A Little Christmas Miracle

After 3 or more years of hoping, praying, and waiting on the Lord to bring them another baby to love, dear friends of ours received a call from a young mother at the hospital on Christmas Day. She desperately wanted her little boy to have a good adoptive home, and they eagerly welcomed him into theirs. They brought him home the very next day. Please join me in praying for this young mom that she'll have peace about her decision and especially for our friends as they make room for their much desired, much loved, and much prayed for newest addition to their family.

 

 

 

 

Cousins Caroling

The Whole Gang

We celebrated with Nanny and Pop's family tonight. Everyone was there. Nanny, Pop, their 6 children, spouses, grand children and spouses, and four great grandchildren. Family is such a blessing. It sure is hard to get this many people in one photo, and other than the group photo session, I'd say everyone had a great time!

Christmas Eve 2007

Merry Christmas from Our Family to Yours!

RSV Go Away!

We have 3 little undiagnosed cases of RSV here.... yep, that's why I haven't been doing much blogging lately. Maggie went to the doctor last week on Thursday because of a wheezing, yucky, chest rattling, cough she'd had for over a week. The doc said she wanted to test for RSV because her symptoms were an exact match to 90% of the cases she'd seen of it lately. Unfortunately, the nurse bloodied Maggie's nose trying to get her swab test so the results were inconclusive. Obviously, I didn't let them try again. By the time I got home with Maggie, Sarah had started to cough. Yesterday Sarah woke up with a 104 degree fever. She was incredibly lethargic. After lots of advil/tylenol being administered all day (and tons of cuddling) she was some better, but she still has the hacking cough now. Then not to be outdone by her sisters, last night little Kate started the same coughing and refused to sleep from 7pm until around midnight. We've got it bad, but hopefully it is on it's way out; Maggie seems to be a great deal better today. RSV (or whatever you are) Go Away!!

Christmas Is Coming...

Yeah! Kari, James, and the dogs are finally here!!

Zoe loves her frisbees... she's not too sure about the girls.

Is it time to open presents yet, Mimi?

Finally got to open one last night... can't wait to see what's in the rest of those packages!?!

Wordless Wednesday- Peek A Boo

Let the Good Times Roll!

I thought I should hurry and update the blog with our much happier news from the last couple of days. Yesterday Scott and I took the girls to the Kids, INC Museum for an afternoon of fun. They had a blast exploring, climbing, sliding, driving, and running all over the place. Hopefully we made up for the failed attempt at the park since the weather is now definitely too cold for an outdoor play area!

Then this afternoon Ella and Scott had a Daddy-Daughter Date Night, and she finally got to see Alvin and the Chipmunks. According to Ella if was "fabulous" , but if you ask Scott they spent just as much time in the bathroom as they did in the theater. Regarding this Ella said, "Mom, I saw somebody tink-ling in one of those thangs, ya know?" When I realized that the theater didn't have a family restroom I said, oh you mean a urinal? She said, "Yeah, I was just getting ready to put my trash in it." Fabulous, I said. They had a good time and that, I suppose, is all that matters.

Kate enjoying some different toys at the Kids Museum

Our little thrill seeker, Sarah loved the slide!

Ella did a little shopping at the J&J Foods while there

Maggie got busted and spent time in the police car... and on top of it

Best Laid Plans

A week ago I got a super nice email from my friend Beverly. Some people email me just to let me know they are reading- how thoughtful! I'm always grateful to hear from those who are reading, either by email or comments, hint, hint! She was offering suggestions and commiseration on the whole nap issue I was having with Ella. She closed her message with, "I love your blog and keeping up on the girls, I still don’t see how you do it all. You seem so incredibly together." The gist of my emailed response was that the nicest thing about blogging is I decide what I want to write about, and I just generally leave out all the bad stuff. However, in the interest of 'keepin' it real', I have decided to write about our last 36 or so hours... this is for you Bev.

A little background info is necessary.

All last week the high's here were in the mid 70's- unseasonably warm for December. The girls enjoyed several hours of great outside time playing every single day... in the sand box, on the swing set, running up and down the driveway. You get the picture...

Well, starting yesterday the weather was supposed to begin cooling and high's were only supposed to be around 65 at mid-day. In anticipation of having to be couped up again for the weekend where the highs are expected to be in the 40s and lows in the 20s, I decided it would be a great idea to take them all to a park. Ella and I visited a great one for the first time back in the summer. The park is completely awesome! Ella loved it, and I promised her that when she taught all her sisters to walk we'd bring them along with us. So yesterday morning Mimi, Kelli, and I packed all the gals up, and we headed out. It was very damp out, and much cooler than it had been all week. I remember thinking to myself, I hope it doesn't rain on us. It didn't.... instead, we got all the way to the park that is located 25 minutes away, mostly in the shade, and got everyone out of their car seats. As we approached the amazing play structures (with all four girls squealing with delight) I noticed that there was about an inch of moisture covering absolutely everything there. I can't think of any time in the 15+ months that I've been a mother of four that I have felt half as guilty as I did yesterday morning. They tried their best to convince us that they could go ahead and play, but when Maggie poured about a gallon of water on herself trying to look at the very neat dolphin swing I knew we had to go! Every single one of them was crying as we buckled them all back in the car and drove away from the most magical place they had ever laid eyes on. Mimi, Kelli, and I all felt like joining them.

Having to play inside after they woke up from their naps, they decided that dress up was their most fun option. Maggie was okay with it, but

Ella was clearly not thrilled.

Fast forward to last night...

After cleaning up my entire house, as I do every evening because the foursome makes the place look like a huge tornado has just blown through, I went to bed at 10pm. At 11pm I heard the pitter patter of little feet. This meant that my very best sleeper, the one who only troubles me sleepwise by boycotting daytime sleep and waking too early in the mornings on occasion, was up. Ella came in to my room and requested my help in the bathroom. Whew, I thought, so glad she's not sick. She went, I helped her back to bed, and I jumped back in bed... easy enough. Then at 11:30, I hear that same little pitter patter coming my way. She is clutching lamb, her blanket, and sucking on her paci... she's "just wanting to sleep in your bed now, momma". Again, I help her back to bed. This same little game goes on again at midnight, 12:30, and finally at 1am when I heard the all too familiar pitter patter, I sent her back to bed all by herself. (Of course, I then had to wait and sneak down there to be sure she was, in fact, in her own room, in her own bed.) I was completely exhausted and exasperated at 1:45 when I heard the pitter patter again. I put her back in bed in exactly the same manner I had already 4 out of the 5 times previous. I'm not sure why she wasn't able to sleep or why the last time worked, but I was very thankful for the sleep I got from then until 3am when Sarah woke up. She had just lost her paci, but I could tell she wasn't going back to sleep without it so I got up, found it for her, and put her back to sleep. Imagine how thrilled I was when Kate started the day for the trio at 6am by loosing her paci. I quickly replaced it and went back to bed myself, even though all three of the girls were awake at that point. By 6:45am they were all fussing a good bit, so I finally dragged my tired self out of bed and officially started their day.

After the night we had I felt sure that Ella would take a good nap this afternoon, but she didn't even fall for the "rest on the couch and watch a movie" trick. She was actually in a very decent mood, so when DoDah offered to sit with the girls while they napped, I decided to take Ella to see the Chipmunks movie. It came out yesterday at the nearest theater. It was 44 degrees outside and raining today, so a movie sounded like a great idea... to us and lots of other parents of young children too, apparently. We talked all the way there about what great fun going to the movies is... the last one Ella saw at the theater was Charlotte's Web, and I think that was over a year ago. She's almost 3 for goodness sakes... she is ready to see a movie at the theater again! We were running just a little late due to weather and poor planning on my part, and when we got close enough to the box office I saw a little sign that read CHIPMUNKS 2:50PM SOLD OUT. Can you even believe the disappointment I've set this child up for in the last 36 hours?!? She cried about it, and then needed to call Kari and ended up leaving a long message about all the other kids that didn't leave room for her in the theater... she described in detail the tears that her sadness was creating. Then, because of the massive amount of guilt I was feeling, I let her choose the back-up plan, and we picked up milkshakes from the DQ on our way to Babyland. We ended up having a pretty good time, and now she can still look forward to seeing the movie another day, soon, during the week, when all the other kids will be in school.

