Monkey see

Monkey do

Random photos from the past couple of days

I don't think its any secret that I like to take photos. I don't pretend that I am good at it, but I really love to take them! I love pictures. When Mallory and Madison were little, I used to take them in faithfully to have photos taken. The thing was, though, that although the photos were really beautiful, the ones that I took at home, with the smudgy faces in their pajamas are my favorites! Of course, as they have gotten older, they are somewhat resistant to let me take photos of them---this is my wonderful Madison shaking her fist at me!
Some of my subjects are more willing, however they tend to like the crazy photos a little more than I would like! Of course, this is really how Quincy looks half the time!

Saige, on the other hand, has turned into quite a willing participant! I love digital photography....I can take as many photos as I want, as often as I want, and except for the crazy amount of batteries I go through, its free!! And no more dragging kids to photo studios and waiting in line, only to have them turn into the grouchiest people alive right before the photographer gets ready for your turn. Also, no more worries about kids falling down stairs the day before the appointment, and then having a black eye and a fat lip for the pictures!

And no more decisions on which ones I want to choose in order to save me hundreds of dollars! I get to keep them all! My older kids are going to have to suck it up and embrace my insanity!

Harper is sick again. I already made today's trip to the doctor's office. I am starting to seriously consider pitching a tent in their waiting room and spending the rest of cold/flu season there! She has another ear infection. We are not sure whether or not we will be getting a new set of tubes....the ENT says wait to see how she does when its not cold and flu season. I am going to wait and see how many more trips to Topeka I have to make. I don't really enjoy that city, so if it gets to be too many, I will get a lot pushier about it! There is also the fact that the Walgreen's pharmacist is starting to call me by name....this is not a good sign, is it? Luckily Motrin and a cookie fixed her right up!

The kids already hated spaghetti....

We are having one of those weekends....the ones where you finally get to sit down but your head is spinning with all the stuff you just did, and all the stuff you still have to do!
We spent Friday evening with my niece at her 7th birthday party! Quincy and Harper had a great time watching her open her gifts, and the boys had a great time (not) wrestling with their cousins. Too bad one of them doesn't know how to keep a secret about exactly what happens in the basement of doom!

Yesterday, we spent the entire day baking cookies, cakes, browning hamburger and making garlic bread for a spaghetti feed for the girl's CWF trip. I love to cook, and I really didn't mind spending the day doing it, however to me these sort of things are very hard.....if you have 5 people show up, then you have way too much food, if 500 show up, what the heck would you feed them all? I decided to have a little faith, and it would work out. Indeed, it did work out! We had a lot of dessert donations, and we had the local grocer let us return anything we didn't open, which meant that we had access to sauce and noodles without having to be out a bunch of money. We really are very lucky to have such a great grocer here in town! Plus, the community was very generous and the spaghetti feed was a huge success. The kids all made quite a lot of money and we are getting close to having their trip all paid for!

I am glad that the CWF trip is going to be paid out of their fundraising efforts, as we have invested quite a lot into a band trip for March! We did go to a meeting this week about their NY trip. It looks like it will be completely awesome, and I am so happy they have the opportunity to go! The only thing we have to figure out is how to pack 4 days worth of clothes, including concert clothes into a carry-on bag! The girls got a little nervous when their director told them nobody would be allowed to check a bag- everything they take must be carry-on only! I think we will be doing a little lesson on clothes rolling or something! He went on to say no worries because the hotel had irons in the rooms so their concert clothes could be pressed when they got there.....that concerns me as I had visions of all the kids with burn holes in their concert attire! I think in addition to clothes rolling lessons, we will be taking some courses in running an iron!

I hate it....

As Jim and I have decided to put our house on the market in the next few weeks, I have decided I better try to cover up my love affair with bright, bold colors with some neutral shades of white. So this weekend, as Jim was cleaning windows and fixing them, I painted the upstairs bathroom. What was a cheery shade of bright green with daisies on the walls, is now white. Stark white. Never in my life have I finished painting and truly HATED it before. OK, there was that one mishap with the pepto bismol pink paint that I thought would be darker when we lived in Osage, but this time.....I HATE the end result. It is too white. It does not go well with the browns that are in there. The thing is, I am done....I don't want to have to go back and re-do it, and I don't really know what potential buyers will want, so I am leaving it. But I do think I will just refuse to use the upstairs bathroom until we move! For the record, Jim told me he hates it too! At least we agree, right? Note to self - get a new shower curtain....that might help!!

