a kiss on the head before bed...

I'm sure having three sisters can be quite challenging for anyone & probably even more so when you are the lone brother! Our boy Brendan sure does put up with a lot in that dept. but in the end he has such love for the little ladies, aka sisters, in his life. He has such a sweet side to him that I get to witness it almost every night. You see each night just before bed, before actually getting under the covers himself he walks around their bed & gives each one of his sisters a kiss. He does have "rules" because he makes sure they are in bed when he does it, maybe so they cannot swat the kiss away. LOL! On occasion I have seen him chase them down & make them lay down just so he can give them...

a kiss on the head before bed...

I am never going to use a Q-tip again!...

I have been sort of out of the blogging loop these past few weeks. After all of the stuff with the "B man" I really thought I was going to finally catch a break. 2011 has not been that good to us in the medical bill dept. It seems like when we have one medical issue along comes another. Let's just say that I am NOT a happy camper. First Brendan had his ASD closure on his heart, then he contracts Salmonella from God knows what (I thank my lucky stars that the rest of the tribe did not get it!) Lastly last week while doing our nightly routine ie: bath, trimming of all the nails & cleaning of the ears with a Q-tip. Yes I use Q-tip's. Trust me after what I tell you next I will not be using them EVER again! You see Linz moved her head away from me & the next thing I saw was blood by her ear. I really do think the Q-tip went into her ear. Amazingly I did not panic. I just flushed her ear out & made sure her ear was dry. I asked her if her ear hurt & as usual she said no. (These children have a VERY high pain tolerance!) so off to bed they went. The next morning she had dried blood on the side of her head so I decided I better take her in to the Dr just to make sure. To make a LONG story as short as possible, she was diagnosed with a busted ear drum. She had to take antibiotics & ear drops for 10 days & then get re checked. sigh... Only me! That brings us to today when I took her in to the Dr for her check up. The ear drum is healing but now the Dr thinks it may have injured the middle ear so she now needs to get her hearing tested & then see an ENT to possibly get tubes. Isn't life grand?! UGH! They say things come along in sets of threes so I am hoping we are good till at least the rest of the year! I swear...

I am never going to use a Q-tip again!...

a half a baby aspirin a day with the hope it'll keep the heart doctor away!...

SO much has happened over the past three weeks. As most of you already know our boy Brendan has had a hole in his heart since birth. We did not know there was anything wrong with him or his heart till he was just a wee little guy laying on my chest & had a tacchicardia episode. (His heart was beating really really fast, 224 beats per minute to be exact!). After MANY tests & several doctor visits it was determined that the hole all babies have in utero never closed up. The hole is also known as an ASD (Atrial Septal Defect). This defect can be fatal if undetected once he gets older. I cannot tell you how happy I am that we had the opportunity to find out about his at such an early age!

Brendy at about 2 months old! Awhhh...

Since the diagnosis he has seen a cardiologist every six months & three weeks ago today we went for his last check up to see if his hole changed at all. Realistically I knew the odds of it closing were slim to none but we still prayed about it & hoped for a miracle. We did the routinue of an EKG & then an Echocardiogram. Brendan is by the far the strangest kid. He freaks over the little stuff & handles the BIG stuff like a pro. It was the measly EKG that freaked him out. He bawled from the moment he had to sit on the exam table, throughout the minute long EKG & until the last sticker was pulled off his chest! That boy can create quite the drama! He must learn it from his sisters! hehee! They did his weigh in which said he was 29 lbs (I doubt the scale was accurate!) because he is quite scrawny! =] Then came the Echocardiogram.

Seeing what his heart looks like

This is the important part & we needed him to be still. I prepped him by saying how special he was & not everyone could actually see their heart but he could. I was quite surprised at how still he was, he layed there quietly as she scanned the various angles to his heart. His sisters felt even more special that they too could see his heart & watched in amazement! No sooner did we have the tests completed & soon thereafter the Doctor called me into his office to go over everything. He determined what we already knew, his hole needed to be closed now. You see his hole never changed in size or closed on it's own so they had to close it with a device. The device is called an Aplatzer Septal Occluder; it is a device that basically patches the hole. The scary part was that they were not sure if they could even close it with the device because his hole was quite large & high on the septal wall. IF they were unable to close it with this device then they would have to close it surgically. YIKES!!

Photo courtesy of Cleaveland Clinic

This entire chapter of his short life has been SO amazing! Heck the heart is quite amazing to begin with! After all of the doctors visits he has had I feel like I have been thru part of medical school! ha! Luckily we were able to schedule this procedure to be done at Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital with Dr Chandar just two weeks later during Spring Break. One of my best friends Kathy offered to take the girls so that left just Dustyn, Brendan & I to head down to Hollywood to get his Pre Op's done. We took the Tri Rail, a train that links the three counties, to meet up with Grandma then off to the hospital to let the testing begin. Being able to ride a train was just one of the "fun" parts to this adventure! Bren was SO excited to be on the train that he talked non stop! LOL! {There was more to that adventure that I hope to share with everyone in another post real soon! =]}

On the train!!

