Scrub-a-Dub

These are from last night. My mom took Jack on an outing and kept him overnight so he is the missing body. We were invited to a cook-out yesterday and had a wonderful time...always evident by the amount of dirt on the children's bodies! I'm in love with family moments like these!



Could she be any cuter in her froggie towel?

New Look!!!

And I thought the blue one made me dizzy! Actually I love this one...thought it looked squirpy enough!!! What do you think? Darn...I lost my counter!!!!! Clearly I'm a work in progress! Yay! Counter found... Now I need to figure out how to get pics at the top!!!

Where They Rest Their Heads

I have been following Kelly's blog for a while. She has a sweet little miracle baby, Harper (a name that was on our list with Campbell). She has started a "tour of homes" of sorts in blogger world and I thought this week I'd play along. I love our children's bedrooms so I don't mind showing them off. While I did make the beds and straighten up, you could come over on most any day and find that these bedrooms are almost this tidy. Definitely NOT true about the rest of our house!!! They only keep a few special toys in their rooms and it is a treat to play up there. Now books are another story! The entire floor of Jackson and Tucker's closet is filled with books. For my sanity I try and keep the toys centrally located (in the basement) to make clean-up a possibility. We started this when Jackson was a toddler because he would get out of bed in the middle of the night and keep himself up for hours playing. I know it's not how lots of families keep house but it works for us! Enjoy!

This is Jackson and Tucker's room. Jackson is a train fanatic. I found the border with my mom at a wallpaper outlet, the coordinating signs on the wall on e-bay and the duvet covers on clearance from Company Kids. I love their bright sunny yellow room! The expression on their door is from Uppercase Living...post a comment if you want more info.





This is Cooper and Finley's room. They have an airplane theme going on. I actually have some metal airplanes to hang from the ceiling but that little project has been stuck on Todd's honey do list for a while. We found the bedding at a Pottery Barn outlet. I really like it but we bought it specifically because it had a matching crib set. At one time we had four children in a three bedroom house so we had these beds bunked in a room with a crib. The furniture was Todd's when he was growing up and I love that all the boys have gotten to use it. These two guys are too little to use the desk so we mostly use it as a dresser and for storage. My favorite part of this room is the red accent wall with the paper airplane expression.




Finally, Campbell Kate's nursery! When Cooper was a baby I had the Pottery Barn "bright stripe" bedding and I'm still infatuated with it. So, pretty much all through my pregnancy I wanted to use it again. There's not even a pink stripe in it but I didnt' care. Then it came time to get serious about it and with a little encouragement from my girlfriends and sister I reconsidered and with that little nudge I went all out. My sister bought all of CK's bedding as a gift (along with lots and lots of other little treats). It's from Land of Nod and it's perfect. Her chair is from WalMart and it is THE most comfortable rocker I've ever nursed a baby in. The furniture was new for Jackson and we are definitely one family who has gotten their money's worth out of their baby stuff. I posted a pic of my favorite frame. It has her precious little newborn pictures in it along with her hand and foot prints. Campbell's room is very peaceful and sweet and I love to spend time in there. If you are a friend that sends us Christmas Card pictures please note the photo board above the rocker. I save each and every one and switch them out each year. When Campbell actually held still long enough to cuddle we would rock and she would talk and talk to her "friends" on the wall.






Happy Friday!

Results...

We finally got Jackson's results from his breath test! It appears that Jackson IS lactose intolerant! From what the specialist told our pediatrician, it is very rare that children actually test positive for lactose intolerance...leave it to Jack to be rare! The good news is that now we have an answer and can work on doing what we can to make him feel better!

Speaking of breath. I was getting Jackson ready for school (at the correct time!) this morning and he started yelling at me, "Take a shower mom, you stink! You stink, you stink! Take a shower!". Apparently he didn't appreciate my breath this morning and this was his way of lovingly telling me. Gotta love their honesty (in the privacy of our own home, of course!).

Either Finley is growing or getting sick because this is the second night in a row we have seen this:
















Now I'm off to start tomorrow's post for Kelly Korner's Show Us Where You Live Friday!

Shutter Bug

I was inspired today by MckMama to get out the "good" camera (it's a SONY Cyber-shot) and play with the aperture settings. I have a Canon PowerShot ELPH that I usually tote around. I could only get the background to blur in about one out of every twenty shots today but here are a few pictures of my favorite guinea pigs...

Jackson

Tucker

Cooper

Finley : )

Campbell Kate


Thankfully they were in the mood today to let me practice on them. Well, with the exception of Finley who appeared to have too big of a day to pose for mommy.

