Some pics of my flowers today ...

Some recent pictures ...

Some of my recent photography ....

The Past Month... pt 5: Mountains, Lemon Wedge & Hospitals...

The views from the simplest places are AMAZING here... there are mountains all around us, and water .. it's literally breathtaking...   these, for example, were taken from the hospital parking lot!

The hospital, you ask?  Why yes... the hospital....  but we'll get to that in a minute.

First, Daddy was in the bedroom we have at my Mom's... shared by Dennis & I, and the two babies...  anyway, he was at the desk (next to Kaedyn's crib) doing his homework and Kaedyn was being squirrely, not going to sleep..  well I come to bed, and he tells me "Kaedyn got the fruit wedges, there is sugar and wedges all over" I'm thinking GREAT...   Daddy tends to be a little... um... one track minded and probably didn't even notice they were on the desk in Kaedyn's reach until it was way to late.  So the following morning I picked Kaedyn up from his crib, got Nathan - we trotted into the bathroom to have a bath and low and behold...  this is what I found...... IN HIS HAIR...

Yeah I wasn't real happy about the lemon wedge being in his hair either!  AT ALL...  poor kid... but I did manage to get it out without having to chop it (but I did cut his hair a few days ago and now he looks a little like an Oompa Loompa ... )  ...

So what about the hospital ... yeah yeah...  I'll tell ya now.

We all started getting sick leaving WI and traveling.  The babies were coughing, Cal was complaining of headaches and not feeling well, being sore, and just sick (and he was) ... Noah wasn't feeling the best, and Nathan got sick ... they were amazing in the car, I can't complain, but it wasn't the funnest trip ever (course not, we were moving and locked out of the truck and only had the clothes on our back, yeah.. read back..) ... so anyway...  we get here and the babies just seem to get worse and worse.  Nathan's ear is draining and it smells SOOOOOOOOO FOUL...  I tried some home remedy things, he didn't have a fever, it was just draining and draining and gross.  Then Kaedyn started up periodically with his croupy cough.  Yep... horrible.  I gave up... took them in ...

Neither of them were happy.   They suctioned out Nathan's ear and they gave him antibiotics to sterilize his ear.  Kaedyn had to have x-rays, but just basically had the viral croup.  Not a problem, right?  Wrong...  For some reason Kaedyn's insurance was coming up but not Nathan's.  Apparently Disability in WI isn't releasing him until June 1st so he's not covered under WA until then.  UGH... so I ended up paying for his prescription out of pocket.  NOT FUN!  (Yes I know, deal with it, I did!) ...

So then, Kaedyn got worse.  We had to take him in again.  AGAIN, a few days later.  He was running a 103/104 .. (close to 105!) temp!  So what now?  Croup (dur!), Ear Infection (first one!) and the start of Pneumonia!

I started to do nebulizers on both babies because of their asthma and the coughing spasms they were having.  I can never get a picture of Kaedyn because he acts like I'm trying to kill him by putting the mask on him (or anything of the sort) ... Kaedyn is not fun to deal with his asthma.  It's a Crocodile Death Roll Battle... no kidding... But here is Nathan.. (he's trying not to cry, and be brave)

So after Kaedyn started to feel better, Nathan started to run a low temp.. (99's 100's) ... and broke out in this full body viral rash (which I did end up taking him back in for because we wanted to make sure he hadn't developed a sudden allergy to the meds)

He was still happier... and boy he is soooooo much happier here!  And Kaedyn's eczema has pretty much cleared up!! 

2009 Family Photos

We meant to take them Christmas Day ... but we hung out in our PJ's all day, eating, playing, laughing.... just having fun not caring about the world outside our house...   and so we took our photos the day after before Dennis went to work...

This is the only family one that turned out half way decent.... (same pic)

Other pictures of the kids...

Nathan would NOT sit still so I couldn't get a nice close up one like I did the other kids, but I thought this one where he's yelling "TA-DA!" was pretty darn cute!

This picture just cracks me up ...

Noah really really needs a hair cut but he won't let me do it and Daddy hasn't pulled out the clippers yet.  He (Daddy) is the only one Noah will let do it.   You mention barber shop and he breaks out in tears... so until Daddy breaks out the clippers, Noah will be a shaggy dog.

If you haven't checked out our Christmas Eve & Day photos ... I just posted them, below :)

Tis Mumble Jumble with Playdoh!

If you are coming from ICLW ....  click here for my DECEMBER WELCOME!

I am behind in my ICLW reading, I only got about 5 read yesterday, so I'm only on about 25 out of 130.. so I have some making up to do as soon as I can! 

There hasn't been an update on Natalie that I know of yet, but I'm anxiously awaiting one..

So I didn't get a Random Thoughts out yesterday ... but let me tell you, I have them!!  I just wasn't in the mood after my Ode to Early Mornings post...  So I caught up on my blogroll and had some WITTY banter through email with my friend (she told me I forgot the witty part so I had to come back and add it).....  Nathan had Speech Therapy where we taped 4 new videos which got put up on our YouTube channel yesterday!  He said "Banana" and "Ta-DA" and "Pepper" in some of the videos.  We pulled out the card table and Noah and Nathan played with Playdoh before lunch, then had lunch and nummer nummers...  then the whole house pretty much took shifts for naps!   Kaedyn went down, Nathan fell asleep then I figured I better too, since I had only had 2 hours the night before.... so I got about an hour nap that I woke up feeling horrible from.  Then we worked on dinner and the boys were ALL bickering and yelling and I had a bad headache.......... so my patients, unfortunately, were shot last night.   The MEAN Mommy came out........ oye.... and we had been having such a good day.

