so many appointments

I feel like this is the month of appointments.  

It's exhausting.  

*I'm sorry if this post puts you to sleep, I will be napping momentarily* 

Lets start with Simon

 

 Simon is 2! He's just a little guy.  He's always been in the 5% for weight and height.  At his 2 year old check up the Dr sent us home with a referal to the hospital for blood work and First Steps for speech therapy.  Blood work because he hadn't gained any weight since his last check up. (probably because at his last appointment he was getting stitches removed and was weighed with clothes and shoes on.  just sayin) and speech therapy because he doesn't talk. I think speech therapy would be great.  He's resourceful, he grunts, points, screams, moves chairs around the house etc to get what he wants.  Words would help SO much.

1. first First Steps consultation and LOTS of paperwork.  2. hearing test. (he was TERRIBLE. screamed and very uncooperative.  took forever) failed left ear. :( 3. blood work. (he was an angel no crying/screaming laid perfectly still waved to everyone as we left?)  4.  First Steps evaluation.  lots of puzzles and listening/direction games.  even more paperwork.  The evaluator scored everything before she left.  She said his ability to follow directions brings up his speech score.  She said she wasn't sure if he'd qualify!?  he has 8 words.  5. follow up with pediatrician for left ear. He got some of his ear wax removed and was given ear drops.  Dr saw some concerns if he fails ear test again we'll be referred to the ENT.

Second hearing test is scheduled for the beginning of January.  Hopefully it will go better than the first.  fingers crossed tight.  Still waiting for the meeting where we get Simon's speech results.

 

Over the summer Aunt Kelly (who used to be a sleep study tech) was listening to Gabe snore.  She pointed out all the times that he stopped breathing and said we should take him in for a sleep study.  At his school check up I asked his Dr for a referral.  Gabe had his sleep study on the 5th.  We got the results Thursday.  Gabe stopped breathing almost 300 times (averaging to every other minute).  Mostly from obstructive apnea (tonsils), but some from a central apnea.  The sleep Dr is hoping taking his tonsils out will fix both problems.  If not, more tests.  We'll find out 3 months after his tonsils are taken out at another sleep study. He went to the ENT yesterday.  Tonsils are scheduled to come out 1/20.  The dr said that he proabbly won't be outpatient. 

Gabe's personality is very hot and cold.  I'm wondering if getting better sleep will make a difference.  Kinda looking forward to February.  Maybe he'll magically become more patient and calm? :)

 

Over the weekend we were in Chicago for granny's surprise birthday party.  So Fun.  The morning after the party M woke up with a 102 fever.  :/  She responds well to medicine, but crashes when it wears off.  When we got home Sunday she was 104.  Brought her to the Dr yesterday.  She doesn't have the flu.  Just some nasty virus.  She woke up today fever free, so she should be back at school tomorrow.  

 This cute boy hasn't been to the Dr at all this month.  knock on wood hopefully it stays that way. 

Hope everyone is having a healthy holiday season!  If you aren't you'll probably be bumping into us shortly ;)

that's us

Have you ever had an epiphany?  Have you ever thought wow it's 70 degrees on November 30 we should take some Christmas card pictures?  That was me on Sunday.  After church we went to a field by our house.  I brought a couple props thinking it would keep them entertained...  Yep.

 

 M punching G in the head

 L and S running away

The second Drew put Simon down he was running away. 

 

I got1 picture with everyone looking at the camera.  Amazing right!?  Stay tuned for our Christmas card which will hopefully go out this weekend.   ;)

field day

alright both of these pictures are of Molly...  (I got some pictures of Gabe texted to me, but they aren't on the computer yet)  But do you know what the most adorable thing ever is?  Watching a bunch of kindergarteners participating in field day.  I watched Gabe's class do a relay where they started with two carpet squares.  They had to stay on the carpets while racing to pop a balloon maybe 30 ft away.  They should have stepped  on a carpet then picked up the carpet behind them thrown it in front and continued.  yep.  It was priceless.  Somehow Gabe's class came out victorious.  You could tell what kids are going to be naturally athletic.  It was adorable.

is this really happening?

