Saturday Fun that Ended Badly

Saturday was such a beautiful day.  We had a picnic in the park and then the kids played at the park for a while.  It was 75 degrees and it felt wonderful to be outside.

Myles first time on the swings

slide time

hanging out in the shade while the other kids played

Ashton and Abbie even out the see-saw with Lexie on the other side.

We had a great time.  After dinner the big kids went out in the back yard and played while I was getting Myles ready for bed.  

He is sitting already, I can't believe how grown up he is getting already.  Why does time have to go so fast?  

Then through the open window I hear, "oops, mom I kicked the ball into the woods," to which I replied go and get it.  Ashton started down the steep wooded hill since that was where the ball was and then a few minutes later I hear another little voice(Abbie)...  "mom, Ashton is bleeding!"  He came inside with blood dripping down his leg.  After getting him cleaned up (thanks Lexie) this is what we had. 

 I decided to take him to the ER to get stitches which meant I had to take Myles too.  (Jake was at Camp Ripley with the guard) Well the ER doc said that glue should do the trick and it is less traumatic and faster, so we went with glue.  Bad idea but that part of the story will come later.  He had gotten almost to the ball on the steep slope and the rocks had given way under him and he went head over heals the rest of the way down the slope.  I am really grateful that all he ended up with is a cut, some scrapes and bruises.  

Here is the knee all patched up.  This was Saturday night about 9 pm.  

By Sunday evening the glue had come off and his knee was split open again, looking worse than it had in the beginning.  I really didn't want to make a return trip to the ER, Jake was still gone, so I found some steri-strips that I had in the medicine cabinet and fixed in myself.  That did the trick!  Nurse Nikki to the rescue!

Again.....

Once again I am behind on things that I want to blog about so I'm going to be back dating some stuff to get all caught up. Most of these things are too important to leave out. But more often then not I find myself holding my sweet sleeping baby in the afternoons so that he gets a good nap,and that makes it hard to sit down at the computer (and loads of other things) He is teaching me to slow down and enjoy whatever life brings,and patience lots and lots of patience. Love this little guy. I'm holding him right now while I type this out on my kindle fire. He's growing up way to fast and I don't want to miss a second with him or ANY of my kiddos. All the little things eventually get done or they don't matter that much anyway. This is big and it matters.

My Own Personal Seamstress

Lexie has basically taught herself how to sew.  She came to me about a year ago and asked me to teach her, well I don't know much but I did what I could (which was basically show her how the sewing machine worked) and she took it from there.  So she is mostly self taught and she makes the most incredible things.  Here is just one example.  I saw this awesome bag thing on Pinterest but when I clicked through to the ladies blog there were no instructions just some pictures and a link to her etsy shop where you could by the darn thing for $45.  While useful and really cool I just couldn't justify spending that kinda money on the thing-there just wasn't that much to it.

So I enlisted my personal seamstress and asked her if she thought she could make something similar, the catch being that there wasn't a pattern for her to follow. She looked at the blog for a while and printed out the pictures that the lady did have and the very few tips the lady had typed up,
and then went to work creating her own pattern.  About 6 hours later she had produced not just one, but TWO of these cool bag things one for her and one for me.  She is amazing!

Snow Fun

I was looking through my pictures and found these pictures from earlier this year of Abbie playing in the snow in our back yard.  She was trying to hit me with a snowball.

NOT I just took these pictures TODAY---April 23, 2013.  While Abbie was excited to be able to play in the snow yet again this winter, I was not so thrilled to wake up to another 4-5 inches.  Hello it's April and the end of April at that.  Is spring ever going to come.  Are we ever going to see a 60 degree day?
At least on a somewhat brighter note, school was two hour late start because of the snow.  And it was really pretty even if it is a snow storm in April.

A Mom to a Teenager?

I am officially the mom to a teenager! Lexie turned 13 today and man I feel old.....

This little angel

has grown into the most beautiful young women ever.  

I love her so much.  She is super sweet and sensitive to the needs of others.  She is literally my right hand and I don't know what I would do without her.  She is most definitely not your average teenager!  Happy birthday sweet girl!  

This is a birthday party year for the kids and she was going to have one last Saturday but an impromptu trip to Texas has postponed it a little.  We had a family celebration for her today.

13 candles on dairy free cupcakes! 

this is what Ashton, Abbie and Myles got for her....

I want to take a picture of you with your present.... hold it up by your face!

gift card to Joann's-- some girls favorite store ever!

We also got her the latest Ipod nano but it didn't get here in time for her birthday.

You Don't Know What You Have Until It's Gone...

I know that it is cliche, but it is SO true.  Jake's older brother, Nathan, suffered a massive stroke last Sunday morning.  He is 39.  He has a wife, Sara, three rambunctious boys and an adorable little girl. When Jake and Lexie left for Texas Sunday he was not expected to live.  He defied that, but he will never be the same.  He will never hold his sweet kids again, or kiss his wife, or sit up in bed, or talk.  At least that is the prognosis for now.   The back half of his brain is completely gone, and the swelling is still spreading.  He is a fighter so he may be able to defy the doctors and science eventually but for now he answers yes and no questions by blinking his eyes.  He has to use a ventilator to regulate his breathing.  For all intensive purposes the Nathan that every one knew is gone, he will never be the same.  My heart aches for Sara and the kids, for Jake and the rest of his siblings.

Nathan and Jake (taken when Jake was working in Texas about 2 years ago)

Nathan and Sara's family 

Spinning Circles

While this post could be all about me and how some days I feel like I am just spinning circles not really get that much accomplished even though I am putting forth a lot of effort, but its not.
It's about cute Myles and how much he is learning and growing.  I can't believe how fast time is flying. Myles was hanging out on his tummy, which he really quite likes (a lot more than any of my other kids) and I was taking some pictures of him, when he started trying to crawl towards me and ended up going around in a circle.  I never moved from where I was while I was taking these pictures.  It was so cute to watch him.

Oh, and he has found his feet.  I call it ruining socks.  

can't wait until the weather gets warmer so he can go barefoot and stop stretching out his socks.