We sent him to the porcelain god...

I'm not sure where fish go but we sent our dear William to the porcelain god this morning. We came home to find poor William at the bottom of the bowl. He gave a good fight but did not make it through the winter storm. I'm afraid he was turned into a fishcicle since we had no heat. I do not know why it did not cross my mind to pack him up and take him with us. We will be replacing William this weekend. Oaklen said he would like to name his new fish either Will or William Jr. in memory of his beloved William. Oaklen took it very well with an "Oh well we'll buy a new one"...however since I am the one who cleaned the fish bowl it makes me sad. All those times I was afraid that I would lose poor William down the sink during a cleaning all those times I had to clean out the extra food because Oaklen dropped half the bottle in the bowl. Just S-A-D sad.

Our home is without power

Last night I was awaken by the babies monitor. It had lost reception because the power was out due to the ice storm. When we woke up this morning it was pretty cold. At first we were unsure how long it would be out and since we had no lights we had flash lights. No lights scared the babies until we gave them the flash lights. I took some pictures and will try post them soon. Adam turned the grill on out back and boiled some water so I could make some oatmeal. When Adam called they said it would be midnight before we got power. So we packed the kids up and headed to my parents house. On the drive over we saw all these trees weighed down with ice. This completely blew me away because I heard nothing all night long! Adam said on his way home from work their were trees all over the roads. Later this afternoon we were told not to expect power before Sunday! So Adam and I will head over to the house tomorrow to see what we can save from our freezers and fridge and pack up a couple more days of clothes. I miss my home already!

Weekend fun

Saturday night my family came over to celebrate my sisters birthday who are 21 today. We had a blast. My mom had bought 10 cans of silly string and we went outside to have a silly string fight. It was after dark and I am sure half my neighborhood came out to see who was making all the racket. I wanted to point to take a second to point out a few cheaters....Oaklen who wore night vision goggles and Adam and Wes who got two cans of silly string when the rest of only had one. CHEATERS!

We also played a game of cranium. For those of you with kids or even just the adults this is a very fun family game. I bought this for my sister for her birthday but think I am going to go out and buy one for us.

Shhh don't tell Oaklen I wore his shirt. He did not notice all night.

Don't they just look thrilled!

Jessica got the worst of it. I think Wes saved all his cans just for her.

This is one of my favorites. Donna in action with Dave spraying her.

I should add that I had a very colorful yard when I got up the next morning. Oaklen was worried that we would get a ticket for making such a mess. He's so silly

You vote.....

Who looks like who. We get a lot of he looks like him and she looks like her. So we thought we would take a vote. I have scanned in a few old photo's of Adam, Oaklen and I and paired them up with picture of the babies. We have an average of 40 readers everyday. So I know there a lot of you out there reading so please leave a comment and let us know your vote. You are more than welcome to leave a comment anonymously. All you have to do is hit the little word comment below this post. If for some reason these photo's come across super small you should be able to click on the picture to enlarge it.

Starting left to right is Oaklen, Nikki, Adam, Adam, Oaklen, Addison and Nikki. I tried to get these into a better order but my program was not working with me.



Oaklen, Nikki, Adam, Adam, Oaklen, Tyler, and Nikki.
(I think this one is a no brainer)


Oaklen, Nikki, Adam, Adam, Oaklen, Brock and Nikki

Birth to Three

We had one of our evaluations today with birth to three. So far is looks like speech is the only thing they are behind in. She felt that they would be caught up by the time they do a six month evaluation. She said she was very impressed with all that they can do and would never guess them to be preemies. So I leave you with some snack time pictures.

Addison says "I have my eye on you".

Sundaes and Games

Last night we had planned on having another family over for game night, however their youngest boy is in the hospital with RSV. Oaklen was very excited about having his friend over so we tried to make the most of it. Here is a picture of Oaklen with his Sundae. I think he still had a good time and we will try to have his friend over another night.

Oh what fun!

Sometimes it's the silliest things that are the highlights of their day. The babies had a blast jumping on the couch today. Shhh don't tell daddy. He's a mean grump who says "No jumping on the couch".

I cleaned out the fridge the other day and the babies had fun with the fruit.

Blanket rides and Grandpa rides

Brock swings himself

Brock has figured it out in his own way. I have more fun from the kids new playground but I will only be able to download the videos every once in awhile because it takes so long to download one video. Thanks for the Christmas present grandma and grandpa.

