Family Update

Russell -- thing are going well for Russ.  He's been busy with work.  The good thing is that he hasn't had any big overtime projects so far this year!  Wahoo!  Two Sunday's ago he was released from the Bishopric in our ward.  This was do to the fact that he called to be a high councilman.  Specifically for the Spanish branch.  many people were confused because they didn't know Russ could even speak Spanish!  He's only been to a few meetings but he is enjoying it.  He's especially excited about brushing up on his Spanish.  75% of the texts he sends me are in Spanish.  Good thing I can read Spanish.  We aren't sure yet if this will be less time consuming than the Bishopric, but it has been terrific having Russ sitting on the pew helping with the kids.

Jewelle -- I'm busy carting kids around...literally.  This year we enrolled the girls in schools that required me to drive them there.  We spend a lot of time in the car for that.  Then we have a lot of activities that we go to.  I love it though, because the girls and I get to have a lot of conversations this way.  I'm also still doing scrapbooking.  I still love it.

Lily -- She entered 5th grade this year.  Where we live that also means she entered middle school!  Lily has continued to do well in school.  She currently is a huge bookworm loving to read things like Harry Potter and Percy Jackson.  She is still taking gymnastics too.  Her recent passion has been swimming though.  She tried out for a local swim team and made it.  She excited for her first meet coming in a few weeks.  LIly is also incredibly helpful taking care of her younger siblings.

Allie -- Has really blossomed this year.  She always enjoyed talking to people but now you can't get her to stop!  She's all about dinosaurs and animals these days.  She talks constantly about how she wants to be a zoo vet.  The kind that takes care of baby animals (according to her).  She too does gymnastics and loves it.  She's very excited that a few times she's received extra bubblegum in class for the best cartwheel.  Allie is also preparing to be baptized in a few months.

Charlotte -- Oh my is this girl full of spunk!  She certainly keeps me on my toes.  She is very clever and requests to do school with me every day.  We've been slowly counting down the time she has until she gets to go to kindergarten.  We started at the beginning of this school year o_O  Char also loves to color.  I get stacks and stacks of pictures she has colored or drawn for me.  Her asthma and allergies haven't been bothering her too much lately, so that is a huge relief!  She too does gymnastics and counts the days until it is "gymnastics day" again.

Breanne -- Still my ultra quiet and sneaky child.  Quite often I'll find her in some corner reading or coloring nicely.  Just as often I'll find her coloring on the walls, sneaking into the snack cupboard, or spilling bubbles all over the bathroom floor. Her mischievous streak brings a lot to her personality.  She is currently in Sunbeams and loves her teachers.  She is counting down the days until she gets to do gymnastics in September.

Maxwell -- Is spoiled rotten! Well, not really but it is quite evident how much everyone loves and adores the only boy.  His health has been on the increase for the past six months.  He's slowly been able to gain enough weight that the doctors are pleased.  He has also been able to get off his reflux medicine.  However, his other stomach problem persists and the doctors are going to continue to monitor it.  For the most part they aren't concerned as long as he can keep his growth up.  At his last pedi checkup another problem presented itself.  He's not talking.  I'm working with him at home to see if we can improve this.  Currently all I'm getting is a bunch of smiles, which is truly characteristic of Max.  he is a very happy easy going boy who loves to play cars and trains.  He does however have a bit of a mischievous streak just like his older sister Bree.

Maxwell Update

M went to the GI yesterday. We learned from his scope that he has no apparent food allergies or reflux. We get to take him off his reflux medicine and see how he does without it. The GI has turned us back over to the pedi because they can't find anything causing M's problems. The GI did suggest we are looking at medication for the long haul to help M's tummy problems. We are trying to be positive about this and be grateful that he doesn't have any "serious" problems. We are however frustrated because his growth keeps falling off his curves and medication for life with no definitive answer as to why is NOT ideal in our book.

