My silly little girl.

The kids were playing out back the other day and Addie decided to ham it up for the camera. How do you like her "throwback" pink jammies and snow boots?

Such a bundle of energy......maybe I could borrow some......

What really happens.

So last week, I had a stretch of blogging almost daily...wow! But, what I need to share today is what really happens around here when mommy blogs more often:






Addie and Gage raided the coat closet and with Addie in her new swimsuit, proceeded to dress in their winter attire. All this while I blogged....

As you can see, all of the photos of Addie were taken "on the run" and it was a bit like pulling teeth getting them to put it all away when they were done!

Only Gage and Addie.

Girl has bangs:

With Addie's stick-straight hair in her eyes all the time, I decided a change was in order: add a few bangs and a fun bob to go with them!

Here's the new look:

The bangs fit her spunky personality just perfect.....now Ashlynn would like some!

For Auntie Colie.

Just enough for a pony-tail.....and a whole lot of mischief!

From sick to sunshine.

From this on Valentine's day:

To this (this morning with our 70+ degree forecast today!):

Our little girl still has the sniffles and coughs, but it was good to see her swinging with brother this morning on the "star cruiser". With the black boots, she looked like an old man out of the 1800's with long underwear on. I love the expression on Gage's face in these shots, the kids loves to swing while making it look death-defying!

Now please, sickies go away and sunshine come to stay!

Because I couldn't resist....

Flock of Seagulls anyone?

It wasn't all bad, part II.

Around 7:30am, Addie popped her head up and asked to "go downstairs and get vitamins and eat breakfast". After an inspection of the towel and not seeing anything "out of the ordinary", I took her to the kitchen and made her a piece of toast she ate with gusto. When Randy wasn't home by nine (usually he's home by 8:15am or so), I knew for sure there had been a fire. The other kids seemed to be doing awesome and the weather forecast was for seventy degrees as a high that day (this is January in the midwest, unbelievable!). Randy did finally make it home and after sharing the story of the house fire, went upstairs and crawled into bed to recoup a bit.

Deep breath. Randy was home safe and all the kids were well. Thank you Jesus!

By mid-morning I had recruited the kids to help rake the rest of leaves from our yard and "man" the bottom of the ladder while cleaned out the gutters (something Randy was going to do, but with his great need for sleep, I filled in). We worked steadily as the sun continued to warm us and just after lunch we finished the entire yard. The kids spent the rest of that beautiful day playing and running through the yard. Randy finally woke and finished the back gutters that I couldn't reach, we grilled burgers and had a relaxing evening.

Friday, New Year's Eve, 6am. Ashlynn is at my bedside looking very pale.

Uh-oh.

She spent all morning on the couch trying desperately not to give in to the feeling in her stomach, but mom made a big mistake. I just needed to make a quick bank deposit, you know, the one I should have made the day before, when Randy was home, when all of the kids didn't have to pile into the car and go.

When no one was sick.

Ashlynn reluctantly got in and I gave her a bowl, towel and strict instructions to use them if necessary. Once I turned on the car I was reminded I also needed gas. Really bad. Let's just say the bumps and smells and turns made good on why I gave the instructions and the above items became absolutely necessary. We returned home as quickly as possible and I apologized profusely all the way.

Time out.

Usually, if I apologize to Ashlynn like crazy, she is all over me, "don't worry mom, it's totally ok. Stop saying sorry everything is fine, it's no problem!" The girl didn't utter one such word to me in the car.

I am the worst mom ever. And the girl must really feel lousy.

The rest of her day was spent on the couch looking very green and willing herself to never use the bowl again. She also wished daddy wasn't at work so she had someone to cuddle her full-time since I was up and down taking care of the other kids too. By 10:30pm, I tucked her into the make-shift palette on my side of the bed and climbed into bed myself, who needed to see the ball drop anyway?

