Let the Good Times Roll...

Things have been pretty busy around here.
My niece Ella was born on the 15th! She is the first born to my brother Chad and his wife Jen. We are very excited for them!!!
Clint and I celebrated our 5th anniversary on the 20th. We had a great time, some friends came and watched the kiddos and we were able to take off for the evening.

I just wanted to post some fun time goofy pics I took of the kiddos. They were acting really silly so I used that opportunity as a photo shoot:

Hope you enjoyed the pics!

So THESE are what temper tantrums look like...

So last night we had Burger King for dinner. The kids got those wondeful cheap toys with their dinner. Well, the last couple of times we got toys for them from there, Kaiden has a meltdown because they don't do what he wants them to do. One time the toy was a monster truck that the top would pop off if it bumped something. Kaiden would get SOOO mad because he couldn't...no...wouldn't put the top back on. The boy has less patience than I do, and we all know that's BAD!

Well this time the toys were these car things that the outside wheels don't move, just the inside. Well, Kaiden wanted the wheels on the outside to move, and because they woudn't, he through a FIT for over 20 minutes. Which we caught some samples of on video of course :P

During this video, Kayley kept trying to take the spotlight. It's hilarious! Anyway, thought you might get a good laugh at this. BTW for those thinking how sad to just let the boy cry like that, let me tell ya, NOTHING we did stopped him from crying. We tried ignoring, we tried explaining, we tried holding him, we tried distracting, none of it worked. So I figured, might as well get it on video for his girlfriends some day :P

Each video is only about 2 minutes long, but there is some funny stuff in all 3 of them. Make sure to turn your volume up nice and loud to get the full effect :)

Disney on Ice...and the meltdown

Today we went to Disney on Ice. The show was great. But, well, they really shouldn't have had intermission. I think the kids would have been fine if they wouldn't have stopped. The kids got bored and were driving us nuts the rest of the show. They were really loving the first half though. Let's just say that we won't be taking them to anything like that again for AT LEAST a year. That was rediculous! They got some great toys we got suckered in to buying though :P

My fellow MoM Heather and her Hubby with their twins that are just a few days younger than ours were there as well. Seems like the halfway point did it in for them too. We probably should have left at intermission because we may have left in good moods then. Oh well, maybe next year.

We were all going to go meet for lunch after, but that got cancelled due to the kiddos meltdowns during the show. I'm sure lunch would have been a disaster! We came home and the meltdowns were even worse. So we fed them lunch and put their butts to bed. Kd slept for 2 hours and we're having to wake Ky up now because she's been asleep for 3 hours. It's getting late and we kind of want them to sleep tonight ;)

We got a couple of pics, sure wish Clint hadn't chopped my head off in the one with me and Kd. That was the best smile he had all day!

Hopefully next time the kiddos will enjoy the whole show. Overall we had a good time though.

Moving on...

Things are getting better around here. We have several things lined up to get our minds off of our loss.
Sat. we are going to see Disney on Ice. I think I may enjoy that more than the kids though :) We will be meeting a fellow multiples mom and her kiddos and then afterwords go to lunch.
In March I am going to CA. from the 13th until the 26th. Clint's mom will be coming out here to help Clint with the kiddos. That way Clint won't have to take time off of work.
While in CA. I am going to get to see my brother Chad's new baby. She is due to be born any day now! Also while I am there my step-dad and I are going to go to Las Vegas. We've decided to be kids again while I'm down there. I wanted to treat him to a little bit, so we'll be going on the rides at the top of the Stratosphere hotel. I have always wanted to go there but the opportunity never came. Well, it's here now :) We will also go see a couple of shows.
My dad and some of my family from Utah will be driving down for one weekend I am out there, so it will be nice to see them! The other weekend I would like to go to Disneyland. My friend's dad helped build part of the new area there, so it will be nice to see his work.
In April, Thomas the Tank Engine will be here in Baltimore. The kids are obsessed with trains, so we figure they'd love to do that.
In between those main activities, the weather is starting to get warmer, so we can start venturing out more. We'll be going to the zoo, and other things around here. This summer the kiddos are going to start horseback riding lessons. Not much to teach them at this stage other than balance, which is kind of mandatory :P
We also want to go to NY. as well. We want to take the kiddos up to see Clint's family again. We haven't pinned down a time on that quite yet, but we're thinking around July.
The 20th of this month is our anniversary! We'll have been married for 5 years already!!!
We took the kids to the car show here on Sat. What a joke, we won't be doing that again! WAY too many people and the cost to get in and parking...no thanks! There were supposed to be characters like Dora and Diego as well as spiderman, etc. I didn't see any of them. Clint said he saw the ninja turtles, but I didn't. Which means the kids didn't. $12 for per ticket for Clint and I to get in as well as $15 for parking....that's not gonna happen again! I'm glad we got out of the house though. We went out to dinner after and had an ok time. The kids loved climbing in the cars, but when it came time to get out, they would freak out. Well, Kaiden would more than Kayley. Oh well, now we know.
Hope everyone is well.