Our garage is in need of some love.  While I was chipping away at the paint Simon found mud.  Some days when things like this happen I get super frustrated and march them inside.  Today I decided to let them be kids and to let it happen.  Look at how happy he is.  I'm pretty sure no amount of shout will be saving this romper.

 While they were dirty I decided to wash out the sandbox.  Lincoln thought playing with the hose was the best thing ever.  He has a hard time holding his pants up in general.  Once they were all wet there was no way.  So he ran around splashing me, Simon and Franklin with them. 

 

I don't really want to imagine what anyone who saw us was thinking...  Yikes.  But it was a fun morning and they both took a really good nap. ;)  Do you ever let your kids play in the mud?  Do you have a really good stain remover?  I'm excited for summer.

levee trail

Sunday after dinner we went for a walk on the levee trail.  The Moormon-Farnsley Landing trailhead is maybe 2 miles from our house.  The trail will take you all the way up the Ohio River to downtown.  This old church was relocated and renovated a little less than 1 mile up the trail.  I think it's beautiful.  I'd love to get some closer pictures of it, but there was a wedding going on.  We decided to take a walk on a little gravel road that went behind the church.  We found a big swamp.  It looked like a horror movie.  I was waiting to see a body or a hand in the water.  Molly wanted nothing to do with this place.

 I think this shed is awesome.  wouldn't it be a fun background for some pictures.  I love me some rusty metal...  strange, but true.

 another little out building

 The path led to the Aydelott-Rosenberger house.  We didn't do much exploring.  There were no trespassing signs around the house and while we were close to the trail it felt really secluded and like we were doing something we shouldn't.  Drew also killed 3 big ticks.  ick.  I'm not a bug person.  Drew did a little research online and it looks like the plan is to renovate the house and let people rent it out with the church for parties and weddings.  Maybe one of my kids will have a reception there...  in the way way future.

And just for good measure a couple pictures from Moormon-Farnsley Landing.  It's a historical house that has been renovated.  This is a picture of one of the houses' off buildings.  The actual house is under some kind of construction.  It looked like maybe it's getting plumbling? 

 At the end everyone wanted to play with the water fountain and the dog fountain that's attached to it.  I love lazy Sunday afternoons.  Railroad tracks run along this section of the trail.  I'm thinking we're going to try some family pictures on them.  We're living on the edge.

past week in review

Monday
M & G didn't have school Monday.  I'm not sure why.  The roads were clear...  We spent the day at the Science Center.  Molly and Gabe complain that I take the little two and not them.  It was beautiful.  We practically had the museum to ourselves.  I take the littles to playgroup at the science center once a month.  I have to be honest having all 4 there was a little tricky.  Usually when Lincoln gets bored with something and walks away I pick up Simon and we follow Lincoln.  Having 3 big kids all wanting to go to different places and see different things kept me a little busier than I'm used too.   No one got lost and there wasn't any whining when we left.  Molly even thanked me for taking them as we got into the car to go home.  Wins all around :)
(The parking lot behind the science center is $5 to park in.  When we first moved here there was a woman who would take your money.  Now it's automated.  EVERY time we go to there Molly asks about where the woman in the booth is.  A couple years later and she's still upset that woman is out of a job.  I think it's kinda funny and amazing that she thinks/remembers her.)

Tuesday
I started a play group last summer.  It's really hit or miss.  I hosted.  One friend came.  I often think I should just let it die.

Wednesday
I religiously attend story time.  I LOVE libraries.  Its usually me sitting on a chair with Lincoln crawling all over me.  On occasion he'll go and sit with the other kids on the carpet, but usually not.  Simon usually participates more than Lincoln.  Simon loves clapping to the songs and watching everyone.  I usually leave him in his stroller.  Chasing after him as he pulls down books isn't appealing. 

