Palmer Family Fun

Huge prayer request

2011-04-08T13:17:00.000-05:00

I posted an update on Camden below, but wanted to share a huge prayer request that is on my heart. My dear friend Kristin from Fort Wayne lost a little baby girl unexpectedly yesterday at 38 weeks along. She has lost two other precious babies, but knew ahead of time that they would not make it. This was a complete surprise, and the doctor has no idea what happened. So please pray for Kristin & Mike & their 2 boys as they travel this dark road yet again. God is Faithful, and will bring them through, but I am praying for peace for them as they struggle through this.

Update

2011-04-08T13:13:00.000-05:00

Thought I should update & let everyone know that Camden's surgery went very well! The doctor even decided that he didn't need to the tympanoplasty on his ear. He said the pocket he had initially seen wasn't as bad, and he's hoping that having tubes in his ears will keep it from forming again. He plans to keep an eye on it. Otherwise, dr. said Camden won the award for biggest tonsils of the day! :)

Since we've been home, he has done very well. We do our best to keep on top of the pain medicine, so he has never really complained of pain. He gets a little cranky at times, but I remind him that even if it hurts it doesn't mean he can be a grump to other people, or talk mean to me. But overall, he has done the best so far of all 3 of my kiddos that have had their tonsils out.

Thanks so much for your prayers!

Camden's surgery

2011-03-30T21:25:00.002-05:00

I know it's been a long time since I've updated this blog, but some of it has been on purpose, and some of it has been that I'm crazy busy. Since this is a public blog, I hate to give too much info about what's going on with our family for those of you that know our situation right now. We're really hoping that our house will sell in the next couple months so we can move up to Peoria.

But, in other news, I wanted people to be praying for Camden next Tuesday, April 5. He will be the 3rd Palmer child to have his tonsils taken out! Unfortunately we know the routine for this surgery, but along with having his tonsils taken out, he will be having surgery on his right ear. He's got some pocket in his ear (sorry I don't know the proper terminology) where some of the lining (?) is pulled back towards his ear drum, and if it's not taken care of, he could have permanent hearing loss in the future. The dr. will take some cartillage & reinforce where he does the surgery, drain fluid in both of his ears & decide if he needs tubes again. So, we would appreciate you thinking of him as he goes through this. The nurse said he will not be allowed to do any physical activity for almost 3 weeks, so I've got to find stuff to keep this boy occupied & not running around!

I will try to keep this updated after his surgery to let everyone know how it goes! Thanks for checking in!!

House

2010-08-23T16:52:00.002-05:00

For those of you that may not know, we are, unfortunately, trying to sell our house! Tom was able to get a new job in Peoria, IL, so we've got to move. We are hoping the house will sell in a decent amount of time, so if you know ANYONE who might be interested in moving to Riverside, AL, pass along the following link to our house! Thanks!!

Back to school!

2010-08-09T07:21:00.004-05:00

Ok, so I know I never really posted over the summer, but some day I'll catch you up on that. For now, though, here are some pictures of the girls on their first day back to school.

Their bus was very late picking them up today, and found out it's because it's a new bus driver. Hope we like him as much as Mr. Tommy last year!

Mackenzie finishes up 2nd grade

2010-05-29T16:49:00.003-05:00

I figured since I had a post about Jenna's graduation, I needed to have a post about Mackenzie's accomplishments as well!

Her last day of school was this past Monday, but Friday before that they had an awards assembly to honor the kids in 2-4 grade who had made "A" honor roll, etc. Mackenzie ended up earning a certificate for having the highest GPA in her class for the year, which means she also made "A" honor roll the entire year. We were very proud of her accomplishments!

Mackenzie with some of her friends:

Not a great picture, but here she is with her certificate for making honor roll:

With her teacher, Mrs. Smith:

Last day of school:

Before & After

2010-05-27T15:26:00.005-05:00

We've been working on window treatments to dress the house up a bit before we sell. Thought I'd share a couple before & after pictures with you.

Our bedroom

The dining room

Would this stress you out?

2010-05-26T17:41:00.003-05:00

Just a day in the life of the Palmers! :)
My girls were helping me out by shredding a TON of papers today & while I was downstairs cleaning, the boys got into the bag of shredded papers & had a blast (not sure where the girls went?!). I guess it's a good thing it's just paper, right? It could be worse.

Jenna graduates

2010-05-19T16:31:00.003-05:00

Today was Jenna's graduation. I can't believe I have 2 kids that are done with kindergarten now! Here's some pics from this morning:

Getting ready to ride the bus for the last time this year (yes, she was crying....she was mad I wouldn't let her take her jewelry box to school)

The entire kindergarten bunch:

Getting her diploma:

Some of her friends from class:

Her teacher, Mrs. Lee

The funniest poem!!

2010-05-17T16:13:00.002-05:00

Mackenzie told me they had to write a poem today at school. This is what she wrote:

My mom is like a bee
because she is almost always busy

My dad is like a lizard
because he is lazy

My brother, Trevin, is like a monkey
because he climbs on everything

My sister, Jenna, is like a dog
because she is always hungry

My teacher is like a dolphin
because she is very smart

Alligator

2010-05-17T14:28:00.002-05:00

I don't think I ever told about the alligator we had in the river in Riverside. A couple weeks ago a 6-7 foot alligator made it's way into the sleugh (channel) in downtown Riverside. One of the news channels showed up to do a story on it, and lots of people from Riverside showed up to watch to see what happened. Mostly those "in charge" stood around and talked about what to do, but they wouldn't do anything while everyone was there. My opinion is that they didn't want everyone to see them make fools of themselves, but they claim it could be dangerous if the alligator decided to come up on shore. They cleared everyone out around 6:30 p.m. and said they were going to bait some traps & try to capture it that night to re-locate it somewhere else. I wasn't the least bit surprised to find out the next day that they hadn't been successful in capturing it, and it had left the sleugh. I did read later that they saw it again in the next couple days over by the apartments we used to live in. I have never heard for sure if it was ever caught (I highly doubt it), but I have heard rumors that someone shot it. We'll probably never know for sure, but I do know that I will think twice about getting in the water around here :)

Tom tried to take the girls swimming last week over by the apartments by where they used to swim when we lived there before, but they were smart & said "No Way!" I can't believe he even tried to get them to swim there!

Here's a couple pictures from the big day...

Landscaping pics

2010-05-17T14:20:00.004-05:00

For those that asked, here are some pics of the landscaping we did while my parents were here:

Easter egg hunt pictures

2010-05-17T14:15:00.002-05:00

Here are some long overdue pictures from some of our Easter egg hunts:

Snow

2010-05-17T13:52:00.003-05:00

We did get some actual snow this winter down here in Alabama! I was impressed. Of course the kids went out to play in it. This was Trevin's 1st time out in it to play.

It's always fun to play on the trampoline in the snow:

Sometimes it just takes too much time to come inside to go to the bathroom:

Building a snowman:

Trevin playing in the front yard:

Catching up

2010-05-17T13:40:00.003-05:00

I think I can finally put some pictures on here! As I was looking through the ones on my card in my camera, I realized I forgot to tell about a couple things...

The first thing is that Jenna had her tonsils and adenoids taken out & tubes put in again back in January. She did OK as far as the pain was concerned, but this poor kiddo had a heck of a time keeping anything down. She ended up getting dehydrated, and having to get some IV fluids. Once we did that, she turned a corner, and after a week out of school, she went back. Phew!! Glad that's over!

Before surgery:

Right after she got back to the room:

Arriving home:

Her favorite spot for a week:

Mother's Day

2010-05-10T13:23:00.005-05:00

For Mother's Day, I got an awesome gift! A purple Dell laptop! Our computers have had tons of issues the last few months with viruses, etc, so Tom broke down & got me a new laptop. YEAH! Now I can probably start putting pictures up again soon (as soon as he gets all the software on here).

Besides my laptop, the girls made some wonderful things at school & church for me. I thought I'd share some of the stuff that was in their cards/books.

I'll start with something Mackenzie made me about a week ago that she gave to me early because she was so excited about it. She made it one day at home when she was home with a sick Tom and Jenna. (That's another post for another day) She took an empty cream cheese container & covered it with paper & a bow. I opened it, and she had written a poem and it had a chocolate chip cookie in it. Here's what the poem said:

I love just looking at you
watching what you do
I love kissing you and
holding you tight
I love all the things you do
I love the way your eyes
seem to grab my heart
every time I look at them.
I love everything about you.
And here is a cookie. (I think she added this herself!)

I asked her where in the world she got that poem from, and I kid you not...she told me she googled it! Who knew that an 8 yr. old knows how to google things??? Not sure what website she found that had that sweet poem that was probably meant for 2 people in love, but it was so sweet that she thought of me when she read it! :)

Ok, next she filled out a paper at school about love:

Love feels like "my mom's hugs"
Love smells like "purfume"
Love tastes like "my mom's homemade chocolate pie"
Love looks like "my mom"
Love sounds like "a gentle song"

And lastly, she filled out a paper about me:

My mom always says "I love you"
My mom looks pretty when "we go to church"
My mom likes to cook "from her cook book"
My mom makes me laugh when "she reads me a funny book"

Jenna also made a little booklet at school with some poems about mom and a paper about why she loves mom. Here's what she had to say:

My mom's name is "Ruth"
My favorite food she cooks is "cimanon toast"
Her worst punishment is "spankings"
My favorite thing she does is "push me on the swing"
The funniest thing she does is "tell jokes"

Overall, I had a good mother's day. We enjoyed our dinner out Saturday night to avoid the crowds on Sunday. The kids all did fabulous at dinner! Made it very enjoyable!!

One last funny thing from the day was this funny comment during lunch:
Jenna: "I just can't stop singing!"
Mackenzie: "Are you in opera mode?"

Tom's parking ticket

2010-04-28T08:40:00.003-05:00

Ok, normally I'm a supporter of policemen, but a few weeks ago, Tom got a parking ticket that was a little un-necessary in my opinion. See what you think....

It was the last day of Spring break for our girls, so Tom took the day off work to go with us to the science center in Birmingham. We made a quick stop at Wal-Mart on the way out of town to grab some lunchables. Tom was driving, so he dropped me off to run inside & grab them. When I came back out literally w/in 10 minutes, I happened to see a cop car off to my right with his lights on. I thought for a quick second if Tom could have possibly done something wrong, but quickly dismissed the idea since I thought it was highly unlikely for him to get into enough trouble in 10 minutes to warrant a cop. But, as I scanned the parking lot for the van, I couldn't find him. Finally, I looked over by the cop again, and saw our van headed down the aisle beside him. I started walking that way, and as I got closer, noticed that it looked like Tom was not in the driver's seat. That seemed a bit suspicious since all 4 kids were in the van, and the van was still running and parked in a position like it was ready to pull into a parking spot.

