a grinch hat for daddy

daddy brought home and plain santa hat and asked the girls to decorate it for him for a contest at work! :) the girls and i had a blast decorating it up with a giant grinch, some tinsel, and christmas balls! :) daddy even wore his grinch shirt to work to top off our amazing design! :) the best part . . . he won a $50 gift card! :) go girls!

where we've been . . .

a lot has been happening . . . we just haven't been keeping up with it all! :) the kids have been crazy busy with school and after-school activities and life in general keeps us on our toes! in addition to the craziness of life with four kids . . . bailey is continuing to try to get better! disappointingly, the chemo and steroids didn't do their job . . . so we have moved on to "solution" #2 and been working towards starting dialysis. he will have a machine to do it at home through the night and hopefully be able to continue working! everything since july has been an adjustment and this is just another hurdle to overcome! we are hoping the dialysis will help things and we will be able to be more "normal" really soon!

where we've been . . .

after the fourth, our lives took a small detour! daddy ended up in the hospital for 9 very long days! he had some swelling over the weekend of the fourth . . . and then on wednesday got a call from the dr. that they had examined his lab work and his kidneys were failing . . . so he headed straight to the hospital. after several tests and a biopsy the dr. determined that strep that he had a month ago had caused his body to attack his kidneys and cause kidney failure within a few weeks . . . this is really rare . . . in fact, the dr. has never seen it - only read about it! so, after lots of sleepless nights and many stressful days, daddy got to come home . . . we are waiting now for weekly lab work and dr. visits to determine what will happen from here . . . this week we are working to get back to as much "normal" as possible and saying lots of prayers that daddy gets better soon!

a shrek-tastic father's day!

after a yummy breakfast-in-bed of corn pops and water (preparedby ken and served by all the kids) and then a second breakfast made by me, bailey opened his father's day gifts . . . a picture i had done of all the kiddos, some fun gadgets, a new coffee mug, some cool artwork by the kids, and more! then the girls "took" bailey to see shrek 4 for father's day! :) they headed there armed with hidden snacks and drinks and their shrek toys from mc d's! what a fun treat! :) they all came back so excited about the movie! (can't wait until b.c. is old enough to take!) they stopped for sonic drinks on the way home as an added treat! :) we went out for an early dinner, did a few errands, and even stopped for a fav of daddy's . . . dairy queen! :)

my dad is cool!

thanks to a nice neighbor, bailey got to play around on this truck and move rocks in the yard! . . .b.c. was facinated with watching it! you could just tell by looking at him that he thought "my dad is sooooo cool!" he was a little overwhelmed when i put him on bailey's lap . . . but we had to snap a picture! :)

celebrating the big 39!

can't believe he's 39 . . . holy crow! we celebrated on sunday with presents and dinner out and then a little cake at home! :) (yes, it was a spiderman cake! the girls were certain he would like that! and yes, it was super little because we had lots of leftover desserts from grammy's!)

he got lots of goodies . . . including a car race track which he bought for himself to play with the girls . . . yes, the girls LOVED it! he got more pictures and homeade cards throughout the day! the girls would run into the art closet and make another "gift"! so cute! even kam got in on the action! wow . . . next year's celebration will have to be big! :) happy birthday, daddy!

hot dogs and s'mores!

what a fabulous day! bailey finished up the playscape for the girls (they've been asking about it everyday since we moved in!). the weather was so perfectly "fall" that he set up the fire pit and helped the girls cook hot dogs and s'mores! YUMMY!

welcome home daddy!

the girls worked really hard on a giant poster for bailey and put it in his chair to welcome him home from a long two week trip to china/malaysia! ken and mck had written and drawn lots of stuff on the poster . . . and then kam kinda went crazy! :) so you have to kind of look through the doodles to find the messages! :) they were sooooo excited to see him! it was so fun to see them so excited! :) it'll be nice for things to get back to normal! :) daddy brought lots of fun goodies for the girls . . . pearls, nightgowns, fans, and TONS of movies! welcome home daddy!

a wonderful wednesday!

We had a wonderful day on Wednesday! Bailey took the day off to spend with us . . . one last day full of fun before we start school next week! We got an early start and headed downtown to the big top candy shop . . . an old fashioned candy store. The kids were so surprised and LOVED picking out their candies from the bulk candy section! Bailey and the girls enjoyed checking out the bug candy too . . .crickets, scorpions, and ants . . . all ready to eat! Ewwww! We all shared a cherry limeade from their old fashioned soda fountain, got a box of candy cigarettes (ken’s comment was “it’s okay mom, I know smoking is really bad for you!”), and each of them chose a giant lollipop to save for home! It was great!


after we got our fill of sweets we headed to jo's - a great sandwich place. their fries are delicious too! :) then we walked over to the children's museum and played for 3 hours! the girls loved that both of us were there so they actually got to create things and explore! mck and ken even sat for a very lengthy story time . . . 30 minutes! :) ken loved that the slide was open . . . we tried to send mck down, but she was too short!
at around 4:30 we went to the car . . . only to find that the girls had left the lights on in the back (they were playing in the car while i was nursing!) and the battery was DEAD. nice. so we're in a parking garage with 4 worn out kids and a dead battery. thank goodness for a really nice guy who helped us out!
when we got home we filled up all the pools (despite the drought!) and made a picnic supper and hung out outside until 8! the girls dug in the dirt, put it in the pool, and then swam in it! lots of dirty fun!

daddy and dell

the girls, b.c., and i headed up to dell to meet bailey for lunch today. the girls were excited to see where he works and to get to see him in the middle of the day! :) i think bailey enjoyed showing them all off to his co-workers and his boss. ken thought his boss was "really cool"! they loved getting to play with toys and get candy from "daddy's friends"! :)

we enjoyed lunch out at jason's deli . . . eating out is a rare treat these days! seems that heading out with everyone is too expensive and WAY too much work. (never thought i would say eating at home is easier than eating out, but it is now!)