More Painting...

Ugh! Well our house is pretty full of boxes and what not. We haven't even started to unpack things yet. Still trying to get everything else done first and then unpack. We finished up Doogie and Jayde's rooms today. So we started getting their beds put together and than start moving their stuff in their rooms. Then tomorrow we are planning on getting Ryann and Jaxon and C.J.'s rooms done. Our room is pretty much done except the bathroom still needs a second coat, but we can always do that a bit later. My wrist is still sore, but it does seem to be slowly getting better...thanks to the brace. I did paint some today, so hopefully I haven't backtracked on my healing!

Introducing...

Our other new blogger to the family! Jayde was pretty upset that Doogie got a blog and she didn't so...we made one for her too. So I figure it will be good practice for her over the summer as well, with practicing her writing and spelling. It's funny how totally different their two blogs are! So don't forget to check out Jayde's blog as well occasionally!

http://allaboutjaydekc.blogspot.com

Poor Scruffy...

We had this poor stray cat that has been hanging around the neighborhood for the past month or so. The poor thing is so skinny, you could look through it. And his long hair was all matted and he had huge patches missing as well. We have been leaving him food and he will just chow down on it, but it doesn't look like he is gaining anything. You could tell the poor thing just wanted to have someone to love him, after he got used to us he would come right over to us and let us pet him. Today I noticed that he really wasn't looking good (more so than usual), one of his eyes looked horrible and he was drooling some nasty stuff. So we had to make the tough decision of taking him in and having him put to sleep. We were pretty sure he didn't have an owner the way he looked (and if he does than that person should be shot!) We felt pretty bad about it, but than we also don't want the poor guy to suffer. Here are some pictures of the poor fella, you can see just what bad shape he was in. I'll miss seeing the poor guy everyday... You can tell that he must of been just a beautiful cat when he was healthy. What a sad way to have to go.

Introducing....

Our newest blogger in the family! Doogie has decided that he wants to try blogging. Mainly because he loves to write stories and he wants a place to keep them. I also told him he could write about everyday stuff as well, things he has done or wants to do, etc... I also figure this will help keep him up to speed with his spelling and writing and what not over the summer. So don't forget to check out Doogie's blog occasionally as well.

http://doogieswritings.blogspot.com

Ryann...

I don't know what I'm going to do with that girl! She's just been so darn onry lately! Course it doesn't help that her blood sugar hasn't been cooperating...she's been hitting alot of lows still. We went swimming this evening once Doug and Doogie got back from the house. I guess it is crammed full of boxes so that will be fun to sort through...uh, not! Though it is nice to have all of our stuff back! Ryann had to sit out this time, since our last episode swimming ended up with the "corn" fiasco...check back from last weekend post. She was not a happy camper about having to sit out, that's for sure. I have to say she has a really good sad face and if I wasn't a strong person I would of caved for sure. Hopefully though she'll start seeing all the things she is missing and start using that potty! I've also been having her change her own pull-ups when she is wet and putting on a new on herself. At first she didn't seem to mind doing it, but now I think she is getting tired of it...so just trying to do whatever I can to encourage her to use that potty! It's gotta click one of these days, and hopefully soon..because I'm tired of playing the bad guy!

Our stuff is here!!

The moving truck arrived bright and early this morning and they are working hard at unloading all of our stuff. Doug is down there directing them. I dropped by with the three youngest after I took Jayde to school to see how things were going, but we didn't stay long (didn't want the kids to get in the way). But they were pretty excited to see all of the stuff! Now we just need to figure out where everything is going and unpack! But soon we will be in our own house again!!

Picture time!!

Was just taking some pictures of the kids this morning and got some cute ones (will I think they are cute!) The picture of Jaxon and Jayde is when she was comforting him this morning because Ryann did something to him, and he wanted J.J. again. Then I got some goofy ones of the girls, they were having fun making faces for the camera.

I really need to get Doogie and Jaxon in to get a haircut this weekend, they are really getting shaggy!

Gas Prices!!

Aren't they just outrageous! I just spent $99.30 to fill up my tank this morning...talk about ouch!! I'm hoping once school gets out in a couple weeks and I won't have to be doing as much driving, it will be better. Right now I have to fill up about once a week.

My wrist actually is doing better as long as I keep the brace on. Though I did have to take it off to do the girl's hair this morning, there was just no way I could get it done with it on. So I just gritted my teeth and got it done!

Ryann's blood sugar did pretty good last night, she had a couple lows right before lunch and dinner but it did great at bedtime and this morning.

We don't have anything super exciting planned tonight. We just have gymnastics and coach-pitch. Jayde has informed me this morning that she is done with coach-pitch and wants to start doing gymnastics again...she has missed it. Last week we let them skip coach-pitch practice and go to gymanstics and they had a great time. So we'll see, it would be nice if she could just tough it out for a couple more weeks and than it will be done and she can go back to gymanstics. But if you know Jayde at all you will know that once she sets her mind to something it is really hard to change it!

My wrist...

Yes, it is still pretty painful! And I have been having a heck of time trying not to use it. Of course as soon as I automatically reach to do something my wrist screams out in protest! Doug however was nice enough to go out tonight after the kids went to bed and find me a brace for my wrist. So far it does seem to be helping, so hopefully this will help my wrist get the rest it needs and heal!

Pee Pee in the potty!

No, not Ryann, unfortunately though she did okay today...only had a few accidents. But Mr. Jaxon is really starting to show and interest in this potty thing. I took the Doogie and Jaxon upstairs to give them a shower and get them ready for bed. Doogie had to go to the bathroom before he got in the shower and Jaxon was really checking out what Doogie was doing. So as soon as Doogie was done he goes racing over to the toilet and stands just the way Doogie was! LOL! It was pretty cute! So I lifted him a little bit so he would be "aiming" into the toilet and you could tell he was really trying to go. The look on his face when he finally pee'd a few drops was just priceless! He was so proud of himself and we of course were cheering him on. Maybe I should start taking both Ryann and Jaxon to the potty at the same time and get them both potty trained together!

Jaxon and his nicknames...

He's already got quite the vocabulary and can put more than 5 words together in a sentence...my little boy is growing up! I love listening to him talk to his his brothers and sisters though. He calls Doogie "googie", Jayde is "J.J.", Ryann is "Ry Ry", and C.J. is just "baby". Mom and Dad are of course "Mama" and "Dada". And he loves to say Aunt Jenni's name "Jenni"! Whenever he see's anyone with short blonde hair like Aunt Jenni he immediately starts yelling "Jenni, Jenni"!

I want J.J.!

This is what Jaxon told me today when I came out of the laundry room to find out why he was screaming and crying. It seems like his other older sister did something to him and since he didn't know where I was he went and cuddled with Jayde instead. It was pretty cute, Jayde was lying on the couch and Jaxon was just hugging her. When I went over to see what was wrong he proceeded to push me away from him and declare that he wanted Jayde, or J.J. as he calls her. Most of the time Jayde is a wonderful big sister and this was one of these times...it was pretty sweet watching her comfort him and take care of him like a big sister does.

Another low night...

Ryann got down to 50 last night. She was pretty cooperative though and Doug got a juice box down her. Alot of times we can get her to drink a juice box in her sleep, we just hold the straw in her mouth and she will automatically (most times) just start sucking. When Doug checked her later that night she was around 200 so we thought she would be fine for the rest of the night. However she woke up at 65 this morning, which isn't terribly bad, but still not where we would like her to be. I don't think we miscalculated her insulin again, but just forgot to take in consideration that she has been swimming alot and playing outside alot more. And for some reason exercise brings blood sugar down so that you don't need as much insulin.

Speaking of swimming, the kids had another fun evening of swimming. Doogie and Jayde are really coming along with their swimming. Doogie gets to go in the deep end without his floaties, though we still of course watch him like a hawk! Jayde's starting to get more relaxed in the deep end, she used to panic when she would first jump in, but that is getting alot better and she can swim the entire length of the pool with no floaties. We don't let her in the deep end unless someone is right with her though. Ryann had a potty incident in the pool last night, she pooped in her swimsuit. I guess we should be kind of thankful that it was pretty solid and not loose! She had eaten alot of corn the night before...so lets just leave it at that, shall we! So she wont be able to go in the pool next time and will have to watch everyone else swim. I know that sounds really mean, and believe me I would rather not have to do it this way, but I'm hoping if she see's what she is missing by refusing to use the potty we'll have a potty breakthrough! So far today she has stayed dry (knock on wood) though I have had to remind her and take her into the potty. But we'll see what happens...maybe one day of not being able to swim while everyone else is will do the trick.

