Let them eat cake!

I know, I know, I always post about my little guy Keaton, but he has my heart intertwined right now with his...these days with my older boys doing older boy mischevious things, it's all about the baby! Right?!?!!!! Anyhow, we had a very first Birthday Party for Keaton yesterday with Cort's brother and his wife, and his sister and her hubby and their daughter over. It was fun and exciting and I just took a million pics of the little man.

This is before church, chilling, having a snack...

Those toofers of his are adorable. (toofers= teeth).

Here's the table all decorated and ready...Jungle theme, cupcakes, the works! ;)

He did actually wear his party hat for all of 2 minutes before he took it off and tried to eat it...

This look is so funny, "Hey mom, are you gonna give me my cake or are you gonna just keep taking pictures of me"

Ohhhh Cake!

Okay, this is good, but yet fun to play with...my kind of treat! ;)

So there you have it...sniff, sniff...

What?!?!

I can't even believe my oldest is in Kindergarden! When did he grow up?!?! Seriously...he started Monday (although it's a big tease cause he's off the rest of the week), and he loved it, especially getting to ride the bus home! What a big boy...and an excited mom...
Here's the bus coming...
Looking through the window...

Here comes Kyler!

My big Kindergardener BOY!

Happy Birthday Keaton!

My dear sweet Keaton,
As your Dad and I were on our way to the hospital when I was in labor with you, I had a strong feeling that even though you were going to be early, that you were going to be a strong spirit and a fighter. I was right, from the time you were born, there was this new spirit in my life that you brought. I felt overwhelmed with love for you. You have been such a joy and a blessing! You are so big now, I can't hardley believe the day has come that you are turning one!

This is one of my favorite pictures of you from the NICU. I could tell that your mind was deep in thought about life. And I knew you desperately wanted to come home, even though you needed to be a little stronger first.

You have always been a fighter. The doctors and nurses always made comments on how strong you were and are.

You made the best facial expressions. I love each and every one of them. Sometimes a little too much and I let you cry a little too long to take a picture. Sorry, I just want to cherish every moment I have with you!

Will you stay little forever Keaton? I just love how you were starting to get chubby here...

Your first smiles...I love your smiles, but the first ones are ones I will never forget.

Smiling with your mama. You are a mama's boy! when did it start?! Back when you were oh so little?

Starting to sit...it took you a long time but you have finally mastered sitting up...even if in the beginning it was very slanted. ;)

Brotherly love. Your brothers still can get you to laugh more than I can. There is something to be said about a bond with your brothers. It is so special!

You took the binky for four months and then finally found your thumb one night. And I didn't mind one bit because you are certainly so adorable sucking yor thumb!

My sweet Keaton. Happy Birthday! I love you so much and always will. My little Peanut! Love, Mommy

Meanie Mommy

Soooo....last week was real crappy with everyone being sick with strep and Cortney getting strep plus blisters in his throat, which lead to two different antibiotics and a lot of house cleaning for me....Needless to say, we finally got the clean, germ-free house with no more sickies and Tuesday night Cort gets carried through the door from basketball with torn ligaments in his ankle. Now, mind you, he broke his other ankle twice in the past year and a half. So, my first reaction to this was not that of an ever so loving wife. I kept a somber face, got the bucket of ice, the 800mg ibuprofin and asked what I could do to help. We went to the ER, because having experience with this before, and having waited out the pain before, we knew he needed something stronger than what we had. AND the pain was worse than with the breaks.

Now let me say this. I know this was an accident. And I know that Cort was in A LOT of PAIN. And I know this is the last thing he wanted to have happen. But I woke up the next day after getting 4 hours of sleep and was seriously TICKED at this situation. I was thinking, seriously, not only do I have to wait on my kids for 100% of the time, but my husband too. I was a super grouch. I made sure Cort got everything he needed and helped him as much as I could, but I was making sure he knew that I did not like this one bit. And that I think he should never play basketball again. And I reminded him many times that he will have to pay for this later.

And then I decided that acting like that stinks...and does no one any good. And I woke up the next day feeling much better. I still hate the situation...but I am calm now. And Cort is really trying to do the few things he can around the house to make life bearable. So SIGH, here we are. This is life. It can ALWAYS be worse.

So this first little pic shows you right after they wrapped his ankle- the huge lump on the side shows how swollen it was...That's not his ankle bone- that is pure swollen dude. Craziness.
A lot of the swelling has gone down, but now it is changing into pretty bruising and colorful blisters.

SIGH~~~

Germs, Sickies, A Must Read!

Okay peoples. This is a must read. At least the beginning part. Not that everyone would be interested in what I have to say, but I want to tell you about is something that comes from great personal experience that should help you as it has helped me. But warning, it is very LONG. Sorry!!

For as long as I can remember, I have been a pretty clean person. (Although my sister would tell you when we were growing up, she would draw a line down the room to separate my side from hers so my stuff that was thrown everywhere and not put away would not touch her side). Anyhow, I try to keep things clean and organized. It doesn't always happen, but I try. And I cannot stand having people over unless things are very clean, so anyhow, when my kids get sick, I would say I go above and beyond the average person to keep germs from spreading.

