Someone is 7!

I have officially been a mommy now for 7 years! And what a ride it has been. I couldn't have asked for a better daughter than my Drew, except maybe for Darcy or Bree, but they aren't old enough to read this and since this is about Drew's birthday, I will just say that I couldn't have asked for a better daughter than Drew! What a sweetheart this girl is. She is a great helper with her younger siblings and is quick to come to Bree or Darcy's aid when they need help. Mason . . . not so much. They love to play together though so I am not complaining too loud. This birthday was a bit different for me. We actually threw our first non-family birthday party with school friends. Her teacher's class policy is to invite all girls, which in this case was 13! Drew assured me that all 13 girls would be there, even though I only received 5 RSVP's, so to be on the safe side I made 48 cupcakes that the girls would decorate themselves. Well, only 3 girls showed up. We had tons of cupcakes and candy left over so Drew and Mason set up a table in the driveway advertising free cupcakes to whomever would come take them off our hands. We had a few takers, thank goodness! Drew wasn't too disappointed at the small turnout and I can't say I was either. Fewer kids = less hassle for me! The friend party was Saturday but her real birthday was yesterday. We had tacos for dinner and angel food cake with strawberries for dessert. She picked up a few gifts, but my favorite is the Michael Jackson Dance Experience for the Kinect. I am not quite as good a dancer as I once thought I was, I have discovered! Another reason this birthday was different is that Drew is growing up. She actually wanted nail polish! Heaven help me, I am raising a girl! I'm not sure how that happened but I will try my best to steer her in that direction if that is where she is headed. I wasn't sure if toys were appropriate or exactly what to get her this year. Its fun to watch her grow up but its also kind of tough to watch her grow up. I am great with diapering baby buns, I don't really know what to do for a 7 year old. I guess Drew will be our guinea pig, as she has been for all other stages. Poor kid. Let's see, she is in bed so I will have to guess at her favorites.

Singer: Michael Jackson

Food: tacos, chicken stir-fry, rice

Toys: Legos

Color: Red

Movies: Harry Potter series, Indiana Jones series, Star Wars series

Animal: Hippos

Drew's 2 bottom teeth in the front are loose but they aren't coming out anytime soon. She hasn't lost any teeth yet but doesn't seem to mind too much. I just hope when the time comes to pull them out she will do it so I don't have to. Yuck! Her reading abilities have exploded over the last year and she loves to read. She is trying to teach Mason how to also. Now that is fun to watch.

Happy birthday Drew! We all love you so much and are so blessed to have you in our family!

5 down, 1 to go.

The past 2 weeks have been rough on the immune systems around our house. Drew came down with a cold and sore throat but she was able to shake the sore throat after a day or two so we didn't take her to see a doctor. A couple days later Mason woke up and pretty much remained flat on his back for the next 3 days till mom finally decided to take him to Urgent Care after complaints of a sore throat, headache, horrible cough, nose bleeds, and a fine red rash. The tests came back positive for strep throat and scarlet fever. He also had an x-ray taken of his chest, which he totally loved because he could see his heart and bones, and they also threw a diagnosis of pneumonia in there for good measure. I was pretty sure Darcy had strep too, so the next day she went to see her doctor and as I pulled her sweatshirt off, the doctor and I noticed a fine red rash on her torso. Yep, scarlet fever and strep. The very next day Bree woke up with a temp of 101.8 so I took her to urgent care, and I was feeling funny in my throat so I checked us both in to be tested for strep. Neither of our tests came back positive. I was told Bree probably has a cold virus, which of course there is no medicine for for babies, so she has been suffering with her dry, barking seal coughs for days now. A couple days later, Paul started to feel under the weather. He finally got in to urgent care yesterday where he was diagnosed with pneumonia! He has been out of work for 3 days now and feeling pretty awful. As I type this I can feel a tightening in my throat. I hope it is just sympathy pains, but I wouldn't be surprised to wake up tomorrow and find myself in the same boat as the rest of the family. I am so very grateful that we live in an age where illnesses like scarlet fever and pneumonia no longer have to mean permanent damage or even death. What a blessing it is to have competent doctors and readily available medicines accessible at a moment's notice. It hasn't been an easy 2 weeks on me, or the rest who have actually suffered the sicknesses, but we are thankful for all the thoughts, prayers, and kind acts from everyone who helped us get through this mess just a little bit easier.

I'm one!

