It's my number 4 Party!

It's been a count down for Kaori for the past month about her birthday party. We finally had it on Wednesday! Everyday it's been...."Mom is today my number 4 party?" Tuesday night I decorated the living room with the balloons and streamers and Wednesday morning she comes downstairs, sees the balloons and takes the biggest breath of air and was like, "ohhhhh" (complete awe stricken). Then sees me and in a complete composed and somewhat "i don't care" voice asks, "mom, what is this?" I told her it was her party! and she says, "uhmm...okay", and walks away. So as soon as the kids got to the house we sang Happy Birthday to her and had some snacks before our special visitor came. Kaori's obsession has been Little Mermaid....so she was totally excited about her cake.



Every time we have visitors over Rori is either a leech or she will function up high and away from everyone else with her plate of food/snacks....so she will sit up on the counter for a good hour until she is ready to socialize with the others. Good ole' Rorby.



Then Santa came.....Kaori was not excited. She was probably the only one that had huge issues.



I had to drag her down the stairs to come and see Santa. And then she said she was ready to go see him but then was trying to get away....chicken.

Rori on the other hand had no problems....surprise! I told her if she wanted a bag of candy she had to go get it from Santa....so she walked up to him, put her arms up in the "carry me" position. She talked to him and everything! Can you tell I was completely excited about this little shock?




Anyway...it was a fun day. And Kaori scored with some great gifts from all her friends. Next week we take off for D.C. to spend Christmas with Lysle's family and we are all very excited to go, touch the snow and run inside.

Baby Troy

Ok, it has taken me 2 weeks to get this up, but here goes. On November 16th, I went in at 7:45 am to get induced and they didn't have a bed for me because EVERYONE was giving birth unexpectedly. Anyways, finally at 10:00am, they had a room and bed ready for me. They strapped me in and got everything going. I toughed it out until about 7:00pm when I was at a 6 to get my epidural.

Here I am with the doctor ready to put that huge needle through my back. I have never actually seen the needle, nor have I wanted to. I think that I would just die or pass out if I saw what they were actually doing to get me "comfortable".

I took a nap and at 9:00pm, I asked the nurse if she could help Mike roll me to the side, but she and the doctor were working with something and needed me to stay on my back for a little while. Finally at 9:45, I got to roll to my side, the nurse left and I felt good, but all of a sudden I felt the head (within 5 minutes of rolling over). Called the nurse in and she and the doctor came in, set up, and I pushed 5 times and he was out. Dr. Avants said that it was the easiest delivery she has done all year. It was really fast. I couldn't believe how easy things went.


Here is baby Troy ready to take his first breath in the world.


Here is Mike as happy as can be to see his new baby boy.


The kids came first thing in the morning to see their new brother and they were really excited. Luke kept telling everyone that Troy is his new baby brother.



After 24 hours, Troy took a Bili Ruben test and his jaundice levels were really high. He had to be placed on a special bed. It was so high that the hospital told me that I needed to leave the baby there and I had to leave after my 48 hours were done. I was not about to leave him there, so I told them that and the nurses hid me in my room until housekeeping came on Monday morning at 5:00am, then I got kicked out. I just sat in the nursery until they let me take Troy home.

Monday afternoon, Mike came and picked us up and we finally got to take him home. I was very excited. I hadn't held him very much and I didn't even let my friends or Mike's family come over to see the baby. I just needed bonding time with him.


I took this picture when he was a week old. He is such a cutie pie. Four kids is a lot of work, but it should get easier once things stabilize. Right?



Here is Troy at a week and a half. He is really sweet in every way.

Our Day in San Francisco

The last day we were in CA, we visited San Francisco. Erin, Brett's eldest sister, was kind enough to cart us around and show us all the sites.

The Golden Gate Bridge

The Palace of Fine Arts
The Painted Ladies

Evan loved the Cable Car Museum, though he thought he was looking at a bunch of choo choo trains.
The (wilted) Botanical Gardens
The de Young Museum that Brett engineered/managed
We had a great full day in San Francisco. It is such a beautiful city. I didn't get any pictures from Erin's apartment. She has a view of the Golden Gate Bridge and Palace of Fine Arts from her window. She took us up on the roof too. It kinda made me want to live in a big city, but then as we walked up and down the hills, I thought my uterus was going to fall out. I didn't realize how insane some of the hills are in that city. All in all it was a wonderful day!

Thanksgiving at the Steed's

We had a lot of fun at Grandma and Grandpa Steed's house this Thanksgiving. Evan really enjoyed playing with all of his cousins.

They played in the leaves

Evan got to go down the slide into a huge pile of leaves
Evan and the Bradfords took a ride around old town Placerville in a horse-drawn carriage.
And no trip to Gma and Gpa Steed's would be complete without eating ice cream!

And the smell is........?

