Hootie Hoo! Hootie Hoo!

Hello everybody. So, I'm a little late with the blog this week. Blogger has not been my friend today. I think Brooke and Hads both have little colds. I am so tired of winter! More pictures, less typing this week...I'm sure you won't mind.

Something We Are Thankful For This Week: Mr. clean Magic Erasers - Brooke discovered writing on walls this week. The girls got these window crayons for Valentine's Day. They are a cute idea, if they stay on windows. Brooke decided to decorate other things in our house. Here they are doing what they were intended for.

Something Fun We Did This Week: We took the girls to the Illinois State Museum. Mostly to walk off some energy, but they did enjoy playing in the Discovery Room. We were 5 of maybe 8 in the entire museum. It was so nice. The girls were the only ones playing in the Discovery Room.

We also ventured back to the mall so the girls could play in the play area and ride the carousel.

On Saturday night, we went to the Kutscher's house for a Pretzel reunion. I used to teach with Megan and Renee at New Berlin. Renee is still there and Megan teaches in Rochester now. Megan and Renee each have two boys so our girls got a glimpse of what boys like to play with. Transformers, workbenches, and race cars, oh boy!

Me, Megan, and Renee

Kami chewing on Grant's hand. These two enjoyed "talking" to each other.

Brady, Brooke, Kami, Hadley, Landon, Grant and Brandt

(Brady and Brandt belong to Renee and Damian, Landon and Grant belong to Chad and Megan)

Saturday was also "Hootie Hoo" day. I have no idea where this day originated but we celebrated it at school when I was teaching. On Hootie Hoo day, you go outside, make lots of noise and try to scare winter away. Here the girls are making LOTS of noise with their pans. They banged on their pans and screamed "Hootie Hoo." Hadley announced that it worked because the snow in our yard is melting so winter must have been scared away. Thanks, Hadley!

Hadley’s Hoorays: Hadley earned her date with her daddy. She filled up her smiley chart and will be going on a date with daddy this week. She had enough energy to pick up her toys the first time she was asked. Can you believe it? I actually fed my child enough so that she had energy. For the most part she tolerates Brooke’s tantrums pretty well. We joke that when Hadley wants to play, Brooke doesn’t and vice versa. Neither one of them ever seems to be in the right mood at the same time. However, Wednesday morning for about an hour, they were the best of friends. It was so cute. Hadley would ask Brooke if she wanted to do something and of course Brooke said yes (she always says yes). Hadley would take her by the hand and they would go play something. Brooke’s face lit up. You could just see the sense of satisfaction on Brooke’s face. Her big sister was actually going to play with her, not boss her, but really play with her. Hadley’s friend from school, Abigail wasn’t at school on Tuesday or Thursday of this week. At dinner on Tuesday Hadley was telling us that she hadn’t been there and we asked if she knew why. She told us that “Abigail got her bones taken out.” Hmmm. We thought about that one and couldn’t quite figure out what she was talking about. Then on Thursday she told us she had her “tinsels” taken out. That time we got it. Abigail had her adenoids and tonsils taken out. Below is Hadley and Brooke at their wedding. I think they were dancing in this picture.

Brooke’s Blessings: The other day, I took her to run a couple errands and we were listening to music in the car. The song was “Daddy Wouldn’t Buy Me a Bow-Wow” and there is a part that says bow-wow, wow-wow. Brookie was sitting in the back, singing right along with me. It was the cutest thing. She took her little purse with her and she held the cards for me, and she got to put the change in her purse. As we were walking through Hallmark, I told her we needed to get “one more” and she followed me saying “one more, one more.” Saturday morning was my morning to sleep in, but at 6:57 here comes my little Brooke saying “hi, hi, hi, hi, hi” right in my face. How can you get mad at that? She also continues to show her rotten side. This week found her writing on the walls with pencil and window crayons, stealing dolls from her sister Hadley, and Friday night, we could do nothing right, none of us. She didn’t want us playing with her, talking to her, touching her, NOTHING. She was a total pistol! The picture to the left is her getting ready to help Brian let the neighbor's dog out. Below, are from us painting our fingernails and toenails.

