Callum--Setting the Example

Gotta love him!! 

I always knew he was my special spirit sent to our family. 

But he just proved once again how spiritual he is.

We were reading our ward newletter Sunday at church.  He leaned over & whispered to me, "Mom--I don't want to attend the Easter Egg hunt this year."

I asked why & he replied, "Because I want to watch & listen to General Conference instead." (if you don't know what General Conference is, click here)

Our town's egg hunt is Saturday, April 3rd at 10 am.  That is when General Conference begins.

I--being the "spiritual" person that I am--thought that we would just have to be really quick at the hunt, and miss the first 1/2 hour of conference.

But when Callum told me that, I knew that was what we needed to do.

So our family will be holding our own Easter egg hunt between sessions on Saturday.  Brienna & Ethan are going to help me get the eggs ready & hide them.  We plan on doing about 100 plastic eggs.

At the town egg hunt, the eggs that have stickers are worth 50 cents, so we will put stickers on some & names on others.  And candy in the rest.

I am grateful to have children to teach me and remind me what should be the priority in my life.

So--thanks again, Callum.

I L♥VE YOU!!

Quickest "Cure" for Sick Momma's:

I've been sick today.

I laid around all day, could hardly do more than fix a little food for the 3 "sick" kids I had home today.

(By sick, I mean that Callum stayed home from school with his horrible cough/hacking.  But by lunch, he was better & didn't cough again until night.  And Emmalee & Benjamin both have pink eye--Emma worse than Ben.  But it is the 2nd time for Ben.)

The 3 youngest had a blast all afternoon--sword fighing, climbing all over me, hiding (throwing for Ben) Easter eggs, and being really loud.

And guess which ones took a nap today?? 

NONE of them!! (Including me)

When the older kids got home from school, they helped out around the house. Zane brought in wood & helped with dishes.  Brienna loaded the dishes, & Ethan vacuumed the floor.

Why did the floor need vacuumed?

Mostly (95%) because Benjamin L♥VES to get into EVERYTHING!!'

Today his crumbled up his toast (oh, and by the way--we have carpet in most of the house.  yep--even the dining area), spilled his crackers & dry cereal.

And then he dumped out yet another box of crackers.  Not his snack ones, but of course MY favorite crackers--Multi-grain Wheat Thins.  And not the small box, but the family size one.

He dumped the whole box out, on top of all of the toast, cereal, and ground in crackers from earlier. 

Oh--did I mention that I just opened the box yesterday?

And then before Callum could get them picked up, he danced in the crackers.

I do have to give him credit for helping Callum pick them up.  And he did come & give me a hug afterwards. (Good thing he is so darn cute!)

Now--none of these things are the "cures" for sick Momma's.

THIS is the "Cure" for sick Momma's:

After everyone is home, helping out, & dinner (corn dogs & tator tots) is in the oven,  go in your bedroom & lay down for a nap.

Get really comfy on your bed, listen to the family eating dinner, settle into a "deep" sleep, and then hear your husband say the following words enthusiastically:

"Your shirt's on fire!!!"

He said it so loudly, I immediately thought one of the boys was building the fire & caught his shirt on fire.

I jumped out of bed & dashed into the living room (I now hold the world's record for how quickly one can get into the other room).  

Although it only took me 1.1 seconds (or maybe 10), I kept waiting to hear a screaming child & was grabbing for towels and getting ready to grab a pitcher of water.

As I rounded the corner, I yelled, "What happened?"

"NOTHING--why did you get up?"

"Rusty--you said someone was on fire."

He said--"oopps!!  I said 'Liar, liar, your shirt is on fire.'"

This is the shirt that Zane was wearing today.

So after my heart settled back down into my chest, I wasn't a bit tired so I sat down with the family to eat dinner.

Okay--maybe I'm not "cured" from my sickness, but my motherly instinct to protect my youngin's is 100%.

Just 3 words:

MORE SICK KIDS!!!

(I hope I get a chance to post more pictures--a lot has happened in the last week!!)

Benjamin

I just wanted to post these adorable pictures of Benjamin--he is 15-16 months old in these pictures.

I can't believe that he will be going to nursery in 6 weeks

The Girls

The girls were home all day Tuesday without the older boys.  Rusty took the boys to Rexburg & IF for appointments & shopping.

Benjamin stayed home with mommy, and it was a quiet, lazy day at home.

This picture is actually from a couple of weeks ago when Brienna was sick :(

The boys first went to Rusty's eye dr. appointment.  Then they looked at a couple of apartments in Rexburg for Ethan. 

Sidenote: Ethan was accepted to BYU-I and was placed in the Winter/Spring track.  So he won't start classes until January 2011.

Then they headed to IF and Callum go his allergy shot.  They ate lunch and then did some shopping.

Zane got a new scooter--for a great deal.  Now Zane won't have to fight Callum for a turn on Callum's scooter.

I should have done some cleaning while they were gone, but instead, we played &  were lazy ☺  It was a good day.

Emmalee

She is too cute!!!  And she is a ham whenever I get the camera out.

Emmalee loved the bubble bath with Benjamin!

She picked this outfit for school all by herself!!

She wanted a picture of her hair--it was a pony tail up on top of her head.

And this was the result ☺

And this

I told her to open her eyes & try not to smile.

So she opened her eyes....AND her mouth

I did sneak this photo of her hair.

When the cat came home, she wanted to see if she could still hold him.

(And I changed batteries and forgot to change the default date--so it was actually Saturday, March 13, 2010)

Zane's Cat

Zane's cat disappeared for well over a month.  He searched the town several times for him.

Then out of the blue--he showed up in our yard.

