March 15-March 22

March 15

Kaycey had a huge bruise on her belly. I freaked, but didn't let her know that. I sent her to school, but immediately called the doctor, who got us in later that afternoon. When we got to the doctor, the bruise was barely there. It was the weirdest thing. Kaycey said that the day before she got hit with a basketball, but still...if you could've seen the bruise, you would've thought it would take a fast pitch softball to leave a mark like that. Anyhow, so another false alarm, thankfully.

After coming home from the doctor, Maddie said,"Well I'm not even sick at all, but I have sins and that is super duper bad."

We went for a walk...one of Sadie's first.

March 16

I love how Maddie still calls people/grown ups "humans". We aren't entirely sure where she got it from, but she's been calling them that for some time. I get such a kick out of it. She also says, "You gotta be kidding me." What a clown.

Sadie officially rolled over...from back to tummy, which apparently is more difficult. She still doesn't do the belly to back. Oh well.

sleeping peacefully

March 17

Happy St. Patty's Day! What a nice warm day. I forgot it was St. Patty's Day. I usually dress the kids in green or something. Well, Sadie is the only one who was dressed for the holiday. Maddie went to play by her friend's house for the day. Sadie and I hung out and ran some errands.

March 18

We stopped at Emma & Papa's today. I have been frame and curtain happy, too, as in buying way too many, mostly because I just don't know what I want. I'll be returning an awful lot of it, though!

Sadie is into grabbing everything. Loves grabbing hair, noses, ears, and anything else she can get her tiny hand around!

little bathing beauty

March 19

Who took the cookie from the cookie package????!?!?!

All I know is I've had a couple from this whole package. Someone's been sneakin'. Package is now located a couple shelves higher in the pantry.

I am so losing in the NCAA pool I'm in. I don't think I've ever done so badly.

So I am planning on letting Kaycey have a birthday party with her friends from school. Something small and low key for a few hours on a Saturday afternoon. Any good ideas for games? There will be 8 girls. I am also trying to come up with a classy way to word the invite...let me explain. Kaycey will have 3 family birthday get togethers. She will get plenty of gifts. I'd like to suggest that her friends consider something small or a donation for Make a Wish or something...I just haven't come up with a good way to word it. I don't want anyone to think I expect any gift at all for her, nor do I expect people to donate something. But it's just so silly for all the gifts she'll get, why not instead give to someone else. And she is loving this idea.

My doctor called today and I have decided to go ahead with the laparoscopy. The nurse will call Monday to schedule the surgery. Hoping for some relief soon!!

March 20

Hard to believe, but today it snowed. Not much, it melted right away. But still...I wonder if we'll get more before it's gone till next winter????

We did alot of cleaning today. ALthough you probably wouldn't notice.

Today was the Pinewood Derby. Kaycey, Cal, Maddie, and I went to school for the Derby. Wow, it was so cool!! I had no idea how "all out" some people would go for this. There were some really cool cars. Next year, Cal, Kaycey, and Maddie all would like to do it...but next year we'll buy the kits when they go on sale, not a couple days before!! Kaycey didn't win anything, but the people who put this together do an amazing job with it. There's a concession stand, intermissions, a lit up race track set up with photo finish, and more!!

March 21

Sadie is loving cereal. She's been on a good sleep pattern the past couple nights.

Kaycey had a birthday party today for a girl from her old school. I find it a little odd the only time the girls from the old school bother to contact us is for birthday parties (we have called for play dates, but nothing ever has come of it). I am really glad Kaycey is finally really connecting with girls at the new school. She gets along with everyone, but now she has a couple "best friends".

We were all in bed by 8:45pm. Guess we were tired!!

March 22

Sadie and I visited Beth, a gal from the scrap. store, this morning. She hadn't met Sadie before. It was a nice little outing!

In the afternoon, Maddie watched a movie. It had been a really long time since we stuck in a movie during the day. Shockingly, Sadie napped, so I rested, too, while Maddie watched the movie.

would love to post my week...

but I'm going to eat something (I can't have anything after midnight!) and then go to bed instead. It will be a very long day tomorrow; I am having surgery for the side pain I've been having. So I am having a laparoscopy done...I'm freaking out!! My doctor seems to think the problem is possibly scar tissue or something called adhesions, which she can repair with 2-3 tiny incisions. But there is a small chance the sutures from my c-section healed improperly and she'll have to basically cut my entire incision and resuture. Yes, I am totally freaking out. Hoping it's something simple...dreading what tomorrow will bring.

mar8-mar14

March 8
The kids had spring school pictures at school. I thought it was a little strange, school photos twice a year, but whatever... Maddie asked to have her hair curled with the curling iron. Yikes, I thought. What will I need to do to her hair when she's a few years older??? We only leave about 3 minutes in the morning for fixing hair, so Maddie got to school right before the bell today.

