Our bonus son ..... Brandon



Brandon, Maggie & Aubrey



facepainting @ christmas parade

Brandon is staying with us again until his mom can get her life together. It is so much fun having him in our family. Little boys are way different than girls.... Lol
Aubrey & Brandon are best friends . They are only apart when they go to school. They share a room and have so much fun together.
I just wanted to share some of the fun moments we have had with him this year ....

trying out new shave kit ..

going to school

Brandon, Shelby & Aubrey



reading with my kids



moustaches ....

Shelby's in love ..... Again...

Our sweet Shelby is in love... She has been "dating" (every sunday & wednesday) Aaron for 5 whole months... The other day she told me they were going to get married after college... I love that kid so much. She is truly a great girl. Don't misunderstand me that she is always a pleasure to be around because I don't know any 13 year old who is but I am proud to be her mom.

Aubrey gets her eyes checked....

Aubrey loves glasses. She loves to wear them so much that I have actually bought her 2 real pairs of glass frames from the walmart vision center just so she can wear them. Now that she turned 4 I decided maybe it was time to see if she really needed glasses. I am so blind  without contacts or glasses it isn't even funny but I prayed Aubrey wouldn't get my vision.... Apparently she did get my face ....lol
Anyway I took her to Dr. Gilmore who has known Aubrey since I was pregnant with her to check her eyes out. She did such a great job listening to what the dr was telling her & was full of questions on why is she doing this? What is that for ? It was so cute seeing my little girl sitting in that big chair so of course I  took lots of pictures...

And the dr says she can see perfect !!

Happy 4th birthday Aubrey !

Today Aubrey turned 4 years old !!! We celebrated her birthday yesterday at chuck e cheese and she had such a great time. I have to get pictures from my mom & sister because my camera died right when we got to the party but I do have a few I can share.... I will post more later ....
~ Nichole

Friday night high school football

We love our crosby cougars !

Aubrey dances ....

Aubrey loves going to her dance class every monday. I have known since she was a baby that she was going to be a dancer. Last saturday my niece Jacee , who is on her high school drill team, asked if Aubrey could come to the dance clinic her team was hosting & learn a routine and then they could perform on the field at the next football game with the drill team. Aubrey was so excited ! Well tonight was the big day she finally got to dance ! I was not there to see her but her Daddy, Aunt T & Yaya all sent me pictures because I was out  of town at the women of faith conference. My baby girl looked so adorable !

~ Nichole

Happy 5th heavenly birthday !

Although it has been 5 years we still think of you everyday .I think of how crazy our life would be with 3 five year olds, a three year old , a thirteen year old & a nineteen year old..... Wow that is a while lot of kids...lol. As I am writing this Aubrey is crying in the backseat because shelby took her balloon... Ugh I can't imagine how chaotic my life could be.
I miss my babies everyday but I know they are in heaven with God & that is the best place in the world .

If I only knew .....

5 years so today I was admitted into the hospital in preterm labor with my triplets . I remember it like it was only yesterday. I woke up  around 4: 15 am before Mike left to go to work telling him my stomach was hurting & thinking Mady sure was moving around alot making it hurt . I didn't know that feeling I had been having for the past day was actually contractions . Mike kissed me bye & told me if it continues to get worse to call him & he would take me to the hospital. When he left I called my mom. She always makes me feel better if something is wrong with me & I needed to be comforted. I told her about my stomach hurting & she told me I needed to call my doctor so I did . The doctor told me to come into labor & delivery asap do I called Mike and he came back home to get me. It was about 6: 00 am at this time and I remember thinking what are we going to do with Shelby ? She had school do I called my neighbor to come over & stay with her until it was time for her to leave. I got her up & I remember feeling the contractions very often and having to stop several times while I was fixing her hair because the pain was out of control. I feel so stupid  that I had no clue these poisons I was having were contractions but I had never had a baby before... After I took care of my daughter & told her Daddy was taking me to the hospital I hugged her told her I loved her & off we went. I remember being in the car with  my husband trying to stay calm even though I had never been that scared in my life. I didn't want to show him how scared I was even though I am sure  he felt the same way at that  moment. It was on the drive to the hospital that I decided to see how often the pains were  apart because only then did I realize it might be contractions. They were less then 2 minutes apart .  Now I was really freaking out. When we got to the hospital they told me to change in a gown then did an exam  on me. I was dialited to a 5 & 100% effaced ..... I remember thinking omg how could I not know I was in labor ? I felt like an idiot & was so mad that my body was letting me down & I couldn't keep my babies safe. They admitted me into the hospital that day on complete bed rest . I couldn't get up for no reason... Including to go to the bathroom . So here I was 24 weeks & 5 days pregnant .... It was so scary because I knew the babies were way to early to come out & to make things worse my doctor was on vacation in Paris !
This picture is of mike & me 5 days before I went into the hospital.  I remember being so naive at that time thinking I was going to have triplets & everything is going to be fine. I never even thought I would never cone home with them . I mean there are women who have 6 babies surely I can have 3.... Boy was I wrong... I feel like  such a failure as a mother that I ley them down because I couldn't keep them in longer....