3am, New Year's Day. I woke to terrible pain in my stomach. No, no, no, not me. Reasoning it must have been the brownies I ate way too much of the night before, I tried to go back to sleep. After two hours and finally moving to the bathroom floor, I prayed and asked (*begged*) Jesus to just let it out and relieve my pain.

He answered.


To be continued......

It wasn't all bad.

2011. We made it.

The last week of 2010 was quite eventful in our home. Not exactly the eventful most are looking for, but it really wasn't all bad.

Last Tuesday morning Gage came running into our room saying he felt like throwing up. Quickly, I moved him downstairs and let him rest on the couch where he spent the rest of the day not eating and making good on his statement from the early morning hours.

Lovely. Just lovely.

By mid-morning Ryder lay on the ground apparently writhing in pain while complaining he was not feeling good. Enter child number two who received his own pail and a spot on the towel covered sofa.

More of the loveliness.

The best part of the day was that Randy was home. He was so attentive to the boys and held down the fort while I made a mad run to Whole Foods grabbing Recharge, real ginger ale, saltine crackers and electrolyte water.

That evening Gage was almost back to normal and able to hold down a few saltine crackers, Ryde was not fairing as well and we even tried to get him into the doctor's office. The poor boy has a very hard time recovering once he has started down the slippery slope of GI issues. The doc, who had already left for the day, recommended we take him to the ER and we opted instead to let him "ride" it out through the night and prayed sleep would get his tummy under control.

Thankfully he pulled through.

Fast forward to Thursday morning, 4am. I woke to what seemed like the sound of twenty fire engines blaring down the street. Hearing siren after siren, I realized there must have been a house or building fire somewhere close by and Randy was on shift. At the exact same time I heard a coughing sound coming from the girls room. I knew it was Addie. Uh-oh. In my still, slightly, sleepy state I started praying for Randy and all the guys who would be at the fire, praying they would be protected and safe. All I wanted to do was drift back to sleep, but I knew I heard that coughing and with what the boys had been up to on Tuesday, I knew I needed to get up and check on it.

How I love my sleep.

The continuing sound of sirens would not let me return to dreamland so I went to check on the girls. Upon opening the door I knew immediately what the restless little girl on the bed was doing. Let's just say the smell gave it away. Knowing I would need to get the sheets off, I moved Ashlynn into Gage's bed and put Addie on a towel I laid on the floor in my bedroom. After pulling the sheets from the girls' bed and cleaning what I could, I went back to my room and moved Addie to my side of the bed and set her up on the floor (I had just washed my sheets). She lay on the floor so sweetly and I prayed we would both be able to get back to sleep and all would be better in the morning......

.....to be continued.......

The girls' room, before & after.

With Grams and Gramps making the big move to San Diego, some items of furniture had to be shifted from mom and dad's. Ofcourse, I was more than happy to partake in any of that shifting as anything of theirs or my parents would be a step up from my hodgepodge collection. Ashlynn and Addie received my mom's bedroom set from when she was a girl. It's a beautiful French Provincial set and Ashlynn had a blast picking out colors.

Here is what it looked like before:





And After:







Obviously, these wild colors are not classic French Provincial creams, but we are talking about an 8 year old, though I will be the first to admit my personal love of color. But maybe one day, when we are older, we'll sand it down and get the creaminess back.

Maybe.

Some funny things.

Something cute Addie is saying right now when she is thankful:

Addie: "Thank you mama!"

Me: "You're welcome!"

Addie: "Thank you mama!"

Me: "You're so welcome!"

Addie: "I love (sounds like "wub") you too!"

Me: "I love you too!"

She always thanks twice and says I love you too, it is soooo sweet!!

Another cute thing I overheard Ryder saying to Addie as she was watching her Praise Baby with a song about heaven:

Ryde: "Addie they're talking about heaven. You're going to go there someday. Do you want to go there? You will have a castle there. It's sorta like a big house. You'll love it!"

A mostly happy birthday.