Week of July 5 - 11

This week was the start of our second session of swim lessons.  Overall swim lessons consumed our lives.  We spent all morning either getting ready for swim lessons or being at swim lessons.  While I'm grateful my kids are learning this skill, I will say that these are rough days.  It is exhausting to get everyone ready and there, and then entertain them while they are not swimming.  Which for Max and Bree was the whole two hour block of time.  Any way, how about some pictures...

 July 6th --

I walked in this morning to find my little man doing this in his crib.  Eeps!  When did he get so big that he can pull himself up on his crib?  Guess it is time to lower his mattress.

 

July 9th --

Seriously this kid is growing too fast!  I looked over today and max had pulled himself up to the table.  I may have shed a few tears...not of joy either.  I'm happy this little guy is progressing in his physical abilities though because there has been a bit of concern about that subject.

Mustache anyone? Why yes, we may have been a tad bit bored at swim lessons this day. :D

July 11 --

Just bug bites is what the doctor said a couple weeks ago.  So tell me this.  Why would a bug bit him in the EXACT same place a few weeks later?  Maybe the doctors will believe me now that something is amiss.

I haven't had a ton of scrapping time.  But when I do get time to make things it is a huge stress relief for me.  This was a card I made for one of my LilyPad assignments.  It is hard to tell from the picture but those palm trees are actually dimensional and sit higher than the card.

Week of July 1 - 4

Blogging just isn't happening lately.  It makes me sad.  I try everyday to find time and it just isn't there.  I'm trying to get a few things written down.  Something is better than nothing. Here's a quick recap of the first week of July....

July 1st --

With Max and his medicine you never know what you are going to get.  This morning I asked Lily to get Max out of his crib while I took the dog out.  She came screaming outside, "There's poop and its everywhere!!!"  We always are excited for poops because it means his medicine is working, but this time his medicine worked a little too well.  And Lily was right...it was EVERYWHERE!

We also have been tasked with watching for unusual bumps/leasions/rashes on Max.  How is one supposed to tell if this is one of those or if it is a bug bite.  Oh well, I'll document it anyway.

 

I wanted to take a picture of me and Max.  Max just wanted to see if he could get a hold of my phone.  Little stinker!

 

July 3rd -

Russ came up with a scam for us to get rich quick.  Charge people to come see Jesus who appeared on our water dispenser.  Hmmm...time to clean that think I think. (For those of you who don't know Russ and his sense of humor he would NEVER actually do something like that.  He is just witty and likes to joke around.)

July 4th -

The bishopric was in charge of a pancake breakfast.  I offered to come early and help but Russ assured me that he would be fine going by himself so I didn't have to stress about the kids.  Russ and Bro Coon were in charge of the "specialty" pancakes...chocolate chip or apples. They all were yummy and it was a lot fun to get together with the ward on the 4th.  Lily was excited because she got to help make some pancakes.  She has now declared anytime that we have pancakes she should be the one to make them.

Charlotte will randomly ask for me to take a picture of her.  Who can resist taking a picture of this sweet girl?

 

Breanne still is up to mischief.  She steals my phone on a daily basis to take her own photos.  She captured this one of her feet today.  This girl loves shoes.  She is particularly attached to her slippers right now.  We had to sneakily throw away a pair that was too small for in order to get her to wear these.  She wasn't happy about for a few days but now we rarely see her without these Minnie ones on her feet.

 

It wouldn't be the 4th of July without some carmel popcorn to munch on.  This is a pot of ooey gooey goodness!  

 

I also made some rice crispy treats and some pecan bars.  Russ made some stuffed jalepenos.  All these yummy treats went with is to our neighbors house, The Wilcox's.  They had invited us and the Coon's over for a BBQ.  I really enjoyed being able to sit back and enjoy good food and company.  We don't get out and socialize enough, so this was really nice.

Before heading off to the fireworks I snapped the standard group picture of the kids. 