If you are a facebook friend you are already privy to this little tidbit but here's a glimpse into my morning. At 6:47 this morning I woke up to the alarm going off. I totally flipped...I had overslept!!! I lept out of bed, ran into Jackson's bedroom and rushed him down the stairs. I got him dressed really quickly and then called the bus garage. I knew that we had just missed the bus by a couple of minutes and asked if they would come back around and pick up Jack. Only to realize mid-conversation with the bus superintendent that it was only 6:55...NOT 7:55 and then wished that I could go back to bed and erase the last eight minutes from history!

Staycation

So, a while ago I said something to Todd about going somewhere for Memorial Day weekend and his reply..."We are going on a staycation baby!" (boy, oh boy what fun and I'm sure I turned away and made a face). His tone must have had some finality to it because I don't remember trying to talk him into anything! If you know me at all you know I like to be out and about and often away with our family. Cabin fever sets in for me after about 16 hours...seriously. We had a great weekend and although it wasn't all that relaxing, we got sooo much done and enjoyed our time together at HOME.

Friday we were invited over to our friends' house for karaoke. I can't sing. I try but it's just not pretty. I don't think I made anyone's ears bleed but my time as a rock star was short lived because I had been sick all week and I just wasn't up for it. But eating...that I managed to rock. R and S are always such great hosts and the snacks were yummy. We took the kids along and the boys stayed downstairs with the sitters and Campbell stayed up with us. She borrowed two baby dolls and carried them around all night. She's not prissy at all...she doesn't mind getting dirty, she plays with cars, she pushes her brothers out of the way and stands up for herself when she needs to. But she LOVES to snuggle and play momma to dolls and stuffed things. In that respect she is alone in our brood. Here she is with her babies...determined to carry them both at the same time and give them both the same amount of attention just like a mommy should (should I tell her now what it's really going to be like?)!


Saturday we mulched, and mulched and weeded and mulched. Mulch makes such a difference doesn't it? It looks great and I loved being outside working in the yard with Todd while the kids played and rode their bikes. Sunday was low key. I worked on the laundry and we did some shopping for the Memorial Day festivities. One of our big projects for the day was to shop around and find some sort of orginizational system for the paper trail that takes over our kitchen counter. If it kills a tree and happens to be 8.5" X 11" it is my nemesis. After a little mommy meltdown peaceful discussion in the parking lot of Staples we hauled all of our small children in so we could decide together and found something we hope will end the mess!

Yesterday we did some cleaning and got ready for our friends to come over in the afternoon. Todd rocked the grill!!! We visited, ate, played, ate, refereed, no wonder the baby weight isn't gone yet, said goodbye to friends, bathed, kissed good night, played cards and said good bye again. Loved this weekend (but hate that I didn't get take more pics), the weather and our non-vacation staycation baby!!!

What's Your Name?

I've been away from the blog for a couple of days. Mostly by choice but it's been a pretty hectic week. I haven't been feeling all that great nor sleeping well, if you couldn't tell from my last post. I've also been working hard on reclaiming my house.

I was thrilled to give (dump) some of my baby things to my sister this afternoon. I love cleaning and giving away!!! She is part of a group going on a mission trip to Africa and they are having a garage sale this weekend to raise money. I have been holding on to some of that stuff (I have a thing for crib bedding) far too long! The dust bunnies and laundry have gotten a little out of control too...slowly I'm digging out. I know at any house if you skip a few days it piles up but with a household of seven skipping a few days means that now you have four or five loads to catch up on plus the two that all those stinky people made on the day you decide you're going to tackle it. That's only if you decide to catch up on the laundry on a day with no surprises...like the Dr's appointment Campbell and I had this afternoon which revealed yet another ear infection. Poor baby girl, her fever hit 103. It's so sad when they feel miserable but I do enjoy the extra cuddling. Campbell has been far too busy for much cuddling lately. She is walking everywhere and now prefers it to crawling.

Part of the busyness this week has been that these two guys...


both had end of year programs at school. Unfortunately, I only have one cute picture to share. Most of them didn't turn out very well. Cooper's theme was "going green" and his favorite song was R E C Y C L E and Tucker made a fabulous letter "L" in the word blue. I was very proud of both of them. I think it was the first time either of them actually stood still, did the motions AND moved their mouths while on stage. Here's Coop in the electric car from his program:



Cooper and Tucker are the closest in age at our house. They are 16 months apart and wildly different but good buddies all the same. Jackson and Tucker are 21 months apart. Cooper and Finley are 21 months apart and Finley and Campbell are 26 months apart. We thought twice that we would have babies 18 months apart between Jackson and Tucker and then again between Finley and Campbell but both of those babies are in heaven. God had a different plan for our lives and those little souls but we find peace in that. Yes, that's right...seven pregnancies in almost exactly seven years...CRAZY people!!! It's just perfect though...we love it. Not that it doesn't have it's moments...

