B is for Braiden

The proud mama that I am, I had to share this! Braiden is writing his name (kind of). When he started preschool this year he still wasn't able to, but his very smart teacher helped him in a way that I wish I would have thought of. She used Braidens love of trains, she should him how his name could be a train track, so the "B" was a track that went around the bend twice and then had a switch in the middle, as soon as she put it into a way that he got it, he loves to write it. A small note, after she taught him this he was for sure that because it was a train track all the letters had to hook together, so my 4 and1/2 year old was writing cursive, so cute. He now is practicing just the individual letters and I think he wrote his name beautifully.

Also, Braiden has got a new "best friend" named Lucy, she has been all I have heard about since school started. Well, Lucy LOVES to do her "work" and because Lucy does her work Braiden has to do his as well, the last two times I have dropped him off, he has skipped the playtime with the trains and gotten right to work with Lucy. I love that he picked such a studious "best friend". I don't know if Lucy knows that she is Braidens "best friend" or how she feels about him, but I love that he gets so excited to do his work.

Milestones

So I have been dying to do this!!! One of my very favorite things is little girls with braided piggys, in fact I am going to add it to my list. After many years braiding my little daycare girls hair, I have dreamt of doing this on my own little girl someday. Well, I get to do it much earlier than a lot of people with little girls because I was blessed with a little one with lots of hair. This is my first time braiding it and it turned out surprisingly well for a one year old. I didn’t think it was quite long enough until my sister Tana commented on the length and that I should braid it, thank you. I love it, I don’t know how often it will be like this because she gets distracted easily and sitting still becomes a problem, but every once in awhile is fine with me.
Oh, and one more update for Audrey. She has had one more Seizure and she goes to Children's on October 6th to have an EEG and to see a Neurologist. Please keep us in your prayers that their will be some answers and that she will do well for the EEG. She has to be sleep deprived prior to the EEG and then she has to fall asleep at the appointment with no rocking or anything, in a strange place. We will see how that goes.

(Are you wondering why so many post in a day? Well, I have been husband less, the kids are napping, and I am putting off cleaning the house for as long as possible. I probably will be up until midnight now trying to finish it, but oh well.)

Family Night

We just started hopefully a new tradition with the kids on Friday Night. We had “Family Night”, Braiden was so excited about it, especially after we explained what we got to do.
After dinner Braiden and I went to the store and got all the fixens for “the Bestest ever Ice Cream Sundaes”, it was so fun to have Braiden tell me what would be good. We came home with four, yes four kinds of ice cream, chocolate sauce, whip cream, nuts, cherries, m&m’s and gummy bears. The kids eyes got so big when we told them that they could make their own sundaes and that they could put whatever they wanted on it, and how much they wanted. Braiden ended up with a chocolate, mint chocolate, strawberry, chocolate sauce, lots of whip cream, m&m’s, and gummy bears, it look gross if you asked me but he loved the idea that he was able to be independent in his dessert choice, and plus he only took few bites and then he was done, so mom and dad were happy. Trevor ended up with a mint chocolate, whip cream, m&m gummy bear mess. And Audrey just mooched off of anyone who would share with her, I know imagine that.
Next we played an array of games, from Chutes and Ladders, to Memory. Our kids are all at such different levels that we had to shape the game differently for each kid. Chutes and Ladders ended with playing fireman with the people. It was so fun, we all loved it and we can’t wait until next “Family Night”.

Random....

REALLY!!!!!!
Our "GIRL", after I went shopping she got all her new clothes out and carried them everywhere.
Audrey's new place to sit, for the past week she has been pulling that drawer out and sitting amongst the toys. It doesn't look to comfortable but she obviously likes it.
I couldn't resist, I love a sleeping baby!!!

