name those babies pumpkins

can you guess who we are?
aren't we cute?

want a closer look?

don't you think our hats are awesome??
whoever made them is the best!!

totally charming

this picture pretty much sums up olivia's morning. {taken pre-procedure}

this morning olivia had tubes put in her ears. it went really well, in fact they said she was "totally charming" in the or. ha ha. i knew the shirt would help :)

they gave her some "sleepy juice" before the procedure which totally chilled her out so it wasn't an issue when they wheeled her away. the procedure was super quick so she never even changed out of her street clothes. she was kind of crazy when she was coming out of the anesthetic. a few nurses had to come help calm her down. one nurse brought her a red slurpie which she knocked out of the nurses hand and all over the floor.

half coherent kid + red slurpie--not a good idea!
{but how cool for or recovery to have a slurpie machine!!}

well i'm off to enjoy a quite afternoon while she sleeps it off.

a little catching up

i've been slacking on posting pictures up on my blog this month. so here's me catching up...

when nana & papa came to visit from minnesota, we went to chuck e cheese to celebrate the kids' birthdays along with cousin matilyn. it was pretty much the worst pizza i've ever eaten, but the kids had fun and i got skee ball out of my system for the time being.

a few hours later we went bowling with garrett's preschool class/church. lots of fun :) unfortunately we thought we lost our camera at cec, so i couldn't take any pictures - but seriously bowling pictures are always of butts, i don't feel too bad. thankfully we found the camera in the back of the car the next day :)

perhaps next year we'll do the hsm party the kids actually wanted. oh well...they had fun at eating pizza, collecting tickets and getting lots of attention from their nana & papa :)

a little attitude

apparently with turning 4 comes lots of wisdom, or should i say attitude.

lately when i ask garrett not to do something (like running around the house yelling when josie is napping) his response is "mom, that's just life." in a very matter of fact, i'm so smart kind of way.

and here i thought only girls give attitude. yeish.

i have to admit...

that i went to meijer today for the sole purpose of buying hair product for ryan.

but when we left the hair salon yesterday, he looked so darn cute with his spikey hair.
don't ya think?

i wonder if this hair product phase will mess up our we're-too-busy-to-take-a-bath-every-night routine.
i certainly hope not.
mmm... i wonder if ryan owns any hats?

2 things

this picture is not the greatest, but it really shows 2 things:

1. why the last 2 hats i've almost finished are already too small

AND

2. why we have to send in search parties when we want to see her neck

my little student

while cuddling in bed with garrett the other night...

mom, did you know that watermelon is compound word?

can you hear spiders?

olivia is not a fan of pain. the moment she gets a scrape she runs frantically runs inside looking for a barbie bandaid. when she got her 5 yr old shots, she screamed until our car pulled out of the parking lot. when she gets knocked over in soccer, it's a traumatic experience.

so today she got some crushing news.

after failing numerous hearing tests and having her ears checked and rechecked at an ent, she is having tubes put in on 10/28. {funny thing is, in our opinion she hears everything! it's impossible to have an adult conversation in the car. even with the radio blasting and her sitting in the "way back" she can hear everything.}

once the doctor started explaining the procedure (hospital, put to sleep, etc.) she got all hot & bothered. she looked right at the doctor and said "i can hear just fine! i hear the spiders crawling around in my basement!!" {see freaking hearing skills!}

after a tear-filled ride home and me promising her a toy at meijer after the procedure is over, she calmed down. it helped that once we got home her grandparents from minnesota (who are out visiting) gave the kids their birthday presents. hooray for distractions!

so we'll have to see if she can still hear the spiders once she has her tubes in :)

but on a parental note... it's not fun thinking about her getting put to sleep. it's a super common & fast procedure, so i'm not going to spend too much time worrying (in theory, of course). she's not having it done at children's like garrett did so the nurse today didn't think i'd be able to carry her to the or and hold her until she's out like i did with garrett :( well they'll be sorry about that. when she's upset & hysterical she is one fiesty little kid! i have no doubt that she'll give them a run for their money.

wordless wednesday

7 things...

i've been tagged...

1. i saw new kids on the block in concert {the first time they were cool}

2. i own 6 pairs of olawahu tevas

3. i was once an awesome sas programmer {missy & jill, don't laugh too hard}

4. i have biked 700 miles across southern australia

5. i took german lessons as a child {not sure why}

6. i hate getting into an unmade bed

7. as a child, my brother & i made a "house" in a thorn bush {compete with hallways and rooms}

i guess i'm supposed to tag a 7 people
but i'm just going to tag 1... my "new to blogging" friend kristi

happy birthday, g-man

what i want to remember about garrett...

