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January iphone photos and kids say


Happy February! It seems like January just zoomed on by. 2016 has had a pretty good start, minus the little emergency surgery that was thrown into the mix. But Liam has bounced right back and you would never even know he had surgery, minus his scar. Kai keeps saying “Liam is so tough” and “Liam is so brave.” And I have to agree.
 
So, like usual, I’m recapping the month with iphone pictures…
sprinkles art
1) new year, same diet. 2) At the beginning of this month, Desmond could only sit up assisted. Now he’s sitting like a pro and has officially become my first child to not only not be crawling by 6 months, but the only one who learned how to sit before crawling. I love it! I can set him down and not worry about what he’s getting in to!! 3) stripes on stripes. 4) Mother/daughter matching with our pink coats and our gold top knots from my favorite seamstress 🙂
january iphone pictures 1
Desmond obviously gets a lot of love and attention around here. And how amazing is that Darth Vader towel from Don’s aunt and uncle?! I keep meaning to write a thank you note, so if you happen to see this–we love it, thanks!!
january iphone pictures 2
1) his hand on her cheek makes me so happy. 2) this afghan was made by my great grandma many years ago and I recently inherited it. I absolutely love it! 3) Nothing better than a blue eyed baby in blue. 4) Evangeline is modeling another creation from our favorite seamstress.
Sew Sweet Alterations Boutique
1) If you want to know how homeschooling is going, remember that I’m teaching a 5 year old to read and keeping a day dreaming 7 year old focused on his work. 2) and 3) On a warm January day, feeling extra ambitious, I took the kids to the park by myself. We survived!! And had fun. 4) Love this guy!
january iphone pictures 4
1) This peaceful moment lasted about 2 minutes before… 2) this happened. But it’s super adorable so I’m okay with it. 3) His face has me wondering if this is a glimpse into the teenage years haha 4) I found that cape at goodwill for $1 and I’m in love!
kid group hug and funny baby
1) and 2) Evangeline got to play Pretty, Pretty Princess with her brothers and she won. And so did I…because I have these pictures of the boys in the jewelry.
3) and 4) Evangeline and Desmond played tea party for quite a while later that day. He was just another doll for her to play with.
january iphone pictures 6
Sweet colorful treats for January. That last photo is my order from Everyday is a Holiday. Everything on their site is amazing! The quality is unbelievable. (I actually won that stack of pancakes!!)
ice cearm and pancake art everyday is a holiday

 

1) baby legs–reminding me that time never goes fast enough/slow enough. 2) My boys sure did rock that denim on denim look–even though our van wouldn’t start and we never made it to church that day. 3) Bedtime book club. 4) The light that afternoon was perfection!
january iphone pictures 7
Have I mentioned that I think he’s cute?
desmond

 

1) Thrift store finds that are perfectly pretty and feminine. 2) Don finally made it to church yesterday for the first time since Desmond was 1 week old!!! 3) Almost every day, Evangeline requests Elsa or Anna braids. Have I mentioned how much I love having a girl? 4) The cutest kitchen helper.
january iphone pictures 8
And of course, at the end of this ridiculously long post, I always have to add the kids say at the end. 
**by the way, for the one or two people who actually read this–would it be better to break up the kids say posts into a separate blog post? Don’t be shy, let me know!!
 
 
 
Kai–“Will I always have to do school?”
Me–“You will for many, many years.”
Kai–“Like until I’m dead?”
 
Kingston–“It smells like I need a snack.”
 
Me–“So do you guys know what they did to Liam while we were at the hospital?”
Kai–“Yeah. They cut him open and took something out.”
Kingston–“so is him’s dead now?”
 
A couple days after Liam’s surgery I said something that made Liam start laughing. After laughing for about 30 seconds it started to hurt him so he said “Okay, let’s calm down now.”
 
Kingston–“I’m going to keep kicking Liam in the belly so we can go back to the hospital.”
Me–“Umm, no you won’t. You would get in big trouble.”
Kingston–“And then you would cut off my belly and my head?”
(I promise, we never threaten to cut off any body parts!!)
 
Kingston was holding a screwdriver and repeatedly and obliviously said “screw you!”
 
As I was feeding Desmond some baby food…
Kingston–“What is that?”
Me–“Peas.”
Kingston–“Desmond peed in that?!”
Me–“Umm, no.”
Kingston–“Who peed in that?”
 
