It's Holiday Time Folks!

Yikes, another month has flown by. Seriously, I don't know where time goes anymore. I feel so incredibly busy that my head spins. I usually get super annoyed when people complain about being busy, especially people that really aren't busy, but I'm going to do it now...I'm busy. I haven't read a book in over 6 months, I barely watch tv, I work out maybe twice a week (if that), sigh. If I'm not chasing around toddlers, I'm working, doing laundry, cleaning my house, making a meal, cleaning up a meal, taking care of four pets, taking care of Adam (ha ha)...my list could go on forever. Ok, enough whining.

Aubs had her second surgery to remove her stents. Did amazingly well. She and I spent the night in Iowa City then got to the hospital around 6 a.m. We were on the road back home by 11 a.m. so way easier than the first go around. Thank heavens. Adam took her back to Iowa City first of December for a check-up and things seem to be looking great!

We've gotten pretty used to our new house. Adam is already wanting the basement finished, so that's next on the list. It's going to be a lot of work, so not really looking forward to that, but it will be awesome to have another place for the kids to destroy...err, I mean play.

They had a great Halloween. Owen was a pro trick or treater. He loved every minute of it, even though the rest of us were a little cold and ready to go home. We all came down with something nasty that week and I really felt miserable, but we all powered through the night.

 

 

We also had Uncle Brendan and Aunt Leigh's wedding in September. It was the most perfect day and the wedding went off without a hitch. The kids had a great time dancing and playing at the reception and were still not ready to call it a night at 10 p.m.

 

We've had pretty good weather so far and even took a trip to the Omaha Zoo in November. It hit 70 degrees that day and was amazing!

 

 

We are gearing up for Christmas and it's been super fun with the kids. They really get into the Christmas spirit and are super excited for Santa. Diddle, our elf, made it back from the North Pole the night of Thanksgiving, so the kids love looking for him every morning. Aubrey loved decorating the Christmas tree and Owen and Aiden love holiday music. They really jam out! We took a trip to see Santa and Owen was obsessed. He was waving at him in line and yelling, "Santa, I'm here." Both Owen and Aiden sat on his lap, but Miss Aubs was too nervous still this year, so she watched from a few feet away. The kids are going to get super spoiled again this year and are going to have a wonderful Christmas!

 

Aiden is still super goofy. He loves to dance and sing along to the radio (favorites include Maroon 5, Justin Bieber, Usher, Phillip Phillips and Jack Johnson). We're still working on the potty training thing. He really could care less, but I'm less than thrilled with changing 4 poopie diapers a day (seriously, how can this kid poop so much?). He does tell me when he goes, so I know we have to be getting close. I still have to lay down with him at bedtime and he's still ending up in our bed in the middle of the night, but at least I'm kind of sleeping. He is still my sensitive soul. He was trying to get crackers out of the wrapper the other day and said, "Come on dude." It was hilarious and I started laughing at him, which then led him to cry, thinking I was making fun of him. He hates to be told that he's funny. He's also working on his final four molars. I'm amazed at how happy he's been considering he has large teeth trying to cut through. Still a mama's boy. Crazy as all get out. Animal lover. Cuddly.



 

 

 

 

Aubrey is still the easiest of the trio. She rarely gets into trouble and the teachers love her at school. She excels in preschool. She can easily trace letters and has started to write her name (legibly). She loves her dolls and has a great imagination. Aubrey loves to play house and is always the leader in charge of assigning roles (mommy, daddy, etc). She plays in her princess dresses all the time (as do her brothers) ha ha. She often runs around the house either half naked or with a princess dress on. Her favorite cartoon is either Bubble Guppies or Team Umizumi. Her favorite color is pink and favorite food is chicken nuggets. She wants to be a dancer when she grows up. She loves to sing loudly (especially at 6 am, which makes Adam less than thrilled). She loves lip gloss and girly things. She's still super clumsy and often falls down or runs into walls (I'm not forseeing a real athletic future for this child). She can easily be the loudest of the three and we still call her "noisemaker" a nickname she got from the daycare when she was a baby. Still sweet. Very thoughtful. Smart girl.

 

 

 

 

Owen is the wild one of the bunch, still. He's often the wildcard and everyday is different. He is not a morning person and it's literally a toss up when he wakes up whether it's going to be a good morning or bad morning. He plays hard, all day and has to be doing something at all times. He loves Spiderman right now and you can often find him dressed in his Spidey costume all day. He is still a daddy's boy and misses Adam a lot when he travels out of town for work. He has always gravitated toward men and that hasn't changed. He loves playing with his Papa's and Uncle B. We have about a foot of snow on the ground right now and he could play in it all day. He loves sledding. He shows a lot of athletic talent and loves playing baseball and soccer. This Spring will be really fun to enroll him in sports. His favorite food is french toast. Color is blue. He loves his dogs and cats. He's also into Bubble Guppies and Team Umizumi, but still loves certain movies (Cars, Toy Story, Lorax). He loves to give everyone a nickname (Aubs, Aid, Lo (for Lola), Lancey, Gus Gus (Mimi's dog)). He's the least shy of the group and loves to talk to everyone. He often says hello to strangers and always asks what they're doing. Funny boy. Hyper. Playful. Full of personality.

