A Mother's Love

Post-Op Picture Edition

2012-01-31T22:05:00.006-06:00

I forgot to mention that Adam received a gift from RoRo on his surgery day, a sweet teddy bear.

It was quickly confiscated and has since become a favorite toy to this rascal.

A few family moments from that weekend.

I woke up one morning when I heard a sound in our room. Rolled over and came face to face with this:

Terrifying! It kills me that Drew thought to put all that on before coming downstairs to say good-morning.

We had a big Gak-Attack while RoRo slept in one morning. Since it got all over the boys' shirts last time, I insisted on them going topless...which led to some interesting self expression. Monkey see, monkey do!

Adam was thrilled when some friends stopped over one afternoon. He was able to play for about 30 minutes before he needed to rest. If it were up to Drew, they would have stayed all day.

Adam was one happy boy when he got to have pizza for the first time.

One of Adam's favorite things to do these days is to draw/color a bunch of pictures and put a price on the back of all of them. Later he hosts a big sale where he displays all his artwork and everyone in the family buys something. He is ALL ABOUT saving/making money (Matt was the exact same way as a kid). One day during his recovery week, Adam decided to have another big art sale and he was one lucky boy that RoRo was around. He made quite a killing that night!

One of Adam's favorite parts of being home all week was all the extra time he got with Lily. He loved her already of course, but they really bonded last week and it was so sweet to see.

RoRo took this picture of Ty with his big cheese face. Love that goofy boy!

On another morning we got out the tractors and flour and the boys spent over an hour at the table while I cleaned the rest of the kitchen.

The mess they made was pretty much indescribable. I took the 3 of them straight to the tub afterwards and when RoRo came downstairs for the morning I can't even imagine what she thought when she saw what we'd done. Someone needs to just slap me if I don't remember to make that an outdoor activity next time.

I read this quote a while back and instantly fell in love with it: "Sometimes being a brother is even better than being a super hero." I can say with absolute certainty that I've got 2 little boys that believe that with all their hearts.

I think we're all going through Adam withdrawals this week!

Post-Op Update

2012-01-29T15:29:00.000-06:00

Since Adam's tonsil and adenoid removal 10 days ago he has had a week filled with lots of ups and downs. We were so, so impressed with how great he felt the day of his surgery. He had one big coughing fit on his first night (when my brother slept with him), but he was still in his normal good spirits that next day. Playing hours of Angry Birds on Big Bub's iPad certainly helped with that. Adam was doing so well that RoRo even commented on Saturday that we really didn't need her help that much at all. And at that point we really didn't (especially since Matt was also home for all that time), but I'm not gonna lie...having her help around the house was priceless!

Sure, Adam's throat was sore, but he really didn't complain at all those first few days. He is one tough boy and has suffered through so many throat infections over the years that the pain wasn't that big of a deal to him. He told us more than once that it really wasn't any worse than a strep throat.

Of course he was medicated during all this time. He was prescribed Tylenol with Hydrocodone and we were instructed to give it to him every 4 hours morning and night until the pain was manageable. On some days Adam could go past 4 hours, but there were many days this past week that he had to have it every 4 hours around the clock. He also had ibuprofen from time to time in between Tylenol doses. And he was an antibiotic for the first 5 days to prevent infection. Needless to say he got very used to us coming at him with a medicine cup.

Adam was often in his most pain at night. We set up Drew's monitor in A's room and he would shake his little tambourine whenever he needed us in the night. There were many nights when either Matt or I would sleep part of the night with him. Despite being on Hydrocodone, Adam hasn't really slept any more than usual, but he has been more emotional (which is what often happens to him when he is sleep deprived). On many of those nights he just needed the comfort of having one of us with him, so he's been getting lots and lots of middle-of-the-night snuggles.

One of the most surprising things is that Adam hasn't wanted much ice-cream at all. I think he's only had 2 bowls this whole time (and both of those were pushed by moi). Instead he's wanted lots of pudding and jello and the occasional yogurt. The first real craving he had was for a cheese roll-up from Taco Bell and we had to make a run for the border more than once last week. I think he ate 6 of those things in 2 days! After a trip to the store I was able to make our own at home and he has had more flour tortillas and cheese than I ever dreamed.

The first few days post-surgery were not as hard as expected. We obviously stuck around the house more than usual and filled our days with board games and card games and crafts and lots and lots of tv time. He did take one nap early last week when he was having a painful afternoon, but he also felt good enough to drive his little John Deere tractor around the block one day (the dune buggy's battery wasn't charged). He didn't have nearly as much energy as usual, but that was fine by me since he's not supposed to exert himself for 2 straight weeks.

Adam didn't talk much for a few days. I believe it was Sunday when he barely talked at all and he wrote us messages on his MagnaDoodle instead. And once he started talking more his voice has been much higher and more nasally sounding. He has had some bad breath, but not the wretched death breath we were warned about.

Things didn't get really bad until the middle of last week. Thursday was a painful day for him and then Thursday night was the absolute worst. He was up many times during the night. He was fidgety and restless and unable to sleep. He cried for much of the night from the pain and the worry that he was never going to get any sleep that night. It was a long and horrible night for Adam and for us.

Adam's doctor (and many friends with first-hand experience) warned us that days 6 to 8 post-surgery would be the worst. For Adam it seemed to be days 7 to 9 (Thursday to Saturday) and boy were they bad. We are not sure if his scabs fell off, but his throat started hurting much more than it did earlier in the week. It was even painful for him to just swallow fluids. But worse than even the throat pain have been the earaches.

Oh our poor Adam has had excruciating ear pain. For the past 3 days he has kept his hands on his ears for much of the day. He has continued to have his regular doses of medication, but they barely made a dent in the amount of pain he's had in his ears. He didn't wanted to eat or drink as much as he had been and he shed many, many tears over the whole ordeal.

There were a few times when the pain wasn't as severe and we tried to make the best of those moments. We got out of the house for a while on Saturday afternoon (it was Adam's 3rd car ride, but his first time to actually get out of the house/car in over a week!). He had been begging to go to Fun City, so we did that for about an hour and he loved it so much. We went out to dinner afterwards and halfway through our meal the ear pain came back and he had to lay in the booth, with his head in my lap, while he silently sobbed. Heart breaking!

We were hoping to go to church this morning, but once again Adam woke up with the horrible pain. We were told that earaches were a possible side effect, but had no idea it would be to this degree. I decided to call his doctor on call this morning and see if this was still within the realm of "normal" or if we should take him to a walk-in clinic to have his ears checked out. Of course the doctor couldn't say with 100% certainty over the phone that he didn't have an ear infection, but since Adam has not had a history of ear problems, he was just about positive that it was due to having his adenoids removed. Apparently the nerves that transmit pain sensations from the adenoids also transit pain from the ears, making it feel like it is in his ears. It doesn't happen to everyone, but he said it "burns like fire" for the ones that are affected. It should only last for a few days and we are hopeful that is true! This is the first day that Adam hasn't had any Hydrocodone and is doing okay with just alternating Motrin and Tylenol. This afternoon may be the best he's felt since having his surgery and we are praying it will only get better from here!

We're planning for Adam to go back to school tomorrow and we'll see how it goes. You'd think he would be bored of being at home all the time (I know I am!), but he is such a homebody that it hasn't bothered him a bit. In fact he's loved it! If it were up to Adam and if he could have a friend over from time to time, he'd stay home with me every day. He will not be able to go to recess or do PE for a week (the elevated blood pressure can cause bleeding) and he's pretty disappointed about that. We're hoping he'll be able to play in his next basketball game on Saturday and that life will get back to normal for Adam soon. Better than normal actually since this surgery may be the trick to him having a much healthier life.

Thank you so much to those of you that have been praying for Adam, for those that have called/texted/e-mailed/Facebooked to check on him (and me!), for those that have sent cards and dropped off treats. So appreciative of all of you!

I know this was one wordy post-op update. The picture edition will be coming up soon!

Pre-Op

2012-01-28T11:34:00.001-06:00

Besides spending the day before Adam's surgery mopping floors and cleaning toilets and washing sheets and doing dishes and bathing Lily and stocking up on groceries and cleaning up the 101 messes that Drew and Titus make every time that I turn around, I came up with a fun family outing for us that evening.

Ice Skating!

The Bentonville square has a cute little ice-skating rink in the winter. We ran out of time to do it last year and we nearly did this year as well (they closed last weekend). With RoRo coming into town that Thursday evening, I knew we'd have someone to sit out with Titus and it seemed like the perfect way to have some fun before Adam spent the next week unable to do much.

Adam was SO excited, but Drew was quite nervous. He told me about 50 times, "But mom, I've never ice skated before!"

They had those little walker things to help with the inexperienced kiddos (if only they came in adult sizes!), but bless Drew's heart he just wasn't having it.

He made it around once and then he decided he was SO done.

I wish I could have been a bigger help to him, but I was no doubt a laughing stock on the ice. I've only ice-skated once before (in college) and it was disastrous. So bad that the guy that worked there skated out to me to see if I needed assistance off the ice since I didn't seem to be going anywhere (despite my best efforts, I should add!). I've never owned my own roller or in-line skates. I was that kid at the skating birthday parties that sat out and talked to the parents because I was so uncoordinated on the rink. But oh my word, I still had so much fun on Thursday night! After one nasty spill (which gave me a bruise I'm still sporting), I found my "bless her heart" groove and could somewhat skate for the first time ever. I was quite proud. :)

Poor Matt had something happen to his foot within minutes on the ice and he called it quits when Drew did since he was in so much pain. Adam tried to skate without one of the walkers and fell over and over and over again. He had such a good attitude about it until he had a really bad fall and hit his head quite hard. That brought the waterworks and his declaration that he was never skating again EVER!

Mommy's great idea was looking like a pretty big failure and then our friends Codie and Paul arrived to the rescue.

Adam immediately wanted to try again since Paul could skate with him. They both used the walkers and Adam did so, so good. He could cruise around the rink much more quickly once he got the hang of it. Daniel arrived a little later and joined us on the ice. Codie and Daniel were both really good skaters and even though I definitely wasn't, it was lots of fun...and provided good entertainment for those on the sidelines.

There's a new roller skating rink in town that we've been wanting to visit, so we're hoping to get some practice in before we ice skate again. Maybe by next winter I won't get shown up by the little 3 year olds that were passing me. :)

Ssssshhh!

2012-01-26T10:44:00.000-06:00

Someone is trying to get her beauty rest.

And she sure looks strange doing it.

T - Day

2012-01-24T13:29:00.000-06:00

As most people that read my blog know already, Adam had his tonsillectomy last week. I was planning to blog about it that day, but our computer has been on the fritz for a few days (the horror!) and I'm just now able to blog again...better late than never!

So after Adam's trip to the ENT towards the end of December we knew he'd be having surgery soon. We originally thought we might wait until the Friday before Spring Break so he wouldn't miss so much school, but after he had strep throat again earlier this month, we decided it was best to not wait any longer. His ENT was already pushing for us to have it earlier because he hated the thought that Adam would be so miserable for his Spring Break (which we didn't want either of course, but were trying to be responsible with our decision in regards to school). After his positive strep test a couple of weeks ago, his pediatrician also advised us not to wait any longer either since Adam was so sick with his latest strep infection and there was no way to know that he wouldn't be sick multiple more times between now and mid-March. So just a few hours after that appointment, I made the call to get his surgery date changed and last Friday was the big day.

