Ok just a couple more...

I know my posts have been a little "Teagen Heavy" lately but I had to post these shots from her mini-3yr-photoshoot. Something I do with all the kids.Teagen is the hardest because its usually so cold that we have to do indoor shots and I am not too good at that. Outdoor always turns out so much nicer. I refuse to use a flash so that leaves me with few indoor options. Lucky we have huge windows and the porch is good too.

Mornings are the best light here at my house. Someday I'll learn more about photography and take beautiful photos of my teenagers or more likely my Grandkids!

On another note...even though I am starting to HATE the snow, I am hoping for 2 more inches so that Muskegon can reach the 100 inches of snow mark. 100 inches? That is insane! We were at the beach over the weekend and I am certain I have not seen the lake this frozen ever. Usually there is still open water beyond the shoreline, but not this year. Its all like a giant glacier. Kinda pretty, but my spring fever is not allowing me to see its true beauty.

Gotta work tonight, gotta clean my kitchen. Need to clean up my studio. Cant seem to get off this computer. Gotta get going before the kids start looking for their lunches!

We are offically out of the terrible twos

Here we are the day after Teagen was born. She was such a little muffin!

She asked me to make her a "sunshine" cake. This is what I came up with. I guess even little ones get spring fever. And the Sun was shining on saturday.
She did really good opening gifts. Lots of thank yous that I didn't have to prompt!
One of her favorite gifts-A Cinderella dress and vanity from Aunt Rae-Rae. So thankful that I got one girly-girl out of the bunch!
Leighton was a big help in blowing out the candles.(all the way on the right) I think he was trying to get some pratice. I dont think Teagen even noticed.(Thank God, the drama to follow would have been a nightmare!)
Uncle gary got a PSP for his birthday and all the"Tech Guys" were interested. Grady couldnt take his eyes off it! Thats Jason's Bros oldest son Dillon on the left, and my Dad on the right.

Such a fun weekend(aside for the 7am Midnite Sun meeting on Sunday. Ugggh!) Our family is quite certain that I have completly lost my mind. I have been ranting since Grady's bday that I am DONE with parties! Too much stress, too much work and too much $$$. Generally I put on lunch and lots of apetizers. Do a huge cake or 2 cakes and then put together a theme with goodie bags. Then if 1 family has something come up, I'm suddenly short a bunch of kids and have WAY too much stuff. It happened to us twice last year when Brandon and Laura couldnt come kinda last minute. They have 4 kids. thats like 1/2 the party. Its alway totally beyond anyones control but it is still a total bummer.So I was done with parties. Cake and ice cream on the actual birthday. If you can make it, Great. If not, no big deal. No stress, very little $$. Totally didn't happen. A trip to Meijer sent me home with a bunch of food. Joan also offer to help and pitched in some wonderful food. Still no goodie bags, and I don't think the kids even noticed. A good compromise. I am a crazy woman. I don't think anyone would argue.

And Jason and I swear that she has grown up a lot just over the weekend. We joke that Teagen speaks "Teagenese" and only the members of our household are fluent. But all of a sudden her speach seems so clear and shes using complete sentences. One of our current favs is the use of the word "maybe". I hear it at least 25 times a day. It goes like this, "Mama, maybe I could have a drink of your pop?" or "Maybe I can get another yogurt?" We are totally enjoying all her quirkyness. Glad to have the terrible twos behind us(well for 6 months anyways)Glad to only have 1 in diapers. Excited to see whats next for us and watch this little family of ours grow up. Just not so fast!

Three years ago today...

My pregnancy with Teagen was our family's miracle. When I got preggo with her it was at a time I was thinking that maybe it just wasn't meant for us to have another baby.We can honestly say that we never tried for any of our kids. But the one pregnancy we did try so long for, was the one that miscarried December 03. I tracked my cycle and the whole bit. I didn't realize how devistating losing would be. So after that, I was DONE with the whole baby thing. Plus if we were to get pregnant, it would interfere with the family vacation that Jasons Dad and Stepmom were taking us on the next year. So we decided to wait a year. In April 04 I went to Florida with a big group of girlfriends. I think I truely relaxed for the 1st time in months. I felt so amazing when I got home. A month later I got pregnant. And that brings me to the posted photo. Wow. Like everyone says,it really has gone by so fast. But there we were, Feburary 22, 2005. We all went out for chinese for Gary's birthday. My "last meal" since I was having a c-section at 7am. I was terrified! Our life was SO nuts at the time. Summer and I were living in hotels and various homes of family while Jason and Brower refinished all the hardwood floors in my house. The dust and fumes we pretty bad, so we stayed away. Jason's whole family was at Disney that week on the vacation that we were ALL supposed to go on, but they wouldn't wait for us(I'm not bitter) And I find out 2 days before I am due that she is breech and too big to move. I cried and cried. Of course I went alone to that appointment. Thank God that I did not bring Summer, but it would have been nice to have Jay there. So I walked out of there shaking and crying like a blubbering fool. Call Jason in the car, still blubbering. I think I really scared him into thinking that there was something horribly wrong. No, the baby is just UPSIDEDOWN! Stubborn little bug. Some things never change:]

