Merry Christmas!

I am a little late. This year we hosted Christmas Eve at our house and it was a really nice evening with Jared's side of the family. Christmas morning we had our little family Christmas just the 5 of us. We had breakfast, opened stockings & gifts and got ready for church. We got in the car and Eli puked. All. over. Alex. In retrospect it was kind of comical. Alex screamed and cried louder than Eli. "Why did you do that, Eli? Why?" over and over again. He was COMPLETELY heartbroken as if Eli planned it. It was gross but such is life.

I of course caught a minor version of the bug and have been sick for the past 3 days so posting pictures is not at the top of my list. BUT I thought I would share one of my FAVORITE pictures of the day.



I am so thankful for these moments.

Friday

Insta-friday again.  Here is a bit about our week.
1.  Addie blowing raspberries.
2.  Goodbye to our awesome washer.  I will miss you but you quit working over a month ago.  Our new one will be here tomorrow and while you are pretty I prefer that you function.  Buh-bye.
3. Charley got an early Christmas gift.  You see when we leave him in the car so that we don't lose him Alex gets concerned that he will be cold so we bought him a parka (target $1 section).  Isn't he cute??
4.  Cookie swap after-math.  After all that baking I really wasn't sure if my kitchen would EVER look the same again.
5.  Precious.  The boys reading together before lights out.
6.  Alex's new, new hair-cut.  His first hair cut was THE WORST EVER and we had to go back the next day.  It is much better now.
7.  My favorite.  This was a night that Jared took the boys out and Addie was in bed.  It was a perfect cold December night in Michigan.  I had my space heater, magazine, quilt and peppermint hot chocolate.  Ahhh.

So now I am looking forward to the weekend and having Jared home more.  Also I can't wait to use my new washer. (The last sentence can be categorized under "things you never thought you'd EVER say when you were in your 20's and single".)   ;)

Destruction!

Is five the age when boys just start to destroy things?  We are just a few months away and yesterday, the boys knocked a frame off the wall, broke another frames glass (at two completely different times of the day), broke the knob off our lamp and lost it, AND broke a library CD in two.  It was a $15 disc from 1990 that I thought would be great for night time listening however it was completely cheesy and we listened to 1/2 a song before Eli declared he "hated that one".  I had to agree.  Well, anyways now we paid for it and it is completely unusable (not that we would have used it).  YAY!

Winter weather is here and they are cooped up more so I am guessing the destruction from their play is going to increase. I am going to look into getting them into swimming and try and wear there little bodies out.  I am also thankful for the basement because there is not much other than our TV that they can destroy down there.

I am off to OT with Eli today.  He qualified.  I am planning to get ideas from the session and do them at home with Alex to develop his fine motor also.  We are doing this 2x/wk for the next  weeks.  It is about an hour away so it is quite a commitment, especially at Christmas time.  I am excited though to see what they are able to do and to have some one on one time with my boy.  We also have hair cuts tonight which I am SO excited about, Jared not so much.  He likes it long and shaggy.  I am hoping that we will find a good compromise today.

So that's my day, how bout yours??

Friends

My friend Stephanie and I have a goal to get together once a month and work on our Project Life albums.  This means our 4 year old boys get to play together.  They have a lot of fun and last week when we made sugar cookies Eli said "Can we make Santa Cookies again when Tanner comes over?"  So we did.

They loved hammin' it up for the camera.

Yesterday morning I made some snowman pancakes.  They were a hit except for with Eli who wanted waffles.  So when I gave him waffles I put syrup on them and he wanted no syrup.  He at cereal.  I don't normally cater to their whims but I had a headache and decided cereal was easier than a 10 minute discussion on how he needs to be thankful for the food he has been given.  :)
I saw this on pinterest and they used bacon as a scarf which was adorable. I just don't really keep bacon on hand.  I have been meaning to do a pinterest post for a while and just haven't had the time BUT I am on pinterest if you want to find me I am here.  Have a great weekend.

It's Friday, Friday, Gotta get down on Friday

Jared's students are doing a mock up of that you tube "sensation" tonight at their concert which should be funny.  Anyways, it is in my head and I couldn't resist.

So this week I am joining up with life re-arranged to share our cell phone pics.  I used instagram for most of mine.

1.  Monday was a  rainy day but I was at Starbucks BY MYSELF and feeling no pain!  Thanks Kim.

2.  Alex snuck into my room after bed and we always end up getting silly together.  He has the best belly laugh.

3.  I am pretty sure that after downloading many a daily planner sheet and purchasing every type of organizer from a Franklin Covey to a Day Timer I like a 3 ring binder and loose leaf paper the best. Crazy.(obviously I don't throw the binder into my purse but I can always rip the sheet out and take it with me. 

