not something we saw very often living in Texas or Oklahoma but this year we had a beautiful white Christmas not only in Kansas but when we went home to visit Oklahoma!!
It was a rough Christmas with out Bryan's mother and her passing last month but she was still there in presence and I think it was still a blessed one.
Brooklyn also had her first school play this month!! She was an angel!
Aidan requested to have a combined birthday party with his sister since she is born the day before him! What kind of big brother still does that at his age? I love that little guy!! So they had a combined bowling party together with friends from school/playgroup and had an awesome turn out! Peyton had elmo and Aidan had sports!
1
lb smoked sausage, sliced
1 1/2
cups Progresso® chicken broth (from 32-oz carton)
1
large onion, chopped (1 cup)
1
tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary leaves
1/2 teaspoon salt
2
cans (19 oz each) Progresso® cannellini beans, drained, rinsed
1
can (14.5 oz) Muir Glen® organic diced tomatoes with garlic and onion, undrained
2
cups shredded cooked chicken
Fresh rosemary sprigs, if desired
1
Spray 5-quart slow cooker with cooking spray. Spray 12-inch skillet with cooking spray; heat over medium-high heat. Add sausage; cook about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until browned. Place sausage in slow cooker. Add remaining ingredients except chicken and rosemary sprigs; mix well.
2
Cover; cook on Low heat setting 7 hours 30 minutes.
3
Stir chicken into stew. Cover; cook 30 minutes longer. Garnish with rosemary sprigs.
my 3rd child Brooklyn is officially 6yrs old!! She's getting more and more beautiful every day! She had a wonderful costume party in a Monster High theme with friends from school and in town
Today we had our Nut-rition house party!! I love love love doing house parties because we get to try new products or new ways to use products we love!
We had a playdate today and the kids and parents each got a water bottle and got peanut butter to try out! I tried out some fun new recipes too! Love this new extra twist to the original taste!
So a few updates around here..
Aidan - we now think that the possibility that they thought he had a vocal tic form of turrets isn't that. I originally thought personally that it was asthma related and then they thought e didn't have asthma and blew me off for that and told me it was turrets possibly. Then he finally got diagnosed with asthma like I thought and it has continued to stay a "vocal" thing. I thought I noticed that it was increasing at bad allergy times. Finally in Oklahoma it flared up really bad. He had to be in a house where cats had been to say good bye to my mother in law in case she passed. If not given the situation I wouldn't have taken him there knowing he's severely allergic. Normally he just gets a really bad reaction in his eyes, etc. Not long after he starts the vocal tic up and it increased. It got really bad and I thought maybe I shoudl take him to the ER while he's doing it to see if there's something they could see. Suddenly he starts having problems breathing. I take him in at this point and they checked hima nd rushed him back and his oxygen level had mostly been in 80's but got down as low as 70's! Said his tonsil area was very swollen as well! They wound up giving him an epi pen there and sending us home with one and an increased dose of steroids and said that it made sense that he was doing it because it was so irritated so I'm going to see about getting a referal to an ENT. He has an apt with his allergy specialist Friday.
The kids also went back to scool about the middle of September because I was concerned about a few things like the fact I think he may have dyslexia and tht personally is just over my head since math is one of my weaker subjects. Along with some other things on the other 2 kids. One being the curriculum from k12 was just not giving them what they needed at all. Keagan was way to advanced for it and they were way to slow about helping Aidan. Aidan has his test to be looked at for the possibility of dyslexia I belive the 14th of October. He is still mixing up letters and numbers and it runs on his bio dads side. We met with the school councelor prior to putting them in and voiced all of our concerns and rather than blowing us off they told us about a special reading program they have for dyslexic kids or kids failing reading and had him in it after a week and after doing their own testing with him! So the fact they were listening to me before putting them in made me even more confident wtih the choice! He's already starting to do better on a few things with math just from his teacher actually giving a crap and not being like the one the year we pulled him out to call him "stupid"
Keagan - Keagan is still showing very high intellegence at school and on the gifted side. I was having a lot of problems with him and his over stimulation for awhile which is then in return a huge attitude and we were going to put him back in ABA but I think he's starting to adjust a little more but still waiting on a referal.
Brooklyn.. the newest part that has me upset right now. They were sitting on their butts about the referal for testing for autism and loosing things. I finally got her in with a specialist and she will be tested on the 9th.
I'm also now Worried because she failed her hearing test at school! I've said for about a year I was concerned with her speech and got blown off. Calling ped first thing in morning. She was also still a little off on sight like she was at eye dr in feb so glasses may be coming.
So that sums up the latest here.. how lets hope for more answers and help
Lot's of fun with Pumpkins the last few days! On Monday the tots had some fun painting pumpkins while the bigger kids were in school!
Tonight the bigger kids carved pumpkins themselves (I can't believe they are big enough to do it themselves now!)
And then we baked the seeds for a yummy snack!!
