A nice end of Summer vacation

We had a nice last weekend of summer vacation which included a visit from my Grandparents. They loved visiting with the kids, and joined us for our last visit to the wading pool. It was fun watching my Grandpa chasing after the girls. He even chased them into the pool. The girls were extra adventurous, and had us all running in different directions. They were also into everyone's bags of food, and goodies. I had forgotten to pack snacks, so when they saw everyone else eating they decided to help themselves! All of our kind friends shared their goodies and they enjoyed getting into everything!!!

Madelyn is usually pretty timid, and has to warm up to the idea of going in the cold water, but this time she headed right in without hesitation.My Grandma with 4 out of her 5 Great-Grandchildren
Having a laugh with Katelyn

Grandpa Chasing Katy into the pool Katelyn found a new friend, and played in the faucet with her for quite some time.
Aaron always loves the water. He ended up spending equal time between the pool, and the playground.
After another chase of Katelyn running off

Happy Back To School Day!!!

Jacob was semi-excited to go back to school. It was rough for him to get up and going thismorning, but once he did he seemed ready, and anxious. Aunt Tatum came over to sit with the babies while I took Jacob to school. Aaron wanted to come along too and check out Jacob's class. Walking him in and getting him settled into his class made me feel like it's all going by too fast! It seems like so little time has passed since we did that for the very first time in Kindergarten. Now he's in 2nd grade already!!! The first day is always a little rough, not just on him, but on me too. It will be nice to get settled back into a routine again, and so nice watching him learn and grow through another year of school. He settled into class with much more ease this year. Not as nervous, or apprehensive. He was o.k. when it was time for us to go, and get started in class. Happy to see so many familiar faces in his class...and even happier that he knows his teacher and knows what to expect from her. Can't wait to hear all about his first day when we go pick him up!

And just because I don't want to leave out a photo of the girls...here they are at breakfast thismorning.

august photos

Turns out I took horrible photos in august. I didn't pick up my camera very often, and when I did I didn't get very good shots. Oh well...here are some of the few good ones I got. Enjoy!

Jacob was watching "The Mimzy" and during one of the sad scenes I caught him with this sad face...he's such a sensitive little man!
Aaron & Mady driving the big yellow school bus
Katelyn having a moment
Madelyn playing...everything but her is in focus

And Madelyn having a moment

Twirlin' with Dad...he's almost too big for this :( sigh
Aaron waiting for the show to begin at the Art & Air Festival

Grainy but pretty still...at the festival And at last the night glow
Can't believe how big Katy looks in this photo...it's an illusion really!

My two girls!
Mady zoning out while playing right before it was time for jammies and bed
He's gotten so many new freckles this summer!
Baby Cakes! (Katy)

strabismus

A few people have asked just what the heck Katelyn's eye condition is. Most people have heard of lazy eye or eyes crossing but haven't heard the term strabismus before. So I wanted to leave a link here to let those who are wondering read a little more about it. So click here if you are so inclined.

eyes

Finally had our long awaited appt with Dr. Wheeler (the girl's eye doc) yesterday. It was a routine appt that we have to do every 6 months because of their extreme prematurity. I was in a way dreading this appt. because Katelyn has had some issues with crossing her eyes, the right one is especially bad. It has gotten progressively worse over time. Dr. Wheeler said she has strabismus and is farsighted. Most little ones are farsighted at their age...so not a huge deal there. Her's is a bit on the moderate side, so we are hoping that it will decrease over time and not get worse. As far as the stabismus goes, he decided not to do anything at this point, and see how it's doing at her next appt. The crossing is due to muscle issues, and can be fixed with either wearing glasses (what we are hoping will work) or eye surgery to repair the muscle that causes the crossing. If it goes untreated it can cause the eyes to not work together effeciently, and can lead to very poor vision problems. Not to mention it looks awful when her eyes are crossed. So we are praying that the issue will resolve in the next 6 months until her appt in feb.

