Kallie turns 16!

 This amazing daughter of mine turned 16!  She had a hard time deciding what she wanted to do for her birthday and ultimately decided she didn't want to decide what she did for her birthday.  Kal had band early in the morning and I had promised her I wouldn't embarrass her during band - but I didn't say I wouldn't embarrass her after band!  We loaded everyone up in the two cars and stood in the parking lot with balloons and a 16 waiting for her to come out.  I think we really surprised her!  

After surprising Kal we headed home so she could get showered and dressed.  Her band starts at 7am and goes until 10am and they are outside in the heat marching and practicing - so she wanted to get dressed before we did any birthday celebrations.  Christopher and I took her out for lunch all by herself.  It was so great to just sit and chat with Kal and hear what she had to say.  She is one sassy girl!  She wanted pizza so we tried a new pizza place and loved it!  They even had gelato - double win!

After lunch we relaxed a little bit before heading over to the high school for Ben and Kallie's back to school night.  We were able to walk their schedule and meet their teachers and see some friends.  It is crazy that school starts on Monday!

After back to school night we came home had her favorite dinner (chicken fettuccini alfredo) with a few friends.

Then it was time for presents!  We wanted to give her her no kissing money in a creative way - but we kept getting stumped on how to do it!  Finally we decided to do a money roll with silly quotes taped in it.  I think she liked it!

Then cake!  I was so excited because I bought these fun confetti candles - but they turned out to be less than stellar.  What was fun was that I accidently bought relighting candles without realizing it!  Poor Kal could not get them to blow out!  We had to recruit Zack and Nick to help out, which pretty much just meant lots of spit on the cake!  Good thing we are COVID comfy :)  I hope she had an amazing 16th birthday and felt as special as she is!!  We love this girl of ours!

Xander's blood tests

All babies get what is called a PKU blood test when they are born.  Normally you don't think anything of it.  The nurse fills 5 circles with blood, they send off the test and you never hear about it again.  This has not been the case with poor Xander.  First of all he had to get his poor heels poked over and over to check his sugars while in the hospital - then the PKU test - so he cried whenever anyone touched his little feet.  When we went to his doctors appointment at 1 week they told us he had failed his PKU test - something to do with Amino Acids and sugars.  They gave us an order to go and have it ran again.  That was a nightmare (insurance again), but after him screaming bloody murder we got the test completed.

At his 2 week appointment we were told that he had failed the PKU test for a second time - but this time he passed the part he had failed on the previous test - and failed a test he had passed previously.  So we had to go back and get the test run a THIRD time.  This time they sent up back to mother baby to have it done by the baby nurse verses the lab techs.  This poor boy screamed like I haven't heard since the day he was born.  Then his poor foot wouldn't stop bleeding.  It was horrible.  The blanket was covered with his blood and the nurse couldn't get it to stop bleeding.

But finally we got to go home (it seriously took all morning - we left our house at 8:30am and didn't get home till 2pm).  He got a little bath then snuggled with dad and all was right in his world again.

He got some brother hugs as well.  This kid is so loved I just can't stand it!  He is so calm and sweet and patient.  He never cries and loves the noise and chaos that is our house.

 

Nick-isms

I've been posting lots about Xander recently, so I thought I'd take a break and share some fun Nick stories.  He only has one volume setting and one speed setting - loud and running.  He keeps us on our toes and is always into something!

Our power went out a few days ago and Zack ran and got our light up necklaces I had bought for 4th of July.  Nick thought they were the coolest thing he had ever seen and ran around screaming with excitement.  It was adorable - and every picture is blurry because he is never still.

Nick loves to take the top off our ottomans and use them as his personal seats (or jumping trampolines).  I was feeding Xander and Nick went to the library and got all these books and started reading them.  It kept him busy, and quiet, for a good 15 minutes - so I had to document it.

Nick loves to do "cool falls".  He pretty much falls down on purpose and lifts one leg while yelling.  We were playing outside and he kept doing his fun falls.  It was so cute.

I brought Xander's little bed downstairs one day for him to chill on.  I turned around and saw Nick all cuddled up in it laughing hysterically.  He fits perfectly!  We always call him our little cat.  He loves to find tight spaces and worm his way into them.  He also licks people, which I think is gross - I'm hoping that one is a phase that ends soon!

Xander was laying in the bed while Nick was laying on the floor talking to him "hi baby, hi baby, hi baby" while rubbing his head.  Xander still has his hands in fists most the time and Nick loves to give him "booms" with his fist - while yelling "BOOM!"  Nick also loves to cover Xander's face/eyes then quickly move his hand and yell "THERE HE IS!!!".  I love how much he loves this little baby!

And a rare sighting.  Nick sleeping.  Chris and I were just chatting and looked over and realized he had fallen asleep on the couch next to me while holding his chocolate milk.  He looks so innocent and calm when he sleeps!  Heaven knows he is just recharging his battery to be the tornado he is when he wakes up!

 

Bath Time

Xander's cord finally fell off on Thursday, so it was time for a real bath!  He loved just chilling in the warm water. I dont think he's going to miss those cold sponge baths!  What you don't see in the pictures is mw trying to wrangle nick on the counter doing his best to "help" me give Xander a bath. Today was much easier with Christopher around!

Xander Meets the Kids

 Holy cow we have SIX kids!  Introducing Xander to the kids was so sweet.  Nick was so excited to meet the baby and kept pointing out all his body parts, hair!, eyes!, cheek!, hands!, etc so excited to see he had everything he was supposed to have.  I thought he might not take to Xan right away, but man was I wrong!  He was ready to give him kisses, boom his hands, and rub his hair.  It was so sweet!