Mini-Update

The Gangs All Here"THROW 'EM IN A PAN" Tyler loves pat-a-cake
My handsome little guy
Lauren
James
Shanna
Cj
My Madison
Everything is going well. The kids are all loving their activities. They all love school, and Madison is the only one that gives me a hard time about getting up. And when she is grumpy, she ruins everyone's mood. You know how some people's moods are more contagious than others, hers is one of the worst. I am sick but getting better, it stinks being sick with so much today. Too bad there are not substitute moms you can call in. It wouldn't work anyway, I swear Tyler could smell me in my bedroom hiding under the covers.

Lindsey and I took the girls, Lauren, Madison, Leighanna and Brooke to see Taylor Swift and Kellie Pickler last week and they LOVED it. Madison gets so star struck. Lauren said it was the best night of her life :) She did put on a pretty good show.

Madison had to have her arm checked because she was having a lot more pain but they said everything looks okay. She cried so bad when they redid her cast and freaked out a little about seeing the pin in her arm. She is very scared now about them taking the pin out. I feel so bad for her. She should get it off in 2-3 weeks. We go Monday for another checkup.

I guess that's it for now. By the way, if anyone loves doing laundry please come to my house between the hours of 1 and 4 today. Thanks. :)

School Has Started, Chaos Has Only Begun

Madison her first week of school

Another day her first week
Why did I think that I was getting a break when school started? Am I crazy? All I did was push 90% of everything I have to do to a few measly hours in the evening. Granted, it sure is nice to have only 2 at home during the day. And I really couldn't ask for a better behaved 3 yr old out of Shanna and as far as babies go, Tyler is a good one. But there is still bills to pay, house to clean, laundry to do, errands to run, kids to feed, and 2 kids to care for. So the school hours are a bit easier than a normal summer day of 6 energetic kids. But the evenings...now that is a whole different story. When school starts so do all the other activities. Lauren, James and CJ are in Karate. Madison was, but her dr said she didn't need to this semester because of her arm. Lauren goes on Tuesdays and the boys on Thursdays. Madison goes to ballet on Wednesday and CJ goes to boy scouts of Mondays. We just found out this week that James was too young this year for cub scouts, gotta be in first grade. He was a little disappointed but I guess he is alright with it. So we have something going on Mon-Thur. Then there is also homework to squeeze in, dinner for me to cook, a little play time before dinner ,then baths and bed time. Then I clean up from dinner, sign folders, make lunch and put snacks and water bottles in bags. All while stopping here and there to feed Tyler. And most of that all needs to happen for 5 kids by 7:30 if I want them to fall asleep by 8:30, otherwise they will stay up too late and give me hell about getting up. Which Madison does no matter how early she goes to bed. And boy do they hate going to bed when it is still light outside and getting up when it's still dark.

The kids all love school, they just don't act like it in the mornings. It's hard for me too because at 6 am the last thing I want to be doing is having a crying baby follow me around the house (why did I want him to learn to crawl anyways???) and argue with Madison about why she has to go to school in the dark, and get 3 other kids ready for school. Then Shanna, Tyler and I walk them down the road to the stop sign. I breathe a sigh of relief when they step on that bus, so glad that the chaos is over until 3:45 p.m.

Kayla was approved to watch the kids on Friday so that was wonderful news, I got a nice long break, especially being a 3 day weekend. I am loving the peace, or what peace comes with only 2 kids. Madisons friend is staying over and that does come with some drama, but 3 is still half as easy as 6!

Madison had to have surgery on her arm Friday. They did have to put one pin in her arm. It went like this...

Beforehand they give them medicine to make them calm and sometimes they just go to sleep and others become very drunk like. Madison was so drunk like, it was hilarious. I have 4 videos of her on my phone. There was another girl in there who silently set on her moms lap for 30 minutes until taken back. Madison was as if totally wasted in 5 minutes. It was EXACTLY like being so drunk that you cant walk or speak or stop laughing. She was sprawled out on the floor bc she was too all over the place with her arms and legs for me to hold her but she couldn't walk. She kept saying "let me up, let me up, I can walk, I'm serious".. She would try to get up and lift her head just a little and fall back and hit her head on the floor. She talked like the stereotype drunk person, when asked my name she said brrrandEEEEEEEEEE with really high pitched e's lol.

Afterwards was not so great. they took her and she was put to sleep, surgery took an hour, they said 30-45 min so i was getting worried. But everything went okay other than needing a pin. It's sticking out of her arm but we cant see it because of the cast. When she woke up, they brought her too me but she was so disoriented she couldn't speak, she just cried really bad and crying owwwwwww and yelling in pain and refused to take medicine, she just let it fall out of her mouth. She cried "maaaamaaaa" and it broke my heart, it was so hard to see her in so much pain. I was really worried thinking she was gonna be in this much pain all day, but she wasn't. She went back to sleep after her IV pain meds kicked in and woke up much better. It took her a few hours to be herself again, but by the time we got home at 4 she was back to normal. She was a little bit of a Mommy's girl all night, sweet and clingy but today she is 100% herself. The cast has not slowed her down at all, I have to make her stop running, climbing, ect. She wants to do everything just as hard and fast.

Tyler looks awful, he has a cold sore and some other sores/bug bites/booboo's on him that make him look like I have abused the crap out of him. I swear I haven't. I must admit that I have wanted too put him outside a few times though. The past week every night has been horrible. The past month or two has been horrible, but the past week way worse. He wouldn't sleep more than 30 minutes to one hour at a time every single night. Seriously, I saw every single hour on the clock nearly. Finally, last night I prayed to God and begged for a decent nights sleep. He slept better than he has in a month. He only woke at 1:30 and again at 5:30 but went right back to sleep until 8. He hasn't slept past 6:30 since school started two weeks ago, so it was SO nice! I don't know what is going on with him but if it's those darn teeth....I wish I had something witty to say here that I could do to them but really what can I do but wait it out. I hate teething!!! Poor guy is probably as miserable as I am, he cant help it.

