Sunday Photo

Miss Avery still has a fever, but no other symptoms. 

So, we spent the whole day cooped up in the house.  

All six of us. 

Yes, things got  a little bit crazy.

We had to be creative.  

Wade had the kids lay down and fanned them with a blanket.  They always think this is the best game in the universe.

You should have heard the giggles!

Long night story.

Another long night last night.  And now another long post.

Eli has been teething this past week (maybe 2, I can't keep it straight).  He is horribly unhappy, and with good reason. His upper front teeth are so swollen and red.  I've never seen teeth so close to popping through, without popping through.  That being said, we've had some pretty long nights at our house lately.

Yesterday was our anniversary.   We hired a babysitter and went on a date! Date nights are rare now that we don't have as many people to trade with - and paying for 4 kids adds up!  I loved our sitter, the kids have loved having her before and she was a miracle worker and got Eli and Avery to sleep.

Last night around 10:30 Eli woke up crying, then he woke up Avery.  We let them both cry for a while then they both went back to sleep.  Eli woke up again around 11, and I went in and rocked and fed him.  He was up again with his teeth crying from 1-3.  I was up with him walking him and holding him the whole time.  Each time I would get him to sleep and I would try to lay him down, he would wake up again and scream.  Then he would wake up Avery.  (Right now they have to share a room and it's pretty small.  They wake each other up frequently, which is NO fun.....but for the most part I absolutely love that they share a room, it's pretty cute when they talk to each other from their cribs.  It's funny to see how they react to each other.)  Anyway...

So I was up with Eli from 1-3:30. Avery was up at 1:30 - I gave her a sippy cup, she went back to sleep.  She woke up at 3:30, I had Wade change her diaper and give her milk, she went back to sleep.  Wade says that she felt really hot, I felt her, but she felt normal to me.  Wade had also just washed his hands so I just thought his hands were cold.  Eventually sometime around 3:30, I got Eli and Avery back to sleep and finally tried to sleep myself.

At 4:30, Avery woke up again crying for mama to come and get her out.  I told Wade just to go get her and put her in our bed.  I know, some people are totally against kids in their beds, but really, we all just wanted to sleep at this point.  Avery laid down in the middle and I turned my back and tried to sleep.

Around 5:15ish I remember thinking that Avery was really breathing funny.  I was still sleeping, but then it clicked and I immediately woke up.  She was not making funny breathing noises, she was seizing and choking.  I yelled to wake up Wade, who jumped out of bed and ran to get her medicine.  I stripped off her pajamas and then realized that I hadn't looked at the clock yet.  I did, it was 5:21.  Wade got the medicine out and it was 5:22.  At 5:23 she took a deep breath and her body relaxed a little so we held off on the medicine.

She actually came out of this seizure a lot faster than her last one.  We took her temperature and it was 100.6.  Around 6 am, we felt good enough about giving her Tylenol for the fever.  (before that she still wasn't well enough and would have choked on it).

I'm so frustrated with myself because I was asleep.  I have no idea how long she was seizing before I woke up.  But at the same time, I am thankful that she was in our bed and I noticed, and not in her room - how would we have known?  Wade brought up the question tonight - how many seizures do you think that her or Noah have had in their beds without us knowing?  Yeah - I just can't think about that, so I just like to think that they haven't had any.

My parents came up early this morning so we could take her to the walk-in clinic when they first opened.  They were super fast at the clinic.  Once I said that she had a febrile seizure, they bolted into action and we went straight back to a room.  The Dr. couldn't find anything wrong, so we discussed the possibility that she might have a bladder infection.  We all agreed to just keep medicating the fever and observing her.  We've been alternating Tylenol and Ibuprofen every 3 hours.  She needs it, because at 3 hours her fever spikes and she really goes down hill fast.

So here we are again.  I'm sad it was so soon after her last one.  I feel guilty I wasn't awake.  However, I know that Heavenly Father blesses us every day in small ways.  Wade was off call and home.  The other kids were asleep and out of the way. We had played around with the idea of going to the beach for the long weekend, but we didn't.  She didn't have a seizure last night when the babysitter was here.  My parents were around and able to help us today.   Avery really came out of it faster this time, which makes us believe that I did catch it fast and that she hadn't been seizing for every long.

