Update on things around here

Well, it has been a while since I have posted anything. I was going to try and catch up while we were on vacation, but I didn't. Lots has been going on with us lately. 1st of all, we went on a road trip to Illinois and Michigan to visit family. Chris's brother, Tim and his wife and kids live in Illinois, so we visited them the weekend before Thanksgiving. On our way to see them, we stopped and had dinner with my cousin, Amy and her husband Christian and their kids. It was so good to see them! After a weekend with Tim and Robin, we headed to Michigan for the week of Thanksgiving. It was good for my mom, stepdad, and sister to get to spend that time with the kids. There was snow, so they got to go sledding, build a snowman, make snow angels, and of course, taste the snow!! While we were there, CAB had a sore throat with red tonsils with white pus pockets and horrible breath!! Thank goodness I have a wonderful pediatrician who knows me and was nice to call in antibiotics so she could get better. Then, CPB is prone to sinus infections and gets asthma like symptoms...he got a dry hacky cough with slight wheezing that the albuterol would not help, so we headed to the walk in clinic where he was diagnosed with a sinus infection, given steroids and an antibiotic. Now he is much better! EB also started a croupy cough that wouldn't break, so she got started on some Orapred. Now that we are home, LG has had congestion for a month or so now, and yesterday, stopped nursing well, and was pulling on her ear. Yep...she has an ear infection. Thank you Publix for the free antibiotics!! Just a side, in case you didn't know, Publix offers a list of FREE antibiotics. Some are Amoxicillin, and Omnicef, but there is a list of 8-10 of them that they give for free. That is for children as well as adults.
I have to admit that I have been spending my time reading everyone else's blogs that I haven't taken that time to blog on mine. I just love my money saving blogs that I have on my sidebar. They keep me up to date on Publix items, coupons and free items. I have been saving lots of money at the grocery store! It has been fun.
I hope to post some updated pictures of the kids soon!
I am very excited about the Christmas holidays, but I am not so excited about spending so much money. My kids need...nothing! They are blessed with plenty of clothes, toys, etc...I am struggling with what to do and get for them this year. If you have any good ideas...please share.

Update on one day at a time and sleepless nights

It has been a while since I have blogged. Life is a little crazy around here. I don't even have recent pictures of the kids. It has been probably 3 weeks since I have taken a picture! I need to work on that LG is getting so big so fast! She is now 17 lbs and 4 months old. She is so much fun!
I had posted how I was going to clean my house one room at a time. That lasted about 3 days. I started with our bedroom changed sheets, mopped the hardwoods, cleaned the blinds, put away all the clothes...a good cleaning. It did feel really good when I walked around the house looking at all the other mess, I could go in my room and know that I DID accomplish something today. Day 2 I did our bathroom and LG's room. Her room was pretty clean already. Day 3 I had all the kids change their sheets and pick up their rooms, but that was as far as it got. My days got away from me and then my room was a mess again and I was thoroughly disappointed. I think after Thanksgiving I will give it another shot. I just like everything clean at one time. So anyways, that worked for all of 3 days.
On the sleepless nights, it didn't last that long. She did fairly well. I just did my homecare treatments with her...saline and suction, elevate the head of the bed, and cool mist humidifier. She was over it in about a week. Had a well baby check up last week and chest and ears were all clear! Made it through cold #1 with no infections. All my other kids had ear infections with the first cold. She has not had a very good day today. She has been rather fussy and only catnapped about 3 times all day for 15 min. each. We put her down at 9:30 and she just woke up crying a few minutes ago. She seems to have a tummy ache.
Please pray for my friend, Jill and her little girl, Sydney. I worked with her in L&D and she also worked with me doing Triage last year. Her little girl has been having stomach problems and I spoke with her on Sunday night and she was very concerned. I saw on facebook today that she was admitted to the PICU at Children's last night. Just pray that they can find out what is causing her to be so sick and that it is nothing serious.

Homeschoolers "attacked"

I was just reading some blogs as I have been doing regularly. It has become my new "t.v." I would rather read how to save money and about other homeschooling families and get ideas and so forth. I just came across a blog http://www.agardenofblessings.blogspot.com/ and she was telling how the View on ABC was discussing the Obama kids and where they should go to school. Joy made a comment on how homeschoolers are "demented and afraid of other children!" I went to ABC.com and left them a comment on how I felt about it. You can view it here http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=6271001 pretty disappointing. I don't have time to watch the View anyways, but if I did, I would stop.

