Easter

It seems like Easter was ages ago. Fading memories in my shadowy mind. We spent the day with my mom and Stan. Perfect Easter weather I do remember that. I didn't even think to pack "good" clothes so we celebrated in our whatever was clean clothes. When we got to their house the boys found the Easter baskets that were waiting for them. They were filled with all sorts of awesome goodies. Foam soap, squishy balls, and tons of candy.

After rifling their baskets for all the sugar it was time to hunt eggs. They were acting all weird and calm when it was time to go outside. Normally they jockey for position and foam at the mouth until they are out the door. As soon as they did get outside though, it was time for some serious competition.


They were egg finding gurus.




Pretty Mommy. She was real excited about the egg hunt too.


Even J found some eggs. He loved the plastic ones because he knew how to open them. Mmm jelly beans. He cried because I took them away after this picture and gave him something a little more seven tooth friendly.


Tallying up the eggs. My boys know that I decide how much I love them by how many eggs they find. They always strive to be my favorite.








After the egg hunt, we spent the day on the Wii fit. Mike was awesome at the soccer ball dodging game. I excelled at the downhill jumping game. And my mom was the best stepper.


Easter hats made out of tissue paper are funny.

I remember when I was a kid, I always used to savor my candy. My mom would find old Easter and Halloween candy months after the holiday was long gone. The boys are not like that. They had all their candy gone within 48 hours!

Someone New

This weekend my mom had a barbecue at her house so we took a break from unpacking and went. It was a welcome break from our moving and unpacking. I even got to taste a mudslide for the first time. Delicousness. We had no idea that we would be leaving with a new little baby.

This precious little kitten fell into our laps when my cousin Dennis found him/ her (not quite sure yet) at his work. Mama kitty abandoned him for three days and Dennis took him home. The little thing is two weeks old today! It's eyes just barely opened on Saturday. My cousin couldn't keep it since he is allergic and I know from experience that it is hard to find a place that will take kittens this young without euthanizing them.

Being the cat lover that I am. I decided to take him under my wing. Seriously, I don't have enough stuff going on right? I only just moved, am still unpacking, raising four children, and one irritable cat. I can handle it.



Plus, who could say no to that face.

He currently weighs 4 oz. He eats from a teeny tiny bottle and requires lots of baths and bedding changes. It's just like having a newborn!



I took this picture just so you could see how big he isn't. He has a little bed in a box right next to my side of the bed. He meows so quietly when I walk into the room and loves to snuggle in my neck. I haven't decided what to name him yet, partly because I won't know if he is a boy or a girl for a few more weeks.

James thinks he is so interesting. He likes to here it meow and really really wants to grab it. James has never looked so dangerous before. I have to hold his hand and make him "pet" the kitten. He even tries to say kitty, it sounds like key when he says it.

I'm off to go change a diaper. Hey they should start making diapers for kittens. Umm never mind, diapers and furry butts probably don't mix.

Home is where the heart is....

And boy do we heart our home.

I'm BACK!!

I am so excited to be able to blog again. And to be sleeping in my own bed. In my own house. With my very cute husband.

We moved in on Saturday with the help of a very brave man. Our savior, Stan. If it weren't for him I would have been carrying a washer and dryer up fourteen stairs. Actually I probably wouldn't have, they would have never made it past stair one.

We have been unpacking and setting everything up ever since and yesterday I finally got around to setting up the computer. Now if I could ever find my usb cord to add pictures I could show off some of our new digs.

The boys are loving the new house and especially having their own rooms. Jason already has his room completely unpacked and looking good. He is very proud of it. They love the stairs and I already foresee numerous bumps and bruises in our future from random stair jumping incidents. Boys will be boys.

Just thought I would pop in and say hello. Gotta go pick up the boys from school but expect lots of posts in the near future!

Ahh, it's so good to be HOME.

Soon

The end is in sight. It seems like we have been waiting for so long now but we are finally almost there. We had to ask for a second extension because we didn't make our deadline (again). The bank got a little crazy with all of the information they needed. I wouldn't have been surprised if the asked me for a copy of my last pap smear. Thank you to all of you that helped us obtain all of the required information. You know who you are. It got a little crazy there and we really REALLY appreciate it.

On Monday we are closing on the house and we will have our keys on Thursday! Mike and I are so excited it's ridiculous. I can just imagine how we are going to feel once we have the keys in our hands. It has been a little hectic these past few weeks. The boys are definitely getting stir crazy. We are still temporarily living with Ryan and he has so much nice stuff that I really hover over them and don't let them do a whole lot. And don't even get me started on James. Every time I put him down he goes straight for the expensive electronics which are kept at knee length in the living room. So needless to say, I have been busy.