A moment in time...

Dear sweet Angel,
You were only with us for a brief moment. I only saw a glimpse of you on ultrasound. You would have been due in September, only you were taken away before that time came. I dreamt of you. I saw you and I held you. You were sweet and warm and you were mine. But that dream has come to an end and instead there is an emptiness inside where you would have continued to grow. You were special and couldn't stay. It was all taken away too soon. I will be strong and I can move on, but I will not forget you. You gave us hope, we know that we can get pregnant without the use of fertility treatments. We will try again, but for now we will be remembering and thinking of you. I love you, and miss you.
Mommy

It's over

So I started bleeding really bad this morning. It's over, I've had a miscarriage.

Prayers please...

Ok, we were waiting to announce the news until we got to have the first ultrasound with a heartbeat. Well, unfortunately, that may not happen. Instead I am asking for prayers and lots of them. Clint and I tried to get preggo off and on for 2 years and eventually had to get fertility help. So imagine our surprise when we got preggo this time after trying just 3 cycles. However....

I was in the ER all day today. I am supposed to be 5 weeks and 3 days pregnant. I started getting horrible cramps on my right side yesterday and it has progressively gotten worse. After no sleep I decided to go to the ER this morning.
They drew several vials of blood and urine sample. No bladder infection. Great, but I was not prepared for what followed. No one gave me the result of the lab, but I was sent upstairs for an ultrasound. The tech did her measurements and I asked if she saw the pregnancy. She said no, but she wasn't surprised with how low my numbers were. I had no idea my numbers were low. She said they were just over 300.
According to charts, at 24 days past ovulation (which I am), I should be over 540 and even averaging at 1000 right now. But I'm not. I'm just over 300. After several hours the doc comes in and says that they saw two "cyst" type things in my uterus. The doc said that it looks like it could be a molar pregnancy. I didn't think to question it because I was in shock. She said she couldn't see a gestational sac, just the cyst things. Ok. She said my numbers were really low and were what someone only a week to 2 weeks after conception should be, not someone that is 3 weeks after. She said I could also be experiencing an ectopic pregancy and that it's just too small to see on u/s.
She said to come back in Mon. for another blood draw and then had me set up an appt. for 11 am Mon. with the OB.
So I come home after 7 hours in the ER and lay down. Then the phone rings and it's a different doc from the ER. He's the one that actually put the order in for the u/s. Well he was calling to see if I had set up my appt. with the OB and asked what the other doc told me in the ER. Uh...wouldn't he know that??? So I told him about the cyst things and the numbers, etc. He then said that it is extremely unlikely that it is a molar pregnancy because usually HCG levels would be extremely high, not low. I asked about the cysts, and he said at 5 weeks you wouldn't really be able to see anything on u/s and that I would need to have numbers closer to 1000 to get an image. He said that the 2 "cysts" could very well be...TWINS!!!! UM, what the heck people, really??? I asked why the low numbers if it were to be twins, he said that's what concerns him. Arggg. He said HCG levels are meaningless unless there is something to compare it to. I would need another set drawn to see if the numbers double, or if they go down. I explained that I had my first + home pregnancy test last Mon. He said that worries him more, that I would get an HPT that soon and still have numbers this low. I asked about the likelihood of an ectopic. He said that would be more likely due to my number being that low in addition to the right sided cramping. But he said there was nothing visible in the tubes so we have to wait and see what happens.
So the waiting game is on, I go back Mon. to see if I am miscarrying or to see if the numbers have doubled like they should have.
Any prayers you can offer would be great.

