Swimming

Joya has been taking Swimming lessons from our babysitter who also teaches at Osborne Aquatic Center. I hired her on the side to come to our pool and teach Joya while Timmy is napping in the afternoon. Yesterday Zoey had to come in the evening so we got to watch and Joya was swimming! She can hold her breath and swim underwater the width of the pool. She puts her arms in front like she is diving in and just kicks! She is doing great and Zoey is a great teacher, she is going to start working with Timmy for just a few minutes after Joya's lessons! This is the first day of swim lessons with Zoey.

Timmy is trying to repeat and talk more and more. He has a few words that he says ALL the time. Doggie, Ball, Dada and Mama are his constants, but now he tries to say football, which sounds like "BotBall". He is also repeating animals like kitty, pig, and bear. He is teething really bad right now to where his mouth is bleeding. His molars are coming through...three of them at the same time. He hasn't slept through the night for the last 5 nights in a row. I don;t think he will sleep through the night again until his teeth stop hurting!! Poor guy!

We're Sick Again!

This is the kids and I making cookies for the new neighbors...and for ourselves!! We made monster cookies and the kids licked the beaters. Timmy is old enough to join in now, and he fights for his turn to pour in the ingredients and of course getting the rewards of helping!

We almost went a month without being sick...but not quite! We have been sick since October. The kids had hand, foot, and mouth in Oct. Then in November we all got the swine flu, in December the kids got croup. January we moved into the house and Joya and I got the flu. February, I can't remember what we had but in March we all got sick with a horrible virus that lasted a month! April we were still sick and I got a virus in my eyes and have not been able to wear my contacts since then. We have had colds since on and off since April including a cough that has lasted for awhile! Joya and Timmy are sick again, but I think that has to do with staying up late and playing hard this last weekend!

On Saturday we went and hung out with my cousin and his family, they were camping with their Church outside of Sweet Home. We floated down the river, had dinner, and then church with them. We hung around to roast marshmallows and then left when it was getting dark. It was about 9:45...the latest the kids have ever stayed up! Sunday I went to church and Tim and the kids stayed home, Joya and Timmy already had nasty green goop coming out from their noses by then! We just hung around the house for the day. After nap time I took the kids swimming and Tim worked hard at finishing the shed, he finally finished today. Anyway then we walked over to the neighbors house to grill with them and a bunch of friends! We walked back to our house where we lit fireworks, starting at 8 and finally ended at 11. I put Timmy to bed at 9:45 and he never woke up! He was out. He even took a 3 and a half hour nap today because he was so tired from last night! Joya was able to make it until the end. We all slept in until 8:30, i think that is the latest the kids have ever slept in and I think today was the first day in 3 years that I woke up on my own instead of one of the kids waking me up!
We had a great weekend and loved having Daddy home today!

Joya is 3!

Wow I can't believe our first born is 3! She had a fantastic day on her actual birthday starting with breakfast in bed..she thought it was awesome! She also got a smoothie from dutch brothers, a small party after dinner with my family, and of course cupcakes!

We also celebrated her birthday yesterday on Sunday with her friends. We had a little pool party, then walked across the street to our house for pin the crown on the princess, neckless and bracelet making with fruit loops, and of course cupcakes! She has had a fantastic week and a fun birthday!

I had to add these pictures of little man, the first is of him sleeping with his new found love, snickers the dog. The second picture is of Timmy and the first time I made lasagna...he really liked it, so he put it all over his face!

So I haven't written in a long time!! We have been very busy...having fun! I thought I would re-cap our last month with pictures!

Here is TJ riding a cart that Daddy is pulling around, just having fun at home with Dada!

Last weekend we went to Sunriver for Memorial Day Weekend. In the middle of the Village Mall they had a Children's day. Here is TJ playing in the bubbles, another kid gooed him with a bubble wand. he didn't seem to care, he was having fun.

While we were there Tim, Joya and I floated down the Deshutes River in a Canoe. We had a blast while going down, then we got off the river and didn't have a plan on how to get the canoe back to the house. So we called my mom to bring our Tahoe so we could put it on the top of the car. She brought the truck and the canoe didn't fit in the bed of the truck. So Tim held the canoe on his lap in the bed of the truck while we drove home...good thing it was only 5 miles home!

This is a picture of Joya just being released from the stairs. She thought it was a good idea to put her head through the banister...she quickly learned it was not a good idea!

Up until last week we had nice weather, so here is the kids enjoying a Popsicle outside on their little play structure. It's on the concrete slab because we are working on the back yard!

Here is Timmy making piggy faces on the sliding door...He cracks me up!

Here are the kids pretending to be dogs in a large dog kennel. This is what we do when the weather was nice and now we have to play inside!




