My Silly Little Boy

Yesterday was one of those days.....you know where you don't really feel like doing anything except for going back to bed and sleeping all day.  Three of the kids were up in the middle of the night several times so my night wasn't very restful.  Anyway, I was just kinda having a down day.  But my ornery little two-year-old made me laugh anyway.  (Try not to get a mental picture to go along with this story.:)  So I was just getting ready to get in the shower, and Gage comes running in the bathroom.  He stops when he sees me, starts giggling and says, "Mommy, your tummy looks like an elephant!"  To which I said, "What!?!?"  He said, "It looks like it goes...." and he proceeds to make the elephant sound!  Apparently my stomach and my belly button add up to looking like a saggy baggy elephant!!  Thank-you Hadyn and Everett!!  Anyway, despite receiving such a wonderful complement, I had to chuckle! 

Last week Tim and I came home from Missouri and the boys were all in bed.  When Gage got up the next morning, I gave him a big hug and told him I missed him and he said, "yeah you did."  :) 

My kids bring joy and humor to my days (most of the time)!

How can you resist such a smile!

Eight months old!!

Today the twins are 8 months old!! I can hardly believe that only 8 months ago they were so tiny!  On the other hand I can hardly believe that it has already been 8 months!  Sadly I do not have enough time or energy to post any pictures tonight (I will soon), but I just thought you should all know we are alive and well.  I took the twins to the doctor today for a well baby check and they are growing perfectly.  Everett weighs 18 1/2 lbs. and is 29in. long and Hadyn weighs 18lbs. and is 28in. long.  Everett is starting to level off with his weight mostly because the little boy CANNOT SIT STILL!!  He crawls under and over everything and is starting to pull himself up to stuff and then proceeds to fall and cry!:)  So as you can tell instead of blogging I have been saving him from falling, kissing his bonks on the head, rescuing dead ladybugs from his mouth, rescuing tiny toys his brothers leave lying around from his mouth as well as Hadyn's mouth, and making sure they are not eating dirt or chewing on shoes, and feeding them lots of new foods, and taking adorable pictures of them, and doing all of their laundry, and many many many other things that my brain is too tired to think of right now.  
I have so many pictures and stories to post and hopefully soon I will have more time to post them. Until then, I hope you all are doing well and having a wonderful November.  Oh and Congratulations to my cousin, Liz who just had a beautiful baby boy!!  I love his name, which I won't even type right now because I have no idea how to spell it, but it is adorable!  I will get back to you on that!  Aren't I annoying!?  :)  I need sleep, must go!!

Comin' Through

The twins are definitely on the move!!  Life is very busy around here, making sure that they are not into something that they are not supposed to be into or that they are not eating whatever droppings they can find.  The boys are quickly learning that they can't leave small toys and cheerios, etc... on the floor.  Hadyn still loves eating paper and Everett will eat anything that he can get into his mouth.  He finds microscopic crumbs on the dining room floor and then chokes on them.  I don't remember my boys being quite so scavenger-like.  :)  He also likes to crawl into or over anything and everything.  Neither one of my first two boys were climbers and I was very thankful for that.  Apparently now it's my turn.  
Everett also loves to crawl over his sister.  In this picture there was actually something to get to on the other side of her but usually there isn't, he just likes to crawl over her. 

                                  Poor Hadyn!

Oh and to clarify, they aren't crawling normally yet.  He army crawls and she army crawls with only one arm and one leg.  Yeah, it is as funny as it sounds. :)  He has crawled a little bit for real, but it takes him to long and he can army crawl with lightening speed (okay just too fast for mommy to keep up:).  

Everett really and truly said "Mama" yesterday!  The first couple of times I thought it was a fluke, but Tim heard him say it a couple of times as well!  He is the first one to say Mama before Dada!  Yay for me!!  He is only a little over 7 months!  They are growing so fast!  I will have more to come of all our adventures this summer, soon.

One Year Ago....

....this weekend, we found out some very exciting news!  I went to the doctor for a routine ob visit and my doctor thought I was measuring a little large and she wanted to do an ultrasound.  My heart was pounding, I was so excited and hopeful!  We did the ultrasound and THERE WAS TWO!!!  We told our family right away and then I went to the Fall Festival in Kalona and I think by the end of the day the news was spread to everyone who cared to hear (and probably those who didn't).  


Sooo much has changed in the last year!!  We are now a family of six instead of four and life is busier than ever!!  Stressful, but fun. It's amazing how time flies!



Sleeping update:  Hadyn is now my little sleeping angel.  After only 3 nights she decided she would just lay right down and go to sleep without crying, even for naps.  I love it!!  Everett on the other hand was easier for the first few days, but has not been feeling all that well and therefore wants to be held to go to sleep.  


Gage update:  Gage has been doing much better.  He still has a runny nose and cough, but the wheezing is gone.  The doctor wouldn't say it, but I think that it had a lot to do with the fact that he was on a hayride the night before and it was very dusty.  Next time we'll know.

Our Newest Adventure.....

Cloth diapering. I know, that's a shock isn't it.:) I'm pretty sure somewhere along the line I probably said that I would never cloth diaper my kids. A good, case in point of never say never. :) Well I did it for two reasons: to save money--I spend almost 200.00 in diapers pull-ups every month as I essentially have four kids still in diapers! (Yes, Reese is still in pull-ups due to a long-time issue with pooping--another post altogether.) Anyway, I am only cloth diapering the twins and hopefully sometime in the next year both Reese and Gage will be fully potty-trained. My second reason: it is better for them. Disposable diapers contain dioxins and chlorine, both of which are not good for a baby.

