Guess who?!!

Guess who we got to play with today?

That's right! This little darling!

Can you believe he's 4 months old already? Only because he came 2 months early, but he's about the right size for a 4 month old. I can't believe how much he's grown!

And look at him now!

He weighs about half of what Brenna weighs now. I had to take some measurements for upcoming sweater knitting and Brenna now has an 18 inch chest and Carlitos has a 16 1/2 inch chest!

We finally had to say goodbye since he was getting a little tired, but didn't want to go to sleep with so much going on around him.
Grandbabies are so much fun! I can't wait to get more of them!

Vacation!!! {Summer 2014}

We just spent a few days at Great Wolf Lodge with Grandma and Grandpa! The kids had a blast, although everyone was a bit overtired by the time we left. Poor Cameron got sick just before we left and had to stay home with Devon who didn't go because of prior commitments. Connor, Duncan, and Morgan stayed with Grandma and Grandpa for a few more days on an extended adventure, but Brenna and Owen came home with us a couple of days ago. Yes, a couple of days ago. I haven't blogged until now because I seem to have come down with the same thing Cam had on the way home and on top of my morning sickness, I haven't really felt like doing anything but sleeping the last two days.

Brenna took a while to warm up each time we entered the waterpark. She wasn't sure she liked getting splashed in the face, but then she'd get used to things and have fun.

Owen was in absolute Heaven! He loves the water, he loves getting wet, he isn't afraid of anything. With his epilepsy and all the medications he's on, he gets overtired easily. We'd have to drag him out for a nap whenever he started falling down and tripping too much so that he wouldn't have any seizures. He did great though and dealt with everything quite well. Great Wolf Lodge was wonderful about accommodating his ketogenic diet too. There is a no outside food and drink rule in the waterpark itself, but they were really good about allowing us to bring in any special items Owen needed.

Morgan was tall enough to earn herself a green safety bracelet which meant she was able to go on all the rides although she needed an adult with her for the biggest ride. Duncan was big enough to not need a safety bracelet at all which meant that he could go on all the rides without needed to be accompanied by an adult. Since he didn't need us with him all the time I only managed to get this picture though.

Connor was an amazing help with the younger kids! I was so proud of him.

This is actually Connor after taking Owen down the slide.

It was really nice to have some time away. I don't know exactly what condition Owen will be in after his upcoming new treatments, so it was great to do something fun with him while we can still enjoy it.

Finished Projects! {For Me This Time}

I'm just out of the first trimester now and let's just say that some of my clothes are getting a bit tight. I went through all the boxes in the garage and couldn't find any maternity clothes. It seems that we were convinced enough that Brenna was going to be our last child that I gave all my maternity things away. So, I went through my fabric and pattern stash and headed to the fabric store for a few more things and started sewing. Today, I finally finished this maternity top and a skirt. I used Simplicity 1359A for the top. This is only a maternity top, not nursing too, but the pattern was on sale for $1.99 and the fabric was 50% off, so I didn't mind spending the money on it. It went together really easily and the finished result fits perfectly. I plan to make a couple more of these.

A few years ago, I bought a really great skirt from Old Navy. it wasn't a maternity skirt, but it had a fold down, yoga type waistband and worked great through maternity and postpartum. I decided I really needed another one or two of them ( I don't want to buy Summer maternity clothes to wear for only another month or so, but skirts are great year round). Old Navy doesn't seem to have them anymore although I found a similar skirt in maxi version at Target, so I copied it and made my own.

The skirt is actually black and not all spotted, but I didn't get pictures until after dark, so crappy lighting

I absolutely love this since I can wear it during all stages of pregnancy as well as postpartum. I think I want a couple more in different colors since all three I have right now are black. My original skirt was a lightweight knit jersey, but I made my copy out of a cotton lycra blend since it's a little more substantial and should stretch even more.
I'm still fighting the first maternity/nursing top I started. I think I'll have a wearable top in a another  day or two, but I'm still trying to figure out the best way to adjust it since I originally wanted to make a few more.
Next, I'm working on adapting some jeans since I hate paying $35 -50 for ugly, itchy maternity jeans.

Updates {8/6/14}

So, you might have noticed that the blog is a little quiet lately. That's because I have had extreme morning (noon and night) sickness with this pregnancy. It never seems to let up at all. I've even woken up sick in the middle of the night. I don't really like to be a complainer, so I've been not really saying anything at all. That, plus the fact that by the time I get uninterrupted computer time after the kids go to bed, I'm too wiped out to want to blog.

I managed to rally up some energy a couple of days ago and took the little kids to the splash park. Our unusual stretch of actual Summer weather is still holding strong and I decided that cooling off a bit would be good for all of us. I, being me, planned our trip for the coolest day in weeks so far, but it was still warmer than typical for around here. Brenna refused to go near the water and instead cuddled on our blanket with a towel.

