Toofers, b-days and more

I'm terribly behind in writing down some of the things that go on around here.  I felt bad that we weren't able to get a birthday sign done for Isabella.  It's been a tradition here for the past 6 years.  She didn't seem to notice to much since she's been totally absorbed in her pool party details.  For her birthday she chose to have a large pool party.  It should prove to be fun.  I am praying for good weather and sanity.  After the pool we have to get everyone over to the park for some food and cake.  I really don't relish the idea of trying to get a bunch of kids out of a pool, clothed and moved to another spot.  Especially since I'm still gimpy :-)  Seeing as how most of the kids she invited were her age, we shouldn't have too much of a problem.  I am hoping that we remember to take pictures, but trying to keep an eye on so many kiddos may mean otherwise.

Baby Aubrey finally got his first tooth!!  He has not been sleeping well for the last week or so and we finally know why.  I am just so thankful for being able to get some nap time in since my  mom is here.  Aubrey was waking at 2 or 4 AM and staying up for two hours.  Then come the early morning hours and he just wanted to nurse and nurse and nurse and....Since it isn't easy, nor comfortable to lay on my side, due to my leg, I can't sleep while I'm nursing him like I would normally do.  We just went online to order an amber teething necklace.  It took the baby forever to fall asleep tonight, and it was clear that he was in pain.  We only had a wee bit of baby Tylenol to give him.  I figured this way we don't have to worry about running out of pain meds, as the teething necklace is supposed to release a natural oil that helps with pain.  Hey, I'm gain for new ideas :-)

I start physical therapy next week.  I've been told I need to get off the crutches.  So I try to walk around with one crutch only using it when my leg feels like it's going to give out.  I can already tell that it's getting stronger compared to three days ago.  This 'stronger' is only relative of course as my leg is in pretty sad shape.  I'm allowed to take off the brace for bed time and if I'm just hanging out on the couch.  What a wonderful break from the brace!  I've started to try to make small movements.  I can only bend my knee like a few inches.  Wow, it's amazing how quickly your joints can lock up! 

I've been preparing for the new school year.  I have a ways to go before we will be all ready, but I may start them this coming Monday.  It's hard to say.  We still have our summer reading that we haven't finished ( a few more chapters left).  And I plan on putting Isabella, Flannery and Moira on the GAPS intro diet on Monday.  It might seem odd that Jed isn't included, but this is for many reasons.  Isabella is going on it to see if we can't make a big change in her hernia situation.  With four months till the end of the year, we need to make some big changes to see if we can avoid surgery.  For Flannery, she NEEDS to be on this as there is a big, BIG correlation with her diet and her 'splinters'.  She's been on a much restricted diet for the past week and only once did she complain of some pain, and that lasted only a few minutes.  But, she had birthday cake for Isa's birthday....Oh...MY...GOODNESS!!  Yeah, she claims that she isn't better at all, that she has been in pain all week long and just hasn't told us.  If you knew, and saw Flannery during these episodes you KNOW that isn't true.  This child can not hold back from freaking out over every little thing.  I'd give some examples to show how totally out of control this is, but I dont' have the time to do so right now.  Trust me, this is crazy!  Moira is joining them only because she has been begging me to start the GAPS diet and when she heard that those two were going on it she asked to go on it too.  Since my mom will have to help with the cooking, I didn't want to add anyone else on the list.  Once I am better (up and doing all the cooking, etc.)  I will put everyone on the diet.  So with a new diet and starting the new school year on the same day...hmm, yeah crazy, school should wait till the following week.

All right, it's getting late and I need to get some sleep before the baby wakes to spend the rest of the night restless.

First Birthday of the Year...and photos!

HAPPY BITRHDAY FLANNERY

The first birthday of the year has arrived! Flannery turned eight. Hard to imagine! Her day was filled with a lot of fun. Earlier in the day Jeremiah went to pick up some new baby chicks. We got 10 Buff Orpingtons and 2 Americanas. The Americanas lay green/blue eggs. That will be cool. I can only hope that none of them are roosters. Once we got the chicks settled we headed off to get Flannery her birthday presents. She really likes Hello Kitty. I remembered that there was a Sanrio store at the mall in the city. We went there first. This mall was 20 times worse than the mall by our house! Yuck! We trudged through the crowds. I couldn't believe how crowded it was. And we finally hit our destination.


