May26

Disney Days 2 &3

Posted on May 26, 2012 by Jennifer

Today is Disney day 4, so in an effort to remember days 2&3 I should go ahead and write them down. Let’s face it, I’m struggling to remember them already, so years, months, or weeks from now they’d definitely be a very faint memory. Day 3 started at Boardwalk Bakery. Well it actually started with a 2 year old waddling into our room and me realizing 3 minutes later that meant she had to climb out of her pack and play. She’s never done that before. I was so impressed that I put her back in so I could see it. We’ve never had a kid that climbed out of their pack and play. So, she did it again. I was entertained and we went about our day. So, back to boardwalk bakery…we are big on eating counter service in our fam. It’s quick, not formal, and easy to pick and choose where we go. Something we’ve learned on this trip is there are NO GOOD COUNTER SERVICE RESTAURANTS AT BOARDWALK, YACHT CLUB, BEACH CLUB. First world problem? Yes. Still annoying? Yes. So back to boardwalk bakery. We stopped by there and then headed to the bus stop. We hopped on a magic kingdom bus and headed over to begin our magical day.
Thursday (day 3) would have been Caden’s last day of kindergarten, so we took a commemorative picture.

And one of JL too…
I have a little app on my phone that tells me different things about park crowds, restaurants, wait times, etc. It said the park crowds were 9 out of 10 that day. We didn’t have much hope of riding many rides, but we got a different disabled assistance card this time. I didn’t ask for anything specific. I just told them she needed an assistance card and we got a different one than last time. We were able to ride Peter Pan, Small World, Dumbo, Barnstormer, jungle cruise, buzz, tomorrowland speedway, the people mover, and Winnie the Pooh. not too bad for a 9 out of 10 crowd level day with 3 kids 6 years and under in tow. This should go without saying, but I would never ever wish for my daughter to be deaf so we can go to the front of the line at Disney. I try to teach the boys she’s just like us, she’s not handicapped, etc. It actually made me feel bad to have our special card because we do try to treat her just like the other 2 kiddos. But I did appreciate it because it did make it much easier with our little wild princess.
Highlight of the day? EK rode her first roller coaster. Here she is immediately after:

And here she is after she saw the boys:

We met another little girl with a hearing aid while waiting for Dumbo. EK loved her.

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We hung out at MK until about 4. We had a late afternoon shower that left us pretty wet, but we headed to Contemporary to grab some dinner anyway. You know most kids get whiny or quiet when they’re tired? EK doesn’t. She get CRAZY. She runs around like a rat on acid. There is no controlling her, so we headed back to the room and bathed everyone and put them to bed by 8:30…which at
Disney is a miracle from the Lord. I even got to take a run around the boardwalk. Right now I’m doing a steady 5k every time I run. I need to bump it up some but I feel close to death by the end of the 3.1 miles so I stop. Jeb ran too. He always beats my time by a few minutes and Disney was nice enough to celebrate the end of his run with fireworks. I had planned to write day 3 but my parents just walked in so I’ve got to finish later.

May16

Old Pictures with a side of updates

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Jennifer

Old Pictures with a side of updates

The boys with their best friends Collin and Micah

Both boys had a t-ball games last night…at the same time. Collin and JL are on the same team and Caden and Micah played each other, so their parents and Jeb and I were walking back and forth between fields all night. Caden swung his little heart out, he struck out once and hit the ball once…and got tagged out. You know the best part?!? He didn’t freak out!! Whoop whoop! So thankful! We had to talk him through it some, but we were still so proud of him! We took them to Yogurt Mountain afterwards.Jeb and I started running. We have ran for a whole 3 days. We’ve been doing 2 miles per day around our neighborhood. Considering the only running I used to do was to catch a Disney bus, catch a child, or, um, maybe that’s all, I’m pretty proud of 3 days straight running 2 miles per day. We’re going to run a 5k. I’m not sure which one Jeb’s wanting to do, but I’m wanting to run The Color Run in Birmingham. Therapy is going well. EK is participating more and more. She still will pull a stubborn stunt out, but is doing so much better. Therapy at home goes so much more quickly when she cooperates. Caden had his solo at school this morning. He did wonderful! He sings so beautifully. He does not get that from me. I’ll have to give credit to his daddy. We have a video of it, but I’m not so sure how to break it up in iMovie and imbed it all all of those tech-y things.

May15

Little Mama

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Jennifer

Little Mama

She wanted to wear her purse like her mama. It made me smile. :) I love this little girl. I have lots to update on, but not tonight because I’m tired….running, therapy, baseball, Caden’s solo at school, and life in general. I’ll be back soon, but until then, just smile at the cuteness in this photo.

May13

Happy Mother’s Day

Posted on May 13, 2012 by Jennifer

Happy Mother’s Day

Maybe someday we’ll get a picture with everyone looking at the camera and smiling. It wouldn’t portray our lives correctly if the picture wasn’t a little chaotic looking. Love these little munchkins. So blessed to call them mine. They’ve taught me more than I could have ever imagined.

