The House of Chaos

Freezer Cooking

2011-08-22T18:46:00.003-05:00

We just finished up a huge freezer cooking session. It is quite an undertaking, but SO worth it in the end. We have been doing this on and off for probably 10 years. At first, I bought a book that planned it out. I found that many of the meals on that meal plan were things that my kids wouldn't eat. (there are still things my kids won't eat on my menus, but when there are 7 kids with 7 different opinions NO ONE is ever totally happy). I digress... The main reason we do this is to keep us out of the fast food world. We can't afford to eat out all the time, but it's so easy to swing through the drive thru, or pick up a few $5 pizzas. That's not being financially responsible though. At least not for us. So, by a little planning, and a BIG trip to the grocery store you can actually save money!

The easiest way to stock your freezer, and if you don't have much freezer space this is the way to go. Just duplicate the meals you do cook and freeze. If you are making Lasagna for dinner, make two and freeze the other. Then you have one for a busy evening.

If you have the freezer space - then you are set. This is how I do it.

Search the Internet for "freezer meal recipes". You can find them on blogs, recipe sites, or other places. If this is your first time, start with maybe 10 recipes. You don't want to tackle a month at at time unless you are super organized. Once you do it once, you will get the hang of it and can handle a larger session.
Once you have your recipes - you want to make a master shopping list. I do this by going through each recipe and writing down all the ingredients. I even write down simple things like flour and milk - I want to make sure I have everything on hand. I will then make hash marks, or tally the amount of an item that is repeated in another recipe. That way I will know how much TOTAL I will need of every item. (I may need 24 pork chops total, for 3 different recipes, for example).
When this "tally" page is done, I will then organize the list according to the store. I'll put all the Meat together, all the veggies together, canned goods, dairy, etc. This is also a good time to count up all the different containers you will need. As I am going through the recipes - I read them and get a handle on how many servings it will make, and what container would be ideal for that. Some things are best in a gallon freezer bag, some in a foil 9X13 pan.
Once this is done, I'll make a "prep" sheet for cooking day. This is usually a rough idea of how things will flow. I try to group together "like" items. If I have a lot of recipes that are really just chicken marinades. Those I do all together, as they are quick assembly and don't require much chopping or other preparation. Then I move on to the more complicated dishes - Chicken pot pie, or things that require cooking meat prior to freezing.
Now it's time to go to the store. This can be a price shocker - especially if you are doing it for a month's worth of meals. Save it for payday, or do it in smaller chucks. This past weekend, I spent $350 at HEB and another $50 at Walmart. Still not too bad, considering our usual grocery budget for a family of 9 is around $200 a week, PLUS the between shopping day trips for milk and "forgotten" things. You want to shop the morning of, or the day before because you probably won't have anywhere to STORE all the groceries you will be picking up - and to put them away and then just pull them out the next day is a whipping!
I organize my ingredients from the store, and from the pantry for frequently used items. Then I just leave them out for the cooking session so I don't have to keep going to the pantry.
The BEST advice I can offer is to clean as you go! If you will rinse and wash things by hand as you go, you will be grateful when you are done! Nothing is worse than being on your feet for 8 hours straight cooking to turn around to the sink and see it overflowing! I enlist my very eager husband. He does most of my chopping and prep work, helps assemble meals and helps with the dishes. It makes things go so much faster with a helper!
Then you cook! I would allow 8 hours for 30 meals, especially if you have things that are more "complicated".

Almost anything you make at home can be made to freeze. Pasta items, like lasagna should be made either without cooking the noodles first, or cooking them to al dente. You don't want mushy pasta when it thaws and cooks. Easy things to start with are simple marinades with chicken. It can be as simple as putting some chicken breast in a bag and pouring a bottle of Italian dressing over the top and freezing it. Make sure to label your bag BEFORE you put your food in it. You also want to make sure to get all the air out and then freeze it flat. If you freeze your bagged items flat, then when they are frozen they can be stacked to take up less room.

I would love to help anyone do this, just email me if you have any questions. I can also send you my most recent documents from this last cooking session. I certainly don't verify the accuracy - and all recipes should be followed for common sense. (like I leave out all bell peppers, and much of the onions so the kids won't whine). Hopefully I didn't leave anything off the shopping list - good luck there. Just don't shoot me if something goes wrong! :) Also sometimes I decrease the amount of the recipe if it looks like it will be too much or increase it if it is something that the kids really love - like tater tot casserole.

When all is said and done, I make a master list of what I have frozen so I don't have to dig through the freezer to see what is for dinner.

Let me know if you try it, and how it works out!

What's For Dinner?

2010-08-01T21:13:00.002-05:00

Well, actually lunch...

Roasted Sticky Chicken

1 large chicken

1 cup onion - chopped

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon white pepper (I don't like, so I don't use)

1 teaspoon thyme

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 teaspoons paprika

4 teaspoons salt

In a small bowl, thoroughly combine all the spices. Remove giblets from chicken, clean the cavity well and pat dry with paper towels. Rub the spice mixture into the chicken, both inside and out, making sure it is evenly distributed and down deep into the skin. Stuff cavity with onions. Place in a re-sealable plastic bag and refrigerate overnight.

This is where I froze it...

I placed it in the crockpot and cooked on high for 4 hours. You can also roast uncovered at 250 degrees for 5 hours, basting every 1/2 hour - too much for me! I have also left it in the crockpot all day on low for 8 hours. It was perfect.

Back to the basics...

2010-07-31T21:50:00.002-05:00

Everyone in the free world should know by now that my dryer is broken. Although a major inconvenience, it has not really been that bad. Now, when the washer broke - THAT was the end of the world! There is no way (in this day and time) that a family of 10 (at the time) could live without a washer. Well, thank goodness for my Dialysis Nursing background - because I was able to fix the washer. I can do plumbing. It's not that hard, really. The dryer on the other hand does not have any plumbing. It has electricity. Electricity scares me. I am in awe of it, but I have a very healthy fear of it. It can hurt you! I did try to change out the ballast on my laundry room light, but ended up having to call a dear friend, electrician, to fix it. Come to find out it was not an easy job for him, either. Something was wrong with the way it was wired. Thank goodness - I was afraid I was crazy!

Back to the dryer - My father in law and Rocky have been looking at it for 2 days now. After some much needed sleep, John came back over today and said it all made more sense to him (than at midnight the night before). It is a simple $14 part. Hopefully by tomorrow evening I will have a working dryer again. Then I have to go about loading up the top of the dryer with all that crap that gets stacked up on it, that is now all over my dining room table.

I have somewhat enjoyed hanging up my clothes on the line. I don't especially LOVE the smell of clothes dried outside - like so many other people, and I REALLY don't like crunchy towels. I guess there is something to the fact I am saving energy - and more important to me - saving $$$ by drying the clothes outside. I may continue to do so for a bit - except for the towels. Especially after I get the water bill - I discovered the hose on at full blast, towards the back fence, watering Summercrest Blvd., ALL DAY from the best we can discern. I may need to be saving a little extra on the Electric to pay for the water. Unless the City of Burleson will let me call and say "my kids did it" and take the usage off my bill - I don't think so...

What's for Dinner?

2010-07-25T22:04:00.003-05:00

Rocky and I have spent the last two days cooking to save up for probably the next two months. I have been asked to share. Here is a list of what we made. I will probably post recipes a few as a time. I need to type them all up and put them in a word document so I can reproduce them more easily, and then remove the ones that we didn't like.

Here is what we did:

7 Can Soup

Honey Baked Pork Chops

Teriyaki Chicken

Wine and Herb Chicken

Lemon Parsley Chicken

Grilled Marinated Steak

Too-Good Baked Pork Chops

Lemon Chicken

Sticky Chicken

Citrus Pork Chops

Chicken Spaghetti

Candy's Chicken

Chicken Packets

Chicken Enchiladas

Chicken Paprakash

Chicken Pie

King Ranch Chicken

Chicken Quesadillas

Magnificent Casserole

Tater Tot Casserole (x2)

Sloppy Joes

BBQ Pork

Quiche (x2)

Pork Enchiladas (x2)

Chicken Pot Pie

Rigatoni Bake (x2)

Colorful Chicken Casserole (x2)

Fajitas

Poulet De France

Baked Mac and Cheese with Ham

Crescent Chicken

Meatballs

Chicken Manicotti

Taco Pie

Meatloaf (x2) - had this for dinner tonight!

Here is the Meatloaf recipe. I did some changes - used bread crumbs instead of bread - soggy bread and me don't always get along... I made this knowing two of my eaters are on mission trip, so I left all the green things in it. I also usually don't put anything red in my meatloaf. Typically I'm a ground beef and lipton onion soup meatloaf girl, but this one was really good!

1/2 cup milk

4 slices white sandwich bread, torn into pieces

1 1/2 lbs ground sirloin

1 1/2 lbsw ground pork

2 small onions, finely chopped

6 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 cup chili sauce, plus 1/4 cup for glaze

1 cup chopped fresh parsley

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

Coarse salt and ground pepper

In a large bowl, pour milk over bread; let soak for about 30 seconds. Add sirloin, pork, onion , garlic 1/2 cup chili sauce, parsley, parmesan, eggs, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Using your hands, mix well until combined; do not over mix or meatloaf will be dense.

