Dinner at Grandma and Papa John's

We went over to Papa John and Grandma Pauline's house for dinner, it had been a while since we had gone up there so it was long overdue.  As usual, the toy that got busted out first was the old record player.  Not sure what is more fun, taking the records off and on or dancing to the old tunes!

Dinner dance party!

Jumping on Daddy's tummy!

And a late night swim with Papa in the hot tub!  Fun times and great memories!!

Science Center with Nana and Papa Steve

It's so fun having Nana and Papa Steve in AZ over the winter so that they can join in on our Friday family fun day!  They got us a annual pass to the AZ Science Center so we all went to check it out.  Lots of things to do and see!  You could see Trevor's brain working as he went from exhibit to exhibit!

Of course, the funniest thing to him was the exhibit showing the digestive tract and being able to press a button which farts!  All boy this one!

Ashley liked practicing her balancing...

Over and over.  Happy girl!

Making electricity!

Awww technnology!

Trevor just studied the planets in school so he was teaching us about planet Earth.

Physics....Mommy's least favorite subject.

Just don't get your fingers pinched Ashley!

Strong man!

And Ashley was so excited to get her chance to look through the big telescope.  It honestly is just so fun to watch them explore and learn and be kids!  Wouldn't trade this time with them for anything. 

After we were done at the Science Center we walked over to Subway and had lunch, just like we did last year.  Because this smart and thoughtful boy remembers every single thing and wanted to eat where we did last year when we went to the Children's Museum with Nana and Papa Steve.  On the way back, he was so cute and made the circle of friends complete.  :)

New Reading Room!

Mommy was a bit tired of walking by the exercise room every day knowing it hasn't been used but maybe a handful of times since moving in almost three years ago and we needed more room for when guests come!  So she formulated a plan to make it a guest slash reading room.  She was ready to part with her elliptical machine since it was just collecting dust but Brian wasn't ready to part with his treadmill so it will keep collecting dust on the side of the room. LOL

We got new furniture and accessories and we honestly love how the room turned out.  The bed is from ikea and the bottom pulls out so you can put another twin mattress right next to the twin already there, at the same level.  It makes a sideways king!  And we moved all the kids books into the shelving unit so that in their rooms they have more room for other things.  Next up....big toy purge!  Wish us luck :)

Jammie Day at La Casa

Trevor's preschool does such fun activities and Mommy is learning that they tend to keep the same calendar of events year after year which she likes!  She knew that Trevor would LOVE jammie day and she was right!  This year he wanted to include his monster robe.  Whatever you want bud!

On Wednesday Miss Katie (Claire's Mom) drives to/from school and how lucky for us that she likes pictures as much as we do and captured these two cuties on jammie day! 

Big Girl! Bye Bye Nuk!

Okay so it's been like 6 months since we started the strategy that she could only use her nuk (that she recently named mimi) in her crib.  It was time (can you say 5 months over due) to make good on the promise that 'Nuks are Not Forever' which is the book we've been reading the past few weeks.  Except unlike last go around with this we put a date and a countdown to the day mimi was going bye-bye.  So when that morning came Mommy reminded her that today was the day mimi was going away and asked if she wanted to lay in her crib for five extra minutes which of course she said yes to.

When those five minutes were up the girl popped up and walked over to where brother was standing with the trash and she spit it in.

And waved bye-bye to it. 

To make sure we didn't dwell on it, we promptly got dressed and headed to Target for big girl to pick her new toy out.  Brother was happy to help show her the way!

She took toys off shelves and contemplated lots of different things.

Until she found a baby carrier and new baby.

That was what she wanted!

She proudly carried it everywhere we went in Target. 

And held it in the car.  What a good Mommy!

Mommy was mostly concerned how nap and bedtime would go since that is where things fell apart last time we tried to take her nuk away.  This time though wasn't so bad!  We did her normal routine of books and songs then she went in her crib no problem.  But after a few minutes she started fussing.  Nothing major enough to go in but she fussed off and on for probably close to an hour :(  But then she fell asleep on her own and napped for close to two hours!

 

After that we went to the park and broke out the new sidewalk chalk Aunt Kathy and Uncle Bob gave the kids for Christmas.  Anything to keep her buys and not ask about mimi!

Brother just loves drawing!  He has such a good imagination!

And we ended on the teeter-totter!  They are so cute together!

Operation wear her out was a success!  At bedtime we did our routine and Mommy put her in her crib.  She was quiet for a few minutes but then started crying.  Mommy has good intuition apparently because of making her cry it out at all she went in after five minutes and rocked her to sleep.  Laid her in her crib without a peep and she slept all night!  Yay!!!  And on Saturday no problem whatsoever at nap or bedtime (which was with our sitter Bethany!).  Sunday no problem again....thankful though she can still have Pink Cow which she seems to have now named dede (pronounced dee-dee) or maybe it's titi (pronounced tee-tee).  We got this note on Monday from school.  Happy is right!!!!

So she is ready to transition to the early preschool room!  Next up, potty training but we have some time.  We are going to wait until after we go to Mexico in March.  Plus we believe in doing it when they are a little older.  We have no interest in potty training for months.  It worked in a day and a half for Trevor with no accidents after that.  Well except for two when he was with Papa and Grandma Hillins ;-)  In Ashley's room they introduce the potty so hopefully Ashley will pick it up in there and then we'll do the 3 day bootcamp with her one long weekend this Spring.  She's becoming such a big girl!

