Adam graduated! He has his graduation ceremony early last week and his party this past Saturday. Everyone seemed to have a good time and enjoy the good eatin'...congrats to the grad!

I think we're going to start calling Kenzie our little fruit bat. She loves her fruit! Here she is enjoying a fine piece of watermelon on a hot summer day.

"wonder if I have the spit-up in me to git my sister on her head....ummm...life is hard"

"is that thing going to flash me in the face again?"

This is the rec center pool we went to a few days ago. The girls had an awsome time. Kenzie took a while to warm up to it but once she found a spot where she could touch the floor she was jamming. She would try to run or sit. She must have forgotten about the water at one point since she went to bend over and got a little chlorine drink! It freaked her out for a second but it didn't slow her down much, she wnet right back on her way. There was a little water-slide of sorts that ashi was barely big enough to go down (as long as I helped her up the stairs). At first Ash was super-excited to go on her first waterslide by herself. At first. She went down that slide and as she came around the only little bend, I saw the look of sheer terror on her face. I don't think she expected ot go that fast. She had her fill of waterslides after that near-death experience. She was content to swim and play with us. She was going underwater and even got to use the rec center's goggle's which she thought was cool. Overall it was a good time, summer is here it couldn't have come a day sooner. I guess it could have but it didn't so we'll take what we can get :)

Star Wars Revenge of the Sith

Update: They're all up!

I'll be posting the pics I took when I went to go see the latest Star Wars flick last night over here. Some pics are coming up right so check back throughout the night.

Check out the latest Chicago crime happenings

I thought this website might be of some interest for all people we know out in Chicago. It shows locations of reported criminal activity using google maps...good to know where not to park your car.

woot!

Woot is a website that features one good deal every day. It's fun to check it daily just to see what they have offering.

Cameron likes his sleep

He feel asleep during a nebulizer treatment around 730. I thought he would be fine if I woke him up later to give him a bath. Thinking I was ok, I put Kenzie to bed and gave Ashie a bath and did the whole bedtime routine. Around 815 it was time to tackle the seemingly non-problematic tasks of giving the baby a bath. So I get everything thing ready, diaper, wipes (he's always has a little surprise in his diaper), new pjs, baby soap, lotion etc...So I layout his towel and I go get him out of his carseat where he was sleeping. As soon as I got him out he began to squirm and do the back-arching babies tend to pretty much all the time. I laid him down and that was it. He screamed and didn't stop screaming until I let him go back to sleep. Poor guy. In the bath he would pause long enough to shoot me a breif smile or two (he was smiling all day!) and then give me the, "I'm gonna let you have it" look. After the bath, he's dressed and clean and good to go. I lay him back in his carseat (he takes all his naps in there) and he gets calm and serene. I'm thinking he's wide awake now, he'll probably be hungary soon, so I go to make him a bottle. I get back with the bottle and he is out. Not the don't-turn-on-the-tv-you-might-wake-him kind of sleep, more like the turn-the-vacum-and-tv-on-while-i-hamer-and-saw-stuff sleep. Never again will I be waking him up to give him baths. Not a good idea.

Update

Made an update to this post. We're having problems getting more of Ashie's race pictures up. We're going to see if Abbey had some on her camera.

The little engine that could

Makenzie "what's-a-race" Edmond crossing the finishing line.

Gotta stretch!

Ashie getting her warm-up on while Cortney makes sure she makes it to the starting line before she just takes off.

Getting ready to warm up

Cort, Ash and Kens get ready. You could sense the fear of the other kids in the air, "Is that Ashlynn and Makenzie?", "..I heard they run a 3 minute mile". They heard correctly. NEver heard of a 4 yr old and 1 yr old run a 3 minute mile? What a deprived life you lead my friend. OK...Maybe I made that up. But they are speedy! You try to get them to take a bath.

Ready to win

Cortney and Kenzie get ready to set the running world on fire

Proof we did finish the race

Crossing the finishing line....almost an hour after we started. Makes our goal for better our time next year, that much easier to beat. Oh and she said she wanted to push the cart, I swear!

If they only knew 5k meant 3+ miles and not "a quick little run"

Waking them up at 530 in the morning is good for no one.

Born to run

The Alex Hoag Run for Sunshine was this past Saturday and it was an excellent event. A lot of money was raised for The Proteus Syndrome Foundation and there were more people participating this year than there was last year. Cortney's aunt started the Foundation and the Run so we were glad to participate and donate to the cause. I, Makenzie, Ashlynn and my mom ran the 5k run/walk in about 45-50 minutes. While we like to tell people we ran the whole way, I think our time kind of gives us away. We started walking for a good while, than we ran for a little bit, taking in this beautiful state or ours (oh look, roadkill!). Then we decided to walk until we came over the last hill down to the finish line so we could make like we ran the whole way and look all professional and whatnot. The girls did ok in the jogging stroller we had, fussing every once in again. It was fun to actually finish the race. They had a lot of people cheering for us at the end along with Cort and everyone else we knew. The girls loved that part. I'll put up the pics we took of the kids race too...

Update:
Just wanted to post (since we're having a hard time finding pics) that Ashlynn was awsome at the kids race. The kids had to make a complete trip around a professional (it's where our minor league Sky Sox play) baseball diamond. All the kids lined up and about home plate ready to go . There were a lot of kids so the crowd crept up in front of the dugout. As soon as "Go!" was shouted thay all took off, Ashlynn started off with a sprint, sure she was going to win the race. As I saw the kids round the first corner way off near the wall of the back of the stadium, I realized how long they had to go. I thought Ashie would slow down or stop or something, no way she could run that far. Man did she prove me wrong. She never even slowed down. She kept up her pace the whole way. Those little legs were moving! As she rounded the last corner our cheering got louder, as she passed third base I ran up to give her some more last minutes encouragement. We were roaring for her as she crossed the finish line. She did awsome and once again proved to me, she can't be underestimated. Good Job Ashie!