I opened the back hatch of the van to put the bag of stuff in, and the girls immediately told me that daddy was in the back of the police car. I thought they were kidding with me, but they were real serious and seemed a bit scared, so I started walking to the police car & as I got closer the cop put his window down & told me Tom would be back in just a minute. I just kinda looked at him like what in the world??? He then proceeded to tell me that Tom didn't tell him he had kids in the van. I was like "yeah...there are 4 of them in there!". I asked if I could go ahead & pull the van the rest of the way into the parking spot & he said yeah. So, I got in the van and started asking the girls what happened?! Mackenzie kept saying "I think the cop thought daddy was parked in the wrong place" They explained that Tom had stopped in one of the striped areas at the end of the aisle when the policeman came up and when Tom went to move & pull into a parking spot, the policeman told him he wanted to see his license. I asked if Tom had given the cop a hard time or something, and they both said no, he didn't say anything, he just gave the cop his license & then the cop made him get in the back of the car.

I got back out of the van to go see what was going on and as I was headed back over Tom was getting out, so I commented loudly enough in hopes that the cop would hear "Ok, our kids are freaking out that you just left them!" The cop didn't really acknowledge if he heard anything.

So when Tom got in the van he told what happened. He had indeed pulled into the striped area for a minute & was checking his e-mail on his phone while he waited for some old person to pull out of the parking spot about 4 spots down. The person was really slow I guess, and just as he was getting ready to pull out, he saw the cop coming up behind him & put his lights on. He figured he would pull into the spot & then see what the cop wanted. As he pulled forward the cop got onto his PA and told him the blue flashing lights mean stop! So, Tom stopped, stepped out of the car to point to the parking spot so the cop would understand he was just pulling in to get out of the way and for whatever reason the cop got ticked off. He told Tom he was not supposed to get out of his car, but asked for his license & told him to get in the back of his car.

In the end, he gave Tom a parking ticket for parking in the yellow striped lines. I guess when Tom tried to tell him he wasn't really parked there, the cop was real snippy & asked "was the van in park?" When Tom replied yes, he was like "well, you're parked then!" What a jerk. What cop would make you leave your 4 kids unattended in a van?? I was so mad! Of course he claimed that Tom didn't tell him he had the kids in the van, but c'mon, what guy is going to be driving a mini van mid-morning on a Friday & NOT have kids in it?? A little common sense please!

So Tom is going to court in May to fight the ticket. I mean really....the guy couldn't have given a warning?? Is "parking" in the yellow lines really a big problem around here that we need to give out tickets?

What do you think?

Yard work!

2010-04-26T21:49:00.002-05:00

My parents have been down here for a week visiting. We met up with them last weekend in Louisville, KY for the Thunder Over Louisville fireworks show. Anyways, we have been working non-stop on our yard since they've been here. It has been absolutely wonderful getting so much work done!

We got the landscaping done (planting bushes, flowers, etc.), mulched, and pretty much re-planted grass seed in our entire front yard! As long as the grass grows, we will have a fabulous looking front yard!

When my mom wasn't busy working in the yard with us, she was working miracles in the house! :) She cleaned all the windows, walls & doors, kept the laundry going, and made dinner most nights! It was great having an extra set of hands to get the "day to day" stuff done while I was busy either outside, or running kids to their activities. She also watched the kids while Tom, dad, and I went to the races over the weekend.

They'll be leaving tomorrow morning, and they'll be missed greatly!

$450,000

2010-04-16T22:15:00.002-05:00

I got a call the other day from Winners International, and guess what?? I won $450,000!!! The guy proceeded to take a 1/2 hour or so to tell me all about how it was going to be delivered, etc. I told him I was a bit skeptical, and he said that yeah, some people are, but that they are legitimate & they work with the IRS to make sure that most of this tax-free! He had answers to all my questions. All I had to do to get this money is wire a small insurance fee of $1250!

I'm sure all of you have figured out by now that I obviously didn't fall for this scam, but I did google "Winners International" and was amazed to find that there are people that HAVE actually sent money to these idiots!! The guy called me back a couple times to see if I'd wired the money yet because they were ready to deliver my check, they were just waiting to get confirmation that I'd wired the money.

Oh well....I passed up the big money! :)

Discipline failure

2010-04-13T08:50:00.002-05:00

Last week, Jenna came home from school with an "oops" note one day. Basically that means she had bad behavior at school. Evidently, she & another girl were supposed to wipe down the lunch table that they sit at when everyone was done, while the rest of the class headed back to their room. Well, they wiped the table off, but then proceeded to play around in the lunchroom, then head to the bathroom to play for a while, and finally came back to the classroom. Not necessarily a horrible offense, but it still warranted an oops note in my opinion so that she learns she needs to obey the rules at school. Anyways, the rule at our house is that if you get an oops note, you get spanked at home, then have to write sentences. Each time you get one, you have to write more sentences. This is only her second one, so she had to write 15 sentences. She HATES writing sentences! But, she got through that, and when it came time for bed, I took her to my room to give her the spanking. We had company over, so I didn't want to cause a big scene for all of them! :)

Now usually I grab a plastic spatula, but they were all dirty, so I grabbed a wooden spoon. She hopped on my bed, and I smacked her butt twice, and she winced in pain, but as I was hitting her the second time, the spoon broke and half of it went flying across the bed and hit the wall. She instantly looked at me and started laughing. I tried so hard to keep a straight face since I was in fact punishing her, but when I innocently asked her what was so funny, she was just like "something just hit the wall" and so then I burst out laughing, too. We picked up the broken spoon & then I carried her off to bed with probably a memory that will continue to come up in our house for years to come.

As we were walking to her room, though, we were still giggling, and my friend Tracy kinda gave me a funny look since she knew what I had gone in the room to do. I don't think she expected us to come out laughing. Is that what you call a discipline failure??

Baths

2010-04-09T08:30:00.002-05:00

Ok, so I will openly admit that I usually only bathe my kids once a week. That may shock some of you, but I feel like we're so busy that I just don't have the time. By the time my girls get off the bus at 4, do homework, eat dinner, then either play or have some activity going on, there's limited time in our evenings for bathing. They can do it themselves, but they still like to take their time doing it, so it's not just a quick & easy thing.

Now my boys on the other hand, probably need bathed more often now that they're playing outside & getting filthy. Problem is, as I stated above, there's usually not much time in the evenings. I could do it in the mornings since there's probably time, but mentally I always tell myself what's the point of bathing them first thing in the morning when they're just gonna go out & make a mess & make the bath pointless?

Which brings me to my "story" for today. I mentioned how we were crazy busy last weekend with all our egg hunts, but I did not tell about all the fun the kids had outside as well. Since it was Good Friday, Tom had the day off work. He borrowed a digger (don't know the official name...sorry!) from our neighbor & finally moved around the huge pile of dirt that has been in our front yard for forever. Most of it went to finish back-filling all along our driveway. He also filled in some bare spots & holes in the backyard. I worked on cleaning inside the house much of the day getting it under control & the boys were in & out. Finally late in the afternoon, Tom took a break & I went to help finish raking out the dirt while he watched the boys. They had a blast in the dirt, sandbox, and just being outside. When the girls got home from school, they joined in the fun. When all the dirt was raked out & "cleaned up", Tom headed to the store to get more grass seed & hay so we can attempt once again to grow some grass. He got a bunch of the grass seed down & hay out, and started watering right away. Well, you know how much fun water is, so the boys had a blast in the mud! Now let me backtrack a minute & just say that they had played outside Thurs. night, too & since they were so dirty I DID give them a bath Friday morning. Now, back to Friday night. I was inside making dinner when in trucked Camden with muddy shoes, and muddy/wet pants up to his knees. He of course walked right across the newly vacuumed & clean carpet. As I turned around to tell him to get off the carpet, in trekked Trevin but w/no shoes on, and both his pants & shirt soaking wet. He of course tracked his mud across the floor, too. I realized immediately that the only option at this point was to put them both in the tub. I ran to the bathroom & started the water in the tub. Then I grabbed Camden & took him back to the front foyer to remove all his clothes so I could throw his shoes outside to clean up. As I took him back to the bathroom, I discovered that silly me had left Trevin alone in the bathroom, so he had proceeded to hop in the tub w/ALL his clothes (& diaper) on. What a MESS!!! The water was so dirty that I had to clean the tub before I could actually give them a bath. Oh, and did you remember that before all this started that I was making dinner?? Once I got the boys settled in the now somewhat clean tub, I returned to the kitchen only to discover that the soup I was making was now burned & sticking to the bottom of the pan. At that point, Tom walks in obviously clueless to all that is going on & mentions that it smells like something is burning. Yeah, what else isn't new?

In the meantime, the girls are happily playing in the garage & are just as filthy, but at least keep it from spreading all over the house. After I had bathed the boys, I just put them in their pajamas since it was getting late. We still had to eat, but one would think that we could make it through the meal w/o too much of a mess. Think again - we still ate the soup I had made (we just skimmed off the top) and since I turned my back to Trevin for a minute, he proceeded to dump the last of his soup (bowl & all) over his head. Since he had already had 2 baths that day, I told Tom it was his turn to bathe him because I refused to give him 3 baths in one day!

Let me just say that the rest of the weekend, the boys had several more baths. I truly think I outdid myself this week,and I seriously lost track of just how many baths they got! Gotta love boys, and gotta love that they're not afraid to get dirty!!

Easter egg hunts

2010-04-07T13:04:00.005-05:00

Ok, so it's been forever since I've put any kind of update. I've been inspired by one of my cousins (she knows who she is) to try to do a better job. We have had ridiculous amounts of computer issues, so I can't promise a lot of pictures, but many people tell me that they enjoy even just reading about the crazy stuff that happens in our lives with 4 kids!

So, sit back, relax, and hopefully have a good laugh!

The weather has been beautiful the past week down here as I'm sure it has been just about everywhere! So, my kids have all been outside a TON! Down here, Easter egg hunts are a big thing. Everyone has them, and it's not a big deal to go to several of them. This year we may have set a record, though. The weekend before Easter we went to one for the "big" city of Pell City. By big, I mean it's bigger than Riverside where we actually live. Anyways, they have 10,000 eggs "hidden" in the grass (i.e. they're all thrown in the grass) and then there are different sections set up for each age group. Last year we showed up about 5 minutes after the start time, and found out the hard way that they start on time, and in 5 minutes EVERY egg is gone. So, we showed up 15 minutes early this year & got a good spot for when the whistle blew to take off to get our eggs. 1 problem....age groups were divided 0-3 yrs, 4-6 yrs, 7-8 yrs, and 9-10 yrs. This meant that unfortunately, Mackenzie was on her own to do the egg hunt. Tom stayed with the boys, and I stayed with Jenna. Kenzie wasn't too happy, but I can only be 1 place at at time! Next year I'll just move Jenna up to go w/Kenzie's group. These are things you learn through the years!! ha ha! Anyways, it all worked out OK, and the kids were happy with all the eggs they got.

