Making Pizzas

We made home made pizzas for lunch today. Wholemeal pizza bases, homemade sauce with flaxseed meal. Nice and fun and messy.

The girls rolled their own bases (please excuse the jammies, we weren't going anywhere today so I figured why waste laundry by getting them dressed (though they ended up getting dressed later).

Then added toppings of their choice

Meanwhile Zoe played with pots and pans and things on the floor.

I tossed my base around for fun, but it didn't look quite professional. Kaya was tickled by it and filmed it. (I hadn't brushed my hair, sorry)

Here is Lana's finished procuct (before baking)

Here's mine

Here's Kaya's. she made a face on hers.

While they cooked Zoe fell asleep in her high chair. She's been taking naps in there all the time recently! Almost every day.

Then we ate them! Yum.

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Pucker up

I was going to just blog about this latest facial expression Zoe has been making recently, but then I thought heck, why not scrap about it, since I've been slacking lately.




Ok off to do some homeschooling now! My schedule is all off for the day.

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We're going to Texas!

My cousin is getting married, and we're headed down to Texas for her wedding this weekend! I'm very excited about it, I haven't seen her since she was a small child, playing feet eaters and crawling around the floor.

It should be a fun trip and a welcome break for us all. Rene has been working 11 hour shifts in the office, coming home to eat, then working at night while we all sleep. He has a big deadline coming up and has been super stressed. By this weekend it should be all finished and all the creases ironed out etc and we should be able to just relax!


I've uploaded some new pics of the kiddos to smugmug. Here are a couple of them.

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Memorable Memorial Weekend

As you can see, our car is sad right now. Awww. We were looking forward ot spending some time together this memorial weekend and getting some things accomplished. On Sat we started off by going out for breakfast, then as we set off for errand number 1 the car started smelling terrible and overheated. The light on the dashboard was flashing and it was beeping and there was smoke pouring out of the engine.

We got the car towed to a garage and took a couple buses to get home (I do miss the public transport system in the UK, it's so much better than out here).

They called back on the Sunday and said the car was fixed and we could go get it. Cost $130 which we could handle. So Rene went out and picked it up and by the time he got it home it was pouring coolant all down the street and overheating again.

He called back and they were all appologetic and said they'd come pick it up again. It took them hours and multiple phone calls from us but eventually they came and picked up the car again and told us they'd have it fixed by the end of the night. Again we had to call mulktiple times and were eventually told it would be ready by morning.

So Monday morning we called again and they still hadn't fixed it, and said they'd call back soon. They didn't call back soon. We called again and again. Eventually they tell us it's a fiddly job to replace the pipe and they'll let us borrow a car for just now. A couple hours later they bring us the car (which stinks of smoke and the door makes a horrible banging noise and the girls carseats only JUST fit in the back, it's very cramped). But we got it in time to go out Monday evening and get some much needed groceries.

Today they call and say they have to replace the entire pipe instead on just one section and it's going to cost over $600!!!! eeek.

It's very frustrating and will take a lot of fiddling of figures to try to compensate for this. I'll be happy to at least have the car back though. Hopefully soon....(shouldn't get my hopes up too much...)

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soda

I had been doing a really good job of going soda free. We were only buying soda when we had friends over (killer bunnies nights and soda seem to go together), otherwise I'm mostly only drinking water.

But then I found this stuff at a health food store and its delicious!




Very few ingredients, its much more natural than the other sodas...but it still has loads of sugar. Thankfully it's expensive so I can't afford to go too crazy on it. But for a treat here and there it's wonderful.

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Steven Cutris Chapman family tragedy

I'm bawling my eyes out here after hearing about the tragic death of Steven Curtis Chapman's youngest daughter Maria.

http://www.stevencurtischapman.com/

She was struck by a vehicle her teenage brother was driving in the driveway and died. It's so deeply tragic.

I'll be praying for peace for the family.

You can watch a sweet video of her washing dishes with her daddy just 2 months ago, and leave condolences here


And here's a video of his music video "Cinderella" which had me crying my eyes out when I listened to it before this accident ever happened. Now even more so.

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Ultrasound at 24 weeks

I had another appointment and ultrasound today. It all went well, everything looks good.

I have a few photos but I haven't bothered to get them on the computer yet. The photos didn't come out very clear but the actual u/s was one of the clearest I've had yet. Turtle was very active and swimming around and waving his/her hands all around and kicking feet. It was sooo sweet. His/her hands were up at his/her face, and feet were scrunched up pretty close too. Turtle is lying sideways, or transverse right now. Plenty of time for him/her to change position - multiple times before birth, so it's not a worry.

Anyway it was pleasant and I'm happy all is going well.

Here's Zoe with something to say

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We're such good customers

of the medical industry.

So Lana's supposed to have her eye surgery on Monday, but we had to cancel because she has had an illness these past couple days with fever and vomiting. It's been passing around the family. So they won't do general anaesthesia until she's been clear of illness for a while.

Today she seems to have been feeling better, and Zoe and Kaya are better too so we ventured out to some yard sales. Surely harmless fun right? Lana and Kaya each had a quarter to spend and they always find something weird to spend it on. Kaya bought a roll of eye stickers and Lana bought a bag of beads. We sent Rene in to buy a couple of coffee tables (for 50 c each!) and meanwhile Lana sat in the back of the car and decided that her baby frogs in her soap dispenser (which we had just bought for 25 c) wanted to watch her put a bead up her nose. And she didn't want to let those baby frogs down.

I knew nothing of her little adventure taking place in the backseat until she started yelling "mummy there's something stuck up my nose!"

