One Last Hoo Rah!

Well we're off to Island Park tomorrow after Libbie gets out of school! I'm so glad Fridays are our early-out days! And yeah for us, Trent finally gets to join our family for our family trip! I think I may actually have a slight chance of relaxing for a minute or two this time since I'll have a little help! I'm excited to go up and spend some time playing with the kids and having some fun for a few days before school is really back in full swing! I'll have a free hand this time so hopefully I'll have some pics to prove we were there since someone (Jason) only takes pics of his favorites!! Only kidding Jason, don't throw a hissy fit you hot mess! Anyways, I'll post some pics when we get home! I hope everyone enjoys their Labor Day Weekend!!! :)

Back to School, Back to School! To Prove to My Dad That I'm Not a Fool!

Some of you might not get my super subtle Billy Madison reference, but oh well! So YEAH!!! School has officially begun! Here are just a few pics of the kids on their first day and totally sporting their new backpacks! (Well Libbie will correct you if you call it a backpack, it's not it is a BOOK BAG people!!!) She's a bit too fashion savvy for a 2nd grader if you ask me, but at least she cares and wants to look good right? But even though she's a little 'princess' she is the sweetest little thing. When I picked her up after school I asked how her 1st day was and if she had so much fun eating lunch with Maddie and Zoey (her bff's) and she told me that she didn't eat with them because there is a girl in her class named Aubrey that was home-schooled all but the last month of school last year and she doesn't know alot of kids so she ate lunch with her so she wouldn't be alone. I started tearing up half-way through the story and she finished by telling me that she took her over to her friends when they got done eating and introduced them so they could all play together and she'd make more friends! I thought that was a pretty grown up thing for a 2nd grader to think of doing. I don't know how we did it, but Trent and I managed to raise someone who is nicer than we probably would have been at that stage in life. Way to go Beans!
Corbin's a story all his own! His first day of Kindergarten was so fun! We made a family tree and had to color and cut out apples to glue onto the tree and we had 1 leftover apple so he decided to color it black and make it a rotten apple to hang on our fridge for the rest of the week. Then he got to go out and play while the teacher talked to us parents. Well one of the kids got stung by a bee and had to go to the office to get some ice and I was asking Corbin about it after and he says to me "Ya mom, that's totally gotta suck to get stung by a bee on your first day of kindergarten!" I was laughing so hard and I said ya you've already had one kid get stung in your class already huh? And his answer was, "Well actually mom, there were 2 cuz I'm pretty sure I got stung too, I'm just so tough I didn't feel it!" What a boy, trying to act all tough, when really he'd have been screaming like he'd been shot if he'd been stung! They learn early don't they!!
Well, I'm sure I'll post things more often now that school's back in and I have a bit more time to myself!

F.Y.I...

Okay, I had my first (and hopefully last) encounter with Poison Control today. I was having a bit of the heart burn and I got a Zantac pill out and needed a glass of water to take it with. I set it down clearly out of reach... or so I thought. In the time it took me to turn around, get a glass and fill it with water, Brooklyn had already climbed up on the chair, then the counter (which is safe in and of itself, right?) and grabbed the pill and chewed it up. I was pretty sure I got most of it out with rinsing and digging through her mouth, but just to be safe, I called the Poison Control hotline. It took me a minute to get the number and dial so I now have it programed in all of our phones and posted on the fridge and various places one might look to find such a number! Here's the number in case anyone doesn't have it: 800-222-1222. It's toll free and automatically connects you with the nearest center for help. It really is a good thing to have programmed into your phones.
Ps. I really am not a bad mom, I just struggle with the common sense obviously!

All Better!

Well as many of you already know, Brooklyn was born with kidney problems (bilateral ureteral reflux) which is a fancy term for urine going back stream into her kidneys from her bladder causing continuous, recurring kidney infections. Well most of you again know that she had kidney/bladder surgery in May to correct this problem. She went for her post-op appt in June and there was still fluid in and around her kidneys so we had to go back today and do a bunch more tests to make sure that the surgery was a success. Hallelujah!!! the surgery was 100% successful and she no longer has to take her daily dose of antibiotics that she's been on for the past year and a half! And also, her kidneys are healthy and should stay healthy for the rest of her long and happy life!! Thanks to everyone for all your prayers, thoughts and support!

Kids Say the Darndest Things!

Well this actually happened almost a month ago, but I forgot about it until Corbin brought it back up today. We were in a fine establishment most of you may know as Wal-Mart, and we were just walking in and passed a family walking out. They were just a 'normal' family of 4; a mom, dad, and 2 boys. The only thing different about them was that they were all about as tall as Corbin. I hope I don't offend anyone with the rest of this story, but it made me laugh too hard not to tell it. So being like any mom with small kids would be, I threw my kids into the cart and booked it right on out of there so that they wouldn't ask questions. Well that didn't work! Corbin was in awe. So he proceeded, for the next 5 to 10 minutes to ask if I saw those "Gibbets" in the store! I explained to him that they are just little people, and Libbie tried to teach him the term "midget" but he just kept blurting out, "Ya, I know, those really short Gibbets!" He has said his share of words wrong and cracked me up, but this one caught me off guard and me and Trent are still laughing about it, so I'm sorry if anyone has a problem with my kid calling every little person he'll ever see a Gibbet!

