No Fun

Aiden, right before surgery - still smiling! :)

These last few weeks have been difficult ones. I choose not to put much up about it on the blog in order to save Jason the stress of reading about it all while he is away. I wanted him to be able to look at the blog and see smiling faces of the kids! :) The biggest ordeal we had was finding another lump on Aiden's shoulder and him having to have surgery again this week to have it removed. It was another hemangioma (benign tumor of the blood vessels), but this time had lymphangiomas (benign lymph filled cyst) attached. At this point we still do not know why he is getting them. His surgery was on Tuesday and he was a champ! It was probably harder on me having to go through it without Jason then it was on Aiden actually having the surgery, because he got presents! :) To make life just a little more fun we also had the flu, colds, double ear infections (Ry), pneumonia (Ry) all in the last 2 weeks. I think changing diapers, wiping little hineys and cleaning up throw up (yeah, it was that kind of flu) will now go on my resume since I am such an expert in this field. :)

Aiden, right after surgery, in the recovery room playing a video game. He had remembered these games from last time and that is the one thing he kept talking about. I told one of the nurses and they made sure that they brought them to him right after he came back to his room.

Opening gifts once we got home. As you can see, he is not smiling here, he was a little groggy for awhile. He did perk up though when we saw what was in the presents. :) Thanks everyone!
And here is Ryleigh, who has a real love for her medicine! :) Which is a good thing since she was on so much recently! Notice her two different colored shoes.......

happy valentines day!

Annah and Kyle making cookies. Even Ryleigh, who is still sick, enjoyed a lick.

The results! They were so good!



Kyle made some just for me!Since Annah is here, I was able to go to Aiden's school for his Valentines party.


He was SO happy to have me there, and without any other kids, some rare attention for the oldest of the family.

We got his teacher some flowers and she asked us to take her picture with Aiden and his flowers. I think he felt pretty special. I told Aiden that all girls love to get flowers (teach them young I say!). His response was "Well Mom, I know some girls that are tougher than boys!" I guess he figured they would be the type that would not want flowers. :)

Reinforcements have arrived!

We were very happy to pick up Annah yesterday from the airport! I was in need of an extra pair of hands. It is very common for military wives, when their husbands go away, to pack up and head back to their home towns. Sometimes just for a month or two, or sometimes for the whole time their spouses are away. But, I can't do that, so some help came my way! Thanks God for lots of sisters! After Jason being gone for just under 4 weeks and sick kids, I was very happy to see her!! She has been such a huge help and it is so nice to have someone to talk to besides toddlers! The boys are also very happy she is here, as you can see in the picture. Ryleigh is still warming up to the idea!Aiden loved it that Annah had schoolwork to do while he did his homework. PIRATES!! This weekend the boys went to a Pirate party, it was quite a hit.
We all think that Kyle made a really good pirate with his long hair!

Looking for treasure, with the help of a map.



Ryleigh wanted to find treasure too, she is never far behind the boys.

And when we got home, she had to give the pirate look a try!

HI DADDY!!

We are anxiously awaiting Jason's first phone call since he entered training at OCS 3 weeks ago. He should have time to get to a computer sometime in the next 24 hours so I bribed the kids with candy to take their pictures. :) It works every time. I didn't have the strength to try and get all three of them together, so I did it in shifts! Everybody seems to be on the mend today after being plagued with some sort of bug (Kyle and Ryleigh) since Wednesday. I'll spare you the details! :) We miss you Jas!

Not sure what is up with our kids and sticking out their tongues in pictures, but it seems to be a trend......

Jumping, Skateboarding, Superbowl and Videos

The weather has been gorgeous here and we have enjoyed being outside and hanging out with ours neighbors. Our neighborhood really is like Mr. Rogers neighborhood. :) Everyone is always out talking to each other and kids playing with one another. Even though I am more than ready to move, I am really going to miss our awesome neighbors, who have become really good friends.

First Aiden....

Then Kyle....
Now both of them....
And now with their buddy Carter!

Aiden learning to use a bigger skateboard.
And falling off the ramp.....
Kyle decided to play it safe (for once) and went down on his belly.

They called me in the room this weekend to take this picture and make the video below.

Our Superbowl party!!! :) Just me and the kids and then just me when they went to bed. It felt a bit pathetic to watch a Superbowl on your own! But, it was an awesome game! You can see Ry was part of the party too, she is in her highchair. Her eating on the floor would be a mess I would not have the strength to clean up.

What is better than 2 pacifiers? A whole handful!!

The first video is just the kids in the boys room. As you can hear in the video, Aiden asked me to come in and video tape them. For Grandmom Jeanie and Daddy he said. I guess since we made that one "Get well video" for her he thought maybe we should make another one! And I am always taking little clips for daddy. The second one is Ryleigh eating yogurt and making a mess and saying it is "oss" which means "gross".

Playing Catch up......

You would think that with Jason gone I would have lots and lots of extra time in the evening to devote to doing things like updating my blog. That does not seem to be the case. My blog is not getting updated and, well, I am not doing anything in the evenings that requires me to get up off the sofa! Take a look at the three munchkins in the above picture and you will know why. Yeah, they are keeping me a little busy, yes, they are driving me a little crazy and yes, I could be losing my mind........ No, it really hasn't been too bad (well, sometimes it has) :)!

Ryleigh turned 18 months about a week ago. She started going through the "terrible twos" a few months ago and if I remember correctly from with the boys, we have a ways to go. As far as I can tell the boys could still be going through the "terrible twos"! She is really starting to talk and that is so much fun. Her cute little voice seems to help balance out the times when she is screaming for something or climbing everything in the house. From the looks of these pictures you would think that she is a sweet little girl that sits and reads books all day. This is NOT so. :)

She is starting to like books though and will let you read a short one to her. She also is starting to get books on her own and "read" them. You can hear her when she has a book just chatting away.

Classic Ryleigh face.
Every time I came in the room to take her picture, she would get up, scream and try to grab the camera. I caught this picture from sneaking around the doorway.
She LOVES to help with laundry. Though she often mixes dirty with clean, and unfolds everything I fold, I figure I should just keep letting her help. Maybe this will cultivate a love for really doing laundry when she gets older??

A couple of weeks ago we went to a birthday party at an art studio. Only Ryleigh and Aiden are in this picture because Kyle was crying behind me. The crying has something to do with me getting everyone out of the car (or so I thought) and then starting to walk away. Apparently I did not get everyone out of the car and Kyle was left behind for a mere minute. This of course traumatized him and ruined the birthday party. By the time Kyle calmed down and stopped hanging on me, Ryleigh had ruined her entire outfit with pink non washable paint. This experience for Kyle will probably come out in therapy in about 20 years.
Kyle and Daddy on his last day home. We had a hot chocolate party in the living room with him while Ryleigh was napping and Aiden was at school.
This is the view I see a lot of, Ryleigh crying at my feet...... See how she has two pacifiers? She always has to have a spare. She won't go to bed unless she has two.
Kyle giving Ryleigh a ride in her baby doll stroller. He races her back and forth and she loves it.
I really have no idea what the boys are doing in this picture. All I remember is they asked me to take their picture.....


Daddy brushing Ry's teeth. Don't you love the face? She loves to brush her teeth! If you can't find her and someone has left the bathroom door open, you will find her in the sink, brushing her teeth. Sometimes the water is on, sometimes it's not, but usually she is wet and sticky!

Here is a video of Ryleigh saying a few words. This is almost 2 weeks old and she is already saying a lot more. I have a few more recent videos to post, hopefully I will get around to it soon......