The update on the family goings on here, as promised!!!

And I'm even gonna have pictures, if you can believe it!!!!! I think I'll start with the oldest, and go down from there! (meaning the kids! I'll update Todd and I at the end if there's time!)


Dallas:

We started Dallas on the Adderol last Wednesday. The first few days were a bit of a struggle to get him to swallow the pill, but with a little bit of practice, he's now swallowing them like a champ! I'm actually very impressed. He has a SUPER sensitive gag reflex, and these pills are capsules and they float when he tries to swallow them. We've perfected the technique though. He puts the pill in his mouth, and then he takes his spider man straw cup, and just chugs. This morning, it took only a small drink, and it was down! I was so proud of him!!!

Over all, the medication seems to be making all the difference in the world for him. If you can believe it, he actually said school was FUN yesterday! I was SHOCKED to hear that from him. Its been such a fight this year with him, and the school work, and all that. So it about plowed me over

to hear him say he LIKED it, let alone that it was FUN! He's even said that he can focus better, and that there aren't a million thoughts going on in his head!! YAY!! That's awesome!

Now, our other concern with it. Since starting the Adderol we've noticed he has a rash on his face. It kind of looks like someone let mosquito's into his room while he was sleeping, and they had a snack of his face. I tried to get a picture of it, but I don't know if it will show up very well. It should be the one on the side here of him wearing red. The rash is ONLY on his face, and it just these little red bumps. I have a call into the doctor to see what she says. I know if they think its a reaction, we'll have to switch, which sucks, since the Adderol was 30 dollars, for 30 pills. (a buck a pill. . .OUCH!) And I can only imagine what others will cost. But we'll see.

We've also been having some issues trying to get Dallas to go outside and PLAY! He keeps telling us "I DON'T LIKE PLAYING OUTSIDE!" I know its entirely possible to not like the outdoors, because I had a friend growing up who HATED being outside with us. Dallas's issue isn't so much that he doesn't like to be outside. I think its that he thinks he'll miss something if he isn't RIGHT with us. Because if we go out side too? He'll play happily. I think we're just in need of a place where he can ride his bike, and get doing more things that he enjoys!!!

And he's starting to use these HUGE words lately. Some of the sentences he comes out with, its like "are you seven, or seventeen?" Its cute though, and he's learning to talk, and express himself in all new ways! He still has his huge love for music, and that really seems to be a great way for him to DE stress, or just calm down with. he loves to hang out on his bed, with his CD's going, and just sing along! Its when you'll see him the happiest! Very much just like his daddy!! Very much!!!

Gabriel:

My Gabey baby boy. He's doing really well. He really seems to enjoy school, and he's doing really well with all of his school work. As far as we can tell, there are NO issues with him, and ADD. He is more than happy to sit down and put together a puzzle, or build with blocks. He can keep himself entertained for HOURS!!! The only issue we have with him and school right now is that the words "I can't." seem all to ready to come out of his mouth. Like when we're trying to read a book. He'll look at a word, see the first few letters, and GUESS what the word is, even if its
words he KNOWS. Then when you tell him "Gabriel, look again, and sound it out." He look you dead on, get a fuss face going, and tell you "I can't." He's still very much in the age where fussing and crying is the answer to EVERYTHING. And this stage is a really hard one for me. I struggle very much with the fake fussing, and the fussing just for attention. So, we've adapted the "if you're going to fuss, go to your bed" method, and it seems to work ok. Though sometimes it does backfire, and he'll fall asleep on his bed really early on in the evening. We just let him sleep though, and he sleeps through the night, and seems to do better the next day. He seems to take after his daddy in the sleep department. If he's tired, and doesn't do something about it, his body takes over, and simply crashes!!!

Our other struggle with Gabe still is the pooping issue. Todd finally had enough, and said "YOU'RE GOING TO WEAR PULL UPS UNTIL YOU QUIT HAVING ACCIDENTS!" Hoping that this would be some form of a punishment right? I mean what 5, almost 6 year old wants to wear a pull up. It back fired, and he doesn't care. He continues to have these mini accidents. So, the only thing saving my sanity on that one is knowing he isn't ruining pair after pair of cloth underwear. The pull ups can be thrown away, and aren't as expensive as having to continuously replace the cloth underwear. We've tried everything with this issue, and it appears that only time will break him of this. In his time, when he's ready. I don't think he'll go to college in pull ups. I hope that with the summer, and being home, that things will get better, and we'll be back on track with that one!!!

