Vacation 2013

This year we decided to try something new and different for vacation, we all went to the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas. It was Brian, me, the kids, my sister ("TeeTee"), her husband, and my mom and stepdad.

Or flight left Louisville at 6am (CRAZY!), so we had cranky babies, my family was running behind which made us all late, we got separated in the parking garage, we couldn't carry our luggage and strollers with out the help of everyone else we were separated from. Needless to say we were running way late. Barely got checked in in time and then saw the outrageous security line ( louisville airport never has long line and I was banking on that)... The only thing that saved us was they said anyone with strollers come over to this line which was empty! Then we had to run to the gate and they held the plane for us. The boys did not do good on th e plane ride at all. Bristol did awesome and slept most of the time on them. Brayden screamed a lot. Bennett screamed until iPad could be turned on. It was an adventure.

Atlantis is beautiful. There were fish and aquariums everywhere you looked. Tons of sharks and sting rays everywhere. If you looked out my moms room you overlooked a stingray and shark exhibit and sea turtle exhibit too.

The kids loved the water parks. They had a kiddie area that had slides their size that they loved playing at for hours. They also loved the lagoon, which is a man made beach so it was calm but also had fish and sand to play with. We plays in another big pool that went from shallow to about 5 feet and had waterfalls. Brayden liked squirting people with his squirt guns and then he laughed his butt off when they turned around. He is a stinker.

Atlantis is a huge place and a expensive place. No free refills for a $3.50+ drink can add up. Bennett thought the casino was a giant arcade and that we were so mean for not allowing him out of his stroller to go crazy in it when we had to pass through.

We got to swim with the dolphins, ( Brayden, my mom, christa, and I ). We weren't sure if Brayden would do it or not but once we got there he insisted he wanted to kiss a dolphin...and he did.

Brian, Christa and I swam in a shark tank with 22 sharks, nurse sharks and Caribbean reef sharks. We walked on the bottom with these huge helmets on like astronauts. It was pretty cool.

We rode on lots of their slides. Including the leap of faith slide they are famous for.

Everyday we did breakfast, walked to pools, swam, at lunch at the pools, swam more, went back to the rooms (walked through aquariums on way back to room), showered and cleaned up, went to watch a free kid movie and then enjoyed dinner and after dinner we often went to look at the aquariums again. Bennett sometimes struggled on vacation. A lot of sensory overload and transitions were sometimes not easy since he was off his routine and couldn't predict what was next. He loved the swimming and slides and really enjoyed getting to go to the movie theater before dinner.

Family pictures are a challenge!

 

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Bristol is ONE

Baby girl is one year old!

She has 4 teeth and one about to pop through.

She is sassy. She can have a temper as well.

She has learned how to shake her head "no" when she doesn't want something.

She keeps up with her brothers pretty well. She is only two steps behind them at any given moment.

She has just starting pointing at things. On vacation she loved to point at all of the fish in the aquariums.

She nurses once at night before bed, other than that she eats table food. She likes crackers a lot, bananas, muffins, chicken, spagehetti, and anything her brothers are eating.

She loves to be held when we are at home, especially if mommy is trying to get something done, an if I can't she usually cries and follows me around.

She will usually go to anyone until she sees mommy walk past.

 

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Bennett is 4 years old!

I cant believe my baby boy is FOUR YEARS OLD! It seems like yesterday we were walking up the stairs in the transition house, turning left and into his room and peering into his crib to see him smiling back at us.  It has been an amazing journey these past 3 years and 4 months.  We went from 0 kids to 3 kids in that amount of time. 

Bennett goes to school 4 days a week (half days).  He gets occupational therapy twice a week and speech therapy twice a week.  He is one busy boy.  He really likes his school and he even has a "girlfriend" there.  Her name is Reese, or REEE-SEE as Bennett calls her.  He follows her everywhere. Sometimes his teacher has to seperate them two, othertimes she finds it easier to leave them together. It is hilarious.  He loves his speech therapist, Kristie.  Now we bring him in some Chickfila lemoade to motivate him in speech.  We are still working on his attention span and trying to increase his ability to sit and complete tasks. His comprehension has improved tons over the past year, along with his speech.  He also needs to work on his "play skills" and imagination.  We are working on potty training, but it looks like we have a uphill battle with it.

