Spring Time!

It's been so nice seeing the sun a few days in the last couple of weeks. I'm so ready for summer! A couple weekends ago Daddy took the boys out for a walk down on the service road by our house.

He put their boots on so they could just run through all the puddles.

Look at those beautiful baby blue eyes!!!

Throwing rocks was definitely on the agenda as well!

Being silly goofy boys like always!!!

Totally and completely enjoying himself!

Who knew mud could make you SO happy!

Totally adorable!!!

Precious Boys!

The night before Owen's injury Michael took the boys outside so they could go dig in the garden and the boys saw these over in our neighbors yard and they just had to pick 'flowers' for Mama. It was so sweet to see them run inside so proud for picking these all by themselves. I love my boys!

She Cracks Me Up!

On Saturday night Ella was sitting on my lap and she bonked herself in the head with a DVD case and I said, "Bonk!" and started laughing. She thought it was so fun to make Mama laugh that she just kept doing it. Bonk has been one of our favorite words with our kids. I swear it has fended off tears so many times. Whenever they fall we say, "Bonk!" and we acknowledge the fall, but we don't just stand up and act all scared. I think most of the time kids just respond to their environment so when kids see people around them react negatively they respond accordingly.

Healing!

Day 4 after cutting his hand open and Owen's cut is already looking SO much better. I've been changing the bandages everyday and today was the first day that it didn't bleed while I was changing it. Thankfully it's showing no signs of infection!!! Owen even stretched his fingers out for me on his own this morning. This was something I was really worried about because he hasn't wanted to move them...at all! I was thinking that he might have to have physical therapy to get his mobility back, but I'm hoping that now he won't. It's mainly a mental thing for him. We have literally been calling his right hand "The Club" since he's hasn't been using it whatsoever!

On Friday we go to the doctor to have the stitches removed so that ought to be an adventure all in itself!

Cute Waver!

Uncle Ry bought this toy for Jack for his 1st birthday. The other day Ella discovered it and was just carrying it around by the handle. I was busy doing something and came around the corner and noticed she had figured out what it did. I love letting her discover her world at her own pace. I know with the boys I was always trying to show them everything and wanting them to know every little thing about their toys, but I really love just letting Ella do things at her own pace. You gotta watch til the end to see her cute wave.

Name Fun & Little Updates!

Owen is doing really well with Daddy being back at work. I thought he would have the hardest time of all the kids because he loves his Daddy so much. He is older though so he understands that Daddy comes back later in the day. He doesn't get much time with Daddy though since Daddy doesn't get home until 5 and then Owen goes to bed at 7. Why so early you say....well since he's not napping anymore he needs it. He is usually pooped by then and if we let him stay up because he's doing well or playing good it usually ends up in a complete and utter meltdown. So bedtime at 7 it is and it's really been working out good and he's still sleeping until 7am!

This cutie has been impacted the most by Daddy going back to work. He's reverted so much with his potty training it's driving me crazy!!! He was doing SO good and I wasn't even having to ask him...he would just come and tell me and I'd take him potty or he would just go right in take his pants down and go on his own and then tell us. So we started all over again with stickers and rewards and if he pees in his undies he gets toys taken away and so on and it's just NOT working. Nothing is getting through to him...and the part that absolutely drives me over the edge is the fact that when he does pee in his undies he comes and tells me with this big smile on his face. Frustrating!!

Ella Bean has had the biggest change...she is completely weaned now! Mama is sad and in pain...literally! You forgot how painful it is when you stop nursing them. A couple weeks ago when she finally started taking the sippy I was only nursing her in the morning when she first got up and then right before bed at night. My milk supply has just got down more and more and there wasn't really much left so we just called it good. She was my longest nurser though...she made it 5 days longer than Jack! :) I have noticed that she does like to snuggle more and she wants to touch me more often through the day. I can definitely tell that physical touch is one of her love languages. Oh yeah and she now has 3 out of her 4 one year molars!

Leapster Love!

Back when we bought Owen his Leapster for his 4th birthday he didn't really get into it. I only gave him 2 games - I Spy and Cars. I bought him 5 games total, but I wanted to wait to give him the other ones for special occasions. For Uncle Ry & Aunt Stephie's wedding we gave him Letters On The Loose. Ever since he has developed a LOVE for his Leapster. He just loves doing all the games and activities to find the letters. We've even hooked up the Leapster to the TV so he can play it on the big screen. It's been fun seeing him get excited about it and thankfully after a couple days he stopped playing it ALL DAY long on his own. I was worried that I would need to start setting a time limit for him. P.S. Love the way he sits with his legs crossed!!!