My wrist is still really sore and painful, and I think more swollen than yesterday as well. I can't even lift up light objects without it hurting. Makes it really interesting when C.J. wants me to pick him up! I have to position him in just the right way that my left arm does most of the lifting.

Anyways, here are some pictures of the kids today. It is really getting hard to take a picture of C.J. unless he is asleep or strapped down because he just doesn't stop moving! He stood again by himself today and even tried to take a step, but I couldn't get a picture of it.

The highs and the lows...

Dealing with Ryann's diabetes most days just seems like second nature now a days. Sometimes it is hard to even remember life before she was diagnosed. Lately her blood sugar has been staying more in it's normal range, especially since before our trip to Spokane a couple weeks ago it had been staying on the high side.

Last night however she had a big low...I don't think I have seen it that low for quite some time. It got down to 44 (her normal range is 80-180) I think we must of miscalculated how many carbs she had taken in. Sometimes that happens, especially when it is something that is hard to measure or is homemade and has lots of different ingredients in it. It can be a little scary when it happens, and we were having a hard time getting her to take something to bring it back up. We finally got almost a full juice box down her (one of the smaller ones is about 15 carbs which is the perfect size for her), but we knew she still had some insulin working in her body and was going to need more than just 15 carbs to keep her up. When I checked her around 30 minutes later she was up to 76...which was alot better but still not where we wanted her at (at night we like to have her aroune 120). By than though she had woken up enough that she was getting pretty upset...which can be pretty heart wrenching at times. One second she is screaming at us to leave her alone that she doesn' t want anything and than the next she is saying help me mama...it almost made me cry! I finally coaxed a few life savers down her (along with the juice box) and by the time she was on the second one she was starting to settle down (the sugar was starting to raise her up). After I had finally gotten the last life saver down her and got her back to sleep it was about 11:30. When Doug got up to go to work around 5:00 this morning he checked her blood sugar and it was around 71 so he gave her another juice box, so by the time she got up this morning around 7:30 she was 146...which is perfect for me!

Some days it feels like we are just doing a guessing game of some sort. There are days where her blood sugar will be perfect all day and than the next day it just goes haywire..even if we are doing the exact same thing we had done the day before. So we are constantly juggling her blood sugar and her insulin ratio's.

Then there are the days where I still can't believe my little girl has diabetes and I admit I wallow a bit in self pity and just want to cry. It just seems so unfair at times that these things happen. But than I have to snap myself out of it and start thinking positively because the last thing I want for my little girl is for her to start feeling self pity because she has diabetes. And for the most part it really doesn't seem to affect her. She just deals with it, but than I think it helps that we have had a good attitude about it and so she just goes along with it! I know I would trade places with her in a heatbeat though if I could. I just always have to keep the faith and hope that soon they will find a cure for diabetes and she won't ever have to get poked to have her blood sugar tested or injected with insulin again. And they have come along way already in their research and are coming up with so many new things, so I just have to keep praying that one day soon the doctor will be calling us up and telling us to bring Ryann in for her cure! And then we won't have to watch her like a hawk and count every carb and just let her be a normal kid again. So that is my big wish for her. We try very hard to make sure that her diabetes doesn't leave her out of things, but there are times when she can't have what other kids are having because it has too many carbs for her snack or she just ate and already had a shot, etc... One thing I really appreciated about her teacher this year was that when it was someone's birthday and they were bringing treats she would encourage the parents to bring something that Ryann could have as well and since it is a wonderful school with many wonderful people nobody had a problem doing that.

Ouch!

Well my wrist is even more swollen today than it was yesterday. Just doing little things is extremely painful. I don't think I'm going to be doing any painting for a little bit. I really need to rest it and not use it but you don't realize how hard that is to do until you try it. Especially since it is my right hand! But you gotta do what you gotta do! I actually thought it felt better when I first woke up but after getting kids dressed and ready and doing the girls hair it was really hurting again. The girls might be having some wild hair days for a while!

I worked in Doogie's class this morning. I enjoy doing this since it helps me know what kind of things they are doing in their class and I get to know the other kids in the class as well. Doogie's class unfortunately has alot of boys in it which are trouble makers. There are a few in particular that we have had some problems with. I can totally understand why Doogie gets so frustrated with them. I was about ready to strangle one of them myself this morning, and this isn't the first time with this particular child. He has no problem saying things to Doogie with me standing right there! I would never of thought of doing something like that when I was a kid! Even when I told him that was enough and we don't need to be saying things like that, he just keeps spouting off. The only thing that seems to finally shut him up is telling him that if this continues I am going to have a talk with his teacher! So I guess this is one good thing about Doogie moving to a new school next year (though there will always be trouble makers!)

Anyways, here are the pictures I promised you, the kids had so much fun flying into the pool! There is also one of C.J. from a couple days ago...poor guy was so tired, he hadn't slept much that day for us and he fell asleep while eating dinner!

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...

I think our warm weather is coming back for the week, hopefully it will stick around for a while. It got up into the high 80's. I think we are going to get some rain though, but the temps are still supposed to stay up in the high 70's low 80's.

We spent most of the afternoon down at the house trying to get stuff done. Doug worked on getting the rest of the drawers done and installed in the kitchen while I worked on doing the touch up paint. I got the kitchen, living room, hallway and our bedroom done (though I think I'm going to have to do another coat on our room on the edges since the original paint was dark). So now I need to still do a second coat of paint in our bathroom plus touch up and touch up in the kids room and than do their accent colors. I must of strained my wrist something good from all the painting this weekend. I have a lump on my arm a little bit pass my wrist and it is pretty painful. I'm thinking I must of strained something...I have a hard time picking things up (even pretty light things), and than moving my wrist side to side is also painful. So I'm going to have to try and rest it so it will heal up so that I can finish up my painting! Though it is pretty hard to rest it when you have 5 kids to take care of! Guess I'm going to have to start using my left hand more!

Than later this afternoon/evening we headed for the pool and had some fun. The kids were having a blast having Doug throw them in. I got some pretty good shots of them flying through the air! I will have to get the pictures off my camera and get them uploaded for you to see. But I probably wont get around to that until tomorrow.

It's back to school for Doogie and Jayde tomorrow, they only have about 12 days left and than it is summer for us! Doogie has an end of the year picnic the day before the last day of school, and I'm not sure if Jayde's class has anything planned yet. So it should be alot of fun, and I know the kids are looking forward to school being done. Ryann was done last Wednesday, though unlike her brother and sister she is a little bummed about it being done with. But than if I had as much fun in school as she does I would be disapointed too!

Standing!!

I was holding onto C.J.'s hands in the middle of the room this morning and he let go of my fingers and stood unassisted for about 5-7 seconds! So he is really coming along with his balance! He was pretty pleased with himself! So watch out World...I don't think it is going to be long before he is walking! Sorry no pictures this time, but I will try to catch him doing it again later.

I don't think I want to see a paint brush again, for a very long time! But unfortunately I still need to do the second coat of paint on our bathroom and do all the touch up and accent colors that the kids want. All I have to say is that they better be happy with their paint color because I'm not going to change it again for them for a quite a while! I think we are going to try and get down there tonight and finish that up, so maybe my sore body will be feeling better by than!

Doug is on his way home, he went camping with some of his friends this weekend. They left early yesterday and are on their way back now. It sounds like they had a good time and I know he needed the break to recharge his batteries and to just hang out with the guys. He's every spare second has been spent working on getting the house done. It looks great too! It definitely doesn't look like the same house that we started with.

Painting

Ugh! I am so tired of painting! I just spent the entire afternoon painting the house. I got the second coat of paint on our bedroom, Jayde's, Ryann's, Jaxon and C.J.'s room and I got the first coat of paint on our master bath. Now I just need to do the second coat of paint in our bathroom and do all the touch up and trim. Now my hands are covered in blisters, so painting tomorrow (if I make it down there) is not going to be that much fun! I ended up having half of the neighborhood kids over while I was painting. We had met them before and they stop by occasionally to see what we are up too. They are all actually really good with little kids, so who knows maybe I'll have some babysitters!

Another long night...

