Feb. 1st ALREADY????

This picture completly sums up McKenzy. She loves a party and lives life to the fullest. Of course, it is nopt uncommon to see her withour clothes on either but that is a whole other story! Today we celebrated McKenzy's coming home day!

I can't believe that another year has come and gone and it is time to celebrate the girl's coming home days. Four years ago today we brought McKenzy home from the NICU. We were so thrilled to finally be bringing a baby home. It felt so good to have her in familiar territory. I don't think that I will ever forget the long walk thru the hallways of the hospital and the LONG ride home. It was a long time coming and it felt so good to carry a baby out of the hospital.

February 1st was also the first time that all four girls were able to be by each other. McKenzy, Sidney, and Abagayle had been next to each other but they were never able to get close to Keyan until the day that McKenzy came home. We were so thrilled to have them close together again and you could tell they were happy to be smooshed all together like they were in utero. It took such coordination and a lot of hands to get them all next to each.....but it was so worth it!

Seeing that Mommy and Keyan just returned yesterday from the hospital after being there for 11 days, this morning we just lounged around in our jammies, which McKenzy LOVES. However, when I suggested that we get dressed and go out for Chinese, she was very excited. Of all the kids, she likes to eat out the most. Chinese does not really thrill her but they do have french fries which is her all time favorite food. She also likes the hot tea and the cookies with the tags!!! Later tonight we all had special cookies to celebrate her day and we talked about the fact that when they were born they had to stay in the hospital for a long time and that is why we celebrate the day they finally came home. I think this is the first year that they "kinda" are starting to get it.

McKenzy, you are a beautiful little girl, who although you sometimes act like you came from outer space, you are showing us exactly how smart you are with your memory. You forget NOTHING!!!! You have made great strides in your talking over the last year and you love to learn letters and what words start with. You had surgery for your ears, we discovered that you have some chronic lung disease so you have to do breathing treatments every day (which goes oh so well), and we are getting your insomnia under control. It has been a busy year for you!!! While you can be feisty, you are always the first one to notice when an opportunity to snuggle arises and you always grab it. Your hugs are the best and your kisses are even better. You definitely make your own path in life but it will be sure to be a path of joy and laughter. We love you so much and look forward to all the exciting things you will do!

A new bike for Keyan

Several months ago one of the physical therapists that Keyan sees on a semi-annual basis recommended us looking into getting an amtryke. An amtryke is a tricycle that can be powered by either your hands or your feet. Keyan does not alternate her feet on stairs and she is still running with just an accelerated walk instead of picking her feet up and alternating them up and down.....therefore pedaling a bike is very difficult for her to do as well. This special bike will allow us to strap her feet to the pedals but have her arms (which are extremely strong) do all of the work. She gets to buzz around on a bike and her legs and brain get a great workout and learn to make a cycling motion. It is a very cool concept.
My first thought was that we had to get her one of these bikes but my second thought was how we would ever afford one. This is the amazing part. There is a national service organization called the ambucs and one of there main goals is providing kids with these adaptive bikes. Once I got in touch with our local chapter, they had me fill out some forms and have her measured by a therapist and figure out which bike would fit her the best. We submitted everything a month ago and last week got a e-mail that the bike was in. This organization GAVE her this new bike. They invited us all to lunch, except for Jamahl who was in school, and presented Keyan's bike to her. These were great people!! They were so thrilled to be helping her and were so welcoming to all of us. One of the members had put the bike together so she was able to ride around the room that we had lunch in. As these two men were on their hands and knees making adjustments to the bike while she was trying to ride it, she looked at them and said,"Can I take this bike home?" And when they told her that she could, she immediately raised her arm above her helmet and "yelled" YEA!!!! It was so cute. The bike fits her great and yet gives her some room to grow. She told Poppy that her new bike is "Terrific". Now, if only we could get out of sub zero temperatures so that she could really ride the thing, that would be great.

She could not wait to try out her new bike!

The wonderful guys making the adjustments so that the bike was PERFECT

And away she goes, with a little help from Abby!

