My Budding Artists

I love finding drawings from my girls. Here are a few that I found a couple of days ago:

Nicole's Masterpiece: I can not believe how much Nicole has improved on her drawings. She is getting more and more detailed. This is a picture of her...I love her bright eyes and hat.

Taylor - Taylor is always drawing. She loves to color, paint, play with playdough, and draw. Every where we go she has to have a pen and paper. If I don't bring it for her, she has it in her own purse or she will find whatever she can and draw all over it.

Of course, her picture would not be complete without a picture of a shark attacking something. Poor Taylor...she is always afraid something terrible will happen to her. Today I turned on the TV and there was a scene from World War I. She got the most terrified look on her face, came running towards me, and said, "That won't happen here, Right?! Will Daddy kill all those people so they won't come here?" War is definitely something you cannot explain to a 4 year old. How can I explain something that is hard for me to even understand.

She is growing up...

Kaylee loves design, architecture, construction, etc. She has been begging for a leatherman for months and she finally earned one. While I was in the hospital, she was the biggest help. She was also a HUGE help when I came home with Blake. Warren took her to the store and she picked out her leatherman. She uses it all the time.

A few weeks ago, Kaylee had one of her dress-up days for school. It was Medieval day and she went as Joan of Arc. I normally have to help her come up with an outfit or an idea for her outfit when they have special days at school. But, she did this all on her own. I think she did a pretty good job.

I love this girl. She is becoming such a sweet, gifted, obedient, talented young lady. I am blessed to have her in my home.

Toothless

Nicole hangs on to a lose tooth forever. She will do everything she can to keep it in her mouth. She refuses to eat certain food by asking me, "Is this hard?" and will not let anyone touch it. She lost her last tooth while she was eating a hamburger. While she was eating it, she smiled at me and she had blood in her mouth. I said, "Hey, Nicole. I think you lost your tooth." She touched her mouth, started to laugh, and started to look every where for it. She had swallowed it...

Because of this experience, she finally let Warren pull her most recent loose tooth.

She didn't even cry. I love those toothless smiles. She has another loose tooth, and she is back to her old ways. No one is allowed to look, touch, or even come close. We will see if she swallows another.

When Blake came home...

It kind of makes me sad when I look back at some of these pictures. I can't believe Blake is already 2 months old (post coming shortly). Blake was of course the cutest baby in the entire world. He lost a lot of weight after he was born, so when he came home he was 5 lbs 2 oz. Pat came and spent 3 weeks with us.
Of course, the first week I was in the hospital going back and forth from my room to the NICU, and than I came home. I spent one night at home with Blake in the hospital, and than was able to be a "hospital mom" the night before he came home. I got to the hospital late Sunday afternoon and came home with Blake on Monday night. For the first time, Blake spent the entire time with me in one of the hospital rooms. His nurse would come in every few hours and check on him, but because he did so well...he was able to come home.
Pat was a HUGE help during those first few days especially. I was exhausted, sore, emotional, moody, etc. Pat was able to help organize Blake's room, clothes, and our house. We didn't have anything that fit Blake, including diapers so Pat went and bought a few things. The clothes look so tiny now. They are definite keep sakes.


Blake hated baths. lotion, being dressed, etc. He hated being cold. He would actually turn purplish blue.

Blake makes the best facial expressions in his sleep, especially when he was first born. Blake also loved to be swaddled, snuggled, etc. He is one spoiled babe. We hold him all the time and I am sure we will regret this one day, but apparently I don't care enough to stop. I want him to stay small all the time. You sure have a different perspective when you know this is the last baby..

I am not kidding when I say Blake is held all the time
And, it is not primarily by me.

His daddy holds him while doing everything.

When the girls would get home from school, they would quickly change their clothes, wash their hands, and beg to hold him.

This is one lucky boy to be loved by so many people!!
(Look at those skinny chicken legs!)

