Thumbs UP!

Really it is a THUMB!!!

Lunch Time!

just chillaxin with my Sippy cup and nuggets!

GO PACKERS!!!!

On our way to church - then on to cheer on the Packers!

Where, oh where, have all the blog posts been?

It has become a regular topic of conversation in our home the past few months – What happened to our blog? It would be easy to say that life just gets busy, but it would be even more fun to take you on our magical journey that is our family. Teri was excited to be able to update the blog from her new computer, but Denim quickly put a stop to that idea by biting all the keys off the keyboard. As such, T said she is done, and it will now be Daddy's turn to update the blog.

Logan has been busy with school, 4^th grade is a tough one, but her teacher Mr. Nelson is a really awesome teacher, and Logan loves to go to class to see what he will come up with next. We finished her research project recently, and while it was a lot of fun (especially because it was about Spain) it was a lot of work. As parents we needed to remind ourselves that we had already done 4^th grade, but we still expected to get an A on this project. Gymnastics has started and it is a lot of fun, especially for Mom and Dad – we always knew that our Divine Miss La loved attention; little did we know that for an hour a week she would have an opportunity to show us her stuff. La is growing so fast, and she is becoming a grown-up very quickly. We love her tons, and we are excited to see all the new adventures Logan gets to experience.

Cooper is a full-fledged Kindergartner, I know this is difficult for some of you to grasp. He did do preschool for 4 years, and I think he was able to master those concepts after year 2. He has been a Wii Wizard, and teaches Dad new things on a daily basis. That was until Kindergarten started, and we can only play Wii on Weekends, and Track-outs, it seems like life is too busy to play video games. School has been a lot of fun, we have been worried that it will change our Huge Teddy Bear, but he seems to be able to make friends anywhere. He has gone to lots of birthday parties, and he has been able to save a few"damsels in distress" at school. Through frightening to hear that our 6 year old has girlfriends, it is enlightening to hear that he is a gentleman! Cooper is HUGE! He now officially weighs more than Logan and with doing gymnastics he is learning how to use that to his advantage. His coaches all love Cooper – they smile every time they say his name, and they work with him well. He is now able to do pull-ups. Something his Dad is still trying to figure out. Cooper has also started Basketball – he is pretty good.

He is able to rebound and shoot well, we have been practicing his dribbling, and it is a lot of fun. Cooper has picked up the football and can through a mean spiral.

And finally Denim – he keeps us as busy as we can handle, but he also provides the family with many smiles and giggles. Den seems to spend his days playing catch-up to his brother and sister. He continually does things that no "normal" 18 month old does. Denim has shown us how much of an artist he is, and all his spectacular tricks. Den runs circles around us with all his enthusiasm, energy and creativity. Denim has fallen in love with balls. It seems like it is a daily occurrence that he will bring a ball into dad's office to play catch. He has decided that he also loves cars, he is becoming a boy, he has had enough of being the baby!

He's Denim the Sailor-man

Denim was channeling his inner Popeye and may have taken it a bit too far. On Friday Deej started running a fever which went on and on and on. On Monday, in addition to the fever, he woke up with thrush. On Wednesday, in addition to the now low grade fever, he woke up in a rash from head to toe. Saturday was the pinnacle of his symptoms. He woke up sporting a very impressive swollen eye that resembled a golf ball. (seen here sucking on a q-tip)

By Sunday evening (only ten days and no sleep later) Denim was finally feeling better, HALLELUJAH, just in time for Logan to start throwing up. HA HA HA (that's my crazy person laugh)!

Disaster Looming

We were busy revamping our kitchen which involved freshly cut glass that happened to be laying all over the kitchen floor and power tools spread over the back deck, with two busy kids and one walking baby something was bound to happen.

Here is the scene setup. Jeff was outside routing out our cabinets so they would be ready to install glass. I had just got back from the store with the fresh cut glass and had laid it out on the floor to make sure they had done it correctly. Immediately, all little people in the house were attracted to the shiny breakables. So I was scrambling. I ordered Cooper on baby watch so I could move the sheets of glass from the kitchen floor onto the table in the other room.

