Pictureless Post

I can always tell when life gets really busy, because I don't blog. I blog at night when the kids go to bed. On the nights that I'm too tired, I just don't have the brain power to think coherent thoughts! ha! And then I get so many days behind, I keep procrastinating because I have to search through to find pics to put on, and that stresses me. So, I'm releasing myself right now from not posting if I don't have pictures!

Things that have happened this week...

Turns out, Hope had e.coli, not salmonella. Joy. We have no idea how she got it, but it totally grosses me out! Thankfully, after that one 24 hour period, she started feeling much better.

Emma has cut 3 molars! She's been crankier lately, and had a week of diarrhea (sorry for the TMI!) ha!, and she's been chewing on her hands a lot. Took this brilliant Mom of 4 a week and a half to realize she was probably cutting molars. And took me until today to physically check them! Pitiful! :)

Hope and Emma started MDO yesterday. They had a blast! They love going to "school" like the big kids. Hope has the teachers that Sara had for the past 2 years. She's so excited to be in the "big kids" class. And Emma has the same teachers Hope had when she was 2. They are so excited to have her. I was so proud of both of them. Emma just walked right into class and waved bye at me. And Hope has a history of clinging to my leg and crying when I drop her off. We talked about how she was a big girl now, in the big kids class and she promised not to do that this year. And she didn't! She was shy just like she normally is in new situations, but she just smiled and sat at her table. She was all grins when I picked her up!

Luke and Sara are loving school. Sara has turned into the teacher's right hand man, just like I knew she was! haha! She is just suited for school. Luke is loving 3rd grade. I'm so proud of his school work! He checked out a 375 page book from the library yesterday (Percy Jackson) and by the time he went to bed last night, he was on page 108!!! He is an amazing reader!

We're gearing up for the weekend. Square dance time! We had our final practice tonight. The kids are so excited to ride in the parade and the girls can't wait to wear their outfits! It's gonna be a fun and busy weekend!

The Highs and Lows!

The week started great! We had Emma's party Sunday after church. All of our families (except my brother and his wife, because he's recovering from surgery) and 2 sets of close family friends came over for lunch and cake. Emma LOVED being the princess of the party! She was a HOOT! Every present she opened she squealed as loud as she could, laughed, and yelled "mine!" hahaha! Poor girl. It's not like she doesn't have any toys of her own, but she's so used to playing with her sisters' toys. :)

That was her expression with every present!

Wearing some new dress up and blowing out the candles!

Like the post is titled, "The Highs and Lows" After a great start to the week, the lows hit. Poor Hope has salmonella we think. The past 24 hours have been rough. Lance slept on the couch last night and Hope and I were up all night long with her running to the bathroom. We didn't get more than 20 minutes of sleep at a time. Bless her heart. Her little stomach has been cramping so badly and she has just cried out in pain. It seems to be letting up as time goes on. We're praying for a better day tomorrow.

Friday, Emma is getting tubes put in her ears. She's been great this summer for the most part, but every time she gets a snotty nose, she gets an ear infection. She's had ear drums burst 4 times. And with colder weather coming, along with cold and flu season, we don't want to risk more ear infections.

And to top it all off, my parents are on vacation this week! Wonderful! (glad they're having fun though!) It's just added a whole other kink having to find childcare. :) I'm spoiled and sooooo glad to have them living here now! I've gotten used to it!

Happy Birthday Emma! (and Me!)

I hadn't planned on having a 4th child, but I couldn't share a birthday with a more precious girl than Emma Noelle! The Lord had great things in store for our family when he blessed us with this precious person.

She is a precocious, loving, funny, ball of fire! She has enriched our lives so much the past 2 years. She is becoming quite the little girl lately. She has such a sense of humor. If you ask her how old she is, she'll smile and say "five" and hold up five fingers. Then she'll laugh and when you ask her again she'll say "two" and attempt to hold up 2 fingers.

Her favorite "joke" to play is when I ask her for a kiss she'll say, "NO!" with a huge grin and then I'll act like I'm crying and she'll laugh and lean over and give me a big kiss. As soon as she leans back, she'll yell, "NO!" and want me to cry again!

We're celebrating her birthday with a family lunch Sunday. All our families and some close friends are coming over after church. Hopefully I'll have great party pics!

Me and my birthday buddy!

Lance took me out to dinner for my birthday tonight. We had such a good time. We love being able to talk and just "catch up" on our lives as husband and wife and not parents. He gave me my present at dinner; a Max Lucado devotion book and journal. We are going to try to get up 15 minutes before we have to get the kids up for school and have a short devotion together. I'm excited about it!

Then it was on to our favorite date night spot: Wal Mart!! ha! We always seem to end up there on date nights! Pretty pathetic. :)

After coffee and great conversation at Starbucks, we headed home. It's been a great birthday!

First Day of School

How did this happen so quickly??? My second child, my first daughter, is now a kindergartner! Wow. This is a day that she has been looking forward to since last year. :) She has been so excited. The only time she ever said anything revealing nerves was a couple days ago, and all it was, was, "Momma, I'm a little nervous." Other than that, total excitement! Today wasn't nearly as emotional as Luke's first day of kindergarten. Maybe because she was so ready. Maybe because it wasn't the fear of the unknown for me. Maybe because she knows everyone up there. Maybe because I know everyone up there! :)

Whatever it was, it was a great day. She loved it. Luke loved it. He likes his teacher. She likes him. :) And the difference between my two kids just hits me at times. 3 years of picking Luke up from school and the answer every time to "How was school?": "fine." Today, I had a 25 minute conversation with Sara about her day and heard all the details! ha!

My 3rd grader!

All ready!

Here we go!

Sara and Mrs. Maute

Luke and Mrs. Newton

Vacation 2010

We had one of the best vacations ever last week! Camping for EIGHT DAYS!!! Now I know that's not everyone's idea of a great vacation, and considering Lance's injury just days before, most thought we were crazy for still going, but it was sooooo worth it! We had a blast! There is too much to blog about in paragraph form, so I'm giving bullet points of each day and hopefully I'll remember the details for years to come!

Day 1

• It rained that morning, so we went to town to get some more things we needed at WalMart. The kids loved being able to look in the toy aisles uninhibited!


• We swam in the river for the first time that afternoon. Wonderful!


• Emma found her footing and walked all over the river in her life jacket and LOVED it


• Lance started making carving rock necklaces for us. We took a river rock and a piece of flint and drilled a hole manually and made necklaces out of them. He said, "the Faddises have gone tribal!" ha!

Lance and Luke making Luke's necklace

Day 2

• After getting back from swimming, we had a snake in our campsite! Freaked me out!! We saw a lot of snakes this trip. **shiver**


• Bless his heart, Luke got stung by a bee


• We were in the river morning, then up for lunch, nap, and back to the river!


• The kids had fun playing "boochie ball" (kinda like bochie ball)


• The kids and I went on a bike ride. HOT!!!! I sweated so much!


• We finished all the rock necklaces
  

Day 3

• We found teeny tiney baby muscles in the river. The kept opening and closing in my hand. Very cool!


• We went into town that afternoon and saw a movie (Despicable Me)


• Then we went to the White River and ate at Gaston's and let the kids put their feet in the COLD river!
  

Day 4

• A day that will live in history. Luke found the "girl of his dreams"


• Our friends, the Wades, arrived to finish out the week with us


• We went to the river after dinner and stayed till it got dark. Really cool to see all the bats flying around. We through rocks in the water to get them to swoop down.

Day 5

• Luke had his first "date!" ha! Smores at his little friend, Hannah's, camper. :) Too cute!


• Our other friends, the Maiers came to spend a couple nights.

Day 6

• Sara learned to ride her bike without training wheels!!!!!


• Hope got a new bike! Bless her heart, her inter tube in her front tire kept popping. We finally just went and bought a new bike. She grinned from ear to ear!


• We spent the entire day on the river floating down from the bridge to our campsite with a stop for a picnic and hours of play at the spring. Favorite spot on earth!


• Lance caught a bull frog tadpole that had gotten his legs. Cool!


• We caught a really ugly fish in Haye's casting net and Lance brought it back to life after it had been out of the water too long! ha!

Hope LOVED her new bike!

So proud of my girl!!

Day 7

• Lance, Luke and Hayes went fishing for a few hours. They had a lot of fun.


• We went to a park sponsored movie about the history of the Buffalo River. The kids loved it. :)


• We played board games all morning. Found a new favorite, Mancala!

Day 8

• Packed up to come home. :(


• One last dip in the river.
• As we're hitching up to the camper, Emma falls off the picnic bench and we have to glue her forehead when we got home. :(

My little River Rat :)



A little piece of Heaven on earth

Be Our Guest!

Yesterday, I did something very spontaneous. Late in the afternoon, I ordered tickets to the broadway musical Beauty and the Beast! It came to Walton Arts Center and when I saw that it was coming months ago, I told Lance I wanted to take the girls, but I just never got tickets.

I've been seeing so many friends posting on Facebook this week that they had gone and how great it was, so I cleared it with Lance (considering his injury!) and called my Mom to go with us. Luke spent the night with my SIL and his cousins, and Dad and Lance watched Emma.

We had the BEST time! It was so amazing! The girls LOVED it! Hope got a little antsy the last 30 min of the first half, but after intermission, she was good to go and kept telling me how much fun she was having and what a great Momma I was and was telling me what was going to happen next. :) Sara was fighting the urge to dance every time a song started playing! :)

Mom said that she has as much fun watching me enjoy the musical as the girls. It was such a fun time for 3 generations to experience together. I will cherish that memory.

Sara took a picture of "the rose"

Waiting for it to start

intermission (bless my Mom; she couldn't quite get the hang of the iPhone camera. all the pics are blurry!)

We Have a Man Down

So we're leaving on vacation Saturday for 8 days of camping on the Buffalo River. We have been looking forward to this since last summer. We only got to go for 5 days last year and we said we were going to go the entire week this year. We have been anticipating this week all summer. Our camp site is on the river with a trail down to the water. We have our fishing licenses, canoe, and inner tubes. We get up and eat breakfast and walk down to the river. We come in for lunch and a nap, and walk back to the river. We come in for dinner, and walk back to the river or maybe walk to one of the park programs.

So what happens 4 days before our vacation? Lance stirs up a wasp nest at his parents last night and runs from them (because he's highly allergic) and 3 steps into his run, his calf muscle tears. OUCH!!! He said it felt like someone shot him. So we went to a friend of ours this morning who is an ortho surgeon to have it checked out. It's not any tendons, thank goodness, so no surgery, but he's in a walking boot for 2 months. (if he'll wear it that long!)

Here was our day after seeing the Doc. We went to the medical supply store for his boot and he decided he wanted one of these...

Hahahahaha!!!

Then we went to WalMart and this...I have no words!

I thought I was going to wet my pants, I was laughing so hard in WalMart! We were cracking up! I had to stop and bend over my cart laughing! At one point, I stopped to show him something and he put it in reverse: "beep, beep, beep, beep!" Hahaha! I couldn't stop laughing!

So, needless to say, our vacation is going to be a little more challenging for us. We are still going! And we are going to have fun!