Preston is 3mo old!!!

As I say all the time, it's going by so fast!!!!  I can NOT believe he is 3mo old today!!!!  Sorry for the lack of updates, our favorite kiwi is in town!!!!

Nikki and I have been friends since I was pregnant with Hayden and talk daily online, ran a forum together and have become really good friends.  Finally after over 4yrs we got to meet!  She lives in NZ and came over here last Thurs and will be here through Sept 14th.  It's been great, the boys absolutely love her!  

But because of that we've been busy and I haven't really had much time to update on here.  

But back to Preston!  He is 3mo today!!  He is about 13lbs 5oz and 24in long!  

He is doing great, smiling loads more, a bit better with the head control he can sit in his bumbo for short periods of time.  He got a new playmat which he really loves.  He's sleeping really well at night and for the most part during the day, he fights his last nap of the day really bad though, but other than that he usually goes down really easily.  He is starting to giggle a bit, kind of a half giggle but adorable!!!  

Some awesome pics that Nikki has taken since being here of him

Lots of firsts!

It's been a great week, so far, for Hayden!  We went on Tuesday morning and signed him up for his first gymnastics class.  We ended up going with the Tuesday 4pm class so he actually had his first class that night.  He absolutely loved it and did a great job.  He was listening and following directions really well.  I took a few videos but they are on my other computer so I'll have to upload them later.  If you are on facebook they are on there already :)

But the older 2 were driving me insane while there so I switched him to the Thursday 11am class so it will be while they are at school lol.  So he goes tomorrow morning again :)

Today was his first day of preschool though!!!!!  He had such an awesome day!  He loved it and can't wait to go back on Friday

His backpack and lunchbox he picked out

In his class

His first ever packed lunch!!!  PB&J cut into shapes, grapes, goldfish, blueberry craisins, crushed mixed berry pouch, mini fruit roll up with water

It's a lot to get used to, suddenly very busy...I'm exhausted!  But it's been great...that time with him at school that I had just Preston was awesome

Busy Monday

Today was Landon and Casen's first day of school.  They both had a great day!!!!  They both really like their teacher and have quite a few kids in their class from last year and made new friends, too.  

Casen outside of his classroom

And at his desk

Landon outside of his classroom

At his desk

They rode the bus home today so Casen had a little sticker on him with his name and bus number.  He pulled it off when he got home and said he didn't like it then said he told his teacher "I'm too old for this stuff"  hahaha I love that kid, he's so blunt, it's hilarious.  But they had good days, it's going to be a good school year :)

Preston had his urology appt today for his kidneys.  We didn't really find anything out, just what we already knew, but his dr ordered some tests to find out which of 3 things is going on.  Most likely it's reflux just based on what they saw in the u/s before, they are doing a test called a VCUG where they put in a catheter and take xrays of the valves inside to see if they are closing properly.  If not, it's reflux and then it's us seeing how bad it is.  If it's mild they will put him on a daily antibiotic to hopefully prevent any kidney infections from the urine backing into his kidneys...if it's more severe we will have to discuss surgery.  Then he is having another test done where they will put dye in through an IV and see how long it takes to pass through the kidneys and into his bladder...checking for an obstruction.  Same thing for that...if it's mild we will just wait and let it resolve itself (no antibiotic though) and if it's more severe he might need surgery.  But then it's possible it's not any of those things and his kidneys are just swollen for no apparent reason so we would just repeat another u/s at about 6mo to see if it's resolved yet then go from there.  He thinks the pain he had a few weeks back was probably a mild kidney infection....which would go along with reflux too.  We will have the appt on Sept 16th then meet back with his urologist on Oct 24th to see where we go from there.  Praying that whatever it is is mild and he won't require surgery.  

On the way home he had a dirty diaper...I know, I know, more poo stories....well I swear this child ONLY poops while in the car...ONLY.  Does anyone else's kid only go in one place??? It's the strangest thing.  And it had been over a week since he had last gone...let's just say...MESS.


