Oh My Its Been A While!

Oh wow its been a long while since I have made a post to our blog. LOL! Busy days, Busy Nights make it somehow seem ok but then again I know that it's just an excuse that I shouldnt be using.

Things around here are as nuts as ever. Since my college graduation with my RN, I have been to London and Paris while I left my dearly loved children at home to finish the school year with their grandmothers. They work with each others schedules very well and trade off with the kids as needed. Haley isnt big about the farm and it with it being in the middle of nowhere she isnt big about having to go there either. So after school was out she of course spent the rest of her time with my mother in town. The boys dont mind the farm. They are little farmers to the core and love being out there. So they of course went to the farm. Tanner & Peyton had some home sick issues and eventually came back to town with my mother. Brandon-no problem-he hung out at the farm the whole time :)

Haley has started her last year of middle school and we are now currently in the last semester of 8th grade. She just finished up her cheerleading season yesterday.  She has done wonderful with it and it has brought her out of her shell more than I had ever dreamed it would. When she was little she used to be so shy and to herself. Well by about 3rd grade that had changed and she had become a little social butterfly. Well by 7th grade and the beginning of cheerleading...she has become a beautiful young girl with lots of friends and having tons of fun. Thats what I love to see and hear about from her. She is excited about being done with Middle School but I am positive that she doesnt realize that High School is a whole different story when it comes to what they themselves are responsible for. I am sure that she will do fine though. Come the spring she will be starting band competitions and it will be the first one for them. I am super excited about this because the 8th grade band is amazing! I cant hardly believe I am hearing 8th graders playing. They actually sound like they are a high school band. I am super proud of her and her sax! I love listening to them play. I listened to the 7th grade band this year and was shocked at the difference I was hearing. Our band instuctor is amazing here and I adore what he does with these kids but his class of 2014 is special I think. He has made a note or two of it also at some concerts without going overboard of course with the other class bands there. But Mr. B deserves so much credit for what he does with our band kids for PHS and LMS!

Brandon is in 3rd grade and I cant hardly believe how big he is getting already. I am happy with him that he has such awesome skills when it comes to hand writing and spelling. His hand writing is something else. It's perfect and at the begining of 2nd grade it was just terrible. Awful and you couldnt read a stitch of it. But by the end of 2nd grade he had the most perfect hand writing I have ever seen especially out of a boy with ADHD. He had the best writing in the class and still does. He carries A's in almost all his classes and 99% in spelling. I am really proud of him. He has made a huge turn around and I dont know what brought about such a turn around but none the less I am Super Duper Proud! He loves football and baseball. He loves to be at the farm or even out on the truck with his Uncle Robert. He and Tanner got and Xbox 360 for their birthdays in October 2009 and now they seem to think that Grand Theft Auto is the bomb and the also love to play one called Need For Speed Under Cover. They play that one Online against other people and they play in the area called cops and robbers. I might add that they are getting very good at it and that kinda scares me :) But boys will be boys. He continues to have laser treatments in Denver every 3-4 months now. He is about to the point where we are just doing maintenence treatments and I am thankful for that. That means we are where we need to be with his treatments and we are just keeping him where he is at so he doesnt get worse and he is about as good as he is gonna get. Poor guy I hate the thought that he has to do this for his entire life.... but nothing could change how much I truly love my son.

Tanner Boy...he's a little mess right. Mouthy as ever, crys all the time, he's a real momma's boy on top of it all. Thats ok tho as I am sure it wont last long. I still get my hugs and kisses everynight from the boys and that's perfect for me :)
Tanner's improvements this year-he reads to me at bedtime now. Some times I cant hardly believe the huge words that he can sound out. He knows some really hard words. Last year it was such a struggle with him and reading but now he reads aloud and reads books to me and I couldnt be happier with that. Of course he is our kid that excels in sports. His report cards always has Mastered under PE. That doesnt suprise me at all. This kid is so sports oriented that I think he eats, sleeps, dreams anything sports. He is so proud of his hoola hooping that he runs around the house begging everyone to watch him. He can throw a ball further than any third grader and can knock a baseball out into the green and he was 5 when he started that. He made a double play on his first t-ball game of the summer 2009 season. He was 6.  LOL! We were very proud of him. He is already sliding into base and he was ready to make bigger plays but with t-ball rules he couldnt. So he is really looking forward to this year since he will move up a league. Brandon also plays so they work together in the back yard all the time. It's nice when they get along :)

Peyton-where to begin with him. He is my baby. My sweet sweet baby. He has a royal temper though. He can get crazy mad and you practically have to sit on him to keep him contained till its over. when it passes he just cries and cries to release his frustrations. I was really worried about him because at the beginning of the school year he started kindergarden.  He was so stubborn that he refused to even write his own name. He was also put into speech therapy because he was having some issues on a couple sounds and they said he should have those at five. I reminded them that he turned 5 the first week school started. Cut off for age is the last day in August and his birthday is the 24th. So he was very close to the cut off date. I was unsure about him. I thought we will see how the first nine weeks goes and I will either pull him out or let him continue. Tho I have let him continue I am thinking that he may have to do kindergarden again. That would be hard. None of the other kids have had to redo any grade and I dont know how I will feel about that. I sure hope that with him being on his medication now for ADHD also that he comes around before the end of school and we make some progress. That is the only thing I can do right now is hope beyond hope that he improves. I dont want him to struggle though either so its a toss up...we will just have to wait and see...

Justin is still at Basic Energy where he has been for the past 10 years. We celebrated our 10 year anniversary in September. I cant believe how fast time flies. It seems just like yesterday that we were married. Now we have 4 children, a home, jobs, kids activities, church and so much more. I was working in wichita on the pediatric floor for Via Christi but the drive got to be to much for a part time job so I quit. I am waiting for the new hospital to open in Greensburg and that is only a 30 minute drive instead of an hour and a half. that puts me way closer to home in case of an emergancy and that is something that I always have to think about with such a large family. That and to be home with them as much as I can when I am not working. I was driving 3 hours a day when I worked and that was just way to much. I could have had two hours or better of that at home had I been working closer. It made for short sleep nights by the time I got home. I was working nights so Justin would be home with the kids at night time. So that is what has been happening in our lives since I last posted. I hope this catches you all up and you continue to stay involved with our lives. If you are far away and not here this is a fabulous way to keep up with what is going on with the children. We love you all~