Rascal

We got a dog!  I can't believe we did!  Here's little Rascal.

 We were at the library and everytime Reesa sees a little dog she has to pet it.  So the 40  minutes we're at the library Reesa spends petting this guys dog. As we're leaving he comes up to me to ask me if I'd like the dog.  I say "no way, I have 3 kids I can barely take care of, blah, blah, blah."  He proceeds to tell me he's moving to Illinois, can't take the dog, is looking for a great family to give him to because it breaks his heart.

 Meanwhile Jansen is examining the dog's teeth, pulling his tail all while at the library and the dog doesn't care!  So I finally decide we'll take him just for the night to see how he does, and ask Jake if we can keep him because maybe this dog is just being good around his owner.  We bring him home and he is the EASIEST thing ever.

 Rascal  is potty trained, likes adults, doesn't bite, hardly barks, loves the car.  He's perfect for us.  As you can tell Reesa dresses him up everyday in her doll clothes.  He is just so sweet!

His name was Pepper, but my kids really wanted Rascal, so Jansen calls him "Pepper-Rascal."  Turns out the neighbors down the street have a white chihuahua named Rascal too.  Hum wonder where my kids got that name from!

Jansen's sleep study

Poor little Jansen had to get his second sleep study.  For those of you who have never had to have one be so grateful!  40 different probes were place in specific locations on his head, chest, and leg.  Then you are told to go to sleep, in an unfamiliar place with uncomfortable probes all over you.  

 THEN they put TWO different tubes in your nose to measure oxygen and carbon monoxide out put.

THEN when they come into your room, and you wake up by adjusting the probes at 2 am, you start screaming and trying to pull the probes off, the kind nurse tells you, that you are going to wake the other kids in the next room (Jansen doesn't care!) THEN they tell you if you don't go back to sleep you'll have to come back and do this all over again (Jansen doesn't understand that!... but mom does!)  So you do everything to can to hold your child's hands and somehow rock them back to sleep.  Jansen yelled at the top of his lungs for one hour straight!

FINALLY at 4:30 am they come in turn on all the lights and tell you, you can go home (again Jansen is delirious and starts screaming!) I honestly wanted to ask why he couldn't sleep until 6 since it took so DANG long to get him to sleep.  But they laugh and say, "you've been asking to go home all night, why aren't you happy?"  (serious?)

Jansen will be 5 in August and has not slept through the night.  We found out he had central sleep apnea at age 2, but mom and dad need some rest!  Jansen had RSV in February and was put on asthma medications and started sleeping!  Seriously a miracle! Since we already had the sleep study scheduled we kept it just to be safe.  Awaiting the results...

P.S. One funny thing, the nurse told Jansen he was going to look like a "mummy" so all night Jansen kept saying "I look like a mommy!" When he got mad he started yelling "no more mommy!  just Jansen!"

Mitchell's photo shoot.

How does anyone keep up with their growing kids and their blogs?
Seriously Mitchell is going to be 3 in less than 3 weeks so I thought I'd better post his 2 year old photos (taken at almost 2 1/2!)  Ugh!

Jennifer got some great shots for me one Sunday after church.  Isn't he a cutie?

P.S. I love these pictures because it looks like Mitchell is sitting.  Which he couldn't do at the time.  We'd sit him in this chair and Jen would snap a shot before he'd fall over.  He looks like a little man!

Las Vegas

In November Jake was the bestest husband EVER and let me spend a weekend in Vegas with old friends from Dental Hygiene school!  Some of these girls I hadn't seen in almost 10 years!!!  All we did was shop and eat.  Seriously that is all we did. We were so excited not to have any kids to have to take care of we just indulged ourselves!  It was lots of fun.

Annie, me, Heather, Lindsay, Stephanie.  

I've had so many wonderful memories with these girls, it was hard to not know every intimate detail of their lives like I did while living, studying, eating, playing, laughing, dancing, crying with them.  They are great friends I feel so blessed to have had them play such a big roll in my college life.  Sure we still keep in contact, and spy on each other's blogs, but it's so hard moving on to the next stage in life and having to leave somethings behind.  I've changed a lot since then, and have had lots of pressure and stress placed in my life since those days in college that were so demanding in different ways than the demands now.  I feel so lucky to have such great friends in all the different stages of my life!

Christmas 2011

We've done so many fun things, but when we go to the hospital it wipes out half the year...  So Here's a recap of newly downloaded photos.  We spent Christmas with Jake's parents.

 Hannah made sugar cookies, so yummy!!!  I helped, kind of.

 Lynsey bought a kit and let the kids make a gingerbread train they loved it!

 Reenacted the nativity and Reesa got to be Mary, Dylan was Jospeh, and Mitchell was baby Jesus... I think Jansen was a sheep, but wouldn't keep his costume on long...

 Jake and Mitchell caught up on some much needed zzzzzzs.

All the men went paint balling and the girls took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese.

The whole gang!

 We came home and celebrated Christmas in January with just our family.

It was such a great idea.  We spend an entire Saturday opening presents, teaching the kids how to use their new toys, making food.  I had so much fun being with them!  

 Jake sat Mitchell in his bumbo and first time ever he didn't scream.  I love this picture, even though it's not very good, because it is probably our first memory of our kids playing with Mitchell.  They had so much fun pushing him around and showing him things.  It was precious!

Urban Insanity

Reesa's dance recital!  (Thanks cell phone photos!) Reesa did AWESOME!  She had 6 speaking parts which she nailed! and performed in 3 dances.  I don't have a picture of her hip hop outfit...

  This performance was very unique. They had students from kindergaden to high school performing, and they combined it all the be more like a play then a dance recital.  Reesa did a scene from Annie that they sang and danced to. It was really cute.

 They had 4 performances in two days, which was SO MUCH for her.  They were up until 10 each night with the performances, way too late!!!  And they had a week of dress rehearsal everyday the week before from 4 til 7.  One day I actually kept her home from school, then took her to dance so she wouldn't be away from me from 8 am til 7 pm.

It was a lot of work and Reesa did such a great job, she made us all proud!

Her "creepy ballerina"costume.

Mitchell's new chair

I want to be in denial forever. The longer I am the less likely all my fears will come true right?  Well the guy from National Seating mobility called to tell me I forgot to choose the color of Mitchell's stroller after they measured him so he asked me to get online and see what I liked.  Well as soon as I saw this wheelchair I tell Ray, "I'm freaking out just a little bit, this doesn't look like a stroller to me!"  Really I want to ball my eyes out that my baby needs this at all.  I don't care how wonderful it's going to make my life, or save my aching back, I want Mitchell to walk, to talk, to be normal like my two other kids.  That's not Mitchell's lot in this life.  He is different.  He's wonderful, and sweet and perfect.  It's just so hard to try to understand that and every once in awhile I need to cry about it.  

 Well Ray was so great, he started back tracking and said he didn't realize this was my first wheelchair and would bring one by for to see.  So here it is, and Mitchell LOVED IT!  We ordered it and it should be here the middle of May.

The thing I found interesting, is my other two kids LOVED IT!  They were so excited for Mitchell and didn't feel the same need to cry as I did.  They were so happy for him and couldn't contain their excitement.  It was a great day to have them around me...