My Big Brave Boy!!!

****Warning if you are grossed out by blood or medical procedures you might want to be cautious reading this!****

So yesterday morning I woke up feeling like it was going to be a bad day. I don't normally feel like this or start my day off being so negative, but it's just the way I felt. Of course I was hoping I was wrong! The day started out fine...breakfast, nap time for Ella and then I got out all my stuff to do some sewing. That's when the boys started getting into trouble by touching all my sewing stuff. So I told them that Mommy wanted sometime to get things done and they needed to go outside and play. They went out onto the deck to play in the sandbox together. Before long I hear Jack say, "My jar....he threw my jar!" I knew immediately that Owen threw whatever it was that Jack was playing with down off the deck. I told Owen that was a bad choice and he would need to go get it for Jack. He went down the stairs and then was yelling at Jack to come down with him, which I had to address that and tell him again to go get Jack's jar. I had just enough time to walk back inside and sit down and then I heard Owen screaming. My first thought was Jack had thrown something off the deck and hit Owen in the head. I go out there and Jack doesn't have his normal guilty look on his face so I ask Owen what happened and start walking downstairs. He says he hurt himself and I see a little blood on the top of his middle finger. He's really crying so I hug him and then reach out to look at his hand and that's when Owen wipes his hand on himself and I see all the blood. I turn his hand over and brush a lot of blood down his arm with my fingers. That's when I see the gaping wound and immediately squeeze his hand shut and say, "We're going to the hospital!" This is when Owen started crying more and just saying he wanted to go to bed.

I took him upstairs and washed out the wound a little, but that just made him scream more so I got a washcloth wet and wrapped his hand. Then I called Michael (new job means no time to take off) so then I called our neighbor and she came over. Owen was crying and coughing...I thought he might throw up so once Vonda got to the house I had popped a movie in for Jack and pretty much just left with no instructions at all. It was so crazy! Ella was crying...she had woke up early from her nap, Jack just wanted Mama and Owen was freaking out. Plus I was trying not to freak out because the sight of blood isn't something I enjoy very much. I was worried that Owen wouldn't do good in the car because I couldn't hold him, but he did great. Almost once we got in the car he said, "God will heal me!" I love this kid...I can honestly say that when I'm in pain that is not my first thought! I asked Owen if he wanted me to pray and we did. I also talked about how God uses doctors to help him heal people. He was very nervous and already talking about getting a pokey...aka shot! I was very honest with him and said, "Yes, they will give you a pokey, but it will make your hand feel better so they can fix it."

I just drove to the hospital closest to us...Saint Francis. There was no one in the waiting room. They took his vitals and then we coaxed him into opening up his hand so they could look at it and wrap it up better. We only waited for about 5 minutes before they took us back to the room. It was probably another hour and half before they actually came into stitch him up.

First up was the pokey....he was so worried about this he literally asked every person that came in the room if they were the one with the pokey. They ended up basically swaddling him in the bed sheets to keep him still and he did really good. Of course he cried, but the numbing effect was pretty fast.

Here's the wound before they cleaned it. Since he was bleeding so bad I didn't even look around in the backyard to see what he fell on. I did ask him and he said he slipped on the rocks and fell on a piece of wood.


Next they had to clean out the wound with this cool water squirting thing.

By this time Owen wasn't feeling anything and he really liked the cold feeling of the saline solution.

He was so relaxed that he even asked me to turn up the volume of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

Next was the stitches....this was where things got a little more interesting. On about the 4th stitch the doctor found a piece of glass in his hand. We kept asking him, but he was sure he fell on a piece of wood and I couldn't for the life of me think of why there would be glass in the backyard.

The doctor decided to finish stitching him up since she was almost done...7 stitches total!

Then he got to finally eat some crackers and apple juice. After talking it over with some other doctors they decided to get an X-ray of his hand to see if they could see anymore glass. Well they thought they saw something so they wanted a better look so he had to get a CT scan as well. After reviewing that he were sure he had at least 3 maybe 4 more pieces of glass in his hand and they wanted us to go to Mary Bridge to see an Orthopedic Specialist.

By this time we had been at the hospital since 10am and it was 1pm and I left Jack and Ella with out elderly neighbor and no instructions. I was super worried so I called a few people to see if they could go and relieve her, but my friend Kim was at a doctor's appt for her son and my Dad couldn't leave work just yet. So I called Michael back and ask him to go home. Thankfully his boss was really understanding and he was able to leave. It was nice to be able to fully focus on Owen and not worry about what was going on at home.

