Nichole...

I realized today that I have been posting allot about Conrad lately so today I am going to give this post to Nikki. She is our emotional child but she also has the largest heart ever. I remember when she first started kindergarten her teacher told us at the first conference that all the parents were wondering who this girl was, because their kids were always going home telling them what a great friend she was. And I am very proud to say she is friends with everyone, even the bullies that she protects others from. Yes, she will stand her ground for anyone. Now in the first grade we get the same praises from her new teacher that she is very thoughtful and considerate of others. It makes me feel all warm inside to know that she sees everyone as equals. On another note she is also teaching mom and dad about recycling. She would recycle everything and we (James and I) are learning to not be so lazy about it. We now recycle our cans and paper. Nikki mentioned the other day that we need to start recycling our plastics also. So now I need to get a tub for plastics. I know that she's right. Along with trying to save the planet she is also involved in many activities which keep dad and I hopping around. Her first love would have to be dance. She dances Hip Hop, Ballet, Tap and Jazz. She about breaks us in shoes alone. lol.:) We tried soccer ( too much running) and pre-T-ball (which was ok) but she liked dance the best. This is her 3rd year of dance and her first year on the competition team. So far she loves it even though it is a little more work. She has practice 2.5 hours on Fridays and 3 hours on Saturdays. She was kinda bummed tonight though because the 5 star production that she was going to be in next weekend got cancelled due to them deciding they were not going to have any groups only solos so now she is going to have to wait till the end of the month. This year she will be going a total of 7 competitions including the nationals in Branson. Most of the time she will be dancing in KC, Overland Park, and Olathe. We are all very excited about this. She is also in Girl Scouts which is every other week and they also do allot of great things with the kids. And last but not least she is taking piano lessons but that recital we are excited to say is only once a year. Zzzzzz. Nichole is a wonderful child and loves to please everyone. We very seldom have to get on to her and if we do it's generally because she loves to eat with her fingers which really grosses me out. I don't think I will ever understand. As you can hopefully tell she is a completely wonderful child and I feel so blessed to have her in our life. Nikki we I hope you know how much your dad and I love you. You are the rays of sunshine that warm our hearts every day. xoxo

No No Words

Well if you haven't figured it out yet our son is quite the pill. Last night as we were getting ready for bed CJ was running around upstairs and I was swapping the laundry out (our laundry is upstairs) when CJ starts rhyming words which I didn't think anything of. The next thing I know he says I twisted the knob (he was talking about the doorknob) and it f "ing" "issed" me off .(geez! wonder where he heard that dad!!). I immediately looked at him and asked what he just said and this is how that went:

Mom: what did you just say?
CJ: nothing
Mom: yes you did. Tell me what you just said
CJ: You didn't hear me.
Mom: Yes I did.
CJ: No you didn't I said it quiet

There was more to this conversation but I never did get him to tell me what he had said so I had to get his dad involved and after a long conversation he finally told his dad through many tears what he had said. It's not that I wanted him to repeat what he had said lord knows the first time was bad enough. I just wanted him to realize how bad those words were and have a conversation with him about that. He did say he was sorry for saying those words and his dad said he was sorry for saying those words to whenever that was. James does not cuss very often so whenever it was that he said it CJ heard and never forgot. It was so sad to hear such big words come out of such a little mouth I was completely shocked and I think CJ was to when he realized that mommy heard him.:) OH the things we don't realize were teaching our kids.
On another note Nikki had picture retakes today since she was sick when they took the pictures the first time. I finally have a scanner so when we get them I will post the pics. She is also going to be going to her first dance competition next Saturday and she is really excited about that.
We are also really glad that school has started back up. Well at least the kids are. I would keep them home forever if I could.
I suppose these are the moments in life that we will laugh and cherish the most as the kids get older. I suppose no ones perfect.
Oh yeah! CJ tested last week in karate for his next belt we will find out next Tuesday if he passed. So stay posted.