Some machinery we rented to start on the back yard. We hulled 6 yards of rock with the little bobcat, and whacked it down to make more room for our picnic table, grill, and eventually the shed will be down the side of the house on the rock!

More before pictures.

We had to lay plastic down first before putting the rock down...here is Tim working hard on that!

1st of Many

The dreaded stairs that we have all fallen down now! Timmy fell down the stairs last Sunday. We knew something was wrong when he screamed for 45minutes and then wouldn't walk on his leg. There was no swelling immediately and he never had any discoloration. WE took him in for x-rays on Sunday right away and I called our on call doctor, which was not our doctor, but a partner in the same building. I called him and asked if he would meet us in the ER so that a pediatrician would see Timmy. So they took x-rays of his hip and upper leg. The x-rays came back completely clear and they told us it was probably muscular or ligature damage. They also said if he doesn't walk in a couple of days he needs to be seen again.
A couple of days later he started crawling, but not walking. So we knew then it wasn't his hip or knee. We started feeling his leg to see if anything hurt and we pin pointed the area about an inch above his ankle. We made an appointment with a pediatric orthopedist. We met with him yesterday and he took x-rays of the tibia and yep, its broken! It is called a spiral fracture, which is common in toddlers. The doctor said that they see this injury when a child is riding down a slide on mom or dads lap. The child gets their foot stuck in the slide and it twists the leg and spiral fractures down the tibia. The x-rays showed a crack diagonally down Timmy's tibia.
We got the cast on yesterday and had it set in beaver colors. Timmy missed his afternoon nap to have the cast put on, he surprisingly just sat there for the tech to put it on. It was awesome. The only time he put up a fight was when we had to hold him down for the x-ray. He was a champ and got a cookie when it was all over.

Today Timmy is a happy baby again! He is giggling and walking all over. He ate a good breakfast, which he hasn't eaten good since it happened! I am assuming it feels a whole lot better now that it is stabilized! It's the smallest cast I have ever seen, we might have to keep it for his baby book!

Psoriasis

I have psoriasis, it is an auto-immune disease, which means that when I am tired and stressed out, my psoriasis flares up. I have it all over my scalp, chest, back, arms, and legs. It burns and itches really bad when I am flared up. Right now I am flared up because I am sick, but I took these pictures a while ago when I wasn't so bad! When I am flared up I have huge red spots, that flake and itch and burn. I don't know why I am blogging about this, but someday it will be gone and I probably won't remember what it felt like or looked like, so I am publishing it for the record!

I found out that I had psoriasis almost 3 years ago. When I got pregnant with Joya I got really bad dandruff...or I thought it was dandruff, it really was psoriasis. Anyway after I had Joya it got really bad, when I wasn't sleeping when she was a new born. Anyway I went to a dermatologist in Arizona, found out what I had and that there is nothing I can do for it until I am done having babies. All of the medications that would help the psoriasis go away cause birth defects. So for now I have steroid creams that help with the itching!! And that's all I can do!

HOME and the Fam.

Last Tuesday a few other ladies and myself launched a new ministry at NW Hills in Corvallis. It's called HOME, Helping Our Mom's Excel. It is based on the MOPs groups that I have been a part of, but we didn't pay the dues and wanted freedom to have our own curriculum. The ladies and I started meeting about 9months ago, and Tuesday was our first meeting for all Mom's with kids at home who are 5 and younger. We have a specific crowd, with a specific purpose! We had 14 moms at our meeting, most of them being on the HOME team or a table group leader and then several moms from around town! We were very excited to see new faces and ones we already new from NWHills! All our moms that pre-signed up didn't come and the moms that did come had not pre-signed up. So we could potentially double our numbers next week if the mom's that pre-signed up come! Anyway we had a great guest speaker who came and talked about worry and contentment and the book Calm My Anxious Heart by Linda Dillow. We played a little get to know you game at the beginning and then had snack and then the guest speaker. We were then supposed to have discussion time, but we ran out of time! I think it went well and I am looking forward to next Tuesday!





Our family has been extremely sick since last Thursday, so for a week now. Joya and I got sick with a fever on Thursday and Friday, Timmy got his fever Friday and Saturday and then our fever subsided for a few days. On Monday Joya and I got our fevers back and by then Tim was sick with it. I took Joya and I in, she was all viral and I have a sinus infection, so she got nothing and I got antibiotics. I hate the words ALL VIRAL when we are all sooo sick. Joya has had a low grade fever since Monday and Timmy dropped his fever on Saturday and then woke up from his nap today with 101.5. So we went back in and he has ear infections! Joya was checked out but is still ALL VIRAL!! Poor Timmy was so tired tonight, we started bath time early because we knew he was tired, but he got in the shower with me and fell asleep on my shoulder!! That's a first! Tim is already feeling better, so I am hoping that we are soon behind him!