The Last Few Months...

Okay, let's do a little catching up. As in, what have we been up to the past several months?!?

December 2010

I cam down the stairs to find my precious big boys

folding laundry for me. And, I didn't even ask them to help!

I might just have the best boys in the entire world!! :)

Bella Grace has started solids. Baby food is NOT a big hit.

However, she will chow down on whatever is on our plates!

So, as usual, I am not doing the baby food thing and I am

simply feeding her whatever we eat, just mashed up

a little. Her favorites?? Chicken, beans, guac, carrots,

cheese, ice cream, and well pretty much anything!!

Happy Five Month Birthday!!

Could she look anymore pitiful??

She also had her first cold at this time. :(

Merry Christmas!!

Bella Grace simply slept through Santa's visit.




The boys, however, did not!!
They were all about Santa this year and
our Elf on the Shelf. They named her Ella
the Elf. But, they were scared of her 'watching'
them and reporting to Santa. We ended up
just having them tell Ella their wish list every day.



Almost a perfect family shot!! But hey, with four kids
we're never going to get them to all look at the camera. :)

Okay, guys, now what the heck am I supposed

to do with this thing you call a present?!?

Momma and the four BEST babies in the entire world!!!

Bribe: If you all smile and let mommy take a picture
you can open your presents!!!

November 2010

Super fun bath time with spikey hair!!!

Happy Four Month Birthday, Bella Grace!!

Our little naked gardener, Graham.

He wanted to go outside while in the middle

of getting dressed Thanksgiving Day.

At least he remembered shoes, right?!?

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Bella Grace was baptised the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

She was SO happy during the service and smiled so big

while being baptised!

Momma, Daddy and Baby Girl :)

Bribe: You can bring the giant Pooh Bear, as long as you

sit and let us take a picture!!

October 2010

A visit to the pumpkin patch with great friends!!!

Side note: we will NOT visit this pumpkin patch again.

It was simply a bunch of pumpkins thrown out in a field

that you rode a tractor to get to. They were even so kind

as to drive you by the concrete dump on the way to get

pumpkins! Like I said, we will not be visiting again. We'll make

the drive out to the nice patches we've been to in the past!

Marshy picked his pumpkin!!

Three wild, crazy little boys! :)

Say cheese, Patrick! And, don't make it

look so painful, buddy!!

The kids literally licking the sprinkles they spilled ALL

over my kitchen floor while baking cookies for the neighborhood

Halloween Party!

Fun in the tent as the annual Cryer Ave. Halloween Party!

One of these babies DOES NOT appear to be

enjoying the Halloween festivities!!

Hmmm...which one???

Patrick needed a little break by the fire pit after lots

of Halloween fun

My littlest green dragon got a sucker!

My sweet little Patticakes :)

Marshall and his big grin :)

Bella Grace was not impressed with

the whole trick-or-treat thing...

My little dragons are off and running to get

some candy! Trick-or-Treat!!

About to head out to get some C-A-N-D-Y!!
BTW, like the nice blue painter's tape in the front door??

Our house was in mid paint job!

Happy 1st Halloween Miss Pretty!

September 2010

That would be Patrick's hand full of Shiner Bock

bottle caps. He went around collecting them at

our Labor Day party!

A fabulous plate our neighbor made for
each of the kiddos at our Labor Day party.

Guess I should step up to the plate for

mother of the year, huh?!?

Graham in true form wearing one of my headbands.

I obviously was slacking on the picture taking in September. Guess I was too busy with a newborn and three wild little boys...

August 2010

Bella Grace has her first real bath!!
She was NOT a fan and to this day
does not enjoy bath time.
She doesn't want to mess up her weave. ;)

Nothing like a little help from three little boys with

a baby's first bath!! Like the Wii remote in Marshall's

pocket? Never know when a Wii remote might
come in handy...

Patrick's first day of 4 year old preschool

at Sands Montessori. He loves his new school!

Walking out of school like a big boy! :)

Marshall's first day of 3 year old preschool

at Sands Montessori. He really loves school!

All smiles as he walks out after his first day!

Happy 2nd birthday, Graham!!!

Happy 4th birthday, Patrick!!!

He got a Wii for his birthday and wanted

a Wii cake. However, due to copyright laws

that was next to impossible. My solution??

Plop a real Wii remote on top of a sheet cake.

