Scary Night

I'm trying to get the thoughts in my head clear and sometimes that is best down by writing them out so I'm hoping by the time I get done with this post I might feel alittle better. We had a very eventful night last night....a life changing night. You know there are a few moments in time that forever change you...last night was one of those for David and I.

Lucas had his end of the season party last night. We're still playing but we're in tournament play and we went ahead and did our party this week. We had the party at one of Lucas' teammates house and the kids had access to a pool and running around in their gorgeous yard to play the night away. When I was at the store earlier in the day I bought Jacob a new innertube to float with because he doesn't swim yet..at home when he's in our pool he goes all the way around hanging on to the side. He's terrified to go in the middle. Last year he refused to go to swimming lessons...unforunately for him this year he doesn't have a choice. While I was at the store I also bought Caleb a lifevest..you know one of those that you slip on over a swimmie diaper and has shorts attached to it and the vest built in. Last year in our pool he was in a baby float because he was only a year old so he didn't have anything for the pool this year..I figured we would use it so I'd go ahead and buy it. When we got to the party Caleb said he wanted to get in the water so I put his vest on. He dipped his toes in and went on the first step in the shallow end but never went any further. All night long he kept that vest on...he didn't want to take it off yet didn't want anything to do with the water either. All the while Allie was in a very rare mood and screamed the entire night. David and I were constantly switching off a inconsolable baby while trying to watch all the other kids too. Towards the end of the party most everyone had left..there were only 3 or 4 parents left with their kids and we were standing around talking. Lucas was in the pool swimming still,Jacob was around the pool playing and Caleb was messing around with a ball and going back and forth eating cake.

Next thing I know I look over and Caleb is sitting on the side of the pool with one of the kids parents standing over him and he's crying. I run to him,pick him up and put him beside me. He had fallen in...noone saw him fall in....I have no idea how long he was under there and I feel like I could have a heart attack just writing about it. God put an angel at that party with us that night...one of the parents found him. He said he was walking by the pool and saw something dark completely submerged in the water going around in a circle like a fish. He thought that it didn't look right so he looked again and realized that it was a kid and jerked him out. I sat with Caleb for a minute and realized that he was breathing very heavy and fast and it felt like he had water in his chest when I put my hand on it. I look at his face and his lips were blue and turning paler by the second. I looked at David and about lost it...he immediately told someone to call an ambulance. By the time they got there he was beginning to get some color back in his body but he was still very subdued. His oxygen level was good but his heart rate was alittle high...we agreed that it was best to take him to the hospital but that we would take him there instead of upsetting him by strapping him to the stretcher. The paramedics were comfortable enough that he would be fine but thought that he should be checked out soon in case something else developed later on. We quickly brought the other three kids to my mom and headed to the hospital. They hooked him up to a monitor for his heart and oxygen,took blood and did a chest xray. Everything looked good but they wanted to admit him overnight just to observe him and make sure he didn't develop any other symptoms. We finally got in a room about 1 this morning. I had finally gotte him to sleep when he woke up about 2 gagging and throwing up water. After that he crashed and this morning they let us come home. He's got to go back for a followup this week with our doctor just to make sure he's still doing well. Right now he has a little cold and a wet sounding cough but otherwise is in good spirits and doing remarkably well.

My mind has been running all day and I still find that I can't put everything I am thinking and feeling into words. The scariest thing for me and the one thing that I am finding hard to sit down and actually let myself go there is how close we came to losing him last night. Noone saw him go in...there were 5 parents around the pool and not one person saw him go in..if that parent had not walked by when he did and looked down my precious baby boy would not be in his bed right now. There's not a doubt in my mind that if he hadn't seen him when he did that I wouldn't have him tonight. The man that pulled him out is my hero...I owe everything to him and I will forever be in debt for what he did for Caleb and our entire family. I will never be able to repay him and I honestly don't know how to comprehend what he did. I could do nothing when I saw him today other than to just put my arms around his neck and tell him thank you. What do you say to the person that saved your babys life? I am beating myself up because I allowed it to happen...I can not believe that he went in the water and I didn't even see it. Geez!!!! I tell you one thing...I have not taken one moment for granted today. I do it everyday...take everything I possibly can for granted...today has been totally different. My sweet Caleb is laying in his bed tonight healthy and breathing for a reason and I am forever grateful!

