OUCH!

Poor Toby. Today he was trying to be a great handyman and was fixing our garage door. While I was helping him, he came across one of those "warning-do not remove" tags. I thought he read it, but I guess I was wrong. A few minutes later, while I was inside, I heard a huge crash--I ran to the garage and found him with a bunch of huge cuts on his arm. He found out later that the warning tag said not to tamper with spring (the part that turns and pulls the garage up and down) or any part of the garage door it is attached too because it can cause serious injuries... While the cuts are not bad enough for stitches, it looks like they really hurt. I feel bad for him and I'm very glad it wasn't any worse.

The funny part--When he was wallowing in pain he wondered if he'd still be able to play guitar hero. Well, it sounds like he hasn't had much of a problem there.

So the moral of the story--those warning-do not remove tags are there for a reason...

I am sick of having sick kids!

So we really haven't had a great start to 2009, medically at least. It's been one thing after the other and I really hope we aren't starting a trend for the new year. It all started with Kylianne and the stye in her eye. I've never had a stye and neither have any of the kids, so naturally I was a bit concerned and took her in. Easy treatment, just eye drops for a few days. A few days later, Kylianne's other eye got really pink and apparently she had pink eye which meant more eye drops.

A few days after that Zaylia's eyes started to get pink and puffy and what do you know. I found out that putting eye drops in a 3 year old's eyes takes some creativity. She decided really quickly that she did not like them at all.

Of course we couldn't stop there and Jazilyn's eyes started to get pink too. More eye drops, which were a lot easier because she could not get away, but she did not like them at all. I felt so bad when she cried because of the drops.

After that, Kylianne's throat started to get sore, and Toby's throat had been bugging him for a few days so I sent them in to the doc (again) for a throat culture, hoping it would be something besides the dreaded virus. (You know when you go to the doc and wait for a hour to be seen in a waiting room full of who knows what kind of germs and then told it's a virus, get lots of rest and fluids, grrrr.) Toby had been gone for a couple hours and I was getting worried so I called and Kylianne was getting a chest x-ray and they were worried she had pneumonia and were talking about admitting her into the hospital!!!!! I felt like a complete failure as a mother, you think I would know if my kid had pneumonia. After the x-ray they said it was borderline bronchiolitis/ pneumonia and we were sent out to get a nebulizer, 3 different prescriptions and told to keep her away from the other kids. After 2 more visits to the the doc, her lungs are clean and the other girls show no signs of breathing problems. So hopefully we stopped that one clean in its tracks.

But that's not all folks--Just last Saturday morning I woke up to find Zaylia had the stomach flu. Then it got passed on to Toby and now poor little Jazilyn has it. I feel so bad for her, poor thing. She is being a sweetheart about it though and still seems relatively happy.

Now I am just really, really, really hoping that doesn't get passed on to Kylianne and I. I sure have been lucky, I feel great and am very happy I haven't caught any of this junk yet. The lack of sleep these last couple weeks, however has been a bit annoying.

So for now I have the kids on quarantine, nothing in nothing out.

Here's to hoping we can get healthy and hoping all of you out there in cyberland haven't caught this junk.....

Thank Goodness for Circuit Breakers

Zaylia (aka miss mischievous)

Plus

the penny daddy gave her to put in the penny jar

Plus

the nightlight in her room (do you like the pink walls?)

Equals

Needless to say, I am very glad my house is still standing. When I showed Toby, he couldn't believe the penny and the plug had actually started melting . He was fascinated. At this point he went on to tell me quite a few stories about what he did to outlets when he was a little boy. I think I know where she got it from and now I am a little worried about what is in store...

4 months old!

It is hard for me to believe that Jazilyn is already 4 months old. We took her into her 4 month check-up and she weighed in at 13 lbs 4 oz and 25 inches!

This is definitely my favorite baby age and it always goes by too fast. I just love when my babies start interacting with people and playing with toys and I absolutely love the smiles, giggles and coos. Jazi sleeps through the night now, (I forgot how amazing 6 hours of straight sleep feels) and is for the most part a very happy baby.

Cabela's adventure

Toby had Monday off and we needed to get out of the house and do something. I feel like I have been cooped up way too long, what with Kylianne's pneumonia, Zaylia's pink eye and all the snow. It was a nice driving day, so we packed up the kids and drove to Cabela's.

Now I love the outdoors and enjoy camping and fishing every year, but have never really felt the need to visit Cabela's. We have a few different sports stores around us and I thought -- do we really need to drive 130 miles just to see a store??? I guess I was wrong. It was AMAZING. Seriously, I had NO idea or we definitely would have visited earlier.

I assumed we would see a few stuffed deer heads and at most maybe an elk or moose, but there was tons of full sized stuffed deer, elk, moose, bears, goats, lions, etc. and even a Zebra (which was Kylianne's favorite, we had to go back and see it a few times.) The full wall aquarium with huge fish was also a hit with me and the kids. I would just love to catch one that big someday!

We also enjoyed a very yummy meal and I bought a cute new beanie and Toby got a few items for future fishing and camping trips.

There were so many amazing little details, I'm sure we could have stayed much longer if we could have and we were there for over 5 hours. All in all, I was very impressed. We had a lot of fun and the kids were entertained. It was a great way to spend a cold winter day.

Am I really doing this blog thingy?

I guess I am!

Seriously what took us so long you may ask?

I guess I was always worried. Evey one's blogs seem so creative and witty, two things I would love to be, but seem to lack. So please put up with us as we figure out how this all works and then we can share our family news with the rest of the world. (hmmm, maybe that is a bit scary...)

One of our families New Year's resolutions is to become a closer family. We are going to spend more quality time together, because seriously if we sit just on the couch and watch movies all the time we are going to wear out our new couch and I really like our new couch. It's comfy and brown which means I can't see all the crap that it gets covered in from who knows what from our kids. Once Zaylia even decided to draw pretty pictures in black ink. I was very happy to find out that microfiber is great for kids. It came right out! Thanks a million to the brilliant woman (not sure a man would ever think of something so amazing) who helped bring microfiber to the world.

So without further adieu, welcome to the crazy Chadwick champ blog :)=