Wrapping Up 2014

2014 has been quite a year for us.  

 During the first three months Carson was hospitalized with RSV, Erik broke his leg, I had multiple small surgeries for dysplastic nevi (and was informed my risk of developing melanoma is high), my grandma was hospitalized and almost died after having a stroke/heart failure, and Daron bravely fought against the leukemia one more time, passing away in late March.

Then just as icing on the cake, Southwest airlines forced us to drive 2,000 miles round trip to Daron's funeral because they refused to believe Kyle was under the age of two (he was a non-crawling 7 month old at the time.). 

During this whirlwind, Victor and I were still responsible for the lives of 4 small children (one nursing infant who still got up 2 times a night) and three jobs between the two of us.  It was very, very stressful.

When the storm "stopped" our lives kept spinning as we figured out how to regroup.  We are different people and have responded to stress in different ways.  This summer involved some floundering around and forced Victor and I to looked at how this stress impacted our marriage.  It left some cracks for us to try and repair.  We are working on that, and thankfully, ending the year in a better place than we started it.

Life is wonderful and difficult.  

 It will never be without trials or blessings. 

I am so thankful to be surrounded by a wonderful family and friends, who have supported our family
constantly since this difficult period started (late 2011).

I am thankful for my 4 healthy kids, who provide a constant distraction from the heartache (good and bad distraction).  ;)

I am thankful for my husband, who stepped up and carried more weight than was fair multiple times during 12/2011 - 4/2014.

I am thankful for my faith. 

 Heartache is real and the endings are NOT always the way we would chose them to be.  My brother is no longer here. 

Daron was the sibling closest in age to me and my first best friend.  I miss him.  A lot!

Nothing can bring Daron back but I rest in peace (somedays more peacefully than others) that he is no longer suffering and I will someday see him again.

Faith is hard, particularly since I am a science based black and white person.  But I do believe that heaven is a real place and we have a gracious God who loves us, no matter what.   I hope I live a long life, but when it is over, I can hardly wait to give my dear brother a hug once again.

During this time, I have found a few things, helped provide me with confidence that 

God will carry us through our trials and reminded me that heaven is for real...

And a book I read one week before Daron relapsed again and

was admitted to the hospital for the last time...

To Heaven and Back

And one last promise...

Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 

We won't ever know or understand why things happen the way they do on earth.

Despite the many trials we have faced, and are promised to face again, I will continue 

to try and hold onto the hope that God is good, hard things have a purpose, and heaven is for real. 

Elf Antics

New to this generation of parenting is the "Elf on the Shelf."  During the month of December, Santa sends an elf to participating homes, that "watches" the kids and reports back to Santa.   The elf, ours is named Clyde, can be a bit silly and gets into different antics each night while the kids are asleep.  If the kids touch the elf, he looses his power. 


Anyway, I'm not big into the idea that the elf is spying on the kids, but the kids do get great kicks out of elf antics.  So, we do, mildly participate in Elf on the Shelf.

I haven't been good about taking photos, but here are a couple from the day Clyde ate the kids gingerbread houses.

Kyle 15 months

Kyle is 15.5 months old!


He is a full on toddler now and full of spunk.
He is very, VERY loud and opinionated, which can be exhausting!
He is very verbal!  He says at least 20 words regularly and mimics everything you say!  Most of the time, he is very close to the true word. 

Kyle likes to be on the go!  He does not enjoy being read to and sitting quietly on anyone's lap.
He likes to be held and up walking around looking at and doing things. 
He likes to play hide and seek, build and smash towers, drive cars around, play outside, and make a mess. 

He is a sensory guy - always has something in his mouth (food, "plug", collar on his jacket, etc.).  He loves messy things - smashes his food, playdough, finger paint, dry beans, water.  His favorite place to be is outside though, digging in the dirt or flailing around in the wood chips. 

He copies everything his siblings do -- if they laugh, he laughs.  If they yell, he yells.  If they act excited, he acts excited.   It's pretty cute!

Kyle sleeps quite well.  Occasionally he will get up at night, but typically he sleeps from 7:30-7:00 and takes one 2 hour nap during the day.

Kyle is quite attached to me which is both sweet and tiring. :)  He does well with our babysitters (Margaret and Montana Joy) and is less clingy with them, I think. 

Kyle is a fairly short/stout guy.  His 15 month stats are as follows...

Weight : 24 pounds (65%) - 2-3 pounds more than his siblings
Height: 31 inches (35%) - 1-2.5 inches shorter than his sibling!

We love you dear boy and are so thankful for you!

 Baby boy broke into a bag of chocolate chips

and was oh so mad when they were taken away!

 3-6 PM baby rage

 Excited to be walking through the grocery store with big brother!

 Outside and happy!

Carson at 3.5 years old

My sweet, sweet Carson!
Even at 3.5 years old Carson continues to simply be a joy.
He has such a fun, sweet personality!
I wish mine was as pleasant as his! :)

Carson is going to preschool 2 mornings a week.  He really likes school and is doing well.  He is more outspoken than Erik and Lainey are/were and is affectionate and silly towards his teachers and classmates.

Carson has never liked loud noises or big crowds (museums, weddings, birthday parties, etc. are not his thing) so I was worried that he wouldn't like the busy preschool class.  Thankfully, he has had no issues and his teachers had no idea he didn't like loud noises or crowds. Ha!

While Carson doesn't love big crowds he does love being around his friends and family.  He excitedly refers to all of his babysitters, teachers, grandparents, uncles, siblings, etc. as his friends.   He knows how to make someone feel special!

Carson is very sensitive and sweet.  He is a peacemaker and wants everyone to be happy.  He hates conflict immensely. 

Carson is very smart.  He can count to 100 by memory and is able to count up to 100 objects (for example, dealing out 100 cards).   He does need 2-3 cues to get to 100 but basically does it on his own.  He can count to 100 by both 1's and 10's.

He knows all the upper and lower case letters and is starting to know the sounds they make.  If you show him a list of 10 one syllable words and ask him to find cat vs bat vs hat vs pan vs can vs ran vs car vs jar etc. he can correctly identify the words most of the time by figuring out the first and last sounds.  (He can not read them independently, but will point to the right word when asked.)

He has figured out how to draw pictures of people and includes eyes, ears, mouth, nose, hair, head, arms, and legs.  They are very cute!

He writes his name fairly well and uses scissors without any problems.

Carson is very physical.  He played soccer this fall and loved it.  He also loves to run and has participated in two 1 mile races and a kids triathlon. He can ride his two wheel bike, without training wheels, but still prefers the balance bike. 

Carson also loves music and sings almost every second we are in the car.  He seems to have good pitch at this point.  It's fun to hear his little singing voice.

Carson can be grumpy but it is most often a reaction to Erik pestering him.  They get along well overall, although it does seem that Erik will intentionally annoy him (rather than anyone else).   That is very annoying.

Carson and Kyle have a special bond.  I think it's because they've been the two primarily together since Kyle was born.  Kyle loves Carson more than his other siblings (sorry guys) and multiple times a day with run to Carson and lay his head on his shoulder.  So sweet!

Carson is growing up fast!  He feels like a big kid now, closer to a school boy than a toddler.    He is such a sweet little boy.  I am so thankful he is mine!

Fun Runs

The past two weekends we have participated in two local races as a family.   Erik and Lainey were part of a running club that met once a week this fall.  Most of the kids that participated in that club also ran in a kids race last weekend.

There were two options - either a 5K or 1 mile.  Erik and I (and Kyle) ran the 5K.  My sweet little runner crossed the finish line in 31 minutes!  It was a VERY hilly course so I was quite impressed!

Lainey, Carson and Victor did the 1 mile race together.  Lainey cried off and on, Carson ran happily.

This weekend, there was a fun run at the kids school.  There was a 1 or 2 mile option, untimed.  Erik, Kyle and I ran the two miles - around 20 minutes, but not sure exactly.

Victor, Lainey, and Carson took the 1 mile option.  Unfortunately, Lainey and Carson got tangled up during the first 10 feet.  Carson pouted most of the race, walking a fair portion of it.  Lainey, after a whiny race last weekend, was determined to beat Carson this time (ha!) so she ran most of it happily.

I love, love, love having a fairly fit active family!  I hope Erik will keep running 5K's with me and hopefully, when he is eventually faster than me, I will be able to run with one of the other kids.

Kyle - 14 Months

Kyle has changed a lot during the past month.  He is now walking everywhere, very rarely crawls.  He likes being played with/attention, playing outside, playing peek-a-boo.  He has a sense of humor and even if you aren't playing/talking to him and laugh about something, he almost always chuckles quietly to himself (in response to your laugh).  It's very cute!

He understands a fair amount of what we are saying.  He says/signs... no, all done, yes, more, bye, hello, hi, Erik, momma, dada, uh-oh.  He also loves music and sings along to the VBS CD we play in the car.

