The Tweryon Times

We Interrupt This Regularly Scheduled Blog....WITH VERY BIG NEWS!!!

2012-02-10T15:01:00.003-06:00

On Wednesday, February 8th we headed down to St. Louis for four appointments, two for Brooke and two for Hadley. Connie (Devin's mom a.k.a. Grandma Connie) and Uncle Brad were so helpful and kept Kami Lu so we didn't have to drag her along. While I do love that little peanut and she is quite entertaining, she is not very fun in the car for long periods of time and she is really not very good at being patient or still (but what two year old is?). Thank you Connie and Uncle Brad. You made our day much easier!!

We left around 10:15 and headed to St. Louis Children's Hospital. Once again, my Mom and Patti came along for the fun. I also made Brian take the day off so he could go too. He doesn't get to go often and there are certain appointments I make him do :) Our first appointment was for Hadley to have an ultrasound of her kidneys done. When the appointments were scheduled, Hadley's ultrasound and Brooke's Genetics appointments overlapped. Brian and Patti went with Hadley and my Mom and I went with Brooke. I will be very honest... I was a nervous wreck about Hadley's appointment. I did not want to go. I really was afraid of what they would tell us, so being a very brave mom, I sent Daddy. And, then I held my phone and waited for him to call me to tell me they were done. When he called, he had nothing but good news! The cysts have not grown. She still has the same number of cysts (just a couple) that she did almost two years ago,but they have not grown. Praise the Lord moment #1 of the day. Although we had tried to prep Hadley for the "jelly on the belly" she still cried and was pretty upset about having the ultrasound done. You would think after seeing me have an ultrasound done almost every week with Kami, she wouldn't be so freaked out! She was and Daddy was lucky enough to get a little "jelly on his belly" before Hadley did. The ultrasound tech did a little sonogram of Brian so Hadley could see that it wasn't so bad. Thanks for taking one for the team, Daddy!

Brooke and I headed up to Genetics to see Dr. Kozel. We weren't there very long before Brian, Hadley and Patti joined us. This is the same Geneticist that has seen Brooke since she was three months old. She was very pleased with her progress, loved listening to her stories and updated her current medicine doses. Brooke was pretty shy at first but opened right up. When the Doctor was asking about potty training and said "are there any problems?" Brooke said "well, one time Hadley fell in the toilet!" You should have seen the look on Hadley's face! She put her hand up to her head and said "Brooke! That was suppose to be a secret!!" Priceless!!

Genetics = Praise the Lord Moment #2 of the day!

Our next appointment was with Pulmonary/Allergy. We see Jodi, the Nurse Practitioner when we come for regular visits that aren't "vent clinics." Jodi was so happy to hear that Brooke hasn't used her vent in almost nine months! We answered all kinds of questions, checked Brooke's growth and made a plan....

Brooke Abigail Faith Tweryon will be getting her trach OUT! GONE! SEE YA!!

I am so excited about this news, I can't begin to explain our emotions! My Mom, Patti, and Hadley had already headed downstairs to meet Linsie and Mackinsie (one of our very favorite NICU nurses and her little girl) so it was just Brian, Brooke and I in the room. Jodi explained that we would come down for an appointment with the ENT doctor and he would walk us through the process of decanulation. We would then set up another appointment for Brooke to have a bronch test done (I don't know the official term). This test will be done in the Operating Room because they will need to put her under for the procedure. The doctor will send a small camera into her trachea to check for scar tissue that might cause problems when the trach comes out. If everything looks good, he will pull the trach out. It's very exciting but also a little frightening at the same time. We will then need to stay at the hospital for two nights so Brooke can be observed.

Praise the Lord moment #3 of the day!!! We have prayed for this day for so long and it's almost here. Brooke -- we are so absolutely proud of you and love you so much. Thank you for being the brave, amazing little girl that you are!

Brooke telling her stories.

During Hadley's appointment with the Nephrologist, they ordered a urine analysis and a blood test. With several failed attempts to get a urine sample, we left with an order and a cup. While we were eating a snack down in the cafeteria, she got the urge and we were successful in getting a sample. Woohoo! When Hadley and I ran the sample up to the lab, I noticed that there was no one waiting. That NEVER happens. I made the executive decision to get her blood work done right then. Brian had just taken the order thinking we would do it sometime from St. John's because normally you wait for an hour in lab. We had prepared her for getting her arm pricked, but again she freaked out. I'm surprised that our Moms couldn't hear her down in the cafeteria! Thankfully, Brian came up to help me hold her down. One stick and about 30 seconds later she was done and proudly showing her battle wound. She couldn't bend her arm until we got home though ;)

After leaving the Pulmonary appointment we headed to the cafeteria. From three floors up, Brooke screams "Winsie! Winsie! (Linsie) I'm gonna get my trach out!" It was so cute! My Mom and Patti both started cheering, clapping and crying. 3 C's -- cheering, clapping and crying. Now that's a great way to end our day!

Brooke, Mackinsie, Linsie, Hadley and Heather

Hadley before her ultrasound appointment.

Now for another amazing part of our day...

About a month or so ago, we were having a painting day. Out of the blue, Hadley asks me to spell Children's Hospital. I help her spell it and ask her what she is doing. She was painting a sign to put in our window. Hadley was having a fundraiser she decided :)

After painting her beautiful sign, she taped it to our front window, put a cup on the porch and waited. The poor thing was literally sitting at our window waiting for cars to stop and donate money. It was pretty sad watching her get so disappointed when no one stopped. I secretly called Grandma Patti at school and explained what Hadley was doing, asking for help. Nancy (Grandma's co-worker) was the first to stop and Hads was beyond excited. Her fundraiser was under way! By the time we got back from picking Brooke up from school, she had collected more money. Teachers and students had sent money with Patti on her way. We let her keep the sign on the window until it was time for our trip to St. Louis. Her grand total was $150!!

At first Hadley just said she wanted to give the money to the children at the hospital. But, we didn't want to just drop it off at the front desk and not know where it was being used. After thinking about it we decided to give the money to the Child Life Room. When Hadley was in the hospital in Florida, we spent one afternoon playing bingo and winning prizes in their Child Life room. Hadley remembers how it made her feel better to get out of her hospital room to play. We decided that her money would be put to good use in this room. Hadley explained that she wanted them to buy new toys and games for the kids.

The Child Life room was the first stop we made when we got to the hospital. The room was closed to patients at this time, but the staff was there and they were so excited to receive Hadley's donation. It makes a Mommy and Daddy's heart pretty happy to see your child giving to others, especially when she thought of it all on her own. We are so proud of you, Hadley! Thank you for thinking of others and making their time at the hospital a little easier. We love you, Sunshine Bear!

Christmas Day

2012-02-10T13:41:00.000-06:00

After opening presents at home, taking baths and showers, getting ready for church (all by 10:00 a.m. I might add) we headed over to Bill and Patti's for lunch with the Burke side of the family. I don't have a very good picture of the girls in their pretty Christmas dresses because I had gotten them ready by myself because Brian was busy at his Mom and Dad's with the turkey fryer and smoker. It is hard work getting three children and yourself ready, especially on Christmas day! Here are a couple pictures of the kids and Great Uncle Donald. Grandma had to hold Kami because she didn't want to be in the picture. In fact, even with Grandma holding her she still didn't want to be in the pictures. I don't know what it is about that girl. Not quality pictures here, people, but they might be good for a little chuckle.

The girls eating their yummy lunch at the kids table. I changed my girls out of their dresses and into their pajamas pretty quickly. They had gotten matching pajamas from Nana and Papa the day before. They are really cute pj's that say "slumber party" so we have to wear them every time we have family movie night.

After lunch we put in a movie and tried to get the girls to take a nap, or at least rest. Ellie was the only one that fell asleep and we were able to keep our girls quiet for a little while at least.

After Uncle Bill, Aunt Kathy, Cousin Mike, Granny and Uncle Donald left, we spent the afternoon and evening at Grandma and Grandpa Tweryon's. It's become a tradition that we open presents with the Tweryon side of the family on Christmas night. Once again, we all opened many wonderful Christmas and enjoyed our time with family. Some of the highlights include a play kitchen, a Barbie princess named Hadley, and a Barbie purse, sunglasses and a phone.

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for another wonderful Christmas. We are so thankful for everything you do for our family and our girls are so very lucky to have you. Thank you for being such an important part of our family. We love you!

Christmas Morning at Home

2012-02-02T13:48:00.000-06:00

To be quite honest, I don't remember exactly what time the girls woke up on Christmas morning. It wasn't super early, but we set an alarm just in case. The big girls were up first and we had to wake Kami. Here are some pictures of our Christmas at home.

The Santa gifts --

Santa brought a pedicure set including a foot massager bath and nail polish accessories. He also brought walkie talkie phones and some "Turbie Twists." Uncle Stuart, Aunt Jackie, Brody and Olivia got the big girls each robes so we can have "spa days" I'll post pictures of those in a later blog.

When we started planning for Christmas this year, we decided on a five gift limit for each of the girls. The girls always receive so many gifts and last Christmas was quite overwhelming. We thought by setting a limit, we might not be so crazy. We also set this limit for our parents and surprisingly, Nana and Grandma did a great job sticking to it!! :) Thank you. My sanity thanks you! My house thanks you too!! And, it only took us a few minutes to finish opening. These girls were quick!

Here are Hadley's gifts. Santa made these wonderful fleece blankets for each of the girls and for her doll bunk beds.

Brooke got a Bitty Baby this year and named her Tracy. Think it was a coincidence that we saw our cousin Tracy the night before?? She also got an animal encyclopedia and a Diego Science Book.

Kami only asked for "toys" this year, so she got a doll, a doctor kit, walkie talkie phones and a couple pink buckets for her room.

I love these next couple pictures. They really capture their excitement. Kami was still half asleep so she needed a little coaxing to get going.

I think Brooke was most excited to get her Science book. She even says she wants to have a Diego birthday party.

And, Kami was very excited to get her Sprite and M&M's that came in her buckets.

Mommy and Kami snuggling with her pillow and blanket.

Brian and I exchanged a few gifts this year. I got a fabulous new watch and my Kindle, which you already know I love. The first book I downloaded was Heaven Is For Real and I definitely recommend it. The girls also picked out some earrings for me. Funny story about the earrings. My mom, Hadley and I were at the mall before Christmas. Hadley had this elaborate plan of what she wanted to get me for Christmas. She wanted me to have a necklace with each of their birthstones (she actually just picked their favorite colors though). Anyway, I explained that the necklace was a little more than we needed to spend, so she settled on earrings. She took my mom into Helzberg Diamonds. Obviously that was WAY more than I needed so I steered her towards Macy's for something simple. She picked out a couple pairs of earrings and a couple necklaces (big time on sale, so she felt pretty special getting enough for each girl). When we get home she hid her presents in her room and runs out to tell me "whatever you do, DON'T look in my barbie suitcase!" Guess I know her secret hiding spot ;) The girls and I got Brian a new coat, some Florida State shirts and a canvas picture of David Freese hitting the game winning?? home run from the World Series. I don't know exactly what game it was or if it was actually the game winning, but he's happy in the picture (Sorry, Brian! Do you know I just watched Game 6 last weekend? Brian had DVR'd it and made me watch it. He seriously acted like it was the first time he had seen it, acting all nervous, like he didn't know how it was going to end!!)

