Summer Time Photo Dump.... (seriously over due)

Posting on a blog (or anything on the internet) is REALLY difficult when we don't have a working computer at home in addition to no internet... this is NOT a forever situation, and I am determined that I will get back to regular posting. SOON!

Photo Dump BOMBARDMENT

Here we go...

• May 2014: Brayden had his first haircut(age 2 years 3 months), 
• June 2014: Landen turned 4! On his actual birthday we went out to Johnny Rockets and ate dinner. He had a Super Hero party and (among other things) received train tickets, we rode the train to Tuscaloosa (but didn't take any pictures once we arrived there), Declen turned 7 months old and decided to sit up on his own
• July 2014: We went to Oak Mountain State Park for the Fourth of July and went fishing (for the first time ever for the kids) and Landen caught two tiny fish, Keith and I celebrated our 5th anniversary and took a spontaneous family vacation to Panama City Beach (as in, "I wanna do something" "Like what?" "um... lets go to the beach" "OK..." and we made reservations as we packed). It was our first EVER vacation!! IT WAS AWESOME and we took like three pictures the whole time.... yeah. We got to go out fishing/boating/island hopping with my cousin who owns Salt Shaker Charters and that was AMAZING! Our car keys are in the Gulf of Mexico down there, so if you find them, please return them! Keith turned 28! We went to dinner at a mexican restaurant and took pictures outside and with the sombraro on his head :). Declen turned 8 months old and decided to belly crawl. He's currently learning to crawl on hands and knees, but sometimes just ends up either planking or with his bottom straight up in the air! He feeds himself all the time... eating just about anything he can get his hands on (except ham. he hates it!), and finally, Declen has 2 teeth! WOOHOO!

Enjoy the pictures!

Baked beans

My life... everyday!

we dress alike at the park so I can find them

Icky Day UPDATED

Disclaimer: This post discusses some gross topics... You've been warned


Today, Tuesday, January 28th, has been one that I would NEVER like to relive...

Actually, it all started last night.

By the time I arrived home after work, I was feeling pretty lousy. I was having all the symptoms of your classic cold... headache, congestion, exhaustion, sore throat, cough, etc. Thankfully, my precious hubby offered to take care of the kiddos which allowed me go to bed WAY early. 

While I was in the bed, Landen apparently had an accident while attempting to make it to the potty. He ended up going potty in his pants and on the floor. Keith got Landen out of his soiled clothes and ran the clothes upstair to start a load of laundry. While Keith was upstairs Brayden decided to be daddy's big helper, by wiping the poo up off the floor. Unfortunately, when a (almost) two year old tries to be a big helper, it isn't usually helpful. Brayden managed to smear the poo ALL OVER the floor. 

When Keith returned downstairs (he was only upstairs for MAYBE two minutes) he discovered Brayden's masterpiece. Obviously, at this point Brayden needed a bath. So, Keith stripped Brayden's clothes off, threw the clothes in the washing machine, gave the boys a bath, and returned to the scene of the crime to clean up the poo. After that, things seemed to calm down...

Side note: Declen's schedule was TOTALLY off because he had been held by nearly everyone in the family on Sunday, he had a GI scope done Monday (yesterday) morning, then he went to visit/meet my grandmother yesterday afternoon. 

Declen fell asleep soon after I got to my parents house to pick him up after work and was out for the night, sleeping through EVERYTHING (diaper changes, car rides, etc). He remained asleep until 12:30 am, at which point he decided to wake up and SCREAM on and off until around 4:30 am. From 2:30 am until 3:30 am, Keith woke up and graciously gave me a break. At 5:00 am I told Keith to get up... 

Keith was still asleep when he got up and transferred the clothes from the washer to the dryer. After starting the dryer he looked into the washing machine and saw what he thought was a clump of mud. He reached in bare-handed and grabbed the "mud," discovering that it was actually a wad of poo which  had apparently hidden in Landen's clothes. Keith immediately ran to sanitize his hand, but in his sleepy-stupor thought to himself that he hadn't NOTICED poo on the clothes when he put them in the dryer, so they must be fine - totally disregarding the fact that whether they had visible signs of filth, the clothes had been "washed" in nastiness and needed rewashing. When the dryer buzzed, Keith ran upstairs to find that he had effectively cooked the poo into the load of laundry. At which point, I discover the disgusting mess that developed overnight. YUCK!

Oh... and of Keith's two pairs of work pants... one pair was in the poo wash. While Keith was working to fix the mess... I fed the boys and left for work.

There have been weather advisories out for the southern half of the state, but we were supposed to get FLURRIES in Birmingham.  

At around 9:00 am, the flurries began. By 9:30 am it was downright snowing. By 10:00 am the streets downtown were white and schools began announcing early dismissal. Around 10:30 am we began receiving reports of roads/bridges icing. 

