Bragging on my Caden!

Today Cay came home from school early - fever. Didn't surprise me as one of the twins has strep throat (I know, don't ask - how does a 17mo old get strep before any of the other kids??). I brought him to the dr after calling for an appt because he's also had a lot of peeing accidents as of lately. He's *mostly* trained but we still have some accidents, but it's been a LOT of accidents lately and I wanted to be sure everything was ok.

Anyway. I brought urine along, it was clear. We battled through a throat swab (he actually essentially punched our awesome dr in the face, gotta love kids who don't understand and have oral defensiveness) which was negative for strep. We started antibiotics as he DID have an ear infection.

ANYWAY! He's been out of sorts all day, but I asked him to get ready for bed. I always ask him to get ready for bed, and I always help him all the way. Tonight...he put his own pullup on and pulled it up. He put on his pants. He put on his shirt. He came to me FULLY DRESSED for bed and I didn't have to do ANYTHING!!!!!!!!!!! I have waited 8 years for this with him! I am just so proud I could burst!!!

Ni ni little man. I hope you feel better in the morning.

Ave's thoughts on singing for the old folks.

Today Avery's class is going with the other K class to sing for the "grandpas and grandmas" at the old folks' home. I'm not sure if there was a rather rousing conversation that went on at school or what, but both James and I have heard these exact words out of her mouth about the whole situation (on many, separate occasions):

We're going to sing for the grandpas and grandmas. They're deaF, not deaD. Do you hear that F at the end? Yeah, they're deaF. We have to sing really loud so they can hear us.

Holy mother of hilarious.

Bye-bye ba-bas!

No more bottles! Quite frankly, the twins did it for us. One day they refused the naptime bottles. The next they refused the nighttime bottles. And they BOTH refused on the SAME days/times! I really thought they needed the formula to make it through the night but I was totally wrong. It's been well over a week since they've had a bottle. It's bittersweet, because I loved watching them take that bottle with both hands and suck it down, but I'm so glad we're done with it as well.

The twins are 17 months now and pretty good about getting where they need to be. They still motate via army crawl for the most part, but they are doing more up on hands and knees crawling every day. Macey pulls to stand a LOT - you often find her standing next to something, even transferring back and forth to things next to her. Madelyn will pull up as well, though not as often. Both girls like to climb - they go all the way up our stairs and will get on top of boxes or on the bottoms of tables if they have an extra shelf at the bottom. Madelyn has also figured out how to go down stairs - she spins herself around on her tummy and goes back, one at a time. Macey followed suit just today and went down, too!

And now, for something to lighten the mood...

There's always hope. And I find an immense amount of hope in humor. Enjoy this!

TRUTH for mature humans:

1. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

4. There is great need for a sarcasm font

5. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

6. Was learning cursive really necessary?

7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on # 5. I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

9. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

10. Bad decisions make good stories.

11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don't want to have to restart my collection...again.

13. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I swear I did not make any changes to.

14. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

15. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

16. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Budweiser than Kay.

17. I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

18. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

19. How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear or understand a word they said?

20. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!

21. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

22. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

23. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time!

24. The first testicular guard, the "Cup," was used in Hockey in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974. That means it only took 100 years for men to realize that their brain is also important. (Ladies.....Quit Laughing.)

Merry Christmas?

It should be merry, but things are stressful for us. While money has always been tight, we've never before been worried. Now, James would tell you that I am worried more than I should be, but isn't that what women are supposed to do? :) It is a very good time for us to learn to trust in God. A trusted friend told me this week that God isn't going to let us fall. That made me feel so much better because I know it's the truth. There's something to be learned in every situation, something that God needs you to hear or know. The hardest part is the patience through the journey - we want to know what life holds for us on the other end.

James worked for years in a job that didn't fulfill him. He was miserable, unhappy and lost. We finally found a job (albeit on a part-time basis, but would still provide for our family) that seemed like the perfect fit. And the job itself IS a perfect fit. The problem lies in the fact that this job currently doesn't have enough hours available, and no one saw that caveat coming...least of all, us. Initially they had to work hard to keep his hours low enough because there was so much work. Now...well now that isn't the case. At all.