Breakfast, Peaches and Dinner

Today was an awesome day. It gave me hope and maybe or hopefully an insight of what is to come for the new year.:) For those of you that don't know CJ was born with CDH and has never eaten by mouth at least nothing that would amount to anything. He lately well I guess for some time (a few months) has been just chewing and spitting, which is really gross at the dinner table but never discouraged. For Christmas we got the kids some chore charts that lists their chores and how much money they earn per chore per day as well as penalties that would reduce their allowance. The kids were really excited about earning money that they could spend however they wanted to spend it. We also included several special family activities that they would be able to choose at the end of the week of their choice if they did not have to use any penalties (movies,games,favorite dinner that they would get to help cook etc...). We also told them that on the last weekend of every month we would take them to Toys R Us to spend their money. Well your probably wondering what this has to do with peaches or even meals! Well one of the chores CJ has is to swallow 3 bites of food a day which is quite a task for him. In doing this he will earn 25cents per day. WOW. It is working he forgets that he only has to take 3 bites and has been taking around 5. Now mind you these are bite sizes of solid foods that you might give a 9 month old baby. They are very very tiny bites but it is so exciting to finally see him swallowing something. Well today he asked me for some peaches so I cut up a slice and he ate the whole thing in about 10 minutes. Then asked for more. So I cut up another slice. And he ate that one also and asked for yet another slice. I couldn't believe it I was so excited I couldn't get to the kitchen fast enough. I asked him if he would like me to cut the pieces a little bigger and he said yes. So I nervously cut them a little larger. I guess the size would be about 1/4 of a dime so still very small. I was so proud of him. And he was so proud of himself for eating it. He ate all those pieces in about a 30 minute period without gaging or spitting. Then to finish off my day he ate 3 kernels of corn and 2 bites of a Penni noodle. YEH!!!!! Oh yeah! at breakfast he also ate 2 kix cereal balls. This is the most he has ever eaten at one time or even in a day or week or even month. He usually would just lick or chew and spit or sometimes he would just start retching at the sight or smell of the food and occasionally sip liquids so this was an absolutely huge huge day for Cj. I am so proud of him. It made me cry to see him working so hard to eat, he wants to so bad. He always asks for food and I make sure he always gets the food he asks for but he has never actually eaten what was given to him.

CJ I can't wait to see where you go next in your life and what challenges you are going to conquer on the way. I am so proud of you. I know that you will be eating soon and we will one day remove the mickey. I will always be here supporting you in whatever way you need. I am so happy that you are never afraid to voice your opinion and tell me what you want I think that at age 4 this is pretty great. Although a very ornery boy you steal my heart every day.xoxo

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Kids....

My kids fight so much. Sometimes they just absolutely drive me crazy with their fighting. I guess I know how my parents felt now. (They told me I would.) Guess I should have listened. Monday night I was in cleaning up dinner and James was in the office on the phone and the kids were fighting about who knows what as usual when I hear CJ say that he has to go to the bathroom and Nikki said that she did to and they went racing away. Next thing you know I hear James say I gotta go! I was thinking that was odd since no one was screaming and then thought oh no someones not breathing. Then I hear James getting onto CJ and CJ started crying so I went into the bathroom to see what was going on. Oh my gosh I did not even know what to say. Apparently on the race to the bathroom Nikki got there first so CJ got mad pulled his pants down and peed in her lap. I asked him what made him think it was OK to pee on his sister and his response was I had to pee really bad. I told them that next time one of them had to use the other bathroom (yes we have 2). And banned them from both being in the bathroom at the same time. I'm sure we will look back at this and laugh but as for now we weren't even sure how to punish the kids. The only punishment we could come up with was early bedtime and he had to loose .50 cents of his allowance. Hopefully he will make better choices in the future and I don't think Nikki will ever challenge him on the way to the bathroom ever again. I felt so sorry for her she just sat there saying this is so gross. I suppose kids will be kids. I love them anyways.

Merry Christmas

OK so I know that I am few days late!:)
Christmas was absolutely amazing this year. I think probably the best one yet. The kids were so excited. On Christmas Eve we baked the cookies for Santa, chocolate chip with no sprinkles, CJ forgot about putting sprinkles on them so we just let it go. Santa was happy!:) Christmas morning started very very early for us. The day before Nikki had asked if she could wake us up early since it was a holiday? And of course we said yes. Little did we know what early meant. Nikki woke up her dad first and his first words were what time is it? Nikki went to look at the clock and came back and said 1:45. (Yes you heard me right.) He told her that since she had already looked at what Santa had brought we probably should go back to bed because it was to early to open packages still. Well she must have not been able to sleep because the next thing we hear is heard of elephants running up the stairs and now 2 kids screaming SANTA WAS HERE! SANTA WAS HERE! as they came barreling into the bedroom. One look at the excitement on their faces and there was no way I could tell them to go back to bed. Luckily Santa does not wrap his presents and he also brings all of his toys already put together and ready to go so there was not much that mom and dad had to do but watch. After a thorough inspection of all the toys and stockings we were able to talk the kids out of opening the rest of the presents and got to get a little more sleep. Zzz. We did however ask Nikki if she woke her brother up or if he woke up himself? She said that she had woke him up because she thought he would like to see what Santa had brought him. (how sweet) Needless to say Christmas was absolutely amazing. We had so much fun watching the kids open packages and squeal with delight. It was truly a magical day.

