Kelli's 5th Birthday Party!!

Can't believe she is 5!!! Well..she isn't yet...Thursday May 7th at 641am she will be! But we sure had a good time celebrating on Saturday with our families!

She asked if she could have her fingernails painted for her party...


We have a rule in our home...no gum until you turn 5! Both Andrew and Kelli have been given a huge supply of gum on their 5th birthdays from their Aunts and Grandmas!!


Kelli's cousin Olivia has this doll and she LOVED it the last time we were at their house. So she sure was thrilled to get it from Uncle Derrick and Aunt Lauren!

Baseball!

Andrew had his first baseball game this week! It is SO much fun to watch these little guys play! Some have some obvious talent, and others, well...they are stinkin' cute! This year they got a whole uniform (Andrew's socks go half way up his thigh and his t shirt goes almost down to his knees!) Brian is the assistant coach this year and does a great job! Andrew loves having him there!

Hodge Podge

Well, this is gonna be a busy week for me so I thought I would post tonight! I realized that with all the sickness, surgery, construction I never posted Easter pictures so we will start there!







Andrew had his first "at home" school project early this month! Brian took on helping with this one and it turned out just great! They have been learning about animals all year long and to wrap things up they had to do a diorama on an animal that was assigned to them by their teacher. They were able to give their top three choices. Andrew's 1st choice was a garter snake (remember previous post when he found a garter snake in our back yard). He was SO excited to get his 1st choice!





Miss Kelli has been an extra blessing lately as she has managed to stay healthy! She is always willing to help me out and is so good at entertaining herself and Emily! She also has loved some warmer weather and jumps at the opportunity to go outside to practice riding her bike. Her goal for this summer is to learn to ride with out her training wheels! It is unbelievable that she will be 5 in less than two weeks! We are celebrating her birthday on Saturday with family and she is very excited that she will finally be able to have gum! (*We have a rule in our house that you can't have any gum until you are 5.) We did a mini photo shoot so we could make a birthday invite and this is my favorite!



Emily's ears are doing better! Seems the oral antibiotics are doing the trick! We saw the ENT on Thursday and they looked lots better! She has a few more days of the meds and we are hoping that it doesn't come back! Poor thing has developed a fever and lovely green runny nose, but is still mostly herself...I am sure she is as ready as we are to have her healthy again! She LOVES her daddy...a daddy's girl through and through. When I tell her daddy is home, she goes running to the kitchen, climbs up on the chair, looks out the window and makes sure he knows she is watching! She just happened to be trying on her swim suit when I snapped these...











Brian is doing great! He has one more week off of work and then can go back next Monday! He is managing very well and is only taking motrin for discomfort on occasion! It has been great having him home and he has been an exemplary patient! He even set up his own version of "picture in picture" tv so he could watch the nascar race and the Bulls playoff game!




=) I am doing good too...I had a few days of increased contractions earlier this week, but have been great the last couple of days with just a rare cramp here or there. So I go back to the doc on May 5th and then go to the every week appointments! It is crazy that this baby could be here if 4 weeks! But I am pullin for 6 or 7! =) I have been having so much fun with my photography and it has been keeping me busy! I am super excited for 2 newborn sessions this week, one isn't even 2 weeks old and the other will just be 4 weeks old! I was able to photograph a beautiful highschool senior this week...here is one of my favorites...also remember that you can check out my latest photoshoots at my photography blog...the link is in the upper righthand corner of this blog!

Update

Brian...

Doing amazingly well! Yesterday I told him I was going to take the kids to church to get out of his hair for a while and he said he wanted to go with! So we took off his bandages, he showered and off we went! He has been more sore today but he is trying to take less of the "big" drugs and in turn is moving a little slower, but we did go for a walk and ran some errands and made a trip to the library so he could check out some movies and a book. All in all it has been a very smooth recovery to this point! We will check in with the doctor sometime this week!

Emily...

Still has one purple ear, but not as noticeable as it was a few days ago! Brian got her checked in to the nursery on Sunday while I was parking the car, so I can only imagine the nursery workers coming up with a story about me letting Emily play with purple markers! =) The drainage is less, but still there. The ENT called today with the results of her most recent cultures and she still has strep A growing in her ears! AAGGHH!! So now tonight we will start on a round of oral antibiotics and then go back to the ENT on Thursday or Friday. Overall Emily is doing very well. She is not quite herself, but overall is really not bothered by all of this. My biggest concern is that her hearing is being affected. She has gotten VERY loud, not sure if this is temperment or adapting to the gunk in the ear!? Pray that these antibiotics work, if they don't the next step is a CT scan to check the anatomy of the ear and then a "throurough cleaning under anesthesia" by the ENT. This drainage started on March 14th, so we are all ready to get this figured out!! Thanks for your prayers!

Kori....

I have my regular OB appt tomorrow. All is pretty much status quo. I have been contracting some, but not so much that it has been a concern. And this is my 4th pregnancy so I am sure some of it is my uterus saying..."seriously?? we are doing this again???"! So I anticipate no restrictions and just keep doing what we're doing! 32 weeks!! It is a little nuts how quick this pregnancy has gone!! I will try to post another belly shot soon!