It's one of those things that I'm sure thousands of people have been through, are going through, are fearing. You just don't assume things will work out that way for you. And let me say this - you do NOT understand what it is like to be in the situation until you are in it. I thought I was so compassionate, so understanding, so able to put myself in the place of someone going through this. And I was not. At all.

We covet your prayers. We are positive God is rowing our little boat with us, but we are learning to let him take the oars more. And we fully agree with this quote: We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.

When your 2 year old asks you...

"Where's your bra?" you know it's time to:

a) put one back on
b) stop using adult language in front of your tot
c) get your jammie shirt on MUCH quicker
d) all of the above

I'll let you decide.

Hello, daddy? 'Dis Macey!

Sometimes, a picture says it all:



and sometimes, Tena still needs to say stuff. No, Macey doesn't talk that well yet (she doesn't talk at all yet actually, and neither does her baby sister) but that was a cute title, no? Yes. Love my babies!

Food battles ala Declan

This boy is something else. He would survive on Pop-Tarts alone if we would allow it. We fight him to eat. Period. It's not about battling for fruits and veggies (forget those), we have battles of will just for taking one bite of something. I decided to capture one of our usual mealtimes with him in pictures. It's me, sitting across the table from him, asking him to eat one half of a chef boyardee ravioli. NOT HEALTHY. Super kid friendly. You'd think we were asking him to eat asparagus. Raw. His motivation? An early piece of Caden's birthday cake (this was the day before C's 8th birthday on Sunday).

"Take a bite and then you can have the cake!"


The cake was pushed right up in front of him as motivation...he took the bait!


Now I can use the fork for cake! (Note the leftover ravilolis - he didn't have many to begin with and only ate that one half.)


I believe he thinks he has won.


It's baby steps with this boy. We are working HARD to make sure he's hungry at mealtimes. limiting snacks, etc. He's a buggar.

Mischief is brewing

It's so cute with two. Like today, they were both scooting forward, army-crawl style, and they bumped their heads together. They looked at each other and laughed. It was priceless. And when one takes off across the room the other follows behind. I'm also now catching them sitting up when they had been scooting around. Most of the time that's because they pull up on something low and then can't get back down, but still, they're figuring it out! Here's a few pictures of them getting around lately:


Madelyn left, Macey right. Should we or shouldn't we...try the stairs...


Macey tries, but thinks better of it.


Madelyn left, Macey right. Macey was here first, and Madelyn thought it looked like fun...


until Macey started pushing her away.


And another of Madelyn, because I think it's absolutely adorable!!

Do I need to post with more pictures?

I do, don't I. You can say it. I know it's true. It's like one of those things that I know is true but I don't want to do anything about. It sort of like someone walking out of a bathroom stall with toilet paper hanging from their pants. You know you should say something but you really don't want to. Or it's like when you *toot* silently in a large group of people and you know you should say something but you just simply cannot admit that you did it. Not that that's ever happened to me or anything.

More pictures. Ok, working on it....

More milestones for Macey and Madelyn

Now they're pulling up on things like steps and fireplace hearths and stepstools. They don't get up on their feet but up on their knees to whack at what's above. It is TOO cute!! (If I do say so myself.)

Wanna see some pics of my crew?

My friend (and talented photographer) came over Saturday morning to get some pictures of the kids. I decided to get in on the action a bit, too - you know those awesome pictures you see of a mom all in play with her kids? Yeah, we didn't get a lot like that but we both had some good ideas! Caden and Declan were seriously SERIOUSLY uncooperative. You can see that in a lot of shots. I'm sporting myself down 40 pounds from January (go, me!) and am determined to love me and the mommy I am to my beautiful children! They light up my life. Let me know what your favorites are - I'm going to have a hard time choosing!

http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/store.aspx?p=235481

password: fall

Up on our knees...

not in prayer, but UP on their knees! The twins, that is. Macey has been getting up on all 4s for quite a few weeks now. Madelyn has just started today. Macey is even lifting one hand up off the floor to reach for things while she's up on all 4s! It should be soon that we see the moving forward with "real crawling"! Right on time for our kiddos - they'll be 15 months on Friday! Go little ladies!

