Thursday, December 11, 2014

Emberleyisms....

Eating tacos at the table Emmy requested the sour cream be passed to her." I want to put a poop of sour cream on it!" I do it! I put on the poop of sour cream!" she declared.

Emmy earnestly informed me that my nursers were empty of milk. "Momma, you need to buy yourself some new ones so baby Caleb has milk!" 

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Girls

Abby's favorite thing, Skittles the rat.

My sleeping beauties.

Movie time.

Saturday, November 15, 2014

24 weeks and counting.

Trying to get ready for our family movie night. Corn dogs, sauce, and caramel corn all being made simultaneously.

Abby did my hair and crowned me "queen mommy."  I am 24 weeks.
Lucas took this scary monster picture.

Monday, November 10, 2014

Life

"Mom, take a picture of my Lego face!"

She got up at 4:45 AM. Guess it was a little too early.

Sunday, November 9, 2014

Perfectly choreographed.

  Daddy took Emmy for a spin on the 50 motorcycle yesterday.
 Up the last little hill to the driveway, they had a technical difficulty- a wheelie! Emmy hung on to the handle bars for dear life while daddy focused on getting the motorcycle back on its tires instead of on top of them.
She let go, slid down the seat and through his legs exactly at the right time. Cause once she hit the ground the motorcycle came down and she took off running with eyes as wide as pie pans to the first person she could find. Our friend Nicole. She scooped her up. Emmy hung on really tight.
A few minutes later Nicole, still holding her walked past a parked motorcycle. "I do not! I do not need to ride again!!!" emphatically declared the shell shocked Emmy.

Lucas' riding motorcycles...




He had so much fun riding with friends this past Sabbath afternoon. Thank you Laura Kyle for taking these pictures.

Saturday, November 1, 2014

An "unca weggie diaper"

Lately when Emmy's diaper isn't comfortable she digs and tugs at it trying to fix it. I ask her, "do you have a diaper wedgie?" To which she replies, "I have an unca weggie diaper!"

Friday, October 24, 2014

"It must have been a vision from God, mommy."

When I was about 15 weeks along I had a dream. In my dream, I was having an ultrasound. The first and only thing visible in the ultrasound was that I was having a baby boy. Waking up the next morning I was fairly certain this was accurate.
A few days later, Abrianna overheard me mentioning it to Rick. "Mommy, I think that was a dream or vision from God!" she exclaimed." Maybe so... I guess we will see..." was my reply.
At 19 weeks 5 days I was to meet up with Rick to have a "just for fun" ultrasound hoping to find out the gender of our baby.
Rick was a few minutes late. The ultrasound tech flipped on the prob before he arrived, and the very first view  I saw was of this little guy's bottom confirming that we were indeed having a boy!
Later that evening when we got home and told the kids, they were ecstatic. All of them. Abrianna excitedly exclaimed, "See momma! I told you it was a vision from God!"

Monday, October 20, 2014

Itty Bitty Tiny Nose.

His Nose Is As Tiny As Emmy's!

Friday, October 17, 2014

20 weeks and its a BOY!

20 weeks and popping out.

He has a teeny tiny nose!

He couldn't keep his hands away from his mouth or out of his mouth.
ITS A BOY!!!! We are so excited! Yesterday at the ultrasound this little guy refused to move away from the placenta where he was cuddled. When we tried to prod him to get him to move away the would throw his little hands and arms up in front of his face as if to try to hide. He loves to suck on those little fingers. They were in his mouth most of the ultrasound.

Saturday, September 13, 2014

15 weeks.


Traveling on vacation... (aka world worst traveling compliments of United Airlines.)

I decided I wanted to travel to MN this fall to see family and to announce the pregnancy of #5 in person. I found I could do it mostly on travel points on the credit card if I was willing to travel at some less than ideal hours with a layover each direction. Feeling that by the time I was 12 weeks along I'd be able to handle it just fine, I purchased my tickets.

 Since we were scheduled to arrive in MN at 10:45 PM, I decided to book a hotel through Expedia  to spend the night. Mom would pick me up the next morning. Wanting to save money, I choose the cheapest hotel that was "guaranteed" to have a shuttle.