Brian and I are so lucky to have three beautiful daughters. We love them more each day (even when they don't sleep in their beds ;)) and had a wonderful Christmas together.

Christmas Eve Night

2012-02-02T12:16:00.000-06:00

After leaving my Mom and Dad's house and letting the girls take a quick nap, we headed over to Donna and Dana's for Christmas Eve dinner. We ate a delicious dinner and again opened more wonderful presents. I love spending time with family around the holidays. It's so nice to see everyone and catch up. Thanks for the dinner and gifts!

Hadley really loves Ryker. She is such a good "babysitter" she says :)

Hadley helped pick out this beautiful fuzzy night gown for Aunt Donna. She was so proud of her choice and was so happy Aunt Donna liked it :)

We headed home around 7:30 p.m. so we could make sure the girls got to bed nice and early. It's a tradition in our house that you get to open one present on Christmas Eve. It's always pajamas, and the girls don't seem to mind just getting jammies. Eventually I'm sure they will mind, but for now, their ballerina jammies were a hit.

Here are our beautiful girls ready for bed.

Our cookies, milk and a chocolate covered pretzel for Santa. We left carrots, reindeer food and water on the front porch for the reindeer. The water was Hadley's idea and she was pretty pleased with herself. She thought for sure those reindeer would get thirsty!

Sorry, Santa... You might have been a bite or two short on your cookies :) Kami really liked them!

With the girls all snug in their beds, Brian and I got to work! I get more and more nervous that they are going to wake up and see us. I'm pretty good about making sure that everything is put together and ready to go, so it doesn't take us all that long. And, it's not like we have an upstairs where we could hear the girls on the stairs. We put two movie chairs in the hallway so we would hear them making noise if they came out of their room. Have I mentioned that I love Christmas!?! Well, here it is February and I'm just finishing Christmas Eve!! Yikes! Our Christmas morning coming up next...

A Couple Prayer Requests, Please

2012-01-31T11:04:00.002-06:00

Next Wednesday, February 8th we are heading to St. Louis for several appointments. Brooke will be seeing her Genetics and Pulmonary doctors. She has been off the ventilator for over eight months and is eating like crazy! I will get to her eating during her update blog. I am hoping that we continue to talk about possibly getting her trach out. Please pray that her doctors will be pleased with her progress and give us the news we long so desperately to hear! Hadley will be having an ultrasound of her kidneys done, blood work taken and will see the Nurse Practitioner with the Nephrology department. My hope is that the kidney cysts are gone, but because that is unlikely, we are praying that they have not grown and that we can just continue to monitor her. Thanks for keeping us in your prayers. We really appreciate the continued support. I will keep you posted when we get back.

Having Fun With Daddy!

2012-01-31T10:55:00.000-06:00

One day (don't exactly remember when) I was working on putting our DVD's into a big case so I could get rid of the individual cases. When I asked Brian and the girls to pick up the cases for recycling, this is what happened. They made a ramp and were trying to jump the Barbie car onto the chair. They were all having a blast! And, it was pretty funny to listen to Brian try to explain the scientifics behind the jump. Needless to say, the girls could care less about that, but were just having fun with their daddy.

Please don't look at my messy house ;)

You must have the proper safety gear! And, as usual, Brooke is naked!

Hadley's First Hunting Trip

2012-01-31T10:43:00.000-06:00

For those of you that don't know, Brian is a hunter. He has been hunting for most of his life. It's something he really enjoys doing with his dad and his brother. Mostly, they hunt deer and turkey, but they also enjoy being out in the woods. Brian jokes that he is going to make at least one of his girls his hunting buddy. I am not a hunter (surprise, surprise). I did go one time, but wasn't asked to go again. All we did was sit in the deer blind and wait. We never did see anything and I'm glad we didn't. I told Brian that if I did see a deer, I would probably yell so I could scare it away :) I do enjoy walking through the woods and "exploring" which doesn't happen very often anymore.

Brian has been bugging me to take Hads hunting. When she was younger, I set the age limit of five. "When she's five you can take her out there. Just wait until she turns five." That sounded great until she actually did turn five! He absolutely was not allowed to take her during shot gun season. He absolutely was not allowed to put her in a tree stand. I had quite a few rules. I know that Brian would keep her safe and wouldn't let her get into danger, but you never know who else is out there. Granted, this is their property and no one should be out there, but rules are broken and it makes me nervous. Hadley on the other hand, was ready to go. She got to go shopping with Daddy to pick out her camouflage outfit and her orange hat. We even found her some boots. Here she is all decked out in her hunting gear, binoculars included. Isn't she a cute little hunter?

Daddy and his little girl

Grandpa Tweryon went went them too.

Grandpa Tweryon and his girl.

Hadley actually did better than I anticipated. She lasted about an hour sitting in the deer blind. I had to laugh when Brian told me that as Hadley was going through her hunting bag she called her stuff, "her hunting accessories." Hehe! I guess there's always Brooke and Kami! :)

Merry Christmas, Part Two

2012-01-30T19:47:00.000-06:00

On Christmas Eve Eve we took the girls over to Nana and Papa's house to spend the night. Because baby Olivia was just a week old, Stuart and his family were not coming home for Christmas this year. We decided celebrate Christmas with my parents on Christmas Eve day. With the girls gone on Christmas Eve Eve night, Brian and I took advantage of the quiet house to finish some last minute wrapping. We headed over around 9 a.m.for yummy breakfast casserole and coffee cake. After breakfast we opened presents and had a nice calm day. Here are a few pictures from our celebration. We ALL opened some very wonderful presents! A few of the highlights include a new doll house, an adorable little puppy that Kami named "Cookie Monster" and a CD player with a microphone.

After opening Christmas presents, we had a little birthday party for Jesus. My dad made a cake and we sang Happy Birthday before the girls blew out the candles.

Mom and Dad... Thank you once again for such a wonderful Christmas! We are so blessed to have such wonderful, caring parents. Thank you for being such an important part of our family. We love you!

Christmas 2011, Part One

2012-01-30T19:12:00.000-06:00

The Friday before Christmas we had dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Tweryon's with Granny, Uncle Billy, Aunt Kathy, Phil, Stephanie and Mike, and our families. Phil and Stephanie were going to be with her family on Christmas so we celebrated a little early. Dinner was delicious and we all opened some wonderful presents.

We got Granny a sweatshirt with each of the kids names embroidered on it.

Again, my pictures (or lack there of) are not very good. I was sitting by Kami so she gets the most pictures for present opening, part one. The big girls were sitting with their backs to me, so I didn't get many of them.

Aunt Kathy and Uncle Billy's present was wrapped with bubble wrap. When she pulled the bubble wrap from the bag, she yells, "Thank you!" It doesn't take much to entertain this one! :)

And, here is Ryker enjoying the box that one of the presents came in. Bubble wrap and boxes... pretty easy presents!

Phil and Stephanie got each of the girls a remote control light up car. I'm pretty sure that the big boys had more fun with the cars than the girls did. As you can see from this picture, Kami did not like the cars at all. Well, let me re-phrase this. Kami did not like when the car was coming at her. She would run away and scream. It didn't help that there were four of them going, and not a lot of room to run!

Thanks for the wonderful presents! We had a great time visiting with you all and our girls are so lucky to have you as part of our family.

A Visit From the 'Real' Santa Claus!!

2012-01-30T18:44:00.002-06:00

Santa Claus himself took time out of his busy schedule to visit the Tweryon children again this year. He came to Grandma and Grandpa Tweryon's because we were getting ready to celebrate Christmas with the Burke side of our family. When he came to the door, the looks on their faces were priceless! They had no idea that Santa was coming to see us, so they were quite shocked. Brooke cried and took a few minutes to calm down. Each year, however, we get a little more brave when it comes to Saint Nick. Hadley sat on his lap this year. Brooke gave him a high five and well, Kami didn't want much to do with him, but at least talked to him. Santa gave each of the kids a special gift and asked each of them what they wanted for Christmas. The girls think they are pretty darn special because Santa comes to visit them and "they don't have to wait in line at the mall" (per Hadley) :)

Santa... Thanks again for taking time to visit with our girls. They look forward to it every year and we really appreciate your kindness!

Brooke and Kami needed a little bit of moral support from Daddy to get close. She was doing fine until we asked her if she would sit on his lap, then she started crying again.

We couldn't get a picture of just the kids with Santa, so we had to sit with them.

After Santa left, the kids were playing before dinner. Kami was playing with Ryker and he tried to take her paci. Let's just say she was not very amused!

Hadley's Christmas Program

2012-01-13T20:49:00.000-06:00

Hadley had her Christmas program at Preschool and we did not miss it this year! In fact, she announced "I made it!" to her teachers when she walked into the classroom :) If you remember last year all three of the girls were sick on the day of Hadley's program. She was determined to make it to this years. When strep throat was going around the week before, I was convinced that we would have it. Not this family! We were all healthy and enjoyed a wonderful performance by the morning four year old class at Good Shepherd Preschool.

Before the program, the class enjoyed cupcakes for snack. They each had a candle in their cupcake and sang happy birthday to Jesus. As Mrs. Monari was lighting Hadley's candle (she was the first one) she told the children NOT to blow out their candle before they sang. Who blew out their candle? Yep, that's right. Hadley did! She and the little boy next to her both blew their candles out. I didn't catch who blew first, but I was not happy. Seriously!?! I was actually surprised that she would do that and she knew I wasn't very happy with her. We are really trying to work on our listening.

We had a few minutes to wait before the program started. Brooke was being quite the entertainer.

The program was wonderful and you could tell that the children and the teachers all worked really hard. As the class was walking out of the church, Hadley stopped to give me a kiss! It was so sweet. I think she was trying to butter me up so I would forget about the candle incident ;) I still can't believe that my little girl will be in Kindergarten next year. Wow!

Again, trying to get a good shot of Brooke

What a sweet little girl! I didn't even try to get her to the tree!