Happy birthday Bree! She has learned so much over the past year, including bad habits from a certain sibling. Its hard to believe my baby is 1! Where did the time go? Bree has been a huge blessing to our family. Once she got over the constant screaming for the first 4 months of her life, she developed into a happy, content, smiley, little person. She is just so much fun to have around. Unless you are Darcy and then you would like life to go back to how it was pre-Bree. I don't think those two will ever be best friends. They seem to live to torment each other. Bree is not afraid of a fight either. I have found them on the floor with Bree biting Darcy while her hand is full of red hair, pulling as hard as she can. I so look forward to them growing up together! Bree is walking, almost full-time, but still drops to a crawl when she needs to get somewhere fast. She has 5 teeth, says "momma, and dadda" and can wave goodbye. She'll figure everything else out in her own time. I stopped reading about milestones after Mason. Kids seem to figure out whatever they need to in their own sweet time.

Some of Bree's favorites, and this is pretty much in order: Gerber Graduates Yogurt Melts, mom, sleep, chocolate milk, but only if its out of Darcy's cup and she is watching so she will scream, mom, dad, cheese, mom, noisy toys. That about sums up Bree to this point. She only weighs 19 lbs according to her check-up two days ago, which makes her by far my smallest kid at this age. She is our "little bit." We are so happy she is with us for eternity and can't wait to watch her grow and fulfill her endless potential. Happy birthday Little Bit!

Fun at the Beach

Last weekend we packed up the car and headed to Lincoln City to join the rest of Paul's family for some fun at the beach. We had a beautiful, huge, house to share, right on the beach. The view was amazing and so was the weather. It was dry, realtively warm, and Sunday was absolutely clear and gorgeous. It was hard to believe it was January and not July. A few of us even braved wading in the waves, though I wouldn't recommend it. The initial shock of the freezing cold water turned into the ache of freezing feet. Here is a picture of most of the crew. Paul seems to be missing. Probably taking the picture.
Here is Paul with his family. Roland, Paul, Mom, Carmen, and Alloa. Good looking bunch!

Bree's cousin Koa had a thing for babies. Looks like Bree didn't mind him too much either. What she did mind was our sleeping arrangements. She does not like sleeping in the playpen but there is no where else for her to go. I know sometime in the night she will be crying to crawl into bed with me and I would go the rest of the night without sleep as she rolls and climbs all over me. This is precisely what happened the first night. Usually the second night is OK because we are all so exhausted from the first night we sleep like rocks. Not so this time. She decided to wake up at 11pm and was still awake at 2:15am. I think just about every adult in the house tried to work their magic on Bree to get her back to sleep. I finally grabbed her in a bear hug and didn't let go till she went to sleep. She needs to figure out real quick how to sleep while on vacation because our family likes to travel a lot and we aren't letting miss Breezy get in our way. That only works when you're the first child.

Here are some of us getting our feet wet. It was so freezing cold!

My cuties. I can't believe how big they are all getting.

We had a great time hanging out with all the family. Saturday night we had a talent show with some great talent showcased. And also some other stuff that I refrained showing pictures of in order to protect reputations. Lets just say it was an eye opening experience. I have to say though, I give props to the family because my side of the family would never try anything like that. We would all be too embarrased or shy to stand up in front of others and make fools of our selves. I mean, show our talents to others ;) Now that we have had a taste of the beach and the sunshine I am ready to move on into spring and summer and the outdoors.

Bree is (almost) 1!

We celebrated Bree's 1st birthday with both side of the family at . . . a bowling alley! I know it seems like a strange place for a 1 year old to celebrate their big day, but I figured we just had a bunch of holidays where we all had to sit and talk to each other and this way you could avoid whomever you wanted! Also, I didn't have to come up with a big meal for everyone so this was easiest on me. And when Mommy is happy, everyone is happy, right? Bree seemed to enjoy all the attention from grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. She got some nice clothes and lots of great new books. The kids had fun bowling, except for Darcy, but her shoes were pretty cool anyway. Bree enjoyed her chocolate cake and appreciated everyone making the effort to celebrate her big day. We had the party 2 weeks early in order to get the most family as we could there. It is always difficult with an extended family as big as ours to find a time that works for everyone. Thankfully I will never have to throw a first year birthday party again. But Drew does get baptized next year so I guess we move into that phase of parties. The fun never ends!

The grandmas had a fun time watching all the grandkids bowl. I think.

No, Mason is not left handed. Someone should have shown him how to do it right I guess. . .dad!

Drew was pretty good. She loves to bowl!




Darcy and her awesome shoes. Man I am going to have some great blackmail material when Darcy gets older. It seems almost every picture of her for the past year has been of her crying.

All Things Buns Related

Lately at our house it seems like I have been consumed with all things buns related. For months now Bree has had a diaper rash that won't quit. I have used everything under the sun to try to get rid of it but nothing seems to work. She was even diagnosed as having a yeast infection but the medicine for that did little, if anything, to heal her poor bum. It gets so bad at times that it is just raw and itchy. It seems like maybe her poop is toxic and eating away at her skin. So we went gluten free for 3 days, dairy free for 3 days, and juice free for 3 days. The only thing that made a difference was the juice, which was making her stool runny. It didn't seem to remove the toxicity though. So my dietician Aunt suggested getting rid of formula all together because of the added probiotics that could be causing her digestive problems. We have been on straight milk for a couple days now but I am seeing no improvements. Now before you get riled up, she hasn't had a raw bum for months, it seems to be under control for awhile and then flares up again. I guess we will keep trying different scenarios till we find some answers.

