The good, the bad, and the ugly!

I figured it was time for a general update. Time to get down in writing some of the things that have been going on here, and time to put down some things that I just don't want to forget!!! Its been way too long since I've actually gotten to do just a general update about the family that I think I'm LONG over due!!!

First, we'll start with Todd and I:

We're doing wonderful. Its SO nice to be all under one roof again! Its nice to not have to wonder when he's coming home, or wonder how I"m going to manage to get dinner over to him with four kids in two in the pouring rain, or 2 feet of snow. We're IN, and its what we've worked almost an entire year towards! And its been WONDERFUL to have all the space to spread out in! I can't tell you what a stress relief it is just to have a place for the kids to go where they can be wild, and loud, and NOT BE ON TOP OF US!!! We can tell them to "go to their room" if they've been behaving badly, and they're not just 5 steps away! They can get away from each other, and do their own thing, and something that I find most important, Todd and I can feel like a couple again. We can sit up late snuggling on the couch watching a movie if we feel like it, because we don't have to worry about the noise traveling down the hall to wake up kids! We can let the dogs out, and know that if they come back in and are loud, it will only effect Todd and I! Everyone has their own floor. The twins are upstairs, the boys are down stairs, and Todd and I are in the middle, on the main living level. And its working out really really well for us!!! We're progressing on the unpacking. Well, and of course by WE, I mean ME!! It amazes me how the job of "nesting" always lands in a woman's lap. Yes, I realize we are gifted with the ability to settle things, organize things, and make things feel like home. But man is it a lot of work!!! I find I'm struggling to catch up on all the laundry, while trying to unpack, and I'm trying my darnedest to keep the house clean through all of this. Some days I just have to sit back and shake my head and say HOW DOES IT GET SO DIRTY SO FAST?!?!?!?!! Its amazing to me! I swear there must be little gremlins making the house dirty with the kids. Because surely my kids can't make THAT big of a mess can they???

We're also gearing up for a garage sale. My entire basement is full of things that need to be sorted and gone through for the sale. I have to figure out what's staying, what's going, what price to put on them, and then figure out where to store them until the garage sale. Its NUTS! How do you decide what prices is appropriate for putting on things you'd like to sell? I'd like to go low enough that things sell, but not too low that I'm essentially just giving things away. Not that I don't mind giving things away, but this money from the garage sale will be our "summer money." It will be the money to help us travel up north to a family funeral/get together in July. It will be our spending money if we decide to go camping with the kids. It will be our play money to do somethings we WANT to do. I'm erring on the side of caution with it all, and going on the low end for pricing. I guess in the long run I'll just be happy to see the stuff walk out the door, and not come back!!!


The kids:

Dallas:

Dallas is doing really really well. He has a cold at the current moment, but other than that he's really looking forward to the end of the school year. He's ready to sleep in, and read all day. He's looking forward to swimming, and enjoying the fun things of summer. I can't say I blame him! He's been going all guns out for a while now with school work! Just last week he was in the 2nd grade spelling bee. He was one of 3 finalists from his class to advance (he's in a class of 25) to the whole grade level bee. He did great. He made it all the way down to the top 7. He was given the word "motor". And the way the teacher said it, was "mo-ter". So of course Dallas spelled it "Moter" And when his answer was locked in, he KNEW he'd spelled it wrong, and the tears began to flow. He was so upset with himself, because he KNEW how to spell it!! The teacher let him come and sit with me, and feel better. I think by the time I left he was going better. I just kep reassuring him that it was OK! He did an AWESOME job, and look how far he'd come! He's always been one to be really hard on himself though. I fully expected the tears. I think in someways, after listening to him talk, he felt like he was letting me down because I'd come to watch him. But I was just happy to see how far he'd come, and to watch how great all the kids did!!! Then, that same afternoon the twins and I went to his after school program. It was where he'd learned how to use a green screen, and how to do clay animation. They did a video presentation, and then gave us a copy of the video. The stuff Dallas did was so cute! He has quite the imagination on him!!! He's so caring, and gentle, and sensitive. He's an amazing big brother!!! And he blows me away with how SMART he is!! This little man has a wealth of knowledge stored in his head already! I can only begin to imagine where he can go from here!!!! We've also been able to stop giving him his ADD meds. The doctor had told us that there was a possibility that we would be able to stop giving them to him, and we did. He's doing really well in school, and we're not seeing the melt downs we were seeing as his meds were wearing off!!!

Gabriel:

Gabriel is ready to be done with school as well. He's ready to be a wild and wooly kid. He wants to be loud, and run, and play. And he wants to not have to worry about homework, or working on his reading. He wants to not have the structure of school for a while. This school year has been a really tough one for Gabe. He's really gone through some positive changes over the year. He's ALWAYS been one who's really shy, and will never look someone in the eyes unless he's REALLY REALLY confident about something. We've seen this progress some over the year, which is great. He no longer tries to hide behind me when someone is trying to talk to him, and he's lost some of the shyness. But he continues to be very selfconsious and very very shy. We still struggle with the looking at us while we're talking to him, or he's talking to us. And forget pictures man! You'll never catch him LOOKING at the camera unless its a fluke, or he doesn't know you're taking the picture!!! Gabriel's writing continues to be virtually unreadable, but he's improved some. Its something we'll be working on over the summer. The area that Gabe has really been able to improve in is his reading. He's gone from what they call "pre-primer" or "preschool" level, to now reading ABOVE his grade level, at almost a 3rd grade level! I think alot of this has to do with the addition of the glasses to the equation! We quit patching him during school, since his behavior with the patch on was HORRIBLE. Seriously HORRIBLE. We didn't want him to end the year on that note, so we opted to work on that this summer as well. I'm hoping we'll be able to make great strides in that in the next few months!! I'm just super excited to see progress of any kind in this area though! We still struggle with the messing his pants thing. Holding it, as Gabe calls it, tends to be a big issue still. There are days where we think he's got it under control, and others where we feel like we're back to square one. We've tried all the suggestions the doctors have, and we're now looking at two different options. We'll be talking to his doctor at his well check this summer, and we're planning to ask if it could potentially be something medical making it difficult for him to poop. We've heard from several people that you can get a bend in the intestines/colon that make it very difficult to go. And we know its very difficult for him. We're thinking that, or that there may be something mentally going on in his mind. So we're going to see if she wants to look at the medical route, or if maybe we should be seeking professional help in the way of a therapist. We'll have to see. Gabriel continues to be VERY passionate about his favorite things! I swear to you he's a little walking shark dictionary! Shark books continue to be his favorite thing to read. And he still loves his donkey's, batman stuff, and the color blue!! He's my quiet, sensitive one. He gets angry very easy, and his siblings often use this to their advantage. He too blows me away with how smart he is. I've really been blessed with some awesomely cool kids!!!


Kaleb:

Man oh man! This little man will keep me on my toes for years to come I think!!! I have a few Kaleb stories that I want to get in writing so that I never forget them! Each of them really shows the personality of this little ham!!

The first one is from Easter. We were at my moms for the day. Todd and my dad were sitting on the couch, and Kaleb walked up. So Todd poked him in the belly, and Kaleb yells "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" So Todd said back "BBBBBBBBBBBBBBB" and so the trend started. Kaleb started copying Todd, and Todd figured "what a great time to work on the alphabet right?" They'd stop on the letters Kaleb was having trouble with, and work on them, repeating them many times. They did this all the way through the alphabet, until they hit the letter X. Todd said "X" and Kaleb repeated with no problem, like all the letters before. And then Todd said "Y" And Kaleb looks at him, and honestly said "I know know!" Todd and my dad lost it. They were SO close to being done, and it was nothing different than they'd been doing, and he comes back with "I don't know!" Todd still almost cries with laughter at the thought of the story!!!

The next one just happened this past week. Friday I'd taken the kids to Todd's pool at work after school let out. We'd swam hard, and it was getting late so we just opted to stop for some McDonalds on the way home. We were eating outside, and Kendyl decided she had to go potty. Todd took her in to go, and I was sitting with my three boys. There was a plane going over head, and I thought I'd test my boy's imagination. I asked them where they thought the plane might be going? Dallas said "to Texas" . Gabe said "to Disney world". And Kaleb, without even having to think about it, looked at me and said with a shrug "To the airport." I couldn't contain my laughter. Because yes, he was right. It WAS Going to the airport!

There have been little things too. Like last week at the pool, he'd just gotten to stick his piggies in. He gets up, walks over to Todd, and turns and said "hey LOOK daddy! PAW PRINTS!" Kendyl got the giggles and said "NO KALEB!!! FOOT PRINTS!!!!"

Just this morning he was laying in bed with me, and Kendyl, and Todd visiting. (we do this in the morning to wake daddy up!) And he looks and Kendyl, puckers up and says "you want a kiss?" Kendyl said "no, thank you." Kaleb looks at her shrugs and says "well, you'll turn into a frog then." He was telling her that his kiss would keep her from turning into a frog. He's got the fairy tale part right! Just a little mixed up!!!


Kendyl:

Kendyl is my little girly girl. Yet in the next turn she's rough and tumble with the boys!!! And when she's rough, man is she rough and tough! She has the best dirty looks I've seen anywhere! We've also gotten to see a little bit of her little girl attitude. For the time being it makes us laugh, and look at each other saying "man, we're in trouble when she's older!!!"

This last Friday I took the twins with me on all my running up to the school for Dallas's projects. And on one stop we went in to talk to the preschool team. The twins were recommended for preschool because of their speech issues. Some of their troubles are getting clearere, but not many. And they don't out right qualify for speech therapy. But if they get in preschool they will be assessed by the teachers, and if they're having too much trouble, they'll refer them and they have to accept them. Kendyl was SO excited to be getting signed up for school. But man, I'll have them gone for three days a week next Fall, for a few hours. And I'm struggling with it! I'm not ready for my babies to be so grown!!! These are my BABIES!!! They're not supposed to be ready for preschool yet!!!

Kendyl got some dresses from my mother in law this last weekend, and the first thing she said was "dresses to wear to school!" I know they'll love it, and the interaction with all the other kids will be wonderful for them. But its just gone so quick. They can't really be almost four already can they? Holy cow.


I'll have some pictures to add to everything soon. I don't have time at the current moment. I've already spent way too much time sitting here already!!!!