Christmas

I would have to say that this was the most lazy Christmas we at the Howard house have ever experienced. Pretty much stayed in PJ's all day! Chris' dad had the flu as did my grandpa :(. My mom came over for a bit in the morning to watch the kids open their gifts and visit a little, then the rest of the day Chris and I just laid around, watched the kids play, watched movies, and ate some Christmas cookies....like I said...LAZY

Here is a very short video of Trinity pushing Gabriel in the baby doll stroller! We thought it was hilarious....it took him a couple minutes to get into it.....the baby doll was taken out, then the stroller kept rolling away...then he had to try and squeeze into it, but he finally managed...



Starting out the morning with some cereal!


Trinity playing with a DoodlePro they got Christmas Eve from great grandpa!!


Gabriel carefully unwrapping a present


Asher checking out his book


Trinity and Grandma


Gabriel squeezing into the baby doll stroller



SNOW!!!!!...well a sprinkling of snow anyways!








Our children crack me up! I love having entertaining kiddos!!! :P

We will have more pics after we have our Christmas time and dinner with Chris' parents next weekend! Really looking forward to some Turkey and mashed potatoes!!! yum-o!!!

Sweep Gabriel, Sweep!!

Gabriel just didn't want to nap today. I put them all in their cribs a little after noon. Went and took my shower, got dressed, made some tea, sampled my Egg Nog Pots de Creme I made for tonight's Christmas party and he was still singing to himself in his crib. Then he started TaeKwonDo-ing the headboard of his crib so I figured it was time to get him up before he woke up the other two.

Apparently since he was not in the napping spirits, he decided he better make himself useful and clean! he he.....

Fall Family Photos

Some photo's that a friend photographer took! Hope you all enjoy them! It was SO crazy windy that day. I was battling some crazy wind hair, and all the kiddos decided to have runny noses...But we had fun non the less :P 3 18mos old children, in a new place, surrounded by leaves, tree's, and more leaves, oh yes, and WIND = FUN....and craziness and running and chasing. he he he

Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving weekend! We were at Chris' parents on Thanksgiving and then visited my Papa the next day. Had a great weekend!

Togetherness!

Just a couple pictures today....
I just love seeing my children being loving with one another. Whether they are playing around, dancing, hugging, wrestling, having bath time....it really doesn't matter. Togetherness just makes my heart sing....cheese, I know. I just pray that as they grow they will stick together, get each others backs and continue to love on each other.

Stay Puffed Children!
This was right b4 going out the other day. I had to drop off a bill and it was bitter COLD!!! They find it quite entertaining to see each other with the hoods up ;P



This pic looks like they are dancing :)


Instead of Sumo wrestling we will have Puff Jacket wrestling


It's really funny 'cus the jackets are still a bit big. It looks like they have swinging nub arms. "It's only a flesh wound (insert British accent)!!" baahaa (for all my Monty Python & the Holy Grail fans....such a great movie).....anyways...

Some bath time!
I just love bath pics. Mostly b/c I know that the amount of time I have to be able to photograph and post cute stuff like this will only last but a short while.




The chair...
For some reason the three of them decided that their chair was more fun upside-down...maybe 'cus it is hard to fit each other together in it the right way...who knows....





And of course......Gabriel

Asher - Update after Pulmonary Specialist visit

We went for Asher's visit today with the Center for Children in Lowell which is a branch office for UAMS and Children's Hospital.

They took X-Rays of his lungs. His X-Rays looked horrible, but this was to be expected with his Chronic Lung Disease, being on the ventilator, lung blowing twice, etc... SO no surprise there. Our lungs continue to grow through age 7 at which time they will be deemed full grown, SO his lungs should just continue to get more healthy...it will just take time.

The GOOD NEWS is that according to Dr. Menendez, he looks much better than his slides show....which is good. His lung problems are not getting worse, it's pretty much just that he has this cold with wet cough/congestion that is causing the wheezing and faster than usual breathing.

To help this issue of a wet nasty cough we have to put him on another inhaler...Atrovent which is supposed to get rid of the wetness, congestion. The Albuterol is for the actual cough. Then we have also been using Flovent which is for inflammation of the lungs. We also got a new/larger chamber.

His food/drink calorie intake:
The nutritionist at this place was SO much more helpful! We have lots more ideas to help with his calorie intake and weight gain. Hopefully we will start to see improvements over the next few weeks. His weight gain will also help his lungs out.

The doctor also gave him an awesome car toy (shown in pic) that he could take home!!! Super excited about the car. It is soft and makes noise. Those things are expensive at the store, so we didn't get them one for Christmas like we were planning on...

...It's the little things in life :P

SO...
Thank you JESUS for the good report and wonderful visit and the awesome nurses, dr, and specialist...and the car toy!

AND...

Thank you to all of you who have been praying for our little man!!! You guys rock!! We couldn't have ever asked for a better support of friends and family in our life.

Love you all!

Quick Asher Update

The Pulmonary Specialist finally called and we have an appt scheduled for Nov 4th.

Asher still seems to be wheezing and breathing fast, but has been eating much better YAY!!

Thank you to all of you who have been praying for him! We love you all!

Please continue to pray for him

Dr. visit , Pomegranates, Books and Child Leashes

So took the kiddos to their 18mos Dr. Visit!
Gabriel and Trinity are doing great! Although Trinity does need to lay off the milk a bit :O Dr. dropped her and Gabriel down to 24oz. per day. Asher is still doing well, but his growth chart is declining. So we are trying to fatten him up even more....ugh. He is also breathing a bit too fast again...about 60 reps per min and wheezing, so we had to get him some meds and will be taking him to a Pulmonary Specialist. He's a strong, happy little man, and we know that God is in control :)


Book time at the Howard hizzie....Gabriel, Trinity, and Asher love books. Anything colorful and/or with different textures are usually a hit.





Rapin' it up.....or so it looks....they really like Chris' hat

This is Gabriel....and Trinity backin' him up


My little man of happiness

The "Harness Buddy" story:
SO, bought these at Target the other night. Super excited. Have always been against the child leash, but decided that it was better than one child deciding to run from me and land in the street and soforth. We practiced at home and the kids did GREAT! SO. Went to work this morning super pumped about breaking out the harnesses.

Get the kids ready to go...jackets on, harnesses on, get out of the truck, start walking and BAMMMMM..... "OH MY GOSH MOM, IT'S A LEAF!!!!" came streaming from Asher's little thought dept. "OOOOOO GRASS" flowing from Gabriel's....."I'M FREEEEEEE" yells Trinity's spirit. So this is the scene...me with our large baby backpack on, my purse, little cooler with milk strapped across one shoulder, and cappucino in one hand.....AND three 18mos old babies on leashes in the other. What was I thinking? REALLY????? SOOOOOOOO I end up unloading everything I am carrying onto the grass and after spending about 5min laughing, corralling, chasing, laughing some more I decided to throw them all back in the truck and grab the stroller. UGH.....seriously....UGH

At least it was entertaining.....Hoping to get the parking lot video so I can submit to Funniest Home Videos....it would def win 1st prize. I'm still laughing about it....but at least I am REALLY good at laughing at myself. Goodness....





Oh yes,
and our children REALLY like Pomegranates. Wierd