parades and pet store...

Connor had his Halloween parade yesterday afternoon at school. The kids all looked so great in their costumes! Maggie and Ben got dressed up too. Connor really liked that Nana came too!

After the parade Connor went about his day at kindergarten and Ben, Maggie and I went to explore the pet store. This is a great FREE field trip!

Ben LOVED the birds!!! He could have watched them all day.
Maggie seemed to enjoy all the compliments she got on her costume! So much fun!

An early Thanksgiving...

Last Sunday my family got together for an early Thanksgiving dinner since my Mom and Dad were in town from Arizona.
The food was so yummy! The company was great! The conversations were interesting! The kids were noisy!

Smile everyone! My mom is taking a break with her good friend after lots of cooking.

Remember Baby Emmy? She is getting so big! I think her mommy's in love!

My niece Theresa was getting some baby cousin time too.
It was a great day and I just loved spending some time with almost all of my family! I just wish life wasn't so busy so we could see each other more! I also wish I had busted out the camera a lot more, I barely got any pictures.

Maggie bringing Ben for a ride...

Come on Ben, up the hill we go....

Are you ready? Hold on tight!

Wheeeeeeee........

That was fun!
What were you worried about Mommy???

Conversation with Maggie

Maggie, as you know, has such a great personality. Remember here?

So the other day Maggie wanted to play with me. As it often happens with four kids and all, I couldn't sit and play at that moment. Here was how the conversation unfolded.

Maggie: Mommy, come play a game with me.

Me: I can't right now Mags, I need to put Ben down for a nap.

A few minutes later, Ben is napping.

Maggie: Mommy, come play with me now, the game is all set up for us.

Me: Not just yet Mags, I need to take a shower.

Maggie: No Mommy, the game's all set up already.

Me: Mag, I have to take a shower. It will be a quick one and then we can play.

Maggie: No mama, the games already set up and I don't care if you're stinky.

Me: Ok, let's play then.....

She had a game all set up just like she said and we played two times. I still had time to shower and I made my little girl very happy.

Sometimes it works out like that....

I love her!

Sweet Stellan

Remember Stellan??? I asked for prayers a while back and I have his "button" on the left hand side of the page.
He is doing very well lately! I just looked at MckMama's blog and fell in love with this picture of sweet Stellan!

Had to share! Look at his heart!!!

Maggie's famous!

Maggie is famous!!! She captured the eye of a newspaper photographer this past weekend when she went to the pumpkin festival with her daddy, Katelyn and Connor. Not that I'm at all surprised, this girl's got a great spirit that even people who don't know her can see!

The photographer captured the moment when Maggie was picking out the pumpkin she was going to make her masterpiece!

"Maggie Rakiey of Milford finds the perfect pumpkin to paint at the Milford Great Pumpkin Festival on Saturday."

Here are the three pumpkins that three of my monkeys painted. On the far left is Connor's, Katelyn's is in the middle, then Maggie's masterpiece is on the far right! Beautiful works of art!

Such a better day!

Yeah! Connor came home from the hospital today and I am so happy to have him back with his Mommy! He was really glad to be home too! He is still very pale but his breathing is so much better then it was. I can't even find words to say how bad it was yesterday, so scary for all of us!
What is great is that Grammy and Grampy arrived today too. They went right from the airport to the hospital to see him but the visit didn't go as well as I thought it would. They said he was just miserable, poor guy. When he got back home there were huge hugs for both Grammy and Grampy! He was much happier to see them at home for sure.
We have to watch him for a little while to make sure he doesn't have a relapse when the steroids have worn off. If he starts to have trouble again he will need to be re-admitted for more breathing treatments and steroids. We have a nebulizer here but the medicine that he needs can only be given at a hospital. Plus, the steroids are done through an IV.
Let's just all hope and pray that he doesn't relapse and that he is able to get some good sleep, tucked in his own bed!

This is Grammy showing him the deer jaw bone she and my dad found in Arizona. He was thrilled that they brought such a cool thing for him! I must admit, it is a bit yucky in my opinion but Connor thinks it's great.

Grammy made Maggie a night-gown and Maggie just loves it! She didn't want to take it off. I am guessing she will be wearing it to school one of these days! Thank goodness she has a great teacher who would embrace the "Maggie spirit" if she does wear it to school!

Ben met my dad, Grampy, for the first time today and they hit it off! I think the fact that Grampy was sharing his food with Ben helped. What a great 8 month birthday for Ben!