My long, long, story ends with this evening, but it gets pretty gross so if you have a weak stomach you may just want to stop reading right here.

After all the girls had been bathed and fed this evening, I remembered that my good friend Dena's church was hosting a live, drive-thru nativity/ story of Jesus. I thought it would be fun to load the girls in the car in their jammies and take them to see some Christmas lights and end up at this nativity. Never mind that it is raining outside and cold, or that their bedtime is 6:30pm and we were leaving the driveway at 6:35pm... That was not the part that made me feel like a bad mom. When we arrived at the church and started looking for the drive way where we were supposed to turn in I heard directly behind me the sound of Kate throwing up what sounded like two gallons worth of stomach contents. I pulled off to the side in the parking lot so that I wouldn't be in the way of the cars behind us trying to get a glimpse of the live nativity scene. She looked fine... no more vomiting, but she was sitting in her car seat covered in puke and there was nothing that I could do about it. I hadn't brought a change of clothes... I had wipes, diapers, and three little lovies that normally stay in the car. I was utterly unprepared for this type of emergency- Bad Mom Award Winner, that's me! We soaked up a couple of diapers worth, covered the poor child in the lovies, wiped her face with the wipes... AND DROVE ON THROUGH! I headed straight home thereafter. Mimi took care of the other two babies while Ella "helped" me bathe Kate again. We had everyone settled and in bed by 7:35pm and so far I haven't heard a peep out of any of them. I did make a little bed on the floor in the nursery before I put them down just in case I end up sleeping in there later on, but right now I'm just praying that she was overfull from supper.... Please, Lord, don't let it be a stomach bug!!

Okay, I know by now there have been too many words and too few pictures (except for the last part) for one post, but what I really should have photographed was the complete and total disaster that my house and car were at 8pm tonight, and I could have then compared those with the after photos of the house now, or when I sat down to start blogging over an hour ago. The car seat has been removed, dumped out, and rinsed, but it will require hosing down in the daylight when I can see how to completely remove the cover to put it in the washer. The windows are rolled down on my car. I've sprayed Lysol on every possible surface both in the house and car. Now, I'm going to bed!

Talk of Heaven

I'm not exactly sure why, but over the last couple of months there has been a serious interest in and discussion about Heaven very often around here. Ella's experience with Heaven thus far is really limited to our dog Bandit's passing in May and then questions she asks about people. I've tried my best to give her the "theological scoop" about Heaven on a 2 year old level, but I'm not sure she's gotten it. Listed below, in no certain order, are a few of her ideas of Heaven... and some of her questions too.

-According to Ella there is a "huge-mongous" candy store in Heaven.... God told her so.

-One day she said that she didn't think she wanted to go to Heaven because she doesn't really like Bandit all that much...

-This morning she asked my grandmother, Nanny C where her mother was. Nanny told her that her mother was in Heaven and happy as could be. Ella said, "Well, who tells you if you can have candy or not then?"

-Today in the car she asked me if she was going to go to heaven. I told her that I certainly hoped she would, but not for a long, long, long time. Then she wanted to know if I would go and when. I tried my best to explain that we don't know when it will be our time but if we believe in Jesus in our hearts then we know we'll get to go there one day.

I feel like all this is a little bit much for a 2 almost 3 year old to take in, but I want to answer her as honestly and simply as I can. Any suggestions?

Weekend Fun and Mommy's Big Head

We had another busy weekend here. On Friday some of our dear family friends had their first baby...a sweet little girl named Emma Grace. We weren't expecting her to arrive for another three weeks, but she is healthy, happy, and from what we can tell a complete joy! On Saturday Mimi, Kelli, all the girls, and I loaded up and headed down to the hospital so that we could meet her. We didn't have a great plan, other than we adults would take turns going in and the babies could play outside. Ella and I took the first turn leaving Kelli and Mimi with the little gals. They played hide and seek, climbed lots of stairs, and played in the grass. Just before Ella and I came back out, Maggie got wind of the fact that we had been to see a baby. Babies and animals (mostly dogs) happen to be Maggie's favorite things right now. So by the time I got to her, Maggie was signing and saying, to the best of her ability, "baby, please" over and over again. She was so cute that I just couldn't deny her the opportunity to go in and get a quick peek. I entertained Sarah and Kate while they all trooped back in to see the little, tiny 5 lb 14 oz Emma. They say Maggie was delighted! I told Kim that I couldn't believe she weighs only a few ounces more than Sarah... and there were two other four and a half pound babies in my belly to boot!! Kim mentioned that when the lactation nurse asked if she had attended a class she told her instead she had learned from a pro.... me. I'm certainly not a pro, but I think it is sweet that she thinks so. I certainly look forward to being able to help in any way with this new little one! Big huge congratulations to Dusty and Kim, and welcome to the world baby Emma... the girls can't wait to play with you one of these days!!!

After we left the hospital, we went to Chick-fil-a for lunch. As Ella says, "We like it there because they are kid friendly!" While we were having lunch, a lady walked up and asked if the girls were triplets. I said yes. Then she asked if I was their mother. Again, yes. Next, she wanted to know their birthday... I'm beginning to think this is weird, but I told her. Then she shocked me and said, "You are legendary." I'm beginning to get a big head... a pro and a legend all in one day?!? Mimi said I'd better record those comments on the blog so that when all four of my gals are driving me nuts I can look back and think happy thoughts. Sorry, I digress..... So, I'm thinking, what in the world is this lady talking about, but she explained, and actually I think she meant legendary in HER mind. While I was wasting away in the hospital on bed rest, she was a few doors down from me for the last couple of weeks. She was trying to postpone delivery of her twins. The whole time she was hanging out she said if she was down and ready to give up she would think to herself that there was a lady 2 doors down who had been there for weeks already with not two, but three babies in her belly. I had been the inspiration she used to keep holding on, she said. She also said that if she was in a particularly foul mood her doctors would remind her that I had been there for several more weeks than her, and I was still hanging in there. Our babies were ultimately delivered in the same 24 hour period by the same doc who also delivered one other set of twins that day. Now, I ask you... How weird is it that we never met in the hospital when we could certainly have used the company/distraction and yet fate would have it that 15.5 months later we meet in a fast food joint? So strange!! After lunch was over we made a quick trip through Old Navy and headed home.

Today was our extended family Christmas lunch. I decided to run a little test with the girls napping schedule and see what would happen. Because lunch was to be at one, I kept them up and played hard with them until about 10am. At that time we had a little snack and then got dressed for the party. I put them down very tired at 10:30am and they slept beautifully until right around 12:30pm... time to go to lunch. Because of the great nap, they all had a fun time running around the place, hanging out with RyleeAnn ( another cousin born on Tuesday before they were born on Sunday), and just generally being goofy. Hopefully Anna will send me some pictures from lunch because in my excitement over my plan coming together, I totally forgot to pack my camera!

Finally, this evening after we had exhausted ourselves outside on the swing set and sandbox, we went to Nanny and Pop C.'s to get us through to bedtime... remember they only slept for 2 hours today, and we really needed a diversion. One of Pop Dickie's friends kindly offered to come over with his Santa suit on. As expected, not one of the silly girls would sit in Santa's lap, but they eventually warmed up to him enough to take a candy cane. They were so funny, and oh so messy eating them. Not surprisingly, Maggie enjoyed the sweet treat most of all. A very, happy Monday is on the way because "Da-dee" as Maggie calls him, is on his way home tonight!!