Christmas Pictures 2011

2012-01-13T19:56:00.000-06:00

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Picture day gives me serious anxiety!! I try not to get so worked up, but it's hard. I want good pictures. I want my children to smile at the camera, well sometimes I want them to just look at the camera. I want them to stand still long enough to get a few good shots. Is that so hard?? Don't they understand that they will appreciate all these pictures when they are married and have children of their own? It sounds simple to me, however, I have to remind myself that they are children. Here are our Christmas pictures from this year. I divided the shoot into two days. The first day, I took the girls down to the old stone house (in Rochester) myself and thought we would try to get a couple good singles shots. We were kind of testing the area because we were going to take pictures with Ellie and Ryker that weekend. Here are the good (and a few not so good) pictures from the two days.

This first picture was the one we ended up using for our Christmas card. I love it! If you look close you can see the tears in Kami's eyes. She was crying until I put my lens bag on my head and started dancing around. That got them laughing and what do you know looking at the camera at the same time! Yahoo! This is the picture I printed for my Mom and Dad for Christmas. It's also the pic I have sitting on my entertainment center. It makes me smile every time I see it :)

Ahhhh! Look at me!!! :)

We gave Grandma and Grandpa Tweryon a picture of the five kids. We never really got a great one this summer, so we tried again.

Cousins Make The Best Friends

2012-01-13T19:06:00.000-06:00

We had Brad and Devin and the kids over a few times this fall. The girls love playing together and Ryker will be tormenting them before long :)

On this particular night, we got out the gymnastics mat and blocks and let the kids go wild. They danced and jumped and sang and had a great time together.

On another night, we found Brooke reading to Kami and Ellie in the bathroom. Seems like a nice place to listen to a story doesn't it?

Here's Brooke at the end of one of those nights. Naked, climbing and watching t.v. Oh boy! This child is something else for sure!

I can't wait to have Brody and Olivia here for good. I love that my kids have cousins that are so close in age. They will grow up to be such great friends!

The Tweryon Family Christmas Tree -- Take Two!

2012-01-13T18:45:00.001-06:00

On the Sunday after Thanksgiving we made our annual trip to Krone's Christmas Tree Farm to pick out our Christmas tree. We have been going to this farm since the year Brooke was born. They were very kind and let us pick out our tree in October that year. It was a beautiful weekend and Brooke was far less stable then, so we called and they opened up just for us. Since then, it's where we've found our Tweryon Family Christmas Tree.

At the farm, they have different varieties of trees. They have the long needle trees and the short needle trees. I prefer the short needle trees and they have some very nice ones. They also have some expensive short needle trees. The really nice firs are around 100 bucks. We made the mistake of picking one of those (unknowingly) last year. I was not going to make that mistake again! I was determined to find a $35 tree this year. We were instructed that "when you stick your hand in the tree, if it doesn't hurt it's a fir. If it hurts, it's a spruce." Well, we wanted a spruce, a blue spruce to be exact. Let me just tell you that it was NOT easy to find a stinkin' blue spruce. We walked up and down the rows, went to different areas of the farm, had whiny children, you name it. I was getting pretty frustrated myself. We finally found what we thought was THE tree. Here we are with it....

Then, the man comes to cut it down. We ask him to confirm that we indeed did find a $35 tree and find out that no, we did not. It was a fir. Dang it! You are kidding me?!?! We set out again, up and down the rows. I was not spending $100 on our tree. I was getting irritated, Brian was getting irritated. The girls were tired of walking. It was muddy. It was cold. We were having a great time ;) When we finally did find THE real tree (take two), I didn't care about getting another family picture, so you will just have to pretend. Here are my adorable girls and their adorable smiles though (while they were still smiling).

Daddy and his girls

We got the tree home, but didn't decorate it for a few days. It was pretty busy around our house and we were still trying to recover from our busy week of traveling. The girls like decorating the tree for the first few ornaments, especially their own.

Here are the big girls humoring me with their "I'm decorating the Christmas tree pose."

We filled out our Christmas wishes again this year. The big girls are really getting the hang of this wish thing and are wishing for things that are far less materialistic. It's a great tradition that I'm glad we started. It's also fun to open the star and read the wish you wished last year.

It was Kami's turn to put the star on the tree. We take turns and Hadley is already talking about her turn for this next year. It's a pretty important job, you know!

And, here it is in it's decorated glory -- The Tweryon Family Christmas Tree. It's no Griswold family Christmas tree, but we like it.

We Are thankful, Thankful, THANKFUL!

2012-01-13T17:33:00.000-06:00

Our family is thankful 365 days a year. We thank God everyday for many things. We are always extra thankful on Thanksgiving. This year, we celebrated Thanksgiving three times. We were a traveling family seeing St. Louis, southern Illinois and northern Illinois all in one week. I definitely had three tired girls, but all well worth it. We are so thankful for many things, but just to name a few -- our children, our parents, our families, our warm home, etc... I could go on and on...

We started Thanksgiving week by heading to Newton, IL. We were having dinner at my Aunt Martha and Uncle Marvin's house. This happened to be shotgun deer season, so Brian stayed in Rochester to hunt. My Mom and Dad drove us on our adventure. My cousins and their families were going to be there and it had been quite a while since we had seen everyone. This is my dad's hometown and it was nice to be able to take the girls to see where he grew up. He showed us his boyhood home, his family farm, his school and various other landmarks. I was also able to visit the cemetery where my grandparent's are buried. I don't get to Newton often, but when I do I like to visit the cemetery. I miss all of my grandparents very much, especially since becoming a parent. There are many times I wish they were here to share something with my girls. I like to think they are looking down on our girls and are proud of the parent I have become.

The beautiful table for all 24 of us. My Aunt Martha made sure everybody (even Kami) had the same plate :) Dinner was delicious and the company was even better. I plan on taking the girls down sometime this Spring so they can "explore" Aunt Martha and Uncle Marvin's property. I remember having so much fun at their house when I was a kid.

It's been a long standing tradition that the family plays a football game after dinner. We aren't here every year, but when we are you can be sure we play. It's a very friendly game of touch football ;) I tried to get Hadley to play, but she's pretty girly. It was pretty muddy and she was worried about the dirt. We even took "exploring" clothes that could get dirty. I think I need to toughen her up a little bit.

Ummmm.... Kelly, I think that's holding (and on your own son)!!!

Brooke sporting her turkey hat from preschool

Ok, so I will preface the next part of the blog with one of my new year's resolutions.

Make sure I take more pictures!! I know that might sound silly because it seems like I am always taking pictures. But, this next one is a perfect example of my point. This is the ONLY picture I have from Thanksgiving day. I always have my camera with me, but I failed to get pictures. Here is Brooke helping Grandma shred the asiago cheese for the raviolis. That's it. While it is a lovely picture, I obviously would have liked to have taken some more. Like maybe my other two children! So, I Heather Tweryon, do resolve to make a better effort of making sure I get adequate pictures at each family event. There! It's in writing. Let's see how I do. Continuing with Thanksgiving -- Thanksgiving morning we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Tweryon's for lunch with the family. Lunch was wonderful and again, so was the company. Bill and Patti are always very good about inviting my Mom and Dad, so they joined us for lunch as well. We fried a turkey (DELICIOUS) and I made sure I saved some for my leftover sandwich :) I am telling you, if you've never had a fried turkey, you haven't HAD turkey!

We stayed at Grandma and Grandpa's all day and had a yummy dinner of leftovers. The girls kicked off the holiday season by decorating a gingerbread house and gingerbread ornaments.

Poor Kami! We made her decorate a piece of cardboard! There weren't enough ornaments and I didn't think she would really care about decorating them anyway, so here she is with her beautiful piece of cardboard.

Now let's move north about 200 miles to St. Charles, IL. My uncle Bruce was in a pretty bad motorcycle accident back in October. He had been recovering in a nursing home (they called it a rehab center, but it was a nursing home) and got the O.K. to go home the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Well, cue the house guests. We had planned to go up there knowing he would be at the home and we would be able to check him out for the day ;) (that's for you, Uncle Bruce) Well, his docs decided he could go home and Aunt Mary said it was fine for us to keep our plans to come up.

What's better than trying to get reacquainted with your house and all that fun stuff that goes along with being in the hospital for eight weeks? Three girls and one little boy that have LOTS of energy. Thanks for still having us. We are so thankful that you are ok, Uncle Bruce!

Cousin Rob and his wonderful girlfriend, Suzee took us to this house that puts on one heck of a light display. The house is HUGE! You turn your radio to a specific station and the lights are synchronized with the music and it was beautiful. The kids loved it and so did I. I'm a sucker for anything Christmas!

We snuck the kids up on the lawn because I wanted to get a picture of them with the lights in the background. After arguing with Brian and Stuart that we weren't going to get in trouble, they agreed to take the kids up there. And, good thing they did because we got some great pics. Not really, Kami Lu! One of these days you will start looking at the camera and one day you will appreciate my efforts to get you to look at the camera.

After we got back to Bruce and Mary's the boys made a fire outside while the women stayed inside and entertained the wild children. I don't know why but they did NOT want to go to sleep.

Brody was trying to help with Kami's diaper change. Kami was "crabby Kami" and wasn't in the mood for the help. In fact, Kami is a little stinker when it comes to attention from Brody. Stuart and Jackie were watching her while they were home so I could take Brooke to language. Brody cornered her and was trying to give her a kiss. She was not having that either and cried, cried, cried. She really does love you Brody. She just wasn't feeling very affectionate :)

Thank you everyone for a wonderful Thanksgiving. I guess there is one good reason for blogging about Thanksgiving in January. It reminds us to stop, slow down and be thankful for what's really important in life. I am so thankful for our life. Our families are such a blessing to and we are so blessed.

A Family Field Trip

2012-01-13T14:35:00.000-06:00

Once upon a time, a long time ago, (yet still very blog worthy) we went to see a horse. Aunt Kathy's niece (on the other side of her family) Lori owns a horse farm outside of Rochester. She is also the daughter of my third grade teacher, Mrs. Kreiser. Mrs. Kreiser was my first teacher at Rochester Elementary after we moved from Springfield. Lori was a couple years ahead of me in school and we ran on the track team together. We sooo appreciate her letting us come out to visit the farm and learn about her horses. The girls had a great time and we have one five year old girl that would like to take riding lessons now. More on that later, but here are the pictures from our field trip.

Lori was so good with the girls. This is Prancer, her training horse. Prancer was a very gentle horse and the girls were able to brush him, feed him, put his saddle on and ride him.

This picture of Kami pretty much sums up her feelings toward the horse. She was a little unsure, and quite honestly, so was I. I had a bad experience with a horse at Church camp and am still a little nervous around them. She was much more content just watching the big girls.