Shanna's shoot, I am a little out of practice. It feels like so long since I really tried to take good pictures.


Madison and Karley after the circus yesterday. They had a blast, but man the Tyler circus has nothing on Barnum and Bailey!

Did school already make her grow up, in just two weeks? She looks so much older!





Madison, having a zombie moment from her loony medsShe was so loony, it was the funniest thing. Ever.
This was pre-loony medicine. Tyler's shirt is soaked from his supposedly but lies spill proof sippy cup.
Also, pre-meds. Showing off her arm that she says is just fine.
And my little abused buy

It's been a month!

Bad mama, I know. I have not taken many pictures or blogged in a whole month. If you are friends or family you already know why I have just been too busy and had too much on my mind. But here is what's been going on in the past month...Madison broke her right arm at the park a week before school started! She cried about 30 minutes and was totally fine after that. During xrays and everything she was talking and laughing. This was her temporary one, she got her pink cast a few days later. She loves her cast and hasn't complained about it once - but everyone else has! She hurts everybody with it, she doesn't realize it since she can't hurt herself with it. It's so freakin heavy and hard. She has hurt every single one of us with it. As most of you know we have 4 extra kids in the house now, and Madison isn't dealing with it as well as I would have thought. I thought she would love it bc she loves complany so much, but it's been a really hard adjustment. And her having the cast only makes it worse bc the kids are always getting mad at her for hurting them so she says sorry a lot. I feel bad for her, but it's been hard on everyone. I hope now that school has started things will get into some kind of normal routine.

The first day of school (today, the 24th) pics!!! She looked so pretty!
She was so excited, when I woke her up she jumped out of bed and ran to get dressed. I had to slow her down. When I took her to her class she didn't even care or notice that I was leaving, she couldn't stop smiling and was just so happy. I cried, it was so bittersweet. The break is nice, but I will miss her. And I am just so sad that she is such a big girl now.
Her adorable back pack and lunch box from Pottery Barn, with her name on both, it's sooo cute!
Tyler playing in the water...






There was no keeping him still without a toy
He HATES hats now :(

These were taken Aug. 3rd, not the greatest pics, but I was trying to get my studio set up and figure out the best time of day to have natural light.
Poor baby, doesn't feel good

He was sick this day, you can tell in his little face :(


Nothing else is really new other than everyone just adjusting to the new changes. John got to be here for a little over a week and left this morning after we got Madison off to school, I am glad he was here for the first day. Tyler is doing great, crawling all over the place. He is attempting to stand alone, a couple of times now, so he may be walking in a month or two. He is babbling so cute and LOVES Elmo. If he hears it come on the tv, he will rush in here and sit in front of the tv and just stare and smile. He still hasn't gotten any more teeth, which is driving me crazy bc I swear they have been coming through for over a month now. I guess that is it for now! Hope all is well with everyone!

Crawling, Pulling Up, Oh My

WHOA!
This standing business is FUN!

Tyler's KISS impression

I love you, man

Please excuse Tyler's filthy clothes, he just had pears for breakfast

This is his sitting scooting crawl....

It looks like I run a daycare in the background, jeeze.

Can you see the excitement on his face? :)

Sis, is she coming???

DANG, she caught me!

Wow, Tyler had a HUGE developmental growth spurt today! We just got back from Austin last night, spent the weekend shopping for Madison school clothes and spending time with Papa John, Grandma Carol and Uncle Jacob. He has been scooting for a few weeks but not fully crawling. Last night he pulled up to a standing position for the first time and has been doing it all day today, he won't stop. And today he started crawling in a funny way, while sitting up kinda of still, half sitting, scooting,crawling lol. And just a few minutes ago I think he finally figured out there was a much easier way to crawl. But all day he was getting to wherever he wanted to go doing his weird crawl. He finally discovered the entertainment center and all the buttons- it was bound to happen but I was not ready for it lol. I am in a rush to child proof now. So with all his new exploring today he has had many boo-boos. We have hard floors so he has had many backward falls and bumped his head good. He is so proud of himself when he stands up, it's so cute. Madison gets so excited every single time he does it. She likes to get him to follow her, it's adorable. It's like in one day he went from just a wiggle worm to fully mobile. I also have had to start saying the word "No" and I feel stupid saying it, he just ignores me or laughs at me lol. He seems to young to say no too. His favorite toy today is the spinning top we got at the cracker barrell yesterday- thanks Papa John.

John had to leave today for Houston and is going back to Korea in a few days. He was gone 2 months and then home for 3 weeks. But it shouldn't be 2 months this time he says. I hope not, that seemed like way too long.

Right now I am telling Tyler NO NO NO to touching the buttons at the tv stand and he is giggling his butt off.

We have gotten all moved in and unpacked, it only took a month! But we are really enjoying the new house. It's a little bigger and nicer and the backyard is fabulous. I can do shoots back there, no more parks, it's GREAT! But I don't have a studio anymore, I decided not to use the shop like I had originally planned to do. I gave it to John. It is unfinished and it would take too much money to make it nice enough, and I don't want to spend that on a rental. Tyler is attacking me, gotta go for now.

We've Moved!

Finally, I am getting this updated, sorry for all the posts in one day. I have been terrible about updating things the last month. It's been a little crazy. Here are some pics of the house and Madison's new room, which she loves.

I got these chalk dots at Target, are they not the coolest?!