The girls were so excited for her! And yes, McKenzy spent a majority of the time with her hands over her eyes! There is always one in the crowd!!

Our girls are 4

November is a busy month for birthdays around our house and the girls celebrated theirs last Friday, the 21st. We had a great day and a very fun party. Keyan was in the Emergency Room for 5 hours the night before and she had to go to two different doctors on her birthday but we were very thankful that she was able to be at home for her special day. We had a slow start to the morning since we had been at the hospital until 3am, but after that the day was full of celebrating. The girls chose to go to Red Robin for lunch and the staff treated them like royalty! We have been going to RR about once every two weeks since it opened about two years ago. The servers all now us, have fries out to us right away, and bring chocolate milk without us asking. As I sat and watched the girls faces as the staff gathered around them to sing, I literally got tears in my eyes because I realized that even people out in the community, who accept our crazy family and do what they can to make it easier on us, play a huge part in who our kids are. There are only certain restaurants that welcome us with open arm...a lot of them would rather us leave, but to those that do, it goes a long way in making us feel normal! (Okay, a lot of rambling..but it really meant something to me!)
It wasn't long before it was time for the party. We had 40-50 people come throughout the night. We served soup, crackers, cheese, fruit, and a lot of cake. Aunt Erin spent 10 hours making each girl their own cake and needless to say the girls were thrilled beyond belief at the individuality. Once again, as I looked around the room while we were singing "Happy Birthday" four times over, I was overwhelmed with gratitude. Each person there represents a piece of who we are as a family. They all play different roles, but we could not give the kids the life we do without each of these special people. From family members, people who have become like family, people we have met just over the last year, to nurses that help us manage the many aspects of Keyan, we hold them all very near to our hearts. It is something that is very hard to explain. All I can hope is that each of you reading this can experience the joy of being surrounded by people who love you through the highs and lows of life. It has been a tumultuous four years, but ones that were filled with a lot of laughs and smiles. Happy Birthday girls! You have all inspired greatness. I can't wait to see what the next year brings!

Snow already????

I know that I still have to post about day 6 or our trip.....and I promise that I will, but I had to post the newest pictures of the kids playing in the snow. We got 6-7 inches of snow yesterday. They were all so excited about all of the snow, so despite me being sicker than a dog, we all bundled up and out we went! They had so much fun. Sidney however, after about 10 minutes, wanted to go in because she was cold. I told her that was fine, but that she would have to stay in and not go back out. She said, "that alright, I am so cold, I am not going to play outside again until spring!" Whaen did she learn about spring???? Oh well, winter here we come.