He is saying and repeating lots of words now a days.  We are working more on putting sentences together and combing words and using multiple syllable words.  He can say "I want ...." fill in the blank with whatever he is wanting.  Another sentence we here alot is "Swing higher please." We also here a lot of "Choc-late milk please!" 

He loves eating fruit and chicken and fries the most.  Also loves to try to sneak everyones cokes away from them.  He still loves his milk !

He loves to be outside, swing, go on wagon rides, go to grandmas houses, seeing his family, playing with Brayden, playing with Reese at school, going to Chickfila, playing with his buddy Caleb, watching movies, and playing his ipad.  He loves to watch Disney Jr. and Dinsey and Pixar movies.  (Cars, Wreck It Ralph, Tangled, Bolt, Brave, Toy Story, Shrek are all favorites around here along with Doc Mc Stuffins and Sofia and some others on Disney Jr.)

Bennett has grown from about 15lbs when he brought him home to almost 40lbs! He is officially a big kid and out of toddlerhood.  I am one proud momma. Bennett is a hard worker and is determined.

Circus is in Town

Brian, my dad and myself took the kids to the circus last weekend when they were in town. Yes, I bought Bristol an outfit just for the circus (I've been wanting an excuse to buy it). Bristol loved the music in the beginning and was dancing like crazy. Brayden liked it all, especially elephants, poodles and tigers. Bennett really liked the horses. It got late and we left a few minutes early, it had been a busy day.

Love his new cheese face!

 

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Easter 2013

We took the kids to a Easter egg hunt at our church the weekend before Easter.

We had the kids pictures taken with live chicks and bunnies again this year. Too bad the kids weren't feeling great that day :(

We had a great Easter this year. The entire family joined us at our church, Highview Baptist for church. Then we all headed over to Huber's Farm for a great meal and then their giant Easter egg hunt.

Their Easter baskets

Sweet baby girl

My attempt at getting a good picture of the kids dressed up

Easter egg hunts

 

Just for laughs ....attempts at family picture take 1

Take 2....and give up!

 

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Bristol is 11 months old

Bristol is turning into such a big girl!

She now has two teeth!!!

She is walking everywhere, all the way across the room.

She loves to climb on things, she learned that from her big brothers.

She loves to eat, she really doesn't like baby food and wants whatever we are eating. She does like the squeeze pouches though.

She wears 12 months in most clothes, although some 9 months still fits.

She loved the circus and music when we went last week.

She can climb stairs, I found her at the very top of our 14 (hardwood) steps last week!

She loves baths and showers.

She still nurses some, but getting less and less...usually when she wakes up at 5am she likes to nurse and then maybe once during the day and once right before bed, sometimes maybe once or twice more.

Her feet are still tiny, wears a 2 infant. Sometimes it is a 6 month shoe and we even have a pair of 3-6 month pair that fit good.

She already is getting a little tan and its only April, she defiantly doesn't take after mommy in that area.

Her hair is turning so light, right now it is light light brown, with some blonde highlights and black tips in the spots where her newborn hair is still in.

Her eyes are turning like Mommy's and Brayden's, hazel is what you call it I guess, but really they are multicolored and change. Brownish greenish blueish.

She loves her brothers. She is a Mommy's girl right now but loves when her daddy comes home.

She wants to get into everything her brothers are into.

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Bristol 10 months

Bristol is starting to really show her personality now.

She wants to do everything her brothers do, and she is crawling really fast now so she is starting to be able to catch up with them.

The other day I caught her on the fourth stair when I forgot to close the gate.

She is really close to being able to walk. She stands up on her own in the middle of the room constantly now.

She got her first tooth on 3/24/13. Yes pretty late on that one haha.

 

4/4/13 her first real steps, 3-4 steps!!!

 

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