So our long weekend plans are changed.  We had some projects around the house we were going to get done, but they are on hold.  We've watched a LOT of the movie Tangled today.  Between a teething baby and a feverish toddler, our arms are always full.  We were really looking forward to attending the service auction at the church tonight, but had to skip out.  It looks like Memorial Day weekend for us will be spent laying low at home.  And that is just fine with me.

{11 Years}

One of my favorite anniversary posts a few years ago was a countdown.  I thought it was fun thinking how some things have changed and some have stayed the same...

11 Years

10 Months we knew each other before the big day! (Goes to show, when you know, you know!)

9 Moves

8 Different jobs

7 Years ago we become parents and haven't looked back!

6 Cars

5 Degrees between us

4 Kids keeping us busy

3 Months after we became more than friends and "dated" before Wade popped the question

2 People

1 One love!

Now the ooey-gooey stuff....

Despite our struggles it's something we've talked about.

We can't help but look around at our relationship,

our little family,

at where we have been, 

where we are, 

and where we are going,

and know that we have been, 

are being 

and will be blessed. 

Relationships are hard.

Families are even harder.

But they are so worth it.

Eleven years later we still know and believe that with all our hearts!

Happy Anniversary, Wade.  I'm glad we've got eternity together, you make me smile every day!

Eli Helps Plant A Garden

Monday night for Family Home Evening we planted our garden. Yes, some of you might think that is late, but for Washington we are right on time. This year we have 4 tomato plants, sugar peas, kale and onions. Eli really enjoyed being outside in the sunshine and dirt.

Trouble!

It's inevitable - 17 months apart, these two are destine to be future partners in crime.  I just know it!

Monday I watched as Avery found a container of Eli's baby puffs.  She got down and crawled over to Eli and told him to come with her and they both made their way under the table.  Then she opened the container and dumped it all out!  They both giggled, giggled and ate the puffs!

I couldn't help but laugh and take their picture! (Even though I had already swept the floor 3 times and it was only noon!)

I got a short video.  Ignore Noah in the background saying, "die, die die" and then jumping off the couch.  Who knows with that kid.  But these two are going to be trouble!

Crazy Hair

This week is spirit week at Gage's school. I haven't got a picture everyday, but today was worth it!

Monday was crazy sock day.  We took a pair of his socks and wrote on them with a Sharpie - things like 1st Grade Rules!  Go Knights!  We are cool!  I had started out writing "1st Grade Rules, 6th Grade Drools" but he wouldn't let me and told me that was mean!  Gage really likes his 6th grade buddy!

Tuesday was mismatch day.  Gage is also in the running club that runs at recess on Tue/Fri.  He is very serious about running club.  He feels he needs to wear certain running clothes, so despite the mismatch day he wore his basketball shorts, a teeshirt and his running shoes.  He said that they were "mismatch" because they were basketball shorts and there was a soccer ball on the teeshirt.

Today was crazy hair day.  He told me yesterday on the way home from school that he wanted rainbow hair. I had all 4 kids, and Wade would be gone all night, so I really didn't want to run around to different stores looking for hair products. And we had just cut his hair this weekend, so there things were not really looking like they were on his side.  One trip to Fred Meyer later we found some blue and green colored mascara (and a coupon!).  It totally worked! (and washes out really easy too!)  It was also super easy to spike his hair up all over because of the mascara wand.

Of course, everyone had to get a piece of the action.  It didn't show up as bright on Gage's hair.  But Noah's looked really fun.  Avery had to get in on it too.  Noah and Avery had playgroup today, so it was pretty fun for them to show it off.

You can't see Avery's well, she wouldn't hold still for a picture.  But she has some green streaks in her hair too.

Thursday is team sport day and then Friday each grade is assigned a color so the whole school can make a rainbow.
Such a fun week!

{9 Months}

Our little Eli Owen turned 9 months old this weekend!

At nine months old Eli loves to crawl anywhere and everywhere!  He is getting super fast too.  He goes straight for the toilet and the bathroom trash (boo!)  I had to get the  gate out for when we are upstairs.  He also really likes to crawl right into the sliding glass door.  He will bonk his head, sit up, look a little confused, laugh and then try it again.  Perhaps he thinks that if he keeps trying it will eventually open.

Eli loves to crawl and play outside.  You really have to watch him close.  He will go for handfuls of everything and stick anything in his mouth!

He is such a happy boy, except for when he is teething (like the last couple days) or hungry.