So then this past weekend, it got a little crazy! We started Saturday out by going to an egg hunt at the Talladega Superspeedway at 10 a.m. We got there only to find out that this one advertised to start at 10, but the first egg hunt didn't actually start until 10:30. It was threatening rain, so they ended up starting a little early, but we had to leave after the boys did their egg hunt because we had another one to go to for our church at 11:00. We arrived at 11:00 to our church one just as it was downpouring. But, after about 10 minutes, it cleared up, and the next egg hunt started. After this hunt, we enjoyed a picnic lunch, headed to a birthday party for about an hour, then had to leave for the next egg hunt! This one was at the little church down the road from where we live. Not a lot of kids come to this one (we went last year), but it's the only one where they actually hide some of the eggs! The girls love it! Mackenzie even won a door prize and came home with a huge basket filled with even more junk, err uh candy. Trevin didn't get to participate in that hunt, though because he fell asleep on the way there & we couldn't get him to wake up! Oh well...he woke up in time for the snacks afterwards :)

Then, on Sunday afternoon as we were getting ready to finally color our Easter eggs (better late than never, huh?) our neighbor asked if the kids would like to join in an egg hunt at their house that their grandkids were going to do. Sure, why not? Jenna ended up finding an egg with $5 in it! She of course said that was her favorite egg hunt! Once they finished coloring their eggs, the girls wanted to do another egg hunt of our own. So, we did our own egg hunt in our yard.

Did I mention that Jenna had also had an egg hunt at school on Friday?? Are you getting the drift that it's ridiculous how many egg hunts they do around here? But, the kids love them and they're free, so I'm not going to complain! We've got enough candy around here to last the next couple years. Oh, and we're going to the dentist tomorrow....

Mackenzie's 8th Birthday

2010-01-18T14:41:00.007-06:00

Mackenzie had 2 friends over to spend the night for her birthday this year. We did all sorts of fun stuff! Here's a few pictures from the party:

We started off with a string maze....

Each person had a different color string that they had to follow throughout the upstairs, rolling it up until they got to the end & found their prize

Of course their was cake...

Trevin loved his cake as usual

Poor Tom got attacked by the girls!

They decorated pillowcases since it was a sleepover

Then it was time to get ready for a fashion show

After the fashion show, they did each other's make-up....blindfolded!! It was hilarious! Erin is doing Jenna's make-up here:

This is Mackenzie doing Alyssa's make-up

And the finished product...

All 4 girls after their make-up is done

To end the night we did chocolate face masks! Yummy!

Saturday morning we added a couple more girls & they did silly string out on the trampoline

It was a great party, even though the girls tried to tell me at 2:15 a.m. that they had had a good night's sleep! Needless to say I told them to get in bed, and 10 minutes later they were SOUND asleep!!

A few miscellaneous things

2010-01-18T14:30:00.003-06:00

And here's just a few misc. pics to enjoy...

We went to a roller skating birthday party for a friend. This was Jenna & Camden's first time to skate. They did pretty good. Mackenzie has skated before, and did a great job!

Mackenzie's poor eye when she had preseptal cellulitis

Trevin got into a box of baking soda & made a mess, but had a ball playing in it!

We got snow in Alabama! This was the most I saw around our house, and schools were let out at 11:00 one day, then we had a 2 hr. delay the next day for this!

"Our" family Christmas

2010-01-18T14:09:00.004-06:00

Once we got back from our trip to Ohio, we did our Christmas. Problem is, we got home at about 12:30 a.m., so we opened gifts then!

Jenna went straight to the bathroom to put on her new make-up!

Mackenzie showing off her silly bandz that are so popular around here

Camden & Trevin excited about the "new" hot wheels jeep (from the thrift store!!)

Christmas

2010-01-18T13:37:00.004-06:00

We spent our Christmas in Ohio, and got to see a little bit of snow. Enough for the kids to play in, but not so much that it was hard to drive in. We spent the first 5 days at Tom's parent's house, then headed over to my sister's house for 2 days.

One of Mackenzie's favorite gifts...cook it in a cup

Trevin opening one of his gifts

Camden was super excited about something!

Visiting Tom's Granmommie (our family & his brother Rob's family)

Jenna showing off one of her gifts

Trevin with his much needed helmet!!!

A picture just to show the general mess of opening gifts!

Trevin happily wearing a goofy hat I found at my sister's house

Mackenzie's eye

2009-12-25T09:20:00.002-06:00

I haven't had a lot of time to be able to update many of you on the situation with Mackenzie's eye. On Sunday, Dec. 13, she woke up with a really swollen eyelid. The eye itself looked just fine, but her eyelid was almost swollen shut. She said it didn't hurt too bad, and as the morning went on, the swelling seemed to go down a bit. I actually tried to take her to a clinic that Sun. afternoon after a Christmas party at church, but it was a zoo there & after waiting 45 min. & only 1 person being called back to see the doctor, we left. We had a busy week, and didn't end up getting her in to the doctor that week either....her eyelid remained "puffy" all week, although nothing serious. I kept thinking it would just resolve itself eventually. Well, this past Saturday (the 19th) it had been a week since the whole thing started & it didn't seem to be really getting better. I decided that before we left for our Christmas vacation I should really have it checked out. SO, we spent 3 1/2 hours at a clinic on Sat. afternoon & found out that she has a scratch on her cornea. The dr. gave us some medicine that he said would help with the swelling, and also a prescription for eye drops to help prevent an infection in her eye. It ends up the medication for swelling did NOTHING, and by Monday morning, she was now running a fever. I ended up taking her into our pediatrician Mon. afternoon, and he felt like we really needed to see a pediatric opthamologist & got an appt. for us early Tues. morning.

Kenzie & I headed to that dr. Tues. morning at Children's Hospital in Birmingham. He took a look at it, and after consulting with another colleague, decided it was preseptal cellulitis. He gave us a prescription for an oral antibiotic and also sent us to have a CT scan done to make sure that it is not spreading to the back of her eye or to her brain. Basically it's a bacterial infection in her eyelid that could have been caused from the scratch on her eye, and if it's not treated can spread to other areas. I might mention that her eyelid had started swelling worse again & that she had some bubbly stuff on her eye as well which the dr. said was probably caused from the pressure of her eyelid. She was also still battling a fever every now & again.

We left for Ohio Tues. evening, and the doctor called us back Wed. to let us know that the CT scan showed it has not spread anywhere else, and that her sinuses looked enflamed, but that the antibiotic should help that as well. He asked how she was doing, and at that point I said she looked about the same. As of this morning, her eye is looking a little better....not as red, but still swollen. I am more concerned at this point that she is still getting a fever, and she complains that her stomach hurts quite often. I make sure that she takes her medicine with food to help prevent stomach ache, but it sure is frustrating that it is taking so long for her to recover, especially when we're away from home! Please pray for her to feel better & that her fever would go away, and the swelling would go away completely! Thank You!

Merry Christmas to everyone!!!

Thanksgiving

2009-12-03T13:46:00.003-06:00

We spent our Thanksgiving in NY with Ruth's family this year. We flew out to NY on Thursday. We did a little black Friday shopping around 11:00 a.m. on Friday, and when we returned home, found that Camden had started a fever. Never fails...

We enjoyed our big Thanksgiving dinner Friday evening, and some fun family games Friday night. On Saturday, we headed over to my cousin's house to see all the home improvements he & his wife have made on their "new" house!! I say "new" because it's really my grandma & grandpa's old house. Now that they've passed away, Nate & Michelle have fixed the house up & it looks SPECTACULAR!!!

Sunday we enjoyed the church services at my parent's church, and continually tried to deal with a sick Camden. Poor kid felt miserable, but of course there was nowhere to take him over the weekend!

We ended up getting Camden in to see a doctor on Monday, and turns out he had strep throat & 2 ear infections. So we got him some antibiotics, and within a couple hours he was a different kid! Of course this was just in time to eat dinner, then pack up & head out to my brother's house. We spent the night there since our flight back home left at 6:15 a.m.!

We got back in to Atlanta Tuesday morning, drove back to Alabama, and dropped Tom off at work, Jenna off at school, and the rest of us came home & crashed! Trevin slept all of about 15 minutes on the airplane, then a bit in the car, but he was tired, and has started coughing. Mackenzie never slept a wink from the time we got her up Tues. morning (4:45 a.m.), so I knew she would never make it through the rest of the day at school. And I didn't get any sleep on the plane either, so I was exhausted. Camden slept on the plane, so he was rested up I guess....he watched TV while Trevin, Mackenzie & I slept!

So now we're back home & getting back into the routine of things!

Trip to Arizona

2009-12-03T12:45:00.006-06:00

I have decided to set aside the laundry & other housework that needs to be done & take some time to update you on what is going on in our lives....

One of the biggest things in our life right now are the decisions to be made about Tom's job. I think I mentioned last time that Harley announced they are consolidating their test facilities into 1 location out in Yucca, Arizona. This means that if he wants to keep his current job, we would have to move out there. SO, in order to help us make that decision, Harley paid for Tom and I to make a trip out there for a visit. After making arrangements for childcare for all 4 of our kids, we headed out there the weekend before Thanksgiving. We flew into Las Vegas on a Wed. night,

then headed to the Grand Canyon on Thursday.

It was beautiful, and we got to walk one of the trails for a couple hours before watching the sunset! We saw some deer (one of them VERY close up I might add!),

found a funny book in the gift shop,

and then after dark headed to Kingman, AZ. First thing Friday morning, Tom met up w/his friend Jeff & they went to Yucca for a tour of the facility. In the meantime, Jeff's wife Tracy & I met w/a realtor & got a tour of Kingman and saw a few houses.

After our tour we headed to Lake Havasu to meet up with the guys. We made a little mistake & got on 40 east instead of 40 west, so it took a bit longer to get there, but we made it none the less. We ate some lunch, then Tom and I met with another realtor & saw some houses in Lake Havasu.

We learned a lot about both locations! We met up w/Jeff & Tracy again for dinner, checked out the London Bridge,

and once again headed back up to Kingman. Saturday morning, I took Tom on a little tour of Kingman, then we headed over to Flagstaff to meet up w/Tom's brother Jim and 2 of their kids. We went with them to visit Sunset Crater National Park, which is basically an old volcano. We got to see black lava all around, and various formations that had formed after the volcano erupted. (As a side note, there is a $250 fine for taking any pieces of lava!!)

After that, we also got to see some pueblo ruins.

After our sightseeing, we enjoyed a delicious dinner before saying good-bye to Jim and the girls and heading back to Las Vegas. We walked the strip for a while then headed back to our hotel where we each gambled away $1.00! Such big spenders....