We were up and at 'em early on Friday and we checked into the surgery center at 7:00 am that day. Thankfully RoRo came down the night before and she was able to stay at home with Drew and Titus. Although it was an early morning for her too since Titus woke up before we ever left the house, silly boy.

Adam was in such good spirits pre-surgery.

He was actually giddy with excitement, don't ask me why. The night before he even told me that he would rather have surgery than go to school. Of course he had no idea what having surgery would actually be like, but we were relieved that he wasn't nervous at all.

He is obsessed with playing Temple Run on my phone and that kept him happily entertained while we waited. I had to crop a lot out of this pic to make it blog appropriate...Adam was so chill laid-back in that chair that his gown left quite a bit exposed. And it didn't bother him a bit!

Neither Matt nor I were overly nervous about the surgery. We've had such a peace about all of it, knowing it would be best for Adam, and also knowing that he was covered in prayer by an incredible number of people. However, seeing him walk away with the nurse was an emotional moment for sure. Matt actually teared up which is craziness because he hasn't cried in years (with the exception of the laughing tear-fest he regularly has while watching Tosh.0).

Adam went back for surgery around 8:20 and it went so much more quickly than Matt or I thought it would. We barely had time to scarf down our McD's breakfast before we were being called back to talk to the doctor.

Dr. B said Adam did wonderfully and that he should be much better off in the future after getting those nasty tonsils out. That was actually the word he used "really nasty". Apparently the tonsils were so infected (and he's not even sick right now!) that they were literally falling apart as he was taking them out. He was planning to wait and see how A's adenoids looked during surgery to decide whether or not they needed to come out and apparently they did. He said they were very inflamed and also friable (that was the word he used, but it also means that they were crumbling as he took them out).

What a relief to have all that ickiness out of his body! It's no wonder that he has been getting so sick when these body parts that are supposed to help fight off infection are infected themselves. We are really hopeful that healthier days are in store for our boy. Over 40 days of fever and throat infections in 2011 were the pits!

A younger boy had his tonsils out before Adam and it was complete heartbreak when we heard him after his operation. He was screaming, retching, vomiting and was completely hysterical. It was so sad to hear him and imagine how painful that must be for his tender throat. I had a knot in my stomach just thinking about Adam reacting that way. So what a huge relief it was to see how wonderful Adam was when he came out of his anesthesia.

He alternated between trying to talk and trying to go back to sleep. He asked several times if he'd had his surgery yet and also if he could go back to sleep. We just loved all over that boy and told him what a champ he was. His nurse even came by to tell us how wonderful and obedient he was and that she wished every patient could be as easy as Adam. So thankful!

And then before we knew it, he quietly asked if he could play Temple Run again. He could barely even keep his eyes open and he still had an IV in his right hand, but he was not to be deterred. :)

Once he was a little more coherent and able to eat some ice chips, he was discharged. We picked up a Sonic drink and all his prescriptions and were back home before 10:30 that morning. We'd told RoRo we probably wouldn't be home until mid-afternoon so what a fun surprise that was. Adam felt really good on Friday and said his throat wasn't really much worse than a strep throat. With Matt off of work and Adam feeling so well, it was a really great family day...so much better than we ever dreamed his surgery day would be.

It was made even better when Adam got to open a present (new Beyblades) from his Aunt Jamie, Uncle Michael and favorite cousins.

And then in the middle of a Phase 10 tournament (his new favorite card game), we got a knock on the door and it was one of his best friends from school, Alex, with a handmade card and box of push pops. Alex's family just moved into our subdivision a few weeks ago and it's already been a wonderful blessing. We had a few minutes of craziness because the boys were so excited to see one another. I even caught Adam picking Alex up at one point before I could stop him.

(How cute is little sister Morgan in the background?)

Alex is seriously the funniest 6 year old I've ever seen. He is also crazy about Titus and wants to be called "Uncle Alex". I'd previously told him that the boys actually have an Uncle Alex already and he got the chance to meet him with my brother showed up in the middle of the chaos.

Big Bub spent the entire afternoon, evening and night with us and I had 3 little boys that were on Cloud 9.

Big Bub actually slept with Adam that night and Adam said it was the best night he'd had since he was 3 years old. They loooooove that boy and it meant so much that Bub came to see Adam on his surgery day!

After the boys went to bed, my brother and I went for a run and then took Lily for a walk afterwards. I'm trying to get back in the whole running thing and having someone push me along definitely helps.

We stayed up late that night playing Pitch (duh) and I have to say RoRo and I were styling in our matching jammy pants.

Honestly, the day could not have been any better. As expected Adam hasn't even come close to feeling as good as he did on Day 1, but he is hanging in there and being such a trooper this week. Hopefully I'll be able to update again soon!

Go Fly A Kite!

2012-01-18T21:31:00.000-06:00

A couple of weeks ago we decided to go to the nearby soccer field and fly one of our new kites. It was the first real "walk" for Miss Lily.

We had some excited (and goofy) boys on our hands.

The weather was absolutely beautiful and perfect for kite flying.

But unfortunately our new fancy kite was a total dud. We'll be back to shopping at the Dollar Tree for sure.

And once Lily got in on it, it was definitely a lost cause.

Which turned T's squeals of joy into this terrifying toddler:

Lily: 1

Family Kite-Flying Adventure: 0

All in a day's work for the Lily Girl!

Country Vacation - Part 2

2012-01-17T21:37:00.001-06:00

On the Thursday after Christmas we were supposed to hurry over to my Uncle Jon's antique store in the morning to help move some heavy furniture to my dad's house...but we decided playing with Lily sounded like much more fun instead.

We discovered right away how much Lily loves to run. And run and run and run. She is going to keep us active, that is for sure!

We eventually made it over to help move the new furniture into my dad's house. It's probably a miracle no one got a hernia.

Dad treated everyone to lunch afterwards at the cafe in town. (T is modeling his new favorite hat.)

After naps and of course more hours of card playing we finally opened Christmas presents with this side of the family. All along I just thought we'd be exchanging a few gifts (mainly for the boys), but it turns out they'd been waiting on us all along to open ALL their presents. We had a fun little post-Christmas celebration.

Grandma showed us she even loves Lily!

Matt looked over at one point in the afternoon and saw Drew sitting like this.

Which immediately reminded us of one of our all-time favorite pics of Drew (from Nov 2010).

Sweet boy!

We had dinner that night at another cafe. My Uncle Jon and Grandma Odena eat there about 5 nights a week since it's only 2 minutes from their front door. It's their home away from home. Abbi and her gang came back over that night and Drew was ecstatic to see Blake again. Those two boys are two peas in a pod.

They loved playing in the toy room at Uncle Jon's house. Although why they tried to move all the toys to the room across the hall is beyond me.

They are both so imaginative and we could hear them upstairs making up all these pretend stories. They especially loved all of the tea sets. Only 2 pieces were broken this year and Uncle Jon couldn't have been any sweeter about it. He'll be lucky to have any sets left by the time these boys are grown. When they caught wind of it being Drew's bedtime they promised they'd just go to sleep on their own.

Of course they didn't, but man that is some cuteness overload or what?! I hope those two cousins grow up being the best of friends just like me and Abbi did.

While another card tournament was taking place, Adam spent most of the time hiding army men all over the house. We found them in some incredibly random places and I think Uncle Jon is going to be finding army men for a long time to come.

With a fussy Titus and a new puppy, our sleeping was pretty poor on our vacation (read: Worst. Sleep. Ever.) so we decided we should probably head out on Friday and work on getting settled back at home. I was so thankful for this time with my Grandma Odena. She has also had a very hard year health-wise and it was good to spend such good quality time with her and the rest of the family.

I think this was my first time to not cry when saying goodbye to Ozzie. He has settled into his home there so well and between my grandma, uncle, and the nurses that visit every day, he probably gets more attention than ever. He is really happy and dearly loved and I will never be able to thank them enough for taking him in when we could no longer have him at our home.

Before we left for good, the boys went for tractor rides and fed the cows one last time at the farm.

We sure love that ol' Papaw.

The fun wasn't quite over yet though...our last stop before heading home was in nearby Pocahontas to see our lovely Aunt Char at her parents' house.

She even had a present under the tree for our three.

Thank you Grahams for letting us invade your house with all our chaos!

The boys did so good for the first half of our trip home, but the second half was perhaps the worst we've ever experienced. I'd never been so happy to pull into our garage that night.

So there you have it (for the 5 of you that made it through all of this), our Christmas holiday is finally fully blogged. I was beginning to think it would never happen!

Country Vacation

2012-01-16T16:02:00.019-06:00

After our time in Searcy, we were on the road again...this time to see my dad and all of his side of the family in Northeast Arkansas.

Can't get enough of those 2 sleeping peacefully, side by side.

Now don't get me wrong..it's great to see all our family and spend some good, quality time with my dad, but I have to admit that one of the *best* parts of our visits there are being reunited with my first baby once again.

Oh, how I adore that Ozzie boy. At first I wasn't sure that he remembered us, but after a little bit of time went by it was pretty obvious. We still know all his favorite spots to be scratched and he got back into his habit of following me everywhere. I could love on that pug forever. Titus could too apparently! He was obsessed with Oz and as much as we loved it, I think Ozzie probably tired of us after the first hour.

Poor Adam started running a low fever that afternoon. Not even 2 weeks after his previous illness. :(

He was definitely not feeling his best, but we had a big family dinner planned that night at my Uncle Danny and Aunt Vicki's house, so we just gave him a dose of Motrin and promised him he wouldn't have to get off the couch once we got there. Once the meds kicked in, he felt much, much better and we had a great visit with a bunch of the fam. My Aunt Lynn cooked an amazing dinner and I'm not ashamed to admit I even went back for thirds on some things!

Drew wasted no time in asking PaPaw to draw animals on his arm, like always. I can see him being a 16 year old boy still asking for that Indian and zebra on his forearms.

We didn't stay very late that night since Adam seemed to be coming down with something. After we got the kids to bed at Uncle Jon's house, a bunch of the family came over and we stayed up late playing cards. Being able to sit at the big table and play Pitch is a rite of passage in that neck of the woods. If there are at least 4 people in the room, then it's a given that a card game is in progress. In the several days that we were there, I don't think any adults watched tv, but you better believe we played about a hundred games of Pitch. L-O-V-E it!

On Wednesday morning we drove over to dad's bright and early. My Uncle Jon and Grandma Odena actually live a little further down the road (one town over) and we made that trip back-and-forth a lot while we were there. (In fact we even got pulled over for speeding on that road on Thursday morning!)

Adam still had a low fever on Wednesday, but another dose of medicine had him feeling well enough to go visit PaPaw Wilbur on the farm. And once we got there you'd never guess he was at all under the weather. The boys were in heaven out in the country and within minutes they were all ready to ride on PaPaw's new (to him) tractor.

Titus only lasted about 30 seconds. Once that engine came on, he was SO done.

He much preferred a ride in the truck...with some Bono shades.

While Drew rode on the tractor with PaPaw (and probably learned a few less than desirable words when they got stuck in the mud at one point)...

...Adam got to drive the rest of us out to see the cows.