Darcy has not taken to potty training like I hoped she would. She is content to pee her pants and then tell us about it afterwards. She still hasn't done #2 in the toilet, just her pants. Have I mentioned I loathe potty training? I finally broke down and bought a Lightning McQueen activity bike thingy that is sitting on our kitchen cupboard, right where she can see it, as a bribe to hopefully get this business moving. She doesn't care. She thinks it looks like fun but isn't working towards really getting it. This is really trying my patience!

My sweet Mason, around Christmas time I think, started using the bathroom CONSTANTLY. And by constantly I mean sometimes 10 times in an hour. I thought at first it was a phase but he has been doing this for weeks now. I was talking to a couple people in the know at Bree's birthday party and they said the first sign of Type 1 Diabetes is constantly going to the bathroom. I knew this, though I chose to not even consider the possibility till this last weekend. And then it was all consuming and I barely got through Bree's party, waiting till I could get Mason to a doctor. As we were waiting for the reader to process his blood sugar number by stomach was in my throat. I have seen the struggles, and also the normalcy that has come into my niece's, and her family's, life since she was diagnosed with diabetes 3 days after Mason was born. I was sure I couldn't be that strong, and I knew with Mason's fear of needles and love of sweet stuff he couldn't handle this disease. Thankfully his number was in the normal range. I wanted to cry right then! Luckily he didn't have an infection either so right now we don't know what is causing this. Today he went in to have blood drawn and I made Paul take him. I knew that once they had the needle out Mason would freak and I wouldn't be able to hold him down. Paul said he had him in a bear hug, another person held his legs, and another held his arms as they drew the blood. Just thinking about it makes me cry. My poor baby. I have been so blessed that I haven't had to watch one of my children suffer with a life-altering illness. I have much respect for those kids, and parents, who have to deal with it every day. Hopefully we can get some answers for Mason's problem and we can get it taken care of. Thanks for everyone's good thoughts and prayers for him!

Now my health update isn't necessarily buns related, though they do get itchy sometimes! I went to an endocrinologist before Thanksgiving and she seems to fianlly have me on the right dosage of medication for my hypothyroidism. She also told me that 2/3 of those with hypothyroidism suffer from hives like I do. They aren't related in the sense that if my thyroid is under control the itchies will be too. But they are autoimmune diseases that seem to go hand in hand. So for the rest of my life I can look forward to bouts of hives and intense itching for no reason what-so-ever. I just get to treat it as it shows up. But at least all of this is treatable and at the moment I am itch free and not even a bit light headed so I will be thankful for the temporary respite!

Its Potty Time!

New Year's Day Darcy ripped off her diaper and went streaking through the living room shouting "Potty!" That was all the cue we needed to finally start potty training. I had been planning on starting after the new year, but not necessarily ON the new year. She has been showing signs of readiness for a few months but I was not ready to go down that road till she forced my hand. Potty training has to be one of the most difficult parts of parenting for me at this stage in my life. We put some little girl panties on her cute little buns, giggled at how cute her buns looked in panties, and then proceeded to clean up 6 accidents. That evening she actually peed twice on the toilet so I will call that a success. The best part of potty training, well, who am I kidding, the ONLY good part about potty training is her look of pure joy and accomplishment when she actually does pee in the potty. And the giggles and clapping. That makes it all worth it. So far she hasn't needed a bribe, but I'm sure she will come away with something cool after we decide she is totally potty trained. Day 2 brought more success and also Pull-ups. I am not a huge fan as they are just like diapers to me, but I already did a few extra loads of laundry to wash her little underpants and I had had enough. Yesterday morning, day 3, she was in hysterics and I was at my limit and I yelled at her: "Just pee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" My wise 4 year old sauntered into the bathtroom and casually said: "You know mom, it probably works better if you don't yell at her." Thanks, Mase, I'll take that into consideration. She finally did #2 . . . in her Pull-up. I knew it was coming and was keeping an eye on her but she got away from me for 2 seconds and the deed was done. That looks like it will be the hard part, getting that in the toilet. Today is day 4 and she is doing pretty well. She gives me a little look and we both dash off to the nearest potty. So far only 1 accident, but its only noon. At least she isn't screaming at me like yesterday. Maybe we have turned the corner? I forgot just how emotionally draining this is on both the trainer and the trainee. We will get through it though. I can't wait to have only one set of buns left to diaper!