Rain, Rain, Go Away!

We had a little storm move through this evening early. Some thunder, a little lighting, hard rain for a few minutes, and strong winds. The kids were out in the backyard playing. They came running in the house yelling, "Momma, a storm's coming!" We've had a few tornadoes in the past 4 years and have had to take shelter in our laundry room on more than one occasion, so the kids are a little skittish where storms are concerned. When they got in the house, I told Luke to run take a shower real quick. He got to our bathroom, undressed and then was peeking around the corner of the kitchen saying, "but Momma, you told us not to take a shower when it's lightning!" They were so filthy, they had to take a shower, so I ran in there and got all three in and out one at a time in about 5 minutes. FAST showers!

Emma is officially weening. My milk just hasn't been where it needs to be and she's not gaining weight like she needs to. That happened to Sara and we don't want Emma to lose as much weight as Sara did, so we're weening her now. Sara stopped gaining weight from 4-6 months, so Emma has made it longer than Sara did, but I fed Hope for a whole year, so I was kinda expecting to do that with Emma. The only thing we can think is that I'm just to stressed and it's affecting my milk production. I don't get to just sit and bond with Emma when I'm feeding her. It's always, "Hope stop!", "Sara! Get Hope!" :) I'm a little sad, but it will be easier with bottles because now Sara can help feed her too. She's still not eating solid food very well, but at least she's opening her mouth for a few bites now!

Spring Fever!

It has officially hit! I'm ready for spring! I am one who loves the seasons. By the end of the summer, I'm ready for jeans and sweaters, but by the end of winter, I am soooooo ready for capris and flip flops! Sara is, too. That girl loooooves flip flops! It was almost 70 today, so I got my taste of spring and I can't wait!

The girls and I went to the dermatologist today for a follow up appointment. She said we are on the right road. We are going to keep doing what we're doing. I was so proud of the girls. They were so well behaved. Times like today remind me what GREAT kids I have.

After the dr., we went to Krispy Kreme for donuts. Sara had gotten a coupon for a free donut at her Valentine's party, so we went to use it. The girls had fun watching the donuts go down the conveyor belt.

Then we came home and went for a walk. It was so nice to get outside. Even Emma loved being outside. Lance and I are so blessed that all of our kids love to be outside!

The girls on our walk

We went back home to eat lunch and then we had naptime. Luke got home after the girls got up from their nap and we went on another walk. This one was a long one. About 1 1/2 miles. Almost too long! Some good friends of ours live behind our subdivision and the kids wanted to walk to see them. We have to cross a field to do it. I was going to use the jogger stroller, but a tire was flat. So we trudged on. Not the smartest thing I've ever done. But the kids got to see something really neat on our walk. We have a lot of geese in this area. There is a retaining pond behind our subdivision that they like to be in. In the field we crossed, a flock of them were walking around. The kids were able to get really close to them. A little closer than I wanted them to! They thought it was the coolest thing. And when they did fly off, it was right beside us and they were amazed!

Luke chasing the geese

The kids and the geese

Faddis Jamboree

I had a little bit of a leftover migraine today. I took some medicine to knock it out last night when I felt it coming on, and most of the day I felt ok, but not great. By the afternoon, I was ready to get out of the house though. I missed Bible Study today because of Sara's fever the past couple of days and I was looking forward to that. So in order to get out for a few minutes, I took Luke to basketball practice tonight. Lance normally does it, but I needed to go to the grocery store after, so I took him. It was fun. He did good. Even made 3 baskets! He did a much better job at paying attention to the coach and what was going on around him!

Then after dinner, we had an impromptu jamboree in the living room. It was Hope and Luke's idea. Luke got his guitar and Hope had her Daddy get his guitar. Sara had a maraca, and Hope was banging pots from their kitchen! (I joined in later on spoons!) It was a memory in the making!

The Faddises and all their musical talent!

Don't ask me how, but this is what Emma was doing during the "music"!

Tomorrow is going to be a day of laundry. With a follow up dermatologist appointment for Sara thrown in. I am so far behind on laundry. Most of it is washed, but I have tons to fold and put up! If you've ever wondered what laundry for a family of 6 looks like when it hasn't been put up, here ya go....!

Poor Emma. Her room is the dumping ground!

Sara's Turn

Since Sara couldn't go to MDO because of her fever, she and I had a Momma/daughter day! She was still running a low grade fever this morning, but she feels fine, so we made a day of it. She had some money in her piggy bank and wanted to go buy a My Little Pony at Wal-Mart. So that's what we did! She carried her purse and wallet and paid for it all by herself. She felt so big! Then we went to the DMV to get Lance's tags renewed. (had to get at least one thing accomplished today!) After that is was off to Olive Garden for lunch. She picked. She said she wanted salad and breadsticks. Yummy! We had gotten her some outfits for spring/summer at Wal-Mart, so we went to Old Navy to see what they had. She was so excited that she got to pick her clothes instead of "you buying them for me" to quote her! It amazes me how young that kids start having opinions about things like what they wear. Girls more so than boys.

My Sweet Girl!

After Old Navy, we went to pick Hope up at MDO, and then it was home for naptime. When Luke got home, they all had a lot of fun playing. No TV this afternoon, and they all ran around the house playing hide n seek and duck, duck, goose. It was fun to see them enjoy each other so much.

Unfortunately, Sara still has a fever, so we won't be going to Bible Study tomorrow. But, on the other hand, staying home for the morning does have it's appeal!

Here's Emma during the melee at the house. She can't wait to join them!

Will The Sickness Never End?!?!

We had another good day today. Lance and I didn't go to church this morning. He had some work that he had to do at his office and Emma isn't feeling great. She's been pretty fussy the past couple nights, which isn't normal for her. So she and I stayed home this morning and just hung out together! We left for Prairie Grove right before lunch to get the kids. We spent the afternoon in P.G. The kids have so much fun when they are there. And the weather was warm enough that we could play outside with coats on. Their cousins Clayton and Evan came over for a while and everyone had fun together.

We picked up a pizza from one of our favorite restaurants (Gusano's) on the way home. Sara had fallen asleep in the car so when we got home, she was a little groggy. She sat in her Daddy's lap to eat her pizza, but didn't eat much and went to lay on the couch. Lance said she felt warm so I got the thermometer and sure enough, fever. 101.1 Arghhh! So here we go again! Hopefully it won't last. She'll be home with me tomorrow while Hope goes to MDO. But on a positive note...her skin is healing!!! Thank you, Lord! We go back to the dermatologist Wed. I can't wait to see what Cheryl has to say. We are sooooo happy!

Dance, Dance, Dance!

I have the coolest husband in the world! Let me give you the backstory...We watch Dancing With the Stars every season. We love watching it as a family. At my brother's wedding this past summer, Sara was having her Daddy hold her in dance moves like she had seen on the show. It was so cute. Anyway, Lance and I love the show. He tried to get me ballroom dancing lessons for my birthday this year, but couldn't get it together in time. So for Christmas, Jeremy and Leah got Lance and I 4 ballroom dancing lessons. We were soooo excited. Today was our first lesson. Lance's parents took the kids after Luke's Upward basketball game today which was at 8:00 (woo-hoo!) so we had the whole day and night to do what we wanted to do!

Now how many husbands will go ballroom dancing with their wives. Not only go, but WANT to go and have fun while doing it?!?! Leah and Jeremy got us 4 lessons, but I think we will do more after the 4 are over. We had soooo much fun! Watch out Cheryl Burke and Mark Ballas!

Ahhhh, the Weekend!

I can tell you this is going to be a GREAT weekend. First of all, it HAS to be better than last weekend. Second of all, my in-laws are taking all three "big" kids tomorrow morning and keeping them until Sunday. We are going to go down for lunch after church Sun. and then bring them back that afternoon. Third, Lance isn't on-call!!!!! Tonight alone has the whole of last weekend beat already! The kids have missed Lance. He came home for dinner and then let the girls crawl all over him, held Emma, helped Luke with Wii Lego Batman and then had a lightsaber fight before bed. It's been a great night!

Luke rode the bus home again today. I think we've hit a winner! He is loving it and I am loving not having to get all the girls loaded to go get him every afternoon! I seriously don't know why I haven't been doing this all year! He got a "green card" today at school, so he was very happy. He has trouble at school being quiet and staying in his seat. But I can't get on to him too much. We all know where he got that from!!! We've implemented a new system at home for him. I have two jars. One with a smiley face and one with a sad face. I put $5 of nickels into each jar. Every time I catch him doing somthing positive or if he obeys immediately or has a good attitude, he gets to move a nickel from the sad face to the smiley face jar. On the other hand, when he doesn't obey, etc. he moves a nickel from the happy jar to the sad jar. When all nickels are in the happy jar, he has $10 to go buy a toy. I just started it yesterday, but it's working great so far. $ speaks to him!

Sara's skin is doing so much better!!! Praise the Lord! I can't tell you how many prayers have been said for that little girl. I'm hopeful that we've finally figured out what's wrong. Her hands are responding to the ringworm medicine and the rest of her body has calmed down since her hands have started clearing up. We are still praying that she is healed.

Hope is chugging right along! Still won't go to bed. I've been up 3 times already. This last time, Sara was asleep in their bed, and Hope had the light on sitting in bed reading books. That girl will be the death of me!

And it looks like Emma doesn't have a milk allergy after all. She still won't eat much solid food, but she is at least not spitting it out and tongue thrusting anymore. She had oatmeal with bananas this morning and it stayed down. No vomiting! Yea!

Go Faddis Family!