you crack us up all the time
you LOVE school
your best friend is caroline
you adore josie and are such a sweet big brother
you love chillin' on the couch with the tv on
you don't mind that ryan shares your twin bed with you
you love all things super hero-ish
you can't wait to play soccer this spring - now that you're 4
you think every snack time should be ice cream time

garrett, we love you!!
you are one awesome kid :)

poor timing

the other day i took josie to see a pulmonary specialist. long story, but she's been wheezing pretty much since her bout with pneumonia back in may/june. of course, her wheezing was totally non-existent when we got to the office. so they are going to do a bunch of tests in the next few weeks to figure out what's going on. but that's a different story...

her doctor is housed in a women & children's health building. as i was filling out the paperwork, the fire alarm went off. i pick up josie (all 16 lbs of her and her heavy carseat), grab ryan's hand and head for the stairs. lots of patients & staff are going down the stairs. we pretty much brought the exodus to a standstill as ryan went down the stairs. step by step with his little 2 yr old legs.

we get outside and i'm standing next to 2 women. they have their backs to me. i notice they are dressed in business casual from the waist down and they are both wearing matching hospital type tops. at first i thought they must be nurses or something and their tops were scrubs. then i realized their tops had that familiar look of hospital wear. next thing you know, they turn around and start chatting with ryan and making josie smile. that's when i realized the had nothing on underneath their hospital looking tops. one of the women made a little joke that she was glad they had upgraded from the paper gowns so thy didn't have to flash the parking lot. yup, these ladies were having mammograms done when the alarm went off. talk about poor timing!!

why i'm not too keen on winter

i don't like winter--

the freezing cold

the slushy junk that gets tracked in my car and house

the time it takes to get everyone ready

the mess of hats, mittens & boats that takes over my back door area

the list could go on & on

but the main reason why i'm not keen on winter is... SOCKS

it was so easy all summer. laundry baskets without socks. what a lovely concept.
now my laundry folding includes figuring out what socks match up, whose socks they are, which ones are missing or in another laundry basket, keeping the singles somewhere so i can match them up later, blah blah blah.

i don't like socks. i need to move somewhere where my entire family can wear sandals all year long. my tevas, keens & crocs...i miss you. spring come soon!!

i wonder...

...what it means when you don't care that your child just drank out of the bowl of water they had been using with their watercolors?

i won't name any names, but the perp might look something like this little fellow


well, that'll teach me for turning off hi-5!!


i also wonder if i'm watching too much law & order since i just used the word "perp"

happy birthday to my baby girl!!

olivia you are...

an awesome daughter
a pretty cool sister
so loving
funny
full of energy
a night owl
a sleep in queen
a lover of pepperoni, hamburger buns & shredded cheese
a fan of hannah montana & hsm
so into "fashion"
a huge helper at home
a huge fan of kindergarten
wii bowling champion
growing up so fast!!!

i can't believe my baby girl is 6 today!

chomp chomp

guess who got her 1st tooth?

olivia - my fashion critic

while watching what not to wear --

"mom, you really should be on that show. you always wear your pjs around the house."

"mom, you look just like that girl {the woman getting the makeover, not the ohh so put together stacy}. you always wear your hair in a ponytail."

in my defense... it was after 8pm, i had gone for a run, showered and was in my pjs. it's not like it was 2pm and i was still wearing a bathrobe!!



ok--seriously, feel free to nominate me. i totally hate my wardrobe. i'm not quite sure how to start fixing it. let's face it - i'm not going to fix it anytime soon. i'm buying clothes for 4 kids-- i'm not complaing, just explaining why you don't see me walking around in fun "mom-on-the-go" clothes :) oh and if i get on the show, i promise not to have a silly tear filled breakdown over shoes or a-line skirts.

but then again, if they gave me some "mom-on-the-go" outfits, i bet i'd have to get up a lot earlier in the morning to get ready. not to mention style the cute haircut i'd get.

nevermind. hold off on nominating me until josie sleeps through the night. i need my morning sleep in time :)

my "special" helper

olivia's birthday is coming up in a few days.

i've got her present all set-- a pink yoga mat...she's been asking for one for ages!

i'm going to make bacon & her favorite muffins for breakfast. (seriously, check out the link - they are awesome! she eats at least 3 muffins for breakfast. don't get me started on how much she LOVES bacon.)

i have her school treat all planned -- cookies cut out in the number 6 with pink & purple icing.

birthday supper is going to be spaghetti (no sauce for her, just plain noodles & parmesan cheese).

and we have plans to go to chuck e cheese in a few weeks with her grandparents.

so as you can see, i'm all set. and i feel martha would be sufficiently proud. {kidding!!}

but my wii fit thinks differently. the other night when i logged on, i gave me the following message...

"did you know olivia's birthday is coming up? have you gotten her a present yet? might i suggest a surprise party."

clearly, wii knows no bounds. i guess i need to work on harnessing its power. i wonder if it can fold laundry, vacuum my house and pick kids up from school. now that would be useful.


(i guess i should add that when you set up your profile in wii, you enter your birthdate. that's how it knew about olivia's birthday. otherwise that would be extremely creepy. ha ha.)

wordless wednesday

what do you get when you combine s'mores & ryan?