What a Week!

The past seven days have been the longest ever. I can't believe Brady's surgery was only last week...its seems like forever ago. Everyone always says that a tonsillectomy is so much easier on younger children...but, this can't possibly be true. It certainly isn't easier on the parents and Brady has been miserable. At least when I had my tonsils out at age 23, I was able to walk around drinking from my bottle of heavy narcotics. But, I think he's finally starting to feel a bit better and I'm hoping he regains the lost 5 pounds quickly..he looks puny!

Our weeks schedule was jam-packed with baseball and soccer, some of which were rained-out. This would seem like a welcomed relief for me, however, nothing is ever rained out til the last minute and by then, I've already done the hard part...uniform cleaning, equipment finding, bags packing, etc. Sitting at the games cheering is the easy part! The rain-outs last night allowed us to attend Annie's soccer game...they beat E'ville..YAY!

Bennett was supposed to be taking action shots of Annie...typical Bennett

Annie fighting with a rival player..she's pretty mean on the soccer field!!

Cate pushed her stroller most of the game

Bennett, Zack, Carter, Cate, and Brady taking a break

Carter had ISS (in-school suspension) on Thursday and Friday. We're so proud. He was caught writing "Elks Soccer Sucks" in a friends yearbook. Of course this was just the straw that broke the camels back..he had been in trouble several times over the past few weeks and they finally stuck it to him. ISS is served in a classroom at Coolidge but high school delinquents also serve their time there. Leave it to Carter to think ISS was "cool". He finished all of his school work in the first 30 minutes then was able to draw pictures (Lord only knows of what) for the remaining five hours. He also got to eat lunch at the high school...soda, chips, french fries..anything he wanted. Oh, and the best part?? He made a new friend...a high school kid who was in ISS for chewing tobacco in class...suh-weet! So much for teaching him a lesson.

My favorite juvenile delinquent pitching a great game

Had a few great hits too

Perfect wagon weather!

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