On the rode to Corpus

After our late night we took Friday off from school to go see our friend and fabulous pediatrician in Boerne.  Jeff was so thorough and Hadley is looking better but we still may be keeping our dermatologist appointment.  We want the rash to be completely gone.  We’ve got a few more days to heal before the appointment though so we’ll see.

Friday afternoon we left for Corpus so that we could see my parents and I could take pictures of brand new baby Kennedy.  Every time we make that trip I’m reminded that it is a long boring 2 1/2 hours to get there.

Not normal

We’ve had some serious issues with a rash that will not go away on Hadley.  He’s had it since June, yes, I said June and it’s September.  We’ve seen about 6 doctors regarding the rash and he’s been diagnosed with strep, impetigo, scabies, a staph infection and molluscum virus.  After the staph diagnoses we began another round of antibiotics.  He started it on Tuesday and Thursday his rash had moved to his face and he didn’t want to go to school “looking like this.”  I sent him anyway and when he got home he looked like this.

 

Not good.  Stefan and I had a date planned and he felt fine and I wasn’t worried about him being contagious so we went anyway.  When we got home I had this feeling like I should check on him.  When I went upstairs I was shocked that his whole face was now swollen.  After calling the nurse line we woke him up and took him to the ER.  This is what he looked like at 11 pm in the ER.

That’s not normal.  Poor kid’s face was so swollen he couldn’t even smile (not that he wanted to).  We walked into the ER and the people there immediately asked if he could breath and to stick his tongue out.  He was fine but we found out that he’s most likely allergic to sulfa which is apparently in a lot of antibiotics.  Next time his reaction could be a lot worse.  I am so thankful I listened to go and check on him when we got home because it could have been a lot worse. Here he is after basically an EPI dose.  He was better but it took a few days for him to look completely like himself again.

It was the quickest ER visit we’ve ever had.  We left at 11 and were back home a little after 1.  Not too bad.  Can I say I’m thankful right now for insurance and help when we needed it!

New rope

We were at a friends house not long ago and the family had hung a rope from the tree.  Just a plain rope.  Stefan thought it was a great idea.  I had unpleasant flashbacks of gym class.  $30 later from Home Depot we had the “big hit” according to Hadley.  Climbing isn’t normally what happens on the rope. It’s more of a great swinging rope from the top of the playscape.

 

The frame

Stefan bought me a digital picture frame last Christmas and I just got around to figuring out how it works and what pictures to put on it.  The kids came down in the morning and were mesmerized by it. I have to say, I’ve been a little mesmerized myself.  It’s fun to look at all our old picture and see how much our kids have grown.  I’m not quite done with it yet.  I think I only have pictures up until Channing is about 3 months old so there aren’t any of Gibson yet but maybe by Christmas I’ll get those up.

Books

It’s one of the few words that Gibson says.  The boy loves looking at books.  His attention span is not long but I think he enjoys the one on one time.  He’ll grab a book and scream at my leg at times until I’ll read to him.  Thanks Channing for the picture.

A bike ride

We’d been talking about taking all the kids on a bike ride at a park nearby and Sunday we decided to just do it even though it was dinner time.  We gave everyone a granola bar and loaded up the car.  I thought I’d forgotten how to ride my bike it had been so long but I persevered even with Gibson on the back.  We had a rough start.  Linden had to be reminded how to use his brakes and Channing had to be taught how to use the brakes.  (The road is a little hilly.) Once we did one go around though everyone wanted to do it again, even Stefan who I didn’t think was going to make it after the first 5 minutes.  He had been doing lots of teaching.  Channing was a superstar.  With her tiny wheels she pedals about 5 times more than the rest of us and never complained.

 

 

And as a side note, we decided this past weekend with 4 kids that someone is bound not to be happy.  Hadley was upset on Friday about the movie we chose for movie night.  Before we went on our bike ride Linden was throwing a fit because he didn’t want to go.  The worst part is that we are trying to fun things and children are still complaining.  We are working on our attitude and how to instill gratefulness. Apparently we have more work to do.  The good news was that everyone loved the bike ride so much they’ve all asked to do it again.

Making a wreath

I saw a wreath on pinterest that I thought the boys and I could make.  We had fun working on it together.  Turns out I should have hot glued the candy corn on so I ended up finishing it by myself.

It really turned out so cute but then we had rainstorms (Praise the Lord!) and ridiculous humidity and apparently my wreath was not supposed to be an outside wreath it started melting and candy corns started falling off so I don’t have a picture of that finished wreath but I’m making another one for inside and I’ll post a picture when I finish it.