Day 5...the last of Disney

Well, it was our last day in Disney and we planned on filling every minute with excitement. Once again we needed to visit 2 parks so it was bound to be a busy day. By this time in the week, we had gotten smarter about breakfast and either got take out from the Gingerbread House or called the doughnut cart to stop by our villa. Jamahl loved the doughnut cart! It was a little decked out golf cart that had fruit, cereal, doughnuts, coffee, and juice. It would come right to our villa and Jamahl would take the girls out to meet it in their pajamas. The kids thought that we should get a doughnut cart for home! Wouldn’t that be nice?
Throughout the week we all made sure that a few special things happened. Keyan got to meet Ariel, Abagayle got to meet Cinderella and see the castle, Sidney had met Spiderman, and Jamahl had gotten to the dinosaurs. We had one special thing left and that was to get McKenzy to see Wall-e. I had done a lot of research on where to find a Wall-e and received great advice from a mom on-line. She gave me very specific directions, which was a good thing because we never would have found him on our own. To find Wall-e we had to start our day at MGM studios. I did not tell McKenzy that we were on a Wall-e hunt because I did not want to get her hopes up in case we were unable to find the crazy robot. The weather was great, not so humid, and everyone was in a good mood. We got our strollers, piled in and were off. We followed the signs to the animation studio, went thru the gift shop, made it past all of the breakable art, walked down some steps and there was Wall-e! Now, I must say, that his Wall-e was pretty pathetic. All it was a two dimensional piece of cardboard. But that did not matter to McKenzy. She spotted her favorite robot as soon as we entered the room and she screamed until she had that piece of cardboard in a bear hug. She hugged and hugged her Wall-e, walked all around it admiring him from all sides, and made sure to spot all of his pictures all over the walls. She was so cute. You would have thought that she was meeting royalty. While we began to drag her away from Wall-e there was some commotion in the other side of the room. We all stopped to figure out what was going on and were surprised to see Mickey coming out to greet people in his sorcerer’s clothes. The kids ran over and we were the second family in line. It was the first time in our trip that we had actually been up close to Mickey. Keyan could not get over the fact that she was standing in front of Mickey. The girls all hugged Mickey, nearly knocking him over, they pulled his ropes, they all touched his nose and in the end, we had to pull them all away from Mickey. I think they would have spent all day just playing with that beloved Mouse. So much excitement and it was only 10:30 in the morning!
From the animation studio we went to the Playhouse Disney Show. We got seats right up front and all the kids, including Jamahl, really liked seeing some of the characters that they see on TV. We saw The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse gang, Pooh and his friends, Handy Manny and the tools, and The Little Einstein’s. I loved seeing all my kids sing along, clap, pat, and dance to the familiar songs. They smiled and squealed with glee over and over again. After the show we decided to split up again so that Jamahl and Paul could go do some boy stuff. They headed off to the Indiana Jones stunt show and the girls were off to see Beauty and the Beast. Yet again, when Mom and I got to the show and showed the man at the gate our guest assistance pass we were directed all the way down front. We had the BEST seats in the whole theater to watch Belle. The show was unbelievable! It was just like a condensed version of the Broadway musical. The costumes were great, the dancing was incredible and the singing was even better. All four girls were so mesmerized, they hardly moved the entire 30 minutes. The Beast was very realistic and Keyan was a little unsure about him. In the end of course, the Beast turns into a Prince and Keyan was ecstatic! For the next 5 hours she told us over and over again that “the Beast was scary, but he turned into a prince!” That really made an impact on her because she just kept talking and talking about it.
We met back up with the guys for lunch. The restaurant we ate in was set up like a movie set. Jamahl enjoyed looking around at all of the stuff. He flip flops between being a movie producer and an archeologist when he grows up so he was totally in his element. The girls figured out that there was chocolate pudding for dessert but when Mommy made them take their shirts off to eat it they thought that I was crazy. There was no way that I was taking the chance of ruining their beautiful Minnie shirts. Several people were staring at them but any mom of a 3 year old just nodded and smiled. After lunch we got a picture in front of Mickey’s big blue hat and then headed off to the Magic Kingdom.