Divide mixture in half. Gently pat each half into a log and place each log into an 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 inch loaf pan. Do not press down or into corners. I use disposable foil ones. Cover with two layers of foil and label. Freeze.

On serving day, thaw in fridge and bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes. Brush tops of loaves with remaining 1/4 cup chili sauce and continue cooking until juices run clear (160 degrees internally if you want to check).

Now - to finish cleaning up and go to bed! I'm whipped!

Consequences

2010-03-08T20:05:00.003-06:00

We are trying the "Love and Logic" thing around the house again. I really like the concept, but in practical application, when someone has just pushed the last button left, I wish Charles and Jim Fay were in my living room to tell me what to say exactly! Well - experiment #1 this morning. Joshua had found some balloons in some old craft things upstairs. He had blown some up for his siblings. As always, things started out nice, and then turned to chaos...

Well, this morning, he put the bag in his pocket. I told him not to take the balloons to school. He said "I'll keep them in my locker all day". OK - well, just so you know there will be consequences if you make a bad decision.

Guess what - as we are sitting at the hospital, Rocky gets the call...Josh has after school detention for taking balloons to lunch, and then arguing with the teacher about where he was sitting.

After school - I asked him what my last words were to him before we left the house. He said - I love you and have a good day - I said nope - that was in the car.

Again - what were the last words I said to you at home - he repeated MOST of the conversation - got the part right about consequences. So he then proceeded to tell me that all teachers are the devil, their heads spin around all day and spit green pea soup. (well, that's not entirely all, but close). Everyone hates him, they run school like a prison, etc.

I asked him why when he said he would keep them in his locker all day, did he not do that - and he said he did. And clarified that to mean that lunch didn't count. He didn't KNOW he would get in trouble for taking balloons to lunch, but he knew he would in class. We didn't even go into the fact that he argued with the teacher about it instead of just taking his punishment. He always HAS to be right.

After dinner, we went upstairs to talk about consequences...the natural ones, such as he has detention, and the imposed ones - he will write an apology and apologize in person to the teacher he argued with. He said that was redundant - we explained that sometimes redundancy is a good thing.

The next thing to tackle is his relationships with his siblings. I might need a nap!

How long has it been?

2010-03-07T23:43:00.002-06:00

Well, it would seem that it has been some time since I updated this blog. Things have been rather busy here in the land of chaos. I'll start by giving you a brief synopsis of the happenings for the last few months:

September: My office mate, coworker and friend's husband was diagnosed with Colon cancer. He had surgery, and nearly died SEVERAL times. School started. I went to weekend camp at John Marc with the teenagers from work.

October: I had another Birthday, enough said!

November: Thanksgiving, 4 birthdays in 3 days, trying to get some Christmas shopping done.

December: Christmas. Attended a New Years Eve wedding that my husband performed. It was so nice!

January: My office mate, coworker and friend's husband passed away. They were fortunate to have one more Christmas with their Husband, Father, Grandfather, and friend.

February: One of the physicians I work with gave his wife a kidney. Kidney is working wonderfully. Had the start of some family drama.

March: Emily turned 12. The wife who received a kidney died unexpectedly. Mema was hospitalized, diagnosed with pneumonia and has been asking to die for 4 days now. She has uncontrollable pain. We don't think it is pneumonia. My father in law is having quadruple bypass monday. My uncle is coming in town from Hawaii to help my dad care for my grandmother. I have spent all weekend at the hospital to give my dad a break.

I'm really tired! It has been a busy year already. I promise I will get some pictures up soon!

Reunion

2009-10-05T22:04:00.004-05:00

This weekend we drove to Houston with all the kids to attend a "Family" Reunion at Texas Children's with the fetal specialists that cared for the girls while I was pregnant. It was good to see all the walking miracles! We also got to spend some fun time with Melissa and her family. We hadn't seen everyone together for a few years! We also made a quick pit-stop to visit The "other" Rudds. A good time was had by all - and a special thank you to our host family for the weekend for allowing us to invade their space!

Eye update

2009-07-29T11:13:00.004-05:00

I took both girls to the eye doctor yesterday (Thanks Shay). It was a whippin'! A total work-out. The results...Abby - the left eye is still deviating. He asked how the patch was going and I explained what life is like trying to keep a patch on a almost 2 year old. If she isn't pulling it off, Izzy is. We are now going to try drops. She gets one drop of Atropine on Monday and Thursday. This should keep the right eye dilated so that she will have to work to strengthen the left one. We will do this until October. The good news, her vision is still good, so no glasses. Izzy - we've discover that the "cute" way she looks at you out of the corner of her eye is due to strabismus. By looking off to the side, she can stop the movement of her eye to better see. If it worsens, they can do a surgical procedure to tighten up the muscle. She will follow up in April. Also, her vision is good, so no glasses for her either.

It will be a busy week as we prepare to go to Vegas for a combination "I have a conference, hey why don't you come with me and we'll call it our Anniversary" trip. The kids have all been farmed out, and if you are one of the recipients of my "bundles of joy" THANK YOU! If you are not, you don't know what you are missing!

My watermelon kids

2009-07-25T19:35:00.003-05:00

We gave the kids watermelon for dessert tonight. Emily is away at camp, but everyone else enjoyed it.

The girls are really starting to talk. Abby just said "Rocky" for whatever reason. Isabelle says more than Abby, and can say "Abby". I guess Izzy is a little harder.

We are headed to the eye doctor next week. Hopefully we will get an all clear, but I fear that we will have to continue to patch Abby (or head to surgery), and start patching Izzy.

I hope everyone has a good evening!

Happy 4th of July!

2009-07-04T11:38:00.003-05:00

Want some?

2009-07-01T21:31:00.003-05:00

This is what happened in the bath tub tonight. Isabelle was feeding Abby bath water with a ladle from the play kitchen. Team work, right?

Sorry, It's been awhile -

2009-06-21T21:04:00.004-05:00

It has been quite a while since my last post. Here are a few updates: Joshua - survived the 7th grade and has been promoted. He is away at Youth camp until Friday. He is striving hard daily to survive his teenage years!

Emily - received the honor of Student of the Year. She is busy helping us every day with whatever needs to be done.

Caleb - finished up wonderfully in 3rd grade, looking forward to 4th. He will be getting braces this week.

Matthew - Is busy learning how to play Wii. He stepped on a piece of glass the MINUTE I got to camp this year. He got 6 stitches on the bottom of his foot.

Olivia - Is enjoying her time with Mema, loves wearing everyone else's shoes (and leaving them all over the floor). And, evidently loves her Vampire teeth from Peter Piper.

Abigail and Isabelle - are just being BUSY. They are climbing on EVERYTHING - counter tops and tables included. They must be watched like a hawk at all times. They also love playing in the toilet.

Other news:

Emily cut her hair off and donated it to Locks of Love. This is the 3rd time she has done that.

Matthew has a good time playing on the playground!

As I said earlier, the girls are climbing on everything. Here is a picture of Abby climbing to the top of the play set at the playground.

And this picture is just a fun one!

I'll try to be better at posting, I promise. ECI is seeing both girls now three times a month to help work on verbal skills (obviously motor skills are not a problem). They are saying new words every day. Abby repeated about 10 words during therapy friday and Isabelle repeated about 20. Everyone is growing so quickly!

We're Back...

2009-04-18T11:58:00.005-05:00

We are back from Sky Ranch. We had a wonderful time, walking, walking, walking some more! I think on Thursday I logged 8.5 miles on my pedometer. Seriously! Here is one picture that sums up the week..

Rocky and I both did the Zip Line.

Emily and Rocky rode a bull.

I rode a horse

We had a really good time, but we were ready to come home and see our other 6 babies.

This is the finger that mommy squished

2009-04-07T17:28:00.004-05:00

Updated to add this photo after we took off the gauze for bathtime.This morning during the mass exodus of the car...aka...mommy taking the little 4 to daycare...Abby's finger got shut in the door. It was just the tip, so I thought no biggie. Well, it bled and bled. I stopped the bleeding and put on a bandaid and headed out for work. I checked in later in the day and they said they were having a hard time keeping a bandaid on it at daycare. I called the doctors office and the nurse told me that if the edges were jagged it would be best to go ahead and take her in. So, off of work I took, picked up grampa and headed for daycare. I picked up Abby and went back in to work to the ER. We were in and out in 1 1/2 hours - pretty good, I think. Xrays were fine, 4 stitches later...Ouch. Needless to say, she was not pleased with the care she received, but I was. 10 to 12 days later and the stitches come out. Just when we are back from Sky Ranch. The EMT wrapped it up for us so she couldn't get to it, but I don't think that will last long...

