4 year old Indie

Kids are back in school this week!  I think I cried a little when they loaded the bus monday morning - only because last week was a lot - and I only started feeling it Sunday evening.  So a quiet house on Monday made me realize how nuts the past week had been. (the house was not that quiet - Willow and Indie were still home - but quieter.   

Devin is feeling better as of yesterday and today he is feeling even more so.  He is working from home today.   He still doesnt have a ton of energy,  but he can work on his computer.

Anyway - this week Indie's ballet class is getting ready for their performance.  Their ballet this year is Frozen.  And her little class is little olofs.  They have little white snowman tutus and they dance to an olof song.  It should be cute.  When I went to pick her up I went in a little early to watch and Indie was sitting on the side watching the big kids dance, and she was just singing right along to the songs with big dramatic arms.  Its was so cute  :) 

She must have gotten into the Frozen spirit from ballet, because the next day she put on Elsa and Anna dresses on her and Indie (at one point she had an Anna dress on her daddy too) and she was running around the house singing songs and twirling around.

Its been warmer (as in not freezing), so yesterday afternoon Indie took Birdie outside to play in the play house.  We need to go sweep out all of last years crunchy leafs out of the play house, but it made it through the winter really well.  It was fun getting back out there.  I'm sure Birdie will "the baby" all summer long in this play house and locked in, whether she likes it or not.  :)

Indie also came home with a graduation announcement yesterday.  :(  Graduation?  Already?    She goes to the BEST preschool - Sailyr and Fin are jealous every day that they cant go back to Mrs Thompson, and we already have Willow signed up.

A few funny 4 year old things about Indie (because she is turning 5 on May 16 - and she knows it!)  

-She still calls the scary dinosaur a "chicken nugget".  I have no idea where she came up with this - but she thinks there is a dinosaur that is bigger than the T-rex and its called the chicken nugget.   

- She still sleeps on my floor at night.  I might just buy her a little crib mattress and let her stay.  She says she is not sleeping in a room alone, so until Willow is sharing a room with her she is staying in my room.  Honestly - I have been a mother long enough to not really care, as long as she is sleeping through the night (which she is) then who cares where she sleeps.

- One night I went to dinner with a few of my friends.  When I came back it was late and everyone was in bed.  Of course Indie was laying by Devin in our bed watching tv.  When I walked in Indie said "Where have you been?  Your husband had to tuck in your kids because you were not here".   :)   Sassy little thing.

- She is my best helper right now.  She LOVES chores.  She asks me everyday what her chores are.  A few weeks ago the kids hadnt done chores for a few days and then I made them a list of things to do.  Indie of course got hers done the quickest and then wanted more.  She told me "Mom, I've missed chores".  :)  My other kids - of course did not say that same thing to me.  :)

- She eats oatmeal with blueberries every single morning for breakfast.   (and only I make it right.  Devin cant make it right)

- We watched Yes Day with our kids last week - a movie about a family that has a day where the parents have to say yes to the kids ideas.    I asked Indie what she would do if we had a yes day and she wanted to - Go to pop stop,  - Go get cotton candy -and Go to the cookie cottage.     Basically all she wants is sugar.

 

Anyway - I just LOVE my little Indie so much!  She brings so much life and spunk into our home and to me.  She is so funny and sweet.  I have no idea what life would be like without her.  I want her to stay 4 years old for another few years because she is my favorite!

 

Planting seeds

Today after church I got out my seed hoard.   I didn't realize how many I had bought.  It was a lot.  

lots of flowers and pumpkins. 

Below is just pumpkins.  I accidentally bought 17 packages.

The kids helped up plant - and this year we bought a growing light!  Im excited to see how it works.  We set it up in the kitchen once everyone had their seeds planted.   It was fun!  All the kids had fun planting their own tray of seeds. 

And birdie fell asleep in the couch like this.... 

 

Birdie's baby pics.

I know no one really cares about the puppy, and your here for updates on kids.  

But my kids loved looking at puppy pictures of Lucy.  So I am going to post these puppy pictures that we received from the breeder, so that one day when my kids want to see them - I'll have them saved here.  

 

More puppy pictures

A few more puppy pics from my cell phone.   Above is right when we got home with her. 

below, birdie is the only one of us that devin can hold without ripping a stich.  Willow is light enough for him to hold, but she is too wiggly.  

Above is our first night home with puppy.  The kids all wanted to have a sleepover in the living room.  

and fin reading it some books.  😊  fin is so cute with her - she is like your classic kid and dog girl.  I think she found her new best friend.   👍

Below, fin tucked her in.... and took this pic 

Below, I walked in from the garage to find her asleep on her back on Devin.  😄  Don't worry, this puppy is feeling quite at home with us. 

Willow tolerating the puppy for a second.  Birdie just wants to tackle and wrestle Willow - it must be because she is small and crawls like another puppy.  😄

 2nd night home was amazing.   I think the breeders really worked with her, because she seems to be potty and kennel trained already.  She didn't make a sound last night - and went potty quickly at 2am when I got up and took her out.  👏👏👏  

Birdie comes home

We picked up Birdie yesterday morning.  

The kids were beyond excited!!  So excited that they just argued about who got to hold her first and who got to feed her first the whole way to Blackfoot.  I had to keep telling them all to quit fighting or we were not going to go get her.  :)  They were SO excited.    Fin even held on to the door handle of the door of the car from the time we got to blackfoot to the time we parked in the driveway of the breeders.  

She jumped out of the car and ran to their front door.  :)  And 10 minutes later, we were walking out with this little fur ball.

She is cute and full of energy.  Her and Fin play all day long.  The other girls love her but Fin never puts her down.  She also takes her outside and runs all over the backyard with her.  

