Lydia's 9th Birthday With Friends

Lydia's friends came this evening to celebrate her 9th birthday. We all went to see Yogi Bear in 3D. Everyone enjoyed it. Lydia then opened her presents. Lydia's class wrote letters to Santa last month, and the local newspaper published them. In her letter, Lydia explained to Santa that if she didn't get a webkinz for Christmas, her account would be shut off. Her friends obviously read the letters because she got a Webkinz for each of them. The girls then ate cake and are planning to be at our house for most of tomorrow.

Trying Out His New Sled

Dad took Seth to a local reservoir today to try out Seth's new sled. They had fun, but it was really cold in the wind.

Half-grown!

Lydia turned 9 today! She's half-way to being an adult (if you consider someone who at 18 will still be in high school living at home an adult :-) ) We had lunch today with Grandpa (also celebrating his birthday today,) Grandma, Uncle Bryan, and Aunt Sasha. We went to Red Lobster at Lydia's request. Lydia's gift from Mom and Dad was an American Girl Doll, Kit. Tomorrow she is having a party with her friends.

Christmas Morning

It's 10:00 am and we've been up for almost five hours. The kids have had a great time. Lydia got lots of stuff including a gymnastics mat, lots of things for her American Girl Doll, and an MP3 player. Seth got things including a DSI XL, a lego set, a sled, and art stuff. Morgan's favorites were a balance beam, things for her dolls, a pillow pet, and a princess dress. Morgan is sick, and we're hoping she feels better soon! Sydney loves her new red car! She hasn't had much time to play with other things yet.

Either turn your computer or your head sideways...

and enjoy Sydney enjoying "Ice Ice Baby."

Snow Day

Today was the first snow day of the season. We got about five inches of snow with high winds and extremely cold temperatures. Lydia, Seth, and Morgan all had a friend over until 1, and Lydia's friend stayed for the day. We made gingerbread houses, and Lydia and her friend played outside for a few minutes this afternoon. We are expecting a snow day tomorrow as well. The roads are bad, and the school has already announced a delay. Lydia has a another friend spending the night in anticipation of another fun day.

We have a problem...

This is Morgan in what she believes is the new pretty pink carseat Dad bought her for his car....

This is Sydney in what she believes is the new pretty pink carseat Dad bought her for his car....

This is Morgan and Sydney fighting when they realize there is only one seat, and they both think it belongs to them :-)
Dad needed another big carseat for his car. He bought this one thinking he could give it to Morgan, and Sydney would be happy with the black one she has in his car. His plan isn't working out very well... Mom forsees a trip to Walmart in his future...

Waiting to decorate the tree...

The kids sang their favorite Christmas song this evening while Dad put lights on the Christmas tree. The song is from their favorite move, Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Visit With Santa

Santa came to Dad's work today, and the kids decided to go see him. Seth told Santa he wants a pillow pet, electric doodle, and spiderman DS game. Lydia told Santa she wants a webkinz. Morgan was scared of Santa. She wouldn't sit in his lap or look at him. Sydney waved to santa.

Lights at the Toledo Zoo

We went to the Toledo Zoo this evening to see the Christmas lights. It was our first trip out since Morgan's surgeries. It was a lot of fun! Morgan was able to ride in the stroller and enjoy the lights. The rest of us had fun too!

Mama's Girl

Morgan got out of the hospital Tuesday night. She was there for 12 days. During this time Mom was only home for a few hours total. Sydney developed a serious case of separation anxiety when Mom was gone. She now gets upset when Mom leaves which she didn't before. She's also more affectionate than ever. She hugs and kisses Mom all day long :-)

Big Sissy Comes to Visit

Lydia was really excited to come to the hospital this evening to see Morgan. She hadn't seen her since she went in the hospital over a week ago. We went for a walk around the children's floor of the hospital, and Morgan showed Lydia the things that she likes. Morgan is still sore from surgery today, but she looks really good. Lydia then went back to the room and helped Morgan earn stickers by breathing into the breathing device.

