My life as a Mommy of 4 little boys

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Happy New Year!!

I really can't believe it's already 2010...how did that happen so fast? I remember in 2000 celebrating the New Year with my Aunt Gigi and my sister and friends we met there. Worried what was going to happen when it changed over to 2000 haha. Back then I was 13 and wow so much has changed. Since then I have had 3 wonderful little boys, met the love of my life and best friend in the entire world and many other small great things have happened. Some hard times too....loosing my dad in 2008 being the biggest. But overall as I look back over the past 10yrs it's been pretty great, I hope the next 10 measure up and surpass that.

This past year has been pretty tough. Nov 2007 Mark lost his job and things got bad, not with us but just money wise and stress. It took what seemed like forever for him to find a job. We had to move from Colorado, the one place we wanted to live the rest of our lives back to Texas. Move Landon out of his school and away from the first real friends he made on his own. But we made it through and we are a stronger family for it. Mark has a better job than he's ever had before and we are doing better than ever. I guess I can "thank" Kat for that...but I still better not ever run into her again. I hope this next year is much better than the past one!

We have alot to do this month coming up, we have a month exactly now to find a house, pack and move, which means moving Landon out of his school and away from these friends he's made. I hate that. But after that I hope everything else is wonderful! I have made a few resolutions for this year but I won't share them all, some are for just me. But here are a couple

1. To be a better Mom to my wonderful boys
2. Spend less time on the computer
3. Set a better schedule and get more done during the day, feel like I've accomplished more
4. Join a gym and start working out
5. Keep up with this blog more :)

That's all I'll share for now but I hope this time next year I'll be able to say I've done all of those things and much more. Here is to a wonderful 2010!!! Have a safe and happy new year!

Late night

Ugh I'm so tired of everyone being sick!!! It's been a week and a half now since it all started but it seems like it's been going on forever!!! Landon is completely better, thankfully. Hayden pretty much is, he's still not eating much and has a runny nose but other than that he's fine. I posted about our ordeal with Casen yesterday and I'm happy to report he is MUCH better...but still sick. And now Mark is getting worse. His temp is 101.5 after taking 3 ibuprofen only about 2hrs before and he feels like crap. It never ends I swear.

Tonight Mark feels so cold, to himself only! He keeps asking me to keep him warm in bed so I tried as long as I could but I was starting to sweat under all the covers up against him being so hot, plus Hayden was on the other side of me so body heat from there too. I couldn't take it anymore so I came out on the couch with Casen and left those two in there and cranked up the heat with only that vent open so hopefully that will help keep him warm.

Casen though is alot better, I can tell those breathing treatments really helped him. He isn't as worn out, I think he was so tired from not breathing so well, wearing himself out just breathing. His cough is also much better since doing them. His temp didn't get very high today. So I think he's on the road to getting better. Earlier I gave him a slice of raisin bread and he picked out all of the raisins and wouldn't eat the bread, part of it fell on the floor and I asked him to pick it up so I could vacuum. He went to pick it up and there was an ant on the floor and you would have thought he saw a HUGE spider or something with the way he reacted. He flipped out, crying, screaming the whole bit. I had him pick it up anyways...ant wasn't on it, in fact it was a good 6in away, I guess he thought it could run super fast or jump or something. But Casen has a tendency to play things over and over in his head, play things up so he worked himself up over it big time. He kept crying and wouldn't listen to calm down, also because he was tired from no nap so I had him go to his room to calm down. I vacuumed and he was still upset so I went in there and talked with him. He was so upset that he had to get that close to the ant. I told him it couldn't move that fast or jump and that he was fine nothing happened...his response..."well something could have possibly happened". Wasn't getting anywhere lol. I told him that along with my eyes on the back of my head that every mom has, we also get super hearing and when I was vacuuming I sucked the ant up and heard it screaming "nooo don't suck me up" (before this I had told him I sucked it up, he questioned how I was SURE I got it) he didn't believe me at first, but I finally convinced him lol. He truly believes I ahve eyes on the back of my head and is always randomly bringing it up asking questions about it :) But after that ordeal he had nightmares tonight about the ants and he's now on the couch asleep. See what I mean by playing it up in his head? But as I sit here writing all of this I keep hearing him grinding his teeth...it kills me!! AWFUL sound!