Before we got to the farm, Hadley had asked if she would be able to ride the horse. We weren't sure what exactly we would be doing, so we didn't know the answer. I didn't want to get her hopes up, but boy was she EXCITED when Lori asked if she wanted to ride!! I think she would have stayed on Prancer all day if we would have let her. Lori taught the girls how to make Prancer go and stop. And, they felt like they were big time because the horse did exactly what they told it to. That day, Hadley asked for horse riding lessons for Christmas (she didn't get them, yet...) and often asks when she will get to ride the horse again. I think it would be fun, but as Brian explained -- horses are a very expensive hobby. Some kids get a horse for their 16th birthday instead of a car. A few lessons won't hurt, will they??

Brooke was excited, but not quite as much as Hads was. I love this next picture. Brooke is the kind of kid that doesn't like a lot of extra attention. She is quite the performer, but when it comes time for me to capture it on camera or video she gets pretty embarrassed. Here is her "don't take a picture of me mom" face. I made Brian walk next to Prancer because I wasn't sure how well she would be able to hold on to the reigns. She did a great job, though!

Kami did no riding, but she did give the horse a hug. That was about all she wanted to do with Prancer.

I'll close this blog with a picture of my three beautiful daughters....

... well, it was an attempt. They were ready to go home by the time our tour ended. At least Kami is smiling! Thank you Lori for taking the time to show our girls your horses. We all had a great time and learned a lot. You just might be seeing us in the future, compliments of Brian ;)

NO Excuses!! -- well, maybe a few ;)

2012-01-13T11:32:00.002-06:00

I cannot believe I am this far behind on the blog!! Here it is 2012 and I am just now downloading pictures from Thanksgiving!! What is wrong with me here, people?? I do have a few (fairly good) excuses and three darling children that I've plopped in front of the T.V. today so I could turn on my computer. You see, my lovely husband got me a Kindle Fire (LOVE IT!!) for Christmas and I haven't turned my computer on since Christmas. That's right, Christmas.

When I do turn on my computer, this is what I see. We have a nice crack on our screen and sometimes, it looks like this, but sometimes the entire bottom half of the screen is black and you can't use the laptop. So, we have it hooked up to our old desktop screen so that we at least have a usable computer. Which means, if you want to use the laptop you have to be sitting at the desk. Sitting at the desk really isn't a big deal, but normally I blog while sitting on the couch watching T.V. during naps -- much more blog friendly than sitting at the desk. So, here I sit at the desk, Judy Moody playing in the background. I just downloaded pics from December and only put 359 new pictures on my computer! For those of you that know me, THAT ISN'T VERY MANY! I can't guarantee the quality of the following blogs, but bear with me. It's on my list, and if it's on my list that means it gets done, right?? I will do my best. Do you think I can have the girls watch movies all weekend? Make sure you keep scrolling and check out my new niece, Olivia. I had to interrupt all blogs for that adorable little girl!

Happy BIRTHday, Olivia Kate!

2012-01-13T10:56:00.000-06:00

Our sweet niece, Olivia Kate was born on Saturday, December 17, 2011. She is beautiful and healthy and I can't wait to get my hands on her!! Isn't she GORGEOUS?!?! Congratulations Stuart, Jackie and Brody. We love you very much and can't wait to see you all!

Follow the Yellow Brick Road...

2011-11-29T16:05:00.000-06:00

Here are our beautiful girls on Halloween this year...

Dorothy, Glinda the Good Witch and the Wicked Witch from the Wizard of Oz.

I love how she's posing for these. She was really getting into the part of Glinda!

And, I'm not sure why she is standing on one foot here???

We started our night at Grandma and Grandpa Tweryon's house...Trick or Treat!!!

I'm not sure why, but Kami does not like having her picture taken when she is in a group. One of her is fine. And, even with her sisters, but if we try to put her with anybody else, she freaks out!!

Grandma, Grandpa and the girls

Next, we headed over to Nana and Papa's where the girls got a little surprise. We knocked on the door... No one answered. The girls were a little confused. Then we had them look in the front yard.

Nana and Papa were dressed up as scarescrows and sitting in the front yard. Hadley was so funny -- she says "when did they get haybales?" Then she realized it was Nana and Papa sitting on the hay bales.

Nana, Papa and their girls

After trick or treating at a few more houses, we headed to the Rochester Fire Station. The kids always have such a great time running around and seeing the equipment.

Ryker just taking it all in -- He's always going along with the flow and also so good!

Look Out!! The witch is driving!

We had a great Halloween and the girls are already talking about what they want to be next year.

Hadley's Halloween Party at Preschool

2011-11-29T15:14:00.000-06:00

I was also able to help with Hadley's Halloween party this year. Thank you to Granny for watching Brooke and Kami so I could be with Hadley! Hadley chose to be Dorothy this year for Halloween. Honestly, I think she chose Dorothy right after Halloween last year. She makes a pretty cute Dorothy, don't ya think?

Dorothy and Toto before the party

Hadley and her good friend, Savannah.

Hadley and her good friend, Aubrey.

The Girls

Before school started, the kids paraded down the sidewalk with their costumes on.

Class Picture

Hadley's monster treat bag

Eating "mummy dogs" for snack.

I didn't get to take many pictures during the party because I was busy helping with the bean bag toss game, but the kids all had a great time. I am so thankful that I am able to help with these parties. We ended the day with the parachute fun!

Brooke's Halloween Party at Preschool

2011-11-29T14:31:00.000-06:00

I was able to volunteer at Brooke's Halloween party at school this year. A big thank you to Nana, Grandma and Grandpa Bill for re-arranging your lunch hours so I could help!

More than anything I wanted to see how Brooke acted at school. Obviously I was there and she knew that, but it was nice to see her interacting with her friends. Her and Ellie never let each other get too far away. When one starts an activity, it wasn't long before the other ended up there too.

A few weeks before the party they tie dyed these adorable little monster shirts to wear to their party.

Before we started the party we headed upstairs to listen to a Halloween story.

Notice Ellie playing with Brooke's hair? They were cracking me up during the story. Ellie would play with Brooke's hair, Brooke would lean on Ellie's shoulder. Then they started whispering in each other's ear. I heard Ellie say, I love you Brooke. I was trying to get their attention so they would pay attention, but I wasn't very successful. Little stinkers!!

Some of the fun party activities included: Moon sand in the sensory table, making glow in the dark necklaces and ghost bowling with toilet paper.

The kids all got to fill their treat bags with lots of goodies and the party was a ton of fun!

Fall Fun with Friends

2011-11-29T13:33:00.000-06:00

Last year we (and a bunch of our friends and their kids) went to the Jack-0-Lantern spectacular that they have at Washington Park. They carved 2010 pumpkins, lit them all up, and let people walk around and look at them. It was dark. It was crowded. It was way too chaotic for me. The kids didn't seem to really care about all the pumpkins. They did however enjoy dancing to the music. Fast forward to this year. Devin and I decided to try a fall festival for the kids at Bill and Patti's. It would definitely be less crowded and not as crazy. With both of us being teachers, we definitely over planned this one :) Better to be over prepared rather than under, right?

We had stations with different activities for the kids to do.

1. A ghost footprint craft

2. Painting pumpkins

3. Decorating cookies to look like Jack-0-lanterns

We had hot dogs to cook over the fire and other yummy food. We also had Brooke and Ellie's soccer party before this party so it didn't get started until around 5:00 which means we didn't have alot of daylight to work with. Most of the kids didn't finish all of the activities, and that's ok. Each family brought carved pumpkins and the guys put them in the back yard so we could see them while we were on the hayrack ride. The kids were cracking me up on the hayrack ride. Bill attached the trailer to the back of the truck. Some kids sat in the trailer and some sat in the back of the truck. He drove us around the back yard and the kids were so spooked. It's not very hard to spook little kids. After the hayrack ride we turned on Halloween music for the kids to dance to. We had a ton of glowsticks that they had fun using too. Sorry for the lack of pictures....

I have NO idea who gave this hot dog poker to Brooke and I have NO idea why I took the picture and didn't grab it out of her hands!

Painting pumpkins...in the dark

Kami and Nana ready for the hayrack ride

Hadley and Papa Bill ready for the hayrack ride.

I hope we do this again next year, but maybe not plan as much for the kids to do. Once again, I think they had more fun dancing to the music with their glowsticks. I love our group of friends and their families. Our kids have so much fun together. As we were watching the Cardinals win the world series this year, we were reminiscing that in 2006, there were only THREE kids total! Now we have close to TWENTY!!! Talk about growing families!

Brooke's End of the Year Soccer Party

2011-11-29T13:13:00.000-06:00

At the end of Brooke's soccer season her coach had a party for the team at her house. If you remember, I told you that Coach Jamie was one of my friends growing up. Well, long story short, she lives in her parent's house and I remember many parties at this house. The trampoline was always a big hit. They have a different trampoline by now, but it was still a hit. Not as big a hit as the race car...but I will get to that in a minute.

Doing a little swinging and spying.

Holden (Jamie's son that was on the team, and also just a couple weeks older than Brooke) was so kind to share his race car with Brooke. They were having a BLAST and we were having a blast watching them. To say that Brooke is a horrible driver would be an understatement, but Holden was a real trooper. He held on tight and went along for the ride.

We weren't able to stay for the whole party because we had another party to get to. It never fails that things always fall on the same day. Before we left Brooke and Ellie both received their first soccer medals and were pretty proud of their new hardware! Coach Jamie also gave them each a gift bag that included a CD with pictures from the season. Thanks for everything, Jamie. You will most likely have to put up with at least one Tweryon girl this Spring :)

Ellie, Coach Jamie, and Brooke

Ellie, Coach Courtney, and Brooke

Broom's Orchard Pumpkin Festival

2011-11-29T13:04:00.000-06:00

One Saturday in October, we headed to Carlinville for the Broom's Orchard Pumpkin Festival. Ellie, Ryker, Addalyn and Ayken joined us. Grandma Patti came too, but my parents were in Florida visiting Stuart, Jackie and Brody and Grandpa Bill had to work. It was a beautiful day, almost a little warm for a pumpkin festival, but I shouldn't complain. Kami's first pumpkin experience was so cold, she didn't get to see any of it because she was covered with her blanket.

The big girls getting ready for the tractor/hayrack ride. We had to load Kami screaming because she didn't want to go. Thankfully she calmed down after we started. The ride took us through the apple orchard and I thought we were going to bounce right out of the trailer.

Grandma and Hadley enjoying the ride.

There were all kinds of activities for the kids to do and I think they would have preferred to play in the sand and swing on the swingset.

They had a face painting booth and before we got to the festival the girls were excited to have their faces painted. When they saw that the face painters were clowns, they decided they didn't want to be the face paintees anymore. I even had my face painted to show them it wasn't so bad! So, here are Ellie and I (the brave ones) with our faces painted.