Kami Lu’s Kudos: Kami started eating cereal this week. She isn’t really sure what she thinks about it yet. I’m pretty sure she doesn’t like it and it definitely made for some cute pictures this week. You can totally tell she is the third child! With Hads, we had the video camera rolling and were snapping pictures left and right. With Kami, I was half way done feeding her and remembered to grab the cameras to get pictures and video. I’m just glad I remembered. However, it wouldn't have been the first time we had to stage a picture for a “first” something. Anybody else out there done that? It can’t be just us, right? Kami is also rolling like crazy. She still doesn't like being on her belly, so if she rolls from her back to her belly she gets mad at herself. I have to think twice before putting her on the bed or couch for fear that she might roll off.

Here is our family picture for the week. We decided to all wear hats. I didn't do a good job of setting the camera up, but we were in a hurry and I was crabby! :) Have a wonderful week!

Hello, Sunshine!

Hello, blog readers! We hope you all had a wonderful Valentine’s Day with your loved ones. We’ve had a pretty busy week this week. Where to begin… oh! How about some cute pictures of our girls? I love these pictures.





Something We Are Thankful For This Week: We are thankful that we don't live in Philadelphia, Washington D.C., or any other city in the east that is getting pounded with snow. I can't imagine having two or more feet of snow on the ground. Four inches is plenty for me.

Something Fun We Did This Week: On Friday, the girls relieved some pretty serious cabin fever with a trip to the mall. Grandma Patti accompanied us on our 4 ½ hour trip to good old White Oaks Mall. I honestly don’t think I have spent that much time at the mall in the last five years combined. We played in the play area, rode the carousel, ate lunch, shopped a little, chased a lot, and had a great time. A nap was well deserved by all at the end of the day. Oh, and by the way, each of the girls was told they will NEVER go to the mall without a responsible adult. Even at lunch time, the crowd was questionable. I don't have a single picture from the day because my lovely little Brooke took my camera out of my purse and put it on the living room floor where it stayed for the day.

Something I Realized This Week: It is nearly IMPOSSIBLE to take care of three small children when you are sick. I came down with a 12 hour flu bug on Tuesday morning and I did not feel well at all. I had two very curious girls wondering what the heck was going on with their mom! Lots of questions were being asked through the bathroom door! It’s funny now, but it sure wasn’t funny on Tuesday. Thankfully, Brian was able to leave work at 10:00 and come home to take care of the girls while I slept. At one point, Brian came in to see if I needed anything. I didn’t but I mentioned that I hated being sick and not being able to take care of my kids. His reply was “me too.” I’m going to translate that one for you… “You are a wonderful mother to my children and I have no idea how you do this. This is really hard work!” It really was just a 12 hour thing and I have no idea how no one else got it, but I am doubly (sp?) thankful for that one!

One Thing I Wish I Could Do: I wish I could have a video camera running at all times. There are so many funny things that happen in a day and I can never remember all of them to tell Brian when he gets home or if I do remember, my re-telling is never as cute as the real thing.

Our “Really?” Moment of The Week: Brian and I bought our house 7 years ago on February 10th. We have had this house for 7 years! I can’t believe it. If someone would have told me that we would live here for 7 (or more) years I wouldn’t have believed them. This was going to be our starter home. We were going to have our first child in this house and then find our next home. Well, God had other plans for this little house. I never EVER thought we would have three babies in this house! When we finally do move, I think it will be more difficult because we did bring all of our babies home to this little house on Oak Street. While it will be hard, I will definitely welcome a new home with more space. One bathroom with four women just won’t work.

5 Things I Love This Week:
1.) Hugs and Kisses from my children: You can be having a really bad day until one of your kids gives you a hug and your day is suddenly better. Hadley hugged me the other day and I told her I loved being her mommy and she whispered “I love being your daughter” in my ear. If that doesn’t melt your heart, I don’t know what will. Let’s see if she still loves being my daughter when I won’t let her got to the mall!
2.) Lysol: I was a lysoling queen this week. I sprayed it, wiped it, mixed it, loved it!
3.) Sid the Science Kid from PBS: I don’t know if you have seen this show yet, but you definitely need to. It’s on at 7:30 each morning and it is one cute kid’s show. Click on the link below to watch a clip of my favorite song from the show. Be careful, it will get stuck in your head! (I am not smart enough to put the video on here, so you will have to click on the link. After the video, just click the back button and you will come back to our blog. Sorry!)