I've had no sleep since Thursday night and still have Allie's birthday cakes to decorate for her party tomorrow night. I'm excited for her though and will eventually get them done. For tonight...I'm cleaning up...going to kiss my sweet boys cheek and going to bed. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend...and walk in your kids bedrooms or wherever they are when you read this and give them a hug! It only takes a split second for something to happen.

Friday Photo Flashback

Head over to Alicia's to share your flashback photos. It's so much fun to look back "in the day" :)





I've told you guys how very few pictures I have of my husband so the ones I do have I cherish. This is by far my favorite picture that I have of him. He looks so preppy and cute in this picture. Wish I could get my hands on more..I'm not exactly sure when this was taken but I believe it was in 76 or 77.

Allie's 1st Birthday

We're really not having Allie's birthday party until Sunday but I'm one of those that can't let the day go by without having a party on the actual date so that's what we did. Most of the time we don't do the kids parties on the actual day they were born but we do something with just us at home and have cake and they get a couple of their presents..then we do the other stuff on the day of their party. So I haven't done Allie's cake yet..that will be on Sunday..I just did cupcakes yesterday and we had spaghetti for dinner. Allie really hasn't been interested in food yet but spaghetti is one thing that she loves. Daddy came home early from work so we could do Allie's birthday stuff before Lucas' tournament game last night. I tell ya..baseball always gets in the way around our house. We had dinner which she loved and then we did cupcakes. She made a huge mess :) it was so much fun watching her play and she even ate some of it. If she made that big of a mess with a small cupcake we're going to have a colossal disaster zone on Sunday.






After she ate her cupcake she had a bath and then opened two of her presents. She loved opening presents...her attention was easily kept and she opened them like she'd been doing it for years. She got a little phone that you can take off the base and it talks and plays music and a cylinder that she can roll around on the floor. I know they are geared towards crawlers and even though I'm sure won't be crawling much longer..I thought she would love to play with it even as she was learning to walk around too. I saved the rest of her presents for Sunday when we do everything else. I'm excited but have tons to do and have spent the day today trying to get laundry done. We have two baseball parties this weekend on Friday and Saturday and then Allie's party on Sunday so we'll be exhausted by the time it's all over with. I can't believe she's 1...I still can't wrap my mind around it. I look at her and just can't believe that it's been a year since I first laid my eyes on her after she was born. How I ever got this lucky I'll never know but I love it!

Happy Birthday Allie!

Allie-
Seems like just yesterday I was sitting in the hospital seeing you for the first time. I still remember every single detail about that day and the days that followed. Your Daddy and I were so incredibly smitten with you. We thoroughly enjoyed the two days in the hospital when it was just the three of us..we knew when we came home that we'd have 3 other boys around and it would be loud and crazy and we just soaked up every second we got to spend with you by ourselves. It was glorious. I can not believe that a year has gone by since we first laid eyes on you and what an incredible year it has been. I have learned that the love that I feel for you is stronger than I ever imagined it could be. I have figured out that when I thought your Daddy would be most protective over you I might have been wrong because I don't believe I'll ever let you out of my sight. You are my heart and soul and I am so incredibly blessed to have you in my life. You have grown so much over this past year and become such a beautiful little girl. You've conquered crawling and are so fast I think you could win races. You've pulled yourself up and are starting to walk along the furniture alittle from time to time. You really don't concentrate on it much though so I think walking is still alittle while away and I don't care because I want you to stay little for as long as possible. Your laugh is infectious...when you smile it overtakes your entire face. It is impossible to see you smile and not get a grin on my face. You at one have seven teeth ... I am shocked that you have such a mouthful of teeth but they're all there and as adorable as can be. You're still not that into eating baby food. You have gone through stages but overall you'd much rather have your bottle. Trying to get you to eat food is a challenge in itself. You still don't like to nap. You're the best cat napper in the world though...I can count the number of times that you've napped longer than 40 minutes on one hand. I am so looking forward to watching you grow..my sweet girl...we have so much to look forward to. I am going to be by your side through everything and I will always be there for you no matter what. You are such a blessing in my life and I'm honored to be your mommy.

