Our first road trip

We decided to take our first road trip since Blake has come home a couple of weeks ago. We packed EVERYTHING up and headed to see Grandpa and Grandma Burdorf and Adam and Jill and the girls in Sioux City.

The time spent with family was great! We don't see each other often enough and we always have fun when we're together. I think that is especially true of Jenna, Brody and Addy. They just have a blast!

Saturday night we got to go to our friends, Jared and Jill's house, for supper. They had identical twin boys (now 9 months) in November. I'm completely fascinated with twins and it was so fun to watch them crawl around and interact. We miss the Bodammers a lot so it was great to spend a couple of hours with them.

The whole "process" of actually packing and traveling and doing dialysis not at home, well, I'll be blunt...it sucked!! I'm used to packing for three and with the twins I now pack for five. Remember what it's like to pack for a baby? Ok, now take that times two. And now add on a crap-ton of medical supplies. Yeah...not fun. I was a nervous freaking wreck that I was going to forget something for Blake. The trouble with his stuff is that it's not usually things you can just get anywhere. The other problem is that our van is full, REALLY, REALLY full. Busting at the seams.

It was a couple of long nights with the dialysis and I can definitely say that although we enjoyed the trip, I think the number of trips between now and the time Blake has his transplant will be few and far between.

Here are some family pics:

Addy, Jenna, Brody

All the grandkids - together for the first time!

Grandma and Grandpa with all the grandbabies

Adam, Jill, Addy and Aubrey

And our family.

Thanks again Grandma and Grandpa for having us! Sorry it took me so long to get these pictures up. Thanks to Adam and Jill too for making the trip from Omaha. Always great to see you all!!

Benefit Breakfast

Here's my disclaimer from now until my kids graduate: I will always be behind on my blog. I'm always busy with something it's hard to find time!!

Ok, moving on. :)

Over the Labor Day weekend the cheerleaders at West Marshall were kind enough to put on a benefit breakfast for our family. What a bunch of sweet girls and parents to do that for us! I kept thinking there might be about 7 people that showed up, but it was such a good turnout! Not overwhelmingly busy, but steady for four hours straight.

Aaron and I tried to get around to thank as many people as we could. The babies got passed around and Jenna and Brody played with whatever kids were close to there age.

The girls were ready to start!

All of us with the cheerleaders

This benefit made me realize how fortunate we are to live in State Center and the West Marshall community. People here have taken our family in as one of their own and we are just so grateful to everyone!

Iowa City Check

Last Thursday I headed down to Iowa City for Blake's monthly dialysis check-up. Our good friend Sara, who recently moved down by Cedar Rapids, was kind enough to want to go with and help with the boys. Bless her for making my day easier! :)

Anyway, Blake is doing wonderfully!! He is growing like he should and his labs are looking great! The one thing that they are a little concerned about is his blood pressure. It's a little on the high side (but it has been since he was in the hospital), so they tweaked his dialysis script once again to try to get that down a little. Like Dr. Jetton said, Blake is a "moving target," because he is constantly growing so we have to continually change his dialysis script, along with his meds.

Other than that, a pretty uneventful trip. We did make a quick trip up to the NICU to visit. One of our favorite nurses was working, so she got to come out and visit. Jodi, if you're reading this, it was WONDERFUL to see you!! :) Those nurses up there are so great and I know I wouldn't have made it through those 10 weeks without them.

So, we head back on October 13th for our next check-up.

The best so far...

There's really no general theme behind any of these photos. They are just a random assortment of the twins and what they've been up to. Getting too big, too fast.

I love these onesies because they each say "One in a million." Notice how they are holding hands. Melts my mommy heart.

Blake (left) and Bowen (right)

Both serious...

...and both happy!

Bowen (left) and Blake (right)

I love naked babies! Love the bigs eyes and that they were both gnawing on their hands. I think they were giving me the, "are you going to feed me soon?" look.

Blake (left) and Bowen (right)

Boys lovin' some tummy time! Notice the drool on both of them. :)

Bowen (left) and Blake (right)

And finally...

I think this is the best both-looking-at-the-camera-and-smiling picture I have gotten in four and a half months. It was work. I had to be at my goofiest, but they bought it. I would be goofy all day long if I got results like this:

How do you not smile when you look at that?!

Bowen (left) and Blakers (right)

First Days of School

Well, I'm only about 10-12 days behind here, but at long last...here are the kids' first day of school pictures! Jenna started kindergarten on August 19th. Brody started preschool on August 23rd. They both did so well! No clinging to my leg. No tears. It's times like those I'm glad my kids are independent. Here's everybody before we loaded up for Jenna's first day of kindergarten. I figure next year the twins will be running around... :)

I can't believe Jenna is old enough to be in kindergarten. I know every mom says that about their own kids, but she's my firstborn. She wanted her hair chopped to her shoulders and now she seems even older.

Sitting at her desk, ready to start her first day. She gave me a kiss and told me to have a good day. That's Jenna, Miss Independent. I walked her inside the first two days and after that she told me she could do it by herself. I watch her walk inside every day - total confidence with her hair bouncing from side to side.

Brody's first day of 3-year old preschool! I was thinking I was so smart to make them hold these signs that say the year, so 10 years from now I'll remember. Of course Brody had to be ornery about it...

And still more orneriness...

I was a nervous wreck the first day of preschool that Mrs. Randall was going to call me and tell me Brody was just too much for her to handle and was going to kick him out of preschool or something!

Picture with big sis

Our big preschooler...the first day when I went to pick him up, he was standing on top of the playset. Mrs. Randall informed me he's the first one to ever do that. I'm sure there will be more stories to come from this blond-haired blue-eyed kiddo!