Little Problem Solver

Problem: 

I'm hungry and Mommy is distracted cleaning up the special treat the dogs left in the loft...AGAIN.

Solution:

Simply climb on TOP of the table and proceed to eat Lincoln's left over cereal.

Once bowl of nasty soggy left over cereal is empty continue on with box.

Wait for my Mommy to notice I'm sitting ON the table and place me safely in my booster, let me continue digging into the box, and give me a cup of milk to top it all off.

And that is how to be a Problem Solver.

Pioneer Day

The boys kept asking what you do on Pioneer Day. Hmmm, well...nothing unless you live in Utah; then everything closes and there's big celebrations. There used to be stuff here but participation was probably pretty low due to the horrid heat that is the month of July.

We decided a trip to the park, not the puny park in our neighborhood but the park in the neighborhood I drool over, was a Pioneer-ish kind of activity.

After the awesome afternoon rains that came through it was a nice evening.

They played on the equipment.

Played in the grass.

Climbed around some more.

I want a couple of these cool spring toys in my back yard!

Discovered what a big kid they were.

 

Touched grass for the first time.

And Stephen's attempts at a picture proving I was there too.

He just took a whole bunch and hoped one was good.

I'm thinking head swaps...

Happy Pioneer Day!

8!

Nothing quite like an 8 out of your lactose free/soy free chocolate chips.

(They are actually really good.!)

We took them all to see Ice Age...3D!

This was their first 3D experience because we're cheap and never could stomach the extra charge...actually it was their first movie in the theater since...well...I can't remember. It's been a while I guess.

It was hilarious watching them as things in the movie came straight at them.

In true Ice Age form they laughed themselves silly.

This is the cool sunset that met us as we left.

What do you do for a kid that is NEVER full?

An all you can eat buffet of course, followed by a full night's sleep to process the soy that I'm sure was in it.

We've been working on this kid for 8 whole years now...CRAZY!

He asked, "When will I be 8?"

"It's your birthday today."

"No, what minute will I be 8?"

At 3:30 that afternoon I informed him that it was official.

"Huh...I don't feel like I'm 8."

Fun Week...

It went kinda like this...

Pediatrician visit last Friday to make sure it didn't get worse over the weekend.

No Improvement over weekend.

Back to Pediatrician Monday.

Fill Prescription, Stat chest x-ray.

Pulmonologist Tuesday.

Fill more Prescriptions. Receive Asthma Plan.

Start "Operation Rescue Garrett and Lincoln's Relationship".
Don't make it a full 5 minutes into the fun activity with Dad before they're mean to each other, it ended, and had to come back home.

Try again next week.

Back to Pulmonologist Wednesday.

Fill MORE Prescriptions.

Pick Big Boys up at Basketball Camp.

Discover Gabriel came unglued and physically lashed out at another kid...

Face the fact I continue to be an epic failure on the Gabriel front.

Cry.

Fume about it the rest of the day.

Forget to take Gabriel to his first Cub Scout Meeting.

Earn Mother of the Year Award.

Still FUMING.

Thursday: 

Laundry and Dishes *all* day. Gabriel NOT allowed to go to Basketball Camp, help him compose apology letter. 

Give him crappy work (scoop dog poop) as punishment for his crappy behavior.

Really dig into the CHERUBS website. Found answers regarding Lynneah.

Confirm I'm not crazy on the Lynneah front.
At 358,000+ miles The Little Van That Could...Just Can't Anymore.

Friday 8:15 am x-ray and ultrasound.

Sit at Basketball Camp and watch Gabriel to make sure he keeps his hands to himself.

Irritated I have to do that FOR A NEARLY 8 YEAR OLD.

Swing by Wal Mart with all 5 kids to pick up a birthday present for a Saturday morning birthday party.
Gabriel can't go because we can't trust him to keep his hands to himself.

Garrett beam with delight that he gets to go and Gabriel doesn't.

Check out. 

Load up. 

Look at clock; 12:50 !

 Remember Lynneah's Speech Evaluation at 1:00.

Curses!! Mother of the Year Award again. We've been waiting for the Eval since April.

Call all the numbers I have for Pediatric Therapies.

 Dump rest of kids.

Drive like a devil across town praying she can still be seen.

They let us go ahead and come because *get this* I've never been late and am allowed one in a life time. :-D

Anyone who knows me is laughing right now, but I'm pretty good about Dr appointments and work, it's getting to church that I can't seem to EVER manage.
Realize I've only nursed Kenzie ONCE so far.
Mother of the Year Award...Summa Cum Laude.
Nurse during the whole evaluation.
Rewarded with big Kenzie smile!

Lynneah's 21 months old, but at a 12 month developmental level.

Count my blessings that the poor babysitters who came over and over and over again and had to watch Ice Age over and over and over were still willing to come and watch these yahoos. 

I had a babysitter everyday except Thursday and these kids watched Ice Age every single one of those days.

All this while getting the assortment of above prescriptions into the right girl, at the right time, with the right dose.

Saturday both girls breathing much better. Still irritated at Gabriel.

The End. 

And Good Riddance to It.

Next week will be better...that's an order.

How to Feed Your Toddler...

Place food in appropriately sized bowl.

Make meal time fun for your child.

( Don't turn your back on them for one second or you never know what will happen.)

Hose off in the back yard.

She's been sick too. It's left her with a cough that results in puking, all over, multiple times a day. Welcome to a child that had a diaphragmatic hernia. Apparently this is super common with these kiddos.

 

 

I was cuddling her while she was sick; Gabriel walked by and, so matter of factly, said,

"She's Princess Fussy Face today."

Breathin' Easy

Well...Some of us anyway.

I think we'll call her Wheeza'.

She kicks, squirms, fights and cries every time she needs a treatment, then all of a sudden realizes she can breathe and falls asleep.

Her new equipment; she's not a huge fan, but definitely doesn't fight it as much. It is SO much faster than the nebulizer. After wheezing for 6 days and seeing little improvement from Albuteral and Prednisolone she won a trip to the Pulmonologist. We got the above spacer and more prescriptions. He didn't say it was asthma, "but it is the second episode of wheezing in only 5 months." (She turned 5 months yesterday.) We were also given an asthma action plan.

The little mask is SO little and cute in a sad kinda way...weird mix of feelings. Since this isn't wheezing season the Dr is treating pretty aggressively. Hopefully we can  avoid too many problems this fall when it really is wheezing season.

 The bouncy seat is my best friend when a kid can't breathe well. She's sleeping much more comfortably now.

She is a dang cute little bug though!

New Garrett-ism: 

(While rubbing her fuzzy little head) "Awww, gracious little dear, gracious, gracious little dear."

I thought it was so cute, I just left it. We'll talk about precious later. :-)

Garrett-isms & Pictures Below

More of the things Garrett says...

"I want the same cereal as last (yesterday) morning." After correcting the wording and several hours later, "Remember the spy game we played last (yesterday) day (afternoon)?" 

Loudly at Wal Mart: 

I was carrying a fussy Kenzie, Garrett looks up and says, "Is there a baby in your tummy?" 

"No" 

Pause... 

Looks up with a slightly quizzical face, "So it takes a looong time for your tummy to not be fat anymore after you have a baby?" 

"Yeah" (Thanks for yelling that to the whole dairy section ;-)) 

I'll agree with him that something about carrying a baby makes it look like I'm pregnant, but now I know it's very apparent to everyone else too. 

While at Lowes: 

 I had to stretch way back to the back of the shelf for the light bulb I needed. Garrett was full of all kinds of questions that night and it was getting really late. 

He asks, "Why do you want a yellow one? I want a blue one." 

I explained that we needed yellow so the bugs wouldn't come. 

He in all seriousness asked, "Yellow keeps bugs away?" He thought it was such a great concept. Then he got suspicious... 

"How do YOU know it keeps bugs away?" 

I really try to actually give real answers to their questions but I was tired, so all I gave him was, "I don't know. I'm just old, and when you're old you learn a few things along the way." 

"So when I'm old like you I'll know stuff?" 

"Yep." (He was very happy about that idea. The older man in the same isle seemed to think it was funny too.)

My favorite Garrett quote for the week..."I'M GONNA LET MY KIDS DO WHATEVER THEY WANT WHEN I GROW UP!" Hope his wife enjoys that.

While driving home from a play date:

"Mom, remember when we LIVED in a hotel?"
We were really broke for a while there, but never that broke. After a few minutes of questions I realized it was supposed to be,"Mom, remember when we STAYED in a hotel?"
 We stayed one night in a hotel last summer and apparently he really like it. 

Standard American English is really escaping him right now. Funny Boy!

Random Assortment of Pictures From My Phone

I was all the way across the room and it was a phone, but this is kinda what Kenzie is lookin' like these days.

"A Leprechaun hole!!"

I'm such an awesome Mom, I took the picture, THEN told him to pull his hand out before he got bit. :-)

Garrett's discovery while we waited for Gabriel after school.

Jammies at mid-afternoon...check.

Pink heart "girlo" blanket...check.

Death grip on weapon...check.

Hog tied by Daddy...check.

Quiet...check.

Lynheah's first picture. She was quiet during scriptures, but ONLY if she was taking pictures with my phone.

We have a balcony off our Master Bedroom. THIS is one of the sunsets we got to watch from it. It looked way cooler in real life; phone cameras just can't capture them well. You get the idea though. We're excited to get it all decked out and hang out watching the sun go down.

*In the interest of full disclosure, we have this view but also two large water tanks off to the right.*

Lynneah brings a whole new meaning to "Little Urchin". Seriously, she can pull it off well. I got her up from her nap and started to get her dressed then thought, "eh, who cares" and left her this way. A short time later after she discovered the markers weren't locked up anymore I was grateful for my decision.

I have no idea why he's crying, but it shows all his blonde hair well.

Stephen shaved all the boys' heads a couple weeks ago. About half way through Lincoln's he looked up and asked, "Is it brown yet?"

Someday IF we ever get unpacked around here maybe I'll take some pictures of the place and post them. It's proving to be slow going. I was without a dishwasher for a week, illustrated by the disposable plate in front of Lincoln. We had no fridge inside for 2 weeks and no washer or dryer for 3 weeks...you can imagine the mountain of laundry. Once we got all the appliances in place and were ready to get down to unpacking I came down with the WORST strep throat E V E R! I haven't been that sick in years. I'm pretty sure I was on death's door. I didn't actually do anything about it till I realized my throat was rapidly swelling and breathing while laying down was a little tougher. Note to self: Strep doesn't just go away on its own. The kids liked it though because they watched TV ALL DAY for a week straight. I got better and again we were ready to get down to business. Then Lincoln, Lynneah AND Kenzie came down with something, not strep thank goodness. They've all been running fevers, have awful coughs (which end with Lynneah puking all over multiple times a day), and hours of pitiful crying...during the day AND night. Figured while I'm sitting here, at 1:30 AM, getting Kenzie back to sleep again I'd throw some pictures from the old phone on.

** Random Side Note**

STEPHEN'S DEGREE JUST ARRIVED IN THE MAIL!!!!

WAAAHHH HOOOO

Adios U of A.