Sleepless nights

Oh how I have forgotten so much about having a baby around. It has been 5 years since I have done this....but it all comes back so quickly! LG has been sleeping so well since she was born. In fact, at the hospital she was sleeping through the night and the nurses were upset that I would not wake her to feed her. After 3 babies, I know you NEVER wake a sleeping baby during the night!! Anyways she has slept great--totally through the night since about 3 weeks old. The last 2 nights have been awful! The night before last she woke at midnight then was awake a while then I saw the clock again at 3:40 and again at 4:30 and 5:30 you get my drift. She was not needing to eat, she was just figity. Well, I understand why now. Last night at midnight she woke and she is so congested she can't breathe through her nose very well. We have our first cold.:( She was up several more times during the night. I had to turn on the lights and saline and suction her at about 4 am so she could breathe. This morning she has been coughing and sneezing and runny nose. It is so sad!! I guess going through all this again helps me to be a better nurse. Now I can relate fairly well with the mom who calls and her baby has been up all night and can't breathe through her nose. The FDA has recommended that no cough and cold meds be given to any child under the age of 4 now, so not much is recommended but home care. She is sleeping now. Hopefully she will get over it soon and sleep through the night again!!

The Cabin

LG in Elizabeth's camo hat

CAB and CPB on a horse

EB and AW- aren't they cute? EB cleaning her fish

EB's fish CAB's fish

CPB's fish

Thanks to our wonderful, gracious friends, Jason and Michelle, we were able to get away for the weekend last weekend. We were away from everything. Michelle's parents have a cabin in the middle of nowhere Mississippi. They have a small lake, horses, cows, donkeys, roosters, cats, dogs, 4 wheelers, goats, tons of acrage etc.....The kids had a blast! They got to go fishing, then scaled the fish, ride horses, feed horses, ride the 4 wheeler, drive the Kaboda, go to a carinval, run and play outside with friends without a care in the world. They made memories that will last a lifetime. It is so relaxing out there. It was nice to be away from the phone (cell phones don't work out there), the computer, the TV (although they had a tv, the kids for the most part stayed outside.) The simple life. There really is no time out there. No rushing here and there, nothing that has to be done right this minute, etc...it was soooo nice. Michelle's parents were so wonderful to let 3 families come stay at their home for the weekend. They blessed our family, I pray they will be blessed too!

One day at a time

I have been completely overwhelmed lately with how much work my house needs. We have lived here for a year now and has not had a good cleaning since we moved in. I was pregnant almost immediately after we moved in and then along comes 1 more.... more things to keep me busy like feeding a baby all day and an extra load or 2 of laundry a week and so on and so forth. So-I used to read the Fly Lady a long time ago and I remember one of the big things is you do a little bit at a time. My problem with this is that I like my house all cleaned at the same time. It just feels so good to have a clean house. I was laying in bed the other night unable to fall asleep because of all the things I needed to do were weighing heavy on my mind I looked up and the fan that is no longer spinning round and round because it is cold outside was staring at me with a thick coat of dust. Then I decided I would try the Fly Lady's old tricks. I am going to just clean 1 room at a time---but clean it WELL! I started yesterday and CAB and I cleaned mine and Chris's room. We changed the sheets, made the bed, cleaned the blinds, cleaned the fan, dusted all the furniture, swiffered all the dust from under our bed and dresser and mopped. It was so nice to have such a clean room! I felt like I actually accomplished something! I am going to continue through this week and I should be able to get the whole upstairs done, I hope! At least all our beds and baths will be done. I will let you know how it goes. Day one went well. I also found out that if you give CAB a wipe-she will go to town cleaning. She also likes to swiffer.

3 months old already!

Our precious LG....so loved by her brother and sisters! They adore her. She is getting so big. She is such a wonderful addition to our family. She just giggles at us she is cooing lots. She has started shoving her fists in her mouth and drooling. She sleeps from about 9pm to 7am. She is just a wonderful baby.

Locks of Love

EB has been growing her hair out for quite some time now and last year decided she was growing it for locks of love.....today we got her hair cut for locks of love. She had a great time and was so proud of what she did. I am proud of her too.