4. Wednesday night = boys off to church with Jared & Addie to bed which meant I had a little peppermint hot chocolate and listened to Adele radio on Pandora while I........

5.  Scrapbooked!  Yes, I am the anti-scrapbooker but Becky Higgins makes it SO easy and you basically just slide the pics in and use her pre-made journaling cards.  I LOVE IT!

6.  Big hugs.  It of course turned into a full on tickle fest. 

7. Watched my sisters kids yesterday.  Alli slept until 10.  I was so jealous.  ;)

8.  Alex was feeling a little territorial about his new library book.  

9.  It's a chilly weekend here.  And this was my first screen shot.  In case you are new to all this iPhone stuff like me.  I just held down the lock key at the top and pushed the home button twice.  Some models it is once and then the pic appears in your camera roll.

Where to begin...

As I mentioned the boys various appointment and Addie's have all gone well.  I can't explain the feeling when you are told your 4 1/2 year olds who have been doing wonderfully may have something wrong neurologically.  It's a bad one.  The good part of the memory of that night was that I treated the boys to Panera and a pumpkin cookie.  We had the best time.  I worked through the overwhelmed feelings in my usual way with some heavy carbs.  :)

Seriously, though we have jumped through SO MANY hoops since then.  I have made countless phone calls and appointments due to this single appointment.  It turned our home upside down for weeks on end.  We met with the OT finally and she indicated that there were NO red flags.  She didn't even think insurance would  cover any further appointments.  There only issue is muscle weakness which 1) is typical for preemies and 2) can be remedied with some fun games like wheel barrow and crawling around in forts and stuff to build upper arm strength which in turn helps their muscles that help them write.  Crazy, right??  Anyways that and some fine motor work through play.

PT FREEKED out when they saw how Alex sits with his legs bent behind him.  We are working on that.  Addie does the same exact thing and we have to tell her "fix your leg" and she pops it out in front of her.  It is really cute.  Ok back to the boys.  So OT sees no need for concern.  The square drawing that concerned the neurologist is not a skill they need to have until 5.  The original reason for the MRI's were 1) ankle tightness (can be helped through PT) 2) delay in the square writing thing (not a delay b/c they aren't over 5 years old) 3) brain bleeds (which was misinformation because Alex didn't have one and although Eli did it was a grade 1).

I wasn't super comfortable with the sedated MRI and now that some of this doctors concerns may have been a bit premature I decided I wanted a 2nd opinion.  I got in this past Monday and our neurosurgeon who has seen Eli since he was born and sees Addie felt they were doing quite well and would not refer for a MRI.  Yay. This doctor is one of the best in the state and I felt he had a better handle on their history. He indicated that their tightness was pretty typical given their history.  We will continue to watch the boys but at this point we will just be doing some OT and PT at home based upon the homework we were given from these specialists. I am not quite sure why we were referred to neurology and wish we could have started with the neurosurgeon but live and learn.  

As far as Addie is concerned she is still receiving Early On due to her gross motor delay although as I have mentioned she has since been standing and cruising furniture.  The PT who came out this week indicated that she is within normal range when you correct her age and that she did not qualify for her program.  She did want us to keep working with her on "fixing her leg" but said she was a physical therapists dream.  She also said that for fine motor she does some things that put her at a 3 year old level.  So funny.  Couldn't my preemies have had the same deficits instead of complete opposites.  :)

This post is kind of all over the place and I don't feel like I'm explaining it all as well as I could but this is as good as it is going to get.  All of these exercises and activities are definitely keeping us busy but Jared and I don't forget that we are so blessed to have these 3.

So much to blog about

I'm a little behind in my blogging.  There is just always so much to blog about and so little time.  The holidays are SO fast approaching.  We keep things low-key but it is still busy.  Honestly the busyness right now seems to be appointments and a baby who is cutting four teeth and STILL has a cough.  The kids OT, PT, Neurosurgery appointments have all gone SO well but they have kept us hopping and working with them on these various treatments plans.  I will dedicate a whole post to that this weekend assuming I have time to catch up on my blogging.

For now here are the pics from last weekend when the boys and I made sugar cookies with what was on hand.  So if you are thinking they are not very "Christmas-y" it is because I only had leftover sprinkles from previous cookie endeavors.
 
Pre-bath


Post bath and time to decorate.
Eli dumped the entire contents of the container on each cookie every time. Thankfully most of the jars were almost empty.


This was there first time licking the beaters.  What kind of mother am I?  They are almost 5.  :)  Seriously thought this was just frosting so I didn't have to worry about salmonella.  As a kid on the other hand we ate raw batter often and lived to tell about it.  I have great memories of my Mom or Grandma yelling "Who wants to lick the beaters??"  I am pretty sure I won that race every time.  Should I admit that??? :)


Have a great weekend!!!

