Let's rewind a bit....

Caleb had his eye surgery in the middle of May. It was actually done on my birthday, the 10th. But who needs to celebrate when your an adult, right? Anyway, back to the beginning. We had to go to a pre-op appointment on May 3rd, so we drove to Houston with 3 out of 4 kids. Kylan got to stay home and sleep at a friends' house so he wouldn't miss another day of school (we were going on vacation the next week)So some Midland friends were nice enough to take him for us. It was a long drive, but we made it :) Lucky for us we have some fabulous friends that live in Houston, and they were even willing to put up with us and let us stay with them. You rock Bass family! So the pre-op went well, as well as it can with two extra kids. The girls were actually really good considering how long we were there.

Then a week later....Caleb, Olivia, and I flew to Houston on Mother's Day so we could be ready for the surgery on Monday. Let's just say the flight was something I wouldn't repeat. I will not fly with another baby again. Olivia did not like the pressure in her ears and she has a very high pitched scream cry that she unleashed on the poor other passengers. I finally got her to go to sleep on my lap and got to enjoy a little of the flight. We got to Houston and I have to mention I probably looked like a pack mule, I had Olivia strapped on me in the baby carrier, the diaper bag, a carry-on bag, and the baby's carseat with Caleb's booster seat in it....so as I was waddling through the airport, the pilot of our plane we just arrived on took pity on me and said he could help me carry some stuff. Well he ended up taking me all the way across the airport and to the desk for the rental car. He was so sweet! I'm so glad there are nice people still around :) I got to the desk and it was closed so I had to go wait for the shuttle to take me to Enterprise, we didn't have to wait too long, but boy was my back aching :) We got our rental car and headed out to our friends house. It was so nice of them to let us barge in on their Mother's Day celebrations, Thanks again! And I was even given the royal treatment, my lunch was made special, and the sandwich was great! Then we had a great dinner too! Nate totally got off the hook on that one :) We didn't get to visit for too long because we had to get up extra early for the surgery, we had to be there at 6:15 am, yes that's am people! I had to be up before the sun and it wasn't easy. I didn't sleep well, because I kept thinking of the surgery going bad and then waking up to check on Caleb. Then my friends dog decided she wanted some attention and came in to lick my hand, it was 4 in the morning. I wasn't really asleep anyway, so I got up and started getting ready to go. My friend was super duper nice to me because she was willing to watch Olivia for me while I was with Caleb (the hospital had told us that no siblings were allowed). So lucky for me she was on baby food and she took a bottle. She was really good for her and I am so glad since my friend had her own baby to take care of. This story is getting so long.....anyway we head out for the surgery, check in at 6:15 and we waited....and waited....and waited....his surgery was at 9:15. The hospital at least had a bunch of toys, otherwise I would have gone bonkers. Finally they took him back and I got to wait some more. It wasn't really that long, but it was hard. They finally took me back to recovery and that was the hardest part. He took about an hour to wake up and it was weird seeing him like that. He was so sweet and peaceful :) I'm sure glad I didn't have the baby with me, she would have been hard to take care of. I had to carry him out because his legs were really wobbly. We went straight to my friends house to get ready since we were flying out that afternoon to go to California for our trip. I ended up losing track of time and left too late, I got stuck in traffic and still had to drop off the rental car. Let's just say I was a basket case. I just about had a mental breakdown on the freeway. I thought for sure I was going to miss the flight. Anyway, it all worked out, after a lot of sweat and tears. I tried booking in across the airport, but had to carry even more that time since Caleb could barely walk. I added his backpack, and a hospital bag to my already overloaded self. It was a sight I'm sure. We flew to Phoenix, then on to Orange county. I have sort of blocked it out of my head since it went about the same as the other flight. Olivia does not like flying, and I felt really bad for the people around us, but I did try everything possible to keep her happy. What do you do, huh? Can't please all the people all the time. It was a rough couple days and I was ready for bed when we finally got to California. Did I mention it was my birthday that day? Oh boy! Nate and the family were nice though and had a cake for me and I got to open presents before bed, so it wasn't a total loss :) All I know is that I will never do it again :) It sure was an adventure.

After we got back to the real world, we had preschool graduation to attend.


Caleb now gets to move on up to Kindergarten! Way to go buddy!


I can't believe how fast time flies!

This is my life....

This is sad, but true.....and why I don't get anything done. Add to it that I am feeding a baby several hours a day. Sheesh!


C. A. A. D. D. Recently, I was diagnosed with C. A. A. D. D. - Child Activated Attention Deficit Disorder.

This is how it manifests: I decide to do the laundry. As I start toward the laundry room, I notice that there are cheerios all over the floor and my car keys are in the cereal bowl. I decide to pick up the cheerios before I do the laundry. I lay my car keys down on the counter, put the cheerios in the trash can under the counter, and notice that the trash can is full. So, I decide to take out the trash. But then I think, since I'm going to be near the mailbox when I take out the trash I may as well pay the bills first. I take my checkbook off the table, and see that there is only one check left, my extra checks are in my desk in the office/playroom, so I go to my desk where I find a sippy cup full of juice. I'm going to look for my checks, but first I decide I should put sippy cup in the refrigerator to keep it cold. As I head toward the kitchen with the sippy cup, a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye--they need to be watered. I set the sippy cup on the counter, and I discover baby wipes that I've been searching for all morning. I decide I better put them back in the bathroom, but first I'm going to water the flowers. I set the wipes back down, fill a container with water and suddenly I spot the TV remote, one of the kids left it on the kitchen table. I realize that when they go to watch TV, I will be looking for the remote as they fight over who lost it, but I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs, but first I'll water the flowers. I splash some water on the flowers, but most of it spills on the floor. So, I set the remote back down, get some paper towels and wipe up the spill. Then I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day: the laundry isn't washed, the bills aren't paid, there is a warm cup of juice sitting on the counter, the flowers aren't watered, there is still only one check in my checkbook, I can't find the remote, I can't find the wipes, and I don't remember what I did with the car keys. Then when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all day long, and I'm really tired.

