like I said, she did take 76 pictures so we did find plenty to order. We were there till 12:30 and we went to go get some lunch while the pictures were downloaded. We were gone for about a half hour and when we came back we were informed that she was still downloading them. We weren't too happy since we were told they would be done by the time we got back. The girls dr. appt. was scheduled for 2 pm., so we ended up leaving sears without even ordering any pictures. We went back today to do the ordering. The ones we chose, really did come out super cute! Here are a couple, then the rest are in the slide below.

This leads us to the girls Dr. appt. We were very happy that they did not need any shots this time. They were weighed and measured. Kelsey was 32.4 lbs. and 36 1/2 in. and Kaylee was 32.2 lbs. and 36 3/4 in. I can't beleive that they stay the same weight and height all the time. I thought for sure there would be a gap in weight since they always choose different things to eat. There is very rarely that they like all of the same thing. They do not eat alike at all. We talked about how they were doing and we think they are pretty much on track. She didn't notice them being behind at all. They were given books and prizes form the toy chest and we were sent on our way. I am also happy to say that thsi was the first time the girls have been there in over a month and this was a healthy appt.! I am hoping that this means that they are growing out of the "sick" stage. I don't have time for the dr.s office anymore!

Well, that is about it for tonight. Toya has a game that she is cheering in tomorrow, so there should be some pics of that next week. The girls are also having their real birthday party on Monday. We are doing it at Jokers. We only invited a few of the girls friends and some family, so it won't be very big. They'll have alot of fun though and i'll have pics of that as well. I will end with the fact that I nly lost 1.6 lbs. this week. I was kinda dissapointed, but atleast I can pinpoint a reason why. That still puts me down 5.6 lbs. in 2 weeks!

I hope everyone has a great week!

New Haircuts, First Haircuts, and Third Birthday!

2008-02-01T22:36:00.000-05:00

Well, I have been busy as usual. I now have a routine for the gym. I go every morning with my sister Sarah at 9:00 am. This schedule works really good for both of us and I thoroughly enjoy it. I guess the lack of updates is due to not much news. Things have been quit calm around here for the most part. I will update with the past two weeks, but again, it's not much. I had to include the above picture of Kaylee. They have gotten used to the breathing machine and I got Kaylee going then went back a few minutes later, and this is what I saw! Hilarious! Read to the end for pics of someones first haircut! :)

Last Saturday me, my two sisters, Toya, and Jordan all went shopping at the outlets in new hampshire. We had a blast, but it made for a long day. We got to the outlets when they opened at 10 am and didn't leave till they closed at 8 pm. We spent so much money it was rediculous ( I had tax return money). I am happy to say that my kids should be all set on clothes for next year! My mom kept the twins, and they did their own shopping a little closer to home. Here is a picture of my loot and the girls in one of their new outfits:

Kelsey

Kaylee

Kaylee (L) & Kelsey (R)

Last night, my hubby, me and the kids all went to walmart to get haircuts. It was a fmaily affair and I was the only one who didn't get one. This was the twins first haircut and I was a little nervous to say the least. I was not impressed when I said to cut it right above the shoulders and this is what I got:

I must say that they look cute and they did really well. I guess they won't be needing another one anytime soon! They look sooooo grown up. We got them done for their birthday which is tomorrow. They will be 3! Wow, I am so in shock that they are 3! Where does the time go? They came form here:

To here:

Well, that is all for now. I got my scale last Thursday and upon weighing in this Thursday, I have lost 4 lbs. in a week! I am super excited and will keep doing what I'm doing! I figure 2 lbs. a week and I can lose 100 lbs. in a year! I'd be happy with that!

Well, good night and happy birthday to my sweet, loveable, beautiful little girls! Sorry there are no pics of the older two, my camera battery died at the hair place. I will get pics of them up soon though! What do you think of the girls haircuts??

A Birthday Surprise!

2008-01-15T21:25:00.000-05:00

Well, I realize this was a week ago now, but I really have not had time to update. Last Thursday, my mom, Jess, and me went to the gym. Sarah and John stayed home and watched the kids. When we got back from the gym, I went in to get the kids and instead got a huge surprise. When I cam around the corner, all the lights were off and I was greeted by my kids, and the rest of the family with a cake. They sang happy birthday and then we enjoyed some lasagna, breadsticks, salad, cake, and ice cream courtesy of Sarah and John. It was a very happy birthday. My hubby also got to be there since he has Thursdays nights off. I have to say that I didn't have a clue. Everyone new, and no one let on. I think since I have been married, this has been my best birthday! I am soooo thankful to Sarah and John for thinking of me and making my 30th birthday special (doesn't feel any different than 29 either). My kids were VERY excited to be able to halp make me a cake as well. The twins still talk about the cake they made and how they sang to me. They also made cards for me. Kelsey and Kaylee wouldn't give them to me, they let me look then kept them for themselves! :) I love my kids! I love that they were so excited about doing something for me! They truly are great!

Last week was the first week that I went to the gym 6 days a week! I plan on doing it all the time now. I do not know if I have lost anything since I have not weighed myself in forever, but I do know that I have ALOT more energy. I feel sooo much better. Now, my schedule revolves around when I can get to the gym, whether it be Monday mornings at 5 am or Tuesday at 4 pm. Either way, I get it in there. So, this is why you haven't seen any comments from me lately. I need to do this for myself so some of the things I used to do, I no longer have time to do. I hope you guys understand. I do read everyone's blogs and I will definitely keep up with mine, just maybe not as often. Now, my free time I used to have at night to do these things, are spent cleaning, and getting things ready for the next day. It's hard to explain, but I really just don't have the time that I used too. I also have to share that just doing the eliptical for 35 min. a day and 6 days a week, I burn 2400 calories! I found this absolutely amazing! I also do the sauna for 20 min. a day, plus my weight training so I definitely burn more than that a week. I still have to work on my eating a little more, but I will get there. I am also going to be joing the gym for a lifetime. Right now I pay $10 a month plus childcare. Of course, even though childcare is only a $1 per child for 1 1/5 hrs., when you have 4 kids, it adds up. So, right now they are having a special where you can buy a lifetime membership for $800. It sounds like alot, but really, it is a GREAT deal. The lifetime membership includes free childcare, free tanning, plus all the classes and discounts on the things they sell. This is for a lifetime, I will never pay another penny again! I will be paying this with our tax refund. I'm not excited about this since it is a big chunk, but it will definitely be worth it and pay for itself within a couple of years. Anyway, that is all for tonight. I have to get to bed, my time for exercising tomorrow is 8 am! :)

Thanks for all the comments to my last post. Venting really does make you feel better. Jordan has gotten alot better it seems, but I am not going to lay off for a minute. I am definitely proud of him. I will leave you with a few pics, Kelsey, Kaylee, and my favorite nephew ~ Grayson:

A Birthday Present to ME & Questions for You!

2008-01-07T21:01:00.000-05:00

Well, I know what I'm getting for my birthday! I bet your really excited to know what it is, huh? First, it costs $30! Did you guess? Ok, I'll tell you. It's my license renewal! Exciting isn't it? Beleive me, I was quit ecstatic about it. So, that is my gift. Oh well, atleast I can drive and don't have to be stranded at home with 4 kids all the time! That is great news! Anyway, my birthday isn't for 4 more days now, and I am waiting till the last day to renew it. Is Maine the only state that has your license expire on your birthday?? On to other news!

Last Thursday, a guy in our church was able to get some free tickets for a hockey game. He got a ton of them so there were alot of us from church there that night. It also happened to be Doug's day off, so we went as a family with both of my sisters, John, and Grayson. We all had a great time. The game did not get over till after 9 pm. I wasn't going to stay till the end since the kids had school, but I couldn't leave when they were tied! Anyway, it went into over time, then the Mainiacs lost 3-2. Then I wished I hadn't stayed since they lost, but it was still alot of fun. My cousin was there too, and took all 4 kids down let the guys players hit their hands on their way back into the rink after their break. The twins are still talking about how they touched the players! Grayson also enjoyed the game. Here is a slideshow of the game and a video:

Latoya had her yearly physical today and she only gained 1 1/2 lbs. for the year and grew almost 3 in. She is now at the 90% for weight and 75% for height. She has come a long way. She used to be off the charts for weight, but is now evening out. I am extremely happy for her! They also cheered again on Friday. There were only 4 cheerleaders for this game as the rest of them were benched, but they did a great job. Here is a couple of pics, and a video. Toya is the one on the right side and in the back.

Mondays have now become family game nights too. Doug has Monday nights off and now that my sisters, John, and Grayson are all home, we decided to do a family game night on Mondays. They have all come over here for the past 2 mondays, and we hope to continue this. It really is quit fun. We just play card games, and enjoy the family time.

Lastly, I have a couple of questions from you all. Jordan has been having a bad time with hitting and kicking lately. I'm not sure why, but he thinks these are part of playing. I was told that because he is a boy that he shouldn't be hitting his sisters. My response was, boys or girls, they are still his siblings and he is only 5. Beleive me, it is never ok for him to hit anybody, but I think this is normal behavior. He gets punished no matter what. I think it is harder for Jordan to get the grasp that it isn't ok to hit girls when all he has is girls at home. Some of this has come about because he hit a little girl at school the other day. No, I do not condone(sp) it, but at the same time, I do understand how this would be easier for a boy with only girl siblings to grasp than those without sisters. Am I right? Those of you with boys and girls in the same house, does your boy sometimes hit your girl the way a normal child would hit his siblings? I was also told that is where abusive men come in, so because he hits his sisters he is going to be an abusive husband someday?? I'm just sick of people trying to give me "advice" when they only have one sex or the other. It is not the same at all, especially when you have a few of one sex and one of the other. Anyone else in this same situation have some advice for me? I know it doesn't help that ALL the boys in his class come from homes with ALL boys! Not one boy in his class has a sister, but Jordan, and he has 3! The boys in his class are very rough boys and Jordan has become this way since he started kindegarten. I know they are allowed to wrestle on the playground, but Jordan doesn't know how to wrestle since he doesn't have brothers to teach him to wrestle and he only sees his dad for 1 1/2 days a week. So, essentially, he gets out of hand when the wrestling occurs. I'm not necessarily opposed to the wrestling because Jordan really enjoys interacting with the boys, but they all go home to a house full of brothers that they can wrestle with, and Jordan goes home to a house full of girls and he tries to "wrestle" with them. As I said before, he tends to kick and hit during the wrestling, so the girls get hurt. I'm so sick of all the notes coming home and of everyones comments. Everyone is quick to criticize, but all the ones that criticize have no room to do so. Jordan is compared to other boys (that only have brothers) and I am really just sick of it. I know I am going to make some people mad, but maybe they should try standing in my shoes. I think my kids are pretty good kids, they are in fact still kids though. Anyway, I don't necessarily want to upset anyone, but I am getting VERY upset by everything I have heard and no one seems to care about that. Anyway, enough about that. I needed to vent. Jordan has been better the last few days, so we will see.

*****The above sections were written last night, below is from tonight*****

Tonight, we had a family get together at the gym! :) My mom, me, both of my sisters, and John all went to the gym to workout. All the kids went to daycare. I have to say that even though we didn't stay together the whole time, it was GREAT! I am actually hoping to go again tomorrow, plus Thursday, and possibly Friday. That means I will possible go 5 days this week! I am very excited about that! I am hoping to continue doing this if we can carpool. It's hard since I have 4 kids, but we will see I guess. If you haven't figured it out yet, the reason I don't go 5 days a week now is because we cannot afford the gas to go that many times plus childcare when I go.

That is all for tonight, I hope everyone has a great week!

Christmas & New Years!

2008-01-01T10:57:00.000-05:00

I have received several emails from people wondering if we are ok since I have not been blogging. We are in fact fine and just spent the last couple of weeks enjoying our family time. We have just been busy, I know.....surprising isn't it! I hope to keep up with the blogging now. Christmas and New Years are behind us and now here are atleast 2 big things coming up in the near future. The first happens in 10 days, and that is my 30th birthday! Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel. I am kinda sad that I am going to be 30. I don't feel any different, and I have accomplished quit a few things, but I keep thinking in 30 years did I accomplish everything I wanted too? My goal in life was always to be a wife and mother. I would consider those accomplished! My hubby and I will be celebrating 10 years this June, and I of course have 4 wonderful children! Four children in 6 years seems like a over achievement to me! It helps when they come in two though! I guess for the next few years, I hope to accomplish some things for myself. Losing weight is one of them, and just being happy. I am easily stressed and worry constantly (doesn't help with the weight issue I know). I have started at the gym almost 2 months ago now and we are actually quit faithful. I haven't seen a ton of results, but alot of that is eating right. As many with big families know, we cannot afford to eat right. We always have food on the table, but it's normally not the "right" food. I do feel alot better now that i am going to the gym and I can do things now that I never thought I would be able to do. An example, when we first started at the gym, I could only do 2-3 min. on the elliptical machine. Now, I can do 30 min.! This is a huge accomplishment to me! I know exercise alone will not get me to where I want to be, but atleast I am trying. Enough about that :) The second big event is the girls 3rd birthday! My babies will be 3! When I first had the girls, I never thought I would make it through the first year, never mind 3. It was harder than I let most people see. I was so busy that sadly I do not remember the first year at all. That is something I wish I could go back to and ask for help so I could have honestly enjoyed and cherished it more. Two is sooo much harder than one! I hope if there are any others reading this that either have newborn twins/multiples or are pregnant with twins/multiples, please ask for help. I honestly was able to handle it by myself, but like I said, I cannot remember that first year at all. Anyway, enough about that as well. On to our late news from the past 2 weeks!

I can't recall too much excitement from the past two weeks, so this shouldn't be too lengthy :). As you can tell (by my lack of blogging), everyone made it home safely. Sarah and John got most of their belongings into storage and they are all staying at my moms for now. They are making it work in a very minimal amount of space. It amazes me how much things have changed and how much closer our family has become. I think everyone has done alot of growing up. I say that because 2 years ago they never would have been able to live together. I think Grayson brings our family closer together. He is such a sweet baby. He's very happy and always has a smile for everyone. He very seldom cries, but he sure can yell when he needs something or when you forget to feed him (I found that out yesterday). It's so fun watching him grow up (I know it's only been 2 weeks), and even though he is the best baby, I honestly have no desire to go back and do it again. Did I mention that I do not get to hold him very often because Latoya wants to hold him every second that he is around. She never gets sick of holding him and I think she would take him home and keep him if she could. So, on the home front, thing are going well. Sarah and John's house finally closed yesterday. A couple of prayer requests, pray for John to find work and my sister Jessica as well.

