Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Charlee Mae turns 3!

It literally seems like yesterday when our sweet niece/cousin, Charlee Mae, was born.


Now she's 3!!!  And going to be a big sister!!!!!!



Her actual birthday was on a Monday, and our kids were out of school that day, so I thought it would be fun to take a road trip to El Dorado and spend some time with Charlee on her actual birthday.

Our original plan was to meet Ty and Charlee at the baseball field and let the kids play for a while before meeting Audrey for lunch.  But it ended up being pretty rainy that day, so we met Ty at the indoor practice facility.  Ty and Cru played baseball, while the girls ran around hitting each other with football pads.  They had a blast!


































































Before leaving, Ty took the kids to his office, the basketball court, and to see the grizzly bear (Butler's mascot costume, which was just lying on the counter, but the kids were deathly afraid :))  And when we said it was finally time to go eat lunch, Cru whispered to me that he wanted to skip lunch and just stay with Ty.  He loves doing all things boy, so spending that time with Ty was extra special to him.  Hope they can do it again!



Lunch was yummy!  And the kids all behaved so well.  But then it was time to say good bye.



Charlee went back to the sitters and I took my kids to Wichita to birthday shop for Charlee, who was having her party that weekend.  I think they were all happy knowing they would see each other again that weekend.

Charlee's party was an adorable pink Batman theme.  The kids enjoyed a bounce house, giant bubbles, cake, and presents!
























































































Everlee LOVES her Aunt Audrey, but that day, I think she loved Charlee's ponies just a smidge more :)



































The day before Charlee's party, we went to a craft fair, and I got these handmade bow and arrows for my kids, and I decided to get one for Charlee as well....



All the kids seemed to really enjoy playing with it.  And I told my brother, if the new baby ends up being another girl, maybe one of his girls will want to hunt with him :)  And then later that evening, my sister-in-law sent me this pic....


HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY!

We love you so much, Charlee Mae!







Hope your day was as special as you are!  You are beautiful and going to be an amazing big sister ♥








Sunday, October 27, 2013

While Cru spends his afternoons getting stitches, Reese spends hers getting awards!

If you haven't figured out by now, they are different....



so very, very different!



And I wouldn't change it for the world!






Sunday, October 20, 2013

October 18, 2013

I started my morning with this view......



working the kids' school pumpkin patch.  It was freezing, so I hibernated in my van and enjoyed every second of peace and quiet until my shift was over (kids were in school, Evee was at Grandma's).

The kids got out early from school that day.  Chet was in KC, and I texted him this picture....



The first snow!  Are you kidding me???

I never realized how much I dislike the cold until I had kids - we rely a lot on being able to spend time outside, and the fact that it's mid-October and we've already had our first snow scares me!  What's in store for us this winter :///

After lunch, we had to work the pumpkin patch again.  The kids had been looking forward to this for weeks....darn snow!




 But the kids loved it!





And showed this mama how to make the best of what God gives us!  They're good at that.


Now stay away, snow!  You can only come back on Christmas morning!  Then, you have to leave again and not come back until next Christmas!

Thursday, October 17, 2013

It was bound to happen.  Quite frankly, I'm kind of surprised it took this long.  I am, however, not surprised it happened to Cru.

Stitches.

We had our first trip to the ER when Reese put a piece of plastic wrap up her nose.  And now, we've had our first bat with stitches.

Here's how it all went down....

The kids (Cru and Everlee) and I had just arrived back home from running a quick errand after lunch, and I told them that I was going to switch out the end table upstairs with the one downstairs, so they ran downstairs to wait for me as I cleaned off the one upstairs.  It wasn't minutes later I heard this horrible scream come from Cru.  You know, The Scream.  I went flying down the stairs, and he was holding his throat saying he had hit it.  I moved his hands and saw blood and a gash on his chin.  I quickly grabbed a wet towel and cleaned it off, then called Chet.

No answer.

Called my dad and said something like how do you know if a cut needs stitches?  His response, "I'll be right there."

