Camping in WY

Over the weekend we went camping up in WY. We haven't been able to go for a couple of years so we were pretty excited that Chlo could finally go. All of the girls have been begging to go for quite a while. It was also Rhen's first campout and he loved it. We'll have to remember next time not to give him a jolly rancher because he quickly became a dirt magnet.

Rhen wouldn't eat his breakfast, but when i opened the cooler and he saw the left over hot dog from the night before he was pretty excited. Yeah, i let him eat it raw. And he washed it down with orange juice. It was probably as gross as it sounds, but he was a happy camper.

A little frustrated after many attempts to thread the cap onto the threads. This kept him occupied for a while.

Close-up of dinner, dirt, and Rhen.

Our early riser trying to see what was making the noise in the woods.

Beating up Moose.

Trying to block the paybacks from Moose.

Relaxing with Mom by the fire.

Elsie - the queen of marshmellow cooking. If she torches the outer shell, she cooks it for a second try.

Elsie riding around the place. Chloe spent the whole time riding around on her bike and exploring in the woods so we only have a couple of pics of her. She had so much fun and was sad to leave.

Chlo-pants. Finally caught her by a tree and took a pic. I think this girl is more excited to go to school than any kid I have ever met.

Addie. She's blowing out the flame.

I asked Addie to make a really serious, annoyed with her dorky dad face. I think she nailed it.

This was Elsie's attempt at being annoyed with me. She keeps telling us all about the things she will do when she is a teenager. It has us a bit worried. Maybe she should focus on the now.

summer fun

Rhen's gotta go shirtless when he drinks. It gets pretty intense.

Rhen and his long lost buddy Ben - surveying the popsicle in a cup situation.

Donuts and 4th of July fingernails.

Cousin Jill demolishing the donut in one swoop.

Jacy showing the powdered mini who's boss.

space balls away

( pic #1)Finally, we can throw these bad boys away. No more flushes, no more hook ups, no more chloe draging her meds around for an hour and a half a day AND no more dressing changes for her. ( i hate to say it but that there is 2,000 dollars of meds in the trash)

(pic #2) Chloe has many scars from the many picc lines, port and broviac. This is her newest one. It is out and gone and all that is left there are the marks and the fond memories :).

can't say no to that...

Yesterday was clinic. On monday we were eating dinner and Chloe said she was 89% sure she was going to be able to go to school. Jake asked you are? And chloe replied, I just feel good about it. At clinic I asked about school, and chloe butted in saying she already got her school clothes (yes I did it online and we are done, and boy, 3 girls are pricey). The doctor said well we can't say no if you already have all your clothes. After two years of not being able to go to school, she has gotten the ok to go!! So then on the way home chloe said, now I am 100% sure I can go!! And if she can go to school she can go to church, which she is pretty excited about that. It was a happy day!!
Her kidney's are struggling, so she needs to drink, drink, drink. She will have to take a bottle of water or something to school, and we hope her teacher won't mind, because it is doctors orders. So that is our focus, to get her to drink.

Today was my doctors appointment and the heartbeat was strong and a few weeks ago I could feel it move. Pretty cool. Although the doctor looked at my chart and said, "your up two pounds, that's ok." what does that even mean? I didn't think to ask him if it were bad or good. Now I am all nervous, should I eat more or less? I have only gained 7 pounds, is that too much? Well I do know that I gain more in the begining cause I don't gain alot in the end, but still, I wished I would have asked. My sick days only come every two days now (yay). Even though I love the end result of pregnancy, some days it is hard getting there.

Addie is 11!

I swear everytime Addie wakes up in the morning, she is an inch taller. She is growing so fast, and can now share my clothing. We had fun celebrating both hers and Elsie's. It gets crazy having them 5 days apart, and I didn't have tons of energy this year so it was low key. We take them to eat with just mom and dad to the restaraunt of their choice. Elsie, to my surprise choose Chilli's and Addie choose Olive Garden ( which she doesn't need the kids meal anymore). It is fun to just spend time with them alone. Elsie's we celebrated in Wyoming and had some cousins there which was fun. Addie's they spent jumping on the new tramp which they all got for their birthday present.
Last year I started the tradition of the birthday hat which they wear opening presents and eating cake and each year we add something new to it. I love birthdays! I love to think of them, and tell stories of them when they were first born and all the funny things they did when they were little. Is is so fun to remember, cause they grow up so stinkin' fast!


ps if you look closely to the right of the picture that is chloe, and she got her picc line taken out her arm is red and swollen from the dressing changes and such so hallalooya, Happy day that is is gone! She has agreed that getting poked every 3 weeks isn't as bad as dressing changes twice a week and having to be hooked up to the space ball (more pictures to come)! Another step to her feeling like a normal kid!