Speaking of hungry, this little man is always hungry and can pack away some food!  He will sit in his high chair and eat finger and table food with us and then still cry until I get out baby food and feed him.  In fact he will cry in between the time it takes me to turn and walk to the cupboard to get a new jar of baby food out!  Sometimes he even cries between bites - silly boy!  His favorites are bread, canned peas and carrots, bananas and Ritz crackers.

Eli only has two teeth, but like I mentioned he is (horribly) teething and the top two should pop out any day (hopefully soon so I can sleep!). He is so grumpy and only wants me to hold him most of the day, but his gums are so red and swollen, I don't blame the little man!

Eli takes about 3 naps a day, unless we are out and about and then he just catches a nap whenever he can in the car.  He has to have his two special blankets with him everywhere we go.  He loves that he is big enough to sit in the shopping cart now without his car seat.  I am loving that I don't have to carry that car seat around with me everywhere I go!

Eli has been waving his hands just this past week and sometimes it's hard to tell if he is waving or clapping.  He definitely tries to clap.  Just the other day I had all the kids sit down with me and we all clapped for Eli.  He looked at us and started to clap too.  Then he got excited and put his two fingers in his mouth, but still tried to clap with one handed.  It was too funny and we all had a good laugh!

Eli has a few words and talks, when he can get a word in, in this busy busy place.  He loves to say Dada and bla-bla.  We all think it's funny so he says it more!

Eli is such a fun loving happy little boy and we are so blessed to have him in our family!

Happy Day!

Sunday Photo

8:30 AM

4:30 PM

And some others in between: 

Happy Sunday!

Little Fish

Every time we take a trip to Target Avery always loves to look at the little girl swim suits.  She always picks the ones that have boy shorts and tops.  She tells me that they "Look like Noah and PINK!"  This doesn't really surprise me since we watch Noah at swimming lessons twice a week and he wears shorts and a swim top (except his have sharks and are not pink).

This afternoon since we didn't get taken up in the rapture (darn!) and Wade got called into the hospital (double darn!) we deiced to go out for some shopping.  The kids counted out some change that they had and we headed to Value Village (like Goodwill).

I was so excited with the stash we found...lots of new clothes with tags still on them....including a brand new, tags still on them, pink boy shorts swim set!  And only $6, it's on sale for $10 at Target right now!  Score!!!

Avery had to wear it the rest of the day, and of course, I had to let the little fish take a swim in it too!

1st Hair Cut

Today Eli turned 9 months!  What a big boy.  Wade was cutting the big boys hair tonight and since Eli's was looking pretty shaggy too, we decided it was time for his first cut too.  

What a stud!

cupcake

Dear Mom,

Thanks for bribing Avery and Noah with a Hostess Cupcake at Business Costco.  I think you and I will both agree it was a 75 cents well spent.  Especially when we got home and Avery dropped half her cupcake on the floor for me while you were not looking.

Love,

Your chocolate cupcake loving boy, Eli

Sunday Photo

Tonight we fed the missionaries from our church dinner. That also means that everyone gets a little wild and crazy while they are here. (Who am I kidding, things are almost always wild and crazy around here, Wade is SO hard to control!!!)

Gage wore his blue ninja costume all night and in between awesome ninja moves, he kept quizzing the missionaries with random questions.  "How many pages in all of the scriptures total?  How many prophets are there? If Superman and Captain Underwear had an epic battle who would win?"

Noah told us potty jokes at dinner and then asked when he could have his ice cream dessert.  Ice cream is really important to Noah.

Avery danced around in her pink tu-tu skirt.  Then she took it off and danced around some more.  Because apparently tonight was her "refuse to wear pants" night.

Eli is missing in action because he was messily eating refried beans in the high chair when I remembered that I needed to take a Sunday photo.

smile

Noah.  

If we could all be as comfortable as you in our own skin.  

You make me smile.

Heat Pack Make-Over

I few weeks ago I posted about how I had to make new rice heat packs for the kids so they would leave mine alone.  It has worked wonders, and I've had my nice little heat pack to myself ever since.

A friend gave me my pack 7 years ago after Gage was born.  It was a really nice natural aromatherapy pack that smells really yummy and fits just right around your shoulders.

I've been using it a lot lately because my allergies have made my ear still hurt a lot, particularly at night.  So last night I had just heated it up and was looking forward to some relief when I spilled my cherry pomegranate crystal light on it!  Seriously?  This stuff stains everything in the entire world and never comes out!  I was heartbroken!