View from parking deck crosswalk at work

At 10:55 am, we were given permission to leave work. I called daycare to let them know I was on my way to pick up the boys.

Roads downtown as we left work

Upon getting in my car I saw that I only had 1/8 tank of gas, something that on a normal day would have been plenty for me to get home. Because of the weather, I decided I needed to fill up my gas tank. In the 10 minutes it took me to travel to the gas station (8 blocks), cars were already sliding through intersections. By the time I pulled out of the gas station, traffic and roads were a mess.

I made it to the I-65 on ramp and realized what a mess we were all in... the interstate was moving slowly, but the cars on the ramp were at a standstill. The pickup that was midway up the ramp was struggling. Then I saw the door open and the driver step out. As his foot hit the ramp, he immediately lost his footing. The driver was still holding on to his truck and was able to regain his footing, and began evaluating the situation. He took his hand off the truck to get a better look and almost simultaniously lost his footing again. This time, he went sliding to the bottom of the ramp. The truck was unmanned and I knew there was no chance of getting on the interstate here.  

I decided to try a different route. Unfortunately, upon getting to a different on ramp and seeing a car facing the wrong direction, I realized that route was no longer an option either. At this point, I get my dad to give me directions for a third route. 

US 11 - Route # 3

My third choice route was relatively successful and I was able to travel 10ish miles in 2 hours with minimal sliding. The roads were white with snow, but it had already frozen and the cars were not making tracks on the roads and the street lines were no longer visible. I reached a point that even when I was idling, my car would slide sideways. I was in a rough part of town and I knew I needed to go a different route. My dad talked me through getting to I-20/59. I was so excited to finally get on the interstate, where the bridges were at least sanded. 

I-20/59 was moving very slowly, but for the most part it was steady and people were generally driving decently. Things got much slower as I approached I-459, and it wasn't long before I knew why. The ramp from I-20/59 to I-459 was almost entirely iced over. Every car/truck/semi was sliding all over the place. 

*NOTE: I had not been to the bathroom since I woke up this morning and it was now mid-afternoon. I couldn't pull over anywhere and there was nothing I could do. I peed, in my car. UGH! Finally, I made it onto I-459 and continued on my way. Traffic was again moving very slow, but it was moving. 

I made it to exit 6 on I-459 and it was pretty clear that I wasn't going to make it home. I took exit 6, initially thinking I MIGHT could make it to my mother-in-law's house, but quickly discovered that wasn't possible. I changed my goal to finding a fire station, but that didn't work either. I knew that it would be getting dark farely soon and I had to find SOMEWHERE to go. 

Every business I pulled up to was closed or unreachable. I spotted a CVS with lights on and got SO excited! I knew I could purchase SOME KIND of clean undergarment and I could get SOME KIND of breast pump. (note to self... if you're a nursing mamma and there's a chance of bad weather TAKE YOUR BREAST PUMP!) I pulled into the CVS parking lot and jumped out of the car... only to find that CVS was CLOSED! Utter disappointment does not even come close to how I felt. I completely lost all composure. 

My meltdown... there's no where for me to go, my kids are stuck at daycare, my milk ducts are nearing explosion, I'm covered in urine, I've been in the car for 4 1/2 hours, Keith is stranded on Hwy 31, Dad abandoned his car and walked home... it was all too much.

I texted Rachel to tell her where I was and she offered to let me come to her house, assuming I could get back to the interstate to backtrack to her exit. 

A glimmer of hope!

I made it to her exit, she talked me through getting to her house, and I made it to the bottom of the hill at the entrance to her neighborhood. That's where I stopped... not by choice... but because there were SEVERAL cars in front of me that were completely blocking the road, due to sliding back down the hill. There was no option of going any further. I was either going to have to stay in my car until the weather broke and the ice thawed or I was going to have to abandon ship.

I rolled back down the street and found a place to abandon the car. I took a deep breath and climbed out of my warm car. 

One step into the ice/snow and I IMMEDIATELY regretted wearing smooth-soled dress shoes with no socks. My pants and feet were wet and freezing!! I walked about halfway up the hill and this precious good samaritan man, who had a 4-wheel-drive truck parked at the top of the hill offered to drive me to Rachel's house!!! THANK YOU GOD! We walked up to the top of the hill and climbed in his truck... HEAT!! It was SO WARM! Rachel met me with her car at the end of her street and I transferred over to her car. 

I was so cold, it hurt. We drove to her house and at 4:05 pm (FIVE hours after leaving work) we went inside. Rachel, precious Rachel. She let me take a hot shower, fixed me dinner, washed my nasty clothes, gave me clothes to wear, and is letting me stay the night! (not that leaving would be an option, anyway)

For the rest of the family....