It was wedged up there super high. I didn't want to attempt to try to get it out myself, I didn't even have any tweezers with me, and it was so far back it was hardly visible. Rene came back tot he car and we drove straight to ER. The Dr there held her other nostril closed and had me blow in her mouth to get it to come out. It took a couple of tries, but it came out. Lana was super brave and says she'll never put anything up her nose again!

Now we get to await the bill. At times..I slightly miss the NHS, at least, the fact that it was free anyway. I swear we pay more on medical bills than groceries, and we have good insurance too. I hate to think what it would be like without it!

Rene found this whole ordeal hillarious. He couldn't stop laughing (he has a thing about noses and stuff being stuck in them...it just tickles his funny bone) so I guess for him this was money well spent on good entertainment.

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Baby Birds

We have two nests at our house. One is sort of in the roof type area (I don't know what different pieces of the house are called, but it's up in the bit where our outdoor light hangs from) and you can't see it because it's covered over, but you hear the baby birds every time you step outside. And there is bird poop all over the ground!

The other is resting on the gutter round the back of the house. Mommy bird has been sitting faithfully on her nest for weeks and recently we have spotted two tiny heads peaking out! Very sweet indeed.

It's all getting me very much in the mood for my own baby to arrive. I'm so glad we have another one cooking in there, because Zoe is just so grown up these days, she doesn't satisfy that broody need for a tiny baby to nurture. She's just thriving, learning new words every day, playing well with her sisters, climbing on things, expressing herself.

She copies her sisters all the time. Kaya just came in here a minute ago with a church bulletin, asking me "mummy, can I draw on this?" and then presenting a piece of scrap paper, "can I draw on this?"

Zoe, watching this all, has a look of contemplation on her face, then picks up the tv remote control and holds it up to me and excitedly babbles, "mum, ga-ee-oy--ga-ee-oy-daw-dis?"

She's too funny. And I can't wait for another little tiny one to watch grow and develop too. This stuff is soo exciting! It still blows my mind that we can make people.

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Further testing

We took Zoe to Omaha Childrens hospital today for some further testing on the "epsiodes" she's been having. She was scheduled for an MRI and an EEG.

She had to be starved from midnight, so it was difficult in the night when she woke, crying for milk. But Daddy gave her some hugging and she settled back down. We fed the girls in secret this morning while Zoe bathed so she wouldn't have to see it.

When we got to the hospital, Zoe was as happy and chirpy as ever. She was smiling at the nurses and being cute, although she was hungry and kept doing the baby sign for milk. The nurses took her vitals and Zoe cooperated well. She liked watching the bubbles they were blowing. They stuck some lotion and sticky stuff on her hands and then we were allowed to play in the toy room for a while, which Zoe loved very much. The nurses took a real liking to Zoe and kept saying she was such a good patient!

Then it was time to go back to the room and give her the medicine that would put her to sleep. The nurses warned us that she would taste it then hate it and they'd have to hold her down and sort of force feed the rest to her. They said it tastes horrible and kids hate being fed it. They told us to expect it to get loud and disturbing but they assured us its fine and she's not in pain, she just doesn't like the taste.

They were standing each side of her, getting ready to restrain her, but Zoe took one sip of that stuff and was just so starving she started sucking on the syringe for dear life. The nurses were amazed and said that never happens! Poor baby guzzled the stuff.

They then had to stick in the IV, which was not fun at all. I shall not go into details, I'm sure you can imagine the scene.

Afterwards they left the room, with soft music playing and a little birdie light show thing. I was able to hold Zoe and rock her to sleep. It was peaceful and not scary, and I was happy with that. She fell asleep very quickly.

The nurses came back in, gave us a pager then wheeled Zoe away for the MRI. I held it together until they were out of sight then I excused myself to the bathroom and had a total mommy hormonal meltdown moment.

After regaining composure Rene and I went to the coffee shop together for a snack and drink. It felt so strange, just being the two of us (Kaya and Lana were being babysat by some friends). It didn't feel right, I definitely prefer having my hands full of kids, even if it annoys me at times.

Then it was time to return to our room, and they brought Zoe back. It was so sad to see the little girl who had previously been fine, healthy, walking around the toy room, playing and laughing and pushing a stroller around, now lying completely still, things poked in her, bandages on her, and a towel covering over her face (they did it because she had started waking up). She was just this tiny little lump of a body under blankets and bandages. I just felt bad for putting her through all these tests :(

Then it was down to the EEG. They stuck 25 wires on her head, it looked strange. Then a big bandage over it all. She continued to sleep through it. For the last few minutes they wanted some waking readings so they woke her. Poor baby was sooo tired and out of it. She couldn't hold her own head up, or her wee body. She was trying to talk though and managed a smile.

Then she was done! I was allowed to nurse her again and she got her IV out and started waking up more and looking like our wee Zoe again. And I felt such weight lifted. We don't get the results until Monday, but I'm confident that even if something shows, God will take care of us and we'll all be ok. I'm just so glad those tests are overwith. I've been walking around feeling such dread about them. It's done now. I'm happy.

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Yeah

Zoe's latest favourite word is "yeah" and she nods her head at the same time.

Funny though when she's answering questions she doesn't really understand. I was changing her diaper today and it was lots of tiny round poops instead of one big normal poop.

So I asked her "did you do rabbit droppings?" and she told me, "yeah" with a nod.
"What have you been eating - rabbit food?"
"Yeah"

I just wish my husband was as agreeable...

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"I'm not picking my nose...

I'm just getting the crunchy bits out"

is what I used to claim.

Here's my girl following in my footsteps.

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Starting to feel like summer

It hit 80 again the other day. Cooled off to the 50s again today, but we had a nice spell in there of a few beautiful days.

Here are some pics of us playing in the yard

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