Saturday, December 29, 2007

new cuddly jammies

I thought I'd take some pics of the girls in their new cuddly jammies tonight. Well the first pic ended up being the best:
and about thirty pics later I realized that I should never tell them to say "cheese" cause this is what you get:

and then this is them really not cooperating:

then I finally got some good smiles out of them but Alyssa found the ceiling more interesting:
and one of the last pics turned out cute except you can see that Alyssa had had enough by this point so she's pretty teary:

winter fun night

We had our annual "night-out" with friends last night and decided to include the kids this year. We first went to Minter Gardens for the train ride which was very exciting for the kids, then we all came back to our place and the kids did mini gingerbread houses. Then the "big" kids went downstairs to settle in for a Christmas movie while the little ones went to bed. Then when they all expired, we put all the big kids to bed too - we had 12 kids aged four and under ASLEEP in our house! It was great and I love it that all our friends put them down and didn't try to keep any up.

The adults got to have such a fun night with our gift stealing game - which was hilarious - Brad's abs are still hurting from all the laughing. And even with all our hollering and socializing (we are not a quiet group of eleven), the kids managed to stay sleeping. Then we played some games until we realized how late it was. And I loved hosting it (I didn't have to move my kids at the end of the night for once), and it was an easy clean-up.

Hopefully we can do something like this again next year as the kids had such a blast, they're still talking about it and had GREAT naps today!

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

some cute pics

Alyssa sitting on her own! Maybe we'll finally switch her to a big carseat (since she's supposed to have moved over 2 pounds ago already!).


The girls showing off their new Christmas jammies (E & C also got the robes and slippers to match).

Saturday, December 22, 2007

very first snowman

The girls had fun with Daddy playing in the snow this morning making their first snowman!
Warming up with hot chocolate after!

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

gingerbread men

This morning we went to our regular bible study/story hour but since it's the last one before Christmas, we had a bit of a party instead. The kids made candy cane's with eyes and antlers, colored some pictures, ate a LOT, and decorated gingerbread men. The ladies had a choice of stamping a candle or making a decorative orange (preserved with spices and cloves, it's making my house smell really nice right now!), and we also ate a LOT! It was a fun morning out and the girls did really well and were very proud of their creations.
So what do you think? Do they look as different from each other as my two girls do? It's funny how I often get comments that Elayna and Chantel don't look like sisters - but yet they still have lots of characteristics from Brad and I. But when it comes to their baby pics, I'm always looking at the clothing to figure out who is who (good thing they were born at opposite times of the year to make that easier on me).

Sunday, December 16, 2007

family Christmas celebration

We had an early Christmas celebration with my family yesterday. This date worked better for Ellen to join us and it was nice to celebrate pre-surgery for Brant - just in case he's not up to the craziness of having our family all together after his surgery.



Nathan and Alyssa playing together.


The girls playing with Polly Pockets.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Christmas cookies!

Yesterday we made sugar cookies. My little helpers were great and enjoyed making them as much as eating them!


And I got to try out my new stacking cooling racks from Home & Gift Collection -they came in very handy!

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Alyssa feeding herself - ha ha

Alyssa's new favorite thing - baby mum mums. She's getting pretty good at them too - not many pieces left in the high chair afterwards.

Saturday, December 1, 2007

too many doctor visits . . .

Seems that our family has been pretty healthy for a long time now. But when one of us needs the doctor for something, it seems like someone else just has to follow, and then someone else . . .

Alyssa has been congested for a long time now and the doctor had referred her to see a pediatrician about it. The appointment was this week and it seems they may have found the reason. When she was about two weeks old she got a really bad cold, and her runny/stuffy nose has continued since then. The doctor seems to think that she has a bacteria or super-bug that won't kill off entirely. So she's trying a round of antibiotics to help kill off the bacteria and hopefully this will fix the problem. She's also going back on milk-based formula so we can see for sure if it's allergies or not. Her follow-up is in two weeks with the pediatrician.

Elayna's first round of antibiotics for the fluid behind her eardrums did absolutely nothing. So they put her on a second round of stronger antibiotics and I've also been taking her to the chiropractor to see if that would help. Let me just say that I love our chiropractor. When Chantel used to get ear infections all the time, I finally took her to the chiropractor to see if it would help. Well, after a couple weeks of treatments, she hasn't had an ear infection since (that's a year and a half ago). I also took Alyssa over the past couple months when she's especially stuffed up - and the change over the next few days (everything draining at once) is very noticeable and she's usually sleeping better within a day. So now I've been taking Elayna - he's found a couple spots in her back and neck for adjusting and he puts a cold ease cream on her neck to help him rub the tubes for her ears to help them drain. Elayna is usually giggling throughout the adjustments and neck massaging - she's a very ticklish little girl. Our family doctor was expecting no change in her ears with the latest round of antibiotics and had warned me that she was on her way to an ear surgeon for tubes. But he was suprised to see a drastic improvement at the last appointment - her right ear is almost back to normal and her left is a lot better. So now he wants us to continue with antibiotics and the chiropractor for two more weeks before he decides if it worked or not (thankfully we have extended benefits that cover all these visits and prescriptions).

I also went to see a doctor this morning at the walk-in. It seems I have one very swollen tonsil. No sore throat, just a little achy and a headache - and a really ugly tonsil. They swabbed for strep and confirmed that it's just the tonsil and there's no absess or anything. I don't have any history of tonsilitis or swollen tonsils in the past so it's probably just a virus causing it. Hopefully it will be better within the next week.
Update: the next day I went to a walk-in clinic again. I was getting chills and feeling achy and was pretty sure this meant I was fighting an infection. The doctor took one look and said my throat was all infected. I was prescribed antibiotics, a numbing liquid to gargle (cause the swollen tonsil is so painful), lots of rest, and advil.

And not to be outdone by all us girls, Brad has had his share of medical worries this week - and probably the worst out of all of us. He cut his hand at work on Thursday and had to go to the hospital to get three stitches. It's healing very nicely, he's just having a hard time keeping it dry. And he also has had some abdominal pain off and on and is thinking that it's a hernia again. He had his appendix taken out as a teenager, and a hernia on the opposite side repaired in 2000 - so he's thinking that there might be another surgery in his future. He sees the doctor on Monday to see what's going on.
Update: the doctor on Monday confirmed the hernia and is referring Brad to a surgeon to discuss if he should be operated on or not.

So our only healthy kid seems to be Chantel. I guess she's making up for all her ear infections and doctors appointments when she was younger. But she is very jelous of her sisters' medicines and very badly wants some too. Hopefully her wish won't come true.