Our little peacemaker

J-frog is such a sweet little boy, who makes everything more fun. 

He is always coming up with fun things to do and is such a gentle soft spoken peacemaker. 

He loves to go for bike rides 

and has some pretty awesome monkey bar stunts. 

I saw this cute angry bird pizza idea on pintrest and

knew I had to try it for this angry bird obsessed cutie. 

When I was on crutches, J-frog kept me very entertained. 

I just love how he can turn anything into a game or challenge. 

Such a fun kid. 

 

 

All of the kids have loved their baby sister, but Jaden is sooo good with her. 

He always jumps up to help anytime she cries and is so good at keeping her happy. 

 

He always talks so cute with her and tells her what is going on. 

Every time he picks her up he says "you want to come see big brother don't you?", and you know what?  She really does.  I can tell she loves her brother so much. 

He has been my biggest helper an I'm so lucky to have him around.  

Jaden is doing AWESOME in school. 

He was SOOOO excited to finally have a boy teacher. 

His teacher is AWESOME!!!!

Jaden comes home and talks about him non stop. 

Which is so fun for me because before when I asked how school was or what he did

he always said ok, or nothing. 

It's so fun that he loves going. 

The other day I was going thru his backpack and found this note from his teacher.  

What an awesome teacher to take the time and write him such a simple note that meant the world to him. 

He's growing up

I just love the tween stage my boys are in.

Ky-guy has been taking guitar for 6 months now and is sounding so good. 

I love to hear him jam on his guitar.

His newest song is Johnny Be Good. 

I LOVE IT!!!!

We started the school year off right with new glasses. 

Such a cute handsome kid! 

6th graders do a big project called sugar babies. 

They have to decorate and carry a 5 lb bag of sugar around with them. 

The teacher assigned them a girl or a boy. 

 The baby had to be with them at all times or he was responisible for finding a sitter for it. 

He changed her clothes every day and stuffed her legs and arms with plasitc bags. 

It was a huge hit with the class, especially the girls, they loved the hair bows.  (haha)

He cut the nipple off of this pacifier and glued it to the baby.  

Everybody loved thought that was cool.

It seems like kind of a silly project to me, but he enjoyed it.    

His next big project was to study and put together a costume and report of a famous Egyptian God.  He chose Anubus the God of Death. 

All the parents got to come to the "Wax Museum" they put on at school to see them. 

It was pretty neat. 

Ky made his mask out of paper mache'

Here he is mixing the glue

 

we used balloons to get the right shape

 

 and then he covered it with newspaper and messy glue

once it was dry we wraped it in black duct tape

Ky did a great job and it was fun watching him and hearing his oral report at the school. 

6th grade proves to be a fun busy year with big projects. 

Ry has volunteered to go as a chaperone to science camp with him in November. 

Ky is sooo excited.  

I am so glad he is loving his new school and making such good friends.   

Amazing tutor

Right before school got out last summer I got busy and made plans and lists of things we were going to do this summer. 

We usually begin the day with some kind of learning project. 

Rotating subjects each day. 

I found some really neat science projects (mostly via pintrest) to do with the kids

We play some fun Math games and a writing exercises and such. 

We also incorporate some reading and art project. 

We have lunch together and some times go out to fun little places like the swimming pool, splash pad etc... we do all this before Ry leaves for his super long shift. 

In years past it has been such a fun way to spend our summer together.  

I knew with the baby coming and being at the end of the pregnancy that it would all go so much smoother if I could plan it all out BEFORE school got out. 

Well....due to our sweet little bundle from above coming early those plans got changed big time. 

We did our best to still make it fun for the kids, but all those activites and projects got put on hold. 

Thankfully the kids could still go to swim lessons and other activies we paid for becaus Ry's dad came and helped get them where they needed to be. 

 It was such a blessing! 

I was feeling a little guilty/disappointed about not having educational things

 going on for the kids but then heard about this AWESOME math tutor. 

I talked to Ry and we decided we definately wanted to try it out.

When the boys first heard they were going to have a math teacher

come to the house they were less than thrilled. 

As you can see from the picture they ended up having a BLAST! 

He made learing so much fun and gave some great tips and suggestions. 

IF I could afford it I would totally have him come all year long. 

I saw him introduce new concepts to my boys and the light just come on. 

It was AWESOME!!! 

Although it seems like such a silly thing,

 I feel like finding such a great tutor who made math a lot more fun and exciting

was such a huge tender mercy from the Lord. 

Now that the boys are in school they don't grumble so much about math,

 and THAT is truly amazing!   

Freezer Meals

When my mom was here we did some freezer meals. 

There are 22 meals in there along with some first day of school cookie dough. 

YUM!!!

