June Highlights

My, how time flies when you have four kids!  I just realized that it has been more than two years since I have blogged  ... and I still blame Facebook for my demise.  However, I am hoping to start back up with a picture-heavy post every month to help us stay better connected with family.  To kick it off, here are highlights from June.

What is the start of summer without some water?  We went to a BBQ/swimming party with friends and Z had a couple of buddies over for a sleepover and slip-and-slide.

We were invited to explore the botanical gardens with friends.  Typically I try to avoid the gardens because of my newly-acquired StL allergies, but this year hasn't been as bad.  This was the first time we have been in their children's garden and it was really cool.  To our local friends, I highly recommend it!

Z and S love being outside, digging up worms, catching creepy crawlies, and playing with toads.  Here is their record-long catch.  Ewwww!  Oh yeah, and the really big news for the month is Z got a haircut!

Actually, there is another major happening from June.  S and P both had to get glasses. S is far-sighted.  P is near-sighted.  Thankfully, neither of them have the same eye condition as Z.  N is scheduled to see the eye doctor next week, so stay tuned for whether or not we are 4-of-4 in this department!  Here the girls are in their new glasses at Grant's Farm.  (After running through sprinklers, I tried to get a good group pic but I couldn't stop N from photo-bombing. She is a nut!)

We took the kids fishing--a first for P and N.  Everyone caught at least one, except for N, and I managed to not touch a worm the whole time.  :)  After P caught her fish, she screamed and almost threw the pole back in the water because, "The fish got slime on me!"  Surprise, surprise, she also did not touch a worm.  She is definitely our daintier one!  (Side story: She cried before we left to go fishing because she wanted to go to the store first and buy some "polka-dotted fishing shoes" to match her dress.)

In non-kid related news, we have been working on getting the house ready to potentially sell.  We met with a Realtor and are finishing up remodeling projects.  When we bought our house as a foreclosure, we said that the first thing to go would be the bright blue countertops.  Well, five years later and we finally got rid of them!  Hard to see in the main pic, but we choose a speckled design of neutral colors.  The old bar was drywalled in, so we have some repair work to do there.

Finally, I spent some devoted time this month updating CarePoint's website.  As all webbies will attest to, there is always more to do.  But this round I condensed their therapist page by putting their bios in pop-ups and integrated their online system.  Now new clients can fill out all their paperwork online and existing clients can schedule appointments. Check out the recent changes!

Back to baby gates!

I can speculate what many of you are thinking ... "Baby #5 must be on the way!" However, death--rather than birth--is bringing us back around to adorning our stairwells with baby gates.

Back in January our 9-year-old dog started getting sick. Really sick. Over the course of only seven hours he vomited almost 20 times and then began squirting blood out the other end of his body. It was not pretty. Honestly, it looked like someone had slaughtered a small animal in the house. The vet couldn't pinpoint what was causing any of it. Congestive heart failure? Liver failure? A tumor in his pancreas? Administering four medicines to him four times a day over the course of a month, I thought I had nursed him back to health. That is, until this past weekend.

More puking. More blood squirting out the other end. And that is where the baby gates are coming back into action--hopefully saving myself from cleaning more unspeakables out of our carpet! I just started mentioning in passing to the kids this afternoon that the dog is sick, be gentle with him, let him lay down, etc. Eventually Z picked up on it and said, "He's probably dying." I was surprised that he didn't sound sad when he said it; it was very factual. Our next steps for him would either be surgery or to put him down. Surgery isn't in the plan. So my hope is that he either gets better or Tyler will be home to take him to his final visit to the vet.

So, here's to Chester! The one and only post I have ever dedicated to our dog!

So it IS possible ...

... to sleep while standing up!

May highlights

I know this is a total cop out, but I really haven't taken any time to blog and I don't plan to anytime soon. To be honest, even sitting still long enough tonight for this one post is driving me a little batty! So here are the highs and lows of the month for us. You only come for the pictures anyway, right?!? =)

E. finished school this month and has been playing in a soccer league. He is really looking forward to trying his hand at baseball, which starts next month.

S. broke her arm climbing over the van seat before her first soccer game. She gets her cast off this Friday, just in time to hopefully play in her last soccer game on Saturday.

P. absolutely loved her ballet classes, but sadly they ended this month and won't start up again until the fall. She refers to the pink shoes she is wearing in the pic as her "Princess Belle" shoes. She wants to wear them everyday. Normally, I let her. Maybe it is the blonde hair, maybe it is the dark brown eyes, maybe it is her lack of annunciation, but when she looks at me and says, "peasssss," I can't not say "yes!"

N. is officially sitting up all by herself. She is also getting all over the place by rolling, pulling, and stretching for items. I can see crawling just around the corner ... and I am not ready!


Notice what is missing in this pic? That's right! I cut N.'s rat tail off! Someone made a remark about her "cute" rat tail and implied that they thought I gave it to her on purpose. Ummm, nope, I sure didn't. That was a definite sign that it was time to go!

And doesn't she just look adorable without it?


Our much anticipated play set has finally been fully assembled. The endless rain turned this into an endless project! We still need to finish the timber border and fill it with something to cover the mud bath that is our yard. The kids have enjoyed it up to this past week ... once the mud bath finally dried, the girls refused to play on it because of the cicada infestation. I think I flicked over 50 cicadas/cicada shells off of it. I admit, it was pretty disgusting.

As for Tyler and I, we torn up our full bath only to realize that there was more involved than we originally thought. Another weekend project (like the play set above!) turned into a few-weekends project. Thankfully, with family in town, the bathroom was finished this past weekend so we can shower again without fearing that we will fall through the subfloor!

Time for a cut?

I suppose every little girl eventually hits this milestone. I remember doing it, very clearly actually. (I even remember one of my older sisters doing it, which is saying something because I don't remember much!) I was in the basement, hiding under a blanket on the chair while my mom was on the couch talking on the phone. When I came out from under the blanket, my mom screamed, "What did you do? You cut your hair!?!?" So when S. told me that she was going to go comb her hair this morning and ten minutes later was still in the bathroom, I knew something was up. I thought that she was putting on my makeup again or had dispensed an entire roll of toilet paper into the pot, but instead I was greeted with a cute little smile and a quick shut of the door behind her. She looked different ... older perhaps. I couldn't quite put my finger on it when it hit me. "Did you cut your hair?" She looked surprised, like I wouldn't notice, and then stammered out, "Yeah." I began to inspect the new 'do and was somewhat pleased. It really didn't look half bad! In an 80's punk rocker sort of way. And fortunately lopsided, chunky cuts are in style. I could add some streaks of color and she would be the coolest 3yo in the county! Unfortunately, I don't follow trends too closely and if I have it my way we will be going to the salon tomorrow for a redo hairdo.

On the lappie
N. is just over 6 months now and is learning all sorts of new things. Here is just one of the latest:


Back in the saddle?
Well, I wouldn't say that I am entirely back on the blogging bandwagon, but I am trying to get back into the groove of it. Facebook has ruined me because I can jot a quick sentence in the middle of day without having to sit down and actually type anything. Pure laziness? Absolutely!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas, from our home to yours!


And a huge thank you to our families for all of the gifts! We miss being with you today. (More pictures to come ... hopefully!)

The precious gift under our Christmas tree