Right away I knew we were in for a treat of an afternoon because as we were entering the park, the mid-day parade went right by. We caught the whole thing. Abagayle really enjoyed it, Keyan was sleeping, McKenzy got excited when the characters went by, Jamahl, thought it was pretty cool, and Sidney could only worry about the scads of Mickey shaped confetti that was all over the ground. Here we are, trying our best to somewhat control the germs and she is picking stuff off of the ground and putting it in MY pocket!!! Oh that child….I only wish that I could blame the obsessive compulsive side of the kids on Paul! The parade finished and it was on to phase two of our plan. We were going to work the park starting from the left and go around the castle to all of the different lands visiting the highlights of each area. We were on a tight schedule because the park closed at 7pm for a Halloween party and I was going to make sure that we got everything in. We headed off to our first spot when all of a sudden I stopped in my tracks…..there in front of me was the pineapple dole whip. This is my most favorite dessert and I had been really disappointed not to have found it thus far in our trip. You used to be able to get it all over Disney but apparently, they have changed that to this one Dole stand in Magic Kingdom. I was thrilled to veer off the plan so quickly for some treats. The kids all really liked the pineapple snack as well. Even Keyan could not get enough of the juice. For a girl who doesn’t eat anything by mouth, she was really digging that fresh pineapple juice. It was really cute to see her fighting Grammie for the last drink.
We finally got back to conquering the park after being energized. We hit all the favorites like “It’s a Small World”, “Pirates of the Caribbean”, “The Grand Prix”, and “Thunder Mountain”. I do not like roller coasters very much but have loved “Thunder Mountain” since I was five years old. I was convinced that Jamahl would love it too. Abby and McKenzy wanted to go also so we checked to see if they were tall enough and they just tall enough. So we all headed in to wait in line. We were getting closer and closer and Jamahl was getting more and more nervous. By the time we were next in line, he was crying and asking if he could just go back to Grammie. I tried to tell him that he would be glad that he rode it when it was all said and done but he was not buying it. I am sure we looked like “parents of the year”, forcing our child onto the rollercoaster. In the end…..he did not love it, he did not like it, in fact, he was very happy to be back on the ground and did not head our advice about rides anymore! A few days later, he decided that it was not so bad, it is amazing how time heals all wounds!
Our last stop in Magic Kingdom was to visit Toontown which is where we were able to meet some of the princesses again, see Mickey and Minnie’s houses, and meet the two mice as well. We got to bypass the two hour line to see Aurora, Cinderella, and Belle, walking right to the front of the line. The girls got to spend a little more time with each of the lovely ladies and also got to bid them farewell. McKenzy was dying to see Minnie’s house but we found out that the line for Mickey and Minnie was closing in three minutes so off we ran to find them. We were running all over the place, dragging kids this way and that and we could not find where to go. Suddenly, McKenzy falls and completely scrapes up her knee, she is screaming and everyone is looking! At the same time, Mom spotted the line and went rushing right thru the exit. A cast member stopped her as Mom explained that we were trying to find Mickey. The girl was about to turn us away when she saw Keyan’s MAW button. She radioed in to Mickey, led us thru the back door, and we did not even wait long enough for me to get baind-aids on McKenzy. The poor thing met Minnie with blood running down her legs. Who knew that we would leave Disney with battle wounds? This moment though, made everything we had been through worth it. When the doors opened to reveal both Mickey and Minnie, Keyan clasped her hands over her mouth and stood staring in amazement. We finally had to pull her up to them so we could get some pictures. It was so great to see the joy in their faces. It was a wonderful way to end our time in Disney.
When we were finished hugging our favorite mice, we toured Mickey’s house and then Minnie’s. The girls were quick to notice that Minnie did not have a bed. They kept asking where she slept and I finally just shrugged and told them she must sleep over at Mickey’s. Well, that must have made quite an impression because for about the next three days they asked everyone they saw if they knew that Mickey and Minnie slept together! I guess I should have come up with a more clever place for Minnie to sleep, like her couch. We did a few more odds and ends and then bid the “Happiest Place on Earth” goodbye. It was with heavy hearts and very tired bodies that we went to meet up with our nurse for dinner. We spent the rest of the night finding a place to eat in Downtown Disney, and finally buying the rest of our souvenirs. It was well after ten o’clock by the time we headed back to our villa. We were all a little sad but too tired to do anything more.