After getting our discharge papers it was off to Mary Bridge Children's Hospital 5 hours after we got there.

We were suppose to get on the "fast track" at Mary Bridge, but they had just had a huge influx of patents so we had to wait....2 hours in the waiting room. Since it's a children's hospital they did have awesome stuff for kids to play with. Owen really enjoyed these game stations. After waiting for at least an hour and half Michael got to the hospital. My parents came up to our house once they got off work so he could join me. Owen had been asking for his Daddy all day so he was happy to see him.

What do you do when you've been at 2 hospitals for almost the whole day...chew on the remote control cord of course!

We were very honest with Owen and told him that he was going to get another pokey at the second hospital. The nurses were all so happy that we didn't lie to him. I couldn't imagine doing that. I just explained to him that it going to help him feel numb and go to sleep so they could really clean out his hand so it could get better. Here the nurse is checking for a good vein.

After getting his IV port put in. He did really well! We had to hold him down of course and he cried, but it was over fast. He was so cute when he was crying while they were holding him he said, "Please let me go!" It was so sweet that even though he was scared he used his manners.

A little while later they came in and hook him up with all the leads that check his vitals and he got to "kiss" the thermometer. He was actually starting to like all this medical attention.

Here he is starting to get all loopy! Instead of giving him just Ketamine like Ella had this doctor likes to give a little bit of Ketamine, but mostly Propanol because it has less side effects when the kids wake up.

The doctor spent a lot of time digging in the wound and cleaning it out really good. The pieces of glass were SO tiny there was really no way we were going to see if they actually came out or not. The wound sure looked nice and clean though. The doctor did decided to not stitch it as tightly as they did at Saint Francis so if there is anything glass stuck in there it will have a chance to move out. I believe he has 3 maybe 4 stitches instead of 7. Also since it was stitched more loosely they ended up have to preform a little bit of liposuction on Owen by cutting out a chunk of his fat that wasn't going to be held in anymore.

All done, but still in la la land!

They really needed him to wake up a little before they could let us leave. He was SO out of it! The nurse had asked him earlier what color Popsicle he wanted when he woke up and he said orange. She brought it in for him and she used that to help him wake up. :) He was so funny during this time because he was talking, but not making much sense. It took him a while to come around and then he got really paranoid. He was still scared from the pokey and I told him that he wasn't getting anymore shots. I asked him if he trusted me and he said he did. He was a bit teary and I think that was just an effect of the medicine. We ended up getting home from the hospital at 10pm...12 hours after he got cut. Oh yeah when Michael got home he checked out the backyard and discovered that he cut himself on a broken baby food jar that was right next to piece of wood. That was the jar that Jack was talking about. I had completely forgotten that I had given them jars to play with in the sandbox months ago. Michael's pretty sure the jar didn't break when he through it off the deck because all the pieces were under the deck. What we don't know is whether or not Owen threw the jar and broke it or if he was carrying it and it broke when he fell.

Here is the brave boy this morning all bandaged up. He slept really well and he's been eating good too. Thankfully according to the doctors he didn't cut the tendon and there shouldn't be any nerve damage. We have to keep a close eye on it in case it gets infected and we need to take him to his pediatrician in a week to have the stitched removed. The thing I've learned from Ella's ordeal 2 months ago and Owen's ordeal yesterday is...just go straight to a Children's Hospital because odds are they are going to want to transfer you there anyway!

Bomber Jackets!

The same day Ga-Ga & Pa brought GG over they also brought a surprise for the kids. After the announcement that Boeing got the tanker deal they gave the employees a really good discount at the company store. So Pa bought the kids new bomber jackets. Well Jack's wasn't new since he could just fit into Owen's old one, but Ga-Ga did wrap it up so it's was like new to him.

Ohh...what's in there???

What's that?

Pa even got a cute pink one for Ella. It was the smallest size, but it's still huge so she'll probably fit into it next fall/winter. She was taking her nap when the boys opened it so she missed out on the reveal. Thanks Pa for the cool bomber jackets...the boys will be wearing them on Saturday when we come down.

Flowers!

Last Wednesday was a rough day for me. Poor Logan was not feeling good and was pretty much inconsolable for about an hour and a half. I was SO stressed out and a little grumpy with my kiddos. It was just one of those days! Later on when Jen came to pick up Logan (she had no idea I was having a bad day) she brought me flowers! It was SO sweet and thoughtful. It definitely made me smile! I know there are going to be good and bad days and it's normal...I just need to remember to ask God to give me strength to get through them.

