Wow it has been awhile

Well I have been slacking on my blog. It is harder the longer I go between posts because I dread having to write a long post to cover everything that happened. But I always feel great after I do it and it kind of releases some memory in my brain because I was finally able to write all these activities/thoughts down.

So... the last few weeks... where do I start. Well I can start with our trip to the local state park in the southern part of our state. It was great. We stayed in a cabin near the area and took the kids. It was nice to be in the wilderness and to appreciate it more than we usually do. The kids loved the cabin because it had a loft where they all slept in. It was also made of real wood so they were interested in the process of making a real log cabin. Outside there were some trails, fire pit, corn hole and woods. The kids made a house sign made out of twigs and rocks and we decorated acorns to look like little people. I forgot to take pictures of these activities but they really had a great time creating art with nature. We took the kids to see some caves and a waterfall, which was dried up. They really enjoyed the hike and we had minimal complaining.




Nice face Mallory.

Here is another try, but Julianne and Nathan are looking the other way. I can never get a great picture of all three of them together.

Julianne in a dark spooky cave.


Large pulled up tree.


Nathan did not get into the highlighted area. Not enough time to edit.

Nathan fell asleep on the way home so I brought him in the cabin and he slid down the futon. He stayed like this for quite some time.

The kids were obsessed with these caterpillars. We had lots of them in plastic containers before we convinced them that they would not like to be stuck in a plastic room.


Log cabin joints. Pretty cool how they are stuck together and what prevents them from slipping out.

The "men" tending to the fire.

On Sunday, our departure day, Nathan began his barky cough. He coughed pretty much the entire morning and afternoon. I did not bring his nebulizer since he just had one a few weeks before so I felt bad that I did not have anything for him. We were on our way home so I knew that we could do a treatment around lunch time. He was coughing so much and so hard that he threw up in the car like 5 minutes after we left. We got him home and gave him a treatment and went to Mallory's game. He was hot and tired at the game from coughing so much and having his body's antihistamines all revved up that he took a nap on the way home. We gave him another treatment and some Zyrtec and that seemed to help. He still had a little bit of heaving breathing that night but not too severe. So I think it was all the fall leaves and the surroundings that may have triggered his asthma. There is definitely a difference in his episodes of when he has a barky cough and just a regular cough. I am not going to make an assumption but I do have a hypothesis that his barky coughs are due to allergies and the regular coughs are due to colds/viruses. So I am going to observe this and see if it is true. I seem to concentrate on his heaving breathing and trying to figure that out but there is also some differences between the coughing that occurs beforehand.

Julianne had her soccer tournament last weekend and they played really well. They ended up winning second place within their little division. The great thing about that was she really earned her first trophy. She loves it and will not let Nathan touch it because she does not want him to break it. I think that all the teams get a trophy but she is especially happy about hers. She played defense most of the time and really likes that role. She was playing goalie for the first 5 games and she started to not like soccer. I kept thinking that the coach would switch her around but he did not so we finally talked to him and told him that she does not like play goalie every single game. Since they are so young we want her to still really like the game and to move to different positions. This talk did not go as we planned and the coach came back and said that he will not put her on goalie anymore. Which was not our point, and we tried to emphasis that, but she has not played goalie since that talk. So we are not really worried about it she still enjoys it and likes that she is not goalie anymore.


Some pictures of the kids while at Julianne's game.


My little nature girl.

She is cleaning out the pond.


More pictures of Julianne (she's white number 10).

Mallory's soccer is going well. It is great to see her play. She really enjoys it and still bounces all over the field with a smile on her face.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-Hearing Nathan say, "It's froggy outside." (instead of foggy)
-Enjoying nature with the kids.
-Having my husband home after 5 days of not seeing each other.

Mallory is growing up

Well we basically initiated Mallory participation in two new activities this year. She was hesitant about both of them but now she loves them both. Both her activities started within the same week. She is now a Daisy Scout and a new soccer player. She is really funny on the soccer field. She is actually very fast but she is kind of bouncy and she is surprisingly aggressive. She was not afraid to go out there and get into the game. She just keeps her leg kicking and follows the ball. She was a little clumsier this last game then her first game but she always has fun. She seems to always have a smile on her face. She also like Daisy's. She has only had one meeting and she actually chose to go to soccer and not Daisy's so she has only had one informal meeting. But she will like it because most of the time they make crafts and do other artistry activities.




She's a little distracted here.

The kids had an impromptu sprinkler party. D was watering his new seedlings and despite the colder weather the kids wanted to run through the sprinkler. The had fun and I am glad I grabbed the camera.






After two months of asthma free bliss Nathan had another episode last week. So it was time and this one made up for the several months of not having one. It started as the usual and ended within a few days. The bad part was that his worst day was on Wednesday with our babysitter. Our sitter is great and I knew that she would be able to handle it but I think that it did surprise her a little. The other bad part is that I had a prepaid conference that day that I had to attend so I could not meet her and talk to her about it. So D went over the basics and then I called her on my way and filled in the details. She also had to deal with Tucker. We took Tucker into the emergency vets that Sunday because his other eye was acting up. Sure enough he had a ulceration in is left cornea. So we caught it earlier enough that we did not have to do surgery but the bad part is that he now has 5 medications that need to be given 4 times a day 5 minutes apart. So it is basically a revolving eye medication door where all day I feel like I am putting drops into his eyes. So along with Nathan, our sitter had to deal with Tucker. She was a trooper and got it all done and seemed to do well with the extra chaos.