Wordless Wednesday

I haven't done her birthday post yet but it's coming. I'm going to try and get it done today but oh my it's so emotional!

Busy Weekend

We've had so much going on around here lately that I just haven't had time to sit down and post. I'm trying to spit this one out while Allie is down for her 30 minute cat nap :)

First things first...Lucas' team finished first in our division and second overall in the league. We have our first tournament game tomorrow night. I was hoping that we wouldn't be playing tomorrow since it's Allie's birthday but it is what it is. We're hoping to get everything done before the game tomorrow night.


As for Allie tomorrow is her big day. I'm very apprehensive about tomorrow and extremely emotional everytime I think about it. I have a feeling I'm going to be a mess in the morning. We're going to do something tomorrow with just us and cupcakes and then we'll do her party with family on Sunday with her big cake. I have tons to do and really haven't accomplished any of it yet but oh well right.

Our weekend was crazy. We played ball on Friday night and Lucas and Jacob went to my parents to spend a couple of nights. It was a nice relaxing break for a few days. We went shopping on Saturday for Allie's birthday and got that all done while we only had the two younger ones with us. Sunday we went to my dads and spent the night and came back home yesterday.

So for the rest I'll just leave you with our weekend in pictures and hopefully later on I'll be able to sit down and get Allie's birthday post done. Until then I shall think about the last year of my life with my amazing little girl.


Yesterday I put Allie's new carseat in and I still have to look twice when I see her looking at me from back there. I can't believe how big she's gotten.


I told you they were the best of friends. I asked David the other day if when Allie was in her new seat if he thought they would hold hands. I just love the relationship that they've built.
When we got up on Monday morning at my dad's house my mom discovered a homemade bomb in the yard. She thought that some crazy teenagers threw it out the night before at some point. She used to be a cop so she went crazy. When she called the police to make a report they sent everyone in the world out. Firetrucks,police cars and had ambulance waiting at the grocery store up the street. Turns out it was a dry ice bomb....crazy teenagers! I pray my kids don't ever do that sort of thing when they get older.




The kids however absolutely loved everything that was going on. Jacob is obsessed with firetrucks and police men so he had a blast. He and Lucas got to get up in the firetruck and look around and were amazed.


Allie got her first taste of an oreo dessert over the weekend. Yummy!


As you can see she loved it! I love this smile..when I hold the camera up now I get the cheesiest smile in the world.

Random Picture Challenge

Brittany over at 4 little men and girly twins is holding her weekly random picture challenge again today. Go to your 16th folder and 28th picture and see what you can find. I found my sweet Allie when she was just shy of 3 months old. Oh my..it's hard to believe that in three short days she'll be turning one. In my actual 28th picture the lighting was off so I had to post the picture right before also so you could see her sweet face. I just love her to pieces!

Up for Grabs

We're down to the final game of the regular season tonight. Our tournament starts on Monday so this is it. We are up against the only other team on the top tonight so it's one game for all the marbles. Whoever wins tonight comes out on top and Lucas is sooo excited! Okay well David is alittle pumped also. We've had a great season and I know tonight will not fail to be an exciting game once again. Off to the ballpark!

Best Friends

When I was pregnant with Allie I really didn't think that Caleb would adjust very well to her when she got here. I expected him to be extremely jealous and not handle things well at all. I got the complete opposite. From the day she came home he has paid her the utmost attention and has always been kind to her. He refuses to call her by name..to him she's simply "Sissy" I've asked him time and time again what her name is and he always responds "Sissy". I say "No her name is Allie, Caleb. Say Allie" He then responds with "Sissy" I love to watch them together...of course he gets upset when she takes his car or he wants something that she has but he is always kind and he always takes care of her. I can't wait to see how their relationship blossoms as the years go on. I just know they are going to be extremely close!



When Caleb gets out of the bathtub or even when I'm changing his diaper Allie is right there. She tries to grab anything and everything in sight which makes getting a diaper only the most important thing :) He handles it very well though...he'll say "No Sissy Don't do that" Adorable!!!!

Wordless Wednesday

I HEART Faces-Blurb

Wow...this is a huge week over at I HEART Faces! This week there are two different categories...amateurs and professionals. You are supposed to enter your favorite photo of all time because the winners will have their pictures put into a photo book. Wow...what a prize! So even though I know mine won't get picked because of course it never is :) (there are so many talented people out there that know so much more about photography than I ever will) here is my pick.


