quiet please...

TRAINING IN PROGRESS!

In case you can't see. The peanut butter is slathered on from tippy toe clear up both of their thighs. Their arms are covered and yes it is in Briea's hair!

i think when i rounded the corner and saw this, i could actually feel my blood pressure rise and a few hairs turn grey.

oh how i was hoping that ayla would not think briea's naughtiness was appealing.

guess that is not going to happen.

oh well, you know what this means right.

many more entertaining posts to come!!

ps. i think they might be on to something. after lathering themselves in peanut butter and then taking a bath, their skin was even more soft than normal!! if they make millions from it, this will all be forgotten! ;0)

Oh Jeez!

the kids were out side playing in the sprinkler. i was snapping pictures like crazy, as i usually do. sometimes I don't even realize some of the shots that I have gotten until i come inside and put them on the computer. i laughed so hard when i saw this. i thought, oh jeez..my little model. Garran just rolled his eyes. He basically said the same thing I did. It is just so funny, because I know I just snapped this as she was playing and she was in no way posed, but she looks like some mini model posing for me.

seconds.

it took me a while to decide if i wanted to blog about this our not. however, this is our family journal of sorts and i want to remember everything. good and bad. so i am posting this.

the reason i titled this post seconds is because that is how long it takes. seconds, for things to change. for something to go wrong.

the other night we were eating dinner. ayla had already ate and so we let her crawl around while we had dinner. she was right in the kitchen with us, just playing while we had dinner. it had been a long day of having the garage sale and so i made an easy dinner. we had loose meat sandwiches and chips. Briea had dropped some chips on the floor and Ayla had wandered over that way and scooped one up. (she has been eating solid foods as she has four teeth) so i was not in a huge rush to grab it from her. all of a sudden i could hear her coughing. i looked up and saw that she was having some problems. garran got to her first and scooped her up. he did a finger sweep with no luck. he then flipped her over and tried patting her on the back a few times, try to dislodge it. when he flipped her back over she was turning blue. my heart sank into my stomach. luckily garran and i both stayed calm, but it is still a nauseating feeling to see your child in trouble and feel as if nothing you are doing is working.

when garran flipped her back over i tried a finger sweep again, not really getting anything, so i tried again as he flipped her over and patted her back again. whatever we did must have worked because she vomited and was able to take a few breaths. a few seconds longer and i was going to be on the phone with 911. i was so thankful when i saw her take those first few breaths. garran rushed her to the bathroom to make sure she had gotten it all up and to clean her up. i calmed our other children down, as we were all sitting right there at the table together.
her color was not the same for about 20-30 minutes after. she was looking pale and splotchy. however she was alert and acting perfectly normal.

i am so thankful that things worked out ok. i have been counting my blessings every day since. every time i look at my sweet baby girl, i think how quickly things could have gone the other way. i am so thankful that she is ok. i truly feel blessed. i look at that picture above and can not imagine life without her.

make sure you hug your babies extra tight. i know i have been since Saturday!

melting.

melting.

yep. that is what my heart does when i look at this picture.

Ayla just loves Cullan.

I love that he is just sitting with her.

i love that you can see her sweet baby rolls.

I love that my kids may not always get a long but deep down look out for each other.

i love that they will have these memories.

i love that i will have them too!

nose polish

due to the fact that garran and i are both sick we stayed home today and have been hanging out. we both are having sinus issues.

this morning garran was in the bathroom and had some Vaseline on the end of a q-tip. he was swabbing the inside of his nose because it had gotten so dry.

cullan walked in and asked what he was doing.

garran responded that he had to put that in his nose because it had dried out.

cullan responds, "ah nose polish, i understand!".

Happy Fathers Day!!

this year for fathers day  we decided to do something different.

instead of sending regular fathers day cards, we decided to try something that we thought would be much cuter. 

we made a cd for each grandpa and had the kids sing a song.

i think it came out pretty cute. 

of course it did not go according to plan, but i think that made it all the better.

here is what the grandpa's saw when they opened their packages that they got in the mail. the kids helped me design them!

and here is the video that was inside when the pushed play!

i realized now that we probably should have done it some other time, because the kids were just about to go to bed. so yes they are in their pjs. still cute though i have to say.

as for my own handsome hubby, this year we kept fathers day pretty simple. 

i surprised him this morning with a little note on the table.

then he got to pick his father's day dinner. 

chicken enchiladas!

other than that we are just going to relax at home and enjoy each others company.

unfortunately garran and i are both sick, so we did not go to church today.

hopefully we will be feeling better soon.

i am so thankful for garran and for the amazing father he is. 

i could not have asked for a better person or some one who is more fun to raise my kids with.

i love him more than he knows...and our kids do to!

guess Im out.

last night i was laying on the couch playing with briea. my shirt had come up just a bit above my pants. basically you could see my belly button. anyways cullan happened to be standing there and noticed something else. STRETCH MARKS. he all of a sudden was very concerned about what was wrong with my stomach. i told him that i had those from having him and Kael, Briea and Ayla in my tummy. That when your skin stretches that happens sometimes. 

