Rainforest Cafe

it is our tradition to go to Rainforest Cafe restaurant when Ben travels for work. The kids usually think it is fun with all the animals and trees. But this time Wyatt was very scared of all the animals. We were seated at a round booth with big gorillas on either side of us that come to life every 15 minutes or so. Wyatt freaked out everytime. In the first picture you can see him cowering beside Ben. Logan was alternately interested and scared of the dressed up red-eyed tree frog that was wandering around the restaurant. Noelle was the only one who really enjoyed the atmosphere. And Ben enjoyed his steak, ribs and shrimp.

sink baths

These photos are pretty old but I just downloaded the pics from my alternate camera that I don't use very often anymore. We were staying at my parents in their wonderful airconditioned house while they were on vacation. I decided to give Logan a bath in the sink. Noelle and Wyatt took turns washing him. The next night, Wyatt decided he wanted a bath in the sink too. Noelle was fairly dissappointed that she was too big to fit.

Free shoes!

I am surprised none of you "girls" has found this See Kai Run show giveaway and mentioned it yet. It ends soon so enter now!!

Growing up

I realized it had been a while since I took some pictures of Logan so I went a little overboard and took about 40. My kids are going to have the opposite problem of most siblings. The baby is going to have the most pictures and the oldest will have the least. With the film camera, I was very conservative in the pictures I took becuase it cost more money to take more pictures. With digital, and now my awesome digital camera, I can take as many pictures as I want! Good thing too. I would hate to have not taken some of these shots. What a cutie!!

At least it wasn't another trip to the ER!

Well he is at it again. Firmly planting himself as the "problem child". He has been to more doctors, had more tests, and injured himself more than the rest of us combined. Next year we are for sure going to triple our medical savings account.
This time it was 9 stitches after cutting himself with either a saw or a metal square. No one saw it and you can't really take the word of a 3 year old. His dr is going to start wondering how these things keep happening to him. He limped around for about 5 minutes and then was off and running as long as he had his bandaid on. When it came off he was suddenly limping again. It is healing quite nicely and he has a nice start to his collection of scars to impress the girls with. :)

Kindergarten!!!

Here is Noelle heading into her school building all by herself. What a big girl!

Mom almost forgot the 1st day of school picture but luckily I remembered.

Aren't they cute?

Kids enjoying some Playdoh and Logan enjoying being able to see the action.

I jut love my 3 kids!!

I love Jamba Juice!!

Well who doesn't love Jamba Juice? I took advantage of this love of juice to teach Logan to drink out of his new sippy cup. He spent a while figuring it out and then he wouldn't come up for air.

By the way, this unusal ability to catch up on my blog has been brought to you by Wyatt, who is up at 2am watching Curious George. He has a bad cough, wheezy lungs and headache and stomachache. He would not settle down in our bed so I brought him out here for the cure all, TV. :) I think the stomachache is just hunger but I am not having much success getting him to eat. Everybody pray Noelle makes it to school on time tomorrow!

First tooth

Logan popped his first tooth through somewhere in Minnesota. His second one followed a few weeks later. And while he is getting his first teeth, Noelle is losing hers. She discovered her first loose tooth a few days after Logan got his tooth. And just to brag a little on the cute kid, He is not yet 8 months and is already pulling himself up on furniture, crawling proficently and using the "pincher grasp" to pick up food and feed himself. He is also learning to give kisses to the cute baby in the mirror.

In the blink of an eye

We had a scary experience with Wyatt recently that I hope will renew all you parents to some safety tips. We were swimming at our friend's pool with a few families and most of us were out of the pool and inside. Noelle and her friend were still in the pool at the shallow end playing on the steps. Ben was outside with another dad and was watching them. Wyatt had gotten out of the pool, taken his life jacket off and was playing with his friend in the yard around the pool. Because Noelle and her friend did not have life jackets on (which we allowed because they can touch for a few feet out at that end of the pool) Ben was being very conscious to look back frequently at them while he was talking to the other dad a few feet away.

Suddenly Ben got a bad feeling and quickly scanned the area for the kids. He didn't see Wyatt. He started walking toward the pool and saw Wyatt floating face down. Ben jumped in the pool and pulled him out and laid him down on the side. Wyatt was blue and not breathing. He gave him a few breaths and the other dad ran inside to call 911 and yelled for someone who knew CPR to run outside. Two of the other moms ran outside and our other friend dropped to her knees to pray (Thank you!!) I don't really know CPR so I didn't rush out but started to realize that my kids and the kids of the dad who ran inside were the only ones out there so there was a good chance something was wrong with one of mine. Since we have already lost our first child at birth to a birth defect, I was confident that God would not allow us to lose another child (whether or not that is reality, it is just something I have to tell myself) so when I saw Wyatt laying there I did not panic as I was sure he would be okay. Ben on the other hand was hysterical as he was sure that it was all over. As I knelt down by Wyatt one of the moms said "He has a heartbeat." which further encouraged me that he would be fine. They tilted his head back and gave him a few breaths and then his mouth started moving and he took a few breaths on his own. The color rushed back and he started crying. The fireman showed up just after that and checked his breathing and said he seemed to be doing well but we would have to take him to the ER to get him checked out. Our friend drove us to the ER and they took chest x-ray and blood tests and said we were very lucky and he would be 100% fine. WHEWWWW!

We were so blessed that God protected our sweet Wyatt. The last several days we have reveled in our family and appreciated the fact that we could have lost Wyatt and our family would have never been the same. We find greater joy in every interaction between Wyatt and his brother and sister and are so thankful we don't have to explain why their brother isn't here anymore. Noelle was very scared by the situation because she didn't realize there was a problem and thought Wyatt was playing. She also didn't like seeing the fireman around and everyone being upset. She felt much better after she came to see him at the hospital and knew he was okay. She doesn't like to hear us talk about Wyatt's "pool problem" although since we have had to tell the story over and over countless times. Wyatt just said he tried to go swimming and drank a lot of water. He doesn't seem very affected by the situation at all thankfully. We think of all the things that could have happened and are glad the situation worked out so well.

So needless to say, swimming lessons are first on our agenda this fall. Although our nurse told us that her son was taking swimming lessons and he fell off the table they have in the water to keep them up higher and his teacher didn't notice and she had to run over and get him out. So always go with your child to swim lessons and watch them at all times.

Also we never imagined that Wyatt would go back in the pool on his own without his lifejacket on. We always stress that you have to wear your jacket in the pool unless mom and dad are with you. Earlier we had been practicing with them without their jackets so maybe that is where he got the idea. You can never tell what kids are thinking. Noelle also didn't know that Wyatt was not breathing and that it was a problem. She thought he was playing in the water. So don't trust your young kids to watch the younger ones.

We were very lucky that Wyatt didn't need much resuscitating and that the fire station is about 1 mile away from the house we were at, but none of us really knew CPR even though our friend had taken it recently, she realized she couldn't really think of what the proper procedure was either. So I encourage all parents to take CPR classes whenever possible. We would never have gotten over it if we were unable to resuscitate him when we should have been able to.

So thanks to all who knew of the situation and were praying for our family. Thanks also to all our friends who were there with us and were so supportive and encouraging, especially to Ben who felt horrible it happened on his watch even though he did everything right.

We are so thankful Wyatt is still here with us and praise God for him.