I know this goes against every car safety rule there is, but life is just different in the country. We were on dirt roads, out in the middle of nowhere, all by ourselves, so Matt and I were totally fine with it. And just look how happy he was. :)

I didn't think we'd ever hear the end of our ignorance in not bringing mud boots to the farm. My dad and Uncle Jim would simply not let it go, especially when they found out we don't even own mud boots. It's just funny because when we were with our CA family in November they probably thought we were pretty country. And yet when we're with this part of the family, we are teased mercilessly for being such city folks. Oh well, who really needs mud boots anyways when you can just have Big Bub carry you around everywhere?

After we fed all the cows, Adam got his turn on the tractor as well.

And then PaPaw decided it'd be funny to play a horrible trick on me. Those of us in the trucks made it back to dad's house a little later than he and Adam did on the tractor. When we pulled up Adam was nowhere to be seen and my dad told me that he'd left Adam with some of the geese hunters they ran into down the road. This wasn't beyond the realm of possibilities because (1) that's the kind of thing my dad might do and (2) they'd been talking about going hunting all morning and Adam let me know more than once that he really wanted to join them. As soon as I heard that, I jumped back in the truck and had my Uncle Jim drive me to the field where the geese were. The whole way I kept thinking that maybe he was with 2 of my other uncles, who actually were out hunting that morning, but when we pulled up to their trucks my Uncle Jim told me that he had no idea who those men were. I immediately ran up to the first guy I saw and asked where the 6 year old little boy was and he just looked at me like I was from another planet. He then said that he had no idea but maybe he was with some of the hunters who were already out in the field. I nearly panicked thinking of my Adam with total strangers who had loaded weapons in some field somewhere. And then my dad pulled up in his truck behind us and Adam was behind the wheel and had no idea what was going on. That ol' PaPaw had just told him to hide back at the house and of course Adam did what he was told. I was LIVID and started crying immediately...which of course made it even funnier to those ornery turds I'm lucky enough to call family.

I guess that's what I get for ever believing my dad in the first place. That's just the way they are...always picking and playing tricks on those they love. And the more it bothers someone, the more they do it. I often wonder how my mom put up with it for all those years! They've always been ornery like that, they will always be ornery like that. Perfect example...this is how we found our Christmas card when we arrived.

"This is what happens without regular dentist appointments."

God bless 'em, if I didn't love them to the ends of the earth, I swear they'd be really easy to hate sometimes!

But enough about all of that. The REAL excitement for Wednesday was the fact that we were picking up our puppy that day in southern Missouri. So once we got our boys back to the "big house" and put Titus down for his nap, Matt and I took off for a road trip, just the 2 of us. It had been years since we'd been in the car for 4 hours with no children to keep happy.

I thought about just letting Matt go on his own since I hated to leave all 3 boys, but my family finally convinced me to let them babysit. PaPaw was still in hot water, so I left them knowing my Uncle Jon and brother would take good care of the boys. I'm so glad I joined Matt on that trip though. It was such a sweet moment when we met Lily for the first time. My heart absolutely melted when I first held our new baby girl.

We stopped in town after picking her up and let her run around for a bit. Of course I had to whip out the camera right away.

At that point we didn't even know what her name was. We kept going back and forth between Lily and Lucy. We really thought all along it would be Lucy and then when we met her we couldn't get Lily out of our heads. That night we took a poll with a big group of the family and Lily won by a landslide, so Lily she is!

Of course all 3 boys were excited to finally see her, but no one was as excited as Titus.

He made sure not to forget about Ozzie though.

Lily was loved on by EVERYONE that night. She probably didn't know what to think of all that attention.

Since PaPaw was back in my good graces again,

we spent that entire evening playing cards with the family. Abbi and Brian and their kids came over that night as well and we all had so much fun. We had 3 tables set up that night and there were card games going on everywhere you looked. Despite driving me bonkers half the time, I sure am crazy about that loud and nutty bunch!

Our Day In Searcy

2012-01-13T11:16:00.001-06:00

The day after Christmas we packed up and hit the road for central Arkansas. Searcy is the town where all of Matt's grandparents live and also where we attended college (and met and fell in love!). Just like our last big road trip, Titus had some big issues for the start of the drive. I don't know what it is about road trips that make him so upset, but he has been horrible for our last few long car rides. It just about drives us bonkers and we all thank our lucky stars when he eventually passes out.

We are so looking forward to the time when he will be an easy/great traveler like his big brothers.

We made it to Grammy and Granddad's house early that afternoon and we stayed with them for most of the day. It's hard to believe it had been over a year since we were last together. They have both been through some hard times health-wise recently and we were so, so thankful to have such good quality time together that afternoon and evening.

Folks, it simply doesn't get any sweeter than this.

We love you, Grammy and Granddad!

*A random tidbit that I want to remember. We found out the next evening that while we drove around Searcy that day, showing the boys some of our favorite hangouts and places around campus, that Matt's college roommate from Florida was doing the exact same thing! We haven't seen Collin since our wedding night over 10 years ago and had no idea that he and his wife happened to be passing through Searcy on their way to visit family in Missouri. They also went all over town so Collin could show his wife his college town. Cannot believe that after a decade of living so far away from one another that we were right there at the same time and none of us had any idea. We've already agreed that we will definitely find a way to get together the next time they come through Arkansas.*

We checked into our hotel in Searcy that evening and immediately changed into our swimsuits so we could have some time at the pool before a late bedtime. The 5 of us spent most of the time in the hot tub and it was fantastic. (T's face kills me in this photo!)

We eventually got the littles to sleep (even though these cuties are totally faking in this pic).

And then Matt and I stayed up watching a movie. My poor husband nearly went into cardiac arrest when he found out a few days prior that I'd never seen the first Indiana Jones movie (even though we own it!). So that was our entertainment that night. That along with some fine dining from the nearby vending machine. :)

That night in the hotel with Titus was possibly one of the worst nights we've ever had with one of our children. Thankfully we brought sound machines and had 2 adjoining rooms, so when it got really bad Matt moved into the other room with the big boys and shut the door between us so they could continue to sleep. Titus and I were up for hours while he cried and cried and cried because absolutely nothing could soothe him. Not long after we returned home from all our Christmas travels we found out that Titus had a horrible ear infection, so in hindsight I wonder if his ear was beginning to hurt him around that time. He's also getting several new teeth which I'm sure doesn't feel too good. Titus continued to sleep poorly for the entire week. Actually, he didn't sleep well in the few days before we left home either. So you can pretty much assume that Matt and I are horribly sleep deprived in all my posts about the end of December...

By the time the rest of our family woke up that Tuesday morning, Titus and I had already been up for hours. Matt took all 3 boys downstairs for breakfast and let me sleep for an hour, which I desperately needed. After breakfast, he took the big boys swimming again while Titus and I got ready and packed up in record time. I was SO done with that hotel room...couldn't have gotten out of there fast enough for me.

You'd never guess what a stinker he'd been, huh?

We stopped by Grammy and Granddad's house again to say our final good-byes and then we went a few blocks over to visit with Great and Nonny. What a blessing for all of Matt's grandparents to live so close to one another! Our visit with Great and Nonny wasn't as long since we get to spend a week with them every summer on our lake vacation, but we definitely had to see them while we were in town.

Once we stepped foot inside their house Adam immediately remembered the singing fish from last year, so Great hunted it down for him.

Great then insisted that we bring it home with us. Yeeeeeah, big thanks for that Great. (I wish you could hear the sarcasm in my voice!)

Adam and Drew got to play outside for quite a while and I picked us up a quick bite to eat before we had to get back on the road. But not before more snuggle time from Nonny!

All 4 of Matt's grandparents are some of my biggest role models in life and since I've joined the family each one of them has taught me something about family and faith. They have created such a legacy of love that I'm honored to be a part of!

It's moments like the ones we shared in that short time that make all the work that goes along with traveling well worth it. We are so fortunate to have such wonderful family and we are incredibly thankful for the times when our children are able to spend time with their relatives, near and far, and know just how many people cherish them. They are making memories that will hopefully last a lifetime. And if there are some that they don't remember someday...at least we've got the blog! :)

Christmas Day

2012-01-12T15:22:00.001-06:00

Christmas 2011 was a positively lovely day. The night was not nearly as wonderful since at midnight we still had barely even begun to pack for our next day travels and we wanted to kick ourselves in the face once again for procrastinating, but the day, it was just super.

We were all up quite early to see what Santa had left for the boys. (Pookie left them a parting message as well.) The boys took their time with each gift and it took a couple of hours to open everything under the tree and play with all their new toys from Santa. I loved that Matt and I vowed to not buy gifts for each other this year (other than our stockings which we positively pack full of goodies), yet we both secretly bought a few special surprises to exchange. I loved that the boys were so excited about the big and little things they received and were more than happy to share everything with their brothers. Their joy was truly contagious!

Drew is always good for the one-liners and a few of my favorites from Christmas morning were...

"I am really curious about these undies."
"A ball?! Are you nuts?"
"Where's me sword?"
"Oh a piece of candy! I've always wanted one of these!"
"This is the best day of my life!"

In our eyes a perfect Christmas Day would include about a foot of snow outside and a kitchen full of wet coats, gloves and scarves from the many trips to play in it all day long. This year's weather was about as far from that as you can imagine in December, but it was wonderful in its own right. Before lunch we were able to spend a couple of hours playing outside with some of the boys new toys. It was a gorgeous day and we definitely enjoyed the sunshine, fresh air, and each other.

Adam never got a nap (despite his night of very little sleep), but I managed to squeeze in 2 somehow. I think that may be a first for me!

We ended the evening with a huge homecooked dinner and a birthday cake for Jesus as dessert. We all went to bed with happy hearts, full bellies, and giddiness over the days to come. Couldn't ask for more!

Christmas Eve

2012-01-10T21:09:00.001-06:00

That Saturday was such a nice lazy, laid-back day. We started off the morning making gingerbread houses. The boys loved every messy second.

Drew said this house ended up being a haunted house instead. Looks about right.

We spent most of the day lounging around in our jammies, but we got cleaned up in the late afternoon so we could attend the Christmas Eve service at a nearby church.

I didn't realize until later that we hastily posed the exact same as our Christmas card picture (over on the sidebar).

After church we made some homemade pizzas. I had my trusty sous chef of course.

And then we let the boys open a few presents. They each get to open one from mom and dad on Christmas Eve as well as the sibling gift from their brothers.

All decked out in their new jammies, they were ready to litter the lawn with reindeer food.

Before bed, both Drew and Adam received individual phone calls from Santa. They about flipped out when they heard that our house would be Santa's first stop in Arkansas. They also flipped when Santa requested candy and ice-cream to go along with his milk and cookies. Good thing we had some on hand. Complete with whip cream!

And once again Santa's helpers were up until the early morning hours trying to do their part. We were certainly kicking ourselves for choosing to watch a movie in the early evening and putting off all our "work". We had just barely gotten in bed before Adam woke up at 2:30 and thought it was time to start the fun. He knew he was supposed to go to Drew's room when he woke up (and not peek downstairs!), but we sure didn't expect him to wake up his little brother in the middle of the night. Poor kids were all kinds of confused when Matt went upstairs to get them all back in bed. In fact, I'm not sure if Adam EVER went back to sleep. Too much excitement over the big day...which I'll hopefully get to sharing at some point. At this point I don't think I'll ever get caught up!

Adventures With Pookie ~ Part 2 ~

2012-01-09T22:29:00.000-06:00

Our last few days with Pookie...

Sometimes Pookie liked to just hang out.

And sometimes he liked to be a little ornery.

