What we've been up to

I'm beginning to realize that I don't have time to update this blog as often as I'd like with 4 kids around!
Anyways, we are all still alive and plugging along. Here's what we've been up to:
Mackenzie - Had her 7th birthday on January 9th while I was out of town. She kept telling me to buy a gift while I was gone, so she finally got to open her gift the following Monday. Since I was out of town, my dear friend Tracy called Tom and asked if they could bring a cake over for Mackenzie's birthday. I had no idea she was going to do this, so when I called Kenzie that Friday night to wish her a happy birthday, there was a house full of people (they have 3 kids of their own). She made a beautiful cupcake cake, and Mackenzie told me it was delicious. (Thanks again Tracy!!!)

Other than that, she has a friend on the bus who has been doing her hair every day, and she loves it! I love it, too, because I no longer have to fight with her every day to get her hair brushed.

Jenna - had a nasty cough virus that took almost 2 1/2 weeks to run it's course. She had terrible nights where she couldn't stop coughing, and so she slept a lot during the days. She is finally over that, but sounds like she has a cold now. She is acting fine, though, so we'll see....

Camden - also was sick when Jenna was sick. Poor Tom had to change some nasty diapers while I was out of town. He even had to figure out how to take the whole car seat apart so he could wash the cloth part. Luckily, he is doing better, and is now just fighting a runny nose. Otherwise, he is back to himself, and is cracking me up lately. He loves his cars, and just gets so excited any time he gets his cars, or sees cars, or wears clothes with cars on them. He loves to SHOW Trevin his cars, but does not want Trevin to touch them!!

Trevin - is finally eating cereal on a regular basis and doing pretty well. He has been waking up every now & then during the night for some reason, but I refuse to feed him because I know he doesn't truly need it, so he's learning to cry himself back to sleep! He is also very close to crawling actually. He gets up on his knees and rocks back & forth, then usually just rolls over & rolls to wherever he wants to go. He is sitting up pretty well, too. He is a VERY wiggly kid!

Tom - he ended up going to the doctor & got antibiotics for a sore throat & cough as well. He has also finished up his work bench area in the basement and unpacked most of his boxes. He bought a new John Deere zero turn lawnmower, so he's actually excited to mow the lawn this summer! I think it was a bit much, but whatever.....

Me - As I mentioned before, I flew back to NY just after the first of the year for my grandma's funeral. I re-connected with a bunch of cousins, and I can honestly say enjoyed the funeral. It truly was a blessing that she went to be her Lord and Savior and is no longer suffering! I also enjoyed catching up with relatives & cousins on the other side of the family as well when I attended one cousin's wedding. There was a ton of snow while I was "home" and I have to say I don't miss all that weather a bit down here!! Since I've been back, I've just been trying to get back to normal - whatever that is. Laundry, cleaning house, cooking, taking care of kids, and actually watching a few "extra" kids every once in a while to help friends out. And, going out for lunch with friends to get out of the house!

I think that just about covers it. I'd better run....I've got 2 kids crying, 1 in bed (sick), and another not even close to being ready for bed. You can try to figure out who is who....

Photo Tag

I've been tagged by my friend Carol from her blog in a post called "Photo Tag".
Here are the rules:
Go to the 4th folder in your computer where you store your pictures.
Pick the 4th picture in that folder.
Explain the picture.
Tag 4 people to do the same

Ok, so since I was on my laptop, this is the picture that came up. I have no idea what it would have been if I'd been on our home computer. Anyways, not the most exciting of pictures, but this was taken at our apartment not long after we moved down here to Alabama. Camden was eating a piece of chocolate cake and made a mess. I think I took the picture because I never got one of him eating a piece of b-day cake when he turned 1. Probably because I never made one...

So, with that said, I will tag my cousin Hollie, my friend Heather, my friend Hillary, and a friend from long ago Leah Bertram. (My other friend Leah has already been tagged)

Girl Scout Cookies

I probably haven't told anyone, but Mackenzie decided to join Girl Scouts this year. SO....if anyone "out there" is interested in buying some cookies, let me know! She is so excited to be selling them, even though all our families are so far away! I think her 1st order has to be in in less than 2 weeks, so we've gotta hurry. Unfortunately, I was out of town when the selling started, so we're a little behind.