This time it wasn't the kids fault though! Doug and I spent the evening painting the rooms in the house. We got all of them painted, except for my soon to be scrapping/computer room and our master bath. I just need to get down there again (hopefully today) and give them another coat of paint, then go back and touch up anything and paint the accent color. I also want to try to get our bathroom done. I need to take down the wall paper border in my scrap room before I can paint it, but I'm just going to do that room in plain white. Ryann picked out a light pink for her room, and boy is it pink! LOL! But I must say it looks alot better than the color that was in there before. Most of the house was painted in this ugly light grayish greenish color. Jaxon and C.J.'s room is a robin's egg blue, it is really nice and Jayde's room turned out really well. She picked out a really light purple and it looks really nice. Doogie just picked white out for his room than he picked out a greenish color to use as trim/accent. The girls have a darker color of pink and purple to accent there rooms. And I think I will go and get a darker color blue and maybe paint some paw prints on Jaxon and C.J.'s room since Jaxon love's Blue's Clues. We painted our bedroom (and the master bath will be as well) the same color as the kitchen, living room and hallway. It is a light yellowish brown and really brightens up the house and makes it feel warm and welcoming. So anyways, the house is really coming along and we should hopefully be in our new house in a couple of weeks!

Rough night

Ugh! I am in so much need of a nap today! But somehow I really doubt that is going to happen! For some reason Jaxon, Ryann and C.J. had a heck of a time going to bed last night. Jaxon wanted me to sit with him but I had to get Ryann settled down and get C.J. to sleep as well. Ryann had skinned her toe pretty good earlier that day and everytime she bumped it or her blanket touched it she would start screaming. So I held C.J. and sat on her bed with her trying to get her calmed down and then once Doug got Jaxon to bed he came and layed down with Ryann to get her to go to sleep. The kids were actually pretty excited that Daddy was "sleeping" in their room! By the time I finally got C.J. to sleep it was around 11:00 and I still needed to finish getting things ready for tomorrow! So I think I finally fell asleep around midnight.

This morning both of the girls woke up in extremely grumpy moods! It's always crazy in the mornings trying to get everyone ready to go. The boys get their showers/baths at night and than I usually throw the girls in with me in the mornings, since it is easier to get their hair done when it is wet. Jayde usually always has attitude for me in the mornings (okay, she has attitude for me all day! LOL!) because she is a shower hog and wants all the water for herself and has a fit if Ryann even bumps up against her! So by the time we are all done showering and dressed I'm ready to start pulling my hair out! Then of course I still got to get everyone fed andRyann needs to have her shot before I have to take whoever needs to go to school! Today we had to leave 10 minutes earlier than usual because Doogie wanted to get his dragon drawing book to take to school to show his art teacher and his book was down at the house. I will be glad when school is finally done so that we don't have such a mad dash in the mornings!

The picture is of Mr. C.J. and his lion walker. I tell you this kid does not stay still for very long. It is starting to get hard to get pictures of him because he won't sit still long enough! He is extremely busy and he wants to be where the big kids are and doing what they are doing. I think he is going to be taking off on his own very soon. All the rest of the kids (except for Jaxon, who was around 14 months...think he was just having to much fun running people over with his walker) walked at around 11 months and C.J. is a little over 10 months now. He is such a chunky little monkey too, pretty amazing since at 6 months he was underweight and than he discovered bottles and food and hasn't looked back since! I also included some of Jaxon's 2 year pics, since I realized I never posted any.

Kindergarten Music Program

Jayde's music program last night was wonderful! She did such a great job and I think she has a future on the stage if she wants it! She was up there just grooving and singing and you could tell that she was having a lot of fun. I had to keep myself from laughing while I was watching her since I had to try to hold the video camera steady! She watched herself on tape this morning and was grooving and singing right along with it, it was almost like watching the whole show all over again! She definitely isn't shy about getting up on stage in front of people, that's for sure! Afterwards she ran around the gym for a while with her friends and it was just fun to watch her interact and have fun. I was cracking up when her and her friend were playing hide in seek and first Jayde hid...there aren't that many places to hide in the gym so she hid in the door jam! Her friend found her pretty quickly, but she didn't seem to mind they were both just giggling. When it was her turn to be the seeker, her friend hid in the same spot Jayde had then jumped out at her when she came close. But it was just so much fun to watch the looks on their faces as the played. I love moments like those.