Come on, I did not just say..."Finley, Cooper, Finley, Tucker...what's your name...COOPER!!!" as he was spinning the recliner and I wanted him to stop! : )

I was just about to post when I saw that the sweet, sick baby girl who was moments ago playing blocks at my feet had done this...



love them, love them, love them!

Guess what's on my mind this morning...

a few years ago our car looked like this:

last night it looked like this:

then this:

and this:

if I could just curl up:


I'd be this happy:

in fact, I'd probably be able to sleep anywhere:

well, this might be pushing it:

sleeping while eating might be a possibility:


you do have to be careful but I'll take what I can get:

I just want to close my eyes!!!

Busy, Crazy, Fun!!!

That describes this weekend...well, it pretty much sums up our life! There are few things in life that go EXACTLY as you plan them. My day to day activities are constant reminders of that fact.

Friday morning Jackson and I were up with the birds so we could head to Columbus. A little background...for several months Jack has been having some stomach issues (I will spare you the details as I'm sure you have zero desire to read them and I'm sure Jackson would not appreciate years down the road finding out that I have described them to the entire internet world) and they have gotten increasingly worse. He has come home from school doubled over and crying in pain. Literally, he hops up the steps into the house with a smile and then his little lip starts quivering and he breaks down. It's heartbreaking because he has fits and starts begging to go to the doctor, go to the hospital, etc. because he is in such pain from holding everything in all day. Jackson has had a multitude of blood tests, a CT scan, all of his bodily fluids harvested and inspected and we still don't know exactly what's going on. His little tummy gets VERY distended and all the CT scan showed was very EXCESSIVE gas. So the doctor in Cleveland ordered a "breath" test to rule out some weird bacterias. We got a call from Rainbow Babies that they are out-of-network for our insurance so we started looking elsewhere to have the test. Our peds office set up the "breath" test in Columbus. GREAT! So we arrived on time and ready to go only to have a pretty cranky nurse and no order for the procedure. Because Jack is not a patient there and they had zero background we had to answer lots of hard questions before they would start. Jackson has a pretty involved medical/developmental history but I was determined to tough it out because by this point I had invested a couple of hours in travel, weeks trying to get the test done and had asked my sister to not only be at my house very early in the morning but then left her with four squirrels to feed, bath, transport... They called our ped, got the scoop and managed to come up with an order to proceed. Now I had been told on the phone that this test would take a couple of hours...fine. Then she was explaining it to me and I found out it takes FOUR hours and by now we were an hour late getting started. Can you say HUNGRY...me AND poor Jack (who did not get a chocolate banana vivvano with a double shot for breakfast)! It gets better...they are going to do a hydrogen breath test to check for lactose intolerance. NOT the test for bacteria that we thought we were coming for and had been ordered by the first specialist in Cleveland. Lactose intolerance is certainly a possibility and the most likely diagnosis so I kept my mouth shut and went with it. Jackson spent four hours in near heaven online playing on the Thomas and Friends website. We did the test and now we wait. I have no idea what comes next. Which doc is going to call which nor when we will find out the results. Prayers, if nothing else, that Jackson will feel better SOON please!!! Yeah, that day didn't go as planned!

That night Todd and I went to a Willie Nelson concert and spent the night away from small children and all of their bodily functions. We had a blast! Todd went to see him when we were dating (some 12ish years ago) and became a fan. I have always wanted to take him again so I bought tickets for his Father's Day present. Did you know WN is 76 years old???? Here we are...


We came home Saturday and I dashed for a baby shower for the baby sister of one of my best friends. Fun times, lots of cute pink stuff and yummy food! Then I spent a few hours at a fundraiser. Then back out with friends. Blessed by church this morning, lunch on the grill, then naps! I haven't seen too much of my babies' sweet faces lately so I'm off to love on them!

Wait before I go. Todd and Finley were in the bathroom a couple of days ago and Finley asked him if his belly button was his pretzel (where do they come up with this stuff?). Ha!!! Now, I'm not sure what to think here because the other day when Cooper and I were in the bathroom (do you sense a trend...privacy is hard to come by at our house) he asked my why I didn't have a button but "just a hole". My button has been so distorted I have no recollection of what it used to look like but I think Coop thinks that if we're going to call them buttons, they should look like a button. Should I tell him now that life doesn't always go as planned?