On to other news, the weekend before Christmas all of our church buses were vandalized as well as one of the classrooms in the church. The vandals did quit a bit of damage. Of course most of us believe it to be local teens since it was school vacation. I have heard that they have a lead, but we all know that if it is teenagers then the church will get nothing for restitution. Here is a local news story and a picture in the paper on the vandalism http://www.wcsh6.com/video/news/player.aspx?sid=77203&aid=30058 . Most people do not realise that the church does this as a ministry for children and adults alike that have no other way to church. They do not charge the people to ride the bus even though they travel 20-30 min. each way to pick people up. It's just sad to have people disrespect the church like that. For some kids, going to church is the only bright thing in their week. Now we have gone 3 weeks without being able to bring them to church. So, please pray that the buses are up and running soon.

Christmas was very quiet and relaxed this year. Doug had to work, so we went to my moms around 11 so they did not have to stare at their Christmas presents all morning without being able to open them. The children were very blessed this year. We had a local business that donated lots of Christmas gifts to our children. They received more than they needed that's for sure. We spent the day at my parents, the kids opened their gifts there, then we hung out and waited for daddy to get done working. It was so great to be able to watch Grayson on his first Christmas! Had they not moved home, we would have missed that. He really liked the wrapping paper and loved opening his presents. We got him a bumbo seat that he seemed to enjoy. Doug got home at around 4:30 then came to grammy's where we enjoyed a Christmas dinner. After we ate, we finally headed home so the kids could open their presents. Because it was so late (6:30 pm.), we just let them open them one right after the other instead of stopping and actually opening each gift. Auntie Sarah and Uncle John came over after we were done and helped the kids get their things out of the boxes. Here are some pictures and a slide show (very long). You will notice that in most of the pictures that Latoya has a black eye. Before Christmas, she hit her eye on the corner of her bureau. It is just now going away now.

Here is a picture of Jordan's bed tent that he got. It looks just like Thomas the train and slides right over his bed. We couldn't afford to get him a real Thomas bed, and we were able to get this on clearance for $15. He really likes it and I would recommend it to any Thomas fans! It fits right over a standard twin size bed.

This is a picture of Latoya's new bed set. It is silky and has the princesses in the middle of the comforter. She loves it!

Yesterday for New years Eve, we had everyone over here for supper and games. Before supper, Daddy, Sarah, John, Jess, and all our 4 kids went sledding at our church. We have a huge hill that alot of people use to sled down. This was the twins first real sledding experience. I hate the cold, so I did not go, plus someone had to stay and watch Grayson (I hate that I did not get any pictures of their first real sledding experience though). I was more than happy to do so, because it meant that I got my first real alone time with him. Like I said earlier, whenever I am able to see him, I have to fight with Latoya and everyone else to actually hold him and play with him. I think the rest of them were sledding for about an hour. Grayson was very well behaved and loved talking to his auntie. I fed him some food, but am a little out of practice and forgot to feed him his bottle. He kept saying "mama, mama". Thankfully they were already on their way to our house and he was fed as soon as they got here. Poor baby. We then ate supper. We had turkey, potato's, stuffing, and beans. After supper, we played some games. Our new favorite is "spoons". If you've never played it, I highly recommend it. Grammy and Grandpa had to go home early as Grandpa has not been feeling well. The rest of us only stayed up till 10. I have no desire to actually "see" the new year come in. So, that is the end of my post. I will end by asking for one more prayer request. Grandpa has not been feeling well for quit a while. If he eats, he eats very little. We're not sure what is going on, but if you could put him on your prayer lists, that would be great. I think it is going on about 1 1/2 weeks now. He just thinks he is overtired, but that usually doesn't keep you from eating. Anyway, that is it for now. I hope to update more frequently now that the holidays are over. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!

This is Our Life!

2007-12-14T21:16:00.001-05:00

Well, we have been busy as usual. It looks like this winter is going to be one full of snow. It isn't even winter yet and we have had 4 storms with plowable snow. We have a Nor'easter coming this weekend. It is supposed to hit early Sunday morning and go till Monday morning. My parents are leaving between 3:30 and 4 am tomorrow to go help Sarah and John move back here to Maine. Because of the storm and the fact that my parents have 2 dogs, we will be staying at their house for atleast Sunday. We could take the dogs to our house, but we don't have enough runs for them to be able to go out and go potty, plus my parents have a woodstove should we lose power. So, we will probably go over Sunday morning and spend the night there to wait out the storm. Hopefully we will be back home on Monday afternoon. I hate not staying at home, there is so much stuff to pack for 6 people, even if it is only for one night. To make things even more hectic, the twins have now been diagnosed with asthma. They had been sick for almost 3 weeks when I finally brought them in. When I say sick, I'm talking about just what I thought were colds. They didn't bother them too much, they just hung on. Finally for the past 2 days their coughs had become horrible and kept them up all night. As soon as the Dr. walked in the room, he said "oh, they have bronchial coughs", then when he saw their eyes with the dark circles under them, he said that was a classic sign on allergy induced asthma. They were so bad, that they have been put on two medications to be given in their nebulizers, plus claritin every night. Thankfully we were given another machine so they don't have to share and it goes much faster. So, our regular schedule goes like this:

7 am ~ wake up and do one medicine, wait a few minutes and do the next one.
8 am ~ eat breakfast
11 am ~ eat lunch
11:30 am ~ nap
2 pm ~ wake up and do both medicines again
3 pm ~ go pick up toya and jordan
4 pm ~ arrive at the gym (stay for 1 1/2 hrs.)
6 pm. eat supper (i love my sutomatic oven, supper is ready when we get home from the gym)
7 pm ~ do machines again and take the claritin
8 pm ~ bed time

So, this is why I have not been able to catch up on the blogs and leave comments. please do not hold it against me. The girls will be on this schedule for atleast a week. Their coughs are getting a little better, but nothing drastic has happened. Now, we have 3 kids with asthma. They are all stage 1 so that is good. Hopefully they will grow out of it. Jordans is cold induced and the girls are allergy induced.

On to other news. As we were getitng ready for school this morning, I sent the kids out to the van and I ran up to brush my teeth. I then heard Jordan coming up the stairs. This is our conversation:

Jordan: (excited voice) "Mom, I have to tell you something"

Mom: (mimicking his voice) "What?"

Jordan: "I lost my tooth"

Mom: "Let me see, where's your tooth?"

Jordan: "I lost it"

Mom: "yeah, but where did you put the tooth?"

Jordan: "it was all bloody so I threw it!"

Mom: "threw it where?"

Jordan: "in the snow"

There was about 2 inches of fresh snow on the ground, so, needless to say we never found his white tooth in the white snow! I was a little dissapointed since it was his first tooth, but it was pretty funny. You can see in the picture that he actually had an adult tooth come in and push that one out that he lost.

So, anyway, that is all for now. Please pray for my family to have safe travel. My mom, Sarah, and Grayson will be flying back home on Wed. night, but my Dad, John, and John's dad are driving the trucks back and won't be home till Saturday probably. My sister Jess comes home on Thursday. If I do not get a chance to update again or comment on your blogs, please know that I am just busy, and I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!!

They're Coming Home.......All of Them!

2007-12-08T14:42:00.000-05:00

My sister Sarah, John, and Grayson are moving home!!!! They have been thinking about moving home since Grayson was born, and by the time they came home for Thanksgiving, they were pretty sure that was what they wanted to do. A couple of days before they came home, they put their house on the market. They sold it yesterday and signed all the papers. One of the stipulations from the buyer was that they wanted them out by the 23rd of this month. Sarah and John agreed to it. It would be one thing if they were moving somewhere close, but they are moving from N.C. to Maine. They have no family there to help them. They are planning on flying my parents, and John's brother down to help pack and then to help drive the truck and their two vehicles home. The guys will be responsible for getting the vehicles back to Maine, and Sarah, Grayson, and my mom will fly back home. They do not have much time to get everything done, so please pray for things to go smoothly and for the appraisal to go alright so they can get home. Sarah was a little upset, she will miss the girls she was a nanny for (and essentially raised) for the past 7 years. My kids have basically thought of them as cousins for that time as well. So, they will be home for Christmas after all! It is truly amazing to watch from the outside, all of the things that havbe just fallen into place. Houses do not normally sell that fast, and it was only shown twice. Both parties were very interested in it too. Anyway, please pray for safety as well.

My youngest sister Jess is also coming home. She is coming home from college for good. She was originally coming home for Christmas, but decided she is not going back. She already finished her degree last year, but wanted to go for one more year. She has now decided that she is all done. They will all be living in my mothers house for now. It has been 10 years since all of us have lived in the same state, and now we will all live not even 5 minutes apart. It will be strange in deed and take a little while to get used to, but it will be AWESOME!

Today we went to the gym, and they were having santa come and visit with the kids. Kelsey was great with santa, but Kaylee did not like him at all. We finally got her sitting with him, but she made sure Toya was next to her. She didn't stay long either. I only got one picture, but the owner got a couple, so when I receive them, I will post those too. Here is the picture:

That is all for today. Have a great week!

Toya's First Game

2007-12-06T21:15:00.000-05:00

Sorry it has been so long, AGAIN! Now it's catch up time! This post is before Sarah and John left to go back to N.C. On Friday (11/30), Latoya had her first basketball game to cheer for. All the girls did really good. We were super excited that Sarah and John were here for her first game. Here is a slideshow and a video from the game (in the video, toya is in the very center and then is the base for the pyramid on the right hand side):

On Saturday was Sarah and John's last real day home. My kids normally spend the night at my mom's on Saturdays and they did that night too. The adults stayed up to play uno attack, and the kids were in bed watching a movie. Here is a picture I snapped on all 5 grandkids:

On Sunday, my hubby and I brought John, Sarah, and Grayson to the airport. It was soo hard saying goodbye to them. I kept telling myself that I wasn't going to cry, but after they got checked in and Sarah came to get Grayson, I lost it. I now know how she felt every time she had to say goodbye to my kids. I think it is just about as sad as it would be saying goodbye to your own kids. Here is a picture of the little man at the airport:

When we came back home, we went to pick up the kids at church and went to the fire station where my hubby volunteers (cause you know he has ALOT of free time). They had a Christmas party. They always have santa come and each child gets a gift. While we were there, my hubby was promoted to Captain! He was very excited about that. On the way out I took pictures of the kids on the firetruck. Here is a picture and then a slideshow of the Christmas party:

On monday, we got a snowstorm. We received severel inches of snow. The kids loved it and were very excited to go out and play. They played while I snowblowed the driveway. Here are some pictures in the snow:

The rest of this week has been fairly uneventful. The girls are not feeling well and have not been feeling well for quit a while. Hopefully they get better soon. I think I will go to the toy library tomorrow if the girls are feeling a little better. They have been home since Tuesday.

The last bit of news is that we will be doing a fundraiser for Brendon. Many of you remember him from when we raised money for him. He is my friends son that was diagnosed with lymphoma in April. Here is the letter we sent around via email. I am part of this, but not the main person. I help set up the site, but it was not my idea (although it is an EXCELLENT one). I know many families are having a hard time this Christmas, but in case there are those who do want to donate to someone in need, please consider this. Here is the letter:

Hi, I am a friend of Andy and Amber Dunn . I am writing to everyone on Amber ’s Myspace Friends page. If you read the updates Amber does, you might remember a recent one when she said they went to a parade and Brendon said he would give up all his Christmas gifts if he could only get a dirt bike. Amber said that it just wasn’t feasible. So, immediately my friends mind started racing on how she could help make this dream of Brendon ’s a reality, then it hit her. She started a blog page that you can get to by clicking http://helpmakehiswishcometrue.blogspot.com/. Our goal is to raise $1,000 (it sounds like a lot but really, if 50 people give $20, there is $1,000!!!) by December 26 so we can present Brendon with a dirt bike (or a 4 wheeler, we know he really wants one of those too) when he comes back from Legoland. If you were looking for something special to put some Christmas money towards please consider putting it towards granting Brendon ’s second wish for Christmas! (his first of course was Legoland!).

Please send this on to ANYONE you want!

If you have any questions about this message please contact me or Miranda (her email address is on the blog page).

Brendon does not know anything about this, but Amber does. Feel free to verify the information with her. Last she knew it was just a thought, she does not know that we are actually putting the thought in motion. We would like to keep it a secret from her and Andy as well, but understand that people may want to verify that this is in fact a real fundraiser.

Thanks for taking the time to read this!

Have a great week!

Happy 9th Birthday Latoya!

2007-11-26T20:58:00.001-05:00

Well, my "baby" is now NINE! I can't beleive it. Where does the time go, really? We already had her birthday party last monday, but had a small celebration on Sunday (her actual birthday). Yes, the kids are in their pajamas, because we go to church on sunday morning then go back to grammy's and change back into pj's, so we can wear the same thing to church that night. Auntie Jess made her a cake the night before. We had cake and ice cream, then Toya got to open her presents from them. Auntie Jess got her a candy land game, grammy got her a barbie doll set, and auntie Sarah and Uncle John gave her $20. The kids then got to open their Christmas presents from Auntie Sarah and Unlce John (they probably will not sell their house and move home by Christmas) . The kids were very excited, although the twins thought it must be their birthday as well. Toya got another $20 (she loves money now), Jordan got a pixter (which he has yet to put down), and the twins got dora dolls. The were super excited about that. They have been sleeping with them ever since. We are having a great time with all of our family. Tonight after pictures, we went down to Applebee's for supper. We had them sing happy birthday to Latoya, then the four birthday people (Toya, Auntie Jess, Grammy, and hubby) all got free dessert. Auntie Jess has to go back to college tomorrow, so after supper, we had to say goodbye to her. It wasn't as sad, because we will see her again in 3 weeks for Christmas. I posted our professional family pics that we had taken today in a new post below this one. Feel free to leave comments, cause i like them :). Here are some pics and a slideshow from the past couple of days :

Grayson, all handsome for church

relaxing

Kaylee finally held him, and she liked it!

Professional Pics

2007-11-26T20:43:00.000-05:00

well, the title of this post pretty much says it all :) while my two sisters were home, and our family was together for the first time in a long time, we decided to get a family picture taken. the pics came out awesome! let me know what you think. here they are (remember, these are low resolution so you can't copy them):

All 12 of us!

My middle sister Sarah, her husband John, and baby Grayson My family
All the grandkids
Our Four (Kaylee, Toya, Jordan, and Kelsey)
Grammy and Grampa with all 5 grandkids

Thankful!