So I am living in those memories today. Amazes me how different my life is today, just 3 short years later.

Also its Gary's 30th today. Welcome to the club. Now every time I look at you, I am going to wonder if I look that old! ;)

Free Snow

Come spring, all the homes in our neighborhood that are actually on Pere Marquette, are burried in sand. They then stick signs in all of their yards advertising "free sand". Last year was cute when a "war" erupted, and neighbors' sign said "Free-er sand". Everyone thought it was funny and many of the signs got quirkier as the season wore on. Well in light of the current weather situation, my neighbor across the street added a big sign to their yard exclaiming,"FREE SNOW" . Jason said we should add "Free-er Snow" to our own yard. I went over to go take a picture of their sign but it was completely burried...in free snow.

Pretzel Hugs

These are what I made for Summer's class party. I usually use holiday specific M&Ms but we couldn't find any(except for the all green bags and I didn't think that was quite appropriate for 1st graders!). Big hit and I got a lot of request for the recipe so here is is. BTW- This comes from my good friend Becky Higgins;) (thats for you, Rachael!)

2 bags hugs

1 bag M&MS

1 Bag square pretzels

Arrange pretzels on cookie sheet. top with an unwrapped hug put in 300 degree oven for 6-8 minutes. remove and top with 3 M&Ms. put in fridge for an hour. I don't even really like whit choc. but these are pretty fantastic!

My little valentines

For so long, Valentine's was just about Jason and I and if we would be able to get into a resturant. But now we have these special little people to share the love.

The 2nd pic is Leighton and Teagen.

My fav is the 1st pic where Teagen's boots are on the wrong feet! Classic!

Oh, another day in the life...

I feel like nothing new has happened since I last posted, but actually its kinda been non-stop bits of craziness around here. Aside from being plain old sick of the weather and road conditions, we have enjoyed the snow days. It also worked out because Summer has had a few more acid flare ups that took her down for a couple days and it just so happened that we had snow days anyway. Shes much better. It takes a lot out of her and she's sleeping a ton. Teagen is Teagen. She is now peeing her pants to punish me for punishing her for various things. She says " I peed on purpose!" So thats fun. I am working on not showing any emotion when she has an accident so that she will not get any satisfaction from a negative response. Pray for me. I am not a patient person.
And oh Grady. Poor kid. He has the mystery fever. I only noticed that he felt warm like last friday or so. Saturday he was pretty down but no symptoms of anything. Sunday he was all the way up to 103.5. The highest fever I have ever seen. Got it down with Mortin. Its wednesday and he is still warm. Acting normal. Its so weird. I just want it to be Spring so I can open the windows and we can actually go outside for more than 10 minutes. Leighton's been sick too, so today is the 1st day he's been here for a while and he still seems pretty ill. He's already such a little guy he can't afford to lose any more weight.
Oh yeah, and Jason almost broke his hand at work. Seriously if he was anyone else, it would be broke. But his bones are so strong (never had a broken bone and he has lived a crazy-boys' life) that he just suffered some pretty major contusions to his right hand. Of course that was the day it snowed like a foot in a matter of 3 hours. So I did some shoveling. Something I never do. His hand is better now. He's back to shoveling. I'm happy.
On a fun note, Grady is having a language explosion! It is so awesome. He is counting to 10(what?) and sorta sings along with the alphabet. He also is singing the Sponge Bob Theme Song. He has more words than I can keep count.Even a couple sentences,(sorta) "Get Down." and "Mama, up." He walks around with the phone and shouts "ELLO? garbble,garrbble,hmmph, BYE!" Sometimes he sound like one of those NYSE guys yelling "BUY!SELL!SELL!BUY!" into their cell phones. Its so funny. He is a very animated kid. And he understands everything we say. He can answer everything with yes or no. When he gets in a "NO" mood, we mess around with him and the other kids just crack up.Like, "Grady, do you want a new puppy?" NO. "Grady, do you want to go to DisneyWorld?" No. "Grady do you want a candy bar for dinner?" OK, this one he catches the word candy and is like "What?" Without a doubt 18 months has been my favorite age for all 3 kids. Of course its all fun, but this is an age of discovery and accomplishment. And watching it unfold is the best reward we ever get.

