Miss Brainy is broken!

We finally know what is causing Miss Brainy so much pain. We had an appointment with the orthopaedic doctor yesterday and he immediately saw 2 breaks in the bones on the the top of her foot (these looked obvious to even me!) and also saw a break in her ankle. She is now styling a new bright purple cast that she will wear for 4 weeks and then they will repeat the xray. We had to go pick up the necessity for any kid with a cast..... a silver sharpie so all her friends at school can sign it. I'll try to get some images of her hobbling around on her crutches soon.

The Chatterbox has her school track meet today. I am hoping she does well, but she stubbed her big toe yesterday and has it all wrapped up so I don't know that she will be at her best.

I have seriously thought about investing in large plastic bubbles for these kids, or even bubble wrap.

More from the spring game

One of the great things about the spring game is Willie's Funzone. They have a bunch of activities set up in the indoor practice field for the kids to do. Some of the activities are obstacle courses, photo ops, dress-up with the cheerleaders, and autographs with some of the men's basketball players. The girls ran off with my little camera while we were there and these are some of the images that I saw as I was uploading to the computer.

Luis Colon

I'm pretty sure this is Dominique Sutton

Jacob Pullen
Jamar Samuels
Darin Kent, one of my favorites (I'm a total sucker for tall skinny guys! :} )
Denis Clemente
The Boss was so excited that they put their arm around her! She is such a teenage girl!

Spring Game

We took all the kids plus one (Rissa) to the K-state spring game last weekend with Grandma, Grandpa, Carin, Bean Pole, and AlleyCat. The weather was perfect and there was a ton of activities for the kids to do.

Little Buddy enjoyed playing with his cars during the game!

AlleyCat took a little snooze
Bean Pole focusing on the game, focus Bean Pole focus!!
After the game all the kids went down on the field for autographs. Badger Boy asked one of the players ( #92 Brandon Balkcom) where some of the other fans got the footballs they had. He told Badger Boy he didn't know but he said Badger Boy could have his glove, so he unwrapped all the tape and handed his glove to him. Later Grandpa took Badger back to have him sign it. Badger Boy has worn that thing everyday since, so much so that the signature has worn off. As I was downloading these images I noticed that #92 is in this image so I thought I post it and say thanks Brandon, you made an 8 year old very happy!!
Badger Boy being a goof

No surgery today!

We went to Omaha yesterday to have the pre-op procedures and found out The Boss has an infection so the Doctor wants to reschedule surgery. The earliest he thinks this can be done is in July. She is not a happy camper, first she had to go through the painful pre-op procedures and now she has to go back to school. I will be talking to the nurse today to see about rescheduling, and I will post an update as soon as we know anything.

Miss Brainy is still unable to walk on her foot or bend her ankle upwards so I will be getting her in to our family doctor for more x-rays.

When it rains it pours!

The Boss's surgery

We are at the final week before The Boss's surgery, getting a little nervous, and excited for the huge change this surgery will hopefully bring. We will be at Children's Hospital in Omaha, for probably a week. I am hoping that we can stand each other for that long, just her and I in a hospital room, since reaching the teen years it is sometimes a struggle to not get on each other's nerves. She is worried that no one will come visit, her last surgery and week long hospital stay 4 years ago, she had very limited guests (I think about 8, not counting the family that was there during the operation). So if you are in the Omaha area I'm sure she would love if you stopped by or give her a call. If you would like to send her a card that would be great also, send me an email and I'll get you the information, I would rather not post the info here for safety reasons (you never know whose reading this blog). I will try to post updates after her surgery here, but I will have limited internet access while in Omaha. I'm sure she would love to here from you so if you would like to leave a comment on this site or send an email we would really appreciate it.

"Mom, How do I work this thing?"

I have been sick over the weekend and haven't gotten any work done, so I was downstairs on the computer this morning when I heard Little Buddy hollering, "Mom help me, help me. How do I work this thing?". I told him to come show me and I would help him. He came down stairs with a very funny hat on. I happened to have my little camera sitting on my desk and I hurried and took a quick shot, but he had gotten embarrassed from me laughing at him and he took it off. I tried and tried to get him to put it back on, he finally did with payment of $1. I really hope he doesn't come back in 15-20 years and ask me to show him how to "work that thing".

Post-Easter sugar coma

The title is no where near the truth, but it was my first thought when I took this picture. Actually Little Buddy only had 1 Hershey kiss from his Easter basket. Poor little guy had a bit of a stomach bug on Easter and didn't get to enjoy his basket or the yummy dinner at Grandma's.

We went to the church Egg Hunt on Saturday and he found a basket full of eggs, but again he didn't get to enjoy any of them, as they were all chocolate and with his peanut allergies we had to give them away. He is so cute when he asks if things have peanuts, I'm sure he has no idea what a peanut is but he knows not to eat them. He says" Peanuts Kill me."

For the first time he noticed that the kids were gone to their dad's house. We were driving by The Chatterbox and Badger Boy's school on Friday and he asked if they were at school and I told them they were at their dad's house. He said " I hate they go to their dad's house."

He uses the word hate quite a bit though so I don't know if he understands what it means. So far he has told us that he hates Sprite, Milk, Shrek, Dad-d, food, and shoes.

