Weather Forecast for the week...

H-O-T
B-L-A-Z-I-N-G
S-C-O-R-C-H-I-N-G

101 today. 103 Monday. 100s all...week...long...
Nighttime lows...mid 70s.
(But still better than a New York Winter)

We'll be swimming many many times this week. Everson wants to go swimming 11 times today.

A week of milestones...

Elisha began crawling...

BOTH Emma and Erik conquered their fears of falling and taught themselves to ride a bike.

Erik can finally enjoy the 2 wheeler he bought himself LAST year with birthday money. Doug took Emma out on Saturday to buy her own bike.

Ellie continues to develop as a swimmer and bike rider and Everson still loves to jump in the pool and swim underwater across the pool.

Hi y`all in NY.
Emma here. I`m just going to tell you about what`s going on here. It`s so hot here! I am so tan it`s not funny. I look like a peanut ! LOL.
Ballet is good. Ballet summer intensive starts soon, it`s when we do ballet classes for one week in the summer , Ellie and I both are doing it!
VBS is tomorrow. It`s hawiain theme ! I am exited!
This year I am trying out for Nutcracker AND THE WIZARD OF OZ!!!!!!!!!!!!
I can finally ride a two wheeler bike! $I earned ten dollers for it!$ : )
Thats really all. Bye!

LOVE
EMMA

Pictures from May in no particular order...

This picture of Elisha is actually from late April...my how he's growing!

My Three Sons...looking clean and spiffy for church. Of course, Everson has on flip flops ;-)

Everson loves to climb the ladder of our new pool, then jump off and swim across the pool. Definately a water lover!

Everson is making his best "I'm-Indiana-Jones-don't-mess-with-me" face.

The older three spend LOTS of time in the pool! With temps in the high 90s for 3 weeks, they are quite tan...and they sleep well at night!

THE GREAT WALL OF WEST TEXAS

Since we moved in, I have dreamed of a brick patio next to our house. Kept it in the dream category, since I was not going to spend the $$ to buy bricks. Tom came across roughly 2000 clean, used bricks. He loaded them onto his trailer...all by himself...in 3 trips. Doug and the kids unloaded them. Then Doug got to work on clearing and leveling the ground between our house and garage. Forkful by forkful, the job was completed...mostly by Doug with some help from me and Erik...Erik did a super job with the bricks and the pattern...just like using legos!
This is just the beginning. The patio will go past the blue stroller all the way to the basketball hoop. If you scroll back to the top picture, you can make out the basketball hoop by the tree...just to get a sense of the S-I-Z-E of the patio that is getting put down. I'm sure Doug knows the exact dimensions, but all I can say is that it's BIG.

Update: Doug says it's about 15 x 30.
All we need now is a truckful of sand to be delivered so we can fill in the cracks and level out any wobbly bricks.

Kids on Easter Sunday. My mom had bought the dresses a year ago for the girls.
Cute...even though he's sideways. I'm too busy to fix it right now LOL
Bathtub buddies.

My mother and Tom bought us some fruit trees...NINE of them. 2 pear, 2 plum, 3 peach, 1 gala apple and 1 fig. So this weekend, Doug and the kids got to work on digging holes. Here's some pictures of their work. They are all a bit sunburned...Doug is the worst off, but seems to be faring well. Looking forward to the day that these little trees help lower my grocery budget! Come on down to Armstrong Farms!
Behind Emma is Tom's Chuckwagon-building-site.

Elisha enjoyed some snuggle time with Daddy at the Airshow on Saturday. The USAF Thunderbirds performed. INCREDIBLE! Didn't get any good pictures...it was my turn to hold the baby and cover his ears from the noise. Next year, we'll bring earplugs for him.

Glimpses of February...enjoy the show

Sickness abounds. Again.
As soon as I can stop coughing long enough to load pictures I will. Oh and I have to finish sterilizing the house from top to bottom. Again.
This one I'm blaming on Doug. ;-) He came home Monday not feeling well and was full-blown sick by Tuesday.
And it's supposed to hit 80* today! Too bad we'll all be too sick to enjoy it...

Emma participated in an annual art competition here for 5th grade students. Each fall, the Symphony Guild holds an "Art to Music" Competition. ALL 5th grade students in S.A. compete in this competition...I think the number is around 1500 (can't find the letter that says exactly how many, but that's the ballpark). The students were split into groups, each group listening to one of the 4 movements of Respighi's The Pines of Rome. As they listen, they create a piece of art with their interpretation of the movement. The pieces are then submitted and judged. Emma placed 4th for her movement, making her one of the 16 finalists...out of the 1500 participants... Next Saturday we will attend the Symphony, along with the other 15 students and families. The Maestro will recognize the students prior to the piece. The winning artwork will be displayed in the atrium as well as during a slide show during the actual symhpony performance. It's all quite exciting for Emma. Can't wait to see what our little artist created!
This is Everson and his best buddy from church, Joey. They bought these matching hats at AWANA Cubbies "store night". And yes, Everson has this little 'attitude' much of the time LOL.