Thursday
I got invited by some story-time moms to their play group.  It was nice there were 4 other kids almost the exact same age as Lincoln.  He didn't really play with them, but he played by them...  Two of the Three other moms also had little babies.  I felt a little old.  I think I was the only one who had school age kids.  One of the moms has twin girls (3 in March) and another set of newborn twin girls.  If she can juggle 4 kids at home I shouldn't complain about having my 2 with me all the time.  :)  The whole thing made me think of an article I read on facebook about "dating" other moms.  It's hard making new friends.  Hopefully I get invited again.

Friday
Valentines Day.  Molly's room mom flaked out again.  I had been planning different games/activities with her teacher all week.  I was also planning things with Gabe's room parent.  Friday at 5 in the morning I got a text from JCPS.  No School.  What?  I was disappointed. Lots of time and prep went into those parties.  Boo.  We spent the day at home.  My favorite part of the day was reading the JCPS press release that said school was cancelled instead of having an early release because they didn't want to disrupt their students.  It's Valentine's Day.  Really?  We went for a walk and Drew cooked us a special dinner.  I love steak! 

Saturday
Being with those story time moms on Thursday helped give me the motivation to potty train Lincoln.  I've been waited for a free weekend to potty train.  I've realized that's never going to happen and he's almost 3.  It went really well.  He had one small accidednt in the morning.  All one of us had to say was Lincoln if you pee in the potty you can have a peice of candy.  Lincoln would say ok and then pee.  Amazing.  We told him he could have some pop if he pooped.  He even did that twice.  Happy Day.  He took a nap in a diaper.  After nap he stayed in a diaper at a friends house.  Every 3-4 weeks we have a babysitting swap.  It's great.  Saturday was our night to go out.  We went to a dinner theater put on by some people from our church.  I thought it was really fun.  Not Drew's cup of tea.

Sunday
We went to church.  Lincoln was in a diaper at church and for his nap.  After that he was in underwear and had no accidents.  Yippie.  Hopefully in a week or so I'll only have 1 little boy in diapers.  I'm also looking forward to not being so paranoid. ;) Simon is walking more and more.  I wish I could say he wasn't crawling at all, but that would be a lie.  yes he is 16 months...  On the bright side he's figured out going down the stairs. 
 

Happy November 1st?

We went trick or treating November 1st with the Cluffs and Hebdons.  It was beautiful.

Dorthy

 Cowardly Lion

 Tin Man

 Scarecrow

 What a handsome bunch if I do say so myself.  :)

We trick or treated at the house of the math coach for M&G's school.  (She's the one Drew works with when he volunteers at the kids school Thursday mornings)  Molly lit up and said that her teacher told her that she was neighbors with the math coach.  Molly was really disappointed that we didn't see her teacher.  I asked Molly if she was going to tell Mrs M that she went trick or treating at the math coach's house.  Molly said "I'll write about it in my journal on Monday then Mrs M will read it and she'll know."  I love my socially awkward little girl.  Good job Molly, letting your teacher know without actually having to start a conversation.

Happy Halloween

M&G before leaving for school.

 My mom was in town the week of Halloween.  I thought ooohhhh she can help me make a Dorthy costume.  As always it was way more work than I was expecting.  My mom flew into town with my Aunt Jan.  She spent her time between us and my grandma and aunt.  Unfortunatley most of the time she was with me it was working on the costume, but Molly LOVED it and was thrilled.

Maybe a week and a half before Halloween I got a call from one of the PTA moms.  Molly's room mom broke her hand in several places and wasn't able to do the class party.  I really like Molly's teacher it was a pleasure working with her to plan the party, but it was also stressful only having a handful of days to plan everything.  The kids were divided into 4 groups and rotated through the planned activities.  I thought it was really strange that a bunch of moms came to the party, but didn't help.  MRS M asked if a couple of them would be willing to supervise one of the stations.  Only one mom said yes.  The rest sat along the wall watching.  If you're ever at a party with a lot of kids be useful!  Even if everything is really organized kids are unpredictable and the more help you have the better.  Off my soapbox ;)

 Halloween morning it was overcast and really warm.  Right as school was getting out as foretasted a huge storm blew in.  It got super windy, the temperature plummeted and the rain came.  It was gross.  Lots of  neighborhoods cancelled trick or treating.