My husband has been rather reluctant through the whole process so I keep disposables on hand for when he wants to use them and for when we are gone.

We just started last week and at first it was a little overwhelming. I have to do laundry every other day and still sometimes don't have quite enough. Now I am in a little bit more of a routine and I don't mind washing the diapers.

So far, my favorite diapers are one size Bum Genius pocket diapers and the one size Happy Heinys pocket diapers. I am coming into this a little late considering that I waited until babies 3 and 4 to start but I decided that it's never too late to try something different especially when it's better for them.

They are pretty cute actually! I'm still getting used to how much bulk it adds to their clothes. I bought some onesie extenders which help a lot.
I love their chubby little legs!!
Life is a journey and we are just trying to make the right choices with God's help and to the best of our knowledge. Hope you are all having a good and blessed day. (And more productive than what mine has been so far:)

Apples, Doctors & Mice...

....these three things have nothing in common, but all played a part in my day. My day started at 6:30 this morning with Gage crying and not being able to breathe very well. He has had a cold for about a week now but just today started wheezing and running a temp. I held him for a while but alas, today was applesauce day!! 125 quarts of applesauce to be exact. Most of which I didn't help with. :( I did help (in between taking care of sick Gage and feeding Hadyn) until about 1:30 and then decided that Gage should indeed go to the doctor!

Thanks to my mom, Karla, Grandma Ruth, Martha and Barbie the apples got done! I have two WONDERFUL families. And did I mention that they kept my other three kids here while doing applesauce. (And even got Hadyn to take a bottle--an accomplishment let me tell ya!) Thank-you Lord for family!!

Well, back to the doctor story........Gage was in bad sorts when we got there. He cried the whole time we were in the waiting room and everyone just looked at us--some looked sorry for us and others looked plain annoyed. I decided I didn't care what they thought, I knew that he was in pain and not feeling well at all and if he needed to cry then I would let him cry! So there!:) Anyway, I finally got him calmed down enough (sleeping actually) to let the doctor listen to him and he decided to send us over to Mercy Hospital to do a chest x-ray to make sure it wasn't pneumonia--it wasn't thank the Lord!! That was an experience I don't want to repeat ever again!! They put him in this thing called the piggy. I know doesn't the sound of that just create warm and fuzzy feelings all inside of you--NOT!!! The tech warned me over and over that it would be very tight and that he would cry a lot but I was still in tears. He had to straddle this small hard piece with his legs dangling below and then his arms had to be raise straight up and then this see-through cage of sorts was strapped around him so he could not move a muscle. His shirt was off and the plastic thing was digging into him and he was hanging by his crotch--it was awful and he cried and yelled for mommy!! Mommy was crying!! It looked close to abuse. But she said that it keeps him from moving and she got two good quick pictures and didn't expose him to too much radiation, which was a good thing. Anyway, we both recovered quickly once I got him out. He gave me a big hug right away and said I love you mommy. I wanted to cry all over again. He is the sweetest little boy! He even told the tech thank-you when we left.:) I don't think I would have, if it was me in the piggy.

Well now that I have gone on in great detail, the doctor said that sometimes with colds and other allergens in the air, kids will get really tight in the chest..........so we did a nebulizer treatment in the doctor's office and then they sent me home with one to do it at home. He hates it but it helps a lot. Oh and did I forget to mention that he also has an ear infection! We went to Wal-Mart after we left the doctor and spent an hour and 20 minutes waiting on his prescriptions to get filled! It wasn't their fault but I was getting annoyed and Gage and I were both very hungry. Enough with the complaining though, I am very thankful that he doesn't have pneumonia and I am continuing to pray that he gets better. It is very hard to watch my 2-year-old not be able to breathe without a lot of effort, so we would much appreciate your prayers as well.

Oh yeah, about the mice, they weren't even that big of a part in my day but enough to make me annoyed. At around 7:45 this morning I was standing at my kitchen sink when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a mouse scurry across my bathroom floor and disappear underneath the basement door. Then later in the morning I was in the basement taking some stuff out of my freezer and bent down to pick up something and I smelled an all too familiar and horrific smell coming from underneath my freezer--a dead mouse. We found one underneath the freezer several years ago and it smelled awful, still had maggots on it and my husband MADE me sweep it up with the sweeper, in efforts to toughen me up I guess. Then I MADE him empty out the sweeper (it was a canister), I think I probably got the bettter end of the deal.:) Anyway, back to today, I didn't even try to look, I am going to most kindly and graciously ask my husband to take care of the matter and I will most likely not be around when he does. Since his married "job" description includes killing spiders and taking out dead mice. :) I love him!!

Well I am off to bed since I am now writing about "today" and it's actually "tomorrow." Are you confused yet?:) Thanks again to all of the wonderful women who did my applesauce for me, while I took Gage to the doctor. That meant a lot to me! I love you all!! I hope you all have a good night/day!!

Sleeping Update

Well we have lived to fight another day.:) Everett gave up quite quickly last night, I think he thought his sister was crying loud enough for both of them. :) Hadyn is just like her momma--she is VERY STUBBORN!!!! It was exactly one hour and five minutes until she finally gave up!! This morning when she woke up she gave me a big smile and Mommy's heart melted with a huge sigh of relief that yes, she still loves me! :) Here are some updated pictures and to show you that they really are happy babies (when they aren't crying themselves to sleep:).