This last week....

Its been crazy busy around here but I really wanted to tell the whole story.

Last Sunday night {the 21st} Audrey woke up in the middle of the night feverish. I gave her pain reliever and she eventually fell back to sleep. She had a slight fever the whole Monday and I thought she must be getting some teeth because she was drooling up a storm and biting down on everything. That night she didn't sleep at all { well probably a total of about 3 hours broken up into about 9 different times} I did take her temp sometime in the night and it was a whopping 104.5! I started to get really scared when the Tylonal and IB wouldn't even keep it down. She had some cool baths and washcloths but it wouldn't stay down. I started to think she had an ear infection and decided I wouold bring her in in the A.M..

I took her in after I had dropped the boys off at my sisters house. As soon as the nurses looked at her they could tell she wasn't doing well. She was having a hard time breathing. { I really felt stupid at this point because I hadn't even realized she was having such a hard time breathing- I thought it was just because her temp was so high} They did a RSV test and a chest x-ray- she really hated that part of it! While we were waiting for the results they gave her a breathing treatment and it seemed to help a little. Then the Dr. came in. He said the RSV was negative but that she had pnemonia. He tried to explain to me what her lungs looked like because he didn't know what to make of hers. They way he explained it was that normal lungs look very clear and ones with pnemonia look cloudy in and x-ray. But hers were cloudy with what looked like a pocket in the middle that was clear. He said they would be shipping her to Children's Hospital by ambulance. by this time I'm having a hard time keeping in my tears. I mean, how in the world did I let it get this far and not realize womething was this wrong? He said that the main reason they would take her in the ambulance is because he didn't want me driving her there alone if she was having a hard time breathing and not having any oxgyn to give here and that they would be better at taking care of her on the way. So we left and when on our way very fast with lights and sirens. It didn't bother Audrey much at all, actually she fell asleep for part of the way down.

When we got there it was just a bunch of waiting and telling all that was going on with her. They put an IV in her little wrist :( It was so sad. I hated it probably more than she did. It took them 3 times to finally get one to work. Poor little baby. I just wanted to cry with her. We were in the ER  for about 4 hours before a Dr came in to talk about her xray. She told me that yes, Audrey does have pnemonia but it isn't as serious as they thought! But what they did find after wondering what was going on and having a couple diffent doctors take a look at it was that her intestines were actually in her lungs. She has what is called a Hiatal Hernia.  She said that if probably happened while she was stil inside of me. They never would have known she had this if it hadn't been for this chest xray. She never had any symptoms like thowing up alot or reflux problems. We were told that she would need surgery to repair this.

I really couldn't believe this! I mean when I woke up that morning I though she maybe had an ear infection! Now I find out she had something that would need  surgery to repair. I'm amazed about how much peace I felt thoughout all that had been going on- I had let my family know and they were getting out word that Audrey needed prayer. I definalty could feel the Lord with us there!

We finally got a room and Ben eventually got back to the Cities from driving  in Iowa. I'm so thakful that Ben's parents and sisters were able to get the kids and have them at their house. Ben stayed at the hospital the first night and then went home to be with the boys while I stayed with Audrey.

Audrey and I were at the hospital for 3 nights. Yup, your probably wondering if I was stinky and gross! Yup- I was. I didn't have anything with me. I wore the same clothes for 3 days and 2 nights. Thankfully my cousin Kayla was at the hospital with her little girl { please pray for her and little Molly } she had been staying down there for over a week trying to figure out what has been going on with her little girl. She called me up and took me to Target so I could get some things! Top of my list..... UNDERWEAR! I have never been so thankful for that item in my life. I was able to get some shampoo, toothpaste, pj's, food and some other nessesities.It was really great to get out of the hospital room for a little bit too.  I was so happy to have Kayla there, she kinda showed me the ropes and where to get what and how to do things. I felt really lonely down there too and was happy to know that I knew someone there.

My sister Jessica came to visit us on the last night. My parents did too. I was soooo happy to see them. Audrey was too- she was all smiles and loved the attention!

They wouldn't discharge up until Audrey had been without a fever for 24 hours. And in the end ( after being told what seemd like a million different plans ) she would go home and after her lungs are completly healed they will do the surgery. I have to acall tomorrow to set it up. I'm hoping we can wait until May though because April is so crazy busy.

Audrey is feeling wonderful and is back to her happy smiley self. She has slept the last 3 night all night without waking up! A. maz.ing!  Her brothers were so worried about her and were extremly excited when she got home. She was really happy to see them too.

We are so blessed to have so many family and friends praying for Audrey. I feel almost thankful that she ended up getting pnemonia because otherwise we would never have know she had tha hiatal hernia until it was a big problem. We are thanking our Heavenly Father for watching over our sweet little girl and that everything went smoothly and that she got better so quickly. We are thankful to the great Dr.s she had and that her Doctor sent her to a wonderful hospital.

I was really hoping the whole time that I would have had my camera along. When my sister came to visit she had hers and took some for me. Thanks Jess! So here's little Miss Audrey at the hospital on the last night- as you can tell she was already feeling so much better!