Flannery and her birthday sign. This year I had the help of some wonderful women from a study group I am in. We are going through the book, "Created to be His Helpmeet". I had fallen ill this past week and hadn't gotten around to getting the necessary supplies for the sign. So right before the study I ran to the dollar store and got poster board and markers. It was late by the time study finished and I had only gotten the outlines done. And these wonderful ladies helped me color the sign in. If they hadn't I would have been up till 2 AM! Flannery LOVED her sign.



Here was our first stop. Of course the girls wanted everything in the store.

See? We got a lot of, "Ohhh, look at this...can I have it?" Ha! Um no, it's not your birthday, go put it back.

Even Jed wasn't exempt from the temptation. He saw a Hello Kitty in an elephant suite. He had to give it a squeeze. He played with it the whole time we were there, and was disappointed to have to leave it behind.

Isabella I think was a bit on the old side for the store. So she casually looked around, but wasn't all that interested. Now, had this been a store with a bunch of dragons in it.....lets just say that would have been a different story.

The official birthday "cake". This was the brownie recipe with a peanut butter topping. I did use a chocolate bar for the writing. The other chocolate recipe that I found that was healthy only stayed fluid for maybe 30 seconds. That didn't allow me enough time to write! So I went with a Hershey's bar (shhhh, don't tell anyone!). I have to say had I made this pre-sugar free, we would have probably spit it out. It certainly wasn't to die for, but we all enjoyed it. It really did fill you up fast! One piece was all we could handle. Saoirse was asking for it for her birthday. So it wasn't a flop, but not the wonder I was hoping for. I think I will keep my eyes open for other healthy recipes.

The birthday girl and a few eager children ready to dive in.

Jonah was having a lot of fun!




That's it for birthday photos. Yesterday we had a family over for a while. We all had a lot of fun. After they left I took Jonah out to see the chicks. He was not very excited about being in the storage room. Therefore he wasn't too keen on the chicks. Oh well. After that I decided to let him hang outside for a bit. It has been sooooo cold down here the past few weeks. This weekend was actually mild so I let him loose.

Have I told you all how much I am loving my new camera? I have such a long way to go learning how to work it, but I'm having a blast. See how wonderfully blurred the background is? I love that!

Oh, see, more blurred backgrounds. The blurred backgrounds let your subject be the focus. I just love that :-)

Oh, and see here, the things in the foreground get blurred too. How cool is that? Only Jonah is in focus. Never mind the handful of pictures I had to delete because I had the point of focus wrong....ha, ha.

Jonah just being silly. He is such a cutie pie. You can't really see it in this photo but Jonah's hair is now sticking out beyond his ears. So very adorable. All too soon it will be time for a haircut, which will make him look like a big boy :-( Boo hoo.

I love this shot. He was just about to throw a rock. And look I hit is just right, with is foot off the ground.

Saoirse is usually the camera queen. She absolutely loves the attention of getting her picture taken. Well last night she was being fussy about it. But I decided to take her picture anyways to show her how silly she was being. She didn't find that silly. Hmmm. I did, I was sitting there laughing. Oh, well, maybe when she is 20 she will laugh about it.

See? Silliness. I laugh, she pouted. Thankfully she is in better spirits today.

For some reason I like this shot, not sure why. She was actually trying to collect a stash of rocks. She made this rather large pile and then asked if she could take her rock collection inside. Ummm, do you see the size of that rock she has? I don't think so! More pouting.

Look at the cuteness factor of this one! I love it. I'm making sure to end with a cute picture. We wouldn't want Saoirse's poutiness to rub off on anyone :-) We have a busy week ahead of us. Speech therapy, a get together, or two, Bible Study, and the first soccer game of the season!! Soccer? Already? Wow, time flies. I need to go around looking for their jerseys. Off to make breakfast and get set for the day.