Fun with photos

The kiddos were being extremely cute this morning, so I thought I'd grab some photos of them.

They had their 2 year check up last week. Kaiden weighs 24.2 lbs and is 34 inches tall, and Kayley weighs 23.8 lbs and is 34 inches tall as well. For some reason she looks bigger than Kaiden, but according to weights and measurments she's smaller. Go figure.

We're all doing well. We have had yet another cold. Which is really bad when mommy, daddy, and kids are sick!

I have been out to ride Bonita again. She decided she wanted to rip her horse blanket to shreds, so she's going to have to do without until next winter. At least she has an inside stall so it's not as cold for her. The blanket was for when she gets turned out, but now I'll have to invest in a blanket that doesn't rip so easily. This one was a cheapo blanket at least :P

Again, not much going on here. Same stuff, different day.

Nothing new to report....

Same stuff different day. Nothing major has come up, sorry for not posting. I just didn't have anything to post about.
I get to go on a vacation by myself with no kids! My brother Chad and his wife are having a baby! The baby is due in Feb. So in March I will be going out to California to go see the new baby. I'll also get to see some other family and friends. I am definately looking forward to it. Clint's mom will be coming up here to help Clint with the kids so that he doesn't have to take a ton of time off from work. We'll be needing those vacation days for this summer. We want to make another trip to NY. to see Clint's family again. The kids will be 2 years older than they were the last time they went out. So it'll be fun to see how they interact with everyone.
I was finally able to ride my horse last weekend. Bonita has come so far and is doing great. She was trained by the best! Thanks Joe and Cathi!
Clint's up for promotion again this year, so if you could all send lot's of prayers that he gets promoted, we could definately use them!
Update for Kaiden: That boy talks a lot! I think by the time he is 4 he will have mastered all the words in the dictionary. Ok, ok, maybe not all the words. He is doing amazingly well with them though. His latest phrase is "bix it" which is actually fix it. He is starting to use 3 and sometimes even 4 words sentences now. He is big in to hugs. Every hour or so he comes running up saying "hug hug" and just wants a quick hug and then he runs off playing. He says I love you mommy and Daddy now too. When Kayley does something she shouldn't Kaiden yells at her and says "top it Kayee" it's pretty funny. He looks just like mommy when he says it too.
Kayley update: She is basically done potty training. We just have to fine tune some areas. Overall though, she doesn't have many accidents, and if she does it's usually because we forgot to take her or she drank way too much. She is starting to copy everything I say now. She'll stand there and mimic my facial and hand gestures. Instead of yelling Kaiden when she is mad at him, she actually yells her own name. She is very much a drama queen. If something upsets her the whole neighborhood knows, I have no idea where she gets that from :P

Anyway, that's about all that's going on here. Boring stuff to report. Nope, I can't give you back the last 2 minutes of your life you used up reading this :)

Happy Birthday Kaiden and Kayley!

I can't believe the kiddos are 2 years old!!! We didn't go all out this year. Just a quiet evening at home. Well, almost quiet. While we were trying to get the stuff ready, Kaiden got a glimpse of his cake and FREAKED out. He wanted it so bad. He couldn't have it just yet though, so he had to go throw a fit in his room. Once he calmed down we brought him out. We got a couple of cute pics. They were better this year than last year. Just like last year though, Kayley wanted nothing to do with her cake. Oh well. Enjoy the pics :)

Christmas Vacation

There is a video at the end of this post :)

Our Christmas trip was MUCH better as far as driving goes. Both ways it only took 6 hours each way. Unlike Thanksgiving where it took 9.5 hours. The kids were much better this time too. When it got to the point where they were extremely bored, we put a movie on the laptop and had it positioned to where they could still be rear facing in their car seats. I was very happy we didn't have to turn them around.

We left on Tuesday the 23rd. Thankfully Clint got off work really early so we could get ahead of traffic. We got to our destination around 6:30.