Class Picnic

I must think it is summer already, because I have been horrible about getting up on time the past few days! Which then ends up with us all racing around the house trying to get ready in time to leave when we are supposed too! Course it probably didn't help that I was up most of the night last night with Jaxon. He was just having a really hard time going to sleep. He fell asleep really fast because he didn't have a nap, but than around 10:30 he was up crying so I went in to sit with him and he would drift in and out just crying his eyes out. So around 12:30 I finally gave up trying to get him to go back to sleep in his own bed and put him in bed with me. On the other hand though, C.J. slept really good last night (thank goodness...don't think I could of taken both of them up!) and he slept until around 5:30. He usually wakes up around 3:00...he's only actually slept through the night a few times. I think that could be that he shares a room with us and he can probably hear us moving around and breathing and it probably wakes him up.

Ryann had her class picnic today. I wish the weather had been a little more nice for it. It was about 68 and windy...it wasn't too bad when the sun was out, but when it went down it got a bit chilly. Though the kids really don't seem to mind it! We took Jayde and Jaxon with us and left C.J. with Grammy. They all had a lot of fun playing with all the kids and Jaxon was having a blast chasing the seagulls around! I got a couple pics of Ryann with her best buddy Dylan and her teacher Mrs. Rosbach...she's absolutely wonderful!!

Afterwards we stopped by the house to see what progress Doug has been making on the house. He is finishing up the kitchen today and than we are ordering appliances to go in it. And he is going to work on painting today as well. So it is really coming along and we are going to have all of our things delivered on the 30th so we need to get it finished up and figure out where everything is going to go.

Then we took Jayde to school, and since I had Ryann and Jaxon in the car I just dropped Jayde off in front of the school and parked where I could watch her walk down the sidewalk and get in line at the back o the school. She was so cute, one of her friends was getting dropped off at the same time she was so she waited for her and took her hand to walk with her when one of their other friends showed up. They than all held hands and went running down the sidewalk together to get in line. Jayde has her Kindergarten music program tonight so that should be alot of fun. I know she is really excited about it, she's been counting down the days all week. I better go check to make sure my video camera is charged and has tape in it!!

Where did our warm weather go?!

Well it looks like our 90 degree weather has gone away, it is rainy and windy today and in the high 60's low 70's and it's supposed to stay this cool for atleast a week. Talk about going from one extreme to the other! It wasn't too bad this morning...it was a little cool but felt good after the really hot weekend. And I like the smell of the rain mixed in with the scent of all the flowers blooming. However by this afternoon the wind really started picking up and the temps dropped a bit more, and it became a bit chilly.

I filled out the paperwork last night to enroll Doogie and Jayde in their new school for next year. I have to admit I am a big saddened at the thought of them not continuing at the school they are at now. Part of that could be because that is where I went to school and also because I really like the teachers there. Though I have heard great things about their new school as well. I'm really going to miss Jayde's speech teacher...she's such a wonderful lady. She told me that she had already gotten in touch with the speech teacher at the new school and has given him all the info for Jayde and told him all of the things they have been doing for her down here. It is so nice to know that she is looking out for Jayde's best interests. I will miss their classroom teachers as well, both of them have been absolutely wonderful and you can tell that they genuinely love to teach the kids, and I know they have all of their best interests at heart. I'm sure I will find wonderful teachers at their new school as well, but I will be sad to say goodbye at the end of the year.

Ryann's blood sugar levels have been doing alot better the last few days...though we have been hitting a few more lows than usual, but considering she's been staying high for the past couple of weeks she is doing really well. I don't know if it is because we've adjusted her doses some or if all the outside play has been doing it...though it is probably a combination of the two, but something seems to be working! We will have to keep a close eye on her over the summer and make sure we keep her hydrated and give her what she needs to keep her blood sugar on the level. It can be tricky at times, most of the time it's just a balancing act and you just have to find the right combo. And some things that will work one day won't always work the next, so it can be a bit frustrating at times trying to figure out what went wrong!

I think we are going to have to put the gate back up on the stairs...we took it down since Jaxon is fine going up and down now. However my little monkey named C.J. has turned into quite the climber and was heading up them this morning. I don't remember the others being such good little climbers this young. Ryann was one of them, but I don't remember her climbing up on the table until she was atleast one! In some ways this doesn't surprise me though since he is extremely busy...his got to keep up with the other kids now doesn't he! He's so cute about it too, he just gives you one of his huge grins and giggles and you just melt. We got him a walker that looks like a lion and he is so cute just toddling along behind it pushing it around. I wouldn't be surprised if he is walking very soon!

