Memorial Day Weekend in Omaha

We made a great decision to leave the crappy weather and head to Omaha for Memorial Day weekend to visit Andy's family.  We really lucked out on the weather in Omaha this weekend! 

As always, we had a great time.  The kids played hard each day and the adults, well, we had fun too! 

The boys played baseball most of Saturday (in the driveway and batting practice in the garage) while the girls played on Jackson's riding toys.  And Ryan spent time with anyone who would have him!  

We celebrated Kayley and Ryan's birthdays.  Kayley loved being a princess (thanks Aunt Kim!) and Ryan destroyed his cake in record time.  I am so mad I didn't start recording it until it was too late.  We thought he would be timid, but he dove right in and we were laughing so hard that it was pretty much over before I thought to record it.  I'll try again on his actual birthday!

Here is the one video I did take.  As you can see, he is pretty much done!

Ryan didn't love the "bath" in the kitchen sink.  :-)

Can't forget about our soon to be 5 year old!

On Sunday, Ryan decided to take his first meaningful steps!  It was exciting to watch!  But, it is kind of bittersweet.  He is my last baby and I don't want him to grow up too fast! 

My brother stopped by and took Kayley, Drew and Jackson to Dave & Buster's for lunch on Sunday.  They had a great time and Kayley got more cake to celebrate her birthday!  When they got home, we went to the house of some family friends for a party.  The boys and the kids spent almost 4 hours in the water! 

We ended the night with sparklers.

Kayley cried today when it was time to go.  I guess that is the sign of a good time! 

Yard work, Stomach Flu and a Birthday

We spent a lot of time outside last weekend enjoying the nice weather. 

While Andy and Drew worked hard in the yard...

Kayley worked hard too...

In my defense, I was watching the baby.  Ok, it wasn't all work for Drew either.

And this little one never seems to stop eating.

Kayley asked me to take a few pictures of her "being silly" so here you go!

This weekend couldn't have been more different.  Andy's birthday (35!!) was Friday and we had made plans to celebrate as a family.  I got the much dreaded call from daycare that Ryan was throwing up so I went to pick him up.  Oh boy.  I'll try to spare you most of the details, but lets just say he threw up in the car right after I got him strapped in his seat.  (Never mind that I just had the car detailed on Wednesday!)  I sent Kayley back into the daycare to get more towels.  It was awful.  He managed to throw up 2 more times during our ride home.  Then again right when we walked into the house.  Ugh.  He threw up every 10 - 15 minutes for the next three hours or so.  Then seemed fine.  He was a little tired yesterday, but has been great today. 

We tried to celebrate Andy's birthday at home.  The kids requested a funfetti cake for his birthday (shocker)!  I was holding a sick Ryan while we were trying to sing happy birthday so these pictures are a little blurry, but nobody was all that interested in having a nice picture taken anyway.

Things were looking up yesterday for Ryan.  He seemed pretty happy and back to himself.

Even though we were hopeful that Drew and Kayley would avoid the stomach flu.  No such luck.  They got it within hours of each other.  It was an awful few hours with both of them sick, but now that they are better, I am glad we just got it over with!  Andy and I have avoided it...so far.

She's Going to Kindergarten!!

Kayley turns five in just a few weeks.  I cannot believe how quickly time goes!  I love watching her grow up, but I want time to slow down just a little!  We have been spending the last few months trying to decide whether to send Kayley to Kindergarten in the fall.  The age cutoff here is September 1.  She clearly meets the age requirements.  Problem is, she only meets the age requirements because she was born so early.  If she had been full term, she would not turn five until after September 1 and wouldn't be able to go to Kindergarten until 2014.  Thus, our dilemma.  And to be perfectly honest, I wanted to hold her back.  Andy and I were both one of the oldest kids in our class and I thought she would do better being one of the oldest in her class rather than the youngest in her class.  I told Andy that if I find one person who recommends she do another year in preschool, I want to hold her back and he agreed. 

In preschool, she has always been placed with her age group so all of those kids will be starting Kindergarten in the fall.  I have talked to her preschool teachers on numerous occasions, talked to my friends who also work at the preschool, talked to other mom friends and I talked to the principal at our elementary school.  And the response was uniform - send her.  Her preschool teachers said she is definitely ready and would be very bored if we made her do preschool again.  My friends all recommended sending her. 

My last "hope" was the principal.  :-)  He doesn't know Kayley, but I gave him background information on her and told him a little about what her preschool teachers said.  We talked about her chances of a learning disability due to her prematurity and the effect of repeating the same curriculum again in preschool.  To make a long story a little shorter, we won't know until at least first grade if she has a learning disability and holding her back another year in preschool will not help her if she has a learning disability.  Also, repeating the same program in preschool will not help her and she would be better off in Kindergarten where the teacher can work with her if she falls behind, etc. 

Andy and I talked about it again and we decided to send her.  I searched everywhere for someone to tell me what I wanted to do was what would be best for her and I didn't find it so I am trusting all of the professionals and sending her!  And she is SO EXCITED!

She had to get her eye exam for Kindergarten and was happy to go.  The doctor said her eyesight is fine...for now.  He thinks she will be near-sighted in the future.  This is exactly in line with what our eye doctor in Phoenix said about her and Drew.  So, we will watch them and probably have to get them glasses in a few years.  They can thank their dad for that!  :-)

Lovely glasses for dilated eyes!

We picked up Drew and got some Dairy Queen
because she did so well at the eye doctor.

And I have to throw in some videos and a picture of Ryan who is 11 months old now.  The time goes way too fast!!

One is a little too big to ride in the cart and
one is very excited to be at Sam's Club!

Ryan laughs when you call him by his full name.  Something his teachers at daycare do and he thinks it is pretty funny.  :-)

Playing at the door:

March for Babies

I can't believe almost a month has gone by without a blog post.  I can't believe how quickly the month of April went.  We have been busy.  After we got back from Phoenix, I had to do some traveling for work and then we had the March for Babies and last weekend Angela, Amelia and Quinn came for a visit. 

We were asked to be the Ambassador Family for this year's March for Babies.  We were the Ambassador Family in the fall for the Signature Chef's Auction so we were honored to be asked again for the March for Babies, which is one of our favorite fundraisers for the March of Dimes.  Mom decided to fly in for it and my dad decided to drive over at the last minute due to all the rain so it was nice to have some family there with us.   Mel drove in from Chicago and some of our friends from around here also joined us so we were very excited to have such a good turnout for Kayley and the March for Babies.  And a number of people donated and we are very grateful for all of the support you give the March of Dimes in honor of Kayley!!

I didn't take any pictures of during the walk so I thought about taking the easy way out and adding a link to my Mom's blog, but decided it would be better to just take all her pictures and her video and put it on my blog!  Ha!  So, here you go!

Kayley's poster board. Thank you to Missy
for helping doing the entire board!

Being introduced by Lindsay





Getting ready to start our walk



A few of our walkers

 

Drew pulling Kayley
and Maia

Kayley at the end of the walk

Bounce House!

 

I tried unsuccessfully for longer than I want to admit to upload the video my mom took, but I have given up!  If you want to see what I said, you can click on her blog (there is a link on the side of my blog).

 

Last weekend, Angela, Amelia and Quinn came for a visit.  The older kids had fun as always and the babies were good while Ang and I caught up.  Love our monthly visits!!