One Small Step for Man, One Giant Leap for Libbie Sue!

We went to the eye doctor today for Libbie's annual before-school exam to check if she needed new lenses for school, and she is now the proud wearer of contacts! Her doctor wanted her to get into them sometime this year and thinks that she'll really benefit from wearing them now, so we thought we'd give it a try! We had one heck of a time getting them in for the first time, but I think she'll do great once she gets used to them! I just can't believe I have a kid old enough to wear contacts!! We'll post some pics of our "lens free" Libbie when I get them off my camera!

An Ode to the Olympics!

Well really there is nothing that I can think of that I Don't love about the Olympics, but there are some things that stand out more as my favs! What, you ask, well I'll tell you!!
1. Michael Phelps: He is, for lack of anything else to say, AMAZING! He is so exciting to watch and just seems like an all around "great guy" and on a side note, Trent gave me "permission" if he ever comes a knockin!! (ya, cuz that'll soooo happen!)
2. The men's gymnastics team: I love a good under dog, and when Paul and Morgan Hamm got injured and everyone counted team USA out of medal contention all together, they put their heads down and went to work and had an awesome event and won the bronze. By the way they were smiling though you'd have thought they won the gold!
3. I love it when you are watching something that you think is "just a race" but then by chance, something happens and you end up watching something that will surely go down in history as one of the most amazing finishes you'll ever see in your life! And to top it off, the raw and pure excitement that comes to the winners and to see it all unfold live! (you know who I'm talking about mens' 4 x 100 relay!)
4. I pretty much will watch anything when it comes to the Olympics because I love them so much and always have, but I'll even watch stuff I normally find boring, because you have to give it up to these athletes! They work and train and sacrifice so much to even get a small shot of being on the team and they don't get paid for their sport (usually, unless you're men's basketball, then whatever dude!) I just think that for all they put in to it, we owe them the courtesy of watching them fulfill their dream of winning gold for themselves and our country for 2 short weeks! Wow, I am deep!
There are so many more things I love about these games, but those are a few that stand out right now.
PS. Though I do love Michael Phelps, I must say I love the rest of the US Swim Team as well! The girls are rockin and the other guys are great too! And I can't wait for Track and Field to start!

Long Time No Blog!!

So it's been like forever and a day since I updated everyone on what's going on, so you may want to go get a snack and take a potty break cuz this might be a long one!! We are all back safely from Island Park! (Even Rosario managed to make it home in tact, right Jason!!!) We had such an amazingly fun time up there especially considering Trent and Mike weren't there. Neither was Shawn because he's rounding out the mission and will be home in late January! We went to see a gorgeous waterfall with the kids and they loved it and we also went to a little town called Ennis in Montana and it was well worth the hours drive to get there! From there we went to the Lewis and Clark caves which is only about 30 minutes north of Ennis, but it feels like it's in Canada when you're driving with unruly kids who need a nap, am I right Nina!? We hiked up this mountain trail to the caves which was 300 ft of elevation over .75 miles and we couldn't take any of the babies in strollers so thanks a million to the rest of the fam for taking turns with all the babies so we could rest our arms, and backs for a bit. Once we were in the caves it was about and hour and a half of exploring and we had to go up or down about 600 stairs, slide on our butts in places and duck and crouch down while carrying the little kids through the caves. If we would have known what it all entailed we probably would have opted not to take the little ones in but we're so glad we did because we had such a great time with all of them. I was too busy wrangling in my 3 kids the whole trip to take a lot of pictures and since Jason only likes Nina and Heathers' kids, me and my kids are no where to be found in ANY of the pics from the trip, but I promise we did actually go with the fam!! (just kidding Jason; I know you like Bella too!!) Any ways, since we've been back home me, Debbie, Heather and Jason went up to Park City for a night and went shopping, to dinner and to see Mama Mia! That is such a great movie! I loved the play, but the movie is hilarious! We had so much fun laughing and singing and dancing (well that was mostly me being embarrassing to the group, but oh well!) so thanks for a great time Deb! :) Now I am back home gearing up for school to start in 2 weeks and we've got a lot to do until then. Libbie goes to the eye doctor on Thursday and will hopefully get fitted for contacts and Brooklyn has her next round of tests for her kidneys next Thursday so keep her in your prayers will ya! I'll try to post more often so I don't have a novel next time, but if you made it to the end of this without quitting way to go blogger enthusiast! I am very impressed! Talk to you soon!