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.

"Emergency" Defined...

Mom's work informed her Monday that she had a mandatory conference call this evening. Her work gives no leeway for things like having a baby so she knew that the fact that the girls had dance class wouldn't keep her off the call :-) Dad took three of the kids to the dance place, but Mom and Dad thought Seth could handle being in the house while Mom did the call from the back room. Mom fed Seth in advance because she knew that he would not be able to stop himself from interrupting if he got hungry. She then explained that he was not to knock on the door unless there was an emergency such as a fire or he was hurt. His only question..."If the TV, computer, and Ipad all aren't working, would that be an emergency?"

It's looking a lot like bath day...

Friday Night Sleepover

We had a girls' sleepover Friday night. Lydia's friends spent the night, and Morgan's friend stayed until bedtime and then went home. Seth and his buddy hung around for a couple hours. The kids had a good time. They made banana splits, played outside, ate pizza, played dress-up, and watched a movie all before 9:00 pm. Next Friday Seth is planning to have some friends come home from school with him and hang out for the evening and one friend spend the night.

Sick Little Birdie

Sydney has had a nasty stomach bug for about 12 hours... 12 hours seems like about 12 days when her clothes, bed, the floor, etc. need constant changing and cleaning. She can't hold down anything without vomiting. In spite of her illness, she really wants to eat and drink which makes it even harder. She is currently getting part of a dropper of fluid every few minutes to keep her hydrated.

School Pictures 2010

Lydia's Third Grade Picture
Seth's Kindergarten Picture

Morgan's Preschool Picture

Tour of Morgan's Room

Morgan started going to gymnastics this fall at a place that also trains fairly serious competitive gymnasts. They have balance beams, vault, bars, etc. that the girls of every age train on. As Mom and Dad expected, Morgan really enjoys it. However, the surprising part has been how much Morgan looks up to the older gymnasts. When you enter the place, there is a waiting room with a big glass window where you can watch the gymnasts practice without being in the room with them. Every week Morgan runs in yelling, "I want to see the big girls!" She gets very excited to watch them practice before her class. Mom sees Morgan decide to leave her group to go get a drink of water at least once every week, and Morgan always just stands and watches the older girls while she's at the water fountain. Today Lydia found a poster of Nastia Liukin, an olympic gymnast in a catalog, and showed it to Morgan. Morgan had Lydia hang it in the middle of her room over the princess castle by the ceiling. Mom thought it was a little high there and found a good spot for it.

This is Morgan with the lifesize picture of herself she made at preschool. As you can see, she is very pleased with it.

This is her hanging out on her bed. She enjoyed the attention tonight of being an only child for a little while with her siblings gone/ asleep.

The Jammie Fairy Fails....

Morgan is almost three and a half, and Mom refers this as the age of style. Kids in our house become OBSESSED about their wardrobe. It usually passes quickly, but it can be an annoying stage. Lydia would only wear pink. If someone dressed her in any other color, she would get very upset. Mom decided just to buy her pink clothes for a while, and the family got through it :-) She now willingly wears almost anything. Seth only wore collared shirts and dress pants. He was our little overdressed preschooler. It was a little embarassing at times, but he also quickly passed through the stage and now wears age appropriate style. Now we have Morgan...

Morgan doesn't really care what she wears during the day. It's rarely an issue. However, she is VERY picky about her pajamas. She spends lots of time digging through her pajama drawer looking for the perfect ensemble. Although it's annoying how long it takes her to choose her pajamas, it hasn't been a real problem until now. The weather is now getting cooler and the sleeveless princess gowns and too small shirts are not warm enough for cold northern winters. Mom anticipated this would be a big deal, and she tried to pick out warm winter pajamas that Morgan would like. She got Morgan tie dyed pink ones, ones with pink puppies, and striped ones.. all in cozy, warm fleece. From the moment they arrived, Morgan has refused to wear them.

Tonight the big kids were at a football game with Dad, and Sydney was sleeping, and Mom decided she would use her advanced parenting skills :-) to deal with the issue. She excitedly told Morgan that the Jammie Fairly would be coming soon to clean out Morgan's Jammies, and the only jammies left would be the warm, cozy ones for winter. She showed Morgan the jammies the Jammie Fairy likes and explained that the other ones would return in the spring. For a brief moment, Mom thought she had actually succeeded. Morgan agreed to put on the pink tie dyed pajamas. Then she fell apart... completely... Mom knew she had lost, but she did find a too small pink flannel sheep top and a too big pair of purple princess pants that Morgan would wear to stay warm for the night.

Morgan Looking For the Perfect Pajamas


Morgan Finds the Perfect Summer Pajamas for a Freezing Night

Morgan HATES the Pajamas the Jammie Fairy Would Love

Mom and Morgan Select a Beautiful Mismatched Too Big/ Too Small Ensemble