Oh and also on the way home he started making this noise, I can't even describe it but it was obvious that he was having a hard time breathing...I was driving down the highway so immediately started pulling over and then he started gasping a few times then started screaming!  I finally got stopped then and went to check on him and he was crying bad but his color was ok...very red from crying but didn't seem too purple(he is purplish a lot of the time).  But just from the sounds I'm almost positive he stopped breathing for a min just don't know why he would have, it was like he stopped then starting making a weird noise then gasping for breath...it was scary.  But he seems ok right now.  The urologist actually asked about his general health, I told him briefly about his NICU stay so he asked how his lungs were now and I told him how he's often purplish and he has actually turned purple once and his feet bright blue once too and that our pedi just blew me off saying that he's 2mo now that his lungs were a newborn issue and he's fine but that the NICU had told us it'd take around 2yrs and he agreed with the NICU saying that it takes a long time for lungs to fully heal and was very surprised that our pedi blew me off like that...

He's worn out from his dr appt and napping right now, the boys just had a snack and are watching some tv relaxing from school.  Dinner is smelling amazing cooking away in the crock pot (to die for roast...and it is to die for, so good!).  

A big week!

First, a short update on Preston.  He will be 12wks on Tuesday!!!  He's coming up on 13lbs now, he's about 12lbs 12oz or so.  He's becoming much more aware of things going on around him.  He has started following things with his eyes and smiling socially lots more!!!  He seems pretty close to giggling too, it's adorable.  The past few days he's stayed awake a lot longer during the day, up until now he's still slept like a newborn, really only up maybe a couple hours total all day long.  But today he was awake a lot of the day.  Today I think he noticed Maggie for the first time.  He was having some tummy time and I was laying down there with him and she came up to lay with us and he was just amazed by her, staring at her walking around.  I told her "give Preston kisses" so she carefully crawled up to him and kissed his face!!!!  It was adorable!  She totally understands us, it's amazing really lol.  He's been sleeping great too!  He goes to bed around 8pm and then sleeps 7-9hrs then wakes to eat then wakes about every 2-4hrs after that to eat again.  

Now on to our busy week!

Tomorrow is Landon's first day of 3rd grade and Casen's first day of 1st grade!!!!!! They are SO excited!  I'm going to take them to school and walk them to class the first few days, pics will be coming tomorrow of course.  I'm a little sad I won't be home when they get out of school tomorrow because tomorrow is also Preston's urology appt, FINALLY!!  I'm really excited, yet nervous.  I really hope we get some kind of answers, at least some "maybes".  What could possibly be going on, at this point we really have no idea.  

Tuesday I have a breastfeeding get together thing, that should be interesting.  

Wed is Hayden's first day of school!!!!  

Thursday is Hayden's first day of gymnastics!  Then Thursday night I get to go pick up Nikki from the airport...she is finally coming to meet us!!  Can't wait for her to get here, should be a fun few weeks.  

Then Friday Hayden has school again and the boys will be in school so since she will have traveled so many hours the day before we will probably just hang out around the house.  (she's coming from New Zealand for anyone who doesn't know)

Sunday we will be going baby clothes shopping with Dessa, yay!!!

I got Landon and Casen signed up for baseball and Hayden for soccer so those practices should be starting soon.  It's going to be a crazy next few weeks!  Can't wait!

Bring Supplies Night

Tonight was the boys "bring supplies night" at their school.  They get to bring all of their supplies, meet their teacher and see their classroom.  First we looked to see who their teachers were...Casen was hoping for Mr. Bruce but turns out he moved to another school, he got Mrs. Rodriguez.  Landon didn't necessarily want any particular teacher but did NOT want one, he didn't get her so yay!  He got Mrs. Naizer.  We then picked up their school supplies.  We order it at the end of each school year for the next year so they get everything they need.  Seriously, best idea ever.  The boys don't care about what types of things they have, they aren't allowed character stuff anyway it's supposed to be solid colors and particular colors so really it's not even fun to pick the stuff out so this is just so much easier.  

We then went and met Landon's teacher.  She seemed VERY nice.  He has a lot of friends from last year in his class, including his best friend.  He is more excited about school starting back now, he wasn't ready to go back before tonight.

We then went and met Casen's teacher who also seemed very nice.  She had a little cup with things for each of the kids, including a pencil, Casen asked if there was somewhere he could sharpen it, he's ready to work haha...so Casen.  She said make sure he brings it on Monday and she'll get it sharpened then and he can use it...he can't wait.  

When we left Hayden got really excited thinking we were going to his school next, but we weren't.  He is very excited about starting preschool.  He's going to be very sad on Monday when the boys go to school and he has to wait 2 days after that to go to his first day.  

