The girls were excited about opening their Christmas presents.

Camden got some trucks and cars & he loved them..




In the midst of opening presents, we seen a strange owl out our back window on the oak tree.

There's a mouse about the house

So Tom told me yesterday that he thinks we have a mouse around the house. I was shocked actually! He told me he'd found mouse droppings twice at the top of the stairs. My initial thought was "Oh great....that's just what we need". I'm still thinking that, but Tom bought a bunch of different traps yesterday & put them out last night. We have our first (and hopefully last??) success already. Poor little thing. He got caught in the sticky trap, which Tom informed me basically suffocates them. When I took these pictures a few minutes ago, he's not dead yet...still trying to escape. I obviously have no idea how long he's been there, but it is kinda pitiful to see him trying to escape. I guess it's not as messy as him getting caught in a "snap" trap & getting blood all over. Either way, hopefully he has no siblings, but if he does, hopefully they get caught in the next couple days too!




Oh, and not to be completely disgusting, but I think it scared the crap out of him...literally! :)

Our little artist...

Camden has decided the last couple days to be a real stinker! I guess we were due for a boy who gets into everything! He's quick as a wink most of the time, and gets into stuff so fast! He got a hold of a red marker the other day (I have no idea where because I TRY to keep these kinds of things out of his reach), and drew all over the wall in the hallway & on the doorpost in the girls' room. He's drawn on our couch & ottoman if you'll remember from a while back, and he also drew with pencil on a couple walls last week, so he KNOWS he's not supposed to do this. Guess he forgot?! I can only hope some day his art will be done on canvas or something & be worth money!







The story on this picture is below....


The same day he did his art on the walls, he also got into the bathtub tablets. These are basically food coloring tablets that the girls like to use to color their bath water. Well, somehow, he either laid it on the floor next to Trevin or tried to put it in Trevin's mouth (not sure exactly) while I was out of the room. Of course it was red (must have been his color choice of the day!), and anyways, Trevin was crying like crazy, so I went to see what the problem was. He had been laying on the floor watching Jenna & Camden play, and when I went in, he had rolled onto his stomach, so I went to roll him back over onto his back. I noticed red all over the side of his head, and then on his chin. I panicked! I thought he was bleeding all over the place, but I couldn't figure out where he was bleeding from!! Then I noticed the tablet on the floor....which had gotten wet (either from Trevin's crying, or Camden putting it in his mouth then laying it down on the floor when he realized it wasn't candy). There was red on the carpet as well, but I was so relieved that it wasn't blood all over poor Trevin. It cleaned off Trevin easily with soap & water, and luckily out of the carpet with some Resolve. Oh, what a day! And that doesn't even tell you about Camden sitting on Trevin just a few minutes later. Did I mention that Camden has been a little stinker? :)

Jenna on the other hand is just too cute sometimes...

Christmas party

The Harley Davidson Christmas party was last Saturday night. They had steak & shrimp for dinner! We were told this is the first time they've had such good food.

Santa even showed up, and gave out gifts to the kids. Trevin couldn't have cared less who held him, Camden wanted nothing to do with sitting on his lap, and the girls were excited to see him. Jenna was especially friendly with him! She went back after all the other kids had seen him to sit on his lap & give him a big kiss! It was so sweet!





Camden loved his Harley sticker book:



They gave out door prizes at the end of the night, and it was so funny because a bunch of kids were on the stage playing (not really paying much attention) and every time they called out a name, they would all start clapping & cheering. They really had no idea why, but it was cute.



We've become good friends with one of the families of a guy Tom works with. They have 3 kids, and I get together with Tracy quite a bit so our kids can play. Camden LOVES Shayley and kept going up to her at the party all night with a big smile!


(Camden's face is scratched up from a fall the previous day...it seems he always has a fat lip or scratch these days!)

Oh Christmas Tree...

We finally cut our Christmas tree down last Saturday morning. The farm we went to was really small. This first picture was one "lot" of trees. There were 2 others a little bigger, but nothing like what we were used to in Indiana! The other thing is that they are ALL a type of cypress tree...no pines, spruces, or fir trees like we're used to. The nice thing is that they're like all perfectly shaped.



We let the girls pick the tree out:



Anyways, we got it home, and over the next 2 days we got it set up & decorated....numerous times! :) I was gone Saturday afternoon, and I guess it fell over twice Saturday, then Sunday night after the kids had decorated it, it fell over again. Luckily, only 1 ornament broke, (mainly because since the kids had decorated it, the ornaments were only on the bottom half!) but the 1 ornament was Mackenzie's special ornament with her name on it! Figures...

Camden hanging his special ornament with his name on it:



He was thrilled to "help" decorate:



The finished tree:

Fire

I wanted to ask people to be praying for Mackenzie's teacher & class at school. There was a fire in her classroom over the Thanksgiving holiday & they lost almost everything in the room. They've been moved to a new classroom for now & I guess they're trying to fix their old room so they can move back into it at some point. Anyways, her poor teacher! She is trying really hard to get everything organized again & I'm sure make things as normal as possible for the kids, but I can't even imagine how hard that must be! Please pray for her as she re-groups & the kids to be cooperative in this tough situation.