Motorcycle fun

Mike had a motorcycle when we first got together but it wasn't big enough for him so he sold it. He has been taking for years about getting another one & a few weeks ago he found one he liked so he bought it. I love riding the bike with him. It is our time to just be together without the girls. In a few weeks we are going on a trip to the hill country with our friends . It is going to be so much fun !

The Koval's go to the circus..

I remember going to the circus as a little girl & was so excited to being our girls this year. This was one expensive outing but it was do much fun !!! Shelby loved the lions & Aubrey freaked out when she saw the elephants....
I hope the girls have great memories of their childhood because Mike & I truly love hanging out with them & being their parents. They are both a blessing to us...
~ Nichole

Sister love is ....priceless

I love these girls so much.....

Aubrey

I know Aubrey having two teenage sisters makes her love to copy them & both Britanee and Shelby love to take pictures of theirself so now so does Aubrey....
I found all these pictures on my phone & just thought omg... She thinks she is a teenager already..lol

Crazy shelby...

My teenager is in a new phase now with her hair.....

The Griswald's ... I mean Koval Family vacation 2011 ... day 1



Aubrey all ready to stat the road trip to Dallas




Shelby has her ipod on & is ready to go .....




Mike is exciting about driving for 5 hours .. NOT !!! LOL !!



This is going to be so much fun !!!




 
  We changed our name to the Griswald's this year on our way to vacation. It was a very eventful day trying to drive up to Grapevine to the Great Wolf Lodge.... This is how it all started.


Great Wolf Lodge



Michael had to get my tire (that he just bought 2 days before ) replaced because he ran over something & busted the tire. He also got my car inspected since it just went out @ the end of June . We planned on leaving around 10am but didn't leave until around noon. So ... off on our trip we went.. about 10 miles away we made our 1st pit stop @ a gas station so Aubrey could go potty & on our way out of the gas station we realized we didn't pray before we left on our trip so Mike pulled over & we said a prayer together . Everything was going great for the next 2 hours.Mike drove, Aubrey watched her movie , SHelby listened to her ipod & I read my book. We made a stop @ Buc-ee's to go potty & decided we wanted to eat at the bbq place down the road. We got to Woody's smoke house & had a great lunch. The girls were getting along & it was just fun family time. We washed up in the restroom & walked out to our car and that's where we changed our names to The Griswald Family .....



The car WOULDN"T start !!! It was dead !!! Mike found someone to give us a jump but it just wasn't charging enough. We tried 3 diffrent cars & non of them could get it to start so we called a tow truck. As we were sitting outside waiting for the tow truck to arrive the kids are still being good but it's over 100 here in Texas and HUMID !!! The tow truck finally got there & Mike connected the jumper cables & thank goodness my car started $55 later!!! We were so excited ... until Mike told me that we had to not use the air condition until we found a auto part store to see if it was the battery or the alternator that was bad in the car. I was not a happy camper .. I don't like to be hot or have the windows down in my car because I can't stand for my hair to blow in my eyes. So ... about an hour later we finally get to a town that is big enough to have an auto part store and it was my battery that was bad . We spent $125 on a new battery but it was not a big deal because being able to use the air condition is PRICELESS !!! :)



yes .... fire trucks @ our hotel

We finally arrived at Great Wolf Lodge and it was amazing !!! It was around 6:45pm when got there . We took the girls to swim for a little bit then we took showers & had a great little dinner where the girls both got wolf ear headbands .... we went back to our roomand watched alittle tv. Everything was great until I looked at my finger and noticed the big diamond of my weding ring was MISSING !!! I wanted to cry when I saw it was gone. I know this kind of thing is what we have insurance for but it made me sick.  We went to bed around 11:30pm ( and I was VERY sad) ....



Family picture waiting to go back into the hotel



then @ 4:15am while we are sound asleep we hear these sirens & flashes of lights saying evuacate the building .. there is a fire . please evuacate the building. HOLY COW !!! We are on the 5th floor !! We wake Shelby up , I put some clothes on because there is no way I am going sown 5 flights of stairs in my nightgown, Mike picks up Aubrey (who sleeps in her panties only), I grab my purse & Aubrey's babydoll Baby Shelby & out the door we went. It was ridiclous !!! There was half dressed people everywhere. People carrying their sleeping babies trying to get out the doors. Pure crazyness !! We found out there actuallly was a fire but we only had to be outside for about 30 minutes. We got back in our room around 4:50am & put our pajamas back on. I got Aubrey almost to sleep and then here we go again .. the alarms went off again so this time I grabbed my baby some clothes, my computer, etc... we get half way down the staors & are told false alarm .. go back to your rooms... UGH REALLY ???? Do you know how hard it is to get a 3 year old back to sleep again ?? Well that is why we decided to just watch cartoons ...  



after the 2nd fire evuacation ... we watched cartoons !!



Thank goodness this was the end of our Griswald part of the vacation. The next 2 days were so much fun !!!

to be continued .....

~Nichole