One Sunday morning the boys didn't find Pookie until we loaded up in the car. Apparently Pookie wanted to hitch a ride to church.

He seems to think quite a bit of himself.

Two days before Christmas the boys found Pookie emailing with Santa. He had videos from Santa for both Adam and Drew and they were ecstatic. Towards the end of the videos Santa finds out if each child made the nice or naughty list and it was a real nail-biter for that Drew. He jumped all around with cheers of delight when he found out he made the cut.

And on Christmas Eve, Pookie's last night, he must have snuck into the boys' bedrooms while they slept because they woke up to a fun surprise.

Later that morning we had to paint Ty's as well because he didn't want to be left out. :)

The boys were quite sad to say goodbye to Pookie that last night and they are already asking how much longer till his return. Gonna be a long 11 months!

Family Festivities

2012-01-08T21:58:00.002-06:00

Since we weren't going to be with my mom and brother on the 25th, we celebrated with them a few days before Christmas. It turned into an all day celebration when we invited some of our extended family over for a big lunch that day as well. My mom said she'd handle the majority of the food if we were okay with hosting and that sounded like a great deal to me. Matt positively loves when we have company for the sheer fact that it's the only time our house is really clean!

That Thursday morning we also had Adam's ENT appointment, so it was a busy day to say the least. And don't even get me started on the chaos of getting out of the house when my babysitter...ahem Alex Christopher!...didn't hear his alarm go off and was MIA when it was time for me to walk out the door. Had to run around like a nut case to get Drew and Titus dressed and make it to the doctor's office in time. Bub didn't even wake up until 2 hours later and boy was I ready to tan his hide. Good thing I'm a mostly forgiving person.

Matt went back to the office for a little bit after the appointment and the boys and I stopped at the store to pick up a veggie tray and a few other things. By the time we made it home, mom had 2 amazing soups (that she'd made a few days prior) warming up on the stove. Cheesy corn chowder and shrimp/chicken gumbo...and both were out of this world. My mom is one phenomenal cook.

All the family arrived at noon and even included Jan and Bruce, who drove through snow and ice, all the way from Colorado Springs. We had a huge feast that could have fed twice as many people and Matt was able to take a 2 hr lunch break and spend some quality time with us as well. It was such a special afternoon and I hope it will become a yearly tradition.

Part of Alex's punishment was being demoted to the kiddie table. ;)

After Matt went back to work, GiGi snuck out to do some last-minute shopping. Big Bub played with Adam and Drew upstairs and while Titus napped, I crashed hard. I had no idea I was that exhausted until I had some peace and quiet. Must have been the fact that I was mopping my kitchen floor at midnight the night before. :)

Adam was a man on a mission as soon as Matt walked through the door that evening. He immediately confiscated Matt's wallet and wrapped it up to give to him as a Christmas gift. Such a sweet idea, but the gift had to be opened shortly after since Matt was paying for our dinner that evening. The fact that Adam was so excited about it made it absolutely adorable. He also wrapped up 2 quarters inside a dollar bill for his daddy. And a ball for Titus. The rest of us got big fat goose eggs.

Drew did not get a nap that day and was pretty rascally before we left the house. At one point he came up to me teary-eyed and mad as a hornet. He said something along the lines of, "Mama, you lied to me! You told me when I had my tonsils out that they would put me to sleep and I wouldn't feel a thing, but you lied and I felt EVERYTHING and it really, really HURT!" He was absolutely furious and was definitely letting me know. Never mind the fact that he's never had an issue with his tonsils in his entire life! I guess that ENT appointment short-circuited his brain or something.

We eventually made it out for our Christmas dinner at Texas Land and Cattle, where all the grown ups had big ol' yummy steaks. That could be another Christmas tradition I'd be more than happy to continue!

We had dessert and present time when we got back home.

GiGi had 3 gifts for each boy. When Drew saw his Trio Batcave, he kept screaming, "I got Batman! I got Batman!"

And he somehow ripped open this Angry Birds game when no one was looking and the pieces were EVERYWHERE and mixed in with all the discarded wrapping paper before we ever noticed. That was fun. Not.

Adam was ecstatic over his new Bakugans.

But when GiGi told him to go look by the back door, he screamed like nobody's business when he discovered his very first skateboard.

I don't think I've ever seen Adam as excited or surprised about a gift. He had to test it out right away.

T's favorite gift of the night was his Rock n Roll Elmo. Either that or my new slippers. :)

We had such a great day with my mom and bubba. Love them forever, like them for always!

Counting Down To Christmas

2012-01-06T12:41:00.000-06:00

One of our favorites things to do in December is our advent calendar. I hope to be more on the ball with that next year because there were many days that I didn't get it ready until Adam was already home from school and I bribed him and Drew to go in the other room for just one quick second before they checked that day's door (we always did it in the afternoon since all 3 boys wake up at different times).

Some days just had candy or a small treat, but some days also had a scripture for us to read together. Those days were my favorite, especially when they'd sit on the rug in a little line while I read a passage to them. Must do more of that. Good stuff.

The boys also loved opening their Christmas books (that were wrapped up by Pookie). Sometimes we'd go 2 or 3 days without remembering to open any and then some days I caught Drew and Titus opening as many of them as they could while I wasn't looking.

I saw something similar to this on Pinterst. Adam made this one and had the honor of cutting off the days of Santa's beard as we neared Christmas.

Oh, these reindeer pancakes were another fun Pinterest find. Although I think I was more excited about them than anyone else.

Drew and Titus had a Christmas tree painting project one morning. They both did them ENTIRELY on their own as all I did was help open paint lids. Matt and I still can't figure out how Titus knew to make his star yellow.

When Drew finished up his artwork he was excited to tell me that the red in the middle means all the love inside the Christmas tree exploded and blood and guts went everywhere. If that doesn't put you in the holiday spirit I don't know what will!

Titus, on the other hand, he found a more efficient way to get the job done.

I'm not sure what he's trying to tell me about the finished product, but I'm terrified all the same.

Moving on! Adam and Drew had pajama/movie day at school on the same day.

And we made a visit to see Santa at the mall.

The Saturday before Christmas we took some time out of our busy schedule for more important things. Matt and Titus went to visit a widow from our church (that they'd never before met) to deliver a fruit basket that our lovely PowerWALKers put together a few nights before.

And I took the big boys to the assisted living place that we like to visit. We had a gift for my friend Rebecca and I was super excited about this visit in particular because it was Adam's first time to meet her.

They hit it off so well and I learned even more about my new friend while we were there. Had no idea that she was an amazing painter and that almost all the artwork in her home is her own. She had been coloring pictures of birds before we arrived and she taught the boys a few things and even let them bring home their own pictures to color. Adam had his finished within an hour and he can't wait to take it back to show her.

We did our annual drive around town to look at Christmas lights in our jammies.

Matt and the boys did a cute little snowman / marshmallow craft.

Like father, like sons...

The finished products:

Lastly, Drew's preschool had a Christmas party at Fun City the week before Christmas. Adam was out of school for that entire week so he was able to go with us and enjoy the fun. I think Harrison was more excited about this fact than anyone else. Titus thought he was big stuff and I could barely keep up with that kid while we were there. When Madeleine showed up at the very end, that was the icing on the cake!

Keeping Tabs: 365 & 36

2012-01-06T08:47:00.000-06:00

I did it! 365 pictures for 365 days in 2011! I've wanted to do a picture a day for a few years now and it feels great to have done it...even if I'm the only person that will ever flip through that many snapshots of our year. :)

And for the first time I also kept track of all the books I read in 2011. It's not that impressive of a list (only 36 books) since I don't have the time to read as much as I used to or as much as I'd like to. There were a couple of books that I barely trudged my way through and a couple that will go on my list as all-time favorites. After years of having them recommended to me, I finally started the Redemption series by Karen Kingsbury and those were probably my best discovery of 2011. I had to make myself take a break after reading each one because it was a little crazy how absorbed I got. There are 5 books in that first series and I don't think it ever took me longer than 2 days to read one of the books, which means I was getting a whole lot of NOTHING else done in the meantime. I've not allowed myself start the next series just yet for that very reason.

I don't plan to document a picture-a-day for this year, but I will keep up with my reading log. Look for it over on the sidebar throughout the year if you're interested. And if you've got any great recommendations for 2012, please let me know!

A New Year

2012-01-04T21:53:00.000-06:00

I wasn't planning to post on New Years resolutions because...well...I really don't do them very often. Sure I strive to do better, to be better, in all sorts of areas (I am certainly not immune to the desire to lose weight every January, I can guarantee that!) but I usually don't wait until the beginning of a new year with my list of all the things I want to change. If I am serious about improving my life in a certain area, I'd rather just work towards doing it immediately, regardless of what the day it is on the calendar.

Even though I really don't make a list of resolutions, it doesn't mean that I don't love reading those of others. I'm constantly finding myself inspired by friends and total strangers who share their resolutions on their blogs and I'm definitely drawn into the feelings and emotions behind many of them. I was so inspired this past week that I decided to jot down some thoughts of my own after all.

A couple of years back I wrote a post called Priorities where I outlined the things I wanted my life to focus on in the coming year and truth be told, I still want all those same things for each and every day. My heart's deepest desires are the same today and I strive daily to strengthen my relationship with God and rejoice in Him at all times; to love, support and honor my husband; to guide my children towards the Lord and fill their hearts and minds with love and confidence; to make our home a comfortable and clean haven from the outside world (my biggest struggle!); to use my God-given gifts, abilities and passions to serve others and bring glory to Him.

I never wrote about it, but last year I chose a word to be my "mantra" for the year. My word was intentional and I tried to live with real intention in all areas of my life. It completely changed the way I viewed things, from the mundane to the major, when I was intentional with my thoughts and my actions. When I fully realized that I could bring honor to God (and others!) with just about every single part of my day, I found that not only did I often make different/better choices, but I was blessed for them as well. From sharing one of God's truths with a gentle voice while changing a diaper to talking on the phone for hours with a friend going through emotional/spiritual battles to opting for a walk in the beautiful sunshine with my kids instead of watching more tv to taking a meal to a family in need...all these moments, big and small, impact not only my relationship with my Maker but my ability to witness for Him as well.

Please know that these are my goals for a reason...because I've definitely not perfected them! I still struggle with many, many things on a regular basis. I may not neglect my children or use profane language or get drunk on the weekends, but I get jealous, I'm easily angered, I can be judgmental and hold grudges. I need God's grace and mercy as much as the next person, trust me!

I am really prayerful that 2012 will be a year of spiritual renewal and growth for me. I want to seek God's will for my life more fully than ever before. That can be a scary thing, letting go and letting God, but I am so ready to quit making my plans and to live more fully for His plan. I want to be molded and used over and over and over again.

I once read something that author Marjorie Pay Hinckley (who has some of the best quotes you can imagine...seriously, Google her!) stated and I completely fell in love with it:

“I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails.
I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp.
I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor's children.
I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden.
I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder.
I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived.”

Pastor Steven Furtick said something similar that really resonated with me:

"The goal of life isn’t to make it to a point where we can breathe easy. It’s to get to heaven breathless. Tired because we’ve been faithfully and passionately following God - through mountains and valleys."

I think Steven and Marjorie have some thing figured out. I don't want to breathe easy. I want to be breathless. Not only in 2012, but every day that I'm on this earth. And it looks like this new year is as good a time to start as any.

Happy 2012 friends and family!