This:

+

This:

=

This:

Addie decided to give the skateboard a try and Gage decided he wanted to ride it. One little push and her sweet face hit the patio causing her front teeth to go all the way through her lip. The girl cried for a few minutes and then spent two hours in my lap letting me ice it while she watched tv. She kept looking up at me, like "why am I getting all of this lovely attention"? She soaked in every moment and ended up falling asleep on my lap.

My baby turned two today and made my day by taking a nap while I held her. It's going by waaaay too fast!

Addie.

Um, ok, I guess I'll try to smile for you, mom....

Pleeease, no more pictures....

We may have a little tomboy in the making. Sunday, I put this cute dress I bought last spring at a garage sale (for 25 cents!) on her and she tugged at it until the roses came loose. In fact, every time I put a dress on her, she cries and pulls at it like "get this thing off of me!" She would much rather be in her pants & t-shirt, outside playing in the dirt. In fact, she has skinned both of her knees this week and never shed a tear....

Addie loving her apron!

Valentine's day is big around here, so when we broke out the heart molds for pancakes, the kids came running to the kitchen. Each one donned their apron and Addie decided to wear hers the rest of the day:



The big tie on the back made Randy laugh...

Still here.

I have been working on a huge project this week and last. Tomorrow it will be revealed....

For now, enjoy this shot of Addie (Ashlynn was at the camera!). Have a great day!

Addie and her blueberries.

Yes, she does spend half her life in the high chair. The girl likes to eat.

She does do more than sleep in her high chair.

Carrots anyone?

Nigh, nigh.

We spent the afternoon at Grandma L & Grandpa D's house. Can you tell she played outside? Right after her last bite of chocolate chip cookie she faded away to dreamland.....




Now, officially, all of our kids have fallen asleep in the high chair. Good food, good times.

It fits, well....sorta.

Ashlynn has been feeling lousy the last few days and just needed a nice soothing bath before bed tonight. After she was finished and I had washed her hair that is so long now, when it is wet it settles in the bath water when she is sitting in the tub, we ran into a little problem.

I had already put Addie to bed.

Addie and Ashlynn share a room.

I had not taken any jammies out of the room for Ashlynn.

With all of our kids, except one, we have been able to traipse into their room and just short of vacuuming, nothing would wake them up once they were down for the night. Can you guess who the exception is?

Addie.

The girl jumps up like she's be lying there waiting for the moment you creak the door handle. And if you actually make it a couple of steps in the room she really lets you have it.

No problemo, let's just get you something of mine. A t-shirt and pair of shorts will do, just need to roll up the waistband a couple of times and we're good to go.

Wait a second. Did I just put my clothes on my daughter and they're not falling off of her? She proudly pointed them out to Ran before sneaking into bed and he just looked at me in shock....and told Ashlynn she must quit growing this moment.

So many people told me/tell me/will tell me how fast time goes by with your kids, but every single day the speed amazes me. There are moments I want it so desperately to slow down, but then I sometimes think about shoes (& my love of them) and the fact that I have two daughters and maybe there's a chance we could all have the same shoe size one day.....soon.

For Nicole, the tale of a mullet:

As I wrote the title I didn't realize the pun, but now I see it, so I suppose it is intended. Anyhoo, my sweet little Addie only seems to be growing hair on the back of her head. Twice now, it has been cautiously buzzed off, once by me when she was about three months and the second time by her Auntie Colie who couldn't stand it any longer (pun again?). Before you think I am crazy, I did the same thing to Ashlynn and the girl has more hair with the most beautiful curls than she knows what to do with. Sooooo, I thought maybe the outcome would be the same. However, it seems the mullet just doesn't want to go, it's in style now anyway, right?





After her bath, I was able to eek out a couple of pig tails. I was laughing so hard I could barely hold the camera still enough to get a couple of pictures. Look closely, you can see them peeking out the sides:





Something tells me come October Auntie Colie will have a buzzer in her hand when we step off the plane......

I realize my teeth are big now...

...but apparently they were big then too:



Does this mean that after carrying and birthing four children one will actually look like me?