To keep the girls occupied while we waited for the fireworks to start we gave lit up some glow sticks.  They enjoyed making them into bracelets, necklaces, and earrings.  Max could care less.  He was tired and just wanted to sleep.  Breanne freaked out at the loud booming of the fireworks when they started and covered her ears and eyes.  I got her to look at the pretty fireworks while I covered her ears.  Eventually she realized the fireworks weren't going to get her and I could put my hands down.  Poor girl is terrified of loud noises!  The fireworks were nice and we enjoyed them.  The local police finally figured out how to control traffic this year.  Instead of waiting in traffic for an hour we  only waited five minutes!  Thank goodness!

Monday Moments -- Max has grown!

Hitting the snooze button one too many times is a bad habit of mine.  I did that today.  I reasoned in my head that is was Spring Break and the kids (ahem...me) should be able to sleep.  But we had places to be.  I got the kids up a bit late and we scrambled around to get out the door at 8:00. 

We headed over to the Markhams where I practically shoved the girls out of the van.  Running late is no bueno when you have to get to a doctors appointment.  Carolyn assured me that she would be able to entertain the kids as long as needed and to not worry if the appointment ran long.  It is so nice to have friends like her to depend on when you don't have family around to do these kinds of things for you.

Max and I hit the highway and cruised along nicely.  Good ol' Linda (our GPS) told me that I make it to the appointment with 20 minutes to spare.  Just enough time to unload and walk to the office.  Then we hit Pearland and the traffic. It wasn't standstill traffic...thank goodness...but it was stop and go.  We slowly creeped towards the big city as I watched the arrival time on Linda rise. 

We finally arrived at the hospital with seven minutes to spare and the main parking entrance was closed.  I mildly panicked as the policeman politely waved me through the intersection because I had absolutely no idea where another entrance was and I definately don't know my way around Houston. I was worried I may get lost, but I had the bright idea to follow the car in front of me who also had tried to enter the parking garage.  A few turns later we found the garage. 

But of course all the parking was full on the first nine levels!  Finally I found a spot, yanked Max out of the van, shoved him in his stroller and sped walk to the elevator.  Exciting the elevator i traversed the maze of the hospital to another elevator, took it up to the  doctors office and quickly signed in to our appointment.  After all that I was only five minutes late!  Wahoo!

Max and I sat and waited for about 20 minutes before being called back.  Max of course charmed all the nurses with his happy smile.  The nurse took his stats and both her and I were pleasantly surprised to see that Max had put on a bit of weight!  Yay!   

Length: 27 in (25%)
Weight: 15.5 lbs (4%)
Head: 42

Randomly enough he also had a small temperature 99.8. Neither I nor the nurse could figure that one out because he wasn't sick.  I'll have to keep an eye on him I guess.

We went back to our room and waited another 30 minutes to see the doctor.  I about fell asleep waiting for them, lol!  I was a bit disgruntled when yet another fellowship doctor came in.  I have nothing wrong seeing fellowship doctors.  However i do have a problem with seeing a different one each time I visit!  I know for a fact that the one we saw last time was still there because I saw him as the nurse took us to our room!  Anyway, I started over the whole process of explaining Max and his problems to him.  This is so frustrating because the new doctors don't understand everything we've gone through without explaining every little detail and that takes F.O.R.E.V.E.R.  He examined Max and said he was looking good and that he would talk to Dr. Imseis but he probably wouldn't want to see him.  I knew he was wrong but didn't say anything.

Another 20 minutes later and Dr. Imseis came in to talk to me.  I started the explaining process over again.  After a bit of discussion Dr. I declared that he thought we were on the right track to solving whatever is going on with Max.  Since we switched the medicine to Miralax his weight and pooping has seemed to improve.  He did agree with me though that we need to up the medicine because Max is so distressed when he does go.  Dr. I told me to adjust the Miralax as needed just not to go over a certain dosage.  So unless something major comes up we don't have to go back for another check up until June.  I'm sorta okay with this.  I'm frustrated that nothing has been determined as to what Max's problem is and that the doctors are concerned but are leaving it at that.  But on the other hand I can't deny that he has gained weight and that he is going more. So I guess I'll wait and see if things keep getting better.