She had plenty of fun on the regular playground equipment though. We've been busy around here implementing our new chore routine and doing some extra pre-school year cleaning and organizing. I've gotten our curriculum choices decided and have started making purchases. It's so much fun to see my kids all excited about new school materials! They've had to play with several of them already.

I've been working on sewing some maternity clothes since it seems I gave everything away after Brenna's birth. I bought a particular pattern for maternity/nursing tops that I had high hopes for. I hate putting a lot of time and money into maternity clothes that are only going to be worn for a few months. Nursing clothes get worn a lot longer so I don't mind putting more into them, but I'm having a horrible time fitting it. I've finally decided it's a pattern flaw and not my fault, now I'm just trying to see how to fix it. What it means though is that after a week of working on it, I still don't have a finished object to show. I started some baby knitting too, but then it got hot and I haven't felt like knitting. So, I have a finished sweater missing buttons and ONE matching bootie. Yep, only one. So, no pictures there either.

I've also been spending an inordinate amount of time on the phone with our new insurance company trying to get Owen's prescriptions approved. See, they have a system. If a drug isn't on their "magic" list, the doctor has to fill out a bunch of extra paperwork explaining why Owen needs it. In our case with one of the disputed drugs, he has to have the brand name instead of the generic because the generic has too many carbohydrates to be acceptable on the ketogenic diet and the other is too new to have a generic version. Once the insurance company gets the paperwork from the doctor, they have to review it to see if we really need it. This review process takes up to 14 business days. That's 14 business days that Owen can't start on the medication his doctor wants him to have. Then there's an extra blip. If the Owen is already on the medication and the doctor changes his dose, we still have to fill out all the approval paperwork and wait the 14 business days, but they also won't approve payment if they've already filled a prescription for that same drug that month until the normal renewal time without the doctor calling the insurance company (I can't call, only the doctor can) and getting an override. So, it goes like this. We refill Owen's Onfi prescription on the 12th. The doctor looks at his EEG results on the 22nd and decided that we need to increase his prescription. The insurance company won't give us the increase until the 10th of the following month if we get all the approval paperwork filled out and they decide that he really needs the medication that he's already been on for almost 2 years. If he needs the increase sooner than that the doctor has to waste time on the phone and try to get an override to start the increase right away, but that's still subject to the 14 day approval process.  Make sense yet? Not to me either. So, I've spent several hours on the phone threatening the insurance company with a child endangerment suit and asking them if they'd prefer to have him admitted on an inpatient basis to get his medication while they, not our doctor decide if he really needs it.
After several phone calls, we now have a new plan. When our doctor decides Owen needs a new drug or an increase to an existing drug, I call the insurance company and they approve it immediately. I think that will work out much better for us.

Chores!

My camera isn't cooperating, so you get pictures of Brenna at the beach instead of the kids doing chores.

I've posted BEFORE about why I make my kids do chores, but I've never really gotten around to how we do chores. For many years now we've had a chore system that worked wonderfully. It was easy to remember, stayed the same long enough for the kids to become proficient, and changed enough that no one got too bored. We divided up the main things that needed done on a daily basis and had each child over 7 or 8 be in charge of one area (dishes, laundry, floors, bathrooms) for a month. Anything else that needed done was done by me or by all of us on the weekends. We used this system with a few minor changes for about 10 years.

This year, it stopped working. I had one child who wasn't quite old enough to do an area on her own, but old enough to need a job, one child with a completely irregular schedule, and very little time to do things on my own due to the demands of Owen's new diet. We hobbled through this year making a few small changes and trying to think of something easy and enforceable that would work as well as our previous system. I finally decided that we needed to break things up more and just keep a very detailed chart so I could remember who was in charge of what and when. So, I made lists of all the things that need done and approximately how often and assigned each child age appropriate chores which rotated by days of the week.

Now, the most important part of any chore system is accountability. If the chores aren't done it doesn't matter how great the system is. I have problems keeping track of things without visual aids, so I made laminated charts with a magnetic back and have them on the refrigerator with a dry erase marker to mark when I've inspected each chore. We started the new system in August so that we'd have a month before school starts to get the hang of it and make any necessary changes.

Once I can get my camera cooperating again I'll post pictures of the actual charts. So far, it's going pretty well. We had a few kids gone at various times this weekend and had to fill in for them, but that worked out well. I have one child who has extreme difficulties with change who is having a few problems with not having the same chore every day and with having to follow someone else who may not do things the same way he does, but I think that will settle down. I've purposely given Devon chores that don't need to be done on a specific day and time so she can make them work around her school/work schedule. I'm hoping that we can have most of the bugs worked out and some things that haven't gotten done around the house under control by September. that way we can start school fresh and organized.