A fun new hobby...

I have had NOTHING to write about lately.  It just seems that we are trying to pass the days until school starts.  However, one thing that I've found to be a fun time passer is FACEBOOK.  Seriously, I've had so much fun finding friends and family.  Both from the present and lots of people from the past.  I have been able to get in touch with childhood friends that I have not seen in many, many years.  Too fun!  If you haven't already started an account, you should.  And if you have an account, but haven't added me to your friends list, you'd better!

 

Oh a very happy note, the kids start school next week!!!  Conner starts on Tuesday and Alia and Ann-Elise start on Wedensday.  Adrie has to wait until the following Tuesday for her grand day in the sun.  That kid is so funny.  It's all she can think about and talk about.  Going to preschool on the yellow bus.  Too cute!  If only that excitement would last beyond the first couple years of school!

 

Alia has her first game for cheer next Saturday.  Her uniform came last night.  It's not quite the right size, but we're trying to fix it!

 

 

How cute!!!  She has been going around all day saying how this is the first dream that she's ever had come true.  Oh, if only it was that easy...

Get well, my sweet baby girl

Ann-Elise had her ear and tonsil surgery today.  We started by getting up before the crack of dawn.  One of the joys of NOT living in the bustle of city life is the hour plus it takes to get anywhere like the hospital!  Here she is in her "bed" in the back of the car.  Notice she's actually still smiling!

The first thing we did at the hospital was check her in.  I LOVE the children's hospital that we go to.  They are amazing.  After they got her admitted, they had her pick a stuffed animal to go through surgery with her.  She chose a little Care Bear Bee. 

We had the most wonderful nurse, Elaine.  She was so sweet and kind to both us and Ann-Elise.  We passed the time by playing cards and watching TV, getting ready for them to take her to the OR.  

After we go the ok to go to pre OP, we headed down to the basement.  We were met down there by her Doctor.  Now I LOVE her ENT!  She is so sweet.  She came over to Ann-Elise and gave her another little gift, a little stuffed bird to take with her as well.  Leise cruised through surgery with no problems.  After a quick stop in post op, we headed back up to her room.  She was zonked out!  She would wake up to take a few sips of water and would go back to sleep.

After an hour or so, we got the ok to go home.  I am so impressed with how well she is handling the pain.  She is such a little trooper!

She has been a little sad because she can't eat, but I think she's going to do just fine.  Oh, and then when we got home, her buddy Hannah, came over to visit her.  This is what she brought...

Thanks to all of you for your thoughts and prayers.  I know that things like this aren't really a big deal, but when you are the one going through it, it really is!  I appreciate your caring for my family!

Back to life. Back to reality.

Well, we are getting settled after our camping trip.  Why is it that you need a vacation to recover from your vacation?  I don't get that!  I'm still on the high that came from such an awesome time though.  I don't think I blogged about the 2nd degree burns that I acquired while we were out on the boat.  I was a good mom and sunscreened up all the kids and Mike, but neglected myself.  Oh well.  Skin cancer here I come!  It's not too painful, but the crackling skin is a bit uncomfortable.  Next time...

 

We dropped Conner off at my sister's house after camping.  They live in Bend and it wasn't too far out of our way.  He's going to hang with her and her 3 boys for a week or so.  She has some fun stories to share.  You can check out her blog here to check out the fun things going on over there.  I miss the little man, but I know that he really enjoys these visits with his cousins.  I was thinking that out of the last 5 years, he's been able to spend a week with them every summer except last year when they were moving.  He needs that time with boys!

 

I was able to have my friend Laura watch the babies yesterday while I took Alia and Ann-Elise school shopping.  We had a good time.  We were able to find some really cute outfits for them.  I also picked up a couple pair of jeans for Conner at Old Navy.  I just couldn't beat the price of 2/$25.  I just hope they fit.  I also picked up some super cute outfits for Adrie for preschool.  When we got home the girls decided to put on a "fashion show" for me.  Unfortunately, I only got 2 pictures before my camera died.  Just to let you know, "I" did not put the clothes together for the fashion show.  I wouldn't have put the black shirt with the black leggings on Adrie!  She has some super cute layered shirts that those pants were to go with!  Oh well...

 

I love this picture of Alia.  She is so beautiful.  And I know it's wrong, but I love the sun bleached hair and tan skin.  I'm sorry.  I AM from California, ya know!

Oh, I found THE funniest blog in the world last night.  I spent a couple hours reading everything on there. You can check it out here.  Enjoy!

I'm Baaaccckkkk!