After the appointment Max and I went and picked up the girls.  We spent the rest of the day just chilling at home.  For FHE we taught the girls how to play UNO.  It was soooo much fun!  With the little girls Russ and I each take one and plan on a team with them.  I had Charlotte.  I figured this was a great way for he to work on her numbers and colors, so I let her do most of the laying down of cards.  Occasionally I had to help her out, but most the time I sat back and watched.  It astounded me how she practically won every round UNO.  We had a few "complaints" that I was helping her win so just to prove I wasn't we had her go over with Russ.  I started losing miserably and Russ started winning.  Charlotte was quite the lucky charm!

The kids headed off to bed and Russ and I dragged our weary bodies to bed to watch some Netflix and Youtube.  I find it completely sad that Russ and I typically head to bed as soon as we can convince Lily to get in bed.  We must be getting old....

Sunday Ramblings

Daylight Savings time....it isn't my favorite time of the year, but this year it isn't too bad either.

Last night Allie went to bed at 5:00 complaining of tummy ache. I wasn't sure if we would be making it to church or not because of this. I was nervous that she had that nasty 24 hour flu bug again. This morning I went and woke her up to see how she was feeling.  She was tired but felt better. I jokingly told Russ later that her body must have known it would need the extra sleep because of daylight savings so it "faked" sick on her.

The morning was rough. We pulled into the church lot at 8:55. I was stressed that we hadn't gotten their early enough to claim our seat Russ had saved for us.  Apparently whoever fixed the church clocks for Daylight Savings doesn't use an apple device because I looked over at the clock when we sat down and it was 8:50! Phew!  Church went rather smoothly. It still feels like I am running from one thing to the next at church and barely get "spiritually refueled" there. I try to remind myself that this is just the season of life we are in and there will come days in the future where I will long to have my kiddos back and keeping me crazy busy.  That pep talk works....a little.

We were able to spend most of the afternoon resting before Russ had to head back to the church. He had a baptism to attend to. I probably should have went I'm just too worn out anymore to go places once I'm home.  Lily volunteered to help make dinner while Russ was gone. I think she was trying to get out of cleaning up the living room, but whatever.  She helped me with a few things before I assigned her the task of feeding Max. I finally felt like he had the hang of eating, so she could go ahead and feed him.  She was so excited to do this and actually did a rather decent job. Towards the end her interest was waning and she started to shove it all over Max's face but that's ok.

After dinner Russ did chore money with the girls.  They were so excited to count their piggy banks, spending money, and tithing. Normally we don't count all of it, but we had extra time tonight so Russ helped the girls with that.  Everyone went to bed. Max even went to sleep in his own room for the 2nd night in a row! It's been hard letting him go into his own room, but I guess it's time to start letting my little man grow up.

Operation Fluffy Marshmallow, Sick Char, & Max Milestone

The girls had today off.  I was so excited to sleep in and then 7:00 am rolled around.  I woke up to a fully dressed Lily poking me in the arm saying, "Mommy its time to get up."  Yes, somebody forgot they didn't have school today.  I shushed her and whispered for her to go back to bed.  She headed out to the living room and in complete Lily fashion woke up the rest of the house.

After breakfast I allowed the girls to watch some TV while I tried to catch a few more zzz's.  Turns out Max was not going to let me sleep.  He wanted to eat.  After feeding him, I decided I might as well get up and get going for the day.  I got the girls and Max dressed and we headed to the van to run errands.  At this point in time I had heard from Charlotte about 75 times that her tummy hurt.  I paid no attention to that considering she complains her tummy hurts almost daily.  She eats like a bird and I'm sure most of the time it is hunger pains.  Its a work in progress.

We first stopped at the Rec Center to reactivate our membership.  We let it lapse when I was on limited activity.  Max finally hit the magic age of six months, so we figured now would be a good time for me to start going back to the gym.  See there is this annoying little gene in my body that doesn't do what its supposed to.  It allows my blood to clot easily.  Since I'm overweight that just adds to the clotting problem.  So I've got to kick it into high gear to get healthy.  I enjoy exercising at the rec center and can't wait to start building my endurance back up.  Its going to be a long road but I'm excited about it.  I like to call this journey "operation fluffy marshmallow" because that is what I am right now...a fluffy marshmallow.