We came back to "reality" on Sunday. Overall, we enjoyed our trip, but realized that we have no desire to move there unless Harley gives us more incentives. As of right now, they are offering no incentives whatsoever.

Tom has met with his boss a couple times & it looks like he'll be able to keep his current job until the end of June. But, as we've learned before, things change consistently. So, until we hear more, that's the scoop. In the meantime, Tom has been working on his resume & keeping his ears peeled for any available jobs! We're trusting the Lord for whatever He has planned for us.

Our latest news...

2009-10-24T20:47:00.003-05:00

We have been going along as usual around here. I will try to put some pictures up in the next few days, but I'm on my laptop & don't have my pictures on here.

Jenna lost her 2nd tooth a couple weeks ago, and she had her 1st "real" birthday party.

Mackenzie has been doing very well in school - she tells me her favorite subjects are math & reading. She LOVES to read, and has started reading lots of chapter books!

Camden is talking more & more, and many of his words sound so similar, but he tries so hard to get across what he wants! It's so cute!

Trevin is definitely off & running, and climbing all over the place. He has started screaming when he wants some attention - it's SO irritating!

Two of my friends from Indiana came down to visit last weekend. They were here to speak at a pregnancy care center banquet. I can't even begin to tell you how wonderful it was to have them here. Tom watched the kids a ton throughout their stay so that we could go out & eat, watch a movie, and just hang out!!! It was wonderful!

Tom got some big news at work this last week....they are consolidating all Harley test facilities out to Arizona! UGH! We're not positive yet what all that will mean for us, but it will mean changes no matter what! Please pray for us as we seek the Lord's will for our family. We'd love to stay around here, but if we do, that means Tom will need to find a new job.

So that's a quick summary of the last few weeks. Sorry I've not been too good at keeping the blog up to date...guess that happens with 4 kids!

A year ago....

2009-09-24T11:06:00.003-05:00

It occurred to me this morning that it was a year ago today that Jenna ended up in the hospital for a week in the midst of us trying to get moved into our new house, my parents being here to help, and just plain chaos in our lives! I still look back & am so thankful that the doctors were able to diagnose Jenna's calcium problem & get it under control. What a scary time it was, but God saw us through each day & gave us the friends & family we needed when we needed it. He is so good!

And so, it was a year ago that we were also moving into our brand new house. Some days it doesn't seem possible that it's been a year, other days, it seems like we've been here for much longer! It's definitely looking like it's been lived in for a year, but then again there's the landscaping, or should I say lack of landscaping?? :) Ah, one of these years we'll get around to it!

Thanks to those of you that have been able to stop in for a visit (or 2, or 3...), and we hope many more of you will be able to come stay with us in the coming year! We love visitors, and it's always a motivator to get the house cleaned....

Thanks for reminiscing with me for a minute, now I've got to get back to "work"!

Junior

2009-09-15T22:37:00.003-05:00

My friend Jen just posted a sweet post on her blog about our dear friend Junior who went home to be with the Lord today. (I stole the picture above from her blog: www.potterwonderfullife.blogspot.com) I am so saddened by the news, and could hardly even talk to tell the girls about it. He was supposed to go in & have heart surgery today, and when they opened him up discovered that their diagnosis was wrong, and that he desperately needed a heart transplant. He ended up not making it through the day, and now he is in Heaven with his Lord & Savior!

Words can't even describe what Junior and his mom Pat mean to us! They are dear friends of ours from Fort Wayne, and they LOVED our children (as well as all the children at our church) like their own. Before we moved to Alabama, Junior was ALWAYS available to watch our kids, and repeatedly told us he loved watching them, and some days seemed to beg to watch them if they hadn't been there in a week or so! And my kids loved Junior too! There was NEVER a tear shed when Junior was going to watch them. They loved the fact that he got on the floor with them & played whatever games they wanted. And he worked in the church nursery every Sunday, Wed. night, Tues. morning and whenever else he was needed. It seems every kid in church knew Junior, and loved him. Very few cried about being dropped off every week because they knew Junior was there & knew everyone's "routine".

Since moving to Alabama, I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've said aloud "I sure could use Junior now!!!" And every time we've been back in Ft. Wayne, we've made a point of seeing him & his mom, Pat.

I am so sorry for Pat's loss, and would ask that you pray for her (& the rest of his family) in the days and weeks ahead. Junior lived with her, and took care of so many things for her. I can't even imagine what she will do without him. Pat, or "Miss Pat" as all the kids from Cubbies knew her, is such a loving, Godly woman, and would do anything for you. We love you, Pat!

We will miss you, Junior!

Jenna lost her 1st tooth!

2009-09-08T21:06:00.004-05:00

When Jenna got home from school today she wanted to eat an apple. She had a bottom front tooth that has been loose for about a week now, and she is so anxious for it to come out. So, after eating on the apple for a while she begged me to pull it. I gave a quick tug and out it came! She is SO excited!! She put it under her pillow & is hoping the tooth fairy comes tonight. Speaking of which....I'd better get off here and get some "work" done!! :)

What's new...

2009-09-08T20:51:00.003-05:00

For those of you that may not have heard, Harley Davidson is doing another big round of layoffs. Tom seems really nervous that he's going to lose his job this time around. We thought originally we were going to find out the 1st of September, but then they had a meeting the last of August, and now we won't find out until the end of September. Aaarrgghhh....I just want to know already. Some days I am fully prepared for this to happen, and other days, I have no idea what we'll do if it happens! I continually remind myself that God is in control and that HE will take care of us no matter what, so honestly, I haven't worried about it too much, but it is on my mind often.

And now for a few pictures from the weekend...

Swimming at some friends' pool Friday evening:

Trevin decided to try climbing the back deck stairs Mon. morning without help, and fell down 2 steps landing on his head. OUCH! But, he only cried for like 10 seconds after I picked him. I brought him inside & put him in his chair to get a wet cloth for his head and already he was smiling! His poor head looks horrible, though!

A few updates

2009-09-03T15:45:00.003-05:00

Ok, so I realize I have a few things to update since the last post....
We all took our tamiflu, well, except Tom quit after a couple doses because he felt like that's what was making him throw up. And, after a quiet weekend around the house where Trevin & I escaped a couple times to get out of quarantine, everyone was back to their normal schedule by Tuesday. Jenna made it to school an entire week!

But, then the following Monday I got a call from the school around 11:15 letting me know Jenna was running a fever again, so I had to go pick her up. I took her straight to the dr's office and they said it must be the antibiotics she was on didn't heal the pneumonia, and that it had gotten worse. The doctor described it as a "bad" case since she could hear no air flow on one side of her lungs. So, she got a stronger prescription, and after missing another day of school, was back in the routine once again. As a side note, I just took her to her regular pediatrician this week for another follow-up to make sure the pneumonia was gone this time, and he said everything sounds great, so let's hope we're done being sick for a while!!!

Now, I want to go back & talk about the whole swine flu thing. Evidently down here the swine flue is going around like crazy. Somehow it's not on the national news anymore, which is just as well since it was sounding like a deadly thing. But anyways, from what I've been told, there is so much of it going around down here that the state has told dr.'s not to even send the tests in anymore, and just to treat those that test positive for type A. So, does this mean Mackenzie did test positive for swine flu? I'm still not sure of the answer to that, but she did test positive for type A flu and supposedly all those testing positive for type A are diagnosed as having swine flu. Luckily all she ever had as far as symptoms was a fever for a few hours and even that was low grade. The flu is still going around like crazy down here....all sorts of people from our church are sick, so I'm really hoping we got ours done & out of the way, and that we're safe since we've taken the medication for the flu!

A pharmacy at our house

2009-08-20T12:46:00.004-05:00

Well, Jenna made it 2 days at school before coming home with a 102 fever! Yuck...

I took her to the doctor a week ago & they said she had an upper respiratory infection & put her on antibiotics. In the meantime, we had heard of several people from church who had been testing positive for different types of flu. Trevin ran a fever for a while last Thurs. evening, but after 1 dose of ibuprofen, he was fine.

Thurs. night, Tom came home & said he thought he was getting the same cough as Jenna. So, he headed to the dr. 1st thing Friday morning. He came home with an antibiotic as well for bronchitis & some cough medicine. As the day progressed, though, he said he felt worse & really felt like he was running a fever & felt like he had the flu. Jenna started a fever again Fri. afternoon as well, and by about 5:00 after Kenzie got home from school, she was running a slight fever and so was Camden!! A friend of mine from church called to let me know that another little girl at church had tested positive for swine flu, so to be safe, I loaded everyone up in the van & headed to a clinic that is open in the evenings. Long story short, they did a chest x-ray on Jenna because her oxygen level was a little low & found she had a mild case of pneumonia as well. Then, Mackenzie tested positive for type A flu, which is the type that can also be swine flu. So, they swabbed her nose again & had to send it off to be tested. But, since most everyone else was running fevers, the doctor said they probably still had some type of flu and he wanted everyone (including Trevin & I) on tamiflu since we were all exposed. I've never heard back whether Kenzie ended up testing positive for swine flu, so I'm sure she didn't, but even if she had, the dr. said you still treat it with tamiflu.

This is what we ended up with b/w all the doctor's visits & prescriptions...

And this didn't include the medicine that Jenna already takes on a daily basis for her calcium!

As of Tuesday, though, everyone was back to school & work and feeling better. Let's hope we don't go through this again! :)

Jenna's 1st Day!

2009-08-11T12:44:00.003-05:00

Here's some pictures from this morning...

The funny thing about this last picture is that once I took the 1st picture of her in front of the bus, she took off running to get on the bus, and my camera couldn't snap a picture fast enough to catch her crossing the street, so you'll see she is just about to get on the bus!

