How long has it been?

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

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

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

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!

Want some?

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 -

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!