Recent Pics

Layla had her Wondefully Made week at school last week.  It is their special week where they bring in photos of important events in their life and parents often visit.  I was planning to bring her lunch on Friday but she woke up not feeling well so she stayed home from school.  I'll now be going this Friday to hear her present her photos to her class and to bring her a personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut.  She's pretty excited :-).

Saturday night her friend Ellie from her class had a birthday party at Crazy Bounce.  She LOVED it!  She got a big rug burn on her arm and didn't even care since she had so much fun.  And I learned my lesson to have my kids wear long sleeves next time.

I realized that I hadn't gotten a pic of Gibs in his orange cast and he gets it off already on Friday.  He got this one a week after surgery.  Friday, he'll have his pins removed and a new cast put on--green this time he says.  And then just one more week and he'll be cast free!  This balloon was from Grampy and Gigi after surgery--I can't believe how long balloons last these days.  I'll probably be around for quite some time yet!

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day looks a bit different for us now that we have kids, but it's still great :-).  I can now share the day with four of my loves :-).   The kids think it's fun to have a "fancy" candlelit dinner--they did the decorating and loved it.  Luckily I was able to find some of the flower petals I kept from our wedding. 

 

I kept the meal simple since it took so long to make everything heart shaped :-).  We had tilapia, pink couscous, bread with heart shaped butter, tomatoes put together to make a heart (an idea I saw on Pinterest), heart shaped fruit, heart shaped carrots, heart jello and pink sherbet for dessert. 

The only pink napkins I could find in our pantry were Strawberry Shortcake leftover from Layla's birthday party last year :-).

We saw our friends on Saturday night and for the most part, the girls played separately from all the wild boys :-). 

Greta does not love sitting in carts at stores these days, but did love that she could stand inside the Kohls' cart/stroller.  She didn't want to get out :-).

Cuties trying on earmuffs...

Big Girl Bed

My sillies tonight having a dark party and making it extra dark with their shades on.  They think they are pretty cool :-).

Thursday night I was downstairs when I heard Greta talking and could right away tell that her voice sounded way too close to me.  Sure enough, she had escaped her crib.  And was proud of it. 

It really wasn't a surprise to us.  Our other kids have never escaped their cribs (and we therefore left them in there as long as we could), but we knew Greta was different.  For a long time, she's been putting her leg over the edge when I tuck her in.  Normally, telling her that she'll get hurt stops her from going any further.  And then a few weeks ago, she started climbing into her crib.  I'm sure a big part of this is because she sees her big bro and sis sometimes climb in and out of her crib.  I told them she would probably learn from them.  So alas, in order to not have another child with a broken arm, we decided to try her in a toddler bed.  Joe converted the crib into a toddler bed Friday night.  This is the first time we've done this since with the other two, we still needed the crib.  *Sniff sniff*, our crib is done being a crib.  Forever.  Seems crazy that for awhile we had two cribs and now, none.  It's going better than I thought though.  Friday and Saturday night she went right to sleep, and stayed that way until morning, and today and yesterday went right down for her naps.  Tonight she had some troubles going to bed as she kept getting out and walking around (and trying to wake up Layla!), but she had a late nap since we got home late from lunch at Joe's parents.  So hopefully if we stick to a normal napping time, she'll be good at going to bed.  Hopefully :-).

Surgery

Gibs ended up needing surgery on his arm.  The bones were no longer aligned like they were when his cast first went one, so the doctor recommended surgery in order to not risk having him not be able to bend his arm all the way in the future.
At his appointment on Tuesday, they scheduled it for 4:30 on Wednesday because that was the earliest appointment they had. They said the hospital would call us that night before 7:30 to confirm the time and that hopefully it would be moved up since he wouldn't be able to eat for 8 hours ahead of time.  And he would not be happy about that!  I called at 7:15 as we had not heard from them yet and the person I needed to speak with was gone already.  So someone said they'd have that person call me in the morning.  They didn't call at 7 like I had been told, so at 7:15 I called them.  They called me back a little before 8 and said to come right in.  The doctor was able to fit us in between two other surgeries.  We got Layla on the bus and then headed to the hospital.  It was really snowy and slippery so everyone was driving very SLOW, but eventually we made it there.  Normally they tell you to arrive 1 1/2 hours before surgery. We got there around 8:45 and by 9 Joe was filling out paperwork while I went back with the nurse to begin prepping him for surgery.  It was great how quickly that all went :-).

He wasn't nervous until they were about to take him back and explaining to him about how he was going to go to sleep.  He had ear tubes put in twice and had his adenoids taken out when he was little and that was easier to see him be taken away because he didn't know what was going on.  It was a little sad seeing him be wheeled away when he had just been crying for us to not leave him :-(.  My eyes may have teared up with his:-).  He kept saying he was afraid that when he woke up he'd be standing up.   Not sure why that was a fear of his! 

 

Just getting there and in good spirits.  He was excited that he'd be able to finally eat breakfast once it was done :-).  He likes to eat.

Trying to smile but getting nervous...

Due to his crying, a few nurses quickly came and brought him some new "buddies" to make him feel better.  He now has a koala and a penguin to add to his collection.  He loved them :-).  Pandy (all of his pandas are named "Pandy" even got to go to the OR with him and got a name tag on his neck.  Gibs thought that was pretty cool and Pandy is still wearing it at home :-).

Smiling after surgery was done!  We got home around 1 and he insisted on eating breakfast since he never got breakfast that day.  Joe and I stopped for food on the way home, but he wanted a waffle instead.  Then, at about 3 he wanted lunch.  He apparently can not miss any meals :-). 

 
He liked his ride in a wheel chair!

He now has a splint on until Thursday when he gets another cast put on.  Then  he'll wear that for three weeks, get his pins removed, and then have another cast on for a week.  It will be nice to see his arm again :-). 

Happy Chinese New Year

Layla's class missed their Christmas party due to a snow day so instead of having it after Christmas, their class decided to do a Chinese New Year party instead.  The kids loved it!  After the party, they had a quick surprise shower for their teacher who is having a baby in March. 

Making fireworks by jumping on bubble wrap :-).



Saturday night we got together with some friends and I thought the kids' table was so cute that it needed a pic :-).  Two of the kids were at the adult table and there are two more in utero :-).