In other news, the school called me around 1:30 - had to go pick Avery up from school. Her fever was only 99.9 (which isn't really a fever for my kids) but she was coughing a ton as well. Thankfully Heather happened to be out here so she stayed with my 3 littles who were sleeping while I ran and got Ave from school. It was picture day for her but she told me she did have her picture taken so we've got that out of the way!

Ever felt REALLY bad about how a morning went?

I am feeling terrible right now. Avery got up this morning and was all dressed. We did her hair and then she literally sat on the couch waiting for her bus to arrive. Time to kill. So the bus pulls up and she gets up to run to the door and stops dead in her tracks to shout, "MY SHOES!" She didn't have any on. (Last night when I was putting her clothes out for her she told me her shoes were downstairs, and she knew where. Mmmm hmmm.)

So I run to a few places in the house and the bus honks a few times. I run out to the front porch and tell the driver that we can't find shoes but we'll be RIGHT out. And may I just mention that Avery is following me around, doing absolutely NOTHING to help?? I run a few other places and Avery tells me they're out by the trampoline. I glance out there and I do not see them. So I finally run upstairs to her bedroom and grab a new pair, run downstairs, cut the tags off and try to get them on her feet. They will NOT go on. I know they should fit because they are the same size and style of the other ones, only these are new. I grab the shoes, grab her hand and head out the door. Yes, I sent her on the bus, in socks, with her shoes in hand. Felt bad about that but here's where it gets worse....

The driver calls me just a few minutes ago. "We can't get those shoes on Avery." Uhhhh, seriously?? Crrrrrrrrrrrap! So I told him she's probably worked up - send her inside with the shoes and let her try in Miss Amber's room. Which he already did, whew. So now I just pray she got them on.

I feel just awful! And I sent her out the door after saying to her, "I'm not happy with you right now." Ok Tena, so you've NEVER made a mistake before??? Good grief. I hope she has a better day. I'd like to call school and tell her I'm sorry. I'm just going to have to pray that God holds her heart and hand today while I can't.

Have you heard??

Caden is now sleeping outside of a crib! Yes, you read that correctly, he has been in a crib for almost 8 years. The other day I got sick of looking at the crib and decided to take it apart. We had tried leaving the side of his crib down with a step stool next to it in the past and it didn't go so well. I'm not sure what made me think he was ready this time but I had a feeling it might be ok (that, and Heather told me to suck it up and give it a go). We put his crib mattress on the floor and his blankets and special things on there. When he got home from school he did this adorable, arms-up shrug and said, "Where my bed went?" I showed him the pieces on the front porch and he really was ok with it (he tends to get upset about big changes in his normal, so I was a little apprehensive about it). Yes, he gets out of it from time to time and bugs Declan or whatnot, but I have come to a stunning realization that I tend to underestimate Caden. I truly don't believe he is capable of certain things and by doing that I am setting him up to fail. His teachers believe in him. More than I do at times! So I said enough. I'm believing in Caden. I'm trusting that he and God will work things out and that he will show me what he can do. And so far, they're making a great team!

IEP - rousing success

I just really can't say enough how good today's IEP (Individualized Education Plan) meeting was. Really. Good. Fabulous, even! We feel beyond blessed that Caden has teachers, friends, associates and advocates who rally behind him when he is at school. They believe in him. They think he is capable of so much, and they are right! They told us things he says and does that honestly blow our doors off - he is correctly numbering numerals and speaking them as well. He's doing things for them at school that he wouldn't do here at home. And trust me - I am fine with that as long as he's making progress. Every kid deserves to be obstinate about certain things when they're at home, right? We are so proud of you, Caden! Keep on shining, little star.

