Updates

I haven't updated for a while on all the kids so I figured I would use today to try and get some of their day to day happenings down before I forget them all. That's the great thing about blogging for me...I'm able to record some of the small things that I think I'd forget down the road to a degree if I wasn't able to write it down.

Lucas is in full swing with baseball..seems as soon as it starts they start talking about tournaments and all stars but I suppose that's just the way it works since we've dealt with that in previous years. He's really come around this year as an all around player....he plays catcher and love that position. He's an awesome catcher...constantly hustling and doing his part...sometimes he even gets excited and wants to play everyone elses positions too. So far this season they've played 7 games with our latest being last night and so far his team is undefeated. He's very excited for school to be out and tells me everyday how many days they have remaining. We're down to a month now and he's very anxious! I have to start planning some activities for the summer so they don't go crazy around here. I'm trying to find some low cost activities to keep everyone entertained throughout the summer.

Jacob is going through this attitude stage and I'm starting to really buckle down with him. If he's told no he bursts out in screams and cries and acts like it's tne end of the world while running to his room. For the first time ever yesterday I took away his tv and he was not happy about that. He asked me repeatedly if he could have it back and was very upset everytime I told him no. He is constantly talking back and really just acting like a brat half the time. I've had about all I can take of it so I'm trying to get him to start behaving and he's definitely not liking how it's happening.

Caleb is his regular fun self. He's talking up a storm and honestly it's the cutest thing ever!!! If I tell him to go get something he'll go get it but say "Don't leave me Mommy" "Wait on me Mommy" Just tugs at my heart. He is an outside boy...he loves to be outside and is having so much fun playing since the weather is nice. However when you're outside and playing you're going to fall down and get boo boos...when he does this it's over. He's scraped his knee a couple of times so far this season and when he does he cries and cries and cries and cries some more. He won't let you see it,touch it,put medicine on it or a bandaid. He cries for hours. It's insane..I've never seen anything like it....I'll call him my drama king.

Allie..well she's just Allie. Perfect as ever! She's sleeping better than she was when she was getting up every two hours but she's still not on a consistent schedule yet. She was doing great for a week or so and sleeping until 5 or 6 in the morning then eating and going back to sleep but the last two nights she's been waking up a couple of times a night. I think she's having dreams although I've heard people say that they don't dream this early. Yesterday she was giving Caleb and I high fives..when I'd say give me five and hold my hand up she'd put hers up with a big grin on her face...it was adorable. Caleb couldn't get enough of it and kept wanting her to give him five. When you give Caleb five or ten as he calls it he always says "one more". She's still not back to normal eating her food yet..she's taking her bottles great but after having her cold she isn't eating her food three times a day yet. She just won't take it and isn't interested. She's currently spending most of her time at the ballpark but is doing extremely well with it...she's pratically been there since she was born so I suppose she's used to it.

Several people have asked about David also and he's doing great. His work has finally picked back up and last week was the first week that he's had consistent work for the entire week in over two months. It's started heating up around here and the temps are hitting the eighties so people are starting to call for their ac now. He's also doing great with AA...he's still going although not everyday now..he's going to 4 meetings a week and although it's still stressful around here when he's constantly gone it's working for him so that's what matters for now. In about a week it will be 5 months for him alcohol free so things are going extremely well right now.

Okay long update but I felt like I needed to get it all down before I forgot it all with everything going on each day.

Wordless Wednesday

Her First

Allie got her first goose egg last night. She was on the couch and fell and hit her head on Lucas' head. At first we thought she had hit the side of her head but she was so upset I really didn't pay attention to what part she had hurt. She finally settled down and when I was able to look closer I saw the knot on her eye. Ugh!!!!! I felt horrible for her! She was pretty fussy the rest of the night after that.