2007-11-22T22:19:00.000-05:00

Well, obviously this thanksgiving, I am thankful to have both of my sisters home! We have not all been together for a VERY long time. It has been years! We had a wonderful thanksgiving dinner that my mom spent all day getting ready, while watching my 4 kids. I got to go get my sister Sarah, her hubby, and of course baby Grayson at the airport. I took my other sister Jess with me. I was sooo excited to meet my little man. Wow, he is even cuter in person. At first he acted like he might have stranger anxiety, but he warmed up to us after a few minutes. Here's a picture of auntie jess holding him at the airport:

After we left the airport, we stopped by my grammy's for a surprise visit so she could meet her newest great grandson. Grayson made sure to make her feel good by laughing, smiling, and talking to her the whole time she held him. We couldn't stay long, but it was a good visit. Here's Grayson meeting his great grammy:

We were then off to my mom's house. Grayson got to meet lots of new people. He met all of his cousins (my 4 kids) who couldn't wait to hold him, except kaylee who thought he was cute, but didn't want to hold him. He also got to see his grammy and grampa again. I'm sure he doesn't remember them since he was only a few days old when he met them the first time. Uncle Doug even made sure he got a chance to hold him. He was very content with him for quit a while. Here are pics of everyone taking turns holding Grayson:

Grampa holding Grayson

Kaylee meeting Grayson (she refused to hold him)Grammy snuggling with Grayson
Toya was so proud to be able to hold him. She played with him for a long time!
Jordan and Grayson
Kelsey & Grayson
Uncle Doug and Grayson

After meeting everyone, Grayson retired to the swing where he took a nap while everyone ate.

He is such a good little boy! We enjoyed the dinner that my mom made, then Doug and John did the dishes. :) I should have gotten a picture of that. Sarah then woke Grayson up to eat, and he was full of smiles! Here is the best picture I got:

Most of us sat around the table playing uno attack (Toya got it for her birthday). We played till 9:00 pm. By then, the twins were having full fledge meltdowns from lack of a nap and it being past their bedtime. We got home and put the kids right to bed and they were all out within 5 min. So, today was a great day!!! Here is a slideshow with the rest of the pics:

Tomorrow my mom and I are heading to the gym. I don't expect there to be too many people there as everyone will be shopping. I cannot stand going shopping on the day after thanksgiving, plus we have no money anyway, so I am not even tempted to go. :) I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

A Big Birthday Party!

2007-11-19T21:26:00.000-05:00

The Birthday Group!

Well, today was Toya's birthday party. Needless to say, we had a great turnout. There ended up being 16 kids there. I was expecting a couple of parents to stay, but no one did, so, it ended up being 16 kids and only 2 adults. Just me and my hubby! We actually did fine though. The lady that was in charge of the bowling alley told me twice that we were doing an excellent job and she couldn't beleive how well behaved the kids were and how well we kept things under control. I took great pride in that. The kids really were great, there was no fighting at all. I set some guidelines and rules up when we got there as I would with my own children, and the kids all listened and really made my job quit easy. We had three lanes for us, and we split the kids up. When they were finished their game, we ate, then Toya opened her presents while the rest of the kids did some more bowling. Here is a slideshow, and some pics.

Eating Pizza!

Toya's "gift" from the bowling alley, it is a souvenier bowling pin that the kids were supposed to sign, but we didn't know that was what it was for so they didn't get to sign it. I am having her bring it to school tomorrow and they can all sign it there.

As far as me venting my frustrations, I hope that people did not think I was asking for help. I was not, thus the venting part. I know things will work out. I have found a organization that will help with a few gifts I beleive. My kids are not hard to please at all. My kids know the real meaning of Christmas, but they are in fact still young kids. We are more than willing to help any family we can. I know that there are those less fortunate than us. I also know that gas prices and oil prices are the main issue for alot of people. I would love to be able to sell our van and get a car, but we will not fit :(. Anyway, I just wanted to clear that up. No need to worry about us, we'll be fine and my kids will be fine, happy, warm, and fed!

Well, that is all for tonight. Enjoy the birthday pics! Toya is not officially 9 until the 25th, we just had to get it done before all her friends went away for Thanksgiving. My sister Jessica comes in tomorrow night, and then my sister Sarah and her hubby and baby boy come in on Thursday. This will be a GREAT Thanksgiving for us! We are all going to have a family picture taken with all of us at sears next monday. There will be 12 of us, so that should be interesting! We are all wearing jean on the bottom and white shirts. I will definitely post some pics when we have them taken. I am sooooo excited! I get to go pick up Sarah, John, and Grayson at the airport! You have no idea how excited I am to see my nephew!!!!! I can't wait to kiss him and squeeze him!!! I love him so much already and I haven't even met him. Honestly, how does that happen?? Anyway, I really am closing now. Enjoy your families!!

P.S. I think I can officially declare the girls potty trained.....really! No accidents for 3 days! Wow, we haven't been without diapers in the house for NINE years! I won't know what to buy at walmart anymore :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

What to do (venting)?

2007-11-16T21:19:00.000-05:00

well, from the title of the post, i bet you can guess that i have a dilemma! actually i have two of them. the first is a christmas issue. i will be upfront in saying that i do not like to talk about my problems, especially money issues as i am too proud normally, but i have literally been sick to my stomache thinking about christmas. i know, gifts are not everything, but this year, we have absolutely no money for christmas. normally, my hubby gets a check from work by now, but he has not gotten it, so, i am assuming that he will not be getting one this year. you have no idea how many nights i have cried thinking of my kids waking up on christmas morning with nothing under the tree. don't get me wrong, they will not have absolutely nothing, i have gotten them a couple of things, but that's it. christmas just seemed to quietly and quickly sneak up on us. normally we live well, my hubby makes good money, but we do not have extra money to even set aside for things that may come up, mostly due to the oil prices (we live in a big, OLD house which takes tons of oil), and gas prices. so, we do not have a savings account to draw from. i am going to continue to pray and trust in God to help. i know he will supply all my NEEDS, but what about wants for your kids? oh, and did i mention exactly how many birthdays we have coming just this week alone! we have my moms on the 18th, hubby's mom on the 19th, hubby's on the 20th, and my sister jessica and daughter latoya's on the 25th. we cannot afford to buy any of them anything, nothing! i know they will understand, but it doesn't make it any easier. latoya is having a big party on monday. it is already paid for, that's the only reason she is having one. atleast it should be a good day for her. also, just a side note, my kids are eating and the bills are paid, we are not that poor, it's just the extras we don't have money for. once again, i know it could be worse, and i know presents are not everything, but they are quit a bit to 4 kids! :)

anyway, my next problem involves jordan. another sore spot with me is pointing out faults in my kids. i just plain do not like to talk about my kids faults. i do have very good kids in my eyes and normally they are fairly well behaved kids, but, they are still kids. they do the normal kid bickering and pushing mine and their siblings buttons. anyway, like i said, this involves jordan. jordan, while he can be very mean to his sisters, usually gets along great with all other children and very rarely has any issues with them. the past couple of montsh for jordan have been very trying. he has come home 3 times with notes of concern from his teacher. all of them have been for spitting. this time the note said that if he did it again, he would be sent to the principle. he knows there is no excuse, and he gets in trouble no matter what the person did to him. here is the issue though, it always involves the same boy. jordan is not one to start a fight, EVER! he will defend himself, but to do that, he will not hit another child, he turns to spitting. i know it is gross and beleive me, it is not tolerated at home at all! my problem is that this other little boy is ALWAYS the one who has either tripped jordan, hit him, or is involved in some other way. the thing that makes this more difficult is that the other little boy is the teachers son. the advice i have been given is to have the principle talk to jordan before he actually gets sent there. i think that is an awesome idea, and i will definitely do that. my question is what to do about the obvious bully. this is a kid that i have personally seen go up and push jordan and several other kids for no reason, and stick his foot out to trip other kids. don't get me wrong, i am beyond upset at jordan for spitting repeatedly. any good suggestions or things you may have done when your kids ran into a bully. obviously this is a little different since the teacher is this other boys mom, so things are needless to say very uncomfortable for me. it's not like i can just go to the teacher about it. anyway, any ideas would be good.

i also just wanted to mention that jordan saw the dr. today for the last time for his HSP. his urine still showed only a trace of urine, so we are done with the dr. appts. of course tonight he had a pretty bad stomache ache, but i am hoping it is just a coincidence, we'll see how the night goes. he has not had anymore outbreaks of the rash either. :)

on to other news, the girls are doing EXCELLENT on the potty training. kelsey went all day with no accidents, and kaylee had one. this included going grocery shopping as well as a couple of errands, and the accident that kaylee had was when she was playing. she just got distracted. i also have not changes a poopy diaper for about 2 weeks. for some reason pooping on the toilet came easier for them then the peeing. i know it is usually the other way around, but i;m happy with it! :) i'd rather have the peeing accidents than the pooping ones! sorry, too much info! i'm just so proud of them. it was definitely easier than i thought it would be!

so, that is all for tonight. i do not have pictures surprisingly. also, i was asked a few times what i thought of the kids pictures. i personally think jordan's are great. that pose is jordan. his facial expression and everything, my hubby and i really liked his. so, i think i will keep his. toyas i thought came out great too, i just didn't like how her head was tilted. looked to me like she was straining her neck. anyway, i think i will get toya's done again and keep jordan's. i'm stil not positive though.

i will post another update with pictures of toya's party either monday or tuesday. it ought to be interesting seeing as we will have about 16 kids bowling. i'm not sure what to expect, but i think they will have alot of fun!

i hope you all have a great week!

Should I keep them?

2007-11-10T18:53:00.000-05:00

I bet some of you are thinking I am talking about my kids, but I'm not. I am talking about pictures. Toya and Jordan got their pictures taken at school and we just got them back. I am not going to tell you all what I think, I want you all to give me your honest opinion. I can either keep these ones or get retakes done. Here are the pics (click on them to make them bigger):

The potty training is going fairly well. Kelsey is down to one accident a day for the most part. Kaylee is a little slower. She really lost interest and wanted nothing to do with it, so I stopped training her and concentrated on Kelsey first. I figured it might be just as easy to train one at a time. Kaylee is back on track, but still a little reluctant. They definitely do not do as good with other people, but I guess that is to be expected. I am contemplating taking two weeks off from everything, including the gym, and church to exclusively potty train. I have come too far with them to just let it go and that is what happens when someone else watches them. It can definitely get VERY frustrating. It took me alot of time and effort to get them to this point and I definitely do not want to go backwards. Anyway, I guess we will see how it goes this week.

On wed., we had cubbies during the church service. My mom told the story and then we did a craft. The kids went into the other room after and played hide and seek. It was really cute to see 2 & 3 yr. olds covering their eyes and counting then running around to find their friends. I took some pictures, and here is a slideshow:

On Friday, a group of 5 moms from our church met at the toy library to let our kids play together and get some adult interaction. It was alot of fun and we plan on doing this every Friday. Between the 5 of us, we had 9 kids there. The kids had alot of fun. I don't think they really played with each other, but they all played and had plenty to do and us moms got a chance to talk to each other as opposed to kids all day. Four of us are stay at home moms, so we really need that, and the kids need that interaction with kids their own age as well. After, we went to eat with Briana and her two boys at pizza hut. She works, so I was supposed to watch her kids while she went home to get a few hours of sleep, but her oldest wouldn't stay with me. Her youngest stayed fine and fell asleep, but the oldest had to go home with her. I'm not sure why, but I guess he just doesn't like me. I have watched him a couple of other times and he has never so much as gotten in trouble by me. His mom said he is going through a clingy stage and I hope that is all it is. I take it personally when kids don't like me. Always makes me wonder what I am doing wrong. Anyway, here is a slideshow of our day at the toy library. There are not too many pictures as I was too busy enjoying my adult time! Here's the slideshow:

Today we had a ladies meeting at our church. Grampa was happy to watch the kids, so I got to go. It was a great time. There were alot of ladies there. They had bottled water and they announced that we had gone through 600 bottles of water! That gives you a little bit of an idea. It lasted from 10am to 4pm. They had lots of games and great teaching. We had two special speakers from out of state plus our preachers wife. For lunch, the ladies in our church were asked to each bring a crock pot of soup. There were about 30 different kinds of soup. It really went very well. There was no cost to anybody and there were lots of different churches represented there.

Well, that concludes this post. Please leave me your opinion on the pictures, I would greatly appreciate it. Have a great week!

A Few Good Things!

2007-11-02T21:54:00.000-04:00

First, I can't beleive it has been almost 2 weeks since I posted. Jordan has been off the steroids for a while now and is doing alot better! He still has some joint pain and some stomach pains, but they are more things that he just casually mentions before going to bed. I have not had to give him anything constantly, only when he really needs it. Since he has been off the steroids, I have only had to give him tylenol 3 times. He had a follow up appt. today and there was still only a trace of protein in his urine, so that is good as well. He is still breaking out with new forms of the rash, but in much smaller sections. He will be seen again in 2 weeks for another follow up for his urine, but they expect that to be the end of it. This is VERY good news!

Last Saturday was very busy! We started out by cleaning the church, and then headed down to my cousin's b-day party (he is the same age as latoya). I actually have 3 cousins born on that day, but he is the youngest of the 3. Michael turned nine! Here is apicture of him with his b-day cake:

After the birthday party, we came home and got the kids dressed up for the harvest party at church. It was a last minute thing, but the kids did have fun and received plaenty of candy! I didn't get any pictures of Latoya because they split up the kids this year and I had to stay with the twins. We were so excited to see cousin Ben (the baby scarecrow). He enjoyed lookingat all the kids. We don't get to see them enough. We were also happy to see Miranda and her two kids. Here is a picture of my kids with Ben, and the slideshow is following:

on the actual halloween day, we went to visit grandparents and then went to a local nursing home. we found out about this about 3 years ago now and have done this ever since. They have 4 floors and take groups of people and take them to different floors. on each floor, they have the residents out of their rooms and standing in the hallway. the candy is donated by lots of people and they give each of the residents a bucket and then they get to hand out the candy. i love doing this for a few reasons:

1. the people in the nursing home really enjoy all the kids
2. it is a one stop place
3. it is inside (it's usually quit cold this time of year)
4. the kids still get their candy while brightening someone elses day

after the nursing home, we went to the mall and they did sometrick or treating there. we were late, so quit a few stores had signs saying they were out of candy, but the kids had plenty anyway. my kids do not eat candy really, we usually end up donating it to the church for their kids activities.

The rest of the week has just been kinda crazy. I haven't really been doing anything extra, but it just seems like this week left me with no time for blogging. Some of that has to do with the fact that I now go to the gym with my mom 3 days a week. I thoroughly enjoy it. I actually look forward to exercising and maybe someday you all will actually see a picture of me :). We got a really great deal and paid $99 down so now we only pay $10 a month for the rest of our lives (or for as long as we want to be a member). They also have child care which only costs $1 per child for 1 1/2 hours! We usually exercise for about an hour, and then we go in the dry sauna for 20 min. It sure is hot, but we do it!

