Mother's Day 2009

My 12th. Outrageous. We celebrated the day with our families. Starting at Scott's parents house and ending at my parents. Great food and great family...what more could I ask for? I haven't received my Mother's Day/Birthday gift yet...still researching it. I'm hoping to purchase Photo.shop for my computer...yikes. Big purchase and lots of directions..two things I hate :) However, I take so many pictures and have spent so much money on my two cameras that I'd love to have a great program to play with. Of course, finding the time to "play" will be the real issue. Me 'n my babies....Brady, Cate, Bennett, and Carter

The best mom ever... MINE!

Me and Grandma Dorothy...the perfect grandmother

Me and my sister, Kathy....rockin the underoos.

My sister has the best sister ever

I am so blessed to have married into such a great family!!

Catie Bug

My four favorite little people

Scott teaching Cate to fish...I found live worms in her pockets this past weekend...gross!!

Brady's "Shurgery"

My poor Brady had his tonsils/adenoids removed yesterday. Not because of endless bouts with strep throat, but because of his snoring. Loud, keep-everyone up, kind of snoring. And he stops breathing...diagnosed as obstructive sleep apnea. At first, I thought snoring was something he has inherited from me (my mom, Grandpa Joe....), but when I referenced our Toddler 411 book, I found out just how dangerous it can be. I bypassed a visit to our pediatrician because I figured he'd either 1)blow it off or 2)refer us to an ENT. Because our insurance doesn't require referrals and we're on a first name basis with our ENT, I decided to just make Brady an appt with Dr. Fi.erstein. 30 seconds into the first office visit, he concluded it's the tonsils and adenoids and both must be removed. Wonderful. So, yesterday was surgery (as well as my birthday) and we headed to Children's at 6:30am. Children's Hospital is really the place to be. We've been to other area hospitals..many times... but nothing compares to Children's. From the parking attendants to nurses, everyone goes above and beyond to take care of the patients and their families. Brady really hasn't said much leading up to his surgery and once we arrived at the hospital, we tried to keep him as busy as possible. He and Scott put together a puzzle and Star Wars Le.go ship.

I requested he receive an oral sedation medicine to relax him before they took him back to the operating room. This seemed to help his nerves and once he was loopy, they rolled him away without protest. 30 minutes later, Dr. F came back to say that Brady did great, surgery was over and we will be able to see him in recovery soon. 15 minutes after that, we headed back to see Brady. He was just waking up and was a bit disoriented. There are two things we heard from every nurse and doctor we met...Brady's tonsils were HUGE, and his pain tolerance is amazing. He never shed one tear. He was brought back to his original room and was able to take a 90 minute nap before we left. He is such a great patient!!! Back home, he was really tired and sore, but occasionally would sit out on the front porch to watch Cate "pull weeds". Today he is feeling a bit worse...has a headache and sore throat. The worst part is that Brady is so sad! I hate seeing him this way..it's breaking my heart! I'm thinking tomorrow he'll turn the corner towards recovery and then he'll be good as new.

Daddy reading directions for the Lego ship

Ta-Da!

One and only "melt down".....he fought back the tears, but was getting a bit scared

Medicine kicking in and starting to get sleepy

Post-Surgery. All done and hanging with his pelican webkinz

Showing off his IV..still has no clue needles were involved

Getting ready to put together a puzzle with daddy

Seriously, he had just thrown up four times. Felt much better I guess!

Ready to leave the hospital...looking pretty good!

An Evening in the Park

Monday night, Carter had soccer practice and because his two car-pool friends are sick, I had to take and pick-up. Blah. He practices at SIUE, so it's just a tad bit inconvenient. Scott had softball, so I was forced to drag all of the kids with me. After we dropped Carter off, I took Ben, Brady, and Cate to Gl.ik Park to release some energy....the weather was perfect! I know it seems that Carter always gets left out and he is never in my pictures, but most of the time, it's his decision. He's definitely at the age where he no longer wants to hang out with us and finds most of our "family time" lame. Besides, how could I forget about him when his principal calls so often and with all of the emails I receive from his teachers?!

A recent picture of Carter...of course he has his phone in his hand. 2793 text messages last month!

Brady and Bennett at the park

Always taking care of Cate!

Made it to the top!

Bennett thinking about how he was going to get down

Lots of hungry fish in the pond

Trying to keep Cate from jumping in

Til next time....Buh-Bye!!

"Aw, My Nuts"

Apparently seven year olds love to talk about their "nuts".