I really cannot say enough about Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital, they ROCK! From the custodians cleaning the bathroom's to the Doctors performing the surgeries they really made our stay there EXTRA special. I really do feel that more hospitals should follow their lead regarding patient care. They treat you like family & that's something I really appreciated! After all his tests & another weigh in, {27 & 1/2 lbs this time} were complete we were fortunate to be able to walk across the street from the hospital to stay at the "Conine Clubhouse" {It's like a Ronald McDonald House for families to stay when their children are in the hospital}. Having just one child with us was SO different! Trust me, Brendan soaked up all the attention he was getting! =] On Tuesday we had to get up really early so he could be admitted & prepped for the ASD closure. He had all the nurses wrapped around his little finger. I think it was his rocker hairdo that did it! Who can resist a mohawk?! =] I was the "chosen one" to go into the operating room with him while he was put under. Realistically his Daddy could not have handled it. He is a wimp when it comes to medical stuff involving his kids. So there I was all dressed up in this white jumpsuit & a crazy blue cap. I looked ridiculous!! I am sure Bren saw three or four of me by that time because by then he was really feeling his loopy meds. Once he was knocked out I was outta there & the waiting began. Here is what the procedure looks like. {They put a catheter through the femoral artery in both legs to gain access to the heart. They then inflate the device through the catheter to close the hole.}

Picture courtesy of Cleaveland Clinic

The doctor had already prepped us by saying these procedures could go anywhere from 45 minutes to two hours long. Well he was in there almost three!! I tried not to worry but Michael was watching the clock & reminding me as the minutes/hours passed. When it was all said & done they were able to close the hole not without some issues but they overcame them & our boy's heart is whole again! They said his heart just like ours is the size of our fist. Well the hole in his tiny heart was the size of a dime & the device they used to close it was the size of a nickel. Everyone that has either scanned him or saw his scans have told us his hole was quite large. As part of the recovery he needed to remain in bed with his legs straight for 4 hours but after that he could move. Coming out of the anesthesia was another story too.

In Recovery

I am still amazed at how well he is doing. Not 8 hours went by & the kid was walking the halls! The next day they repeated the echocardiogram where they found he still had a small leak. They are not as concerned about it & feel the device will hold & eventually the tissue will grow over the device & the hole will completely close. WOo HOo! I have to credit his recovery to our faith in God. We asked so many of you to keep him & the Doctors/Nurses in your prayers & you did! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! He still has some more tests to be completed in the coming weeks & continued follow up with his doctors but all in all he is good. The only med's he needs now is...

Laying back & having some fruit loops!

a half a baby aspirin a day with the hope it'll keep the heart doctor away!...

I better watch what I promise them!...

This story begins on a day I had Avery home sick from school, for those of you that have children you know that kids while do just about anything to stay home with Mommy. I had scheduled their "well check-up" the day before Thanksgiving but rescheduled for this day and here Avery goes & gets sick! UGH! She had a fever so there would be NO SCHOOL for her! When the others heard she would be staying home they tried faking some symptoms to get to stay home too. It was quite funny seeing Camryn & Lindsey say that their bellies hurt & then Brendan tagging along saying he was sick too! They were not sick, they just wanted to stay home with me! In the end Daddy took Camryn to school, she had her "well check-up" over the summer in preparation for speech school. There I was taking the rest of them to the doctor. Three "well check-up's" turned into two! Thank the Lord for our Pediatrician Dr Mahoney, she is AWESOME! They asked me all sorts of questions about what was going to happen while being there. The most important question was if they were going to get a shot. I said No, this was a well check-up not a sick visit. I guess they have been to the doctor sick WAY more than being well because they could not understand what a "well check-up" was! LOL! The doctor was pleased with all of them in fact Mr B gained a pound from his last visit! WOO HOO! This is a BIG deal! We have to plump him up for his heart surgery in March! Lindsey is the tallest & is like in the 44th percentile for height. This is an accomplishment since all 4 of them are scrawny & weigh like 30lbs! hehee! Oh & Avery's illness is just that, an illness. She was negative for strep so it's most likely viral & will stay the course. So just like we thought she would be staying home sick from school. Brendan & Lindsey did not really like hearing that! haha! Our day get's even better, the "well check-up day" turned into "Flu shot day". Yes, the three of them all got shots! UGH! All that preparing I did telling them no shots because it was a "well check-up" went right out the window! There I was consoling them after they each burst into tears! Oh did I feel bad! Luckily after the flu shot Dr Mahoney took each one of them over to the special treat box for a prize. I am now the proud owner of two planes you put together & a bottle of Santa bubbles! =] I think in the future...

I better watch what I promise them!...

EVERY vote counts!...