Day 4..2 parks in 1 day

Remember, you want to scroll down to see our trip in order!



Oh, we were craving a day to relax but that was not to be! We were running out of time and we still had so much to take in. We decided that we would start the day at animal Kingdom and than Jamahl was in charge of choosing whether we did Universal Studios or Hollywood Studios. He spent an hour the night before pouring over maps and reading tour guides of both parks. He was still uncertain when we left that morning. So, our first stop was Animal Kingdom. As we got through security and than went through the ticket booths, Keyan was not looking or sounding very good. We were just trying to get to the stroller station so that we could suction her and make sure that she was going to be alright. We find a place to sit and check her out, but when we go to suction her, we realize that the machine is full and it is GROSS!!!! I quickly scan for the nearest bathroom and it is on the other side of the ticketing booths. I was about to cry. She needed attention a lot quicker than I could find a bathroom. All I could think was, "what in the world are we doing?" Right when I am about to cry, we spot two cast members walking by. I reach out and stop them so that I can explain the situation and ask for help. They must have sensed the panic in my heart because they were both so helpful. They sent Paul to the nearest bathroom, helped us find some water for our machine, and did not leave until they knew we felt settled. I can not express my gratitude to all of those people who helped up through our scary moments. It made our trip so much better. The fact that we could count on so many people made it beyond wonderful.
After we got the first crisis of the day resolved, it was off to the Lion King show. We were all looking so forward to this show. Disney recommends that you arrive 30 minutes before the show starts. We only had about 12 but we thought we would try it anyways. We explained who we were and we were escorted right in to the second row. They were great seats. The actors start the show by giving each section of people an animal name. The very fancy girl came over and asked Jamahl if he wanted to help her out. He jumped at the chance to be in the spotlight. It was her turn and she explained that our group would be the giraffes and that her friend Jamahl from Michigan would tell us what a giraffe says. She puts the microphone right up to him and asks him what does a giraffe say? "Well, I have NO idea" he says and starts giggling. It was so cute.
Pumba and Timone come out a start the show and McKenzy just started screaming...."Hakuna Matata! Hakuna Matata!" She was jumping up and down and dancing the entire show. There is so much to look at that the other girls sat with their mouths wide open. Near the end of the show, one of the actresses came over and asked the kids if they wanted to play a game with her. Off they went to play Pumba's favorite game, "Follow the leader." Before we knew it, they were following her through the whole arena shaking maracas and dancing. Once again, I was balling my eyes out watching my 5 kids have the time of their lives. The zebra helped Keyan navigate around since she was concentrating so hard on dancing. It struck me at that moment that it would be a long time before the kids completely understood all the magic they were taking part in. We all had a blast.
When we left the show, we searched out a first aid so that we could give Keyan some water. While we were in there, the nurse offered us some Tylenol for her. Am I the only one who did not know that you could get medicine from them at the first aids? It was so helpful. After that we headed to the Safari. Now, if you have already watched the slideshow, you may be thinking, "there are no pictures of a safari??" Well, my exact words to Paul were, "we have done this safari several times and we are always worrying about getting pictures....let's just put the camera away and just enjoy the animals." So he did, and let me tell you, I have never seen a better safari. We could have literally reached out and touched a rino, the baby giraffe so close we could see his blue eyes. There were two baby elephants both nuzzling their mommies right in front of us. Wouldn't it figure that we would have the camera packed away? That is just my luck. Jamahl really liked seeing the animals. I think that he would have ridden again and again.
Next it was off to Dino land in search of some lunch and to dig for some bones. The ride that Jamahl had most waited to go on since he was three years old was closed for remodeling. Truth be told, I don't think that he was too disappointed. I don't think that he remembered how big it really was! We did a few more things but all too quickly it was time to say good-bye to Animal Kingdom.
