Turkey Day!

So, this year we all stayed home for Thanksgiving, and invited a few people over, so it ended up being 7 adults, 2 kids, and 2 babies. I was really dreading it, considering that's a lot of people and children in our house, and I really am not a fan of crowded places in general.
Surprisingly all went well with no one throwing anything at anyone else.
Nate and my mom were up at 8 am cooking, I can't believe how little sleep Nate was going on, he basically had stayed up for 48 hours straight, because the 2 nights before, Vivian decided to be mean and keep us up all night. But, he was a trooper, and didn't stop until after dinner was served.
Vivian was refusing to sleep all day, so we all just took turns entertaining her. Riley (my friend's daughter who is 2 weeks older than Viv) is getting cuter and cuter! Her and Vivian take turns on who is going to be good and who isn't haha. Brianna was as good as a 2 year old can be with nothing to do and a big kid (Nicolas) who didn't really want anything to do with her.
I was OUT at 10:30, and for anyone that knows me, that's pretty early. I figured I'd try to sleep on Viv's terms, so if she woke up in the middle of the night I'd be prepared. And of course, 3:30 rolls around, and she woke up. So she ate and played for about an hour before I got her to go back to sleep, which wasn't so bad, usually takes her longer than that. Well, I decided that since I was up I might as well ask my mom if she wanted to go shopping, because I didn't want to go back to sleep just to be woke up in an hour. So we face the Black Friday crowds this morning, which wasn't so bad actually. We got a lot of cute baby clothes for Viv and my future nephew (I REFUSE to call him "little man" anymore, since Tiffani won't tell us his name!)
So after a good nap, and a little leftovers, I'm ready for round 2.

A Good Sunday

So, today Nicolas got to go play with his friend, Taylor, for a couple of hours, and I think that it went pretty well.
Part of his "recovery" or really just transition into his new life with meds is making sure that he gets some social time in with some kids his age, and since one of my best friend's has a daughter his age who he has known for years, I figured that she would be a good start for this task.
I was a little worried since Nicolas had an outburst this morning with my mom, but he proved that he can do just fine when it comes to getting along with other kids. The only reason he had his outburst this morning was because my mom asked him to pick some things up outside, and my dad was using the leaf blower, and when things are too loud for Nicolas, he kinda freaks out a little bit.
I was very proud of the way he acted this evening, and how he played so well with his friend, even with all the chaos going on around the house (there were lots of kids). When he got home, he was super tired. He got to chose a "small prize" for the night, and he chose to stay up a half hour later than usual, but he couldn't even stay up passed 7:45.. it was so cute, I haven't seen him fall asleep on someones lap in a long time.

PHOTO SESSION FROM HELL!

I am pretty sure that JC Penny's portrait studio just lost me and my family as a customer for life, unless they really pull something out of their ass to fix the problems that they caused tonight.
First of all, this was Vivian's first photos, and first professional pictures of her and Nicolas. I made the appointment last night, they got me a time for 4:30 today. We got there at 4:15 just to be safe, and wow was I wrong!
We walked upstairs to find mass hysteria going on in the whole corner of the store, where people just looked angry as we walked up. I stood there waiting for someone to at least check me in for almost 30 minutes. I am a VERY patient person when it comes to people who have to deal with jerks, and are in customer service. So when they finally got to me at 4:45 just to tell me that there was well over an hour wait, I was polite, and just told them to call me when they were ready for me. I filled out the paper work and went to walk around the mall with my mom, Nicolas, and Viv.
They told me that they would call me while the people before me were in their session, so I figured I'd have enough time to get up there and get Vivian changed and be fine (I wasn't going to put a pretty dress on her just to have her spit up on it before it was time to get her picture done.)
We walked up there getting ready to put Vivian's dress on, since we brought 2 outfits we were about to tell the lady about the 2 outfits we brought, and what kind of pictures we were looking for, when she tried to tell us that we were only aloud to use 1 outfit each, and that we only had 10 minutes for the shoot. Now, this is after I just filled something out asking about how many outfits I was going to have, and the prompt on the phone yesterday informed me to be prepared to take up to 90 minutes for the photo shoot. Apparantly this only applies to the NON holiday part of the year, but everyonen failed to let us know this. My mom about threw a fit, because they expected us to wait patiently, but when it came to be our turn, they wanted to rush us out... SORRY that isn't how this was going to happen. They wanted us to only take 10 minutes for picture time.. 10 MINUTES!!? Are you kidding me, we had 2 outfits, and I was hoping that they were only going to focus on us for as long as we wanted. We worked out something where we could change outfits, and let people go inbetween us while I fed the baby, and got them changed and everything.
So we got the pictures done, it took a total of 4 hours! But apparantly my mom managed to get a butt ton of pictures for a super cheap price. I just felt really bad for the girls working there, you could tell that they probably were all about to have a nervous breakdown from dealing with all the customers yelling at them all day. JC penny's just doesn't know that you can't ask people with infants and small children to take only 10 minutes, and expect to book a whole day of people, and think that they're not going to get mad for waiting for 2 hours. On top of that think that your staff (or anyone for that matter) should have the patience to deal with everyone for 12 hours at a time (that's how long the girl had been there)....
All in all, NOT a great experience, I'll probably just go to Walmart next time.

