Too Pretty!!!

In September when we went to Disneyland, we decided to get season passes since the cost was comparative. So we are try to get there once a month. Each time we go it gets a little easier to "herd" the children. However, Super Bowl Sunday is not the day to go. I could not believe how many people were there. One guy even got frustrated with his children and the long lines and in his loudest most irriated voice said," Doesn't anybody like the Super Bowl anymore?" I just laughed out loud, because it was exactly what I was thinking. :>

Well this trip the kids got to meet the mean witch from Snow White. She seemed a little overwhelmed at first as the kids kept coming. She was counting and then wanted to know if they were all mine. She giggled and said I had my own group of dwarfs! She also started picking out "grumpy" and "happy". ( I won't tell you who was who, I will keep you wondering.... plus it changes through the day!)

After pictures as we were walking away my fabulous group of dwarfs told me that pretty lady was "too pretty" to be a witch. She would never be mean!!! Hmmmmm, what does that say about me?!!! They tell me I am mean all the time. HAHAHAHAHA. Gotta love kids!!

As a side note.... I disagree, she looks pretty mean!!! Have a great weekend!!!

Head Wounds!!!

Naturally, nothing in our life can be boring or quiet. Jay had once again gone out of town last week. So, of course, my kids decided that I needed some good stories to tell. They also thought I had NOT spent enough time at doctors offices. Monday, Jayson was playing in the backyard with Cassie and decided to stop the swing with his head. (Not a move I would recommend.)

Bless his pointed little head, or perhaps I should say swollen little head!!! He walked in calmly, and merely said that his head hurt. I was working on homework with two of the others and getting dinner started. It took me a minute to look at him to see why his head hurt.

No need to wonder! :> I called the doctor's office to see if I HAD to bring him in or if I could just watch him. They wanted to see us but since he never lost consciousness they said I could just ice it and give him Tylenol. Whew, off the hook for that one.

Now it is Tuesday! I needed to run to Sam's club to stock up on groceries and run some errands. I drop the kids off at school and run home to do a couple of things around the house before heading out on errands. I decide since I have no kids with me and plenty of time I get the luxury of leaving the bus home (aka: the van) and take the truck. Oh how I love driving something other than the van.

I even found myself loitering down the aisles as I shopped.(NOT a good idea ,but at the time it sure was fun.) When I got to the checkout the girl was flabbergasted and amazed that I was able to fit everything into one cart. She could not do it again so I had to drag two carts out to the truck and unload. (One thing I do not like about going to the warehouse stores is that it is so much work. You load the cart, unload the cart, load the van, unload the van, drag it all into the house , (without the luxury of bags so it takes a lot of trips), and then you still have to put it all away.)

Anyway, I no sooner get into the truck and head for home when I get a call from the school nurse. Tanner is in the office bleeding very badly from his head. He was injured during PE and they are not sure if he needs stitches or not. Okay, I am 15 minutes from home and then 15 minutes from the school. I realize that I am going to have to go home to get the van in case I have to take him to the doctor because I will not have time to get to the doctor and back to get the rest of the kids.

I race home, quickly unload anything that has to be shoved into the fridge or freezer and run to the school. When I get there the bleeding is mostly stopped and my son is sitting ever so still with an ice pack to his head. I ask what has happened and I hear that the kids in his class were playing softball for PE. Tanner and a nice young lady both tried to catch the ball at the same time......... unfortunately they hit each other and that is when her teeth went in his head. Wow, those are some strong teeth. Nobody is really sure how deep the wound it they just wanted to stop the bleeding. (Not sure that the school nurse is really a nurse at all. ) I take him into the bathroom and start cleaning. Her teeth went completely into the top of his head. The cut is very deep and I realize there is no way around this one I am going to have to go to urgent care. Lucky for him he is current on his immunizations so at least he won't have to get a shot.

Well that means checking all the kids out of school and leaving. So we did, and off we went. I was very lucky that I have an uncle in town that could help out. Now granted, he is 75 but he and my aunt are awesome about helping when I get into a bind. Tanner and I head to urgent care to find out that human bites and cat bites are the 2 worse possible bites and they will not stitch them up regardless of how deep they are. So they cleaned it, steri striped it, put him on antibotics and sent us on our way to follow up with our doc on Friday.

We finally get the kids from my uncle, run through three different drive throughs to get dinner, and off to Walgreen's for the prescriptions. It is really sad when you pull up and the pharmicist smiles and tells you how they missed not seeing you yesterday. Yes, indeed between me being sick, the kids being sick, and the various accidents I had been to the pharmacy everyday for almost two weeks. :> Record!!! Anyway, you can see that neither one of the wounds really slowed us much. I can only wish for that.

His cut did get a little infected over the weekend so I had to clean it out and pluck some hairs but he is no worse for the wear. He has a great story to tell, and chicks dig scars!!!

Pesky Mole!

Ever since Hunter was born he has had a mole on his right shoulder. Never really thought too much about it until recently. It started to grow and looked a little off. With so many scary things that could be wrong we decided to nip it in the bud and have it checked out. We have a fabulous doctor and she also thought it looked a little worrisome. She decided to biopsy it.

Hunter is so brave. They numbed the area and took a paper hole punch like thing and took out the middle of it. And sent it off to the lab. The test came back completely normal!! So no more worries and she will continue to watch it and monitor it. But for now we do not have to remove it.