He is transitioning from 2 naps down to 1 and handling it fairly well.  He seems to nap best, if he gets a cat nap in the morning and then a late afternoon nap (2pm-4:30pm).  If he only takes one nap, it is usually from 11:30 -2:00ish.

He eats very well and isn't very picky.  He drinks rice milk (refused cows milk).  I will probably switch him to Almond milk soon, so he is drinking the same thing as Lainey and Carson.  I stopped nursing him about 3 weeks ago, no problems there.

He sleeps quite well at night too.  He goes to bed around 7:30 and wakes up between 6:30-7:30.  He occasionally cries at night, but usually sleeps through. 

He is a climber - loves to climb up and down the stairs, fling himself down slides, climbs onto benches, chairs, couches, tables, etc.   He will climb upstairs without supervision but won't go down them unless I am next to him (thankfully!).  If he goes upstairs without me (not often) and wants to come back downstairs, he sits at the top of the stairs and calls/yells loudly for me.  Pretty cute!

He is also a messy baby. He loves messy foods, paint, dirt, sticks, sand, water, etc.  

He is a LOUD and spirited baby!!  He KNOWS what he wants and protests loudly if he can't have it.  Multiple times a day, he throws himself onto the ground in a heap of tears because he is mad about something.    This seems to go in streaks - 2-3 very feisty days, followed by a couple quiet(er) days.

He had pneumonia this month.  He had had a low grade cough/cold for 4-5 weeks, then suddenly two weeks ago had a fever and respiratory stress.  So I took him into the ER (Victor was out of town, of course).  The X-ray showed pneumonia.  Thankfully, he responded very quickly to Augmentin and now feels better than he has in many weeks. 

Kyle is a sweet baby.  He gives really great hugs (pats you on your shoulder) and likes to be held.  He has a great sense of humor and a great little laugh.  He is feisty, determined, and loud - I am quite certain we will never wonder what he wants/needs.  Ha!  He keeps me on my toes for sure, but I am so thankful for our affectionate little guy.

more photos of Kyle

End of an era!

Kyle stopped nursing about 2 weeks ago which officially ends my pregnant/nursing parenting phase.  I've loved this phase immensely.  I've known since I was a tiny girl that I wanted to be a mom and it's definitely met my expectations.  I am thankful to have had the opportunity to bring four new little lives into this world.  I'm such a lucky girl! 

It's so weird to think that such a long awaited/anticipated phase of life is done.  I thought I'd be sad about it, but I'm not.  I thankful to been given the gift of parenthood and eager to see what the "school days" phase brings. 

I'm thankful that my body has been healthy enough to grow and feed four babies.  I am quite happy to get my body back to myself though - after almost 8 solid years of pregnancy and nursing!

Nothing else to add, just wanted to mark the end of this era with a quick note.

Niagara Falls

A couple weeks ago, we took a quick trip up to Niagara Falls.  I had never been there and thought it would be fun to see it during the fall.  It's about an 8-9 hour drive from our house.  We divided the drive on the way there, drove straight through on the way back.

I used to think car trips would be impossible for us since Erik gets so car sick.  But, I figured out how to keep him from getting sick!  You have to keep the car cold.  Really cold!  He needs to be fed before driving and fairly often on the car trip.  Absolutely no reading and I remind him not to stare out the side window.  Watching movies on the in-car screen seems to help him for some reason too.  Plus he takes Meclizine (Bonine).  This works SOOOO much better than Dramamine and it has less side effects!  

Anyway, the kids did great on the drive. 

Niagara Falls was beautiful.  We were only there two days but we crammed in a lot.   We rode the boat up to the falls, took the "behind the water fall" tour, hiked along the level 6 rapids (on a boardwalk). 

The weather was beautiful so we also spent part of a day hiking.  The three little guys went 2-3 miles total (Kyle on Victor's back).  Erik went 5-6 miles total as Victor graciously took the little guys back for a nap so E and I could go a little further. 

On the way back from the hike, Erik convinced me to take him on the Aero Car.  It takes you across the river and back.   It was amazingly smooth and provided very beautiful views!

http://www.niagaraparks.com/niagara-falls-attractions/whirlpool-aero-car.html

Poor Carson had a bad cough so we headed home a little earlier than scheduled.  We drove through central Pennsylvania on the way home which was extremely beautiful! 

The Little League International headquarters is in Williamsport, PA which we drove through, so we stopped at the World of Little League Museum.  It was a fun way to break up the drive home.