Spring is Coming!

I've been working on cleaning out my flower beds and I found these.  Crocuses have always been a favorite of mine, not because they are particularly beautiful, but because they mean Spring is coming.  They promise that Winter is almost over.  They are that ray of sunshine that breaks through the dreariness.

 I decided to eschew housework today and instead work in the yard.  It was sunny and my bulbs and some perennials are starting to come through which means that the remaining leaves and such left from last year need to be cleaned out.

One of my first jobs however was to add the baby swing t the swing set so that the kids could all swing together.  Lily was good to push Gideon and Charlotte and after a morning of bickering it was so wonderful to see them play so well together.  I think that we all just need to be outside.

 This was Gideon's first time in the swing and he loved it, even if it was a pink swing.

Gideon's First Haircut

I've been putting it off, because he is so young still, but this afternoon I broke down and cut Gideon's hair.  I'm not overly attached to my baby's hair, if I don't like how it is growing in, I trim it.  Gideon has had this long patch on top with some tufts on the sides and today it looked to puffy because of the stuff growing in underneath.

I took nearly an inch and a half off the top.  It was a challenging experience, using the clippers on a wiggly baby, but we made it work.

Most people probably won't notice, but I really like how it looks.

 He seems pretty pleased with himself.  Apparently I didn't traumatize him.

 Gideon's been dealing with some rough teething issues so we are trying out the amber beads.  He seems not to mind the necklace under his shirt.  At this point I'm willing to try anything.  Thankfully his 4th tooth just broke through this morning, but if these first four teeth are an indicator for how the next 16  will come in I'm scared.  Good thing we kinda like this kid.

Charlotte's Birthday

Charlotte turned three yesterday.  I asked to stay little, but she refused and insisted that she must grow up.  We had planned a party, but it would be held on the day after her actual birthday so on her birthday we decided to have a fun outing to celebrate.  A few weeks ago we went to Jabbers for a little friend's birthday party and the girls have been talking about it ever since so we decided to go and play for Charlotte's birthday.

They have a toddler play area that was perfect for Gideon.  Look at that guy, growing up as well.

  This swing is a hit with all of the kids.

 Charlotte put on a little puppet show for me.  The elephant and zebra were friends.

 He hasn't figured out how to build with the blocks yet, but banging them on the table is a lot of fun apparently.

 Lily loves the construction zone.  This girl is a builder!  She spent a lot of time building a really big house (this picture is just the beginning of it) and then some boys came along and knocked it down.  She sobbed!  I could hear her from across the room.  One of the boy's mother was there, trying to help her feel better, but it took her a long time to get over the loss.  Finally I got her to start building again.

 She started working again when this other little boy came up to her and asked if he could build with her saying "I don't knock things down."  They played together the rest of the afternoon.

Charlotte is an independent player and entertained herself all afternoon.  She's also quite the builder, but when her towers fall down she just starts right back building them again.  This one fell down several times and she just smiled, picked up the pieces, and started again.

After Jabbers we got some pizza for dinner, because that was what Charlotte asked for, and then headed home for a quiet evening.  At least for the kids, I had to finish getting things ready for her party.

Nine Months

Life moves on.  I've really wanted it to just stop for a little while this week, but it just doesn't work that way. 

Gideon is nine months old today.  This little guy must have hit a growth spurt because all of the sudden the pants that he wore last week are way too short and I know that my dryer isn't broken.

He crawls all over the place, pulls himself up on everything around him, and is cruising all over the place.

 He also puts everything in his mouth, EVERYTHING!  He's working on his 3rd and 4th teeth.  I have been able to see them for days, but they still haven't broken through.

  He is such a boy!  He loves cars, balls, and tearing things apart as much as possible.

We sure love this little guy, and maybe someday, SOMEDAY, I'll get a full night's sleep again.

Saying Goodbye

Today we had to say goodbye to sweet Labrador, Oscar.

Shortly after Tyson and I purchased our home we decided that it needed a dog.  I grew up with dogs, Tyson had never had one.  We spent some time looking at the local shelters (because I am a firm believer in adopting dogs from a shelter rather than buying from a breeder) and then one day we found Oscar.  He was still a puppy, less than 3 months old, but as cute as can be and so lovable.  We brought him home with us that night and so since September 2008 he has been a part of our family.  He loves to be with people and developed a protective nature midway through my pregnancy with Lily.

As children came along we came to see just how wonderful he really was.  While he was hyper and a bit crazy with adults, he was gentle and protective of the babies.  Our children have known him their entire lives.  He has been someone to cuddle with, climb on, and playmate.

A year ago we decided that Oscar needed a friend so we adopted Franky.  They played together and took care of one another.  Over the last several months, as Oscar had gotten sicker, they seemed to have grown closer.  Franky cuddled up with him more often rather than running through the yard chasing each other like they used to do.

 Towards the end of last summer I noticed that something was just not quite right with Oscar.  He seemed to be experiencing some lameness in his hind legs.  At first I thought that it was just stiffness from getting up after a nap, but then I noticed it happening when he has been up and about for a while.  He was also very hungry, all the time, and started to put on weight.  Then the seizures started.  Small at first, just little ticks in his face that were hardly noticeable, they got worse, and eventually he was having grand mal seizures.  We took him to the vet who at first was sure that it was just a case of epilepsy, apparently it is fairly common in middle-aged Labradors.  She was going to run some blood tests to rule out other causes, but not to worry.  I didn't, I felt so relieved, epilepsy could be easily treated.  A couple of days later I got another phone call, something was off, it could have been lab tech error, so they wanted to do it again.  I took Oscar back in and they checked his blood sugars, again it was low, and I mean really low, mid-30's.  Dogs are like people here, it should be over 80.  It was his low blood sugar that was causing his seizures.  The vet ran one more test and that was when we learned that Oscar had insulinomas in his pancreas, tumors that were causing his pancreas to secrete too much insulin, causing his blood sugar to be too low, which is what was causing his seizures.  At this point treatment wasn't an option.  Our veterinarian prescribed some steroids for him to act as an insulin blocker to keep the seizures away.  We have known since last November that he wouldn't be with us long.  Our veterinarian advised us on how to know when it would be the right time to let him go. 

Over the last few weeks Oscar has stopped playing, he is just lying around waiting for more food.  It has been a very hard decision, but Tyson and I felt that the time had come to let him go.  Monday was a beautiful day.  It was sunny and warm and he got to spend a lot of time outside on the lawn with the girls.  I also took some pictures of him with each of the kids.  

Charlotte loves her puppy!

 Oscar has been Lily's buddy for her entire life.

 Gideon was sad that I took his toy away for the picture.

 These pictures actually confirmed for me our decision that it was time.  Normally Oscar would be smiling with the kids cuddled him or sat in his lap, but he just looks sad to me.  I told the kids that Oscar would be dying, I was not sure that I could really explain euthanasia to children so young, but they accepted it when I told him that he was going to pass away and that we wouldn't have him anymore.  They have known for several months now that he is sick and that he would be dying someday.

This afternoon Tyson and I took Oscar to be put to sleep.  It was so hard for us, we loved our dog, he was ours before we had children, but he was so wonderful with the kids that it just made us love him more.  I thanked him for being such a good dog and then he was gone.

Last night we used some clay and made a paw print from Oscar that we could keep.  I also went through several years worth of photographs and printed off dozens of pictures of Oscar and the kids.  We picked up a photo album and today put the pictures in it, talking about what we loved most about Oscar and the fun things that we did with him.  

We will miss him so much, but that is the risk that we take when we choose to love someone.  With great love comes the possibility of great loss and you know what, he was totally worth it.

Eight Months

Little man has decided not to be so little anymore.  I don't notice him getting bigger and then all of the sudden it seems that his clothes no longer fit.  It shouldn't be surprising though, this baby boy LOVES food, all kinds of food, and is starting to prefer to feed himself over the spoon-fed baby food.  I don't mind at all.  

This little dude is crawling all over the house now.  It is amusing to watch the girls try to build their own baby gates to try to keep him away from things, though far too often they just cause me to trip.

He's so busy, never sits still, not even when he insists on being help, he still wants to grab everything around him.

He's such a happy little guy!  He makes everyone around him smile when he smiles.

The girls love helping me with Gideon's pictures, but they really like to be in pictures too and insisted on one with all of them together.  They arranged themselves behind Gideon and said "cheese!"  Of course Gideon decided not to cooperate.

Gideon is Crawling!

Our little man has been scooting inch worm style and army crawling around the room for quite some time now.  He's been getting up on his knees, rocking back and forth for a few weeks now and this afternoon I looked over while preparing dinner and noticed that he was crawling!

He's still learning, but he sure is a happy little guy.

 He's twisting a lot, but he's getting it!

 One of my favorite things as a mother is watching my children learn new things and develop new skills.

Seven Months Old

Sometimes life just gets crazy, and these last few days have been just that.  I prepped Gideon's 7 months onesie at least a week ago, but I didn't even realize that yesterday was the 19th, I thought that it was today.  Whoops!

Oh well, one day isn't so bad, and this morning he was actually kinda happy!  He cut his first two teeth this last week and he had a miserable time of it.  His eczema is also pretty rough right now so Gideon's struggling.  But he is still cute as a button so despite the crying, screaming, and neediness, I still love him dearly and I can't help but kiss those cheeks any time they come within range.

He is trying so hard to crawl.  He spends a lot of time up in this position, but he isn't quite there yet.

 He is trying though!  It won't be long and he'll be hauling all over the place.

December 14- Elf Night

Another fun day as we countdown to Christmas!  We started the day by reading our daily scripture which today came from Luke 2:42-49.  This is where Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem as a boy and his parents found him a few days later in the temple, learning from the scholars.  Here we see that Jesus sought learning.

Today we watched one of my favorite Christmas movies, Elf.  We also read the book Elf: A Short Story of a Tall Tale which was really cute and all about how it is our differences that make us special.

 For our refreshments during the show we followed the four food groups of the elves; candy, candy corn, candy canes,

 and chocolate syrup mixed in with their milk.  Some days we just don't quite manage a good picture, oh well.  Here are my crazy kids.  And don't worry, Gideon didn't get chocolate milk, just some water with a bit of apple juice.

 In other news, Gideon's first tooth broke through today.

December 13- Making Homemade Candy Canes

This morning started earlier than it should have.  It seems like once every 2 weeks or so Gideon decides so wake up for the day before 4 am.  It is exhausting!  I get a lot done in those early morning hours, but by early afternoon I'm so tired!  I had planned today's activity for quite some times, but I was seriously reconsidering given how early my day started.

To make the best of things we got started on our advent activity earlier than usual.  We read from Matthew 5:2-16 which is a portion of the Sermon on the Mount.  Not only do we learn what Jesus wants us to do, but this shows Him as a teacher, and a great one at that.

For our activity we had planned to make homemade candy canes.  I decided to go for it and got everything together.  Lily helped with adding the ingredients to the pan.

 Charlotte preferred to stir.

 And Gideon sat next to me looking cute.

 Seriously, look at those big eyes, he's so cute I could seriously devour this kid.

 Well...I stepped away for a minute, and as anyone who makes candy knows, that is a bad idea.  I swear that the thermometer was at 250 degrees when I walked away and when I got back it was at 320 degrees,  That's a problem when you are supposed to remove them from heat at 280.  So, I poured the burnt sugar into an old jam jar that I could just throw away, because seriously, what else was I going to do with it, and then started over.  Whoops.

 The second time I watched the thermometer like a hawk and boy was it BORING!  It took ages.  But eventually we got there, I poured it out and added the coloring and flavoring.  I had intended to make a green stripe too, but I grabbed the red food coloring because I wasn't paying attention so I had 2 batches of red instead of one.  Whoops.  I tell you, I need sleep.

 I worked it all together and low and behold, it eventually looked like candy cane material.  I started putting it all together a bit too early though.  If I make them again, which I probably will, I will wait until it is a little cooler.

 I cut it into strips and the girls ran with them from the counter to the kitchen table and shaped them into all sorts of things.

 They were pretty proud of all of their candy canes.

 They turned out pretty well, not too bad for the first go around, even with a burnt batch.

If you'd like the recipe and tutorial I found this one here.