If you are a friend of mine on Face Book you would have seen me acting like a CRAZY person for the past month trying to get everyone to vote for  the tribe in a Chick-fil-A Fall Festival Costume Contest. Sorry for being a pain & posting every day about it but I really wanted to win! It started out as a FUN Fall family event & turned into this crazy competition. We went to our local Chick-fil-A for a Fall Festival one night last month. They had this costume contest for the kids which I thought would be fun. As most people know we LOVE Chick-fil-A & always attend "Family Night" at the one near my Mom's. Well, this was our first "Family Night" at the Chick-fil-A near us. The promotion sounded like fun so we were there. Camryn dressed as a "Damsel in Distress", Brendan a "Knight in shining Armor", Avery was a "Bride" & Lindsey was of course a "Mermaid"! {She said she wanted to be a mermaid & never wavered!}. It was a mad rush to get there & then get them all dressed to then have their picture taken. Everyone smiled EXCEPT Camryn. She was acting her part as the damsel in distress for sure! LOL! 

 Besides the Costume Contest they had face painting, pumpkin decorating & a characture artist. Well the costume contest portion of their Fall Festival turned into a Face Book only competition. We had to get people to vote on the best dressed child! Oh did I try to promote the contest. I think I posted something about it every day & pleaded with people to vote for them. It ended up that Brendan was getting more votes than his sisters. SO what started out as getting people to vote for the tribe turned into voting for Brendan. Nothing like splitting the vote! Ha! In the end on the last day of voting it came down to one vote. Crazy but true, & Brendan lost by ONE vote! Sadly I think I may have cost him the contest! You see every person could vote for each child once & I not only voted for each of my children but I voted for other kids too! I voted for the winner! If anything I'm glad he won because he was adorable! Oh by the way the winning prize which was 20 FREE MEALS! Yes, I think I was more excited about getting FREE food than him actually being able to claim victory! So the next time you are asked to vote for something remember...

EVERY vote counts!...

Houston we have a problem...

Just the other night we went out for a School Fundraiser at Hurricane Grill, a local wing joint. A portion of the sales from the night would go back to the school what a FUN event! We LOVE fundraisers that help the tribes school so of course we were there! I have to say that I noticed quite a few things about this "tribe" of ours that night.

The first thing being that all quads want to be treated equally. Really, if two get something the other two better get it too! So when almost every restaurant we go to these days does NOT have enough booster chairs we tend to have a problem! This particular night they only had TWO boosters! Not two available boosters but two boosters for the entire place! NOT GOOD! Those of you that have more than two kids know that when you have only TWO of something the other two are left out. In this case the two in the boosters wanted to be left out! LOL! They are at that stage where they want to be considered as "BIG" but they are not there yet! sigh...

The second thing that I noticed was how "girly" Avery & Lindsey are becoming! Not that Camryn is not "girly" because she is, it's just that they are OVER THE TOP "girly". They LOVE lipstick, skirts that twirl, purses, cell phones & of course baby dolls! As they walked into the restaurant that night they each had a purse on their arm, yes I said purse! What's even funnier is that when they needed to use the restroom they carried them into the bathroom! It was CRAZY! This "girly" behavior did not just happen over night, it has evolved over the past year or so but strangely I just took "notice" of it! They even came up with items like diaper bags, purses, cell phones, car keys, baby dolls, etc... for their "Dear Santa" list. We will catch them wearing "high heels", holding their "baby" along with a purse over their shoulder, keys in their hand all while talking into their play cell phone. They are not even four yet!! I tell you we are doomed! LOL! An interesting tidbit is that Camryn does not do this nearly as much as Aave & Linz do! TOO TOO funny! =]
 

The third thing I noticed was how funny Brendan can be! He really does like to be the little comedian. If he says something that he thinks anyone finds funny he will say it over & over again! Well that night he made us burst out in laughter right there in the middle of our dinner! Camryn started counting one {Avery}, two {Lindsey}, three {Herself}girls at the table. {FYI apparently Mommy is not considered a girl, she is just a Mommy! LOL!} Brendan pipes up with there are FOUR girls, and then says "I'm a girl!". Daddy looks at him & says "Brendan do you have a Cootchie?" he replies "No". Brendan then says "I'm a girl with a penis!". I about died! If I was drinking something I think it would have shot out of my nose! You see this is what he wanted, he wanted that laugh & as we all laughed he repeated it over & over again! This is one of those moments when I should have stayed straight faced but I lost it! Now before you all start wondering about the little BOY of ours you need to know this is just him being the comedian that he is. So what if he likes dolls & the color pink?! =] Remember he does have THREE sisters so we can safely say that he is in touch with his feminine side! LOL! You see he knew that would draw a laugh so he went with it! However one might say...

Houston we have a problem...

walk slowly...