Thinking it's going to be a really good school year!

Back to School Shopping!

We have spent the day doing back to school shopping!  I love to shop so today was great haha.  The boys were good and we finished the day with a cookie at Great American Cookie Co and sitting outside to eat it...we only got to around 90 today, it was NICE! 

I set myself a budget this year, for the first time, and I'm proud to say I am still $100 under budget and barely need to get anything else!  I have heard so many times that it isn't worth buying "nice" clothes for kids because they grow out of them too fast that it's just not worth the money you spend.  Well, I will only put "nice" clothes on the boys....luckily my kids grow super slow lol...but even if not it's soooo worth it if you shop sales and use coupons!  I don't think we could have done any better if we had bought everything at Target.  I'm proud of all the sales we got, seriously some great deals so had to post of course!  I'm waiting on an order from Pumpkin Patch and then I'm going to put in an order to finish off the older boys at either 77 kids or PS kids...once it all gets here I think I might come back and add pics to this post, we got so much1!!  But for now I'll list it :)

So I set myself a $500 budget for clothes, not including shoes and not including grabbing each of them a pack of socks.  I'm at around $400 now this is what we've got so far.  Oh and I didn't budget for getting Preston anything, I didn't plan to get him anything until we got back to school stuff done but I just couldn't help myself so this is including his stuff and still under that budget!

Pumpkin Patch:

Hayden 2 shirts that are 2 layer ones, like a tshirt with plaid button up over it

Landon a shirt

Casen a shirt

Preston a pair of shorts, pr of jeans and 4 shirts

Children's Place:

Hayden 4 tshirts, button up and 2 polos

Landon 2 polos and a shirt

Casen 2 polos and 2 shirts

Preston a romper

Crazy 8:

Hayden 3 prs of plaid shorts 5 tshirt and 1 plaid shirt

Landon a pair of shorts, 2 shirts and a button up

Casen 3 shirts, 2 button up and a pair of jeans

Gymboree (my proudest buys lol, only spent $59 with tax...awesome for gymboree, they are usually expensive!)

Hayden 3 shirts

Landon 1 shirt

Casen 1 shirt

Preston 3 shirts and 2prs of socks

So total so far

Hayden 18 shirts, 3prs of shorts-going to get him one pair of jeans and his shoes

Casen 10 shirts and a pair of jeans-going to get him pr of shorts, few more shirts and shoes

Landon 9 shirts, pr of shorts- needs more shirts and shoes

Preston 7 shirts, pr of shorts, pr of jeans and romper

Total 

43 shirts

7 bottoms

romper

$400!  Average of about $7.80 a piece...not bad at all, at least I don't think so!  I'm quite proud of myself haha.  And all good brands that will last many washes.

Oh and I also ordered Hayden's backpack and lunch box, a cute one from Skip Hop the elephant..he is so set on it, he can not wait for it to get here.  I got a package in the mail the other day and he came running to me when I was opening it and said "ooooh I know what that is!!!  It's my backpack!!"  haha poor kid he can't wait for it to get here.  So I finally got it ordered tonight, he's going to be thrilled when it gets here!

Menu 8/8-8/13

Ok I'm late but here is our menu for the week :)

Breakfast

Easy Breakfast Casserole with sausage...we had this for dinner last night and it was REALLY good with the sausage, we are going to have it again Sat or Sun morning

Brunch Enchiladas

Lunches

Chili cheese biscuit pies (magazine)

Roasted tomato garlic pasta we do it without olives, this is Hayden's all time favorite dish, we add more garlic than it says

Pizza Balls

Sandwiches other days

Snacks

Peachy Muffin-cakes

Peanut Butter & Jelly Pop Tarts

fresh fruit

cheese

yogurt

cucumbers with ranch and crackers

pretzels

Dinners

Ro-tel Chicken Spaghetti with veggies

Ranch Chicken in crock pot over rice with veggies (this was tonight's dinner and it was REALLY good)

Ranch-Parm chicken, I swear I'm really making it this week lol with garlic mashed potatoes and veggies

Beef Tips but serving with mashed potatoes and veggies

Chicken Enchiladas (doing the chicken in the crock pot then will put in tortillas and bake after it's done) with spanish rice and beans

Maple glazed ham steak (magazine) with au gratin potatoes and sunshine carrots

Pasta Carbonara Frittata (magazine) with garlic bread and salad