Elsie's six on friday

I know I will forget to post a special post for Elsie on her birthday because of the holiday and all, so I will do it early. My sweet, energetic, hilarious, outgoing girl will be six on july 3rd. She was a surprise when we found out she was coming and she keeps surprising us everyday with her sense of humor and imagination. While I was in labor with her the fireworks at the stadium where going off to welcome in our own little firework (little did I know how true that would really be)!! Our life would for sure be less exciting without her around. One of my favorite things about her is that she will come home from church or after she watches high school musical 1,2 and 3, and belt out primary songs or "I want more" song into her microphone downstairs and the whole family can hear it, but at the same time I love that when she prays, like she did today, and without help, she will pray that our baby will grow well, and that moose (our dog) will too. :) We love you Elsie and wish you a happy 6th birthday on friday!! (hopefully we will be camping)

I took some updated pictures of our kids the other day, and for fathers day so Jake has some in his office, so here is a few. They are cute kids, but I am biased! We took them at Spence and Tal new place, which is perfect for taking pictures! Seeing how old they are getting makes me feel so old!

and baby makes....5!

In about 28 weeks, meaning I am about 12 weeks along (give or take a few) we will welcome in our baby number 5! Getting pregnant was not a shocker (cause it took awhile), it was the decision to have another, and it was also a very neat experience for me. We had an ultrasound yesterday and everything looks great. It is still amazing to me to just be talking to the doctor and look over at the monitor to see a little head and body on the screen and hear the fast beats of a heart. Then at one point the baby did a little wave with its hand. very cute. Anyway we are excited, I keep telling Jake having number 5 will not be as hard as having number 2 go through a bone marrow transplant, being pregnant with number 4, and then staying with her at the hospital with him.
I have been feeling sick but in a week or so it should be over. I do hope the pregancy goes fast, cause, dang, it is harder in your 30's!

p.s. Jake thinks it is a girl (I don't know why he would think that), while I am still holding on that it is a boy!

Update

It's been raining.

just this and that

I have been slacking in my motherly and wifely duties lately. With summer here I don't have to get my kids up and ready and off to school, we can just hang out and watch movies or just do whatever, or not do. This rain hasn't helped any.
Addie is finished with elementary school. She is pretty sad because she loved the 5th grade. She won a few awards including the principles award for being such a nice student. They had a reenactment of the civil war, and all parents had their camera's and video camera, all but me, I forgot, dang it. It was pretty cool, and they got to throw water balloons in the battle. That is another thing I have been slacking on, picture taking, everytime there is something to take a picture of to make the blog more interesting, I forgot my camera. Elsie is excited to go all day to school. Summer should go fast, it always does.
We have clinic yesterday and after a little problem with her picc line, almost getting it taken out,not being put to sleep when they were going to take it out, tears shed because she doesn't want the i.v. team called, they finally were able to get the picc line working again. Good for chloe but I was looking forward to not having her picc line out. She however doesn't want to get poked or have iv's when she gets her bone density fluids (which will be next week). She is looking good and the tapper is still on.
Spence and Tal and Avery are hangin with us until they are able to close on their new house, we are glad to have company although both Tal and Spence will be counting down the days to leave with my kids hogging all their time and attention. "Tal....Tal....Tal...wanna play the wii." "Spence....Spence...Spence, look what I can do! Well I don't care what Jake says, I like having them here. (haha)


The other day we had a massive hail storm, killing all my plants and garden veggie plants. Chloe was crying to me to move all the plants cause the flowers were all coming off. They were just going to have to die, I did not want to go out in that storm, they were the size of jaw breakers coming down fast. Rhen was crying it was so loud. So now our plants look bald.