It is interesting how often we I hear these two words, walk slowly, being spoken by our little man, must be at least once or twice a day! Remember his alter ego is "Safety Patrol Man" and he makes sure we know it! LOL! He routinely will ask if he should walk slowly. I think this may stem from a few "slip & fall's" on the wet tile floor after swimming so now ANYTIME there is water involved or a situation that he deems "unsafe" he will say "Walk slowly Mommy?". Now this is at EVERY bath, out by the pool, while we are on our patio, when someone spills anything on the floor you better believe he is going to ask me those two words! It's usually always directed at me. Weird huh?! I think it's a mom thing, he knows he can trust me to keep him safe! Also I kind of think it's cute, Daddy on the other hand doesn't quite "get it". He thinks it is sort of goofy & wishes he would stop. Like why does he need to ask us or better yet say that? I really do see it as sort of endearing! So as far as I'm concerned he can continue being our "Safety Patrol Man" and when he deems necessary to tell us to...

walk slowly...

wear this mommy...

We were literally running out the door to meet up with my niece for dinner when the tribe decided that they all "needed" to wear hats! Just another thing to make us even later! ]= We have this trunk FULL of all sorts of "dress up" clothes & they sure found some good ones! LOL! The one hat that sticks out was Brendan's. He chose this white & yellow flower head band type hat. Yes you read it right, he dressed like a FLOWER! He sort of looked like a BIG sunflower or a dandelion. {I'm NO gardener! LOL!} Either way he looked ADORABLE! When I tell you we were late, we were LATE! I was trying my best to hurry them along but as you know children, when they are "trying" to do something they are slower than slow! LOL! As we all were attempting to get into the 'burb he soon found out that his head with his flower "hat" on would just NOT fit in the car seat, not for the lack of trying I might add! hahah! Next thing I know he is telling me to...

wear this mommy...

"mommy meter"...

We have been swimming a TON lately & with absolutely NO swimmies! WOO HOO! Being it's the summer & extremely  HOT outside our pool tends to be EXTRA warm. Some days it feels good but most days it's like swimming in a liquid SAUNA! UGH! Another issue is when it rains the pool tends to cool off pretty quick. It must have rained a bunch over the past few days because it was MUCH cooler than expected when we jumped in today. It was really funny because the tribe must be SO used to it being warm that they all felt the need to tell me how COLD it was today! SO cold that I decided to see exactly what the temperature really was. Good 'ol Brendan must have seen me searching around the pool for our pool thermometer because the next thing I hear is him saying "Here it is Mommy!", Here's the...




"mommy meter"...

is he playing us for fools?...

Ever since the tribe has started school we have sort of been out of the loop in the potty dept. When they were home with me I knew when they pooped & peed. I knew when they had issues, when they had that "accident", etc. Anyhow, now that they are in school we don't seem to know all of this info. It really doesn't matter that much with the girls as it does Brendan. He is by far our issue kid. All these months we have assumed that since it takes him FOREVER to poop that he has still been having issues. We have kept his appointments with the "poop doctor" because we felt he still needed it. Well let me tell you we learned a lot this past Friday. You both Daddy & I picked the tribe up from school to take them out for dinner, our routine "Family Night". This has not happened for awhile, both of us picking them up or better yet me beingthere. Ever since I've been working more during the week Daddy has been taking them to & from school. He is the one getting all of the updates from the teachers & apparently he has NOT asked the right questions. Because Brendan now pees AND poops on the potty at school. Yes you read this right! Miss Iris told me that he has been doing SO good! I was like what?! He is missing school on Monday because we have an appointment with the "Poop doctor"! Why oh why did we not know this?! I told her that we need to get "progress reports" on him so we know when & if his issues return. Let's pray that they don't! Then I thought to myself why doesn't he poop on the potty at home? Why did we still think he was having issues? I mean he ALWAYS poops in his Pull Up & it's usually ever 5 days or so at night. Maybe that's why we knew the last time he pooped in his pants that is! LOL! Did we get it wrong? Oh did I wonder a LOT as I drove to dinner that night. I wondered is he ok or...

is he playing us for fools?...

flying solo...

For the past two weeks now I have allowed one child to make the trek down to Grandma's with me when I have to go to work. I always stay over at Grandma's if I have an EARLY shift, just makes life easier & less driving in the middle of the night. It was only recently that I decided to let one child tag along with me. I think I realized how important it is for each of them to have that "special" time ALONE without the others being around to pester them. I also know that they need their one on one time with their Mama too! Last week I brought Brendan. Do not ask me how he got to be the "first" one to fly solo but he did. I was working a short shift {3am-7am} so other than making sure it was ok with Grandma I had NO worries about doing this. I have to say that he was AWFUL during the hour drive South. UGH! Not only did he ask me a million questions, scream at the top of his lungs then he even picked up his flip flop, hit me with it & then laughed! Man is he becoming quite the terror lately! I told his he will NOT be coming down to Grandma's with me again for a VERY long time! {Sadly a LONG time will only be more like 4 weeks since I am trying to rotate this "treat" around! LOL!} This week it was Miss Avery's turn. It's only fair to do this rotation in age order. LOL! You should have seen her once I told her she was coming with me! She started bragging like she was in middle school not like the 3 year old that she really is! It was crazy! There she was in the middle of the restaurant saying "I'm going with Mama in Daddy's truck and your not going!" then "I'm going to Grandma's!". Except this time she was going to stay overnight at LuLu & Uncle Bob's house not Grandma's. You see Grandma was out & I did not want to take a chance of her not agreeing to watch her, the little pistol that she is, till Daddy arrived with the rest of the tribe. I was SO happy that Uncle Bob agreed to let her spend the night. FYI this is not the first time she has spent the night away from us just the first time by herself. I dropped her off w/ her blankie, her new stuffed "Pooh", PJ's, an extra set of clothes & Pull Up's. I think LuLu was just about as excited as she was to be staying over! I said my goodbyes & off I went to catch some ZZz's before my early shift. I knew that she would be just fine...