Recap of the past few days

On Saturday, I was supposed to take Colin to a big wrestling tournament in Ottawa, but this kid

and this kid
were up all night with terrible coughs. Since breastfeeding makes it difficult to impossible for me to leave Saige for long periods of time, and we didn't feel good about taking her into a wrestling gym for an entire day, Jim took Colin. I went to Osage City and watched Cameron play basketball....still not an ideal place for a sick baby, but at least it was a shorter period of time to be out! Mallory was kind enough to stay home with Harper, who after one breathing treatment, was feeling much better.

Cam played an awesome game, made over half of his team's points, and managed to guard a kid whose photo I should have taken.....if he is a 6th grader, it must be his second time through!
He made our biggest player look miniature!

I enjoyed the game, and Saige slept through it. I debated all morning on whether or not to take her in to Express Care. I hate not being able to decide how sick a kid is. On one hand, she had a terrible cough, but on the other hand, I was pretty sure they would tell me it was a virus, and we would just have to wait it out for a few days. In the end, I did not take her in over the weekend.

Although I was sad that I didn't get to go watch Colin, I know that Jim had a great time watching him take 1st place! Jim texted me updates and I could tell that he was having a lot of fun. Colin was elated to be on the mats for a second weekend in a row!

The reason that I was going to take Colin was because Jim, Cameron and Preston had tickets to a KSU women's game Saturday night. It was 4-H day with the Cats. They were all excited to go! Unfortunately, Jim did not get home in time to go with them, but it worked out ok because our 4-H friend Marty saved the day. Her kids had tickets, but in the meantime their youngest had decided he wanted to go. We gave her Jim's ticket in exchange for taking Cam and Preston. The boys had so much fun! They got autographs, tons of free stuff, saw some sort of a dunking trampoline halftime show, and came home absolutely pumped up!

Cam got some great photos of Preston with Willie Wildcat, but we haven't figured out how to get them off his phone yet. I will have to upload those later! I am so happy that it worked out so that they got to go and have so much fun!

Even though there was no school today, Colin (#21) played in his last 8th grade basketball game. He did not get a lot of playing time tonight, but when he was in, he played really well. He says this is probably the last time he will ever play basketball in his life.....he has big plans of being on the wrestling team in high school! We shall see!
I know basketball is not his favorite sport, but I am proud that he went out and stayed on the team, keeping his grades high, and putting in all that effort! He says it keeps him in shape for club wrestling....and it probably does, but it is still a pretty big commitment to something that he isn't all that fond of!

I did end up taking Saige to the doctor today. Our regular doctor was not available. The doctor we saw thinks Saige has RSV, but could not be sure unless he ran some tests. We did not get the testing done, as either way, he was suggesting breathing treatments, Tylenol, lots of fluids, and rest. Since the treatment would be the same no matter what, it seemed silly to put her through testing. She has now had a breathing treatment and some Tylenol, and is resting. The doctor we saw today says she has asthmatic symptoms, and he would not be surprised to hear that she has asthma, but they will not diagnose it until she is 1. I know she was breathing a lot like my 3 asthma suffering boys! At least we have a little experience with dealing with it, and can hopefully know what to do to keep her comfortable and breathing! Hopefully, she will bounce back quickly, as around here we do not stay still for very long!

Training

We don't have much luck with Harper leaving pony tails in her hair.
Which is why this week Mallory proclaimed that she was going to start 'training' Saige!
Saige didn't seem to mind the pony tail, and never once yanked it out of her hair!

Quincy doesn't have much luck when playing house with getting Harper to be her baby....which is why she decided if Mallory can train Saige, so can she. Unfortunately, I had to step in and say no to Saige being the baby in her little game!

Mostly because, although I truly think Harper loves Saige, she likes to poke her in the eyes and nose. Saige really doesn't appreciate that very much!

Ever since the last round of antibiotics, we have been battling thrush with Saige. The medication, which you have to paint in the mouth, makes her lips purple. We figure it helps with her Wildcat pride!

It does get us plenty of questions at the grocery store too!

We are on the verge of an enormously busy weekend! It should be fun though.....more on that later!

Sometimes Parenting is HARD.....