Evangeline was taking a pretend picture of me with a play phone
Evangeline–“Say Cheese, Mommy!”
Me–“Cheese! ….Is it a good picture?”
Evangeline–“Yeah” (As she’s showing me the phone screen) “Look at that pretty smile!”
Me–“Do you guys remember when Evangeline was born?”
Kai–“I can’t even think of what I was doing 2 days ago!”

 

Blog, liam

Liam’s surgery


So this isn’t a super exciting post. But it’s informative and hopefully can help if you’re ever in this situation. So as most everybody already knows, Liam had an emergency appendectomy the other night. Because I never have really known much about appendicitis and the symptoms to look for, I thought I would just briefly write down what happened to help others be informed. Also, I have a feeling that some will ask what happened. So this is my way of sparing myself from repeating it as much. 

 
So it all started on Monday around noon when Liam told me his stomach was hurting. He said he didn’t feel sick, it just hurt. When I asked him where, he pointed right below his belly button. He spent the rest of the day lying on the couch and even took a nap (which hasn’t happened in years.) I went out to run a few errands. When I came home that evening, he was playing on the iPad (a special treat, reserved for Don’s weekends.) When his turn was over, he immediately got up and ran to the bathroom to throw up. 
 
Okay, so it’s a stomach bug? That’s what I assumed anyway. The next morning Kai and Kingston came in my room to tell me that Liam was throwing up again. I was actually quite surprised that no one else was sick because they had all taken a drink out of the same mug the day before. He was still complaining about stomach pain. So I got him situated on the couch and they spent the morning watching tv. He finally asked for toast around noon but it took him an hour to eat just over half. Still, at this point I’m still assuming stomach bug. 
 
Around 2:30, Liam walks over to me, hunched over, and says it is hurting on the lower right side of his stomach. I knew that’s where the appendix is located so I immediately googled “signs of appendicitis.” One of the things that immediately popped out at me was that the “pain usually begins below the belly button before moving to the right side.”I asked Liam if he had been feeling sick or just hurt. He said that the only time he felt sick is when he was throwing up. 
 
After consulting a dear friend, she told me to apply light pressure to the spot that was hurting. I could tell it was very painful for him and it didn’t hurt him when I pressed anywhere else. So I immediately called the doctor’s office and got an appointment with the nurse practitioner. 

children's health system
(those hospital gowns are the cutest though!!)
 
 

At the doctor’s office, it was quickly determined that it was a likely case of appendicitis so we went straight to the ER at Mercy. They ran some tests on him before determining that it was, indeed, appendicitis. So he was prepped for surgery and whisked away. As weird as that moment was–sending my child away to be operated on–I felt an incredible peace throughout that evening after feeling very panicked hours earlier in the doctor’s office. I believe the prayers of so many of you were being answered and we were able not to worry while we waited. 

best children's hospital in the us

The surgery went well and we were able to go back and see him soon after. He slept until 4 when he woke up asking for food and kept asking to go play in the activity room (that didn’t open until 9.) When he finally was given the green light on eating food, we ordered a feast for him. It cracked me up to see such a huge amount of food for such a little guy.

children's medical hospital
As soon as the activity room opened, he was in there playing with all the fun toys and games. We spent our whole day there (minus the hour and a half they had to close it for a meeting.) They loaded Liam with toys to take home and we were able to make a build a bear penguin. I can’t recommend the Child Life specialists at Mercy enough. Liam loved them and they were great with kids. They made a scary situation fun for him and made him want to stay.
children's health system
children's health system
So now we are home and recovering. Today was the first day he was able to push past the 6 hour mark for ibuprofen. He was incredibly brave through this whole ordeal. When the surgeon told him what he was about to do, Liam said “Oh, I didn’t know it was that bad.” But when asked if he was scared, he said “Just a little, I guess.” He amazes me and I’m so proud of my sweet little guy (who got tons and tons of compliments on his hat while we were there.) 
So hopefully he’ll be back to being active pretty soon. Although, after his brothers and sister were home for less than two hours, he already got kicked in the stomach. So we’re watching for fever and bleeding/pus at the incision site. Pray that it wouldn’t affect his healing! The funny thing is that he’s hoping this lands him back in the hospital haha.
 
Thanks to all who prayed, texted, emailed, thought about us, visited, gave him gifts, etc. It really means a lot to our family that you care so deeply for us! And praise the Lord that it was caught in time!