Our Busy Morning

2009-04-04T11:33:00.002-06:00

Well, this morning we got up and went to find some Bluebonnets. My mom had actually scouted the spot last week, and I went by last night to make sure that it was still there. Mom went with us to help take pictures and contain kids. Overall, it wasn't that bad of a beating (Rocky says otherwise).

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Love at first bite

2009-04-03T09:49:00.001-06:00

This happened the other day, and I am just now getting around to posting it. If you look really closely and look for the after-effects, you can see Isabelle biting Abigail.

First Bite from Suzette Burton on Vimeo.

Amblyopia

2009-03-31T20:15:00.003-06:00

"A decrease in vision which is different from being nearsighted or farsighted. Patients with amblyopia do not see perfectly clearly with the affected eye, even with glasses or contacts. Amblyopia can be mild or severe. People with amblyopia have a problem with how the brain understands visual information the eye is sending it. Amblyopia will usually only affect one eye."

This is Abigail. We will have to patch her right eye every day for 2 hours until the end of July when we go back to see Dr. H again. Have you ever tried to keep an eye patch on a 16 month old? NOT really easy. She ended up wearing it for about 30 minutes tonight. I had to order her patches online. They come in many pretty cute prints. Who wants just plain white for their princess, because, you know, she can see it and all and might become offended if she knew that I ordered white and there was pink camo as an option - NOT. Anyway, they got me and I ordered the "girly" pack, the fun pack #1 and the fun pack #2. That should give us plenty to make it until the end of July. Hopefully this will fix the wandering problem, otherwise we are looking at glasses and maybe surgery. Let's hope that it does not come to that.

Number 958

2009-03-28T19:34:00.002-06:00

Here I am after my 1st 5K. Phew. I must admit, I didn't run the entire time, but I finished. I wasn't first and I wasn't last. My time was 41 minutes. It was fun. I didn't feel like I was going to die. This evening I am a little sore, but not unbearable. I think I'll do it again. Who knows - maybe I'll run Cowtown next year!

I'm Back

2009-03-16T07:17:00.003-06:00

Sorry for the Hiatus. Things have been so busy with soccer season starting up and just daily life. My main focus today is to let you know about the 5K I have been training for. Yes, me, training for a 5K. It has been actually fun, and I look forward to my runs. Wow, I didn't thin those words would ever come out of my mouth. Anyway, I am running in the MS 5K on March 28th. I run in honor of a good friend who battles this disease every day. My hope is that a cure will be found while he is still young so that he can walk his daughters down the isle on their wedding day! (We love you J.) You can click here to visit my fundraising page and donate if you feel led.

Emily and the Bee

2009-02-25T22:45:00.003-06:00

On Friday the 13th of February, Emily entered her first Regional Spelling Bee. I will start out by saying she did get out in the 3rd round. However, I must also add that the event started out with about 60 kids, and by the 3rd round she was one of 12 or so. Her words were: 1st round - Polka, 2nd round - Rupee, 3rd round Poignant - out. We were so proud of her. I don't think she was near as nervous as we were.

The girls are doing well. They are both really happy just cruising around. They are getting more verbal. Abby has said "mama", Izzy has said "Ball". They will both give a high five now. They are starting to look around and try to interact with their brothers and sisters, and even each other. Although lately, interacting consists of Abby taking a toy away from Izzy and Izzy biting Abby. They are sleeping better, in their own beds, mostly all night. They started passing the GI bug around again last week. Abby, Izzy, Josh and I have had it. Olivia had a touch of it and everyone else so far has been safe. Hopefully it will stop there, as Mema can't afford to get it again - ok, WE can't afford for Mema to get it again. She is convinced that everytime she gets sick, it is the sickest she has ever been. I have to remind her that in her now 87 years (TODAY) of living, she HAS to have been sicker than this at least once!

Well, the word is out. I am training for a 5K. When I thought of it and roped and or persuaded some co-workers to do it with me, another co-worker laughed. She said that it was not that big of a deal. I would beg to differ! I have always wanted to run. I thought it would be the most perfect exercise - just walk out the door and go. However, I have never been able to get over the whole "I can't breathe" part. Well, I found a "couch to 5 K" training program and have been working at it. I am up to running 8 minutes at a time - about 2 1/2 miles. I actually find myself WANTING to go out and exercise. Wow - I didn't think those words would ever come out of my mouth. Well, when looking for an event to run, we had to time it out so that we would have time to train. The Cowtown was out - TOO COLD. We found the MS walk and 5K. We have a co-worker with MS and I have a dear friend who also suffers with MS. I do this in their honor. Here is the site to my fundraising page if you feel so moved.

We recently spent a night at the Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine. It was fun, but I wouldn't do it again. Too much money and Too many people. I'll get some pictures up soon.

Ice Day

2009-01-28T09:58:00.004-06:00

We knew last night that school wouldn't start until 10 am. We slept until 8 - well Rocky and I slept until 8. I think everyone else was up. At about 8:45 I sat down at the computer while talking to my co-worker to see if I needed to come in to help and I got an email that school was closed. Rocky was really happy and of course the kids were too. I was wondering how things were going to thaw out in time to go to school because the road in front of my house is SOLID ice. Here are some pictures from just now outside. Now - take note - no broken bones. This is how I broke my arm when I was in 3rd grade...

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Funny things in my dryer

2009-01-27T22:17:00.003-06:00

Well, you would think with 7 children I had seen everything come through my dryer. We have had the markers, crayons, coins, rocks, legos and other toys, chapstick and I am sure many other things. I can remember the crayons. Someone had wrapped up crayons in a blanket or something I washed. It was the day of the garage sale. It was COLD and I was trying to do laundry too. I went to the dryer and everything was multicolor! The chapstick was the other day. I don't know who the culprit was but many things have oily stains on them now - don't tell Rocky....

Well, here is what I found just now!
Yes - that is a miniature rubber chicken.

Also, we just got notice that school will officially start at 10am - well, that is until they get up in the morning and realize it might not thaw out until after 12. Oh well, at least we can sleep late, right?

This week...

2009-01-23T21:30:00.003-06:00

This week...Emily won the school spelling bee - the WHOLE thing. I guess the next step for her is the District Bee. She was so excited and embarrassed at the same time. I was at work and Rocky was texting me her place (final four, final two, etc) and then when she won, Emily said he cried like a girl. Here is a picture of her and the trophy - which is almost as big as she is!

This week...We had a baby reach 20 pounds. Anyone care to guess which one? Here are their growth charts...

You guessed it - Isabelle! Go Izzy!
Dad helped me take them to see the pulmonary clinic today. We have totally reached the stage that I cannot take them to the doctor by myself. If we were to use the stroller, they don't want to stay in it. I can't carry both car seats by myself very far - in to daycare is about to kill my back. They both got two shots to help protect them against RSV. So far, they are doing very well. They started back with runny noses, but no fevers, etc. One more round of shots at the end of February, and then they will not need them next year.

This has been a very emotional week, and we appreciate those of you who have been praying for us. We have (or at least I have) felt a real peace surrounding the "happenings". Thank You.

First Dates and First Words

2009-01-19T21:29:00.002-06:00

This evening I went in to pick up Abby from Rocky who was having trouble getting her to sleep. She perked her head up from behind the couch, looked at me and said "mama". Clear as you please, loud and directly TO me! I think that is a first for either. They both babble, and will repeat sounds, but to associate the name with a person is a first. Wow, how big they are getting.

We won't talk about the other first that happened today.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2009-01-01T22:42:00.003-06:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday. We did. It was busy, relaxing, tiring and restful all in one. Rocky is off until next Monday. I took off a few days around Christmas, and was off today, and maybe tomorrow. Today and tomorrow are cooking days. I am putting up meals for the next month. I found a collection of recipes that I have been making up and freezing so that dinner can be quicker and with less thought (that is if I remember to thaw it out the night before...). When I find the camera, I'll post some pictures of Christmas. It was really nice this year not to have to run out after lunch to see the girls at the hospital this year. It is also so strange to think of where we were this time last year. The girls have gotten so big and are doing so well. Olivia is such a sweet little girl. We were commenting just yesterday how sad it was that she never really got to be the "baby". Matthew is turning into a really great little man. He is still having some "toddler" issues, but overall, when he is well rested, he is a wonderful little boy. Caleb has turned into a really great big brother. We are trying the "buddy" system around here for trips out, bath help and putting laundry away. If it works well, it might be expanded. He is really bonding with the Girls, and is good at "babysitting" them so we can get something done and watches them in the bath for us while we get jammies out, etc. Emily is my mother hen. She is really good with Matthew and Olivia, and they really prefer her sometimes to Rocky and I. We have made Olivia her little buddy, mainly because they share a room. Joshua is working to define who he is as a teenager, and sometimes that means conflict with his siblings. He is working on developing a good relationship with Matthew, who is his buddy. Josh really enjoys being the big brother to the little ones.

I hope everyone has made their resolutions and a plan for sticking with it! There are a few of us at work who have decided to train for a 5K. We found a "couch to 5K" training program online and will be entering the MS 5K at the end of March. Who knows where this will go! I certainly don't see myself in a marathon, but maybe a half marathon? Who knows. Here's to a wonderful 2009!!!