I thought newborns slept a lot. Premies sleep ALL THE TIME. He was never awake. I would basically have to wake him up every 2 1/2 -3 hours to feed him, he would go back to sleep, and I would wake him up again to feed him. I was given strict orders to make sure he ate atleast every 3 hours. I would even set my alarm during the night. He sure made my recovery a lot easier because of all the sleeping.

It is so adorable when newborn's cry. I feel very lucky to be the mother of such a precious little boy. Kaylee laughs at me because I call him "my little buddy," " my friend," "my little man, " and "my little guy." It is nice to have such a sweet one to hold and snuggle. The nights can be somewhat long, but the sweet snuggles during the day make it well worth it.

"Why 4th Graders should have cell phones"

The other day Kaylee came home with this persuasive papers. I remember writing persuasive papers while I was in school. I actually really like it and enjoyed writing. It is fun for me to see Kaylee's writings when she comes home from school. This particular one made me laugh. Here is an example:

"We need cellphones in 4th grade. There are several reasons we need cellphones in 4th grade. The first reason for having a cell phone is for emergencies. If something happened, you could call someone. The second reason for having a cell phone is backup. If you need a ride to or from school you could call. The third reason for having a cellphone in 4th grade is for calling family. You could call for any problems at school or if you got sick. We must have cell phones in 4th grade. If we have cellphones, all bad things could be put to an end with a quick call."

After finding this, I quickly reminded Kaylee that she would not be getting a cell phone until she was about 14 and could help pay for one herself.

Randomness - Unloading the camera and cell phone

The world seems to stop when you have a baby, or atleast "your world" seems to go in slow motion. I don't know where the month of October or November went and I can't believe it is Christmas time. The world has moved on without me...

But, I decided a few days ago to finally organize the pictures I took over the last couple of months that are seriously a HUGE blur in my head. Here are some of the priceless pictures I found, in no particular order because honestly I don't remember when I took most of them.

Nicole had a sleep study this past summer. She spent one night in the hospital hooked up to all sorts of things. I don't know how she slept, but Nicole and I had a fun sleepover. During the sleep study, we discovered Nicole has Periodic Limb Movement Disorder. Her legs just go numb in the middle of sleeping and cause her some discomfort. She also doesn't get the recommended amount of REM sleep. Her REM cycles are in the early morning hours instead of being spread throughout the night. This answered a lot of questions. I would be waking up complaining of pains in my legs and needing to take a lot of naps too if I wasn't sleeping well.

This is a picture of sweet little Blake on the way home from the hospital. He looks so tiny in this picture. Before he could leave the hospital, the nurses had to do a car seat check. They changed the car seat belts, repositioned things, and watched him for 1 hour in his car seat making sure his oxygen levels stayed normal. He passed so we were able to go home.

One morning in early October, the girls came running in my room shouting, "It is snowing." I didn't believe them, but they opened up the windows and sure enough there was a ton of snow. We quickly got on some snow gear and ran outside to save our vegetables. The green onions smelled so good!!

This was taken the day after I got home from the hospital and the day before Blake was born.
Warren made me a nice bed on the couch, with blankets and numerous pillows. He also brought over a lamp, a desk, books, and my laptop. Taylor did not leave my side. She did my hair and gave me numerous facials. Her facials consist of putting lip gloss all over my face.

When Blake came home, I spent a lot of time on the couch. In fact, I slept on the couch for the first 4 weeks. It was actually very comfortable. But, after awhile the area in front of the couch got pretty messy. The girls would unload all of their school work right in front of the couch along with hair things, water bottles, brushes, books, etc. This was the normal scene...the girls on the floor with all of their school assignments right by the couch (I am not in the picture for a very good reason). Kaylee was my big helper those first few weeks. She would read to the girls all the time.

