Sweetness!

Well, I finally got Ellerie's 1-year pictures done (good thing since she's already 15 months old - but technically she's still 1)! Here are the results:

Love those little curls!

This one is my favorite! I love black and whites and her expression is so Ellerie!

This is Daddy's favorite - he thinks she looks like the Precious Moments girl.

Our Weekend...

The great thing about Brian having a blog is that I can just link to his post if I don't have time to write my own! He wrote a post about our weekend fun - check it out!!

Summer Fun

This summer we were 'strongly' encouraged by a friend to join our community pool. I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea or not, since I had 4 kids who couldn’t swim. But the pool website claimed that we could use “coast-guard approved” flotation devices. So that made me feel a little bit better. We decided to take the ‘plunge’ and join. We thought it would be good for our older ones to be in the water more often as they were learning to swim.

I can now say I am so glad we joined the pool. When we first started going, I wasn't so sure. Our first day there we found out that the kids couldn't wear any type of flotation device in the pool (even though that's not what the website said). But I decided to be mature about it and hang in there. The shallow end is only 2 feet so Calvin has done great there even without his swimmies. We also found out that our pool has all-kind-of-rules. I mean, we're not opposed to rules - rules are good - we like rules, really we do - but we've been to other pools in the area that only had a 'few' rules. So, we had to adjust a little bit to all of the rules ...

and I have to say that I am so glad that my arm was twisted to join the pool! Rules and all. They do have a smooth-running operation over there at the pool (which is probably because of all the rules). The lifeguards are top-notch and don't take their eyes off the pool - the swimming instructors are great - they have a great snack bar with fried foods - and the fun has been endless.

We have been participating in Float Night every Monday (which is a blog post all it's own, Kim -you wanna explain it?), Noodle Night every Friday, and going several other times during the week. Coleman and Emmie have turned into little fish and I couldn't be more proud of them. Emmie is even going off the diving board all-by-herself!

So this has been a lot of what we have been doing this summer:

Happy Birthday Calvin!

We were a little overwhelmed 4 years ago when we had 3 babies 3 years old and under ... but what a sweet baby you were/are! You have brought us so much joy and laughter and we can't imagine our lives without you. Happy birthday my little cuddle bug!

What a tiny little bundle!!

Such a big boy now...

A new toy...

Eating yummy cake!

He wanted a Wall-e cake ...

(Note to self: don't make another cake with sooo much midnight blue icing ... don't get me wrong, it's still the same yummy buttercream icing, but it makes everyone's mouth turn blue... - so people might notice if you try to sneak an extra piece of cake later on - I'm just sayin')

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Mercy Days!

Welcome to the Blog World!

I have an exciting announcement. My husband has finally started a blog! It's called "Play the Man" (you'll have to read on his site about that name and why he chose it).

His first post is about God's Sovereignty Displayed in Prayer - good stuff.

Go on over and welcome him to the Blog World!

Slurpee! (Icee)

Don't forget - tomorrow is 7/11 so the 7-11 zippy marts are giving away free slurpees all - day- long!! Brian calls them Slurpees but I call them Icees - anyway, they're free so who cares what we call them!!

Welcome to the Family!

Well, it was another kidney stone the other night! That's the fifth one so far. I was up all Wednesday night with the pain but I did have some painkillers which dulled the pain a little but not enough to really sleep. We went to the Dr on Thursday and they did an xray and he thought he saw something small, maybe about 2mm, and thought the best thing would be to take medicine as needed and drink plenty of fluids to help the stone pass.

I have found that the pain is the worst when the stone is moving from the kidneys to the bladder. That pain is like labor/contraction pain, but without the breaks. Once the stone moves to the bladder, the pain isn't as bad.

So I felt better pain-wise on Thursday night and Friday but the lack of sleep was quickly catching up. BUT on Friday night I finally passed that stone and it was HUGE! It was my biggest ever! Yes, I am a little proud - I mean, after all that pain, you got to get excited about something! It was over 5 mm. The one I had when I was pregnant with Ellerie was smaller than 1 mm and the largest I have had so fa was about 2 mm. Lucky for you, Brian has the camera at the fireworks tonight so I can't upload the picture for you...

But trust me, it was huge! So, the 'delivery' of the stone this week has worn me out! I'll try to catch up on posting next week!

The Truth

Kidney stones are bad....

but pain medicine is good....