Thanks!!

Trevin eating real food.

Here's a picture of Tom with the kids overlooking downtown Gatlinburg.

Ruth tried to feed Trevin some real food finally. Surprisingly, he didn't like it at all.

Poor Camden was so tired that he fell asleep half standing up. He has been sick but he is starting to feel better.

Flood on Logan Martin.

Due to a ton of rain over the past week, the lake started to flood yesterday. The lake is now 10 feet above normal and 5 feet above summer pool. The last flood of this magnitude was the spring of 2004.

Here's our dock, mostly underwater..

Here's our neighbor's dock, completely underwater.

This is the lake front of our other neighbor, Jimmy.

We saw a pontoon boat floating around in the middle of the lake.

Quick update

I really have no time, but wanted to put a quick update on here.

We had quite an experience flying to NY for Christmas! I'll tell the story later, but we did end up with $400 worth of vouchers per person, tons of meal vouchers, and 2 different hotel vouchers which thankfully we didn't end up needing. We got to my parents house at 2 a.m. Christmas morning. That was fun with 4 kiddos!

Christmas was fun, and we had a first annual ping pong tournament, which I think my brother ended up winning. Not exactly positive, since after I lost, I lost interest - ha ha!

Our kids all passed around some eye goop something or other (not sure if it was pink eye), and after we left NY, we spent a couple days in Gatlinburg, TN as a family. That was fun, but unfortunately Jenna started running a fever during the night Thurs. night before we were supposed to leave, so she's been sick ever since. She has a miserable cough, and still fights a fever at times. I took her to the doctor yesterday & he said it's just a virus that will have to run it's course. I hate hearing that! So I'm trying my best to keep her on cough medicine every 4 hours. In the meantime, Camden has also been sick. Right after we saw the doctor for Jenna (literally!! the doctor had JUST left the room) Camden threw up! Luckily a friend of mine was watching Trevin, so I didn't have him with me, but I was so scared he was gonna throw up all over the van on the way home. Luckily he fell asleep instead, and waited until we got home to throw up again.

On the way home, I got a call from my mom letting me know that my grandma had passed away. What a day! Could it get any worse? Probably, so I'll just count my blessings that only 2 kids were sick and not 4!

SO...after talking through our options, Tom and I decided it would be best for just me & Trevin to head back to NY for the funeral. That way, we're not taking sick kids with us, and Mackenzie won't have to miss school. She was a little bummed, but on the other hand, got very excited when I told her grandma was a Christian. She started jumping up & down & said "Oh good!! I'll get to see her again in Heaven" Then she turned & told Jenna that if she asked Jesus into her heart, she'd get to see grandma again, too. How sweet!

Since I'm leaving the kiddos here, I found someone from our church who is gonna watch them while Tom is at work. I am SO thankful! I just hope the kids don't stay sick. Camden seems to be doing better, although he still has loose stools (trying not to gross anyone out)! Jenna does OK as long as I keep her on cough medicine every 4 hours. If not, watch out! She'll cough for 45 minutes straight! (Found that out on accident tonight)

While I'm in NY, I'll actually be able to attend a cousin's wedding on Saturday that I obviously wasn't going to be able to go to before. But, I'll also be missing Mackenzie's 7th birthday on Friday. She said that while I'm gone to NY maybe I can buy her a b-day present. Guess she knows me well enough to know that I haven't bought her gift yet! :)

Ok, I've really gotta run & finish a bunch of stuff before I leave tomorrow afternoon. Pray for Jenna & Camden to get better, and that Mackenzie & Tom don't catch anything! I may actually be getting the better deal by going to a funeral. Oh, and for those of you wondering.....my grandma was in her 90's and has been "sick" for quite some time now. Nothing specific really, other than old age stuff and just getting weaker, so this wasn't a huge surprise. I'll definitely miss her though!