Katelyn was thrilled to see Grammy when she got off the bus today! She came running and jumping into Grammy's arms. Thank goodness Grammy was bracing herself!

Today was so much better then yesterday! My parents are here and my whole family is home sleeping in their own beds!

Now I am headed to my bed too!!!

Connor's sick...

Today has been a rough day. Connor went to bed last night with a low grade fever and woke up with the same low grade fever in addition to a lot of loud wheezing and rapid breathing. We went to the doctor who barely listened to him and declared that he had a virus. Really?

Me: But what about the wheezing and rapid breathing?

Doctor: I didn't hear any wheezing, he sounded clear.

Me: Listen to him, don't you hear that? (I wanted to say, "You have got to be kidding me, I don't have a stethoscope and I can hear that!")

Doctor: "Oh, (takes shirt off and listens to him and watches him breathe) yeah, he really is wheezing. Definitely has bronchitis. I'll put him on antibiotics and an inhaler."

Me: "I don't think he would be good at the inhaler, what about a nebulizer?"

Doctor: "I'll be right back."


He comes back in with the nebulizer to do a treatment. Orders one to be dropped off at our house and gives me two prescriptions.
I ask him two more times to listen to Connor's breathing. I ask questions and state my concerns again. He assures me that it is fine and he just has bronchitis. My gut said he was wrong...

We leave and although Connor is not wheezing he is still breathing very rapidly and loudly. It continues to get a lot worse. On the way to pick up Maggie I can hear him really wheezing and he tells me he can't breathe. I call the doctor in a near panic state and they said to bring him right in.
As soon as the doctor saw Connor he wanted to give him another treatment and send him over to the hospital to be admitted. The doctor talked to me while Connor was getting the treatment and says that he thinks Connor was having a "Severe asthma attack" even though there has never been an indication of asthma before.
I came home and met Chris and he brought Connor to the hospital. I really didn't want to expose Ben to the hospital and if he needed to stay (which we were pretty sure would be the case) Ben wouldn't be allowed to stay. Since Ben is still nursing he and I are buddies.
I have only heard a little bit from Chris so far. His breathing got much worse again and they gave him another, different breathing treatment. His fever was up to 103. He had an x-ray, but no results yet.
I just want to hug him. I just want to hold him and rub his head. I need to hug and kiss him. I'm so worried. I don't like being home without him. I miss him.
When the kids were all awake I couldn't wait till they went to bed. Now the house is way to quite.
I want the phone to ring and for it to be Chris telling me that my little boy is fine.
Please pray...

UPDATE: I talked to Chris a little bit ago and they have finally admitted Connor and settled him into a room. The x-ray came back fine which is great news! They feel he has croup. They have him being pumped full of fluids and steroids via an IV. He is getting a different type of breathing treatment via the nebulizer. Once the steroids really kick in and start working their magic he will hopefully be able to stop the breathing treatments and come home. The breathing treatments that he is on are only allowed to be administered in a hospital setting. He is only on clear liquids for now but I don't think he would eat anyway.
I think that is everything for now. I am headed to bed to try and get some sleep. I am so tired but not sure how much sleep I will actually get. Boy, it's been a rough day medically, but a great day seeing what great friends and family I have!

Even though he is my fourth...

Side note: I began this post on Sunday but before I could publish it I got side tracked. With four young kids that tends to happen a lot! That's ok though, I realized today I wasn't "finished" with it anyway....

A comment that is often heard to come out of my mouth is, "Ah, he's the fourth child..." You know what I mean? If Katelyn's binky dropped it had to be scrubbed clean before she could have it back, poor Ben lives by the 5 second rule (or by the twelve hour rule). Katelyn didn't get gum until she turned 4, Maggie was 2. You get the drift, right?

The other day Mr. Ben grabbed my Twizzler and stuck it right in his mouth and loved it! The kid won't eat food but he loved this. Not that it says too much because he loves chewing on shoes too, EEEWWW!

Since he's my fourth child and all, I let him keep the Twizzler until it started to break apart. (NO! I don't let him chew on shoes, I do have some standards forcryingoutloud!) Anyway, back to the point at hand. I let him have it for a while and he was not happy at all when I took it away. (I will talk in another post, another day, about the scream that Ben has recently realized he can make and get good attention for.)

(This is where I was planning to end it the other day.)

