Stay Tuned

We are off for vacation tomorrow morning. Yea!!! It is going to be me, Braden, Reed, Kylie, my mom and dad, Tina and Charley, and my two grannies. We are a little sad that Ryan cannot go:-) That's right...6 adults and 4 kids under the age of 20 months...are we crazy???

Hopefully, the next post will be filled with a lot of great stories and some funny pictures of my dad carrying all the luggage for us!

Getting Big

We owe a huge thanks to my Nanny for helping us this past week. I can handle the kids by myself but we usually go to my parents for a couple of hours most afternoons to let the boys run off their energy where they are pretty much free to roam. When my parents decided to go to Arizona for a week, we thought that would be a great time for Nanny to "visit" for the week!!! We had a great time all week, and she even watched Kylie several afternoons so me and the boys could run errands without Ky-Ky. Nanny has so much energy for her age and the kids absolutely love her. I hope that when I am her age that I can chase after my great-grandkids like she does. I love you Nanny and thank you!

Braden and Reed are so much fun especially when they are outside. I love to just watch them interact with each other and explore things on their own.
Braden is a big ball of energy and Ryan calls him his "Joy Boy." However, those of you who have been around Braden when it is a new setting/person, he shuts down and takes a while to warm up. He is going throught the phase right now where he cries, I mean really hard, when we take him to class on Sunday mornings. I guess we need to cherish this time because it goes by so quickly! Braden will try and say just about anything you ask him to so it is really fun to see his language developing. I am not for sure why I think this but I think that he is going to be the over protective brother of his sister. I kind of seeing him being like how Kyle was to me and calling guys telling them to stay away from his sister! At least I can empathize with Kylie! Reed definitely loves to watch what his "big" brother does and imitate him a lot. I know that I have said this over and over but Reed would not be as far along as he is now without his brother. Reed is our "Miracle Boy" and you cannot help but to look at him and almost cry thinking about what a gift he is. I mean he is living solely because some selfless family gave their son's heart to replace Reed's old heart and allow him to live. Thank you to that dear family that we hope will choose some day to meet us so that we can try and express in person how grateful and indebted we are to them. I pray that family has experienced happiness and many blessings since January 19, 2009 when they lost their son.
On a lighter note, Reed loves trucks and he also is repeating just about anything you ask him to....it may not sound just like the word though:-) I love these boys!!! Look at Braden's expression in the picture with the bubbles...one must have gotten right in his eye!
The boys, not Kylie, have been a little sick this week. I took them to the doctor and they both had bronchitis. The only positive with them being sick is that they cuddle much more! In case you haven't noticed in the past few posts, the boys love popsicles (pronounced sick-sock to them...go figure). I have decided it is much easier to take their clothes off than try to get the stains out of their shirts. This is another plus of being at my parents because their neighbors have lived by them for 30+ years and don't think twice about the boys running around in their diapers...I know, a little redneck!
Isn't this picture priceless. They look like a couple of old men talking about their day over popsicles.
We had some friends over while my parents were gone. It was so weird to be outnumbered by kids when just a few years ago, we didn't have any kids. I am so excited for our kids to all hopefully grow up together and be great friends. I didn't forget about Kylie. I realized the other day when someone asked me what her name was and my first response was "Ky-Ky" that she might not be called Kylie in our house! She is starting to show her little personality this last week. She absolutely loves her playmat and the bars offer her a little protection from her brothers until they climb under them. I will say that the girl loves to be talked to. I told Nanny that she is going to have withdrawals because Nanny talked to her all day long.
What's really crazy to think about is that the age that Kylie is now is the age Reed was when he got to come home for the first time. Looking back, there is no explanation for how Ryan and I made it through those times other than God carrying us through it. I am so very thankful for each and every day that we have with our kids even though some days I could pull my hair out!!

Summer Days

This past weekend, Ryan and I took the kids to visit the grannies in Kentucky. We left when the boys usually take a nap thinking they would sleep the whole way. As you can tell in the pics below, Kylie is the only one that cooperated. The boys fell asleep right when we were getting off of the exit!

Aunt Nancy and Aunt Tula both enjoyed talking to and spoiling Kylie. Yes, she was still in her pajamas....its a little hard to get out the door with all three kids dressed for the day:-)

Nanny has been staying with us this week because my parents are in Arizona doing all the touristy sites. We have been staying at my parents so that Nanny's dog can roam free. The boys love when Nanny comes to town. She fixes them good food, reads them lots of books, walks to the barn and back a million times and just spoils them rotten.

Kylie trying to rest peacefully but was joined by some rowdy boys. She only gets to lie on the floor when she is being closely monitored by someone over the age of 20 months!

Reed Update: The poor child has been put under twice already this year (heart catheritization and follow-up MRI) and has to be put under at least 2 more times (eye surgery and circumcision). Here are the details, mainly so that I will have this all documented for his baby book.

• Heart - Reed's heart is doing great and we are so very thankful that he has had no problems.
• Brain - When Reed had bleeding on his brain in April 2009, he had some seizures in the hospital which was more than likely caused by the bleeding. However, they make you stay on seizure medicine at least one year and do follow up EEG's regularly. Thankfully, all of Reed's EEG's were good. On our last neurology visit, Ryan and I requested a follow up MRI to make sure there was no longer bleeding on his brain. Praise God that his MRI was good and he no longer has to be on seizure meds and doesn't have to go back to neurology until Novemeber. With that said, Reed has been a different kid since he got off of the seizure medicine. He has more energy and even seems to laugh more. Praise God for watching over our boys!
• Eyes - Reed has been wearing an eye patch for the past 3 months and he thankfully does not have to patch any more. His right eye is now caught up with where it is supossed to be! Reed still has to have surgery to correct his strabismus which is what causes his eyes to sometimes look cross-eyed. His opthomologist is great and she is one of the best for correcting eye muscle problems. He is hopefully going to have this surgery in late August or early September.
• Hopefully no other body parts need explaining:-)

Braden Update: Braden has been put under 0 times this year and hopefully 0 times the rest of the year! His heart is full of love, his brain is filled daily with all of the books that he loves to read, and his eyes are crystal blue!

I was instructed by my parents that I needed to make sure that we picked the squash, tomatoes and okra while they were gone. Well it rained a lot overnight and the pictures below say enough about the state of the garden. I hope to find my yellow clogs sometime that are deeply buried in the middle of the garden! I had to pull Braden and Reed out of the mud but they kept their shoes on.

One of Braden's many cute faces!

Oh yea, I forgot about Kylie. Never mind, she is just feeding herself so that my hands are free. **I know some of you are freaking out right now seeing this picture and are going to tell me that she can choke doing this....I do not leave her unattended while she is drinking her bottle**

Popsicle and Hose Time ... these are part of our daily routine right now!

And finally, we ended the afternoon with popcorn, apple juice and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!