Home

We are home from the hospital after a smooth day! We got there a little before 7am and Brian was wheeled back to surgery at 950 and he went to recovery at 1110 and we left the hospital around 330. Everything went just as "advertised", so the doctor said! Brian should be comfortable for the next 12 hours or so with the meds he received at the hospital and then he has some good stuff to take after that if he is uncomfortable. He cant lift more that 20 pounds for the next week or so and then he will go back in for evaluation and go from there! Thanks so much for your prayers!

Update...

Well I have not posted for a little while...wanted to make sure Brian's post was front and center for a while! If you haven' read it yet, scroll down and read it! I think I will encourage that he "guest" post more often! Bri is having surgery tomorrow (friday). We have to be at the hospital at 7am and they say we should be home sometime around 3pm. We would appreciate your prayers for the surgery, and for the recovery. I will be sure and keep this updated to let you know how he is doing!

I also wanted to give you an update on Emily. I don't think I have blogged much about it, but I know I have talked and emailed with many of you about her lovely ear drainage that has been going on for what seems like forever! Literally it has been draining for over a month. We tried several different treatments under the care of her pediatrician and when those didn't work he sent us to an ENT (Ear Nose and Throat doctor). He explained that what had started as a bacterial infection turned into a fungal infection and so we were just treating it wrong and he started a new treatment of puffing Boric Acid powder in to her ear last week. The acid causes her no pain (she doesn't like it being blown in) and he felt that it would clear up with a treatment or two. Well today we were supposed to see marked improvement and it instead was much worse. So he cultured each ear for bacteria and fungus, vacuumed out all of the gunk and put drops of Genetian Violet, an antifungal concoction, into her ear and now we wait for the cultures to come back. Today was alittle more tramatic for Emily (and for mom having to restrain her) but we are hoping that this does the trick! If not the next steps are sounding less and less "fun" for Emily so we would also appreciate your prayers for this treatment to work! The great thing about this Genetian Violet is that it is purple and will dye whatever it comes in contact with. So she has purple ears and it will also dye all of the drainage, so that will be purple (which is better than the nasty green it has been) but it will permenantly stain anything it comes in contact with!! So pray for my inlaws also who will be watching Emily tomorrow and Saturday as they try to keep coton balls in her ears and keep her from lying on furniture or carpet! =) Love you Keith and Nancy!! We will have to wait until next week to get the results of the cultures and then will reevaluate what comes next! Here are a few pics of our sweet purple eared girlie!!

A little perspective

As most of you will soon realize this is not Kori writing this. You won't hear about what cute, funny or naughty things our kids have done lately. No pictures here either. I have never "blogged" before and I can't really believe I am doing this. I'm not much of a computer guy and don't have a facebook or myspace account. I think it's just a huge waste of time and am astonished by the amount of people who do this. Even my cousin Lance(his name has been kept the same to further make fun of him) is a facebooker. Really Lance? Seriously man, you always were the cool cousin, the older cousin who I looked up to. The gun shooting, animal slaying, cooking food on an open fire, mounting trophy bucks on the wall type of guy. What happened? I can just picture you now with your pinky finger up in the air holding your glass sipping an appletini or maybe even a cozmo! Why can't you just communicate like we did in the old days, send an e-mail dude! or if you want to go old school(thats what the kids say now) hop in your pick-up truck and stop for a visit. But anyway I digress. The reason I am writing is because recently I got some upsetting news. I have a hernia. Two in fact. While this isn't life altering, it is frustrating. While I had in fact suspected it for a while my better half told me to not worry about it. So I didn't, until now, and now I need to have surgery right away. Well guess what? That didn't work for me and I got quite upset. Upset at Kori for dismissing me ten months ago. Upset that Andrew's baseball team has just started practices and now(as his coach) I will miss several weeks. Upset that now I wont be able to finish the attic, which is Andrew's new room, until after the baby is born. Upset that in just a few weeks we could have our baby and I will be unable to help like I normally could. Upset that after nine months working on the same jobsite I won't be able to finish the biggest and hardest project I've ever worked on. So I went to work today upset, feeling sorry for myself and perhaps with a bit of a chip on my shoulder. The first person I ran into at the job was Bill, the site general contractor, the man who runs the whole entire project. I've gotten to know Bill pretty well these nine months so we chatted a bit and I remembered he had had a colonoscopy the day before. I asked him how it had gone, almost doing it out of politeness rather than concern. What I heard next was nothing I expected or was prepared for. With a bit of a wry smile he proceded to tell me that he had rectal cancer. The doctor told him that he would probably make it two more years, with extensive surgery, radiation and chemo. He would loose all of his sex drive and have a colostomy bag for the rest of his life. Two years. Two years. I looked at him and didn't know what to say or do. I told him I was sorry and just kinda stood there for a second taking in all that he had said and will be going through. And then he asked me about my hernia. My hernia, he's asking about my hernia. In four to six weeks my hernia will be but a memory and Bill will be going through his third round of chemo and he's asking me about my hernia. Even though nothing had changed, everything had changed. I can coach next month or next year. I can finish Andrew's room later, if we need to the new baby can sleep in the hallway. We have lots of friends and relatives to help us if the baby comes early. I was worried about all these little things that really don't matter a whole lot. It's all about perspective. I guess I needed a little perspective. I will no longer be so bothered by things that mean so little. I won't get mad at that driver who cuts me off and has to beat me to the next red light. I won't be so frustrated when dinner is burned, we all like frozen pizza anyway. It's all about perspective. Maybe you need a little perspective too. As you think about this today, pray for Bill. Bill has perspective, he just doesn't have much time left. Long after my hernia is healed and my baby is celebrating birthday number two, Bill's family will be burying him. I know there is one thing Lance and I will both be doing, we will both be hugging our kids a little tighter tonight. Pray for Bill and his wife today.