flying solo...

Wanna see my Woody?...

Oh what I would give to have a picture or better yet a video of what happened the other night in our living room! You see we were all sitting down before bed to watch their "show", each of them drinking their sippies full of chocolate milk when I hear Brendan say "Lindsey wanna see my Woody?". I just about died! You see we have continually had the discussion about how boys are different than girls.I mean they do take a bath together and see their differences up front & in the flesh! SO I started talking about body parts. My hubby does not necessarily enjoy this topic of discussion however I would much rather teach them about their body parts than to have them check them out on someone else! So ever since we had that first talk they would read off a sort of "list" of who had a penis & who had a "coochie". Again I know "coochie" is not the right terminology but it works for us! [= They will even say boys have penises & girls have coochies. Then they start naming all the people they know who are boys & then who are girls. Usually it's everyone in our families and then they are done. We have NEVER, EVER even mentioned the word "Woody". SO you can almost imagine how shocked I was to hear Brendan say that to his sister! After my shock wore off I deceided I better not jump to conclusions so I looked at both of them to see what was really going on. That's when Brendan proceeds to pull down his pajama pants, point to the picture of Woody on his "Toy Story" Pull Ups & says Lindsey...

Wanna see my Woody?...

I have another man in my bed...

Daddy is away & the mice will play! Isn't that the saying?! Nah.. It is just how I feel right about now! This tribe of ours has been behaving WILD lately! They seem to have even more energy than me! Scary! Yes they started preschool last week & Yes they love it! What I love even more is that I actually have time to pay closer attention to each of them. I boy have I noticed quite a few things about them now that they are not around me 24/7. Today is all about Brendan, funny how that is, he is my little man! I have noticed just how sensitive Brendan has become! Especially now that he is in school, on a different NEW schedule. His teacher even told me the other day that he was being "secretive"! How many secrets can a three year old have?! Hmm... Then she said he cried during lunch for his "momma", Oh Boy! Normal I know but this is at lunch not when I am dropping him off! I know he will be OK & just brush it off to he is going through one of his "things" & needs time to work it out. One of the biggest things he needs to work on is the whole going potty business. He has absolutely NO interest in it! I know boys are slower in this dept but he tends to get very anxious about it. They are working with him at school which I am SO happy about! But I wonder if there is more to this bathroom thing. I mean he has always been a constipated kid. We buy Miralax by the case! LOL! It was not until today that I ever really thought about prematurity & how being born at almost 33 weeks really affected them.You see Mr B has issues! He has the HARDEST time going #2. It's like he will hold it in. I know, TMI but I need to share this. Maybe there is someone out there that can relate. Here I am being ignorant thinking it was how he was made & he would eventually grow out of it. I mean there is only so much Miralax a kid can ingest before refusing to take no more! We are there! He refuses his sippy if we put some of it in there! So there I was making that dreaded call to his Pediatrician to get a name of a Pediatric Gastro Dr. To get my son some relief! It was when I made that call I realized there is more to this & we need some answers. He needs help & at just over three years old I am the only person he has to get it for him. Maybe after we see the specialist we will have more knowledge of what is going on down there. So as a treat I allowed him to sleep in Mommy's bed. Hoping that he would relax & feel better. It's a treat & hopefully not forming a bad habit. So now you know why...

I have another man in my bed...

the lone frosted flake in the sea of cheerios...

Each morning we have the dreaded discussion over what we are going to have for breakfast. I dread it SO much that sometimes I will even ask the night before just to prepare myself! Don't want them asking for something I do not have! It can be a catastrophe if that happens! (= On a "rushed" day it is most likely going to be cereal. Mainly because it is easy & they can eat it on the way. This makes Brendan VERY happy! He is our cereal eating machine. He LOVES LOVES LOVES his cereal! The girls like it too but when I say he likes it I mean he is obsessed with it! He could eat it every day if he could! He also knows his products. Don't try giving him frosted mini wheat's when he asked for Frosted Flakes. There will be hell to pay if you get those confused! LOL! God forbid we ran out of Frosted Flakes & we only have Cheerios! Oh Boy! I will then have to have this LONG discussion with him to prepare him for a "different" cereal. The even funnier thing is that he switches it up daily. It's like he has his own little routine that I am not privy to!He will ask for Cheerios for like 3 days straight & on the 4th day when I go to fill his cup up with Cheerios he wants Frosted Flakes! I must say that he keeps me on my toes! My hubby did not believe me in the beginning when I would tell him how he would ask me for cereal. He thought I was taking the easy way out, not making a HOT breakfast. If hubby had his way the tribe would get eggs every morning! I'm telling you like I told him he will actually use the words, "I want cereal Mommy", not I want Cheerios, but cereal! In my book if asking for cereal every morning gets him to eat a good breakfast I will oblige him! My little man knows what he wants & he is not afraid to be...

