Some Like it Hot

Last year while on vacation we took a ferry ride which was soooo much fun.  We saw dolphin, pelicans, and the water splashed over the front of the boat eliciting giggles, so we thought we'd do it again...

Sometimes, things just don't work out the same.  Don't get me wrong, we had fun... but it was HOT!!!!  There was no wind and therefore, no water splashing us.  Just the sun beating down.  There was a breeze on the way over which was nice, but the ride back was just plain hot and poor little Cody just can't handle heat.  He turns red in the face and I therefore carried his entire 35 pounds back to the car when the ride was over.

After departing the boat we changed our lunch plans from an outside patio to inside air conditioning....

Photo of the Day

School officially starts today although we had "Parent Orientation" on Monday night and meet the teachers yesterday morning... so I have been crazy busy and unfortunately haven't had much time to blog or work on editing photos, but I did manage to get one edited last night. The beach house has some amazing glass block windows pictured with Cody above.

Ok, more vacation and school news coming soon... I hope...

Bugs and the Beach

The kids who cried wolf...

In my last vacation post I mentioned that our trip went off without injuries, stings or bites, but then remembered we did have some bites.  Between the house and the sand there is a yard which is infested with ant beds.  As long as you keep walking and don't stand in a bed, no problem and Jadon who is terrified of the ants always insists on having his hand held when walking across the grass.

One evening I was back at the house and Jadon was all upset that he had stepped in an ant bed.  My assumption was that no one held his hand, so he was freaked out at the thought of ant bites.  His feet were covered in sand and all looked ok... so I brushed off his tears and told him he was ok.  In the shower as we cleaned off his feet... lo and beyond.... ant bites.  Poor little man....  I feel like a terrible mother for not believing him, but in my defense the tears over minor things flow constantly in our home.....

Once the bites were discovered, he got tons of "poor babies" and kisses from Mommy....

I Heart Faces - White

Bottom's Up

I'm taking a short break from vacation beach pics to share a little I Heart Faces love.  This week it can't be black and white and it must showcase white.  How's about a little white bum????

Family

To my husband, children, parents, grandmother, brother, sister-in-law, and nephew... I love you all and am so happy to be able to spend this time with each and every one of you.

Swimmers Beware - More Vacation

As mentioned previously, we spent most mornings doing activities (the aquarium, the Ferry boat, the local market street, Church, and 3 & 4D mini movies), but every evening we spent on the beach.  This year I wasn't quite as obnoxious with the camera (at least I don't think so).  I felt much more confident this year and didn't obsess over getting the "perfect" picture.  I just had fun and in return got some good pictures which I'll share (and some not so great which I'll also share).

One day early in the week on the beach, my Mom and I were laying in the surf when Kaylee walked up:
Kaylee: "What's this"?  touching it
Me: "Kaylee, NO!!!!  That's a jellyfish... it will sting you."

Kaylee knew they stung people because Hawkins from her class at school told her about getting stung by a jellyfish.

Kaylee: "SCREAMING" and rubbing her legs
Cody: "SCREAMING...  it gunna sting me" and rubbing his legs.

Now, the jellyfish was dead and no one got stung, but the psychological damage was not soon overcome.  It took a while to convince them they had not been stung and then convince them that the jellyfish was in fact dead.  For several days Cody freaked out over everything from seaweed to sticks, but by the end of the week he was ok and it honestly didn't impair the fun and playing.

I'm glad to report we did not see anymore jellyfish the remainder of the week.  Our last day we did see a man-o-war (I think that's what they are called) which actually much worse than jellyfish, but we survived the week with no injuries, stings, or bites.  OOPS, rewind... we did have some bites....more later.

Cody's Well Child - 3 years

Ok, you were probably expecting more vacation, but my kids well child visits trump vacation, so this comes 1st....

Well, Cody had his well child this morning and it was a piece of cake. The three year well child is such a breeze. Essentially, they looked him over and asked a few questions. No shots. They also confirmed what I already knew, we are raising a football player.

Here are all the kids stats at 3 Years - you can see what a bruiser my baby Cody is:
WEIGHT
Addison 28lbs
Kaylee 25lbs 12oz
Jadon 28lbs 4oz
Cody 36 lbs 12oz

HEIGHT
Addison 37.75
Kaylee 37
Jadon 37.75
Cody 39.25

WEIGHT %
Addison 21st
Kaylee 5th
Jadon 14th
Cody 88th

HEIGHT%
Addison 66th
Kaylee 47th
Jadon 56th
Cody 82nd

The nurse and the doctor both loved him because he is not shy at all and is all personality.  He'd high five, chit chat and do what ever they wanted with a laugh.  Adorable!!!!  While he can challenge me at home and is a hand full I must admit, he always makes me proud when out and about... he was good as gold this morning and is getting to be such a little man.  (I LOVE you BABY)!!!!

Life's A Beach

Thought I'd share a quick pic before getting the day started. Cody goes to his 3 year well child visit this morning... so I'm off to wake the chaos now... goodbye quiet.

Home From Vacation

It is always exciting and fun to go on vacation, but it's also good to be home....  To be sleeping in my own bed... to be bathing in my own shower....  to have my own kitchen, my own TV... my own dirt....

Last year we rented a beach house and vacationed with my parents, my grandmother, my brother and his family and we had a BLAST, so we decided on a repeat this year.  We headed out Tuesday around noon after spending the ENTIRE morning packing.  You would have thought we were going for a month, but it takes A LOT to pack up a family of 6 and while Jerry really only had to pack for one plus the kids cots, igloos and some other things.  I had to pack for 5 (clothes, swim suits, undies, socks, shoes, hair accessories, Church clothes, toothbrushes, sippy cups... etc).