Picture Happy

I have come to accept the realization that I am obsessed with pictures. Whether it be with my phone or a real camera, I try to capture every moment I possibly can. I was first thinking this only had to do with Vivian coming into our lives, but anyone who has ever seen my Myspace knows that I have WAY too many pictures. Luckily my new obsession is scrapbooking so all these crazy pictures will have homes one day, it's just going to take a while to get them all organized, because when I try to think about all of them, I just get overwhelmed and want to go watch TV instead.
On another note, Nicolas went back to school today for the first time in almost 2 weeks. I walked him to his class, so I could give the teacher a little heads up, and gave him my usual hug and love, while wishing the teachers good luck. They said that he had a decent day. Most parents don't want to hear the term "decent," but anyone that knows Nicolas gives a big sigh of relief with me. They let me know that he had a few rough moments but definitely could see a big change in him for the better, which makes me feel like I made the right decision.
Today was a good day, got some great pictures taken, Vivian is just a little bundle of sunshine, and Nicolas is my perfect little best friend. I hope that this all means life is taking a turn for the better.

Nicolas's Letter to me

While Nicolas was away he wrote this letter to me, and I thought it was just GREAT. It was one of the reasons that I knew he wasn't mad at me about the whole situation. Since it's hard to read, this is what it says.
"Dear mom I missed you while I was in the hospital also Nate and my Grandparents.
Next one
And the dogs,
Next one
And I feel better
Next one
And Vivian

Love, Nicolas"

For those of you who don't get to speak with Nicolas often, this letter might not make too much sense with the whole "next ones," but it is basically his way of saying "also."
Just thought I'd ad the picture of the letter for effect because it was really cute. My little boy is turning into a little man, it's hard to imagine he was Vivian's size at one point!

Nicolas is Back!

I picked Nicolas up this morning around 10:00 and he's very excited to be back home. He said that he thinks that the hospital helped him so much, and I'm just happy that he doesn't hate me for sending him there for the week. I know that it's the best for him, and hopefully now he won't only be "better" but he'll be happier too.

Nicolas Comes Home Tomorrow

As some of you may or may not know, Nicolas has been in the hospital for about 8 days now getting help with some behavior issues he's been having at home and at school (mostly at school), and this was basically our last resort to get him the help he needs. Everyday that I have gone to see him, I have seen great improvements and am really optimistic of the way everything is going to turn out. He is now on a mood stabilizer that should help him with his out of control outbursts at school, and possibly get him into the gifted classes he deserves and needs. Vivian is becoming her own little person. Cooing and smiling all the time, I never thought that someone so beautiful could come out of me. Nate is the best dad ever, always willing to help me out with pretty much anything I need. We're a pretty happy little family right now, just hoping to grow and improve day by day.