Going ons

TOMORROW (EEK!) I will post after we find out the gender of "Baby Earl"!  It will be an exciting post, but in the meantime, I figured I better get caught up.  Not only will we have that big announcement, but later today Matt's wonderful sister and her family of 6 will get here to visit for 2 weeks!  I probably won't get many opportunities to blog while they're here, so I thought I would get us caught through today, so that in a few weeks I'm not too behind.  We've had a count down going for 2 weeks for the Bradbeer family visit, an last weekend after we told the girls about the baby, we added a count down to find out the gender.

 We were all pretty excited to change the count downs this morning!

 

Last weekend (and this weekend, and probably the one before that too, I can't remember that far back) Matt had to spend Saturday at school, which was kind of hard on me because we had a house full of REALLY sick kids and I was feeling crummy and exhausted.  However, he came home Saturday night and made dinner, homemade white pizza with basil from our very own garden!!  It was our first time getting to eat something out of our garden and it was so exciting (and really, really yummy.  I mean seriously, look at that pizza.  It was SO good.)

 Matt really cracks me up with his garden obsession.  He has really fallen in love with it, the first thing he does when he wakes up in morning (And I do mean the FIRST, like before he goes pee) is go out on the deck and see if anything new has blossomed, if it's a weekend and he is home he is out there several times during the day, watering, weeding, checking to see if anything new is happening.  The kids are also super excited about the garden, but I think Matt has them beat.  It's very cute.

Just in case you thought I was exaggerating my halo of hair frizz and my need to braid, here is a day that I wore my hair in a bun fresh out of the shower, it was smooth and combed tight at the beginning of the day, by noon it looked like this.  And honestly, this was a pretty good day, because I was home with sick kids (which is why I didn't bother trying to actually fix/braid/put product in it) so it's not as noticeable frizz as it would be if I had been outside, but you get the idea.  If I wear my hair down and curly, it's not too noticeable, but as a busy mom, in the heat and humidity, I usually want it up.  And so I end up with some kind of braid/twist, or else walk around looking like this.  Super attractive.  Gotta love humid weather (no, I really, really don't, unless I'm at the beach, then it's perfectly acceptable, otherwise, no thanks!).

 

My poor kids got hit so hard with this cough/cold.  It was miserable.  Managing fevers meant waking up several times a night and writing down who got what meds when, since we had to piggy back Tylenol and Motrin, otherwise their fevers wouldn't stay below 103.  It was a ROUGH 2 weeks.  Made rougher by Matt being really busy, and both Matt and I getting sick ourselves.  The kids were understandably clingy, whiny, and miserable with no appetite and short tempers.  Not gonna lie, I came really close to a complete, exhausted, and massive breakdown several days.  I held myself together knowing if I let myself go there it would be an 'ugly cry', & an unproductive mess.  But MAN!  Sometimes it is really mentally/emotionally/physically draining to be a mom.

On the fourth of July Izzie was still incredibly sick, she slept in until 9AM!!!  This is by far the latest that any of my kids have ever slept. I mean that is at least 3 hours later than normal, then she came upstairs, laid on the couch, asked for water, and fell right back asleep for another hour.  It was crazy.  So, needless to say, our 4th of July was a subdued one. 

 She perked up after I got her to eat some yogurt, and I gave her a shower, after her fever finally broke (for the first time...it ended up happening several times) and she was drenched in sweat, like she looked like she ran through the sprinklers, so the shower was really necessary, even though she really didn't want one.  As a reward afterward I let the big girls take turns playing on daddy's kindle while I painted their toes.  We weren't doing much of our usual 4th of July festivities, and we had missed all of the fun Rochester Fest parades/events due to everyone being sick, so I tried to think of fun things we could do while resting at home.

 Matt was "on call" on the fourth of July, so he had to spend the day at the hospital.  He got home just in time to barbeque dinner, it was nothing special, just standard cheap/easy 4th of July stuff, turkery burgers/dogs, fruit & veggies but we all enjoyed it, Izzie even ate a few bites.

 Kate was napping when I painted the other girl's toes and she felt left out, so  I painted hers during dinner.

 After dinner we did sparklers.  Izzie wasn't really interested, but Kate and Lily loved it.

It's always interesting when Matt takes my picture, I asked him to take the above shot of me, and he did, I made a silly face for the next picture, but when I uploaded the pictures I realized he had just taken the second picture of my boobs.  Thanks honey!

 Matt's Grandma gave me a big tub full of fabric a couple years ago, and I have gotten lots of projects out of it, with LOTS more to spare.  I made the girl's Easter dresses with it, and my mom made a beautiful dress for Lily while she was here (I don't have a picture of it, I'll have to rectify that at some point), and these were also made from it.  The bottom is red with white polka dots, but it's kind of hard to tell in the picture.  I thought they worked well as 4th of July dresses, and they all wore them to church yesterday.  I will admit that everyone but Lily is still in some stage of getting better, but it had been a few weeks since we all went to church together and we felt the need to press on and get there.

If you're from AZ, I am sure that you have heard much about the Yarnell fire.  18 firefighters tragically lost their lives.  My Grama St. George has a home there, and I used to spend summers there with her and my Papa while he was alive.  Initially we were told that her home had completely burned.  It was heartbreaking.  Here is my facebook status from that morning (sorry for those of you on FB who have already seen this, but there are people who read my blog who actually aren't on FB (!), and I also feel it's good to document everything here as well, but I am kind of lazy so it's easier to copy and paste...)

 

I found out this morning that in addition to the 19 firefighters who tragically lost their lives fighting the Yarnell fire (near Prescott AZ), my Grandma St. George lost her home in the fire. I am so happy that she is safe and well, but my heart feels heavy thinking about the lives lost, precious possessions destroyed, and countless lives impacted by this tragedy. One of my favorite places to climb rocks, see fish, and spend time with my grandparents and siblings as a child is completely gone, it was a place that always felt like magic to me, a great little mountain town where adventure was plentiful, hiking and exploring was encouraged, TV was scarce, and the mountains felt alive with life and possibilities. To imagine it turned to ash hurts my heart.

 

We have found out since then that only a small portion of her property burned, though her neighbors on both sides completely lost their homes.  It is a miraculous blessing, and I was so happy to hear that some of my papa's possessions were saved.  Thinking of it all destroyed felt a little like losing him again.  However, there is still so much loss for the people of that community.  Lots of people lost absolutely everything, many children lost their fathers, wives lost their husbands, and parents lost their young firefighter sons.  Such a tragic event is felt by people everywhere, but when you actually know those neighbors and have walked through those trees its seems all the more terrible.

On a less somber note, I transitioned the crib into a toddler bed for Katie last week.  She has done WAY better than I expected with it, though we do find her bed heaped with toys every morning/post nap time.  She loves her "big girl bed" and loves to be in it.  I wanted to get her used to sleeping in a bed, since when the baby comes, she'll move in with her sister.

 

 In addition to getting Kate moved into her "new" bed, and getting the house ready for our visitors, I also prepped our gender reveal stuff.  I made a blue option and a pink option, and decided to do something more fun to tell the kids if it will be a brother/sister than just telling them since they aren't allowed to attend the ultrasound with us.  I made some pink & blue confetti, then stuffed it in a black balloon.  After we find out what we are having (and after Matt takes 2 exams-he'll head there straight from the ultrasound, I'll wait and see the Dr, then wait for him to finish his exams, then) we'll blow up either the pink balloon or the blue balloon, bring it home and let the girls pop it, hopefully showering them in the appropriate colored confetti.  We haven't done a test run to see exactly how the confetti pop turns out, so hopefully it's not a flop!

 Matt elected to take his "summer vacation", which is really just a one week break from school (and actually school still happens he's just excused) during the week that his sister and her family are here.  After the past few weeks I've had, I am SO excited/relieved/happy to have him home.  Like I stated in the above paragraph, he still has to go in and take 2 exams (and consequently study for them), but it is going to be AMAZING to have him around this week!!