Crazy Day!

Yes, I am in fact still alive here...I was just taking an unplanned blog hiatus. That's what happens when your whole life gets consumed with reading Harry Potter during your limited free time! I'm on the last book now and I can't wait to finish. I've really enjoyed them and I usually don't get into fictional books at all.

Anyways...a week ago on Tuesday we had a pretty crazy day that I thought I'd blog about. First off I need to explain that when I watch Logan she is usually sleeping when her mom drops her off. On Mondays and Tuesdays when we go places in the morning I just strap Logan into the van (in the garage of course) and turn the radio on for her and then a little while after that we leave. We'll on this particular Monday I strapped her in, but I didn't end up going to Bible study since it was the day after my brother's wedding and we were pooped and my parents were bringing GG over for a visit before she left. So Logan sat in the van with the radio on for 3 hours. The next morning her mom put her into the van for me and Michael turned on the radio for her. It was a MOPS day so we would be heading out in a little while. A little bit later I went out to the van to put some of stuff in there for MOPS and I noticed the lights were really dim...yep the battery was dead!!! I didn't really think about it when I put her in there on Monday that 3 hours was quite a long time. Silly me!

I would normally have just decided to stay home from MOPS, but on this particular Tuesday I was in charge of our opening activity and the craft so I really needed to be there. So I call my friend Kim since she has a Honda Odyssey that can seat 8 people. She had to wait for her husband Micah to get home so he could put the 8th seat in and then she was on her way over. I'm still not sure how it worked out...God of course...but the fact that we fit 6...yes 6 car seats in the van is a miracle!!!

I wish I had gotten another picture that showed it a little better than this, but in the back row Andrew's head is on the right...in the middle is Ella's infant car seat and on the left is Logan's. Getting two infant car seats right next to each other is quite a feat! Kim was praying while I was putting them in the van. In the middle is Jack, Owen and than Josiah's car seat. In order to get the kids out in the back I had to take Jack's car seat completely out so the seat would fold down and roll forward. There are a couple amazing things that happened during this...first off Logan slept through the whole thing and we were actually on time! Seriously it was only God! I wouldn't know what I would do without Him and good friends...thanks Kim!!!

Wedding Present!

I had so much fun making Ryan and Steph's wedding card. Just a few weeks before they were married I had a Stampin' Up party and I got some new supplies that I needed to make it perfect.

The hearts are both embossed with those little dots. I found this ribbon years ago in the Target Dollar Spot and it worked perfectly!

I also wanted to make their wedding present so I ended up using a little bit of the Target gift card we were blessed with a couple months back to get myself a laminator. I'm sure it's going to come in handy a ton when I start home schooling!

I just happened to come across homemade luggage tags online and thought that would be a perfect gift. I had so much fun designing them. I used my Microsoft Digital program...they are actually food labels! I love how they turned out and bright colors make it easy for them to see the luggage when it was coming off the belt!

My Brother's BIG Day!

On Sunday March 13th my brother Ryan married his fiance Stephanie at The Pickering Barn in Issaquah. The below picture was taken from their website...the weather was in no way going to cooperate with doing outdoor pictures on Sunday!

It was a lovely place to have a wedding. Here is the inside of the big barn where the ceremony was held. I wished I had taken a picture after it had all been set up. A friend of theirs made this beautiful heart out of metal and that was up on the stage with this white fabric hanging down behind it to accent it. Let me tell you....ever single one of these seats were taken. There were even more seats added off to the left up in the front. Tons of people came out to celebrate the beautiful couple!

Here is the smaller side of the barn where the reception was held...again I wish I had gotten a picture of it when they were finished decorating. We got quite busy with picture taking and then once people started arriving we we needed to stay in the dressing room. I can't wait to see the professional pictures of the event!

We spent a few quiet minutes with the groom before it was time to actually get ready.

Then it was back to the dressing room. Ga-Ga got herself dressed and then she dressed Ella for me while I got my hair and make-up done. Michael got the boys dressed and since I had the camera we don't have any pictures of that process....and I'm sure it was a process!

I got Ella's dress off the clearance rack at Babies R Us after Christmas. It was only $20! I never tried it on her before the wedding. I just knew it would fit perfectly and it did! She is such a beauty!

GG flew up from Denver to celebrate with us. She also go to sit with Ella while she had a little snack.