Sickness...

Have been to the dr 3 times in 3 weeks with sick kiddos. Having 5 makes me wait until I'm really sure they need to be seen. Erik had the sore-throat-swollen-tonsil-thing from October and was given more antibiotics. Elisha now has RSV. Thanks to his age and, ahem, girth, he doesn't need hospitalization. Just nebulizer every 4 hours. Fortunately, Erik knows all too well how to use the nebulizer, so he and Emma are the "lucky" ones to do most treatments. (I knew I had so many kids for a reason).

Funky yuccy weather...happens each January for a few weeks. Then our winter should be ending.

I resolve...

On this something-teenth day of January 2008, I resolve to update the blog weekly...as long as you, my dear reader/visitor/lurker resolve to leave a comment or email me at least once a month with an update on YOUR life...it's the least you can do ;-) I mean, it's just not fair not knowing what's going on in your world.

Erik's Teeth...

We saw the dentist this morning...Erik will not have to get braces in the new year. Just a retainer for 3 months to pull the tooth back a bit. The orthodontist will use the retainer to pull back BOTH of Erik's teeth. We go next week to make the impressions for the retainer, then a 2-3 week wait for it to arrive, then visits every 3 weeks or so to adjust the retainer.

Erik was relieved to learn that he won't be getting braces...tho he was quite excited at the notion of having yellow and purple rubber bands to show his support for his Minnesota Vikings...

Here's our not-so-little 4 month old. He weighs 18 lbs now! Started cereal today. I think he liked it. The kids were a bit disappointed...I think they thought he'd eat a whole bowlful of cereal!
Everson is ever bit the 3 year old in this picture. Now that he's 4, I doubt he'll do such silly things anymore...ha ha.
Emma, Stephanie and Madison in their Nutcracker Party Girl costumes shortly before the curtain went up. These 2 girls are Emma's closest friends here. Homeschooled and in her ballet class, they see each other many hours every week.

Why Erik?!?!?

First, the cleft lip. Then the allergies. Then the fractured and extracted front teeth. The double-hernia surgery...

Well yesterday, Erik, Ellie and Everson were playing some new game on the trampoline. Erik came running in the house with blood streaming from his mouth. Trying not to FREAK OUT, I assessed the situation, while trying to understand what happened. Apparently, this new game entails Erik jumping and diving to tackle Ellie. She jumped out of the way while Erik was in the air. He hit the net and one of his front teeth (you know, the ones that JUST grew in this summer) hooked on the net of the trampoline as he fell. The tooth was jerked into a new position and is sticking out.

So we went to the dentist this am. This 'injury' did not damage the nerve (as far as he can tell). But we have to go back in 2 weeks to reevaluate. Oh, and the timeline for braces has been moved up...likely to 2008...thanks to this 'injury'. I'm to keep him on a soft food diet for a few days and give him ibuprofen to keep the swelling down. Forgot to ask about basketball - which starts tomorrow. Gotta go make our follow up appointment and ask about a mouthguard. Will keep you posted.

How's Erik in all of this? Relieved that the tooth wasn't pulled. Wondering what color rubber bands he'll pick for his braces...green, red, purple/yellow alternating for the Vikings...decisions decisions.

NUTCRACKER CRAZINESS!
So this weekend begins our final descent to the Nutcracker Production. V-E-R-Y long rehearsals for Emma beginning today. We are supposed to move props into the Theater this afternoon...with bazillion-miles-an-hour winds :0 We'll keep you posted and I'll try to take some pics during dress rehearsal.

Snow?
We were expecing 3-6 inches of the white fluffy stuff overnight. But alas, the temps did not drop enough, so we got a good, soaking rain. The kids were disappointed to wake up to rain instead of snow. But it did snow a bit when we were coming home from church. It's 39* here right now.

Thanksgiving was fun...and cold. It was warmer in NY than here...there's just something WRONG with that! We had my mom, step father and stepbrother over, along with a friend and her 6 children. Their dad is an Air Force chaplain and is currently deployed to Qatar. So we had a total of 11 children and 6 adults! It was a great time.

Emma was on one of our local news channels on Friday. She and another cast member were promoting The Nutcracker. She did a FANTASTIC job. One more week until we move into the Auditorium and begin the daily 5 hour rehearsals before the curtain goes up. I'm really enjoying Nutcracker this year...mainly because my only responsibility (other than getting Emma to/from rehearsals) is to sell the DVDs! Quite a difference from being in charge of props last year!

Erik starts basketball practice in a week. He's been practicing this fall with Doug's jr high team. Doug's team is 1-3 and he's still having a good time with them ;-)

Had Erik's birthday party yesterday. He invited 7 boys and they brought new unwrapped toys for Erik to donate to Toys for Tots. They had a great time...even though it was cold and rainy and they had to be inside...the...whole...time. One thing he really liked was the special cake I made. It was made from a mix, but one specially formulated for folks with egg, milk and nut allergies. I wasn't sure what the guests would think. Erik was thrilled that they ALL liked it! "Nobody ever wants to eat my allergy food. I can't believe they liked it!"

