From our family to yours....

Merry Christmas everyone!

May your day be wonderful and blessed!!!!

catching up on my blog

I have been trying to figure out how to catch up on my blog.  I have so many events that have happened and I have pictures of but yet I don't have time to blog about them all.

So, I decided to stop looking back and look forward.

I am going to try and be more consistent about blogging again.  But I make no promises as I am a mom to four monkeys that keep me very busy!

Ben and Mommy at the top of a small hill on a sunny afternoon

If you are wondering what this picture has to do with this post I will tell you.  Nothing, it's just a picture I wanted on my blog and didn't know where to put it so I put it here.  :o)

How is it possible...

that this little guy is gets cuter by the day?

that this little guy went upstairs and got "dressed"  all by himself for the first time recently?

that this little guy convinced me to let him go to stores and to the doctor in his "tozy piderman pants"?  (cozy spiderman pants for those of you that can't translate toddler talk)

I don't know how these are possible but I know they are the facts...

Yep

That's the life

 So sweet

So cozy

hhhmmm???

I may

 or may not

use this for blackmail someday...

I haven't decided....

Halloween

Oh, just wanted to let you all know....

We did celebrate Halloween this year

Our kangaroo, Captain America, Vampire Queen, and baby calf had a wonderful time getting dressed up
and trick-or-treating!

                                                                            

Even if it was a week late because of a late October snow storm that postponed halloween....

Is it

Winter

Or Fall

It's hard to tell

There are still leaves on the trees

Colorful, beautiful leaves

Well at least two months ago

                                                           In October

When I took these pictures
the leaves were still there

When I first started this blog post

It was hard to tell

The leaves are actually long gone now

But when I went to delete the post I remembered how much I liked the pictures

So, even though the post was origanally supposed to post two months ago I decided to post it now. 
Although, now, there is no question, it is winter and it is cold!

Update on Katelyn's hand

Two months ago I wrote about Katelyn hurting her hand just by picking Ben up.  If you missed it you can read all about it here....

Well this has been quite the journey and it doesn't even seem close to being over.  After being in a cast for three weeks the cast was taken off and she was put into a brace.  Oh wait, let me back up...  After being in the first cast for 10 days it started to fall apart so she had to have that one removed and put into a second one.  Then after a total of three weeks in a cast she had it removed.  It was still sore but the x-rays didn't show anything and the doctor felt like she was good to go.  He said if she was still having issues 2-3 weeks later we should give him a call.  That was a Friday.

Saturday morning came and her hand was already becoming more sore and swollen.  We gave it until Tuesday and I called to see what they thought we should do, wait longer or bring her in.  They said to bring her in. 

Her hand looked pretty bad color wise, was in a lot of pain, and very swollen.  So the doctor put her right back into a cast and ordered an MRI.  Katelyn was absolutely TERRIFIED about the MRI but, with a little help from some calming meds, did wonderful for the 50 minute test!  That was Friday night.  Monday morning we went back in and found out the results of the MRI.  She has a torn ligament, a bruised bone, soft tissue damage, and edema all around the area.  Her third cast was taken off so he could do an actual visual exam of her hand and then a fourth cast was put on for two more weeks.

Katelyn's fourth cast, teddy bears and balloons

After another two weeks in a cast, 6 weeks total in a cast and two weeks in a brace at this point, she had the cast taken off.  Her hand still doesn't look right, it is a bluish color in the area that is injured, is still swollen, and very painful.  The doctor feels like she just can't be in a cast any more, it's not good for her to be in it too long.  She is put into a different brace that day and we have orders to start OT with a hand specialist ASAP.  I will admit, I almost lost it when her cast was taken off and she was still having so much pain...  Katelyn did lose it, she just bawled in the office...  I just don't get how picking up her little brother can cause such a bad injury that is taking so long to heal.  Katelyn and I left the office that day very discouraged...

That was last Monday, so almost two weeks ago.  Her first therapy was last Wednesday and was very discouraging.  This week she had therapy on Wed and Thursday and they were definitely better.  She is working so hard and it shows.  It's hard to see how much it hurts after therapy though.  I just hope it's on the way to getting better. 

I am so thankful that I am not a working mom right now!  I don't know how I could have managed all the doctor appointments and therapies that she has needed in the last two months and will continue to need!  I am also VERY THANKFUL for health insurance!  The co-pays are adding up very quickly and are costing us a pretty penny but if we didn't have insurance it would be SOOOO much worse!  Heck, just the casts are over $160 each and she had four of those!  Say nothing about the MRI! 