Dear Ella

This afternoon my dear, sweet Ella looked me in the eyes after I had spent the previous 30 minutes trying to convince her that she needed to nap, (she had dark circles under her little eyes, for Heaven's sake) and she said, " Mom, I'm afraid that there is nothing that I can do to make myself sleep, and there is nothing that you can do to help me sleep." End of discussion... I gave up. She is not 3 years old yet; I thought all kids needed naps until they were 3, at least?!? I eventually put on a video and she fell asleep on the couch about 45 minutes before the trio awoke from their 3 hour afternoon nap. As usual, they all immediately started yelling for Ella to come and play. I managed to keep them in their room for about 15 minutes more before I heard Ella fall off the couch in the living room. When I went to check on her, apparently I didn't close their door all the way because they all spilled into the room to "greet" her with joy! She, however, was not overjoyed to see them... or anybody for that matter. I am struggling here. Do those dark circles mean that she still needs a nap, or what?

Those Other Photos

Curious George... just checking to see what's in the bag.

An afternoon snack... with a Santa apron on.

If we only had one more set of hands on here we could play anything that an octopus can...

Several (30 or more) pictures later, this was the best we could get from our old neighbors visit last weekend.... oh, well!

The Latest Happenings

It has been pretty crazy around here lately... having had guests from out of town Thursday through Sunday and then Gamma in town from Sunday until today. Scott and I were able to go out to dinner to celebrate my birthday a few days late one night while Gamma was visiting- Thank you, Gamma! We had a really great visit!!

Ella said the funniest thing yesterday afternoon. The house was, admittedly, quite full, but she said, "Anybody who doesn't live here can go home now." I guess it sounds pretty rude, but understand that for the last 15 months or so she has been surrounded by people who are here to help us with the babies. She took one look around the living room yesterday where Scott, myself, Gamma, Mimi, Kelli, Nanny, and Pop C were all sitting and knew without a doubt that we had things covered. I'm sure that was all she meant, but it was funny none the less.

The little girls are all fascinated with Ella. They follow her around, look for her, call to her, and generally want to be doing whatever she is doing. We've gotten tons of good behavior out of E already by convincing her that she needs to set a good example for her sisters... hope that lasts for a long time!

All the girls are now easily climbing up onto the window seat in the office and onto the couch and chairs we have. It is nerve racking to watch them climb around and worry about them falling, but oh so sweet to see them climb up with a good book and read for a while.

There are several more pictures I want to post, but I'm having some blogger troubles. I'll try and get them on here soon.

AnnaRuby Falls Hiking Trip

We had a full weekend with out of town guests and all sorts of things going on. Sorry for the delay on the pictures I promised Friday. We had a very wonderful Friday afternoon trip to AnnaRuby Falls. We took the Runabout for the little gals and big girl Ella walked the whole way... except for the few times it was too steep and Daddy carried her. The falls were as beautiful as ever. I still remember hiking up there when I was little. Mimi was so excited to hear that we had all been because she's happy that she'll soon have four eager little hiking buddies.... oh, the fun we're going to have!!

Ella posed for her Dad on some small rocks... her idea. Once the camera was pointed her way she grinned and said, "cheese whiz". She's a little nut!!

Here's one of our little picnic at the end of the hike... well, actually it is the half-way point. This cute little arrangement lasted about 5 seconds. I have no idea how Scott managed to get the camera out and shoot it before it was over and Maggie was trying to pet the dogs that came up after us, Sarah was trying to throw her cup through the railing, and Kate was following Ella around everywhere she went.

You really can't tell from the picture how steep it was, but I was pushing the stroller up until this point... it finally got way too steep for me. I was practically laying down, putting my whole body into pushing that thing! Scott took over and made it look easy so I had to take a quick picture.

Kate sitting in Ella's lap eating lunch

Ella posed for me on the huge-mongus rock