Drawing frenzy

The girls have busy at work drawing lately...just about every time they spot a paper they want to draw. Here are some of my favorites:

Nicole has started drawing faces (with legs), and decided to draw a family portrait

Each person is turned a different way. Clockwise from top: Vanessa, Mommy (she said I was going crazy because I couldn't swim with everyone else), Nicole (the dot is a toy under her), Daddy, and the last person was her own creation-Daddy's cousin "Rana" (We've been watching Jungle Book lately!)

Here are a few of Vanessa's drawings. We just recently saw A Bug's Life for the first time. Here is Francis the Ladybug:
Heimlich the Caterpillar:
Slim the Walking Stick:

And when she ran out of paper she drew on the back of the note pad. The Queen Ant:

And people ask me if they're twins...

Peaceful Sleep

I have more great news. Nicole recently had a much needed follow-up sleep study done. For those who may not know, she has been sleeping with a cannula (nose tube) hooked to an oxygen machine. While that has been a helpful temporary solution, it never was fully getting the job done.

With the follow-up, they were able to confirm that she is still dealing with sleep apnea and requested a second sleep study at that clinic so she could be studied while sleeping with a CPAP and mask. Monday night I went in with her to the study. It took a few hours to get her hooked up and asleep enough to allow the pressurized air to be attached to her mask, but once she was set up, she went into a long, deep, still, restful sleep for a while. Our wonderful sleep tech, Tom, kept me up-to-date on how things were going, and asked me, "Has she ever slept this well?" I thought for a minute on that. This may be the first in a long time that she didn't move or wheeze for more air while in deep sleep. It was an emotional moment (still is) to see her laying there and knowing she was getting the best sleep...the sleep her little body needs so much.

We still have to go through the process of getting our own CPAP and mask for Nicole and adjusting her to it (the not so fun part), but after hitting countless road blocks in Utah trying to make all this happen, it seems incredible that we are so close now! We continue to discover why the Lord led us here to Lubbock. I can't wait to see how much better Niccoli will feel from getting great sleep!

News

September 2nd, 2010

Girls' Christmas Pictures

Videos

Here are some recent videos of our girls. The first is from Vanessa's Christmas program at her preschool. She was so excited to have us there to see her. It has been nice to have her enrolled in a Christian preschool where they teach a lot of the values we hope she will learn. The second is of Nicole performing on the piano (or "panyo" as she calls it) in the girls' playroom. She has become quite the little singer at home and at church.

Halloween

This year for Halloween, Nicole decided she wanted to be a ballerina. Lisa got to work right away on some ballerina slippers. She has been attending a weekly knitting group and made these awesome slippers for Nicole.

Here are some of Nicoli's poses.

Vanessa decided to be "Rapunzel, but not with blonde hair, with brown hair". Lisa braided a super long yarn extension, which Vanessa had to wear over her shoulder. She was pretty excited about her hair. She was mistaken for Princess Leia more than once throughout the night.

Here are the girls right before going trick-or-treating.

This was one of the first houses we came upon. Trick-or-treating didn't seem as fun to the girls after this. We had to pump them up again for the next few houses.

We also came across this beauty. I don't know if you can see very well, but that is a huge smoker on the back. Sweet ride!

The girls were also pleasantly surprised this Saturday when I brought this home. We're still debating whether we are going to leave them as bunkbeds or separate them into two twin beds (Lisa is really nervous).

Fall has been awesome this year. Here is a shot of our favorite tree on the street.

And last, but not least, here are a few quotes from the girls:

During our family home evening this week...

We were singing "Choose The Right", and when we got to the chorus, this is what we heard.

Vanessa: Choose the right, not the left.

On our way home from church...

Vanessa was touting her unselfishness by telling us that she enjoys giving presents more than opening them herself. This was Nicole's response.

Nicole: No, I like to open presents..I open it, and look, it's a diamond! You want to see it?