Just lounging

Channing got my phone and was playing some game that I’m sure I didn’t know was one there even.Hadley and the rest of the boys brought all of the Jones toys over and made forts in the backyard.  Greg at least was happy not to see a junkyard on his back deck for a change.  My boys even got trash out of recycling to play with.  This was part of Hadley’s “truck.”  He is laying on the top of the Jones toy box.

Channing and Holden are not to be left out in the fort building even if it’s just a turned over chair.  There is still something special about the chairs not being the right way up.

Turning it into a frown

Gibson is on his way to the sandbox.  Too bad, I made him sad when I didn’t let him play in the sand because cats had pooped in it.  I took all of it out on Saturday and need to replace it.  Thankfully Greg and Sarah have a sandbox that the cats stay out of that he can play in until I get more sand.

Snack time with the girl

When the boys are gone and Gibson is napping we have a little girl time. 

Brothers

'Nuf said

It’s fall

It’s been a long time since we didn’t have plans on the weekend and we soaked it up!  The kids helped us get the fall decorations out and colored/made crafts while we stayed busy cleaning, digging a path through the guest room, etc.  This was one of the things Linden made. He took an empty tissue box, taped a bunch of paper towels around it, colored it with orange marker and stuck a stem from one of my pumpkins on top.  Pretty creative craft making.

Catching up

I think I was trying to get things in order at home before adding something else to my life, like taking more pictures, so I took a few days off.  Thursday the big boys went to school, Channing went to preschool and a sitter watched Gibson and Mathis for Sarah and I.  Channing didn’t have extended care yet so it was just the two of us from 12:30-2.  We ran a few errands one of which was buying a pink princess costume at Costco for $15.  SCORE!  She’s a fan.

And then there was this…

Yes, after camping there are mountains of laundry.

This wasn’t even all of it!

He’s a good sport

On the last day we ran back to the gift shop at Garner because I’d realized in my mind, trying to save money and not buy everyone a t-shirt I had bought a shirt for everyone but Linden. Oops! We were packed and ready to go and everyone waited in the car while I ran in to get Linden’s shirt but then I remembered that we hadn’t taken a family picture so Stefan being the good sport that he is, entertained my idea of unbuckling everyone so we could take a picture of all of us together.

I realized after the fact that my hair was sticking up but I wasn’t about to ask Stefan to do it again.

The Frio

While I thought the water was great (for sticking my legs in on a hot day) I guess Linden thought it was aptly named.

These two

They love each other or hate each other most days though they are getting so much better playing together.

A quick turnaround

So we got back from the lakehouse Monday afternoon, Stefan went to draft his fantasy football team that night and we went to Beth and Doug’s.  Tuesday was Ladies Bible Class and Wednesday was a school day, laundry and packing day because we left for Garner right after school on Thursday.  It wasn’t our annual trip since that got canceled due to remodeling of the cabins but we checked out the group site and loved it.  We ended up getting to Garner all about the same time and since the early birds had to wait until the gate was opened we pulled our loaded down SUVs and mini vans in all about the same time.

We unloaded, went to get dinner (Stefan might still be bitter that it took over an hour for us to bring it back), put the kids to bed and enjoyed a coolish night without a fire under a beautiful sky.

Just a little mud

Since Monday, Labor Day, turned out ridiculously windy and "cold" by mine and the kids standards we decided not to go out on the boat andwent for a walk down by the dried up part of the lake. Hadley is really the one who got stuck in it, but you can see Linden's footprints better. It was pretty deep and gross.

A new cousin

The kids all got to go to Beth and Doug’s house Monday night to meet their new cousin while I tried to take a few pictures.  They all are quite taken with her.  C’s always excited to have another girl around.

The lakehouse

How about a quick walk down to the lake? Gibson always gets the best spot.

Bolted in

It's a good thing Stefan seriously bolted that thing on the wall! It's a fairly regular occurance for Linden to hang on it to get something out of the cubbies but this was the first time Channing did it. She moved all the pillows off the bench, brought in her stool from the bathroom and climbed up. She had started screaming because Gibson was tyring to climb up as well and this is how I found them.

You want to know what's frustrating?

WAITING! We sent in a form that needed a $720 check. Everything I looked at said the form needed a $720 check. We couldn't send in the form until we received our homestudy and the day after we got the homestudy the form was in the mail with our check. Yeah, now we are just waiting, waiting, until we get an appointment to be fingerprinted, so I thought until I got a form in the mail several days later that said they needed an additional $170. Frustrating! I thought I had done everything right and now we are delayed even longer.

They got their money and we are back on schedule, for now.