Time flies yet again…

How does time slip by so fast these days???? Well as you can see its been awhile since I’ve last updated which seems to be a recurring theme! We have been super busy and it doesn’t appear that we will be slowing down anytime soon. We have gone camping, gone to football games, went to the pumpkin patch, attended a wedding, and even cut down a Christmas tree! Oh and did I mention that we have YET to have a few days in a row that one of us ISNT sick? If the fall has been any indication of what we are in store for this winter we are in trouble. Speaking of which, this is the only reason I have time to update this…I’m home with both Jake the Snake and E-trade because they have succumbed to the nasty upper respiratory bug everyone seems to keep passing around. Anywho…on to the updates.

Im sure I mentioned it but Adam and I purchased a camper this summer and made it a point to go camping on our available weekends. It takes a bit to prepare for camping but man is it worth it! The boys love it, its totally relaxing, and its just nice to get everyone out of the house and be a family of 5. Don’t get me wrong we are lucky to have nursing but its nice for it to just be US every now and then. We camped at Wilder Park in Allison with Uncle Beanie and Aunt Ann, camped at Hickory Hills in Waterloo with my family, Twin Anchors in Colo, and at a state park in Indianola. Every time we’ve gone we have had a blast and cant wait to do it again this summer!

Evan started preschool this fall and loves every minute of it. Miss Justine assured me that he acts much differently at school than he does at home so that’s good :) At parent teacher conferences I was told that everyone wants to be Evans best friend and that he is very helpful and a pleasure to have in class. He does have difficulty staying quiet during group time though which is not surprising :)

Jake is growing up fast too. He talks so much now that its hard to remember him as a baby. He gotten really tall and sometimes people confuse him as Evans twin. He is going to be a handful though as he likes to stir up as much trouble with his brothers as possible all the while with a smile on his face…little turkey!

Braden is doing awesome and growing leaps and bounds as well. He can scoot around on his butt, pull himself into standing, can sit up for long periods of time, can communicate well using sign language, and will even starting preschool this spring. We wish he would be more willing to take food by mouth but Im sure he will get there in time. His next goals are to tolerate a powered wheel chair for school so we will be working with his therapists for that soon. His appointments in Iowa City have been going well and we are just in a waiting pattern to see when we will correct his severe kyphoscoliosis. Right now his curvature is stable so we will opt not to do anything but that could change at any moment. I have putout some feelers for the other families who have children with CD to see what doctors they have used for surgery and what was done. The nice part is everyone we have talked to who have had back surgery has had a marked improvement in their breathing so that is promising.

We also made a trip to Mercy to visit our favorite nurses and got to see the boys photo on the wall outside Bradens old room. How surreal to be back where it all started…to some of the greatest memories and some of the scariest. It was incredibly rewarding to show off Braden’s progress to our NICU family!

With Braden doing so well we even made it to out to an ISU tailgate. He loved it! Evan had just started to ride his bike without training wheels so he had a blast zooming in and out of the tailgate lot and playing with the other kids. Who would have thought that all us crazy college friends would still be partying ISU style with our kids. Its so awesome to have our good friends kids and our kids grow up and play together. Its an experience I am so happy to share with our friends…especially since we are raising the next Cyclone generation! :)

The boys and I had a great trip to the Pumpkin Patch this year also. They added a bunch of new attractions but as always the corn pool and the patting zoo were the big hits!

THe boys had their first costume birthday party for their girlfriend Aubrie and had a blast!

All 3 boys went trick or treating with my friend from work’s kids. Evan was Optimus Prime from Transformers, Jake was the Blue Ninja from Ninjago and Braden was Mr. Potato head! Braden was too sure of the trick or treating part but was super excited when he got some Twizzlers!

Some other fun things were going out to eat as a family to Texas Roadhouse, enjoying a night of bowling and games at Perfect Games with Uncle Seann and Aunt Wendy, and catching a Waterloo Blackhawks Hockey game over Thanksgiving! Braden loved it…so much so that he threw a fit after the hockey game because he didn’t want to leave!

My beautiful cousin and her handsome hubby got married as well this month and I had the honor of being in the wedding. Everything went so well and we all had a great time!

After the wedding we celebrated my nephew Phil’s 8 birthday…speaking of time flying I still remember when he was born. Yeesh Im getting old! This picture is my absolute. 4 generations of  Boesens!

And last but not least, we went out last weekend and did our annual Byersdorfer Christmas Tree Hunt! The kids had passed out on the way to the tree farm but were good sports about getting out and looking at the trees. Braden wasn’t a big fan of getting his picture taken but all-in-all it was a successful trip!

I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving and are gearing up to have a great Christmas. I should probably wrap this up and start doing laundry…while typing this up Jacob decided to fall victim to the stomach flu. Lets just say it’s a good thing we are getting a new couch for Christmas! Never a dull moment! Until next time!