On another note...getting ready this morning proved to be interesting since those of you that know Jenna well, know she HATES socks & is very particular about her socks & shoes! At their school, they have PE class every day, so every day they have to have gym shoes & socks to participate. They don't necessarily have to wear them to school, but they have to change into them for gym if they don't already have them on. Anyways, with that in mind, I took her to Wal-Mart yesterday to specifically find socks that she would wear...didn't go too bad. I had also bought her a new pair of school shoes Sun. night that she tried on Monday & said they were good. So, I removed the tags from the shoes & threw them away. This morning, she put a pair of socks on, said they didn't feel right, and I immediately reminded her that she had promised me she would wear these! Ok, so she agrees, then puts on her shoes, and now tells me that they don't feel right, and after taking about 5 steps towards the bathroom is whining that her feet hurt with every step. AAAGGGHHH!! I give up! I told her to take them off then & in the end, Mackenzie convinced her to just wear her white shoes (which are slip on shoes) and I packed her gym shoes & socks for her to take to school. I hope her teacher has better luck with her! :)

Just some misc. stuff

2009-08-10T15:28:00.003-05:00

Here are some other odds & ends pictures from the summer:

We did some dog-sitting at some friends' house for a couple days..the girls LOVED it. Here they are with Bo & Bear:

Trevin sporting his black & blue head after falling out of the stroller:

Camden riding his bike:

Mackenzie taking Trevin for a ride in the jeep:

Jenna riding the 4 wheeler:

Trevin riding his "bike":

Vacation

2009-08-10T14:59:00.005-05:00

We went on vacation the last week of July. Actually, the girls were on vacation a week before that, too. To make a long story short, my grandfather passed away July 15, so on July 16 the girls & I flew to NY for the funeral. It was already planned for the girls to spend the following week with my parents, so I flew back to AL by myself Sun. morning. We spent much of the week cleaning up the house, doing laundry, and getting packed for the big trip the following week. We left Thurs. evening & drove through the night to my sister's house in Ohio for the weekend. We arrived at 3:45 a.m.! On Saturday, I drove to meet my parent's south of Cleveland to pick up the girls. We left my sister's house Mon. morning & headed to Pokagon state park in Indiana for a week with much of Tom's family. We left there on Friday & headed to Fort Wayne to visit with friends, and finally headed back home to Alabama on Sunday. We had a great time every place we went and are so glad we got to spend time with lots of family & friends.

Playing at Aunt Lori's house...."So Big"

So proud of himself for riding the big boy toys:

Cousins Grant & Camden:

Mackenzie water skiing:

Camden's 1st pony ride:

Trevin all tuckered out from playing:

Playing in the sand with the cousins:

Trevin wearing Uncle Dan's "Captain's hat":

Jenna water skiing:

Cousins; (back row L-R: Jenna, Chance, Macey, Mackenzie, Hayley, Keira, Sara; front row L-R: Trevin, Camden, Josie, Emma)

And finally a family photo:

Trevin's birthday

2009-08-10T14:53:00.004-05:00

Trevin turned 1 over the weekend. As usual, we didn't do much for his birthday. We've gotten fairly lazy about birthdays around here....except we will do a party for Jenna this year since Kenzie had one when she was in Kindergarten.

Anyways, we had a puppy dog cake that the girls helped me make and then the girls found some various things from around the house to wrap up for him to open. They were so excited to do this...they wrapped up toys and even some of his clothes! It was pretty funny to see them get so excited!

Looking at the cake a little confused as we all sang:

Then he wanted to pull it to himself & dig in:

And finally he dug in!!!

Getting ready for school

2009-08-10T14:44:00.003-05:00

Today was the 1st day of school for Mackenzie, but last week we were able to go & meet both girls' teachers and take all of their school supplies to their classrooms. Jenna starts tomorrow, so I will do my best to post a couple more pictures tomorrow from her "big day"

Jenna & her teacher Mrs. Lee:

Mackenzie & her teacher Mrs. Smith: (this is actually her 1st grade teacher's step-sister!)

Mackenzie ready to go on her first day of 2nd grade:

Getting on the bus by herself for the last time...

Talladega

2009-07-05T16:32:00.004-05:00

For those of you that may not remember, Tom and I got to do what's called the racing experience at Talladega Superspeedway. I bought a package where you ride with a professional driver around the track for 6 laps with another car. I had bought it as a gift for him for Christmas, and due to a mix-up in May, they gave me a free ride! So, a little over a week ago, we got to do our race! It was beyond spectacular! Unbelievable!! 180 mph around the track while racing side by side, or drafting is definitely a racing experience!

Here we were with our suits on waiting for our names to be called to race

Getting into the cars...Tom is in the blue #5, and I'm in the red #9

Racing side by side

Drafting

Coming into pit road at the end of the race

Jenna with her "boyfriend" Ty. His mom came to the track to watch the girls while we raced & take pictures for us

Now I know it looks in these pictures like Tom's car was always in the lead, but we actually kept switching back & forth for the entire 6 laps, and on the last lap when we raced side by side, my car actually BEAT Tom's by about half an arm length over the finish line :)

And let me mention that it was HOT the day we got to do it!! It was about 95 degrees, not including the humidity. By the time you put on the racing suit & a helmet, it's crazy hot. But, again, so worth it! They had a couple tents set up for the spectators to sit under, but it was still hot for the kids to sit out & watch us. Plus, my friend Jennifer took them up the tower that I think the media uses on race day, where you can see the entire track, and it's literally right next to pit road, so the kids were more than ready to go when we were done! But, they said it was fun to watch us going so fast. If you ever have a chance to do this, I would definitely recommend it!

Our 4th of July

2009-07-05T15:48:00.004-05:00

We spent a quiet 4th of July at home yesterday....didn't do much other than spend time on the lake & jet ski. We did have a couple "1st's" though - Trevin had his 1st jet ski ride, and Camden went tubing for the 1st time. Both enjoyed their new experiences!

Tom had a week of vacation this past week as well, so we did a couple fun things. We went swimming at our neighbor's pool Monday, went to a pool party Tues. afternoon/evening, visited the McWane Science center Thurs. where we ran into some friends that we ended up hanging out with, and then I got to hang out with some girl friends Friday afternoon!

So here are some pictures of what we've been doing:

Camden "digging for bones" at the science center

Swimming at the neighbors....the boys LOVE swimming just as much as the girls!

The day that we were at the pool party, Camden wore his floaties on his arms & swam around by himself most of the day. He even jumped off the diving board by himself! He has no fear!

We decided to make tie-dye shirts one day

Camden was being awfully quiet one day, so I went to see what he was up to, and discovered he had opened the drawers to Tom's dresser, climbed in, and was having a ball playing in the drawers and on the shelves!

We made matching red, white, and blue tie-dye shirts and wore them for the 4th

After Camden got done tubing with Jenna, he refused to get out of the tube! He loved sitting in it and was all curled up inside it.

More stuff we've been doing

2009-06-26T09:15:00.005-05:00

I've been trying to play catch up here on the blog with all we've been up to. Part of the problem is that my laptop is not connecting to the server, so some of the pictures are on my laptop and I can't get them on here.
Tom mentioned before that Jenna's softball team won the league championship. And yes, they actually tied with another team, so they did a toin coss to pick which team got the title. We won! Is that a redneck way of doing things?? Jenna didn't care, she was just excited to get a trophy.

Then, I ran into Mackenzie's coach the other day at the grocery store, and he said they also won the league championship for her age. We haven't gotten her trophy yet, but she's excited, too, to get another trophy. One of these days I'll get a picture of her in her uniform on here.

It's been extremely warm here, so we've been out on the lake quite a bit, and over to the neighbor's house to swim. Trevin went swimming for the 1st time & LOVED it! Probably because it was so hot! The girls went tubing, and had fun, too. Mackenzie enjoyed it much more than Jenna, but they both love to go out on the jet ski & swim in the middle of the lake somewhere.

Tom & Camden on the jet ski

The girls tubing

Trevin in the pool:

Camden & Trevin in the pool:

One day while my parents were here, Camden took off out the front door w/o us knowing, so we went looking for him and found him working away in the front yard. I snuck out with the camera to get a picture because it was SO funny! He had on a winter hat & was "raking" stuff up just as serious as could be!

Another day, he was playing so hard, and then all of a sudden it was dead silent. I went looking to see what kind of trouble he had gotten into, and I found him sound asleep in the doorway to our room! Not the most flattering picture for him, but it was just one of those things I couldn't pass up!

My parents visit

2009-06-26T08:55:00.004-05:00

Tom mentioned in a previous post that my parents were able to come down for a visit at the end of May. We got a ton of stuff done, as well as doing some fun stuff! Last time they visited you may recall we were in the middle of moving, and it was all work & no play :) Plus, that was when Jenna ended up in the hospital, so it wasn't the most fun visit ever....

But, this time was much better!

One day, my dad & I did a tour of the Talladega race track & also visited the museum they have here. The tour was lame, so I don't recommend it, but the museum was pretty neat!

We celebrated Tom's birthday while they were here. Mom & I decided to get creative for his cake (more for the kids' sake!) to make it a little more special

One day we visited a place called Nocalulla Falls State Park. There's some pretty falls, a little "zoo", a free train ride, and a little "primitive" village

The main reason that my parents came to visit was for Mackenzie's baptism. She was so excited and did a great job!

We also visited the Georgia Aquarium one day (Tom already posted pictures), cleaned up the yard, enjoyed a cookout with our neighbors, had a big bonfire, rode the jet ski, and went to the dirt track races. Tom also took my dad to this great motorcycle museum that's down here. I loved having them here and can't wait until they can visit again!

Misc.

2009-06-25T10:53:00.002-05:00

A few misc. things from the past weeks...

One day the girls really wanted me to put make-up on them, so I got them all "dolled up" while daddy had the boys out with him.

We had a beautiful rainbow over our house one day after it had rained

Trevin loves to "help" unload the dishwasher now

We were trying to take some cute pictures for a card for Tom's birthday, and I was having the girls sign "I Love You", but this is the best Camden could do

Camden also loves to wear his work boots much of the time...

Kenzie finishes up 1st grade

2009-06-25T10:46:00.004-05:00

Toward the end of the school year, Mackenzie's class had an "awards program" in their room for parents to attend. It was really cute....the teacher handed out certificates with different kinds of candy for the awards. For example, sweet tarts for the class flirt, Snickers for the child who laughed a lot, etc. Mackenzie got the "100 grand" award for having the highest overall class average and always giving 100%! What an accomplishment :) We're so proud of her, and can't wait to see what next year holds!

Here's Mackenzie & her teacher, Mrs. Abbott:

Mackenzie holding her award:

Storms are the 2009 champs

2009-06-09T17:00:00.002-05:00

Jenna's team won the championship trophey for softball by a coin toss.

2009-06-09T16:53:00.003-05:00

Ruth's parents visited us for a week after Memorial Day. We went to the Atlanta Aquarium. I posted some pics of fish..

The girls next to a whale shark.

Update to last post

2009-05-18T23:30:00.001-05:00

A quick update - Kristin went in Friday and they were still able to find a heartbeat! So, she waited, and went back in this morning. Guess what?? Her little girl is STILL fighting!! She will go back again Wed. morning to check again. Please continue to pray for their family, and that if it be God's will that He will HEAL this little girl & show that dr. who is truly in control!!

PLEASE PRAY

2009-05-14T22:02:00.009-05:00

Please pray for my friend Kristin & her family tomorrow (Friday) as it will be a very rough day for them. Many of you recall that she delivered a baby boy (Noah) about 2 1/2 years ago that had a fatal syndrome, and only lived a little over an hour and a half before going home to be with Jesus. She is expecting again, and found out last week that this baby girl that she is carrying does not have the same fatal syndrome, but instead was in heart failure. She is about 16 weeks along I believe. She went in today for another check-up & the dr. was still able to find a very faint heartbeat, but she is to go in again tomorrow as he was pretty sure the baby will have passed away by then, and she will be induced to deliver this little one. So many emotions for them, and it is killing me that I can't be in Ft. Wayne to wrap my arms around her & be there to help out. But, God is in control, and He will bring them through this trial as well. My love & prayers go out to them, and I hope you'll be praying for them as well! Thank you!