Coach-pitch

The game went really well today. It was actually their first one that I was able to watch the whole way through without having to chase after one of the little ones! We left the two youngest at home with the Grandparents and just took the three oldest and then Grandpa ended up chasing after Ryann at the game. So I was able to get some pictures of the kids...will have to get those downloaded off my camera so I can get some up on here. Both Doogie and Jayde did really well and Jayde got a hit off the pitcher and didn't have to use the tee...she was pretty happy with herself for that. Afterwards when we got home Doug pitched to Doogie some so that he could work on his hitting and I came outside to watch and he hit a line drive right at me! He thought that was pretty funny and I think it also helped with his confidence! After that he was really whacking the ball. As long as he doesn't get down on himself he does really well. The trick is snapping him out of his negative mood and getting him back in the positive. Of course that goes the same for Jayde, at their last game she got extremely upset when she got tagged out running to the base.

Pee in the Potty!!!

Well you might not think that this is such a big deal...until I tell you who pee'd in the potty! It wasn't Ryann (though she has been doing okay today...she stayed dry at school and went potty for me when I picked her up)...but this time it was Jaxon!! I was changing his diaper before we went out to run errands and he insisted on sitting on the potty before I put his new diaper back on. So I'm like okay, I don't want to discourage him on using it...so I sat him on the potty thinking oh he'll just sit there for a few minutes and then say his done and get off. So I turned around to see what C.J. was doing in the living room when I heard the distinct sound of something spraying everywhere. I turn back to Jaxon to see him peeing everywhere! LOL! I quickly went over to help him "aim" in the right spot, and then cleaned up the floor. But boy was he so pleased with himself for using the potty and we praised him big time (we'll just have to work on that aim a bit!) I need to buy a potty seat that has a shield on it to help block those little accidents from happening!

Ryann had her last day of school today and then on Wednesday they have their class picnic. I need to find a present for her teacher so that Ryann can give it to her when she see's her. So I'll have one less kid to run back and forth to school and then Doogie and Jayde are done June 11th. Doogie has an end of the year picnic as well, and I don't know what they are doing for Jayde just yet. Ryann's teacher was talking about doing a "park hop" this summer where every Wednesday they would have a park playdate set up where people could show up so that the kids could still play and see eachother over the summer, and she was going to try to make it to alot of them as well so she could see the kids. So that will be alot of fun, I know Ryann is going to miss all of her school buddies. I need to make sure I get out our new phone number and address to everyone, so that we can have playdates.

Jayde was so funny this morning. We went to the flower nursery with Grammy this morning to look at flowers. And I was getting ideas for my flower gardens that I want to do once we get our yard situated. But Jayde really wanted this lavendar plant so we told her okay...that can be yours, but you got to take care of it and water it until we can plant it somewhere. So she said okay and then the whole time we were walking around she was telling everyone that this was her plant. When we were leaving she insisted on carrying it herself and holding it in the car, while we were walking out to the car she was talking to her plant to help it grow big and strong! It was pretty cute. She was a really good girl for me this morning and I think she loved getting that positive attention!

Anyways, here are some pictures from yesterday...one from Ryann's party (the one with her and her two friends) and then the others from when we came back and swam with Uncle Chris, his girlfriend Melissa and her son Christian. And I'll try to update again tonight since Doogie and Jayde have a game tonight....I need to remember to bring the camera so I can get some pics of them playing!

Birthday Party

We had Ryann's birthday party today. I think it went quite well, we just had a small party with mostly family and a few of her friends from school. We decided to have it at the place where they have gymnastics. I think they all had a great time running around playing on the equipment and playing the games that the instructor set up. I need to download my pictures off my camera so I can upload some for you all to see! One of the things I liked about the party was that they do the set up and the take down of the party so you don't have to spend all that time cleaning and what not before and after the party, and they supplied everything but the cake and food (even the goody bags!) But the most important thing was that all the kids had a great time playing. I got some really cute pictures of Ryann and her buddies!

Afterwards we headed back home and hopped into the pool, we are still having 90 degree weather, though it is supposed to start cooling off and get down to the 70's by Tuesday. My brother, his girlfriend and her son joined us in the pool. The kids swam for the rest of the afternoon until we had them get out at dinner. So they are good and tired and most of them (all except Ryann) went down pretty quickly tonight. Ryann had taken her birthday presents to bed with her and instead of going to sleep was playing...I hadn't realized she had done that until she got out of bed to tell me she couldn't find her mouse (Gus, from Cinderella). I told her she should be sleeping anyways and that we will look for him tomorrow!