Odds & Ends

2012-01-02T21:17:00.000-06:00

Titus has some of the cutest little friends you've ever seen. We had Mason over one afternoon a while back and the two of them were so funny together, although truth be told Mason thought Adam was the hit of the show at our house.

My friend Renee babysat the boys for me one day when I had a dentist appointment and Ty got to see his little sweetie, Taelyn. Tae is one of my most favorite little girls ever.

And shortly before Christmas we had Lenka, Jackson and Gavin over to the house and Titus got to dote on baby Gavin to his heart's content.

We also had one of Adam's best friends, Matthew, over during Christmas break. His sister Maddie came over as well and we had a fun morning with those two. And their mama repaid the favor by taking all 3 of my kiddos one morning later in the week. I was able to grocery shop all on my own and it was heaven!

Here's Matthew and Adam at Fun City ages ago (after Matthew bonked his noggin).

And horse playing with Paul when we babysat him one night. So thankful my boys have such sweet friends!

If I am ever baking, you can be guaranteed that this little fella is right by my side. He is a chef in the making, for sure.

Drew cracks me up with all his little lovies that he's so attached to.

He's also the sweetest little sleeper in the world. I love sneaking into his room during naps and after bed to see how precious he is.

Our first S'mores night on our fire pit.

Drew was devastated that Adam slept over at Jared's house a while back so we let him pick anything he wanted to do that evening and he chose Krispy Kreme. A boy after my own heart!

His other request was to have a candle-lit dance party that night in our living room. We were happy to oblige, but thankfully no photos to share of that silliness.

Adam and Titus playing in the doghouses at PetSmart.

Some of my favorite girlfriends on a night out at Abuelo's.

That particular GNO made 3 nights in a week that I had out with girlfriends (Breaking Dawn with Rachel and Bunco at Patty's were the other fun evenings). Bless my sweet husband for understanding and taking such good care of our littles while I got some kid-free time.

Cruising around the neighborhood.

There's not much my boys would rather play with than Moon Dough. The mess it creates is the bane of my existence!

Painting of any kind is also very high up on their list.

Unfortunately I forgot that particular paint is not so kid-friendly and it took about 2 days for it to finally wash off of Titus. Story of my life with that boy! He finds markers scattered throughout the house on a regular basis and is always coloring all over himself. Matt is no longer surprised when he comes home from work to see T looking something like this...

Between that and his horribly messy eating habits,

he often bathes as many as 3 times a day. And is quite happy about that fact!

One other quick Titus tidbit...he is still rocking this potty training business. I really thought those first few days were a fluke, but he still lets us know most of the time when he needs to go potty.

Perfect example. :)

Excluding nap time and bedtime, he often stays in the same diaper for most of the day since he keeps it dry. He's had a little success in #2s, but tonight's poopie disaster definitely showed he's not all there yet. It cracks us up that he rarely says a word, yet he's so interested in potty training himself. COMPLETELY different than his big brothers in both of those areas!

Lastly, right before Christmas Adam had his long awaited appointment with the ENT.

Good luck convincing Ty it really wasn't his appointment.

During Adam's last illness (another fever with throat infection) the pediatrician he saw said it was time for Adam to see a specialist. I'd gone to that appointment prepared with my list of all his illnesses from the past year and Dr. R thought it was very likely that the ENT would suggest removing Adam's tonsils. And sure enough, he did. As of right now we are thinking we will wait until the Friday before Spring Break to have it done so that Adam won't miss more school (and it also won't interfere with his basketball season), but it's flexible and if we change our minds we can get him in sooner than that.

I definitely don't like to think about my boy having surgery, but on the other hand I am so ready for him to not be sick every few weeks with the exact same thing. He bounces back beautifully each and every time, but I still hate that we can pretty much count on him being sick and feeling horrible for about 5 days every single month. If the specialist thinks a tonsillectomy will help with that, then I am all for it.

That's enough randomness for tonight. Will try to catch up on Christmas festivities soon!

Our Lily Girl

2012-01-01T14:07:00.002-06:00

I've got a lot of catching up to do on my blog, but before I try to tackle that big project, I have to formally introduce the newest member of our family, Lily!

We've been waiting for Lily to join our family for months. We've had her in our thoughts and in our hearts even before she was born and have kept up with her through weekly pictures from her breeder in Missouri. We were able to pick her up, a day shy of her 8 week birthday, during our Christmas travels and she is far and away the best Christmas gift we could have ever dreamed of.

Lily is a golden retriever and is playful, loving, unbelievably soft, and so much fun. She enjoys snuggling with us, but she can also run around in the yard to the point of exhaustion. Drew has big plans for her to be his long-term bed partner, but he's definitely not ready to take her out multiple times a night. Until she gets a little older, we'd hoped to have her crate-trained at night, but little girl has let it be known that she doesn't love that idea. And it looks as though Matt and I aren't any more willing to let our puppy cry-it-out as we are our children. We had a few nights of poor sleep and then we discovered she absolutely loves our master bathroom. It's her favorite place to rest/nap during the day, so last night we let her sleep in there and she did incredibly well. I hope we'll be so lucky for that trend to continue!

The boys, especially Titus, are positively giddy over Lily. They love running all over the yard with her and anytime they fall on the ground, Lily will hop all over them and lick them like crazy. She's definitely going to help us be a more physically active family, which will be great for all of us.

Lily is already learning her name and that she earns a treat anytime she does her business outside. She has a few nicknames already including Lily Vanilli, Silly Lily, and Lils. She's also having a good time exploring our house. She learned to go up the stairs in no time, but is a little more hesitant on coming down them. And as I write this, she has scooted completely under our bed and is chewing on who only knows what. Chewing is definitely her favorite pastime and yesterday we had to go stock up on more bones to try to keep everything else in our home from being all chewed up.

No doubt many, many adventures await all of us now that Lily is a part of our crew!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T15:34:00.000-06:00

It's been a 2 nap day at our house this Christmas (and that's for the mama, not the kiddos!) which should tell you the kind of excitement we've had around here today. Such a beautiful and blessed day to spend with my family, celebrating all that is truly important in life. Wishing all of you the same and a wonderful holiday season. Over and out until the new year!

Lights Of The Ozarks

2011-12-24T15:33:00.000-06:00

Going to the Fayetteville square during the holidays is one of our favorite Christmas traditions. Our small group didn't meet last Sunday evening, so we decided to make that our night to head to "the hill".

It kills me that this picture of Titus is out of focus. He was beyond excited to be out and about in the cold.

The camel was one of the first things we saw and of course we couldn't pass up a chance to ride it. It was the 2nd time for Adam, but a first for me and Drewbie.

Matt had warned me that the camel would really stink (I didn't notice it), but I was more skeeved out about wearing a helmet that had been worn by who knows how many people.

Around one corner there were some guys playing Christmas songs. They were actually really, really good and we enjoyed listening to them for quite a while. Adam later said this was his favorite part of the night.

Most likely because it was at this time that we saw one of his good friends from school.

Titus got to do his first pony ride this year. I've never seen a child that loves animals as much as he does. He was in heaven and kept rubbing the mane of his little horse. So sweet!

Around the next corner was a stand selling fried twinkies. No way was Matt passing that up. Good thing he bought enough to share.

I think fried twinkie officially qualifies as Ty's favorite food. Ever.

Throughout the night we saw kids walking around with light-up swords. Drew about lost his mind when he finally saw the vendor selling them. They now have 2 more swords to add to their huge arsenal. Just what we needed, right?

Ty's face kills me in this shot.

Love these boys!

And especially love that husband of mine for suggesting a post-square trip to Braums for milkshakes, just like last year.

Yay for fun (and yummy!) traditions!

Gingerbread House Party

2011-12-21T13:09:00.000-06:00

Adam's last day of school was this past Friday and to celebrate they had a fun afternoon decorating gingerbread houses. Actually they celebrated for several days in a row, which included a movie and pajama day and all kinds of fun stuff, but Friday was the day of the big party where parents were invited to help out.

My brother and Colby came to the house to babysit so I could sneak away for a few hours. Of course I had to cook them a delicious lunch, but it was well worth it. I knew that between Matt (who comes home for lunch most days), Alex, and Colby, they would put that meal away in no time so I had a Lean Cuisine for my lunch so there'd be enough of the good food for the 3 of them. Is that true love or what?!

A few of the parents got there early and we worked at getting everything set up. When the kids came back from PE, their teacher explained how it was all going to go down and I found out that she'd used a picture Adam colored for her a couple of weeks ago (when he was home sick) as a way to teach the kids about gingerbread houses. Way to go, Adam!

I spent most of my time on Friday with Adam and 3 of his classmates (whom I'd never met before). They were all very sweet and one of them told me repeatedly that I was so nice and towards the end of the afternoon she said she wished that I could be her mom too. I didn't know whether to smile or to cry! I opted for a big bear hug.

The whole event was a huge candy extravaganza and all the kids had so much fun snacking and decorating and making enormous messes. I was surprised with how many parents came, but one little girl and her dad absolutely blew me away with how seriously they took this gingerbread house business. He insisted on doing all of the icing and then he told her what candies needed to go where and in what pattern. When he decided to let her do a few portions, he stood behind her and would stop her if she started to put any piece of candy in the wrong place. Their finished product was a masterpiece and seriously looked like it could have come out of a magazine, with imaginative details even I wouldn't have thought to do. Now maybe this little girl actually wanted her dad's help and maybe he knew she'd be happiest if she had the most beautiful house there. And I certainly give him credit for being an involved parent, but all I could think the entire time was YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!

As you can see I had no plans of an award-winning house from my Adam. In fact, it probably looks like it was found at the bottom of a dumpster...and that is fine by me. Especially since he had about half of it eaten by the time we made it home anyways.

Loved getting to spend the afternoon with my biggest boy. And thankful that Big Bub and Colby survived the chaos of our house, so they can hopefully do it again soon!

Decking The Halls

2011-12-20T13:21:00.001-06:00

Much of our Christmas decor is the same this year as last year, but I thought I'd capture what it looks like in 2011 for anyone that's interested (Hi Grammy!). :)

The biggest change definitely took place in our dining room. It went from this:

To this:

What a difference some furniture can make!

We knew our big tree wouldn't fit in our dining room any longer, so early in December I ordered a prelit slim one online and we had it 2 days later.

The Christmas dishes were a gift from Nonny shortly after Matt and I were married and I've never been able to display them before now. Makes me think of her and smile every time I walk past and see them.

The table arrangement is nothing fancy, but I put all of it together for about $35 (excluding the cost of our wedding china, of course), so I was pretty pleased.

We originally thought we'd no longer be able to use our "big" tree because it is so wide and we don't have a lot of extra floor space in our living room, but Matt was able to just push it up against the wall and bend a lot of the back branches that no one can see. One day we may opt for a taller/skinnier tree in this spot, but it's working for us this year!

I love seeing how everyone decorates their trees differently and I completely adore the theme trees that many do, but we have so many special ornaments from our childhoods and from the ornament shower we had before we were married. I think our big tree will forever be a hodge-podge tree of memorabilia. Besides the red/gold ball ornaments that are thrown in to help fill it up, every single ornament on that tree carries a special memory with it and I love that.

And yes, the boys still have their tree upstairs as well. It has all of their yearly ornaments as well as all the homemade ones that they've made through the years, including all the handmade ones from Matt's childhood as well. Priceless!