A few things here & there

2009-05-13T12:40:00.003-05:00

Here are some of the most recent things going on....

Jenna finally got her Kind. shots for next year, and she is now officially all registered for next year! She also had more blood drawn, and her calcium level was down a bit. We had taken her off tums quite a while ago, but it looks like she's got to go back on them. She's not happy about that. It's a battle 3x a day again now! I may call the endocrinologist & see if there are any other options.

Mackenzie only has 5 days of school left after today. I'm kind of excited that I won't have to get her up at 6:15 any more & we'll get to sleep in a little! I'm hoping to take the kids to the Georgia aquarium sometime after she gets done with school.

Camden is learning the hard way what fire ant hills are all about. He thinks it's fun to poke them with a stick. He got a bunch of bites on his hand just yesterday doing that. I've tried to tell him he's got to stay away from them, but I guess he's just gonna learn by experience!

Trevin was dedicated at church this past Sunday, Mother's Day. This was the 1st time we didn't have any grandparents with us....kinda sad, but special for Trevin just the same.

Mackenzie will be getting baptized at church May 31. My parents are coming down for a visit for the occasion. We're all very excited.

Speaking of grandparents...Tom's parents made a surprise short visit a couple weeks ago. They had been visiting friends in South Carolina, and at the last minute decided to "drop by" to visit us. It was a quick visit as they didn't get here until around 5 p.m. Sun. afternoon and left Monday morning, but we enjoyed having them here just the same!!

Jenna accepted Jesus as her Savior on Sunday, April 19! Tom and I are so excited that she has made the most important decision of her life! We continue to pray that as she gets older she understands even more what it means to have Jesus as Lord of her life!

I think that pretty much summarizes our past few weeks. Here's a couple more pictures for you to enjoy:

Jenna won this big inflatable chair at a grand re-opening party at a local McDonalds. They all love to sit in it on the ottoman to watch TV

Jenna got a new haircut just a couple days ago. She loves it!!

Look closely!! Can you see what is in this boot???
It was pouring down rain today & for some reason Jenna wanted to put her boots on & found a little "surprise" instead. I still can't believe it!

(in case you didn't figure it out, it's a dead mouse)

9 months

2009-05-13T12:35:00.003-05:00

Trevin is 9 months old now. Seems hard to believe. I took some pictures of him the other day & gave him a strawberry to eat. He really seemed to enjoy it...

What a cutie, huh? Most everyone says he looks just like Jenna. But, it's probably a toss up b/w her & Camden. He crawls all over the place, walks along the furniture, and is starting to try standing on his own. Somehow I don't think it will be long before he starts really walking! My baby is growing up :)

I am so EXCITED!!

2009-05-13T12:11:00.003-05:00

Let me give a little background to this post....

For Christmas, I bought Tom a gift that honestly, I really wanted for myself. BUT, I knew he would also like it, so I sacrificed & bought it for him anyways. What is it?? It's called The Racing Experience. There are a bunch of different options, but I chose a "middle of the road" option, which is basically that you ride with a professional race car driver in a real Nascar car for 6 laps at speeds of like 170 mph!! Does that sound like a rush, or what??? You can also buy a package that would allow him to actually drive a car, but we couldn't really afford that, so he had to settle for a ride.

Anyways, like I said, I bought it for him at Christmas, but the 1st time they were gonna be Talladega was in May, so I called to get him signed up for this last Friday, May 8 at 3:30. All the literature says you can bring anyone with you to watch & take pictures, so we took the 3 younger kids with us. (Mackenzie had other stuff going on) We showed up at 3:30 like we were supposed to, but long story short, when we got there we were told it had been cancelled that day! No one called us!! I was kinda ticked & later left a message letting them know I wasn't too happy about it. But, in the meantime, the guy at the gate said we could still go "into" the track & find someone to talk to about re-scheduling. So, we went in & ended up getting to walk around a bit & take some pictures & talk to some guy who was apologetic & very nice. I took some pictures, and then we left. The guy said he'd have someone get in touch with us...

WELL, somehow Tom missed a call back from this guy a while later, and he left us a message. Here's the part where I am so EXCITED!! Basically he said that to make it up to us they were giving ME a free ride as well!! SO, Tom and I will be racing side by side (w/professional drivers of course!) at the end of June! This guy says we will absolutely love it, which I have no doubt we will. After all, remember I said when I bought this thing in the first place that I really wanted it myself? Guess I got my wish after all, in a most round-about way!!

Anyways, until we race for real, here are a couple pictures I took:

Jenna standing in front of one of the cars in the garage

Tom put her in the driver's seat, and she got real nervous for some reason. She wanted out!

The tunnel to leave the inside of the track. Goes under turn 4...

Strep throat

2009-04-29T22:28:00.003-05:00

Mackenzie has strep throat. Once again she barely complained about it, but luckily we found a clinic that was open after 5 tonight. They did a strep test that came back positive along with blook work that showed her white blood cell count to be up, so they gave her a shot & sent us home with a prescription for zithromax. Dr. even said she could go back to school tomorrow since she's not running a fever! Let's just hope that nobody else catches it!

Talladega!

2009-04-29T21:56:00.004-05:00

This past weekend we spent much of our time at the Talladega Super Speedway for the races! We had a lot of fun...and the kids (well, Jenna at least) loved it. Our friends Scott & Sue went with us on Friday along w/the 3 oldest kids. Then on Saturday, just Jenna and I went. She did really well! We had some really good seats Saturday since it's general admission, and we only needed 2 seats! We sat pretty close to the start/finish line & we were up in the upper level seats where you can see almost the entire track. On Sunday, just Tom and I went since we got free tickets through his work. We had babysitters lined up for the kids so that we could enjoy the "real" race by ourselves! It was a beautiful day, and we had good seats once again. Not real close to the start/finish, but closer to the 4th turn where we ended up with a good view of the wreck on lap 8! With about 12 laps to go, my man Matt Kenseth was in the lead! I was so excited! But then some more cars behind him ended up wrecking & he headed to the pits. Not sure why, but that put him at the end of the pack. Bummer! I was ready to leave, but luckily we didn't....did you see the wreck that happened at the end of the race??? Carl Edwards flipped his car & smashed into the fence. It was CRAZY!!! Kinda unreal to see it in person & we weren't even that close!
Ok, so here's some pictures from the weekend:

Our friends Scott & Sue from Pennsylvania....

There was a crash during Friday's race on turn 4 & 2 of the cars ended up right in front of us!

Tom down at the fence w/Camden on his shoulders watching the clean-up

The view from our seats on Friday

Camden was so tired that he fell asleep on Tom's lap! Even with all the noise!

The view from our seats on Sunday....a look down by pit road....all the cars lined up & getting ready for the race
My favorite car #17 - Matt Kenseth as they were getting ready for the green flag (The yellow car)

The crash on lap #8 that took out a bunch of cars

Catch-up again!

2009-04-20T13:16:00.002-05:00

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with everything that has been going on, and I have not updated in so long! I don't have any new pictures downloaded yet either, so you'll have to suffer through a quick update on what we've had going on!

Let me start with the BEST news, and regress from there :)
Jenna accepted Jesus as her Saviour last night! It is always so sweet when a child comes to understand what God did for them by sending His Son to die for them. We pray she will always love the Lord & strive to live her life for Him!!

And here's what else we've been up to: (in no particular order)
- my sister & family & friends stopped by on the way through to Florida to spend the night. They also stopped on their way home, too!

-Tom's brother & family did the exact same thing as my sister. It worked out perfectly both weekends that they each stopped on different nights, so our kids got to see lots of cousins 2 weekends in a row!!!

-we finished the room above our garage just in time for all the visitors we had! We're so thankful that Tom found someone to do the drywall mudding!

-we've had a couple days with tornado warnings which always makes life interesting!

-Jenna had her 6 mos. follow-up appt with the endocrinologist. It went well, and she had more blood drawn. We just got a letter from the doctor saying her calcium level was a little low, so she may have to go back to taking tums with every meal, but really it probably means that I NEED to be more attentive to getting her medicine in her 2 times every day. I've been bad lately!

-Both girls are playing softball, and b/w the 2 of them have games 3-4 nights a week. Sometimes they both have games on the same night, thankfully at the same location, so it's a little easier, but busy either way!

-Mackenzie is also busy practicing for a musical she's in at church the first weekend in May. She is so excited, and we can't wait to see her in it!

-Mackenzie has 1 month left of school! She has done so well, and LOVES to read!

- I battled a cold for a couple weeks & was beginning to think it would never go away Trevin cought a bit of it w/some chest congestion, and Camden also got a cough but thankfully both got over it fairly quickly.

-Trevin is getting faster & faster every day I think. He's started standing on his own for a second, so I'm sure he'll have that mastered in no time :) He also eats like a champ now!

That's about all I can think of for now, and here's a little preview of some things we've got coming up:

- Jenna's kindergarten registration is next week!

- Jenna & Trevin have regular pediatrician check-ups....Trevin his 9 mos. check-up, and Jenna will finally have her 5 yr. check-up that I've been putting off to get her shots for school

- We are having visitors again in a couple days! Our friends Scott & Sue from PA are coming for a couple days! We met them on a cruise a couple years ago, and we've kept in touch ever since.

- The races are this weekend at Talladega. We're gonna take Scott & Sue on Friday, and Tom and I will go to the big race on Sunday!

- And, of course the girls have lots of softball games....

Lastly, I just wanted to ask everyone to pray for a family that lives in Fort Wayne. I don't know this family personally, but a couple friends of mine in Ft. Wayne know them and the most tragic thing happened over the weekend. Rachel Amstutz (31) passed away very unexpectedly. She & her husband Scott have 3 little children....6, 4, and 9 DAYS old! She was nursing the baby and stopped breathing. The EMS worked on her as well as at the hospital, but they were unable to save her. They think she had a blood clot that went to her heart or lung. I am SO SAD for this family - I can't even imagine what they're going through, so I know they need as many prayers as possible. Please pray that God would wrap His loving arms around them and bring them through this most difficult time! I know they would appreciate it!

Until next time...

Trevin's 1st haircut

2009-03-25T11:38:00.005-05:00

I broke down & gave Trevin his 1st haircut Sunday night. He did ok, but he didn't like the sound of the clippers, so he buried his head in my lap which worked out just fine because it was actually easier to cut his hair with his head in my lap....

Before:

After:

Pictures

2009-03-20T09:06:00.003-05:00

Here's some pictures that I promised...

