Sunday, November 28, 2010

Take 120

So today was picture day and in spite of the Holiday Spirit I have to say, IT REALLY SUCKED! We decided that we would put up our own back drop and take our own family photo to send out for this years Christmas card and needless to say, we were all happy when it was finally over. We hate getting dressed up first of all. And then we had so many lights set up around us it was about 95 degrees in our living room. Jayden kept complaining about how she hates taking pictures and Randy and I kept telling her we didn't want to do it either but we needed to suck it up and just get it over with! Sophia kept pulling off her shoes. And when one kid was looking at the camera the other one wasn't. When one was smiling the other one wasn't. And it was a vicious cycle that lasted for well over 100 pictures. BUT in the end I THINK? we may have gotten a decent, or at least acceptable, family photo and few others that may be keepers as well. Of course I don't want to spoil the surprise, but here is a blooper photo, that just happens to of Randy's balding head :) So once we weed out the duds and pick our final winners you will all be the first to see The Russells' 2010 Christmas photo :) Happy Holidays!



Tis the Season to be Jolly....

Like we do every year, we spent our Black Friday putting up Christmas decorations! We got our tree up, our village out and our house decked out with lights. Believe it or not, Randy is a little bit of a Christmas Scrooge but when it comes to decorating, he is a perfectionist and he takes on the task like a champ! Of course I help by opening the boxes of the ornaments and the village houses and putting a few ornaments on the tree, but I must give credit where credit is due, Randy is the holiday decorator!

I really thought Jayden would be a bigger helper this year in the decorating process, but overall she was happier playing with all the little figurines than actually setting them up.

They were checking out which ornaments they would tear off the tree first; decisions, decision
And Sophia found her first ornament :) I think we may have to put up the doggie gate!

Our Tree :)

You can't really see in this pictures, but Randy outlined our front door with red lights this year and it looks really cool! He spent all day Saturday, freezing his butt off to put up the lights. Thank you Randy! Next year we're putting them up in October!















Wednesday, November 24, 2010

I Am Thankful For........

1. two happy, healthy little girls who make my life complete.

2. Randy. He is my soul mate and my best friend.

3. the opportunity to be a stay at home mom. Although it is one of the

most stressful and demanding jobs I've ever had, it is also the most

rewarding.

4. Mt. Dew in the morning.

5. reality T.V. It makes me realize just how good we have it. :)

6. SpongeBob SquarePants.

7. great family and friends. They have been our biggest fans and greatest

support systems. We would be lost without each and every one of

them!

8. the power of prayer.

9. doctors, nurses, surgeons, hospitals, oxygen tanks, sleep monitors,

feeding tubes, therapists and the power of medicine.

10. a hug, a kiss and an "I love you!"

11. dark, cozy nights snuggling with my girl and watching a movie.

12. lazy, pajama wearing weekend mornings, watching cartoons and

laying in bed with the kiddos.

13. my freedom.

14. that ONE GREAT friend.

15. Steak and Shakes cherry cokes.

16. weekend mornings when I get to sleep in.

17. DVD players in the car.

18. those moments of silence and for the hours of chaos.

19. my husband having a job.

20. memories.

21. the opportunities I've been given in life.

22. the advances in medicine.

23. Down syndrome. I hate that my daughter has to work so hard to do a

lot of things that come so easy for "typical" developing children. I

hate that my daughter has to live in a world where people

are unaccepting of differences. I hate that my daughter will be

stereotyped by her diagnosis and not always given the chance to show

her true colors. BUT, I am thankful that because of Down syndrome I

have realized that there really is so much more to life than what I

knew before and for all of the great people I've met along the way.

24. my life. It may not be perfect or spectacular, but it's everything I've

ever dreamed for.

25. bedtime.

HAVE A HAPPY THANKSGIVING!






I am thankful for a good helper!

I am thankful for a lot of things, but it's hard to come by good help and I must say Jayden is one fine little helper! Even though she gives me some lip every now and then and busts out her big attitude quite often, she is an amazing helper to me and I am so thankful for all that she has done for me!




My Two Little Indians

Today was Pilgrim and Indian day at preschool so Jayden dressed up as an Indian! And of course we had to try the outfit out on Sophia too! Jayden was not all that thrilled this morning when I made her put the outfit on, but once we got to school we saw a lot of other kids dressed up too, so I hope she had a better attitude about the whole thing once she got to her classroom!