Four Shots

2008-12-23T22:23:00.005-06:00

Well, today was another visit to the pulmonologist and more shots. They are receiving a medication to help prevent RSV this winter. They are big enough that they now need two shots of the medication, one in each leg. This visit, I had to work so Rocky brought the girls to the office and we went together. Then we had lunch in the cafeteria before he went home to rescue Gramma and Grampa from the other kiddos! The girls are now on breathing treatments 3 times a day and steroids twice a day for the next 5 days. If they are not better by monday, we are to call the doctor back to see where to go from here. He believes that they have just picked up a virus that has caused their Reactive Airway Disease (from prematurity, etc) to flare up. Isabelle has now passed up Abby by nearly a pound. She weighed in at 19 lbs 2 oz and almost 29 inches. Abby was 18 lbs 5 ounces and 28 inches. No wonder the are so heavy in their car seats!

This weekend was really busy. I made cookies and candy on Saturday and then on Sunday the kids and Mema decorated the cookies we made. There are a FEW left over for santa, but not many! That's ok, I hear Santa doesn't need that many cookies, anyway!

Here are some pictures of the girls in their Christmas dresses, and then my 4 girls together. Olivia was not really keen on posing for a picture, but we tried. Isabelle now has 6 teeth. She has cut 4 on the top and 2 on the bottom now. Abby is behind with just the 4 (two on top and two on bottom). We will be spending tomorrow taking care of the last minute things for Christmas, cooking, cleaning and cooking and cleaning! Oh, and did I mention I am counting the loads of laundry I do this week, just to see. I started on Sunday and I am already up to 10 - How high do you think it will go?

We hope you have a blessed Christmas!

5 More days until Christmas!

2008-12-20T12:23:00.003-06:00

Today is a pretty relaxing day, if you call Wal-Mart at 8:30 am relaxing. Well, I guess it is better than Wal-Mart at 12:00 pm on a Saturday, 5 days before Christmas! I have been busy making cookies to give to friends, and will soon start rolling out cookies for the kids to decorate tomorrow for Santa, and US to eat! I have not wrapped ANYTHING at all - that will be tonight. I guess the kids haven't noticed, as none of them has asked where the presents are. I hate to wrap them as I get them because I don't want to hear the "so-and-so has X number of presents, and I only have X" whining. It's better that they just appear one morning.

On a more relaxing front - the girls are pretty consistently sleeping all night. This morning I awoke at 7:30 - NO ONE was crying, up, or in bed with us! At 8, Emily came down and said someone was crying. Thus all the girls were up. That's OK, I'll take 12 hours of sleeping babies!

Today is my Mom's birthday. Rocky's parents are going to come over and watch the kids, eat dinner with them, and put them lovingly to bed while we take them out to eat at a REALLY nice place. I'll save the place for later, as it is a surprise!

Oh, well. Back to baking!

It finally happened!

2008-12-08T11:05:00.003-06:00

Well, sort of. I put the girls down last night, upstairs, in separate beds. GUESS what happened? Well - I woke Abby up this morning to get her dressed for school! Izzy had different ideas last night. She wanted some one-on-one bonding time with mommy. She got it! Well, it was definately less painful waking up to one baby between us rather than two. I did warn the daycare that Abby was probably REALLY hungry, as she had gone from 9:30 to past 7am without eating. She did cry all the way to daycare, but stopped when I pulled in the parking lot. Way to go girls! Maybe our no-sleep-sore-back-no-room-in-the-bed days are coming to an end!

TTTS Awareness day

2008-12-05T10:56:00.003-06:00

I just stumbled upon the Twin to Twin Transfusion Website the other day and noticed that December 7th is World Awareness day for TTTS. I am working on getting a fundraising page up, but if you would like to contribute, please go to the TTTS Foundation webpage and you can donate from there. It's amazing, as we just past the girls 1 year birthday, where we were last year at this time. Even though we didn't progress to the laser treatment and/or we didn't have to choose which one of our girls would live, I am forever grateful to the Doctors, nurses and other staff in Houston for their care and concern. We made 7 painful (just long) trips there and came home each time with healthy babies. I'll never forget the whirlwind events the few days before they were born. I didn't have a good feeling the week before I was admitted, and I had actually scheduled another visit to Houston to have things looked at again. I never got to make that trip. I am so grateful that I listened to my body. By the Sunday before the girls were born, I was having difficulty sitting on the couch and getting a big breath. It turns out, Abby was doing worse and her fluid had increased. Some of the extra fluid was removed on Monday and my doctor told me I was in the hospital for the long haul. I spent the rest of the day making sure that I had all the necessary things for a few months in the hospital - toiletries and a laptop! What else do you need? The next day, things were ok and we celebrated Olivia's birthday in my hospital room. By wednesday, things were looking grim again and the delivery was scheduled.

All this to say - thank you to everyone who helped us through this most stressful time in our lives - we couldn't have done it without you. If you feel like giving back to someone - please consider the TTTS foundation, as they were very quick to mail us resources free of charge. These were invaluable in helping us understand in detail what was going on. Have a wonderful week!

Luau Pictures

2008-12-03T17:13:00.001-06:00

Here are some of the pictures from the Luau. We had a relaxing day on Sunday, the day after and opened presents. It was wonderful that way - not rushed, etc. I tried to get pictures of everone with their respective gifts, but soon they tired of that. Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

What a difference 365 days makes!

2008-11-16T21:17:00.002-06:00

Abigail Hope Then...
Abigail Hope Now...
Isabelle Joy Then...
Isabelle Joy Now...

Birthday News

2008-11-14T23:49:00.002-06:00

Well, we have passed all 4 birthdays in three days. Matthew turned 4 on November 11th, Olivia turned 2 on November 13 and today was Abigail and Isabelle's first birthday. We had cake twice this week and celebrated at dinner. Today, not even one picture of the girls on their first birthday. Oh, well - that will change tomorrow. We will be having the grandaddy of all parties tomorrow night. I'll post many pictures, but we have been busy all week with preparations. I took off this week to get the house ready, shop and cook. I'm exhausted. I'm almost ready to go back to work. (ALMOST). Anyway, more tomorrow!

Halloween Night

2008-11-01T06:23:00.004-06:00

Well, instead of trick-or-treating the usual way this year, we went to "Old Town" and participated in the first annual BOO BASH. Everyone in the community came together for one HUGE block party. Some of the local churches and businesses, instead of having their own independent events, had booths, cars, bounce houses, etc in the streets of Old Town. I think they were predicting a few thousand people. It was way more than that. There were people everywhere. I will be interested in finding out how many people there actually were. I really like things like that, even though they are crowded, you always run into someone you haven't seen in ages. Mom went with us and Dad stayed here with Mema to hand out candy. Mom hadn't realized how much a magnet the twins were. Everyone would stop to admire, compare twin stories, etc. There is such a bond between families of multiples you don't realize until you have them. It's so neat to compare stories, get and give advice and just commiserate sometimes! Anyway, enjoy the pictures.
Joshua, dressed up as, well, a 13 year old 7th grader trying to be cool but still wanting candy.
Caleb, the pirate, arrrrrrrg.
Emily the Mad Scientist, who said she wanted to be a cheerleader again next year...
Olivia, the Pixie. What is a pixie, anyway? CUTE.
Matthew the Spider.
Isabelle, the baby...

and Abigail the baby.

Here is everyone. I had to dress up as 50's for work, so Rocky just did a quick change from PJ's to match me. Maybe I should have changed into PJ's to match him. Oh well. Have a great saturday. We will be doing the soccer thing all day!

Pumpkins and Halloween Morning

2008-10-31T06:59:00.003-06:00

This morning before I took the kids to Daycare, we stopped on the front porch for a quick picture. How cute are my 4 littlest pumpkins! (Isabelle is on the Left - I know, wrong, but it was a quick picture)

Pictures

2008-10-30T19:53:00.003-06:00

Here are some pictures from our weekend away.

Caleb's Prayer

2008-10-30T18:41:00.001-06:00

Caleb was going up the stairs and found a wooden block he mad in RA's a few weeks ago at church. It is a prayer wheel. Today he is to pray for school. He asked that when I was done on the computer, would I pray with him. Here is his prayer: "Dear Jesus, Thank you for our Teachers. If we didn't have teachers, we would all be bored at home. Thank you for school. Amen."