It's hard to tell here, but Trevin is gonna need a haircut soon - he's starting to look like he has a mullet!

In my last post, I mentioned Camden having dirty hands....here's what one of them looks like (and this was after he ate dinner!)

We had drywall delivered the other day for the room above our garage. Jenna brought her Dora couch out on the sidewalk & she and Camden sat and watched the "show". It was so funny!

Evidently Camden likes to dress up, too!

Trevin is so proud of himself for standing up next to stuff!

Not Me & Fly on the Wall

2009-03-19T21:00:00.002-05:00

Here are my catch-up posts from last Friday & Monday....

Fly on the wall....

During our devotions last week with the girls, one of the questions was "How can we have a better relationship with God?", to which Jenna replied:
"Give Him a cake!" (Through the eyes of a child....)

The other day Jenna said to me "I know what I want to be when I grow up!"
to which I replied "Oh, yeah? What?"
Jenna: "Batman"
Ruth: "Why's that?"
Jenna: "Because he helps people"

We were discussing the fact that Jenna can't find one of her library books that was due back on Tuesday, and I told her if we can't find it, she'll have to use her own money to buy it....
Jenna: "How much is it?"
Ruth: "I don't know...we'll have to ask"
Jenna: "Anyways, I can get a credit card!"
If only it were that simple....

Now my "no, not me's"....

No, not me....I would never be so intent on getting everyone fed & out the door for softball practices that I wouldn't even bother to look at how dirty Camden's hands are before he ate, only to discover as we were walking out the door that they were DISGUSTING!!! Tom took a picture of them they were so bad, and couldn't believe I hadn't washed them. What can I say? I was trying to get us out the door as I said...

No, not me....I would not put 3 kids on a stroller after softball practice only to have it tip over with Camden still on it. He was sitting up on the tray by where you push the stroller, and after taking Trevin out to put him in his car seat, Jenna got off the front end making it "top heavy" and poor Camden fell face first with the stroller onto the asphalt! I was mortified to say the least. Thank God he only had a small scratch on his hand from trying to stop himself. Poor kid!!! I felt like the worst mother and when I turned around & saw him laying face first on the ground with his legs still stuck in the stroller I had visions of a bloody mess from teeth being knocked out & his head being cracked open or something. God was watching out for him!

No, not me....I would not have allowed Trevin to get his poor little thumb get pinched on Camden's ride-on car toy when Camden quickly sat down on the seat while Trevin's hand was still hanging on. A responsible mom would have been by Trevin's side making sure Camden was being careful! Again, God was looking out for us, and thankfully Trevin survived the incident with just a small cut on his thumb. Poor kid...

So, with things like that going on at our house, we are obviously keeping busy, trying our best not to end up at the hospital :)

I will try to download some more pictures tomorrow!

Catching up

2009-03-18T15:13:00.003-05:00

We are super busy around here. Tom is working hard to finish the room above our garage, and the girls have started softball , and of course practices b/w the 2 of them are just about every day of the week!

Plus, I've been working with Camden again on potty training, and I say we are 99% potty trained! Yeah!! He LOVES his cars underwear, and insists on wearing 2 or even 3 pairs at a time if he finds them laying around. Crazy kid!

I didn't get around to my usual posts on Fri. & Mon. Sorry! I promise I will get them done by Friday this week, along with hopefully a couple new pictures. We have been enjoying the nice weather, and I've been working on switching out winter clothes for spring & summer clothes. I feel like I've been load after load of laundry!

I also wanted to mention that after my last post, not a single person has signed up!! Interesting to me.....it's a FREE way to earn money as far as I can tell. Must be everyone is afraid there is some string attached somewhere. I only need 4 people to sign up, and I can't even get that! If you go to their website, check out the info under "Build Your Network" to see what I'm talking about. If you choose to sign up, don't forget to include my member #100196

Gotta run...check back soon!

Something to check out

2009-03-13T09:40:00.002-05:00

I have something interesting for you to check out if you're interested! My brother sent me the following link & asked me to sign up, so I did to help him out (he's looking for a job in the meantime). I also read some of the info & it sounded pretty interesting to say the least. But, the best part is that just to sign up is FREE, so check out the following link & if it sounds ok to you, sign up! There are no promises you have to make that you're gonna buy anything, so I figure it can't hurt.

https://www.kikbacks.com/secure/members_registration.cfm?MMNum=100196

Not Me Monday

2009-03-09T17:06:00.002-05:00

No, not me....I would never lose Camden outside! The girls were playing with him on the back porch & when they came in, I assumed he came in with them. 10 minutes later, I realized I didn't hear him in the house. He was not on the back porch, or anywhere in the back yard. I searched all the rooms in the house....Tom finally found him playing in the sand out in the front yard! Yikes - that kid is fast when he wants to be!

No, not me....I would never let Trevin just crawl all over the family room, only to find him sucking on the potty chair a few minutes later!

No, not me....I would never find poop on the floor twice in one week from Camden not going on the potty!

No, not me...I would never forget to watch the little screen thing at church that they use to put your number up when your kid "needs" you, only to discover Trevin's number up there when I did finally look. Come to find out it had been up for about 10-15 minutes! Ooops! Turns out he didn't really need me after all...he had settled down already by the time I got there!

Sorry that I have a few gross things on my "list" this week, but hey, you might as well know what goes on around our house!!

And just in case you haven't figured out, everything last week & this week were all things that yes, I have done. I quit putting a fake one in there since people weren't responding....

Fly on the Wall Friday

2009-03-06T19:02:00.002-06:00

If you were a fly on the wall this past week, this is some of what you might have heard...

Mackenzie has been practicing for a musical at church, and one of the songs has a part where the choir is supposed to whisper, so this is what she told me one day:

Kenzie: "Mommy, you know the part where we're supposed to whisper when we sing?"
mom: "yes"
Kenzie: "Well, I don't have to whisper because even when I sing normal it's real quiet!"

As Jenna was playing with her Dora house one day, she had some play-doh people she was using with the house, and she was making them talk, and this is what I heard:

"Do you have to go poopie?"
"C'mon....push, push, push"
"Oh no, now it's all over the place, what a mess!"

That's all I have for now. I need to do a better job of writing stuff down because there is definitely more that is said around our house, but I always forget when it comes time to do this post! I'll try harder this next week!

Not Me Monday

2009-03-02T19:21:00.003-06:00

So here we are with another edition of Not Me Monday. A little late in the day...

1. No, not me...I would never be in such a rush to get ready in the morning that I didn't even realize I forgot to put my contacts in until I was driving down the road!

2. No, not me...I would never wait until the day before a b-day party to RSVP that Mackenzie could come, then almost completely forget the party the very next day. AND, when I did remember, realize we didn't have a gift, so we stopped ON THE WAY to the party to get one!

3. No, not me...I would never get so tired of hearing the girls beg for a dog that I made a deal with them that if they kept their room clean for an entire year, then we could get a dog! And no, they wouldn't totally fall for it!! (I mean what are the chances they could keep their room clean for 365 days straight??)

4. No, not me...I would not wait until I found Trevin STANDING in his crib to lower the mattress!

5. No, not me....I would not have a Mary Kay consultant over & show her some of the Mary Kay stuff I already have only to have her tell me that most of it is expired!! Who knew this stuff expired???

And for last week's answer, it's true...I have never used duct tape on Camden's diaper (yet!!). Luckily he hasn't tried to take it off or anything.
And let me also clarify on the dirty washcloth thing....I had thoroughly rinsed it, but since I had used it to clean Camden's bottom, I was going to put it right in the washer. Unfortunately, Jenna got to it before it made it there.

SNOW!

2009-03-01T14:21:00.004-06:00

Ok, so we got some snow down here, and people are going crazy!! I had to take a picture just to prove that we did actually get some. And seriously, this is a BIG deal...they cancelled Sunday School this morning, and moved the church service up to 9:00 a.m. and cancelled church tonight!
Check it out...

I am not kidding!!! This picture is for real! This is in our front yard...

When we got home from church we were eating lunch and Mackenzie said there weren't many kids at church today & wondered why. I told her it was because of the snow & that people were too afraid to drive in it. I told her they thought this was a lot of snow! She gave me the funniest look and said "This isn't a lot of snow!!!" We all had a good laugh about it, then they went out to "play" in the snow...

I think they used just about all the snow from the deck to make this snowman. And notice that Mackenzie doesn't even have a coat on....it was not even that cold out!

Hope all our friends & family "up north" get a kick out of this!

A cute picture

2009-03-01T14:17:00.003-06:00

Last week I went into the boys' room to get something (can't remember what) and I found Trevin sound asleep like this...

Also, I can't remember if I had updated on here as to the fact that he now has his 2 bottom teeth in, and is crawling like crazy! Our sweet baby boy is growing by leaps & bounds! He's eating some vegetables now, too. He doesn't care for green beans, but doesn't mind peas & carrots :)

2009-02-28T15:08:00.003-06:00

Well, I'm a day late on this post, but better late than never, huh?

Here's some stuff you may have heard around our house this week:

Jenna: "How come we couldn't ride a helicopter to Alabama?"
Ruth: "Because it wouldn't fit all our stuff!"
Jenna: "We coulda rode a train!"

After a tornado warning this week...
Mackenzie: "Where do tornadoes go when they're done?"
Ruth: "Back up in the sky"
Jenna: "Do tornadoes live in the woods?"

A couple weeks ago when Tom prayed with the girls before they went to bed, they were talking about bad dreams, and Tom told the girls that sometimes scary dreams can be fun. (What was he thinking??) SO anyways, just this week, Jenna had a bad dream....
Jenna (whispering in Tom's ear because she was still scared to even talk about it!): "We were at the playground and a little boy had a gun and started shooting the kids at the park. " Then she put her hands on her hips and continued out loud this time "You said scary dreams could be fun, does THAT sound like fun???"
Tom: No, that's really scary!

That's all I have for this week!

Not Me Monday

2009-02-23T11:00:00.003-06:00

Ok, so time for another "episode" of Not Me Monday...

1. No, not me...I would never let Jenna wear the same outfit for 2 days in a row, including sleeping in it!

2. No, not me....I would never clean out 20 shirts from my husband's closet w/o him ever even noticing!

3. No, not me....I would never leave a dirty washcloth that I had used on Camden's bottom on the counter top in the bathroom only to find Jenna "playing" with it a little bit later...that would be gross!

4. No, not me....I would never be MORE concerned about waking my kids up from a nap than getting them into the basement due to the threat of a tornado this past week. I'm all about safety 1st...not whether my kids are gonna be grumpy!