California

We had a blast on our trip, I'll write more about it later, but aren't pictures worth a thousand words? :)

The Tooth fairy, travel pillows, and a ruffled blanket...

The Tooth Fairy
The tooth fairy visited Kylan last night. Yesterday we went to the Dentist to get a tooth pulled and came out with the toothless wonder :) We knew we had to pull the baby tooth, but when I was told that really it would be good to pull 6, I was shocked! The x-rays were the selling point, you could totally see all the permanent teeth coming up and the reason we went was that his bottom front permanent tooth was coming in behind the baby tooth. It wasn't even close enough to push the baby one out, and it was pushing against the one next to it also. So for the sake of some straight teeth, we just bit the bullet! haha It won't be long and the teeth will be coming into place, so for now, we just call him our little gummer :)

Here he is, showing off :)


Travel Pillows
I have been working on some travel pillows for our road trips coming up. I will spare you with the pictures, they're just the U shaped ones. But they are turning out great and now the kids (and I) won't have floppy heads while we're driving across America :) We'll be going to Houston, twice in the next two weeks. Driving home from California. Then probably to and from Wyoming later in the summer. And if we do Caleb's eye surgery then we'll have to go back to Houston for a three month check-up. So we will be getting some good use out of those babies! Yikes! That will be a lot of mileage :)


Ruffled blanket
My friend is about to have her fourth girl. I decided to be a nice person and help her girls, 12, 10, and 8 years old make something for their Mom and new sister. I helped them tie her a quilt. It didn't really take very long to do and they caught on fairly quickly. It turned out cute, but the best part about it was the what I found online. I had bought a remnant of pink satin, my friend likes the satiny blankets and I wanted part of it to be satin. So now I needed to find out how to incorporate it into the quilt. I had never made my own binding for a blanket before, so I didn't want to foul it up. Then I came across this awesome blog that gave a tutorial that was perfect! It's called Notes from the patch and whenever I try a link on here it never works so I will try to copy and paste.

http://patches.typepad.com/notes_from_the_patch/2009/11/tutorial-tuesday-2-satin-ruffles-or-how-to-tame-the-fabric-from-hell.html

It gives you the step by step instructions and it turned out fabulous! I didn't go out and buy the ruffler, but I might have to now, after making this blanket and seeing how cute it turned out, I would love to see one that had perfect ruffles :)

This is my attempt at serging, I don't have a serger, so I just did what she suggested. Hopefully the blanket won't fall apart ;)



Here's the finished project! I hope she'll love it! I'm really excited to give it to her!


On a side note, I have never really been that much of a "girly girl" But now I think I can say I am a member of the club. If you can make a ruffle for a blanket and love it, you must be pretty girly :) I guess deep down I really am! haha

Houston, we have a problem....

Well, for those of you who missed my comment on facebook, Caleb gets to have eye surgery. We found out the last time we visited the Pediatric Opthamologist that the patching of the eye just wasn't doing anything for him. So he referred us to a study that is going on in Houston. It's at Texas Children's Hospital and they have been doing it for 9 years. It is PRK, a laser surgery that takes off part of the cornea so it improves the vision. We get to go for a consultation with the Doctor and a pre-op visit on May 3rd. Then the surgery, which is only done every three months, is scheduled for May 10th. We have a lot of questions we need answered still, so we haven't really decided if we are going to do it or not. It really is his only option though, the poor kid has never had perfect vision. His eye started wandering at almost a year and who knows if he could really see before that. So now that he is almost 5, he may be able to see better, but probably will still need glasses. I guess we will find out. Plus if we don't do something about it now, he could lose the use of that eye completely. Since the brain has started shutting it down, it could happen totally if not taken care of by a certain age. So you can see why we are struggling. The cost is not really a problem, it's just the risks involved, and if he would have to have surgery again later on, or what....we don't really know. So there you have it.....Houston, we have a problem.....or it could be a solution....things that make you go hmmmmm? :)

Cookie cutter kids

A lot of people that knew Kylan as a baby have said that Olivia looks like him. I see it every day :) It is kind of eerie how much they look alike. These pictures kind of show it, but I haven't found that one picture that really does the trick yet. I guess you'd have to see it in my head :) Looking at her definately brings back memories of Kylan as a baby. Too bad they aren't looking the same direction :)


Olivia at 3 months


Kylan at 3 1/2 months

A little tip...

Like I've said before, my friend at Alittletipsy.com has some awesome ideas! Especially around the holidays. She does blog swaps with her friends too and I got a great idea from one of those. They're called Resurrection rolls and the kids loved them. It was fun to do for Easter, but it would also work for FHE treat too. You should totally try them. Check it out! smashedpeasandcarrots.blogspot.com

Thanks for the great ideas Michelle! I love your blog!