After about an hour, they decided it would be ok. We even had to get both cheeks painted!

After lunch and playing for a little while longer, we headed out to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins. I did a horrible job of taking pictures because I have one loan picture of Brooke sitting in the wagon with some our pumpkins. For the record we picked out five beautiful pumpkins that made five beautiful jack-o-lanterns.

Brooke's Preschool Open House

2011-11-29T10:12:00.000-06:00

Brooke's open house was the night after Hadley's and she was also super excited to show us her classroom. We enjoyed seeing some of the friends she is making at school. It's pretty neat that several of her friends are children of people I went to school with. We checked out her bulletin board art projects, her all about me book and had another yummy snack.

Brooke showing her Grandpas her page from her classroom book.

Brooke's "cute suit" monster

We even got to play upstairs in the "upstairs classroom." They don't get to play up here too often so the girls were pretty excited to check it out. I think they would have stayed up there all night if we would have let them!

Hadley's Preschool Open House

2011-11-29T09:53:00.000-06:00

Hadley had her open house at school about a month ago :) I figured I better get to all of our October blog worthy events done before Christmas gets here and I'm REALLY behind.

Hadley was very excited to show us her classroom. Nana, Papa, Grandma and Grandpa all came and were able to see her classroom too. We got to check out her journal, bulletin board projects, centers and have a yummy snack. I still can't believe she will be in Kindergarten next year!

I love this page! Look at the face on "Scared Mrs. Monari"

Homecoming 2011

2011-11-11T22:58:00.002-06:00

We went to the Homecoming parade this year. It was unusually hot, but as always, the girls had a great time (despite the look on Kami's face) I love the homecoming parade and love the hometown feel! I can't wait for next year, because we will be able to walk with Hadley and her kindergarten class!!

The kids...

Brooke and Ellie .. "Best Friends"

Ryker and Kami...future best friends and trouble makers :)

I, Heather Tweryon, do promise that I will one day get a good picture of the five Tweryon children! I promise!! It's not easy but I will try! Here are my few attempts...Regardeless of the picture, they are stinking cute though :)

FREE Fall Fun!

2011-11-03T14:40:00.000-05:00

Once again, here I am playing catch up and kicking myself because I let the blog get so behind! Ughh! Anyway, here goes...

The Sunday of Hadley's family party, we went to a fall festival at the Baptist Church here in Rochester. They've been having this festival for a few years. We've always seen the sign advertising it, but have never gone. This year, one of the church members was passing out flyers at Hadley's soccer game. We decided we would give it a try. The flyer mentioned that EVERYTHING was free, but we figured there had to be some sort of catch. Nope, EVERYTHING was indeed free. It was great. Pony rides, face painting, bounce houses, balloon animals, games, petting zoo, train rides, food... All free. The girls had a blast and we enjoyed another beautiful day with our girls! We will definitely be going back again next year.

Kami's first pony ride. She didn't really know what to think and by about the 2nd time around, she was done. At least she tried it, right?

Hadley and her good friend, Nicole going down the bounce house slide.

Brookie was so brave and climbed the ladder all by herself to get to the slide.

They had this cute little train ride for the kids. The cars were made from old barrels and then a tractor would pull them around. I would love to have a few of these to use at Grandpa Bill's!!

Brooke is doing more and more things without hesitation. She really is growing up!

Before we left, each of the big girls got their face painted. Hadley wanted a butterfly, and I think she wanted one all over her face, but this was just as good.

Brooke wanted a dog, and I KNOW she wanted it all over her face, because Ellie asked for a dog and her entire face was painted like a dog. Instead we got this cute little Clifford looking dog. She was happy with that... and, so was I :)

Hadley's Special Weekend

2011-11-02T13:09:00.002-05:00

For Hadley's birthday, Brian and I took her to Chicago for a special "just Hadley" weekend. We left on Friday afternoon and came home Sunday. It was a wonderful weekend and we shared some special Hadley time. When Brian and I were in Chicago this past January, we went to the American Girl Store and decided that when each of the girls turned five, they would get a trip to Chicago for their birthday. I still can't believe my baby is five already.

Brian found us a hotel in Westmont, which is about an hour train ride from the city. When we got to the hotel on Friday afternoon, we changed into our "fancy" outfits and went to dinner at a restaurant named Pappadeaux. It was actually a seafood restaurant but they had the best selection for kids. I didn't take my camera to dinner and I wish I had because the band sang Happy Birthday to Hadley and they took the lobsters out of the tank for her to see. The food was delicious and I had the best fish I've ever had before. YUM! We tried to get Hadley to try the alligator but that was a no go.

There are a lot of pictures here, and Hadley is helping with the captions :) ...so bear with us!

(Hadley) I love my mommy and daddy. This is us in our hotel room before we went to eat dinner. I ate macaroni and cheese and french fries. I had lipstick in my hello kitty purse.

On Saturday morning, we drove to the train station and caught the 9:00 train to Chicago. I was a little nervous about riding the train with Hadley but the several people I asked, assured me it was safe (as long as it was daylight).

It was FREEZING and really breezy while we were waiting for the train. The ticket office is closed on Saturday and we were pretty early for the train so it was a chilly wait.

We arrived at Union Station and decided to head to Navy Pier first. We had looked at the website online and found several things we wanted to do.

Chasing a pigeon...

We decided to take a taxi to Navy Pier and after a brief scuffle between our cab driver and a homeless man, we were on our way. Did I mention that I'm not a huge fan of big cities????

Navy pier was decorated for Halloween and looked really neat. After checking a few things out we (really Brian and Hadley) decided to ride the ferris wheel. I really didn't want to ride, but Hadley told me it was her choice and she wanted me to ride. I don't remember exactly how high it went but it took seven minutes to make one revolution. It never stopped, which helped because I really don't like getting stuck at the top of a ferris wheel.

(Hadley) The ferris wheel went reallly high. My mommy was so scared and didn't want to look at the ground.

I took these next couple pictures while we were waiting for Daddy to find a bathroom.

Isn't she cute?? :)

The one thing Hadley knew she wanted to do was get a feather in her hair. She picked out a hot pink one and the lady used the "needle" to put it in her hair. It was really just a metal pick but Hadley is telling everyone that she used a real needle to put it in her hair. It's still in her hair and I get yelled at if I get to close to her feather when I brush her hair.

(Hadley) When she put it in it kind of hurt, and I tried not to cry.

A really old Cub fan sitting outside Harry Carey's restaurant.

Ok, so these are our "cool faces" while sporting some cool shades.

We ate lunch at ... McDonald's because you can't go to Chicago and not eat McDonald's right? Actually we found the McDonald's that was connected to a food court so Brian and I were able to eat real food. And, by real food I mean Aunt Annie's pretzels! I didn't want to eat a big lunch because we had a special date scheduled for 4:00. More about that in a few :)

After Navy Pier, we started walking toward Michigan Avenue. The American Girl Store is in Water Tower Place. It wasn't a very long walk for us, but for Hadley "that was a long walk! So, we took a little break and then we kept on going. Finally Daddy showed me the store!"

(Hadley) I was really surprised about how big the American Girl Doll Store was. There were so many dolls to look at!

I had gone into the store first so I could snap a few pictures of her expression. It was priceless. She knew we were coming here but she had no idea what to expect. I don't think anyone really does until they see it in real life. It was crazy busy of course and we had to try to explain to Hadley that she needed to look at more than just the first few dolls before she thought about buying anything.

We headed upstairs to the "just like me" dolls. Hadley already knew that she wanted a doll that looked like her rather than one of the character dolls. We found the doll that had blue eyes, freckles across the cheeks, curly blondish hair. She was so excited and it was fun to watch her take it all in.

Youwillnotice from the next pictures that we didn't make it far before Brianne needed to change her clothes. We literally sat on the floor right outside the store.

Brian had made an appointment for us to have tea at 4:00. When we got to the restaurant we told them it was her birthday and they changed our tea to the birthday package. Hadley and Brianne both got birthday tiaras, Brianne got a birthday t-shirt and a balloon.

(Hadley) "The restaurant was really cool and I liked it and I think we should go back there with all the people in my family so we can all have fun. But will we? I just don't know yet"

Happy birthday, sweet princess! And, welcome to our family Brianne :)

Go Cardinals!

2011-11-02T12:03:00.001-05:00

Ok, now I know my blog is really out of order, but I have pictures I want to make sure I include. During September we went down to St. Louis with some friends for a Cardinal game. Brian had gotten us a discounted price for seats in the Coca-Cola Patio area. I don't think I can ever go to another game without sitting in this area!! We were spoiled -- buffet, close bathrooms, tables and drinks were all included with our tickets. It was a beautiful night with great friends. I can't wait to go again next year.

After the game, we headed to the landing. Let me just say that I felt REALLY old while we were out. I'm only 32 and it wasn't that long ago that I was at the landing for bachelorette parties, but to see these little 21 year olds and their outfits (or lack of outfits) was driving me crazy. I seriously wanted to take my jacket and wrap it around a few in particular, but I figured I wouldn't. They will learn that lesson on their own someday, I hope. But, if I ever see one of my girls dressed like that, we will have problems!! I am not looking forward to those days....

Here is a picture of me and my besties! Love you girls! :)

Happy Birthday Hadley, Part 2

2011-10-27T16:02:00.000-05:00

We had a family get together for Hadley's birthday at my Mom and Dad's house. We went to a fall festival before the party so that explains all the face paint :)

When looking at these next two pictures... I can reassure you that Ryker was not injured! Brooke and Ellie were just giving him some wrestling tips!

Thank you everyone (near and far) for making Hadley's golden birthday so special. I still can't believe she's five! Five years of being a mommy. Five years of learning. Five years of fun. Five years of learning what it means to love so much it hurts. Being a mom is the one thing I always knew I wanted to be. Thank you Hadley for being my daughter. I'm so glad you're mine :)

p.s. Happy Anniversary Bill and Patti, too! :) Hadley was born on their anniversary and will tell everyone that she is "their special gift!" Thank you for everything you do for our family. We appreciate you both so much. We love you!

Happy 5th Birthday, Hadley!!

2011-10-27T15:26:00.001-05:00

This year, we had Hadley's birthday party at the Christian County YMCA. We had gone to a party there this summer and the kids had a blast. They have a an indoor pool with a play area for kids, a bigger slide for bigger kids (or adults) and a lap pool. It really is a fun place to have a birthday party. We are already thinking about heading over there for a day of swimming this winter.

Happy Birthday, Sunshine Bear. You bring joy to our lives every single day. We are so proud of you. Thank you for being our daughter.

Swimming laps with Daddy

The play area for smaller children.

Papa Clark and Kami swimming laps.

Ellie going down the slide...I was too slow with the camera.