White Christmas?

James had to work tonight due to the bad weather we are having so I took advantage of this and we finally wrapped and put the first presents under the tree. Very Exciting... The kids were besides themselves with excitement it was so neat. I'm actually not sure just how Christmas is going to work out this year. Hopefully the weather will start cooperating better pretty soon. James is on call all week and not only is he on call he is first out. So we are trying to create a plan B if the weather does not help with the clearing of the roads. On another note I am hoping that we get a white Christmas. The last time it snowed CJ was very curious after it melted as to when it was going to snow again, it went something like this.

CJ: mom when is it going to snow again
mom: I'm not sure we will just have to wait and see
CJ: well I know it will snow on Christmas because it always snows on Christmas

Well needless to say I didn't have the heart to tell him that only happens in the movies. I may have mentioned this snow story previously , I couldn't remember but it was so cute I had to mention it again. I love this age where there curiosity and interests help them come up with the silliest things. Tonight the kids each made their dad a Christmas card. Nikki was very expressive in her card and wrote her dad a cute poem. and CJ wanted to thank his dad for a certain thing. (I will say more later it's a surprise). Anyways after I wrote the first thing CJ wanted to say I asked him if he wanted to say anything else and his response was how bout dad poops allot. After trying not to laugh I explained that I realize he was being silly and it probably was not a good thing to put in a Christmas card. (Or on the other hand maybe I will call Hallmark. lol:)
Well on a not so Christmas note Nikki has lost yet another tooth!! That girl is not going to have any teeth left. She has now lost her front 6 upper teeth and 4 front bottom teeth. I told her she would have to wish for her 10 front teeth so she could whistle Merry Christmas. She then proceeded to whistle Merry Christmas. Smarty Pants!! That girl whistles non stop, it drives us crazy. Not that she whistles badly because she can whistle any tune she hears, she just is always whistling. I don't think most of the time she even realizes it. What crazy kids I have they sure keep us entertained anyways. Tomorrow we will be baking chocolate chip cookies for Santa since Nikki has informed me they are Santa's favorite and CJ don't care as long as he can put sprinkles on them. Not sure how that would taste. I told them that CJ could make his cookies for Santa and Nikki could make her cookies for Santa to take to Mrs. Clause. They thought this was a really cool idea. Now we just have to inform Santa. I wonder what he will think of that idea?

Snow and more Snow

When I woke up this morning it was snowing. YUK. I only kinda like snow and then only for a little while. I have about a 45 minute drive to work everyday which I don't mind since it gives me time to get my brain in gear for work and to relax from getting the kids ready for school and the same on my way home it lets me relax and get ready for home life, I hate to carry my work home with me. This morning it took me an extra half hour so I was late for work, (O well). I always drop CJ off at grandma's and then drive Nikki to school in Paola so I can't really leave early on bad weather days since I can't drop Nikki off too early for school. I thought I was doing really good on time this morning though. I ended up getting Nikki to school about 10 minutes early but then one of my windshield wipers fell apart and was screeching on the windshield, talk about the ebee jeebees. So I had to go to the parts store and get new wipers and someone to put them on for me. The guy was really nice about it. I think we ended up getting around 2-3 inches. I kinda feel like we have been having a streak of bad luck here lately and I'm not really sure why. Maybe because we just got over a streak of good luck so now its time for the bad luck! Who knows. It started Friday when our Christmas lights were vandalized. We were very thankful that it was just the Christmas lights and not our house but a real bummer non the less, it was the first time in years that we had even put the lights up. They did about $160 in damage. The cops said they had caught the kids (teenagers) apparently they left behind quite a bit of damage. I'm sure their parents are real proud. Anyways enough about that. I called CJ's GI doc about his double swallowing and if he had any new information on what might be causing this, but I haven't heard back yet. I have a feeling that he forgot to look into it. It always bothers me when I leave a message for the nurse and she calls back and has no idea what I am talking about even when I explain it further. I had to ask her if she had even looked at his chart before she called me back since she didn't even know about the motility study that was done (she had to go get his chart). Needless to say I kinda feel as though the doc didn't really care about CJ not swallowing or eating for that matter. He made absolutely no notes in his chart regarding the conversation we had when the tests were done so therefore he left the room that day with no intention of doing any further research that he said he would do. I will never go back to him again. I realize that doctors see allot of patients throughout the day and that my kiddo is not necessarily a memorable child but what I do think is that if the doctor does not remember a child then they need to at least review the chart that they are given so when they walk into the room they know at least a little bit about him or at least can convincingly fake it. WOW!! I am so glad to get that off my chest, sorry I guess I needed to vent a little. Thank you so much for listening sometimes I get all wound up when it comes to his doctors I think they stress me out more than CJ's medical problems.
Well on another note I am almost done Christmas Shopping I sat and wrapped almost everything and made my list of what I have and what I need and was surprised that I only need a few more things which I can just grab this weekend and I'm done. YEAH!!! I love to shop and I especially love to Christmas shop. The stores are all decorated so pretty, the Christmas music is playing and people are smiling and running about shopping. It just puts you in the mood for the holidays. I can almost smell the gingerbread now. Tonight while CJ was in karate class I showed Nikki how to make snowflakes out of coffee filters she thought that was really cool and is now making one for everyone in her class for Christmas as well as all of the teachers in her school. She wanted to make enough for the whole school but I had to tell her that she probably would not have enough time to make so many. She is such a thoughtful child I just love her so much. She had the biggest heart and is always thinking of others. I am so proud to be her mommy I hope she always keeps her innocence.