But now that it seems Hayden has finally fallen asleep back there with Mark I should try and sleep too, I'm sure one or two of them will be waking me up atleast once more tonight. As of now it seems my Mom body has finally figured out it is NOT allowed to get sick and hopefully it stays that way!

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Trip to the ER with Casen

Well Casen hasn't been getting any better, in fact he's getting much worse. Last night before bed his temp was 102 so I gave him some Tylenol before putting him to bed. He woke me up at 5:30am and his temp was 103.7 so I gave him Motrin and he went back to bed with us. All day today he just laid around talking about how he didn't feel good. He asked to take a nap so I took him back to my bed to lay with him so he'd go to sleep easier and decided to take his temp before putting him down to see if he needed more meds and it was 105.1!!!! So I got him some Motrin and gave him that then he threw it up a few minutes later because he's started having coughing fits today where he coughs so much he can't catch his breath in between and that goes on for a good minute or two solid...well it made him throw up the medicine. So I put him in the bath and called Mark and the hospital and they said to give him Tylenol in case his body had absorbed any Motrin didn't want to risk overdosing him on it. So I did that and Mark left work to come home, he made it here pretty quick considering it was snowing already. So we took him to the ER and by the time we made it there his temp was almost normal but he was wheezing really bad so they gave him a breathing treatment and then took him for chest x-rays to check for pneumonia...luckily he didn't have that. He was still wheezing pretty bad so they gave him another breathing treatment, he is still wheezing but doing much better and it's only on one side now. They didn't exactly diagnose him with anything just said it's some upper respiratory infection and gave him a big dose of steroids to help his lungs. Then gave me a prescription for more of that, an antibiotic, inhaler and chamber/mask thing to make it easier for him to take the inhaler. We went and got all that filled...talk about expensive without insurance :|

When we got home it was about 9pm and his temp was back over 102 so I gave him a dose of Motrin and some of the inhaler and sent him to bed. I hope the breathing treatments, inhaler and steroids he has had so far start helping him some. He's already not coughing as much which is good. Hopefully he sleeps better tonight, he didn't sleep very good at all last night. He'll start more steroids and the antibiotic tomorrow morning. They said to rotate Tylenol and Motrin every 4hrs for the first 24hrs, and inhaler ever 4hrs for first 24hrs then as needed for both. I hope he's back to normal soon, poor kid has been sick too long :(

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Our Christmas

So Christmas is over for another year....makes me kind of sad, I really enjoyed preparing for and having Christmas this year. Too bad we all got sick for it :(

I think we went a bit crazy this year but we justified it, the boys have been through hell this past year with us, with that b**** causing Mark to loose his job and everything that went with that, money issues and all, us having to take Landon out of his first year of school and move him back to TX which he wants to be back in CO, taking Casen out of preschool to move here and then not being able to put him back in, just everything...it has not been a good year for us. Luckily things are much better now and Mark has a great job and we are doing wonderfully. So yeah, that's our justification...THEY DESERVED IT!

They were so happy and that's what matters, no to some it isn't about the gifts but to us that is what Christmas is. It's not religious, it's family, love, traditions, Santa and gifts...and this year it was all of that and more...perfect.

Santa brought Landon a remote control tank that shoots BB's...what was he thinking?!?!?! Actually they have done really well and know not to shoot each other and are really careful with it. He also got tons of Halo lego sets so he was thrilled, that's what he wanted more than anything. Now we just need to find some type of glue to keep them all together, they come apart too easily and they are hard to get put back together the right way. Any ideas? He also got an art kit, glow dome and some other arts and crafts stuff...I was kind of surprised how much he loved that, he is really getting into drawing now, I wonder if he will get as good as my brother, I doubt it...he's awesome but maybe he'll take after him. He got lots of clothes and other toys too. He thanked us countless times since then for everything, he's such a good boy...I think we're doing a good job with that one :) Can you believe in a little over 3 mo he's going to be seven years old...SEVEN!!!!! How did that happen so fast?

Santa brought Casen an art desk..how perfect is that?! He got TONS of art supplies and kits from us and Grandma too. His one thing he wanted more than anything was a cupcake maker...Nonnie came through with that. After opening all of his gifts Christmas morning he was very happy with them all but did say in a very sad voice that Santa didn't bring the one thing he asked for, the cupcake maker. After Nonnie got there and he opened that we told him "see Santa just knew Nonnie had bought it and got you something else he knew you'd love" and he does love that art desk. I see many days in our future of him sitting there all day long working on workbooks, coloring, writing....he loves doing that. He's so calm and quiet...so very different from his brothers lol. He also got the other thing he really wanted, a race track. His Christmas was complete!

Hayden got a tricycle from Santa which has been a huge hit with all three of them. It hasn't been used outside yet, once it has it will always be an outside toy so we are waiting for awhile, but for now they are riding it around the kitchen, around the table and island..over and over. They give each other rides and Hayden can actually fit on it!!!! The first ever bike/trike he can reach the pedals, my poor short legged thing haha. He has even learned to pedal it fully on his own, not bad for 2. He got some other great toys like Monty Rex, a chicco remote control car, a train track from Nonnie (geotrax which we have tons of so we can make a huge track with) and also a Thomas starter kit from Grandma, which I love. I think for his birthday if he's still really into it we might do a train table and some more Thomas wooden train sets. He also got tons of clothes. Great gifts all around

For mommy I got some perfume I have been wanting, tons of VS body wash that smells great!, a new pink Canon camera for me to keep on me since my SLR isn't exactly easy to throw in the diaper bag/purse and keep on me all the time, then some clothes. Me and Mark have never really been able to do things for each other, much less other family, it's always about the boys, it was so nice to be able to give each other gifts this year. I got him a nice new Skil drill and a big kit with tons of bits, some pjs, clothes and a new wallet. He loves it all...I did good haha. We got our parents and siblings things too, it was great. I hope every Christmas from now on is as good.

We had dinner that night at our house and had family over. We went to his dad's house on Christmas Eve. And guess what else happened on Christmas Eve?!?!?!!! IT SNOWED!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES in Texas, it snowed!!! We had a white Christmas, can you believe it? I still can't!!! It made it all even more perfect. I have missed Colorado so much and one of the big things was knowing we wouldn't have snow on Christmas and look we did :) Quite a bit for TX too. WE might even get more on Tues...great winter so far..hope it keeps up!

But everyone has been sick :( It started with Landon on Tues. Then Casen and Hayden started getting it but it really hit them Christmas Eve. Mark also started then. They've had fevers around 100-101 since then, so not too bad. Landon is better now, thankfully, and finally actually ate today. Mark woke me up Christmas night with the worst shakes ever, he just could not warm himself up, even wrapped under really warm blankets with me holding him, nothing worked, he was shaking head to toe so hard for over an hour. But he's been a bit better now, still sick though. This morning I woke up with a really sore throat and have just felt blah all day, I hope I don't get it as bad, but it would be just mom's luck that I would get it the day Mark is going back to work..tomorrow. I've got all 3 kids home all week since Landon doesn't go back to school until the 4th. I sure hope I don't really get sick.

Well now to start planning New Year's Eve...we've been invited to a friend's house but I'm not too sure yet, we'll see. Starting to think of New Year's Resolutions already...one will be to update on here more often

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Want to win??!!!

For those who cloth diaper.....

Want to win a fitted diaper from SBish and a wool knit soaker? Go read this review and enter to win

http://www.happygreenbabies.com/diapering/sustainablebabyish-sloomb-cloth-diaper-and-wool-cover-review-and-giveaway/comment-page-3/#comment-1769


Friday, December 11, 2009

Another Melissa and Doug Giveaway

I LOVE Melissa and Doug toys, they are the best! They are having another giveaway for a dollhouse...yes I know I have boys but they would still love this house! Enter by going to this link


http://blog.melissaanddoug.com/2009/12/09/giveaway-multi-level-wooden-dollhouse-with-family/comment-page-1/#comment-6739


Good luck everyone!