the lone frosted flake in a sea of cheerios...

everyone has a story...

First off I got up out of bed because I knew I needed to write about yet another funny in the Brendan dept. You see each morning he is the first child to ask me for his sippy cup, actually he asks for his chocolate milk. Yes, we gave in a LONG time ago & allowed the chocolate syrup to enter the sippy cup. I know, I know, not very healthy & I'm a TERRIBLE mommy! But I have to say that I did fight it in the beginning but in my haste to not have a bunch of crying children & to possibly bulk them up I allowed it. I figured what could a little chocolate syrup do to them? Little did I know what a problem I created! They cannot have milk any other way! It is now ingrained in them, they HAVE to have chocolate syrup in their milk! They will even tell me when there is not enough! UGH! Maybe after I get over the other challenges I will work on removing the chocolate syrup from their milk. Maybe...

As most everyone knows my goal with writing this blog is to have each one of our children read it one day & smile at all of their funny stories being told by their crazy mama. Yes at times even I am crazy! LOL! Each one of us, my siblings that is, has a story, you know the one story that everybody & anybody has heard our mom repeat for like the zillionth time about us! I am one of four children and the only girl so you can just imagine what my life was like! Only kidding, growing up I loved my brothers! (= Being the youngest I have to go from memory of being told these stories over and over because I was not around when they happened. Funny how that happens!

From what they, my parents, say my brother Jim's story is how at the age of 6 he would recite the 23rd Psalm as my Dad would sing for the prisoners at our county jail. Don't know where this idea ever came from or why they ever allowed a 6 year old to enter a jail but they did! Crazy but true! What is even crazier is that my brother Jim does NOT remember ever doing this! When I asked him about it to make sure I had all my facts straight he said I think you have me mistaken for another brother! Luckily I had my mom's memory there to back me up! I knew that I was not imagining being told this story over & over throughout my life! It just strikes me funny he never heard it being said! Hmm..

The story my mom shares about my brother Rick is a funny one. He used to spend a lot of time at our neighbors when he was little. If he was not home he was there. One day he apparently left their house & did not go directly home. He instead decided to take a trip! At the age of three he rode his tricycle a mile & a 1/2 down the road to tell my brother Jim that Mom wanted him home for lunch! Note to Mom: NEVER say wouldn't it be nice for Jim to be here for lunch to a 3year old! Rick took it literally & off he went to go get him! LOL! Once she realized he was not at the neighbors she went off searching for him. Apparently several people in the neighborhood saw a young red headed boy on his tricycle riding down the road with NO adult & did not do a thing. They just pointed in the direction he was riding and said he went that way. Hello?! Why would you not stop him? This is the God's honest truth! Again this is HIS story. By the way, he does remember being told this! (=

Bob's story occured shortly before I was born, he was four years old. My Mom took him shopping at JCPenney, two weeks before Christmas you can just about imagine how crowded the place was! Anyhow he wanted to walk BY HIMSELF around the escalator and meet my mom on the other side. She walked on one side, almost 9 months pregnant with me, and he walked on the other. When she reached the other side he was no where to be found! Back then they only announced missing kids & such in the store you were in. Luckily there was a woman in JCPenney who had previously been in Burdines shopping and remembered seeing a small 4 year boy there. {Hopefully I have the names of the dept stores correct} It took a few hours to finally reunite mother & son. I don't think my Mom ever let go of my brothers hand after that!

And finally that leaves me. Well as you can tell I have never been an introvert. Hard to believe I know! LOL! I LOVE people & apparently my parents found this out at an early age. You see we all went on a family vacation to Disney World when I was like 4 year old. This was back when they still had "The Electric Parade". Anyone remember that? What a cool parade, anyhow, we all sat down in front of the castle to watch it pass by but I was just not close enough. There was a nice couple sitting in front of us who offered to let me sit with them and my parents allowed me to do this. note: PARENTS NEVER ALLOW YOUR CHILD TO DO THIS! We watched the parade & once it ended everyone got up & before they knew it the crowd swept me away. I was GONE! They frantically searched but could not find me so they sought out security. They said the security guard said no problem, once she starts crying we will find her. That was mistake #1! I was an extrovert! They said she is NOT going to cry! Then they got scared. They finally found me a few blocks down talking to some complete strangers telling them how I was there on vacation with my three older brothers, my mom & my dad. Now don't get me wrong I realize this is a good story but I either hear about when I was lost at Disney World or "Oh, I remember when you were little how your Dad used to stand you on his hand!". Yes my Dad did this, he was a STRONG guy, he swore that only girls do this feat due to their balance. I was his balancing guinea pig on several occasions. I even have the pictures to prove it! What all of these stories brings me to is how I do NOT want our kids to only have one or two stories. I want them to have MANY memories. I want each & every funny, scary, silly, thoughtful, terrible, loving thing they do to be theirs. I intend to post many of them. Today happens to be Buddy's, aka Brendan, he really moved me to write this post tonight. SO here goes.

