Foto Friday… September 12, 2008

I know, I know. I’m a bit late in my Friday-ing to get this up. But it’s still technically Friday everywhere in the US, so I figure I’m still good!

It has been a BUSY day my friends! I’ve washed my kitchen floor. TWICE! The first time because it was just gross and I couldn’t stand it anymore. The second time because Kait and Noah somehow managed to drop an entire GALLON of strawberry kool-aid – and the plastic rubbermaid pitcher just shattered. I even ended up moving the stove the second time to scrub underneath.

That wasn’t the biggest part of my day though. The big news around town was the homecoming parade and game. Kait was sick, so I skipped the game to stay home with her. We all made the parade – couldn’t miss our Elijah being *in* the parade.

Seth & Lexi while I mopped the floor…

Seth did *not* like all the sirens…

 

The Okaw Valley Marching Band…

Elijah in the parade – he’s chanting SOV! Best picture I got…

Learning to share (and blackmail when they are older)…

Foto Friday… June 13, 2008

I’m late on the draw today. We went to the chiropractor this morning. Target this afternoon. Dropped two of the kids off in Findlay for the night. Went to an 8pm baseball game for Elijah. It’s been a long day. A long full day.

OH! And an update on Elijah’s doctor’s visit from earlier this week. He has asthma. I can’t remember if I updated that or not. He’s on some meds for it and we’ll see how that goes. He’s also growing and having some leg pains. I remember that very vividly. Feeling a little sorry for him as he feels sorry for himself.

So, here are a few of my favorite pictures from recently…

Kait played catcher for the first time this past week. She was so excited and did a great job!

Seth and I were home alone for a while on Wednesday night. I was watching him play in the pool while reading some blogs. I was reading through a blog and he game up on the porch to play with a stick (he was using it to “fish”). Next time I looked up, he was passed out on the porch. THAT’S tired!

Seth *loves* to play “cooking show”. Now he’s teaching Lexi how to play. It’s fun to watch them learn to play with one another instead of just both playing in the same room. Here they are pretending she’s a chef and he’s placing an order.

It’s finally warm enough to swim outside. Unfortunately we aren’t sure if we’ll be able to set up the bigger pool this year. Apparently if you have a pool over 2ft (ours is 2.5), you have to have a 3ft fence around it. Thankfully they are still happy to splash in the wading pool for now.

Today, I walked into the garage to head to Target and found Kait already in the van. As I walked in, she said, “Fasten your seatbelts and hold on tight!” Lord, help us all…

(click pictures to make them larger)

Rain, rain on my brain… June 7, 2008

And in the yard and spilling over the creek banks…

There is water EVERYWHERE out there! I’m going to take the easy way out and just show y’all some of the pictures that we’ve endured today. We’ve gotten 10 inches of rain in the last week. Last July I don’t think we got 10 inches the entire month! At the end of fall, we were in drought conditions. Now we have more water than we know what to do with! I’ll be back to update this later with more pictures from other places around town. But for now, this is the little creek that is just down the hill from our house. You can see it from our kitchen window.

Some poor kid lost his basketball hoop in all the storms last night. Seth is very concerned about it and wants to find the kid and buy him a new one. (as always – click the pictures to make them bigger)…

This creek is normally about 4 feet wide. The kids can almost jump across it from top to top. The creek is always low enough that they can walk across it. I’m not the best judge of distances, but can tell you that the creek usually runs BETWEEN those rows of trees right in the middle.

A picture looking the other way over the bridge. The creek is still only about 4 feet across on this side too. It would be about twice the width of the back of Noah’s head in this picture (if that) if that helps y’all put it in perspective.

We’ve got other small lakes that have sprung up. The creek is already receding some from where it was earlier today. And the kids say that it’s not up over Church street anymore where it curves around. I’ll try and have some more pictures later.

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2 more pics…

Chip and I have a wedding today, so we had to literally *search* for a way to get the kids to his parents house. We tried to go south of town (we were in a hurry and didn’t have time to snap a picture) the way we normally do and the road was closed (if I had checked my comments here I’d have known before we left since we have friends that live on the top of that hill). So, we tried to go the back way around the park. Um – that was even more flooded than the normal way. I did snap some pictures of that…

We did end up coming home a back way, but did have to drive through some water that made us a little nervous.  But nothing as bad as this.

I’m hoping to take a couple more pictures before the sun goes down. We should have some time to kill between the wedding and reception while they finish up pictures. It’s all kind of surreal around here right now with all the water. Seth is starting to talk about building a boat! And more rain is in the forecast for next week!

I have three sons… May 28, 2008

And they have friends. Which means that every couple of years at the very least, we’re going to end up in the emergency room for some rough housing type of injury.

Today was Noah’s turn. And I’m a freak about pictures, so I’m going to warn y’all now before you get too far into this post. There will be pictures towards the end.

I had just gone into the kitchen to make lunch this afternoon. I had a pan in the sink filling with water for macaroni and cheese. I had just gotten out bananas for Seth & Lexie for part of their lunch. My day was going as planned. A little bit of laundry, a bit of cleaning, my kids all actually behaving for once.

A scream so shrill pierced our entire house. It’s the kind of scream that you don’t stop to ask questions, you just start to move because you *know* that there is something wrong. Those of you reading who have kids know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s that scream that says, “I NEED YOU NOW!!!” and you’re really not sure if you’ll be able to stomach what you’re about to find.

As I moved towards the steps, Elijah came FLYING down them. I promise he took TWO steps to get down all 14 of our stairs. The wailing is continuing from upstairs and I know it’s Noah by this point. He’s 6 and a tough guy. So for him to be hurt, he must really be hurt. Elijah’s shouting “Noah cracked his head open” and I holler for him to go get his dad (oh how I *love* living next door to his office!), but I’m not sure he heard me because he was already out the door.

I walk into the bedroom and sure enough. He’s bleeding. And it’s a head wound, so by bleeding, I mean *gushing* blood. Isaac (Elijah’s friend) is standing over him and trying to help, but you can tell he’s at a complete loss of what to do. As I’m searching for something to press to the back of his head, Isaac is telling me that they were playing a game. “We were locking each other out of the room and I was pulling him off the bed and he hit his head on the bed.” Noah pipes up, “I was NOT playing that game!” ROFL!

I get him down the stairs with a vice grip on his head because this thing is REALLY bleeding. I pull the towel away once we get downstairs and all. that. blood. Oh my! I assessing the situation as Chip walks in the door. Yep, he’s got a gash in his head and a growing knot. And we’re going to the ER.

So, I call Chip’s mom, who is mercifully not working today, and she comes to stay with the kids – my own and three extras! The woman is a saint! She even somehow acquired an extra kid while we were gone.

We got to the ER and were in and out within 90 minutes. They got us all checked in, the nurse comes in to look, the doctor takes a look at it and says, “I think we can glue that.” At this point Noah smiles for the first time since he got hurt. I must say, the crying and screaming stopped within 5 minutes of everything happening. He was a VERY brave guy. I don’t think I would have been quite so brave.

So, they laid him down, shaved around the wound and then the doctor came in and glued it back together. Noah said the worst part was getting his head shaved (she had to use two separate razors because his hair is *so* thick) and assured him it would grow back. He winced a bit when the dr pushed it back together, but he said the bump on his head hurt. We gave him some Tylenol and now you’d never know we were in the ER with him earlier. Kids bounce.

We took him to McDonald’s after we were done at the ER. Daddy even let him get a chocolate shake. He can’t take a shower for 24 hours (not a problem for him) and has to be careful not to break it back open or scratch it because it will start to itch in a couple days.

Not exactly how I planned to spend my day today, but he doesn’t seem to be any worse for it all.

(click the pictures to make them bigger)

 Waiting on the doctor

 The bump on the back of his head

 Waiting for the nurse to shave his head

 Noah’s first shave

 Before the glue (he’s quite proud of all the blood on his shirt)

 After the glue (which is just amazing because 10 years ago they’d have had to stitch that shut)

 

 

Happy 3rd birthday, S-man! May 2, 2008

Today, Seth turns THREE!!! Can you believe it? Most of y’all have watched him grow up from a bitty baby by following my blog. I’ve been blogging longer than he’s been alive. Finding pictures of him for this post was easy because he’s always bringing me a camera and asking to have his picture taken. We’ve celebrated and celebrated today. Right now, he’s celebrating in true 3 year old boy style by ripping up the box his gift came in and throwing it all over my living room. But he’s the birthday boy and he’s only going to be this age, right now, once. I’m content to let him be.

I had to be up early this morning. I came home from the church at about 8:50 and was planning to get him dressed to bring him over with me. He was already dressed and Kait was helping him put on his shoes. He dressed himself – completely with backwards dress pants and his favorite Thomas the Tank Engine tshirt. I just let it go. It’s his birthday. We walked into the church, where the church rummage sale was in full swing. He walked in the door and the place ERUPTED in cheers of Happy Birthday and the Birthday Song. It was all a bit overwhelming for him and he hid behind me until it was done.

We spent most of the day hanging out at the church. When we were done, we loaded up in the van to go buy his birthday cake – angel food cake and fresh strawberries. We made a quick stop on the way home for some strawberry plants at Buxtons and a short visit with Sam – the garden farm dog. We came home then and cut up the strawberries and put them in the fridge and then he got his birthday present – a little people alphabet zoo – from us.

What came next was a big moment in Seth’s life. He threw away his beloved “gi” (hard g, long eee sound). His paci has been more than just a comfort item. It’s been a friend to him. And today, he took the brave steps towards growing up and threw it in the trash. There were no tears, but he did need a big hug and a lot of reassurance that this really was part of the growing up process.

And to celebrate all of his growing-up-ness, we did birthday dinner at McDonalds. All day long he said he wanted to a hamburger for dinner, but when it came down to it he ended up with chicken nuggets. After that, we drove THREW a storm front (it was really cool to come out on the back side of it) for a trip to Target. We bought him a new pair of Cars “flip flops” (really sandals but he insists they are flip flops) before coming home to play with his new toy and watch Alvin and the Chipmunks (I was pleasantly surprised with since even Chip and I found it rather entertaining).

Monday, we’ll celebrate in normal Sanders’ fashion – Build-a-Bear and Chuck E. Cheese. It was very important to Seth that PawPaw and Gamma (Chip’s parents) come with us – so we’re postponing it just a few days. I’m looking forward to another whole day of listening to him sing happy birthday to himself!

Happy birthday, Big Man! You bring more joy into our home than you’ll ever know!

April 2007 – helping clean up the floor after we pulled up the carpet…

May 2007 – Ready for swimming in the big pool…

June 2007 – Summer days just make him tired…

August 2007 – He held his new cousin Wesley more than anyone! Now Wesley is so big I think he’d have to hold Seth…

September 2007 – Not EVERYONE was happy on the first day of school. Seth was *not* happy that his “bo-bo brother” (Noah) had to do schoolwork instead of playing with him…

October 2007 – Seth is the ONLY one I got a picture of this month. He absolutely INSISTS quite often that I take his picture. This one because he got a new shirt…

November 2007 – This is one of my favorite pictures of Seth and Noah. They really are more than just brothers – they are also best friends…

December 2007 – decorating the Christmas tree…

January 2008 – Seth developed his own cooking show that we all watched daily for most of the month of January. It was a long, cold winter…

February 2008 – We potty trained Seth at his direction. The book on his head is called The Potty Train…

March 2008 – Seth STILL loves his cheese fries…

April 2008 – Noah took this picture of Seth while we were at the chiropractor…

May 2nd, 2008 – by the time I took this picture, Seth was DONE with birthday pictures…

Happy 11th birthday, Elijah!!! April 26, 2008

My oldest turns 11 today!  ELEVEN!!!  I can hardly believe it!  He’s grown up so much in the past couple year. He turned FIVE about five months after we moved into this house. He’s a great big brother – always helping to take care of his little brothers and sister. He takes his job as the oldest very seriously.  He makes me proud! 

Happy 11th birthday, Elijah!

Celebrating his birthday at his restaurant of choice – Pizza Hut…

On his 10th birthday – April 2007…

Elijah with the HAL ball (hustle, ability, leadership) – May 2007…

Fun with mud – June 2007…

The HAL ball for the second time – only one other kid on the team got it more than once – July 2007…

Meeting his cousin Wesley for the first time – August 2007…

Starting 4th grade – September 2007…

Didn’t take pictures in October, here’s why – October 2007…

His first facial at his sister’s spa party, oh the things he’ll do for his sister – November 2007…

Celebrating Christmas – December 2007…

On the moving truck when we helped pack up cousin Taet to move to Wyoming – January 2008…

We got A LOT of snow this year – February 2008…

Easter legos – March 2008…

My great protector/mouse hunter – April 2008…

Happy, happy birthday Elijah!

Blah, blah, blah… April 25, 2008

With this post, I’m officially 1/4 of the way through my 100 days of blogging and I feel like I’ve got nothing to say today. I’m tired. It was a L-O-N-G day. A long, blustery day. I got about 75% of what I wanted to get done, done. I should work on folding laundry, but my back is killing me. Probably from doing laundry earlier.

And apparently it was a hard day for Seth too because he just crawled up into Chip’s lap a few minutes ago and he’s already snoring. We’ll wait until this Bee Movie is over and then put the kids in bed. Here’s some pictures of what he was up to today…

He pretended to mow and they got to help clean up afterward…

Using his little weeder to whack the weeds…

Sweeping up after all was done…

Playing soccer with his brother….

This day keeps getting weirder… April 18, 2008

It was weird enough being woken up to an EARTHQUAKE this morning. In Illinois. But then we came home from running an errand this afternoon and found this dog (Bailey)…

On this roof…

Chip had opened the upstairs windows before we left this afternoon. I normally don’t open Kait’s window because it doesn’t have a screen on it at the moment. It had been threatening rain all day, so the dogs were in the house and usually we put a gate at the bottom of the stairs to keep them downstairs. We ran home for a minute between errands and *I* forgot to put the gate back up. We came home and drove past the front of the house and Noah shouted “THE DOG IS ON THE ROOF!” Since he’s the kind of jokers, we all just kind of laughed. Until we pulled around the corner and the dog was indeed on the roof!

I wonder if this day can get any weirder!?

***EEK*** April 2, 2008

There is nothing that makes my heart jump more than one of my kids yelling, at the top of their lungs,

“THE CAT HAS A MOUSE!!!”

The fear that grips my heart and I jump up onto the nearest chair is hard to put into words. And when that cat brought the mouse around the corner where I could actually *see* the mouse, my heart was actually in a panic.

So, I did what any girl would do. I called my husband! WHO DIDN’T ANSWER THE PHONE!!!  I dialed his cell phone, the church phone, the cell phone, the church phone and by the time I’d called the 7th time, I was frantic! “You can’t come home if you don’t answer your phone!!!” He tried to offer me an explanation about not bringing a phone into the bathroom, but OH MY GOSH! WE HAVE A MOUSE!!!  I was a bit short with him on the phone and told him to get home – NOW – because we have a mouse! And I don’t. do. mice.

My boys on the other hand, quickly put on their shoes and scurried to help the cat apprehend. Why shoes? Because they know that if a mouse runs in front of you, you STOMP on it. A trick their dad taught them. The dog got in on the action and the mouse was hiding in the pile of bunkbed pieces that we had laid in the dining room. Elijah started pulling boards out (Chip still wasn’t home – how long does it take to walk from next door? I’m still freaking out at this point) and carrying them out to the garage.

By this point, Kait has come out to find out what the fuss is about and as soon as she hears the word mouse, she leaps up onto the dining room table in her best Tom & Jerry impression! I’d join her, but I’m not getting down off my chair!

Elijah moves the right board and drops it just as quickly as the mouse makes a break for it. The dog and cat quickly chase it back into the pile and Chip finally walks in the door to help.

 

Chip and Elijah move some more and cat gets the mouse! Carries it off somewhere out of sight with my boys hot on the trail. I’m not sure what exactly happens at this point, but I do know that the mouse is dead and no longer in my house!

I’m considering making some medals for my boys later today! Or maybe I’ll just make them some chocolate chip cookies…

Basketball season is OVER… March 8, 2008

And it was ugly today!  They actually played well for the most part, but let me tell you, kindergarteners can be VICIOUS!  Especially those girls! At times it more resembled a wrestling match than a basketball game.  I’m really surprised there wasn’t bloodshed! When I asked Noah about it later, he just looked at me like I was an idiot and said, “Mom, we were playing NO FOUL basketball!” Apparently in the mind of a 5 or 6 year old that doesn’t mean you’re not supposed to foul, that means you can foul all you want and not get called for it!

Elijah played really well in his game. He was in there getting rebounds and passed the ball very well. And he worked really hard on the traveling (not that they call them on it) and not fouling.

And as much as I enjoyed how much my boys enjoyed basketball, I’m soooo going to enjoy sleeping in again on Saturday mornings. At least until baseball starts in a couple months! (Click the picture to see it bigger).

 

Here they are with their trophies. Doesn’t the trophy look like it was modeled after Noah?