He did it!!! Connor is a very cautious little boy. He really doesn't try something unless he knows he can do it. This is very true for the swing in our front yard. Well today he decided to give it a try. I was upstairs in my bedroom putting shades in my bedroom window and saw him do it for the first time. I was so proud! He was so proud! As soon as Chris, Katelyn, and Maggie got home he ran outside to show them. My big boy is growing up!

Check out my artist... The nurse told her that she could draw on her sling so today she went to work on a masterpiece. Here is what is amazing though.... She drew this upside down while the sling was still on her arm! I was impressed. Not sure if you can tell what it is so I will explain. It is Maggie, Katelyn and Connor in the future with their babies. Maggie is holding hers... Katelyn is holding hers... But Connor is standing next to his wife who is holding their baby. Too cute, atleast I thought so. Connor on the other hand didn't really think it was all that cute...
Today I brought Connor and Ben to a birthday party so Chris had a Daddy/Daughter day with the girls. He took them to see the horses at Anheuser Busch along with some other adventures. This is Maggie explaining how big the clydesdale horses were. So funny!

AAAAHHHHH Summer!!!!

Popsicles....

Friends....

Chatting...

Picnic Lunches...

Kid watching...

Hanging out...

Zip Line....

Tree Climbing...

What wonderful times!!!

A broken wrist...

Well, with four kids it's bound to happen right?!?!? To be honest though I am a bit surprised about who had it happen first. I really thought that my Maggie would be the one we would have to cart off to the ER with a broken bone for the first time. Guess what.... I was wrong!


The kids were playing outside today and Katelyn came in crying that she jumped off the swing and her wrist really hurts. "I think I broke it but I don't want to go to the hospital.... :(", was what she kept saying. I put ice on it right away and called the doctor. They said to go to the ER if we thought she needed to be seen since it was after 4 on a Friday afternoon. I waited a few minutes to see if she would calm down. You see, she can be a bit of a drama queen sometimes. After a few minutes I really felt like it was definitely hurt so I called Chris at work. He came home and picked her up to take to the ER. After just an hour and a half (not bad for an ER) they had the results... It's a buckled fracture in her left wrist... No more T-Ball. No swim lessons. No monkey bars. No zip line. For about 4-6 wks at least.
She is in a splint with a sling right now. On Monday we will get into the ortho doctor for a real cast, she is hoping it will be an orange cast.
The good thing is that it doesn't hurt now that it is immobilized. She came home from the ER with big smiles, thinking she is cool and loving the attention!




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Totally unrelated... Here is the one I thought would be the first to break a bone... She had a fudge pop this afternoon and I am not sure she got any in her mouth! You can't see it but it was all down her chest and stomach too, thank goodness she didn't have a shirt on! This girl is by far my messiest kid yet!

She is super loving and sweet though, (well most of the time but I will share that in another post) and was very worried about Katelyn. She was bawling when Chris drove off to bring Katelyn to the ER and was very relieved when they got back home!

Oh, and I took Ben to the doctor today because he has been super congested the past few days. Last night I thought he was doing some wheezing too, although I have a hard time differentiating between wheezing and congestion. Good news... He sounds great and his ears looked wonderful!

Connor picked Sponge Bob Square Pants ice cream off the ice cream truck. Thought I would share something about him so you would know he was around today too!!!

Children's hands...

I have an obsession with my children's hands.... (I also have an obsession about sleeping only on very light colored sheets but that is for another day:) I digress.... When a baby is born every part of that baby is just amazing and beautiful. I spend hours looking at every part of their being. Teeny toes, tiny fingers, chubby hands, button nose, precious lips..... OK, I could go on and on but I think you get the point.

I spend the most time looking at their little chubby hands and wondering what those hands are going to do in life. What are they going to touch? What are they going to hold?




This is Katelyn's adorable little baby hand. It is no long tiny and chubby. It is already doing some amazing things like writing, playing t-ball, and being a fantastic big sister to her two brothers and her sister! I am very happy that she still lets me hold this hand!!!

Here is Connor's hand.... It is such a loving hand. Once in a while he slips it into my hand and I wonder to myself about how it has grown. These hands are so very gentle with all living creatures (as my Tid-Bit's about Connor post talked about).
Here is Maggie's little 3week old baby hand. So tiny and curled up. Maggie's hands still resemble the chubby baby hand but are changing quickly. One minute she holds and loves her dolls with these hands and the next minute she is digging in the mud looking for worms with them.

Then we have Ben's hands.... They are so tiny and precious. So chubby and dimpled. When I am nursing him they grab my finger constantly until he starts to doze and then they sit soft and still. He has just started getting more control over them but it still takes a lot of focus and effort to make them do what he wants. He is starting to bat at toys and grab his "O-ball". They really have just begun their journey....

Really when I think about it, all of my monkey's hands have just begun their journey... While they still let me I am going to stare at these hands and hold on tight to them... Maybe if I do my job as a mom these hands will do amazing things someday!

Tid-bits about Connor....

Happy Birthday to you.....

Today my second born monkey is 5!!! I can't even believe it!!! So I figured today would be a perfect time to fill you in on "Tid-bits about Connor".
Connor is a creature lover right down to his soul! He loves creatures of all sizes. Animals, bugs, lizards, frogs, inch worms, caterpillars.... OK, I think you get the picture!

This is "black kitty". He is a cat that lives down the road and visits any time we are playing outside. He seems to really love us and the kids absolutely adore him. Sometimes I think he is a glutton for punishment considering he keeps coming back to the "loving" hands of my children.


This is some kind of green caterpillar that Connor recently found. He loves finding them and letting them climb all over him. A lot of the time he keeps them in a bug catcher for a while and feeds them leaves. This is one of the "lucky" ones, in my opinion, cause he was let go.

Farm animals are a huge favorite of Connors! Here he is milking a goat at a family fun farm day that we went to last year....

This picture is also from last fall when Connor was playing with the frog that was living in our AC unit. He was a really cool looking frog! I think he was some kind of tree climber because his paws were like little suction cups and he could climb up anything. If I had to guess I would say that frogs are Connor's favorite creature.

Here is Connor at his school on his first day. He loves his school! He loves that it is on a farm and there are lots of animals around all the time. Goats, chickens, cats, a bunny, cows, a donkey, fish, and lots of bugs.... Connor's idea of heaven on earth!

This is Connor on the beach last summer. In the boat and the bucket are hermit crabs that he collected that morning. He had a blast making castles for them and taking care of them all day. After we got home from the beach we even went out and bought hermit crabs to have as pets!

Connor is such a wonderful little boy with such a compassion for all creatures big and small. I just love him dearly and am sooooo happy to be his mom!

Could he be any cuter?

Seriously, could he be any cuter????

Time is going by so fast....

Yesterday morning while I was still laying in bed one of the children came into my room. By looking out of the corner of my eye I could tell it was Connor because of how tall he was. Imagine my surprise when I turned to see Maggie. When did she get so tall? When did her jammie pants start looking more like capris? Did this possibly happen just the night before as she slept or has it been slowly happening and I didn't notice?

It seems like just a few weeks ago that we took these pictures of her tiny parts when she was three weeks old....


I don't think more then a couple of weeks have gone by since she was shoving her mouth as full as possible with her first ever bites of cake when we celebrated her first birthday....

Wasn't it just the other day she was started acting like a mommy to her dolls??

She is growing up so quickly and time is going by so fast! Boy was I glad when she climbed into bed and snuggled because it won't be long before that passes too!!!