That did not bring him much comfort. he went over to garran and asked if he had seen my stomach. Garran said that he did know about the stretch marks and that they were ok. That they did not hurt me and that they were just from having babies. 

All of a sudden Cullan burst into tears and says. Mom is going to die from her stretch marks and then you will have to marry some one else.

i thought. wow, well that was quick. a few stretch marks and i am out the door ;0)

garran reassured him that i would not die from stretch marks and that he was not going to marry anyone else because of them either. 

i got a good laugh from this but cullan was still very concerned.

he came downstairs this morning asking if he could see my stomach. he said he wanted to check on my stretch marks. i reassured him once again that i was fine, that they did not hurt, and that i was not going to die from them.

i don't know if that comforted him much. however after our conversation  i thought to myself, please don't let me be the first person to die from stretch marks. i can see the news stories now!!

workin!

this year I am actually kind of excited for father's day.

I have been working on some fun stuff for all the fella's in our lives!

mainly garran and the grandpas!

i will post my ideas after father's day.

don't want to give anything away.

where i got my saying above!!!

crawling.

some cuteness while crawling!

(sorry these are blurry. i really need to clean my lens)

 i stopped mid cleaning to take some pictures of ayla. she was just being so cute. Cullan wanted to take a picture, so hey, even though i look a mess..... I made it on the blog!!

um yep, she likes to eat wipes. she just so cute while doing it that i took her picture!

briea the blade.

I have decided that Briea the Blade will be Bs new mob name. 

That is what we are going to start calling her when she roughs the boys up. 

this picture is a direct result of her naughtiness and daddy being a little forgetful. 

it's ok. we have forgiven them both.

garran had shaved for church and we were running late and so he left his razor on the counter. later that night the kids were upstairs playing. all of a sudden Kael came down stairs crying. his hand was bleeding. i cleaned it off and looked at it. it did not look that severe but it was bleeding pretty heavily. so i cleaned it up and put a bandage on. 

we found out that briea had taken the razor and some how cut Kael's hand. I do not know if it was an accident or not. we made everyone hug and say sorry that was involved. 

this morning however Kael's hand was still bleeding a good amount. We decided to take him to the ER. the doctor said that it was not a very deep cut, but that the reason it was bleeding so much was because when briea got him, she actually took a few layers of skin off. ouch! so they put some surgical stuff on to control the bleeding and bandaged him up. he really loved being the center of attention and the fact that all the nurses were telling him how cute he was. 

so two days with a bandage and we will have one kael good as new!

Benefit for Oliver!!

the local news did a story on our friends son Oliver. He was diagnosed with a brain tumor that is inoperable. His parents are trying to get the word out to raise money for research as very little is done on pediatric cancer in general, but especial DIPG which is what he has.

it's offical

she is on the move!!

birthdays!!

Happy Birthday to my Aunt Monica. 

She is a great lady and is always so sweet and thoughtful when it comes to everyone she knows. 

Hope you have a great birthday Monica!!

 my sisters birthday was yesterday, but i did not get around to posting about it. 

hope you had a great 23rd birthday!!

I'm sure adventureland was perfect yesterday in the heat!

my morning laugh.

once again this morning started with cullan coming in and sitting on the bed while i was playing with Ayla. Garran was geting ready for work and so we were all just kind of chatting. the following was our conversation.

cullan: dad what is moms favorite animals?

dad: why don't you ask her?

cullan: mom, what is your favorite animals? are they horses?

me: well i like horses but i like other animals too. i have to admit i am kind of partial to turtles.

cullan: oh

then he proceeds to sing a song a out the new information that he has just learned.

(imagine cullan singing this)

"mom's favorite animal is turtles.

grandmas favorite animal is horses. 