We took some time out of life to go on a little family vacation.  We left last Sunday and went camping at the Cove Palisades State Park in central Oregon.  We went with our good family friends, the Allens.  It was AMAZING!  Gorgeous!  Mike grew up camping for a week every year at the Cove.  He's always wanted to take our kids but we just haven't gotten around to it, until this year.  It was so wonderful.  Other than the fact that the campsite sits on a huge hill that we had to climb up and down every time someone had to go to the bathroom, shower, play, ride bikes, dump the garbage... well you get the idea!  However, the beauty and the fun lake were WELL worth the sacrifice!  We had perfect (HOT) weather.  There is a boat ramp and a cool swim area about 1/2 mile from where we were camping.  We headed to the lake every day we were there.  We would spend the day swimming and playing and eating.  Then head back to camp for dinner.

 

On Wednesday we rented a boat for the day.  I got some fun shots of the kids tubing.  Conner tried to get up on the ski's a few times.  He almost had it, but decided that the instant gratification from the tube was a lot better!  Caile DID NOT want to boat at all!  She screamed at me and hid her head the whole time but she did pretty well the last time we went out.  I was even able to talk Adrie into going out on the tube with me.  She loved it!  So, now Mike's trying to talk himself into buying a boat.  Here we go!  Actually, it was really fun to see him in his element.  I know that boating and skiing was huge part of his childhood so it was fun to see him experience that!

    

Here are some candid pics from our vacation:

 

I did not even think it was possible to get this dirty!!!  We called Caile the Dozer the entire week.  She loved to plant herself in the dirt and then use her hands to push it all over the camp site or beach!  Adrie just tried to take baths in it!

 

  

Conner built his first fire all by himself this week.  He really enjoyed that!

 

Crazy girls!!!

 

   

Mike enjoying himself.

 

 

Oh, if you're still reading this far, Conner got a call on his birthday from the principal of St. Luke Catholic School letting him know that he had been admitted for the school year!!!  What a fun birthday present for him.  He's really excited about making new friends and spending time with his old ones from there!

OH MY GOODNESS! Conner's 10!!!

I'm not exactly sure how time seems to go by so fast, but my first baby's 10!  It seems like just this morning I was changing poopy diapers.  Oh wait.  I was.  Just on another kid...  I can't believe that the one "started it all" is a whole decade old.  He woke up to a new telescope and Demarini bat.  Right about the time we had the telescope put together, we headed to watch the news.  Yep.  He was on there.  And they actually pronounced BOTH NAMES RIGHT!!!  Amazing.  Although, "Conner" isn't too hard!  He's off playing with his buddies right now.  Soon, Mikes mom Janet will be here to spend a few days with us.  Around noon, my parents are coming out to take Conner to lunch and to Family Fun Center to play some mini golf and hit at the batting cages with his new bat.  Then we're having a low key "party".  Cake and ice cream.  That will be fun.  I'm looking forward to another low key day.

 

Alia is still LOVING cheer.  It's so fun to watch her.  She practices nonstop and is really good.  She picks up the cheers and movements very quickly and then is able to teach others in her squad.  I'm so glad that she has found something that she enjoys so much!  I have some video of her practicing, but I can't figure out how to post it yet.  That will be coming soon!

 

Happy Birthday Conner!  We love you!!!

Can You Hear Me Now?

Ears.  You gotta love 'em.  But I gotta hate 'em too!  Poor Ann-Elise has been battling issues with her ears since the poor kid was 4 months old.  She had tubes put in when she was 6 months old to no avail.  After 1 1/2 more years and at least 20 MORE ear infections, (not to mention all the visits to "expert" ENT's who couldn't/wouldn't do anything) we found an AWESOME ENT who was able to help her out.  She had another set of tubes put in as well as her adenoids removed.  All seemed well!  Oh, she's had the occasional ear infection (go take some tylenol) and lately swimmers ear.  Or so we thought.  Let me back up a bit...

 

While I was gone to girls camp at the end of June, Mike was home with the kids.  After I got home, he mentioned that Leise was having some hearing problems.  After the 4th night of her coming into our bedroom in the middle of the night in tears, my "go take some tylenol" method wasn't cutting it!  So we scheduled an appointment at the pediatricians office.  We couldn't get into our regular pedi due to the need for immediate care, so we saw another doctor at the clinic.  Diagnosis?  Swimmers ear.  No ear infection.

 

Now, I must admit that since her last set of tubes fell out about 2 years ago, we don't honestly know how many ear infections that she's had.  When the tubes are in, her ears drain the fluid out, so it makes it real easy to tell if there's something going on there.

 

Anyway, we filled a topical Rx for the swimmers ear and thought it was all fine and good.  Oh, but I told them that her hearing wasn't very good and they decided to do a little test at the office.  Well, she failed 3 of  the 5 tones that they tested her for.  So back to the amazing ENT that we had 5 years ago.

