Boring week :)

Nothing to exciting to update....and I haven't been taking any pictures. I went scrapbooking at a friends house on Friday, Saturday I helped throw a surprise bridal shower for my friend Dawn, and Sunday I went to my niece Jackie's b-day party/bbq. She turned 10. Our surprise shower was a success I think. We pulled off the surprise and she got lots of nice things, good food, good friends.

The girls have been adjusting well to their helmets. They wear them probably 22-23 hrs a day. I already feel like I can see a difference, but maybe I'm just imagining it. We'll see....we have a check up on Tuesday. We will also have Jimmy checked again to see if he needs one or if he has improved. Insurance already rejected them last week, which we figured would happen. Just have to appeal now and hope for the best.

My mom got a ticket to Nashville Star as well as my sister/brother-in-law, so they get to see the performance tomorrow. They are all so excited. I wish I could go! Hopefully I'll get to go to one of the shows! Make sure you vote for Pearl Heart Monday night on Nashville Star on NBC at 8pm CST. I think there are two people getting voted off at the end of the show, but I'm confident it won't be them. They did great last week. NOTE: Make sure you vote extra this week b/c the people at the show won't be able to vote, so we need your extra votes!!!!!

My help is dwindling fast....Ann is dilated to 1, so she needs to take it easy. Her babies will be here before we know it!!!!! We are so excited and started the baby pool today :)

Busy, busy!

We took the triplets to their very first Cardinal game on Wed (6/18) and Alli's first game of the year. Jim was dreading it, but I wanted to try it out. We have 5 other family members in our group that promised to help hold all of the babies, plus all of our bleacher friends that we've come to know the past few seasons. The hardest part is getting out of the house. I (and Jim too) thought that it went really well. The babies were good and only cried when it was really, really loud, and that was because they were getting scared. And of course, my Alli was her angel self :) Thanks everyone for helping out. Now when Ann and Tim have their twins, we'll be back with all of them :)

Jim, Chrissy, & Jenna


Carmen & Jimmy
Jane & Cassie
Alli
Alli & Daddy
Thursday (6/19) we had to take the babies for an eye appt. at Children's Hospital. Our pediatrician thought that two of them (we think the girls?) had a wandering eye. Well, all 3 of them have what they call pseudostrabismus and its really just a big word for saying, they look cross-eyed, but they are not. In infants the bridge of their nose is wide and they have small folds of skin on the nasal side of the eye that covers the 'white' of the eye. They usually grow out of it as they get older. Jimmy has astigmatism, but he said that is common and will probably grow out of it. We have a follow up appt in 9 mos.

Friday we took the girls to pick up their helmets. They look so cute! And they don't seem to mind them at all. They have to wear them 20-22 hrs a day and for 3-6 mos. They sweat a lot and we have to wash the helmets and their hair everyday. Jim went to Fairmont with his friends and Toni came over to hang out.
Jenna & Cassie wearing their helmets
Saturday morning, Toni and I did the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. I've been doing it for the past 4 years now. Its so neat to see all of the people coming together for a good cause I love seeing all of the survivors in pink. Hopefully someday soon their will be a cure for breast cancer.
Later that day, I went to my 3rd baby shower for Ann...geesh! haha! This was thrown by Tim's family. It was fun and she got lots of good stuff. I think she is just about ready for the babies now. For more on her, you can visit www.timandannmeadows.blogspot.com.
Here are some cute pics of my kids
Jimmy laughing
Steph holding Cassie
Jenna sleeping on the rocker - she looked so sweet
Jenna sleeping in the exersaucer
Thought I would post a few party pics from my Tunica trip. I stole all of these from Toni since I forgot to take pictures. It was so much fun. Can't wait until next year!
Gina, Toni, Chrissy
Toni & Tim
Jane and Ken on the bus
Andy & Chrissy
Toni & Andy on the bus
Chrissy and Mom
Brian and Toni doing the face that EVERY teenager thinks is cool nowadays!
Janie and Dave...drinking maybe???
Proud Aunt Chrissy voting for Pearl Heart on all 3 cells
The big winner of the trip--from her free $10!!!! Yeah Toni---wedding fund!!!
So, if you are still with me at the end of this LONG post, this is your reminder to watch Nashville Star Monday night at 8pm and VOTE, VOTE, VOTE all night long for Pearl Heart!!!! Or do what you can, every vote counts :) Thanks!!!!
St. Louis celebrities!!
Pearl Heart's little brother Billy and their cousin Steph

Today was a really good day. The babies were well-behaved so I was going to make a run to the Bread Co drive thru for my tea. Then Ann called so we decided to go to lunch together. We met some very nice ladies at Bread Co. and one of them bought our lunch for us. I just thought that was so sweet. It pretty much made my day and I told just about everyone I talked to about her (and now I'm telling you guys!). She offered to come over and help sometime, so I'm going to email her. I just thought that was so nice and thoughtful of her. We made it over to Target for some stuff too. Sometimes the attention is kind of fun...and then we throw in that Ann is pregnant with twins and people are really in disbelief!

Thanks so much to everyone who voted for Pearl Heart last night. I thought they did great once again! Hopefully they make it through to next week so everyone can vote again. I don't have any doubts though. I voted for an hour and 45 mins until my phone died. I was practically falling asleep hitting end-send, end-send on my phone. But I know all of the votes are worth it because they are going to be the next Nashville Stars! I love this picture. I'm not sure how my cousin Paul got it, but I did see it on the broadcast last night. Amy giving Courtney bunny ears on national TV--haha! I swear, my family will never grow up. There is always someone doing that in the family pictures...and yes, its usually Billy :)
Jimmy sat up tonight for about 10 mins. So, I think I can finally write it down in his baby book. This picture makes him look like he was leaning really forward, but most of the time he was sitting straight up. I'm so proud of my big boy ;) He is the first to sit up.