Keith made it within a mile of daycare. He abandoned his car and walked the mile, to get to the boys. He's staying at daycare with our oldest 2 kids tonight. Dad abandoned his car a couple miles from my parents house. He walked the remaining distance and is home with my mom and Declen. Our cats are just going to have to be hungry tonight... glad we fed them this morning!  

Thank you, Lord! We are all safe and warm tonight.

Update: I reached a point of shear desperation (and PAIN)... we went to a few of Rachel's neighbors and found an awesome woman who let me use her pump! Oh goodness... SO.MUCH.RELIEF!

14 oz

New Year, New Us

This is going to be a long one (longer than usual) because we have A LOT of things going on right now. For this reason, I’m going to break it down by person…

Keith

Keith graduated from UAB’s Doctor of Physical Therapy Program and is now a full-time Physical Therapist (with a temporary license) for Therapy South. He takes his boards on January 29^th and has been studying NON-STOP for two months now, so feel free to keep him in your prayers!

Keith's Doctoral Hooding

Landen – age: 3 ½, height: 39 inches, weight: 36 pounds

Landen is doing much better with the whole potty training backsliding situation. We had an additional backslide when the WHOLE FAMILY (immediate and extended family) came down with the world’s worst stomach/intestinal bug the week of Christmas. The boys actually had a good three weeks of stomach/intestinal torture and had to remain in diapers around the clock! Luckily, we are all better now. PTL! Landen can finally say Declen’s name right and usually does so without us correcting him, so thankfully we have a baby /DEC-len/ instead of what sounded disturbingly similar to baby /DUCK-ling/! As always, living with young children brings a wide array of bizarre logic and funny sayings, so to add to the Kids Say the Darnedest Things (KSDT) log…

1.      We were watching Disney’s The Rescuers DownUnder and Keith told Landen that “Down Under” is referring to Australia, a place that Keith has visited. The conversation went something like this…

Landen (as he examines the DVD cover pictures): “What we watchin?”

Keith: “We’re watching The Rescuers Down Under. Down Under is a place called Australia. It’s a country that’s a long long way from here.”

Landen (still looking at the DVD cover pictures): “ohh…”

Keith: “Did you know that daddy went to Australia one time, a long time ago?”

Landen (looking at Keith with amazement): “OH! You went there when you were a mouse?!”

Keith: “Nevermind…”

2.      We were driving down the interstate one day and heard Landen start singing.

Landen: “Happy Birthday, Uncle Raece! Happy Birthday, Uncle Raece!”

*Note: we hadn’t seen Raece in several weeks and it is NO WHERE NEAR his birthday…

3.      Last week, Landen came home from daycare and was telling us about his day and a new student in his class.

Me: “Who did you play with today?”

Landen: “Mario.”

Me: “Mario? I didn’t know you had a boy named Mario in your class. Is he new?”

Landen: “Yeah, he’s new. I like him. He has a black face. He’s my friend.”

(Landen’s class has SEVERAL different cultures and ethnicities represented in it… he has never noticed before. I guess he is starting to be more observant these days…)

4.      I was nursing Declen and Landen was talking to Brayden and me.

Landen: “Hey Mommy, what you’re doin?”

Me: “I’m feeding baby.”

Landen (turning to Brayden): “Mommies have two tummies. One tummy to grow babies and then one tummy to feed babies.” (Turning back to me): “Right Mommy?”

Me: “um… something like that.”

5.      Landen talking to himself while playing with the magnets on the refrigerator. He was “driving” the car magnet to different “places” represented by other magnets.

Landen (Picking up the cross magnet and placing it in front of the car magnet): “This is the Promised Land. That’s where we go at church. That’s where I’m driving… and then to the zoo!”

6.      Talking about the alphabet.

Me: “What does an A sound like?”

Landen: /a/

Me: “What word starts with the /a/ sound?”

Landen: “um… apple”

Me: “That’s right! Good…”

Landen (interrupting/screaming): “AND ACROBAT!”

Me (in shock): “Good job, buddy! Where did you learn that word?”

Landen: “I dunno…”

Christmas Football #4

Brayden – age: 23 months old, height: 29 ½ inches, weight: 24 pounds

Brayden is a funny little stinker, I mean he is hilarious! He is FINALLY on the growth charts (in height AND weight)!!! He LOVES to play football and shouts, “AL-O-BAM-MA” repeatedly as he runs around with the football in his hand. His favorite song is Christ is Enough for Me (with I Have Decided to Follow Jesus) and he randomly starts singing “No turning back, no turning back, no turning back” as he is playing with his toys. After singing/running in circles to Ring-Around-the-Rosie with Landen one day, he got up and started running in circles in our living room and would spontaneously shout “DOWN!” and would drop to the floor. Brayden is very sensitive. If Landen gets in trouble and we have to correct him, Brayden will stand in between us and Landen and say, “No Mommy, no Daddy.” I think Brayden is even more of a talker than Landen. He also gets a little confused with his responses sometimes.