Sadie is trying SO hard to roll over from her back to tummy. She doesn't do the belly to back, mostly because she really can't stand being on her belly for very long.

Kaycey was such a big helper today. Well, she is most days. I don't even have to ask her for help. She will walk into the kitchen, empty the dishwasher and fold laundry, wash the bottles, without asking. She has such a big heart, too. I see her joining something like the peace corps or something along those lines!

March 9

Just because she's cute

I went to Archiver's and Hannah's with Katherine, a much needed little day trip to get me in the creative spirit.

Kaycey had a Pioneers meeting at school. They made the cutest little birds and got the kitchen ready at school for the spaghetti dinner they are hosting on March 10.

Emma and Papa got subs for dinner for the kids and they slept over. Mike was at the Bucks game with some guys from work, so it was nice to have the extra sets of hands around. Especially because I had a terrible headache. Pretty sure everyone, including adults, was in bed by 9:30!

Maddie told us that she loves Jack (a boy in her class) and he is her boyfriend and she's really gonna marry him. How cute!

March 10

In the morning I got a phone call from the oncology social worker at Children's Hospital. She put me through to Jennifer, a mom of a newly diagnosed stage 4 NB boy (January). We talked for a while and I am going to meet her next time her little guy is in for chemo, which should be the week of St. Pat's Day. They are from about 2 hours away, and drive down every time he needs treatment or has to be inpatient for chemo, low counts, or fevers. She is also 7 months pregnant with their second baby. Please keep this family in your prayers.

This little one has become the biggest thumb sucker!! It's really nice though that she already puts herself to sleep.

Kaycey and I worked in the kitchen (along with alot of other people) for the spaghetti dinner before church. It was really nice, there was a huge turnout, and we went through almost all the meatballs. There were ALOT of meatballs! I had fun getting to know some of the other moms who I hadn't talked to much before. The girls had a lot of fun, too, helping out in the kitchen. On the way home from church, it was so foggy, we couldn't even see a few feet in front of us. I was so glad to pull in the garage and call it a night! We came home and watched the end of American Idol, which was even enjoyed by the littlest member of the family. I am disappointed Lilly got cut... I thought she'd be around for a while.

March 11

After gymnastics, we met with our neighbor friend and her daughter (Maddie's age). We went to a scrapbook store out close to my house. It was really nice! Stocked full of all sorts of fun stuff, and 3 different rooms for scrapbooking/sitting. I bought a really cool Christmas kit (a tree shaped chipboard book). I rarely buy big book kits, since they are usually pricey, but this one was worth it. Can't wait to do it! I plan on going to some of the late night crops there with Cal's best friend's mom one of these days.

Spring is certainly around the corner, it was pouring rain today!

Grandpa Bo and Grandma Ria brought dinner over, and we ended the night with a game of yahtzee (Cal's latest craze!).

March 12

Poor little baby, had to get shots today. She was very brave, though, and only cried for a little bit. She has nearly doubled her birthweight, and she is very long for her age. Oh, and she is in 90th percentile for her head. Guess she has a big brain.

We picked up a pinewood car kit from a couple who run the derby at school. Kaycey really wanted to do one last minute. Cal wasn't interested, which I was kind of surprised. Maybe next year he'll change his mind.

Maddie had a friend over for a while, and boy she is so bossy. I sure hope that Maddie isn't so bossy when she is at other people's houses. I always hear that she was so sweet, etc...but I wonder sometimes. I kept hearing her friend say, "Well, I'm the guest..." Haha.

Still haven't gotten my hair done, but the gray has become so obvious that I've decided to just dye it myself. On the to do list.

Sadie had cereal for the first time. She rather enjoyed it.

That night we had Olympic Night at school. Apparently every year in March, there is a themed night with games and snacks and fun. Well, it was a huge success. Which I'm guessing it is every year. We are so amazed at how involved the teachers are. They are at every single function, usually running it. And they look happy to be there! 90 kids out of 110 in the school were at Olympic Night. They had games, they were divided into teams (Canada, USA, Norway, and Germany), they had music, snacks, and even a guest--an Olympian from the 1976/1980 winter games, Leah Mueller.

Mike brought home flowers today, too. I generally get them when the flower vendor is at corporate. Mike gets a good deal on them, so they're totally worth it. I have to say these were the best ones...they still smell beautiful a week later!!

And uh oh, major sink leak in the kitchen. Mike only noticed because there was a puddle in the basement by his tools! Argh. Part of the wood floor in the kitchen is warped from standing water. Eek. This house isn't so new anymore.

March 13

I dyed my hair, by myself. It cost approx. $6, as opposed to $100. I do still need a haircut!!