You have to check this out

Okay...following my last post with Kelli's comments about my expanding size...I may be sending my photos to this lady for some editing!! On the right hand side of this page under the links for Photography Inspiration, go to Ashley MacNamera's site and watch the video that is up (should be the most recent post)....It is unbelievable!!! There are butt cheeks, just want to warn you!

It's either laugh or cry...I choose laugh!

So two "kids say the darndest things" moments from Kelli this week....

#1...We are in Jewel, waiting for yet more prescriptions to be filled, and Kelli yells out..."Hey Mom!! Look over there!! They have crotches!!!" I look in the direction she is pointing and see she is talking about crutches!! "Emily, Look!!" she exclaims again, as I am trying to fight the laughter as to not crush her oversensitive spirit (wonder where she gets that from??)... "Crotches, just like the ones Daddy used to use!" I finally gain composure and bend down and say..."Kelli, its cr-uuuu-tches!!, crotch is another word you can use to describe your bottom!" Of course she was mortified that she had now yelled it twice...sweet thing!


#2...At dinner tonight I was giving Brian a recap of some of the talk radio I had listened to this morning. One segment talked about the taxes they are imposing on cigarettes and if it was fair to single out smokers, and wouldn't people just try harder to quit smoking if it was going to cost them more than they could afford and then the increase tax to fix our deficits would not be effective anyway. I still think they should impose the taxes even if it is for the sole purpose of giving smokers another reason to quit (because potential death apparantely isn'y enough of a reason) and then they should also charge a higher tax for foods that contain High Fructose Corn Syrup and Saturated fats, etc....maybe then people would quit eating junk and make healthier food choices. It is frustrating that it is so much cheaper to eat food that isn't good for you, than it is to eat fresh. And a nice conversation about what good food versus bad food does to our bodies ensued. Ending with the basic conclusion that if we make poor food choices we will get fat. To which Kelli then says...."Andrew you are not fat, Dad you are not fat, I am not fat." And then she looks at me and says, "Well, you are fat." and then she went back to eating with out skipping a beat! I burst into laughter, big belly shaking laughter, tears filling eyes laughter! Brian, bless his heart, explained that I was getting bigger because of the baby growing inside. I of course didn't argue that or give any insight on the food choices that I have made during this pregnancy that have added more than a few unnecessary pounds that are oh so easy to blame on eating for two!!

New chart is in effect....week 2!

As the arrival of Baby #4 approaches I have been thinking of ways to make life flow more fluidly in our home. I also have wanted to teach the older kids about responsibility and that there are some things they could be doing to help out the family. But I also wanted to do it in a way that is appealing to a 7 and 5 year old. And of course there is a selfish element...I don't want to do it all myself! =) As I was lying in bed a while back, trying to get my brood of pillows in to their perfect position for a good nights sleep, I had this idea....



First I made a list of all the chores they can do already and then thought of a few more that they can learn to do, and if not done perfectly will not drive me crazy, and then some bonus chores that were optional.

Then I took a picture to represent each of those chores and printed them out and laminated them after putting a brief explanation on the back of what the chore entailed. There are daily, must be completed chores (brushing teeth morning and night, make beds, room is picked up and vacuum ready). There are weekly chores that they swap each week (setting the table, clearing the table and wiping it down, vacuuming their room, vacuuming the living room, vacuuming the stairs, cleaning the bathrooms) and then the bonus chores (reading for 30 minutes, coloring a picture or writing a note for someone, memorizing a bible verse or doing an extra job for mom or dad).

The chart itself is just a piece of poster board, with mini clothes pins to hold the chore cards and two pockets, one to hold completed chore cards and one to hold their earnings...pennies. For each completed card they earn a penny at the end of the day.

The pennies are then used for tv and computer time. 5 pennies = 30 minutes.

So far this has worked WONDERFULLY!!! It has also been a great lesson as to what jobs we just do because it is a part of being a family. For example...turning a light off that someone else left on is not considered an extra job for mom or dad, but just a part of being a family...as is getting Emily in her seat, or getting a loaf of bread out of the freezer, or playing with Emily while mom makes lunch, etc...

I also like it because the chore cards can change as the kids get older!! Hoping it sticks!!