Happy 14th Birthday Tony!

Last week we celebrated Tony's 14th birthday. It is so hard to believe that he is 14. He will be a freshman in high school next year. For his birthday breakfast he choose cinnamon rolls. He could hardly wait to get home to open his gifts. He was really bummed when he found out he had to wait longer because we had to wait for Jake to get home from track practice. Here he is with his gifts.He was super excited to get a Kindle. He does a lot of reading and I know he will take advantage of this. In fact over the last week we really haven't seen much of him without his Kindle being close by.

For dinner that night he choose to have bacon wrapped sirloins, plain spaghetti and blueberry muffins. We didn't do his birthday cake that night because we were celebrating with his grandparents on Sunday so we saved the cake for then. (Plus we were still trying to finish off Jake's cake from the weekend before.)

On Sunday Will's family came down and we celebrated again. This year I made him an alien cake. Nothing too fancy but he was grateful as always.There is never a dull moment when Tone is around. He usually has us either wanting to pull our hair out or laughing from some super intelligent comment. He is always so grateful and loving and I am so proud to be his mom. Happy Birthday Tony!

Update...A Happier One

Things are slowly getting back to normal. Brodie returned to school yesterday after having almost an entire week off due to his ear rupturing and being sick. Drew is finally on the mend and only has a couple days left of meds although we will continue the nose spray cause that has really seemed to help him. Jake's throat is feeling better. I guess I should say the ulcers are feeling better. He informed me this morning that he feels like he is getting sick and he has a sore throat. His arm you say? Well we go in on Friday to have it x-rayed again. He is suppose to be wearing a splint but hasn't been.

Emily is better. Her secretions have gone from green to clear so that's a good sign. Her ear is not draining anymore. Tony seemed to dodge every bullet which he tends to do. He was the only one that wasn't getting a round of medicines with his breakfast every morning...oh wait....

So...life is better! Calmer. Happier. Now I can play catch-up with laundry, cleaning and baking. My husband has returned to bed with me. Poor guy spent last week on the couch so that I could have the kids who were sick sleep with me.

The one thing I don't look forward to? All the medical bills. Ugh. I was just getting caught up with 2011.

It Keeps Going

Monday morning I took Drew into the doctor for a strange rash/sores that he has had the past month or so. He also has been battling a terrible cough, sore throat and drainage. He was diagnosed with possible impetigo and a sinus infection. While I was there I mentioned to our Pediatrician that Jacob had gotten a pill stuck in his throat a week or so ago and ever since then he had been complaining that food was getting caught. It was very painful and he was starting to get some chest burning as well as shortness of breath.

Our Pediatrician was immediately concerned and told me to go home but keep my cell phone close because he was going to call a Pediatric Gastrointestinal specialist and see what they suggested. Not even 2 hours later he called me and told me that the GI doctor on call was going to meet us at the ER to evaluate Jake. Not really what I wanted to hear.

To make a long story short, an hour and a half after we arrived at the ER we were standing outside the operating room because Jake was going to be scoped. They wanted to look to see if the pill was still in there and check for any ulcerations. When the doctor finally came back out he said the pill was gone but it left behind quite a few ulcers in the esophagus.

We were able to go home that night and Jake is now on 2 different medications. One is to coat his throat and the other is to reduce acid. He seems to be feeling a little bit better today. Lesson learned. If a pill gets stuck it is a big deal. Apparently it can actually erode the lining of the throat and cause a hole. Thankfully Jake's hadn't gotten to that point.

The 3 younger kids and myself have all been battling a terrible cold the last few weeks. Brodie stayed home yesterday because he had a really deep nasty cough. In the afternoon he started complaining that his ear felt full. By evening it was painful and by bedtime he was crying it hurt so bad. After an hour and a half of him sobbing and holding his ear we decided to take him to the ER. Thankfully we were in and out and on our way home around midnight.

They ended up giving him pain medication as well as an antibiotic for the ear. Of course it was an antibiotic he was allergic to so I had to go back to the pharmacy this morning to pick up the correct one. Sigh... When he woke up this morning I realized there was blood on the pillow. His ear drum had ruptured and it was oozing pus and blood. So another call was made to the Pediatrician for advice.

It has been a crazy 48 hours. The baby is sick now too. She has a terrible cough, congestion and runny nose. I just hope it doesn't go any further than that. One of these days we will all be healthy again and I'm really looking forward to that.

For now we are going to try and enjoy our night and celebrate Tony's 14th birthday! It is beautiful out so we are going to grill. I'm hoping the fresh air will make everyone feel better.