A couple of weeks before Blake was born, Nicole decided to jump down our stairs and she sprained her ankle. She wore this huge boot around for a couple of weeks. She is such a good sport with all of her lovely injuries. At the end of this summer, Nicole also ran into a neighbors garage on her 4-wheeler. She luckily was not hurt, but the garage door was bent in half. Watch out world...this one does everything with a lot of energy!!

I took this picture through the window at Taylor's ballet studio. I love watching her dance. She takes it so seriously.

This was actually taken almost a year ago. Kaylee earned money by doing various chores and bought herself this American Girl doll bed. She loves it!! It was a sweet story too. We went up to buy the bed and the price of the bed had gone up $20. Kaylee was so disappointed because she thought she had earned enough. Grandpa came to the rescue and gave Kaylee the rest of the money to help her get the bed.

This girl cracks me up. She hates bugs...A LOT!! One day we were driving home in the car and Taylor started screaming because there was a bug in the car. It was flying all around her and Kaylee grabbed my camera and took this picture.

Mr. Alex was Nicole's swim teacher for 1 1/2 years. He was wonderful. She had private lessons with him and he took her from a silly girl who constantly just jumped in the pool to a girl her could do the backstroke, freestyle, and dive down to get stuff at the bottom of the pool. He was so patient with her and was quite the tease. He would lay on the bottom of the pool to set the alarms off and he would laugh at her as she tried to force herself to the bottom of the pool to get the diving sticks. Nicole floats and had the hardest time getting diving sticks. Mr. Alex would let her try and than would help her by giving her an extra push. He knew how to challenge her without making her made. If he saw her give up or say, "I am too tired," he would say "I know you can do this. Don't give up." We joined another gym so Nicole had to quit taking lessons from Mr. Alex and we were pretty sad to say goodbye.

We took the girls out to ice cream to tell them that they were going to have a baby brother. The ultrasound tech wrote it in a card and the girls got to open it at the ice cream place. Needless to say, they were all very excited.

Here are Kaylee and her friend Phoebe running in the school fun run for Asthma. Kaylee and Phoebe ran 4 miles without stopping. Way to go girls!! They were exhausted and I was thrilled. Do I have running buddy?

Oh, how I love this girl!! She can fall asleep doing anything. Here is a perfect example. She was talking to me on my couch bed playing waitress and was writing down my order when she fell asleep. She slept there for 1 hour.

Kaylee is learning how to french braid her own hair. She is working really hard and almost has it. She practices on my hair all the time.

Another example of Sleeping Beauty and her Dad. Warren's favorite thing to do is come home from work and say, "I just need a little 10 minute nap." This 10 minute nap turns into me waking him up at 10:30pm and saying, "It is time to go to bed."


The girls love to play dress-up on most Saturdays. A couple of weeks ago, they were playing "Josephina". Josephina is an American Girl doll from Mexico who has a pet donkey. Taylor was Josephina and Kaylee was her friend. Kaylee was reading the books to Taylor and they had a wonderful time pretending to live in Mexico.

Anxiety?!

The progression of Kaylee's anxiety over her first swim meet this summer is depicted pretty well in these pictures. I sure do love this girl. She wants to do her best and sometimes the anxiety of possibly messing up, can get her pretty distraught. She made a goal during the school year last year to compete in a freestyle race and compete in one more stroke. She did great in the freestyle race, actually got first place, but when it came time to do backstroke...she got pretty nervous. Thank goodness to a wonderful, comforting Dad and it doesn't hurt that her Dad has a lot of experience competing in swim meets.

"Why did I say I would do this?"

"Dad!! You are being silly." (Starting to get a little more comfortable)

Ready to go!!

Coach Eric has been Kaylee's coach the past 2 years and he is very patient with the kids on the team. Luckily, at this meet Kaylee was the only one competing from their summer swim team.

Arm is out ready to go...

Good Job Kaylee!! You did great...

Here are some of Kaylee's time :
25.81 sec. - Freestyle
42.67 sec. - breaststroke
30.04 sec. -back stroke