Talking...

Isabelle has something to tell you...

 

Did you get all that??

What a morning?!?

(Just imagine 2 boys and the baby without hair and this currently describes us!)

 The kids and I couldn't get it together today.  Throw in a little something extra like Valentines Day and we go a little crazy around our house.  We I was running around making sure everyone had everything and thanking the school cafeteria for serving breakfast for lunch.  That is a guarantee eat at school day.  I quickly fed Isabelle enough bottle to tide her over until breakfast and out to the car we go.  Well... a few more trips in the house to get an umbrella because of course, today it is pouring outside, then back in to get diapers... you catch my drift. 
Everyone is buckled and off we go to daycare.  All the sudden I hear both boys yelling, "Izzy is throwing up."  I don't hear anything coming from Izzy so I assume it is more like spit up (boys can be so dramatic sometimes)and ask one of them to wipe her up.  I get zero response so I tell Ethan, he has to clean her up so I can drive.  Ethan cleans her up and then hands me her bib (which of course I didn't think to actually put the bib on her...silly Mommy) pinched between his two little fingers.
I look in my rear view mirror and find Aiden hugging the car door and staring intently out the window.  If the car had not been moving, I am pretty sure he would have jumped out!  Then I start to hear some gagging coming from Aiden's side of the car.  (Have I said it before...gotta love his gag reflex?!?)  I try to get Aiden's attention off the throw up spit up and onto to something nice and peaceful (like swimming in the ocean or horses running in the pasture).  Anything for him not to throw up in my car!!  Mission accomplished for now... hopefully we won't hear from the school nurse today. 
Got to love mornings like these!  I always feel guilty when our mornings start off like this and then I have to send them off to school and hope they have a great day.  I know it takes me a while to unwind after such a stressful morning.

Oh, and by the way... Happy Valentines!!  Ethan woke up telling everyone Happy Valentines and getting lots of kisses and smiles from Isabelle.  Even on mornings like this... I wouldn't trade my 3 little Valentines for anything.

Getting prepared for Valentines...

Isabelle got this awesome Valentines shirt so she wore it a little early to show some love. 

Shirt made by Say It In Stitches

Ethan and Isabelle- Can you feel the love?!?

I love how Isabelle wrapped her little arm around Ethan's neck.  They are too cute together! Isabelle has one other Valentines Shirt that she will show off soon. 

PT update:  Isabelle had her physical therapy today and she did great.  She sat by herself for 5 seconds!  I know that doesn't sound like a lot of time for most people but for us... it is progress.  I am so proud of you, Isabelle!!

Ski trip 2012

Never a dull moment...
We were worried about driving all the way to Boone, NC to enjoy some skiing but then to possibly be disappointed by finding grass patches on the mountain.  We were partially correct with our worries.
Thursday, we packed up the kids and parents (entire Barfield family) into 2 van/cars and began our long drive to the mountains.  It has been 4 years since we had made this trip and we weren't going to let a little thing like- no snow- mess up our ski trip. 
(That is the problem with us being in Florida and trying to plan a weekend trip to the mountains for some much needed skiing (quick weekend trips = Boone, NC).  Sometimes it is a hit or miss on what you will find.  We love Sugar Mountain but sometimes that area doesn't get as much snow as other parts of the North.)
Thursday afternoon we began driving to Atlanta where we made a stop for the night.  With children, we have learned to break up the trip for easier traveling... we hear a few less "are we there yet??"  Can you tell who I was sitting by during our road trip??

Ms. Flexible holding tight to a gummy worm

She can't figure out what to do with it!  Don't worry... I was close by and only allowed her to taste it.

Nana needed a little extra loving!

 Then we made a quick stop in Montgomery to catch up with Chad and Steph and then back on the road to ATL.
The kids love hotel rooms.  I am not sure if it this is a universal thing for kids but mine hear hotel room and they start jumping for joy!
The first thing Ian needed to do once we got in the room was to get some loving from Isabelle.  She is good at dishing out the love!