Some Random Pictures from the last week.
One that I would like to address is the top picture of Trevor reading the Christmas catalog, COME ON PEOPLE, I love Christmas more than you could know, but really!!! WHY, are we getting catalogs in September for Christmas? I am not kidding we are getting “wish books” for Christmas all ready, full of pictures of kids in their Christmas pjs around a tree enjoying fabulous toys that all kids “MUST HAVE”. We purposely don’t watch live TV so that the kids aren’t exposed to endless commercials of things they must have. Well, the kids help me get the mail and no joke, I think that they can smell toy books. Do the toy companies spray their books with an appealing new toy sent that only a small child can smell? These books have been a main source of my headaches the last couple of weeks, because all we hear is we “NEED”. However, I guess the silver lining is that we have been able to have lots of conversations with the kids about the meaning of Christmas and giving versus receiving, but that only goes so far, because then they switch their “I want for Christmas….,” to “I want for my Birthday…”

And....
I have to share this so I don't forget. Here I thought that because Audrey was a girl I might have gotten a little bit of a break with regards to having a little more self preservation than the boys, OH NO. I think that God is sitting on his throne with a little smile when he looks down on the Wolfenbarger household. Audrey, and trust me I can't even make this stuff up, decided in her little head that it would be a "Good Idea" to climb on top of a shelf in the playroom and mount (yes) a small bus (It's a leap frog learning bus, were you press the buttons and it tells you what sounds that letter makes, NOT something to ride) and then shoves off with her feet and shots herself OFF of the shelf. I am standing maybe ten feet away but I think that I was in such disbelief of what she as attempting to do that I couldn't think fast enough to grab her before she hit the ground.
Well, I wish that I could tell you she learned from this, but I can't (unless you count the lesson of get back on the bike). She hit her head and from the angle I was in I was sure she broke her neck. When I ran to her about having a heart attack because I knew she was hurt, she pushed herself out of my arms, got back up, Yelled at the bus and proceeded to climb back up with bus in hand to do it again. CRAZY GIRL!!!

Doctor Doolittle and Elmira....

My mom already posted this on her blog but I thought it was so cool that I had to post it on mine.
My dad has ALWAYS had a way with animals, we have had many crazy animals come through our house growing up (the strangest I can remember was a crow that would actually fly into our house, we have pictures, and an owl). They love him, he is like Doctor Doolittle minus the actually speaking to the animals (I think, maybe he can and I don't know!).
My parents neighbor is a biologist who takes on a TON of animals. It is like a little zoo next door, she has horses, goats, bunnies, more bunnies, all sorts of birds, and in the past she has even had, an elk, bear, and baby skunks, you name it there has probably been one at her house at one time. Well, she rescued these ravens that the boys call Heckle and Jackal, now if you are not familiar with ravens they look a lot like crows just a lot larger and there beaks are bigger. Well, with out fail, they have grown to love my dad. The top picture is what I saw when I drove into their driveway the other day, and the bottom pictures are my dad helping little Audrey look at the birds. I think that as much as she would like to have my dad's touch with animals because she adores them, I liken her more to Elmira from LooneyToons "I am Going To Love You and Hug You and Name you George" so word to animals RUN!!!!

Banana's & Dancing......

(turn the music off at the bottom)

So this shows Little Miss Audrey's true colors, with the stomping of the foot when she doesn't get her way, to mooching from anyone she can, to the non stop dancing she does, she will hear a beat and "break it down".

It also showed Trevor dose indeed have a sweet side he just prefers to not show it as often as the other sides.

And yes, if any of you are thinking is she really letting them walk around with a banana, I do. It's horrible, thankfully our furniture is washable as is the floor, all the rules I implicated when I only had one kid have officially gone out the window!! If we make it through the day without a major wreck it is a good day, and actually I kind of like it this way. If I worried about all the "little" things I would go CRAZY.

Yesterday a Caboose, Today an Engine!!

So, Braiden is now an Engine. He has waited for this all summer, and don't you know I as well have been anxiously waiting to bust out the iron.

He was so cute and so ready to see his friends from last year. When he arrived and got settled he went directly to where the train always is and to his surprise Mrs. Macrae had gotten a new one (she said she did it with him in mind, bless her heart). I don't think that we could have picked a better preschool for him, my little engineer in a train themed room, what could possible be better.

Anyways, he had a great first day, and after we celebrated with special first day of school milkshakes (I think that this might become a new tradition, for first days). He met new friends, on top of playing with his old ones.

Audrey Update...

Excuse me, do I have something on my face?
Are you supposed to be on TOP of the Toys?
Yummy, Ice Cream Cone!
Throwing a fit because she has to leave cousin Cruz alone!

.

Just an update about the little girl, for all that have heard and are concerned, or that I haven't gotten back to. She is doing Great!

For all that don't know Audrey had a few Seizures on Tuesday night and about scared her dad and I half to death (mainly me).