1983

Happy Birthday Rachael. Hopefully this will be the best 29th birthday that you will ever have! You can't tell by the scanned pic, but we have on some of the craziest clothes ever. I personally dig the pink velcro sneakers, Rae's sweet sweater and my killer raincoat. See ya tomorrow!

She's OK

Well, no "episodes" since yesterday morning. This is a huge relief, telling me that the doc was right.(hopefully) Basically it all stems from a couple of weeks ago when we all had food poisoning(dang Burger King) and were throwing up. Summer's was pretty bad. Apparently it left lesions in her esophagus and are in turn causing acid reflux. He offered to do more testing but concidering the history, he was certain thats what the problem was. Put her on Zantac for a week or 2 and it should go away. BTW-liquid Zantac must be the most horrible tasting substance known to man. And because it was so expensive(over $60, with insurance!) we warned her that she HAS to take it. She is being such a trooper about it. I let her chase it with apple juice and a little treat. It is so nasty. Also I think she is just so amazed that shes not feeling like garbage anymore.
Sorry to be such a Drama Queen over this whole thing. We don't see a lot of medical issues in this house. For sure this year was the worst yet for colds and tummy bugs. Even Strep throat went through the house. We have been very fortunate over the years. No ear infections (Except Summer had 1 last year)we don't even get runny noses very often. I think thats why when something does go wrong, I go into freak-out mode. I need to work on that.
Thanks for the comments and phone calls. It feels good to know I have people to turn to for support.

Questions...

OK,so not so much of a journal post, but more of a question for anyone reading. Something is not right with Summer. For a week she keeps having episodes of thinking she's going to throwup. Never does. Its always either in the morning or at night and has not lasted for more than an hour. Then shes totally fine. But durring an episode, she refuses to leave the bathroom fearing she will get sick. I ask where does she feel sick, is her tummy upset? No, then she points to the base of her throat and says its like something is stuck there. I wonder if this is a kids way of describing heartburn. So 11:30 at night on saturday I run up to Walgreen and get her childrens Pepto because she is just so miserable. Of course by the time I get home she is out cold and I can't even wake her to chew a couple tablets. Since then it has happened every morning and night. I even had to go get her from school today because it was still bad from this morning. The pepto does NOT seem to work. That was about 9:20 and shes totally fine now. Eating and the whole works. She goes to the Dr. today to get it checked out, but I worry that they will just give her meds and not try to figure out whats going on.
Does anyone have any experience with anything like this? None of my kids even spit up as babies, so if it is reflux, it is totally new and sudden. And she is almost Seven. Why is she having trouble now? Stress?
I'll post again later when I hear what the dr has to say.

How to spend naptime...

I had a million things I needed to do today. I usually wait for Grady to nap to do a lot of stuff and then just go like mad until he wakes. But today Jason went ice fishing all day and the girls were bored. So we had a little fun. They worked very hard learning to clean the berries and dry them, then being patient waiting for the chocolate to melt. I think Teagen only licked two! We were very proud of our creations. These are a couple of chocolate girls(like their mom)They even love dark chocolate(like their mom) They will eat anything if you can dip it in chocolate. When Summer was a toddler we even let her dip broccoli in hershey's syrup to get her to eat it! For the record, all the kids eat broccoli now and only need a little butter and salt. We try to save the hershey's syrup for special occasions.
Jason caught like over 100 perch, so thats cool. I don't cook them, but I'll eat them. The kids and I mostly just played and made messes all day. ( can you say MOON SAND?)Just got everyone to bed and Jason and I are gonna hang out for a while. We have the whole day tomorrow with nothing we have to do! Even the grocery shopping is done. Maybe we will go sledding (I'm looking for the photo op) or maybe we will do nothing. We'll see if I can get a good picture of that!