Again wanting to avoid spending extra money. we decided that Rick would drop us off and pick us up from the airport. In order to do that, the kids and I had to ride in with him to work and then come back and pick him up so he could drop us off at the airport and he could take the van home. (Is that confusing enough?) We were out the door about 6:20 AM. Got home by 8 AM. Spent the next 2 1/2 hours trying to leave the house in reasonable condition and I tried to rest knowing the day would be long.
Picking Rick up and being dropped off at the airport was uneventful as was the first flight. Our scheduled 3 hour layover was going to give us plenty of time to find our next flight and eat supper.

Turns out that even though both gates were in the B concourse in Denver it took a good 20 min to walk from point A to point B.  Along the way we hunted for a place to eat supper finally deciding on pizza hut for the kids and a sandwich and fries (kids ate almost all of those) for mommy.

While waiting for our connecting flight to land, my kids found a grandmotherly lady in her late 60's who thought they were adorable and visited with them until our next flight.

 Here came the first hitch. A "minor" maintenance problem was identified and would be fixed shortly. That shortly turned into an additional 2 hour layover. I was quite wilted by the time we finally boarded our replacement plane from Wichita. I put the 2 older girls behind me. Sitting next to them was a daddy of a 4 year old and an 8 year old. He entertained them very well explaining to them how to flap their wings to help launch the plane.
Lucas sat in front of me. Emmy was with me. Beside me sat a mommy who's babies were in their teens but she LOVED babies. She and Emmy entertained each other very nicely until Emmy went to sleep as did the other 3. Smooth sailing until landing. Then Abby started to toss and turn and cry. She couldn't wake up enough to realize that her ears were hurting and that the man next to her had asked permission to give her gum to take care of it. Finally I  turned around and lifted her over the seat into the seat next to me to wake her up enough to chew the gum which did work. Simultaneously, Emmy started crying cause her ears were hurting. Fortunately, we still nurse a little bit so that took care of her ears.
We landed at 12:30 and we made our way towards baggage claim and to find our shuttle. There was no shuttle. 6 miles and $22.50 later a taxi dropped us off at our not so nice hotel. After checking in, I was directed to take my 6 bags and 4 tired children across the parking lot and up to the third floor via stairs to go to bed. Finally to bed at 1:30 AM. That was only the trip going there. And I thought that was bad. The trip home was 10 times worse!
The return trip: Mom was wanting to do a few special things for us on the way to the airport so we stopped at Taco Bell for lunch ( bought enough for supper too) then Culvers for their yummy creamy ice cream.
 She was a little concerned we might be slowed down with traffic and was in a hurry.
Suddenly I heard throwing up  sounds from the back seat. I had brought a bucket with us cause Abri was "off her feed" that day and I wanted to be prepared just in case. Well lets just say that the bucket caught the last little bit as we pulled off the busy interstate to clean her and the van up. (Some nice man stopped during the midst of it to make sure everything was ok.) Fortunately mom had a garbage bag that I was able to put soiled clothes in and she took over cleaning up the seat so I wouldn't be sick the rest of the day from doing it. (What a considerate mom I have )

Arriving at the airport I rented a smarte carte and loaded all our stuff onto it, kissed mom good-bye promising to let her know when we had arrived home. The security people were so nice, allowing us to take the cart all the way to our gate. How easy.
 The flight was uneventful and short.

Then came Denver.... Again! Only an hour layover meant we pretty much needed to find our gate and not make any pit stops nor dawdle.  We boarded in a timely manner and sat and sat and sat. Finally the pilot came on the intercom to tell us that they had identified an maintenance issue and the mechanics had been called and we should just sit tight and see what they had to say. In the mean time, my natives were growing restless from sitting without going anywhere.

The Pilot come back on the intercom to tell us that the plane was grounded and we would have to deplane and collect all our luggage that had been checked at the gate and wait while another plane was pulled from the hanger for us.
During that time, I had turned off my phone. Rick tried to call me to tell me that the transmission had gone out on the van when he tried to leave from work and that he had gotten a rental van and would be picking us up in that. Ughhh... Can't get any worse, right? Wrong!

We boarded the replacement plane and sat and sat and sat. The pilot came on the intercom, "Well folks, you aren't going to believe this... We have identified another minor maintenance issue. The good news is that if it can't be fixed, we'll over-ride it manually and can fly anyway. We are awaiting the mechanics." 20 min later that problem was fixed. YEAH!

The plane backed up maybe 100 feet and stopped. We sat and sat and sat. Again the pilot, "You won't believe this folks, another maintenance issue. We have called the mechanics." We sat and sat and sat while waiting for them to show up. Shortly after they showed up we were told the plane wouldn't be flying that night and that was the last back up plane.

 All 4 of my kids were sacked out. How was I going to manage 4 sleeping children and 5 carry-ons.  Against my will the tears began seeping out. People were offering to get my carry-ons down and attempted to wake my kids. The kids kept crying and trying to crawl back into the corners of their seats. We were the last ones off the plane.

  Abrianna curled up in the middle of the jet way as we waited for our checked at the gate baggage. Abby just cried. Another mommy offered the usage of her jog stroller to allow her to sleep till we got up to customer service. People helped carry bags and push the stroller.  I unloaded my bags and 3 children unto a heap on the floor to sleep while I stood in line with a sleeping Emmy in my "pack pack."

The attendant asked if it was just me and my baby. "No, its 5 tickets" I sighed" Consequently I was the last one with a hotel booked, meal vouchers, and a new flight schedule. The attendant proudly handed them to me with direction on how to find the shuttle. "Ummmm... Wait a minute!" I said, "Can you get a golf cart or something like that? I have 5 bags and 4 sleeping kids and I'm pregnant." "Well, its not far and they can't really drive a cart through those areas." she sweetly replied. "But I can't manage 4 sleeping cranky kids and 5 bags that far. If they were awake it wouldn't be a problem. They would help with the bags." I firmly replied. " Ok, let me see what I can do." she said heading back into her office for another 15 minutes. " I have somebody coming with a wheelchair to help you out," she said.

Another 15 minutes passed. A lady came pushing a wheel chair across the mostly deserted airport. We loaded Abrianna and Abby unto the chair stuffing baggage underneath. I shouldered a bag and led a sleep walking Lucas after the quickly walking lady down elevators, on a tram and finally out to the shuttle area. No shuttle. No answer at the phone number. Then we see the correct shuttle drive up. She ran out the door to flag them down. Oh how grateful I was to have everything  and everybody loaded.
Wooley's was a Castle hotel. Amazing.We had a view of the indoor stream with coy fish and real tree from our room. The beds were covered in down with 6 pillow each. The bathroom was granite and marble with a large jetted tub. Amazing. Only too short. We were there from 12:30 AM to 4:40 AM.

My night was interrupted, first Emmy wouldn't settle down for an hour. Second Rick called at 2:30 to find out what had happened to us. (The flight info said that our plane was to hand at 12:20 AM. Then it disappeared off the screen. He was able to talk to someone from another airline behind the desk who saw it had been canceled. He arrived at home immediately calling me to see where we were and when to expect us.) I groggily answered the questions turning off my dying phone. ( My charger was in my checked bag somewhere at the airport) and tried to catch a little more rest so I could get us where we needed to be.
All too soon, the phone rang to wake me up and roust everybody from their beds.  (I had made sure they were dressed and the bags pack and on the cart before we had gone to bed.) After a quick turn in the bathroom we loaded back onto the shuttle to  return to the airport.

The smarte carte idea  worked great in Minneapolis so I'd give it a try again. Getting through check in and checking the bag was easy. At the TSA security we hit a snag. "That cart can't come in here. You can't even take it through line. You must leave it right here. " So everybody grabbed their assigned bag and moved forward. A young man was assigned to help us through and soon we were on the other side making our way to the tram to get to the correct concourse.
With the gate in sight, Lucas had to use the bathroom RIGHT NOW so the girls and I sank down on some seats to wait. That's when some fellow passengers from the cancelled flight walked up and asked what they could do to help. I explained that to them I was waiting for my boy so I could leave him with the luggage and older girls so I could walk back and use my vouchers to purchase breakfast. " Please let me do that for you. " she said. I could've cried I was so grateful. Her husband stayed to chat while she went to track down bagels, juice, and granola bars.
The flight left on time, was empty and so accommodating.  Each of the older three had there own 3 chair row. They had snacks ( United doesn't give out snacks). They gave the kids coloring books and crayons. How great was that!
Landing in Seattle I found our gate, left the oldest two there with luggage and took the younger two to Wendys to purchase an early lunch. I now know why it took the fellow passenger so long to bring the breakfast back. Vouchers take awhile to process.
Abby helped carry our baked potatoes and fries. I manned the overfilled dripping frosties and another bag. Pre-boarding was happening. Another passenger who also had 4 kids ( not with her) helped me wrangle everything and everybody out to the plane. I was so grateful. We had 2 flights of stairs to get down with carry-ons and kids and dripping frosties.
The flight into Pasco was booked to the gills. A man who was in one of our assigned seat reluctantly moved. I put Emmy between Lucas and I and started messing with preparing foods to hand out to my kids. The stewardess firmly told me that Emmy HAD to be buckled or we were not taking off. (All the other flights she was allowed to sit on my lap.) Lucas moved to a vacant seat a few rows back and I placed her in the seat next to me buckling her in. She loved to buckle and unbuckle the strap. But the stewardess wouldn't have appreciated it so I spent the majority of the short flight keeping her buckled.
I noticed Abri was looking a little green around the gills so handing her the bucket I unbuckled and stepped across the aisle to turn both air vents on her. The stewardess firmly told me to sit down and buckle up as the seat belt sign was on. (It wasn't turned off on the flight cause it was short.) I told her my little girl thought she was gonna throw up and I was trying to prevent it. The stewardess wasn't impressed.
Thankfully we landed shortly thereafter and trooped off to collect bags and find blessed daddy! He loaded kids in the car, collected bags. I made my way to the one restaurant in the Pasco airport to cash out all the remainder food vouchers. Then home.
I caught a quick nap ,before Rick and I returned the rental back to the airport.
Bed welcomed me at 7:00. I have decided I will NEVER fly united again if its in my power to avoid it.





Sunday, June 29, 2014

Puuuusshhhh......

I stumbled across a reality show on Amazon Prime, One born every minute  follows a labor and delivery department in Columbus,Ohio that delivers over 6500 babies per year. Each episode features 4 births.  My two youngest girls love to watch it with me.
 Since then, Emmy will randomly say, "Puuushhh!" as she strains, ending with a shriek. Her baby ( always a girl) has arrived.
 Abby's underwear has developed a sag- a baby within. "Mommy, I need to take a baph so I can have my baby!" (Her births are all water births. )
The other day she was walking around with a little black baby doll that she'd "birthed".  "So, Abby was the baby's daddy black?" I asked. "No." she replied. "Well how did you get a black baby then?" " I push it out." she stated matter- of -factly.  

Friday, May 16, 2014

Our hands on history and science experiment today was brought to you by Little House on the Prairie.

After a short 5 hours of sleep I was wakened this morning by excited little voices and the pattering of little feet at 6:00 AM. "Mommy! We caught the gopher!" A few minutes later, " Mommy! It had onions in it cheek pouches!" ( Dumb gopher was devouring our onions). A little later, Rick trouped through to get his knife,      " Abrianna wants me to skin the gopher" he explained

Ugghhh... So tired. More pattering feet and  an excited voice, "Abby! Abby wake up! Look! Isn't this gopher paw so cute?"  ( Please don't tell me she brought a rodent foot into the house I shudder.)

Dragging myself, bleary eyed out of bed, I am met at the door by my dear husband with a gopher "pelt" in hand still baring the flesh of the gopher in a few places.
"Ewwww! Take that thing outside! Its gross!" I demand. "No!" he says. "I spent a long time skinning this thing for Abrianna and I don't want the cat or dog to run off with it!" 
"Well," I think." I'll wait for him to leave and figure some way to get it out of here. How can I do this without freaking out?"
"Abrianna, here's some salt. Take that thing outside and put salt on it. Then find a board, hammer, and some nails and we'll stretch it out to dry " ( Thank you to Little House on the Prairie for the inspiration)
Off she trots to gather  the items. Yes, I really did touch that disgusting thing and nail it on  the board. But it went into the garage for the day to dry. 
Daddy helped take it off and rub it with oil to make it more supple.
The crowning touch of this incident  was to find the used trap on my bar by the sink. Shudder
 

Saturday, March 8, 2014

God's protecting hand.

I pray for my children individually daily. For Emmy I pray about teaching her obedience and that God will protect her. Boy, did God honor that prayer in a large way today.
We were invited over to a friends house. These friends bought our old house so those of you who have visited us there know what a dangerous blind corner we used to live on.
Abby was standing by the screen door and suddenly began shrieking. Rushing over to see what on earth could be the matter, I saw Emmy toddling across that blind corner and a mommy who was walking by on the trail walking out in the road to rescue her.
My heart in my throat I tore outside to get her- thanking the lady and cuddling my baby close. This could've have turned out so totally differently.
After spending the rest of the day "hiking" around Bennington Lake we headed home. Emmy was so tired that she fell asleep in the van and continued to sleep on the bed.
Waking up crying, Abri ran into the bedroom to help her down from the bed. I sat down to nurse her when all of a sudden she started throwing up on me ( shudder!).
Now, don't get me wrong. That's nasty, disgusting, and gross. But I'm grateful to God that I have this little sick girl this evening instead of no little girl at all.
Thank you Father in Heaven for your protection.

Monday, February 24, 2014

Shoes!

19 month -old Emmy was given a half dozen pairs of hand me down shoes at church this week. Oh the hours of  fun she and her sisters have had trying on and wearing the different pairs.
This evening while nursing her to sleep I reached down to gently rub her bare foot. She immediately pulled off  and wriggly and twisting away she tried in vain to get off the bed  crying " SHOE! SHOE!"  "No, honey. We don't wear shoes to bed." Bursting into tears she continued to try to reach her elusive shoes. After singing to her awhile she finally was able to settle back down and work on going to sleep. 

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

And the little girls did....

While visiting with Aunty Jen at the zoo, Aunty decided to take Emberley into the bathroom for a quick diaper change. Laying her on the changing table she asked Emberley to lift up her buns. Up went the little bottom complete with the super hero "Doot di doo!". Snickering Aunty asked her to pick it up a again to slide the new clean diaper underneath her. Up went the bottom again with a  triumphant," Doot di doo!" This was too much and brought down the house ( or bathroom) causing an outbreak of giggles by the other occupants.



A sneering  3 year old Abby approached me with doggie treats clutched one in each hand. "What are you? Are you scary?" I asked. "I am a super hero!" she staunchly declared. "Oh really?" I asked. "What are the doggie treats for? These are my weights! I am bery STRONG" she growled - as I choked back a snort/giggle.


"Mommy, I need help!" came from Abby as she twisted to show me a very dark red looking belly button. "What did you do? Did you put something in there?" I asked. "Uh huh! Its a Lego!"
This was too good not to show Rick so off we trooped to the office to show daddy. Then back to my bed where I could see. Laying her own her back I had her pooch her little belly out as far as she could. I tried squeezing it out. Didn't work. So I managed to manipulate it to its side and after several tried yank it free with tweezers. What will she think of next?

"Owie! Owie!" Emmy pointed to  a scratch on her knee, Pulling her little leg straight up to her face she kissed it all better.


What could make a better slip n slide than a door broken from its hinges? What could make it slip better than some liberally applied hand soap? "Mom! The girls made a slip and slide in their bedroom on their door and are using soap!" Lucas tattled. Pausing in my phone conversation with my Grandma Joan, I walked back there to see if it was true. Yes it was... "Well grab a bucket, water, and some rags and clean it up!" I instructed them. A minute later a tearful soap faced smeared little boy stumbled out. " Mom I bumped my nose! I stepped on their door and fell on by face!" ( snort/laugh I responded) Ummm okay....

Friday, January 31, 2014

Dressing up

Together...

A cowgirl in a tutu.

Abby Doll.