My kids rock!

So I just had a couple things I wanted to jot down before I forgot! Last night Andie was mysteriously working on a project for awhile. I asked her what she was doing and she told me that she packed up a bunch of her toys (They were in a big cardboard box with tape over it) and told me that she wanted to give them away. I asked her why and to who and she told me that she wanted to give them to kids that didn't have any toys to play with, because she has been so lucky and has so many! This was such a tender little moment for me. There is such joy when things just click for your kids. I have been trying to teach her that giving is the most important thing to do this time of year and I don't like to sugar coat things for my kids, I want them to know that there are lots of kids out there that are far less fortunate than them. It looks like it's paying off a little bit. Now she's so excited and wants to wrap all of them up and she keeps saying "Those kids are going to be so happy!"

Family Pictures!

So my friend Natalie is an awesome photographer and she agreed to do a trade for family pics! My kids are SO hard to get to cooperate for pictures so she did great with the 20 minute time frame my kids sat still for...if that! Here are some of my faves!

Complete Randomness with some Pumpkin Carving!

Okay so I guess I will start this post off with our pumpkin carving night (Sorry, the girls just got home from hunting had a bath and then picked out awesome clothes,

hence pantless Brooke :) )

Andie helped design this one...and we decided it looked like a clown

The girls were SO grossed out by the pumpkin guts that they refused touching them with their hands. We finally got Andie to pull some out and it was so funny she was freaking out over the slime...Such divas...

So back track to last weekend when Shan was hunting and my mom and Lincoln stayed with me and the girls. Anyway, me and Danielle went to What Women Want and my mom stayed home with the kids, when we got home they were all in the back scrubbing the patio with SOS pads..the odd thing? They were enjoying it!! I need to get my kids cleaning more often cause they loved it, but not as much as we loved the view we got while they were cleaning HEHE!

Some people might think these pictures are crude...or inhumane, but me? I think it's hilarious! This is almost what I always see when Brooke is bent over..poor girl, she really needs to grow a bum! haha!

Hard at work! :)

Busy Girls!

I have got some crazy busy girls on my hands! They are so funny and so full of surprises! Last week Charly learned this little trick (One that I'm really not fond of for obvious reasons) I couldn't find her anywhere until I heard her laughing out loud! She's a scream!

Brooke loves to help me do the laundry, so the other day she was helping me and while I was putting all the clothes away I came back to find this...The sock monster! haha she's such a cutie!

And yes, Andie's very busy too...(probably the busiest) She was probably changing her clothes 100 times or attempting to paint her nails while these things were happening... :)

Ohh..the life of a mother with busy girls...:)

Giveaway!

Please make sure to check out my fabulous giveaway over at my photography blog! You won't wanna miss out, click here to find out how to enter! :)

Birthday Pics

Here are a few pics from the little partay we had for our special girl!

We got bored waiting for the guests and had to snap a few of

Brooke in her cute birthday clothes

Yes...I'm aware she looks a little crazy right here..

So happy!

I love this girl!

Give Away!

My friend Julie over at Crae's Creations is giving away a super cute

Halloween plaque! Check out her blog! You won't be disappointed!

Happy Birthday Snow White!

Brooke turns 3 years old tomorrow and I can hardly believe it, it seems like just yesterday she was a sweet little baby snuggling with me (she was such a good snuggler)..I can't find any good baby pics of her..isn't that tragic? Kinda breaks my heart but anyway..she has changed so much in her three years...

Newborn...

Chubby 1 year old..

Sweet 2 year old.

And now my big three year old girl!!

Oh Brooklyn..I love you SO much and you are without a doubt my FAVORITE three year old girl! You are so special to me and hope that you have the best birthday! We had a little party with family last night, I'll add pics later. I call Brooke Snow White cause she's her favorite and she LOVES it when I call her that haha it's so cute...

Just a few projects...more coming soon!

I just thought I'd share a few cute things I've done this last week! I feel like I go in spurts where I'm not crafty at all and after I go so long I kinda go crazy!

This is just a little teacher gift that Andie gave Miss Sarah today,

nothing too special but still cute.

These are some pumpkins my brilliant mom came up with, we made some this weekend and I LOVE them! They are my fave! So simple and fun! I love fall!

I've been dying for a fun fall wreath but all the ones I want are super pricey so I just had to use my brain a bit and came up with this! Fun and colorful and the best part is that

it cost under $10 to make! Stay tuned, I did some really fun things in Andie and Brooke's room too! I'll post pics when I actually remember to take some :)

Crazy, stressful week! (Super long post..Beware)