The girls surprised me last night when she insisted that she go poop on the potty. Keep in mind that since the first time I tried potty training them (about a month ago), that I have not even tried at all to potty train and had put all their underwear away and the potty away and have never asked them to try going on the potty. Anyway, she said she had to go poop and i said so go. she said no, she wanted to go on the potty. i got down the little potty and sue enough she went. of course i made a big deal about it and gave her a treat (this is where the candy from trick or treating will be going now) and kelsey came running up and got all excited and said "give me high five kaylee, your a good girl"! it was sooo cute. kelsey then decided she would try. she sat on the potty maybe 3 times before she finally got a little bit of pee to come out so she could get a treat too. :) jordan also decided it was a good idea and ran upstairs and did his business then came running back down and said "i went potty, do i get a treat"? haha, nice try! needless to say i was very excited, but was not expecting too much from them. this morning they got up and immediately wanted big girl undies on (dora ones). kelsey went pee right away. i kept asking them if they had to go potty and making them sit on it every now and then. kaylee actually ended up peeing in her undies both times she went, but kelsey stayed dry all morning. the thing that shocked me the most was that while we were eating lunch, she just announced that she had to go. i put her on and she did her business and went back to eating. i put diapers on for their nap, and a pullup for when we went downtown to do our shopping. they used one pullup for the whole night! at each store, we would have them sit on the potty. kelsey went poop at walmart and they both went pee while we were out. they did not come back completely dry, but they weren't too bad either. i am going to take it slow and let them determine how fast we go with it. while i am at home, i will keep them in undies (as long as things keep going like they are), and when we are out either pullups or diapers. i have no problem bringing them to the potty even with a diaper on, they can be put back on! so, that is where we stand, sorry it was so long, but i am very excited and wanted to document it! i promise to try and be better about blogging! i hope everyone has a great week! :)

A Rough Night!

2007-10-23T16:56:00.000-04:00

so, yesterday i brought the 3 younger kids to their occupational therapy appt. they all did well, and kelsey actually went in all by herself. we were all quit shocked, but she did well with it. while kaylee was having her turn and jordan was in speech, i had kelsey in the waiting room. i was doing puzzles with her and we were counting objects. imagine my surprise whe she started counting in spanish. i knew she could count pretty high (13 i think) in english, but had no idea she could even count to one in spanish. she counted all the way to 5! i was shocked! see, t.v. is not that bad, they do learn things. obviously she got it from dora and diego, their favorite shows. kaylee can do it too, but not as well. she has all the names, but is all over the place. here is the video of kelsey:

onto the title of the post. after their appt., we went to visit doug's aunt, pat. all of the kids did well and we enjoyed our visit. we left to go do our usual, eat supper at applebee's). by the time our food came, jordan was not hungry. he said he felt full and he hadn't eaten anything. right before we finished eating, he started crying that his tummy was hurting. needless to say, we rushed out because i knew how bad it could get and how fast it usually happened. he cried the whole way out and doug carried him. i think most people thought he was being carried away crying because he was being bad. he was in pain the whole way home and i couldn't give him anything. i ran him a warm bath and let him lay in it for about an hour. that seemed to help a little, but it was only temporary. they went to bed at 8, when he got another dose of ib prophen. he woke up at midnight with severe stomach pain again. i was told i could give him doses every 4 hours, so i did. it didn't help. he was up EVERY hour. they would last about 10-15 min. with him in unbearable pain for that amount of time and then is would stop for the next 45, only to start again. this went on till about 9am. i got a dr. appt. for him for 9:30. his dr. did a urine sample which came back clear. he was a little concerned that 2 weeks later he is still showing new symptoms. we have decided to give the steroids a shot. i am not happy about it, but i am not willing to let him go through all that pain again. he said we can use tylenol with the steroids if needed, but i really hope to avoid that as well. the prescription is only for 5 days, and they hope that will be all it takes to get him over this. he just takes it once a day. he has been much better since taking it, so i am praying that this will do the trick.well, that is all for tonight. i will keep everyone updated on jordan's progress. latoya is walking on her foot again and went to school today without needing it wrapped, so i think she is healing quit nicely. my mom and i tried out a gym this week and will probably be joining by the end of this week. i actually do look forward to it. i hope everyone has a great week!

Guess Where We Went Today?

2007-10-20T21:42:00.000-04:00

i'll give you a hint, it's the same place we have been three times last week! did you get it?? ok, i'll tell you. we ended up in the ER again tonight. no, not for jordan, but for latoya. while we were cleaning the church this afternoon, latoya was watching the girls. another family was there with their kids, and one of the little girls came in and said "mrs. fournier, latoya broke her foot, she's sitting in the playhouse (on the playground) crying!" i went and checked on her, but didn't really see too much (just a small bump on the side), so i told her to walk around for a bit and see how it felt. i was almost done cleaning, so i went and finished it up and came back out to get them and leave, and she still couldn't walk on it. i brought all the kids to grammy's and had her sit down and elevate it and put ice on it and then i told my mom to call me in an hour and if she still couldn't walk, then i would call the dr.s office and see what they said. wouldn't you know that an hour later, she still was crying when trying to walk on it. i called the dr.s office and they said she needed to be seen and have x-rays. so, i loaded her in the van. jordan insisted on coming too, which i had a feeling was not going to work out, but i took him anyway. we got there at about 7:30 pm. we got to the room at around 8:30 and were taken almost immediately to x-ray. they didn't find a break, but said it was a pretty good sprain. they wrapped it and we were ready to go. of course, by the time we left, jordan's legs were starting to hurt as well. so, i had toya in a wheelchair and hop along walking behind us. i'm sure we looked pretty funny. i thought about just stacking jordan on top of toya, but he was able to make it to the van. so, that being said, i have lost my major helper for a little while. hopefully she heals quickly too. i hope everyone else has a great weekend. please pray for recovery for both of them as well as sanity for me :) by the way, i did all of this on my night off!

Thank You!

2007-10-17T22:52:00.000-04:00

not much else to be said, thanks to all who left comments od encouragement.to say the least, i was having a bad night. tonight went much smoother and jordan was not in as much pain as he has been. i don't know whether it is because things were not as painful or if it was because i yelled at him yesterday. i hope it was just because he wasn't in as much pain, because i want him to feel like he can scream and cry if he is in so much pain. i still had to carry him up the stairs and he is still peeing in a cup (it's too hard to hold him up while he aims for the toilet). we didn't go to church because his legs started to hurt about 20 min. before we were to leave. his teacher said she could tell his legs were hurting a little today. when they start to hurt, he walks on his tip toes and limps. i'm not sure why this makes it easier to walk, but it usually does the job for about an hour before he cannot walk at all, so this is our sign that the pain is coming. thanks to those who offered to watch the girls, while i am not against it, it would not be the same without them here. i am stable most days, last night just got the best of me. i was able to go to bed at 9:30 last night so today was better. i wanted to write to all of you individually (i put notes to all of you below), but am too tired to do so. just know that your comments meant ALOT to me. words cannot express what it meant to me. i realized i had more "true" friends than i thought i did, ALL of your are great (even those i have not actually met). i hope that i am an encouragement to many of you when you need it as well. i know that i try to be. so, that is all for tonight. jordan does not have school tomorrow so he will be "resting" as will i (as much as we can with the twins here). besides, 5 yr. old boys don't rest well! i'm glad that many of you got the fact that i didn't want you to feel sorry for me, but for jordan. yes, it is hard on me, but i cannot even fathom being in that much pain at 5. i know i am probably going to have ALOT more days like yesterday, so don't be surprised if you see another post like it. once again, i am only human!

ellen, thanks so much for thinking of me. i knew you would be one of the first to respond. that is just you! you are a very sweet and kind person! thank you!

amber, you have got to be one of the strongest women i know right now. thanks for sending some of that strength to me. honestly after reading your comment and knowing what your going through and you are making it, made me realize that i too will get through this! you are a great encouragment! thanks for being my friend.

laura, one of my internet friends. i consider you a great friend even though we have never really met. we have so much in common, including the ages and sexes of our children. it really is quit strange. i do wish we lived closer because i think we would be great friends. thanks for the encouragement!

angie, another internet friend. thanks for the hugs, you also are a great inspiration to me and i love reading your blog!

sue, thanks for the prayers and for stopping by the other day and just talking. adult conversation is hard to come by when your a stay at home mom.

joleene, i would love to see that card sometime. i think it's hilarious that you still have it. we did use to be very close. :)

miranda, thanks for being a good friend. i'm so glad we have started hanging out again. thanks for the prayers and supprt. i hope we can become closer like we once were.

erin (E), you hit the nail on the head with the insult to injury comment. i think that was one of the strongest points i wanted to get across. you read my mind even through all the mumbo jumbo! thank you!

cassie, you are one of my newest friends and have really turned out to be a true friend. i know we don't get to hang out much, but hopefully we can get together soon. thanks for offering to take the girls, i know they would be alright, but it wouldn't be the same without them here. it would probably make things more stressful on me. i am just used to having my kids with me. i wouldn't know what to do if they were not here with me. your a great friend.

aunt joan, your comment just made me cry. we have been so close to you and my kids love their aunt joan. we would be more than happy to come have supper with you guys sometime. thanks for letting me know you care. even though we know it, sometimes it is just nice to hear it too.

debra, another one of my fellow twin internet friends. thanks for your prayers as well. thank you for the encouragement. you have a good suggestion and i actually do get a break on saturday nights, i just need to learn to rest instead of clean my house during that time! :)

jenn, thanks for the prayers and commenting. when i redid my blog a while ago, i lost all my links. yours was one i never found until now. you will be back on my blog read list now. thanks again!

so anyway, that is all for tonight. thanks again, you are all great!!! i hope you all have a great week!

Just Mad!

2007-10-16T20:26:00.001-04:00

just in case i offend anyone, i just want people to know that this is indeed written out of anger. i am mad. i just carried my little 5 year old boy up to bed with him SCREAMING in pain, i'm mad!!! i'm mad at this stupid disease that has made my once loveable, huggable little boy into a boy that cannot be touched. a boy that is in alot of pain. a boy who cries when i try to help him by carrying him up the stairs because he can't walk. i'm mad at myself for losing my temper with him because he is screaming and i can no longer think. i'm mad at people for not taking this seriously and thinking because he is walking one day that he is fine *by the way, the only way he is functioning at all is because he is on ib prophen every 6 hours with no break). i feel like videotaping what my life is like from 4 pm (the time this normally gets worse) till bedtime, and showing everyone. this has taken a huge toll on me. we have been to the emergency room 3 times since this disease has come and to the dr.s office 3 times as well. all of this in 9 days! my husband works 80+ hours a week, i do this by myself and i am getting stressed out. i'm mad that my kids have to see their mom cry and yell because she is exhausted from getting up in the middle if the night to administer more medicine to her 5 year old boy, then has to get up and get kids ready for school, bring them to school, do laundry, dishes, pick the kids up from school, help with homework, make supper, do dishes, do more laundry, give baths, and get the kids to bed. although i do all of things on an everyday basis, from the homework part on is literally done while listening to my son scream and cry because he is in pain. the ib prophen is no longer working on the pain and he is having ALOT more stomach pains (and they are much more severe), whether it is because he has become immune to it or the pain is getting more intense, i do not know. i will be making a call to his dr. tomorrow and they will have to move on to steroids. his dr.s and i were hoping to avoid them, but i can't see him in pain like he has been anymore. i can't handle it. please do not message me telling me how much worse it can be, i know it can be worse, i have a friend who is going through something worse with her son, this is not what i need to hear right now. sorry for venting, but i just want our lives to be back to normal. if you got this far, thanks for listening. if this makes me a bad mom or a bad christian, i'm sorry. i'm only human. please do not try to call, i won't answer, i just don't feel like talking right now.

A Very Busy & Fun Day!

2007-10-13T22:01:00.000-04:00

i'll start with friday's news. on friday, jordan actually went to school. i changed his dr. appt. to friday instead of monday, so he went to school till about 11:00. he had alot of fun and his classmates were VERY excited to see him. they actually ran up to him and said "jordan your back" and he said they all gave him hugs, but not his teacher. :) he said it was very squishy! when we went to the dr.s, i had a list of questions for him. i wanted a urine test done at the lab, the blood test for dr. streeter, asked him about the ib prophen again, and asked about seeing a kidney specialist. well, he agreed to the urine test at the lab and after giving me a hard time, he also agreed to do the blood test. he informed me that my insurance probably won't cover it (i think it will, he was just trying to get me to not have it done), he also agreed to call the kidney specialist and talk to them about jordan. we did our normal shopping and out to eat on friday evening and everything went well, until we sat down to eat. jordan all of a sudden couldn't walk. he made grammy carry him out to the van when we were done and he had to ride up front since he can't climb out back if he can't walk. he was in severe pain for the rest of the night. we got home and i carried him upstairs and sat him in the shower (we have a shower chair we are borrowing). his legs were once again VERY swollen. after he was done, i had the girls go in and give him a kiss goodnight, kaylee kissed him and said "i make jordan all better?" she knows we kiss her booboos to make her all better, so she thought it would work for jordan's legs. how sweet is she? :) when i got home, i had a message from the dr.s office.

this morning started out with a call to the dr.s office to find out the new info he had for me. basically it was just to tell me that he got in contact with the kidney specialist who said as of right now he does not need a specialist, but they will check his urine every 2 weeks and i am to look for blood in his urine. so, that is it for now.

after, i took the 3 younger kids and dropped them off at grammy's while toya and i went to clean the church. when we got there, one of toya's classmates was helping her mom clean too, so they got to play for a little bit. when we left, i offered to take her friend with us as we had some fun things planned. her mom said she could come, so that is who you will see in all of the pictures from today.

after we left the church, we went to pick up the younger 3 and grammy. we then headed down town and to a local firestation where they were having a open house and lots of things for the kids. they gave out hotdogs, popcorn, cookies, and drinks. the kids also got to tour sit in the firetruck and get their faces painted, then they made bracelets. they had alot of fun. here are some pics and a slideshow:

enjoying their hot dogs and popcorn
with sparky
making bracelets
kelsey loved sparky and kept finding him to give him hugs :)

after they were done at the firestation, we headed to a local bowling alley where they were having a kids day too. everyone got one free game of bowling and free shoe rentals. they also got to color a picture and when they turned it in, they got a certificate for another free game of bowling at a later date. they were doing face painting and finger painting there as well as raffles. we didn't do any of that, we just let them color and then played a game of bowling. there were quit a few people there, so we had to put our name on a waiting list to wait for a lane to open up. while we were waiting, jordan started getting the severe stomache cramps they were hoping he would not get. he was miserable off and on as his stomache would cramp up. the kids all enjoyed bowling. we haven't done it in a year. the twins LOVED it at first and every time someone would take their turn, the girls would clap and cheer and then give you high fives! it was actually quit funny. i went to get a pitcher of soda (figured the carbonated stuff would make jordan feel better), and a pitcher of water. i also got a large order of curly fries. jordan started to feel a little better, so i think it worked a little bit. here are some pics and a slideshow of the kids bowling:

kaylee

kelsey

jordan

toya

abby

after we left, there was a bounce house outside, so the kids went in for a few minutes. we headed back to church and dropped abby off. we then went apple picking. we weren' there very long, but the kids had a blast doing that. kelsey kept pulling hte apples off and falling when she did, of course when i got the camera out to video it, she didn't do it again. :) so, here are some pics and a video of them apple picking (kinda long):

kaylee

kelsey

jordan

toya

well, that is all for tonight. i will definitely keep the blog updated with info about jordan. we do appreciate your prayers. have a great weekend!