Madelyn checked out great, with just a smidge of farshightedness! She will be seen in feb as well, since she's still at high risk.

This is a minor issue, compared to many other preemies born at the same gestation. But I am still upset that she may have to go through surgery, and most definitely will need glasses at such a young age. We will see what happens from here. Just one more reminder of their rough beginnings in this world, and how much risk there is for these little girls developing issues from their prematurity.

I know all that extra omega 3 I took helped in having their eyes be as healthy as they are. It could be so much worse. But I know through God's grace, everything that happened during my pregnancy happened because of him. He helped me to prepare for their extremely early arrival, and has carried us through since.

I promise to post new pictures soon...my battery is charging on my camera so I can upload them tonight.

Peace!

chit chat

These babies are finally starting to say some real words! Can you believe that?! It is so cute to see them communicate with one another (all gibberish) and with us. The babbling sounds that have made up their entire vocabulary, has just recently turned into words that we can understand. It's AMAZING!!!

words that Katelyn can say:
daddy
mommy/mama
shoe (she and Mady both love to carry around shoes)
out
ba ba (for bottle)
hi (she repeats this over and over until you acknowledge her)
bye (sometimes bye bye)
ut (what, when you call her name)
book

words that Madelyn can say:
dada
mommy/mama
takoo (thank you)
bye
ba bee (bottle) if she's crying whe she says it, it sounds more like baaa beeeeee

Katelyn is especially quite chatty. She loves to talk on the phone and will pretend with remotes or anything else that she thinks will make a suitable conversation device. She also sings to herself, it's so cute! Katy also loves to squeal and yell a lot! Mady is still on the quiet side and I think it's in her personality to be more reserved. She definitely has issues with her voice still, and probably will always sound raspy. She has come so far with her vocal abbilities, and will start speech therapy in the fall. Today she was crying so hard when I got them up from their nap that her eyes were so red and puffy (that's a lot of crying) and I didn't even hear her. I felt so bad!

We can tell who will be the mischief maker already and it's gonna be miss Katelyn! She loves to take things away from Madelyn. She has earned the new nickname swiper because of it. Also when we tell her no no she looks at us and smiles and turns right back to trouble making. She is a fiesty girl for sure. Madelyn is her opposite, and will bring me things she shouldn't have, wether it be crumbs or what have you. She also will run to me when she hears me calling for her. And if we tell her no no she stops what she's doing and comes over to us to be held. Madelyn is a huge mama's girl and follows me around the house all day. If I put the baby gate up to keep them out of the kitchen while I'm cleaning, Mady just stands there at the gate watching me until I'm finished and can pick her up. Not crying or anything just there, watching all I do. She went through a phase of crying everytime I left the room. She still does it sometimes, but is getting better about having me out of her sight. But if I leave the room and close the door where she can not come in, then she really gets upset!

Madelyn has been dubbed the binky nazi...she hoards them, usually having one in her mouth and one in her hand as often as possible. She has grown accustomed to having Katelyn take them away from her quite frequently, so has decided to keep a spare close by at all times! But of course we always seem to lose them anyway when it's bedtime and both babies NEED their binkies!!!

Katelyn has learned how to throw fits and will literally throw herself on the floor kicking and screaming. Of course her throwing herself down, is more like a gentle easing herself down, since she wouldn't want to hurt herself. She takes after her mama with a big ole' temper, and an attitude to match! But she is so loving and sweet, and when she looks at me with her big blue eyes it just melts my heart.

Both girls are still taking their milk from bottles, and I see no need to change that anytime soon. They are both extremely small even for their adjusted age, and need a fair amount of milk for their daily nutrition. Katelyn has just gotten the hang of a sippy cup, so will drink juice and water out of her cup. Madelyn loves to hold and try to dump her sippy cup contents, but has not mastered the drinking aspect of it yet. But she is heading in the right direction, showing interest and chewing on the spout. Some really great news is that Mady is now free to drink her fluids without thick-it added! This has been a long time coming, and I am sooooo happy that she is aspirating so little, and is free to drink regular milk, juice, and water!!! We started a gradual weaning process, taking a little out at a time...and she did great! It's been about 2 weeks now without any thick-it at all!