Early Morning

If only everyone was this happy in the morning.
She smiles so hard her eyes are closed.
She loves her brother!

Jake's 16th Birthday in Pictures

We had a fun birthday for Jacob. The morning of his birthday I made cinnamon rolls before everyone headed off to school. That afternoon when everyone got home Jake opened his presents. We got him some Playstation 3 games, controller and head set. I think he was pretty happy. For dinner he requested crepes and bacon. That was all set until his uncle called and wanted to know if we wanted to go out to eat. We decided that sounded like fun and we could have the crepes in the morning for breakfast. We ate dinner at Smash Burger. We came home and had Jello cake for dessert. Mmmm.On Sunday we managed to hold a surprise birthday party. Since Jake didn't have any plans with his friends I thought we should do something for his 16th birthday so I planned a family party. It was held at the VFW up the street from our house. I think he was actually surprised! We had a really great time. A lot of people showed up. We had snacks, cake and pizza and played some games. And since he is 16, it only made sense to make a drivers license cake. He got some really great gifts. And lots of help opening them.Thank you to everyone who showed up. It turned out to be a pretty good day!
If I was thinking better that day I would have gotten more family pictures. At least someone was thinking and we got this great photo of Jake and his paternal grandparents.

A Note to My First Born

16 years ago today my life was forever changed. I held my first born in my arms and I never knew love till that very moment. That love has not changed and 16 years later I am amazed at the young man that I see today.Alot of things have changed over the last 16 years. We have both grown and matured in ways sometimes I can't even believe. We have a good life and a good bond. Sometimes I miss that little boy with his pack pack and his vlapper rappers but I couldn't be more proud of who you have become.We have had our share of ups and downs but the ups have definitely outweighed the downs. I am so honored and privileged to be your momma. Always remember that my love is unconditional and I would walk to the ends of the earth for you. I love you more than words could ever explain. Happy 16th birthday son!

The Lost Tooth

Brodie lost his second tooth yesterday. It happened at school during gym class. He went to the nurse who put it in a tiny treasure box. She even gave him a blue toothbrush to take home. He may want to pull all his teeth at school now.

In our house we put lost teeth in a glass of water on the counter for the tooth fairy to find and hopefully leave a gift.

Yesterday when Brodie got home he got down a cup and placed his tooth and the water inside. I was a little hesitant because he put it in Drew's super hero cup but since he had already dirtied it I thought oh well. He put the cup on the counter where I moved it to the top of the canister so it wouldn't get mistakenly dumped.

That night when the tooth fairy was about to visit I was looking for the cup with the tooth so she could leave her gift. The cup was missing. Uh oh.

I found the cup on the dining room table, with only about an inch of water left in it. Drew had grabbed it since it was his cup and drank out of it. Thankfully the tooth was still in there. Whew!

Pretty nasty, but kinda funny none the less.

The tooth fairy did come that night. She left Brodie 2 dollar coins.

Just Updating

I was looking through pictures tonight. I came across this picture and it made me smile. I look forward to warmer days spent outside. Calm, fresh air, sunshine, the smell of cut grass, peacefulness.

I am trying to get caught up on some blogging. I have been really tired lately and although I have had time to sit down and type, I just haven't been able too. Concentration has been a little difficult. Pictures have been slim.

Along with tiredness their has been sickness. Seems like someone always has something. The sniffles, sore throat, cough. I guess it's that time of year and when there are 7 of you it's bound to happen.

We are plugging along. Jake just finished his basketball season and now track starts on Monday. He will be celebrating his 16th birthday one week from today. The day before his birthday he gets his cast off. Not sure which is more exciting.

Tony is preparing for his first show choir performance next week. He was also selected to attend the musical West Side Story at the Civic Center. They leave in the morning, have lunch (paid for and provided), and then will be attending the performance. He is very, very excited.

Brodie is doing great in Kindergarten. On Mondays he gets to head to a different classroom where they do some extra things with him since he is picking up on reading and such so quickly. He and Drew just got signed up for baseball He lost his second tooth today during gym class.

Drew is comical. Loves to spend time with his momma and sissy. Tonight he kissed Emily goodnight and said "sleep tight princess". I don't think he could love anyone more than he does his sister. It's a pretty special thing.

Emily is growing by leaps and bounds. She just had her 15 month check which I will update you on later. She says "momma" perfectly and has a really funny squinty smiley face going on right now. She just got her first molar and is working on the others.

That's life for us right now, this week anyway.

Emily Joy 15 months

Getting to be such a big girl!