1st muffin tin day

[ignore my ghetto tins! i'd love some of these or these! and the bottom left is yogurt...i know it looks creepy.]

it was a hit. i think they ate better than usual!

a tad boring, but it's my blog

so i saw these things online that are supposed to help kids with bad reflux. since they are ridiculously priced, i tried to make one out of an expired carseat. ha--i was actually pretty proud of it, but it just sits too high so he's going to trip over. but since he's still teeny we've used it once or twice. he konked out in there this morning while i got the boys ready.


the other night kev was home late and i was trying to get the boys ready for bed. leo was fighting a nap, and the big kids were playing some "too rough for the tub" game and someone got bonked on the head...someone hit back...one of them did it first...you get the idea. they both knew they were in trouble, and for the 1st time since leo got here, all 3 kids were crying at the same time. it was so chaotic i just had to laugh. then i grabbed my camera b/c they looked SO ridiculous. they were really happy with me for this:-)



wouldn't you know when i got them out 2 seconds later they were upset that they couldn't play in the tub together anymore. ah....



now for some random thoughts.


sometimes i feel like i/we are constantly just waiting for the next thing to happen. i wake up and i'm antsy to get laundry done. waiting to clean the kitchen after breakfast. getting ready for school drop off. waiting on nap time. getting rex then waiting for kevin to get home. then ready to dinner. then even though i look foward to kevin getting home, he gets here and we're just waiting to get the kids in bed and chill. then we're just waiting for leo to konk out so we can go to bed to start all over. sometimes like we are never content with what is going on RIGHT THEN. not that i don't enjoy my time with all the boys, but it just sometimes seems we're always ready/wanting the next thing to happen.

before i was pregnant i was just waiting for that. then waiting to have him. now waiting until he sleeps a little better...you get the point. silly!

so i'm trying to be much more deliberate about how we spend our time. planning to spend it and have fun with it.

starting with what i do with the kids all day. i'm going to start doing 1 fun thing each day[well hopefully more than that, but each day of the week having its own "thing"].
i'm copying this and going to make lunches in muffin tins on mondays. and i think we'll have a craft day, game day, cooking day...and i need one more. like picnic in the living room day or something. then assign each to a day of the week and it can be something the kids look foward to. i'm also going to make a little schedule of what cleaning stuff i do on what days, so i'm not always trying to catch up, and thus wasting time cleaning when i should be playing with the kids.


i found this old poem in a book i'm reading and i love it. going to frame it in my kitchen.
"cleaning and scrubbing can wait til tomorrow,
because children grow up for we've learned to our sorrow.
so quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep.
i'm rocking my babies, and babies don't keep"



on another note, we're contemplating holding rex back a year. still much thought to go into this, but welcoming opinions on the matter. that has also made me think more about what we do all day, b/c since leo we've been in "survival" mode a bit. running on little sleep, we've been watching LOTS of movies. i want more order and schedule to our day. i'm OCD like that.

life at the krouts

it has been so nice to NOT be sick, to be getting more sleep, and to not be 0 degrees outside.

things have been pretty uneventful around here the last week, and that's how i like it.

wish i could think of something more blogworthy...but alas...i cannot...

omg. can't believe i did this.

i do like it, but i already miss it. he is VERY picky now about his hair getting touched, and it not being done just like ms. monica did it. he wants me to teach him how to put the "jelly" in it by himself;-)

when it was gus's turn to get his cut, rex was so sweet..."gus, don't be scared! it won't hurt, i PROMISE. see, i wasn't scared! you can do it buddy!"

wow

we had a very eventful day friday.

i wake up at 4:00am throwing up. then again at 6. leo has a dr. appt at 8am, so kev agrees to take him. the dr. was nervous he might have pyloric stenosis(no need to learn what this is), and we knew she'd probably send us to the hospital right after for an ultrasound. kevin starts to feel sick right before he leaves, but decides he's ok. sandy watches rex for us, and gus and i watch veggies tales. he's never fully recovered from his bug, so he's pretty still for me.

kev texts me from the dr saying he thinks HE might throw up in there. ACK. he manages to hold off until he leaves and barfs in their landscaping. oops. sure enough she does want us to take him to the hospital though. i am feeling better[than kevin at least] so decided to leave kev home with gus and i'd go. since pyloric stenosis has the potential to be pretty serious/needing surgery quickly, we didn't want to put it off, just in case...

so i get there and feel the whole time like i'm about to get sick. i could barely hold leo's carseat. luckily my dad joined me and helped out! the ultrasound lady is super pessimistic about being able to see the pyloric valve at aLL and says she needs him to drink a bottle. uh, hello?? i end up having to nurse him right there on the table so she could see him swallow. well. she STILL can't. so we wait some more and end up doing an xray and barium swallow. i can't believe he drank that barium bottle! that was just answered prayer. along with the fact he's FINE. but wow. what an ordeal.