Small doesn't even begin to describe these girls...they are tiny! We are hoping for big girl carseats by the time their 2nd birthday rolls around in nov. They are still so small they can fit in the infant seats that are rear facing. They have to be 20lbs to be able to switch over to a front facing carseat. They have about 2.5-3lbs to go! They are wearing 12 month size in clothes even though they are 21 months old (18 adjusted), and can still wear 9 month clothes even. They also both wear a size 2 shoe! That is about the size of an average 3 month old!!! They are just teeny-tiny. But so perfect and beautiful...and huge compared to the 2lbs they were born at.

Both babies have eye doc appts coming up in a week. We've been waiting a long time for this appt, since we will find out how bad Katelyn's eyes are. She crosses her right eye still very frequently, and is a bit on the clumsy side, so we think she may need glasses. We were hoping to hold off on corrective lenses until she was at least pre-school aged...but we will see. I'll let ya all know how it turns out. I'm pretty sure Madelyn's vision is good, she doesn't have crossing issues, and seems to see great!

So that's a bit on what is going on in babyland around here! I'm looking forward to fall (it's my favorite season), and am enjoying every bit of all my kiddos.

So I will leave you with a random quote from Aaron: "Mom I'm not mad or anything, but it is just reeeeally boring around here today"

Peace!

woe is me

Just when you think things are kinda bad...something disasterous happens! Everyone who knows me, knows I HATE my minivan. But now that it's completely out of commission, I feel the word hate was a bit hasty on my part. I now of course LOVE and miss it, and am deeply sorry for all the hurt I've caused by my cursing it so! Ian & I have the worst of luck with vehicles...actually I do not believe in luck, but if we didn't have bad luck we'd have no luck at all. The transmission has gone out in our beautiful lovely ever so missed minivan! Sadly since we drive an older minivan the repairs are going to cost more than what the van is probably actually worth. But we gave the mechanic the go ahead to fix it anyway, because we are in no way able to buy and make payments on a new/er van. We own the one we have and don't have to worry about a car payment every month...so that alone is worth making the needed repairs. But until the van is fixed I am carless and miserable...stuck in the middle of summer with 4 kids, who are itching to get to the swimming pool, and parks, and all the other fun summertime activities they are missing out on. And in turn are making my life even more crazy from their absolute need for stimulation outside of our home, and their definite boredome! Hopefully in 2 weeks we will have our love home.

Summer Highlights

We've been having such a fun relaxed summer! Just wanted to share some of the good times we've had. enjoy!

Katy
The boys during our little fondue party
Katelyn trying to push Madelyn around
Deciding she wants to go for a ride too!
Mady carrying around aunt Taitum's water cup (it's almost as big as she is)

Aaron enjoying BB-Q on the 4th
Jeremy (my brother) with Mady Taitum with Katelyn
My mama and Katelyn going for a walk
Dad and Katy eating yummy BB-Q

Jacob watching the awesome fireworks that Ian and my brother put on

Two of my favorite people :)
AHHHHHH the wonder
Our beautiful family
So cool!


At Foster Lake

Aaron LOVED the water...we had to drag him out when it was time to go
Chillin

Splashin around

Our trip to the beach

The kids loved playing in the waves
And playing in the sand!
Katy admiring her beachcombing find
Taking a break




Madelyn eating sand (yummy)!

killer waves dude!
Mady running from the tide

Digging a ginormous hole




hanging in the backyard

Ian made a fire pit so the boys could roast marshmellows and hotdogs...it's been a big hit!
Our 5th child
Aaron piloting a rocketship
Jacob was co-pilot