Rough 24 hours

So, we had a rough 24 hours at our house. Monday afternoon at work I started to feel sick to my stomach. I came home after I finished the paper and sipped on some 7up. I felt like I was flu sick, but nothing ever happened.

The West Marshall girls made it to state and we played the late game (8:30 pm), so Aaron went down with Jay and the two of them were going to cover the game for the paper. Halfway through the Estherville-Hull game I got a text from Aaron saying he didn't feel well. Next thing you know I'm getting more texts about how he can't keep anything down. Awesome.

Meanwhile, back in State Center, Jenna would not leave the bathroom because her stomach hurt. Same deal. Emptying the stomach.

I felt so bad for Aaron, who had the sweats and then the chills. I felt really bad for Jay, who drove our van home at about 80 mph and still had to make two stops for Aaron. What a mess. Needless to say, those two did not attend school Tuesday. As for me, by some miracle, I avoided it, as did Brody and the twins (knock on wood).

Tuesday afternoon everybody started feeling better, so since we were all home, we stayed busy in the house. Jenna read books. She loves Mercer Mayer books and she is getting to be a very good reader.

Brody is just a goofball who likes to dress up. This time it was Aaron's hat and hunting gloves.

We did a craft with mini marshmallows. Dip one side in paint and the other in glue and the kids made a picture of whatever they wanted.

During craft time/naptime for daddy/exersaucer time for the twins, I made these 5-ingredient cookies. So good and so easy.

Here was Jenna's marshmallow pic - she made a "B" with a smiley face, sun and grass.

Blakers loves to give high fives. It's cute. He also loves to suck on fruit puffs and then spit them out. I guess he was saving this one for later?!

And then there's this guy. He loves to smile like this and then...

Close his eyes and laugh like you are the funniest person on the face of the planet. Hilarious. He has the best laugh.

Everybody is back in school. Last day of school is tomorrow and Aaron has conferences tomorrow nite. No school Friday. Ahhh...wishing for the weekend!

Bowen's latest discovery

Mr. Bowen is ornery. :) He is into everything and very, VERY curious. His latest discovery is the fact that Blake's feeding machine has wheels. Bowen has found he can push it around while crawling or use it as a balancing tool to walk. Luckily, he hasn't tried to push it around while Blake is hooked-up, although I'm sure it's only a matter of time...

Caught red-handed

What mom?! I'm just pushing it around the living room a little.

If I just put my hand here...

...and hold on like this I can even stand up.

This is fun mom! This face is pure ornery!!

Some February Pics

I decided I would just post a whole crap ton of photos that I've taken throughout the month of February since that's about how long it's been since I posted some. A catch-up of us, through photos...

Mr. Brody with my sunglasses being a tough guy.

I challenged Jenna to a hula hoop contest. I lasted one second (that's being generous) and she lasted long enough for me to get sick of counting. :)

Blake the evening of his homecoming from Iowa City after his two day stay in the hospital. Precious.

My little performer

Blake loves chewing on hats. It's one of his favorite things to do.

One of Bowen's new discoveries. Not only can he open the cupboards, he can also pull everything out of them. Ornery!

Our Valentine's Day photo. Pretty good for us!

You know my love of baby toes. These are Bowen's.

Because doesn't everybody wear their Halloween costume around in February?!

Buddies. The bond between these two started in Iowa City when Jenna pulled the chair up next to Blake and colored him Barbie pictures and talked to him. Melts my heart.

Jenna lost her second tooth! It was loose and Jenna was complaining about it. I randomly said I would let her eat three bowls of ice cream if she let me pull it out. That girl loves her ice cream! I pulled that thing right out.

With the nice weather we've been having I've been taking the kiddos out when possible. Bowen zonked after a recent walk.

Brody is excited for spring and time on the John Deere tractor again.

Busy.

Ok, I know I have been beyond terrible about updating our blog lately. Sorry. I feel like we've been extra busy the last month or so and time gets away from me.

In addition to the normal stuff, I have state wrestling this week. Tomorrow our girls play in game 3 of 4 on their way to state. Oh...and our top-ranked and undefeated Trojan boys start tournament play tonite. CRAZY at work.

At home. It's crazy. Like always. Jenna and Brody either love either other or fight with each other. Drives me nuts. Bowen is into everything. Cupboards and the dishwasher are his new favorites. Oh....and last nite he climbed up the first two steps while the rest of us were eating supper. Great. Blake in the past day or two has very slowly done a bit of an army crawl. Hoping that little guy can keep it up, even though two mobile babies will be chaos. Not that he doesn't move around; he can roll his way across the floor pretty quick.