We've somehow become a 3 tree household and I actually want 2 more for the front porch someday. I may need an intervention. ;)

A few other new things for this year include...

The big Santa canvas on top of the bookcase (with light up Christmas tree). I got it on a huge discount at Kirklands and liked that Santa was bringing a puppy.

I framed a few printables that I found online. One is in the kitchen and the other in the guest bathroom.

I'm really enjoying our chalk board in the kitchen and changing up the messages every now and then.

Last, but certainly not least, are all the homemade items strung throughout. We've got snowman stickers on door handles, colored Christmas pictures littering every counter, and other crafts taped anywhere we can find a spot. Wouldn't have it any other way!

Ring Around The Rosie

2011-12-19T08:52:00.000-06:00

Ring around the rosie

Pockets full of posies

Ashes! Ashes!

all

fall down!

Andrew's Antics And Adam's Accomplishment

2011-12-16T10:18:00.001-06:00

I neglect to write down so many of the funny things that Drew says. He cracks us up with one thing or another on a daily basis. A few nights ago Matt and I were about to go to sleep, but before we said our final good nights we started recounting one funny Drew story after another. It didn't take long before we were both laughing so hard we were crying. A few of our recent favorites have been too good to forget, so here's a little taste of what we get to live with on a daily basis...

One day at the library Drew hugged me from behind while I was in the check-out line and gave me a loud kiss on my rear end. He then said aloud for all to hear, "I sure do love you mama, even your bottom!" Speaking of my bottom, I recently said something about it being too big and Drew told me it was as cute as a little mouse. If only!

Drew is unbelievably affectionate...always hugging and kissing and talking about how much he loves everyone in his family. He does this a lot when we are out running errands and will say a random, "I love you!" any ol' time he feels like it. On a recent trip to Hobby Lobby, while in an aisle with several other women, he told me, "Mama, I love you so much that I think I'm going to explode and my blood and guts are going to go all over this place!"

After telling him a story one night at bedtime, Matt taught Drew to say, "That is whack!" after hearing something silly or crazy. Drew thought it was the funniest thing he'd ever heard and he told Matt that he hoped I said something really silly in the morning because he couldn't wait to say that to me. Shortly after Matt came downstairs we could hear Drew babbling away over the monitor. He must have been practicing for the next day because we suddenly heard him exclaim, "PBS Kids is WHACK!"

During a recent dinner Drew told Matt, "Dad you should not use salt or pepper on your foods. You should only use Tony Chachere's. It will help bring out the natural flavor of your food."

Drew came out of Bible class one Wednesday night upset because he and one of his friends both wanted the same toy at one point. He was sad because she had ripped it out of his hands. On the drive home Matt tried to turn it into a teaching moment and said, "Drew, sometimes when 2 people want the same thing, one of them has to say, 'It's okay, you can have it first. I'll have the next turn with that toy.'" To which Drew replied, "I KNOW! But she wouldn't say that!"

One afternoon I took the boys to a nearby playground after school. Adam and Drew spent most of their time there finding nuts underneath a tree. Drew was so proud of his collection and put all of them in his pocket before we left. A little later we were going to meet Matt at Five Guys for dinner and when we pulled up in the parking lot, Drew asked, "Is this that Four Men restaurant?" He then told me, "I can't wait to go in there and show everyone my nuts!"

Just doesn't get much better than that. :)

In other news, I received an email from Adam's teacher one day last month letting us know that Adam would be receiving an award in the upcoming ceremony and that we were welcome to attend if we were able. You don't have to ask us twice! Unfortunately, Adam ended up getting sick the night before and he had to not only miss school, but also miss receiving his surprise award in front of the whole school. :(

I talked to his teacher later that day and she told me that Adam has earned the character award for the quarter and that the character trait he most exhibits is honorable.

The other awards were for academic achievements (reading, writing, math). Would I have been proud of Adam had he received one of the academic awards? Absolutely! I'm proud of my boy even if he receives no awards at school. But I also can't deny that I was beaming with pride when I heard his good character was being noticed and recognized.

These boys of mine...they may test my patience and my sanity on a daily basis, but they also make my sides hurt from laughing so hard and they make my heart nearly burst with love....blood and guts may just go all over this place!

Titus Tidbits

2011-12-14T22:43:00.002-06:00

Titus is so funny with his love affair of shoes. It doesn't matter what size or style, he will try to wear them all. One of his newest "tricks" is after I dress him in the morning, he will open the door to the garage, find his shoes on the shoe rack (no small feat since there's about 15 pairs out there), try to put them on himself, and eventually bring them to me if he needs help. All without even being asked. He's even started bringing me and Matt our shoes after we get dressed in the morning!

Titus hangs out in the bathroom whenever either of us shower and as soon as he hears the water turn off, he runs over to hand us a towel. He loves to throw things away in the trash can and if you hand him a piece of trash, he immediately runs to the kitchen to dispose of it. He even knows to put his dirty clothes in the hamper and sometimes follows his brothers after they undress and puts all their clothes in the hamper as well. He's become obsessed with the new Bissell vacuum we got for our hardwood floors (it's the only vacuum he's not terrified of) and daily he begs to vacuum the downstairs and will walk around with that thing until the battery eventually runs down. Such a big helper that little guy is!

There are meals when Titus barely eats a thing and meals where he eats practically everything he can get his hands on. He was being such a silly boy with daddy one day during lunch that I had to whip out the camera to take some pics. For that particular meal he had PB and J sandwich, poppyseed chicken casserole, carrots, squash and strawberries. Random!

Just for my own records, I want to have his 18 month stats on the blog, so this seems as good a place as any to jot them down. He's stayed on the same curve for both height and weight for as long as I can remember.

November 16th (18 months)

Height: 33.07 inches (75%)

Weight: 23 lb 7 oz (25%)

Titus did not care much for books for the longest time, but that has finally changed. He loves to be read to and he loves having a say in what books we read. He is an opinionated little fella and not afraid to show it! This is what his bedroom looks like most days.

I rarely waste my time picking them up because it will just look like this an hour later.

Against my wishes, Titus seems quite interested in potty-training right now. I know some kids do train this early, but I just have no interest in trying to accomplish it with my just turned 19 month old. Selfishly, I'd like to keep him in diapers until he's at an age where potty-training will be easier on both of us. Unfortunately I can't keep a diaper on that boy to save my life! He hates wearing his diaper (or clothes in general for that matter) and he strips himself down multiple times a day. He is unable to take his own shirt off, but pants, shorts, pj's of any kind are all fair game. And as soon as the bottoms come off, you can guarantee the diaper is right behind it. This has led to several accidents on the floor, which I'd expect, but what I haven't expected is the fact that he also runs to the potty and begs to sit on it all day long. He now pees in the potty several times a day and earlier this week he did his first #2's (four times in one day!). Yesterday he used the potty 7 times before 9:30 in the morning! I get a cardio workout just trying to keep up with that boy!

One and a half and he's not only wearing undies on occasion, but making important phone calls and playing games on my iPhone. Kids these days!

Little boys should come with a warning label in regards to potty humor. One morning last week, Drew and I were watching cartoons in my bed and Titus walked over to the side and wanted help climbing in the bed. I did and he snuggled up with me for a minute and then stood up, pulled one of his diaper tab's off, pulled "it" out and then peed all over me. Later that day, after his nap, I found him in his crib bare-bottomed and completely captivated by his anatomy. I am crazy in love with these boys of mine, but man can they ever be gross!!!

One last Titus tidbit...he and all his brothers have been fever free for over 24 hours and tonight's rowdiness at our house proved that they are all as ornery as ever. Hallelujah!

Adventures With Pookie ~ Part 1 ~

2011-12-13T14:46:00.000-06:00

Our beloved Pookie is back from the North Pole and causing all kinds of fun and mischief at the W house.

The boys knew that he would return sometime before Christmas, but they certainly weren't expecting him to beat us home from our Thanksgiving travels. And yet there he was when we walked through the door, hanging out on the landing outside their bedrooms, just waiting for their return home.

Pookie must have had some good times recounting antics with all the other scout elves at the North Pole this past year because he came back with some doozies. Adam hops out of bed every morning on a mission to find Pookie. Drew prefers to take his mornings nice and slow and sometimes doesn't even bother with the search and instead just asks me where Adam found Pookie that morning. Ty just likes to point and make funny noises at him. :)

Here's what Pookie's been up to lately...

One night he got out the tractors and did some good ol' fashioned hog wrasslin'.

He switched the stockings on our mantle for Adam and Drew's undies one night (they found the stockings in their underwear drawers).

On the first day of December, Pookie surprised the boys with 24 wrapped Christmas books. He left instructions that they get to open one every day until Christmas.

His wrapping skills have some room for improvement.

Pookie startled me when I went to make breakfast one morning.

I thought Adam might have a hard time finding him that morning, but he located that silly elf in mere seconds.

Gone fishin'.

Pookie prepared a snowman spread for the kids on one Saturday morning.

As you can see, it went over quite well.

Pookie must enjoy hearing all the games of hide-n-go-seek that go on out our house because he was hiding pretty good himself one morning.

Pookie is also enjoying the Christmas cards we've received so far.

Pookie seems to be a thrill seeker. He apparently likes to be way up high.

One morning we found him getting a shoulder ride from the Santa atop our Christmas tree.

And he even enjoys zip-lining through the dining room!

Adam found Pookie promoting good dental hygeine, while hanging out with our little bathroom elf, one morning.

And apparently even elves are fond of late-night snacks.

Every morning is a fun surprise and we can't wait to see what Pookie has in store for the next 11 days!

Weekly Recap

2011-12-12T23:21:00.002-06:00

It's a good thing our first weekend in December was so much fun because every day since then has been anything but.

Basically there has been a lot of this:

And this:

Which then led to this:

And day-after-day-after-day of this:

Throw in a some of this:

And that pretty much sums up our week!

I'll break it down by kid real quick and then I'm calling it a night because I have about seventy bajillion hours of sleep to try to catch up on. I'm thinking it's probably never gonna happen...

Last Sunday Adam started running a fever and had a sore throat. This is what he almost always has when he is sick and this latest illness made his 3rd one in less than a month! Despite having a gnarly looking throat, he tested negative for strep, so even though he doesn't meet our pediatrician's recommended 3 streps in a year before seeing an ENT, he has surpassed their # of throat infections and he'll have his first ENT appointment next week. Adam has already missed 8 days of school this year (and has been sick many more days than that since some of his sick days were on weekends). Time to have the tonsil talk!
,

He had a hard time bouncing back from this illness. His temp was above normal, but under 100.5 for Thursday and Friday so he went back to school even though he wasn't feeling his best. On Friday evening his temp was back up to 101 and I took him to the doctor's office again on Saturday morning. His throat was no longer sore, but he had a horrible cough and was complaining of pain when he took deep breaths. Sure enough one of his lungs was junky/crackly sounding and he was on his way to getting pneumonia. He started an antibiotic and has felt tremendously better since Saturday afternoon. I'd say he's definitely back to 100% and is as happy and silly as ever, thank goodness.

Titus started running a fever on Wednesday night. It was quite high during the night (103.5) and stayed in that range for most of Thursday. He was one miserable baby boy. I took him to the doctor on Friday because I thought his ears might be infected once again. They looked great, but the pedi took one look at his throat and was absolutely shocked. Apparently he had some of the most infected/swollen tonsils she'd ever seen in a toddler. Bless that sweet boy's heart. She thought he'd for sure be strep + (even though it's rare in 1 year olds), but nope, his test was negative too. Looks like he just caught big brother's virus.