Surfing

This is how one of my conversations with Finley went this morning. He came upstairs because he wanted to get dressed and ready for school...

F: Am I going to school in the morning? I need clothes on!
Me: Yep, it's time to get dressed will you take your jammies off please?
F: Mom, can I surf on your bed?
F: Mom I won't poop on your bed!
Me: Well, sure then baby...you can surf on my bed.
F: Can I surf naked?
F: Can I surf with my clothes on?
F: Can I wear my army shirt?

We then had a battle about what shirt he was going to wear. He didn't want to wear a surfer shirt (he doesn't have a surfer shirt), he only wanted to wear a race car shirt. He's wearing a shirt that says, "Little Body, Big Attitude".

Seesters

This is my sister or seester as I so lovingly call her. Well, that amongst some other terms of endearment. She has been incredibly generous with her time here lately and we are so grateful to have her help. She is a master childminder and she loves on our children like we would if we weren't running our other kiddos around to various appointments, sporting events, school such and such or even just folding the endless loads of laundry that are a constant in our home. She is super duper talented musically, a fabulous auntie, funny, beautiful and pretty much the best seester ever!

Don't Abandon Ship!

Hang in there...more fun to come. It's been super busy at our house lately and time to blog has been hard to come by! Thank you sister for helping me figure out that playlist thingy today...you're the best and I'm putting a picture of your face up on my blog next!!! On the plate...small group tonight, Uppercase Living stuff to get ready for the scrap fundraiser, about 27 loads of laundry to put away (hey, at least it's clean and folded), a trip to Columbus Children's Hospital with Jackson, On The Road Again with Willie which means a night away from small children and a date with my sweetie (whoo hoo!!!) and about four events to attend on Saturday...all at the same time!

I had a rockin' Mother's Day weekend!

How about you? Friday my sister and I went shopping for our mom. You know it, there were lots of mulch type decisions to be made. Saturday morning Tucker and Cooper had a soccer game...hello mud! The afternoon was spent planting and spreading said mulch at my mom's...love ya mom! Then the hottest, sweetest guy in the whole world took me out on a date. We had such a great time!!! We had dinner at P.F. Chang's, did some shopping (spoiled!) and then went to see Star Trek. Yeah, not my movie pick and I was kind of wondering why there wasn't a chick flick on the list too! It was actually fun to watch and we got to see it on the IMAX screen. We had a blast and stayed out way past our bedtime!

We were feeling our ages the next morning when it was time to get up for church so Todd got up (slowly) pretty soon after the boys and I got to sleep in. I was awakened by four little boy faces (the girl face was still sleeping), breakfast in bed, five homemade cards and a new pair of Dr. Marten mary janes. Babe, seriously, could you be any more amazing? We spent the afternoon with the fam enjoying yummy food, good company and energy burning kiddos.

I love being a mom. I love being a mom to my five. But I'm convinced that my job as mom is so delightful because of the husband I have to help me. My girlfriends can attest to his helpfulness. He cooks (and likes it), cleans, helps with the laundry and does not consider girl's night out as his night to "babysit"...ever. He's handy, strong and probably the hardest working guy I know.

Who wouldn't love a guy who provides photo ops like this...


Alright, enough mushy... How about a little Tucker? *CAUTION* hide your remotes immediately!!! At 6:59am Sunday morning Tucker made his first pay-per-view purchase. "Bolt" played non-stop at our house for 24 hours. Hey, we wanted to get our $4.99 out of it. Time to install those parental controls!!!

You finally got your girl!

Happy Mother's Day! More on that later... I thought I should put up some pics of our fifth installment, Campbell Kate (almost 14 mts). There's lots and lots I could say about how adorable she is but I'll let you form your own opinion! She's pretty sassy herself. She loves her newly developed walking skills, shopping, cuddling anything stuffed and having her daddy wrapped around her little finger!!!


