Sarah's Lovin' the Knobs

Sarah has figured out how to get the kitchen cupboards open using the new drawer pulls/knobs. So I walk into the kitchen to find the contents of my cupboards scattered EVERYWHERE! I have not had to deal with this with any other kid because none of them could get the cupboards open. So any ideas how to stop her without attaching child safety latches to each cupboard? What makes it worse is she has figured out how to go up and down the stairs without help so she makes a beeline for the cupboards every chance she gets.

Finally, the Befores and Afters

After a crazy week of barely any sleep--we only averaged about 2-3 hours a night--Jill and I finally finished painting the house--with "help" from the kids occasionally. We got plenty of use out of the ladder, unfortunately! This project only started out as painting one wall, but grew to exponential proportions! However, it turned out awesome!! I will say that if I ever see another paint can again it will be too soon!! THANKS Jill--you are AWESOME!! Here are the before and after pics: I forgot to take the before pics of the bathroom, but these two are the after pics

Here is the family room before and after:

The picture wall before and after and yes we did change the ceiling fan

I think the kitchen is the most dramatic in the before and after

The living room before

after:

Thanks again Jill for having to put up with all my indecisiveness--it only took me four days to finally pick out drawer knobs for an example!! Now I am going to go veg and enjoy my "new" house.

Sarah's Firsts

Aaron's sister Jill was able to visit us this crazy week. Amongst all the craziness Sarah had some "firsts". It is funny because we have tried with every child to teach them how to drink from a straw to no avail. However, Jill has been able to teach every single child how to drink from a straw and Sarah was no different. Jill also taught Sarah how to sign "more". Well now no drink at our house is sacred anymore. Sarah will crawl over and sign "more" to drink from your straw. Since the drink was such a good motivation, we used it to get her to take her first unassisted step. She will be walking before I know it! Good thing Jill is around to teach my kids the basics! The first picture is Sarah signing "more" and the second picture is Sarah drinking from the straw.

Painting, Painting and More Painting

This week Aaron's sister Jill is staying with us for a visit so I have put her to work. With multiple trips to Home Depot and Lowes we have painted my whole house, almost. We started in the upstairs hallway and wrapped down through the living room, kitchen and down through the bathroom. It is/was a huge project, but nearing completion. Today we are working on painting the downstairs bathroom and the kitchen cabinets. Tomorrow, hopefully we can start painting Matthew's room. Poor Daniel--seeing as life without two older brothers (since they are in school) is somewhat boring Aunt Jill let Daniel do some painting. He loved it, but he had to grab his blankee for some loves because I guess it was such hard work. Unfortunately, in the process of dragging his blanket downstairs, he drug it through some paint. I threw the blanket in the washing machine to try and get out what I could. Here's a picture of poor Daniel patiently watching and waiting for it to get done. I will post before and after pics when we are all done--hopefully very soon!

Matthew's Baptism

Matthew got baptized yesterday. I was a little worried about how Matthew would react to everything, but he did wonderfully. He listened and paid attention to both talks and patiently waited his turn--there were only two kids getting baptized. Grandma Terry gave the first talk about baptism and Logan's brother gave the other talk about Confirmation. Aaron did a great job Baptizing and Confirming him. Matthew's such a special guy and we are so thankful to have him in our family. It was a very nice day and we were blessed to share it with family on both sides, too. Afterward we went to a park and had a luncheon to celebrate. Thanks to everyone for all their help and support.

Good News and Bad News

When Sarah started drinking cow's milk we made sure she had very girly sippy cups to make sure no one else mistook her drink as their's especially Daniel with his horrible milk allergy. It scared me to death to bring milk into the house, but with the different sippy cups and by making sure no drinks left the kitchen I thought we'd be ok. Well this morning all of Sarah's sippy cups were dirty in the dishwasher so Aaron got out a sports bottle and filled that with cow's milk. Sarah didn't finish it so Aaron left it on the counter. Recently my kids have picked up this annoying habit of sampling any untended drink at any time they could whether it was Aaron's, mine or anyone else's that looked good. The bad news is Daniel decided to sample the sports bottle of cow's milk on the counter thinking it looked good. Luckily, after the first huge swallow he realized something didn't taste right. He then came and found Aaron and me and told us he just drank cow's milk. Aaron quickly got the Benadryl out and I ran for the Epi-pen and readied myself for the trip to the ER. After Daniel got the Benadryl we set him up on the albuterol nebulizer to open his airway. I held off on the Epi-Pen because he wasn't wheezing just yet and also for the fact as soon as he saw the Epi-Pen he started screaming that he didn't want a shot. A pretty amazing memory for a kid who hasn't gotten an Epi-shot for at least 2 years. The good news is after the Benadryl and breathing treatment he seemed alright. It has been a couple hours and he still is doing great. I am excited because his milk allergy, although it's not gone, is not as severe as it has been in the past. I am crossing my fingers and hoping that this allergy is finally fading!!

It's Official

Josh and Daniel got there yellow belts in karate. They had the belt ceremony at the beginning of the week, but I am just slow in posting the pics.

In other happenings we have the cold bug or something going through our house. Sarah got it first and it has spread from Daniel and now Josh has it. I have a very mild form which is more of a nuisance than anything. Daniel had some gastrointestinal symptoms accompany his, but Josh just has a runny nose and mild cough. The concerning thing is Josh has a super high fever 104.5. I can get it down to 100 degrees with Tylenol and Motrin, but that's as low as it goes. It is doubly hard because a side effect of his seizure medications are he doesn't sweat. That means that when his fever breaks he has a hard time cooling himself off. I have resorted to dousing his clothes with water, but it is a little uncomfortable for him. I hate to take him to the doctor because we can't get in to his regular doctor for a few days and I don't want to go to someone else because we have had too many run ins with stupid practitioners that don't know his history. I also hate to wait for the appointment just to be told it's a virus which most likely what it is. The scary thing is that a high fever is what gave Josh his first Grand Mal seizure at 18 months old. At first we thought was just a febrile seizure, but the seizures never stopped until he was started on seizure medication after a suspect EEG and diagnosed with epilepsy. I get nervous because every time Josh gets a fever, which thankfully isn't very often, he gets really twitchy and jerky to the lightest touch. We haven't had a seizure with this "cold" or whatever it is, yet and I am hoping we don't have a problem, but you never know. Hopefully, it will pass soon. In the meanwhile everyone is sleeping upstairs so I can keep an eye on them just in case.