5. No, not me...I would never use duct tape on Camden's diaper to make sure he didn't take it off!

So go comment & tell me which is "true"

Ok, and for last week's answer, those of you that guessed Mackenzie selling Girl Scout cookies, you were right. It's not so much that I wouldn't have let her do it, because I never did sign the "contract", but I went with her just so I could chit-chat with the neighbors :)

And Jen P....I truly did find 2 cards from Camden's b-day last year w/money still in them! I had thrown them in a bag at the last minute since we were getting ready to move, and then I came across the bag a couple weeks ago. It actually worked out in Camden's favor....it was $20 more I could put toward a "big" gift for him for this year!

Fly on the Wall Friday

2009-02-20T12:56:00.003-06:00

So, these are some things that were said around our house this week:

Jenna: "I know God looks mean" (She said this during one of our devotions this week...and it really had nothing to do with the devotion either....)

Jenna: "Mommy, are you tired of those flowers being on the table?" (She was referring to the flowers Tom got me for Valentine's Day)

Camden: "Daddy!" (Said while at Wendy's, but pointing at some black man as he was leaving! Hmmm....)

Tom: "You really need to cut Trevin's hair, he's starting to look like an old man with a mullet"

I'm realizing as I try to write things down during the week, that Jenna is truly at an age that she just says some really funny off the wall things!

Tornado! Quick, get in the basement.

2009-02-18T15:39:00.002-06:00

We just had a tornado that went through Riverside. Luckily it must have missed our house. We are getting ready to go out & find out where it hit.

2009-02-18T09:47:00.002-06:00

Here's a short video clip of Trevin. Today he decided to start crawling.

Not Me Monday

2009-02-16T12:17:00.004-06:00

So first things first....

It was Tom who actually posted the last update, not me like it says. You all should know that I "talk" a lot more with my posts, not just put pictures!

Next, the answer to last week's "not me Monday" was that I truly did not send Mackenzie to school for pajama day on the wrong day. So, that means that, yes, I have done all the other things listed!
I should clarify, though...
-For those that may not remember, there is a girl on Mackenzie's bus that does her hair almost every day, so that's why I don't have to brush it :)
-As for throwing papers in the trash, well, OK, it's not right to lie, but I did blame it on Camden so that her feelings weren't hurt that I purposely threw them away...
-Even though I forgot to send the snack on the 100th day of school, they actually did "100" stuff all week, so I sent the snack the next day.

And now for a new edition of "No, not me..."

1. No, not me...I would never hold Trevin facing outward so that he wouldn't spit up on me, only to have him spit up all over Camden.

2. No, not me.....I would never send Mackenzie out to sell Girl Scout cookies w/o adult supervision after signing a "contract" that says I won't let her go out & sell cookies by herself.

3. No, not me....I would never leave my kids in the car for 10 minutes while I run into the store knowing it would be SO MUCH faster w/o them.

4. No, not me....I would never find cards from Camden's birthday last year & discover that they still had money in them that we never spent for him and then go ahead & use the money this year to buy birthday gifts for him.

Ok, so go ahead & guess which of the above is actually "true"....

Pictures

2009-02-14T20:14:00.002-06:00

Kenzie had a music "concert" (as Jenna would say) for her school..

Jenna and Camden made some bread teddy bears.

Fly on the Wall Friday

2009-02-13T17:24:00.002-06:00

Ok, so I'm stealing another idea from my friend Jen's blog! She posts things that her kids say that are cute & funny. So, I'm gonna try my best to post some things that my kids say....

Jenna: "What does "because" mean?" (If I remember this was in response to her asking me why she couldn't have something and of course I said "because....")

Jenna: "Let's sing red nosed the reindeer" (From Christmas time....obviously supposed to be Rudolph the Red nosed reindeer)

Jenna: "I'm hungry" (literally 10 minutes after dinner was over, and I wasn't even done putting dirty dishes away!!)

Mackenzie: "When was the last time you didn't obey the 1st time?" (After getting in trouble for not obeying the 1st time and me telling her even I have to obey what God tells me in the Bible)

Camden: "--prise!" (with his hands up in the air....for some reason the girls started this when we lived in the apartment, and every time they walk in the door, they say "surprise!", so Camden has picked up on it, and bless his heart tries to say it every time he walks in the house)

Jenna: "Scuprise!" (see above...Jenna can't quite say it right yet either)

Trevin: giggle, giggle (this week I was telling Mackenzie about this neat valentine that Camden got at church that you hit with your fist, and a balloon blows up on it's own in this little bag, then "pop!" out it comes from the package, and when I said, "pop!" I was holding Trevin & kinda bounced him up a little, and he just started giggling like crazy!!)

I guess that's it for now. Check back next week for some more...
And, don't forget to check out the blog from Monday to "vote"!

Doctor check-ups

2009-02-10T23:07:00.002-06:00

Today we went to the doctor for Trevin's 6 month check-up as well as Camden's 2 yr. check-up.

Trevin weighs in at 16 lbs, and is doing fine. He is still nursing, and has finally decided to take a bottle every once in a while so that I can have a break! We've been doing cereal, and I will probably start some veggies in the near future.

Camden is 24 lbs and we're going to be watching in the next couple months to see if he starts talking better. He should be putting a couple 2 word phrases together, and he doesn't! So, we've got to work on that. The doctor isn't too concerned yet (neither am I) since he is at least trying to repeat words that we tell him. I found out that he has an ear infection, which is actually good news in some ways because it explains the yucky eyes he's been waking up with every morning. The doctor thinks it's related to that. The ear that he has the infection in has already lost the tube that was put in last March, and as the doctor was cleaning out his other ear (TONS of wax in it!!), he "found" the tube in that ear. So, both tubes are officially out, and we'll just have to see what happens. We're also going to see how his sleeping goes after this ear infection clears up. He snores really bad again, and sleeps until about 9:30 most days, which seems a bit absurd to me. Both the dr. and I wonder if he's not getting a real restful sleep at night, which is why he sleeps so long. Not sure if it's related to his tonsils, so we're just gonna keep an eye on things and check back with the dr. in a month.

Overall, a good visit, with no major concerns. Jenna had blood drawn again, and after the ped. dr. called the endocrinologist to make sure they wanted it tested again, the endocrinologist said he wanted a urine sample as well. Of course, in the meantime, while waiting to hear if we needed bloodwork done, Jenna used the restroom. SO....we got to sit around & wait on Jenna to go "potty" again. It took 5 cups of water (and about an hour) before she could muster up a sample! Needless to say, by the time I left, I had 3 kids who were tired, hungry, and miserable!

Oh, and thanks for the guesses on my last post. Keep the guesses coming....I'll give the answer after I get at least 5 guesses or next Monday, whichever comes first :)

Not Me Monday

2009-02-09T09:45:00.003-06:00

Ok, my friend Jen (who also has 4 kiddos) has this "segment" on her blog every Monday called Not Me Monday where she basically tells everyone about the things she does that probably most moms do, but we never actually admit to! They're really funny, and after much thought, I've decided I could probably come up with some good ones as well, BUT I'm gonna do it with a little twist in an effort to get some feedback! (And to try to be just a little different from Jen) I'm gonna post some things, but you've got to guess which of the 4 things is not true. Or, actually, I guess by the way they're worded, which one is true. Confusing....but I think you get it.

So anyways, here you go....

1. No, not me....I would never forget to send a snack (that was assigned to me) to school with Mackenzie for their 100th day of school celebration!

2. No, not me....I would never blame Camden for throwing some of her school papers in the trash!

3. No, not me....I would never send Mackenzie to school in her pajamas for "pajama day" on the wrong day!

4. No, not me....I would never send Mackenzie to school without brushing her hair, let alone do this 3 or 4 days in a row!

OK...so which one is "true"? I.E. I've actually done 3 out of the 4.

More pictures

2009-02-06T22:34:00.003-06:00

Everyone ended up with green tongues after eating Camden's birthday cake.

Here's some older pictures we just found from a lost memory card. We found Camden sleeping under the bed when we woke up in the morning. No one knows why or how he got there.

Here's all the cousins in New York for Christmas.

Here's Grandpa Hamilton with Trevin.

Camden is now 2.

2009-02-06T22:07:00.004-06:00

Today we celebrated Camden's 2nd birthday. He didn't seem to know what all the fuss was about at first, then he eventually caught on after he seen the presents.

Below are some pictures of the lovely car cake that Ruth made.

It hasn't rained for a while and it has been cold. Today it finally warmed back up (high 60's). We had a "Hard Freeze" warning the other day because it got down to 13°F over night.

The lake level is down due to the lack of rain. I guess it's time to fix the dock.

The weekend

2009-02-03T11:03:00.005-06:00

We had a busy weekend...
Friday night Tom took Camden & Jenna to a pajama party for the preschoolers at our church. Jenna came home & told me it was so much fun! They had a few different "moonwalk" things, and Tom said at first Camden was scared of them. He finally took him in some of them, and once Camden realized how fun they were, he had a great time.

Saturday we had a birthday party to go to. It was at a place called Party Central where, once again, they have a bunch of "moonwalk" things to play on. The kids had a blast again!

Saturday night, I (Ruth) took the 3 older kids to the Ringling Bros. Circus in Birmingham. Tom stayed home with Trevin since he's been fighting a cold & didn't really feel up to going. Plus, that saved me from having to keep a very wiggly Trevin on my lap!

Sunday was a very exciting day as well! Mackenzie went forward in church Sunday morning to tell our pastor she wants to get baptized! I am so proud of her! We are supposed to meet with him sometime in the next week or two, and then we'll find out for sure when the next baptism is scheduled.

Lastly, we went to our friends' house to watch the Super Bowl & do our best to cheer for the Cardinals. Overall, a fun weekend, and now it's back to the daily grind!

Thanks for checking in! And here's a picture to show just how close Trevin is to crawling! (The boy sitting in the picture is a little boy I was babysitting)

What we've been up to

2009-01-27T21:13:00.008-06:00

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

2009-01-14T22:04:00.003-06:00

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

2009-01-14T13:36:00.003-06:00

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.

2009-01-08T18:51:00.004-06:00

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.

2009-01-08T18:13:00.008-06:00

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

2009-01-06T22:17:00.002-06:00

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!

2008-12-23T08:34:00.005-06:00

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

2008-12-15T10:28:00.002-06:00

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...

2008-12-11T23:24:00.004-06:00

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

2008-12-11T23:11:00.003-06:00

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...

2008-12-11T22:52:00.003-06:00

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

2008-12-02T16:07:00.002-06:00

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!

2008-12-02T13:22:00.005-06:00

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...

2008-12-02T13:12:00.003-06:00

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

2008-12-01T16:43:00.003-06:00

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

2008-11-27T10:41:00.002-06:00

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

2008-11-27T10:24:00.002-06:00

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

2008-11-27T10:04:00.003-06:00

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

dining room:

girls' room:

family room:

kitchen:

Yikes!

2008-11-15T12:33:00.002-06:00

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

2008-11-13T10:01:00.003-06:00

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!