In other news with her she seems to be doing better over the last few days..she isn't as fussy and I've been giving her some Benadryl at night so she's been sleeping much better with the exception of the night before last. Her nose has pretty much completely stopped running and her spirits are much better! Yesterday was her 11 month birthday and I'm trying to get everything organized in my head for her party. It's not going to be anything huge with tons of people but I like to make it special and I want for her to look back when she's older and realize that it was important to me. We'll just have family over....in my opinion one year olds can get easily overstimulated with lots of people around. I'm trying to not focus on the days and counting down but when I realized yesterday that there was only one month left before her birthday I about lost it. I'm having a hard time with it right now...I think it's a combination of the fact that she's our last baby and that she's my baby girl but it's just difficult right now. She's started waving at people and she's pointing at things like crazy. Still catnapping...not sure if she'll ever get the hang of a real nap..maybe that'll come someday...or I could be sleep deprived forever..either way it's worth it to have her around.

I HEART Faces-Reflections

I HEART Faces is a photography blog to show off the faces of those that we love to photograph the most. I just love to take a look at all of the gorgeous photos that show up every week. I started looking for a pic that I wanted to use tonight and although the quality of this pic isn't the best that I have the expression on Allie's face IS! I've posted it on my blog before but haven't used it on I HEART Faces so I just had to use it this week. Head over to their blog and enter your pic and make sure you check out everyone elses while you are there.

Friday Photo Flashback

My sweet friend,Alicia,started doing this a few weeks ago and I thought it looked like fun. This week she's allowed all of us to join in so I just had to try it out. Since I'm in the process of scanning pictures into my computer this is perfect for me right now. Head over to her blog and check out all of the other entries.


This picture was taken in December of 06 when Caleb was born. I love this picture because it was taken at the very moment that David was in such awe of watching Caleb right after he came out that he was in complete shock when he started peeing right up at him :)

Can't Make up her Mind

I told you a while ago that I was trying to force the paci on Allie. She'd play with it and chew on it every now and then but would never ever suck on it for anything in the world. The other day she found it and oh my the skies must of broke open because she actually sucked it! and she kept it in her mouth for a while and played. Ever since then she hasn't been attached to it but if I give it to her she'll take it and put it in her mouth..of course she almost always ends up playing with it but we're making progress here!

On the other hand she went from sleeping very well to tossing and turning all night long in our bed last night. When she did sleep she was upside down and she was up much earlier than usual this morning. She's also been very fussy for the last few days along with a major runny nose...ugh!!!!!! I tell ya you would think they could make up their minds about things...like whether they want to sleep or not and stick to a decision rather than going back and forth every week...Hell what am I saying..she's female. I still can't make a decision after all these years why would I expect her to in 10 1/2 short months.

Wordless Wednesday

I HEART Faces

I have waited until the very last possible minute to do this because honestly I really didn't think I had it in me. This self portrait theme just got me everytime I thought about it. Allie really wasn't in the mood for pictures either so making excuses for not taking them really wasn't difficult. So of course it won't be the winner but it is what it is and I actually did it :) Go check them out..I HEART faces is a photography blog that shows off tons of photographers each and every week. It's really neat to see what everyone comes up with! I had to get creative because Allie wasn't into me just holding her and clicking away...so we got on the floor and were playing around. I found it very difficult to hold and click with my new camera but here's what we got.

Updated: Even after posting I was too late to enter..guess I procrastinated too long but oh well. I still did it and conquered my fear even if I didn't make it in time :)

Orange for Stellan

Here we are wearing orange for Stellan today. He's in surgery as I'm typing this so if you feel inclined please stop and say a prayer for him or go put on some orange and send your pic to orangeforstellan@gmail.com.

Allie Cat

Allie was in a great mood after I fed her lunch the other day which was very rare last week since she had a cold so I had to snap some pictures of her. Wish I had gotten it on video because she was laughing so loud it was infectious.



I love this one because you can see each and every one of her 6 teeth...I can't believe she's got so many chompers this early..I've never had a baby that has so many teeth before their first birthday.


Otherwise people are starting to get healthy around here again. Kids are slowly improving..still wiping noses on a daily basis but not three times a minute anymore. Saturday was crazy with baseball but we have a break until Thursday so that's nice...then it'll be constant baseball on a daily basis almost. David's work is still incredibly slow...he's still been out trying to find work on his own..he only got about 8 hours with his company last week so it's a big concern. My stress level with that is out the roof. Thank you all for your sweet comments and prayers from my post the other day...you'll never know how much it means to me.

