Happy Birthday Cameron!

Cameron turned 14 yesterday. Yep, I said yesterday. Why didn't I do his birthday post yesterday then? Because we live out in the country. A big windstorm blew in last night after we opened presents, but before I got the pictures downloaded. The first yucky day in ages! I can't even remember the last day that wasn't gorgeous. So, anyway the windstorm blew in and our internet connection went down. And didn't come back up until this morning. We actually had his party today, but I won't have those pictures ready until at least tomorrow.

The kids were more than happy to test out the quads(borrowed) and go-cart in preparation for today's party. We had to get the track in order since it has been put into use as pastureland this year.

 

Happy Birthday Cameron!!!

FIVE!

Five years ago this little boy entered our lives and they have certainly never been the same since. We have been tested, and challenged, and BLESSED in so many ways. We've been through things I would never wish on anyone, yet would never change. On one hand, I can hardly believe it's been five whole years, on the other hand it feels like it's been forever.

Five Things to Know About Owen

 

1) His favorite color is blue. In fact, he loves blue so much that he absolutely insists that his eyes are blue. When I told him that meant that we didn't match, he relented enough to let his eyes be blue during the day and brown at night. He is absolutely convinced that this is true.

2) He loves Skylanders! You might notice the Skylanders shirt he's wearing. It's one of 5 he owns, since he often refuses to wear anything else.

3) Owen LOVES water, as long as it's not in a bathtub. Pools, great! Sprinklers, wonderful! The splash park is his favorite, other than Great Wolf Lodge. He'll whine and cry about the bathtub, and complain about getting his hair wet though.

Brenna decided she was Owen, not Brenna because she wanted to open a present too.

4) His favorite food is French fries. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to come up with anything close to a French fry on the Ketogenic diet. It's what he misses the most.

5) Owen just got his very own library card! He practiced writing his own name for over a month, so he'd be ready. The library is probably his favorite place to go that doesn't include water. He'd go every day if I'd let him.

We're having a combined party for Owen and Cameron on Saturday, so I'll have more pictures then. Owen couldn't wait that long to open his presents though. He is well aware that today is his real birthday and insisted on presents tonight.

Announcement!

I got pictures taken of our youngest child today. This little one is already following in the footsteps of his/her older siblings and decided to be a little stinker. On the first try, the doctor found my uterus, but no signs of a pregnancy. So, she decided to try an abdominal ultrasound instead and IMMEDIATELY got the above picture. Baby is measuring up at exactly the correct date of 9 weeks 4 days and had a textbook perfect heart rate. The doctor and nurse were both surprised at the level of movement baby was showing off today. I wasn't surprised at all. My babies have a tendency to be a bit "busy"!
The little big kids are already taking sides in the gender wars with the girls insisting on sister and the boys convinced it's another boy. Based on our previous pattern, I'm guessing girl. I guess we'll find out for sure early in February.

Home Again (Barely) !

Pictures from Devon's trip

Everyone is finally home again! Sort of. Devon got back from her trip to Boston on Thursday, just in time to have a friend from out of town spend the night. Then she was gone most of Friday night, catching up with other friends.

Saturday night, Connor and Cameron got back from Boy Scout camp in Oregon. They actually spent one night at home before going to their cousins house for a sleepover.

Uncle Sonny and Aunt Linda

Monday, Devon was gone all day catching up with yet another friend and helping Grandma. Tuesday, Connor (or maybe Cameron, I can't even remember) will be helping Grandma while the other two older kids babysit so I can fit in a doctor's appointment for me.

Then, Devon is meeting still more friends and following that up by another event on Wednesday. Thursday is Owen's birthday. Friday is Cameron's birthday. Saturday is their joint birthday party and another night out for Devon. Next week we have Owen's next hospital visit. I can barely keep track of who is where anymore! Anyway, I'll have more pictures of Devon's trip once I can actually get together with her to do a post. I don't have any pictures of the boys trip because I didn't have another functioning camera to send with them. I think we'll be getting another camera for Christmas!

Swim Social!

Owen's fever finally broke yesterday (he hasn't been coughing since Wednesday) so we were able to attend the Parent to Parent swim social. Parent to Parent has been such a wonderful support to our whole family since Owen was born. Tonight was especially nice since this event was designed to be fun for the whole family. Okay, well, actually only Rod and I and the 4 youngest kids attended since Devon had already spent a lot of time at the pool over the last few weeks and the older boys had just barely gotten back from a week at camp and just wanted to go home and eat. All of us who went had a lot of fun though!

We got to catch up with friends we haven't seen for almost a week and friends we haven't seen for almost a year.

Duncan spent much of his time racing against some of the other boys. He was also the only one of our children present who was tall enough to ride the water slide, much to Owen's disappointment.

Owen and Brenna loved to just float and be pulled around the pool. neither one of them has even the tiniest bit of fear about the water. I actually wish Owen had a little more fear. He seems perfectly convinced that he can breathe underwater, or maybe just not breathe at all for minutes at a time. Brenna, at least has enough fear of strangers to not go very far away from Rod or I.

Morgan did a lot of playing in the water, but also practiced her swimming skills so that she can go down the waterslide once she grows another inch. Yes, she was ONE measly inch too short to go down.

All Day!!!

It took me all day to replace the elastic/velcro strap on Owen's Tiny Superhero cape with a nice soft ribbon, so hopefully he'll wear it more ( he loves his cape, but complains about the velcro itching), and to make a set of wristbands for his upcoming Superhero Photo Shoot. Seriously, ALL DAY! Not because it was a difficult sewing project, it actually couldn't have been much simpler. It just took me that long because of all the interruptions. I think I need my big kids back! It's been just me and the 4 youngest all week. Luckily, Devon comes back tomorrow!! Not until late, but the little kids can't wait to see her again. Connor and Cameron won't be back until Saturday afternoon, then everyone will finally be home until Owen's next hospital visit the 22nd.

The Outdoor Room

Duncan wanted his own outdoor room

It's that time of year again. The approximately 2 weeks out of every year when it gets way to hot in my house. My house is positioned to take in as much natural heat as possible, which is great in the Winter, but not so much in the Summer. This is the time of year when I start wishing we had a screened porch. Since adding one on isn't really financially feasible right now, we make do with a portable one.

We set up our camping gazebo ( the one that usually protects the eating area from rain) and lay out the air mattresses. We plan to sleep here tonight if the little kids will settle down enough. I'll leave it up for a couple of days and we can hang out here, bug free, during the day too. Once the grass is mostly dead or the rain comes back, we'll take it down again, but until then we have an outdoor room to cool off in.