Target Practice

Chad bought the girls a gun called the cricket. He liked it because it was pink, the girls like it because it is pink, and they are now learning how to shoot it. Both Emma and Madison are interested in hunting...I think Madison more than Emma, but both have really enjoyed what they are learning and I think Chad is having fun taking his girls out and teaching them. I expect in a couple of years they will be going on short hunting trips with their daddy!

Chad is getting ready for surgery!

Mason is waiting for daddy to get out of surgery. He was a wiggly noisy little boy who did not enjoy the hours spent in the hospital but was very cute for all who passed bye!! :)

Chad and Mason right before he was discharged. Chad was still on some really good drugs and that is why he looks so calm!

Chad with his granny glasses on because the light is still too strong for his eyes, but as he would say "I make these look good!"

Finally an update!

Well I was going to update you about chad right after he came out of surgery but something in our computer would not let us get back onto the internet....so I had to wait. Then we were sick and busy and this is really the first moment to get back into the blogging world. I have so many little stories to blog about so maybe you will get a lot all at once!

For now...Chad is doing really well. He can see better than he did before the surgery so we are very thankful for that. The doctor also said he is looking great! Our next appointment is on May 5th just to make sure that his eye is still heeling the way it is supposed to. We will have to go back at least once a month for a year for checkups on Chad's eye and he has lots of eye drops that he has to put in his eye that he will also take for a year.
We want to thank you again for all of your prayers.

Still waiting

Well it has been two hours since Chad went into the surgery room and still no word. His surgery was schedualed for 12pm but he did not go in until 1pm so hopefully we will hear soon. Mason has been an impatient waiter so I need to attend to him now. I will update as soon as I hear something.

One of those days

Every mom has gone through life with one or two or three of those days that you just seem to get nothing done, even though you are trying really hard to get things cleaned up, but you have little helpers who go behind you and make it all messy again! Well we have been having weeks of it. To give you an example of what a day with my little Heidi is like here is how it goes.....

Wake up in the morning and start breakfast, Heidi comes down and tries to get her own yogurt, I help her and have her sit at the table. Emma comes down and lets me know that a piece of glass out of a picture frame has broken so I go up and help her clean and vacuum the mess up. Meanwhile Heidi is bringing up her yogert...Emma is taking away the yogurt but not paying attention dumps it all out on the floor. Get that mess cleaned up and go downstairs to make lunch and clean up dishes, I hear Heidi and Mason laughing and was thinking to myself that it is so fun to hear little kids laugh and play together. Then I hear Mason cry (he is in the swing mind you) so I go and look to see what is wrong and Heidi has taken another yogurt, opened it and smeared it all over herself and all over Mason! I punish little Heidi and then decide to take a picture for the record, because it really is funny, in hindsight, not while I am cleaning up the mess that is everywhere and warrents a bath for two kiddo's and a washing of the swing seat and floor beneath it. Right after lunch I am trying to fold clothes and Chad gets home from working the meal over at camp and Heidi comes into the living room to tell me that he is home....only for me to find out that she has smeared butter all over her face and freshly washed hair!!!!! I told Chad that he had to put her down for a nap because I was ready to explode at that point. So I was able to get about a two hour reprieve before she woke up only to put something else all over her body (I am still trying to figure out what she got into) and dumped Mason's bottle out all over her clean and now folded clothes. After dinner she dummed icecream on her face and on the floor because it slipped and she fell into it, kind of, and spilled her milk all over the floor. That does not count the mud the older kids tracked in from playing out side and Madison taking the towels and wash cloths to the bathroom and letting some of them, clean of course, slip into the toilet only to need washing again. At this point they are all getting ready for bed as I can not handle another mess for the day!

Here is a picture of one of Heidi's escapades!

Mason is crying because he is really miserable and Heidi is still crying from getting her punishment. She was having so much fun though! :)

The beach

The kids and I went to the beach today and we took two of the neighbor kids to see the volcano again since it has been a week of bad weather! Today it was 45 degrees and sunny and just absolutely beautiful and the kids loved their time at the beach running in between all the ice that had washed up on shore. Mt. Redoubt has been putting out ash every so often and today it went off again. In the pictures below you can see the cloud of steam coming out. It has been absolutely amazing to be so close to an active volcano and feel no real danger from it. We also have been lucky that the ash fall has been so scarce. Emma, Madison, Katie, and Jordan running down the beach playing in the water already!! Brrr.

Jordan, Madison, and Heidi looking over at the volcano.

One of the bigger ice chunks that was washed ashore!

Madison and Jordan strolling down the beach

Heidi

This is rather late considering Heidi's birthday was on April 2. She turned two and has been in the terrible two's for quite some time now! Heidi is fun and caring and at the same time she can make you want to tear your hair out....She has been so helpful with Mason and she cannot wait until he can play with her. She also is at that stage where she has to touch everything, loves the toilet and the water inside (ewe), the cat food is one of her staples in the major food categories (another ewe), and taking off her diaper or Mason's is a given at least once a day. You just hope that it is not a messy one like the one she took off of Mason today!!! (did I say ewe!) She loves the camera, but is fascinated with the LCD screen on the back and so she would rather see the picture than have the picture taken and then see. She is always running towards me saying see it! see it! Heidi has become quite the little talker over the last 6 months, and with the help of her sisters and the neighbor kids the ask her to say at least 50 different words a day!! She loves all the attention and is now beginning to discover that she wants to do all the things the big kids do! Needless to say we have had a few temper tantrums over having to stay inside or having to take a nap when no one else is etc. Here are a few pictures from her party. This year because of all the craziness that was going on that week, only did a small family party.

The birthday girl in her new swimming suit and all the pretty jewelry that her sisters got for her. She was not excited to have her picture taken.

This was her having cake and a cookie! Yummy! Yummy!

The cake that mom did not make this time around. We were going to get cupcakes, but they did not have any, and then I found this one on the sale rack, and I thought oh she will love this. When I got it home Chad read the description on the cake box and found out that I had bought a cake that had no dairy in it!!! Hummmm. Anyway the kids ate it so I guess it was ok! :)

Heidi posing for her birthday picture!

Mason

Mason is now 4 and 1/2 months old and he can sit up by himself (almost) and he is now trying to get the hang of crawling! He is moving slightly and can get a toy if he really wants it, but he kicks his feet alot in the process. :) He absolutely loves people and is always trying to get their attention! He is also trying to get his first two teeth in, which is making him really grumpy. We hope they come in soon.


This is right after bath time!! I think he will be a swimmer because he has always loved the water.

Mason sitting up!

Mommy and Mason

Mason pulled these socks down on him from the couch. He was surprised at first but then he got a big kick out of it!