So it all begins Monday morning early in the morning Andie comes in and says her tummy hurts...my reaction "You just need to eat breakfast, you're hungry" Well an hour passes and she is just laying around, won't get dressed or hardly walk..she's now running a fever..Istantly my mom brain clicks on...and I think to myself, this is the 3rd or 4th time in the last couple months that she has done this (woke up with tummy ache followed with a fever) Yes I had taken her in the other times and they had given her antibiotics but it just kept coming back. So after My brain clicked on I thought to myself this is soo not normal, she's a healthy 4 year old girl her body should not be doing this! I wanted to take her right in but I was babysitting my sister's cute kids and Shan of course was at work. Well right while I was trying to figure out how to get her in Shans mom called and said she was out and about and could come right over (yay! Thank you Jennie) So I take her to instacare and they examine her. She wouldn't jump or do anything for them and her tummy was SUPER tender to push on so they recommend I go to the ER to get more exams so they could rule out appendicitis. I get to the ER and the doctor comes in examines her and says he thinks she's got a raging bladder infection that is causing all this pain and fever...my argument was "Well she JUST got off antibiotics and this has happened before" they run the uranalysis and take her blood and hook her up to an IV. We sat there ALL day. He comes and says that her bladder infection wasn't that bad...he didn't feel comfortable letting her leave without getting a cat scan with as much pain as she was in. We get the cat scan and they didn't make her drink the contrast...mistake #1! The cat scan comes back and says they couldn't see the appendix completely (Because they didnt make her drink the contrast) but that there was fluid around her appendix that they were unsure about. At this time Andie was feeling pretty good (Since they gave her TONS of tylenol and ibuprofen) They said we could take her home as long as we saw the doctor first thing in the morning to see how she was.. So Shan takes her home while I go to do a photo session. I get home...Andie's running a high fever again, throwing up and not doing good! The ER told us if she got really bad in the night to bring her in but I really didn't think we would need to...shows you how much I know! We give her motrin and it's still not going down...I call the doctor he told me to give it a little more time so I did and it was getting a little better. In the mean time Shan picks up a perscription just in case it was the bladder infection...they send us home with HUGE pills for her to SWALLOW! Shes FOUR!! Big mess we had to take them back go to another pharmacy to get liquid. So Shan's dad gets back with the antibiotic (Thanks Blaine) I give it to her and not even 20 minutes later Andie is on the toilet...with the worst diarrhea ever! It just kept coming and coming. The girl hadn't eaten AT ALL that day and wasn't drinking well enough for her to be pooping that much! She finally gets in to bed and sleeps for an hour before I get her up to give her more meds. An hour and a half after she takes it I take her temp cause she feels hot...103.7 it reads! WTF! I get her up get a cold rag on her and tell her to drink tons and tons of water. I told myself I'll give her 20 minutes well I did and she was still at 102.8 so off to the ER we went again and 2:20 in the morning. Thanks goodness Shan's mom stayed the night cause Shan was working so she could tend the other girls. We go in the doctor thinks he knows everything blah blah blah...she gets another IV and blood cultures done. Diarrhea everywhere still...come to find out AUGMENTON the antibiotic they perscribed her rips your tummy apart mistake #2 by the ER...I was so mad...not only did it cost $50 but it is going to dehydrate the crap outta my baby girl. We left the ER with instruction to STOP the meds and go see her own doctor the next day. The next day she complained of her tummy aching and I could just tell she was not feeling good, barely peeing I knew she was dehydrated. I took her in and the doctor said almost immediately just from looking at her that she was way dehydrated and needed to be admitted. You would think I would be freaked out but I was actually quite relieved that they were going to get to the bottom of this. My doctor didnt realize that this had been going on so long because I have had to take her to the on call doctor and didn't always see him while these things were happening and once he realized he knew he needed to figure it out (I love Dr. Chamberlain!) We go to the hospital and get her all set up more IV's more blood which means lots more pokes! (Poor girl) Her blood work came back bad! It screamed infection infection infection...in their words! Her white blood cells that fight infection should be at about 50% they were at 91% WAY too high! The next day they did a cat scan and you could tell she felt soo much better after she had the IV in her it was amazing what a difference that made. After waiting all day they ruled out her appendix and told her she had a bacterial infection called mesenteric adenititis..It mimics appendicitis and effects all her lymph nodes in her stomach which was why it hurt so bad when you pushed on her belly. The infection was leaking outside of her bowels when it should have been inside..kinda confusing and I won't go in to great detail but he thinks that she has had this for several weeks, and I do to which makes me feel so bad cause she has told me MULTIPLE times that her tummy hurts but I really thought she was just saying it to get a pepto bismol medicine ha. But it was an easy fix! Just keep giving her the antibiotic through her IV. So after 2 ER visits, 2 cat scans, and 2 nights in the hospital, 3 IV's, countless blood draws, and one shot my girl was able to go home and get back to her old self again. This week made me realize how much I love my family and how grateful I am not only for my husband and kids but for everyone else! Everyone was such a great help and I am soo thankful! So thankful that it wasn't something more serious...

Her poor little hand

This is where we spent our week

Gotta love the Michael Jackson glove!

They let her ride a wagon down to the cat scan

Her eyes say it all right here :( She was soo happy to have a princess dress though it made her day! The nurses were so great to her spoiling her like crazy. She had a DVD player in there and got to watch so many movies with me, I loved spending the one on one time with her, even though I wish it were different circumstances. We love you Andie! I was so glad to get home I was missing Charly and Brooke like crazy!! I love those girls too and was glad that they still loved me after abandoning them all week ha!

Just Dance!!

Andie and Brooke started dance a few weeks ago and are loving it! These pics were taken the first time they went, it's so funny how little kids have the hardest time doing the easiest little moves at first haha. I know they will be good if they just keep at it! I hope they keep loving it!

It was so funny to watch the girls...I didn't realize how attached they are to each other but they refused to be seperated..it was kinda cute! I love that they love each other.

Andie looks like a pro here...and Brooke needs a little work haha she'll catch on!

It's Official!

I should have posted this a couple weeks ago but I spaced it! Little Charly girl is finally walking! She is all over the place and really walks quite well for a beginner! Andie and Brooke both walked before they were 1 so we were patiently waiting for Charly to get the hang of it (Not that I wanted her to walk super early)

She is such a fun fun girl! I love watching her cute chunky bum and legs waddle all over the place haha! We love you sooo much Char!