Fun jumping in the water!

We love you, Hadley!

Aaaaaaggggghhhhhhhh!

2011-10-25T15:54:00.000-05:00

This blog is driving me CRAZY!! I am trying to update with pictures from Hadley's birthday party and the pictures are taking forever to upload. I can't sit here all day -- well, it would be nice to sit here all day and wait for them to upload (while I catch up on my DVR) but I have a list of things I need to do today :) I will keep trying...

Girl Fun In St. Louis

2011-10-20T15:50:00.000-05:00

Brooke recently had a follow-up appointment with the Vent Clinic in St. Louis. During "vent clinic" we meet with her pulmonologist, the ENT doctor, and the ENT nurse. It's always kind of nice to go back and see the doctors that you don't see very often, especially when some of them haven't seen her for almost two years. During our appointment, we decided to keep Brooke in the current trach she is using. We also increased her asthma medicine to twice a day instead of just one. We were told that most kids with chronic lung disease (which Brooke does have because of being on the ventilator) end up with asthma. Her pulmonologist also gave us an inhaler to use before she exercises or as needed. Our next appointment is Feb. 8th with our Nurse Practitioner, Jodi, and we will see how Brooke is doing during the winter months. Brooke also got her flu shot and was very brave! She lifted up her dress to show us her band-aid -- and even did a little dance when she did so. :)

After we left her appointment, we went down to the cafeteria for lunch (a must for the girls) and headed to the zoo for an afternoon of fun. Normally we are so rushed and go home right after we finish with the doctors, but this day we decided to have a little fun.

Grandma Patti and Nana with their girls.

We started out at the Children's Zoo, which we had never been to before. They have a petting zoo area, a building with games and activities and a playground. The girls had a great time with their Nana and Grandma.

Go Rockets!!

Kami couldn't get enough of the guinea pigs and bunnies! Grandma had to make sure she didn't fall in!

Brooke petting a SNAKE!! Hadley wanted nothing to do with it -- and neither did I! She is so funny about animals and bugs. She will be the first one to pick up bugs, frogs, butterflies etc...

In the goat petting area, you can't feed the goats, but you can brush them. I don't like goats. I don't like feeding them and I don't like being around them. I'm always afraid they are going to kick me or one of the girls. Kami, on the other hand loved petting the goats. Brooke and I eventually left the area and watched from above. After one of the goats ate something out of one lady's purse, I decided I was done!

Thanks for the girls day of fun, Nana and Grandma! Thanks for always going with us and making these days special for the girls.

Annual Trip to the Applebarn

2011-10-12T14:36:00.000-05:00

Hadley's class took a field trip to the Applebarn again this year. I had planned on it being an interesting trip, because I had all three girls by myself. I decided that I would take our wagon instead of the stroller. I thought that it might be easier to use in the tall grass while touring the orchard. Well, it would have been a good idea, if Kami would have stayed in it. I even bought her a donut and an apple cider before the tour hoping to keep her occupied. That idea didn't work either, it just made her really sticky :)

I worked at the Applebarn during high school and college, so these tours are nothing new. Here the kids are getting their little pre-tour talk. Brooke joins right in with the class like she belongs.

Here is Gayle, owner of the Applebarn, teaching the kids about apples.

The kids were able to pick a blackberry from the blackberry bushes. It was pretty close to the end of the berry season, so the pickins' were pretty slim. She did manage to find one or two...

Here she is trying to pretend that she likes them.

Brooke tried one too and had a purple smile for the rest of the morning.

For whatever reason, Kami kept kissing this pumpkin. I have no idea why, but she probably kissed it twenty times. She keeps me entertained, that's for sure!

Happy Birthday, Kami Lu!

2011-10-12T13:59:00.000-05:00

Our sweet Kami Lu turned two a few weeks ago. I can't believe the last two years have gone by so quickly. Kami, you have brought so much joy to our lives and we are thankful for our little surprise miracle!

Good morning! As she was coming out of her room, I snapped this quick picture, chocolate milk spill and all.

We had a little family party for Kami at Bill and Patti's. She picked out Dora plates and napkins, so that was our theme :) I ordered a cookie cake from Wal-Mart -- I didn't need anything fancy, just the same colors as the napkins and "Happy Birthday Kami" Well, the nice cake decorator at Wal-Mart called my cell phone all excited about what he could do to this plain cookie cake. He was so excited about it, I didn't have the heart to tell him no thanks. However, I'm glad I didn't. As you can see it turned out great!

What a little doll!

We started opening presents and Kami really didn't care about opening the presents. Notice the chip in her hand? This child does not eat when everyone else eats. She will eat a few bites here and there, but most of her meals are eaten after we leave the table. She will go back to her plate (or others for that matter) and eat then. I will normally make sure that there is enough food left on her plate and mine so she gets enough to eat. At her two year check-up she weighed just 22.6 pounds and was 32 inches tall. She is still small, but she is still growing, just slowly. Her height to weight ratio is still good and her development is right on track, she is just a little peanut. Kami loves her sisters but does not like when they won't play with her. She just wants to be included. The day after her birthday, I set up her new toys in her room so she could play with them. Hadley and Brooke shut her out of her own room! The poor thing was banging on her door, screaming "my room! my room!"

She cared more about filling this bag and carrying it around... her sisters and cousin opened most of them.

Blowing out her candles...with a little help :)

Happy Birthday, sweetie! We love you to the moon and back. Thank you for making our family complete!

Watch Out Gymnastics World!!

2011-10-11T15:35:00.001-05:00

The girls started gymnastics last month and I am so glad we chose to put them in gymnastics this year. We are taking the year off from dance to give this a try. They are both taking classes at MidState in Springfield. Luckily we were able to get them in classes on the same night.

Excited to leave for our first class.

Waiting patiently to meet their teachers.

We chose to put Brookie in the mommy/daddy and me class first. This class is for 2-4 year olds. Parents participate and help with the class. We will have our 5th class tomorrow night and Brooke has come so far. In fact, I was pretty surprised at what she was doing during the first class. Her teacher even described her as "strong." Sue, can you believe it??? She is hanging and swinging on the bars by herself, walking the balance beam by herself, doing forward rolls BY HERSELF!! I am so proud of her. She loves her teacher Miss Allison and loves going to class each week.

Hadley is in the big gym and takes a class by herself. Her teacher is Miss Kaitlyn and she is very patient :) Let's just say that Hadley is learning... the first week was pretty rough. Hadley is the kind of child that takes everything very literally. If you tell her to do something, she wants to do it exactly the way you told her to do it. Although she might seem like she is a very confident little girl, she can lack confidence at times. Gymnastics is one of those times. She listens very well and tries to do what her teachers says, but sometimes she has trouble. We are working on her "strong arms" which will lead to her cartwheels, handstands and round-offs. I am also proud of how far she has come in just this short amount of time. I am really glad that we decided to try gymnastics this year. And, the girls love that every 4th week is bounce house week!

Happy Birthday, Ellie!

2011-10-11T14:36:00.000-05:00

It's been birthday central around here for the Tweryon family. Grandma, Ellie, Kami and then Hadley. We've had lots of fun celebrations! Ellie had her birthday party at the Taylorville YMCA swimming pool. We had gone to a party there back in July and the kids all had a great time. Ellie decided she wanted her party there too. They have a great play area in the water, a big slide for the big kids (the dads and moms :)), and a "lazy river" that you can swim around using a noodle. It was a great birthday party for a great little girl. We love you, Ellie!

These next few pictures are from Ellie's family birthday party at her house. Our girls were so excited to watch her open her presents!

Happy Birthday, Grandma Patti!

2011-10-11T14:30:00.000-05:00

We celebrated Grandma Patti's birthday with a nice family dinner. I won't tell you when her birthday was because then you will know just how far behind I am with the blog :) When we were in Indianapolis at the zoo, we saw a stand where you could have your handprint turned into different animals. They were adorable but also pretty expensive. Devin and I took pictures of some of the cuter ones and thought we could give it a try. The ladybugs seemed like the easier ones to try first and they turned out pretty cute!

Here is Grandma getting a little help opening her presents and my attempt at trying to get all of the kids in a picture with her. Not such a good attempt. Check out Kami -- I think she was trying to undress herself!

Even though the picture isn't great, our love for Grandma is! Thank you for everything you do for our family. You are a wonderful mother-in-law and Grandma, and we are all so thankful for you. We hope you had a great birthday this year.

Whose Idea Was This?!?

2011-09-20T14:43:00.000-05:00

On the Sunday before Labor Day, we had a little cookout at Bill and Pattis. (rewind a few weeks--Brad and Devin took Ellie and Ryker to the FunShop Anniversary celebration and Ellie got her face painted like a tiger. Looks great, right? Well, we were in Lincoln for the balloon festival and we took the kids downtown to find the kid's fair that they had going on. Cousin Emma had a beautiful butterfly painted on her face and my girls wanted that and Ellie wanted an Eagle, yes an EAGLE painted on her face! Unfortunately, the face painting was closed for the day and we came home with clean faces.) So, here it is a few weeks later and Devin comes to Bill and Patti's with face paint and brushes and a little girl that says she wants an eagle painted on her face. I am NOT an artist!! I would like to think that I could paint a pretty good rainbow, butterfly or flower, but an Eagle, not so much!

We printed a couple pictures of eagles for me to use as a reference, but then Ellie decided she wanted her eagle to be blue, so I asked if we could make it a blue "bird." She was fine with that and so

was I :)

Hadley had a butterfly, Brooke had a flower and the rest of us couldn't be left out, so we let the girls paint our faces too. I can't remember what Brooke called my creation, but it's pretty cute, don't you think?

Aren't we all beautiful? Thank goodness it came off with just a little soap and water.

"Hiking" at Lincoln Memorial Gardens

2011-09-20T14:33:00.000-05:00

A couple weeks ago we took the girls to Lincoln Memorial Gardens for a little fresh air and exercise. It was a beautiful morning and we ended up having some great family time together. It seems like everything is so rush, rush lately so it was nice to relax and slow down a bit. We let the girls take their cameras so they could take pictures of nature. I'm not sure whose memory card I took these from, but this is quality photography here, people. (and, the date stamp is clearly not from June 2010) Enjoy!! :)

If you look at this lake shot carefully (left side of the picture) there is a mussel shell in the water. It looked really cool and I asked Brian to get it for us. At the time, it seemed like an easy request, but as we got closer to it, we realized it was in some pretty muddy water. So, we got the bright idea to put big rocks down so we could walk across the rocks to get to it. Again, good idea at the time... Brian ended up pretty muddy and when he went to throw it to me, he flipped mud all over Hadley's clothes. And, for those of you that know Hadley, she doesn't like to wet, dirty, etc...(the girl freaks out over a drop or two of water) so big globs of water were a pretty big deal! By the time we left, our shoes were all covered in mud, but we had a great time exploring.

