Just about as fun as it looks...

Sweet Henry had his visit with the pediatric ENT doctor today.

And he did not enjoy it at all.

He has been officially diagnosed with tracheomalacia, which is what we expected. Basically the cartilage around is vocal cords is weak and floppy which causes the scary sound he makes pretty much every time he breathes. Since a baby's chest wall is so thin, sounds are amplified and it feels like his whole chest rattles and vibrates (think about how after a good feeding, you can sometimes hear the milk swooshing around in their belly...not normal in a grown up!) The good news is that it usually peaks at 4-6 months and then should start decreasing and eventually be gone by a year. The bad news is that if it doesn't, he'll have surgery involving lasers and a stay in the ICU. Either way, it's curable, it's totally fine to live with, and it won't turn into an immediate I-can't-breathe problem. And now that he's fully insured, we just bought ourselves some serious peace of mind for the bargain price of 20 bucks.

Worth even this:

That's right, the camera there goes up his nose, down his nasal passage and gives a lovely view of his vocal cords.

Poor buddy!

The bright side of the day was that he started some serious talking while we were in the waiting room. I mean he's cooed before but this was hard-core jabbering. People were just smiling like crazy at him and he ate it up!

Number 4...talking loud and fast and taking advantage of anyone's full attention!

Could he be any sweeter?

Henry had his four month check and he's still by far our littlest bud...he's just 12 pounds and still in the 10th percentile (the other three all passed 12 pounds by month two). But he's strong and smiley and very brave (Ava was with me for the shots and I thought she was going to cry instead of him!). He still has his little piggy breathing so we're taking him to a pediatric ENT specialist next week. It's funny because we are so use to his sound that I don't realize how bad it is till other people stare and look at me all worried. It's still very possible he'll grow out of it but we're getting him checked just in case.
A certain little Jem snuck in while I was taking his picture and couldn't help but give his belly a little rub.
He's a very well loved little boy.

Jem

waiting oh so patiently for me to get off the computer.

Happy (Birthday) Jack!

Happy Birthday to a seriously sweet, funny, handsome Jack!

Donuts for breakfast.

MickyD's for lunch.


Dinner out with his best bud Will.
Followed by some serious Wii playing.
A good day for the best Jack around!

Lots of parties:

Celebrating with the Sawyers

Celebrating with the Driskills

Celebrating at home!

(after making three different desserts for the birthday boy to take elsewhere already, we settled for some Little Debbie cakes at home!)

Procrastination

Henry's asleep, Jemma's playing and I'm supposed to be doing some event work but I got a little sidetracked and started fooling around with my good old bloggity blog. The good news is that I finally changed the format, the bad news is that I have I now have an hours worth of phone calls to make while the kids are up. grrr.

She likes to sing

and he likes to listen.

I forgot to mention

that we've caught Henry sucking his thumb. It's a bit odd. Ava and Jemma were both hooked by eight weeks and Jack wasn't having any of it ever so it seems funny to catch him doing it only in his swing and only once or twice a day.

Tea for two

No crumpets but they happily settle for some pretzels and a chocolate chip or two.

Our hard earned money at work.

So the week before Christmas, some guys came by from our electric company and told us they'd be doing some work on the electrical pole in our neighbor's backyard. Our yard had the easiest access so they'd be coming through there. No problem right?

They came back a couple days later, stood around with their thumbs in their overalls and stared at the yard for about an hour, then left. Same thing the next week, then the next. Eventually they came and cut some branches off our tree and dismantled a chunk of the neighbor's fence (that took two days). Each time I asked them to please give me warning before they shut off our power (for 6-8 hours). Two weeks ago they looked like they might be getting down to business but then left after an hour and said they'd be back to do it the next Wednesday. I got all ready for a full day of no power (no easy feat with all these kids needing heat and light) and then they showed up and said they'd do it the next day. Thursday, you guessed it, they said next week sometime. On Sunday our power went out and they were here working on the pole for a couple hours (which seemed like a good time for the final fix!) but no deal. Yesterday they stopped by for a bit. And then today they pulled up with four huge trucks and I was sure this was it! But no. They said tomorrow. I won't hold my breath.

Jemma has started calling them "bad guys" and no, I've never called them that! Thought it maybe but haven't said it. Here's Jack and Jem shooting at them with their guns. (They actually like all this activity and get super excited when a guy waves at them!)

They put up the new pole last week but haven't made the switch yet. Here's Jem showing her baby.

Today they were actually on the pole...big stuff for Jack.
He and Buzz went to check it out:

I'm looking forward to having the strange men out of my yard every three days!

Henry.

Henry is a mellow, content little soul. He's not super giddy and giggles are hard to get out of him but he just has a calm little spirit and he overflows with slow, drooly smiles. We often comment to each other about what a great baby he is! He was grumpy and so out of character last Saturday night and Sunday morning that I didn't really know what to do with him...seriously, hearing him cry is so rare that when he got himself worked up into a full frenzy I was stumped! He finally conked out and then he woke up so sweet, I was sure he was apologizing for being such a grump!