So this is how it went down...

Thanksgiving went really well.  I had fun decorating and kept it simple.  The turkey came out well and the sides were delicious as were the desserts.  My sister Missy made a lot of the sides and the famous peanut butter pie so between my cooking and hers and Linda's goodies we had a TON of food.

In the midst of getting everything together my sweet children came to me and were so proud that they had dressed themselves.  One thing I have learned in my almost 5 years of parenting is you have to let some things go.  So they donned sponge bob shirts and too big sweats and mismatched socks.  It didn't make for a family portrait but it did provide my favorite pictures from thanksgiving.  These kids crack me up.

Jared googled "how to carve a turkey" and it went well.  Incidentally, I googled everything I wasn't sure how to do and called my sister in law Kim who was SO helpful. 
Jared had to remove the boys from the table once and talk to them but other than that the kids table did well and it was fun to hear them giggle together. 

My first big holiday is over and now we move onto Christmas Eve.  :)

Let the games begin

The baking and chopping has begun.  Tomorrow I host my first Thanksgiving.  I have been fine and not too stressed about it but last night I kind of "hit a wall".  I told Jared to help talk me off the ledge.  I started with what if the turkey is so disgusting we can't even eat it?  Jared, who always knows what to say to his crazy wife said...."It will be funny and we'll have a story to tell".  He's right.  Everyone has one of THOSE stories.  I don't want one but it may come along with this holiday hosting gig.

I've prepped all that I can and plan to finish my Pioneer Woman mashed potatoes this evening along with a couple of pies.  Oh yeah and then there's the dreaded turkey.  Why does the turkey freak me out????  I am going to have nightmares about turkey's attacking.  Ugh.  Oh well.  At this time on Friday it will all be a memory.  A good one I hope.  :)

Last night at 10:30 I decided I would feel better if I got all the dishes, pots, pans ready and labeled them.  My recipes are printed.  Lists are made.  This all brings comfort to this rookie.
Apple Sauce Done!

Baby bathed!

Cheerios spilled!
This happened this morning as I was trying to get things done.  Alex picked up the box upside down and most of the box spilled. After a shared moment of shocked silence we both just sat on the floor and laughed and laughed.  Addie failing to find the humor just parked her self in the middle of them and had a feast.  It was like Christmas for her.  
This was when Alex thought she had a great idea and joined her.  I'd like to be able to say I had JUST cleaned the floors so it wasn't that gross BUT I hadn't and it was that gross.  :)


Happy Thanksgiving.  I am thankful for all the moments that make up this crazy life.  God is good.

Ahh, the irony.  As I am typing that last line Alex and Eli knocked down my glass vase that was filled with cranberries.  The vase shattered and cranberries rolled all over the floor.  It wasn't funny like the cheerios, due to the fact that I had been asking them to get off the table for the past 10 minutes.  Oh well, still thankful, just a bit annoyed.  :)

  

Decorating Nani and Papa's Tree

Last year the boys joined in on the tradition of decorating Nani and Papa's tree and in previous years I think my niece & nephew, Amanda & Andrew did it. This year we headed there to do it again.  The boys loved it.  Addie had fun too.

I love this picture of Eli and Papa.

Thanksgiving Printable & Fine Motor

One of the main things we are currently working on with the boys is fine motor.  For the most part it needs to be incorporated into their play in ways they don't even realize.  Play-doh for instance is great at working the muscles needed to improve fine motor skills.  We also have wrung out sponges from one side of a dog dish to the other (left to right).  Pinched clothes pins open to attach to the side of a container.  All very effective and they are just having fun.
 

A couple of weeks ago I printed these Thanksgivng worksheets from Homeschool Creations to go with our books on Thanksgiving from the library. They loved them and I am hoping to get to them even more this week.  There are puzzles and tracing sheets, size sorts and a few other fun activities. They are really cute.

One thing one of the teachers I spoke with who work with children that are behind in fine motor mentioned was to cut down their pencils or crayons so that it forces them to use mainly their two fingers in order to hold it properly.  It worked for Eli below but you'll see Alex persisted and managed to still hold it incorrectly.  We are working on that but again if it becomes stressful I can kiss this fine motor work goodbye.


You gotta love the messy hot chocolate faces. :)  Hot chocolate has become almost a daily thing around here since the weather turned a bit colder.



Even picking up these cards is improving fine motor due to the way he has to grasp them to pick them up off the table.


While I have been aware of some of these fine motor activities some of them are new to me  and I'd like to start a little series of posts about them that will help keep me accountable to working on this diligently.  Hopefully I will get to that after Thanksgiving.  Check out the links to Homeschool Creations.  Seriously, GREAT printables.

PS  I just checked out the one for kindergarten age and there are a few clothes pin activities. I plan to try these tomorrow.