Zoo Trip

The kids have been begging me to take them to the zoo. Our zoo pass ran out last summer and then we moved, I was pregnant, then this summer the new baby. This fall I ran out of excuses. I caved and we renewed our zoo pass. The kids had a blast! We got to see the new kangaroos. Here are some pics from our trip.

UAB Game

These pictures were taken at the UAB game 2 weeks ago. .

Gluten free blog

I have decided to start another blog. It is http://www.jenny-glutenfreefamily.blogspot.com/ I did this because EB has Celiac's Disease and our family is heading towards being completely gluten free. I have been researching the internet for recipes, websites, and gluten free foods for almost 3 months now. I thought this would be a good way to keep it all together. Maybe it will be helpful to someone out there. If not, it is at least a good way for me to organize all my gluten free information I have been collecting.

Such a compassionate spirit

The other day Tammy sent me a link to someones blog that needed prayer. I went to it, read the story and cried....a lot. You hear a lot of terrible things going on in people's lives and you are very sad for them, but there is something about when you can really put yourself in their shoes. This is a girl that is about to have her first baby and there is a medical problem and they have received news that the baby is not expected to live. I have been reading her blog daily since I got her link and today EB came up while I was reading it...and crying and wanted to know what I was reading about, so I told her. Before long she had huge tears that had swelled up in her eyes, then it was a full blown cry. She too, could imagine if she were going through this because she has a baby sister. She told me she was so sad for the girl that she may not be able to bring home her baby boy and experience the joy that we have experienced with LG. I was so amazed by her compassionate spirit. She had many questions, why is this happening and how does she know he is going to die, etc... it was a wonderful moment for us to talk about how we don't understand sometimes why things happen the way they happen. God has a perfect plan through it all. The girl I am talking about her name is Stacy and her baby's name is Issac. He is to be born tomorrow. Please pray for this family. Her blog site is http://sgirl79.blogspot.com/ He will carry me. Please pray for them. I cannot even imagine the pain she must be feeling now.

Our new way of life

This summer EB was diagnosed with Celiac's disease. She had been having stomach aches for 2 years, really since after her surgery to remove the tumor on her head. The GI MD was treating her for reflux which never quite made too much sense to me, only because the area of stomach pain was right at her belly button. When you have reflux, you typically have pain in the chest area as it burns when food comes back up the esophagus. Anyways, she was on 3 different meds for reflux and this spring was still complaining of stomach aches. I made another GI appointment and told the MD we needed to find out what the problem was. I was tired of her being on 3 different meds and still complaining of stomach pain. We did a blood test that day and it came back positive for Celiacs. We then scheduled an endoscopy for Aug. 1 which confirmed that she had Celiacs. Since then I have been researching the internet for all I can find on Celiacs. What foods are safe and which are not. It has been a challenging thing to do. We are pasta and bread people!! She cannot have anything with wheat, barley, or rye and should stay away from oats as well. So....no waffles, pancakes, muffins, cookies, cakes, pasta, bread, pizza, etc.....much to my surprise, there still is a lot of foods she can eat without problems. She can have all fruits, vegetables, and meats. Nothing breaded. The most difficult thing I have found so far is eating out. It has really cut down on our eating out, that is for sure! We probably had fast food at least 2x a week and ate at a restaurant probably an average of 1x a week. We can still eat out, it just takes careful planning. I am so proud of EB through all this. She understands what she can and cannot have and why. It still, as a mother, breaks my heart that she can't have some of the really tasty things she likes. Like last night we were at some friends house and for dessert all there was were brownies, cake and cookies. All the other kids got to eat all the yummy stuff and she couldn't have any. It will give her a bad stomach ache if she had some. She asked if she could have a brownie and said she didn't care if she got a stomach ache that it was worth it. I just couldn't do it. As her mother, I have to do what is right for her. I told her no. That we have been working too hard on this new way of eating to go and ruin it. I told her we would stop and get her a frosty from Wendys on the way home, just for her. That made her ok with it. It makes me so happy that she has not been having stomach aches, and that her skin is so baby soft instead of rough and itchy. This new way of life is worth it if it means her health is better. I have decided that this house will be gluten free. We will all eat this way the best we can. I am learning that we can still eat the yummy stuff, it is just finding the right yummy things to eat. I have found a muffin mix that is really good. I have made it about 3 times now, each time changing some of the recipe to make it better. Chris had some for breakfast this morning and really enjoyed them. I have made homemade chocolate chip cookies from a toll house recipe just using a gluten free flour. They turned out pretty good too. I have yet to find a good bread recipe, so we eat lunchmeat with no bread, or on a corn tortilla. You have to become pretty creative with the food you can eat and you have to develop a taste for new things. When EB was diagnosed, Chris decided that he, too, wanted to go gluten free. If EB had to do it, he would do it too. CAB, also, only wants gluten free foods. In my research, I found that when you use flour in your kitchen, that the flour may linger in the air for hours. Also, that we needed separate toasters and utinsils for cooking. Already being gluten free is challenging enough in itself, let alone making sure that I am not cross contaminating any of her foods. So, gluten free will be our new way of life.