Today it did, and other happenings

2008-10-29T21:51:00.002-06:00

Things have been pretty busy around here lately. Joshua is busy with Band and the youth group at church. Emily and Caleb are enjoying the last few weeks of soccer. Matthew and Olivia enjoy playing outside and eating popsicles on the picnic table under the swingset and the new sand daddy put in the sand box this weekend. Abigail and Isabelle are busy pulling up, cruising and keeping mommy and daddy up at night. I also had a birthday. Rocky surprised me and took me out of town this weekend, WITHOUT children - thanks to Mom and Dad, John and Louann, Sherry, Riki and the Youth Group at Oak Grove for watching all our kiddos. We went to a Bed and Breakfast that we enjoyed a few years ago. It is in Kyle and it is called The Inn Above Onion Creek. It is really beautiful. There are no onions, and the creek is dried up, but it is pretty all the same. I'll post pictures later when I have more time. It was too short, but really wonderful. I had a 2 hour massage while Rocky had a little alone time. We had a wonderful dinner and a beautiful walk back to our cottage in the dark, amongst the Cattle. (Ask Rocky about his unreasonable fear of Cows sometime). We came home and went out to eat at Outback with all of our dear friends: Shay and Marcus, Becky and Jay, Sherry and Steven, Liz and David and Jim (Robin was out of town). Jim and Jennifer were with us in spirit. We had a wonderful time. Thanks, guys for making a difficult birthday fun!

Well, not too often I tell a Mema story, but here is one that everyone will get a kick out of. The other day, Rocky had her helping to make juice before bed so they could enjoy it for breakfast. The next morning, everyone got juice. No one said anything, but it was really watery. I just figured Rocky deliberately watered it down to make it last longer, and the kids don't need any additional sugar anyway. Well, later that evening, Rocky asked Mema about it. She said she followed the directions precicely and put 3 cans per one of juice. She made two pitchers. Rocky tried to explain that there is no way that 3 cans of water and one of juice could possibly fill up 2 pitchers. She argued with him and said that she did just that. Three cans of water. Again, Rocky trying to get to the bottom of the watery juice, pressed the subject saying agan that 3 cans of water could in no way fill up 2 pitchers. Her reply was - "well they did today".

My Baby!

2008-09-27T23:17:00.004-05:00

My baby is almost 13. I am almost the mother of a teenager. That just doesn't seem possible to me - throw in the fact that in less than a month, I will be entering another decade of my life and this has the makings of a really crummy end of the year for me. Last night, Josh and some of his friends had a sleep-over after we took them out to Razzoos. We had a really nice night. We got in and out and were back home in 2 hours (thank you Grammy and Grampy) for watching the other kiddos so we could enjoy time with our "soon-to-be teen". As I type this, it is 11:19 pm, less than an hour from the actual time of birth (11:59 pm). His goal is to say up until then. Good thing he took a nap today, since I don't think there was much sleeping going on upstairs last night. (also, one major design flaw of our house - the playroom is directly over our bedroom, as is the air hockey table). Oops. Well, here are some pictures of my baby!

I guess that I can "out" Josh in that if you look closely, the shirt in the pictures from last night and the last picture taken a few minutes ago is one in the same. I am told that at some point in the teen years, the boys start bathing like 6 times a day. Please tell me that happens the day they turn 13!

Julie

TEETH!

2008-09-22T13:17:00.002-05:00

Well, Abby and Izzy both have one tooth each - so I guess we could say "teeth". Saturday, Caleb lost a tooth and the girls seemed to have found it. They each are sporting a very small, but everpresent bump on the bottom left. You can't see it yet, just feel it. Now you will draw back a very wet finger when trying to feel said teeth, but they are there. They are also crawling up a storm, and they are starting to want to pull up. Isabelle pulled up to her bumbo seat saturday. They are getting there.

Now - Save the date. We are going to have a BIG party for the girls first birthday, Olivia's second birthday and Matthew's fourth birthday. November 15th - details to come!

More later, Julie

Labor Day

2008-09-01T20:56:00.003-05:00

Well, we had a great holiday. Everyone came over and we had a wonderful Luau. We had Kalua Pig, chicken long rice, mac salad, sticky rice, shoyu chicken, spam musubi, fruit salad and coconut pie. It was a wonderful day. The kids played outside in the sprinklers and had water balloon fights and Abby learned to crawl - forward.

The First Day of School

2008-08-27T22:22:00.003-05:00

Well, I guess officially it is not the first day for the smaller 4, but here is the picture so humor me. We are off and running. After school, Caleb had soccer practice. I took all the paperwork for the 3 oldest to fill out. Too bad they just can't have a district wide database for all the emergency numbers, addresses, etc. And how many "Code of Conduct" books do we need exactly. The amount of paper that I threw away, wow. Oh, well - here is the picture.

Too bad I forgot to move the girl's toys out of the way, but you know what they look like.

Sitting Up and Getting Wet

2008-08-24T20:47:00.007-05:00

Well, the girls are on their way to crawling. They are getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth and today we tried sitting. They actually did it. I have a feeling that they will be doing a lot of catching up in the next month or so. They go back to the pulmonologist this week to evaluate for Synagis again this year. Hopefully they will be able to get it, especially since they are in daycare now. Speaking of daycare, we are starting our 3rd week. Everyone is doing well, just slight runny noses and hopefully nothing more serious creeps up.

We have spent the last two saturdays with both of our parents putting together the playset that has been making our garage smell good for about the last 6 weeks. It looks great and it is DONE! I put the periscope and pirates ship wheel up tonight. We got the slide up just as a MAJOR thunderstorm rolled through last night. We were all running for cover, picking up tools and cardboard trash from the backyard.

Caleb was baptized last week. Daddy did it. It was wonderful. Many people came up to me and said that Rocky had made them cry. I am so proud of him! Here are some pictures of that.

RAIN

2008-08-10T16:25:00.003-05:00

Well, it has been raining most of the day. It really hasn't mattered since I have been in class all day, but the evening is approaching and I was wanting to get out and go for a walk. I actually packed my exercise stuff - ready to walk. The gym in the hotel costs, and I may just fork it out. I really feel like I need to do something. There is a Clam Bake party tonight at the conference - hope they have Chicken (I don't eat clams). Rocky would be in heaven!

Forgot to tell you about the RATS I saw running from under the fence of Boston Commons onto the sidewalk to get pieces of food people had dropped. They were HUGE and really bold. They were like squirrls. Actually, they had probably eaten the squirrils and were moving on to bread crumbs. I couldn't believe how many of them there were! NASTY! I got pictures and I'll post later.

Live from Boston

2008-08-09T20:09:00.003-05:00

Well, I made it to Boston. It was a good flight, too long, but nice. Quick trip to the hotel for more money than I was told - but, I'm not in Texas any more. Got to the room, unpacked, made room for the Fridge that I have to rent for my stay to keep the breastmilk so I can bring it home, get out the pump and realize that I have made the most horrible mistake - again! I have forgotten a most important piece of my pump, the same piece that I forgot when I left for camp this year. Too bad someone isn't coming from home tomorrow to bring it to me. I called mom, in tears and she looked into shipping the part. Just to get it here by Monday was going to be $150 or so. NOT worth it. So - head to the Concierge desk and ask the poor GUY there to try to find me somewhere to find a breast pump. Probably not his most weird request, but close to it I would gather. BINGO - in the cab, off to Target, buy a NEW pump and then head back to hotel. PUMP. This will go in my book as one of the TOP stupid mistakes I have made (and expensive, too!) I then took off on a long walk to Boston Commons. It was a brisk 25 minute walk there. I also visited the "Cheers" store. The weather is really nice here - NOT 107 degrees, but a nice 80 or so, and once the sun goes down, it is supposed to be inthe 50-60 degree range. Too bad I can't sleep outside. I brought the camera, but didn't bring the cord, so no pictures for now. Oh well, they are not that interesting anyway.

On a side note - We gave the girls Bananas yesterday. I was wondering if it would go down easier if it tasted better than rice cereal. It made no difference for Abby, but Isabelle is really getting the hang of it. They will probably be walking by the time I get home wednesday...

My sweet girls and other stuff

2008-08-06T21:34:00.004-05:00

Well, the girls are growing so much. We go back to see the pulmonologist at the end of the month and will find out what the plan is for the winter. I am assuming that means another round of RSV shots. They are officially teething. They are VERY drooly and wet all the time. They might just eat their fingers for dinner soon. They put everything they can in their mouth. I got this cute picture last night. Abby has her arm around Izzy's neck. AWWWW
On other fronts, Josh and Emily are away at Pre-teen camp. I hope they are having a good time, and learning as well. Caleb really misses them. He is getting some good one-on-one time with the grandparents while they are gone, but he really misses them. I hope that they can appreciate that someday. Caleb really has a tender heart.

I will be travelling to Boston Saturday and returning on Wednesday for a Transplant Conference. I am going by myself, and will probably not have computer access for the entire time - yikes. I kidded about going and buying a laptop just for this trip, but that got poo-poo'd really fast. Too bad. Maybe they will have a business center that I can sneak in and keep somewhat up to date on everything. I hope the kids are easy on Rocky while I am gone. School is about to start. I think we are ready. I have been shoe shopping with the kids and only have Josh and Emily to finish up. I did the underwear shopping yesterday, without the kids. They will just be surprised. They probably won't even notice...Oh well. Off for laundry and to clean up...it never ends!