He has just started realizing that his hands are good for something and the first time he actually sort of shoveled a toy into his mouth, we were at the mall and I was so excited for him I could have cried! He's got his schedule down pretty good--I'd say five or six days a week are spectacular and then there's always one where he just can't settle into his nap. I've moved his bedtime up to 8:00 and in the next couple weeks, it'll hopefully inch up to 7:30--I like a little chunk of time before bed with just the bigs while the littles are tucked in. He sleeps till 7:00, eats, and then has a catnap till 8:00 when I get him up to take the kids to school. He's ready for his morning nap at 9:30 (till bout 11:30), then his next nap at 2:00 (till 4 or 5 or 6). When he's up, he chills in the swing or just sitting on the couch. This month, we'll try him in the bumbo (not a fan a few weeks ago), practice some tummy time (I never remember to do this!), maybe try some rice cereal, and hopefully help him figure out more uses for his little hands.

And, of course, squish him and love him till he can't take anymore.

Four months old.

Ava

Jack

Jemma

Henry

I got a bit sidetracked today

I was on the hunt today for a particular picture, which I never found, but I did come across some of these old goodies!

Jack in his Matt Damon phrase.

When we just had one!

(this is Ava...I can tell by those arm rolls)

Ava, around 4 months, I'm afraid you can't see all the rolls but they were there and delicious!

We called him Happy Jack...he had this goofy smile in every single picture I could find!

Ah! My sweet babies....growing up so darn fast!

For protection

says Jack

Who knew?

Darth prefers a red trike.

Shooting hoops

The kids were shooting hoops the other night and Jemma wasn't having much luck so she ran and got her stool, hiked herself up there and dunked it!

smart cookie!

Recipe!

I've never been much of a soup-maker but I've been doing more of it this winter and since I've heard from a bunch of you about the potato soup recipe I posted, I'm going to go ahead and give you another. This one's for taco soup, which I made in honor of last night's Fiesta Bowl (ha...I'm not really a theme girl either). Way back when Jemma was born a friend brought us taco soup (thanks Signe!) and Ed's been wanting me to make it ever since and so, two years later, I finally did. I looked up three recipes and then made my own from those so here it is:

Taco Soup

Brown one pound of hamburger with a chopped onion and some garlic (drain). Add taco seasoning (I use Costco's so I'm not sure how much but I like a lot....add some and then some more).

Add (and don't drain): one can of "Italian Recipe" chopped tomatoes

one can of black beans

one can of tomato sauce

one can of corn

Simmer for a couple hours.

Serve with: sour cream, cheese, cilantro, green onions, crushed hot pepper flakes, and chips!

So easy! And a hit with Ed and the kids (but they're pretty easy to please so I'm not sure that counts!)

Thanks to some requests for quick, easy, non-gourmet(!) foods that we eat, I'll be posting a couple more recipes when I have a chance.

The view from here

When I walk down the hallway, I often see this:

when he hears me coming, he looks like this:

then he makes eye contact and he looks like this:

Mmmmm.....he is sweet!

We took the kids to a high school basketball game last night. I like high school games...we get courtside seats and 50 cent popcorn! And the kids love to see all their little friends. And one of the refs was a friend of Ed's from high school. Small towns! So great!

My dad called with extra tickets to a Coug basketball game the other night so we took Jack and went with him and left the other monkeys with my mom. Jack was super excited!!

He sat like this on the edge of his seat:

Report card night

and to celebrate:

Frosties (Jack's choice) and a rousing round of Fancy Nancy (Ava's)

We are proud of these kids! Ava always amazes us with good grades and great teacher comments (even though she has such flakey parents, who can't even remember to sign and return her report card!) And sweet Jack, who doesn't get actual grades yet, gets the one thing we care most about...excels for behavior--cheerful, obedient, and respectful!

Jemma Jane

Jemma has grown up immensely in the last couple months! She is almost all kid and no baby and she keeps the whole house laughing. She talks like crazy and here's a couple of my favorites:

"I love you much!" she says this all the time...such a lover to everyone here. And whenever Ed tries to steal some of her food, she says, "No Edward!" She is constantly worried about Henry and what he's up to, "Henry awake? Henry swing? Henry coming?" She always hollers at Jack, "I see you Dack!" And she loves to get invited to play in Ava's room. Big stuff.

She is learning like crazy..."what's this??" and counting to 10 and she loves to sing. She repeats everything the kids say and if the words aren't quite right, the tone always is.

She is a funny girl and a little piece of sunshine right here.

Henry's first game of Yahtzee

When it was over, Ava said, "Good job dad! You were only 44 points behind me."

She is, without fail, a cup half full kind of girl!

Enjoying the view....

of Ed down in the crawl space:

(I love Darth's mask, cape, and weapon cast aside here)

The big and the bitty

I haven't posted all week because I have been SICK. again. for eight whole days. And perhaps a wee bit grumpy. And no one wants to read a grumpy blogger. But good things have happened this week and now I'm ready to show them. But first a little back pat for Ed who, a couple days ago, because he knows me so well, finally kicked me out of the house and sent me to the gym. And I grumbled to myself all the way there about how I sick I was and then I ended up running a great 5-miler, the longest run since sweet Henry arrived, and felt so much better! A couple hours later I felt miserable again but now I am on the mend. woo hoo for me!

Hello 2011!

This new year finds us...

reading,

hanging at the mall,

ice fishing,

and (of course!) watching bowl games.

Hope yours is off to a good start too!