I Had To Take Pictures!

You see, my sweet Cade just does not care if he gets messy while he eats (or plays for that matter)! And you must know that when Corbin was little (and to this very day) he did not like to get messy at all! So this has been something I've had to get used to over time. Fortunately God has kinda eased me in slowly when it comes to this area of raising boys because Corbin is my cleanest, Callen is quite a bit messier than Corbin but at least he gives effort towards staying clean sometimes, Cade is so much messier than Callen and really hardly ever puts effort towards not making a mess...I could only hope and pray that Cohen doesn't continue the progression here.

So, now for the story of these two pics below. Cade wanted some chocolate pudding one day so I just went ahead and took his clothes off so that he would not get them too messy. Good thing. Boy, I did a few dishes while he sat at the kitchen table and "ate" his pudding...few minutes later he is standing next to me and looks like this saying "Mommy, I sticky!". I turned around and all that I could even think of was "I have got to take a picture of this!"

Falling apart at age 30?

Not really, but it kinda feels that way some days. I am forever grateful that God has given me 30 incredibly healthy years! I cannot say that enough. Since Cohen was born though, things have been going kinda south a bit. Not too bad though. I don't post to complain, just to inform, if that's ok.

So just about 7 weeks after Cohen was born I started to have problems with my left hip. At first it was just sore and I thought that I must be sleeping on it wrong. But it continued to get more painful, to the point that I was limping and having a hard time walking around and carrying the boys. So I went to a specialist that my doctor referred me to and she did x-rays and an MRI. The x-rays were inconclusive and the MRI came back abnormal, showing that I had Bursitis as well as some type of benign tissue on the back of my hip bone. For some reason, without treatment, the pain began to go away and has been back to just a soreness ever since. Then I had some pain in two of the knuckles in my right hand, which has also gone away now. Following that I had some pain for a few days in my right shoulder, also gone. Then my wrist began to hurt about two weeks ago. Within two days it was very painful, so I called my doctor and scheduled another appointment. She said I have tendonitis and wanted to get some bloodwork done to see if I have arthritis. She is confused because she says it is rare that someone my age has pain in this many areas this close together without there being something that is a root cause, kinda tying them altogether. Well, I got the bloodwork back today and it is normal! :-) I'm excited about that, but she is confused still so she referred me to an orthopedic doctor whom I will go see next Thursday. Well, to top it all off, I noticed this morning that my left shoulder was hurting but once again, I figured I just slept on it wrong. Wrong again, it has hurt all day any time I lift anything or just lift my arm very high up!? So who knows what it going on, I'd just like to know. Not really worried or stressed by it, just curious and would like to know if there's something I can do to help the pain so that I can function better with all my sweet boys! Sarah was so gracious to lend me a very nice brace for my wrist which has been helping SOOOOO much! Thanks friend!!! I'll update everyone when I find out more.

Lastly, I just need your prayers as to whether I should go to a doctor for my heart as well. Every once in a while (maybe a couple times a month), I notice it speed up really quickly and then come to almost a screeching halt for a couple seconds and then it goes back to normal again. I've always noticed this over the years, it just seems like it is doing it more often now. I think Chris really wants me to go get it checked out so I'm sure I will, just not sure what doctor to go to and would love to get through this bone/joint stuff first.

I feel like these are such minor things compared to many people but I really would appreciate your prayers if you get a chance! Thanks to all who ask daily/weekly how I'm doing! Romans 8:28, 38 & 39...some of my favorite verses!

Goals for a New Year...

So, every year we all think of things we would like to work on, change, get better at, master, get rid of, stop doing, etc., right!? Well, here are some things that I've thought of over the last month that I'd like to try and work on/do over/throughout the year 2009. You can keep me accountable! :-)

1) walk one mile at least 5 times a week (pulling the boys in the wagon behind me of course!)
2) cook home cooked meals at least 6 times a week (healthier ones than last year as well)
3) sweep my floor every night so it doesn't look like a bomb went off every morning!
4) never yell at my boys!
5) do at least one load of laundry a day.
6) memorize a verse of scripture a week.
7) go on one date a week with my husband.
8) pay for everything in cash, updating our budget weekly
9) spend quality, individual time with each of the boys daily
10) home school Cobin in Kindergaten this Fall






oh wait a minute...just kidding! If I did all these things (and the list could go on!!!), I would be super mom...AND I"M NOT!!! :-) Let's try this again...now for the real list.