Brieas favorite animal is....REVENGE!!"

garran and i both started dying laughing. we could not believe he had just said that. i laughed so hard. then cullan proceeded to sing.

"she is like a giant volcano"

hmm. do you think he thinks that his sister has some anger issues?

ps. after all this he told garran that if garran were an animal, he would be a giant chipmunk.

this kid has some personality!

sprinkler lovin!

today it was so stinkin hot.

I am pretty sure it was in the 90's.

the kids and I had a ton of errands to run and so on the way home i caved and stopped to buy a sprinkler.

8.00 well spent. 

it was perfect once we got out there.

there was a breeze, the water was cold but it was hot.

the kids had a blast, and so did i.

it's days like this that i am so grateful that even though my husband is a student, that i am able to stay home with my kids. 

i had so  much fun watching them squeal with delight as they jumped through the sprinkler and ate their popsicle.

 B was a little hesitant at first.

 lizzy was just thrilled that i let her try and gnaw on a popsicle.

 oh, so close. this has to be one of my most favorite pictures ever!!

 there we go. she finally got a lick!!

 garran said that this is Kael's Greek God pose.

 cullan lovin it!

 everyone finally diving in and having all kinds of fun. i even went through a few times. it was steaming outside.

 b came to tell me that the sprinkler shot her in the eye. this is her pitiful face.

 cullan thinking it would be a fun game to spit water. i had to inform him it was not.

 my sweet sun bathing beauty!

 the star of the show. mr. personality himself.

then my big kid came home and decided to go through with the kids. i love that he jumps right in. it just makes me smile.

anything sweeter.

I mean really. This has to be my most favorite video ever...or so far of Ayla!

she is so adorable. i mean you would have to be cold hearted to think that this is not the most adorable baby laugh!!

sorry its side ways. could not get it to rotate.

stats.

my sweet little lizzy lu is 7 months. due to illness she could not go at her 6 month check. here are her stats.

weight: 19.2 lbs 75-90%

height: 26.3 25-50%

other accomplishments,

army man crawling

oohing and ahhing and mimics kissing noises

pulls up on the couch or other objects to stand for a minute or two.

gets cuter every day.

our nights in a nutshell.

i saw this and could not stop laughing. it was hilarious and SO TRUE. this is totally how our night seems most nights.

more moments to remember!

Tonight I got home from grocery shopping. Kael came over and sat down on the couch next to me and said, "mom, I am so glad you came home safe." I love sweet moments like that!

Cullan, as we were leaving the grocery store says from the back of the van, "attention, this is your capiton speaking. Please prepare for landing!". A little while later he and Kael were fighting. I said, " ok when we get home both of you are in time out!" cull an replies, "fine mom, you win again!".

Today on the way home from church, Kael was talking and cull an interrupted him and said, "hold on Kael, pause like an iPod." I don't know why, but I laughed so hard at that.

well....

if nothing else, my kids will grow up with a sense of humor!!

cullan has decided that he loves to cut his own hair. once again, we will have to lock up the clippers and the beard trimmer. Cullan shaved a straight line down the middle of his head. So garran fixed it like this. he thought it would be a good punishment. unfortunately for us, Cullan LOVES IT. so much so that kael thought it was pretty cool and wanted to do it too. i have decided that i will never leave the men folk in this family alone in the bathroom again!!

the bomb squad.

 when most of my mornings look like this. i end up with multiple children in my bed, big round circles around my eyes. trying to get out of bed can be tricky. sometimes i think to myself that it as almost as if i am on a bomb squad. any little movement could set one of my little "sleeping angels" off. i especially thought this this morning. Garran was leaving for work. he came to give me a kiss goodbye and so i started to get up. I looked down and realized that i had two children in my bed. i instantly started my game plan as to how i could move the blankets and the leg that one of them was laying on to escape and yet still leave them sleeping. (don't get me wrong. i love my kiddos more than anything. i just like to be up for a little bit before the day goes into full swing!)

so this is how i felt. "start the mission". i delicately move the blankets, slide my leg out. I think i am doing awesome. i grab my phone and start to head down stairs. i am feeling so happy that i was able to maneuver my way out without detonation. then with the first creek of the step as i head down stairs i see a head pop up from my daughters bedroom. "Hi Mommy!".  BOOM! 

what was i thinking. i did not take in to consideration the trip wires that are the creaking stairs. 

oh well. the day begins. Briea and I went down stairs and watched Dora for a while. i guess the sweet hugs i got will make up for the quiet time i did not get. ;0)