So now after explaining everyone's "stories" I will share with you what occured this morning. Mr B asked me for his chocolate milk & I obliged him. There I am doing a million things at once. Trying to fill up the empty sippies, make my coffee {MAJORLY important![=}, get the laundry washed & folded, etc. As I am doing all of this he proceeds to say "Mommy my sippy sounds like a bird!". I have him repeat himself to make sure I heard him correctly. He again says "Mommy my sippy sounds like a bird!". This is one of those moments where I wonder who raised this kid? I mean I do not have all the time in the world to teach them these things. This is a learned behavior from somewhere. SO I ask him to take another sip so I can hear it. Thinking what does this crazy kid hear? He takes a sip & wouldn't you know the darn sippy does sound like a bird! Where does he get this stuff from? In that moment I knew this was going to be yet another one of his "funnies". Remember...

everyone has a story...

Where's my bee?...

One night while at Grandma's house Brendan came up to me & asked me "Where's my bee mommy?". I was not sure what he exactly meant. I kept having him repeat himself so I could maybe figure it out. Did someone give him a stuffed bee or better yet did he find a dead one some place. Trust me stranger things have happened in out household! Finally I asked him to show me what he meant. He walks me over to my mom's piano to where we "house" their shopping carts. There were two carts there & his was missing. Then it hit me, he wanted to know where "his" shopping cart was.You see Daddy was tired of them fighting over the four IDENTICAL play shopping carts so he wrote their initials on each of them. Well Brendan knows that his name begins with a B so that's why he asked me...

Where's my bee?...

Buddy...

Funny how just one year can change SO much! These children of ours have grown so much in the past year, not only in height but also in vocabulary. The say SO much! The things that come out of their mouths! YIKES! Makes me bite my tongue on quite a few occasions for fear they will repeat me! LOL! One of the words that has stuck has been Linz's nickname for Brendan. She does not call him Brendan or Brendy, but calls him "Buddy". It is SO cute seeing how she interacts with him & shows him her affection. Just yesterday she held him in her arms & rubbed the hair on his head and neck. You know how soft & fuzzy the hair is after a buzz cut, well she ran her fingers across the back of his neck & he just giggled. He is by far our most ticklish child! He loved every moment of the attention she gave him! SO SO cute! Maybe they will continue that bond once school starts & be the twosome that stays together in their first classroom. You know I will NOT be splitting them up if I don't have to! Oh to be two and not have a care in the world! (= These children definitely give us more joy than we even realize. Lately my smiles have come from watching Linz and her...

Buddy...

Disney World!...

You know the ad where the team just wins the Super Bowl, they run up to the MVP & ask him "You just won the Super Bowl, What are you going to do next?", and they reply "Go to Disney World!". Well that is how I felt yesterday! I got to take the tribe for their very FIRST visit to Disney World on of all days MY birthday! I just want to give a shout out to whomever thought up the get in free to Disney on your birthday sales promo! What a great idea! I do not think I could ever get my hubby to take us ALL to Disney World any other way. I was psyched! We invited our niece to tag along so our tribe of seven expanded to eight! Once we got to the hotel, Disneys Pop Century, and I saw the decade signs out front I knew I needed to get a picture! Being that I was born in 1970 it was perfect! Look really close & you will see me in the bottom zero! There was just one glitch to our last minute plan, the weather! We had a cold front come through & the temp's were frigid! This Florida girl is not used to COLD weather & Mother Nature sure did provide us COLD weather! Once in Orlando we awoke to FOURTY NINE degree weather, YIKES! It was a bit nippy & even with all the preparations we could not keep the tribe or ourselves warm! It was BAD! We ended up returning to our hotel just to warm up! CRAZY! I know, there is a blizzard going on up North but remember this is Florida people!We are used to WARM weather! Once we warmed our tushes up we headed out to the Magic Kingdom. All the tribe kept talking about was seeing Mickey Mouse. I knew this would be short lived because like most children they usually talk a good game until thee moment & then they bawl. I was preparing myself for that exact thing! Oh to be in Disney World with my family on MY birthday! It was such a fun day even if my hubby was "Grumpy" himself. He does not do well in the patience dept. and when you have 5 kids plus one to get ready & out the door by a certain time he just could not do it! Patience is NOT his virtue! LOL! Lucky for us we had reenforcements already at the park! Our good friends Andy, Laurie, Travis, Carol, Norman & their families were there to help us wrangle our brood. THANK YOU GUYS! They are pros at all things Disney so we followed them. The BIG boys went to do BIG boy stuff while we ladies PLUS Daddy went to see little people stuff. We decided to hit "Toon Town" first to nip the whole Mickey & Minnie experience in the bud.After waiting about 45 minutes in a line that seemed to go on FOREVER we finally met the Mr & Mrs of all Disney! Brendan of course freaked out & wanted out of there! I think his seeing Mickey was fine if he was about 50 feet away but once he got up next to him he wanted NO part of him. Lindsey felt the same way but not as extreme as Mr B. Avery was okay with both of them. Not overly excited but not scared either. Camryn on the other hand LOVED Minnie! She did not want to leave & kept hugging her & giving her kisses. "Aunt Larry" said waiting in that 45 minute line was worth every minute after seeing her reaction! awhh... After that experience I realized just how difficult it was going to be to take our family of 7 anywhere! Some of them are going to be "easy" and some are going to be "difficult". I am just going to have to figure out how to meet them halfway. Trying to get pictures was even harder! I ended up doing Disney's photo pass. What a great idea! Even if it will cost us an arm & a leg to get copies made at least we can say we went to...