Christmas Eve we spent with his parents and just relaxed. Up until dinner time anyway. Yeah, so those of you that followed my blog last Christmas, you'll remember that Kayley ended up in the ER for several problems and it turned out to be Roseola. Well, this year she decided she wanted to visit the ER again. Oy. Most kids can safely play with cardboard boxes, the world cheapest toys for toddlers. Not my kids, nope. Instead, Kayley went to reach in the box and fell into it. The flap on the box then sliced the inside of her mouth and lacerated the upper frenulum. The flap of skin between the to front teeth that connects to the lip. Well, she cut that all the way back to her gum line. I was worried about infection and her teeth. There was blood all over, which is to be expected with a mouth injury. I wasn't worried about the blood.

So we got to spend 4 hours at the hospital only for them to tell us that we jus needed to keep her mouth clean. Um, anyone that has kids knows that they put everything in their mouths. So keep it clean, uh...yeah right.

The next morning we had Christmas gifts and the kids got a ton of toys. Then we went to some other relatives for dinner and then went to another one for pie.

The best part though...Clint's brother Bob came home from his deployment. He was supposed to be at Ft. Bragg for inprocessing stuff, and could only get the day off. So we all told Clint's mom that Clint wasn't feeling well and that he would go back to the hotel to get some rest. He was really making the 2 hour drive to go get Bob and bring him back to surprise her. All the while we were convincing Sharon that we would go see Bob the next day. She had no clue. When Clint came back and she saw Bob, she was in tears and so happy to have him home safely. Unfortunately Bob couldn't spend Christmas with his wife and son, since they are in New York, but at least he was able to spend it with us.

Friday we didn't do much. More family came over that we visited with.

Sat. was the big day for the kiddos. We got to go to the Transportation museum. The kids had a BLAST!!! They were running around saying "Train train" "All Aboard!" "Car" "Truck" "Plane". We even got to ride a train for a little bit and the kiddos were so excited.

We came home Sunday. We expected a ton of traffic, and were surprised when we were home by 4:30! I'm glad we didn't spend money on plane tickets. By the time we would have had to be at the airport, parking, waiting for flights, the actual flight, etc. We would have already been to our destination. Now we know that Thankgivings are the worst with traffic because everyone gets off the same day. Unlike Christmas where people travel on different days throughout the break.

The kiddos birthday is coming up! They'll be 2 years old!!!! We don't have anything planned though. Last year they were screaming for both of their parties. So this year, we'll just keep it simple.

Kayley regressed with her potty training while on vacation this time. She would pee a tiny bit in her potty, but within a minute of putting the pull up back on, she would soak it. She is doing better now, I think she got used to going in the pull up as though it was a diaper, so she is back in undies again.

Wed. we will be starting Kaiden on the potty! Clint has several days off in a row, so we figure we should take advantage of that to get Kaiden used to the concept of a potty.

So here is the video of Kaiden sleeping while eating his pickle on thanksgiving. Sorry it took awhile to get around to it.

My fellow M.O.M. tagged me...so here goes...

Ok Heather, here are the answers to the questions:

1.How long have you been together? We have been married for almost 5 years come Feb. We have been together for 7.

2.How long did we date? We "dated" for 4 months prior to getting engaged. Then we were engaged for 11 months prior to getting married. When we started dating, we really only dated for about a month, then we got orders to both deploy to Iraq in 2003. We were both in Germany at the time. So the remaining dating period we would go to work at 4 am and not get off until around 11 pm. Then we would go grab a bite to eat and head to his barracks room where we would fall asleep on the couch watching a movie. We never did get to do fancy dating. Prior to getting engaged in Kuwait, our version of dating would be to get our wonderful MREs (Military food rations) and go sit in his tent watching a movie on his laptop.




3. How old is he? 38, he just had his birthday on the 9th.

4. Who eats more? LOL, it depends. Sometimes I have a huge appetite, but for the most part he eats more.

5. Who said, "I love you," first? He did.

6. Who is taller? He is, by 8 inches :P

7. Who does the laundry? I do. But he helps me fold.

8. Who does the dishes? He does the evening dishes. I do the morning and lunch dishes if there is a bunch. But there usually isn't. I cook dinner, so Clint does the dinner dishes.

9. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? He does in this house. It really depends on where the bathroom is. I don't like him tripping over me when he gets up for work in the morning. So whichever side of the bed is closer to the bathroom he gets.

10. Who pays the bills? I pay them. The last couple of times I let him, we were almost overdue.

11. Who mows the lawn? Clint does the backyard, the military has a lawn company that does the front.

12. Who cooks dinner? Mostly I do. There are some days where I don't feel up to it, and Clint makes mac'n'cheese or something that doesn't require a whole lot of effort :P

13. Who is more stubborn? I had to laugh at this one, no comparison really. I am by far way more stubborn than Clint.

14. Who kissed who first? He kissed me first I'm sure. I am very shy in that department, so I am pretty sure that he always had to make the first move.

15. Who asked who out? Well, it kind of played out like this. We had some mutual couple friends. Apparently Clint had asked about me to them, but seeing that he was an NCO (an enlisted army officer) and I was merely a PFC (um, very low on the totem pole), he was worried that he would get in trouble for approaching me. I had no idea he was interested in me. I saw his picture on our friends fridge and asked about him. Then they went on about how he really wanted to ask me out etc. Through them we both agreed on going to a mini Oktoberfest in Germany and that was our first date.

16. Who proposed? OMGOSH! He did, but he left a lot to be desired :P See, we were on the border of Kuwait and Iraq the day the war started. Him being all studly like, came up to my ambulance I was working in, and he leaned up against the vehicle, not even on his knees, and his exact words were "So, you wanna get married?" As though he were asking if I'd like a soda or something. I have never let him live it down :P I gave him 7 days to think about it. Then I walked up to him and simply said "Yes" he looked at me funny and said "Yes...what?" I explained "If you don't remember the question, then I can't help you" well, he about died from excitement.

17. Who is more sensitive? It depends. I swear he has as many mood swings as I do. I love you babe :) He holds a grudge longer. He'll let me do about 10 things that tick him off, and I'll have no idea what. Until he starts snapping at me. Then I'll realize, oh boy, I must have done something about 6 months ago that I never apologized for. Like I could even remember what it was. We have tried to get him to work on this :P I explained that it's a whole lot easier to just talk to me if I have done one thing wrong, because by the time he finally spits something out, he can't even give me an example of what I did. He just feels angry still. I'm on the other end of that spectrum. I get ticked off easily, but within a couple of hours, it's no big deal. Even if he owes me an apology, I don't care. I figure getting an apology is just going to make us both more mad. So the majority of the time i just drop it. I get more angry over one thing and Clint holds a grudge. So I think we're about even though :)

18. Who has more siblings? Again, no comparison. He has 2 bio, 3 adopted. I have 6 step, 2 adopted, and 4 biological.

19. What were you doing ten years ago? Dec. 1998. Uh... Well, let's see. I was a senior in High school. I was working at PetsMart. That's about all I remember :P I was pretty busy.

20. Five things on my to-do list: Oh goodness, I have no idea.

21.Things I would do if I was suddenly made a billionaire. Well, I would pay tithing on that. Then, I would get a huge ranch with some seriously nice facilities. We would also have an 18 hole golf course for Clint. A small lake for boating, you know, all kinds of fun stuff. I can dream can't I? :P

22. Three of my bad habits: Yelling at the kids when I'm mad at them. Horrible lack of patience. I don't clean the bathrooms as often as I should :P

23. Five places I have lived: ROFL, is it limited to just 5? OK, I'm going to go with more. CA., AZ., UT., LA., TX., MO., CO., DC., Germany, Kuwait (for 3 months), Iraq (for 6 months).

24. Five jobs I have had: Only 5? Too bad, I'm listing more. Dog/horse groomer, Video store worker, PetsMart, Natural Wonders (kind of like the Discovery store), Rescue Services International (EMT), I was even a rent-a-cop, and an Army Medic.

25. Things people don't know about me: Well, I guess that I was an artist at some point. I sold a couple of my watercolor paintings. Never continued the hobby though. I used to work on movie and TV production sets as a medic too. I met a lot of actors and actresses.

Clint's Birthday

Things have been going well lately. Not much to report. Still having good and bad days with potty training. The kiddos got pics taken with Santa at the mall a week ago and I was able to send out some cards of them. They aren't great pics though. The kids refused to smile, they preferred the deer caught in headlights look.