We survived our first night with her last night.  She was awake from about 1am - 2:15am.  But other than that she slept and was quiet.  So it wasn't horrible - but I'm hoping tonight is better.    And luckily I think her breeders worked with her on potty training - because she has done really well and knows exactly what she is doing when we go outside.  

I'm crossing my fingers she turns out to be a really good family dog for us.  And isn't a mean little guard dog like Lucy.

Fin went down in the sudio with me today.  Birdie needed newborn pics.  :)  Mostly we just laughed and laughed at how funny she looked.

Should I write down her birth story?  :)

If I did it would go like this.

We got on Ksl.com

We about died at how expensive dogs were.

We found one in Blackfoot - which was good because it was close.

We put down a deposit.(which seemed crazy to me)

We went to see her at 4 weeks an pick out which one was wanted.

We went back at 8 weeks and paid the rest of the money, and they handed her over to us.

And I thought to myself - for all that money we could be in Hawaii. 

But my kids were happy - so I guess its okay.

p.s. pic above was photo-shopped - Willow does not like her very well because Birdie likes to climb all over her.    But I thought it turned out cute!

Gallbladder surgery

After months and months devin finally had his gallbladder removed.   He started not feeling well right around Thanksgiving.   Drs told us it was an ulcer, giardia,  and finally devin self diagnosed himself - which later test results proved his gallbladder was acting up. 

Tuesday morning we headed for the hospital.   We had to be there at 6:30, so we just left kids sleeping at home.  They got him all prepped and he went into surgery right at 8am.  Surgery lasted about 45 min.  I was able to see him at 9am.  And by 10:20 we were headed home.  Its crazy how quickly after surgery we left.  

Devin was so funny after surgery. 

While the nurse was showing me his incisions and telling me how to care for them he asked in a loud and somewhat hill-billy voice if they could send some of the adhesive home with us so he could glue it back together incase it comes apart. 

😁  devin and I have never drank alcohol- so this was as close to "under the influence " as i have ever seen him.  Seems like his panguitch roots come back to him and he speaks with a southern twang.  The way he asked for more adhesive sounded like he was fixing his lawn mower or something.  

The nurse kept a straight face - but I was laughing in under my face mask. 

When the nurse walked away for a minute he asked me if we get to take his gallbladder home with us.  😁  right then the nurse walked in so I asked her.  She was so good - and pretended to look over the drs notes and told him there was no mention of us being able to take it home. 

I honestly just sat and laughed.   Its a good thing I had a face mask on.  The nurse even started laughing when she noticed me laughing.   But she was good to stay professional for devin. 

Devin also asked me if the kids were okay about 4 different times in that hour before we went home.  He kept asking me if I had talked to them, and if I had gone home to check on them while he was in surgery.  

I hadn't.  I just stayed at the hospital with him.  But had called a few times to check on them.  But I thought it was kinda sweet that they were on his mind.  Only because usually he is the one telling me they are fine, and im the one worrying. 

I guess along with the souther twang- his protective daddy also surfaced. 

We got home around 10:30. 

It was pretty crazy that first day.  Just because right when I walked in the kids all wanted/needed me.  Willow started crying for me. And the other 3 just wanted my attention.   But I had to help devin first - because he was so sore and needed help walking to bed.  

I just ran around from devin to each of the kids that first day.  I guess I didn't realize what its like after surgery.   I was thinking it would be like after having a baby- sore but still functioning.   Nope. Wrong.  Devin needed help doing everything,  even sitting up or laying down.  He was super sore.  

Corrine had offered to come help, and in my mind I thought, "oh this will be no big deal".  So I told her we should be fine.  But all day yesterday I was wondering if I had made a mistake. 

But we survived!  Sailyr even baked a cake.  Which im sure made my day crazier because of the added mess and neediness.  

But I couldn't help her - so she made this cake ALL on her own.  Its vanilla with raspberry filling. 

 

Today (day 2) was better.  Devin is still sore- and needs help with everything.   But at least he is not under the influence anymore.  So he can have a normal conversation with me.  He didn't nap today either - not as sleepy as yesterday.  But he still can't really sit, so he is still in bed. 

This evening I helped him out to the car and we went for ice cream (my aunt Chris read our minds!😄).  It was a long walk for him to the car.  And he told me he felt unsafe being out in the world as we were sitting in the drive through.  I think it was good to get him out of the house (or out of bed) for a min.  But he was pretty happy to get back home too. 

Our neighbor sandy brought dinner over and the older kids were at neighbors for a late night.  So this evening was calmer and more quiet.  While the kids were gone this evening I also got quite a bit of cleaning and unpacking from boise done.  So that always makes things seem less chaotic when its cleaner.  So today was better and I didn't feel like I couldn't handle it all. 

My friend Ashley who just had this same surgery 2 weeks ago told me that the first 3 days were the worst.   So im hoping he will have 1 , maybe 2 more full days in bed and then he will start feeling better. 

Spring break in boise cont.

 While in boise we also went to their cute zoo.  It had a few more animals than our idaho falls zoo.  But still smaller than salt lake.  We also did lots and lots of swimming!

We also stopped at petsmart and let the kids shop for our dog.  They loved it!  They wanted to buy all the dog toys, all the dog treats and bones.  Sailyr spent about 15 min choosing the perfect collar. 😁 

And our last night there devin didn't feel well.  We had eaten a big lunch at olive garden- which is probably why he didn't feel well.  So the girls and I walked from our hotel to the cracker barrel which was in the same parking lot as our hotel. 

It was not busy in there at all - which was perfect and quiet for me trying to wrangle 4 kids.  It all reminded me of Foys country corner.  From their plastic menu covers to the smell of vegetable soup.  I had to take a pic.  We eat out quite a bit - but I've never been reminded of that old restaurant until now. 

And that is it for boise.  We drove home to snow in rigby.  The kids had fun!