KSDT for Brayden

1.      We can ask him pretty much anything, and he will reply with, “no.” He isn’t being obstinate or stubburn (though he definitely has that in him), it’s just the first thing that comes out of his mouth. For instance, he can be devouring something that he LOVES to eat and if we say, “Is that yummy, Brayden?” or “Do you like that?” his response is, “no.” When he wants more of something he’ll say, “more” but when he wants someone to share their food with him he’ll say (and repeat), “some?” When he wants to be held or picked up, he’ll ask, “down?” If he needs help, he’ll say, “help you?”

2.      While we were doing the bedtime Bible story, Keith was sitting in the floor (with his shirt off) reading the Bible to the boys. The boys were in their pajamas and Brayden was wearing onsie pajamas

Brayden (sticking his finger in Keith’s belly button): “Belly Button!” 

Keith: “yep”

Brayden (sticking his finger in Keith’s belly button, again): “Belly Button!”

Keith (trying to get back to the story):  “yeah, that’s my belly button. You have one, too”

Brayden (looking at his pajama covered belly): “belly button? Belly button hiding”

Brayden (tugging on his pajamas trying to get to his belly): “Belly Button? BELLY BUTTON?”

Brayden (Frantically pulling on his pajamas): “BELLY BUTTON!? BELLY BUTTON LOST. BELLY BUTTON LOST!!!!!” (Hysterical screaming and crying)

We had to strip him down out of his pajamas to prove to him that he still had a belly button…

Christmas Movies

Declen – 2 months, height: 21 ½ inches, weight: 13 pounds

Declen is such a sweet little guy. Over the past few weeks, Declen has started smiling and cooing. I’m pretty sure it’s the sweetest thing in the entire world. Right now he is wearing size 3 month clothes and size 2 diapers. He can’t handle when his big brothers cry, so he pouts and cries, too (no sense crying alone!). He is my first chubby baby and I LOVE it! Declen won’t go to sleep in a crib or anywhere for that matter, unless he is physically touching another human being. He’s eating every 2 ½ to 3 hours. For those two reasons, we have discovered that it’s just so much easier for all of us if we co-sleep. He is colicy and despite trying diet changes and various formulas, nothing has helped much. He is MUCH less fussy when I give him reflux medicine (prevacid) and occasionally we get some relief from Colic Calm. He has a lip tie and possibly a tongue tie which could be affecting his ability to eat without swallowing excessive air. He absolutely despises his car seat and will make sure everyone is aware of this, sometimes for the entire duration of the car ride. We have found that he really enjoys swinging and for a while (since our swing motor died) we had to swing the swing by hand. Fortunately, a sweet, longtime friend of my sister (and our family) gave us her children’s old baby swing!! The world is a MUCH better place now with a working swing.

Me

My high blood pressure and gestational diabetes left with the pregnancy, so I don’t have to worry about pricking my finger or taking blood sugar/blood pressure medicine anymore. My recovery from the c-section was pretty smooth (aside from an infection at the incision site that looked/felt/smelled awful but cleared right up with antibiotics). Breastfeeding baby #3 has it’s perks and it’s challenges. On the one hand, I am pumping 18 ounces a day (I ONLY pump when I’m at work which is two times, usually 9:00am and 2:30pm), so it works out to about 9 oz each time I pump. On the other hand, my letdown flat drowns the babe! 

Life with 3 kids is a big adjustment and a sense of humor is vital for survival! I’m pretty sure that every time I think I have my act together, I discover that a) I have my shirt on backwards at work (yesterday), b) we left the van door open all night (Tuesday), c) our toilet has been decorated with dry erase marker (twice in one week! At least is was dry erase!), d) someone mixed up the cat food with cat litter in the cat’s water bowl (Saturday), e)-z) you name it! I DO love it though, and would not trade it for the world! 

My 3 Boys

Since Keith got a job, we would have to put all three kids in daycare which would cost us more than my salary. For this reason, beginning mid-February, I will be transitioning to life as a stay-at-home mom. I’m super excited (and super scared)! I have no idea how to be a stay-at-home mom for ONE child, much less THREE! But God has always provided for us and I know He will continue to do so! I do look forward to actually spending significant time teaching/raising my kids, rather than hoping to spend 2-2 ½ hours with them at the end of the day! It’s a major change, and any advice is welcomed!

Santa's Delivery
Christmas 2013