And there is my cheesy little brave man!! Way to go Hunter!

Braces Times Two!!

Back in Sept. we started with Orthodontics. (I thought diapers were expensive.:>) We are very lucky because we had an ortho in Tucson that was not very proactive. However, when we moved back to CA we were lucky to get a fabulous one. On our 1st visit as the doctor was explaining what needed to happen over the next two years, Tanner started to get very nervous. He could not sit still and his gorgeous brown eyes filled with tears. Immediately the doctor turned 100% of his attention to Tanner. He got down on his level and explained that he had two daughters and he would never do to Tanner anything that he would not do to his girls. He told him that he would move one step at a time, explaining everything as he went. He told him he would never lie to him about whether it would hurt or not. It was the sweetest thing I have ever seen. Tanner calmed right down and was ready to get started.

Little did he realize what lay ahead. He had to start with an appliance in the roof of his mouth to widen his jaw. Poor little guy could not talk and got horrible sores in his mouth for about a week. Then for many weeks we cranked that thing three times a week. Finally in December we were done cranking and he moved to top braces. The improvement in his smile is amazing. My little Tanner that would come home in tears and not smile because kids were making fun of his crooked teeth....... is now smiling big again and showing off the cool braces.

How could anyone make fun of this little man and those killer brown eyes?!?!?! Kids are so mean. SMILE my son and walk tall!!!

The Ickies have arrived!

Poor Hunter. He is feeling a bit icky tonight. I love this picture....... First of all it is going to make for great bribery as he gets older, but secondly because there are times when he cannot breathe that he will actually have Kleenex stuck in both nostrils. (Let me remind you this is the same little boy that stuck about six peas up his nose as a toddler. I remember finding them while I changed his diaper and would pull one out with the tweezers and another one would pop down. I would think are you kidding me how many could he possibly fit up there. LOL Great times.) Hopefully, he will rest well and feel better in the morning. Good night sweet pea, feel better soon!!

Semester Awards!!

Congratulations to my little Bryan!!! It is amazing to think that almost six and a half years ago this little guy was in the Neonatal Intensive Care unit with bacterial meningitis. We thought we were going to lose him.He went from just hanging out in his isolette and growing to being gravely ill in less than 24 hours. It was a very scary time. But he is a fighter and fought hard to heal. He does have a left ear hearing loss and wears a hearing aide, however, he does not allow that to slow him down. As a matter of fact, if you did not see his blue hearing aide you would not even notice that he watches and reads your lips.

Friday was the kindergarten awards ceremony and he was being honored. Each teacher was allowed to pick five of their students and honor them. Bryan was one being honored. Right before Christmas he brought home his report card and has mastered everything that he needs to master. He is a great student and loves to learn and please people. He is really shining this year in school and I could not be more proud. Way to go Bryan!!

I also have to mention that my heart broke that day............ as I sat back and observed the other three in kindergarten watch while Bryan got his award. They were so sad that they did not get anything. They are so used to always being together and getting the same things that you could just see the disappointment on their cute little faces.

Cassie just looked at me with her sad blue eyes and wanted to know what she did wrong. Jayson decided he was going to quit everything if he could not get his "reward". And Nathan, well he was happy for Bryan but still just cried that he was not good enough. Too cute. I have to say that their teachers were very empathetic and kind. It was a good teaching opportunity to talk about how we are all different and we will "shine" in our own areas. We are going to have our own award ceremony to focus on what they are all good at. This also reminded me how happy I am that I have the chance to separate them into their different classes so that they can learn at their own pace while not being directly compared to one another. It is so hard to always be lumped together and not seen as a separate entity. I am so proud of them all to include their older brothers. I also had a chance to have them in the same grade in school but opted to keep Hunter back a year. I wanted Tanner and Hunter to be able to shine on their own and not feel like they were competing in school as well. I am very blessed to have such a great group of kids each with their own strengths and interests. Sleep well my friends!!

Rain, rain, go away!!!!

AND COME AGAIN ANOTHER DAY, OR ANOTHER WEEK!!! After a week of rain we are beginning to wonder if the sun will ever return. The kids have wanted to use umbrellas and have even been known to whine and beg to use them. Now they are whining and begging for the rain to go away! We did not even own umbrellas until a week ago. Who needs umbrellas in Arizona? Or winter coats for that matter. Well now we are the proud owners of at least five umbrealls and numerous winter coats. The kids are trying to convince me that they need boots. (if this keeps up they might be right)

If you notice in this picture the curbing that goes up to the sidewalk is GONE!!! We are also missing an entire lane of travel. And yet CA drivers don't even slow down. They still try to pass, it is amazing! And then they wonder why they are stranded in the fast water flowing down the street and the firefighters are rescuing them from the river. :>

Here is another area just down from our house that has the "flooded" sign out. Just in case you were wondering....... Reminds me of Bill Engvall..... "Here's your sign." (this is for those CA drivers that I mentioned earlier.)

This area also runs right below my housing area. Usually completely dry, it is currently a river basin.

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Finally...... this is Nathan's feet. For the record, today he did not jump in puddles to try and get wet, this is just from wading in the nearly knee deep water to get from the school to the van so we could venture home. We were all soaked. The kids came home got right in the tubs to warm up and we had hot chocolate. As I sit here and write this post I can still hear it coming down out there and I can also hear the shoes beating around in the dryer so they will be ready for another adventure tomorrow. Stay dry and rest well my friends!!!