I wash their sheets every single night. Thats right, if one of them is sick, I wash their sheets every night that they have symptoms.
They take a bath or shower every day they are sick.
I wash their towels used from said bath every night as well.
I wipe down door handles and handrails.
I wash any blankets and pillows they have used.
I literally follow them down the hallway with lysol disinfectant spray, spraying where they walk.

I also do this for my husband when he is sick, and usually for myself.

So this was not so this time. Kyler got sick last weekend with a fever. I was so exhausted from other things that have been going on with family in town, etc. that I did not wash his sheets, blankets etc. I did a little of the lysol disinfectant spray here and there, but I really was not thorough. And let me tell you, Kyler would get better, then get sick again, get better, then get sick again for several days.

Every time my kids have been sick in the past, it usually only lasts one to two days. I really honestly believe they have gotten better as quickly as they have because of my de-germing the house. And this time, it may be coincidence, maybe, but I really believe Kyler kept getting sick because I did not keep up my normal de-germing.

And, to top it all off, I got sick! I got strep throat, literally overnight and went to urgent care and got on an antiobiotic. And so today, even though I am not feeling super great, I changed the sheets, wiped down the door handles and did as much as I could to de-germ the house so we can all get better.

So why did I make you read this? because I have learned from this experience that as much work as it is to do tons of laundry and make multiple beds and clean clean clean when your kids are sick- it really does shorten the amount of time they are sick AND it is easier than dealing with them being sick for longer and YOU being sick. Blah, blah, theres my preaching at you for the day.

Now on a separate note, I have to say that since my starting synthroid, a thyroid replacement medication, I have struggled with weight gain, low energy among other things. So this last week I made myself some serious goals and decided that no matter what, I cannot let this control me for the rest of my life! I dont care what I have to do, I am going to be dedicated so I can get back to my old self again. And its not really about losing weight (although I AM trying to), its more just getting back into giving 100% in my workouts, not eating after 7 and doing feeling all around better, like I used to feel. Needless to say, getting sick really bummed me out because I had to miss working out today and although my appetite is gone (not such a bad thing), I know it is harder to get back into things once stopping. But I am determined. I am feeling better today and am hoping by Wednesday I can work out again and keep things going. Even with being sick, I have kept all my other goals besides working out. Wish me luck.

Okay, okay, on a separate, separate not just to make this post even longer and more boring, my little Brayden has struggled with his bowels (you dont really need to know more than that) for well over a year now. I have taken him in for some testing, he's been treated with antibiotics, we took him off dairy for a while and that seemed to work, but lately he's struggled again. So we got him tested for celiac disease (which would mean a glutten free diet) and thankfully that was negative, but that means a lot more testing to figure out why he is having so many problems. he is 26 pounds, and has been 25 pounds for the past two years. He is the size of an average 21 month old!! Now we haven't always been concerned about this because Brayden was a preemie, he has the geins to be small built (my full term kid is 5% height on the charts) and Brayden eats a TON and has a high metabolism. So it hasnt been until these bowels problems that we really started to think that maybe something else could be going on. Sooo, now we are off to an endocronolist to see if Brayden's preemie has caused a stunt in his growth and he might need something more to help him out. So they will do more tests and then go from there. Again, wish us luck. We shall see if our household can all get into shape and get healthy!

Peace out, live long and prosper.

Family and Treehouses

So Cort's sister Jen has been in town longer than the rest of Cort's family and it has been fun for our families to get together for things. Friday we rode the train to the Treehouse Museum and the kids had a great time!
Riding the train there...
Giddy-Up! Brayden dressed up like a cowboy...with chaps bigger than his entire body...


Riding the train back-(this picture is out of order). This is Cort's sister Jen with two of her kids...

Keaton managed to have some fun crawling around as well...

Now it was Kyler's turn to be the cowboy!

I LOVE this picture. Brayden can get Keaton just roaring with laughter. This just shows how much Keaton loves his brothers! And they certainly love him as well.

Good times were had by all.

Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful Baby

Okay, so I am a little obsessed with my little guy. He is so darn cute that I just cannot resist taking his picture and giving him kisses all the time. This is a super cute one of him sleeping...up close...

A little further away, oh so cute!

He did a face dive into the dirt while we were camping this past weekend, and did not like it. I maade him wait while I ran to the car, got the camera and took his picture. he was not happy with me for that one...I can't blame him, but look at this picture?!?!?!!!!!!

And finally, when he woke oh so early in the morning of camping, I took him to the car, bundled him up even more and took some pictures. This one is sooo sweet. It was cold and he was just so cute!

Love him!

A Hole in One!

Well this post is later than I wanted it to be, but I have been so incredibly busy! Cort's family was in town last week for it's first ever Family Reunion with just siblings, parents, kids. So we had a blast, but I did not take many pictures! So the few I have are of the boys first time golfing. Cortney is a big time golfer, so I know this is something he was excited about our kids doing. They loved it, but don't really have the patience to golf like your supposed to...let's just say they even picked the ball up several times and put it in the hole!

Go Brayden!

Go Kyler!

We had a great time with Cort's family and know that our kids had a great time with their cousins!