When Joanna Turned Eight

The day before Joanna’s birthday she told me to take a picture of her since she wasn’t going to be seven again.

So I did.

Her birthday was on a Sunday, so she was pretty excited to wear her birthday crown to church.

Afterward I took a couple of pictures outside of my EIGHT year old!

After lunch it was present time!

This is her tired of waiting face – she’s so ready!

We gave Joanna a friendship bracelet making kit.  She was very excited!

Nana and Popo had mailed their gift and it was ready to open.

This is her “thank you for all the books!” face.

Joanna helped me make brownies (from a box) for an after dinner treat.

I sure am happy this sweet girl came along eight years ago and made me a momma.  I sure do love her!

The Probing of Michael’s Eye

Back at the end of January Michael and I went to his ophthalmologist to do something about the blocked tear duct he’d had for forever.  I was hoping that the doc would probe it in the office without general anesthesia, but it wasn’t looking promising.  It seemed he was probably too old and would need to go downtown. I was holding out hope though because he’s so tiny.

I was sooooooooooo glad I got to leave the rest of the crew with my mom.  They would have been dream children I’m sure, but it was nice to just hang with my Mike-O for the drive and the wait.

We’d met with the med assistant and it was looking like the doctor was willing to give the probe a try in the office.  Yay!  I didn’t take very many pictures, but this is the set-up before we strapped my sweet baby down.

I think he knew something was coming up!

It was pretty unpleasant watching him strapped down and listening to him cry, but he really did great.  The doctor wasn’t sure it was going to work but was optimistic after it was over that it may have worked.  He said to give it a month before deciding whether the procedure was successful.  I was very relieved that they attempted it in the office as I was quite apprehensive about Michael going under general anesthesia. 

It really tuckered him out and he slept on the way home.

We had a couple of day of bloody tears which was pretty sad (but totally normal).

Then there were almost two weeks where he’d have the tiniest bit of discharge but it seemed very cleared up.  Then Friday two weeks ago it got really really clogged up and stayed that way through Monday.  We massaged it throughout the weekend, and I planned to call on Monday about it but got busy.  Then on Tuesday it completely cleared up and has been clear since.  I am so excited about that!  I really hope that the duct truly is cleared out and the probe worked… especially since I just got the bill.  :)

Family Cook Out!

We went over to Aunt Gail’s house this evening for a weenie roast!

The kid in the blue jacket is Joanna.  She did quite a bit of roasting along side her daddy.

Joanna told me to take a picture of her marshmallow, then Grandpa David bombed it.

It was such a lovely evening, and we had a great time!

Day in the Life in February

7:30: Wake up, brush teeth

Nurse babies in my bed

Hang out with various children and a husband in the bed for awhile.

At 9:00 I was doing laundry.  I also grabbed some breakfast in there somewhere.  Matt fed the kiddos.

We decided to stay home from church just in case anyone was still (or about to be) contagious from the stomach bug. (Spoiler alert: this was a GOOD CHOICE.)  James had it starting Thursday night and by this point all the boys and I had had it in some form.

At 10:00 Matt and the kiddos headed out for a walk.

I think they had a great time, and Michael got a little catch nap in.

Me?  I took a big fat rest all alone, watching some Fringe on my bed.

Snack break!

About 11:30 I hopped up to get started on lunch before the family came home.

Chocolate chip banana nut pancakes – loved by all!

Everyone got home and ate pancakes and smoothies.

I cleaned up lunch stuff then started chopping and gathering for dinner – pot roast.

At about 2:00 I got started on the roast.

I put it in the oven at 2:20 to cook for about 3 hours.

At 3:00 the babies were napping, the big kids were playing, and Matt and I decided to watch a little television.  Here I’m getting a hand rub.

Barbies!

By 4:00 the babies were up, Matt’s sister and brother-in-law had stopped by, and oh, yeah, the girls had succumbed to the stomach bug.  Boo.

By 5:00, Mindy and Steve had left and I was fixing sandwiches for dinner for the boys.  The roast wasn’t quite done, and I hadn’t mashed the potatoes we like to eat with it.  And frankly, James is never a big fan anyway.

Poor babies!!

At 6 I sat down with my yummy roast for one.  :)

Matt ran a quick errand to my mom’s house and took all the boys with him.  We were having trouble keeping the babies off the girls.

Around 7:00 we cleaned up, put the boys to bed, helped the girls continue to be sick over and over again, and did much laundry.  I also prepped my coming week of school work.  Matt managed to eat his dinner in there somewhere.

At 8:00 the girls were both sleeping pretty soundly in the living room, and I was working on this post in my bedroom.

At 9:00 Matt and I have each eaten a piece of cheesecake, we have vomit pillows in the washer, and we’re watching some more Fringe on Netflix.  Except for the poor sick babies, it’s a pretty good night!  Here’s hoping I have nothing left to add for the rest of the day.  :)