Back to work

Well, it is official, I have started back to work. Although I work from home, it is a big deal now that Chris has the 4 kids to take care of by himself. We had a great night last night. Work was rather slow, so I was able to come upstairs some to check on everyone and hold the baby some. LG did great. She did not cry at all, I don't think. She took a catnap and waited for me to come feed her at 8:30. Then Chris was able to put her in the bed and she went right to sleep. What a blessing! Also, there is a girl that I work with that has asked if we could share weekends. I work everyother and she is opposite of me. We both have 10 hour shifts on Sat. and Sun. and we are going to try and split them so I will work every Sat. and Sun. but only for 5 hours at a time. This is going to be great with the baby. 10 hours is a long day for Chris with an infant by himself. I was so proud of him last night. I had dinner all cooked and ready for them, but they emptied the dishwasher and reloaded it. So the kitchen was fairly clean when I was done working. That makes it so much easier on me to not have to wake up in the morning to a nasty kitchen and cook breakfast and homeschool! Thanks Honey!! I love you!

An outside fieldtrip to the gardens

We had our 2nd field trip this week. We went to the Gardens then had a picnic afterwards. Once again, the kids had a great time. Who says homeschooled kids can't have fun? In the pictures they were learning how to see how old a tree is by counting the rings.

1st field trip

This was our first field trip this year to the Park. They played games, played on the playground, rode scooters, had a picnic, and had snowcones! They had so much fun. It is always fun to be with friends!

LG's 1st bottle

We gave LG a bottle for the first time at 8 weeks. I wanted to be sure she would take one if necessary. She wouldn't take it from me, but she would from Chris. It was sweet. He is such a proud daddy.

CPB's 2nd soccer game

I am really not sure who enjoys CPB's soccer games more, Chris or CPB. Last Sunday was week 2 of CPB's 3rd soccer season. He loves it. He is so competitive. He scored 5 goals in the game last week. He is really a team leader. It is so fun to watch him. I like to try and catch him with my camera in action. He is always running with his tongue hanging out.

CPB's 1st soccer game this season

CPB did great today at his game. He was very aggressive and scored 3 goals. His team won. It was a lot of fun. Chris is not coaching this year. He offered, but they did not need his help. Today his team did to the other team what happened to us almost everygame last season. They creamed them! At one point, Chris was telling CPB he would be in trouble if he scored another goal. He was trying to help the other team out some, knowing how it feels to not be able to score at all against the other team. The teams are not put together very evenly as far as talent goes. Last year, CPB was the only one on the team who had played previously, all the other kids it was their first year. This season, CPB is on a team that everyone has played previously except 1. It should be fun to watch. All the kids are pretty aggressive and go for the ball.

Baby Dedication

Today LG was dedicated at our church. It was short and sweet. She looked beautiful. Wish you could have all been there. I can't believe all my children have been dedicated and that was the last time for dedication for us. I am finding as she is growing we are having a lot of lasts for us. It is kind of sad. I am just trying to enjoy every moment that I have with her and not take any of it for granted.

Back to baby dedication, CAB was asking me about it and what it meant. I told her that we were giving LG back to God. I guess I didn't tell her enough about it and she was obviouosly doing some thinking about it because this morning she had a question for me. I was making her breakfast and out of the blue she asked me "Do we need to give Him her pajamas?" I asked her what she was talking about and she said "Do we need to give God pajamas for LG when we give her to Him?" I about fell out laughing! How cute!

Here are some pictures. Mr. Allen took several close ups of her that I will post when he sends them.