Update on Trevor's Ears

We are very blessed and lucky to have so many medical professionals surrounding us, including an ENT surgeon two doors down whose daughter Stella is in Trevor's class.  At the kids Christmas program at La Casa Sara sat by them and she asked him if he had a recommendation for a second opinion for Trevor's situation.  He asked if he could be the second opinion (Sara honestly hadn't thought of that because he doesn't see really patients from her understanding, rather just big ENT surgery cases) but how lucky was that?  So Sara got all of Trevor's records from his latest appointments and walked them over.  A few days later we talked close to 40 minutes about options.  First off he wanted to make sure we understood that Trevor's hearing loss was not permanent, it's temporary until his ear canal widens with age.  Whew!!!!  But if he's having a hard time hearing in class or has speech delays then there are things that we can do to help that.  So he outlined some strategies:
1) Do nothing (if he isn't complaining about hearing and the teachers haven't said anything and we haven't noticed anything why worry)
2) Put Trevor on Flonase for 3 months to see if that can clear up some of the fluid in his ears to help with hearing.  Test hearing after 3 months to see if it improved. 
3) Put ear tubes in and remove adenoids immediately
After all talking we believe the best course is #2 so he offered to call in a prescription but Sara wanted it on record with the peds office so we went in and talked to his pediatrician (another neighbor!) and he agreed with what we decided.  It helped too that after the holiday break they were doing hearing and speech testing at school so we signed him up for both for a second/third opinion.  We were most interested in speech because the original ENT said that Trevor was delayed in his pronunciation of words.  Well, the expert disagreed.  Yes, still hearing loss in the left ear (which didn't surprise us we hadn't even started the Flonase yet) but his speech was great for his age!  That made us feel better!  So, will keep you updated in a few months to see if the Flonase helped.  Fingers crossed.  Would hate to put Trevor through ear tubes again...especially because he lives in the pool over the summer and would have to have special devices made to ensure water didn't get in his ear while swimming.  But, we will always do what we have to do!

Happy Birthday Nana!

We got to celebrate Nana Jeanne's birthday with her again this year!  We love that!  As usual we made a quick pit stop at the outlets.  Funny that our kids are perfectly content just sitting on an out of order school bus!

We made Nana a donut cake for her special day.  Otherwise known as a bundt cake but we agree with Trevor that it looks like a donut!  Happy birthday to a very special Mama and Nana!  We love you!  XOXOXO

What We Are Up to...

Time just keeps on ticking away and we are staying busy as ever!  On January 1st we went over to Brooke and Paul's to celebrate Olivia and Beckett's birthdays.  Pretty sure this was the first time that we went there that Trevor didn't ask where Adam and Cole were :(  But it makes us happy to see Trevor and Ashley still have what feels like family their age in town. 

Trevor LOVES projects so we have been busy organizing all of the toy places in the house and grouping them together so that he can easily find things.  When we were sorting out we came across a rock painting kit and boy did that keep him occupied for a while.  Trevor is a perfectionist though and wants his to look just like the ones on the box.  Hopefully practice makes perfect or better yet that he becomes content with his own wonderful creations.

Of course, Trevor had so much fun playing over winter break that he wanted a few more days at home after school started up.  Poor guy came down with a nasty fever so he missed his first two days of school after winter break.

Ashley is always busy building ice cream cones and other fun treats with her Duplex blocks.  Great Christmas gift idea from her female Hillins cousins!

Another gift she loved from her older cousins was this Frozen shirt.  

 She wore it to school for the first time and based on the note that the teacher sent home is that she had fun showing off her princess shirt!

Every once in a while we take out the coloring castle that Trevor received from a friend for his 4th birthday.  This particular time the two of them colored and colored and colored for a really long time.  And when they were done coloring they moved pillows inside and hung out reading books!

We went to Trevor's classmates birthday party at a park we hadn't been too before.  They had this awesome surf balance board (as Trevor called it) and boy did it provide entertainment because there was another one nearby so Trevor had contests with anyone walking by to see who could stay on the longest.  Dare devil here even would jump up and land without falling off.  His balance skills are way better than Mommy thought!

Basketball

Trevor requested that he join another session of basketball through our community center and of course Mommy and Daddy weren't going to say no...exercise, time with friends outside, why say no!  Plus Trevor is saying that he's going to be tall (they are predicting him to be at least 6'5") so he says he needs to learn basketball because that is what all tall people play.  LOL

And he's been practicing!  He loves dribbling in our courtyard and shooting on his little basketball hoop that we have. 

It's definitely paying off!  He's got some skills and he's having fun!!

Sushi Station

We have a new family tradition!  Sushi night!!!  We thought the kids would get a kick out of the revolving sushi station by our house and we were right!!! 

Trevor spied some orange juice and waited patiently for it to come around so he could grab it.

Ashley wasn't shy to ask for things either!

More juice!

They had chicken tempura for the kids and Mommy and Daddy filled up on sushi.  Next door is a frozen yogurt shop so of course we hit that up too!  They even had a dairy-free option for Mommy so everyone had a wonderful evening!  We'll be doing this again for sure!