Mike and Kaycey started working on the car. They decided to keep it simple since the weigh in is the next day.

We went to my cousin's daughter's birthday party that afternoon. She made the YUMMIEST cake!!

When we came home we played bible hangman on Maddie's wipe off board. But she was mad we erased her picture to play...

March 14

Planned on going to early church. Except that I was up with Sadie at 4am watching CNN and realized it was 5am already. Totally forgot about the time change! Yeah, needless to say, we had a rough time making it to Sunday School at 9:15. After church, Mike and Kaycey went to weigh in her car, which was a few tenths shy of the limit. Mike was surprised at how "all out" some people went for these cars. He's thinking at least Kaycey did hers by herself. It was rather obvious some were the parents' doing!

We went to our niece and nephew's birthday party in the afternoon. There were 20 kids there, 5 under the age of 6 months. It was craziness to say the least. Kaycey played babysitter for a couple of the little babes and their moms asked if they could take Kaycey home. It was a pizza party theme, and they gave the kids hats and had the kids make their own little pizzas. How cute is this pic of Sadie & Grandpa David (Mike's Dad)???

The kids had a great time, but were really mad when we left just as they were about to play a game of basketball outside. Mike has this thing about not wanting to be the last people at a party. Oh well. We started talking vacations, in general places we'd like to go eventually with the kids. New York City & DC (I said I'd only go to DC if I can go to the Smithsonian though), Grand Canyon, some other spots on the East Coast--Boston, Baltimore, etc (did I ever tell you I love the East Coast??? haha : ) California, FL/Disney (we joke that it's a trip for Maddie--we want to go when the older two will still want to be seen with their parents & Maddie will think it's totally magical. And I suppose we'd take Sadie again in 10 years by herself!) When we got home he was online looking up deals for Disney vacations. He says it was out of curiosity (which was sparked by watching Extreme Home Makeover). So perhaps in a year or two we'll go somewhere. Which brings up another issue, he's thinking of driving. Okay, fine. But with what vehicle? We'd have to rent something big enough to hold all our stuff, the minivan wouldn't hold much. Well, HE has been the one joking about getting a new vehicle. He often talks about trading in his truck so I could get a Suburban or Yukon, and he'd use the minivan as his junker/to haul stuff. But I won't let him do that; he still gives me crap for trading in his Mustang (and crashing it up...) when we had Kaycey (by the way, HE traded in his Mustang for the Silverado, I told him he should've kept the Mustang and got the truck!). Anyhow, he constantly jokes that in eight more years, I can get a new vehicle, which I know he is being sarcastic, because in the same sentence he tells me first I have to crash up all the corners of it so they at least match. I laugh, of course. I say at the very least 6 years, because Cal can drive then and he can have the minivan. Hopefully a new vehicle is in our near future???

Cal finished "The Lightning Theif" today...in record time! Boy, this kid can read. It's 376 pages, and he had it done in less than 12 days. He can't wait to read the rest of them, but geez, I can't keep up! Someone better keep writing good books...he reads them faster than the authors can keep up with.

Little Sadie likes her exersaucer (and the TV!), too. And she grabbed her toes today, all by herself!!

feb 28-mar 7

yikes, I got some catching up to do. well, it's pretty simple once I have the time. My pictures from my new camera are saved by date, so I can easily look them up to go with whichever date I'd like. And I've been pretty good about keeping my notes daily, too.

Feb 28

So I thought I had appendicitis. Didn't want to mess around with that, so decided the best thing to do was to go to Urgent Care, being a Sunday, I couldn't just call the doc. So away we went, all 6 of us, to the Urgent Care. Mike and the kids waited a while with me, then he took them to McD's for lunch and I waited some more. Only to find out once they took me back that they don't have a CT tech on weekends, so I'd have to go to the ER anyhow. Argh. Two hours, wasted. So then Mike took me to the ER with the kids in tow. They were really good. While waiting at the ER we decided we better do something with the kids in case I needed to have my appendix out. Our closest option was Mike's brother, who was 10-15 minutes away. He took the older 3 there (being that they have three of their own, one being only 5 months older than Sadie, and his brother's wife wasn't home...was not about to leave his brother with 7 kids...) So Mike came back by me with Sadie. She of course was a perfect angel. Four hours, a urine test, and a CT later they decided it was a UTI ( which oddly I had no normal symptoms of a UTI). Anyhow, what a long and torturous day. Glad when we finally got home, and ALL went to bed.

Mar 1

Still didn't feel very good. In fact, I didn't write much of anything down for the majority of this week, because I wasn't feeling great. Mike took the kids to their first 4H meeting (several kids from school are part of it, too, and I thought it sounded fun and interesting for the kids). Apparently the meeting was terribly boring. $55 down the tube?? I hope not. I hope it gets better than the boring meeting. Anyone else in 4H? I'm very new to it, know only what I am reading on the 4H website.