Clint had his Birthday on the 9th. We had plans to do stuff, but we were waiting on his gift to arrive by UPS but they didn't even get here until after 7:30 at night! So our plans were pretty much shot by then. We did spend the day relaxing (Clint was off work early). We had pizza and I baked Clint a cake. No worries, I don't plan to become a cake decorator. It was yummy either way though :)

The flights to go down to NC are crazy expensive, so looks like we're driving again. UGGGGHHH!! I don't mind being there, I love being with Clint's family. But the drive, wow.

So here are a few pics. Enjoy.

Thanksgiving...

Well we survived Thanksgiving! I was really worried how Kayley would do with the potty training while we were away from home, but I was worried for nothing. Kayley did even better on the potty there than she does at home! She had a few accidents, but that was because she drank a TON! She pooped several times in the potty. What was the most impressive was on the way home. She said poopoo and stinky a couple of times. So we pulled in to a gas station parking lot and put her on her little potty in the back of the van...door closed of course so no one could see. She pooped all on her own without us trying to push her. She just sat down, pooped then stood up with arms raised yelling "I POOPOO, I POOPOO!!!"
She has become a modest pottier (not that that's even a word). She will go much faster when we leave her in the bathroom to do her business. So we have been doing that. We no longer have to use warm water to get her going. She'll hold her pee a lot longer now too. We have been potty training for about 3 months now. But we took 10 days off in the beginning. So I guess only 2.5 months or so. I definately think by Christmas she'll be done. Sure she'll have accidents every now and then, all kids do.

The drive to and from North Carolina was HORRIBLE!!! Apparently every person in VA. goes to North Carolina for the Holidays, and they all go at the same freaking time! It is technically only supposed to be a 6 hour drive, 7 with stops. Oh no, turned out to be 9.5 hours. For only 3 days to actually visit. I guess the one good thing of having gas at $5 a gallon is that there isn't as much traffic. Now that gas prices are down, so are the IQ points of drivers. Apparently 90% of drivers slept through drivers training when they talked about how to MERGE in traffic. It's not complicated people, 2 lanes go to one, every other car...MERGE! Not "get as many people over as possible before the person takes a break from texting on his cell phone and realizes he should go forward now." I mean seriously, we moved 3 miles in one hour. Construction on a holiday weekend, alright dumbies. Seriously, the spot of construction was all of 100 feet. Yet it caused an hour worth of delays. If we were in our F-350 dually truck, our butts would have driven on the side of the road all the way. 4 wheel drive is awesome!

The kids had a great time, and the grandparents did too. I was so stressed, I could have been in Hawaii and been grumpy. I am a control freak, duh. I am not used to my kids having free reign of the house. Not that it was a big deal, there were 4 adults and 2 teenagers that kept an eye on the kids, but I still felt like I was constantly trying to make sure which kid was where. Hard to relax like that :P

The grandparents were amazing with the kids. The kiddos had no problem being left with them so Clint and I could go out on a much needed date. I got to go to my fav restaurant and watch a movie I really wanted to see (Twilight). Clint was a good sport :) We then got to walk through Walmart. As bad as that sounds, I really enjoyed it. You see, out here, the Walmarts are BEYOND ghetto. So being able to walk through a nice walmart was really fun. Out here I have to stick to Target. Not as much variety as Walmart has. Oh well.

We also took the kids to see the new movie Bolt. The kids did amazing! They watched the whole movie and Ky only had to get up once to pee. But that's the night she had tons of pee accidents. In order to bribe her to stay seated she got to drink as much juice as she wanted. Boy did that backfire!

I didn't take any pics because I just wanted to relax and enjoy the moment. Not like that happened, but still. I did get a great video of Kaiden eating a pickle in his sleep. I'll find a way to post that somehow. It is hilarious!

On the way home I really felt like jumping in to a meat grinder would have been more tolerable. Traffic was backed up for over 120 miles. Again, the idiot drivers not knowing how to merge. For 3 hours we were in rush hour stop and barely go traffic. Almost 10 hours of driving total. Kayley screamed for most of that. Kaiden did good, he didn't start screaming until near the end of the drive. By the time we got home I was so angry and tired. I am so glad the trip is over. I loved being at Clint's parents house. Next time we are flying down. I'll gladly pay $250 per person to fly. I don't think my nerves could take any more traffic!