Another visit to the ER!

2007-10-10T22:06:00.000-04:00

well, once again as i was getting jordan ready for his shower, i noticed something on his leg. this really scared me because of the size of it:

i put him to bed and then called his dr. office. because they couldn't see it, they wanted me to take him to the ER again. i was more than happy too oblige since i was very worried. my first thought was a blood clot since there was soo much blood pooled into one area. after waiting almost 3 hours, we were assured that he thinks it is normal. this is one word you never want to hear your dr. say......think! shouldn't they know? he did say it didn't really fit the symptoms of a clot because the area was not hot and there were no lines coming from it. i was also told when i called his dr. that the reason the protein may not have showed up on the dr. office test is because they do not test it as good as the hospital, so he probably in fact still has protein in his urine. well, thanks for letting me know that AFTER i had been giving him motrin again for a couple of days! honestly, what is wrong with these dr.s??? to be honest, i LOVE the kids dr.s office. because this is farely rare, i am giving them the benefit of the doubt. i am at a dead end right now as to if i still look for answers or do i just wait to see if it actually does go away on it's own. i think i definitely want to see if i can get a referral for a neuphrologist, just so they can keep an eye on his kidneys, but we'll see if they will give me one. to me they seem to be acting like it's not a big deal, but this is my child and there are some very serious things that can go on with this.

something neat happened today though, we have a bunch of kids out at hyles anderson college in hammond in. i know my sister put in a prayer request for him there. one of the girls works in the clinic and mentioned to a dr. there about jordan. dr. streeter took a look at my blog and a description that was sent to him and he sent a fax with some things to get for him and a blood test he says jordan should have done. i looked up the items he said he should take which is mediberry & aloe gold (for the joints), but it is just too expensive for us ($65.00 for both). the blood test i plan on asking about when i go back to the dr. on monday. i think he will allow jordan to get it done, but i'm not sure. we'll see. i was so excited that dr. streeter took an interest in jordan's case. i know he is a busy man and i'm sure he has lots of patients, so this was really neat. when i get the results of the blood test, i am supposed to fax the results to dr. streeter, which i will definitely do.

on to other news, jordan went and got tutored today. he seems to be doing a little better, but it really is a day by day thing. you just never know. so far it has been every other day that he cannot walk. it tends to hit him more at night and through the night and early morning. he will be getting tutored tomorrow and friday assuming he is still feeling good enough. i am hoping that maybe next week we can atleast let him go half days. they do most of the teaching during the mornings, so if i let him go during the morning, he should not miss much. we'll see, worse comes to worse then we will continue getting him tutored. it really is a strange disease, on some days you would see him and he will be runnning around and playing just like normal, and the next day he will be laying down and crying out in pain. it honestly is the strangest thing i've ever seen. i think people tend not to take it seriously because of this, anyway, that is all for tonight. please continue to keep jordan in your prayers.

Jordan's Dr. Appt.

2007-10-08T12:23:00.000-04:00

this morning i called his dr. office to get an appt. the dr. he was supposed to see is not working today, go figure! so, we got to see his dr. that he sees for his physicals which is fine by me. me and the nurse figured that out of the three we had to choose from, he has been there the longest and would know about it. turns out, he didn't really know too much about it. he had seen a couple of teenagers who had it when he was in a different practice, but their symptoms where a rash and the abdominal pain. i brought the pictures in and he couldn't beleive how big his knees were and i'm glad i brought them because although he still couldn't walk, the swelling had gone down. his dr. decided to get one of the new dr.s to come see it so he could see it for future reference, and it turns out that this dr.s son had had it. i was happy to have someone who knew first hand about what he was dealing with. his son had more of the stomach pain as well, and not the joint issues, but it was still nice to have him there. they did a urine sample and the protein is gone! so, although there is some things they can give him for the swelling, they want to hold off on the steroids as they are very addicting. they did say that since the protein is gone for now, that he can take ib prophen and motrin and that should help alot with the joint issues. they said to put him on a very strict regimen of motrin. he needs it every 4 hours without fail (not sure how that will go through the night though). he has had a few stomach cramps, but they have not been too bad, so hopefully we can avoid that part of it. he should be more comfortable now though. he needs to go back next monday to have his urine checked and for them to look at his joints again. he will need to be out of school for this week atleast, and they will take it week by week. the dr, found it quit ironic that he got this exactly when it should of ~ it most commonly strikes boys ages 2-10 (with 5-7 being the most common age), and in the fall. wouldn't you know that he is a 5 year old boy and it is fall! anyway, that is it for now. i hope you all have a great week. once again, nadia, if you are reading this or someone knows who she is, could you please contact me. i would love to talk to her. my email address again is: ds4nier@megalink.net

Not a great day & Nadia please contact me!

2007-10-07T21:56:00.000-04:00

nadia (or someone who knows her), you left a comment on my blog, but i have no way of contacting you, could you please email me? i would love to talk about some of the things that have gone on with your son and maybe some things that have helped him. it's nice to know that someone knows what you are going to and to have someone to talk to about it. my email address is ds4nier@megalink.net.

jordan did not have a great day today. we went to church and he went to his sunday school class and then to junior church. his teacher in junior church brought him to my mom because he was starting to complain of leg pain again. he did ok, but was starting to limp a little and walk on his tip toes so i knew eventually it was going to get to the point where he couldn't walk again. we went and had lunch at my mom's after church and then i laid down with the girls for their nap. around 4:15 i heard him crying as my mom was trying to bring him potty. sure enough, he could no longer walk. i know people i have talked probably think i seem like it's no big deal and i'm not too worried about it, but this is a face that i put on. i don't like people to see the vulnerable side of me. i have cried with him several times because there is nothing i can do for him. i bring him to the potty and he cries, he literally cannot move without crying out in pain. there's nothing like watching your child cry out every time you touch him or try to help him. i also know that things could be alot worse, i completely understand that. so, all that being said, please just keep him in your prayers, that the pain is not too unbearable, and the rest of the family as we try to deal with this. i am very worried about jordan and school. he seems to have made great strides and now it looks as though he will miss alot of school. his preschool teacher has offered to tutor him in her free time. this means alot to us, and will help out tremendously so that maybe he won't get too far behind. anyway, please keep him in your prayers. here are some pictures i took of his knees tonight (notice how huge his knees are from the swelling):

i wanted to add a cute story that happened with jordan tonight. he was sitting down and i saw him move without crying out in pain and jokingly, i said "wow, it's a miracle, your healed". he looked at me and said God can heal people, he did it with the man in the river. it was very cute. we told him there were lots of people praying for him to be healed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

now, something completely unrelated but i definitely wanted to mention. the other night when we were in the emergency room till 4 am, all 3 girls were up at 8 am. neither jordan nor i were ready to get up at that time and doug was at work, so latoya got the girls down and got the three of them breakfast and played with them while we slept for a couple more hours! what a great help she is, i know i don't brag on her enough. she really goes above and beyond with her sisters. i also wanted to mention that latoyas fundraiser for cheering went awesome, she was the top seller. here is a picture of her in her uniform:

well, that is all for tonight. please keep everyone in your prayers, and have a great week!

Jordan's ER Visit ~ Please Pray for him!

2007-10-06T12:29:00.000-04:00

well, everything started happening on tuesday afternoon. he first started complaining of a mild headache when we went to the dr.s office for their referral for his and latoyas feet. we went to eat after and all of a sudden the little headache turned into a huge headache. he was crying and definitely in ALOT of pain. all of a sudden he cried out that his leg and foot was hurting too. as quicklt as it came on, the pain in his leg and foot went away. the headache remained and he spiked a fever. i was very perplexed by this, i gave him some pain medicine when we got home and he rested comfortably. for the next two days, he seemed to be fine, he would spike a fever and mention that his leg or legs were hurting, and then it would go away on it's own. i felt it was probably the flu (and he was haviing body aches). he continued to go to school and even went on a field trip on friday. we did the normal friday night shopping and he was fine then too. we got home at around 8 pm, and i gave him a shower. when he took of his clothes to get in is when i noticed the spots:

at first, i thought he had chicken pox. he stayed in the shower for about 30 min., and then when he got out, he could not walk, AT ALL.it was literally like a light switch, one minute he was fine and the next he couldn't walk at all. i immediately sat him on the toilet and got him dressed and in bed. i then went and did research for chicken pox with leg pain and headaches. all of what i found was saying these were serious side effects. i called the dr.s office and they said to go to the ER. i had to wait for my hubby to get home from work and woke jordan up to go to the ER at about 11:30 p.m. we got there and i had to get a wheelchair as he was still in too much pain and was unable to walk, and i could not carry him (he weighs 50 lbs.). anyway, we got in and got through the paper work and waited for the dr. he came in about 2 hours later. as soon as he looked at it, he knew what it was. it is not chicken pox, but rather: Henoch Schoenlein Purpura. they did lots of blood work and a urine sample. this is something that is caused by a viral infection and spreads throughout the body, but especially the joints in the legs and feet (hence not being able to walk), attacking the liver and bowels. most of the time it goes away on it's own without affecting these things, but obviously in jordan it is already affecting the joints, and he was found to be spilling protein in his urine, a sign that something is going on with his kidneys. we were released, but have to see his dr. on monday and he will be followed VERY closely for the next 2 months atleast. because he is showing some of the serious signs, they want to make sure it does not progress, we need to watch for blood in his urine and stools and major abdonimal pain. they say in the article that it is fairly common, yet the dr. we saw said he maybe sees it 1-2 time a year. here is some info i found on this, please read it so you know what we are facing, i cannot explain it the way it needs to be explained:

Henoch-Schonlein Purpura

No one knows what causes it. We do know that it often follows a viral respiratory infection. It seems to be some kind of allergic reaction to the virus. It has also been seen following Strep throat, prescription medicines, bee stings, chemical toxins, cold exposure, and food allergies. It can occur in epidemics. In the Northern Hemisphere it occurs most commonly between November and February. It is often accompanied by a low-grade fever, and just not feeling well. It most often affects children ages 2 through 10, boys more often than girls. The older the child (or adult), the more likely it is to be serious. We know that it can be life-threatening, but that most children recover. "It" is Henoch-Schonlein purpura (HSP).

HSP is a type of vasculitis -- an inflammation of blood vessels -- that was named for Drs. Henoch and Schonlein, who each discovered it independently more than 30 years after it was discovered by Dr. Heberden, who got no credit.

Tiny blood vessels in the skin swell and then hemorrhage, giving rise to the characteristic rash of HSP. The rash usually begins with small hives, or red patches, or red bumps, which can appear anywhere on the body, but especially on the legs and buttocks. This rash represents swollen blood vessels, and the spots blanch with pressure, since pressure moves the blood along the vessel. The allergic nature of the rash often makes it itch. As time passes, blood leaks from the swollen vessels, the rash changes from red to a bruised, purple color (hence the name purpura), and the rash no longer blanches when pressed. As the tiny bruises heal they turn to a rust color, and then fade. Each spot lasts for about five days. Often the rash comes in several crops, and a single child may have a rash of a variety of different colors. All children with HSP have the skin rash (by definition). The rash resolves without trace. ("A savvy mom named Beth Anderson wrote and suggested that when her son had HSP, "the term "blood blisters" was the key to describing the rash for those who couldn't see it in person. Most people have had a blood blister and can relate to the term better than bruises.")

The skin rash is the most obvious, and most common, finding in HSP -- but by no means the most serious. Blood vessels in other parts of the body can also be involved --most frequently in the joints, the intestines, and the kidneys. Rarely, vessels in the muscles, eyes, testicles, lungs, heart, and brain have become inflamed, sometimes leading to serious consequences.

Joint involvement occurs in two thirds of the children. The knees and ankles, particularly, often become swollen, tender, and painful with movement. This arthritis can be quite debilitating, but usually resolves in just a few days. No permanent deformity results, even with the most severe arthritis.

Inflammation of the blood vessels of the GI tract occurs in more than half of the children. Most of these experience abdominal pain, often quite severe. They will often vomit -- sometimes vomiting blood. More than half of the children with HSP will have bloody stools. Serious short-term complications most often come from the GI involvement.

Kidney involvement affects between one-fourth and one-half of the children with HSP. They may have blood and/or protein in the urine. They may even have kidney failure. Serious long-term complications most often come from the kidney involvement.

Full-blown HSP may appear suddenly, or different symptoms may appear gradually over several weeks. The order in which the symptoms appear varies. A child might have unexplained abdominal pain, or knee pain, or bloody stools, or blood in the urine for a week before other symptoms appear to bring the correct diagnosis into focus. The diagnosis is usually made when the rash turns purple.

Most children recover fully. The disease may be quite mild and last only 2 or 3 days. For those with moderate to severe symptoms, though, the disease lasts an average of 4 to 6 weeks, with relapses occurring up to a year later (particularly after the child gets another cold or is re-exposed to the offending agent).

Rarely, children die from complications experienced near the time of diagnosis (bowel perforation, hemorrhage, seizure, stroke, etc.). Having made it through the acute crisis, the long-term outcome depends on the extent of kidney involvement. With no kidney involvement, full recovery is the rule. One-fourth of the children with kidney problems will still have detectable problems years later. By 8 years after onset, however, only 2% will still have any kidney problems (Primary Pediatric Care, Mosby, 1992). Unfortunately, up to half of those will ultimately die from chronic renal failure. The long-term prognosis can often be determined from a renal biopsy early on.