The babies get a little tougher in the evenings. You would think it would be easier with two of us at night, but they are pretty fussy at night, so we get stressed out. We try to take walks with them to tire them out a few times a week. Our neighbor took our picture tonight for us. We don't get family pics very often :)
And last but not least, we have Jenna taking after her Uncle Jay-Jay :)

Monday reminder!!!!

Make sure you vote (many times!) for Pearl Heart Monday night on NASHVILLE STAR at 8:00 PM CST. They did awesome last week and I'm sure they will again!!!!!!! Love you guys!!!!

My very talented nieces (Angela, Courtney, Amy) - PEARL HEART
Jim and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary yesterday (6/15). We spent the day with the kids for Father's Day, then Kelly and Jenny babysat and we went to to dinner and a movie. We saw Don't mess with the Zohan and it was so stupid!!! So dumb. We knew it would be, but didn't think it would be that bad :) Oh, Jim got a fishing pole (and so did Alli) b/c he has been wanting to take Alli fishing for a while now. He also got a GPS for the car. I think I did good...he seemed to like his stuff :)

Helmet Heads!

Thanks to everyone who tuned in to Nashville Star this past Monday and voted for Pearl Heart! Didn't they do great!?!!?!?!?!?! I thought they were wonderful and the judges seemed pretty impressed also. My nieces are so dang cute (of course, they all are)! I'm so proud of Amy, Angela and Courtney. It was really neat to see them on national tv. Make sure you tune in on Monday again to cheer them on and vote, vote, vote! You can vote for 2 straight hours...come on, I know you have nothing better to do---you are reading my blog ;)


Sorry I haven't made many updates lately. Been kind of busy. My wonderful, wonderful, husband let me go on the annual Tunica trip (6/8-6/9), even though he couldn't go. Someone had to stay home and watch all of our kiddos! I had a lot of fun, but wish Jim could have been there too. I missed all of them, but it was a nice break getting away from the baby work and house work. I didn't win any money, but I don't gamble much, so didn't lose much either. Mostly just ate and drank. I'm so buffeted out! Alli got to go to Tina's house and play with all of the kids (her friends) one day. I'm sure she had a blast doing that. I know she misses going over there since the babies have been born. Anyway, Ann helped Jim while I was gone....at first her dr. said she probably shouldn't go, but then he told her she probably could have. Oh well, maybe next year, Ann :) Tim and I had fun :) She also had some helpers...cousin Jenny!!! Anytime you want to come over Jenny, just let me know ;)
Last Friday (6/6), I threw a baby shower for my sister Ann. It turned out nice and she got lots of presents. Geez Ann, are we done with showers for you yet? haha! Just kidding. She was surprised until she saw all of our friends cars on my street and in my driveway.

I've been trying to take Alli to the pool when we have time and its sunny. That combination doesn't seem to happen too much though. Or not as often as I would like! Seems like it never quits raining. Ann and I took all 4 kids last week. Alli got in, but the water was still a little cold for me and the babies. Hopefully its nice tomorrow.

Random pics.......

Cassie is always flipping over in her bed, in her car seat, where ever....our little contortionist
Cassie, Jenna, and Marissa

Jenna and Jimmy, chillin' out together
My precious porcelain doll
Jimmy partying it up with Natalie last night
Today (6/13) we took the kids to get their heads checked to see if they need helmets. First we saw a nurse practitioner, then we saw physical therapist, and then the helmet Dr. Jenna and Cassie ranked severe with their asymmetrical numbers being 1.4 and 1.2. Jimmy ranked 1.0, which is moderate, so we are going to get him reevaluated in a month. The physical therapist gave us some exercises/stretches to do with them for their neck stiffness, so hopefully they work. Jenna and Cassie got their heads casted for the mold so they can get the helmets made. It went a lot quicker than I expected it to. We go back next Friday to pick them up. Jenna gets butterflies on hers and Cassie gets bunnies. Now I hope insurance covers it....she said UHC covers about 1 in 10 cases, so we probably shouldn't count on it. They cost $1500 each, which is expensive, but we don't want their heads to be all messed up, so we'll find a way to pay it. Just hoping we can correct Jimmy's on his own to save us a little money :)

They will have to wear them 20-22 hrs a day and usually for 3-6 mos. Really only supposed to take them off for baths and to wash them. And if it gets to hot, such as in a car or something. 75% of them are corrected when they attempt to correct 4-6 mos of age. They go by adjusted age, so they are right over 4 mos now.

Jenna was first - she looked so funny!
Then Cassers
In the videos, Jenna is on top, & Cassie's on bottom.

Watch & Vote!

Finally I get to let the cat out of the bag! Our nieces Amy, Angela, & Courtney are going to be on Nashville Star! It's very similar to American Idol except it's for country music. It premiers on NBC tonight at 8:00 pm central and the name of their group is Pearl Heart. Billy Ray Cyrus is hosting this year and Jewel is one of the judges.

As many of you know, the girls grew up here in Florissant, Mo and have been performing for about a decade already under their former name Me Too. About 2 years ago, the decision was made to pack up the whole family and move to Tennessee in order to give the girls a real shot at their dreams. This is the opportunity they've been waiting for!

They've already made the top 12! Now it's up to America to vote. Please tune in and show your support by watching and voting. Please pass the word on to all of your friends and family. You can vote as many times as you like! :)

Good luck girls! We're all pulling for you. Go get em!

Jenna, Jimmy, Cassie - 6 Months (Allison 2 1/2)