Like when your 3 month old comes down with her 3rd illness! Today Saige has a fever, and a yucky nose. She is pretty pathetic! Mostly she has wanted me to hold her! Luckily, I had a lot of computer stuff to do at work today so that was easily done! After a dose of Tylenol, she is finally taking a nap! I don't like when babies are sick - its so hard when they can't tell you what hurts! :(
But what is even harder than sick babies? Colin asked us if, rather than going out for track, he might be able to attend baseball hitting camp with a friend. The friend's parents are willing to carpool. We responded with a definite yes! And then we found out that the camp is at KU! Poor Jim, perhaps the hardest thing he ever had to do was write a check out to KU Athletics! And then when I was filling out the form, I asked Colin what size shirt he wanted.....POOR JIM!! Colin has promised to wear his KSU shirts to the camp, and Grandma may be inheriting a new shirt for her collection!!

Our 3 month old Valentine

Saige Grace is 3 months old today!
She spent her special day getting to go to school for Quincy's Valentine's Day party. Want to know the really nice thing about having a huge family who all have jobs everywhere in town? Saige got to sleep in her carseat under Great Aunt Mary's desk in the office rather than having to sit in a germ filled kindergarten room! :) She was very well behaved and slept the whole time --- Aunt Mary was a little disappointed, I think she wanted to snuggle a baby!

And Saige is a good baby to snuggle....she likes someone to hold her and talk to her. She likes to talk back to you in her cooing little voice and smile at you. She is such a good communicator!

Harper was sooooo excited about going to school for a party! These are the Valentine robots that Quincy's 'boyfriend' brought! I thought they were really cute and pretty healthy too....applesauce, raisins, and pretzel arms.

Harper was very well behaved the entire party. They did a nice job of including her and letting her sit by Quincy on a little chair! Quincy even let her open some Valentines! Quincy was really excited that we were there and overall I think her class had a fun time. Kindergarten parties are a little bit like herding cats though!

Last week, Quincy and Preston were asking me who my Valentine would be. I told them the wedding vows pretty much summed that up for me for life! My Valentine is sick today. He was sick on Valentine's Day last year too. I am starting to think it is a conspiracy!

Wrestlemania

Hey Saige, where did we drag you now?
To watch Colin wrestle, of course! Colin has not gotten a lot of time on the mats this winter. He has been going to practices and working very hard, but his club had gone to all Sunday tournaments. Since he is going to classes for Confirmation, he has not been able to wrestle. Today, he did not have class, so we went to early mass and then went to watch him! It was a great day, he got 1st place! He wrestled great! His first match was against one of his best friends , so that was tough! He got the job done though!
I admit that I have missed going to tournaments this winter, I love to watch!

Mallory did a great job taking photos for me. I was wondering what she might be able to do if I had a better camera. Hummm....I have been wondering this a lot lately - maybe Jim should panic!

Colin is the one in the yellow headgear. He is still not feeling great, so I was super proud of how hard he worked today!

He is really excited about getting to high school next year so he can wrestle all the time!

Saige was a very good girl during the super dual, and so were the other kids. It is so much easier to take them along when we are in a place where they are not expected to be quiet! Even Quincy cannot be louder than wresting dads!

Jim just took Mallory and Madison to the movies with some of their friends for their late birthday. I am happy he was willing, because I need to clean the house back up.

It is never fun to see the weekend end, but going back to work may give me a moment of being still and that wouldn't be a bad thing!

4-H club day

Today was 4-H club day for our county. It was Preston's first experience with club day, and he did a great job! Mallory, Madison, Colin and Preston all participated in group line dancing as well as a model meeting. (Cam had a basketball game). They have put a lot of time into line dancing practices and you could definitely tell!
Although, it might be a little hard to tell from my photos....somehow trying to contain Harper and Quincy and keep Saige happy and take photos did not work out very well today!

If you look hard, you can see all 4 of our dancers though. Squint, I promise they are all in here!

We had to kill a lot of time between events. Quincy does not wait well, so we ended up driving around the city of Pomona. I will say that I didn't really know Pomona was that big!

The Model Meeting did not go as well as we would have liked. I think that maybe next time having more than 2 practices would be helpful!

I am proud of them for trying it anyhow!

This evening, Madison went on her first official date. I tried hard to convince her boyfriend that her daddy is a very mean man, but when he looks like this, it sure is difficult to believe! Madison had a good time and although it was a hard night for her mom and dad, she seems to be dating a nice boy. This is the time when you have to trust that the parenting you have been doing for all these years will pay off! It wouldn't be a bad idea though if Jim would have growled a little!!