He still has both eyes....

Ty and his cousins - Caden and Caleb having a Nerf war

Ty
Trevor

Trace -not a good shot of his left eye, but this is Saturday morning - it is only barely swollen!!! I think the bleeding only stopped because his eye was so swollen so fast.

Trevor finally had a ball game that was not rained out and we travelled about 30 minutes to watch him play catcher. He was GREAT!!


Just as we were leaving Trace got bumped and hit his head on the corner of the bleacher. I wasn't even worried until I saw blood pouring out of his eye!!! We managed to get him to the car, by this time I had pried his eye open and saw the eyeball was there, but he had a nice slit in his eye lid. (I still can't believe he did not damage his eye) I had 12 minutes on my cell phone ( Yes, I felt like I was reality TV) and so I called the local hospital - they told me to go on to Children's hospital since to stitch his eye lid he would have to be sedated. I called Tom and I loving told him not to talk - just listen as I was on a time limit - had him meet me at the hospital because I had all the kids, but TJ, with me. He had to meet TJ at Costco so TJ could go to work, take the Honda and come bring the kids home. So that orchestrated and then to call TJ. Then I had to call Tom because I couldn't remember how to get to the hospital in Des Moines... I managed to have 2 minutes to spare. We saw 2 doctors at the the hospital and then they sent us to an eye surgeon who decided that since it had stopped bleeding and he felt would cause more trauma to the eye in trying to stitch it up that we would wait and see. It was not a fun afternoon as all this time from 1:00 on Trace could have nothing to eat or drink since they were sure he would have to have surgery. By now it is 6:00 and I have a meeting for Girl's Camp - Tom comes to meet me and exchange kids so the boys could go to Scouts. ( You can imagine how beautiful I look at this point and I am sure I smelled even better - did I mention it was a muggy 80 + day?) Tom was the hero and got everyone where they needed to be and he even had Tian and Trace in bed by the time I got home with the rest of the herd.

And, the doctor was right - a little Bacitracin and within 2 days Trace's eye looked pretty good.

Kittens!!!

Tom's favorite
Belle - taking a break

I admit being insane - we borrowed a friend's pregnant cat a couple of weeks ago and I came home yesterday to 4 kittens!!!! They were still wet so she must have just had them. Of course no surprise - 2 are orange and one is black and white (we have a thing about black and orange cats!) ( No we are not keeping them !)Thought you would enjoy the pictures.



Belle, the mom is doing great - she is very patient with us touching her babies and is a good mom. We are excited to watch them grow. Tian and Trace can't get enough. Tian is funny ; she could watch them nursing for hours without saying a word. I don't think I have ever seen her quiet that long.



The latest Tianism: " Mom, sometimes you are not human." I am not sure what to make of that one...

Home 3 months....

Picture time = torture your sister
The forced pose - Tian refusing to smile
Trace - I think he threw something at me...
Don't be fooled by the sweet look here...Ithink Tian was apologizing for nearly catapulting him from the chair

I can' t believe it has only been 3 months. I can't remember life without Trace...sleeping in (Tian will occasionally allow it), clean floors, predictable schedule, less foot stomping and "no" shouting- those things are all DISTANT memories.



Trace has officially bonded - he can throw one heck of a temper tantrum , he insists I give him his bottlewhile holding it myself and rub hisear, he will not go to nursery at church, he knows where all the snacks are (even the ones I have forgotten about) and he gives the best hugs and the WETTEST kisses.

We have been busy with Cub Scouts, baseball and more baseball, finished Track...
Poor Trevor most of the meets were rained out, but he had a great season. He followed in TJ's footsteps and mainly ran the mile. Trevor is also playing baseball for the junior high and is hoping to play Catcher if they ever have a game that isnt't called for the rain.
TJ has been busy working at a horse farm 3-4 days a week and at Costco. He has started classes at DMACC and is working on stuffing a raccoon ( you have to ask him for the gory details.) Daisey ( the puppy) managed to catch a full grown turkey- another story TJ can fill you in on.

Ty has been busy with Cub Scouts. He has now entered the Webelos den and is madly trying to finish it all :o) He LOVES playing catcher for his Little League team. If only he hustle like that at home...
Tian is busy bossing everyone around. She even instructed the neighbor girls today on how to eat their popsicles. She is excited to have a birthday and have "a princess cake and lots and lots of presents just for me."

The last 2 days have been a busy blur- TJ is having a small party to celebrate graduation so I decided it was high time we actually hung the pictures on the walls. Of course, since I am busy nap times have been non-existant. Tian has managed to get into Trace's crib to giggle through nap time. For a girl who needs her beauty sleep this is not a good thing. Today she was finally relagated to my bed which was accompanied by much foot stomping and that lovely ear piercing scream all little girls possess. Trace started to scream - decided it was too much trouble and instead resorted to calling "ma-ma" every 3 seconds. She fell asleep in about 2 minutes, he stuck with the mama mantra for about a half an hour before he won :o)

The latest Tian-ism: Today was ...one of those days it is 5:00 no one has napped, there are pictures EVERYWHERE, no dinner in the oven, I tried to hang up just one more and slipped of the stool and nearly killed myself as my two assistants, Trevor and Ty, tried to decide weather to laugh or help. I get up, head for the kitchen to make dinner, get aphone call that TJ neglected to arrange a speaker for Boy Scouts Wednesday - leave him a nasty messagesince he is at Costco while I fume that I have reminded him at least 75 times to get a speaker( aren't you glad you didn't get that message? Trevor laughed when I ended it by saying,I"I am not happy, but I love you." Then, just as I am feeling good and guilty of leaving him a mean message on his cell phone while he at work, Tian starts whining, so I did what any other tired, cranky mother would do - I looked at her and whined right back saying, " I have nearly died trying to make the house look nice, I am trying to figure out what to make for dinner, my leg hurts and the floor is sticky again, what else do you want from me?"
Without missing a beat she saw her moment looks at me with those big black eyes and replies, "A piece of gum."
Needless to say, who couldn't laugh after that. Dinner made it to the table, DAise is licking the floor and the pictures will still be there tomorrow....
The pictures are from today - after hanging up pictures I realized I need some cute ones to hang of these 2. It turned into a Punch and Judy festival. I am thinking hiring a photogragher...