Speaking of shoes -- poor Brooke kept complaining that her feet felt "heavy" and she wanted to ride in the stroller instead of walking. I couldn't figure out what was going on other than maybe her shoes were heavy from the mud. WRONG! I had put shoes on her that were a size and a half too small. She's wearing a 9 1/2 now which is almost as big as Hadley. I hope she doesn't get her daddy's big feet! So, her feet weren't heavy and she wasn't too tired, her feet were just squished into her shoes.

August in a Nutshell

2011-09-15T15:44:00.000-05:00

August was pretty busy around the Tweryon house, so here is a quick re-cap...

We took the girls to the fair one afternoon. The weather was beautiful and we had a great time. The highlight of the day was the petting zoo area. Both Hadley and Brooke rode a pony!

We had tried last year and Brooke wanted nothing to do with them, but this year, she's all smiles! It was pretty funny because her horse kept trying to run into Hadley's horse. Brooke just giggled and giggled!

We had a little party for Brooke to celebrate her being vent free for three months! YAY Brooke!!!

One day, Hadley and Brooke were trying to "fly" They tucked a ribbon into Brooke's tutu and Brooke would jump off the bench as Hadley ran (think of trying to fly a kite). Obviously Brooke didn't fly but they were having a great time trying!

We went to the Muni one Friday night. The Wizard of Oz was playing and it was one of the best shows I've ever seen at the Muni. Grandma and Nana went with us and Daddy and Grandpa Bill stayed home with Kami and painted our garage. Papa Clark was babysitting Brody down in Florida. Yes, that's right... Stuart and Jackie were in need of a sitter for a few days and were having NO luck finding anybody. My dad hadn't started school yet, so he flew down to help them out. When it comes to grandparents, our kids are one lucky bunch!!!!

Having fun with David before the show starts.

Hadley's Orientation

2011-09-15T15:31:00.000-05:00

Hadley has been ready for school for a month (and so have I for that matter). We were ready to get back into our regular routine. Hadley goes to school on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 9:00 until 11:30. It never fails, that the mornings Hadley goes, I have to drag the kids out of bed, but on Tuesdays and Thursdays when we can sleep in they are bouncing into our bed at 6:45 a.m!! Is that the law of parenting?

Orientation was nothing new to Hadley. She walks into the classroom and says, "another year of fours class for me!" She is our little miss independent and is ready to meet new friends. The kids in this class will be in her kindergarten class next year. There are 15 boys and only 5 girls in the class.

Granny came up and watched Kami while I took Hadley and Brooke to orientation. Thanks, Granny!

Brooke's First Day of Pre-School

2011-09-15T15:12:00.000-05:00

Tuesday, September 6th was Brookie's first day of pre-school. This was a very bittersweet day for me. I was pretty emotional for most of the morning and having to wait until noon to take her did not help matters. She goes to school every Tuesday and Thursday from 12:00 to 2:00 and she LOVES it! I am so thankful for Good Shepherd and her wonderful teachers for making her feel so special. Her favorite thing to do at school is play outside and she likes making play-doh.

Such a big girl! Before we left for school, we said a prayer that Brooke would have a great first day of school. I started crying as I was talking and Brooke reassured me that she would be ok and she would have fun at her school.

Ellie and Brooke outside

When we walked into the classroom, Brooke did great! She was excited to play and ready for us to leave. Before I left I took her too the bathroom and while we were washing our hands I told her how proud I was of her and she hugged me and said "I'm proud of you too, Mommy." Ok, a few more tears... and then I was fine. I am so proud of this little girl and she continues to amaze me each and every day!

Brooke and Mrs. Tokgoz

Brooke and Mrs. Ayers

After we got home, Brooke was showing all the things she did. Here is her certificate she got from her teachers. Notice the blue ink on her face? She got to play with stamps at school! What fun! :)

Brooke's Pre-school Orientation

2011-09-15T14:51:00.000-05:00

Before Brooke had her first day of school, we had orientation. This gave her the opportunity to see her classroom, meet her teachers, and ease any fears she might have had.
To be perfectly honest, I don't know who had more fears, me or her :) Orientation was the easy part... I just had to go into the church and listen to her teachers talk, I didn't have to leave.

I still can't believe she's old enough to be in pre-school.

Her bookbag is about as big as she is!

Ellie and Brooke ready to go inside.

Hadley's First Soccer Game

2011-09-06T16:16:00.000-05:00

Hadley is an old pro when it comes to soccer. And, by old pro, I mean -- she knows what to do when she gets on the field. She knows which way to run and where to stand, etc... What she's really good at though is socializing. The girl definitely likes to talk. I have no idea where she gets that from, by the way ;)

During her turn at goalie, she wasn't getting a whole lot of action, so she decided to pick the grass. Brian gets frustrated with her because she doesn't pay attention, which doesn't really seem to phase her. She likes to talk to her friends and she gets bored when she's all by herself in the goal.

Brooke's First Soccer Game

2011-09-06T15:11:00.001-05:00

Brooke's first soccer season is in full swing. She and Ellie had their first game two weeks ago and they both did great!! If I told you that I haven't laughed as hard as I did at their game, it would only just begin to explain how entertaining the game was. Hadley is in her fourth season, and it's amazing how quickly you forget...1.) how little 3 year olds are on a soccer field, and 2.) how clueless 3 year olds are on a soccer field. 3.) how HILARIOUS it is to watch 3 year olds play soccer!

Brooke and Ellie after getting their "jerseys"

Assistant Coach Courtney walking the girls out on the field. They started the first quarter playing defense. Coach told them to stand on the white line, and that's what they did. At first they were standing on the white line but facing the wrong way. Then, they stood on the white line and didn't move. It took quite a bit of screaming on our part to get them moving.

The girls took lots of hug breaks, holding hand breaks, etc...

Brooke got to play goalie and did a great job, with a little extra help from Daddy. She had a little bit more "go get 'em" attitude than I expected from her. She even got a little kick to the head when she dove down to get the ball.

The first game of the season was a blast. The second game of the season was cancelled due to excessive heat. It was 102 degrees last Thursday and much too hot to play soccer, especially for 3 year olds!

Sparks in the Park

2011-08-31T13:29:00.000-05:00

I have no idea how these pictures missed my 4th of July blog, but there they were sitting on my memory card waiting to be blogged about. Rochester's Sparks in the Park is becoming a tradition for our family and the kids always have a great time. This year, the weather was HOT, HOT, HOT!!! But, that didn't stop the girls from enjoying the rides.

Ok, next year, if there is a picture of me on this stupid slide, I give you permission to slap me!! I don't use the word hate very often, but I HATE this slide! The real "giant slide" at the state fair, I can handle. This rickity pop up slide, I CAN NOT!! I don't even know why I try. Do you remember the incident with Hadley, Devin and I last year at the County Fair? Remember me telling you about poor Hadley being drug down the slide? Well, this wasn't much better. I don't know why this slide goes so much faster than the sweet yellow slide at the fair, but I swear we almost flew off! That is after I about puked standing at the top. I here by declare that I will not take any of my girls down this slide next year!

Poor Kami on the slide with Brian. I don't know who told him to take her up there (ok it was me, but that was before I had gone down and she wanted to), but she ended up hating it too! Click on the picture and look at her poor face in these next two pictures.

So, even though it's almost September, it's as hot as the 4th of July, so why not talk about it?

Our Grandma's In Jail!

2011-08-31T13:03:00.000-05:00

Every year, the MDA (Muscular Dystrophy Association) does a fundraiser where "local celebrities" are sent to "jail". They get their bail and try to raise that amount of money before they can go free. Grandma Patti was nominated to get locked up this year, so we went to visit her and help bail her out of jail. The girls were a little confused about the whole jail thing. I tried to help them understand that it wasn't real jail and that Grandma would be able to get out, but they just didn't quite get it. As we were driving downtown to the hotel where the fundraiser was, they were full of some pretty funny questions. At one point Brooke said "but I'm going to miss Grandma."

As we walked in, they had a set of fake jail bars and handcuffs that you could have your picture taken with. They wanted NOTHING to do with that.

The girls each brought their own money to help with bail. By money I mean a bag full of coins that probably totaled $2.00. Hey, every little bit helps!

Nana met us for lunch and Grandma made her bail, so it was a great day!

Dress Up Fun With Ellie... and Ryker :)

2011-08-31T12:50:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, the big girls and I went over to Ellie and Ryker's house. We decided to let the girls have a dress-up/make-up play date. Devin had the make-up and clothes all set up. After they did their own make-up, I painted Ellie and Brooke's toenails. Hadley was "too busy" for her pedicure. Brian and Brad had a party to go to and Brad made it very clear that he didn't want to get a picture of Ryker "playing dress-up" too. Well, he did get dressed up, but we made him a police officer, NOT a princess :)

Brooke LOVES the eyeshadow and Ellie LOVES the lip gloss. They were quite a pair!

The Babes of Soccer

2011-08-19T15:34:00.002-05:00

The girls started soccer this week. They both practice on Monday nights, which is great. Hadley will play her games on Friday night and Brooke will play on Thursdays. Brooke and Ellie are on the same team, which could be good or very interesting:) Monday night at practice, they were pretty entertaining. The coach actually asked if they would separate to play different positions because they made sure they stood together for most drills. I forgot how funny three year olds can be when they are learning to play soccer. Let's just say, the games won't be boring that's for sure!

Here is Brooke before we left for practice. This was the first picture I took. Normally I have to take a bunch before I get her looking and smiling at the same time.

Then there's Hads. She decided she didn't want to hold her ball, she wanted to put it on the ground and balance her foot on it....

And, we finally got it :)

Hadley before we left for practice

Ellie and Brooke before practice started

Brooke and Ellie's coach is Jamie. She and I were in the same class together in school. Her little boy Holden is on the team.

Stretching before practice... When Coach Jamie said they were going to do Jumping Jacks next, Brooke told her she didn't know how to do jumping jacks. Well it turns out, not many of them knew how to do jumping jacks. Too funny!

Taking a hug break!

And, now they're taking a "pull the grass and throw it up in the air!" break! We had to re-focus the girls a few times but other than that, they did a great job at their first practice. I can't wait for their games!

And, another hug!

Ellie practicing her dribbling. Notice Brooke in the background... she will move the ball with her hands until it's in the right position. We need to work on this.

I feel bad that I didn't get many shots of Hadley practicing. She was a little farther away and I'll admit I was busy with Brooke. Brian is the assistant coach for Hadley's team again. Hadley's coach is Coach Pete. He has been her coach before and he just assigned the position to Brian without asking, but he couldn't say no. I know he was a little disappointed that he wasn't able to watch Brooke more.