May12

Stuff our kids say

Posted on May 12, 2012 by Jennifer

Stuff our kids say

These past 9ish years have been a bit of a blur, college graduation, marriage, moving, medical school, job changes, moving again, more medical school, baby, residency, another baby, more residency, baby number 3, hearing issues, hearing aids, cochlear implants, therapy….and along the way….LOADS of laughs from our little munchkins.

This morning I spilled coffee on my MacBook and while frantically trying to get it off all of these pages and applications were popping up, and I saw a Pages document where I copied all my Facebook status updates from the past years. I died laughing at some of them…at the risk of you thinking this is way less funny than I do, I am going to share some of the updates with you.

“Caden just told me he puts his necklace on when he wants to look his best.” May 2009 (4 yrs. old)
For part of family worship we made shadrach, meshach, and abednego out of sugar cookies. I put them in “fiery furnace”(oven) and accidentally left them in too long. I burned them. oops…family worship lesson gone awry.
Read David and Goliath to caden & was talking about life application. Caden said “David got Goliath just like Peter Pan got Captain Hook.” – June 2009 (4 years old)
I say, “Caden,what did you learn about in sunday school?”. He says, “recycling” – October 2009 (almost 5 yrs. old)
Caden wrote a letter to Santa at the mall. It said, How was your summer?, How was your day?, and What’s your favorite place? – December 2009 (5 years old)
After singing The 1st Noel during family worship…Jeb: Caden, do you know what Noel means? Caden: No, it’s the 1st Snow Elf. Not Noel. -December 2009 (5 years old)

“I made a Bethlehem star that does everything. It even shoots baby Jesus dolls out of the top.” -Caden – January 2010 (5 years old)
Me: I’d like to take a shower in peace. Please only come back here if you are dying. Caden: what kind of dying? – January 2010 (5 years old)
Caden to Jeb and I: ‎”because sometimes you’re wrong and I’m right. Because you don’t know everything.”Jeb: “You’re right, I don’t know everything, but I know more than you. And I know you need a nap.” February 2010 (5 years old)
JL: Girls smell like eggs Me: Who taught you that? JL: Um, boys. – February 2010 (5 years old)
“Don’t yike go home. Ride pirates.” -JL (Translation: he wants to ride pirates of the Caribbean instead of going home) April 2010 (2 years old)
While playing a game on the iPod touch Caden says, ” Mom, I’m calling these knights woman because they are annoying.” I have no idea where he gets this stuff. July 2010 (5 years old)
Jeb to all the ppl at the outlet mall: “I know I look cool in my swagger wagon drinking my juice box. You all want me but you can’t have me. “
‎”I don’t want to live in China because they take your Bible away and you have to pee in a hole.” -Caden. I love that kid. August 2010 (5 years old)
JL’s note from his PreK teacher: “Had a great day. Very well behaved. All the girls want to play with him.”

JL & I had a long convo about Jesus dying and rising again, the soldiers, the cross, etc. I said, you know what we say? He is risen. He is risen indeed. He said, “You know what we say about Alabama football? Roll tide.” February 2011 (3 years old)
C: what is a pound? I explain… C: you know, if you replace 3 tbsp of sugar a day with Splenda, you could lose up to 10 lbs in a year? Me: where did you hear that?!? C: the T-E-V-E. February 2011 (5 years old)
Jeb: Caden this is important…tell me the lead singer of U2. Caden: Barak Obama Jeb: no. That’s the president of the United states. Caden: Bono!! Jeb: yes! Next is aaaddd… JL: Adam and Eve!! Jeb: no adam Clayton. September 2011 (Caden-5, JL-3)
Me to c: neena asked how much the tooth fairy brings at our house.
C: looks at me with a furrowed brow…”she’s not real…just like leprechauns aren’t real” December 2011 (6 years old)

May11

Dress up indecisiveness

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Jennifer

Dress up indecisiveness

Sometimes it’s hard to only pick one princess.

May10

Quick update

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Jennifer

Quick update

Oh, today was a good day. It was filled with mom coming, lunch at rumors with Jeb, shopping for mother’s day, laying on mattresses at Bedzz express, Walmart to buy post tball snacks, tball, and yogurt mountain as a celebration after tball.
My most proud moment of the day? It was when Caden struck out and didn’t freak out. Not even One. Little. Bit. So, tonight we’re so thankful for a pretty much drama free tball game (including ek sitting in her stroller quietly for a while). It’s amazing how much energy you have when you don’t use it on calming down your freaking out 6 year old…or as Caden would say “frucked” out.
So, I wanted to update y’all on Caden’s good behavior. Thanks for those of you who were praying for us!!
Here are a few parting pictures of JL which have nothing to do with the rest of this post.