A Wedding!

I have a couple videos below of a wedding we got to see while in Indiana Saturday night. It was really cute!
Part 1:

Did you catch the part where Delaney said "you can kiss the bride" and Trent pushes her away and says "I said no kissing!!"

Part 2:

In this one, it's cute when Delaney asks Mackenzie "So, you're gonna get a Koning last name?"

Single white female...

This is for my friend Leah (it's actually my sister's mother-in-law). We got to see her on Friday when we went to visit with my sister's family at her house. Anyways, she was reminiscing a little bit about the first time she came to NY to see our family. She informed me that she remembers me being a bit ornery! Me, ornery? I can't hardly believe it. So, I told her that I'd be posting her picture on my web page just to be ornery again, and that I'm also going to set up some personal ads for her and get her set up on facebook.

So, this is for you, Leah! :)

Thanksgiving

We enjoyed a fun Thanksgiving up in Ohio this year. We left Alabama Tues afternoon & didn't get in until 1:45 a.m. Ohio time. We got to see a bunch of Tom's family for Thanksgiving dinner, then spent the day Friday with my sister's family. On Saturday, we headed over to Ft. Wayne & got to see a bunch of old friends again! It was so much fun to see everyone, and the girls were SO excited to play with all their friends and cousins again. We headed back home Sunday after Sunday School, and hit a TON of traffic. I could have sworn I was travelling with 5 kids instead of 4 because of how much whining Tom did! He couldn't believe the amount of traffic, and that just put him in a miserable mood. The kids did OK for the amount of time we were in the car, but Tom was beside himself with anger & frustration. We had a few meltdowns from the backseat a couple times (you know...the "she's touching me" and "she hit me and it hurts REALLY bad" kind of meltdowns) but we're back home now & everyone slept great last night!

Trevin is not such a good traveller :( but I guess 1 in 4 isn't bad. He also did not sleep so great while we were gone. He was up at least once every night, and sometimes twice. Which means not so great sleep for me either which I'm sure I'll hear about at some point later on about how grumpy I was. Oh well...

A couple funny Camden stories for you -
On Thursday, Tom took Camden outside for a little fresh air. He was outside for quite a while, and then we saw this lady come walking up the sidewalk and she rang the doorbell. Tom's sister answered the door and this lady asked "Is anyone here missing a toddler?" I was sitting there in the front room and knew immediately it was Camden. So, I took off out the front door and Camden was about 4 houses down walking down the sidewalk just as clueless as could be. Not a care in the world. He gave me this big smile and I brought him back in the house. I then proceeded to find Tom in the backyard and ask where Camden was. He (obviously) said "I don't know....I walked across the creek (on a fallen log I might add) and when I came back he was gone. Have you seen him?" I let him know that it was his job to keep an eye on Camden & that why in the world would he cross the creek and leave Camden on his own, and then have the nerve to wonder where he's at? I let Tom start searching frantically, but when he asked "Isn't he inside?" I just ignored him for a second because I didn't want to lie, but then ended up telling him that yes he was inside only thanks to some neighbor who happened to find him walking along the sidewalk down the street. Nice job, Tom!!

Then, Saturday night we were at our friend's house in Ft. Wayne and all the kids were playing and having a great time. Camden wasn't always with the bigger kids, but if he wasn't, he was usually upstairs with the adults in the playroom. So, when we decided to take a big picture of all the kids that were there, I didn't think much when Camden didn't come up from downstairs with all of them. I turned around & asked Tom to grab him from the playroom so he could be in the picture. As we got the rest of the kids arranged for the picture, Tom still wasn't back, so we all kind joked that he must have gotten sidetracked looking for Camden. Well, a minute later, Tom came walking up from downstairs with a sobbing Camden in his arms. He said he had found him trapped in the bathroom! We really have no idea for sure how long he had been trapped in there because it was so noisy with all the other kids playing down there that we wouldn't have heard him, and we has just assumed he was in the playroom upstairs. Oops!! Nice job, Tom and Ruth!



After all that, I'm really hoping no one calls child services on us! Poor Camden...


When we went to Sunday School Sunday morning, there was NO snow, and when we got out an hour later, this is what it looked like! This is for my Alabama friends who think they love snow! :)



Tom and Camden:

Working in the yard

Tom taught me how to use the chainsaw so I started working on our log pile to get it under control. We've been having big bonfires to burn the brush & branches. We have 2 HUGE stumps in our front yard from trees that were taken down & Tom keeps thinking he's gonna burn those, too. They're way too big to burn I think, but I let him keep plugging away at them.