This is Allie during our big snow this past winter. She was so funny and she looked like a little sumo wrestler all bundled up out in the snow. I walked out and put her in the snow and took tons of pictures then she came right back inside....she was done after about 10 minutes. She saw her snow and she'd done her thing.

Even though I'm sure they won't pick mine I'm still supposed to put this wording in my post somewhere so "I am submitting this photo into the www.iheartfaces.com Blurb Book photo contest. I am granting I ♥ Faces permission to use my photo in a printed version of a book for commercial use and possibly advertising of a photo book on both the Blurb and I ♥ Faces web sites."

Unorganized Rambling

Well I made it. I still don't feel like I've recovered completely from the weekend but I'm on the way I hope. Drained is a very accurate way to explain how I feel right now. I've got to get organized though...with end of baseball coming up and Allie's birthday right around the corner things are crazy right now. I have to go and order trophies today...that should be fun with 3 kids,huh? Oh Lucas got picked for all stars :) So proud of him! and on top of that David got picked to coach so our summer will be filled with baseball. I've got to get pictures loaded onto my computer and get things done but for now it's slow progress. Hope by tonight I'm alittle more organized.....enough of my rambling this morning...Hope you guys have a great Monday!

Random Picture Challenge

Brittany over at 4 little men and girly twins hosts the weekly random picture challenge. I love this because 1-I love looking back at old pictures that I haven't seen in a while and 2-well this is my favorite-she names the folders and picture numbers for me so I don't have to search and pick on myself...yes I'm lazy :) This week it was 9th folder or September 2008 and the 18th picture.


This was shortly after Allie came home from the hospital. She was about 3 weeks old here...my I can't believe that in 11 days she will be turning one...it seems like just yesterday this picture was taken.

If you haven't checked out Brittany's blog then you've got to head over there. Not only does is she mom to six wonderful kids but she's got the cutest twins you've ever laid eyes on...seriously I just want to go visit here and love on her little girls some.

Pray For Me

In 3 very short hours every single one of these kids will be at my house for the baseball sleepover. Now why they call these things sleepovers I'm not sure because I'm sure there won't be a lot of sleep but here we go. If I don't make it back and you never hear from me again then you know what happened. :)

Friday Photo Flashback

Alicia at More Than Words started this blog carnival for all of us that have pictures from the pre digital days. I have tons plus more that came from my digital but aren't on my computer it was so long ago. Every week we get to share a picture with you all that we have saved...as much as I love taking pictures and going through the old ones this is perfect for me. Head over to Alicia's blog to see more of the oldie but goodies.


This is a picture that I only got in the past 8 years or so but one that I hold dearest. This is my husband ready to go to a school dance :) I laugh everytime I look at it when I see his hair..I always tell him he was a nerd down to the bone when he was younger. I have very few pictures of my husband as a child...we have absolutely no pictures of my husband as a baby so the ones that I do have I hold very close to me.

Odds and Ends

I'm finding it more and more difficult to get on and post lately much less sit down and read blogs. Allie has begun getting up much earlier in the mornings and that used to be my blogging time. I'd sit down and post in the morning and then go through all the blogs that had posted since the last night to catch up. She went from getting up about 930 to anywhere from 7 to right before 8. I spent a good bit of time last night catching up with everyone so hopefully I'm on the right track now although she's already up this morning and I still haven't had time to read any of todays posts yet. After hearing of Kayleigh's passing I'm having a harder and harder time taking away from my kids to sit on the computer. I've really been trying to leave it alone during the day in order to spend more time with them. I just don't want to let time go by and if something happens realize that instead of spending time with them during the day I was trying to catch up on blogs. So I'm still reading..I'm just getting to them alittle slower than normal..and I'm still posting just not as early as it used to be at times.

Allie's also teething again...seriously I can't believe the number of teeth that she has. She's eleven months old and has six teeth that are completely in right now with another breaking through on the bottom. This girl is not taking any chances that whe won't be able to dig into her cake...she's gonna ensure she can get every last bite..I just know it! She's still sleeping rather well at night...waking up once or twice at times but she's much fussier during the day.