1) Chris and I are doing a Dave Ramsey budget, getting out of debt as fast as we can!
2) Chris and I are going to have a date night once a month, kid free, no matter what!(one month down already!)
3) make more memories with my family and worry about the cleaning less (it will always be there but they won't stay kids forever!), in my husbands words..."I'm gonna walk through this year instead of sprint!"
4) Spend more time in the Word than last year.
5) Pour into others more than into myself!!!

Hopefully those things are more realistic. I pray God will give me the grace I need to give others, the strength I need to make it through each day, and a humble, loving spirit before all I come in contact with this year!

Sorry to keep you...

on the edge of your seat for sooooo long! (like this has been all you have been thinking about, right!) :-) So here you go, actually, I think only one person actually got the answer correct. As for the rest of you, some good reasoning going on and funny thoughts thrown out there, but, gotcha! :-)

So, as for A...there's our lie! And thank goodness!!! If Cohen had started walking at 8 1/2 months I would still be crying from loosing my baby so early. You all know how much I love babies and being that he is my last one (tubes are tied now for those of you who may not know), it's even harder this time to watch him grow up so fast. I do predict though that he will be our earliest walker out of the 4 boys, although that won't be too hard for him to accomplish since the earliest one so far was Corbin and he didn't walk until he was 13 1/2 months old. Crazy huh!

Of course that means that B & C are true. For many of you I'm sure C is not that hard to believe 'cause if you know our boys you know that they are very strong, extremely coordinated, and quite the little dare devils...well, Callen has NO fear at all so once he tries something and accomplishes it, Corbin is right behind him. All I know is that we were at the park and I look up just in time to see them start climbing up a 7 foot chain link fence. I tried to tell them to get down but by the time I had finished my sentence they were already up and over the thing and coming back down. Looked to me like they had done it 100 times before, they made it look so easy. Who would've thought?!

B, however, was the one several of you were thinking would never happen as long as I'm the mama. Well, believe it or not, I'm the one that made them come over and pet the wolf once I found out what it actually was because I figured that might be our only chance in our lifetime to do that...not everyday you run into a wolf at the park! :-) So to make a long story short...we were at a park in Keller and the boys were playing in a big sand box with 3 other little boys (all brothers as well). Their dad was the one who had brought them and he had this enormous dog with him. It was really just breathtakingly beautiful! And just as tame as I've ever seen a do before! Of course everyone was stopping to talk to him and pet the dog so I kinda waited 'till everyone was gone and then asked how much he weighted. 140lbs. to be exact. And if I was looking at him right, the top of his head stood at about 42+ inches tall. Like I said, this was a big dog. Well, at one point the dog finally looked at me right in the eyes and it just struck me...that dog looks just like a wolf. So as quietly (so as not to draw attention), respectfully and politely as I could I told him that he looked just like a wolf. The guy smiled and quietly said back..."he is". Just as much as I couldn't believe it I knew in my gut he was telling the truth. I've not seen one in person before but I've seen enough of them on tv to know what their faces look like. He said that his dad was a wolf that stood about 8" taller than he, and his mother was a wolf with a bit of malimute in her. BEAUTIFUL!!! And a full blown domesticated pet. Legal too, didn't know that. So I did what any mother would've done (well, maybe not) and called the boys over and said "you guys have to come pet this dog because you know what...it's a wolf!" Their eyes all got big and they were very excited to get to stand there and pet the dog/wolf...which was bigger than the 3 of them put together.

So there you have it...our two truths and a lie.

The hardest day of my life!

That's what last Thursday was for me...I'm pretty sure for Chris as well! I'll start from the beginning but try to not get too crazy long on everyone, I know I can tend to do that. Corbin doesn't have the best mouthful of teeth, we found that out a few months ago. Over Thanksgiving, one of his molars broke off and started to expose the nerve. I spent a good portion of my morning that day (Thanksgiving Day) on the phone with an incredibly kind, caring and wise dentist, only to find out later the next week that he was located over an hour away from us. So the hunt was on for a new dentist, and that was not easy. After being turned down by numerous dentist for numerous reasons, we finally found Dr. Kron. She is wonderful!!! And she's smart...not so much social (although she is wonderful with the kids), but that is a great things when it comes to doctors and dentist right! :-) So I felt like I could really trust her to do the best thing for Corbin. Well, 3 days before Christmas another molar on the other side of his mouth broke off as well. Things were getting kinda crazy now!

