Our First Christmas as 5!

Wow this year is nearing an end and we are getting comfortable and feeling more "normal" as a family of 5.

We just celebrated our first Christmas as a family of five! The happiness and spirit from the three drowned out the saddness of missing my brother Paul. He would have wanted us to be Happy for the Holidays so he got his wish!

Dan and I went over board getting toys for the kids this year but I think the kids appreciated it.

 Teddy Bears from NeVaeh

 Even Sue Z Q gets something

 Cheese.....

 No Aaliyah this is my picture LOL

 

What a ham :)

NeVaeh wasn't feeling good for Christmas. She had been under the weather for a couple weeks again. She got all tuckered out and fell asleep soon after opening presents. We got a call from the doc the day after Christmas telling us the lab work they drew last week shows she has Mono :( . Hopefully she will get some energy soon!!

The clowns all piled into Aaliyahs bed and were very candid for a photo!

We had two family gatherings the kids enjoyed also. This first set of pics are from Dan's side.

 All the kids on Dan's side....Its much smaller than my side...We couldn't even attempt a picture..LOL...NeVaeh didn't feel well so she didn't get into the picture.

This next set of pictures are from the gathering from Patti's side..Guess I didn't take many pictures.

 Grandma trying Aaliyah's tiger hat on :)

Wishing everyone a happy new year!!

Happy Halloween

Kids had fun this Halloween!

They Trick or Treated at the zoo (Zoo Boo), then Dell Rapids had a local business trick or treat the Friday before Halloween. On Halloween we went around Baltic to peoples houses. Talk about beautiful weather!! NeVaeh had just got a new stroller too so she didn't have to walk. This made life much less stressful for both her and me as she walks fine but when she's tired she sits down or decides she wants to go the other way its not so easy especially now with two more.

Everyone was happy so it made it all great. They also decorated a pumpkin and NeVaeh painted one in school.

Happy Birthday Andres!!

There is never a dull moment in our house anymore. Since our two additions came in March we sometimes barely know if we are coming or going. They certainly make for so much more adventure.
Andres had his 7th Birthday on October 30th. He talked about it forever. I really think he wanted ummm everything or nothing......He really didn't know LOL. Some of the things he asked for he really already had and somethings he asked for changed by the day...The joy of being a child. He seems so happy with us and being able to live as a family with his sister. His smile and hug just melts my heart. He has such a heart felt "I love You" at the end of the day. Even when it was all roses.
I must just laugh as we celebrated and gave him the choice of going anywhere in the whole city to eat for his birthday and he choses......McDonalds. :)
Guess he's an easy pleaser.
He was the star of the day in school on his birthday and we made cupcakes and the kids decorated them. He wanted spiders so we got licorice for legs and candy for eyes and chocolate sprinkles. We also did white  cake mix with orange dye in it and decorated them like pumpkins using candy for eyes, nose and mouth. They were eating the candy along with decorating LOL. They had a hard time especially Andres not licking his fingers. I made them wash their hands everytime they licked their hands before they could touch anything. I did twice as many as them but they had a blast.
Andres fared well with gifts too. He got a remote control helicopter from Daddy, remote control car from Aaliyah, Hot wheels race track from Grandma Berg, and other things too. He had a blast!!
Oh and he requested "Susan" from Monsters vs Aliens on his cake ?!

Andres

 Gotta love this guy!!

Our son is a very sincere kind hearted child. He is very loving and speaks what he means. There are no secrets from him as he has no ability to keep a secret LOL.

He has grown so much since he came to live with us in march and we are so excited to see his ability growing as he comes home actually spelling words and able to memorize our home phone # !!!

In the morning our baby is like a loose canon ready to explode!

In the world  of ADHD and PTSD premed times for him and us are hellish to be blunt. Our little angle sharpens those existing little horns and litterally dances on the table amongst other things.

An hour or more after the  meds kick in he has turned back into our glowing little angle. He thrives with praise. His early years were very rough and we cant fix that but we are doing out best to make his now and future stable and good. 

He is doing remarkable in school now... Go Andres! Keep it up!!

 Showing off his new dinasours :)

 Helping clean the pool so we can take it down for the season.

He loves his big sister NeVaeh and shares his movies with her. He looks out for her :)

NeVaeh

 NeVaeh  has been doing awsome lately

She has been working on the Ipad all summer on the Talk Tablet app for communication. Over the summer we went to the Sanford Castle weekly for ST to get used to it. She now is back to school and gets her ST there 4x a week and at the castle every other week.

She ordered her food at Dennys the other day and was able to figure out what she wanted without any cuing. She is able to navigate around it really well! I have it programed pretty complex and was afraid it was too hard for her but she always seems to find where she want to go. The app is great as it can be as simple or complex as one needs it to be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8pUO4mSXuw&feature=relmfu 

She was fussing about dinner last night so I gave her the Ipad and told her if she could tell me what she wanted I would make it. She was signing chicken. I said I know you want chicken but tell me with your words. She found it in seconds! then proceeded to go the freezer and get it out :)

This seems to be really opening a new world for her. The ST found a way to lock her app so she cant navigate out of it so that also helps. She has a long way to go but this is so exciting!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=m6HcFWGQn48

She did have a rough September seems she just couldn't get over being sick :(
She started the end of August with a sinus infection and couldn't quite get over that even with two courses of antibiotics then ended up with a mysterious rash.
Shortly after that cleared up she again go very sick and throwing up. Ended up with pneumonia and UTI. She again had two different antibiotics :( . This time she again ended up with a mysterious rash. The Doctor thought is was some kind of strepp infection. I though it was the antibiotics. It cleared up using a steroid ointment a few days after her antibiotics were complete. Guess we will find out if she needs the antibiotics again if it was that.
She's feeling pretty good now with still a little cold symptoms but nothing too bad anymore....lets hope it stays that way!

I managed to take some pictures of her the other day :)

She is progressing with her communication though she isn't saying much for words right now my 8 year old is doing great with communicating. Her messed up chromosomes just continue to be a challenge for her. Nobody can tell her she  Can't do something cause she will just in her own way in her own time. 

 This is her world of 1p36 deletions syndrome/12 q duplication Syndrome