I can't tell you how many times I have heard, "You finally got your girl!". And if you've said this to me please don't take offense at my ramblings. I LOVE having a girl. I had no idea what I was missing out on (shopping for cute pink stuff) and I was absolutely delighted when we "finally got our girl". But if you know us a little deeper you would know that we feel simply blessed to have five beautiful children in our home. I truly would have felt just as blissful if "she" would have been a "he". And yes, boy or girl, five was our limit. In fact, we found out we were going to have a girl during a level II ultrasound at our Children's Hospital where we were actually taking a closer look at her little heart. At around 18 weeks she was experiencing some transient bradycardia (brief periods of low heart rates down to about 80 BPM). This was after week after week and doctors appointment after doctors appointment where either she or I had some issue that compromised her life and my pregnancy. Everything checked out fine that day so the reveal of her gender was secondary to our joy that she was healthy. We prayed hard for her to just survive the first and then second trimesters of pregnancy so the fact that she is here at all makes us feel super blessed. She is the baby that God intended us to have and knowing that all along was enough.

Everyone needs a little Tucker in their lives...

I figured that while I was going through pics tonight and waiting for my darling husband to get home I'd post again. This is boy #2. I try really hard not to stereotype my children (I fail miserably) but Tucker is my easiest target. He started speaking in short sentences right around 12 months and he hasn't stopped. You think I'm kidding???? He LOVES to read, he "gets" my sarcasm (for some reason he's not quite up to appreciating it yet) and challenges me in ways I had no idea my progeny would. He has an awesome heart, he's always "starving" and he loves broccoli.

My sister asked me today if I was going to tell anyone that I had started a blog. Uh, no...it's too scary. But I did...now you know. My A-#1 (not a steak sauce) reason for blogging is so I can record all of those fabulous details, that in the moment and with my memory, get lost. Our lives are so full and crazy! I really wish I had started journaling (I don't think blogging had been invented when Jackson was a baby) years ago because I know there is so much I've forgotten and I hate that!!!

Enjoy this little picture of Tucker practicing his tree pose! : )

Did I Really Just Do That? *edited*

I edited this post so I could show you a pic of all four boys together. I can understand why people have such a hard time telling them apart, what do you think? Admittedly, we don't always get their names correct either!!!


Did I really just take my baby boy #3 for Kindergarten screening? My little nest is emptying! Not only that, this is the third year in a row that I will have a Kindergartner!!! At this point I'm feeling more concern for the elementary school staff who now has to sort out which carbon copied face belongs to which name. Actually, whether or not to send Cooper to Kindy is "sort of" still up in the air. Right now he's in Montessori. We love Montessori but it's costly. We'd also like to send Finley to Montessori and the cost x's 2 isn't happening for us. So we just have to balance in the next couple of months who is ready for what and how much tuition the old budget can handle. He is beyond excited so I'm not sure there's any turning back...and yesterday out of nowhere he read the word "connect" (can we say random?). Sigh....

So, Campbell has not been sleeping very well this week. She has an ear infection and the snots (that IS the official diagnosis). So last night she started grumbling about 2:30am and it didn't stop until 5ish when I finally gave her a cup of milk and cuddled her sleepy head until she was dozy and content. Isn't that sweet? Unbeknownst to me she had spit up milk down the front of my jammies and I didn't realize it until I got out of bed this morning...not sweet, not sweet at all!

In Over My Head!

I had a really hard time falling asleep last night! The last time I looked at the clock I think I saw 1:43...uggh! Morning has come too soon, something smells foul in the kitchen and I'm relatively sure it's not one of the kids. Quite frankly I'm blaming the large mocha bianca with too much syrup that I had yesterday for all the world's troubles.

One of the many things that was going through my mind last night was this blog. I was reconsidering my attempt at cleverness after I went to bed with my eyes bleeding and my head spinning. I think I need a blog assistant. I do NOT speak tech and what in the world is a blogger template? This fancy blue design going on now is making me dizzy! This is supposed to be an outlet for wit and humor and happy things not a nausea inducing yawn fest. No wait, don't yawn yet!

Let me introduce you to Finley. He's three and his most defining characteristic is his extremely expressive face. Seriously! This morning as I was putting him on the bus he said, "Oh look there are humans on that bus!". I love him!

My sweet, snotty baby girl is beckoning me...she wants a cup of warm milk and a quick cuddle. I have lots of "mom" type stuff to do anyway, because you see, I haven't even checked in with facebook this morning!

Let's start with Jackson...

He's eight, pretty much amazing and well, he made up the word squirpy. I have no idea where he came up with it or what he meant when he said it but squirpy defines this crew and we've adopted it! : ) I have thought long and hard about whether or not to blog. Am I cool enough? Will I have enough to say (lol)? Will my children continue to feed me fabulous bits to blog about? I'm really relying on them to make this interesting! And I'm dragging you along for the fun (You are out there aren't you?)!!!