Luckily I was able to clean up the floor, I borrowed one of the kids pack for my ear, and I ate a little chocolate.  I left my heat pack in the laundry room to deal with in the morning.

I wasn't quite sure I could wash it.  So the time had come.  I needed to make a new heat pack for myself.  I thought I would share the experience.

Heat Pack Make-Over In 10 Easy Steps

1.  Isn't the fabric of my old one lovely?  Okay, not really, but I do like the way it smells and I do like that it is divided into segments instead of one large pillow.

2.  I picked out some fabric from my craft stash.  This happened to come from some old fat quarter package I bought in the fall.  When I bought it I didn't know what I wanted to do with it, I just liked the colors.  

(Basically this means, little people in my house wouldn't take a nap, so we went to Jo-Anns so I could shop and spend money on things we don't need)

3.  I sewed a ribbon on the right side of one of the panels.  Then I realized it wasn't too straight. That is why there is no  picture of that.  And that is why they invited straight pins.  I really should use them.

4.  I put wrong sides together and sewed three sides together like a pillow.  It's also imperative to have a child sit on your lap and try to push all the buttons on your sewing machine during this step too.  It is very helpful.

5.  I turned it right side out and then made three "sections" by sewing lines across the pillow, but leaving a gap at the open top end.  This way the filling can move from section to section.

6.  Turn on the Disney Channel for 4 year old and put the 2 year old and 8 month on down for naps.  This will help with your sanity for the rest of the project.  Although I know they would be really, really helpful with this next step.

7.  I cut up my old heat bag.  I don't know if the stuff inside expires or not, maybe it wasn't so dark brown to begin with.  Either way I reused it.  I probably should have got new filling, but this was a first attempt to making a nice looking-good-smelling bag and honestly I just didn't want to leave the house for the project either.  I reused and filled my bag.

8.  I then turned the edges in and sewed the bag closed.  I then did a stitch on the outside all the way around the bag as reinforcement. (and it made it look a little nicer)

9.  Cut off all the lose threads, pose the heat pack on the counter so the ribbon shows, but not the crooked part.    I know my lines aren't that straight and my sewing skills could be better, but since only my ear, my shoulders and occasionally my back are the only ones that see this up close, it doesn't matter. Take a picture and give yourself a pat on the back!

10. Done!  Now my ear can feel better and it can look nice too!

Mother's Day Sunday Photo

I truly believe, a big part of mothering is knowing when to pick your battles.  

Today, after 3 different attempts (before church, after church, after naps) I decided getting a nice looking Sunday Photo of me and the kids was a battle just not worth fighting.  

We are not posed.  Most of us do not like having our picture taken. Most of us have a hard time sitting still or smiling nicely.  One of us was even pretty mad I insisted he wear pants in the picture.  This is my life.  

Today is Mother's Day.  I am blessed each day to be the keeper/teacher/comforter of four little people in my home.  I am blessed by examples every day from many amazing women including my own mother and mother in law.  Families are amazing.  And I am blessed to know that while I might not ever get a "perfect" looking Sunday photo, that our family can be together forever.

And families forever is a battle worth fighting for.

That is why I am a mom.

Friday Night - Movie Night

One of my favorite traditions that we have as a family is Friday Night - Movie Night! 

When Wade started working late every Friday for residency I thought it would be a fun way for us to kick off the weekend.  The kids never let me forget either.  We pick a favorite kid dinner, (homemade pizza/chicken legs, hot dogs, pancakes, just to name a few) pull out the bean bags, popcorn and treats and put our feet up for a good show!

We typically drive by a Redbox on the way home from school and make a selection.  Sometimes we make a run to the library Friday afternoon.  We've been known to pull out a movie from our own collection that we haven't seen in a while, or the best is when a new movie is released that week and we buy it!

Tonight's selection is from the library.  It's Hoot.  I've watched it before and thought it was cute.  The kids are loving it!

Friday Night - Movie Night is my favorite part of my week!

Time Out for Women {Seattle}

Last weekend I went with my mom and two of my friends to the Time Out for Women Conference in Seattle!  The program sold out early, it was amazing to sit in Benaroya Hall Music Center with 2500 other women and feel their spirit and be uplifted.  The theme this year is, "To Become..." and I was inspired in so many ways of things I want to become in my life.