Bestest Friends

These two are going to have so much fun growing up together!

......I'm going to kiss you

..........get back here!

Gotcha!

little loves

Going *GREEN*

So here it is.......


My "new" living room!

I love the green...

A very energizing color

yet peaceful:)

A New Look

  I have a GREEN living room! I absolutely looove it! I'm not sure if Ben's going to like it but since I'm the one that has to look at it all week I felt like I should get the deciding vote on this one. At first when I got the paint home I had to quick try it out on the wall just to make sure I made the right choice. I was really scared when it turned out to look lime green. I panicked and decided there was no way I was going to be able to sleep know I was going to worry the whole night if I had made the wrong decision ( I know I could always go get a different paint but since we don't have alot of extra money to spare the small fortune to buy 3 cans this time was a BIG deal). Plus it didn't help that I knew Ben would love to say "I told you so".
 I jumped right in by ripping of the stupid wallpaper border that I had put up when we first were married.That was the worst part of the process. I think wallpaper is from the devil. It took me 2 1/2 hours to get it all off. I WILL NEVER USE WALLPAPER AGAIN! I promise! If it comes into style again and I even think about putting it up will some hit me across the head with a 2x4? o.k now that you know my hatred for that evil paper I'll continue. I put the kids to bed and started painting. Yes, I believe from now on I will be painting during the night. I didn't hve to worry about little fingers tesing out the paint or anyone wanting to help. If only I hadn't gotten incredibly tired I would have finished instead of going to bed at 2:30. Instead I finished up today. I am pretty much done except for behing the entertainment center that I need Ben to move for me tonight when he gets home. Thankfully the walls are exactly the color I wanted, and that the "limeness" ended up drying darker! I really wish I had taken a before picture. I'll try to get a after picture up this weekend sometime, but I want everything finished. Now I need to just go shopping for some new curtains and trow pillows. And I need to finally get our current family picture up on the wall { this is really sad but the one i had up until yesterday was before we had Owen or Audrey}. Can't wait until its completed :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I love St. Patricks day. Probably more so since I went to Northern Ireland almost 10 years ago.

My sister and I in Northern Ireland

{ it makes me almost sick to see how young I look in this picture, my, my time and 5 kids have not done my looks any favors!}

St. Patricks Grave Stone

 Since then, my sister Christa( who went too) and my other sister Jaclyn (who went to Ireland a few years after us) have been having a St. Patrick's Day Tea every year. Today it was at my house.

We had Irish Breakfast Tea {with milk and sugar, of course}, White chocolate and Apricot Scones, Cucumber Sandwiches, Lime Green cupcakes, pinneapple, Chicken Salad in Irish Soda Bread.

Little Miss Ava excited about the Tea Party

As we've had kids we included them :)

Today was Audrey's First Tea!

The "older" boys didn't want to have a "tea party".

Even when we told them they could be our boyfriends.

Ava was concered about what we were going to do without our boyfriends.

It was decided that Owen would fit the part of our boyfriend!

But he had to wear some pretty shoes!

Thankfully the girls brought him some of theirs to borrow for the occassion :)

Melina drank cup after cup of tea!

Audrey had about 6 cucmber sandwiches!

{You can't imagine how happy I am to have a little girl to have tea parties with!}

Only one problem......

We couldn't get Owen to take off the shoes!

{pssst....don't tell daddy that we encouraged him a bit to wear these}

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I haven't forgotten to write about the time we spent at my sister's, just have been really busy. We had such a great time( even if it was raining almost the whole time). We made some adorable cupcakes that you can check out on my sister Jessica's new blog!  The kids had a blast playing with their cousins, I had so much fun laughing and talking with my "big sister". She is about 7 years older than me. Growing up, I always thought she was so cool! ( she still is ;) ) but the age difference kept us from being very close....until we both had kids! Now she is one of my Bestest friends and I talk to her nearly every day! She homeschools her kids too so that's really nice to be able to talk to someone who is in that same boat. She is such an encouragement to me and I love her so much.I love you Jess!

"Ethan's trying to kill me with Dad's big knife!!!"

Yes, this really was something that was yelled out the door at me while I was out hiding in the van trying to get a little "me" time. I yelled at them to knock it off and eventually came in and everyone was still alive, no one was bleeding. I sometimes have to escape my little house and hide in the van, just so I can hear myself think or talk to someone on the phone without being interupted zillions of times! You're probably thinking that I should get the Worst Mom's Award, but seriously if you were home all week teaching your kids and you husband was gone for 5 days straight every week{ and you had 4 boys that are always beating on eachother} you would need a hiding place too. And believe me- I've tried hiding in my room- they know how to get the door unlocked. I've tried the bathroom { usually this works} but the door knob broke off last week so your lucky to get the door to stay shut. And so the van is the perfect place, they do find me {after awhile} but by then I"ve had a little quiet and i'm ready to enter the land of little people . I remember when I was little and my mom saying quite a bit "they're coming to take me away, haha- hehe, ......"  {I don't remember the rest} but it always would make us kids laugh but now I realize she must have been feeling the stress and craziness that little kids bring and the overwhelming responsibility that only mom's can understand.