 

 

 

Next up...Christmas run-down...





How Can It Be Fall?!

weird, i haven't blogged in awhile. ugh, i really am trying to work on this, but something always comes up or i'm just too tired to even start. when i'm this far behind, then it takes forever to get caught up, but oh well :)

ok, so the summer flew by. it was so freaking hot that i thought we were all going to melt, but we survived. in august we went to the ozarks with uncle b, (almost aunt) leigh, papa and gwen. the kids got their first experience of sleeping in a hotel. it was a little chaotic, but we all managed. the drive down there was a little rough, ok a lot rough. aiden was a hot mess and wanted nothing to do with the car and our dvd player that gg gave us broke down. we did buy another one and somehow made it there in one piece. the place we stayed at was great! it was huge and clean and beautiful. the kids had a blast. they got to boat, swim at the pool, go-kart, and run around like crazies. owen was the only kiddo that liked tubing this year, so he had fun riding behind the boat. we probably could have stayed another day, but not knowing how the kids would do, we decided to make it a 4 night trip. i think everyone was exhausted when we got back.

we also hit up the iowa state fair. on the way there i was telling the kids they would see lots of mullets at the fair and aubrey replied, "can i pet a mullet?" it was one of the funniest things i've ever heard. adam and i were laughing so hard that she got embarrassed and told us not to make fun of her (which i quickly informed her that we were just laughing at her joke, not her). she's a sensitive soul. anyway, they loved the baby animals and venturing through the barns. it was a perfect night out there and definitely worth the trip.

aubrey had her surgery on september 5th. thank god it's over (for the most part) and we can move on. it was rough and stressful. she didn't get scheduled until 1:25 p.m. so we couldn't give her anything to eat or drink all morning. she went back to the or like a trooper and even let the doctor carry her back. it was a 3 1/2 hour surgery and adam and i were so nervous the whole time. it was a huge relief when we consulted with her surgeon, dr. kieran, and found out that she did great and hopefully this is a life long fix. it was one of my saddest moments when we finally got her see her and she was in pain and so distressed from the anesthesia. she was crying for adam and i and kept pulling on her catheter and iv. the first night in the hospital was tough, but she was on morphine for the pain and was able to sleep a little. the next day she had to get up for the first time after the surgery and that seemed to be pretty painful for her. her incision is about 5 inches along her bikini line, so i can see why that would hurt anyone, let alone a 3 year old. papa and uncle b came to visit the second day and adam had to go back home to get the boys. i was alone with her the second night and adam came back the next day and thankfully we got discharged that morning. she had a lot of pain and irritation the first week home, but seems to be doing great now. we go back on october 16th to have the stents removed from her ureters, so i'm dreading that, but it's a lot less invasive and we can go home that morning.

the twins started preschool....where has the time gone? they love it and are doing great. the preschool is built into the daycare center, so they have it every morning they are there (10 days a month). they're little sponges and remember everything, so it's been fun to hear about what they learned about for the day. aiden just moved out of miss mana and miss emily's room to matthew's room. i thought he would be so sad to leave those teachers, but he's obsessed with mr. matthew. he doesn't even give me a hug or kiss anymore, just runs into matthew's arms and waves bye. stinker. seriously, everyone in the daycare center loves that kid.

i take them to a music class on monday morning with amy and berkley and they think it's pretty fun. they get to sing and dance and it's not as structured as story time at the library (which i haven't ventured back to after owen was all over the place and crazy town).

owen is wild..period. he seriously can wear me out in 5 minutes. he's extremely loud (especially for his size, we just got him into 3T pants) and loves to be the center of attention. he has a slight problem with calling everyone "poopy butt." ugh, i hate potty talk. his teachers seem to be pretty patient with him, so that's a blessing. he does so much better with male teachers than female ones and he's a kid that takes a little while to adjust to a new teacher/room/place/friend, etc. he's very funny and loves to laugh at his own jokes (hummm, sounds like adam). he loves to wrestle with aiden is constantly wanting to "fight" with him. have i mentioned how tired he makes me? he's still at night owl and we struggle every night at bedtime. one of these days i will sleep again.

aubrey is so smart it's scary. she knows so many phrases, nouns, adjectives and surprises me everyday with something new. she loves to paint and color. she spent the day at with mimi a few weeks ago and literally painted all day. she went through gobs of paper and paint, but loved it. she's generally the happiest kid. she wakes up and runs into our room saying, "ta da" almost every morning with a huge smile on her face. she's also learning to manipulate situations..."but i love you so much mommy that i have to sit on your lap." she's so freaking sweet, caring and lovable. her teachers seriously can't say enough good things about her. i guess we will keep her, at least until 13.