So, that's where we are right now.  She will go to therapy two times a week and do exercises every day at home.  If we don't see a big improvement soon though we will be bringing her for a second opinion to a pediatric orthopedic specialist because this is crazy.  Who knew all of this could be caused just by picking up your little brother to see some fish???

Just in case you're wondering

 If you are wondering where I have been lately I want to let you know that I have been saying goodbye to our beloved home.

 The home that has memories in every corner.  Like this one of "the K line" my father-in-law drew on the floor so Katelyn would know how far to sit away from the fire.  That line was drawn back when my in laws owned the house and Katelyn was just a little toddler.

 Like this pole down in the basement that had lines, names, and dates of our children as they grew.  Sadly they were to light to take a picture of.

 And here, on the basement steps, where Chris wrote his name when he was just a little boy.  Where I had our children also write their names...

This move was so bittersweet.  Although it was what we wanted and planned for it was so very hard.  The last couple of days were extremely hard.  I literally had memories flashing before me as I looked around in the different rooms.  I could see these memories like they were just yesterday.  Memories that happened 17 1/2 years ago when I first walked up the steps of the house, scared of the big dog (Pheffer), with butterflies in my stomach.  Memories of many meals enjoyed with my in-laws who I have loved since the beginning.  The memory of the night we told my in-laws that I was pregnant with Katelyn, then Connor, and Maggie.  Memories of me overflowing the toilet so early in our relationship and having to get Adam from upstairs to help!  (That one is funny now but at the time it was anything but funny!) 

Oh, I have so many memories...I fear that they will be gone, or at least a lot harder to see, now that we have moved.

I cried buckets of hot tears as we drove away for the final time...

But, then we moved into our new home.  Our home with a couple more rooms.  More space for our "big" family.  And right away we began making new memories.

So, just in case you have been wondering, that's where I have been...

Moving and making more memories...

That's how we roll

This is how we roll

 Just another day

In our house we step outside the box

We tend to make our own rules

If painting in the bathtub makes us happy

 Then we paint in the bathtub

Because in our house that's how we roll

Three times

Three times in three years...

Back in 2009

Then again in 2010

And now in 2011....


Katelyn has another cast! A blue one this time. This time it's not for a broken wrist and this time it's not on her left hand. It's on her right hand, which is going to make writing pretty much impossible...

How, you wonder? Last Friday she picked up Ben to look at a fish tank. No, there's no more to that story... She picked up Ben... That's it... After two doctors, a lot of x-rays, then an orthopedic specialist today we got an answer. Somehow when she picked up Ben she displaced a growth plate and injured a ligament in her thumb/hand. What a crazy fluke!

She has had a lot of pain this past week so we are really glad to finally have an answer and hopefully a solution! She will have the cast on for three weeks and hopefully it will be completely healed when the cast comes off.

This is an annual event that I hope ends this year!

We need more pictures

Last week I was printing pictures for a scrapbook I was going to make for Maggie. I was trying to include pictures of all the people close to her.



However, I quickly discovered that finding a recent picture of her and I together was quite a challenge.

Since I am usually the one behind the camera there are very few pictures of me.

So I tried to take a few of us together by holding out the camera and snapping pictures.

That worked ok but then Katelyn helped take a few. Connor came running in for one too, although he didn't smile!

So I have to try and remember on occasion to hand the camera over to some one else so there will be a few of me and the kids!

Stylish

Yep, we are stylish around here!

Our kids are setting the upcoming fads, you know, the ones that people on TV will be copying soon.

Cause we are stylish trend-setters around here!

Calves and chickens

Near the farm stand that I buy our produce from during the late summer and fall there are chickens and baby calves to visit. And even though they are near the corn field I let the kids visit.
I hate corn fields, yes hate, I know that is a strong word but it fits for me and corn fields.
Anyway, I digress....
The other day we stopped to get some vegis and decided to visit the chickens and calves. There was also a big proud rooster there, we hadn't seen him before.

These are future milking cows as this is a milk farm. They are so adorable.
Although I will quietly admit that I feel bad for them being all cooped up in these small areas. Calves are playful and fun and need space to run and play, just like my kids.

Within a minute of being there Connor spotted an egg, this was a very exciting first. Since there is a rooster now it may possibly have a baby in it but it was just laying in the middle of the ground and not being taken care of so I don't really have any idea.

Connor tried to get a chicken to come out of the corn to get the egg, haha. So cute!

Ben got close to the baby cows, for the first time (wow, there was a lot of firsts that day) and tried to give them hay.

The big kids made a nest out of hay and laid the egg right in it and told the chickens where it was so they could come take care of it.

Then we left hoping maybe a chicken would take care of the egg once it got quiet at the farm again....