T hasn't had any other bad symptoms. He's eating, drinking, and sleeping well. In fact he wants to sleep all the time. He fell asleep on my chest at 9:30 this morning while I was talking on the phone and slept for an hour after I laid him in our bed and then followed that up a little later with a 3 hour nap! He wants to be held (and not just held, but cuddled as tight as possible) all day long. If I didn't have 2 other little boys needing my attention, I swear he and I would just lay in bed and snuggle all day long. He is being SUCH a sweet lover. When he's not screaming his head off at me to hurry back and snuggle him again, that is. My arms are getting quite the workout this week.

If Ty still has fever in the morning, he'll be going back to the doctor as well to see if it's turned into a bacterial infection somewhere. Six straight days of a fever is no beuno.

Drewie (who now sleeps with Ginger, the same teddy bear I slept with for 14 straight years!) is the third (and hopefully final) victim of this illness. We always talk about how Drew never gets sick. He hasn't had a fever or cold in over a year! But apparently even Drew was no match for this round of super germs. He was hoarse on Saturday, even though he felt great most of the day, but started running a fever that evening.

That night Drew experienced croup for the first time and it was one of the scariest moments of my life. His too, I'm sure! We had the monitor set up in Adam's room during his illness and had no idea that Drew was having extreme breathing problems in his bedroom until he came downstairs sobbing after 11:00 that night. He could barely breathe in at all, his throat was nearly closed shut and every tiny bit of breath he could inhale was a huge struggle. He was scared out of his mind and crying uncontrollably which didn't help things at all. Matt and I were trying to calm him down and assess the situation when Drew vomited like a volcano. It literally erupted out of him and covered the 2 of us from head to toe. We already had the shower running to generate steam, so he and I got in to clean up and sat in the shower floor for about 15 minutes while the hot steam helped to open his airway. He slept with us for part of the night and then Matt moved upstairs with him later on in the night. He still had some labored breathing, but it was nothing like that horrible episode.

My adrenaline was through the roof that night and I barely slept at all (especially after Ty joined me in bed at 5:00 am). I just kept thinking what might have happened if Drew wouldn't have come downstairs to let us know he couldn't breathe. I'd never before seen someone struggle so much to simply breathe and if he wouldn't have dislodged a lot of that junk from vomiting, I think we would have been at the ER real quick.

Drew continued to have fever Sunday and Monday, but his breathing is better and sleeping with a humidifier seems to be helping him at night. He wants so badly to be well and play like normal, but he's just not there yet.

***

So that's the latest with us. I don't have a single present wrapped and under the tree. We've missed 2 super fun Christmas parties, a birthday party and several playdates. I haven't done 90% of my Christmas shopping. We don't have anything for the puppy we're bringing home at the end of the month. I haven't shopped for the things I'm making for Adam's teachers' luncheon on Thursday. I haven't received our Christmas cards yet, let alone addressed and mailed them. I'm totally behind of just about anything you can think of, but it'll all get done somehow someway.

We're just concentrating our efforts on loving these boys and I'm disinfecting the house like a madwoman. So if you drive by and see a greasy-haired, pajama clad, black-circle eyed mama with a baby in one arm and a Clorox bottle in the other, just wave and keep on a-driving. Trust me, you don't wanna take your chances in this place!

Super Saturday

2011-12-11T23:05:00.001-06:00

Last Saturday was one that went from sun up to sun down. Actually it went from before sun up to waaaay after sun down. It was a full day, let me just say that!

The first Saturday in December is when our church has our big clothing giveaway and free breakfast for neighbors in our community. I've blogged about this before and shared what an awesome experience it is, not only for those that we serve, but for those that serve. This year definitely followed suit. It gets bigger and bigger with each year and yet it seems to be more organized every year, from serving hot chocolate to those waiting outside to helping children fill their plates with food. So, so impressed with Daniel, Scott, and Amy (our friends that head it up) and all the others that work so hard to make the day a success.

Matt and I worked in the kitchen again this year. Matt took the early shift last year, so this year I was at the church by 7 that morning to start cooking.

Matt and the boys showed up a couple of hours later. Matt came with a big ol' Sonic vanilla Dr Pepper for yours truly, God bless him. Just what I needed to give me a boost for the next few hours.

All the workers kids were watched in a separate part of the church and the boys had a lot of fun with their friends.

This year Matt took Adam around at one point to see all that was being done and explained to him that all these people live nearby and how their lives were being blessed by receiving free clothes, coats and a warm meal. I'm already looking forward to next year when Adam might be old enough to serve alongside me for part of the time.

About 800 guests came through our church doors that day and I hope they could feel the love that we were all feeling for them.

After our big morning we came home for some lunch and down time. We had just enough time to rest up before leaving for our big afternoon outing, the Christmas Train! We met our best friends, the other W family, there and it was fun to ride the train with them this year.

The ride didn't go as smoothly this year as in years past (long delay in ever leaving the station for some reason) and we learned very quickly that Titus at his current age/stage was NOT going to make the train ride easy. That Teedle...he was a mess at bowling the night before and then an even bigger mess on the train! Although you sure can't tell it from these photos...

He really liked the train, he just didn't like being restrained. He wanted his brothers out of his way so he could have the window to himself and he would have greatly preferred to run up and down the aisle as much as possible.

The older boys had a better time.

Until a microphone was put in front of Adam's face (when he was not expecting it) during a group singing of Frosty the Snowman. He was so embarrassed that he didn't know the right words (I didn't either for that part of the song!) and cried silently for quite a while after that. My sweet sensitive boy!

So I guess maybe Drew was the only kiddo from our group that really liked it the whole time.

But the other W children, they were having a great time! Madeleine even led the singing on 2 different Christmas songs and did a FABULOUS job.

You can't have a group gathering in northwest Arkansas without calling the Hogs at least once. Christmas Train included. Of course we did it with pride. :)

Thankfully Adam and Ty were in pretty good spirits when Santa came around. Titus shockingly liked him, so I'm feeling a little better about our visit to the mall Santa in a few days. Overall, we had a good time but Adam has already made it clear he wants no part in it next year. Matt too for that matter, the party pooper. Looks like it might be a Drewie/Mommy date in 2012!

After the train adventure we had dinner plans at cousin Joanne's house. It was our first time to visit her new place (she moved to AR last year, but had been living with her son until she got her own home). Her boys, Kevin and Jimmy, were also there along with Jimmy's wife Kimber and their son Caden. Joanne made some delicious chili (and an even better mind-blowing dessert...still thinking about that!) and we had so much fun visiting with them for a couple of hours. Honestly we were having such a great time that we hated to leave that night. It was cold and rainy outside, but we were having the best time inside.

Adam and Drew LOVED being with Caden and they spent the last hour playing hide-n-seek with Kevin. Here the 3 rascals are pretending to be dead.

Silly boys!

We're hoping to have Caden over soon for a sleepover. Don't know how I got to be so blessed to have such awesome family. Love them so!

It's a good thing last Saturday was such a fabulous day because it was about to go way downhill shortly afterwards. More on that soon...

Bowling With Big Bub

2011-12-10T15:05:00.000-06:00

As our Thanksgiving holiday was drawing to an end and my boys knew that they would no longer be with their Big Bub 24/7, they made sure to let him know they expected to see him again very soon. So we made some plans with that brother of mine and the boys counted down the days until last Friday for our big bowling adventure.

It seemed like it had been ages since we'd all been bowling and I forgot just how much Adam and Drew love it.

Adam ended most of his turns looking something like this:

Or this:

Crazy child!

Drew, on the other hand, finished every single turn by jumping around and hooping and hollering (even if he'd only knocked 1 pin) and then running to the nearest person to give hugs and kisses.

What I wasn't really counting on was Titus loving it more than anyone. Unfortunately an 18 month old and heavy bowling balls do not go hand in hand. We were constantly trying to keep him from getting a finger smashed or running down one of the lanes (which he still managed to do more than once).

The only time he wasn't losing his mind over the whole ordeal was when we rolled the ball back and forth between us.

But even that only distracted him for so long.

My poor brother has his "Calgon, take me away!" face going on in that pic. I soooo feel your pain, bro.

We stopped halfway through our game to eat dinner and after that Matt bowled all his turns in a row so that he could get our screaming banshee baby out of there. They went to play video games while we finished up.

This was a disaster waiting to happen and yet I had to stop and take a pic first. ;)

Big Bub and I both talked a lot of smack prior to our game about who would win, but I ended up letting T-Diddle bowl one of my frames and then lost by 1 measly pin. Rematch!

After bowling we met up with dad and Ty for some more games.

I don't remember what was going on here, but it must have been terrifying.

All 6 of us were able to play Balladium. One of my favorite parts of the night.

Big Bub, Adam, Drew and I ended the night with a game of laser tag. We were in there with about 15 other folks and it was MADNESS, but a very good time. Adam beat all of us...easily.

Great start to the weekend!

Treats For The Troops

2011-12-09T21:04:00.000-06:00

Some ladies at our church regularly send packages to soldiers overseas and have been planning to send a big Christmas shipment this week. Well last week my friend Amy had the fabulous idea of hosting a playdate at her house and baking treats and making crafts with the kids that could be included in the boxes of things being sent to the troops. Playdates with our besties are one of our favorite things, but playdates with a purpose are even better!

My boys and I got cleaned up before we left and Drew took an especially long time in the shower. At one point I asked what he was doing and he informed he was has practicing his cooking.

He even insisted on wearing his chef outfit for the big day.

Titus preferred a different kind of dressing up. ;)

Amy had Christmas music playing and she prepared lots of Christmas-themed snacks for us to eat while we were there. I'm telling you, Martha Stewart doesn't have anything on this woman. Every time I'm at her house I just ooh and ahh over all her great ideas.

I brought everything I needed to make Snickerdoodles. Most of the kids were busy playing, but I had 3 little sous chefs that insisted on being part of the action.

Even with all those extra hands they still turned out yummy (Amy and I had to sample one, of course.)

Leslie made some brownies and Renee made these festive little pretzel/chocolate snacks.

We also helped the kiddos make some cards to include in our box.

Love all these blurry-faced kiddos and their sweet, sweet mamas too!

Thanksgiving Celebration -- Part 3

2011-12-08T14:20:00.002-06:00

After Friday's memorial service for my Aunt Lucretia and after the lunch we were served at the church, we all loaded up once again and drove into downtown Wichita to have some family photos taken. Posing for pictures mere hours after doing some serious ugly-crying was not the best look for me, I must say. We actually didn't know about the pictures at all until 2 days before and I scrambled to decide which of our packed clothes would coordinate the best for the casual outdoor photo shoot my Aunt Nancy had planned. And then it ended up being unbelievably cold and windy and we had to relocate to a place indoors. We also didn't have time to go home and change and I was not too happy about the fact that Drew didn't match anyone else in our family. Turns out it didn't matter too much because my big boys' smiles were so bad in all of our pics, we won't be ordering them anyways. :o/

Somehow despite the change in plans, everyone else looked like they stepped off the cover of a magazine. We took a lot of individual family pics, but I'll just share some of the larger group shots. Do we have a beautiful family or what?

Grandma Mary with her 3 children and 2 nieces (The Thanksgiving crashers!)

Aunt Nancy and Jim with Nancy's 2 sons and their families: Travis, Amber, Calvin, and Frederick; Dusty, Becky, Cooper, and Gracie.

Uncle Paul with his 3 sons: Trent (still a bachelor); Troy, Shannon, Hudson, Finley, and Ford; Tadd, Bridget, Breaden, and Taylor.

GiGi, Alex, and our family.

All the little cousins. Bless Ford's heart.

And the whole family!

We decided to spend the rest of the day at Nancy and Jim's and it wasn't until about 4:30 before Titus got a chance to finally take a nap. He crashed in the floor of their office.

Letting him nap that late ended up being a huge mistake as he was awake until about 11:30 that night!

Nancy took the bigger kids on another big outdoor adventure. They made so many great memories in that big field.

Adam and Taylor ended up being best buddies over the weekend. She is an absolute sweetheart.

We had dinner downstairs and the kids played for another hour or so while the adults talked and talked and talked. So much to catch up on after that long apart.

As we were getting ready to leave that night, Taylor ran to center stage to sing a couple of songs for all of us.

That led to Drew and Gracie performing some songs as well. (Ford was just up there for moral support.)

Gracie was such a cute little ham. She had to eventually get pulled off because she apparently had no plans to ever stop singing. And my Drewie? He decided to sing this little number that his big brother learned on the school playground:

A, B, C, D, E, F, G

Gummy bears are after me

One is red, one is blue

One is trying to get my shoe

Now I'm running for my life

'Cause the red one has a KNIFE!

Don't you know we were so proud. :)

The next morning we all went to Grandma Mary's church. She had 2 full pews of familiy. I don't know if she'd ever been prouder.

And then we had to say our goodbyes to the CA crew in the church lobby. Sniff, sniff. Good news is that I'm already brainstorming about a vacation to the west coast for our family!

We hurried back to Grandma's to get packed up (no small feat for our family...we are usually packed to the roof!) and then we had to bid farewell to Grandma as well.

Words can't express how much I love my sweet Grandma. Absolutely cherish our time with her and I hope that by now she's been able to recover from having our 3 ring circus invade her house!

Thanksgiving Celebration -- Part 2

2011-12-07T22:24:00.002-06:00

We had a fun outing planned for the day after Thanksgiving....brunch with one of Matt's longtime best friends, Jim, and his wife Amanda.

Jim and Amanda have traveled the world and lived in places like Chicago, New York City, London, and now they've settled down in good ol' Wichita, KS. This was our first chance to see them since they moved back from the UK. We met up for brunch at The Good Egg and had a GREAT time catching up with them. We seriously laughed the entire time we were there. My cheeks were even sore afterwards!

Big Bub and the boys joined us and they provided lots of entertainment.

I hope we will be able to spend more time with Jim and Amanda in the future. We have missed them so!

After eating we rushed back to get the littles down for a nap so we could settle in for the big Arkansas / LSU game. Oh, what a pitiful disaster that was! (At least for us Hogs fans.)

To help take our mind off of things, we had a FABULOUS distraction halfway through the game. The rest of our family from California arrived at Grandma Mary's! My Uncle Paul has 3 sons and they all live in CA. Trent arrived in KS the night before, but Troy and Tadd (and their families) were not able to come until Friday. It had been over a decade since we'd all been together (for my grandfather's funeral back in 1999...none of us were even married then). My boys got to meet their 3rd cousins for the first time and they instantly hit it off. It was like they'd all been friends for years.

We hung out at Grandma Mary's for a while, getting reacquainted and catching up on a lot and then we all loaded up and caravaned in 5 separate vehicles to Augusta, KS for dinner at my Aunt Nancy's house. Nancy and Jim had a huge BBQ meal prepared for us and we had such a great night with everyone. At one point Nancy and a few of the dads took the little kids for an freezing nighttime adventure in the woods outside their house. They even went trick-or-treating at a neighbor's house and all came home with candy. :)

It was a really late night by the time we made the 45 minute drive back to Grandma's. The other cousins stayed at Nancy's for the weekend, but we had already set up camp in Grandma's basement. Drew cracked us up that night when we found him striking his best Al Bundy pose while sleeping sideways on his air bed.

Saturday morning was a very special (and teary!) time for our family. The whole reason that all of us made the trek to Kansas this year is because there was a memorial service planned for my Aunt Lucretia, who passed away in October. They already had a funeral shortly after her death back home in CA, but Paul and Lucretia lived in Augusta, KS for many years and still have lots of friends in the area. Of our family, only my Aunt Nancy was able to go to CA for the original funeral service. I was not able to leave the boys and my mom was also unable to go due to a health scare she had at the time (no worries...we've since found out there's no problem at all).

So Paul and his boys and their families were incredibly gracious to travel all this way and have another service in memory of Lucretia. She has meant so much to so many and all of us wanted to be a part of celebrating and honoring her life in some way. It was held at the church that P and L attended when they lived in Augusta and I was honestly surprised at the large number of people that came since they lived in CA for over 25 years. Just shows how truly special they are and how deeply they are loved.

The service was beautiful. Some of it was video portions of the original service and the end was a 10 minute slide show with hundreds of special moments of Lucretia's life. My Uncle Paul and all 3 of their sons spoke and I can guarantee you there was not a dry eye in the house. I'm tearing up just remembering it! I have such fond and happy memories of Lucretia and am heartbroken that she suffered so greatly during her last years on earth from such a horrific brain disease. The comfort in all of that is that she had her family and friends by her side throughout it all. What in inspiration they all are.

It is true that 1500 miles separate us and we have not had the opportunity over the years to see one another as much as any of us would like, but there is nothing like the bond of family. And during this holiday season especially, I am so, so thankful for mine.

Thanksgiving Celebration -- Part 1

2011-12-06T15:11:00.001-06:00

The Sunday before Thanksgiving (deacon Sunday that I mentioned earlier), Adam woke up not feeling his best. He had a very low fever and I had a bad feeling he might be about to come down with something, but it was such a special morning for our family that I gave him some meds and told him if he just couldn't make it through church that someone would bring him home. He felt good the rest of that morning, but his fever came back in the late afternoon and it stuck around for the next day and a half, with an infected throat to boot.

He missed school on both Monday and Tuesday, which made for a very long break for Mr. A, which he happened to thoroughly enjoy. (And here we are two weeks later and he's sick with the same thing once again. Breaks my heart for that sweet boy!)

Thankfully Adam was feeling great by the time we needed to leave for our Thanksgiving travels. In fact he felt good for all of Tuesday, but I kept him home since he was feverish the day before. Matt ended up taking that day off of work (very spur of the moment) and we kept Drew out of school just 'cause and it was SUCH a great family day with all 5 of us at home, decorating for Christmas and lounging around in our pajamas all day.

We left town a little before lunch time on Wednesday and were on our way to Wichita to meet up with GiGi and Big Bub and stay at my Grandma Mary's for a few days. This is a change up from what we have always done in the past (Thanksgiving has always been with my dad and his family in NE Arkansas), but it was for good reason (more on that later).

I wish I could say the trip was smooth sailing, but it was anything but. Titus had such a hard time for that first hour. We had to stop 3 separate times to try to calm him down, but once we were back on the road he'd start back up crying and screaming at the top of his lungs. So unlike him because he usually loves to ride in the car. On our last stop we decided to turn his car seat around forward facing, even though I swore that I would not even consider doing that while he was this young (18 months). I've read the studies and statistics and I know all the risks and I still firmly believe that safest way for children under 2 to travel is rear-facing, but the fact of the matter is that we still had many hours to go and he was out of control miserable (choking and gagging...the works) and I thought he was either going to puke all over himself or I was going to have a nervous breakdown. So forward facing he went. And whaddya know...

The stress of that hour led to all 3 of the boys taking a great nap! Until a pesky toll booth woke them up, that is. I swear that time of peace and quiet after the hysteria had to have given me back at least 6 months of my life. (The fact that Drew asked to use my scarf as his blankie still makes me smile.)

We eventually made it to Wichita that afternoon and one of the best moments of the week was when we stepped out of the car Drew ran right up to Grandma Mary, gave her a great big hug, and exclaimed, "I hate to tell you this, but sometimes I do bad things!"

The next day Aunt Nancy got the biggest kick out of this story and asked him why he does bad things and he said, "Oh, sometimes my emotions are just controlling me!" That boy!

I didn't take any pictures the rest of that night, but it was great to see my Grandma Mary again (she makes 86 look GOOD!). We unpacked and visited with my Uncle Paul from CA (whom we had not seen in 3 years) and had one of my most favorite dinners (Huntington Chicken courtesy of my mama). We had a girls night after the little ones finally went to sleep because Matt and Bub went to a sports bar to watch the KU game (no way was my KU obsessed hubby going to miss that). Well Grandma Mary was all in a tizzy about them leaving because she doesn't think it's safe to be out after dark and she didn't know what kind of reputable restaurant would be open after 9:00 pm. I should also share that my Grandma is supremely proud that Matt is now a deacon, but she was just so worried about them leaving that late and wondering what they were gonig to do that as they were walking out the door she had to call out to my hubby, "Matt, please don't forget your new position!" God bless her. :) It's another one of those great one-liners that's gonna live on for quite a while. (In fact, I may start using it myself!)

On Thanksgiving morning my brother and I went for a run (so I wouldn't feel so bad about eating a bajillion calories throughout the day) and then it was time to get everyone ready and do some serious cooking. Matt and Big Bub kept the boys occupied outside.

I'm still not sure how we managed to prepare so much food in Grandma's itty-bitty kitchen with one small oven, but somehow we did. I got off easy this year and only prepared the corn casserole and pumpkin spice cake. It was an absolute feast!

I'm going to have to share another story because the funniest thing happened before we all sat down to eat. My Aunt Nancy summarized it perfectly on FB, so I'm just going to copy her status from later that day.

My two first cousins, Janette and JoAnne (retired school teachers), visited my mother's house for Thanksgiving for the first time in ages and joined family they had not seen - some for many years. They were warmly embraced at the door, even hugs from children they had never met. They were shown their place at the table. But when they asked about their Aunt Mary, that's when they were told that they must be at the wrong house. They were two houses off. That story certainly livened our Thanksgiving dinner. I wish I could have heard the conversation two doors down.

We laughed about that all day long. Grandma Mary does have some really nice neighbors, but to invite total strangers to come sit down at your table for the big Thanksgiving meal?!?! Too funny. :)

After lunch and naps, we went to play at a nearby park.

It was lots of fun for the kids...and the big kids too. :)

Shortly after we returned to the house, cousin Trent's flight from CA made it in. It had been 10 years since I'd seen him last (11 for Alex). Thank goodness for Facebook or I might not have recognized him at all!

Titus spent nearly ever waking minute at Grandma's house playing with Mugsy and Freddie.

He wore those poor puppies out!

Titus was also obsessed with this big ol' candle while we were there and he had to blow on it about a hundred times.

It took multiple college degrees to put together a race track that evening that GiGi brought for the boys.

It was a huge hit once it was assembled. Killed me to take it apart just a few days later!

After baths, GiGi did the bedtime reading.

And the boys gave out lots of bedtime snuggles.

The night ended with some crazy late night card antics (which included dousing my mom with water at one point). I know that sounds cruel, but it was seriously one of the funniest moments I can ever remember. Not only can my mom dish it out, but she can take it too. Love that mama of mine and all our family near and far. This year's Thanksgiving is one I won't soon forget.