Morgan's Birthday Party

This last Saturday we had Morgan's birthday party and it was a lot of fun! We had a great turnout! Her aunt Jamie and cousin Maggie were there, our friends Don and Heather and their two kids Reagan and Brooks were here, our neighbors came over with their kids Keaton and Makenna, even my brother in laws family came! It is great now that she is getting older and interacting with the kids more, I think overall she had a great time. She started off very shy but after about a half hour she warmed up and started playing. I have to say that I was so busy that I didn't get a chance to take many pictures but we did some of the opening of presents and the cake.

Tyson's aunt Donna made a Monsters Inc cake for Morgan as that is one of her favorite movies and it turned out great!

Morgan did great at opening presents

She hid under the table when we sang happy birthday to her!
And she didn't want to blow her candle out! So I had to help!!

Next year I think I am going to maybe do a party at Pojo's or Chuckie Cheese, our house is so cramped with all the people and the kids are limited to what they can do inside the whole time, it was nice enough that with jackets they were able to play outside for a while, however they still get a little stir crazy, plus Morgan will be able to play with most of the games if we were to go to a place like that and then it will also be less stressful for mom and dad!

My Menu

Here is my menu for the week! Have a great week everyone!!!

Sunday: Beer marinated chicken, rice and green beans
Monday: Tator Tot casserole, corn and rolls
Tuesday: Pot Roast with all the fixings, salad
Wednesday: Spaghetti and garlic toast
Thursday: Pork Chops, noodles and green beans
Friday: Appetizer night
Saturday: Carne Azada, veggies and Spanish rice

I am not trying anything new this week, I have to get back to my recipe searching to come up with some new ideas for all the hamburger we have and I haven't had time to do that, so next week I am hoping to have some new recipes to try!

Flashback Friday

Morgan a year ago, her first time playing in the snow!

Morgan's 3rd Birthday

Wow this last three years has gone by fast as today is Morgan's 3rd birthday!!! It is nice to be able to actually communicate with her now and she understands everything that we ask. We also have to watch what we say as she is a sponge and is now repeating everything that comes out of our mouths! I am really going to go hard on potty training her as I would like to get her into a preschool class and you have to be potty trained in order to go, she has gone a few times for us but is just inconsistent and that is partly my fault since I have been so busy with the twins and her. I borrowed this interview from a friend of mine Jessica, she gave it to her son on his 3rd birthday, it is funny with some of the answers!

What is your favorite color? Blue

What is your favorite food? Cheeseburgers

Who is your best friend? Camas (one of the dogs)

What is your favorite cartoon? Curious George

What is your favorite book? A Tale of Tails

What does Mommy do best? Cook

What does Daddy do best? Read me books

What is your favorite animal? Monkeys

What do you like to do with Mommy and Daddy? Make a mess

Where is your favorite place to go? Daddy's work
How old are you? Three

Morgan 1 day old:

Morgan on her 1st birthday:

Morgan on her 2nd Birthday:Her party is this saturday so I will make sure to post some picutres, just looking at her 2nd party I can't believe how much she has grown up!!! I had bought my mom a plane ticket to come out for the party but unfortunatly she had to have emergency surgery and is unable to come at this time, maybe she will make it next year for her 4th!

6 Month Checkup

So Cameryn and Jaidyn had their 6 month check up and I have to say it well really well. Here are the stats for the appointment:

Cameryn:
Weight: 16 lbs 5 Oz's
Height: 25.25 inches
Head: 17.13

She is in the 58% for her weight and 32% for her height and 78% for her head size....yea she has a big head but it is okay, not bad for a preemie right?

Jaidyn:
Weight: 14lbs even
Height 24.5 inches
Head: 17.32

She is in the 14% for her weight and 12% for her length and 88% for her head size...she is our "little princess" and always will be.

There are a few things with Jaidyn and Cameryn that are being monitored. Jaidyn WILL be going to physical therapy. I had noticed a few weeks ago anytime I pick her up out of her crib or where ever she is at during that time she arches her back and holds her arms out straight, so I brought that up to the Dr. and she wants her to see a physical therapist. She said that her muscle tone is underdeveloped and needs worked on. She said that it is correctable which is why we have to go now for her (and yes it is still a sign of cerebal palsy but the physical therapist will be able to diagnosis from here). Same with her legs, still no improvement, she said that is basically not where she should be at this age, as far as holding herself up and being on her tummy she doesn't have the strength with her muscles to be able to do proper tummy time.