Monday, November 22, 2010

One Silly Monkey

Signing Time!

We have been practicing a few simple signs with Sophia for some time now, like "more" and "all done." But Sophia really doesn't seem very interested in signing yet, but Jayden is! We found some DVD's at the library on Friday called "Signing Time" and I've heard nothing but GREAT things about these videos, so we have been watching them all weekend and we've all learned a lot :) Jayden absolutely LOVES watching them and is fascinated with using the signs. Even though Sophia doesn't have much interest right now, hopefully Jayden will continue to use them, as well as Randy and myself, and eventually we hope that Sophia will join the bandwagon, or just start talking would be awesome too!

Learning Sign Language is So Much Fun!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

3 hours of our life........

having fun before what SHOULD HAVE BEEN nap time!
she's going to break her neck, I know. But we really need to get her into gymnastics or something because she is always jumping, climbing, swinging, hanging,.......

Sophia was coming after the camera!


I knew I shouldn't have opened the door last night, but I just can't let someone knock on my door and not open it, very bad habit. So I got suckered into having someone come over to our house tonight and check out the energy efficency of our home and it lasted THREE HOURS! The guy was super nice and gave us a lot of good ideas to help cut our energy bills, but he also handed us an estimate for $5,500 and expected us to jump right on board tonight. Of course we said it all sounded great and we'd talk it over and get back with him, but now they have my phone number and probably high hopes for us to come through, especially since this guy and Randy became BFF's during his visit :) Oh what have I done??? Why can't I be like Randy and when someone knocks on the door I just run and hide?

On a brighter note, Sophia made it through the whole night last night with NO spit ups! I talked with the doctor on Monday and she suggested slowing down the rate and decreasing the volume that I'm giving her overnight and see how she does and it worked! I'm going back up, slowly, and so we'll see how it goes tonight. She hasn't spit up once during the day for a week now, but the overnight feeds have been horrible! I hate to even talk about all this too much in fear I may jinx the whole thing and she'll start spitting up like crazy again, so I'm done talking about it.

We ordered an Indian costume for Jayden last night, super cheap, because next week the kids are supposed to dress up either as Pilgrims or Indians for a Thanksgiving feast at school. It should be a lot of fun :)

I am offically ready for Thanksgiving to be here and over with because I can't even wait to get our Christmas stuff out!!!! I bought wrapping supplies today, paper, ribbon and bows hoping that it would get me excited to start wrapping up presents and I am so exciting to get stuff back out and go at it! Randy is putting our lights up outside this year and getting the tree and our christmas village out can't happen soon enough. I know Jayden is going to love decorating this year and Sophia will have a blast trying to tear it all down, and I'm almost positive about that. I am ready for the HOLIDAYS!

Saturday, November 13, 2010

A Rising Star

Pre-practice warm ups :)
Dribbling skills

Bounce passing

"Keep your eyes on the ball!"

Look at that arch! It may not be a jump shot, but a tip toe shot worked just as good. The basket was GOOD :)

Waiting patiently, and happily, in line.

Jayden's BIGGEST cheerleader

Post-practice pep talk. We'll be back next Saturday!
Today was Jayden's first basketball practice and she did awesome! I knew that she had some skills with the basketball and she showed them off today. The group of preschool girls were divided into two groups, and then divided again to practice dribbling, passing and shooting the ball. I was pretty surprised at how well a lot of the little girls did. A few little girls were obviously hard core players because they came in with their head bands on and carrying in their basketball shoes to change into once they got on the court :) Then there were those other little girls who wondered around aimlessly at times. It was definitely hilarious to see these tiny people playing basketball. We are all excited to go back next week! They will continue practicing for 5 more weeks before they start scrimmaging the last 4 weeks. GO JAYDEN!








Friday, November 12, 2010

Terre Haute Children's Museum











Jayden and I went to the new Children's Museum for the first time today and I think it's safe to say, she had a GREAT time :) They have 3 floors of stuff to do, but definitely the second floor was her favorite. She really had fun in the kitchen and grocery store area and I would bet that it was her favorite or at least a close second to the veterinary area set up on the first floor. I really think she is going to grow up and be something that involves being around animals. We definitely had an awesome time and enjoyed some good company with some friends we haven't seen in a while. I can't wait to go back and take Sophia and Randy too. They had a really neat toddler area that was closed off for children 4 and under and it would be great for Sophia to scoot around in!











Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Can I get a Hallelujah!

Sophia seems to be SO much better today, HALLELUJAH! She had pedialyte all last night and made it through the whole night feed, her medicine this morning, and the flush with no problems! And that is how the whole day went :) I started giving her half pedialyte and half formula today and she handled it like a champ. I am giving her the half and half tonight also, and then tomorrow we'll try straight formula and see how that goes. I'm still a little nervous about her spitting up and even more nervous that it may be green, but hopefully whatever was causing all this has ran it's course and left for good!

BUT.......now Jayden has spiked a fever and so we are treating her now :( She came home from school today acting a little weird, more than normal :), and I checked her temp and she had one. Hopefully a good nights rest, with lots of vicks rubbed all over her little body, and a day of rest tomorrow will have her back on her little energized feet!

Also, I seemed to have broken our camera :( so pictures may be few and far between for a little while, but I'll try my best. I know that's why everyone looks at our blog :) for the cute pictures of the girls not my boring stories :) Off to put the big baby to bed. Thank you all for the prayers for Sophia last night, they must have worked. HALLELUJAH!

Monday, November 8, 2010

We REALLY don't want to go there.......



Our baby is sick :( Sophia came down with possibly a stomach bug on Saturday night and it just isn't getting any better. She has been extremely fussy, uncomfortable and unconsolable every night so far and pretty whiny off and on during the day. We haven't been able to keep hardly anything in her, except on Sunday we kept down some Pedialyte, but it's been a total battle. Not only is she spitting up, but she's spitting up green stuff too, which could be an infection. We visited the doctor today and felt hopeful coming home, but things only got worse after we tried some diluted feedings. Right now we are holding the last straw and if Sophia spits up again, and it's green, we will be heading up to Indy to make and ER visit, and we REALLY don't want to go there! She's been extremely tired for most of the day, but when you don't sleep very well at night and you're not feeling well, I guess that is to be expected. So say a little prayer for her tonight, that this bug, or whatever it is, goes away and our baby starts eating and stops spitting up! We will keep you all posted!


Saturday, November 6, 2010

A Facelift

First Niles isn't looking......
THEN Sophia isn't looking! :)

NILES!

MALLORY!

We went up to Indy yesterday for a follow up hearing exam, which came back fine, and decided to visit some of our favorite people. I LOVE getting together with family. It kind of makes me wish that we all just lived right around the corner from one another. But since that isn't the case, we always try to make the moments together count. Jayden had a blast with her cousins and it was great getting to visit with my mom, sister-in-law and brother. Which is how I came across the "facelift" that I've applied to our blog. The new background and the new buttons. Let me just say my sister-in-law is a genius! :)

This next week will have a few special days waiting for us, and I for one am so excited! Jayden starts a food drive program at school this week for a local after school organization and I think that is wonderful. I figure we can make a special trip to the store together and pick out some stuff to take in to school. Jayden is also getting her very first SCHOOL PICTURES taken on Tuesday. I have a picture in my head of how they are going to turn out and it that image proves to be true, don't be expecting any school pictures :) Jayden can be very.........goofy sometimes :) We are also going on a field trip with some other kiddos on Friday to the new Terre Haute Children's Museum, and I am super excited about that! I've heard a lot of great things about it and have been waiting for the right time to take Jayden and I guess that time is Friday. Also, next Saturday will be the first day of Jayden's basketball experience. I'm very curious to see how she does with it! We seem to be free of doctors offices until the end of the month, when Sophia returns for her second synagis shot of the season. Sophia got her flu shot today and Jayden got the nasal mist, but you'd think Jayden got double shots the way she was acting about it :) Jayden has hardly EVER been to the doctor, except for routine check ups and she is so used to seeing Sophia get everything done to her, that even the thought of having ANYTHING done to HER seems just absolutely crazy! But they are done, and hopefully we'll have another uneventful winter.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Whose that Baby...





I'm not quite sure Sophia knows exactly who that pretty little girl is staring back at her, but man does she LOVE her! She loves to make faces at her, and talk to her and overall she loves to give her kisses! Or at least just slobber all over her face :)