Medicine protest

Cameron knowing he's about to get some more medicine

Ashlynn is for the people

From Travis' graduation last Saturday, we caught Ashlynn getting down with the older generation and keeping them entertained. She's so the mingler. Caught us by surprise, she just walked over there to get the finger food, sat down and started chatting/entertaining. You go girl!

Ready to nap

Extreme close up!

Enter the Nebulizer

I'm so glad our little Cam Cam is still a baby. Give him these nebulizer treatments would be such a pain in the arse. I think we had to give Kenzie some nebulizer treatments a while back and she made sure we had no fun doing that. But then again, we think she got the don't-go-down-without-a-fight gene ;) Cam needs the nebulizer because we took him back in to his pediatrician today and they basically recommended we do that since he's developing a little cough. We also had to take him to the hospital to get a "nasal wash" (terminology?) which basically means they stick a tube in his nose and collect the ickies to run some tests. His tests came out negative for influenza and pneumonia which is always good. We might have to take him back tomorrow, we'll try to keep the site updated. Ciao!

Another Holiday weekend has passed..

...and I think we made it out ok. Mothers day went pretty much as usual. We had all these grand plans on what to get our moms but in the end we decided to go with the safe flowers and cards (love you mums!).
The fun began on Saturday. We went up to Littleton for Cortney's cousin Travis' graduation party. He graduated from college and is now able to be a full time pro-golfer. It was good to see everyone out that way againg and spend time having fun. They always have kind of games going on for the kids and/or adults. The keg didn't hurt either ;) Good times, good times. Sunday the girls and I gave mommy breakfast in bed and a vermont teddy bear who came with caramel candies and everything. Well daddy got everything ready and prepared and woke the girls up last second but we'll give them the credit this year. I don't think they mind. This is the last year though kids! Get jobs and contribute! I'm joking....maybe. After we did our thing for an hour or two, we were out the door to my parent's house. Ashlynn's friend Jenny was having her birthday party right next door to my parent's house so we dropped by there to say hi and eat cake (or scrape it off kenzie's hair and clothes, one piece was all it took!). Then we spent some time with Grandpa and Nana. It was good times, we all had fun. Then it was off to Great-Grammies and Babadoos house were we hung out with Cortney's grandparents and Papa and Grammie. Got to see their crazy lil dog, Trixie too. She's a busy one. All in all a good weekend with good people.

Doctor's vist today

..and all three kids are sick. Our spectrum of sicks goes from Cameron (slightly sick) to Ashie (who I would say is the most sick, no more hack-inducing running around the mall for that lil lady) with Kenzie right in the middle. They all have virii of sorts so there's not much we can do to ride this out. Other than that they're all doing good. There was a small bump on Cameron's head (think ball-bearing size) behind his right ear that had us a little concerned but their pediatrician determined it was nothing more than a lymph node. Good to know. We also figureed out lil Cam man is now a husky 11 pounds! He's growing like gangbusters. It's really evident in his chunky lil thighs. Some of you all will see on Sunday, those in Colorado Springs at least. Have a great weekend all!

again with the sleeping!

New Harry Potter Goblet of Fire movie pics

I hear the kids are into Harry Potter these days, lol. Here are some pictures from the upcoming Harry Potter movie The Goblet of Fire. Looks good so far, nice effects shots too.

This is a kewl little website. If you have an event coming up you need to plan for or you just want to keep track of some project you have going on around the house this will be perfect for you. Check it out here.

The only one getting good sleep tonight since Ashi and Kens are sickers.

Why are my kids always sick?

That's a question we've been asking ourselves quite a bit lately. After a quick googol search, I found out a lot of parents have that same question. I was more relieved to find out that this is common and to be somewhat expected. Not to say that kids getting sick should be taken lightly. There's always the chance that they could catch something serious, but with one of the kids in school (Ashie) or daycare, they are almost certain to get sick. Even more so in the winter months. If your kids only get sick in your home and they seem to get better (or not show any sick symptoms at all) when your out and about and out of your house, then you might want to look at something in the house being the trigger. Either allergens (dogs, cats or other pet or dust related allergies) or, not to freak you out or anything, even mold. If your concerned about mold or think it might be making your family sick call your doctor or pediatrician and ask them their opinion, especially if they've seen you or your kids quite a few times recently. Here's a good website that has some mold information. Here's another.
Now if your kids are just getting sick often, that's ok and it does get better. If one of your children are in school or daycare, they're going to be sick a lot. I say one doctor write 8-10 times a year is normal so to speak. Here's an article that helps explain why kids are always sick. I think my kids are up to 3-4 this year. It will break during the summer months too apparently. We've got their medicine routine down pat and are quite the pharmacy frequenters. If in doubt, ask questions! They are medical professionals for a reason! I'm not to shy to call the pediatrician's office as many times a day as I need to. Sure they know us by name and face and that's always good. Your pharmacy person is a good source of quality information too. I always ask them if this is ok to take with that or is this going to make my kids go-to-bed-early tired or go-to-bed-at-2-in-the-morning overactive. They're always helpful and always overworked. Cheers to a good job medical professionals! Way to handle obsessive parents like us. Cheers to you.

This just about says it all now doesn't it!?!