Today, I'm going to lock myself up in my bedroom here - in a few minutes - with my laptop of course (normally I am on the big computer off and on all day, it's in the living room) ...  I have a HUGE mountain of gifts to wrap yet, (I'll take a picture!!) ... and I have to figure out WHAT I still need to get so that when Dennis and I go out in the AM, I have a plan! 

So ...  my random thoughts at the moment..........

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Dennis and I are *thinking* super hard about moving to WA State where my parents live.  It was the last place my Dad was stationed (Navy Man) and so they stayed there.  So my Dad, Step-Mom and Sister live there (don't get me started on my Brother right now) ...  I also have 2 older sisters who live who knows where at this point.  All my siblings are via my Dad, in other words, half siblings.  I wish I had better relationships with them, I always longed for siblings.  I am the middle child of 5 on my Dad's side, and my Mom's only!  Anyway - off track ....  So my Mom met my Step-Dad online, he flew her out to Hawaii to meet! LOL... she looooooved it.  Funny enough - he was in Hawaii on business and lived in WA State just a few miles from my Dad.  My Step-Dad is a Navy Man too.  So things went so well with him, she ended up moving out there (to WA State), to be with him.  They've been together for a long long time now.  So it's just funny when I say "My Parents live in WA State" I always feel the NEED to add ...... "all 4 of them" on the end......

ANYWAY .......

We were talking about how we want our life to be and if we REALLY want to move out there.  Don't get me wrong, I so want to because I want to be by my parents, I long for family - I MISS having those family gatherings and just having someplace to go.  I know that Grandma Nancy and Nana (my mom) would LOVE to have their grandbabies right there - because it's the only Grandbabies there are!  I know my Dad and Step-Dad would too!  I know my Step-Dad just dotes on them.  I'm so tired of being just US on holidays!   It breaks my heart that we don't have "Grandma's" to go to tomorrow... or Christmas Day.  

Anyway - I was thinking expense again, and how fast paced everything is out there and how I long for the slower pace of the south.  Or what I imagine the south is.  I'm not a hustle and bustle type of person.   I loved living out in the country and I really want to be in a small town where everyone knows everyone  .....type of thing... 

So I was thinking, and talking to Dennis and funny enough, I said "Do you have a Bubba in your family tree?"  I think there was some song on or something ...  and it was a line in the song... and he goes "No, Cody (his nephew) was Bubba when he was little but not anymore" .... and I was going to make a comment that we really needed a Bubba in our family tree, just as long as WE didn't provide it........ then this face flashed in my mind.......

CRAP....... we already have a Bubba.  We provided him.....

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That same little boy, every time his diaper is taken off........ reaches right for his boy parts!  I don't know how many times I have lectured him with things like "Little boys don't play with those things so young" and "Don't you know you aren't suppose to play with that in front of your Momma!?!?!"  Yes I know, it's COMPLETELY normal...   But it doesn't matter........ the diaper comes off, the HAND goes DOWN THERE....... today, he immediately started to POKE it...   :: sigh ::: He is so seriously a boy!!  Oh and get this..... he shifted his weight and SCRATCHED HIS BUTT the other day.... I kid you not.......okay so the baby has excema (heehee) but still.. it's pretty funny to see your 1 year old scratch his butt... just like his Daddy!

It just starts way to early!!  My 4th Boy and I still don't know how to stop the "Male Process" ...next up, male selective hearing........ oh wait, that already started!

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Nathan has found a very ......... interesting ...... interest in his nose.   If it's small enough, he now attempts to STICK IT UP HIS NOSE......  We have glow stick bracelets ..... and he takes them apart and puts them up his nose until I catch him and take it away.  This morning... it was pretzels!   Stick pretzels.... don't need you thinking he's trying to shove knot ones up there........ ANYWAY ...  I turn around and look at him, and he's got one already up his right nostril ... he's attempting to put another one up the left one... and I yell at him.  At the same time I'm going "NATHAN STOP THAT" he sneezes and the pretzel in his right nostril flies out and he SCREAMS!  Now I don't know if it hurt, if he's screaming because it flew out, or because of my yelling at him.  I can only assume, based on his personality ... that it was the second!  He was mad it fell out!  Because he was COMPLETELY ignoring my "Nathan, Stop that, NATHAN STOP IT .. Come on Nathan  take that out" ...  that I managed to get out in the 10 seconds I was taking to get out of my chair. 

Seriously?  He's going to be that kid in that commercial where they keep going back to the DR because the kid keeps sticking stuff where it doesn't belong and they start calling him just by his first name because they know him so well they have an x-ray room named after him!  Yeah that one.....

I can just feel that it's going to all start soon......

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He (Nathan, that is) also brought me one of the Princess' (step-daughter's) dolls that has been hiding in the closet for her.  We buy her gifts each holiday and we want her to have stuff when we ever we manage to get some sort of custody thing going (another reason why we're not sure we really want to move out to WA) ...  Anyway, it's a Belle (Beauty and the Beast) doll we got her last Christmas and he was very INSISTENT that I open it.  So I did....I figured I'd get it away from him and back in her stuff once he lost interest. 

Well, he got that doll and he grabbed this brush & mirror set thing that had also been in there for her, and he started to brush Belle's hair.  LOL...  He has been brushing Belle's hair since last night. 

Dennis saw when he got home last night and he just laughed and made some comment about hoping he wasn't gay.  Don't get me wrong there - it was just a joke.  We would BOTH accept our children for whoever and whatever they are. 

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And with that ... I will leave you with some photos from yesterday!  If you haven't read my DEAR SANTA post yet, please do - I think it's quite funny!  And TRUE! LOL...  

Now - for playing with Play-doh!  My two small fries!  Noah (who was 1lb 12oz at birth, now almost 8 years old) and Nathan (3lbs 4oz at birth, only 18lbs - if lucky - at 2 1/2 .. he'll be 3 in April)