i was sick i didn't have my camera, but i did get this with my phone of him in the xray machine. hehe

i can only imagine what the bill for that morning is going to be!

i get home about 1 and kev is half dead. ok, not really, but that brother gets SICK when he gets sick. gus is screaming his head off in his crib, leo is fussy from the chalky bottle. i am feeling really bad at this point b/c i'd been practically holding it in this whole time.

my mom, my HERO, came and got the big boys and we were able to rest. by dinner time we were all feeling better. rex spent the night with mom and dad, and kev, gus and i all had saltines and sprite for dinner, then watched CARS til bedtime.

it is no fun to all be sick at the same time! it's nice to be taken care of. no one can take care of you if they are barfing too!

but hopefully that bug is OVER at our house. our apologies to all we infected!!![mom!!:-(]

a few pictures..

sorry, i think crying babies are really cute...

leo was fussy the other morning, so i put him in the carrier and got some housework done. then managed to slowly detatch him and put him in bed. he slept like this over an hour! ha

our dr's office has blankets made for the babies they deliver. love gus's. now leo has a matching one. i wish rex had been delivered by the same dr!

and finally. my deals of the week. all this below cost me $7.50, but i applied some register rewards i had and only paid $1.88 out of pocket. WOOT!!!

our kids are obsessed with veggie tales at the moment so i was stoked about the toothbrushes. they sing the theme song too. haha--i needed a filler item or two to make my total more than zero. HA!

way to break in the new year boys! both the big boys had a rough stomach bug this past week. when rex was sick, gus would pretend to barf in the bucket just like rex. completely hysterical. though possibly contributed to him getting the bug a few days later. surprisingly[not] he was not able to apply that practice when he was the was barfing. ah well.

they were both very sweet and would pat the other's face, saying sweet things.

"ok wex? you ok?"

when gus would throw up, he'd help us wipe him up and say, "tank tu, mama, tank tu" in the sweetest most pathetic voice ever.

good times.

i do secretly like my kids being wimpy and sick, just a little, (i know i'm not the only one!;-)) b/c they are so sweet and snuggly. and they just need their mommy. at one point rex said, "mommy...i just need to hold you."

shucks.

a few kid quotes.

"daddy, that fountain is almost sizes as you."

[i have no idea why "sizes as you" = "is almost the same size as you". but it's CUTE"

"mommy, at school, i saw a 4 whee-wer that looked like a moanercycle!"

[2 of the only few words left he says wrong...in one sentence! love it]

gus is harder to quote...but in his bedtime prayer he's now clearly including leo, rex and daddy. not sure what exactly i have to do to make that list...but i'm hopeful i'll be added soon.

gus does talk to me about leo a lot. "mama, get 'em. cwyin'." "mama, baby. paci?"

speaking of leo. we've seen some good smiles lately.

for papa

"assume the position"

worth the extra time

one of my new year's resolutions is to get back into my crazy couponing. i quit about nov b/c it was too time consuming. i had forgotten what a rush it is! here's what i got yesterday.

ALL laundry dtg. $4 -$2 coupon = $2

colgate toothpaste $2.99- $.75 coupon, $2RR = $.25

halls coughdrops $.99 with walgreens coupon, -$1 coupon = $.49 each

thermacare wrap $2.49, $2.49 RR = free

triaminic thin strips sale $5, -$3 coupons for each, $3RR = $1 for both

kids' motrin and tylenol sale $5, -$3 coupon, $5 RR = $1 for both

snuggle sheets sale $1.87- $2 coupon, =free + $.03

lysol wipes buy 1 get 1 free - $1 coupon - $2.49 for both

total out of pocket $17ish(used a $3 off walgreens purchase coupon from paper), and recieved $12.50 in register rewards[RR= walgreens money]

so total for all that pictured counting RRs was $4.50!!!!

i actually did this in 2 transactions, so got to used some of the RRs earned toward the other stuff.

worth well over $40. woot woot.

2009

copying my friend des and doing a year in pictures, 1 per month. amazing how much they've grown! i love watching rex's hair grow out, haha

january
gus got tubes the end of the month, and in almost every picture before he looked sick as a dog! he was wimpy here, i remember...



february
it got warm enough to go back outside...



march


april
this is an easter picture we had taken for jan...we annouced we were pregnant this month, on easter!



may




june
rex turned 4 this month. we spent most of the summer going to parks in the morning, doing picnics, then baths and NAPS!:-) this day we cleaned i suppose...




july
a hot day at the park




august
about to head to a park:-)



september
a garage sale score. we went garage sailing ALL the time that month...




october

november

december

many more pics to come with all THREE BOYS.

a good year.

snow!
rex was PUMPED to play in the snow. gus liked it for a bit, but did not appreciate kev and rex's snowball fights. gus lasted about 10 minutes, while i think kev and rex played for over an hour! then they went down the road in kevin's truck doing donuts. i did not watch that part...

sweet teeny leo

and some friends of ours at a new year's party

happy new year!