Tweryon Family Pictures 2011

2011-08-19T14:37:00.001-05:00

A couple weeks ago we took family pictures for the Tweryon family. We got a good shot for the entire family but didn't get great singles of the kids, so the next week we made them put their outfits back on and tried it again. :) We still didn't get a great one of all five kids so we might just be trying for take three. It's hard to get all five kids looking at the camera at once!

Brad, Devin, Ellie and Ryker

Grandma, Grandpa and the kids

Granny and the kids

Baby, Baby, OH! (in the tune of Kami Lu)

2011-08-12T17:01:00.000-05:00

Stuart and Jackie are expecting their second child in December and found out this week they are having a GIRL!! Yippee! Brody is getting a sister. Baby girl looks perfect, so now we are just waiting patiently for her arrival and praying that they live in Illinois when she is born :). What a wonderful Christmas gift! Congratulations Blade family! We love you! And, now I have someone to give all of our girl clothes to!

On Tuesday, August 9th, one of my very best friends, Jessi had her beautiful baby boy, Brock Joseph. He was born at 7:10 p.m. and he is perfect! I went to visit the happy family on Wednesday night. Isn't he precious?? Congratulations, Mark, Jessi, Maycee, and Nolan! We love you guys!

The QUEENS of Knight's

2011-08-12T16:41:00.000-05:00

For Christmas each year, we ask for season passes to Knight's Action Park, the water park in Springfield. I started going with just Hadley when she was two. Last summer, Brooke was off the ventilator so she started going with us too. Kami only went once last year because she was still pretty young and I didn't know how it would be with three small kids at the water park. This year, we have averaged going to the water park one to two times a week. The girls have a great time and are becoming very brave! I am especially proud of Brooke and Ellie. Last year, even by the end of the summer they didn't do much other than playing with the water toys we brought. Even at the beginning of this summer, they were pretty cautious in the water. Obviously Brooke has to be slightly cautious with her trach, but they have both come so far! This year, they are going down slides, getting their faces and hair wet and having a blast!

Brooke going down the submarine slide. She went down this slide SLOWLY about 20 times before she finally let herself go fast. She would use her hands and feet to inch her way down, but finally realized it was much more fun going faster. Devin made me push Ellie down for her to get the courage :) We knew she would like it if she just tried it and I happened to be the lucky one that got to push her. I returned the favor and made her push Kami though :)

Kami's new "pretty smile"

Brooke wants to go down this slide by herself but the water is just a little too deep for her.

Having three kids at the water park is definitely a challenge, but it's been a fun summer. The girls love going and I love watching them. Hadley has been a huge help and is very understanding when we can't do everything she wants to do. We only had two incidents with Brooke and her trach. I just hope she doesn't have that silly thing next year so she can go "under water" like she says. Kami enjoyed her first summer at the water park and likes dumping water on complete strangers.

I can only imagine what these girls will be up to next year. I have a feeling they will be hard to keep up with. Girls -- I am so proud of you and love you very much!

McCormick's Creek --

2011-08-12T15:53:00.000-05:00

Originally we had planned to go to an indoor water park on the last day of our Indianapolis adventure. Well, after hearing a few negative reviews and looking at the cost, we decided not to go. We wanted to find something fun to do on our way home. Brian and I found this state park that offered "creek walks." We decided to give it a try. On a map, it didn't look that difficult to get to. On the actual road, it was not easy to find! The roads were windy and hilly, and we had to make several turn arounds to find our way. We finally found what would turn out to be the easiest route to the creek.

The trail down to the creek.

The stairs even further down to the creek.

Ok, so the pictures in the brochure and on the computer were alot more appealing than the actual thing, or maybe we were just in the wrong spot. It was difficult to get across to the flat areas and the water was freezing. We hadn't planned on doing this so none of us had water shoes. Flip flops do not make for an easy walk in a rocky creek.

The girls with daddy and Grandpa Bill heading over to the waterfall.

Such silly girls!

Indianapolis Children's Museum

2011-08-12T15:25:00.001-05:00

On Saturday of our Indianapolis trip we headed to the Children's Museum. We all had a great time! There was something for everybody and I would definitely recommend this museum to any family. When we were driving by the museum to get to the parking garage, the first thing the girls saw was this big dinosaur climbing into the building. They were pumped!

Surprise, Surprise... the first thing we did was ride the carousel. This was an authentic carousel they took apart and put in the museum. I can't remember exactly how old it was, but it was really old.

They had a big Dora and Diego exhibit that the girls LOVED. They had all kinds of things for the kids to do. One of them was a Let's Explore show (well we thought it was a show). It ended up being an interactive "show." The girls started out on these carpet squares while the helper asked questions and explained what they would do. The first question she asked was if anybody had a pet. All three girls hands went up. The next question was "how can you help take care of your pet?" Again, all hands up. She then asked what pets need to stay healthy. And, what do you know, all hands up. When she called on Brooke or Ellie, they just sat there and said nothing. It was so funny!

Next, she put the kids in groups and gave them each an animal. The girls were given a coati (koh-ah-tee) which we had never even heard of. Honestly, I thought we would leave the room and be done after this. I didn't think the girls would be interested in finishing the project. I was pleasantly surprised and they all did a great job. They were each given a little booklet and they had to learn things about their animal. They learned what their animals' favorite food was, where they live, what their footprint looks like and what the animal sounds like.

They were concentrating really hard.

Scanning the animal to find out what's wrong with it. Our coati was actually hungry so what do you do for a hungry coati?

You give it a bath! That's what Hadley decided to do. :)

Here they are receiving their Explorer badges just like Diego.

And, here they are with their coati.

These next couple pictures crack me up. The girls were supposed to sit down at the easels and draw the object in front of them.

Hadley's drawing

Brooke's drawing :)

The object... Looks alot like their drawings, right?

The museum also had a 50th anniversary Barbie exhibit. I never really played with Barbies as a kid, but this was really neat to see.

They had a little runway area with paparazzi, spotlights and music. The girls were able to dress up and walk the runway. I put on a skirt because this mom backstage said "I will if you will" and guess what, she didn't! So, I look like a big dork. No, I did not wear that pink skirt to the museum.

We went out to the picnic area for lunch.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE these pictures!

Pastor Hadley and Pastor Brooke giving their sermons. They had pews that we had to sit in and they talked and sang to us. It was pretty cute!

These next couple pictures need a little explaining. This museum was FULL of activities, FULL of hands on things to play with, FULL of lots of exciting things. It is the number one children's museum in the WORLD for crying out loud. But, what do our girls have to be dragged away from???

This little library and the sidewalk/mural area!!

They were actually drawing a crowd while they read their books.

Here, they sang, danced and did gymnastics! It was probably my favorite part of the day! They were so much fun to watch! Sometimes I don't know where they get the stuff they come up with!

Digging for bones

Kami playing in the water.

Before we left, we let the girls choose a souvenir for themselves and for Nana, Papa and Brody. It's so fun to watch what they buy for people! For Papa Clark -- a coffee mug. For Nana -- a necklace made of blown glass, and Brody -- a boat to use in his water table. We did have a little meltdown in the Hadley department. She wanted to buy this Dora doll that was 40 bucks. I was not going to buy this doll that I could get for 15.99 at Wal-Mart!! She just didn't understand that!! I'm sure I probably pulled the same thing when I was little but gosh darn it, when it's my child screaming and crying, I just want to scream too!!

As were were waiting for the girls to finish in the gift shop, poor Kami had to go to the bathroom. #2 that is. She likes to have her privacy as you can tell from this picture. She sat right there in the corner and didn't want us bothering her!

Another great day was had by the Tweryon clan and again, the kids (except for Hadley's little meltdown) were all so good.

Indianapolis Zoo

2011-08-09T15:34:00.002-05:00

When we chose to go to Indianapolis for our little vacation, we knew we wanted to do two things while we were there. The Indianapolis Zoo and the Children's Museum. We went to the zoo on Friday because it looked like it was going to be the best day weather wise. It ended up being a beautiful day, most importantly, not too hot.

The big girls watching the sharks, but not brave enough to touch any :) I didn't touch one either for the record.

I have no idea what these little sharks were doing. They would come out of the water and swim like this. I think they are trained to do tricks!

Kami watching the sharks.

We saw a dolphin show where the dolphins did all kinds of tricks. We sat in the splash zone and got a little wet, but not too bad (thankfully). Devin, Brad, Ryker and Granny sat a little higher in the stands so they wouldn't get wet. One of the tricks the dolphins did was hitting a beach ball into the crowd. Guess where the beach ball went? Right to Brad and Ryker!!

Here is Hadley ALMOST feeding the giraffe. Notice the carrot falling out of her hand before it actually got to the giraffe's mouth. She got scared at the last minute and dropped it. Brooke (which I don't have a picture of) didn't even bother waiting in line to get up to the giraffe. She threw her carrot through the fence and yelled at the giraffe "Go get it giraffe!" :)

Hadley "racing" a cheetah

Enjoying our picnic lunch

After lunch, we headed back into the zoo and went to the splash area. I am beginning to really like splash parks! The kids like filling their cups and splashing, and I don't have to worry as much because there isn't any water other than what is squirting out of the equipment. Surprisingly, the one that normally likes them the most, wanted nothing to do with the water. Brooke and Daddy went looking for monkeys while Kami, Hadley and Ellie played in the water.

I can't believe I actually have a picture of her drinking this water. I am always telling them to NOT drink the water, and here she is drinking it! YUCK!

Ellie

After we left the splash area, we headed to the carousel and roller coaster. Kami was wiped and fell asleep in her stroller.

Hadley, Brian and Brad rode the little roller coaster which ended up being a tad faster than I had expected.

Before we left to go back to the hotel, we hit the zoo gift shop. Like a lot of places, you actually have to exit through the gift shop. Surprise, Surprise. Grandma and Grandpa bought the kids each a souvenir. Hadley picked a pink giraffe (seen in her hand) and Brooke chose this cool little treasure box that has a lock and key. It took her about 20 minutes to choose it. She is always very thoughtful about her purchases. Fast forward to the hotel... the girls are playing with Brooke's box, which came with paper, pencils, stencils, stickers, etc... and I told Brooke what a good present she chose. Hadley looks at me with these really sad eyes and says "You mean you don't like my giraffe?" She was so serious and made me feel bad. Yes, Hadley I love your pink giraffe. And your pink monkey and pink flamingo and pink bear that we have at home too :)

Our day at the zoo was great. We couldn't have asked for a better day, considering that the temperature could have been 95 degrees like it had been all week. Thanks Granny, Grandma and Grandpa for a fun day!