Christmas Card Pics

I took the boys down to the lake near our house last night to get some pics to put in the Christmas cards this year. I know you will all get one of these in your cards, but they were so good, I couldn't wait to post them! It was about 70 degrees last night and the sunset was awesome!!

Now, this is the one I should put in the cards!!!

The boys and I will be heading out for Michigan on Friday, arriving sometime Saturday afternoon/evening depending on the weather. Jack has to stay home and work this year because he is out of vacation days. They have been really slow there, so he has to take as much work as he can get! We will be in Mi for about 2 weeks. During that time, all 3 of us will have our birthdays, mine on the 18th, Kaden on the 24th, and Collin on January 2nd! Add in Christmas parties and New Years and it gets crazy! I have convinced the boys to have just a small party in Mi with grandmas and grandpas and then we will celebrate their 1/2 birthdays next summer here at home. That way, they get to spread their presents out and have a pool party with all their friends here in TX.

I hope everyone has a very happy Christmas season!

Fun with Grandpa

The boys have been having fun with Grandpa Russ and Grandma Gini being here. Here are some pictures of the fun things they do with Grandpa.

Collin in the sunset at the fishing pond

Collin, Kaden, and Grandpa Russ fishing

Kaden caught one! Collins total for the evening was 15!!

Grandpa helping Kaden with the pole.

Grandpa Russ brought down his Sea Doo and has been having fun on the lake near our house in the great 80 degree November weather! Here, Kaden is checking out the ducks.

Collins turn for a spin around the lake.

Kaden always wants to go faster!!

Halloween and fall

Halloween was a short night for us. Kaden and I had been sick all week (Kaden was almost admitted to the hospital on Wednesday morning), therefore we were still not feeling the best and just overall tired and worn out. We did about a block and a half and Kaden said he was tired so Jack took him back home and I did another block with Collin and we were done. Here are a few pics of my cowboy and alien.

Kaden thought it was funny for the cowboy to shoot the alien.

The space alien. And a pic of the tree in the front yard for my mom...she thinks that the leaves don't turn colors here in TX.

The handsome cowboy

Our neighborhood had a harvest festival and the boys enjoyed the bounce houses and huge blow up slides along with pony rides and cotton candy and fire truck tours. Fun times!

We were given Dallas Cowboys tickets from Jacks boss. We went and brought the boys and we all had a great time! Collin likes to color his hair for the games! They even won when we went so that made the day.

Jacks parents arrived last week Monday. Jacks dad had bought Nascar tickets for Sunday for the guys. Jack was also given some from his boss. They decided to call Jacks uncles in Michigan to see if they wanted to do a road trip and come down for the race. They were sick of the cold and drizzle in Mi so they gladly accepted. They got in the car Friday morning and were here by about 11:30 Friday night. So on top of Russ and Gini here, we also got Aunt Evelyn and Uncle Norm, and Aunt Polly and Uncle Harvey!! It was a FULL house for the weekend, but we had alot of fun. Sunday, all the guys went to the race and all the girls (and Kaden), along with Jacks cousin Martha, went to First Monday Trade Days in Canton which is the largest flea/craft market in the US!! We were there for about 5 hours and only got to about 1/3 of the place. The Aunts and Uncles left this morning and a good time was had by all!!

Preschool!!

I had my meeting with the ARD (admissions, reviews, dismissal) committee yesterday and they approved Kaden for special ed preschool based on his medical conditions and wanted him to start right away. So....today was his first day of preschool!! He was SO excited as you can see by the smile on his face. I took him to Target last night and let him pick his new backpack (Diego). He will go Monday thru Friday from 10:50 till 2:30 at the same school as Collin.

Ready to go!!

At the "sign in" area. The kids have to put their backpacks under their name tags and then find their name on the sign in board and print their name. Kaden needs work on the printing, but at least he tried. The teacher said he did a good job today. He had a few little problems (not paying attention, wanting to do something other than what they were supposed to be doing at the time), but she said to give it a week or so for him to settle in and if needed, we would discuss it more then.

State Fair

It seems strange to me, but the State Fair is such a big thing here in the Dallas area, that they give the kids a day off of school to go to it and they give them free tickets! Collins school had their fair day last Thursday. Jack had to work so I took the boys by self and we spent the day at the fair.
Kaden loved this race car ride...it whipped them around the ends and he had his hands in the air yelling "woo-hoo" the whole time!


Kaden on the airplane ride.

Collin on the ride that made you feel like Superman!

The boys learning about how they milk cows.

Kaden enjoys the rides!!

Unfortunately the boys are so different in height that they couldn't go on many of the rides together. Either Collin was too tall or Kaden was too short. I need to remember to talk to Kadens cardiologist about rides...he is the type of kid that is going to want to go on all the biggest and fastest!

New Venture

I have decided to become an AVON Representative. I know 99% of you are not in my area, but you can still order from me. I have my own website and am able to offer free or very reasonable shipping. AVON has much more than make-up and skin products. They also sell purses and handbags, clothing, kids items like Dora and Sponge bob, home decor and much more! I am excited about starting this as I have been looking into home based "mommy" type businesses. The fact that I absolutely HATE to get up and speak in front of a group of people made this a great option. Those of you that live near me, I will give you catalogs to browse, but others are free to browse the web site and I can mail you a catalog if you would like. Also, please let anyone else you know about my web site or pass on the catalogs to your friends and co-workers. If you are looking to order from the web site, email me first and let me know and I can find out about and free/low cost shipping discount codes available at that time. AVON comes out with a new catalog every 2 weeks, so make sure and check back often and I will let you know about any specials that may be of interest to you if you would like. Thank you all for your support! 214-681-0339 www.youravon.com/abredeweg

No Training Wheels!

Kaden learned how to ride his bike this week Tuesday with no training wheels! As you can see....daddy got ALOT of exercise in the process! Jack had the day off and so I went to clean Marthas house by myself and by the time I got home, they were cruising up and down the street. It took us another 1 or 2 days to get him to turn without falling over, but he still can't stop or start by himself because his legs are just a little too short.

Kadens eye patch that he is SUPPOSED to wear for 2 hours a day for 2 months straight. I think the most we have accomplished so far is a half hour.

Kaden and Collin love to play in the puddle a few houses down from us that forms at the end of their driveway. This picture was taken after the rain from hurricane Ike stopped a few weekends ago.
Things are going well. Collin is finally getting over a sinus infection that lasted about 10 days. He was in alot of pain for a few days there. I wish I hadn't waited so long to take him to the Dr, but I thought it was the same allergies I have been dealing with for a few weeks now. I finally got a meeting with the ARD committee at the school about getting Kaden into preschool, but it is not until the 14th of October. I am really wanting to get him started because I need to get out of the house and get a part time job. I have been a stay at home mom for almost 5 years now and I want to get back out there and socialize with adults again! And a little extra money before Christmas would be nice too!

We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Grandpa Russ and Grandma Gini here in a little over 3 weeks. They will stay with us for a few weeks. It's always nice to have visitors!

Kaden had an appointment yesterday at Childrens Hospital in Dallas with GI and they are working on getting him into an aggressive feeding therapy program here in Dallas. He will have an evaluation and from there they will decide if they want to do outpatient therapy or inpatient treatment to get him off of his g-tube dependency! Someday.....

Glasses

We went and picked up Kadens glasses tonight. He looks so cute in them! I was not too sure how he would do with them because the prescription is so strong (+3 in the left eye and +4 in the right), but he put them on, said he could see fine. I thought for sure there would be some tripping, misjudging distances, etc., but he hopped on his bike and off he went. Hopefully we can get him to pass his vision test at the school now so we can get the ball rolling on getting him into preschool.

Painting

We did finally finish the painting of the stairway and gameroom. I borrowed a ladder from Martha to get to the top of the stairwell. Well, I got up there....and got right back down and waited for Jack to get home from work to do that part.

Fun with glow sticks

I just thought these pics came out really neat! The kids (Jack included) were playing with glow sticks, the small kind that you can link together to make necklaces, etc. I found them at the dollar store and got them for the boys for our trip back from Michigan to help entertain them in the car. They found the leftovers when we got home and opened them all at once!

Ready for school

Whatever happened to the day when you could buy some pencils and a Trapper Keeper and be ready for school? I have finally finished Collins back-to-school list put out by the teachers from each grade. Wow....it is expensive!! And we haven't even bought any clothing yet! Kaden is still being "processed" to see if he can attend preschool this year. The district wanted $1500.00 for preschool which we don't have and I wouldn't pay anyways. I was talking with a former teacher (our insurance agent now) and she said that with his medical issues, he should qualify to go for free under the special ed program. I have filled out all the paperwork and am now waiting for them to call with a decision or more questions. Even if he does get accepted, we don't know if he will even be able to go to Collins school, which is about 1/2 mile from home. I may have to drive him about 6 miles into town. We went to school yesterday to have his vision and hearing screenings and he failed the vision test, so I have to take him to the eye Dr next Monday. We also have to go to Children's Hospital of Dallas Monday to have another swallow study done.

I have decided to tackle more painting in the house. For those that don't know, we bought a brand new house last year which means that every room in the house was off white builders paint, which is awful! You scrub fingerprints off it once and it turns to a powder. We got the kitchen, breakfast area, living and dining rooms and entryway done a few months ago then ran out of steam. I got to the point a few days ago that I could not possibly wash the fingerprints off the stairway anymore or I would be down to just drywall. The problem I am running into is that our stairway is VERY tall. I borrowed Martha's extension ladder today to hopefully get me to the top when I resume tomorrow. Did I mention that I hate to paint and am not fond of ladders??? I will post pictures of the finished project when I am done.

Professional pics