Random Picture Challenge

I'm new to this...it's my first week but I've been wanting to join in for so long! I've also gotten attached to this blog so if you haven't seen it then you have got to go check it out.

APRIL 2008
or
13th folder
42nd picture or 4th if you don't have that many



This was before Jacob's very first t ball game last year. It was his very first season and he was soooo excited that morning while we were getting ready for his game. When I put his socks on him they went up almost to his hips and I just had to click some pictures of him...so funny...I just loved being able to see his excitement on that morning!

Caleb

I wanted to get down a couple of the things that Caleb has been saying lately before I forget them. He's at that stage of talking that what he says doesn't make sense half the time or sound exactly like it should and I love to listen to what's going to come out of his mouth because you honestly never know.

Over Easter last weekend when the older two boys were gone Caleb and I made cupcakes. He was so excited to bake them..so much so that when they came out he immediately started trying to eat one without icing or anything. The following days he kept asking to eat another. Guess he can't get cupcake out though because when he would ask for a cupcake he would say "buttfake"...David and I got endless laughs out of it over the weekend.

Then he was sitting at the counter the other day and I kissed and hugged him and asked him if he knew how much I loved him. He said how much and I told him I loved him all the way up farther than the moon and back. He sat for a second and then looked at me and said "but I fall" :) I love this little boy...he's just so adorable!

Thank you all for your uplifting comments yesterday. I'd like to say that they all worked wondered and I had a wonderful day but that wasn't the case. Yesterday still sucked and my nerves are still shot. I'm extremely stressed and tired and just plain worn out but that's about par for the course right now. I'm hoping for a nice weekend! If you wouldn't mind I'd like to ask for you to say a prayer for my family. Alot of you have heard me talk about my husband,David and the fact that he is a HVAC service tech and has been for almost 20 years now. The HVAC service business is extremely slow right now so much so that they haven't had a single call in three days. He's with a company that says they are going to ride it out and not do any layoffs or close down but it still scares me. He's been out trying to get some work on his own but things are still tough and it worries me that business won't come back soon. Hoping for lots of calls to come in soon!!

Sucky Sucky Sucky

Yesterday sucked! It was a shitty day and honestly there's not a better way to put it. I felt horrible all day long,my nerves are completely shot,the kids are out of control. Caleb,Allie and Jacob all have runny noses so I've wiped at least 100 times. Allie was incredibly fussy so I broke down and gave her Motrin in the morning..those of you that have read know how I am about meds..Motrin is one of the very few that I will give. As soon as I get Allie down to sleep at night she wakes up within 15 minutes and I have to get her back to sleep again...seriously when is that game going to end? I love that little girl to death but the nighttime thing is about to drive me insane. The doctor says to let her cry it out..I just can't do it so I guess I'll deal with it until she figures it out on her own. I'm been extremely stressed and just insane at moments. One of those days..or weeks maybe. Just when I felt like I couldn't take it anymore I saw this face


and it made it all better...for a few minutes at least. Hoping today is alittle calmer!

Wordless Wednesday

Easter: Part II

Since Lucas and Jacob had spent the last part of the week at my parents we took their Easter baskets over there. They were very excited when we got there wanting to know whether we brought their baskets with us or not.


I made them sit on the porch and close their eyes while Daddy went outside and got their baskets.



Jacob was as excited as Lucas if not more about the High School Musical 3 movie. They've been asking for it since the day it came out in theaters.


This is one of those phlat balls. You can squeeze it flat and it pops open at any time into a ball. Jacob saw a commercial for one on tv and just had to have it. I couldn't figure out how it works so I had to peek inside...there's a suction cup in there for those of you who are curious :)




Caleb for some reason got very interested in my parents cat while we were there. It was very funny to watch him..he got down on the floor below Rhett's level and kept saying.."Hi Rhett...Hi"


Allie was in an odd mood throughout the afternoon. She's very shy around those that she doesn't see on a daily basis..whether it's family or not. My dad has a very deep voice and for some reason it always shocks her and she busts out in uncontrollable sobs. She got to the point where she just put her head down and stayed there. I tell my dad the day will come when she won't be able to get enough of them and then he'll want her to go home!