San Antonio

2008-07-25T19:48:00.005-05:00

We just returned from our quick trip to San Antonio. Mema didn't want to go with us, so she packed up and was off to her sister's house in Garland for the week. We last spoke with her last night and she was having a blast. They were going through old pictures and reminiscing. She sounded wonderful. So, back to our trip. We left sunday morning and headed for the riverwalk. It was quite an experience traversing the riverwalk with two strollers. People just don't understand physics, you can't be in the same place as me or my stroller. SOMEONE has to move, and I'm not going to dump my child in the river so you don't have to walk in the dirt for a minute! People kept asking us if we had Quads or two sets of twins. In the side by side stroller, Matthew and Olivia were almost the same size. We had a yummy mexican food dinner on the river, saw the Alamo and then headed for the hotel. Sleeping arrangements in the hotel room were less than optimal. Olivia has never slept somewhere other than her bed, so needless to say, at 11:00, she is still up, bouncing off the walls. Finally, Sleep. We get up, eat breakfast in shifts so we didn't have to take the girls downstairs, and load up to head for Sea World. We had never been, and didn't know quite what to expect, but it was good - HOT - but good. It was amazing to me that there was NO wait for the roller coasters, we just walked on but if you wanted to walk around all day with wet underwear from the log ride, you had to wait 1 1/2 hours! CRAZY! There is a water park on the other side of the lake - go jump in the wave pool if you are hot! I totally didn't get that. Well, the kids surprised us. Josh and Emily rode the Great White multiple times, and all three rode the Steel Eel. They did great. We saw Shamu and cousins, dolphins and other marine life. The shows were great. We headed back to the hotel for swimming time. This time, I took Olivia into the bathroom, sat on the floor with her and wrestled her to sleep, singing all the time. Finally, after about 30 minutes of screaming and fighting, she gave it up. She slept very well between Josh and Emily. We took out two drawers from the dressers, lined them with blankets, and voila, baby beds! Fast forward to the second day of Sea World. We decided to go to the water park first, as it has a tendency to fill up and you can't get in later in the day. It was nice, but Matthew just couldn't cope with the fact we would stay in one pool for a short time and then head to another. We had to drag him out kicking and screaming so we changed clothes and left to go see the rest of the park again. More roller coasters, shows and REALLY expensive chicken finger kids meals. We closed down the park on the second day (well, they close at 8pm). We stopped by Chick Fil A and took dinner back to the hotel. I had booked another night, not wanting to leave the park at night and drive all dirty and stinky - and believe me - we were stinky. Even the girls were nasty! We got up, did some laundry, packed and then headed for home. We stopped at the Stagecoach Inn in Salado for lunch and then home to pick up the dog. Here are some pictures of the trip!

Julie

Why Hello, Officer

2008-07-15T21:07:00.002-05:00

Tonight, right after dinner, the doorbell rings. I see through the front window that it is two police officers. I quickly run through my head why they would be at my door and can't come up with anything. They ask if everything is alright - it is - because someone has dialed 911 from our house. I quickly retrieve both phones - no dial tone. I check the bases to make sure all is ok, nothing. After about 5 minutes of quizzing each one of the children, I remember a phone from college that we have recently unearthed from the garage.

Turns out, one of the kids (that 8th child we have named "not me") has plugged it in upstairs and dialed 911. Well, we have Callnotes, where if you don't answer your phone, or if you are on the other line the answering service picks up. Turns out the police dispatcher had tried to call twice to check on us, and since there was no answer, sent out the police. I guess they saw all the children running around and felt sorry for us, certain that it was an accident and left. How embarrassing!

Happy Birthday

2008-07-14T18:55:00.003-05:00

Well, today is Abigail and Isabelle's 8 month birthday. So far, they are right on track for a 4-5 month old. Rolling over, drooling, starting rice cereal. They are not really going for the cereal too much. Isabelle actually swallowed some of it yesterday, but Abby just lets it roll out of her mouth. Olivia wasn't too fond of it either. I have some great video and pictures from last night I will post. On other fronts, we made it through all the performances of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" and are very happy to have our evenings at home again (well at least I am). We celebrated Grampy's birthday tonight with dinner and S'mores over the fire pit in the back yard. We will soon be putting together the playset we bought the kids - I'll let you know how that went in a few YEARS when we get it done. It really can't be that hard. A teenage boy and girl put it together in less than an hour on the DVD, right?

Doctor's Appointment Today

2008-07-01T16:15:00.003-05:00

Well, today we went to see the Pediatric Surgeon that I work with about the girl's tongues. They have Ankylglossia, otherwords, they are tongue tie. I noticed it after we brought them home from the hospital (why they didn't pick it up then, I don't know). All the information I had read was that it might resolve on its own, but it hasn't. I spoke with him a few weeks ago, and he said that he could take care of it in the office. Today was the day. It was really quick, but boy were the girls mad. They held them down, put an instrument under their tongue with a groove in it and clipped the frenulum with a pair of scissors. OUCH! They did pretty well, and despite a pretty good amount of blood recovered pretty quickly. Now we will see what impact it will have with their ability to suck and take baby food. We got the OK to try food last week after the pediatrician's visit and when Rocky got home Sunday, we did. It didn't go very well.

Lots of Happenings...

2008-06-27T07:04:00.004-05:00

Well, it has been a while since I posted last. So much has happened. Lets start with the girls. They turned 7 months old on the 14th. They are doing new things every day. They seem to be right on track for your average 4 month olds, even in size. We went to the doctor yesterday and they are....Drum Roll Please.... ON THE GROWTH CHART. They have had amazing growth this past few months. I will plot them out when I get a chance, but they are in the 50th percentile for their length! Isabelle has surpassed Abigail in the weight department. Izzy is 13 lbs 3 oz, and Abby is 12 lbs 7 oz. This is the first time ever Izzy has weighed more. They are both 25 inches long. No wonder they are starting to outgrow those 0-3 month clothes! They got 4 shots each, and are pretty fussy this morning. I have dosed each one with two doses of Ibuprofen, hoping to help them feel better. They both have fevers this time and are pretty crabby.

Now for everyone else. Rocky is in Nashville until Sunday night for a Teacher conference. He Left yesterday, our 15 year anniversary. He spent all day Wednesday helping to move our school into another campus where they will be for the next two years while they tear down our school and build a new one. He is really going to enjoy his temporary classroom. It's also closer to our house, so he won't have to travel across town to get there. The kids have been good and busy since he has left. Josh had Biology camp at UTA last week where he got to do all kinds of fun stuff, including dissecting a pig. This week he is at Lego camp at TCU. Last week was also Bible School for Caleb and Emily. This week, they are at Camp Invention. Matthew and Olivia are having fun playing with each other without all the other kids around.

I guess that is about it for now. I will try to post more often (said that before), but I just can't seem to find time to sit down and do it, (wonder why?).

Home from camp

2008-06-09T13:27:00.002-05:00

I am now home from camp. I returned to everyone else's summer break. Rocky is now home with everyone, while I increase my hours back to full time. Yuck. I have been enjoying working just 3 short days a week.

The girls are doing well. They both turned over from front to back yesterday. Abigail was reaching for and playing with the catepillar on her car seat yesterday, and Isabelle will smile from ear to ear whe you talk to her, sometimes belly laughing. I will try to post more pictures soon!

Julie

Happy Birthday

2008-05-15T19:36:00.006-05:00

Well, Yesterday was the girls 6 month birthday! We celebrated at Chili's. Imagine all 10 of us at Chili's at 7:00. Needless to say, we waited for quite a while for a table, and then sat in the Bar. The kids were really pretty good, considering we waited almost an hour for a table. Abby is rolling over front to back when she is mad, and Izzy is really smiling and laughing. They are both fascinated by these hand things that keep moving in front of their faces. Where are they coming from? We did our part to stimulate the economy. We spent part of our incentive check on this. Thanks President Bush, we have really appreciated it! The rest will go to bills - sorry. Even with the best of cameras, it is hard to capture a moving object (Olivia) but here is the best we came up with.

Mom and Her Boys

Mom and Her Girls

Mother and her Ducklings

Mom, Emily and part of Caleb after Church

The Great Grandmothers

Olivia

Caleb

Uncle David and Abby

Michael and Matthew on Mother's Day

Joshua and Izzy

Matthew at Emily's soccer game

Abby and Izzy

Mom and babies - 6 months old

Bumbo time

Girls Growth

2008-05-08T15:40:00.004-05:00

I stumbled across this neat growth chart online somewhere. My girls are ALMOST ON the growth chart! Look

Abby's Weight

Abby's Length

Izzy's Weight

Izzy's Length

I couldn't put their starting weights and lengths in, the program said they had to be greater than 4 pounds - guess they started out early not listening to directions.

Barf is at our house for a visit

2008-05-02T22:11:00.001-05:00

I'm sorry to say that we have Barf at our house. Now, Barf's cousin, Spit-up has visited Abigail and Isabelle pretty much since birth. Spit-up is not quite as evil as it's cousin, Barf. Barf is bad. Barf visited me on Wednesday, Rocky and Joshua today, and who knows who it will visit next. Will it be Emily or Caleb on the soccer field tomorrow? Will it be Matthew or Olivia on the Trampoline? Barf visited Mema a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully, he won't visit her again, that would be an overstayed welcome (welcome?). Anyway - sorry Christine!