Gabe is still very passionate about many things. Topping the list are: Sharks, donkeys (because his favorite stuffed animal of all times is a donkey!), batman, kittens, stuffed animals. The list could go on and on. But any of those main top ones, and Gabe turns into a giggling fool! He's very goofy like that. If he knows you, he'll talk to you, but if he doesn't see you very often, he's the shyest kid around. Its so funny! And he'll do it with his teachers too. He could have just come from their class, and we'll be standing there talking to them after class, and he'll hide behind me, and just giggle. But get him talking about something that's his favorite, and he'll talk for hours, and you'll get quite the education! He's taken time to get to know the things he loves!!! He's a very affectionate little guy! He won't let you out of his site for school without an I love you, and you HAVE to return it, or he keeps saying it over and over and over!


Kendyl:

My Kenda Grace! Well, as you can see from the picture to the left she's really become a little girl lately. That picture was taken last night after she got into some silver lip gloss from my day care girl D. D had lost it I guess, and the boys found it. Well, Kendyl came up to me while I was making dinner, and had gotten into it. she knows what its for, and what it does, and where it goes, and IT. WAS. EVERYWHERE. It was on her eye lids, it was on her cheeks,it was all around her mouth, it was all over her hands, and let us not forget her clothes. And yeah. I learned something else last night. I don't think that I'll be getting Kendyl any of that cheapy lip gloss that looks like chap stick. That's what this stuff was, and man, you darn near had to have a power washer to get it off. It was SO oily and greasy. Oh, and add glitter to the mix, and my poor sensitive skinned little girl was MISERABLE after mommy had to wash it off. I tried to be as gentle as I could be, but yikes. That stuff is harsh. This happened to be High school musical chap stick stuff. Yup, not gonna happen here! I'll go get her some cherry flavored chap stick or something, but none of that crap!!!

Kendyl has also discovered a love for baby dolls! She rotates which one is her favorite (or, in the case of her twin baby dolls, which two!!! lol ) And they go everywhere with her. She's such a good little mommy too! She takes them around in her stroller, she feeds them with her bottles, she rocks them, and is so attentive! She has a doll that she got from my mom for Christmas. And its touch sensitive. You tickle its feet, and it laughs, you leave it alone for too long, and it cries. (thank God for off switches, or that would get really old!) And that seems to be her favorite lately. I think because its interactive, but its still nice and soft like a baby doll. I guess it would be comparable to the baby Chou Chou dolls. Kind of, but not really! Wait. . . I found the link. This is the exact doll she has, only hers is white, not African!!! Baby Darla

Also, her latest development is that she can play her daddy like a fiddle! 99% of the time, she's a total mama's girl. TOTAL. She hangs with me all day, and tells me "I'm your girl mommy!" She loves to do things just like mom. Hair, necklace, clothes, etc. That even includes bossing her brothers around, and after she does so, she'll look at me, like "you're gonna back me up on this one right?" The funny thing is, most of the time she's right! lol Back to the daddy thing though! She's learned that if its bed time, and she doesn't want to go, and her daddy is home, she can walk over to him, say "daddy I'm your girl. I want to 'nuggo' you." And daddy melts, lifts her up, and lets her get away with it! I had to have a talk with him the other day. I told him if he doesn't quit that, that she'll not listen to me. She'll think that she can just go running to daddy and get away with it all. And I don't want that to happen, since I'm the one home with them all the time. I know he's eating it up though, because he'd hoped for a daddy's little girl from the moment the words "baby B is a girl" left the ultrasound techs mouth!!! It really is pretty cute!!!!

(and for those twin mommies following along, yes, Kendyl is older than Kaleb by 30 seconds, and she was dubbed baby B. That is because they give them their A and B status early on, based on who's higher or lower, and at the time, Kaleb was lower. But they switched, and Kendyl was lower and they had to leave their labels the same so that they could have accurate medical charts!!)


Kaleb:

My bubba boy!!! This little boy is such a clown. He's forever trying to make us laugh, make us smile, or just do something to make himself laugh! There must be a little comedian trapped inside his little body! The noises, and sound effects he comes up with are truly hysterical! And the funny part is that he KNOWS he's funny. He KNOWS he can get us laughing, and he uses this quite often if hes caught getting into something he KNOWS he shouldn't be in!!!