YouTube - Sid the Science Kid: "I'm Looking for My Friends"

4.) Modern Technology: I love being able to take pictures of my girls in the morning, upload them to my computer and send them to Walgreens during naps and have my husband pick them up on the way home from work. I don't however, love technology enough to figure out the above #3 :)
5.) Naps: Naps are a beautiful thing. Except for Tuesday, I was super productive this week during naps. One day I actually got everything on my list done and was able to sit on the couch and relax. Ahhh! It felt great!

Hadley’s Hoorays: Hadley is hilarious. When I was sick, she was super helpful. She asked if she could do anything for me. She helped with Brooke and Kami. She even made me jello to help me feel better. Well, now she is convinced that she will have to miss her “five” birthday party because she is going to be sick. She even has a little cough when she says it. Too bad, she has to have a “four” birthday party before she can have a five birthday party. Here are just a couple Hadley stories from the week. She had her Valentine’s Day parties at school and FunShop on Thursday. I guess my expectations for her signing her cards were a little high. We did three and she was done. She “forgot” how to write her name. The rest of the cards got an “H” and I wrote “adley”. We painted fingernails on Wednesday morning and it was peeled off by Wednesday afternoon. That was after I fixed it three times before it officially dried. For the girl that was so excited to have her nails painted, she sure didn’t want it on very long. We were walking out to the car to leave and she decided she wanted to walk with her eyes closed. She walked off the sidewalk and into a snowy bush, falling down and getting snow up her sleeves. This did not make her happy, but what did she think was going to happen? While I was sick, Brian asked Hadley to help pick up her toys before lunch. She explained that she hadn’t eaten and didn’t have enough energy to pick up toys. There is no reasoning with this child.

Brooke’s Blessings: I really don’t know where to begin with Brooke. She is almost two and let’s just say that she is starting to act the part. She has started having tantrums, throwing fits, acting out... When she doesn’t want to do something, boy does she let you know. Is this a blessing? Well, actually it kind of is. It just proves that she is acting more and more like a normal little girl. How’s this for normal…She was doing her typical give kisses to everything before naps. Well, it was the walls turn and as she went to kiss the wall, she tripped and smacked her face on the wall. Yikes. It was the wall’s fault though and the wall certainly got yelled at for hurting her! Brooke has also discovered that she can get behind our entertainment center. She disappeared on Brian’s watch and he noticed the front curtains moving and there she was peeking out from behind the entertainment center door.

Kami Lu’s Kudos: Miss Kami earned herself three kudos this week! On Thursday morning she rolled over from her back to her belly, two times in five minutes. She really got herself rocking and rolling, too. She is also laughing more and more. She loves listening to her big sisters when they talk to her. When you tickle her collarbone she goes crazy. She also loves looking at pictures on our computer. I was downloading pictures the other day and she was having a blast. It was almost like she was talking to the pictures. Her smile and laugh are contagious, but what babies aren’t? Going along with the laughing, she found her feet and thinks they are pretty funny. I will be completely honest and say that they are really aren’t funny at 3:00 in the morning. I heard her the other morning and there she was “talking” to her feet. I look down at her and she flashes her big grin up at me. Don’t babies have any concept of time?

Well, have another great week! Please, NO MORE SNOW! I am tired of being in this house. Even if we just sit on the front porch, we are all ready for warmer weather! Here is our 7th Sunday family picture. Happy Valentine's Day!

A ... BOY!?!?

Stuart and Jackie are having a BOY! A what?!? I must admit I really was shocked. I thought for sure the girl trend would continue, but nope – a little boy. Hadley is pretty concerned because, “you know, we just don’t know how to buy boy stuff.” This was her reply when I asked what she thought we could buy them for their baby shower. Jackie and baby are doing great and she’s still on target for a June 27th due date. We are super excited for the arrival of our first nephew!

Feature (Forgotten) Video of The Week: I can’t believe I forgot to post this a couple weeks back. Welcome to a typical night in the Tweryon house (and Brooke isn’t even at full craziness for this one!).

Something We Are Thankful For This Week: My brother, Stuart passed his state paramedic test. He is now a licensed paramedic in the great state of Florida. Congratulations, Stu. We are super proud of you!

Something We Accomplished This Week: Brian and I finally cleaned out our hutch! It’s been an unorganized mess for a while, and now, well it’s still a mess but at least it’s an organized mess. I know exactly where everything is even though it might not look that way. I also finally got to our unmatched sock basket. With three small girls, we are always losing socks. I successfully matched all but five pairs, and the unmatched rest are now in the trash.