This year, Bennett chose to have three friends spend the night rather than a have a kid birthday party. Yay for me. Cheaper, less hassle, cheaper... We let Ben list a few kids that he would like over, and we narrowed it down to three. Our decision was based on behavior, how well they got along with each other, and how they would treat Brady. And, I have to admit, the kids were awesome. Scott took them fishing, we had pizza, and they played video games and watched TV. Perfect. No fighting, no crying, no injuries to report. Well, besides a few hook issues fishing. Everyone caught at least one fish, and they had a blast. Back home, the boys ate pizza...in the basement, which is a huge treat because of the "no food or drink" policy, but we let it slide for one night. Once they were settled in the basement, Cate and I went to bed. I could hear the boys through the air vent and it was hilarious to listen to their conversations. At one point, someone yelled "dodgeball!" and that's when all hell broke loose. "Ouch, my nuts" "He hit my nuts" "Not my nuts"..."Nuts, nuts, nuts". Ridiculous. Scott slept on the couch so he could hear what was going on downstairs, and I took my sleeping pills so I couldn't hear what was going on downstairs :-) They were up bright and early and ate 12 donuts, dug a fort in the sandpit, and played a few games of ball before Scott took them home by 10. So far, I've counted two pairs of pj bottoms and one t-shirt left behind...not too bad.

A Motley Looking Crew

Brady with a "baby fish"

Miss Nosy making her way down to the action

Bennett got a hook in the finger

Cate cheering for the boys

Brady, Bennett, and Aaron showing off some fish. Scott let them keep the fish in this cage til they were finished. The boys must have lifted it out of the water a zillion times to check them out!

DJ, Brady, Aaron, Bennett, Carter, and Kile

The morning after..........(yes, that is Dr. Pepper and donuts!)

Swimming and a Parade

Last night (Friday) we took the kids (minus Carter of course) swimming at the Y in E'ville. I've been a little panicked that Cate may not love the pool like she did last summer...so, I thought we'd give it a test run before Paddlers opens in 3 weeks (yikes). Once in the water, Cate was happy as can be and splashed and played the entire time. Brady and Ben are both great swimmers, and I'm hoping they'll join the swim team this year. Realistically, there's no way Ben will, but Brady is a possibility..he can already swim the length of the pool, he's just nervous about practices. Carter doesn't have a choice, he's on the team.

Today was Bennett and Carter's park district baseball parade. The parade is always the Saturday before games start. Which means...this week...games start. Brady plays on Monday nights, Bennett plays on Wednesday and Fridays, and Carter plays on Monday and Wednesdays. Scott's softball games for today were canceled and he was able to walk in the parade. We can't find Carter's uniform anywhere so he was the only one on the team not wearing a uniform..go figure. Cate and I sat near the end of the parade route so we could join the teams at the ceremony following the parade. She was sound asleep til Officer (Jen.na) DeYo.ng drove by and blared her siren at us. Cate nearly jumped out of her stroller. She wanted out and sat on the curb watching everyone walk by and chased candy til her bucket was full!

May look like a noose, but it's just her jacket!

Only two kids that did not throw us candy

And I quote "oh my gosh guys, there's my little sister..Cate, Cate, Cate"

Brandon, Carter, Jake

"We Need a Clean-Up in the Gymnasium"

Cancel the clean-up...it's just Cate Smallie throwing the mother of all tantrums at "Family Fun Night." We put the "fun" in "dysfunctional"....fo' sho'. Last night was Beach Night at Brady and Cate's school. Scott made it home in time to join us and off we went. The school was decorated for the theme and each classroom had different "beach" activities. Beach volleyball in the gym, ocean story and books in one room, crafts in another room..you get the picture. So, we were in the room that had live shrimp, crabs, and other sea creatures for the kids to look at and touch. Cate went straight for the classroom toys. She found a baby doll to play with and started to get all of the toys out and make a huge mess (shocking, I know). When Scott picked her up to leave the room, she arched her back and screamed. So, he carried her screaming out of the room..and that's when she went ballistic. I have only seen this twice before..it was Scott's first glimpse at our oh-so-fun future with Cate. Nothing could calm her down..she was screaming, crying, thrashing her arms, stomping her feet. Very impressive. We tried taking her into the gym where they had tons of beach balls to play with, but she was too far gone by then. Here, my sweet tiny baby in her super cute skirt is flailing around on the ground..skirt up over her head...rolling around on the dirty gym floor. It was definitely a "whose kid is that" moment. Scott finally grabbed her and exited the building (not before I took a few pics of course). Needless to say, Family Fun night ended early for us. The boys were good sports about it, both accepting that this is the way things are probably going to be with her. Once in the car, she was back to her sugary sweet self...talking and laughing and clapping for herself all the way home. Lord help us.

Brady looking at the ocean creatures...

"I'd much rather play with the dolls"

"Um, I am not putting this baby back"

"No, daddy...don't make me put her back"

I'm sure he's wishing he would have come home fifteen minutes later so we would have left without him!!!

Now that is one mad little girl. She scooted all the way across the gym on her back like this.

Goofy as ever on the way home. (Check out them legs!!)

Ironic that our church is pictured out the window???

Back at school this morning. She immediately headed for the babies and played there the entire time.

Any advice for me on how to survive her teen years?!?!?!