But, even with that being said, he's also the most sympathetic/empathetic (which ever, whatever!) kid I've ever met! If he hurts someone, he knows it, and he's the first to apologize, and give a hug. He could barely step on your toe, and he'll look down, his face will fall, and he'll say "I'm sorry mommy!!!!" and give you a big hug! And if you don't readily say "its ok Kaleb" He'll say it for you! He's such a caring, and compassionate little man! Hopefully this will continue all through is life. I think he's got a good thing going, and its rare to find! He's our little snuggle buddy. Every night after supper, he expects you to come sit on the couch, and snuggle with him, while watching TV before bed!!

Kaleb has also become a little shadow of the bigger boys. He wants to do everything they do, and have everything they have! There are just some things he isn't allowed to do, that the big boys are allowed, and when that happens man is HE TICKED! He doesn't seem to realize that he's 3 years younger and Gabe, and 4 years younger than Dallas, and he thinks he's just one of the boys! I feel bad for the little dude! But I know it won't be long, and he'll be keeping up with the boys, full steam ahead!



These last two pictures are the after pictures from Kaleb and Kendyls above pictures. They were both FILTHY yesterday, and needed a bath. The first one is them right out of the bath. Kendyl was trying to take a nice picture with her arm around Kaleb, and she was getting mad (hence the fist in the air!) that he wouldn't! And the next is REALLY how they like to take their pictures!!!




























Todd and I:
We're hanging in there. Todd's been super busy with work, as I mentioned before. And when he's not at work or Church, he's doing side jobs for extra cash to help keep our family afloat. He's an amazing man. And I'm so thankful he's mine! He'd move heaven and earth for this family, not matter what it took, just to provide for us. I know that that is something very special. And I'm so thankful for him.

Last weekend Todd and his brother Matt were working on a fence for Todd's fed ex guy. It took them Friday night, Saturday for 5 hours, and Sunday for 4 hours to get it done. And now, I guess the guy isn't happy with something, so they'll be going back this weekend to try to fix it. That is, Friday they'll do that. Then Saturday Todd has to work, since its the end of the month, and he works in the apartment industry on the U of M campus people move out most this month. So he'll have to do his quick turns on Saturday. I'm not sure what the rest of the weekend holds. We didn't really make any plans, since we were supposed to go camping. But the whole working thing kinda put the ca bosh on that!!!

Todd came home with some good news, and some bad news from work the other day. The good news was that he was getting a 5% raise. Which means .95 cents more per hour. WOO HOO. (insert sarcasm here!) But, the bad news is that they'll be raising health insurance 17% again. And for those of you who haven't heard me talk about health insurance, I should add, we already pay between 700 and 800 per month for health insurance. And in that, we have a 5,000 dollar deductable before ANYTHING kicks in. The only thing it pays for right now is prescriptions. We only pay 10 for those. But a 17% hike . . .thats gonna be killer on our family.

He then came home the next day and said that there is a potential for him to get a different job with the company, one they've wanted him to have for a few years now. He'd be a manager, vs. the maintenance manager. It would mean probably 5-6 more dollars an hour, no on call, a regular schedule, and a less stressed out husband! We've talked about it, and I think he's going to go for it when it comes up. He has a lot of people in the company backing him for this, since this is what they've wanted him to do for quite some time now. We'll see how it goes!! I'm excited, but nervous too. Job changes worry me, since he's our only income. I worry that somethign will go wrong, and he won't like it, or they won't like what he's doing, and he'll be out of a job, and we just can't afford that.


We're probably going to look at one house tonight, and more on June 1st. I'm nervous, and leery of the entire situation, just with how things are working out. But I'm trying to just chill out, and go with the flow. Some days are easier than others. My major problem is that I just want answers. I just want to know whats going to happen, and where we're going to go, and how things are going to work out. I know that once I do have those answers I'm still gonna be left with the stress of moving, and un packing, and all that is associated with that. But its a step in the right direction for our family. And I know that.

Todd informed me that I need to have an income. And a substancial one. I asked him what that ment. He said half of what he makes. So, that means I'll have to get a minimum of 3 kids a week when I open the day care. That sounds like it could be manageable, just depends on the kids I guess!!!

But all in all we're hanging in there, and doing ok!!!


If you made it all the way through this, hats off to you! It was a lengthy one!!!