Jamahl informed us that he had decided to go to Universal Studios next. Universal is actually two parks, one being Universal, and the other being Island of Adventure. Spiderman, who is Sidney's all time favorite hero in the world is in Island of Adventures so we planned that one of us would run her over there at some point and than go back to Universal. The day was going just as planned, and we were right on my time schedule in order to get 2 parks done in 1 day. (which by the way, people said could not be done!!!) We walk forever and finally arrive at the ticket booths. I leave everyone huddled by a waterfall and am off to but Mom's ticket to Universal. I get up to the window, politely ask for one adult park hopper ticket, and the girls just stared at me. She says, "Are you really going to pay that kind of money when Universal closes in one half hour?" What it is 3:30 in the afternoon. How can this be? One word...Halloween. It was closing for a party. Oh boy, I knew I was going to have one very sad little boy on my hands. My spirits were crushed and I didn't really even care to go to Universal. I walked back to the group with my head hanging low. How was I ever going to break the news? I delicately told Jamahl that Universal was going to close in just a little bit and we were not going to be able to go. However, we could go to Island of Adventure until 7pm. He was not happy. His shoulders dropped, his eyes glazed over, and the tears began to fall. He had put so much thought into where to go only to have it not work out. He was so disappointed. Part of the reason that He choose Universal was because that it where Barney was and he knew Keyan would love that part. How do you explain that even though he had great intentions, it was not going to work out? Why did he have to learn a major life lesson on vacation!! So much for my happy plan. We sat on the ground outside of Universal Studios, in hope of coming up with something great. The bottom line was that we had to get Sidney in to see Spiderman. In the end, Keyan was sleeping, and Abby didn't want to see Spiderman so the two of them and Mm stayed outside the gates while the rest of us went in pursuit of the hero.
Just as we arrived at the Spiderman ride to find out that it was probably to scarey for any of the kids, this officer starts screaming at everyone to clear the streets. All I could think was, great we had to come right in the middle of some emergency!" We hear the sirens before we see anything and were we ever surprised to see 7 superheros driving down the road on quad runners. There was spidey himself crouched on his red and blue 4 wheeler. Sidney about fainted. Paul put her up on his shoulders right about the time that Spiderman jumped off and took off running. "Follow him!!" I yell to Paul. Paul and Sidney take off and we ended up being about fifth in line to meet Spiderman. The timing could not have been better if I had tried to plan it. (which had I known was possible, I would have tried!)
It is our turn and Sidney runs right up to him and gives hims a hug. What happened to my shy Sidney? McKenzy and Jamahl join in the group and Spiderman asks where they are from. McKenzy boldly shouts, "Michigan". He then puts his hand out and asks her what part of the mitten do we live in and she looked at him like he had lost his mind! Spiderman than proceeds to ask Jamahl how his day was going. Big mistake...remember he wanted to go to the other park, and Jamahl is not afraid to speak his mind. He blatantly tells Spiderman that his day is bad because he didn't want to come see him! Does he have my nerves or what! Spiderman crossed his arms, moves closer top Jamahl, and stares him down. It was really funny. I don't think Jamahl fell for it at all though. We got some great pictures with Spiderman than went to the gift shop. Sidney wanted a stuffed Spiderman but I was not going to pay $14.95 for another stuffed creature so we finally convinced her to get a black t-shirt with the spiderman head done in jewels. She is so thrilled and so was I until I heard the total.....She had picked out a $30.00 t-shirt! After I got over the shock, I was very happy for her. She is never excited about anything and she was showing that t-shirt to perfect strangers. We were so happy it turned out the way it did, now if we could only get Jamahl to cheer up!
We head out of Universal trying to figure out what to do when we happen upon a Bubba Gump Shrimp restaurant. Jamahl LOVES shrimp. We decide to wait it out and it was well worth the wait. Jamahl ate four or five different kind of shrimp and by the end of the night, He was smiling once again. It does a mothers heart good to see all of her kids with smiles on their faces and giggles bursting out of them (even if it is from telling poo-poo jokes to eachother!) We stopped into the ice cream shop at the resort for a treat and than fell into our beds with happy hearts!

We interrupt this vacation....for Halloween

More Disney to come but I thought that I would go ahead and post pictures from Halloween. We had a great time this year. The girls had a party at school on Thursday and McKenzy wore her Wall-e costume that our nurse Steve had made for her. The costume is amazing, he did such a great job. When it came to Halloween night though, she wanted to be Princess Aurora. We did everything that we could think of but nothing would change her mind. Oh well, there is always next year! So, we had a bionicle, Aurora, Cinderella, Ariel, Spiderman, and 2 witches (mom and I). The weather was nice and for the first time, the girls really got into the trick-or-treating. Uncle Jeremy, Auntie Roo, Grammie, and Poppie went out with us and we had a great time together as a family.

Keyan modeling Grammie's witch hat!

Jamahl the Bionicle Watch out or Spiderman will web you. She had the jumps down pat!

The whole gang! It is quite a crew huh???

The witches join the group.

The resident witches The original Wall-e costume. Is that not the cutest thing ever?