This weeks toys

I keep several bins of larger toys and once a week I change them out. Today was the day to change it so I got out a new bin, all the little people sets. It always amazes me how long the kids will play with a toy that they haven't seen for a week :-). The bins that I have are lincoln logs, large legos, little people sets and dress up clothes. I tried changing them out every day but for my personality it works better to do it once a week. When we do it this way all the toys get played with but I don't have to have them all out at once. :-) As for the smaller toys, stuffed animals, books and games, I have half of them packed up and the other half out. Once a month I switch them all out. I got this idea from a friend and it works very well for us. Again, all the toys get played with but we are not overrun with toys. :-)

First Black Eye...

Jeremiah had a little run in with the concrete patio out back yesterday and got his first black eye. It looks terrible! Poor guy! He is just getting the hang of walking and tripped over his own feet. Ouch! At least it wasn't one of his siblings fault. :-)

Scary times

This morning while I was nursing Micah we had a very scary thing happen. Jeremiah was on the floor throwing a temper tantrum like he often does. We have learned that it does no good to spank, it only makes him more upset, so in general we just ignore him and he gets it all worked out of his system. But today, I looked over at him and instead of lying still like he usually does he was twitching convulsively. I called Mark to come and look at him, since I couldn't get up to check on him (it's hard to move when nursing a baby). Mark came over and picked Jeremiah up but Jeremiah continued to convulse and his eyes were rolling around. He didn't respond to his name and then he started having difficulty breathing. Mark and I were so scared. I laid Micah down and went running to call 911, while Mark continued to try to keep Jeremiah breathing. The firemen were here within 5 minutes, the longest 5 minutes of my life. I stayed on the phone with the 911 dispatcher and watched Jeremiah in Mark's arms continuing to convulse. Just as the firemen arrived Jeremiah's eyes rolled back in his head and he started drooling on Mark's shoulder. The firemen laid Jeremiah on the couch, stripped him down to his diaper and gave him oxygen. It only took about half a minute for the oxygen to start helping Jeremiah calm down and start breathing okay again. The ambulance arrived while we were giving Jeremiah his oxygen. The paramedics told us that it sounded and looked like Jeremiah had a seizure, but they weren't sure what would have caused it, so they thought it would be best to take him in the ambulance to the ER to be checked out. Mark went with Jeremiah and I stayed at home with the other kids. Mark kept me posted on what was happening at the hospital through text messages. The hospital staff took blood for several tests and also ran a CT scan. It took forever to get the results but they finally came back clear, Jeremiah is completely healthy. The doctor told Mark that Jeremiah probably just held his breath long enough to cause himself to have a seizure. The doctor said it's not normal for that to happen but it's also not something that he has never seen. So, after all that we are supposed to watch Jeremiah carefully for more seizures, try to keep him from throwing temper tantrums and just in general be more cautious. I'm so glad that he is okay and healthy and that everything turned out fine. Praise the Lord!

Broken Window!

I was on the phone yesterday with Mark when all the kids came running in from the backyard where they had been playing. Emmaline told me that the window was "broken" and Elijah chimed right in with the same info. I didn't hear any glass shatter or anything like that so I thought that they were exaggerating, until I went downstairs... half of the sliding glass door was cracked into a million pieces and was still cracking. Fortunately it was safety glass and double paned so it didn't just fall onto the ground or worse blow out into the house. There was a large rock lying on the ground in front of the window so it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what had happened, but figuring out who threw the rock was quite a bit more difficult. Elijah persisted in saying that Emmaline threw it, Emmaline insisted that Josiah threw it and Josiah kept saying that he didn't know who threw it. After MUCH discussion it finally was determined that Emmaline was the culprit. In a houseful of boys it had to be the only girl that threw the rock! Who would have thought a girl could be such a handful!!!

Easter 2010

We spent Easter at my parents house. It was a good day. Both my brothers were there and my sister in law who is pregnant and due any day. It was a lot of fun to spend time as a family, it's hard to get all of us together these days. Mark was able to fly one of his planes, which was a nice treat. It was altogether a really good time. :-)

Grandma's Funeral

Today was my grandma's funeral. It was up in Fort Collins. We had some friends watch Emmaline, Josiah and Jeremiah for the day but we decided to take Elijah with us. And of course Micah has to go where ever I go. :-) Elijah did pretty well with the whole thing although we're not sure he completly understands that great grandma is gone. He put a flower on her casket at the grave side along with all the other great grandkids. I was an honorary pallbearer so I walked along behind the casket. My sister and her husband were able to come from California for the funeral so it was nice to see them even though it wasn't the best of circumstances.

Boys and their toys

Mark has recently started building and flying model airplanes. His current project is a T Craft model airplane, fairly small, relatively speaking. :-) The last one he completed was a piper cub which is really big, the wing is taller than me! He spends lots of time building them and the boys love to come and help or work on their own planes. On Sunday Elijah was working on his airplane, made out of scraps from Mark's plane, and Josiah was working on a little airplane that Mark made for him while Mark worked on his plane. It was so cute I just had to take a picture of them all together. :-)

Little helper!

Every Sunday evening we have tea and snack type foods, usually cheese, crackers, and cookies. Last night Emmaline got on the counter, pulled out some bowls and my mixer, and procedded to pretend to make cookies for us to have with our tea! It was so adorable! Whenever I cook or bake she loves to come and help and yesterday she just decided she would do it on her own. It won't be too many years before she is able to really cook, and what a blessing that will be! :-) I didn't think to take a picture of her cooking but here is a picture of her playing dress-up. She loves to say that she is "God's little princess"!

A rough week . . .

This has been a rough first week with Micah, not because he is a hard baby but because we have all been sick with the stomach flu! Josiah was the first one to get sick on Tuesday, followed by Jeremiah on Thursday, me and Elijah on Friday night and Mark and Emmaline today. It has been pretty miserable for everyone, trying to adjust to a new little one and being sick all at once. Mark got it the worst though. He has spent most of the day in the bathroom, poor guy. :-( In addition to being sick we have had a terrible time trying to find a doctor to do Micah's circumcision. We went to 2 doctors and one refused us care because we don't do all the vaccinations and the other said he wouldn't do the circumcision unless Micah had a Vitamin K shot (We did vitamin K drops since he was born at home). We ended up having to get a prescription for the shot, having our midwife administer it and now we have the circumcision scheduled for next Tuesday. What a major headache!

Our new little one!

Well, the baby finally decided to be born! I went into labor on the morning of Thursday, February 11, at 12:30 a.m. and the baby was born at 3:50 a.m. I had a home water birth and it went really well. This was almost my longest labor and I have decided that long labors are easier than short fast ones. :-) We had another little boy, so now we have 4 boys! We named him Micah Elliot. He weighed in at 8 lbs 3 1/2 oz. and was 20 3/4" long. He is our biggest baby yet, the next biggest one was Josiah at 7 lbs 5 oz. The kids love him, especially Emmaline. She is quite the little mommy, she has spent a lot of time holding him and just looking at him. The kids were a little disappointed that we didn't have a girl but as Emmaline keeps saying, "maybe we'll have a little girl soon!" I don't know about that! I would like a little break...