Well the cousins have come and gone and my kids are so sad!! We had such a great time and love it when they come. I had a very nice and needed break from the kids with all there help. They also have got me hooked on the twilight series!! love it!! We kept them busy with tubing, camping, swimming, and lots of playing with the kids. I really hope they don't think they are to old next year. We did have one injury which you can expect with teenagers acting silly. ALL IN ALL A GREAT TIME WAS HAD BY ALL!! Back to realty and trying to get in the groove of life:( pics thanks to my uncle!!

Summertime

I am absolutely loving having all the kids around. My life is so much easier when they are all around, there are more kids to play with and more hands to help out with the workload. Chloe really misses school and Isaac would be happy to stay home everyday!!!! He just lost his FIRST tooth today and he was so good. He was outside playing with the neighbor kids and ran in and said "here mom can you pull this out?" Pulled it out and he ran back out to play. Love the laid back attitude of boys!!

Our summer has sure been buys already. We have been on 3 camping trips so far- which have been really fun. Greg and I are still extreme rookies and have yet to remember everything, hoping we will get there soon!! One of the camping trips included a canoe ride with the whole fam(minus hud since we thought it was a little to dangerous) and we didn't even tip!! BIG ACCOMPLISHMENT!

Our next trip was to the Wis. Dells with Greg's family for 5 days. Water Water Water, and the kids could not get enough of it. We stayed at the great wolf lodge and it was so nice. The kids had a great time hanging out with cousin Wade, and really wanted to take him home with us. Greg's parents even blessed us with a very peaceful car ride there and back. We only had hud and were able to talk and read with no interruptions!! So nice and so needed!!!

Now my girls are coming this week on Thursday and I am so excited. My cousins who are 13-15 have been coming for the past couple of years and staying for two weeks in the summer. Built in babysitters, who could ask for more. More to come!!!!!

4 really is a good number

So I have had quit a few run ins lately with people that just cannot believe the amount of children that we have. First was when I took all four kid to subway for lunch, this man literally starred at us for 15 minutes then finally came over and asked if these were all my children!!! REALLY Then the other time was when Greg and I were on a weekend away. This lady asked how many children when we told her she said, oh you brought two to the marriage and he brought two to the marriage!!! REALLY The other bad run in was at walmart. Some sweet old lady thought I was not watching my children appropriately(pretty sure this lady never had kids or been around them), because my kids were actually being angels in the store this day. She was backing her car out and thought she got a little to close to them, I just let her know otherwise!@!!! REALLY. Well Hudson is now 6 months and I really feel like I have the hang of it, not to mention Greg who takes them all to the ball games, grocery shopping, chairs, whatever he needs to do while I am working. I honestly didn't think 4 was a lot, now the duggars that is a lot. I actually think it is easier to manage when all the kids are here rather than just 2. I love love my kids to death and can't imagine life any other way!!!

Wow has it really been that long.....

Well I can't believe how long since my last post. So much has changed around here and for the better. Hudson is sleeping through the night..... yeah we are so excited. He has also started to drink a whole bottle at one feeding. We are so excited we think he may be kicking the problem!!!! He is the easiest most predictable baby. He can only stay awake for about an hour, then is ready for another nap. Needless to say we don't go to many places and are glad for the backyard entertainment.

Kinzie, well were do I even start. Since it is getting warmer outside she is REALLY struggling to stay dressed. She always wants to be outside, and has figured out how to open up the doors. Might be time for some locks on the tops of the doors:) She is absolutely hilarious, I find myself dying at her all the time. She adores her brothers and sisters. She really has a hard time keeping her hands of hud and love to talk baby to him(wondering if she gets this from me???) She is sleeping in a big girl bed now and wow I didn't know it was possible for her to sleep any longer. She goes to bed at 7(that's right she got moved up from 6:30) I have to wake her to take the kids to school at 8:15. The one morning the kids didn't have school she slept till 9!!! She take a 3-4 hour nap and I am usually waking her to pick them up from school at 3:15. She has gotten out of her big bed once, but never again!!! Love that girl!!

Isaac and Chloe have just started softball and t ball. Chloe loves it and will cry if it is cancelled due to weather. Isaac well he is just there and we will see how the season goes. They are constantly helping out with there brother and sister. Can't wait for the days when we can leave Chloe home to babysit!!!!

Vacation to Florida-survived our flight home!!!!