Thursday, December 10, 2009

A Christmas Survey

I have seen this on several blogs, so thought I would join in......
About the TREE....
1.When do you put up the Christmas tree? A week or two into December
2. Real or fake? Fake
3. Lights? What color? Clear
4. Garland? no
5. Theme or no theme? no theme
6. What kind of topper? An Angel
7. What's your favorite ornament? The boys new ornaments for this year, their letters.
8. What does your tree skirt look like? It's red, green and blue with a snowman, reindeer, tree and Santa...it matches our stockings.
9. Where do you put your tree? the livingroom
10. Who decorates the tree? all of us
11.What's "under" the tree? Right now..Hayden, playing with a bell
12. Do you put candy canes on your tree?no but I want to go get some to add to it
About the FOODS....
1. What's your favorite Christmas cookie? forget em cookies
2. Do you bake cookies and give them away? We bake but don't give them away...well to Santa :)
3. Any "special" foods or candy that you only have at Christmas time? fudge, candy canes lol
4. What do you eat Christmas EVE? Nothing special.
5. What do you eat on Christmas day? We make a huge breakfast and dinner, I think we'll do just a ham this year
6. Do you like Eggnog?? no
7. Do you like candy canes? yes
Decorations....
1. Where do you hang your stockings? On the bar this year
2. Do you put lights on your house? No but we are going to start next year, this year we could be moving at any time so we aren't.
3. Got any outside lawn decorations? No
4. Do you put up a nativity (creche)? No
Do you hang mistletoe over the door? No
6. Got a wreath on your front door? No but I've been looking for one, haven't found one I like yet
7. How long does it take you to decorate? A night
About the movies/shows
1 . Favorite Children's Xmas TV show/cartoon? The Grinch
2. Wonderful Life/Miracle on 34th St/A Christmas Carol (Scrooge)?A Christmas Carol
Favorite Christmas movie?? Christmas Vacation or Home Alone
4. Have you ever seen the Nutcracker Suite Ballet live? No
5. Ever been to the Radio City Music Hall Christmas show?? No
6. Ever gone to the movies on Xmas Day? No
Other Christmas things....
1. Favorite Christmas book or story? Twas the night before Christmas
Do you stuff your stockings with any types of food? They get candy
3. Do you go to church on Christmas or Christmas Eve? No
4. Have you ever gone Caroling? No
5. Favorite Christmas Carol? Carol of the Bells, Jingle Bells, love them all really
6. Do you believe in Santa? Of course!
7. Do you leave Santa cookies? Yes we bake on Christmas Eve with the kids
8. What about Rudolph? He gets carrots
9. What was your best Christmas gift? I can't remember
10. What was the worst/most odd gift? Never got anything really bad
11. Do you go to a "work" Christmas party? No
12. Do you hate going? n/a
13. Do you send Christmas cards? yes
14. Do you make a "list"? I make tons of lists
15. Do you check it twice? & thrice & etc? Everyday leading up
16.When do you start shopping? Around Black Friday
17.Do you shop on Black Friday? YES!
20. ARE YOU READY FOR CHRISTMAS? Yes!!!!! can't wait!
Now it's your turn!


Saturday, December 5, 2009

Santa Pictures


Well it was an adventure. We knew Casen was going to be scared, like he is every year so Mark made a deal with him, if he didn't cry and took a picture we would take them to get ice cream after. Well we didn't think it would be Hayden that flipped out. He's usually good with that stuff but today he freaked out. He latched to my shirt and was NOT letting go without taking it with him. So they suggested we all get in the picture...not prepared for that. Well it was our first family professional picture...EVER. Which is nice but too bad it wasn't a great one. Hayden looks terrified, Mark isn't looking at the camera, I look huge and have a stupid look on my face and Landon isn't smiling. But Casen right in the middle is smiling haha, he wanted him some ice cream.


All Christmasy Weekend

This weekend will be all about Christmas woohoo!!! Well with a bit of shopping added in :) I got a sweater at Old Navy when we went black Friday shopping and tomorrow I have to go exchange it for a SMALLER Size woohoo!!!! That's always nice. Also have to exchange 2 shirts I got from Gap, didn't notice the neckline was all the way up to the neck...not my thing. But then I'm going to another store to do some more shopping for me, hope I can find some stuff, haven't been in there in a long time but looked online and loved alot so hopefully it looks right. But then after all of that we are taking the boys to see Santa!!!!!!!!! I can't wait...I hope it's a good looking Santa because the past 3 yrs it's been the SAME Santa at the same mall, in the same chair....in Colorado :( And he looked so "real" like you really think Santa should look like, not that creepy looking guy you see in some people's pics. We are taking them to Southlake Town Square and they have this big sleigh thing set up with Santa in it so it looks like it should be good pictures, the boys can't wait. Tomorrow evening I think I'm going to have them write their letters to Santa and mail them to the North Pole (aka Mark's office) and then we are printing out some really cute letters from Santa from this site
http://www.freelettersfromsantaclaus.com/free_printable_letters_from_santa.asp

And "Santa" will be sending them back from the "North Pole" :D They are going to be thrilled to get mail just for them FROM SANTA!

