A day late

I missed a day! The day just flew by and before I knew it I was at work getting ready to come home. Like I said in my previous post I am going to focus on one particular thing this month for questions. Since October is full of birthdays at our house I think we will focus on kids/birthdays and childhood.

Introduce your children to us?

I have three beautiful children Alexis Maree, Joshua Kayden and Koy Nichols.

Alexis Maree is my 8 year old daughter. Her middle name is after my great-grandma who we called Aunt Maree. Lexi is such a drama queen and she has only gotten sassier as she has gotten older. She is a big helper with her little brothers. She is a GREAT reader and does a great job in school. She is your typical pre-teen girl. She loves everything from barbies, dolls and dress up to Hannah Montanna, Jonas Brothers, and High School Musical. She has a broad range of things and that can make it difficult to find things for her for her birthday and Christmas. She is getting to the point where it is time to let go of the baby things and move onto big girl things. She is going through a growth spurt right now and has basically gone from a size 7 to a size 10 in a matter of months. I use to be able to go into a store and just pick up a size for her that corresponded with her age, but that is not the case anymore. To buy things in advance for her does not work because she is growing so fast. She hates to have her hair done in any way. She loves dance, cheerleading and just playing with whoever. She makes friends very easy. She is also very dramatic with everything and makes a big deal over a small thing. She reminds me a lot of Nancy because she always has a ton of things piled on her bed and she sleeps around it instead of cleaning it off. I remember thinking that when she gets older things will get better. I can safely say that things are just different instead of worrying about what thing she is going to share with her friends we now worry about things that deal with school and even more friend issues. Things are just different as they get older.

Joshua Kayden is my 4 year old. His first name is legally Joshua, after his dad, but we call him Kayden. I have told the story about how someone asked me if we really wanted his name Joshua because what if we ere in the hospital and they called him by his legal name he would be confused. I remember saying we won't have to worry about that because we won't be at the hospital very much. Boy was I wrong. Kayden was born with Hypoplastic kidneys. His "native" kidneys were only 2 cm at birth (normal size is 5 cm) and his right kidney was larger than his left kidney. At first I wondered what I did wrong during my pregnancy, but our wonderful doctrs made sure that I knew that I did nothing wrong during my pregnancy and nothing could have changed it. It just happened. I won't go into what he has been through in his short life since I want to do that on his birthday, but I will say that he is one of the strongest little guys I know. He is my hero. Everytime I get blood drawn or get an I.V. in I think of him and how strong he is to have had so many and to get through every single one of them. He is very laid back and has a go with the flow attitude. He could sit down and watch t.v. all day. He loves superheros, Spongebob, Power Rangers, the color green, BYU cougars and the number three. Now that he is turning four I think we may have some issues with that. I do see a little bit of OCD in him in the sense that he has a set bed time routine and if you put the blanket on him the wrong way he gets upset and other little things that he does. He has to have certain things lined up just right or put in the right place. He gets that from his dad. When he was little he had these little blankies that he had to have when he was going to sleep and he would feel the edge of the blanket to see if it was the right blanket and if it wasn't he would throw a fit. He is a smart little boy and will do amazing things, but he keeps it hidden and not many people see it and when he does things he impresses a lot of people. He also likes to do things on his own time. He didn't want me to decide when he was born he made sure that he came when he wanted to and that meant early. He decided when he was going to walk and took off when he decided it was time and he potty trained on his time frame not on my time frame.

Koy Nichols is my 2 year old. His middle name is after my dad's and that is what his mother's maiden name was. To say Koy is a terror is to put it mildly. He is very rambunctious and rowdy. He gets into everything, throws tantrums, and is the best form of birth control on this earth. I thought Lexi was bad with her colic, but Koy definately takes the cake. He is such a cutie with his chubby cheeks and little personality but he definately keeps you on your toes. He is strong willed and he is such a bully. He is going to be a big strong boy when he gets older. Koy will not sit still longer than 10 seconds. I have found that the only show that he will sit and watch is Doodlebops. For some reason he will sit for the whole 25 minutes that it is on and watch it. I can't get him to watch any Disney movie, but he knows who all the people are in the movie. He also loves to play with cars. He has a dump truck that he pushes around the house all the time and his motto is if it has wheels it will be moving. He even like to push the rolling pin around on the floor because it is like a big wheel that he can push around. He is a great dancer. He was only 1 month old when Kayden received his transplant. He knows that Kayden has a g-tube and he watched him get his medicine every night and now he thinks that he should get some medicine also and gets upset when he doesn't. He has also tried to put one of Kayden's tubies on his belly button thinking that is where it goes for his medicine. He is a strong willed little boy and I can't wait to watch him grow.

I am amazed at my kids and love to watch them grow. I love to see their interests and see what makes them happy. Some days it is Hannah Montanna or Jonas Brothers for Lexi. Somedays it is Toy Story and Iron Man for Kayden and somedays for Koy it is horseys and cars. After Lexi and Kayden I knew I wanted more kids and felt like my family was not complete yet, but after Koy was born I got this peaceful feeling and I knew that my family was complete and that all my kids were here for me to take care of. I have no desire to go back to the baby stage. I love little babies and will willingly take care of them, I just don't want anymore. I didn't realize how much hands on babies were until I started taking care of this little girl. She is a good baby but I realized how much I enjoy not having to carry a dipaer bag with me at all times or to carry around a car seat. I love my kids so much and I am excited for the possibilites that are in front of them and to watch them grow into wonderful men and a beautiful lady.