Well we made it back and the airplane rides home were much easier than on the way down there. We finally got a good system down(greg would man the bags-I would man the children and then we would get situated once we got to our seats). Al tough when we finally did get to our seats on the first airplane, the lady next to me started to hyperventilate and take her jacket off, saying she could not sit next to kids again. Needless to say we all switched seats and it worked out. The kids did great, when we finally walked in our door we sat down and were so overwhelmed we didn't even know where to start. 2 CUPS OF COFFEE later we were cooking and getting some work done. Luckily they lost one of our bags and it didn't arrive till two days later, which made less work for me!!! We had the most relaxing vacation, which was much to our surprise. With four kids there just isn't a whole lot of relaxation-which is fine!! My parents were awesome to us and we so appreciate all they did for us. The kids spent most of their time in the pool-kinzie did a great job setting of the alarm!! She could not stay away from the pool-loved it and LOVED THE ALARM she wore all the time to let us know when she fell in. We also rode our bikes almost everyday at least six miles a day. Chloe is a fantastic bike rider and we were really impressed by how far she can ride. Isaac learned to ride a two wheel bike down there and has since taken off here. Which helps me out a ton b/c now greg can take hud in the pull behind and I only have to take kinzie in the bike seat!! My dad gave me tons more pics- so I will post more later when I get the chance!!!

Our adventure to Florida

So we made it to Florida. We pulled the kids out of there beds at 3am for the hour long ride to the moline airport, everyone fell back asleep EXCEPT for miss kinzie!! We go through security and greg is doing pretty good putting our million things up on the conveyor belt to go through UNTIL they tell us to take out our sleeping child to put the carseat through. Oh and they also confiscated our 3 brand new chocolate milks, greg thinks they thought they just wanted them to go with there morning donut. We then board the airplane along with our million things, I am in charge of the animal(aka kinner) and greg lucks out with hudson. After changing two poopie diapers in a closet and spilling the generous beverage we got, we gladly got of the plane and did some stretching out. We they unload our million things and run down to board the next plane. While standing in line to board greg realizes that we are missing on of our suitcases!! Oh my word, I can't believe he left it while he was trying to coral all the million things again. We find the suitcase, quickly get on the plane and then sit on the it for 2 hours before we can take off!! Kinzie has still not fallen back asleep and every time I try and lay her back she screams, to which the guy behind us asks if we have a plug for that child. Greg almost loses it on him, but stays strong and bit his tongue. They start in the back of the plane passing out drinks and then the pilot tells them to stop b/c we are going to run into some bad turbulence ahead. Great, we don't need a drink to spill anyways. The pilot then says to prepare for landing and comes around to get our trash. Isaac has to go potty she says he cannot while I am throwing the trash away, so I being the mom I am stick my hand back in the trash to retrieve the empty bottle I just threw away. Isaac stands in front of me and holds it into the bottle while I hold the bottle praying he does not miss!! The lady did come back to retrieve the now full bottle, wasn't that sweet of her. Kinzie still has not fallen back asleep, so we stop for some food and she finally fell asleep on the hour drive to the house. Needless to say it has been so relaxing and fun since we got here, but we are not looking forward to flying home, maybe we will just stay forever!!!

McKinzie need I say more

This picture is of kinzie this summer, but it is what I have been looking at a lot lately:)
So mckinzie has been something else lately!!! First off I can never get her to keep her diaper on-actually thinking I may try potty training her. Really just needed one more thing to do, starting to get bored four kids and all!! Then sunday we went as a family to the iowa vs iowa state gymnastics meet, we had a great time until someone spilled there chips walking down the stairs to us. We could not keep kinzie away from it. I am pretty sure most of her lunch and dinner was eaten of carver's floor this day:) Then we were driving to church and she started asking for an old apple core she saw on the floor(i was thinking of giving it to her but it had been there for a couple of days), asked greg if he fed her breakfast b/c I had not. The poor girl had not had any breakfast, so we did run back home and grab her something. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm and we wonder why she is eating stuff off the floor. She is still very obsessed with baby hudson and I have found her on many ocassions trying to feed him his bottle, sucker, granola bar, oh my. At least she is sharing:) Well, she will surely not get lost in the mix!!

I got my man back

That is right folks I have got my man back!! As I sit here right now he is cleaning up the kitchen:) Greg had back surgery on Thursday and is doing great!!! He has pain from the incision but no more pinch nerve pain. We are so glad to have him back and so glad that he is feeling better. My dad and hud hung out at the hospital all day with me and we had a great time. The day was so quiet and exhausting, just sitting around all day.
Baby hud was a perfect angel all day, and my wonderful mother in law took the other kids for two over nights and all there running around. My mom brought us dinner and was there for whatever we needed. We really could not make it with out the help of them. Hudson is out of medicine and does not seem to be any different. Right now we are really working with him to get the most milk in him we can all day. With all he has going on he is actually doing great. He has such a good temperament and is always happy, smiling, laughing, or sleeping.
Chloe had a dance performance at the half time of the west high basketball game. She was so excited and nervous, but did an excellent job. She had really been testing us lately with her attitude. One day it was so bad that when I dropped her of at school I had to kick her out of the car and throw her bag and stuff out after her. Needless to say she has done a 180 and is back to her normal helpful self. They had a snow day on Tuesday and she told me she wanted to be the mom for the day, she was exhausted after breakfast< oh my!!!!!!
Isaac and kinzie just keep us laughing. They both have a great sense of humor and really go with the flow. Isaac made a friend at the basketball game and we over heard him saying"see my sister, she is the one with the hangy down hair". So cute to see him proud of his sister!! He also asked me on the way home from school this week if his friend Sandy could spend the night. I tried to explain to him that he can't have girls over to spend the night, he answered very confused, but mom shes my best friend(at this age everyone is your best friend).
Of course I have no pictures, sorry hopefully I can get some family members to take some soon!!!

Going to the doctor-my new pastime

So going to the doctor seems to be a new pastime favorite at this house. Between greg and hudson and mckinzie we have almost used all of our flex spending for the year and it is not even February. Frustrated it a great word to describe how we feel when we leave the doctors office with no answers, but they always say"just keep trying". WHAT??? Hudson's very difficult to feed and will not eat very much at one sitting- which we thought would get better once he started the new medicine. I just keep trying to remind myself that this baby stage is so short in the long run and soak up every minute since he is the last. The Lord always knows what we can handle, because if this was our first I am not sure I would have all the rest of my blessings:) Poor Greg is going in for another cortizone shot on monday and we are hoping this will solve his problems, because they are talking about back surgery after this.

In other new Kinze went for her 18 month visit to day and is of the charts for height and weight-big suprise as we already know that we grow our lybeck girls big. Greg is hoping for some basketball starts:) The doctor commented on how well she sat and let her do everything she needed to do and how she only sniffled when she got three shots. Hard to believe, because if you are around her for more than two seconds you could see how much of a tornado she is. She has got to get some attention some how around here. Kinzie and Isaac make us laugh so much, and I almost fell over when Isaac came home from school today and asked to play with kinzie instead of the wii. He is such a great big brother. Well off to bed now...........................

Answers and waiting

So my sweet friend got Hudson into the ent department this week right away, b/c we were having a lot of problems getting him to eat. They diagnosed Hudson with Laryngomalacia which basically means there cartilage in the throat is not fully developed and causes him to have acid reflux. He did a great job having the scope ran down his nose and he is on Prevacid. The medicine has seemed to be helping and we go back in a month to check up on it. 90 percent of kids grow out of this and 10 percent need surgery to fix it, we are hoping and praying to be in that 90. He has been smiling a ton lately and sleeping lots:)
Greg had a cortisone shot in his back this week and seems to be doing a little better. He is still taking pain meds, but think we might be on the up hill. He was able to help out more around the house this week and even "supervised" the kids sledding:) Love having my husband back to a little bit more normal.
Isaac's birthday is on Tuesday and I can not believe that my son is going to be 5. All he wanted was to have a friend over and go to MC Donald's for dinner. Love the simplicity of boys. He has such a sweet and caring heart. We found him pushing dolly strollers around with kinzy this week and it just melted my heart.
Kinzie has been her usually destroyer. You have to remember to keep the bathroom door shut OR YOU WILL BE SORRY!!!
Chloe and Isaac started swimming lessons this week and couldn't be more thrilled. Those kids could just live in the water. We are going to Florida over spring break and they are so excited to be able to swim all the time.

We are surviving..............barely

Well we have started this new year by trying to hit our deductible right away and by non other than my sweet husband:) He never very rarely ever uses a sick day and most of them are used to help out some sick family member, so this is such a rarity for him to be down and out. I am really missing my partner so much. Greg has ended up with a bulging disk in his back and is in terrible shape. He is having a hard time just walking around the house and sleeping. So the other night I was up feeding Hudson in the chair in our room and he just shoots up out of bed and waves at me!! Maybe it is the medicine or who knows what, but I am so ready for the doctors to fix it so I can have my team mate back. You don't realize how much you rely on someone until they are unable to help you anymore. Chloe has yet again proved to be a huge help, when I leave for work she turns into super helper by putting her brother and sister to bed-picking up the house-getting stuff for her dad-and doing her homework. Poor Isaac was in the bathroom A LOT on Saturday while we were trying to get chairs done with stuff coming out both ends:(, but came around later that afternoon and told me he would take care of dad and rub his back while me and Chloe went and got groceries. He has such a sweet heart, it just melted ours!!! Kinnie just keeps being sweet and hilarious- she is really coming along in her speech and understating things. Now if Hudson could just sleep through the night that would be awesome, but at least there are three out of the six getting a good nights rest at this house. So the Lord never gives us more than we can handle right, well this has got to be a better week than right!!! Thank goodness for sweet little blessings to help get you through the hard times.