Lucas is ready for school to be out...me not so much but I don't think that matters at this point. I'm hoping to keep them busy enough that we won't have to deal with the fighting much this summer. We're still in the middle of ball...or really the end right now and things are crazy with that. After being undefeated for the first 6 games they went on a losing streak and lost three...they finally won again on Tuesday night. We're spending a large portion of our time at the ballfield right now. With two end of the season parties,trophies,cakes and organizing all of it things are a bit insane right now.

I registered Jacob for kindergarten the other day. I put it off as long as I possibly could and dreaded every second of it. I think when I have to leave him it will be much worse!


David found this little critter on the patio the other night while I was putting Allie to bed.


Seriously you have no clue how terrified I am of snakes....terrified probably isn't even the right word for it. Add into the mix that David is scared silly also and capturing him was definitely interesting. It took us almost 15 minutes to get him into a jar. I taped it but I can't get it loaded on here right now and that might be best...it's downright embarassing. Tiny baby snake and I'm so scared I'm crying at times and had to come inside to tape through the door. David had on gloves and was armed with two sticks...you would have thought we were capturing a python. The next morning when I showed Caleb he was amazed..he kept on going back to the door and staring at it outside saying he needed to see the "steak" :) I love that little boy!

Wordless Wednesday

I HEART Faces-Kids

I HEART Faces is a photography blog that showcases everyday people like you and me and pictures of the faces that we love to photograph. This weeks them is Laughter and I actually had to really hunt for a picture this week...I discovered that alot of the pictures I take are posed or those that you say Okay look at me and smile...my goal now is to start taking some more pictures that are in the middle of the moment. This picture is of Allie when we took her and Caleb to the park and put her in the swing for the first time. She loved it and I absolutely love the look on her face!

So Behind

I'm so behind. I have days worth of blogs to catch up on and lots of posting that I haven't done. I've been trying to get some scanning done over the past few days and have worked at nothing else on the computer other than that. I hope to catch up sometime today. I actually sat down this morning to do my I HEART Faces post for this week and saw a post from Aimee and Adam over at Kayleigh's Story..as soon as I saw the title..."Goodbye Sweetheart...For Now" I knew that I couldn't post a picture about laughter right now. How in the world do we become so attached to someone that we have never met...how am I sitting here crying over someone that I've only followed through a blog? I became so attached to Kayleigh and truly truly love that little girl. When I sat down this morning and read that she passed away peacefully last night the tears just started flowing. My heart is breaking right now and I just can't find it in me to post anything else quite yet...I'll try and get another post up sometime today but in the meantime please head over to Kayleigh's blog and leave her family a sweet comment to let them know you're thinking of them during this time. I can not imagine the pain that they are experiencing right now...I can tell you that I will hold my kids alittle tighter today!

Random Picture Challenge

Been a busy day and I was going to try to catch up on blogging tonight but I'm exhausted so I'm going to post and go to bed :) Hoping to catch up sometime tomorrow.



This week for the Random Picture Challenge you're supposed to go to July 2004 or 7th folder closest year and the 22nd picture. My pictures from 04 aren't in my computer yet...Im in the process of scanning right now so I'm doing the closest year that is easiest to get to tonight. This picture was taken in 2006 right after Caleb was born and we came home from the hospital. It's amazing to look back at pictures and be able to visibly tell a different in the quality of them. It makes me love my new camera even more! Anyhow this was the first picture that I got with all three (four including Daddy) boys. It's amazing to me looking back at how small they all were back then. I would love to back in time and live those days again....well okay maybe for a little while I would :)Head over to Brittany's blog and join in the fun...then I'll be earlier getting my contribution in than at least one person :)

Friday Photo Flashback

Alicia over at More Than Words is hosting Friday Photo Flashback again today. It's a time for all of us to pull those pictures out and scan them to share with everyone. I love looking back at old pictures so this is the perfect meme for me. Head over to Alicia's blog and check out some more flashbacks.



This picture is of Lucas on the day that Caleb was born. My mom brought he and Jacob up to the hospital for them to see their brother and I just love this picture! I wish I could go back and live their birth days all over again...each and every one of them...they are pure wonderful days!