Brenna's New Style

Not long ago, Brenna was convinced she was turning into Rapunzel.  She told us she was never going to cut it!  You can imagine my surprise when this conversation occurred one morning before school as I was doing her hair:

Brenna: "Owwww, Mommy.  You're hurting me!"                   (add in some more whining and complaining as I am brushing her hair)

Me:  "Brenna, you have tangles just like Rapunzel.  The only way you won't have tangles is if you cut it all off."

Brenna: "Yeah, let's do that then."

What?!  That wasn't really my point at all.  I was completely shocked she said that.  She continued to tell me she wanted short hair.  I told her about Locks of Love and how she could send her hair in to help make wigs for kids with cancer.  I explained to her that some kids are so sick that they lose all of their hair.  By this point, she had made up her mind to cut her hair.  When I asked her if she was sure she wanted to cut it, she told me, "Yeah, I need to give it to the kids with the sickness."  I thought that was very sweet.

The picture below was taken at her school Christmas party.  They made reindeer antlers using their handprints and one of the moms drew red Rudolph noses on all the kids.  So cute!  This was her last day of long hair before her hair cut that afternoon.

My mom is a hair dresser so we headed over to Nanny's house after school for the big cut. 

Her new short hair with her natural curl.

I love her new cut when I dry it straight and curled under in a little bob.  I think it looks so cute.  I wasn't prepared for how much older she would look with her new hair style.  She is holding her long ponytail here.  It was 10 inches pulled straight!  We are having way fewer tears when getting ready in the morning.  She loves her new short hair.

San Antonio Trip

We went to San Antonio last weekend for a little family mini-vacation.  I love the Riverwalk at Christmas time.  It is lit up with thousands of lights draping down from the trees and the sidewalk is lined with the traditional white paper sacks with candles inside. 

 

Brenna loves staying in a hotel, so she was excited for weeks leading up to our little trip.  Our hotel was right on the Riverwalk.  You walked out to this patio and took some stairs down to the Riverwalk.  I attempted to get my kids to all look at me for a picture, but I wasn't successful.  Camdyn has mastered jumping recently and loves to jump now. At her last developmental exam, they were worried that she wasn't jumping yet. I told them I thought she would be jumping soon, and if she didn't, we would consider physical therapy again at that time.  Well, we thankfully won't be needing any therapy right now.  She wanted to jump down every step of the two flights of stairs leading down to the Riverwalk.  I told her we should walk down the steps and just jump on the last one, but she didn't agree and continued jumping down each step.  It was a slow process getting down those steps with her jumping down each one, but I was so proud of her!

 

We took a horse-drawn carriage ride downtown.  When we spotted this pink princess carriage, I knew we had to ride that one.  Cade didn't know it was girly; he just liked the "horsie", but Brenna was in heaven in the princess carriage.  All three of them loved riding in the carriage.  It was a little costly but definitely worth it.  The picture above isn't so great since we took it of ourselves.

The next morning the kids had fun on a much less costly ride.  I strolled them around the hotel in the luggage cart, and they thought that was pretty awesome. 

Before we left, we took a boat ride on the river.  The kids had seen the boats the night before and kept asking to "wide it, wide boat".  We tried to get a ride after we ate dinner, but it was closed for the night.  It worked out better to ride in the day because there was no crowd and the kids were able to roam around a bit and look out both sides.  We heard a lot of "wook Mama" and "wook Dada". (look)  They were really excited about riding the boat.  I think that was their favorite part of the trip.  I didn't realize it until later, but that was the twins' first boat ride. 

Camdyn is into making this silly face every time we try to take a picture lately.  I'm glad Daddy captured it because I do think it is pretty funny.  She thinks she is really funny doing this too.

Daddy had to tickle them to get real smiles instead of silly faces.

We almost got a picture with all 3 looking the same way. 

On Sunday, we went to visit some friends who live in San Antonio.  They just had a sweet baby boy named Dane.  A couple of weeks ago, we went to a live nativity, and we told the kids we were going to see baby Jesus.  At the nativity, we pointed out baby Jesus and talked a lot about baby Jesus, etc.  So, when we told the kids we were going to visit a baby, Camdyn asked me, "Go see baby Jesus?"  Sweet baby Dane has a lot to live up to!  We loved visiting with Erica, Randy, and their new precious baby, Dane.  Brenna adored him.  Speaking of babies, Brenna brought home a paper she made at school.  The paper said, "I would like to fill my stocking with ___________" and at the bottom they drew a picture.  Hers said "BABZ" (babies), and she drew three babies.  I sure hope she is talking about baby dolls and not real babies because Mommy already gave her a baby brother and a baby sister!