I though it was brilliant. Patrick was very

quick to point out that it wasn't a real

Wii cake...

Well, looks like we're caught up!! Hopefully I'll find more time to keep the good 'ol blog up to date! No guarantees, though. :)

I've Hit the Exhaustion Wall...And I Didn't Slide Off...I'm STUCK

So, been away from the good ole blog for a while now. I've got lots of catching up to do, from Bella Grace's birth to birthdays to first days of school to Halloween to Thanksgiving...you get the picture. But, I'm stuck. On the exhaustion wall. You know in cartoons when the guy runs into the wall and then slides down off of it??? Well, that's how I feel. Except for one thing- I hit the wall and got stuck! I haven't had the luxury of sliding down.

Let's go back to when I think it all started- late September. (What's that Green Day song??? Wake Me Up When September Ends?!? I agree with them!) The whole (first) run in with mastitis and dicloxicillin. I thought I made it through and we moved on to October, with pumpkin patches, leaves and Halloween! A good month. :) Then, I had a super fun girl trip to Atlanta the beginning of November. The next weekend Robert had his testosterone trip out to Kansas to hunt. Right after he returned my father came to visit (on like 4 hours notice!) Next thing I know it's the week of Thanksgiving. I get a little phone call from one of Robert's coworkers saying that they are taking Robert to the ER. Long story short, he had horrible kidney stones (yes, plural) and a bad UTI. Whoa! We get my dad off the next day only to turn around and get ready to travel for Thanksgiving. Yes, travel to Tennessee with Robert in a pain- antibiotic-infection induced state of misery. We survived our travels, enjoyed the holiday and made it back home. Holy moly!! It's December!! Gotta get the tree up and figure out the whole shopping thing. Yikes!! But wait, all six of us came down with this nasty cold/cough/fever nasty virus thing. Bleh...We survived and managed to get all of our holiday preparations taken care of just in time to travel back to Tennessee! We had a fabulous Christmas and I headed back the Monday after with all the kids in tow while Robert stayed and hunted for the week. We made it back to the 'Nati and I'm thinking SUCCESS!! I survived the holidays and now we have a week to get ready to be back in our normal routine. WRONG!! New Year's Day the nasty little thing called mastitis decided to make another appearance...and Robert was still gone...without his Blackberry...because he dropped it in the duck blind...awesome...not really. So, I get my lovely little antibiotics, Robert makes it home, I get some decent rest and YAY!! We're back to normal. Um...NOT SO LUCKY. The infection has caused tons of swelling and inflammation and lymph involvement in the affected side. My OB/GYN refers me to a breast specialist who does an ultrasound and determines that the infection is clearing up (slowly) but there are cysts that are aggravating the situation...Okay, making progress in the right direction! Ummm....WRONG. AGAIN. I wake up early on the morning of the 9th itching like mad and becoming increasingly covered in hives. What the heck?!? Total misery. Totally covered head (literally, I had them on my scalp!) to toe (yes, between my toes!) in hives. Long story short, I ended up in the ER (TWICE!) because my neck and lips and mouth were swelling, saw a specialist and am now totally messed up on steroids (and more steroids!) and antihistamines (like 3 different presctiptions!) and to top it all off, all the meds and stress on my body is making my milk supply drop. Not cool. Really not cool considering I have a 6 month old that has never taken bottles. So, we are up to date now!! Oh, wait. About six hours ago, just after midnight, we woke up to Graham vomiting all over his bed. Multiple times. I'm guessing he's sick, what do you think???

Needless to say, this is all why the blog has been somewhat neglected. Maybe I'll eventually get caught up on some posts, maybe not. But, quite frankly, it's pretty low in the to-do list. Hopefully I will become unstuck from the exhaustion wall very soon. Of course, that's doubtful. Robert has to work this weekend and I'm still whacked out on meds that make it impossible to get good sleep for another week or so. But, this too shall pass. And, life is still pretty good. And, my precious baby girl is curled up (literally in the fetal position) in my lap while I sit 'criss-cross-applesauce' style (had to say it, it's what the boys say!) typing this post. And, everyone else (excetp for steroid-antihistamine-crazy me) is sleeping and not vomiting. Oh, and I forgot to mention that I am that small percentage of people that have the opposite reaction to antihistamines- they DO NOT make me drowsy. :)