 

Yesterday was her appointment.  Bright and early in North Portland.  It's all good.  Just me and Leise, kinda nice, actually!  Anyway, we get there and the first person she's meeting with is the audiologist.  A very nice English lady.  Which I thought was kinda funny.  She's gonna try to test my daughters hearing, but "I" can't even understand what she's saying.  How is Leise supposed to?  No, it wasn't that bad, but I did find it ironic.  Anyway, they lock Leise in the funny looking glass room and put these crazy looking ear phones in her ears.  The test took about 20 minutes.  Much more thorough than the one at the pedi's office!  Test finding:  20% hearing loss in her right ear.  Great.  Here we go again!

 

Next we visit the ENT.  After reviewing the past history that we've had, she checks out the ears.  Double ear infections.  Apparently a regular pediatrician doesn't have the fancy schmancy high tech 3-D otoscope so they can only tell if the fluid has become cloudy, not if it's clear.  So, basically, we don't know how many infections that have gone undetected.  Great.  Did I mention "here we go again"?  So, options:  we can put tubes in.  Again.  Hopefully that will take care of the problem.  However, there is a chance that this WON'T take care of it.  If the ears continue to drain, then there is the chance that she has a chronic disease called Mastoiditis.  That's an infection in the bone behind the ear.  If that is the case, then we will try antibiotics for 6 weeks.  At her age, there is a 50/50 chance that it will be successful.  If that doesn't work, then they do another surgery in which they remove part of the bone behind her ear to clear out the infection.  UGH!

 

Oh, but while we were there, she checked out her tonsils.  Guess what?  They're HUGE.  The night before her visit to the doctors, Leise crawled into bed with Mike and me.  Guess what?  That kid can SNORE!  Like so much that she wakes herself up and sometimes gags a little.  Well, apparently, that's sleep apnea.  Yep, she's got that too!  So while we're putting tubes in her ears and draining and cleaning out the infections, they will ALSO be removing her tonsils.  Guess we're in for a fun couple of weeks!

So, we leave for a camping trip and then a few days after we get back she goes in for surgery.  Hopefully she'll be recovered enough to go to school when it starts.  However, I will say that she's pretty excited about being able to have ice cream for breakfast!

The Fruits of Our Labor...

Trischelle came over yesterday to bake a pie.  Well, she brought the berries, and boy did she bring a lot!  We had enough to make 2 pies and still enough left to make a berry crisp too!  We had a good time and everything turned out REALLY well!  No berry soup for us!  They were perfect.  Check out these pics...

Next time I think we'll do bread!

 

Caile had fun on her birthday.  The older 4 kids went to play with friends, so after Trischelle left, we went grocery shopping.  OH MY GOODNESS.  I forgot how ENJOYABLE grocery shopping can be when you only have 1 and they are GOOD!  After that we came home and played together.  Here she is during our "photo shoot".  Not too cooperative, but cute none the less!

Oh and on the "I'm a TOTAL loser" note:  I bailed out on my triathlon today.  We have a ton of stuff to do today and the weather isn't very good and I didn't know anyone else going and and and...  I am going to go for a run though.  That makes up for it, right?

My Baby's 2!!!

How in the world does time fly like it does?  Sometimes it feels like YEARS, when it's only been a month.  But in the whole scheme of things, time is moving so quickly!  Today is little miss Caile's 2nd birthday!  However, we cheated and gave her her gift last night.  Adrie had already seen what it was and was SO excited to tell Caile.  We had put her off for a couple days, but figured we could go ahead and give it to her last night so Mike could be there when she got it.  Although I'm not sure who had the most fun, Conner, Adrie or Caile!

Caile was so excited!  Evertime she walked into the room and saw it (hard to miss) she would let out a little scream.  Too cute!!!

 

Also this morning, I sent her picture to the local news station.  So at about 6:20 they showed her picture in their "birthday" announcements.  However, she will forever be known as "Kaylee" not "Kale".  My fault!  I insisted on the E at the end of her name so it would look more feminine.  Sorry baby!

 

Yesterday was fun.  I took the girls shopping early in the day while Conner was hanging out with his buddy.  We went to Target.  Alia had some birthday money and was itching to spend it!  Although I must say, that she did wait 1 whole week!  Anyway, she bought a super cute long layered looking shirt and some super cute PJ's.  Then we were off to Costco.  The girls (ok, Adrie) was a total monkey.  It's crazy taking her places, but we did make it through.  It was kinda fun spending some time with just the girls.  They are very sweet and I appreciate their help.

 

Today my friends daughter is coming over to bake a pie.  I had made one a couple weeks ago and she had a slice when she babysat.  Now she wants to learn how to make pies.  Uh, ok.  I can only hope that it actually works out!  I have a tendency to make one thing really well, but when I go to make it again, it doesn't work out nearly as good.  Hopefully, this won't be one of those cases.

 

Anyway,  Happy Birthday Caile.  We love you!!!