We carried on with tradition and had white chili at the Fontana's house.

 Then we with the rest of Louisville headed to the mall.  It was like a big costume parade with no candy.  Don't my kids look thrilled ;)  I'll have to find a picture with us and my mom.  She found a really neat tree puppet and hung little apples all over it.  

 After the mall we went to my grandma's house so that she and Aunt Jan could see our costumes.  Aunt Jan had bought a bunch of candy to pass out to trick or treaters  With the weather being so terrible no one came.  Consequently we got to take all the candy home.  Halloween was saved.

cross country

 We've got another runner in the family.

A week or so before school started we went to open house night.  The gym was full of tables with information on what kinds of sports, clubs and activities that you could sign up for.  Most of the sports were for 4&5th graders except cross country.  Drew convinced the girl who would get upset every Friday morning last year because she HATED gym and HATED running to join the cross country team.  Know what?  She loves it.  She has practice Monday and Thursday mornings before school. Molly missed the first couple meets because of her surgery, but it didn't take her long to recover and she's done two races since.  These are pictures from her first meet.

Lincoln and Gabe rolling around wrestling each other. 

Simon was so funny every time I pulled out the camera he would scrunch his little face up and smile a big toothy grin.  LOVE it.

 Molly's race was a 1/2 mile.  She completed it in 4:14.  She was under a minute from the first girl and about 2 min ahead of the last.  She finished in the middle of the k-2nd girls.  The most exciting part...  She passed people!!!  If you know Molly or have ever seen her participate in things with anyone she isn't completely comfortable with you'll know this was HUGE.

 Gabe decided that next year he'll run too.  I think that was after he saw M's medal.   ;)

 One more of Simon because he cracks me up.

Happy Birthday Simon!

 lots of pictures  : )

 Friday morning Simon woke up around 10.  I pushed his dresser in front of his closet and moved the cedar chest away from the window so that I could have a mini cake photo shoot.  very messy, but very cute.  This was the best picture of the 5 min shoot.  I wish someone would have been in the room with me to try to get his attention.  He only looked up a couple times and unfortunately those pictures were blurry.  : (  I could have used Molly, but I thought Molly and Lincoln in Simon's bedroom with cake everywhere would be even more chaotic.  Luckily Simon's room is across the hall from the bathroom for easy clean up.  What better way to say happy birthday than by having cake for breakfast?  ;)

 When Gabe and Drew got home we headed to the park for a few more pictures.  

classic Simon face.

 my favorite

 look at those two little teeth...

 ready to be done

 yay for dad being around to tickle and save the day!

 doesn't he look thrilled to be with me?

 mmm I remember those cupcakes

 Things Simon LOVES (in no particular order): 

 being outside, fruit, climbing stairs, pulling out pots and pans, shoes, clothes, you name it, his brothers and sister, mommy, daddy, being tickled, phones, pinching, crackers, water, and Franklin.

It's been fun watching him as he's grown this past year both mentally and physically.  He's very observant and opinionated.  It makes me nervous and excited for what the next year will bring.  We're lucky to have this little guy.

argh.

 Tomorrow is Simon's birthday!  I'm planning on lots of pictures.  It's supposed to be a beautiful day.  Why does he have to have a rash all over his WHOLE body?  I love that little face.  A dimple on his right check and chin.  Know what I don't love?  That he looks like he has some kind of disease.  boo.  :(

On a lighter note.  Guess who came home with a mustache yesterday?  yep.  He wore it to the library and got a few double takes.  Drew called him Mario all night.  Although Gabe likes playing Mario Brothers I don't think he got the joke...