It has been such a huge lifesaver for hectic nights

now that we are back in the swing of things with school and such. 

I smile and think of my mom now everytime I go to the freezer. 

Thanks Mom!  :)

Moms make everything better.

 A couple of weeks ago I got a text from my mom asking what I thought of her coming to help out with the baby.  I was SOOOO excited and am so glad she got to see Aubrey while she is so teeny tiny.  My Mom was amazing and took care of meals, laundry, the kids and especially the baby.  It was so nice she took care of her early morning feedings and Ry and I were both able to get caught up on sleep.  It's amazing how much more you can do with a well rested body. 

 

 The kids LOVED having Grandma here. Ky said he loved their long talks and Jaden loved her cooking.  :)  Becca LOVED it all, especially all the fun one on one play time. 

 they had a fun picnic in a fort

 and a mini party.  This is the pin the tail on the donkey game that they played.  They also did a cute pin the crown on the princess game too.  :) 

I had fun watching them play with the doll house. Seriously so cute!!!!

About a week and a half after my mom was here I hurt my hip and was on crutches.  My mom jumped back on a plane and helped us out once again.  I ended up getting a bad cold and it was so nice to have her here taking care of everything.  I could not have done it without her. 

The night before she left Ry joked that he was going to trow me down the stairs so she will stay longer.  He kept commenting about how much he was was going to miss her and I teased that he was having a harder time with her going home than I was.  Haha.  :)  My mom is the best example of how to serve.  She just gives and gives and gives.  It touches my heart to the very core just thinking about the sacrafice she made to be here with our family. I also appreciate my Dad for being supportive of her and sharing her with us.  :)  I will forever cherish the memories made from this service visit.  I hope to be just like her when I grow up....I LOVE MY MOMMY!!!

4th of July Festivities

 Having your baby is the NICU is one of the hardest things to do. 

You want to be with her every second of the day and night

but having three other kids at home made that impossible. 

We did the best we could to have either Ry or myself at the hospital with the baby, and let the amazing NICU nurses do what they do during the night. 

The 4th of July came and I was a mess. 

Birthday and Holidays are a HUGE deal to me.  Especially having no extended family close by I make an extra effort to make those days special for my family. 

Well, I was feeling extra emotional, even some what guilty on the 4th. 

I wanted to do all of our fun traditions, but our baby was still in the hospital. 

I was having a tuff time and I called my sister Christy.  She gave me the BEST advice ever. 

She said I am doing an amazing job, that the nurses are amazing and it's ok to let them take care

of her for an evening while I go make some memories with the kids who will actually remember it.  Aubrey would have no clue she was missing fireworks, and getting out and being together with the other kids would probablly do us all some good. 

 Boy was she ever right.  Although I missed my baby like crazy it was so fun

to spend some much needed bonding time with our crew. 
We had pizza and watched fireworks.  It was alot of fun.  There were a ton of people but it really 

didn't feel too crowded. 

these two shared a beach ball as a pillow to watch the fireworks.  :)

I have done a star before in B's hair but I decided to take it up a notch and add ribbon this year. 

She had her hair like this most of the day but we took it out after swimming. 

We ended up having so much fun.  When I look at these pictures especially the top one I can

still feel the emotion I had that night.  I am thankful for such a wonderful sister who is always here for me and for an amazing little family that is an absolute joy to be with. 

Newborn hearing screen.

While in the NICU they did the standard Newborn Hearing Test. 

Aubrey did not pass.  I asked the doctor about it later and he asked why they did it with the feeding tube still in.  He said he wasn't worried and we would test again once they romove the tube. 

She was tested two more times after the tube was gone and she failed both of them. 

Because she failed all three of the in hospital screens they told us to come back later for a more in depth test. 

When I took her to

the pediatrician 3 days after bringing her home, he suggested I go to an ENT

(ear, nose, throat specialist) intead of the hospital testing because they will

just resourse it out anyway. 

We took her to Dr. Fucci whom he highly recommended and she failed his test. 

From what they see, her ear drums are good and pink. 

They wiggled when they tested them which is good,

but their was no brain reaction to show she heard anything. 

They said the coplears (the tissue that carries sound to the eardrum) could be

the cause.  They had us come back to do a sleep deprieved test.  We had to skip

one of her feedings and bring her in hungry.  Part of the test needs to be done

awake, then I fed her and the last part of the test is done with her asleep. 

She did great as far as cooperating, but their equiptment failed half way thru

the test so we go back August 28th to redo it. 

 I know I'm no expert, but I feel like she is responding to us

more and more and feel like she has at least some hearing. 

Only time will tell. 

Until then we'll just keep on praying for her and give her lots of extra loves!!!