I Big

 

This one is pretty self explanatory. 

 Big Brother is playing a really cool game 

with a really big gun.

I big! 

 I play! 

Collin turn. 

I play!

 If you remember from the previous post

"wants it his way, always"

(This immediately happens when it is not going his way.)

What? 

 Two guns?

Yes!

Mom says "Let mommy help"

But I do it.

 I big!

See.

 I do it. 

I big!

 I do it! 

I do it like Caden! 

See!

 I big!

Mom says,

"almost little man. 

almost."

It’s A Christmas Miracle

 
All five 

are looking in the general direction of the camera

No one is crying

No one is screaming

I was able to crop out the candy cane bribes

(that kept the two above mentioned things from happening)

They are all staying in the near vicinity of where they were placed

No one can see what Ryan and I were doing 

to get the above pictured children 

to do or not do 

the above mentioned things

While not all are smiling, 

the majority don’t look like they are being tortured

I count this venture a whopping success.

Merry Christmas to me

I survived the adventure with my sanity intact

Well, mostly intact anyway.

A glimpse

A really quick glimpse.
Via the iphone,
so don't expect too much okay?


The babies are rockin the big kid tub.
Collin loves it


Keegan is not so sure
and had a death grip on Kenna
almost the entire time


Keegan was not happy that I messed with his hair
(so curly these days)
and then
wanted a picture of his valentines day outfit
instead of snuggling him


Collin was cool with it


and so was Cohen.

Lots of love was in the air this day
we all went to see Gnomeo and Juliet

and true to form
Keegan was a pain in the rear,
(a dang cute pain, but still a pain)
would not be quiet
sit still or stop climbing all over everything.

Collin sat in the stroller enthralled with the movie
and thrilled that Kenna was feeding him popcorn

Grandpa Rick and Grandma Becky
came out for presidents day weekend.
the kids were in heaven
So were we!

Dad and Ryan installed a new kitchen faucet
(the other was bad bad bad- think leaky water hose)


and my neighbor was
tossing this baby out for free


so we snatched it right up
and dad and Ryan hung it up.


Then of course we had the standard presidents day fare
Pizza, Cherry Pie, and Ice Cream
and we watched the American President
since our Dave DVD was missing in action

The following weekend
Ryan had some vacation days he had to use or lose
So of course we decided to use them
and we headed up to Oregon
to visit the Holly Doll, Bryner Bug and Cory
and the rest of our fun family that lives up there.

I had great intentions to take pictures of everything.
didn't happen.
But here's a hodge podge

Our first full day there


I discovered
Craft Warehouse
Love, true love


but our trip through heaven was cut short
when Bryn's school called
and said she had bonked her mouth,
and could Holly come


Understatement of the century.
This is after a major clean up
Girlfriend had fallen against a metal step
Knocked out her two front teeth
(that weren't even a smidge loose)
Loosened the others
sliced and diced her lip up
and ripped her whatever its called
that connects your lip to your gums

Ouch

She was a trooper though
even when I was gagging
watching her try to eat a banana
that ended up slimy and smeared with blood
and watching her suck on the chunk of lip
that was hanging down
(the doctor said they don't stitch mouths, but it was bad, real bad)
I had to turn away every time she would do this

We shopped, we went to goodwill,
we ate donuts

And then we took my sick kids to the doctor
and had to pay lots of cash
up front
for anyone to even look at them
Even thought we have insurance
Grrr...


Collin got his first ear infection
and we hope his last.
He was not a happy camper.


Check out Keegan's
massive green snot
MMMmmm...
and fever red cheeks and ear.
Poor Baby


Kenna too.

Sicky vacations are not as fun
as non sicky vacations
Still fun but...


Keegan was enthralled with Mary's cat
Costello was almost as big as Keegan was
and he sat and stared at him forever


We also stopped to leave flowers at
Mom and Grandma's grave
while we were in Dallas
Caden got out of the car and helped out
even though it was raining


Vacation wiped us out


When we got back
Keegan learned how to climb up here
and MAN was he Proud of Himself
as you can see from the grin

They are almost walking
almost.
Any day now its going to get really crazy.

As if it wasn't before.


This big guy had his 4th Birthday
and he reminds us daily sometimes hourly
of all things he can do now.
Now that he is 4, Now that he is big.
Man, I love him.

even though he has randomly thrown up around midnight
two out of the last three nights
and it has been horrible to clean up
(I will spare you the pictures)
ten million times worse than Keegan's Puke Party.
and then insists in the day that he is not sick and feels fine
and has no other symptoms.


Doing my late night clean up routine last week
I found this guy
posed exactly this way.
I was laughing so hard
I had to hold my breath until I made it out of the room
so I wouldn't wake up the boys
He looks like
he is doing some kind of inappropriate dance move
or something
my favorite
is the bum sticking out and the hand posed just so.
I still laugh looking at it.
Its the little things in mommy hood
You know what I mean?

Last but not least


This is what I looked like
this week
last year.
C-R-A-Z-Y
I remember fervently praying
that I would go into labor on my birthday
Yeah, no dice.
But looking back,
What a cool thing that I got to be a part of
Its not every person that gets to grow two babies
and carry them full term
and be able to deliver them without a c-section.
Miracles happen every day.

30 was a very good year.
A growing year
A blessed year
Very Hard
Very Fun
Very emotionally charged with the good and bad

I am a lucky lucky lucky girl
I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Happy Birthday to me.
Here's to hoping 31 is just as great.

Myringotomies and other such nonsense...

Keegs

has had a big day today
and its only 10:00 am


Cutest little munchkin
in a hospital gown
that I ever did see


He doesn't even walk yet
and they still gave him little grippy socks
"just in case."

In case of what?
In case he decided
to stand up and tap dance
while under anesthesia?
Oh, okay, sure,
Just in case.

and don't worry about that bracelet chafing
he kicked that thing off before they even took him back
evidently not made for baby sized ankles


Poor buddy was pretty hungry
since he couldn't eat after midnight
and he usually has a 6:30 am bottle
he decided to try to eat his leads instead


Classic gown gap
at least they give them little pants
to keep their legs and bum warm

They have never given me pants to wear
to keep my bum covered
when I was having "gap" issuses
Lucky kid


The doctor was running late
so we had to wait in the post op room for a bit
Keegs was so hungry he almost ate the diaper bag
but was otherwise a really good sport



He forgave Dr. Porter pretty quickly
since he brought him this cute bear to chew on

His little ribbon says
Dr. Porter Loves Me

I wish i had gotten a picture of the crew
that came to get Keegan
Tall blond young doctor
Tall blond young male nurse
Tall blond young Anesthesiologist

The three of them walking down the hall
with Keegan in tow was quite the sight.

He told me not to even go to the bathroom
they would be back so fast
I thought they were exaggerating.

I stood up
made a bottle
sat down
texted Ryan
and the doctor was back
saying Keegan would be out in a minute
and that they were all done
and he did great.



I could here him screaming from down the hall
as they brought him to me.

But as soon as they let him eat
all was right with the world



After the bottle he was
out for the count.

The doctor said they all cracked up
when they saw his "designer diapers"

Thanks grandma for the blue jean diapers
to fancy up his bum for the big day
They were a big hit



The kid
is now napping and playing and eating
like nothing new is going on
despite having woken up at 5:30 am

Mom is definitely feeling the 5:30 am
and wishing that she was napping at this point
but I am so glad all went off without a hitch
and hopefully the weeks of ear infections
followed by weeks of antibiotics
and tummy troubles are over
We're ready to have our sweet giggly baby back