More lazy days

i do take pictures of my other children but this week i have had a hard time catching them sitting still long enough to get a picture of them very close up. raegan still is at that age where she sticks close by and likes to check in with me every now and then. so this week i may look like i'm playing favorites. i will try to make up for it.

enjoying the beautiful day

just hanging round and round...

We are winding down our week in Hutchinson. We will head home tomorrow. Last night the week of being outside caught up with the girls. Avery woke up at 12:30 am not being able to breath(nothing a quick breathing treatment wouldn't help) and Raegan woke up at the same time and was awake until 3:30 on and off itching. All that spring air, love it but hate what it does to my girl's lungs and skin!

We have had the perfect weather week for spring break that i had hoped for. I'm hoping the weather people are dead wrong about the forecast for snow this weekend! In case they are right, i went ahead today and knocked out my 10 mile run on this beautiful day so that i didn't have to worry about it this weekend. Johnny is having a horrible time with his calf, he did something to it while running a couple of weeks ago and has been struggling with it ever since. He is really bummed about not being able to do the half-marathon in April but hopefully we will be able to do one together later this summer. I know how frustrating it is to be slowed by injuries, when you really want to accomplish something, but i have no doubt he will accomplish one...just not this one like he wanted. We did have some fun competition for awhile there.

I'm working a 16 hr day on Saturday so i will probably not be blogging this weekend. At least if it's snowing i won't be missing out on beautiful weather! Have a great weekend!

Day 3

The kids have been going strong all day long. no naps. lot's of meltdowns. lot's of tattletaling (boys against girls, girls against boys). lots of fun. lots of cousin time. lots of holes in socks. lots of dirty clothes. lots of dirty faces. lots of baths at night...and lots of sleeping children right now!

this pile of money...a dream come true for my mom. she would have been in coin heaven...if there was such a thing. my sisters came back from their run this morning and started unloading a pocket that was filled with almost a hundred coins. they had come across them all over an area on a street and couldn't pass them up. my mom, maggie and i went back to clean up any they had missed and found 35 more. my mom always comes home from runs with coins, she would never leave a penny. ever. coin heaven, i'm tellin ya!

Spring break

each spring break for the last four or five years the kids and i have headed to Hutchinson to spend some time with my parents, my sister and cousins. it's always good to go home!

this bridge always excites the kids when they see it! it means we have arrived in Hutchinson

we started out the week with one of the places we "have" to eat at each time we visit. Johnny isn't very impressed so i think you just have to grow up with it to really "love" it!

the kids enjoyed mcdonalds while the adults enjoyed taco hut

my sisters were skyping with their husbands and then the brother in laws were talking to each other...crazy technology

raegan and molly have been together non-sto

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eli, lauryn and ethan hanging out

the boys all can all play against each other on their nintendo ds games

raegan watching grandpa dig up some pansies to take to the church to plant

avery doesn't get to play on my laptop at home so she is thrilled that i let her while at grandma's. i stuck headphones on her because we all didn't want to listen to the music on the american girl game!

I haven't been making Raegan take a nap so by 8 she is exausted and slept till 9:45 am this morning!! Needless to say, i got a great nights sleep for my first night away. I'm getting to run this week with a Garmin watch (totally awesome) so i'm feeling a little covetous! We all just had a fun dinner out at Applebees and it is now bath and bedtime so i'm off!

Rollerskating

I took my oldest two rollerskating with two of my sisters and their cousins this past Saturday. The kids were thrilled that we moms skated as well!

Avery dancing to YMCA while skating

Trey Not dancing to YMCA

we then went to Jose Peppers and devoured a whole lot of chips, salsa and espinaca!

the girls were up to no good :)

Play date

My two littles and i got together with some friends on Friday. Their kids were out of school, but my oldest still had school on Friday, so they missed out. We hung out at Mcdonalds. It was fun to catch up!

me, Jen and Melissa

we came armed and ready

Raegan playing with her big brother's buddy Braden

Jen, Raegan and Paula

very entertained with the computer games

and completely worn out about 5 minutes down the road!

I got nuthin

Couldn't think of even a one word title. I think my brain is tired. I'm going to go rest it...in a bit. We have been working on the bathroom this week. As you can see, still no light. If you are friends with me on facebook you may know that this is because my dear little Raegan shattered not one but two of the glass shades while daddy was working on installing the fixture, only after of course getting a hold of Avery's google artwork that she had worked on for several days (for school) and marked in green marker all over it. Avery handled it amazingly well and she took it to school with her, white out and all. I promised an after picture, so here is the almost after. We still have a few touch ups, racks to put up and of course a light fixture but at least i don't have white splotches all over still

And in case you wondered what it was like to have one tiny bathroom with 6 people in our family?? No, not a lot of privacy, yes we start calling tabs on the bathroom as we pull into the driveway sometimes and yes, one of our boys has been know to run to the back porch and pee in the grass in desperate situations (Ethan) but other than that it is not that bad. When we someday have a second toilet i will just appreciate it that much more. Ok enough talk of bathrooms and toilets...

Raegan wants to go "fwimmin"! I bought the kids new suits. I didn't like how hers fit so had to hide it before she spilled something on it so she took to Ethan's. She wore it all afternoon. I can only hope that she "fwims" this year,

instead of stealing flip flops and rummaging through others bags. I bought my pool passes the other day so i'm starting to get excited to get my "pool bag" ready.

I will be heading to Hutchinson with the kids to spend Spring break at my parents house, so will be keeping busy this weekend trying to get everything done and get packed.

Have a great weekend!