We had a great trip.  I love that we are able to go on a trip as a whole family now.  We've taken Brenna on several little trips since the twins were born, but they always stayed with Grandma or Nanny.  It's so nice to be able to take family trips now.  It feels so normal, and normal is so wonderful!  I would say we feel so blessed this Christmas season, but the truth is we feel so blessed every single day. 

1st Trip to the Dentist

Camdyn and Cade had their first dental check up two weeks ago.  I have been dreading their first dentist appointment since they were babies.  With Cade's severe oral aversion as a baby, I figured going to the dentist was going to be a nightmare.  Although he eats great now, I worried he may have some lingering oral aversion issues when suction tools got anywhere near his mouth.  He didn't have such a great relationship with those things in the NICU.  I also worried about the development of Camdyn's teeth because she got teeth so late.  I had no idea if that was a sign of anything bad.  As a preemie parent (especially micro-preemies who were on high dose steroids/antibiotics), you hear a lot about "preemie teeth".  Due to the steroids, antibiotics, and breathing tubes, some preemies' teeth are discolored, weaker, and/or more susceptible to cavities.  With all these worries in mind, I scheduled their first visit.  I braced myself much like I did with all their developmental exams, to hear news that I already knew but didn't want to hear.  Surprisingly, the appointment went far better than I expected.

Neither Camdyn or Cade had any qualms about the suction or water tool.  They kind of liked it.  They were curious about how everything worked and excited for their turn.  The dentist office calls this a "happy visit" which means they introduce kids to the equipment but don't really clean their teeth or take x-rays.  Camdyn and Cade both let them polish their teeth though and do an exam.  The dentist saw no issues with their teeth.  When I asked him about "preemie teeth", he did say that their baby teeth might not be affected, but their permanent teeth could still be affected.  We won't know until they come in.  But for now, they look good.  I was very happy that the appointment went so much better than I had anticipated.

Ellie the Elf

We have had constant illness in our house lately.  I think at least one of my kids has been sick since October.  We've had 4 cases of strep throat (Daddy included), 4 infected ears, chest congestion, and wheezing/respiratory infection. The girls have both had two different courses of antibiotics, and Cade was on the nebulizer every 4-6 hours for about two weeks.  Our last two winters were relatively healthy.  I'm sure that had a great deal to do with isolation.  I expected some sickness when the twins started pre-school and Brenna started kindergarten, but I didn't know it would be so constant.  I'm not complaining though because no one has had to be hospitalized, so if they can continue to get well with antibiotics/nebulizer, then I feel like they are finally building some immunity.  They are all well now, so hopefully they can continue to be well through Christmas.

I saw an elf with a nebulizer on Facebook and thought it would be so perfect for our Elf, Ellie, since our kids have been so sick. 

I just got our stockings embroidered and decided that Ellie should be busy at work since she was feeling better.  You can't see it in the picture, but she is holding a needle like she has been busily embroidering our names on our stockings.

Ellie brought the kids a little elf present - some adorable elf pajamas!

Thanksgiving

Blogger is finally working again.  I took a break from blogging because I wasn't able to upload any pictures, but now I can again!  I have to do a little catching up.

For Thanksgiving, we went to my sister's house. 

Nanny and Brenna

Here's what the women and kids do on Thanksgiving in our family.  We plan our Black Friday shopping.  We give the kids the flyers and tell them to circle what they want from the sale ads.  I remember circling things out of the Sears Wish Book at my Granny's house.  The kids won't know that there are any other toys besides the ones on sale for a long time!

We got my Granny to join in on the Just Dance fun.  I think she really liked it.  It was so much fun; we had everyone up dancing.  What a great way to burn off all those calories from the Thanksgiving feast.

We put up our Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving.  The kids had so much fun looking at all the ornaments and "hanging" (stuffing them) on the tree. 

Brenna got to put the star on top of the tree.

Here we are before going to Brenna's Christmas social at school. 

Attempting to get a picture with the kids all looking the same way at this age is nearly impossible.  I love this one even if they aren't all looking the same way.  Daddy was doing something silly to make them laugh.