Mamaw’s Reunion

My grandmother decided to have a reunion for her side of the family.  Her sister is very ill and she was coming into town so it was the perfect weekend.  I was a little sad for my grandmother because a lot of her family ended up not being able to come…so it really was just the crew that gets together on most holidays.  But, it was still nice to see everyone. 

The kids decided they wanted to skate which is funny because most of them had never attempted before!  Let’s just say that it didn’t last long for most of them!Larkin, of course, was tired because she was missing her nap…AND she was sick.  However, I have to say that she hasn’t been sick since this illness several weeks ago.  PRAISE THE LORD!Our Family.This is Mamaw, Campbell, and Aunt Evelyn.Aunt DeannaTrigger absolutely loves playing with Josiah.  I think they both have that first born personality through and through! :)Aunt Chelse and LarkinAnd, I will leave you with this sweet smile!

Sorry that was brief.  ONCE AGAIN, trying to play catch up.

Last Soccer Game

I have to say that my excitement for soccer kind of fizzled out somewhere after the 3rd game.  Ha!  It’s just that it was every Saturday at 11.  I kind of like Saturday being the one day that I don’t have to get up and get everyone somewhere.  I know that sounds stupid to most of you since you are hauling your kids from here to arcadia to monroe back to ruston and then back to monroe again for practices and birthday parties…but, I am not there yet and I kind of like my position of not being there.  Soccer was fun but with all of the illness that we have had in this household and the number breathing treatments that I have given since july, I NEED my saturdays!  So, we are done.  He had his last game and we won’t have anything else until after January….oh wait!  Except for Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Years celebrations…and Larkins birthday…and baby dedication.  Ah…nevermind.

Okay…back to Trigger’s last soccer game.  I had another child sick and it was chilly and pretty windy so I had to stay in the car with Campbell and Larkin.  We watched the game from the warm car!  I tried to get some good pictures with my long lens but I don’t think I succeeded.  Oh let me state that we MADE OUR CHILD WEAR A HAT to keep his ears warm.  He had just gotten over a cold and ear infections…I am not sure if that is an old wives tale or not but I wasn’t risking it! 

Campbell…this is his sad face.  I am not sure what he is sad about…he always gets what he wants because…well, look at that face! LOVE HIM!Obviously, he was over the soccer game excitement too because the fingers were popped into his mouth after the first quarter!Miss Priss was our most sickly this day…doesn’t she look like it..NOT!Matt was helping coach again…this is him telling Trigger to get ready and stop playing in the grass.  DON”T YOU LOVE IT!  Again, I think he had lost the soccer excitement too…this was minute 49 of a 60 minute game. TOO LONG!  Have these people not heard of child development and attention spans.  HAHA!My Trigger man stopping a ball. 

All in all it was a great experience.  Trigger learned a lot about the game of soccer.  He learned about how to be a participant in a TEAM sport.   I think it was great for him.  We shall see if he wants to play again in the spring. 

Reid’s Party

Reid turned TWO on October 20th.  It was a circus theme and so cute!  Trigger had a soccer game that Matt was helping coach so we all went to the game for a little bit.  Then, I left with Larkin and Campbell and headed to the party.  It was at my parents and Campbell had a great time!  This is my brother, Seth, Vanna, Reid, and Jake.Look at this adorable cake!  I love it!And look at that precious face…

I wish I had gotten some pictures of Trigger…they came right after the game was over but somehow I missed getting pictures of him…and I didn’t get a single one of larkin either…probably because she was on my hip the whole time!  Ha!

It’s going to be a long ten days!

I will elaborate in ten days but please pray for our family.  Nothing is wrong but it’s going to be a long 10 days!

Pumpkin Pictures

We had Crystal Garcia take pictures of the kids a couple of weeks ago.  I was really sure if she was going to be able to get anything because my children didn’t exactly cooperate.  Shocker, I know!  So, since they were dressed, I took a few of Campbell and Larkin when we got home…here are the best…and they still aren’t great but oh well!

