Instagram Friday

It's FRIDAY!  Woo-HOO!  I really felt ready for the weekend, what about you?

I am still loving Instagram on my phone.  Here are some snapshots of our lives over the past couple of weeks. 

Jenna made this for me and gave it to me when we got home from Iowa City. 

 Pulls at my heart strings.  I love that girl!

 

My very own boy band!  All three boys pulled out the pots and pans about 8AM and entertained me.

 

I snapped this photo of the corn.  I love Iowa this time of year.

 

 I was lucky enough to go with Brody on his preschool field trip to the apple orchard.  I love when I get to hang out more one-on-one with each of my kiddos! 

And our family trip to the apple orchard.  

 Last Saturday Aaron was reffing, so the kids and I stayed in our pjs for awhile and snuggled up and just hung out for most of the day. 

 Do you watch the Pioneer Woman on Food Network?  Jenna, Brody and I love her.  The kids love to watch her kids and all the animals on the ranch and I like it because I find yummy recipes.  This is her recipe for eggs in the hole (or star as I used).  Super good!

 Bowen started going down the big boy slide solo last weekend.  Adore his happy face!

 Brody got into a sticker book.  He was pretty excited to show me this...

 We got our first piece of mail from the transplant center in Iowa City.  It feels like a big step.  We have several appointments with different members of the transplant team on Tuesday. 

 I will leave you with this Fall photo that I just love.  Those colors are just amazing I think!

HAPPY WEEKEND!

The twins are 18 months!

The twins are 18 months old as of yesterday!  I looked at the date and then it dawned on me that my sweet, precious baby dolls aren't such babies anymore.  This makes me very sad. Anyway, I can't believe it's been a year and a half since they came into our lives.  They complete our family in every sense of the word. 

 Blake:  He is a sneaky ornery kind of kid.  He is constantly trying to keep up with Bowen and Brody.  His smile melts my heart on a daily basis.  He is our little Blakers, who has so much love and support it overwhelms me sometimes.  He is a fighter.  He is our miracle. 

Bowen: He is crazy.  He is rambunctious.  He is definitely the loudest child we have ever had.  He cries loudly.  He laughs loudly.  He is my cuddler. He is also Mr. Sensitive.  He has such a tender heart.  When Blake is hurting, you can just see the change in Bowen.   

 Happy 18 months baby boys! I always say this, but you are the best things I never knew I wanted. 

Apple Orchard

Every year we go to an apple orchard or pumpkin patch in the fall.  It is one of my favorite things to do with the kids!  This year, it was a bit on the chilly side, but with our October calendar filling up, we braved the temperatures and headed to Center Grove Orchard by Cambridge.  If you're in the area and have never been...go there!  You will love it.

They have the houses that represent the 3 Little Pigs story.  Jenna loved this one.  She got inside and said, "Look at all this detail." Haha!  What six year old says that?!

 

I was nervous about how the twins would do with the goats because for some reason they are both kind of weird about touching objects and things that they aren't sure about.  They LOVED feeding the goats.  This picture cracks me up.  It's like Blake is trying to figure out the goats and the goats are trying to figure out Blake.

 

 Corn pool drama.  I thought Bowen would love it, but he didn't.  I think his snot nose kept him from loving it.  I also don't think he appreciated Aaron and I laughing at the corn stuck to his snotty self.

 The gigantic jumping pillow!

 These things, I'm not sure what they are exactly, are new this year.  Instant Brody favorite.

 I have no idea who that is following Brody.  :)  Ok, there was nobody else riding and they looked fun, so I had to try it.  Brody and I raced.

 Jenna and mommy favorite right here - the slide!  I just noticed that our facial expressions are identical.

 The twins liked it too.  So did Daddy.  Although they didn't scream the entire way down like Jenna and me.

 Our view on the hay rack ride that Brody HAD to go on.

 Our obligatory yearly photo.  Aaron already had the twins strapped in the van and warmed up, so that's why they aren't in the photo.  I thought this still turned out pretty cute though!

My four on the fourth

I stole this idea from another blog that I follow.  This gal has two sets of twins and on the fourth of every month she takes a picture of her 'four on the fourth.'  I thought I would try doing the same.  I remembered on the night of the fourth that I was going to do this, so please enjoy these photos from the fifth.  Let's just pretend, ok?!

 Four small children is challenging.  Man oh man the twins didn't want any part of this.  The picture below is the best we could do! 

 

I realize that they're crazy, chaotic photos, but I think it will be nice because this is how they really were at this moment in time. :) 

And we're done here...

A day.

I really wish somebody could follow our family around for a day so we could document this chaos.  That way, one day when we're all old and the kids are grown-up we can look back and laugh. :)  I took a bunch of pictures just one random day.  Here is a small (very small) glimpse into one of our days.

 Daily drama is a must.  I think Bowen took his toy phone.

 

I just liked this picture.

 

 Brody and Bowen are going to eat us out of house and home as teenagers.  This picture makes me laugh because they are both eating the exact same way!

 Jenna is smiling through tears because she just lost a tooth.  Pull it mom, no don't pull it, it won't come out... !! 

 During Jenna tooth drama, Brody decided to lick the cupcake bowl.  I told him to go wash his hands and his face and this is what I found.  Brody in the bathtub with his pants on.

 We love board games.

 Dragging out all the pots and pans is at least a 52 times a day occurance.

 Bowen adores tractors.

 I let them outside and they run away as fast as they can.

 We love that our library is just two blocks away from us. 

 Looking at a train going by.

 Love this kind of joy...

 Jenna thought she was going to puke.

Bowen is ALWAYS on the go.

 Jenna and Brody trying to get Bowen back over by me. haha!

The way I see it...

I haven't posted one of my newspaper columns on here for awhile, so I thought I would.  Some of this is redundant from my previous post, so sorry about that. :)

Perspective

We were in Iowa City.  Again.  If you remember a couple of weeks ago I told you Blake’s blood pressure had been too high.  Our doctor decided because it hadn’t really budged that she wanted to bring us in for observation on Friday and she let us go home on Sunday morning.

It was a long 48 hours for both Blake and me.  He is at a tricky age because he just wants to go.  Blake is used to his brothers and sister to entertain him and play with him.  I’m pretty sure the entire weekend he was thinking, mom, you just aren’t that fun!

I did terrible in the hospital.  I got cranky.  The only thing they were really doing was taking his blood pressures every four hours and changed his dialysis prescription at night.  That means during the day we pretty much had nothing to do.  Let’s just say we walked.  A lot.  And thank goodness for the toy room otherwise I don’t know how we would have survived.

Amongst all my unhappy thoughts I had a moment.  Do you ever feed like God just gives you a kick in the pants when you need it?  I always have these moments of clarity and perspective when I’m at the hospital.  It always seems to be the perfect attitude adjustment.

I had seen a mom with her little girl throughout the day.  We had passed each other in the halls, acknowledged each other with a smile, but hadn’t spoken.  They ended up sitting in the toy room when we were in there, so I asked her what book she was reading and conversation followed from there.

It turns out that her five year old daughter started having seizures a month ago.  The doctors in her hometown thought they had it figured out, but the mom insisted on a cat scan.  It turned out that the little girl had a tumor on her brain.  The surgeons in Iowa City removed the cancerous tumor succesfully, but she was still having to do chemo.

The girl’s name was Faith.  They were in the hospital because she had completely stopped eating.  It broke my heart looking at her because she was just so sad.  The mom was trying to engage her in different activities, but there was such a saddness surrounding her.  The mom was telling me how she herself was having such a hard time because she had a two year old and nine month old at home.

I just kept looking at sweet little Faith with her brown hair and big brown eyes and just thought, what if that were Jenna?  I immediately put myself  in that position.

Shortly after our conversation, I decided to take a trip out to get my first real meal since I had arrived.  I cried all the way to the parking ramp.  I cried for that family.  I cried that I was so crabby about being there for high blood pressure when this little girl just had a tumor removed from her brain just recently.  I cried for all those sweet little innocent kiddos that shouldn’t have to go through all these different things, but do.

I saw something that said, “The things you take for granted someone else is praying for.”  You can imagine what is at the top of my list.  A healthy child is such a gift and an incredible blessing that should never be taken for granted, but that’s just the way I see it.