Best friends

I just dropped Andrew off at school and wanted to sit and write a blog about  this stage in his life. He is in his 2nd year of preschool, will be 5 in a month, and will start kinder in September. It really does fly by and he's transforming into a big kid right before my eyes. When I dropped him off, 2 boys yelled- "Andrew!!! Hey Andrew!!" with such excitement and it just warms my heart to see him making friends at school. :)  He will soon welcome a younger brother to the family (who he insists on naming Emmitt from The Lego movie- and we've actually considered this name- but I've been calling him Ethan and it's growing on me). :) A few weeks ago, Andrew's teacher Ms. Lisa sent a note home in his back pack from another child's parent. It read- "Dashiel would really like to have a playdate with Andrew. He talks about him all the time and he would really like to play with him outside of school. I was wondering if you could pass this along to Andrew's parents so we can try to set something up." That made my heart melt. :) Andrew has talked about Dashiel quite frequently, so of course I contacted his mom and set up a time for him to come over for a playdate. It was the cutest thing ever and I just can't believe Andrew is old enough to have friends over to play. :) Last week- right after  Andrew got off the bus yelling, "Bye Dashiel!" he asked told me he was going over to Dashiel's to play. About 10 minutes later, I got a text from his mom asking when would be a good time to get the boys together again. :) I love that he has a best friend. He talks about him all the time now and they are such a cute pair.  He is going over there tomorrow afternoon during my IEP meeting for Andrew.

Andrew keeps talking about this show called Paw Patrol (a show that he claims he saw in the mountain house in New Mexico and then of course that techie kid of mine found it on YouTube and has been watching it daily- he truly amazes me). He says Dashiel has all the Paw Patrol characters so he wants them for his birthday. :) ( we recently spent 20 minutes in the Paw Patrol toy section at Target-when I turned my back for a second- there was a Paw Patrol back pack, 3 of the characters, and a massive Paw Patrol station in my cart....lol!) I think I know what to get him for his birthday.

As I said- I have an IEP meeting for kindergarten placement tomorrow and we just received all the results from his testing. The day of his testing- I was told he just kept going and going with the questions/puzzles (his teacher was shocked when he told her Texas was the biggest state in the United States and New York City was the largest city... lol!)  He's doing really great (the teacher in me can already see he is going to struggle with writing and probably master math and science), and he will be in an inclusion kinder class with some outside support. I had to laugh a little when I read that he needed some help with pragmatics in the classroom setting (IE- announcing to the class when he has to use the restroom or answering the question "Why do we wear clothes" with an answer such as "Because they say vroom vroom!!" followed by laughing)- because yes- that is my Andrew. :) And I'm sure he was getting very tired of the testing (because he IS 4) and began answering deliriously.  I am so proud of my little guy and how much he has accomplished. He is really a sweetheart and plays so creatively lately (he has had to resort to using other toys to "pretend they are paw patrol characters" :) I know he will go so far in life with his kind heart and problem-solving abilities. Even while wearing clothes that say "vroom vroom.". ;-)

Building a fan with his circuit set 

This poor snowman got completely buried after snow storm #3 (he couldn't survive the 105 inches from the season...Who can blame him?)

Hot chocolate after some sledding

Focusing on  the instructions for his circuit set

Christmas 2014..oh so eventful

*I started writing this months ago and then had a little scare in my pregnancy and kinda went into a blur (along with a pretty rough winter- I just wasn't ever in the mood to write about what was going on). It's unfortunate really- but it's hard for me to hide my emotions in my writing and I didn't want to be a whiney blogger. :)

I've neglected my blog lately and really need to catch up-instead I must blog about our Christmas adventures before I forget the details.

17 days- that's how long we were traveling-the first 7 days of our trip were crazy...we stayed at 5 different places in those 7 days (a total of 7 places in the 17 days of our trip). Not quite planned- of course my husband is an adventurous man so our original plan was fly into Dallas-drive to amarillo the next day- drive to New Mexico with his family for 3 nights and then head back to our home town for Christmas festivities. And then I wound up in the hospital with kidney stones AND a kidney infection...womp womp...and I happen to be pregnant right now which makes EVERYTHING more complicated. The irony here- I had kidney stones while pregnant with Andrew too (not with Abby..maybe another boy??). :)

Yes- I'm pregnant again...we will become a family of 5 come July!!! Pretty scary and exciting all at once. It's been my toughest pregnancy so far which with 2 other kiddos to take care of-things are just not getting accomplished the way they should (to say the least...). Here was how we announced the news (Todd's idea I must add). ;-)

Slightly different Santa picture from last year, right?? :) 

Long story short about my little hospital visit- was transported to Santa Fe via ambulance (because I'm pregnant and they really didn't know how to handle kidney stones/infection in a pregnant woman), stayed 2 nights, woke up in a hospital bed on Christmas eve being poked with needles (no...fun...),  I missed the entire ski trip in a BEAUTIFUL mountain house in Taos (Andrew started crying in the hospital because he wanted to go back to the mountain house :( Heart-breaking.....) , and then we headed back to Texas (a few other things happened along the way  but need not be mentioned here...it was a rough drive to say the least...and by then I was just ready to go to my own home and we still had 11 days of our trip to go...whooaaa). Everything was great once we made it to my grandmother's for Christmas Eve dinner. It really ended up being a fun Christmas and we were finally able to relax and stay in one spot once we reached Dallas and stayed at our friends'- Jake and Leslie's- and got to hang out there for a few days. We were only going to stay a night and then it turned into 3. :) It was so nice to see them and to be around our friends with young kiddos. Then it was off to Breckenridge, Tx for our friend's wedding-back to Dallas and then our flight back to Boston. Whew...wears me out just talking about it. :) These pictures are in no certain order- just a few random pics from the holidays, 

Santa left a kitchen in Boston for Abby!

On the plane (a much better experience than last Christmas) 

Andrew, Carson, and Cole Before ski school (my little Andrew wasn't a fan of ski school this go around) 

The view on the balcony at our New Mexico mountain house! 

The kids got to see Santa at the hospital on Christmas Eve (not the best pic...lol) 

Abby with my Grandmother :) 

Abby helping Nani in the poker tournament :) 

Yes- Abby is in her PJ's in this pic (she threw a fit about 30 minutes prior and then I was crying because we didn't get a family photo so this is the best we could do). :) 

Todd's parents had just moved out of their house in Dumas- a house they had lived in since Todd was Abby's age. Lots of special memories in this house. Todd and I went back one night and took a few pics. It looks so much smaller when it's not filled with furniture and family. :) 

Galan, Ryan, Blake, Todd, and Presley- buddies from high school (out for Blake's bachelor party) 

The kids at Blake and Lindsay's wedding 

The dudes

High school buds 

Blake, me and Todd

Todd, Abby, Cole, and SueAnna 

Andrew and Abby having fun with their Pop Pop :) 

Eddleman Family Poker Tournament 

This was New Year's Eve- I look so lively ;-) It had been a long trip and this is at Jake and Leslie's house where we were finally able to chill (Alex, Andrew, me, and Abby) 

All in all- it was a fun-filled, emotional, adventurous Christmas. :)