I KNOW  I'm not the only one out there that has a hiding place.... so share....where's yours? And I promise, I won't tell your kids ;)

Rain and Tea

Today has been a very dreary day. It has been rainy and foggy. Cold and wet. I think March seems to be the longest month of the year because the sun doesn't shine very much. I seem to be the person whos moods are dictated my the weather. My sister and I were just talking today about how we blame our attitudes on the weather alot. Good thing we live in Minnesota so we have something to complain about, because if we lived in sunny Florida for example, we wouldn't have anything to blame our moods on!

On Saturday I went with my mom,sisters, grandma, and a couple of my nieces to Heirloom Tea Room to celebrate my mom's birthday. We had such a good time drinking delicious tea and nibbling on little savory bites of St. Patrick's Day themed foods. We all wore hats that the tea room has for their guests and toured this beautiful historical house. I enjoyed every moment of it! {I love spending time with the women in my family}

The "Girls"

pictures borrowed from my sister {thanks Jaclyn}

I forgot my camera that day!

Five on Friday

I am soooo happy its Friday! This week has been a long one and I'm ready for the weekend!

1) Garbage. We have garbage overflowing our dumpster. The Garbage Truck came 2 weeks ago on the schedualed date but I forgot about it and it ended up leaving without our trash because Ben's pick-up was parked in fromt of it. I called to see if they could come back, they did yesterday but didn't take it because they said there was too much snow in front of it. yeah right! I was watching the guy backing up to it and he so could have taken it. So we will continue to have garbage pulled out and drug around by our dogs until next week when they'll try again.

2) Owen's taking a nap in the crib. I guess we were having such good luck with him sleeping in the big bed was because he's been sick. I tried to get him to sleep in the bed 4 times wich ended up with him coming back downstairs or playing up in his room to dropping legos down the vent in their floor to the living room. So I just decided to give up and put him in the crib where he can't escape.

3) Ethan and Blake have been really into pretending lately. The other night they were pretending that they were "guys that have wives" And Blake's wife was named "Polly". Then yesterday I was somehow able to get a little nap (such a rarity). But of course I won't actually get to " fall sleep" because the van's horn starts honking. I run outside and there is Ethan in the drivers seat and Blake in the passenger's and they are on their way to get groceries. I took out the keys and went back to my bed.

4) Tomorrow my sisters, mom and I are going to celebrate my mom's birthday by going to the Heirlooms Tea in Hutch. We are all really excited for this outing. We love tea parties :)

5) I am addicted to in love with Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper. I drank my last can for lunch today and am seriously thinking about running to town just to pick up another case. Of course ,we need milk too ,but I wouldn't run to town for just that . But for my beloved Diet Dr. Pepper I would . ;-)

I Can't Take It Anymore!!

Yes, its time for another venting session. Its been a looooong week full of sick, cranky kids. Cranky mommy too! I was getting through the week just fine until today it hit me. Probably because I haven't been getting much sleep due to the fact that someone is always waking up crying or coughing. I don't do good when I don't get a good nights sleep. I should be doing dishes right now but I just don't care. I should be folding my endless sea of laundry right now but I'm too tired of trying to match up socks that are always missing a partner.Poor Ben has had to listen to me complain all day on the phone. Sometimes I wish I could get in a truck and drive all week by myself. But instead I get to stay home all week and have snotty noses wiped on my shoulder. Break up fights. Make food for kids who are constantly hungry. Teach school.and try to get Ethan and Blake to understand that you can't run around outside without your shirt on in 35 degree weather. I will be so happy when Ben gets home tommorow night.

On another note, we finally have all the boys in bunk beds now. Clint and Owen share a bunk and Blake and Ethan share one. They are so cute all piled in that little room with only enough room for 2 sets of bunks. Owen is thrilled that he gets a "choo-choo train" blanket too. When I tell hims its time for bed he runs to the stair saying "night- night, choo,choo". I was a little worried that he would fall off but he hasn't yet. The only draw back is he can get out of bed himself in the morning which he likes to do at 6:30 am. Momma doesn't like getting up that early. Hopefully the newness of being able to get out by himself will wear off soon because I like to sleep until at least 7:30.

Sick Kids :(

Audrey's sick. Goopy eyes, runny nose. Lots of crying.

Owen's sick. Icky eyes. Runny nose. Cough.

Clint's sick. Fever. Headache. Cough. Achey.

Ethan and Blake have a little dry cough.

It is absolutely miserable around here when there are sick kids around. I feel so sorry for them. Especially little Audrey- she doesn't understand why she feels so bad :(  The kids are pretty disappointed about being sick since we were planning on going to my sisters house to stay overnight. They were very excited about getting to stay with their cousins. I'm disappointed because I was looking forward to spending some time with my sister who I dont get to see nearly enough with her living a couple hours away ( although we talk EVERY day!). Hopefully we'll be able to reschedule the trip to see them soon.
 If there is a bright spot to them being sick, it is easier to keep the house cleaner! (is this wrong of me to be happy about?)