Then Izzy tried out her new bed for the night...

Just kidding!!  We made her a pallet on the floor and she slept like a champ.  Ms. Thing likes her beauty rest!
(Don't worry, the boys really are on the trip with us.  They are just harder to pin down for pictures.  Ants in their pants!)
Friday morning we were back on the road headed for Boone.  I have been experiencing some lovely car sickness the last few long trips we have taken so I was so ready to get out of the car by the time we hit the mountain roads. 
We arrived Friday afternoon to the hotel and learned that the pool was out of order during our stay.  This might not seem like a big deal to most but hotels and pools go hand in hand.  You can't have one without the other according to my children.  And so begins the meltdowns...

Please look closely in the picture above... (don't mind the feet in the bottom corner)  The closets became the hide out zone for my children during their pout fests.  It began with Aiden and soon Papa joined him until he was ready to emerge again.  In this picture, I believe Ian or Ethan were enjoying their pout fest time.  Nana joined in and they finally decided to rejoin the rest of the family. 
Saturday morning, we got up bright and early to hit the slopes.  We ignored the weird smiles we received as we were all dressed in our snow gear to walk outside to notice the rain falling down.  We still made the trek to the mountain and then sat in the lodge to decide what our next move would be.  Surprisingly, there were people already on the slopes.

I can't move Mommy!

Walking up to grass and slush!!

Can we still go?!?

Right after we told them we might not be skiing.

A little more pitiful!

Ryan was just a little upset as well.

After seeing all of the sad faces and tears, we decided that we drove all this way and we should just go for it.  It definitely wasn't the most ideal skiing conditions but the kids didn't care.  We were glad that we made that decision because those sad faces turned into happy faces!

An hour later and sweating, we are almost ready to hit the slopes!

Poor Ethan is hanging on for dear life.  I had just yelled to make him try it by himself.  Well... this is what Ethan thought of that idea.

Riding up the lift on the bunny slopes.

Who is that man in the red cap??  That is our Papa.

We had fun playing with Papa's ski cap.  It doubles as a ski mask as well but we all decided that burgulars had ruined the face mask look so Papa sported just the cap. 

Yes, they are standing in slush but look at their smiles!

Aiden trying a new move! It didn't work.

 Oh and did I mention that it was raining while we were skiing?!?  If we didn't pay attention to the fact that we were getting so wet, we could imagine that it was snow instead of rain.

Mommy and Aiden playing with the camera on the ski lift. 

Add in a little slush snow fight

This is a cute picture but it took about 30 minutes just to get this shot.  Totally not joking here!  Get one kid in the spot and another starts sliding backwards down the mountain.

Izzy spent her day in the lodge with Nana.  It looks like she enjoys the snow as well.

Nana is the official baby keeper when we go skiing.  Nana doesn't ski so she enjoys watching the current baby of the family while everyone else is skiing.  Aiden informed me that I am not allowed to have anymore babies so Nana can actually ski next time.  I said- no problem here but you will have to take the part about Nana skiing up with her.
We would have loved for there to have been more snow but we made do with what we were given. The kids had a blast skiing and as soon as we were done, we went directly to the laundry mat to clean the mud off of our snow suits.

We decided to go ahead and head back to Atlanta on Sunday morning and figure out something fun to do since it was still raining in Boone. 

Izzy getting her learn on.

We arrive back in Atlanta and decide to hit up the local Dave and Busters.  We ate in the restaurant first (food was good!) and then headed back to the big kid/adult play area. 

These are the only 2 pictures I got that night.  The boys were playing hard while Izzy was hanging out in her sling. 
We got some more junk prizes and then headed back to the hotel for the evening.  Mikayla was so sweet and got Isabelle a lamb with her tickets. 

I laugh when I see this picture because Isabelle looks so tiny compared to Mikayla. 2 beautiful girls!!

                     

Overall, we had a great trip and spent some quality family time together.  Memories were made!

Update on Isabelle's chest Xray...