I really miss blogging. It had kind of become my daily meditation and I can't wait to get back to it. I promise it will only be one more week until I am officially back in blogging action. Are you excited? I know I am.

St Joe's

Saturday we woke up to a very distinct noise. As a mother of four children I have heard it many a times and I have learned to spring into action the moment I hear the first wretch. It was the sound of James puking at five or so in the morning. The poor guy had thrown up all over his little make shift crib and himself. I gave him a bath and got him into some fresh clothes and was rocking him in my arms when all hell broke loose.

I have experienced some pretty icky yucky disgusting things in my eleven years of motherhood but this next experience takes top prize. If you are eating read no more. At least not until you are done.

I was rocking James in my arms and was holding him belly to belly style. I felt it get real warm real fast and then sort of wet too. Then the smell hit me. God, the smell. James was pooping like a fountain. I am talking projectile diarrhea. I can now say that the amount of poo was almost comical. It seriously looked like someone just dumped a gallon of liquid on me and James. I didn't know what to do. It was dripping onto the floor so I ran outside. Then he started going again. More fountain. More dry heaves (that was me dry heaving). It smelled like someone just smashed a dozen rotten eggs in my face. I handed poopy boy over to Mike, stripped off my poo covered shirt which was now dripping on my big toe and ran for the shower. Mike got the overwhelming job of cleaning up James and his mess.

This was the beginning of a long six days.

After the initial mess, James threw up a couple more times and had more poo at least twice an hour for the entire weekend. I kid you not that poor boy went through at least 80 diapers in those two days. His poor little rear was so raw, he would scream when we would change him. His skin would literally peel off when we wiped him. It was really awful.

By Monday he wasn't really drinking much anymore and his energy was gone.

I took him to the ER.

He was seriously dehydrated and very low on electrolytes. We had just weighed him at my mom's house the week before and he had weighed 29 lbs. When he was weighed in the ER he was only 24 lbs! He lost nearly one fifth of his weight! They tried to get him hooked up to an IV and after the third poke, they found a vein. I guess being a cute little chubster has it's down falls. It's hard to find your veins. Then he got his first ambulance ride to St Joe's hospital since the other hospital didn't have a pediatric intensive care department. He loved the ride. He stared out the back windows of the ambulance and chewed on Jed the EMT's stethoscope. I never learned the name of the other EMT but he looked just like Steve Zahn. Same hair and everything.

He was admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit where he was issued a pint sized hospital gown and a metal crib. He was hooked up to an IV which was really annoying at first because they put it in the crook of his arm. Every time he would bend his arm (which was very often) the IV meter would beep like crazy and I would have to call in a nurse. All, through, the, night. On Tuesday when that vein collapsed they moved it to his hand and we didn't have the problem anymore.

As soon as he got some fluids into him he started perking back up. The doctors decided that he needed to stay until he was taking in more fluids than he was letting out. That worked out to be four very long days. Especially for a one year old. I felt so bad for him since he couldn't really do a whole lot. He wanted to crawl around on the floor so bad and explore but I wouldn't let him. It was either his metal jail cell, being held by mom, or sit with me on the teeny tiny couch. They did have a playroom full of toys but since he was contagious he wasn't allowed to go in. I was allowed to bring him back some toys for him though which was cool. His favorite thing to play with was this bag full of cheap little plastic animals. He would take them out one at a time and throw them on the floor, then I would pick them all up and he would do it again. They also had wagons that I could pull him around in every once and a while when he was really stir crazy. They would make him a little bed with pillows and blankets and disconnect his IV and I could take him for a ride. He liked to people watch as I pulled him and he loved to see the fish tank.

Every morning he would flood his bed with diarrhea and it would continue for the rest of the day. He finally seemed to be getting better early Wednesday and we thought he might get to go home, but in the afternoon he threw up again and then the diarrhea started back up so he had to stay.

Finally, on Thursday his output was slowing down and they decided he was good enough to go home that night. He was so happy when they took out his IV. He spent the next five minutes just clapping his hands together. My mom took us home. James fell asleep in his car seat on the ride home. He loves his car seat. He was so funny when he saw his brothers. He started screaming, giggling, and wiggling like a wild man for me to let him down. He missed them a ton. I missed them a ton too. I hadn't seen Jason and Marcus since Monday morning!

It feels so great to be back under one roof again. James is feeling much better now. He is on a very restricted diet for a while until his tummy heals but he is going to be okay now. I am so glad. I am borrowing Ryan's computer to post this and I wish I could post some pictures from the hospital too but I can't. Once we get into the new place I will add them so you can see James in his little jail cell in his cute little gown.

They never did figure out exactly what it was and I definitely hope he or any of the other boys get it again.