I need to finish getting our tax stuff together. I'm avoiding it. I've starting running a small (VERY small) bit outside when the weather and the children cooperate.

What I'm trying to say is, my blogging time has been spent elsewhere the last month or so. My project 365? Uh...don't know what I'm going to do about that. I will try to post some new pics of the kiddos soon.

Dehydrated=Iowa City

After battling to keep Blake's feeds down for five days at home, his vitals were all over the place on Tuesday morning. Aaron came home to get Jenna, I told him what was going on and he said, "I think we need to go to Iowa City. We've done all that we can do." I agreed completely. We had done everything Dr. Jetton and the nurses asked of us and he still wasn't getting better.

We think it might have started as a bug, but ended as Blake just being dehydrated. With the dialysis, it pulls off your extra fluids. When it has nothing left to pull off, it in turn makes you sick to your stomach. What happens when you're sick to your stomach? Right. You PUKE.

Aaron took Blake to Iowa City where the two stayed from Tuesday until Thursday. After getting him rehydrated, he tolerated his feeds much better. It was night and day the Blake that left and the Blake that came home. He was so smiley, so chatty and so active. I missed him and Aaron so much! And so did Jenna, Brody and Bowen! Jenna gave Aaron the biggest hug when she walked through the door.

We also got some other Blake news while we were in Iowa City, but I'll save that for another post. I found this quote on another blog I follow. I swear, it just spoke to me. Every word of it is so true. It was a tough week here. We love our family of six, but it's stressful at times. I cried this week. Three times. Sometimes I just have to. This quote made me feel better. :)

“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity and an understanding of life that fills them with compassions, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.”

--Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Project 365 - Day 31

Unfortunately we've seen a lot more of this lately in our house. Blake's feeding machine downstairs. He has had to be hooked sometimes during the day. Boo!!

Project 365 - Day 30

Bowen the STINKER! He has a radar when the fridge opens. He is there like right now. Just like his big sister Jenna used to be.

The way I see it...

SLEEP

Don’t you hate when you do things that curse yourself? For example, I woke up at 2:30 a.m. this morning when Bowen woke up and I said to my husband, “I love waking up and thinking that it’s almost time to get up, but actually finding out you have a few hours of sleep left.”

I changed a diaper and thought Bowen felt kind of warm, so I gave him some Tylenol. He was obviously not feeling well because I think I might have gotten a combined twenty minutes of sleep between 2:30 a.m. and 5:15 a.m. when I decided to just give up. I come in about that time anyway to finish up the paper.

After failing to get Bowen back to sleep, I did what any desperate parent would do - I loaded him in his carseat and drove around town, hoping he would go to sleep. As I type this he has just started to cry because he resisted the motion and did not go back to sleep. I guess I have an editor-in-training this morning by my side.

My Christmas present from Aaron was tickets to the Lady Antebellum concert that was in Des Moines this past weekend. Jenna (fellow lover of country music) was my date for the night. The singer that went on before Lady A was Darius Rucker and he sings this song called, “It Won’t Be Like This For Long.” Here are some of the lyrics:

He didn’t have to wake up - He’d been up all night.

Lying there in bed - Listening to his newborn baby cry...

It won’t be like this for long

One day we’ll look back laughing at the week we brought her home

This phase is gonna fly by, so baby just hold on

It won’t be like this for long

As I was swaying back-and-forth with my snotty-nosed, footy-pajama clad, whimpering little guy in my arms, that song popped into my head. It’s just one night. Nobody likes to not feel good and I’m sure it’s worse when it’s a baby because they can’t tell you what’s wrong. Someday when I have four teenagers in my house (yikes!) I will long for the days of just having to get up in the middle of the night to rock a baby back to sleep.

As I’ve been typing this column I’ve been rocking the car seat with my foot. Guess what? We have a sleeping baby boy. It’s going to be ok, because it really won’t be like this for long, but that’s just the way I see it.

Project 365 - Day 29

Jenna, Brody and I made this running inspiration board for a friend's birthday. Love it. It wasn't quite dry when I took this, which is why there's some white glue-like stuff.

Project 365- Day 28

Sassy pants and I getting ready to head to the Lady Antebellum concert in Des Moines. The tickets were Aaron's Christmas present to me. FuN!

Project 365 - Day 27

My breakfast. It's called the green monster. Actually really good.

Project 365 - Day 26

A certain boy in our house thinks he can feed himself. Death grip on the spoon. Nothing but a mess!

Project 365 - Day 25

The back of Miss Jenna's new boots. Purple boots. Her favorite color. She's in LOVE. :)

Project 365 - Day 24

First snowman of the year. And it's January!