May7

Since Spring Break

Posted on May 7, 2012 by Jennifer

Since Spring Break

This is where you’ll find me most nights. We have 2 weeknights off, Wednesday and Friday, otherwise we’re at the ballpark. You know, it’s fun, really…except for the constant movement of my 2 year old and the ever impending emotional breakdown of my 6 year old. The 4 year old, he’s fine. More often than not, he’s fine. He goes out on the field and does as he’s told. When his game’s over he finds his friend Harrison and they play in the dirt until Caden’s game is over. EK, she has an innate desire to move constantly everywhere…everywhere except for where I encourage her to move. Since last Monday we’ve had 7 baseball/tball games. We were supposed to have one more but it was rained out. We had the regular tball schedule plus a tournament. That made for some exhausted kids and parents.

By Saturday afternoon we were all in dire need of rest, ice cream, and a bath. Caden blew acceptable behavior out of the water with his actions at his final ball game of the tournament. His innate desire to win and be the best got the best of him and he had a come apart when he realized his team would not win and he could not get on base because they kept tagging him out. We have noticed some issues with his ability to control his behavior and we are beginning to deal with it head on. I think we’ve known about it in the past, but we’ve dealt with it on an as needed basis…like when he’d lose control. Now we’re trying to deal with it before it becomes a problem. We’re trying to identify triggers for his loss of control and talk to him about emotional stressors and things that make him feel loved. We had a few things happen this afternoon, that on a bad day would have sent him over the edge, but today (after spending a family day together yesterday and being intentional about our conversations and interaction) he didn’t freak out. It was a nice feeling to all get along and not have to yell. I hope it continues.

At the end of the boy’s tournament, they each got a medal. JL was cheesing it up with his. You can’t help but smile with this kid. As far as I can remember, baseball has been about the extent of our life the past week.

Sunday after church I asked the boys to prioritize what was the most important thing we did that afternoon. JL said he wanted to play in the water. Caden said he wanted to play Mario. So, while EK was napping we played Mario and then once she got up we got out various and a sundry water toys and played in the water. Each boy got what they wanted, and it was easy…which was a win win for all of us.

Today, Jeb was off, YAY! So, we took the kids to school, came home and did therapy with EK (she’s getting better at the 2 step commands, just in case you were wondering), took JL his nap mat (because I cannot get everyone to school with all they need), and met the Yeager’s at their farm house for a tour. Afterwards, we ate lunch, and headed home.

We got EK down for a nap and then had some rest time ourselves. I made more bracelets for the kids and folded clothes. I’m not sure what Jeb did. I’m sure it was important and probably had to do with something on the computer. At about 2:20 I looked at the clock and realized, “OH MY GOODNESS IT’S 2:21 AND WE HAVEN’T LEFT THE HOUSE YET!”

Thankfully my friend, Lois Ann, picked JL up at school and after getting Caden I went over to their house and got JL. Later this afternoon we decided to head to the movies. It looked like a big green lake was moving into AL, but the ball park hadn’t called JL’s game. We decided to call it ourselves. We got a friend to keep EK and we took the boys to see THE AVENGERS. So good! I love the Iron Man movies…and I realized tonight it’ s because there’s a little humor thrown in. The Avengers is no different. All 4 of us loved it….some of us got tired of watching it about the 1 1/2 hour mark, but that’s ok.

JL liked it so much, he decided he needed to get into “uniform” when he came home. As soon as we walked out of the theater he started asking for his Iron Man suit. He cracks me up. Speaking of JL cracking me up, please look at this school photo.

He told me he was looking at Sadie. Goodness at that boy. Well, that’s it for tonight. Hope y’all are having a great week so far!

May6

iPhone Photo catch up

Posted on May 6, 2012 by Jennifer

iPhone Photo catch up

Last Sunday EK wore the cross necklace Grammy and Gramps gave her…

…and it survived!! The necklace still all in one piece!

EK got her own rain boots, so now she doesn’t have to wear mine, Caden’s, or John Luke’s!

EK got to sit in the back with JL. For months I wouldn’t let her because she’d take off her implants and/or glasses. This was a big day.

The boys put on a puppet show. It was the highlight of my day. This was one of the tickets. The puppet show had to do with raining, and there was some mention of Jesus in it too. It was kind of hard to follow.

JL had a petting zoo come to his school last week. He asked us to come with him to see the animals. EK loved seeing them.

JL hugging on EK in the hall. They LOVE each other.

The boys got to rest on the couch bed while we waited on Daddy to get home last week. He had to do some work at church, so it was late. This is a rare treat, so they were excited!

Showing daddy her beads we bought to make her new bracelets. She is now the owner of 4 new bracelets, and she’s also acquired JL’s Spiderman ring.

The boys after their semi-final tournament game. They lost, but most of the team was still in good spirits afterwards (when I say most, I don’t include Caden, but that’s a story for another day).