Hello

One of the things that really bugs Drew is when people say "I'm going to try..."  Drew always says just do it or don't.  Don't say you're going to try to do ...  for months.  I've been terrible at keeping our blog updated since well ... forever.  I've decided that I'm going to get back on the blogging wagon.  I miss it.  I'm forgetting some of the sweet day to day moments that are happening in our house.  School started lets see 5 weeks ago and we're finally getting into a good routine.  I have two boys at home that nap!  It's a miracle.  :)

Summer is always really exciting.  The kids always enjoy those first 3 weeks of freedom without a schedule.  Then we traveled for a few weeks.  We went to Nebraska for a little over a week to visit my parents and friends.  So So Fun.  I really miss Nebraska.  Then we were off to Chicago for a week to visit more family and friends.  We came home for a couple days to do laundry and repack and then we went to South Carolina for a week with friends.  I fell in love while we were there.  My new dream in life is to live next to the ocean.  Beautiful.  After all the traveling and time in the car everyone was happy to be home.  Well for a couple days and then the whining and bickering started.  I think they were ready to go/missing school.  And after those two weeks a part of me was ready to send them to school, but another part of me is so sad at the beginning of every school year.

 first day

Gabe started Kindergarten.  I was so nervous.  Gabe is a free spirit and I was scared that all-day-very-regimented kindergarten was going to kill it.  School started on a Tuesday.  Friday morning when I woke Gabe up for school he said "but I already did that yesterday".  The next week was really rough lots of tears and not wanting to get on the bus.  Broke. My. Heart.  Luckily it didn't last long and everyday he was really happy when he got off the bus.  I talked to his teacher and she said he's been doing great and hasn't been upset when he's there.  They get a new spelling word every week.  They're up to 4 words and so far he's got 100% on all of them.  Hallelujah.  Spelling tests are another thing I was really worried about with Gabe.  He doesn't have the best memory when it comes to things he isn't really interested in.  Numbers and letters fall into the things he couldn't care less about category.  I'm hoping that school continues to go well for Gabe.  I hope that he'll love learning.  The past two weeks have gone really well.  He's starting to talk about the kids in his class by name and not just "my friend".  His handwriting is also really improving.  It's fun watching the transformation.

Molly is in first grade.  She's loving it.  One of my favorite things is that everyday she comes home with a journal entry that she's written and illustrated.  I'm finding out so many things that I didn't know.  :)  I also love reading the way she thinks things should be spelled.  So sweet.  M joined the cross country team.  She practices Monday and Thursdays before school.  And then of course Drew takes her out running with him throughout the week.  So far she likes it.  Hopefully it's something that she'll continue to like. (maybe she'll get really good and it will be her ticket into a great high school?  :)  I think our school system is so weird.)  Molly had her tonsils taken out last Thursday.  She was so brave no tears and very calm.  Her nurse said that she won patient of the day.  The recovery is going well.  She's starting to get her voice back.  Hopefully she'll be ready to go back to school next Monday.

Lincoln wishes he was in school.  The first two weeks of school every morning I would hear "me school too!  I go bus too!"  several times.  He was really upset to be left behind.  How quickly things change last Saturday Lincoln was yelling at Gabe and said "you school go".  I started a play group 3 weeks ago Lincoln's been liking exploring different places with his friends we've also been going to story time.  We're keeping ourselves busy.

Simon turns 1 on Friday.  Part of me thinks that can't be right and the other part thinks he isn't 1 yet?  Simon is crawling and climbing on everything.  He loves making me big messes.  He has two teeth and the most adorable little smile.  He walks along things.  When I try to encourage him to walk by taking his fingers he'll do maybe 2 steps and then throw his head back and yell at me.  I imagine he's saying something along the lines of why are you pulling on my hands your standing pick me up.  I think it will still be a while before he has a desire to walk.  Simon still LOVES being held.  He definitely knows his siblings and is always looking for them and wanting to be where they are.  He's going to be a tough little guy.
That sums up the past few weeks.