I am always glad that Time out for Women comes to Washington around Mother's Day.  It's always nice to come home to Wade after two days and hear nice things!  Last year he told me he had no idea how I ever kept the house so clean.  This year he thought he would take all the kids to McDonald's for lunch.  When I got home Saturday night he told me he had no idea how I ever took the kids anywhere!  He had taken them to McDonald's - which he said is a "super easy" place to take them, yet it was still a little chaotic.  (uh, yeah, that is the such an easy place to take them, and no one even got stuck in the play place for him, I'll have to coach Avery better next time!).  He said he has so much respect for me grocery shopping now!

Friday night.  Mom, Me, Courtney, Jen.

Me and Mom Friday night.

Mercy River played Saturday.  They played in Spokane last year.  I loved them.  These women are amazing, in addition to all their musical talent they have 12 (and 3/4) kids between them too!  I especially loved their "bedtime song."  Hopefully they will post some lyrics or a video of it soon, it had us all laughing so hard we were crying.

Saturday afternoon we ventured across from the Hall to eat at Wild Ginger.  I totally felt grown up.  There wasn't a single kids menu in site! Thanks Jen for picking such a yummy place.  I have a fun picture of you, but I won't post it. :)

I believe my favorite speaker of the whole event had to be Mariama Kallon.  She was my favorite last year too.  She has such a happy spirit.

As a service project we put together "Possibility Packs"  (hygiene kits) for a local Seattle Women's Shelter.  The last count that I wrote down is that we were able to finish 464 packs!

Thanks Mom, Jen and Courtney for going.  I can't wait for the next Time Out I can attend!

  

spaghetti & green peas

Nope.  We can't get enough of this face, no matter how messy it gets!

8 Months

Eli turned 8 months a few weeks ago.  I decided I better get my bum in gear and post about this month before another month passes me by!

Eli is still smiley as can be.  And, crawling all over the place!  Can you tell from the picture below that he no longer wants to sit still?  Don't worry, I caught him.  (I have an almost identical picture of baby Noah doing this too!)

At 8 months old, Eli loves the freedom of getting around on his own.  We are missing the freedom of having our lego's drop on the floor.  He goes after everything he sees.  As if I didn't sweep my floors enough, now I have reason to do it even more often!

Eli loves to eat, and eat and eat.  He eats 3 meals with us and has snacks in between.  He could eat an entire container of baby puffs if I let him.  He still loves to nurse every 3 to 4 hours.  He does really well through the night.  I left him this weekend for 9 hours on Saturday and 7 hours on Friday night and he was a pro.  Wade  said he was a little sad Friday night when he had to go to bed without me, but Saturday he didn't even cry the whole time.  Maybe I could even give up this nursing habit?!  Despite all he drinks and eats, he is still a little tiny guy.  (just like Gage).  Since there isn't a well-baby check up this month, I don't have exacts, but on our scale at home he is only around 14-15 pounds.  Little Man!

Eli loves to play with balls.  Especially since he has started crawling.  He throws them, chases and throws them again.  He love to smile and play with his siblings.  He thinks it is funny when they play peek-a-boo with him.  He giggles and smiles at me when he pulls my hair! (little stinker!)

The two fingers.  Eli is still sucking them like they are going out of style.  It's rather funny sometimes to watch him, and people comment on it all the time.  I know it will be horrible to break him of this later, but right now, it's totally worth it!  The other day while I was playing with him he started to suck on his fingers.  So I looked at him and put my two fingers in my mouth.  He looked at me, popped his fingers out and laughed at me!

Eli is already attached to his blankets.  He has a special blue one that Grandma Christiansen sent him that he has to have everywhere he goes.  In fact, we ended up getting two of them, just in case. I did this with Noah, but Noah soon learned there was "bob" (his blankets name and the "other bob".  So with Eli I wanted to make sure he liked both blankets.  Well, now he has to have both!  I guess there is no winning in the blanket situation at our house!

It's been so fun watching Eli grow up.  He has started to babble.  Now that he is crawling he seems so old to me.  I love his happy temperament.  He adores his family and we adore him!

Sunday Photo

One empty Costco diaper box.
One climbing rope.
One hallway (too bad it's not longer!)
One Daddy.
Four kids.

45 minutes of pure joy before bedtime!

Happy Sunday!