New photos!

Hope you all had a safe and happy holiday! We're about to go to the store to get some supplies for our rockin' New Years party tomorrow night! It'll be a fun crowd - just us and the kids! We're going to play games, make our own pizzas, and eat a bunch of junk food... and hope to stay up at least until 10. :)

I posted some Christmas photos here: http://picasaweb.google.com/kabanta/ChristmasPhotos2008# Too many to post on the blog. Happy New Year, everyone!!

Today

This morning, I took Max to the LPS central office to get his hearing and speech re-evaluated, since it's been almost 6 months since he got tubes put in, due to excess fluid behind his eardrums, which was causing hearing issues, and thusly, speech issues. His hearing is normal now, the tubes are still in place and open (not infected) and everything looks great there. His speech is also a lot better and he is right on track developmental-wise. The only thing the speech pathologist said we could work on is asking him to articulate when he uses 'gibberish', which is not nearly as often as it was before. Otherwise, she said he is doing great! That's awesome news, especially since I am apparently a huge fan of unfounded worrying. It's a good thing that the kids' doctor is a good friend of ours, or he probably would not be nearly as patient with me. :)

On the way out of the building, Gus got his left thumb smashed in between the heavy steel door and the door jamb. It is an automatic open/shut handicapped access type door, and Max had pushed the button to open the door, gone outside, and pushed the button again to close it. Gus reached up to push the button from the inside and got his thumb trapped. His thumb was flat when I got it out of the door, and immediately swelled up and started to bruise. He was screaming, obviously! I got him to the van, got all the boys buckled in, and went to the ER since it was close to where we were. We got checked in, as I was holding a thrashing, screaming Gus and a tired Sam. I then called Oly and asked him to meet us there. About 5 minutes before he arrived (10 or so minutes after I'd called him), Gus calmed down and was watching PBS and eating TicTacs. I always swore I wouldn't be That Mother, but desperate times call for desperate measures, surely. So Oly and I discussed and decided that it probably wasn't broken, since he was doing okay, and we went home. I took some photos and emailed them to Gus's doctor (our friend) and he wrote back, confirming that it most likely wasn't broken. So now Gus has a swollen, bruised thumb and is favoring it greatly. At least he's not crying anymore. :(

It's more bruised now than it was in these photos, but the swelling is about the same. Such is life with kids, especially 4 boys, eh?

Christmas photo success! Well, kind of.

We went with the second image - these were the better handful out of about 80 photos I took (in about 4 minutes). It gets complicated when you add a dog to the mix!

Christmas card photo attempt, take one!

This afternoon was supposed to be much sunnier (and warmer!) than it actually was, but I had it in my mind that we were going to go to Holmes Lake to get some photos for our Christmas cards, so off we went. It was me, the 5 kids, Grissom (our dog), and my camera. Needless to say, I got about 10 shots of all 5 of them together, and in each one, every last one of them was looking in a different direction or had their eyes closed, or were picking their nose or someone else's nose, etc. I really like the individual shots I got, though, and they all had a great time, so not a total loss! Unfortunately, Gus has had a very runny nose, so in addition to having snot on his face for most of the shots, he also has a scab around his nostril from it all, so the photos of him aren't as cute as usual. :( Oh well - this is why I started the Christmas card photo adventure so early - plenty of time to get a good shot, even if we have to stay inside!

Max and Gus walking up the embankment:

Max, surveying the situation:

Max was saying "Stop taking my picture!":

Gus walking off, Max still angry at my trying to capture his soul:

Sunset over the lake:

Emma and Grissom, waiting for the rest of the kids to congregate for the group shot:

Simon, post-group shot:

Emma and Simon watching the ducks. While I was taking this photo, Grissom was *freaking out*, trying to get to the ducks. Hunting dog breed, indeed!:

I let him off his leash, and he was off! Unfortunately for him, so were the ducks:

Grissom, Max, Emma, and Simon watch the ducks swim away:

Simon was sitting down to wring out his socks from having gotten too close to the lake:

Emma loves the camera, and the camera loves her!:

Grissom, looking around for more prey, as Max walks on:

Pensive Max:

Simon was throwing sticks in the lake... he had to use the biggest one he could find, of course!