Sunday we are going to put up our tree, I can't wait :D We got some new ornaments this year that I love. We got the boys each one that looks like a cookie shaped in a letter (L, C, and H) that's decorated then 2 other cute ones. I have to go by Kohls tomorrow because I saw online they have some really cute snowman ornaments one with a red hat (hayden) one with a green hat(landon), and one with a blue hat (casen) that you can put pictures in...perfect for them so I have to have them. We have a countdown going and the boys love to change the numbers each day. I'm really excited about christmas this year, I hope the boys have a wonderful Christmas :)

I'll be back with Santa pictures soon....

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Yikes it's been almost a month...maybe I should update

With Landon having an entire week off for Thanksgiving and preparing for the meal at our house and Black Friday I haven't really had a chance to write, so let's see what's happened the past few weeks....

We had Thanksgiving at our house and had Mark's dad, Henry, and Mark's mom and her boyfriend, Gail and Ludwig over. It turned out good, the food was yummy, well what I could taste of it because I was still getting over being sick. The boys went with them for the night so we could go black Friday shopping. It was the first time Hayden has ever stayed the night away from me but he did fine. I missed them tons....let's just say it won't be happening again for a long time. For anyone that knows me I'm car seat crazy. That's putting it mildly. Car seats are a huge thing for me and I'm very strict about their use with my kids. Hayden is 26 mo and still rides rear facing and will for a long time yet, Casen is in a harnessed booster seat which he will remain in until he outgrows the harness and Landon is in a high back booster and will be for years to come. Well I always install their seats, whether it be in our car or anyone elses. So for their overnight trip with Grandma I did the same. Yet somehow when he came back, Casen was in his harnessed seat (a Nautilus) no longer installed but instead the seat belt taken out of the belt path and put around him as if he was in a booster! I almost died, it didn't fit him right at all and thankfully they weren't in a wreck, I hate to think what would have happened had they been, just by looking at how it laid on him it would NOT have been good. So I'm still recovering from that. Needless to say anyone who plans on taking my boys will go through Beth's Carseat Bootcamp before it happens again. There was another issue but we won't go into that :|

At 11pm Thanksgiving night though we went shopping!!!!!!!!!! First we went to Grapevine mills and stopped in Children's Place and got the boys all some clothes. Then over to Toys R Us, they were having a sale for Batman figures for buy one get two free! So we got six haha. Then while standing in line I saw they had a Melissa and Doug big floor puzzle on sale for $9.99...Casen LOVES puzzles and I LOVE Melissa and Doug so I grabbed it, it rang up for only $4.98!!! Awesome deals. Then we went to Carters and got more clothes. Then we left and went to Old Navy...MORE awesome deals on clothes!! This time for me and Mark too, woohoo! We then went to Target and got some more stuff. We ended up finishing most of our shopping that day and the rest has since been finished minus picking up Hayden's elmo and getting them all a few more stocking stuffers :) I love being done already it's great! Not only did we get good sales that day we also MADE money!!!! Best Buy had some sales going and we ended up getting a gift card and then money back on things we had bought recently. The gift card was $150, well I've been wanting a new digital camera for awhile, I have a DSLR and I love the thing but it's huge and it's not exactly easy to just toss in a bag and bring everywhere and we all know I'm picture crazy too so I found a cute PINK canon on sale for only $149.99 after tax we ended up only paying $12 out of pocket since we had that gift card! So that's part of my Christmas presents...shh don't tell Santa I know what my gifts are already!

This week Landon went back to school, he's now at a level 13 in reading!!!!! I did get a call from his teacher today and they are going to evaluate his speech just to be sure all is normal, there are a few letters he still has troubles with and they want to make sure it's all normal for his age and if not get him some help so it doesn't become an issue with his spelling and such down the road...right now it's not effecting his learning at all though. On Sunday he lost his first tooth!!!!!!!!! It was a huge ordeal, he was terrified but it was hurting his gums when it moved and when he ate so it had to come out. Almost 2hrs later Mark got it out ( it was loose enough Landon just kept closing his mouth lol). The tooth fairy felt so bad about all he had to go through to get it out she left him $10!!!! One lucky kid! He's now so proud of himself though, he likes that it's gone and tells me he likes having a hole in his mouth that it feels cool. Me I don't like it so much lol but it's ok. He's growing up so fast I can't believe in just a few months he'll be 7 OMG!!!!! And Casen will be 5!!! So crazy!