We received a call from our nurse with the results of Isabelle's chest Xray.  It showed that the bottom wire (there were wires put on Isabelle's chest bone after her OHS to keep her chest bone together until it fused) is broken.  This is making the bone heal incorrectly.  Our doctor is making some calls to her surgeon at Arnold Palmer as well as her cardiologist to find out what our next steps will be. 
Hopefully, we will hear something tomorrow so we can put our minds at ease. 

Now, she is sleeping soundly and resting up for a new day tomorrow. 

Isabelle's well check and new Pediatrician

Well... Dr. K isn't new to our family but he is new to Isabelle.  We finally got her switched over to our original Pediatrician and we love, love, love him.  We switched doctors out of convenience but we learned, once you find someone you love... you stick with them. 

Isabelle is a whopping 14lbs and 7.5 ozs.  She is growing!  We learned that we can start giving her a little Zyrtec each morning to help with her congestion.  I am hoping this helps her as much as it does her big brother.  She loved Ms. S. (the nurse) until the very end but she forgives easily.  We didn't have much time to explain to Isabelle that Ms. S. would be giving her 2 shots (1 was the flu shot) or that she was going to have to get a crazy chest X-ray.  She likes a little notice so she can prepare herself!

Chest X-ray is to check out the bone that sticks out near the bottom of her incision.  Can you see it??

We took her down to get a X-ray and she had fun entertaining the other patients until it was her turn.  I took her back and I so wish I had brought my cell phone.  I laid her down on the table just as I had done in the past for her X-rays but not this time.  Instead, she was put into a crazy cylinder type contraption. (Just imagine... a table with a circle cut out of the center and your baby sitting on a little saddle with her feet dangling and then a clear cylinder tube placed around her from her waist up with her hands placed above her head and her little nose and eyes sticking out of the top.  Did you get that?!?) I told the tech that I didn't mean to sound insensitive but I wish I would have brought my camera because that thing is ridiculous and I needed to be able to show Ryan.  (I have made a mental note for any future X-rays to pack my camera.)
She looked so pitiful and definitely didn't like this type of X-ray.  The only thing she could move was her little hand and she was waving it like crazy for me to help her out.  It took her a little while to calm down and on our way out, an elderly gentleman said, "well we know her lungs aren't the problem."  He is correct.  Sister has some lungs!

She was so upset with us that she didn't talk to us at all the entire trip back to daycare. Miss Princess can be sassy at times!
We also now have our prescription for her speech evaluation so we will be starting another therapy soon.  Can't wait to see what all we learn!

Weekend wrap up...

Friday, we had a lazy night with the kids to unwind from our busy week.  So we put on our pajamas, ate some pizza and watched the movie Dolphin Tale.  Good movie... but an even better night just relaxing with the family. 
Saturday, Ethan had another basketball game.  He scored 10 points his last game.  He is doing great and his height definitely helps at this stage.

That evening we took the boys to Fat Daddy's.  I sure wish I had come up with this idea.  Where else can you go and spend $40 and leave with approximately $5 worth of junk prizes??  We all played a while and Izzy hung out in her sling.

Who is that creepy guy in the background?!?

Daddy winning lots of tickets!

Time for the prizes

Bored out of her little mind.

That evening, I rented another movie and who knew that renting the movie The Help could clear a room of boys and men!!  I enjoyed the movie but of course the book is so much better.  It didn't take long before Izzy was uninterested as well.

Oh well... I was able to enjoy a rare moment of Mommy time.
The boys did end up making good use of their prizes.  Every time I turned around, I found one of the boys like this...

What?!?  Doesn't every little boy need a paid of handcuffs?

On Sunday, I woke up to Isabelle yelling for Dada.  I go in to check on her and she is stuck, but happy.

Don't worry... she isn't hurt.  She was talking away and having a good time minus being able to get her legs back out.
Sunday evening, we enjoyed some bowling, pool and my all time favorite... air hockey.  Mommy is still the reigning champ! 

I love weekends like this- a lot of relaxing and family time!