Let me give a little update on Larkin’s health:  We had tubes put in on October 18th.  We found out that she has the IGA deficiency while doing the routine preop blood work.  We were told that she doesn’t have the first line of defense antibodies to protect her from respiratory viruses.  So…guess what?  A week after getting Larkin’s tubes, we were back at Dr. Slusher’s office with a horrible cough and WHEEZING…again!  I feel like a broken record.  When I got in there, Larkin was, of course, smiling and acting like she was perfectly fine…why do our children always have to make us look like liars at the dr. office.  Anyway, I gave my spill.  She didn’t have a runny nose.  I heard her cough a few times wednesday evening, put her to bed, and she woke with a HORRIBLE cough and wheezing.  Dr. Slusher listened to her and said her lungs sounded great and she didn’t hear any wheezing.  SIGH…double SIGH!  Larkin never wheezes when we are in the dr. office.  It is so frustrating…to the point that I thought that I must surely be confused and maybe I really hadn’t been hearing wheezing.  Well, I was talking to Dr. slusher about the iga thing and she stopped mid sentence and said “did you hear that…keep talking…I am going to listen with my stethoscope.”  She listened for a few minutes and she said “yes…she is wheezing off and on all the time”.  And the angels started singing!!!!!!  FINALLY!  It wasn’t just me hearing it at home!  FINALLY!!!!!!!!  This wheezing has been happening with every illness but they haven’t heard it since the spring.  I, on the other hand, hear it ALL THE TIME!  So, she said that I needed to be tested to see if I have the IGA issue because it is hereditary…I don’t have it!  YAY!    So, maybe that means she will outgrown it.  Dr. Slusher is referring Larkin to Dr. Zambie for more testing and find out a course of treatment…if any at all.  In the meantime, she is on preventive breathing treatment twice a day to help prevent the wheezing…not the actual respiratory illness so she will still get sick, she just wont wheeze.  The reason wheezing is so bad is that your bronchial tubes are being squeezed so much that when oxygen is going through, you hear a whistling.  It’s bad because obviously, you don’t want your oxygen to be clamped off at all….and you don’t know at what point, the clamping will go past this point. Does that even make any sense?!  Anyway, she will be on the preventive steroid breathing treatment twice a day for AT LEAST all of winter…yay, because breathing treatments are my absolute favorite to administer to a baby! Ha!  AND, she is on albuterol (the normal steroid) breathing treatments three times a day for at least a week.   So, at this point, I feel like this is what I do:

Wake up and shower and get dressed, get breakfast for boys, nurse larkin, give her a breathing treatment (sometimes while I am nursing…I am sure that is a no, no), dress Larkin, dress the boys, fix boys lunch (on school days), load kids (and junk) in the car, take boys to school, come back home, give larkin another breathing treatment, put her down for a nap listen to her scream until I give in and go get her, clean up boys breakfast, try to eat some breakfast myself (whats the point at 10), start some laundry, nurse larkin, give larkin breathing treatment, feed larkin lunch (when I actually have time and she isn’t falling asleep from exhaustion of refusing morning nap), put larkin down for a nap, clean up around the house, wake larkin up (before she is ready to be woken up…so sad), load up car, go pick up boys, come home, give the boys a snack, cook supper, nurse larkin, give breathing treatment, feed everyone supper, clean up supper, bathe everyone, give larkin ANOTHER breathing treatment, nurse Larkin/put her to bed, go kiss the boys (while matt puts them to bed), finish cleaning up the kitchen, laundry, fold clothes, etc., Take bath, and CRASH!

I could probable sum it by saying that I feed children, administer medicine, clean and dress children, chauffeur children around, and clean house.  That’s it in a nut shell!  OR, as some people think, I twiddle my thumbs all day!

Wedding

On September 29th, my youngest brother, Lance, got married.  It was a very busy weekend.  On Friday, Matt’s mom came and got the boys.  Larkin and I went to the wedding site and “helped” decorate.  We rushed home to get the boys by 1.  Everyone took naps.  I got ready for the rehearsal dinner.  Matt came home and picked up Trigger.  Matt was a groomsmen and Trigger was the ring bearer.  They went to the rehearsal in West Monroe.  I stayed and fed Larkin and put her down.  Matt’s mom came to put Campbell down and stay with the little ones while they slept.  I left and went to the rehearsal dinner at Squire creek.  The pictures below are all from Friday/Rehearsal.  Trigger was so excited to spend some time with just Momma and Daddy.  He was “special” for a night.  He did get pretty tired towards the end and asked to go home and get in bed!  Ha!Seth and Vanna were at our table.Trigger got to open his ring bearer gift.  He got a watch and a wallet…he was beyond excited!!!!Me and Lance. 

I will have to post more on the wedding later.  I don’t really have many pictures.  It did rain pretty much the entire day and it was an outside wedding.  They did have tents though so that was good.  I can’t believe that Lance is married…I still see him as a little boy!