Our Big Girls

2008-05-02T16:46:00.003-05:00

I will have to update later with pictures but as of their appointments last week, the girls weighed the same - 9 lbs 10 oz! Their lengths were the same also. They are doing well. Eating well, spitting up well, starting to have some personalities, smiling at times...

Everyone is so busy finishing up school, soccer and getting ready for Mommy to go away for her weeklong "vacation" to Camp Reynal, held at Camp John Marc.

Pictures to come soon!

Happy Birthday, and other things

2008-04-14T21:26:00.003-05:00

WOW! The girls are 5 months old. I can't believe it was only 5 short months ago that I was calling Rocky on the phone to get to the hospital quick, that the babies were going to be born. Or that we have had them home with us for only 3 months. Time is a really funny thing. Quick in one moment and slow in another. Rocky is missing the girls birthday. He is at Sky Ranch with school until Thursday. I am a single parent. It is not easy, and I am really tired. I will make do. I am constantly saddened and overwhelmed over the last day or so thinking about Audrey Caroline's parents and sisters. Not about Audrey, because she is sitting at Jesus' feet without a care in the world. I grieve for her parents and the emptiness in their arms, and for her sisters who have to wait a lifetime to play with her. Every time I think about her, I pray. I pray for their strength and peace in this situation, and I pray thanksgiving that all of our children are here, under our roof, alive and very well. That is something I really don't take for granted any more. I can still feel the emotions I felt when the girls were 2 days old and we didn't know if Abby would make it. I sat by Isabelle's bed because they were working on Abby and cried - for Abby, for Izzy and for myself. I sat in the family room and wept, begging God not to take her from me. I cried about how unfair it was that we were in this situation. Those emotions are still so fresh, and I almost hope that they stay that way. It helps me remember the humanness of us, and how fragile life is. I am trying to get over the fact that my house will not EVER look like a model home. There will always be a pile of shoes and socks by the front door, there will always be junk in the basket by the stairs to go up, and there will always be clutter in my kitchen...I just won't even go upstairs! These things are really not important, but it is the books we read at bedtime and the flowers we look at outside that are what matter. I hope I can always remember that. Good night.

Quiet is not always a good thing

2008-04-13T22:31:00.007-05:00

As a mother of 7 children, I really relish and enjoy the quiet that rarely comes. Well, it would seem that you must actually know where everyone is and what everyone is doing to enjoy that quiet. Here was Olivia's quiet activity yesterday.

On a more serious note, my friend Christine posted about this blog. Please check it out and keep them in your prayers. Keep a box of tissue handy (thanks Olivia)! What incredible strength this family has.

My weight loss journey

2008-04-07T21:32:00.003-05:00

I find myself frustrated with trying to lose the baby weight from 7 kids (yes, I still blame some of it on Joshua). I want to be that mom that everyone looks at and can't believe that I have seven kids - not the look of "are you nuts to have that many", but from the awesomeness of how I look! I know it is crazy, but we all have our hangups, and I still see myself that skinny girl that wore a size 5 when I got married. Now, I don't know that my goal would be a size 5 again (we can all dream), but I am definitely not pleased with where I am. I started back at Weight Watchers again in January, and have been gaining and losing about the same 7 pounds since then. I figured if I put it out there, I would have some accountability. Someone watching to see how I am doing, and maybe I could try harder to do that extra flight of stairs, or walk around the block, or not eat that chocolate bunny! I am including a tracker with my ACTUAL weight loss on it, not a fictional, made up number, but the actual amount I am losing (or not). I weigh in on Mondays with a wonderful leader. Her name is DeAnne, and you pop on over to her blog for some wonderful ideas and recipes anytime!

THEY SLEPT ALL NIGHT!

2008-04-07T21:29:00.002-05:00

What a momentous occasion in the Rudd Household. EVERYONE slept all night. We fed the girls between 10 and midnight or so, and they woke up at 5:30 am! How wonderful is that. Of course, it won't happen tonight, but it was nice while it lasted!

Easter Weekend

2008-03-26T17:51:00.005-06:00

Here are some pictures of our Easter weekend. Saturday we went to church for the big Easter egg hunt. Sunday we went to church and all the family came over for lunch.
How we sleep in the living room

Spin art

Grampa and Olivia "hunting" for eggs

Daddy trying to convience Matthew to pick up eggs

Their twin shirts!

4 generations

Easter Sunday after church

SEVEN POUNDS!

2008-03-19T19:51:00.003-06:00

Well, both girls are seven pounds. Abby is 7 lbs 11 oz and Izzy is 7 lbs 1 oz. Still 10 ounces apart, just like at birth. We went to the pulmonologist yesterday. We are going to leave Abby on the monitor until next month, just to make sure. I think the consensus is that there was some sort of infection, probably viral, that we couldn't get a sample of to identify. All is well now. I was looking through pictures of the girls since birth tonight and all we could come up with to say was "God is Good!" That is so true. Looking at how small and helpless they were, hooked up to all the machines and equipment, it is truely a miracle that they are with us today. I thank God every time I look into their beautiful faces. I can't wait to watch them grow up. It really is humbling to stop and look into ALL my kids faces, take a deep breath, and realize how fast everything is going by. How Joshua is about to be 13, then he will be driving and then he will be off to college. Don't close your eyes or it will be gone!

A day at the Doctor

2008-03-12T20:39:00.004-06:00

Well, Abigail had her follow up appointment with the pediatrician following her "episode" Saturday. He said all looks good. I had Isabelle seen also, as she started this horrible cough last night. He agreed she sounded rattly, so she got a breathing treatment and a machine to take home. Now we are giving nebulizers every 4 hours for the next few days. He had blood drawn from each girl, and was shocked when their Blood counts were almost identical. Their White Blood Count (showing infection somewhere/some type) were both in the same elevated range, and they were both anemic to the same degree. We have increased the iron to battle the anemia and hopefully should see some results in the next month or so. He was concerned that Isabelle was showing the same signs of infection that Abby was, so she got a shot of antibiotics in her leg. Abby had 48 hours of them in the hospital and he had no way of knowing if Izzy's infection was on the same track or behind Abbys. He did not want to put her on a monitor also. We will just pray for her not to follow in her sister's footprints.

On a lighter note, Abby weighs 7 lbs 3 oz (that's right, SEVEN pounds!) and Izzy is following her at 6 lbs 12 oz. She is gaining on her sister every time we weigh!

We came on home and hosted lunch for the teachers on Rocky's vertical team. The weather was so nice, when I went to pick up the kids, they came home and didn't take too much prodding to go outside. Emily was sketching her siblings (though none of them would sit still for her). Caleb was buliding a fort with Mema holding down the pieces in the wind. Matthew was running between the jeep (which has a dead battery) and tearing up the fort that Matthew as building. Olivia just was happy feeling like she was in the mix. She would go sit in the jeep for a while, then come inside to check on me for a while, falling over the doorstep or the step down to the grass from the patio every time.

Here are some pictures...

We're home...again

2008-03-11T08:43:00.003-06:00

Well, as some may know, Abigail had an apnea spell on saturday. She was not breathing, and if I had gotten to checking her pulse, I am sure it was not there. I had just sat down to nurse them both, when I looked down and Abby was blue. She was not breathing. I gave her some breaths, and then she took a big gasp and started to become less purple. She never really did cry, or turn back to pink so we called the ambulance. She grunted all the way to the hospital, and we were not about to let her go to sleep. I was able to hold her in the Amulance and keep her awake. We went to Cooks, and since this was an unexplained episode, and she had had a fever last wednesday night, they did a full septic work-up. This included blood culture, urine culture and a spinal tap. We also had a chest x-ray and a CT scan of her head. Everything was normal. She had an elevated white count - which could show infection (probably viral since all the cultures were negetave) or it could increase in response to the "near death" experience she had. We will probably never know what caused it. At one point the doctor even mentioned SIDS (which we rescued her from) as a cause. At any rate, she is back on the cardiac monitor - which is FINE with us. I was really wanting one for Isabelle, also, but just have to pray that all is ok. I am home today, trying to get things caught up in the house, and caught up on some rest. Here are some pictures from our stay.

How Identical Are They?

2008-03-05T14:44:00.006-06:00

People are often asking us how we tell them apart. The truth is, they are getting harder and harder to tell apart as they lose that "preemie" look. I took some pictures last night and here are our hints.
Here are the back of their heads. Note the Hemangioma on the back of Isabelle's head.

Here are their belly buttons. Isabelle has an umbilical hernia. We hope that this will close on it's own, but if not, she will need surgery to correct it.

Here are thier ears. Abby is on the left, Izzy is on the right.

We are really enjoying them, trying as it may be at times. We're up for the challenge. We actually went out for our first outing ALL TOGETHER, (other than to church) Saturday night. Emily had an awards banquet for Cheerleading. It was nice, but as soon as the food was done, Rocky took Caleb, Matthew and Olivia home. Here is Emily with her trophy.