Out of the mouths of babes

Not to much going on in the Rice household. We have been keeping ourselves busy though. On Saturday we took Nikki to dance and I told Cj that we would not be staying at the studio since I needed to go home and clean the house and he asked me who had messed it up. I thought it was cute. It also made me stop and think for a moment that maybe I keep my house too clean. (who knows). Needless to say I decided that maybe the house wasn't as dirty as I thought it was (and it wasn't) so I didn't clean the house. That day anyways. I know that I have OCD when it comes to cleaning the house and it kinda drives everyone crazy so to my family I promise to try to not clean the house so much and spend more time with you. Off to another note James shot his first deer of the season Saturday so I drove out to where he hunts and dropped off CJ so he could go help track down the deer. Besides being really cold that day CJ had just finished eating and really wasn't in the mood to go look for any deer even if he did get to ride the four wheeler, but we made him go anyways. When James saw the deer he made CJ get off the four wheeler and walk (CJ had not seen the deer yet). James showed him the blood on the ground and told him to follow the blood which he found interesting to do. I guess he looked up and saw the deer and was all excited. He just thought that it was so cool to get dads deer. Looks like we have a hunter on our hands. Nikki is doing great also we went to her Christmas program last night. It was so cute listening to them singing their Christmas carols. She was also very excited to get a new christmas dress. I did not get any pictures though because I didn't realize that the batteries in my camera were dead. O well. Nikki had to go to the doc today though because she had a wart on the bottom of her big toe so she had to get that burned or frozen off so she is kinda down in the dumps since it kinda stings really bad. (my poor baby) I just hate to see my children in pain even if it is just a little.

O Christmas Tree O Christmas Tree

FINALLY!! We finally went and got our Christmas tree last Saturday. We always go to Fontana Pines ( a tradition) and this year the choices were pretty slim. Almost all of the trees were dead. We thought that maybe they had a disease go through but after visiting with them we found out that the hail storm that we had back in June had killed the trees. So sad. We felt really sorry for them since that is probably the majority of their income that is just gone. After looking for almost an hour we did finally find a nice 9 foot tree that everyone agreed on. No my house is not tall enough for a 9 foot tree, although we do have 10 foot ceilings, anyways we planned on cutting it down to an 8 foot tree which would have been just about right but James got carried away with trimming the tree and so now we have a 7 foot tree. I had to laugh and said the positive thing was that he would not need a ladder to put the topper on. I love to decorate the tree it is one of my favorite things about Christmas. The kids were so excited to be able to hang all the ornaments and then turn on the lights and just watch. They make sure that all the lights are on as soon as we get home. They were also excited about our snow today we got about 1-2 inches, not much but enough to start planning what our snowman is going to look like when we do get enough snow. I can't say often enough how much I love my kids. It is just so much fun watching their excitement towards everything. While I was driving home on the horrible roads tonight I just kept thinking about how excited the kids probably were that we got snow.