We got to the beach about 3:00 and the fun began.  The kids LOVE the beach... so we spent day one swimming.  I could totally tell that Cody was a year older.  Last year he spent all his time with a bucket trying to empty the ocean, but this year he was out with the triplets trying to jump waves.  Now that the kids are swimmers we had some protest to wearing floaties, but they soon realized Mom wasn't going to give in.  "If you want to swim in the ocean, you MUST wear floaties."

After swimming each day we took the kids to the outdoor shower, stripped them down and washed them up.  Then 4 naked little bodies when upstairs and got into their PJs (we almost alway swam in the afternoon/evening and did activities in the mornings.)

We ate a bite of lasagna (my Mom prepared) and called it a night...

I'll be sharing photos as they are edited and in no particular order.

I Heart Faces - Pets

Here is a little break from my babies and a look at one of my furry babies... Share the love over at I Heart Faces!!

Just got back from vacation a couple hours ago, so I'll post about it in the coming days....

One More Picture Before We Go....

A dream is a wish your heart makes

I Heart Faces - Beautiful Eyes

Ok, well we are off on vacation tomorrow... so I leave you with final post (until our return).  My little Kaylee with lashes that go on FOREVER!!

Nothing Much...

Jerry got home from his business trip this afternoon sick... I was soooo anxious for him to get home and have things get back to normal (I'm exhausted), but he came home sick and is now in bed.... Time to reach deep and find the oomph to keep going....

So, all I have is a photo to share.

Shall We Dance?

Dear husband is out of town this week and I've been super busy... so the camera has been holstered, but I did manage to figure out how to put video on the blog. I do it soooo infrequently that each time I want to post video, I have to re-learn how to do it...

Addison is 2nd on the left and Kaylee is 2nd on the right (with one little girl between them).


After the performance, the girls had a surprise visitor... Ariel!! Once again, THANKS to my parents for taking video and pictures!!!!!

Please Join Us in Prayer

Ok, I don't know why, but I haven't been getting emails when comments arrive, so I thought I'd been gone too long and lost the love, but today found the hiding comments and got them posted. Sorry to have not replied and thanks to all.

Jerry and I went to Oklahoma this weekend to visit a friend diagnosed with stage 4 Pancoast lung cancer. I use the term 'friend' with hesitation because the word fails to do her justice... she is family and we love her. Jerry has known Pam and her husband Curtis for 20 years. Pam was a bridesmaid and Curtis a groomsman in our wedding. They are a couple deeply in love with each other and they are the grandparents to 5 little ones. She is now battling a formidable foe and prayers are needed. I ask all of you, my friends to join in our prayers... PLEASE...

Pam owned a dance studio and was a dance instructor until about 10 years ago (she taught my husband to dance and I have to say he is a GREAT dancer), so she has enjoyed hearing about our girls and their dance classes. Their 1st recital was Saturday.   Jerry and I were out of town with Pam, but my parents took the girls and took video and pictures for us.  I'll share more later...


Once again, I ask for your prayers on Pam's behalf... we love her dearly.

Where Have I Been???

Where have I been you might ask....

Well, as you might recall 2 of the kids contracted strep throat while at VBS which wasn't the end of the world.  A little amoxicillan and 24 hours later they were feeling better.  Addison finished up her dose 10 days later which was this past Friday.

We attended a birthday party at the neighborhood pool that evening and on Sunday she began complaining that her ear hurt.  GREAT... another ear infection.  That afternoon after Church and lunch I ran her over the clinic and sure enough she was diagnosed with a middle ear infection so we once again started another antibiotic.  I was told swimming was fine since it was middle ear so we let the kids swim.

Now, in the past the kids have felt better after only 2 doses of drugs, but that wasn't the case this time.  Addison was up during the night several times and began running 102 fever and by Monday afternoon she was SCREAMING in pain.  I rushed her back to the clinic and she had to be held down screaming for them to check her ears.   This time we were told she also had swimmer's ear and we were given a topical medication.

Monday night... once again Addison was up multiple times during the night, but she was 'ok' during the day.  Her ears were still painful and she didn't want anyone near them, but she was ok.... until the afternoon.  Once again she began running fever and was miserable, so I made an appointment with the pediatrician (not the clinic) for the next morning.

Tuesday night, Addison was up throughout the night miserable and for the 1st time EVER we slept with one of the kids.  We have NEVER let a child sleep in our bed nor have we ever slept in our kids beds.  Once we put Jadon in a cot in our room after a head injury, but that's been it and it's served us well.  The entire house sleeps great at night.  But Tuesday night, I crawled in Addison's twin bed with her and remained there until Jerry came in to tell me it was time for me to get up.  I watched her throughout the night trying to get comfortable and I listened to her moans and groans.

My Mom has been out of town, but my Dad has been over helping and I think he's all that has kept me sane and not panicking the last few days....

Wednesday morning I had a doctors appointment at 8:15 which I could not miss and Addison had her appointment at 10:30.  My Dad took care of all 4 kids while I suffered at my appointment away from Addison.  I was happy to hear when I called home that she had fallen asleep on the sofa and had been sleeping all morning.

I rushed home and we took her to the ped.  He confirmed the middle ear and swimmers ear infections and educated me a bit.  A middle ear while painful, typically isn't painful to the touch since it's deeper in the ear.  Swimmers ear is in the ear canal so any pressure or tension on the ear is extremely painful.  The topical medication the clinic had given us was described as "a steriod with a pain reliever and bacteria inhibitor" but not an antibiotic so Addison wasn't getting better.  She is now on a topical antibiotic along with her oral antibiotic and while still not back to normal seems a bit better today....

So, I am EXHAUSTED.... STRESSED... and glad to see my baby doing better.