Oh and i have to share this. If you want a little chuckle, just head over to my sister's blog and see why you might not want to go to church after working all night...i laugh randomly still just thinking about it! She will probably kill me, but i just had to share for any that haven't read it :)

Tournament

This past Saturday was the final day for the basketball league that Trey has been playing in. His team won the first game,and he got a basket for mommy, since i missed his first basket! We hung around and watched the girls play and then his team was playing for the championship following that. It was a close game but we ended up losing that game, so got second place. Not bad. This has been a great learning experience for Trey, and Ethan is now obssessed with basketball too and can dribble like nobody's buisness.

We will have our Saturdays free again until April when soccer games start up. We seem to always keep busy with one sport or another. I'm sure once Trey starts playing sports in school "this" busy will seem like nothing!

trey showing off his form. the ball did go in!

ethan was worn out from dribbling in between games

trey's team

a couple of his buddy's that he will be playing soccer with as well

raegan loving on "magan" (meagan)

lizzie, mia and raegan. lizzie and avery will be playing soccer together as well

it was a beautiful day so the kids enjoyed playing outside during part of the day

Chocolate

Anyone like a Hershey bar? I know one little guy that enjoys one in a big way! Mm mmm good! Even though the chocolate stayed on his hands and face this time, i won't be giving this little guy a chocolate bar in the car ever.again.

That time of the year

Tax time has become the time when we dive in and take on projects that have needed to be done all year. A while back i decided that the wall paper in the bathroom had to go. I ripped all the wallpaper down and followed with a pathetic excuse of a paint job. I got the walls covered but did a hideous job if i may say so myself. I didn't want to wait on my husband to fix the holes and imperfections in the walls that had been hidden by wallpaper.

It's been driving me crazy, and of late has started driving Johnny crazy as well. Either that or he is just sick of me talking about it...it's probably the latter.

So tonight, this is what my bathroom looks like. I don't do well with all of my bathroom contents laying outside the bathroom door. Eek, i just want everything to get done and put everything back together. That's the best part about a project, But i'm gritting my teeth and waiting.

Trust me, it's not like i haven't had to endure long home repair/improvements...i did do my dishes in the bathtub for a month when we gutted our kitchen...sheesh i couldn't do that again, i'd lose my mind!

I'm glad my husband can make the walls pretty and all...cause slapping up some paint just doesn't do the trick! And thank goodness, we got a new lighting fixture to replace THAT one...wanted to do that forever too! I think every day for the last 10 years it has had a light bulb burnt out or missing.

Finished product later, but for now....

We have some other projects going to. I've been collecting things for the girl's room including a bunch of paint samples...little overwhelmed at the many choices of pink paint but we shall find one we like...i hope!

Happy Sunday to you!

Bit of this and a bit of that

I have been so tired this week. Johnny and i have been doing lot's of running to get in shape for the half marathon in April and i have realized just how out of shape i had gotten over the winter. Yes, i would run from time to time but not faithfully and not enough to keep me in the groove at all! I have been having horrible head aches that i'm sure are tension head aches...probably from getting back to running and the way i hold my head. Biofreeze is my friend right now since that is the only thing that will help when i get a bad one.

I finally got out to shop a little today (iv'e been trying to the last 2 days but by the time i get ready i collapse on the couch barely able to keep my eyes open) pathetic, i know!

Ethan has been talking lately about the date i'm going to take him on (he has heard Avery talking about hers with Daddy from the past) he points to tall buildings and says that is where i am going to take him on our date. So far we are going to go to Garmin and a high rise nursing home...exciting!

Just spent about 45 minutes at Hobby Lobby. Ethan "straightened" things on the shelves the entire time we were in there. As we were leaving he said "i guess my work here is done". Yes, Ethan it is. He makes me laugh everyday.

Yesterday Trey's basketball team (he is playing in a league with Berean Christian where he went to school a couple of years) won. This is the first year he has played basketball and he has come a long ways in 6 weeks. It's a good thing we have hardwoods because our living room has been a dribbling practice floor for the past 6 weeks...i'm sure that hasn't helped with my headaches! :)

Avery has been working really hard at school on her songs for the third grade music program. Their performance was last night (we had a really full day yesterday!) She did a great job. It was sports themed and was dedicated to their PE teacher.

Signed both Trey and Avery up with Upwards soccer yesterday. That means it's almost Spring...YAY!!! They each get to play with a couple of their friends so we always look forward to hanging out with the families...good times!

Here are a couple pictures from last night...

This is Avery and her friend Emma. They have played soccer the past couple of years together and again this year along with another friend! Your going to do awesome girls!

Hope you are having a great week!

Avery's hearing update

Avery recently went to her yearly hearing test with the audiologist. They don't bother doing her test at school because she has known hearing loss but has to go each year to monitor to make sure she doesn't continue to lose. She has moderate to sever high frequency loss in her right ear. This current screening has showed moderate loss in her opposite ear with a flat tympanogram. She did have fluid in her ears which they hope and think is probably the cause of the loss of hearing in that ear.

I just got off the phone with the school nurse. Avery was in the nurses office with itchy skin (i'm betting her teacher sent her cause she was clawing herself) since the nurse is well aware of her eczema she didn't put anything on it because she knows that we use special creams and ointments and sent Avery back to class and told her i would lather her up when she got home.

While she had her in there she went ahead and did a tympanogram and it was still flat she said the ear drum was perforated so that she could see the bone. She did not urge me to rush to do anything. She is going to check her again in a couple of weeks. Hopefully it is just a cold that is causing this, but it has been a couple of weeks since the last tympan. and it remains the same. She does complain occasionally about her ear feeling clogged and wants it to pop. So time will tell if she can get rid of some of that fluid. Hopefully so!

Happy Monday all! This nicer weather is really making me happy!!