While I reactivated our membership the girls kept themselves occupied by playing follow the leader and choo-choo train.  I loved seeing my girls enjoying each others company.  The moments where they all get along are awesome (Everything is awesome! -- Name that movie!)

After that we ran over to Walmart to pick up just a few essentials. I had debated about doing a full shopping trip with everyone but decided against it.  All through the store Charlotte complained about her tummy and insisted on riding on the shopping cart.  While checking out, I looked down and Char was curled up in a ball on the floor whimpering.  Poor baby!  We were supposed to go to another store, but I called it quits there.

We got home, had lunch, and sent the littles to bed for their naps.  The only problem...Char didn't nap.  She kept telling me she couldn't sleep.  Finally I told her to bring her pillow and blanket out and rest on the couch while we watched a movie.  She made it to the couch and promptly threw up her lunch.  I cleaned that mess up, gave Char a barf bucket and went to lay down.  I was just falling asleep when Lily ran in hysterically that Char was sick again.  Char had completely missed the bucket.  We ran a quick bath and I cleaned her up.

Meanwhile, Max woke up.  No rest for the weary....I decided to play with him because he has been exceptional grumpy lately.  Normally he rarely cries, but he recently started solids and they are making his tummy issues worse than they already are.  Anyway, I sat him up in front of me and put a dinosaur toy within reach for him.  After a minute or two I realized he was sitting up all by himself!  He wasn't leaning on me or the toy.  I slowly moved away and caught these cute pictures of him...

The rest of the night was uneventful. Russ came home, we had dinner, and sent the kiddos to bed.  Now I'm off to bed exhausted with the sad realization that I don't get to sleep in tomorrow.

Charlotte's First Dentist Visit

A couple weeks ago I decided Charlotte should go in for her first dentist appointment.  I've been worried that her teeth might be suffering because of all the medicine she has to take.  We've got a great pediatric dentist that the other girls have gone to.  Little did I know then, I wouldn't be able to take her.

Russ came through like a champion dad and took her there while a friend watched Breanne. I was sad to miss this first of Charlotte's so I quizzed Russ for all the details.  Charlotte apparently did very well.  She was compliant and opened right up for the dentist.  She got her teeth brushed and some fluoride put on.  The best news was that her teeth looked perfectly fine.  Russ talked to the dentist about her medicine who suggested we make sure to have Charlotte drink some water after taking it.  That she keep her teeth from being affected by it.

Charlotte was very excited to show me later that she got a "Jake" toothbrush, (Jake and the Neverland Pirates) and some other goodies from the dentist.  She also got this neat little certificate:

I'm super happy that this turned out to be a positive experience for her. 

Happy St. Paddy's Day

The girls have been looking forward to St. Patty's day for about a week.  Lily kept insisting that our Leprechaun would bring them Lucky Charms for breakfast.  He has done that for the past few years.  I tried to let Lily know over the phone that the "leprechaun" might be busy this year.  But she insisted that he would come.  Turns out that the leprechaun did pull through and brought some Lucky Charms for breakfast this year.  

Sister Rogers brought dinner over for Russ and the girls tonight.  She was very thoughtful and brought some clover shaped cookies to eat.  The girls (especially Bree) certainly enjoyed this treat.  I'm so grateful for all the little things people are doing for my girls to keep them happy at this rough time.

 

Despicable Me goes to Church

Russ went home yesterday to take care of the kids.  Today he sent me this picture of Allie.  I couldn't help but smile at it.  Allie wanted to dress up like Margo for church. He let me know that Allie wore these glasses to church and kept them on the whole time.  Russ knew that I wouldn't approve of this but he didn't have the heart to tell Allie she couldn't wear them.  He let Allie win this battle because they made her happy, and right now we need more of that!