Something Fun We Did This Week: We didn’t really do anything or go anywhere exciting this week. On Wednesday, we opened a Grocery/Toy Store in our living room. We try to do something different each day so the girls don’t get bored with their toys. Here are a few pictures from our store.

On Saturday, we sent the girls outside to play in the snow. Brian was shoveling the driveway and the girls wanted to go too, so we let them. A million snow geese were flying over our house and we joked that one of them would poop on the girls, and what do you know? One of them pooped on Brian. YUCK!!! Glad it was him and not one of the girls!!!

Hadley’s Hoorays: Hadley finished her chore chart each night this week! She has daily chores she has to do. When she does a chore, she puts a stamp on her chart. When she does all of her chores for the day, she gets a smile on her “smiley chart.” When she fills up a row on her smiley chart, she goes to her prize box. When she fills up her smiley chart completely, she gets to go on a date with her daddy. Can any of you blog readers guess where she will choose to eat dinner? We actually had to make Brooke a chore chart too because she was getting upset that she didn’t get to stamp. Hadley’s chores are: Brush teeth, pick up toys, pick out clothes for tomorrow, put away dirty clothes and read books. Brooke’s chores are: Pick out Kami’s pajamas (she loves this job), brush teeth, pick up toys and read books. We just started Brooke’s a few nights ago, but she gets super excited when she gets to put a stamp on her very own chart. If you are wondering, they MUST brush her teeth each day, regardless of the chore chart. Hadley’s oops moment of the week: We were eating lunch on Friday and she had her quesadilla. All of a sudden she started crying pretty hard. I couldn’t get her to calm down long enough to tell me what was wrong. I finally got out of her that she had bit her finger. That stinker put her finger in her quesadilla and “forgot to take it out” before she bit down. She didn’t break the skin but she bit hard enough to leave a pretty good indention. What was she thinking? The picture of her in the tutu is from us feeding the birds. We fed the birds every day this week. February is national "Take care of birds" month. I remember that from when I was teaching. The picture of her in red is from "Clifford Day" at school. She wore red for Clifford the Big Red Dog but didn't feel like cooperating for a picture!

Brooke’s Blessings: Brooke is becoming quite vocal. She mastered a few words this week and is using them often. Her most used word of the week has been no, pronounced “nah.” If you ask her to do something, she walks away saying “nah.” She also likes saying “oh wow!” If something is exciting in Brooke world we hear “oh wow!” And her favorite word of the week is uh-oh. This one is cute. Anytime something happens that she thinks shouldn’t have, she says it. Uh-oh my shoe fell out of the basket. Uh-oh I turned off the T.V. Uh-oh I took Kami’s pacifier out of her mouth and put it in mine. Uh-oh I put stickers on Kami's face - who me? Uh-oh I pushed Hadley off the stool. Oh boy! I think we are going to have our hands full with this one. Another language related milestone we are excited about – she finally started saying the b sound. We have been working on it and working on it and she finally said it. I have heard that some kids don’t do a lot of talking until they turn two, so maybe she isn’t too far behind. Brooke has also been showing her thoughtful side (even though it might not seem like it with the uh-ohs). She is eager to help and quick to give hugs when someone is upset. She is such a sweetheart. I can’t believe that she’s almost two. We just booked the place for her birthday party. We are taking her to a gym where they teach gymnastics. They let the kids jump on trampolines, walk on balance beams, do somersaults, climb on foam shapes, go down slides etc… We wanted to find something for Brooke to enjoy UNPLUGGED!! We got a new stool and she loves washing her hands. She probably washes them 20 times a day now that she can reach the sink by herself.

Kami’s Kudos: Kami rolled over from her belly to her back this week! I guess you could say she does not like being on her belly. Ok, she REALLY does not like being on her belly, so I’m sure this was her way of getting herself out of that situation. She is also really starting to play with her toys. She never really gets a chance to play by herself because she has two very curious sisters. I guess they don’t realize they played with the same exact toys when they were little. Who would have thought that a 3 year old and an almost 2 year old would be so fascinated by a 4 month old’s toys. Here is a rare picture of her enjoying some along time. I think the other girls were sleeping.?.?