We're going down again for Christmas. At least now we have all the kinks worked out. I know what to expect so I won't be as stressed this time.

Thank you Sharon and Rick for having us! We really did have a good time. Plan on picking us up at the airport next time :)

Kaiden is a natural....

Today Kaiden went with Mommy to the ranch. It was COLD! Kaiden had so much fun though. The ranch is a rescue that also has boarders like me there. I put Kaiden on Bonita and he did great! He was holding the reigns like a pro. He stayed very balanced and was smiling and laughing. Bonita didn't seem bothered by him at all. She was very relaxed. I decided to get up on Bonita with him and we rode around the arena for about 45 minutes. He was pointing at the birds, cats, dogs, and the other horses. Bonita did great! She didn't try to test me or get nervous that Kaiden was up there with me. Debbie (the owner of the ranch and rescue) said that she hasn't seen a child as young as Kaiden do so good on a horse. She wants to start giving him lessons next summer. They have a couple of small ponies at the ranch that she wants to work with him on. I think he would absolutely love it. The next time I go out, I'll be bringing Kayley so she can get a turn on Bonita. I had a wonderful time bonding with Kaiden on our little ride. Here is a picture, it's not great, it's from my cell phone. Bonita was half asleep she was so relaxed.

I'm STUCK!!!

So Kaiden decided he wanted to try and climb over the fence. What he wasn't counting on was how to get down the other side of the fence. He screamed and screamed. Because he got stuck. He was afraid to get down the way he got up, and was afraid to climb down the other side because he had nowhere to put his feet. I let him sit there and scream for about 10 minutes before I put him back down on the fenced in side. He was not happy being stuck and hasn't tried to climb back over since, lol. I think I "tortured" him by letting him be stuck that he doesn't want to try it again. Hopefully that plan works. Kayley tried but didn't get her leg over the top. Which is FINE by me!

The 2 pics above show what the kiddos look like when they eat a banana. It doesn't matter how small I cut the banana, they still stuff their face :P

On the potty training, Kayley is doing AMAZING! She hasn't had really any accidents for over 5 days now. She has been pooping and peeing in the potty. She is starting to let us know when she has to pee instead of us always taking her every hour. She had somewhat of an accident last night. But that was because I was making her laugh so hard she couldn't hold it...my bad :)

We are all getting better now, the sickly bug is going away. Clint and I have some sinus stuff lingering, but we're all MUCH better now.

Next week we will all be going to Clint's parents house for Thanksgiving. It's only about 7 hours drive to get there, so not too bad. It may be a little longer since we'll have to stop and take Kayley potty. Something I didn't have to do on any other drives. We'll see how it goes. I hope that the trip doesn't set Kayley back with her potty training.

We have put Kaiden on the potty a few times and he pees for us, but I'm not going to go extreme training on him until after their birthday. It's going to be hard enough keeping Kayley on track while away from home, let alone both of them.

I have jumped on the Twilight bandwagon, thanks a lot to my sisters Kaci, Jessica, and Ashley. As well as my step-mom Karen. Hehe. they tried for months to get me to read the Twilight books, but I kept saying I didn't care to read about vampires. Well, they got there wish. I saw the previews to the movie and decided that I would give the books a try. I have finished the first and second books, and now waiting on the 3rd and 4th ones in the mail. Clint and I are going to see the movie when we go to his parents house so they can watch the kiddos.

