My Family's Home and Property Damaged

Well, last night my family had a little excitement and not the good kind of excitement. They live in central Kansas (so far away from me!). Here is the story from my point of view and perhaps others or more will come later.

I had heard reports that there could be severe tornado outbreaks on Saturday of this past weekend, April 14. I had emailed my parents (mostly jokingly) a few days ago and said they should just take a roadtrip (with Grandma of course) and come see us and just avoid the area completely. They declined. :)

So I was watching the weather in Kansas (online . . . usually Weather Channel). Noah woke up around 10:30 pm and I checked the radar then. I noticed a very strong line headed right towards my hometown but I was praying it would veer off and not hit my parents. I saw the tornado warning online so around 10:50 pm I texted my dad and asked him if they'd been missed by the latest storm.

His response was "Got us". Well, I at least knew he was alive but beyond that I had no idea. Thankfully my mom called a few minutes later.

Her report was not good. They were all safe, thankfully, but all the farm buildings, except their house had been destroyed and my grandma's house (a 1/2 mile away) had been severely damaged as well. I couldn't believe it.

I turned to Facebook for the rest of my news and a family friend that lives up the road kept me updated most of the rest of the night as to what else was happening with my family.

That is still all I know for now. I was able to talk to my Grandma today. She told me a few more details of her experience and didn't really seem shaken by the fact she no longer had a house. Perhaps that will come. I also talked to my mom and she just said they had a lot of volunteers and progress had been made at cleaning up.

I'm still in shock. I really wish I was there to help but that is not really possible. So I'm praying and waiting to hear of anything I can do to help!

Easter 2012

My baby seems to be feeling slightly better today so I'm going to get some Easter pictures posted. He didn't have a fever when he woke and all morning. He is still biting (ouch!) but hopefully the pain won't bring him down as much as it has been.

Anyway, we had a wonderful Easter!! I, once again, had our whole family match on Easter Sunday. I figure that as long as my husband is willing to participate, I should do it while I can because I know my kids are going to grow out of it. The theme this year was white and navy. My outfit was the trickiest and I think I looked a little weird with my tunic top (which Andrew said looked like a nightgown) my capri tights, my white shoes that were missing a sparkly butterfly on one shoe, and my "old lady" belt (also an Andrew quote). Oh well, I matched and it wasn't too bad I don't think.

Here are some pictures we took on Andrew's Grandma's front porch. The first few were good, the kids weren't tired yet, but unfortunately we had a sunburst in the camera lens. We take these via remote on Andrew's camera so there wasn't anyone behind the camera, actually! Pretty good, right?!

I love this first one! Elsie makes me smile and Abigail shivering is cute!!

Distracted Elsie.

Abigail wasn't listening at this point and I stopped to correct her which led to some pouting. She eventually warmed up again.

With Andrew's parents and sister. Abigail was hiding!!

The very crowded kitchen lunch buffet! It was all delicious!

Easter Egg Hunt!

Abigail really got into it this year, which was fun!

She loved opening up the eggs to find candy and money. She got to keep the money! Ha! :)

More Easter Egg Hunting.

We didn't last much beyond the hunt. Our little ones were ready for a nap quite a while before this so we headed home for everyone to rest. Fun and simple day! I didn't get any picture of the Easter baskets this year but we did give the girls a few things including coloring books, little purses, and some other small toys. They loved it!

Poor baby boy

I've meant to post about Easter and I still will but my energies are focused on my poor boy. For a few days now he has been cranky, not sleeping well, clingy. Then last night he felt hot. His temp was still "normal" but he did end up throwing up once.

He spent several hours up at night. Today . . . more cranky baby except when hopped up on motrin. Tonight a 99 to 100 degree temp. Not high but first time he has had a fever. Won't take a paci and his nap drooling could put a grown man to shame.

I think it is teeth. Well I know he is getting them, molars that is. I can see some little points through and red irritated gums where they are not through yet. But I am not sure all these symptoms are just teeth. If they are then wow! He may have a bug but doesn't really have other symptoms (cough/cold). Only time will tell.

Off to snuggle my sweet babe!

Good Friday

Happy Good Friday and what a good Friday it is! We've had a wonderful, relaxed, and very productive week!! We just mainly relaxed around here but we tried to do a lot of learning activities. It has really paid off with Elsie. We've been concerned about her speech for some time but with all the extra time we've spent with her this week she is making great progress. The picture below is of some red cups that Noah started playing with in the kitchen. Elsie caught on and then I got the grand idea to use them to help her learn to count. She can now say "one, two, three (free), four, and five (fi)". Pretty cute!



Abigail continues to struggle with some sensory things. She will not sit at the table if there are crumbs (even if she created the crumbs) so I'm busy wiping off the table all day long. She also will not touch her food with her hands unless it is supposed to be finger food, like hamburgers, and then even reluctantly. I bought some finger paints recently and we went to town on that one day.

She got crazy with it. So crazy that she even ended up painting her body. I was pretty thrilled that she was so into it so I didn't mind! I did end up giving her and Elsie a bath after that. I tried to help Elsie finger paint but the paint went directly into her mouth constantly so she ended up coloring and doing stickers which she seemed fine with that activity.




Abigail has also been dressing herself recently. A big breakthrough this week when she voluntarily chose to wear these jeans. Granted they have an adjustable waist and are pretty soft material and are capris. Still, I thought she did great, looked cute and too grown up!



Just in the nick of time, Andrew figured out a good solution to keep Noah from climbing the stairs all day long. I was afraid of putting something heavy there, like a step stool, or even a basket. I didn't want him pulling on that and pulling it onto himself but we've been putting the girls' little Dora couch on the stairs and he doesn't bother it. If one of the girls moves it, he is lickety-split up the stairs! This came just in time because I signed up to take a big family in our area a meal this week and it has taken some planning and organization and prep work but I finished it tonight.

I feel like we've gotten so much accomplished this week and have been able to stick to a very nice routine. I love the Easter season and particularly the day itself, of course. Not only do I like spring but I love to celebrate the reason for the holiday, that Jesus came and died for our sins and came back to life! I've been explaining this to Abigail, which is difficult for a four year old to understand, I think, but at least she is hearing it!

Happy Easter!

I'm here

I'm here. I really am. My trip went great. Noah was a dream baby on that trip.

Life just got busy once I got back. My husband had a Home and Garden Show for his new business last weekend (which meant me alone with all kids, all day). I spent every waking moment last week chasing a baby up the stairs because he loves to crawl up them. I also tried to deep clean a lot of the house, which I did accomplish. . . except with kids the play in a room for 5 minutes and it looks trashed, except . . . well, maybe clean underneath all the toys. Ugh!

During the next two weeks I've undertaken some cooking projects for a large family nearby so I also may not blog much. I love to cook and bake and this is a good reason to do it. I just have to plan ahead and make sure I don't leave everything for the last minute, which is thankfully a strength of mine. :)

So, perhaps I'll get a chance to post from my phone now and then and hopefully I'll find time to do a recap of my trip to Kansas. It was FUN!!! :)