I took the kids to their first home football game a few weekends ago. They had a great time and they did not really pay attention to the game but enjoyed the food and the before the game activities.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-Mallory enjoying her own individual activities
-watching Julianne try her hardest at soccer
-Nathan's individual independence

Nathan's first day of school

It was finally Nathan's first day of school. He was so excited about going and about an hour before it was time to leave he kept asking if it was time to go now. So he did really well. He went right in and started playing and I kept waiting for him to feel sad and cry but he did not. I must admit I was a little sad that he did not whimper a little bit, however, it was also nice to have one of my kids excited and independent enough to leave me. He has really matured these past few weeks. He seems to be older and more mature. He is up for any activity and goes into it full force and generally has a great time. I have enjoyed my two days with Nathan. We chill out in the morning, organize the house and running errands. I try to plan some sort of activity during the day and then we pick up the girls. Today we were on a task to find some buckeye trees. We found one and managed to get about 20 buckeyes. We also changed our rock tumbler grit. So we are on the last week of the four week rock tumbling odyssey. The rocks are looking great so I am sure that this will be enough tumbling for these rocks.




Julianne had her friends' birthday party this past weekend. D took all Julianne and her three friends to a local water park. The girls had a blast and D had a good time with them. The girls were much calmer this year, I don't know if it was because one of the girls feel asleep early or they just matured. They did not have any crazy, coming upstairs screaming and running. After they got home they watched a movie and played Clue. Then we sent them downstairs and we think they fell asleep around 12. They did not get up until 8 which I thought was pretty late for the girls.


Not the best picture, but you get the idea.


Funny Julianne face

Other random pictures

Mallory lays out her clothes before bedtime. It is so cute because she is starting to match hair bows and bracelets with her outfits.

So since I had my camera upstairs taking pictures of Mallory's outfit I thought I would take pictures of the kid's sleeping



Nathan's new bike. He looks adorable riding it and he can sure ride it far for being so small.

Mallory on her roller blades. She lasted for about 5 houses, then we had to turn around because it took her about a half an hour to get that far.

That looks like it hurts (her bow legged feet)

Oops she fell down again.


Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-seeing a hawk out my window on Saturday morning. The kids and I watched it for about 5 minutes before it flew off. It was stalking our squirrels.
-Watching Mallory make cardboard, rose petals cards for everyone at Julianne's birthday party and Nathan, myself and D. It was super sweet of her to make these cards and then pass them out to everyone.
-D willing to take the girls to the water park and actively participating in the kids birthday parties.

Julianne's b-day and our annual campout

The past few weekends have been busy with lots of weekend activities. We had our annual camp out and the kids had a great time. We set up the tent and brought out all the air mattresses and sleeping bags. We grilled out and cooked our annual smores. Nathan really liked the fire this time. He, as well as his dad were memorized by the fire and he kept saying, "I like fires." D slept in the tent with the kids since it was hard for me to really want to sleep outside with my bed 25 feet from the tent. He is much better at sleeping in different beds and places so I knew that he would not have any troubles sleeping in the tent. I did miss waking up with them but they also had an interesting night. Julianne threw up in her bed and Nathan peed in his bed. Julianne ended up sleeping in my bed and Nathan crawled into bed with D. So it was a great night. Julianne threw up two more times after that but was fine after that. So I don't know what was the matter with her. She might have eaten too much or just had a little bug.







"I love the fire."

Mallory was our patient marshmallows toaster. She would put the marshmallow in the fire and let it get brown. Julianne put hers straight into the fire, burned it then ate it. It was fun to see the differences.


The fire at night. It was a great fire and it had so many great shots. I just did not have my tripod out so most of my pictures did not turn out.

Our first sweet baby turned 9 last week. I am still amazed that she is that old. Everyone with older kids says that their kids lives flew by and now their kids are teenagers or out of the house. I know what they are talking about. It is hard to image how hard it was when Julianne was a baby. She was colicky, high need and high maintenance. She is such a great kid. She is a great friend, is considerate, respects adults, tries hard at school and in her extra activities and in general is a great big sister. She really loves us and has really come into her own person. I can't believe that next year she will be 10 and then in her pre-teens. I know that those years will be harder than what we experienced when she was a baby. So I am going to try to savor more smaller moments with all my kids since they really do grow up so fast.

Her best friend has the same birthday so her friend had her party on her birthday so Julianne is celebrating her friends' birthday party this coming weekend. We had her family party last weekend. We gave her a new desk for all her homework to come and we bought her a wave board. It is like a skate board but you gain speed and momentum by rotating your feet on the board.








Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-Celebrating Julianne's b-day with her
-Mallory getting used to school and eating lunch in the cafeteria for the first time and not being afraid
-Hearing Nathan tell the girls that they look pretty