Jesus Loves Me, This I Know...

Today is a day when Avery is home - no Kindergarten on Thursdays. We've been noticing more and more that Avery and Declan play very well together. It's a nice break for me at times. I can go tell them to play together and they will - no fighting, only minimal bossing from Avery. It's great, and really it's our first glimpse of a typical sibling relationship with built-in playmates.

Today I was getting the twins ready for naptime and Avery and Declan were in the boys' room directly across the wall from the twins' room - Caden and Declan share a bedroom and are both still in cribs (so yes, if you do the math we have 4 cribs set up in side-by-side bedrooms...probably 4 cribs in 200 sq ft or so, lol!). When I had the twins settled in went in to the boys' room. Avery said, "Mommy, I promise I will go to sleep if you let me get in Caden's crib for Declan's naptime." I'm smarter than that typically, but I went along with it, telling her that if she is noisy or anything then mommy promises she'll have to go upstairs to her bed.

I've since been in there 3 times and neither one is sleeping. And after the last time I went in there, Avery started quietly singing "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so...." and Declan started echoing her. I'm melting. I mean, how can I be upset when they're singing THAT???

But in all honesty, the twins aren't going to take a good nap at this rate, and we need to have a talk about what it means to keep a promise. Mommy's going to keep her promise - here you go to your bedroom Miss Avery! Ta-ta!

Ever wonder what you're missing if you're not on Facebook?

Here's today's update from me:

Tena...

tried for 45 minutes to hang a faux wood blind in our bedroom - wanted to surprise James when he got home by having it all done. I've completely stripped the screw heads and the drill has slipped off the screw so many times now that there are multiple (extra) holes in the wall. I'm sweaty and POed. Epic fail.

Do you have a good internal clock?

I felt like the mother of the year this morning. Caden's bus comes at 7:30. I awoke from a dead sleep to hear a horn honking in my driveway. Looked at the clock and it was 7:33. CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No one was out of bed yet. I called the bus barn and told them to radio the driver and tell her to move on.

Worst part? This is not the first time this has happened. At. All.

Caden loves buttons and dials and the like. So he turned down my radio all the way. Oh the alarm was still set, but when it "went off" the radio turned on which was turned...all the way down. You'd think by now I would know to check that before bed. I checked to make sure the alarm was on, and that was all. (I know you're going to suggest turning the beeper on the alarm, but I cannot wake up to that. I will crap the bed. Serious.)

My DH James and BFF Heather can't believe that I don't wake up earlier without the help of an alarm. They use alarms, but only as panics if they don't get up with their internal clocks. I don't seem to have an internal clock. I have a hard time falling asleep, but once I do it takes darn-near an act of God to wake me in the mornings. Or a radio. But still, I have to have an external force to rouse me!

What about you?

First day of school 2010 - 1st grade (Caden) and K (Avery)

Here's a few pictures I snapped the morning of the first day of school. I have one from last year of all the kids sitting on the front porch and it would be fun to see the changes this year, but it's on the upstairs computer (we have GOT to figure out how to link the 2 computers):

My big kids!!! I should've put the twins there but in usual Tena-fashion I was running late because it was morning.

If I'm being honest I struggle with this picture because I see that Caden looks different. But you know, it is what it is - I think this is an absolutely PRECIOUS one!!!!

Caden is signing "bus" here - he was SO ready to see Diana!

She's here!!! Look at that adorable admiration!! I love this picture!!!


Strapped in and ready to GO!

First one off bus #6 at




Some of her older cousin Tressa's 5th grade friends walk with Avery to her classroom since they ride the same bus.

Welcome to Miss Amber's Kindergarten classroom!

Miss Amber helped Avery get her name tag on.



And then she had to color a picture to look just like her!

I was so proud of both of my kids - this day and always! So hard to believe they're growing up. They have done very well this week and we can't wait for more!