There is no specific treatment for HSP. If the initiating trigger is identified for an individual child, everything possible should be done to remove it. If the cause is thought to be a bacterial infection, such as Strep throat, prophylactic antibiotics are often given once the infection is eliminated, to prevent recurrence. Anti-inflammatory drugs, and sometimes immunosuppresive drugs, are used to provide much-needed symptomatic relief. Steroids may cause dramatic reversal of GI or brain involvement, but have not been shown to be very effective for the kidneys.

HSP is a very serious disease. Thankfully, it is also very uncommon. The odds are that your dear little friend will recover from this with nothing to show for it except some bad memories.

So, that being said, please keep jordan in your prayers. the pain in his legs has subsided for now, he is up and wlaking around and playing, but i expect that won't be the last run in for us. i will keep everyone updated after we go to the dr. on monday.

on to a different note, here are the girls in their new, fitting duck costumes. aren't they adorable:

The Fryeburg Fair

2007-10-04T21:47:00.000-04:00

well, monday morning started very early for us. we planned on leaving at around 8 am. we actually left at around 8:30. caleb's mom was due to be induced to have her baby girl at 4 pm, so we took caleb with us. he was very excited to be going with us. my parents followed us. all went well till about 4-5 miles before the fair. we ran into some major traffic. seems everyone had the same idea that we did. we got the kids ride bracelets and then went through a few barns. we then went to a little restaurant on the fairgrounds and had some lunch. we go to this same restaurant every year. it isn't very big, but the service is FAST! we had turkey dinners and were done within 45 min. we then went through a couple more barns and then to the rides. the kids got to go on every ride once. they really enjoyed them. by the time we were done the rides, it was time for us to head home. my parents stayed behind, but seeing as we had three 2 year olds, we decided we should get home at a reasonable hour. i don't know how many times we got "are they triplets?" they would see my twins and then spot caleb. we were asked a thousand times if they were all ours. and we would say "all but one". so, for the day, i saw what parents of triplets would go through. i told my hubby we should have charged a viewing fee even though they really weren't triplets. we would have made some serious money! when we left, we had traffic for about 30 min. we stopped at burger king on the way home and got supper. we got home at around 8 pm, got all 5 kids bathed and in their pj's and in bed by 9. we brought the loveseat cushions up and put them beside jordan's bed, and that is where caleb slept. everyone went right to sleep without issues, and more importantly, they all slept all night!. here is the slideshow of the fair (kelsey is always wearing the pink sweatshirt, kaylee in the blue one, and caleb is in the light blue gap one):

i got a call at about 2:15 am. saying that caleb had a new baby sister. her name is jocelyn and she weighed in at 9 lbs. 14 oz. and was 20 1/2 in. long. i brought caleb down in the morning to see his sister for about an hour. i then took all three of the little ones back to my house and they took a nap. after the older two got out of school, i took them to the dr.s so we could get a referral to have their feet looked at. we got the referral, but cannot get in till the end of this month. i will keep everyone updated about that. here is a picture of baby jocelyn, and then one with caleb and jocelyn:

Early Halloween & Old Fashion Sunday!

2007-09-30T21:51:00.000-04:00

on saturday, the kids got to go trick or treating at a local campground. i have gotten the twins a couple of costumes. they wore the poodle costumes this time, but they are really too small. i'm glad i got two. they will wear the chicken costumes for the "real" halloween. my mom and doug's mom both came and the kids really liked that. they had alot of fun, but i didn't get too many pictures. they each got a goody bag for dressing up, then they had a pinata, but only latoya did it. the other three played on the playground. then they had bobbing for apples. only jordan did that. then, they went trick or treating. i was a little concerned about the twins and people dressed up, but they did fine. kaylee is into a phase where she ALWAYS wants to be held. she knows i won't carry her everywhere, so she kept going to doug's mom and saying "pick me up?" she says it so pathetically. so, she ended up being carried just about the whole time. the kids got lots of candy and we were able to see a few friends from when we used to camp there.

today, was old fashion sunday at our church. i found some cheap costumes at buycostumes.com. they were very poorly made, but atleast we got one wear out of them, and the kids looked sooo cute. we had our service in a big tent behind the church. they had the 10:00 sunday school service, and then the 11:00 sunday morning service. i did nursey for both services. after the 11:00 service, we had a pig roast at the church. the ladies were asked to bring a dish to pass and a desert. it was a nice gathering. the pig roast was followed by the "evening" service at 2:00. we cleaned the church, and then came home. we are planning on going to a local fair tomorrow, all the kids were bathed/showered and in bed at 7:30. we are planning on taking caleb (the little boy i used to babysit) with us to the fair so his mom (due anytime with caleb's sister), can have a free day. so, that is all for today, i'm sure there will be lots of pics from tomorrow. have a great night!

Kid's Day America!

2007-09-24T07:59:00.000-04:00

On Saturday, we went to a nearby school for their kid's day america. we have never been, but we had nothing else going on, and everything was free, so we decided to check it out. basically it is a health and wellness day. they had dentists there checking the kids teeth, eye exams were being given, massages, the chiropractors were there doing tests. here are toya's and jordan's test results for their back and feet. we learned from these, that both of the kids were flat footed. i guess we will be making a trip to the dr.s to get them checked out. the first two are toya's, and the last two are jordan's. we didn't have the girls done because they never would have sat still for it.

toya's back (hers is on the right, but supposed to look like the picture on the left)
toya's feet (hers are on the left, but they are supposed to look like the ones on the right)

jordan's back (his is on the right, but supposed to look like the left)

jordan's feet (his are on the left, but supposed to look like the right)

they had face painting and free popcorn. we headed outback of the school and they were serving hot dogs, hamburgers, sausages, and sodas (i thought the soda was especially funny for a health fair). they also had tables set up so the kids could decorate their own cookies and eat them. they loved that. they had a firetruck and an ambulance set up for the kids to go inside and take a tour. they especially loved the firetruck, i think because daddy is a firefighter. they took turns sitting in the seat and "driving" and then trying on the helmet. toya had to hold the helmet for the girls because it was so heavy, it kept pulling their head backwards. we then went to the ambulance. while the twins were in there, another set of twins came in. these were boys and were about 2-3 yrs. older than the girls. it was still kinda neat. they also had a really nice playground, so when we were done with the ambulance, i took them over to play. they played for about 30 min. and then went to play in the bounce house. we didn't stay long overall, but the kids had alot of fun. it was a little streesful on me since i took them by myself, but we managed just fine! here is a slideshow of our day:

now, here are some new pics of the kids. these dresses are the ones that my mom bought for the girls when they were in n.c. visiting my sister and her hubby and baby grayson. it was finally a little cooler so they got to wear them. they looked soo cute! when we went back to grammy's, they got the sunglasses and they looked like they came straight out of the 60's! :) here are the pics:

Kelsey (L) & Kaylee (R)

Kaylee (L) & Kelsey (R)

after the morning service, we clean part of the church. while we are cleaning, the girls have figured out how to get the microphone to work and will sing in the microphone. it is really funny. usually i forget the camera, but i happened to have it and did a video (the reason they do not complete the song is because they are too distracted by the cups....lol). here is the video (it's only a couple of minutes long):

Fun at the toy library!

2007-09-17T20:18:00.000-04:00

well, today we had a playdate at the toy library. i think we are going to start planning playdate about twice a month. the kids had alot of fun and they all played well together. we had 10 kids and 5 adults. this is something cheap ($2 per child), and definitely fun. the parents get a chance to talk to other adults too. i hope to have a even bigger turnout next time. i think this will be a place for most of our playdates. here is a slideshow from today:

after playing from 2-4, we went to walk around the mall. sara and her two kids couldn't stay, but the rest of us did. we walked once around and then headed to applebee's for supper. i called ahead to tell them that we had 18 people coming. we got there right at 5 and were seated fairly quickly. all of the kids were well behaved. we had aunt joan and her daughters plus her grandbaby come and join us, plus my hubby and brianna's hubby both met us there. so, we had 9 children, and 9 adults. the kids were EXCELLENT! all of the kids ate free, so just the adults had to pay. for the whole day, i paid $30, that included the library, plus all 6 of us eating and tip. how much cheaper can it get! here is a couple of pictures of our table:

here is a picture of ben as he was not at the toy library (isn't he cute):

The Airshow :(

2007-09-15T21:01:00.000-04:00

we'll start with friday. on friday i brought the girls to the same OT and speech specialists that jordan goes to. i had decided to atleast get them tested that way if they need something we can catch it now and not when they are in kindegarten. i do not have the test results yet, but both of the specialists seem to think that they will need very minimal intervention, but they could use some. like i said we haven't gottne the official scores yet, so that could change. the speech therapist was very impressed with the girls and said that they showed a little articulation errors, but their sentences that they make would not be expected till they were 4!!! i knew they talked alot and really good :). anyway, i may find out on monday about their tests, but we will see.

on to the airshow. so, this is supposed to be the last airshow in maine since the base is closing. although it is free to the public, they do sell tickets for seats. we bought some seeing as i did not feel like carrying around seats for all of us. the tickets cost $8 each, but you get to sit really close. anyway, we knew it was supposed to rain, but the weather said it was supposed to "sprinkle" the whole day. we figured we could deal with "sprinkles". well, we got there at about 9:30 am., and the show was to start at 10. we found our VERY wet seats. thankfully there were ladies there that were wiping the seats. here are some pics while we were waiting for the show to start:

the blue angels closeup

waiting for the planes
grammy and kaylee
kelsey and jordan

toya and grammy

"aunt" sue and kaylee

at around 10:30, we saw the first plane. it flew in and dropped some simulation bombs. it was pretty cool! here are a couple of pics:

this truck uses jet engines on the back and fly's down the track! it is super cool, but the weather stopped it from doing what it usually does (races a airplane)

after this, they made an announcement about the clouds being too low to put anything up for a while, so we decided to go and walk around. we found a simulator that aunt sue took toya and jordan on (this is when it really started to rain):

we decided since we were already soaked, that we might as well just look at some of the things they had set up. we then saw a HUGE plane (see how small the people look standing under it). grammy took toya and jordan in there:

we then decided that we had had enough of the rain. it was now almost noon time and there hadn't really been any more planes going up. we went back to get our blankets and my cousin (sue) asked if we could get a refund since it was pouring. we had to wait so my mom headed back with the kids to the van. we got our money back and then the "hurricane" hit. it was rediculous! it really wasn' a hurricane, but when you are walking and the wind is soo strong and it is pouring, it really feels like a hurricane. sue and i were laughing as we walked back to the van, what else can you do? we met up with my mom and the kids playing in a caboose type thing and headed to the van. anyway, by the time we got back to the van, we were completely soaked. even our underclothing was soaked, that's how bad it was. our socks and shoes were soaked. the girls were shivering. i thought i was smart cause i brought the girls an extra change of clothes, but smart me left them in their cloth diaper bags that were in the carriage, so you know what happened to them :). we stripped the girls down, turned on the heat and wrapped them in their blankies. we were all soaked but toasty in no time. we had a one hour ride home like that, but we stopped at a drive through and got lunch and everyone was happy for the entire ride home. although it was not a great trip, it was a very interesting one, and we still laughed quit a bit! :)

so, that is all for now, have a great week and i hope you enjoy the pics!

p.s. the umbrellas you see did absolutely nothing! during the "hurricane", they were turning inside out! haha. gotta laugh!

A Rainy Monday!

2007-09-10T21:36:00.001-04:00

well, today was a very dreary monday! it rained all night last night, and most of the day today, so the kids were stuck inside! they did fine and played quietly most of the day. while the twins were taking their nap, i took jordan to go get a speech evaluation. he has gotten alot better, but i still see issues. we took him about a year ago to have one done (a different place), but we were told that he was not bad enough to qualify! i was very upset to learn that his speech pronounciation is at the level of a 3 1/2 yr. old and he is 5 1/2. so, he qualifies for speech at the same place that he will be having his OT. he will have speech on mondays and then OT on thursdays! i am not impressed with the other place at all. i was told that had he gotten the help a year ago, that he would be fine now, but that it likely had gotten worse because of going untreated for a year. so anyway, he will get help now. while i was there, i scheduled the girls to have speech and OT evaluations on Friday. i figure i want to catch them early if there are issues so i don't have to go through this again!

after we got back from that, we went to applebee's to have supper. while we were there, we saw the girls other main NICU nurse sarah. she was there with her hubby and two of her three kids! it was so nice to see her. she hasn't seen the twins in quit a while. i felt bad because i really wanted to talk more to her, but i felt kinda rushed since there were people waiting for tables. i'm not sure if she reads this or not, but if you do, sarah, and you have a email address, could you post a comment and leave your email address (or have elaine pass it along). i would love to get caught up with you. :)

well, that is it for now. we went to a birthday party for justin and lucas (we'll just call them cousins). the kids had fun. i didn't take too many pictures as i felt a little awkward. most of the people i had never met and the ones i did, i have only met a couple of times. i hope you all have a great week! here are a few pictures from the party:

playing a game (kinda like musical chairs, but it was musical webs)

getting the candy from the pinatathe birthday boys opening their presents ~ lucas (L) & justin (R)

This Past Week (long with lots of pics)!