Disney World!...

Tis the season...

This week has been one LONG week! I have noticed lately how much the tribe has grown both physically & mentally! With growth comes curiosity and with curiosity comes BAD behavior! I cannot begin to tell you what all we have dealt with this past week! UGH! Needless to say this momma was NOT happy! We had quite a few incidents where I was caught asking them, "Why do you like making mommy's job even harder than it already is?". {This has been a favorite saying of mine lately!} Here's an example of a recent evening in our house.

I was making them some chicken for dinner. We bought this yummy organic spice from Costco, you know the kind that comes in a HUGE container that does not fit in with all your other spices? I ended up storing it next to the stove since it's SO big. I think up until this point we had only used a 1/4 of the bottle. I had already spiced up the chicken & was quite proud how it was turning out. The aroma was captivating! As I'm preparing the rest of the dinner Linz, our very own private eye, came up to me saying "Avery Buddy". Avery of course being her sister & Buddy being Brendan. That is her special name for him. Usually when she comes up & says someones name it usually means they did something or took something from her. I sort of blew her off. I was cooking & had no time to referee a silly squabble I thought they were having. Looking back I think she actually came up to me three times when finally I had enough time to see what they were up to. The first thing I saw was Avery holding this dirty brown stuffed object. I did not recognize it at first but then I saw what it was, Brendans baseball bear. {It is suppose to be a white bear!} Then I saw what Lindsey was trying to tell me all along, a huge pile of my seasoning all over the living room floor. When I say huge I mean HUGE! Avery & Brendan must have taken my bottle of spices & dumped it EVERYWHERE! The bottle was completely empty & they were now rubbing it into the cushion of our ottoman. I did not know if I should laugh or cry! Trust me I wanted to cry! This was just the tip of the iceberg of my BAD week! If Michael was there he would have been beside himself, he is majorly anal about anything on the floor. Luckily Dustyn was there & he helped me clean up the mess. "D" was so funny, as he swept it up he said to them, "Don't laugh if you were older YOU would be cleaning this up!". I guess I am rubbing off on him! LOL! As we cleaned the floor all I could think about was...

Tis the season...

rockin' the hawk...

We, actually I, recently decided Brendan needed a new 'do. If you are a friend of mine on Facebook you have seen the pic's of his new 'do. If not here are a few pic's of his NEW "Mo Hawk". I never really thought about giving him one until after his last cut when my good friend Des commented about how she gives her son Christoffer one over the summer. Her son & Brendan are a few months apart & are both complete "toe heads"! So I decided this last trip to the barber he would get one! Daddy actually took him to get it done. This was a FIRST because usually Uncle Bob or I take him. This is how it went down at the barber shop per Michael. When it was Mr B's turn in the chair the barber asked him how he would like his hair cut, you know, a "princeton" or 3 on top & a 2 on the sides, etc... When Michael told her a "Mo Hawk" I think she thought he was joking around because she said "No, Really how do you want it?". He says it again "A Mo Hawk". She looked at him and said "Are you sure?". As you should know by now he was sure! LOL! I was excited to see how cute he would look! Heck I would much rather see him in a mo hawk at 2 years old than 14! Apparently doing a Mo Hawk is harder than I thought. You have to be VERY precise & cut the line perfect. No wonder she wanted to make sure he was serious! LOL! Needless to say we have received mixed reviews over his new 'do. Most people LOVE it & a few just do not get it. It's just hair people! It will grow back I promise! (= What can I say we just love how cute he looks! He is...

rockin' the hawk...