Easter:Part 1

I found when I started looking through my pictures this morning that with four kids and four baskets you come out with lots of pictures so I'm going to break this up into two posts. I'm going to do Lucas and Jacob in a separate post..since they were at my dad's house we took their baskets over when we went for dinner yesterday afternoon.

Caleb was the first one up yesterday morning and when he got up he actually didn't even notice his basket. He walked right past it and into the kitchen to get his breakfast...I had to walk into the living room and ask him what that was sitting on the floor. As soon as he saw it though it was over..he was at it...he wasn't one of those that started tearing through it though. He very slowly looked at one thing and if it was candy he'd say "I need that" "I need that now." I would then have to point something else out that was in there and then he'd be interested in that until I showed him something else.






Allie got bath toys in her Easter basket this year. She has so many toys and of course she can't eat candy yet but she had not been outfitted with toys for the bathtub yet..she'd been playing with some of the boys things that were safe for her and of course as much as she loves the bathtub she had to have her own. She started going through her basket when she woke up with the help of Caleb and had a great time. She actually played with them on the floor for a while and even last night before we went to bed she was at it again. Seems she likes playing with them on the floor too.


You can see that at the beginning Allie went for Caleb's basket..he immediately grabbed hers trying to let her know that his basket was not hers...too cute!





Allie was quickly fascinated by her basket...she sat and played with it for a while...I'm fascinated at the things that amaze her.


Caleb wanted to play with Allie's toys very quickly also. He played with them for a good while...I tell ya they always like baby toys no matter how old they get..I'll never understand it.

LOOOOONNNNGGGG WALK

David got home early yesterday from work so we thought we'd take Caleb and Allie to the park. We went downtown and the park was insanely crowded. We stayed for a little while and let Caleb run around and then David decided that we should walk along the trails and go to Falls Park and Main Street. So off we went...seriously we just left the house at 4 and were taking Caleb to play at the park for a while...nothing major and then were going to come home for dinner. We started walking..it was a beautiful day in the low 70s with a nice breeze...and we walked and walked and walked. Since we left to simply play at the park I had on flip flops...let me tell you now don't wear flip flops when you're walking(just in case any of you didn't know that). A couple of miles later we ended up at Falls Park and on Main Street...it was 6 by this time so we had to find something to eat since we had Caleb and Allie with us and then we started on the long trek back. At the end...we walked over 4 miles and after pushing the stroller up countless hills and carrying Allie about half the way neither one of us could move last night. What started at 4 as a simple outing to the park ended at 830 with sore bodies,half a consumed pizza,garlic bread and 4 miles under our belts. We had a great time and really enjoyed spending the time with Caleb that we don't get individually very often and both kids had a wonderful time. Although not planned and not entirely prepared it was a great day!

I've been wanting to put Allie in one of these swings for months now but haven't been to a park to try it out. We need to get a new swing for her in our backyard..the one we have from Caleb has seen it's day. She loved it!!!!!! and I loved watching her!



Caleb had fun playing on these...he jumped back and forth and really didn't want to leave to go for a walk. We had to bribe him that we would let him play again on the way back. Of course by the time we got back from our 4 mile trek it was getting dark...he settled for playing on a train along the trail.


I like this one from behind too...wish I could have seen Allie better and the background was alittle blurred but oh well..guess I can't ask for everything.


This is along the trail right as we started out. The scenery was gorgeous and I loved looking at all the trees and flowers. There's a river that runs through the park and this is that river.



These are the falls. A guy last week actually ventured out on them and slid down..he came out with a cracked vertebrate and a $1000 fine. Crazy teenagers!



This is the Liberty Bridge....it is so cool to look at. It's right over the falls and absolutely gorgeous!