A little bit ago I was sitting on the couch watching Ben play. The other monkeys were outside so Ben had more freedom then normal, which he loves. After a little bit he came over to me, pulled up to standing and fussed to be picked up. I scooped him up and put him on my lap and began to sing to him.

He just stared at me with the most peaceful and beautiful blue eyes. His eyes reminded me at that moment how important I am to him. He trusts me with every bit of him. Unconditional trust. Unconditional love.

It's truly amazing how much trust and love my children have for me. When I was pregnant with Connor I was so worried that I could never love another child as much as I love Katelyn. I hoped I could but yet, I wasn't sure. But, in that moment when he was placed on my chest, I knew that was something I never needed to be worried about. A parent's heart really does grow with every baby that is born. It would never run out of love for his or her child.

Back to today though. Ben was looking at me with those beautiful eyes. My eyes filled with tears over the love that I have for him and he has for me. Then he laid his head on my chest and fell fast asleep. Only an amazing love and trust could make someone do that, even a baby. I wished that I could sit in the chair forever holding him while he slept. Smelling his sweet head and hearing him breath in complete relaxation.

So, the reason I am glad this was not posted was that I didn't feel it was "finished" until now. Yes, I am definitely more relaxed with my fourth baby. I let him do things I wouldn't have let Katelyn do. I give him twizzlers. However; he is loved just like he was my first baby. I adore him just like I adore my other children. He trusts and loves me like my other children do.

Even though he is my fourth....

playdough!

Making playdough is so much fun! Remember the last time I wrote about it? Click on making playdough and you will see!
That's how we started our day. My question is.... How can I use the exact same recipe and have it come out so different? Sometimes it comes out perfect and other times I have to add so much more flour so it isn't so sticky.... I wonder...


Ben just sat and watched, although he was not thrilled with that. He wanted to get his hands on the orange playdough!

Adam's birthday...

Today is my father-in-law, Adam's birthday. He passed away almost three years ago now and we still dearly miss him. He could be a challenging man, to say the least, but he was a great man who we loved very much.
He absolutely adored his grandchildren and it saddens me a great deal that he is not here to see them growing up. He would have loved going to see them play soccer, t-ball, doing school plays and other things. I know he is watching from above but boy do I wish he was here watching.
These pictures are from his last birthday with us. He said that he would only open gifts from the kids. So the kids picked out the gifts and cake.
But, Adam surprised us with gifts, on HIS birthday. He bought me a set of Kenny Roger's CDs that I haven't even opened. I love Kenny Rogers and should be enjoying them but I am worried that if I open them they will get ruined and that would be just awful.
You know what? Adam was the hardest person ever to buy a gift for, yet, he could pick out the most thoughtful and best gifts for people he loved. Like the CDs and the Avatar hat that Katelyn has on in this picture. He gave Connor a rubber snake that he carried around for a long time after, and still has. I can't seem to remember what he bought for everyone else that day but I am sure it was very special.

Katelyn took this picture of him and it is one of my most favorite pictures of Adam!

Happy Birthday Adam. We miss you.... You never liked cake but maybe you could have a bowl of cherry vanilla ice cream today!

Cloudy with a chance of meatballs...

This weekend was a half full weekend.. Saturday was very rainy soccer for both Katelyn and Connor. They both had a great game! I didn't actually go but Chris and the kids told me so...
Then on Saturday after the game we headed to the movies. The first place we went was crazy busy and the kids would not have been able to see so we left to go to another theatre. Since the movie was later then we planned we went out for pizza first, yummy!
So, we went to see Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. It was a pretty good movie. The kids really liked it but I was a bit disappointed since I love the book. Ben, on the other hand, didn't really enjoy it too much. I was hoping he would take a nap but no such luck. Not to mention, but I will, he did a huge poop and had to be changed. I didn't want to miss the movie, and since we were in the back row, I decided to change him on the seat. OK, from experience I can tell you this is not a good idea. But, if you decide not to take my advice, make sure you hold the seat at all times so the baby doesn't get folded up in the seat. You know, not that it happened twice to me, but I think it could happen and thought I'd warn you. Chris ended up taking Ben out so he wouldn't disturb the rest of the people watching the movie and the other three kids and I laughed lots and enjoyed the rest of the movie. My only regret is that I didn't have my camera!
Sunday was a relaxing day of Church and family along with enjoying the beautiful weather!
Hope you all had a great weekend!!!