That's all for now.

Back from our trip off the face of the earth...

Not really, just busy. Seems most of my computer time lately is with one free hand...the other, holding Elisha. It's not very easy typing with one hand ;-)

Here's a glimpse of the last 3 weeks:

My stepbrother, Jason, visited for a week. He is a Marine and just finished his SECOND 6 month tour in Iraq. The kids loved spending time with their Uncle Jason. Erik even tried on his pack filled with tools Jason used to break down doors, etc when he would 'sweep' neighborhoods...It was HEAVY.


Then my Aunt Lou and Uncle Ed came down to TX for a long weekend. They were only here in S.A. for 2 nights, but we spent a whole day with them. I think they enjoyed the 3 ring circus that is my life. I haven't seen them since Everson was an infant. It was a great time. I think the kids especially liked being treated dinner at Olive Garden!
Two days after they left here, my brother, Dhamon rolled into town. He spent a week here catching up with family and playing with my kiddos. Here's a pic of Dhamon and Erik playing HORSE. Emma suggested that they play ESOPHAGUS if they wanted their games to last longer LOL. They had a blast with Uncle Dhamon...and Grandpa Quale. My dad drove into town 3 days after my brother...in my brother's truck with a special bed that he has had in his garage for us since BEFORE we moved here over 2 years ago. It didn't fit in our moving truck...so he brought it down himself. They left on Saturday.
Here's Everson on his new bed...did I mention that it's a WAGON?!?!? There's even real wheels!
Oh and Elisha continues to be a sweetie. He loves the kids and is quick to flash a smile for them.

Update on Erik:
We saw the pediatrician this am then went across the street to the hospital for more IV antibiotics and a steroid push. Now we are home! The swelling/infection seems to be responding to this course of treatment, so we are not going to any more doctors...unless the bugger flares up again. We have 2 more days of steroids and antibiotics. Erik is feeling great, and in fact is at his acting class with Emma this afternoon. On to normal life!

Peritonsillar Abcess...and Erik

On Monday, Erik started to complain of a sore throat. By Tuesday, I looked in his throat and was AMAZED at what I saw: swollen tonsils, but one was SO SWOLLEN, that it went ACROSS the 'dangly thing' in the back of his throat! So I called the dr. The nurse asked how long he's had the symptoms. When I said 24hrs, she said, let's make an appt for Wednesday, and cancel it if he feels better. If anything, his throat seemed to get more swollen and painful as Tuesday went on.

Wednesday rolls around and I pack up my FIVE children to go to the drs. She takes one look and is concerned. She leaves the room to call an ENT. She returns. Rather than rush to surgery, which has been the traditional treatment, they decide to take an aggressive with drugs treatment first. Because of age/weight/required dosages, Erik needed FOUR BIG HUGE PAINFUL shots...in his rear end. Dr. S offered to admit Erik to the hospital to take the drugs with an IV. She said if it was 1 or 2 shots, she'd recommend we take care of it in the office. But FOUR is a LOT for anyone, especially an 8 year old!

So we go to the van, get the stroller, and walk ACROSS THE STREET to the hospital. This time, we're on the 1st floor. Elisha was born on the 2nd floor. We are admitted to a room and the FIVE children start to watch the Disney Channel. We get the pre-IV numbing cream for 30 minutes, then the IV, then the STEROID push and antibiotics. TWO HOURS after walking in the door, we leave.

We're home now. Taking MORE antibiotics and steroids. We go back to the dr tomorrow at 9. We'll do the hospital thing AGAIN, then likely go see the ENT to have the abcess drained...surgically.

We'll keep you posted.

I get the hint...you are all checking my blog daily wondering what's going on here...Finally Angie has the NERVE to comment on my LACK of blogging. Seems like most times I get on the computer I have only one hand free...holding/feeding Elisha limits my ability to type ;-)

So since having Elisha 8 weeks ago, we:
*Had Nutcracker auditions
*I facilitated a Homeschool Association meeting for 40+ moms
*We traveled to NY (1900+ miles with a 3 week old!)...while there attended a wedding, visited with MANY friends and relatives, went to an amusement park and a zoo
*Visited the Memphis Zoo on the way home to see the Pandas
*Got back to kids ballet, nutcracker rehearsals (Emma has 3 parts), drama class and running
*Doug started coaching a homeschool boys jr high basketball team 2 nights/week
*Attended a seminar/luncheon with the president of the Texas Homeschool Assn.
*I facilitated another HS assoc meeting (these are monthly)
And we JUST started back to school this week!

So we are a B-U-S-Y family of 7! I'll try to get back to updating more frequently. Check in with us and let us know how your fall is progressing.