That's about it I guess. Hope everyone is well! Take care :)

Sickly

Sorry I haven't posted much. All of us are sick. Ky had a fever of 103.6 and we took her in. They put her on antibiotics for an ear infection.
Kd is doing fine. Hopefully it was just a fluke and won't happen again. My concern now is that my brother was Kd's age when he started having seizures regularly until he had brain surgery at 19 years old, and he is a twin too. So it's a little unsettling if it was a seizure.
So the kids are getting better, but neither Clint or I have slept really the last week. Now Clint and I are sick, so we're up coughing all night. At least we can take cold medicine to ease our symptoms. Not many options for the kiddos. Mucinex didn't do anything. Benedryl helps them sleep a little but doesn't help the symptoms. They don't need motrin/tylenol because their throats don't hurt anymore. We just have to ride it out. Although I gotta say, I don't think the antibiotics really make that much of a difference. Ky and Kd have the same thing, and they have been sick just as much as the other. They are both healing at the same pace. Makes me wonder if the antibiotics are even doing anthing, since Kd isn't taking them and he is healing just as fast Ky and she is taking them.
Overall, we're hanging in there.

Concussion, ambulance, and ER for Kaiden

SO, last night was quite the adventure.
I went to put the kids down to bed. Ky had a fever of 102. So we had her on motrin. Kd didn't have a fever but he was getting motrin because they both are sick. Full blown nasty coughs and noses.
Their bedroom is completely child proof. Or so I thought. That didn't stop them from not being child proof from each other. We had taken out the toddler beds and just put the mattresses on the floor. Since Kd had fallen out of his crib we went to toddler beds. Ky fell out of her toddler bed, and hit her head and woke up with bruises. So that's when we decided to put the mattresses on the floor.
Anyway, so they were running around the room and ran right in to each other. No biggie I thought, they do it all the time. But then Kd went to step up onto his mattress and slipped. The thing is only 5 inches high. I noticed right away something was wrong. Usually when he falls, he either cries or get's back up. He didn't do either.
I called his name, and his body flopped over. I ran in the room and called his name. He didn't respond. He was face down, so I did the best spine protecting roll over for him as I could. But I was worried that he wasn't making any noise. As soon as I turned him over he went completely stiff. His whole right side of his body contorted behind him. He turned the deepest purple and blue I have ever seen. He completely stopped breathing. His eyes rolled back in his head and was getting even more blue. DH was already on the phone with 911 by that point and they were sending an ambulance out right away.
I started giving him mouth to mouth for about 10-15 seconds and his color returned. Then his body went limp and he still wouldn't respond. He finally would open his eyes, but then he would black out again. The whole ordeal lasted about 1 minute. That was the scariest minute of my entire life. The ambulance arrived within 5 minutes of the call, thankfully we live on a military post with an ambulance on standby.
By the time they got here, he was mostly awake. Still kind of lethargic. He wouldn't talk or anything. He didn't make a sound.
I was in the back of the ambulance. There was an ambulance, fire engine, and military police on scene. Then more firetrucks came in addition to another ambulance. Apparently the call we put through to 911 got confused because instead of just the military emergency response team coming, the Washington DC response team came.
The DC team was called off and we headed lights and sirens to childrens hospital. We were put through triage quickly and sent to the back. They did all the neuro tests on him and by then he was back to acting like his usual self again.
The docs were confused as to how exactly he ended up unconconscious and not breathing. We think it was the way he fell that maybe gave him a concussion. They also said it could have been a febrile seizure, but I explained to him that I used to be a medic and my brother used to have seizures, and that was definately not a febrile seizure. I also explained that I had just taken both of their temps about 15 min. before the episode happened because I knew Ky was running a high fever. But Kd didn't have one.
So around midnight we got home. Ky was still having a fever of 102 and she was shaking like crazy. They were both coughing horribly. DH and I have been up all night with both of them.
That was the absolute scariest night of my life.

I'm a dork...

I feel like I should be writing with a lisp, because that's how I am talking right now. Last night, oh so graceful me decided to do what humans do, eat dinner. I put a pepperoni in my mouth, bit down and tried to bite the tip of my tongue off. Ever heard of the expression "Bite your tongue" who knew that it was a figure of speech. I took it literally. So uh yeah, I couldn't sleep last night because it hurts THAT bad. If you look at the picture, you can see where there is a red circle, yeah, that part hurts bad. The white part, well, that part is dead, it has no feeling in it anymore. It's numb. Maybe with time new taste buds will grow and I'll get feeling again there again. Oy.

Kayley is doing GREAT with potty training. We haven't had any pee accidents in almost 3 days now. Only 1 poop accident too. She has pooped twice in the potty. I think we're actually getting somewhere now!