Into Everything

All my kids have been curious and get into things.  Bree gets into everything too.  However she is much more curious about how things work.  Today Bree sat here for over 30 mins taking the crayons out and putting them back into the box.  She loves anything that has to do with this repetitive motion.  While I'm grateful she is exploring, learning, and curious, it sure is hard on this mamma to follow her around all day cleaning up one disaster area after another.

Margo

We watched Despicable Me today. About halfway through, Lily ran into her room and came back out with these glasses on. She had popped out the lenses that were already broken.  The rest of the day she wore them and insisted on being called Margo. This girl has quite the imagination!

Cookie Sandwhiches

We had some left over frosting that I was trying to get rid of.  So for a little dessert we had some cookie sandwiches.  The girls acted like they had died and gone to heaven from this little treat. In fact Allie ate hers so quickly I didn't even get a picture of her.  Silly girl! What a fun way for us to start out our Spring Break.

New Couches

When Russ and I lived in Idaho Falls my moms cousin asked if we wanted some couches. These particular ones had a hideabed and seemed to be in better shape then the current couches we had. We excitedly took them, crazy floral print and all back to our home.

Quickly we realized they were not the best couches.  They were more formal living room couches than everyday living couches. The upholstery wore thin quickly.  The hideabed wasn't very helpful either because it was very tall and uncomfortable. These poor couches traveled with us to Texas.

 New couches we're on our to buy list for a long time. It kept getting pushed down the list due to other more important things, you know like clothing for the girls! Finally though the love seat lost part of the bottom out of it and we new it was time to tell these well loved couches goodbye.

We tried out several local stores and was having very little luck at finding anything that would endure the girls beating and was in our price range. A man in our ward told Russ to give Rambos a try. I flinched at the name and the tin building when we arrived.  My judgement was too quick though.  They had a much better selection than anywhere else we had been, and their prices were fair.  After trying out several sets we found one that fit ours needs.  It was a long wait from Saturday to Monday to receive these beauties but they are here!

Finally our little hodgepodge house is starting to come together and have my/our style throughout it. Surprisingly enough we were able to sell our old ones to someone.  Hopefully they will enjoy them as much as we did ;)

Waiting for me

Every morning I take Sprinkles out to do her business. Lately I've had a little someone waiting patiently (or not) for me to come back in. She is so adorable kneeling there in her jammies with her paci and blankie. Occasionally the dog will take too long and Bree will start tapping on the window saying momma over and over. I can't get enough of her cuteness.

Faces with Charlotte

Charlotte wanted to take more pictures today. To add a bit of variety to this I had her copy my 

face. Yes I do make all these weird faces routinely with the girls. I'm weird I know! 

Charlotte Funny

Charlotte just said, "oh my peas" while playing with her dolls. I guess we watch too much Super Why!

I deserve it!

I cannot even express to how tired I've been this week with Russ gone!  Having him gone usually wears on me, but being pregnant with him traveling has been miserable.  I told the girls if they didn't annoy mommy today I would take us all out to get Sonic slushies.  The girls kept their promise of being good so we went and got slushies.  Mine was a bigger than theirs (large vs small), and Lily questioned why.  I explained it with three simple words "I deserve it!" I survived the week and so I think I did deserve it :)

Chili for Dinner

Russ has been out of town this week for work.  Whenever he is gone I try to make simple meals that the girls will eat.  Today I made some Taco Salad.  Breanne is usually really good about feeding herself so I gave her a bowl of chili to go with all her taco salad toppings. She started eating with her spoon so I wasn't too concerned about her.  I was busy eating and helping the other three girls and didn't look at Breanne until Lily said, "Uh-oh mamma!  Look at Bree!"

Uh-oh indeed!  Little girl loved her chili but when she had her fill of it she realized how fun it was to paint her chair and herself with it.  Bree got rewarded with a bath in the sink which she was unsure of at first but in the end loved it.

Snuggles with the little girls

I've been really tired lately.  I sit in the rocking chair a lot. The little girls have noticed this and have taken full advantage of that.  They bring their blankies with them in the morning and come snuggle on my lap.  I love these extra snuggles I've been getting!