Sunday, January 29, 2012

I never thought...

...that I'd be the mom of 3 handsome boys.
As a kid I always thought that I'd have more girls than boys so it still shocks me that all these cuties are mine.

After church naps may never be the same....but I sure love my little dudes.
:-)

Monday, January 23, 2012

Third time's a charm.

I potty trained Sydney at 19 months and Jackson just a few weeks before his second birthday.


Sydney after her first "success"....before I became so shameless and started posting pictures like...

...this. Haha.  Jackson's first "success".


It took Sydney about 6 months to be accident free without me reminding her to go to the bathroom throughout the day.  It took Jackson a full year.  

The dreaded day finally came for Carter.
We started training Carter on Saturday.  Two months after his second birthday.  
He had several accidents in the first few hours of day one.  
After going through all 8 pairs of underwear I had on hand, he caught on and only had 1 accident the rest of the day.
Since then he has had NO accidents AND the best part of all...
He tells me when he has to go!!!!
Just look how proud of himself he is!

Can't rotate this on...grr!

So, WHY was it so hard for my other kids to catch on?  
Both of them were old enough to communicate and understood what was happening.  They could go "on command" but for some reason were not interested in making the effort on their own to get to the toilet in time.  
The only thing I can think of that's making a big difference this time around is Carter's good ol' love of FOOD.
I think I could make this boy do just about anything for a chance to reach his chubby little hand into this jar of candy. 

Three down, one to go!  Whoo hoo!!




Saturday, January 7, 2012

"Procedure"

Carter had his little "procedure" done yesterday.
What procedure you ask?
Well, let's just say that the doctor who performed his circumcision didn't get it quite right.  
Well, not right at all.
So, we had that little problem fixed.
Poor guy.
The doctors swear he'll thank me for it when he's older.

I dropped Reese off at my mom's house the night before so we could get up bright and early to go to the hospital.
We got there about 7:15am and got busy waiting.


And waiting.


 An hour later they called his name and pulled him to his little room in a wagon.
I texted this picture to McKay who was getting the big kids off to school.  He showed them the picture and they quickly forgot how concerned they were about their little brother and became more concerned about if the wagon would be coming home with him. :-)


 His surgery was not at a pediatric surgery center.  It was just at the hospital with all the other people getting every kind of surgery.  Carter was the only child at the time and he got so much attention from all the nurses and other patients.  
All the attention (along with the bag of toys and books I brought along) kept him happy and occupied for about another hour.  
But after so much waiting...


...and waiting...


...and waiting...


...and so on...


...he was not happy.  
No food or drink is a lot to ask of a 36 pound 2 year old who lives to eat.  
At this point it was about 9:20am.


All he wanted was some chocolate cheerios.
And a drink.
And some pancakes.
And fruit snacks.
And any other food he could think of.
He couldn't believe I wouldn't let him have breakfast. 

 So out came my last resort.
Angry Birds.


Finally the nurse came in and we wrestled Carter down to get his ankle band on.
We decided to wait on the hospital gown until they put him under....
I'm sure the other patients thought he was being tortured.
And off he went.  Thanks heavens for the wagon, he didn't even notice that I didn't follow him back to the surgery room.


The surgeon told me it would be at least an hour and half before they came to get me so that I should go to the cafeteria, have some breakfast, and relax.
Relax?  Me?  By myself for 2 hours?
YES PLEASE!!
It was so nice.  I sat and ate in peace, people watched, used a small stall in a public bathroom rather than hauling all the kiddos into the handicap stall.
Then I sat in a big comfy chair in the waiting room and read.
It was great.

2 hours later they came and got me.
I walked into the recovery room and there was my huge baby in just a diaper.
How did he get so BIG?
I was able to hold him until he woke up.

Then I gave him a drink and he didn't let the thing go until it was gone.


He was already worn out after drinking, but he noticed the crackers on the counter and had to have one.
It was funny watching him try to eat while his head was bobbing and he couldn't keep his eyes open.

 Waking up a little more.




Ready to go home.

The anesthesiologist gave him a spinal block (similar to an epidural) to help with the pain.
This made his legs not work for several hours.  
We wheeled him out to the car in a wheel chair and home we went.
He laid on me on the couch and we watched Tangled until the kids got home from school.

Today he's up and running around.  I'm able to manage his pain with just Tylenol and he's back to his normal 2 year old self.

The end!

Thursday, January 5, 2012

SIX new posts!

The last couple of months have totally gotten away from me!  
My last real blog post was almost 2 months ago!
So, I finally found some time to go through the hundreds of pictures from November and December and document them.
There are 6 new posts below...ENJOY!!

From 1 to 4

My mom has made bath towels for each of my kids.
I love fresh-out-of-the-bath kids.  Their big wet eye lashes and clean faces.
Mmmm.

First there was one.

Then two.

Three.

And now four.

Brain Head Getaway

The week before Christmas we planned a last minute trip to Brain Head to play in the snow.
We got on Priceline.com and booked a Holiday Inn Express the night before we left.
When we got there we ended up in a Jacuzzi King Suit for only $49 per night!  It was awesome.

We didn't tell the kids until the morning of.    


McKay says I always get pictures of him driving, so he had to take one of me.

McKay and the kids went tubing.  Even Carter got to go!  He only made it down the hill twice when he decided it was too cold and came and hung out in the warm truck with me and Reese.

The big kids LOVED it.




After their 2 hour tubing pass expired we stuck around and played in the snow until everyone was wet and cold.


Such a fun trip!  I think we'll take some sort of snow trip every year before Christmas.

Balloons, Winterfest, and Camping

We had a baby shower for my sister-in-law Becky back in November.  
The balloons entertained the kids for HOURS the next day.








We took the kids to the Henderson Winterfest.  
Face painting, cookie decorating, ornament making, and a carousel.  Fun stuff.






Shopping at The District.



McKay took Jackson on a scout camp out.