They are both being monitored for their head size. She said that if their head grows a huge amount (which it did in the last two months) then it can mean that they might have too much fluid around the brain. That was really scary for us because it is their brain. She wasn't concerned at this point but is going to keep an eye on it.

I have to say I am so happy we switched back to Dr. Beauchaine, she is honest, caring, understanding and all about the kids!

I hope we can get Jaidyn to work her muscles the way they need to work, and that she can just relax when we hold her because right now she doesn't and it is so hard to snuggle and feed her when she is so tight in the upper region of her body! Like I said, she is our princess and I think she is determined to remain that!!!

My Menu

It's that time again for my weekly menu, last week I stuck 100% to the plan and that felt great, we ended up making spaghetti on Friday when my friends got into town and on Saturday we made the homemade finger steaks since they don't have those in Minnesota. They were a hit! I tried the two new recipes last week and the pork chops were just okay, they were lacking flavor and we both couldn't decide what would of made them better so I probably won't be making that recipe again, the cheeseburger stew turned out awesome! It even tasted better the next day for leftovers! . Oh and we got our cow so now we have a TON of beef!

Sunday: Taco Soup and Salad (my friends weren't able to fly out standby so they are with us another night!)
Monday: Chicken, noodles and green beans
Tuesday: Chuck Steak, twice baked potatoes and mixed veggies
Wednesday: Cheeseburgers and fries (Morgan's 3rd birthday and her favorite food!)
Thursday: Tuna Casserole, corn and biscuits
Friday: Steak, potatoes, shrimp, onions and mushrooms
Saturday: Morgan's birthday party, we are having finger foods

Flashback Friday

It is a week early but here is pictures of Morgan's 1st Birthday! January 2009

My Pirate

Cameryn had her follow up eye appointment last Friday and I am very happy with the news we got and how it turned out. Dr. Lee said that she DOESN'T need glasses for now, she is a little farsighted but will be fine. As far as her sight goes in her left eye, there is a little bit that she can't see but we are suppose to patch her eye for 2 hours a day, or 14 hours a week (if you want to do 3-4 hours a day you can as long as you get 14 hours a week in) for the next 2 months and then we will follow up to see if there is any changes. This allows her eye to "learn" to work, for right now her right eye is working for both of them, so hopefully this will help!

I have to say that she has been a pretty good sport with the eye patch, you can tell after an hour or so it is making her work because she starts squinting. For right now she is my little one eyed pirate!

My Menu

It's that time again to plan my menu! I was able to go grocery shopping this weekend with only Jaidyn, Tyson took Morgan and Cameryn on their own outing and it was really nice to be able to take my time in the store and not have to be constantly telling Morgan to sit down, or to behave. Now I don't particularly care to bag my own groceries, but it was still nice!

Sunday: Meatloaf, mashed potatoes gravy, salad and rolls
Monday: Crock pot pork chops, rice and corn
Tuesday: Chicken, noodles and green beans
Wednesday: Cheeseburger Stew, Salad and Biscuits
Thursday: W.T. Baked potatoes, chili and Mac and Cheese
Friday: ???--my friend, her husband and baby boy from MN is coming for the weekend so I am not sure yet what I want to make for them yet.
Saturday: ??? Again, it depends, we might go out but we might stay in.

I am trying 2 new recipes this week, the crock pot pork chops and the cheeseburger stew so I am excited to see how those turn out!

Flashback Friday

This is a flashback of January 2008 right before we had Morgan

Build a Bear

I have to say that I was super excited when I was going to be able to take Morgan to Build a Bear and that she actually understood the concept. When I first took her the twins were only a couple of weeks old and I wanted to treat her to something special since she was being such a good sport with all the new changes. She immediately picked out a bear and we had him stuffed, then came time to give the bear a "bath" she LOVED that station, I couldn't get her away from it, I encouraged her to pick out an outfit for the bear but she simply wasn't interested, she just wanted to keep giving him a "bath", she named him "Bear".