And here are a couple of pictures of Olivia and I holding the twins. She is really taking to them. Sometimes "hitting" them out of love. We're working on "gentle".

All is WELL

2008-03-04T08:49:00.003-06:00

I know many of you have been waiting to hear about Isabelle's head sonogram. We had it repeated on friday, and the doctor called yesterday and all is well. No need for follow-up, and the fluid has actually decreased. I am home today and tomorrow, enjoying the nasty cold weather. Hopefully I will have time to get some more pictures taken and up. Also, tomorrow is Emily's 10th birthday! She is excited, but bummed - as the TAKS test is on her birthday.

On Laundry...

2008-02-28T18:06:00.007-06:00

Well, people often ask how laundry is at our house. I have to admit with 10 people, it tends to pile up. I told Rocky the other day, if we just didn't wear any, it would be more time for me to do something more useful with my time. Take today, I had 5 loads done and on the table to fold by 10 am or so. Luckily it was my day off. Hopefully by this evening it will all be put away in it's place. I still have one in the dryer and one in the washer (don't you always have that?) and about 3 more to do today. Phew, I'm tired just thinking about it. I will just think of it as exercise going up and down the stairs a million times.

On another note, the girls went to the doctor today for their checkup. They each got 2 shots and Abigail weighs 6 lbs 15.5 oz, Isabelle weighs 6 lbs 9 oz. They are the same length and the same head circumference. They are just growing and healthy - all thanks to those who prayed, and our Jesus who made them so!

As promised, but a day late...here is the dining room table!

Olivia's First Pigtails

2008-02-14T21:54:00.003-06:00

Olivia was home from "school" sick today with Grammy and here is what they did...PIGTAILS! How big she looks.

Latest News

2008-02-09T20:18:00.000-06:00

The girls are just growing and growing! We went to the lung doctor yesterday for their RSV shots. He was pleased that they were both off oxygen, and gave us a note that we could have the equipment picked up! No more oxygen tanks around the house, checking sats three times a day, etc. He also said we could give up the heart monitors. I was hesitant, so he is going to let us keep them for another month. They really give us peace of mind, especially when we are busy and aren't in the room all the time watching them breathe! They have not had any alarms in almost 2 weeks. I did take them off today, just to try to wean MYSELF off of them.

Their latest weights......Isabelle is 6 lbs even, Abigail is 6 lbs 9.5 oz. Abby has now passed Emily and Matthew's birth weights of 6 lbs 6 oz! They still seem so small to us!

We'll post more pictures soon.

Welcome Home Mema

2008-02-01T21:31:00.000-06:00

Tonight marks 24 hours that our house is complete once again. Mema has been home since yesterday, the girls are home, and we are trying to adjust to life here without Getaw. It seems ok. I think we are all at peace with him being gone. We all knew that it was time, that he wasn't who he once was - and probably wouldn't like who he had become and how he was having to live.
After dinner, everyone needed a bath. Before I came in to bathe Matthew and Olivia, I grabbed this picture of the girls, face to face. It calmed them down somewhat until I could get to them.

The Babies are Here

2007-11-16T06:59:00.000-06:00

November 14th, 2007 at 1:06 and 1:07 pm, Abigail Hope and Isabelle Joy were born. Abigail was 2 lbs 10 1/2 ounces, Isabelle was 2 lbs. They are in the NICU and fighting hard. I will post pictures when I have access to do so. They will probably be here for a while, and I should be leaving Sunday or Monday.

Your prayers are greatly appreciated.

Catching up...

2007-10-21T19:27:00.002-05:00

Well, we have been in the house since August 1st. It has been an exciting, tiring and fun adventure. We have had a car flood and totaled, another 2 cars broken into, and found out we are pregnant with twins! Yes, Twins! We have also found out that they are identical girls, sharing a placenta and have been diagnosed with Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome. We have been making weekly trips to Houston to see specailsts there since September 12th and all is stable for now. we are making our last trip tomorrow. Rocky's sister got married. Joshua, Emily and Matthew were in the wedding. Here is a picture from that.
While enjoying the evening outside, here is a picture we took outside. It was a beautiful evening.
I promise I will try to keep this blog more up to date! Gotta get kids in bed now...

THE HOUSE IS DONE!

2007-07-22T21:02:00.000-05:00

Well, basically. We haven't done our final walk-through yet, and there are some little things they need to correct, but it is ready. We should be closing on the 31st and moving that weekend! We can't wait. While it is really sad to leave our house of almost 11 years because of all the memories here - we will make so many more memories at our new home! I'll post pictures soon.

Almost Ready

2007-07-19T08:39:00.001-05:00

Well, the outside is done, and the finishing touches on the inside are almost done. We have been told that we should be ready to close by the 31st. Plans are frantically in the works to get our current house sold. Tuesday, we got our blinds and the garage door opener. Yesterday we got our stove and mirowave. They have also been through marking things that need to be fixed with tape. I still see many other things that need to be touched up. I hope they will give us some "dots" to go around the house and mark the things we see. I am starting to pack again this week! Hopefuly we will be moving in the first weekend in August!

Getting Close

2007-07-14T12:17:00.000-05:00

Well, here is the outside. Yesterday they put down the grass and had the sprinklers going. How awesome!

Here is the master bath. There was no electricity this day, but yesterday there was!

This is the kitchen. All we are waiting for is appliances. We bought a new fridge to go in the kitchen - yea us! So our old one will go out in the garage for extra storage space! We really need it.

Progress, Progress!!!

2007-07-11T22:53:00.000-05:00

Well, I don't have any pictures today. I have been too busy with our production of "Guys and Dolls", but had a few minutes to stop by before dress rehearsal. Let's start with the outside: the fence is up (gate is on the wrong side...), landscaping is in (not the grass yet), sprinklers are in, outside is painted. From what I can see on the inside: our front door is on - and locked!, wood floors are in, carpet is in (on the stairs so I assume the rest is done), some of the moulding is up, and they moved the handrail to the stairs to the other side and wrapped it around the wall better so that it is not sticking out so much! It seemed like a very productive day. I just wish we could get a key so that we could look inside! I guess it will make it seem more special when we do get to see it.

On the down side, when leaving the house, I ran over something and ended up with a flat tire a few blocks down. One more thing to do tomorrow! I started changing it and Dad came and finished it up so that Rocky didn't have to get out with all the kids.

Current progress - SLOW

2007-07-07T09:28:00.000-05:00

We are now at a point where if they really buckled down, they could be finished in a few weeks. We were originally looking at the first week in August, but when talking to the finance company, she stated we were on the completion report for August 12th. Hopefully it will be before that!

Here are some recent pictures. Yesterday, they came in and cleaned up pretty well and taped off some things for the final paint job. Maybe they will do that today!

Paint and Brick

2007-06-23T12:32:00.000-05:00

They started bricking on the 11th of June and finished on the 22nd. We also now have some paint, trim, doors, tile, cabinets, bathroom counters and doorknobs.

June 11th - starting the brick

June 13th - the master bath (and Matthew)

June 15th - bricked fireplace

June 15th - kitchen cabinets

June 22nd - outside complete

June 22nd - master bath

There is a huge pile of leftover rock in the front yard we decided to haul into the garage to save for flowerbed edging and future building projects. Thanks to the neighbor across the street who let us borrow her yard cart. The kids worked so hard. Afterward we went for shave ice! That was the best part.

The day of drywall

2007-06-23T11:48:00.000-05:00

They have now told us that we should be in the house approximately 60 days after the completion of drywall. That puts us in the first of August.

June 7th - looking into the kitchen

June 7th - master bath

June 7th - the girls room

The house continued...

2007-05-22T22:53:00.000-05:00

Progress is being made, but slowly now.

May 17th. This is the back of the house.

May 17th. The electrical is pulled, and when we stopped by, our new neighbors came by for a visit.
May 20th. This is my new ginormous master shower. Notice the ledge all the way around!

May 20th. They have painted all the bottom half of the studs green. Don't know why...probably never will. But look, there is a phone jack!

A new beginning

2007-05-17T11:44:00.000-05:00

Well. Our little chaotic house is about to become a BIG chaotic house! We are now building a house to move in my grandparents. Some may say, "great, built in babysitters!", but it is actually us that will be caring for them. Now, these are my grandparents, not my husbands, but he is all for it. Our sense of family has really heightened lately, and we must take care of each other. Here are some pictures of the process of building our house.

February 11, 2007 - The process starts

February 16, 2007 - our sold sign!

March 23, 2007 - finally, steaks!

April 11, 2007 - form boards are up

April 18, 2007 - plumbing

April 26, 2007 - driveway ready

April 27, 2007 - foundation

May 3, 2007 - framing

May 4, 2007 - framing continues

May 7, 2007 - pouring the driveway

May 7, 2007 - walls

May 14, 2007 - plumbing and interior features

May 14, 2007 - brick delivered

May 15, 2007 - windows in, electrical boxes placed

Check in often for more updates on the house!