Collin Turns Six

Yesterday was Collin's official birthday, we celebrated on Saturday with a Harry Potter party.

The Gryffindors

vs.

The Slytherins

After the trivia dueling there was pizza.

And Cake. Can't believe he's six!


Then we opened the presents.

If you look closely you can see who is on his pins. Hilarious! The long awaited for scooter.

This is the boy who refuses to ride a bike because he only wants to ride a scooter.

I think we know what Caleb wants as well.

It was an exhausting day with lots of kids, but well worth it for Collin.

We love this boy, life would be a whole lot duller without him around!

Happy Birthday Collin!

Halloween Beauties

Halloween Night:Caleb-VampireCollin-Prince Caspian

Talin-The Hulk

The Food:

Friday School Parade:

Friday After School Pumpkin Carving: (documented by Collin)

Friday Night Trunk or Treat:

Sunday Afternoon Sugar Crash:

Happy Halloween!

9 Years Ago...

...we made it official.

It's been the best of times, and the worst of times, and even though I was silly and only twenty I managed to make the perfect choice to get through all the crazy times of the past nine years.

I LOVE YOU TOM CHAMBERS!

Daddy's Home! (FOR GOOD.)

Talin now has someone with extreme patience to help him with his homework and Collin has someone that can tolerate his non-stop energy.
As you can see, the boys are all over Tom each night when he walks through the door.
Okay...so am I.
I'm beyond thrilled to have my husband home.
We're all happier.
And I think I've started something not so good. I will never be able to cook, do dishes, or anything for that matter in the kitchen without a helper. Caleb LOVED being up at the sink.

And he got a new hearing aide on Thursday. It's giraffe print (look closely), super cute!

I also decorated for Halloween.

Went a little crazy with the cobwebs, but I think they look super cool.

And this is what Caleb looks like at dinner almost every night. Sorry about the red eye, but I can't figure out my photo editor since we moved.

This is him after he's destroyed his dinner and thrown it to the floor.

I'm also really excited because my sister Amy had a baby girl on Monday morning. Yeah!!!

She is beautiful and tiny and I'm jealous. Who thought I'd be baby hungry?

Amy named her Azure Mae, I think it's an awesome name. I can't wait to help Amy with taking care of her, although more than likely that won't happen because I'll be chasing the monkey above!

Dear Tom,

I think it's time to come home now.

Caleb has stopped puking for an entire week, but we are now doing a therapressure program to stimulate him into eating. That sounds funny. But pretty much I think you'd be better at doing it than me. I'm suppose to brush his entire body down every two hours and then do joint compressions on him and then wipe the inside of his mouth with my finger and tap on his jaw.

Well I was thinking that if you did it first thing in the morning and in the evenings, I might follow through a little better and keep it up during the day. I mean we'll never know it works if we don't try it!

Anyway....

Talin needs help with his homework in the evenings, and Collin needs someone new to entertain, we've all grown tired of his antics.

October won't come soon enough.

Love,
Me

Evolution of Hair (in only 18 months time)

So last night I was going through old photos on the computer and reminiscing over the last year.
I mean it's been a crazy ride since Caleb was born.
Lot's of change.
Lot's of adjustment.
And apparently a lot of hairstyles.
In fact I found myself becoming more and more amused with the extremely different haircuts and colors I have done in only an eighteen month span. I know I like to change my look, but I've never been this versatile in such a short amount of time.
So for my own amusement (and yours) I'm posting the pictures.

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I neglected my appearance throughout the entire Caleb pregnancy, and this fine mess was the result.

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My attempt at sprucing up my hair and saving on money led me to dying it blond all by myself. It's not the worst job I've done, but definitely not great.

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The baby blues were hard, especially with a sick baby and lots of appointments and mountains of stress.

So when Cyndee came for a visit in July she treated me to a cut and color, and this was the result.

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Two months later I found myself wandering a Sally's Beauty Supply, trying to come up with another self beauty treatment to cover my dark roots. In the process I struck up a conversation with the lady working there and asked for advice.

Her advice?

"You need to go dark, because your blond hair shows all your blemishes and isn't very flattering for people, especially since it's fall, dark is in when it's fall."

I fell for her bullying and went dark.

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Another two months went by and I found myself approaching Caleb's heart surgery date.

Complete nerves.

So what did I do to calm them?

Of course, I cut my hair.

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I love short hair.

I kept telling myself that when I lost all the baby fat I would chop my hair off.

So when that day came I did it.
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The move to Arizona.

Every time I'm around my family and I have dark hair I get tons of mentions about how good I look with blond hair.

Well since I was getting crazily shaggy with my pixie cut I decided to trim it up and go blond.
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Last but not least.
The most current look to date.

More blond, more bangs. I could be five again.

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After writing this post I realize that I have no right to be irritated with people when they don't recognize me. Seriously. It's amazing my children aren't confused yet.

Long Afternoon. Short Post.

Turns out it's not blood. Whew!!
We figured out that the new antibiotic he's been on has turned his poo the blood color. Normally it turns "normal" kid's poo an orange color when the chemicals react. Not Caleb. But "normal" children eat food. Not Caleb.

And this evening was not fun. My fridge was seriously dying, and I was ready to pull out my hair at the grating/whining noise it was producing. So we switched it out (w/an old crusty fridge living in our garage). Well, Cyndee and I thought we could do it ourselves. Yeah, we're stupid. So I called Rachel in a freaky fashion (Sorry Rach) and her and Dan came over and we put Dan to work.
Long day.
Glad it's over.
Goodnight!

There's a poopy diaper in my fridge...

Did I get your attention?

No. Seriously. There really is a poopy diaper in my fridge; of course I've carefully wrapped it in a grocery bag, and then another grocery bag, and then another grocery bag, and then a garbage bag, just to be extra careful. And I was quite pleased this morning that my fridge didn't smell like poop when I reached in to grab the milk.

Grossed out yet?

I am.

Feel free to stop reading, cause it doesn't get any better.

And for those of you with strong stomachs...continue.

Last night Caleb did his little man thing and pooped his pants. To my shock and horror the poo was filled with blood, all throughout. It was crazy. I kept thinking, what has he eaten, this can't be blood. But the kid doesn't eat!

So I call the G.I. Specialist on call last night. We talked for awhile about everything going on with him, he's had strep since Tuesday, been on an antibiotic, had severe reflux, it's been pukeville at my home, changed the antibiotic and then pooped bloody craziness. She first thought I should take him to the ER, then changed her mind and told me to call first thing in the morning to get him in to run a bunch of tests, and to put the poopy diaper in the fridge and bring it in today for testing.

Hence the poopy diaper sitting in my fridge.

I can't wait to get it out, but I still haven't heard from the doctor. I have this fear of hospitalization and long waits for scary tests or scarier results. This could be a fluke right? My mind is going a hundred miles a minute with different scenarios. Hopefully it will be figured out today and everything will be fine.

I'll be a good blogger and update. :)