The one solitary shot of Sam. Babies just don't do many interesting things when they're strapped into a stroller!

More Max - had to get him while he wasn't looking!:

I'm a slacker! Here the kids are on Halloween. It gets harder every year to get a good photo of them all together... wonder why that is. Christmas photos should be a blast!

The day has come!

Oliver took Emma and Simon to school today on the Big Dummy. Last week he got a pair of handlebars for them, and last night wrapped them in tape for ease of holding on, and decided it was time to try it out. Pretty chilly this morning, about 55 degrees, but they were all loving it!

Securing their backpacks in the side bags:

Loaded up and ready to roll:

And they're off!

Time for an update!

Max at the Lincoln Children's Zoo, a few weeks ago.





Wow, three weeks since the last entry? I'm slacking! It's been a busy month - wrapping up summer fun and getting ready for school. This year, Emma is in 2nd grade (and has the teacher that I had my practicum (basically pre-student teaching) with when I was at UNL, so that's fun), Simon is in 1st grade (LOVES his teacher - she's very, very nice) and Max is in his first year of preschool. He loves going to school like Emma and Simon, and is bummed on Tuesdays and Thursdays when he doesn't get to go. It's so strange to run errands with just Gus and Sam. I sure get a lot more done! :)


First day of school:




The weekend before school started, Oly and I took Emma, Simon, and Max to Fun Plex (amusement park in Omaha) for the afternoon. We started a bit of a tradition last year, with taking the school-aged kids to a water park for the day, before school starts every year. They love it, and it's great for Oly and I to have some time with the older kids.




Oliver got a fun new bike. It's got a platform on the back for extra riders - kind of like a tandem, but the extra rider just sits there. He took the older kids for a spin last night and I even got a turn. There are add-ons available, like handlebars for the extra rider, and one person even constructed enclosed seats for his two kids and took them everywhere. I think Oly is hoping to have a similar set-up and be responsible for getting Emma and Simon to school sometimes, via bicycle. All three of them are overly excited about that prospect. It's pretty cool, I must admit. Very 'green' of us, eh? The school they go to is a little over 3 miles away, so not too bad of a trek. Drop-off at the school is crazy in the mornings though, so I won't be sad to miss out on that. :)


Just a quick spin down the street with Max:

The safe way to ride (you can tell he went quite a bit faster with Simon):

And here are a few cute photos, no real story to accompany them.

Gus, having a little too much fun with his lunch:

Some new shots of Sam, he's 4 months old now!

Gus is so photogenic. Here he is being cute on our front porch:

Simon, practicing some sweet moves:

Sunday was a fun day!

I was going to take a photo or two of Sam and Grissom, but a few other boys wanted to be in the photo... :) Max is holding a pillow, because, as usual, he was naked.

Max *loves* to climb the tree in our front yard.

We went to a park and the Lincoln Children's Museum before taking Emma to a birthday party downtown.

Oly and Simon playing Frisbee (even though Oly looks like he's just got some sweet dance moves), Gus and Max in the middle.

Emma is a pro at tying knots in blades of grass:

She is also a pro at posing like a beauty queen. :)

Oly's attempt at getting me in the photo sometimes:

Getting the kids settled.

At the LCM:

Emma's graceful dismount from the 'underground tunnels':

Emma, Max, and Oliver:

Emma was walking across the bridge and Gus decided a faster route would be to go under her:

Max in the space shuttle:

Simon watching Max on the space shuttle survelliance:

Thomas the Train, always a favorite:

Simon and Max in the space shuttle:

Oly and Simon having giggles over their Han Solo impersonations: