Lily Bug is 2

Lily Pad recently turned 2.

She had arrived at the terrible two's long ago.

I just can't wait till the terrible three's.

Yes, that was dripping with sarcasm.

Since her birthday was in the middle of the week and we were quite busy, I threw a strawberry cake together and slapped on some cream cheese frosting that I had in the freezer.

She didn't care that the cake looked like a five year old had made it.

Besides, it still tasted yummy.

Here she is staring at her candles in wonder.

We said "blow out the candles Lily!"

She heard, "go ahead and lick the cake Lily!"

We bought her a new baby stroller and it came in a large box.

It was bigger than she was.

For some reason, the sight of her little toes peeking out from underneath the box really cracked me up.

The sad state of our leather couch is not as funny.

We call this one "Deer in the headlights"

Finally, sweet success...

Happy Birthday Lily Bug!

Spring Break

The six older kids are out on spring break and I have been trying to keep them busy and out of my hair.

Corey has been working all over the state and he needed to head down south.

I took this as the perfect opportunity to not be left alone with all the kids to have some quality family time, so we tagged along.

I took these five kiddos through the Oregon Caves.

That was super cool and very interesting!

We then drove farther down south, through the Redwood forest which contained some of the biggest trees thatyoueverdidsee.

From there we headed over to the coast, just in time to see the sun setting.

We ate dinner on the beach...a little cold but beautiful.

After dinner, we realized how far away from home we were. Ouch.

We actually didn't make it home until almost 2am. **Yawn**

Planning even a day outing like this requires so much advance prep.

We didn't buy any food at all while we were gone.

Not because I didn't feed them although that would have been easier

Instead, we brought along all our own food.

Turkey sandwiches, strawberries, granolie bars, pumpkin muffins, apples, blond brownies, burritos, dried fruit and nuts.

I cooked a turkey and made sun-dried tomato/mozzarella cheese bread for the sandwiches. I've already shared the granolie bars recipe and at some point, I'll get around to posting the pumpkin muffin recipe. They are delish and healthy. Weird, huh?

I made 150 burritos and froze most. The rest of them we took for dinner.

My teenage boys refer to the blond brownies as "a little slice of heaven". They are that good. Healthy too? I think not.

Who's ready for the next adventure?

Not me!

At least not yet.

I'm still recovering from this one...

Baby Faces

I know that she can be a lil turd.

But she sure is cute...

I'm pretty sure that we are all ruining her.

And, someday soon? we'll pay for it.

Stairstep children

Since Lily Pad just had her St. Patty's Day birthday, my youngest four kiddos are now...

5, 4, 3, and 2

We couldn't put them in age order in this photo because, even though Hannah is 4 months older then Levi she is waaaaay shorter.

Blame DNA.

I know I'm biased, because I'm the mama after all, but I sure think they are cute.

Question of the day...

How many kids can fit on a 3 person couch?

A lot, apparently...


Life is officially kicking my bum.

I thought we would have a small break in between winter and springs sports.

I was wrong.

I still haven't recovered from the grueling high school winter sports.

Joseph had his last swim meet on Sunday and started track on Monday.

Michael has his last swim meet this weekend and spring soccer starts the day after.

Both Joshua and Timothy start soccer next week.

And, then Liz asked to play softball.

In case you are keeping track, that is five different teams.

I'm thinking about waving the white flag.

Just not sure if anyone would notice...

Well, this is a new recipe...

Take 1 cube of chalk from the pool table...

Add one mischievous, almost 2 year old...

And you get...

Never a dull moment...

EEG results were normal

Almost gave me a heart attack when the doctor's office called and said that we needed to make an appointment to go over the test results.

Because if everything was fine, why would they need us to come in?

Corey called them back and asked for results over the phone, which they gave.

Everything looks normal.

They just asked us to keep an eye on her.

Humph...

Like we don't do that already.

Oops, was that my outside voice?

More seizures

Two more seizures in the last 24 hours.

The doctor has ordered a EEG, scheduled for next Wednesday.

I'm still confident that these are just febrile seizures, but because she has had so many now, we need to be sure.

Here's hoping that Wednesday's tests will give us some answers...

Lily Pad

Lily had another seizure last night.

I just can't put into words how sick it makes me feel.

She is totally fine this morning.

Fine enough to search and destroy some books on tape anyway...

I'm still praying that she outgrows this...

The seizures that is.

Ok, outgrowing the search and destroy wouldn't be bad either...

Miss Disagreable

Our oldest two girls are every parents dream.

Sweet, feminine, mild, petite little girls.

Our last daughter is giving us a run for our money.

She is feisty, ornery, demanding, fat, bossy and a little turd.

We refer to her as "The Pissy Missy" or "The She-Beast"

Today, she got mad at Corey and called him a baby.

Did I mention that she's not even 2?

That we all totally crack up at her bad behavior is so not helping.

In a couple of years from now it won't be cute at all.

Who is ruining this child?

Who is spoiling her?

Because, clearly, it's not me...

Ahem...

Too young

for school.

Here are my three little QT pies that I hang with everyday.

Still trying to figure out how to get Levi to give us a "normal" smile when having his picture taken...

Saving my bacon

I am the type of person that rarely asks for help.

I readily give help but I just have an extremely hard time asking.

I feel guilty when I do ask for help.

I feel like I have passed on a burden to another person and it tortures me.

I really hate doing that to another person.

I recently "overbooked" myself. Thanksgiving, an out of town trip, planning an Eagle Scout court of honor, kids playing multiple sports, an adoption "party", and Levi's blessing at church all happened in 10 day period.

So many good things but in a little time frame that left me feeling overwhelmed.

A friend of mine, Charlotte aka Sewing Guru, came over to help me with some questions that I had about cutting out a dress for Lily.

I was planning on staying up most of the night because I needed it done by the next morning.

She literally ripped the fabric and pattern out of my hands and took it home, ignoring my feeble protests.

Early the very next morning, we stopped by her house on the way out of town.

The dress was completed. As in all done. How she took a pile of fabric, a pattern and whipped up an amazing little dress overnight, I don't know. And it looked waaaaaay better then the one that I had sewn for Hannah just don't tell Hannah I said that.

We were all so impressed, not only that she is really an amazing seamstress but that she was willing to take her time to help me out.

Thanks Char! I just can't tell you enough what that meant to me.

You. are. amazing.

My eternal family

One of my in-laws wanted this pix taken. Four generations of family. Actually, my entire family as well, except for me. Still scratching my head on that one.

Great Grandpa with Lily Pad

Levi with his bio grandparents. We are forever indebted to these people. There are no adequate words of appreciation. They could have stepped in and raised this little boy. But they let us. There are truly no words...

My twinerds

Corey's grandpa, dad and our Michael

I love this one of Great-Grandpa with Matthew

Levi with three of his bio siblings. Wish I could show you a better pix, they are all beautiful children. But, I am respecting their privacy.

Levi destroying smelling the flowers.

Joshua and Lily Pad (who has a massive shiner)

My eternal family

Utah pictures

This is one of Corey's brothers and his wonderful family. We just love, love, love this family!

Corey comes from a really large, blended family (he is one of 10 kids) and there is so much that is just so unpleasant about it.

Lots and lots of negativity, materialism, arrogance, abrasive, loud personalities, backbiting, competitiveness...it has totally burned us both out.

Not all of them wear us out, there are a few that we enjoy being around but he has one brother that is, simply put...stellar.

Both him and his wife are caring, warm, genuine, down-to-earth, humble, lovable people and our kids get along wonderfully.

The reason that we made the suicide whirlwind trip to Utah, was because their twins (they have a set too!) were getting baptized. We wanted to be there to share in their special day.

While we were there we got to take the kids down to Temple Square to check out the amazing light display. Breathtaking!

We left on a Thursday in the afternoon and arrived Friday morning. We left Utah the next night, Saturday and arrived back home Sunday afternoon.

I think that kind of trip is called a suicide. Probably because you want to take your own life to get out of the remainder of the trip.

Was it worth it? Driving hour after hour after hour after hour with a van load of kiddos?

Definitely.

Miss you guys!

Twins!

More Utah family

And more

And more...are you seeing a common theme here?

Corey with Lily at Temple Square

Doing the headcount lineup.

What is so remarkable about this picture of Hannah with my sister-in-law is that Hannah does not go to anybody. But, she really took to my sister-in-law and kept going up to her wanting to be picked up.

I so loved seeing Hannah reach out to someone like that.

Corey with all four of his "full" brothers, along with their dad. What totally cracks me up about this picture is that Corey and his twin (on far right) are wearing very similar jackets. Corey is in red and his twin is wearing blue.

Those are the colors that their mom always had them wear. Too funny that they still, unknowingly, do this.

Obviously, they are both scarred for life.

The reflecting pool was amazing!

In the reflecting pool were these little light balls.

I don't know exactly what they are but I need some.

For real.

The view on the way home.

Beautiful.

Especially when it means that home is nearby.

Home, sweet home.