Called Chet again.

No answer.

Then, I texted my dear friend, Melisa (who is PA) this picture.....



































Poor thing, she always gets my medical questions.  And graciously always helps me.

She said that he'd need stitches, then asked if I wanted her to do it or take him to the ER.  When I asked Cru, he said he wanted Melisa at the little hospital (aka doctor's office) not the big hospital.  Don't blame you, buddy!

I text Chet the same picture and said we were headed to the doctor.

No reply.

Melisa met us in the front lobby and took us back to one of the "sterile" rooms.  After examining it, she confirmed the best solution was stitches.

I should note, every time anyone said the "s" word (stitches), Cru would sob and beg for just a big bandaid. 

Oh yeah, I called Chet again.....

You guessed it, no answer.  At this point, I knew it was my job to get Cru through this, but I was just frustrated that I couldn't even get ahold of him to tell him what was going on.

While Melisa finished up with her other patients, Nurse Evee entertained us.....



 And Cru would not let go of my hand....



When it was time to get started, Cru freaked!  No words would calm him down.  He even tried escaping.  We tried to distract him with Ninja Turtles....



 not happenin'!

We needed back up....grandpa held his head, I practically laid on his chest to hold his arms down, and a nurse held his legs.  Pretty sure we all went deaf during this time.  My dad just kept talking to him trying to calm him down, but he continued to scream and cry.  At one point, while making that horrible slurping noise you make when you are continually crying hard for a long period time and can't catch your breath, he said, "You're hurting me, Melisa."  That's all I could take; my heart broke for him, my heart broke for Melisa.  I just closed my eyes, tuned him out, and prayed it would be over soon.

And then....



 It was like he was in a trance.  I've never seen him lay so still.  I asked if he wanted to try to watch Ninja Turtles again, and he told me he just wanted to close his eyes.



 Two stitches....and sleeping??


































No, he wasn't sleeping, but he sure was relaxed.  And exhausted, so I thought it would be a fairly quiet evening at home.

Not so much!

He literally went running and skipping out of the office.  And was wound for sound the whole rest of the night!  And the kids at church thought it was the coolest thing ever!

A big thank you to Grandma Cheryl for answering her phone during her hair appointment and picking Reese up from school!

Once we were home, I asked Cru to walk me through what happened.  As he was running to the bathroom downstairs, he ran into our wet bar counter and actually hit right under his throat.....



which then made him fall and hit his chin on the counter, then fall to the ground.  The spot where he first hit seems to be the sorest.

I'm am just so thankful he's ok!  And so thankful for those that were available to help me when I needed it.

Oh, and thankful school pictures were in the morning :)



And as far as how he was doing the next day....



 ornery as ever, like nothing had happened!
  

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Summer Swim Pics

We love summertime at Grandma and Grandpa's pool!  Took a little bit longer to take our first swim due to the pool getting a little facelift (a new liner), but finally it was ready!  And so were we!
















































































































Reese and Cru took two months of private swimming lessons from an amazing instructor.  I remember dreading swimming lessons as a kid, but they actually looked forward to them....for the most part.  Cru had a little trouble one week when he was first learning to go under water while blowing water out his nose, so he cried and refused to participate.  Even ran away from Bonnie Sue when he was supposed to be jumping off the board....I can laugh about it now, but talk about embarrassing!!!


































The confidence and skills they developed were so worth it! 

























































































We had a couple weeks of extreme heat, so some days, the kids swam up to three times a day!  The water felt especially good after 6:00pm baseball games!  Our friends joined us and we joined them for a couple of those evening swims.










































































































The heat clearly got to my head....













































































































































































































Speaking of friends, we spent many days with the Harlins at the Lindsborg pool....love that place!  Love that family even more!








That's Reese at the bottom of the slide....she must have worn her big girl panties that day!  So proud of her!

Ok, back to more random pics.....

























With all that said, we say good-bye to Grandma and Grandpa's pool..... 


We already miss you sooooo much....