He also uses the word love alot. I have a 16x20 of a little girl I took pictures of this past summer in my office and last week he told me he loved her. He also told Miss Brainy and I that a little girl at the kids school was his girlfriend and he loved her. Both girls are adorable so I guess he has good taste!

What are little brothers for?!!!

It's good thing The Chatterbox doesn't play with her Barbies much, because Little Buddy has decided they are

all better off with no heads! He scares me a little, I'm afraid he will turn out like the little boy on toy story, with all the decapitated and dismembered toys. When I ask him why he did it he said "I'm just a bad boy."

Caught red handed

We took Little Buddy's pacifier away during the day quite a few months ago and he is only allowed to have it at bedtime. So what do you think I found hiding under this "huge" box?

He had gotten into the drawer in the kitchen that holds his cup lids, pacifiers, old bottle nipples, etc... and found a nipple and a pacifier "leash" and was sucking away on it.

He looked so guilty when I looked under the box!

Little Leprechauns

>
The Boss

Your Irish Name Is...

Maeve Moore

>
Miss Brainy

Your Irish Name Is...

Caitlin Clarke

>
The Chatterbox

Your Irish Name Is...

Chloe Fitzpatrick

>
Badger Boy

Your Irish Name Is...

Aidan Ahearne

>
Little Buddy

Your Irish Name Is...

Quinn Hughes

Badger Boy

I noticed that I hadn't shared many shots of Badger Boy, so I pulled out a few from the last couple months. I don't have as many of him, because he never sits still long enough. I love his green eyes in this first one, he is the only one of my kids to have eyes like me!

Here he is playing goalie this fall with his YMCA soccer team. After the first couple games I was getting a little annoyed that they were only playing him as goalie, I thought he should have a chance to get out there and play forward. I asked him if he wanted to play forward, because then I would talk to his coach. He said he likes to play goalie because he doesn't have to run and he can use his hands! I think he also likes it because then he gets to goof around, doing cartwheels, and sitting on his butt while the team is on the other end of the field.
Here's a recent image from my grandma's attic set that he and Little Buddy modeled for me.

Little Buddy and Roco

Here's my mom's new puppy Roco! He loved Little Buddy, though I'm not sure Little Buddy loved his "kisses". Can you believe this litle dog would stand on the back of the trike like that?!

Crazy busy around here

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile, I have been busy with the kids, remodeling the dining room/office, and working on pricing and promotional material for the studio.

The sick house

The flu bug has invaded our house, first with Little Buddy and now Bryan and I have it, so I don't have much to share this week. After 3 days of laying around Little Buddy felt well enough to play with his trains, and I got the chance to play with my new lens!

PCS!!!!

Let me start this blog entry with a warning. You see my children have been infected with the very contagious and highly annoying disease called Photographer's Child Syndrome otherwise know as PCS. PCS is completely painless unless it reaches the point that the Photographer (aka: MOM) wants to remove the camera strap from around her neck and hurl her most beloved possesion at the less than cooperative child! PCS also has the uncanny ability to bring out the most unusually talents that my precious children possess.

First example is my youngest, sweetest, darling daughter who by the way happens to be well versed in the art of yoga. Once she saw the camera she went into her special place to find her chi. Quiet now she is centering herself! Everyone say ommmmmmmm, ommmmmmm, ommmmmm!

Second example is my middle daughter who possess the ability to wipe her nose with her tongue. Her talent should come in quite handy when she loses the use of her arms due to aforementioned head trauma from flying camera!
Now my oldest has a talent that isn't even documented at Ripley's Belive it or Not! She is the only human affected with PCS...

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that can touch her own brain!

Warning: No children were harmed in the making of this blog entry!

The Potty Helmet

Well we are fully immersed in Potty Training 101! Little Buddy isn't to thrilled with this new "project", although he loves the idea of the trips to Walmart to get a new car, train, or Rolos. We went to walmart today to get his first prize, a new green hotwheels car. We also bought a bag of Rolos so that we don't have to spend all of our money on $1-$4 prizes everyday.

Part of the potty routine is putting a pull-up or "potty helmet" on your head, if he can convince mommy or dad-d to wear one that is even better. Next part of the routine is to take all the books out of the basket, then read every book, then count them, then stack them, then put them back in basket and repeat!

Some of the other monsters in our lives!

Most of you know these monsters, but I thought I would add some of the cute shots I got at our Christmas get-together.

Handsome aka budstory
Mouse
AlleyCat
BeanPole
Bones

Meet the Monsters!

I thought I would start a blog so that family and friends can see what is going on in our crazy life. My 5 Monsters is what I lovingly call my "sweet" children, so the title of this blog is very well suitedMonster #1 or The Boss is in the 8th grade now, she likes t.v., music, and boys!
Monster #2 or Miss Brainy is in the 7th grade, she likes school, volleyball, and music.
Monster #3 or The Chatterbox is in the 4th grade, she loves to do ballet, tap dance and sing along with musicals.
Monster #4 or Badger Boy is in the 2nd grade, he likes to ride his bike and watch cartoons.
Monster #5 or Little Buddy is "2 in a Hab" (Little Buddy language for 2 1/2), he loves the movie cars, coloring, and reading books.

My goal is to post at least weekly, but hopefully more often than that. Check back often to see what crazy things my monsters are up to.