We always thought that Trevor was going to be the one with Medical issues, but Audrey has officially passed him.

She is not having the Grand Mal seizures were she has convulsions, she had what are called Absant or petite Mal seizures were she completely goes blank. Her eyes glaze over and her body goes lifeless and she stays this way for what seems like hours (I am sure it is only a few seconds). This has happened once before but she only had one, this time it happened twice within an hour. I called our doctor (can I say I LOVE Dr. Larson) in hysterics at 10:30 at night, which by the way Jer and I have now set up a plan for when something happens to the kids, because he stays calm and I "FREAK" out, so he is to call the doctor, NOT ME! Anyways, we called and he said we need to take her to the E.R. immediately to check pressures and a lot of other medical stuff. So there we were Tuesday evening/Wednesday mourning hanging out at the hospital having a cat scan and blood work done. What could be more fun, right?

Well, as I said she is great, she was a trooper for everything, she held still for the cat scan so they didn't have to drug her. She is being sent to Children's to a neurologist for an EEG (I think that is the abbreviation, there was a lot of test they did, so it all runs together after awhile). I will update as soon as we know more, but for right now as long as she is not having them all the time and she is not doing something like driving they won't hurt her, so we just have to get though them. Who knows, she may never have another one again, but now we know how to handle them at home, so maybe they might not be as scary.

Fair food, Parades, Rodeo, and New Freinds... Oh My!!!

What a busy week/weekend. We did the Fair, Rodeo, Parade thing and just when you thought we couldn't cram anything else into our busy labor day weekend, we made new friends.

We took the kids to the fair Thursday evening and they had so much fun. When we walked in to the fairgrounds we made the mistake of going through the entrance were the kiddie rides were (BIG MISTAKE), our goal was to go get something to eat, walk through the barns, and then end with the rides. We were able to talk the kids into quickly letting us get something to eat, but the barns were out of the question. They tried to wait patiently, but the nice thing about the fair and living in a small town is you get to see EVERYONE, which Jer and I love, but the kids didn't care for it because it was cutting into their precious ride time. After we grabbed something to eat, I love fair it 's okay to eat dessert all day. The kids started the fair ride adventure with the fun house, it's the one with the bridges and long slide, and that about wraps it up!! No I am not forgetting anything, they did this almost the whole time we were there, I would say they went through it at least 40 times (I am not exaggerating).

Than Friday we were going to take a break from the fair and I was going to go with my mom and Audrey to the rodeo. Well, the boys talked their dad into taking them again to ride rides, at least this time we got to see the barns. Audrey was a mess at the rodeo, I am not sure what my mom and I were thinking when we decided to take the most nosey girl (Audrey) to sit in the stands. She made it to the Miss Rodeo Washington crowning and then it was time to go. She then walked through the barns with the boys and LOVED it.

The next day was the Parade, and we made it through the whole thing, which surprised me, but catching candy was a cool thing.

Over the week we made some new friends, some friends of some friends needed somewhere for their kids to go for a few days while they competed in the rodeo, I just happened to have some room. They were good kids and Braiden and Trevor love them. Braiden had a hard time when they first came because the little girls name was Josie, and that is his cousins name, so we had to have a talk about people sometimes having the same name, after he could grasp this concept he loved her and became her little shadow (I don't think she loved it as much as he did). And Trevor found a partner in crime, Gator (Calagator, as Trev called him), they both are second children that have a lot of ideas, lets leave it at that. They were great kids and we had a lot of fun together, we can't wait to see them again.

The last of our labor day was Jer and I going to the Rodeo on Monday and then he helped tear down the BBQ beef booth for the church. That about wraps up our weekend, we had a ton of fun but I am not sad it is over, we (me) am looking forward to some down time. Oh, but wait school starts soon..............

Three....

Trevor's Birthday was last wed. and we had a lot of fun, Braiden went to Aunt Tana's for the day so it was just me, Trev, and Audrey. We spent the day doing what ever Trevor wanted, it was nice to only have to cater to one kids wants and desires, and he was so good. We had a low key party, because the next day we were taking the kids to the fair so we didn't want him to be going going going from Wednesday through Monday. It was fun, loud, and crazy we did cake, ice cream and a pinata. It is so hard to believe he is three.