aiden is still goofy and ridiculous. he makes me laugh all day long. he loves to kiss, hug and say "love you." he's also crazy smart and i often forget he's still two. he puts together long sentences and speaks really well. probably even better than aubs did at his age. he's back to being a mama's boy (amen!) but that comes with me having to lay with him until he falls asleep every night. sometimes that means til 9:45 p.m. we're really working on how to make bedtime less stressful, ugh. he comes into our bed every night and pretty much sleeps on me. like owen, he loves to be around boys. he tends to favor his papa's and uncles over the girls in the family. he can count to 20 and knows tons of colors. i can't believe the baby is 2 :(

so long summer, hello fall!

Summertime, Summertime, Sum, Sum, Summertime.

I feel like we're a little less chaotic now, maybe, well not really, but I'd like to think we're leaning toward less chaos. The kids are adjusting to the new house wonderfully. We're all doing a ton better living here (I can actually find most of my stuff) and the kids love their new house. They've ajdusted to having their own rooms and must show their rooms off to everyone that comes over. Even Papa, who has seen their rooms a million times, but none the less, they love it. I must get pictures of the house on here soon. Knowing me, it will take another month or so. Sigh...

Summer has been great, but HOT. We've already hit 100 and it's been consistently in the 90s. Yikes. It seems like the kids play in their baby pool everyday. They're water freaks. We've also been boating a handful of times and the kids get a kick out of that. It seems like every weekend we have something going on at least one of the days, but it's been fun. I took the kids to the Omaha Zoo with grandma a few weeks ago. It was a great trip and the kids were exhausted afterward. Literally, exhausted. They could barely walk out of there. Grandma had to carry Aubs, I carried Aidens and poor Owen trailed behind me telling me his legs hurt :( They were asleep before we got back on the interstate to come home.

GG and Owen

I only managed to get one picture during the whole day, but hey, it's better than nothing! Aubs is a little bit of a wanderer, so I was constantly watching out to make sure she hadn't taken off and the boys were everywhere. Even at lunch Owen can only sit for about 10 minutes before he gets up and says, "I'll be right back." Uh, I don't think so buddy.

The kids have been a little crabby lately, but I think Owen is getting a few late molars. I HATE TEETHING! Did I stress that enough? He becomes a whole different kid when his teeth hurt and I have to remember that he's in pain, so I can't strangle him for being a jerk :) Aiden has another ear infection (do they ever end with this kid?) and Aubrey's ear has been draining on and off for a few months, so she's also on antibiotics for it. With sickness and teeth pain comes visitors in the night. I couldn't tell you the last time Adam and I slept the whole night without at least one child coming into bed. We sometimes wake up with two of them in bed. Thank you Jesus for a king sized bed! Stinkers.

Hanging out with Cousins Gwen and Kennedy

Owen's "roar" face

fishing with dad on father's day

a girl and her dog

aiden driving the boat with b

eating some sandwiches on the boat


Aubrey has gotten even more funny than ever. The stuff that comes out of her mouth is ridiculous. We also heard a "What the hell?" the other day. Humm, Adam? She's sweet and helpful and all around an easy girl. It amazes me how smart she is.

Owen is also gotten pretty funny and still doesn't stop moving, ever. The kid is crazy skinny because all he eats is goldfish and other varieties of cheese crackers. He wants to be first to do everything (oldest mentality maybe?) and likes to be the loudest. He is the one who will push bedtime rules every night (why sleep when I want to play?) and we constantly get into this convo...

Me: "owen go to bed."

Owen: "can't"

Me: "yes, you can. now get into bed and close your eyes."

Owen: "i can't mom."

(repeat 10 times)

Me: "get your booty in bed now."

Owen: "where's my sandwich?"

Me: "The one you didn't eat at dinner? It's long gone."

Owen: "But I want to eat it."

Me: "Owen, go to bed."

Owen: "Daddy lay with me?"

Me: "adam..."

He's a cute little stinker and knows how to push every button, but we still love him..most days :)

Aiden is a weirdo and I mean that with only love. He's goofy and spastic, but has perfect timing with his routines, so have a little comedian on my hands. He's still a lover, but his little temper is still crazy hot and super fast. I've never seen a kid pull out tears quicker than him. He's also so advanced it's crazy. He talks better than some 3 year olds. I know a lot of it has to do with being the youngest, but dang this kid can talk. He can count to 10 easily and sings his ABC's really well. He know many colors too. He's a pyscho in the water. We're talking underwater swimming, belly flops, spins etc. My little fish.

Ok, off to get some laundry done. Sweet, I'm so excited.