Mama's all ready! I literally didn't have any plans for my hair or make-up at all. Then when I got to the barn the bride's mother's hairdresser was there and she offered to do both my hair and make-up for me. What a relief!!! Steph gave all us girls our necklaces, earrings and bracelets as a thank you for being in the wedding. She had them specially made so they would match our dresses perfectly!

She also got together with all us girls the day before the wedding and we got our nails done. It was nice to be pampered, but I have to tell you I don't think acrylic nails work very well when you're a mom. Maybe I'm just not used to them, but I'm finding it hard to do lots of things with my new nails!

Groom is all dressed and ready to go! I absolutely LOVED Ryan's white vest...totally reminded me of Ed Harris from Apollo 13. Very snazzy!

She's all set...such a beautiful bride!!!

In an effort to help keep the boys entertained I brought a whole bag of goodies for them. The main thing was a Hot Wheel's track that Ryan and Steph gave the boys for Christmas. I had specifically saved it for this day. Unfortunately the batteries we brought were dead so it wouldn't work! I also brought the protable DVD player so they had fun eating snacks and watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!

My friend Lori is the nursery coordinator at our church so since the kids are already used to her watching them and she loves them...I asked her if she would like to be our nanny for the day. I knew there would be a lot going on with almost all of us in the wedding so it was nice to have the extra hands.

Handsome little boy enjoying his Cheerios! I was really worried that Jack would be sad once the wedding started. He was a little jealous that Owen was the Ring Bearer and he wasn't. At the rehearsal he kept telling us he was going to be on the stage with Owen. Once the wedding started though I had a little chat with him, gave him his Toy Story lunch box to hold onto and he went and sat with Miss Lori during the whole ceremony.

Guess who has FINALLY learned to use a sippy cup!!!!! This Mama is SO happy! She is still nursing first thing in the morning and right before bed, but that's it.

Of course I don't have any pictures of the actual ceremony since I was on the stage and most everyone else in the family was too. It was beautiful though!!! Here the happy couple are dancing for the first time!

Such a handsome guy! He did great walking down the aisle...I heard that he was trying to avoid stepping on the petals that the flower girl was dropping. Once he got to the stage he had this really bewildered look on his face so in an effort to get him to smile I winked at him. That was all it took and then he was winking and making googly eyes at me, Daddy and Ga-Ga. It was SO hard to not laugh. He made it pretty far through the ceremony, but after a while I asked him if he wanted to go sit with Ga-Ga. At first he said, "No!" he was taking this Ring Bearer job very seriously, but after thinking about it and me asking him 3 more times he did take me up on the offer.

At the reception he definitely had a bunch of silly energy to get out!

He is such a character!!!

All last week was super busy so once the reception started Jack was glued to me. He just wanted Mama and no one else. He also immediately wanted his tie, vest and jacket off!!! He looked so cute all dressed up!

Love is in the air!!!!

Stephanie's Dad and my Dad both gave lovely toasts to the couple!

Not only did Ryan and Steph write their own vows, but Ryan also wrote a poem and read it to her at the reception.

Cake cutting! There cake was so neat looking. It was the shape of a paisley and the topper was actually a snowglobe with Precious Moments wedding figurines.

There were both very nice when it came to feeding each other. The lady that made the cake did say, "That top layer is red velvet it will stain her dress!" right before they cut the cake, but I don't think they were going to be messy anyways.

Tossing the bouquet!

Time to get the garter!

There weren't that many single guys out there so Michael took Owen out to see if he could catch it.

I think he's so cute with this hands up in the air. He didn't catch it though the guy to the left of him did....bummer deal! I guess he is a little young to be thinking about marriage though! ;)

We had so much fun dancing. I even got to do my beloved Electric Slide and I must say I did pretty darn good. Michael even got a video of it. Not sure if I'll post it though!

I don't really get emotional at weddings, but there was one part during the reception where I was dancing with Ella and this song by Bruno Mars came on call You Are Amazing. I didn't really hear anything, but the chorus, but it just made me think...I hope that Ella as she grows up knowning that she is amazing just the way she is. I know that as a girl I struggled thinking I wasn't good enough even though people told me I was amazing it's hard actually believing it. I want her know and believe that she is amazing just the way God made her. I also started thinking that one day (in like more than 20 years) we will be dancing at her wedding. Then I got a teary eyed!

Time to go....the happy couple got to leave in a limo (I didn't get to see it as it was raining and I was holding Ella) and headed to the Edgewater hotel in downtown Seattle. Now they are honeymooning in Hawaii...so jealous!!! :) :)

Congratulations Ryan and Steph!!!! It was a beautiful day for two beautiful people!