Mar 2

My grandparents came over with dinner and slept over. Mike met a friend out after work, so it was nice to have an extra hand around since I was feeling kinda blah yet. But I was determined to start cleaning the upstairs. So my Grandma, sister, and I moved most of the toys to the bonus room, and most of Kaycey's stuff from the girls' room to Kaycey's new room.

This little lady LOVES her fingers.

Mar 3

Believe it or not, for the very first time we saw a deer in our back yard. I barely caught a glimpse of it, so I couldn't get a picture. We've seen footprints plenty of times, but never actually saw one until today!

Mar 4

Spelling bee day!! The kids were nervous about the spelling bee, being that they actually had to sit in the gym facing a crowd, and using a microphone. Kaycey took first place! Cal took third place (on an unfortunate and tricky word--a homophone, accept. He spelled except, even after hearing the sentence. He was really disappointed, but I let him know that I was in many spelling bees growing up and I messed up on words that didn't seem all that tricky(two words I recall losing the first place spot to--pity and roommate in first and second grade).

in the hot seat

We went to eat by my Dad's, too, which seems to be a regular Thursday night occurrence. My sister came over and we all grilled her about a boy she went on a couple dates with : )

Kaycey and Maddie slept over at my Grandparents' house, since the kids were off school Friday the 5th. Cal and I stayed at my Dad's with Auntie till 9:30 or so...Auntie and Cal were trying to beat worlds in Mario Wii. Auntie was a champion gamer in her day. Haha!

Really been getting the itch to go back to school. Of course when I do, if it's soon, it would be part time. The problem is where should I go, and what should I do. 31 years old, and clueless. I thought we'd move out here and there'd be stay at home moms everywhere to hang out with. I am seriously one of the only ones. The one mom I've really become friends with is a Nurse Pracitioner by weekend, and a college professor during the week. Most of the moms at our school are nurses or teachers. Not that I want to do either of those jobs, I'm just saying. I need to do something. I know I'm a mom, and lucky to be able to stay home, BUT all of sudden all the kids will be in school and then what do I do? I've always joked that someday Mike could be the stay at home mom and I'd work.

Mar 5

Kids are off school, but I'm home with just Cal and Sadie.

We went by my Grandparents right after lunch, and Cal got to sleepover there by himself. I worked at the store for the first time in about 6 months or so. I really missed it, and I will enjoy having that little bit of spending money. But, I also felt like, what a hassle, for the 4 hours I worked, to have all 4 kids at my Grandparents and Mike have to pick up the girls on his way home from work. Oh well. It'll do for now.

My mom met me at Cousins after I closed the store. Yum, I hadn't had a sub from there since???

Mar 6

I shopped all day with Sadie. Literally all day. We went to 8 different stores. It was pretty nice out, so I walked along a strip mall and went in several stores, mostly just for something to do. I am still struggling with decorating ideas and curtain ideas, a year and a half after moving into the house. Pathetic really, that most of our first floor has nothing on the windows or walls yet. Bought lots of stuff that I'll probably just return anyways. By the way, Sadie was perfect all day!! As a reward (haha) we set up her "jenny jump up" and let her give it a whirl. She's a bit too small, I think, yet...but she lasted several minutes.

I think really it was just another thing to attempt to put in her mouth.

Mar 7

We went to early church because I worked at the store again today. Mike took the kids to his parents' house for the day. He went rummaging through their basement because there was some random things we've been missing since packing up our old house. He found our high chair (yay! will need that soon!) and our clocks that I had searched high and low for. The kids got to ride on the ATVs (something I am NOT comfortable with one bit) but at least Mike respects that for the most part, and we won't let Kaycey drive it (when we were out there for Christmas, we looked outside and there she was, DRIVING one. I ran outside in the snow with no shoes to yell at those who let her drive it...NOT cool. Especially since everyone knows how I feel about ATV's. Cal is a super cautious driver and goes slow...doesn't mean I like the fact he rides on one!! I don't think anyone under 16 should be on them, but apparently I am overprotective and extreme. Better than the opposite!!

going to Hollywood

Feb 25

I forgot to put the 25th in the last post. The kids came home from school and were holding a gold colored piece of paper. "We're going to Hollywood!!", they squealed with excitement. Or maybe a spelling bee. So both older kids made it to the spelling bee. The top 5 spellers in each class made it to the finals, to be held March 5th. This picture doesn't do justice to the excitement when they walked in the door to tell me the news. Cal refused to pose at all for a picture, and this is as excited as Kaycey would be for the camera. Oh well!