Tom thought it would be OK to let the girls throw paper on the fire. What was he thinking? Jenna caught a piece on fire and dropped it on her pants and burned a hole in her pants. Luckily I saw it happen & Tom grabbed her pants before it burned her leg, but not before her pants had a big hole in them.

Misc. pics

Funny story...we had given the kids a bath, and Camden wanted out, so Tom got him out & put his shirt back on him. A little bit later, we heard him crying & the girls yelling, so Tom walked in, and found Camden had climbed back in with his clothes on and was crying because his shirt was all wet!! Crazy kid!

House pictures

Finally, here's some pictures of our house...

dining room:


girls' room:


family room:


kitchen:

Yikes!

Ok, I guess it takes mistakes to get some more comments on here :)
So, yes, I did mean Trevin is rolling over now, and yes, I do know I have too many kids when I can't get their names right. Imagine if we had any pets to throw those names in the mix....

Camden is sleeping through the night, too, but alas, he is taking the same route as my girls when it comes to naps & bedtime. In other words, he takes great naps (min. 2 hours), but then is wound up until 10 p.m. or so. Then, he sleeps in cuz he goes to bed so late. When I say sleep in, I mean till 10 a.m.! So, I'm trying to figure out what to do. He's not even 2 yet, so I'm NOT ready to give up naps, but I'm not ready to stay up till 10 p.m. with him every night either. We've tried putting him to bed earlier, but he plays with his toys, talks to himself, and leaves his room. Last night it was funny cuz we ALL went to bed around 10, and I heard Camden on the monitor in my room playing. I went to see what he was up to, and he was out in the hallway playing since there was light from the bathroom nightlight. I was curious what he would do if I just left him, so I went back to my room & got in bed. About 5 minutes later, he came wandering into our room and just proceeded to find something in the DARK to play with. Didn't have a care in the world that all the lights in the house were off and that he was the only one still awake.

I tried waking him up from his nap earlier, but boy was he GRUMPY!!! It's like he needs that 2 hours or he's a bear. Guess I'll have to work on this. We're also working on potty training. Can I just say I hate potty training? Enough said...

Rolling Over

Camden is rolling over now. I'm excited and sad all at the same time! He rolled from his back to his stomach on Monday, then on Tuesday rolled from his stomach to his back. My little baby is growing up :)
He also slept from about 10:00 p.m. last night till 9:00 a.m. this morning! YEAH!

Mystery Diagnosis

Ok, funny story to tell you! I got up from my nap this afternoon & was feeding Trevin when I flipped the TV on & was switching through the few channels we have. I stopped on TLC, and was intrigued when I heard something about a couple whose daughter had a febrile seizure. I continued to watch it (I missed the beginning) and long story short was AMAZED to find that girl was eventually diagnosed with hypoparathyroidism. Exactly what Jenna has! It was amazing to hear what this couple went through...their daughter went through 3 seizures, with the last one being not until she was 11 years old! Kinda weird watching it thinking, huh, this sounds just like Jenna, I wonder if it could possibly be the same thing? I was so excited when they said she had low calcium & to watch how they did the exact same things for her that they did for Jenna when she was in the hospital. Mackenzie & Jenna came in from outside to catch part of it, too, and Mackenzie was like "is that what happened to Jenna?" when she saw the seizure part. (Mackenzie had never seen the "seizures" with Jenna). I missed the very end of the show due to loud kids, but it sounds like they also found something else wrong with this girl - something adrenal, but overall, the point is it was amazing to watch! The funniest part is that when Jenna was in the ER for the 3rd time, I had said to the dr's that I wanted to be on mystery diagnosis! Guess that won't happen now since they've already done a show on it! Oh well....another missed chance as a TV star :)

Pictures FINALLY!

Ok, I updated the blog earlier with a bunch of pictures from forever ago! Then, I got stuck trying to upload one more video, so whenever I get it figured out, I'll have one more update with pictures/video. As you scroll down through the posts, I have the most recent first & worked backwards. Hope you enjoy!
Oh, and I actually still haven't found the cord that we used at the apartment to transfer pictures to the computer...I just happened to find a different one as I was unpacking more boxes :)

Pictures - Misc part 1

A funny video after Camden had peed on the potty one day:



A picture of Camden after he peed on the potty:


Camden drew a "masterpiece" on the ottoman one day:

Pictures - Misc part 2

a bunch of geese in our backyard one morning:


Kenzie after she lost 2 teeth in one day:


Camden got his face painted like spiderman one night when they came to visit Jenna at the hospital. They had some people that came in & did it for free:

Pictures - halloween

Pictures - Jenna's 5th birthday

Pictures - Jenna's hospital stay

She loved to put the bed all the way up & play with the buttons:


Her last test before we could go home:


Lastly, here's a video I took of her when she was in the special care unit. I had Mackenzie make a quick video for Jenna since she couldn't visit her, and Jenna was supposed to be making one back to Mackenzie but she refused to talk. Oh well....this shows what all she had going on at that point: