Warning! Bobby Has the Blogging Bug

To those of you that are finding comments from a strange male blogger don't worry - it's my husband. He has watched me do this for a while now and has wondered what my fascination is with it. Now that he is out of work and going to interviews and feeling idle and bored he is understanding why I like this. This is a place where I can put my thoughts down as if everyone cares. I can keep up with people that are so interesting to me that I just didn't have time to get to know in real life. And I get validation when people comment. He has discovered that getting comments is a good feeling! I told him if he wants comments he has to go comment on other's blogs. So he has been busy doing so. I think he's pretty funny and interesting so if you see Bobby the O! don't worry, it's not a mad stalker, it's just my dear husband.

He really is too much

Ayden is one guy who knows what he wants and what he likes! It is so fun and amazing to watch their personalities come out at this age. I guess I blog about him too much but he seems to be growing and changing every day! The first shots are when we blew up the pool. Brooklyn had a friend over and they wanted to cool off in the pool that Bobby's parents gave them. The boys were eager too. So Bobby blew it up. Ayden watched from the window squealing in delight. Bobby put the hose in the pool to get the water going and Ayden was screaming to go outside. I had to fight with him to get his swim suit on, he was ready to go out fully clothed, diapered or naked! He didn't care! At first he helped fill it up but he couldn't wait to go in. I figured he should go in early while the water was still shallow. He had a blast playing with the water from the hose, running back and forth in the water and 'swimming' on his belly. You can see in the last shot that he was about to take a tumble. At that point I put on my swims suit and the camera was put away (you're welcome, I was relieved too)!
The same day I brought him in and got him dried off and dressed and he decided that he needed more accessories added to his outfit. He began to bring me things to put on him or he put them on himself. He showed me where said items needed to go, so no, I did not choose to put Brooklyn's belt around his head. He chose to wear one shoe, we usually go for two around here. I thought he turned out very cute. Oh and don't worry, the Diet Coke can is totally empty but he was having fun pretending.

Head, shoulders knees and toes...

Hand, Foot, Feet and Mouth

























Disease!

Yup, Ayden got Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease. It started with a fever of 102.5, the fever went down and the rash came on. He's been a real trooper though and not too cranky. It's ugly as anything though, don't you think? Now, to top it off, I think he has a cold. His fever went away but now he's coughing, stuffy (as you can see above, sorry) and seems to have another low-grade fever. We're lucky though because he is playing well and eating fairly well. I'm giving in on all his 'juice' requests though and that will come back to haunt me, I'm sure. We were slackers though and missed church because I read that adults can carry it with no symptoms and children under 10 were very susceptible. I figured we were all sharing food and kisses with him before we realized what he had so several of us were carrying it around. I figured it'd be safer just to stay home. I know, slacker! LOL

Picture Tag

Here's how it works...for each question, look up the answer on google image search. Then choose your favorite image from the FIRST PAGE OF RESULTS ONLY. If you want to do this (which I would love it if you did) please post in my comments that you completed it so I can view yours. If you need clarification on any of them leave a comment. Here's mine: (OH and P.S. I have a hard time with "favorites" so some of these are favorites at the moment.)

Oh and I want everyone to do this b/c it's fun but Holly - I better see yours!

My age:
A place I'd like to visit:
My favorite place:
My favorite object:
My favorite food:
My favorite animal:
My favorite color:
The Town Where I Was Born:
The Town Where I Live:
A Past Pet:
A Past Love:
My Best Friend's Nickname:
My Screen Name:
My First Name:
My Middle Name:
My Last Name:
One Of My Bad Habits:
My First Job:
My Grandmother's Name:
My College Degree: (Or what you studied)
What I'm Doing Right Now:

New bedrooms and a 'new to us' TV

Bobby's parents have been so wonderful to the kids. The wanted them to have new bedroom furniture for their new house. It is our Christmas and their Christmas all rolled into one, which is perfectly wonderful. The kids couldn't be happier and it saved us a bunch of money!

Brooklyn's bed is a day bed, which is great for sleepovers. When guests come over it will be a nice place for them to stay, quiet and private. They'll have their own room. So it works out perfect for everyone.


The boys got another set of bunk beds. The cool thing about these beds is that instead of a ladder they have stairs! Even cooler, on the other side of the stairs are drawers. Those drawers are Caleb's new dresser. There are also two drawers under the bed. This thing is heavy, sturdy wood so it will last them a long time. I don't know why Caleb looks like he just lost his dog. Trust me that he is totally thrilled with the beds.
I took the boys to Wal-Mart to buy sheets. I have a rule that there are no movie/cartoon charaters on the comforters but they can pick out whatever they want for sheets. They bought Transformers and Batman. I wasn't going to buy comforters just yet but I found these for $14.87 each. You can't beat that. They are reversible with stripes on the other side so I bought one for each bed and now they're set.

Now on to the 'new to us' item. Bobby's friend Craig is the one that is renting us this darling house. He has a big screen TV and nowhere to put it in his house. Bobby offered to buy it from him and he said that we can try it out for now and if it still works (which it does) and we like it that we can buy it from him when we have the money. So here is Bobby's new TV - a dream come true. It is high definition so he is like a kid in a candy store looking for movies to watch and games to play.
When I took this we hadn't put it where is was going to stay but I figured you'd get the idea. It's huge but it's nice.

Another surgery - this time for Caleb

Yup, you read that right, Caleb had to have his appendix out. Sunday night he said his stomach hurt but it was representing itself as a stomach flu, if you know what I mean. Monday morning he was walking around hunched over like a little old man. I kept telling him to just go lay down or stand up strait. He told me he couldn't get comfortable. Finally, around noon, I commented to Bobby that he should be feeling a little better by now and he had a fever. Bobby looked at his stomach and figured out that his right side was hurting so I took him right then to the ER. Sure enough, after three x-rays and a CT scan it was appendicitis. The hospital we were at didn't do pediatrics so he got to ride in an ambulance to be transferred. He thought that was cool. The surgeon wanted to take it out right away because he was worried that it had already perforated. Caleb was so brave through the whole thing. He was just happy that they were going to help him feel better. He was a bit worried because a friend of his had surgery and said he woke up screaming but the doctor and I convinced Caleb that it wasn't going to be scary at all. He was convinced and told me he would be fine. Bobby and Craig came to give him a blessing and it really gave him a sense of peace. The surgery was just under an hour and went perfect. Caleb stayed in the hospital three nights and loved it. Seriously. He called it an adventure. I'm sure it didn't hurt that the nurses were at his beck and call brining him juice, ginger ale and ice cream whenever he wanted it. It was a tiring three days and I'm just glad to be back home.

Caleb was in a wheelchair while he waited for a room in the ER (I took this with my phone, that's why it's bad, sorry)


Caleb was given some medicine for his nausea but it didn't help much. What it did do was knock him out. He looks so small and helpless here. He was so dehydrated his eyes were ringed with a reddish purple. Poor guy. I wish I took one later in the hospital when he was feeling great. He's doing well now, just a bit sore now and then. I bet by Monday I'll have a hard time keeping him away from his scooter.

4th of July fun!

Bobby's friend Craig asked a bit ago if we would want to go on his boat. I said, "Oh sure." My
thoughts were that if we were to go out on his boat it would be a while. But, the other day he was over and said, do you guys want to take out the boat for the fourth? Wow! Of course we do. So our family joined Craig, his wife and his son on their boat today. I don't know what I was picturing when he said boat, but it wasn't this!
Cool boat! It seats about 11 people. How fun! So this morning we headed over to their house so we could follow them to Lake Anna. The boys were very excited.
So we were all fitted for our life vests, we loaded up the boat with drinks and ice, we packed up the cars and were off. Ayden looked so cute in his life vest but seemed a bit unsure of the unsteady motion of the boat at first.
Don't worry, he got used to it very quickly. He loved holding out his hand trying to get the water that was spraying off the boat. The wind was blowing in his hair and he had a huge grin on his face. I was sitting behind him or I would have had a good picture. The first thing we did was find a quiet spot and let the kids jump in for a swim. Craig and Jan have outfitted the boat to be very kid friendly with noodles and floats. The kids loved swimming, even Ayden. He went out with Bobby and quickly figured out it was fun.



They loved swimming but that wasn't the best part. The best was yet to come. We took a break and ate some sandwiches Jan made us. As we ate Craig was pumping up some fun!

Brooklyn, Bobby and Caleb had a blast! The tube bounced and turned and flew. At one point even Caleb flew! His little legs and hips popped up so high that I was worried he'd fly right off! He didn't though and they finally convinced Seth that he should try too. Seth was very worried. He can't swim so he really gets scared of deep water. We convinced him he'd be alright with his vest on and Bobby said he'd go with him so he went for it - I was so proud of him!

At one point Craig got on with the kids so Bobby was holding Ayden. I looked over and he was taking off Ayden's life vest!?! Then I saw why...

He was finished for the day. What a busy boy!
We swam a bit more but it was getting hot out and Bobby and I were exhausted so we headed back. A few parting shots of our happy fourth!




Thank you so much to Craig and Jan for such a generous invite. The kids were thrilled and the memories will last a lifetime for sure.