He must have found some friends--girl friends???

As you can see--he definately isn't starving!! 

Callum

This Callum's education fair project.  Each child in his class had to make a building from our town & they made the town of Dubois.  He got the Leather Shop--and our science teacher lives in the back of it.

(He had to show everyone his gum--he is being goofy!)

So if you look close--there is an airplane at the top of the brown part of the roof.  Our science teacher has an airplane & flies a lot in the fall & spring.  The water tower is behind him.

Okay--I let Callum have a mohawk--for a few days.  Since it is spring break & he won't be at school.  But I will cut the rest of his hair Saturday.

Before church!!!  But he does look good in it--for a mohawk (if you can't tell--I don't really care for them).

Benjamin

I'm so glad that I love Ben as much as I do--he is getting to be a big handful!!!

Here are a few of his 'cuter' moments:

He has learned to play Connect Four--or at least how to put the checkers in the slots.

He does have a preference for the red checkers--and lets everyone else use the black ones.

Benjamin wins!!!

He is laughing because I said "Ewww, Gross!!!!  That is Ethan's dirty clothes bag!!!  Ewww--get out of there Ben!"  And he thinks whenever I say "Ewww" or "Gross" or "Yuck" that it is the funniest thing ever!!

Walking in daddy's shoes (shoe).

Lately, whenever I try to do some cleaning (put away dishes, laundry, pick up toys, etc,), Benjamin has some sort of radar that lets him know Mom is NOT paying attention to him.  That must mean he can get into everything he is not supposed to get into!

He has dumped out 2 boxes of cereal (almost full boxes) and did the happy toddler dance in the piles of cereal.

He took DVD discs out of their boxes and rubbed them all over the nice clean (ha, ha) floor.  (so who knows if they will still play??)

Everytime I turn around to do cleaning, I have twice (or more) of a mess to clean up from what Ben has been into.  Thus, I have resorted to mostly cleaning late at night.

And his latest "accomplishment":  Opening up the fridge, getting a bottle of habenaro hot sauce, opening the lid, and taking a drink from it.

Amazingly, he just stuck his tongue out and wanted a drink, but overall thought the whole thing was fun and games.  (I wasn't home at the time--I was at Relief Society!!!)

Boy--he keeps me on my toes!

More Sickness

Yesterday (Thursday) Brienna called me from school a little after 9 am.

Her throat hurt & she didn't feel good.

And she has been sick since.

Zane's throat starting hurting Thursday afternoon/evening.

And so now we have more sickness--Brienna & Zane are both down.  Brienna is probably a little "worse" than Zane, but it just isn't fun to have so many sick ones!!!

We are still doing breathing treatments for Callum & Ben.  But Benjamin fights the nebulizer & so I have resorted to getting a good treatment in only at night when he is nursing & half asleep.  When I try one during the day, he will breathe in once, & then the fight is on.

And talking about fights----I hate giving medicine to toddlers!!!  It takes 2 of us to give Benjamin his antibiotic.  While someone holds his hands & feet, I have to plug his nose to get him to swallow & not spit it out.  I can't wait for the medicine to be done!

I can't wait until the weather is warmer (& the ground is less slushy & muddy) so the kids can play outside more & get fresh air!!!  SPRING, where are you????

Sick kiddos

We have had sickness in our home for most of  February. 

Benjamin has been sick since Wednesday, so when he was still running a fever Sunday, had a cough & no appetite, I decided to call the doctor Monday morning. 

Callum also woke up with a fever, & Emmalee still had her fever (since Friday). 

So I piled all 3 sick kids in the van after lunch & drove to town.

This is Friday--Zane also has been sick most of February.  He missed a couple days of school.  He still isn't 100 percent, but he if feeling better.

At the doctor's, no one was running a fever (of course), but they all had that "wonderful" cough.

Emmalee was probably on the path to RSV, but since she hasn't been sick very long, they hope they caught it in time.  They gave her a stong cough medicine & told me to watch for the other signs of  RSV.  And to put a humidifier in her room.

Callum was given medicine for his wheeziness (a stronger asthma medicine for a couple of weeks), an antibiotic for what is probably bronchitis, & a few breathing treatments with the Nebulizer.

Callum was a trooper & used the nebulizer all by himself.  They checked his oxygen levels & they were at 92.  90 is the "warning" point.  Most of the time our oxygen levels are close to 100.

We borrowed Grandpa Stewart's portable machine (he uses a nebulizer every day).

The doctor was pretty sure Ben had RSV just from hearing his cough.  But they swabbed his nose & tested him for RSV (came back positive).  His oxygen levels were 87--low but not low enough to hospitalize him.  Plus he wasn't dehydrated--thankfully he still nursed well while he has been sick.  On top of that, he also has an ear infection (but hasn't been playing with his ear). 

Benjamin wasn't so cooperative with his breathing treatments.  This was the 1st attempt.  He is trying to eat the mask.

Although this looks like he is holding the mask, he is really trying to pull it away from his face.  I finally waited until he fell asleep, then gave him the treatment.  I'm not sure what I am going to do in the morning.  He is supposed to have 3 treatments a day.  I think I can do the last 2 during nap time & at bedtime, but I guess we'll see what happens in the morning.

I think that shopping with 3 sick kids (while waiting for the prescriptions) should be considered a work-out.  I  ended up getting more groceries that I first planned, so the check out was fun--Ben didn't want to sit in the shopping cart most of the 45 minutes in the store so I held him while manuvering the cart, putting groceries in, & loading them in the check-out!!!  Fun, fun, fun!

I am just glad that we have medicines to hopefully help them get over their sicknesses!!