Here is how the next five minutes of events played out. I was carrying one of the sheets of glass into the other room and didn't notice Logan standing on the counter, putting something in the microwave (never figured out what she was cooking). I heard Cooper hollering at me that Denim was half way up the stairs (of course). I told Coop just to follow behind him and I busted a move to put the glass in my hands down when Logan at that moment (she also did not see me) decided to jump off the counter landing on top of me and the glass. By some miracle I had just enough bounce with me and the glass and Logan that the glass didn't break and she didn't get hurt. Ha, disaster averted. I wound up with minor cuts on my finger tips were I was holding the edge of the glass so I ran to the sink to rinse them off when the thought occurred to me that I hadn't heard a baby cry so the climb up the stairs must have been a success ( another disaster sidestepped, I am one lucky gal). I ran up the stairs to grab some band aids for my fingers and check on the boys when I started hearing Deej fussing. I hollered to him that I was coming and double stepped it to my bathroom first to clean up my messy fingers so I could pick up the baby that was calling for me. I b-lined for the linen closet to retrieve the necessary materials when a curious image flashed before my eyes. In my mind I saw my sweet boys playing in the tub. I shook my head, what an odd thought , turned around and there it was. My five year old and my baby stripped of their clothes and in the bathtub with water in it. WHAT THE...

It took me a minute to fully comprehend the image in front of me, yet just a snap second to experience the full spectrum of panic. My five year old who still tries to convince me every day that he can't possibly get himself dressed somehow drew himself a bath; stripped himself of his clothes; and somehow stripped the baby of his shirt, pants, socks, onsie, and diaper (a feat that usually takes Jeff and I and a rigorous wrestling match to accomplish) and did it all in less than five minutes.

I grabbed the baby out of the tub, checked the temperature of the water (just right), the level of the water (not too deep). No visible injuries on the baby who was sitting wet yet content in my arms. Did we really survive this near catastrophe. Cooper then told me in his proudest voice. "Mom, I even saved his life because when I put him in the water he went all the way under and I had to rescue him." Ahhh, there it is.

KaBluey

I was just running to Walmart for a second. See, I found Halloween 90% off so it may have been considered top priority status to some, not to all, to each his own. The evening plan involved Auntie Na coming over with her litter of little Na's and we were going to make mini pizzas and root beer floats. Not a bad FHE plan. Instead the evening went something like this:

As I was saying I was running out for just a second. Logan came home from school with the beginnings of a serious headache, so I had already soaked her in a vapor bath and stuck her in a dark, quiet room. Cooper and Max (who was at our house at the time) were in the bath, they were washed and playing with their new happy meal toys.

Cooper decieded to do an experiment to see what color towels turn when you put them in the tub. After several towels were added to the bath Max started getting crowded so he started dumping them out of the bath onto the floor. Vika was sent up to look in on the boys and slid through the river landing on her bum. Vika and then Sasha came running down stairs shouting something about "There's an ocean upstairs." So Jeff runs upstairs to deal with the inches of H2O. But, all the yelling encouraged Denim to also start yelling so Auntie Na picked him up, but in doing so DJ- grabbed a thing of water that was sitting on the counter and it dumped on brand new Baby Bella. Now two screaming babies...Meanwhile upstairs Logan starts really not feeling well. Do you know what this story needs, a little vomit or in this case A LOT. Of course, while Jeff is holding back Logan's hair so it doesn't get throw up in it (which of course despite all efforts it did) Shawna was doing some quick thinking of her own and grabbed a trash can and some of the towels used to clean up the two soaked, screaming children to catch the water now leaking from the CEILING!

I was only gone a second. On the bright side I got an awesome deal (4 shirts, 1 skirt, 1 pair of jammies, 2 colord hair sprays, 2 gallons of icecream, 2 pairs of socks, 1 pair of tights, 2 things of paper plates, and 20 halloween costumes for under $65).