2007-09-08T09:49:00.000-04:00

well, sorry it has been sooo long. i know i promised that i was going to update on monday or tuesday, but i obviously didn't get there. it's not that my week was more stressful or that i had more to do, i just didn't get to it. anyway, on to the post and pics! on friday i had the priviledge of watching my friends little boy, connor. he is a little younger than the girls, and is soo handsome. this is the first time i have watched him, and he was very good! he wouldn't talk to me, but followed me around as i was cleaning and then when i would talk to him, he would run in the other room. when i got the vacuum out, they all piled up on the loveseat. here is a pic of them (obviously connor is in the middle)!

saturday we started out with a trip to the new england aquarium in boston, ma. we took the downeaster and had to be in portland (an hour away) by 6 am. the train ride down was great! we were almost by ourselves the whole way(2 1/2 hrs.). we went to the aquarium, ate lunch at the cafe they had there (prices were kinda reasonable), and half way through, the early morning hours caught up with the girls, and they ended up falling asleep in the carriage for about an hour or so:
.

we then decided to go see a imax 3-d movie. when you go in, they give you the "special" glasses. i thought the movie was great! the kids didn't keep their glasses on as they were all scared of the movie. seems the fish are a little too real and close with them on. i got a picture of jordan before the movie started:

after the movie, we decided to go to market square. there are a ton of shops and lots of people. we walked around for a little while and saw a man we thought was a statue, but was actually real (he was completely painted gold). we also ran into a man making balloon things. the kids each got something and then we decided to head back to the amtrak station. here is a slideshow of the day:

here are a couple of videos. the first is of kaylee saying "chugga, chugga, choo choo", i do assure you that is what she is saying :)

this next one os of kelsey:

this is where our trip went from great to horrible. we all know that no trip with 4 kids can go smoothly the whole way. anyway, we got to the station about 1 1/2 hours before our train was scheduled to leave. we decided to get mcdonalds and eat while we waited. after we got our food and were about to sit down, my sister noticed that there was a train scheduled to leave in about 5 min. i went to the ticket window and asked if we could change our tickets. he said he didn't have time to do it, but to run to the train and they would possibly let us on, so we did. mind you, the clock said we still had 3 minutes to get there. we ran and were "greeted" my one of the men working the train. i told him what i was told and he replied "you MADE me hold my train for that?" i informed him that i didn't make him do anything. he then said "well, i see you had enough time to stop at mcdonald's though"! i just replied with "we weren't planning on taking this train till a few minutes ago". he let us on, but that is not where the fun ended. the train was pretty much full, so we had to split up. the girls had to sit in their carriage and doug sat in front of them and i sat across the aisle. toya, auntie jess, grammy, and jordan sat farther back on the train. before the train even left, jordan had to go potty, he was trying to close the door, when a old, drunk guy came up and said "this is a bathroom, it is not a place to play". my sister informed him that he just couldn't shut the door. this is not the last run in with this mentally unstable person either. as the train is moving along, i keep hearing this same man talking very loudly. he is saying things like "i had 4 daughters and they knew to be quiet in public", "if i had them for neighbors, i would commit suicide", "i thought only men could have kids", and a bunch of other things. who might you think he was talking about? yup, that's right, my hubby and the twins. mind you, the twins never cried, screeched, or were loud the whole hour they were sitting in their stroller. they played, laughed, sang, and ate their supper. my hubby luckily did not hear what was being said. by this time, i had had enough and got up to move the carriage to another car, not for him, but because this man was so mentally unstable that i honestly thought he was going to hurt the girls. i was crying and shaking, i was so scared and upset. a couple of ladies got up with us and one came in and said that my kids were perfect, they were doing nothing wrong, and they were some of the best behaved kids she's ever seen on the train. she also said that after we left, a bunch of people stood up and told the man to shut up and that he was behaving worse than the girls were. the other lady that got up went to get the workers and they opened up a empty train car just for us and we beleive they kicked the man off. i know they made him move (cause he got up and went with them), but he was also going to the same station we were going to and when we got there, he was no where to be seen. so, that ended that day. needless to say, we were all ready for bed when we got home at around 9 pm. :) on sunday, doug had his firemen's muster. he went to it, but the rest of us went to church, so i do not have pics. this was also the day that we said goodbye to auntie jess. she says this is the last time she is going back to college, but she said that last year as well :). on monday we had the parade. toya and jordan got to ride on top of the fire truck that daddy was driving. here is a slideshow of the parade:

the rest of the week was just the usual school days. thursday jordan went to his forst OT appointment. he loves it and i think he will get caught up in no time. today we have a birthday party for justin and lucas, so i will have pics of that later.

last but not least, i have been tagged by my fellow twin mom angie. i noticed that so far everyone that has been tagged has said they don't think that they are interesting, yet, everyone's that i have read have been very interesting :). so, here are 8 not so interesting facts about me! :)

1. ever since i had the twins, i have been obsessed with multiples! i absolutely must go talk to everyone that has twins, or multiples and find out there life history. how early, how big, how long in the nicu?

2. once (before i was married and had kids), i had a friend change my tires, and on my way to work the next day, i was surprised to see a tire roll by me as i was going down the road. yes, it was mine! the tire had come completley off, including the rim. it rolled across the street and into some trees! i guess they would call that a good reason for coming to work late :)

3. i actually love taking ALL my kids EVERYWHERE i go. i don't actually feel as though i need a getaway yet. i do have days when i am pushed to my limits, but honestly, if i got away, i do think i would miss them and wish they were with me the whole time i was gone.

4. i used to have 11 earrings in one ear. i had little cubic zarconia earrings ranging from biggest to smallest going all the way up my ear. i only had 2 in the other ear. i removed all but two when i had latoya and she started pulling on them. the holes are still visible, but i don't think i could put earrings in there again.

5. on a whim, i decided to have a tubal after the twins. i have regretted it ever since and have secretly wished i could have more, crazier than that, i have wished i could have identical twin boys to even out the score. i am now content with what i have :).

6. my first job was at kmart where i worked with my mom and my sister, sarah. i met a ton of friends, one of which i am still friends with today, missy, (although not as close). we had the kmart group and hung out all the time. we had alot of good times.

7. i am not like this with everything, but in regards to the kids toys, everything must be in the same exact spot i keep it. hubby cannot help pick up, because he never puts things where they belong. no, it wouldn't hurt if the trucks were in the toybox, but they belong on the shelf :).

8. when i was 19, i was pulled over three times in one night!!! the first time was because they thought i was a car they had a apb out on for running from the police. i was in the wring place at the wrong time. they completely surrounded my car (remember that missy). the second time was because one of my headlights was out (they didn't tell me that the first time they pulled me over), and the third time was two minutes down the road from the second time. it was for my headlight again. nothing says maybe you should just go home like being pulled over 3 times in one night!

speaking of getting pulled over, last night after i dropped my mom off at her house, i got pulled over. it was about 9:30 pm and my kids were past ready for bed. i turned down by my house and saw the blue lights! i asked the kids if he was pulling me over and they said yes. he was very nice, he asked for license, registration, and insurance. i got them out and he informed me that my insurance card had expired. he said not to worry about it because he wasn't giving me a ticket anyway. he then asked if i knew why i was pulled over and i said i could probably guess. he said i had run a stop sign (same thing i would have guessed). he said hi to the kids and told me to try to remember to stop next time and we were on our way. anyway, that concludes my week! sorry it's so long! i hope you enjoy.

as far as tagging people. i will tag: my mom, saran and john, jess, joleene , aunt joan, cassie, ellen, and mary. ok, now you are it and have to post 8 interesting things about yourselves on your blog! have fun!

Poll & Blog Subscribe

2007-08-30T12:14:00.000-04:00

i have added a couple of things on my blog. the first is a poll. the second is underneath the poll. you put in your email address and you will get notified everytime i update my blog. anyway, that is all for now. i will have a update this weekend or probably monday night as we have a busy holiday weekend planned. we are taking the downeaster train to the new england aquarium on saturday morning. the train leaves at 7:10 am, so we have to be up and out of the house by 5:15 am. on sunday, doug has a firemen's muster, and then on monday is a parade. i'm sure i will have tons of pictures! have a great holiday weekend and don't forget to vote in my poll!

First Day of School!

2007-08-28T21:37:00.000-04:00

before i post this, i just wanted to let you all know that this is the third post i have put up today, so check below for the other two :).

okay, today was the first day of school. toya woke up and said to me, "do you think i will do good in third grade?" i said of course you will and don't worry about it, it's only your first day! she was very excited to wear her new dress from grammy and her new shoes from auntie sarah and uncle john. she looked very grown up. here is her picture:

jordan was very excited for his first day of kindegarten! i didn't cry, but i did get a little weepy when i saw him sitting at his big boy desk! i can't beleive how grown up he has become. i think it made it a little easier that he went to preschool last year. it really seems that within the past week, he actually turned into a kindegartener (is that a word?). anyway, he did very well and looked so handsome. the shirt was from grammy (the pants were too short), and the shoes were from auntie sarah and uncle john. here is his picture:

so, one day down and lots to go! :)

here are the girls in their dora pj's from auntie sarah and uncle john. they love them and have worn them several times!

ok, in case you haven't figured it out yet, we have decided to wait to potty train the girls. they showed a ton of signs that they are ready, but a few that they are not. i have decided i am not in a hurry. they are my last kids and it won't kill them or me to keep them in diapers for a little while longer.

i think i have also decided to forgo my trip to north carolina. as much as i want to go see grayson, i talked to my sister and she said i should just stay home. she says i will miss my kids too much and will be miserable. although i do agree with that, i think i would make it. so, i guess i will have to wait to see grayson on thanksgiving just like everyone else. i keep going back and forth, and i have waited so long now that i probably couldn't get a good price on a ticket anyway.

so, that is all for this post. check out the other two posted today! have great week!

Very Busy Monday!

2007-08-28T13:42:00.000-04:00

well, we started off moday with a couple of haircuts for school. jordan needed one as his was too long (he goes to a private school). for toya, we just got her hair trimmed a couple of inches. jordan's was cut quit a bit. here is a picture of jordan's cut:

after the hair cuts, we went to the dr.s office. kelsey had been complaining off and on since friday that her ear was hurting. sure enough she had another ear infection. she was given drops and seems to be doing better.

after the dr. appt., we went back home to get daddy so we could try to go to aquaboggan again. while we were gone, our new fridge was FINALLY delivered. it has been on back order for 4 mo. now, so we were VERY excited to finally get it. did i mention that we got it for free. yes, a brand new fridge for free. in the state of maine, we have a program where they will replace a fridge if it uses too much electricity, and you qualify by the income limits, then they get you a brand new fridge, and take care of your old one. so, here is out new fridge (can you tell how excited i am):

after they left and we had lunch, we headed to aquaboggan. i told the kids the rule that they had to try everything atleast once (within reason), and if they didn't want to ever go on it again, they didn't have to. the first one they went on, was the biggest one there. jordan barely met the height requirements. this is one that i would not have forced them to go on, but they were both excited to go on it. on this one, they drop you and then you go back and forth till you follow the path into the pool. needless to say, the rest of the slides were not a problem for either of them. they also had a man made ocean which they enjoyed. the girls liked the little toddler play area and would have stayed there all day. auntie jess came with us too. here is a slideshow of the water park:

the water park closed at 6 pm. we headed for home and then stopped at applebee's for supper. every monday from 5-8, kids eat free. we went and had a awesome supper for $20 for 6 of us. it made for a great day before going back to school.

after we headed home. we were welcomed by a flood as soon as we opened the door. we called out landlord and he came over. turns out that the flap on the toilet stayed open and that is what flooded the downstairs. luckily it was a easy fix and the damage was not too bad.

so, that is all for this post!

A Princess Party & A Baby Shower!

2007-08-25T13:19:00.000-04:00

to start, on thursday morning, mrs. kelley (jordan's and the twins preschool teacher) came by with 5 free passes to aquaboggan (a water park). we decided since it was doug's day off that we would go. it wasn't very warm, but it wasn't raining either. we drove an hour to get up there and it was closed!!! we met someone in the parking lot who said they closed because it was too cloudy! oh well, so, we went back home. the kids were quit dissapointed as we were not sure we would be able to fit it in to go again (passes had to be used by labor day and school was starting on the 28th). we definitely want to say thank you to mrs. kelley. she also gave us tokens for the bumper boats and go carts as well.

on saturday, i took toya to the princess party at doodlebugs. she felt a little weird as it was mostly young girls. it was cute and she got to paint a princess piggy bank and make a craft. we stayed for a little bit of story time, but it really was geared more towards the younger children. it was supposed to last from 10-noon, but we ended up leaving at 11 and going out to lunch. she still had fun though. here are some pictures:

after we ate, we then went to aunt sherry and tom's house (doug's sister and brother in law) for a welcome shower for baby rilee. it was basically a family get together with a baby shower type thing thrown in for rilee (she is 4 mo. old). it was VERY hot that day and the humidity was aweful! thankfully they had a pool and the kids went in and some of the adults. it turned out really well, and everyone seemd to enjoy themselves. rilee (the only baby in pics) got lots of clothes, so she should be all set for a while! :) here is a slideshow of the get together/welcome shower:

just a little funny story, as we pulled into our driveway on sunday night, kelsey looked in the driveway and said "where's daddy's vehicle?" it was soo funny, where did she get vehicle from? we always say cars, trucks, etc., not look at so and so's vehicle. their vocabulary is obviously growing by leaps and bounds!

Playground & Getting Ready For School!

2007-08-24T15:33:00.000-04:00

a couple of days ago, we went to a park. the kids enjoyed it although it is a older wooden one. i was so afraid they would get splinters! so, here are the pictures from the park:

it seems as though someone thought it was necessary to grow up a little before school started. jordan decided about 4 days ago that he needed to ride a bike with no training wheels. he didn't want any help learning, he did it completely by himself! he loves it, he rides all the time now. he is still a little unsteady, but is getting the hang of it. he only let me hang on twice (per my asking him if i could) and he was off from there. he has also learned to wipe himself, he could have learned that a long time ago, but i was not ready. i'd rather do it myself and know that he is clean, then have him get it all over his hands (he is going to hate me for putting that on here). it just amazes me since it seemingly was overnight that he decided to become a really big boy!

we also had him tested for occupational therapy today. during preschool, we noticed a couple of things, like writing with both hands, and not being able to choose. therewere a couple of other things too, so we tohught it was best to have him tested. i wish i could say that he passed, but he did not. he failed the 3 sections of the test, not by alot, but enough to qualify for services. i am actually quit excited, because i love the place he will be going. normally they do it in the school they are going too, but because he is going to a private school, i have to drive him there. he was excited and really enjoyed his teacher there. she was very good and was excited to have him. she said she couldn't beleive how good and VERY well behaved he was. why do they behave so well when other people are at home, but when they are home, they fight like cat's and dog's??? anyway, he scored at a 4 yr. old level on fine motor skills (using both hands is a big thing there) and then something to do with his brain telling him to do something and he has to think to hard to do it (can't remember what it is called). he will go once a week, and she said that he will be caught up, and a whole new boy within a year! i am very excited about that! i have also decided to have the twins evaluated as well that way we can catch it early if there is something. i haven't noticed anything with them, but better to be safe then sorry! we start therapy for jordan on sept. 6th.

on the way to jordan's evaluation, we noticed that they very same playground we played at the night before, was gone!! sometimes in the morning, they had torn it down! it was very shocking to see. i am assuming they are going to put a new and improved playground up. we'll see.

Doodlebugs!