Recovering From Another Surgery

Last night they did tests and found out Morgan needed another surgery to clean out infection. When her intestines were open, the contents spilled into her abdomen. This probably led to the infection she had. She had surgery this morning. The doctor said it went well. He said the infection wasn't too deep. If all goes well, he expects her to be in hospital until early or middle of next week, and have a couple weeks of home health visits after that.

She's resting right now drinking apple juice and watching Blue's Clues.

Still Hanging Out at the Hospital

Morgan is still in the hospital. We're not sure when she'll get out. We hope no more than a day or two. She's looking much better. He favorite game is to start (quietly) yelling, "beep, beep, beep." This is what her IV does, and she thinks it's funny when the IV starts beeping and nurses come to see her. She loves to go to the playroom and paint pictures and crafts. We haven gotten our money's worth of our netflix subscription this month. She uses the Ipad to download kids' movies through netflix since the hospital has Internet. This has been very fun for her. One day a therapy dog dropped by to meet her which was nice. We're hoping to return home soon.

She's Walking!

Morgan had a rough morning, but she took a big turn for the better this evening. She has not been able to walk, but she decided to walk to the bathroom tonight. Mom and Dad were very excited. The nurse said she is starting to hear Morgan's small instestine functioning. This means that Morgan is getting closer to being allowed to have liquids.

Going for a Ride

Morgan got out of bed and explored the children's floor of the hospital today in the hospital's little red wagon with her IV in tow. She even checked out the playroom and borrowed a couple toys while she was out. She asked Mom and Dad to take her to the road and walk away from the hospital, but they convinced her to look out the windows instead for a few days.

Update on Morgan

Morgan is resting at the hospital after a very tough day. She had her appendix and about six inches of small intestine removed today. She has been very sick since Monday morning. She has done lots of vomiting and had stomach pain. Mom took her to the doctor Tuesday, and he thought she had stomach virus. Mom took her to a county hospital emergency room Wednesday, and the doctor thought it was the flu. By late Thursday night, Morgan's belly was very swollen, she was in a lot of pain, and she was still sick. Dad and Mom took her to another emergency room. This time the doctor took one look at her and said she was very sick. She ran some tests and sent her to a larger children's hospital via an ambulance. Morgan has a condition where the small intestine basically turns inside itself and forms a block. In addition, the block in Morgan's small instestine had gone into her colon. There was a complete, hard blockage. They tried to open the blockage without surgery but had not luck. Morgan was in surgery for a couple hours this afternoon. Of course, she's not feeling that great at the moment, but she should be better soon. They aren't sure yet how long she will be in the hospital.

More House Pictures

We'll skip the before pics on these, but the place needed a lot of work. Tomorrow, a window is being installed in the big room in the last picture below. After the window is installed, we'll post outdoor pictures. Then we'll get back to our usual kid posts :-)

House Redo... The Kitchen Before and After

We purchased a house this fall to turn into a rental house. The house was in rough shape. The remodeling is almost finished and the tenants will be moving in this week. Here are some pictures of the kichen before and after. It has been a huge amount of work, but we think it looks nice! We'll post more pictures of the other parts of the house tomorrow.

The Boys Take Over the House

This week was Seth's turn to have friends over on Friday night. He had three friends come home with him after school and one spend the night. Lydia also had a friend over to keep her company. As one could imagine, it was a little hectic (think one boy diving off playset, bunkbeds, etc., one boy crying over everything, and Sydney not in a good mood) for the first couple hours while Mom was alone with the eight kids. Mom was so busy during this time that she forgot to take pictures. However, after one of the boys went home and Dad came home from work, Mom remembered to pull out the camera.

The boys enjoyed playing outside, playing legos, playing video games, and eating the meal Seth planned... pigs in a blanket, macoroni and cheese, and pears. The girls locked themselves in Lydia's room to work on a puzzle.