We scheduled surgery for January 15 and I prayed that it wouldn't be too painful up until then. God was so gracious to him because he really did not have any pain. He was very nervous though and it took a lot of encouraging daily to help him not really worry about it. The surgery was early so fortunately he didn't have to be up too long thinking about it that day. When we got there he was already crying and shaking because of his nerves. It just broke my heart because he truly was not throwing a fit, he was just scared to death about it. I just kept praying for him out loud with him and silently in my heart the whole time they were checking us in. We finally got into a room and got him all dressed in his hospital gown and they took us to the holding room. There the anesthesiologist came in and told us how it all was going to happen. He made the mistake of telling us in front of Corbin that he was not going to be asleep when they took him into the surgery room. At that point when he left, my sweet Corbin just lost it. It was the most heartbreaking, soft sob I've ever heard in my life. He was literally begging me to stay with him during the surgery, asking why I couldn't be there the whole time. A fit would've been easier to handle at that point because with this, he was just tearing my heart into pieces. Needless to say I lost it and just sat there and held him and cried while he cried in my arms. He didn't know that I was crying, but that was truly the hardest moment of my life to not be able to do for my child what my heart was aching to do. Chris was strong at this point but when they came to take him away...he lost it. Now I can count the times on one hand that I've seen him break down like that and it is heartbreaking as well! It was the first time I have felt completely out of control with one of my children! I understand that our kids are always in God's hands and we really don't ever have control of them, but to some degree there is a false feeling of control that is there when they are with you. When you see them wheeled away from you though to be put to sleep for surgery, all false feeling of control gone as you knew it!!! It was a lesson I'm sure I needed to learn in handing my children over daily to God in everything they do. It also gave me an all knew deepened sympathy for all other parents whose children are sick or have to go through surgery! I thank God for that and pray He will use that for His glory.

The surgery took right at two hours, the longest two hours of my life! When I saw Dr. Kron walking to us, it was like the whole world was in slow motion and she couldn't talk fast enough. She said he did great! Praise God!!! They were able to do all that they needed to do and we were able to go back to the holding room where he was beginning to wake up. There have only been a few times in my life where I've had that nervous walk through a hospital, wondering what to expect...after my grandfather's accident that left him a quadripelegic, after Chris' college room mate was in a car accident that left him in a choma, and now this...I didn't like any of those times. You know the feeling. When we walked into the room it was like relief just swept over my shoulders, just to be in the room with him again and see his sweet face. Sweet little angel was so pitiful looking and as precious as I've ever seen him all at the same time. He was BARELY awake but when the nurse asked him how old he was he said 5 and she asked him what his favorite color was and he promptly exclaimed red. Chris and I both just giggled and smiled. Such a smart little boy! He was so glad to see us and just wanted Mommy to hold him again, then he started to get sick. He threw up a few times at the hospital and then continued to throw up until about 10pm that night when we finally got some medicine to help him stop. Finally he was able to go to sleep and sleep all night. By the next morning he was up and telling me how good he felt and why he needed to eat and drink something soft to make his tummy feel better but not hurt his teeth. He never once complained about his mouth or had to take any pain medication. I could not have been more proud of how he did through the whole ordeal!!! Such a trooper. And he LOVES his stuffed horse that they gave him at the hospital, made by a volunteer! I pray this is the worst he has to go through with his teeth, Lord willing!
Watching cartoons with Daddy while we waited.
Trying to be as brave as he could!
He wanted Mommy to sit in the bed and hold him the WHOLE time! I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else!!!
Such a good attitude after surgery!
Daddy chillin' in the bed next to him, trying to make him smile...it worked! :-)
Trying to watch cartoons in recovery...
but he just couldn't stay awake yet.
The nurse told him to not look out his window on the way home or it might make him sick...he was a champ and kept his eyes closed (trying to sleep but he was sick off and on) the whole way home!

Two Truths and A Lie...

you figure it out! A couple of pretty amazing things have happened that I was going to post about of course. Then an idea came to mind...I thought it would be fun to see who can figure out what they are! So, leave a comment letting us know which things you think really happened and which one you think didn't...I'll post in a few days and tell you the answer and stories as well. By the way, if I've already spilled the beans to you, please don't post and ruin the fun for the rest! :-)

A) Cohen took his first step today (he's only 8 1/2 months old).
B) The boys and I got to pet a 140 lb. wolf at the park last week.
C) Yesterday the boys climbed over a 7 foot fence in about 1 min. flat all by themselves.

Have Fun!!! :-)

A Month In Review - Part II

Playing In Grammy's Backyard!
I could just eat him up with those precious blond curls!!! He was sitting in a tree in my moms back yard...my brother Kevin always puts them up there and they LOVE it!Callen with his cousin Isaac...they are just a couple months apart in age and LOVE playing together!
My brother Kevin showing off his monkey skills to my boys, something I'm so glad he has done you can imagine! :-) Truly my boys all adore him and he is great with them...I couldn't ask for more!
Corbin and Cade sat up in that tree for about 10 minutes while I finished feeding Cohen so I could come and see them up there!

A Moment To Cherish!!!
Corbin still loves to hold his baby brother...he actually asked me one day if Cohen was still going to be a baby when Corbin was an adult like me (with these precious longing eyes!). I of course had to inform him that no, his brother would be growing up too, but that he would probably have a baby of his own one day. He asked how he was going to do that? I told him how he was probably going to get married one day and they would probably have a baby eventually. He then said what just melted my heart even more..."but Mommy, I don't want to get married when I get older, I want to stay with you forever!" Of course what my heart wanted to say was 'of course you can baby! You'll be mine forever!', but instead my mind knew what I had to say and I told him, "don't worry about it right now sweetheart, you may change your mind when you get older. Until then, Mommy will be your girlfriend!" Oh how I pray I never forget these moments!

Kids say the darndest things!
-So this past Sunday we were all getting dressed for church and Callen says "Hey Mom, I did my butt all by myself!" Don't you know I turned around so fast to see what in the world he was talking about (because we don't use that word in our house) just to find him holding his jeans out and pointing to the button with a huge smile on his face! Such a cutie...he has always had to get me to do that for him in the past. Of course later that day after going potty he had to show Chris as well and said the same thing and we just giggled and giggled!
-Then I was tying his shoes on Monday and he sat there just singing his little heart out "Bingle Bell, Bingle Bell, Bingle All The Way!" What's funny is it's not like he doesn't know how to say a 'j', he just for some reason thinks that's how that song goes. I think I almost ate him up right there on the spot!
-Last week after lunch one day Cade was following me around telling me he needed to go poop. Here's the amazing part of the story...I kept just saying ok baby, then go. He really started begging me "No, I need to go poop in du pahie", so I asked him if he wanted to go on his football potty in his bathroom and he said with much excitement "Yaaaa" while running in there. We got in there and as soon as he was up on that potty he started to peepee a whole bunch with a huge smile on his face!!! Oh, and I had just taken a DRY diaper off of him so he knew he needed to go and held it! I could hardly believe it. Now for the funny part of the story...after he was done I asked him if he was done and he said "No". He kept looking down and pushing and saying "it's not workin' MaMa, it's not workin'" so I would ask him again "are you done?". He kept telling me no and sure enough in a second, here came just a tiny bit more and he got the biggest smile on his face and said with great enthusiasm "it's workin', MaMa! It's workin'!" We went through that whold senario about 4 times before he actually said he was done! :-) It was all I could do not to crack up but I just smiled and told him how big of a boy he was now!

I wasn't ready for....stitches!
Of course what mother ever is, right!? Warning...if you have a weak stomach, you may not want to read this. :-) It was two weeks ago today actually, and Chris was still at church. The boys had been playing football in the living room and I had gone to put something up in my bathroom. As I came around the corner I saw Callen hit the corner or the wall (where the metal brace is)...he hit it so hard it threw him backwards on his back. He was screeming and holding his forhead and I just sprinted to him because sometimes a mom just knows "this is bad". Sure enough, whithin the few seconds it took me to get to him, carry him to the tile (assuming there would be lots of blood and hoping we could avoid getting it on the carpet) and pull his hands off of his head the blood had already run all the way to the back of his head into my hand that was holding his head. At that point I knew this was going to be an ER night. So we got the blood to slow down and I calmed them all down as well as I could and called Chris to meet us at Baylor Grapevine so I wouldn't have all four of them by myself. Callen was a champion at the ER. He started off by saying to the nurses that he liked the hospital and it was fun there...I knew that would only last for so long but wasn't exactly sure just how long. Well, turns out...longer than I thought. Chris took the other 3 boys out when it came time to do the stitches and I stayed with Callen because I had promised him when it happened that I would hold him the whole time. The nurse came in with a thick, long, white blanket and wrapped him up like a burrito and layed him down on the bed and pretty much layed over him and held his head still. They asked me to hold his legs...great! I knew what was coming and was dreading the whole thing!!!! The doctor covered his face and began to give him shots directly in the wound (and this is where Mommy almost passed out because of flashbacks from when she had shots in her face after shattering a whindshield with her face as a junior in highschool...I could remember the pain all too well!). The crazy thing is...Callen didn't even move or whimper! It was UNBELIEVABLE!!! He did about 4 shots (as the nurse was telling me to lay down, she knew I wasn't taking that well) and then he and the nurse both turned around and looked at me and said "that was amazing! The hard part is over!" So they thought...about 15 seconds later he lost it, and I mean lost it...screaming at the top of his lungs for us to let him out, that's right, pain wasn't what was scaring/bothering him, it was the fact that he was wrapped up and had two people on top of him. Once the doctor had the stitches done and we let him out though he was totally fine again and got to have a popsicle! And he never messed with them and was even better when we went to get them taken out 7 days later! I just pray that we don't make this a habbit, but I'm sure with 4 boys I've only scratched the surface...with only 4 times to the ER with them so far. Praise the Lord it wasn't worse!Sitting in the ER waiting to get his stitches, he wanted Mommy to hold him the whole time!It was quite late when we got home so he was out. I let him sleep in my bed that night to make sure he was ok...he was very excited about that!Sorry this pic is up side down? This is him showing off his stitches, and believe me, he had to show everyone!A close up of the wound...it left a pretty good scar too...he'll be able to show that thing off for years to come! Boys love that kind of thing I hear! :-)



Eating us out of house and home!
Well, as many of you may know, I've teased over and over that all 4 of my boys are "eating me out of house and home" while they are in that nursing stage (which, funny fact for the day...I have now been pregnant or nursing for 6 years straight this month!!! Yep, you read that right, not even a days break in there, that's even amazing to me!). Well, it's not getting any better as they get older and believe me, it won't until they all move out (but let's not talk about that now 'cause I'm LOVING haveing them be little for now!)! These boys can E-A-T!!! Boy can we go through the food...already...and they are not even teenagers going through growth spurts and playing sports yet. Yikes!!! We may need to invest in a grocery store or at least a mild cow! :-) Here's a small list of some of the amounts of food we go through on a regular basis already:
5 gallons of milk (or more) a week
3 loafs of bread a week
1 lb of strawberrys in one meal
1 whole cantelope in one meal
1 box of waffles in one meal
64+ oz of juice in a day
(and they are still 5 and under, one only eating baby food still!) Donations accepted...Just kidding! :-)Yes, he's got his mouth full, something he shows me ALL the time!
Callen is my little dramatic eater...must make a show of it somehow! All of us giggling at him doesn't help! :-)This little guy just spits his food at me...
and then laughs at me when I react (of course he thinks he is just blowing bubbles, doesn't quite get that when there's food in his mouth those bubbles are loaded!


Am I running a circus?
So sometimes truly this is what it feels like. It just almost seems like every time I turn around one of them is doing something else silly, crazy and/or daring. We do have a lot of fun though...never a dull moment around here! :-) Here are a few pics to give you a taste of what I turn around and see on a daily basis, I truly LOVE these boys!Callen with both of his legs through one leg in his shorts...he told me he had a skirt on...once again, he will love me for taking a pick of this!
Callen put the Darth Vador helmet on Cohen one night...that sweet child really is going to be tough as nails!Poor thing, climbed up on top of the pile of clean laundry and fell asleep 'cause there was no room for him on the other couch with Corbin and Callen.Cade LOVES to play with Mommy's shoes, this is one concoction of an outfit he came up with one day! He's gonna love me for always taking pics of these moments! :-)Cohen, covered in cherios that his brothers had spilled on the floor...he had crawled all over them while trying to eat them and they stuck to him!Cade, in a pirate outfit with a monkey hat, playing my moms piano and singing at the top of his lungs!