For the past month Kaori has been battling a cold. She's had a runny nose and coughing. Well, I thought it was clearing up about 2 weeks ago when she sounded really congested and her left nostril sounded really stuffy. So...I decided to put her on a nasal decongestant and spray saline up her nose as frequently as possible. Kaori would blow her nose so hard...but nothing ever really came out. Well....around that time (in hindsight) her nose breath was starting to stink. And it was getting worse. We were brushing her teeth and spraying stuff up there....but it wasn't working. Well two Sunday's ago Kaori had a bloody nose during Primary because she kept picking it. We got it stopped and she kept telling me, "Mom, I needs to gots a bandaid". So I told I will give her one when we get home. Well, I give her one and she puts it on her nose...but then takes it off and throws it away. So of course the week of Thanksgiving and up to yesterday she keeps telling me, "Mom I needs to gots a bandaid" and puts her finger up her nose. I tell her, "Kaori, stop picking your nose because then it will bleed....and a bandaid is not going to help your nose. You need to blow it and leave it alone." Yesterday I call the doctor because the smell totally smells....we go in yesterday and the doctor comes in and looks in her nose....she says,"Oh, well, there is something up there! Come look at this." I look and I know exactly what it is....a rolled up Strawberry Shortcake bandaid. I start to laugh because now...I know what kaori has been telling me when she says, "mom I needs to gots a bandaid" and then puts her finger in her nose....for the past 10 DAYs! So it was pulled out, antibiotics were given, and the smell is now gone!

I figure she stuck it up her nose before church or on Saturday....picked it and shoved it up so far during Primary...which caused the bloody nose...and then the next week it's just been up there....housing stinky bacteria. FYI...the bandaid did not look gross when we pulled out. So if your child sounds congested...don't just think cold....it could be a foreign body in the nose.

Go Bucks!

So about a month ago I flew Lylse up for the OHIO STATE vs. ILLINOIS game for his 30th birthday present. (Thank you to Q. Beazer for the ticket hook up) Which was the worst game ever! Poor Lysle, the one game he goes to with high hopes of coming home with a undefeated team was screwed. Honestly, I didn't talk to him that day until a good hour after the game and it still was the shortest hello, good bye phone call....he was so sad/mad. Anyway...we stand here today with crossed fingers, toes, arms, and legs hoping that Oklahoma puts a spanking on Missouri this weekend...should we fast for this? hee hee. Despite the loss, Lysle had a good time being back in the mother country of the Buckeyes. He loved the buzz you got as the band comes in and spells "Ohio", dotting of the "i", fans yelling " O, H......I, O". Seeing all the red and grey...sitting in "the shoe". Man...writing about it gets me excited too. So anyway...here is a picture of him at the game.




Then about 2 weeks ago we had the best weekend ever! The Bucks pulled through with a win against Michigan and took the conference championship! Lysle made the girls some shirts for the game...they came out super cute.



This is Rori....the game was too much for her.
GO BUCKS!

Brett's Mantel

Brett did an INCREDIBLE job on the mantel remodel in our family room. And it only took him one whole year to finish! We decided to take out the gross green marble surround stone and replace it with the black granite to match our countertops. Plus the old wood mantel was so tacky with the frilly molding. Brett did absolutely everything by himself, including all the custom molding and design on the legs. Evan and I are so lucky to have Brett. He's amazing!!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Evan at the Pumpkin Patch

We went to a pumpkin patch before halloween. Evan got to bounce around...

Slide down with daddy - and he even went down the giant slide by himself!
Evan and Brett climbing up the tube slide
Evan liked the tube slide because his voice went up and down as he went over the ridges.
He even got to drive a tractor!
For some reason I can't upload the picture of Evan on the giant slide when he went down by himself. Anyway, he had a lot of fun.

Pumpkins and Candy

So for some reason my girls love pumpkins....everywhere we went during Halloween it was, "Oh, my goodness! a pumpkin!" We went to the zoo because they had it all decorated and had stations for trick or treating. They could careless about the animals, they just wanted to get the candy and hold their pumpkins they got at the zoo.





I found these Mr. Potato Head pumpkin decor kits at the store and thought they were so cute. Kaori and Rori really loved them and would play with them all the time throughout the day. So it was well worth the six dollars...score. I looked over and the girls had the pumpkin parts on them....funny and silly.





When I took this picture (below) Kaori was insistent that she hold the pumpkin's hand for every picture...she was so excited...can you tell?



Now for the Halloween pics.....they of course chose to be princesses. I was shocked that Rori picked Snow White. I sometimes feel bad for Snow White...she's always the one that is the only one left at the store. Anyway...I thought she made a very cute Snow White. Kaori is always Cinderella. The girls really came out of their shell....I figure it was because candy was involved.







So who do think is the fairest of them all?