The 2ND time she went I wasn't with her, she went her with Auntie Dodo and Aunt Jamie and Cousin Maggie, from what I heard she had a blast and ended up with a frog that she has named "Flower"

Today to get out of the house I decided to go to the mall, I had a gift card I needed to spend anyways and since she has been fighting a cold the last couple days she was going stir crazy in the house. I decided to go ahead and take her to build a bear again and this time it was nice because there was no one in the store so she didn't get shy or intimidated from the whole situation. This time it took her a few times to finally pick the right bear but she sure did enjoy the whole process this time, however the bath station was still a hit! She has named her "Heart"

I do have to say I think I have just as much fun picking out the accessories and clothes as I think the kids do, I also have to say that none of these stuffed animals will ever amount to the love she has for her "Ah Ah". We got "Ah Ah" on a family reunion trip when she was only 1 1/2 years old, he has never left her side since then, she named him "Ah Ah" because that is the noise a monkey makes, if anything were to ever happen to him it is going to be a very sad time in our house!

The Girls

Boy time sure has gone by with the girls, this month they turn 6 months old as well as Morgan turns 3!!! Where did the time go? We have appointments for the checkup for later this month so I will update all the changes when that happens. As far as now, Jaidyn is rolling over all the time from her back to her tummy and doing a great job keeping her head up. Cameryn is able to sit in the Bumbo all by herself! She is close to rolling over but I think because she is so "chunky" her belly gets in the way!!!

We have Cameryn's follow up eye appointment this Friday, as you can see in the picture it is her left eye and you can see how long her pupil is, we are anxious to find out what kind of sight she is going to have out of the eye and what our next steps will be.

Here I am with Jaidyn our little "princess", she is still just so tiny but sure does make up for it in attitude! She is actually starting to smile a lot more and getting used to having to share Mom with her 2 other sisters! I can only imagine how much drama she is going to be a few years from now!

My Menu

Here is my menu for the week, we defrosted our freezer because later this week we are getting 166 lbs of COW from my Brother in Law's family, it ends up being around $1.00 a pound so we are super excited. When the twins were born we got 1/4 of my brother in laws cow and that lasted us over 4 months, so I can't even imagine what 166 lbs is going to last for us! Anyways we wanted to make room in our freezer so needless to say that is what I am going to be trying to do this week!


Sunday: Tilapia, roasted potatoes and corn (we didn't have it last week as planned)

Monday: Spaghetti and Garlic Bread

Tuesday: Pulled Beef in the crock pot, twice baked potatoes and green beans

Wednesday: Pork Chops, noodles and corn

Thursday: Chicken, Au gratin potatoes and mixed veggies

Friday: Elk Steak, mushroom, onions, and garlic butter shrimp

Saturday: ??? (grocery shopping day, so it depends on what I am in the mood for)

Flashback Friday

I am now dedicating Friday's to post some "flashback" pictures, I will basically take some pictures from the past but within the same month that we are in! I couldn't decide on one picture for today, so I am going to post two

These pictures are from January 2007 when we lived in our tiny little 2 bedroom 900 square foot house (I miss that house so much!)

Here is Abbie snuggling with her toy:

Here is Tyson working on the remodel of our kitchen that we did!

Bye Bye nap time

Morgan has always been a good sleeper and used to be no problem to get her to nap or to bed but last week we decided to stop having Morgan take a nap. We noticed that if she doesn't take a nap she goes right to bed at night time, if she even has an hour nap, it takes up to 45 minutes to get her down. This has been a hard decision for me for numerous reasons, one of them is it is my time that I can get some stuff done around the house, as well as maybe read a book and get more one on one time w/ Cameryn and Jaidyn, another is that she can hit "meltdown" mode pretty fast towards the end of the night.

However it was taking me up to 45 minutes just to get her to nap and then to add another 45 minutes at the end of the night is not fun. I would rather enjoy our time we have then have a fight to have her sleep.

2 years ago

Morgan 2 years ago....

Weekly Menu

It is that time again for my menu! I hope everyone had a great new year and here is to an awesome 2011!!

Sunday: Beef Stroganoff, beans and rolls
Monday: Beer Can Chicken, mixed veggies and twice baked potatoes
Tuesday: Tuna Casserole, corn and biscuits
Wednesday: Carne Asada, green peppers and onions, and potatoes
Thursday: Pork chops, noodles and green beans
Friday: Tacos
Saturday: Tilapia, rice and a veggie (not sure which one, I think I might get some asparagus)