C.J. LOVES the pool! I thought he might not like it because it is still a little cool (though with the warm weather it has been warming up), but he got in and was splashing and smiling and having the time of his life. Even when the kids you splash him with water he wouldn't get upset...he would start laughing like it was just the funniest thing! So I've got another water baby on my hands! Both Jayde and Doogie are excited about the fact that they have passed the swim test...which basically is swimming the entire length of the pool without touching the bottom. Jayde will still struggle some, so when she doesn't have her floaties on we have to keep a close eye on her. Jaxon loves to just float around with his floaties on and his tube, he thinks he is pretty cool. Though he was a little leary today of getting in since he had a little incident yesterday in the pool, his tube wasn't up high enough and he was a little top heavy. The floaties of course kept him from going under but he was panicking because his face kept going in. Papa got to him pretty quickly, but it did scare him. Which is some ways is good, since a healthy fear of the water can be a good thing. But after a few minutes in the pool with his Daddy holding him and off he went again!

Ryann is starting to slowly improve with the potty. I think wanting to swim is taking precedence of not wanting to get on the potty. She even pooped today in the potty, she was very excited and happy with herself (though she did end up pooping again about a half hour later in her pull-ups). However she is making progress. I figure if we just swim every day all day we'll get her potty trained in no time! LOL! Not to mention they will all sleep really good at night. They all actually slept in this morning and slept until around 8:00! Not bad since they are usually are up around 7 or earlier! All except Ryann and Jaxon usually, they like to sleep in a bit longer as long as no one wakes them up!

Lost A Tooth!!

Jayde lost her second tooth this morning! She was eating her cereal for breakfast and out it came! She was pretty excited about it, she came running over to me yelling "my tooth came out"! So I put it in a baggie for her and put her name and the date on it and she went running upstairs to show Doug her tooth. Now I just need to remember to stick a dollar under her pillow tonight after she goes to sleep. When she lost her first tooth, she had swallowed it while she was sleeping...which she was pretty upset about. She thought that the tooth fairy wouldn't come (and she almost didn't!) But I reassured her and told her that the tooth fairy would know where to go! Then I almost forgot to give her her dollar, I ended up giving it to her myself the next morning and told her that the tooth fairy left it with me sine she couldn't very well put it where her tooth had been! That seemed to work, and Jayde thought nothing of it!

I also forgot to mention the whole potty incident yesterday with Ryann. I had her go potty for me before she got to go in the pool, reminding her that if she went potty in the pool she wouldn't be able to swim anymore. She said okay, and I asked her periodically while she was swimming if she needed to go and would remind her once again what would happen if she went potty...each time however she would tell me she didn't have to go. Then she happened to get out of the pool and was about to get back in when Doug noticed she was carrying a load in her swimsuit! YUCK!! Have I told you that I hate potty training...especially when they poop! So I dragged her back into the house and started getting the mess cleaned up and informed her that she was done swimming now...something she wasn't very happy to hear! We're thinking that maybe this will be the thing that gets her to use the potty. We figure that a couple times watching everyone else swim and not being able to join them might do the trick...I know it sounds pretty mean though and I hate to do it to her, however she is 4 now and she really needs to decide to start using the potty! I think if her diabetes hadn't kicked in last summer she would of been potty trained at 3...but oh well, that's the way life goes at times.

First Swim of the Season

We had a pretty busy day today. We had to take Ryann up to Spokane for her diabetes check-up. She is doing well, we have been having alot of highs lately so we were strategizing some ways that we could battle that and we adjusted her insulin dosages some. But all in all, she is doing quite well and we will continue to plug away at it.

When we returned home from our trip we all headed for the pool! It was up in the 90's today so it was very nice out. The water was still a bit cold for my taste (in the low 70's) but the kids didn't seem to mind it! They all had a great time swimming and hanging out outside. Hopefully they are all tired out now and will sleep good for the night and if I'm lucky sleep in tomorrow!

Tomorrow, I'm hoping to get over to the house and get some painting done. Doug is over there tonight working on getting the cupboards in so that we can go and order the countertops and get going on that. And I also need to get out and pick things up to put in Ryann's goody bags for her party on Sunday.