Bandaids hurt

As you all know Monday we went in for shots. That night I put the kids in the bath to take of their bandaids which is how I normally do it to loosen them up. Each time the boys screamed when I took them off. I tried easing them off and I tried the fast rip. I took one off Addison when Adam showed me their little legs. They were still red and swelling up so I left the last one on Addison hoping it would break down over a few days until her next bath. The day after taking the boys off their legs still were just as red where the bandaid had been. Exact red marks as if a bandaid was still there. Last night I got Addison in the bath after easing the first side off and her crying I knew it had to come off so I did the fast rip. It took my little girls skin right off. I am so sick to my stomach and angry about the bandaids. These were not normal bandaids used in the office so I called this morning to let them know the new bandaids had to go. I explained how I could not get them off and how it made Addisons leg. They offered no apology but said they would let that nurse know. I'm so mad if I knew what type of bandaide it was I'd write the company to let them know these should not be used on babies! I'm not even sure how I should treat this for Addison. I know I will not put another bandaide on it. I smeared a little neosporin on it and she smiled. She's not acting like it's hurting her but it looks awful. Any future tips on getting super stick bandaids off are very welcome.

Snow day

Would you believe they called off school for this? Oaklen and I took the kids out to play but it lasted about 3 whole minutes. The kids were all smiles as long as they were standing up. The second their butts hit the snow they cried. Yes those are socks on their hands.

Stats

We went in for our Synagis shots last week. Sorry I am just getting around to this but here are the kids weights.

Tyler 19.2 lbs (he gained back 2 of the ounces he lost the month before)
Addison 20 lbs
Brock 21.11 lbs

When picking the kids up you can tell a huge difference between Tyler and Brock. Not only weight but Tyler tenses when picked up and clings like a monkey. Brock is like a sack of potato's.

I called birth to three this morning to have the kids speech tested. They will call me to schedule an appointment in the next week. They come to the house so I will not have to worry about getting everyone out of the house. I called because the kids are not saying much. Brock can not say any M's. He says booo for a cow instead of mooo and still does not say mama. Addison is choosing to use her sign language instead of talking. She pointed at the light this morning to tell me she wanted it on. I have no problem with this since I can read her but hate think she will fall behind because she has found her own method. Tyler says Maaa all day but does not actually associate it with me. So I am interested to see what they think.

Addison is very interesting to watch because she seems very bright in her own way. The boys have not started signing yet Addison does all the time. She tells me when she wants her sippy and when she is hungry by signing eat. She also knows when someone is upstairs and will go to the bottom and yell until someone answers. She seems to just pick up on things more than the boys. I told her their was snow outside today and she walked to her window to look.

Tyler is climbing everything and took a nose dive off a toy yesterday. I was concerned because afterward he snuggled me for about 30 minutes. When daddy got home he was fine. All giggles and played. He also keeps standing up in his high chair. He's smart though when I tell him to sit on his butt he gives me the I'm in trouble smile and sits. Then a few seconds later he does it again. He's testing me. He's small enough that even if I buckle him in he wiggles out fairly quick.

Brock is still a huge book worm. He loves to read books. Sucks his thumb all day now instead of just when he tired. Got a new tooth and bit his little finger with it. It's razor sharp and his finger bled for a good 10 minutes before I got it to stop. It did not help that because of tooth he was chewing on his finger and kept putting the bloody thing in his mouth.

So teeth stats are
Tyler 4 (2 top 2 bottom)
Addison 5 (3 top 2 bottom)
Brock 5 (2 top 3 bottom)

My wonderful boys

Addison has hair

Finally she has enough hair to put a bow in!

Up to no good

My house is very child proof, that is until someone leaves something out. I had some candy chocolates that were in the cabinet. As long as they were there I was going to snack on them. So I gave them to Adam this morning and asked him to hide them. Well apparently hide them means leave them sitting on the couch. I got the kids out of their high chairs and put them on the ground to run. They are allowed to go from dining room to kitchen and living room. Everything breakable is packed in the attic, all plugs are child proof and all bottom cabinets are full of tupperware, pans and towels so the kids can play with them. So I though I was safe to clean up the high chairs why they played. I came into the living room to find my couch looking like this....


and my boys looking like this....






and the boys had chipmunk cheeks because they each had about 8 pieces of chocolate in their mouths. I had to hurry and pull out all the chocolate that was a melty mess in their mouths and the boys were not happy. They wanted the chocolate!

House Pranks

Our house is not a safe zone from pranks. Someone is always trying to scare someone else. We have the underwear pranks, a shower is never safe from someone throwing over a cup of ice water, you never know when you will be woken up by a halloween mask and obviously you never know what ugly monsters are hiding in the closet. I have to admit Oaklen's reaction is priceless and he took it well.

Speaking of funny stuff. Oaklen would like me to share the time he ran into the neighbors truck. We did not teach Oaklen to ride a bike as young as we should have. He never really showed any interest in the bikes we bought. Eventually his Nana and Popo taught him on one of his trips to Texas. When he got back he needed a bigger bike. So not only was he new at riding but also switched bikes making it feel as though he was learning all over again. He was doing pretty well with it until Adam told him to ride down the road. Apparently Oaklen did not know how to stop or make a sharp turn because he ran right into the back of the truck. Luckily he had one of those old nothing can dent trucks and Oaklen made it without any dents also.

Brock's first cut

Boo

Happy New Year!

Look at the static!

Wow what an amazing year we had. It seems as the years go by life just gets better and better. We look forward to see what 2009 has in store for us!