Happy 2nd week of February blog readers! Have a wonderful week! I hope we don't get the six inches of snow they are predicting!

Happy Brithday, Granny!

Something We Are Thankful For This Week:

Tax Returns, Baby!

We had our taxes done on Friday night. I won't give you an exact number, but let's just say that the Federal government was VERY good to us.


Something Fun We Did This Week: Brian's Grandma celebrated her 80th birthday this week. On Saturday we had a party for her down in Girard. Everyone had a good time, but I think the highlight was Granny Helen being able to show off her four great-granddaughters.

Note: Kami is in this picture... She's asleep in her carrier. See her there in the background? :)

Something We Learned This Week: We need two spare keys outside our house. One for the storm door and one for the main door. Explanation... I needed to get a card in the mail before our mail lady came. I told Hadley I would be right back. As I'm walking back up to the house I see our big door shut. That's not supposed to happen, I think. I hear Hadley laugh and say "I locked the door." I try to open the glass storm door, locked. Hadley is able to lock and unlock the storm door, and (until Friday) she was unable to open the big door by herself. She has always had trouble with it. She couldn't turn the knob and open the door at the same time. So here I am locked out with my three kids inside the house. I'm in tears, Hadley is in tears. She thought she was being funny until she realized that she couldn't get the door open. I yelled across to our little neighbor boy but his cell phone was dead. I was prepared to call 911. Brian obviously would have had a key to the main door but not the storm door. Thankfully the front curtains were open and I could somewhat calm Hads down long enough to explain to her what she needed to do. I told her to turn with all her might and pull with all her might and finally she was able to open the door. Talk about scary. I could see the girls the entire time, but knowing that you can't get inside your house was super frightening. I even tried breaking the storm door lock, but I couldn't do it. Hadley definitely learned her lesson and won't be locking her mommy out anymore. I got the biggest hug when I finally got inside. On my list of things to do this week: have keys made.

*** I guess I should explain the Hoorays, Blessings and Kudos. When Brooke was in the hospital and having days that were not so good, I made myself write down five good things about each day. From getting an IV out to working well with PT, I had to find something to be glad about. I'll be really honest, some days I had trouble finding five things to be glad about. We don't do it daily now, but we do write down weekly blessings, hoorays, and kudos. It's fun for Hadley because she likes to tell about her hooray.

Hadley's Hoorays: Hadley has prepared her portion of the blog this week.

FNHGFN
Mjhhhdyff
Uihvurhrfyugv6trg67Rwa32qa2q21 1sxxfHHHHHBBBBBBBBZ


Translation: I played with Abigail this week at school. We had a cowgirl day and I got to do a cowgirl dance.




Here is a video of Hadley explaining earthquakes. She has been super worried about an earthquake happening here and we've been talking about Haiti A LOT lately. It seems like everything reminds her of earthquakes and she's asking more questions.




Brooke's Blessings: Brooke loves people. She is our social butterfly. We can't go anywhere without her waving at everybody or flirting with people as we walk down an aisle. A couple examples: 1.) At the party on Saturday she kept trying to play with the big kids who were running around having fun. She would pull on this one girl's shirt and wait for her to bend down and talk to her. 2.) While walking out of O'Charley's on Saturday night, she made sure she waved at every single person she saw as we walked out of the restaurant. 3.) We were at Hobby Lobby and I was just letting her walk the aisles and she found the guy working behind the frame counter. She literally turned around every two feet to make sure he was still looking at her and she waved and smiled at him each time she turned around. Here she is being a bear at Granny's party. She does whatever her big sister tells her to.



Kami's Kudos: Kami is only waking up one time during the night!!! I've actually been able to sleep pretty good these last couple weeks. She wakes up around 3:00, takes a bottle and goes back to sleep until 6:30 or so. I know you aren't supposed to compare your kids, but Hadley was already sleeping through the night at this point. Come on Kami! Can you tell that poor Kami is losing her hair? I don't know what is happening! She had such thick hair when she was born and now, not so much. She looks like a little old man!





Here is our pic for the week. It was actually taken on Saturday instead of Sunday but it's close enough. Right now, I have a million things to do. It makes for a busy Monday when you have a busy weekend. Have a wonderful week. Do we want the groundhog to see his shadow or not, I can't remember? Spring - just get here soon!