2007-08-21T20:43:00.000-04:00

tonight we went to check out a new place called doodlebugs, we went with some friends from church, gina and her kids, and had a pretty good time. it is a pottery place where you can pick something out and paint it.. you then have to leave it for about 4 days so they can "fire" it. the kids had fun even though she did not have alot of things to choose from. we also brought cousin kylie with us since the three girls get along really well. i debated for a couple of days on whether to bring the twins, i decided to bring them, but also to bring auntie jess in case things didn't go well with them. once we got down there, i decided that they would not do well with the painting. they are still a little young.. they did pretty well just waiting for everyone to get done. my advice, don't take anyone under the age of 4. the lady was not very kid friendly either. for having a kids place like that, i kinda expected her to be good with children, but she wasn't at all. they have a special thing coming up on saturday called a princess party. i think i am going to take latoya there by herself on saturday. they are going to have "cinderella" come in and she is going to read a story, they are going to do a craft, and have a snack, as well as do another pottery project. it will be nice to do something with her by herself. they are having a polar express party in dec. that i will take jordan to by himself as well. this is also where i beleive i will be doing toya's birthday party in november. well, i think that is about all. here is a slide show from tonight. sorry they are blurry, i think i need new batteries in my camera:

Update on Potty Training :(

2007-08-20T13:43:00.000-04:00

ok, so potty training is not going to well. two girls and two accidents and no one peeing on the potty. anyway, i think i am going to call it quits, but only till next week. i am finding that since there are two of them that i really need 2 potties (they were sharing one). i also need to find some rubber pants as my whole house will smell like urine with two of them peeing everywhere :). i had looked at walmart and kmart for them but can't find any, so i found some on ebay that i will need to bid on and wait for them to get here. the other plus is that the older two start school next tuesday, so i will have more time to put into potty training them while they are at school. the good thing is that the girls love their undies, and don't mind sitting on the potty. we'll see what happens next week after the rubber pants get here.

Maine Wildlife Park & The Balloon Festival!

2007-08-20T07:25:00.000-04:00

well, on saturday we had a very busy day. last sunday my sister got head butted by a little boy in cubbies and couldn't open her mouth more than an inch all week. she could barely eat anything and was in alot of pain. since my parents are in n.c. visiting my other sister and their new grandson (and jess doesn't have her license), i ended up bringing her to the dr.s for 9 am on saturday morning. they said that when she got head butted, she must have jerked her head back and pulled a muscle on the left side of her neck and jaw. she is feeling much better now, but the pain lasted a week!

anyway, right after that we headed to the maine wildlife park. this farm is basically like a small zoo, they take animals that have been found injured and bring them here to recuporate and then they set most of them free. we met with my old highschool friend, miranda, and her two kids. miranda's sister dani and her two boys met us there as well. i thought we had a great tim, it was nice for jordan to actually have some boys his age to hang out with too. while we were there, they had a dog demenstration. to be honest, i think all of the kids enjoyed the dog demenstration more than walking around and seeing the other animals. for the demenstration, they were showing how they train bird hunting dogs (or atleast that's what we think they were teaching), they had a bird tied to a string (i know it sounds mean and that is what we thought too), and the dogs are supposed to be trained not to attack the bird, but instead point their nose and tail towards it and stay still till their owner gets there. all of the dogs, except one, tried to eat the bird (none of them were successful though). one dog sat still and let them put the bird on his back and never tried to eat it, that was pretty cool. after they were done, the kids were allowed to go and see the dogs and play with them. first they all ran to where the bird was to see that it was ok. :) as you will see in one of the pics, they liked playing on the ramp used for the demenstration, they would go up one side and slide down the other. they also enjoyed the dogs! so, here is the slideshow (i didn't label the pictures as it would take too long):

after the farm, we went back home for about 2 hours and then headed back downtown. we went to pick up "aunt" sue and then went to mcdonalds for supper. after supper, we went to the great falls balloon festival. we were quit dissapinted (but understood) when they did not let any balloons up because of the wind. they were supposed to have a moon glow at 8 pm (the launching was supposed to be at 6pm, so we had two hours to kill), so we decided to wait and watch that. the moonglow usually involves a couple of balloons setting up and blowing their balloons up at dark so they light up (they don't take off). while we were waiting, we went to a nearby park to let the kids play. we weren't impressed with the park as it wasn't in the best part of town, but the kids enjoyed it. after, we headed to go see great grammy keene as she lives right around the corner. she was happy to see the kids and the kids were happy to eat all of her cucumbers....lol. they do like visinting her though and miss her now that she goes to a different church and they don't get to see her every sunday. we stayed there for about 30 min. and headed back to see the moonglow. we were once again dissapointed when they couldn't even blow the balloon up because of the wind. their idea of a moonglow this year was to have all the guys set up their baskets and just light the pilot lights off. i was cool for about a minute or two, but we still went home dissapointed. here are some pics from the park and the "moonglow". this is what kaylee and kelsey thought of the experience:

kaylee hiding her eyes

kelsey looking less than impressed here are a couple more pics:

going down the slide (notice the grafiti)
jordan (notice the hair)
moonglow

on saturday night, my sister kept all the kids for the night even though my mom was out of town. everything went fine. i went over a little early to help get them dressed for church. the girls wore their sailor dresses that we got from laura, on ebay. here are a couple of pics that i took before we left (aren't they ADORABLE):

kaylee (L) & kelsey (R)

because of the dissapointing time on saturday, we decided to try to see the balloons launch on sunday night. "aunt" sue met us at grammy's house and we headed down. the weather was better and the wind was not so strong, so we were pretty hopeful that it would happen. the launch was supposed to take place at 6pm again, so we got there at around 5:45. we met aunt susie and cousin katie down there too. it got to be aroung 6:20 and no one had even started to unpack their balloons. we got a little worried and sue and toya went to ask if they were going to take off. we were told all the balloon owners were having a meeting and going to decide. we were VERY happy when a few minutes later, they all started unpacking their balloons!!!! it was an AWESOME site as you will see from the pics (yes, the kids went in their pj's cause i knew we would be getting home late):

kelsey and kaylee were fooling aroung while they were blowing up the balloons and kelsey ran into kaylees head and got her first nose bleed! she also got her first fat lip:

this was our favorite baloon, a beagle named maximus! this balloon was HUGE! they were not able to launch it as the conditions for a ballon that size were not favorable, but they did blow it up. the kids loved this balloon (we have a beagle almost like it). here are some pics of maximus:

well, that concludes my post for today. i hope you enjoy all the pics and slideshows. i am still planning on startng potty training today and will let everyone know how it goes. cross your fingers for me :)

It's Time!

2007-08-17T22:12:00.000-04:00

time for what you say?? well, time to potty train of course! to be truthful, i am pretty scared about that. i know i have done two kids already, but not two at a time! i am planning on starting on monday. we went out and bought new dora panties. hopefully they won't want to mess on dora and will get the hang of it quickly :) or, i may decide that at 2 1/2 they just aren't ready yet. to be truthful, i do think they are ready. they tell me (most of the time) when they are stinky or wet and need to be changed. i guess that this means that this week we will be staying home more so they get the hang of it.

well, that is all for tonight. tomorrow is a busy day with a trip to the animal park during the morning, and then a trip to the balloon festival at night. we will be busy, but it will be fun. there will be pictures either tomorrow or sunday/monday! have a great weekend!

A New Prayer Request!

2007-08-15T21:05:00.000-04:00

well, as we speak, my sister and her hubby as well as my parents are at the hospital with baby grayson. about a day after birth, john (grayson's daddy) notices a lump on the back of his head. last night when my parents got there my sister had mentioned it, but they thought maybe it was just a weird soft spot. he has been to the dr.s twice and not one of the dr.s have noticed it or said anything about it, so they weren't too concerned. tonight though, they noticed that it seemed to have grown. they said it is a little bigger than a golf ball and is very squishy feeling (like fluid). they decided it would be best to bring him to the ER to be on the safe side. please keep my sister, her hubby, and especially baby grayson in your prayers. hopefully they find out something tonight and if so i will update. here are some pics of baby grayson taken today by my mom and dad (gotta love camera phones!): *******UPDATE******* as i was typing this out, my mom called and said it is a hematoma. basically, she needs to make an appt. with his dr. (she has one scheduled for tomorrow), and they need to watch it and see if it grows. if it does then they need to be seen again. so, on to other news, today we went with some friends from church to the toy library. the kids had fun, but i didn't get too many good pictures since they were playing. we went with gina and her 3 kids. victoria is the same age as latoya, austin is the same age as jordan, and connor is the same age as the twins. it works out good going with them because of the ages of her kids. we plan on going swimming on friday if the weather is nice. Here is a slideshow of the day. I hope you enjoy, and i will keep everyone updated on Grayson!!

A Full House!

2007-08-14T22:21:00.001-04:00

well, i normally have my 4 kids plus doug's sisters two kids, but today we threw a infant into the picture. i had the pleasure of watching my cousin's baby....benjamin. we had so much fun, and he definitely didn't lack attention. he never got two squeeks out before someone was asking to hold him. kelsey at first was trying to tickle him and talking "baby" talk to him, and kaylee just took over his boppy toy. here is a slideshow from today:

while i had all 7 kids, we went to the police station. my hubby has been selected for jury duty! he had to write a letter to see if he can get out of it since he is the only one working and supporting our family of 6. if you are selected for jury duty, you only get paid $10 a day. are you kidding me???? like we could live on that. so, i guess i would say to pray that they let him off the hook. he wouldn't mind doing it, but we just wouldn't be able to make ends meet. they said you can be asked to serve for up to 15 days! the clerk said that we will know in a couple of weeks whether he is dismissed or not. you should have seen the looks i was getting while all 7 kids were with me. i'm not sure if they were sympathy looks or disgust looks :). no one asked if they were all mine though, i think people were just dumbfounded...lol.

as you can see, i started making a list of some of the blogs that i read. i am still missing several, so please comment me and send me your blog addresses. there are a few that i really like that i am still missing. i can't find my slideshows anywhere as i can't remember what program i used to make them, so i am still bummed out about that. i guess i will have to make new ones.....ugh.

well, that is all for tonight. we have a balloon festival coming up this weekend so look for pics from that. also, my parents have landed in n.c., so i'm sure there will be pics of grayson for everyone to see too. the girls thought that ben was grayson, and they were super excited! they liked ben too, but called him grayson for the first half hour.

i also have been meaning to update on brendon dunn, he has had a pretty major setback (remember we just announced that he was in remission). he started having the same pains he had when the lymphoma was discovered, so they checked and found a area in question near his heart. PLEASE keep him and his family in your prayers. here are the last two updates from his mom (one from friday and one from today):

FRIDAY, AUGUST 10, 2007 11:59 PM, CDT
Please pray for Brendon.

Bren has been complaining of neck and shoulder pains for the past few days, which has had us very nervous because these pains are what started the whole diagnosis back in April. We went to the doctor on Wednesday to have him checked out. They gave him an x-ray which looked fine. His doctor examined him and thought that maybe it was a blood clot that was causing the pain. They sent us to Maine Med for an ultrasound. That came back fine. No clots. So they scheduled us for a CT scan which he had today at 3:40. When we arrived home there was a message on the answering machine asking us to page the doctor on call to discuss the results of the CT scan. When the doctor called back he told us that they were concerned about the results. Brendon has had excess tissue on the right side of his heart that they thought may have been residual tissue from the tumor. When they compared the CT scan Bren had in July to the one he had today they noticed that the tissue had grown. It hasn't grown significantly, but enough to cause concern. He also has fluid around his heart and in one of his lungs. They are concerned because nothing should be growing because of all the chemo he is getting. Where it's Friday night they don't really have a game plan yet. They are going to do another PET scan, an EKG and maybe a biopsy to try to figure out what is going on. The doctor said that we could admit Bren to the hospital if it would make us feel better but they wouldn't really do any tests until next week. We have decided to keep Bren at home for the weekend and try to stay out of the hospital as long as possible (as long as he is safe). He is really only in pain at night when he lays down. We are trying to remain optimisitic, but we are very sad and scared. We don't know what to expect...

I'll update more as soon as I know it.

Thank you for your prayers. We need them right now.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 14, 2007 10:23 AM, CDT
Things are going ok. We have not been admitted to the hospital. Brendon is going for an EKG today at 2:15pm and then he has a PET scan tomorrow at 10:30am. We are hoping to have answers by Thursday as to what is going on. Brendon has not been complaining about pain and he has not needed any pain meds since Saturday. When I spoke to the doctor Sunday afternoon I asked him what he was most concerned about and he told me that it was the growth on his heart. He said there are 3 things it could be and they are an infection, scar tissue or another tumor. Hopefully these tests will tell them what it is without them having to go in to do a biopsy. We are trying to prepare for the worst, but keeping the faith that it's not another tumor. When we told Bren that it might be another tumor he said "Oh well, if it's a tumor it's a tumor. I've had one, so what's one more?". He's such a tough kid. We will be so glad to have some answers.. Not knowing is VERY tough!

Anyway, we have been keeping pretty busy to try to take our minds off of everything. Our family from Alaska left last week. Brendon's Uncle Jon left on Wednesday and his Aunt Angie and the kids left Sunday. Saturday we all went to the aquarium in Boothbay Harbor and had a great time. I have put some pictures up of the aquarium visit and other pictures.

Brendon had an exciting night on Sunday night. We went to the wrestling match in Portland. Brendon got to meet his FAVORITE wrestler Kane and get his autograph. He also met 2 other wrestlers. He was on cloud nine!! I took his picture with Kane, Batista and another guy (I can't remember his name). My cousin Ashley and her friend Allyson talked to one of the security guys and told them Brendon's story and they brought Bren back to where all the wrestlers walked out to get into their cars. We (Aunt Sherry, Uncle Dan, Allyson, Ashley, Bren and myself) were the only ones that were able to be close to them. Everyone else was across the street behind barricades and police tape. It was awesome! Brendon was beaming from ear to ear. He also got to meet Batista one on one and get his autograph. Bren was so nervous. Those guys are HUGE! It was a great night and he is still talking about it. Everyone was so nice to us! It was an awesome pick-me-up for him. Especially with all the things he might be facing. If you check out the pictures you'll see how happy he was. He couldn't stop smiling! It made me cry to see him so happy and carefree!! Those guys made his night!!

That's about it for now. I will update as soon as I have more info.. Thanks for the e-mails, prayers and well wishes. They have helped more than you'll ever know. We love you all!! ~Amber

P.S. Ellen, your blog is not listed on your profile, so even though you left a comment, i can't get your blog address! :) Please send it via email!

I'm an Idiot ~ Please Help!

2007-08-13T23:26:00.000-04:00

ok, as you can tell by my blog, i lost everything on it!!! i am sooo upset! anyway, for those that you know i read your blog or you have a blog i may be interested in, please leave a comment with your blog address! that will teach me for tryong to fix things when i have only have about 4 hours of sleep! anyway, thanks for your help! as you can tell, i lost all of my slideshows i had on the side as well as my counter at the bottom and everything else i had on it. i am soooo mad at myself!!! maybe things will look better in the morning, but i doubt it! i had put sooo much work into it, and now look....it's plain and boring!